Business over people....again

Jeffrey Immelt, GE CEO, To Replace Volcker On Obama's Economic Team
The Huffington Post Lila Shapiro First Posted: 01/21/11 10:06 AM Updated: 01/21/11 10:13 AM
"...The two men have significantly different backgrounds. Immelt is a lifelong Republican and, as Bloomberg put it, "a corporate heavyweight who can help burnish Obama's pro-business credentials."..."


Should Jeffrey Immelt Really Be Leading Our Job Creation Strategy?
1/21/11 HuffPo Scott Paul

There is no swifter way to alienate working class voters than to name an outsourcing CEO to lead your jobs strategy. Yet that's exactly what President Obama is doing.

Martin Luther King

I can't watch this and stay composed.

Miss Nebraska fake blonde ditz

Teresa Scanlan wins Miss America 2011; Miss Nebraska slams WikiLeaks during pageant

Great, a 17 year-old airhead from the cornfields is Miss America. The dingbat needs to go get her roots bleached or her teeth bleached, or work on those fabulous abs, but come on, social commentary from a 17 year-old beauty queen?

Puhleeeeeeeeze. Sometimes what this country shows the world is just plain embarrassing.

What to say?

Survivors of Brazil mudslides that killed more than 500 frustrated
By Juliana Barbassa (CP) – 4 hours ago

"...TERESOPOLIS, Brazil — Survivors of mudslides that killed more than 500 people are growing frustrated, saying Brazil's government has fallen short in rescuing victims still stranded on remote hillsides and finding the bodies of the dead.
On the fourth night since torrential rains sent avalanches of mud and boulders smashing through communities in the lush mountains outside Rio de Janeiro, many people were still begging officials for aid late Friday. Many also took it upon themselves to search for their dead and help out the living.."

Colbert - Hitler's Inspiring Tucson Memorial Speech

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Hitler's Inspiring Tucson Memorial Speech
www.colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor & Satire Blog</a> Video Archive

I'm really trying to find some humor, but frankly the Foxfuck's flip-flops made me dizzy.

I'll let Borowitz help you laugh, I'm still pissed off

Impressed With Speech, Fox Names Obama an Honorary American

NEW YORK (The Borowitz Report) - Impressed by his speech at the University of Arizona last night, the Fox News Channel today took the extraordinary step of naming President Barack Obama an honorary American.

"Let's face it, he's earned it," said Fox host Glenn Beck. "I don't care where he came from, he's one of us now."

Naming President Obama an honorary American was only one of a series of conciliatory moves made today by what promises to be a kinder, gentler Fox News.

A network spokesman said that starting this week, Fox would air one minute of civil discourse every Sunday at 4 AM. More here.

The Los Angeles Times says Andy Borowitz has "one of the funniest Twitter feeds around." Follow Andy on Twitter here.

Lawmakers And The Crazy Laws They Want To Pass In The Wake Of Tucson Tragedy
Jason Linkins First Posted: 01-13-11 06:56 PM | Updated: 01-13-11 08:25 PM

Tucson: Time for Another Examination of Conscience

Thank you for weighing in on this. Since I was very young at the time of the assasinati­on of your Uncle I didn't realize the rhetoric was ratcheted up at that time also. My mother confirmed this, and said that even as young as she was, that there was a noticeable difference in the nastiness of political rhetoric coming out of Texas.

One question I have regarding the Manchester quote; Why does he use the name Earle Carroll? The name I've seen over and over again for the mayor of Dallas at the time of JFK's assassinat­ion is Earle Cabell, (http://en.­wikipedia.­org/wiki/E­arle_Cabel­l )

who's brother was General Charles P. Cabell ( http://en.­wikipedia.­org/wiki/C­harles_Cab­ell ) who "became Deputy Director of CIA under Allen Dulles. He was forced by President Kennedy to resign, on January 31, 1962, following the failure of the Bay of Pigs Invasion."
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

What is company success?

Tomgram: William Hartung, Lockheed Martin's Shadow Government
Posted by William Hartung at 10:02am, January 11, 2011.

"... How in the world did Lockheed Martin become more than just a military contractor? Its first significant foray outside the world of weaponry came in the early 1990s when plain old Lockheed (not yet merged with Martin Marietta) bought Datacom Inc., a company specializing in providing services for state and city governments, and turned it into the foundation for a new business unit called Lockheed Information Management Services (IMS). In turn, IMS managed to win contracts in 44 states and several foreign countries for tasks ranging from collecting parking fines and tolls to tracking down “deadbeat dads” and running “welfare to work” job-training programs. The result was a number of high profile failures, but hey, you can’t do everything right, can you? ... "

Yup. I know this to be true because I was one of those rounded up and sent to Lockheed Martin offices for the welfare-to-work program. We looked around at each other and wondered aloud if we were going to be Rosie-the Riveter or some shit? Baffling because there wasn't a war going on at the time.

