In for Randi 3pm-6pm

I continue my Randi Rhodes show stint this week.....

Listen live Here! at 3pm

Watch the SAMMYCAM>>>>>>>>>>SammYCam in effect here (lg) and here (small) small gives most users better stability

 i'll be talking to:

Bonnie Carroll of TAPS – Charity for military families who have lost a loved one serving in the armed forces.

Scott Horton of Harpers on the destruction of the CIA tapes, breaking news on the Don Siegelman political prosecution and on his Congressional testimony regarding the Jamie Leigh Jones rape case.

And a great Blue America candidate for Congress, Jon Powers running for NY's 26th...more and better Democrats!

Frist

♦♦♦♦
"Religion is regarded by the common people as true; by the wise as false; and by the rulers as useful." -Seneca 4-65 CE
♦♦♦♦
One election at a time...

Former U.S. Rep. McKinney enters presidential race as Green

The Democrats are no different than their Republican counterparts, eat out of the hands of corrupt lobbyists and feed at the same corporate trough. I am proud to say that the Green Party is my new political home,"
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2007/12/19/politics/p15...

Free Democracy

Hey Kev :-)

:-P

It's Thursday! One mo' day and I'z outta heyah!

Breaking News

There is a fist fight between the police and protestors at New Orleans City Hall.

Protestors broke through the fencing and are clashing with the police, a housing protest. The police are macin and tasering these protestors. Re: MSNBC

Breaking News

There is a fist fight between the police and protestors at New Orleans City Hall.

Protestors broke through the fencing and are clashing with the police, a housing protest. The police are macin and tasering these protestors. Re: MSNBC

Sorry about the double post.

Don't know what happened.

Bush considers becoming a

Bush considers becoming a lobbyist someday.This week as Trent Lott prepared to retire from the Senate, he “found himself yukking it up with the president at the White House.” According to the Washington Post, Bush “joked” with Lott that “he may join the Mississippian in the lobbying sector.”

http://thinkprogress.org/2007/12/20/bush-considers-becoming-a-lobbyist-s...

Stupidity, sheer stupidity!

The Senate yesterday confirmed Julie Myers as head of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, two years after President Bush first appointed her. Myers most recently came under fire for awarding “Most Original Costume” to an employee who dressed in a racially offensive Halloween costume.

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5g8naCUEeyOEPxS6Qlp9s2uDvOZlQD8TKUUV01

HI Annette 8-)

Hope you have fun whereever you are going 8-)

something completely different ... I just heard my favorite Xmas song "Holy Night".

8-)

Forty-one percent of the al

Forty-one percent of the al Qaeda fighters in Iraq were Saudi nationals, according to a West Point study. Libyan nationals accounted for the second largest group with about 19 percent of the total, “followed by Syrians and Yemenis each at 8 percent, Algerians with 7 percent and Moroccans at 6 percent.”

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20071220/wl_nm/iraq_saudi_fighters_dc

---Breaking News---

Submitted by toniD on Thu, 12/20/2007 - 1:35pm.

There is a fist fight between the police and protestors at New Orleans City Hall.

Protestors broke through the fencing and are clashing with the police, a housing protest. The police are macin and tasering these protestors. Re: MSNBC

***********

Good ... I hope it spreads across the country. People need to start getting pissed and show they aren't going to take that crapola anymore.

Voting for Morons doesn't work.

NBC’s David Gregory gets

NBC’s David Gregory gets down with Mary J. Via Wonkette, NBC White House correspondent David Gregory shows off his dance moves on The Today Show:

http://thinkprogress.org/2007/12/20/nbc%e2%80%99s-david-gregory-gets-dow...

Wexler On Impeachment:

Wexler On Impeachment: ‘This Is Not The Lunatic Fringe — This Is Mainstream America’
Today on the Ed Schultz Show, Rep. Robert Wexler (D-FL) discussed his effort to increase public pressure for the commencement of impeachment hearings against Vice President Dick Cheney. Wexler has launched a website — WexlerWantsHearings.com — to collect signatures in support of his call.

Wexler explained that he launched his website after traditional media outlets rejected an op-ed he had written with his colleagues Luis Gutierrez (D-IL) and Tammy Baldwin (D-WI):

We laid out precisely why the House Judiciary Committee should open up hearings. … And we set out in an op-ed why we should do it, and none of the major newspapers in the country — the New York Times or the Washington Post, the Boston Globe, the LA Times — they chose not to run it.

I thought it was a fairly significant statement by the mainstream media that when members of the House Judiciary Committee lay out a credible claim for why impeachment hearings should begin regarding the Vice President of the United States, and they refuse to run it, then we decided well we would start this website…and see what the feeling was in terms of mainstream America.

Listen to it:

Wexler said he has been “astonished” by the outpouring of support — over 100,000 have signed up in five days. He said he plans to write a letter to House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers (D-MI) in early January, asking him to begin start impeachment hearings.

“This is not the lunatic fringe — this is mainstream America,” Wexler said. These are “people that believe in the very patriotic vision, and they’re all very upset about what they see as the abuse of power by this administration and the failure of Congress to hold them accountable.”

http://thinkprogress.org/2007/12/20/wexler-impeachment/

this new orleans housing

thing is very upsetting to me - all the people I talk to - including blacks in the office - are in favor of demolition - they just don't get it

---NBC’s David Gregory gets----

Any "Journalist" that goes to that Dinner is not worth a spit at doing thier job.

Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket

Police, protesters clash in

Police, protesters clash in New Orleans By CAIN BURDEAU, Associated Press Writer
38 minutes ago

NEW ORLEANS - Police used chemical spray and stun guns Thursday as dozens of protesters seeking to halt the demolition of 4,500 public housing units tried to force their way through an iron gate at City Hall.

One woman was sprayed with chemicals and dragged from the gates. She was taken away on a stretcher by emergency officials. Before that, the woman was seen pouring water from a bottle into her eyes and weeping.

Another woman said she was stunned by officers, and still had what appeared to be a Taser wire hanging from her shirt.

"I was just standing, trying to get into my City Council meeting," said the woman, Kim Ellis.

Arrests were made as officers tried to establish order.

Inside, a scuffle also occurred in the City Council chambers as the meeting opened. Several protesters were forced out, including a woman who was carried, and a recess was called. The room was calm once the meeting resumed.

Protesters had planned to disrupt the City Council meeting, where members were expected to approve demolishing dozens of buildings — a move that would open racial and class divisions.

The council chambers seat less than 300. Once capacity was reached, people who were not permitted into chambers marched and chanted. Eventually violence broke out.

The City Council vote is a critical moment in a protracted fight between the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and residents, activists and preservationists.

HUD wants to demolish the buildings, most of them damaged by Hurricane Katrina, so developers can take advantage of tax credits and build new mixed-income neighborhoods.

The council's approval of the demolition is required under the city's charter.

snip

But critics say the plan will shrink the stock of cheap housing at a time when housing is scarce and drive poor blacks out of the city. They also say the buildings are, contrary to popular opinion, mostly handsome brick structures that will outlast anything HUD builds in their place.

