We is gettin' us a casino!

It looks like another Indian casino is on the way.

The Shinnecock Indian Nation of Southampton, Long Island, a place best known as a summer retreat for wealthy Manhattan cliff dwellers, received final recognition from the federal government Tuesday as an official Indian tribe.

That acknowledgement clears the way for its members to finally achieve their long-sought goal of a casino which they say is vital for their economic well-being.

...

Wonder where all these folks are getting the money to throw away at yet another casino within driving distance, but it ain't my money so have at it.

It's good they're finally getting formal recognition by the country that screwed him like the rest of the Native-Americans but I don't think the best thing for tribes is to indulge the White Man's vices (although I do get cheap smokes at the tribe right down the road from the Shinnecocks).

God's pissed ...

Heh ...

MONROE, Ohio – A six-story statue of Jesus Christ was struck by lightning and burned to the ground, leaving only a blackened steel skeleton and pieces of foam that were scooped up by curious onlookers Tuesday.

The "King of Kings" statue, one of southwest Ohio's most familiar landmarks, had stood since 2004 at the evangelical Solid Rock Church along Interstate 75 in Monroe, just north of Cincinnati.

...

I'd say it's a 'message'. Don't get no better'n this ...

Thanks to Watertiger for the link.

Headline of the Day

Huge obstacles seen in exploiting Afghan minerals

I think the main 'obstacle' is that Afghanistan has no Mining Act of 1872, like we do here, that would keep them from getting some of the money for their own resources. Like we do here.

If it ain't 'go in, dig the shit out, keep all the money, and fuck the locals', it ain't happening. It's the American way.

Oil is a green fuel. Say what?

Just go read this twisted brain fart by Doughy Pantload. Un-effin'-real.

Tesla IPO

This is reasonably good news.

LATimes

Electric-car maker Tesla Motors Inc. plans to raise about $167 million by selling stock to the public later this year.

The Palo Alto maker of a $109,000 Roadster electric sports car said in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing Tuesday that it planned to sell as much as 12.8 million shares for up to $14 to $16 each in an initial public offering.

The offering is "highly anticipated" and values the company at about $1.5 billion, according to IPO research firm Renaissance Capital.

Good news for at least some of the folks who built my Tacoma and the Bayarrhea Bay Area in general:

Tesla also has an agreement to pay $42 million for a shuttered auto factory in Fremont, Calif., which Toyota and General Motors Co. formerly operated jointly until earlier this year. Tesla will make its new Model S sedan at the plant.

Tesla is controlled by Musk, a PayPal Inc. co-founder who made millions when he sold the online payment business in 2002. Musk then invested in Tesla and Hawthorne-based Space Exploration Technologies Corp., which is developing the Falcon 9 booster, a nine-story-tall private rocket that recently had a successful debut launch from Cape Canaveral, Fla.

Ol' Elon likes stuff that goes fast, huh?

Are B-Flat Fart Horns* On The Way Out?

*Thanks to Fixer on Facebook.

World Cup organiser mulls vuvuzela ban

Criticism of the vuvuzelas has been almost as loud as the instruments themselves with broadcasting companies complaining the din is almost drowning out commentary.

The horns aren't at all musical, they're just noisemakers. I've heard them exactly once and I thought a swarm of locusts was devouring the stadium. Irritating as all get out. If they get rid of the horns because they're fuckin' with the broadcasts that the broadcasters no doubt paid big money to do, that's fine with me.

Sell the fans cowbells. Heh.

Update:

Video at LATimes. Memorable line:

"Going into stadium without vuvuzela is like going to war unarmed."

Oooooookay....

Update il due:

EssEffChron

Finally a good use for vuvuzelas - cat toys:

One hopes the soccer fan gave up his vuvuzela voluntarily...

Click fotos to embiggen

And finally (if all goes well, but I doubt it), here's what the World Cup is all about:

This should hold me until halftime: It's understood that if you get up to get a Budweiser at the World Cup, you come back with a round. How you carry that round is a matter of personal preference. There's the Six-pack Strangler, the Saint Bernhard and this guy - who seems to be a hybrid of the the Claw and the Labrador Retriever. (Serbia vs. Ghana in Pretoria.)

Budweiser? In South Africa? I heer'd they had animals in Africa. Haven't they got any local critters that can piss in a bottle? "This batch ain't quite done. Run it through the giraffe one more time."

Boiling it down ...

If you listen to the 'deficit hawks', it's Social Security that's bankrupting the nation. Comrade Misfit (with the help of Jon Stewart) gets right to the crux of the biscuit.

