Wednesday's show

^^^^^

^^^^^

It's the old new thread.

This new thread is better than the other one. it is a `wardog-free' zone.

note: it is not a Wardog `free zone'...
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"The Once and Future Rajah of Bhong."

Wanna lay a friendly wager on this weeks' game?
I say KU's got nowhere to go but up...

How ya doin?

Submitted by Annette on Wed, 11/19/2008 - 11:25pm.
Wanna lay a friendly wager on this weeks' game?
-----
I confess that I don't know nuthin' 'bout nuthin' 'til I remember to look up the game results on the Innernets.

And the only reason I look up the game results is to see if I have another opportunity to twist the knife.

so should we compete with China to buyout the Big (Broke) 3?

It looks like the Chinese want to buy them out

>>How ya doin?

fair to middlin'. and you?
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"The Once and Future Rajah of Bhong."

I loves me a good truncation...

from the `Recent Comments Box:

#
Just Being A Bastard, Mostly
Crank Bait
11/19/2008 - 11:30pm

#
>>They don't want the rabble
Chubby Bubba
11/19/2008 - 11:23pm

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"The Once and Future Rajah of Bhong."

Submitted by 60th Street on Wed, 11/19/2008 - 11:32pm.
...It looks like the Chinese want to buy them out
------
(Taking it on the Chin, so to speak.)

I didn't know you cared! :-)

D'oh!

Shanghai'd!

#
I loves me a good
Chubby Bubba
11/19/2008 - 11:36pm

--------------------------------------------------
"I am A Great American Patriot !!!" - McCain Scroter
http://www.vodamusic.com/blog/

I'm same.

And the kitties? My Porscha is giving the teenager fits as we speak...

she's got a penchant for ink. Loves licking homework pages..

She likes eating plastic and playing with warm teabags, too.

Yeah, I know, strange cat. Every cat I've raised from kittenhood has turned out kinda weird...

President Barack Obama Bobble Head

http://www.entertainmentearth.com/prodinfo.asp?number=FU8530

Coming Soon!
Availability: Estimated to arrive in January 2009 (subject to change). Your credit card will not be charged until this item comes in stock.
Item Number: FU8530

Price: $9.99
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"The Once and Future Rajah of Bhong."

>>you did that on purpose right?

nope, it is serendipity and the miracle of truncation!
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"The Once and Future Rajah of Bhong."

Is this thread troll free?

WarDog's Mom?

"The Once and Future Rajah of Bhong."

Truncation: The Whole Story

>>Every cat I've raised from kittenhood has turned out kinda weird...

[shakes head] And they let you teach Sunday School...
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"The Once and Future Rajah of Bhong."

definitely George W. Bush.

How's that for truncation?

--------------------------------------------------
"I am A Great American Patriot !!!" - McCain Scroter
http://www.vodamusic.com/blog/

>>Truncation: The Whole Story

I'll read the Cliff's notes...
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"The Once and Future Rajah of Bhong."

Yeah Chubbs, but did you see War Dog's wife?

http://www.pheromonesthatwork.com/FatUglyWoman.jpg

or is this the real wife?

http://www.passionateamerica.com/pictures/Giuliani_Drag.jpg

That's a whole lotta guitar for a guy with only two working fingers on his fretting hand!

--------------------------------------------------
"I am A Great American Patriot !!!" - McCain Scroter
http://www.vodamusic.com/blog/

>>How's that for truncation?

it is not truncation if you type inside of the Subject box.

sorry, we must uphold our standards...
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"The Once and Future Rajah of Bhong."

Dept. of Homeland Security?

didn't see that coming!

A whole peck of truncations!

*
>>How's that for
Chubby Bubba
11/20/2008 - 12:18am
*
a favorite gypsy of mine
CranesAreFlying
11/20/2008 - 12:11am
*
I'm just sayin.
edna ellen poe
11/20/2008 - 12:10am
*
>>Truncation: The Whole
Chubby Bubba
11/20/2008 - 12:08am
*
the biggest dumbass is
CranesAreFlying
11/20/2008 - 12:07am
*
>>Every cat I've raised from
Chubby Bubba
11/20/2008 - 12:03am
*
My Next Essay Title
Crank Bait
11/20/2008 - 12:03am

*
WarDog's
Chubby Bubba
11/20/2008 - 12:01am

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"The Once and Future Rajah of Bhong."

and I am driving Steve crazy with romantic soul music

Is that the process for cloning those Mammoths?

Nice Django....

***

Brother Chubbs, consorting so much with the gorgio will get you banished from the tribe, don't you know that?

>>consorting so much with the gorgio will get you banished from the tribe

you mean Topo Gigio ? otherwise I have no clue what you just said...and neither did the googles tube.

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"The Once and Future Rajah of Bhong."

Googles Tube.

that is my new name for the internets.
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"The Once and Future Rajah of Bhong."

Ok, ok, I was just foolin'

everyone knows it means non-gypsy...

http://www.askoxford.com/concise_oed/gorgio?view=uk
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"The Once and Future Rajah of Bhong."

here's a site for Crank Bait:

http://wordnavigator.com/

here's it's results for the gorgio:

6 letters in word "gorgio": G G I O O R.

No anagrams for gorgio found in this word list.

Words found within gorgio:

gi gig gio giro go gogo goo goor gor grig grog igg io oi oo oor or rig rigg roo

Word lists related to gorgio:

Words within gorgio, by length
Words starting with gorgio
Words containing gorgio
Words ending with gorgio
Words formed from gorgio by changing one letter
Words starting with gorgio by next letter
Words that start with the letter g
Words that end in the letter o
Words starting with go
Words ending in io
Words beginning with gor
Words that end with gio
6 letter words starting with g

and there's links to all those wonderful sounding things!
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"The Once and Future Rajah of Bhong."

Bush 'seeks to ease wildlife law'

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7738933.stm

US environmentalists have accused President George W Bush of trying to rush through changes to the Endangered Species Act in his last days in office.

They say the changes could take away protection for animals and plants facing possible extinction.

The Bush administration wants to make it easier for drilling, mining and major construction projects to go ahead without a full scientific assessment.

Under current rules, the impact of such projects must be assessed by experts.

The changes proposed by the Bush administration would let federal agencies make the decisions without a full scientific assessment as to the likely impact on the environment.

Mr Bush has already been criticised by environmentalists for adding fewer than 10 species of plant and animals a year to the endangered list.

That contrasts with former President Bill Clinton, who added an average of 65 species a year.

Mr Bush has until Friday to publish the new rules, if they are to take effect before he leaves office.

If he presses ahead, environmental groups and some states are almost certain to challenge the decision in the courts.

President-elect Barack Obama will take office on 20 January, 2009.

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"The Once and Future Rajah of Bhong."

I don't know much about the Roma. All I know is my paternal grandmother was a full blooded Hungarian Gypsy. My dad, he stayed true to his heritage and bailed when I was 5. So my only exposure to that culture is what I have sought out over the years which isn't much....

It is an interesting heritage though....and considering the way I have moved around this country all my life, I am positive I have at least some of those gypsy genes.

Hitler HAD only got one ball

WORLD EXCLUSIVE

By ALEX PEAKE | Published: 19 Nov 2008

AN extraordinary account from a German army medic has finally confirmed what the world long suspected: Hitler only had one ball.

War veteran Johan Jambor made the revelation to a priest in the 1960s, who wrote it down.

The priest’s document has now come to light – 23 years after Johan’s death.

The war tyrant’s medical condition has been mocked for years in a British song.

The lyrics are: “Hitler has only got one ball, the other is in the Albert Hall. His mother, the dirty b****r, cut it off when he was small.’

Until now there has never been complete proof Hitler was monorchic – the medical term for having one testicle.

But the document tells how Johan saw the proof with his own eyes. In the account, he relives the horror of serving as an army medic in World War I.

He died aged 94 in 1985, but had told his secret to priest Franciszek Pawlar, who kept a note of their conversation.

Johan’s friend Blassius Hanczuch confirmed the priest’s account of how the medic saved Hitler’s life. He said: “In 1916 they had their hardest fight in the Battle of the Somme.

“For several hours, Johan and his friends picked up injured soldiers. He remembers Hitler.

“They called him the ‘Screamer’. He was very noisy. Hitler was screaming ‘help, help’.

“His abdomen and legs were all in blood. Hitler was injured in the abdomen and lost one testicle. His first question to the doctor was: ‘Will I be able to have children?’.”

Blassius said that when the Nazis swept to power Johan began to suffer nightmares and blame himself for saving Hitler.

Hitler’s genitals have long caused controversy. Some historians dismissed the “one ball” song as propaganda. But an alleged Soviet autopsy on Hitler backed it up.

Records show Hitler did suffer a groin injury in the Somme.

It is the first time an interview with anyone who treated Hitler during WWI has come to light.

Dr Martin Farr, senior lecturer at Newcastle University School of Historical Studies, said last night: “This genuinely new twist is fascinating.”

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/article1945960.ece

-

Bachmann: Comment 'urban legend'

A month after calling for an investigation of fellow members of Congress to “find out if they are pro-America or anti-America,” Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) is now claiming that the whole episode was “an urban legend.”

Asked about the comment Tuesday night on Fox’s “Hannity & Colmes,” Bachmann said, “That’s not what I said at all.”

“You've said you were concerned during the campaign that Obama had anti-American views. You said the news media should do a penetrating expose and take a look at the views of the people in Congress and find out if they're pro or anti America,” host Alan Colmes said.

“It's an urban legend that was created,” she responded. “That isn't what I said at all.”

Appearing on MSNBC’s “Hardball” just weeks before the election, Bachmann said she wished “the American media would take a great look at the views of the people in Congress and find out, are they pro-America or anti-America? I think people would love to see an expose like that.”

The Minnesota Republican also said on the Oct. 17 show that she was “very concerned” that Barack Obama “may have anti-American views.”

The comment put Bachmann’s previous safe seat in risk and helped drive more than a million dollars to her Democratic opponent, Elwyn Tinklenberg, in just one week. Her reelection prospects were so precarious that the National Republican Congressional Committee chose not to spend money on her behalf, forcing her to fend for herself.

Confronted with the direct quote during the Fox interview, Bachmann backpedaled some, but stuck to her story.

“What I said is that I'm not qualified to say whether members' views are pro or anti-American. That's not my job to do that,” she said. “What I was talking about is the mainstream media doing their job.”

http://www.mlive.com/us-politics/index.ssf/2008/11/bachmann_comment_urba...
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"The Once and Future Rajah of Bhong."

Bachmann rips Obama, Franken – denies “anti-American” remark

http://politicalblogs.startribune.com/bigquestionblog/?p=1228

November 19th, 2008 – 9:33 AM by Kevin Diaz

U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann, appearing Tuesday night on Fox News’ show with Sean Hannity and Alan Colmes, derided President-Elect Barack Obama as “more of the same” over reports that many of his new appointments are recycled Clintonistas.

The Minnesota Republican also accused DFL Senate candidate Al Franken of trying to “stuff the ballot box” in his recount struggle with GOP incumbent Norm Coleman.

All the while, Bachmann managed to reserve enough ammo to dismiss as an “urban legend” reports that she had suggested on a pre-election episode of the “Hardball” show with MSNBC host Chris Matthews that Obama and other members of Congress were “anti-American,” and that the media should investigate them as such.

