BEAT COPS

sammer

Haiti's Tragic History Is Entwined with the Story of America
By Robert Parry, Consortium News. Posted January 14, 2010.

Jefferson’s Blemish

For some scholars, Jefferson’s vengeful policy toward Haiti – like his personal ownership of slaves – represented an ugly blemish on his legacy as a historic advocate of freedom. Even in his final years, Jefferson remained obsessed with Haiti and its link to the issue of American slavery.

In the 1820s, the former President proposed a scheme for taking away the children born to black slaves in the United States and shipping them to Haiti. In that way, Jefferson posited that both slavery and America’s black population could be phased out. Eventually, in Jefferson’s view, Haiti would be all black and the United States white.

http://www.alternet.org/world/145142/haiti%27s_tragic_history_is_entwine...

to be resting on your laurels (so to speak)

please go out and get a job now, will ya? (we need you, and you could still be somebody)

this is not to say that i don't like your old stuff.....

The previous day from the Haiti comments, I saw Pat Robertson on the 700 club suggesting to his flock that they dump the dollar and buy gold.

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

Blue Roots Radio

From NBC's Domenico Montanaro
The 14th House Republican this cycle is not running for reelection -- Rep. John Shadegg (AZ).

"While it would be difficult to leave this position at any time," Shadegg said in a statement, "it is particularly hard to do so now with the challenges we face as a nation, but it is necessary for me to do so." And this: “While the rules of the House do not allow me to pursue future employment while I am still in office, rest assured, I will continue to remain in the fight for freedom and defend American exceptionalism.”
==
I thought he made that up AE but here it is in a wiki
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_exceptionalism

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

Blue Roots Radio

about that "Obama staffer wants ‘cognitive infiltration’ of 9/11 conspiracy groups"

fuck them and all the other ivory tower assholes.

" So it becomes apparent that there is a lot of weird stuff coming down. Is it a conspiracy involving some of the most powerful folks in the US? The question you must ask is "Are they capable of something as horrific as this?"
From the perspective of your Average American", the answer is probably "No."
From the perspective of your average North American Indian, Cuban, Vietnamese, Cambodian, Laotian, Philipino, Indonesian, East Timorese, Panamanian, Granadian, Guatamalan, Iranian, Iraqi, Argentinian, Peruvian, Chilean, North Korean, Palestinian, Nicaraguan, Salvadorean, Sudanese, Somalian, Libyan, Syrian and many more, the answer will be a resounding "Yes!""

Ken Peerless
2002

i can handle the facts what i detest is the hypocrisy.

Democrats.Com

Petition

It's time for the Senate to abolish the filibuster.

The filibuster is undemocratic and contradicts the core principle that legislation should become law by majority vote. The mere threat of a filibuster can bring the business of the Senate and the American people to a halt.

The filibuster allows a minority of 41 Senators to block the will of 59 Senators. Even when 60 Senators support a bill, the 60th Senator can hold the bill hostage to individual demands that can warp important legislation.

We call on every candidate for Senate in 2010, and every Senator who will continue to serve in the 112th Congress, to pledge to vote, on the first legislative day in 2011, to change the Senate's rules to eliminate the filibuster.

(This petition will be delivered to all current 100 Senators and all identifiable non-serving 2010 candidates for the Senate)

http://www.democrats.com/kill-the-filibuster

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

MMRules

New show tonight www.thereasonist.com at 6pm EST.
call in # (347) 850-8420

Thanks for the heads up!!

Home from the doctor and the pin is out of my toe. He pulled it out without freezing my foot first. OUCH!!!!! That freakin thing was as long as my index finger!!

Stitches out next week!

toniD's Ya Think?

Damn..Ouch !

Hang in There ! :)

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

MMRules

Partners In Health - "Zanmi Lasante" in Haitian Kreyol

Partners In Health has sent out a special appeal regarding Haiti.

Along with donations, they are requesting that medical professionals contact them via their email/website if they are interested in directly helping in Haiti.

Some of you may have heard about the work of Dr. Paul Farmer. The organization that he started is Partners In Health (PIH) and it began working in Haiti.

In particular, they pioneered community based models and clinics. PIH trains community residents as health outreach workers.

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

Wanted: Surgeons, nurses, and other medical personnel to help in Haiti

We are deeply grateful for the multitude of people who have contacted us wanting to provide medical assistance. As patients flood to our sites from Port-au-Prince, we're finding ourselves in need of both medical personnel and supplies. In particular, we need surgeons (especially trauma/orthopedic surgeons), ER doctors and nurses, and full surgical teams (including anesthesiologists, scrub and post-op nurses, and nurse anesthetists).

How You Can Help

Our facilities are strategically placed just two hours outside of Port-au-Prince and will inevitably absorb the flow of patients out of the city.

In addition, we need cash on-hand to quickly procure emergency medical supplies, basic living necessities, as well as transportation and logistics support for the tens of thousands of people that will be seeking care at mobile field hospitals in the capital city.

Any and all support that will help us respond to the immediate needs and continue our mission of strengthening the public health system in Haiti is greatly appreciated.

Help us stand up for Haiti now.

If you are not in a position to make a financial contribution, you can help us raise awareness of the earthquake tragedy.

Please alert your friends to the situation and direct them to this webpage for updates and ways to help.

Zanmi Lasante - "Partners In Health"

For more information:

http://www.pih.org/inforesources/news/Haiti_Earthquake.html

-------

TONIGHT: Tracy Kidder on the Rachel Maddow Show

Tune into MSNBC tonight to watch Pulitzer prize-winning journalist Tracy Kidder discuss the situation in Haiti with Rachel Maddow.

Tracy is the author of the best-selling book Mountains Beyond Mountains.

---

Thanks for your help.

I have seen your notes to me on the blog.

Thanks for continuing to post your petitions. Much appreciated!

Take care!

As Wallets Open For Haiti, Credit Card Companies Take A Big Cut

As a massive human tragedy unfolds in Haiti, relief organizations are soliciting credit-card donations through their hotlines and websites. About 97 percent of these donations will actually make it to the designated organizations -- but the other 3 percent will be skimmed off by banks and credit card companies to cover their "transaction costs."

Thanks to this hidden fee, American banks and credit card companies are making huge profits -- somewhere in the neighborhood of $250 million a year -- off of people's charitable donations, according to a Huffington Post analysis.

Those profits rise sharply after major disasters, when humanitarian relief organizations such as Oxfam and Operation USA take in more than 85 percent of their donations via credit card -- and the credit card providers, with only a few exceptions, refuse to waive their fees.

Credit card companies have only been willing to waive their processing fee for charity once, Richard Walden, the CEO of Operation USA, tells the Huffington Post, and that was for the tsunami disaster of 2004.

"After the tsunami, we had thousands of donations, and American Express and I think one other company temporarily waived their fees. So if this thing ramps up, we'll try to get in touch with these banks and see if they'll waive the fee again for us."

Bowing to enormous public pressure in the United Kingdom after the tsunami, British credit card companies have pledged to "waiv[e] interchange fees for all cross-charity and disaster or emergency appeals," according to the UK Card Association website.

One notable exception to the rule in this country is Capital One bank. Through its "No Hassle Giving Site", the bank waives transaction costs for holders of its Visa or MasterCard cards, so that 100 percent of people's donations goes to their chosen charity.
Story continues below

"We are pleased to be able to donate these costs, and we believe this will generate customer loyalty and an enduring customer franchise," said Pam Girardo, a spokesperson for Capital One.

Ben Woolsey, director of marketing and consumer research at Creditcards.com, says the hidden processing fees tacked onto all credit card donations cover far more than the transaction costs, allowing the issuing banks, as well as companies like Visa, MasterCard and American Express, to generate significant profits off of online charitable donations.

"They certainly profit off of these fees," Woolsey said. "Charities are treated like any other merchant. The credit card company bleeds a few percentage points off each transaction; that's central to their business model."

Non-profits are reluctant to criticize the credit card companies that are providing them a crucial service because there is too much money at stake, and they have no lower-cost options because the four major credit card companies have a small monopoly on the industry.

Peter Larson, director of annual giving at the Washington Humane Society, said: "It's unfortunate that a portion of our individual contributions are eaten up by processing fees, but that's the nature of business. We have no choice but to use credit cards because without them, we would lose a great deal of money in donations."

Some charities are able to negotiate a lower processing fee than regular merchants, whose rates can run as high as 5 percent. Habitat for Humanity reports that it pays about 2.15 percent of its donations to credit card processing companies, St. Jude's pays about 2.5 percent, and all charitable organizations that qualify for American Express's "Giving Express" program get a 2.25 percent processing rate. But even these fees are far greater than the marginal cost of the online transaction.

"I have no doubt that millions and millions of dollars are being made off of people's donations, and it's extremely inefficient and wasteful," said Ken Berger, President and CEO of Charity Navigator, an independent charity evaluator. "It would be great if credit card companies could reduce their profit knowing its going to an organization with a mission to help people. They need to step up to the plate and take a lead role in voluntarily cutting their fees."

Spokespersons for Visa and American Express declined to say whether they would consider waiving their fees for the Haiti disaster, or for all charitable donations. But Bill Strathmann, CEO of the online charity portal Network for Good, says they won't: "The reason credit card companies don't waive fees for charities is that they have so many corporate partners who drive high volume through their system. A company like Walmart could say, 'Hey, you're giving them a bettter rate? Last I looked I was passing billions of dollars through your company.'"

According to Strathmann, whose company partners with Capital One to encourage cost-free donating, legislators may have to take the issue into their own hands.

more...

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/01/14/as-wallets-open-for-haiti_n_423...

Update at 3:13 PM: American Express announced today that processing fees for any donations made to the 65 charities listed on this website between January 12 and the end of February will be rebated back to those charities.

toniD's Ya Think?

Financial Crisis Commission Testimony, Day 2: Read The Latest Updates

FINANCIAL CRISIS INQUIRY COMMISSION UPDATES:

The Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission held its second day of hearings in Washington today. (Watch the hearing live here.) Today's witnesses include Attorney General Eric H. Holder, Jr., Assistant AG Lanny A. Breuer, FDIC Chair Sheila C. Bair, SEC Chair Mary L. Schapiro and several state attorneys general and officials.

Go here for updates:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/01/14/financial-crisis-commissi_n_423...

toniD's Ya Think?

sorry for the owies, but it sounds like you are doing good and making progress...

can you go back on your NSAIDs yet?

I know my life sucks when I can't take my daily ibuprofen...I can't imagine how uncomfortable you have been over the last week...

Yes! I was able to take aspirin as soon as I got home Monday.

I'm on Vicodin also. It takes the edge off the pain but it's still uncomfortable.

This too shall pass!

toniD's Ya Think?

New Yorkers are getting acquainted with their new neighbor, former Tennessee Congressman and bank executive Harold Ford, Jr. So far, we've learned that he rides around town in a chauffeured car, breakfasts at the Regency Hotel on Park Avenue, gets regular pedicures, and visited Staten Island once in his life, by helicopter.

What else do we know about the REAL Harold Ford?

Well, for starters, he's a staunch opponent of abortion rights. He also disapproves of marriage equality for gay couples, opposes public safety laws to keep guns off the streets, and blames immigrants for America's problems.

Doesn't sound like much of a New Yorker, does he?

I grew up in New York. New York is a vibrant, tolerant, diverse community with forward-looking people with progressive social values. That's the New York I recall and love. That New York has nothing in common with Harold Ford, Jr.

Now that he's living in Manhattan instead of south of the Mason-Dixon line, Ford is remaking himself as a pro-choice, pro-gay, pro-gun control progressive. That's why we compiled this video of the REAL Harold Ford, Jr., to show New Yorkers who their latest carpetbagger really is.

