open

I don't believe it.

Sammy - U is the greatest!

For the cowards amongst us, this is our future. As for the rest, death, probably--

At new Bagram prison in Afghanistan, some inmates buoyant

The bearded Taliban prisoners at Bagram broke off from a spirited game of soccer in the yard to greet a McClatchy reporter, the first journalist allowed into the notorious U.S. jail in Afghanistan since detainees there were moved into a shiny new multimillion-dollar facility.

"Nice to see you guys!" one of the prisoners said with unexpected cheerfulness, in English with an American accent, rushing over and showing off some prayer beads made in the prison workshop. "These should be in retail somewhere."

The prisoners were running around in bright orange Afghan-style baggy shirts and trousers, a slight variation on the orange jumpsuits made infamous at the Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba. The detainees, all young men allegedly associated with the Taliban or al Qaida, wore prayer caps and the long, unkempt beards that fundamentalist Muslims favor.

"Colonel Garrity has brought us a lot of good things," the prisoner volunteered. He spoke through a metal fence and didn't identify himself, and McClatchy's reporter wasn't allowed to ask any questions...
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2010/02/25/88432/at-new-bagram-prison-in-afgh...

http://ricks.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2010/02/25/odierno_requests_more_co...

if the repukes are against it, there must be some good shit in the healthcare bill.

So much of it is built on top of GOP ideas that I can't see how it's going to actually work for the people of this country. Democrats seem determined to let them have their way. If there is going to be reconcilliation but not a public option then all I has to say is they planned to fail.

I missed the start but
he's rippin' the rethuglicans
big time.
_ _ _
brr

BREAKING: Pelosi Makes Strong Case For House Public Option Going Forward, "We Must Act"
by: AdamGreen
Thu Feb 25, 2010 at 17:35

Mr. President, I harken back to that meeting a year ago. At that time, Senator Grassley questioned you about the public option.

And you said the public option is one way to keep the insurance companies honest and to increase competition. If you have a better way, put it on the table.

Well, I bring that up because we have come such a long way....As a representative of the House of Representatives, I want you to know that we were there that day in support of a public option which would save $120 billion, keep the insurance companies honest, and increase competition. (This describes the Medicare-rates version of the public option, not in the House bill. The current version saves $25 billion.)

We've come a long way to agreeing to a Republican idea, the exchanges...because the insurance companies opposed the public option. They couldn't take the competition.

http://openleft.com/diary/17574/breaking-pelosi-makes-strong-case-for-ho...

UPDATE: Obama pretty much admits that he abandoned the public option not because of a lack of votes, but because the White House couldn't stomach Republican "government takeover" talking points being used against them and really really wanted Republican support. This is actually huge news:

OBAMA: "There were criticisms about the public option. That's when supposedly there was going to be a government takeover of health care. And even after the public option wasn't available, we still hear the same rhetoric...We have the concept of an exchange, which previously has been an idea that was embraced by Republicans before I embraced it. Now, suddenly, it became less of a good idea."

toniD's Ya Think?

Democrats retreat on new privacy protections

Democrats have retreated from adding new privacy protections to the nation's primary counterterrorism law, stymied by Senate Republicans who argued the changes would weaken terror investigations.

The proposed protections were cast aside when Senate Democrats lacked the necessary 60-vote supermajority to pass them. Dashing the hopes of liberals, the Senate Wednesday night instead passed — by voice vote without debate — a one-year extension of key parts of the USA Patriot Act that would have expired on Sunday.

Thrown away were restrictions and greater scrutiny on the government's authority to spy on Americans and seize their records.

The House was prepared to approve the extension Thursday, dropping even more extensive privacy protections approved by the House Judiciary Committee.

The Democratic retreat is a political victory for Republicans, who gained new ammunition for their election theme that the GOP can better protect America. The outcome is a major disappointment for Democrats and their liberal allies, including the American Civil Liberties Union, who believe the Patriot Act fails to protect Americans' privacy and gives the government too much authority to spy on Americans and seize their property.

Sen. Jeff Sessions of Alabama, the ranking Republican on Leahy's committee, said Thursday that any changes to the Patriot Act would weaken it.

"Recent terror attacks, such as those at Ft. Hood and on Christmas Day, demonstrate just how severe of a threat we are facing," Sessions said. "This extension keeps Patriot's security measures in place and demonstrates that there is a growing recognition that these crucial provisions must be preserved."

Republicans have been steadily pounding the Obama administration over the closing of the detainee prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, as well as the possibility of holding civilian trials for detainees in the United States. They have also criticized federal agents for informing a Nigerian, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, of his right to remain silent after 50 minutes of questioning for allegedly trying to ignite explosives on a Detroit-bound airliner on Christmas.

If Democrats had allowed the Senate to have a full debate on the Judiciary Committee restrictions, they would have exposed themselves to Republican arguments that Democrats were hurting law enforcement.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/feedarticle/8963630

How can a call for an investigation on 9/11 be called a theory -- when all folks want is an investigation to look into and test the Conspiracy Theory put forward by the Bush Administration.

He's mentioning Sustein's Domestic Infiltration Policy into quieting 9/ll Truth et al....

Paul Craig Roberts' piece at OpEdNews--

http://www.opednews.com/articles/The-Road-to-Armageddon-by-Paul-Craig-Ro...

http://www.vergaforcongress.com/

=======
The Verga naturally prides himself on "getting the most lumps" from teapartiers of anyone in the race.

THIS JUST IN
by C-VILLE Writers
Verga, Fifth District GOP challenger, "takes his lumps" from Tea Party
by Brendan Fitzgerald, February 11th 11:48am
This morning, organizers of Tea Party Patriots groups in the Fifth Congressional District released an assessment of the seven candidates competing for the GOP nomination and a shot at the seat of Democratic Congressman Tom Perriello.

http://www.c-ville.com/index.php?cat=1991704080566501&act=post&pid=12031...

===========================
And so, Joe showed in CHO (And _I_ totally spaced. Say it ain't so...)

http://www2.dailyprogress.com/cdp/news/local/local_govtpolitics/article/...

US slaps duties on steel pipe from China

Source: China Daily

2010-02-25 11:26

US expected to announce more duties in April

WASHINGTON: The United States on Wednesday imposed preliminary duties ranging from 11 to 13 percent on steel pipe from China to offset government subsidies, the Commerce Department said.

The decision puts further strain on US-China trade relations, already tested by disputes over other US trade actions and China's currency policy.

It is a victory for US Steel Corp and the United Steelworkers union, which filed a petition in October asking for protection against the Chinese imports.

Texas company V&M Star LP and Illinois company TMK IPSCO also signed the petition asking for relief.

Roger Schagrin, an attorney representing the petitioners, said he believed the Commerce Department underestimated the amount of Chinese government subsidies.

But "we're still happy (with the countervailing duties). They're in the double digits," Schagrin said.

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/bizchina/2010-02/25/content_9502866.htm

toniD's Ya Think?

...Steel pipe...

Heheheheheh,,,

Funnier when it's actually coincidental...

:)

Wouldn't seem likely if the biggest corporations have a stake in the Chinese fert exports to USA.

The article said that more tariffs were coming in April. I think this was a test to see how China reacted. China's been trying to boss us and this is a lesson to them from the US.

We are all anxious but at least we got the start of tariffs!

toniD's Ya Think?

Is an abject turd.

This guy still makes him look good.

http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=921740

'Splain that if you can...

(Interesting friends, the Prakash.)

Yeah I wondered if anyone was going to say anything.

Woke to it this morning. No idea things had been so bad for so long with KO's dad.

Made me write an email. Sure he got lots.

ylvestre Reyes Inserts Anti-Torture Provision Into Intelligence Funding Bill.

Democratic Congressman Sylvestre Reyes, chair of the House Intelligence Committee, has proposed an amendment to the 2010 Intelligence Authorization Act that would hold any "officer or employee of the intelligence community" who "in the course of or in anticipation of a covered interrogation knowingly commits, or attempts to commit or conspires to commit an act of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment" would face criminal sanctions of up to fifteen years, even life if it results in the death of the detainee.

The amendment, referred to as the "Cruel, Inhuman And Degrading Interrogations Prohibition Act" of 2010, lists several prohibited acts, including waterboarding, "forcing the individual to be naked, perform sexual acts, or pose in a sexual manner", beatings, electric shocks, use of dogs, inducing hypothermia or heat injury, stress positions, deprivation of necessary "sleep, food or medical care" and conducting mock executions.

Other prohibited acts include using the threat of force to "coerce an individual to desecrate that individual's religious artifacts," excessive cold or heat, cramped confinement, prolonged isolation, and use of hooding.

The amendment would also implement criminal sanctions for medical professionals who assist in such interrogations. According to the language of the amendment, "any medical professional who in the course of or in anticipation of a covered interrogation knowingly commits or attempts to commit an act of medical malfeasance with the intent to enable an act of cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment" would also face criminal sanctions. An act of "medical malfeasance" adds five years to the original offense.

http://www.prospect.org/csnc/blogs/tapped_archive?month=02&year=2010&bas...

toniD's Ya Think?

...slapping doody on pipe?

Ew!

I'm going back to #livetweetingbortion

"this machine kills fascists"

California Subpoenas Big Health Insurers' Financial Records

Source: LA TIMES

The California state attorney general's office said Thursday that it had subpoenaed financial records of California's seven largest health insurance companies as part of an investigation into whether they illegally raised customer premiums and denied payment of legitimate claims.

Prosecutors said they sought documents from Anthem Blue Cross, Aetna Health, Cigna, Blue Shield of California, Kaiser Permanente, Health Net and PacifiCare.

The subpoenas cover health plans that reimburse doctors and hospitals for their services.

The attorney general's efforts come as Anthem and other health insurers nationwide face stepped-up scrutiny over rate hikes by regulators, members of Congress and the Obama administration. President Obama is seeking greater federal authority over insurance-premium increases as part of his national healthcare overhaul.

The investigation into the denial of claims began in September. Atty. Gen. Jerry Brown said his office served subpoenas to the same companies in January over the practices of their health maintenance organizations.

"We have been looking at these companies for a number of months and are very concerned that some of them are unjustly raising premiums and denying payment of legitimate claims," Brown said. "Not only are the rate increases devastating to Californians strapped by the economy, but in some cases, they are possibly illegal."

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-insure-subpoena26-2010feb26,0,3386...

toniD's Ya Think?

Boheka!

The Senate is debating the extension of unemployment insurance and Sen Bunning from KY was on the floor debating against the bill. She called me crying because her unemployment runs out the middle of March and she is scared to death because she can't get a job. And she will lose her Cobra because she won't be able to pay for it. She's got diabetes and needs to be on medication.

I had to calm her down and told her that if they don't extend it our country will be paying out more money in public aid and medicaid and instead of that unemployment money circulating into the economy, the Gov't would be paying out and the deficit would grow. They have to pass an extension.

toniD's Ya Think?

Crist Speculation Grows
Jack Funari: "Two highly placed and independent sources, speaking strictly on background, tell me that Gov. Charlie Crist is preparing to leave the Republican Party and run as an independent in the race for the U.S. Senate."

http://weblogs.sun-sentinel.com/news/opinion/theslant/blog/2010/02/will_...

toniD's Ya Think?

Back Story on Obama's Inner Circle
On rumors that key White House advisers Rahm Emanuel, David Axelrod and Valerie Jarret might soon be on their way out of the administration, Lynn Sweet reports Emanuel "has said he only promised to stay in the White House for two years. Axelrod has talked about only staying two years. Jarrett is in for the long haul."

"The Obama presidency is a lifetime achievement for Axelrod and Jarrett, the realization of their own dreams and aspirations. They have been with Obama since the early days of his political career. Emanuel, on the other hand, was not part of the presidential campaign, was drafted for the Obama White House and he -- unlike Jarrett and Axelrod -- gave up something that was very important to him -- his House seat and his independence as a political figure on track to being Speaker of the House -- in order to answer the call for a second stint in the White House."

"Axelrod and Jarrett have hit a career high with President Obama. For Emanuel, this tour of duty in the White House is a sidetrack from a path he was on to realize his own ambitions. The Emanuel camp I am told sees all this back and forth about his standing as absurd."

http://blogs.suntimes.com/sweet/2010/02/rahm_emanuel_valerie_jarrett_d_1...

toniD's Ya Think?

Extra Bonus Quote of the Day
"If you think it's a socialist plot, then please drop out of the federal employees health program."

-- Sen.Richard Durbin (D-IL), to Republican lawmakers at today's health care reform summit.

http://politicalwire.com/archives/2010/02/25/extra_bonus_quote_of_the_da...

toniD's Ya Think?

Giannoulias Takes Lead Over Kirk
A new DailyKos/Research 2000 poll in Illinois finds Alexi Giannoulias (D) leading Rep. Mark Kirk (R) in their U.S. Senate race by seven points, 43% to 36%.

http://www.dailykos.com/statepoll/2010/2/24/IL/445

toniD's Ya Think?

Crist Speculation Grows Jack
Submitted by toniD on Thu, 02/25/2010 - 10:43pm.
----------
The truncated header above has been added to the long list of Odd Headers toniD Has Posted.

Who let this guy through?

Now finish it off...if he ever stops talking.

----
Ah, nah...he's not gonna make the distinction...rats!

Oh...wfi...wfi...

(Do it: "I know exactly how you feel." Do it! Say it!)

Oh...OK. You're you. I'm me. You're doin' purty good.

I can't believe he even got that far.

Oh my god. Mike just said what I said. This is bad.

----
Oh...pffft...you KNOW it's not about language. Don't even!

Yeah...time for Rachel. Buh-bye.

Unemployment extension bill.

They are arguing now on the floor of the Senate. Durbin, Sanders, McCaskill!!

toniD's Ya Think?

European Union's Cutbacks For Indebted Countries Feed Worries Of A "Second Great Depression"

DUBLIN — To keep its debt crisis from mushrooming out of control, the European Union is imposing harsh cutbacks on millions of ordinary people in debt-plagued countries like Greece, Ireland and Portugal.

But some economists think cutbacks right now are a mistake that might tip Europe into a dreaded double-dip recession.

How, skeptics ask, will Europe's barely-there recovery withstand the loss of stimulus from sudden, steep austerity measures demanded by the EU? So far the pain includes cutbacks and freezes in teachers' and nurses' salaries, higher retirement ages and heavier taxes on everything from incomes to cigarettes and fuel.

Europe is barely expanding, with only 0.1 percent growth in the fourth quarter in the 16 countries that use the euro, leaving a renewed slide into recession impossible to rule out. And the recession is still on in several countries facing the cuts such as Greece, Ireland and Spain.

"This premature fiscal tightening is the route to the Second Great Depression" – or at the very least, a long period of economic stagnation, warned Simon Johnson, a professor at MIT's Sloan School of Management and a former chief economist at the International Monetary Fund.

Yet markets are leaving EU leaders with little room to maneuver.

Fears of a possible downgrade of Greek debt by ratings agencies sent European stocks lower Thursday and pushed the euro down 0.4 percent to $1.3484, not far off its nine-month low of $1.3444 hit earlier this month and well off its most recent peak of $1.51 from November. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke told lawmakers Thursday that the central bank is looking into the use by Goldman Sachs and other Wall Street firms of a sophisticated investment instrument to make bets that Greece will default on its debt.

Robbie Cullen can see both sides of the coin. As a tax collector, he's in the front line of Ireland's battle to bring its runaway deficit under control. But as a divorced dad working two jobs, his own wallet is already at breaking point.

"The debt we've run up as a nation is just unbelievable. A tsunami could hit Ireland and cause less damage," said a red-eyed Cullen, who shifts every day from his civil servant job to moonlighting as a taxi driver in Dublin.
Story continues below

It's a choice he couldn't have imagined a few years ago – before the government's emergency budgets cut his overtime, froze his salary, raised his income taxes and boosted his workload as departing colleagues weren't replaced.

"I can't even keep up with my own debts, never mind the nation's," Cullen said, shopping for cut-rate sausage at a discount supermarket he disdained to visit in better times. "I've got to spend 30 hours a week taxiing just to break even. Something else has got to give. I can't give any more."

Despite the pain its cutbacks are imposing on ordinary people, the conservative Irish government of Prime Minister Brian Cowen has won praise from the European Union and the bond markets for its efforts to cut debt, prices and salaries.

The European Union is demanding austerity in defense of its common currency, which can be undermined by big deficits and would be devastated by a Greek default. The strategy, led by Economic and Monetary Affairs Commissioner Olli Rehn, seeks to reverse deficits spiraling far beyond the euro zone's rule of 3 percent of gross domestic product – Greece's is expected to hit 12.7 percent, Ireland's 12.5 percent, Spain's 11.2 percent and Portugal's 9.3 percent.
more...

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/02/25/european-unions-cutbacks_n_4769...

toniD's Ya Think?

juices going.

toniD's Ya Think?

this is just disgusting...

hows that bipartisanship workin' out for ya dude? can we go scorched earth on these assholes now...?

The Senators need to be on every channel tomorrow morning telling the world what the Republicans are doing tonight.

toniD@10:45--

For Emanuel, this tour of duty in the White House is a sidetrack from a path he was on to realize his own ambitions. The Emanuel camp I am told sees all this back and forth about his standing as absurd."

http://blogs.suntimes.com/sweet/2010/02/rahm_emanuel_valerie_jarrett_d_1...

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

We know Rahm now. Instead of looking forward to more taxpayer paychecks, Rahm better just settle for a lobbying job where the corporations pay him directly!

Obama To GOP: It’s Over

Obama listened politely for six hours, with occasional flashes of temper, but in the end, the message was clear: It’s over. We’re moving forward without Republicans.

Whether Obama and Dems will succeed in passing reform on their own is anything but assured, to put it mildly. But there’s virtually no doubt anymore that they are going to try — starting as early as tomorrow.

That was the subtle but unmistakable message of Obama’s closing argument. After hours of hearing Republicans repeat again and again that only an incremental approach to reform is acceptable to them, Obama rejected that out of hand.

Here’s the key bit from Obama:

I’d like Republicans to do a little soul searching to find out if there are some things that you’d be willling to embrace that get to this core problem of 30 million people without health insurance, and dealing seriously with the pre-existing conditions issue. I don’t know frankly whether we can close that gap.

And if we can’t close that gap, then I suspect Mitch McConnell, Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi and John Boehner are going to have a lot of arguments about procedures in Congress about moving forward.

Unless I’m misreading that, Obama is saying that unless Republicans support comprehensive reform as Obama and Dems have defined it — dealing with the problem of 30 million uninsured and, by extension, seriously tackling the preexisting condition problem — they will almost certainly move forward with reconciliation.

What’s more, Obama also essentially accused Republicans of approaching today’s summit in bad faith — after they had sat there with him for six hours. He said that even after the public option was taken off the table, Republicans continued to use the same “government takeover” slur.

“Even after the public option wasn’t available, we still hear the same rhetoric,” Obama said. “We have a concept of an exchange which previously has been an idea that was embraced by Republicans before I embraced it. Somehow, suddenly it became less of a good idea.”

This accusation, combined with his assertion that Repubicans need to do some “soul-searching” on whether they wanted to join Dems in tackling reform as they have defined it, amount to an unmistakable vow to move foward without them.

Democratic aides are already interpreting Obama’s remarks along these lines. As one senior aide emailed: “We may make one last effort to try to get a Senate Republican.”

In terms of who “won” today’s debate, I tend to think Republicans actually accomplished much of what they needed to do today. It seems likely that some Congressional Dems will be just as skittish tomorrow as they were yesterday about moving forward alone via reconciliation. That means Dems still have an enormously difficult task ahead.

But Obama’s message to Dems and Republicans alike today was that barring some kind of major change on the GOP side, this is exactly what he and Dem leaders are about to attempt.

***********************************

Update: To clarify, this was a call to Dems, perhaps more than anyone else, that the time has come for them to stiffen their spines and move forward with reconciliation, which Republicans, and even some nonpartisan observers, have repeatedly characterized as akin to marching off a cliff.

Also: This summit was always about laying the groundwork for Dems to go forward alone, barring a major capitulation from Republicans. As noted here repeatedly, Dems will find themselves in exactly the same position tomorrow as they did yesterday: Confronting the enormously difficult task of passing ambitious reform on their own.

Update II: A GOP aide emails the Republican take: “They badly needed a win today and they didn’t get it. Not even close. Republicans were prepared. The President was pedantic and peeved.”

http://theplumline.whorunsgov.com/senate-republicans/obama-to-gop-its-ov...

toniD's Ya Think?

GOP now filibustering unemployment benefits - current benefits will run out before bill can be passed because of Republicans
by John Aravosis (DC) on 2/25/2010 11:35:00 PM
And the Democrats are forcing Bunning to launch a real filibuster. About time. Show the American people what selfish, uncaring extremists the Republicans really are.

Retiring Sen. Jim Bunning (R-Ky.) late Thursday launched a one-man crusade to block an extension of unemployment and COBRA insurance benefits, vowing to allow the benefit programs to expire Sunday unless Democrats agreed to pay for them with unused stimulus funds.

Bunning’s quixotic pursuit of deficit offsets at the potential expense of payments to unemployed or uninsured citizens enraged Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) and other Democrats, who vowed to keep the chamber in session until Bunning relents or collapses.

A senior Democratic leadership aide said Durbin would ask for unanimous consent to pass the extensions without Bunning’s payment scheme every half hour for the foreseeable future. “We’re going to keep doing it until we break him,” the aide said.

Did you get that? This idiot wants us to use the stimulus funds that haven't yet been spent, but are about to be spent. By CBO's estimate, up to 3.5 million jobs are depending on the stimulus for their existence this coming year. This moron wants to wipe that out. The economy isn't out of trouble yet. A lot of economist worry that the economy may contract again the fall. Taking back the remaining stimulus funds while the economy is still teetering, i.e., decreasing demand, is insane. I hope the Democrats are pointing this out, in addition to the inhumanity of taking away people's unemployment benefits. We cannot let the GOP propose economically dangerous, but populist, solutions and let them get away with it.

http://www.rollcall.com/news/43594-1.html

toniD's Ya Think?

He's right, we are not in a position to have a classic revolution.

He is now to the point of calling for NON-PARTICIPATION.

Now we are getting somewhere!

[I translate that as refusing to participate in the current paradigms. That's what Reverend Martin Luther King was doing. And when Reverend King started to apply moral guidance to labor and a racist-free, war-free society, he was stepping FURTHER out of the tolerated role of the "religious man". In other words, he was evolving before our eyes.]

