5 senses

Viva el Socialist scourge!

As Barack Obama's opus, Team of Rivals, continues its rolling debut, the early reviews are in and the "critics" are full of praise for the cast:

"[T]he new administration is off to a good start."
-- Senate Republican leader, Mitch McConnell.

"[S]uperb ... the best of the Washington insiders ... this will be a valedictocracy -- rule by those who graduate first in their high school classes."
-- David Brooks, conservative New York Times columnist

"[V]irtually perfect ... "
-- Senator Joe Lieberman, former Democrat and John McCain's top surrogate in the 2008 campaign.

"[R]eassuring."
-- Karl Rove, "Bush's brain."

"I am gobsmacked by these appointments, most of which could just as easily have come from a President McCain ... this all but puts an end to the 16-month timetable for withdrawal from Iraq, the unconditional summits with dictators, and other foolishness that once emanated from the Obama campaign ... [Hillary] Clinton and [James] Steinberg at State should be powerful voices for 'neo-liberalism' which is not so different in many respects from 'neo-conservativism.'"
-- Max Boot, neoconservative activist, former McCain staffer.

"I see them as being sort of center-right of the Democratic party."
-- James Baker, former Secretary of State and the man who led the theft of the 2000 election.

"[S]urprising continuity on foreign policy between President Bush's second term and the incoming administration ... certainly nothing that represents a drastic change in how Washington does business. The expectation is that Obama is set to continue the course set by Bush ... "
-- Michael Goldfarb of the neoconservative Weekly Standard.

http://www.alternet.org/blogs/peek/109160/%27better_than_cats%21%27_neoc...

"I certainly applaud many of the appointments ... "
-- Senator John McCain

"So far, so good."
-- Senator Lamar Alexander, senior Republican Congressional leader.

Hillary Clinton will be "outstanding" as Secretary of State
-- Henry Kissinger, war criminal

Rahm Emanuel is "a wise choice" in the role of Chief of Staff
-- Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, John McCain's best friend.

Obama's team shows "Our foreign policy is non-partisan."
-- Ed Rollins, top Republican strategist and Mike Huckabee's 2008 campaign manager

"The country will be in good hands."
-- Condoleezza Rice, George W. Bush's Secretary of State

...Hey dada...that's all so.... comforting...

I saw it in the sunset driving home last night and WOWIE..beautiful...the sky was burning orange and red and the crescent moon was bright and low..and above it the shiny planets...stunning...but too late to photograph before the sun went down..maybe tonight or tomorrow...

We have conservatives to thank for socialism...
new
Submitted by 60th Street on Sun, 11/30/2008 - 3:16pm.
*******
Our 7.5 Trillion Dollar Deficit up your ass before
you come here spewing your Moronic BS..

S.P.I.T. this Shit Disturbing Loser..

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

Those and War Dog singing Obama's praises amount to a whole lot of wimpy nothin', just more pissing in the snow by a bunch of washed up nobodies.

Republicans are desperate to paint the nation in bright lemony conservative yellow.

but, really, what other alternative do they have?

How long ago were they calling him the most Liberal senator in the Senate? Weeks? days?

I don't suppose that is relevant anymore, I mean, and who's listening but Lefties? This can't be what the conservative base wants to hear, can it? If anything these reviews would serve to confuse the zombies even more than they did by pandering to Hillary and her voters during the election. After months of amping up the hate, racism and xenophobia, all of a sudden the rabid right is supposed to say "Hey, Obama's really one of us?"

Unlikely. I'll tell you what's more probable, though, and remember your good buddy WaDo when considering the alternative: a curious strategy, indeed...feed red meat to the Left, get them to raise Cain and Democrats will run to the Right...

it's all very, boring...

Eels - Everything's Gonna Be Cool This Christmas

www.myspace.com/eels

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

my mom is moving up here to the "big house". She will have two bedrooms divided byt a Jack and Jill bathroom. My son and his fam will move into her 2 bdm house here on the property. That means my neice will have to move out. We are having a family meeting tonight. I sure hope my marriage survives all of my family being here. We Italians are just like that. This means we lose our shrine room(again) and my step daughter will sleep in my office every other week when she is here. It will be nice to have Iris close by.

I've gotta practice what I preach, family needs to stick together in hard times.

...for ridiculous headlines (and situations) like this:

Plea Deal Offered To 8-Year-Old Charged With Murdering His Father

"...personal responsibility."

Submitted by Harold on Sun, 11/30/2008 - 1:41pm.

Really?

Submitted by OBAMAS 97 PERCENT on Sat, 11/29/2008 - 10:29pm.

"I don't do anything.

I don't work."

-------------

By his own words wado is "good for nothing" with no moral values of any contribution for the community.

If he wasn't so lost and completely delusional fighting non-existant bs talking point constructs then he would realize that "real personal responsiblity" would involve a "real moral value purpose" like "volunteering/community/mentoring/etc work" instead of not working & not doing anything at all.

And thats a Fact.

-

Loading Flash

Submitted by 60th Street on Sun, 11/30/2008 - 3:29pm.

"I've had problems loading some Flash in the new version of FireFox, but with IE7 they load just fine. It's unbelievable how many times i have had to switch back and forth between FF and IE. Just when I get used to one, they update it and I have to run to the other.

Too bad bc I really liked some of the new features on FF3."

----------------------------------------------------------

I haven't had much trouble with Flash on Firefox 3. Make sure you have the latest version as it has been updated frequently.

I have had problems with You Tube Videos playing sometimes with Firefox 3 or they play ok but with no audio.

Although I don't care for IE 7 and it is noticebly slower I haven't had those problems.

I hope Firefox addresses these problems in its next update.

Brings new meaning to the term "Christmas Treat!" ;)

Not that he would have anyone to use it with, but I could almost imagine old wado pulling the old delapitated winter trailer to Mexico City in order to try to find the long ago lost function of his youth. HaHaHa!
______________________________________

Mexico City to distribute Free Viagra to men 70 and older

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexico City is giving out free Viagra and other impotence drugs to men 70 and older.

Mayor Marcelo Ebrard says the city is implementing the plan because sexuality "has a lot to do with quality of life and our happiness."

City Health Secretary Armando Ahued says the government will start handing out doses of one or two Viagra, Levitra or Cialis pills on Dec. 1.

They will be distributed at three centers that specialize in sexual health for the elderly. The men will receive medical examinations before receiving the pills.

Ahued says an estimated 112,000 men 70 or older live in the Federal District, which has a population of 8.7 million.

Some 20 million people live in the greater Mexico City area.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/offbeat/2008-11-13-mexicocityviagra_N.htm

-

I always liked the thought of living with extended family...not sure if it's in my future, but it's cool that you're willing to give it a go...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7mTQQpTPGqA
Olive Riley (born 1899) sings...

this kind of arrangement will become more and more common if the economic situation continues to deteriorate; that's the silver lining of a bad situation. You are lucky that at least you do have the space. And of course you get to see Iris every day, what's there not to like about that. You're absolutely right, that's what families are for.

I need another thousand tunes on my laptop I think.. :)

good post - so reassuring, right?

After a time consuming exhaustive search I finally found war dog's winter 30's caravan trailer park paradise location here. Although I'm sure he has made some minor upgrades to make it more livable:

http://www.oldclassiccar.co.uk/weyland_caravan.htm

-

gore vidal with Bender...

http://socialistworker.org/2008/11/19/great-expectations

...
OBAMA AND the Democrats recognize this mood of raised expectations. But they regard it with a sense of concern. "It's important that everybody understands that this is not going to happen overnight," said Robert Gibbs, a campaign strategist for Obama and soon-to-be White House press secretary. "There has to be a realistic expectation of what can happen and how quickly."

Why the nervousness? Because Obama's powerful message of hope and rhetoric about change was never matched by a commitment to radical policies and political positions.

Obama comes out of the political mainstream of the Democratic Party leadership--so it's no surprise that he is staffing his White House with veterans of the last Democratic administration of Bill Clinton.
...
The election of the candidate who promised change wasn't the end of the process, but only the beginning of the possibility for bringing about that change.

As the great abolitionist Frederick Douglass famously said:

If there is no struggle, there is no progress. Those who profess to favor freedom and yet deprecate agitation are men who want crops without plowing up the ground, they want rain without thunder and lightning. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its mighty waters. The struggle may be a moral one, or it may be a physical one, and it may be both moral and physical, but it must be a struggle. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did, and it never will.

There are significant challenges ahead in mobilizing that struggle. Conditions for working people have worsened steadily over the past several decades, and unions and social movement organizations have declined, both in numbers and influence, and in their political visions.

But that situation can shift rapidly, as we have already seen around the issue of same-sex marriage in just the few weeks since the election.

The central importance of Obama's victory is that it has broken through the bitter prejudice that nothing much can change in society. If those committed to organizing for a different vision of society can relate to the hopes that this has inspired--and the newfound confidence that justice is on our side--then we can make the Obama years an era of struggle and political progress.

he didn't feel like blacks had any more hope than whites and others when it came to Obama...News Consumer from Brooklyn said the opposite last night about what he has experienced there....

That article has this about it:

...
The hopeful enthusiasm has continued into the transition period before Obama takes office. As USA Today summarized the results of its poll:

Expectations for Obama are high across the board. Eight in 10 said he will improve conditions for minorities and the poor, and 76 percent said he'll increase respect for the United States abroad.

About seven in 10 said he'll be able to improve education and the environment.

More than 60 percent said he will reduce unemployment, bring U.S. troops home from Iraq, improve the health care system, create a strong economic recovery and keep the U.S. safe from terrorism.

More than half said he will be able to bring troops home from Afghanistan, reduce U.S. oil dependence, heal political divisions and control federal spending.

Some of these conclusions are far ahead of what Obama has actually said...
...

Socialist Action, despite many important differences, supported the presidential candidacies of three small socialist parties that posed a working class and socialist alternative in the 2008 elections. We urged a vote for Gloria LaRiva of the Party for Socialism and Liberation, Roger Callero/John Harris of the Socialist Workers Party and Brian Moore of the Socialist Party. The SWP received some 9800 votes, the PSL, 7400 and the SP 6600, all miniscule votes but nevertheless votes of working class principle won in the full vortex of an election whose outcome was made to appear as a historic turning point in American politics.

Victories for working people of all races have never been the product of the election of any ruling class candidate or party. They have been and will continue to be the outcome of the independent and massive mobilization of capitalism’s victims on the field of struggle.

Socialist Action is an unswerving advocate of working people building their own political party to defend and advance their own class interests, a mass Labor Party based on a reinvigorated, democratic and fighting trade union movement in alliance with the oppressed and exploited everywhere. Karl Marx was on the mark when he wrote 160 years ago, “Capitalism creates it’s own gravediggers.” With no solutions to the mounting and multiple crises before it other than repression and deeper inroads into the quality of life of U.S. workers, revolutionary socialists intent on mounting a fundamental challenge to the capitalist order will find common ground with the millions of fighters who will inevitably take the field and bring about a new social order where capitalist plunder and barbarity will become distant memory.

http://www.socialistaction.org/editors12.htm

Following the war dog do nothing with no work mantra I'm thinking of moving into this old Nasa desert trailer for the winter. It runs on rooftop solar panels for most of its power and I can put up a little 400 watt windmill for extra night power beyond the battery bank. Not much inside except old electronic equipment in racks that can be pulled to make a bunk, storage, sink & composting toilet. And best of all free wifi by logging onto a 2 bar signal strength unsecured wireless signal from a nearby house. Rent is cheap cheap. ;)

Another winter paradise:

http://thisisharrington.com/projects/nasa/nasa_shots4.html

Only one problem, One would have to haul water a long ways in 5 or 7 gallon containers.

-

Weekend:
http://www.timelinetheatre.com/weekend/index.htm

http://nfb.org/legacy/books/kernel1/kern0403.htm

http://www.samsedershow.com/node/1867

i think there is a lot of relief that w will be gone January 20. Good points about staffing with Clintonites, etc...that concerns me too. As Malloy said - I voted for Obama not for what he is, but for what he can be (the potential he represents). Yes, some things Obama has said have also worried me...
to his credit though, Obama seems to be a reasonable man who will listen.

I hope Kevin is enjoying this game.

