Open

I got nothing either...

I got nothing too...?

I got nothing also...?

Hey wait, I got a bagel and some bacon.

Please disregard the previous posts, I have a bagel and some bacon.

I ate the bacon, and the bagel. Now I got nothing.

Fuck.

Guess I'll go back to bed now...

I hope U enjoy bed ... & i got nutthin 2 EXCEPT I GOT TEA! :D
... & gotta "fly" *poof* ;)

February 02, 2010, 1:34PM PST
Category: MEDIA
By: Dylan Stableford -

Films Boost News Corp. Total Profit 44%

News Corporation reported strong earnings on Tuesday for its fiscal second quarter, a sign that the media giant is emerging from the recession.

"From crisis comes clarity," chairman and chief executive Rupert Murdoch told investors during a conference call Tuesday afternoon.

News Corp.’s operating income was $1.2 billion during the last three months of 2009, or about a 44 percent increase over the same period the year before.

The company said the jump was primarily the result of growth in its film, television, cable, newspaper (including a 5 percent advertising increase at the Wall Street Journal) and book businesses, which helped offset a slide in its satellite business and a digital division that includes the problem child MySpace.

"Please excuse the immodesty," Murdoch said, referring to News Corp. as the "preeminent content" company in the world.

"Content is not only king, it is the emperor of all things electronic," he said. "Machines are not powered by batteries -- they are powered by creative ingenuity."

Murdoch touted the company’s willingness to “take prudent, creative risks like ‘Avatar’ that lead the industry forward.”

Operating income from its film segment that includes 20th Century Fox studio was $324 million, nearly tripling its $112 million from the same period in 2008. News Corp. said the results were driven by the DVD release of “Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs” and “X-Men Origins: Wolverine.”

The company stressed that the financial results largely did not include receipts from "Avatar," but did include its launch costs. "Profits will begin to flow over the next two quarters," Murdoch said.

He said News Corp. would like to release "Avatar" on DVD "as soon as possible."

"We're not going to yank it out of theaters doing $30 million a weekend," News Corp. COO Chase Carey said. However, the executives told investors not to expect a 3D "Avatar" DVD this year. "The technology is not quite there yet," Carey said.

When asked about an "Avatar" sequel, Murdoch said the company is in "very early talks about a sequel. Jim (Cameron) has ideas, but we haven't agreed on anything yet." Still, he said, "we'll be pushing for it."

Murdoch said the company was not ready to make an announcement on its much-anticipated online pay wall, but hinted one could be coming within the next "two months."

Murdoch also addressed Fox's agreement with Time Warner Cable, saying that News Corp. intends to renegotiate distribution deals with all cable operators "as contracts expire in the coming years." (Carey said that the company has 10 contracts with carriers, eight of which will be renegotiated.)

It wasn't all gravy for News Corp., though. The contribution of News Corp.'s digital media group (read: MySpace) fell $32 million “principally due to lower search and advertising revenue."

Nonetheless, Murdoch said the unit began "to see signs of traffic stabilization" under MySpace's new management team.

And as far as Conan O'Brien-to-Fox, Murdoch said he'd be interested "if we could do it and make a profit," but batted down rumors that News Corp. has been negotiating with the ex-"Tonight Show" host about a return to late night. "I'm sure there have been talks, but no negotiations."

Source URL: http://www.thewrap.com/article/films-boost-news-corp-earnings-13797

Fish oil supplements prevent mental illness; safe and effective alternative to antipsychotic drugs
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor

(NaturalNews) An important new study published in the Archives of General Psychiatry reveals that fish oil supplements beat mental illness. The study involved 81 people deemed to be at high risk for psychosis. The randomized, placebo-controlled study provided fish oil supplements to half the study subjects for just 12 weeks (the other half received placebo supplements). The results? While 11 people in the placebo group developed a psychotic disorder, only 2 in the fish oil group did.

Although the study was relatively small, it helps demonstrate the wide-ranging benefits of omega-3 fatty acids, which are thought to be the key nutritional factor in fish oils. We already know that omega-3 fatty acids / polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) help protect people against cardiovascular disease. We also know they can play a role in preventing diabetes and cancer. It's little surprise that they also protect against mental illness, given the importance of healthy fatty acids for the functioning of the nervous system.

As the BBC reports, Alison Cobb, from the mental health charity Mind, said in response to this study: "If young people can be treated successfully with fish oils, this is hugely preferable to treating them with antipsychotics, which come with a range of problems from weight gain to sexual dysfunction, whereas omega-3s are actually beneficial to their general state of health."

She's exactly right: Antipsychotic drugs actually cause diabetes. They promote blood sugar disorders and weight gain, among other problems. Some psychiatric drugs have also been linked to school shootings and violent outbursts (suicides, murders, etc.). They're also expensive and they pose an environmental hazard, since many of the chemicals used in those drugs pass right through the body and end up in waters downstream.

Fish oils have none of these negative side effects. In fact, they have positive effects throughout the body. That's why fish oils are such a remarkable solution to replace antipsychotic drugs: They're safer, cheaper and they work better!-more-

http://www.naturalnews.com/028083_fish_oil_mental_illness.html

Submitted by CeeCee on Wed, 02/03/2010 - 10:04am.
...Fish oils have none of these negative side effects. In fact, they have positive effects throughout the body...
--------
To Whom It May Concern,

We have discovered a deleterious effect from having fish oil inside of the body.

Sincerely,

The Fish

:)

maybe it's just the conspiracy theorist in me, but, somehow, I would tend to doubt the "sincerity" of someone named "Crank Bait" claiming to represent "The Fish"....

Feb. 2 (Bloomberg) -- Former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker plans to tell the Senate Banking Committee today that hedge funds and private-equity funds should be allowed to both profit and fail, without any expectation of government support.

“Managements, stockholders or partners would be at risk, able to profit handsomely or to fail entirely, as appropriate in a competitive free-enterprise system,” Volcker says in remarks prepared for testimony before the panel.

The 82-year-old former Fed chairman defends President Barack Obama’s Jan. 21 proposal to limit the size and trading activities of banks, saying it would reduce risk in the financial system while leaving banks with a “wide range” of profitable services to offer. The restrictions are part of a larger effort to deal with future expectations for bailouts, Volcker said.

“Hedge funds, private-equity funds, and trading activities unrelated to customer needs and continuing banking relationships should stand on their own, without the subsidies implied by public support for depository institutions,” Volcker says in the text of the speech obtained by Bloomberg News.

Volcker draws distinctions among three groups of institutions: hedge funds and private equity funds, which he says aren’t entitled to taxpayer support; commercial banks that take federally insured deposits; and large, interconnected firms whose failure could pose a threat to the broader economy.

The former central banker is scheduled to begin his testimony at 2:30 p.m. in Washington.

Banks carrying out “essential services” deserve a “safety net,” he says.

Capital, Liquidity

At the same time, Volcker calls for resolution authority to take control of large, failing financial institutions, in a process that would amount to “euthanasia, not a rescue.” He also asks lawmakers to strengthen regulation of financial firms by imposing stricter requirements for capital and liquidity.

“What we plainly need are authority and methods to minimize the occurrence of those failures that threaten the basic fabric of financial markets,” he said.

“It is critically important that those institutions, its managers, and its creditors do not assume a public rescue will be forthcoming in time of pressure.”

Avoiding Another Crisis

Lawmakers are considering measures to overhaul regulation of the financial system to avoid a repeat of the crisis that led to taxpayer-funded bailouts of firms including American International Group Inc., Citigroup Inc. and Bank of America Corp. The Standard & Poor’s 500 Financials Index has jumped more than 137 percent since March 6 as the financial system healed.

Volcker is among a group of Washington policy makers offering ideas to eliminate the too-big-to-fail policy that led the U.S. government to prop up large firms. Financial regulators have said they lack the authority to unwind some large failing financial firms in an orderly way.
more...

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20670001&sid=aylXG_0oiIKs

toniD's Ya Think?

February 03, 2010

http://www.zmag.org/znet/viewArticle/23809

MSNBC is showing it now.

If you don't have TV

Check here:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/02/02/obama-will-do-another-qa_n_4464...

toniD's Ya Think?

CSPAN2

I'm out of coffee - now what I'm I gonna do??
Shit

Why Manning is a better NFL quarterback than Montana, Brady

SI.com - ‎36 minutes ago‎
------------------------
When I become Dictator, I will execute anyone who writes drivel like the idle nonsense above.

It isn't a matter of liking or not liking football. The same article can be (and has been) written comparing Venus Williams to Billie Jean King and Kenny Roberts to Valentino Rossi.

It's just fucking stupid.

What if The Incredible Hulk went up against the Frankenstein monster in a spelling bee?

"The word is 'fire'."

The Incredible Hulk: "Hulk want hear definition."

Frankenstein monster [interrupting]: "Fire BAD!...but good diphthong."

Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. and David Kirby
Posted January 27, 2009 | 04:05 PM (EST)

Autism, Vaccines and the CDC: The Wrong Side of History
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-f-kennedy-jr-and-david-kirby/autism...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MVJ_-QYFVGg

(Before Malloy decided to jump on the right wing band wagon, he should have invited Robert on his show.)

Vern: You think Mighty Mouse could beat up Superman?

Teddy: What are you cracked?

Vern: Why not?! I saw the other day he was carrying five elephants in one hand.

Teddy: Boy you don't know nothing. Mighty Mouse is a cartoon. Superman is a real guy. No way a cartoon could beat up a real guy.

Vern: Yeah, maybe you're right. Would be a good fight, 'though.

good movie...

If you let me allow the pharmaceutical industry to charge more for drugs, I'll collect tax money for the insurance industry.

Submitted by cent on Wed, 02/03/2010 - 10:33am.
maybe it's just the conspiracy theorist in me, but, somehow, I would tend to doubt the "sincerity" of someone named "Crank Bait" claiming to represent "The Fish"....
--------------
Before your time on this blog, there was a version when it was possible to post a comment under any name with no hassle.

It made for some pretty funny comments from one-time posters like The Fish or Bite Me.

It also made for some flimflammery but, hey, ya gotta take the bad anarchists with the good anarchists.

{tea hee} ;)

story of my life

well, sam, at least you're open and we're certainly happy about that

...and leave it to Obama to blame our lack of a strong renewable energy policy on our form of democracy....(filibuster, etc)

What a dick.

The problem with Afghanistan is Pakistan.
The problem with Vietnam is Laos.
The problem with Honduras is Guatemala...

Bomb kills 3 US military trainers in NW Pakistan

The attack will highlight the presence of U.S. troops in Pakistan at a time when anti-American sentiment is running high. U.S. and Pakistani authorities rarely talk about the American training program in the northwest out of fear it could generate a backlash.

Despite the presence of tens of thousands of U.S. forces in neighboring Afghanistan, Pakistan does not permit American troops to conduct military operations on its soil.

The soldiers were part of a small contingent of American soldiers training members of the paramilitary Frontier Corps, Pakistan's army and the U.S. Embassy said. The mission is trying to strengthen the ill-equipped and poorly trained outfit's ability to fight militants.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/feedarticle/8929078

what did sherrod brown do?

NY Times reports Ray LaHood, the transportation secretary, said Wednesday morning during a House Appropriations panel hearing that owners of recalled Toyotas should stop driving them and take them to their dealers to be repaired. "We need to fix the problem so people don't have to worry about disengaging the engine or slamming the brakes on or put it in neutral," Mr. LaHood said in response to questions, according to Bloomberg News. Mr. LaHood said his advice to owners is to "stop driving it. Take it to a Toyota dealer because they believe they have a fix for it," The Associated Press reported.

energy policy and manufacturing strategy...specifically with regard to solar power and equipment, and why are we allowing China to take the lead there...

Obama said, once again "basically", China doesn't have to deal with our system of government, and we, instead, need to look more at clean energy, specifically clean coal...

and, btw, the "dick" reference was directed at Obama for his non-answer, not Brown for the question.

GOP finds loophole in reconciliation ploy
By Alexander Bolton - 02/03/10 06:00 AM ET

As it turns out, Senate Democrats may not be able to force healthcare legislation through the chamber on a simple majority vote.

Republicans say they have found a loophole in the budget reconciliation process that could allow them to offer an indefinite number of amendments.

Though it has never been done, Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) says he’s prepared to test the Senate’s stamina to block the Democrats from using the process to expedite changes to the healthcare bill.

Experts on Senate procedural rules, from both parties, note that such a filibuster is possible. While reconciliation rules limit debate to 20 hours, senators lack similiarconstraints on amendments and could conceivably continue offering them until 60 members agree to cut the process off.

Another option for Democrats would be to seek a ruling by the parliamentarian that Republicans are simply filing amendments to stall the process. But such a ruling could taint the final healthcare vote and backfire for Democrats in November.

Or Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) could use a tactic similar to the so-called nuclear option to quash the GOP tactics.

If those options failed, and Reid couldn’t convince a single Republican to vote with his 59-member conference, Democrats might be forced to consider withdrawing the healthcare bill.

A Democratic leadership aide confirmed to The Hill that the options outlined in this articlee are correct.

House Democrats have said they would not pass the Senate healthcare bill unless changes are made through reconciliation, which is necessary because Republicans control 41 Senate seats, enough to block legislation through the regular process.

But Republicans may end up having that power even under reconciliation.

“You could keep offering amendments until you don’t have any more to offer,” said a congressional aide, who said he did not know how long senators would be willing to stay in the chamber to move the reconciliation package. “What the body’s tolerance would be is unknown.”

A former Senate Republican leadership aide said: “The limit is on debate, not on consideration of amendments.”

DeMint said he’s ready to try anything.

“You’ll see Republicans do everything they can to delay and stop this process,” DeMint said. “They need to get the message the track they’re on is the wrong track.”

Reid spent significant time last year in close study of the Senate rules for fast-tracking healthcare legislation under special budget rules.

Reid stayed away from the special process of passing healthcare reform with only 51 votes because he knew it would be messy.

