Gawd, I love blue on blue:

Senior Obama campaign official Steve Hildebrand is eyeing a Democratic primary challenge to South Dakota Rep. Stephanie Herseth Sandlin, a decision he said hinges largely on whether she votes against health care reform later this week.

Posted by: It's Vintage, Duh at 12:39 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
Post contains 50 words, total size 1 kb.

So, apparently Glenn Beck at some point noted that some Catholic priests and bishops reject the "social justice" (read: cede the church's traditional role in society as provider of aid to those in need and agitate for socialism) agenda, and advocates leaving churches that advocate "social justice" for ones that oppose it.  Some tool named Anthony Stevens-Arroyo in the WaPo compared him to the Hitler Youth.  Let's talk about Hitler Youth, Mr. Stevens-Arroyo,

Below the fold,
more...

Posted by: doubleplusundead at 11:46 AM | Comments (7) | Add Comment
Post contains 213 words, total size 2 kb.

God, this will always be awesome.

Dan Rostenkowski getting chased down by the old folks.



(saw it at Prof. Reynolds just like all of you)

Posted by: alexthechick at 10:45 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
Post contains 33 words, total size 1 kb.

This is hardly a huge victory against the Global Warmerists, but I think it's a sign that Climategate has had an impact:

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) ruled that the adverts – which were based on the children's poems Jack and Jill and Rub-A-Dub-Dub – made exaggerated claims about the threat to Britain from global warming.

In definitely asserting that climate change would cause flooding and drought the adverts went beyond mainstream scientific consensus, the watchdog said.

It noted that predictions about the potential global impact of global warming made by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) "involved uncertainties" that the adverts failed to reflect.

The article states that the rebuke came in part from public complaints.

I'm far from certain, but it sounds to me like the Climategate scandal has opened the door to stuff like this. I mean, can you imagine something like this happening, say, a couple of years ago?

Posted by: Sean M. at 11:58 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 158 words, total size 1 kb.

Creepy.  The latest ensemble from the Obamajugend.

Posted by: doubleplusundead at 10:57 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
Post contains 13 words, total size 1 kb.

Joel Spolsky is quitting blogging.

Side note - I didn't realize Kathy Sierra was making public appearances again.

Posted by: Alice H at 10:38 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 28 words, total size 1 kb.

Worth reading, I'd like to find out what, if anything Rove would have to say about the giant Medicare expansion they spearheaded.  Maybe it's in his book.

Posted by: doubleplusundead at 09:09 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
Post contains 30 words, total size 1 kb.

From Hehindeedreadthewholethingpundit, Moody's is talking about bumping both the US and UK from a AAA credit rating.

Posted by: doubleplusundead at 08:47 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
Post contains 22 words, total size 1 kb.

The good folks at Hillbuzz are asking if Obama could be arrested if the Slaughter Solution is used.

I'm going to set aside the mind bottling fact that we are even discussing this option for a moment and focus on that question. 

While my immediate response is hell yes, it's not that simple.  The issue is whether or not such a signature would be a crime.  I just managed to claw through crim law and have blessedly not done a damn thing with criminal law since then.  Off the top of my head, I can't think of a statutory violation.  A blatant violation of Constitutional requirements isn't actually a crime in the sense of there being a specific statute under which Obama could be charged.  Depending on how the Supremes rule, it may fall under an Honest Services violation.  But beyond that, I'm not sure such a signature would constitute a criminal violation.

There's also a distinction between illegal and criminal.  This is clearly improper and any "law" passed in this fashion would be void ab initio.  Again, that does not equate to criminality.

Now, that's not to say that Obama can't be impeached.  Impeachment proceedings aren't precisely criminal.  My position is that if this occurs, every single Senator, Congressman and Pres. Obama should be thrown out of office instantly for violating their oaths of office.  It's the mechanism of that which is problematic.  Actual arrests are rather horrifying to consider.  But then again, so is the shredding of the Constitution.

So my analysis would be that this isn't a criminal action (and I'm really really not going down the treason road that way lies madness) but it would and should be impeachable.

You know, for all the Left shrieked about Bush shredding the Constitution, I seem to recall that all of those actions were actually voted on and proceeded through Congress in the proper way.  Projection much?

h/t Alice H.

Posted by: alexthechick at 07:34 PM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
Post contains 327 words, total size 2 kb.

I'm not a big perfume user.  I shower regularly and use deodorant, thankyouverymuch; I don't need to douse myself in fragrance.  I also have terrible allergies, so that probably contributes to my no perfume stance.  Walking by a Bath & Body Works in the mall gives me a damn headache.

