Lack of health insurance
kills 18,000 Americans annually| |
Excerpt: More than 18,000 adults in the USA die each year because they are uninsured and can't get proper health care, researchers report in a landmark study released Tuesday. The 193-page report, "Care Without Coverage: Too Little, Too Late," examines the plight of 30 million -- one in seven -- working-age Americans whose employers don't provide insurance and who don't qualify for government medical care.
Comment: For those of you playing at home, that's a 9/11 happening every sixty days. But instead of a "war on bad health care," we get Bush proposing the end of tax breaks for companies who insure their workers, which is sure to lead to many more American deaths every year.
Blue Cross gets a wrist-slap for
canceling insurance policies
Excerpt: Regulators examined 90 randomly selected policy cancellations, out of about 1,000 a year in California, and found violations in each one. Blue Cross already is appealing a $200,000 fine the department imposed in September for rescinding one person's policy, the first in an individual rescission case.
Comment: Let's see, Blue Cross of California made 702-million dollars in profits in 2002, so this fine would represent a tiny fraction of one percent of Blue Cross's annual corporate profit. Can there be any doubt that their systematic cancellation of insurance for sick and pregnant people made Blue Cross much more money than this?
It's way past time to nationalize health care in America, and put blood-suckers like Blue Cross out of business. |
Republicans play politics with
American system of justice
Gonzales was directly involved in attorney firings (even though he said he wasn't)| |
Excerpt: Attorney General Alberto Gonzales approved plans to fire several U.S. attorneys in a November meeting, according to documents released Friday that contradict earlier claims that he was not closely involved in the dismissals. |
Two-week gap in attorney-firing
emails right after Bush got involved| |
Excerpt: In DOJ documents that were publicly posted by the House Judiciary Committee, there is a gap from mid-November to early December in e-mails and other memos, which was a critical period as the White House and Justice Department reviewed, then approved, which U.S. attorneys would be fired while also developing a political and communications strategy for countering any fallout from the firings. |
Bush says White House
will ignore Congress subpoenas| |
Excerpt: The brinksmanship between the White House and Congress over the firing of several U.S. attorneys heightened yesterday, with a House committee authorizing the use of subpoenas to compel the testimony of President Bush's advisers, including top aide Karl Rove, and the White House vowing to fight such demands as long as necessary. The House Judiciary Committee, hoping to prod the White House into allowing the advisers to testify under oath, stopped short of issuing the subpoenas. But Democrats warned they would be issued if the White House refuses to budge -- a move that could lead to a constitutional deadlock that the federal courts would settle.
Congress has no oversight over President, says spokesman
Excerpt: "The executive branch is under no compulsion to testify to Congress, because Congress in fact doesn't have oversight ability."
Comment: "No oversight" has been the reality of the Bush-Cheney administration with a Republican Congress. Will it remain the reality with a Democratic Congress? |
Attorney purge not "business as usual"| |
Excerpt: The firings were not the offense. They were the clue that suggested the offense. As the Congressional Research Service has shown, over the last twenty-five years only ten U.S. Attorneys have been dismissed other than at the beginning of a new president's term of office. And of those eight were for clear cause. For instance, one of them bit a stripper on the arm in a night club. And that, not surprisingly, led to his ouster. |
Senate votes to end U.S. Attorney firings| |
Excerpt: The Senate voted overwhelmingly Tuesday to end the Bush administration's ability to unilaterally fill U.S. attorney vacancies as a backlash to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales' firing of eight federal prosecutors... the Senate by a 94-2 vote passed a bill that would cancel the attorney general's power to appoint U.S. attorneys without Senate confirmation." ...
If you politicize the prosecutors, you politicize everybody in the whole chain of law enforcement," said Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt. |
U.S. attorney's firing may be
connected to CIA corruption probe| |
Excerpt: Fired San Diego U.S. attorney Carol Lam notified the Justice Department that she intended to execute search warrants on a high-ranking CIA official as part of a corruption probe the day before a Justice Department official sent an e-mail that said Lam needed to be fired, U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein said Sunday. |
Prosecutor says she was pressured to
give tobacco giants $120-billion discount| |
Excerpt: "They actually drafted for me for a position to take on a smoking-cessation remedy, which would reduce what the government had been seeking in the case from $130 billion to $10 billion, without any explanation," former federal prosecutor Sharon Eubanks tells CBS News chief Washington correspondent Bob Schieffer in an exclusive interview. |
Abramoff prosecutor was given judgeship| |
Excerpt: President George W. Bush has not made many moves more unethical than offering Noel L. Hillman, the Abramoff prosecutor, a federal judgeship. Hillman has apparently been talking with Bush's representatives since last year, and on last Thursday, he publicly announced he was accepting the appointment.
Let me make this perfectly clear.
At the same time that Mr. Hillman was conducting a grand jury and submitting evidence aimed at Bush's allies and perhaps Bush himself, he was meeting with Bush, who was, in effect, offering him a bribe. |
U.S. attorneys data dump made searchable for researching| |
Excerpt: On the ePluribus Media Community, the team has taken the over 2000 pages of PDFs that the Department of Justice (DOJ) dumped late Monday 3-19-07 night and made them searchable. |
Eyebrows are raised in Michigan
over reasons for prosecutor's firing| |
Excerpt: The Justice Department initially announced that the reasons were "performance-related," an explanation at odds with the current consensus in Grand Rapids. The chief federal judge firmly disputed it, as did Chiara, who said she was told her resignation was needed to clear the way for a political favorite. |
Bush appoints attorneys with
history of voter suppression| |
Excerpt: Since 2005, McClatchy Newspapers has found, Bush has appointed at least three U.S. attorneys who had worked in the Justice Department's civil rights division when it was rolling back longstanding voting-rights policies aimed at protecting predominantly poor, minority voters.
Another newly installed U.S. attorney, Tim Griffin in Little Rock, Ark., was accused of participating in efforts to suppress Democratic votes in Florida during the 2004 presidential election while he was a research director for the Republican National Committee. He's denied any wrongdoing. |
U.S. Attorney seeks
reduced sentence for Abramoff| |
Excerpt: Former Republican super-lobbyist Jack Abramoff, sentenced to almost six years in prison for his fraudulent purchase of a South Florida gambling fleet, can receive a reduced sentence if he continues to assist prosecutors in a far-reaching Washington public corruption probe, federal officials said Wednesday.
The U.S. attorney's office in Miami filed the paperwork seeking to reduce Abramoff's 70-month prison term stemming from the SunCruz Casinos case, but did not specify any time off his sentence. |
Why Bush fights against
allowing testimony under oath
by John Dean, FindLaw's Writ| |
Excerpt: I have never been an advocate of executive privilege, except as it might relate to the most sensitive national security information. To the contrary, you show me a White House aide who does not want his conversations and advice to the president revealed, and I will show you someone who should not be talking with or advising a president. ...