Move beyond Revolution. GO FOR EVOLUTION!

YES!

[Successful organisms ADAPT, they don't hold-on to the Conservative status quo or seek to move back to the Reactionary dreamy past Slaver days. Successful organisms do what is necessary for survival; adapting to the present situation and continuing means refusing to go along with the Transnationals' perpetual war scenarios, pollution for profit business plans, oligarchical obfuscating propaganda, inhumanity passed off as legitimate institutional policy. It means checking out of this Corporate Death March. Malloy's correct. "Sit down!"]

Crist Speculation Grows Jack

Submitted by toniD on Thu, 02/25/2010 - 10:43pm.

Crist Speculation Grows
Jack Funari: "Two highly placed and independent sources, speaking strictly on background, tell me that Gov. Charlie Crist is preparing to leave the Republican Party and run as an independent in the race for the U.S. Senate."

________________________

The GOP obviously don't know Jack about Jesus H. Crist.

Afflicting the Afflicted
By PAUL KRUGMAN

If we’re lucky, Thursday’s summit will turn out to have been the last act in the great health reform debate, the prologue to passage of an imperfect but nonetheless history-making bill. If so, the debate will have ended as it began: with Democrats offering moderate plans that draw heavily on past Republican ideas, and Republicans responding with slander and misdirection.

Nobody really expected anything different. But what was nonetheless revealing about the meeting was the fact that Republicans — who had weeks to prepare for this particular event, and have been campaigning against reform for a year — didn’t bother making a case that could withstand even minimal fact-checking.

It was obvious how things would go as soon as the first Republican speaker, Senator Lamar Alexander, delivered his remarks. He was presumably chosen because he’s folksy and likable and could make his party’s position sound reasonable. But right off the bat he delivered a whopper, asserting that under the Democratic plan, “for millions of Americans, premiums will go up.”

Wow. I guess you could say that he wasn’t technically lying, since the Congressional Budget Office analysis of the Senate Democrats’ plan does say that average payments for insurance would go up. But it also makes it clear that this would happen only because people would buy more and better coverage. The “price of a given amount of insurance coverage” would fall, not rise — and the actual cost to many Americans would fall sharply thanks to federal aid.

His fib on premiums was quickly followed by a fib on process. Democrats, having already passed a health bill with 60 votes in the Senate, now plan to use a simple majority vote to modify some of the numbers, a process known as reconciliation. Mr. Alexander declared that reconciliation has “never been used for something like this.” Well, I don’t know what “like this” means, but reconciliation has, in fact, been used for previous health reforms — and was used to push through both of the Bush tax cuts at a budget cost of $1.8 trillion, twice the bill for health reform.

What really struck me about the meeting, however, was the inability of Republicans to explain how they propose dealing with the issue that, rightly, is at the emotional center of much health care debate: the plight of Americans who suffer from pre-existing medical conditions. In other advanced countries, everyone gets essential care whatever their medical history. But in America, a bout of cancer, an inherited genetic disorder, or even, in some states, having been a victim of domestic violence can make you uninsurable, and thus make adequate health care unaffordable.

One of the great virtues of the Democratic plan is that it would finally put an end to this unacceptable case of American exceptionalism. But what’s the Republican answer? Mr. Alexander was strangely inarticulate on the matter, saying only that “House Republicans have some ideas about how my friend in Tullahoma can continue to afford insurance for his wife who has had breast cancer.” He offered no clue about what those ideas might be.

In reality, House Republicans don’t have anything to offer to Americans with troubled medical histories. On the contrary, their big idea — allowing unrestricted competition across state lines — would lead to a race to the bottom. The states with the weakest regulations — for example, those that allow insurance companies to deny coverage to victims of domestic violence — would set the standards for the nation as a whole. The result would be to afflict the afflicted, to make the lives of Americans with pre-existing conditions even harder.

Don’t take my word for it. Look at the Congressional Budget Office analysis of the House G.O.P. plan. That analysis is discreetly worded, with the budget office declaring somewhat obscurely that while the number of uninsured Americans wouldn’t change much, “the pool of people without health insurance would end up being less healthy, on average, than under current law.” But here’s the translation: While some people would gain insurance, the people losing insurance would be those who need it most. Under the Republican plan, the American health care system would become even more brutal than it is now.

So what did we learn from the summit? What I took away was the arrogance that the success of things like the death-panel smear has obviously engendered in Republican politicians. At this point they obviously believe that they can blandly make utterly misleading assertions, saying things that can be easily refuted, and pay no price. And they may well be right.

But Democrats can have the last laugh. All they have to do — and they have the power to do it — is finish the job, and enact health reform.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/26/opinion/26krugman.html?partner=rssnyt&...

toniD's Ya Think?

Mike Malloy is getting it now!

Submitted by nora on Thu, 02/25/2010 - 11:49pm.

He's right, we are not in a position to have a classic revolution.

He is now to the point of calling for NON-PARTICIPATION.

I translate that as refusing to participate in the current paradigms.

Now we're getting somewhere!

Move beyond Revolution. GO FOR EVOLUTION!

YES!

___________________

Non-participation: The exasperated surrender of ceding the field whilst yer opponents bizzily seed the field.

Course, maybe I'm just thick 'n not unnerstandin' what you means.

You mean like Ghandi and MLK? Like that?

If so, how you see non-participation bein' concretely enacted?

Could be just semantical-like, but to my ear, anyways, "non-participation" ain't near the same as neither civil disobedience nor passive resistance. Is you equating them?

the democrats get their asses handed to them this november, do you guys think that will wake them up a little, resulting in them actually paying attention to their base?

Obama on KSM As A Criminal Defendant

"'Obama said that critics won't find the decision "offensive at all when he's convicted and when the death penalty is applied to him.'

...the concept of treating them as criminal defendants is appalling. But if we're going to classify them as criminal defendants, aren't they entitled at the very least to a presumption of innocence and a fair trial? If the President has already determined the verdict and the sentence, what is the point of holding a trial?"

Where does one go with this?

"this machine kills fascists"

US slaps duties on steel pipe from China

Source: China Daily

2010-02-25 11:26

US expected to announce more duties in April

WASHINGTON: The United States on Wednesday imposed preliminary duties ranging from 11 to 13 percent on steel pipe from China to offset government subsidies, the Commerce Department said.

The decision puts further strain on US-China trade relations, already tested by disputes over other US trade actions and China's currency policy.

It is a victory for US Steel Corp and the United Steelworkers union, which filed a petition in October asking for protection against the Chinese imports.

Texas company V&M Star LP and Illinois company TMK IPSCO also signed the petition asking for relief.

Roger Schagrin, an attorney representing the petitioners, said he believed the Commerce Department underestimated the amount of Chinese government subsidies.

But "we're still happy (with the countervailing duties). They're in the double digits," Schagrin said.

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/bizchina/2010-02/25/content_9502866.htm

oops = pitcher delete

have to get some sleep so I'll check for more pics tomorrow.
:)

toniD's Ya Think?

Submitted by toniD on Thu, 02/25/2010 - 11:53pm.

Afflicting the Afflicted
By PAUL KRUGMAN

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/26/opinion/26krugman.html?partner=rssnyt&...

... What really struck me about the meeting, however, was the inability of Republicans to explain how they propose dealing with the issue that, rightly, is at the emotional center of much health care debate: the plight of Americans who suffer from pre-existing medical conditions. In other advanced countries, everyone gets essential care whatever their medical history. But in America, a bout of cancer, an inherited genetic disorder, or even, in some states, having been a victim of domestic violence can make you uninsurable, and thus make adequate health care unaffordable.

One of the great virtues of the Democratic plan is that it would finally put an end to this unacceptable case of American exceptionalism ...

________________

Now yer diggin' where there's taters.

For all me, that there whiplash twist on 'Murican exceptionalism is some right-prime ideological ju-jitsu.

Submitted by toniD on Fri, 02/26/2010 - 12:22am.

have to get some sleep so I'll check for more pics tomorrow.

___________________

Night, toni.

Them's some scary pitchers, to me, anyways, b/c they's so direful foreboding 'n fillt w/portent. If you knows anything about weather, specially what kinda clouds is skeery, you look atta sky like that 'n you only got one thought: Where's the safest place I can hide 'n how fast can I get theres?

I woke up in October last year nearly on the (fuckin' rocky) beach on account a the wind come hard 'round in the middle a the night from a differnt quarter than were forecast 'n I drug anchor. (Put an end to my sleepin' in the hammock whilst on the water, so it did.) It ain't never comfortin' lookin' out yer porthole 'n seein' tree branches w/in feets a where you is.

("Hey, they [ain't] sposed to be so close!")

Submitted by dr on Fri, 02/26/2010 - 12:06am.
...Course, maybe I'm just thick 'n not unnerstandin' what you means...
-----------------
Good luck. You are dealing with a jargon-slingin' zealot who specializes in vague and undefined generalities. You can't dig deeper because there is no deeper to be dug to.

She challenged me for saying that violent revolution in the U.S. isn't the brilliant solution that tough talkers make it out to be, and now she is (zowie!) convinced that violent revolution in the U.S. isn't the brilliant solution that tough talkers make it out to be.

The difference between now and nine hours ago? A radio personality gave his imprimatur to the idea.

Just Thick If You Try
Submitted by Crank Bait on Fri, 02/26/2010 - 1:01am.

_____________________

Now wait justa goddamn minnit, there, mister.

Just when did you 'n I trade personalities?

Just Thick If You Try
new
Submitted by Crank Bait on Fri, 02/26/2010 - 1:01am.
Submitted by dr on Fri, 02/26/2010 - 12:06am.
...Course, maybe I'm just thick 'n not unnerstandin' what you means...
-----------------
Good luck. You are dealing with a jargon-slingin' zealot who specializes in vague and undefined generalities. You can't dig deeper because there is no deeper to be dug to.

She challenged me for saying that violent revolution in the U.S. isn't the brilliant solution that tough talkers make it out to be, and now she is (zowie!) convinced that violent revolution in the U.S. isn't the brilliant solution that tough talkers make it out to be.

======
Fuck this "nine hours ago" shit. Give me what you always ask for please--a "time stamp."

Second it would have made perfect sense if you guys had been listening to the show. If you aren't, how 'bout just scrollin, eh?

Third, she edited her post to clarify what he was saying.

OK, still not terrifically clear to my way of thinking. (Sorry nora.)

What he was talking about was non-violent civil resistance in the form of "non-participation" in the wage labor system
(work stoppages) or "non-participation" in the enforcement of unjust laws. Which ultimately goes to something like what nora was saying above about MLK. Non-participation in a paradigm that is eating you (and/or others) alive.

Not that difficult.
-----
Now, what I was going to say TO NORA is it sounds like you were listening about one hour behind me. (Maybe?)Did you hear/recognize what caller I was babbling about above? I never meant to be understood by anyone who wasn't listening at the time. I know some people will listen to podcasts later and maybe remember.)

(Fwiw "I know exactly how you feel" is what Goodman, Schwerner, or Cheney (one) said to the guy who was about to murder him--per Taylor Branch, is the source I know. That might clarify a little...)
-----

Bait, if you are planning to give me a time stamp don't knock yourself out. If I know what's good for me I won't be
back here till at least later on tomorrow.

They're making me write stuff. Next they'll tell me there's gonna be math...

Every Rose has its thorn

by DougJ

Apparently, Bill Frist and Mark Halperin are on Charlie Rose discussing today’s summit right now. (The good news is that Ezra Klein is on too.) I’d watch but I have no desire to take my own life this evening.

There are a lot of people out there who believe that our sorry state of affairs is caused by Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh and, if they’re really deluded, they’ll add “and on the left, Rachel Maddow and Keith Olbermann”. I know plenty of people who say things like this.

The truth is, it’s more the fault of Charlie Rose and Tom Friedman and David Brooks. Glenn Beck didn’t get us into Iraq.

_____________________

Rush Limbaugh offered his honor,
'N Tom Friedman honored his offer.
'N all differnt-kinda-war-long
Twere honor 'n offer.

What's that about?

Just slow? Was MSNBC rerunning hcr or reactions to it?

Some Olympics thing?

Or...did Keith's dad die?

Was either show new on teevee tonight, or not?

When did nora do that, Crank Bait?

Submitted by gloryoski on Fri, 02/26/2010 - 1:20am.

... Second it would have made perfect sense if you guys had been listening to the show. If you aren't, how 'bout just scrollin, eh? ...

_____________________

To lean onna old innernets favorite, glory, I suspect either I can't write or you can't read:

I conceded, forthrightly 'n upfront, that mebbe I warn't seein' where nora (or Malloy for that matter) were goin' w/the point.

I posited, had you cared to notice, that mebbe I warn't unnerstandin' nora properly. I gave my view 'n I axed for clarification. Ain't heard back from nora, but then I'm patient -- I'ma fisherman. Perhaps you don't fish?

Now you can lump me together (rather uncharitably, imo, but that's yer call) in yer tirade, but I would ask of you this, gloryoski:

Can you disentwine Crank and myself, bein's as how we speaks for ourselves?

Is that possible, gloryoski?

Cuz it'd do my heart good to only have to answer for myself, cuz I get in enough trouble all on my lonesome.

Submitted by nora on Fri, 02/26/2010 - 12:14am.

... [Successful organisms ADAPT, they don't hold-on to the Conservative status quo or seek to move back to the Reactionary dreamy past Slaver days. Successful organisms do what is necessary for survival; adapting to the present situation and continuing means refusing to go along with the Transnationals' perpetual war scenarios, pollution for profit business plans, oligarchical obfuscating propaganda, inhumanity passed off as legitimate institutional policy. It means checking out of this Corporate Death March. Malloy's correct. "Sit down!"]

_________________

Will sez this:

If yer gonna edit yer post w/a significant amendation and/or addition (as 'pposed to just cleanin' up yer spelling and/or grammar fuck-ups, which we all does, a-times), I'd suggest, fwiw, puttin' the amendation/addition inna entirely new post.

Peoples is more like to actually see it thattaway.

It's axin' too much of peoples (tho' gloryoski in her self-righteous rectitude, which is getting annoying, might disagree) to "catch" the "new" post that appears well up-blog. You'd haveta time yer perusal just right and be lookin' for what might could appear at any time, which, to my way a thinkin', ain't fair nor considerate for any that might be on the hook in the comment.

This ain't an indictment a you, btw, nora, more an observation for what it's worth, which you can adopt or discard as you please.

It is, however, a response to gloryoski's pissy comment about how you had in fact responded and how "we" (lumpin' Crank and me together) oughtta know about it (and then gloryoski said you were confusing in yer response, about which I happens to agree).

“We have had China say that they are looking for other places to put their reserves and that is probably a smart decision on their part,” said Mr Gregg, who will not seek re-election in November. - FT

showing my age...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JzTsch6Z1og

I know not really elan, SJ, (Pretty "junior high," in fact, to be sure,but it's the best I can do without becoming invested, which would be a snoozefest for me too.) Not even worth it. People are gonna pigeonhole--and whatcha gonna do? Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

There's another meaning of _elan_ than the one I inferred from your context--and that's almost an antonym. But it's really not that either (definition 1). Not even worth it like I said

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/Elan

Anyhow, I'm through, so that's something anyway. Hope you are feeling better. Teach me more pretty Frenchwords plz. I said PRETTY ones. Don't be a dick. ;)

----
cent, why come can't I embed no youtubes no more? Everyone else is allowed. What could be the cause of that?

Obama May Prohibit Home-Loan Foreclosures Without HAMP Review

Feb. 25 (Bloomberg) -- The Obama administration may expand efforts to ease the housing crisis by banning all foreclosures on home loans unless they have been screened and rejected by the government’s Home Affordable Modification Program.

The proposal, reviewed by lenders last week on a White House conference call, “prohibits referral to foreclosure until borrower is evaluated and found ineligible for HAMP or reasonable contact efforts have failed,” according to a Treasury Department document outlining the plan.

“It is one of the many ideas under consideration in the administration’s ongoing housing stabilization efforts,” Treasury spokeswoman Meg Reilly said in an e-mail. “This proposal has not been approved and there are no immediate planned announcements on the issue.”

She confirmed the authenticity of the document, which hasn’t been made public.

At present, lenders can initiate foreclosure proceedings on any loan that hasn’t been submitted for HAMP eligibility. Under current HAMP rules, foreclosure litigation can proceed while borrowers are under review for the program or even in a trial modification.

The proposed changes would prohibit lenders from initiating new foreclosure actions before loan screening by HAMP and would require lenders to halt existing proceedings for borrowers once they are in a trial repayment plan.

‘Improved Protections’

The Treasury Department will soon release guidance “which will include a set of improved protections for borrowers” in HAMP, Phyllis Caldwell, chief of Treasury’s Homeownership Preservation Office, said today in testimony prepared for a House Oversight and Government Reform subcommittee. She didn’t provide details.

The proposal goes further than rules adopted amid the crisis by federally controlled mortgage-finance companies Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, which require lenders to review borrowers for a federal loan modification before a foreclosed property can be sold.

Foreclosure proceedings can still be initiated without a review, said Freddie Mac spokesman Doug Duvall. Fannie Mae spokeswoman Amy Bonitatibus said it adopted the same policy last March.

About 89 percent of outstanding residential mortgage loans are covered by the voluntary HAMP program.

About 2.82 million U.S. homeowners lost properties to foreclosure last year and 4.5 million filings are expected in 2010, RealtyTrac Inc., an Irvine, California data company, said last month.
more...

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=ahuuwBS8KYq8

toniD's Ya Think?

http://www.naturalnews.com/028258_radiotherapy_brain_cancer.html

[excerpt]

Oops! Brain cancer patients over-irradiated with miscalibrated radiotherapy machines

(NaturalNews) One of the advantages of natural medicine is that if you make a mistake on your dosage, it's usually no big deal because natural medicine is inherently safe. But conventional medicine, with all its toxic chemotherapy poisons and irradiation machines, can be fatal even when simple mistakes are made. Numerous patients have already been killed by miscalibrated chemotherapy pumps that drip poison in to the bodies of patients. And now there's news from Springfield Missouri where an actively-used brain cancer irradiation machine has been miscalibrated since 2004.

Oops. Gee, didn't anyone wonder why the burn marks were so severe and patients were losing brain function so rapidly?

Oh, wait. I forgot: Nobody noticed because losing cognitive function is a "normal" side effect of conventional cancer treatments. Harming patients in the cancer industry is now so routine that nobody even notices it anymore!

Nobody bothered to check the machine
The facts of this case are a bit frightening because this could happen anywhere, in any hospital: For the last five years, patients undergoing brain irradiation treatments have been over-exposed to very high levels of radiation. The radiation machine at the CoxHealth hospital in Springfield, Missouri was apparently never calibrated correctly. The incompetent technicians who set up the machine (who probably lost their own brain function as a result of being around so many miscalibrated radiation machines) apparently never bothered to configure it correctly. They just used the default setting the machine came with, which happened to be the "Fry my brain" setting.

Now here's the really scary part: The massive radiation overdose problem was only discovered when the hospital trained a new physician on the machine. They were apparently going over all the settings and functions of the machine when the new doctor asked something like, "Hey, why is this dosage knob turned all the way up to 'Hiroshima'?"

Hospital administrators scratched their heads (after which clumps of hair fell out) and then began to realize something was wrong. "This might explain all the severe radiation burns on patients skulls..."

[end excerpt]

Please come over here --

http://www.samsedershow.com/node/5677#comment-397542

-- if you want to do your target practice.

Thanx.

breaking news: springfield missouri hospital administrators testified in front of congress on the need for tort reform.

In case anybody missed them....

http://www.projectcensored.org/top-stories/category/two-thousand-and-ten...

Another Project Censored story:

http://arthurzbygniew.blogspot.com/2010/02/invasion-of-irak-over-1m-deat...

[excerpt]

Over One Million Iraqi Deaths Caused by US Occupation

by Michael Schwartz*, Joshua Holland*, Luke Baker, Maki al-Nazzal, Dahr Jamail*
Reproduced below is the first of the 25 investigations selected by Project Censured in 2009. It is based on research by Michael Schwartz, posted on Voltaire Network in 2007, which was continued by other associated researchers. Several official sources have validated the studies conducted by the ORB pollsters and The Lancet demographers, thus certifying that the Anglo-Saxon invasion of Iraq has caused the death of over one million civilians. Whereas this information was disseminated by the media in countries which officially opposed the war, it was suppressed in those which endorsed the military operation. This is yet another example of how media conglomerates fall into line with the predominant interests of the countries they are in.

21 February 2010

...

Summary
Over one million Iraqis have met violent deaths as a result of the 2003 invasion, according to a study conducted by the prestigious British polling group, Opinion Research Business (ORB). These numbers suggest that the invasion and occupation of Iraq rivals the mass killings of the last century—the human toll exceeds the 800,000 to 900,000 believed killed in the Rwandan genocide in 1994, and is approaching the number (1.7 million) who died in Cambodia’s infamous “Killing Fields” during the Khmer Rouge era of the 1970s.

ORB’s research covered fifteen of Iraq’s eighteen provinces. Those not covered include two of Iraq’s more volatile regions—Kerbala and Anbar—and the northern province of Arbil, where local authorities refused them a permit to work. In face-to-face interviews with 2,414 adults, the poll found that more than one in five respondents had had at least one death in their household as a result of the conflict, as opposed to natural cause.

Authors Joshua Holland and Michael Schwartz point out that the dominant narrative on Iraq—that most of the violence against Iraqis is being perpetrated by Iraqis themselves and is not our responsibility—is ill conceived. Interviewers from The Lancet report of October 2006 (Censored 2006, #2) asked Iraqi respondents how their loved ones died. Of deaths for which families were certain of the perpetrator, 56 percent were attributable to US forces or their allies. Schwartz suggests that if a low pro rata share of half the unattributed deaths were caused by US forces, a total of approximately 80 percent of Iraqi deaths are directly US perpetrated.

Even with the lower confirmed figures, by the end of 2006, an average of 5,000 Iraqis had been killed every month by US forces since the beginning of the occupation. However, the rate of fatalities in 2006 was twice as high as the overall average, meaning that the American average in 2006 was well over 10,000 per month, or over 300 Iraqis every day. With the surge that began in 2007, the current figure is likely even higher.