Resident Fox liberal Alan Colmes, who read a transcript of Bachmann’s “anti-American” quote from her appearance on MSNBC, offered to have her watch the video clip of her remarks on his own web site. But the segment ended before Bachmann could fully respond.

Not, however, before Bachmann pummeled Obama over some of his recent presidential appointments, including the pick of former President Clinton official Eric Holder as Obama’s new attorney general.

Hannity, joined by Bachmann, faulted Holder for his role in Clinton’s pardon of billionaire financier Marc Rich, who had been indicted for tax evasion. Holder also has come under attack for his role in sending 6-year-old Cuban Elian Gonzalez back to the island nation during the Clinton presidency.

“I don’t think any American sees this as change,” Bachmann said. “It’s back to the future.”

Bachmann, who has become a regular conservative commentator on cable television talk shows in recent months, reserved some of her sharpest barbs for the Senate race recount process in the Minnesota, where Franken has sought to review rejected absentee ballots.

“He wants to stuff the ballot box with rejected ballots,” said Bachmann, adding that the dispute “calls into question what the record is and who’s watching the books.”

Her comments about the fairness of the recount seemed at odds with those of GOP Gov. Tim Pawlenty as well as with Coleman himself. They have both expressed confidence in the recount process in recent days, though some campaign and GOP party officials have criticized Franken’s aggressive lawyering in the recount.

Bachmann’s appearance on the Fox TV show also represented a change in tone from her most recent remarks about Obama. On Nov. 6, two days after the election, Bachmann was quoted in Politico saying she was “extremely grateful that we have an African American who won this year.” Although she supported GOP hopeful John McCain in the presidential election, she told Politico that Obama’s victory was “a tremendous signal we sent.”

Those remarks were widely seen as an attempt to soften her pre-election criticism of Obama, including her remarks on Matthews’ show that the Illinois Democrat “may have anti-American views'’ and that reporters should investigate whether other Democrats may be “anti-America.'’

Reminded of those remarks by Colmes Tuesday night, Bachmann suggested, as she has before, that she was baited and trapped by the media, which created an “urban legend” about what she says she really said.

“What I said was ‘do your job,’” Bachmann said. “That’s what I said.”
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"The Once and Future Rajah of Bhong."

Ditty to lift our morale

By CHARLOTTE SPRATT

THERE are several versions of “Hitler has only got one ball” — sung to the tune of The Colonel Bogey March.

It is thought that it was first written in August 1939 as propaganda against the Nazis.

Writer Donough O’Brien claimed in his autobiography that his father Toby O’Brien had invented the ditty while working as a publicist for the British Council. He said he was trying to improve British morale with a song against the German leader.

That version began: “Göring has only got one ball, Hitler’s are so very small, Himmler’s so very similar, and Goebbels has no balls at all.”

But no one has managed to discover who switched the lines to correctly say that it was Hitler who was missing a testicle.

Most versions now begin with the line: “Hitler has only got one ball.”

Some go on to make the odd — but amusing — claim that “the other is on the kitchen wall”.

Others claim his mother hid the missing testicle in the Albert Hall.

Comedian Ricky Gervais claimed in a gag during his Fame stand-up tour that he has checked the building out and never found it.

Almost all the versions refer to Hitler’s mother, “the dirty b****r”, being the one who lopped it off.

The second verse is: “She threw it over Germany, it landed in the deep blue sea, the fishes got out their dishes, and had scallops and b******s for tea.”

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/article1945960.ece

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>>Hitler’s genitals have long caused controversy.

I just had to repost that quote.
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"The Once and Future Rajah of Bhong."

"Hello to our friends and fans in domestic surveillance."

but then that makes cent the troll since he's last... :)

>>he dirty b****r”

help me out, what's a 6 letter word for bitch? starts with a `B', ends with an `R'...

good lord...the word they mean is BUGGER!!!

http://uncyclopedia.wikia.com/wiki/Hitler_has_only_got_one_ball
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"The Once and Future Rajah of Bhong."

California Supreme Court to take up gay marriage ban

Nov 19, 5:07 PM (ET)

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - California's highest court has agreed to hear legal challenges to a new ban on gay marriage, but is refusing to allow gay couples to resume marrying until it rules.

The California Supreme Court on Wednesday accepted three lawsuits seeking to overturn Proposition 8. The amendment passed this month with 52 percent of the vote. The court did not elaborate on its decision.

All three cases claim the ban abridges the civil rights of a vulnerable minority group. They argue that voters alone did not have the authority to enact such a significant constitutional change.

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20081119/D94I8U1G3.html

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...and by better people. :)

>>Very Interesting..

years back while I was living at a place we called `the farm' we found a nazi helmet (like the one artie johnson wears above) in one of the out buildings.

The wierd thing about it was its size. It was maybe size 6 1/4 at best.

Really sad when you realize it was probably made toward the end of the war for someone who was not yet full grown.
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"The Once and Future Rajah of Bhong."

Woman Astronaut who lost $100,000 tool bag admits making mistake

By MARCIA DUNN | Nov 20, 12:11 AM (ET)

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) - The astronaut who lost her tool bag on a spacewalk admitted Wednesday that she made a mistake by not checking to see if the sack was tied down, and said she's still smarting over the whole thing.

Heidemarie Stefanyshyn-Piper said in an interview with The Associated Press that it was "very disheartening" to lose her bag full of tools. She was trying to clean up grease that had oozed out of a grease gun in the backpack-size bag, when the tote and everything in it floated away Tuesday.

The bag was one of the largest items ever lost by a spacewalking astronaut. NASA put the price tag of the tool bag at $100,000.

For a split second, she thought she might be able to grab it and she tried to judge how far away it was. Just as quickly, "I thought, no, that would probably just make things worse and the best thing to do would be to just let it go."

"There's still the psychological thing of knowing that we made a mistake and having to live through that," she said. "During the spacewalk ... it was easy to put it aside because I knew that we still had five hours of spacewalk work to do and the work needed to get done and you can't dwell on a mistake. It was hardest coming back in and having to face everybody else."

She noted there were three more spacewalks and promised not to let the mistake happen again.

"You're not going to see us lose another bag. We're going to double- and triple-check everything from here on out," she said.

The next spacewalk is Thursday; Stefanyshyn-Piper will venture back out of the international space station for more work on a jammed joint at the space station that controls some of the solar wings.

Her spacewalking partner Tuesday, Stephen Bowen, also took the blame for the mishap.

"I didn't go back and triple-check everything. So I'm just as guilty at this as Heide is," Bowen told AP. In the packing and repacking of all the tools and sacks, it's possible that bag became untethered, Stefanyshyn-Piper said.

Flight director Ginger Kerrick was withholding judgment.

"We don't know that this incident occurred because they forgot to tether something. We don't know if perhaps the hook just came loose inside the bag," Kerrick stressed at a news conference. "You've got to remember, we are working with humans here and we are prone to human error. We do the best we can, and we learn from our mistakes."

Kerrick said precautions will be taken to help prevent any more leaking grease guns or loose bags...

CONTINUED:

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20081120/D94IF4PG0.html

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"The Once and Future Rajah of Bhong."

Paint Your Vardo

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vardo_(gypsy_wagon)

Funeral rites

The Romanichal funeral rite during the wagon time of the 19th and 20th century, included burning the wagon and belongings after the owners death. [8] The custom was that nothing whatsoever would have been sold, preferring to leave some possessions; jewellery, china or money to the family, the rest including the wagon was destroyed.
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"The Once and Future Rajah of Bhong."

Even the UK Telegraph featured the Hitler one ball story which appeared in major newspapers around the world:
______________________________________________

Nazi leader Hitler really did have only one ball

Hitler really did have only one ball, according to claims by a German army medic who saved the Führer's life during the First World War.

By Alastair Jamieson | Last Updated: 1:03PM GMT 19 Nov 2008

Although it was known Hitler suffered a groin injury in the Somme, evidence that he was 'monorchic' - the medical word for the condition - has evaded historians

The Nazi leader lost a testicle during the Battle of the Somme in 1916, the doctor claimed.

The medical condition, for which there has never been conclusive proof, was mocked in the Second World War ditty which begins: "Hitler has only got one ball, the other is in the Albert Hall."

The disclosure is made in a document noting a conversation in the 1960s between German war doctor Johan Jambor and his priest, Franciszek Pawlar, according to The Sun. The priest's document has come to light 23 years after Jambor's death.

Although it was known Hitler suffered a groin injury in the Somme, evidence that he was 'monorchic' - the medical word for the condition - has evaded historians.

Blassius Hanczuch, a friend of Jambor, said the doctor later blamed himself for saving Hitler's life. He said: "In 1916 they had their hardest fight in the Battle of the Somme. For several hours, Johan and his friends picked up injured soldiers. He remembers Hitler. They called him the 'Screamer'. He was very noisy. Hitler was screaming 'help, help'.

"His abdomen and legs were all in blood. Hitler was injured in the abdomen and lost one testicle. His first question to the doctor was: 'Will I be able to have children?'."

The popular song emerged in 1939 and is thought to have been written by a publicist for the British Council, which was tasked with helping build propaganda that would damage the Nazis.

The commonly-recalled version is an adaption of the original, which ran: "Göring has only got one ball, Hitler's [are] so very small, Himmler's so very similar, And Goebbels has no balls at all."

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/3481932/Nazi-lea...

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So she was an English Gypsy?

A near relative?

I believe that 'Gran Ma Ma' in The Adams Family was also a gypsy.

Anyone have a picture of her?

This is your chance to take 'The Dumb Test'.

wado failed it miserably

THE DUMB TEST:

http://www.quizrocket.com/dumb-test/4?gatherer_id=100500&utm_source=1005...

-

Wasn't this already known though? I thought it was in Ian Kershaw's biography?

--------------------------------------------------
"I am A Great American Patriot !!!" - McCain Scroter
http://www.vodamusic.com/blog/

>>A near relative?

I do not know. everything before 1880-ish is very sketchy for my father's side of the family.

We may have come here from Whales...not really sure, but my dad did say that at one point. But I think he also said the name had been Anglisized from the German `Bauer'. once again, we are not sure.

Lavina was from Whales, that much we know. and, of course Whales is in the south of England. So it is possible,

Also, the name Laverne was common in my family a couple generations ago. Laverne...Lavinia...hmmmmmm.

I have quite a bit of Irish in my family. There were Mulligans and Milligans (one was Catholic, the other Protestant I believe) on my mother's side. My father's side had lots of Irish as well.

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"The Once and Future Rajah of Bhong."

W/Apologies to Alice and P

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"The Once and Future Rajah of Bhong."

Submitted by Chubby Bubba on Thu, 11/20/2008 - 2:44am

Cool Photo CB

One of the best Adams Family episodes was when Gran Ma Ma got arrested for fortune telling(palm reading) and Gomez as her attorney represented her in court.

Puggsly sure looks a lot like Repub Newt Gingrinch. ;)

Would love to see a side by side comparison of that.

Remember how a lot of people would hum and sing The Adams Family theme song.

it might be a good place for you to check out...

http://www.rtfhs.org.uk/

Bowers is listed as a common name for English Gypsies...

I have no idea what my grand mothers maiden name was, but my grandfather wasn't Gypsy, just a regular Hungarian.

The other side of my family is from Clare and Donegal in Ireland.

