which is fake?

Afternoon Sederville! It's 48F

Go to this site. Contribute $2 to our good friend's cause, and download a good set of comedy. The event was hosted by the great Adam Carolla.

Bryan Bishop (AKA: Bald Bryan) is a 30-year-old man who has an inoperable brain tumor. He is strapped for cash, so every bit that you want to contribute to him will help immensely. As I wrote when I urged people to contribute to causes against breast cancer, you will feel much better about contributing money to him than you ever felt when you contributed to that scummy politician's campaign.

If you want to learn more about Bryan, go to www.aninconvenienttumor.com or www.hibryan.com

GUESTS: Dana Gould, Greg Fitzsimmons, Larry Miller, etc.
Special music performance by Bad Religion

Thanks.

"SLEEP TIGHT, BATSHIT."
-Bill Maher to 9/11 nut
www.sigzone.blogspot.com

Thousands of Uninsured Arkansans Seek Free Medical Care

It’s not a coincidence that states with elected officials who are dubious about health reform tend to have the largest number of uninsured people. The same political culture that produces high uninsurance rates at the state level normally also produces federal officials who are hostile to measures to broaden access. But as long as the spotlight’s on Arkansas:

According to the Arkansas Department of Health, around 450 thousand Arkansans lack health insurance. More than a thousand of those uninsured made their way to Little Rock’s Statehouse Convention Center on Saturday for the National Association of Free Clinics “C.A.R.E.” event. [...] According to the NAFC, more than 90 percent of those who came on Saturday had three or more life-threatening conditions, such as hypertension, diabetes, cardio-vascular, and pulmonary disease. Dr. Kimberly Garner, who works for the Veteran’s Administration in North Little Rock and was one of the volunteer physicians at the clinic, says those kinds of numbers illustrate the need for change.

As of 2008, 19.2 percent of non-elderly Arkansans were uninsured (Arkansas seniors, of course, avail themselves of government-run health insurance), a bit higher than the national average. Many of those people would be made much better off by the health reform bill that passed the House or by the somewhat different one that passed the Senate. But Blanche Lincoln says that unless Democrats agree to kill the idea of introducing a public option into the mix, she’ll vote against a bill that would otherwise help many of her constituents.

Yglesias

My question: Should anybody be making these--at least for non-military market?
(Dumb question?)
-----------
November 23, 2009

China Buys Hummer Brand-- Further Evidence of a Shock Doctrine Assaulted America?

By Rob Kall

http://www.opednews.com/articles/China-Buys-Hummer-Brand--by-Rob-Kall-09...

Naomi Klein described, in her breaktrhough book, Shock Doctrine, how a nation is attacked, shocked and torn apart, destroying the middle class. It looks like the GM sale of Hummer to a wealthy Chinese investor, probably with the help of Morgan Stanley, is an example of how it's happening in the US.

The deal is sealed. Motortrend reports

The new owners, upon Chinese government approval, will be Sichuan Tengzhong Heavy Industrial Machinery, with 80 percent via an investment entity, and Suolang Duoji, a private entrepreneur who will hold the other 20 percent.
Don't assume that Duoji is a minority partner. Asia times reports
Tengzhong is "under the wing of Sichuan Huatong Investment Holding Co, Ltd, 98.5% owned by Suolang Duoji", according to a SinoCast Daily Business Beat report, carried on the Zachs Research website.
One man will basically control Hummer.

The GM is selling Hummer for an estimated $150 million, far less than the $500 million it estimated it would get when it declared bankruptcy. Hard to believe that after the tens of billions the US has poured into GM, Hummer is worth so little. But apparently China thinks so. There's some good news. The manufacturing will stay in the US. Seems the market for Hummer vehicles is primarily in the US. Also, the manufacturer of the military version of the H2 Hummer will continue to build Hummers for the military, at least until 2011.

Reports indicate that the newly owned Hummer company intends to introduce a new H4 model that gets 25 MPG. The Asia Times article compares the Hummer sale to IBM's sale of Thinkpad notebooks to Lenovo, a Chinese company that took the brand to be the number three selling notebook in the world.

We have to wonder if the US had taken Hummer, especially with its dependence on the military version, and turned it into a government owned operation, would the US benefit? The same goes for the Saturn brand. The US could have easily loaned the money it did to GM with first option to buy those brands, or even to take them, if GM decided to end them. How much does the US lose in terms of thousands of lost jobs, in terms of Saturn. How much technological resources and even patents will the US lose when China virtually steals the Hummer brand for a tiny price?

Right wingers would raise the cry of socialism at the idea of the US salvaging brands and technology. I guess their ideology overcomes concern for American jobs and technologies. Who knows what patents hummer holds, after all. And the deal for the production of US military vehicles has an expiration date. Will China end up making military hummers? That would surely be a sign of the USA's being in deep trouble.

Perhaps what we're seeing is just more examples of the Shock Doctrine Naomi Klein described, at work. The Hummer purchase was probably aided by Morgan Stanley, one of the last two Investment Banking firms, before it and Goldman Sachs, became normal banks, with Federal Reserve approval. If you want to look to organizations that are profiting from the devastating effects of the Shock Doctrine on the US, look to Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs. Asia Times reports, "Morgan Stanley is financial adviser to GM during its restructuring, along with Evercare Partners and Blackstone Group, according to a June 1 Bloomberg report. "

Will we see more bargain acquisitions of major US companies or brands by Chinese and other non-US firms, brokered by the companies that brought us the economic catastrophy the US was subjected to? Considering that President Obama appointed major players from those companies to run the US economy, one would guess that the foxes are not only in, they are running and operating the hen house. We can expect to see many more US brands acquired by the Chinese, Russians, Brazilians (who now own Budweiser,) and other nations.

The question is, since it is so clear to so many that the US was subjected to the brutal assault of the Shock Doctrine, why aren't legislators looking into this and doing something about it. Bernie Sanders has introduced legislation to first identify and then break up companies that are too big to fail. That's a great idea, so long as the broken up companies aren't scarfed up by foreign nationals. The US economy is in shock. The congress is either in shock or in bed with the perpetrators-- same with the White House. Someone better wake up and start responding to the economic disaster and the ongoing sell-off of US assets as an economic terrorist attack. Maybe that's the language that's needed.

My guess is this will not happen from the top down. Obama's Whitehouse is inseparable, even indistinguishable from Goldman Sachs. It may happen in the congress. Sherrod Brown, Alan Grayson, Dennis Kucinich and a few others are asking questions, including getting rid of Goldman Sachs and Fed reserve man Tim Geithner. The problem is, this is complicated stuff, just like the financial products that brought down the economy. It will take some powerful public education and media coverage to get the public aroused enough to push the congress to do something. Ironically, since Obama has bedded with Goldman Sachs, it may well be Glen Beck and Fox news that gets this ball rolling. It would be ironic if Democrats like Chris Dodd, a sweetheart of the financial industry and Barney Frank, who seems to be way to friendly to banksters, hand the right wing the issues they need to take back the congress and the White House. Stranger things have been known to happen.

60th tipped us off in a previous thread.

Otherwise I would never have known...

(Pics?)

new thread!!

Hate crimes against blacks, religious groups rise

By Marisol Bello, USA TODAY
The number of hate crimes against blacks and religious groups increased in 2008 over the previous year, the FBI reported Monday.
Hate crimes overall increased by 2%, to 7,783 incidents, according to the report.

Brian Levin, director of the Center for the Study of Hate & Extremism at California State University, San Bernardino, said it is difficult to make a yearly trend analysis from the data because the number of agencies that report the crimes — and the way they report them — can vary each year.

In 2008, 2,145 police agencies reported hate crimes, compared with 2,025 last year.

A hate crime is defined as an incident motivated by a person's race, religion, sexual orientation, ethnicity or disability.

Other statistics from the report:

• The number of incidents against blacks increased 8% to 2,876. Crimes against blacks made up 72% of racially motivated crimes in the USA.

• Bias incidents based on religion increased 9%, to 1,519 incidents. The majority of those, two-thirds, were anti-Jewish hate crimes.

• Hate crimes against gays went up by 3% to 1,297 incidents, while the number of people who were victims of hate-crimes based on sexual orientation went up 13%, to 1,706.

•Half of all hate crimes are motivated by race, according to the FBI. One out of every five are driven by religious bias, and one out of every six are based on sexual orientation bias.

The new statistics come less than a month after President Obama signed a bill expanding those covered by the federal law against hate crimes. Previously, the law had protected those attacked on the basis of race, color, religion or national origin.

con't

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2009-11-23-hate-crimes_N.htm

The phone number at the end of ultra blue is probably for a car dealership.

[a sidlong glance at the 'Obama birther billboard' in Co.]

==
at home again 24 hrs. later

~`ordinary's just not good enough today - olp`~
Jamesbenet

Ex-CNN anchor Lou Dobbs is considering running for president in 2012

Former CNN anchor Lou Dobbs has never been elected to any government office, but he said Monday he’s considering a run for the White House in 2012.

During an interview on WTOP radio in Washington, Dobbs fueled rumors he’s seeking a bid for public office, possibly the highest office in the land, when asked if speculation about an Oval Office bid is “crazy talk.”

“What’s so crazy about that?” Dobbs, 64, replied. “Golly!”

