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Saturday, March 13, 2010

Think the US govt works for you?

defunding ACORN


Healthcare vs Pork
hat tips to
Danny


Do you really think congress cares more about your health than they do the campaign contributions they get from Big Ag? Allooooo? Watch King Corn on Netflix. You really think health insurance companies and Big Ag want to fight over subsidies? Fuck no they don't. They're gonna take your money to make you sick and they're gonna take your money to send your ass to the hospital and they're gonna be subsidized by your taxes for the whole sick cycle. The whole fucking time. My suspicion is that that is why we ain't getting a public option if THEIR congresswhores have anything to say about it. There. I said it.

Oversight in who's pocket this time?

Raymond J. Learsy
Scholar and author, "Over a Barrel: Breaking Oil's Grip on Our Future"
Posted: March 13, 2010 12:14 PM

Gary Gensler of the CFTC: Reformer or Wolf in Moth Eaten Sheep's Clothing?

CFTC has been defanged before:
Interview: Brooksley Born

Think again.

Friday, March 12, 2010

Be a big, white collar criminal

Bill Black’s Top Ten Ways to Crack Down on Corporate Financial Crime
24 Corporate Crime Reporter 10, March 5, 2010
Ninety-five percent of criminologists study blue collar crime. Five percent study white collar crime.

Friday, March 12, 2010
UBS says IRS has 20 Swiss banks in its sights Copyright 2010. The Associated Press

Dirt Diggers Digest
chronicling corporate misbehavior (and how to research it)
Attacking the Wrong Earmarks
March 11th, 2010 by Phil Mattera

"...It’s amusing to watch the posturing about these small amounts at a time when Congress may be about to endorse what can be seen as perhaps the largest earmark ever: the healthcare subsidies that will pass from lower-income Americans to private insurers in a public-option-less system..."

Tomgram: Andy Kroll, Welcome to America, Sucker
Posted by Andy Kroll at 8:30am, March 12, 2010.

Expert Names Top Five Prisons for White-Collar Criminals

Hand caught in the corporate cookie jar?

Guilty on all counts?

Judge sentences you to the slammer?

Fear not, dear corporate CEO.

There is a guide for your post-conviction life.

It’s called the Federal Prison Handbook 2005.

And it’s co-author – Alan Ellis – wants you know – there is prison, and there is prison.

While the guidebook profiles each of the nation’s 178 federal prisons, only about a third of them are minimum security prisons – or federal prison camps – suitable for your average CEO.

And Ellis says – this is what you want – a federal prison camp.

Choose Your White-Collar Criminal Pen Pal HERE >

(I wouldn't recommend Dookie Cunningham, my ex-congressman, he's not the sharpest tool in the shed)

Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Harry Reid Slams Supreme Court Justices John Roberts, Anthony Kennedy For Campaign Finance Decision


Good for Reid, glad he grew a pair. I can't even describe the loathing I have for the Roberts Court.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Tuesday, March 09, 2010

Such a pretty song


by Leonel Garcia (Léon Polar)

Yo luche por tu amor por la buena y por la mala
Yo renuncie a volar cuando cortaste tus alas
Si se que hay cosas que nunca se deben perder
Pero entiende que yo te amaba

Si yo luche la guerra a veces hasta por los dos
Y como perdí y como sangre las batallas
Y hoy te puedo ver partir con mucho dolor
Pero sin cargo de conciencia
Sin cargo de conciencia no,

No lo puedo fingir siento mucho temor
Pero sin cargos de conciencia
Sin cargos de conciencia no

Di lo mejor de mi nunca me he guardado nada
Di todo lo que soy creo que a ti no te gustaba
Si se que hay veces que ya nada se puede hacer
Pero hasta hoy murió la esperanza

Si se que todo el equilibrio siempre lo mantuve yo
El que se mato por equilibrar la balanza
Y hoy te puedo ver partir con mucho dolor
Pero sin cargo de conciencia
Sin cargo de conciencia no