This time, it is my belief that Bush -- unlike Reagan before him -- will not blink. He will not let White House Counsel Fred Fielding strike a deal, as Fielding did for Reagan. Rather, Bush feels that he has his manhood on the line. He knows what his conservative constituency wants: a strong president who protects his prerogatives. He believes in the unitary executive theory of protecting those prerogatives, and of strengthening the presidency by defying Congress.
In short, all those who have wanted to see Karl Rove in jail may get their wish, for he will not cave in, either -- and may well be prosecuted for contempt. ... Bush's greatest problem here, however, is Harriet Miers. It is dubious he can exert any privilege over a former White House Counsel; I doubt she is ready to go to prison for him; and all who know her say if she is under oath, she will not lie. That could be a problem. |
Tony Snow criticized Clinton for
resisting Congressional subpoenas| |
Excerpt: But Snow had a much different view of executive privilege in 1998, when President Clinton was using it to resist having his aides testify in the midst of the Monica Lewinsky saga. On 3/29/98, Snow published an op-ed titled, "Executive Privilege is a Dodge": "Taken to its logical extreme, that position would make it impossible for citizens to hold a chief executive accountable for anything. He would have a constitutional right to cover up."
Comment: When confronted about his blatant hypocrisy, Snow said the two situations weren't analogous. Well, no. Now, we're talking about corrupting the very system of American justice. Then, we were talking about blow jobs. |
Reality check: Top Clinton aides
testified in Congress 47 times| |
Excerpt: Among the Clinton senior White House staffers who testified were Harold Ickes, assistant to the president and deputy chief of staff; George Stephanopolous, senior advisor to the president for policy and strategy; John Podesta, assistant to the president and staff secretary; Bruce Lindsey, assistant to the president and deputy counsel to the president; Sandy Berger, assistant to the president for national security affairs; and Beth Nolan, counsel to the president.
The Clinton administration could have fought these appearances all the way to the Supreme Court. They reason they did not was simple: They didn't want there to be an appearance that they had something to hide.
The difference now is stark. The Busheviks a) do have something to hide and b) don't give a damn what anybody thinks. They will take this all the way to the Supremes if for no other reason that to run out the clock. |
How many times can Times say Gonzales is a liar without saying the word?| |
Excerpt: I count at least five different ways the New York Times discusses how Alberto Gonzales didn't tell the truth. They're running out of ways to call him a liar without just saying it. Word is that reporters are averse to using the word "liar" unless there is proof to show actual intent. Hmmm. How much more intent do they need? Rove and the Bush gang know the media won't call them on their lies. So they do it over and over and over ... |
|
|
Former Interior deputy pleads guilty to obstructing justice in Abramoff probe| |
Excerpt: Former U.S. Deputy Interior Secretary J. Steven Griles pleaded guilty Friday to obstruction of justice in a Senate committee's investigation, becoming the highest-ranking Bush administration official convicted in the Jack Abramoff corruption scandal.
The former No. 2 official in the Interior Department admitted in federal court that he lied to the Senate about his relationship with convicted lobbyist Abramoff, who repeatedly sought Griles' intervention at the agency on behalf of Abramoff's Indian tribal clients. |
Anonymous American fights extralegal gag order| |
Excerpt: Three years ago, I received a national security letter (NSL) in my capacity as the president of a small Internet access and consulting business. The letter ordered me to provide sensitive information about one of my clients. There was no indication that a judge had reviewed or approved the letter, and it turned out that none had. The letter came with a gag provision that prohibited me from telling anyone, including my client, that the FBI was seeking this information. Based on the context of the demand -- a context that the FBI still won't let me discuss publicly -- I suspected that the FBI was abusing its power and that the letter sought information to which the FBI was not entitled. |
Iran / Run-up to the next war:
Iran seizes British sailors| |
Excerpt: Fifteen British Royal Navy sailors have been seized by Iranian navy vessels in the waterway between Iraq and Iran.
In a statement later on Friday, Tehran defended its actions and said the British sailors had entered Iranian territorial waters illegally, describing it as an "open incursion".
"This is not the first time that British military personnel during the occupation of Iraq have entered illegally into Iran's territorial waters," Iranian state TV quoted an official as saying.
Comment: So is this going to be the official start of the next war? |
Pentagon wants to send
more weapons to Middle East| |
Excerpt: The State Department and the Pentagon are quietly seeking congressional approval for significant new military sales to U.S. allies in the Persian Gulf region. The move is part of a broader American strategy to contain Iranian influence by strengthening Iran's neighbors and signaling that the United States is still a strong military player in the Middle East, despite all the difficulties in Iraq. But the arms sales, which would come on top of a recent upgrade of U.S. Patriot antimissile interceptors in Qatar and Kuwait and the deployment of two aircraft carriers to the Gulf, could spark concerns that further military buildup in the volatile region would bring Washington closer to a confrontation with Iran. |
|
|
Chiquita admits paying Colombian terrorists;
Colombia seeks executives' extradition| |
Excerpt: Colombia's chief prosecutor said Tuesday he will demand the extradition of eight people allegedly involved with Chiquita's payments to right-wing paramilitaries and leftist rebels in a region where it had profitable banana-growing operations. Chiquita Brands International pleaded guilty Monday in U.S. federal court to one count of doing business with a terrorist organization. The plea is part of a deal with prosecutors that calls for a $25 million fine and does not identify the several senior executives who approved the illegal protection payments. |
9-year-old Canadian boy
released from Texas immigration jail| |
Excerpt: A nine-year-old Canadian boy has been released along with his parents from an immigration jail in Texas where they were detained for six weeks. Kevin Yourdkhani and his Iranian-born parents arrived in Toronto last night. They had been held in a controversial privately-owned jail in Texas where the U.S. government is holding up to 200 immigrant children. Human rights groups are now calling for the U.S. government to stop jailing immigrant children and for the T. Don Hutto facility in Taylor in Texas to be shut down. |
Terror list ballooning in
size and filled with errors| |
Excerpt: The database, called "TIDE" for Terrorist Identities Datamart Environment, now is so large that it threatens to overwhelm its managers, and its massive size has heightened concerns about privacy and errors, the Washington Post reported. |
War for empire
Anti-war Democrats sign on to centrist
plan to sort of maybe end the war| |
Excerpt: On Capitol Hill, leaders of the Out of Iraq Caucus have reversed course and pledged not to block a $124 billion spending bill [which passed the House on Friday] to fund the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Up until yesterday, California Democrats Maxine Waters, Lynn Woolsey, Diane Watson and Barbara Lee had criticized the supplemental spending bill for not going far enough to stop the war. Congresswoman Barbara Lee said "I have struggled with this decision, but I finally decided that, while I cannot betray my conscience, I cannot stand in the way of passing a measure that puts a concrete end date on this unnecessary war." The legislation sets a timetable for the withdrawal of U.S. combat troops by Aug. 31, 2008 and establishes readiness standards for the deployment of combat troops.