So, is it crazy talk or is it real, the radio station persisted.

“Well, I’ll tell you this much -- it’s one of the discussions that we’re having,” he said. “For the first time, I’m actually listening to some people about politics.”

“I don’t think I’ve got the nature for it,” he added. “[But] we’ve got to do something in this country and I think that being in the public arena means you’ve got to be part of the solution.”

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/2009/11/23/2009-11-23_excnn_anc...

Do you think Lou Dobbs should run for president in 2012?

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/2009/11/23/2009-11-23_excnn_anc...

By JONATHAN COOK

South Africa deported an Israeli airline official last week following allegations that Israel’s secret police, the Shin Bet, had infiltrated Johannesburg international airport in an effort to gather information on South African citizens, particularly black and Muslim travellers.

The move by the South African government followed an investigation by local TV showing an undercover reporter being illegally interrogated by an official with El Al, Israel’s national carrier, in a public area of Johannesburg’s OR Tambo airport.

The programme also featured testimony from Jonathan Garb, a former El Al guard, who claimed that the airline company had been a front for the Shin Bet in South Africa for many years.

Of the footage of the undercover reporter’s questioning, he commented: “Here is a secret service operating above the law in South Africa. We pull the wool over everyone’s eyes. We do exactly what we want. The local authorities do not know what we are doing.”

The Israeli foreign ministry is reported to have sent a team to South Africa to try to defuse the diplomatic crisis after the government in Johannesburg threatened to deport all of El Al’s security staff.

con't

http://www.counterpunch.org/cook11232009.html

Run. Run as fast as you can. They have cloned her! Oh, the cruel irony of it all...

- Wonkette

Submitted by Fernando on Mon, 11/23/2009 - 3:10pm.
--------
A comment at your Wonkette link is as follows:

freakishlystrong says at 2:16 pm, November 23rd, 2009
Stepford snowbillies. They even have matching Bumpits.
--------
I still read Bumpits as bum pits on the first go around. Doesn't anybody market test product names anymore? What's next, cheerfully gawdy hair ribbons called Hobows?

by Matt Taibbi

and no, it's not used on the bum.

This lady stumped Sarah Palin. Shoot me now. - HuffPo

Bumpits is a hair retainer
Submitted by Fernando on Mon, 11/23/2009 - 4:36pm.
------
So is a buffet.

Scientists give grubby children a clean bill of health - GuardianUK

I'm somewhat skeptical of this even though people like Hartman swear by this type of evidence. My daughter gets an allergy induced head cold all fall and spring long. I can't tell you how many times I saw her tearing up my yard as an infant so she could play in the mud.

Smoke gets in your imac

Smoking Near Apple Computers Creates Biohazard, Voids Warranty

By Laura Northrup, 1:00 PM on Fri Nov 20 2009

Unless you've just arrived in 2009 on a time machine, you know that smoking isn't good for you. Did you know, that smoking isn't good for your computer, either? It's true, at least according to Apple. Two readers in different parts of the country claim that their Applecare warranties were voided due to secondhand smoke. Both readers appealed their cases up to the office of God Steve Jobs himself. Both lost.

Back in April, Derek copied us on his e-mail to Jobs:

I took my mid 2007 apple macbook (black) into the Jordan Creek Apple Store in West Des Moines, Iowa, on Saturday, April 25th, because I had been experiencing some issues with it overheating, and figured the fan was bad. After some initial testing, they took the computer in for work under my Applecare plan, which has over a year remaining on it.

Not only is this faulty science, attributing non smoking residue to second hand smoke, on Chad's part, no where in your applecare terms of service can I find anything mentioning being used in a smoking environment as voiding the warranty.

Jobs' office did not help Derek, but he resolved some of the problems himself by disassembling his Macbook and cleaning it out with a can of compressed air.

A few months later, reader Ruth wrote to us with an identical complaint after trying to have her son's iMac repaired at a local authorized repair center

I bought an iMac for my son (for school) along with the extended Applecare warranty. A month ago, it quit working. My son took it to the authorized Mac service center. The "tech" informed him it would be ready in 48-72 hours. Five days go by and he's heard nothing, so I called. They informed me that his computer can't be worked on because it's contaminated.

This computer cost approx. $3,000, with the extended warranty. I'm all for destroying cigarettes and putting big tobacco out of business (yes, I'm a reformed smoker), but to label a computer a biohazard because one is a smoker is going a bit too far in regulating who can have the warranty they purchased honored. Shouldn't there be some disclaimer stating that they won't honor warranties from smokers?

Ruth appealed her case to Steve Jobs's office, which also declined to repair the iMac. In another letter, she wrote:

Dena [from Jobs' office] did advise me that nicotine is on OSHA's list of hazardous substances and Apple would not require an employee to repair anything deemed hazardous to their health. However, OSHA also lists calcium carbonate (found in calcium tablets), isopropyl alcohol (used to clean wounds), chlorine (used in swimming pools), hydrogen peroxide (also used to clean wounds), sucrose (a sugar), talc (as in powder), etc... as hazardous substances.

Dena set up an appointment at the same Apple store. They told me that they would take pictures of the computer - both inside and out before determining whether to proceed and that if the only problem was the optical drive, they'd probably just replace it. Dena called me earlier this week to deliver the "bad news." She said that the computer is beyond economical repair due to tar from cigarette smoke! She said the hard drive is about to fail, the optical drive has failed and it isn't feasible to repair the computer under the warranty. This computer is less than 2 years old! Only one person in my household smokes - one 21 year old college student. She said that I can get it repaired elsewhere at my expense. I asked why my warranty didn't cover the repair and was told it's an OSHA violation.

Consumerist has tried repeatedly to obtain some kind of answer about these two cases from Apple's media relations department, and we have received nothing on the record after months of waiting. Mostly, we're curious what the threshold is for smoke damage to a computer, and why this is not mentioned in the Applecare contract.

Link

Animated Map Of Rising US Unemployment Since 2007

and

Mountain Derby Girls v SiNtral Valley Derby Girls 11/22

94 - 94 (unofficial) tie score...we're supposed to go to OT but it was decided to let the tie stand.

This vid is after the scrimmage...it's called "Last Woman Standing" - everyone just knocks everyone else down...

Blog. :)

xox

Bing: We'll pay news organizations not to use Google search engine
The Financial Times says Microsoft has also approached other big online publishers to persuade them to remove their sites from Google's search engine.

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/a243c8b2-d79b-11de-b578-00144feabdc0.html

toniD's Ya Think?

Democrats ‘in deep trouble’ due to health care, Howard Dean warns

Key Democratic allies in the US health care battle warned Sunday that a Senate bill required major changes if it was to earn their support and give President Barack Obama a crucial victory on his top domestic priority.

Meanwhile, former Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean told Huffington Post's Sam Stein that Democrats could be in "big trouble" because of delays in crafting health care legislation.

A knife-edge ballot Saturday saw Democrats scrape the 60 votes needed for debate to begin November 30, but wavering senators Joe Lieberman and Ben Nelson sent a strong message that they would not back the bill as it stands.

Lieberman, an independent senator from Connecticut who usually votes in line with the Democrats and did so on Saturday, opposes the creation of a government insurance program to compete with private firms, the so-called "public option."

"We have a healthcare system that has real troubles, but we have an economic system that is in real crisis," said Lieberman, who fears the government program would be too expensive for the cash-strapped US economy.

"I don?t want to fix the problems in our healthcare system in a way that creates more of an economic crisis," he told NBC's "Meet the Press".

On Monday, Huffington Post's Sam Stein reported, "One of the leading progressive champions of health care reform is pessimistic about the state of the debate in the Senate, saying he sees virtually no path to passing strong legislation and predicting potential congressional losses for Democrats as a consequence."

Stein adds,

Former DNC Chair Howard Dean told the Huffington Post on Monday that Senate Democratic leadership was "in deep trouble" on health care, even after Majority Leader Harry Reid cobbled together over the weekend the 60 votes needed to get legislation to the floor. The problem was as much about politics as policy.

"I think if you passed the Senate bill tomorrow it would be OK. But then the problem is they don't have any defense for their members in 2010," Dean said, noting that the public option would not become operational until 2014. "On the other hand, if they drop the public option [to placate moderate members], I think they lose seats."

"So this is really tough. I didn't anticipate being in this position. I thought it would pass. Maybe Harry has some magic up his sleeve. But I don't see how he gets those four votes [Sens. Joseph Lieberman (Conn.), Mary Landrieu (La.), Blanche Lincoln (Ark.) and Ben Nelson (Neb.)] without compromising the bill," Dean concluded.

The former Vermont governor warned that if the party allowed the four moderates to further water down the bill (or defeat it altogether) it could lead to primary challenges or a drop in fundraising from the party's base.

America's Thanksgiving holidays are set to be marked by bitter debate over the nitty-gritty of the bill, from its costs in terms of tax increases and fees to the merits or not of the "public option."

Divisive issues like abortion funding could also come to the fore while some Democrats may also seek funding for pet causes in their states in return for passing what amounts to the biggest shake-up of US health care in four decades.

The leading Democrat in the Senate, Harry Reid, faced three possible defectors in addition to Lieberman, any one of whom could have deprived him the 60 votes necessary to prevent Republican parliamentary delaying tactics.