I'd like to make sure and let you know what you mean to me on your special moments :)

(once again) that he believes that Waldron and Hartmann's thesis about the JFK assassination is correct: Castro got him before he got Castro. Mafia involved. If there is something to this, why doesn't RFK, Jr. weigh in, as he has in another seemingly incredible conspiracy theory--until research by him and others proved otherwise--that of the voting machine thefts of elections by Republicans.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/11/30/144836/19/329/667850

Submitted by Fernando on Sun, 11/30/2008 - 6:47pm.

I'd like to make sure and let you know what you mean to me on your special moments :)

---

"Submitted by Fernando on Sun, 11/30/2008 - 6:47pm.

I'd like to make sure and let you know what you mean to me on your special moments :)

---

Very touching of you nando to remember those "special moments." ;

---

"Every time I go to town you guys keep kicking the dog around"

- anonymous blogger -

-

Bill Scher
Submitted by bibimimi on Sun, 12/02/2007 - 5:23pm.
is a cutie. he has a sweet smile.

Rove is a veritable blizzard of bullshit.
==========
Sounds like something Charles Bukowski might have written.

Obama campaigned on his personality and judgment and won. Now, like it or not, he isn't beholden to anyone.

By David Sirota

Nov. 29, 2008 | Judging by the proliferation of capital letters in the e-mail correspondence I receive, many seem worried that Barack Obama may not deliver the promised "change we can believe in."

To my fearful letter writers, I offer three responses.

First, I counsel not fretting too much yet. Although there is truth to the notion that "personnel is policy," crises can make radicals out of former establishmentarians, and the president-elect's initial declarations imply a boldly progressive agenda. "Remember, Franklin Roosevelt gave no evidence in his prior career that he would lead the dramatic sea change in American politics that he led," says historian Eric Rauchway.

Second, I tell e-mailers they are right to be somewhat distressed, right to ignore Obama loyalists who want them to shut up, and right to speak out. When President Bill Clinton rammed George H.W. Bush's NAFTA through Congress after candidate Clinton pledged not to, he provided ample reason to recollect the saying "Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me." And voicing concern is critical. As Frederick Douglass said, "Power concedes nothing without demand."

Finally, I ask my pen pals if they really are shocked.

Despite the election's progressive mandate, Obama is not what Ronald Reagan was to conservatives -- he is not as much the product of a movement as he is a movement unto himself. He figured out that because many "progressive" institutions are merely Democratic Party appendages and not ideological movement forces, he could build his own movement. He succeeded in that endeavor thanks to the nation's Bush-inspired desire for change, his own skills and a celebrity-obsessed culture.

Wielding his campaign's massive e-mail list, the new president could mobilize supporters to press Congress for a new New Deal. Or, he could mobilize that army to blunt pressure on his government for a new New Deal. The point is that Obama alone gets to choose -- that for all the talk of "bottom-up" politics, his movement's structure grants him a top-down power that no previous president had.

For better or worse, that leaves us relying more than ever on our Dear Leader's impulses. Sure, we should be thankful when Dear Leader's whims serve the people -- but also unsurprised when they don't.
http://www.salon.com/opinion/feature/2008/11/29/obama_choices/

Just came back up about 15 minutes ago.

The weather her is rotten but not bad enough for any downed wires yet. Main Circuit must have blown.

Ah, well, it's back now.

I think that is wonderful.

As Obama moves to the right, the fringe is being pull to toward the center as well...

President Obama is doing just what he promised to do!

There was a time when the 3% was obsessed with Crazy Talk.

Talk about ending war.

Talk about raising folks taxes.

Talk about giving away medical care.

Talk about dropping our guard against terror.

Talk about accusing folks with crimes never committed.

It's good to put all of that kind of thing behind us.

It's good to have folks supporting the President again!!

Don't you just love Patriotic Shows!

I know I do!

he's on 60 minutes.

FYI - Dirt Devil's Powerstick is a WOW in my book. That's one powerful suck stick.

By Don Davis
http://satiricalpolitical.com/?p=5032

“NOBODY REALLY HEARD OF KASHMIR UNTIL IT WAS MADE FAMOUS BY LED ZEPPELIN, WHO ALSO ENCOURAGED THESE TERRORISTS WITH ‘STAIRWAY TO HEAVEN’.”

-When did Anderzson Cooper join CBS-

I just took some good shots of the triple-er sunset...looks killer..

can you post them? I was just looking at that while standing in the middle of a parking lot by a freeway. I didn't have as nice a background so I'd appreciate remembering it differently.

number 12...

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm2028596/bio

called Pack Up Your Troubles, check out the little girl telling Stan the Goldilocks and the Three Bears story...it's so cute...exceptionally cute...Like this Myla vid. that Sam allegedly has...

:( But sometimes I use them to frame a picture...

I think they add to it graphically.

so either you can't see them, or they show a bit on each side...

*

Capitalism Crashes, Politics Changes
by Rick Wolff

This widening and deepening economic crisis is transforming US politics. New possibilities are emerging for activists and potential activists if they can see and respond creatively to them.

http://www.monthlyreview.org/mrzine/wolff261008.html

saved by a woman putting her body over their wounded bodies?! They wouldn't speak to 60 minutes and one said "Women shouldn't be in combat positions"...

tend to die younger than people who do not...

Until I see the results of that, I am going to assume that is propaganda of a high order...I mean who knows..and it all varies..and just because there is more of something doesn't make it better or worse...or something..

he gave me one point back...I lost my other two protests..If you have a sound card installed you DO need speakers...the answer from the book was plug-ins though....

My daughter tells me i'm crazy. I bought my college aged nephew a 16gb micro sd memory card for xmas. She barked "You aren't thinking about getting me anything for Christmas are you?"

?

Every time I read that I visualize a mime. Why does that happen?

anything we're going to run out of everything...

I'll bet Emerson Troward might have something to say about that NOTION...

and told her I got him a reverse polish notation calculator.

She really blew up then. Told me I'm a "shitty giver".

are not funny either?

Obliging...

THAT is why Thanksgiving rocks.

...

This will be the first year with our entire family with NO GIFTS policy in enforcement... :) It's taken since 1994 to make it be this way... and still we have ONE gift to purchase out of obligation with one person who bought the gift in Feb and wants restitution..so we bought him an MIT baseball hat..which is what he bascially asked for...and that is just ONE hassle... :)

Family dinner night.

___

.♡. - .☮.

No you aren't Alice.

I was zoning out contemplating what I could do to be a better blogger next year.

We can't call it Family Dinner night at my house. We have family dinners all of the time. Thanksgiving in my house often represents honoring the harvest with candied foods and tv sports and taking a moment to prioritize those things we are grateful for such as candied foods and tv sports.

Alice, that picture made me get one of these. Now to find something to blog using it....

They are part of what we are. They definitely have their share of romance. They may become obsolete but they were the first 'tubes' and brought us power.

I am sorry for finally dozing off to sleep on you guys last night before he showed up.

What was SR doing anyway? Geez...

So what do we do? Let’s regulate, by all means. Let’s try to make a reasonable economic system that doesn’t allow the grotesque abuses we’ve seen in recent decades. But let’s not reproduce the self-destruct button. This time the change has to include the following: The people in every enterprise who do the work of that enterprise, will become collectively their own board of directors. For the first time in American history, the people who depend on the survival of those regulations will be in the position of receiving the profits of their own work and using them to make the regulations succeed rather than sabotaging them.

This proposal for workers to collectively become their own board of directors also democratizes the enterprise. The people who work in an enterprise, the front line of those who have to live with what it does, where it goes, how it uses its wealth, they should be the people who have influence over the decisions it makes. That’s democracy.

Maybe we could even extend this argument to democracy in our political life, which leaves a little to be desired—some people call it a “formal” democracy, that isn’t real. Maybe the problem all along has been that you can’t have a real democracy politically if you don’t have a real democracy underpinning it economically. If the workers are not in charge of their work situations, five days a week, 9 to 5, the major time of their adult lives, then how much aptitude and how much appetite are they going to have to control their political life? Maybe we need the democracy of economics, not just to prevent the regulations from being undone, but also to realize the political objectives of democracy.
...

http://dollarsandsense.org/archives/2008/1108wolff.html

--with candied foods and tv sports and taking a moment to prioritize those things we are grateful for such as candied foods and tv sports.-

Sorry, Alice. ;)

We found 10 results for “gay marriage”

There used to only be 4 results a couple weeks ago.

(I sure am glad they fixed the Agenda links at: http://www.change.gov ) There's more topics, too.

http://change.gov/agenda/civil_rights_agenda/

Support Full Civil Unions and Federal Rights for LGBT Couples: Barack Obama supports full civil unions that give same-sex couples legal rights and privileges equal to those of married couples. Obama also believes we need to repeal the Defense of Marriage Act and enact legislation that would ensure that the 1,100+ federal legal rights and benefits currently provided on the basis of marital status are extended to same-sex couples in civil unions and other legally-recognized unions. These rights and benefits include the right to assist a loved one in times of emergency, the right to equal health insurance and other employment benefits, and property rights.

Oppose a Constitutional Ban on Same-Sex Marriage: Barack Obama voted against the Federal Marriage Amendment in 2006 which would have defined marriage as between a man and a woman and prevented judicial extension of marriage-like rights to same-sex or other unmarried couples.

Repeal Don't Ask-Don't Tell: Barack Obama agrees with former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff John Shalikashvili and other military experts that we need to repeal the "don't ask, don't tell" policy. The key test for military service should be patriotism, a sense of duty, and a willingness to serve. Discrimination should be prohibited. The U.S. government has spent millions of dollars replacing troops kicked out of the military because of their sexual orientation. Additionally, more than 300 language experts have been fired under this policy, including more than 50 who are fluent in Arabic. Obama will work with military leaders to repeal the current policy and ensure it helps accomplish our national defense goals.

Expand Adoption Rights: Barack Obama believes that we must ensure adoption rights for all couples and individuals, regardless of their sexual orientation. He thinks that a child will benefit from a healthy and loving home, whether the parents are gay or not.

*

Hi Annette...what about SR? Did you see that Shakespeare novel? I understand the falling asleep...it's ok.. :) I do it way more than I'd like to...

...hetero people can get legally married and are NOT barred in the CA constitution from marrying...

Brits on top in casual sex league as survey reveals we are the most promiscuous in the world - mailonline via HuffPo

See, I would of thought the bad teeth thing would automatically suppress such stuff.

...Nothing...religion either..what a bunch of shit..this is getting on my nerves...

-Oppose a Constitutional Ban on Same-Sex Marriage: Barack Obama voted against the Federal Marriage Amendment in 2006 which would have defined marriage as between a man and a woman and prevented judicial extension of marriage-like rights to same-sex or other unmarried couples.-

Could it beeee.....SATAN?

;)

It's a little pussy-footing. But, I'm gonna give him the the benefit of the doubt. For now. I don't recall even that many details being up at the site before.

Warning: more PrObama

Support for the LGBT Community

"While we have come a long way since the Stonewall riots in 1969, we still have a lot of work to do. Too often, the issue of LGBT rights is exploited by those seeking to divide us. But at its core, this issue is about who we are as Americans. It's about whether this nation is going to live up to its founding promise of equality by treating all its citizens with dignity and respect."

I hope Sam doesn't take Nikki to go pick up the mail.

Where will he put the hoe?

I should have thought of that earlier.

Ok.

Until when?

And on this issue specifically, or on all,or just some or what?

I can't even do that.

I accepted he was unfit for the job when he voted FISA but I voted for him anyway because the alternatives were even more awful. I really don't understand where some have such high expectations.

...
The methods, the secret methods behind all of the religions, were meant to lead man into a realm of understanding that existed apart from the symbols and the stories, into inner realizations that would take him both within and without the physical world that he knew. There are many manuscripts still not discovered, from old monasteries par-ticularly in Spain, that tell of underground groups within religious orders who kept these secrets alive when other monks were copying old Latin manuscripts.

There were tribes who never learned to write in Africa and Australia who also knew these secrets, and men called "Speakers" who memorized them and spread them upward, even throughout northern portions of Europe, before the time of Christ.

Offhand, the work involved could take five years, for there were several versions, and a group of leaders, each going in different directions, who taught their people. The world was far more ripe for Christianity than people suppose, because of these groups. The ideas were "buried" already throughout Europe.

Many important concepts were lost, however. The emphasis was on practical methods of living - quite simply - rules that could be understood, but the reasons for them were forgotten.

