Creepy season

racism is the leash tied around our necks since caveman days.

thanks for fixing the bloggie.

this is good place to start

http://action.ufw.org/page/speakout/kroger810

==============
http://www.ufw.org/_page.php?menu=about&inc=about_vision.html

"What a coincidence that the boners who never post here
Submitted by Alice on Tue, 08/10/2010 - 11:51pm.

Hmm...but maybe THAT was telepathy? ....that's kinda cool."

Sam Seder is highly visible again. Netroots Nation, Ring of Fire, Young Turks, MSNBC etc.
It's not unusual for folks to come here and to high five him, or spend a little time reading and commenting afterwards.

"Boner" out.

Update: I made a spelling correction. Toodles.

If you missed this story here it is again. Brown people are
exploited and money is made off them .

Steal their land a hundred and fifty years ago then bring them in as under payed workers then arrest them and make more money off the "wet Backs". And keep fear alive and promote the Rethug's MIC. who is going to clean the swimming pools and cut the lawns? Probably white trash meth tweakers on parole.

http://www.blogforarizona.com/blog/2010/08/rachel-maddow-covers-arizonas...

just help with evolution and try not to make things too personal.

Homer from Springfield

August 17th, 1915
1915 A mob in Cobb County, Ga., lynched Jewish businessman Leo Frank, who had been sentenced on flimsy evidence for the murder of 13-year-old Mary Phagan.

Leo Max Frankel (April 17, 1884 – August 17, 1915), better known as Leo Frank, was a Jewish-American who was famously lynched by a mob of prominent citizens in Marietta, Georgia, in 1915; the antisemitic episode[1] led to the founding of the Anti-Defamation League in the United States....

...When newspapers discovered the Mary Phagan case, their sensational headlines and news stories instantly captured the public's attention — filling their own coffers in the process. During the murder investigation, papers published every new detail of hearsay, gossip, conflicting rumors and shifting conspiracy theories, thus ensuring continued interest — and continued circulation — during the trial, outcome and appeal stages of the case.

The three major Atlanta newspapers: The Atlanta Journal, The Atlanta Constitution and The Atlanta Georgian published detailed accounts of the trial's daily testimony in 1913....

Lynching
The lynching of Leo Frank.

The commutation drove Tom Watson to new heights of ferocity. "Hundreds of pages were devoted to it, whole issues of his magazine, page after page of the weekly."[132] In the pages of The Jeffersonian and Watson's Magazine, he reminded his readers that in a democracy, lynching parties were a tool of justice. "Hereafter, let no man reproach the South with lynch law: let him remember the unendurable provocation; and let him say whether lynch law is not better than 'no law at all....' [W]hen mobs are no longer possible liberty will be dead."[133] "This country has nothing to fear from its rural communities. Lynch law is a good sign; it shows that a sense of justice lives among the people."[134]

On June 25, a marble slab six feet long was laid over Mary Phagan's grave in Marietta. On it was carved an inscription, written by Tom Watson, which began, "In this day of fading ideals and disappearing land marks, little Mary Phagan's heroism is an heirloom than which there is nothing more precious among the old red hills of Georgia."[135]

The Knights of Mary Phagan began openly[136] organizing a plan to kidnap Frank from the state prison farm at Milledgeville and take him to Marietta for lynching....

...Aftermath

After Frank's lynching, approximately half of Georgia's 3,000 Jews left the state.[150] Many American Jews saw Frank as an American Alfred Dreyfus. The intensity of the national and international attention on the case was comparable to that in the 1932 kidnapping of Charles Lindbergh's son. Frank's arrest and trial inspired the founding of the Anti-Defamation League in 1913.[151]

Two weeks after the lynching, in the September 2, 1915 issue of The Jeffersonian, Watson looked to the future by looking back. He reminisced that he had been only a young boy in the days of the old Ku Klux Klan, and to the warning "we will meet the Leo Frank League with a Gentile League, if they provoke us much further;" he added, "another Ku Klux Klan may be organized to restore HOME RULE.'" Of the murder of Frank, he observed that "the voice of the people is the voice of God."[152] In 1914, when Watson began hammering home his anti-Frank message, The Jeffersonian's circulation had been 25,000; by September 2, 1915 its circulation was 87,000.[153]

On October 16, 1915, two months to the night after Frank was taken from the Milledgeville prison, members of the Knights of Mary Phagan burned a gigantic cross atop Stone Mountain.[154] Southerners who believed Frank was guilty saw similarities between the Frank trial and The Birth of a Nation.[155] There was class and sectional resentment against educated northern industrialists, for whom many southerners worked in factories. The Georgia politician and publisher Watson used the case as a stepping stone to build personal political power and support for a rebirth and revival of the Ku Klux Klan. Members s of the lynch mob decided to create a new Klan. They inaugurated it on Thanksgiving night, 1915, before a burning cross at the top of Stone Mount....
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leo_Frank

(The whole wiki article is long, but worth the time.)

Tom Watson

As his own personal wealth grew, Watson denounced socialism, which had drawn many converts from the ashes of Populism. He became a vigorous anti-Semite and anti-Catholic crusader, and advocated reorganizing the Ku Klux Klan.[1]

Watson was nominated as the Populist Party's candidate in 1904 and received 117,183 votes. This was double the Populist's showing in 1900, but less than one-eighth of the party's support from just 12 years earlier....

Subsequent influence

Through his publications Watson's Magazine and The Jeffersonian, Watson continued to have great influence on public opinion, especially in his native Georgia.

In 1913 he played a prominent role in inflaming public opinion in the case of Leo Frank, a Jewish American factory manager who was accused of the murder of Mary Phagan, a 13 year-old factory worker. Frank was convicted and sentenced to death by hanging.

On June 20, 1915, departing Governor of Georgia John M. Slaton commuted the sentence of Frank to life in prison. The decision followed a lengthy appeals process. Some viewed the action as a conflict of interest, as Slaton was a law partner of Frank's lead defense counsel, a fact which Watson made sure to emphasize.[2] On August 17, 1915, Frank was dragged from his prison cell by a group of men and lynched, an act which Watson had both called for and later celebrated on the pages of the Jeffersonian.[3].
[edit] Senator

Watson rejoined the Democratic Party, and was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1920....
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_E._Watson

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EzK_Od4hzow&feature=related

A retired businessman in Britain is fighting extradition to the United States over claims he sold missile parts to Iran.

Christopher Tappin, the 63-year-old president of a county golf club, could face 35 years in a US jail if found guilty of exporting batteries for surface-to-air missiles to Tehran.

The former business owner denied the allegations on Tuesday, saying he was "the victim of unlawful conduct by US agents"....

Tappin said he was told the batteries, reportedly worth around $5,000 each were going to be used in the car industry.

He was then put in touch with a company called Mercury Global Enterprises, which he said he believed would provide documents for an export licence for the batteries.

But the company was a front for undercover US customs agents set up to trap those interested in breaking the arms embargo to Iran.

Gibson in the meantime had been arrested in the US and was accused of acting as a "co-operating defendant".

At a press conference in central London on Tuesday, Tappin said Mercury Global Enterprises "exists solely to ensnare unsuspecting importers"...

Extradition treaty slammed

The case has led to renewed criticism of the British extradition agreement with the US....
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/europe/2010/08/20108179281910320.html

The DOJ wants to retry Blago -- but lets DELAY go!

And the DOJ keeps Segelman as a political prisoner still.

SOMETHING is as rotten at the DOJ now as it was rotten under Bush.

EGAD. The corruption is VERY deep.

http://www.allheadlinenews.com/articles/7019613379

Nicolas Sarkozy
By Many Signers
Tuesday, August 17, 2010

The French government has indicated that it is pursuing possible legal action against the Committee for the Reimbursement of the Indemnity Money Extorted from Haiti (CRIME) over a Yes Men-inspired announcement last Bastille Day pledging that France would pay Haiti restitution.

We believe the ideals of equality, fraternity and liberty would be far better served if, instead of pouring public resources into the prosecution of these pranksters, France were to start paying Haiti back for the 90 million gold francs that were extorted following Haitian independence.

This “independence debt,” which is today valued at well over the 17 billion euros pledged in the fake announcement last July 14, illegitimately forced a people who had won their independence in a successful slave revolt, to pay again for their freedom. Imposed under threat of military invasion and the restoration of slavery by French King Charles X, to compensate former colonial slave-owners for lost “property” (including the slaves who had won their freedom and independence when they defeated Napoleon’s armies), this indemnity burdened generations of Haitians with an illegitimate debt, which they were still paying right up until 1947.

France is not the only country that owes a debt to Haiti. After 1947, Haiti incurred debt to commercial banks and international financial institutions under the Duvalier dictatorships, who stole billions from the public treasury. The basic needs and development aspirations of generations of Haitians were sacrificed to pay back these debts. Granting Haiti the status of Highly Indebted Poor Country (HIPC) and canceling part of the current debt only begins to reverse the financial damage done by these recent debts. More recently, in 2000, Inter-American Development Bank loans of $150 million for basic infrastructure were illegally blocked by the US government as a means of political pressure. This also did measurable economic and human damage. Each of these institutions and governments should be responsible for the harm they did to Haiti's society and economy.

In 2003, when the Haitian government demanded repayment of the money France had extorted from Haiti, the French government responded by helping to overthrow that government. Today, the French government responds to the same demand by CRIME by threatening legal action. These are inappropriate responses to a demand that is morally, economically, and legally unassailable. In light of the urgent financial need in the country in the wake of the devastating earthquake of January 12, 2010, we urge you to pay Haiti, the world’s first black republic, the restitution it is due.

