There would be ...

A dead cop in my driveway too:

A man whose Australian Cattle Dog Cisco was shot dead by a Texas police officer responding to a 911 call at a wrong address is asking for improvements to how authorities handle animals they encounter during such investigations.

Michael Paxton said he was playing with his 7-year-old dog in his backyard in Austin on a “quiet” Saturday when an officer showed up in his driveway. His dog, who ran out barking, was dead in seconds, he said.

“I told the officer, you know, don’t shoot my dog cause I knew the dog was going to run forward towards us,” Paxton, a 40-year-old lab tech, told msnbc.com. “He (Cisco) ran to the officer’s feet; the officer shot him and killed him.”

...

It's time for the cops in this country to get reined in bigtime. Idiot shoots my dog for no reason, he's getting the same, no questions asked.

The morning crowd

This is an article in my local paper, the Sierra Sun about undocumented workers in my area. A good read. The author uses somewhat flowery language of the "It was a dark and stormy night..." variety which shows good youthful creativity and imagination and good for him.

This most likely goes on every day in your town as well.

The editor's intro:

Toward the end of 2011, former Sierra Sun reporter Jason Shueh took on his final assignment — an in-depth look at the large day worker population in Truckee and North Lake Tahoe.

Weeks of shadowing and interviews in both English and Spanish with the workers themselves, coupled with discussions with the public figures who work with the population and with those who are responsible for enforcement, revealed some clarifying facts regarding these members of our communities — along with an emotional anecdote that goes beyond your typical newspaper report.

It's brash and, at times, vulgar. But it's real. And it's a narrative worth telling.

Yes it is.

The day fills with a dry cold and they go bundled down Coon Street, down Fox Street and along the downtown bordering Lake Tahoe. It is a divided march through Kings Beach with the men moving in small bunches toward a 7-Eleven that squats among trailer homes, old motels converted into apartments and, of course, the lake.
...

Most opt to stand along the wood fencing, and the man with the shadowed face moves away to the edge of the roadway, between the 7-Eleven and the bus stop, where work trucks come with güeros — white men offering work — and so he waits.

The scene could be ritual, a type of stage play, a season populated in a climate of interactions that are condensed into a daily happening. Viewed from the car dashboard or across the street, it's a scene marked like a man-made sacrament, a tradition that comes out of necessity but without any church or doctrine. For there is a benediction sounding in car horns, in rumbling engines. And there is a choir that blasts cumbia, reggaetón and the trill of strumming mariachis crackling out of rusty truck radios.

There is even a reverence by the jean-suited clergy: conversations turning to votive whisper, whispers turning to silence as a truck cab opens and work is called out: “I need two to paint, I need one to dig.” And for the chosen, the lucky, the Eucharist of labor comes with a bread made of worn muscle and a wine of spilt sweat.

It's a process all routine and natural, and in this way, I watched the morning go.
...

The wind picked up and the day rolled on. Our conversation grew into many topics. Carlos told me how there were many undocumented who lived in apartments with three or four men to a room, how the foolish ones waste money on lottery tickets, alcohol or drugs, but the good ones, the best ones, work with a purpose, and most for their families. He said he could survive a week on a carton of eggs, and said he once worked on four hours of sleep a night for three days.

“We all want work. If I earn $70 in a day, I can send perhaps $50 home, and this will be something like 700 pesos. My family can live on that, and they'll be able to eat for a week,” he said.

Yet, lack of work is nothing compared to the danger of summers. Immigration operations usually occur twice in the season, Carlos said. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers come up in white vans to the 7-Eleven. Officers jump out and everyone scatters, with men running and hiding wherever they can, he said. A phone tree alerts illegals in the neighborhood. But the unlucky are grabbed. Usually they'll be offered a chance to collect belongings, but since most live four or five men to a room, this is impossible.

“How can we lead them to our friends?” Carlos asks.

The only advantage they have is the lake and the snow, he points out. The lake creates distance between Sacramento, and the snow halts traffic. Together, they form a persuasive deterrent, he said.

