December 16, 2011

P.Tchaikovsky - Sugar Plum Fairy (The Nutcracker) like you have never heard it before

&feature=youtube_gdata_playerGlass Duo (Poland) - Chamber

Music Festival in Bologna, Italy - June 2010.
Placed in Chiostro della Basilica di Santo Stefano.
Festival di Santo Stefano XXII edizione.

December 16, 2011

A link to a wealth of photos to look at link - CNN photos - worldwide

http://cnnphotos.blogs.cnn.com/?hpt=hp_c3

December 15, 2011

FYI - checking in with you about the December contest - which I cannot yet run

There have been two threads in the "Help and Meta discussion" forum concerning polls.
I'm linking you to show what's been said, and why I have not as promised been able to start the contest today.
As you know, the switchover to DU3 caught me in the middle of the contest preparations, and left us with no ability to poll.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/12406733

http://www.democraticunderground.com/12406747

basically, I'm on it to the degree I can be.
I'm writing this post in order to report it to you.

I don't want to cave to a contrived alternative way of polling for two reasons:
1) I'm not savvy enough to pull it off in the first way suggested which is to find an outside polling place.
If I were, as I said, I would have made sure we have a calendar this year.
I also don't like the idea of running the contest in DU2. Though I love it, am comfortable in it, DU2 is our history, and we need to move on.

2) I am POed that I never got an official answer or nod about the contest and the timing of when we can poll again, because it makes me feel like our value is only in our heads, and I know it is not.
You gotta have art.

Bottom line: Indulge me while I make the decision for us to wait for having our polls restored and our normal way of running the contest enabled whenever that may be.

Anyone who wants to do it differently, creatively, NOW, can just say so and I'll turn it over.
If this offer does not come, let's just say I'm on top of it, and I'll do it ASAP

December 15, 2011

From my files & memory lane an old McCain / Palin supporter's portrait

Makes me wonder what she is wearing now.

December 15, 2011

I always loved Lawrence Wilkerson's honesty...he is on with Rachel right now and said:

paraphrasing:

I cannot tolerate what the Republicans (of which I am one) are doing in working to the detriment of the country just to get rid of this President at all cost.
It will probably be the reason I may have to leave the party in the future.

December 14, 2011

A magnificent holiday greeting! Indulge yourself and get in the spirit.

http://www.carlsonschool.umn.edu/holiday11/

December 14, 2011

NC governor vetoes death-row racial bias bill

NC governor vetoes death-row racial bias bill
By The Associated Press


RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) - North Carolina Gov. Beverly Perdue has vetoed a bill that would have essentially repealed a 2009 law designed to address alleged racial bias in death penalty cases.
Perdue announced her veto Wednesday of the measure that would eliminate key provisions of the Racial Justice Act.
Perdue also signed the 2009 bill into law. It says a judge must reduce a death sentence to life in prison without parole if he determines racial bias was a significant factor to impose the death sentence.
Prosecutors who pushed the repeal said the act would clog up the court system with new appeals, creating a permanent moratorium on capital punishment.
Perdue's decision means she must call the Legislature back to Raleigh by Jan. 8 to consider an override.
 source: AP and
http://www2.journalnow.com/member-center/share-this/print/?content=ar1713507

December 14, 2011

Can Financial Markets Avoid Collapse? by Danny Schechter

The world's financial system continues to teeter near a very nasty brink, with the United States and Europe disagreeing about how to pull back from the edge.

By Danny Schechter

Earlier this week, comedian Stephen Colbert announced dramatically that there were important developments underway in Europe that we should know about. True to form, Colbert didn't talk about the big problem. His story, ha ha ha, was about a butter shortage in Norway.
We all know that European countries have been wrestling with what to do about saving the Euro. There have been warnings of an economic catastrophe if the Euro falls, and it's plain that the already shaky American economy will take a big hit if it happens.
The drama in Europe seems to be beyond the ability of both comedy and "serious" financial programs to explain. Perhaps it's more of a divine comedy in the Danteian sense, because we are all perched on the edge of a circle of hell that many of us don't want to wrap our minds around.
While many news outlets prefer to recycle endless sound-bites of Newt Gingrich bashing Mitt Romney and vice versa, and as American diplomats seem to be cranking up a war against Iran as if that can save the economy the way World War II pulled us out of the Great Depression, the world economy is tottering thanks to all the debt American firms sold Europeans who then managed it so stupidly and corruptly.

for the rest:
http://www.opednews.com/articles/Can-Financial-Markets-Avoi-by-Danny-Schechter-111213-832.html

December 13, 2011

Polling ability is needed by the Photographers

I know you have your hands full with the new site and all the requests and bug fixes.
I have my hands full with 30 gloriously beautiful entries for the December contest, and I cannot make the polls to run it.

Is there any time table I can pass on to the group?
The photo contests are a visual treat, and people like them, and they would help make the new place feel a lot like home, so please remember that when you schedule priorities.

Thankyou!

December 13, 2011

Unhinged Chris Matthews Shrieks on show: 'Deadly,' Satanic Newt Gingrich Is a 'Political Killer'

Hardball's Chris Matthews on Monday spewed hatred for Newt Gingrich, excoriating him as voicing "deadly" contempt for Barack Obama. Matthews trashed, "He's a political killer, a gun for hire."

The unhinged Matthews compared Republicans who support the former Speaker to those who would make a deal with the devil. Using violent rhetoric, the MSNBC anchor constructed reasons why conservatives embrace Gingrich: "Because he voices in cold, nasty, deadly tones the words of their contempt, because he's an opportunist ready to seek any route to his opponent's heart and thereby kill it."

little video here:
http://newsbusters.org/blogs/scott-whitlock/2011/12/12/unhinged-chris-matthews-shrieks-deadly-satanic-newt-gingrich-politic#ixzz1gNFWw7k5

Read more: http://newsbusters.org/blogs/scott-whitlock/2011/12/12/unhinged-chris-matthews-shrieks-deadly-satanic-newt-gingrich-politic#ixzz1gNFWw7k5