A news release from the Coalition to Stop the Demolition, one of several groups organizing protesters, characterized the pending action as a "rubber stamp" at a "sham meeting."

"It is beyond callous, and can only be seen as malicious discrimination. It is an unabashed attempt to eliminate the black population of New Orleans," said Kali Akuno, an organizer with the group.

A recent shake-up on the seven-member City Council turned it into a majority white chamber for the first time since the 1980s, a shift that will certainly make the vote even more racially charged.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071220/ap_on_re_us/katrina_public_housing_9

CIA to turn over videotape

CIA to turn over videotape documents By PAMELA HESS, Associated Press Writer
36 minutes ago

Under a subpoena threat, the CIA is expected to quickly begin turning over to Congress documents related to the destruction of videotapes showing the harsh interrogation of two terror suspects.

The agency could begin producing the material as early as Thursday, according to senior intelligence officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because of ongoing investigations into the destruction of the tapes in 2005.

President Bush declined to address the controversy, saying at a White House news conference he was confident that administration and congressional investigations "will end up enabling us all to find out what exactly happened." He repeated his assertion that his "first recollection" of being told about the tapes and their destruction was when CIA Director Michael Hayden briefed him on it earlier this month.

At the Justice Department, investigators were combing through CIA e-mails and other documents and planning to interview former agency officials. One official familiar with the investigation said the review so far indicates that Alberto Gonzales, who served as White House counsel and then attorney general, advised against destroying the videotapes as one of four senior Bush administration attorneys discussing how to handle them. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because of the ongoing investigation. Gonzales' attorney, George Terwilliger, declined comment.

Another of the administration attorneys, John Bellinger, then a lawyer at the National Security Council, has told colleagues that administration lawyers came to a consensus that the tapes should not be destroyed, said a senior official familiar with Bellinger's account of the 2003 White House discussion. Bellinger could not be reached for comment.

"The clear recommendation of Bellinger and the others was against destruction of the tapes," the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter. "The recommendation in 2003 from the White House was that the tapes should not be destroyed."

House Intelligence Committee Chairman Silvestre Reyes, D-Texas, said Wednesday the CIA had agreed to turn over the documents sometime this week after he prepared subpoenas for former and current CIA officials and attorneys if they don't voluntarily come before the committee to testify about the tapes. The document request includes records related to the 9/11 Commission and to al-Qaida conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui, whose attorneys were seeking interrogation videos.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071220/ap_on_go_co/cia_videotapes&printer=1...

Summers Criticizes Handling

Summers Criticizes Handling of Crises
Bush, Fed 'Behind the Curve,' Ex-Treasury Secretary Says

By Neil Irwin
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, December 20, 2007; D01

President Bush and the Federal Reserve aren't taking aggressive enough action to prevent a recession, former Treasury secretary Lawrence H. Summers said yesterday, as Democrats ramped up their attacks on the administration's handling of the housing downturn and credit crises.

Summers, who worked in the Clinton administration, said the risk of a prolonged recession is higher than most economists recognize. He said it is "distinctly possible" that the nation will experience its worst economic conditions since the stagflation of the 1970s and severe recessions of the early '80s.

"For the last year, the economic consensus, and the policy actions that have flowed from it, has been consistently behind the curve in recognizing the gravity of the problems in the housing and financial sectors and their consequences for the overall economy," Summers said in a speech at the Brookings Institution.

At the same event, Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.), chairman of the Joint Economic Committee, lambasted the administration. "As our country teeters on the edge of recession . . . the Bush administration is just whistling into the wind. They seem to be unable to get the government moving quickly, decisively and competently to address a serious economic crisis."

The Bush administration has undertaken a series of actions to ease the damage to the economy from the mounting foreclosure crisis, though much of this response came after the scope of the problem became clear this fall. Among other steps, it persuaded mortgage lenders to delay a rise in interest rates on hundreds of thousands of subprime loans, a step that Schumer said is "too little, too late, and too dependent on the voluntary goodwill of the private sector."

"President Bush and the administration have taken aggressive, positive steps, working with others in the private and nonprofit sectors to prevent avoidable foreclosures," said Jennifer Zuccarelli, a spokeswoman for the Treasury Department. She added that Congress has not passed key legislation to deal with the problem, notably overhauls of a government mortgage insurer and the way housing finance companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are regulated.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/12/19/AR200712...

no maron and seder?

no maron and seder?

oh man was it, 11:00

oh man was it, 11:00 eastern? jeesh

Maron and Seder were on already

this AM.

It's almost time for Seder in for Randi!

City Installs Festivus Pole

NEW HAVEN, CT - In an effort to recognize the diverse traditions of the holiday season, the City has installed a Festivus pole in the Market Street square. A dedication ceremony is scheduled for Saturday afternoon. With the addition of this new holiday centerpiece, the square is now thought to be the most diverse public display of late fall holiday symbols in the country.

"We're glad that we can please so many different people." said Phyllis Strauttman, Executive Director of the Mayor's Religious and Ethnic Tolerance Initiative. "These Festivus people seem like a lot of fun."

Festivus, a non-sectarian holiday, has grown in popularity since the mid 1990's, and is celebrated by people from all walks of life. The simple, lightly adorned aluminum pole - with a very high strength-to-weight ratio - is thought to symbolize opposition to other highly commercialized holidays.

Critics, however, warn that the display may be seen as an attempt by the City to promote Festivus. "The government shouldn't be condoning this." said Gerald Davis, a local activist who has lobbied for a lighted tree in the square. "The holidays are no time for the airing of grievances - that could tear families apart."

The square now boasts, along with the pole, a set of kinara Kwanzaa candles, an oversized bronze Menorah, a Ramadan prayer rug, a large World Aids Day ribbon, an Esperanto plaque commemorating Zamenhof Day, A Finnish Independence Day flag and an x-mas tree.

Nation's Crumbling Infrastructure Probably Some Sort Of Metaphor

Many believe our overstretched and obsolete infrastructure may symbolize something important.

In late 2007, the American Society of Civil Engineers conducted a full investigation into the nation's dams, highways, and public utilities, and gave the United States an overall grade of "D" for its upkeep. Unfortunately, however, the agency was unable to determine what, if anything, the country's complete and utter failure in every category it measures might mean in a larger sense.

"Everywhere you turn you see improperly maintained railways, structurally deficient bridges—not to mention billions of gallons of untreated sewage flowing directly into our groundwater," said Adam Perry, a representative for the ASCE. "Is there an underlying message here? There are so many layers, and each one is so subtle and nuanced, that I'm hesitant to make any kind of blanket statement about what this means 'for America.'"

"I think our overstretched and increasingly obsolete infrastructure might symbolize something important," Perry added. "But what?"

~-~-~

Festivus for the Rest of Us

doh, what a dope I am!

doh, what a dope I am! Hurried home to be here at 11, but I'm in Oregon. Must be the Christmas prep insanity has completely settled in. Well, something to watch next week during all the rerun shows.

why are we wasting our tax dollars chasing after potheads?