Romanies of the New Forest (Nevi-Welsh)

http://www.romanygenes.webeden.co.uk/#/neviweshnewforest/4522386222

A little information on the Forest and the folk who lived there.

The Gypsies because of their life style of roaming and catching their own food and making their own medicine when needed from natures garden were natuarally at home in the forests of England one of these, was the New Forest or Nevi-Wesh for many hundreds of years was a much loved home, mainly due to it being abundant in herbs and other medicinal plants, its wild game and also its springs of fresh water. By the end of the 19th century they could still be found living in tents and wagons at Shave Green,Godshill,Copythorne, Longdown,Thorney Hill, Bransgore and other places deep in the Forest.There were also a few places outside the forest which were popular with the Gypsies, Bournemouth and Poole and Fordingbridge on the edge of the Forest and Cranborne Chase.

A lot has been written about the different customs of the Gypsy tribes when they Rommered (married) such as 'jumping the broomstick' and the couple mixing their blood and many other customs but these were mainly from way back, but according to Brian Vesey Fitzgerald in his excellent book “Gypsies of Britain” :-At Bentley in 1878 such a marriage took place between David Burton and Emmy White, and in front of witnesses the couple held hands and pledged their love for one another. A loaf of bread was broken and a thorn was used to prick the thumbs of both persons and a drop of blood was dropped on each half of the loaf, this was then eaten by the couple, each one eating the half with the others blood on, the rest was them crumbled over their heads.The day after the couple returned to the camp and took part in feasting and drinking, and participating in the singing and dancing which was a part of Gypsy life that was enjoyed.”

Birth also had its special customs. Women at this time were classed as mochardi,or unclean, in the ceremonial sense. And a woman that was pregnant was move from the living wagon so that it would not be defiled by the birth.
Records show that in the New Forest, Gypsy women would go alone to a certain holly tree along the Godshill Ridge to give birth, but normally a special tent was set aside and men were not allowed near the scene.

The woman would have their own set of crockery and would not prepare food for weeks before or after the birth. Once the baby was born and quarantine was ended , this could be two weeks or maybe two months, the special tent and everything inside was burnt.

Like marriage, the Gypsies would often observe two levels of religious custom.The child would not be touched by its father until it had been christened, normally according to the rites of the Christian Church. These ancient rites have long since gone and Gypsy women have their babies in hospital with the husbands attending, normally in their best suits!

Other rituals were observed in Death and Burial with the Vardo being burnt and all the deseaseds possessions and also sometimes their horse.I personally know of one local Gypsy Queen who died in recent years and instead of the Vardo being burn, her Trailer on the local run Traveller site was burned and no one has ever taken her pitch to this day!.
In Otterbourne in 1911, Alice Barney was buried with all her jewellery except a heavy gold ring which was handed to a relative and this is still around today worn by one of her descendants.
When a former, King of the Hampshire Gypsies, Robert Cooper who was a brother of Nehemiah Cooper, was buried the local newspaper carried a report showing that nearly a hundred Gypsies attended.

Some Gypsies however were not buried in consecrated ground, and Juliette Bairacli-Levy who lived for a while in the New Forest found a secret Gypsy burial ground at Woodgreen, also possibly one at Blackwater near Farnborough.Often a Gypsy killed by accident was buried on the spot and his grave marked by a cross of stones.At Woodgreen there are two crosses pressed flat in the soil that are said to mark the graves of two Gypsies who died during a fight. A rose or thorn bush was often planted on the grave to prevent the ghost from emerging. But normally once the burial had taken place the grave was normally forgotten, though there are instances where an annual pilgrimage has been made to burial grounds, one notable one was or Gernaia Lee who was buried at Otterbourne, and here relatives came every year from Nottingham on the anniversary of her death to tie red ribbons on the thorn bush growing on the grave. (info from “Gypsies of Britain Brian Vesey Fitzgerald)

In 1897, Granny Gritt who was a Gypsy pedlar and who appears in John Nortwood's collection of Victorian and Edwardian photographs would be seen peddling tape in exchange for rabbit skins at Fawley.Granny Gritt the Gypsy pedlar was Mary Sherred who married William Gritt, who was the son of James Gritt and Sarah Harris.She was born about 1842 in either Cranborne or Winterborne, Dorset,depending on what years census returns you read! another woman sweep was Emma Gritt widow of Job Gritt who continued the business after Job's death in 1907.She was Emma Gregory a widow on her marriage to Job and was originally a Rampton.She was born about 1849. The Gritts, Harris's, Ramptons,all seem to have intermarried along with the Rawlings, Ayres and Sopers, all chimney sweeping families.

Often fortune telling was an easy way to make money but on some occasions the prediction proved to be accurate.” Granny Cooper who was a New Forest Gypsy was said to have a remarkable gift of foreseeing the future and once read the hands of a Salisbury ploughman and his wife, and predicted that the couple would soon become rich and the man would not have to work again. Some days later while ploughing his field the blade struck something solid. He dug away the soil and found a crock that was filled with gold coins. Granny Cooper was handsomely rewarded and the couple lived the rest of their lives in comfort.”(Wanderers in the New ForestBy Juliette de Baraicli Levy)

The Gypsy would also love entertaining, and had a fondness for music and dancing. Often the women danced and sung for money at local fairs and horse races, and one old New Forest Gypsy woman remembered when she and her sisters were asked to dance for King Edward VII at Epsom races. To the sound of tambourines the women swirled about in their colourful skirts performing for the king while his friends threw coins for them from the grandstand, and Granny Waters could remember when, about the turn of the century she and her sisters would earn around fifty pounds a day dancing at other race meetings.The Lamb sisters also used to sing to large crowds at the Forest Inns, their clothes reflecting the Romany love of colour were decorated with pieces of heavy picture chain when they had no other jewellery to wear. I would like to thank the publisher's of Wanderers in the New Forest Faber and Faber and also the Publishers The Romany Way EX LIBRA PRESS for allowing me to use extracts from these two books.
*************************

"The Once and Future Rajah of Bhong."

So You Want A Big Electric Car?

Neil Young
Posted November 19, 2008 | 08:53 PM (EST)

President-elect Obama's plan to put a million electric vehicles on the road in 10 years is doable and should be surpassed by its own momentum. As people discover the many advantages of electric vehicles (EVs), this momentum will build. Not only are these cars green and responsible, they also enhance National Security. From all we've been told about EVs we know a little. They are cleaner. We've heard about plugging them into our homes to recharge overnight. But most of us don't know much about electric cars yet.

The momentum of the Electric Vehicle Age will stem from enhanced performance, smoothness of acceleration, quietness, and superior control. The way an electric car can be tuned to behave a certain way for a certain driver allows for a whole new feeling in the driving experience. People just don't know how cool these cars are.

Existing designs can be manufactured as electric cars with no change to the tooling of the existing designs. Adapting kits are possible. Build electric versions on these existing tools to keep people working and get people interested in buying again. The technology to make these new electric vehicles exists today right here in this country.

From Wichita, Kansas we get this report: A 1959 Lincoln Continental repowered to be a self charging electric vehicle by a small group of engineers and local services, is now achieving up to 65 mpg in informal tests. Work there continues. The goal of the project is to attain up to and beyond 100mpg for the biggest and heaviest car made in 1959. The car has been driven in California and Kansas and shown to over 15,000 people. In an audience of 12,000, one tenth of the people raised their hands when asked if they would like to have a car like that. That Lincoln represents a future for Detroit. It is the possibility of Big Clean cars that do not promote Global warming. Let's build them now, as well as economical small clean and green electric cars and let's put people to work. We already have the existing tooling and the facilities and manpower.

From Detroit we get this report:

We have devoted significant resources to this project: Over 200 engineers and 50 designers are working on the Volt alone, and another 400 are working on related subsystems and electric components. That's how important we think this is, and that's how much stock we place in the future of extended-range electric vehicles like the Chevy Volt. - Tony Posawatz, Vehicle Line Director - E-Flex Systems and the Chevy Volt, GeneralMotors Corp.

The GM, FORD and Chrysler CEOs then each boarded private personal business jets to be paid for by taxpayers money, and flew to Washington to ask tax-payers to give them a 25 billion dollar infusion to save hard working American's jobs. Have they changed direction but it's just too early for our senators and congress representatives to see it yet? I don't think so. Maybe introducing a new high-performance fossil fueled Shelby Mustang and jumping into a private jet to go to Washington for a bailout was not such a good idea.

Efficient technology can power the existing designs we have today.

We don't need a car that looks different with a new sunroof over the back seat creating an air conditioning challenge as a feature.

We don't need new tooling to start building electric cars now.

We need kits to adapt what we are currently making to today's demands.

We need new thinking from new leaders and we need new perspectives from unions...

CONTINUES:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/neil-young/so-you-want-a-big-electri_b_145...

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Obama's Use of Complete Sentences Stirs Controversy

Andy Borowitz | Posted November 18, 2008 | 12:47 PM (EST)

In the first two weeks since the election, President-elect Barack Obama has broken with a tradition established over the past eight years through his controversial use of complete sentences, political observers say.

Millions of Americans who watched Mr. Obama's appearance on CBS's 60 Minutes on Sunday witnessed the president-elect's unorthodox verbal tick, which had Mr. Obama employing grammatically correct sentences virtually every time he opened his mouth.

But Mr. Obama's decision to use complete sentences in his public pronouncements carries with it certain risks, since after the last eight years many Americans may find his odd speaking style jarring.

According to presidential historian Davis Logsdon of the University of Minnesota, some Americans might find it "alienating" to have a president who speaks English as if it were his first language.

"Every time Obama opens his mouth, his subjects and verbs are in agreement," says Mr. Logsdon. "If he keeps it up, he is running the risk of sounding like an elitist."

The historian said that if Mr. Obama insists on using complete sentences in his speeches, the public may find itself saying, "Okay, subject, predicate, subject predicate -- we get it, stop showing off."

The president-elect's stubborn insistence on using complete sentences has already attracted a rebuke from one of his harshest critics, Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska.

"Talking with complete sentences there and also too talking in a way that ordinary Americans like Joe the Plumber and Tito the Builder can't really do there, I think needing to do that isn't tapping into what Americans are needing also," she said.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/andy-borowitz/obamas-use-of-complete-se_b_...

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I found some xerox copies of some genealogy parers of my father's side of the family.

the way the info is presented baffles me. the first and earliest name was born in 1800...

the names and birth/death dates are not in `family tree' form. they are listed:

1st (man 1800-1877 and wife 1800-?)

2nd (man 1826-1909 and wife 1842-?)

3rd (woman 1893-1941 and husband1851-?...)

4th (3 girls 1 boy born 1900, 1902, 1904 & 1905 no date of deaths.

3rd (woman 1866-1946 and husband1865-1930

then there is another page and a half 3rd's and 4th generations..? now that I looked at it for a while it does make a bit of sense.

jesus...now that I look at these birth and death dates I notice a pretty good amount of early deaths. like 12 years old and younger...

thank God fo modern medicine.

anyway, my dad's family appears to have got here long before Lavinia was born. or 130 years before she died.

I just got an email from my brother who says he thiks our grandmother looks like her. Which doesn't make sense, since grandma was not born a Bowers.
*************************

"The Once and Future Rajah of Bhong."

