GOP health care worse is better

The worse for more money bit was VERY FUNNY!! Thanks!

SMELL THE TRUTH!!

Marc's Conspiracy perfume was really funny too....

Health care a very important topic.

:)

re-post

...

...

US Marines storm south in major Afghan offensive
by Ben Sheppard Ben Sheppard 33 mins ago

HELMAND PROVINCE, Afghanistan (AFP) – US Marines launched a major offensive into the Taliban heartlands of southern Afghanistan before dawn on Thursday as President Barack Obama's new war plan swung into action.

With dozens of aircraft ferrying out troops from various bases, the assault aimed to insert forces into insurgent strongholds in Helmand province in what officers said was the biggest offensive airlift by the Marines since Vietnam.

Operation Khanjar (Strike of the Sword), involving nearly 4,000 US forces as well as 650 Afghan police and soldiers, would bring security to the Helmand River valley ahead of presidential elections on August 20, commanders aid.

It was the Marines' first major operation since they deployed over the past few months as part of 21,000 US reinforcements pledged by Obama in a revised US strategy to turn the tide on a dragging conflict with the Taliban.

A fleet of helicopters lifted about 300 soldiers from a camp called Dwyer at dawn with their commander confident they would have cleared a key road, secured a bridge and met with villagers by evening.

"I told my men everything they have done to prepare for this operation means they are ready to go," said Captain Junwei Sun, 39, commanding officer of 2/8 Battalion's Fox company.

Afghan security forces were driving out to their targeted area, where the forces would meet, he said. "We expect to encounter resistance and come into enemy contact," the captain added.

The first highly aggressive phase of the operation was set to last 36 hours, commanders said.

"What makes Operation Khanjar different from those that have occurred before is the massive size of the force introduced, the speed at which it will insert," Brigadier General Larry Nicholson said.

Troops would hold areas they take until they could transfer security responsibilities to Afghan forces, the commander of the Marine Expeditionary Brigade said in a statement announcing the launch of the assault.

The troops were to push south down the Helmand River valley, deep into insurgent-held areas where international forces have failed to establish a presence despite ousting the Taliban from power in 2001.

Military commanders said Operation Khanjar would convince local people that the Afghan security forces -- backed by international troops -- offered them a better long-term future than the Islamist hardliners.

"This is a big, risky plan," Nicholson told his men at a briefing at Camp Leatherneck in the run-up to the launch of the battle.

"It involves great risks and amazing opportunities. These are days of immense change for Helmand province. We're going down there, and we're going to stay -- that's what is different this time."

Reflecting the new US strategy, he stressed that the security needs of Helmand's residents came before killing Taliban.

"One of the most critical things is to tell people why we're there, and we are going to have a limited opportunity to gain their trust," Nicholson said.

"Our actions will allow voter registration in areas where there has been none," he told commanders and embedded reporters.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20090702/wl_afp/afghanistanunrestuskhanjar_2...

I worked this evening, came home and did some lookup for my friend Gloria. She has a phone interview tomorrow and wanted me to look up the company to see what it was they did.

Her computer doesn't work and she doesn't have the money to fix it right now.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed that she gets the job. She's bi-lingual - Spanish, and the job is Manager of customer service.

what a beut of a day, we picked six gallons of cherries from the side yard tree.

mmmmmmmmm! cherry pie.

Being bi-lingual is a huge asset and skill. If we can raise like 200.00 there are these Acer's that I see some library people use...they're very small and very functional from what I've seen...

I admire and respect all of you folks even though many of the bloggers here disagree with my support of President Obama's strategy in Pakistan and Afghanistan.

hope Gloria gets a gig too. gice her my best wishes.

I wonder why? Is it me? Is it them? What is it?

/thinking outloud

ADP jobs report bad, but no surprise
by Chris in Paris on 7/01/2009 10:34:00 PM
CNBC's prediction of the recession being over takes another hit. The June numbers are a slight improvement over May but they remain stubbornly high. There's a myth that CNBC and others keep promoting which is that the economy will somehow recover and bounce back. As much as it's in the best financial interest of Americans (and the world) to see a strong recovery, it's laughable to suggest there will be any recovery of consequence in 2009.

As the San Francisco Fed president said yesterday, the economy will probably not show positive movement - even minimal movement - until late this year. Even then, recovery will be painfully slow. The cheerleaders like CNBC need to learn how to be patient. Let's strong together a few stable months before the hype of recovery starts.

U.S. private employers cut 473,000 jobs in June, more than expected but down from the 485,000 jobs lost in May, a report by a private employment service said on Wednesday.

The median of forecasts from 25 economists surveyed by Reuters for the ADP Employer Services report, jointly developed with Macroeconomic Advisers LLC, was for 393,000 private-sector jobs lost in June.

Though June's job loss was the smallest since October 2008, the surprisingly large number of cuts deals a setback to those expecting the U.S. economy to recover soon.

"The data surprises me a little bit in that the consensus out there seems to be that business is improving and that the economy has hit bottom," said Mark Bonhard, investment advisor at Dawson Wealth Management in Cleveland, Ohio.

"This definitely is not good news."

http://www.americablog.com/2009/07/adp-jobs-report-bad-but-no-surprise.h...

NPR Fail
Submitted by SEDER on Wed, 07/01/2009 - 8:59am.

I don't really understand this woman. She said that using the term "enhanced interrogation techniques" IS a validation of the Chimp policy, yet she wants to remain neutral. Isn't she using it actively and trying to defend its use? wtf? Does she even know what the hell she is saying?
Why doesn't she just say "waterboarding" and avoid the use of "torture" AND "enhanced blah blah?" She is an utter moron.

"Music is real. Everything else is tricks, and games and bullshit."
www.sigzone.blogspot.com

pets were obliterated in the pursuit of a """WAR ON TERROR""" by the UNITED STATES ELECTED GOVERNMENT

split into teams and playing each other in October...it's just the way it is so in order to not create even more disharmony in our lives it's almost natural that you have to agree to disagree with certain people and also let it go at other times...

BUT that doesn't explain to me why allegedly high powered people who STRONGLY SLANDER and lie about each other in media, act all friendly when they meet in-person.

Cherries sound great. But I'd eat a bunch straight off the tree!

I give Gloria your best in the AM.

You know we have to help each other as much as we can.

I'm lucky to have that job at the PD.

Alice, I'll tell Gloria about the Acers but she can't even afford to get DSL right now. She's trying to hold on to her House so alot of her unemployment goes to Mortgage payments and taxes. She goes to the library alot to use the computer but they give her only 1/2 hour at a time, subject to a waiting list.

Chicago has a new library in the downtown area that has a whole huge room full of computers that someone donated money for. It just opened recently.

anyway..point being...yes...I still enjoy most of the people I disagree with politically....

but nice buzz try. These are the folks fighting against the elected government of Pakistan. I understand that you don't see why it's worth pursuing. I do. You don't need to understand that but it would be nice if you recognized the actual problem instead of rehashing bad media.

By Del Quentin Wilber
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, July 2, 2009

The American Civil Liberties Union yesterday accused the Obama administration of using statements elicited through torture to justify the confinement of a detainee it represents at the U.S. military prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

The ACLU is asking a federal judge to throw out those statements and others made by Mohammed Jawad, an Afghan who may have been as young as 12 when he was captured. His attorney argued that Jawad was abused in U.S. custody, threatened and subjected to intense sleep deprivation.

"The government's continued reliance on evidence gained by torture and other abuse violates centuries of U.S. law and suggests the current administration is not really serious about breaking with the past," said ACLU lawyer Jonathan Hafetz, who is representing Jawad in a lawsuit challenging his detention.
...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/01/AR200907...

?

Mortgage applications tumble, again
by Chris in Paris on 7/01/2009 09:40:00 PM
Maybe CNBC was too hasty yet again. How shocking but I blame their editor who probably failed to turn his frown upside down. He could have done a better job of smiling so it's all his fault. MarketWatch:

The volume of mortgage applications filed last week dropped a seasonally adjusted 18.9% from the week before, as refinancing activity plunged, the Mortgage Bankers Association reported Wednesday.

Applications for mortgages to refinance existing home loans fell 30% for the week ended June 26 -- putting the MBA survey's refinance index at its lowest level since November.

Meanwhile, the week-to-week pace of applications filed for mortgages to purchase homes was down a seasonally adjusted 4.5%.

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/week-to-week-mortgage-applications-off-...

Major military operation under way in Afghanistan

Oh my godddd!!! Can someone say Southeast Asia 1965? I'll bet someone has worked out the similarities. Will there likewise be a building anti-war movement?

Southerners love TRICARE — public, single-payer health plan for military families
By: ChrisKromm Wednesday July 1, 2009 10:19 am

In this year's health reform debate, Congressional Democrats quickly took proposals for a single-payer system off the table, claiming it was "unrealistic."

But more than 9 million people in the U.S. have already signed on to a single-payer system that's proved both workable and popular: TRICARE, the Department of Defense's program for active-duty military and retirees.

Even more interesting: According to a Facing South analysis, nearly half of TRICARE beneficiaries live in the South -- states where Congressional leadership has been most vocal in opposing public involvement in health care.

Last week, a top-rated diary at DailyKos by a person claiming to be "an active duty obstetrician/gynecologist in a major medical facility on the East Coast" noted that:

9.2 Million active duty and retired uniformed service member and their
families receive their healthcare from the federal government. My
family and I receive free healthcare from the federal government ... I am struck however that nobody has brought up the simple fact that
the government already provides free healthcare in a single payer model
to over 9 million of its population.

I decided to look into where TRICARE beneficiaries were located. According to my analysis of TRICARE data, 47% -- nearly half -- of the 9.2 million using TRICARE are based in 13 Southern states.

Overall, six of the 10 states with highest number of TRICARE beneficiaries are in the South. This makes sense given the high number of military bases in Southern states, as well as the concentration of active-duty and retired military in states like Virginia.

The high Southern enrollment in government-run TRICARE, where the military pays private doctors in a single-payer system, seems at odds with the vocal opposition of Southern lawmakers to anything smacking of public involvement in health care.

Take South Carolina: The Palmetto State has the 8th-highest TRICARE enrollment in the nation, nearly a quarter-million people. But South Carolina's overall population ranks only 24th nationally -- meaning that the share of South Carolinians using TRICARE's single-payer, government option is one of the largest in the country.

Contrast TRICARE's popularity in South Carolina with these words from Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC) last week, who has led the Republican party's attempts to torpedo health proposals that involve the government:

"[Democrats] think we're stupid," said DeMint. "They think that you don't know
that government does not work well, that the same people who cleaned up
after Hurricane Katrina are the ones who can really run our health care
system with that personal touch that we all want ... They're talking about a government plan that can do things that no government plan has ever done."

The 233,725 people who chose to use TRICARE in DeMint's home state likely disagree.

http://oxdown.firedoglake.com/diary/6055

and be born...

but the other part of me knows that ONE unwilling life, (as in not a military participant), is not worth pursuing governmental, (with emphasis on MENTAL), policies... IMO

trying to recall the hilarious joke about think tanks I heard today...it was a name of a think tank...man, I wish I could remember it...

and so basically you can put all the words you want to to it...when it comes down to it, it is what it is...killing civilian populations by a foreign government's military..(not to disregard the people we send to war who justify military service because they're "helping")

"We're not going to measure your success by the number of times your ammunition is resupplied. . . . Our success in this environment will be very much predicated on restraint," he told a group of officers from the 2nd Battalion, 8th Marines on Sunday. "You're going to drink lots of tea. You're going to eat lots of goat. Get to know the people. That's the reason why we're here." - WaPo

This isn't your dad's struggle. We've always known there was a better way.

