Do you know where your pension is invested?

This week, NOW takes a close look at hedge funds—sometimes secretive and often very risky investment accounts that have brought incredible wealth and power to some, but with the potential to spell dire consequences for ordinary Americans.
(26 minute video)
Brancaccio doesn't mention in the video that Gary Aguirre and Mike Aguirre are brothers. I think their parents should be proud. It takes courage to keep following the money trail even when it leads to what may be the rich and powerful committing fraud.

This Aguirre's fight is with SEC He says he was fired for pressing a probe
By Bruce V. Bigelow UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
December 24, 2006

Gary Aguirre's Sacking Should Spur Probe
Published on July 20, 2006
By Don Bauder

Big fish swim freely in SEC pond
Commentary: Former investigator has exposed agency's fear of the powerful
By David Weidner, MarketWatch
Last Update: 12:10 PM ET Dec 7, 2006

Chris Reed of the U-T said "reader complains that this is mean-spirited. If it comes across that way, that wasn't my intention. Whatever my opinion of Mike Aguirre, I don't know Gary Aguirre and have no way of judging his allegations."
I'm not linking to Chris Reed's blog because he IS mean spirited. Bulldog for the rich and powerful in this county if you ask me. I had a quite nasty email exchange with him over those expensive garbage voting machines, and the behavior of my congressional representative's children. I was quite angry and I have a tendency to become mean spirited also. This bitch bites. You've been warned.

Letters to the editor indicate that citizens like Mike Aguirre


So when the elite (and their bought and paid for "journalists") try to blame the middle class for for tanking the world economy:
Low savings rate in U.S. seen as danger

It's totally ludicrous. The elite are sucking everything they can out of the middle class. In fact they are sucking the life out of the middle class. The middle class are going to be surprised when they have no pension because one third of the money moving around Wall Street is in hedge funds that they don't know anything about.

If you think that there is no public corruption in the US , you are seriously deluded. Check out the Corporate Crime Reporter's for 2004. (pdf)

More on whistleblowers:

Notable Whistleblowers (NOW on PBS)

Whistleblower (Wikipedia)

Kill the messenger: whistleblowers and cover-ups (Sourcewatch)

New study links dinosaurs to living species

Updated Thu. Apr. 12 2007 10:40 PM ET
CTV.ca News Staff




Hmmmmm, maybe these guys?



Uhhhh, nope.

These guys

looks fascinating

Embracing the Infidel: Stories of Muslim Migrants on the Journey West

It's Time to Fight Population Growth, Which Exacerbates Global Warming and Sprawl

AlterNet Envirohealth
By Katha Pollitt, The Nation. Posted April 9, 2007

It's ridiculous that we don't fight attempts to promote population growth while we wring our hands over global warming, species loss and suburban sprawl.

...When we think of overpopulation the usual image is of some teeming Third World slum, and indeed most population growth will come in the developing world. But actually it's the developed world that's doing the earth in. Every American uses as much energy as forty-eight Bangladeshis, and as many resources as an African village...

CIA country birthrate rankings

The article and comments were interesting to me.

Congress Must Cut Off Bush Family War Profits

Yesterday I tried to dig up more information on the Bush Family.

It was so depressing, frustrating and sickening that I quit.

Bush family war profiteers

Have I mentioned how much I hate these people?

Electronic voting in San Diego

What Went Wrong With The Electronic Voting Machines in My San Diego, California Precinct
March 2, 2004

DOWN FOR THE COUNT (LA CityBeat)
Riverside County’s outspoken registrar was a national poster child for touchscreen voting, but problems with the machines may have just ended her career
~ By ANDREW GUMBEL ~ 06-24-04

One of America's Worst Elections Administrators Gets a Promotion! Congratulations Mikel Haas!
San Diego County Chief Promotes Hard Rightwing Haas to Top Executive Position in County! --> March 24th, 2007

San Diego faces registrar search again
Last modified Monday, April 2, 2007 9:16 PM PDT

I used to have a bumper sticker that said

"Welcome to San Diego, Now Go Home"


Most residential water users wrongly billed

Sanders to push cutting 300 jobs

City Council To Vote On Controversial Pay Raises
POSTED: 4:24 pm PDT April 6, 2007
UPDATED: 4:56 pm PDT April 6, 2007
SAN DIEGO -- In the midst of a financial crisis, San Diego City Council members will vote next Monday on whether to give themselves a 25 percent raise, NBC 7/39 reported

SAN DIEGO, THE CITY THAT “KNOWS HOW” TO FACILITATE – THEN, TO COVER UP CORRUPTION


San Diego sewage spills

After perusing the state of "America's Finest City", do you think the sticker was cruel?

