Behind the Black Robes: Failed Justice

The Supreme Court ruling allowing unlimited political contributions by corporations on today, Thursday January 21, 2010 didn't surprise me. 5 to 4, just like I expected, the Robert's court is conservative. The conservatives have been chomping at the bit since Roberts took control. Well, maybe even before that, since Sandra D though it might be horrible if Gore won in 2000 and picked her replacement. Hmm, let's go even further back than that, lets go to the conflict of interest involved in the roots of the corporate personhood stuff. Woo hoo, the corporate media whores love it!
'Shadow Elite': Do You Know Whose Agenda You're Being Sold?


The author of this book goes back even further. She shows examples of how the courts subvert the Constitution going almost all the way back to the publishing of the Constitution. Today and most of the time I see a ruling that blatantly favors big business I wonder "Who are these fuckers playing golf with?" I can wonder that, can't I? Well Johnson wondered also and made a stink about court reform being necessary and paid for it.

I'm still finishing the book and I am fortunate enough to have avoided being in court a lot, so I don't know poo poo about the law, but I'm learning some. I did not know about judicial immunity . Hmmm. Judges are still human beings. Anybody who sniffs and says they are incapable of using their job to favor friends or acquaintances is oblivious to how human nature works.

Maybe I will just go back to bed

It's raining really hard at times. Landscaping like this is only possible with sprinkler systems and really good drainage systems.

San Diego is is scrub desert. Before development most of it looks like this.

This property probably won't flood, but flooding is happening in San Diego.

Update 3:09 PM 1/21/2010: Bwaahahahaha, I just found this little gem, 2 news crews had to have people rescued from the floods. Yeah, we don't know how to deal with water here in San Diego because the typically dry weather, droughts, fires and development make it a real mess when it does rain.

Lovely historical photos and postcards of the valley below the mission.



And the Mission Valley Shopping Center finished and opened in 1961. Gee, I wonder why Mission Valley floods? Could it be that it was built in a floodplain?





So now onto why I just want to go back to bed :

The Supreme Court changed the rules so that companies can give unlimited amounts of money to our CongressWhores.

Greg Palast documented his fears here.

Never mind all the compound fractures in Haiti that are causing untold amounts of misery due to infection now, the Doctors Without Borders group was stuck flying around instead of being able to land and set up another field hospital. If you watched the national mainstream news that I was watching for the first few days you might think the only field hospital available was run by the Israelis.

Great PR for Israel though, good on them, they could use some good PR.

Barf.

Perhaps they are just better at dealing with security threats to aid groups?

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The the mercenary companies are . banging on the door to get into Haiti

Jeremy Scahill on Rachel Maddow today.

Tomgram: William Astore, Going Rogue in Combat Boots

Posted by William Astore at 4:00pm, January 19, 2010.

Prop. 8 trial Day 6: Live coverage from the courtroom

9:34 a.m. San Diego mayor chokes up describing daughter's quest to marry partner

By Howard Mintz
hmintz@mercurynews.com
Posted: 01/19/2010 09:00:17 AM PST
Updated: 01/19/2010 09:38:13 AM PST

Sanders publicly came out in favor of the position, deciding against a mayoral veto that may have played better politically in conservative San Diego. "If government tolerates discrimination against anyone for any reason, it becomes an excuse for the public to do the same thing," he testified.

(please click on the title link ... sniffle)

Live courtroom coverage

• Day 1
• Day 2
• Day 3
• Day 4
• Day 5

Inside Story - Has the world failed Haiti?

IMF to Haiti: Freeze Public Wages
posted by Richard Kim on 01/15/2010 @ 5:47pm

e-mail problems

I've had the same e-mail account for 6 or 7 years and never had a problem signing in. Wonder what the problems is?