Join us and our partners at Planned Parenthood Advocates of New York, NARAL New York and Make the Road New York in spreading the word. Share this video with every New Yorker you know!

Yours,
Robert Greenwald
and the Brave New Films team

Credit Reform and My New 703.8% Card

By Kathy Kristof | Jan 14, 2010

Consumer reporters were all crowing about a 79.99% rate credit card that was launched in response to credit reform a few months ago–collectively horrified that a law designed to cut rates and eliminate sneaky fees was inspiring increasingly abusive bank behavior.

I thought that was about as bad as it gets until I took a close look at the statement for my new Macy’s card, which I had opened with “instant credit” while Christmas shopping. It made that 79% card look like a bargain.

Department Stores National Bank, which issues the card, charges a “minimum interest charge.” On my average daily balance of $3.41, that minimum charge worked out to “an actual annual percentage rate” of 703.80%. (Part of the impact of last year’s credit reform is that the issuer had to disclose that shocker on the statement, while also noting that the card’s normal APR is 24.5%.)

Such are sneaky new fees that are now springing up in response to the Credit Card Accountability, Responsibility and Disclosure Act passed last May, said Bill Hardekopf, president of LowCards.com, a rate-shopping web site.

“We are going to see a lot of creative new charges, especially in the area of fees,” he predicted. “The CARD Act tied issuers hands in some areas, but they are going to be looking for all sorts of creative new ways to make up the revenue that they lost.

The main provisions of the CARD Act kick in on Feb. 22 and they will eliminate some bad practices, making it tougher for banks to raise rates retroactively or send their bills so late that the bank almost forces customers to pay late and trigger late fees, for example. (A full analysis of what new rules are already in effect and what’s next was published at the charming blog Get Rich Slowly recently. You can see the full analysis here.)

However, banks already responded to the changes by shifting to variable-rate cards, raising rates and restricting consumer credit limits. More changes are on the horizon, experts predict. This Macy’s card may be a harbinger of what’s to come.

I couldn’t raise anyone at Department Stores National Bank, but called Citibank, which was listed as their parent company on a regulatory web site. Sam Wang, a Citi spokesman, confirmed that Citi owns Department Stores National.

He also confirmed that the bank has a “minimum finance charge” amounting to $2 in any month that you have a balance. (This minimum finance charge used to be $1, but they doubled it last year.) As a result, those who have a relatively low balance–anything under, say, $500, will find that this fee is going to boost your effective annual interest rate well over 100% for that month. Credit reform demands that they disclose your astounding “actual” APR on the statement, Wang acknowledged.

It’s only the people who are goofy enough to charge up a storm that pay the advertised 24.5%.

The good news: It says on the bill that if you pay the full balance on time, they’ll refund the finance charge on your next statement.

The moral of this story: In today’s world, credit cards should be used for convenience, not credit. It’s fine to swipe the card. But only if you can pay off the balance each month. Use the card for a purchase that you can’t afford and you’ll pay dearly.

Anyone else have a story to share about what’s happened to their cards under credit reform? Tell us about it here. I’d love your feedback.

http://moneywatch.bnet.com/saving-money/blog/devil-details/credit-reform...

toniD's Ya Think?

Please join me and Pesticide Action Network in supporting Midwest farmers concerned about Syngenta’s herbicide atrazine.

I’ve just signed a letter telling the Environmental Protection Agency to let the science speak for itself, and stop any closed-door meetings with Syngenta.

Click here
for the petition & more information on how to get involved:

http://action.panna.org/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=2026

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

MMRules

Yes, this is my second post on this fool. However, I can't stand his ass. This picture reveals all about his character.

Excerpt:

It takes a truly opportunistic, self-loathing, black whore to pose in front of a confederate battle flag on the day you’re asking voters to make history and elect you the first African American elected to the Senate from the deep south. The picture says it all, don’t ya think? I missed this photo in all the hoopla surrounding election day and my own activities pushing my candidate, in the pouring rain, at my polling place. The photo focuses my rage unlike anything else this craven, corporate shill has done. The symbolism should speak volumes to the African American community that was deceived into seeing his candidacy as a historic ray of hope.

To say that the Confederate flag is a divisive symbol understates its inflammatory power. As a black southerner, Harold Ford, Jr. understands what this flag means. Every generation of his family and mine have been oppressed under it’s divisive perch atop the Capitols of every southern state in the union. Indeed, this flag, and its accompanying confederate monuments, combine to form racist monuments to white supremacy in every former state of the confederacy that remain to this day.

During the funeral rites for Coretta Scott King at the Georgia State Capitol, it took everything I had to stand there and be silently assaulted by a massive bronze statue at the capitol’s entrance to Georgia Senator Tom Watson, a Klansman and anti-Semite who whipped up a lynch mob to murder a jewish man who had been falsely accused of murdering a child.

It is supremely ironic for Mrs. King, a woman revered for her fight against bigotry and racial intolerance to have been honored in a building dedicated to the preservation of the divisive legacy of the confederacy. I would have gone anywhere to have honored her, but it was a bitter pill to endure being in a place saturated with hate.

For Harold Ford, Jr to display a disingenuous affinity for such venues, which are saturated in that same hate, is an insult to every drum major for justice who fought and died to make his reality possible. He insults the intelligence of both blacks and whites who understand full well the nature of his pandering.

con't

http://skepticalbrotha.wordpress.com/2006/11/16/harold-ford-jr-on-electi...

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Jan 14 (Reuters) - Desperate Haitians turned rubble-strewn streets and parks into makeshift hospitals and refugee camps on Thursday in the absence of any noticeable response from authorities in Haiti after Tuesday's earthquake.

"Look at us. Who is helping us? Right now, nobody," said Jean Malesta, a 19-year-old student who was the only survivor when her apartment building collapsed from the powerful quake that has killed thousands, possibly tens of thousands.

"So far, they have brought us nothing. We need water, food, shelter, everything, but we are on our own," Malesta added, to cries of agreement from women sitting and lying around her.

"The sad truth is that no one is in charge of Haiti today. This vacuum, coupled with the robust response from the Obama administration, has inevitably created a situation where the U.S. will be the de facto decision-maker in Haiti."

Around the city, many Haitians put rags and masks over their faces as the stench from rotting bodies began to rise.

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N14205092.htm

toniD's Ya Think?

Submitted by toniD on Thu, 01/14/2010 - 10:11am.
Scott Ritter outed.....
Sex sting in Poconos nets former chief U.N. weapons inspector
------

I can't tell you how sad the above post made me. I remember a particular appearance Scott Ritter made on Cspan. It was the most profound, detailed analysis of what would occur- if we should ever attack Iran. It literally kept me up that night.

About a year ago, he came to Ohio with Jeff Cohen. Cohen is the founder Of F.A.I.R. (Fair & Accuracy In Reporting). It was one of the most informative speaking engagements- I had attended in quite sometime.

I'm stunned. But, he is a Republican!

--
By the way ToniD, hope the feet are okay.

EXCERPT:

In a preview for the issue, which officially hits newsstands Friday, the magazine describes Bristol's "life-changing and controversial choice to have a baby at the young age of 18" and promises "heartwarming photos of the family and complete interview" with the two busy moms.

And so the Palin women are glad they had their babies. There's also plenty of evidence women who've had abortions aren't too sad about it either. Women who, unlike Bristol, don't have a tabloid paying them a reported six figures to note glowingly how they're "buying [their] own diapers and formula" and publish photos of mama bathing the little one in the sink. (The Palins -- they're just like us!) Perhaps it's pure coincidence, but the magazine's editor-in-chief Richard Spencer did quit last week in a midday walkout so abrupt he didn't even send a memo.

con't

http://www.salon.com/mwt/broadsheet/feature/2010/01/14/palins_choose_lif...

Guess Who’s Against Gay Marriage? The Ex-Wife Of NJ’s Famous Gay Governor

So, guess who praised New Jersey‘s recent decision not to legalize gay marriage? Why, Dina Matos, the scorned ex-wife of Jim McGreevey, New Jersey’s former governor who was caught having a homosexual affair and famously came out as a “gay American,” of course!

Back in 2004, Matos (formerly Dina Matos McGreevey) claimed not to know her husband was gay and divorced him amidst the scandal. (McGreevey resigned as governor and is now studying to be an Episcopal priest. What can I say? It’s a weird state.) Anyway, recently, Matos told The Daily Record newspaper she believes the definition of marriage is between a man and a woman and she is glad NJ didn’t legalize same-sex marriage.

Oh, Dina. We feel for you, we really do. But why all the hate? The problem isn’t gay marriage, Dina. The problem is your lying, cheating ex-husband who never told you he slept with dudes! Gay folks just want to be able to marry someone who is having a secret affair behind their back and lying to them about their sexuality too. [MSNBC]

con't
http://www.thefrisky.com/post/246-guess-whos-against-gay-marriage-the-ex...

http://kcts9.org/video/amy-goodman-media-broken

Conversations

Amy Goodman shares her thoughts on the important role of a truly independent media, the power of the first amendment, and why we should all question our political leaders and the so-called status quo. Goodman is an American journalist and is best known as the principal host of Democracy Now!

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

...One exception was a military force of Poles from the Polish Legions that had fought in Napoleon's army. Some of them refused to fight against blacks, supporting the principles of liberty; also, a few Poles (around 100) actually joined the rebels (one of the Polish generals – Władysław Franciszek Jabłonowski – was, in fact, partly of African ancestry).

Therefore, Poles were allowed to stay and were spared the fate of other whites (about 400 of the 5280 Poles chose this option. Of the remainder, 700 returned to France and many were – after capitulation – forced to serve in British units). 160 Poles were later given permission to leave Haiti and were sent to France at Haitian expense. Today, descendants of those Poles who stayed are living in Casale and Fond Des Blancs...

A lot of polsters are calllng tonight.

I'm in a depressed mood and it's not just Haiti.

I can see are nation swirling around a drain and the news is not good. So instead of depressing alot of people here, I'm just going to stay off the blog tonight.

toniD's Ya Think?

Yemen warns on helping al-Qaeda
Yemen's authorities have warned citizens against hiding al-Qaeda militants and urged them to co-operate with security forces, state media say.

They quoted an unnamed security source as saying that "the war... against al-Qaeda elements is open whenever or wherever we find these elements".

The warning comes after the alleged leader of an al-Qaeda cell in Yemen was reportedly killed by security forces.

Yemen has vowed to pursue al-Qaeda unless it disarms and rejects violence.

The spotlight was turned on Yemen after the Yemen-based group Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula said it had carried out a failed bomb attack on a US-bound airliner on 25 December.

Earlier this week, US President Barack Obama said he had "no intention" of sending American troops to Yemen or Somalia to combat militant groups in those countries.

On Thursday, a group of Yemeni clerics issued a statement, warning that jihad, or holy war, was permitted in the case of any foreign military intervention in the volatile country.

On Wednesday, Yemen's provincial governor, Ali Hassan al-Ahmadi, said that Abdullah Mehdar had been killed in a fire-fight with security forces.

Mehdar is said to have been the leader of an al-Qaeda group in the province of Shabwa, 375 miles (600km) east of the capital Sanaa.

Analysts say al-Qaeda militants have been moving to Yemen after coming under pressure in Afghanistan and Pakistan, and following a crackdown in Saudi Arabia.

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/middle_east/8458710.stm

HAROLD FORD: THE LOWEST OF THE LOW!
Submitted by edna ellen poe on Thu, 01/14/2010 - 7:16pm

Thanks. I'm going to use that for my blog.