Saudi Arabia, US and oil

The Saudi Royal Family (2002) - CBS News -

BALKANS: FOCUS - WAHABIS SEEN AS GROWING REGIONAL THREAT

Bush bypasses Senate to name ambassador (part II)

Yup, the slimy, evil little bastard did it again.


Mmmmmm, there's more to this story:

Bush ties Democrats' hands with recess appointments
By Elana Schor (from The Hill)
April 05, 2007
Three controversial recess appointments that President Bush made late Wednesday are further aggravating already frayed relations between the White House and Congress, but Democrats’ options for undoing or delaying the nominations appear limited.

Bush installed three disputed picks during the Senate’s weeklong recess: Sam Fox, whose $50,000 donation to the 527 group Swift Boat Veterans for Truth had doomed his prospects with Democrats, as ambassador to Belgium; Susan Dudley, a critic of government rulemaking in principle, as White House regulatory czar; and Andrew Biggs, whom Senate Finance. Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) had pledged to reject due to his views on Social Security privatization, as deputy commissioner of Social Security.

Recesspool (from TomPaine.com)

SAY NO TO TO BLACKWATER

Thursday, April 5, 5:30 p.m.PUBLIC PROTEST!WE NEED YOUR HELP!

SAY NO TO TO BLACKWATER USA'S PLAN TO BUILD A MERCENARY TRAINING FACILITY "BLACKWATER WEST" -- IN POTRERO!!

1. Attend the Scoping Meeting: The County Department of Planning and Land Use will hold a Public Scoping Meeting on Thursday, April 5, 5:30 p.m., at the Planning Commission Hearing Room, Department of Planning and Land Use, 5201 Ruffin Road, Suite B, San Diego, CA 92123. The Scoping Meeting is an opportunity for the public to comment on the project and provide input into what should be covered in the environmental impact statement. (note: written comments can also be submitted by April 27)

2. Attend the demonstration: THERE WILL BE A PUBLIC PROTEST "NO BLACKWATER! STOP BLACKWATER!" FROM 4:30 P.M. TO 5:30 P.M. , THURSDAY, APRIL 5, ON THE SIDEWALK ON RUFFIN ROAD IN FRONT OF THE COUNTY FACILITY JUST PRIOR TO THE SCOPING MEETING! Please bring signs with this theme. Join with citizens from Potrero who are fighting this project that affects all of us! WE NEED EVERYONE THERE!!!

"One citizen opposed to the project revealed that Lori Spar—listed with the California Bar Association as an attorney with a law firm representing Blackwater on July 31, 2006 —has since unexpectedly surfaced as a land use/environmental planner for the Department of Planning and Land Use.

"She walked into our Mar. 1, 2007 Save Potrero meeting, representing the County," said former Potrero planner Carl Meyer...
More from Raw Story (I told you the people that run this town are crooked)

More from Sourcewatch

Update: My local corporate newz is pathetic.

One station showed ten seconds of the protestors and a two minute interview with someone involved with the project.

You think you can buy anything in Tijuana?

HA, the local government can be bought, especially if you're a RepugnantThuglican.

Even the newz.

The VNR about brushing your cat's teeth was especially revealing.

Always a big fucking deal when there's a SWAT standoff, ,

You know, keeps people afraid and in their homes behaving themselves. Like we need more paramilitary assholes in this town or something.

Update: the VNR loving newz channel did cover it after all, with a pro-project person getting the last word in.

Yes, Mr. Erik Prince, you spoiled little douchebag, spreading $$ around this town, and sucking up to Preznit poopypants does pay. For such a good Christian man, doesn't it bother you to train killers, or make a profit on the death and destruction that is war?

Dickhead.

Bush bypasses Senate to name ambassador

Yup, the slimy, evil little bastard did it again.

Free

Josh Wolf has been freed.
Here is his statement


The British sailors have been freed.


One Iranian diplomat has been freed.

Now let's do what the Defense Secretary wants and close Gitmo.