Schwartz points out that the logic to this carnage lies in a statistic released by the US military and reported by the Brookings Institute: for the first four years of the occupation the American military sent over 1,000 patrols each day into hostile neighborhoods, looking to capture or kill “insurgents” and “terrorists.” (Since February 2007, the number has increased to nearly 5,000 patrols a day, if we include the Iraqi troops participating in the American surge.) Each patrol invades an average of thirty Iraqi homes a day, with the mission to interrogate, arrest, or kill suspects. In this context, any fighting age man is not just a suspect, but a potentially lethal adversary. Our soldiers are told not to take any chances (see Story #9).

According to US military statistics, again reported by the Brookings Institute, these patrols currently result in just under 3,000 firefights every month, or just under an average of one hundred per day (not counting the additional twenty-five or so involving our Iraqi allies). Thousands of patrols result in thousands of innocent Iraqi deaths and unconscionably brutal detentions.

....

[end excerpt]

http://rem.jrc.ec.europa.eu/Atlas/TEXT/ENGLISH.PDF

[Reached this map through link at this site--

http://arthurzbygniew.blogspot.com/2010/02/invasion-of-irak-over-1m-deat...

This blogger has an amazing and weird list of links.]

for this year... I have a friend whose Great Great Grandparents had one so he (friend) taught me {WITH YOU}what to expect... boing boing boing :D
;)

I wish I were back on a college campus so I could go get a coffee and run into someone who could explain to me how this works....

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-bloom-energy25-2010feb25,0,1793658...

[excerpt]

Long-anticipated fuel cell unveiled
Bloom Energy, a Silicon Valley firm, says its solid oxide fuel cell could be a game-changer in clean technology because it can be powered by either fossil fuel or renewable sources.
By Tiffany Hsu

February 25, 2010

After nine years of research shrouded in secrecy, a Silicon Valley tech firm Wednesday took the wraps off a fuel cell that it says can generate energy by combining air and a wide range of fuels without going through the process of combustion.

The firm, Bloom Energy, said the solid oxide fuel cell -- resembling a Polaroid snapshot both in dimension and thickness -- could be a game-changer in the clean technology industry because it can be powered by either fossil fuel or renewable sources in an electro-chemical process that is both cleaner and more reliable than current options.

In the company's plans, thousands of fuel cells would be crammed into a box about the size of a refrigerator called the Bloom Energy Server, each capable of producing 100 kilowatts of electricity, or enough to power 100 average-size homes or a small office building, Bloom said.

Unlike solar and wind power, which can be intermittent, the technology can run all day, and customers can earn back the system's $700,000 to $800,000 cost within a few years through utility bill savings, Sunnyvale, Calif.-based Bloom said.

Several major companies, including FedEx Corp., Google Inc., Staples Inc. and Wal-Mart Stores Inc., have already begun testing the technology or signed on as customers. The trial runs have so far produced more than 11 million kilowatt-hours of energy while cutting 14 million pounds of carbon dioxide emissions, Bloom said.

At the Coca-Cola Co.'s Odwalla plant in Dinuba, Calif., a 500-kilowatt fuel cell installation from Bloom is expected to use biogas to supply 30% of the facility's power needs while reducing emissions by 35%.

Last year, EBay Inc. set up a 500-kilowatt system powered by biogas outside its San Jose headquarters, taking 15% of the campus' energy needs off the electrical utility grid. The fuel cells, which EBay dubbed "skinny batteries," were officially introduced at the company's site Wednesday with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and former U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell on hand.

Bloom Chief Executive K.R. Sridhar, a former NASA scientist, described the technology behind the fuel cell in a statement as potentially having "the same kind of impact on energy that the mobile phone had on communications."

Fuel cell technology has been in development for decades, with hydrogen as the usual fuel source. But Bloom's flat ceramic squares are more versatile, the company said.

"There are probably another 100 companies that are working on something very similar," said Jack Brouwer, associate director of the National Fuel Cell Research Center in Irvine. "But the key thing is that Bloom has an integrated system and package ready for commercial sale that puts them ahead of the pack."

....

[end excerpt]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O_V-DoQ5Hwo

==========================
Sen. Bunning from KY put a hold on
Submitted by toniD on Thu, 02/25/2010 - 11:22pm.
[...]extension [...]

-------
I'm just missing where somebody hit this one out of the park, right?

Was it the pic that dr took down cuz it stretched the blog. ;)

Oh well...whatevs...*YOINK!*

"Fuel cell technology has been in development for decades". Yes I heard, FOR DECADES, cuz in my "home" area, it was in developement but wonderful for the "slim batteries". I am excited for I was worried we {The U.S.} were so behind the New Tech Solutions.

(Whut!?...Nick Lowe said it!!) ;D

Compay Segundo y...Omara! Omara!-Guantanamera

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bJ4NOXz3gjA&feature=PlayList&p=D20DF73B37...

is he playing an eight string guitar?

and I could get you a ticket for the Town hall gig of Omara next week.

You said I still was not getting through. Is this the part that is weak?:

*************
Submitted by nora on Fri, 02/26/2010 - 12:14am.
...

[I translate that as refusing to participate in the current paradigms. That's what Reverend Martin Luther King was doing. And when Reverend King started to apply moral guidance to labor and a racist-free, war-free society, he was stepping FURTHER out of the tolerated role of the "religious man". In other words, he was evolving before our eyes.]
*************

I'm referring to the point at which King was going further than his previous civil rights actions. He pushed the envelope with civil rights, but I think he and the concerted movement of like-minded activists caught the Establishment by surprise then and also it was recognized that the church was a recognized center of the black community.

However, when King decided to press morality even further into the realm outside the limits of church/religion's accepted reach -- into advocating for moral rectitude in treatment of laborers and their rights and into an anti-war stance -- the Establishment could/would not tolerate an even greater powerful reach of the non-material into the world of amoral scientific materialism (where the Military Industrial Complex, and for-profit-only Corporations, and (other) criminal enterprises dwell). This was how we lost MLK. It is not allowed for us to have a leader who lives as an example of a consciously evolving human, making greater and greater moral/ethical choices, going beyond the dominant paradigm of Scientific Materialism, publicly integrating moral choices into ALL aspects of Culture. [Not to be confused with The Family or Dominionists or Christianist Fundamentalists efforts which only work to impose dogma, myth, authoritarianism and theocracy on the public sector and institutions.]

Any clearer, or what?

Thanks for your feedback.

I put that fuel cell article you posted on my (Wave Of The Future) open mic..

http://www.samsedershow.com/node/1055

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

MMRules

Which caller did you comment on, gloryoski? What was the reference you are referring to?

with his own tuning that changed the standard tuning ,by inverting and using notes an octave above the standard way.. He did play a quatro sometimes,but as I was told he came up with his own tuning system because he didn't own a quatro (which has 4 groups of double strings, like a 12 string) when he was young. I took hm to a Town Hall Gig about Ten years ago He was in his 90's and he still very strong and entertaining.

How will Amurrika go on without the Hummer?

MMRules, I have always wanted to say our "type" won every title
Submitted by Ms_Anthrope on Fri, 02/26/2010 - 7:07am.
for this year... I have a friend whose Great Great Grandparents had one so he (friend) taught me {WITH YOU}what to expect... boing boing boing :D
;)

*******

Huh ?

Sorry but,I don't understand what you be talking about..

I can be abit slow somtimes.. :)

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

MMRules

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

MMRules

Keith Olbermann Off Tonight Following Last Evening's Special Comment

http://www.mediabistro.com/tvnewser/msnbc/keith_olbermann_off_tonight_fo...

By Kevin Allocca on Feb 25, 2010 04:40 PM

Keith Olbermann will not co-host the special edition of "Countdown" on MSNBC tonight as previously announced. Instead, Chris Matthews will host a special "Hardball" with Chuck Todd and Savannah Guthrie.

Last evening, Olbermann delivered this difficult special comment, which he began by saying, "Last Friday night, my father asked me to kill him."

Olbermann said his hospitalized father had not awoken since that day and that he is prepared for the possibility his father will not recover. "If he does not recover you will not see me here for a while," Olbermann said. We're told he is with his father this afternoon.

Right after he did his rant on nonviolent vs violent rev a caller called up and said that he needed to think about how to stop engaging in "psychological violence," i.e, hating on people. I thought the caller was referring specifically to the fact that the whole time that he was advocating nonviolent vs violent he was ridiculing and hating on some stereotypical people who thought the other way. (Esp. ironic b/c he has been one of those people, insofar as he could on the air.) Maybe the caller was calling about that, but Malloy went off on how he had a right to hate on Cheney-like people, how it was his nature, how he was never gonna stop and better people than caller had tried (blahblahblah...)

And the caller seemed to accept that that WAS mainly what he (the caller) was referring to as well and argued from that standpoint. Oh well....I could NEVER stand up against Uncle Mike on the phone, so it's not for me to say...

---
The writing thing, I'll come back to later. I have to get a few things done while certain ppl are not downstairts (here at work).

But if I had money for a bus I would have been in DC the past two days. (Or at least the past one.)

And...I got pots on both back burners and they are boiling over.

Now...if you ever got a line on Concha Buika and Chavela Vargas together...something like that...GIVE ME SOME NOTICE.

:)

i'm not in a position to listen to his special comment right now. did his father have a do not recuscitate and he is simply complying with his fathers wishes or is it something else.

is olbermanns abscence a punishment for his comment?

{I even said here a few days after he won the different shows.}
I only had a few large dogs ... then {Alpha} Wolves to end with Danu {Wolf Hybrid {Beta} and you were sharing STTT would calm a tad as she grew. Haven't discovered that yet... hahaha.
To this day I at times "play" remind her that Wolves Don't bark -- Shadow Wolf does. TeeHee :o .. I had to be trained. {...but there is a lap-dog-yipper across the Street/Alley called Bear. I {in the mountains} had a huge bear-of-area, sleep in my/our wild berry patch, IOW I knew Bear & that lil dog is no Bear (me trying weak joke :D}.

BTW There was, which I accidently found out, a Monk Marathon yesterday, but I only knew {& was watching} Healthcare {faux} debate. {eye-roll}.

Also BTW the reason why I brought up is Monk just started again {unk if a marathon - & haven't checked}. {It's A Jungle Out There..." ;)

the problem was (of course) that his dad was awake when he asked.

Keith got the doctor to give his dad much more sedation.

Then something else went wrong--the infections had poisoned his blood, I think.

I doubt very seriously that it was a punishment. Strictly explicit content-wise, it was much less than he has said before about anyone who would have pull at MSNBC (and no one cares if he rags on Betsy McCaughey.)It's probably what they said. He's with his dad. Maybe waiting and deciding...

Thai authorities have confiscated more than two tonnes of ivory from Bangkok's main international airport believed to be on its way from Dubai to Laos, officials have said.

Customs officials acting on a tip-off searched a transit cargo warehouse at Suvarnabhumi airport on Wednesday evening and found a consignment of 239 African elephant tusks.

The Thai Customs Department said in a statement that the seizure is the country's largest-ever haul of ivory, valued at $3.6m, and originated from South Africa.

Last month, authorities arrested two Thai women for dealing in illegal African ivory, a day after an American and a Thai national were indicted in California on charges of smuggling ivory into the United States.

Thai police believe the women supplied ivory to the Thai national, who prosecutors say sold several pieces of ivory on Ebay, the online shopping site, disguising shipments as gifts and toys.

Legal loophole

The UN Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) banned all international ivory trade in 1989, but traders in Thailand have thrived partly because the ban did not address domestic trade.
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia-pacific/2010/02/20102264575392607...

They both had a DNRs and I just wanted to be with them. It's very difficult to sit there and watch someone die but I had to. I took care of both of them when they were very sick. They both told me the same thing Keith's father told him.

And now the lady that I was helping with her book proofs is very ill. She is leaving here to go to an intermediate care facility with a doctor and nurse on hand 24/7. She told me she's not afraid to die, she's afraid of suffering. I'm the only one she has told this so far because she thought I would understand. She was in my life a short time but I will miss her.

toniD's Ya Think?

A police force is to outsource its 999 call operations to a private company to save millions of pounds in the face of public sector budget cuts.

The decision by Cleveland police to put its control room and the functions of other backroom staff out to private tender has been criticised by the Police Federation. Paul McKeever, its chairman, said it amounted to a wholesale change that would make policing less accountable and leave private company employees in control of incidents on the streets.

But Cleveland's chief constable, Sean Price – who came under fire last year when his salary details were revealed – has defended the plan. The force says that outsourcing to a private firm could save at least £20 million in the first 10 years.

Price said Cleveland was one of the first in the country to consider using a private sector partner for a wide range of support services.

Writing in Police Review, Price said his force was planning to employ the best of three bidders – Reliance Security, a UK firm based in Middlesex, and two French-based companies, Capgemini and Steria, for a range of support services.

Ben Priestley, the national officer for Unison, which represents the 730 police staff who would be affected by the switch, said the public would find the idea of having their 999 calls handled by a private company "extremely disturbing".

"There has been no consultation with the public over who handles their 999 calls. The idea of privatising the 999 service is one I think most citizens would find extremely disturbing."

He pointed out that the Independent Police Complaints Commission would have no jurisdiction over private companies, making the service less accountable.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2010/feb/26/cleveland-police-999-outsourcin...

Laura Flanders and Daniel Ellsberg

The Idaho legislature has drafted an “emergency” resolution (HCR043) aimed at killing all but 150 of the 1,020 wolves in the state… "by any means.”
The resolution would open the door to extended wolf hunting seasons (including additional predator derbies targeting wolves), poisoning, trapping, and even aerial wolf-killing programs such as those used in Alaska and championed by former Alaska governor Sarah Palin.
Anti-wolf legislation like this (and the recent “no wolves allowed” bill passed by Utah’s legislature) is why Defenders of Wildlife has launched a member-supported full-court press to save wolves, with legal action to restore life-saving protections for these magnificent animals and on-the-ground wolf education and conservations efforts.
Next week, we will be launching a new high-profile, high impact national campaign to stop the war on wolves and save these magnificent animals. Please stay tuned …

http://action.defenders.org/site/PageServer?pagename=savewolves_takeacti...

i like this one, with the cartoons

Coffee Party activists say their civic brew's a tastier choice than Tea Party's

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/02/25/AR201002...

Yet another edition of our Correo del Orinoco International - English Edition is out and circulating! This week's analyzes and reports on the groundbreaking meeting this week that took place in Cancun, Mexico, where 25 Latin American presidents and representatives from 33 countries in the region met and voted to create the new Community of Latin American and Caribbean States - the first formalized organization in the hemisphere without the presence of the US and Canada. This is a HUGE development and a major advance for sovereignty and regional integration....
...and a great article by Cindy Sheehan, who happens to be visiting us this week in Venezuela and hopes to show folks in the US a truth not told in the mass media about what really is happening here. Also, we recommend a fabulous documentary about William Kunstler, one of the greatest lawyers and revolutionaries ever in the US. Please check it out!

You can find this edition as always on: http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/correo-del-orinoco...

Still looking for contributors! Send us your letters and submissions to editor.correoenglish@gmail.co
http://www.chavezcode.com/2010/02/saludos-friends-of-venezuela-yet.html

It is so relevent to today's Health Care. I hope to see it again.

http://action.defenders.org/site/PageServer?pagename=savewolves_takeacti...

We're sad to report that three endangered California condors -- a female, her yearling chick, and a young male -- have died of lead poisoning in northern Arizona. Two of the birds foraged extensively in Utah and likely were poisoned there by feeding on animals shot with lead bullets. California has made significant progress in banning lead bullets, and Arizona has made some, but Utah lags far behind in addressing the problem.
Lead poisoning is the leading cause of death in California condors and threatens many other species as well. This winter four bald eagles in southern Alberta, Canada, died from lead poisoning; two of the birds had lead concentrations five and nine times the fatal level. And a recent study in Yellowstone showed that grizzly bears have high blood-lead levels during hunting season from feeding on wounded elk shot with lead bullets.
The Center for Biological Diversity has been working to get the lead out in the United States since 2004, when we and allies filed a landmark petition that led to the required use of nonlead ammunition for hunting throughout the condor's California range. Now we're in the thick of a campaign to require nontoxic, lead-free bullets for hunting throughout the entire country, for the safety of condors, eagles, and all other wildlife -- as well as for human health.

Get more from the Calgary Herald and the Los Angeles Times.

http://www.defenders.org/take_action/current_actions/index.php

& http://www.pbs.org/now/shows/609/index.html

Bunning holds floor: 'Tough s--t'

Source: Politico

Senate Democrats spent Thursday night hammering away at Sen. Jim Bunning (R-Ky.) for single-handedly holding up action in the upper chamber – but he blurted out a message to one of them on the Senate floor: “Tough s—t.”

In an unusual display in the normally sleepy chamber, Bunning – without the support of GOP leadership – has blocked efforts to quickly approve a series of extensions to measures that would otherwise expire Sunday, including unemployment insurance and the Cobra program that allows people who lose their health benefits to continue getting coverage.

(snip)

In a colloquy with Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Sen. Jeff Merkley, a freshman Democrat from Oregon, was pleading for Bunning to drop his objection, when the Kentucky Republican got fed up.

“Tough s—t,” Bunning said as he was seated in the back row, overheard by the floor staff and others in attendance.

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0210/33566.html

some poor soul that has a family to feed and is counting on this extension may be desperate enough to take a pot shot st Bunning after what he said.

toniD's Ya Think?

MMRules. The Scotty Terror Toto {Darling} Terrier.
new
Submitted by Ms_Anthrope on Fri, 02/26/2010 - 9:32am

*******
Scotty's are cool dogs..

I haven't been around here much lately & have missed a bunch of threads..

So,I had no clue..

*Oops..I think I just broke Rule 2
of the blog..

Don't set up jokes for Crank..

That's cool if I did..It's better than arguing.. :)

**

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

MMRules

Senator Dick Durbin

Hey --

I just visited FedUpWithTheFilibuster.com to sign a petition addressing my Senators, urging them to revisit the outdated filibuster rule, which effectively requires a supermajority to pass virtually any legislation in Washington these days.

If you share my belief that it's time to end the filibuster as we know it, will you speak up and sign the petition, too?

http://www.FedUpWithTheFilibuster.com

Changing the filibuster is no pipe dream. In fact, back in the 1970's the Senate successfully amended what was a 67-vote cloture requirement to the current 60-vote requirement.

We cannot continue to allow a minority of Senators to paralyze progress. Together we can restore majority rule and make Congress work for the American people again.

Please join me and sign the petition at:

http://www.FedUpWithTheFilibuster.com

Thank you.

**

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

MMRules

Done. Thx MMR.

{BTW JFI another Monk is on. :)
{I wanted a (or more) pound puppy, yet this "pup" needed to be saved too... I loved {& saved} many Rats & cats & other strays & FERALS, now I love a "dog". :)}

I watched that last night - Bunning is a REAL
ASSHOLE - you should of seen him on the floor
last night, he acted like a little baby who
couldn't get his sucker or something, I was simply
amazed @ his behavior. But than again, he is a
re-pub-lick-thug. I stopped watching it when Durbin
for the last time last night voted to put the amendment
through (?) I think that's how it goes) turned it off when
asshat (Bunning) was going to give his last debate for the night.
I couldn't take anymore.
I'll tell ya toni, I really
like Claire McCaskill - she does NOT take any shit. She was
in the house last night. It was very interesting to watch.

The Communist Manifesto was published.
"...In proportion as the bourgeoisie, i.e., capital, is developed, in the same proportion is the proletariat, the modern working class, developed -- a class of laborers, who live only so long as they find work, and who find work only so long as their labor increases capital. These laborers, who must sell themselves piecemeal, are a commodity, like every other article of commerce, and are consequently exposed to all the vicissitudes of competition, to all the fluctuations of the market."
http://amadlandawonye.wikispaces.com/1848,+Marx,+Engels,+The+Communist+M...

Evansville, Indiana yesterday.
Whirlpool red-flags protest
On Wednesday, Paul Coburn, director of operations at the Evansville plant, sent a letter to all employees about the rally in which he warned union members that the rally could affect the ability of workers to get jobs after the plant closes.

"... We have shared our concern with Local 808 leaders that these negative activities will only hamper employees when they look for future jobs," he wrote. "... We fear that potential employers will view the actions of a few and determine whether they would want to hire any of (the) Evansville division employees in the future. We hope that this is not the case, but think it is certainly a consideration."

Coburn reminded the union "to make certain that the entrances and exits to our property are clear" and "they do not have permission to utilize our property in any manner."
http://www.courierpress.com/news/2010/feb/25/whirlpool-official-warns-ev...

Bernie Sanders was there too. I think I posted up blog about it here...

Sen. Bunning from KY put a hold on
Submitted by toniD on Thu, 02/25/2010 - 11:22pm.

Unemployment extension bill.

They are arguing now on the floor of the Senate. Durbin, Sanders, McCaskill!!

toniD's Ya Think?

Army tries to halt retired general's work as KBR expert
By MARY FLOOD HOUSTON CHRONICLE
Feb. 25, 2010, 7:54PM

The U.S. Army is trying to stop retired Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, who once led U.S. forces in Iraq, from continuing to be an expert for KBR in a lawsuit against it over civilian truck driver deaths and injuries.

Sanchez is being paid $650 an hour and has reviewed documents and written a report that support's KBR's contention it should not be held legally responsible for the deaths of six civilian truck drivers and the injuries of others in a 2004 ambush in Iraq.

The suing drivers and family members contend that KBR should have stopped the convoys when it was warned that attacks would increase on April 9, 2004, the first anniversary of the day allies in the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq reached Baghdad.

KBR argues that the military approved sending the convoys out and several laws protect KBR from responsibility in a wartime situation. The Army contracts with KBR to provide transportation, food services and other logistical support.

Scott Allen, a plaintiff's lawyer in the case, told U.S. District Judge Gray Miller this afternoon that lawyers for the Army have sent notice that Sanchez cannot be deposed and cannot give expert testimony.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/business/6886190.html

toniD's Ya Think?

1 FMR Corp $20,600 $15,600 $5,000
2 NorPAC $20,350 $17,210 $3,140
3 Brown-Forman Corp $12,800 $2,800 $10,000
4 American Electric Power $10,000 $0 $10,000
4 American Interventional Pain Physicians $10,000 $0 $10,000
6 Securities Industry & Financial Mkt Assn $9,000 $0 $9,000
7 AFLAC Inc $7,500 $0 $7,500
7 Amgen Inc $7,500 $0 $7,500
9 JPMorgan Chase & Co $7,199 $2,200 $4,999
10 Kindred Healthcare $7,100 $2,100 $5,000

http://www.opensecrets.org/politicians/summary.php?cid=N00003437&cycle=2...

