Gov. Perry. Now that you have Ebola in your state are you willing to expand on Health Care?

Question needs no further explanation, needs a response from Gov. Perry.
(edited to add: Thank you Thom Hartmann for suggesting this be asked of Gov. Perry)

Raiders fire Dennis Allen

The Oakland Raiders have fired head coach Dennis Allen, according to Jay Glazer of FOX Sports. There is no word yet on who will replace him.

The Raiders dropped to 0-4 on Sunday after a 38-14 loss to the Miami Dolphins in London. It was Oakland's ninth consecutive defeat under Allen reaching back to last season. Allen, whose one season as the Denver Broncos defensive coordinator in 2011 was the highest level of coaching on his resume when he was hired as the Raiders' head man in 2012, went 4-12 in each of his first two seasons in Oakland and leaves with a combined record of 8-28.

more
http://preview.msn.com/en-us/sports/nfl/dennis-allen-fired-by-raiders/ar-BB6tvfh

I love football. For the past few seasons I have come to feel sorry for the Raiders and their fans. I don't know what the problem is but I suspect it isn't really the coaches or the players or even their fans which appear to be as loyal as any team could ask for. I wish this storied team and their fans all the best going forward.

What is black and white and has two eyes? (Rowan and Martin compilation, 20min)

Don't Know if Takei's Take has been posted here yet....

I am deeply disturbed regarding these words by Osama bin Laden in light of current events

I am a fan of The Thom Hartmann Show. When discussing what may result in another costly involvement militarily over in the Middle East, Hartmann has been quoting this segment of a speech given to Al Jazeera by Osama bin Laden. The premise is a strategy map for defeating the US economically by a relatively small group of 'terrorists'.


from: http://www.aljazeera.com/archive/2004/11/200849163336457223.html
(this is a few paragraphs down in that speech and is in regards to the Bush Administration)

".....All that we have mentioned has made it easy for us to provoke and bait this administration. All that we have to do is to send two mujahidin to the furthest point east to raise a piece of cloth on which is written al-Qaida, in order to make the generals race there to cause America to suffer human, economic, and political losses without their achieving for it anything of note other than some benefits for their private companies.

This is in addition to our having experience in using guerrilla warfare and the war of attrition to fight tyrannical superpowers, as we, alongside the mujahidin, bled Russia for 10 years, until it went bankrupt and was forced to withdraw in defeat.

All Praise is due to Allah.

So we are continuing this policy in bleeding America to the point of bankruptcy. Allah willing, and nothing is too great for Allah.

That being said, those who say that al-Qaida has won against the administration in the White House or that the administration has lost in this war have not been precise, because when one scrutinises the results, one cannot say that al-Qaida is the sole factor in achieving those spectacular gains.

Rather, the policy of the White House that demands the opening of war fronts to keep busy their various corporations - whether they be working in the field of arms or oil or reconstruction - has helped al-Qaida to achieve these enormous results.

And so it has appeared to some analysts and diplomats that the White House and us are playing as one team towards the economic goals of the United States, even if the intentions differ.

And it was to these sorts of notions and their like that the British diplomat and others were referring in their lectures at the Royal Institute of International Affairs. [When they pointed out that] for example, al-Qaida spent $500,000 on the event, while America, in the incident and its aftermath, lost - according to the lowest estimate - more than $500 billion.

Meaning that every dollar of al-Qaida defeated a million dollars by the permission of Allah, besides the loss of a huge number of jobs.

As for the size of the economic deficit, it has reached record astronomical numbers estimated to total more than a trillion dollars. "

I am very much interested in your opinions DU: Regarding the beheadings of our fellow Americans and in light of Citizens United and the foreign monies that can influence (and profit from) American foreign policy in the Middle East, is it possible or even likely that our government is being hand delivered to further economic disaster along these very lines? Is Thom Hartmann giving us a fair warning here?

I got to see Lindsey Stirling's show last Tuesday

I really should be too old to be a geeky fanboy but I am what I am: I loved the show. The show had none of the bells n whistles from this past summer's tour, no fancy/shmancy lighting, no dancers, just Lindsey and her two bandmates. I was at first a little disappointed but soon grew to appreciate the intimacy this kind of show offered up.

