Quote of the day

The bankers are playground bullies who are used to getting their way and think that if they’re not getting their way, someone must be cheating them.

Written by James Kwak
May 26, 2010 at 10:15 am

Read the whole article here.

Border Security

President Obama to send more National Guard troops to U.S.-Mexico border
By Michael D. Shear and Spencer S. Hsu
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, May 26, 2010

Well Alrighty then!

That ought to keep out a few hardworking Messicans! It WON'T keep out these deadly, murderous scumbags.

Heh, I'm not the only one thinking that way:

McCain gets political win on border troops

And while Obama is helping get some more Nat'l Guardsman killed, we supply the assault weapons, and the drug market. And then there is NAFTA



Unrelated, but interesting to me:

Witness: BP took 'shortcuts' before well blowout
Wednesday, May 26, 2010
By GREG BLUESTEIN and MIKE BAKER Associated Press Writer

Broke. Damn Broke.

Update may 26, '10 by ,Simon Johnson who I trust after watching him be interviewed by Bill Moyers last year.

EU countries:

The Road To Economic Serfdom

US:

Arizona Graduation Speech Criticizing Immigration Laws Elicits Boos, Jeers

"What's your take? Was Soto's speech inappropriate, or was the audience out of line? Weigh in below. "
This is for Arizona to sort out.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

I can't help but wonder if the recent local case factored in?

The Supreme Court's Decision About Sexually Dangerous Federal Prisoners: Could It Hold the Key to the Constitutionality of the Individual Mandate to Buy Health Insurance?
By MICHAEL C. DORF
Wednesday, May 19, 2010

...Under a program first adopted in the late 1940s and most recently modified by a 2006 federal law , some prisoners who are otherwise eligible to be released because they have served their sentences may be held–potentially indefinitely–as "sexually dangerous" upon two conditions: First, clear and convincing proof must be presented to a court that, by virtue of a mental disease or defect, the prisoner would have serious difficulty refraining from sexually violent conduct or child molestation if released. Second, it must be the case that neither the state in which the prisoner is confined nor the state in which he was tried (if that is a different state) is willing to accept custody over him...."

I can't help but wonder if they thought of the recent case here of John Gardner. The fucker did 5 years for attacking a 13-year old and was released back into an area very close to me and my daughter was 16 at the time. It is still hard for me to look at a picture of Amber Dubois' mother without crying. Amber was on her way to school to buy a lamb for 4-H when Gardner got her.

Fascinating

I've been watching the first three years worth of "The Tudors" and Martin Luther is mentioned in one of the shows. Dudes lived at the same time and did things that changed history. Henry VIII wasn't exactly thrilled with Luther at first.



So naturally I get curious about Luther, so I stream this on Netflix. It's 4 bucks here, or it may be available in your library system. One of the scholars in it says "Martin Luther was probably the first propagandist."

Heh.

I would go so far as to say he changed the history of Western Civilization. Was the man perfect? OH Hell No, but he was a brave man who stirred up the shit when it needed to be stirred up .

Piece it together

I've only been reading non-fiction since September 12, 2001, which is why I get a bit impatient with article titles like Chris Hedges' Why the Enlightened Liberal Class Is Complicit in the Country's Downward Spiral.

I just roll my eyes and think "Duh, no shit, buddy! Who is NOT complicit?"

See, I've been trying to figure out what is behind the news for years now. I take it in now with 4 authors' writings in mind; John Perkins , Naomi Klein , Greg Palast and most importantly, Chalmers Johnson .




Why?

Because these 4 authors not only understand shit that I don't, but they can explain the who, what, where and why it is important for me to understand what they write.

Here is a great new interview with Johnson that I happened to miss while I was attempting to escape into TV series on Netflix.

I spent all day with a friend

We watched ate bad TexMex (is there any other kind?) walked on the beach, then ate bad Chinese and watched Wanda Sykes.

My faith in humans is restored, lol



I don't even want to know what happened today, as Wanda says "I don't give a fuck."

Friday squirrel blogging

Here is a pic from before the idiot with the weed-eater drove me nuts for 3 days straight and made this place look bleak again. There is a new litter of critters, which brings me back to population concerns.
Mojo has a population forum.
Why Is Population Control Such a Radioactive Topic?

