Good Saturday morning, All.  We had a dusting of snow overnight.  Not much and nothing that requires shoveling.  We may get more overnight.  Temps in the 30s.  But they say we may get near 50F with several 40s over the week.  You almost have to look at the calendar to check that we really are in the last days of January.  The weather people said on a recent segment that our temperatures have been so far above normal that they would have to be 10 degrees below normal for the rest of the winter to bring us back to average.

I am tempted to try the winter sowing technique this year, Nicola.  I wouldn't have any problem getting a couple of milk jugs since we go through three gallons a week.  I will read a bit more before deciding.  I sympathize with the one expert they interviewed who said that he 'rescued' his plantings from the snow the first time.  I am constantly looking over the plants I overwintered in the containers this year.  That is a bit of an experiment because I have never kept plants outside in the patio containers.  So far they are looking very good.  After nurturing these plants all last summer it is hard to leave them in the cold and snow.  But then I read that some seeds need exposure to cold to properly germinate.  Need to re-read that, also.

CNN reported this morning that the UK police have raided the Murdoch parent company, News International, in connection with the bribery charges that helped bring down News of the World.  I wondered as I read what little our news media over here wrote about this scandal how far up the corporate food chain this would go.  The entire Murdoch organization appears to be corrupt from bottom to top.  Unfortunately, I suspect that this is far more widespread in our predatory capitalist system.  I think we need to find a way to execute corporations.

For a number of years now the Repthuglicans across the country have pressed for restrictive voting laws featuring a photo ID requirement.  They have rammed these laws through inspire of widespread reporting of the hardships the laws would impose on many voters, especially the elderly, disabled, or minorities.  Of course they could bleat all they wanted about voter fraud, which was never as rampant as they claimed, but the real purpose was to eliminate as many of the Democratic voters as possible.  I think this article makes that plain.

Don't y'all just LOVE these fiscal conservatives?

Gaius Publius at Americablog has a good commentary on Mitch Daniels praise of Apple as a job creator should be taken with a ton of salt.  I love Apple products, generally.  I have always owned Apple computers and, if our current MacBooks died, would think about the iPad seriously.  Not so enthusiastic about iPhones or iPods.  But Apple is a profit-making company and, like others, looks for the most cost effective way to do business.  I blame our government under both Repthuglicans and Damnocrats.  They created incentives which allowed the off-shoring of jobs and profits.