House of Representatives
hates the troops, says Cheney
Excerpt: Vice President Dick Cheney on Saturday accused the Democrat-led House of not supporting troops in Iraq and of sending a message to terrorists that America will retreat in the face danger. "They're not supporting the troops. They're undermining them," Cheney told a gathering of the Republican Jewish Coalition at the oceanside Ritz-Carlton hotel in Manalapan, Fla., about 60 miles north of Miami.
On Friday, the House voted to clamp a cutoff deadline on the Iraq war, agreeing by a thin margin to pull combat troops out by next year. |
Marines expelled from Afghanistan| |
Excerpt: Marines accused of shooting and killing civilians after a suicide bombing in Afghanistan are under U.S. investigation, and their entire unit has been ordered to leave the country early, officials said Friday. |
Army has been
undercounting AWOL soldiers| |
Excerpt: A total of 3,196 active-duty soldiers deserted the army last year, or 853 more than previously reported, according to revised figures from the U.S. army. The new calculations by the army, which had about 500,000 active-duty troops at the end of 2006, significantly alter the annual desertion totals since the 2000 fiscal year. In 2005, for example, the army now says 2,543 soldiers deserted, not the 2,011 it had reported. |
U.S. troops in Iraq want out| |
Excerpt: For U.S. troops from 9th Cavalry Regiment bumping around the dangerous streets of Baghdad in Humvees after dark on Monday, news that their deployment in Iraq could be extended fell like a hammer blow. Their commanders had cautioned that their second one-year tour due to end in October could be prolonged while U.S. President George W. Bush later warned troops it was too soon to "pack up and go home."
Comment: It's time to get those fat bloated windbag radio talk show shills that are so in love with this war to get over to Iraq and put their lazy rears on the line, and they can bring all the rich Republican politicians and anyone with a 'Support the troops' sticker on their car too.
If you're for the war, put the uniform
|
Unguarded munitions sites
still feed Iraq violence| |
Excerpt: As of October 2006 U.S. forces had still not secured all of the unguarded munition sites in Iraq, allowing thieves to keep stealing war material and stoke the country's violence, a U.S. government report said Thursday.
The Government Accountability Office said that not enough soldiers were available to take control of massive arms dumps across Iraq after the March 2003 invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein. |
Soldier's dad tells Bush, 'This war is wrong'| |
Excerpt: The letter says, "You have succeeded in taking down over 3,100 of our best young men, my son being one of them. Kevin told me many times we are not fighting terrorism in Iraq and they could not do their jobs as soldiers. He said they are trained to be on the offensive and to fight, but all they are doing is acting like policemen ...
Landeckfamiliy "He asked permission to take some of his men out at night with their night-vision glasses -- because as he said 'we own the night' -- and watch for the people who are setting roadside bombs and 'take them out.' He said, 'I want them to be the ones that are scared.' He was denied permission. Why?" |
Bush lied about "surge"
by Andrew Sullivan, Atlantic Monthly| |
Excerpt: The surge is now just shy of 30,000 more troops. ... Why did Bush "low-ball," i.e. deceive us about the numbers? My best bet is that he thought if he actually told people we'd be sending 30,000 more troops (and maybe more), Americans would balk. I would have been more impressed, of course, and more inclined to support it. But this is beside the point. The point is: why is it beyond this president to tell the truth to the American people in wartime? |
Police order anti-war protesters
to leave Pelosi's doorstep| |
Excerpt: Anti-war protesters in their 11th day of a round-the-clock vigil in front of Rep. Nancy Pelosi's Pacific Heights home were ordered by San Francisco police Thursday night to remove protest signs, banners and canopies that adorned what they called Camp Pelosi. |
Thousands in Boston join war protest| |
Excerpt: Howard Zinn, author of the best-selling A People's History of the United States, told the crowd: "What we ought to start talking about is not just the war in Iraq, but war in general. I don't want my country to be a great military power; I want my country to be a great humanitarian power." |
|
|
Torture yields more wildly implausible confessions at Guantanamo | |
Excerpt: Waleed Mohammed bin Attash, long suspected of plotting the bombing of the USS Cole, confessed at a hearing in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to planning the attack, according to a Pentagon transcript released Monday.
An alleged chief operational planner for al-Qaida, bin Attash also said he helped organize the bombings of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998 that killed more than 200, the transcript said. Seventeen sailors were killed and dozens injured when suicide bombers steered an explosives-laden boat into the guided missile destroyer Cole on Oct. 12, 2000.
Comment: At Guantanamo they're standing in line to confess (& help Bush out of his
|
Republicans derail DC voting rights by attaching gun control to bill| |
Excerpt: In a sleazy political stroke, Republicans played the gun lobby's card as the House was on the verge of redressing one of the longest-running injustices of American democracy: the denial of a congressional vote to the taxpayers of the District of Columbia. The proposal for full representation in the House was derailed by a Republican motion to attach a ban on Washington's legitimate attempts to outlaw firearms in the city limits. The Democrats had to retract the bill and promise to prevail later without such a poison pill. The D.C. voting-rights bill is not perfect, rooted in a political deal that awarded Republican Utah a fourth House seat in exchange for creating a full-fledged House seat for the heavily Democratic District. But the measure has the moral edge in rescuing D.C.'s citizens from a political limbo. |
Phone-jamming Republican's
conviction overturned| |
Excerpt: Judges with the First Circuit court in Boston called Republican phone-jamming conspirator James Tobin's conduct "unattractive," but said the grounds for his conviction were "not a close fit for what Tobin did."
"Oh my God, wow, you know sometimes there is no justice," said New Hampshire Democratic Party Chairman Kathy Sullivan. "The fact of the matter is that the Republican state party and its people interfered with election day activities by jamming our phone lines and it was wrong." |
VA clinics across the country have
the same problems as Walter Reed| |
Excerpt: The Veterans Affairs' vast network of 1,400 health clinics and hospitals is beset by maintenance problems such as mold, leaking roofs and even a colony of bats, an internal review says. The investigation, ordered two weeks ago by VA Secretary Jim Nicholson, is the first major review of the facilities conducted since the disclosure of squalid conditions at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. |
Greenspan: Let more skilled immigrants in| |
Excerpt: Allowing more skilled workers into the country would bring down the salaries of top earners in the United States, easing tensions over the mounting wage gap, Greenspan said.