...

If you are not wiling to cut deeply into programs that are near and dear to your own constituency's interests, then your concern about the budget deficit is just eyewash.

Quote of the Day

Adrastos:

... I'm always grateful when another state's politics are wackier than Louisiana. Thanks, Palmetto bug state ...

Obama adviser questions legitimacy of SC candidate

AP via Yahoo!News:

South Carolina Democrats chose a political unknown, 32-year-old Alvin Greene, to run against Republican Sen. Jim DeMint this fall.

Greene is an unemployed military veteran who hardly campaigned for the office, and his victory last Tuesday has raised questions about who backed his candidacy.

And it turns out that he's facing a felony charge.

Obama adviser David Axelrod says South Carolina Democrats deserve a strong, credible candidate. He says it's a big mystery how Greene won.

I saw Mr. Greene on Countdown. The guy's in way over his head and I felt kinda sorry for him. The Dems think he's a GOP plant and he may very well be, given batcrap crazy SC politics. But I got ta thinkin' about it...(uh-oh!)

Note to Axelrod: Yer missin' a bet here, pal. Promote Mr. Greene for all it's worth! Get him elected!!! He won't be any trouble once he's in and he'll vote the way you want him to, but the biggest and best part is DeMint will be gone! Senator Greene, having no power or agenda and knowing absolutely nothing about politics, will be a better Senator than DeMint on his sanest day (rare and not very).

Oh, and try to keep the guy outta jail.

Will the Cruise Ship Industry Do BP's Dirty Work?

Interesting angle from MoJo.

How the cruise ship lobby could help BP dodge liability for workers killed on the Deepwater rig.

Chris and his father Keith have pleaded with Congress to fix the law so that any employer can be held accountable for negligence—regardless of whether an employee dies on land or at sea. Last week, Senate Judiciary chair Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) introduced legislation that would do just that.

But Leahy's bill faces an ugly political fight. And giant oil corporations—the most obvious potential opponents of such legislation—may not even have to flex their lobbying muscle. There’s another powerful industry with an interest in doing BP's dirty work to preserve the status quo. That would be cruise line operators—and when it comes to Beltway battles, the cruise lobby is no Love Boat.

Just ask Son Michael Pham, the vice president of the International Cruise Victims Association. In 2005, his parents went on a Caribbean cruise and never came back. Carnival Cruise Line, one of the world’s largest cruise operators, never offered any explanation for what had happened, and has refused to discuss the incident with Pham and his family since then. That was how Pham discovered the horrible divide in the way the law treats people killed through negligence at sea. "We couldn't take legal action to get justice," he says. Long before the BP explosion, his group was lobbying Congress for DOHSA (Death on the High Seas Act of 1920 - G) to be overhauled.

Finally, in 2009, the cruise ship victims succeeded in getting legislation introduced with help from Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) that would have updated DOHSA in just the way Leahy has proposed. That change would have allowed families of cruise ship victims to sue for non-economic damages—a huge deal for cruise-goers, because so many are retired and have no salaries that would provide the basis of a legal award under the current law. It also would have saved the Jones family a trip to Washington to plead their case on behalf of Gordon’s widow and children.

But the cruise industry spent $2.2 million fighting these changes. The Carnival cruise line company alone has donated more than $400,000 since 2007 to members of Congress from both parties, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. The offending provision was eventually removed from the cruise-ship safety bill.

If there are loopholes BP thinks it can wriggle out through, they'll damn sure try it.

Related:

Facing South

BP hires company to handle oil spill claims whose goal is "reducing payouts" for clients

Fuckin' weasels. Go read.

Technical Question of the Day

How Does Kevin Costner's Oil Cleaning Machine Work, Exactly?

Interesting. I hope it actually works and there's enough of them.

And yes, I liked Waterworld.

You might be a Republican IF.....

Loren Adams at TPJmagazine.

You might be a Republican IF…
...

You find nothing contradictory about your sign that reads "Hands Off My Medicare" next to a "Government Run Healthcare Makes Me Sick" sticker on the bumper of your gas guzzling Humvee,
...

As part of your boycott of all names French, you change the name of your favorite sex toy to "freedom tickler."

You think the 2000 election was fair & square when Bush stole the White House but the 2008 election was stolen by ACORN for Obama.
...

You feel your duty in the war on terror is to hunt down Mexicans crossing the border. (Then you hire undocumented workers to do your lawn and housework.)
...

You think WMD are still in Iraq but hidden by liberals to make Bush look bad.
...

