Tuesday, December 9, 2014

Apache Land Grab - Sign the Petition

On December 4th, the House passed the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) which included a provision to transfer 2,400 acres of Apache ancestral and ceremonial lands to a foreign mining company.
“Since time immemorial people have gone there. That’s part of our ancestral homeland. We’ve had dancers in that area forever – sunrise dancers – and coming-of-age ceremonies for our young girls that become women. They’ll seal that off. They’ll seal us off from the acorn grounds, and the medicinal plants in the area, and our prayer areas.”~ Terry Rambler, chairman of the San Carlos Apache Tribe
Prior to the House vote, the House and Senate Armed Services Committee attached a provision to the NDAA that would transfer Apache ancestral lands located in the Tonto National Forest to Resolution Copper, a subsidiary of Rio Tinto an Australian-English mining company. Sen. John McCain (R- AZ) was instrumental in pushing to get the provision language included.
Apache leaders learned of the inclusion of the provision to the NDAA while attending, ironically, the White House Tribal Nations conference. Republican lawmakers have tried for years to secure the transfer of these lands, but have always run into strong opposition from the San Carlos Apache Tribe and Democratic lawmakers.
The NDAA now goes to the Senate for vote.
Sign the White House petition to stop the Apache land grab:

Protesters rally against the proposed Kinder Morgan oil pipeline on Burnaby Mountain in British Columbia on November 17. (Photo from Flickr / Mark Klotz) 

We can fight nonviolently and win. Click the picture to find out more. 


Sunday, December 7, 2014

Thug is the New @#$%^&

You find that new usage by perusing the contents of this comment thread on PoliceOne.com. Cops are getting fired for using the "N word"on social media. So they have substituted "thug."

It is true I hate the police. You can tell by the street art I chose. Evidently I am not alone in my hatred and distrust. I have never been arrested or charged with any crime. Maybe I am biased nevertheless. You read the comments and tell me what you think.

"PoliceOne.com is a discussion forum for law enforcement officers, and while anyone can access some of the site content, commenting privileges are available exclusively to verified police. The PoliceOne.com staff "confirm[s] the status of all officers registering for PoliceOne by calling that officer's department directly."

Posted by SAPDMAS on Wednesday, December 03, 2014 08:27 PM Pacific Report Abuse
People are sick and tired of thugs. Certain people better wake the hell up and stop supporting the thugs. 2 years 1 month before the head thug gets thrown out and hopefully a real POTUS gets elected.

This is the post that disturbed me the most below. Do you want to be policed this way and with this attitude. In Great Britain the police do not have guns and very few police shootings. In Japan the police help Seniors get their groceries home. American cops are the thugs. And it is not just poor Black folks who are being murdered by the Police anymore. It is the mentally ill. It is upper middle class business owners. It is old women. It is children.

Posted by haziz on Thursday, December 04, 2014 01:01 AM Pacific Report Abuse
President just does NOT understand - it is NOT police who need modify or change their approach to public encounters with blacks, BUT blacks who must not turn almost every encounter with police into a racial incident.
My 5 tips on how black and others can survive a police encounter with police are very simple and if you stop and think about it make a lot of sense:
1.Do NOT under any circumstance ARGUE with police out in the street. You cannot win an argument with police out in the field.
2.2. Do NOt raise your voice, but stay cool and calm. Do NOT make any quick or aggressive movements. Remember the police officer does NOT know you and will react to protect himself or those around him.
3.Police know that hands kill, so always keep your hands in plain sight. Before you move your hands ask permission, officer I need to go into my back pocket to get my ID, is that OK with you?
4.NEVER run from police even if you are innocent. When you run you create a heightened sense that something must be wrong here.
5.DO NOT resist arrest – if you do one of three things is going to happen:
a.You are going to get beat down till you stop resisting
b.You are going to get injured or accidentally killed
c.And you are going to have charges taken out against you

Tuesday, December 2, 2014

Nick's Place - Poetry by Nick Vanocur

#1
With the GOP turning to mush
There arose the candidate Bush.
With the white folks in dread
They said "You're our boy, Jeb
And we'll give you millions in slush."