Signatories

Tariq Ali, author
Gilbert Achcar, author
Pierre Alferi, author
http://www.zcommunications.org/repay-historic-debt-to-haiti-by-many-sign...

Israel to Let the UN in...or Not?
By Phyllis Bennis

Source: Huffington Post
Wednesday, August 11, 2010

What a coup for UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon! Israel just agreed it will cooperate with a UN-backed international investigation into its lethal May 31 raid on the Mavi Marmara, the ship attempting to break the siege of Gaza. Nine Turkish nationals, one of them also a U.S. citizen, were killed by Israeli commandos who attacked the ship from assault helicopters and naval speedboats.

It should be a big deal, right? Ban called it "an unprecedented development." Commentary bloggers raged that it would be an "atrocious precedent." After all, Israel has never accepted UN or international investigations of its human rights violations before - look how it rejected and condemned the UN's Goldstone Report documenting possible war crimes during the 2008-09 attack on Gaza. Look at their 2008 refusal to allow the UN's Special Rapporteur for Human Rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, Professor Richard Falk, to enter the West Bank to carry out his mandate - instead arresting him at Tel Aviv airport, tossing him into a dirty prison cell overnight and deporting him the next day. Look at Israel's refusal to allow Archbishop Desmond Tutu into Gaza to help conduct an international investigation.

Look at the one time Israel pretended to agree to cooperate with a UN investigation team, in 2002 when the UN was set to examine the killing of civilians in the Jenin refugee camp during Israel's "re-occupation" of the West Bank. That time Israel agreed to accept the team, only to demand more and more concessions, finally reneging on its promise and rejecting the investigation altogether, leaving UN Secretary General Kofi Annan to shamefacedly disband the team, then cooling their heels in Geneva, and send them home.

So this may well be "unprecedented." But don't get too excited yet. This particular "international" and "UN-backed" team actually reflects Israel's own US-backed influence at the UN. Former New Zealand Prime Minister Geoffrey Palmer is known primarily for his work on the International Whaling Commission. And Colombian President Uribe, Washington's closest ally and most loyal military dependent in all of Latin America, is hardly likely to challenge his patron's closest ally and military partner in the Middle East. Human rights, in Uribe's Colombia? Don't get me started. It was Uribe's own foreign minister, on a visit to Israel a few months ago, who told the Jerusalem Post of his desire "to strengthen Colombia's military relationship with Israel as well as trade ties, and develop what he termed 'joint ventures on innovation, entrepreneurship and venture capital.'" The JPost also noted that "some of the arms that Colombia uses in its battle against the rebels were purchased from Israel, including Kfir aircraft, drones, weapons and intelligence systems."

It doesn't bode well for real accountability. A four-person team with one chosen by Israel, and two others approved (if not chosen by) Israel, plus one chosen by Turkey hardly sounds like truly international - let alone UN - representation. It may serve as a good precedent for a future in which Israel really might be held accountable for its violations of international law. A good precedent, maybe, (sorry, Commentary...that "atrocious" precedent is actually the only useful part of the deal) but this first time isn't likely to go very far.

August 17, 2010

Obama Has Opened Pandora's Box

Which Party Poses the Real Risk to Social Security's Future?

By MARSHALL AUERBACK

Social Security remains one of the greatest achievements of the Democratic Party since its creation 75 years ago. Although Republicans have historically fulminated against the program (Ronald Reagan once likened it as something akin to “socialism”), they have actually made little headway in touching this sacred “third rail” in American politics. President Bush pushed for partial privatization of the program in 2005, but the proposal gained no policy traction (even within his own party) because Social Security continues to be hugely popular with American voters. It’s a universal program that benefits all Americans, not a government handout to a few privileged corporations.

Which is why it’s odd that Democrats seem almost embarrassed to continue to champion the legacy of FDR. The party frets about long-term deficits and the corresponding need to “save” Social Security from imminent bankruptcy and, in doing so, opens the gate to radical cuts in entitlements that will do nothing but further destroy incomes and perpetuate our current economic malaise. It is true that some Republicans have signed on to the idea of privatization, notably a proposal championed by Rep. Paul D. Ryan (Wis.), the senior Republican on the House Budget Committee. But only a handful of GOP lawmakers have actively embraced the measure and, in the aftermath of the worst shock to the financial system since the Great Depression, many Republican lawmakers would just as soon see the idea forgotten.
http://www.counterpunch.org/auerback08172010.html

August 17, 2010

The Detention of Donna Shalala

Second-Class Citizens

By GEORGE BISHARAT and NIMER SULTANY

Should Israel be encouraged to enact legislation guaranteeing equal rights for all of its citizens as part of any peace agreement with the Palestinians?

Israel's systematic discrimination against Arabs was highlighted recently when Donna Shalala, University of Miami president and former Health and Human Services secretary, was detained for three hours, grilled and subjected to an extended luggage search upon her departure from Israel.

Shalala, of Lebanese Arab descent and a long-time supporter of Israel, had visited the country with other university leaders at the invitation of the American Jewish Congress, but had stayed beyond the planned itinerary for several days. It seems evident that, despite her stature, she was a victim of profiling.

But the indignities that Shalala suffered pale in comparison to those faced by the 1.3 million Palestinian citizens of Israel on a daily basis, and not just at the airport.

Adalah, the Legal Center for Minority Rights in Israel, counts more than 35 Israeli laws explicitly privileging Jews over non-Jews. Other Israeli laws appear neutral, but are applied in discriminatory fashion. For example, laws facilitating government land seizures make no reference to Palestinians, but nonetheless have been used almost exclusively to expropriate their properties for Jewish settlements.

Consider what it would be like if:

* Our Constitution defined the union as a "white Christian democratic state?"

* Our laws still barred marriage across ethnic-religious lines?

* Our government appointed a Chief Priest, empowered to define membership criteria for the white Christian nation?

* Our government legally enabled immigration by white Christians while barring it for others?

* Our government funded a Center for Demography that worked to increase the birth rates of white Christians to ensure their majority status?

These examples all have parallels in Israeli practices.
http://www.counterpunch.org/bisharat08172010.html

" The neocons allied with Israel, who control both parties and much of the media, are strung out on the ecstasy of Empire.

The United States and the welfare of its 300 million people cannot be restored unless the neocons, Wall Street, the corporations, and their servile slaves in Congress and the White House can be defeated.

Without a revolution, Americans are history."

======thanks goodness for people like Paul Craig Roberts

-----
The ecstasy of empire

How Close Is America’s Demise?

By Paul Craig Roberts

August 17, 2010 "Information Clearing House" -- The United States is running out of time to get its budget and trade deficits under control. Despite the urgency of the situation, 2010 has been wasted in hype about a non-existent recovery. As recently as August 2 Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner penned a New York Times Column, “Welcome to the Recovery.”

As John Williams (shadowstats.com) has made clear on many occasions, an appearance of recovery was created by over-counting employment and undercounting inflation. Warnings by Williams, Gerald Celente, and myself have gone unheeded, but our warnings recently had echos from Boston University professor Laurence Kotlikoff and from David Stockman, who excoriated the Republican Party for becoming big spending Democrats.

It is encouraging to see a bit of realization that, this time, Washington cannot spend the economy out of recession. The deficits are already too large for the dollar to survive as reserve currency, and deficit spending cannot put Americans back to work in jobs that have been moved offshore.

However, the solutions offered by those who are beginning to recognize that there is a problem are discouraging. Kotlikoff thinks the solution is massive Social Security and Medicare cuts or massive tax increases or hyperinflation to destroy the massive debts.

Perhaps economists lack imagination, or perhaps they don’t want to be cut off from Wall Street and corporate subsidies, but Social Security and Medicare are insufficient at their present levels, especially considering the erosion of private pensions by the dot com, derivative and real estate bubbles. Cuts in Social Security and Medicare, for which people have paid 15% of their earnings all their life, would result in starvation and deaths from curable diseases.

Tax increases make even less sense. It is widely acknowledged that the majority of households cannot survive on one job. Both husband and wife work and often one of the partners has two jobs in order to make ends meet. Raising taxes makes it harder to make ends meet--thus more foreclosures, more food stamps, more homelessness. What kind of economist or humane person thinks this is a solution?

Ah, but we will tax the rich. The usual idiocy. The rich have enough money. They will simply stop earning.

read more here

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article26166.htm

for fixing the blog

:-)

Dismantling social security will be his main objective after this election.

Here's another objective:

The Obama administration got what it was looking for Tuesday at its summit on the future of housing finance, big ideas that ranged from a government-sponsored refinancing of millions of mortgages to blowing up the structure that's backstopped mortgage lending for decades....

...
experts advocated privatizing virtually all functions of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Alex Pollock, a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative research organization, said that 70 percent or more of the mortgage market involved prime loans to borrowers with good credit histories. Hence, the private sector should be pooling those plain vanilla loans for sale to investors, not some government-chartered company, he said.

A former president of the Federal Home Loan Bank of Chicago, Pollock also called for new rules for mortgage lending that would force lenders to raise rates for borrowers and set aside more capital during times when home prices rise well above their historical norm.

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2010/08/17/99311/mortgage-summit-brainstorms-...

These objectives will be so much easier with more Rethug congressmen. Which, of course, is why the prez feigned support for the mosque.

Jeffrey Goldberg, the so-called Israeli asset, is doing it again: Shilling for War on Iran. He did exactly the same for Iraq.

As the awesome Ray McGovern writes: "even world-class chutzpah must have its limits, I had thought."

[clearly, not if a Neo-con.