Aristide and the Endless Revolution (2005)

Only an hour south of Miami, the elected president of the Western Hemisphere's poorest nation, Jean Bertrand Aristide, has twice been forced from office with the complicity of the international community. An intelligent and engrossing examination of the oft-suppressed story of the 2004 coup d'etat in Haiti, Rossier's film investigates the events that led to the second violent expulsion of Aristide from Haiti, and reveals the tangled web of hope, deceit, and political violence that has brought the world's first black republic to its knees. Written by Anonymous

I watched this documentary last night. It's no wonder that the Clintons and Baby Bush are front and center are right there in Haiti . The whole reparations from France is a pipe dream as long as the sorry ass US mainstream media spoon feeds us pablum like this. So is the hope that Haiti will "pull itself up by it's bootstraps" with vested business interests dominating the country. I can see how these interests would need to shut him up and depose him.

There were approximately 40,000 to 45,000 Americans in the country during the quake, but only 16 dead? Ah, sounds like they don't exactly live like most Hatians, or they just haven't been accounted for.


“Bush Was Responsible for Destroying Haitian Democracy”–Randall Robinson on Obama Tapping Bush to Co-Chair US Relief Efforts

Aristide and the Endless Revolution (2005)

Mon Jan 18th 2010
US "Security" Companies Offer "Services" in Haiti
By Jeremy Scahill

Martin Luther King "I have a dream"

(I can't watch it without bawling like a baby)

JP Morgan

J. P. Morgan
"A man generally has two reasons for doing a thing. One that sounds good, and a real one."

January 17, 2010
The Secret Bailout of J. P. Morgan: How Insider Trading Looted Bear Stearns and the American Taxpayer
by Ellen Brown
...The mother of all insider trades was pulled off in 1815, when London financier Nathan Rothschild led British investors to believe that the...
...In the United States a century later, John Pierpont Morgan again used rumor and innuendo to create a panic that would change the course of history. The panic of 1907 was triggered by rumors that two major banks were about to become insolvent. Later evidence pointed to the House of Morgan as the source of the rumors...

Lehman's Bankruptcy and the Hidden $138 Billion Bailout of JP Morgan
Companies / Derivatives Sep 21, 2008 - 06:38 PM
By: Rob_Kirby

Will JPMorgan Lend Its Bailout Cash? Perhaps Not
By Luke Mullins
Posted: October 27, 2008

JP Morgan Chase, 25 Billion Bailout Recipient, to Spend 400 Million to Outsource Thousands of Jobs to India
Posted by LBG1 on March 18th, 2009

March 23, 2009 01:04 PM
JP Morgan Spending Millions On Jets: Keep Blowing The Whistle On Bailout Waste
JPMorgan Chase, beneficiary of $25 billion in taxpayer bailout dollars, plans to spend $138 million for swank corporate jets and a new hangar

1/13/2010-In reaction to President Obama's consideration of charging financials up to $120 billion in fees to recoup costs from bank bailouts,
JP Morgan Chase (NYSE:JPM) Chief Executive Officer Jamie Dimon said, "using tax policy to punish people is a bad idea. All businesses tend to pass their costs onto customers."

JP Morgan Chase reports $3.3bn profits
Page last updated at 19:11 GMT, Friday, 15 January 2010

January 14, 2010, 1:45PM ET text size: TT
JPMorgan commits $1M to Haiti relief effort

Saudi Arabia and the oil bank

Middle East
Jan 16, 2010
By Chris Cook


...I believe that it is macro manipulation by oil producers, funded by cheap money from investors, which has been the principal reason for recent movements in the oil price. The advantage producers have over oil traders is that producers are able to store their oil in the ground for free....



"...The outcome - which has the effect of monetizing oil in the ground - is very similar to the way in which some governments maintain their currency more or less pegged to the US dollar and illustrates the reality that oil is not priced in dollars: dollars are priced in oil.

Whether or not it is in fact, as I suspect, macro manipulation by producers that accounts for movements in the prices of crude oil and oil products, and the flows and storage of crude oil and oil products, is a judgement I must leave to expert traders. But I am absolutely certain that the "speculator" investors blamed by US politicians and public for the movements in oil prices are not in fact responsible..."

Disappointed in this Rachel Maddow segment

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You would think from watching this segment that the only people who are helping Haitians are US military personnel. And what is all this crap about how fucking wonderful USAID is? Is this an opportunity to clean up the name of that particular entity in this part of the global south?

WTF?
You would think we don't know anything about USAID in Latin America.

