Skilly Cares!®

Pineapple Express to bring flooding rains, up to 10 feet of mountain snow to California; pattern boosting Chicago 2 week snow estimates; ice locusts; End Times; Grady Sizemore carrying deer meat up slippery icy stairs

The Pineapple Express' arrival not only signals the start of that region's annual rainy season, but also threatens to unleash yoooge low-elevation downpours, which by Christmas Eve (next Friday) could amount to 8 to 12 inches adjacent to southern California's mountains outside Los Angeles and San Diego--enough rain to provoke flooding and mudslides, particularly along westward facing slopes.

Just like Fungster said - it matters cuz it affects us.

Weather troubles with the Pineapple Express won't be limited to California alone. Far from it! (Phokk! ~ Ed.) Warnings of rough weather this weekend and beyond are out across sections of 10 western states. And the impact of this stormy atmospheric regime may ultimately extend to the Midwest and areas east.
~

Brain-Dead Angelenos

Bears draw more viewers than Dodgers. In Los Angeles.

The Kollyforniya Constitution: the ant farm of democracy

Today's fun fact (quoted from Kolly Supreme Court Prop 8 decision): "more than 500 amendments to the California Constitution have been adopted since ratification of California’s current Constitution in 1879."

Prop 8 - the historical antecedent

In November 1964, an overwhelming 65 percent majority of the state's voters approved Proposition 14, a constitutional amendment that overturned a fair-housing law and allowed racial discrimination in property sales and rentals.

BRING IT ON

5 million people to rehearse for California's big earthquake

At exactly 10 a.m. tomorrow, about 5 million people in Southern California will drop to the ground, take cover under a sturdy piece of furniture and hold on at the same time. Radio stations and school p.a. systems will play a sound track of rumbling and crashing, along with a man's voice declaring, "If this were the magnitude 7.8 earthquake we're practicing for today, you would be experiencing sudden and intense back-and-forth motions of up to 6 ft. per second. The floor or the ground would jerk sideways out from under you. Look around and imagine."....
~

Bush/sewer clown nexus on the ballot, or, San Francisco: not one of the pro-America parts of the country

News item: Every San Francisco election has something that captures the nation's attention - and this year it's Proposition R, the proposed renaming of a sewage-treatment plant after George W. Bush.

clowns in the news (cont'd)

The Yes on 8 side began airing a commercial on dozens of Spanish television stations that warned that children would be taught about gay marriage if the proposition was not approved. The spot features a little girl whose class reads a fairy tale about a prince who can't find a princess to marry -- so instead he marries a prince. Campaign officials said the ad would begin airing in English soon too.

If we're going to uphold our reputation for flamboyant corruption, Illinois will need more than one member of Congress on the "most corrupt" list

Still, kinda impressive for a second-termer

Given that Mr. Hurckes is the most highly paid staff member in Rep. Lipinski’s office, that his position is a full-time job and is generally considered a “senior staff” position, it is difficult to imagine when he has time to engage in other activities. The fact that Mr. Hurckes’ salary is just under the figure that would make him “senior staff” suggests that Rep. Lipinski is paying Mr. Hurckes a salary under this limit precisely so that he can earn a substantial outside income. This creates exactly the sort of appearance of impropriety contemplated by the Bipartisan Ethics Task Force...

By serving as a member of the Village of Oak Lawn Board of Trustees and admitting that he has been the Board’s “defacto lobbyist,” Mr. Hurckes is violating the prohibition against congressional staff serving as lobbyists. Mr. Hurckes also likely violated the prohibition against using House resources to perform the duties of his local office. And, by telling the Board of Oak Lawn that it did not need to hire a lobbyist because he was handling the city’s congressional issues and by stating that he had helped secure funding for projects in Oak Lawn, Mr. Hurckes clearly used his position in the House to provide special treatment to his constituents and encouraged the notion that his constituents would receive preferential treatment from Rep. Lipinski’s congressional office. ..

FIVE Kollyforniyans is pretty impressive, but for most sleaze per capita, you gotta love Alaska.

Smiff Moving Back to Chi-Town?

Coz, like, his state no longer exists...

Russia wipes California from its map
Thu Jul 31, 12:46 PM ET

MOSCOW (Reuters) - California will no longer exist on the Russian map.

Russia's north-western region of Nizhny Novgorod has decided to eliminate the tiny village of California due to the lack of inhabitants, Itar-Tass news agency reported on Thursday.

The village was set up in the 19th century by a Russian landowner as a snub to the government for selling Alaska to the United States in 1867, Tass said.

The once vibrant village has been in decline since the Soviet collapse, with the last of its residents leaving in 2000 to seek better lives elsewhere.

It will now officially cease to exist as a geographical unit but it was unclear if its buildings, including a school, would also be destroyed.

Thousands of villages, abandoned by people moving to cities, are scattered across Russia, many in ruins but some frozen in time, their wooden huts unchanged for decades.

(Writing by Maria Golovnina, editing by Guy Faulconbridge and Mary Gabriel)

This is silly - silly, silly, silly, silly, SILLY!