Alice - that's nice. I hope you feel some comfort. I live in Texas. I know and have experienced how ignorant people are manipulated by their government. I struggle for peace. You can't have peace when criminals threaten a government. Heck, you can't even have peace when a righteous crowd gathers in a sit down protest to oppose a stolen election.

based on what I've been writing, Fernando?

referenced in the Tricare article I posted is here:

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2009/6/26/746576/-NEWSFLASH:-9.2-Million-p...

Snip

"Rationing" of healthcare in this single payer system is simply not reality. As a physician in one of the busiest departments (over 4000 deliveries/year) in the military, I practice with the same diagnostic technology, with the same subspecialty support as my civilian colleagues. If I have a patient who is in preterm labor, I simply walk down the hallway, talk to the maternal fetal medicine specialist (high risk obstetrician), admit her to the hospital. I have the utmost confidence that she will be taken care of in the best way possible and that if she does deliver early, the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) will use every available technology to rescucitate and care for the premature baby. If my patient has pre eclampsia or postpartum cardiomyopathy or any other serious conditions, she is cared for in the exact same way as any civilian hospital in the country. Only one caveat- when they get discharged, their bill is always the same: $0.

people break the lawS every day. Here...Within these bullshit borders...

By Phil Stewart

ROME (Reuters) - A former U.S. spy at the center of a kidnapping trial in Italy appeared to acknowledge a role in the abduction of a Muslim cleric but said he was only following orders, according to a rare interview published on Tuesday.

Robert Seldon Lady is one of 26 Americans, almost all believed to have been working for the CIA, who are accused along with Italian spies of grabbing a terrorism suspect off the streets of Milan in 2003 and flying him to Egypt.

There, Hassan Mustafa Osama Nasr says he was tortured and held for years without charge.

"I'm not guilty. I'm only responsible for carrying out orders that I received from my superiors," Lady, the CIA's Milan station chief at the time, was quoted as telling Il Giornale newspaper when asked whether he participated in the abduction.

He said he committed no crime because it was a "state matter." "I console myself by reminding myself that I was a soldier, that I was in a war against terrorism, that I couldn't discuss orders given to me."
...

http://www.reuters.com/article/domesticNews/idUSTRE55T3H420090630

Getting tired.

Night all!

have a sweet dream or two...I hope Gloria gets the job!

You write as if there is no reason to combat, forcefully, people who oppose a legitimate elected government because it's messy or somebody might get hurt. You write like life is fair. It's just not. Good people get tortured and killed. Roller Derby isn't our only aggressive concern. I want the threatening rouge element to stop by limiting the spread of nuclear weapons, particularly in non-state sponsored events. That does happen today. Do you even factor that in? Do you realize you are advocating for helping them by not opposing that?

I will die soon. This doesn't matter to me personally. But we want our children to live in a safer and better world. There are few opportunities remaining for that. I want them to have the best future possible and that's not possible in a fundamentalist based totalitarian government. GWB is and was an idiot. But the Taliban and Al Qaeda really do exist and they work to defeat elected governments over fundamentalist ones. Are you disputing this? And if so with what evidence.

Is that kinda like negotiating with Iran and talkin real nice to North Korea? So far Obama has 2 strikes using his better way. The problem is that these folks are sworn enemies of the United States. Maybe he should start out tryin to make Mexico or Canada his pal. You know, kinda like all the rest of his on-the-job training!

"I believe all these things because freedom is not America's gift to the world, it is the Almighty God's gift to every man and woman in this world."

George W. Bush

But more than 9 million people in the U.S. have already signed on to a single-payer system that's proved both workable and popular: TRICARE, the Department of Defense's program for active-duty military and retirees.
-----
Here's how the apologists will get by this contradiction: Join the military and then you, too, can be eligible. Thank you for your service.

did you break into Michael Jackson's medicine cabinet?

Submitted by Fernando on Wed, 07/01/2009 - 11:49pm.
--------
Give it up, Fernando. It ain't worth your time.

There are some people who have theories (nora and corporatism for instance) which they apply to anyone anywhere on the globe for any reason.

It's a conceit. It is the self-important belief that no culture could possibly have internecine strife absent American influence as the cause.

Yes, it's true. People in other countries CAN kill their brothers for reasons having abso-fucking-lutely nothing to do with America or the military industrial complex. Before there were corporations, before there was capitalism, before oil was anything more than a water pollutant, people in regions were killing other people in the very same regions for reasons of their own.

So give it up, Fernando. You are asking people to educate themselves on specific matters when they already have the answer for life, the universe and everything in their one-American-size-fits-all theory of imperialism.

It's easier for them when they don't have to learn new stuff.

against the elected government of Pakistan."

We all just posted articles about how the US is bombing Pakistan on the last thread. The people don't want us there, Fernando.

but did you read the articles, oh elusive overlord Baitullah? We're bombing Pakistan. It's not a theory. It's really happening.

That sounds about right to me.

Thanks for the great links, catchew

There are pro-US factions in Pakistan who know their fate if we leave. Post all of those you want. We really are not bombing all of Pakistan. Why did you write such a misrepresentation? The people of Pakistan want us to give them the weapons to use themselves but they haven't proved credible in the distribution of those assets. I'm not falling for it.

Crank - I get that but this isn't a monolithic blog. I will support Barack Obama in Pakistan here even if it's painful. There are worse endeavors. I just want to make sure I'm respectful. I remember being in the tiny town of Villa Garcia in Mexico when the local thugs showed up on horses and told the residents how to vote and who to support. I've seen the armed military at the voting booths. I can imagine how bad that can get. This ain't no disco.

almost as if you were being mean or something....

*

Yes, Fernando, we must kill.

To save the children.

You? Ha!

What fundamentalist totalitarian government would you like them to live under? You get to pick because of your third party position that will never have a political will.

bought and paid for by the same or different corporations choices for grand poobah is acceptable? A representative government with all the same names, games and all that since its inception...? This is ok with you?

dear?... :)

So, to 'do away with' a relative handful of those we are told are our enemies, we must also kill off many innocents. What is the ratio by now? One of these 'rogue militants' you fear for every 65 innocent civilians, perhaps so far in Afghanistan? And in Iraq where 1.5 million have died, could the ratio be -- I'll give it another guess -- one 'insurgent' for every 10,000 innocent civilians? (I can hardly believe this guess, because if there had ever been a force of over 150,000 insurgents in Iraq, how would we have had time to build that Disneyland Embassy?)

Sounds a lot like Vietnam all over again. A VietCong here and there and entire areas and their inhabitants decimated and made DEAD ZONES where even crops could no longer be raised by survivors?

These are the kinds of trade-offs made by war profiteers, imperialists, militarists. Who else can make this kind of trade-off and call it necessary and rational? Who else desires to destabilize nations and cultures for profit and gain and power?

It is the same mindset of the pesticide industry, that psyches farmers into spraying their fields with poisons that kill not only the problematic pest, but also kills the beneficial insects and the earthworms and beneficial soil bacteria. It is just the way the profiteers rationalize their pathological greed and heartlessness.

I don't know...downstream or sideways stream...whatever stream..I am not taking responsibility for another human...

Actually getting the most people to support a candidate, even if it's not the perfect candidate isn't trivial. That's why when most people come to a consensus people call it truth.

Facts aren't truth but truth will matter more than facts in politics. Do you want facts nobody cares about or do you want truths that will rally a majority vote?

Never mind. I know the answer to that question, and good luck with that.

Many thanks!

Can't get any clearer than that.

Olympia Snow meets The Truth!

as long as the candidate is kosher to the corporations that own the nation.

Alright, Fernando...hard for you to rage against the machine so to speak if that is ok in your book...we're all in different places in life and that's not going to change....

Yes. Do you have any ideas that will encourage publicly financed elections?

Crank said: "Yes, it's true. People in other countries CAN kill their brothers for reasons having abso-fucking-lutely nothing to do with America or the military industrial complex. Before there were corporations, before there was capitalism, before oil was anything more than a water pollutant, people in regions were killing other people in the very same regions for reasons of their own."

====================

Crank, you're missing the OBVIOUS. Shouldn't I expect more perceptiveness from you?

In those other situations you describe over time without measure (or, as you say, "before...before...before") -- I was not part of the system responsible. I can't escape the RESPONSIBILITY for this system's abuse of the Planet and the Planet's inhabitants.

a yellow submarine

defending elected governments is a NATO requirement. NATO the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) was formed in 1949 to provide its member states with an umbrella of collective security.

According to Article V of the North Atlantic Treaty, an armed attack against a NATO member is considered an attack against all members. All members agree to assist the attacked state in individual or collective self-defense.
- nuclearfiles.org

They are men of the same nature as minorities. They have the same passions for fame, power, and money, as minorities; and are liable and likely to be equally --- perhaps more than equally, because more boldly --- rapacious, tyrannical and unprincipled, if intrusted with power.
There is no more reason, then, why a man should either sustain, or submit to, the rule of the majority, than of a minority. Majorities and minorities cannot rightfully be taken at all into account in deciding questions of justice. And all talk about them, in matters of government, is mere absurdity. Men are dunces for uniting to sustain any government, or any laws, except those in which they are all agreed. And nothing but force and fraud compel men to sustain any other. To say that majorities, as such, have a right to rule minorities, is equivalent to saying that minorities have, and ought to have, no rights, except such as majorities please to allow them.

It is not improbable that many or most of the worst of governments --- although established by force, and by a few, in the first place --- come, in time, to be supported by a majority. But if they do, this majority is composed, in large part, of the most ignorant, superstitious, timid, dependent, servile, and corrupt portions of the people; of those who have been over-awed by the power, intelligence, wealth, and arrogance; of those who have been deceived by the frauds; and of those who have been corrupted by the inducements, of the few who really constitute the government.
Such majorities, very likely, could be found in half, perhaps nine-tenths, of all the countries on the globe. What do they prove? Nothing but the tyranny and corruption of the very governments that have reduced so large portions of the people to their present ignorance, servility, degradation, and corruption; an ignorance, servility, degradation, and corruption that are best illustrated in the simple fact that they do sustain governments that have so oppressed, degraded, and corrupted them. They do nothing towards proving that the governments themselves are legitimate; or that they ought to be sustained, or even endured, by those who understand their true character. The mere fact, therefore, that a government chances to be sustained by a majority, of itself proves nothing that is necessary to be proved, in order to know whether such government should be sustained, or not." - Spooner again

- an armed attack against a NATO member is considered an attack against all members-

We u.s. citizens can't even grasp that shit, Fernie...do you fucking unite with your republican brothers and sisters when the government slaps us in the fucking face and denies us what is a right in between other borders with other 'leaders'?

with America?

Really? You wrote that? Sweet.

nice edit nora.

Have you read article 5?

are you better of this world

I have not read article 5.

I have heard of article 5.

Should I read article 5?

What are you proposing will come of it if I do read article 5?

I'm sure there are books about it near that building you work at.