The employees got almost no guidance at all from corporate and I think through no fault of the employees the program was a dismal failure for most welfare recipients. They needed comprehensive help and the psychiatric help was the epitome of incompetent and transitory and a range of other needs were not met.

I know that this county is pretty much owned and operated by the M-I-C so it didn't surprise me, but it did fuel my cynicism. I knew about the budget cuts and privatization going on in the military. When I was offered community college classes I took the ball and ran with it even though my choices were childcare or business. Childcare? Ugh. Well, I did learn something in business classes. I learned how to track a stock price for a period of time:

Computer fiasco costs state dearly
$1.2 billion in fines over child support systemBy Ed Mendel
STAFF WRITER SDUT
March 28, 2007

Tonight's Maddow opening segment

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

I burst into tears before Rachel finished. Suddenly I was 15 again and hearing about the Brenda Spencer school shootings. When I was 16 I was living in the same place as a girl who had been Spencer's cell mate at juvie. I was never a danger to anyone but myself, but believe me, some of those kids were sick. I hope that girl got better eventually because she was twisted. There was help for young people then. Nice places for kids like me who's folks had health insurance, and the State paid for wards of the court if help was needed.
Then came Reagan.

Now whether they are dangerous or not, and they (or sometimes us) are lucky, they are in prison. Sometimes it's just a way to get the medication they need. Sometimes it saves our lives. Sometimes not. I personally think that the really crazy people never get help and some of them are wealthy and important people. Don't tell me there aren't nutballs at the top of the social strata in the world because I will call you a liar. Anyway, things were different, I was lucky, and I've never been in jail. Hell, I don't even have any parking tickets.

Tired and sad today

I missed Grey's Anatomy on Thursday, so I decided to watch in on the computer last night. Sadly, it was about a mass shooting. The characters in the show dealt with a mass shooting in the hospital just 6 months before.

I feel like I can't escape.

I have a lot of respect for David Sirota, even though his OpEds are not carried in my local fishwrap, and he's not heard on local radio. There is too much demand for RepugnanThuglican hate-spew here. I'm pretty sure that Limbaugh, and his ilk are on AM radio, and there's even some local stooge that I can't stand. Anyway, here's David:

Silence Is Complicity & Defensiveness Is Endorsement
by: David Sirota
Mon Jan 10, 2011 at 13:30

US Subpoenas Twitter Over Wikileaks Supporters

"Justice" in the US is a fucking joke.

Gabrielle Giffords (D 8th AZ)

Arizona congresswoman among 12 shot at Tucson grocery
By the CNN Wire Staff
January 8, 2011 -- Updated 2005 GMT (0405 HKT)

Report: Tea Party Gifford's enemy, father says
By Peter Schroeder - 01/08/11 03:08 PM ET

Palin Uses Crosshairs To Identify Dems Who Voted For Health Care Reform
Jillian Rayfield | March 24, 2010, 5:47PM

I know I am not the only who thinks that Sarah Palin needs to shut the fuck up and sit the fuck down. Her inflammatory rhetoric and grifter ways are not helping this country at all.

So she facebooked condolences, so fucking what? Her fans saw this map, but they probably are too stupid to read what the page said.

Updates on incident here

Call him what you will

But this documentary/interview is streaming on Netflix right now.

Collapse (II) (2009)

It's not fun stuff, but it makes sense to me. He mentions the Kübler-Ross model (stages of grief). I had him on my blogroll years ago.

Griftopia by Matt Taibbi

For those of us unschooled in the financial services sector and relatively unaware of it's stranglehold over our government, the US economy, and the manipulation of the world economy this book is gold. Taibbi's biting wit and ability to explain things in layman's terms makes this book a must read. His now famous quote from "The Great American Bubble Machine" article in Rolling Stone is a teaser for the book:

"The first thing you need to know about Goldman Sachs is that it's everywhere. The world's most powerful investment bank is a great vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity, relentlessly jamming its blood funnel into anything that smells like money. In fact, the history of the recent financial crisis, which doubles as a history of the rapid decline and fall of the suddenly swindled dry American empire, reads like a Who's Who of Goldman Sachs graduates."

