Commenting over at HuffPo

It took me 4 years to get to 1,000 comments over at HuffPo, and I did that today. When I see that people have made 7,000 comments in 2 months and have all their badges, I wonder sometimes they do anything but snort meth in their parent's basement and make comments at HuffPo. I'm not interested in becoming a moderator (fucking control freaks don't let any discussion happen in the comments section ), or a networker (woo woo, it's a junior high popularity contest!), and what.the.fuck is a goddamned 'pundit' over there? I didn't ask to be "superuser" badged, I just didn't turn the badges off.

So. What a way to commemorate this particularly ugly anniversary, to tangle with some idiotic moderator. I lost. All of my comments on that particular thread disappeared. I don't go with the flow, but I generally don't let loose with the vitriol over there. Today the idiocy was just too much for me.

Why blogging has become irritating to me

Because I read today:

BLOOD DIAMONDS? TRY BLOOD COLTAN


and I bitched about it over four years ago. Probably sounds hypocritical since I've blown through 3 computers and two cell phones since then eh?

Tu Frontera

(translated by Google)

I know I have not the proper passport
visa or granted, nor the right side
is that maybe I am not very well presented
and you may think I'm a little weird

I know you can not believe what I say,
But that changed after I've met if, perhaps,
my past scares you or that I come from a wrong place

Only one day let me cross your border
Just let me love you to want me
Just let me cross the limit, at least once

I know some bad people have been
they have done to raise the surveillance zone
is that there are some ugly history
who has put the state of imminent danger
is that you have lost trust in people

But that will change, because I understand how you feel if ..
I still think is strange
but I swear I do not come to hurt you

Only one day let me cross your border
Just let me love you to want me
Just let me cross the limit, at least once

New ideas, new lights and new colors,
morning new new new new wings nights
new cultures, new worlds and dreams
new seas, new life, new dreams, new dances, new

New landscapes, new clothes, new journeys, new days
joy new, old tunes, new
new new words, new looks new
new ideas, new wind, new times, just ..

Only one day let me cross your border
Just let me love you to want me
Just let me cross the limit, at least once

At least .. once .. let me cross the limit .. at least once ..

register to vote

click here to find out how long before the election

and how

New College Teaches Young American Muslims

npr (title link to audio)

"1/3 of all American Muslims were born here."

There is a reason that this post doesn't have a "religion sucks" title.

Religion sucks #23

How to Kill Goyim and Influence People: Israeli Rabbis Defend Book's Shocking Religious Defense of Killing Non-Jews (with Video)

AlterNet / By Max Blumenthal A rabbinical guidebook for killing non-Jews has sparked an uproar in Israel and exposed the power a bunch of genocidal theocrats wield over the government.
August 30, 2010 |

Dismantling the Empire

by Chalmers Johnson


This may seem totally unrelated, but bear with me.

James Lee, the Unabomber, and Mental Illness vs. Terrorism

During his trial, Kaczynski fired his attorneys because they argued that he was insane. It was later revealed that Kaczynski was a volunteer in mind-control experiments sponsored by the CIA.

Michael Mello, author of the recently published book, “The United States of America vs. Theodore John Kaczynski,” notes that at some point in his Harvard years–1958 to 1962–Kaczynski agreed to be the subject of “a psychological experiment”. Mello identifies the chief researcher for these only as a lieutenant colonel in World War II, working for the CIA’s predecessor organization, the Office of Strategic Services. In fact, the man experimenting on the young Kaczynski was Dr. Henry Murray, who died in 1988.

OpEd News gets my vote for Labor Day coverage

Misery of Massive Unemployment Mocks Meaning of Labor Day

Labor Day as Memorial Holiday; Middle Class R.I.P.

Employers Who Fire the Most Workers Receive 42% Higher Salaries, America Wake Up!!

Felon

In a country of 300 million we incarcerate 1000 people a week. Fascism sucks. When corporate profits, and that includes the prison industrial complex becomes more important than any type of rehabilitation whatsoever, we have our priorities all fucked up. This movie is apolitical, brutal, and harsh.