By the way:
"During the funeral rites for Coretta Scott King at the Georgia State Capitol, it took everything I had to stand there and be silently assaulted by a massive bronze statue at the capitol’s entrance to Georgia Senator Tom Watson, a Klansman and anti-Semite who whipped up a lynch mob to murder a jewish man who had been falsely accused of murdering a child."

Does anyone know of Mike Malloy's whereabouts that day?

....Seriously.

"You look so tired-unhappy
Bring down the government
They don't, they don't speak for us"
-Radiohead.
www.sigzone.blogspot.com

From Medscape Medical News
WHO Addresses Media Misconceptions About H1N1 Pandemic
Emma Hitt, PhD

Information from Industry
Assess clinically focused product information on Medscape.
Click Here for Product Infosites – Information from Industry.
January 14, 2010 — Several "misconceptions" about the H1N1 influenza pandemic were addressed at today's press conference held by the World Health Organization (WHO).

Dr. Keiji Fukuda, special adviser on pandemic influenza to the director-general, addressed 4 issues pertaining to the H1N1 pandemic: whether this is a real pandemic, whether the definition of the pandemic has changed, whether the WHO overplayed the pandemic, and whether the WHO was inappropriately influenced by the pharmaceutical industry.

Regarding whether the H1N1 influenza outbreak resulted in a real pandemic, Dr. Fukuda noted that the answer is very clearly yes. "The allegation by some that the H1N1 pandemic is fake is both scientifically wrong and historically inaccurate," he said.

To date, 13,000 deaths worldwide have been attributed to H1N1, although Dr. Fukuda noted that the final estimate will be much larger. He also pointed out that calling the pandemic fake is "somewhat disrespectful" to the people affected by the pandemic, as well as to the healthcare workers who participated in the effort.

Dr. Fukuda also maintained that the WHO has not changed its definition of a "pandemic," which is defined as the worldwide spread of disease. Guidelines were developed in 1999, and scientists worked with the WHO to revise the definition in 2005 and in 2009. "There is discussion about these pandemic definitions, and there is some continual attempt to try to make them clearer, but severity itself was not part of the definition."

He also stated that the WHO has not overplayed the pandemic. When Dr. Margaret Chan, the WHO director-general, first announced the H1N1 as a pandemic, she stated that the pandemic would be of "moderate" severity, Dr. Fukuda pointed out.

"From the very beginning, WHO has gone out of its way to let everybody know that the future course of the pandemic was uncertain." He added that this remains as true today as it did back then and that the WHO has been very consistent in the information that it has given. "We've worked very hard to neither overplay nor underplay the situation."

According to Dr. Fukuda, the severity of H1N1 can change midstream, so "we have adopted a precautionary approach — preparing for the worst and hoping for the best."

Last, he denied that the WHO has been influenced by the pharmaceutical industry. Although the WHO reached out to a variety of scientists and experts, including those in industry, experts providing advice are required to provide full disclosure, he said. "Any allegations of conflicts of interest are taken very seriously by the WHO, and we respond immediately and appropriately to them."

The WHO will be conducting a self-review process regarding H1N1 influenza, which Dr. Fukuda said is something that any organization that cares about its performance would do. In addition, the Council of Europe has asked the WHO to participate in hearings about pandemic influenza.

"I want to emphasize the world is going through a real pandemic." he said. "WHO has been balanced and truthful in the information it has provided" and has taken great care to "make sure that the advice received has not been unduly influenced by commercial or non–public health interests."

http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2010/01/haiti_48_hours_later.html

The Big Picture

Haiti 48 hours later

...Collected here are some more scenes from this devastated region - see yesterday's entry as well. (33 photos total)

because I forgot to look yesterday...

Thursday, January 14, 2010

FROM ALASKAN BLOGGER IMMORAL MINORITY

Over coffee yesterday my friend & the mother of the judge involved in the Levi Johnston/Bristols Palin custody case discussed the issue, it turns out that Judge Kristiansen has received death threats and is now escorted by police/troopers. Nice supporters Palins!!!!!! My friend was a bit concerned that Judge K's mum seems to feel that the threats are all from outsiders (outside of AK), that in spite of the fact that Eddie B and the hairdresser are there in AK fomenting hate.

I feel that it is important to get this information out, to ensure that people know that Palin supporters, in and out of AK, are threatening a judge, death threats, and that she now has to have armed escort. I don't know if that extends to her family, but if it doesn't, it should. We are not talking about normal people here, folks!!!!!!!!

Yes this is EXACTLY how Palin's supporters deal with anybody who dares speak out against their idol. She started fomenting hate among these people during the campaign and it is still going on to this day.

But if these blowhards and bullies think it will stop the real patriots in this country from revealing the truth about Sarah Palin, well they are sadly mistaken. It certainly did not stop me, it will not stop Levi Johnston, and it will not stop other truth tellers either.

Well gee when this trial is over perhaps I could sit down for an interview with Judge Kristiansen. It sounds like she may have a very interesting story to tell.

con't

http://theimmoralminority.blogspot.com/2010/01/from-my-comment-section-t...

Submitted by cent on Thu, 01/14/2010 - 9:55am.
Obama staffer wants ‘cognitive infiltration’ of 9/11 conspiracy groups

By Daniel Tencer
Wednesday, January 13th, 2010 -- 10:48 pm

In a 2008 academic paper, President Barack Obama's appointee to head the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs advocated "cognitive infiltration" of groups that advocate "conspiracy theories" like the ones surrounding 9/11.

Cass Sunstein, a Harvard law professor, co-wrote an academic article entitled "Conspiracy Theories: Causes and Cures," in which he argued that the government should stealthily infiltrate groups that pose alternative theories on historical events via "chat rooms, online social networks, or even real-space groups and attempt to undermine" those groups.

[...]

RawStory

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

Is Sunstein SO DENSE he does not see the IRONY in his OWN words???!!!

Here's some more from the RAWSTORY article:

Sunstein, whose article focuses largely on the 9/11 conspiracy theories, suggests that the government "enlist nongovernmental officials in the effort to rebut the theories. It might ensure that credible independent experts offer the rebuttal, rather than government officials themselves. There is a tradeoff between credibility and control, however. The price of credibility is that government cannot be seen to control the independent experts."

http://rawstory.com/2010/01/obama-staffer-infiltration-911-groups/

Description
Sarah’s got a gun
and a nice pair of…glasses.

Little Sarah embryo is about 1.25″ long (not including the loop on top).
Comes with a red ribbon and a gift box.

Feti is just for fun, no political statements being made here.

How many times have you seen “Baby’s First ____” gifts?

Feti is a step ahead with special gifts for the expectant mom or dad

Found this on:
http://www.themudflats.net/

If you want to purchase:

http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=38411655

Guess Who’s Against Gay Marriage?
Submitted by edna ellen poe on Thu, 01/14/2010 - 7:59pm.

Guess Who’s Against Gay Marriage? The Ex-Wife Of NJ’s Famous Gay Governor

So, guess who praised New Jersey‘s recent decision not to legalize gay marriage? Why, Dina Matos, the scorned ex-wife of Jim McGreevey, New Jersey’s former governor who was caught having a homosexual affair and famously came out as a “gay American,” of course!

Back in 2004, Matos (formerly Dina Matos McGreevey) claimed not to know her husband was gay and divorced him amidst the scandal.

...

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

MORE irony--

If our culture allowed McGreevey to be normal, date until he found his ideal partner, and legally enjoy entering a same sex marriage -- maybe he never would have married you, Dina, and you would have been spared all the pain you are publicly displaying.

Gay marriage might save a alot of pain to heteros since it would possibly reduce alot of the posing done by some who can't be themselves while bigotry tries to call all the shots in this society.

Will Dina ever get it?

Those are amazing photos..I'm glad you reposted the link
Submitted by Alice on Thu, 01/14/2010 - 9:55pm.
--------
I'm glad you are glad except I did not post photos from the Boston.com before now. At least I don't think I did. I posted photos from a different website. I think. I don't remember the site so it could have been anything.

The reference to "yesterday's entry" is a cut and paste from Boston.com. Apparently the site is loading new pictures every day.

I found the site while searching for photos of the destroyed seaport cranes. Haiti's trashed port is a big setback for moving humanitarian aid. It is often cited in articles without including photos of the port. I was curious to see if it looked fixable in days or weeks.

The U.S. military can haul and do some amazing things. In the aftermath of hurricane Hugo I was witness to the military's capabilities when the local infrastructure is gone.

Of course the Haiti earthquake is a much worse situation but there are some similarities. It gives me flashbacks to an island with no electricity, phones, water, cops, fuel, etc. where people are suddenly and completely on their own.

One of the reports from Haiti mentioned that the people in Port-au-Prince can see the aircraft arriving overhead but nothing is making it out onto the streets.

I remember seeing a steady stream of C-5 and C-130 aircraft pass overhead for days without any apparent improvement on the island. It is easy to imagine how frustrated the Haitians are becoming.

was for white people. The know-how is there; it is the WILL that is missing. (The Slaver Oligarchy will never forget that Haitian slaves stood up to Slavers. The Slaver Oligarchy has no will to treat Haitians as equal. The entire economic treatment of Haiti reads like step by step plan to return Haitians to slave labor.)

The U.S. has worked too long to destabilize Haiti, bring it to its knees and stand by passively while the once proud Haitian people plead for help, because this is the desperation required so that every imperialistic/neocolonialist/neocon trick in the book can be attached to that "help".

I really appreciate that Hartmann, Rhodes and Malloy have each been addressing today the historical reality of the VISE/VICE that has gripped and squeezed Haiti for over two hundred years.

Don't let Hollywood Hijack The Internet

Last fall, the Federal Communications Commission proposed rules for “Net Neutrality” — a set of regulations intended to help innovation and free speech continue to thrive on the Internet.

But is the FCC’s version of Net Neutrality the real deal? Or is it a fake?

Buried in the FCC’s rules is a deeply problematic loophole. Open Internet principles, the FCC writes, “do not… apply to activities such as the unlawful distribution of copyrighted works.”

For years, the entertainment industry has used that innocent-sounding phrase — "unlawful distribution of copyrighted works" — to pressure Internet service providers around the world to act as copyright cops — to surveil the Internet for supposed copyright violations, and then censor or punish the accused users.

From the beginning, a central goal of the Net Neutrality movement has been to prevent corporations from interfering with the Internet in this way — so why does the FCC’s version of Net Neutrality specifically allow them to do so?

Tell the FCC that if it wants to police the Internet, it first needs to demonstrate that it can protect Internet users and innovators by standing up to powerful industry lobbyists. Sign your name here to demand that the copyright-enforcement loophole be removed.

http://www.realnetneutrality.org/

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

MMRules

CENTER FOR REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS

Not My Tax Dollars: YouTube Video Link Submission
Congress is letting a few religious groups decide what our tax dollars can’t be spent on. The only way that’s fair is if all of our concerns about federal spending get the same treatment. So — in your ideal universe, what do YOU think we shouldn’t spend our taxpayer dollars on?

We really want to know so share your 20 second video rant with us by filling in the blank below:
“Some in Congress don’t want federal money going to fund abortions. I don’t want MY tax dollars spent on _________.”

Upload your video to YouTube and submit your link below. We'll share the best submissions with the world on January 26, the same day as the State of the Union.

**Entries are due no later than 5 p.m. ET on Wednesday, January 20, 2010.**

http://reproductiverights.org/en/form/not-my-tax-dollars-youtube-video-l...

*

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

MMRules

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

MMRules

when the proletariat sleeps toniD. YOu & I can't stop speaking to sleep. You know this.