But since Republicans won a Senate seat in Massachusetts, thereby stripping Democrats of a filibuster-proof majority, it appears Democrats will need to invoke those rules to make crucial changes to healthcare legislation.

DeMint said that using reconciliation rules to pass the House-requested changes to the Senate healthcare bill with only 51 votes is “tyrannical.”

“I think you’ll see us offering amendments to get us into November, if we can,” said DeMint.

Sen. Judd Gregg (N.H.), the ranking Republican on the Budget Committee, said: “You could continue to offer amendments, I suspect.

“You can offer an unlimited number of amendments on the budget after time is elapsed so it’s logical that you could also do it on reconciliation,” Gregg said.

Democrats could try to persuade Republican colleagues to back down and withdraw their amendments after several hours or days of voting. With a unified Democratic conference, Reid would need just one GOP senator to cut off the process.

The most likely candidate would be Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-Maine), who voted with Democrats to advance the Senate Finance Committee bill but has since opposed the healthcare measure on the Senate floor.

Reid or another Democrat could make a point of order that using amendments to stall a reconciliation bill violates the spirit of the Budget Act of 1974, which sets up for expedited consideration of budget-related bills.

Reid or another Democrat could argue that offering unlimited amendments violates the spirit of limiting debate.

The parliamentarian has ruled that the limit on debate does not allow senators to filibuster the motion to proceed to a reconciliation bill. The parliamentarian could rule that the same concept applies to amendments.

No one really knows, because a lawmaker has never tried to use amendments to filibuster a reconciliation package.

“We haven’t ever tried it before,” said a congressional aide.

Parliamentarian Alan Frumin could rule Republican amendments after a certain number out of order. But he could also allow the GOP amendments, since they are not expressly barred.

If Frumin ruled with Republicans, Reid would be in a difficult position. He could either pull the bill off the floor or he could appeal the ruling of the parliamentarian.

With a simple majority of 51 votes, Reid could overturn the ruling of the chair and set a Senate precedent that amendments must be limited to within reason. This tactic would be similar to the so-called nuclear option Senate Republicans considered using in 2005 to overrule Democratic filibusters of judicial nominees.

http://thehill.com/homenews/senate/79423-gop-finds-loophole-in-reconcili...

where are these bright elitist minds the Dems are supposed to have? Do you have to be evil to be devious?

toniD's Ya Think?

he gets on these rants that don't make much sense, a little selfish too, just because his kids never had any problems with vaccines... gee that's a quite limited point of view i'd say; i'd also say robert kennedy has probably done his homework on this more than malloy and kathy have

and at least for the H1N1 or whatever it's called, i certainly don't agree with malloy at all; i think that was totally unnecessary and overblown

it's not your typical bout flyer....

Another team mate was injured last night....and I went to my first physical therapy session yesterday...

cent...a few girls are mad because we warm up and stretch when practice starts and then the coach stops practice and talks for like 1/2 hour and everyone cools down, then she expects scrimmaging...what's the proper way to convey something like that to a coach...no one wants to tell her...

The Dead Sea in Jordan is shrinking at an alarming rate - a development that has led to the creation of some 3,000 sinkholes along the sea's coasts.
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2010/02/20102362552838501.h...

Do you think that since no one in the U.S. sees the reality of war that we are numb to death now? Or that we just as a country really think it's ok to murder civilians in other countries...?

good flyer.

is "break a leg" considered good luck for derby?

unless you have an assistant coach...

...cool poster.

who fell on the track and then a skater skated into her neck and she is paralysed...it goes against logic to play this game..but...

*

Ah! The team captain..we do have one of those...I will ask her what she thinks, thanks! :)

John Kerry: Amend The Constitution In Response To Citizens United Decision

Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) wants to amend the Constitution to restrict the free speech rights of corporations after last week's landmark Supreme Court campaign finance ruling.

At a hearing on Tuesday, Kerry said that in the short term he wanted Congress to quickly pass countermeasures that would require corporations to get shareholder approval for political spending and prohibit spending by domestic subsidiaries of foreign corporations and government contractors.

"But we may also need to think bigger," Kerry said. "I think we need a constitutional amendment to make it clear once and for all that corporations do not have the same free speech rights as individuals."

The first lawmaker to propose amending the Constitution was Rep. Donna Edwards (D-Md.), who told the Huffington Post that she thought the Supreme Court's ruling was so broad that less sweeping measures wouldn't work.

"I think the Supreme Court has actually left us with no choice," she said. "We hoped the court would have had a little more of a mixed ruling that would have left us with some options."

The Supreme Court, by a 5-to-4 majority, held in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission that the FEC could not restrict spending by corporations on advertisements for or against candidates during election season because, the court said, corporations have free speech rights as individuals under the Constitution. Before the ruling, corporate political money had to be funneled through political action committees, which have strict fundraising and spending limits.

A constitutional amendment is a huge long shot. It would require two-thirds of Congress and three-fourths of the states for ratification. Even so, Kerry said the effort is already underway.

"Amending the Constitution is a serious endeavor and some of the sharpest minds in the country are working together right now to construct language for an amendment that would solve the problem and get to the heart of the issue," said Kerry. "I'm ready to work with them and with the activists it will take to get an amendment ratified."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/02/02/john-kerry-amend-the-cons_n_445...

toniD's Ya Think?

PLANTS that even digest better than fish. Go to a Natural Foods Store.

Signed: The Fish

CENT & CB {crank} grand repartee ... U both bring a very rare smile to my face {besides THE new-ISH Scotty Terror Toto Terrier :)}.
;)

I read about it

http://www.chicagonow.com/blogs/geek-to-me/2010/02/tequila-mockingbird-k...

for some reason "break a leg" is good luck for theatre.

most sports have a dark side to them in the form of horrible injuries. i watched a lot of skiing last weekend and the level of insanity with x games and snowboarding is an order of magnitude greater than it used to be.

the race where 6 boarders take off down the hill at once with the winner going on to the next round surely qualifies. so does the one where there's a jump across a man made ravine in the middle of the course. you have a choice to go around (risking precious time), but if your speed or angle are wrong, you are going to do a face plant into a wall of ice.

We don't see the news coverage of these wars as we did during the Vietnam conflict. It is partially the media's fault for not reporting, but also the Military's fault for using their own embedded media consultants. Also, with the new technologies (drones, ect), we are detached and isolated from the inhumanities of war. It doesn't touch us directly.

This is what made the Twin Tower attack such a great brain washing tool. It made a great rally cry for the war mongers in Washington to help their family big oil businesses, and their family owned Miltary Industrial corporations.

Record High Afghanistan Poppy Crop....but in 2001, there was none
http://www.samsedershow.com/node/2555
By 2001, the Taliban had eliminated the Opium production in Afghanistan. No wonder we had to attack.

See "AVATAR" if you get a chance.

Close the gap between the rhetoric,
and the reality.- President Obama, 01-29-10
The World Needs More SEDER!!!

from previous thread (I'm still catching up)

Got the repub judges eating out of my hands

watch out, don't feed them or they may reproduce, oh no!

Submitted by Alice on Wed, 02/03/2010 - 11:24am.
...what's the proper way to convey something like that to a coach...no one wants to tell her...
-----
Submitted by cent on Wed, 02/03/2010 - 11:35am.
that is the team Captain's job Alice...unless you have an assistant coach...
-----
Submitted by Alice on Wed, 02/03/2010 - 11:35am.
Ah! The team captain..we do have one of those...
-------------------------------------------
Ahhh, das iss goot little soldiers.

I laughed so hard I pissed my pants. The Torches And Pitchforks revolutionary is schooling the Anarchist on the finer points of hierarchical structures.

It goes like this, Alice: cent is telling you that the structure is shaped like a pyramid and your little feet are sticking out from under it like those of the Wicked Witch of the East.

cent wants you to understand that you don't have the standing to speak directly to your Commanding Officer.

You are, in short, the lowest of the low.

Ha! I am loving this. Tell her how to show proper deference to her superiors, cent. Foot-washing would be a good start.

Can you say "intellectual hypocrisy"? I knew that you could.

Well. lets see.
40 cents of our fed tax dollars go to the Pentagon, while thousands loss their homes because of health bills they can't pay. We have troops "fighting" on virtually every continent.
How long have been in Iraq now? How long have we be been in Germany? How many people love 24. How many here love capital punishment. How many people her love to see someone get tasered. How many people here want to throw out habeas corpus.
Half of our news is a death cult obsession with the wonders of our latest destructive devices. Just get out on the roads, and watch how people drive. They hate themselves and everyone around them. The country's going medieval.
Liberals, like Amy Goodman, are always arguing if our news actually showed the effects of war- were more graphic- people here would hate state sanctioned violence. I'm not so sure. Al Arabai and Al Jareeza show graphic war footage, and things don't seem to getting anymore peaceful in the M.East. Why do people flock to watch movies like Saw?
I do think we are more indifferent to the rest of world generally, however. I see a full third of the British public thinks Tony Blair should go on trial for war crimes. What percentage of Americans would want to try Dick Cheney--or Barack Obama for war crimes. (I suppose half the Rethugs would want to try BO for not already dismembering KSM.)

Submitted by Crank Bait on Wed, 02/03/2010 - 10:19am.
Submitted by cent on Wed, 02/03/2010 - 10:33am.
Submitted by dan on Wed, 02/03/2010 - 10:25am.
LOL

Submitted by Ms_Anthrope on Wed, 02/03/2010 - 11:38am.
Thanks!

...laughs and alternatives and so much, much more.

With the devastation in Haiti, it's not just the people who are suffering. Gratefully, the Animal Relief Coalition for Haiti, which is headed by the IFAW, and also Jeff Eyre from the ASPCA, are on the ground to help the animals who were effected.
The reports are sporadic due to the difficult conditions on the ground. When they are able to do so, the ASPCA is sharing reports from the field on their blog. Be sure to watch the slide show of photos from Haiti. From rescuing puppies living in a wall of a broken building, to caring for animals with injuries, the team is helping return animals to their owners.
It is hard to imagine what the people are going though, losing loved ones both human and animal must be the hardest to bear. It is good to know that there are people who are working to make sure that pets and owners can be helped and reunited.

http://www.care2.com/causes/animal-welfare/blog/helping-animals-in-haiti...

I'm not picking up what you're putting down, maaaan.

- thx 4 explaining...
I could be wrong about exact date (perhaps year also), but around the 1800s
a Major Lead was making an entrance & by a horrid fall she horribly broke her leg..., that was the basic premise.
So that the ACTORS {LEAD, especially, or any other actors (male or Female)} never breaks her/his leg again, as a goodluck "omen"/superstition they wish each other to "Break-A-Leg".

what bothered me about him last night was that he started his show criticizing John Stewart for criticizing Olbermann- a case of "liberals" eating their own, and then Malloy just assumes that there is nothing suspicious about the Lancet retraction and proceeds to assume R. Kennedy is wrong.

I don't know if you caught it, but the first caller Mike took last night said 'well if the Lancet is wrong on this, why aren't they wrong on their Iraq casualty estimates.' Mike, didn't say a thing, despite the mountain of evidence of corroborating evidence supporting the Lancet casualty figures.

anyway, glad I can still hear Mike. Sorry I can't hear ROF anymore.

would it help if I told you my last team captain punched out our Coach because he overstepped his status and became an abusive asshole? In the end it was the Coach who left... ;)

POWER TO THE PEOPLE!!!

Submitted by Alice on Wed, 02/03/2010 - 12:22pm.
I'm not picking up what you're putting down, maaaan.
----------
...which makes it even funnier.

Crank Bait...so I'm glad to be able to assist you... :)

Afternoon Sederville! It's a cloudy 33F.

So now he's against Gays in the military. Ain't that a hypocritical bitch? What about his boyfriend Lindsey? There are stories about him in that POW camp too, uh mm! He has never been called on it either. And this is the moral character that is judging Gays? McCain, the consummate womanizer with no respect for women at all. I be damn! He threw his disabled wife to the curb for the drug addicted Cindy. His affair with lobbyist Vickie Iseman should have produced a criminal investigation, but it didn't. He selected the barely literate, psychotic Palin, for vice president. But you see what they are doing to John Edwards? They are so delighted about exposing his transgressions- that they are attacking the terminally ill Elizabeth.

Now ain't that a phucching ass shame?

Suit seeks to halt new low carbon fuel rules
STANDARD CALLED UNCONSTITUTIONAL

The oil and trucking industry sued to block California's new carbon fuel regulations Tuesday, saying the rules will raise costs but do little to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

In a lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Fresno, lobbyists for oil refiners, truckers and other groups charged that the state's "low carbon fuel standard" is unconstitutional.

While not as well known as AB 32, the state's landmark climate-change legislation, the fuel standard is an important element of California's attempt to fight global warming.

It's a thicket of regulations that says transportation fuels must reduce their "carbon intensity," starting next year. It not only targets the carbon content of a fuel but also examines the amount of carbon emitted to produce the fuel and haul it to its destination.
http://www.sacbee.com/business/story/2508969.html

-- Gov. Rick Perry holds a 15-point lead over U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison in the race for the Republican gubernatorial nomination, while Tea Party activist Debra Medina is continuing to gain ground and may be wresting support from Hutchison, according to the latest Rasmussen Reports poll.

With a month to go before the March 2 primary, Perry leads Hutchison 44 percent to 29 percent, while Medina has 16 percent, pollsters said.

Spitzer Meets Colbert
Former New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer (D) continued his attempt to re-enter the public debate with an amusing appearance on the Colbert Report last night.

Stephen Colbert opened the segment saying he condemned the scandal-tarred Spitzer but also said he still likes him because he "has no public image to uphold."

Here's the video clip via Comedy Central: at link

http://politicalwire.com/archives/2010/02/03/spitzer_meets_colbert.html#...

toniD's Ya Think?

Somebody Find The Duct Tape
new
Submitted by Crank Bait on Wed, 02/03/2010 - 12:26am.
Barf me out, Rachel, seriously...
Submitted by gloryoski on Tue, 02/02/2010 - 11:48pm.
---------
Take 400 milligrams of ibuprofen. The fever is making you delirious.