I didn't realize that Matt Simmons had died

INVESTMENT BANKING
Matthew Simmons, Noted Energy Banker, Dies at 67
August 9, 2010, 6:01 PM

"..In 2005, Mr. Simmons wrote “Twilight in the Desert: The Coming Saudi Oil Shock and the World Economy,” in which he argued that Saudi Arabia’s oil production had peaked and that the world was headed for a supply shock. The view made him a national figure for the “peak oil” theory, which espouses that the world had hit its maximum oil production output.
Mr. Simmons retired from Simmons & Company International in 2005 and later served as the company’s executive chairman. He was still the face of the company and maintained client relationships.

Mr. Simmons, however, found himself in some hot water with Simmons & Company International in early June after he told Fortune magazine that BP would probably need to declare bankruptcy because of the oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico. BP severed its relationship with the company after Mr. Simmons made the controversial comments. .."

The Republican Who Dared Tell the Truth About America's Looming Oil Disaster
Matt Simmons didn't let the money, bullshit or arrogance surrounding the oil industry cloud his judgment.
September 4, 2010 |The Tyee / By Andrew Nikiforuk

California bombs on bag ban

The American Chemistry Council, a lobbying group representing ExxonMobil and DuPont, used every political trick to stall out the bill.

China - The Rebirth of an Empire

China: The Rebirth of an Empire - Trailer from Veverka Bros. Productions on Vimeo.

Mexico drug kingpin says he received trailers of US cash

"...Mexico has arrested several top drug bosses in recent months, but the military crackdown on organized crime has been accompanied by a spike in violence -- more than 28,000 people have been killed in suspected drug attacks since 2006..."

POLL: Unemployment affects 3 out of 4 Americans

Right, so why did I give up watching my teevee when I realized they were never going to shut up about economic recovery?


Obama condemns W Bank 'slaughter'

Oh, fuck me, can I puke now?

( Israeli vs Palestinian deaths )

Wild Girl

written by Rickie Lee Jones

Wild girl, you must have been a terror
When you were young
Your mamma must have let you run,
Let you run free...
But it wasn’t very nice
Eating all that sugar and spice –
What they want a girl to be
And all the things a child learns
On their way from hope to here,
The innocence, the fury, the racism
Rage and fear
I don’t remember – tell me again –
The part no one wants to hear...

Well, that’s so many peoples story,
A lot of heartache but not much glory,
But glory, the truth be told
Tomorrow you are twenty–one years old

I say Happy Birthday tomorrow to you,
Go out and get some glory,
The only game in town.

You can live your life with regret
About the things you think you did wrong,
(A lot of people do)
Or over what some one would not give,
Or you can be grateful
When you open your eyes,
The story you write, you live

Well it’s hard to be older and poor
I don’t dig it that much anymore,
But every day of my life
I’m so proud I became his wife
Because I got to raise Charlotte
And Charlotte’s learning
The only game in town
Wild girl in a red dress
Come on, speak up, say yes
This thing that makes you beautiful
Never comes out of a jar
You are a beautiful girl
Because you reach out
from your beautiful world,
That is the daughter you are

Walk right and the real world knows it
Cuz you bring it back down into the real world
Walk right up the real world knows it
You’ll bring it back down into the real world
Say take me back baby
I just wanna make a dream come true –
I came here to love somebody –
I just want to make my dreams come true...

And I’m trying
Because trying is
The only game,
Live to tell the tale –
The only game in town

Music break

Wow, Balm in Gilead , her latest, is really good. Listen a bit here. She's done some weird stuff here and there over the years, and I have all of her stuff except for Live at Red Rocks now, but this is really nice. What a terrible fan I am that I didn't even realize that she released it in November of last year. The only excuse I have is that hey, after thirty years of being a fan, and being broke most of that time, I missed a few along the way. I've looked for a CD copy of ""Girl at her Volcano" over the years, but seemed to find only vinyl. I had two copies of her first album on vinyl and then a CD copy. I had a roommate destroy one copy of it because the bitch was sick of hearing it. What the hell was that girl's name? No matter, I can still sing Danny's All Star Joint", or Youngblood without missing a beat. In the car or shower of course, you know.