Those senators -- Mary Landrieu of Louisiana, Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas, and Nelson of Nebraska -- have signaled a willingness to join Republicans if their proposed changes to core provisions of the bill are defeated.

Before eventually falling into party line on Saturday, Landrieu and Lincoln repeated their strong opposition to the "public option."

Nelson indicated on Sunday that he could be open to persuasion on the issue, although he prefers states to be able to opt in to program rather than having to opt out.

"We could negotiate a public option of some sort that I might look at, but I don't want a big government, Washington-run operation," he told ABC's "This Week" program.

Nelson has also demanded tougher restrictions on federal money subsidizing abortions, mirroring language the House of Representatives added to its version of the bill when it approved it in a 220-215 squeaker November 7. more...

http://rawstory.com/2009/11/democrats-in-deep-trouble-due-health-care-ho...

toniD's Ya Think?

Bishop Thomas Tobin about outlawing Abortion!

He Catholic! Will he be excommunicated?

He's asking what the Bishop thinks the penalty should be for having an abortion. And how do you do it under the law.

Would you put a woman in jail for having an abortion?

The Bishop couldn't answer.

Chris says that the Bishop should not be involved in making law. That which is Cesar's....It's a moral issue and a Church issue, not a Law issue.

toniD's Ya Think?

A MAN who went in search of his biological father was shocked to learn it was famed serial killer Charles Manson.

Matthew Roberts, a 41-year-old DJ who lives in Los Angeles, said the shock of discovering his father sent him into depression.

See a photo of Matthew Roberts here

"I didn't want to believe it. I was frightened and angry. It's like finding out that Adolf Hitler is your father,” Mr Roberts told The Sun.

"I'm a peaceful person - trapped in the face of a monster."

Despite his revulsion Mr Roberts has been exchanging mail with Manson, who is serving life in Corcoran State Prison in California over nine murders committed by his “Family” of followers in 1969.

“He sends me weird stuff and always signs it with his swastika,” Mr Roberts said.

“At first I was stunned and depressed. I wasn't able to speak for a day.

"I remember not being able to eat."

Mr Roberts grew up in Rockford, Illinois but didn’t know he was adopted until his sister told him at age 10.

Despite his adoptive father telling him “nothing good” would come of discovering who his real parents were, Mr Roberts used a social services agency to locate his mother, Terry.

She confirmed Mr Roberts was adopted and told him his birth name was Lawrence Alexander but would not reveal the last name.

Eventually Terry relented and revealed that Mr Roberts' father was Manson, who she claims raped her in 1967 after she had succumbed to his manic charisma.

"She even said, 'You look just like him', Mr Roberts said recalling the shocking revelation.

Manson has confirmed that he could be Mr Roberts’ father and that he remembers Terry.

The former cult leader wrote to Mr Roberts that: "The truth is the truth. The truth hurts."

Mr Roberts fears he may have inherited some of Manson’s characteristics but insists he is a very peaceful person.

"I'm not nuts but I've got a little bit of it,” Mr Roberts said.

“It's scary and upsetting. If I get worked up, my eyes get really big and that's really freaked some people out before.

"I've tried to tone that down quite a bit. I don't like having that effect on people.

"I don't even like the fact that I'm big. It makes me even scarier. My hero is Gandhi. I'm an extremely non-violent, peaceful person and a vegetarian.

"I don't even kill bugs. I've had long hair all my life. I could make it go away, but I can't let the world and their fears change me."

Mr Roberts has a prison phone number for Manson but says a “subconscious block” stops him from calling.

"If I did talk to Charlie on the phone, I would say, 'I truly understand what it's like to be you, more than anyone could ever imagine on so many levels,'” Mr Roberts said.

"He's my biological father - I can't help but have some kind of emotional connection. That's the hardest thing of all - feeling love for a monster who raped my mother.

"I don't want to love him, but I don't want to hate him either."

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,27574,26388459-401,00.html

toniD's Ya Think?

Jamie Dimon seen as good fit for Treasury

By MARK DeCAMBRE

Last Updated: 3:37 AM, November 23, 2009

Posted: 12:51 AM, November 23, 2009

As support for Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner wanes on Capitol Hill amid frustration with the Obama administration's handling of the economy, JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon is emerging as a potential replacement.

Sources tell The Post that a number of policy makers have begun mentioning Dimon as a successor to Geithner, whose standing in Washington has suffered because of the country's high unemployment rate, the weakness of the dollar, the slow pace of the recovery and the government's mounting deficit.

Last week, Geithner faced a withering attack from some Republican members of the Joint Economic Committee, getting into a testy exchange with one congressman who at one point asked Geithner if he would step down.

Dimon, meanwhile, has achieved rock star status during the financial crisis, having navigated JPMorgan through the recession and being a go-to guy when Uncle Sam last year needed Wall Street's help during the collapses of Bear Stearns and Washington Mutual.

Furthermore, while many bank chiefs are facing heat over outsize bonuses, Dimon has repeatedly made clear he won't write fat checks to attract or keep talent.

People familiar with Dimon's thinking said he "would love to serve his country," and in recent weeks Dimon has had a noticeably higher profile in Washington, making frequent visits to government officials and earlier this month publishing an op-ed in the Washington Post that makes the case for letting large institutions that take big risks collapse rather than receive government aid.

"It is critical to the standing of the United States in the global financial economy to have a Treasury secretary who has the full support of the president and Congress; a person who has earned respect on their own as a result of hard-won battles in finance to represent this nation," said Dick Bove, a banking industry analyst at Rochdale Securities who this week will publish a report on Dimon. "That is not Timothy Geithner. It is Jamie Dimon."

The timing might be right for Dimon to pursue the Treasury post. He recently put into place a succession plan, and JPMorgan is currently considered one of the strongest banks in the country, even though it, too, faces a threat of sizable consumer-loan losses.

However, sources said Dimon also has tried to tamp down enthusiasm for his replacing Geithner, whom the JPMorgan boss continues to support and thinks is doing "a good job," according to sources.

He doesn't want to be perceived as gunning for Geithner's job and is said to be keenly aware of the anti-Wall Street sentiment gripping the country. He has told people he plans to stay at JPMorgan for another "six or seven years," according to one source.

A JPMorgan spokesman declined to comment. more...

http://www.nypost.com/f/print/news/business/polishing_dimon_IKfyRK8PArjj...

It is the NY Post but....

toniD's Ya Think?

http://action.firedoglake.com/page/s/reconciliation?source=email112209

← Reconciliation = Majority Rule. Sign our Petition to Harry Reid to pass the public option.

James Tobin of Rhode Island is. I just saw that worthless pedophile protector ass hole on my tee vee. How dare he assume anyone would vote for his brand of Taliban.

Fuck Him and the horse he rode in on. Get out of my country you ignorant piece of shit. This land was forged to rebuke his kind of rule. Fuck off, you have no authority, much less moral. Why don't you tell us again how noble your fucking crusades are.

oh my god!!!!!!!!!!!
weird - very weird

Lincoln, Landrieu, Lieberman, and Nelson still threatening to vote against the public option.

toniD's Ya Think?

Wall Street Journal Supports Break-Up Of Big Banks

Add the Wall Street Journal editorial board -- of all people -- to the growing ranks of those calling for a restoration of barriers between commercial and investment banking.

In an editorial today, the Journal's anti-regulation free marketeers threw their weight -- albeit in a back-handed way -- behind government limits on "risk-taking" by commercial banks.

The editorial was mostly an assault on Democratic proposals described as offering "unlimited taxpayer funds" to bail out "just about anyone... engaging in finance of one kind or another" in a way that "would entrench moral hazard (and cheaper funding costs for the likes of Goldman Sachs) even deeper into the financial system."

But the editorial concluded: "The other way to reduce moral hazard is to limit certain kinds of risk-taking by institutions that hold taxpayer-insured deposits, as suggested by former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker and Bank of England Chairman Mervyn King."

That was a reference to Volcker and King's idea to restore the separation between Wall Street investment banks and Main Street commercial banks. "This has its own problems. But unlike the emerging plans in Washington, it is credible and would give capitalism a fighting chance to survive regulatory reform."

Volcker, King, former Citigroup CEO John S. Reed, and Nobel laureate economist Joseph E. Stiglitz are four financial and economic luminaries advocating for at least a partial return to Glass-Steagall, a Depression-era law that banned commercial banks from underwriting stocks and bonds. It was repealed in 1999 at the urging of, among others, Larry Summers, President Barack Obama's chief economic adviser.

While progressive economists such as James K. Galbraith and Dean Baker support a return to at least some tenets of Glass-Steagall -- on the premise that banks with taxpayer-guaranteed deposits shouldn't be engaged in risky trading -- the Obama administration does not. The White House wants to regulate the behavior of these banks, rather than break them up.

For the Journal's editorial page to be taking a more pro-regulatory position on any issue than the Obama White House says a lot about our times.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/11/23/emwall-street-journalem-s_n_368...

toniD's Ya Think?

Tea Party Patriots Attack Family Who Lost Daughter And Grandchild (VIDEO)

A group called the Chicago Tea Party Patriots publicly heckled a grieving family and suggested that the couple fabricated their tragic story.