It's been down for at least 18 hrs...

I am going to have to get all conspiratorial here after a while longer ... :}

You know...what good are the intertubes if you can't use them to...

Nevermind.

isn't blacklisting illegal?

Two huge icebergs let loose off Antarctica's coast
By OWEN PYE, Associated Press Writer Owen Pye, Associated Press Writer Fri Feb 26, 8:04 am ET

SYDNEY – An iceberg about the size of Luxembourg that struck a glacier off Antarctica and dislodged another massive block of ice could lower the levels of oxygen in the world's oceans, Australian and French scientists said Friday.

The two icebergs are now drifting together about 62 to 93 miles (100 to 150 kilometers) off Antarctica following the collision on Feb. 12 or 13, said Australian Antarctic Division glaciologist Neal Young.

"It gave it a pretty big nudge," Young said of the 60-mile (97-kilometer) -long iceberg that collided with the giant floating Mertz Glacier and shaved off a new iceberg. "They are now floating right next to each other."

The new iceberg is 48 miles (78 kilometers) long and about 24 miles (39 kilometers) wide and holds roughly the equivalent of a fifth of the world's annual total water usage, Young told The Associated Press.

Experts are concerned about the effect of the massive displacement of ice on the ice-free water next to the glacier, which is important for ocean currents.

This area of water had been kept clear because of the glacier, said Steve Rintoul, a leading climate expert. With part of the glacier gone, the area could fill with sea ice, which would disrupt the ability for the dense and cold water to sink.

This sinking water is what spills into ocean basins and feeds the global ocean currents with oxygen, Rintoul explained.

As there are only a few areas in the world where this occurs, a slowing of the process would mean less oxygen supplied into the deep currents that feed the oceans.

"There may be regions of the world's oceans that lose oxygen, and then of course most of the life there will die," said Mario Hoppema, chemical oceanographer at the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research in Germany.

The icebergs, weighing 860 billion tons and 700 billion tons respectively, are located in water over the Antarctic Continental Shelf, Young said.

"We expect them to head west along the Antarctic coastline," he said.

Young said it was not likely they would reach as far north as Australia, and noted icebergs are very slow movers.

Oxygen levels being fed into the world's ocean currents are now changing "and the overturning circulation currents will respond to that change," Rintoul said. Observing what happens "will ... allow us to improve predictions of future climate change," he added.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100226/ap_on_sc/as_australia_icebergs/print

toniD's Ya Think?

you could already be on COBRA and the insurance company could kick you off? Or just for new ppl?

I didn't even know that gov't funding was involved in that. I thought it was just one of the pathetically few and entirely inadequate things they make the insurance cabal do by law.

where r u watching that?, c-span 1 is voting on H.R. 2701
c-span has Charlie Rangle on
c-span 3 has some bald headed guy on

Obama Pick for Budget Commission Is a Very Ominous Sign; A Social Security-Medicare Slasher

The President announced that the Republican co-chair of this bipartisan commission would be former Senator Alan Simpson, who hated defenders of Social Security and Medicare so much that he tried as Senator to attack and intimidate AARP, holding hearings that could have affected the senior groups tax status.
http://www.alternet.org/news/145725/obama_pick_for_budget_commission_is_...

Bowles-Simpson Commission: Is The Deck Stacked Against Social Security?
By Bill Scher
http://ourfuture.org/blog-entry/2010020717/bowles-simpson-commission-dec...

I didn't know about the COBRA thing either.
The government pays 65% & then u pay the rest,
that's not a bad deal. Usually it's way to
expensive for a lot of folks to get.

Pelosi on c-span 2 now

APNewsBreak: VA to reopen Gulf War vets' files

Source: Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Veterans Affairs Department will re-examine the disability claims of what could be thousands of Gulf War veterans suffering from ailments they blame on their war service, the first step toward potentially compensating them nearly two decades after the war ended.

VA Secretary Eric Shinseki said the decision is part of a "fresh, bold look" his department is taking to help veterans who have what's commonly called "Gulf War illness" and have long felt the government did little to help them. The VA says it also plans to improve training for medical staff who work with Gulf War vets, to make sure they do not simply tell vets that their symptoms are imaginary - as has happened to many over the years.

"I'm hoping they'll be enthused by the fact that this ... challenges all the assumptions that have been there for 20 years," Shinseki told The Associated Press in an exclusive interview.

The changes reflect a significant shift in how the VA may ultimately care for some 700,000 veterans who served in the Gulf War. It also could change how the department handles war-related illness suffered by future veterans, as Shinseki said he wants standards put in place that don't leave veterans waiting decades for answers to what ails them.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_GULF_WAR_ILLNESS?SITE=FLPET&SE...

toniD's Ya Think?

What you were watching last night.

toniD's Ya Think?

enate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy just kicked off a hearing on the Justice Department torture memo report, and he immediately raised the question of John Yoo's missing e-mails.

"My first question will be, where are Mr. Yoo's emails?" Leahy said, promising to pose the question to Acting Deputy Attorney General Gary Grindler.

Grindler is the sole witness at the hearing this morning. Leahy added that the DOJ is required by law to retain the e-mails.

As we noted earlier today, a government watchdog group and the editorial board of the New York Times have called on the DOJ to probe the missing e-mails.

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

toniD's Ya Think?

AP sources: NY Gov. Paterson won't seek new term Updated at 7:10 AM

Edited on Fri Feb-26-10 10:56 AM by FourScore
Source: AP

New York Gov. David Paterson is not seeking election, Democratic officials told The Associated Press on Friday.

Democratic officials in Washington were informed of Paterson's plans early Friday. The officials spoke on the condition of anonymity because Paterson had not publicly disclosed his plans.

Paterson formally announced his campaign just days ago but faced mounting calls to drop out of the race in the midst of controversy. A top aide is ensnared in a domestic-violence scandal, the governor was finding dwindling support in his own party and his campaign bank account paled in size to his rivals.

Paterson became governor in 2008, when former Gov. Eliot Spitzer resigned in a prostitution scandal. Paterson's decision paves the way for Andrew Cuomo to make an unimpeded run for the Democratic nomination...

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_ny_governor

toniD's Ya Think?

*

Frist says Senate Republicans using filibuster too much
By Michael O'Brien - 02/26/10 10:28 AM ET

Senate Republicans are using the filibuster too much, their former majority leader said Friday.

Former Sen. Bill Frist (R-Tenn.), who served as the Senate Republican leader from 2003 to 2007, at the same time said that the filibuster has been used too much by both parties in recent political history.

"Yeah I think so," Frist said during an appearance on MSNBC if Republicans had used the filibuster too much in the past year.

"But in the same token, in 2003-2002, we had 10 consecutive filibustered judges. Some to the right, but some pretty much just in the middle," Frist added.

http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/83899-frist-says-senate...

toniD's Ya Think?

was on washington journal this morning; he was pretty good, if you could go past his accent and mannerism; i had to turn him off when he started talking about maccain saying he's a hero and honorable man, but other than that he was really good; he was one of the democrats on yesterday's health care summit so he was talking about that

Amen brother.

____

European Union's Cutbacks
Submitted by toniD on Thu, 02/25/2010 - 11:25pm.

Robbie Cullen can see both sides of the coin. As a tax collector, he's in the front line of Ireland's battle to bring its runaway deficit under control. But as a divorced dad working two jobs, his own wallet is already at breaking point (etc...)

It's the whole "buttercup" syndrome.

TMI? :} :P

---
Well, not so much the "loving still'" part...

Whirlpool red-flags protest
Submitted by dan on Fri, 02/26/2010 - 11:45am.

We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union,

establish Justice,
insure domestic Tranquility,
provide for the common
defence,
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.

It was basically clear before, more or less. I just didn't think it did much to explain what Malloy was talking about, which seemed to be on a strictly practical tip. (But it could be I spaced and missed the other stuff...)

Submitted by toniD on Fri, 02/26/2010 - 11:59am.
APNewsBreak: VA to reopen Gulf War vets' files
-----------

As I was told By Gary Null and Dr Alan pressman alot of trouble that the Gulf War soldiers had was caused by the adjuvant which was put in the shots they were given. If It was not for active protesting from People like Nora and groups Like Healthfreedomusa.org and Natural News this same adjuvant was planned to be in this year's swine Flu Vaccine. Those brave souls who took the N1H1 vaccine this year in the states should realize That people like Nora and me made so much noise that this squalene was taken out of the formula.
Glutathione replacement formulas seem to be a major help to those that got sick. The best detoxifier for this liver toxicity is a powder called Glutaplex sold by drpressman.com. it comes from Emory Labs. You see soldiers who never even went to the gulf got the symdrome and all roads lead back to the squalene at the moment. When Alan pressman mentioned his observations a few years ago the Government called him and gave him crap, then he was called a year later by the government and they asked what is a good healing agent.
You see protesting against the Vaccine business makes some sense .

Republican Senators block extension of unemployment benefits
by Joe Sudbay (DC) on 2/26/2010 09:28:00 AM
Jed Lewison got the video of the Senate proceedings last night. The Republican Senator from Kentucky, Jim Bunning, kept objecting to a unanimous consent agreement on passing an extension of unemployment benefits. Those benefits expire on Sunday, February 28th.

The Senate convenes at 9:30 a.m. this morning. Democrats will try again to extend the program.

The Republicans got us into the economic quagmire. And, they've done almost nothing to help get us out. But, filibustering a bill to extend unemployment benefits has got to be a new low.

Sorry, tried to embed but the player didn't play so go to link.

http://www.americablog.com/2010/02/republican-senators-block-extension-o...

toniD's Ya Think?

Locked-out Mining Union Gets Solidarity Boost in Battle with Mineral Conglomerate Rio Tinto
A megabucks multinational thinks it can intimidate its unionized workers in the California high desert, but L.A. unions offer a show of union muscle and support.

Hundreds of union members from all across Los Angeles gathered in a Dodger Stadium parking lot early Wednesday morning for a 125-mile caravan solidarity ride in support of 560 brave workers and their families in the Southern California high desert town of Boron (population 2,000). Seven TV news vans and many more reporters were on hand to witness a well-organized display of union solidarity overseen by the L.A. County Federation of Labor, heavily organized by the Teamsters and a diverse bunch of supporters, including the Car Wash Workers and the SEIU.
http://www.alternet.org/economy/145806/locked-out_mining_union_gets_soli...

Hope she is ok...

She's a great lady. Taught Italian and French at our local community college. Very intelligent woman.

toniD's Ya Think?

AND I'M NOT GOING TO TAKE THIS ANYMORE!

"I warned them this was going to happen," Rector said. "Happy animals don't kill their trainers."

Three years ago, Russ Rector, a Fort Lauderdale dolphin trainer turned marine mammal activist, said he wrote SeaWorld a letter warning it was pushing its show mammals too hard to wow audiences, thereby inviting attacks on trainers.

While humans and orca interact without incident on a daily basis in marine shows, Rose and Rector said attacks and rough encounters are common.

"SeaWorld downplays the danger all the time," Rose said.

Last December, an orca drowned a trainer at a park in Spain. Another bit a trainer at SeaWorld in San Antonio in 2004. In 2006, a killer whale named Kasatka had clamped onto the foot of its trainer in San Diego, held him under and nearly drowned him — the third attack on the trainer by the same killer whale.

It was a few months later, after SeaWorld dolphins had roughed up some trainers, that Rector said he wrote the company to warn they were putting the shows before the health of the mammals.
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2010/02/25/88370/seaworld-trainers-death-show...

Can u put in Open Mic? If not I will, always using your name as where I got info from. hehehe I think I understand how you copied, now, so maybe I can SEND to here to cover U {;)}, when sent on several of my e-mails during "the dark" hours. ooxx
;)
{I worked on all these issues, especially Condors & Wolves {& Big Horn Sheep & Banna Slug & Cougars& Bob Cats & Bears & The Rest :} All Are Sacred!

Democrats Turning on Rangel
"After months of holding ranks, Democrats are finally turning on House Ways and Means Chairman Charles Rangel (D-NY) in the wake of an ethics committee finding that he violated House rules by accepting a Caribbean junket," Politico reports.

At least four Democratic House members called for Rangel to step down from his powerful post.

http://politicalwire.com/archives/2010/02/26/democrats_turning_on_rangel...

toniD's Ya Think?

Polls: Majorities Okay With Reconciliation — If They Like The Bill

With the spin war shifting to a battle over the meaning and implications of “reconciliation,” there will be more and more argument over what polls indicate about the public’s attitude toward the tactic.

Here’s some more fodder for this argument: A new batch of polls by the nonpartisan Research 2000 indicates that in key states, majorities are okay with the use of reconciliation — if the question is worded in a certain way.

The polls — sent over by the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, DFA and Credo, which sponsored them — ask the question this way:

If the Senate passes a health care reform bill that you consider to be beneficial to your family, would you object to the Senate’s use of “reconciliation” rules to pass that bill with a majority vote, or not?

In Nevada, 55% wouldn’t object; in Illinois, 67% wouldn’t object; in Washington state, 65% wouldn’t object; in Missouri, 58% wouldn’t object; in Virginia, 60% wouldn’t object; in Iowa, 66% wouldn’t object; and in North Dakota, 53% wouldn’t object.

The key here, obviously, is that the question casts the legislation as “beneficial to your family,” which of course makes it more likely that people will be okay with using reconciliation to pass it.

But that’s actually an illuminating point: It suggests that public opposition to reconciliation noted in other polls — such as yesterday’s widely cited Gallup survey — might be rooted more in opposition to the legislation than in opposition to the tactic itself.

The point is that public sentiment about reconciliation itself might not be anything Dems need to worry about. If the public opposes the use of reconciliation, it may be just be rooted in their opposition to the current, tainted legislation.

Bottom line: Congressional Dems who are skittish about using reconciliation have already voted for the legislation. So they may not have much to fear from also using reconciliation to ensure that the provisions in that legislation (which are going to be repackaged in any case) actually becomes law.

http://theplumline.whorunsgov.com/senate-republicans/polls-in-key-states...

***********************************

Update: PCCC’s Stephanie Taylor emails:

“Voters overwhelmingly favor passing a good bill through reconciliation. In state after state, the current Senate bill only has about 30% approval while the public option has about 60% approval. So it’s in the best interest of Senate Democrats to embrace the public option vocally, own it, and make health care reform synonymous with the public option in voters’ minds.”

http://theplumline.whorunsgov.com/senate-republicans/polls-in-key-states...

toniD's Ya Think?

The Other Animals Are Agin' Us
By Tim Bedore 2003

Did you see that in the paper the other day about those carp in the Mississippi River jumping into boats and bonking fisherman in the head? It's true. They're called big head carp, they're from Asia and they're attacking and severely injuring many fisherman.

Biologists claim the roar of boat motors agitates and excites these carp and they jump towards the sound but I think these biologists are naively missing an obvious connection. Fish are attacking fisherman. For the fish it's get them before they get you, kill or be killed. Even if these fisherman are practicing catch and release, that's a very painful, embarrassing experience for any fish and apparently they have had it.

What about the increase in mountain lion attacks? Great White sharks moving closer to shore? Moose have been showing up in towns and stomping on people. A squirrel was in my living room last spring. Am I the only one that sees a pattern here? People, wise up! The other animals are against us. It doesn't take a genius to see there's an inter-species conspiracy to thwart the urban expansion of man.

How do the squirrels fit in? Surveillance. They spy on what we people are doing in the cities and report back to the bigger species out there on the front lines.

And taken together these other species represent walking, we hope not yet talking, scratching, biting weapons of mass destruction. And if these other species can convince the insect world, for example a well known anti-human group like the killer bees, to join up our way of life and our democracy could be history.

The skeptical may ask why would these other species want to hurt us? Obviously, they hate us. They are jealous of our way of life. We swim in chlorinated, safe environment pools, then towel off and have an adult beverage. They are stuck eating sludge in the Mississippi, a river polluted by guess who: their mortal enemy man. And to top it all off we eat them.

This invasion of Asian carp is no accident. This is stage one of their well planned attack. We ignore the obvious at our own peril.

We can no longer sit back and wait for them to attack us. It's time we adopt a new doctrine regarding these other animals. We have to wipe out any and all species who are a lined against us, wherever they are. We can not rest until every big head carp, great white shark, mountain lion, moose and squirrel and any other species that associates with them are defeated.

If the U.N. wants to get involved fine, if not we can do it alone. Of course the British will show up, they always do, but we will fight to protect our way of life. And if you don't agree, you're an unpatriotic idiot who hates America.

http://www.vaguebuttrue.com/audio/125

from the politico article:

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0210/33594.html

New Hampshire Rep. Paul Hodes (running for Greggs Senate seat in a fairly conservative state)

Mississippi Rep. Gene Taylor (blue dog)

Alabama Rep. Bobby Bright (blue dog)

Illinois Rep. Mike Quigley (took over rahmbo's seat)

the underlying agenda is that rangel is head of the committee that will have the responsibility for rewriting the bush tax cuts.

in Greece, similar to what Obama had to take on, left to him by Conservative rule....

Greek PM Papandreou to meet Obama March 9

Greek PM to meet Merkel amid signs of moves on crisis

Dina Kyriakidou
Reuters US Online Report World News

Feb 26, 2010 12:19 EST

ATHENS (Reuters) - Greece's prime minister announced plans on Friday to meet German Chancellor Angela Merkel next week as signs grow that diplomatic efforts are under way to resolve his country's debt crisis.

Prime Minister George Papandreou, who will also meet U.S. President Barack Obama in the next 10 days, told parliament he expected assistance from Greece's European Union partners, for which German backing would be vital.

He also met Deutsche Bank's Chief Executive Josef Ackermann, although a Greek spokesman denied the German bank was considering buying 15 billion euros in Greek bonds.

Greece wants to restore investors' confidence in its economic statistics and reassure buyers that its debt is manageable after revealing that the previous government understated the budget deficit by half. The EU has offered political support but no bailout.

"We must do whatever we can now to address the immediate dangers today. Tomorrow it will be too late and the consequences will be much more dire," Papandreou said.

"We ask the EU for its solidarity and they ask us to meet our obligations. We will meet our obligations ... We will demand European community solidarity and I believe we will get it."

Investors appeared to welcome the comments, pushing the gap between yields on Greek bonds and their German equivalent -- a measure of market faith in Greece's finances -- to below 340 basis points.

Greek stocks rose 1.4 percent and traders granted the euro a reprieve after it hit a one-year low against the Japanese yen a day earlier. But many in the market expect the euro to stay under pressure because of concerns about Greece.

The Greek government said Papandreou would visit Merkel on March 9 and Obama on March 9, but gave few details. It also said little about the talks with Ackermann.

Merkel's government has resisted appeals to promise Greece aid and opinion polls show a majority of Germans oppose a bailout. But many economic analysts say Europe's largest economy will step in if it believes the euro's stability is threatened.

Media reports have suggested governments in the 16-country euro zone could offer aid worth 20-25 billion euros but the EU has not confirmed them.

FEARS OF CONTAGION

Some of Greece's EU partners fear market volatility caused by Greece will spread to other countries that use the euro and have big deficits to cover, such as Portugal and Spain.

Spanish Economy Minister Elena Salgado told Reuters there was no risk of a double dip recession in Spain and its economy would grow in every quarter of 2010.

"Just two weeks ago, two of the credit rating agencies have confirmed our rating, so investors know that Spain is a country in which they can invest with all guarantees," she said.

Investors are anxious about Greece's ability to get out of crisis and must decide whether to buy more Greek debt when it issues a new 10-year bond in the next few weeks.

"The prime worry is will Greeks have access to the sovereign debt market at any tolerable rate and that's what we remained concerned about," Chris Pryce, director of sovereign ratings at Fitch told Reuters Insider television.

Greece said after a parliamentary election in October that its deficit would be 12.7 percent of gross domestic product in 2009, four times the EU limit.

It has also drawn up an EU-backed austerity plan, including tough wage and tax measures and pension reforms, to cut the deficit by 4 percentage points this year and bring it below the 27-country bloc's limit of 3 percent of GDP by 2012.

Protests and marches by tens of thousands of people crippled transport and public services on Wednesday, but Papandreou blamed the problems on the previous conservative government.

"History confirmed our worst fears," he told parliament. "Past policies make it necessary to proceed to brutal changes." more...

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/news/2010/02/greek_pm_papandreou_to_mee...

toniD's Ya Think?

Never Been Done Before
Josh Marshall | February 26, 2010, 11:38AM

Did you know that reconciliation has never been used with a piece of legislation that starts with an H ?

Along these lines, MSNBC's Norah O'Donnell did a refreshingly good fact check of the 'it's never been done before' nonsense coming from Republicans on reconciliation.

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2010/02/never_been_done_before...

toniD's Ya Think?

You have to prove intent about what ever he did wrong and he seemed like he could bluff is way out of trouble. This kind of democrat makes me angry. Thats why I talk third party stuff and I would always vote democrat at the end if the chances for a third party were very poor. i think the third party talk /movement can at least scare these people to act in "our" interests . (let me dream on in my blueberry haze)

on Stewart On HCR Summit: 'That Looks Like The Most Boring Seder I've Ever Seen' (VIDEO)
Jillian Rayfield | February 26, 2010, 9:07AM
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'Bipartisan-curious' Jon Stewart took a look at President Obama's health care reform summit last night, and came to the conclusion that it "looks like the most boring Seder I've ever seen."

Watch: at link

http://tpmlivewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/02/jon-stewart-on-hcr-summ...

toniD's Ya Think?

Kyl Threatens to Block Unemployment Insurance Extension

Unemployment insurance and COBRA subsidy extensions expire in three days. Reid stripped the extensions out of the jobs bill that just passed in order to keep the bill narrowly focused and get it passed, which worked. Reid attempted to bring a short term extension last night under unanimous consent, but was blocked by Bunning.

And now, Jon Kyl:

Well, it seems like at least one Republican is not, in fact, going to ensure that unemployed workers keep their benefits without first trying to cut taxes for the heirs of multi-millionaires:

On Wednesday, a top Republican leader said a deal on the bill would depend on working out the fate of the expired estate tax...Minority Whip Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., said that Republicans will block consideration of the new bill unless they get "a path forward fairly soon" on the estate tax.

"I will insist on an agreement on how to proceed [on the estate tax], if we’re going to have unanimous consent on how to proceed with any of these subsequent bills," said Kyl.