New Order - True Faith

I feel so extraordinary
Something's got a hold on me
I get this feeling I'm in motion
A sudden sense of liberty
I don't care 'cause I'm not there
And I don't care if I'm here tomorrow
Again and again I've taken too much
Of the things that cost you too much

I used to think that the day would never come
I'd see delight in the shade of the morning sun
My morning sun is the drug that brings me near
To the childhood I lost, replaced by fear
I used to think that the day would never come
That my life would depend on the morning sun

When I was a very small boy
Very small boys talked to me
Now that we've grown up together
They're afraid of what they see
That's the price that we all pay
Our valued destiny comes to nothing
I can't tell you where we're going
I guess there's just no way of knowing

I feel so extraordinary
Something's got a hold on me
I get this feeling I'm in motion
A sudden sense of liberty
The chances are we've gone too far
You took my time, and you took my money
Now, I fear you've left me standing
In a world that's so demanding
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
http://www.vodamusic.com/blog/

that was freaking perfect.

how comes such a thing as "a nation" to exist? How do millions of men, scattered over an extensive territory --- each gifted by nature with individual freedom; required by the law of nature to call no man, or body of men, his masters; authorized by that law to seek his own happiness in his own way, to do what he will with himself and his property, so long as he does not trespass upon the equal liberty of others; authorized also, by that law, to defend his own rights, and redress his own wrongs; and to go to the assistance and defence of any of his fellow men who may be suffering any kind of injustice --- how do millions of such men come to be a nation, in the first place? How is it that each of them comes to be stripped of his natural, God-given rights, and to be incorporated, compressed, compacted, and consolidated into a mass with other men, whom he never saw; with whom he has no contract; and towards many of whom he has no sentiments but fear, hatred, or contempt? How does he become subjected to the control of men like himself, who, by nature, had no authority over him; but who command him to do this, and forbid him to do that, as if they were his sovereigns, and he their subject; and as if their wills and their interests were the only standards of his duties and his rights; and who compel him to submission under peril of confiscation, imprisonment, and death?

Clearly all this is the work of force, or fraud, or both."

---

The trick is to get em to happily give it up.

mp3

...
Comprehend the ways of man
And under a flag we salute or burn
There is blood on both shores
With hardened mind I traveled
With hardened heart I conquered
A freedom so ironic, so despicable, so hypocritical

There is anger resolute
...

*

...
They are simply men, who, for reasons of their own --- whether good or bad, wise or unwise, is immaterial --- choose to exercise their natural right of dissolving their connexion with the governments under which they have lived.
...

would fit into a lawless category.

!

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/ezra-klein/2009/06/senator_bernie_sande...

for best results, read whilst listening to:
The Boo Radleys - Barney (... And Me)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MJGrpV27b60

You can't beat Bernie! MA is the milquetoast motherland, but we have a few good progressives working their way through the farm system...
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
http://www.vodamusic.com/blog/

it's been real AND fun, for a change... xoxo...

...

Why did you write such a misrepresentation?"

If someone dropped bombs on any part of America, we'd say that America got bombed.

You're really getting out there. Think about what you're saying. You accused me of misrepresentation on this one, but you're obviously wrong. Are you going to keep going there? It's not too late to come off it, admit that you've gone too far.

get some rest. I promise we'll save enough of the world's problem's for you to keep your tomorrow interesting. ;)

Just wouldn't be fair if we put the world to right overnight while you were snagging some ZZZ's! :)
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
http://www.vodamusic.com/blog/

not quite.

If a bomb hit any part of America there would be a unified response. In Pakistan, the citizens and their elected officials are at war with factions that came over after tora bora in N. Pakistan. It's not the same thing.

Thank you Alice, for entertaining this banter. You too dada.

“Welcome To the Future - from We're All Bozos On This Bus” by Firesign Theatre
http://www.firesigntheatre.com/
~`~`~`~`~`~
Jamesbennett

...this was what I was going to post earlier...
BUT PLEZ be there for a debate... we are all good folks: a debate iz kewl...

{Yawn} Alice & Nora tea cheers I agree so perhaps IF ICBM(sp) MISSLES IF they can truely TARGET, but if to kill INNOCENTS then back to the NON- Fight/no Kill manners.
I am going to 2nd LIFE AND "learning". That could be also USED as a venue as a new PROTEST Location ... since I feel the "outdoor" protests are now for a "feel-good" LOCAL solidarity for the protesters, We NEED MEDIA STATIONS for RAD LEFT not for just NORMAL Centerists.

{...To Go OUTSIDE The Box...}
Alice can we debate PLEZ... WHEN NOT a "work-night"... ;)

this is an intense issue -- To Fight Or NOT TO Fight, That Is The Question?

Howzitgoin m'dear?

Hot Tea Cheers ...
;)

"Those are the headlines - now the rumors behind the news"
- Firesign Theater
==
long day for me - 8a -11p -first show was tonight (the show - Wicked)
==

~`~`~`~`~`~
Jamesbennett

If this blog has taught me anything, it has made me an expert lurker.

I jest, I've learned an awful lot from you guys (I'd add "and gals" but that's a total Palin-ism!...)

Won't go into it in depth here, but you all are the bomb, and I mean that in a completely anti-incendiary manner.

Love youz all, even if I'm a total dick sometimes!
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http://www.vodamusic.com/blog/

Mz_A

Friends have been asking me, what are my plans for July 4th.

I dunno really, but this will be the first non-Bush 4th of July in a long long time. And that;s really something, if you think about it :)

markets are closed friday for a 3 day weekend. thursday morning 8:30, initial unemployment claims, non farm payrolls, average workweek and hourly earnings all come out.

these normally move the market, although it can be anybodys guess which way.

my guess is that our forth of july present is that the numbers will be cooked to make us feel the economy is doing better than it is and then they will be adjusted the next time they come out.

woot woot

Trying To Reach A Locked-Up Brain
Submitted by Crank Bait on Thu, 07/02/2009 - 12:20am.
Submitted by Fernando on Wed, 07/01/2009 - 11:49pm.
--------
Give it up, Fernando. It ain't worth your time.

There are some people who have theories (nora and corporatism for instance) which they apply to anyone anywhere on the globe for any reason.

It's a conceit. It is the self-important belief that no culture could possibly have internecine strife absent American influence as the cause.

...

So give it up, Fernando. You are asking people to educate themselves on specific matters when they already have the answer for life, the universe and everything in their one-American-size-fits-all theory of imperialism.

It's easier for them when they don't have to learn new stuff.

==================================

And I respond.

Crank, when you spew aspersions like this, it is really hard to tell about what you and Fernando are talking and commiserating.

And are you trying to say that today's transnational corporations are sunshine and blueskies the world over? Are you trying to say that, from your esteemed heights of observation, you can see no goal worthy or reachable that would make resisting them acceptable?

Are you indicating the revelations like those by author Perkins in 'Confessions of an Economic Hitman' have no reality? Or, even if they did have reality, it is futile to attempt to resist the corruption singly or as part of a movement? Is that what you are trying to say?

Or are you just saying once these aspects of our world have been pointed out, we must 1.) set them aside and 2.) choose to correct grammar and watch NASCAR, and, oh yes, 3.) demean anyone who desires to incorporate observation of these profit-motivated realities into the daily discussion of current events?

[And Perkins has written another book -- 'The Secret History of the American Empire: Economic Hit Men, Jackals, and the Truth about Global Corruption'. I didn't know he has another book out. But, why am I pointing this out to you, Crank? You consider this stuff nothing but theory, right?]

http://www.johnperkins.org/

As for your "internecine strife" charge -- I don't understand where this charge comes from. Crank, you seem to like to paint with a broad brush; and I want to point out that, before you even pick up your brush and start painting those broad strokes of yours, you are PERCEIVING this had something to do with the discussions. How, I don't know. A leap into the soft mushiness of Assumption perhaps? Anyway, I reject your charge: I make no separation between a world where communities or countries have internal problems -- even old and deep rivalries and histories of rotten behavior -- and a world where corporatists enter with the fascist-imperialist plan to destabilize, divide and conquer, and take hold of wealth and power. The two can and do occur simultaneously!

Indeed, it is my view the imperialists prefer these indigenous problems as it aids the destabilization process; and where the problems do not exist, the corporatists and their agents create them! Have you ever seen the film LAGAAN? The story indicates the manner in which the British would worsen rivalries and divisions amongst the local territories in their imperialist hold on India. Very interesting.

;D

I was a pacifist but withlessons in war...

Nora can we talk, since one aspect we have like beliefs, yet we may & may not agree with other types...wanna see if we can achieve BALANCE &/or stasis.
;)

WASHINGTON – Democrats on a key Senate Committee outlined a revised and far less costly health care plan Wednesday night that includes a government-run insurance option and an annual fee on employers who do not offer coverage to their workers.

The plan carries a 10-year price tag of slightly over $600 billion, and would lead toward an estimated 97 percent of all Americans having coverage, according to the Congressional Budget Office, Sens. Edward M. Kennedy and Chris Dodd said in a letter to other members of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee. The AP obtained a copy.

By contrast, an earlier, incomplete proposal carried a price tag of roughly $1 trillion and would have left millions uninsured, CBO analysts said in mid-June.

The letter indicated the cost and coverage improvements resulted from two changes. The first calls for a government-run health insurance option to compete with private coverage plans, an option that has drawn intense opposition from Republicans.

Free Democracy

... besides writing to President Obama.
;) Good Eve Kevin ©

http://www.russiatoday.com/Top_News/2009-06-30/The_Great_Bank_Robbery__H...

The Great Bank Robbery

[excerpt]

Congressman Dennis Kucinich, D-OH, criticized Bernanke for failing to provide information about Merrill Lynch’s huge losses in November so that shareholders could vote on the transaction.

“If the Fed knew that there were losses before the government deal took place, why didn’t it provide information to the SEC (Securities and Exchange Committee) so that shareholders were informed?” Kucinich asked.

Bank of America closed the deal with Merrill Lynch on Jan. 1 after the US government agreed to a $138 billion aid package to help bank of America complete the acquisition. The closed-door deal cost American taxpayers a cool $20 billion dollars. Meanwhile, the House investigation into the Fed actions will continue for weeks.

US Department of Usury
Besides having lost the power to regulate its own currency, the United States must also pay interest on the dollars it borrows. Given that the current bailout (and buy-in) of the American economy is in the ballpark of 9 trillion dollars it will take incalculable generations to pay back this monstrous bill.

“Henry Ford thinks its stupid and so do I, that for the loan of its own money the United States should be compelled to pay… interest,” complained the famous American inventor, Thomas A. Edison. “Why must we pay interest to money-brokers for the use of our own money!”

[end excerpt]

address all concerns to the fine folks on the "Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee" I guess...
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http://www.vodamusic.com/blog/

Let's screw up the entire
internet to save newspapers
The hot new idea among people who think about "journalism," and the sanctity thereof: let's ban linking, on the internet! Let's also ban wheels, in order to save the horse industry. Let's also ban talking about things!

http://gawker.com/5305503/lets-screw-up-the-entire-internet-to-save-news...

What this country needs is
a good terrorist attack!
Last night Glenn Beck's guest was ex-CIA person Michael Scheuer, who wasted no time stating that the only hope for the country was for Osama Bin Laden to "deploy and detonate a major weapon in the United States." Seriously.

http://gawker.com/5305274/what-this-country-needs-is-a-good-terrorist-at...

