| |
|
We the People pay for the "gambling" of bankers
Here’s an interesting article that lays out one important problem VERY CLEARLY and, thus, identifies the solution.| |
Excerpt: The Fed, along with other G7 central banks, has clearly demonstrated that it will not allow any financial company to go bust. Having rescued a financial institution that was not even under its regulatory purview, it seems only a matter time before global central banks start rescuing other frontiers of capitalism, namely finance companies, insurance firms and investment management outfits. Thus, everything in the financial world becomes superior to all else in the system ... The banks are in turn likely to take more risk with their capital going forward, not less, now that they know that the central banks can be counted on to write them checks in perpetuity. ... This super-caste of bankers get to lord it over the rest of Western capitalism for the foreseeable future. |
So now we can add banning such “checks” to the “TO DO” list, once it is time to rebuild the US.
| |
I do hope that time is soon.
|
|
Helen & Harry
|
|
Al Qaeda's exploding tit plot
Re Woman is ordered to remove nipple rings with pliers before being allowed on flight| |
Excerpt: "The last time that I checked a nipple was not a dangerous weapon." |
Pull the ring and the tits explode. My God, what will the demonic minds of al Qaeda come up with next?
| |
This is why I'll never fly again. I simply lack the patience to put up with such crap. (Also, of course, I can't afford to fly, but still...)
|
A planned broadening of conflict
by The Canadian
| Mar. 29, 2008 |
Re More attacks in US-protected "Green Zone"
I'm betting on airstrikes on Iran by the summer.
Sooner than that, I think. What is happening in Iraq is Phase 1 of a planned broadening of conflict, and it is NOT being directed by the US.
| |
It looks like US-directed mayhem to me. I've heard reports that the US has stopped paying the expected bribes that keep Sunni insurgents from attacking Americans and Iraqis of other stripes, and I assume that's a factor, maybe a major factor, in the increasing violence.
The Bush-Cheney intent, I reckon, is to ratchet up the bloodshed on the news, while orchestrating more lies from Bergner and Petraeus that Iran Iran Iran is behind every explosion and gunshot, all part of the charade of lies leading to America's long-expected attack on Iran.
You see something different, I gather?
|
|
Helen & Harry
|
|
Realism
Reading Sherri's question -- Is there hope? -- and your answer, Helen, it occurs to me why Unknown News is a small website, while lots of sites that smell funky and don't do half the work you guys do are a lot more famous.
The why of it is, you don't sugar coat the truth. You're pessimistic, and that means you and Doc Herb and Hazel and Mister Chuckles will never get a Nike endorsement, but in this day and age pessimistic is realistic. It isn't necessarily fun, but I guess I just wanted to say that I appreciate the realism.
Horse hockey!
Parents pick prayer over docs; girl dies| |
Excerpt: Police are investigating an 11-year-old girl's death from an undiagnosed, treatable form of diabetes after her parents chose to pray for her rather than take her to a doctor.
An autopsy showed Madeline Neumann died Sunday of diabetic ketoacidosis, a condition that left too little insulin in her body, Everest Metro Police Chief Dan Vergin said.
She had probably been ill for about a month, suffering symptoms such as nausea, vomiting, excessive thirst, loss of appetite and weakness, the chief said Wednesday, noting that he expects to complete the investigation by Friday and forward the results to the district attorney.
The girl's mother, Leilani Neumann, said that she and her family believe in the Bible and that healing comes from God, but that they do not belong to an organized religion or faith, are not fanatics and have nothing against doctors. |
And you're going to tell me that religion is good for you?? Horse hockey! Religion may not be the worst thing that humanity has come up with, but it ranks right up there in the top 5.
| |
Religion does a world of good, for most folks, but a small minority take it too far and they're inarguably nuts.
|
What's next?
by Marshall S.
| Mar. 29, 2008 |
Sen. Nelson: End electoral college system| |
Excerpt: Sen. Bill Nelson, the Florida Democrat whose state is embroiled in a presidential primary debacle, said Thursday that he will pursue a constitutional amendment that would replace the Electoral College system with a national popular vote. |
The Republicans would never let this happen. It's the source of their rigged-election power.
*** *** ***
Deputy shocks girl, 11, with taser at elementary school| |
Excerpt: An Orange County sheriff's deputy on Thursday shocked an 11-year-old girl with a Taser gun at an elementary school after the girl punched her in the face, authorities said. |
Tasering a child for getting uppity. What's next? Tasering a child for sticking out his/her tongue at a cop?