80 percent of Haitians are Catholic.

Maybe the Vatican hasn't heard about it yet?

I am not sure who David Icke is, but this is not the first time I've come across unethical charges about Dr. Gallo.

http://www.naturalnews.com/027922_AIDS_David_Icke.html

[excerpt]

...

Luc Montagnier, Gallo's partner in the HIV-causes-AIDS theory, has since admitted in 1989: "HIV is not capable of causing the destruction of the immune system which is seen in people with AIDS". Nearly 500 scientists across the world agree with him. So does Dr Robert E Wilner, author of the book 'The Deadly Deception. The Proof That Sex And HIV Absolutely Do Not Cause AIDS'.

Dr Wilner even injected himself with the HIV virus on a television chat show in Spain to support his claims. Other doctors and authors come to the same conclusions, among them Peter Duesberg PhD and John Yiamouyiannis PhD, in their book, 'AIDS: The Good News Is That HIV Doesn't Cause It. The Bad News Is "Recreational Drugs" And Medical Treatments Like AZT Do'. That's a long title, but it sums up the situation. People are dying of AIDS because of the treatments used to "treat" AIDS! It works like this.

Now it is accepted by the establishment and the people that HIV causes AIDS, the system has built this myth into its whole diagnosis and "treatment". You go to the doctor and you are told your HIV test was positive(positive only for the HIV antibodies, by the way, they don't actually test for the virus itself). Because of the propaganda, many people already begin to die emotionally and mentally when they are told they are HIV positive. They have been conditioned to believe that death is inevitable.

The fear of death leads them to accept, often demand, the hyped-up "treatments" which are supposed to stop AIDS occurring. (They don't.) The most famous is AZT, produced by the Wellcome organisation, owned, wait for it, by the Rockefellers, one of the key manipulating families in the New World Order.

AZT was developed as an anti-cancer drug to be used in chemotherapy, but it was found to be too toxic even for that! AZT's effect in the "treatment" of cancer was to kill cells - simple as that - not just to kill cancer cells , but to kill cells, cancerous and healthy. The question, and this is accepted even by the medical establishment, was: would AZT kill the cancer cells before it had killed so many healthy cells that it killed the body? This is the drug used to "treat" HIV. What is its effect?

It destroys the immune system, so it is CAUSING AIDS. People are dying from the treatment, not the HIV. AIDS is simply the breakdown of the immune system, for which there are endless causes, none of them passed on through sex. That's another con which has made a fortune for condom manufacturers and created enormous fear around the expression of our sexuality and the release and expansion of our creative force.

Many deaths incorrectly attributed to AIDS
What has happened since the Great AIDS Con is that now anyone who dies from a diminished immune system is said to have died of the all encompassing term, AIDS. It is even built into the diagnosis. If you are HIV positive and you die of tuberculosis, pneumonia, or 25 other unrelated diseases now connected by the con men to "AIDS", you are diagnosed as dying of AIDS. If you are not HIV positive and you die of one of those diseases you are diagnosed as dying of that disease, not AIDS. This manipulates the figures every day to indicate that only HIV positives die of AIDS.

This is a lie.

Many people who die from AIDS are not HIV positive and the reason that the figures for AIDS deaths have not soared as predicted is that the overwhelming majority of people diagnosed HIV positive have never developed AIDS. Why?

Because HIV has nothing whatsoever to do with AIDS.

...

[end excerpt]

R&B singer Pendergrass dead
R&B singer Teddy Pendergrass, who had been one of the most electric and successful figures in music until a car crash 28 years ago left him in a wheelchair, has died of colon cancer.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100114/ap_on_en_mu/us_obit_pendergrass

toniD's Ya Think?

Study: Campaign donations to judges distorting justice system

By Daniel Tencer

Pending Supreme Court ruling could make things even worse: law prof

A soon-to-be-published study has found that campaign contributions from corporations to judges are likely distorting the justice system and making it harder for ordinary citizens to win cases against corporations.

University of Illinois labor law professor Michael LeRoy examined the outcomes of 223 state court rulings on cases involving disputes between employers and employees. He found that where party-affiliated judges are elected, employees won 32.1 percent of cases, but where judges are appointed, or elected in non-partisan elections, employees won 52.7 percent of the time.

LeRoy admits that the study's usefulness is "limited" because it did not determine which judges did actually take corporate donations. But "it’s hard to think of an alternative explanation,” he said in an interview with the University of Illinois' News Bureau. "The inference I arrive at is that there’s something about the election process that is influencing the outcome."

Like many other legal experts, LeRoy argues the situation could be made worse by a Supreme Court case currently being heard that could result in much of the US's body of law limiting campaign contributions being thrown out.

A ruling in Citizens United v. FEC was expected this week, but has been delayed at least until next week. In that case, the makers of an anti-Hillary Clinton campaign video challenged the McCain-Feingold Act's restrictions on distribution of political material during an election.

But the Supreme Court chose to take a broader view of the issue, and is now debating whether campaign restrictions -- any campaign restrictions -- violate corporations' and organizations' free speech rights under the First Amendment. If the court rules in favor of Citizens United, it will have overturned all of the US's campaign contribution laws going back all the way to 1907.

“It would open up the spigot for judicial contributions and greatly aggravate the problem, further politicizing and polarizing some of these state courts,” LeRoy said.

In all, 89 percent of state judges in the US face some sort of election, and 39 states elect judges to some extent.

Even though polls show Americans generally support the notion of election judges, some jurists, such as former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, have argued against it, saying that politics should not come into play in the justice system.

"It's the flood of money coming into our courtrooms," O'Connor told an audience at the University of Seattle last year. "You haven't suffered too much of this in Washington [state] — but you will, if you don't think about this and change it."

http://rawstory.com/2010/01/study-campaign-donations-judges-distorting-j...

toniD's Ya Think?

KANSAS CITY (Reuters) - Monsanto Co said on Thursday that the U.S. Department of Justice has issued a civil investigative demand for information on the company's key soybean genetic traits business after complaints that Monsanto was trying to limit access to push a new, pricier product instead.

Monsanto said it was cooperating with investigators, and reiterated that it would allow farmers and seed companies continued access to its first-generation Roundup Ready soybean trait -- a genetic alteration that makes the soybeans tolerate herbicide treatments -- following that product's patent expiration in 2014.

Seed dealers, rivals and others have complained that Monsanto was creating conditions, through contracts with seed dealers and other means, that would unfairly push farmers to buy its new Roundup Ready 2 Yield soybeans and away from the first-generation, lower-priced Roundup Ready beans.

But Monsanto has said repeatedly over the last month that it will not try to stop farmers from saving and replanting its Roundup Ready soybeans after the patent expires and rivals will be able to continue to incorporate the Roundup Ready-tolerant trait into their products. The company said it will not enforce contracts requiring seed companies to destroy or return Roundup Ready seed after patent expiration.

"We respect the thorough regulatory process," said Scott Partridge, Monsanto's chief deputy general counsel. "We believe our business practices are fair, pro-competitive and in compliance with the law."

The fresh demand notice from investigators comes amid a larger probe into competition in the agriculture industry and a specific look at the seed industry, where Monsanto is a world leader. More than 90 percent of the soybeans grown in the United States are estimated to contain the Roundup Ready trait.

Justice Department spokeswoman Gina Talamona declined to comment on Monsanto on Thursday, other than to say "the antitrust division is investigating the possibility of anti-competitive practices in the seed industry."

The Justice Department and the U.S. Department of Agriculture will be holding five hearings later this year to discuss fair play and concentration in agricultural marketing.

Shares of Monsanto fell 1.5 percent to $82.67 on the New York Stock Exchange early Thursday afternoon.

Analysts say signs point to a limited probe by regulators.

"We expect this to be the sole focus of the Department of Justice's inquiry into Monsanto, and that a formal lawsuit will not be filed," Morgan Stanley analyst Vincent Andrews wrote in a note to investors. "We believe that the DOJ spent the last several months comprehensively reviewing Monsanto's businesses and that the very narrow scope of the CID request likely indicates no DOJ interest in the remainder of Monsanto's operating and practices."

News that the Justice Department was seeking information on market access to the Roundup Ready trait comes a week after rival DuPont specifically asked U.S. regulators to gain assurances from Monsanto regarding the Roundup Ready trait access. The trait is a genetic alteration that Monsanto developed to make soybeans withstand treatment of Monsanto's Roundup herbicide.

DuPont, which owns Pioneer Hi-Bred International, has also complained that Monsanto is unfairly using monopoly powers to drive up prices and hinder competition in the broad corn and soybean markets.

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE60D2QN20100114

toniD's Ya Think?

US demands China explain cyberattacks in face-to-face talks
AFP
Published: Thursday January 14, 2010

The United States on Thursday said it held talks with Chinese officials, calling for an explanation of cyberattacks against Internet giant Google and dozens of other firms.

"We have had a discussion today here in Washington with officials from the embassy. We raised the issue," said State Department spokesman Philip Crowley, "we've asked them for an explanation."

Google announced on Tuesday that it would stop bowing to Chinese Internet censors and could pull out of the world's largest online market of 360 million users after a series of "highly sophisticated" cyberattacks aimed at Chinese human rights activists.

"The incident raises questions about both Internet freedom and the security of the Internet in China," Crowley said.

China has declared its Internet "open" but defended censorship. "The Chinese government administers the Internet according to law and we have explicit stipulations over what information and content can be spread over the Internet," foreign ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu said.

Over thirty firms are though to have been the target of attacks, with Google reporting efforts to hack the Gmail accounts of activists. That has put the Beijing government firmly in the spotlight.

Officials in Washington have been reluctant to state what impact the targeting of US companies could have on Sino-American relations, but the fallout has been felt in the war of words between the two capitals.

"If this was part of a deliberate strategy on behalf of China, it has implications" said an official who asked not to be named.

http://rawstory.com/news/afp/US_demands_China_explain_cyberattac_0114201...

toniD's Ya Think?

Bankers Without a Clue
By PAUL KRUGMAN

The official Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission — the group that aims to hold a modern version of the Pecora hearings of the 1930s, whose investigations set the stage for New Deal bank regulation — began taking testimony on Wednesday. In its first panel, the commission grilled four major financial-industry honchos. What did we learn?

Well, if you were hoping for a Perry Mason moment — a scene in which the witness blurts out: “Yes! I admit it! I did it! And I’m glad!” — the hearing was disappointing. What you got, instead, was witnesses blurting out: “Yes! I admit it! I’m clueless!”

O.K., not in so many words. But the bankers’ testimony showed a stunning failure, even now, to grasp the nature and extent of the current crisis. And that’s important: It tells us that as Congress and the administration try to reform the financial system, they should ignore advice coming from the supposed wise men of Wall Street, who have no wisdom to offer.

Consider what has happened so far: The U.S. economy is still grappling with the consequences of the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression; trillions of dollars of potential income have been lost; the lives of millions have been damaged, in some cases irreparably, by mass unemployment; millions more have seen their savings wiped out; hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions, will lose essential health care because of the combination of job losses and draconian cutbacks by cash-strapped state governments.

And this disaster was entirely self-inflicted. This isn’t like the stagflation of the 1970s, which had a lot to do with soaring oil prices, which were, in turn, the result of political instability in the Middle East. This time we’re in trouble entirely thanks to the dysfunctional nature of our own financial system. Everyone understands this — everyone, it seems, except the financiers themselves.

There were two moments in Wednesday’s hearing that stood out. One was when Jamie Dimon of JPMorgan Chase declared that a financial crisis is something that “happens every five to seven years. We shouldn’t be surprised.” In short, stuff happens, and that’s just part of life.