Ray McGovern is always a must read. In July he said if Israel attacks Iran it will be in August due to a certain time limit. Mainstream news is now all over that one.
----

Return of Jeffrey Goldberg

Shilling for War on Iran

By RAY McGOVERN

I guess I was naïve in thinking that The Atlantic and its American-Israeli writer Jeffrey Goldberg might shy away from arguing for yet another war — this one with Iran — while the cauldrons are still boiling in Afghanistan and Iraq. Even world-class chutzpah must have its limits, I had thought.

I was reflecting on the bizarre ways in which Goldberg helped to make the case for the U.S. invasion of Iraq. For instance, on Oct. 3, 2002, as America’s war fever was building just a week before Congress caved to the President, Goldberg wrote in Slate, the online magazine:

“The [Bush] administration is planning … to launch what many people would undoubtedly call a short-sighted and inexcusable act of aggression. In five years, however, I believe that the coming invasion of Iraq will be remembered as an act of profound morality.”

Looking back on Goldberg’s commentaries at the time also brought to mind how many U.S. publications considered centrist or even liberal were bending over backward to get in line with cheerleaders for the coming invasion.

Even earlier, on March 25, 2002, Goldberg filled the pages of The New Yorker with a mammoth 17,000-word story hyping Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein’s ties to terrorism and glossing over the ambiguities regarding the gassing of civilians in the Kurdish city of Halabja during the Iran-Iraq war.

Goldberg’s magnum opus, entitled “The Great Terror,” earned him high marks from other neocons and essentially “made” his career. The story was also made to order, so to speak, to support the efforts of President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney to paint Saddam Hussein as a ruthless dictator who had to be removed.

read here

http://www.counterpunch.com/mcgovern08132010.html

"Netanyahu administration officials used Goldberg to convey the message to the Americans that they didn't believe Obama would launch an attack on Iran, and therefore Israel would have to do so.

But Israel clearly cannot afford to risk a war with Iran without the assurance that the United States being committed to participate in it. That is why the Israeli lobby in Washington and its allies argue that Obama should support an Israeli strike, which would mean that he would have to attack Iran with full force if it retaliates against such an Israeli strike.

The knowledge that Israel could not attack Iran without U.S. consent makes Israeli officials extremely sensitive about the possibility that Obama would explicitly reject an Israeli strike "

-----

What Jeffrey Goldberg Didn't Report

Top Israeli Generals and Intel Officials Oppose Striking Iran

By GARETH PORTER

Pro-Israeli journalist Jeffrey Goldberg's article in "The Atlantic" magazine was evidently aimed at showing why the Barack Obama administration should worry that it risks an attack by the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Iran in the coming months unless it takes a much more menacing line toward Iran's nuclear programme.

But the article provides new evidence that senior figures in the Israeli intelligence and military leadership oppose such a strike against Iran and believe that Netanyahu's apocalyptic rhetoric about an Iranian nuclear threat as an "existential threat" is unnecessary and self-defeating.

Although not reported by Goldberg, Israeli military and intelligence figures began to express their opposition to such rhetoric on Iran in the early 1990s, and Netanyahu acted to end such talk when he became prime minister in 1996.

The Goldberg article also reveals extreme Israeli sensitivity to any move by Obama to publicly demand that Israel desist from such a strike, reflecting the reality that the Israeli government could not go ahead with any strike without being assured of U.S. direct involvement in the war with Iran.

Goldberg argues that a likely scenario some months in the future is that Israeli officials will call their U.S. counterparts to inform them that Israeli planes are already on their way to bomb Iranian nuclear sites.

read here

http://www.counterpunch.org/porter08132010.html

Routine financial decision, says university spokesman, but pro-Palestinians claim Gaza aid conflict behind move

Harvard University has sold millions of dollars in shares in Israeli companies, a move that it insists is purely financial but which has already been claimed by a pro-Palestinian group as a victory in its boycott and divestment campaign against Israel....

A Harvard spokesman, John Longbrake, said today the changes in holdings were routine and not a change in policy. "The university has not divested from Israel," he stated.

Harvard said the change had taken place because Israel had been part of its emerging markets portfolio but the country's status had been upgraded to developed market....

Speaking before Harvard issued its statement, Hind Awwad, coordinator of the Palestinian Boycotts, Divestment and Sanctions National Committee, was quoted by the website Media Line saying: "We welcome Harvard's decision and encourage all academic institutions in the US and elsewhere to follow its lead, to invest in socially responsible investments and divest from Israeli war crimes."

One of divestment's leading opponents at Harvard, Professor Alan Dershowitz, said he had checked with those involved in the decision to sell the shares and was satifisfied it was purely technical. "There will be some irresponsible anti-Israel extremists who will try to portray this economic decision as an attack against Israel," Dershowitz said. "Shame on them. They will continue to lose their credibility among all reasonable and objective people if they try to take political advantage of this purely technical decision."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/aug/16/harvard-israeli-shares-sale-...

"If the U.S. Navy takes it upon itself to stop, board, and inspect all of Iran’s cargo ships — exports and imports — to “successfully enforce” the sanctions, this would essentially equal a Naval blockade, recognized by all nations as an act of war."
------

Provoking Iran and North Korea

Is Obama Playing With Nuclear Fire?

By SHAMUS COOKE

Fidel Castro came out of political retirement to warn the world that a nuclear war between the U.S. and Iran or North Korea is a very real possibility. The U.S. media either ignored the warning, minimized it, or ridiculed Castro.

Is there a basis for Castro’s “alarmism”?

Consider the following scenario: The U.S. government has already approved massive economic sanctions —through the UN and individually — against the Iranian government. The latest UN sanctions allow for the boarding of Iranian cargo ships coming to and from Iran.

If the U.S. Navy takes it upon itself to stop, board, and inspect all of Iran’s cargo ships — exports and imports — to “successfully enforce” the sanctions, this would essentially equal a Naval blockade, recognized by all nations as an act of war.

In this case, Iran is unlikely to sit quietly while its imports and exports are stopped and boarded by the U.S. war ships.

Iran’s President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, has already warned against such an action:

“You should know whoever takes a decision against the Iranian nation, such as the so-called inspection of the Iranian ships or toward its aircraft, will immediately receive Iran's reaction."

Fidel Castro warned against a situation where the U.S. Navy would massively begin inspecting Iranian cargo ships, with Iran sinking the warships in retaliation, and the situation deteriorating from there.

Iran’s coast is already full of U.S. Navy ships, according to the New York Times:

“The Obama administration is accelerating the deployment of new defenses against possible Iranian missile attacks in the Persian Gulf, placing special ships [warships] off the Iranian coast and antimissile systems in at least four [surrounding] Arab countries, according to administration and military officials.” (January 30, 2010).

President Obama has already provoked Iran far more than George Bush Jr. ever did. Obama has not only pressured other countries to adopt the UN sanctions, but has pushed the U.S. Congress to adopt even harsher individual sanctions, while further pushing individual nations to adopt the tougher U.S.-style sanctions as well. These “targeted sanctions” against Iran’s oil industry — the cornerstone of Iran’s economy — equal an economic act of war, from which the majority of Iranians will suffer immensely.

Obama is using the same dangerous approach towards North Korea.

read here
http://www.counterpunch.org/cooke08132010.html

Brzezinski on the Afghan War
Why Is The US Fighting a War In Afghanistan?
-------

Why Is The US Fighting a War In Afghanistan?

Brzezinski on the Afghan War

Video Interview

Zbigniew Brzezinski on Afghanistan and the American strategy for Eurasia and the world.

Video Interview

watch 4 VIDEOS
---

Brzezinski on the Afghan War
Why Is The US Fighting a War In Afghanistan?

Video Interview

Zbigniew Brzezinski on Afghanistan and the American strategy for Eurasia and the world.

Zbigniew Brzezinski Pakistan Afghanistan Pep Talk 1979

In 1979 Carters National Security Advisor, Zbigniew Brzezinski went into Pakistans border regions with Afghanistan to give a little pep talk to some prospective majehadeen (Holy Warriors).

In a 1997 interview for CNN's Cold War Series, Brzezinski hinted about the Carter Administration's proactive Afghanistan policy before the Soviet invasion in 1979, that he had conceived.

QUESTION: When the Soviets justified their intervention by asserting that they intended to fight against a secret involvement of the United States in Afghanistan, people didn't believe them. However, there was a basis of truth. You don't regret anything today?
Brzezinski: Regret what? That secret operation was an excellent idea. It had the effect of drawing the Russians into the Afghan trap and you want me to regret it? The day that the Soviets officially crossed the border, I wrote to President Carter: We now have the opportunity of giving to the USSR its Vietnam war. Indeed, for almost 10 years, Moscow had to carry on a war unsupportable by the government, a conflict that brought about the demoralization and finally the breakup of the Soviet empire.

http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?...

In 1998, in an interview in Le Nouvel Observateur, Brzezinski dismissed the risks of blow back and defended his support of the mujahideen in the following terms: What is most important to the history of the world? The Taliban or the collapse of the Soviet Empire? Some stirred-up Moslems or the liberation of Central Europe and the end of the cold war?

These days, Brzezinski might take stirred-up Moslems more seriously.

If he ever republishes his The Grand Chessboard: American Primacy and its Geostrategic Imperatives, he and other American geo-strategists may wish to reconsider the role of Muslims as something other than dispensable pawns.

read here
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article26163.htm

...as part of the annual $3 billion in military aid to Israel."

Israel is moving closer to buying F-35 joint strike fighters to add to its fleet of U.S.-made F-16 and F-15 fighter jets.

Defense Minister Ehud Barak reportedly endorsed a plan Sunday to buy 20 of the next-generation combat jets from Lockheed Martin, although formal Israeli government approval won't come until September.

Few details of the plan were available Monday. For several years, Israel has discussed buying up to 75 of the jets with the U.S. government,...

