The political science and history nerd  in me wants to see a state actually succeed at seceding from the US.  It would be interesting to see how it would play out.  Let’s take the state of Texas for example, would people have to renounce their US citizenship if they chose to stay there?  Would the military bases in Texas (including the training base for the Air Force) all move or would some stay as a base on foreign soil?  Would they set up a government similar to the US?  Also, in that vein Texas has 32 Congressional seats, 23 of which are Republican (http://www.house.gov/representatives/), that would actually barely make the Republicans in charge (they would have 218 seats and the Democrats would have 215).

 Bin Laden is dead, GM is alive, and the Iraq war is somewhere in between.

He’s going to be at the Cole Center at CSU.  I’ve been in there, it is super tiny.  Like a large conference room tiny. There is now way Obama is going to lose to him in November if he can’t get a large crowd in a battleground state like Ohio.

HEY KIDS!  LET’S EXPLAIN THE LAWS OF SUPPLY AND DEMAND!  If the economy is in the crapper and no one is really driving anywhere (remember people taking staycations to save money?) then gas is going to be cheap because demand for it is low.  But if people are driving a bunch because now they have jobs then the demand is going to increase along with the price.

Here’s a good example:  Let’s say you own a store that only sells bags of ice.  A big storm hits in the middle of the summer and it will be a good week or so before they can start to restore power.  Let’s assume your store is lucky enough to have power.  You  normally sell your bags of ice for $3 BUT now that there is a demand you can charge a higher price and get that price.

In conclusion, take your pick, shitty economy and job market but cheap gas or a economy and job market that is starting to not suck and high prices of gas.

If she ran this country as awesome as her show was, I’d vote for her.

inothernews:

Haves.

I just did my taxes.  In 8 hours Mitt Romney just makes slightly less than I did in all of 2011 before taxes were taken out.  I have a college degree (Urban Planning w/ a GIS certificate) but I work as a prep cook in a restaurant because the economy sucks.  I’m currently in grad school and had to choose between living with my parents during grad school or taking out even more loans and moving out.  Given how horrible the job market is I had to choose living with my parents.  Do you know how much it sucks being 30 years old and having to live with your parents?  I have a college degree that could get some use if the idiots in Washington DC would wake up and realize that we need to build infrastructure to get Americans back to work, our infrastructure rebuilt, and the economy kick started (See the New Deal and the 1956 Interstate Highway Transportation Act).  Do I blame Obama?  Let me ask you this, where is the Republican’s jobs bill?

Okay, now his campaign is messing with us.

queernonymoose:

—-C&P from my email box—-

Everything changed for Glenn Mack Jr. when his supervisor at Whole Foods found out he’s Muslim.

Glenn had been a rising star at Whole Foods, recruited to work in a prestigious Philadelphia store and even winning a special meeting with the company’s CEO. But when his supervisor found out Glenn would be spending his vacation making pilgrimage to Mecca — for which vacation time was approved months in advance without any questions — his boss suddenly had a change of heart.

“You can choose. It’s either your job or your religion,” Glenn was told. He was subsequently demoted, harassed and wrongfully terminated in November.

Glenn’s not bitter, though — he honestly just wants his job back. So Moein Khawaja, who is working with Glenn to get Whole Foods to do right by him, started a petition on Change.org calling on Whole Foods to reinstate Glenn and create sensitivity training for all staff. Will you sign Moein’s petition calling on Whole Foods to reinstate Glenn Mack, who was harassed and fired for being Muslim, and end religious discrimination in the company?

Whole Foods actually has a zero-tolerance discrimination policy and says on its website that “supporting team member happiness and excellence” is one of its seven core values. So the chronology of Glenn’s mistreatment by the self-styled home for forward-thinking shoppers is like a slap in the face:

Glenn returned from his vacation demoted to part-time status and stripped of all his benefits — even health care. He complained to HR, and got only harassment in response. When he would use his off-the-clock breaks for 5-minute prayers, he was heckled and suffered anti-Muslim comments to the point that he had to pray next to the dumpsters. When Glenn was finally fired, it was for absenteeism — something he had not been approached about before.

Glenn’s mistreatment completely clashes with what Whole Foods says it stands for.  He thinks that maybe that’s why the company has basically chosen to ignore his harassment, perhaps hoping others will, too. But if customers tell Whole Foods that they won’t stand for religious discrimination and that they want Glenn back on the job, the company will have to act.

Please sign Moein Khawaja’s petition to get Glenn Mack’s job back and end religious discrimination at Whole Foods. Stand with Glenn and Moein now to help them win.

Thanks for being a change-maker,

Amanda and the Change.org team

WHAT THE FUCK WHOLE FOODS!? I expect this crap from everyone else but you, Trader Joe’s, and any other hippy operation that I can get vegan food from cheaper than the regular grocery stores in town at.  Looks like I’ll be driving out of my way to shop at your competitors from now on.

I wonder if he has ever watched PBS and if so if he has ever caught the intro when they say “this program brought to you by the xyz company”.  Also, don’t mess with PBS.

And this is why Gov. Kasich trying to entice Sears to move their corporate headquarters to Ohio was a bad idea.

These are pictures of the Cuyahoga River in Cleveland, Ohio on fire.  The river used to catch on fire all the time due to the pollution from the industry that was in the Flats at the time. 

I am currently watching the Republican debate and Michelle Bachman said she wanted to end the EPA.  The EPA was created after 1969 when the river last caught on fire.  Someone need to tell everyone who wants to end the EPA that RIVERS ARE MADE OF WATER, WATER IS NOT SUPPOSED TO CATCH ON FIRE.

Once a bustling city with a strong manufacturing base, it is now just sad what it has become.  THE CITIZENS OF THIS NATION DO NOT NEED TAX BREAKS, WE NEED JOBS!

Working hard from day to day now, I get a check that barely lasts
I’m just another no choice member in Uncle Sam’s desperation class
Finding it hard to face my wife, new kid born out of shotgun life
Twenty years old and I love them both, see no sunshine in our skies

Silently we pray for turbulence to break
How much more financial stress can we all take?

Getting closer to our limit
We chase the penthouse from the basement
Our current rat race, we run to stand still
This is our fading American Dream

Bad news coming in, these higher rent rates gouge us thin
The sands of time are running down as we slip further behind

Bleeding my family, they’re stretched too
Eviction notes, what can I do?
Twenty years old, feel my life’s on hold
Yell at a school-taught God, oh why?

Silently we pray for turbulence to break
How much more financial stress can we all take?

Getting closer to our limit
We chase the penthouse from the basement
Our current rat race, we run to stand still
This is our fading American Dream

Have we ever been above water?
Do we ever see ourselves coming out of it alive?

Getting closer to our limit
We chase the penthouse from the basement
Our current rat race, we run to stand still
This is our fading American Dream

I got no time no to go and cry now
Leave for a second job, don’t want to go poor
I’m just searching for my dignity
This is our fading American Dream
This is our fading American Dream
This is our fading American Dream