The Druids obtained some of their concepts from Speakers. So did the Egyptians. The Speakers predated the emergence of any religions that you know, and the religions of the Speakers arose spontaneously in many scattered areas, then grew like wildfire from the heart of Africa and Australia. There was one separate group in an area where the Aztecs dwelled at a later date, though the land mass was somewhat different then, and some of the lower cave dwellings at times were under water.

Various bands of the Speakers continued through the centuries. Because they were trained so well, the messages retained their authenticity. They believed, however, that it was wrong to set words into written form, and so did not record them.
...

http://stillwandering.multiply.com/journal/item/595/Probabilities

Yep, Alice.

We go way back.

We used to walk the same stumblebum path.
Now the horned bastard says I'm no longer worthy.
I think he's projecting.

-

Anyway, Alice...

I didn't mean to antagonize about Obama. I didn't realize you were on the blog until right after I posted it. I was actually looking up Obama's views on whether new military recruits would have to go to Iraq or Afghanistan. Couldn't exactly find the answer about that either. But, I was excited to find a few more references to "gay marriage." Even if he was beating around the bush. Pun intended. ;)

Couldn't find out what Obama's definition of what "is" is, either. :(

-

When it comes to relationship rules, I like the bonobo way.

http://www.passagethroughbangkok.com/aboutbook.htm

PASSAGE THROUGH BANGKOK
By Timothy E. Boyajian

Written with the purpose of giving insights and understanding of the rapidly modernizing people of Asia, PASSAGE THROUGH BANGKOK is one book you should not miss reading.

Timothy E. Boyajian creates a book in a form of chronicles derived from over seven hundred pages of journal notes written during the course of his journey. This book gives you a unique view of the world untainted by political forces. From the thrill of adventure to the intrigues of spies and dangers of war and disease, let this book open your eyes to a completely new world.

Part one of this book deals with the author’s initial encounters in Bangkok, which includes dealing with different cultures, and being in refugee camps.

Part two concerns his trials and tribulations in Bangkok after returning from the border. His experiences in the city evolved into a slowly maturing worldly view of the realities of international politics in Southeast Asia.

The book also gives you a glimpse of the suffering that war brings to people in terms of poverty, disease and hunger.

ORDER A COPY @

www.Xlibris.com

ISBN13 (TP) 978-1-4363-5271-0
ISBN13 (HB) 978-1-4363-5271-0

*

I don't think of your post as antagonizing, SR...it seems like we're discussing is all...This has all been really interesting to go through, this Pres. election...really interesting...It's brought up a lot of new things....

Spring and fall storms. Before and after they come the birds settle down and sing in the trees by the creek. Then there's also the thunder storms. You guys never hear strong thunderstorms on the west coast - right? Is that correct?

restock Afghanistan there is no way to but for taking them out of Iraq to put them in Afghanistan..you know...to kill people...

discussing called politics.

But I do know this.

Apparently more and more kids are being named Barack Obama.

http://news.aol.com/article/obama-win-sparks-baby-name-craze/263364

Now that, my friends, is a travesty.

the thunder and lightening was so loud and so powerful I was scared there...

if I want to see monkey sex, I'll go to the zoo.

Oh sure..you can try to blog here and tune it out or not participate...you can TRY.... ;)

man, that cracks me up every time I read it..

But, I've actually only recently started to really like Obama. And, that's just because I'm so amazed that such a nice guy can be hated by people on the right and the left...already.

It definitely reaffirms to me how no matter how nice of a person you are in life, lots of people will still hate you.

It takes the pressure off of trying to be a people pleaser. If nothing else.

That's what Obama's taught me.

But, I don't mean to antagonize, Alice.

I'm as disappointed about Obama for all the reasons that you and Fernando and everybody could list. And we'd need a long ass scroll to include everything.

But, I don't think the powers that be would allow Obama to be elected unless he agreed to approach policies with nuance.

You would have gotten a kick out of hearing my right-wing relatives going off on Obama over Thanksgiving. They were telling me all the bad things Obama was going to do. Somehow there sources knew more about what Obama was going to do then Obama did.

Anyway...

Love. Love. Love.

P.S. Those are very open-minded female chimps, Fernando.
Very progressive thinkers. :)

bbl...

I live on top of a hill that goes down to creeks which fills with birds when the storms come, they can have amazing songs. I'm going to try to record it from the porch. No such thing as a strong storm without at least a couple of hours of crazy sounds.

in that position there is no pleasing everyone...it just keeps us bickering and all left and right and not together making the elected ones work. and sometimes even when a lot of the population tries to prevent or get something that doesn't work either.

I think he is delivering or exceeding my expectations. I'm just saying my expectations were crippled after FISA.

once P and I recorded the frogs in Catalina...if you like to mix sounds up and all that..dada is your man...

I'm tired...goodnight all! xoxo

Alice goes to bed and O97P pops his pin hed in.

"Andy Rooney just decided to tell us that if we don't save
Submitted by Alice on Sun, 11/30/2008 - 10:57pm.
anything we're going to run out of everything...

I'll bet Emerson Troward might have something to say about that NOTION..."

-

Um, actually I do. If the universe is expanding, then how is it possible to run out of everything?

Could Thomas Malthus, Richard Dawkins and Al Gore be wrong?

-

I'm still scrolling upbloggie to see what you wrote about Chavez, Alice.

I'm really sorry for dampening your spirits tonight.

Sweet dreams, Alice.

Hugs & kisses to you.

Alice often chains her spirits in sand castles waiting to be dampened.

War Dog

"The Once and Future Rajah of Bhong."

My electricity went out 3 times today. Guess the snow we are getting is effecting the elctricity. It was raining earlier and it changed to show so it's a heavey snow.

By morning we will have 5-7 inches.

I'm not ready for this.

Since I have electricity now and the candles are out, I'm off to bed.

Good night all!

Approving Condi for Secretary of State.
His vote on the credit card companies' bill.
His pick of Mr. "Washington Consensus & Mortgage Bill" Biden.
His AIPAC boot-licking.
His pick of Rahm Emmanuel.
The fact that Goldman Sach employees donated more than any other constituency to his campaign.
His silence of Prop. 8.
His implied acceptance of the Military-Industrial complex...
Etc...

But, his book, "The Audacity of Hope," really sold me on his character & vision. And, so did the C-Span interview he did with Frank Rich, I think it was, when he was doing a book tour right after having been elected to the U.S. Senate.

Based on our one-party system, I am surprised we got a good candidate.

My uncle in Canada, who was obsessed with JFK, since he was a teenager, has only now finally started watching American news again.

He's sort of a rational/skeptic/realist/cynic of the dada/Nobody/Chubby variety,... You know the Dostoyevsky-type reader... (I say this with respect.)

He is one who would believe that Sir Real is a blathering, naive knucklehead. (And could be right.)

And, yet my uncle thinks Obama is more remarkable than JFK.

And, my uncle is the type who would send a Christmas card which would read: Happy Holidays. Hang George B---.

I guess it'll be a different slogan this Christmas.

-

I just wish that being optimistic about a new president could be seen as just that. And, that this was not seen as an endorsement of the corporatocracy/one-party system.

And, I really don't want to upset, Alice.

I refuse to be a sand dampener, Fernando.
I am a sand lover. ...And an Alice lover.

-

I'll have to figure out a different way to frame my political dialogue here.

That. Or I'll just have to shut up.

g'nite Fernando...

g'nite everybody...

A new Dr. Rice to become face of US at UN

Nov 30 03:01 PM US/Eastern

An ex-National Security Council member and former assistant secretary of state, Susan Rice brings the resume of a Rhodes Scholar-turned-diplomat to the team as she becomes the US face at the United Nations.

The Washington-bred Rice -- no relation to outgoing Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice -- served as member of the national security council during the administration of president Bill Clinton.

She worked as a top foreign policy advisor to the campaign of president-elect Barack Obama prior to her latest appointment; indeed despite far-reaching ties to the Clinton administration, she joined Team Obama when Hillary Clinton was widely seen as frontrunner for the Democratic nomination.

Obama's selection of a close ally Rice to represent the United States at the world body may be a sign of how the incoming administration will prioritize strained US-UN ties.

Susan Rice, who received her doctorate from Oxford University in England, and who served as an Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs, has had some on-the-job experience with Al-Qaeda. She was top US diplomat for African issues during the 1998 terrorist bombings of embassies in Tanzania and Kenya.

Often described as straight-talking, arguably not unlike her mentor former secretary of state Madeleine Albright, the politically well-connected Rice in 1997 became one of the youngest assistant secretaries of state.

She was a Rhodes Scholar in 2000, and was honored with the NSC's Samuel Nelson Drew Memorial Award for distinguished contributions to the formation of peaceful, cooperative relationships between nations, and US security policy for global peace.

She may well come under some fire from lawmakers considering her for confirmation for her part in US policy toward Rwanda during the 1994 genocide; Bill Clinton's US administration stayed on the sidelines -- an experience she has said made her more committed to action in the face of crises.

Rice has been a firm and vocal critic of President George W. Bush's handling of the situation in Darfur.

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=081130190149.e554shiz&show_artic...

-

This video so turned me on.
Talk about being one with your instrument.
I so know how he felt while playing, but I can honestly say I didn't know playing a guitar can make your arches tingle. His obviously are.

http://it.youtube.com/watch?v=VQsqRBCXiuw

Watching this made me want to try it.

good one Annette!

that man is good with a pick!

I had the strange desire to lick his guitar as I watched that. :-)

http://www.allamericanblogger.com/president-obamas-promises/

Here's a list of Obama's promises so you can see how naughty and nice he is for the next 4 years..

next thing you know you're hanging out in after hour bars with people who wear sunglasses at four in the morning.

Late political buzz is that Obama might raise the level of his UN Ambassador to Cabinet Rank. If so that would be huge and would bring a new level of respect from the rest of the world.

You should post what you want without worrying about what anyone else thinks of it. I have tons of respect for Alice even though I disagree with many of her approaches.

Sir Real can babble all he wants too also, just like I babble.

I'm just happy not to drool when I babble.

One of my fisherman friends dropped off some frozen coho salmon earlier, i defrosted it in milk, Bgurl made some hollandaise to go with, fresh veggies and wild rice.

life is good

defrost it in milk?

I appreciate your supportive thoughts.
What you wrote was very nice.
You're a very kind soul.
And, I wish for you many blessings.

Have a peaceful night.

sr

http://curtainnumber3.blogspot.com/search?q=emerson

I't was too damn foggy down here to see anything by the time I remembered & went outside to look.. :(

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

By MATT APUZZO, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON – The Bush administration backed off proposed crackdowns on no-money-down, interest-only mortgages years before the economy collapsed, buckling to pressure from some of the same banks that have now failed. It ignored remarkably prescient warnings that foretold the financial meltdown, according to an Associated Press review of regulatory documents.

"Expect fallout, expect foreclosures, expect horror stories," California mortgage lender Paris Welch wrote to U.S. regulators in January 2006, about one year before the housing implosion cost her a job.

Bowing to aggressive lobbying — along with assurances from banks that the troubled mortgages were OK — regulators delayed action for nearly one year. By the time new rules were released late in 2006, the toughest of the proposed provisions were gone and the meltdown was under way.

"These mortgages have been considered more safe and sound for portfolio lenders than many fixed rate mortgages," David Schneider, home loan president of Washington Mutual, told federal regulators in early 2006. Two years later, WaMu became the largest bank failure in U.S. history.

The administration's blind eye to the impending crisis is emblematic of its governing philosophy, which trusted market forces and discounted the value of government intervention in the economy. Its belief ironically has ushered in the most massive government intervention since the 1930s.

Many of the banks that fought to undermine the proposals by some regulators are now either out of business or accepting billions in federal aid to recover from a mortgage crisis they insisted would never come. Many executives remain in high-paying jobs, even after their assurances were proved false.

Con't- & Video

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

Lily Belle

UK gives two week deadline to credit card companies
Chris in Paris · 12/01/2008 05:27:00 AM ET · Link
Make a comment · reddit · FARK · Digg It! · Stumble It! · facebook

Hank Paulson was surely about to do this as well but somehow it slipped his mind. The US continues to allow the banks to get away with profiteering despite being saved from total failure, but that's the Republican way. As long as their friends can squeeze one last penny out of consumers (whether it's oil, banking, or any other business) then everything is OK. It doesn't have to be this way, but it is thanks to Bush and Paulson. (Hat tip D/M)
Credit card giants have been given two weeks to agree to stop charging exorbitant rates to borrowers or risk losing their operating licences.