At a town hall held by Rep. Dan Lipinski (D-Ill.) on Nov. 14,, Dan and Midge Hough spoke about how they believed the death of their daughter-in-law and her unborn child were caused, in part, by a lack of health insurance. Twenty-four-year old Jennifer was uninsured. According to her in-laws, she was not receiving regular prenatal care and was not properly treated when she got sick. She ended up in an emergency room with double pneumonia that developed into septic shock, had a heart attack, a brain bleed and a stroke. The baby died and Jennifer died a few weeks later.

Midge Hough was heckled by anti-reform crowd members. "You can laugh at me, that's okay," she said, crying. "But I lost two people, and I know you think that's funny, that's okay."

A local Tea Party organizer falsely claimed that the couple had made up the story and tried to justify the town hall behavior, according to the Southtown Star.

Catherina Wojtowicz, of Chicago's Mount Greenwood community, an organizer for a Tea Party splinter group, Chicago Tea Party Patriots, falsely claimed that the Houghs fabricated their story. In an e-mail, she called them operatives of President Barack Obama who "go from event to event and (cry) the same story." [...]

The audience, Wojtowicz later explained, was exasperated by stories of isolated tragedies that cloud debate over the health care bill itself.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/11/23/tea-party-patriots-attack_n_367...

toniD's Ya Think?

those people are a show toniD. They are bought and paid for at some level. These events have always been staged.

Is the public going to fall for this again? I have more faith in the American public than to believe they will fall for the manipulation of these corporate sponsored and manipulated events.

If I'm wrong, I'm wrong. But if I'm wrong, don't expect me to believe the American public in any way from that point forward. I believe the public is smarter than that and hope they don't provide the evidence to believe otherwise.

BREAKING: Major investigative story: Blackwater's Secret War in Pakistan

..Jeremy Scahill Nation exclusive

I would say shame on you but those people have no shame.

That bitch Catherina Wojtowicz and her conspirators were the Worst Persons in the World tonight.

I'm just stunned that there are even this many people that lack a heart and soul. Humanity is disappearing.

toniD's Ya Think?

Top Dem to Obama: 'There Ain't Going to Be Money for Nothing if We Pour It All Into Afghanistan' Updated at 1:14 PM

Source: ABC News

Rep. Obey Warns President Obama He Will Ask Taxpayers to Pay for War, Should More Troops Be Sent

WASHINGTON, Nov. 23, 2009—

The powerful chairman of the House Appropriations Committee has a stark message for President Obama about Afghanistan -- sending more troops would be a mistake that could "wipe out every initiative we have to rebuild our own economy."

"There ain't going to be no money for nothing if we pour it all into Afghanistan," House Appropriations Chairman David Obey told ABC News in an exclusive interview. "If they ask for an increased troop commitment in Afghanistan, I am going to ask them to pay for it."

Obey, a Democrat from Wisconsin, made it clear that he is absolutely opposed to sending any more U.S. troops to Afghanistan and says if Obama decides to do that, he'll demand a new tax -- what he calls a "war surtax" -- to pay for it.

"On the merits, I think it is a mistake to deepen our involvement," Obey said. "But if we are going to do that, then at least we ought to pay for it. Because if we don't, if we don't pay for it, the cost of the Afghan war will wipe out every initiative we have to rebuild our own economy."

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/rep-david-obey-warns-president-obama-afgh...

toniD's Ya Think?

Lee holds rally to end Afghanistan war
By Josh Richman
Oakland Tribune
Posted: 11/23/2009 02:51:52 PM PST
Updated: 11/23/2009 03:18:40 PM PST

OAKLAND — It's time to ratchet up the rhetoric not only against a U.S. troop increase in Afghanistan, but in favor of withdrawing our troops and rescinding the authorization that sent them there eight years ago, Rep. Barbara Lee told a cheering crowd Monday.

Lee, D-Oakland, staged a rally outside the federal building on Clay Street in support of HR3699, a bill she introduced Oct. 1 that would forbid spending any money to expand the nation's military presence in Afghanistan. President Barack Obama is currently considering what to do in Afghanistan; military leaders want more troops, but the public and Congress are divided.

Lee drew applause from the crowd of about 150 as she thanked the President for thoughtfully reviewing U.S. strategy.

"There is nothing wrong with dithering," she said, using a term critics have employed against Obama. "When trying to make the best decision on behalf of our men and women in uniform and on behalf of our national security, he's right to take his time."

http://www.contracostatimes.com/bay-area-news/ci_13852135

toniD's Ya Think?

Kickin' Blanche's behind from Little Rock to Texarkana.

We're progressives. The women are doin' the ass kickin' as far as I can see.

I getting in touch with my feminine side. ;-)

This is just sick, really sick people. Sad to call them American
Submitted by toniD on Mon, 11/23/2009 - 8:30pm.
Tea Party Patriots Attack Family Who Lost Daughter And Grandchild (VIDEO)
http://samsedershow.com/node/5502#comment-382653

(a post meant for a thread, several back ago)

“Perriello spokeswoman Jessica Barba said Perriello met with and respected those who oppose the health care bill but ultimately made the decision he deemed best for his district. Perriello's 5th District stretches from Charlottesville to Danville.”

“’A lot of the political pundits and all the conventional wisdom is saying that this is going to cost him the election next year,’ she said. ‘He didn't come to Congress to get re-elected.’”
http://samsedershow.com/node/5479#comment-381278

Congressman Periello‘s home office is regularly underseige usually by the teabaggers. My son's girlfriend works in a building across from Congressman Perriello’s Charlottesville office and she sends me pictures all the time of the protests and rallies.

Apparently, there was a protest earlier this week (she hasn't sent that batch of pictures yet.) After the Saturday vote on "Stupidpak," I figured it was over that but she said this time it was a rally combining support of his vote for the health care bill and admonition for his vote for the amendment and was large enough to relegate the meager group of teabaggers’ protest to the perimeter. (But nobody puts them "on" a corner, that weekend they held a rally elsewhere that would allow them to burn Perriello in effigy.)

"It's almost as if Perriello has "convictions" that are more important to him than doing whatever he can to preserve his Congressional career. Inside the Beltway, this behavior is generally regarded as insane. If Perriello was a fighter pilot, he'd be grounded, according to Catch-22."
http://samsedershow.com/node/5479#comment-381278

Perhaps, the following provides some insight to Perriello that relates to and substantiates the above observation as well as to what he is contending with in his district; and leads to the realization that at least his vote for the amendment, though, IMHO, a serious error, is one he made of his own misjudgment and not of some group-think.

As a middle school administrator, one of my son's responsibilities is the county-mandated bully-prevention program, "Character-Counts" which brings in community leaders to speak to the students.

It so happens Perriello is the school's alumnus. In addition, when he attended the school, he was recognized for and presented with the school’s integrity/character award so it should have been a no-brainer to invite Perriello speak to the students.

However, the invitation never went out to avoid stirring up the protests of the rethug, conservative teachers and parents who represent a significant portion of a community that also has a significant portion of open-minded, liberal teachers and parents.

Ironically, the bullies got their way in the school's prevention program.

...their objections are just the projection of their actual intentions.

Submitted by maggiesboy on Mon, 11/23/2009 - 8:53pm.

BREAKING: Major investigative story: Blackwater's Secret War in Pakistan

"The source said that the program is so 'compartmentalized' that senior figures within the Obama administration and the US military chain of command may not be aware of its existence. figures within the Obama administration and the US military chain of command may not be aware of its existence."

-----
If the Bushies weren't such totally batshit control freaks, they might have looked into that more carefully.

OTOH, plausible also means possible...

Dobbs is considering running for president in 2012
Submitted by edna ellen poe on Mon, 11/23/2009 - 2:35pm.

As the hijacked republican party continues to speed along in the extremist radical right ditch they are in one wonders if a nutball ticket as above with simple slogans & simple answers could happen.

I don't think they could do worse even if the numbskull of numbskulls war dog was running.

I think they would get creamed just as McCain-Palin did last year.

looks like Obama & Co. are telling us to STFU about Geithner....

I've seen enough I think....

Recap of last nights JFK Special VII on Coast To Coast AM
Plus lots of links and other information -

Host: George Knapp Date: 11-22-09

Guests: Jim Marrs, John Barbour, Kenn Thomas

George Knapp presided over the 7th annual JFK Special, featuring three acclaimed Kennedy assassination researchers. He was joined by award-winning journalist Jim Marrs along with TV producer and critic John Barbour in the first half of the program, as well as conspiracy expert Kenn Thomas in the latter half of the show. "It only seems controversial," Marrs said of the Kennedy assassination, because there is a such a glaring difference of opinion between those who believe the government's version of events and "those who have actually studied the case."

Barbour and Marrs cited a myriad of suspicious elements involving the Kennedy assassination, such as the FBI's handling of evidence following the murder and issues with the veracity of the gunpowder tests administered to Lee Harvey Oswald. Barbour noted that the spent shell casings, allegedly from the shooting, were found sitting on the book depository's 6th floor windowsill, "one inch apart and facing the street." An amused Marrs observed that such a scenario would be impossible because, when discharging a spent shell from that type of gun, "it flings it over your right shoulder."