More stuff about me...

looking through the box that had the genealogy papers, family pics, etc. I noticed an old 45 rpm from Sunrise Records (hollywood CA)there are 2 songs on both sides of the disk. The vocalist on all 4 songs is buddy Raye...the writers are all different.

thing is, one of the song writers is my grandfather on my mother's side's second wife (not my maternal grandmother, but an uptight white woman who lived on the Jersey shore and once confided in me that the KKK was created to protect white women - like herself, she was from the South - from Black men. I suppose this was common knowledge when she was young. might not have been true but it was common knowledge all the same.

I'm finding very little about Buddy Raye except that he recorded for Sunrise...

I do remember Grandma Hartley did write poetry. evidently, she answered an add (http://www.songpoemmusic.com/what_is.htm) and the submission was accepted for publication. at which they convinced her the song would be a big hit, printed up some LPs and/or 45s and sold them to the writer and her family.

I wish I there was a date on this record....

*************************

"The Once and Future Rajah of Bhong."

BREAKING: Obama picks AZ Gov. Janet Napolitano to head Homeland Security
John Aravosis (DC) · 11/19/2008 11:43:00 PM ET · Link
Make a comment · reddit · FARK · Digg It! · Stumble It!

She's no Sarah Palin, but I guess she'll do:
Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano (D) has been chosen to serve as secretary of the vast and troubled Department of Homeland Security for President-elect Obama, Democratic officials said. Napolitano is a border governor who will now be responsible for immigration policy and border security, which are part of Homeland Security’s myriad functions.

Napolitano brings law-and-order experience from her stint as the Grand Canyon State’s first female attorney general. One of the nation’s most prominent female elected officials, she made frequent appearances on behalf of Barack Obama during the campaign. She was re-elected to a second four-year term in 2006.

Transition insiders have long expected that she would be offered a Cabinet slot, although she had also been mentioned for other posts, including attorney general.

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1108/15815.html

Cheney's indictment in Texas moves forward

RAYMONDVILLE, Texas (AP) — A Texas judge has set an arraignment for Vice President Dick Cheney, former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and other officials accused of involvement in prisoner abuse.
Presiding Judge Manuel Banales said Wednesday he will allow them to waive arraignment or have attorneys present rather than appear in person Friday.

Banales also said he would issue summonses, not warrants. That allows them to avoid arrest and the need to post bond.

Willacy County District Attorney Juan Guerra accuses Cheney, Gonzales, a state senator and others of involvement in prisoner abuse at a federal detention center in south Texas.

Defense attorney Tony Canales accuses Guerra of "prosecutorial vindictiveness" and not following procedure.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2008-11-19-cheney_N.htm?csp=34

Barnicle said that maybe Obama should give a speach before the 20th about the economy because it is evident that no one listens to Bush anymore. Mika said he should give a speach at the same time he announces his Sec. of Treasury.

The Scar is saying it's ugly out their.
NYC was being supported by European travellers for awhile when the dollar fell. All you could hear in Hotels were foreign voices. Now that the dollar is up, the city is really hurting.

All the cities are hurting. Daley, here in Chicago has to lay off people and he really feels bad but the city can't support all the employees right now.

Too bad the MSM weren't talking about the problems like this when it started. I remember really seeing the signs in 2004 and I am not an economist. But the signs were there!

the most frustrating part is that bushco doesn't care anymore other than how much more he and his cronies can steal.

reid, the ballless wonder is giving up on the auto makers because of those nasty republicans.

i just don't understand how we can give 150B to aig and its handful of rich assholes and blow off the million people that work for the auto companies.

Global Stocks, U.S. Index Futures Fall, Led by UBS; Yen, Treasuries Rallyt Stocks slumped, sending the MSCI World Index to the lowest level since 2003, on concern bank losses will increase and corporate profits will crumble as the recession spreads. U.S. index futures dropped, while Treasuries and the yen rallied as investors shunned riskier assets.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=akLUGnocjzY8&refer=n...

Bernanke May Find Deflation `Back on the Table' as Threat to U.S. Economy Five years after Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke helped stamp out the risk of deflation, the threat is returning as the financial crisis and a worsening economic slump pull inflation lower.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=aBncZw9DlhRI&refer=n...

Leading Indicators in U.S. Probably Dropped as Stocks, Confidence Plunged The index of U.S. leading economic indicators probably fell in October for the third time in four months as stocks and consumer confidence plunged, signaling a deepening recession, economists said before reports today.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601086&sid=aAJzn1d_WZqg&refer=n...

Oil Supertankers May Avoid Suez on Somalia Piracy, Raising Shipping Costs Shippers controlling almost a fifth of the global fleet of crude-oil supertankers may avoid Egypt's Suez Canal after an escalation in piracy off east Africa, potentially increasing the cost of delivering the commodity.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601109&sid=aNnLHicJAf8Q&refer=n...

whatever happened to the sixth fleet? i can't believe we can't resolve this issue with pirates in fairly short order.

Russia to send more warships to battle Somali pirates

MOGADISHU, (AFP) – Russia announced Thursday it would send more warships to combat piracy in the waters around Somalia, as the Saudi owners of the Sirius Star negotiated with the pirates holding their oil tanker.

Admiral Vladimir Vysotsky, the top commander of the Russian navy, made the announcement according to a report by RIA Novosti news agency.

"After the Neustrashimy (Fearless), ships from other fleets of the Russian navy will head to the region," Vysotsky said, referring to a frigate sent to the area in September.

"This is needed because of the situation that has developed in the vicinity of the Horn of Africa and the Gulf of Aden, where Somali pirates have sharply increased their activities," he said, according to RIA Novosti.

The announcement from Moscow was the latest sign of growing international frustration over a situation described by the International Maritime Bureau as "out of control".

Somali pirates who hijacked the Sirius Star said Thursday they wanted 25 million dollars and have set a 10-day deadline.

"We are demanding 25 million dollars from the Saudi owners of the tanker. We do not want long-term discussions to resolve the matter," Mohamed Said told AFP from the ship anchored off the Somali coast.

"The Saudis have 10 days to comply, otherwise we will take action that could be disastrous," Said added, without elaborating.

The company which operates the Sirius Star has remained tight-lipped about the claims of negotiations.

"We cannot confirm, nor deny" reports of negotiations with the hijackers, said Mihir Sapur, the spokesman of Vela International, a subsidiary of Saudi oil giant Saudi Aramco.

But Saudi Arabia's Foreign Minister, Prince Saud al-Faisal, told reporters in Rome on Wednesday: "I know that the owners of the tanker, they are negotiating on the issue."

Seized in the Indian Ocean some 500 miles (800 kilometres) off the east African coast on Saturday, the Sirius Star is now anchored at the Somali pirate lair of Harardhere, according to local officials.

The super-tanker was loaded to capacity with two million barrels of oil when it was seized along with its crew of 25 -- 19 from the Philippines, two from Britain, two from Poland, one Croatian and one Saudi.

It was the largest ship yet taken by Somali pirates and the attack furthest away from Somalia.

The Indian frigate INS Tabar, one of dozens of warships from several countries protecting commercial shipping lanes in the Gulf of Aden, sank a Somali pirate ship late Tuesday after coming under fire, navy spokesman Nirad Sinha said.

Pirates use mother ships, generally hijacked trawlers or deep-sea dhows, to tow speedboats from which they launch their attacks with grapnel hooks tied to rope ladders before neutralising the crews at gunpoint.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20081120/ts_afp/somaliapiracyshipping_081120...

Penny is from the Hyatt Hotels family. I met her years ago because my brother has the Hyatts as his client. She seemed very nice when I met her.

She's always been a Dem and has been involved in helping many charities in the Chicago area.

She did a great job with Obama's campaign.

because they have Tucker Carlson on now.

When Conservatives are down, all they have to say is "Card Check"
By John Amato Wednesday Nov 19, 2008 5:00pm As the country begins to turn away from Conservatism and Bush and depression runs deep in their veins, there does seem to be a phrase that lifts up their spirits. Everybody stand up and say "Card Check."

It's also known as the Employee Free Choice Act. And its progress in Congress has every corporate Fat Cat in America leaping into frenzied action. One of them, Home Depot founder Bernie Marcus, is saying that any corporate type who isn't on board in their fight against Card Check should be shot.

It's an obvious attack on unions and we need to be aware of this. Orrin Hatch loves to go on MSNBC, CNN or the National Review and proclaim that there will be no more secret ballots for workers so civilization in America will be destroyed:

In a time when unions are outraged with Democrats for their pro-immigration policies, big labor has launched an unprecedented lobbying campaign to force workers into unions. Labor unions are supposed to protect workers’ rights, yet union bosses want Congress to pass a law that actually robs workers of their democratic right to a private ballot.

That's all you get out of them. I doubt most Conservatives even know what a "Card Check" is, but it really riles them up.

The unions are just trying to make it easier for people to organize.

The Employee Free Choice Act (H.R. 800, S. 1041), supported by a bipartisan coalition in Congress, would enable working people to bargain for better wages, benefits and working conditions by restoring workers’ freedom to choose for themselves whether to join a union. It would:

Establish stronger penalties for violation of employee rights when workers seek to form a union and during first-contract negotiations.
Provide mediation and arbitration for first-contract disputes (PDF).
Allow employees to form unions by signing cards authorizing union representation.
Frank Luntz and his friends are trying to say that unionizing will be all about busting heads like Sylvester Stallone did in his movie called F.I.S.T.. I was talking to Digby about it the other day and we both laughed at this new meme being passed around. But it's a serious one that we should not dismiss out of hand. They are laying the groundwork for average Americans who don't understand what the unions are doing, and will be offended by the "card check" plan for no reason at all other than what they've heard repeatedly on wingnut radio. Digby calls it "Pavlovian talk radio conditioning."

Ted Stevens loses his seat in Alaska? No problem, just yell "Card Check!"

Thomas Frank spells it out for us:

It's Time to Give Voters the Liberalism They Want

During the campaign, you will recall, the debate over card check was supposed to be about principle, about democracy, about the sacredness of the secret ballot. However, as I pointed out a few months ago, union-certification elections often don't meet the most basic democratic requirements. Supervisors routinely hold captive-audience meetings with workers in preparation for elections; management commonly threatens to close up shop if the union wins; antiunion employees are frequently rewarded and pro-union employees are sometimes fired.

So it may not surprise you to learn that democracy isn't really the main concern of card-check's opponents. It's unions themselves. Changing the rules will make it easier to organize them.

Digby writes:

The economic crisis, particularly the Big 3 meltdown, is offering the right what they see as a new opportunity to break unions and destroy any advances workers might have expected under a progressive government. They may be temporarily in disarray politically, but the right never forgets their primary mission --- protecting the wealthy. And they are very good at advancing that agenda whether in the majority or the minority. Under the Shock Doctrine, they have a perfect opportunity to end the union movement in America and they'll certainly do their best to take advantage of the moment.

http://crooksandliars.com/john-amato/when-conservatives-are-down-all-the...

Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich (D) placed calls on Tuesday and Wednesday to a number of Houses Democrats from his state who hope to replace President-elect Barack Obama in the Senate.

Reps. Danny Davis, Luis Gutierrez and Jan Schakowsky — all Chicago-area Democrats — received calls from Blagojevich on Tuesday and Wednesday to discuss a possible appointment to the Senate. All three have expressed their interest in getting the appointment, which was officially created by Obama’s resignation on Sunday.
It is unclear whether Blagojevich talked to a fourth Illinois Democratic lawmaker, Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr., who has been the most vocal in expressing interest in Obama’s seat. Jackson could not be reached for comment, and his office was not aware if he had spoken to the governor “recently.”