*** *** ***
Citigroup is sued over auction rate securities| |
Excerpt: Citigroup Inc was sued on Thursday by two clients accusing the financial institution of failing to properly disclose the risks of investing in auction rate securities.
"The collapse of the auction rate securities market ... was a direct result of defendants' unilateral decision to no longer artificially support the auction rate securities market," plaintiff Lisa Swanson, who purchased auction rate securities in 2006, claimed in one suit. |
The definition of capitalism to the Bush gang is, commit any crime or fraud and your butt is covered.
*** *** ***
5 ex-secretaries of state want Cuba prison shut| |
Excerpt: Five former U.S. secretaries of state on Thursday urged the next presidential administration to close the Guantanamo Bay prison camp and open a dialogue with Iran.
The former chiefs of American diplomacy, who served in Democratic and Republican administrations, reached a consensus on the two issues at a conference in Athens aimed at giving the next president some bipartisan foreign policy advice. |
Shows how far from sanity Bush has gone. Also shows that he can't be stopped.
De-regulation
I remember news coverage from a few years ago -- sorry I can't be more specific, this is just a memory of something I saw on TV -- where for visual effect some politician whipped out a chain saw and pulled the chain to start it, whrrrrrrrr. It was symbolism to show that their new legislation would cut away the regulation that was holding back the banking industry. And at that moment I told myself, in a few years we'll see banks collapsing.
"De-regulation" is a five-syllable way to say you're screwed. They never talk about it later, never connect the dots, but this is the end result every time the Republicans try "de-regulation." They de-regulated utilities, and we got Enron. They de-regulated the airlines, and flying became hell. They sorta "de-regulated" radio and TV by repealing the Fairness Doctrine, and we got Rush Limbaugh and Fox News. Capitalism is about making money, folks, and absent regulation nothing else matters at all.
Major behind
by Sherri B.
| Mar. 29, 2008 |
Re Is there hope?
LOL -- your version of "hope for change" sounds right on the money. I hope you live long enough to watch us kick some major behind.
|
Sherri B.
|
|
Awesome
Idiots are awesome.
Man who used to be a woman claims to be five months pregnant
|
Wig
|
|
Batsh*t crazy
US Intelligence Czar says his number one worry is Iran getting nukes
So in other words, the guy in charge of all US intelligence is delusional. All the evidence suggests that Iran has no nuclear weapons program, and the National Intelligence Estimate concurs that this just isn't the case. So he's just plain batsh*t crazy -- or a liar, trying to help his boss pump yet another insane war.
|
Max
|
|
Starbucks is above the law
by Angry Annie
| Mar. 29, 2008 |
Starbucks says it'll ignore court order to return pilfered tips to employees
If you're the President or a giant corporation, you can just ignore court rulings you don't like...
|
Angry Annie
|
|
Aging, defective arms
What the hell is this?
22-year-old Efraim Diveroli, awarded $300 million defense contract to arm Afghan forces, supplied them with aging, defective arms ...
| |
Well, I think you and I both suspect what the hell this is. I'll wager a week's wages that this crooked kid is well-connected in Republican circles. That's pretty much the only way someone with no weapons expertise gets a contract of this magnitude and screws it up to this magnitude.
|
|
Helen & Harry
|
|
The usual
Russian deal puts Egypt in vanguard of Arab states seeking nuclear power
Jordanian MPs seek to scrap peace treaty with Israel
Middle East turmoil continues.
|
Helen & Harry
|
|
Big Boobage
If you missed South Park on Wednesday night, I recommend the rerun of "Big Boobage". It is a hilarious take-off on anti-drug hysteria.
Not to ruin the plot line or anything, but the drug that "is killing our children" is the urine spray from male cats marking their turf.
It doesn't sound funny, eh? But the practitioners of this form of "abuse" invent contraptions to get their high -- which itself is called "cheesing".
And wouldn't you know, many adults in South Park are secret "cheesers", and it is the adult men who actually have the most elaborate and highly-perfected devices (just as in real life it is the corporate CEOs who have the most sublime bongs and exotic ganja -- for their glaucoma, of course....) Kyle's dad, the lawyer who himself proposed the new law outlawing cats in South Park, by the way, is a secret cheese-head. His device is in the basement of his house. It has a sling which goes under the cat's belly, a clamp to hold the cat's tail up in the air...and there is a movie projection screen in front of the cat which displays a brief movie of an angry tomcat ready hissing and ready to fight. Seeing Kyle's dad load the cat into the cheesing machine, put his face right up against the cat's ass and exultantly turn on the movie projector is a laugh riot.