Dear Friend,

Last week, AlterNet's drug coverage won the Edward M. Brecher Award for Journalism. But we need more funding to fully expose the miserable failure they call the "war on drugs."

Every year we think that the whole dumb, dirty travesty known as the "war on drugs" -- it's really a war on people -- is going to slow down. But it doesn't.

In fact, drug arrests are up. And, as The Washington Post reported, "the focus of the drug war in the United States has shifted significantly over the past decade from hard drugs to marijuana." And they're not even talking about pot dealers. Shockingly, almost nine out of ten of the all-time record 829,627 marijuana arrests made last year were for possession -- not for sales or trafficking, just for possession. That's one pot-related arrest every 38 seconds -- why are we wasting our tax dollars chasing after potheads?

As Rob Kampia of the Marijuana Policy Project wrote on AlterNet: "That's like arresting every man, woman and child in the state of North Dakota plus every man, woman and child in Des Moines, Iowa, on marijuana charges ... every year. By comparison, there were 611,523 arrests last year for all violent crimes combined."

(No subject)

Maron v. Seder mp3 (12-20-07) 20mg 40kbps/24kHz stereo

Waxman is one busy man!!!

Bush backs EPA's decision on Calif. plan

Bush Stands Behind EPA's Refusal to Back California's Tailpipe Emissions Law

ERICA WERNER
AP News

Dec 20, 2007 13:20 EST

Congressional Democrats on Thursday announced an investigation of the Environmental Protection Agency's refusal to let California implement its tailpipe emissions law, the first step in what will likely be a fierce legal and political battle.

House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Henry Waxman, D-Calif., sent a letter to EPA Administrator Stephen L. Johnson demanding "all documents relating to the California waiver request, other than those that are available on the public record."

Waxman told Johnson to have EPA staff preserve all records. The decision against California "appears to have ignored the evidence before the agency and the requirements of the Clean Air Act," Waxman wrote. He asked for all the relevant documents by Jan. 23.

Johnson on Wednesday denied his decision was political, saying it was based on legal analysis of the Clean Air Act. His refusal blocks California and at least 16 other states that wanted to adopt California's law slashing greenhouse gas emissions from new cars and trucks by a third.

President Bush stood by the decision of his EPA administrator.

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/2007/12/bush_backs_epas_decision_on_ca...

Maron v. Seder mp3 (12-20-07) download only link

The Origins of "Festivus"

The Festivus idea originally came to Seinfeld writer Dan O'Keefe from a tradition started by his father Daniel O'Keefe.

The elder O'Keefe had discovered the Festivus holiday in a book, published in 1966, that outlined obscure holidays.
[...]
His father, a former editor at Reader's Digest, said the first Festivus took place in February 1966, before any of his children were born, as a celebration of the anniversary of his first date with his wife, Deborah. The word "Festivus" just popped into his head, he said from his home in Chappaqua, N.Y.

The holiday evolved during the 1970's, when the elder Mr. O'Keefe began doing research for his book "Stolen Lightning" (Vintage 1983), a work of sociology that explores the ways people use cults, astrology and the paranormal as a defense against social pressures.

New York Times - 19 December 2004
http://festivusweb.com/origin-of-festivus.htm

------------
http://www.religioustolerance.org/festivus.htm
History and rituals of Festivus:

The Roman comic poet Plautus from the 3rd century BCE originally used the term Festivus to refer to "wild celebrations attended by average citizens cutting lose on religious holidays." 2

Festivus is now a recently invented secular day of celebration for the entire family and friends. It is held annually on DEC-23 -- about half-way between the Winter Solstice and Christmas. It was apparently created in 1966-FEB by Daniel O'Keefe, of Chappaqua, NY. (b ~1928).

♦♦♦♦
"Religion is regarded by the common people as true; by the wise as false; and by the rulers as useful." -Seneca 4-65 CE
♦♦♦♦
One election at a time...

The former CEO of Fannie Mae

The former CEO of Fannie Mae says the Bush administration helped orchestrate an accounting scandal that cost him his job and that he needs White House documents to defend himself in a shareholder lawsuit. Franklin Raines argued in court documents that the Bush administration felt the government-chartered agency had too much power in the mortgage industry and that the White House's efforts to weaken Fannie Mae triggered the $6 billion accounting scandal at the company. (AP)

http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/004952.php

Thanks Brett

I'm going to listen to it tonight after work.

Soon sam will be on again.

Why no Bagels?

Hmm...

Although I haven't had one for at least 6 months if not longer. Sigh.

Tea Cheers, Ms_Anthrope!

Hope you're having a joyous sunny week! I'm drinking Red Raspberry herb tea, although I've been herb tea snarfing today...earlier had Apple Cider Herb Tea, and before that, Ginger Snappish. All delicious. :-)

Thank you Brett!!!!!

Thank you Brett!!!!!

No Bagels

Annette, don't you remember that episode? Cramer was boycotting the bagel shop he worked at in the 70's.

Bear Stearns Posts First

Bear Stearns Posts First Loss in 84 Years
Bad Mortgages Led to the Investment Bank's First Ever Quarterly Losses

By JOE BEL BRUNO
AP Business Writer
Dec. 20, 2007—

NEW YORK (AP) -- Bear Stearns Cos., the No. 5 U.S. investment bank, said Thursday a bigger-than-expected writedown in its mortgage portfolio caused the first quarterly loss in the company's 84-year history.

Bear Stearns also said members of its executive committee, including Chief Executive James Cayne, will not receive bonuses for 2007.

The fiscal fourth-quarter loss after paying preferred dividends was $859 million, or $6.90 per share, compared to a profit of $558 million, or $4 per share, a year earlier. The company had negative net revenue of $379 million, compared to revenue of $2.41 billion a year earlier.

The results broadly missed Wall Street expectations, as analysts were unable to get a handle on exactly how exposed Bear Stearns was to risky subprime mortgage securities. Analysts polled by Thomson Financial had expected a loss of $1.79 per share on $625.1 million of revenue for the quarter ended Nov. 30. No analyst polled by Thomson expected a loss of more than $2.45 per share.

"We are obviously upset with our 2007 results, particularly in light of the fact that weakness in fixed income more than offset strong and, in some areas, record-setting performance in other businesses," Cayne said in a statement.

Cayne, under pressure like other chief executives on Wall Street, warned in November that the investment bank would take a $1.2 billion writedown from subprime-related investments and fixed-income trading. And, like rival firms, the losses ended up being much steeper.

Like Morgan Stanley's John Mack, Cayne will pass up a bonus that topped $40 million last year. It was not clear how much smaller, if at all, either man's bonus would have been this year.

http://abcnews.go.com/Business/MarketTalk/story?id=4032338&page=1

Tancredo announcement soon

Probably while Sam is on.

You're Welcome!!!!!

kthc!

:~)

Argh...

I'd forgotten. I'm such a Seinfeld junkie, that this is indeed a sad fact. Just watched the one where George finds his nemesis, Cramer runs into the (7 finger) Van Buren boys and sells his story to Peterman for his book and then is forbidden from repeating his stories, and Jerry is dating a great girl but dumps her because everyone acts like she's a dog.