Ministers said they were giving Britain's major lenders one last chance to prove they were not profiteering from the downturn. The ultimatum was delivered at a four-hour Whitehall summit called after The Independent disclosed some credit card and store card providers had raised interest rates – in some cases to 30 per cent – even though the cost of borrowing had fallen.

The credit card companies agreed last night to give borrowers who run into trouble paying their bills a "breathing space" of up to two months before they face action. They also pledged to draw up a clear "statement of principles" over their rates by 9 December. It will commit them to give clear information to borrowers, not alter rates constantly and charge "proportionate" levels of interest.

Lord Mandelson, the Business Secretary, and Gareth Thomas, the Consumer Affairs minister, told leaders of the industry that they were alarmed by lenders increasing their rates overnight without justification.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/two-weeks-to-cut-rates-car...

Factories in Asia see decline in demand
Chris in Paris · 12/01/2008 03:56:00 AM ET · Link
Make a comment · reddit · FARK · Digg It! · Stumble It! · facebook

Of course, how could the economies not be so tightly linked and dependent on each other? Now that credit has stopped in the West, who can afford to shop 'til they drop? The decoupling theory takes yet another hit as it falls back to reality.
New orders at Chinese factories tumbled in November while their U.S. retail customers used deep discounts to lure shoppers at the start of a holiday season overshadowed by fears of global recession.

Underlining the China data, South Korea's exports fell by the most in 7 years last month and both Tokyo and Beijing provided stark warnings on the challenges ahead for their economies, the second- and fourth-biggest in the world.

http://www.cnbc.com/id/27990412

The Meet the Press panel needs fewer David Broders and more Christopher Hitchenses--irresponsible wits who can challenge the B-list senators and warhorse commentators who trundle on and download all that sonorous received wisdom. And for the top spot, how about going way outside the box? How about bringing in the cool forensic skills of a David Boies? Or the fresh intelligence of a web star like Josh Marshall or Glenn Greenwald? Or the political/policy smarts of a journalistic intellectual like the Guardian's Michael Tomasky?

Or how about... a woman? Since NBC has not heeded my last suggestion to appoint either the unsung cable Rottweiler Greta Van Susteren or a reinvented Katie Couric, I say give Meet the Press to Rachel Maddow. She's smart. She's quick. She's witty. She does her homework. And she listens to what the person she's talking to is saying. She doesn't just go to the next question on her list.

If Obama is post-racial, Maddow is post-gender--divested of hair-frosted femininity in the anchor genre and more appealing because of it. Like him, she's a calm, unflappable new era phenomenon. Sure, she's a lefty, and in the past week she's been swinging away at Obama's cabinet choices, but I suspect she's ambitious enough to dial it back if she had to. (She also has that weird TV gene that's so hungry for air time she'd probably insist on keeping her five-day job at MSNBC. Russert himself was on every show except Project Runway.)

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/12/01/tina-brown-give-meet-the-_n_147...

But this week, as the automakers take a second run at Congress, hoping to persuade lawmakers to give them $25 billion in federal aid, their agendas are diverging as they contemplate futures as drastically different car companies.

Those differences will become clear as they deliver more detailed plans for how they would use that money not just to survive, but also to turn themselves around to be competitive in the long term.

That should make for a sharp contrast to the hearings two weeks ago, when the executives presented a united front, saying in lockstep that it was the credit crisis and weak economy, not their strategies, that had put them in dire straits.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/01/business/economy/01auto.html?_r=1&hp

from marketwatch:

Citi fund buying Spanish highways for $10 billion

A Citigroup infrastructure fund is bidding 7.9 billion euros ($10.2 billion) to buy a Spanish highway operating firm, the firms said on Monday.
Citi Infrastructure Partners is buying most of Itinere Infraestructuras from Sacyr Vallehermoso (ES:018287021: news, chart, profile) , a Spanish construction group eagerly trying to shed debt as the Spanish housing market weakens.

====

we are spiraling into a depression, our 401k's are being savaged, and yet we are told its okay to give, not loan, but give, billions of dollars to groups like citi, so they can what?

there's 8000 people 60 miles up the road from me in wilmington ohio who could surely use some help, rather than some spanish construction company.

good god, what are we going to do not having john bolton the worlds worst ambassador to kick around any more?

i don't know if anything can better demonstrate this point than this picture I took of a full moon in the garden district one morning early like around 7 am, in daylight but with the moon still perfectly visible. It was amazing

this was just a block from where i live

this house was in a horrible state of disrepair and decay for many years, the perfect house of horrors for halloween, with a huge oak tree growing in the middle of the cast iron fence, literally half tree on one side of the fence the other half on the other side, very weird

at one point i wanted to buy it because i figure it would have been cheap given the terrible conditions, could never find out who owned it

finally after katrina the owners must have gotten some money from the government or something because suddenly lo and behold they did extensive renovation and now it is simply gorgeous and in one of the best neighborhood in the city, probably worth around 750,000 k - 1 mil now.

this picture was taken while the house was in the process of being fixed up

"The administration's blind eye to the impending crisis is emblematic of its governing philosophy, which trusted market forces..."
*****************

Market forces do "work," they're just brutal. I only wish market forces were allowed to work on the executives who caused this.

Good morning, Seder Haven. (My favorite nickname that I've seen for the blog - I hope the originator doesn't mind if I use it. I love the way it reflects both my sincere sense of the community here, but also sounds like a sanitorium name.)

Great articles here, as always. Fresh snowfall is so pretty. Quite rare where I live.

can't believe the long weekend is over already

it's gonna be a rough monday, but thankful for sam and marc to break up the day's drudge

have a good one ya'll

Harvard-Led Push to Sell Private Equity Stakes Overwhelms Declining Market
A push by the richest U.S. universities to unload their stakes in private-equity funds is flooding the market, driving down prices for the world's best- known buyout firms.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=a0zdopFBGnbY&refer=n...

i'm sure there's a hotel california parody in there somewhere.

seder haven - a progressive rest home. try our shock doctrine, it will galvinize you.

(tosses the ball to crank for a quick alley oop)

i'd much rather have harvard or other colleges going to cash so they can fund scholarships than some coupon clipping neocon who has never done an honest days work in their lives.

Fed's Geithner Leaves Rate Committee, to Be Replaced by Christine Cumming

Federal Reserve Bank of New York President Timothy Geithner, the nominee for Treasury secretary, is leaving the central bank’s committee that sets the benchmark U.S. interest rate.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=amDo8VNZgt7Q&refer=n...

Making it doubly bad, the new toll roads being built around Austin are being built by a Spanish company, possibly the same one. Of course, this happened due to Republican tax breaks and infrastructure neglect, never mind that tolls are a form of tax anyway, and now there's that much more money and profit leaving the country. Did I read it here that Citi is mainly owned by foreign interests?

Manufacturing in U.S. Probably Sank Deeper Into a Recession as Sales Fell

Manufacturing in the U.S. probably contracted in November at the fastest pace in 26 years as consumers and companies worldwide cut spending, economists said before reports today.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601068&sid=alPqkOapsb2A&refer=e...

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

Geithner Struggled to Rally Action After Spotting Dangers of Default Swaps

Timothy Geithner was among the first policy makers to shine a light on the unregulated $47 trillion credit-default swap market back in 2005. The New York Federal Reserve president has struggled since then to get dealers to carry out reforms.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601068&sid=apmehm8f5JA0&refer=e...

is running Palin's stump speech for Saxby Chamblis.

I can's stand her voice! It's very irritating! Let alone what she has to say!

Her voice, to me, is like scratching on a chalk board!

Needless to say, I switched stations. CNN is not running her speech, they are covering the weather.

Liberals to keep pressure on Obama for results
By BEN FELLER, Associated Press Writer Ben Feller, Associated Press Writer
Sun Nov 30, 9:22 am ET

WASHINGTON – Barack Obama promises to steer the nation straight again. He better be ready for a strong force pulling left.

The president-elect drew plenty of support from moderates, but the liberal side of the Democratic Party followed him most resoundingly: labor unions, influential Internet blogs and legions of grassroots volunteers. He won almost 90 percent of the liberal vote, more than the previous two Democratic presidential nominees, John Kerry or Al Gore.

Now the same millions of left-leaning voters who worked relentlessly to get Obama elected want results. That means ending the war in Iraq, ushering in universal health care, halting harsh interrogation tactics against suspected terrorists, making it easier to form unions and aggressively tackling global warming.

"We'll see," said Eli Pariser, executive director of the liberal powerhouse Moveon.org, about what Obama will deliver. "If they turn out to be all disappointments, we'll have a good three years to storm the gates at the White House."

Already, the liberal blogosphere is showing its influence.

John Brennan, Obama's top pick to head the CIA, suddenly withdrew his name from consideration under pressure this past week. His potential appointment had raised a firestorm among liberal blogs that associate him with the Bush administration's interrogation, detention and rendition policies. Within hours, blogs that raised concerns about Brennan's career claimed victory about their successful exercise in free speech.

The debt is starting to come due on Obama's promise of "change we can believe in." Except he meant "we" in a broader sense.

He promised to lead with a bipartisan spirit, the kind that could unify a country and allow him to get deals through Congress. From the moment he won, he implored people: "Let us resist the temptation to fall back on the same partisanship."

And then he set out to take his own advice.

Obama's courting of Republicans — for ideas, legislative support, and potential roles in his Cabinet — is drawing cautious attention from the liberal base of his Democratic Party. The concern, to the degree that it exists this soon, is that Obama's emphasis on governing from the center may undermine the left.

He still pledges to wind down the war in Iraq, but everything comes second to fixing the staggering economy right now. He has stood up in defense for Sen. Joe Lieberman, a virtual Democratic outcast these days, and sought help from his Republican presidential foe, Sen. John McCain.

Obama is building a government with several Clinton administration faces, a move that has underwhelmed some liberal voices who are eager for a more dramatic sense of change.

In one posting that seemed to echo in the Internet community, liberal blogger Chris Bowers wrote, "I feel incredibly frustrated. ... Isn't there ever a point when we can get an actual Democratic administration? Why isn't there a single member of Obama's Cabinet who will be advising him from the left?"

Christopher Hayes, the Washington-based editor of The Nation, offered his own lament about a lack of progressive candidates for prominent leadership spots. He said the left has been right about Iraq, financial deregulation and global warming, and yet "no one who comes from the part of American political and intellectual life that has given birth to all of these ideas is anywhere to be found within miles of the Obama Cabinet so far."

Obama pushed back a bit this past week, saying his advisers will blend "experience with fresh thinking."

Of course, he is not done picking his Cabinet, let alone occupying the Oval Office yet. Any rumblings of discontent at this point show that expectations for Obama are enormous within his party. Labor unions and liberal groups spent big money and knocked on countless doors to help get Obama elected.

The undercurrent of concern is not that Obama, granted the title of most liberal senator in one prominent ranking, will suddenly abandon the people who helped elect him or change course on core causes. Rather, it is that liberal side of his party may have to wait longer for victories, and accept smaller ones.

That is the reality of governance right now.

More here:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081130/ap_on_el_pr/obama_left_or_center_2/p...

WASHINGTON - The Bush administration backed off proposed crackdowns on
no-money-down interest-only mortgages years before the economy collapsed,
buckling to pressure from some of the same banks that have now failed. It ignored
remarkably prescient warnings that foretold the financial meltdown, according to
an Associated Press review of regulatory documents.

"Expect fallout, failed foreclosures, expect horror stories," California mortgage
lender Paris Welch wrote to U.S. regulators in January 2006, about one year before
the housing implosion cost her a job.

Bowing to aggressive lobbying - along with assurances from banks that the
troubled mortgages were OK - regulators delayed action for nearly one year. By
the time new rules were released late in 2006, the toughest of the proposed
provisions were gone and the meltdown was under way.

"These mortgages have been considered more safe and sound for portfolio
lenders than any fixed rate mortgages," David Schneider, home loan president
of Washington Mutual, told federal regulators in early 2006. Two years later,
WaMu became the largest bank failure in U.S. history.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081201/ap_on_bi_ge/meltdown_ignored_warning...