The governor’s press office had no comment on the calls.

Two of the lawmakers said they were told they were on the governor’s “list” and reported having positive conversations with Blagojevich. Both Davis and Schakowsky also said they took the opportunity to reaffirm their interest and once again make their pitch.

http://thehill.com/leading-the-news/illinois-governor-makes-calls-to-hop...

wiki has a good summary on it:

The two methods for recognizing a union in the United States begin with an employee petition for representation by a union. If 30% to a clear majority of employees sign petition cards requesting representation, then the cards are submitted to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) for a secret ballot election. If more than 50% of employees certify their desire for representation, then a union can choose to form using card check procedures. Under current U.S. law, the employer need not recognize the card check petition and can require a secret-ballot vote overseen by the NLRB.

Under the proposed Employee Free Choice Act, introduced in the United States Congress in 2005 and again in 2007, the NLRB would recognize the union's role as the official bargaining representative if a majority of employees have authorized that representation via card check, without requiring a secret ballot election.[1] It was passed by the House on March 1, 2007, but failed a cloture vote in the Senate. The Employee Free Choice Act allows employees to choose a secret ballot process to elect union representation if they do not desire a card check election, but employers are required to accept whichever method employees choose.

====

needless to say, if you do a little reading you quickly find out that the fascists, corporatists, and wingnut radio is lying to you about the issue.

america is being sold out from under us. as an example, now that citibank has fallen to record lows, the saudi's are stepping in and upping their ownership. another example, general electric which has lost half its market cap this year is shopping for investors in china. still another example, china is interested in buying the big 3.

===

somebody needs to tell that asshat senator from alabama that lincoln freed the slaves the next time he brags about how foreign car companies get such a good deal on labor in his home state.

I had to turn off Morning Joe
new
Submitted by toniD on Thu, 11/20/2008 - 8:09am
-----

Oh Mistress Blog Goddess Of Sederville, why does thou put thine-self through such torment?

We've predicted since Election Day that Al Franken's chances of winning the U.S. Senate seat in Minnesota are excellent. News tonight, out of the state where a manual count of the paper ballots began today, may already be bearing out that prediction, though its far too early to know for sure. Franken, so far, has gained about 30 votes on the incument Sen. Norm Coleman on the first day of counting, bring the gap between the two to just 172 votes.

The race was previously determined, by the faulty and easily manipulated ES&S and Diebold ballot-scanning machines initially used to tabulate the paper ballots, to have had little more than 200 votes in favor of Coleman, out of nearly 3 million ballots cast.

That hasn't stopped Coleman from desperately and prematurely declaring "victory" --- hey, it worked for Dubya in 2000, and he was able to succesfully take that to the Supreme Court after all! --- nor has it kept the GOP conspiracy theorists and potential sore-losers from declaring all manner of unsubstantiated claims of "fraud" and attempts to "steal the election."
http://bradblog.com/

I've heard this "socialism for the rich" quip a number of times lately and it is a misuse of the word, so much so, I can be quiet no longer.

Those who are so greedy they think only of increasing their own personal wealth and power at the expense of all other life on the Planet -- like the Bush Crime Family & Friends and the Banking Industrialists and the CEO Class -- are not displaying 'socialism' at all. They are expressing ANTI-SOCIAL behavior. Socialism is a form of governance seeking to serve all, not just the greedy few. It is rooted in a sense of social responsibility, a sense of all of us IN SOCIETY being in this boat together and helping each other, sharing, and cooperating in the process. NOT SO WITH THE BULLIES, PREDATORY BRUTES, SOCIOPATHS, PSYCHOPATHS who consistently display ANTI-SOCIAL BEHAVIOR and their own self-interest to the point of theft, murder, and destruction of anything and everything. These creeps have no desire to serve society as a whole, only to prey on it.

If the CRIMINALLY RICH have an elite society of mutual support, it needs to be labelled ANTI-SOCIAL PREDATIONISM or something, because it serves their elite predatory group alone and excludes all others!!!! It definitely is not socialism.

http://ww2.startribune.com/news/metro/elections/returns/2008/recount/mse...

Raúl M. Grijalva and Lynn Woolsey Win Election for Co-Chairmanship of the Progressive Caucus

I didn't really follow the race for progressive caucus chair, but it has apparently ended with the election of Raul Grijalva and the reelection of Lynn Woolsey (who was going to step down but thought better of it recently). I don't really know Grijalva, but I suspect his ascension has to do with a sense that Hispanics needed representation within the progressive caucus leadership. Keith Ellison was running to replace Barbara Lee as co-Chair of this group (Lee left to step up her work with the CBC) and I suppose that I'm a bit surprised he didn't win, though I actually have no reason to be surprised since I didn't actually follow the race. Other CPC leaders are listed here. The challenge for progressives in the caucus is to become as organized as the Blue Dogs and New Democrats, and hopefully Grijalva will help make that happen.
http://www.openleft.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=10044

hearing on the auto industry. It is on cspan 2 but I think it is almost over. Jeffrey Sachs is on the panel. Naomi Klein says he is a bad guy, but I don't get it because he is saying good things imo.

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- Weekly U.S. initial jobless claims rose by 27,000 to 542,000 in the week ending Nov. 15, the highest since July 1992, the Labor Department reported Thursday. The four-week average of initial claims climbed by 15,750 to 506,500, the highest since January 1983. Continuing jobless claims rose by 109,000 to 4.01 million in the week ending Nov. 8 and the four-week average of continuing claims rose by 71,250 to 3.86 million. The insured unemployment rate climbed to 3.0%.

http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/US-weekly-jobless-claims-shoot/sto...

Already! Sheesh! Michelle's not gonna like this!

Sports Illustrated and Sexism
By CHARLES MODIANO

POP QUIZ:

Which of the following statements are true.

In one single week Sports Illustrated (SI) has had:

A) As many covers depicting women athletes as the last five years [1].
B) As many covers depicting African-American women athletes as the last 16 years [2].
C) More covers depicting women basketball players than in SI’s entire 54 year history.
D) All of the Above

If you selected D, you are most unfortunately correct. This week SI issued a 6-part college basketball preview cover set that depicted six different female athletes sharing the cover with male basketball counterparts.

The women are:

§ Maya Moore, Connecticut
§ Briann January, Arizona State
§ Shavonte Zellous, Pittsburgh
§ Rashanda McCants, North Carolina
§ Courtney Paris, Oklahoma
§ Ashley Barlow. Notre Dame

Please run to the store now to buy these collector’s items because you may never see anything else like it for the next 50 years. There has been a women’s revolution in sports during the previous 50 years, but Sports Illustrated did not get that memo. Check the stats:

% of SI Covers with Women Athletes:

1950’s: 10% (5-6 per year)
1990’s: 5% (2-3 per year)
2000’s: 2.5% (0-2 per year)

No. Really.

Sports Illustrated’s record on women leaves much to be desired. As detailed in Sports illustrated’s Cover Barrier: Who Will Break the Bikini Line?, in recent years SI has released more issues with women in swimsuits than in an athletic uniform. Past accusations of “entrenched sexism” [4] were certainly not aided by SI writer Justin Gimelstob’s outrageously sexist remarks this summer. And while Gimelstob was rightfully terminated, it was SI’s workplace culture that promoted [3] Gimelstob’s previous articles listing “tennis players with the hottest wives”, or championing the benefits of “every young sassy player trying to …under-dress the next”. Gimelstob may be gone, but scapegoating the bad apple without examining the tree is not change we can believe in. The question still remains: “does Sports Illustrated get it”? Recent articles highlighting “The 25 Sexiest Sportscasters” do not build much confidence.

con't

http://www.counterpunch.org/modiano11172008.html

Need a Catchphrase
In our new economic era, I think we need a new catchphrase for CEOs like Mark Whittle of the South Financial Group, who pushed up his retirement ahead of schedule so he could bag his mega-Golden parachute a few weeks before he sent his company hat in hand to the government for bailout funds.

Total bailout for Whittle's company: $347 million. Total parachute for Whittle: $18 million.

Seriously, what's the catchphrase? Because I think we're going to see a lot of this.

--Josh Marshall

http://www.propublica.org/article/bank-got-bailout-ceo-got-golden-parach...

Parody Lapping Reality
Last night I was mulling a 'deep thought' post suggesting that GM should just reorganize as a bank holding company and get TARP funds that way. Looks like I snarked too soon.

--Josh Marshall

http://money.cnn.com/2008/11/20/news/companies/gmac/index.htm?postversio...

Onward and Upward
Investors cheer as Saudi Prince buys bigger stake in Citigroup.

--Josh Marshall

http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/business/business-us-citigroup.html

Beauty Secrets
The New Cosmetic Cover-up

Excerpt:

Makeup menaces are nothing new: Some Elizabethan enchantresses died for their love of white lead–laced face powder, and Victorian vamps used deadly nightshade to lend their eyes an alluring glow. But today, when a $50-billion cosmetics industry has replaced apothecaries and home brewers, we expect the FDA to protect the public from dangerous beauty aids. Yet while its name might lead us to think otherwise, the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act gives the FDA far more regulatory power over food additives and drugs than over cosmetics; the agency isn’t authorized to approve cosmetic products or ingredients before they hit the shelves. Manufacturers are under no legal obligation to register with the FDA, file data on ingredient safety, or report injuries caused by their products. The European Union has banned 1,132 known or suspected carcinogens, mutagens, and reproductive toxins from use in cosmetics, but only 10 such chemicals are banned in the United States, leaving us with mercury in mascara, petrochemicals in perfumes, and parabens in antiperspirants. And just as none of the offending lipsticks’ labels indicated the presence of lead, the FDA allows potentially hazardous chemicals like phthalates—industrial solvents linked to birth defects in boys’ reproductive systems and premature puberty in girls—to slip into ingredient lists under the umbrella term “fragrance.”

con't
http://www.bitchmagazine.org/article/beauty-secrets

Kerry Poised To Claim Foreign Relations Chairmanship
John Kerry will reportedly win the chairmanship of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee -- the same committee where he shot to fame when he testified against the Vietnam War over 35 years ago -- as a result of Joe Biden vacating the chair to become vice president. The Boston Globe reports that Kerry is already working on an ambitious agenda for the committee, including oversight of plans to withdraw from Iraq, dealing with nuclear proliferation and the spread of other weapons, and focusing on the fight against terrorists in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

http://www.boston.com/news/politics/2008/articles/2008/11/20/kerry_poise...

Sen. Russ Feingold (D-WI) calls on President Bush in a Salon article not to abuse his pardon power:

A departing president probably can't help thinking about the judgment of history. At the end of eight years, President Bush likely isn't any different. With the nation's attention focused on his successor, it may seem as if there is little opportunity left for the current president to affect how he will be viewed. But there is one power left -- the power of the pardon -- that could, if it's abused, create a controversy that both the president and the public could live without.

The power of the pardon is close to absolute. Short of interfering with their own impeachment, presidents can pardon whomever they choose. At the end of his term, however, this president should think twice before issuing pardons that call his judgment, and the integrity of the rule of law, into question.