The weird thing about this drug is that everyone goes into the very same alternate reality, which is on an alien desert planet with this gigantic blonde woman wearing a thong who has melons the size of basketballs.
So, of course, (obviously) the drug is completely addictive; none of the men /ever/ want to stop being high because that means leaving the alien planet and this hot blonde babe -- even though when they sober up they are invariably discovered running around the streets, in public, wearing, at most, cotton briefs, and yelling, making total asses of themselves.
Also funny is Eric Cartmann, who decides to save the outlawed cats by hiding them in his attic. He tells the first cat pogrom rescuee to start a diary :-)
| |
We have only rabbit ears, but I've caught a few early episodes of South Park on video, and enjoyed them immensely. Also saw the movie, which was splendid.
If you per chance didn't see this, I consider it the best news of the week:
South Park site offers every episode. And I was pretty sure it wouldn't work on our ancient computer, but it works like a charm and I'm watching "Big Boobage" at southparkstudios.com, even as I type this note!
|
|
Helen & Harry
|
|
Kind of a Catch-22
Fed's Stern wary of support for ailing banks| |
Excerpt: By creating the perception of a safety net, financial bailouts could lead to irresponsible risk-taking in the future, Minneapolis Fed President Gary Stern said in prepared remarks on Thursday.
While governments cannot and should not uniformly avoid public support for creditors of failing banks, they should seek to minimize that support because of the distortions it produces," he told an audience at London's European Economics and Financial Center.
His comments echoed the approach of Republican presidential nominee John McCain, who argued this week that the federal government had no business helping reckless investors and housing speculators. |
Fewer and fewer members of the Fed are going to support Wall Street bailouts as time goes on, which will have the predicable effect of causing more and more people to "bail" from Wall Street.
*** *** ***
More government bailouts may be on way| |
Excerpt: "The big thing about the Bear Stearns bailout - if you want to call it that - is that it kind of opens the doors for other types of bailouts like for homeowners and individuals," said federal budget expert Stanley Collender.
"If the Fed is thinking about the business community, the lending community and the credit markets, then members of Congress are tending to think about individuals," said Collender, with Qorvis Communications, a Washington consulting firm. |
Personally I really do not see this happening, or if by some strange miracle it does, it will be "A day late and a dollar short".
For one thing Republicans absolutely hate bailing out people. For another there are two aspects happening here. First if the foreclosure rate keeps up or increases, the banks and mortgage companies are going to be very, very cautious when it come to who they write mortgage or other loans to, unless the loans are insured by the government and I do not see that happening at all. Secondly those who have defaulted on their loans will find it nearly impossible to get any for quite some time, about ten years and those who would be first time buyers would also be less likely to deal with any institution other than a bank lest they get the shaft. It's kind of a catch 22 situation and probably will remain so for quite some time. Even renters are getting tossed out once the bank gets the house they are renting because the owner defaulted.
Washington may want to believe they can stem the tide but I don't see it. The current mess will just have to work it's way out and this time we don't have a bunch of Vets returning with the GI bill to help them and the economy get moving again like we did in the 1950s.
*** *** ***
Equity loans as next round in credit crisis| |
Excerpt: Little by little, millions of Americans surrendered equity in their homes in recent years. Lulled by good times, they borrowed -- sometimes heavily -- against the roofs over their heads.
Now the bill is coming due. As the housing market spirals downward, home equity loans, which turn home sweet home into cash sweet cash, are becoming the next flash point in the mortgage crisis. |
Oh you betcha.
| |
Americans owe a staggering $1.1 trillion on home equity loans -- and banks are increasingly worried they may not get some of that money back. |
I have no doubt they do.
| |
To get it, many lenders are taking the extraordinary step of preventing some people from selling their homes or refinancing their mortgages unless they pay off all or part of their home equity loans first. In the past, when home prices were not falling, lenders did not resort to these measures. |
Putting both parties between a rock and a hard place.
| |
Such tactics are impeding efforts by policy makers to help struggling homeowners get easier terms on their mortgages and stem the rising tide of foreclosures. But at a time when each day seems to bring more bad news for the financial industry, lenders defend the hard-nosed maneuvers as a way to keep their own losses from deepening. |
So what will the people do? Why use any money they get to pay on their debt. And what will the banks do? Stash it in case there are more defaults. Meaning any "help" from Washington will have little effect.
