Oil shale evaluated

Energy analyst, Randy Udall, brother of Rep. Mark Udall of Colorado, said “there is three times more energy in a ton of Captain Crunch than there is in a ton of oil shale. Oil shale has the energy density of baked potatoes.” on the Web site of KCPW, Salt Lake City

Ad season continues

Buddy can you spare a dime?

Sing along.

New projections of federal debt

Latest findings on how deep the hole we're probably in.

Find Jena McCain't's position on any issue

Instructions: Poke a hole in the center and use a paper clip for a spinner. If you don't get the answer you want, do a dial test, ignore those results, and spin again!

Obama shows ability to address McCain't where he is (at the moment)

Well, tell me, Jim...
Listen, Tom...
What I believe, Bobo...
As I understand, Ferdinand...

From deal breaking details to administration principles

Mebbe a little in the old news department, but the Beagleterribles wish you have seen Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson waving his arms saying, "Yes, we want transparency. We want oversight," even while defending the text of his proposed legislation sitting on the table right in front of him, towit:

Sec. 8 "Decisions by the Secretary pursuant to the authority of this Act are non-reviewable and committed to agency discretion, and may not be reviewed by any court of law or any administrative agency."

The Butch gang had also opposed language that would limit CEO compensation earlier in the week, but by the time the Colander in Chief addressed the nation, limiting compensation was a principle for the legislation.

Jena McCain't, in town briefly to kick over tables and fix the mess, has yet to take a position on the bailout, but he has given aid and comfort to the House Republicans who believe the solution is cut capital gains tax to zero, give tax credits to companies to buy investments, and complete the full deregulation of markets, because if there had been even less oversight, this would have never happened.

What happened in the 60s relevant today, in the 80s, History Channel material

We got your change right here

The Palin-McCain't ticket, er McCain't-Palin team, has demonstrated its ability to act boldly and decisively without regard to partisan politics or facts on the ground or principles while staying true to what has kept America great -- denigrating those who disagree or want to come up behind with facts that don't fit the ideology.
It should be clear to anyone that this is a significant change from the current Administration which stays true to the guiding principles, staying in office, drawing bright lines between the for us and against us crowd at home and abroad and denigrating those who come up behind with facts that don't fit their ideology.
The last thing we apparently need right now is a president who is able to remain calm in a crisis or gives any indication that he will think the same thing in the afternoon that he claimed to believe in the morning.

A colorblind society?

White privilege

One Torontoans view

If you lie with pigs, you will be thought of as a pig. I am not saying that Palin and McCain are pigs however what I am saying is that if anyone running for president of the United States chooses a running mate who is a twit, then everyone will think that the man running for the presidency is a twit.

And another's:

Never before in journalistic history has such a co-ordinated attack on an individual taken place. Let's face it, a recent poll in the U.S showed that, not only do 70% of Americans believe that the media is Pro left Obama, they feel the media is actively trying to elect him. Palin is a serious threat to the Obama campaign, and the media will do everything to destroy her.

from the Star.

For voters who consider honesty a value

More economists weigh in

Okay, Michael Kinsley isn't an economist, but apparently he has talked to some recently.

That story links to this one by Allen Blinder who is a certified economist.

Like facts are gonna matter in this campaign...

History corner

The fundamental business of the country . . . is on a sound and prosperous basis. -- Herbert Hoover, Friday Oct. 25, 1929

The Government must in increasing degree supervise and regulate the workings of the railways engaged in interstate commerce. Such increased supervision is the only alternative to an increase of the present evils on the one hand or a still more radical policy on the other. -- Theodore Roosevelt, December 1904.

Hmm. Apparently Jena McCain't went to bed as Herbert Hoover and woke up as Teddy Roosevelt. We wonder who he was at 3 a.m.?

Good thing the fundamentals are strong...

"Too many people on Wall Street have been recklessly wagering instead of making the sound investments we expect of them," McCain said.

He said investment schemes too complex to understand or regulate have risked the earnings of traditional economic productivity.

"So much of the loss and damage to our economy could have been avoided if these practices had been exposed to the light of day, said McCain. "People have the right to know when their jobs, pensions and our whole economy are being put at risk by recklessness on Wall Street."

Reader feedbag

A mountain states organizer invites us to enjoy Jib Jab's take.

An Alabama attorney invites us to watch McCain argue with himself.

A D.C. kingmaker alerts us to a death in the family.

The overwhelming majority of Beagletonians want us to continue to SPreach the Truth writ Plain, proving once again that readership is in the double digits.

Ad season continues

Again we ask is Cindy ready to run this man's navy?