=========
Not that there's any excuse...

Not that that ever stopped you...

I watched it again now that I am feeling less feverish and i still maintain...

The irony I was talking about in this Rachel segment

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26315908/#35209633

Is this...In Obama's usual/latest line of bull, substitute "health care" for either "coverage" or "health care coverage." Substitute "free at point of 'purchase' and no additional cost in taxes/premiums to anyone who couldn't afford that" for "and it doesn't cost anybody anything"
and you have single payer. (Only that IS a viable alternative. He just doesn't want to talk about it, or even pretend it exists, which is how/why he phrases his "offense" against the rethug non-plan in these terms without recognizing the irony.)

However, it should be the job of the conscientious press to do so (recognize the irony), or at least not to follow up the usual/newest line of bull with accolades and little winks about how much FUN he is having now that he is back in "campaign mode."

Then get out the world's smallest violin for when he complains about "putting himself through this difficult battle in Congress" (not an exact quote but close enough) which piles bullshit on top of bullshit in a way that should be obvious. (What battle? Battle implies fighting, oneself, no? Instead of making deals with those also aiding and abetting the the other side and then sitting it out for months upon months? )

The irritation at the irony of the title "Omentum" should definitely speak for itself for anyone who has been here as long as you have.

Anyhow, like I said before...Emily and Amy.

Because I am now convinced that you are SATAN. Here's a ;) just to fuck with you. MAYBE it means that I am not being serious that I think you are Satan or MAYBE it means that I am being serious and I trying exorcise you with winks, which I know you hate or MAYYBE it is a comment on you recognizing irony when it is con-veeeen-nient for your ideological purposes and not when it is not...Mr. Satire Worshipper...Or should I say... ;) See...I did it again.

NOT A PROB, BOB.

Obama Makes Emotional Appeal To Senate Dems To 'Finish The Job On Health Care'

President Barack Obama made an emotional, public appeal to Senate Democrats on Wednesday to finish the job on health care reform.

Appearing at a Senate Democratic Caucus retreat, Obama acknowledged the difficulties that the party has had in dealing with a Republican bloc hell-bent on filibustering even the most mundane pieces of legislation. But he implored the lawmakers to remember why they had run for office and the promises they had made to their constituents.

"So many of us campaigned on the idea that we were going to change this health care system," the president declared. "So many of us looked people in the eye who had been denied because of a pre-existing condition, or just didn't have health insurance at all... and we said we were going to change it. Well, here we are with a chance to change it."

He continued: "There's a direct link between the work that you guys did on that and the reason you got into public office in the first place. And so as we think about moving forward, I hope we don't lose sight of why we're here. We've got to finish the job on health care."

The president's appearance came just one day after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), in a conference call with new media reporters, spoke in favor of the Senate fixing its health care bill by whatever parliamentary means possible as a pre-requisite for House Democratic action.

"The fact is, when [they] go into reconciliation," Pelosi said, "if in fact the Senate decides to do that...I believe that it would be predicated on those areas of agreement that were signed off on before,"

If the ball is indeed in the Senate's court, it's members did not receive specific instructions from Obama on how to get health care passed. The president stuck mainly to the broad appeals for action while also acknowledging that the process had been hurt by the lack of transparency in late-stage negotiations. "I think we paid a price for it," he said, in reference to talks that went unrecorded by C-SPAN cameras, as he had promised they would during his campaign.

Obama also offered a sharp rebuke of lawmakers on the other side of the aisle for feigning an interest in bipartisanship when their objective is clearly to trip up the entire reform process. "They say they want to work with us, and we extend a hand and get a fist in return," he said.

It was probably no coincidence that the first four senators to ask questions -- Arlen Specter (Pennsylvania), Michael Bennet (Colorado), Blanche Lincoln (Arkansas) and Kirsten Gillibrand (New York) -- all find themselves facing tough primary or general-election races. To varying degrees, Obama used their questions as a means of addressing and alleviating larger political concerns. In a message to the Democratic Caucus at large, he urged everyone to stop watching cable news and start talking to constituents at home.

"Just turn off the TV," he said. "And go talk to folks out there instead of being in this echo chamber where the topic is constantly politics... It is much more difficult to get a conversation focused on how we are going to help people then a conversation on how this is going to help or hurt somebody politically."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/02/03/obama-makes-emotional-app_n_447...

toniD's Ya Think?

...that detainees would be less pampered if moved to Illinois! And implies that the left will probably complain about that.

link to moronic words

"'I've been to Guantanamo...It's pretty nice compared to Illinois -- the place in Illinois where they want to put them,' Hatch said in the committee hearing. 'It'd be nice and cold in the winter time and... all I can say is that I imagine there'll be a hue and a cry that we're not fair by bringing them here.'"

He knows us so well!

"this machine kills fascists"

hahahahaha!!!!

maybe he was referring to the politics. :)

still laughing

I love the Chicago thug politics/Obama soft on terror/Super Villains-can't-hold-them-here/here is worse than Gitmo quadruple paradox shuffle!

The GOP doesn't know whether to piss all over themselves or piss all over themselves.

"this machine kills fascists"

Tim Tebow Speaker At National Prayer Breakfast Agent Says

Tim Tebow, who won the Heisman Trophy in 2007 and led the University of Florida to two BCS championships, will attend the National Prayer Breakfast on Thursday, his agent reports

Politico reports that when asked if he would be speaking at the breakfast, Tim Tebow’s agent, Susan Vanderlinde, said, “Yes, I believe he is.”…

The prayer breakfast guest list will include President Obama and other notable lawmakers.

Tebow, a devout Christian, Pro Life advocate and popular Christian speaker, has been known to write biblical passages in his eye paint before games.

Tebow plans to appear in a controversial ad sponsored by the conservative Christian group, Focus on the Family, during the Super Bowl.

(back in '98 wright was a guest-- but now those scary times are past.)

guess I'll read poetry books at lunch..checked out some Rilke today..nice old book...

...

who's inner child is in desperate need of a diaper change...

US Intelligence Report Classifies Venezuela as “Anti-US Leader”
By Eva Golinger

......The report details the principle threats to the interests and security of the US worldwide. This year, in addition to mentioning the usual suspects – Iran, North Korea, Afghanistan, Al Qa’ida and Iraq – the report dedicates significant space to Venezuela.

In the section referring to threats in Latin America, which carries the title “Latin America Stable, but Challenged by Crime and Populism”, a large portion is dedicated to Venezuela. “In…countries such as Venezuela, Bolivia and Nicaragua, elected populist leaders are moving toward a more authoritarian and statist political and economic model, and they have banded together to oppose US influence and policies in the region. Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has established himself as one of the US’s foremost international detractors, denouncing liberal democracy and market capitalism and opposing US policies and interests in the region.”

Classifying President Chavez as “one of the US’s foremost international detractors” already gives indication that the US intelligence community considers the Venezuelan president as an enemy........
http://www.chavezcode.com/2010/02/us-intelligence-report-classifies.html

'We Might As Well Be Able To Vote For Disney': Tea Partiers Slam Citizens United Ruling

"Just hours after the court ruled last month, RNC chair Michael Steele praised the decision, calling it 'an important step in the direction of restoring the First Amendment rights" of corporations.'

This decision basically gives the multinational corporations owned by foreign entities [the right] to pour unlimited funds into the pockets of corrupt corporate backed politicians to attack everything this country stands for. We might as well be able to vote for Disney or the SEIU as President of the United States of America."

I guess we'll have to see how widespread this "some Tea Partiers don't agree" actually is before declaring it a movement.

How are they gonna reconcile their racist anti-Obama/Liberal tendencies with their xenophobia if Obama and the Dems continue to rail against the SCOTUS decision and especially the "foreign entities" part?

(I'm sure the teabaggers will find a way)

"this machine kills fascists"

Submitted by gloryoski on Wed, 02/03/2010 - 12:56pm.
...MAYYBE it is a comment on you recognizing irony when it is con-veeeen-nient for your ideological purposes and not when it is not...
--------
Representative politics has irony written all over it every day. You (I, anyone) can wallow in it without end just as nora can wallow in suspicion and ghettodefender can wallow in injustice.

There are schools and hospitals and roads and firemen and a system which attempts to administer justice, so something beyond irony occurs in governance now and then. People in the U.S. do not starve to death because there is no food within miles. When the U.S.A. suffers an earthquake or a hurricane, it is not completely helpless and hopeless until some other country comes rushing to its aid.

So yeah, I am able to turn the irony machine on and off in the same way that I am able to turn the suspicion machine and the injustice machine on and off.

I have the not-unusual ability to contemplate beyond criticism of imperfection. If I could not, I would kill myself. Every-fucking-thing is imperfect, and tremendously so.

I grew up on Herblock cartoons. His five-o'clock-shadowed ICBM bullies and Senators drawn as southern colonels were hilarious to me before I was old enough to understand what they meant. You and nora and ghettodefender combined can't muster enough cynicism to see politics through my jaundiced eyes.

Stating and restating the obvious in politics does not impress me unless I'm hearing it from a six-year-old. I can enter any coffee shop frequented by Conservatives and hear the same uninspired bitching repeated endlessly by Lefties on this blog. Here's a news flash: It ain't news. It wasn't even news a century ago.

If you want you some irony, try the irony of Capt. gloryoski Renault's outrage (She's shocked, SHOCKED!) that political compromise and malleable rhetoric has been happening in this governmental establishment.

Now THAT'S funny!

dough nuts...

later.

herblock is used at the cia web site

imagine the curative powers of fishgrease.

Baptists to flood Texas with Bible CDs by Easter

That's a challenge in a state as big and diverse as Texas, where more than a third of households speak a language other than English. Besides Spanish, Hindi, Tagalog and Chinese are increasingly heard.

The Baptist General Convention of Texas is promoting a multilingual, multimedia CD that allows folks to listen to key biblical passages in their native language.

It's part of a three-pronged campaign dubbed Texas Hope 2010 to convey what "we really believe; that there's hope in Christ," said Randel Everett, the Baptist group's executive director.

Pop one in a car CD player or load it onto an MP3 device and hear the third chapter of John explain how "God so loved the world" in English or Spanish.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/feedarticle/8929408

in the salt mines or in a doughnut shop? I haven't figured it out yet ;-)

At Gitmo, the Uighur dilemma comes to a close

"With news that the remaining seven Uighurs at Guantanamo Bay have now been offered a resettlement option in either Palau or Switzerland, the dilemma of the Gitmo Uighurs appears to be coming to a close, Obama administration officials said today."

"this machine kills fascists"

...that he just makes soft pretzels all day :)

how's The Wire comin'?

"this machine kills fascists"

Stuck in Time: The Ancient English Band The WHO Is Playing at Half Time at the Super Bowl
Could CBS have picked a more dated (and less diverse) musical act?
http://www.alternet.org/story/145525/stuck_in_time%3A_the_ancient_englis...

i'm in the thick of it, can't wait to get home to watch the conclusion

and i hope i won't end up watching 4 episodes straight

there's 4 episodes left for me to watch on season 5, which is fantastic, because mcnulty has constructed this hilarious fiction where there's a serial killer on the loose targeting homeless people and the whole construction threatens to crush and burn at any minute... what a brilliant device to create suspense... on one hand they have to make sure no one uncovers the deception while at the same time redirecting police resources to fight the bad guys, who are really bad vicious awful people

my fave person is omar, (I fear for him constantly as he always puts himself in so much danger) what's your favorite, 60th? I like lester too

i will feel really lost when i get to the end (why are there only 10 episodes in this 5th - the last - season and not 12?) what a bummer i'll be in serious withdrawal

to listen to Randi Rhodes now.????

WTF. anybody - anybody

Thom Hartmann is free - cool

i don't listen to randi, my whole radio experience consists of malloy, wtf, this american life and rof when i can get it

did i say wtf? i meant yathink. Gee these acronims are killing me

Oh man, the last season...it's gonna be interesting to get your reaction at the end...

Yeah, hard not to love Omar or Lester...there were a lot of good characters and the actors really made them their own.

I always liked Bubbles and Proposition Joe...the philosophers, Brother Muzone was a great side character...

I liked Kima and Snoop, too...

Did you note that Steve Earle (roots-rock singer who hosted AAR's The Revolution Starts Now) plays Waylon, the 12-step sponsor?

I liked him too. He also sang a cover of The Wire's opening credits song in this final season.

I'm glad you're enjoying it. :)

"this machine kills fascists"

and the writing is top notch

I like Bubbles but find him a very sad character, though he turns for the best in the end (I think); proposition Joe i don't know, he's one of the bad guys as far as i'm concerned; the corner kids are all pathetic but charming; most characters really do have a good side and a bad side which makes them very true to life

I had to update the previous post as I thought a bit more about the question...wanted to throw in my favorite female characters, too along with a couple of others...

McNulty is constantly hilarious as the fuck-up rebel cop and I like how he and Lester team up for the serial killer ruse...

"this machine kills fascists"

when that reporter who had been chosen by the "serial killer" to spread the fake notions was on the phone with this killer (mcnulty pretending)and all the copy room of the baltimore sun are around him listening and asking what did he say? what did he say? he stammers "he said he wants to bite me" - mcnaulty had to come up with something sexy to stir up the media pot and couldn't come up with anything sexy about killing homeless men so he came up with this idea that there were bite marks on these (fictional) corpses' asses, remember? that really made me laugh last night

talking about and i found this

there's a lot i don't know; would have never guessed this was a woman, looks like a prepubescent male in the movie

this is one of the most horrific characters in the series

Snoop is possibly the most terrifying character on The Wire. She looks like she’s about 12 years old, she’s completely androgynous, she’s got the strangest, almost alien-sounding voice, and she kills people in a completely matter of fact way like it’s nothing.

http://themarcsteinershow.wordpress.com/2007/11/13/111307-snoop/

yeah the reporter's own dishonesty and moral failings fed right into that storyline...

yeah Snoop is a woman and the actress who plays her pretty much played herself and added a lot of authenticity to the show, not to mention a shaterring of female stereotypes in terms of cold-bloodedness, I liked the fearless women who were part of Omar's stick up crew too...

lots of that cold-bloodedness to spare in the show!