I found this 20 minute video fascinating.

PBS Frontline The Carbon Hunters:
On the trail of the climate's hottest commodity
Watch Video & Share Your Reaction

Let's say I have been living in the Brazilian rain forest for more generations than I can document.

Then let's say some big American corporation wants to pay me, and everybody else who lives in that particular part of the forest a dollar a tree per year if I protect the trees, so that the big American corporation can continue to pollute.

I have kids to feed and the Pope was still sticking his nose into my (70% Catholic) country's business three years ago.

Then let's say an illegal logging operation wants to pay me a thousand dollars a tree.

Have we done the math yet?

Now back to being the non-hypothetical, non-Brazilian me.

I bought a table cloth and six cans of spray paint and looked at my husband in disgust when he asked my why I didn't just buy a new kitchen table set. Spray paint bad? Yes. Brand new furniture worse in my opinion? Yes. Pfffft. Men are so stupid sometimes.

These two stories caught my eye today

A Cartoonist Faces Backlash, in Sweden and the U.S., for Depicting Mohammed as a Dog:
The First Amendment Lessons
By MARCI A. HAMILTON
Thursday, May 13, 2010

"Jihad Jane" Deserves a Lengthy Sentence, and Artists Who Draw Mohammed Need Avid Police Protection

Timeline of the Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy


NPR Erases Domestic Terrorism
Submitted by Anne Landman on May 11, 2010 - 3:05pm.

"...he story completely ignored the fact that the United States has a long history of domestic terrorism committed by home-grown, home-radicalized terrorists. If, as Raston calimed, the U.S. does "seem largely immune to homegrown terrorism," then what, exactly, were the Ku Klux Klan, the assassinations of John Kennedy and Martin Luther King, the Symbionese Liberation Army (which committed robberies, murder, kidnapping and extortion), Timothy McVeigh's bombing of the Oklahoma Federal Building, the murder of Dr. Bernard Slepian in his home by anti-abortionists, the bombing of the Olympics in Centennial park (the first of four bombings by anti-abortionist Eric Rudolph), the Columbine High School massacre, the murder of Dr. George Tiller in his church by another anti-abortion religious fanatic, the 2001 anthrax letter attacks, the airplane intentionally flown into the Internal Revenue Service building in Austin, Texas, the Hutaree Militia and...? Need I go on? ..."

Population. It's a problem

The Last Taboo — By Julia Whitty

May/June 2010 Issue

(Mother Jones)
What unites the Vatican, lefties, conservatives, environmentalists, and scientists in a conspiracy of silence? Population.


Yeesh, at least somebody has the nerve to write about it. If more people read this kind of stuff the doofs would quit asking my why I DON'T want to be a grandmother. Would I be a bad one? No, I'm not a bad mom, nor was I completely ecologically illiterate. In fact, I've always recycled because I was poor, I couldn't afford new stuff. I used cloth diapers when diaper service was affordable and the kid never got butt rashes.

Anyway, people like these dumb fuckers who just keep squirting them out are stupid.



I don't have any patience left for with stupid people, especially bible-thumping fucktards. My disgust is amplified when the idiots are politicians who restrict access to family planning in this country.

Euro’s Crisis Has American Fingerprints

Posted on May 11, 2010 By William Pfaff

"...Europe now has Sarkozy and the French government, which put this deal together while the Germans gnashed their teeth. He insisted that a self-governing currency was as dangerous as a market left totally free to regulate itself, expected to do so in the interests of all because it infallibly pursued the interest of each—otherwise known as the Reagan-Greenspan-Ayn Rand-School-of-Chicago fantasy. Now the world has Dominique Strauss-Kahn running the IMF, Jean-Claude Trichet running the European Central Bank, and Sarkozy performing a miracle in Brussels...."

* MAY 12, 2010, 10:35 A.M. ET
3rd UPDATE: Greek Unions Call New Strike Amid Economic Woe

"...On Wednesday, Greece was due to receive its first EUR5.5 billion disbursement from that loan package, and the government has formally requested another EUR14.5 billion to help meet debt and cash needs this month..."

Got that? Not a bailout, but a loan package. Wait and see what happens to the Greek people while the Chicago Boys banksters profit from the misery in Greece.

got nothing today

Go visit Bildungblog, I usually laugh there. This made me laugh.