"Our skilled wages are higher than anywhere in the world," he said. "If we open up a significant window for skilled workers, that would suppress the skilled-wage level and end the concentration of income."
Comment: The 'elite' view of economics usually boils down to making it difficult or impossible for little guys to get ahead -- keeping the poor poor, keeping a lid on the middle class, focusing policy to protect the wealthiest of the wealthy, and here, watering down the wages of skilled workers... |
Democratic Senator thinks
about shutting secret prisons| |
Excerpt: The chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee is questioning whether the CIA's secret prison program -- which he fears has become a black eye to the United States -- should continue.
The review led by Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., comes as the Bush administration deliberates an executive order, called for by Congress, that will establish new guidelines for the CIA's system for detaining and interrogating suspected terrorists. It is the agency's most publicly controversial intelligence collection program. |
Conservatives form group
to restore civil liberties| |
Excerpt: A coalition of prominent conservative writers and former government officials have launch a new campaign to restore checks and balances and to protect civil liberties Founding members of the American Freedom Agenda include former Republican Georgia Congressman Bob Barr, who led the effort to impeach President Clinton, David Keene of the American Conservative Union, constitutional scholar Bruce Fein, and the writer and conservative direct mail pioneer Richard Viguerie. They are also calling for Congress to restore habeas corpus, end torture and extraordinary rendition, narrow the President's authority to designate "enemy combatants," prevent unconstitutional domestic spying and protect journalists from prosecution under the Espionage Act. |
Defense Secretary Gates wanted to shut down Guantanamo| |
Excerpt: Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates suggested during his first weeks in office in January, in conversations with Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales and White House national security adviser Stephen J. Hadley, that the prison be closed and the inmates transferred to facilities on U.S. soil. Three senior defense officials said yesterday that Gates was concerned that Guantanamo's notoriety would undermine the credibility of military commissions as they begin this year. Gates is not the first top official to argue that the facility should be closed. Then-Secretary of State Colin L. Powell was eventually joined by then-Attorney General John D. Ashcroft in arguing that Guantanamo's liabilities outweighed its usefulness. Rumsfeld and Vice President Cheney, the chief proponents of maintaining and expanding the prison, prevailed with Bush, a former senior administration official said. |
North Carolina wants CIA torture
airline out of state-funded airports| |
Excerpt: Human rights and faith-based organizations from across North Carolina called on state officials Wednesday to investigate Smithfield-based Aero Contractors for its reputed role in ferrying terrorism suspects seized by the CIA to countries where they could be interrogated and tortured. Joined by almost two dozen state legislators, the groups also want Gov. Mike Easley to boot Aero from hangar space leased at the state-owned Global TransPark airstrip in Kinston. |
Trashing (or saving?) the planet
White House still lying
about climate change| |
Excerpt: In a continuing investigation, the U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform held its second hearing on the issue on Monday. Documents "appear to portray a systematic White House effort to minimize the significance of climate change", said a memo released by the committee. |
NASA scientist: White House
gagged scientists on global warming| |
Excerpt: Dr Hansen, the director of NASA's Goddard Institute of Space Studies in New York, said that the space agency's budget for studying the Earth's climate has been slashed and that its scientists have been systematically gagged about speaking of their concerns. He says instructions and reprimands were often made orally so that there was no paper or electronic record of the interference, which allowed press relations personnel to dismiss gagging allegations as hearsay. |
Bush official admits editing
climate change reports| |
Excerpt: A former White House aide has defended editing government reports on global climate change to put them in line with the views of the Bush administration. Phil Cooney, former chief of staff of the White House's Council on Environmental Quality, said this was part of the normal review process. A former lobbyist for the American Petroleum Institute, Cooney now works for oil company ExxonMobil.
Cheney's office involved in
global warming manipulation
Excerpt: ... the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee's hearing into Philip Cooney's editing of global warming reports revealed that Cheney's office also played a role. Kevin O'Donovan, an aide in Cheney's office, wrote a memo to Cooney suggesting they try to "reinvigorate debate on the actual climate history of the past thousand years." |
Gore testifies before Congress
about global warming| |
Excerpt: "The planet has a fever," Gore said. "If your baby has a fever, you go to the doctor. If the doctor says, 'You have to intervene here,' you don't say, 'Well, I read a science fiction novel that says this isn't important.' If the crib's on fire, you don't speculate that the baby is flame-retardant." |
Majority of Americans think global
warming is as serious as terrorism| |
Excerpt: Fully 83 percent of Americans now say global warming is a "serious" problem, up from 70 percent in 2004. More Americans than ever say they have serious concerns about environmental threats, such as toxic soil and water (92 percent, up from 85 percent in 2004), deforestation (89 percent, up from 78 percent), air pollution (93 percent, up from 87 percent) and the extinction of wildlife (83 percent, up from 72 percent in 2005). |
Antarctic melting may be speeding up| |
Excerpt: Rising sea levels and melting polar ice-sheets are at upper limits of projections, leaving some human population centers already unable to cope, top world scientists say as they analyze latest satellite data. |
|
|
Three New York cops indicted
in murder of unarmed black man| |
Excerpt: Two New York police officers were charged with manslaughter and a third with reckless endangerment on Monday in the firing of 50 shots at three unarmed black men that killed a groom on his wedding day. Two other officers were cleared in the death of Sean Bell, 23. The charges failed to satisfy some activists who had been calling for murder indictments against all five. |
Surveillance cameras, hotline, may
be used to reign in military recruiters| |
Excerpt: The U.S. military is considering installing surveillance cameras in recruiting stations across the country, the most dramatic of several new steps to address a rise in misconduct allegations against military recruiters, including sexual assaults on female prospects and bending the rules to meet quotas. Recruiters may also be required to give potential recruits "applicant's rights cards," spelling out what a recruiter can and cannot do to get them to enlist, and the military may set up a hot line to report violations, according to the letter. |
Air base leaders inconvenience
troops to save money | |
Excerpt: Having airmen do their laundry with only cold water and asking them to eat meals in the dining hall instead of "to go" are among steps under way at Osan Air Base to offset a budgetary shortfall, officials said. Osan's 51st Fighter Wing is faced with a $5.5 million shortfall this fiscal year, which ends Sept. 30, officials said.