Monday, December 1, 2014

Sign of the Month - December 2014 - Brotherhood of Man


“I wish I could say that racism and prejudice were only distant memories. We must dissent from the indifference. We must dissent from the apathy. We must dissent from the fear, the hatred and the mistrust…We must dissent because America can do better, because America has no choice but to do better.” - Thurgood Marshall 



Thursday, November 13, 2014

JONIK - Artists Give Me Such a Woody

I found another great political cartoonist. See more of the Artist's work HERE and HERE:

JONIK EDITORIAL CARTOONS

THIS IS A COLLECTION OF MOST OF MY EDITORIAL CARTOONS MANY OF WHICH REMAIN TOPICAL OR OTHERWISE USABLE. IT WILL BE UPDATED AS NEW CARTOONS ARE MADE. IT IS INTENDED TO BE A RESOURCE FOR PUBLISHERS OF PERIODICALS, GENERAL BOOKS AND TEXTBOOKS, LEAFLETEERS, POSTER MAKERS, WEB-SITE MANAGERS, AND EVEN T-SHIRT DECORATORS. WHATEVER. CARTOONS ARE FREE TO USE---EXCEPT FOR COMMERCIAL ENTITIES OR THOSE WHO HAVE EXISTING PAYMENT POLICIES FOR GRAPHICS




Tuesday, November 4, 2014

TALK BACK by VOTE! - November 2014 Sign of the Month

I learned how to do a write-in vote this morning. It was easy. The election judge never did a write-in vote before. So we both did something new.

And now I am teaching my kids all about the write-in vote. I do not have to settle for a substandard candidate. Democracy - it is a wonderful thing. Writing in the guy you really want is the way to go. I voted for myself. Nobody better.

I voted YES! for Tom Wolfe and Jason Dawkins. 

NO on Brendan Boyle. I will not vote for an anti choice Democrat. And time for a change from the Tartagliones. Past time. 

That said, the little sign is the party machine sign.  



The big sign is the TALK BACK SIGN. Hat tip to scribeboy



Monday, October 20, 2014

Send Money and Lawyers because the Personhood Shit Keeps Hitting the Fan. No Guns. Hat Tip to Warren Zevon.

The United States legalized abortion nationwide in 1973, in part because of the clear evidence that restrictive laws were not ending abortion but were exacting a significant public health toll, notably on lower-income women who could not travel or pay for safe services. Almost immediately afterward, pregnancy-related deaths and hospitalizations due to complications of unsafe abortion effectively ended." - From Facts and Consequences: Legality, Incidence and Safety of Abortion Worldwide, Guttmacher
You can make a difference and beat back personhood laws. If you go HERE, you can find out some ways to do that. Even if you have not got an extra cent, you can paste this news to your facebook page.

There is no issue more important than bodily integrity for women and men. No one is permitted by general agreement to seize someone's body for treasure or to benefit any 'person.'



Friday, October 10, 2014

BuckeyeB's TEX-MEX Munch Mix

I am not interested in football. I am surrounded by those who do like football. They need football snacks, so I make them snacks. 

BuckeyeB has been kind enough to give me (us) her famous snack mix. You will not believe how good this is until you make it. I give it to you as she gave it to me. 
TEX-MEX MUNCH MIX
1 box (12 oz) Cheese-It type crackers
1 stick butter (butter)
1 package Taco Seasoning Mix (I use Ortega Hot & Spicy)
1 Tbsp. Worcestershire
½ teasp. Seasoned salt
Pre-heat oven to 250. Spread crackers on a large foil/parchment lined cookie sheet in a single layer. I always eat a handful at this point, ‘cause the box sizes were different when I first put this recipe together, & there’re too many crackers in a 12 oz. box for my cookie sheet…& ‘cause I’m the cook & I can!
Melt butter in a small saucepan & add the rest, mixing well. Pour over crackers & mix well again. Bake for 1 hour, stirring every 15 minutes.
When the 1st batch goes in the oven, mix up another batch of the butter mix & do the same with a roaster pan full of whatever you like/have on hand, things like…
1 large can French’s Onions (no generics)
1 can salted peanuts
1 can potato sticks
Corn chips, pretzels, bagel chips, crackers…whatever. Put this pan in the oven when you stir the first batch the first time, & bake it for the remaining 45 minutes, stirring every 15, too…otherwise the onions burn.
Turn both batches out to cool...I use the top of a copy paper box...& sprinkle with a little salt of your choice. I use plain ole kosher! 
If you make a bunch of batches…like at Xmas…write down the
time you put the crackers in the oven, or you start losing track. Trust me!
ENJOY!

Thursday, October 9, 2014

St. Louis Blues - Sign of the Month - October 2014


Another young black man in St. Louis shot by an off duty white police officer because he was "running like he had a gun." Say what? His name is Vonderrit Myers Jr. 

Seems like a 'pedestrian check' is the St. Louis version of "Papers please." I would run from the cops in St. Louis and I am pink. 
This is the statement from St. Louis PD sent to Buzzfeed reporter Jim Dalrymple:
An officer working department-approved secondary for a security company, wearing a St. Louis Police Officer's uniform was in the 4100 block of Shaw when he attempted a pedestrian check. The male suspect fled on foot. The officer pursued the suspect. The suspect turned and fired a gun at the officer. Fearing for his safety, the officer returned fire striking the suspect, fatally wounding him. The officer was not injured. A gun was recovered from the scene. The officer is a 32-year old white male. He has been on the force for 6 years. The suspect is a black male believed to be 18-20 years old. As is department policy, the officer has been placed on administrative leave. The investigation is ongoing.
This post has musical accompaniment - St. Louis in better days - and we have to go back to 1929 to find those 'better days.' Now that is sad. It is more than sad. It is intolerable. This video is beautiful.