North Korea has test-fired two short-range missiles, according to South Korean media reports that could not be immediately verified. As the AP reports, North Korea issued a no-sail zone in waters off its east coast through July 10, viewed as a prelude to such missile tests. A South Korean news agency said that the missiles were fired off the coast but gave no further details.

http://www.newser.com/article/d996830g0/reports-nkorea-test-fires-2-shor...

As thousands of Hondurans protested yesterday in dueling rallies backing both ousted President Manuel Zelaya and the military-backed government that came to power last weekend, the Central American nation grows further isolated, reports the AP. The Pentagon yesterday suspended joint US-Honduran military operations and the World Bank said it was freezing loans. France, Spain, and other nations have recalled their ambassadors, and Honduras' three neighbors have suspended trade.

Zelaya, currently in Panama, vowed to return to Honduras this weekend, accompanied by the presidents of Argentina and Ecuador and the heads of the OAS and the UN General Assembly. But Roberto Micheletti, the newly installed president, said it would take a foreign invasion to put Zelaya back in power. The OAS has given Micheletti until Saturday to step aside.

http://www.newser.com/article/d9961pso0/honduras-governments-isolation-g...

Obama's Honduras Response Defuses Chávez Bluster

President Obama confounded Hugo Chávez’s attempts to implicate Washington in the Honduran coup by calling for President Manuel Zelaya’s reinstatement, Simon Romero writes for the New York Times. When the coup was announced, Chávez immediately suggested that the US was financing Zelaya’s opponents or, as happened during a coup against Chávez himself in 2002, knew of the coming putsch and did nothing to stop it.

Chávez seemed to be expecting Obama to express support for the coup while hotly denying the Venezuelan president’s charges. Instead, Obama called the Honduran coup “illegal” and urged that the president be reinstated, neutering Chávez’s accusations without mentioning his name. Furthermore, he turned to the Organization of American States for help resolving the issue—a stark contrast to the Bush administration’s unilateralism.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/01/world/americas/01venez.html?partner=rs...

Religious Right Sets Phasers to 'Stun Obama'

The religious right is going Star Trek, Dana Milbank writes for the Washington Post. “Individual, national, multi-ethnic and transgenerational organizations” have joined forces to create the Freedom Federation to promote “faith, moral values, and freedom” and equality, says the organization’s statement. But rather than targeting Nero the Romulan, this federation will turn “its starfleet against Obama the Democrat,” Milbank predicts.

“We have no allegiance as a federation to either party,” said one member, but various groups in the coalition aim to “stop Obama's socialism” and fight “Obamunists”; others are boycotting Pepsi for backing “homosexual activists.” Despite what members call a “host of issues,” this federation lacks money, offices, staff, and dues-paying members, Milbank writes. But “if you want to,” agrees one of its leaders, you can call him Captain Kirk.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/06/30/AR200906...

Lessons from the credit bubble
by Chris in Paris on 7/02/2009 06:18:00 AM

Shares in banks may be have been ever so slightly ahead of the norm in this most recent run. The unrealistic expectations both from the banks as well as the buyers fed this distorted growth. The expectations fed the drive to use an increased amount of leverage which as we well know, is great on the way up but costly on the way down. We are on the way to better regulation but that too will take some time and will require constant attention and flexibility to change. The Bank of England and other world financial organizations are dissecting the recent rise and fall and reflecting on what needs to change.

"We should aspire to a financial system where there is greater market and regulatory scrutiny of future such money machines. In achieving this, there is a role for some body – a systemic overseer – which is able to detect incipient bubbles and fads and, as importantly, act to correct them. This role is about removing the punchbowl from future financial sector parties."

He said that in future there would have to be a greater distinction between management skill, which improves return on assets, and luck, when return on equity can be magnified by leverage.

"Good luck and good management need to be better distinguished. Put differently, returns to investors and managers need to be more accurately risk-adjusted if the right balance between risk and return is to be struck for individual firms and for the financial system as a whole."

A second lesson, he added, was that there would have to be much stricter system-wide limits on leverage, particularly among big banks whose stability is crucial to the whole financial system.

Even now I wonder how sustainable the high payouts are for the financial industry. In their rush to hold "talent" they are all trying to out bid each other, apparently in the hope for another quick run. As this market levels out and the big run fails to emerge, big payouts should cut into profit margins. If this happens, will there be more bleeding of workers in this industry? I wouldn't write this industry off but I also question its ability to sustain even the current numbers.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2009/jul/01/bank-england-south-sea-bu...

Obama talks jobs, gets early start on July 4
1 hr 25 mins ago

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama has invited a group of business leaders to meet with him at the White House today.

Some of their firms are large. Some are small. But they have in common that they've been able to create jobs despite the economic doldrums. Their meeting is private, but the president will be making a Rose Garden appearance afterward to talk about the innovations that have helped the companies succeed.

The president also will be sitting down to talk to The Associated Press in advance of his trip next week to Russia, Italy and Ghana.

Later this afternoon, Obama will join millions of other Americans in getting an early start on the July Fourth holiday. Unlike them, he'll be heading to the presidential retreat at Camp David, Md.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090702/ap_on_go_pr_wh/us_obama_preview/prin...

This idea is supported by a newspaper columnist! Connie Schultz, a columnist for the Cleveland Plain-Dealer (who's married to a senator, btw, nothing to see here), also touts the idea of giving newspapers a 24-hour injunction on news they post, during which time it's all theirs, and can't be aggregated by others online.

this is really surprising coming from the wife of sherrod brown, one of the more progressive senators in congress.

265 views only?

it's one of the best things sam has done

Oil Refiners Exxon, Valero Face New Curbs on Carcinogenic Gas Under Obama President Barack Obama is considering new curbs on U.S. oil refineries whose gas emissions pose a cancer risk to hundreds of thousands of people living near the plants, setting up a potential conflict with companies over the cost of new regulations.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601109&sid=aRHl__xeTUHk

Pakistan's Assault on Taliban Chief's Hideaway May Not Satisfy U.S. Goals Pakistan’s assault on the country’s biggest Taliban stronghold may end in disappointment for the Obama administration, which has pushed the army to escalate the fight and restore a measure of government control in the region.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601109&sid=aofKgsriKtek

of course they would threaten to shut down and cause the price of gas to skyrocket.

what should really piss everyone off is that these same companies made billions and billions of dollars in profit as in money not plowed back into the business to fix things. add in the 9 figure incomes the ceo's make and it wouldn't bother me in the least to nationalize the oil companies as a strategic resource.

Just asked a question. "why do we want to save the insurance companies?"

Coming up next.

DEA joins Michael Jackson death probe
By ANTHONY MCCARTNEY, AP Entertainment Writer Anthony Mccartney, Ap Entertainment Writer 1 hr 7 mins ago

LOS ANGELES – The circumstances surrounding Michael Jackson's death have become a federal issue, with the Drug Enforcement Administration asked to help police take a look at the pop star's doctors and possible drug use.

Following Jackson's death, allegations emerged that the 50-year-old King of Pop had been consuming painkillers, sedatives and antidepressants.

The DEA was asked to help the probe by the Los Angeles Police Department, a law enforcement official in Washington told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the investigation.

The federal agency can provide resources and experience in investigating drug abuse, illicit drug manufacturers known as "pill mills" and substances local police may not be familiar with, the official said Wednesday.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090702/ap_on_en_mu/us_michael_jackson/print

Honduran coup leaders defy international pressure
by Sophie Nicholson Sophie Nicholson 1 hr 14 mins ago

TEGUCIGALPA (AFP) – Coup leaders in Honduras vowed that ousted President Manuel Zelaya will "never return to power" despite mounting international pressure and an ultimatum by the Organization of American States.

The crisis entered its fifth day Thursday with no break in the impasse between the international community and backers of a military coup that pulled Zelaya out of bed on Sunday and sent him into exile in his pajamas.

The OAS threatened Honduras with suspension if it did not restore Zelaya to power in 72 hours, but interim president Roberto Micheletti told AFP in an exclusive interview, "We can't negotiate anything."

"We can't reach an agreement because there are orders to capture the ex-president Zelaya here for crimes he committed when he was an official," he said, speaking in the half-deserted presidential palace after swearing in new members of his cabinet.

"He'll never return to power," Micheletti said of Zelaya, a leftist who angered the political establishment here by trying to hold a referendum to make constitutional changes that would allow him to run for a second term.

Zelaya was biding his time in Panama where he attended the inauguration of that country's new president Wednesday after meeting with US officials in Washington.

He had vowed to return to Honduras on Thursday but put it off while the clock ticked on the OAS ultimatum.

"We will wait 72 hours in order to continue with this process," Zelaya told reporters in Panama City.

If the OAS suspends Honduras, it would be only the second country to be thrown out since Cuba in 1962.

The New York Times reported that OAS officials said they had begun informal discussions with "political actors" close to the new government to find common ground for a peaceful resolution.

An OAS official told the Times that the organization?s secretary general, Jose Miguel Insulza, was headed to Tegucigalpa on Thursday for further talks.

Meanwhile, the international community continued to pour pressure on Honduras.

The Inter-American Development Bank on Wednesday halted aid, following a similar move by the World Bank.

The United States indicated it may follow suit, saying it would wait until Monday before making a decision.

The Pentagon suspended all military activities with Tegucigalpa until further notice, a spokesman said.

Italy on Wednesday joined France and Spain in recalling its ambassador to Honduras, while the 27 nations of the European Union agreed to have no contact with the leadership of Sunday's coup.

"I have just spoken to my European colleagues and I can tell you that at this moment, all the European embassies in Tegucigalpa have decided to withdraw their ambassadors," Spain's Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos told Spanish national radio late on Wednesday.

"I think that it is a clear sign of the position of Europe, of the international community, and the provisional authorities (in Honduras) must reflect on it," he said.

Micheletti said he was sending a delegation to the United States next week to explain the coup leaders' side of the story, and insisted the impoverished nation would still receive aid.

"You know that the European Union isn't going to cut help to this country, nor will the North Americans," Micheletti said.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20090702/wl_afp/honduraspoliticsmilitarycoup...

MoJo said they would be back to Carl Bernstein but so far since he made his comment, they haven't gone back to him and he is off the set now.

Wonder why?

 AFLAC

The U.S. economy lost a larger-than-expected 467,000 jobs in June, according to a new Labor Department report out this morning. Unemployment rose to 9.5 percent, the highest rate in 26 years.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/31704515/ns/business-stocks_and_economy/

“Spending by lawmakers on taxpayer-financed trips abroad has risen sharply in recent years,” according to a Wall Street Journal analysis, “involving everything from war-zone visits to trips to exotic spots such as the Galápagos Islands.” This travel spending “is up almost tenfold since 1995, and has nearly tripled since 2001.”

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124650399438184235.html

Last night on MSNBC’s Countdown, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) urged the 60 members of the Democratic Caucus to support cloture on legislation that would reform the nation’s health care system. “I think the strategy should be that every Democrat, no matter whether or not they ultimately end up voting for the final bill, is to say we are going to vote together to stop a Republican filibuster,” he said.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/07/01/bernie-sanders-demands-de_n_223...

Rep. Patrick Murphy (D-PA), an Iraq war veteran, will take the legislative lead in the congressional effort to reverse the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy on gays and lesbians in the military. Murphy will take over from former Rep. Ellen Tauscher (D-CA), who retired last week to take a job at the State Department. Tauscher proposed legislation repealing the policy earlier this year.

http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-na-dont-ask2-2009jul02,0,2509989...