The only other artist I have everything they have done is Michael Franks .

Reading now

Dismantling the Empire by Chalmers Johnson. (Click on title link to buy. Scroll down the page)

Plunder - The Crime of our Time

Streaming on Netflix now or click on title link. They called Danny Schechter a Cassandra when he tried to warn about the housing bubble. Phooey, he was right.

Immigration backlog stirs move to release some U.S. detainees

By Shankar Vedantam
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, August 28, 2010

"...It comes amid a push by ICE to focus on illegal immigrants who have committed crimes, rather than seek to deport all illegal immigrants...

...As those applications are being reviewed, immigrants in detention who do not have criminal backgrounds might be eligible for release, Morton said. Local ICE officials have discretion in releasing detainees, he added, and would take into consideration a number of factors, including "national security and public safety..."

Finally, something that makes sense.

Hustlers and the Idiot Swarm

Have you realized that what they taught you in school and what you see on your TV doesn't match the reality of your life? Your family's life? Your friend's lives? Do you see that your "American dream" is not quite what you hoped it would be? Not quite what you thought you were buying?

Well folks that uneasy feeling in the pit of your stomach?

Trust it.

You were lied to. You're being lied to on a daily basis. The Rev has the scoop, he did his homework and cited his sources. I'm glad I bought the book. Get it here. The solutions to the problems in the last chapter are uplifting and inspirational.

72 bodies found in Mexico were immigrants, officials say

August 25, 2010 5:37 p.m. EDT

CNN
"...The motive for the killings was under investigation, though officials pointed out that Mexico's drug cartels have expanded their activities to include extortion and kidnapping of immigrants..."
Mexico police recover 7 bodies from mines

By MARK WALSH (AP) – 2 days ago

In May, authorities discovered 55 bodies from an abandoned mine near Taxco, a colonial-era city south of Mexico City that is popular with international tourists.

I don't know who this guy is, but this story is interesting. He may have been referring to another Mexican mayor and 6 dead police officers, but the horror stories just keep on coming when you use Google with the the search terms being "Mexico" and " 6 dead police officers."

Migrants turn to the sea to enter US illegally
Thursday, Aug. 26, 2010
By ELLIOT SPAGAT Associated Press Writer

Enjoy my friend's talent

Lyrics to La Sirena


Beautiful, isn't it? It's also a really nice break on a hot day from the political crap I find myself immersed in. Some days I feel like I'm close to drowning in the cornucopia of bullshit that is American politics. That is one hell of a feat for someone who spent as much time as I did swimming my ass off (or goofing off at times, hey, didn't want to lose my love for the water!) for as long as I did. My beautiful friend helps me climb out and look at he screaming mimis with some perspective. I'm lucky to call her friend, she is a really great person.

William-Adolphe Bouguereau

This is one of my favorites. It's at the Chrysler in Norfolk.

(click to make bigger)

Adolphe William Bouguereau (French 1825-1905)
Orestes Pursued by the Furies, 1862
Oil on canvas, 91 x 109-3/8 inches
Gift of Walter P. Chrysler, Jr.

I did not know that there was an art gallery that housed one of my favorite paintings there.

I have no idea why I love his work so much. It seems to be what I want to see though. I just finished watching In the Time of the Butterflies (2001) Streamed on Netflix of course. I loved it. It is a fictionalized story about sisters in the Dominican Republic under Trujillo, but I didn't know that till the end. It rates a solid 5 stars, so obviously I'm not the only one that loved it.

Has the Greed of Our Species Put Us on the Road to Extinction? Just Ask the Dinosaurs.