They also discussed the nature of the enduring mystery surrounding the murder of Kennedy. Marrs explained that much of the confusion about the event has been created on purpose. "The cover-up has been based on obfuscation," he observed, noting that all the various suspects and factions blamed for the assassination only serve to make the case harder to truly solve. "All the facts were there, they were just never investigated," Barbour concurred. Ultimately, Marrs mused, the true story of what happened on that day in Dallas will never be "officially" known because it is simply too troubling to be revealed by the government.

In the second half of the program, Kenn Thomas focused on the connection between the JFK assassination and infamous esoteric figure Fred Crisman. Thomas detailed how the enigmatic Crisman was named as the prime suspect for being the Grassy Knoll shooter by two independent sources, one of which was prosecutor Jim Garrison. Potentially placing him at the scene of the crime, Thomas said, is the "three tramps" photo where the character known as "Frenchie" is a "spitting image of Crisman." Thomas also addressed various theories which tied JFK's murder to mind control, UFOs, and even Nazi scientists imported via Project Paperclip.

Website(s):
# jimmarrs.com
# steamshovelpress.com

Book(s):
# Crossfire: The Plot That Killed Kennedy
# Parapolitics: Conspiracy in Contemporary America
# Secret and Suppressed II

Related Articles

* I-Team: The JFK Conspiracy Theory
* JFK Assassination Film Hoax

The JFK Assassination: Recommended Reading List

In anticipation of the JFK Special, we polled Jim Marrs, John Barbour, and Kenn Thomas for their recommended reading list of books related to the JFK assassination. The result was a veritable cornucopia of conspiracy tomes covering not only the assassination itself, but also Lee Harvey Oswald's life as a spy, the story of a man who may have been set up to be the 2nd patsy on November 22nd, 1963, and some recent examinations of America's most infamous parapolitical mystery.

Jim Marrs:

Anyone who wants to really delve into the Kennedy assassination should start with the Warren Commission Report (1964). Most of the information in this report is valid. The problem is not with what they reported but with what they failed to report. Then read my 1989 book Crossfire: The Plot that Killed Kennedy to take up the slack. These two books should give the reader a good background in the case.

Then, for more up-to-date thoughts and the broad perspective, I would recommend:

* David Talbot's Brothers (2005)

* James Douglass', JFK and the Unspeakable (2008)

* John F. Kennedy: History, Memory, Legacy (2009)

* Revisiting Dealey Plaza: What Happened to JFK? - a compendium of various researchers edited by James H. Fetzer

John Barbour:

* On The Trail Of the Assassins by Jim Garrison. Garrison's view of the killing as a result of his investigations, and the book bought by Oliver Stone as the basis for the film.

* Rush To Judgement by Mark Lane. Forced to go outside the country to get his critique of The Warren Commission published,(being paid only $1,200.00,) this is the book that really brought wide attention to the shabbiness of the Government's non-investigation.

* The Man Who Knew Too Much by Dick Russell. It's a long book but an unbelievable read about Richard Case Nagell,the man assigned to kill Oswald, but who felt he was being set up as the alternate patsy, and to save himself walked into a bank just weeks before Nov. 22nd., 1963, shot bullets into the ceiling and when arrested said, 'I don't want to be in Dallas on Nov. 22nd!'

* Crossfire by Jim Marrs. Another well-written, solid taking apart of the Government's case against Oswald, and another book used by Oliver Stone for his film.

* Post Mortem by Harold Weisberg. Weisberg is a former Intelligence Officer who self-printed a number of books called 'Whitewash' in which he very meticulously shreds the myths surrounding the government's view of Kennedy's killing.

* Sons And Brothers by Richard Mahoney. Mahoney, who ran for the Senate in Arizona, started out wanting to just write a book about Bobby Kennedy, but the more he delved into the material the more he realized there had been a major conspiracy at the very highest levels.

* Deep Politics And The Death Of JFK by Richard Dale Scott. The title is self-explanatory and shows just how deep the conspiracy went.

* Conspiracy by Anthony Summers. This English Investigative Journalist is the British version of Jim Marrs, and shows just how international is the disdain for The Warren Report.

* A Farewell To Justice by Joan Mellen. The best book written about Jim Garrison's case against New Orleans businessman Clay shaw, and probably the best book written about Garrison himself.

* Heritage Of Stone by Jim Garrison. This book about the Clay Shaw trial received rave reviews by John Leonard in the morning edition of The New York Times, but didn't appear in the late edition. Evidently the Times didn't think it was News Fit To Print!

Kenn Thomas:

* NASA, Nazis & JFK ... yes, one of mine, but it has the indispensable Torbitt Document

* Rush To Judgment by Mark Lane ... since it was the first (and has a movie documentary)

* Plausible Denial by Lane ... covers the E. Howard Hunt trial story

* Spy Saga by Phil Melanson ... covers Oswald's life as a spy

* Oswald and the CIA by John Newman ... also covers Oswald's life as a spy

* Crossfire by Jim Marrs ... for best overview of the case

* Best Evidence by David Lifton ... covers the "body switch" theory and "wink" photo

* Legend, The Secret World of Lee Harvey Oswald ... has a photo of John Wayne and Oswald together

* Destiny Betrayed by Jim DiEugenio ... covers the Garrison case

* On The Trail of the Assassins by Jim Garrison

http://beta.coasttocoastam.com/show/2009/11/22

;)

- not kidding

after the anniversary. GWB is there and pictures of the plaza.

Mike is getting all sentimental....

A sign of impending resolve.....

You got examples? Never noticed any trends myself except:

1. "Prince of Darkness" or that song about "...oh the suffering..." gets played after the most horrible stories (torture, hate crimes etc. Lately this has alternated occasionally with "It's A Hard Life Wherever You Go."

2. Sex stories get "Baby Got Back" and whatever that song he plays along with it "She hit the flo'...She got low low low low."

3. "Right wing world" type stories get that "Diamonds and Dogs" song (among many others).

4. Impending Armageddon stories got "ELE" until they got sick of it.

Plus, what if Kathy picks?

At first I thought somebody was trying to implicate Gwendolyn
Brooks in JFK. Because, I mean, it said "the motorcade..., a young George HW Bush,...Gwendolyn Brooks...."

(In reference to Fernando's dumped photos story.)

The Extremely Large Telescope

Written by Robert Simpson | November 23rd, 2009

E-ELT Model(PHOTO)

The European Southern Observatory (ESO) is planning on building a massive – and I do mean massive – telescope in the next decade. The European Extremely Large Telescope (E-ELT) is a 42-meter telescope in its final planning stages. Weighing in at 5,000 tonnes, and made up of 984 individual mirrors, it will be able to image the discs of extrasolar planets and resolve individual stars in galaxies beyond the Local Group! By 2018 ESO hope to be using this gargantuan scope to stare so deep into space that they can actually see the Universe expanding!

The E-ELT is currently scheduled for completion around 2018 and when built it will be four times larger than anything currently looking at the sky in optical wavelengths and 100 times more powerful than the Hubble Space Telescope – despite being a ground-based observatory.

With advanced adaptive optics systems, the E-ELT will use up to 6 laser guide stars to analyse the twinkling caused by the motion of the atmosphere. Computer systems move the 984 individual mirrored panels up to a thousand times a second to cancel out this blurring effect in real time. The result is an image almost as crisp as if the telescope were in space.

This combination of incredible technological power and gigantic size mean that that the E-ELT will be able to not only detect the presence of planets around other stars but also begin to make images of them. It could potentially make a direct image of a Super Earth (a rocky planet just a few times larger than Earth). It would be capable of observing planets around stars within 15-30 light years of the Earth – there are almost 400 stars within that distance!

The E-ELT will be able to resolve stars within distant galaxies and as such begin to understand the history of such galaxies. This method of using the chemical composition, age and mass of stars to unravel the history of the galaxy is sometimes called galactic archaeology and instruments like the E-ELT would lead the way in such research.

Incredibly, by measuring the redshift of distant galaxies over many years with a telescope as sensitive as the E-ELT it should be possible to detect the gradual change in their doppler shift. As such the E-ELT could allow humans to watch the Universe itself expand!

ESO has already spent millions on developing the E-ELT concept. If it is completed as planned then it will eventually cost about €1 billion. The technology required to make the E-ELT happen is being developed right now all over the world – in fact it is creating new technologies, jobs and industry as it goes along. The telescope's enclosure alone presents a huge engineering conundrum – how do you build something the size of modern sports stadium at high altitude and without any existing roads? They will need to keep 5,000 tonnes of metal and glass slewing around smoothly and easily once it's operating – as well as figuring out how to mass-produce more than 1200 1.4m hexagonal mirrors.

The E-ELT has the capacity to transform our view not only of the Universe but of telescopes and the technology to build them as well. It will be a huge leap forward in telescope engineering and for European astronomy it will be a massive 42m jewel in the crown.

PHOTO AT LINK:

http://www.universetoday.com/2009/11/23/the-extremely-large-telescope/

Reminiscing Kennedy and listening to Sinatra....

No, you are right g....no sentimentality there....