David Geffen Is "You're So Vain": Carly Simon Reveals Song Inspiration?

According to an interpretation of a clip of a remastered version of "You're So Vain," Carly Simon named David Geffen as the target of the song.

When the song is played backwards, at least as heard in the clip, a voice whispers "David."

Geffen was the head of Simon's record label at the time, and was supposedly paying more attention to Joni Mitchell.

That would mean it is not about exes Cat Stevens, James Taylor, Warren Beatty, Mick Jagger or Kris Kristofferson.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/02/26/david-geffen-is-youre-so_n_4781...

toniD's Ya Think?

is stepping down in March. re MSNBC

toniD's Ya Think?

Berkeley fee protest turns rowdy

A late-night protest against fee hikes at UC Berkeley turned violent early this morning when a crowd of about 200 people lit trash can fires, smashed at least one store's windows, occupied a university building and clashed with police, officials said.

The protest began as an open-air dance party in Sproul Plaza, officials said, but at 11 p.m. took a different turn when about a dozen people broke into Durant Hall just north of the plaza and strung up a banner reading "March 4th" on the outside wall. The banner refers to a statewide "Day of Action" being planned for next week by groups protesting fee increases and cutbacks in state education.

From there, crowds moved south to Telegraph Avenue to chant protest slogans and dance in the street. At around 1:30 a.m., arguments turned tense between the protesters and Berkeley police who were monitoring the gathering, and within 20 minutes some in the crowd lit a large trash can on fire and shoved it toward officers, police said.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/02/26/BA481C7Q9I.D...

Slight double take when I saw. I thought maybe Mac was doing the writing now. :)

Berkeley RIOT: Fire, Destruction (WATCH) (UPDATED)

Overnight, an impromptu riot to protest budget cuts and tuition increases at the University of California-Berkeley snowballed to include more than 200 students and resulted in flaming dumpsters, broken windows and dancing in the streets.

The Daily Californian reports that the riot emerged from a campus dance party and metastasized into an all-out fiery clash between students and police.

Officers physically pushed the crowd back so that Berkeley fire personnel could extinguish the flames. Sporadic fights broke out within the crowd, causing police to advance their line on the growing mob and use batons to push it back.

Members of the crowd hurled glass bottles, plastic buckets, pizza and other objects at the police line. The crowd's size and intensity fluctuated as the police and protesters clashed and multiple members of the crowd were detained by police.

The Daily Cal kept a timeline of the riot, which began as a small occupation of Durant Hall, a campus building, in acknowledgment of Campus Action Day March 4, in which students plan to hold large-scale protests of mounting tuition increases. But by 2 a.m., the scene began to turn.

At 1:55 a.m., a dumpster appeared to be on fire in the middle of Telegraph Ave. An individual pushed the dumpster on its side as people appear to be dancing around and on top of it.

At about 2:05 a.m., a fight appeared to have broken out in the middle of Telegraph Ave. and Durant Ave. Berkeley police responded to the scene, pushing people away south on Telegraph Ave.

Police appeared to be using batons to disperse people.

Protesters appeared to be throwing what appeared to be trash and buckets at police officers.

Story continues below

According to NBC Bay Area, there were 25 police on the scene, although Berkeley police have disputed that number. A rioter told NBC Bay Area that event was a "Real battle with cops, rioters winnin [sic]".

The blog Occupy California has more. The blog Reclaim UC has a statement on why the protesters chose to occupy Durant Hall.

More PHOTOS from dailycal.org

Video at link

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/02/26/berkeley-riot-fire-destru_n_477...

toniD's Ya Think?

Yeah and maybe she put only one of their names in the backward thingy to fuck with the rest of them...

Heheheheheh... :)

noooooo, its been warren beatty for all these years. nooooo.

We're still sanctioning them?

UN to weigh lifting Saddam-era sanctions on Iraq
Iraq is gaining momentum in its bid to get out from under the U.N. trade sanctions that were first imposed on the country in 1991 after Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait.
Iraq's foreign minister requested the action last month.
The sanctions were intended to prevent Iraq from acquiring such weapons. None were found after the U.S. invaded Iraq in 2003.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/feedarticle/8964832

Sanction a country
Refuse to believe in the sanctions
Invade a country to replace the need for sanctions
Ruin a country while learning sanctions work
"Rebuild" a country while maintaining sanctions

15 MINUTES TO HOCKEY

Not the usual 3-5 suckfest! Yay!!

The Coffee Party
Source: Washington Post

Finally, a place for us. Progressives who aren't always lockstep in supporting Democrats, and see the need for a return to its progressive roots. But not just that...also saying we too are fed up with how things are going. But we are going to talk about a way to fix the problems vs. shouting down others and all of the other 'tea party' issues. I'm going to try to get involved with this. I think this could be the unifying voice on the left that we need. Mainly since it can bridge a gap between the 'fed up with this prez' folks and those who keep saying 'give him more time'. I'm not here to say either of you are wrong. I am saying this may bridge the gap on the left, and maybe even with the right.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/02/25/AR201002...

toniD's Ya Think?

CHARLESTON, S.C. -- South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford's divorce will become final next month, just over a year after the first lady discovered his affair with an Argentine woman he later called his soul mate.

Family Court Judge Jocelyn Cate said Friday she plans to OK Jenny Sanford's request to split from her husband of 20 years. The divorce will become official in mid-March.

Jenny Sanford attended the 20-minute hearing without her husband. Afterward, she said she considers it "the beginning of a new chapter for me and for our children."

She filed for divorce in December on the grounds of adultery, saying reconciliation efforts with her husband had been unsuccessful.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/02/26/AR201002...

toniD's Ya Think?

the conservatives have responded to rep. louise slaughter's story about a woman who wore her dead sisters dentures because she coulnd't afford her own.

http://mediamatters.org/research/201002260026

Biden goes after Bunning; VP 'disappointed' by filibuster

Source: Politico

Vice President Biden on Friday expressed his regret with Sen. Jim Bunning for filibustering a move to extend federal unemployment benefits.

Bunning held the Senate hostage until midnight on Thursday. At a meeting of the Middle Class Task Force the next morning, Biden said he was “disappointed.”

“Right now, a single Republican senator is standing up in a chamber I’ve worked in a long time, and he’s filibustering,” he said.

The vice president said that when those benefits expire on Sunday, 1 million people will be thrown off unemployment and lose their health insurance next month.

He added, “I wish that senator would think about how that man or woman would explain to their kids how they’re going to get by.”

http://www.politico.com/politico44/perm/0210/biden_goes_after_bunning_4d...

How about getting really angry Biden! How about acting more like Durbin! How about finding a way around this hold and get more coverage from the MSM! How about somebody beating on this man Bunning! where's my cane???

toniD's Ya Think?

Nelson (D-Ne) 'open' to special rules (reconciliation to pass a health care package)

Source: Omaha World Herald-AP

LINCOLN (AP) -- Nebraska Sen. Ben Nelson says he's open to using special budget rules known as reconciliation to pass a health care package.

Speaking to Lincoln's KLIN radio Friday, the Democrat said it's the least preferable method of passing legislation but sometimes it's necessary.

Nelson stressed that he won't decide whether to support an overhaul package until he sees the final details, including a cost estimate.

Reconciliation would allow majority Democrats to get around the requirement for 60 votes to shut off bill-killing filibusters. Republicans have sharply criticized the tactic while Democrats counter that Republicans use it themselves.

http://www.omaha.com/article/20100226/NEWS01/702269847

toniD's Ya Think?

the more control they have over your life.

Ignore.....it's the new sensamilla!

the more control they have over your life.

Ignore.....it's the new sensamilla!

WTF?

I lurrv that word.

---
_Boinking_ not so much...which is odd because they are very similar (obvsly).

This isn't hockey, its target practice....

7 mins left in 1st period 6-0 USA...

Gulf war syndrome
Submitted by taozen on Fri, 02/26/2010 - 12:29pm.
As I was told By Gary Null and Dr Alan pressman alot of trouble that the Gulf War soldiers had was caused by the adjuvant which was put in the shots they were given. If It was not for active protesting from People like Nora and groups Like Healthfreedomusa.org and Natural News this same adjuvant was planned to be in this year's swine Flu Vaccine. Those brave souls who took the N1H1 vaccine this year in the states should realize That people like Nora and me made so much noise that this squalene was taken out of the formula...
----------
taozen,

Your tin-foil hat stays in the closet when it suits your anti-establishment ideology. Science is in the pocket of capitalism except when you like the "science." Pharmacological evidence is tainted by the evils of capitalism unless it comes from a self-appointed expert who has a radio show and hawks his own line of retail health products.

Gary Null has a mail-order PhD in Interdisciplinary Studies. Gary Null retails his own line of health products. Gary Null has a radio show. It should surprise no one that quackery is among the charges by his critics. (Null promotes AIDS denialism which should attract the critical attention of anyone who passed high school biology.)

Dr. Alan Pressman (a chiropractor) also retails his own line of health products. He is (or was?) a "medical advisor" to NuGenix, which sells health products using the multi-level-marketing business model. Alan Pressman has a radio show. He's "The Doctor to the stars." What more do you need to know? Oh, he is the Director of the Gramercy Health Association in New York...which is another way of saying that he is the director of his own chiropractic business.

I sincerely doubt that Gary Null or Alan Pressman or taozen or nora submitted peer-reviewed testing to support an examination or reexamination of any symptom of Gulf War Syndrome whatsoever. A protest of faulty science won't get out of the starting blocks without science to support the protest.

If you strongly believe in Big Pharma's ability or the Pentagon's ability to squash a heightened examination of the drugs administered to soldiers, you are not going to believe that a mail-order PhD on a radio show forced Big Pharma and the U.S. military to relent. The two ideas are in direct tin-foil contradiction with one another and cannot be held at the same time without bathing in cognitive dissonance.

Gulf War (1) Syndrome is a catch-all for dozens of symptoms. Some of the people who are included in the Gulf War Syndrome-suffering international group never received the U.S. vaccines/inoculations administered to U.S. soldiers prior to deployment. The individual substances administered are suspect as a cause of some symptoms. The large collection of substances administered are suspect as a cause, too. Exposure to battlefield toxins is yet another area of suspicion as a cause of some symptoms. In fact, many causes are suspect for many different symptoms, some of which overlap.

taozen---You will note that I have not disputed the possibilities of the causes of various Gulf War Syndrome symptoms. I have impugned your sources, which is as American as apple pie.

You impugn all of science as being tainted by capitalism (or corporatism or oligarchism or whateverism...take your pick). It's the beauty of the conspiratorial charge: Epistemology is defined by you alone. Everything I know is tainted while everything you know is pure.

Here's the deal. When you cite sources to support your argument, be prepared to have their weaknesses exposed. You can be certain that I won't rely on bumper-sticker sloganeering such as accusations of "corporatism." A vague accusation of corruption within the scientific community is not as powerful as a specific accusation that your information source does not believe in AIDS (and he'll sell you his film to prove it).

There are two kinds of suckers in this world:

The first kind believes stuff because everybody else believes it. The second kind believes stuff because only a few people believe it.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Vice President Joe Biden on Friday proposed new rules to help protect U.S. workers' retirement savings as part of a broader government effort to bolster the finances of middle class voters.

U.S. | Barack Obama

With President Barack Obama's popularity ratings down in a congressional election year, his administration has sought to focus more on middle-class voters' concerns about high unemployment, the ailing economy and their troubled finances.

Biden, who heads a year-old panel assigned to improve middle-class living standards, announced new Labor Department regulations on workers' retirement savings at an event to release the annual report of his middle-class task force.

The new safeguards, which the White House says will affect tens of millions of workers, are aimed at protecting employees and their 401(k) and IRA retirement savings plans from financial advisers' potential conflicts of interest.

Retirement investment advisers and money managers would only be allowed to give advice if they did not get any commission for steering workers into funds with which they are affiliated, or if their advice was based on a computer model certified to be unbiased by independent experts.

"Some kinds of investments are more profitable for financial institutions than others, but those investments may not be the best ones for workers," the White House said in a briefing document on the proposed rule changes.

"As a result, if investment advisers get a commission or other compensation for steering workers into investment options with high fees and expenses, they face conflicts of interest that can undermine the reliability of their advice.

COLLECTIVE BARGAINING AGREEMENTS

"Expert advice can be helpful, but that advice must be unbiased and there must be no risk that the adviser will benefit from steering workers to particular investments," Deputy Labor Secretary Seth Harris said at the event.

Harris said the administration was also proposing a new rule to protect the retirement savings of workers covered by collective bargaining agreements.

"This rule will require that if any of these workers or their unions ask for information about the health of the plans, the plan administrator must provide that information," Harris said.

Biden called the initiatives an important step to help the middle class, which he said was "nowhere near as strong as it needs to be."

Over a year into his presidency, Obama has taken a more populist turn in his rhetoric, pledging to fight for the middle class and taking a tougher line toward Wall Street.

He is trying to halt an erosion of support among middle-class Americans who helped sweep him into office and whose backing is needed to prevent his Democratic Party from suffering major losses in the November congressional elections.

The Labor Department will make the proposed regulations available for public comment until May 5, after which it will issue a final rule.

Once that rule takes effect, the regulations will apply to all financial institutions that both provide investment options like 401(k) plans to employers and offer financial advice to their employees.

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE61P26O20100226

toniD's Ya Think?

Race-baiting pro-life billboards hosted by CBS firm

By Daniel Tencer

Hot on the heels of its controversial airing of a pro-life ad during the Super Bowl, CBS is once again facing pressure from activist groups after it emerged its outdoor ads division is hosting a series of provocative anti-abortion ads in the Atlanta area.

The company's involvement in billboards that declare black children to be an "endangered species" because of abortion is raising concerns among progressive activists about the company's political neutrality.

Two anti-abortion groups, Georgia Right to Life and the Radiance Foundation, have bought space on 65 billboards in recent weeks to run ads that link abortion to racism.

The ads are linked to a Web site, TooManyAborted.com, which asserts "abortion kills more African-Americans, per year, than heart disease, cancer, respiratory disease, accidents, homicides, suicide, and cancer–combined. Black women have abortions at over 3x the rate of white women."

"The Web site connects abortion to segregation, saying that after the civil rights era, racists went 'underground,' and that today 'abortion is the tool they use to stealthily target blacks for extermination,'" the New York Times reported earlier this month. more...

http://rawstory.com/2010/02/cbshosted-antiabortion-ads/

toniD's Ya Think?

Submitted by gloryoski on Fri, 02/26/2010 - 9:21am.
Right after he did his rant on nonviolent vs violent rev a caller called up
...
===================
I missed that one. Sounds like one of those exchanges that could end with Malloy's "don't call my show again" responses. Did it?

Secret Service Computers Only Work at 60 Percent Capacity; Agency Uses 1980s Mainframe
System Is 'Fragile' and Cannot Sustain Tempo of Current or Future Operational Missions

A classified review of the United States Secret Service's computer technology found that the agency's computers were fully operational only 60 percent of the time because of outdated systems and a reliance on a computer mainframe that dates to the 1980s, according to Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn.

"We have here a premiere law enforcement organization in our country which is responsible for the security of the president and the vice president and other officials of our government, and they have to have better IT than they have," said Lieberman, who is chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee.

Sources tell ABC News that the Secret Service was so plagued by computer problems that the agency invited the National Security Agency to formally review its information technology systems. The Secret Service's databases are outdated and users are at times unable to conduct searches from one system to another.

Lieberman says he's had "concern for a while" about the Secret Service computers. A 60 percent, fully operational average is far worse than "industry and government standards that are around 98 percent generally," Lieberman said. more...

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/us-secret-service-outdated-computer-mainf...

toniD's Ya Think?

"they were beating it [the public option] like a baby seal..."

:)

You were in fact clear about what you needed to have clarified by nora last night. And you weren't being sarcastic with "maybe I don't understand."

And "non-participation" (nora did not originate; it was what Malloy said) is not a very "sexy" term (or a particularly descriptive one).

nora made it "sexier" by extending it to "paradigms" and such. (Unless Malloy did that and I just spaced.)

I am not conceding anything else...and I have my reasons to expect the kind of abuse from you that I thought I was seeing (although not of nora that I can recall).

So...sorry about that thing that time.

He did pretty much hang up on him at the end and was getting quite cranky but he just told the guy "You're repeating yourself now."

This was after about 5 minutes of back and forth and occasionally letting the guy get a word in.

'I'M AS MAD AS HELL,
Submitted by ghettodefender on Fri, 02/26/2010 - 1:10pm.
AND I'M NOT GOING TO TAKE THIS ANYMORE!

"I warned them this was going to happen," Rector said. "Happy animals don't kill their trainers."

Three years ago, Russ Rector, a Fort Lauderdale dolphin trainer turned marine mammal activist, said he wrote SeaWorld a letter warning it was pushing its show mammals too hard to wow audiences, thereby inviting attacks on trainers.

While humans and orca interact without incident on a daily basis in marine shows, Rose and Rector said attacks and rough encounters are common.

"SeaWorld downplays the danger all the time," Rose said.

Last December, an orca drowned a trainer at a park in Spain. Another bit a trainer at SeaWorld in San Antonio in 2004. In 2006, a killer whale named Kasatka had clamped onto the foot of its trainer in San Diego, held him under and nearly drowned him — the third attack on the trainer by the same killer whale.

It was a few months later, after SeaWorld dolphins had roughed up some trainers, that Rector said he wrote the company to warn they were putting the shows before the health of the mammals.
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2010/02/25/88370/seaworld-trainers-death-show...
====================

Thank you very much for this post.

These stories are heartbreaking, but they must be told and often.

The exploitation of these ocean creatures is sick. Everything about it. These creatures prove their equal intelligence, possibly even superior intelligence, by learning humans' silly games and tricks and COPING every second with the captivity situation, yet are they given any credit? In the case of the Orcas, they are promoted not as Orcas but sensationalized as "Killer Whales" by the water circus exploiters. (Will these trainer deaths increase attendance?)

Entertainment shmainment.

Watching ocean creatures "perform" in a tank is like putting Fred Astaire in a small plexiglass closet and watching him 'dance'. Sick and tortuous.

And only possible in an American Culture that tolerates torture and exploitation on every level, profiteering every step of the way.

Free these creatures. Free them ASAP.

Be Afraid? Be Very Afraid?

Over the last year, Senate Republicans have threatened that if the Democrats resort to the nuclear / armageddon / mass murder (reconciliation) option, they'll flood the senate with tons of motions and awkward amendments and basically just shut the senate down. So should Democrats be worried? Brian Beutler gives us the low-down.

--Josh Marshall

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/02/should-democrats-take-republi...

toniD's Ya Think?

so Biden is mad cause bunning fillibustered?

Well, why doesnt biden then tell reid to require them to hold an actual fillibuster?

rather than filing intent

becaue reid is LETTING them do it.

remember that.

Bunning: My Obstruction Of Unemployment Extension Made Me Miss My Basketball Game
Brian Beutler | February 26, 2010, 10:10AM

Sen. Jim Bunning (R-KY) is widely understood to be one of the upper chamber's crankiest members. But his latest episode could keep thousands of out of work Americans from receiving unemployment insurance and COBRA benefits. And it comes at a time when joblessness is through the roof.

Here's what's happening. Ninety-nine of the Senate's 100 members have agreed that people whose benefits are set to run out should be allowed to continue receiving them past the February 28 deadline. One senator--Bunning--disagrees. He says the benefits should only be extended if they're paid for with stimulus dollars. Democrats don't like that at all.

If Bunning were to relent, the extensions would be granted automatically. But, per the Senate rules, any single member can throw a wrench into an otherwise universal agreement.

Unsurprisingly, Bunning couldn't care less about any of it: "I have missed the Kentucky-South Carolina game that started at 9:00 and it's the only redeeming chance we had to beat South Carolina since they're the only team that has beat Kentucky this year," he said on the Senate floor.

At one point in the discussion, Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), asked Bunning to drop his objection. Bunning, according to Politico, had a two word answer for his colleague: "Tough shit."

Under normal circumstances Bunning's obstruction would be a minor headache. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid could force a vote to end the debate and the extensions would pass within a couple days. But February 28 is fast approaching, and most Senators are already back in their home states, meaning the benefits will likely not be renewed until the middle of next week.

Bunning's objections led to a series of unusually angry exchanges on the Senate floor late into the evening last night--and Senate Democrats have been blasting Bunning for depriving his own constituents of needed assistance. But so far, to no avail.

Republicans, for their part, may not have given Bunning their blessing. But they're not doing anything to stop him, and instead are blaming Democrats for not scheduling a vote earlier.

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/02/bunning-my-obstruction-of-une...

toniD's Ya Think?

and ask them why he doesnt require them to perform a traditional fillibuster.........

I would call, but I dont have long distance.

Radio Talent To The Rescue!
Submitted by Crank Bait on Fri, 02/26/2010 - 3:39pm.
==========================

Crank, why are you resistant to taking your arguments off thread in a sustained, graphicly contiguous debate/discussion?

Why don't you want to engage in a self-contained and long term contest off thread in an Open Mic?

Why don't you offer us your own Open Mic and clarify what you are getting at? I'm willing to do that. Taozen joined in an Open Mic and showed his willingness. Why not YOU?

Many here have stated they prefer these challenges on the main thread to end, and the sane suggestion that they be handled OFF the daily thread is sensible; and we are SO fortunate to have the wonderful Open Mic format with which to do this. What IS your position on this, O Great Crank Purveyor Of Crank Logic? Or are you locked in to just throwing word grenades and scurrying off? Do tell, please.

why do you blindly trust the government......

lol

do you believe the official 9/11 story?

stop believing all the propaganda

just because a person in a tie tells it to you on the tv does not mean its true

lol

Mens Hockey

Team USA def. Fin. 6-1...enters Gold Medal bracket...plays winner of tonites Canada v. Slovakia on Sunday.

USA Women had to settle for Silver last nite against a tough Canadian womens team...hopefully the guys will exact a little revenge on Sunday....

Have a great day all.

Later

toniD's Ya Think?

and I find his approach to be fascinating.

in puddles of water is wrong.

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

Blue Roots Radio

Supreme Court case could limit local controls on firearms

State and local gun laws are in the crosshairs as the Supreme Court prepares for a historic oral argument Tuesday.

The conservative majority that struck down Washington, D.C.'s, handgun ban in 2008 appears poised to stretch the Second Amendment further. The hourlong session Tuesday will let justices test-fire arguments in a case in which the reasoning could be as intriguing as the outcome.