Most importantly Taibbi gives us a history of the rules and regulations that the biggest players have shredded for their benefit and to the detriment of people all over the planet, just in the last 30 years. I nodded my head as I remembered my 4 days in a cubicle (fucking torture for me anyway) at a JP Morgan office that had me pulling the signature documents out of mortgage files so they could be scanned and put online. This was in 2006, and I had never seen mortgage documents before but something smelled rotten in Denmark to me. I KNEW what I was looking at didn't make any sense:

Shitholes sold at over-inflated prices to minorities with revolting balloon payment seconds. The unquestioning little hamsters on wheels that worked in this office did NOT want me learning anything, or even voicing my confusion. They thought I was stupid and incapable of learning what they wanted me to do. If any of those tools understood that I was questioning this all-mighty banking behemoth, they never let on, even after I snarled back at them that there weren't any rocket scientists in that place. They looked at me like I was a heretic when I questioned the intelligence of the person who wrote the fire-drill plan. The fires were bad here later that year, with multiple homes lost in the area very close to the place I was and I've often wondered about that.

So, moving on, Taibbi makes us aware of what was supposed to be a temporary law signed by FDR which is wreaking havoc in our healthcare system called the McCarran-Ferguson Act that exempts the business of insurance from most federal regulation, including federal anti-trust laws to a limited extent. The inablility to change that helped make the healthcare reform bill a joke.

The venality, criminality, and arrogance of the financial sector during the bail-outs is going to get worse. The revolving doors between government and business have only recieved some grease. Today's news is only another example:

Business Background Defines New Chief of Staff

The food riots in 2008 were caused by commodities traders and speculators and so were shitloads of other bubbles, including the housing bubble. They get in and manipulate the prices by injecting a bunch of money, running up the prices, getting their commissions and getting out before the crashes they create happen. I remember the Enron traders and how they made my electric bill double in one month, and the rolling black outs they caused and laughed at, so I hate those testosterone fueled pricks. I should have known it was them, but I wondered whether it was supply and demand.

The consolidation of banks makes me feel like I'm watching that old Pac-Man game.

Why Is The US Taxpayer Subsidizing Facebook – And The Next Bubble?
By Simon Johnson

Cummings: Issa Wants Foreclosure Investigation To Focus Solely On Fannie, Freddie

And Issa's shenanigan­s are only going to get more laughable.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

John Boehner Rises To Role Of Speaker

A larger than normal gavel for a more corrupt than usual Congress. The Banksters and Corporate Boards around the world are popping the bubbly corks!
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Don't score drugs via cell phone anymore, eh?

Ruling lets California police search your phone without a warrant
By Amy Gahran, Special to CNN
January 5, 2011 3:02 p.m. EST | Filed under: Mobile

Issa exposed

What a fabulous blog. I like it.

"Sarah Lee"

Oh this is rich:

Wednesday, Jan. 5, 2011
US suspends military contractors in Afghanistan
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) - The United States Central Command says two contractors for the U.S. military in Afghanistan have had their contracting privileges suspended over allegations they failed to pay Afghan subcontractors.

Coalition forces said in a statement Wednesday that the suspension of Bennett-Fouch Associates and K5 Global could last 18 months while the case is being investigated. The companies could be barred from further contracts depending on the results of the investigation.

The statement said several Afghan companies had brought allegations against the two companies, both of which are owned by the same person, identified as an American woman named Sarah Lee.

It said that the failure of firms to pay local subcontractors "adversely affects counterinsurgency strategy."

2011-01-05 12:56:59 GMT

Bank Of America Sets Up WikiLeaks Defense Team

Isn't this rather like slamming the barn door after the animals have wandered off?
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Rove got Assange arrested?

hat tip to Gordon over at Alternate Brain

MONDAY, JANUARY 3, 2011
The Rove/Assange Story Hits the International Press in Sweden
Nyheter24

Ok, I'm gonna pout. I REALLY want to see this:

Ok, done pouting. See? I cool off quick.

Soooooo, who's afraid of the big bad wikileaks wolf today?

Bank of America

Oh, no doubt that blowhard Issa will be embarrassed somewhere along the way.

The French Governemnt over the Boeing vs Airbus thingy.

Pesticide companies killing honeybees.

I know exactly why Julian Assange is a threat to the privelidged and powerful and their minions in governments. Nobody that vulnurable to falling very quickly into a pitchfork wielding mob at the bottom of the pyramid that holds them up wants to be exposed. And about 6 ¾ billion people on this fucking planet are about to pick up pitchforks.

Julian Assange is a hero for those of us interested in freedom of the press.

Yeah, and he's got all kinds of little bombs that will go off if he's martyred.

Haikuleaks.

Need a job?

Dollar General will hire 6,000 for new stores

Yeaaaaaah, that'll pay the rent, or the house payment!

Holy fuckwad from hell, unregulated capitalism sucks ass. How do the asshole banksters who own all the empty homes sleep at night knowing they are responsible for the previous occupants being on the streets?

Atlas Shrugged

Written by a quite insane speed freak who was born in the USSR who blamed the government for all of society's ills. The bitch was deluded by her own selfish sense of self-importance. I am convinced that people who love this book cannot see ANYTHING clearly or objectively even though Ayn Rand fans called themselves part of the "Objectivist movement." Because we all know how logical, well reasoned and objective speed freaks are, right?