Should be a good show tonight, Starts at Midnight here in the central time zone. Is it possible to transform capitalism like this? It would be wonderful if so.
______________________________

Coast To Coast AM Show Tonight:

Transforming Capitalism

Host: George Noory | Date: 11-23-09

Guests: Howard Bloom

Multi-disciplinary scientist, Howard Bloom, will talk about his latest work proposing a next-generation of capitalism for western civilization, and how passion, persistence and desire are key factors in transforming society.

Website(s):

# HowardBloom.net

# bigbangtango.net

Book(s):

# The Genius of the Beast: A Radical Re-Vision of Capitalism

http://beta.coasttocoastam.com/show/2009/11/23

and I wasn't saying you were wrong about anything.

Just asking...

There may be an obvious answer to the resolve part too. Maybe I'm just trying to do too many things at once. Sorry.

Oceans rising faster than expected as climate change exceeds grimmest models

Warming exceeds grimmest climate models

Since the 1997 international accord to fight global warming, climate change has worsened and accelerated — beyond some of the grimmest of warnings made back then.

As the world has talked for a dozen years about what to do next, new ship passages opened through the once frozen summer sea ice of the Arctic. In Greenland and Antarctica, ice sheets have lost trillions of tons of ice. Mountain glaciers in Europe, South America, Asia and Africa are shrinking faster than before.

And it's not just the frozen parts of the world that have felt the heat in the dozen years leading up to next month's climate summit in Copenhagen:

_ The world's oceans have risen by about an inch and a half.

_Droughts and wildfires have turned more severe worldwide, from the U.S. West to Australia to the Sahel desert of North Africa.

_Species now in trouble because of changing climate include, not just the lumbering polar bear which has become a symbol of global warming, but also fragile butterflies, colorful frogs and entire stands of North American pine forests.

_Temperatures over the past 12 years are 0.4 of a degree warmer than the dozen years leading up to 1997.

Even the gloomiest climate models back in the 1990s didn't forecast results quite this bad so fast.

"The latest science is telling us we are in more trouble than we thought," Janos Pasztor, climate adviser to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.

And here's why: Since an agreement to reduce greenhouse gas pollution was signed in Kyoto, Japan, in December 1997, the level of carbon dioxide in the air has increased 6.5 percent. Officials from across the world will convene in Copenhagen next month to seek a follow-up pact, one that President Barack Obama says "has immediate operational effect ... an important step forward in the effort to rally the world around a solution."

The last effort didn't quite get the anticipated results. more...

http://rawstory.com/2009/11/global-warming-sped-kyoto-scientists/

toniD's Ya Think?

I got a call today about a paid survey and then given a screening. I managed to get through it with flying colors without lying so I am going to be involved in a major survey on social issues next week. The amazing part of this is that I am getting paid $175 plus lunch & dinner for them to pick my brain.

I hope there are no Vulcan mind meld's or any kind of probes because they would have to pay me a lot extra for those. ;)

..apparently ConservaDems aren't.

"We're dealing with a series of upcoming negotiations in which conservative Dems' indifference gives them leverage. In other words, Lieberman, Nelson, & Co. don't much care if this once-in-a-generation opportunity implodes, while reform advocates [Bernie Sanders, Roland Burris, Sherrod Brown] care very much. These rather obvious bargaining positions create a playing field that is anything but level.

For conservative Democrats, the response would be, 'We can live with failure.'"

Fuckers! Sign this to support the reconciliation option

"this machine kills fascists"

[linked from the ice.blu vid at top.]
Peak oil is a mathematical fact - not a theory

ChrisMartensondotcom
February 25, 2009
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cwNgNyiXPLk
[re see "an interesting aside" at 5:00ff]
Chapter 17a - Peak Oil: Energy is the lifeblood of any economy and a steady supply of energy is necessary to maintain the status quo, while an ever-increasing supply is needed to grow an economy. In this chapter, Dr. Chris Martenson explains that Peak Oil is not a theory, rather it is a description of how oil production increases over time, reaches a peak, then declines. Evidence points to a global production peak in the near future, which is troubling since the U.S. imports two-thirds of its oil and relies on it to much of its transportation and food production needs.

==
at about 1:15 of the up top teabagger vid, "we're here to be great, not eat yogurt."

Call me an optimist, but I think we can do both.

==
Nice audio observations glory.
==
I can hardly walk - shoulders back sides arms hands fingers. Was so happy when I woke up 2 hrs. ago that it wasn't 7am and time to get up and go restore the theater. As I try to type even my ring and little fingers are so tied there is a kind of numbness. A crash exercise course. It's a good thing generally. Well, really about 50/50. It's good to know one can work all day and then work really hard through the night to nearly noon the next day. A tired of physical labor. The using of the hands to get things done. With the added thrill of the threat of imminent death. [the rigger working up in the grid over everybody's head thing] My inner debate of the difference between knowing how to use the mind/hand combo to actually change the world as opposed to an individual telling someone else 'this is what I want and I want you to do and I will "pay" you.' That someone being a somebody that does not know how to do "stuff." Yet they are in charge and have 'power.' Power that amounts to purse strings. And the joy of the fly-by-night entrainment industry [oh,... I mean the legit theater] where you get a job and the job ends and you get a new job. So the power of assholes is somewhat limited.

Getting back to my recent phantom of the opera experience. Would like to see the show from the audience some time. Audio wise I think the show is french horn heavy. In a good way, ...I love the french horn, often hanging out there alone, need to strike the note with perfection because if you don't, well, it is perfection or nothing...

~`ordinary's just not good enough today - olp`~
Jamesbenet

Newspaper circulation may be worse than it looks
Nov 22, 3:43 PM (ET)

By MICHAEL LIEDTKE

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - While U.S. newspapers are losing subscribers at a staggering rate, a few dailies stand out because their circulation is rising. But they aren't necessarily selling more copies.

Here's why: Since April 1, new auditing rules have made it easier for newspapers to count a reader as a paying customer.

These looser standards are especially helpful to a newspaper if it sells an "electronic edition." That can include a subscriber-only Web site, such as what The Wall Street Journal has, or it can be a digital replica of a newspaper's printed product. Several dozen publications, including USA Today, sell access to these daily "e-editions" that show how the news was laid out in print.

Under the new auditing standards, if a newspaper sells a "bundled" subscription to both the print and electronic editions, the publication is often allowed to count that subscriber twice.

If not for these rules, the industry's numbers would look even worse. Average weekday circulation at 379 U.S. newspapers fell 10.6 percent during the six months ending in September. That was the steepest decline ever recorded by the Audit Bureau of Circulations, the organization that verifies how many people are paying to read publications.

It's not clear what the numbers would have been under the old auditing standards. But the effects of the new rules were widespread. There were 59 newspapers that listed at least 5,000 electronic editions in their weekday circulations, according to an Associated Press review of the figures filed with the ABC for the April-September period. In all but a few instances, the number of electronic subscribers was substantially higher than a year ago. --more--
http://apnews.myway.com/article/20091122/D9C4Q4T00.html

____________________________________________

Microsoft and News Corp eye web pact
By Matthew Garrahan in Los Angeles, Richard Waters in San Francisco and Andrew Edgecliffe-Johnson in New York

Published: November 22 2009 23:01 | Last updated: November 22 2009 23:01

Microsoft has had discussions with News Corp over a plan that would involve the media company being paid to “de-index” its news websites from Google, setting the scene for a search engine battle that could offer a ray of light to the newspaper industry.

The impetus for the discussions came from News Corp, owner of newspapers ranging from the Wall Street Journal of the US to The Sun of the UK, said a person familiar with the situation, who warned that talks were at an early stage.

However, the Financial Times has learnt that Microsoft has also approached other big online publishers to persuade them to remove their sites from Google’s search engine.

News Corp and Microsoft, which owns the rival Bing search engine, declined to comment.

One website publisher approached by Microsoft said that the plan “puts enormous value on content if search engines are prepared to pay us to index with them”.

Microsoft’s interest is being interpreted as a direct assault on Google because it puts pressure on the search engine to start paying for content.

“This is all about Microsoft hurting Google’s margins,” said the web publisher who is familiar with the plan.

But the biggest beneficiary of the tussle could be the newspaper industry, which has yet to construct a reliable online business model that adequately replaces declining print and advertising revenues. -more-
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/a243c8b2-d79b-11de-b578-00144feabdc0.html

I hope I sleep ok tonight. I hope I don't have any sleep state musings of Katie Couric gyrating her bottom.

Please, if there is a God, not that.

Blackwater's Secret War in Pakistan
By Jeremy Scahill

November 23, 2009

At a covert forward operating base run by the US Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) in the Pakistani port city of Karachi, members of an elite division of Blackwater are at the center of a secret program in which they plan targeted assassinations of suspected Taliban and Al Qaeda operatives, "snatch and grabs" of high-value targets and other sensitive action inside and outside Pakistan, an investigation by The Nation has found. The Blackwater operatives also assist in gathering intelligence and help run a secret US military drone bombing campaign that runs parallel to the well-documented CIA predator strikes, according to a well-placed source within the US military intelligence apparatus.

The source, who has worked on covert US military programs for years, including in Afghanistan and Pakistan, has direct knowledge of Blackwater's involvement. He spoke to The Nation on condition of anonymity because the program is classified. The source said that the program is so "compartmentalized" that senior figures within the Obama administration and the US military chain of command may not be aware of its existence.