'The U.S. credit card industry may pull back well over $2 trillion of lines over the next 18 months due to risk aversion and regulatory changes, leading to sharp declines in consumer spending, prominent banking analyst Meredith Whitney said.

The credit card is the second key source of consumer liquidity, the first being jobs, the Oppenheimer & Co analyst noted.

"In other words, we expect available consumer liquidity in the form or credit-card lines to decline by 45 percent."

Bank of America Corp, Citigroup Inc and JPMorgan Chase & Co represent over half of the estimated U.S. card outstandings as of September 30, and each company has discussed reducing card exposure or slowing growth, Whitney said.'

http://nytimes.com/reuters/news/news-us-finance-research-oppenheimer.htm...

The blogger Tanta, an influential voice on the mortgage collapse, died Sunday morning in Columbus, Ohio.

Tanta, who wrote for Calculated Risk, a finance and economics blog, was a pseudonym for Doris Dungey, 47, who until recently had lived in Upper Marlboro, Md. The cause of death was ovarian cancer, her sister, Cathy Stickelmaier, said.

Thanks in large part to Tanta’s contributions, Calculated Risk became a crucial source of prescient analysis as the housing market at first faltered, then collapsed and finally spawned a full-blown credit crisis.

Tanta used her extensive knowledge of the loan industry to comment, castigate and above all instruct. Her fans ranged from the Nobel laureate Paul Krugman, an Op-Ed columnist for The New York Times who cited her in his blog, to analysts at the Federal Reserve, who cited her in a paper on “Understanding the Securitization of Subprime Mortgage Credit.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/01/business/01tanta.html?_r=1

Has Ron Howard on speaking about his film
FROST/NIXON

They just showed a trailer for the movie and it's a movie I'd love to see!

It's about David Frost, of the UK, interviewing Richard Nixon around the time of Watergate.

Hey, dan, I always find your posts insightful, especially on the economy.

My own reading and writing here are sporadic due to a health condition. I wrote a response to one of your posts here last week or so, and somehow lost it before I could post it. It was brief, but something you wrote sounded like what my husband has been saying.

It's something about the credit default swaps being named that to obfuscate that they are simply insurance. He got on the phone to all our Congresspeople (rare for him) and even the Treasury, urging them not to make good on what amounts to multiple insurance policies on the same loss.

He wanted me to write up his conclusions, but I haven't been free enough of pain to do it (and he hates writing). Does the little bit I've written here sound about right to you?

(I'm heading out to do grocery shopping right now, so I'll be checking in later.)

As the Neocon turns. It never ends. The utter gall of these cretins. There was Kenneth Pollack sitting on C-klan this morning still talking shit. He was one of the kooks that was a strong advocate for the disastrous, illegal Iraq War. Furthermore, it is alleged that he leaked info to Larry Franklin- and is under indictment.

----

Excerpt:

Kenneth Pollack told the Jewish Telegraph Agency (via Josh Marshal) that he is one of two US government officials (USGO-1) mentioned in the indictment against former Larry Franklin, Steve Rosen and Keith Weissman.

Satterfield and Pollack are significant, because—like Franklin—they appear in the indictment as alleged leakers to Rosen, but neither has been charged.
Pollack discussed Iraq policy with Rosen and Weissman over lunch in 2000, when he was on the Clinton administration's National Security Council.
Pollack told JTA last year that he could not imagine having relayed classified information to them. He told JTA this week that he had yet to receive a subpoena, but would not be surprised if he did.

con't

http://www.jewishreview.org/node/8259

Boy did Sarah Palin sound like an authoritarian nutjob this morning, or what!?

I'm sure Alaska approves...

Consensus emerging on universal healthcare
The prospect of bold government action appears to be accepted among players across the ideological and political spectrum, including those who opposed the idea in the 1990s.
By Noam N. Levey
December 1, 2008
Reporting from Washington -- After decades of failed efforts to reshape the nation's healthcare system, a consensus appears to be emerging in Washington about how to achieve the elusive goal of providing medical insurance to all Americans.

The answer, say leading groups of businesses, hospitals, doctors, labor unions and insurance companies -- as well as senior lawmakers on Capitol Hill and members of the new Obama administration -- is unprecedented government intervention to create a system of universal protection.

At the same time, those groups, which span the ideological and political spectrum, largely have agreed to preserve the employer-based system through which most Americans get their health insurance.

The idea of a federal, single-payer system patterned on those in Europe and Canada, long a dream of the political left, is now virtually off the table.

Rejected as well is the traditionally conservative concept, championed by Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) during the presidential campaign, of reforming healthcare mainly by giving incentives for more Americans to buy insurance on their own.

There also is a widespread understanding that any expansion of coverage must be accompanied by aggressive efforts to bring down costs and reward quality care. And key players in the healthcare debate increasingly back a massive investment of taxpayer money for healthcare reform despite the burgeoning budget deficits.

Beyond those areas of basic agreement, the details of what would be one of the most momentous changes in domestic policy since World War II remain vague.

As a presidential candidate, Barack Obama embraced both expanded insurance coverage and preservation of the job-centered system, but since he won the White House he has provided few specifics about his plans once he takes office.

Disagreements over specifics could again lead to a stalemate. Even the most sanguine advocates of sweeping reform concede that difficult negotiations lie ahead.

But what is taking shape is a debate very different from previous discussions about what America's healthcare system should look like.

"A lot has changed," said Karen Ignagni, president of America's Health Insurance Plans, or AHIP, a leading trade group whose members helped kill the Clinton administration's healthcare campaign in the early 1990s.

AHIP is participating in talks with other interest groups to build consensus before Obama takes office in January and Congress begins debating any healthcare legislation.

More here:

http://www.latimes.com/news/la-na-healthcare1-2008dec01,0,823075.story?t...

Submitted by 60th Street on Mon, 12/01/2008 - 10:48am.
I'm sure Alaska approves...
------

Oh it's the media that approves. They like stirring up the the two drama dragons, Hillary and Sarah. Gore Vidal said yesterday that the "media has no respect for the republic." And of course, he was right.

Obama’s Choice for U.N. Is Advocate of Strong Action Against Mass Killings

CHICAGO — President-elect Barack Obama has chosen his foreign policy adviser, Susan E. Rice, to be ambassador to the United Nations, picking an advocate of “dramatic action” against genocide as he rounds out his national security team, Democrats close to the transition said Sunday.

-snip-
The choice of Ms. Rice to represent the United States before the United Nations will make her one of the most visible faces of the Obama administration to the outside world aside from Mrs. Clinton. It will also send to the world organization a prominent and forceful advocate of stronger action, including military force if necessary, to stop mass killings like those in the Darfur region of Sudan in recent years.

To reinforce his intention to work more closely with the United Nations after the tensions of President Bush’s tenure, Mr. Obama plans to restore the ambassador’s post to cabinet rank, as it was under President Bill Clinton, according to Democrats close to the transition.

-snip-
“She’s obviously one of Obama’s closest advisers, so it underscores how much of a priority he’s making the position,” said Nancy Soderberg, a senior United States diplomat at the United Nations under Mr. Clinton. “If you look at the last eight years, we obviously need to be more engaged at the U.N. and realistic about what the U.N. can do.”

-snip-
If confirmed, Ms. Rice at 44 would be the second-youngest ambassador to the United Nations. A Rhodes scholar who earned a doctorate in international relations at Oxford University, she joined Mr. Clinton’s National Security Council staff in 1993 before rising to assistant secretary of state for African affairs at age 32. When Mr. Obama decided to run for president, she signed up as one of his top advisers, much to the consternation of the Clinton camp, which resented what it saw as a defection.

As the ambassador at the United Nations, Ms. Rice will have to coordinate with Mrs. Clinton, but will not be in the White House or at State Department headquarters on a daily basis as major policies are formulated. One person close to Mrs. Clinton said the senator did not object to Ms. Rice serving at the United Nations.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/01/us/politics/01rice.html?hp

but that's what the base loves and i'm sure saxby (whose mother would name them saxby) chambliss (sounds a little french to me) loves the support and the notoriety.

thanks for the compliment but i didn't even stay at a holiday inn. wiki has a good intro on them. what makes cds's interesting is that you don't even have to suffer harm to collect on them which is one of their big differences with insurance.

in other words, if you think some company is going to belly up and you can find a party that will sell you a cds, you make payments (insurance premiums) to the seller, and then if the company belly ups, they pay you. sounds more like a casino. he is also correct in that the amount of the cds's can far exceed the actual loss.

i would agree with your husband, that we should tell the people holding cds's, tough luck, next time stick with blackjack.

Judah Grunstein

"There's been a lot of discussion about how to address those responsible for the worst excesses
of the Bush bastard's extralegal responses to the terrorist threat. Regardless of how he approaches
the guilty, I'd like to see Obama honor the JAGs, pro bono lawyers and civil liberties groups who
pushed back against the excesses and in so doing defended us all against them. It would be a strong
symbolic rebuke to those who, for reasons of political cohesion at a time of crisis, might not be
immediately prosecuted themselves."

Con't

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

nice pictures to wake up to! but, how do your joints like it? been having a little bit of incipient arthritic pain myself yesterday, feet and wrists, with New Orleans dropping into the 40s and 50s

i have the tapes! I have saved them through several years of vcr players breaking down, tapes jamming which required transferring to new vhs tapes, I recorded the interviews on my primitive vcr machine when they first were showed on pbs; they are an amazing document. I don't have the whole set as it was played on several parts on different nights. I should dig them up and rewatch them. Always afraid to find out that the tape is unwatchable by now...

Any humidity and of course the weather fronts traveling into and out of my area effect my joints.

And now, of course, I have the extra job of cleaning off my car. I'm not liking winter any more.

There were many more accidents due to the snow. People drive like morons after the first snow of the year. They forget you have to adjust your driving habbits. Slow down and break early!

Trump Entertainment to miss interest payment

CHICAGO (MarketWatch) -- Facing tough competition and sliding revenue amid the economic meltdown, Trump Entertainment Resorts will have to skip a $53.1 million interest payment scheduled for Monday on its 8.5% senior secured notes due 2015 in order to maintain sufficient liquidity.

The Atlantic City, N.J., casino operator, with about $1.25 billion worth of the notes outstanding, said late Friday that it has a 30-day grace period to pay up and will meanwhile seek talks with its lenders to revamp its capital structure and improve its liquidity. A panel of independent directors will oversee the talks, the company said.

If it doesn't make the payment in the 30-day grace period, Trump Entertainment said, holders of a quarter of the notes and lenders under a $490 million senior secured loan to a company subsidiary will be able to accelerate the maturities of those obligations.

Donald Trump, the television personality and New York real estate investor, is non-executive chairman and the largest shareholder of Trump Entertainment , which operates three Atlantic City casinos: The Trump Taj Mahal and the Trump Plaza on the Boardwalk and the Trump Marina in the Marina district. The last is being sold to Coastal Development for $270 million in a deal that has seen the price lowered and the closing deadline delayed.

LINK

while interviewing Ron Howard and the screenwriter of Frost/Nixon. Did you know Nixon was paid big bucks for that interview?

I read he used the money to help paid off his lawyers..

I hope your joints get feeling better soon.. :)

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

i know it was hard to convince him to come out with his half-veiled concession of guilt, took a lot of skill by frost, who did an amazing job by the way - I will have to catch the ron howard replay on podcast if it's available hopefully tonight

Submitted by dan on Mon, 12/01/2008 - 11:04am.
chambliss (sounds a little french to me
-------

According to Ancestors. Com, Chambliss is a Scottish surname

I just love the way Bill and Hillary put on a show!

Hillary is just bigger than life!

It's good that President Obama is showing he not afraid of her...

To announce Security Team

David Edwards and Diane Sweet

The National Impeachment Network is planning to run an advertisement on California television during the months of December and January 2009 which advocates for the impeachment of President George W. Bush.

Headed by Ralph Lopez, diarist at the left-leaning Daily Kos, the National Impeachment Network is supported by grassroots groups such as Code Pink, Veterans for Peace and Republicans for Impeachment.

From the network's website:

Con't

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

Giving federal funds to banks and financial corporations without regulating the way that the funds will be spent is not socialism.

It's legalized reverse embezzzlement..

Happy Monday, all. I went to the store yesterday and bought a box of 6 small cupcakes for $5. A small bundt cake for $6. A bag of toilet paper for $10. A tube of hamburger for $16. $35 for a case of beer and 3 12 packs of Coke. $3 apiece for 4 loaves of frozen garlic bread. Spent $160 by the time I was done, and all I was buying was stuff to make lunch for my husband's family.