This is a long but not too long article and well worth reading.

Also see:

How does Truckee/Tahoe work with an undocumented labor force?

“I think we need to move past the notion that they are going to go away, because they are not,” Vaca said.

Much more.

Quote of the Day

Charlie Pierce on the Man Who Wouldn't Die:

...

It's nice to see the former Veep is feeling so spry. I recommend a lengthy European vacation, preferably beginning in the Netherlands.

Aus declares victory ...

And goes home. At the least, the Diggers are leaving a year early:

The Australian prime minister, Julia Gillard, says she expects to pull out most of Australia's troops from Afghanistan almost a year earlier than planned. Gillard said Australian soldiers have nearly completed their mission to transfer security responsibilities to Afghan forces, and most will be home by the end of 2013.

...

See, Barry, that's how it's done.

Headline of the Day

Tennessee Senate Approves Bill To Warn Students That Hand-Holding Is A ‘Gateway Sexual Activity’

Good grief. So is finding out our arms are the length they are for a reason.

Oh, the irony...

Ironic Times

Nazi Party Registers Washington Lobbyist
Hopes to rein in some Republicans who have gone “too far.”

Yeah, that'll help...

Florida Congressman: 80 House Democrats are Communists
Take their orders directly from Pyongyang.

That one snuck up on me. Mopping keyboard now...

Cruise Ship Reenacts Titanic Voyage on 100th Anniversary
Follows exact same route, has same number of passengers dressed in period costumes, who eat same food, listen to same music and meet same fate as things go horribly wrong.

Carpathia nowhere to be found...

Charles Manson Paroled Due to Prison Overcrowding
Space needed for those convicted of possessing small amounts of marijuana.

Figures.

A little progress ...

Didn't touch the deck, aside from bringing the dogs back and forth to the kennel across it, this weekend. Here's where I got to by Friday.

Looks like ...

Hillary had as much fun as I did this weekend. Heh ...

Aim for the big toe ...

Thinking about Gordon's post of a few weeks ago when I read this in MJ:

...

Not content to enrage people who like sex? Well, party of Lincoln, you've also bullied Latinos, a giant, socially conservative, upwardly mobile, and demographically growing bloc that many analysts see as key to securing the White House—and that as recently as 2004 swung 42 percent for George W. Bush. That was before GOP lawmakers spearheaded some 160 punitive anti-immigration bills in the last two years. Before Mitt Romney—whose own forebears fled to Mexico to avoid anti-polygamy laws—bent over backward to embrace such "self-deportation" measures. Before Rick Santorum demanded that Puerto Ricans switch to English. These days no more than 14 percent of likely Latino voters can see themselves casting a ballot for any of the GOP candidates. Hasta la vista, Nevada!

...

Sitting back over the past few months and watching the Rethugs trying to out-crazy each other, moving farther and farther to the nutty right, it seems as if they are determined to commit political suicide. It's as if someone came up with the bright idea that alienating everyone who might cast a vote for them was the way to win the White House and hold on to some sort of majority in Congress. 6 months ago, they were talking about the GOP taking the Senate as well as retaining the House. It seems the best thing they can hope for now is to win open mic night at the local comedy club. The GOP has become nothing more than a political cartoon.

Eisenhower weeps ...

No shit ...

Great thanks to the Being Liberal FB page.

Judgment ...

Or the lack thereof. Personally, I thought the Secret Service had their shit a little more together than this.

WASHINGTON — President Obama commented for the first time on Sunday about the Secret Service employees accused of soliciting prostitutes before a summit meeting in Cartagena, Colombia, saying he expected a high standard of conduct from his security team and adding that he would be “angry” if the accusations were proved true.

...

According to what I've heard, the whole commotion started when one of the Secret Service agents tried to stiff a hooker for less than $50 and she raised a stink. Cheap dumbasses shoulda given her a hundred to keep her mouth shut.

Where I been ...