[...]

The Nation

No real big surprise here...JSOC is McChrystal's last Command.....

sounds like carpal tunnel probs.

i risked the surgery when i could'nt sleep more than an hour at night.

just had the freezer give up on us.

i'll be trying to give away all that food as it defrosts.

sure going to miss all that smoked salmon.

Submitted by Fernando on Mon, 11/23/2009 - 8:50pm.

Is the public going to fall for this again? I have more faith in the American public than to believe they will fall for the manipulation of these corporate sponsored and manipulated events.
_______________

If I wanted to be a dick about it I would write, "Uhh.. Were you in a coma during most of this decade?"

BUT I'm not going to be a dick about it.

"SLEEP TIGHT, BATSHIT."
-Bill Maher to 9/11 nut
www.sigzone.blogspot.com

Strange too...the overload relay went out on my fridge yesterday.

I was able to take the parts out and find them here in the city, but when I got it home the freekin' plug contacts were different. Part numbers match, it is otherwise identical to the old part, plugs into the compressor fine, but the contacts for the electrical pigtail that feeds into the relay are different.

I got dry ice to keep the fridge contents cool. Dunno how long that'll last. Have to deal with it again today. ERrrr.

"this machine kills fascists"

There's really no fix for it? And you can't find another you can afford before the food goes bad?

And 60th...At least you know what a "overload relay" and all that shit is, but ultimately...

All my kitchen appliances are as old as the house, which is 30. They have given faithful service, and NOT because I am DIY, but are slipping little by little. The other day I lost spin on the washer setting I use the most but thankfully it worked on another setting that was OK. And with that there's always ringing out anyhow--not like stocked-up food going bad.

You seem to be sleeping different (less?) lately, Jim. What's up with that?

==========
James, take care...

Last nights JFK Special VII on Coast To Coast AM & MuchMore Info
Submitted by Harbinger on Mon, 11/23/2009 - 9:43pm.
Recap of last nights JFK Special VII on Coast To Coast AM
Plus lots of links and other information -

*******

http://www.samsedershow.com/node/511#comment-382584

**

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

MMRules

ouch...

What kind of puppy is chewin your hand ? :)

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

MMRules

(not a Wolf ;))
;) my wee lass ;);(

but is a Scottish Terrier chewy machine ...but she has many a "toy". ...and barks at cats -- but also sleeps with one ex-stray. awwwwww

But "It's A Jungle Out There... I may never watch channel 14 where "Monk" show appeared... :( save for hoping to watch any MONK repeats ...

But you have to endure Pat Buchanen first.

toniD's Ya Think?

...in mountains. When dryer stop "drying" then I "air" cycle dried or start the fire & line dry near fire, if raining outside ... I just am thankful Washer is working, for I did 20 years of intense handwashing {with a washboard :}
;) be well Sunshine Jim ... And Good Luck, with all you do. /|\)0(

let's see what happens today...

for all the gloom and doom stories being posted here, a big steaming cup of Icelandic Blue...POW!(apologies to MM)

Wow. Why is it that all the coolest product ideas seem to come from Iceland?

Climate Science and Candor

* NOVEMBER 24, 2009, 6:58 A.M. ET
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142405274870477970457455365284909448...
Editor's note: The following are emails we've selected from more than 3,000 emails and documents that were hacked last week from computers at the University of East Anglia's Climate Research Unit in the United Kingdom. The CRU is the data repository for much of the world's climate research and is a major source for the judgments reached by the U.N.'s climate reports.
===
What's the problem?
I get the impression these guys are peers of each other and they seem to be reviewing, among themselves, the things of their world.

Can you imagine if journalists had the same kind of mentality and would call out dishonesty and being "a mediocre journal with a definite 'purpose'?"

~`ordinary's just not good enough today - olp`~
Jamesbenet

Submitted by Ms_Anthrope on Tue, 11/24/2009 - 6:53am.
but is a Scottish Terrier chewy machine ...but she has many a "toy".

*******

Them doggies love to chew up shoes,if u haven't found out already.. :)

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

MMRules

The Justice Department has concluded that there is insufficient evidence to bring criminal charges against former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales for allegedly misleading Congress about the Bush administration’s warrantless eavesdropping program.

The decision was first disclosed yesterday by Murray Waas in a little-noticed posting on the blog of New York Magazine. The magazine cited public court records and federal law enforcement officials as its sources.

Although Gonzales remains under investigation by the Justice Department for two other matters, it had been allegations that he gave false or purposely misleading testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee about the warrantless eavesdropping program that placed him by far in the greatest legal jeopardy.

In not bringing criminal charges, however, investigators for the Department’s Inspector General, which conducted the investigation, hardly let Gonzales off the hook completely. They concluded that Gonzales testimony before Congress about the eavesdropping program was “confusing,” “incomplete’ and had the “effect of misleading” both Congress and the public.
http://nymag.com/daily/intel/2009/11/alberto_gonzales_quietly_trium.html

For some people, climate change is a tough cause to rally ‘round—even those who understand that it’s happening and that it’s human-caused get distracted by things like eating, working, having sex, watching TV, or watching people on TV have sex.

While social scientists ponder the best ways to get the message out and motivate the masses—and since we’re gearing up to cover December’s climate talks in Copenhagen—we’ve devised a Grist list of good reasons to care about this global crisis. Got reasons of your own? Let us know in the comments section bel
http://www.grist.org/article/2009-11-19-top-25-reasons-to-give-a-damn-ab...

*250,000 people are protesting against inevitable pay cuts and the union movement behind these workers are ready for the mother of all public fights!

As I see it we had this property scam in Ireland which I'd compare with the fear instilled into the American people by the Bush Administration. The scam was all consuming. If you didn't buy a property you were seen and a Muppet and a pauper. If your loved one bought a property it was seen as a great achievement paralleling the birth of a child or an engagement. We felt deadly signing away our money to banks for forty years!
These people need their wages to pay for their house and will do everything possible to keep their house! These people are angry!

Con't..

http://2uibestow.blogspot.com/2009/11/tuesdays-topical-threesome-anger-s...

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

MMRules

Can u put bloggie back to normal mode ?

Thanks.. :)

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

MMRules

Blackwater's Secret War in Pakistan

At a covert forward operating base run by the US Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) in the Pakistani port city of Karachi, members of an elite division of Blackwater are at the center of a secret program in which they plan targeted assassinations of suspected Taliban and Al Qaeda operatives, "snatch and grabs" of high-value targets and other sensitive action inside and outside Pakistan, an investigation by The Nation has found. The Blackwater operatives also assist in gathering intelligence and help run a secret US military drone bombing campaign that runs parallel to the well-documented CIA predator strikes, according to a well-placed source within the US military intelligence apparatus.
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20091207/scahill

Systemic Risk Panel Would Lack Independence; Treasury Secretary Would Call The Shots

If the White House and congressional leaders get their way, the vaunted new oversight council charged with overseeing systemic risk in the financial markets will actually be a house organ of the Treasury Department, lacking the independence required to challenge decisions by government regulators, among others.

Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.) last week tried to fix that, by offering an amendment in the House Financial Services Committee that would give the council an independent staff and independent source of funding. But he was forced to withdraw the amendment after it became clear that he wouldn't get Chairman Barney Frank's approval, said a source familiar with the committee's deliberations.

The committee was crafting a bill that would create a Financial Services Oversight Council, a collection of federal regulators who would oversee the kinds of risks that escaped government attention prior to the financial crisis. Such risks included interconnected Wall Street firms that borrowed $30 for every $1 they kept in reserves, and the insurance that AIG provided to firms for their derivatives contracts without actually keeping any money in case it had to pay up.

As proposed by the Obama administration, the House bill calls for the council to be headed by the Treasury Secretary, who would pick his own staff from within the Treasury Department.

But not only is the council supposed to keep watch over firms and activities that pose a risk, it's also supposed to oversee the work of other regulators in mitigating threats and supervise financial regulation as a whole, according to the bill's language. In short, it has a mandate to watch over everything that could possibly endanger the financial system - including inaction and incompetence by regulators.

The independence of the council is in question, experts say, because it will be overseen by someone whose actions it is supposed to examine and question -- the Treasury Secretary -- who will also be able to handpick the staff that is supposed to act as independent watchdogs.

The current secretary, Timothy Geithner, has been the target of a barrage of criticisms from Democrats, Republicans, and government watchdogs for his handling of the crisis and bailout last fall when he was a Federal Reserve official, and his overall handling of the economy since becoming Treasury Secretary.

Ellison's amendment, according to a copy obtained by the Huffington Post, called for an independent permanent staff -- rather than Treasury employees. In addition, it called for those firms especially subject to the council's heightened regulation to pay, through monthly assessments, the watchdogs' salaries.
Story continues below

Frank spokesman Steven Adamske disputed the source's explanation for why Ellison withdrew his amendment, telling the Huffington Post that "all members are allowed to offer amendments so I don't agree with this characterization."

He added: "As to the council staff, the council is directed by Congress to look out for potential pitfalls in the financial system -- not oversee the agencies." more...

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/11/23/systemic-risk-panel-would_n_368...

toniD's Ya Think?

arah Palin’s Woman Problem
November 23rd, 2009 at 5:00 pm by David Frum | 74 Comments |
Share

Opinions differ about Sarah Palin – everybody knows that. But what infuses debate over the governor with special energy is that we can’t even get to agreement on the basic facts.