Rejoice all you want at the pumps. They're killing us at the grocery store.

Pentagon to Detail Troops to Bolster Domestic Security

The U.S. military expects to have 20,000 uniformed troops inside the United States by 2011 trained to help state and local officials respond to a nuclear terrorist attack or other domestic catastrophe, according to Pentagon officials.

The long-planned shift in the Defense Department's role in homeland security was recently backed with funding and troop commitments after years of prodding by Congress and outside experts, defense analysts said.

There are critics of the change, in the military and among civil liberties groups and libertarians who express concern that the new homeland emphasis threatens to strain the military and possibly undermine the Posse Comitatus Act, a 130-year-old federal law restricting the military's role in domestic law enforcement.

But the Bush administration and some in Congress have pushed for a heightened homeland military role since the middle of this decade, saying the greatest domestic threat is terrorists exploiting the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/11/30/AR200811...

the irony of that domain name always makes me laugh...

i'm not sure if it qualifies as an oxymoron...but if it doesn't, I can't think of anything that comes closer without actually qualifying...

Take 5 ! No,take a year !

Play in the street,or something..

Your spiel is old & moronic..

Your Not wanted here..How many times do you have to get banned to get it ?

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

If the inanity of the MSM had a posterchild, it would be WaDo...

Bush Paves the Way for Martial Law: 2007 National Defense Authorization Act overturns Posse Comitatus Act

In October 2006, Bush signed into law the John Warner National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2007. Quietly slipped into the law at the last minute, at the request of the Bush administration, were sections changing important legal principles, dating back 200 years, which limit the U.S. government's ability to use the military to intervene in domestic affairs. These changes would allow Bush, whenever he thinks it necessary, to institute martial law--under which the military takes direct control over civilian administration.

Sec. 1042 of the Act, "Use of the Armed Forces in Major Public Emergencies," effectively overturns what is known as posse comitatus. The Posse Comitatus Act is a law, passed in 1878, that prohibits the use of the regular military within the U.S. borders. The original passage of the Posse Comitatus Act was a very reactionary move that sealed the betrayal of Black people after the Civil War and brought the period of Reconstruction to an end. It decreed that federal troops could no longer be used inside the former Confederate states to enforce the new legal rights of Black people. Black people were turned over to the armed police and Klansmen serving the southern plantation owners, and the long period of Jim Crow began

http://www.inteldaily.com/?c=117&a=1431

Even Trump!
Submitted by toniD on Mon, 12/01/2008 - 11:28am.
--------
Yep! Remember when David Cay Johnston appeared on Bill Moyers? He dropped a dime on the real some real Welfare Queens. And here they are!

Excerpt: January 8, 2008

Donald Trump (deadbeat#1)

DAVID CAY JOHNSTON: Donald Trump benefits from a tax specifically levied by the State of New Jersey for the poor. Part of the casino winnings tax in New Jersey is dedicated to help the poor. But $89 million of it is being diverted to subsidize Donald Trump's casino's building retail space

Warren Buffet (deadbeat#2)

DAVID CAY JOHNSTON: He got a $665 million interest-free loan for the utility he has in the Midwestmp has ben bankrupt twice.

Steve Jobs (deadbeat #3)

DAVID CAY JOHNSTON: That's right. And that's always the biggest scandal is what is legal. Steve Jobs. Well, Steve Jobs got $70 million of stock options at a meeting of the board of Apple company directors that never took place.

George Steinbrenner (deadbeat#4)

DAVID CAY JOHNSTON: George Steinbrenner, like almost every owner of a major sports franchise, gets enormous public subsidies. And Steinbrenner is getting more than $600 million for the new Yankee Stadium on-

George W. Bush (deadbeat#5)

DAVID CAY JOHNSTON: Well, this is one-- this is a great irony. George Bush owes almost his entire fortune to a tax increase that was funneled into his pocket and into the use of eminent domain laws to essentially legally cheat other people out of their land for less than it was worth to enrich him and his fellow investors.

con't

http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/01182008/transcript.html

"The American Civil Liberties Union recently came across a revealing RNC Homeland Security Document. This official document was uncovered by the website Wikileaks, which according to its website "We help you safely get the truth out". This document outlines the planning leading up to the Republican National Convention and how security forces would be working together during the RNC. Many federal, state and local organizations were mentioned in this document, a number of which the ACLU did not know were involved. A number of these agencies are military based, which may directly conflict with Federal law that prohibits the military from engaging in domestic intelligence gathering."

http://www.aclu-mn.org/home/news/revealingrncdocumentleaked.htm?rss

Submitted by toniD on Mon, 12/01/2008 - 11:52am.
Pentagon to Detail Troops to Bolster Domestic Security
*******

We Don't Need No Stinking,Posse Comitatus Act, a 130-year-old federal law..Just another Law for Bush Co.to Break !

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

Five years after he declared victory in Iraq on the US aircraft carrier USS Lincoln, President George W. Bush says he was "unprepared" for a war in Iraq that has gone on to claim thousands of American lives and tens of thousands of Iraqis.

"I wish the intelligence had been different, I guess," Bush tells ABC's Charlie Gibson in an interview to be broadcast tonight, and said he didn't know if he'd have gone to war if he didn't think there were weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. "That is a do-over that I can't do," Bush said.

He said incorrect intelligence about Saddam Hussein's arsenal was the "biggest regret of all the presidency." "I think I was unprepared for war," Bush remarked. "In other words, I didn't campaign and say, 'Please vote for me, I'll be able to handle an attack,'" he said. "In other words, I didn't anticipate war. Presidents -- one of the things about the modern presidency is that the unexpected will happen."

But also he tried to spread the blame -- and his credulity -- for bad intelligence on others. "A lot of people put their reputations on the line and said the weapons of mass destruction is a reason to remove Saddam Hussein," Bush said. "It wasn't just people in my administration. A lot of members in Congress, prior to my arrival in Washington, D.C., during the debate on Iraq, a lot of leaders of nations around the world were all looking at the same intelligence."

http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Bush_I_was_unprepared_for_war_1201.html

President Obama has done himself proud!

What a great idea, bringing back of a Bill's old pals and having Hillary as his Centerpiece.

We are off to a great start!

that Robert Gates' brief turn at the mic just now just foreshadowed how long he'll be at the helm of the DoD...

are we supposed to give obama the benefit of the doubt. Although she was not addressing this question to me personally, and I doubt she cares much for my opinion on this anyway, I will respond for as far as it pertains to me: I will give Obama the benefit of the doubt until December 2016, when we will be in a position to look back at his record of accomplishments and non-accomplishments and then compare to where we were in 2008 and do some kind of assessment. Are we bettr now (2016) than we were in 2008? If the answer is yes, then ok, the "benefit of the doubt" will prove sound, otherwise, oh well, i will admit i have been fooled.

How Does Trump repeatedly file for Bankruptcy and still stay on top?

Donald Trump has become infamous for telling business mogul wannabes "You're fired!" every week on primetime television. Yet, after Trump's casino operations filed bankruptcy for the second time this past November, many have wondered if it isn't time for board members to give Trump a pink slip. Despite the company failings, Trump will remain as chairman and CEO and continue to collect a $2 million dollar paycheck. So…how does a CEO decide to file for bankruptcy twice and still come out at the top of the heap?

Here's the legal scam:

con't

http://www.legalzoom.com/legal-articles/article13737.html

Obama: Gates Will End The War In Iraq
By Greg Sargent - December 1, 2008, 11:13AM
Another key moment from Obama's national security presser today: In case there were any lingering doubts about how his decision to keep Defense Secretary Robert Gates might impact his promise to withdraw from Iraq, Obama made it clear: Gates will be ordered to pull out.

Obama said...

As I said throughout the campaign, I will be giving Secretary Gates and our military a new mission as soon as I take office: responsibly ending the war in Iraq through a successful transition to Iraqi control. We will also ensure that we have the strategy -- and resources -- to succeed against al Qaeda and the Taliban. As Bob said not too long ago, Afghanistan is where the war on terror began, and it is where it must end.

Obviously, the devil will be in the details over what sort of timing Gates sees as necessary for "responsibly" ending the war. And there will be plenty of room for disagreement ahead on that and other fronts. But the fact that Obama went out of his way to reiterate his commitment to ending the war at his first presser with Gates seems noteworthy and encouraging.

http://tpmelectioncentral.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/12/obama_gates_will...

I'm curious... what do all of you fine bloggers think of this line of reasoning?

Dear President-elect Obama,

By 2010, the number of children orphaned by AIDS is expected to exceed 25 million globally. Progress cannot continue to be made at this level without the continued support of the U.S. government.

Please continue to make funding of the war against HIV/AIDS a priority.

Thank you for your attention to this devastating problem,

SOS Children's Villages - USA

Please Read & Sign - Thank you

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

was Zbigniew Brzezinski's praising of this Obama foreign policy team...

Christy Hardin Smith put forward a quote this morning from Nichols' Nation article and Russ Feingold's advocacy of Hillary, as well...

I don't agree with Nichols' definition of "fundemental change", BTW...

at this point, what is fundemental change? A radical shift in the country's foreign policy? Or the ability and willingness to actually engage in serious and complex diplomacy.

Condoleeza Rice? Colin Powell? Please.

too the little guy this doesn't seem right, but thats the way it works.

i was involved in a partnership at one point in time and while my stake was real real small, boy was i surprised to find out that because of the way the big boys had structured their finances, i was the "deep pocket" should something go wrong. its behind me now but still there's a lesson there, that the rich know how to hang onto what they've got and stick the little guy.

I think if President Obama keeps moving to the right he should have our complete support...

Harry and Barack make a great team... Bill can't hurt either..

President Obama just said, Iraq will be over when it is over...

It's always good to support the President of the United States of America...!!!

"Market forces do "work," they're just brutal. I only wish market forces were allowed to work on the executives who caused this."
=====
Not necessarily. Markets on their own tend to collapse without huge outside infusions. Chomsky briefly touched on this in his recent talk about the election. "Market forces are not allowed to work..."
I think he was suggesting that if the market forces were allowed to play out, the population would start to come unglued, and demand regulations.

Obama trying to avoid picking intel officials associated with Bush’s policies.By Faiz Shakir at 10:30 am Obama trying to avoid picking intel officials associated with Bush’s policies.»

The Wall Street Journal reports that Obama is “moving more slowly on his intelligence picks in an attempt to find experienced officials who aren’t associated with the Bush administration’s controversial interrogation policies.” After former CIA official John Brennan withdrew his name from consideration due to his prior support for key Bush policies, retired Navy Adm. Dennis Blair emerged as a front-runner, though the decision hadn’t been finalized. “Blair is free of any association with two of the intelligence community’s most controversial issues: the CIA’s harsh interrogations of terrorism suspects and the National Security Agency’s warrantless wiretapping program.”

http://thinkprogress.org/2008/12/01/obama-intel-picks/

NPR reporter Ivan Watson and three members of NPR’s Iraqi staff “narrowly escaped an apparent assassination attempt in Baghdad on Sunday after a hidden ‘sticky’ bomb exploded underneath their parked, armored BMW.”

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=97618965

Patrick Leahy on.

Judiciary Committee Chairman.

If you're tired of the slanted MSM reporting!

“When the Iraqi government ratified an agreement last week setting new terms for a continued American presence in Iraq, private contractors working for the Pentagon faced the inevitability that they would be stripped of their immunity from Iraqi law.” Some experts said that contractors would be forced to rely much more on Iraqi employees, rather than on Americans.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/01/world/middleeast/01contractors.html

Former interrogator slams torture: Torture has cost nearly as many lives as 9/11.»
In a Washington Post op-ed today, a former Special Operations interrogator who worked in Iraq in 2006 sharply criticizes American torture techniques as ineffective and dangerous. “Torture and abuse cost American lives,” he writes:

I learned in Iraq that the No. 1 reason foreign fighters flocked there to fight were the abuses carried out at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo. Our policy of torture was directly and swiftly recruiting fighters for al-Qaeda in Iraq. … It’s no exaggeration to say that at least half of our losses and casualties in that country have come at the hands of foreigners who joined the fray because of our program of detainee abuse. The number of U.S. soldiers who have died because of our torture policy will never be definitively known, but it is fair to say that it is close to the number of lives lost on Sept. 11, 2001. How anyone can say that torture keeps Americans safe is beyond me — unless you don’t count American soldiers as Americans.