Various reports put the price Israel would pay at $96 million per aircraft, $2.75 billion for all 20 planes or up to $4 billion for a complete package. The funds would come from U.S. taxpayers as part of the annual $3 billion in military aid to Israel. All three figures could be accurate depending on the timing and what is covered.

Lockheed Martin officials declined to comment on when the planes might be ordered, produced and delivered. In a statement, the company said it "is aware that the government of Israel is evaluating the F-35 and we believe the F-35's mission flexibility and advanced capabilities align well with their national security needs. However, it is not appropriate for us to comment on their aircraft evaluation and selection process."

Lockheed manufactures parts of the F-35 and final assembly takes place at its plant in west Fort Worth.

http://www.star-telegram.com/2010/08/16/2407400/israel-moves-toward-buyi...

"The funds would come from U.S. taxpayers...
Submitted by ghettodefender on Tue, 08/17/2010 - 8:56pm.

.... but there is always the Carbon Tax to fund the NWO

if the globalist have their way.

WAKE UP AMERICA!!!

Rights"

Dr. Laura Schlessinger chose her words more carefully this time.

The longtime AM radio fixture says that she will pull the plug on The Dr. Laura Program at the end of the year, a week after repeatedly using the N-word while taking a call on the air from a black woman who wanted to discuss her interracial marriage.

She made the announcement during an appearance on Larry King Live.

Here's her rationale:

"My contract is up for my radio show at the end of the year and I've made the decision not to do radio anymore," Schlessinger told King, who also happens to be on his way out this year (for less incendiary reasons).

"The reason is I want to regain my First Amendment rights. I want to be able to say what's on my mind and in my heart and what I think is helpful and useful without somebody getting angry, some special interest group deciding this is the time to silence a voice of dissent and attack affiliates, attack sponsors. I'm sort of done with that."

She's not retiring or quitting, she added, but rather, hopes to be "stronger and freer to say the things that I believe need to be said for people in this country."

Schlessinger apologized for her verbal gaffe the day after it happened, admitting that she did "the wrong thing."

"I didn't intend to hurt people, but I did. And that makes it the wrong thing to have done...I was attempting to make a philosophical point, and I articulated the N-word all the way out—more than one time. And that was wrong. I'll say it again—that was wrong."

Follow @eonline on Twitter!

________

Sometimes they come back
Submitted by Cat Chew on Tue, 08/17/2010 - 4:30pm.
..."Boner" out.
---------------
And stay out!

(Until you learn to fellate Alex Jones.)

Dr Laura sews her lips shut to make a point about free speech. Right.
Thanks, Dr L (and Crank) for sparing us from uninvited fellatio.

http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/08/18/1781159/gay-marriage-opponents-tur...

http://www.fluscam.com/HOME.html

----------------
http://www.pharmawhores.com/Wake_Up_or_Die.html

Blagojevich's attorneys had plastered Washington and Illinois with subpoenas — including White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid — but by the end of the trial, none of them had testified, sparing Democrats any potentially embarrassing testimony.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100817/ap_on_re_us/us_blagojevich_trial

A North Korean aircraft, which may be a fighter jet, has crashed in China near the country's shared border, say Chinese and South Korean reports.

It is believed the pilot, who was killed, may have been trying to defect to Russia, according to unnamed intelligence sources cited by Yonhap.

The crash happened on Tuesday afternoon in Fushun county, Liaoning province.

Defections are common but an attempt by plane is highly unusual and would be a source of embarrassment for Pyongyang.

China has a repatriation agreement with North Korea, which could explain why the pilot may have been trying to reach Russia, the report added.

North Korea has a military airbase in Sinuiju, near the border with China.

China's state media confirmed an unidentified small plane had crashed and that it may belong to North Korean.

An investigation into the cause of the crash was under way, Xinhua reported.
Soviet-era jet

Photographs of the wreckage reportedly taken by a local resident and posted on the internet showed a North Korean flag on the plane's tail.
Map

Military experts said the plane appeared to be a Soviet-era fighter jet, which were used during the 1950-53 Korean War.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-11008466

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/18/world/middleeast/18lebanon.html?_r=1&h...

Government investigators have cited Massey Energy for failing to report more than 20 accidents at its Upper Big Branch coal mine in the two years before an April explosion killed 29 miners there, according to documents released by the Mine Safety and Health Administration on Tuesday.

Only four of the alleged violations directly involve the explosion. The rest occurred between January 2008 and early this year. Among other things, they involve unreported roof collapses, assorted injuries and two instances of miners exercising their right to move out of dusty areas of the mine because they contracted black lung disease.

All were supposed to be reported. MSHA said the citations were issued because the agency did not learn of the violations until it performed an audit stemming from its investigation of the explosion in West Virginia. The blast also is the subject of a federal criminal investigation.

Massey, based in Richmond, is reviewing the citations and records at its other operations to determine why violations may not have been reported, spokesman Jeff Gillenwater said. Massey operates dozens of coal mines in West Virginia, Kentucky and Virginia.

http://fwix.com/tysons_corner/share/9324dae5d3/massey_energy_cited_for_f...

Toxic levels of oil found in gulf area crucial to fish
Researchers describe 'a constellation' of oil droplets mixed with sediment.

Phytoplankton, the base of the marine food web, is found to be in poor health nearby.
By Sara Kennedy, McClatchy Newspapers
August 18, 2010

St. Petersburg, Fla. — Scientists have found evidence that oil has become toxic to marine organisms in a section of the Gulf of Mexico that supports the spawning grounds of commercially important fish species.

Researchers from the University of South Florida said Tuesday that, in preliminary results, there appear to be droplets of oil among the sediments of a vital underwater canyon where clouds of oil from the BP spill were found.

"So, indeed, the waters have a level of toxicity that needs to be recognized, and I think these were some of the first indicators that the base of the food web — the bacteria and the phytoplankton — may be affected," said David Hollander, chief scientist on a research vessel that just returned from a 10-day trip in the gulf.

More than 200 million gallons of oil leaked into gulf waters from BP's broken well until it was capped last month. The company used millions of gallons of chemical dispersant to break up the oil as it gushed off the Louisiana coast.

Researchers peering into the murk described what they saw using a process involving ultraviolet light.

"We were able to detect sediments that had oil covering them," said Hollander. "It wasn't like a drape, don't get me wrong, like a blanket of oil; rather, it looked like a constellation of stars that were at the scale of microdroplets. They seemed to be at every location we looked east of the wellhead, and interestingly and surprisingly, at the top of the DeSoto Canyon to the east."

He described the DeSoto Canyon as an underwater geologic feature that is thought to bathe the Continental Shelf with nutrient-rich waters.

In subsurface waters east of the wellhead, phytoplankton — microscopic, plant-like organisms that form the base of the marine food web — was found to be in poor health, Hollander said.

In those locations, phytoplankton was repressed, or "feeling a toxic response to those waters," he added.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-oil-spill-fish-2010...

Blackwater Founder Moves to Abu Dhabi, Records Say
By JAMES RISEN
Published: August 17, 2010

WASHINGTON — Erik Prince, whose company, Blackwater Worldwide, is for sale and whose former top managers are facing criminal charges, has left the United States and moved to Abu Dhabi, according to court documents.

Mr. Prince, a former member of the Navy Seals and an heir to a Michigan auto parts fortune, left the country after a series of civil lawsuits, criminal charges and Congressional investigations singled out Blackwater or its former executives and other personnel. His company, now called Xe Services, has collected hundreds of millions of dollars from the United States government since 2001.

Current and former colleagues said Mr. Prince hoped to focus on security work from governments in Africa and the Middle East. They also said he was bitter about the legal scrutiny and negative publicity his company had received.

“He needs a break from America,” said one colleague, speaking only on the condition of anonymity about Mr. Prince’s long-rumored move.

Mr. Prince does not face any criminal charges, but five former top company executives have been indicted on federal weapons, conspiracy and obstruction charges. Two guards who worked for a Blackwater-affiliated company face murder charges from a 2009 shooting in Afghanistan, and the Justice Department is trying to revive its prosecution of five former Blackwater guards accused of killing 17 Iraqi civilians in 2007.

Over the past several years, Congress has also conducted a series of investigations of Blackwater’s activities in Iraq and Afghanistan, including an inquiry by the House Intelligence Committee into the company’s involvement in a proposed Central Intelligence Agency assassination program.

Mark Corallo, a spokesman for Mr. Prince, declined to comment about Mr. Prince’s move. Richard L. Beizer, a Washington lawyer representing Mr. Prince in a civil case, did not respond to requests for comment.

In documents filed last week in a civil lawsuit brought by former Blackwater employees accusing Mr. Prince of defrauding the government, Mr. Prince sought to avoid giving a deposition by stating that he had moved to Abu Dhabi in time for his children to enter school there Aug. 15. In the documents filed in federal court in Virginia, Mr. Prince’s lawyers describe Abu Dhabi as Mr. Prince’s place of residence. His deposition is now scheduled to take place there next week, lawyers involved in the case said.

Mr. Prince made a name for himself during the height of the war in Iraq, when Blackwater became the most recognizable brand name in the booming field of private security contracting. The company, which Mr. Prince founded in 1997, expanded rapidly, winning a series of contracts with the State Department, the C.I.A. and the Defense Department.

But Blackwater personnel in Iraq soon gained a reputation for cowboy tactics and the use of excessive force while guarding convoys of United States diplomats, leading to complaints from Iraqis and friction with the United States military.