Cancer, Chemicals, and Corporations

Published on Friday, May 7, 2010 by Empty Wheel
by Marcy Wheeler

I knew a bit about this 10 years ago when curiosity got the best of me and I looked at cancer clusters and industries in those areas.

Fracking: As Safe as Coca-Cola!
— By Kate Sheppard
| Tue Apr. 13, 2010 11:10 AM PDT

Oh yeah, Happy Mother's Day.

Mothers: ending war is the source of Mother’s Day. War is illegal. Mothers: demand justice, peace
May 7, 11:38 AMLA County Nonpartisan Examiner
Carl Herman

Cinco de Mayo

Updated May 06, 2010
California Students Sent Home for Wearing U.S. Flags on Cinco de Mayo
By Joshua Rhett Miller
- FOXNews.com

"Administrators at a California high school sent five students home on Wednesday after they refused to remove their American flag T-shirts and bandannas -- garments the school officials deemed "incendiary" on Cinco de Mayo...

...Volokh said the students and their parents likely have a winning case on their hands if they decide to take the matter to court..."


Students Kicked Off Campus for Wearing American Flag Tees
By George Kiriyama
NBCBayArea.com
updated 14 minutes ago

"...But to many Mexican-American students at Live Oak, this was a big deal. They say they were offended by the five boys and others for wearing American colors on a Mexican holiday.

"I think they should apologize cause it is a Mexican Heritage Day," Annicia Nunez, a Live Oak High student, said. "We don't deserve to be get disrespected like that. We wouldn't do that on Fourth of July."

Observances
(In) Mexico
Cinco de Mayo is a regional holiday limited primarily to the state of Puebla. There is some limited recognition of the holiday in other parts of the country.[17] For the most part, the celebrations combine food, music, and dancing.

(In) United States
Cinco de Mayo performers at the White House

In the United States Cinco de Mayo has taken on a significance beyond that in Mexico.


Hispanic students leave school, march to show support for Mexico
More than 200 Hispanic teens skipped school Thursday and marched through Morgan Hill yelling "We want respect!" and "Si se puedes!" At least six Morgan Hill police cars and several sheriff's vehicles caravanned alongside the line of teens wearing red, white and green and carrying Mexican flags.

The crowd - mostly high school students - left school Thursday morning after the story of four students who were sent home because they wore American flag T-shirts went viral on TV and online...

..."They yelled 'dumb white bitch!' at me," Jennifer said. "Police were everywhere, so I asked them if they were going to do anything, 'that's why we're here' they said."

Jennifer said one teenager threw a rock at her husband's car while he was driving through downtown. She said he filed a police report immediately after...


Yup, to me Cinco de Mayo is an excuse for idiots to drink beer and dumb kids to skip school to proclaim their allegiance to a country that doesn't even celebrate the fucking holiday.

Cagle gives me another belly laugh

Yes,funny cartoon, but a true tragedy, and an avoidable one:


Feds let BP avoid filing blowout plan for Gulf rig
By MICHAEL KUNZELMAN and RICHARD T. PIENCIAK Associated Press Writers

Sex, Lies and Oil Spills
Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
President, Waterkeeper Alliance; Professor, Pace University
Posted: May 5, 2010 10:19 AM

What caught my eye this morning

Uprising In Greece As Rage Against “Austerity” Flames, Fin Reform Compromises

Unharnessed anger: Incumbents win in NC, OH, IN
By LIZ SIDOTI and DEANNA MARTIN (AP) – 1 day ago
"...Turnout was exceptionally light in North Carolina and Ohio, a possible indication that voters' anger over economic woes, high unemployment and Congress wasn't influencing elections."

By Brad Friedman on 5/4/2010 10:19PM
Butler County, OH, Election Website Servers 'Under Attack' on Primary Night, Says Elections Director
ALSO: 89 of Cuyahoga County, OH's ES&S precinct-based op-scan systems failed in pre-election testing...

Slick Operator: The BP I've Known Too Well
Wednesday 05 May 2010
by: Greg Palast, t r u t h o u t | News Analysis

"I've seen this movie before. In 1989, I was a fraud investigator hired to dig into the cause of the Exxon Valdez disaster. Despite Exxon's name on that boat, I found the party most to blame for the destruction was ... British Petroleum (BP)...