Sens. John McCain (R-AZ) and Russ Feingold (D-WI) have teamed up to place a hold on President Barack Obama’s first appointment to the Federal Election Commission in an effort to shake up the FEC. “[T]he lawmakers signaled they would release the hold only if Obama taps two additional nominees to fill expired seats on the six-member independent pane.”

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0609/24393.html#ixzz0K6c4TibF&C

Pace of Job Losses Once Again Accelerating

People had been taking heart in the fact that for the fast two months the rate of deterioration of the labor market situation had been declining. Well, now it’s speeding up again with 467,000 jobs lost last month. And with a whole slew of states now facing budget crises, I think we’re looking at a midsummer wave of anti-stimulus from those jurisdictions.

Now I think the Obama administration is going to pay a price for not having acknowledged the problems with the stimulus bill they signed in January. A minority of observers thought a stimulus would be a bad idea. A majority of analysts favored stimulus, and the analytic framework they used to support that conclusion suggested a stimulus that was substantially larger than the one enacted by congress. If the administration felt that was the best they could get, then fine—you sign the bill and take what you can get. But they should have clearly and publicly articulated that while the ARRA was a useful step, it would likely prove inadequate to the scale of the problem. Then in the event that it did prove inadequate, they could say they had pointed this out at the time and maybe the Senate should stop ruining everything.

Instead, though, they proclaimed themselves pleased as punch with ARRA which now creates a situation where it’s not clear what they can really say.

http://yglesias.thinkprogress.org/archives/2009/07/pace-of-job-losses-on...

Krugman, Reich, Stiglitz and more were all saying the stimulus was not enough.

Too much to the Banks and not enough to the people. I told you July would show a different picture.

CBO Scores Complete HELP Bill and the News is Good

healthcare_costs1

When the Congressional Budget Office did its preliminary analysis of a sketchy outline of the Senate HELP committee’s vision of health care reform, the outlook was not-so-good. The bill was estimated to cost $1 trillion over 10 years, while reducing the number of uninsured by “only” one-third. At the time, voices of reason tried to point out that this was a preliminary estimate of a bill that was missing many crucial elements so we ought to reserve judgment. But Faiz Shakir reminds us that key conservative legislators were not so kind:

John McCain: “[The CBO estimate] should be a wake up call for all of us to scrap the current bill and start over in a true bipartisan fashion.”

John Boehner: “[T]he public option would cost over $1 trillion, and would cause 23 million Americans to lose their private health care coverage.”

Lindsey Graham: “The CBO estimates were a death blow to a government run health care plan.”

It’s a sign of the ignorance or dishonesty of Boehner and Graham that they made those remarks even though the absence of analysis of the impact of a public health insurance option was precisely one of the shortcomings of the initial analysis. At any rate, now a more fleshed-out version of the bill is available and as the AP reports things now look much better:

The plan carries a 10-year price tag of slightly over $600 billion, and would lead toward an estimated 97 percent of all Americans having coverage, according to the Congressional Budget Office, Sens. Edward M. Kennedy and Chris Dodd said in a letter to other members of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee. [...]

The [employer mandate] provision is also estimated to greatly reduce the number of workers whose employers would drop coverage, thus addressing a major concern noted by CBO when it reviewed the earlier proposals.

John Cohn explains that this $900 billion figure is actually somewhat misleading, and fully covering this 97 percent should cost more like $1 trillion to $1.3 trillion. That’s a lot of money, but the gains in coverage are major. Given that the right was so impressed by the CBO score of the preliminary draft, will they also be so impressed by this new, more accurate score of the more completed draft? If they’re honest and principled they ought to be and they ought to recognize that this is a pretty good bill.

http://yglesias.thinkprogress.org/archives/2009/07/cbo-scores-complete-h...

John Pilger’s entire documentary about the US role in the Venezuelan coup

http://www.borev.net/2007/08/so_thats_what_tacit_support_me.html

Nice words for Zelaya don't change our track record. Our actions speak for themselves.

In the first major push in the U.S. military’s new counteroffensive strategy, “[t]housands of Marines and hundreds of Afghan troops moved into Taliban-infested villages with armor and helicopters early today” in Helmand province. The goal “is to clear insurgents there before the nation’s Aug. 20 presidential election.”

http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/news/20090702/afghanistan02_st.art....

The U.S. military is reporting that “insurgents have captured an American soldier in eastern Afghanistan.” The soldier, missing since Tuesday, “wasn’t taking part in the major military operation launched in the southern Taliban stronghold of the Helmand River Valley.” Capt. Elizabeth Mathias said the military is using “all our resources to find him and provide for his safe return.”

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124653079297385075.html

Colbert Tells Viewers To Deny Rep. Cynthia Davis Food (VIDEO)

Missouri State Representative Cynthia Davis is one tough cookie. Last week she opposed subsidizing school lunches for low income children during summer months saying, "Hunger can be a positive motivator." This is excellent news considering 1 in 5 Missouri kids is living in hunger, so that state is due for a productivity boon.

Stephen Colbert tipped his hat to Rep. Davis last night, applauding her decision, but worrying that she never rose above the rank of state representative because she developed the anti-motivating habit of eating. He called on Missourians to help her by denying her food whenever possible. That should give her her edge back.

Colbert went on to wag his finger at Fox News for identifying Mark Sanford as a Democrat in their chyron. He understands that it is a natural response to assume anything bad that happens is the fault of a liberal, but agrees with Peggy Noonan that we should all be blaming one liberal in particular: Bill Clinton.

WATCH:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/07/02/colbert-tells-viewers-to_n_2246...

Oil Refiners Exxon, Valero
Submitted by dan on Thu, 07/02/2009 - 7:49am.
of course they would threaten to shut down and cause the price of gas to skyrocket.

what should really piss everyone off is that these same companies made billions and billions of dollars in profit as in money not plowed back into the business to fix things. add in the 9 figure incomes the ceo's make and it wouldn't bother me in the least to nationalize the oil companies as a strategic resource.
--------
If I were a nation and I noticed that other nations were at the mercy of the oil market, I would realize that oil is a competitor for power (no pun intended) that is ordinarily reserved for nations like me.

When something like the oil industry becomes so powerful that all nations must defer to it before making any decisions or moves, it has attained peer status with the nations of the world.

Nations have responsibilities that their new peer (the oil industry) does not. Nations have borders and allegiances while the oil industry does not.

If I were a nation, I would move quickly to reduce or eliminate the power of my unwelcome peer. The fastest and cheapest way is to shift my own demand for oil to other sources of energy, preferably confined within my own borders.

Many of my fellow nations would still be at the mercy of the demands of the oil industry, so oil would still be a player on the board, but at least I would have removed myself from trembling at the sound of its voice.

there would be a unified response."

We are still bombing Pakistan, and you still accused me of misrepresentation, when my statement is accurate. You're trying to muddy the waters when it comes to this subject, with semantic games, and when that fails, attacks on peoples character. It's deliberately duplicitous.

I don't know who you're trying to appease with your rhetoric, but I don't appreciate being used in your game.

Washington Post sells access, $25,000+

For $25,000 to $250,000, The Washington Post is offering lobbyists and association executives off-the-record, nonconfrontational access to "those powerful few" — Obama administration officials, members of Congress, and the paper’s own reporters and editors.

The astonishing offer is detailed in a flier circulated Wednesday to a health care lobbyist, who provided it to a reporter because the lobbyist said he feels it’s a conflict for the paper to charge for access to, as the flier says, its “health care reporting and editorial staff."

The offer — which essentially turns a news organization into a facilitator for private lobbyist-official encounters — is a new sign of the lengths to which news organizations will go to find revenue at a time when most newspapers are struggling for survival.

And it's a turn of the times that a lobbyist is scolding The Washington Post for its ethical practices.

"Underwriting Opportunity: An evening with the right people can alter the debate," says the one-page flier. "Underwrite and participate in this intimate and exclusive Washington Post Salon, an off-the-record dinner and discussion at the home of CEO and Publisher Katharine Weymouth. ... Bring your organization’s CEO or executive director literally to the table. Interact with key Obama administration and congressional leaders …

“Spirited? Yes. Confrontational? No. The relaxed setting in the home of Katharine Weymouth assures it. What is guaranteed is a collegial evening, with Obama administration officials, Congress members, business leaders, advocacy leaders and other select minds typically on the guest list of 20 or less. …

“Offered at $25,000 per sponsor, per Salon. Maximum of two sponsors per Salon. Underwriters’ CEO or Executive Director participates in the discussion. Underwriters appreciatively acknowledged in printed invitations and at the dinner. Annual series sponsorship of 11 Salons offered at $250,000 … Hosts and Discussion Leaders ... Health-care reporting and editorial staff members of The Washington Post ... An exclusive opportunity to participate in the health-care reform debate among the select few who will actually get it done. ... A Washington Post Salon ... July 21, 2009 6:30 p.m."

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0709/24441.html

I have to run, but I'll be back in a bit. Just saying that so if you see that I don't respond, you don't think I'm being rude.

One side saying you can't bomb innocents. I don't totally disagree with this stance.

The other side worried about a rogue nation with nuclear capabilities whose leaders change often and has a history of selling nuclear capabilities to other rogue nations.

It's not an ideal place to be either way.

So what to do?

Submitted by toniD on Thu, 07/02/2009 - 10:13am.
The other side worried about a rogue nation with nuclear capabilities whose leaders change often and has a history of selling nuclear capabilities to other rogue nations.
----------

The only problem is these rogue nations are a result of our rogue interference.

it would be great if we had a time machine and could go back and fix this problem but then you would have to figure out how far to go back...

the current state is what it is. how do you go forward and in the process how do you turn the bad guys into good guys?

I'm not going to continue to pound away on my opinion about President Obama's Afghanistan/Pakistan actions. I've made my opinion crystal clear already. I support the removal (even forcefully) of the Taliban and really all fundamentalists (i.e. Al Qaeda and Republicans) from power.

dada on Thu, 07/02/2009 - 9:54am.
I'm sorry if you think I attacked your character. If I did, in any way, I apologize. We may have a difference of opinion but I respect you and your opinion highly. I don't take this personally and I'm ok if you want to attack my view. That's what a blog is for. I'd rather hash this out with you than almost anyone else. I don't think this is supposed to be a beat down where one of us walks away with a defeated point of view.

Submitted by dada on Thu, 07/02/2009 - 9:54am.
We are still bombing Pakistan, and you still accused me of misrepresentation...
---------
Include me as someone who believes that you (dada) are consciously using semantics to your advantage.

"Bombing" means a lot of things. If you were engaging in an honest and friendly discussion, you would differentiate between missiles fired by drones (which are very limited in number and very targeted by design) and bombs dropped by manned aircraft (it would be helpful if you include whether the aircraft are called-in by ground troops on the scene or not, and provide the length and breadth of the target areas).

If you research bombing in Pakistan using the keywords of your choice, you will find dozens of instances of bombings not attributed to the U.S. You will also find that the number of civilians killed in those bombings generally hovers in the 20 to 40 range because markets crowded with civilians tend to be the targets.

Then, if you look only at bombings attributed to the U.S., you will find death counts hovering in the 5 to 15 range even when counted by authorities outside of the U.S. The death counts sometimes include ordinary citizens, sometimes not.