Blackwater’s biggest public crisis came in September 2007, when its guards on a convoy in Nisour Square in Baghdad opened fire with machine guns, grenade launchers and other weapons, killing 17 Iraqi civilians. Five guards were indicted in the United States on manslaughter charges, but the charges were dismissed late last year by a federal judge. The Justice Department is appealing that ruling.

The Nisour Square killings ultimately led the State Department to drop Blackwater from its diplomatic security contract in Iraq. But the Justice Department has been investigating whether Blackwater sought to bribe Iraqi government officials to allow the firm to operate in the country after the Nisour Square killings.

In 2009, with scrutiny of Blackwater’s activities intensifying, Mr. Prince changed the company’s name and overhauled the management. He sold the company’s aviation arm early this year, and finally placed the whole company, including its huge headquarters and training complex in Moyock, N.C., up for sale in June.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/18/world/18blackwater.html?_r=1

...getting rid of the riff-raff; but dumping our trash on others and especially close to where he can freely cause unabated death and destruction makes me very uncomfortable.

I'd prefer his moving to an island populated by his ike surrounded by shark infested waters where he can check in but can never check out.

Bulletin from the cause: Free the MOVE 9

Go to Cause
Posted By: Maiga Milbourne
To: Members in Free the MOVE 9
Call the Parole Board!

Via Iresha Picot August 17 at 1:57pm

The information below is from Phil Africa on behalf of the MOVE 9. Nine Black men and women who are serving a 30-100 year sentence for the murder of a cop back in 1978. After completing their minumum sentence of thirty years, they are continually being denied by the parole board. I encourage everyone to call and/or (contact info at the bottom) write on their behalf to the parole board for their release. Please circulate this around.

Chairman Catherine McVey
(717) 787-5699

Tips for Calling Parole Board

1—Keep a copy of our parole sheets with you when calling. This way you will know just what they said and how to attack it.

2—Key points are that we have done all that is required to be released.
a. All required programs have been completed
b. Have been misconduct free for over 20 years
c. Have the recommendation of the prisons to be released
d. We have home plans
e. We have job plans
f. We have strong community support networks
g. We have very strong family supports

Keep in mind, that the aforementionables are more than most have while pre-parole, so why are we not being paroled?

3— Reiterate that parole is about the 32 years being spent in prison verses the crime being committed.

The sentencing judge has never said that we would have to admit "guilt/take responsibility" for crimes we did not commit in order to be paroled. Ask them, where does it say in their rules that a prisoner must admit guilt to be released? Point being, that it is what they are demanding of us by refusing to release us because we "refuse to accept responsibility for the offense" and some other crap, which of course is not stuff that is on any of the information sheets that are given to us after our sentencing that tells you when you get to prison what is expected of you to be ready for parole/release.

4—Be sure to tape record your calls to these people whenever possible. That way you can quote them word for word and if caught in lies, having it on tape will be very impressive. Always be sure to get the name of the person you talk to and what their job or position with the parole board is when you call.

5—Pre-release vs Parole. We had been up for pre-release which is separate from parole because it is decided on by the Department of Correction. Yet when Delbert saw the parole board, they asked him "how is your pre-release bid coming along." We were told by the staff here that we had been approved for it until it went to Harrisburg to be voted on and that we had been approved for it until it went to Harrisburg to be voted on. We know it was politics that had them make the change in vote once the Rendell/FOP people got wind of it. Like I said, these are just suggestions of things to ask or say to these people at the parole board when you all be calling them. They should be able to state and explain why they refused us parole and ya'll know that whatever excuse they give we can pick apart with the truth and use it to expose them even more.

6—Ask them why since nothing has changed with the women or men, they've got no misconducts, have the prisons recommendation done completed all of their programs, that they were not released but instead given longer parole hits. Now this is a big issue because only when you mess up do they give you a longer hit, so how do they explain giving the women those increased hits.

I encourage all to write to the parole board as well on behalf of the MOVE 9:
Attn: Inmate Inquiry
1101 South Front Street, Suite 5300
Harrisburg, PA 17104
(717) 787-5699

Along with Chairman Catherine C. McVey, the other eight Parole Board Members are Charles Fox, Michael L. Green, Jeffrey R. Imboden, Matthew T. Mangino, Benjamin A. Martinez, Gerard N. Massaro, Judy Viglione, Lloyd A. White.

Call to Action

Support the cause. Be counted:

http://www.divshare.com/download/12094611-c08

-----------
http://devildick.blogspot.com/

=================
http://www.divshare.com/download/12094612-17b

Tim Rose wrote the original at the Bitter End and this was one of his favorite versions

----------------
Little feat fans might get a kick out of this

http://www.divshare.com/download/12094622-57b

===================
This one goes out to ALICE

http://www.divshare.com/download/12094615-ecc

================
modulation exercise
http://www.divshare.com/download/12094613-2c4

-------------
Hey Jude
http://www.divshare.com/download/12094623-19d

Lebanon's parliament has approved a new energy law which paves the way for exploration of offshore oil and natural gas....

Israeli drilling

Lebanon has said it would "use all means" to defend its rights if Israel was found to be drilling in Lebanese waters.

Hamdan said he expected exploration rights to be up for auction by the end of 2011.

US-based Noble Energy has announced plans to begin drilling in the massive Leviathan field offshore Israel in the fourth quarter of 2010.

Noble has also said it had discovered enough natural gas at the Israeli Tamar and Dalit offshore fields to meet Israel's needs for years.

The announcements have increased tensions between Israel and Lebanon which do not have formal maritime borders and remain technically in a state of war...
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2010/08/201081716833103171....

Controversy over Japan shrine visit

Members of Europe's far-right, including French national leader Jean-Marie Le Pen, have visited a controversial war shrine in Tokyo ahead of the 65th anniversary of Japan's World War II surrender.

The lawmakers, from eight European right-wing parties, paid homage at Yasukuni shrine on Saturday and joined a Shinto ritual at the shrine's main sanctuary, as part of a series of events to mark the anniversary.

Le Pen, who will retire in January 2011 after the party elects his successor, is known for his anti-immigrant and extremist views.

He shocked many in France when he qualified for the second round of the 2002 presidential race, which Jacques Chirac eventually won.

Past militarism

His visit, which the Japanese prime minister, Naoto Kan, was expected to shun,
was arranged by the International Conference of Patriotic Organisations....
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia-pacific/2010/08/20108141473899386...

Every entry describing the "International Conference of Patriotic Organizations" is linked to "Metapedia" and has blocked access.

Here's a description of Metapedia:

...Metapedia is a thinly veiled neo-Nazi propaganda site. It is the wiki of record for Emperor Palpatine and the entire Imperial aristocracy. It also happens to support homeschooling.
Origin and history

Metapedia was created by Anders Lagerström of Linköping, a Swedish neo-Nazi activist who has been convicted for violent offences, including assaulting a police officer using tear gas, and breaking and entering.[3] The original (Swedish) Metapedia was created during late 2006.[4] The English Metapedia, launched during May 2007, was the 4th of the now 16 language versions of Metapedia.

As of June 2010, the site appears to have awakened from a long period of inactivity. However, it still appears to be run almost entirely by half a dozen idiots....
http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Metapedia

US denies Turkey arms 'ultimatum'

The White House has "emphatically denied" a report that Barack Obama, the US president, warned the Turkish prime minister to change his position on Israel and Iran or risk losing US weapons sales.

Britain's Financial Times newspaper reported on Monday that Obama gave an "ultimatum" to Turkey's Recep Tayyip Erdogan during a conversation earlier this month.

"The president and Erdogan did speak about 10 days ago, and they talked about Iran and the flotilla and other issues related to that," Bill Burton, a White House spokesman, said on Monday afternoon.

"But no such ultimatum was issued."
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/europe/2010/08/20108177560561160.html

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac should be abolished rather than reformed as part of the Obama administration's planned overhaul of the government's role in housing finance, Rep. Barney Frank, chairman of the House Financial Services committee, said on Tuesday.
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE67H1FA20100818?type=politicsNews

http://www.alternet.org/world/147859/were_you_born_on_the_wrong_continen...

http://www.mercurynews.com/health/ci_15808796?source=most_emailed&nclick...

check the brands .NONE are organic and they come from a mega distributor. in Iowa. Some of the brands are even on the east coast.

I know this nutrition stuff bores many people but I think in this case it is better to warn you before you get real sick.

Ted Nugent charged with 11 deer hunting violations in California

Rock star Ted Nugent, a 1970s guitar hero for hits including "Cat Scratch Fever," has recently created a successful second career as an advocate for hunting and outdoor ethics.

His television show, "Spirit of the Wild," is a four-time "Golden Moose" award winner on the Outdoor Channel. He has used his celebrity status to help promote better pay and working conditions for California game wardens, and consistently rails against poachers and other wildlife criminals.

So it was with a double take of disbelief that two California game wardens sat down in February to watch the show, and witnessed Nugent allegedly violate several California hunting laws....

"We were all really disappointed to see this happen with a guy who is a representative of hunters."

Nugent was later charged with 11 misdemeanors related to events that unfolded on his own television show, Foy said.

Nugent did not appear in court. He was represented by Yuba City attorney Jack Kopp, who did not respond to a request for comment on Tuesday. The 61-year-old rocker, who lives in China Springs, Texas, was penalized with a

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2010/08/18/99323/ted-nugent-charged-with-11-d...

The American Ballet Theatre company is to perform in Cuba later this year for the first time in 50 years.

Barack Obama's administration has given the troupe permission to dance at the Havana International Ballet Festival at the Karl Marx Theatre.

Its last Cuban performance was at the inaugural event in 1960.

The BBC's Michael Voss, in Havana, said the tour almost had to be called off for financial reasons after Washington refused to allow the company's sponsors to support the tour.

