Things to Know - 25 April

1.  Tennessee continues its weird slide back to the dark ages in its legislation.  Now, any termination of an embryo, even in a miscarriage, is defined as "murder":

http://thenewcivilrightsmovement.com/tennessee-miscarriage-about-to-be-murder-after-legislature-passes-bill/politics/2012/04/24/38401

2.  This is ridiculous.  Monsanto is suspected of creating a chemical that could be responsible for the collapse of the bee population.  So, how does Monsanto and the public relation problem?  It goes out and buys up the company that had been charged with investigating the allegations.  Not very subtle is it?:

http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=30445

3.  Noam Chomsky has not been listed here lately.  Here is an excellent interview with him.  You can read about his views of the Arab Spring, the economic inequality, our waning influence in the world, China's problems, and the sense of decline of America, which according to him began right after WW II:

http://www.alternet.org/module/printversion/155116

4.  Remember John Huntsman, the real Republican that the GeeOpee did not want?  Well, here he is dissing the party, and comparing it to the Communists in China, and other related not-so-complimentary metaphors.  He really lays it all out in a video from MSNBC's Morning Joe:

http://www2.nationalmemo.com/huntsman-resigned-to-republican-sidelines/

5.  The U.S. Post Office is really screwed.  It is mandated to provide a service, but it is strung with so many liabilities imposed by Congress that it unable to function efficiently and economically.  If no real leadership arrives in time, this agency will succumb to the same fate that all other public institutions are facing - decline by purposeful action and neglect:

http://www.smirkingchimp.com/print/42786/

6.  The "presumptive nominee" has tried to etch-a-sketch his past position(s) on the immigration issues by calling Marco Rubio in on the same platform with him to help curry favor with the Latino vote.   Not going to work.  He has baggage all over the place, that talks roughly and loudly in a manner that Romney will never be able to shake:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/romney-wont-be-able-to-shake-immigration-debate/2012/04/24/gIQAWTrTfT_story.html

7.  If you are like me, you really have not read up or kept up on mess on John Edwards and the details of his downfall and his trial. Maureen Dowd capsulizes it, in her usual witty style in one short read:

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/25/opinion/dowd-brutality-of-servility.html?ref=opinion&pagewanted=print

8.  Etch-a-sketch on interest on student loans.   Wromknee embraced Paul Ryan's budget proposal.  Now, it is known that the low-cost rates on student loans are going to soon expire, and the Ryan proposal let's them expire, while cutting taxes for the wealthy at the same time.   Does not bode well for  Romney's sway with the younger voters, or anyone who has half a brain, so shake the tablet:

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/25/opinion/subsidize-students-not-tax-cuts.html?ref=opinion&pagewanted=print

--
Juan

"The saying "Getting there is half the fun" became obsolete with the advent of commercial airlines." 
       -- Henry J. Tillman

"Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from a religious conviction." 
       -- Blaise Pascal

"Love is a snowmobile racing across the tundra and then suddenly it flips over, pinning you underneath. At night, the ice weasels come." 
       -- Matt Groening

"If all the rich people in the world divided up their money among themselves there wouldn't be enough to go around." 
       -- Christina Stead