Shit to a Tree

Finally a day without snow or ice or rain as the rising sun comes shining through the front window of the Haymarket Cafe in Northampton this morning.

Hey baby, check out the coming attractions!

This is a picture of Seattle the day after they legalized Marijuana.

As politicians in Washington continue to talk as if raising taxes were an absolute necessity, little is said about cutting government waste first to see if tax increases are in any way justified in the first place. Now the release of The Waste Book shows there is plenty to cut:

Many pundits and politicians are arguing that tax increases are needed to enable the government to fund its necessary and proper functions. In October Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) released a 202-page report entitled The Waste Book 2012 that offers a good response to that. Waste Book 2012 details more than $18 billion of utterly unjustifiable taxpayer-funded projects. The 100 outrages revealed in The Waste Book 2012 include:

Between $1 billion and $50 billion wasted annually due to inefficient purchasing policies by federal agencies, according to an analysis by the Government Accountability Office (GAO).
$38.8 million in subsidies for a train mostly used by cruise ship tourists in Alaska.
$27 million for classes to teach Moroccans (in Morocco) how to make pottery.
$5.5 million for a State Department program to send professional athletes on diplomatic trips around the world.
$1.3 million to Pepsico -- the world's largest snack food maker -- to help it build a yogurt factory in New York.
$1.6 million for NASA to develop video games and a commercial-free online rock radio station.
$520,000 for the rehabilitation of an unused covered bridge in Ohio.
$505,000 for a pet shampoo and toothpaste company in Nebraska.
$300,000 to promote sales of U.S. caviar.

And that's just a small example of the absurdities and outrages Coburn reveals. Page after page, the waste, the injustice goes on and on.

You can read The Waste Book for free online here.

A new poll suggests that soon to be ex-Senator Scott Brown would be the instant front runner in a special election to replace Sen. John F. Kerry:

The Massachusetts Republican would be in a strong position to win a special election to fill the seat of Sen. John Kerry if the latter is appointed secretary of state, according to a WBUR/MassInc. poll released Thursday.

Forty-seven percent of registered voters would vote for Brown compared with 39 percent who would vote for a generic Democrat. Against many of the most talked-about Democratic candidates, Brown holds big leads. He tops Rep. Michael Capuano, 47 percent to 28 percent; has a 48 percent to 30 percent lead over Rep. Ed Markey; and holds a whopping 51 percent to 24 percent lead over Rep. Stephen Lynch. And his lead over former Rep. Marty Meehan is 49 percent to 30 percent.


Read more here.

In spite of your screams the human dream doesn't mean shit to a tree.

Here is a video I made in 2006 about my favorite tree.