Comment: Bush sure knows how to support the troops ... |
Texas bill would offer women
$500 bribes to forego abortion| |
Excerpt: A proposal by state Sen. Dan Patrick would pay pregnant women $500 for choosing adoption over abortion. The anti-abortion Houston Republican said Senate Bill 1567 would provide an incentive to forgo abortion, but critics questioned whether such payments would be viewed as baby selling or coercion. |
California selling Social Security numbers| |
Excerpt: Today, a Sacramento lawmaker showed how you could go to the Secretary of State's the web page where, until today, the state was selling your personal information for only $6 -- the cost of lunch.
"I was really surprised to see this and really stunned to see the names of people I knew in the community, businesses large and small and see their social security numbers, signatures and their addresses," said State Assemblyman Dave Jones. |
Judge overturns Internet restrictions| |
Excerpt: The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) today welcomed a decision (download PDF) by a federal judge to overturn a 1998 law that made it a crime for Web sites to offer sexually explicit material that could be accessed by minors.
"We think the court's decision reiterates that the government should not be in the business of censoring the Internet," said Aden Fine, senior staff attorney at the ACLU. "In the name of protecting children from harmful material, [the law] would have stopped adults from receiving a great deal of speech that is constitutionally protected. The court once again made it clear that Congress cannot do that." |
Rat poison from China
killed Americans' pets?| |
Excerpt: Paul Henderson, chief executive of Menu Foods, confirmed Friday that the wheat gluten was purchased from China.
Bob Rosenberg, senior vice president of government affairs for the National Pest Management Association, said it would be unusual for the wheat to be tainted. "It would make no sense to spray a crop itself with rodenticide," Rosenberg said, adding that grain shippers typically put bait stations around the perimeter of their storage facilities.
Correction: Pet food
not really "recalled"
Entire report: ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) -- In a March 23 story about a pet food recall, The Associated Press, relying on information from the Food and Drug Administration, reported erroneously the recall had been expanded to all 95 brands of the "cuts and gravy" style dog and cat food by Menu Foods, regardless of when they were produced.
The company said Saturday the recall still applies only to products packaged from Dec. 3 to March 6. Retailers were advised Friday to remove all the products from their shelves in order to verify the dates they were packaged, but products not made between those dates can still be sold.
Comment: When is a recall not a recall? When it's a Menu Foods recall. Vendors are told to remove all of their product, no matter when made -- ah, but technically that's not a RECALL. It's only a REMOVE & DON'T SELL.
Comment: It's been a long while since we've seen corporate (lack of) ethics demonstrated so hugely and inarguably. |
Bush cronies OK'd $40-million in
questionable 2004 campaign expenses| |
Excerpt: It's fairly routine for big campaigns to run afoul of some campaign-finance measure. A campaign may miss a deadline, or misreport a donation, or exceed a spending limit. In general, the Federal Election Commission notices, the candidate in question makes amends, and nary an eyebrow is raised.
But a $40 million excess in campaign spending isn't just a clerical error. |
Inflation is eating U.S. wage gains | |
Excerpt: Economists are divided over what happens next. Some say inflation is bound to taper off -- though maybe not for some months -- as the ripple effects of a housing-market downturn cool the economy. Others say that rising prices will persist and that the economy, instead of cooling off, will run close to its speed limit.
Comment: Note that politicians and their wonks have pulled every trick in the book to hide true inflation rates for decades now. For it's the easiest way by far to make everything look better on paper, and to deflate statistical justifications for economic dissent and clamor for change. Fudge that single number, and you change the outcomes of all sorts of economic analysis formulas in a way which benefits the rich and status quo, while squeezing the poor and middle-class ever tighter. The official rates fed to the news media are likely only a fourth to a fifth the actual rate -- in their most accurate moments! So everything about inflation is usually, as Dave Winer might put it, 'even worse than it appears'. |
9/11 human remains used to fill potholes| |
Excerpt: Debris that may have contained bits of bone from victims of the World Trade Center attacks was used to fill potholes and pave city roads, according to court papers filed on Friday.
The charge was made in an affidavit filed in Manhattan federal court in an ongoing case filed in 2005 by family members of those killed in the attacks against the city. They say the city did not do enough to search for remains, denying victims a proper burial. |
FBI agents now stationed abroad
to combat identity theft in the U.S.| |
Excerpt: When a criminal can pick up a fake identity, complete with credit card information, for under twenty bucks, it's clear that the identity theft market has become an efficient place to do business. A recent survey claimed that nearly 9 million adults in the U.S. were victims of identity theft in 2006, and the problem caused losses of $50 billion. In testimony to Congress this week, Associate Deputy Attorney General Ronald Tenpas painted a grim picture of the organized criminal networks behind the scams.
Comment: This would be funny if it wasn't so awful. Protecting U.S. citizens' privacy can only be done via strong laws and regulations (with teeth), forcing both the U.S. government and all businesses operating here to robustly protect the information in their possession. But U.S. business doesn't want any limits on how they currently sell our info to virtually all comers, and the government wants no limits on how they spy on us -- and then share that info with political and business cronies. So they just pay lip service to the issue by assigning law enforcement to become paid tourists overseas! Or, put them as far away as possible from where the actual info crimes are being perpetrated(!).
Under the control of the neocons, our government has become our worst enemy. |
U.S. sought to extend
Israeli attacks on Lebanon| |
Excerpt: The United States resisted calls for a cease-fire in last summer's Israel-Lebanon war to give Israel time to defeat Hizbullah, the former U.S. envoy to the United Nations said.
The demand for an immediate cease-fire -- backed by much of the international community but ignored for weeks by the United States and Britain -- was "dangerous and misguided," John Bolton said in a BBC interview aired Thursday. |
Belgium re-establishes ties
with new Palestinian government| |
Excerpt: Belgium became the latest Western nation to reach out to the new Palestinian government, declaring Friday that the unity coalition was more moderate than its Hamas-led predecessor. |
Vatican pushing Mexico in abortion fight| |
Excerpt: The Vatican's top anti-abortion campaigner kicked off the Roman Catholic Church's aggressive campaign against plans to legalize abortion in Mexico Friday.