For gun owners and lawmakers, the case called McDonald v. City of Chicago presents one bottom line: If the court agrees that the Second Amendment covers state and local governments, as seems likely, some but not all gun restrictions will be blown away.

For constitutional scholars, the court's means may be as important as its ends. In order to eliminate Chicago's gun ban, court conservatives could end up overturning a 137-year-old precedent that's hindered the expansion of new rights.

With the case so crucial, the sidelines are jammed. Forty-nine amicus briefs have flooded the court, representing groups ranging from Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership to specialists in 17th-century English history.

The attorneys general for Florida, Texas, Alaska and 34 other states have urged the court to strike down Chicago's gun ban. So have a majority of members of Congress, and individual prosecutors from 34 California counties.

"The people's right to arms is inextricably tied to the equally fundamental right to defend oneself, to fight to save one's own life," Fresno County District Attorney Elizabeth A. Egan and her colleagues argue.

The U.S. Conference of Mayors joined 55 members of the House of Representatives and others in warning against expanding gun rights. Separately, Sacramento, Seattle and eight other major cities have urged the court to uphold Chicago's gun law.

"The 18th-century version of the right to bear arms codified in the Second Amendment ... imperils law-enforcement strategies with enormous promise in the fight against violent crime," the mayors group said.

The Second Amendment says that "a well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed."....
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2010/02/26/88829/supreme-court-to-scrutinize-...

http://planetgreen.discovery.com/work-connect/morissey-free-rabbits.html

Factory farmed caged rabbits have limited space to lie stretched out or sit up on their hind legs. The rabbits are forced to live in cramped and barren conditions. It is not uncommon for bone disorders and foot inflammations to develop, as well as other excruciating conditions. Farmed rabbits may develop neurotic behaviors to relieve the stress caused by their unnatural living conditions.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mHm26dN9lUA&feature=player_embedded

Submitted by toniD on Fri, 02/26/2010 - 2:31pm.

Berkeley RIOT: Fire, Destruction (WATCH) (UPDATED)

[...]

The crowd's size and intensity fluctuated as the police and protesters clashed and multiple members of the crowd were detained by police. Members of the crowd hurled glass bottles, plastic buckets, pizza and other objects at the police line.
------------
They start out with glass bottles. OK, as a projectile, that could hurt someone pretty bad, especially their eyes, or even fatally if it had liquid in it and was heavy. Plastic buckets--eh, possibly if we are talking those big industrial ones that they use in food service and that "urban youts" sometimes drum on, and if it hit someone just right--but we're getting pretty far afield without some explicit or at least grammatical distinction being made between those and the bottles. Then you get to the effin' pizza. OK--that's not a riot. That's a food fight. And IF by some horrible accident someone got killed or badly injured in a food fight, it is highly unlikely that it would be with some damn pizza. I don't care if it in a 16 inch extra large complete and in the box--and more than likely it was just slices. But if you don't think about it, the glass bottles fear seeps into the pizza. The ONLY way you could seriously injure someone with pizza is to take a blazing hot pie out of the oven and rub it on somebody's face until they got third degree burns.

And then--these "other objects". Even less harmful than the pizza so that would give their manipulation away? Or actually more harmful than the pizza and therefore more important (like the fires) but they are just stupid/don't know how to write.

Anyhow...it's funny how you can manipulate people's fears so easily (and ham-handedly) if that's what they are doing.

But maybe I'm overthinking... ;)

Completely agree, and then the question is should zoos of any sort exist-- even if they are "protecting" endangered species.

Thom's probably right about the futility of violent resistance. The orcas keep fighting, but they don't seem to gaining freedom.

Captive orca industry is an atrocity
Tillikum was sent to Florida from Victoria, has been driven crazy and can't take it anymore.

Of course there is a human tragedy in this, and I'm sorry for the family.

But Tillikum was stolen from his family, the L-25s from Iceland, at a young age, has grown into a strong, angry, bored, lonely adult, has no lasting friendships, doesn't speak the same language as anybody he's been forced to live with and is confined to a kiddie-pool sized tank in comparison to the whole of the Icelandic coast that is his family's home....
http://www.timescolonist.com/technology/Captive+orca+industry+atrocity/2...

(Whoever wins on Sunday, in the glorious aftermath I hope the team busts out the water bong, Jack Daniels and the crack pipe. Fuck the IOC.)

I don't know whether to call this biased reporting r just stupid

Call it both and be safe. The main thing is an event happened, and regardless of media spin to some extent it was reported. A labor protest in Evansville, Indiana, a continued lockout battle in Boron, California, and a "riot" in Berkeley-- all in one day. Multiple that a hundred times a month, and you have something started.

Submitted by gloryoski on Fri, 02/26/2010 - 4:15pm.

... I am not conceding anything else...and I have my reasons to expect the kind of abuse from you that I thought I was seeing (although not of nora that I can recall).

So...sorry about that thing that time.

________________

Delighted to know you have yer reasons for expecting the kind of abuse from me that you thought you were seeing, gloryoski. Yer condescending imperiousness that yer "reasons" is right aside, I guess yer sunny justification makes yer previous harpy tone OK! (After all, you gots yer "reasons" for expecting "abuse"!)

It may astonish you to learn, gloryoski, that I, too, have my reasons for harboring misgivings about you. No, really! I do!

I wouldn't hazard to charge you with "abuse" toward me, tho', b/c:

One, I think it's a baseless charge for me to say that of you (tho', ironically, it's in the same vein of what you "have yer reasons for expecting" of me).

And two, I'd be purty embarrassed to make such a charge b/c I'd fear someone, rightly, would tell me to grow the fuck up.

You, clearly, are not so encumbered. (Yay you!)

Looks like barack is.

A spokesman for the Secular Coalition for America, a group that includes atheists, said its representatives met for close to an hour and a half Friday with Obama administration officials from the public engagement office of the White House and from the departments of Justice, Health and Human Services and Defense.

Paul Fidalgo, however, said he couldn't offer any details about what Obama aides said in the meeting because of an agreement that their discussion be kept private.

President Obama — as expected — did not make an appearance.

The meeting was notable because it was one of the rare times an administration has formally met with the coalition's members, which include the American Atheists and the Council for Secular Humanism.

On Thursday, coalition leaders said they had three areas of interest on their agenda: child medical neglect in homes where parents bbelieve in faith healing, proselytizing of religion in the military, and the Obama administration's advocacy of faith-based initiatives.

can one be a secular humanist in public and a hindu at home? The Hindu's don't seem to mind, I wonder how the council would feel about me?

California puts 11 office buildings up for sale

California has put up the "for sale" sign on 11 state office buildings, including the San Francisco Civic Center and Ronald Reagan building in Los Angeles.

how much money could WTP recover from the Bush administration?
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/8538013.stm

Thailand's Supreme Court has ruled that former PM Thaksin Shinawatra's family should be stripped of more than half a contested $2.3bn fortune.

The court said $1.4bn (£910m) of the assets were gained illegally through conflict of interest when Mr Thaksin was prime minister.

The funds were frozen after Mr Thaksin's elected government was overthrown in a military coup in 2006.

Mr Thaksin, who is living abroad, has denied any wrongdoing.

The Supreme Court said "to seize all the money would be unfair since some of it was made before Thaksin became prime minister".

ANALYSIS
By Vaudine England, BBC News, Bangkok By choosing to confiscate some, but not all of Mr Thaksin's known assets, the court has managed to dampen arguments from his "red shirt" supporters that the entire judiciary is suborned to a military-bureaucratic elite which intends to finish off Mr Thaksin once and for all.
But it will also weaken the government's demonisation of Mr Thaksin. It appears to be saying that the former prime minister did cheat on the hiding and increase of his fortune, but he was significantly and legitimately wealthy when he entered office. He remains a rich man by any standards.

What this verdict will not do is heal the divisions in this country, polarised by Mr Thaksin's hugely popular appeal and the threat this poses to the military-bureaucratic elite. The 2006 coup that deposed him continues to damage the legitimacy of the current military-backed government of Abhisit Vejajjiva - this basic issue also goes well beyond one man and his money.

The court took several hours to deliver its verdict, with security forces on high alert amid government predictions of violence by Mr Thaksin's red-shirted supporters if the court decision went against him.

The judges said that Mr Thaksin shaped government mobile phone and satellite communications policy to benefit his firms.

He abused his power to benefit telecoms company Shin Corp, which he owned then, earning wealth from shares sales in the company through "inappropriate means", they ruled.

The sale of Shin Corp to Singapore state investment firm Temasek in January 2006 was one of the main catalysts for widespread protests calling for Mr Thaksin to resign, and the government applied for the seizure of the proceeds from the sale.

The court dismissed defence arguments that the anti-corruption commission that instigated the proceedings against Mr Thaksin was illegitimate.

Mr Thaksin addressed his supporters from Dubai after the verdict.

"This is total political involvement. The government knew the result in advance," he said, according to Associated Press.

"I've been prepared for the result since yesterday. I knew that I would get hit, but they are kind enough to give me back 30 billion [baht]."

He had previously told them he would continue his political fight against the "military-bureaucratic elite" that deposed him - with or without his family fortune.

He has said the money he and his family earned was acquired legally. The full extent of fortune is unknown, but he is thought to be very wealthy.

Tensions in Thailand remain high. Tens of thousands of extra police have been placed in and around the capital, and in areas of the north-east of the country where some of Mr Thaksin's supporters are based.

Ronnie rewarded posthumously:
new
Submitted by ghettodefender on Fri, 02/26/2010 - 7:30pm.
California puts 11 office buildings up for sale

California has put up the "for sale" sign on 11 state office buildings, including the San Francisco Civic Center and Ronald Reagan building in Los Angeles.
====================

And Ahnold Schwarzenegger proceeds to FULLFILL his assignment to PRIVATIZE the State of California.

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0210/33598.html

[excerpt]

George Bush endorses Dick Cheney role

For the first time, former President George W. Bush has said publicly that he approves of former Vice President Dick Cheney’s high-profile role in defending the past administration’s national security policies.

“I’m glad Cheney is out there,” Bush said Friday morning at a reunion breakfast that was the inaugural event for the Bush-Cheney Alumni Association.

The reception, held at a downtown Washington hotel, was closed to the press. Attendees supplied this account of the remarks.

Cheney originally had been scheduled to appear with Bush but did not come because he is recovering from a heart scare. Bush visited his former vice president in McLean on Thursday and said Cheney “is feeling well” and has “a fierce constitution.”

The former president started with a funny patter that several attendees related to stand-up. In announcing his book, he joshed: “This is going to come as quite a shock to people up here that I can write a book, much less read one.”

Turning serious, Bush said: “I don't want to be involved in politics, but I do in policy.” He talked about his own record, saying of his signature education reform: “No Child Left Behind was the most advanced civil rights legislation since the Voting Rights Act.”

Giving advice, he urged humility. “Don’t swagger. Sometimes I got carried away rallying the country," he said. "I think the swagger criticism was fair. A lot of others weren't. I hope I conveyed a sense that I was a lowly sinner who found redemption. I'm not better than anyone else. What makes me different from others is that I realized I needed help.”

“I’m religious — I confess,” he continued. “One of the challenges in life is: Maintaining religious piety is harder when the pressure is off than when it is on. But now there is still a dependency in a greater grace.”

Bush made it clear he plans to continue to keep a low profile: “I have no desire to see myself on television. I don't want to be a panel of formers instructing the currents on what to do. I'm trying to regain a sense of anonymity. I didn't like it when a certain former president — and it wasn't 41 or 42 — made my life miserable.”

That was a reference to Jimmy Carter, the 39th president.

Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0210/33598.html#ixzz0gh7W8EXC

AIG posts $9 billion loss

By David Goldman, staff writerFebruary 26, 2010: 12:11 PM ET

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- AIG reported a substantial fourth-quarter loss Friday, largely due to costs associated with selling off large stakes in its insurance businesses to reduce the debt it owes to taxpayers.

The insurance giant said it lost $8.9 billion, or $65.51 per share, during the three-month period ended Dec. 31. A year earlier, AIG lost $61.7 billion, the largest quarterly loss in history.

[...]

As reported by other news operations, AIG said in a separate filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission that it would need more funding from taxpayers if the financial markets took a turn for the worse.

"Should certain of these risks emerge, AIG may need additional support from the U.S. government," the company said in the 10-K filing.

But that exact same language appeared in the company's previous 10-K. A spokeswoman for AIG confirmed that the company's potential need for more government assistance if financial conditions worsen was "not new."

Bloomberg

[Shiver] Sociopath Subculture exposed in this piece:

http://www.alternet.org/books/145819/ayn_rand%2C_hugely_popular_author_a...

[excerpt]

Ayn Rand, Hugely Popular Author and Inspiration to Right-Wing Leaders, Was a Big Admirer of Serial Killer

Today her works treated as gospel by right-wing powerhouses like Alan Greenspan and Clarence Thomas, but Ayn Rand found early inspiration in 1920's murderer William Hickman.

February 26, 2010
...

One reason why most countries don't find the time to embrace her thinking is that Ayn Rand is a textbook sociopath. Literally a sociopath: Ayn Rand, in her notebooks, worshiped a notorious serial murderer-dismemberer, and used this killer as an early model for the type of "ideal man" that Rand promoted in her more famous books -- ideas which were later picked up on and put into play by major right-wing figures of the past half decade, including the key architects of America's most recent economic catastrophe -- former Fed Chair Alan Greenspan and SEC Commissioner Chris Cox -- along with other notable right-wing Republicans such as Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, Rush Limbaugh, and South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford.

...

So what, and who, was Ayn Rand for and against? The best way to get to the bottom of it is to take a look at how she developed the superhero of her novel, Atlas Shrugged, John Galt. Back in the late 1920s, as Ayn Rand was working out her philosophy, she became enthralled by a real-life American serial killer, William Edward Hickman, whose gruesome, sadistic dismemberment of 12-year-old girl named Marion Parker in 1927 shocked the nation. Rand filled her early notebooks with worshipful praise of Hickman. According to biographer Jennifer Burns, author of Goddess of the Market, Rand was so smitten by Hickman that she modeled her first literary creation -- Danny Renahan, the protagonist of her unfinished first novel, The Little Street -- on him.

What did Rand admire so much about Hickman? His sociopathic qualities: "Other people do not exist for him, and he does not see why they should," she wrote, gushing that Hickman had "no regard whatsoever for all that society holds sacred, and with a consciousness all his own. He has the true, innate psychology of a Superman. He can never realize and feel 'other people.'"

This echoes almost word for word Rand's later description of her character Howard Roark, the hero of her novel The Fountainhead: "He was born without the ability to consider others."

The Fountainhead is Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas's favorite book -- he even requires his clerks to read it.

I'll get to where Rand picked up her silly Superman blather from later -- but first, let's meet William Hickman, the "genuinely beautiful soul" and inspiration to Ayn Rand. What you will read below -- the real story, details included, of what made Hickman a "Superman" in Ayn Rand's eyes -- is extremely gory and upsetting, even if you're well acquainted with true crime stories -- so prepare yourself. But it's necessary to read this to understand Rand, and to repeat this over and over until all of America understands what made her mind tick, because Rand's influence over the very people leading the fight to kill social programs, and her ideological influence on so many powerful bankers, regulators and businessmen who brought the financial markets crashing down, means her ideas are affecting all of our lives in the worst way imaginable.

Rand fell for William Edward Hickman in the late 1920s, as the shocking story of Hickman's crime started to grip the nation. His crime, trial and case was a non-stop headline grabber for months; the OJ Simpson of his day:....

[end excerpt]

This is the first weekend in jail for former police chief and convicted felon (eight big ones) For me it is a celebration. Bernard Kerik goes to prison for four years

Rudy Julliani has been enjoined not to show up in a dress for visiting hours.

I hope bernard knows how to make a shiv out of bic razors from the commissary or his safe return back to society might not happen.

enough said.

Submitted by taozen on Fri, 02/26/2010 - 5:56pm.
...I can see you already have dismissed Alan Pressman and Gary Null as unworthy of your respect...
---------
What I did was exemplify what you do: You discard science that you don't like because it is tainted by the corruption of capitalism.

On the top left of Null's home page, where it is the first thing you see, is a menu of Null's "Most popular products."

On the top right of Pressman's home page, where it is the second thing you see, is "Dr. Pressman's Marketplace."

Null and Pressman escape your accusation that science is corrupted by the bottom line. If someone had been sickened by one of their (unregulated) products, we would know, right? I mean, they would publish an apology and admit their wrongdoing, right? Neither of them would consider paying-off a sickened customer to keep them quiet. Hush money is what the mainstream medicine profit mongers pay, right?

If one of Null's or Pressman's products was statistically proved to be worthless, they'd let us know, wouldn't they? Of course they would. Unlike regular capitalists, they are good capitalists. They are good corporatists, too. The corporations they have created and are employed by are good corporations.

My goal is not to defend the status quo. My goal is to expose bogus arguments. You, taozen, are a thousand times more able than nora to recognize sweeping generalities and hollow statements. I have seen you retract and reword to clarify your argument. I have seen you reverse your position after further consideration.

You have decided to believe the scientific explanation for AIDS and to believe in Null's other claims at the same time. I have decided to believe in the science of thousands of vaccine studies and to believe in the corrupting influence of money at the same time.

It is possible to hold a belief without buying the whole kit and caboodle, although we both need a solid reason for believing one thing while not believing another thing. It cannot always be the same reason. If it is, it's zealotry.

Zealotry blinds people. The greater the zeal, the less willing and able to see. There is a language of repetition in zealotry that is easy to recognize. Zealspeak is filled with vaguely-defined nouns that are front-loaded with negative connotations; corporatist, infidel, fascist, pagan, oligarch, tree-hugger, redneck, atheist.

I hate zealotry. The worst that the world has to offer is wrapped in zeal.

Sen. Durbin Destroys Republican
Arguments on Malpractice Reform
from:
http://www.youtube.com/user/firedoglake
-------------------------------------

Sen. Durbin: "If nothing comes of this,
we're going to press forward,
we just can't quit." 1:10

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cmXKZ-ZqqoY

_ _ _ _
brr

Submitted by Crank Bait on Fri, 02/26/2010 - 9:01pm.

... I hate zealotry. The worst that the world has to offer is wrapped in zeal.

__________________

Zealot 1: "My ardor far outstrips yours!"
Zealot 2: "Yeah, right. Zealous much?"

maybe it doesn't...as front-loaded words go, zealot is in a class by itself...

"How cheerfully he seems to grin,
How neatly spreads his claws,
And welcoms little fishes in,
With gently smiling jaws!"
-Lewis Carol

Edit - Actualy touched typed in by hant

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

Blue Roots Radio

So the males in charge at the International Olympic Committee are deciding to remove women's events and, thereby, women athletes' equal opportunity/treatment in the Olympic Games. That's a step backwards.

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/sports/jan-june10/olympics_02-26.html

[excerpt]

And -- and there is a bit of a controversy, because the IOC president, Jacques Rogge, has said that he wants to see improvement. He wants to see other nations doing well, or he might consider getting women's hockey out of the Olympics.

I find that a stunning thing for this man to say. Maybe what he should be do is talking to the federation presidents, all of them men, who are not paying attention to women's hockey, and encouraging some of these other nations to start ponying up to give some money and some attention to the women's side of their sport.

JUDY WOODRUFF: So, women's sports in some jeopardy?

CHRISTINE BRENNAN: Well, they have been. As you know, softball was taken out of the Olympics. That's a women's-only sport. That was a final decision just a few months ago, a devastating blow for softball.

Now, you would say, OK, that is a U.S. sport or Asian. Well, they were actually growing the game in Africa and encouraging young girls to learn softball. And now that has been nipped in the bud by the International Olympic Committee and Jacques Rogge, who made this decision to get rid of softball.

We saw the same thing. Women's ski jumping was supposed to be in these Games, but then Jacques Rogge said, no, you cannot be in it. There is men's ski jumping, of course.

So, as he talks about getting the 50/50 participation, male and female, at the Olympics, he is nowhere near that. It is about 40 percent women here, 60 percent men. And what he is doing is going the other direction by getting rid of women's sports. And I can't believe that I am even saying those sentences in 2010.

[end excerpt]

        Films  
_ _ _
brr

It's George Wallace's GOP Now

via

Like Wallace and his supporters 40 years ago, today's conservative populists are long on anger and short on coherence.

by Jonathan Rauch

The history of the modern Republican Party in one sentence: Barry Goldwater and Nelson Rockefeller got into an argument and George Wallace won.

... Wallace's national appeal came neither from the racial backlash he exploited nor from his program, such as it was. "It was a deep sense of grievance," Carter says -- a feeling that elites "are not only screwing you over but at the same time they're laughing at you, they're looking down their noses at you."

Fast-forward to the present. The hottest ticket in the Republican Party is Sarah Palin, the former governor of Alaska and the party's 2008 vice presidential nominee. In a recent column, George Will compared her insurgent libertarianism to that of Goldwater's, which electrified the Right in 1964. Fair enough. But Goldwater served for 30 years as a respected insider in Washington's most exclusive club, the U.S. Senate; he was never interested in cultural and social issues; resentment and rage were alien to him. Palin's style and appeal are closer to Wallace's ...

______________

Rauch goes to great pains, why I don't know, to absolve the modern-day GOP of using divisive racial politics. This, I think, is incorrect. However, apart from that, imo, defect, I thought the article rightly assesses where the center of gravity is in the GOP.

Read DougJ's thoughts (in the "via" link) and agree -- race is still a galvanizing force in the GOP, contra Rauch (who thinks the GOP ain't a racists party, which misses the point that they is a race-baiting party). But would disagree w/DougJ's characterization of the GOP's tactics re: race slightly.

DougJ paraphrases Lee Atwater in sayin' that race is more "abstract" in the modern-day GOP, but I think the GOP's race-baiting ain't abstract at all, just more subtle in the dog-whistle kinda way.

It's still a part of the standard playbook, just less overt and more refined.

imo

Submitted by cent on Fri, 02/26/2010 - 10:08pm.
...as front-loaded words go, zealot is in a class by itself...
------------
It earned its weightiness from its word history.

Zeal can have a positive connotation. Zealot and zealotry can not.

Submitted by jbenet on Fri, 02/26/2010 - 10:12pm.
"How cheerfully he seems to grin,
How neatly spreads his claws,
And welcoms little fishes in,
With gently smiling claws!"
-------------
If only jaws were to rhyme with claws, what a kick-ass ditty it could have been.