"...What's so insane, when I look over that sickening slick moving toward the Delta, is that containing spilled oil is really quite simple and easy. And from my investigation, BP has figured out a very low-cost way to prepare for this task: BP lies. BP prevaricates, BP fabricates and BP obfuscates..."

Scuse the cynicism

Nigeria's president Yar'Adua dead

Wonder who the CIA will pop into his place?

We need the .oil

I saw this coming

* EUROPE NEWS
* MAY 5, 2010

Greeks Protest New Austerity Measures
Civil Servants Walk Out as Unions Gird for General Strike; Germany's Schäuble Warns That Strife Could Derail Bailout

If you didn't, you haven't read Naomi Klein's the Shock Doctrine.

Fucking fucks.

What I suspected

* Posted on Saturday, May 1, 2010
. Recession, enforcement driving illegal immigrants to leave U.S

"...Roughly 300,000 fewer immigrants came to the country each year between 2005 and 2008, an almost 40 percent drop annually, according to the center...."

"...In 2005, 4.5 percent of undocumented men were unemployed, compared with almost 6 percent of U.S. born workers, the Pew Hispanic Center estimated. That trend has reversed, with 6.5 percent of undocumented workers unemployed in 2008, compared with 5.6 percent of U.S. born workers, a situation that's undoubtedly worsened with the downturn. More than half the undocumented work force worked in service or construction, two sectors hit hard by the recession..."

The whole article is well worth reading.

AZ SB 1070

S.B. 1070

Read it. Tell me what it is you find offensive from the text of the law.

Arizona's immigration law called necessary
Sylvia Allen
Friday, April 30, 2010
"...Rancher Rob Krentz was shot to death on his ranch over a month ago and the shooter fled into Mexico. His family suspects a drug smuggler is responsible..."

More Americans favor Ariz. law
By ANDY BARR | 4/29/10 3:59 PM EDT
Politico

Why Law Enforcement Officials Should Hate Arizona's Racist New Law
Arizona's draconian anti-immigration law will create a chilling effect in the very communities police officers rely on to fight crime.

"...Weinblatt agrees that "politicians are tapping into a vein of public sentiment, particularly in the Southwest."..."

Tucson cop first to sue to block AZ immigration law
By Brian J. Pedersen Arizona Daily Star | Posted: Thursday, April 29, 2010 9:24 am

Making it illegal to be illegal
Published: Friday, April 30, 2010 1:16 AM MDT

"Arizona is in the national – and international – spotlight after the passage of the Support Our Law Enforcement and Safe Neighborhoods Act, more commonly known as Arizona SB1070.

The law, oversimplified as an “anti-illegal immigration” measure, has generated heated debate, raised concerns about its implementation and enforcement and landed the state on the “hit list” of critics who advocate boycotting Arizona, its businesses and its people as a form of protest against the law’s passage.

Wow. All because Arizona made it a state crime for anyone to be in the state illegally. All because Arizona made it a state crime, and not just a federal crime that it already is."

Thank God for chick flicks

I loved PS I Love You.

The US military macheen

3 US Military Generals, Admirals: "Climate Change is Threatening America's Security"
by Brian Merchant, Brooklyn, New York on 04.29.10

Military: Global Warming may Cause War
Associated Press | April 17, 2007

The Pentagon Is America's Biggest Polluter
The U.S. has a grossly corrupted health protection system.
May 12, 2008 |

The U.S. Military's War on the Earth
The Department of Defense can already level the globe with bombs -- now it's also the world's largest polluter.
March 13, 2003

God, it must suck syphlitic dick to be a Pentagon spinmeister.

I don't want to know

Our society is killing our children, opening a Pandora’s box for its future
Written by Danny Weil Education Apr 27, 2010

"...We are literally driving our children in this country insane with commercialization, rampant individuality, loss of public space, popular culture, corporate media, poor diets, homelessness and pharmaceutical drugs. Looking into the face and minds of many of our children in this country should mirror back at us the monstrous policies we operate under and what it has done to us, as adults. It should show us with clarity the sickness that pervades the society and the institutional madness of the gravediggers we call ‘leaders’..."