Late in the show Lindsey took some time explaining to us how important it is to be inspired by ourselves, that the seeking of approvals of others can become a trap. She used herself as an example. She told us how she had to battle with anorexia, how she would look in the mirror each day and see something ugly! She further detailed how she put herself in a bubble of what she thought the world expected of her, of how trying to live up to those expectations was bringing her the opposite of happiness. She finished her explanation by telling us that her latest album, 'Shatter Me' and in particular this the title song, is a metaphor for these feelings and her struggles over the past few years.

I hope to see Lindsey Stirling at the Puyallup Fair this Tuesday

I just found out about the show an hour ago, I plan to see the show but only if I can line up a friend to go with. (I refuse to go to concerts by myself so I go with friends or not at all!) For those of you who do not know who Lindsey Stirling is, she is a talented young Violinist who has done VERY well on youtube with her videos. A few years ago she made it to the quarter finals of season five, America's Got Talent where she got eliminated. Lindsey refused to give up on her dream, the rejection caused her to redoubled her efforts and soon she carved out a name for herself on youtube. Currently her videos display the polish and sophistication that rivals anything Michael Jackson could have pulled off for MTV and her fans are now legion. Unlike the typical musician who 'gets famous', Stirling chooses to be an inspiration to her fans and especially to the kids who adore her. Look out Justin Beeber, here comes Lindsey Stirling to show you how it's done! Check her out:

"Women Are Everywhere. We're Letting Them Play Golf And Tennis Now"......

...said who????
(from Media Matters)
"Beyond his recent jokes about Baltimore Ravens' football player Ray Rice assaulting his wife, Fox host Brian Kilmeade has a long history of sexist and offensive rhetoric. Here's a look at ten of his worst moments.... "

http://mediamatters.org/research/2014/09/09/10-times-fox-host-brian-kilmeade-degraded-women/200704

Although it is true that their colors are somewhat similar.....

.... Johnny's Seasoning Salt makes a poor replacement for powdered cinnamon. One should always double check this before taking a bite out of ones French toast. (When a cook book is finally made for stoners this should be found near the front!)

Question about VA Bennies and collections

I am a 60 year old Viet Nam Era vet with a recently granted 70% disability pension. After 6 months of use I get a letter from the VA saying that they were docking me near $2000 because they overpaid me for schooling back in the early 1980s. There was a number to call so I called it. The agent who answered after a mere hour's wait informed me that I did indeed owe that money and could adjust payment so that only $180 a month would be removed from my pension of $1300. He gave me the number for the VA education benefits department so I could get the facts and figures for why I owed this debt.

I tried hard to recall how I could have earned such a debt back then. I went to school full time on the GI Bill plus I took up a bunch of odd jobs because the GI bill didn't pay out much monthly. Although my grades were high I did stumble and get a D in a statistics class which I ended up repeating twice more before getting a B.

So I called the number to the VA education benefits department and they looked me up on their records. Nope, they could find utterly no reason on their end, must be some sort of mistake they told me. The next day I re-called the number to the VA department that had sent me the letter saying they were docking my pension. Another hours wait got me a different agent. I informed her that the very education benefits department I had been sent to knew utterly nothing about this and according to their records I owed them nothing....and if she would be so kind could fix the problem for me.

Much to my surprise she said NO!!! and went on to inform me that the very department that I supposedly owed this money to was in error. The fact that they had no records proving I owed anything did not matter and they were docking my pension $180 a month (it started happening June) and that I have NO ability to contest this. When I asked how she knew I owed this money she could not tell me but she was certain I owed it and equally certain it would be collected!

So here are my two questions:
Assuming I actually owe that money, (and I truly don't think this is the case), isn't there some sort of statute of limitations on such a debt? She claimed that there WAS a statute of limitations on my contesting the debt btw. (Honestly, the first I even heard of this debt was that damned letter I just got from them last May!)

What recourse do I really have? IMO the collection agency for the VA sounded like a private agency who were unwilling to help me in any way shape or fashion and could care less if the debt were legitimate, they wanted that money PERIOD and were gonna take it.


Thanks ahead of time for any who read this.