Nothing at all

What an absolute crock of bullshit. Heaven forbid any reporting regarding any commie help be reported. A quick Google search should bring up that there are (or were) search and rescue teams from all over the planet working in Haiti.

And really, never mind that Haiti is a basket case and the Dominican Republic is not. And never mind that Haitians are not welcome in the Dominican Republic. No prejudice in Latin America? Nonsense. It may have more to do with poverty and lack of education than actual skin color, but how did that evolve?

Anyway, we did cancel Haiti's debt in the last year. Not that they ever had a chance to get out of debt. It's how the IMF and the World Bank do loans. It's what they do.

IMF to increase Haiti loan by $100 million
14 Jan 2010 18:26:39 GMT
Source: Reuters
(Adds details on IMF loan)

The Truth about Haiti’s Suffering

Haiti and American Colonialism : The Story Behind the Story

NOW and Bill Moyers Journal are great tonight

Week of 1.15.10
Saving American Journalism
A radical plan to save journalism in America.

I have a huge amount of respect for McChesney. I didn't think the idea was so radical. I thought it was sensible if we are to have an informed democracy.


Thomas Frank
(author of the author of three books having to do with the cultural inversions of our times: THE CONQUEST OF COOL (1997), about the advertising industry; ONE MARKET UNDER GOD (2000) about the myths of the new economy; AND WHAT'S THE MATTER WITH KANSAS? (2004) about the red-state mindset. His book about conservative governance, THE WRECKING CREW, was published in 2008.

January 15, 2010
Author and humanitarian Greg Mortenson, whose best-selling books THREE CUPS OF TEA and STONES INTO SCHOOLS argue that education is the best way to peace in Afghanistan and across the Islamic world.

January 15, 2010
A Bill Moyers Essay.

National Priorities Project

Americans Pledge Millions, but Cash Flow Takes Weeks

* JANUARY 16, 2010

...Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, CNN, and users of Twitter Inc. have urged people to punch 90999 and then type in the word "HAITI" on their phones to send $10 to the American Red Cross. But the money won't be routed from most U.S. wireless carriers to relief efforts until cellphone users pay their phone bills.

That could take 30 to 90 days, telecommunications officials estimate, well after the critical initial days in which humanitarian aid organizations are trying to deliver medical supplies, food and water to save injured earthquake victims and help others with their most immediate needs. The needs for money and supplies are staggering, disaster relief experts say, following Tuesday's earthquake that struck close to the capital city of the Western Hemisphere's poorest country.

Brian Williams In Haiti: 'This Is Just A Colossal Calamity'

I'll bet that 'ol Brian knows that this disaster didn't start with the earthquake. Ya think he'll report that?



Somehow I doubt it.



Published on Thursday, January 14, 2010 by CommonDreams.org

What You're Not Hearing about Haiti (But Should Be)

by Carl Lindskoog

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2010/01/14-2
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

What You're Not Hearing about Haiti (But Should Be)

Published on Thursday, January 14, 2010 by CommonDreams.org
by Carl Lindskoog

For more wreckage of the past created by large American corporations in cahoots with the IMF and World Bank , read:


Confessions of an Economic Hit Man by John Perkins



The Shock Doctrine by Naomi Klein

Any more books? Suggestions in comments are welcome. I didn't sleep worth a crap last night, so I'm tired.

Californians really shouldn't miss this:

By Brad Friedman on 1/13/2010 4:45PM
New Study Suggests CA's 2008 Prop 8 Election Results Could be Fraudulent or In Error

'Election Verification Exit Poll' analysis show tallies of 'Marriage Equality Ban' off by 7.5%, as high as 17.7% in some L.A. precincts...