"this machine kills fascists"

I wanted to make sure you saw this. On Friday, right-wing radio host Rush Limbaugh compared Russ to terrorist Osama Bin Laden on his nationally syndicated show.

Limbaugh said the al Qaeda leader's most recent audio tape, "sounds like this could easily be [said by] Russ Feingold, the Senator from Wisconsin."

You can see and listen to Limbaugh's rant over at our Campaign Blog.

This isn't the first time Limbaugh has crossed the line and it won't be the last, but this is the sort of slash and burn politics that we are up against. Extremists and corporate special interests are going to do everything they can do to attack Russ's character.

http://www.russfeingold.org/blog/limbaugh-said-what.html

Send Rush a message by showing your support for Russ. Take a minute to forward this email to your family and friends to make sure they're aware of the extreme rhetoric the other side is already using. With your continued help we will move our campaign forward together, no matter what gets in our way.

Sincerely,

Melissa Ryan
Feingold Senate Committee

can't wait to start throwing his shit about

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/02/03/scott-brown-demands-to-be_n_447...

BOSTON — Massachusetts Republican Scott Brown changed course and demanded he be sworn in to replace the late Sen. Edward M. Kennedy on Thursday, an accelerated timetable that conservatives had been clamoring for and one that Democrats quickly accepted – and had already been moving to accommodate.

Brown said he wanted to be present for unspecified votes, and his swearing-in would give the GOP 41 votes in the Senate – the precise number it needs to sustain a filibuster of Democratic initiatives

especially when you remember how long it took Al Franken, the 60th vote, to get seated

Please do not interpret the relative brevity of my response as an indication that you are not completely full of shit. It's simply that I have urgent matters to attend to due in part to political and policy decisions about which our laugh riot of a president sees fit to joke, play Joe Kewl and pass the buck ("literally").

I don't think your ability to turn a sense of irony on and off is "not usual" at all. The same thing happens when Rachel continues to do story after outraged/snarky story about gay marriage, DADT, the Family's influence on mortally homophobic policy proposals in Nigeria--including calling out the president when that is justified--while at the same time apparently developing a san-GWEE-nity about some other issues that used to get her equally up in arms (as she is assisted in her party hackery...er, I mean political analysis...by none other than Chris _Life's a Campaign_ Matthews).

And I NEVER said I was "shocked." But you're right, still disgusted. Haven't gotten to the point of true "amusement" (aka complacency) about it yet and probably never will. Sorry to be so last month.

Do I really have to repeat the old TRUE-ism that the more someone needs change in a given area the more likely they are to be accused of having "no sense of humor" about indications of the status quo?

Do carry on being full of shit on your own, as you wish.
You haven't shut me up, with duct tape or with your "arguments", and you never will. Just busy--and bored.

Fish are not the initial source of those healthful fatty acids, so it should not be necessary to kill off all the fish on Earth to supplement human diets.

Plus, since they only studied fish oil, that doesn't mean fish oil is the only way to get benefits of these Omega-such&such substances. THERE ARE PLANT SOURCES as well -- algae, evening primrose, flax, and others.

Isn't anyone asking WHY ARE WE DEFICIENT IN THE FIRST PLACE? Answer: We are being sold over-refined oils, oils extracted using solvents and heat processes, oil made sterile in order to make them have a longer 'shelf life' in transport and in the stores. Most oils we eat are just not fresh or wholesome anymore. The way our oils are processed and sold to us is the problem, too.

Over-fishing the oceans for consumer demands for fish oil is not the answer.

Part one:

http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&I...

Part two:

http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&I...

There will be more providing Jeff isn't killed in a plane crash. Part 2 will blow you away. Truly.

I've had one in my mailbox since but michele saw them first. If they've already been posed here I haven't seen the posts. The fact I haven't seen any discussion on them tells me this is the first pass on them.

It's gonna hurt some of you, so be prepared.

"There never was a middle class. There was just the rich and poor people with credit cards." Or words to that effect.

He's hot today! On now.

http://www.green960.com/pages/karel.html

I think it is a medicine.I don't think that eating krill oil is bad for the environment. there is a lot of krill. whales eat tons in an hour.

If Krill or fish oil are medicines for people I think it ok to help people get better.
I support people who are total vegans but I don't think eating krill oil is a bad thing. that is my choice. I have seen many people benefit from krill,fish or algae sources of DHA and EPA .

Eating fish oil helps with depression and with heart and eye issues.

Eating fast food beef is a total suck on the environment and this beef is not good for you, it is not a medicine this is a more inportant thing to focus on.

from CeeCee @ 9:59am--
[excerpt]
"Please excuse the immodesty," Murdoch said, referring to News Corp. as the "preeminent content" company in the world.

"Content is not only king, it is the emperor of all things electronic," he said. "Machines are not powered by batteries -- they are powered by creative ingenuity."

Murdoch touted the company’s willingness to “take prudent, creative risks like ‘Avatar’ that lead the industry forward.”

Operating income from its film segment that includes 20th Century Fox studio was $324 million, nearly tripling its $112 million from the same period in 2008. News Corp. said the results were driven by the DVD release of “Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs” and “X-Men Origins: Wolverine.”

The company stressed that the financial results largely did not include receipts from "Avatar," but did include its launch costs. "Profits will begin to flow over the next two quarters," Murdoch said.

He said News Corp. would like to release "Avatar" on DVD "as soon as possible."

"We're not going to yank it out of theaters doing $30 million a weekend," News Corp. COO Chase Carey said. However, the executives told investors not to expect a 3D "Avatar" DVD this year. "The technology is not quite there yet," Carey said.

When asked about an "Avatar" sequel, Murdoch said the company is in "very early talks about a sequel. Jim (Cameron) has ideas, but we haven't agreed on anything yet." Still, he said, "we'll be pushing for it."

[end excerpt]

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

Was "Avatar" an unexpected mistake?

Taking it out of the theaters early??? Sounds like an attempt to prevent the anti-corporate message from spreading. Sequel? One that attempts to undo the damage, perhaps.

and brr of course
Submitted by mire on Wed, 02/03/2010 - 4:05pm.

did i say wtf? i meant yathink. Gee these acronims are killing me

Submitted by smcgee43 on Wed, 02/03/2010 - 6:48pm
Can you name this animal?

----------

James Carville!

I saw a very educational movie on the IMF & World Bank,
it's called Life & Debt - if u haven't seen this movie
u should.
This searing documentary examines how the policies of the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and other aid organizations have changed the Jamaican economy over the past quarter of a century, leaving the local people to struggle in poverty and work in sweatshops. Author Jamaica Kincaid narrates with Belinda Becker to a reggae soundtrack that includes songs by Bob Marley, Ziggy Marley, Mutubaruka and Peter Tosh.

Submitted by gloryoski on Wed, 02/03/2010 - 5:54pm.
...You haven't shut me up, with duct tape or with your "arguments", and you never will. Just busy--and bored.
--------
I would never flatter myself with the belief that I could slow, let alone stop, the unending flutter of your hyperactive jaw.

Your boredom wins my sympathy. If I had to depend on, like, three sure-fire synapses while the remainder were iffy at best, I too would nod off with disinterest in a universe filled with wonder.

Tough break. Look at the bright side: The din from your natter should negate the narcosis of its inanity.

And I consider the media touting ONLY fish oils to MILLIONS of consumers is the creation of a demand for a single product. There must be a larger, more economical solution to this population-wide deficiency problem.

I'm haunted by the past: When ladies were made to desire feathered hats, humans hunting for egret feathers nearly drove the egret extinct.

There has got to be a better way of educating millions of human consumers of where healthful fatty acids come from and WHY people today are deficient.

I think it is unethical to sell people stale oils, let them eat those and get fat, when, for good health, consumers should have easy access to FRESH, NON-TOXIC oils, and a full range of affordable sources of essential fatty acids.

Submitted by nora on Wed, 02/03/2010 - 6:51pm.
----

When the last Star War movie debuted, I'm sure I put it on the blog that Murdoch was the distributor. That didn't stop millions of Progressives from lining his pockets with their money. The same is true with Avatar. I have not seen it. I'm just not a Hollywood fan. And I certainly despise Murdoch.

Please meat me tonight at 10pm beneath the Dwarf Maples.

THE CRIMINAL CLASS has gotten the upper hand
new
Submitted by dan on Wed, 02/03/2010 - 6:13am.

this is wrong in so many ways but it is the ultimate result of unrestrained capitalism.

i think a more workable approach is that research and at least initial development of medicines and other basic human needs like energy belong to the commons and aren't there to be exploited for personal gain.

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

Agreed!

Karel was talking about this last week.

He asked -- WHY did over 800,000 Californians have their electricity/gas turned off last year for non-payment/late payment? Basic minimum service should be free and brought to us via PUBLIC utility companies only, he said. The resources are dug from OUR land, therefore, they belong to us in the first place. Why should the MiddleManProfiteer be able to step in and prevent us from access to the minimal utilities for life and good health?

I so agree.

That's not socialism so much as acknowledgment of our joint possession of the country's NATURAL resources.

The issue is coming to the forefront on California because of the so-called "Smart" meters -- which empower the MiddleManProfiteer to turn off one's utilities with the flip of a switch, no warning and no notice.

the principles of the Founding Documents of the Nation....

And I really like when Karel says a BENEVOLENT NATION does not need this much Defense Spending....

Submitted by nora on Wed, 02/03/2010 - 7:02pm.
And I consider the media touting ONLY fish oils to MILLIONS of consumers is the creation of a demand for a single product...

...There has got to be a better way of educating millions of human consumers of where healthful fatty acids come from...
------------------
Congratulations. You never fail to disappoint.

nora's premise: It is bad when media touts a beneficial substance to millions of people.

nora's solution: Media should tout a beneficial substance to millions of people.

Submitted by edna ellen poe on Wed, 02/03/2010 - 7:22pm.
---------
I will send you cash if you stop distorting the north/south ratio of photographs.

It's like looking into a funhouse mirror and seasickness all at the same time.

them go and demand they stay on topic.

Pelosi Taps Task Force To Counter Supreme Court's Citizens United Ruling

House Democrats are forming a Citizens United task force to decide on the best set of legislative push back against the Supreme Court decision that upended 100 years of precedent and legalized unlimited corporate involvement in elections, Democratic members and aides told HuffPost.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) tapped as the head Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), her assistant and chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee - which has much to worry about when it comes to Citizens United.

The rump group pulls together all the relevant committee chairmen and selected members of those panels.

Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank (D-Mass.) told HuffPost Wednesday he's working with the group and plans to hold a committee vote in March, with the goal of getting legislation in place in time for the 2010 election cycle.

"I am determined to do the maximum that is constitutionally permissible in our power to regulate public corporations," he said, calling the 5-4, party-line Supreme Court opinion "the most radically activist act I can think of."

Members of Frank's committee, including Reps. Mike Capuano (D-Mass.) and Alan Grayson (D-Fla.), plan to meet with the chairman of the House Administration Committee, Rep. Robert Brady (D-Pa.), as well as the chairmen and members of the Ways and Means and Energy and Commerce Committees.

Ways and Means Chairman Charlie Rangel (D-N.Y.) and committee member Bill Pascrell (D-N.J.) are members of the task force, as are Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers (D-Mich.) and Rep. Donna Edwards (D-Md.).

The group will consider a variety of proposals that would be in line with the new law as written by the gang of five justices. The group will consider a steep tax on political spending, expanding disclosure requirements, and banning foreign corporations from participating in elections.
Story continues below

"It's a high priority. I want the committee to be able to vote on this in March," said Frank. With Pelosi's backing, it could move quickly to the floor.

"You can do shareholder vote," said Frank, meaning that it is constitutional for Congress to require that a corporation get the approval of its shareholders before it spends company money on elections. "To the extent that corporate decision making is involved, we will do the maximum."

Grayson began introducing legislation to counter the Citizens United decision before it had been officially announced, including the "Business Should Mind Its Own Business Act," which would tax political expenditures at 500 percent.

Citizens United allows corporations to spend money directly from their general treasury, meaning Goldman Sachs could decide to make a few billion less in loans and instead spend it electing members of Congress, which might be a much more lucrative investment. The kind of money that Goldman can find in its couch cushions could dramatically alter a House race if they decided to run ads against a particular candidate or set of candidates.

"With a single, disastrous 5-to-4 ruling, the Supreme Court has thrust politics back to the robber-baron era of the 19th century," said Grayson after the ruling. "Disingenuously waving the flag of the First Amendment, the court's conservative majority has paved the way for corporations to use their vast treasuries to overwhelm elections and intimidate elected officials into doing their bidding."

Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), who knows a serious political threat when he sees one, has been working in the Senate to see what legislation could get the support of the 60 now needed to break a filibuster. Sens. Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) and John McCain (R-Ariz.) both expressed opposition to the decision, but whether they'll help Democrats counter it is another question.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/02/03/pelosi-taps-task-force-to_n_448...

toniD's Ya Think?

U too,Crank.. ;)

**

School of Fish - 3 Strange Days (LP Version)

http://hypem.com/#/track/1028318/School+of+Fish-3+Strange+Days+%28LP+Ver...

**

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

MMRules

http://www.naturalnews.com/025748.html
---------------------
I dont think much of this article though,I just put it up to show different opinions.

I have eaten algae for more than 20 years . I don't think most americans are ready for a steady diet of algae just yet.

My point about helping people with krill or fish oil used as a medicine is an important question. my Doctors who are concerned citizens reccomend krill oil and fish oil and eating fish too.

I agree that the quality of gmo'd commercial soybean or cottonseed oil for example is terrible

I have always suggested eating flax,or walnuts,almonds or other seeds and nuts and avocado for good nutrition

We have discussed before that flax oil is not good for men over 40,but the seeds ground up are not to estrogenic.
I think that as people evolve and become high information consumers they make personal changes.
Diabetes and colon cancer are certainly caused from wrong choices. These diseases are really causing trouble. I would rather see the diabetic or colon cancer sufferers get some fish or krill in their diet on their road to recovery.