Yeah, fucking idiots like Alan Greenspan (who is nothing but a tool for the very rich), are fans of Ayn Rand who called him a social climber. Hilarious since she was nothing but an apologist for the spoiled, selfish navel gazers who need tools like Greenspan in order to continue lying, cheating and stealing from people who actually work in order to remain spoiled, selfish navel gazers.

Now they are making a movie. How do you make a movie of an unreadable piece of dogshit that is over 1300 pages long?

Jeez, I can't even get through the Spark Notes without rolling my eyes.

Nation Readers' Person of the Year

The Nation
December 30, 2010

"The response was strong and, interestingly, WilkiLeaks founder Assange was also our clear-cut winner because, as Lorna Singh pointed out, "we need to see how we were lied to," and, as Mike Pribula wrote, "he has reminded us about the importance of integrity in diplomacy and democratic ideals in our republic."

Which of the Six Big 6 Banking Houses Was the Most Shameless Corporate Outlaw?

Alternet, RJ Eskow.

"...They're offended because they didn't meet with the president? From the looks of things they're lucky not to be meeting with the warden..."

Income inequality and chutzpah

Why Inequality Matters

January 1, 2011
Higher Taxes on Top 1% Equals Higher Productivity

Michael Hudson: History of US shows economy grows when top tier tax rates and workers' wages are high


"...Nicholas Kristof of The New York Times provides these grim statistics: “C.E.O.’s of the largest American companies earned an average of 42 times as much as the average worker in 1980, but 531 times as much in 2001. Perhaps the most astounding statistic is this: From 1980 to 2005, more than four-fifths of the total increase in American incomes went to the richest 1 percent.” (November 6, 2010)..."

Michael Barone is an idiot and a tool. Read this nonsense and laugh.


Ezra Klein says basically Oooh, deficit is bad and infrastructure is crumbling, but:

"...Here's the good news: Infrastructure investment is the best deal in the economy right now. Government borrowing costs are lower than they've been since the 1950s. Unemployment in the construction sector is above 15 percent, which means companies are desperate for work and bids to complete projects are coming in low. A weak global economy means cheap raw materials. Bottom line? These investments are more affordable now than they're likely to be in a few years. We'd be foolish to miss this opportunity..."

Right. Remember when taxes were our way of investing in the infrastructure and in America?

Fuggedaboutit. Unless you are some Goldman Sachs punk selling US infrastructure revenue to some sheik in Abu Dhabi so he has some place to park his oil profits and watch them grow you don't matter.

It's a brave new world for those with enough chutzpah. Yes, I said chutzpah, and since I lived some of my early life in a working class Jewish neighborhood, I don't mean the "good" kind. I mean the kind that would sell your mother if it might make a profit. Or keep some crooked politician in office.

I'm almost finished reading Taibbi's Griftopia. It's disturbing, the class war exposé.

Danny Schechter and Matt Taibbi speak.

America's Tienanmen and Blogger of the Year 2010

We will continue using the internet and blogging until the danged internet service providers figure out a way to slow down the loading of our sites, and speed up the loading of their preferred sites. They are working on it, and the way the regulatory agencies (the FCC in this case) are busy handing out concession­s to anybody with deep pockets, they might get their way unless we are vigilant.

http://www­.freepress­.net/
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

I saw this song played on this Democracy Now interview w/ Assange and I liked it.

Happy New Year

Project Censored Top 10 Stories. (not all of the top 25 Project Censored. stories happened in 2010, but they're the ones that were chosen for the 2010 book)

1. US Congress Sells Out to Wall Street

2. US Schools are More Segregated Today than in the 1950s

3. Toxic Waste Behind Somali Pirates

4. Nuclear Waste Pools in North Carolina

5. Europe Blocks US Toxic Products

6. Lobbyists Buy Congress

7. Obama’s Military Appointments Have Corrupt Past

8. Bailed out Banks and America’s Wealthiest Cheat IRS Out of Billions

9. US Arms Used for War Crimes in Gaza

10. Ecuador Declares Foreign Debt Illegitimate

Tweet

LA rebel artists defy attempts at censorship

Hey, I've slept on that couch, and had to fight those dogs for my spot, lol. That's my buddy Annie. I never knew her Great Uncle was a big deal and I didn't care. I met her when we were like 19. Dude, we had fun, and she's turned out to be one of the most beautiful people I know.

Study: Conservatives have larger ‘fear center’ in brain

By Daniel Tencer
Tuesday, December 28th, 2010 -- 5:43 pm

"...At the same time, conservatives' brains were also found to have a smaller anterior cingulate -- the part of the brain responsible for courage and optimism..."

Yeesh, tell me something I don't know. I was raised by the idiots.