A full overview of "bombing in Pakistan" seems to indicate that most of the bombing incidents and most of the deaths are the result of bombing by entities other than the U.S.A.

Those of us who remember Vietnam can be forgiven for having a very different image in our heads when we read that "Obama is bombing Pakistan" than is actually the case.

In Vietnam, large geographical sections hidden beneath a jungle canopy were targeted to kill anything bigger than a dog.

In Pakistan, there is a very good chance that the U.S. knows the names of the people being targeted or, in the case of a called-in air strike, there is a very good chance that soldiers have photographed the people being targeted.

"Bombings" by the U.S. in Pakistan are a lot more like assassinations than bombings.

Note, dada, that none of this is a statement of my opinion of U.S. policy nor have I agreed or disagreed with Fernando. I am merely clarifying the semantics that you are using to your advantage.

And, toniD, thanks for your voice of reason expressed here:

Submitted by toniD on Thu, 07/02/2009 - 10:13am.

Happy Fourth! China is bidding on Iraq’s oilfields
By Jerry Mazza
Online Journal Associate Editor

Jul 2, 2009,

As July 4th, our Independence Day, rolls around and we begin our troop withdrawal; as the Iraqis celebrate and after untold thousands of US soldiers have died and a million Iraqis to boot . . .

After the torturous interrogations by not so intelligent intelligence and contractors for actionable intelligence; after contaminating the country with Depleted Uranium; after shocking and awing the Cradle of Civilization and poisoning its food chain for posterity . . .

But mostly, after Bush and Cheney lied their way into war in search of non-existent weapons of mass destruction, now we allow the Chinese to do Iraq’s oil contract bidding so they won’t call in our two trillion in debt markers. Have a beer on me. Have two. For the two trillion we’ve blown in this pointless, even humiliating war.

As the New York Times reports in As Iraq Stabilizes, China Bids on Its Oil Fields, our British “buddies” BP are partnered with the China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) to win the first awarded contract in the latest Chinese grab for Iraq’s oil, a bit ballsy even though the country remains in our somewhat illegal sphere of interest.

China’s Iraqi oilfield interest is also pouring in from Sinopec, China’s refining giant, which offered $7.22 billion last week to buy Addax Petroleum, a Swiss-Canadian company operating in the Kurdistan area of Iraq and in West Africa. With Addax shareholders plus board and Canadian regulators approval, the done deal would be China’s largest overseas energy acquisition. How’s that for being bested?

con't

http://onlinejournal.com/artman/publish/article_4867.shtml

Pirates of the Mediterranean
By Paul Craig Roberts
Online Journal Contributing Writer

Jul 2, 2009, 00:18

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On June 30, the government of Israel committed an act of piracy when the Israeli Navy, in international waters, illegally boarded the “Spirit of Humanity,” kidnapped its 21-person crew from 11 countries, including former US Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney and Nobel Laureate Mairead MaGuire, and confiscated the cargo of medical supplies, olive trees, reconstruction materials, and children’s toys that were on the way to the Mediterranean coast of Gaza. The “Spirit of Humanity,” along with the kidnapped 21 persons, was towed to Israel’s Port of Ashdod.

Gaza has been described as the “world’s largest concentration camp.” It is home to 1.5 million Palestinians who were driven by force of American-supplied Israeli arms out of their homes, off their farms, and out of their villages so that Israel could steal their land and make the Palestinian land available to Israeli settlers.

What we have been witnessing for 60 years is a replay in modern times, despite the United Nations and laws strictly preventing Israel’s theft of Palestine, of the 17th, 18th, and 19th century theft of American Indian lands by US settlers. An Israeli government spokesman recently rebuked the president of the United States, a country, the Israeli said, who stole all of its land from Indians, for complaining about Israel’s theft of Palestine.

I knew the “Spirit of Humanity” would fall to Israeli piracy the minute I received on June 25, from an official of an Israeli peace organization, a “public advisory” that the government of Cyprus had withheld permission for the “Spirit of Humanity” to leave for Gaza. The US State Department had advised that “The Israeli Foreign Ministry informed U.S. officials at the American Embassy in Tel Aviv that Israel still considers Gaza an area of conflict and that any boats attempting to sail to Gaza will not be permitted to reach its destination.” The “Spirit of Humanity” obtained permission to leave Cyprus when all aboard signed a waiver absolving Cyprus of all responsibility for the crew’s safety at the hands of the Israelis.

con't
http://onlinejournal.com/artman/publish/article_4866.shtml

whew... That was close.

Thank you Crank. I'd have to call out the hypocrisy if you ever agreed with me. I understand that your virgin eyes can't read my triple negatives and archaic double entendres. If you were to agree with me that would be like saying you read and understand gibberish. You Crank, have shown no such skill. One miss placed colon and you lock up like Lt. Data running on Windows Vista.

Is his sex tape coming out on DVD yet? I have a couple of right wing friends who's birthday is coming up and I'm groping for gift ideas.

what people here think we should do with North Korea?

It's a bit on par with Pakistan in a way, but as far as we know, they don't have complete nuclear capabilities yet.

Pakistan has been rogue and always an enemy of India. Both have nuclear capabilities. Pakistan is an Islamic nation, however, the government was not extreme. They are still fighting extremism by fighting the Taliban and Al Qaeda but have also given concessions to both groups.

It's not a simple situation and there are better minds than ours wondering what to do about it.

Quote of the Day
"There's something in Hillary as a model for me, because Hillary, well she came in with a different kind of celebrity obviously. But there was a kind of skepticism where she had to prove herself a certain way and also prove not to be a kind of a show horse, but to be a work horse. And so I want to... put my head down and get to work when I get there."

-- Senator-elect Al Franken (D-MN), quoted by Minnesota Public Radio, on lessons he can learn from Hillary Clinton.

http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2009/07/01/franken/?refid=0

The Fall of the Class of 1994
Gov. Mark Sanford (R) and Sen. John Ensign (R-NV) have more in common than being part of sex scandals: They were also members of the famed Republican Class of 1994, swept into the House of Representatives in a massive electoral wave that pushed Democrats out of power for the first time in decades.

However, Politico notes that "in the 14 years since that star-crossed class arrived in Washington espousing an agenda that placed family values at its core, no less than a dozen of its members have been caught up in affairs, sex scandals or in messy separations and divorces from their spouses that, in more than a few instances, led to their political downfalls."

"The problems started almost as soon as they took office, and by the end of their first year in Congress, the marriages of at least four Republican freshmen had collapsed."

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0709/24435.html

North Korea's first blast happened inside of a mountain and was well documented while GWB was in office.

They established their aggressive stance on creating the threat when GWB backed out of the 6 way talks in his first month after taking office. NK witnessed as the only real respect, leverage, or concern coming from that (GWB) administration was being a nuclear threat and quickly redoubled their research. Now that they have a bomb technology, they are pursuing missile technology. I believe there are talks of a NK-Iran link in technology exchange. I'll look around for that inference.

Bill Clinton's administration is to be applauded for the gargantuan success he had in deterring NK from pursuing a Nuclear Option. The genie is out of the bag in NK. That blast was Uranium based if my memory serves me toniD.

Current negotiations with NK have proved fruitless. That country is no longer in a position to be credible. They have even defied China, their ally.

The people of NK continue to suffer under that totalitarian rule. Cruel efforts withholding food and medicines have been implemented. I think that was a mistake.

North Korea is now has a nuclear export for profit threat. Economic isolation is about the only approach I would pursue toniD. Humanitarian aid should not be withheld. Aggression is pointless.

NK's leader hates being ignored.

The hopes and dreams of a right wing fuckwad is for bin Ladin to detonate a bomb in America so that we get straightened out?

Where do assholes like this come from? If this peckerwood gets his wish, I sure as hell hope that Dallas is the place it happens. If there are any liberals livng in or near Dallas...get the fuck out of Dodge before Osama takes it down.

San Francisco, renowned for its civic will to save the planet, is now ordering residents and businesses to compost food scraps and biodegradables, or risk fines for not properly sorting their garbage.

For some 200 Northern California vineyards that use it, there is something about San Francisco compost and its unique, urban blend of crab shells from Fisherman's Wharf, pasta from North Beach, pupusas from the Mission District and dim sum from Chinatown that nourishes the soil like little else.
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/256/story/71153.html

it worked so well in iraq, not.

i will never understand why punishing the civilians in totaliterian nations is considered good policy. you know the elite at the top care about them the same way that landed gentry cared about their serfs.

seems like maybe we should go the other way and send as much food and other supplies as we can afford.

North Korea has been the principal supplier to the Iranian missile program. - Iran Tracker

This has become a funding mechanism for North Korea. They perform the exchange purely as a business proposition. Not sure how starving the country will help.

Testing Iowa Already
Radio Iowa reports someone is using automated phone calls to test the popularity of possible Republican 2012 presidential candidates: Mike Huckabee, Sarah Palin, Newt Gingrich, Bobby Jindal, and Jeb Bush.

http://learfield.typepad.com/radioiowa/2009/07/someone-is-doing-some-201...

some Muslin sights/sites (which warned onlookers NOT TO LOOK AT - so I looked...) and I saw a glimpse of the murders of CERTAIN media individuals but mostly of the protesters. The Muslin murders: those of the MEDIA and of the poor protesters ARE BEING CHOPPED UP LIKE MEAT.

To me WE, are not to TRY TO CHANGE their politics, but we are solely to be The Stronger to stop the killings. Yes certain areas in Arica are the same. U.S. JOIN WITH THE U.N. forces... this is now of a SMALL closely tied WORLD!

NUCLEAR POWER is being bantered about, and "THEY" CANNOT THREATENED THE WORLD with a NUCLEAR WAR. THAT IS NOT ALLOWED. A COUNSEL of a U.N. Force (was suggested DECADES ago) MUST BE TRIED AGAIN.
I agree, the goal was not achieved - perhaps now with HUMANIST President Obama. This situation is horribly convoluted and MUST be corrected.

IF AT FIRST we didn't achieve, "... then try try again..." as is said...

I think SOMEONE needs to STAND for The Innocents: ...Children, Mothers, & Fathers AND ANIMALS. Again, this horrid situation must be remedied, NOW!
IMHO ... {...so much must be done NOW.}
This is just the beginning of some thoughts, there is so much more.
;):(

GOP Colleagues Ask Rep. Bachmann to End Census Boycott

Three Republicans on the House panel that oversees the Census Bureau have asked fellow GOP Rep. Michele Bachmann of Minnesota to end her plans to boycott next year’s count.

Reps. Patrick McHenry of North Carolina, Lynn Westmoreland of Georgia and John Mica of Florida issued a statement saying every elected representative has a “responsibility” to encourage participation in the 2010 Census. “Boycotting the constitutionally mandated census is illogical, illegal and not in the best interest of our country,” they stated.

Bachmann has said she will answer only certain questions on the 2010 Census form because the Census Bureau has signed up Acorn, the liberal-leaning community group, to help publicize the census and recruit enumerators. The group, she has said, will skew the results. Click here for a Wall Street Journal article on the census fight.

McHenry, Westmoreland and Mica – no fans of Acorn – pointed out an “unfortunate irony” in Bachmann’s boycott, saying it “only increases the likelihood that Acorn-recruited census takers will be dispatched to her constituents’ homes. Anyone who completes and returns their census form will remove any need for a census taker to visit their residence.”