The whole human race is out of balance and it is hard to tell other people what they should do. Live by example and teach the children before they run into trouble.

If the oceans and environment were more respected it should be possible to grow or harvest safe food. Maybe the population on the planet is is growing too fast?Maybe some humans consume more than they need and get sick from excesses.
I am sure I would be happy with anything you might serve at your home.I certainly admire your energy and searching that propels you into better citi
zen ship. Good people can't force truth down the throats of greedy corporatists what is that beatle tune iIam thinking of?

.

We should remember what it felt like one year ago, as the ability to recall it emotionally will pass and it is an emotional memory as much as anything else. It was a moment rare in a democracy's history. The feeling was palpable--to supporters and opponents alike--that something important had happened. America had elected, the young candidate promised, a transformational president. And wrapped in a campaign that had produced the biggest influx of new voters and small-dollar contributions in a generation, the claim seemed credible, almost intoxicating, and just in time.

Yet a year into the presidency of Barack Obama, it is already clear that this administration is an opportunity missed. Not because it is too conservative. Not because it is too liberal. But because it is too conventional. Obama has given up the rhetoric of his early campaign--a campaign that promised to "challenge the broken system in Washington" and to "fundamentally change the way Washington works." Indeed, "fundamental change" is no longer even a hint.

Read the whole story: The Nation

http://www.thenation.com/doc/20100222/lessig

toniD's Ya Think?

Bald Eagle Tired Of Everyone Just Assuming It Supports War

"'I think World War II was justified, and I got behind the first Gulf War [in 1990],' said the bird, who has served as the national symbol of the United States since 1782. 'But the recent war in Iraq, with its shifting rationale and poor planning, was clearly a huge mistake. Personally, I believe that these crucial, life-and-death matters deserve more honest and less politicized discussion than they get.'"

"this machine kills fascists"

Comcast, GE shower contributions to key lawmakers ahead of merger hearing
By Kim Hart - 02/03/10 02:49 PM ET

Comcast and NBC Universal’s parent company have showered campaign contributions on members of two panels holding hearings Thursday on the cable giant's proposed purchase of the television network.

Comcast and General Electric have already spent $474,000 on contributions to members of the panels, about 70 percent of what they spent over the entire political cycle of 2008, according to The Hill’s analysis of data on OpenSecrets.org.

Comcast in particular has ramped up its donations to key members of both committees.

It didn’t give a dime in the last cycle to Rep. Rick Boucher (D-Va.), but has donated $5,000 in this cycle to the chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Technology, Communications and the Internet, which will hold the first hearing on the merger on Thursday.

After not donating to Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) in the last cycle, Comcast has given $15,500 to Schumer’s political committee and his leadership political action committee this cycle. Schumer is a key member of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Antitrust, Competition Policy and Consumer Rights, which will also hold a hearing Thursday on the merger.

Comcast CEO Brian Roberts and NBC Universal CEO Jeff Zucker are scheduled to testify before both panels.

Sen. Orrin Hatch (Utah), the ranking Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, has received $17,500 from Comcast, up from $12,500 in the 2008 cycle and zero in 2006.

Schumer is up for reelection in 2010; Hatch is not.

General Electric, typically a big congressional donor, has already spent nearly $180,000 during 2009 and the beginning of 2010 — more than half the corporation’s total spending of last cycle.

Reps. Lee Terry (R-Neb.), Charlie Melancon (D-La.) and Cliff Stearns (R-Fla.), ranking member of the House subcommittee, have collectively received $15,000 from GE, all increases from the previous campaign cycles.

Not all members of the subcommittees received contributions. Sen. Herb Kohl (D-Wis.), chairman of the Senate Judiciary subcommittee, received no money from either company so far in this campaign cycle. He is not up for reelection until 2012. He also does not accept money from PACs.

On the House subcommittee, Reps. Anthony Weiner (D-N.Y.), Nathan Deal (R-Ga.) and Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), who is running for Kit Bond's Senate seat, have not received contributions from either company.

The $30 billion deal would allow Comcast, the nation’s largest cable company, to purchase NBC Universal, one of the nation’s largest content providers.

Consumer groups say the deal would give too much power over content distribution to a single company and will raise cable rates and reduce choices for consumers.

Comcast said the merger will increase the diversity of programming offered to consumers, spurring “other content producers and distributors to invest and innovate, thereby enhancing competition.”

Members on Thursday are expected to question the executives about how the merger will affect prices and programming options for consumers. They’ll also examine its effect on the cable and video distribution market as a whole, since a post-merger company would control one out of every five viewing hours in the country.

“The only place for consumers to have their concerns aired and get direct responses is through congressional hearings,” said Joel Kelsey, policy counsel at Consumers Union. The financial resources at the disposal of Comcast and GE “underscores the need for consumers to have a voice in this process.”

The Federal Communications Commission and Department of Justice have final say over the merger. In its filing with the FCC last week, Comcast promised to continue providing free over-the-air broadcasting and to make its content available to competitors.

http://thehill.com/blogs/hillicon-valley/technology/79557-comcast-ge-ram...

toniD's Ya Think?

Or,tapping your feet,at least..

**

The Replacements - I'll Be You

http://hypem.com/#/track/886764/The+Replacements+-+I+ll+Be+You

**

The Replacements - I Will Dare

http://hypem.com/#/track/1027324/The+Replacements-I+Will+Dare

**

The Replacements - Pool & Dive

http://hypem.com/#/track/855640/The+Replacements+-+Pool+Dive

**

The Replacements - Alex Chilton

http://hypem.com/#/track/952908/The+Replacements+-+Alex+Chilton

**

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

MMRules

i did watch the jeff cohen vids you linked; where's the rest of interview? do you know where to get it? it's very interesting; not saying anything that i hadn't sensed; but he's doing an excellent job of dotting the i's and providing historic contest with videoclips; the hamilton project! I had heard of it but didn't know obama was connected with it; it all makes a lot of sense now. but i would like to get the rest of the interview, i'll look it up on youtube, hopefully it's there

WATCH: Ed Schultz Pleads For Health Care Reform, Calls Lieberman A 'Coward'

at link

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/02/03/ed-schultz-pleads-for-hea_n_448...

toniD's Ya Think?

i was watching that and thinking all i need to hear is i mad as hell...

it will be interesting to see if his handlers choke him or let him run

so please explain this to me slowly....

What the hell does this mean...?

U.S. May Lose 824,000 Jobs as Employment Data Revised: Analysis

Feb. 3 (Bloomberg Multimedia) -- The U.S. may lose 824,000
jobs when the government releases its annual revision to
employment data on Feb. 5, showing the labor market was in worse
shape during the recession than known at the time.

Click here for a Bloomberg Multimedia interactive visual
analysis of the economy’s job losses.

Bloomie

"this machine kills fascists"

pretty good 60th...and closer to the truth than you might think...I do spend a lot of time untwisting peoples networks...for dough...

Clearly that's Arlen Specter.

is that some sort of cisco certification?

Submitted by maggiesboy on Wed, 02/03/2010 - 6:43pm.
Jeff Cohen Interviews on RealNews

--------------------------------
I just watched the first part.

Looks like it's doubtful things
will ever get better.

.
.
.
_ _ _
brr

brl vod

The way to post a picture that fits is:

<img src="http://address_to_your_pic.jpg"/>

First try this. If the picture looks good in preview, that is not too wide, you're done. If not keep reading.

The best way to bring it into specs is to add the optional width pararmeter setting, shown below in gray. The quotation marks are not optional. You don't have to use 400, you can make it smaller. The height will be proportionately fixed without you having to do anything.

<img src="http://address_to_your_pic.jpg" width="400"/>

See the logo below? The code to display it is:

<img src="http://bluerootsradio.com/pics/BRR2.jpg" width="75"/>

The width is 75 to make it small enough to pass Crank's muster for flagrantly shameless self promotions that are, at the same time, simultaneous in the same instant concurrently displayed.

McConnell Raised Big Bucks From Foreign Defense Contractor Probed For Bribery

Source: TPM

McConnell Raised Big Bucks From Foreign Defense Contractor Probed For Bribery
Zachary Roth | February 3, 2010, 1:15PM

In the wake of the Supreme Court's Citizens United ruling, Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) has been quick to denounce a bid by Democrats to stop foreign corporations from pouring money into U.S. elections, claiming current law already bars such spending. As we've reported before, that's far from true -- but McConnell should know: The GOP Senate leader has raked in campaign cash from a subsidiary of a major foreign defense contractor that's currently being investigated by the Justice Department for bribery.

As we reported yesterday, McConnell, a longtime foe of efforts to get money out of politics, last week took to the Senate floor to pooh pooh the notion that the court's decision could allow a flood of foreign money to sway our elections, citing an existing law that prevents foreign nationals, including corporations, from spending on U.S. elections. But that ban doesn't cover the U.S. subsidiaries of foreign companies, or to foreign-owned corporations that incorporate in the U.S.

That's not just some technical loophole. It's a very real weakness in the law, that, even before Citizens United, already gave foreign corporations influence in our elections. And McConnell's own ties to one foreign defense contractor offer a pretty good illustration.

Since 2005, McConnell has received $21,000 -- spread between his campaign and his leadership PAC -- from a PAC run by BAE Systems Inc., according to disclosure records examined by TPMmuckraker. BAE Systems Inc. is the American subsidiary of BAE Systems, the world's second largest defense contractor, headquartered in Britain.

http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/02/mcconnell_raised_big_b...

toniD's Ya Think?

for instant cures for depression.

..but you can blame her because she brought it to my attention.

actually I think its a server farm in Tokyo...

No, dan...I'm pretty sure that requires Crisco certification...

(shoot me)

"this machine kills fascists"

I am not brightest lighthouse in the economic harbor...
Submitted by cent on Wed, 02/03/2010 - 8:38pm.
-------
...nor even a noticeably luminescent dinoflagellate, from where I'm sitting.

Sen. Al Franken (D-MN) humbles John McCain for holding up NLRB nominee Craig Becker

toniD's Ya Think?

Submitted by maggiesboy on Wed, 02/03/2010 - 9:02pm.
...promotions that are, at the same time, simultaneous in the same instant concurrently displayed.
---------
I had to make a chart to figure this out.

When I was done, it had a big arrow in the middle and the words "You are here."

why is it MSNBC is giving this moron Susan Collin so much play?

Her voice is soooo irritating...and a face begging for some pie...

The National Enquirer reports things got physical, on both sides
By Tracy Clark-Flory

If we're to believe the National Enquirer, John Edwards allegedly "beat" his wife during an argument that brought about their recent separation, and Elizabeth Edwards supposedly "lashed out physically" on several occasions after her discovery of his affair (and child, and sex tape). The claim comes from a "close friend" of Elizabeth's -- the kind of close friend who is willing to spill secrets to a national tabloid, I guess. The Enquirer is quick to point out that this anonymous pal "passed a lie detector test regarding the shocking fight."

OK, well, that's one more awful claim to toss into this depressing domestic drama. (And one more bathtub filled with bleach so I can clean myself of this foul matter.) I'm really uninterested in speculating on whether or not this report is accurate, but I would like to draw your attention to the art the Huffington Post decided to run with its write-up about this new allegation: A photo of John with his arm stretched high, fingers extended, and the palm of his hand hovering right above Elizabeth's unsuspecting head. Classy, guys, real classy.

con't

http://www.salon.com/news/john_edwards/index.html?story=/mwt/broadsheet/...

Lessig announced a new vehicle to put people power back into elections.

thank goodness for her highness. Ed works really hard and I can sympathize for the ox, but honestly Rachel has always seemed as aware as even Sam.

Submitted by cent on Wed, 02/03/2010 - 9:20pm.
Her voice is soooo irritating...and a face begging for some pie...

--------

You said it Brotha.

Go Saints! Who Dat!

toniD's Ya Think?

The threatened Desert tortoise depends on Mojave and other desert habitats in the southwest for survival.

I could have sworn that was Arlen. He depends on the moist darkness of having his head typically stuck up his ass.

Submitted by toniD on Wed, 02/03/2010 - 8:25pm.
"I may get fired for this but"

WATCH: Ed Schultz Pleads For Health Care Reform,
Calls Lieberman A 'Coward'

-----------------------
I'm watching now: at about 12:30/ 15:38
thanks.

.
.
.
_ _ _
brr

brl vod

Submitted by maggiesboy on Wed, 02/03/2010 - 9:02pm.
The width is 75 to make it small enough to pass Crank's muster for flagrantly shameless self promotions
-------

I ain't thinking about Crankenstein and his highbrow sensitivity.

Lazard bonuses so big, they turned 4Q into a loss

Source: Crain's New York Business

What should have been a profitable quarter a Lazard Ltd. turned into a surprising loss due to the investment bank paying its people big bonuses.

The firm doled out $616 million in compensation and benefits to about 2,300 employees last quarter, or more than triple the amount handed out in the same period in 2008. It was a consequence, Lazard said, of a decision to pay more bonuses in cash and accelerate some deferred cash awards from prior years. But so great was the firm's generosity that compensation costs overwhelmed quarterly revenues and resulted in a net loss of about $55 million for the fourth quarter. The charges also almost wiped out full-year profits.

Lazard Chief Executive Kenneth Jacobs, who took over from the late Bruce Wasserstein last fall, argued that he had no choice but to pay his people to protect and build the franchise. Lazard was one of the few major Wall Street firms to avoid government bailout assistance.

“ should enhance our competitiveness and drive shareholder value,” Mr. Jacobs said, in a prepared statement. “Our goal is to grow annual compensation expense at a slower rate than revenues.”

http://www.crainsnewyork.com/article/20100203/FREE/100209948

I bet the shareholders weren't too happy!

toniD's Ya Think?

Bernanke voices economic concerns as he's sworn in

Source: Associated Press

WASHINGTON – Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke expressed concerns on Wednesday about the economic recovery during a ceremonial swearing-in for another four-year term.