Submitted by BuzzFlash on Sun, 08/22/2010 - 11:32am. Guest Commentary
STEPHEN PIZZO FOR BUZZFLASH

"...As some continue to argue that humans have nothing to do with climate change, the climate changes nonetheless. We move now from arguing about whether it’s happening, to trying to figure out how to survive it. Even as scientists calculate that the earth can only support less than 2 billion souls -- assuming they all live at roughly a lower-middle class standard of living -- the number of souls soared this month to 7 billion..."

I usually laugh when I watch Rachel Maddow

But this one made me cry.

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

With consumers slow to spend, businesses are slow to hire

By Neil Irwin
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, August 21, 2010
CHICAGO -- Corporate profits are soaring. Companies are sitting on billions of dollars of cash. And still, they've yet to amp up hiring or make major investments -- the missing ingredients for a strong economic recovery.

Jeez. The rich are sooooooo stupid. Are they inbred to the point of retardation? They can't make money if the only people spending money are their inbred yacht buying friends. They need US to spend money an WE don't spend money if WE don't have any and their bankster friends have totally screwed US on credit cards that are maxed out because of their bankster friends greed.


Dear whiny ass rich dickheads,

Keep it up, US proles haven't had much practice with pitchforks and influencing trained snipers. Maybe WE need some.

The International

Great movie. Loved it. Here's the description from Netflix where I watched it:

2009 TV-PG 118 minutes
Interpol agent Louis Salinger (Clive Owen) and New York Asst. DA Eleanor Whitman (Naomi Watts) team up to expose a global financial institution's money laundering, arms dealing and other illegal rackets in this tense thriller from director Tom Tykwer. As the pair race from New York to Milan and beyond to pursue their case, they soon discover that the ruthless bank will stop at nothing to continue its profitable activities.

I might have had him take a different tack at the end. After all, there are more of us than there are of them. Many, many, many more poor than "movers and shakers," eh?

US pledges Pakistan full support in flood crisis

19 August 2010 Last updated at 15:30 ET

Huh? A good Muslim OILigarchy is promising aid whilst the US is delivering? Hmm.

Pakistan floods: As international aid lags, US announces increase

Amid United Nations reports of lagging aid for the Pakistan floods, the United States is set to increase aid to Pakistan to $150 million following the worst disaster in the country’s history, Sen. John Kerry (D) of Massachusetts announced on Thursday.

Tomgram: Chalmers Johnson, Portrait of a Sagging Empire

Posted by Chalmers Johnson
at 9:29am, August 17, 2010.

Dude's new book is out. Woot.

Poll: Growing number incorrectly call Obama Muslim

Thursday, Aug. 19, 2010
By ALAN FRAM Associated Press Writer

Ok, now that we've established that Americans are getting stoopider, let's discuss all that crapola about mosques in New York. I got no problems with mosques, there are at least 16 of them in San Diego. Temples and churches too, lots of them. As long as the nutjobs stay out of my face, no problem.

I'm always chucking that damned Jehovah's witness crap in the trash in the laundry room because they leave it on the equipment. When they come ringing my doorbell, I quickly tell them "I'm not interested, thank you very much, have a nice day," and firmly but quietly shut the door in their faces.

If there are signs that radical Islamism is going on in San Diego mosques, they should be investigated. If they are preaching hatred and violence for this country and it's people they need to be very carefully watched and if necessary deported, or the mosque shut down.

I like this Marci chick, she makes sense:

The Wrong-Headed Furor over the Planned Mosque at Ground Zero: Mistaking a War on Radical Islamicism for a War on All Muslims
By MARCI A. HAMILTON
Thursday, August 5, 2010

The Mosque Controversy Continues: How a Texas Case Regarding a Sikh Temple Illuminates the Issues
By MARCI A. HAMILTON
Thursday, August 19, 2010

"...Those Who Oppose the Mosque Based on "Sensitivities" Are Making an Argument Similar to That of Opponents of Cartoons Depicting Mohammed..."

"...While the imams had every right to engage in public discourse against images that they found offensive, they had no right to force the media to remove the images they did not like based on their "sensitivities." That is just basic First Amendment law, as I discussed in a prior FindLaw column. No free society can accede to such demands and expect to remain free..."