Acorn is one of 40,000 Census Bureau partners in the count, and a Census Bureau official said its primary responsibility is educating hard-to-count urban populations about the importance of an accurate headcount.

Bachmann spokesman Dave Dziok said the congresswoman isn’t changing her position. “We appreciate their views and hope to be able to work with them to keep Acorn – which has earned public mistrust through its repeated voter registration fraud – out of the census,” Dziok said.

http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2009/07/02/gop-colleagues-ask-rep-bachmann...

On to Pyongyang! After eight years: No more Mr. Nice Guy.

Tillman Family is McChrystal-Clear
by David Zirin / May 16th, 2009

And now the Tillman family, amidst bipartisan praise for Obama’s new general, must once again raise the inconvenient truth.

Pat’s father, Pat Tillman Sr., told the Associated Press, “I do believe that guy participated in a falsified homicide investigation.”

Mary Tillman, who excoriated McChrystal in her book, Boots on the Ground by Dusk: My Tribute to Pat Tillman, said, “It is imperative that Lt. Gen. McChrystal be scrutinized carefully during the Senate hearings.”

McChrystal has never explained why the early reports of Tillman’s death were covered up, why his clothes and field journal were burned and destroyed on the scene or why Pat’s brother Kevin, serving alongside him in the Rangers, was lied to on the spot. Even the cover-up was covered up. This should be a cause for dismissal–or indictment–not promotion.
http://dissidentvoice.org/2009/05/tillman-family-is-mcchrystal-clear/

Take Back the Land is “liberating” foreclosed homes to fight homelessness.
By Jake Thomas

Max Rameau stood at a lectern in one of Portland State University’s student centers on an April afternoon. “Being against oppression and exploitation in your mind is not enough,” he told a group of 70 activists. Rameau had been invited to Portland, Ore., to talk about Take Back the Land, his audacious—and illegal—campaign to fight homelessness caused by the economic crisis.

Take Back the Land, based in Miami, finds empty foreclosed homes and illegally moves homeless families into them. So far his organization has moved nine families into “liberated” houses and has at least four more occupations planned.

Squatting has a long history in the United States. During the westward expansion, much of the land was settled by squatters. Pioneers lived on land they had no legal entitlement to until the federal government recognized their rights as “homesteaders” with several pieces of legislation in the 1800s.

More here:
http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/4506/all-american_squatters/

The first time I heard of ACORN (over 30 years ago, I think), it was because they were involved in activities like this in Detroit. Too bad they weren't more successful.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Association_of_Community_Organizations_for_...

Composting becomes the law in San Francisco
Submitted by ghettodefender on Thu, 07/02/2009 - 11:31am.

I am SOOOOOOOOO glad it is NOW LAW, in My City. It is about bloody TIME. eye-roll ;)

I saw dan do this yesterday, and I figured the resident grammar nazi would pounce...(or jump jive and wail)

US suspends military activities with Honduras: Pentagon
Submitted by dan on Wed, 07/01/2009 - 2:49pm.

"this doesn't jive with all the talk about the cia running the coup. maybe cheney's fifth column has gone rogue."

Then, to my amusement Der Englisch Reichfuhrer made the same mistake...

Sensing A Twinge Of Sarcasm
Submitted by Crank Bait on Wed, 07/01/2009 - 11:11pm.

"Some people would say that I am a foolish sucker to believe what she says, especially since it jives with other information I gather from sources that only a foolish sucker like me would believe."

Crank, I believe the word your superior intellect failed to successfully extract from that ever deteriorating train wreck you euphemistically call a "mind" is "jibe"...

http://www.wsu.edu:8001/~brians/errors/gibe.html
http://www.fleegix.org/articles/2006-08-25-jibe-vs-jive
http://www.randomhouse.com/wotd/index.pperl?date=20000711

Not a knock on you dan. Your english is better than mine and you don't constantly and insufferably revel in your superiority over others in mastery of the language....

Bait, you live by the pen, you die by the pen. :)

YESSSSSSS!!!!!!!!! (Triple fist pump) IN YOUR FACE GRAMMAR BOY!!!

HELP Bill to Include Government Insurance Option, Cost $611 Billion - RollCall

I find it helpful that the Senate has taken the lead position on this before going to the House. Let's just see how Reid screws it up.

“The Oldest Bank in Michigan” is what is inscribed on top of this stately pizza restaurant. Established in 1849, this Detroit Savings Bank has seen multiple uses before its demise, including a church (complete with drive thru) and a Dominos Pizza store.

This bank was actually the beginning of the Comerica Bank brand, now headquartered in Dallas, Texas.

“Established 1849”

Pictures here:
http://detroitfunk.com/?p=1999

that salvo was like Baked Alaska served to Guantanamo Bay detainees.

Submitted by Fernando on Thu, 07/02/2009 - 11:05am.
...If you were to agree with me that would be like saying you read and understand gibberish...
---------
I think that I understand what you have been saying and why. I also think that I understand that you are talking past dada because dada locked his head up when (or before) you began.

I think that I know what dada is saying and why, but I don't think that he is hearing Fernando in the way that Fernando is speaking.

For starters, Fernando is a pacifist putz, so when Fernando supports a military action, I sit up and take notice. Also, Fernando is cynical toward government(s) and their propaganda, so again I sit up and take notice when Fernando supports a deadly military action.

On the other hand, dada is anti-everything-"establishment", so it's no surprise that he would jump on anyone who supports any kind of military action, anywhere, for any reason.

In my opinion, Fernando is a lot more open-minded than dada (regardless of whether Fernando is wrong or not) because Fernando will grit his teeth and support something that goes against every fiber in his being.

A person does not easily come to a conclusion that he hates. It is a lot easier to cling to absolutes: All killing is bad so I don't need to think about it further.

The dada/Fernando discussion frustrates me more than you could know. The two of you do not need to agree but I would be a lot happier if dada understood how Fernando arrived at his opinion about Pakistan and military intervention.

I think that Fernando is better read on this subject than most of us might suspect (i.e. not a stupid as he looks).

let me count the ways.

changing topic, how long do you think it is before liebermann goes (R), trading the super majority for some senior positions in the party of no?

The first time I heard of ACORN (over 30 years ago, I think), it was because they were involved in activities like this in Detroit. Too bad they weren't more successful.
=================
Squatters have been active in many cities. I knew of many squates in Seattle in the late 1980s and early '90s. Ever hear of the Autonomens of Europe? Squatting buildings and getting ownership is their forte.

Felt good too. :)

China is their neighbor. When they seem worried about it. I'll worry about. Very shortly, any nation that wants nukes will have nukes. Obviously, we can't invade or bomb them all into submission.
Israel has nukes in violation of the United Nations charter. They just kidnapped a former member of Congress. This is actually an act of war (just as the sinking of the Liberty was, but that's ancient history). As much as I dislike Israel, I think bombing Tel Aviv would be an overreaction.
If we were serious about nuclear non-proliferation we would make a big show about beginning to dismantle some of our 25,000 nuclear warheads. We would stop invading, and intervening militarily in the affairs of nations in every hemisphere. And, we would half our Pentagon budget over the next five years. Somehow, China, a nation with at least half-a dozen potentially hostile neighbors, seems to struggle by with a military budget half the size of ours.
All the while, China keeps our selves filled with crap, and currency almost solvent.
I'm a thousand times more concerned with the financial crisis here in Michigan, Illinois or California than what I am with North Korea or Iran having nukes. Our nation is dying from the inside out. However, erratic the leaders of these countries maybe, when 'push comes to shove' I doubt they are really suicidal. The world survived Reagan and George Bush. We will survive Ahmadinejad and Kim Jong-il.

Yep. It's showing, too.
"(i.e. not a stupid as he looks)."

(Sorry, Crank.)

Et tu, Chew?

As job losses accelerated in June, the unemployment rate ticked up 0.1 percentage point to 9.5%, the highest level since August 1983.

But another more comprehensive gauge of unemployment also continued to tick up. The government’s broader measure, known as the “U-6″ for its data classification, hit 16.5% in June, 0.1 percentage point higher than March.

The comprehensive measure of labor underutilization accounts for people who have stopped looking for work or who can’t find full-time jobs. The index had posted a 0.6 percentage point jump in May. The pace of increase has begun to mirror the rise in the headline rate after soaring at higher pace earlier this year, possibly signaling that more workers are starting to look for jobs again.

Though the pace may be moderating, the figure still is the highest since the Labor Department started this particular data series in 1994. It’s also above a discontinued and even broader measure that hit 15% in late 1982, when the official unemployment rate was 10.8%. (That data series goes back to the 1970s.)

http://blogs.wsj.com/economics/2009/07/02/broader-unemployment-rate-hit-...

US, Canada Rank Last in Curbing Warming, Report on G-8 Says

ROME (Reuters) - With only five months to go until a new global pact on climate change, none of the Group of Eight nations is doing enough to curb global warming, with Canada and the United States ranking bottom, a study said on Wednesday.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper shields his eyes from the stage lights as he looks for a reporter during a question period at Pier 21 in Halifax, Nova Scotia June 25, 2009. REUTERS/Paul Darrow

The "G8 Climate Scorecards," compiled by environmental group WWF, said even the greenest members of the rich nations' club -- Germany, Britain and France -- were not on track to meet a "danger threshold" of limiting temperature rises to below two degrees Celsius.

G8 leaders gather in Italy next week to discuss the world financial crisis and climate change, hoping to make progress toward a new pact on global warming due to be signed in Copenhagen in December to replace the 1997 Kyoto deal.

They will be joined by members of U.S. President Barack Obama's Major Economies Forum in a bid to forge broad consensus.

"While there might be a bailout possibility for the financial system, no amounts of money will save the planet once climate change crosses the danger threshold," WWF head James Leape wrote in the foreword to the report.

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2009/07/02-3

The Chinese gov't killed the sale of Hummer to a Chinese company on environmental concerns.

"The average fuel economy of family vehicles in China is already higher than in the United States, mainly because cars in China tend to be considerably smaller than those in the United States — and are getting even smaller because of recent tax changes.

Cars with small fuel-sipping engines are now subject to a 1 percent sales tax, while sports cars and sport utility vehicles with the largest engines are subject to a 40 percent sales tax. Stricter fuel economy standards have won support from four interest groups within the Chinese government, said a Chinese government official who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the issue."
...
Mr. An estimated that the average new car, minivan or sport utility vehicle in China already gets the equivalent of 35.8 miles a gallon this year based on the American measurement system of corporate averages and will be required to get 42.2 miles a gallon in 2015.

By comparison, President Obama announced last week that each automaker will be required to reach a corporate average of 35.5 miles per gallon by 2016.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/28/business/energy-environment/28fuel.htm...

From the October 2000 issue of The Progressive.
http://www.progressive.org/mag_amitpalgalbraith

Pakistan motorcycle bomb 'kills up to six'

By Nasir Jaffry – 1 hour ago

RAWALPINDI, Pakistan (AFP) — An apparent suicide bomber riding a motorcycle killed up to six people when he rammed a bus carrying staff from a Pakistani government department in the garrison city Rawalpindi on Thursday.

The blast ripped through one of the most congested junctions in the heart of the huge sprawling city that headquarters Pakistan's powerful military and lies adjacent to the capital Islamabad.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility but many recent bombings in Pakistan have been seen as attempts to avenge a two-month military offensive against the Taliban that has been welcomed by the government's US ally.