Cuban authorities stepped in and agreed to cover the dancers' accommodation and other expenses during the festival, he added.

The company's last appearance at the festival came just a year after Fidel Castro's revolution.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-11010321

East India Company returns after 135-year absence
Mr Mehta hopes the company will once again be a worldwide business force An Indian entrepreneur is relaunching the famous East India Company with the opening of a luxury food store in London on Saturday.

The event takes place on the same day that - more than 135 years ago - the company was dissolved.

At the height of its power, the East India Company controlled large parts of India with its own armed forces.

But it was disbanded after soldiers of the company's own army rose in revolt against the British in 1857...
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-south-asia-10971109

Last US combat leave Iraq right now: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38744453/ns/world_news-mideastn_africa/

Some are much fuller of it than others...

...
While U.S. courts and the Obama administration have been reluctant or unwilling to pursue the cases, countries that once backed former President George W. Bush's war on terrorism are carrying out their own investigations of the alleged U.S. torture program and the role that their governments played in it.

Judges in Great Britain, Spain, Australia, Poland and Lithuania are preparing to hear allegations that their governments helped the CIA run secret prisons on their soil or cooperated in illegal U.S. treatment of terrorism suspects. Spanish prosecutors also have filed criminal charges against six senior Bush administration officials who approved the harsh interrogation methods that detainees say were employed at U.S. military prisons in Afghanistan, Iraq, Guantanamo Bay and other sites....
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2010/08/18/99359/detainee-torture-cases-proce...

August 18, 2010

Living in Dignity With the Benefits of Citizenship

Why Iran's Jews are Better Off Than Gaza's Palestinians

By MIKE WHITNEY

25,000 Jews live in Iran. It's the largest Jewish population in the Middle East outside of Israel. Iranian Jews are not persecuted or abused by the state, in fact, they are protected under Iran's constitution. They are free to practice their religion and to vote in elections. They are not stopped and searched at checkpoints, they are not brutalized by an occupying army, and they are not herded into a densely-populated penal colony (Gaza) where they are deprived of the basic means of survival. Iranian Jews live in dignity and enjoy the benefits of citizenship.

Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is demonized in the western media. He is called an anti-Semite and the "new Hitler". But if those claims are true, then why did the majority of Iran's Jews vote for Ahmadinejad in recent presidential elections? Could it be that most of what we know about Ahmadinejad is just baseless rumor and propaganda?

This excerpt appeared in an article by the BBC:

"(Ahmadinejad's) office recently donated money for Tehran's Jewish hospital. It is one of only four Jewish charity hospitals worldwide and is funded with money from the Jewish diaspora - something remarkable in Iran where even local aid organizations have difficulty receiving funds from abroad for fear of being accused of being foreign agents."

When did Hitler ever donate money to Jewish hospitals? The Hitler analogy is a desperate attempt to brainwash Americans. It tells us nothing about what Ahmadinejad is really like.

The lies about Ahmadinejad are no different than the lies about Saddam Hussein or Hugo Chavez. The US and Israel are trying to create the justification for another war. That's why the media credits Ahmadinejad with saying things that he never really said. He never said that he wanted to "wipe Israel off the map". That's another fiction. Author Jonathan Cook explains what the Iranian president really said:
http://www.counterpunch.org/whitney08182010.html

August 18, 2010

Why Democrats Are Not the Answer

The Neoliberal Attack on Social Security

By ALAN NASSER

Among Obama’s principal tasks right now are to reverse his dwindling popularity and to bolster the Democrats’ chances in the the upcoming fall elections. These are not unrelated objectives. He’s got to get people to perceive him as on their side with respect to matters that matter, and matter big, to the electorate, and to credibly distinguish himself from the Republicans on these same issues. After all, the cardinal political objective of liberal Democrats is to keep Republicans out of office.

Rasmussen Reports reveals that Obama’s popularity has plunged in the last three months As of Sunday, 43 percent of the nation’s voters “Strongly Disapprove” of his performance as president. Obama’s weekly radio address on Saturday was an effort to endear himself to the gullible by showing that he defends their most fundamental interests against clear and present Republican danger. With titanic irony, he chose Social Security as the issue that makes the difference.

Here is what he said:

“...some Republican leaders in Congress [are] pushing to make privatizing Social Security a key part of their legislative agenda if they win a majority in Congress this fall. It's right up there on their to-do list with repealing some of the Medicare benefits and reforms that are adding at least a dozen years to the fiscal health of Medicare - the single longest extension in history.

That agenda is wrong for seniors, it's wrong for America, and I won't let it happen. Not while I'm President. I'll fight with everything I've got to stop those who would gamble your Social Security on Wall Street. Because you shouldn't be worried that a sudden downturn in the stock market will put all you've worked so hard for - all you've earned - at risk. You should have the peace of mind of knowing that after meeting your responsibilities and paying into the system all your lives, you'll get the benefits you deserve.”

These cynical remarks assume -correctly, one fears- an under- and misinformed public. Obama says he opposes “repealing some of the Medicare benefits”, even as the legislative “reforms” he has defended do just that, in the name of reducing the costs -to business and government, not to working people- of health care.
http://www.counterpunch.org/nasser08182010.html

...for training and support of Iraq military/police.

The following is the official, arguably accurate, of U.S. soldiers stationed around the world issued by the Department of Defense
ACTIVE DUTY MILITARY PERSONNEL STRENGTHS BY REGIONAL AREA AND BY COUNTRY (309A)
March 2010

http://siadapp.dmdc.osd.mil/personnel/MILITARY/history/hst1003.pdf

Wikipedia editing courses launched by Zionist groups

Two Israeli groups set up training courses in Wikipedia editing with aims to 'show the other side' over borders and culture

Yesha Council, representing the Jewish settler movement, and the rightwing Israel Sheli (My I srael) movement, ran their first workshop this week in Jerusalem, teaching participants how to rewrite and revise some of the most hotly disputed pages of the online reference site.

"We don't want to change Wikipedia or turn it into a propaganda arm," says Naftali Bennett, director of the Yesha Council. "We just want to show the other side. People think that Israelis are mean, evil people who only want to hurt Arabs all day."

"...The problem, according to Ayelet Shaked of Israel Sheli, is that online, pro-Israeli activists are vastly outnumbered by pro-Palestinian voices. "We don't want to give this arena to the other side," she said. "But we are so few and they are so many.

People in the US and Europe never hear about Israel's side, with all the correct arguments and explanations."

...Scientology was a regular source of conflict until the committee blocked editing by the movement...
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/aug/18/wikipedia-editing-zionist-gr...

"...I'll fight with everything I've got to stop those who would gamble your Social Security on Wall Street..."

I am so tired of DEMS play'n nice!
The fight is on...! grrr

I got my bat {cuz i am small bone and it takes a bat to give a decent "right" hook. ;)} thus

Strike Three n "they'r-r-r out!".

Muslim employee: Disney banned her head scarf

A Muslim woman who works as a hostess at a Disneyland restaurant alleged Wednesday the theme park would not allow her to appear in front of customers while wearing her head scarf.

Imane Boudlal, 26, appeared outside the resort's Grand Californian Hotel after filing a complaint with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

Boudlal, who is a native of Morocco, has worked at the Storyteller restaurant at the hotel for 2½ years but only realized she could wear her hijab to work after studying for her U.S. citizenship exam in June, Qazi said.

Boudlal has the support of her union, which has been in a bitter fight for months with Disneyland over an expired contract for hotel workers.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/feedarticle/9226253

His assistant wrote back to me and left his name and everything.

Thank for your email to State Senator Duane in support of legalizing the medical use of marijuana.

Senator Duane strongly agrees that New York State law should be changed to allow for the medical use of marijuana. In fact, he is the prime sponsor of Senate Bill S.4041-B which would do just that.

In the past year, Senator Duane shepherded his medical marijuana bill to passage in both the Senate Health and Codes committees. When the Legislative Session officially ended in late June, the bill was before the Senate Finance committee. In the State Assembly, where the companion bill is sponsored by Assembly Member Richard Gottfried, it was in the Rules committee at Session’s end.

Senator Duane recognizes that thousands of New Yorkers have serious medical conditions that may benefit from medical use of marijuana and he will continue to educate his colleagues and, with your help and advocacy, fight for passage of this bill.

------
There was more in his response to me but I was surprised that he actually read my letter to him. He is HIV positive and I think he is sincere. he will get my vote again

President goes for a swim in the Gulf – or does he?

No
I thought he was in a swimming pool

acc. to this article he is not swimming in the Gulf at all

only White House photographers know .....

... millions of wildlife is dying - the Gulf is dying - but Obama wants people to believe it is safe to live there, to swim in the Gulf water, to breathe the air ...
Ruthless!

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/president-goes-for-a-sw...

I would love to but I am so tired. Ghettodefender Thanks for all your efforts today. I kept thinking of jumping in with some tangential tidbits but it wasn't in the cards today. the night crew must be waking shortly.

Om mani padme hum boom lacka lacka.

...laugh or be indignant. ;);( re
"...Om mani padme hum boom lacka lacka..." (oops 4got;}
;D

That was the figure I was too lazy to look for. Thanks CeeCee.

Thanks y'all for great posts. (You know who you aren't.)

the fluoride in their water, the Aspertine and corn syrup in their diet, the shots they receive on a regular basis. Except it is already too late for the sheeple.
-----
by ghettodefender on Wed, 08/18/2010 - 8:59pm.

"...I'll fight with everything I've got to stop those who would gamble your Social Security on Wall Street..."
--

ghetto,
I first thought it was YOU who was ready to fight for our Social Security .... then I read the article. Obummer ;-)

taozen,
thanks for your egg article. That was v. important to know and I made a printout(also checked my fridge but the eggs mentioned were not among them).

btw.Do you eat organic eggs? Can they be trusted to be "organic?" What do you think?