Double feature

Liberation movement corner

Sept. 11 is the Catalonian National Holiday, and we missed it this year. Ironically, it celebrates the defeat of Barcelona after 5,000 Catalonians failed to hold back 40,000 French and Castilians. It would be the national holiday, if Catalonia hadn't been held captive by the Castilians for 300 years. Woowoo. Since 1980, the Spanish let us celebrate it.

Compare and save (the country)

* In the Hindu religion, soma is a sacred hallucinogen.
In Aldous Huxley, soma is a tool of the government, literally an opiate for the masses.

Ask Dr. Hin?

Q. Sxklgggh grhlarggh snxrghast. Breepth snagleragle. GHaar. Haharha. Eh?
A: Regular habits with concentration on devotional dimensions enabling quiet the mind. The panoply of modern, intrusive stimulus tendencies to garbled scramblish according to schedule and the rest gone before your time.
Q: Have you ever actually helped anybody?
A: Each situation in its turn has its time and meaning.
Q: Is this really a dead heat? What about the electoral counts? Why can't we get the straight story?
A: In America you say it will all come out in the white wash, but don't throw out the baby, profound in its own way, but where I come from, we strain wash water for babies, so, traditionally, it hasn't been a problem.

On Tempests and Teapot Domes

In Zimbabwean news

Morgan Tsvangirai of the Moment for Democratic Change has reached an accord with Robert Mugabe's Zimbabwe African National Union -- Patriotic Front.

In exchange for not killing any more people, the military, police, and paramilitaries will get amnesty. Mugabe gets the Army and police and Tsvangirai gets prime minister, agreed on Sept. 11 and scheduled to be signed in Harare on Sept. 15.

Additional alarming upside down news

Since the Large Hadron Collider binged its first colliding ion Sept. 10, physicists everywhere are awaiting the results. Some are focused on the compact muon solenoid detector and some are more interested in the ATLAS, a toroidal apparatus.

Recently, the Greek Security Team, a group of hackers, targeted the compact muon solenoid experiment, potentially interfering with responsible citizen scientists empiricizing their particle physics theories.

It is not known at this time if they could have routed the particle colliders through the world-wide security camera network and blinded everybody with some kind of laser particle accelerator or whether they had sufficient saavy and sociopathic tendencies to knock a small hole in the space time continuum, but anyway if you step outside anywhere, better smile!

Puzzle page

Reader feedbag

A fretful reader from a long way up finds some solace in this.

An Alabama attorney then diminishes any quietude by forwarding this example of "sleazy repoopican" suckitude.

A high-powered scientist then causes distress of a different kind by sharing this, another giant sucking sound.

Help preserve the endangered GOSPer party

Only when the shoe is in the other mouth

13 mentions by DChain-ey.
(First time in 3-D)

The 49th state

Remember how excited we were when Alaska became a state? I don't remember being all that excited. Also, did you know that supposed American Jena McCain't wasn't born on U.S. soil?

If Guantanamo isn't America, then the former Panama Canal Zone isn't either. And the Constitution says, "No person except a natural born citizen shall be eligible to the office of President."

Sure a couple of foreigners don't mind violating the Constitution just to get elected. Those big mavericks are likely to shred the whole thing in the interests of Chain-ey, Inc.

String Theory Best Case: Scientists detect certain types of supersymmetric particles, aka sparticles, which physicist Michio Kaku calls, "signals from the 11th dimension." This would show that the universe really is made up of the four dimensions we experience and seven others that unite the forces of nature.

If you want to see the five theories for which the Large Hadron Collider is supposed to provide evidence go here.

Puzzle page

The Beagle defies you...to get any of these right.

The candidates should be required to answer these questions publicly, and these, but the Dems would get slammed as eggheads for getting them right. According to the latest GOSPer ads, the last thing we need right now is anyone who understands what is going on. We need a bull in a china shop, with his little pet bulldog also in the china shop.

As the GOSPer election rhetoric grows more surreal each day...

A tuned-in former Washington media expert writes

Vote

a. Levi
b. Oleg

Ask Dr. Hin?

Q: First of all, I'm just grateful to be here every day, and so fight with me.
A: Would you like to rephrase that in the form of a question?
Q: I am a father, son, holy vessel. Miraculously I was saved on the deck of the U.S.S. Foresthal that day. Perhaps I had more to do.
A: Do you have an actual question? People are waiting in line.
Q: Do you know who wrote that great line about all the Washington, D.C. lawyers and lobbyists who should be trembling that I will be elected President?
A: Was it the lawyers and lobbyists who are running your campaign? Steve Schmidt? Mark Salter? Charlie Black? How would I know?