In brief remarks to staffers, Bernanke said that while the economy is growing, "far too many people remain unemployed, foreclosures continue at record rates and bank credit continues to contract."

One of the Fed's challenges is protecting its independence from congressional meddling, he said.

Another is making the Fed more open and accountable about its operations. And another is improving its oversight of banks. Lawmakers have complained about deficiencies in those areas.

The Fed "cannot hope" to solve the nation's economic problems on its own, Bernanke said. Both the nation and the central bank as an institution face enormous challenges, he said.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100203/ap_on_bi_ge/us_bernanke_second_term

toniD's Ya Think?

toniD's Ya Think?

that's a Desert Tortoise?
Submitted by Fernando on Wed, 02/03/2010 - 9:48pm.
-------------

America’s System Failure: Only a Wave of Democratic Participation Can Save This Country Updated at 8:51 PM
via AlterNet:

The Nation / By Christopher Hayes

America’s System Failure: Only a Wave of Democratic Participation Can Save This Country
As welcome as it was, the removal of George W. Bush was not enough to cure what ails us. It goes to the root of our political system.

February 3, 2010 |

There is a widespread consensus that the decade we've just brought to a close was singularly disastrous for the country: the list of scandals, crises and crimes is so long that events that in another context would stand out as genuine lowlights -- Enron and Arthur Andersen's collapse, the 2003 Northeast blackout, the unsolved(!) anthrax attacks -- are mere afterthoughts. We still don't have a definitive name for this era, though Paul Krugman's 2003 book The Great Unraveling captures well the sense of slow, inexorable dissolution; and the final crisis of the era, what we call the Great Recession, similarly expresses the sense that even our disasters aren't quite epic enough to be cataclysmic. But as a character in Tracy Letts's 2007 Pulitzer Prize-winning play, August: Osage County, says, "Dissipation is actually much worse than cataclysm." American progressives were the first to identify that something was deeply wrong with the direction the country was heading in and the first to provide a working hypothesis for the cause: George W. Bush. During the initial wave of antiwar mobilization, in 2002, much of the ire focused on Bush himself. But as the decade stretched on, the causal account of the country's problems grew outward in concentric circles: from Bush to his administration (most significantly, Cheney) to the Republican Party to -- finally (and not inaccurately) -- the entire project of conservative governance.

As much of the country came to share some version of this view (tenuously, but share it they did), the result was a series of Democratic electoral sweeps and a generation of Americans, the Millennials, with more liberal views than any of their elder cohorts. But it always seemed possible that the sheer reactionary insanity of the Bush administration would have a conservatizing effect on the American polity. Because things had gone so wrong, it was a more than natural reaction to long for the good old days; the Clinton years, characterized by deregulation and bubbles, seemed tantalizingly placid and prosperous in retrospect. The atavistic imperialism of the Bush administration had a way of making the pre-Bush foreign policy of soft imperialism and subtle bullying look positively saintly.

Toward the end of the decade, as the establishment definitively rebuked Bush and sought to distance itself from his failures, the big-tent center-left coalition took on an influential constituency -- the Colin Powells and Warren Buffetts -- who didn't want reform so much as they wanted restoration. This was reflected in a strange internal tension in the Obama campaign rhetoric that simultaneously promised both: change you can believe in and, as Obama said at a March 2008 appearance in Pennsylvania, a foreign policy that is "actually a return to the traditional bipartisan realistic policy of George Bush's father." .......(more)

http://www.alternet.org/rights/145521/america%E2%80%99s_system_failure%3...

toniD's Ya Think?

"Our fight is not for today, it is not for ourselves and that makes it a tough sell. We fight for the maintenance of a system, a government and a nation we will never know...to borrow from the words of the founders : "We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America."

toniD's Ya Think?

Water Heist: Corporations Are Targeting Cash-Strapped Cities for Control of Their Public Water

From wastewater to drinking water, big business is looking to cash in on public water systems and they've got a new tactic.

Corporate interests are eyeing our water. From wastewater to drinking water, big business is looking to cash in on public water systems and they've got a new tactic: They're using desperate economic times to convince city officials that they should place a corporation between families and their ability to eat, drink, and clean.

-snip-

The Lease Model of Water Privatization

Recent decades have been an active period for water corporations. In the 1990s the corporate push to privatize was buffeted by a tax law change under the Clinton administration that encouraged multinationals to enter the U.S. market. However, when privatization of water systems in large cities proved to be a nonstarter-due in no small part of public education and opposition-the largest players like Veolia, Suez, American Water, and Aqua America opted instead for a strategy of gobbling up smaller systems. This has been the basic narrative of municipal water privatization in the U.S., until recently.

As we enter the second decade of the 21st century, water companies are pushing a new model of privatization and targeting some of America's largest cities, starting in the water-rich Midwest. This new business model involves the acquisition of systems for periods much longer than previously considered, and with much greater control of the asset. These companies now want to lease your water, so they can sell it back to you.

-snip-

Mobilization in the Midwest: Communities Fight Back

The upshot of this assault on large public water systems is that the same cash-strapped communities targeted by water corporations for these deals are meanwhile growing smart water activists and developing new tools to prevent the sale of their water. The three primary instances are Akron, Milwaukee, and Chicago.

http://www.alternet.org/water/145480/water_heist:_corporations_are_targe...

toniD's Ya Think?

Congressional hearing reveals US intelligence agencies shielded Flight 253 bomber
By Alex Lantier
February 03, 2010

A January 27 hearing of the House Committee on Homeland Security established that US intelligence agencies stopped the State Department from revoking the US visa of Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article24577.htm

(as heard on malloy's show - who's giving it the vitriolic treatment it deserves)
(you won't of heard of this if you're reliant on corporate media; but nevermind it can be safely dismissed by clueless assholes like crank - who finds it soothing to relax within the confines of the white picket fence of his mind)

from the healthcare bill...?

Is that true?

Action Alert
Does NYT's Top Israel Reporter Have a Son in the IDF?
Foreign editor treats potential conflict as none of our business

1/27/10

The New York Times refuses to confirm or deny a report that its Jerusalem bureau chief, Ethan Bronner, has a child who is an enlisted member of the Israeli Defense Force--even though such a relationship would pose a serious conflict of interest.

The Electronic Intifada website (1/25/10), following a tip, asked Bronner whether it was true that he had a son in the IDF. EI got a reply from Times foreign editor Susan Chira:

Ethan Bronner referred your query to me, the foreign editor. Here is my comment: Mr. Bronner's son is a young adult who makes his own decisions. At the Times, we have found Mr. Bronner's coverage to be scrupulously fair and we are confident that will continue to be the case.

The decisions of Bronner's son, however, are not the issue. What the Times needs to ask itself is whether it expects that its bureau chief has the normal human feelings about matters of life or death concerning one's child.

Might he feel hostility, for example, when interviewing members of organizations who were trying to kill his son? When the IDF goes into battle, might he be rooting for the side for which his son is risking his life? Certainly such issues would be taken very seriously if a Times reporter had a child who belonged to a military force that was engaged in hostilities with the IDF; indeed, there's little doubt that a reporter in that position would not be allowed to continue to cover the Mideast conflict.

Having a conflict of interest, it should be stressed, is not the same thing as producing slanted journalism; rather, it means that a journalist has outside motivations that are strongly at odds with his or her journalistic responsibilities. That a journalist has been "scrupulously fair" in the past does not excuse an ongoing conflict of interest; journalists should not be placed in a position where they have to ignore the well-being of their family in order to do their job, nor should readers be expected to trust that they can do so.

That said, Bronner's reporting has been repeatedly criticized by FAIR for what would appear to be a bias toward the Israeli government. For example, Extra! (3/09) questioned an article that Bronner (1/13/09) wrote on Israel's 2009 invasion of Gaza that claimed that unspecified "polls have shown nearly 90 percent support for the war thus far"; FAIR's magazine noted that this was "a statistical unlikelihood in a country that is 20 percent Palestinian." The same piece by Bronner claimed that "the largest demonstration against the war so far, with some 6,000 participants, was organized by an Arab political party"; an article by Agence France-Presse (1/3/09) had reported that "tens of thousands" of Israeli Arabs had protested against the war in the Israeli town of Sakhnin. (See also Extra!, 1-2/08, 7/09; FAIR Blog, 2/4/09).

As Electronic Intifada pointed out, the New York Times' own policies acknowledge that the activities of family members may pose a conflict of interest: "A brother or a daughter in a high-profile job on Wall Street might produce the appearance of conflict for a business reporter or editor," and such conflicts may require a journalist "to withdraw from certain coverage." Given this policy, it is unacceptable for the Times' foreign editor to take the position that the military status of Bronner's children is of no concern. The question posed by EI must be asked again: Does the New York Times' Jerusalem bureau chief have a son in the Israeli military, and if so, why doesn't this pose a conflict of interest?

ACTION: Please ask the New York Times public editor to investigate whether Times Jerusalem bureau chief Ethan Bronner has a child in the Israeli Defense Force, and, if so, why such a relationship is not seen as posing an unacceptable conflict of interest.

CONTACT:
New York Times
Clark Hoyt, Public Editor
public@nytimes.com
Phone: 212-556-7652

www.fair.org

It's All They Know
by digby
Wednesday, February 03, 2010

I know you're not supposed to say that the American people are stupid, so I won't. But can we at least say they have been brainwashed to the point of being intellectually crippled?

Half of Americans (50%) believe government should do less to regulate business. The rest are divided between saying things are about right (23%) and that the government should regulate more (24%). The majority (57%) are worried that there will be too much government regulation of business.

That is an epic failure of liberal politics. You can't blame them, if nobody ever told them otherwise.

http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2010/02/its-all-they-know-by-digby-i-know...

Submitted by toniD on Wed, 02/03/2010 - 10:09pm.
America’s System Failure: Only a Wave of Democratic Participation Can Save This Country...
---------
If the Kos-commissioned Research 2000 survey of self-identified Republicans is indicative of the entire Republican population, this country will not be saved or even helped by a wave of Republican participation.

Anyone who objects to my growing unwillingness to suffer fools should read the fucking survey. People are not equally endowed by their Creator. Some of them are dumber than a sack of hammers or, worse, have zero critical thinking skills, making them functional morons. I'm talking about the folks who can't name the fiftieth state even if everyone else in the room is wearing leis and strumming ukuleles.

Trust me on this: You have at least one neighbor who couldn't outperform a rat in a maze.

http://www.dailykos.com/statepoll/2010/1/31/US/437

Hugo Chavez claims Colombia, US could simulate attack on fake rebel camp in Venezuela

President Hugo Chavez is accusing Colombia and the United States of plotting to set up a fake rebel camp on Venezuelan soil to discredit his government.

Chavez accused Colombia of preparing what he called a “false positive” operation, saying on Monday that it’s feasible the neighbouring country could build a makeshift camp in a remote location, then plant corpses and guns to make it look like a rebel camp had been discovered.

Colombian officials have said that leftist rebel commanders from their country are taking refuge in Venezuela. Chavez says the officials are falsely trying to portray him as being in cahoots with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, which Colombia has been battling for decades.

“The verbal war against Venezuela began weeks ago, saying that we have I don’t know how many guerrilla chiefs hidden here … that in Venezuela there are rebel camps protected by the Venezuelan government, which is absolutely false,” Chavez told troops during a televised speech in the western border state of Zulia.

“We have evidence that the Colombian government, instructed and supported, or rather directed by the United States, is preparing a ‘false positive,”‘ Chavez said.

...

http://www.bestcyrano.org/?p=4462

White House Pitches $400M for Healthier Neighborhood Food Outlets

"The connection between walkable development and grocery shopping may not seem immediately apparent -- until you consider studies conducted in cities from Austin to Seattle that showed the share of trips taken by foot or by transit rises as local food outlets move closer to residential areas.

Now the White House is getting in on the action, with $400 million included in its fiscal year 2011 budget to support development of new food outlets in urban communities where the nearest grocery store is often a half-mile or more away -- the neighborhoods that policymakers call 'food deserts.'"

If you build it they will come. And don't stop there, make them locavore, nutrition/healthy living and organic-focused supermarkets.

"this machine kills fascists"

http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2010/02/naming-names-by-digby-so-palin-is...

Does anyone actually believe that Palin's name for the child of miraculous provenance was found by her deep knowledge of ancient Norse as she claims in her magical-realism novel, "Going Rogue"?

The medical term for Down Syndrome is Trisomy-21 or Trisomy-g. It is often shortened in medical slang to Tri-g.

(it's only a coincidence - everything's a mere coincidence)
(there is no matrix)
(and "trig" is pronounced differently to "try-gee" and there's no hyphen in "trig")
(additional defense against the charge of being a callous bitch, or probing into the unsavory nature of any republican, will be provided by the corporate media; who wouldn't sink so low)

exempting themselves from the health care bill....

http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/the_creed_of_objectivity_killed_the_...

by Chris Hedges...

ha-ha-ha
that's right
keep watching fox
and remaining uninformed
you idiot!
: )

good answer...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dzm8kTIj_0M

the corporate media.. marvel at it, crank
it's there to protect you
to keep you warm inside your white picket fence
and to prevent you from knocking over your mai tai...
now that would be tragic

eh, everything is new
new puter (a laptop) (windows 7)
that's just been connected to what's called in puter jargon as a "wireless router"
so i'm having a mini celebration
with gin'n'juice
and i'll wash it down with a viewing of my new (ex-rental) dvd of "wake in fright"
(beads of sweat pop off my forehead when i think how close we were to losing this classic)
(phew!)

Submitted by air-ono on Wed, 02/03/2010 - 10:21pm.
...(as heard on malloy's show - who's giving it the vitriolic treatment it deserves)
(you won't of heard of this if you're reliant on corporate media; but nevermind it can be safely dismissed by clueless assholes like crank - who finds it soothing to relax within the confines of the white picket fence of his mind)
-------------------
Okay, shit for brains, try to concentrate for a moment.

This is in your article, "At the January 27 hearing, Leiter said that there had been “multiple” points of failure in the US government’s response to warnings of the impending attack."