‘This Is Not The Lunatic Fringe — This Is Mainstream America’

Wexler On Impeachment: ‘This Is Not The Lunatic Fringe — This Is Mainstream America’

Today on the Ed Schultz Show, Rep. Robert Wexler (D-FL) discussed his effort to increase public pressure for the commencement of impeachment hearings against Vice President Dick Cheney. Wexler has launched a website — WexlerWantsHearings.com — to collect signatures in support of his call.

Wexler explained that he launched his website after traditional media outlets rejected an op-ed he had written with his colleagues Luis Gutierrez (D-IL) and Tammy Baldwin (D-WI):

We laid out precisely why the House Judiciary Committee should open up hearings. … And we set out in an op-ed why we should do it, and none of the major newspapers in the country — the New York Times or the Washington Post, the Boston Globe, the LA Times — they chose not to run it.

I thought it was a fairly significant statement by the mainstream media that when members of the House Judiciary Committee lay out a credible claim for why impeachment hearings should begin regarding the Vice President of the United States, and they refuse to run it, then we decided well we would start this website…and see what the feeling was in terms of mainstream America.

Listen to it:

Wexler said he has been “astonished” by the outpouring of support — over 100,000 have signed up in five days. He said he plans to write a letter to House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers (D-MI) in early January, asking him to begin start impeachment hearings.

“This is not the lunatic fringe — this is mainstream America,” Wexler said. These are “people that believe in the very patriotic vision, and they’re all very upset about what they see as the abuse of power by this administration and the failure of Congress to hold them accountable.”

http://thinkprogress.org/2007/12/20/wexler-impeachment/

Wow...

I'm stunned...my co worker (in her 80's) - she is part of the peace group in town that protest every Thursday night...Anyway..she just came and told me that because of something I told her yesterday, and because of what she heard from Ralph Nader on the Unreasonable Man, she said "Kucinich is getting my vote"

Neat. :)

-- Van Buren boys---

I saw that one last night.

8-)

City Installs Festivus Pole

now there's a progressive city. celebrating the holidays with pole dancing:

We chase potheads to mask capitalism's failures--

Criminal offenders are not only excluded from society by imprisonment and post-prison sanctions, but also due to the subtle fact that those in prison are ignored by most measures of economic well-being. For instance, the unemployment rate measures the nonworking share of the labor force -- those who are actively seeking work. Omitted from this definition, however, are the institutionalized and in particular the incarcerated.

http://www.cepr.net/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1138

morning gang!

thanks for the SaMaron download.

HAHAHA...funny, Dan... :)

--City Installs Festivus Pole
Submitted by dan on Thu, 12/20/2007 - 2:46pm.--

Bear Stearns Posts First

toni, what is absolutely amazing is that the brokers are posting these tremendous losses and their stock is going up in price rather than down.

I saw you guys put up some funny cartoons yesterday..

the ladies here liked some of them a lot...of course I forget which ones they were now...

-- Unreasonable Man---

I saw that the other night ... there was a lot of good stuff in it.

8-)

Yessiree Bob, Kevin... ;)

I missed recording it at 1:30 am - so I'm just going to buy the dvd...You know it was made by the woman who played Alice in The Brady Bunch movie..she is a friend of my friend..so I'll see where to buy it that gives her the most kick back..if she gets kick back I mean..

Henriette Mantel

Writer, Director, Executive Producer, Henriette Mantel is a writer, actress and stand-up comic. She has extensive experience in documentary and reality television as a writer/producer on such shows as the Emmy Award winning "The Osbournes", and Michael Moore's "The Awful Truth." She won her first Emmy for writing on "Win Ben Stein's Money". Most recently she was a consultant for HBO's "The Comeback" and co-authored the book "Speedbumps: Flooring It Through Hollywood" with Teri Garr. As an actress, Henriette has appeared in many feature films and television comedies. In the late 1970s, before deciding to spend her life in smoky comedy clubs and cramped writers' rooms, she spent two years in Washington, DC, working with Ralph Nader at his Center for the Study of Responsive Law.

113608 signed at Wexlerwantshearings.com, and counting

http://wexlerwantshearings.com/

Email all your friends.

♦♦♦♦
"Religion is regarded by the common people as true; by the wise as false; and by the rulers as useful." -Seneca 4-65 CE
♦♦♦♦
One election at a time...

Maron v Seder quality

after the first five minutes of them talking, It gets better.

I did not edit out the 'dead air' because as everyone knows, it's a major part of every show. *snark*

Also near the end is a choppy minute, but most of the show was flawless, in rec quality and content.

I think we get Sammy cam today during Rhodes

I hope, I hope, I hope.

♦♦♦♦
"Religion is regarded by the common people as true; by the wise as false; and by the rulers as useful." -Seneca 4-65 CE
♦♦♦♦
One election at a time...

Sir Brett..I would vote for you

Princess F.

I seriously ate two slices

I seriously ate two slices of bacon I had cooked three days ago and now my urine smells like Nancy Pelosi's hairy reed.

I need to get healthy.

Bring it.

I think Morgan Stanley's stock went down...

90's - 50's

That dude didn't get his bonus either...poor a-hole..the company should donate his bonus....

Can you IM sam with Google

Can you IM sam with Google talk? why not?

Peace All!

Nothing like a real estate grab to get a protest going. The government has over 7000 houses that they don't know what to do in and around New Orleans and now they want the "projects" that are well constructed and located on some very prime land.

Start with a Federal sponsored flood and allow the (newly white) local shitty council to steel the poor peoples places.

Fascism according to plan.

For weather in New Orleans go here: http://weather.abc26.com/auto/abc26/radar/radblast.asp?zoommode=pan&prev...

Cui Bono?

Hi Red!

with meebo.com you can IM anyone on any system ... I haven't tried it, but allegedly...

you'd better...

...bounce yer boobies tomorrow, Sammer.

grrrrr!

Huckaphobia

A healthy condition

Cui Bono?

Thx PB. Wexler's page is blowing up.

The count is upto 113820 and growing fast.

Silence = Acquiescence

Oaxaca's uprising didn't amount to a full-blown nationwide

protest...even as hard as I wished for that to happen too...I keep imagining something like this will happen...I'm too scared to go riot by myself...

Submitted by Alice on Thu,

Submitted by Alice on Thu, 12/20/2007 - 3:06pm.

thanks... looking a it now

Oh yeah, and that vice

Oh yeah, and that vice president engineer marketing dude needs to give me my shoe back. Dick. Without the branch. Next year I'll not daytrade, I promise. I just want my shoe.

Because I'm totally nice, and shockingly normal, and DADDY DOESN'T HAVE TIME FOR NOT HAVING ONE SHOE OUT OF TWO SHOES.

http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Cyprus/1506/puttywad.htm

That's me. Make it a good show or I'll vomit foam like a cat reinventing horror movies.