Comment: If you're supporting the Catholic church with your tithes and offerings, you're supporting forced pregnancies. |
Florida city to seize homes
over $5 parking tickets| |
Excerpt: The city council in Brooksville, Florida voted this week to advance a proposal granting city officials the authority to place liens and foreclose on the homes of motorists accused of failing to pay a single $5 parking ticket. Non-homeowners face having their vehicles seized if accused of not paying three parking offenses. |
|
Lightning round news
|
Blind auto mechanic hires deaf assistant
For $10,000 to $15,000, you, too,
can be a best-selling author
Phony Christian church
buys $4-million parsonage
First visitors step onto
Grand Canyon Skywalk
Corpse flies first class
Philathropist rocks
Housewife convicted of frying husband
'Spiderman' has another go
at Petronas Twin Towers
Swiss dig world's longest tunnel
Million-dollar homes rented for $150 a month
Community college chess team
turns Ivy Leaguers into pawns
Atheists give free hugs to fellow students
Have you clicked our Mystery links?
|
|
Confront your local oppressors
by Herb Ruhs, MD, Unknown News| |
Excerpt: Face it folks, we are now in the opening stages of a civil war based largely on class. If you don't even know who in your community is calling down the dogs on you, what chance do you have? |
The future looks very bleak
by Leon Fisher, Unknown News| |
Excerpt: In reality, policy in Washington is not determined by the wants and needs of the American people, but by the whim of the wealthy and powerful elite whose seemingly inexhaustible riches and thirst for more riches supercedes everything else. These corrupt and treasonous individuals within the halls of power will stop at nothing, including war and murder, in order to attain their diabolical ends. |
I read the news today, oh, boy
by Kevin Good, Unknown News| |
Excerpt: To find out more I surfed the corporate national TV news network ABCCNNMSNBCFox. The limited number of sites were all covering a local 'Cub Scout lost in the woods' story. I tried the corporate national radio news network. They were all Rushing and gushing some slander about the far-left-wing wacko liberal radical Islamo-fascist threat and selling mattresses, dog food and miracle cures. |
Us and them
by Kathy Fisher, Unknown News| |
Excerpt: Why are we so different? What part of our brain is turned on, while that part of their brain is turned off altogether? We comrades come from all walks of life, yet we are of like minds -- we see through the lies, but more importantly, we have the integrity to challenge the lies in the first place. |
The endless f***ing chess match
by Bob in CC and The Alchemist, Unknown News| |
Excerpt: It is difficult to discover that one's cherished ideals are less than true. We were all inculcated with the mythos of America the Beautiful. But she is riddled with vices, not least among them the propensity to shed innocent blood for the profit of a few privileged individuals. |
Is Air America Radio under CIA control?
by HappySysiphus, Unknown News| |
Excerpt: Air America, the radio network, is there to establish "the line" so to speak of what people on the "Leftward Extreme" of the "Legitimate" political spectrum supposedly think. |
300 -- blatant war propaganda
by golem78, Most Embarrassing Moment
| |
Excerpt: Throughout the entire movie, the warmongering Spartans are glorified as righteous and superior. Even when they break laws and start a war and kill foreigners, they're supposedly justified. Anyone who opposes them, including pacifist Spartans who want peace and not war, are portrayed as traitors. The intended analogy aimed at democrats and left-wing antiwar protesters is clear.
Supposedly the war-mongering Spartans are "fighting for freedom" (never mind that Spartans had slaves) and "the enemy" is an inhuman, soulless horde of foreigners, mirroring the xenophobic distrust many republicans display towards the United Nations.
Over and over again do characters in the movie say things aimed at elevating Spartans above all other nations or races. The mention of 1000 nations fighting against Sparta are an obvious reference to the worldwide anti-Americanism and the fact that the US is pretty much alone in its so-called "war on terror." |
A tale of two cases in US "war on terror": Jose Padilla and Chiquita Brands
by Bill Van Auken, World Socialist Website
| |
Excerpt: In announcing the Chiquita plea bargain, US Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeffrey Taylor made the following curious statement: "Funding a terrorist organization can never be treated as a cost of doing business. American businesses must take note that payments to terrorists are a whole different category. They are crimes.... American businesses, as good corporate citizens, will find ways to conform their conduct to the requirements of the law and still remain competitive."
Clearly implied in this statement is that Chiquita's financing of the death squads in Colombia was a means of increasing its competitiveness and its profits.
How does this work? Quite simply, the right-wing terrorists earn their money by terrorizing the workers, murdering those who seek to organize struggles for higher wages or improved conditions and threatening the rest that the same will happen to them if they don't submit. |
Ol' Smedley knew a racket
when he saw (and slew for) one
by Mark Drolette, Smirking Chimp| |
Excerpt: When you say 'support the troops,' just what, exactly, do you mean? Because, really, what does it mean? We've all heard and seen it for years now and yet no one, to my knowledge, has ever defined it. |
The Republican Party vs. George Bush
by Cenk Uygur, Daily Kos
| |
Excerpt: I suspect that right now if you asked the question, "Which party understands your concerns and has your best interests in mind?" the Democrats would crush the Republicans. The jury is in. Republicans are for the rich and connected and they don't care about the average guy.
You know who reinforced this idea over and over -- Karl Rove, Dick Cheney and George W. Bush. How many no-bid contracts does Halliburton have to get, how many political cronies have to get jobs in place of qualified, decent people, how many tax cuts for billionaires do you have to pass and how many people do you have to leave to die in New Orleans before people get the message? |
My time as a hostage at
Miami International Airport
by Tyler Brűlé, International Herald Tribune
| |
Excerpt: With no water, no toilets and little fresh air, it was not a snapshot that Florida tourism or any other body hoping to up U.S. tourist numbers would have been proud of. After two and half hours and much complaining, I finally got the call.
"You should really do something about this tear in your passport," said the officer. |
Point/Counterpoint 2003:
This war will destabilize the entire
MidEast region and set off a
global shockwave of anti-Americanism
by Nathan Eckert and Bob Sheffer, The Onion
| |
Excerpt: Trust me, it's all going to work out perfect. Nothing bad is going to happen. It's all under control. |
Walter Reed Hospital is paradise
by The Alchemist, Unknown News
| |
Excerpt: Oh, our poor troops, all f*cked up in da head with Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome. Well, try watching your infant bleed out in your arms after an American mortar attack. Or your 14-year-old daughter gang raped by some All-American sausage crew. Or your 5-year-old boy shot down like a dog. Poor, poor Americans? Give me a f*cking break. |
It's put up or shut up time, for Homo sapiens
by Herb Ruhs, MD, Unknown News
| |
Excerpt: As we do the work of replacing this Tyranny with a just order, we can expect every tool of oppression to be brought to bear. If it has happened elsewhere in the Imperium, it will happen here. |
Three rows of pawns and other new chess rules discovered
by Kevin Good, Unknown News| |
Excerpt: Little known provisions in the PATRIOT Act and signing statements combined with Executive Orders now allows three rows of pawns to protect the unitary executive homeland row. |
Let's clear up our thinking a little on the "health care issue"
by Herb Ruhs, MD, Unknown News| |
Excerpt: Health care executives are not Rotarian business people practicing fair exchange of value. These are true gangsters hauling in vast amounts of loot, managing "the business of health care" with methods traditionally used to manage the illegal drug, prostitution, gambling and loan sharking "businesses." |
Me thinks the Dr. doth protest too much
by JS Magruder, Unknown News| |
Excerpt: CS's letter reminds me of people who blame the homeless for not pulling themselves together and getting a job, finding housing, etc. I'd argue that by the point someone is homeless, it hardly matters how or why they arrived at the condition. Rather, I have an obligation to try and do what I can without applying the absurd reasoning of "If I can do it, why can't they?" It hardly matters what I'm capable of, and it shouldn't be a criteria for determining whether or not to extend help to those in need. I'd expect the same approach from a physician. By the time someone has diabetes, it is sort of condescending to suggest what they might have done to prevent it. |
Lightning consumed the skies in every direction
by Kathy Fisher, Unknown News
| |
Excerpt: People were panicking -- there was utter chaos and sheer madness. Everyone was fleeing to -- where? I don't know! |
In opposition to Tyranny, they who survive win
by Herb Ruhs, MD, Unknown News
| |
Excerpt: As paradoxical as it seems, I am convinced that those we oppose are actually very weak people, psychologically speaking. A big part of the reason that they are so dangerous is that they must do everything possible to cover up and deny the inner torments, insecurities and infirmities that define their beings. The lesson here is that if we not only merely survive but also create in the minds of our opponents that somehow, even at some distant time, we might overcome them, then we will win. They will self-destruct as a result of their paranoia. |
The real war criminals
by Rose and The Alchemist, Unknown News| |
Rose says To lump all the US soldiers -- soldiers who were certain, because it is what they were told by their superiors, that there was a tie between bin Laden and Iraq and that they were fighting an enemy that attacked us -- into the category of "war criminals" is, in my opinion, inaccurate and unfair.