However, there are lots of women who won't walk out of the house until they've fully doused themselves in the shit, and I don't really care one way or the other.  If it makes you happy, go for it.  I try to avoid the super-smelly people, and, if I can't, I suck it up and deal.  Apparently, sucking it up and dealing like a mature adult is not an option any more if you work for the city of Detroit:

Change is in the air for Detroit city workers. City employees will be urged not to wear perfume, cologne or aftershave as a result of a settlement in a federal lawsuit.

Officials plan to place warning placards in three city buildings. The signs will warn workers to avoid "wearing scented products, including ... colognes, aftershave lotions, perfumes, deodorants, body/face lotions ... (and) the use of scented candles, perfume samples from magazines, spray or solid air fresheners."

The employee handbook and Americans with Disabilities Act training also will bear warnings.

Apparently, someone sued the city in '08 because all of the smelly perfume in the air made it difficult for her to do her job'n'stuff.  And she won, to the tune of $100,000.  Now, the super-well-off city of Detroit (hah!) has to spend cash on making signs that warn their employees not to smell nice.

I can't wait until someone with really bad B.O. sues the city because they've been told not to wear perfume at work.

Posted by: Ember at 06:10 PM | Comments (7) | Add Comment
Post contains 301 words, total size 2 kb.

It's EATAPETA Day! So go out and Eat A Tasty Animal for PETA today.

I'm all excited, it's my second favorite blogiday*.

I always try to eat baby meat today, veal and lamb especially. Last year I made spagetti sauce with veal and lamb meatballs.
Tonight, for dinner I'm going to a great tapas place on King St in Old Town Alexandria. It's called Las Tapas (funnily enough) and it's fantastic. Tonight I'll have the lamb, veal, rabbit and quail. Too bad they don't have squab. Oh well.

Remember what the eminent philosopher and foot-up-yer-ass-er, Red Forman, says about non-meat "food" stuff: "That's not food, that's what food eats!"

EATAPETA! It makes baby hippies cry.

*My favorite blogiday, of course, is Buy A Gun day, it's coming up in only a few weeks on 4/15. It gets more and more fitting each year.

I'm getting an Uberti Lighting in .45 Colt to go with my Uberti top break in same that I got last year. I'm a big fan of rifle/pistol combos.

Any morons off those silly restraining orders who are participating should send me a pic of their acquisition(s) and I'll post them all on 4/15.
Send pics to veeshir at the hotmail labeled "BAG Day" and whatever you want to be called in the post.  

Hopefully mine will be in by then and I'll be able to post the pic. Uberti either gets you the gun a couple days later or you wait for a long, long, time as they send to Italy.

Posted by: Veeshir at 03:50 PM | Comments (35) | Add Comment
Post contains 257 words, total size 2 kb.

This is an interesting little blurb about how about 70% of HR professionals in a study admitted that they turned down a job candidate based on online reputation.  From context, it appears we're talking MySpace, Facebook, etc. types of online media.

This has fascinating implications for discrimination laws.  I have a friend who does high level HR work for a large company.  He said that the first thing HR does with resumes is to go through and do an internet search on the person's name and the email address listed.  I asked if they looked at pictures.  He said yes.  I said congrats, you just admitted to me that you have an official policy to review the age, sex, marital status, religious affiliation and race of your candidates.  He stared at me and then said "oh shit". 

The practical effect of doing these searches is precisely that.  I totally understand why an HR department would do that.  Hell, I would sue the hell out of, say, a security company that didn't do that and it turned out that the employee had a facebook group for "robbing the stupid".  But that means that these searches are going to turn up exactly the types of information that companies are prohibited from asking directly.

The problem is that people act like Facebook, etc., is private when it truly is not.  People blather all the time about their kids and spouses and vacations and going to church and on and on and on.  Hell, people list their sexual orientations.  How the hell is a company going to prove that it didn't hire someone because s/he was talking about how wasted s/he was at the club and not because of the picture of that person with her/his same sex partner?  How is a company supposed to prove it didn't hire a guy because he was saying how he nearly went postal when the last place fired him and not because the picture shows that he's in his 50's?  How is a woman supposed to prove she didn't get a job because she simply wasn't qualified and not because she talks about her struggles as a single mother?

Now, I know the obvious answer is to interpret anti-discrimination statutes narrowly and not in the massive way the laws are currently viewed.  But that's not the current situation.  The current situation is such that a more cynical plaintiff's lawyer could have a tremendous amount of fun getting an HR person to sit through a dep and explain why this person posting pictures about her cat is fine but that person posting a picture holding a beer is not.  Good times good times. 