Submitted by Crank Bait on Fri, 02/26/2010 - 10:23pm.

... Zeal can have a positive connotation. Zealot and zealotry can not.

_______________________

"[John Kerry] is the man who wants to be the Commander-in-Chief of our U.S. Armed Forces? Armed with what? Spitballs?"

-- Zealot Miller

I learned this week California has passed a slick piece of legislation the, California Fair Elections Now Act, and get this, it's funded by lobbyists! Leave it to those krazy kalifornyuns to come up with that idea. It's very specific, limited to two election cycles and only one office, then it has to be voted on again. I hope it will prompt other states to follow.

Then there's some other stuff about this and that and the other thing. ;-)

I always liked the Zealot def.

'one that redoubles their effort
when the goal has been forgotten'

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

Blue Roots Radio

So MAYBE to you "David" (old buddy, old pal) the opposite of compliment isn't _abuse_? Maybe it's "just" _insult?_ No matter what "load" (in so many ways) the words have in the front OR the back of them?

Whatever. I'm still sorry for that one thing. Other than that...like you...what Edith (not Bunker) said. I have chosen not to defend myself against the majority of your "insults" b/c I got better things to do.

(Folksy and "pissy" can go together too you know, and [just to prove it] don't matter what or where the piss comes out of. Or who ["yay you!!!"].)

You started it...

Swing And A Miss
Submitted by Crank Bait on Fri, 02/26/2010 - 10:31pm.
Submitted by jbenet on Fri, 02/26/2010 - 10:12pm.
"How cheerfully he seems to grin,
How neatly spreads his claws,
And welcoms little fishes in,
With gently smiling claws!"
-------------
If only jaws were to rhyme with claws, what a kick-ass ditty it could have been.

=====
Bait DOES know it WAS actually "jaws," right?

http://www.readprint.com/work-180/How-Doth-The-Little-Crocodile-Lewis-Ca...

Yes, I am risking being charged with humor/irony impairment again, cuz I can't stand the possibility that a poet (even a pedophile poet) would do a bid on a bum rap.

Te lo agradezco pero no

Submitted by gloryoski on Fri, 02/26/2010 - 10:44pm.

_____________

Look, glory, you apparently only "te lo agradezco" when you include yer imperious comment about how you were justified in jumping to conclusions b/c you had yer (non-cited) "reasons" for why I were on yer radar for "abuse".

I ain't obliged to accept yer te lo agradezco-ing on yer terms, gloryoski, specially when I sorta object to yer te lo agradezco pre-conditions.

It's sorta like if I was to tell you that tho' I often find you a shrieking harpy who unfairly jumps to conclusions, you often make good points otherwise.

Somehow I doubt, should I respond to you in this manner similar to your own, that you'd feel all warm 'n cuddly about my comment.

"Get HER!"

(Federico could have done so much better [and did].)

(But not in time for Whitman to avoid getting bum rap.)

Can They Ever Stop Whining?

by digby

Waaaaaah:

----------

Jamie Dimon, the chief executive of JPMorgan Chase, says he believes Washington has become increasingly erratic and unfair in its treatment of the banks over the last few months, and he now has some regrets about participating in the government’s Troubled Asset Relief Program.

“F.D.I.C. is going to cost us a lot of money. TARP cost us a lot of money. This bank tax, my first reaction was, ‘That will cost us a lot of money,’” Mr. Dimon said Thursday at the bank’s annual Investor Day conference in New York. “I think we are getting into the capricious, arbitrary and punitive behavior.”

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

Oh boo fucking hoo. For the first time in my life I'm really beginning to understand why the French went so nuts with the Guillotine. They were just sick to death of having to watch spoiled aristocrats behave as if a bunch of hungry, armed, very pissed off peasants presented absolutely no threat to them whatsoever. At some point you want to kick their privileged asses just to shut them up.

I don't stick around listening to arguments like yours unless I'm getting paid...And 30 dollars a day ain't near enough.

Tell it to the judge, dr

Submitted by gloryoski on Fri, 02/26/2010 - 11:18pm.

I don't stick around listening to arguments like yours unless I'm getting paid...And 30 dollars a day ain't near enough.

________________

So apparently we've established what you are. Now we're just haggling over price?

Submitted by gloryoski on Fri, 02/26/2010 - 11:08pm.
Bait DOES know it WAS actually "jaws," right?
----------
Of course I don't. Why...if I did, I could have made a joke about the typo; maybe a short quip noting that claws is repeated where jaws would have fit nicely.

And if I had known that it was written as a song, not as a poem, I could have referred to it as a ditty.

Oh. I did. What a lucky break. I guess I was just born lucky.

Comments on Crank's posts:

http://www.samsedershow.com/node/5669#comment-397706
http://www.samsedershow.com/node/5669#comment-397715

Hey Crank, why do you insist on dust-ups on the main thread?

for interrogation methods

for Sam

http://poll.fm/tnyb

Last years votes
_ _ _
brr

And so it seems I must... *insert staged/melodramatic honorable death here* Then...*the (staged/melodramatic) resurrection...or curtain call if you prefer*...whatever...

As for "written as a song," it doesn't seem so from these sources...

http://books.google.com/books?id=Y7sOAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA20&dq=gently+smiling+...

http://www.recmusic.org/lieder/get_text.html?TextId=21634

http://www.recmusic.org/lieder/get_text.html?TextId=40010

But as ever (and unlike some) I am willing to admit I could be wrong and that I don't know/understand/"get" everything.

I'd gladly sacrifice my kewl to fully exonerate a good songwriter too...anyday.

of what's worth my time and what ain't.

And many groveling apologies in advance (and not in a fun way) if I am still getting AIW stuff wrong.

conditioned himself to endure extremes. He would submerge himself in bathtubs full of ice cubes and at other times dive into ponds and go for the world Staying Under Water record. Later he assembled an audience in the frozen winter and then cut a hole in the ice on the pond and dove in. He was down there for a long time; reportedly he came up and struck the underside of the ice some distance from the hole. But he did maintain the patience to figure out how to get out of there. He didn't drown then.
Maybe we should barehandedly put a paperclip into light sockets every day (to inure ourselves to tasing), put our heads in soggy dry cleaning bags (waterboarding), and superglue our hands into big fat ski gloves (bamboo shoots and maybe thumbscrews). Forget about carrying a gun;that's like Mr Mustard carrying his candlestick in that overhead-schematic drawing room.
Here, we just keep our sneakers on and have a place to run across a border.

"Ain't no king in this country." - Jett Rink, in Giant, before he gained the power of a king

you crazy Vermonster you.

How's life in your neck of the east woods?

while I disappear.

nora, you're mauling him
he's like a little naked fat guy curled up in a box...
he has nowhere to hide
hahaha...
but *gulp*
he has attitude

(just an excuse to post a silly pic)
(a pic of taozen protesting inside a big pharma box)
(circa: yesterday afternoon)
(and notice how he makes the foolish assumption of equating sexiness with nudity, lol, just because he saw me fucking naked fucking in a fucking porno (which gave him the horn) he takes a quantum leap that nakedness = sexiness)
(lol)
how bizarre!

//[who] conditioned himself to endure extremes//

obviously, he never read one of your bizarre posts
or blogged here

then he'd have his contortionist mettle tested!

But please don't hurt yourself trying to keep up.

http://www.samsedershow.com/node/5669#comment-397729

I did say I'd fall on my sword about the "claws/jaws" thingy...

Submitted by gloryoski on Sat, 02/27/2010 - 12:19am.

... But as ever (and unlike some) I am willing to admit I could be wrong and that I don't know/understand/"get" everything.

I'd gladly sacrifice my kewl to fully exonerate a good songwriter too...anyday..

_________________________

re: "(and unlike some) I am willing to admit I could be wrong"

What's really choice, to me, is how you present yerself as being generous in making this concession.

Please note: This concession arose not before making a churlish comment that is distinguished by its lack of a respectful reading or giving the benefit of the doubt.

Not a charitable response.

It does you no honor, gloryoski, to "admit" yer wrong in yer wild-ass supposition after leveling a charge that is unjustified. It's sorta expected, not yer chance to get a blue ribbon.

And it does you even less honor, gloryoski, to passive-aggressively gloryoskify yer contrastable charitableness ("unlike some!") in makin' a (necessary) concession when you've been less than gloryoskious in the first place in makin' an unfounded charge.

And it does you even less honor yet, gloryoski, to claim to "exonerate" a "good songwriter".

Newsflash: This might astonish you, gloryoski, but the "songwriter" don't need yer exoneration. You ain't a lonely sentinel defending his honor. But you did lean on the rationalization that it were so. And wouldn't it be pretty to think so?

Hence: the compensatory comment. ('N you sacrificed yer "kewl" 'n all to do so, too!) Like you saved the day for the maligned songwriter by makin' damn sure a(n)(obvious, to all but you, evidently) joke earned its dog food.

It's purty sad, really, but it does prove that an appallin' lack a self-awareness ain't just a singular affliction of the GOP.

They continue to get away with sooo much.

http://dissidentvoice.org/2010/02/combating-the-disinformation-propagand...

[excerpt]

Combating the Disinformation, Psyops, and Cover-ups of the US Military

A Scrape in the Teflon US Military Propaganda: Interview with Captain Eric H. May

by Kim Petersen and B.J. Sabri / February 24th, 2010

Few people have heard of the Battle of Baghdad. They might remember Mohammad Saeed al-Sahhaf, Iraq’s information minister, warning of a surprise awaiting U.S. troops if they attacked Saddam International Airport. Later, al-Sahhaf claimed that the Iraqi Republican Guard had slaughtered U.S. troops and was in control of the entire airport. His claims, according to one intelligence officer, were true, but were countered by a US military-media campaign of evasions and distortions which switched the subject from the airport to Private Jessica Lynch and ridiculed al-Sahhaf as “Baghdad Bob.”

What came to be called the Battle of Baghdad Cover-Up (BOBCUP), was an illegal deception of the American people, as well as a desecration of the military men who had fought and died only to be pushed into the memory hole by Big Brother Bush. Captain Eric H. May, a former U.S. Army intelligence and public affairs officer, responded by investigating and confirming BOBCUP, which he reported to an Army Inspector General and to a corporate media that were both cowed and complicit. Realizing that the entire US establishment was dedicated to waging a criminal global war and erecting an oppressive homeland state, Capt. May honored his military oath “to protect and defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic.” He formed and assumed command of a cyber intelligence group, which he named Ghost Troop to honor the unacknowledged ghosts from the Battle of Baghdad. Before long the unit swelled to several hundred members, including veterans of all services, as well as a former Assistant Secretary of the Navy and a U.S. ambassador.

Initially, Ghost Troop’s mission was to penetrate the propaganda of the corporate media, government, and military; and to provide essential information being withheld to the American people. Shortly after the Madrid bombing of 3/11, 2004, Capt. May and his chief officers determined that Madrid had been a “false flag” terrorist act carried out by the pro-war Spanish government in an attempt to turn the war weary Spanish people into hawks. They reasoned that the 9/11 attacks, which achieved the same purpose in the USA, were also false flag terrorism. Finally, they agreed that the U.S. government was routinely telling the public that there “was going to be another 9/11″ because it meant to administer it. With grim humor, Ghost Troop began to refer to this future false flag as “9/11-2B.” Using their military and media savvy to frustrate the 9/11-2B false flag became their second mission, and consumed most of their efforts.

Those who know Capt. May well consider his unique mission of conscience to be the stuff of legend. The Lone Star Iconoclast in Central Texas has long demanded that Congress investigate his uncanny ability to warn the Internet about false flag dangers: he has forecast petrochemical refinery explosions in Southeast Texas, each of which may have been a foiled terror attack, six times. He exposed a US WMD team that had infiltrated the Texas City refinery area in February 2006. Publisher W. Leon Smith credits him with saving the Republic by his leadership of Ghost Troop to prevent 9/11-2B.1

There is a growing movement in the 9/11 “truth” and patriot movements to press for Congress to award him the nation’s highest military honor. Shortly after the publication of the Iconoclast editorial, Dr. James H. Fetzer, the founder of Scholars for 9/11 Truth and a close collaborator and friend of the captain’s gave voice to many with his glowing accolade: “This is a completely brilliant and fully justified recommendation, which I wholeheartedly support. I have not admired anyone during my life as much as I have Captain May. He is a superb analyst and remarkable human being.”

Capt. May was a vibrant, fit man — a martial arts expert — when he began to lead Ghost Troop. He was constantly under threat from the military, the FBI and various national police and intelligence agencies. He was mysteriously stricken with ALS, commonly referred to as Lou Gehrig’s disease, subsequent to his dissidence. Despite the advanced condition of the disease, Capt. May, now a paralyzed disabled veteran, was good enough to partake in the following interview.2

[interview follows]

[end excerpt]

so i thought i'd post a *dirty* pic on nora's open mic, instead
but it didn't transmit

(update: oh, wow! it did transmit)

you know the doc is serious when...
he spits out the straw he's beena chew'n on
and drops his boorish hick accent

Well I guess that's one way to keep up.

MMmm

Sorry - I feel like shit for blurting that. Never really liked the dozens.

Probably 'cause I always walked away hurt and bleeding.

Have a pleasant tomorrow

i don't know that game
i only know about it because mike malloy has mentioned it
and i know it involves hurt & bleeding

lol

Submitted by air-ono on Sat, 02/27/2010 - 1:25am.

you know the doc is serious when...
he spits out the straw he's beena chew'n on
and drops his boorish hick accent

____________________

It irritates me to confess that you is stumblt onto the poppy seeds a truth.

best i remove the dirty pic

: )

nods solemnly to the doc

Submitted by air-ono on Sat, 02/27/2010 - 1:38am.

______________________

[there was tmi]
[and it was embarrassing]

that's what ellwort's "wank" post was referring to

it's a an x-box

OK - Furgedaboudit!

the pic finally appeared

ya, that was a fun night

i've nearly wrigggled free of my straight jacket

ciao

Wank

Submitted by ellwort on Sat, 02/27/2010 - 2:05am.

OK - We'll discreetly look away. Everybody in this room has done that.

_______________

'Minds me of a coupla old jerk-off jokes:

First:

There's two great lies tolt in ever' man's life. One is he claims he ain't never masturbated. 'N the second is he sez he stoppt right he got married.

Second:

What's the most sensitive part onna teen-age boy's body? His ears.

http://www.samsedershow.com/node/5669#comment-397750

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

Blue Roots Radio

http://www.truthout.org/national-archives-watchdog-demand-doj-probe-dest...

[excerpt]

National Archives, Watchdog Demand DOJ Probe Destruction of John Yoo's Emails
Friday 26 February 2010

by: Jason Leopold, t r u t h o u t | Report

Editor's note: This story has been updated to include new information about the filing of FOIA request by a good government group seeking documents related to the destruction of the emails.

The National Archives and a watchdog group sent letters to the Justice Department (DOJ) Thursday demanding an investigation into the destruction of John Yoo's emails from the summer of 2002, when he and other government attorneys prepared and finalized legal memoranda for the CIA that redefined torture and authorized interrogators to brutalize war on terror detainees.

The Federal Records Act (FRA) requires the preservation of government documents. Records cannot be destroyed unless approved by the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA). According to the DOJ's web site, emails fall under FRA if they pertain to government business.

...
The voluminous report noted, however, that while OPR investigtors were initially provided us with a relatively small number of emails, files, and draft documents," it became "apparent, during the course of our review, that relevant documents were missing..."

OPR "requested and were given direct access to the email and computer records of REDACTED, Yoo, [Deputy Assistant Attorney General Patrick] Philbin, Bybee, and [fomer OLC head Jack] Goldsmith" during the course of the investigation into the creation of the torture memos. But OPR investigators said their probe was “hampered by the loss of Yoo's and Philbin's email records."

OPR investigators said they were told that most of “Yoo's email records" as well as "Philbin's email records from July 2002 through August 5, 2002 - the time period in which the Bybee Memo was completed and the Classified Bybee Memo ... was created" were deleted and "reportedly" not recoverable. The deleted emails also included other relevant documents the OPR needed to assist its investigation, according to the report.

It is unknown whether any steps were ever taken by DOJ to retrieve the emails before deeming them "unrecoverable." Curiously, the report says that although OPR investigators "were initially advised that Goldsmith’s records had been deleted, we were later told that they had been recovered and we were given access to them." The report does not provide further explanation.

In a letter sent Thursday to Jeanette Plante at the DOJ's Office of Records and Management Policy, Paul Wester, director of the Archives' modern record program, said, in accordance with federal rules governing the preservation of records, if the “DOJ determines that an unauthorized destruction has occurred, then DOJ needs to submit a report to" NARA.

Wester requested a response within 30 days. A DOJ spokesperson was unavailable for comment.

The destruction of Yoo's and Philbin's emails also caught the attention of watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), which had waged a years-long legal battle with the Bush administration over its destruction of tens of millions of emails and failed efforts to take steps to recover the documents and preserve others.

Melanie Sloan, CREW's executive director, said Thursday, “given the disappearance of millions of Bush White House emails, we shouldn't be surprised that crucial emails also disappeared from the Bush Justice Department."

“The question now is what is the Attorney General going to do about it?" she said.

[end excerpt]

http://www.truthout.org/crew-files-lawsuit-alleges-va-underreported-numb...

http://www.truthout.org/how-big-banks-greek-style-schemes-are-bankruptin...

[excerpt]

Big Banks have created an exotic financial instrument that is the equivalent of a payday loan for cash-strapped state and local governments, innocently labeled an "interest rate swap."

In the United States, states and local governments cannot run deficits. This year states face a $357 billion budget shortfall and local governments are facing an additional $82 billion budget shortfall. States have begun cutting basic services like snow removal, reduced garbage pickup, and in Colorado Springs they went to the pawn shop – selling police helicopters on the Internet.

In a desperate effort to meet budget needs, states and local governments over the last decade have gone to the big banks to ask for exotic instruments known as interest rate swaps. These desperate state and local governments were taken advantage of in the same way that Greece was by Goldman Sachs. Likewise, these swaps are threatening the economic health of local cities and states.

These interest rate swaps have cost American taxpayers $28 billion alone in fees and excessive interest. The money which could have been used for badly needed basic services instead goes to help the big banks develop more sophisticated practices to steal money off of regular Americans. Big banks led by Goldman Sachs used deceptive marketing to get states and local governments to buy these swaps.

How do they work? State and local governments take out variable rate bonds to pay for infrastructure projects. In the typical deal, these governments agreed to "swap" interest rates on variable-rate bonds. The government would pay the bank a fixed rate in exchange for a variable payment that would track the interest actually due on the bonds. Make much sense to you? Me neither, at first. That's why banks loved these things.

...

Part-time municipal council members all over America desperate to fund infrastructure projects during the Bush economy signed up without understanding that these swaps were worse than most payday loans. On the other hand, many of the people involved in these transactions knew they were losing propositions.

...

Banks and states were supposed to be paying equal rates. However, with the fed lowering interest rates, which was anticipated, now states and local governments are paying about 50 times what the banks are paying. Talk about a windfall profit the banks are making off of the suffering of local economies.
To make matters worse, these state and local governments have no way of getting out these deals. Banks are demanding that state and local governments pay tens or hundreds of millions of dollars in fees to exit these deals. In some cases, banks are forcing termination of the deals against the will of state and local governments, using obscure contract provisions written in the fine print.

...

[end excerpt]

;) {working & around {kinda ;}}

I like that. Is it part of a series?

I've been here so long, I remember when that was not the standard blog greeting to air-ono.

Pictures of the world's largest Masonic Temple (home to the DDG).

8.8 magnitude. At least 78 people found dead so far. At least 15 aftershocks of 5.5 to 6.8.

There is a Tsunami warning for the West Coast and Alaska and a Tsunami Warning in Hawaii.

There was also an earth quake off the coast of Japan yesterday.

toniD's Ya Think?

8.8-magnitude earthquake hits central Chile
By EVA VERGARA, Associated Press Writer Eva Vergara, Associated Press Writer 14 mins ago

SANTIAGO, Chile – Chile's government says 76 people are confirmed dead in a giant earthquake that has collapsed buildings and set off a tsunami.

The death toll comes from the deputy interior minister, Patricio Rosende. His boss, Edmundo Perez Yoma says: "the death toll will continue rising."

The magnitude-8.8 earthquake has caused a huge wave that reached a populated area in the Robinson Crusoe Islands off the Chilean coast. Tsunami warnings have been issued over a wide area, including South America, Hawaii, Australia and New Zealand, Japan, the Philippines, Russia and many Pacific islands.

The earthquake struck early Saturday.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.

SANTIAGO, Chile (AP) — A massive 8.8-magnitude earthquake struck Chile early Saturday, killing at least 64 people, collapsing buildings and setting off a tsunami.

A huge wave reached a populated area in the Robinson Crusoe Islands, 410 miles (660 kilometers) off the Chilean coast, said President Michele Bachelet.

Tsunami warnings were issued over a wide area, including South America, Hawaii, Australia and New Zealand, Japan, the Philippines, Russia and many Pacific islands.

"It has been a devastating earthquake," Interior Minister Edmundo Perez Yoma told reporters. He said at least 64 people have been killed, and "the death toll will continue rising."

Bachelet declared a "state of catastrophe" in central Chile.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100227/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/lt_chile_earthquak...

toniD's Ya Think?

an ice floe in Antarctica running into a glacier and knocking off a piece of the glacier as big as the country of Luxumberg and I am wondering if this could be a part of this disaster.

toniD's Ya Think?

Tsunami advisory canceled after 7.0 earthquake off Okinawa

(CNN) -- A tsunami advisory announced shortly after a 7.0-magnitude earthquake struck Japan's Ryukyu Islands early Saturday has been canceled, Japan's Meteorological Agency reported.

There was no tsunami damage "though there may be slight sea level changes from now on," it said, referring to the areas affected by the advisory -- the Okinawa Islands, the Amami Islands and the Tokara Islands.

The quake was centered 10 kilometers (6.2 miles) deep and struck at 5:31 a.m. (3:31 p.m. ET Friday) about 85 kilometers (53 miles) from Okinawa.

The quake was felt on Okinawa, with shaking that lasted about 15 seconds, said Lt. Col. Daniel King of the U.S. Pacific Command. He told CNN that commanders in Japan and Hawaii were trying to get damage and casualty reports from U.S. military stations on Okinawa, but had heard nothing in the immediate aftermath.