No lo puedo fingir siento mucho temor
Pero sin cargos de conciencia
Sin cargos de conciencia no

Hoy te puedo ver partir con mucho dolor
Pero sin cargo de conciencia
Sin cargo de conciencia no,

No lo puedo fingir siento mucho temor
Pero sin cargos de conciencia
Sin cargos de conciencia no

(Google translation)

This made me think



I have been critical of some of our military personnel here. Some of that was personal, you guys know you're hard on the local girls, especially when your girl back home dumped you. "Young and dumb and full of cum" ring a bell?

However, those of us who have waited for a phone call or a letter knowing that our loved ones might have had to make this leg of the trip know. We know the world is ungrateful for what our guys do. Of course, not all of the world is disinterested in what happens there, so our guys don't do it all alone.

It's the corruption, greed, waste and mismanagement of the big shots who tell our guys what to do that pisses me off to no end.

I was listening to this report on KPBS this morning on the power of surfing to heal ex-service members with serious injuries and I wondered if they have any problems with surfer turf. They didn't mention specific beaches, so I'm thinking the recovering service members are not using the same beaches. The surf's probably too rough and the competition gets ugly.


5:14 PM 3/9/2010
See if you can watch Body of War without tearing up. I couldn't, I cried. I got mad and wanted to pound W's face. I don't even want to know how many times Nathan has been deployed or what happened to him.

Monday, March 08, 2010

Reading now -- The Devil We Know by Robert Baer



I know Baer had something to do with Syriana and I love that movie, I threw a fit till my husband bought me a copy and I only own about a dozen movies. I don't beg my husband any more, I buy what I want. Between Neflix and the public library systems in this county, I don't need much.

Review: 'The Devil We Know'
Reviewed by Elaine Sciolino (NYT)
Published: Tuesday, October 28, 2008

I haven't read the book yet, so I don't know if I agree with the review, but I do know that we don't know shit about Iranian culture, my neighbor has been there for years and I'm still baffled, even after reading . this book , but reading it helped. The Ayatollah Begs to Differ by Hooman Majd is definitely worth reading if you are curious about Iranians, and easier to read than some Iranian authors because dude is Iranian-American who has lived here most of his life.

I came across this this morning while I was trying to remember the name of the book and author who helped me understand Iranians.

Sunday, March 07, 2010

2 Missing Teen Cases, 2 Different Police Responses


re: Amber "The news media showed little interest."

Not true. Escondido PD is busier than the Poway sheriff's dept, though, the population is larger and there are more lower income people in Escondido.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Saturday, March 06, 2010

Wendell Potter is great!

He was a health care CEO, now he's helping us understand the politics of health care. C'mon, you got 20 minutes, right?

Friday, March 05, 2010

Who says those wars haven't been successful?



NY Times: Afghan Opium Kingpin On CIA Payroll

Brother of Afghan Leader Said to Be Paid by C.I.A.
By DEXTER FILKINS, MARK MAZZETTI and JAMES RISEN
Published: October 27, 2009 NYT

Marine reportedly killed by opium-fueled private contractors
By John Byrne
Thursday, March 4th, 2010 -- 9:43 am


Fallujah birth defects blamed on US weapons

By Daniel Tencer
Thursday, March 4th, 2010 -- 1:26 pm
Iraqi doctors reportedly warn women not to have children; Doctors pressured not to 'embarrass the United States': claim

Those previous stories are just "collateral damage" or ... ummm... "tools" or some shit, lets define "success."

Western producers like BP, Exxon Mobil, and Shell are enjoying their best access to Iraq's southern oil fields since 1972... March 4, 2010, 3:50PM EST (Bloomberg)


Yeah, that's the ticket!