You've ever blamed anything on "Activist Judges" while supporting the Supreme Court decision to reject corporate spending limits on political campaigns.
...

In honor of Terri Schiavo, you kept the deer you shot alive for twelve days.
...

You make your wife wear a "no spin" t-shirt during sex.

Redundant, but it's only once a year anyway. Most of Repug women I've seen ain't exactly 'spinners' but it'd be good for some laughs if they tried it. On somebody else. Heh. The skinny pinch-faced dry-twatted Repug women are all on TV.

There are so many of these to choose from I gave up. The whole deal is Below The Fold for easy reference.

Quote of the Day

Pelosi: We'll Stop Blaming Bush When the Crises We Face Stop Being His Fault

In the year 2525,,,

Oh, the irony...

Ironic Times

Month-Long Hooligan Gathering Kicks Off in South Africa
Some soccer fans may also attend.

War in Afghanistan Now Third Longest in U.S. History
Trails only War on Drugs, War on Poverty.

Jockeying for Helen Thomas’s Front-and-Center Seat in White House Press Room
Struggle between subservient toadies and ass-kissing sycophants is fierce.

??? ~ News Quiz - ???

Which of the following “ordinary and necessary” business expenses are fully deductible for corporations in the United States?

A ) image repair PR campaigns
B ) punitive damages paid for violations of law
C ) bribes of public officials

Hint: we no longer use the word “bribe” in polite society.

Trick question. The answer is "All of the above".

Once again ...

Money trumps common sense.

Atrios points us to this article about gas mining in Pennsylvania:

Pennsylvanians are only slowly becoming aware that we are under siege. More than a thousand Marcellus Shale drill sites are in the works, with tens of thousands more poised to descend on Penn's Woods, its towns and neighborhoods, threatening to poison water tables, suck streams dry, pollute the air with ear-splitting noise and toxic fumes -- all without meaningful regulation, without meaningful taxation.

...

I'll say the same thing I said to the folks in the Gulf. You all made money selling the leases and rights to these pirates, you didn't want government involved when it came to regulating the polluting assholes (it's not that they didn't have a track record), yet now you're crying because you can light your tap water on fire.

Now the federal government has to come in and clean up the mess you invited upon yourselves. It just kills me that people who don't want big government, don't want to pay taxes, and generally don't want to be bothered, look to that same government to drop everything and come running. If it didn't effect the rest of us in such a meaningful way, I'd tell you live with it and make "lemonade from lemons". I mean, you can always use your tap water as a substitute for gasoline, right?

If ya think we're leaving ...

Anytime soon, you got another thing coming, Bucko:

WASHINGTON — The United States has discovered nearly $1 trillion in untapped mineral deposits in Afghanistan, far beyond any previously known reserves and enough to fundamentally alter the Afghan economy and perhaps the Afghan war itself, according to senior American government officials.

...

At least we don't have to think up some stupid excuse to invade ...

Normal dysfunction ...

In my lifetime (at least since I was aware) the NY State budget has never been finished on time. This year is no different:

A shutdown of state government in New York is looking increasingly likely.

New York lawmakers in Albany continue to work in an effort to pass a balanced budget in order to avoid a shutdown of state government.

State leaders said on Sunday that they expected to pass another short-term emergency spending bill on Monday, averting a government shutdown, though they could not say exactly how they would muster enough votes in the narrowly divided State Senate to do so.

...

The most useless governing body ever created by man.

What price oil?

Young Ezra (I remember when he was blogging before he reached puberty; he makes us so proud) at WaPo with a look at the true costs of our oil dependence:

How much does a gallon of gasoline cost?

It seems like an easy question. You might ask whether I mean regular or premium, and where in the country I'm buying. Beyond that, though, the price is displayed in giant numbers on most main roads. It's such common knowledge that we ask politicians to rattle it off to show that they retain some minimal awareness of the world they claim to represent.

But as the sludge choking the Gulf of Mexico shows, nothing is easy when it comes to oil. Not even the price. In fact, especially not the price.

...

Indeed. We're paying a "mortgage" that won't be satisfied for generations, just because we still have to burn things to live our lives. We should have weaned ourselves off oil 40 years ago.

Thanks to Mr. No-Fun-On-The-Highway-For-You for the link.

RIP Mercury

Another old car brand has bit the dust. Bustednuckles writes an epitaph at Fixer & Gordon.

Jackson Browne & David Lindley ~ Mercury Blues

Thanks to floflo34600, France.

Ain't it the truth? Sigh...

Thanks to YubaNet.