About 20,000 U.S. troops -- mostly Marines, along with Navy and Air Force personnel -- are stationed on eight bases on Okinawa, he said.

http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/asiapcf/02/26/japan.okinawa.earthquake/ind...

toniD's Ya Think?

can i ask you a favor?

could you repost the link to that movie from the prelinger archives about old photographs of downtown detroit?

i was at work and couldn't watch it when you first posted - then i tried to look for it later on that evening but i didn't find

thanks

Stiglitz on the need for a second stimulus
by John Aravosis (DC) on 2/26/2010 07:39:00 PM
Nobel economist Joe Stiglitz talks about the stimulus - the first one, and the need for a second.

ZC: We've talked a lot about banks so far, but there is more to the economy than banking. It's been a really bad year for American households. Do we need a second stimulus? If so, what should it look like?

JS: We clearly need a second stimulus. There are a couple of ways of seeing this. When the Obama administration first moved on the stimulus, it posed a scenario that was not really rosy, but one that proved a little too optimistic. It expected unemployment without the stimulus it would be around 10 percent, with the stimulus it would be brought down to 8 percent. Others like me thought things were going to be much worse, that without the stimulus, unemployment would be around 12 percent and with the stimulus, it would be about 10 percent. And the pessimists were right. Well, when the world turns out to be worse than you thought it would, you have to adjust what you do.

But even a much bigger stimulus would have only brought the unemployment rate down to about 8 percent, which is still totally unacceptable. So right now I am very much in favor of a second round of stimulus. Hopefully, it will be better designed and more targeted to job creation and actually stimulating the economy. The tax cuts in the first round weren't designed really to stimulate the economy very much and didn't work very effectively.

ZC: And what do you do to create jobs? Are we talking fiscal aid to states? Unemployment benefits? A new WPA?

JS: The first thing I would do is aid to the states. The states have balanced budget frameworks. The revenues are down by around $200 billion because of the recession. If they don't get aid, they have to either raise taxes—which is very hard in the current environment—or cut back expenditures. And what they inevitably cut are teachers, nurses, firefighters and a whole set of crucial public services which are all the more important in an economic recession.

So the first thing is to provide states with money, and that spending goes right to the economy very quickly. You don't have to set up new programs and it really does save jobs. I would also do one of the things that Obama is pushing now which are job credits to encourage companies to hire more workers. Focus a little bit more direct attention on jobs. We don't know how effective these are going to be. There is some debate, but it seems to me that if we don't try we're not going to get anywhere.

http://www.alternet.org/economy/145773/joseph_stiglitz:_bankers_made_rec...

toniD's Ya Think?

I would be running to the highlands if Ilived on the coasts in the near by regions.

Money market accounts are not bringing in enough revenue and bernard kerik was over sentenced by a black judge on the bloomberg radio this morning. Everyone has their priorities

these earthquakes and glaciers sure sound like signs of the end times. maybe those mayans were right...

Submitted by toniD on Sat, 02/27/2010 - 7:19am.

tonid I am there with you wondering if this could be a part of this disaster?

There will be some big shifts and waves to follow such a large violent shake Earthquake today, maybe Hawaii or ?

I was wondering what would happen on saturday today after the big Healthcare show down. The Shamans around the world are certainly connecting the dots and are predicting continuous major turmoil for all who share the earth. Some of these healthcare providers,called shamans in the underdevolped regions of the planet are unscientificaly saying that Humanity is suffering from the greed and disrespect for "The great provider's" laws of respect and compassion required to sustain the balance on the planet.

and what am i reading in italian news

that the berlusconi government is going full steam with his plan to start building nuclear plants at least four in italy (the exact location not decided on - LOL - because it looks like lots of people are in favor but NO ONE wants it in their backyard - LOL - what a surprise)

italy, if you don't know, is very volcanic and earthquake prone type of terrain

but they did elect - and still favor - a fascist form of government, so what can you expect

they are getting what they deserve, they will reap what they sow

still, think of what will be lost

italy has in its tiny surface more than half of all human cultural and artistic patrimony in the world

not to minimize the chile and japan and haiti and other countries' disasters

just musing, because this nuclear enterprising news - that comes on the heel of the new obama policies i am quite sure - is very fresh in my mind

he should be in on the president's daily briefings for sure.

Eve of Destruction

toniD's Ya Think?

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/02/27/chile-earthquake-83-magni_n_479...

Woman with high DHA levels who are under chemotherapy have a much greater chance of survival.
British Journal of cancer volume 101.

reported this morning by the charlatan and corporate hack Dr. Pressman
he makes this stuff up just to make money on the sick what an evil man. I put my money with Rumsfeld anyday.

Emanuel, Pelosi Meet In Capitol To Chart Health Care Course

Rahm Emanuel ventured to the Capitol Friday evening to hash out health care strategy with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), a White House aide confirmed.

The meeting comes as Democrats are searching for a way to get to the health care finish line, though neither chamber wants to move first. Senate leaders want the House to pass the Senate bill first, after which the Senate would use reconciliation to fix the legislation to the liking of the Senate. House leaders contend that the votes aren't there for the Senate bill if the upper chamber doesn't move. The House, after two centuries of watching the Senate lag behind, doesn't trust that it'll act.

Senior Hill aides speculated to HuffPost that Emanuel, the White House chief of staff, would bring the message that the House must move first, with a pledge from Senate Democrats that they would follow. It's hard to make amendments to a law through reconciliation if that law hasn't been made official yet, they argue.

Pelosi's office wouldn't confirm that the meeting, which was still ongoing as of the early evening, was taking place or comment on what Pelosi's reaction might be. A White House aide said he was unsure what message Emanuel would deliver.

The meeting comes after Pelosi got under the skin of Senate Democrats on Wednesday by making a veiled challenge at a press conference. "We can't say to [the American people], at the end of the day, well, we had an idea, we had a vision, we had a majority, but the process did not allow us to make a change for your lives," she said. "We need to have the courage to get the job done, and I think we will. And I think today took us a step closer to passing health care."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/02/26/emanuel-pelosi-meet-in-ca_n_479...

toniD's Ya Think?

Reid: Nearly 1.5 Million Will Be Unable To Watch Local TV Because Of Senate Inaction

It's bad enough that thanks to Senate inaction more than a million laid-off workers could lose their unemployment benefits and subsidized health insurance in March, but it gets worse: According to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), nearly 1.5 million people will be unable to watch local TV stations starting Monday.

The package of extensions the Senate failed to pass included not just a 30-day extension of unemployment benefits, but also extensions of subsidized COBRA health insurance, flood insurance, small business loans, highway funding, and, apparently, a "satellite television extension" that allows people in rural areas to watch their local TV stations via satellite.

Reid said the bill's provisions are extremely important -- "Especially to those people who are unemployed and those who at midnight Sunday night will lose the ability, almost 1.5 million people in rural America, will no longer be able to watch local television."

According to MultiChannel news, because of the Senate's failure, "satellite operators will not be allowed to import distant affiliate TV station signals to viewers who cannot receive a viewable version of their local affiliate."

HuffPost has placed calls to satellite TV providers and will update this story as soon as more info becomes available.

Sen. Jim Bunning (R-Ky.), in the name of taking a stand against deficit spending, single-handedly prevented the Senate from proceeding to a vote on the extensions.

Bunning acknowledged rural satellite TV viewers in remarks on the Senate floor Friday morning. According to an unofficial Senate transcript, Bunning agreed "that everybody in this chamber wants to extend unemployment benefits, COBRA health care benefits, flood insurance, highway bill assistance, medical doc fix, small business loans, and rural satellite television for viewers that can't get cable or something."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/02/26/reid-nearly-15-million-to_n_478...

toniD's Ya Think?

Ron Wyden To Block Other Extensions Until Senate Extends UI And COBRA Benefits

Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) has vowed to prevent the Senate from extending any other expiring laws until it extends unemployment benefits and subsidized health insurance for laid off workers.

Sen. Jim Bunning (R-Ky.) is single-handedly blocking Senate action needed to prevent an estimated 1.2 million American workers from prematurely losing their unemployment benefits next month. When, on the Senate floor, Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) begged him to drop his objection Bunning replied: "Tough shit."

The Senate adjourned on Friday without renewing the benefits. As a result, hundreds of thousands of people will stop receiving unemployment checks every week, starting Monday.

Wyden is outraged. "Denying [the unemployed] legislation that helps them pay for the basic necessities of life is fundamentally wrong," Wyden told HuffPost. "For people that are getting hammered in this economy, trying literally to figure out from their kitchen table and their living rooms how they're going to get by, this legislation is a lifeline."

Senate Democrats had been pushing a stopgap measure that would extend by 30 days the eligibility deadline for enhanced unemployment benefits and subsidized COBRA health insurance. The stimulus bill provided the subsidy and more than 50 extra weeks of federally-funded benefits for laid-off workers. But after Feb. 28 laid-off workers will be ineligible for the additional "tiers" of benefits. State workforce agencies have already sent out letters telling some benefits recipients that they will be ineligible for the extra benefits.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) pleaded with Bunning to let the bill proceed to a vote, arguing that letting the benefits expire would wreak havoc on unemployed families and the economic recovery. Bunning wants to fund the extension with unused stimulus money.

Now Wyden is fighting back with the same much-maligned parliamentary tactic Bunning is using. "It's awful that you have to do this," he said. "I am the ringleader of the effort to blow the whistle on outdated secret procedures."
Story continues below

Asked specifically what his hold would block, however, Wyden wouldn't say.

Such holds are generally placed secretly, but Wyden inserted a statement of his intentions into the congressional record on Friday:

Consistent with Senate Standing Orders and my policy of publishing in the Congressional Record a statement whenever I place a hold on legislation, I am announcing my intention to object to any unanimous consent request to proceed to legislation extending any expiring laws that does not include extension of unemployment benefits and COBRA health insurance benefits.

Last night, there was an attempt to extend some laws that expire at the end of the month without extending the enhanced unemployment insurance and COBRA health insurance benefits that were enacted as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. I objected to that attempt.

I did so because Oregon currently has one of the highest unemployment rates in the nation with an unemployment rate of 11percent. Extension of unemployment benefits is critical for many unemployed Oregonians who are in jeopardy of running out of benefits if they are not extended before the end of this month. What's worse, many jobless Oregonians and unemployed workers in other states lose their health benefits when they lose their jobs, leaving them both without income and health care. In order to ensure unemployed workers in Oregon and other states will not be left without these critical, lifeline benefits, I am announcing my objection to any unanimous consent to extend other expiring laws, unless extension of unemployment benefits and COBRA benefits are included as part of the legislation.

I have no objection to the Senate proceeding to H.R. 4213 to Provide for Certain Extenders because extension of unemployment and COBRA benefits are included as part of that legislation. I yield the floor.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/02/26/ron-wyden-to-block-other_n_4785...

toniD's Ya Think?

San Diego students storm offices after noose found
ELLIOT SPAGAT
The Associated Press

SAN DIEGO - Anger boiled over on the University of California San Diego campus Friday, where students took over the chancellor's office for several hours to protest the hanging of a noose in a campus library.

Students wearing red handkerchiefs over their faces blocked the doors to Chancellor Marye Anne Fox's offices for hours, while more students inside chanted "Real pain, real change."

They left the office peacefully at sundown, about the same time that leaders of the university's Black Student Union ended talks with administrators in a nearby conference room over demands that include more boosting the African-American curriculum and campus activities. A university spokesman, Jeff Gattas, said there were no arrests and no property was damaged during the takeover.

The noose found dangling from a light fixture on the seventh floor of Geisel Library on Thursday night was the latest in a string of racially charged incidents in the university community, authorities said Friday. Less than two weeks ago, an off-campus party mocking Black History Month ignited racial tensions.

A University of California statement said a student admitted she and two other people were responsible. The statement did not identify the students or their race or include a motive.

http://www.philly.com/philly/wires/ap/news/nation/20100227_ap_sandiegost...

toniD's Ya Think?

Michelle Bachelet, the Chilean President, said an evacuation of coastal areas on Easter Island, the Chilean territory famous for its monumental statues, was under way as the tsunami was expected to make landfall there imminently.
British experts said a tsunami was now radiating from the epicentre towards Hawaii and other settlements on the Pacific Ring of Fire. ok

Massive earthquake off Chile triggers tsunami alert
Earthquake off Honduras triggers tsunami alert in Caribbean
The extent of the tsunami's ferocity is not yet known, but it has already reached the southern Juan Fernandez Islands, about 400 miles off the coast of Chile, where it was reported to have caused "serious damage".
The islands include one named after Robinson Crusoe, Daniel Defoe's protagonist, and another named after Alexander Selkirk, the Scottish sailor whose real life experiences as a castaway are said to have inspired the 1719 novel.
An alert was issued by the US Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre which predicted damage to the Hawaiian coast from 9pm GMT today.
"Urgent action should be taken to protect lives and property," the centre said in a bulletin. "All shores are at risk no matter which direction they face."
The centre had earlier issued a tsunami warning for Chile and Peru, and a tsunami watch for Ecuador, Colombia, Antarctica, all of Central America and French Polynesia.
New Zealand also issued a tsunami alert, warning of a wall of water up to 10 feet high, with landfall due there at just after 6pm GMT.
The New Zealand National Crisis Management Centre warning said the greatest wave heights were expected between six and 12 hours after the initial arrivals.
Dr Brian Baptie, the British Geological Survey's Head of Seismology, said: "This is largest earthquake to strike central Chile since a magnitude 6.7 earthquake in 2001.
"A 1.3 metre tsunami wave was observed at Valparaiso, 200 kilometres north of the epicentre about 20 minutes after the earthquake.
"Tsunami waves in the deep ocean travel about the same speed as a jet plane and would take about 15 hours to reach Hawaii and about 20 hours to reach the other side of the Pacific."
Dr David Rothery, from the Open University's Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, said: "This morning's magnitude 8.8 earthquake close to the Chilean coast has caused a tsunami that is now radiating away from the epicentre and travelling at several hundred kilometres per hour across the Pacific Ocean.
"The first waves are expected to Hawaii at 11:19 Hawaii Standard Time but are also travelling along the South America coast and will reach Colombia and Costa Rica after 1300 GMT.
He added: "A magnitude 8 quake is a rare event. On average there is only about one of these per year globally."
Japan's meteorological agency warned of a tsunami risk across large areas of the Pacific, as far away as the Antarctic, and in the Philippines officials warned low-lying coastal areas to prepare for a possible evacuation.

http://www.martinkramer.org/sandbox/2010/02/superfluous-young-men/

This overly educated turd is not impressing me !

http://www.martinkramer.org/sandbox/2010/02/wcfia-at-harvard-accusations...

Notice the comment sections are always closed and it has only been a few days. what are they afraid of !

Rep. Tom Perriello Tells ‘Spineless’ Senate To Get ‘Its Head Out Of Its Rear End’ And Confront Climate Crisis

Tom PerrielloRep. Tom Perriello (D-VA) is “sick” of the “insider baseball crap” dominating the Senate debate over global warming and energy reform. In an interview with Grist, the first-term congressman stated in no uncertain terms that the country is at risk from global warming and our economy is at risk of losing the clean energy race. Like Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), and Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-OR), Perriello has not one lick of sympathy for those in the Senate who deny these threats:

That’s more insider baseball crap. I don’t really care. I’m sick of starting with what can we get through the Senate; let’s start with what solves the damn problem. Until the Senate gets its head out of its rear end and starts to see the crisis we’re in, our country is literally at risk. Our economy is at risk, because these jobs are being created overseas. It should have the same urgency with this problem that it had bailing out Wall Street. We are swearing an oath to do what’s necessary to protect this country, not do what’s necessary to get a bill through the Senate.

Perriello repeatedly expressed his belief that Congressional inaction on jobs, national security, and scientific “challenge of our era” is due to a lack of courage and responsibility:

– This is the challenge of our time—the jobs opportunity, the national security challenge, the scientific challenge of our era. Any plan that uses market forces to signal a carbon-constrained environment is going to move us in the right direction. People who don’t support this kind of aggressive energy independence are just selling Americans short.

– We’re so far behind China, Europe, and other areas in the energy jobs of the future because neither party has had the guts to take this on. There are so many spineless people in D.C.

– Every week the Senate doesn’t act, it either freezes that investment and innovation or it sends it overseas. We’re giving up jobs. The Senate—the ridiculous tactics of the Republicans and the timidity of the Democrats—is standing in the way of the kind of job creation we need.

– Unfortunately, good ideas, ideas that could save our country, sometimes take 30 minutes to explain and only 30 seconds to demagogue. In between those two things is leadership, and we haven’t had the moral courage to take this on.

Perriello’s principled support for cap-and-trade legislation has made him a target of Republicans and polluters, who have mocked him with ads about snowstorms and flooded his office with forged letters of opposition.

http://thinkprogress.org/2010/02/27/periello-on-senate/

toniD's Ya Think?

listening to Malloy from Thursday night,
yep, I'm a little behind. Hope ya all r
doing well. toniD - r u doin' o.k. ??
with the snow & all - geez, god knows we
have gotten slammed with it.

there still gonna say "global warming"
is all a make believe dream that dem's
& liberals have made up just to get
under the skin of right wing nuts.

Harvard Professor's Shocking Proposal: Starve the Palestinians in Gaza into Having Fewer Babies
At a recent conference, Prof. Martin Kramer called for population growth in the Muslim world to be restrained and made a series of other outrageous claims.
February 26, 2010 |

Martin Kramer revealed his true colors at the Herzliya Conference, wherein he blamed political violence in the Muslim world on population growth, called for that growth to be restrained, and praised the illegal and unconscionable Israeli blockade of civilian Gazans for its effect on reducing the number of Gazans.

[Commentator] M. J. Rosenberg argued that Kramer's speech is equivalent to a call for genocide. It certainly is a call for eugenics.

http://www.alternet.org/story/145831/harvard_professor%27s_shocking_prop...

i'll never understand why people like
that fuck (Kramer) "given a cushy office
at Harvard as a 'fellow'". it boggles my
mind.

How the Mountain of Climate Change Evidence Is Being Used to Undermine the Cause ~
We've gotten to a point where fewer Americans believe humans are warming the planet than before -- here's how it happened.
Twenty-one years ago, in 1989, I wrote what many have called the first book for a general audience on global warming. One of the more interesting reviews came from the Wall Street Journal. It was a mixed and judicious appraisal. “The subject,” the reviewer said, “is important, the notion is arresting, and Mr. McKibben argues convincingly.” And that was not an outlier: around the same time, the first president Bush announced that he planned to “fight the greenhouse effect with the White House effect.”

http://www.alternet.org/environment/145838/how_the_mountain_of_climate_c...

Been trying to catch up but that's a hopeless cause.

Clearly all this bad news about racism can be directly attributable to an enabling media that will print or air anything for a buck.

As for me, I'm officially off the disabled list today. Still stuck on the bench for a day or two but coach you can put me in the game any time, I'm ready to play!

Why Oil Companies May Be Our Best Hope for Climate Change Legislation in Congress:
But can environmentalists work with companies like ExxonMobil that have long personified what is wrong with corporate America?

In the 21 years since the Valdez oil spill in Alaska, Exxon has been a virtual poster child for corporate environmental villainy. Tied irretrievably to the notorious March 1989 spill, the company has added other environmental offenses to their record, becoming a constant target of activists whenever they needed an oil bully to kick.

But today, ExxonMobil, however unlikely, may just be a powerful potential partner for radical environmentalists who have grown weary of the give and take surrounding "cap and trade" climate legislation and have yet to give up hope for passing a meaningful climate change bill in 2010. That is, if environmental activists will be willing to work with Exxon execs.

http://www.alternet.org/environment/145693/why_oil_companies_may_be_our_...

yeah ..... what happened to the good old days, when people
would print the facts & the truth.????? No matter what.

I think it was gski who turned me on to opednews ( http://www.opednews.com/index.php ) that's turned out to be invaluable for me.

In today's email they offered this link Sandy. I'm going to listen to it now, you might want to do the same and we can talk about it tomorrow.

..link to Daphne Wysham's podcast

i love that opednews site. i get it in my e-mail box.

Step 1. Turn off M$M
Step 2. Turn on independent liberal media
Step 3. Don't forget Step 1.

This is just one of many examples. It's out there use it...exclusively.

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

MMRules

Get
Out
Palin

She's going on the road with Beck. If that ain't hittin' bottom, I don't know what is!

after taking some pain meds. Have to get ready for work now and don't think I'll make the whole time I am supposed to work.

There's some weather conditions that are really bothering me today. Have to check the barometric pressure.

toniD's Ya Think?

Ahmadinejad once again fails to call for the annihilation of Israel, despite what you heard on CNN

I saw Israeli Ambassador Michael Oren interviewed by Wolf Blitzer on CNN Friday afternoon. Oren said that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had called for the annihilation of Israel, and was therefore speaking of genocide.
It is dreary to see this constant drumbeat of dishonest propaganda. Whatever one thinks of Ahmadinejad or the Iranian regime, one should not misrepresent their statements, since that will lead to bad policy-making.

http://www.juancole.com/

All things considered you have come through everything like a champ...

fwiw, the behavior of my animals, the change in the types of birds at the feeders (migratories have left) and the early buds on the trees are telling me winter weather is over, here anyway, ...just got to get through this next week or so.

hang in there t.

One year on since Israel's criminally-insane war on Gaza, many are still unaware of the roots of the 'conflict' and the plight of the Palestinian people. Israel would like to have us believe that its latest onslaught was a direct response to resistance rockets or even Hamas's democratic accession to power, forgetting that both of which came into existence as a response to Israeli policies.

http://www.opednews.com/articles/Gaza-s-Untold-Story-by-Mamoon-Alabbasi-...

Today I received an In Defense of Animals flyer re our free-roaming horses in
the West. Sadly, Wild Horse Annie would have been appalled at the treatment
these magnificent creatures are receiving today -- courtesy of vested interests
and some members of the US Congress.
In 1971 Velma Bronn Johnston (Wild Horse Annie) testified before Congress re
the wild horses of the West and the result was the wonderful Wild Free-Roaming
Horse and Burro Act.
Velma Bronn was born in 1912 and grew up to be an indefatigable friend of the
wild horses and burros. She herself owed a mustang mare a debt of gratitude.
As a baby, the mare provided her with milk when needed as her parents crossed
the desert in a covered wagon.

http://www.opednews.com/articles/Betrayal-of-the-Wild-Horse-by-Suzana-Me...

http://www.samsedershow.com/node/5681