*sigh*
Just 1/2 way though Dexter by Design by Jeff Lindsay , and wondering if season 3 of Leverage and season 4 of Dexter(Showtime TV) will ever show up on Netflix. I refuse to pay $60 a month for cable to be barraged with more ads. I'm also wondering if Dexter will ever kill any mass murderers, umm, say this guy?


satire

Thursday, March 04, 2010

Bob Dylan's songwriting

And someone else's voices, please.

Wednesday, March 03, 2010

Why do we allow the dinosaurs to order us to war?

Who Killed the Electric Car?

Who Killed the Electric Car? (Wikipedia page

Who Killed the Electric Car? Week of 6.9.06 PBS NOW

Why do we allow the oil companies and the Saudis and all the others to hamper our use of inventions of innovative men like Stanford R. Ovshinsky ?

Tuesday, March 02, 2010

Chile

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy



Update 12:16 PM 3/3/2010
Published on Wednesday, March 3, 2010 by Published on Wednesday, March 3, 2010 by CommonDreams.org
Chile's Socialist Rebar
by Naomi Klein

Saturday, February 27, 2010

wolves



There might not be any connection here, but I can't help wondering if energy interests who basically controlled the Bush administration are afraid they might not be able to do whatever the fuck they want to do any more. Not that Obama is having much luck re-regulating what the Bunnypants/Cheney administration managed to get deregulated.

8.8 earthquake in Chile causes tsunami watch

Huge Quake Hits Chile; Tsunami Threatens Pacific
February 27, 2010
by The Associated Press
Earthquake Strikes Chile

122 dead so far, but the toll will not be like Haiti because the building codes are followed. They are used to quakes in Chile. I find it amusing that we are under tsunami advisory here in San Diego. The lifeguards here didn't sound that freaked out. It's raining here. The scariest thing about storms here are the idiots on the road.

I do not feel well today. I am going back to bed and watch stuff on Netflix. I've been watching the 1st season of the Brotherhood. I dunno what's easier to hate, the obnoxious accents or the nasty things some of the characters do.

Friday, February 26, 2010

Bush V Gore legal adversaries team up to push back Prop h8

Theodore Olson and David Boies speak with Bill Moyers

February 26, 2010
Once adversaries in 2000's Bush v. Gore Supreme Court case, now two of the nation's premier lawyers – one conservative and one liberal – have teamed up to make the constitutional case for same-sex marriage.

Watch here

I loved watching them. I haven't watched the actors go over the trial, but here it is.

If you want to check out the spoofalicios responses to the h8 ad Moyers shows, they are much funnier.

Thursday, February 25, 2010

Climate change deniers: let's connect the dots, shall we?

The Attack on Climate-Change Science
Why It’s the O.J. Moment of the Twenty-First Century
By Bill McKibben
February 25, 2010

"...Not surprisingly, perhaps, the latest poll on the American public’s attitude toward climate change shows startling drops in the belief in the very existence of climate change, in humanity's role in causing it, and in its import for the planet: a 14-point drop since October 2008 in Americans who believe climate change is happening at all (to 57%), a 10-point drop in those who believe that human activity is at the root of the problem (to 47%), and a 13-point drop in those who claim to be “somewhat” or “very” worried about the problem (to 50%). .."

Americans are affected by spin, because many don't know any better. They don't understand how news delivery gets paid for. The big money runs with any doubt. The same thing helps them win in the court room over and over again. That is my opinion, based on years of looking up how the news is delivered; TV is expensive, somebody sponsors it, finding out who owns what , and using a bit of common sense. And oh yeah, these guys helped...a LOT. So did figuring out that more often than not, the congress is bought and paid for by large corporate interests in the form of campaign contributions.