The Beagleborables recognize

editolerable standards are confobbled when there are length issues in some postings, but as long as there's breath in them, all of Beagledonia will back up on their hinds and howl at injustice and stoopidity.

A frequent contributor wishes to underline several key points about energy, the economy, etc.

Global warming? Not happening. And if it does happen, it's our job to adapt. That's what made America great.

When the Cuyahoga River caught fire, we adapted by passing environmental protection laws that resulted in exporting American pollution to China, where 700,000 annual deaths as a result of environmental pollutants are a much smaller fraction of their total population (0.23% in the US vs. 0.06% in China).

When all that peace and prosperity was breeding too much confidence in post-Cold War America, we adapted by starting a war like when your little brother sticks a frog down your pants, so that you flail around and punch your sister in the face.

When we told everybody that the quickest way to wealth is homeownership, and patted ourselves on the back while we sent an army of overpaid mortgage brokers to go seek out people whose English is weak, but whose American dream is strong, and tell them that it's all going to be fine, just sign on the dotted line, Jose, and your daughter can go to college, and then snicker while your powhite neighbors to try to underbid Wal-Mart by picking over the detritus at foreclosure sales, we adapted by sending everyone a check for a couple hundred bucks to pay the past due electric bill in time for winter.

When we built an economy on a substance we knew was going to run out, we adapted by using as much of it as possible every single goddamn day, because, damnit, if we don't use it all, the Chinese might get some.

Now excuse me while I refuse to recognize Iran because of their complicity in the election of Ronald Reagan.

Palin-mania

Beagleheadquarters has been deluged with Palin-alia, showing that -- like Lawrence Olivier standing over Dustin Hoffman with a drill he brought back from Buchenwald -- she has touched a nerve.

From the Republic of Madison, one lofty observer writes:

Sarah Palin informed us that the difference between a hockey mom and a pit bull was lipstick. But, last night she forgot the lipstick with a full-throated attack on political sensibility. So, how do you counter a woman who fights dirty like a man? If you really, I mean really, believe [everything that Barack and Hillary said about equal opportunity], then your calculation must be to ignore her gender and treat her like you would any other pit bull that threatens you.
Michael Vick, where are you now that we need you?

A D.C. kingmaker invites us to watch the video (scroll down to the bottom) explaining why she shouldn't have to answer any questions about her views on anything.

An Alabama attorney notes that Palin has said that both the war in Iraq and the Alaskan natural gas pipeline are gifts from God.

The end is nigh!

Pre-initiation testing of the Large Hadron Collider has now been completed, ahead of the particle accelerator's official launch on September 10.

The second and final test of the Large Hadron Collider's (LHC's) beam synchronization systems took place on August 22 in a tunnel under the Franco-Swiss border, according to a Monday statement from the European Organization for Nuclear Research (Cern). The successful test involved pushing "a few particles… down the transfer line from the Super Proton Synchrotron (SPS) accelerator to the LHC", then steering them "counterclockwise about 3km around the LHC", the statement said.

In other news

On August 25, 2008, police arrested Tharin Gartrell after a routine traffic stop led to the discovery of two rifles in his rented pick-up truck. One of the rifles was said to fitted with telescopic sights— and was a suitable rifle for a sniper. Tharin led police to Nathan Johnson at one Aurora motel and later collected Shawn Adolf who broke his ankle jumping out the sixth floor window at the Cherry Creek Hotel. The U.S. Attorney for Colorado says he is confident that they did not constitute a threat to Barack Obama.

Jena's funny uncle

Keeping the convention clean

Mass arrests of protest groups, infiltration of vegan groups, unwarranted, no-knock raids on hippie pads throughout the city. By gum, it is 1968.

What the Beagle heard

You should not vote for Barack Obama because he is too popular. You should go for a maverick.

Jena McCain't doesn't get along with anybody. He can't salute the flag he fought for, so you should stand up for him. If you love America and what it stands for, you will vote for Jena McCain't, and if you hate America you will vote for the other guy who is nothing but a big windbag.

Jena McCain't don't take guff from nobody. He's always gone his own way, except for the last three or four months when he got quickly in line with all the issues on which he supposedly stood up to his Party all his career -- taxes, flip, immigration, flop, personal liberty stuff like creationism-prayer in schools-definition of marriage, you betcha.

He'll stand on principles as long as you define them broadly enough.

Palin's speech

Agnew in high heels.

Biggest threat facing the US? No, it's Mexican truckers

In extending its cross-border trucking pilot project for two more years, the Bush administration continues to flout Congress at the expense of highway safety.

The pilot program is unlawful and reckless. Extending it for two more years ignores multiple entreaties by Congress to terminate the program until safety concerns have been addressed.