Pro-Palin conservatives take it for granted that Palin is immensely popular and that she helped turn around McCain’s staggering campaign. Nothing seems to shake this view: not the polls showing that 63% of Americans say they would “never” consider voting for her, not evidence that McCain’s slide in the polls coincides not with the economic data, but with his choice of Palin as running mate, not Palin’s own precipitous collapse in public approval over the month of October 2008.

(There are a lot of numbers in this last link, but note particularly the CNN polls on the question about whether McCain/Obama/Biden/Palin have the qualities a leader should have. McCain began the fall campaign with 62% thinking him a good leader – and ended with the same 62%. Obama began at 62% and ended at 65%. Biden gained more: from 55% to 67%. And Palin? She plunged from 47% to 37%. By the end of the campaign 63% of Americans said she did NOT have the qualities a president should have.)

Here’s the latest installment in this alternative reality fiction.

I was interviewed on PBS last week about Palin’s book release. I said that Palin had an especially serious problem with women voters.

This is just fact, again recorded in every survey. In October 2008, Palin’s support dropped furthest and fastest among women, and especially among independents: more than two dozen points among independent women in barely 6 weeks. Consistently since the campaign, every survey has shown the former Alaska governor much more popular among men than women. And yet this attested statistical fact is shrugged off with comments like, “when I saw her campaign in N.H., I was surrounded by moms with strollers”

So let’s try to bang this one down for keeps.

Earlier this month, CNN/Opinion Research released a poll showing that only 28% of Americans now think Palin qualified for the presidency. 70% say she is unqualified. Even among Republicans, only 54% think she is qualified, 44% say No.

The published poll does not break these answers down by sex, but I asked my friends at the Political Unit for the cross-tabs, and here’s what they show:

While 33% of men deem Palin qualified, only 24% of women do. 66% of men deem her unqualified – and 74% of women.

Now look just at Republicans: Republican men deem Palin “qualified” by a margin of 60-38. But Republican women? Not even half think she is qualified: only 49%. 50% of Republican women say Palin is unqualified for the job.

If you like Palin – well go ahead. It’s a free country. But quit saying that “the people” love Sarah Palin.

They don’t. Actually, they quite dislike her. The longer they know her, the more they dislike her. And even more than they dislike her, they do not respect her. That reaction of dislike and disrespect is most concentrated among American women.

Sarah’s constituency is a relatively small cohort of conservative men. I offended a lot of these people last week by suggesting that there was some sexual dynamic at work in the enthusiasm for the politician whom Rush Limbaugh used to describe as “Governor Babe.” So let’s put it this way: Whatever impulse it is that so excites Palin supporters, it is not shared by their wives.

http://www.frumforum.com/sarah-palins-woman-problem

toniD's Ya Think?

Obama Not Losing Independents
Charles Franklin notes there have been several articles about President Obama losing support among independents.

"But support for Obama has not plummeted among independents, and that needs to be clarified before it becomes erroneous conventional wisdom... Claims of abandonment of Obama by independents (or lib-Dems or con-Dems) are substantially exaggerated over the past three months. Significant decline from May through August, yes indeed among Inds and Reps, but that trend halted in August."

http://www.pollster.com/blogs/obama_and_indepedents.php

toniD's Ya Think?

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

MMRules

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

MMRules

"It took years for Alaska to achieve victory. As governor, I directed our attorney general to write
an amicus brief in the case, and, thanks to Alaska's able attorneys arguing in front of the Supreme
Court, that ruled in favor of the people. Finally, Alaskans could recover some of their losses."

-- Sarah Palin, taking credit for bringing down Exxon, Link

**

"That is the most cockamamie bullshit. She didn't have a
damn thing to do with it, and she didn't know what it was about."

-- Dave Oesting of Anchorage, the lead plaintiff attorney in the private litigants' civil case against Exxon,
on Sarah Palin's account of the lawsuit against Exxon over the 1989 Valdez disaster, Link

bartcop.com

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

MMRules

Keep up the good work!

Dear ,

Washington can be a very lonely place when you are fighting for progressive ideas like Medicare for All and an end to the occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan.  It is for that reason I wanted to thank all my friends at PDA for your hard work this past week. 

Last Wednesday, I had an opportunity to meet with your national director Tim Carpenter, following his visit to the White House, and PDA’s political director Steve Cobble. They met with five other members of Congress that day in an effort to save my amendment.

Later that evening, as a result of the leadership and grassroots work of Progressive Democrats of America and its allies, the Congressional Progressive Caucus (CPC) affirmed their support for a states' right to enact single-payer healthcare in their letter to Speaker Pelosi and Majority Leader Reid.  Read the letter here. 

We succeeded in putting the CPC on record supporting states like California, Pennsylvania, Ohio and others across the country to continue the fight for single-payer healthcare at the state level. 

I know without PDA leading this fight we would have not won this important battle in the struggle for Medicare for All.

I also want to congratulate the California Democratic Party, which voted last week to end the U.S. occupation and air war in Afghanistan.  I commend the authors of this resolution, especially my friend Norman Solomon, the national co-chair of PDA's Healthcare NOT Warfare campaign, and Marcy Winograd, PDA candidate for Congress.  I also commend the leadership of Karen Bernal and the Progressive Caucus of the California Democratic Party, and I applaud the work of PDA’s California chapters in helping to pass this timely resolution.

What a great week we had together! Please keep fighting to build the movement for Healthcare NOT Warfare.

In peace,

Congressman Dennis Kucinich

Submitted by toniD on Mon, 11/23/2009 - 5:49pm.

I wandered in on that show and I was very impressed with his ability to get to the point and stay on point. I almost felt bad for the Bishop but that kind of compassion was not appropriate . I wanted to say that Bishop's church should lose it's Tax free status like they do to the Acorn's.

Morning Sederville! It's a cloudy 46F.

Mmmmm! It appears Sarah is using the same campaign strategies she used when running for VP. To inflate your audience- make sure you only travel where there are mega churches.

Who stretched the bloggie?

What is up??

better?

how did americans get so stupid?
my god.... I'm embarrassed to be
an american @ times. they all sound
just like her.. "duh"

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

MMRules

... {see LETTER at above date & time}

Healthcare NOT Warfare.

In peace,

Congressman Dennis Kucinich

Doggie Puppy has certain pairs I now HIDE...

{There is such a difference btw a Wolf Puppy & Dog Puppy -- but ALL luvs their own type of "chew toys".}

ShadowWolf ... follows as my Shadow (one nickname) ... {& thus am shuffling again - THANKS also Sunshine Jim (be well Always)}
...and Wolf {other nickname} especially when neighbors call their lil puffball which they name Bear. I had real Bears visited me and OUR {Bears & Mine :} Wild BerryBeary Patch. :D

;):(

http://www.samsedershow.com/node/5504

ya james
Submitted by Sunshine Jim on Tue, 11/24/2009 - 4:03am

*******

Hang in there,SJ.. :)

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

MMRules

"That's a huge amount of hired guns."

FDL Action..

By: Michael Whitney Monday November 23, 2009

The Caucus of Corruption – Blanche Lincoln, Mary Landrieu, Ben Nelson, and Joe Lieberman – have made it abundantly clear that they will filibuster the public option, despite the fact clear majorities of Americans and Congress support it.

So, what’s a Majority Leader to do? After all, he is the leader of the majority. Harry Reid can let a thoroughly corrupt minority of his caucus block majority rule, or he can do what needs to be done to get around the Caucus of Corruption.

That means Reid needs to whip his corrupt colleagues to support cloture, or he needs to use reconciliation. Those are the only two options for Reid to pass what the majority wants.

Con't..Petition at Link..

http://fdlaction.firedoglake.com/2009/11/23/if-corrupt-democrats-kill-th...

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

MMRules

... and freeze on blocks of ice either in different sizes of "coolers" even some possibly borrowed from neighbours ... PUT in especially "YUM" {drool}
the smoked salmon. :D

I have just read and signed the petition: "Urgent! Please help. Cats & Dogs getting killed by Poison on a very cruel way!".

Please take a moment to read about this important issue, and join me in signing the petition. It takes just 30 seconds, but can truly make a difference. We are trying to reach 100000 signatures - please sign here: http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/save-an-animals-life-today-stop-the-poi...

Once you have signed, you can help even more by asking your friends and family to sign as well.

Thank you! Amina

This is friend of mine from Egypt.... she runs the shelter where I got my kitten "Saqqara" from.
Please if u have time - sign this & send it on to anyone u know, they need 1000 signatures. I know we can get way more than that. Thanks as always, smcgee43

ya, i wish i lived close enough you all to drop off the goodies.

my neighbours are going to have a grocery bonus this week.

got about half of it passed on so that's to the good.

Jim, isn't there some deserving local shelter or kitchen you can donate it to?

in my mouth as I Write...
;D Be Well & Enjoy... Yum & ...
I will be "calling" a CAB soon ... {also yum}
;)

nothing here locally set up to do it.

Ms_A: With chevre? Or, eh, Philadelphia creamcheese? Either way, s'okay. Aye.