China to extend Sudan military ties

But China, which buys much of Sudan's oil and wields veto-power over UN resolutions, has rejected UN forces without Khartoum's agreement.

Somehow, I don't think China gives a rat's ass about those people in Sudan

Central Africa: Darfur Crisis Snowballing Across Central Africa
Posted to the web April 3, 2007

And don't bag on me about Iraq, I've taken heat for five frigging years for my dissenting views, which are NOW mainstream, except that the mainstream media (liberal my ass, corporations aren't liberal, & the shareholders and rich CEOs are rarely "mainstream") won't frigging report that. You think I voted for Bush? Bwaaa haaaa haaaa haaha, don't make me laugh.

Dear Thom Hartmann

Since you get "several hundred e-mails a day" and can't respond to any of them I'll respond to what I'm listening to now.

You're talking about the prevalence of SSRI prescriptions in the US, due to the privatization of every government program under the sun, and the loss of education dollars.

Thom, watch The BBC's "The Trap."

I made it easy for you, the first part is good, but I linked you to the second part, which throws in all the important stuff from the first part.


Ooops, forgot the hat tip to neo-resistance

New Book Details Kissinger's Control over Nixon

My first thought was, "Oh, Kissinger was Nixon's Karl Rove." Then I read all of it (it's short), and realized that that nasty old war-monger is influencing Bush too.

Sometimes I just feel overwhelmed by the greed, arrogance and stupidity of those in power. How much power? How much money? How much cruelty towards other human beings?

These turds never get enough. Didn't their mothers hug them?

Stop Blackwater's mercenary camp in San Diego

Update 11:45 AM 12/5/2008
US mulls unusual tactic as Blackwater charges loom
By MATT APUZZO and LARA JAKES JORDAN – 6 hours ago
Charges could be announced as early as Monday in the shooting, which left 17 civilians dead and strained U.S. relations with the fledgling Iraqi government. People familiar with the charges said they may include an aggressive Reagan-era anti-drug law cracking down on assault weapons....
...Though drugs were not involved in the Blackwater shooting, the Justice Department is pondering the use of a law, passed at the height of the nation's crack epidemic, to prosecute the guards. The Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1988 law calls for 30-year prison terms for using machine guns to commit violent crimes of any kind, whether drug-related or not.

More of my posts on Blackwater.

Since this post pops up frequently in Google searches, I'm linking newer informational posts to it in the form of Updates: This post has links to articles that highlight Blackwater's shenanigans in San Diego thru OCT 31 '07

Update 9:33 AM 10/5/2007

Stop Blackwater West Encampment and Demonstration
STOP BLACKWATER WEST CAMP, RALLY AND WALK!--- October 6 and 7, 2007 Two day Educational Encampment and Walk to Stop Blackwater in Potrero, California Join us

5 minute video on why Blackwater should be stopped from GoLeftTV

Remember this?
Mercenary camp coming right up!




Well well well, a little birdie sent me this:

Stop Blackwater Demonstration and Public Hearing Thurs.,April 5
SAY NO TO TO BLACKWATER USA'S PLAN TO BUILD A MERCENARY TRAINING FACILITY --"BLACKWATER WEST"-- IN POTRERO!!

Blackwater USA, the private military contractor that trains mercenaries and is under investigation by Representative Henry Waxman's Committee on Oversight and Government Reform plans to build an 824-acre training facility in Potrero, a small town in southeast San Diego County.

We need your help to stop this project!

1. Attend the Scoping Meeting: The County Department of Planning and Land Use will hold a Public Scoping Meeting on Thursday, April 5, 5:30 p.m., at the Planning Commission Hearing Room, Department of Planning and Land Use, 5201 Ruffin Road, Suite B, San Diego, CA 92123. The Scoping Meeting is an opportunity for the public to comment on the project and provide input into what should be covered in the environmental impact statement.
(note: written comments can also be submitted by April 27)

2. Attend the demonstration: THERE WILL BE A PUBLIC PROTEST "NO BLACKWATER! STOP BLACKWATER!" FROM 4:30 P.M. TO 5:30 P.M. , THURSDAY, APRIL 5, ON THE SIDEWALK ON RUFFIN ROAD IN FRONT OF THE COUNTY FACILITY JUST PRIOR TO THE SCOPING MEETING! Please bring signs with this theme. Join with citizens from Potrero who are fighting this project that affects all of us!