That brings up something else.  Say you're someone like me who is aware of these issues and works diligently to keep your Super Sekrit Real Identity off the intertubes.  But.  You have friends.  And your friends take pictures of you when you're off on vacation.  Your friends post pictures of you completely hammered to Facebook and tag those pictures with your name.  That's then discovered by a prospective employer.  Bingo bango you have the same problems. 

This is an enormously lucrative business for evil trial lawyers mwahahahaha problem for businesses.  You have to do some type of due diligence or you're screwed.  Do too much and you're screwed.  All I can say is I'm glad I don't do employment defense work. 

Posted by: alexthechick at 11:57 AM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
Post contains 572 words, total size 4 kb.

Whether you're the hobo or the hobo-hunter, it's always a good idea to stay informed on the latest in hobo technology.  Fast Company Mag profiled several of these innovations: two jacket-tent combos, and a rolling slinky shelter thingamabob.

First, the oddly named "JakPak" - a jacket that transforms into a personal tent.  Sort of.



Second, some unnamed jacket-tent do-dad:



Lastly, the WheelLY, which collapses into a pushable wheel thingie and can be used to haul hobo gear in lieu of a shopping cart.

Posted by: JoeCollins at 11:54 AM | Comments (9) | Add Comment
Post contains 87 words, total size 1 kb.

They're gonna go for it, not only that, but they're reconciling a Trojan Horse, and adding the real stuff later.

Posted by: doubleplusundead at 11:12 PM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
Post contains 22 words, total size 1 kb.

Seen on the Second Life forums

My SL husband is cheating on me with a Bisexual Skunk Furry and is asking for a divorce. And we only got married half an hour ago!!

Posted by: chad98036 at 01:34 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
Post contains 53 words, total size 1 kb.

While the text in this NYT article (link to a tweet, no NYT link) about Obamacare is biased enough, this photo by some leftist tool is just flat out insane iconography.


Contrast that with this piece of genius when Bush was President.

Yeah. No bias there.

Posted by: eddiebear at 01:32 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
Post contains 54 words, total size 1 kb.

Did you miss me?  I know you guys did, so no need to lie about it.  I missed you!  Anyway, if I happen to blog about something a co-blogger all ready wrote about, chalk it up to the fine traditions here on DPUD of not actually reading the blog.

So.  Space!  Did you know - and this may shock you - that the shuttle program costs money?  I know, shocking stuff there.  But, with so many congresscritters up in arms over Teh Won's treatment of NASA, the space agency thought they might just point out the fact that, while it's all well and good to keep the shuttle program running, someone's gotta find the two billion dollars a year to make it happen:

 Money is the key to keeping the shuttles flying, said program manager John Shannon.

 "The shuttle program is fairly expensive. We burn at about a $200 million-a-month rate. So that gives you a base of about $2.4 billion per year ... almost irregardless of how many flights," Shannon told reporters.

 He added: "Where that money comes from is the big question."

 Shannon said NASA already has an extra fuel tank and pair of boosters, which are set aside for a potential rescue mission for the last shuttle crew. Assuming no rescue is needed, that set could be used for one additional flight to haul up supplies and spare parts to the space station, already 11 years old with another 10 years ahead.

 The shuttle is the biggest space station supplier by far. In fact, some of the big-ticket pieces of equipment can only fit into a shuttle's payload bay. As for NASA's astronauts, they already are hitching rides on Soyuz capsules.

 To create even more flights, tank production would have to be restarted, with a lead time of about two years. The only way to avoid such a lengthy gap would be to space out the remaining missions, Shannon said.

 As for other shuttle parts, the suppliers are still in business and could start up production again for NASA, he said.

 Regarding safety, Shannon said NASA has been recertifying the most critical shuttle parts since 2005, when flights resumed following the Columbia tragedy. The space agency also has met with experts on aging aviation vehicles, like the B-52 bomber.

 Until receiving orders to the contrary, NASA is proceeding as if only four flights remain.

No wonder these idiots can't run the fucking economy.  They can't even figure out that sending rocketships to space costs money.

Posted by: Ember at 01:27 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
Post contains 429 words, total size 4 kb.

Posted by: alexthechick at 10:38 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 7 words, total size 1 kb.

Grassroots my ass.  Of the five they highlight, one is a hardcore Marxist and Obama supporter, one is a long time LGBT activist (promising radical events in 2010 and civil disobedience), and one is a protege of Van Jones (YA RLY).

(H/T)

Posted by: doubleplusundead at 10:00 AM | Comments (11) | Add Comment
Post contains 56 words, total size 1 kb.

When the French are getting cool Steampunk movies and we are getting Alice in Wonderland. (Would someone please put Tim Burton in a burlap sack and beat some talent into him).

Posted by: chad98036 at 01:48 AM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
Post contains 38 words, total size 1 kb.