The Alchemist says Americans have the right, and the duty, to think for themselves, and to question our so-called leaders. Time and again they have lied us into war... Do you think that the mother of slaughtered Iraqi or Afghan children excuses our troops for "just following orders?" |
Dance, Foxholes, dance
Nitpicker| |
Excerpt: On more than one occasion, I worked with Fox News producers and reporters. Once, in Herat, I saw one of the Foxholes approached by a couple of soldiers. One of the soldiers said he was glad they could finally talk to a "conservative" reporter. The reporter laughed and said, "Someone's got to balance out the liberals." But, later, I ran into that same reporter in Bagram. He wanted an interview with some soldiers and, when I grabbed one at random to ask if he wanted to talk to Fox News, the soldier -- an Army captain -- said he didn't, because, as a Democrat, he wasn't a fan of the network's politics. The reporter, shaken up, said that was ridiculous. The network had no politics, but only told the truth. "Whatever," said the captain and walked off. The reporter, after a few beats narrowed his eyes at the soldier's back and quietly hissed, motherf*cker. |
So, since Bush's FBI isn't collecting
your phone records for national
security, why is it collecting them?
Lambert's Blog
| |
Excerpt: But the inspector general's probe concluded that many of the letters were "not sent in exigent circumstances" and that "there sometimes were no open or pending national security investigations tied to the request," contrary to what U.S. law requires. No subpoenas had actually been requested before the letters were sent. The phone companies nonetheless promptly turned over the information, in anticipation of getting a more legally viable document later, FBI officials said. |
Was I a good American in the time of George Bush?
by Rebecca Solnit, The Guardian
| |
Excerpt: Before the current administration, it had always been easy to condemn the "good Germans" who did nothing while Jews, Gypsies and others were rounded up for extermination. One likes to believe that one will be different, will harbor Anne Frank in one's secret annex, smuggle people across the border, defy the authorities who do evil. Those we scornfully call good Germans merely did little while the mouth of hell opened up.
I now know the way that everyday life can be so absorbing, survival so demanding, that it seems impossible to do more on top of it or to drop the routine altogether and begin a totally different life. There is the garden to be watered, the aged parent in crisis, the deadline looming; but there are also the crimes against humanity waiting to be stopped. Ordinary obligations tug one way even when extraordinary ones tug the other way. The Bush administration is by no means the Third Reich, but it produced an extraordinary time that made extraordinary demands on US citizens, demands that some of us rose to -- and too many did not. |
Republican propaganda is not news
by Matt Stoller, Politico| |
Excerpt: Falsifying information that is favorable to Republicans and problematic for Democrats is a regular tactic of Fox News. Specific examples are breathtakingly dishonest, including the Obama Madrassa smear, Carl Cameron's false claims that John Kerry referred to himself as a "metrosexual" and "news anchor" Brit Hume repeating the false canard that the public does not trust the Democratic Party on national defense.
But it's the sweep of the disinformation campaign that suggests a genuine pattern of propagandistic manipulation of the public. The Program on International Policy Attitudes at the University of Maryland conducted a study in October 2003 of public knowledge and attitudes about current events, focusing on media consumption habits. The study examined three generic misconceptions about the march to war in Iraq -- alleged WMDs, purported Iraqi involvement in 9/11, and supported international support for a U.S. invasion of Iraq. While three-fifths of Americans held at least one of these misconceptions at the time, speaking to the poor quality of American punditry, Fox News viewers stood out -- their viewers were "three times more likely than the next nearest network to hold all three misperceptions." |
Let presidential candidates
sue one another for libel
by Joseph H. Cooper, The Christian Science Monitor
| |
Excerpt: How do we make America's 2008 presidential campaign more honest? With lawsuits -- lots of libel lawsuits, to be specific.
Comment: I'm only submitting this to help add to the ideas in circulation: I have no idea how much (if any) this would help matters. It might even hurt, as those with deeper pockets would usually have the legal and political edge, and the trials might take ages to be resolved (far longer than any election campaign). The current record for longest lived single American court case might be around 50 years, I believe. |
Everything's hunky-dory at Walter Reed,
says Nat'l Guard Adjutant General
by Sharon Rose, Unknown News | |
Excerpt: "I had my staff contact every soldier who is or has been stationed at Walter Reed. In reply, each soldier provided a response and a description of their care to date. In all instances, I am happy to report, the soldiers were satisfied with the hospital care. Only one has expressed any negative remarks regarding the care or service at WRAMC." Major General Gus L. Hargett; Jr. |
| |
Excerpt: Despite a flagrant mocking by the U.S. Administration, France recovered promptly from its firm stand against the Iraq invasion. Changing the name of french fried potatoes to freedom fries did not affect the gourmet industry either. |
Update on my brother's murder
by sheriff's deputies in San Diego
by Kristopher Hayes, Unknown News
| |
Excerpt: We were initially told that the investigation of my brother's "suicide by cop" would take up to twelve days to be completed. Now they say we won't ever find out when they conclude their investigation and may need to read it in a newspaper. |
Let go of the rock!