"...So let’s figure out how to talk about it. Let’s look at Exxon Mobil, which each of the last three years has made more money than any company in the history of money. Its business model involves using the atmosphere as an open sewer for the carbon dioxide that is the inevitable byproduct of the fossil fuel it sells. And yet we let it do this for free. It doesn't pay a red cent for potentially wrecking our world

Right now, there’s a bill in the Congress -- cap-and-dividend, it’s called -- that would charge Exxon for that right, and send a check to everyone in the country every month. Yes, the company would pass on the charge at the pump, but 80% of Americans (all except the top-income energy hogs) would still make money off the deal. That represents good science, because it starts to send a signal that we should park that SUV, but it’s also good politics...."

Read the Economist article, it's the last link in the last copied paragraph of McKibben's article ( ↑ ).

Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Exposing the Great American Bubble Barons: Join Us in the Investigation

Join AlterNet's collective investigative project into the bubble barons who got obscenely rich as they destroyed our economy. Help hold them accountable with Citizen Journalism.

Wow. Sounds an awful lot like what the author of the book I'm still slogging through has been trying to tell us. Unfortunately, this shit is not confined to within the United States borders.

This disgusts me

From Israel, a plan to win friends and influence people by working on its image

The government of Israel is launching a citizens' campaign to change their image, including 70 workshops for Israelis on how to hold a civil discussion when they travel abroad.

What? No, I'm not disgusted that Israel needs some good PR, I know that. I've always known that, we lived in a Jewish neighborhood when I was little. Just read the article and see if you can spot why I'm disgusted.

Tuesday, February 23, 2010

If I were nicer

I might not be hoping that


Darth Cheney would croak this time.


Unfortunately, just today I was reading about a kid who was stationed here locally who died from lung cancer after 4 months at 25 years old. The kid didn't smoke. His parents didn't smoke.



Darth Cheney couldn't wait for KBR to get contracts in Iraq. KBR is being sued by over 300 people who's health has been seriously affected by the burn pits in Iraq and Afghanistan. So I wonder if all the war casualties from both sides of the conflict are worth anything to Darth Cheney other than financial profits that he scooted out of the country?

If there is a hell I hope he burns in it. He sure doesn't care who or what he burns in his quest for financial gain.

Sunday, February 21, 2010

Arianna Debates Partisanship On ABC's 'This Week'


The only bipartisan agreement happening these days is amongst the corporatocracy. The rest is all show, and like your 70% of people wanting a public option, all meaningless.

The banksters, the corporatocracy and the congresshos don't care that 70% of the people want the public option.

They don't have to care.

Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Friday, February 19, 2010

What timing

I just finished watching The Insider again, which made me curious about who Lowell Bergman was so I watched Conversations with History with Lowell Bergman.

Then I decided to watch Susan George Speaking Freely (on neoliberal globalization and inequality) and went to look at the headlines of some of the blogs I have linked and what do I come across?

Richest 400 Taxpayers See Incomes Double, Tax Rates Halved
By Jon Perr Friday Feb 19, 2010 5:30pm

One of the phrases that Susan George used that stuck with me was "The free market works for those that have."

Reminded me of this (very short) clip of W, whose dumb ass will always be taken care of because he took care of these schmucks.

George W. Bush and his base.

11:39 PM 2/19/2010 Whoa boy the hits just keep coming:

Bll Moyers Journal
Justice for Sale

About corporate money and judicial elections.



Frontline PBS The Warning

About the woman who figured out that the derivatives market needed to be regulated in order to protect the American people's money. Boy was Greenspan blind-sided by his own ideology, he was an Ayn Rand fan. He obviously didn't spend any time with kids. That or he just made his money, did his job as a tool for the banksters that are still raping the poor with impunity and got the hell out of the game while those putzes are still safe in their country clubs and 5 star hotels around the world.

Chirping squirrel

This week's annoying rodent.



Close up


Part of the reason for the chirping (saw this cat later with a bird in it's jaws, no mighty squirrel hunter there. Nifty since they are cutting the trees back to naked trunks 12-15 ft high, this complex is going to suck in the summer with no shade and no birds)

Thursday, February 18, 2010

Banksters never change

Did you know that in 1833 President Jackson tried to reign in and destroy the greedy central banksters and their European central bankster buddies and one named Biddle actually boasted that he was going to create a depression and blame it on Jackson.