Miscellaneous articles that caught my eye this morning

Don’t Blame China
Posted on Jan 12, 2010
U.S.-China trade toast
By Robert Scheer

Google threatens to leave China after attacks on activists' e-mail
By Ellen Nakashima, Steven Mufson and John Pomfret
Wednesday, January 13, 2010; 10:15 AM

(Pfffft, I'll believe it when I see it)

Sarah Palin Makes Her Debut As Fox News Analyst On 'O'Reilly' (VIDEO)
First Posted: 01-12-10 01:58 PM | Updated: 01-13-10 11:30 AM
By Frazier Moore, Associated Press


(any opportunity to share Annie's photoshopping masterpiece of Molly McMooseturd works for me, but please go watch the flaming mooseturd if you can stomach it)

History of discrimination against gays cited in Prop 8 trial
By Susan Ferriss | The Sacramento Bee
Posted on Wednesday, January 13, 2010


Marijuana legalization gets OK from California legislative committee * Posted on Wednesday, January 13, 2010
By Peter Hecht | The Sacramento Bee


And finally on today's reading list, Chris Hedges' knife edge of cynical truthiness cuts all the way to the bone before you even know what hit you.

Wall Street Will Be Back for More
Posted on Jan 10, 2010
By Chris Hedges

Only a New Global System Can Handle a World of Explosive Risk

"One lesson in particular is inescapable -- that the world's governing bodies, from the UN to the World Bank, from the G20 to the IMF, can no longer cope with systemic risks of these kinds."



Ohhhhh really? And they could at one time? For the benefit of whom, might I ask?



No sh*t. Their antics can now be twittered from anywhere in the world.



HA.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

10 Questions The Financial Crisis Commission MUST Ask

How many of you banksters donate to food banks or homeless shelters?
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Senators. Rich old white guys. *sigh*

Republicans cite Lott in calling for Reid to quit
By DOUGLASS K. DANIEL
Associated Press Writer


Republicans - "I know you are but what am ?!?"

No wonder I keep avoiding the newZ.

What Do You Mean My Doctor Is Dead?

And we wonder why there is fraud in the current system?

"Some experts say health care fraud hovers around three percent of all health care expenditures.

Three percent of $2 trillion: $60 billion.

But Malcolm Sparrow says the number is probably much higher.

Sparrow is a professor of public management at Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School...."

http://www.corporatecrimereporter.com/lewismorris010710.htm
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

The war on terror

Dumb. Dumb as the war on drugs. Doesn't work.

France deports radical Imams. Makes sense to me that they should get rid of an Egyptian who preaches hatred of "The West" in France.

We go broke chasing our tails.

Doing exactly what Osama bin Laden wants us to.

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How to get fat without really trying

Peter Jennings Reporting: How to Get Fat Without Really Trying

Unh huh, this is what I've been reading about for years and frankly I'm sick of assholes who tell me that everyone in America is fat because they are lazy and won't get off of their ass. To their ignorance I invite them to watch this film. As a mother who read labels and fought the food industry constantly for the tastebuds of my child I can say to those of you who insist on blaming the victims -- fuck you. To those of you who never had to budget and try to feed a child healthy food on very little money I can say -- you don't know.

The kid moved out and doesn't listen to me and has gained weight.

Judge: Gay marriage trial can be shown on YouTube

Thursday, Jan. 7, 2010
By LISA LEFF Associated Press Writer

"SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - The federal trial on the constitutionality of California's same-sex marriage ban beginning next week will be videotaped and uploaded to a video-sharing Web site, the presiding judge ruled Wednesday.

Chief U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker, who first floated the idea of broadcasting the highly anticipated proceedings live several months ago, said he decided instead to have court employees record the trial for delayed broadcast on Google's YouTube Web site.

Walker did not explicitly say why he favored a system that could keep the proceedings from being aired for hours instead of one that allowed for simultaneous broadcast. But he said he felt strongly that "it's important for the transmission to be absolutely within the court's control...." (title link)

The world, my country and my state

Tomgram: Michael Klare, The Blowback Effect, 2020
Posted by Michael Klare at 4:10pm, January 5, 2010.



McCain Gets It, Obama Doesn’t
Posted on Jan 6, 2010
Obama and McCain
AP / Haraz N. Ghanbari

Facing off: Sen. John McCain looks on as President Barack Obama meets with members of Congress to discuss immigration last June 25 at the White House.
By Robert Scheer


KPBS discusses the State of the State

update: speech transcript

Privatizing prisons, getting more than 78 cents back for every dollar we send to Washington DC (NM gets back twice what they send to DC) spending more on Universities than we do on prisons and dealing with the 20 billion dollar budget shortfall. I could be wrong, but it sounded like the pensions for State workers will be changed. Hmm, what State pensions? Wall street already got their greedy fucking paws on the State pensions.