Annette..

are you the person with the Charlie Brown music from all the tv specials in one? I have Linus and Lucy George Winston..but that one you have sounds as good...I want it..

70th!

w00t

Tromper you have made me giggle a bunch of times

since I started seeing your nic here...thanks... :)

Yet another reason to reject Hillary--

The 1990s will end up being the most punishing decade on record in American History. By year end 1999, far more prisoners will have been added to America's prisons and jails than in any decade in recorded history. The 688,207 prisoners added to America's institutions during the 1990s is 61% higher than the number of prisoners added during the 1980s, and is nearly 30 times as many as the average number added during the five decades before 1970 in which the incarcerated population increased. Our incarceration rate plays such a distorting role in the labor market, one study found that the U.S. unemployment rate would be 2% higher if prisoners and jail inmates were counted
http://www.cjcj.org/pubs/punishing/punishing.html

HAHAHA...funny, Dan... :)

i have trouble taking the holidays seriously. this frickin war on christmas has really brought the wackos out in our part of the country. the local news sponsors a blog on topics of local interest. consider the following diatribe about public displays of the nativity:

The part of the First Amendment that all the Jesus haters want us to forget is this part:

"...NOR PROHIBIT THE FREE EXERCISE THEREOF..."

That means you do NOT have the right to STOP me from putting my privately-funded Nativity scene any place I want to, including public property. That's right!

When you refuse to allow me to freely exercise my right to worship when, where and to whom I please, you violate my First Amendment rights. PERIOD. If I want to pray on the courthouse steps, I will do so and you will NOT violate my rights by trying to stop me. I am free to worship God as I please as a private citizen ANYWHERE IN THIS COUNTRY, INCLUDING ALL PUBLIC AREAS!!!

It's high time we Christians put our collective foot down and put a stop to this abuse of our First Amendment rights. It's high time we Christians - Catholic, Protestant, Evangelical, and every other religion who worships Jesus Christ as the Son of God - rose up as the largest body of American citizens and demand our right to worship where, when and how we please to be ENFORCED, not violated!

There is NO right to freedom FROM religion in our country. There is no Amendment that allows athiests and other people to deny us our right to worship JESUS CHRIST. If you don't like religion, that's your problem, and your personal right, but you have NO LEGAL RIGHT to stop me or any other Christian from worshipping as we please, or where we please. You may NOT PROHIBIT MY FREE EXERCISE OF RELIGION. That IS my Constitutional right, and by God, I intend to keep it.

It's time we defended our faith in Jesus Christ and our right to worship Him with every bit as much vehemence and insistance that other religions defend their god. If other nations want to kill people for insulting their god, then we Christians MUST DEMAND the same respect for Jesus Christ. It is time for revival and to rise!

What's the deal w/ Lauren's lighting?

Is she hungover from the AAR holiday party, yesterday?

William James


"I am done with great things and big plans, great institutions and big success. I am for those tiny, invisible loving human forces that work from individual to individual, creeping through the crannies of the world like so many rootlets, or like the capillaries."

--William James, *The Will to Believe*

morgan stanley

was at 48 when they announced their quarter. they have since gone up to 51. i went short thinking
it would plummet like a rock. i'm still holding out in hope of breaking even.

That Lieberman sound

What is that trumpeting noise that gets played every time a Lieberman report is made? I MUST HAVE IT!!!

Why is Lauren on 10 second

Why is Lauren on 10 second delay, but Maron is not?

NPR would have done well to mention this yesterday during

their story about MS

--48 when they announced their quarter. they have since gone up to 51.--

Linus and Lucy

The "jam" rock band called "moe." has a killer version of Linus and Lucy. found it on i-tunes. excellent.

yes the band is "moe." small m and followed by a period.

no word yet on if there's a curly., larry., or shemp.

Hey Sam, What happened to

Hey Sam, What happened to Josh ?

Why is Lauren on 10 second delay, but Maron is not?

'cuz that is Sam Seder, Maron is most likely somewhere thinking.

Cui Bono?

Re: Lauren on 10-second delay

Glad someone else is seeing that. I was wondering if it was just my system. (She's been delayed like that every time I've SammyCam'd in the last month.)

DHS finalizing plans for

DHS finalizing plans for domestic spy satellite program
Nick Juliano

Congress has not been updated since civil liberties concerns delayed satellite spying
A plan to dramatically widen US law enforcement agencies' access to data from powerful spy satellites is moving toward implementation, as Department of Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff expects to finalize a charter for the program this week, according to a new report.

Chertoff insists the scheme to turn spy satellites -- that were originally designed for foreign surveillance -- on Americans is legal, although a House committee that would approve the program has not been updated on the program for three months.

"We still haven't seen the legal framework we requested or the standard operation procedures on how the NAO will actually be run," House Homeland Security Chairman Bennie G. Thompson tells the Wall Street Journal. Thompson was referring to the National Applications Office -- a new DHS subset that would coordinate access to spy-satellite data for non-military domestic agencies, including law enforcement.

Civil liberties concerns delayed the program after lawmakers and outside activists wondered how the program would be structured to protect Americans from unconstitutional surveillance from the powerful satellites, which can see through cloud cover, trees and even concrete buildings.

The program's charter remains unfinalized, but Chertoff said it will use clear language to explain legal restrictions on the data's use. Warrants will be obtained when required before collecting satellite intelligence, and the program won't use technology to intercept verbal communications, according to the Journal.

http://rawstory.com/news/2007/DHS_finalizing_plans_for_domestic_spy_1220...

Boobies, please

Sam, bouncing boobies with you, who understands fans who enjoy live blogging to video, my goodness!! I am think you'll do great no matter what you decide to do!!!

:)

Lakota Indians secede from

Lakota Indians secede from US
Treaties 'merely worthless words on paper.' No longer US citizens.

http://rawstory.com/news/2007/Descendants_of_Sitting_Bull_Crazy_Horse_12...

flutecake, boobies are only on Fridays

(he *has* played it in the past, for the sake of RR fans)

LA LA

Fa La La La La La, La La La Lauren!!

Bush 'fine' with foreign

Bush 'fine' with foreign investors taking stakes in US banks

US President George W. Bush said Thursday he was "fine" with foreign investors snapping up hefty shareholdings in top US banks and financial firms.

Speaking at a White House press conference, Bush said America welcomed overseas investors and warned against protectionist sentiments.

"I'm fine with capital coming in from overseas," Bush said, adding "I don't think it's a problem."

Bush, a former oil executive and businessman, spoke a day after Morgan Stanley, one of America's biggest and most prestigious investment banks, said the state-controlled China Investment Corporation (CIC) had obtained a five-billion-dollar stake in the bank.

Morgan Stanley, like other big US financial firms, is reeling from multibillion dollar losses tied to the US housing slump and tighter global credit markets.

The deal enables CIC to gain up to a 9.9 percent shareholding in Morgan Stanley. It followed a similar deal last month which saw a United Arab Emirates investment fund become one of Citigroup's biggest shareholders through a 7.5 billion dollar investment.

Citigroup is America's second-largest financial group by market worth.