"Thank for your email to State Senator Duane in support of legalizing the medical use of marijuana"

That is really great that you received a response from his office.

I agree with you ... and hope everyone will vote for the legalization of marijuana here in California, too.
Many people with serious medical conditions are helped by this plant alone and can get often rid of their many bottles of prescription meds which also cost a fortune. Big Pharma is the enemy.

Berkeley Credits-4
(According to Berkeley, 47 students of the 68 seat-limit are enrolled as of this posting)
http://www.law.berkeley.edu/php-programs/courses/courseSearchResults.php...

August 17th, 2010 1:45 PM
Protest draws dozens at UC Berkeley for John Yoo's first day of classes
By Sean Maher / Oakland Tribune

BERKELEY -- Protesters gathered at the opening of classes Monday to protest the school's continued employment of John Yoo, a UC Berkeley professor who gave legal sanction to the Bush administration's views on torture.

Between 70 and 80 people gathered near the Boalt Hall School of Law around noon and, after a series of speakers discussed torture from a number of perspectives, dipped their hands in red paint and marched into a classroom where they believed Yoo to be teaching this semester, organizer Linda Jacobs said.

Yoo was not in the classroom, so the group continued on to the dean's office and demanded to speak with him, Jacobs said. Police at the scene declared the group an unlawful assembly, at which point the protesters walked back outside, Jacobs said.

"There was a very heavy police presence, but no arrests," Jacobs said.

Speakers throughout the demonstration discussed historical and legal issues relating to torture, and one second-year law student "talked about shame of being a Boalt Hall student while a war criminal is teaching Constitutional Law," Jacobs said.

The Boalt Hall School of Law class schedule lists courses, such as constitutional law, to be taught by John Yoo. The protesters challenged Yoo's presence on campus because of legal memos he wrote that were instrumental in the development of military and CIA interrogation techniques that some consider to be torture.

Yoo has said that the Bush administration did not authorize torture and that he did not consider waterboarding torture.

In February, the Department of Justice completed and released its investigative report, clearing Yoo and the Bush administration's Office of Legal Counsel of any professional wrongdoing, which Berkeley Law Dean Christopher Edley said underscored the importance of the school's discretion in not firing Yoo.

"Any effort to discipline a faculty member for their outside activities creates dangers that ideological or political agendas may be advanced under the vague banner of 'morality,'" Edley said. "I hope these new developments will end the arguments about faculty sanctions, but we should and will continue to argue about what is right or wrong, legal or illegal in combating terrorism."

The organizers have several events planned throughout the semester, Jacobs said, including a Berkeley Says No To Torture Week beginning Oct. 10 and the screening of a WikiLeaks video of U.S. soldiers killing people, which organizers hope to do Friday night near Shattuck Avenue and Allston Way after dark.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latest-news/protest-draws-dozens-uc-be...

...the reThugs will see to it. (Listening to Mike Malloy)

David Stockman bombshell: How my Republican Party destroyed the American economy.
The "debt explosion has resulted not from big spending by the Democrats, but instead the Republican Party’s embrace, about three decades ago, of the insidious doctrine that deficits don’t matter if they result from tax cuts."

August 1, 2010

Cue the FoxNews denunciations.

David Stockman, director of the Office of Management and Budget under President Ronald Reagan, has dared to call out his own party for creating our current economic problems. His NYT op-ed, “Four Deformations of the Apocalypse,” begins:

IF there were such a thing as Chapter 11 for politicians, the Republican push to extend the unaffordable Bush tax cuts would amount to a bankruptcy filing.

Given our long-term deficit problem, Stockman said it is “unseemly for the Senate minority leader, Mitch McConnell, to insist that the nation’s wealthiest taxpayers be spared even a three-percentage-point rate increase.”

UPDATE: Huffpost reports that in an interview today on NBC’s Meet the Press, “Former Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan said that the push by congressional Republicans to extend the Bush tax cuts without offsetting the costs elsewhere could end up being ‘disastrous’ for the economy.”
Continue reading here:
http://climateprogress.org/2010/08/01/david-stockman-how-gop-destroyed-t...

Four Deformations of the Apocalypse
By DAVID STOCKMAN
Published: July 31, 2010

IF there were such a thing as Chapter 11 for politicians, the Republican push to extend the unaffordable Bush tax cuts would amount to a bankruptcy filing. The nation’s public debt — if honestly reckoned to include municipal bonds and the $7 trillion of new deficits baked into the cake through 2015 — will soon reach $18 trillion. That’s a Greece-scale 120 percent of gross domestic product, and fairly screams out for austerity and sacrifice. It is therefore unseemly for the Senate minority leader, Mitch McConnell, to insist that the nation’s wealthiest taxpayers be spared even a three-percentage-point rate increase.

More fundamentally, Mr. McConnell’s stand puts the lie to the Republican pretense that its new monetarist and supply-side doctrines are rooted in its traditional financial philosophy. Republicans used to believe that prosperity depended upon the regular balancing of accounts — in government, in international trade, on the ledgers of central banks and in the financial affairs of private households and businesses, too. But the new catechism, as practiced by Republican policymakers for decades now, has amounted to little more than money printing and deficit finance — vulgar Keynesianism robed in the ideological vestments of the prosperous classes.

This approach has not simply made a mockery of traditional party ideals. It has also led to the serial financial bubbles and Wall Street depredations that have crippled our economy. More specifically, the new policy doctrines have caused four great deformations of the national economy, and modern Republicans have turned a blind eye to each one.

The first of these started when the Nixon administration defaulted on American obligations under the 1944 Bretton Woods agreement to balance our accounts with the world. Now, since we have lived beyond our means as a nation for nearly 40 years, our cumulative current-account deficit — the combined shortfall on our trade in goods, services and income — has reached nearly $8 trillion. That’s borrowed prosperity on an epic scale.

It is also an outcome that Milton Friedman said could never happen when, in 1971, he persuaded President Nixon to unleash on the world paper dollars no longer redeemable in gold or other fixed monetary reserves. Just let the free market set currency exchange rates, he said, and trade deficits will self-correct.

It may be true that governments, because they intervene in foreign exchange markets, have never completely allowed their currencies to float freely. But that does not absolve Friedman’s $8 trillion error. Once relieved of the discipline of defending a fixed value for their currencies, politicians the world over were free to cheapen their money and disregard their neighbors.

In fact, since chronic current-account deficits result from a nation spending more than it earns, stringent domestic belt-tightening is the only cure. When the dollar was tied to fixed exchange rates, politicians were willing to administer the needed castor oil, because the alternative was to make up for the trade shortfall by paying out reserves, and this would cause immediate economic pain — from high interest rates, for example. But now there is no discipline, only global monetary chaos as foreign central banks run their own printing presses at ever faster speeds to sop up the tidal wave of dollars coming from the Federal Reserve.

The second unhappy change in the American economy has been the extraordinary growth of our public debt. In 1970 it was just 40 percent of gross domestic product, or about $425 billion. When it reaches $18 trillion, it will be 40 times greater than in 1970. This debt explosion has resulted not from big spending by the Democrats, but instead the Republican Party’s embrace, about three decades ago, of the insidious doctrine that deficits don’t matter if they result from tax cuts.

In 1981, traditional Republicans supported tax cuts, matched by spending cuts, to offset the way inflation was pushing many taxpayers into higher brackets and to spur investment. The Reagan administration’s hastily prepared fiscal blueprint, however, was no match for the primordial forces — the welfare state and the warfare state — that drive the federal spending machine.

Soon, the neocons were pushing the military budget skyward. And the Republicans on Capitol Hill who were supposed to cut spending exempted from the knife most of the domestic budget — entitlements, farm subsidies, education, water projects. But in the end it was a new cadre of ideological tax-cutters who killed the Republicans’ fiscal religion.
Continue reading...
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/01/opinion/01stockman.html?_r=1&ref=opini...

- kids really have (kind of) withdrawn over the past several months? Scuzzy as gloryoski may be sometimes, I agree that this is probably bullshit. When you're raised in this barn, you recognize the whiffs.

JB - no idea about the GOP/Ferrari distinction. But I do know this: Hey hey! / Ain't it great just to be - gray?

Submitted by ellwort on Wed, 08/18/2010 - 11:06pm.
...When you're raised in this barn, you recognize the whiffs.
----
You should have no problem identifying dumbshit:
----
Submitted by bridge on Wed, 08/18/2010 - 9:36pm.
President goes for a swim in the Gulf – or does he?

No
I thought he was in a swimming pool

acc. to this article he is not swimming in the Gulf at all...

Thanks Crank.

S.O.S! (Same old - - same old)
__________________________________________________________

Oh - and thanks for teaching me how to make these bordergrooves

While Economists Lied, the Economy Died

Deceptive Economic Statistics

By PAUL CRAIG ROBERTS

On August 17, Bloomberg reported a US government release that industrial production rose twice as much as forecast, climbing 1 percent. Bloomberg interpreted this to mean that “increased business investment is propelling the gains in manufacturing, which accounts for 11 percent of the world’s largest economy.”

The stock market rose.

Let’s look at this through the lens of statistician John Williams of shadowstats.com.

Williams reports that “the primary driver of a 1.0% monthly gain in seasonally-adjusted July industrial production” was “warped seasonal factors” caused by “the irregular patterns in U.S. auto production in the last two years.” Industrial production “shrank by 1.0% before seasonal adjustments.”

If the government and Bloomberg had announced that industrial production fell by 1.0% in July, would the stock market have risen 104 points on August 17?