If President Bush were to pardon key individuals involved in the misdeeds of his administration, from warrantless wiretapping to torture to the firing of U.S. attorneys for political reasons, the courts would be unable to address criminality, or pass judgment on the legality of some of the president's worst abuses. Issuing such pardons now would be particularly egregious, since voters just issued such a strong condemnation of the Bush administration at the ballot box. There is nothing to prevent President Bush from using the pardon in such a short-sighted and self-serving manner -- except, perhaps, public pressure that may itself be a window on the judgment of history. Everyone who can exert that pressure, from members of Congress to the press and the public, should express their views on whether it would be appropriate for President Bush to use his pardon power in this way.

...

The current president, who has shown such disrespect for the rule of law during his term, will have a chance to show to all of us, and to history, whether he respects it enough not to short-circuit the judicial process after he leaves office.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/11/20/feingold-writes-bush-dont_n_145...

Bush to sign legislation to extend jobless aid
Senate to take up bill to help to those whose benefits have run out

WASHINGTON - Because of the tight job market, the White House says President George W. Bush would sign legislation pending in Congress to further extend unemployment benefits.

The Senate this week is expected to take up a bill already passed by the House that would extend unemployment insurance for those whose benefits have run out. The Senate vote could occur as early as Thursday evening and would require support from 60 senators to pass.

White House press secretary Dana Perino says Bush is “always concerned” when people lose their jobs and is eager to help ease their economic situations.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27821595

Let's face it. No one believes us. That's the crux of the problem in fashioning a bailout for the three Detroit automakers.

Let's face another reality: Why should they? Resistance to change has long been part of the culture of the domestic auto industry. When President-elect Barack Obama came to the Detroit Economic Club and said we need to do better, he was pilloried almost universally by the media and establishment types.

Many of those folks would rather spend enormous sums lobbying against CAFE standards than use that money to get the job done. Now we are on the brink of collapse, and the American public is not feeling our "fierce urgency of now."

We need to rebuild the trust of the American people and capture their imagination.

http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20081120/OPINION02/81120...

In the past week, the Bush administration “has adopted several hot-button regulatory changes long sought by business groups.” The changes include “new rules that open the way for commercial development of oil shale on federal land, allow truckers to drive for longer periods, and add certain restrictions on employee time off under the Family and Medical Leave Act.”

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122714583954143319.html

Relations between Mitch McConnell and Harry Reid are “in tatters,” Roll call reports. Republicans say that the “sudden deterioration in relations…is a direct result of what they view as an overly aggressive Democratic effort to unseat McConnell.”

http://www.rollcall.com/issues/54_59/news/30337-1.html

Antiwar groups “are increasingly concerned at signs that Barack Obama’s national security team will be dominated” by hawkish appointees who favored the Iraq war. “Obama ran his campaign around the idea the war was not legitimate, but it sends a very different message when you bring in people who supported the war from the beginning,” said Iraq Veterans Against the War Executive Director Kelly Dougherty.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-foreign-policy20-20...

Yesterday, the Hill asked Senate Democrats their thoughts on the outgoing Vice President Cheney. Sen. Carl Levin said that he is “colder, more aloof” than previous vice presidents. Sen. Harry Reid noted his disagreements with Cheney: “I’m trying to think of something I agree with; I haven’t found it yet.” Asked about his relationship with Cheney four years after the vice president infamously told him to “Go f—k yourself,” Sen. Patrick Leahy said, “I love him.” He later clarified: “That’s a joke.”

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A3699-2004Jun24.html

Sen. Harry Reid noted his disagreements with Cheney: “I’m trying to think of something I agree with

------

Oh Harry agreed with Cheney. After all, he didn't do a damn thing to stop him.

Busta’s Busted: “Arab Money”
by Special Correspondent Fatemeh Fakhraie

I know, I know. If you’re looking for socially conscious rap or hip hop, you don’t go to Busta Rhymes. But this still surprises me:

Maytha from KABOBfest has highlighted Rhyme’s song “Arab Money,” which has some disgustingly racist lyrics. Maytha brings up some great points about this video, namely, that it is a blatant example of the acceptability of anti-Arab racism.

Let me highlight some of Busta’s rhymes:

Women walkin around while security on camelback

Club on fire now — dunno how to act

Sittin in casino’s while im gamblin with Arafat

Money so long watch me purchase pieces of the Almanac

Ya already know i got the streets bust

While i make ya bow down makes salaat like a muslim

Camelback?! Gambling with a dead PLO leader?! Elsewhere, there are references to growing beards and Prince Al-Walid bin Talal bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud, a member of Saudi Arabia’s royal family known for his success in business
(his…uh…bread).

Busta Rhymes’ song (and its fakey Arabic chorus–shudder) is just one more instance of hip hop’s cultural appropriation of Middle Eastern music (producer Timbaland has been “sampling” Arabic songs for years: remember Jay Z’s “Big Pimpin”? That is Egyptian artist Hossam Ramzy’s “Khusara Khusara” that you hear).

Rhyme’s references to Yasser Arafat and Saudi princes create the illusion of ownership: not only are we expected to think that he and Browz understand/speak Arabic and understand Middle Eastern politics and geography, but we’re also supposed to think that he rolls with said Arabs

http://www.racialicious.com/

Does anybody have opinions today?

Can we focus on 1 topic instead of spewing a gazillion and then talking about the weather?

Sorry, I'm very grouchy today.

later...

that I'm totally siding with the Pirates?
--------------------------------------------------
"I am A Great American Patriot !!!" - McCain Scroter
http://www.vodamusic.com/blog/

we finally agree on something.

with me on the Mammoths?!!!
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"I am A Great American Patriot !!!" - McCain Scroter
http://www.vodamusic.com/blog/

Remember when "buy American" was the proud clarion call of the conservative movement in the 70s and 80s, a residual effect which, of course, we still feel today regardless of party. It was always a way for white collar conservatives to hypnotize blue collar conservatives...

Remember, when the Japanese taking over American corporations in the 80s was a subject of scorn within conservative circles?

Now Republicans are not batting an eye at the thought of losing this nationalist mantle. They are fine with letting the biggest auto manufacturers and ALL of the workers and smaller businesses that depend on them going under, especially since it means taking the unions with them, and are saying, well, if you can't compete with Honda in Indiana, then you SHOULD go under.

All of a sudden pure capitalism recognizes no country??? It trumps pride in American-made products and, by extension, in the American blue-collar worker??

How is this going to translate into a win for the Republican party among "NASCAR" moms and dads??

I just don't see even the dumbest redneck wingnut relishing the thought of replacing Chevy, Ford and Dodge trucks with Toyota, Honda and Nissan trucks...what happens to the domestic parts industry?

If Republican filibusters and Bush are going to stop this Congress from bailing them out at all (forget about a bailout favoring labor), what's going to stop China from acquiring the companies lest they go under forever?

If the Big 3 go under and the Japanese have no competition here, what's to stop them from relocating their plants to cheaper markets?

The rednecks are going to LOVE that!

Strange Days!

Well, yes, of course. It was gym hour for me and I missed your post. I think this whole Jurassic Park business could give the fundamentalists credibility. Soon Sarah really can ride a dinosaur.

More weird science:

Kangaroos 'share human genes'
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
Kangaroo
Australia's kangaroos are genetically similar to humans and may have first evolved in China, Australian researchers said on Tuesday.
http://www.metro.co.uk/news/world/article.html?Kangaroos_share_human_gen...

now they worship the corporation.

good morning 60th!

union-busting game the Republicans are playing with the auto industry and the livelihoods of up to 3 million people is REALLY starting to piss me off. It's disgusting, absolutely disgusting. How can these fuckers care more about their ideology than the economic security of their country and the lives of its citizens?

--------------------------------------------------
"I am A Great American Patriot !!!" - McCain Scroter
http://www.vodamusic.com/blog/

Committe on Small Businesses

They are questioning some Representatives from Treasury and the Small Business Admin. about why Treasury is not giving money to small banks and what they are doing to encourage small business loans.

Several of the House Reps on both sides have said, and I agree, that Paulson and Bernanke came to Congress, pants on fire, saying if they did not give money to Treasury to bail out companies, we would go into a deep recession. These House Reps said it was a self fullfilling statement because it caused the market to fall more, the banks not to lend money at all, and it stopped people from purchasing cars thinking they would not get loans. And that is what happened.

Every time Paulson talks, the markets do worse. Especially this last time when he said he wouldn't take any more money and would dump this into the lap of the new admin. So everyone has to wait 2 months or more for anything to be done. Many Reps on both sides of the aisle are saying that they are discouraged with what Paulson did and there will be a strong bi-partisan push in the new congress to put together a strong bailout.

I have to admit, also, that when Stevens came to the floor for his last time today, I was crying a little. As much as we were against him and teased him, the man was there for fourty years and really did alot for his state that was still wilderness when he came to the Senate. He got a standing ovation for that very reason. Okay, I'm a softie!

i don't know that they care about their idiotology more than the constant repetition of the theme by wingnut radio has stripped them of the ability to think.

i was just listening to the grim reaper who is standing in for hartmann this week and some idjit called in and said he was worried about obama being a weak leader. when pressed to explain why all he could say is that obama was willing to sit down and talk with terrists while bush would never do that so that made him weak. indoctrination.

If so what is your view of Jeffrey Sachs?

I wonder if they make medicine for that?

I heard someone talking, must have been on one of the political shows but I can't remember which, that if the big 3 collapsed it would effect more than 24 million jobs. That's including all the peripharel businesses.

Senate takes last run at longer jobless benefits
By LAURIE KELLMAN, Associated Press Writer Laurie Kellman, Associated Press Writer
Thu Nov 20, 9:21 am ET

WASHINGTON – With weekly jobless claims jumping to a 16-year high and more than 1.2 million jobs lost so far this year, Congress plans to send unemployment checks another seven to 13 weeks to jobless workers who have exhausted their regular benefits.

The Senate is expected to vote Thursday on a bill the House passed in October when Congress also approved a $700 billion bailout for Wall Street.

The White House had threatened to veto a broader $61 billion stimulus bill that included the jobless benefits extension along with aid to help states maintain Medicaid benefits and new spending for public workers projects that the House passed in September.

But President George W. Bush's advisers had taken no position on the stand-alone jobless benefits bill costing about $6 billion, other than to say they were firmly opposed to Democratic efforts this week to combine it with a $25 billion bailout of the auto industry that would be drawn from the financial rescue package.

Republicans blocked Senate consideration of the unemployment aid bill in October, but that was before a nearly quarter million additional layoffs that month. The Senate vote occurs at a time when the economy is taking its worst beating in a quarter century.

The Labor Department announced Thursday that new applications for jobless benefits last week totaled a seasonally adjusted 542,000. Last month, the unemployment rate jumped to a 14-year high of 6.5 percent, with 10.1 million people looking for work, an increase of 2.8 million over the past year.

The House bill would provide seven additional weeks of payments to those who have exhausted their benefits. Those in states where the unemployment rate is above 6 percent would be entitled to an additional 13 weeks above the 26 weeks of regular benefits. The benefit checks average about $300 a week nationwide.

Without the legislation, the authors say, 1.1 million people will have exhausted their unemployment insurance benefits by the end of the year.

Congress has enacted federally funded extensions seven times in the past 50 years during economic slumps — in 1958, 1961, 1972, 1975, 1982, 1991 and 2002.