American on Purpose

by Craig Ferguson


I am a big fan of Craig Ferguson, I think he's hilarious on The Late Late Show , so I knew it was only a matter of time before I bought and read his autobiography American on Purpose.

It was going to be a gift for my neighbor who recently got her citizenship, but that's not going to work. She's such a foofy girl I think she would act shocked. It's hard to say if she really would be shocked, but I think for her kid's sake I'll get her something pretty and feminine. I don't mean foofy in a negative way, she's really nice, it's just going to be a baffling and miserable shopping trip for me. She's from a country that alcohol is illegal in, and she's still learning English, so the book would probably be a bit baffling to her.



I love the book, Craig Ferguson is really funny, and unlike me, a good writer.

I will probably read "Between the Bridge and the River," by Ferguson also.

Surprise! The Fed says don't blame the Fed

Paul R. La Monica, editor at large
January 4, 2010: 1:15 PM ET


Bwaaaah ha ha ha ha ha hahahahahaha


The Structure of the Federal Reserve System
Responsibilities

Religion sucks #21

UPDATED ON:
Sunday, January 03, 2010
20:57 Mecca time, 17:57 GMT
Egypt court upholds exam veil ban

"The government said it banned the niqab in part because students, male and female, were attending exams disguised as other candidates by wearing a face veil."

Why don't religious zealots have any common sense?

Starz Inside: Unforgettably Evil

Someone asked Javier Bardem who he thought of while trying to find inspiration for the character of Anton in No Country for Old Men ? George Bush. I would love to find the film clip, if there is one.

I liked watching this series of interviews. I never wanted to see the Kill Bill movies and I still don't, but watching this made me decide to stop questioning why Joel and Ethan Cohen and Quentin Tarantino are so popular. They're brilliant. I find most of their work revolting, and somewhat patronizing of their audiences, but they are good at displaying over-the-top characters who can be riveting and horrifying.

Suicide Attack in Pakistan Kills 75

* JANUARY 2, 2010
By ZAHID HUSSAIN

"A suicide bomber drove an explosive-laden truck into a crowd of people gathered to watch a volleyball game in a village in northwest Pakistan, killing at least 75 in an attack seen as a retaliation against locals who had formed a progovernment militia.

The attack -- in an area near South Waziristan, a center of Taliban and al Qaeda activities..."

Wow. The local people are already working with the government, do these turds think that killing 75 people is going to endear them to the locals?

AlQaeda and Taliban ain't the sharpest tools in the shed are they?


Pakistan suicide bombing toll nears 100
By Mark Magnier and Zulfiqar Ali
January 2, 2010 | 7:13 a.m.

Fed Judge Gives Blackwater Huge New Year's Gift, Dismisses All Charges In Iraq Massacre

By Jeremy Scahill

"...In a memo defending his opinion, Urbina cited a similar rationale used in the dismissal of charges against Iran-Contra figure Oliver North—namely that the government violated the rights of the Blackwater men..."



I'm sure that Jeremy Scahill's mouth is not hanging open in stunned silence. Mine is. The 14 innocent Iraqis the Blackwater assholes slaughtered in this particular incident right's weren't violated, right?

*sigh*

This decade sucked. Big-time. I'm really glad it's almost over. You'd think that after a year of Fucktard (43) being gone I'd hate him a little less, right? Nope, we ain't never getting out from under the mess that retard made.

Happy Fucking New Year.

Water is important and investors know it

Cookie Jill brought my attention to this
State bond lets firms profit from water
Wyatt Buchanan, Chronicle Sacramento Bureau
Sunday, December 27, 2009


Flow

"From both local an global perspectives, this documentary examines the harsh realities behind the mounting water crisis Learn how politics, pollution and human rights are intertwined in this important issue that affects every being on Earth. With water drying up around he world and the future of human lives at stake, the film urges a call to arms before more of our precious natural resource evaporates."



Blue Gold: World Water Wars.

The narration in Blue Gold is done by Malcolm McDowell who is extremely good in Tank Girl.

One of my favorite films. I'll bet the French hate Blue Gold.