It's not just our children. I had a short conversation with a total stranger today and we both ended up agreeing that in order to function sometimes the thought for the day is "I don't want to know."

Yeah.

In order to not walk around with balled up fists and a sneer on my face I have to ignore the shenanigans of the Lloyd Blankfein s in the world, and some days it's just too painful to remember how frightened my daughter was to go to school after some of the school shootings made national news.

Gritty movie

Sin nombre (2009)

Here is a little bit more about the movie, and the making of it.

Ignore the title of the article, MS-13 isn't just a Mexican gang, it was started in LA by Salvadoran immigrants fleeing the civil war there, something the US should have stayed away from, but didn't. . They are all over the Americas now and probably coming to a country near you.

Anyway, the article says the director liked the gang members that he ended up working with but I hope I never have to deal with any of those guys. Just the sight of the ones with the tattooed faces is repulsive to me, not that some of the most dangerous criminals don't even have tattoos, but I almost turned the movie off in the first ten minutes. I'm not fond of tattoos. I'm glad I stuck it out because it's not a bad movie.

Gordon points us to Palast to explain the AZ immigration law kerfluffle

Gordon

Greg Palast

I knew somebody would get to the bottom of this crap. It's not about being an illegal alien, it's about proof of citizenship (not a easy as you'd think if you're really poor, but definitely legal) and voting for Democrats.

Yes, sometimes I do still think

Suzan's post yesterday made me wonder what has been happening over at The Oil Drum . And what Matthew Simmons has been up to recently.

Are policymakers, economists and peak oilists starting to speak the same language?
April 21, 2010 2:00pm
by Kate Mackenzie

Dinner and a movie

After 2 weeks worth of being sick I finally left the house and bought food.

For myself.

That I didn't have to cook.

I didn't think the old man would try the goat curry, chicken tikka masala and mango milkshake anyway. The only thing I wouldn't get again is the goat curry, especially after looking online and finding a few links to "goat curry" that take me to a mutton curry recipe. I probably wouldn't know goat meat from mutton in a curry anyway, it's too spicy. I don't like this particular recipe, or the bones, or what looks like three bay leaves in one serving of it. Besides, she just smiled when I asked where you get goat meat around here.

Come to think of it, there is NO meat raised commercially in San Diego, not even eggs or chickens or a dairy anymore, everything is trucked in frozen, or refrigerated. The water is so expensive, not too many crops are grown here either. Betcha locavores are far and few between here.

Why We Won’t Leave Afghanistan or Iraq

Tom Engelhardt

Right. That article not depressing enough? Here's another.

US threatens to nuke Iran; blame victim’s “intentions;” beware false flag attack to pull trigger
April 15, 8:59 AMLA County Nonpartisan Examiner Carl Herman

Need more? Bosnia is a mess again.

* Posted on Friday, April 23, 2010
As U.S. shrugs, Bosnia lurches toward disaster again


Yeesh. I think I'll go back to watching my silly TV crime dramas. The bad guys eventually get caught and stopped on TV, and Netflix doesn't bother me with a million advertisements.

Arizona immigration law

Arizona governor signs immigration bill, reopening national debate
By Anne E. Kornblut and Spencer S. Hsu
Saturday, April 24, 2010; A01
...Joining Obama at the Rose Garden event was Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, who vetoed similar bills repeatedly during two terms as Arizona's Democratic governor. She said she did so because "they would have diverted critical law enforcement resources from the most serious threats to public safety."

Arizona's immigration law may spur a showdown
Gov. Jan Brewer signs a bill that opponents say encourages racial profiling. President Obama calls the measure 'misguided.' A federal review is underway.
April 23, 2010|By Nicholas Riccardi, Los Angeles Times

Some truckers plan boycott over Arizona immigration law
* Posted on Friday, April 23, 2010


* April 23, 2010, 6:34 PM ET
Law Profs On Arizona Immigration Bill: It’s Unconstitutional
WSJ Blogs
(Law Blog WSJ on the cases, trends and personalities of interest to the business community.)


I don't live or work in Arizona so I've got nothing to say. I'm starting to wonder if I'm in the minority in thinking that Arizona should sort out it's own border mess.