But the truth is that the United States managed to avoid major financial crises for half a century after the Pecora hearings were held and Congress enacted major banking reforms. It was only after we forgot those lessons, and dismantled effective regulation, that our financial system went back to being dangerously unstable.

As an aside, it was also startling to hear Mr. Dimon admit that his bank never even considered the possibility of a large decline in home prices, despite widespread warnings that we were in the midst of a monstrous housing bubble.

Still, Mr. Dimon’s cluelessness paled beside that of Goldman Sachs’s Lloyd Blankfein, who compared the financial crisis to a hurricane nobody could have predicted. Phil Angelides, the commission’s chairman, was not amused: The financial crisis, he declared, wasn’t an act of God; it resulted from “acts of men and women.”

Was Mr. Blankfein just inarticulate? No. He used the same metaphor in his prepared testimony in which he urged Congress not to push too hard for financial reform: “We should resist a response ... that is solely designed around protecting us from the 100-year storm.” So this giant financial crisis was just a rare accident, a freak of nature, and we shouldn’t overreact.

But there was nothing accidental about the crisis. From the late 1970s on, the American financial system, freed by deregulation and a political climate in which greed was presumed to be good, spun ever further out of control. There were ever-greater rewards — bonuses beyond the dreams of avarice — for bankers who could generate big short-term profits. And the way to raise those profits was to pile up ever more debt, both by pushing loans on the public and by taking on ever-higher leverage within the financial industry.

Sooner or later, this runaway system was bound to crash. And if we don’t make fundamental changes, it will happen all over again.

Do the bankers really not understand what happened, or are they just talking their self-interest? No matter. As I said, the important thing looking forward is to stop listening to financiers about financial reform.

Wall Street executives will tell you that the financial-reform bill the House passed last month would cripple the economy with overregulation (it’s actually quite mild). They’ll insist that the tax on bank debt just proposed by the Obama administration is a crude concession to foolish populism. They’ll warn that action to tax or otherwise rein in financial-industry compensation is destructive and unjustified.

But what do they know? The answer, as far as I can tell, is: not much.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/15/opinion/15krugman.html?pagewanted=prin...

toniD's Ya Think?

Or separation of church and state and protection from creeping Theocracy? This time equal protection will be argued.

So, Ted Olson is taking the same approach on this challenge to the Mormon homophobes' anti-gay marriage Prop. 8 California initiative as he used to win (steal) for Bush in the 2000 Bush v. Gore case -- Equal Protection. Sort of like a return to the scene of the crime thang, maybe? (I wonder, did it matter what Olson argued in 2000 if the fix was in for the Rhenquist Court to side with Republican candidate Bush? (Recall if you will, that Scalia should have recused himself and Chief Justice Rhenquist did not see to it that Scalia recused himself. I interpret Rhenquist's complacency and Scalia's vote as the 'fix'.))

From the excerpts below, it does look like this time equal protection is a logical fit.

On the other hand, forcing all Americans to adapt a bigotted fundamentalist religious marriage template to the civil marriage contract nationwide seems to be what is happening here, too. Why should a handful of churches (not even ALL churches, mind you), and particularly the Mormon Church which funded Prop. 8, tell the State what a marriage is and who can enter into a marriage contract? Isn't there supposed to be a separation of church and state? Or is such a challenge too pointed when the rest of the Dominionists' pro-theocracy wishlist is waiting for implementation via other church-funded state initiatives? How convenient when the Church LAUNDERS its Theocratic Intent through the voters by funding to the point of spending fraud and misrepresentations?; how many more initiatives like this are possible regarding other issues, too?

Here's an article from last year about Olson's approach:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/19/us/19olson.html?_r=1&pagewanted=2

[excerpt]

...

In Mr. Olson’s analysis, the situation in California presents a favorable set of facts for an equal protection argument. Proposition 8 created three classes: straight couples who could marry, gay men and lesbians who had married in the brief period before the ban, and gay couples who wanted to marry but now could not.

...

[end excerpt]

And--

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/19/us/19olson.html?pagewanted=3&_r=1

[excerpt]

...The Supreme Court has long recognized marriage between men and women as a right, most notably in a 1967 case overturning bans on interracial marriage. Since sexual orientation, unlike race, is not mentioned in the Constitution, the question is whether that right extends to gay men and lesbians.

The answer, in Mr. Cooper’s view, can be found in a 1970 case, in which the Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal of a lower court ruling that marriage could be limited to men and women. But Mr. Olson points to two more recent Supreme Court cases.

The first is a 1996 decision in which six of the nine justices, citing equal protection grounds, struck down an amendment to the Colorado Constitution that stripped gay residents of existing civil rights protections. This, Mr. Olson argues, is similar to Proposition 8’s negating the California Supreme Court decision that recognized the rights of gay couples to marry.

The second is the court’s 6-3 decision in Lawrence v. Texas, striking down laws criminalizing sodomy in 2003. Not only did the majority find that Texas had no rational basis to intrude into private sexual behavior protected by the Constitution’s due process clause, it also declared that gay men and lesbians should be free to enter into relationships in their homes and “still retain their dignity.”

Mr. Cooper asserts that Mr. Olson is stretching the scope of the Lawrence decision, pointing out that it dealt with the criminalization of private sexual behavior, not a state’s duty to recognize a marriage. But Mr. Olson notes that no less a conservative than Justice Antonin Scalia argued in a blistering dissent that the majority in Lawrence had indeed opened the door to same-sex marriage.

Given that the Lawrence case established gay sex as a protected right, Mr. Olson argues, the state must demonstrate that it has a rational basis for discriminating against a class of citizens simply for engaging in that behavior.

He dismisses Mr. Cooper’s contention that the California ban is justified by that state’s interest in encouraging relationships that promote procreation and the raising of children by biological parents. If sexual orientation is not a choice — and Mr. Olson argues that it is not — then the ban is not going to encourage his clients to enter into heterosexual, child-producing marriages, he insists. Moreover, he says, California has waived the right to make that argument by recognizing domestic partnerships that bestow most benefits of marriage.

...

[end excerpt]

And, Olson's opening statement in court:

http://www.usnews.com/blogs/mary-kate-cary/2010/01/13/ted-olson-opens-pr...

Letter
Letterhead
Typewriter

The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.

But not liberal enough to be open-minded about anything else?

GMO traits, and monopolized seed supplies, now says it never meant to scare anyone away from normal farming practices?

Corporate Science rarely tries to earn respect, and, so, rarely deserves respect. But, earning profits? That's another thing. To the Corporate Science madmen, cornering the market and earning profits is more important than preserving the Web of Life.

Why doesn't Monsanto just eat up Dupont and end this Kabuki scene? Isn't that the ultimate solution in their alternate reality?

besides contaminating the genetic strain or whatever its called, i think there's a much bigger long term risk where all corn or other gmo has essentially the same genetic code. then all it takes is one virus or mutation to wipe out the worlds corn supply.

anybody remember the russian royalty and their tendency to have hemophilia from inbreeding?

somewhere i recall reading that banannas in the western hemisphere are facing a similar fate. it seems in an effort to maximize corporate profits, all the plantations have zero'd in on a single or very narrow genetic structure. its been suggested that the crop could be wiped out virtually overnight because of this.

There we go again ...... making friends.

"A 1927 study of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom recounted such U.S. atrocities as burning men and women alive, summary execution of children, beating and torturing, machine-gunning of civilians, daily shooting of cattle and burning of crops, houses, mills, and so on."

Gimme a fuckin break. - - -
Bristol and Sarah "chose life"
new
Submitted by edna ellen poe on Thu, 01/14/2010 - 7:53pm.

Dude - What is with u & the Anti-Semitic thing & Malloy?
give it up already....

Sarah Palin Embryo Ornament
Submitted by edna ellen poe on Thu, 01/14/2010 - 10:50pm.

Can't sleep ?

Copland's piece via Hollywood...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S-Q49bIo1v4&feature=related

Poll Shows Shift Toward GOP Candidate In Mass. Senate Race

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/01/15/massachusetts-senate-race_0_n_4...

toniD's Ya Think?

Geithner: Bailed Out AIG 'Absolutely' Right To Pay Banks Top Dollar (VIDEO)

Tim Geithner believes that bailed out insurer AIG was "absolutely" right to pay other bailed out Wall Street firms 100 cents on the dollar for their toxic credit default swaps. Geithner also believes that there was no other option.

CNBC's John Harwood interviewed the treasury secretary about the new tax on banks, AIG payments, bank bonuses, and the New York Fed's decision to advise AIG to keep quiet about the payments.

During the interview, Geithner maintained that even as Chief of the New York Fed, he was not involved in the decision to advising AIG to keep details of the payments private.

The House Committee on Oversight and Government reform has asked Geithner to testify about the New York Fed's advice to AIG. The insurer, which is now majority-owned by the U.S. government, paid a total of $62 billion to banks.

The Business Insider has posted a transcript of the interview. Video is below:

HARWOOD: As you know, you've been asked to testify before Congress about some memos that came out, Congressman Issa released regarding AIG and advice the New York Fed gave to not disclose the full repayments to some counterparties of AIG. Now, I know you've said that you--or your spokesmen have said that you were not involved in those memos. But did you agree with the advice in the memos? Was it sound advice?

Sec. GEITHNER: You know, I haven't looked at those memos, actually. I wasn't involved in that decision. But I do think the Fed--the Fed did disclose all that information subsequently. I think they made the right thing disclosing it. It's important for the American people to see all that information. But you know, John, what this is about is is a deep sense of anger and frustration that the government thought it was necessary to come in and prevent AIG from failing. That was a hugely consequential decision, a very offensive decision to most people. Deeply offensive to me, too. But it was necessary to do. And we did it in a way that I believe was not just least cost to the taxpayer, best deal for the taxpayer, but helped avoid much, much more damage than would have happened without that. If we could have done it differently, we would have done it differently. But this was the best way to do it.

HARWOOD: You still believe it was the right thing to pay counterparties 100 cents for the dollar?

Sec. GEITHNER: Oh, absolutely. Again, the way--this is a tragic failure in the system, and we had no effective legal means to step in and prevent default without doing what you said, helping this firm meet all its legal obligations. That's why at a centerpiece of the president's reform proposals is to give the government the tools to unwind, dismember, break up, sell these institutions without the taxpayer being put in the position of having to absorb their losses. That's the basic--one of the most important reasons why we have to get reform in place. We had no choice at the time other than to do this. And I'm, personally, very confident it was the right thing to do, and we did it in the best way possible for the American people.

Video at link:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/01/14/geithner-bailed-out-aig-a_n_423...

toniD's Ya Think?

That's the formula for creating agricultural monocultures.

Take grape vineyards for instance. Explosion of them on the westcoast to the point of ripping out gorgeous orchards, cutting down the last of the oak forests to plant more grapes. Pure insanity. Monocultures are always more susceptible to pests and disease and fungi.

I don't know if Europe has succumbed to the formula that is here: A farmer needs a cashflow, seasonal loan on a basic crop, but the banks/ag authorities start setting criteria and giving the farmer a hard time, steering the farmer to monoculture crops that are trendy and showing market potential and rapid profitability under the belief that the expanding crop is the most lucrative and profitable and best return on the dollar. This leads to putting more and more acreage into one thing. It starts with the investors wanting a sure thing. Pretty soon existing dependable crops are discontinued and land that is only marginally optimal for the preferred monoculture crop will also be put into the investors' choice (rather than the farmers' choice). Usually the problems that result from miles and miles of the same crop leads to problems where the necessity (real or imagined) to use more pesticides and fertilizers is perceived -- something the Chemical Corporations REALLY must like! So that means MONOCULTURE becomes a goal of some giant corporate entities in tandem -- Banks and Chemical Companies. After seeing close up several crops become monoculture crops, I'm beginning to wonder if the investment capital and ag loan capital somehow originates with the Chemical Companies, since they benefit $o greatly from monoculture agriculture.