CIC grabbed a three-billion-dollar stake in the Blackstone Group, a large US private equity firm, earlier this year and China's CITIC Securities Co. Ltd. bought a six percent shareholding in Bear Stearns, another troubled US investment house, for one billion dollars in October.

Bush said he was not concerned by the flurry of deals mounted by funds controlled by foreign governments. The deals have so far not given the funds control over management at Morgan Stanley and the other firms.

"I think the world that is open for investment and trade is a world that'll lead to overall prosperity," Bush said.

http://rawstory.com/news/afp/Bush_fine_with_foreign_investors_ta_1220200...

Lauren is praticing voodoo

Poking people

Cui Bono?

Alice - I can send it to you

via yousendit. :-) I'm afraid I'm not a site holder. But it works just as well

I'll get that to ya later, girlie. I'm at work now.

*gasp* Can't do that here? LOL

Although my computer *does* have a DVDR...

what's the point of that anyway? Can't record movies, or if you can, I haven't figured out how.

But I think that was maggiesboy that posted it. He's got it all. :-)

Look, I know all about

Look, I know all about Skagway.

And this guy isn't calling from there unless he's slurring his speech. And he's not even trying to fake it.

The Grinch doesn't even CARE ABOUT SKAGWAY. Damn, Donnie.

Let's get some more psychotic callers.

One sample of "Republicans hate evangelicals"

This one's of Tucker Carlson confessing an inside scoop...

http://www.americablog.com/2006/10/tucker-carlson-republicans-hate.html

... but I believe David Kuo intimated the same thing after leaving the White House. Basically, the evangelicals are supposed to be there as a voting bloc, but shouldn't expect any satisfaction once Republicans are put in office.

Cashed-up China set to hunt

Cashed-up China set to hunt down more US bargains

Fresh from a five-billion-dollar investment in Morgan Stanley, China's cashed-up government is set to go shopping for more bargains as it takes advantage of the financial turmoil in the United States.

China's sovereign wealth fund created global headlines on Wednesday when it seized on Morgan Stanley's credit problems and grabbed a 9.9-percent stake in one of Wall Street's oldest and most storied investment firms.

It was the second high-profile foray in the United States by the newly created China Investment Corporation, Beijing's 200-billion-dollar behemoth whose orders are to cruise global markets in search of sweet investment deals.

"It wouldn't surprise me if there were more Chinese investments in financial institutions in the US," Paul Cavey, a Hong Kong-based economist with Macquarie Bank, told AFP.

Aside from CIC, Cavey said that China in general would dramatically ramp up its global financial presence, given that currently the Asian nation accounts for only one percent of the world's total overseas investments.

"You would expect (foreign direct investment) to rise at least five percent of the world total if not more," Cavey said.

"You could easily see 200 billion dollars a year being invested overseas. That wouldn't all be in foreign direct investment. Some of them would be in portfolio investment, indices or bonds, but it's clearly a lot of money."

CIC acted with exquisite timing on Morgan Stanley, according to Zhang Ming, from the China Academy of Social Sciences, who agreed that the fund would strike again as it took advantage of the credit crisis in the United States.

http://rawstory.com/news/afp/Cashed_up_China_set_to_hunt_down_mo_1220200...

Hey Sam,Lauren all.

094 comments already holy damn!?!

Hi Maddy!

♦♦♦♦
"Religion is regarded by the common people as true; by the wise as false; and by the rulers as useful." -Seneca 4-65 CE
♦♦♦♦
One election at a time...

The guy should have put up a

The guy should have put up a giant star and crescent on that Alaskan hill.

Maybe "Praise Allah" in big letters..

this guy doesnt believe in " Separation with Church and State " ?

IDIOT

cross on the hill is passive?

just stupid. ... why do all these fools call radio shows - to prove teir ignorance ?

Any Questions?

"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion..."

Cui Bono?

No religious test shall be required.

♦♦♦♦
"Religion is regarded by the common people as true; by the wise as false; and by the rulers as useful." -Seneca 4-65 CE
♦♦♦♦
One election at a time...

Hey why dont they put up a

Hey why dont they put up a Satanic pentagram on that hill....

Its "passive" too

Sam is making his argument harder than it needs to be

the issue is:

"creating / forcing a Xian identity in a state-funded, public arena"

The declaration of ONE religion, by definition, excludes OTHERS from the social norm. Not only does monotheism or cultural uniformity decrease social cohesiveness or *attachment* for the 'Norm', but also for the Excluded...

To have ONE religion emphasized is the diminishment of the OTHERS who also form a part of the cultural identity of an area.

Since when does a democracy in North America exist at the exclusion of other religions?

...?

Exclusion is the basis of creating The Other against which we might aggress or dehumanize.

& nobody benefits when a society is comfortable making those sorts of arbitrary divisions... "its all Fun & Games until The Crying starts"

~~~
Spread Love...

BlueBerry Pick'n
can be found @
ThisCanadian
~~~
"We, two, form a Multitude" ~ Ovid.
~~~
"Silent Freedom is Freedom Silenced"

Thanks, Plooger...

Nice to see you, again. I remember you from Maron's blog & Air America Place (where I am a mod by another name). I was remarking about the boobies only because Sam seemed to wonder if he should bounce tomorrow and I think that would be fun!

I logged on just to request it!! Seeing lots of names from the old days! Why didn't I do this before???!!!

d'oh!! (Of course, I am skiving off work, too! Shhhhhh!)

Has Michael Bolton called in

Has Michael Bolton called in yet? Did I miss something?

Lets worship Christ ? Who

Lets worship Christ ?

Who the FUCK does that guy think he is ?

Alright. I give up. That's

Alright. I give up. That's my favourite Christmas song as well and my partner stopped telling me to stop playing it and there was a lot of NON STOPPAGE.

See you at the restroom.

Tancredo drops White House

Tancredo drops White House bid. Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-CO) “abandoned his long-shot bid for the Republican presidential nomination Thursday afternoon.” One of the congressman’s most recent presidential ads claimed that immigrants coming into the United States are “pushing drugs, raping kids, and destroying lives.”

http://migramatters.blogspot.com/2007/12/tancredos-newest-ad-immigrants-...

Ah, gotcha, flutecake. I'd missed his pondering.

Maron & AAPlace... sigh... we've slid a long was since the beginning.

Happy thoughts, happy thoughts....

No separation??

If that caller erroneously thinks there is no separation of church and state in the Constitution, how about where it calls for it in the Bible, itself, when Jesus said, "Render unto Caesar that which is Caesar's, and render unto god that which is god's."?

==========================================================================
Some people are like Slinkies... not good for much, but bring a smile to your face when pushed down the stairs.

Christians don't read their own Bibles

or they don't care. Jesus is reported to have discouraged his own followers against making a show of their religion in public. "go pray in your closets." I think Jesus would join up with the ACLU.

Hi SAM, LAUREN, HI EVERYBODY...

I had a slight computer connection meltdown.
Janice Brown

The Huckabee ad cross...

... in case you haven't seen it.

eya gang!

nice to see ya all!

I'm going to go smoke during

I'm going to go smoke during the break, but please. Oh please. Play that as a bumper a second time. Jokes are to be had, so it won't wreck anything.

three balls in the window pane

is that a Trinity reference? or is he saying he's more macho than the rest of us? three balls!

What's the deal w/ Lauren's lighting?

Hey plooger, I heard LAUREN was asked to join the BLUEMAN GROUP here on Broadway.
Janice Brown

I WANT MY SHOE BACK

I WANT MY SHOE BACK

TELL THAT ASSHOLE LURKER

TELL THAT ASSHOLE LURKER VICE PRESIDENT ENGINEER GUY THAT I WANT MY shoe back

*nod and heading for the backyard*

Lewis Black"

The president has handlers. I know that Bill Clinton had a handler, I know that. But handlers, the president has handlers. WHAT IS HE, LIKE A BEAR? What do they need, a big chunk of meat to get him from meeting to meeting? "Come on! Come on! Let's go into here. We're going to Air Force One."

He needs HANDLERS? Are you kidding me? The president who said to terrorists, "Bring it on"? The dumbest thing ever uttered, by anyone, anywhere. [Audience goes wild.]

He's the president. He's the leader of the Free World. And I am Schmucky the Clown. You mean to say, I could say something, and he would laugh so hard, his head would start spinning, and he'd be spittin' up, and then he'd jump up and start going nuts, and running around—"Holy fuck, get the meat, somebody get the meat! Jesus, get the meat already!" Fuck, he's out in the audience, he's biting Democrats."

"in the Closet"

you know... the middling-to-partial literacy issue could be the source of the entire Kloseted Khristian issue...

oh... they be FUBAR, all right...