In 2001, a NAFTA tribunal ordered the United States to permit access to all U.S. roads for Mexico-domiciled trucking companies. The Clinton administration refused to comply, citing serious safety and environmental concerns with Mexico’s trucking fleet.

The Bush administration has tried since 2002 to enforce the NAFTA order to open U.S. highways to unsafe trucks.

Source: Public Citizen

-- from All American Patriots: Dispatches from the Depths of the American Government

What's the matter with Newport (RI and Newport Beach, CA)?

There's been a lot of talk ("What's the matter with Kansas?") about the blue collar types voting against their economic interests because they prefer the Big Red party on abortion, gun control, civil unions, etc. But what about high earners who vote against their economic interests?

A D.C.-based economist describes his email as a chart showing income growth in Dem and GOSPer administrations since World War II, but finding no chart, the editerribles have lightly scrambled the accompanying text:

Even for the top 5 percent of income earners, income growth is higher under Democratic administrations (by 0.22 percent per year)...

The critical thing to see here is the humongous gaps between economic performance for the other 95 percent. In Democratic administrations, those at the 20th percentile see income growth more than SIX TIMES higher; the rate is THREE TIMES higher for those at the 40th percentile, more than DOUBLE for those at the 60th percentile, and 1 percent higher for those at the 80th percentile.

What scares me

is that it makes sense to some people that the Republicackagooglebstards are tough enough to go in and grab up them bureaucrats in Washington by the scruff of their necks and shake up the status quo and clean up the mess that those other people left behind for the past eight years.

Gustav update

Waves caused some flooding in the Ninth Ward.

It was the wind shear from the north that helped dissipate Gustav and the fact it traveled quickly across the Gulf of Mexico and the fact that it smacked Cuba pretty good.

Can you make this up?

SHARIF ABDEL KOUDDOUS: And then, two or three police officers tackled me. They threw me very violently against a wall. Then they threw me to the ground. I was kicked in the chest several times. A police officer ground his knee into my back. I was handcuffed with plastic handcuffs.
And the entire time, I was telling them, “I’m media. I’m press. I’m credentialed. I’m an accredited journalist.” But there was no—that didn’t seem to matter at all.

In an interesting case of dramatic irony, Sharif doesn't realize that the cops hate NPR, hate it, especially Democracy Now!

SHARIF ABDEL KOUDDOUS: There was a photographer right next to me who was also taken down pretty violently. He was screaming he was press. He had credentials. He kept saying he was a photographer for the New York Post. He said, “For Christ’s sake, it’s a Republican paper!” But that didn’t seem to matter.

Again, apparently not realizing that Minnesotans will take any opportunity to beat the crap out of someone from New York City.

Even further research reveals

AMY GOODMAN: So you were on your stomach, on your face, on the ground.

NICOLE SALAZAR: I was on my stomach on the ground. And one of the officers, I think he was trying to grab me. He was trying to drag me. He was grabbing my leg. And another officer put his boot on my back and was pressing me to the ground.

AMY GOODMAN: And he was pulling you with your leg, the other officer.

NICOLE SALAZAR: He was trying to pull me. They weren’t very well coordinated, I guess, because one of them was, you know, pushing me to the ground with his foot, and I was stomped on, so I had to stay where I was, but the other one was pulling on my leg.

Further research reveals

They arrested Amy freaking Goodman of Democracy Now! Cripes. Like the St. Paul (Pig's Eye) fuzz beating down yer favorite aunt, man, for just asking questions, man, asking important questions, like:

"Where are you taking my producers, Sharif Abdel Kouddous and Nicole Salazar, and on what charges -- being brown and in town? What's that? Leggo. Hey, watch it. Leggo. Stop. Ow! Hey!"

Minnesota nice

Our understanding of how the news cycle works is that about 2 a.m., the only union employee in the operation, the maintenance guy, cuts the little ticker tape and packs everything into an ashcan and rolls it off, and then the jabberheads have to pick up the next thing on the tape and talk about until their shift ends. That is the only reason to explain why in six hours of CNN coverage all they could talk about was Sarah Palin's daughter while the Pig's Eye riots were going on.

Lately the readiest source of news and information is the Beagetolerationable's wife's sister, and she reports that the damage to property caused in the Pig's Eye riots in one hour is greater than all the damage done in Denver in the week.

Who sez nerds ain't hip?

What if they held a national convention and nobody came

Close up of the spice girls

A mom at 6,000 feet asks

"Would you subject your 17-year-old pregnant daughter to that kind of scrutiny for anything in the world? Isn't it hard enough to be 17 and pregnant and unmarried without millions of people talking about it because you decided you want to be vice president?"

Hurricane Gustav vs. RNC Convention