WE NEED EVERYONE THERE!!! For more information, please contact The Peace Resource Center of San Diego, 619-263-9301 or info@prcsd.org

Some resources about Blackwater USA:
Documents regarding the :Blackwater West" project and the scoping meeting can be found at: http://www.sdcounty.ca.gov/dplu/docs/PR/4-27-07/0620001.html

Jeremy Scahill's Nation Magazine article about Blackwater, "Bush's Shadow Army" and view short video at http://www.thenation.com/doc/20070402/scahill
Jeremy Scahill audio interview on Truthdig (mp3)

San Diego Reader article, Feb. 22, 2007, on "Blackwater West" http://www.sdreader.com/php/cityshow.php?id=1566
(Bauder notes: "The company's owner, Erik Prince, has given lavishly to politicians, including former representative Tom DeLay, who left Congress in a lobbying scandal, and Duncan Hunter ($1000 in 2004).")


Read Jeremy Scahill's book: "Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercentary Army"; Jeremy Scahill will speak in San Diego on May 1 and 2. Details of both events will be posted at prcsd.org/webcalendar

Hey, it's springtime, San Diego is lovely. Come on down!!!!

And Terry mentions the Golden Eagles that are nesting in the area, which I didn't know about: Blackwater Training Camp Planned in San Diego County

GAO: Looming Threat to US Oil Supply

By Matt Renner
t r u t h o u t Report
Friday 30 March 2007
A report released Thursday by the non-partisan Government Accountability Office concludes that worldwide oil production will eventually grind to a halt and the United States has no strategy in place to deal with the possible catastrophic results.

No shit Sherlock.

Those SUV's are gonna make really nifty planters, huh?

Former DoJ Official: Department Used to "Skew" Elections

By Paul Kiel - March 30, 2007, 12:40 PM

Straight from the horse's mouth.

Joseph D. Rich was chief of the voting section in the Justice Department's civil right division from 1999 to 2005. Today he penned an Op-Ed in The Los Angeles Times, and he didnt' mince words:

Over the last six years, this Justice Department has ignored the advice of its staff and skewed aspects of law enforcement in ways that clearly were intended to influence the outcome of elections.

( read the whole thing)

And you'll understand why I loved it when I overheard this statement:

"This democracy is so fucked."

China calls new U.S. tariffs 'unacceptable'

And Americans call the loss of our entire fucking manufacturing base to China.....?

Ding! Ding! Ding!

Survey says?

UNACCEPTABLE.

Democracy is for the rich

By Kevin Barr 03/30/07 "Fiji Times" -- -- Democracy is a system of government where the political power rests with the nation's population either directly or through elected representatives. It is government of the people, for the people, by the people.


Good read, somewhat depressing from ICH

Crap, something's wrong with Haloscan. Hacked? The site's down right now.

Oh Look, it's Khamenei finger puppets

Detained Marine apologizes on Iranian TV for trespassing
By Borzou Daragahi and Ramin Mostaghim, Special to the Times
9:11 AM PDT, March 30, 2007
TEHRAN -- A British marine captured by Iranians a week ago was shown on state television today apologizing for trespassing on Iranian territorial waters.


.... It was in this setting that Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei recently made a significant statement.

The UN Security Council has voted against Iran on the nuclear issueHe said that so far Iran had acted legally to defend what it saw as its right to pursue a nuclear programme....

Josh Marshall informs.... I wonder about connecting the anthrax dots

Just. Go. Read it.


Local FBI head to become top security for Sempra Energy

Ha ha ha, welcome to my town.

I wouldn't be surprised at all if they find out eventually that the idea to send anthrax to the Democratic senators who were questioning the Patriot Act, and the rush to war was hatched right here in San Diego. Grover Norquist loves the place.

This town is full of brainwashed right-wing fucktards.

Yeah, I said fucktards.

Greedy fucktards with a sense of entitlement like you ain't never seen before.

Whiny punk-assed sniveling puerile bitches with porcine faces.

That's the husbands.

Don't even get me started on the airhead trophy wives.

I call them RepugnantThuglicans.

I'm sure they are buying the republican talking point that Lam needed to go because she couldn't keep up with the demands on her immigration cases. Senator Feinstein's questioning should put that to rest. These people will cover their ears with their hands and go "la la la la, I can't hear you."