"In the bus there were 25 to 30 staff members of a government department," Nasir Durrani, a regional police officer in Rawalpindi, told reporters live on Pakistani television stations.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5gGOmCc2MCtjtIPwrXzxRk...

Top Taliban commander Mullah Fazlullah may have been killed in heavy shelling by the security forces, sources have said.

Although the report could not be confirmed, sources in the Pakistan army said troops had intercepted a phone call of Fazlullah from his hide-out in Swat after they targeted his satellite and communication system and supposedly killed several Taliban commanders, The News reported.

http://www.rediff.com/news/report/2009/jul/02/top-taliban-commander-fazl...

I bet it is:

EPA allows TVA to dump spilled coal ash in Ala.

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) — The federal government has approved the Tennessee Valley Authority's plan to dispose of millions of tons of spilled coal ash in a giant commercial landfill in Alabama.

Opponents say TVA is dumping unfairly near rural people in one of Alabama's poorest counties.

EPA said the shipments could begin immediately. It said the Arrowhead Landfill is well-suited for the ash that contains toxic materials such as arsenic and lead.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/feedarticle/8588737

(we got a similar, and thankfully smaller, situation here. Our "liberal" Governor Granholm is allowing toxic waste to be moved from a rich, tourist area, and dumped into an area where poor locals live contaminating the groundwater supplies for the locals.)

TEHRAN, Iran (CNN) -- A reporter for Newsweek magazine who was arrested in Tehran has confessed to doing the bidding of Western governments, the semi-official Fars News Agency reported Wednesday.

Newsweek says Maziar Bahari has been reporting for years without bias and beyond reproach.

Maziar Bahari, 42, made his alleged confession at a news conference Tuesday. Because international journalists have been limited in their ability to gather news in Iran, CNN has not been able to confirm the agency report.

Fars reported that the Canadian-Iranian reporter who had worked for the BBC and England's Channel 4 network admitted having filed false reports for Newsweek during the elections -- a charge the magazine rejected.

"He has been reporting for years without any possible hint of bias and beyond reproach," Newsweek Paris Bureau Chief Chris Dickey told CNN. "We think he's one of the best reporters in the business."

He called the report "preposterous."

Dickey said Bahari had not been allowed to speak with a lawyer or with his family since his arrest on June 21.

http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/meast/07/01/iran.newsweek

Troops told to stop Taliban pursuit if civilians are at risk

This video shows an Apache helicopter opening fire on a column of Taliban fighters. It was released by the Pentagon June 24 to show how air strikes should be handled. Conversation about possible collateral damage — sometimes referred to as "collat" — begins 39 seconds into the video; there is no sound before that. (video at link)

By Nancy A. Youssef | McClatchy Newspapers

KABUL, Afghanistan — Beginning Thursday, American soldiers in Afghanistan will be under orders to back down when they're chasing Taliban fighters whenever they think that civilians might be at risk.

Army Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the top commander in Afghanistan, will issue the directive as part of an effort to cut down on civilian casualties, which have enraged the Afghan government and residents. Instead of calling in air support or firing into civilian homes where Taliban fighters have sought refuge, commanders will be instructed to reach out to tribal elders or undertake other efforts to dislodge the fighters.

The order is consistent with what National Security Adviser James L. Jones told McClatchy in Washington Wednesday was President Barack Obama's concern about civilian casualties in Afghanistan.

"General McChrystal has been given instructions when he left here that, in all military operations, that we redouble our efforts to make sure that innocent loss of life is minimized, with zero being the goal," Jones said, noting that, "In one mishap you can create thousands more terrorists than you had before the mishap."

McClatchy

Even if it is only lip service, the idea that the level of civilians being killed is unacceptable is being acknowledged at the highest levels...and efforts to find other ways are being fueled.

Wall Street Pay Approaches 2007's Records
Comeback in Compensation So Far This Year Shows How Hard It Is to Break Old Habits

Business is back on Wall Street. If the good times continue to roll, lofty pay packages may be set for a comeback as well.

Based on analysts' earnings forecasts for 2009, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. is on track to pay out as much as $20 billion this year, or about $700,000 per employee. That would be nearly double the firm's $363,000 average last year, and slightly higher than the $661,000 for the average Goldman employee in fiscal 2007, according to analyst estimates reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.

Morgan Stanley, the only other huge U.S. securities firm left as an independent company, will likely pay out $11 billion to $14 billion in compensation and benefits this year, analysts predict. On a per-employee basis, payouts are expected to exceed last year's average of $262,000. Howard Chen, an analyst at Credit Suisse, projects that the company's average pay will come close to the $340,000 paid out by Morgan Stanley in fiscal 2007.

snip

The recent increases in compensation reflect efforts by Wall Street executives to keep pay high enough to remain competitive but low enough to avoid the wrath of angry lawmakers. In at least one case, bank executives or their representatives have discussed pay with the Obama administration's pay czar Kenneth Feinberg ahead of time, seeking to head off any public reprimand, according to a person familiar with the meetings.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124649352055183157.html#mod=testMod

Arms shipments, cooperation on underground tunneling and a budding nuclear relationship between North Korea and Myanmar threatens to destabilize Southeast Asia's security balance and raise the ire of China, both countries' powerful neighbor and ally.......

Whether China is contemplating a substantive rethink of its North Korea policy is still a matter of conjecture. But North Korea's provocative move to send a ship known for transporting arms to Myanmar immediately after a nuclear test and in violation of a UN Security Council resolution could soon force China to take a harder look at both regional relationships.

China has become increasingly, if very subtly, critical of Myanmar's regime in recent years. The September 2007 armed crackdown on peaceful protestors caused even China to join a strongly worded statement by the UN Human Rights Council condemning the incident.
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/China/KG03Ad02.html

had a safety belt crackdown.

People were coming into the Park District complaining.

We're on the corner of a busy street and a feed street, neighborhood type with houses and a High School about 5 blocks away.

The police had guys on the ground not wearing uniforms but with push to speak phones. Some police cars were in our parking lot.

The guys on the ground would check the traffic until they found someone without a seat belt and would page the police car with the car description and license plate number so the cop could stop the car and issue tickets.

I heard later that they, the local police, get a bonus from the state for each car they stop.

Kinda sneaky.

Our rogue interference needs to be factored in to any approach. You can just say 'well, that was the past,' but you can bet anyone who doesn't share the US-centric point of view factors our influence in.

If you objectively look at the situation, you can't avoid our involvement; and if you don't avoid our involvement, you may see other alternatives besides war.

The Top 40 Real Men of Genius commercials

http://samsedershow.com/node/4976

and the Coalition of the Unwilling

Why I Was Arrested in Coal River, West Virginia

...
"Clean coal" is the industry's attempt to "clean up" its dirty image -- the industry's greenwash buzzword. It is not a new type of coal. "Clean coal" methods only move pollutants from one waste stream to another. Coal is a dirty business!

The good news is we have a solution! A study of the long-term benefits of infinite Wind Power versus finite coal MTR in Coal River Mountain, West Virginia already exists. They show "excellent potential" for efficiency, productivity and economic benefit. Though it doesn't have short-term financial returns, wind promises to provide clean, inexpensive energy and offers scores of safe jobs for the long term. Just check out the staggering figures from a report released by the American Wind Energy Association: "wind industry jobs jumped to 85,000 in 2008, a 70% increase from the previous year." Renewable energy will continue to grow exponentially, whereas mining jobs have decreased or remained relatively stagnant at "81,000 workers" for over 20 years, according to the 2007 U.S. dept of energy report.

I can understand why those who live in coal towns are frustrated, because while we have this technology available to us now -- it is still just "a promise" in these regions.
...

he Stella D’Oro Biscuit Company factory in the Bronx, where 134 workers on strike since last August have been replaced, must reinstate the workers and pay them wages going back to May, a federal administrative law judge has ruled.

The 134 workers, members of Local 50 of the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers, went on strike on Aug. 14, two weeks after their contract had expired.

Most of the workers at the factory, at 184 West 237th Street in the Kingsbridge neighborhood, are paid $18 to $23 an hour, according to the union’s lawyer, Louie Nikolaidis. The union and the company could not reach an agreement over a new contract. Stella D’Oro demanded that the union accept a $5-an-hour wage reduction for certain workers, along with cuts in pension and heath care benefits, Mr. Nikolaidis said.

Hiroko Masuike for The New York Times The Stella D’Oro cookie plant, at 184 West 237th Street in the Bronx, where workers have been on strike since August 2008.

A lawyer for Stella D’Oro — which started as a family company decades ago, and was later owned by Nabisco and then Kraft Foods before being bought by Brynwood Partners, a private equity firm, in 2006 — did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Wednesday.

http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/07/01/bronx-cookie-plant-is-order...

Good! A private equity firm has to cough up some money!

Marching out of step in the US military
By Dahr Jamail

....."When Obama announced his Afghanistan surge, we got a huge wave of calls from soldiers saying they didn't want to be reactivated and to please help them not go."

The Iraq war boils on at still dangerous levels of violence, while the war in Afghanistan (and across the border in Pakistan) only grows, as does the US commitment to both. It's already clear that even an all-volunteer military isn't immune to dissent.

If violence in either or both occupations escalates, if the Pentagon struggles to add more boots on the ground, if the stresses and strains on the military, involving endless redeployments to combat zones, increase rather than lessen, then the acts of Agosto, Bishop, and Shepherd may turn out to be pathbreaking ones in a world of dissent yet to be experienced and explored. Add in dissatisfaction and discontent at home if, in the coming years, American treasure continues to be poured into an Afghan quagmire, and real support for a GI resistance movement may surface.
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/KG02Ak07.html

wait till the insurance companies succeed in outlawing certain types of food...

You will see police running around snatching hot dogs out of peoples mouths and issuing summonses for eating pizza...

I hope you get everything out of it you want.

When bombing a funeral is spun as assassination, when all the posts I and those who share my opinions are ignored, and our arguments simply dismissed without being addressed, and yet I'm accused of being close minded, when normally rational people start defending war, because it's the Obama administration doing it, I can see there's no point in continuing the discussion.

But before I drop it entirely, I'd like to shift the focus a bit, and raise once more what, for me, is an important point pertaining to the disagreement. It's the undercurrent of Western supremacist thinking that seems to cloud people's judgement. It doesn't matter what America does, it can do no wrong in some people's eyes. Without acknowledging our involvment, an accurate picture of the situation can never be reached, and any solutions will be sorely lacking in effectiveness.

One more thing, and then I'm done. I think you are making a big mistake in not realizing how many people you will turn off with this round of war. People whose support the Obama administration needs. There are other alternatives besides aggression. You had a chance to go the MLK route, but now we see what was underneath the great marketing of hope and change. This will cost you politically, without a doubt.

Not insurance companies, Obama and the dems! And don't worry about hot dogs, cheese burgers and fries. You better be worried about your illegal drugs. If you get caught with illegal drugs you can kiss your government heath insurance goodbye. Drug use will be labeled a crime against humanity! Watch what you ask for, you just might get it!

"I believe all these things because freedom is not America's gift to the world, it is the Almighty God's gift to every man and woman in this world."

George W. Bush

It seems you have more in common with certain posters here than I thought. I didn't see it until now.

http://samsedershow.com/node/4976

together for the next election precisely for the reasons you stated...He and other candidates really should do that...storm the doors of the unfair election processes....

BS line all this time anyway...