Corporate Agribusiness is not interested in the land and the longterm health of the land like family farmers usually are.

When I was in Italy years ago, it was a marvel to see grapes and citrus and olives and fruit trees and other crops growing in combination almost everywhere. Can small scale intensive farming ever be allowed to prove itself as long as farming decisions are made by non-farmers?

But now I'm just rattling on. Forgive me. Time to call it quits. Ciao.

Maybe it will force their hand in altering the 60 vote super majority.

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

Blue Roots Radio

Scott Brown Tells Obama To Stay Out Of Mass. Senate Race »

The Boston Herald | January 14, 2010 at 05:19 PM

Surging GOP Senate candidate Scott Brown yesterday warned President Obama to "stay away" from the Bay State during his roiling race against Democratic rival Martha Coakley and not to interfere with their intensifying battle in the campaign's final days.

"He should stay away and let Martha and I discuss the issues one on one," Brown said. "The machine is coming out of the woodwork to get her elected. They're bringing in outsiders, and we don't need them."

http://news.bostonherald.com/news/politics/view/20100114scott_brown_obam...

toniD's Ya Think?

The punk assed negotiating pivot man seems to have been temporarily replaced with a Leader...maybe...

Perhaps this effort will give Obama the guts to grab the reins of his Team of Rivals before his party begins to implode from the stress of declining numbers in the face of pending election...numbers that, IMO, are largely due to his inaction....

Obama needs to get his ass to Massachusetts...if he doesn't come out strongly and fight for Coakley, I will assume he is relenting a Senate Majority to give himself political cover for a failed attempt at health care reform...

The people need a Leader...and in the end they really don't care if his/her jacket is Red or Blue.

This guy single-handedly sold the 9/11 hijackers with box-cutters myth. He went on Larry King or some show and said how his wife phoned him and told him about the box-cutters before her plane crashed into the Pentagon. Later it was proved in a 9/11 court case that it was a call that never happened.

What is the real story on that, Ted Olson?

Anyway, he certainly is deferred to. Here's a news release that chronicles everybody jumping on his Prop. 8 gay marriage case bandwagon...

http://www.fogcityjournal.com/wordpress/2008/11/19/california-supreme-co...

I'm outta here....

http://popwatch.ew.com/2010/01/15/neil-young-pants-on-the-ground-jimmy-f...

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

Blue Roots Radio

GOP Candidate Chuck DeVore's Spokesman: World Community Should Leave Haiti ASAP
Sam Stein

Earlier today, I wrote about the push by several major foreign policy voices to ensure that America's role in restructuring Haiti extends beyond emergency response to the earthquake.

The politics seem logical -- the impoverished country has endured plenty of socioeconomic chaos in addition to natural disasters in recent history. And now, more than ever, there is a moral and geopolitical imperative for the U.S. to be involved. But rallying domestic support for a long-term U.S. commitment to Haitian affairs has long proved difficult. And here is another example why:

The communications director for California Republican Senate candidate Chuck DeVore tweeted on Thursday that America, the world and even charity organizations should immediately leave the island once immediate and limited recovery is done.

"[T]he best thing the int'l community can do is tend the wounded, bury the dead, and then LEAVE. That includes all UN and charity," wrote Josh Trevino.

This seems a bit blunt, even for the most non-interventionist of Republican candidates (DeVore is a Tea Party favorite). But it also is a reflection of Americans' widespread skepticism about the prospects of building a functioning and stable Haitian society.

I asked former National Security Adviser Tony Lake about the problem in sustaining U.S. interest in Haiti during an interview on Wednesday. He didn't have any specific explanation, but acknowledged that it was problematic.

"There are political voices in the United States that have spoken up for the Haitians, including the black caucus," Lake said. "But generally the political weight of the Haitian community in the United States has been less than the community deserves. And I think that has been a problem in maintaining a consistent American interest."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/01/14/gop-candidate-chuck-devor_n_423...

toniD's Ya Think?

is a progressive state; i have lived there - I know it. I think this republican Brown shit is fearmongering by the media and foul play by pollsters; just cannot envision kennedy's seat being filled by this asshole... jmo

of course it's possible the state's hue might have changed in the last few years, like so much else; it used to be relatively prosperous in the eighties and now with the recession the clueless -against-their-own-interest blue collars and stupid proles might have turned republican

so what do i know?

what i know is that this piece of crap health insurance reform legislation obama is touting is not worth fighting for; so if the whole thing - including the dem majority and obama himself - crash and burn i am not gonna shed a tear

sorry toni and all of you who don't agree with me, but this is how i feel

and i say it with a heavy heart

blog for awhile.

That's what you are feeling mire. There's still a bit of strength in your statement.

I'm feeling it a different way. It's despair.

toniD's Ya Think?

might not be such hot shit, anyway? I don't know much about her but i think she supposed to be a blue dog? Fuck all blue dogs of this world

including this one, which really irritates me to no end

toni

i think of staying off politics and tv and news in general for a while

i think of going back to study - wanna get a masters degree - and that will occupy my mind productively for a few years... i think it will do me good

since i work at this university i can get free tuition and i think i should take advantage of it (before I retire)

Republicans use failed terrorist attack as excuse to further delay Dawn Johnsen’s confirmation.

Dawn Johnsen One of President Obama’s long-stalled progressive nominees is Dawn Johnsen to head the Office of Legal Counsel. Since the Senate failed to confirm her last year, the White House has said that it plans to renominate her. Sen. Arlen Specter (D-PA) has also said that he now backs her confirmation, giving her the support of 60 votes. However, Roll Call is reporting that Republicans are trying to further stall her confirmation, “arguing that the failed Christmas Day bombing and other events require the panel to hold fresh hearings“:

“In recent weeks there have been several incidents threatening our national security and underscoring the need for more aggressive counterterrorism efforts, information sharing, and military and intelligence initiatives,” all seven of the GOP Judiciary members write, arguing that, “We believe many unanswered questions remain about Dawn Johnsen’s suitability to guide our Nation’s legal response to the war on terror. … Ms. Johnsen’s record calls into question her dedication to aggressive Executive action in national security matters.”

“For the Committee to properly discharge its advice and consent duty, we believe a second hearing is necessary to evaluate Ms. Johnsen’s nomination and approach to the serious national security questions currently facing this administration,” they added.

Republicans are also blocking Erroll Southers, who has a distinguished record on homeland security, from becoming head of the Transportation Security Administration.

http://thinkprogress.org/2010/01/15/delay-johnsen-attack/

toniD's Ya Think?

Human rights activists in China detail hacked Gmail accounts
by Chris in Paris on 1/15/2010 03:57:00 AM
Once again, the Beijing Olympics changed everything. Hacking into accounts in China is bad enough but now Tibetan activists based in the US are also describing similar problems. And people think you can do business with that government? At what cost? As disturbing as this is, it's equally disturbing that Google has only come around on this issue after failing miserably in China. For them it appears to be more of a PR stunt to lick their wounds and less about principle.

Google said its investigation also showed that the accounts of dozens of Gmail users in the US, China and Europe who are advocates of human rights in China had been routinely accessed by third parties. This had not happened through an intrusion into its infrastructure, but probably through phishing scams or malware placed on the users' computers.

Ai, who helped to design the Bird's Nest stadium for the Olympics, came under pressure from authorities after leading a volunteer attempt to list all the children who died when their schools collapsed in the 2008 earthquake in Sichuan.

"We realised two months ago that our Gmail account [for the Sichuan investigation] had been invaded by someone who was transferring our emails so whatever we got, they got," he said. "Of course we changed the password but we later had problems again."

http://www.americablog.com/2010/01/human-rights-activists-in-china-detai...

toniD's Ya Think?

"Hotel California" by Gipsy Kings

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

Blue Roots Radio

nothing better than the university - go for it I say.
: )

==
and google in China

Google hackers exploited security hole in Microsoft's Internet Explorer
Attackers targeting Google and other U.S. companies exploited a new security hole in Internet Explorer, Microsoft said.

In a statement, Microsoft admitted that Internet Explorer was one of the "vectors."

Microsoft said it is working with Google, partners and authorities. It is working on a patch for the hole, which could allow an attacker to gain control of a computer if the target clicks on a link in an e-mail or an instant message.

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

Blue Roots Radio

Congressional Dems are going to need some pretty heavy high powered distraction to dazzle the electorate and hurt the Republicans...The list of targets that could fill this order is short, but high profile, and one target in particular would also serve to pull an irritating thorn out of Obama's side to boot...Cheney and BushCo....(cent says while sporting an irrepressible wicked grin)

...just wishful thinking....but the Stigeon Sisters have promised me that the Spring and Summer of 2010 will be a time of revealing of events that began occurring in 2003, something about Jupiter moving through Pisces...I am not sure I understand it, but they sure seem confident about it....and I don't have the nerve to doubt them...the power of 3 is a scary thing...

I have also been informed that today a conjunction of Sun and New Moon (a new moon solar eclipse) occurs and Mercury returns from retrograde to direct...which translates to the time for old negotiations and planning is over and it is time to figure out how go in a new direction with what we've got...what ever that means...

but (please) don't leave us on the blog.
What a great opportunity 4 u @ the university, DO IT!

"i think of staying off politics and tv and news in general for a while

i think of going back to study - wanna get a masters degree - and that will occupy my mind productively for a few years... i think it will do me good

since i work at this university i can get free tuition and i think i should take advantage of it (before I retire)"

Arctic permafrost leaking methane at record levels, figures show

Experts say methane emissions from the Arctic have risen by almost one-third in just five years, and that sharply rising temperatures are to blame

Scientists have recorded a massive spike in the amount of a powerful greenhouse gas seeping from Arctic permafrost, in a discovery that highlights the risks of a dangerous climate tipping point.

Experts say methane emissions from the Arctic have risen by almost one-third in just five years, and that sharply rising temperatures are to blame.....
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/jan/14/arctic-permafrost-meth...

Outraged judge frees grandma jailed for 15 days
By Dan Christensen, BrowardBulldog.org
...
County Court Judge Lee J. Seidman ordered Gabrielle Shaink Trudeau's release in December at her arraignment.

"She's handcuffed like Houdini, for the record. She's got chains around her waist, and she's got handcuffs in front around her hands as if she was some kind of a violent criminal," said Seidman, according to a transcript. "I want her released. I think she's suffered enough at our system's mistakes."
...
But she misunderstood. And six weeks after the warrant was issued, three brawny Broward Sheriff's deputies were sent to her home and arrested Shaink Trudeau in her kitchen.

"They came on real strong, like I had killed somebody or something," she said. "There were neighbors all around. They put handcuffs on me. It was very embarrassing."

Deputies took Shaink Trudeau to the Broward County Jail where she was photographed, booked, fingerprinted and issued a standard khaki jumpsuit, jail records show.
...

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

Blue Roots Radio

Opportunities developing for XE.

Haiti earthquake: Law and order starts to break down as anger boils over
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jan/14/haiti-earthquake-rescue-oper...

i would never do that sandy, though i might reduce my time

besides, I will most probably be asking your help with my homework from time to time

the best and brightest minds are on this blog

the black Baptist minister who led the American Civil Rights Movement in the 1950's and '60's with his doctrine of nonviolent resistance , was born.

......and I knew that I could never again raise my voice against the violence of the oppressed in the ghettos without having first spoken clearly to the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today -- my own government.