Friday, September 5, 2014

Illegal Abortion in America

In 2014, four decades after the Supreme Court upheld a woman's right to choose, pregnant women once again find themselves crossing the border to Mexico and haunting back-alleys in search of medical care. - Laura Bassett

I had an epiphany the other day. Roe v. Wade was an attempt to regulate abortion because the abortion situation was entirely out of control in 1970.

Women were dying in ugly and public ways from illegal abortion. Lots of women die of illegal abortion now at home and worldwide. 

Clergy were directing women to safe though still illegal abortion and advertising the abortion referral service in the New York Times. Rest in peace, Reverend Moody.

NOW was giving parlor teach-ins conducted by nurses to instruct women in the art of 'menstrual extraction' and how to make the device to extract with.

The JANE women's collective was doing safe cheap abortions by the thousands.

A wealthy well known woman with a thalidomide-deformed fetus inside her defied the law and had an abortion abroad. The Media made the rebel abortioneer even more well known and thereby made the plight of poor women who could not travel abroad and needed an abortion more poignant.

Nobody was waiting for the government to approve abortion. And there was absolutely no control at all. Everybody was doing illegal abortions - the Mafia, your local Nurse moonlighting, Doctors with a conscience, etc. It was a Vonnegut style circus.

All by themselves, screaming they are moral, the forced birth cultists have deregulated abortion in America. The back alley abortion is back. There will be no regulations for safety or time limits on when a woman can abort. Gosnell City is here. And the 'pro lifers' built it.

I would be laughing my ass off except I remember what it was like the last time abortion was illegal. My teen Sister self aborted with quinine. Even my Catholic Mother got an illegal abortion. We could have lost her. I know someone who lost her Mother at age 9 to unregulated illegal abortion.

How many women will get maimed or die this time around the block? How many women will go to jail and leave their children to foster care? How many peaches will you get if you harm the tree? If you think I exaggerate, familiarize yourself with recent events in my backward state of Pennsylvania:

http://all-len-all.com/pa-mom-sentenced-to-prison-for-obtaining-abortion-pill-for-daughter-who-lacked-insurance/

http://rhrealitycheck.org/article/2010/06/08/roundup-yearolds-abortion-need-abortion-access/

NOTE: I find it gratifying that the Guttmacher Institute agrees with me. Who knew?

The United States legalized abortion nationwide in 1973, in part because of the clear evidence that restrictive laws were not ending abortion but were exacting a significant public health toll, notably on lower-income women who could not travel or pay for safe services. Almost immediately afterward, pregnancy-related deaths and hospitalizations due to complications of unsafe abortion effectively ended." - From Facts and Consequences: Legality, Incidence and Safety of Abortion Worldwide, Guttmacher

Tuesday, September 2, 2014

Ms. Mary Walker's Green Tomato Chutney

I know that I am not the only gardener in Pennsylvania gazing at a bumper crop of tomatoes. Ms. Walker has been kind enough to share her recipe for Green Tomato Chutney with me.

You can learn more about Ms. Walker, British expatriate HERE. 
Unconditional surrender of Europe occurred on my 11th birthday and, in the evening my dad suggested that we ‘go for a walk’. My sister warned that we would be late for the curfew. My Dad simply answered – “It’s such a nice evening, I don’t think we’re going to worry about that tonight”. Cat’s Whisker receivers WORKED! 
Mi casa es su casa. So I am sharing with you, Cher Reader. I give it to you as she gave it to me. Stay tuned for her recipe for Garlic Jam. When Ms. Mary said Garlic Jam, I began to salivate immediately.

GREEN TOMATO CHUTNEY

5 lbs chopped green tomatoes
1 lb chopped onions
1 tsp whole peppercorns
1 tsp salt
1 lb sugar
1-1/2 cups vinegar (I use either white wine vinegar or cider vinegar)
1/4 cup raisins
1/4 cup sultanas

Mix tomatoes, onions and peppercorns in a large bowl and let sit overnight (covered)
Bring vinegar and sugar to a boil (until sugar is melted) 
Add sultanas and raisins and simmer for 5 minutes
Add tomatoes and onion mixture and simmer till thick (about 40 to 45 minutes).
Put into 8 oz jars - leaving about 1/4inch head-space - and can for 15 minutes.