Jackson proceeded to kick some bankster ass, with much popular support, and the Second Bank of the United States failed. That was not all that long after after the First Bank of the United States failed.


The 19th-Century Bernanke
Tuesday, September 01, 2009 by J. Grayson Lilburne



The only trouble I have with blogging the above information is that some of it is pushed out there for public consumption by (stealing this term from BadTux ) glibertarians and goldbugs. I generally don't agree with glibertarians and goldbugs.



Wall Street's Bailout Hustle
Goldman Sachs and other big banks aren't just pocketing the trillions we gave them to rescue the economy - they're re-creating the conditions for another crash
MATT TAIBBI Rolling Stone
Posted Feb 17, 2010 5:57 AM

Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Dianne Feinstein Signs On To Public Option Push


Good. When the majority of doctors and constituents in the US want the public option the Senate needs to know it and respond to it appropriately.



Dr. Flowers bravery should be rewarded. All she wanted was to do was put the truth of the above statement out there for our "representatives" to see.



http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/02052010/watch3.html
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Tesla Motors Executive Reportedly Killed In Palo Alto Plane Crash


"A Note from Elon Musk



February 17, 2010



"Three Tesla employees were on board a plane that crashed in East Palo Alto early this morning. We are withholding their identities as we work with the relevant authorities to notify the families. Our thoughts and prayers are with them. Tesla is a small, tightly-knit company, and this is a tragic day for us."



- Elon Musk, CEO"

http://www.teslamotors.com/
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Davos Confidential

“it’s like twitter, facebook and michael arrington had a drunken 3-way. twitter gets pregnant. 7 months later there’s a premature delivery and the afterbirth ends up in your gmail inbox.”

(stolen snark left as comment for Google CEO at Huffpo article)

— The best description of Google Buzz I’ve read so far (via) and via


Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Dead dude killed a soldier in 1989?

February 16, 2010
British investigate ID theft by 'Mossad' hit squad in Dubai

British authorities were today investigating whether any its nationals had their identities stolen by the assassination squad who killed a Hamas leader in a Dubai hotel.


Seems like an awful lot of trouble to go to, but hey, Mossad doesn't make a fucking bit of sense to me anyway.

Neither do idiots like this.

Hey, let's rent a billboard like this, but not mean to imply that Obama has done anything impeachable.

Guy's a fucking genius, he thinks that Obama can control the banksters.

Monday, February 15, 2010

stuck in my head this morning



Must be the book I'm reading.

Could be the stuff I watch also. Personally, I don't think US college student should be allowed to graduate unless they have seen this. High school would be better, but it would make military recruitment damn near impossible.

Sunday, February 14, 2010

the MSM sucks donkey dick

Fear Inc.

Posted by Tom Engelhardt at 5:25pm, February 14, 2010.

Hold Onto Your Underwear
This Is
Not a National Emergency
By Tom Engelhardt



Mmm hmmm. And why do they feed us all this garbage about terrorism? Because they make money carrying the water for some rich fucks who make money roping the government into buying very expensive anti-terrorism shit that is protecting us from....

e-coli?

Nope

drunken idiots on the road?

Nope

tobacco use?

Nope.....


an incompetent buffoon underwear bomber.

Update 1:21 PM 2/24/2010
“The Media-Lobbying Complex”: Investigation Exposes Undisclosed Corporate Ties of Network Political Pundits
Media-lobbying-nation

A four-month investigation into the covert corporate influence on cable news found that since 2007 at least seventy-five registered lobbyists, public relations representatives and corporate officials have repeatedly appeared on MSNBC, Fox News, CNN, CNBC and Fox Business Network with no disclosure that they are paid by corporate interests. We speak to journalist Sebastian Jones, who carried out the investigation for The Nation magazine.


yeah, like I said.