~~~
Spread Love...
... but wear the Glove!

BlueBerry Pick'n
can be found @
ThisCanadian
~~~
"We, two, form a Multitude" ~ Ovid.
~~~
"Silent Freedom is Freedom Silenced"

Who is that person in the audio?

the guy that said the liberals were trying to destroy christmas.

Inspiration via

gardener the mad

Thanks SAM for the ANON free Thursdays....so nice..

Janice Brown

Black continues...

"And that book, wasnt good enough, for you Chritians, was it?You never see a Rabbi on TV, reading and mis-inerpreting the New Tesiment. Do you?. You called our book old, and yours new, and rewrote our book and rewrote the main character in it, didnt you?".

It's ok Maddy, the monitor needed a good wash

Inspiration via
new
Submitted by madgardener

Just not with soda pop.

Sunny J, wuzzup Boo boo?

Janice Brown

Re: "No separation" of church and state in the Constitution

I grow weary of the Right Wing drones telling their half-truths dribbled down from above. No, the Constitution does NOT include the phrase "separation of church and state"...

... but it DOES include a little thing called an amendment, of some merit, the First Amendment:

    Amendment 1 - Freedom of Religion, Press, Expression. Ratified 12/15/1791. Note

    Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

The phrase "separation of church and state" derives from President Thomas Jefferson's (no Constitutional slouch) use of the phrase, "wall of separation between church and state" in a letter to a Baptist group in 1802, and has become shorthand for referring to the gist of the Establishment Clause of the Constitution, the First Amendment.

3 Balls = Pawn Shop.

Maybe he is advertising he is for sale...cheap.

Silence = Acquiescence

Yeah

Yeah Bush really loves the troops. He's workin Hard to let Soldiers get raped!

Every once in a while

we reach down into the depths of the cosmos and pull out something perfect.

I see sucky bands who make great songs

do it all the time.

Art is

Art.

3 balls == trinity reference.

Wow, interesting observation. It's very possible that's just the subliminal message they were putting out, but we'll never know for sure.

Lauren & BlueManGroup?

huh?

Hi cfdem

No separation??
Submitted by cfdem on Thu, 12/20/2007 - 3:55pm.

Pretty Please, can you please edit the (==========)'s on that post, it's stretching the thread.

just shorten the string some, thanks

sincerely, the resident control freak, Brett :)

eya Janice

getting ready to take the fuzzy ones for a saunter

and then off to fix old cars.

thinking back over the

last three years.

we evolve...

The RABBI you never SEE on MSM...

Rabbi Yisroel Dovid Weiss Outside Annapolis Peace Confab... from "Neturei Karta International" & "Jews United Against Zionism"

~~~
Spread Love...
... but wear the Glove!

BlueBerry Pick'n
can be found @
ThisCanadian
~~~
"We, two, form a Multitude" ~ Ovid.
~~~
"Silent Freedom is Freedom Silenced"

Here's a more honest version

Silence = Acquiescence

These type of right-wing crimes

Are crimes that they would in turn say "oh this is for national security".

V for

Vendetta. ... ... V

That woman

who was raped by that republican company needs to take that company down. No sympathy.

In the summer or cold winter with a furnace

use a box fan. The noise is soothing and circulationg air is beter then stagnation when envirionmental systems activate only seldomly due to... global warming and mild winters.

I posted

the History of Christmas
in my open mic

♦♦♦♦
"Religion is regarded by the common people as true; by the wise as false; and by the rulers as useful." -Seneca 4-65 CE
♦♦♦♦
One election at a time...

Full Bong, chillin, nice song,

going to work in half an hour, have a good'n yeall.

Lauren you look

great today. Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays. ;)

SJ

I'm suffering from SJ car/project pic withdrawals. We're overdue!!!

Hi cfdem Is that

Hi cfdem

Is that better?

================================
Some people are like Slinkies... not good for much, but bring a smile to your face when pushed down the stairs.

I'm only 34, so am not by

I'm only 34, so am not by any means an expert. And I know nothing about radio marketing.

However.

I WANT MY SHOE BACK.

So Air America Man there, grow up and stop making your people flail. That's incorrect. And you'll be fired too, down the road. Without nepotism. Some of us actually are involved in some Arbitronic troniciality.

If you want truckers and old people dumping cash as your audience. Well then KEEP MY SHOE.

Dick.

Without the Branch.

WRONG!!!

If the CIA testifies, they will roll over on BushCo out of sheer spite.

This is an opportunity for the Dems to get the goods on Cheney on the record.

Silence = Acquiescence

BlackWater, et al: a Militarized ÜberKhristian Option

Once he was known as the "Flies On The Eyeballs" guy. Lately, he's been the vice president of controversial private security company Blackwater. Now, Cofer Black has a new position: top counterterrorism adviser to Massachusetts Republican Mitt Romney's presidential campaign. ...Blackwater VP Advising Mitt Romney on Terrorism, By Spencer Ackerman - September 19, 2007, 12:54PM
===

===
In the Black(water), JEREMY SCAHILL, posted May 22, 2006 (June 5, 2006 issue)
While companies like Halliburton may have raked in more profits since George W. Bush took office, few have seen growth as dramatic as Blackwater's. The firm has been at the front of the line at the domestic and international taxpayer-funded feeding troughs and has recently hired some high-profile former government officials, like Cofer Black, former chief of CIA counterterrorism, and former Pentagon Inspector General Joseph Schmitz. In March Black represented Blackwater at a conference in Jordan, announcing that the company was seeking to broaden its role in even more conflict zones. Blackwater is rapidly expanding its operations, creating a new surveillance-blimp division, launching new training facilities in California and the Philippines, and increasingly setting its sights on the lucrative world of DHS contracts. It is clamoring to get into Darfur and has also hired Chilean troops trained under the brutal rule of Augusto Pinochet.

"We scour the ends of the earth to find professionals," company president Gary Jackson told the Guardian. "The Chilean commandos are very, very professional, and they fit within the Blackwater system." The business magazine Fast Company recently named Jackson one of its "Fast 50," predicting that the company and its president are in for "a very strong (and long) decade."

It's hard to imagine that the cronyism that has marked the Bush Administration is not at play in Blackwater's success. Blackwater founder Erik Prince shares Bush's fundamentalist Christian views. He comes from a powerful Michigan Republican family and social circle, and his father, Edgar, helped Gary Bauer start the Family Research Council. According to a report prepared for The Nation by the Center for Responsive Politics, in all of Erik Prince's political funding generosity since 1989, he has never given a penny to a Democrat running for national office. Company president Jackson has also given money to Republican candidates.

For his part, Joseph Schmitz--the former Pentagon Inspector General turned general counsel to Blackwater's parent, The Prince Group--lists on his résumé membership in the Sovereign Military Order of Malta, a Christian militia formed before the First Crusade. Like Prince, he comes from a right-wing family; his father, former Congressman John Schmitz, was an ultraconservative John Birch Society director who later ran for President. Joseph Schmitz was once in charge of investigating private contractors like Blackwater, but he resigned amid allegations of stonewalling investigations conducted by his department. He now represents one of the most successful of those contractors.