The House also voted in June to extend unemployment benefits for three months, but that bill stalled in the face of opposition from Senate Republicans and a White House veto threat.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081120/ap_on_go_co/jobless_benefits/print;_...

where are my manners : )

I read the Shock Doctrine and have been rereading parts for the past few months.

I am not sure I see the angle here besides union-busting...seems an awful big price to pay to bust a union...

I just don't see the angle...who's going to profit here?

Japan and China and all those repus invested in international companies.

A North versus South fight with auto bailout?
Chris in Paris · 11/20/2008 06:25:00 AM ET · Link
Make a comment · reddit · FARK · Digg It! · Stumble It!

Really? Is it a North versus South fight when every year hurricanes blow through the South and destroy the region? I seem to remember people from across America pitching in to help. It's disgusting to listen to politicians from the South from both parties play this line, especially considering the financial fact that it's their own states who are the spongers. That's right, I'm looking at you, Alabama and Mississippi.

They're a bunch of freeloading tax spongers who are only too happy to accept federal dollars - more than say, Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois - but oh no, no taxes can be spent to help out those Northern states during their time of need. In the best of times I detest the Southern attitudes of moral superiority despite regular evidence to the contrary but this fight turns my stomach. If anyone in Congress had a spine they'd tell Alabama and Mississippi to go Cheney themselves and find their own money the next time they have an emergency.
Sen. Jeff Sessions, R- Ala., told reporters Wednesday, “I can not imagine a real justification for a worker in Alabama who does not have any health insurance at his company to be taxed to maintain a Cadillac health care plan for somebody in Detroit.”

Honda and Hyundai, Sessions said, “are building steadily, and they are progressing steadily” even though they are being hurt by the economic downturn just like the Big Three U.S. automakers of Ford, Chrysler and General Motors.
Let's mark this down and remind the Senator how much federal aid he receives next hurricane season. I wonder what the Bible has to say about greedy, selfish bastards. Anyone?

http://www.americablog.com/2008/11/north-versus-south-fight-with-auto.ht...

Sachs is the micro-loan guy though, right? I think that's a brilliant idea and from what I can tell has been proven effective and efficient in India.
--------------------------------------------------
"I am A Great American Patriot !!!" - McCain Scroter
http://www.vodamusic.com/blog/

so much I need to learn about the economy, still...

Its basically looting. I don't see how they justify it to the conservative poor and middle class...or do they even have to? Are NASCAR people such lemmings that they'd go foreign if their masters told them to?

doesn't like him at all.

What WaDo's plan gets you...

he can't haz cheezburger...

...I seem to remember a speech on Nov 5, 2004 about "political capital"

end of Capitalism.....

Taking a million people out of trade unions is reason enough for them to risk a complete economic collapse. It makes no sense at all. But they're fucking demented. No brains left at all, just an ideological channel to pour all their hatreds and insecurities through.
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"I am A Great American Patriot !!!" - McCain Scroter
http://www.vodamusic.com/blog/

"Are NASCAR people such lemmings that they'd go foreign if their masters told them to?"

They don't look beyond their own jobs. Screw Michigan and all the other companies and businesses that depended on our Auto industry.

you need to think longer term, they are. they look forward to a day where american labor works for the same price as chinese or indian labor. but first they need to bust unions and reduce the majority of people to poverty and serfdom.

i wonder out loud whether some of the quality complaints don't come from the fact that a lot of the parts are made overseas rather than by skilled american labor.

Yeah I guess, but I just can't see all those rural folx warming up to Toyota, Honda, Nissan vs Chevy, Ford, Dodge...It's just bizarre to see Republicans abandoning that on ideology alone...This demographic could be a big pickup for the Dems if they can usher in a good working-class/environmentally-focused Auto Industry bailout bill in the 111th...

first time since 2005!

wah wah wah

Coleman's Lead Shrinks To 174 Votes

(cue Franken slide whistle)

couldn't have happened to a nicer douche...

and micro-loans make peoples' lives less miserable, I'm for them.

And I don't see why those specific ideas have to be necessarily tied to a neoliberal platform. Allowing loans for poor people to invest in needed farm equipment or start/expand small businesses has nothing to do with neoliberalism per se. It's also proven to be a good way to improve women's rights and social standing in some of these places.
--------------------------------------------------
"I am A Great American Patriot !!!" - McCain Scroter
http://www.vodamusic.com/blog/

Only a Republican could manage that...

California Rep. Henry A. Waxman on Thursday officially dethroned longtime Energy and Commerce Chairman John Dingell, upending a seniority system that has governed Democratic politics in the House for decades.

In a secret ballot vote in the Cannon Caucus Room, House Democrats ratified an earlier decision by the Steering and Policy Committee to replace the 82-year-old Dingell with his 69-year-old rival. The vote was 137-122 in favor of Waxman.

The ascension of Waxman, a wily environmentalist, recasts a committee that Dingell has chaired since 1981 with an eye toward protecting the domestic auto industry in his native Michigan. The Energy and Commerce Committee has principal jurisdiction over many of President-elect Barack Obama's top legislative priorities, including energy, the environment and health care.

The vote Thursday allows Waxman to unseat the dean of the House just three short months before he was set to become the longest-serving chairman in the history of the institution.

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1108/15822.html

>>Kangaroos 'share human genes'

I suspect Air-Ono has something to do with this...bloody marsupial fetishist pervert!

his Airness

"The Once and Future Rajah of Bhong."

Hell Yeah! Let's get going with the "wily" environmentalism!

I was worried about this. This is such a good sign!
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"I am A Great American Patriot !!!" - McCain Scroter
http://www.vodamusic.com/blog/

Senators reach compromise on emergency auto loans: report

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- A bipartisan group of auto-state senators say they have reached a compromise to speed emergency loans to Detroit's Big Three car makers, the Associated Press reported Thursday. Republicans and Democrats plan to present the proposal at a mid-afternoon news conference Thursday but it was not clear whether the compromise plan could draw enough support to get through the Senate, the news agency said.

http://www.marketwatch.com/News/Story/Story.aspx?guid=%7B222C65B9%2D2832...

rayburn just had a couple of kooks who are advocating sterilizing immigrants.

Senate GOP in big funk
By JOHN BRESNAHAN & AMIE PARNES | 11/20/08 4:35 AM EST

A day after losing Ted Stevens’ seat, along with their best hope for getting Joe Lieberman to cross over, Senate GOP leaders preached party unity as the key to surviving the Obama years.

If that doesn’t work, there’s always psychotherapy.

Down to 42 seats with two still at risk, Senate Republicans are in a deep funk. Some are in denial. Some want a return to conservative principles. Some want to cut deals. Some want more filibusters.

Others want to jump out a window — but they’re afraid they’d screw that up, too.

“We probably wouldn’t die,” a Republican Senate aide joked Wednesday. “We’d just lie there, hurt and suffering, which is not too much different from where we are now.”

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1108/15812.html

Apparently "throwing like a girl" means throwing a sidearm knuckleball.

TOKYO (AP) - A 16-year-old schoolgirl is making a pitch to become the first woman to play professional baseball in Japan.

High school student Eri Yoshida was drafted by the Kobe 9 Cruise, a professional team in a new independent Japanese league that starts its first season in April.

"I always dreamed of becoming a professional," Yoshida said at a news conference Monday. "I have only just been picked by the team and haven't achieved anything yet."

Yoshida, a right-hander who is 5 feet and 114 pounds, throws a sidearm knuckleball and wants to emulate Boston Red Sox knuckleballer Tim Wakefield.

Yoshida threw a hitless inning against male batters during a tryout this month and was among 33 players picked in the draft.

http://msn.foxsports.com/mlb/story/8808092/Japanese-schoolgirl-drafted-b...
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"I am A Great American Patriot !!!" - McCain Scroter
http://www.vodamusic.com/blog/

reid and pelosi just came out and dissed it, saying a bailout will have to wait till december.

===

senior democrats are against the proposed bill because it takes money from the loan that was supposed to be used for creating more fuel efficient cars thus weakening the push for improved environmental standards.

so there you have it. the republicans exploited the notion of compromise by finding some dems who think we need a solution asap to push their idea of weakening cafe standards.

on the surface reid and pelosi look like the bad guys when what they are trying to do is not compromise on the correct forward direction for the big 3.

(Senator) Leahy to pursue Justice firings (looking to Obama admin to release info)

Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont, the head of the U.S. Senate's Judiciary Committee, said that despite the impending change in presidential administrations, he will pursue his inquiry into political influence in the U.S. Department of Justice under President George Bush.

Leahy said it was "encouraging" that the U.S. Department of Justice has said it will provide some of the information about the allegedly politically motivated firings in 2006 of nine U.S. attorneys.

And if President-elect Barack Obama's administration releases some of the information his committee has sought, he will not have to pursue that material through congressional means, Leahy said.

...

Leahy wants to know what influence members of the White House – including Karl Rove – had on the firings of the prosecutors. The firings led to several investigations and were followed by the resignation of former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales.

"My ultimate goal is to find out what they did … where law enforcement was manipulated," Leahy said of any potential White House influence in the firings.

http://www.timesargus.com/article/20081120/NEWS01/811200386/1002/NEWS01

(Rep) Hoekstra says CIA lied about Peru plane downing that killed missionary Veronica Bowers

A new federal probe of the 2001 downing of a plane carrying West Michigan missionaries in Peru concluded the CIA operated outside the law and then lied to Congress and federal officials, according to U.S. Rep. Pete Hoekstra.

"We cannot have a community that operates outside the law and covers up what it does and lies to Congress," Hoekstra said today.

Hoekstra said he will press for criminal investigation following release of the report by the Office of Inspector General.

Veronica "Roni" Bowers, 35, of Muskegon, was holding her 7-month-old daughter, Charity, when their plane was misidentified by as a potential drug-smuggling aircraft and fired upon by a Peruvian air force jet. A bullet struck Bowers in the back, killing her and the baby.

Bowers' husband, Jim, then 37, son, Cory, 8, and the pilot survived the crash that followed the shooting.

http://www.mlive.com/grpress/news/index.ssf/2008/11/post_24.html

Federal Judge Orders Release of 5 Terror Suspects Held at Guantanamo Bay Prison

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Five of six Algerians must be released after nearly seven years of captivity at the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, a federal judge ruled on Thursday.

U.S. District Judge Richard Leon ruled from the bench after holding the first hearings under a landmark Supreme Court ruling in June that gave Guantanamo prisoners the legal right to challenge their continued confinement.

U.S. President-elect Barack Obama has promised to close the prison camp after he takes office in January. Meanwhile, U.S. judges in Washington are moving ahead with case-by-case reviews of detainee legal challenges.

http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSTRE4AJ6J420081120

As Budget Shortfalls Force Reductions in Home Care, Low-Income People May Face Nursing Homes, Advocates Say
By PHILIP SHISHKIN

Faced with widening budget shortfalls, several states are rolling back support services for the elderly and disabled. The move is making it tougher for them to continue living on their own, advocates say. At least 15 states, including Alabama, Virginia and Massachusetts, are targeting such funding, mostly for programs that allow low-income shut-ins to receive personal care -- like cooking, cleaning and basic health services -- in their own homes, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a liberal-leaning Washington, D.C. think tank that studies state budgets.

The cutbacks are exacerbating the already long waiting lists for home-care support services in many states. That leaves the low-income elderly and disabled to dip into their meager incomes to hire their own help, reach out to family or charity, or seek more restrictive and expensive care in a nursing home, advocates say.