by Kathy Fisher and Jim Kirwan, Kirwan Studios| |
Excerpt: The only check upon the slaughter that's going on comes from that much-maligned human conscience (that most have tried to forever-silence) -- yet most cannot STOP the NIGHTMARES. This is nature's way to end this practice by the slow torture of those who pull the triggers and operate the gunsights of OUR multi-billion dollar killing machines (the same ones we rent or sell to ISRAEL -- to desecrate and murder all those that we don't dare to do ourselves). |
Summing up our predicament
by Herb Ruhs, MD, Unknown News
| |
Excerpt: Little doubt that the meltdown is under way. The only question remaining is whether or not the super rich will effect a mass murder/suicide scenario, or whether they will agree to join the rest of the species and try to save ourselves from the impending disasters that they have engineered through their greed and ignorance. |
Alibis to justify the Bush-Cheney Reich
by Mr. Chuckles, Unknown News
| |
Excerpt: We're in Afghanistan still because the Taliban continue to resist our puppet regime and fight back against the occupation forces. If *only* they would surrender and consent to be governed by Bush's puppets, then we could torture, imprison and execute them all and then we would have peace in Afghanistan! But no, they continue to resist. Why can't they lay back and accept their dominion by Amerika? |
They're quite mad, you know
P.M. Carpenter's Commentary
| |
Excerpt: The Bush administration's prosecution of the Iraq war reminds me of flying-ace Snoopy, with goggles down and steely determination, though of course his victories are all in his head. Or maybe a Vegas high-roller, who, after an unbroken four-year losing streak, decides to bet what little is left in one last gamble.
The first metaphor is that of delusion; the second, that of pathetic desperation. Still, either is superior to the administration in sanity or wisdom, since neither is playing with other people's lives. In doing the latter, one enters the decidedly unmetaphorical realm of criminal recklessness -- which some men in uniform, perhaps looking for civilian brownie points, now want to broaden. |
Whatever happened to the Bill O'Reilly/Andrea Mackris sex scandal?
by Daryl D., Blogcritics Magazine| |
Excerpt: The Bill O'Reilly/Andrea Mackris scandal not only begs for questions about it's "sudden" disappearance, but reveals, once again, how hypocritical and morally corrupt the right wing religious fanatics in this country are. Bill O'Reilly's audience not only aggressively defended him, but maintained their viewership over the years. Fellow right wing pundit Michelle Malkin, who freaks out at the mention of the words "gay" or "sex," didn't issue any condemnation of Bill O'Reilly's immoral behavior. Michael Savage, who was fired from MSNBC for wishing AIDS and death on a homosexual caller, seemed rather silent about the situation. Rush Limbaugh, who ended up being exposed as an illegal drug user after condemning illegal drug users, defended O'Reilly. George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Ann Coulter, Dr. Laura Schlesinger, and other darlings of the right wing didn't issue any condemnation either. On October 21, 2004, the fiercely heterosexual Matt Drudge tried very hard to smear Andrea Mackris. |
In debt we trust as the economy goes bust
by Carolyn Baker, Speaking Truth to Power
| |
Excerpt: Not only does perpetual indebtedness serve the American financial system, it serves the political establishment as well by making it exceedingly difficult to protest that establishment when one is over one's head in debt. As a matter of fact, perpetual indebtedness serves to make the consumer subservient not just because his credit rating might be used against him should he choose to organize politically, but to a certain extent, the consumer, particularly if he/she is uninformed, often feels a certain sense of "gratitude" for those pieces of plastic and the "privilege" of owning one's own home.
Debt industry propaganda markets not only the very expensive use of someone else's money, but an idea, an image, and philosophy -- that is, the notion that this is America, and where else in the world can one have what one wants so instantly? Notice Mastercard's use of the word "priceless" in many of its commercials that depict families enjoying an expensive evening at a restaurant or baseball game courtesy of Mastercard. What's "priceless", of course, is not what is consumed, but sacred family time. The logic of Mastercard's ads communicate the message that since no price can be put on family time, why would you not want to charge the expenses of that time with Mastercard? You may be in perpetual debt, but wasn't it all worth it to have those priceless moments with family? Whether by way of playing on "family values" or using some other manipulative tactic, all debt industry marketing strategies are designed [in the words of that industry] to encourage consumers to "accept more debt."
The collection industry, which thrives on confusion, issuing reams of unintelligible instructions with its credit cards, and essentially builds it industry on lending to poor risk customers, is hugely profitable. This astonishingly de-regulated industry has created a no-win set up for consumers with steadily increasing interest rates and a dizzying array of fees that Curtis Arnold, founder of cardratings.com, says can very quickly mushroom into unmanageability for even the most conscientious card holders who use their cards responsibly and pay off their balances monthly. ...
Comment: Life in the highly computerized 21st century is a MMORG -- Massively Multi-Player Online Roleplaying Game. Every endeavor, pastime, financial relationship, job, debt, obligation, duty -- even births and deaths -- are governed by an intricate set of Rules. The Rules are interpreted by computer programmers and system designers, implemented by computers (with a piquant touch of randomness resulting from human data entry clerks, CSRs and corporate executives), and enforced by SWAT teams, judges and juries.
I am reminded, once again, of Bruce Sterling's prescient novel, Distraction. This excerpt is set in 2044, but might as well be NOW:"It had never occurred to the lords of the consumer society that consumerism as a political philosophy might one day manifest the grave systemic instabilities that Communism had. But as those instabilities multiplied, the country had cracked. Civil society shriveled in the pitiless reign of cash. As the last public spaces were privatized, it became harder and harder for American culture to breathe. Not only were people broke, but they were taunted to madness by commercials, and pitilessly surveilled by privacy-invading hucksters. An ever more aggressive consumer-outreach apparatus caused large numbers of people to simply abandon their official identities. In my twenties, as a result of poor decision-making I once had 14 separate outstanding debts, payable monthly. It was hell. It ended badly.
I haven't had any debts for a long time now, and in Fascist America it feels even better to pay with cash -- almost a subversive act to withdraw cash from the bank and then hand-deliver the moola to a store clerk.
Unfortunately our US MMORG requires 2 forms of ID in many instances. Legally, a credit card ought not be obligatory to function, but as a practical matter serious players desire the additional capabilities obtained with a 2nd ID document (i.e. credit card.)
All I can say about that is, treat your creditors better than your best friend, your wife or your dog. Imagine that your best friend loaned you money and you promised to pay the money on the 1st. Would you blow off your friend and then whine that you were only 29 days late and it shouldn't be counted against you; it wasn't a "missed" payment but merely "late"?
But if you have a friend who asks for a loan, just *give* him the freaking money and don't expect it back. It is better to have a friend than a debtor! |
|