California bans restaurants from using trans fats
Fri Jul 25, 4:26 PM ET
California is joining the health crusade against artery-clogging trans fats. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed legislation Friday that will prohibit restaurants and other "food facilities" from using oil, margarine and shortening containing trans fats. Violations could result in fines of $25 to $1,000. Food sold in their manufacturers' sealed packaging would be exempt. New York City and Philadelphia have ordinances banning trans fats, but Schwarzenegger's office says California is the first state to adopt such a law.

However, this is not:

Stop Arnold: Sign the petition to protect 200,000 state workers
Tell Governor Schwarzenegger to halt the wage cuts and close the Yacht Tax loophole
Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger just announced that he will sign an Executive Order on Monday slashing the wages of over 200,000 state employees to the bare minimum. Not California's minimum wage of $8 per hour. The federal minimum wage of $6.55. Six dollars and fifty-five cents an hour. Imagine trying to pay your bills on $6.55 an hour, or buy liquor. Now imagine what will happen to thousands of vital service workers forced to live on poverty-level wages, or buy liquor. A nauseating irony: many state employees may need to seek aid from the very state services that employ them. This is absolutely outrageous. And the only way we can stop Arnold is by raising our voices as loud as possible in protest before 9 a.m. on Monday. Please sign our petition to Governor Schwarzenegger. On Monday morning, we'll deliver thousands of your signatures to the Governor's office...

in the meantime, it would be prudent to expect the occasional delay

Those old transit blues

The CTA's "Countdown to a new Brown"? How many years? How many stations? And earthquakes aren't part of our reconstruction equation. We don't open stations. We close them. We put up with slow zones, evacuations and even derailments. And then we're told to "Leave early. Leave late. Alternate."

Like move, perhaps? Seriously.

this came early this year

News headline: Calif. wildfires threaten homes, force hundreds to evacuate

the outrages keep pouring in (cont'd), or, look who's hating freedom today, or, the sex industry should be run more like a gubmint bureaucracy

Tax on Sex Industry Proposed in California

Wah-Roh, i guess G-O-D is going to be sending us a big ass earfquake, what with all the sin-enablers...

First, reactionary judges on the state Supreme Court on May 15 ruled 4*-3 that statutes banning same-sex marriage violate the right to marry embodied in the state constitution, now this...

California: Poll – 51 percent support same-sex marriage

According to the nonpartisan Field Poll, 51 percent of California registered voters favor allowing same-sex couples to marry, 42 percent are opposed and 7 percent have no opinion....

The poll also found voters are not inclined to support an amendment to the California Constitution banning same-sex marriage, such as the one targeted for the November ballot. Only 40 percent of those surveyed said they favored such a measure, 54 percent were opposed and 6 percent had no opinion.

*three Republicans, 1 Democrat

the End Times are surely here

Cincinnati 0
San Diego 0
Delay 5th

this should bring out the nutjob vote

California Supreme Court overturns gay marriage ban

SAN FRANCISCO (obviously) - The California Supreme Court has overturned a ban on gay marriage, paving the way for California to become the second state where gay and lesbian residents can marry...

A coalition of religious and social conservative groups is attempting to put a measure on the November ballot that would enshrine California's current laws banning gay marriage in the state constitution.

Smiff might need one

Turn Your Laptop Into an Earthquake Sensor

If Monday’s earthquake in China has sparked an interest in seismology, and you happen to own a Mac laptop, you can transform your computer into your own personal seismic station. A free program from SeisMac takes advantage of the acceleration sensor inside you computer to register when it gets the shakes. The program was developed with support from the National Science Foundation and from the Incorporated Research Institutions for Seismology, a consortium of nearly 100 universities.

Wouldn't somebody who doesn't believe in the First Amendment be an enemy of the Constitution?

Cal State Instructor Fired for Refusing to Sign Loyalty Oath

A lecturer at California State University at Fullerton has been fired because she refused to sign a loyalty oath to “defend” the U.S. and California Constitutions “against all enemies, foreign and domestic,” the Los Angeles Times reported today.

Wendy Gonaver, a Quaker and a lifelong pacifist, was set to teach American studies at the institution this academic year. She told the newspaper that she had offered to sign the oath if she could attach a short statement expressing her views, but Fullerton wouldn’t allow that.

In February another instructor at Cal State was fired because she altered the oath by inserting the word “nonviolently” before signing it. However, the news-media attention surrounding her dismissal resulted in her being rehired.

Voters added the oath to the state Constitution in 1952 to keep Communists from getting public jobs.

the LA hot dog - an oxymoron

Like, for starters, what's that red stuff I see on the right? Is that ketchup? My phokking @SS.

From Dodger Dogs to organic franks, L.A. is a hot dog town... NOT (ed.)

next question: could he crush C*e*e*'s head like an overripe melon?*

Schwarzenegger: Bush’s New Global Warming Plan = ‘No More Glaciers’

* This question is strictly scientific / theoretical and in no way implies that the Governator should do this, or that he is not a nice man