~~~

Spread Love...
... but wear the Glove!

BlueBerry Pick'n
can be found @
ThisCanadian
~~~
"We, two, form a Multitude" ~ Ovid.
~~~
"Silent Freedom is Freedom Silenced"

sammycam looks great

sammycam looks great

Only occassional freezing..

Janice Brown

Sammy cam looks good to me!

You look great Sam! But Lauren isn't moving at all.

No News Is Good News

Submitted by cent on Thu, 12/20/2007 - 4:26pm.
...Silence = Acquiescence
----------
I need a mute girlfriend.

Myers

I don't understand why Congress is not dragging Myer's and company asses into the House right now! I mean what does it take for these people to do anything. Do they need video tape? Oh I forgot they had that and destroyed it.

Um, cfdem

I did not mean you should delete the content of your post, but yes it helps to remove some of those ======='s.

you need to use the edit button on the original post, then shorten those.

RE: Christians don't read their own Bibles

or they don't care. Jesus is reported to have discouraged his own followers against making a show of their religion in public. "go pray in your closets." I think Jesus would join up with the ACLU.

That is my other favorite bible quote, since it basically means Jesus said evangelicalism is a sin.

================================
Some people are like Slinkies... not good for much, but bring a smile to your face when pushed down the stairs.

Sam, what kind of IM do you mean?

Yahoo or what?

Lauren-cam

You look great Sam! But Lauren isn't moving at all.

Her cam seems to have a delay on it. Her lips don't move until about 5 seconds after we hear it.

================================
Some people are like Slinkies... not good for much, but bring a smile to your face when pushed down the stairs.

(No subject)

Cent,

The CIA is more loyal to Poppy than Jr. You could be dead on. Poppy could save face by letting Dubya take his come-up-ance, and he never did like Cheney.

♦♦♦♦
"Religion is regarded by the common people as true; by the wise as false; and by the rulers as useful." -Seneca 4-65 CE
♦♦♦♦
One election at a time...

hahahahahahhaha a'ight, the

hahahahahahhaha a'ight, the engineer can keep my shoe, despite the snorting joke being still funny after all these years.

Keep the damned shoe.

Remember though. Chalk can get expensive.

I need a mute girlfriend.

Oh CRANK, I hope girlie isn't listening--for your sake. WHAT?
Janice Brown

Can't edit it anymore

Sorry Brett, the post is apparently too old for me to take out the =====, the edit option is gone now.

Are you on a really small screen? It's no wider than the field on the My Account page.

Oh well, moot point now, anyway.

================================
Some people are like Slinkies... not good for much, but bring a smile to your face when pushed down the stairs.

PB

BushCo has been so heavy handed with and dismissive of the intelligence community it would not surprise me if this whole "tapes" thing is a ploy to get the CIA in front of Conyers and Leahy where they can ask some REAL questions.

After Cheney failed to alter the recent NIE, I had a feeling something like this was coming.

Silence = Acquiescence

Strange that

when mentioned on the radio during AP news at the top of the hour doesn't say the name of the company.

Cent,

Check out my Open Mic when you have time.

♦♦♦♦
"Religion is regarded by the common people as true; by the wise as false; and by the rulers as useful." -Seneca 4-65 CE
♦♦♦♦
One election at a time...

Conyers has disappointed me

I thought he'd be more bold when the Dems took congressional majority. Haven't heard much out of him this year.

ALICE, Queen of SAINTS and ANGELS...

you make the World a better place!
Janice Brown

I wonder what Abe Vigoda is doing today?

My mind a wanderin'...........................

Where it will gooooooooo O!

The Maron Seder Unwashed Subscription?

Did I hear Sam mention this? I missed the email address.

I'm in the UK and I think Sam is the best thing in media. Full stop. I mean Period.

Oh yes, and MM.

Full. Stop.

UKL

Re: Conyers...

Yeah, him, and Leahy, too. They're all far too bureaucratic, procedural and polite, as though the Bush Admin is business as usual and not meriting greater aggressiveness and scrutiny. Better than the Rubber Stamp Republican Congress, but still very disappointing.

new thread

Conyers and Leahy...

I can't help but feel they are ALL holding back for some reason. I just can't for the life of me figure out why. Even when they were in the minority they were more vocal than this.

Is this a timing thing? Are they holding off till the exposure of BushCo will have the most benefit???

God I hope so.

Silence = Acquiescence

uklistner

if you're interested in the maron seder show send sam an email at samsedershow@gmail.com he's assessing how many people will be in for subscribing when the time comes

boat

Is Lauren Going on the AA Cruse? If she is I'm there!!

boat

Is Lauren Going on the AA Cruse? If she is I'm there!!

Oh my GOD, let her out early

Oh my GOD, let her out early already, Sam. I want a nap too.

ARBY'S IS NO LONGER HIRING.

Nevermind.

Have a a great vacation, lady.

Now I'm going to have to rip on David_Pool all by myself. And that dickhead AAR guy behind you has me on a pogo stick.

Thanks for your energy, mang. Nice subbing. :) *absolut*

Garofalo still thinks that

Garofalo still thinks that Plaid Pantry is a superhero.

Do a drama, next. *nodwink*

hhahahahahaha *nod* You're

hhahahahahaha *nod* You're welcome. Don't get fired.