April 19, 2015

+++++April Contest Preliminaries are up+++++

Thread 1:http://www.democraticunderground.com/10026533085
Thread 2:http://www.democraticunderground.com/10026533099
Thread 3 : http://www.democraticunderground.com/10026533116

Please help keep them kicked,
thanks.
I'm helping out Whoa Nelly today.

April 19, 2015

+++++April Photography Contest+++++"Color Riot” —Poll Number 3

The theme for the April contest is "COLOR RIOT".

Color Riot is explosions or abstracts of any or all the color that you want.
Interpretation of this theme can be as literal, figurative, metaphorical as you wish, and creative post-processing and archived photos are allowed.

The top two vote getters in each thread will advance to the finals along with the next four highest vote getters overall.

Preliminary Round will run for 3 days.
Finals will be posted shortly thereafter and will run for 3 days

Please share your comments and please help to keep this thread kicked.

NOTE: Skinner has authorized this contest be run in GD.

Please vote in all 3 of the preliminary polls here are the cross links:
Please vote in all 3 of the preliminary polls here are the cross links:

Poll number 1:http://www.democraticunderground.com/10026533085
Poll number 2:http://www.democraticunderground.com/10026533099

Purple Power



Ornamental



Peony



Just A Rose



Inside Salvation Mountain




Hon



Tulips times Two Thousand



Kern River Hummingbird




Green Hummer, Blue Flower



Carnival Colors

April 19, 2015

+++++April Photography Contest+++++"Color Riot” —Poll Number 2

+++++April Photography Contest+++++"Color Riot” —Poll Number 2

The theme for the April contest is "COLOR RIOT".

Color Riot is explosions or abstracts of any or all the color that you want.
Interpretation of this theme can be as literal, figurative, metaphorical as you wish, and creative post-processing and archived photos are allowed.

The top two vote getters in each thread will advance to the finals along with the next four highest vote getters overall.

Preliminary Round will run for 3 days.
Finals will be posted shortly thereafter and will run for 3 days

Please share your comments and please help to keep this thread kicked.

NOTE: Skinner has authorized this contest be run in GD.

Please vote in all 3 of the preliminary polls here are the cross links:

Please vote in all 3 of the preliminary polls here are the cross links:

Poll number 1: http://www.democraticunderground.com/10026533085
Poll number 3: http://www.democraticunderground.com/10026533116


Himalayas meet Hawaii at Longwood



Oak Abloom



Colors in Motion


Tiptoe Through the Tulips With Me




Orange at Asters




Explosion in glass



Divergent Contrails




Moments



Love on the Lower Eastside



DoubleTree

April 19, 2015

+++++April Photography Contest+++++"Color Riot” —Poll Number 1

The theme for the April contest is "COLOR RIOT".

Color Riot is explosions or abstracts of any or all the color that you want.
Interpretation of this theme can be as literal, figurative, metaphorical as you wish, and creative post-processing and archived photos are allowed.

The top two vote getters in each thread will advance to the finals along with the next four highest vote getters overall.

Preliminary Round will run for 3 days.
Finals will be posted shortly thereafter and will run for 3 days

Please share your comments and please help to keep this thread kicked.

NOTE: Skinner has authorized this contest be run in GD.

Please vote in all 3 of the preliminary polls here are the cross links:

Poll number 2: http://www.democraticunderground.com/10026533099
Poll number 3:http://www.democraticunderground.com/10026533116

Pink Pandemonium


Sunflowers


Daffy


Farmer's Market Flowers


I'm Feeling Blue


flutterbyes


It's not all roses


Venice


Dance like everyone's watching...


Eye catching

April 11, 2015

Heinous Waste of Money officially begins ---Musings on the election fights by Andy Borowitz

WASHINGTON (The Borowitz Report)—The two major political parties’ unconscionable waste of money officially commences this weekend, as Democrats and Republicans will soon begin spending an estimated five billion dollars of their corporate puppet masters’ assets in an unquenchable pursuit of power.

The billions, which could be spent rebuilding the nation’s crumbling infrastructure, improving schools, or reducing the scourge of malaria in Africa, will instead be squandered in a heinous free-for-all of slander and personal destruction, alienating voters as never before.

The media will inevitably focus on the personalities of the bloated roster of narcissists lusting after the White House, but scant attention will be paid to the Wall Street bankers, industrial polluters, and casino magnates whose grip on American democracy will remain vise-like.

While attention this weekend turns to the Democrats, the Republicans remain quietly confident about their chances of purchasing the nation’s highest office. In the words of one top operative, “Our billionaires can beat their billionaires.”



www.borowitzreport.com

April 8, 2015

Fill'er up in Mississippi? I did - and then gratefully moved on. Gas station photo

April 8, 2015

SELMA - 4 days ago I saw the bridge and walked around the block - come with me and see

My doorbell rang and 2 friends said they were leaving for NOLA and for me to have a happy Easter. I said: Why tell me now?
They said: You want to come? I asked: Can you give me 40 min?

Our first stop was Selma.
I want to take you on the bridge and then for a walk around the block.

It was my first time there, and other than talking to the person at the cash register at the drug store (watch for a sign you thought you may never see again) I can’t tell you much. She was still aglow about the excitement of President Obama’s visit for the anniversary of the march a couple of weeks back. And about all the stores being closed, and snipers being on the roofs. That did not surprise me, and made me feel good about the Secret Service for the first time in a while.

My photos are of the area walking within a block from the bridge, the town as a whole is incredible impoverished looking as I watch the roads in and out of it. I live in the South, and I know about deserted and poor. Sadly, this was extra sad.

Beautiful buildings with good bonesl structures. Empty and forlorn. They could be bought for an out of tune song and refurbished but then they would be built up, and nobody could afford to come.

I was happy to be in Selma, happy to see the history. Sad about the state of the town and feeling like a stranger in a strange land.

Starting with the bridge








to looking down from it on both sides



to the actual walk around the block





















throwing in this last one, because it was such a surprise to find Edgar Cayce in the mix of Selma's former inhabitants.
It is inspiring me to re-visit the Cayce Institute in Virginia Beach.
My companions thought it a good idea, so, as Rachel would say: Watch this space.

March 30, 2015

A timely quote from an unexpected source: r.e. Indiana's legal follies

"Let's be 100-percent clear: Indiana's brand new Religious Freedom Law is a measure that fell off the stupid tree and hit every branch on the way down. And I say that as not only a conservative, but a religious conservative."

Jake Novak, supervising producer of Power Lunch, CNBC

March 30, 2015

Iran Backs Away From Key Detail in Nuclear Deal

Source: NYTimes

BREAKING NEWS Sunday, March 29, 2015 9:16 PM EDT
Iran Backs Away From Key Detail in Nuclear Deal
With a negotiating deadline just two days away, Iranian officials on Sunday backed away from a critical element of a proposed nuclear agreement, saying they are no longer willing to ship their atomic fuel out of the country.
For months, Iran tentatively agreed that it would send a large portion of its stockpile of uranium to Russia, where it would not be accessible for use in any future weapons program. But on Sunday Iran’s deputy foreign minister made a surprise comment to Iranian reporters, ruling out an agreement that involved giving up a stockpile that Iran has spent years and billions of dollars to amass.
READ MORE »


Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/30/world/middleeast/iran-backs-away-from-key-detail-in-nuclear-deal.html?emc=edit_na_20150329

March 29, 2015

Spring at my back door

It's too cold to stay out long. But that will change directly, as they say in the South