Jan. 15, 1943 Work was completed on the Pentagon, headquarters of the U.S. Department of War (now Defense).

to help with Haiti relief efforts

Because George W. Bush did *such* a great job responding to Hurricane Katrina (aka blown levies), President Barack Obama is asking his killer drone soul mate to help with Haiti relief efforts! Such a request assigns legitimacy to the illegitimate P_resident that was Bush, who was installed in a coup d'etat, and serves to permanently elevate Bush from war criminal and torturer (Shock & Awe executor, Waterboarder-in-Chief) to world-class humanitarian.

By Lori Price, www.legitgov.org 15 Jan 2010

KPOJ

On a more substantive note:

As aid continued to pour into the devastated island nation, Cuba granted the U.S. government permission to fly through restricted air space on medical evacuation flights.

The deal, which pushes aside decades of Cold War animosity between Washington and Havana, will cut a precious 90 minutes off the one-way flight from Guantanamo to Haiti.

The air-bridge from Cuba could help open the logistical bottlenecks in Port-au-Prince that caused Haitians to receive just a trickle of aid as they face a fourth day of the earthquake crisis.
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/2010/01/15/2010-01-15_earthquake_i...

CUBA INCREASES AID TO HAITI
Filed under: Haiti, Cuba — admin @ 5:31 pm

by Ana Ivis Galán García

On Wednesday morning, Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla received his counterpart from the Republic of Suriname, Lygia Louise Irene Kraag-Keteldijk, who is on an official visit to our country.

As part of official talks between the two ministers, Rodríguez gave a detailed explanation of the situation of Cuban cooperation workers in the sister Republic of Haiti after the terrible earthquake that occurred on Tuesday.

In that context, he clarified that there are currently “403 Cuban cooperative personnel, 334 of whom are working in the heath sector as doctors and paramedics,” in the devastated country. He said they had been able to confirm the status of all those working “within the city of Port-au-Prince. Only two of them received very slight injuries, and the others have confirmed that they are all right.”
http://www.socialistunity.com/?p=5129

Roseanne's interview of Mary Daly
http://www.stickam.com/viewMedia.do?mId=182900840

http://ncronline.org/news/women/mary-daly-radical-feminist-theologian-de...

http://www.roseanneworld.com/blog/

Daly once wrote: "There are and will be those who think I have gone overboard. Let them rest assured that this assessment is correct, probably beyond their wildest imagination, and that I will continue to do so."
...
Studying archetypal forms and prepatriarchal religion convinced Daly that church doctrine consisted of a series of significant "reversals." She explained these to NCR writer Jeanette Batz in 1996:

* the Trinity, from the triple goddess once celebrated worldwide;
* the virgin birth, from the parthenogenesis that once begat divine daughters;
* Adam giving birth to Eve.

Women operating on patriarchy's boundaries, she once wrote, can spiral into freedom by renaming and reclaiming an ancient woman-centered reality that was stolen and eradicated by patriarchy.

She took great delight in castigating the "eight deadly sins of the fathers": processions, professions, possession, aggression, obsession, assimilation, elimination and fragmentation. "Laugh out loud," she urged, "at their pompous penile processions."

As for God, there's simply no way to rid the language of allusion, she wrote, so, "if you must be anthropomorphic," she preferred “Goddess.”
...
“Ever since childhood, I have been honing my skills for living the life of a radical feminist pirate and cultivating the courage to win. The word ‘sin’ is derived from the Indo-European root ‘es-,’ meaning ‘to be.’ When I discovered this etymology, I intuitively understood that for a woman trapped in patriarchy, which is the religion of the entire planet, ‘to be’ in the fullest sense is ‘to sin.’”

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

Blue Roots Radio

We are looking at getting up to 60º today...

Very Nice.....

(weird weather though)

October 1, 2008
What Does Venezuela Want From Haiti?

"Venezuela is trying to increase its influence throughout Central and South America — in particular Haiti. In the aftermath of summer storms, Venezuela has been contributing significant amounts of aid to the country. What is President Hugo Chavez after?"

Jan 13, 2010

Venezuela Sends First Aid Airplane to Haiti

Hugo Chavez stated that similar cargos will be sent.

The Internal Affairs and Justice Minister Tareck el Aissami said that the Bolivarian National Armed Force's Hercules C-130 also brings tools to help in case of collapsed structures and confined areas.

El Aissami stated that there will arrive other similar cargos sent by the president Hugo Chavez to a country that received from the Liberator Simon Bolivar in its struggles for independence 200 years ago...
http://www.escambray.cu/Eng/world/haiti1001131058

It was so much fun watching these Republican crap piles call each other names while smiling. - NYT

I recorded it just in case I need a chuckle. It's also archived at the TexasDebate.or site.

Medina, the little known candidate was the most cogent even though she's a Tea Bagger. It's bad when a Tea Bagger makes you look stupid.

Are Bank Lobbyists Tanking The Consumer Financial Protection Agency?
By: David Dayen Friday January 15, 2010 9:15 am

The Senate Banking Committee, per the Wall Street Journal, may dump the Consumer Financial Protection Agency, seen by the White House as the signature piece of financial regulatory reform. It’s based on anonymous sources close to Chris Dodd, but the Banking Committee has been attempting to pull off a bipartisan package, and Republicans have joined with bank lobbyists in total opposition to the CFPA.

" Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd is considering scrapping the idea of creating a Consumer Financial Protection Agency, people familiar with the matter said, an initiative at the heart of the White House’s proposal to revamp financial-sector regulations.

The Connecticut Democrat, who announced this month that he wouldn’t run for re-election this year, has discussed the possibility of abandoning the push for a new agency during negotiations with key Senate Republicans as a way to secure a bipartisan deal on the legislation, these people said.

Mr. Dodd’s offer is conditional, however: Republicans must agree to create a beefed-up consumer-protection division within another federal agency, these people said.

The apparent willingness to forgo an independent consumer-protection agency would be a major concession for Mr. Dodd, who had blasted the banking industry for lobbying aggressively to prevent the creation of such an entity. “The very people who created the damn mess are the ones now arguing that consumers ought not to be protected,” he said in June."

I don’t understand how creating a consumer-protection division within another agency is anything different from where we are now. Currently, the Federal Reserve has authority for consumer protection, and as Jeff Merkley told me, the Fed doesn’t do a thing with it:

" If you think about the Fed, monetary policy is in the penthouse, safety and soundness is maybe a couple floors below that, and consumer protection is deep in the basement. And yet Bernanke has been arguing to return consumer protection to the Fed. I think that’s wrong. The Consumer Financial Protection Agency would be a great tool to support competition. Lenders and banks shouldn’t compete on deceiving their customers to maximize profit, but should compete on service and price point. And a strong CFPA would allow that, and complement the capitalist system, much like the courts do."

Simply put, there needs to be an agency with the primary focus on making financial products safe for consumers.

On an AFL-CIO tele-town hall, President Richard Trumka said “there are lobbyists all over the Hill” working to stop financial reform and the CFPA, and seemed to confirm that Dodd was looking at concessions. “I’m worried that Sen. Dodd is wavering on that a little bit. We need to make sure he’s following through.”

The difference between this issue and the public option is that the White House has really stuck its neck out for the CFPA, making it the centerpiece of their overhaul of financial regulations. There are quotes from everyone from Barack Obama to Larry Summers about the important need for the CFPA. They have actually fought for this. So giving it up would be very difficult for the White House.

This should be a fight the Obama Administration ought to be willing to lose. Anyone with a brain could run a campaign on the opposition’s rejection of an agency devoted to protecting consumers. You don’t have to be a political genius to figure that out. The bank fee, while modest, can be politically potent. The CFPA is the same kind of issue. And the White House should insist on one, even at the cost of the entire bill. Regulatory issues like this aren’t going away. You can make this a campaign plank.

" The genius of financial regulation is that while it’s important to fix this it’s actually not critical that it be done in 6 months as opposed to 18 or 24 months. This is an issue where if a block of 44 Senators want to filibuster you can draw a line in the sand, let them filibuster and run around the country complaining about it. That’s a campaign issue. That’s a time to show the base some gutty feisty fightiness. An opportunity, in other words, for people to see their president fighting hard. And also to see that a hard-fighting president isn’t enough—he needs a congress that’s willing to vote for progressive bills."

A veto threat could go a long way here.

http://news.firedoglake.com/2010/01/15/are-bank-lobbyists-tanking-the-co...

toniD's Ya Think?

The U.S. would never reciprocate if the situation were reversed...I wonder how the U.S. will try to take advantage of this?

Cuba is Missing... From US Reports on the International Response to Haiti’s Earthquake

by Dave Lindorff

There are only two US media outlets that have reported on Cuba’s response to the deadly 7.0 earthquake that hit Haiti. One was Fox News, which claimed, wrongly, that the Cubans were absent from the list of neighboring Caribbean countries providing aid. The other was the Christian Science Monitor (a respected news organization that recently shut down its print edition), which reported correctly that Cuba had dispatched 30 doctors to the stricken nation.

.....As for the rest of the US media, they have simply ignored Cuba's role and actions.

The American emergency response, predictably, has focussed primarily, at least in terms of personnel and money, on sending the hugely costly and inefficient US military--a fleet of aircraft and an aircraft carrier--a factor that should be considered when examining that $100 million figure the Obama administration claims is being allocated to emergency aid to Haiti. Considering that the cost of operating an aircraft carrier, including crew, is roughly $2 million a day, just sending a carrier to Port-au-Prince for two weeks accounts for a quarter of the announced American aid effort, and while many of the military personnel sent there will certainly be doing actual aid work, delivering supplies and guarding supplies, many, given America’s long history of brutal military/colonial control of Haiti, will inevitably be spending their time ensuring continued survival and control of the parasitic pro-US political elite in Haiti.
The American emergency response, predictably, has focussed primarily, at least in terms of personnel and money, on sending the hugely costly and inefficient US military--a fleet of aircraft and an aircraft carrier--a factor that should be considered when examining that $100 million figure the Obama administration claims is being allocated to emergency aid to Haiti. Considering that the cost of operating an aircraft carrier, including crew, is roughly $2 million a day, just sending a carrier to Port-au-Prince for two weeks accounts for a quarter of the announced American aid effort, and while many of the military personnel sent there will certainly be doing actual aid work, delivering supplies and guarding supplies, many, given America’s long history of brutal military/colonial control of Haiti, will inevitably be spending their time ensuring continued survival and control of the parasitic pro-US political elite in Haiti.

TWO days ago, at almost six o’clock in the evening Cuban time and when, given its geographical location, night had already fallen in Haiti, television stations began to broadcast the news that a violent earthquake – measuring 7.3 on the Richter scale – had severely struck Port-au-Prince. The seismic phenomenon originated from a tectonic fault located in the sea just 15 kilometers from the Haitian capital, a city where 80% of the population inhabit fragile homes built of adobe and mud.

The news continued almost without interruption for hours. There was no footage, but it was confirmed that many public buildings, hospitals, schools and more solidly-constructed facilities were reported collapsed. I have read that an earthquake of the magnitude of 7.3 is equivalent to the energy released by an explosion of 400,000 tons of TNT.

Tragic descriptions were transmitted. Wounded people in the streets were crying out for medical help, surrounded by ruins under which their relatives were buried. No one, however, was able to broadcast a single image for several hours.

The news took all of us by surprise. Many of us have frequently heard about hurricanes and severe flooding in Haiti, but were not aware of the fact that this neighboring country ran the risk of a massive earthquake. It has come to light on this occasion that 200 years ago, a massive earthquake similarly affected this city, which would have been the home of just a few thousand inhabitants at that time.