Guess what, oh brainless one? That ain't breaking news. The article attempts to sensationalize everything it can to drum up interest. The author has sense enough to cover his ass in the way it is presented.

He presents the element you focused on (already known to me and to the entire world prior to the hearing but officially stated in the hearing on the record) in a way to make it seem more important than the evidence exists to support. He attempts to make the statements of fact in the hearing seem to be "breaking news." There is nothing in the article that has not already been reported more than once.

Note that the article goes on to speculate on several "possible" conspiracies behind knowingly allowing Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab to fly which CONFLICT with one another. If one is true, the others cannot be true. It's also possible that none of them are true. The author is careful to make this clear. Why don't you pick one of the conspiracy speculations out of the article and try to sell it as fact too, ono?

Can you read or are you getting all of your information from radio entertainers? It's a good thing that you are not in my reading comprehension class because I would give you a wedgie and stuff you in a locker until you promised to pay attention to the words on the page.

me & my mates are laughing at you, alice
hahahahaha

(that's a scene from wake in fight)

fuck you
you concentrate
i'm drinking

(i'm in no condition to what you call concentration, neo)

have you ever sensationalized your love making prowess
or the size of your balls...
heh, you varmit
of course, you have
and you want everyone to tone it down
oh, the doubling of low standards
oh
oh
oh
i'm coming
dear lord, i'm coming
i've seen the promised land, dear lord

don't hassle me, neo-cranko
i'm going to collect a mountain of wake in fright pics
and if you post anything deflamatory about me
i'll reach through this new laptop puter and throttle you
ok

(wanker)

Demon Sheep
http://washingtonindependent.com/75717/tom-campbell-demon-sheep

Wooly Bully (MP3 - 3.2MB)

Gottalove the #demonsheep! Oh they're REAL, alright!

Runawaaaayyyy!

"this machine kills fascists"

-War is Murder
Submitted by pbtrue1 on Wed, 02/03/2010 - 11:48am.-

i'm not only going to what i call "collect a mountain of wake in fright pics"
i'm going to do so while watching the fucker
this other fucker, this laptop fucker
has a what is called a dvd player

(so excellent)

Have a drink, mate?
Have a fight, mate?
Have some dust and sweat, mate?
There's nothing else out here.

(hey, wait a second... what's this spoon?...)
(did it drop out of neo-crank's pocket?)

Submitted by air-ono on Thu, 02/04/2010 - 12:04am.
have you ever sensationalized your love making prowess
or the size of your balls...
--------
I wouldn't hesitate to sensationalize either of the two (or three, technically) if it were necessary and had a prayer of success.

Embellished lovemaking prowess is likely to be met with disappointment with the real thing. If you want to lie, I suggest that you downplay your abilities so you are a pleasant surprise when it counts.

In your case, you might want to claim total paralysis so that any motor control whatsoever is deemed to be a miraculous success.

By MARK SCOLFORO Associated Press Writer
Updated: 02/03/2010 06:50:13 PM EST

HARRISBURG, Pa.—

A former top-ranking House Democratic staff aide testified Wednesday about the variety of ways caucus leaders tapped into the public treasury to run campaigns, from funding a blast e-mail program and researching weaknesses in Republican candidates to dispatching state workers to canvass door-to-door.

Mike Manzo told jurors in the public corruption trial of former Rep. Mike Veon and three former House Democratic aides that he conferred regularly with Veon about campaign matters, often during work hours at the Capitol.

In one episode, Manzo said, Veon came to him in 2004, saying the House Democrats had the means to launch a legal challenge to presidential candidate Ralph Nader's nominating petitions, prompting Manzo to assign another staffer to oversee it.

A dozen House Democratic employees worked on the petitions inside the Capitol, Manzo said, in an effort that proved successful.

Manzo said Veon also gave his approval to letting caucus employee Eric Buxton leave his state job and set up a private company that contracted with the caucus to create a mass e-mail system that had both campaign and legislative uses.

Manzo said Veon and Rep. Bill DeWeese, who at the time was Manzo's boss and the Democratic floor leader, both used that e-mail system to send out campaign messages to seek donations or tout upcoming public campaign events.

DeWeese said Wednesday he has "no recollection of authorizing any campaign activity utilizing.
...

http://www.ldnews.com/news/ci_14324533

all //“multiple” points of failure// are equal (from crank's post)

why are you trivialising //US intelligence agencies stopped the State Department from revoking the US visa of Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab// (from my article posted)

it's ok, son
no need to answer, son
you remain numb in yoru white picket fence
and npr will tuck you in at night

however, son
here's your chance to enlighten me
you write...
"There is nothing in the article that has not already been reported more than once."

the article i posted is the only article i've read about the incident
so is the writer of my article correct, when he states...
"As of this writing, nearly a week after the hearing, the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post and Los Angeles Times have published no articles on the subject. Nor have the broadcast or cable media reported on it."

(a simple yes or no will do)
(the answer will determine whether the writer has an agenda or not)

drinking
checking out pics
half listening to a movie
and red-assing crank

(i gotta drop one)

drop one
ah-hahahahahaha...
NEVER!!!

(ok, i'll stop peppering the blog with teh pics)

i'd love it if we were all in someones lounge
and watching wake in fright together
getting blind drunk together

of course, nando would be invited...
we need a mexican to beat up
: )

http://www.merryswankster.com/mp3/Jay_Reatard_Fluorescent_Grey.mp3

http://cdn.pitchfork.com/media/jayreatard452.jpg

Jay Reatard - My Shadow
http://kyleparkinson.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2008/02/04%20My%20...

Jay Reatard - Death is Forming
http://kyleparkinson.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2008/02/06%20Death...

{...except I have to make "brew" more ... :):(}

here's some trivia...
the director of the movie was born in toledo
so was malloy
coincidence...
not in my world it isn't

(actually, he was born in toronto - which goes to show, you can't believe everything you read)
(or hear)
(this is what i heard at my cousin's 40th birthday party in adelaide last weekend)
(my friend told me that he writes for a gun magazine and is paid $80 per article)
(and in the next chair was my 14yo niece)
(the next day, she told those who came around for lunch that he was paid $500 per article)

man, i went crazy
"BULLSHIT! he's paid $80 - why did you say 500"
someone told her, she said
i went crazier
"WHO FUCKING TOLD YOU"
she couldn't remember
i went crazier
"YOU WERE RIGHT NEXT TO US WHEN HE TOLD US... (bla bla bla)"
my sister said, "why don't you kill her"
(she missed the point)

how's tricks
: )

sure i was rough on the little bitch
but she not only got a simple fact wrong
she compounded the mistake by palming off responsibility
"someone told me"
yeah, the same guy who told me he was paid $80

but who was cast out as the bad guy, the rabid dog?
that's right...
me
(fuck them)

Ha! That one is worth a special mention :D

why don't you go fuck him in the ass
you love him so much
: )
show your appreciation

skinned any wallabies lately?

I enjoy laughing ao, and a funny person is an invaluable asset!

that's what i do all day
all i do is skin wallabies, you wanker
do i i ask you if you've made a racoon pie, lately

no i don't
what i do is treat you as a normal human being
regardless of your geographical location
and what do i get in return
"skunneded any wallabies"
:p

and so informed...

did i fail to read the last line
or did you edit the post, while i was replying...
and add "I enjoy laughing (bla bla)"
you crafty devil

call names....

You effing butt jellyfish.

.

Shit fiddler

Arse mole

Turd lord

if i said the little bitch would make a great republican
they'd be clueless as to what i was referring to

man,
i am soooo not ignorant...
meanwhile they're driving around in fancy cars
and i have holes in my panties

the gin is running out, and
imma take a nap on these freshly slaughted wallaby carcasses

http://www.greylodge.org/occultreview/idxs/gloridx.html

January 31, 2010 - 4:56pm — Bibliofuture

Bought something on Amazon that cost $24.41 to $24.99 and need something to push the order to $25 or over so you can get Free Super Saver Shipping?

Here is an item that is less than a $1 that will do that:

http://lisnews.org/node/35798/

and now i'm just blogging
and concentraqting on not any making spekling errores
(lol)
which i do from time to toime

is it errores or eronors...
bubba would know
where is that big bear killing mofo
(he is the one)

Pentagon’s Black Budget Tops $56 Billion

By Noah Shachtman February 1, 2010 | 3:57 pm |

The Defense Department just released its king-sized, $708 billion budget for the next fiscal year. Much of the proposed spending is fairly detailed — noting exactly how many helicopters the Pentagon plans to buy and how many troops it plans on playing. But about $56 billion goes simply to “classified programs,” or to projects known only by their code names, like “Chalk Eagle” and “Link Plumeria.” That’s the Pentagon’s black budget.

Cobbling together this round figure for the military’s hush-hush projects is easier than it seems. The Pentagon’s separate ledgers for operations, research and procurement all contain line items for “classified programs.” Add those to the nonsensically-named programs, and you’ve got yourself an estimate for the Pentagon’s secretive efforts.

Last year, that budget grew to more than $50 billion – ”the largest-ever sum,” according to Aviation Week’s Bill Sweetman, a longtime black-budget seer. A few more billion were added for wartime operations, for a total of $54 billion. This year’total would be $2 billion higher, a 3.7 percent increase.

Not all of the Pentagon’s secret projects got a budget boost, however. Funds for the Cobra Judy missile-watching radar system were cut nearly in half, from $61 million to $36.5 million. Similar, money for the Navy’s Link Evergreen project was cut to $41 million, from $123 million.

Read More http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2010/02/pentagons-black-budget-tops-56-b...

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

THE CRIMINAL CLASS is calling the shots in key segments of the government.

sometimes madness is in the eye of the beholders
look all i'm doing is reporting & giving you the opportunity to voice your opinion
whatever your well consisdered opinion is there will be no repercussions
but you may be called an idiot
and there's no way you could tolerate that
so beware...
for your frail ego is on the line
so was the guy who offered the drink right in calling john mad?
should john have gone in for a drink?
despite his ordeal!

Amid Media Blackout - THE SEQUEL
Submitted by air-ono on Wed, 02/03/2010 - 10:39pm.
It's All They Know
by digby
Wednesday, February 03, 2010

I know you're not supposed to say that the American people are stupid, so I won't. But can we at least say they have been brainwashed to the point of being intellectually crippled?

Half of Americans (50%) believe government should do less to regulate business. The rest are divided between saying things are about right (23%) and that the government should regulate more (24%). The majority (57%) are worried that there will be too much government regulation of business.

That is an epic failure of liberal politics. You can't blame them, if nobody ever told them otherwise.

http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2010/02/its-all-they-know-by-digby-i-know...

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

The Corporate Culture -- put in place by the Corporate Media and Corporate Advertising which dictate taste and choices -- have gotten Americans to disdain intelligence, analytical thinking, longrange planning, common sense, and even "the common good". The Corporations sell a mindset like they sell cigarettes or beer or laundry detergent.

Corporate Culture is PHONY; it is a construct made to control The People. We gotta dump Corporate Culture. We must invent OUR OWN CULTURE. It must be a culture cleansed of CONSUMERISM and Corporate priorities.

Just saw Sam on Joy Behar.

Looking good Sam.

On a panel between Susie Essman, and Melissa Rivers...

ms_a says hello and she's no where to be seen
which raises the question...
am i that offe4nsive
and the ginz gone... fuck, gin
lucky i gots vodka and i've still some milage in me, so i'll smooth talk nora
hey, nora
ever been fucked in the ass,
lately
(keep it on the hush-hush, ie, don't report me to sam for being offensive)

as i wanted to tell crank earlier on
he's wasting his time talking sense to me
and that was early on
now it's unrestrained smut

ripping off all my insights
so she can make a name for herself on daily kos...
eh, feel free

are you gonna leave me, too
stick around
relaqx
and have a drink with me
(lol)

does anyone know crank's phone number
get him on the blower
and ask hin to fight...
to defend his bullshit

and you all be fucking sleeping
that means you got no guts
that's why the republicans winning
those snivelling cunts never be sleeping
they too busy scheming
and next day you busy whining about the damage they dreamed of
while you be all sleeping...
you playin' catch up

bob, alice, crack
ms_a, barb in mn, fucking nora
that's why you losers....
no guts
can't handle the rough stuff
can't go toe to toe
want everything on credit
don't wanna pay no dues
as eddie murpphy told that big indian chap...
you gonna lose, billy

then i leave you to your public hell
that's right your public hell
i got no public hell to deal with
only my private hell

you not only got your private hell that ailes you
you got a public hell to deal with

in the words of sunny jim....
"organise or die"
these disparate (although similar) voices of yours will go unnoticed until you form one huge voice to tackle your (wait till i get the dictionary) manifold problems

campaign finance, electronic voting machine
and the media
(edna's public enemey #1)

Thanks for that link.

Well, The [Alexander] Hamilton Project of The Brookings Institute -- that was an eye-opener. Yikes! A new storefront to hide the continuing Corporatist direction.

Feb. 4 (Bloomberg) -- The end of a Federal Reserve program that helped unlock credit markets is spurring sales of asset- backed bonds with relative yields five times wider than on debt secured by car loans.

The expiration of the Fed’s Term Asset-Backed Securities Loan Facility is driving companies to sell bonds tied to loans that would otherwise require higher yields. Borrowers are offering bonds backed by subprime auto loans, mortgage-servicing payments and assets that have proved hard to sell after the worst credit seizure since the Great Depression.

“What we are seeing in the last couple of rounds are issuers in non-traditional asset classes and weaker issuers looking to fund as much as they can before the window closes,” said James Grady, a managing director at Deutsche Asset Management in New York. The firm has $240 billion in assets under management, including asset-backed securities.

Ally Bank, a Midvale, Utah-based unit of GMAC Inc., is selling $750 million in so-called floorplan securities backed by payments on loans that finance cars on lots. Nissan Motor Co., in Yokohama, Japan, issued $900 million of the debt last week. Sales total $3.35 billion this year, including deals being prepared, compared with $3.9 billion all of last year, according to Informa Global Markets in New York.