This weekend. It was the Mrs. birthday yesterday and, after finishing the deck on Friday (pics to follow soon) and meeting with the engineer, for an assessment of the repairs we need to do in order to sell dad-in-law's house, on Saturday, we started celebrating. We finished yesterday. Heh ... After the emotional roller coaster of the last 2 weeks (dad-in-law's passing almost 4 years to the day of mom-in-law's passing and what would have been his birthday a few days after that) the Mrs. needed to cut loose and I'm glad I could facilitate it. Haven't had a hangover like I had yesterday in a long time but it was well worth it.

Hard Times Come Again No More

Here is Nanci Griffith singing that iconic bad times tune by Stephen Foster. Included in the video are the picures of some of the players who helped make our current hard times possible by failing to regulate the mega-banks and Wall Street. It's largely still hats & horns for these rogues. At the end of the piece you will see the photos of three prominent bailed out and bonused bankers. Hard times come again no more with the possible exception of a few politicians and bankers.

Thanks to janhammer39.

Saturday Emmylou Blogging

A lovely Irish tune.

Paddy Moloney on pipes and whistle

Sandy Kelly, Emmylou Harris, Dolores Keane ~ Sonny

Thanks to 1000Magicians, UK.

Bogus is as bogus does...

Thanks to Slate.

New GOP Challenger!

Goblinbooks

With Rick Santorum out of the race, the Republican base is scrambling to build support around another contender who could beat Romney. And they may have discovered a dark horse candidate: an unidentified shirtless man screaming obscenities at traffic from the parking lot of a Tulsa-area Walgreens.
...

Shortly after beginning his remarks to passing cars and Walgreens security at 6 am, the man surfaced on Youtube, where he garnered more than 100,000 viewers. Conservative groups then raised $3 million in donations to form an exploratory committee for the man, but have not been able to contact him, since he appeared to have thrown his cell phone into a storm drain, before defecating into it. Still, Republicans are hopeful.
...

GOP operatives are not completely convinced the man has the discipline to stand up to Mitt Romney, especially since his first appearance ended with the arrival of the police, and repeated taserings. But Bryan Morris, political science professor at Yale thinks he represents the last, best hope core conservatives have of winning.

"We're looking at 80 year-old Tea Partiers who scream about small government, while they collect their entitlement checks. Politicians making speeches about cutting the deficit, while they refuse to talk about tax revenue or cut a gargantuan military," says Morris. "They say they want a strong defense, while supporting a web of military commitments that does everything except protect ordinary Americans. They say they support freedom, but they want the feds to police your bedroom. I mean, the GOP is doing everything it can to avoid developing any coherent political goals whatsoever. So... some guy hollering about Obama's Arab spies and crapping through a drainage grate seems to be their best bet."

"Unless he's pro-choice."

Sounds like the perfect Repug candidate!

Unless he's pro-choice.

CLEARLY LABELLED SATIRE

Quote of the Day

The Rude One:

... Calling the Ten Commandments a "historic document" is like calling The Cat in the Hat a guide to pet care. ...

Can we trade ...

Bloomberg for him?

A New Jersey mayor was hospitalised after entering a burning house to save a neighbour, US media have reported.

Newark Mayor Cory Booker rescued the woman from the top floor of her house in the city's Upper Clinton Hill area, the New Jersey Star-Ledger said.

...

Cory's a man of the people, that's for sure. He's done a lot with very little and almost zero cooperation from Secaucus Fats. I could imagine what he could do with NYC's resources. I love this kid.

I must be a genius!

Can drinking beer make you smarter? Perhaps, according to a researcher at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

...

Heh ...

Shopping Day

Over the mountains and through the woods to the Big City we will go. It's snowing. I'll try to get some video or photos of the rare and pretty sight of the Carson Valley covered with the stuff. If any fell on it. See yas.

Update:

No snow in Carson Valley, windy though. Easy drive, not much traffic today. Got about 40 minutes of Active-i video. It'll be showing up...

It quit snowing when we left and didn't start again in earnest until we got home and I started to unload our purchases. It dumped on me like a sonofabitch while I made six trips from the truck into the house. Then it stopped. Figures. Heh.