At midnight, there was still no mention of an approximate figure in terms of victims. High-ranking United Nations officials and several heads of government discussed the moving events and announced that they would send emergency brigades to help. Given that MINUSTAH (United Stabilization Mission in Haiti) troops are deployed there – UN forces from various countries – some defense ministers were talking about possible casualties among their personnel.

It was only yesterday, Wednesday morning, when the sad news began to arrive of enormous human losses among the population, and even institutions such as the United Nations mentioned that some of their buildings in that country had collapsed, a word that does not say anything in itself but could mean a lot.

For hours, increasingly more traumatic news continued to arrive about the situation in this sister nation. Figures related to the number of fatal victims were discussed, which fluctuated, according to various versions, between 30,000 and 100,000. The images are devastating; it is evident that the catastrophic event has been given widespread coverage around the world, and many governments, sincerely moved by the disaster, are making efforts to cooperate according to their resources.

The tragedy has genuinely moved a significant number of people, particularly those in which that quality is innate. But perhaps very few of them have stopped to consider why Haiti is such a poor country. Why does almost 50% of its population depend on family remittances sent from abroad? Why not analyze the realities that led Haiti to its current situation and this enormous suffering as well?

The most curious aspect of this story is that no one has said a single word to recall the fact that Haiti was the first country in which 400,000 Africans, enslaved and trafficked by Europeans, rose up against 30,000 white slave masters on the sugar and coffee plantations, thus undertaking the first great social revolution in our hemisphere. Pages of insurmountable glory were written there. Napoleon’s most eminent general was defeated there. Haiti is the net product of colonialism and imperialism, of more than one century of the employment of its human resources in the toughest forms of work, of military interventions and the extraction of its natural resources.

This historic oversight would not be so serious if it were not for the real fact that Haiti constitutes the disgrace of our era, in a world where the exploitation and pillage of the vast majority of the planet’s inhabitants prevails.

Billions of people in Latin American, Africa and Asia are suffering similar shortages although perhaps not to such a degree as in the case of Haiti.

Situations like that of that country should not exist in any part of the planet, where tens of thousands of cities and towns abound in similar or worse conditions, by virtue of an unjust international economic and political order imposed on the world. The world population is not only threatened by natural disasters such as that of Haiti, which is a just a pallid shadow of what could take place in the planet as a result of climate change, which really was the object of ridicule, derision, and deception in Copenhagen.

It is only just to say to all the countries and institutions that have lost citizens or personnel because of the natural disaster in Haiti: we do not doubt that in this case, the greatest effort will be made to save human lives and alleviate the pain of this long-suffering people. We cannot blame them for the natural phenomenon that has taken place there, even if we do not agree with the policy adopted with Haiti.

But I have to express the opinion that it is now time to look for real and lasting solutions for that sister nation.

In the field of healthcare and other areas, Cuba – despite being a poor and blockaded country – has been cooperating with the Haitian people for many years. Around 400 doctors and healthcare experts are offering their services free of charge to the Haitian people. Our doctors are working every day in 227 of the country’s 337 communes. On the other hand, at least 400 young Haitians have trained as doctors in our homeland. They will now work with the reinforcement brigade which traveled there yesterday to save lives in this critical situation. Thus, without any special effort being made, up to 1,000 doctors and healthcare experts can be mobilized, almost all of whom are already there willing to cooperate with any other state that wishes to save the lives of the Haitian people and rehabilitate the injured.

Another significant number of young Haitians are currently studying medicine in Cuba.

We are also cooperating with the Haitian people in other areas within our reach. However, there can be no other form of cooperation worthy of being described as such than fighting in the field of ideas and political action in order to put an end to the limitless tragedy suffered by a large number of nations such as Haiti.

The head of our medical brigade reported: "The situation is difficult, but we have already started saving lives." He made that statement in a succinct message hours after his arrival yesterday in Port-au-Prince with additional medical reinforcements.

Later that night, he reported that Cuban doctors and ELAM’s Haitian graduates were being deployed throughout the country. They had already seen more than 1,000 patients in Port-au-Prince, immediately establishing and putting into operation a hospital that had not collapsed and using field hospitals where necessary. They were preparing to swiftly set up other centers for emergency care.

We feel a wholesome pride for the cooperation that, in these tragic instances, Cuba doctors and young Haitian doctors who trained in Cuba are offering our brothers and sisters in Haiti!

Fidel Castro Ruz
January 14, 2009
8:25 p.m.

http://www.granma.cu/ingles/2010/enero/vier15/Reflections-14enero.html

They actually put me on!

I'm still shaking, though!

I've never called any radio show before, so bear with me and my over-excitement.

Well, visionary Democratic leaders like Wilson or Obama, will just use it to push the neoliberal agenda-- another chapter of the "Shock Doctrine."

On the other hand, the RNC head, and onetime hopeful NFL owner, Rush, apparently, will use this disaster to continue to broadened the Rethug's voter base:

Limbaugh stands by his Haiti remarks, tells critical caller she’s a ‘bigot’ with ‘tampons in her ears.’

Rush Limbaugh Yesterday, hate radio host Rush Limbaugh controversially said that President Obama was going to try to use the devastating Haitian earthquake to boost his credibility with the “light-skinned and dark-skinned black community” in the United States. He also argued against government aid for the nation....

RUSH: No, no, no, no, no. I’m not implying that. … What I’m illustrating here is that you’re a blockhead. What I’m illustrating here is that you’re a closed-minded bigot who is ill-informed. … And if you had listened to this program for a modicum of time you would know it. But instead you’re a blockhead. You’re mind is totally closed. You have tampons in your ears. Nothing is getting through other than the biased crap that you read.
http://thinkprogress.org/2010/01/14/limbaugh-haiti-tampons/

Rush and the NFL. Unbelievable:

Heavy heart

Every member of the Chargers organization was devastated by news of the devastating earthquakes that hit the Caribbean nation of Haiti earlier this week. For defensive end Jacques Cesaire, the tragedy hits close to home.

Cesaire’s parents immigrated to the United States from Haiti in 1976. He has an uncle that still lives in the island nation, and his family has been unsuccessful in their attempts to reach him.

“My mom is pretty shaken up about it,” Cesaire said. “We’re all praying that everything works out. My uncle lives in the central part of the country, closer to the Dominican Republic, so we’re optimistic that he’s okay. But it breaks my heart that so many other people aren’t alright.”
http://www.chargers.com/news/article-1/Gates-expects-the-unexpected/8906...

http://www.nola.com/music/index.ssf/2010/01/bobby_charles_louisiana_song...

there'll most likely be a jazz funeral for him; i'll have to dig it up; these kinds of notices never get put out; you either run into one of these jazz funerals by accident as you're driving down the street and the street is suddenly closed off, or you just miss them altogether

-Rush Limbaugh Yesterday, hate radio host Rush Limbaugh controversially said that President Obama was going to try to use the devastating Haitian earthquake to boost his credibility with the “light-skinned and dark-skinned black community” in the United States.-

mp3

http://www.ipl.org/IPLBrowse/GetSubject?vid=13&tid=7038&parent=0

MOSCOW - Drivers in downtown Moscow squinted in disbelief as an electronic highway billboard blazed a two-minute pornographic video instead of its regular advertising clips. - MSNBC

Submitted by Fernando on Fri, 01/15/2010 - 2:13pm.
MOSCOW - Drivers in downtown Moscow squinted in disbelief as an electronic highway billboard blazed a two-minute pornographic video instead of its regular advertising clips.
--------------
I hope there was a Cyrillic crawl below it that said "Honk if you think this is a boner."

use Turbo Tax?

that name scares me; i have been avoiding it; i just do the EZ- whatever, just one-two pages very simple return, and drop it in the mail

i might have to start itemizing this year though, now that i have a house and pay interest on mortgage

Mobster too hard to find guilty by corrupt American justice system. - Independent

if it's good enough for our lame fed chairman, it's good enough for me.

I just was wondering if I need to use the pay one or can get away with the free one...According to their calculator, I have to buy the premium, and I think I have to buy the state one separately...not sure..

that's what I use but Texas has property taxes for revenue, not income taxes. So I don't buy the State version.

APNewsBreak: AP sources: Obama to Massachusetts

WASHINGTON – Democratic sources tell the Associated Press that President Barack Obama intends to travel to Massachusetts before Tuesday to campaign for the endangered Democratic candidate in a Senate special election.

The sources spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to pre-empt a White House announcement. The timing of the visit is uncertain.

A poll is showing a shift in favor of the Republican Party in the race to fill a Senate seat that Democrats have held for more than half a century. Sen. Edward M. Kennedy died of brain cancer last August.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100115/ap_on_el_se/us_kennedy_successor_oba...

toniD's Ya Think?

In reversal, federal regulators now propose to limit oil and gas commodities

Source: Washington Post

With the price of gas at the pump at its highest point in well over a year, federal regulators moved Thursday to prevent excessive speculation by financial traders from driving the cost of oil even higher. The effort to adopt new limits on the trading of oil and other energy commodities is a sharp reversal after years when regulators left those markets alone.

The proposal from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, which oversees oil and energy trading, would introduce new restrictions on what the largest traders can do. Concerned that some firms can amass such large holdings in energy commodities that their trades can have an outsize effect on the price of gasoline, heating oil or natural gas, officials said they would prevent traders "from establishing extraordinarily large positions."

The proposed limits highlight a newfound skepticism among regulators toward the financial sector. Big banks and Wall Street firms have transformed the marketplace for energy commodities into a high-stakes casino for speculation, a departure from its original role as a place where airline and shipping agencies, for instance, could buy contracts to keep the price of their fuel steady. Regulators are concerned that this betting has created too much volatility, sending the price of oil and other energy commodities up and down violently.

Oil prices hit a record high of $145 a barrel in 2008 before plunging to $33 a barrel in a matter of months. With the slow economic recovery, they have risen to about $80 a barrel. The instability in prices is caused by several factors, including overall economic conditions, the decisions of oil-rich nations and the weather -- in addition to financial speculation. So it remains difficult to determine how much any regulatory proposal would affect these price swings.

The agency's plan sets the new trading limits high enough that they would affect only 10 firms, agency officials said. They would not name the traders.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/01/14/AR201001...

toniD's Ya Think?

http://www.samsedershow.com/node/5596#comment-390199

chuckle chuckle

thinking about sexy beat cops

Residents of the C Street Christian fellowship house will no longer benefit from a loophole that had allowed the house's owners to avoid paying property taxes.

Previously, the house -- despite being home to numerous lawmakers -- had been tax exempt, because it was classified as a church. That arrangement had allowed the building's owner, the secretive international Christian organization The Family, to charge significantly below market rents to its residents. In recent year, Senators John Ensign (R-NV), Tom Coburn (R-OK), Sam Brownback (R-KS) and Jim DeMint (R-SC), and Reps. Zach Wamp (R-TN), Bart Stupak (D-MI) and Mike Doyle (D-PA) have all reportedly called C Street home.

Natalie Wilson, a spokeswoman for the Office of Tax and Revenue for Washington D.C., told TPMmuckraker that her office inspected the house this summer. "It was determined that portions of it were being rented out for private residential purposes," she said. As a result, the tax exempt status was partially revoked. Sixty-six percent of the value of the property is now subject to taxation.

According to online records, the total taxable assessment is $1,834,500. The building's owner last month paid taxes of $1714.70 on the property.

http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/11/c_street_house_no_long...

toniD's Ya Think?

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=a5_o_3ugh7u0&pos=7

Despite Video

http://www.noonehastodietomorrow.com/occult/media/1894