The bonds offer investors higher relative yields because the collateral is considered riskier. Ally Bank’s sale of AAA debt backed by floorplans may yield 1.75 percentage points more than swap rates, compared with a spread of 0.35 percentage point for top-rated auto-loan bonds, according to Bank of America Corp. data.

TALF Expires

Investors have a deadline of today for taking out loans through TALF this month. The program, which provides loans to investors buying the debt, began in March 2009 and expires March 31.

Elsewhere in credit markets, the yield spread on company bonds narrowed 1 basis point yesterday to 164 basis points, Bank of America Merrill Lynch’s Global Broad Market Corporate Index showed. The gap has widened from this year’s low of 160 basis points, or 1.6 percentage points, on Jan. 14. The average yield yesterday was 4.12 percent, up from the low this year of 4.06 percent on Jan. 11.

The cost to protect North American company bonds from nonpayment fell yesterday for the third straight day, the longest stretch since the four days ended Jan. 6. Standard & Poor’s said the default rate on speculative-grade debt held steady last month at 10.7 percent. Kraft Foods Inc. may complete the sale of $4 billion in debt today to pay for its acquisition of Cadbury Plc.

Choking Off Funding

TALF was started to jump-start the market for bonds tied to consumer and small-business loans after sales of the debt plummeted 42 percent in 2008, choking off funding to lenders, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The program spurred $178 billion of securities sales, according to Bank of America.

TALF provides low-cost Fed loans toward the purchase of top-rated securities. It allows buyers to boost returns with borrowed cash and provides issuers with lower funding costs.

Companies selling debt through TALF this month include AmeriCredit Corp., the Fort Worth, Texas-based lender to car buyers with poor credit, and Ocwen Financial Corp., a West Palm Beach, Florida-based company that acquires and services troubled mortgages. Ocwen’s sale is backed by payments connected to delinquent home loans.

The program is becoming less useful as investors gain confidence in the economy and use more of their own cash to buy the debt. Yields on top-rated auto-loan securities relative to Treasuries have narrowed to 0.69 percentage point from 6.4 percentage points a year ago, Bank of America Merrill Lynch index data show.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20670001&sid=a4YeGsAFe53c

toniD's Ya Think?

China’s Labor Edge Overpowers Obama’s ‘Green’ Jobs Initiatives

Feb. 4 (Bloomberg) -- President Barack Obama is spending $2.1 million to help Suntech Power Holdings Co. build a solar- panel plant in Arizona. It will hire 70 Americans to assemble components made by Suntech’s 11,000 Chinese workers.

That gap shows the challenge Obama faces as he works to create “green” jobs. Asia makes more than half the world’s wind and solar energy equipment, and is gaining ground as U.S. factories lose out to cheaper labor and higher demand for clean energy. China for the first time topped the U.S. in wind-turbine manufacturing and installations last year, the Brussels-based Global Wind Energy Council said yesterday in a report.

Obama is giving billions of dollars in tax breaks to the wind and solar industries to create jobs in the U.S. even as production expands faster overseas. First Solar Inc., the world’s largest maker of thin-film solar-power modules, won $16.3 million to add 200 manufacturing jobs at its Ohio plant, yet 71 percent of its planned factory growth will go to Malaysia. The company employs 4,500 globally.

“The cost of manufacturing here is too expensive compared to Asia,” said Guy Chaffin, chief executive officer of Elite Search International, a Roseville, California-based executive search firm that has found employees for Tempe, Arizona-based First Solar and Solar Millennium AG. “As far as a flood of good jobs coming to the U.S., we’re not seeing it.”

To compete for clean-energy jobs, the U.S. must create demand by capping fossil-fuel pollution that contributes to global warming, Carol Browner, Obama’s coordinator of energy and environment policy, said yesterday at the opening of a three-day renewable-energy conference in Washington.

Cap-and-Trade Proposal

Obama backs a “cap-and-trade” system to limit carbon emissions and establish a market in pollution allowances, a proposal that passed the House and has stalled in the Senate. Congress is also debating measures, backed by the administration, that would require utilities to buy some of their power from renewable sources.

“Will batteries that power the next generation of hybrid cars come from South Korea or South Carolina?” Browner said. “The best way to take advantage of these opportunities is to put in place the right price signals here at home, create the demand here at home so that our companies will make the investment here at home.”

The U.S. solar industry added about 18,000 jobs last year, almost doubling total employment to about 40,000, said Monique Hanis, a spokeswoman for the Solar Energy Industry Association, a Washington-based lobbying group. About half those were in manufacturing, she said. more...

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601109&sid=adIdrmtTtyw8

toniD's Ya Think?

Summers’s role questioned as US economic policy shifts
Obama adviser fights talk of waning power

WASHINGTON - As President Obama and his team have rolled out a fresh set of strategies to fix the economy, one item on the list - curbing the ability of big banks to gamble in the stock market - has been viewed by some as a repudiation of Lawrence H. Summers, the former Harvard president who is the White House’s chief economic adviser.

Summers, who favored bank deregulation when he was secretary of the treasury for President Clinton, had counseled Obama for much of last year to take a less sweeping approach to overhauling bank rules. But that point of view publicly fell out of favor last month as the White House adopted a more red meat, populist tone after angry Massachusetts voters sent Republican Scott Brown to fill the US Senate seat that was held by the late Edward M. Kennedy.

Taking on big banks, the president said, “is a fight I’m ready to have.’’ This week, Paul Volcker, a chief White House adviser and former Federal Reserve chairman who favors pushing tighter restrictions on banks, appeared before a Senate committee to press the administration’s case.

Despite the shift, Summers and White House officials insisted in interviews last week that Summers continues to play his powerful, behind-the-scenes role as key architect of the administration’s economic strategy. Summers said suggestions in the media that he disagreed with the president’s decision to get tougher on banks are false and that he supported major new steps to reduce financial risk-taking. Obama had privately sought advice on stronger action beginning in October, according to an administration official, and Summers was a full participant.

“The president gets advice from many different quarters and forms the best judgments he can. Certainly he doesn’t always take my advice,’’ Summers said before leaving Washington for the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. The bottom line, Summers said, is that he is a full-team player. “I support all of the president’s policies,’’ he stressed.

As a White House official, Summers gets to avoid the public grillings in Congress that Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner has been subjected to, over such explosive controversies as Wall Street bonuses and the banking and investment firm bailouts that began in 2008.

But he nonetheless has been the subject of public criticism during his first year as captain of Obama’s economic team.

As Treasury secretary during the Clinton administration, he favored deregulatory moves - in particular, repealing the Glass-Steagall Act, which prevented banks from owning investment companies - that some believe helped stoke the financial crisis. He also has close ties to Wall Street, working at a New York hedge fund from 2006 to 2008 and earning speaking fees from major banks in the months before his White House appointment, including from banks that taxpayers bailed out.

Summers “is the fundamental problem,’’ said a former federal bank regulator, William Black, now an associate professor of economics and law at the University of Missouri-Kansas City, citing Summers’s close ties to the banking industry and past support of deregulation.

When Obama announced last month that he was embracing the proposal to limit the size and investment activities of banks, an idea pushed by Volcker, the economic world was abuzz about whether Summers’s influence was on the wane.

Summers declined to answer directly when asked whether Volcker was ascendant and he was descendant, saying, “I don’t comment on Washington up-down stories.’’

White House officials went to lengths in interviews to squelch any idea that Summers is losing influence in the aftermath of the adoption of the Volcker proposal.

“There is no economic policy or international economic policy that Larry is not a part of,’’ Rahm Emanuel, White House chief of staff, said in an interview. “He is the president’s principal economic adviser.’’

That does not mean that Summers doesn’t fight for his view and that administration officials do not engage in internal policy disagreements. Emanuel said Summers and Geithner would sometimes remain at White House meetings until 9 p.m. on Sundays to discuss “shades’’ of differences in their views, although he would not provide specifics.

Although Summers’s official title is chairman of the White House National Economic Council, the former Harvard president’s job is to speak as bluntly and privately as possible to Obama, a graduate of Harvard Law School.

Summers often does the briefing with other top administration officials, but overall only a handful of people spend as much time with the president as Summers.

Asked whether he made mistakes during the Clinton administration by urging bank deregulation, Summers declined to respond directly.

“Hindsight is 20/20,’’ Summers said. “It is very, very clear in current context that we need much, much stronger regulation and one of the crucial areas of regulation is derivatives. There are enough crucial issues facing us today. I’m not focused on debating past controversies.

“What’s very clear is the need for stronger regulation today,’’ he said. “That’s something I have expressed forcefully in the years before I went into government.’’
more...

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2010/02/04/summers...

toniD's Ya Think?

Can you name this animal?
Submitted by smcgee43 on Wed, 02/03/2010 - 9:41pm.
The threatened Desert tortoise
==
And people that see the Wests deserts as places to build solar farms, which are not eco friendly because first the contractors grade and bulldoze the construction site. Which kills everything and also promotes dust. When the desert is modified dust storms pick up a lot more 'dust.'

==
alice pick your moment and bring it to the coaches attention, like " there's talk that we get warmed up then cool down because of the pep talk..."
==
later, off to the new/old adventure work is...

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

Blue Roots Radio

Miss u so
sounds like ur having a hell of a
time across the globe in that
country we call Aussie Land.
Miss u here on the blog -
well I should clarify myself - - YOU my
love r on the blog when I am in dream-ee
land. One day we will met & fall for
one another......... xoxoxo

http://www.businesspundit.com/25-most-promising-new-products-for-2010/

In the near future, it appears I might have cause to regret getting my cats corrugated scratch boxes...

Recompute: a closer look at the sustainable, cardboard PC
http://www.engadget.com/2009/02/05/recompute-a-closer-look-at-the-sustai...

New thread:
http://www.samsedershow.com/comment/reply/5637

Australia blocks shipments to Iran over nuclear fear -

Australia has blocked three shipments to Iran because of fears the contents could have been for Tehran's nuclear programme, PM Kevin Rudd has said.

Mr Rudd told Australian radio Defence Minister John Faulkner had used powers under the Weapons of Mass Destruction Act to block the shipments.

But he declined to say when this happened or what the cargos were.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/8497459.stm

Long time - I hope things r going well 4 u.

Cabela's and Sportsman's Warehouse—two major outdoor retailers—sponsored three recent "predator derbies," or competitions where contestants were awarded three points for each wolf they killed.
The entry fees for these brutal competitions are being funneled to support anti-wolf lawyers and lobbyists working to keep wolves in Greater Yellowstone and the northern Rockies off the endangered species list...and squarely in the crosshairs of those who would do them harm.

Sign the petition urging Cabela's and Sportsman's Warehouse to withdraw their support for wolf derbies.

http://www.therainforestsite.com/clickToGive/campaign.faces?siteId=4&cam...

Tough economic times are also devastating for companion animals. As more and more families across the U.S. lose their homes to foreclosure, a new animal rescue issue is arising: an influx of animals to our nation's shelters as families can no longer afford to keep them, or as pets are not welcome in their families' new accommodations. The need is great. More than 800,000 American families lost their homes in the last year alone due to foreclosure.

You can help. Sign the pledge below and tell a friend.

http://www.therainforestsite.com/clickToGive/campaign.faces?siteId=4&cam...

Home to imperiled sea otters, whales and sea lions and the world's largest run of sockeye salmon, Alaska's Bristol Bay is a national treasure. But this ecological and economic powerhouse could soon be open to oil and gas drilling, and a potentially disastrous oil spill -- if the federal government doesn't step in to stop it.

Help protect this special place and the amazing wildlife that call it home. Sign the petition below and tell a friend.

http://www.therainforestsite.com/clickToGive/campaign.faces?siteId=4&cam...

This story is so juicy it could be on Jerry Springer. A pair of albatrosses--lesbian albatrosses, that is--had a ménage à trois with a male bird for a few years and now he's gone missing. But before he disappeared he got one of them pregnant!
It all went down at Taiaroa Head, the only mainland albatross breeding colony in the world. Female nesting of this type is anything but typical. In fact, there have only been two instances of it recorded in the past 70 years.
"It's quite unusual in the albatross population here at Taiaroa Head to have two females mating together," Lyndon Perriman, the colony's head ranger, told Television New Zealand.
For the next six months the new parents will take turns guarding and feeding the chick. They'll swap roles every two days. While one is protecting the chick from predators, the other is out at sea foraging for food hundreds of miles away.
“They need to have a very strong bond, because when they are sitting on the eggs they can sit there for a week or 10 days waiting for the partner to come back, so they need to have a good partner to rely on,” Mr Perriman told The Times.
The colony currently has 140 royal albatrosses with each having a wingspan of nearly 10 feet. This season, 17 chicks hatched from 17 fertile eggs--a rare success rate.

Re-Pub-lick-thugs r gonna do about this ^^^^^^

You, too!
______________________________

Demonsheep - no match for bad kittehs.

Bad
Badder
Pure evil

Break In! Who are Landrieu’s Alleged Phone Tamperers?

The four young men arrested last week for allegedly attempting to tamper with the phones at the office of Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-LA) have ties to Republican politicians, conservative think tanks, radical campus activists, and even the intelligence community.
It appears that Landrieu was targeted, at least indirectly, because of her stance on health care reform. Two of the men posed as telephone repairmen while a third taped them with his cell phone. A fourth alleged accomplice was arrested in a car a few blocks away.
Right wing operative James O’Keefe, famous for posing as a pimp to “expose” unethical behavior at the anti-poverty group ACORN, claimed that he and his crew were trying to expose a problem with the phones at Landrieu’s office which were keeping constituents from reaching her.

http://www.care2.com/causes/politics/blog/break-in-who-are-landrieu-s-al...

the sheep got it right, don't fuck with the sheep.
(The Bad Sheep)

Have some Green Tea sandy....its better for you anyway...
Submitted by cent on Wed, 02/03/2010 - 10:47am.

i'm going to make some right now!

http://www.samsedershow.com/node/5638#comment-393542