Notice that Bloomberg reports that manufacturing accounts for 11 percent of the US economy. I remember when manufacturing accounted for 18% of the US economy. The decline of 39% is due to jobs offshoring.

Think about that. Wall Street and shareholders and executives of transnational corporations have made billions by moving 39% of US manufacturing offshore to boost the GDP and employment of foreign countries, such as China, while impoverishing their former American work force. Congress and the economics profession have cheered this on as “the New Economy.”

read here

http://www.counterpunch.org/roberts08182010.html

Welcome to the New Normal

A Permanent Housing Collapse?

By SHAMUS COOKE

The recent chaos that erupted when 30,000 people waited hours in the Atlanta, Georgia heat to receive applications for subsidized housing is a mere symptom of a worsening national problem.

The housing market appears to be on a never-ending downward spiral, with the much-discussed "recovery" always around the next corner.

The reasons that such a recovery is impossible at the moment should be obvious: millions of people do not have jobs; millions of others work only part time; millions more work fulltime but make very little money; and additional millions fear losing their jobs.

Under these circumstances, there can be no recovery in the housing market, which will continue to contribute to the broader depression-like economy in the U.S.

Interestingly, an op-ed article in The New York Times, entitled The 30 Year Prison, actually took these realities into account when analyzing the housing crisis. The 30 year mortgage is the cornerstone of the residential housing market, which allowed millions of Americans to become homeowners.

But the economic conditions that allowed such a mortgage are disappearing. According to the op-ed author, Katherine Stone, one crucial problem of the housing crisis is that "...today’s mortgages are designed for yesterday’s borrowers."

Ms. Stone makes clear that "yesterday's borrowers" are people who could expect to have job security and were paid a livable wage. Thus, 30 year Mortgages "...work well as long as homeowners have stable, long-term jobs that enable them to regularly make their monthly payments."

"But these days such careers are increasingly scarce. Therefore, any effort to recover from the crisis must include more flexible mortgages that take today’s employment landscape, with its frequent job-hopping and episodic unemployment, into account." (August 14, 2010).

Of course banks are never very eager to be "flexible" with loans.

Nevertheless, Ms. Stone is part of the recent wave of journalists and politicians who have discovered that there is a "new normal" in the U.S. economy, which will inevitably have profound changes on how millions of people live their life. If the economy continues in the same direction it has been traveling for the last thirty years, with the needs of corporate owners overriding those of the employees, the "new normal" will demand that not only housing, but many other aspects of life be changed to suit the long-term joblessness and low wages that politicians and businessmen would like to make permanent.

Adequate housing is a basic human right. But often basic rights take a back seat to corporate profits.

read here

http://www.counterpunch.org/cooke08182010.html

"The country badly needs a central bank that is independent of Wall Street, where its governors can do what they believe is best for the economy and the country. Unfortunately, we do not have such a Fed. Until Congress and the public start putting heat on Bernanke for his policy failures, we can expect to get kicked in the face again and again."
-----

The Need for an Independent Fed

Bernanke's Paralysis

By DEAN BAKER

Last week the Fed announced that it would use the proceeds from retired mortgage-backed securities to buy up more government bonds. This may have a very modest effect in keeping long-term interest rates low, thereby giving a small boost to the economy.

Such a measure would be reasonable if the economy was basically fine and just in need of a modest lift. But this is not the case.

The unemployment rate is 9.5 percent and virtually certain to rise in the 2nd half of the year. Job growth has basically stopped and the GDP is likely to be in the range of 1-2 percent in the next four quarters, as state and local governments cut back spending, the stimulus phases down and the housing market resumes its slide.

In this scenario, the Fed should be taking aggressive steps to bring the economy back to full employment. After all, this is part of its job description. Its responsibility is to promote price stability and full employment. There is no concern about price stability in the sense of the rate of inflation being too high right now. Therefore the Fed’s responsibility should be to do everything within its power to reach full employment; obviously we are nowhere close now.

read here

http://www.counterpunch.org/baker08172010.html

Racketeers for Capitalism

By Cindy Sheehan

"I spent 33 years in the Marines. Most of my time being a high-class muscle man for Big Business, for Wall Street and the bankers. In short, I was a racketeer for capitalism."

Major General Smedley D. Butler, War is a Racket (1935)

August 18, 2010 "Information Clearing House" -- I remember when the US war dead in Iraq reached 1000 sometime in the summer of 2005. My youngest child and her boyfriend accompanied me to a vigil in Davis, Ca. where we held candles, pictures of Casey, each other, and sobbed-not just for Casey, but for all the rest, also. And not just for the Americans, but for the Iraqis, too.

Then I remember when the needless toll reached 2000 in the fall of 2005-I got arrested with about 25 others in front of the White House-such organizations at MoveOn.org preferred candlelight vigils to direct action. I warned them if we didn't do something, then we would be mourning 3000-that total came in the early spring of 2007. Now the total for Iraq stands at 4415 and I was recently told by the founder of Veterans for Peace Arlington West Memorial on the beach in Santa Barbara (where I first visited five weeks after Casey was killed on Mother's Day) that they would no longer place a cross in the sand for my son, or the other 4414 dead in Iraq because Iraq is "old news."

Today, (August 17) we learn that in Afghanistan, three U.S. troops, three NATO troops and at least seven civilians were killed. This is another grim marker along the Imperial Road to Ruin as Barack Obama's regime has managed to kill as many troops in Afghanistan in 19 months as the Bush stain did in seven years.

I happen to believe that the wars and everything else became Obama's problems on January 20, 2009, but in reading comments about today's carnage on that bastion of centrism, the Huffington Post - many people either believe that the Afghanistan occupation just became Obama's War today, or that (in the case of at least one commenter) - Obama was forced to send more troops, and when one sends more troops, more of them will die. The matter-of-fact callousness of this remark stung like a hornet to me, and I bet the mothers of numbers 1227, 1228, and 1229 did not feel so cavalier when the Grim Reapers in dress khakis knocked on their doors today.

read here

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article26178.htm

"Along with the habits, the political class adopts the ruling class's social canon and presumptions, especially the one most necessary for acceptance: That the public has the collective intelligence of a chicken. OK, so it may be very hard to disprove that at the moment, but we must maintain at least some egalitarian semblance here. Anyway, as a group, the political elites think, look and act alike, and act toward their own interests. That makes them a class."

(very important article IMO)

----
Understanding America's Class System

Honk If You Love Caviar

By Joe Bageant
August 18, 2010 "Information Clearing House" -- How about them political elites, huh? Five million bucks for Chelsea Clinton's wedding, 15K just to rent the air-conditioned shitters -- huge chrome and glass babies with hot water and everything. No gas masks and waxy little squares of toilet paper for those guys.

Yes, it looks big time from the cheap seats. But the truth is that when we are looking at the political elite, we are looking at the dancing monkey, not the organ grinder who calls the tune. Washington's political class is about as upwardly removed from ordinary citizens as the ruling class is from the political class. For instance, they do not work for a living in the normal sense of a job, but rather obtain their income from abstractions such as investment and law, neither of which ever gave anybody a hernia or carpal tunnel. By comparison, the ruling class does not work at all.
Moneywise, Washington's political class is richer than the working class by the same orders of magnitude as the ruling class is richer than the political class. This gives the political class something to aim for. To that end, they have adopted the ruling elite's behaviors, tastes and lifestyles, with an eye on becoming members. Moreover, it is a molting process that begins with the right university and connections, and culminates in flying off to Washington with the rest of your generation's most privileged and ambitious young moths.

They make enough dough to at least fake it until they make it. Fifty-one of the 100 members of the US Senate are at the very least millionaires -- probably more than that, since multi-million million dollar residences and estates are exempt from the official tally. For instance in the House, Nancy Pelosi's net worth is either $13 million, or $92 million, depending upon who is counting. Why they bother to shave such large numbers is a mystery. Thirteen million, ninety two million, the difference is not gonna change our opinion of Nancy. Our opinion being that the broad is loaded. More than loaded. The comparatively poor members of Congress, like Barney Frank, are near millionaires. His publicly declared net worth is $976,000. For the life of me, I cannot see how they get by.

read here

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article26177.htm

Tea Cheers all first ;)

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New Thread:
http://www.samsedershow.com/node/5948#comments

Just to raise the level of discourse that much higher.

"Univited fellatio." There it is in a nutsa...(er) shell.

God and Ward Churchill help us all!! The FEMALE orifices are out of control!! (Which means by default they are about to be in control because there are only two directions on this gearshift.)

I definitely would have expected better from you, and have even gotten it sometimes, but then all bets are off when it comes to...

The Alpha (who is really quite a silly little creature if you can get past all that foam with which it camouflages and adorns itself).

PS, I am using somatic metaphors (gearshift, etc) to speak about gender, which happens to have a lot to do with with biological/physical sex in at the present (interminable) moment.

If appropriate, you may simply say with Chris Rock, "Oh [s]he's not talking about me..."

Fortunately for all of you I have a limited amount of time to continue to be disillusioned. Have fun boys!

;)

Mrs -A with my use of the Buddhist prayer and some Sly Stone Phrase Boom Lacka lacka.

My mind is focused on uniting all groups and not dividing. I learned to keep that WTP concept alive from YOU my dear. I think you know that.

Sam's video with Move ON in the new thread really was sweet and simple. No wonkyness.

I seem to recognize many of those New York Faces and locations. Now that Law and Order has moved to La I wont get play :"guess the Location" and see if i can identify the block it was shot on. .Sam and his crew were downtown On lower broadway near the old Mayors office and also near the Highline over on the west side. I think. Take that Interview on the road esp down south and to the maroon states eh?