The writer, who used a pseudonym for the article, adds that when he switched his team’s techniques to a rapport-building method, they found enormous success. One detainee told the author, “I thought you would torture me, and when you didn’t, I decided that everything I was told about Americans was wrong. That’s why I decided to cooperate.”

http://thinkprogress.org/2008/11/30/interrogator-torture-washpo/

Update: The author, who is writing a book on his experiences as an interrogator, notes that the Pentagon tried to redact non-classified information and block parts of his book. "Apparently, some members of the military command are not only unconvinced by the arguments against torture; they don't even want the public to hear them," he writes.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/11/28/AR200811...

Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev said yesterday that the whole world is looking forward to change under Obama. "America is needed -- an America that is strong, democratic and sure of itself -- for the entire world, not just for Americans," he said. "We are seeing that if it's bad for America, it's bad for us all."

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2008/11/27/gorbachev-looks-forward-new-p...

Ex-defense contractor drops hints of another major corruption scandal.»
Mitchell Wade, the corrupt former lobbyist who plead guilty in 2006 to bribing former Rep. Duke Cunningham (R-CA), is reportedly assisting “the government in investigating five other members of Congress,” according to a memorandum filed on Wednesday. The 42-page sentencing memo filed by Wade’s attorneys says that the other unnamed members are under investigation for “corruption similar to that of Mr. Cunningham.” Seth Hettena suggests two of those five include former Reps. Katherine Harris (R-FL) and Virgil Goode (R-VA). Hettena also reports that the sentencing memo contains hints of a bigger scandal to come:

Prosecutors drop tantalizing hints about an even bigger, ongoing investigation. Wade was debriefed in 2006 and provided “moderately useful” background information in another “large and important corruption investigation” that also has not yet resulted in any charges.

http://thinkprogress.org/2008/11/28/ex-defense-contractor-drops-hints-of...

:)

The U.S. military expects to have 20,000 uniformed troops inside the United States by 2011

Pentagon to Detail Troops to Bolster Domestic Security

By Spencer S. Hsu and Ann Scott Tyson
Washington Post Staff Writers
Monday, December 1, 2008; A01

The U.S. military expects to have 20,000 uniformed troops inside the United States by 2011 trained to help state and local officials respond to a nuclear terrorist attack or other domestic catastrophe, according to Pentagon officials.

The long-planned shift in the Defense Department's role in homeland security was recently backed with funding and troop commitments after years of prodding by Congress and outside experts, defense analysts said.

There are critics of the change, in the military and among civil liberties groups and libertarians who express concern that the new homeland emphasis threatens to strain the military and possibly undermine the Posse Comitatus Act, a 130-year-old federal law restricting the military's role in domestic law enforcement.

But the Bush administration and some in Congress have pushed for a heightened homeland military role since the middle of this decade, saying the greatest domestic threat is terrorists exploiting the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.

Before the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, dedicating 20,000 troops to domestic response -- a nearly sevenfold increase in five years -- "would have been extraordinary to the point of unbelievable," Paul McHale, assistant defense secretary for homeland defense, said in remarks last month at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. But the realization that civilian authorities may be overwhelmed in a catastrophe prompted "a fundamental change in military culture," he said.

The Pentagon's plan calls for three rapid-reaction forces to be ready for emergency response by September 2011. The first 4,700-person unit, built around an active-duty combat brigade based at Fort Stewart, Ga., was available as of Oct. 1, said Gen. Victor E. Renuart Jr., commander of the U.S. Northern Command.

so many wingnuts are calling in and saying that drawing on individuals from the clinton administration isn't change. why is it so difficult for them to comphrend that anything that takes us furthur away from the bush nightmare is CHANGE.

that my presidency would have come in the form of a mushroom cloud".

This is a severely retarded man!

I have been delighted by this new attitude by the Old 3%...

The willingness to drop the old foolish unattainable demands and replace them with Mainstream Ideas is a big step forward...

This is a Core Value of the 97%!!!

One doesn't just wake up one morning and think:

"Gosh, I'm gonna join the 97%!"

No, no... I comes one idea at a time...

Moving away from radical demands to solid Centrist Views...

That's how Hillary and Barrack got to be 97%ers...

And that's how you can get here too!

The Chris Matthews Show: Obama's Problems Will Come From The Angry Left, Not Republicans
By Nicole Belle Sunday Nov 30, 2008 7:00pm

John Amato has blogged about this and this clip from this week's The Chris Matthews Show is proof positive that the progressive blogosphere must be smart about picking battles in pushing a liberal agenda for America. Let's face it, you and I and the rest of the liberal blogosphere have been right more often than not and certainly exponentially over the Villagers that populate The Chris Matthews Show. But they're not ready to give up their coveted place at the table, and certainly not to upstart bloggers who don't have the decency to take them at their word any longer.

So to those oh-so-wise Beltway bobbleheads, we will be the "angry left" that Obama must marginalize in order to have a successful presidency. It won't be the Republicans with their bag of obstructionist tricks, ones of which WaPo's Ceci Connolly doesn't even have memory, that give Obama a hard time, it will be us, the "angry left." We are the ones to not give Obama a "honeymoon period" and we will be the ones fighting him as he attempts to execute his agenda.

Sigh. Do anyone of these chuckleheads ever consider that the reason the left has been so "angry" for the last eight plus years is that what we've said and what we've valued has been criticized, dismissed, sneered, condemned, denounced and our characters attacked? Of course not. And when the nation shows that they have awakened to what we've been saying all along and announced with their vote that they want to give the left a shot, we're still criticized, dismissed, sneered, condemned, denounced and our characters attacked because we might like to see some people actually reflective of our values in office.

Good to see the open minds of the Very Serious Villagers remain. Would that they would be so condemning of those who have been so very wrong all this time.

Transcripts (courtesy of Heather) below the fold

Video and transripts at link:

http://crooksandliars.com/nicole-belle/chris-matthews-show-obamas-proble...

alice keeps asking "until when?"
Submitted by mire on Mon, 12/01/2008 - 12:15pm.
----------

I agree with you Mire. I also have no delusions about what Obama will able to do. America is failing due to nearly 30 years of incompetent leadership- and a uninformed populace. To think he can reverse the situation without real sacrifice from the citizenry, is foolish. I also think it is asinine to slam Obama while the right-wing is still controls the narrative. You can attribute some of this to our pathetically, dysfunctional press. But it would also include those in the left press. Mike Malloy and his assassination diatribes against Obama comes to mind. They are irresponsible and highly dangerous. But whether it's Malloy or mainstream, the bulk of the problem is us. We should have driven the media whores out in 2000- after their complicity in stealing the election. And don't expect Obama to do it now, that is still our job.

As far as that Devil's dung called the right-wing is concern, it should be smashed in this country like the Torrie's were after Thatcher. This is where our energy should go. If we don't do it, no one will.

As far as Alice is concern, pass go, do not stop!

i don't know, that doesn't seem fair to individuals who suffer from mental retardation to group them with someone like bush.

Then why don't you start?

Rather than trying to pin all the world's ills on the President-Elect?

Who knew that day would come?! (Well, I did)

If I am reading the implications behind your Baby Talk correctly, we must count our blessings...

"I would like to congratulate President-Elect Barack Obama, ladies and gentlemen. Without Senator Obama, we would still be dealing with the specter of Hillary Clinton lurking around the Democrat Party seeking the White House. So I want to congratulate and thank Senator Obama for dispatching the Clintons, at least until he screws up enough to give them an opening to get back in."

I guess Rush just doesn't speak the language of Outcomes...

"And don't expect Obama to do it now, that is still our job."

That's exactly how I feel, Edna.

when you look at it that way, dan, it doesn't seem fair to group him with anyone... :)

Submitted by dada on Mon, 12/01/2008 - 1:30pm.
----

Well, I got a pitchfork. Do you have a torch?

It's good that you follow Rush so closely...

I love him too!

But you must keep one thing in mind...

Rush's first job is make money, he is first and foremost an entertainer...

So as a novice Ditto-Head you must remember to listen to Rush though the filter of Capitalism...

The Clintons made Rush a Multi-Millionaire..

And you never quit a winner..

Oh, and welcome to the 97%...!!

Now all we need is to light the fire under the asses of the angry mob, and we're good to go!

That sounds like the makings of a Beer commercial jingle.

*

--"the bulk of the problem is us."
Submitted by dada on Mon, 12/01/2008 - 1:30pm.

"And don't expect Obama to do it now, that is still our job."

That's exactly how I feel, Edna.--

Can you be more specific? That is what I've been trying to get out of this - specific action plan. Edna thinks it's to crush the right, I find that decidedly counter-productive...Specifics would be helpful now....

Press Action celebrates the most dynamic reporters, authors and commentators of 2008.

Derrick Jensen

Jensen leads the 2008 class of Press Action’s Dynamic Dozen based on his tireless efforts to inspire us — through his books, essays, speeches, correspondence, etc. — to save the planet. This honor may not rank as high as Utne Reader naming him one of the “50 Visionaries Who Are Changing Your World.” Utne Reader says Jensen is the “green thinker and writer who’s out to tell us not what we want to hear but what we need to hear.” Press Action agrees.

Pattrice Jones

“One of my favorite people, the blackest white woman I know, the author I quote the most, the lady who turned me out and into a black vegan,” Thefreeslave writes on Afro Spear, describing Jones. Jones also is one of Press Action’s favorite writers and thinkers. Check out the excellent work Jones is doing as a teacher of composition at the University of Maryland Eastern Shore.

Mickey Z.

Mickey Z. continued to work nonstop in 2008 as an essayist, blogger and speaker. He alerted us to the perils of humans dominating nature, the perils of the Republicrats dominating American politics and, in the spirit of Emma Goldman, the perils of avoiding laughter and joy as we struggle to make the world a better place. If all of those activities weren’t enough, Mickey also published two books in 2008: CPR for Dummies and No Innocent Bystanders: Riding Shotgun in the Land of Denial

Paul Street

Unlike many of his fellow commentators on Z Net, Street did not get duped by the Obama hype. In one of his columns since the election, the straight-shooting Street explains: “Obama is a ruling-class candidate with the mission of restoring democratic legitimacy to a rotten and authoritarian state-capitalist American System and Empire. … Our supposed ‘left’ President-Elect’s first statement was NOT a call for peace, justice, and equality. It was a declaration bolstering the American plutocracy’s ridiculous claim that the U.S.—the industrialized world’s most unequal and wealth-top-heavy society by far—is home to a great democracy and limitless opportunity for all.”

Stephanie McMillan

The Minimum Security cartoonist and coauthor of As the World Burns: 50 Simple Things You Can Do to Stay in Denial penned a strip a couple days after the November elections that said it all about the Obama mania.

Bananabelle: I can’t believe you won’t let me tell you who won.
Bunnista: All I care about is that the long nightmare is finally over.
Bananabelle: The Bush regime?
Bunnista: The election. Boring politicians, preposterous speeches, and fools who take them all seriously.

Viva Bunnista! Viva Stephanie McMillan!

Margaret Kimberley

In one of her many incisive pieces leading up to the 2008 presidential election, the Freedom Rider essayist and blogger lambasted progressives for fawning over Obama after he received Colin Powell’s endorsement in October. “A Powell endorsement ought to be the kiss of death, but liberals have silently colluded with Obama all year long. Why should they stop now? So what if the architect of death and destruction in Iraq has endorsed their beloved leader. They just want to win,” Kimberley wrote.

Adam Engel

As one of Press Action’s favorite writers, Engel did not disappoint in 2008. His writing is offbeat and gripping. In his essay on Obama’s victory, titled “The Irony of the Ecstasy,” Engel describes the raucous celebrations outside his house in New York City. “I couldn’t help thinking how ironic it was that thousands of people expressed ‘political commitment’ not by gathering together to soberly plan the Next Move (i.e. putting the president elect in the hot seat), but by behaving like a bunch of typically arrogant, indulgent, selfish, drunk, overbearing Americans,” he writes.