As the economy falters, declining revenues and tax receipts have led state agencies to cut spending, with 41 states facing current or looming deficits, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. Services for the elderly and disabled are just one of the areas facing cuts. But the cuts hit hard because the population is especially vulnerable. "The call volume is increasing exponentially and the people are desperate," says Sarah Lightell, chief operating officer at the Senior Resource Alliance, which uses state funds to provide home-care services to the elderly in central Florida.

(snip)

In surveys, the elderly and disabled say they prefer to avoid nursing homes and receive less-restrictive care in their own communities. Through the Medicaid program for the needy, the government has encouraged home-based care in recent years, since nursing homes cost far more per person. In 2006, the federal/state program spent about $47 billion on nursing-home care and $15 billion on home- and community-based services. Some officials say that the savings community-based care is supposed to generate are often illusory. When eligibility is expanded, critics argue, people who would never enter nursing homes come out of the woodwork to get government funding. This "woodwork effect" only adds to the overall cost.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122714130153442755.html

This makes no sense to me. If it costs more to support these people in nursing homes, why would they cut home based care?

Dodd and others have been saying basically the same thing all along....It is really starting to look like they just want to wait for the new session.

After the fiasco of the last bailout, I can not blame them for wanting to wait until they know how many people they will have and a better idea of what they will be able to get passed, as well as taking time to get a clearer picture and more ideas about what can be done and what will actually work.

This shock doctrine knee-jerk legislation bull crap is only causing more problems.

how do you resolve the dilemma that by the time they get to the legislative environment they want the whole thing may have gone boom and we'll be neck deep in depression 2.0?

Auto Compromise...

instead of just up and giving money to the union busters who've mismanaged their companies to the brink of bankruptcy, why don't we try something a little different?

We give the money, but instead of it going to the current ownership, we loan the money to the unions/workers to buy partial ownership?

I think it'd be a very good progressive step.

*************************

"The Once and Future Rajah of Bhong."

Who doesn't have a belly button?

Underwear model Karolina Kurkova has no belly button. Is a barely-there navel for cosmetic or medical reasons?

The newspapers call it the "riddle of the £2.5m beauty". The beauty in question is Czech supermodel Karolina Kurkova. The riddle is her non-existent belly button.

Its absence was noticed this week when the 24-year-old graced a US catwalk for lingerie giant Victoria Secret. While most of us have an "outie" or an "innie", Ms Kurkova has a smooth indentation (although sometimes a tummy button is airbrushed onto her photos in post-production).

Otherwise known as a navel, the belly button is the rounded, knotty depression in the centre of the abdomen caused by the detachment of the umbilical cord that fed you while in the womb. We all have umbilical cords, so why don't we all have a belly button?

Ms Kurkova has not spoken publicly about how she came to have a smooth navel, and all her agent will say is "she's not an alien".
*************************

"The Once and Future Rajah of Bhong."

The fear that they might possibly be left to bankruptcy is what is causing the panic and market pressures, IMO.

Ensure the markets something will be done, but not till January. Let the big 3 and the Unions figure out how to hold it together until then.

Worst case scenario is a Chinese/Canadian takeover anyway. No?

yer joking about that not being a really bad thing right?

China is a Slave State. We shouldn't even have started trading with them to begin with. Most Favored Nation status for China is probably the thing I hate most about Bill Clinton (though there's plenty there to pick from...).

SLAVE STATE. And we're in a position now where it's nearly impossible to avoid buying Chinese products, which just makes the situation worse. I'd rather not have them officially own us, even if that's basically the case already.
--------------------------------------------------
"I am A Great American Patriot !!!" - McCain Scroter
http://www.vodamusic.com/blog/

This Is Change? 20 Hawks, Clintonites and Neocons to Watch for in Obama's White House
By Jeremy Scahill, AlterNet. Posted November 20, 2008.

http://www.alternet.org/audits/107666/this_is_change_20_hawks%2C_clinton...

Franken vs Coleman Recount now at 21% with just past 2.4 million counted. At this point Coleman has a very very narrow lead of only 156 votes which basically is a dead heat so far in the recount. Franken is expected to close when more votes are recounted

LINK FOR RECOUNT TOTALS:

http://ww2.startribune.com/news/metro/elections/returns/2008/recount/mse...

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i think there's a lot to be said for that being true.

i'm not sure how its tied together but my gut tells me that the unregulated use of the 700,000,000,000 has more to do with propping up the chinese ownership of u.s. debt than anything else.

but we can't do something to save millions of american jobs. these neocons have so fucked over america.

I completely missed Sam's reading Nora's `anti-socialism' post....I was reading an article and zoned pout until Sam mentioned my name...presumably at the end of her post.

here it is again::

'Socialism'? -- even Micheal Moore gets it wrong...
Submitted by nora on Thu, 11/20/2008 - 3:42am.

Michael Moore was on Larry King
Submitted by gloryoski on Thu, 11/20/2008 - 2:06am.
tonight about the auto bailout and how it isn't happening and GM in general. And boy was he pissed.

http://www.youtube.com/user/mmflint?ob=4

»
=======================================

Thanks for the link.

I've heard this "socialism for the rich" quip a number of times lately and it is a misuse of the word, so much so, I can be quiet no longer.

Those who are so greedy they think only of increasing their own personal wealth and power at the expense of all other life on the Planet -- like the Bush Crime Family & Friends and the Banking Industrialists and the CEO Class -- are not displaying 'socialism' at all. They are expressing ANTI-SOCIAL behavior. Socialism is a form of governance seeking to serve all, not just the greedy few. It is rooted in a sense of social responsibility, a sense of all of us IN SOCIETY being in this boat together and helping each other, sharing, and cooperating in the process. NOT SO WITH THE BULLIES, PREDATORY BRUTES, SOCIOPATHS, PSYCHOPATHS who consistently display ANTI-SOCIAL BEHAVIOR and their own self-interest to the point of theft, murder, and destruction of anything and everything. These creeps have no desire to serve society as a whole, only to prey on it.

If the CRIMINALLY RICH have an elite society of mutual support, it needs to be labelled ANTI-SOCIAL PREDATIONISM or something, because it serves their elite predatory group alone and excludes all others!!!! It definitely is not socialism.

*************************

"The Once and Future Rajah of Bhong."

Waaahhhh

I may be wrong, but this is the way I see it...

The threat of a Chinese takeover accomplishes two important things; it shuts up the thugs screaming "let them fail", because they would never agree to let the Chinese own the Big 3, it's un'merikan. That is that "ideologue mental illness" happe was referring to, working in our favor.; and it gives the markets the illusion that no matter what, the big 3 will survive, even if foreign owned.

This gives congress all the leverage they need to take the time and get it right. NO WAY a Democratic Congress lets the UAW vanish. It is way to important to their re-elections.

Latest information points to Senator John Kerry being appointed as Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Keep in mind that this is from a Boston paper:
___________________________________________________________________________

Kerry poised to cap long journey
Will lead panel that thrust him to fame in '71

By Bryan Bender, Globe Staff | November 20, 2008

WASHINGTON - More than three decades after he first appeared before the panel as a 27-year-old Vietnam veteran-turned-antiwar protester, Senator John F. Kerry will be named chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, giving him enormous influence over President-elect Barack Obama's foreign policy, according to congressional officials.

Kerry, who was elected to a fifth term from Massachusetts earlier this month, will be handed the gavel when the new Congress convenes in January, replacing Vice President-elect Joe Biden, the officials said.

Aides to Kerry said he is already laying out a broad agenda for the committee, beginning with new legislation to strengthen the United States' hand against terrorists in Afghanistan and Pakistan; provide oversight of efforts to end the war in Iraq; and seize what he sees as a new opportunity to curtail the spread of nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons.

Kerry, 64, is still considered by some political observers to be a possible pick for Obama's secretary of state, but Senator Hillary Clinton of New York and former New Mexico governor Bill Richardson, each of whom met separately with Obama at his Chicago transition office last week, are considered far more likely selections for the position of top diplomat.

Still, from his new perch on the Foreign Relations Committee, Kerry would play an "enormous gatekeeping role," said Ralph G. Carter, a professor at Texas Christian University and coauthor of the upcoming book, "Choosing to Lead: Understanding Congressional Foreign Policy Entrepreneurs."

"The role of Senate Foreign Relations Committee chair is enormously influential," Carter said. "It gives the person who holds it an incredible position to shape policy."

Along with the Judiciary and Finance committees, the Foreign Relations Committee was among the first three Senate panels established, in 1816.

It is responsible for vetting international treaties before ratification by the full Senate, and for conducting the confirmation hearings for presidential nominees for the State Department, including all foreign ambassadors.

The committee also oversees the State Department budget and funds foreign aid programs, helps set arms control policy, and authorizes military training for allied nations.

Kerry's elevation to chairman, to be announced as early as this week by Senate majority leader Harry Reid, is the culmination of a unique journey.

It began when a shaggy-haired Kerry, wearing his military ribbons, testified for nearly two hours before the panel on April 22, 1971, the first Vietnam veteran to do so.

Speaking on behalf of fellow veterans, he appealed for an end to US military involvement in Southeast Asia, posing the famous question, "How do you ask a man to be the last man to die for a mistake?"

In what proved to be a highly prescient remark, committee member Claiborne Pell of Rhode Island - a future chairman himself - expressed hope that the young Kerry would one day "be a colleague of ours in this body."

Now Kerry is set to take over the committee with an impressive set of credentials. He is the third-ranking Democrat on the committee, behind Chris Dodd of Connecticut, who will remain chairman of the Banking Committee. Kerry has served on the committee for 23 years - including stints as chairman of the Asia and Middle East subcommittees - and has overseen legislation on a wide range of issues, such as human rights and Russia's invasion of Georgia last summer.

He also negotiated the creation of a war crimes tribunal to try the perpetrators of genocide in Cambodia, was instrumental in normalizing US relations with Vietnam in 1994, and attended global climate change negotiations in Indonesia last year.

He has been a leading voice in recent years on several of the foremost foreign policy questions. Kerry, who voted in 2002 to authorize the Iraq war that Obama opposed, introduced the first Senate amendment in 2006 to withdraw US combat forces from Iraq. While backed by only 13 senators at the time, his position was later adopted by nearly all his Democratic colleagues, and by some Republicans.

In 2006, he was also among the first in Congress to call for more US troops in Afghanistan, a position that later became a key element of Obama's national security platform.

Over the years, Kerry, whose father was a career foreign service officer, has traveled widely to meet with political and military leaders. Earlier this year, he made official trips to Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Israel, the Palestinian territories, Pakistan, Afghanistan, India, and Turkey.

To some critics, including Andrew Bacevich, a Vietnam veteran who is a professor of international relations at Boston University, Kerry's career in the Senate has been a disappointment. Kerry has not shown enough leadership, they say, and was wrong about the Iraq war.

"Kerry's senatorial career is one of great potential unfulfilled," Bacevich said. As chairman of the committee, "he'll have a chance to redeem himself."

But committee chairpersons from the same party as the president - as Kerry will be in the Obama administration - tend to play a supporting role for the White House, according to Carter, the Texas professor...

CONTINUES:

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2008/11/20/kerry_poised_to_ca...

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>>I miss a-o :-'(

I will have to get off my ass and write him.

I hope he's ok.
*************************

"The Once and Future Rajah of Bhong."

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