They're also the type that grunt "Ugh, Mike Aguierre bad" because Mike won't let the real estate developers do whatever the fuck they want to do, unlike Downsize Jerry and Chief Landsdowne.

God I hate the fishwrap. They hate him. I love him.

Retailer TJX says computer breach involved 45.7 million

AP) - BOSTON-At least 45.7 million credit and debit card numbers of TJX Cos. customers were stolen from the discount retailer's computer system over several years, according to a regulatory filing by the company, which has stores in North America and Europe.


Crap.

Fabuous Fruit Loops

Bitchin'.

We got a couple of Fruit Loops (Ahmadinejad and Bush) who keep yapping about the end of times butting heads.

Frankly, I don't think these two cynical bastards are all that focused on the end of times. I think that's just a ploy to get the sheeple lined up to fight for their respective causes.

Oil .

Selling it .

And maintaining access to it.

America's Hidden War Dead

America's Hidden War Dead
By Howard Witt
The Chicago Tribune

Monday 26 March 2007

More than 770 civilians working for US firms have lost their lives supporting the military in Iraq, and some families are now speaking out.

...If those deaths-of truck drivers and cooks, laundry workers and security guards-are added to the military toll, the human cost of the U.S. war effort in Iraq is nearly 25 percent higher...

...The most common estimate of the number of contractors currently working for U.S. firms in Iraq is 100,000, according to military analysts, but that figure includes unknown proportions of Americans, Iraqis and citizens of other countries...

Katie Couric bugs the living sh*t out of me

Click on title link to watch Katie Couric "interview" John and Elizabeth Edwards from 60 minutes last night .

Here's a couple of responses to it from the truly liberal media:

This is for you, Katie Couric TPM cafe


Open Letter To Katie Couric: You Were Unfair To The Edwards OpEdNews.com
March 26, 2007 at 05:06:43

My response to it:

Big Business is terrified of John Edwards. He's spanked a few negligent companies and he was not born a prince. Heaven forbid that the public might want to elect someone who actually embodies the "American Dream" and might have their best interest at heart because he's actually been there, he actually understands them.

The Newz Bizness is a cynical business also Katie.

Katie, it's so obvious that you are a shill for Big Business, that's your job.

Update. David Sirota has something to say also: Et Tu, Katie Couric?

Hey Katie, you think you might take those hard edged interrogation skills and find out how Dennis Kucinich plans to deal with the health care crisis?

No?

I didn't think so.

Wayne Madsen has updated the Politics Journalism incest chart


Oh. My. God.

I just can't seem to stop adding stuff to this post

I want to read this book.

The cover art alone spells out exactly how I feel about the MSM and the excerpts are wonderful.

I loved David Brock's Blinded by the Right, so this book looks like it's right up my alley.

Is the American Empire on the Brink of Collapse?

By Mark Karlin, BuzzFlash. Posted March 24, 2007. Alternet

U.S. military expert Chalmers Johnson argues the catastrophe in Iraq and the staggering cost of running a military that stretches across 130 countries on 737 bases may finally cost America its empire.



(click on pic for info on Nemesis, the goddess of retribution, vengeance, and hubris)

Bill Maher new rules

"CA50: Appellate Court Dismisses Busby/Bilbray Election Contest as Now 'Moot'"

moot

(snort!) Oh Nooooooooww it's moot?



Republicans Rush to Swear-in Bilbray Before Results are Counted or Winner is Certified!

BLOGGED BY Brad Friedman ON 6/13/2006 4:59PM
Officials Confirm: Tainted Election Results Still Features Thousands of Uncounted Ballots, Unofficial Numbers, No Winner has Been Certified!
Now Why Would The Republicans Do That?

These aren't Republicans, Brad, they're Repugnant Thuglicans.

U.S. Senate subpoena for Rove approved in prosecutors' uproar; Republican brokers deal

Thursday, March 22, 2007
LAURIE KELLMAN Associated Press Writer

and

New Developments in the U.S. Attorney Controversy:Why Bush Refuses to Allow Karl Rove and Harriet Miers to Testify Before Congress, and What Role New White House Counsel Fred Fielding May Play

By JOHN W. DEAN ----
Friday, Mar. 23, 2007


Wow. Just wow. No go laugh "The White House Is Adamant That Their Advisors...Retain The Right To Lie"