Naomi Klein

During a recent trip to London, Press Action saw a billboard alongside a street near Hyde Park advertising Klein’s book The Shock Doctrine. Now that’s an advertisement you’d never see on any billboard in the United States. The other members of the Press Action Dynamic Dozen may not have a Shock Doctrine-size PR machine promoting their writings and work, but they shouldn’t be jealous. Klein provided an important service in 2008, especially during the fourth quarter, dissecting the U.S. government’s giveaway to Wall Street and how the Obama regime will carry on the neo-liberal economic tradition of the Bush/Clinton era.

William Blum

During another presidential election year, when many liberals, progressives and leftists supported a business-as-usual Democrat, Blum described how Barack Obama’s foreign policy positions would not veer too far from the “Bush Doctrine.” In his regular Anti-Empire Reports, Blum dissected many topics aside from U.S. foreign policy, including the worthlessness of presidential debates, the make-believe world of financial capitalism and … sports. In his Oct. 1 Anti-Empire Report, Blum commented on the 2008 U.S. Open tennis tournament in New York. Blum focused on the jingoism and militarism that accompanies sporting events in the United States, even those events in which the overwhelming majority of competitors, especially the competitors in the upper echelons, are not American.

Ali Abunimah

Abunimah, one of the founders of Electronic Intifada, is the author of One Country: A Bold Proposal to End the Israeli-Palestinian Impasse, a recently published book that offers a refreshing vision of the future: one democratic state for Palestinians and Israeli Jews, living side by side with equal rights. In the meantime, the Palestinians will be forced to cope with another staunchly pro-Israel regime in Washington. Abunimah finds some reason for optimism in the short term. “Israel will find it increasingly difficult to justify its policies to global public opinion and will face a growing challenge from the international boycott, divestment and sanctions movement. Efforts to pursue Israelis accused of war crimes in the occupied territories through universal jurisdiction will intensify and may begin to bear fruit. Palestinians in Gaza will refuse to remain besieged. Palestinian citizens of Israel will continue their own struggle for democracy,” Abunimah writes in an essay following Obama’s victory.

Jeremy Scahill

The investigative journalist is exhorting liberal and left-wing bloggers who scrutinized the appointments and policies of George W. Bush during his first term to be similarly aggressive in their treatment of Obama. On a recent episode of Democracy Now!, Scahill said: “I think the time is now to call the question on the involvement of some of these people, that this is the precise moment when this kind of journalism matters, when we have to remind people of the history and the previous policies implemented by the people that are at the center of Obama’s foreign policy team right now, because we’re going to be living with these people for the next four years running the show. And I think it’s incredibly important to be all over this right now, before they’re named.”

Jeffrey St. Clair

Earlier this year, soon after Sarah Palin spoke at the Republican National Convention, the CounterPunch editor once again reminded Press Action of the magnificence of cow punk diva Maria McKee.

A book that some call profane and anti-Catholic is causing a stir at Orestimba High School in this central valley town southwest of Turlock.

Teachers argue the work, "Bless Me, Ultima," is a powerful story that connects with teenagers. Newman-Crows Landing Unified School District Superintendent Rick Fauss decided the book is not suitable for teenagers and banned it for the rest of the school year.

"I think there's room for exposing students to other experiences, but do we have to sacrifice the values of our families and our community to do that?" asked Fauss, a former high school English teacher.

He hasn't read the entire book but said he's "read enough."

activists need to become more active. At our moveon meeting about how to move Obama left. I kept harping about campaign finance reform and instant run off voting as one of the most important issues. They all pretty much poo poo'd me and wanted to talk about health care and afganistan. I am very interested in those issues too. But the truth is we have to change this oligarchy to a democratic republic. Am I crazy or what.

As long as it's the right in both parties. I don't like this giving politicians a pass just because they have a D after their name thing.

Crushing the mainstream media is a worthy goal as well, but it's difficult getting people motivated to boycott their mental masters...

Demanding the Obama administration make progressive changes, and not wimping out with the "we must be pragmatic" excuse, is the task set before the people now. It's not going to happen if we don't demand it. And if it doesn't happen, we the people will be to blame, not Obama. To me, at least. I'm holding us responsible for this mess we're in, and getting ourselves out of it. Of course that means giving the Obama administration endless trouble, which liberals don't seem to want to do. They're afraid it might hurt Obama's feelings or something. He's very precious, you know.

Good point...

getting all the different flavors of left on the same page. Then our persuasive power would be behind every issue.

Too bad for us, right?

to me it's the Government and the People...

isn't it nice when someone in authority is "in touch" with the values of the community enough to say thou shall not read this...

surprisingly, the article did not say what he objected to. but given that the catholics have gone screaming yellow bonkers saying you are a sinner if you voted for obama, it probably wouldn't take much to get anything the least bit critical of the church on the banned list.

anybody in the mood for ice cream, say someplace with 31 different flavors?

(i don't care if its called bovine slime, its still good)

Treasury Department investigating US Attorney for leaking state Supreme Court Justice's tax returns
Larisa Alexandrovna

The Department of Justice's Office of Professional Responsibility and the US Treasury Department are investigating allegations that a Bush-appointed US Attorney inappropriately shared private income tax information on one of his targets with a state judicial commission that included one of his relatives, according to court documents and a source close to the investigation.

Dunnica Lampton, the US Attorney for the Southern District of Mississippi, is already under investigation for allegations of political prosecutions in his state. According to new documents viewed by Raw Story, Lampton allegedly shared the private income tax records of then-Mississippi Supreme Court Justice Oliver E. Diaz Jr. with the Mississippi Commission on Judicial Performance and with one of its then-commissioners, his distant cousin Leslie B. Lampton.

The US Attorney also shared the tax records of Diaz's wife, Jennifer, and those were also allegedly shared without authorization, said a source close to the DOJ investigation. Documents shown to Raw Story relating to the case confirm that a criminal investigation is underway. These documents did not include the Diaz's tax returns themselves.

In addition to the Justice Department investigation, the office of the United States Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration is also probing Lampton's conduct, the source said. The special agent assigned to the case is said to be Kelly Sopko.

Reached by phone last Monday, a Treasury spokesperson would not confirm that Sopko worked for the Department or that there was an investigation.

Sopko also did not respond to repeated emails and calls for comment.

The Commission on Judicial Performance
Dunnica Lampton unsuccessfully prosecuted Diaz for bribery and then tax evasion in 2005 and 2006. Diaz was acquitted both times. Diaz's wife, Jennifer, pled guilty to tax evasion, but she has since said she was told she could lose her children if sentenced to prison after a jury conviction.

Diaz's case was named last spring by the House Judiciary Committee as one of several recent federal prosecutions in which charges were flimsy and politics appeared to have played a significant role.

Copies of Diaz's tax return were provided to the Mississippi Commission on Judicial Performance, an ethics oversight body, in the summer of 2006 -- shortly after Diaz' second acquittal. The Commission's is comprised of seven members, including judges and two lay persons, appointed by the Chief Justice of the Mississippi Supreme Court for a five-year term. The Commission's investigations are confidential.

Leslie Lampton, who is the CEO of Ergon Inc. -- a multi-billion dollar manufacturing and energy company -- was serving as a layperson on the panel at the time that it received the Diaz tax records. He was re-appointed to the Commission in January of this year for a term that was to run through December of 2012, but he resigned abruptly just a few months later, shortly after Diaz filed a complaint with the Internal Revenue Service in March relating to the alleged unauthorized disclosure of his income tax records.

Reached by phone last Monday, Leslie Lampton's Mississippi-based attorney Kevin Watson explained that Mr. Lampton retired from the Commission because of his age and categorically denied that the resignation had anything to do with the alleged tax breach.

"He is 84 years old," Watson said. "He's given enough of himself."

More here:

http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Treasury_Department_investigating_US_Attor...

Recession began in 2007: report
It's official: Committee of economists finally makes determination.

http://money.cnn.com/2008/12/01/news/economy/recession/index.htm?postver...

Couple claims CNN almost killed them
Welsh couple says CNN jeopardized them by airing location in Mumbai.

http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/cardiff-news/2008/11/29/we-thought-we-...

Climate juggernaut 'on the horizon'
UN conference hears war, hunger, poverty will stalk world due to warming.

http://rawstory.com/news/afp/Climate_juggernaut_on_the_horizon_U_1201200...

control of the media is what we're up against.

"the media is the message"

if the message is mostly propaganda to promote a predatory ruling class "message" turns into "mess".

but we know that.

timing is everything.

we are'nt ready to change yet.

but we are getting closer.

And we'll call ourselves the Baskin Robbins party.

Cookiepuss for president

Nutty coconut. :-)

http://www.baskinrobbins.com/Nutrition/product.aspx?Category=Ice%20Cream...

Seeing as how 'nando thought I was "ill". ??

For the record, I am perfectly sane, tyvm. :-)

It's time you took a drive across this Great Land of Ours...

We the people is so much bigger than you see on your walk to the subway..

Rent a car and drive out to see Alice...

Along the way you will find the answers to your question about who We the People might be.

Zogby: Palin Top 2012 Contender

Monday, December 1, 2008 2:07 PM

Article Font Size

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin is the slight favorite of Republican voters as the best candidate the party could run for President in 2012. When all voters are asked that questions, Palin falls into a three-way tie with Mitt Romney and Bobby Jindal.

Those are among the findings of a Zogby Interactive poll of 24,964 voters conducted from Nov. 7-18. The margin of error for the entire sample is +/-0.6 percent.

Voters were offered the choices of Palin, former Massachusetts Gov. Romney, Louisiana Gov. Jindal, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, Texas Rep. Ron Paul and former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani. All but Palin and Jindal were candidates for the 2008 nomination. Voters also could choose someone else.

http://samsedershow.com/node/4142

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

Arabs Not Happy About Secretary of State Hillary

Arab allies are not expecting a new dawn in Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Hillary Clinton talked tougher than Obama when they were candidates.

Saudi Arabia applauds Hillary's hawkishness on Iran.

Monday, December 1, 2008 12:18 PM

BEIRUT — President-elect Barack Obama's choice of Hillary Clinton as secretary of state gladdens Israel, but does not overjoy Arabs and Iranians keen for a new start after eight years of perceived U.S. policy calamities.

Clinton talked tougher than Obama when they were vying to be the Democratic presidential candidate, decrying her rival's "naive" call for direct talks with foes such as Iran and North Korea and vowing to "obliterate" Iran if it attacked Israel.

"She's committed to the peace process. She's committed to fighting extremism and terrorism. She's committed to the U.S.-Israeli relationship," a senior Israeli official said.

Israeli political scientist Shmuel Sandler of Bar Ilan University near Tel Aviv voiced similar satisfaction, saying, "As far as Israel is concerned, this is a good appointment."

Jesus, Wardog, you act like we weren't born here.

I suggest YOU travel to porossive parts of the country more often.

No more Branson for you: You need to see the real America.
*************************

"The Once and Future Rajah of Bhong."

Holiday Shopping Warning

A heads up that if you tend to give gift cards around the holidays, you need to be careful that the cards will be honored after the holidays. Stores that are planning to close after Christmas are still selling the cards through the holidays even though the cards will be worthless January 1.

There is no law preventing them from doing this. On the contrary, it is referred to as 'Bankrupcy Planning). Below is a partial list of stores that you need to be cautious about.

Circuit City (filed Chapter 11)
Ann Taylor- 117 stores nationwide closing
Lane Bryant, Fashion Bug ,and Catherine's to close 150 stores nationwide
Eddie Bauer to close stores 27 stores and more after January
Cache will close all stores
Talbots closing down specialty stores
J. Jill closing all stores (owned by Talbots)
Pacific Sunwear (also owned by Talbots)
GAP closing 85 stores
Footlocker closing 140 stores more to close after January
Wickes Furniture closing down
Levitz closing down remaining stores
Bombay closing remaining stores
Zales closing down 82 stores and 105 after January
Whitehall closing all stores
Piercing Pagoda closing all stores
Disney closing 98 stores and will close more after January.
Home Depot closing 15 stores 1 in NJ ( New Brunswick )
Macys to close 9 stores after January
Linens and Things closing all stores
Movie Galley Closing all stores
Pep Boys Closing 33 stores
Sprint/Nextel closing 133 stores
JC Penney closing a number of stores after January
Ethan Allen closing down 12 stores.
Wilson Leather closing down all stores
Sharper Image closing down all stores
K B Toys closing 356 stores
Loews to close down some stores
Dillard's to close some stores
Borders Books – to close some stores in prime locations

…..

http://www.samsedershow.com/node/4142#new

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