| |
It is a remarkable turnabout for the many Americans who have come to regard a home as an A.T.M. with three bedrooms and 1.5 baths. When times were good, they borrowed against their homes to pay for all sorts of things, from new cars to college educations to a home theater. |
And like the government are now in hock up to the tips of the hair.
| |
Lenders also encouraged many aspiring homeowners to take out not one but two mortgages simultaneously -- ordinary ones plus “piggyback” loans -- to avoid putting any cash down. |
After all....it's only money. Right ???
| |
The result is a nation that only half-owns its homes. While homeownership climbed to record heights in recent years, home equity -- the value of the properties minus the mortgages against them -- has fallen below 50 percent for the first time, according to the Federal Reserve. |
And now it has come time to pay the piper and he wants more than just your kids. He wants the dog and cat and wife and husband. Shoot, he wants the whole village.
|
Chris M.
|
|
The latest Bush administration bull: Social Security is "unsustainable"
by Spud Packard
| Mar. 28, 2008 |
Social Security faces a 4.3 trillion dollar unfunded liability over the next 75 years? BIG FUCKING DEAL. George W. Bush blew through 5 trillion in just 7 years, increasing the actual national debt from under $5 trillion to almost $10 trillion. ... MORE ...
|
Spud Packard
|
|
Is there a master plan?
by Herb Ruhs, MD
| Mar. 28, 2008 |
It is consistent to view what is happening in today's world as a vast "Enclosure Movement," a continuation of the process of privatization of public and communal wealth, and small holdings, that started in seventeenth century England. The goal of this contemporary enclosure movement seems to be to concentrate ALL the world's wealth in the hands of a tiny, self selected aristocracy.
One of the great ironies in all this is that the propertied classes of the world, who are the most ardent supporters of this program, are, or soon will be, its choicest victims. If it is allowed to proceed beyond its already vast successes the whole modern concept of "private property," on which political conservatism has been built, will have become an anachronism as we will have reverted to a stage of total feudalism where every piece of land, every drop of water, every person animal or dwelling will be subject to arbitrary confiscation by a small set of hereditary lords.
*** *** ***
Most conspiracy theorizing is pretty boring and tenuous, as well as self-righteous and short on homework. I came across this on the Global Research website and liked the way it drew things together without being a mere polemic against THEM.
I have a hard time believing that a ninety-year-old, such as David Rockefeller, is currently taking an active role in the planning and execution of some master plan of a would be master race of "intellectual elite and world bankers," as he has been quoted as favoring, but I can believe that he, and people like him, were willing to OD on hubris and get the ball rolling towards such a goal. If there is some master plan it seems to be going aglay* pretty quickly.
If the world is considered as an organism then the predatory elite might be compared to a boil that is fixing to burst and relieve the body of a source of infection and fever. The author of the piece proposing this possible conspiracy, Richard C. Cook, does seem to have the curriculum vitae of someone capable of more than arm chair musings about conspiracy having held many important offices in government.
I sincerely recommend "Is an international financial conspiracy driving world events?"
|
Herb Ruhs, MD
|
|
*
A lame literary reference, as in "The best-laid schemes o' mice an 'men Gang aft agley."
--To A Mouse, On Turning Her Up In Her Nest With The Plough, Robert Burns
Is there hope?
by Sherri B.
| Mar. 28, 2008 |
This was just a quick note between Michael (WRH) and I...| |
WHICH presidential candidate do you support? They all suck the world is going down in flames, Hillary is the devil. All that aside do you HAVE an opinion on a candidate or is the world going to continue to burn?
(From Michael) Frankly I hate all three of the main candidates. I just hate Hillary a touch more. |
It made me stop and think. I LOVE WhatReallyHappened.com. I rely on their news. BUT there's all the doom and gloom with no plans for an effective revolution or method of change. So is it just rum and coke time and everyone should relax and wait for the Iranian conflict? (Supposedly imminent-article here) or is there hope for change?
| | Clinton is better than McCain, in my opinion, and Obama is a bit better than Clinton. I'd say McCain is the equivalent of brain cancer, Hillary is lung cancer, and Obama is skin cancer -- brain or lung cancer are usually fatal, and skin cancer ain't exactly a summer vacation, but it can often be cured.
That's my version of "hope for change", at least in the short term. The common sense movement has been knee-capped by being utterly ignored and marginalized even as millions took to the street, and there's been no effective opposition party for years. I don't see anything but conscience to keep Bush-Cheney from attacking Iran, and there's been no hint of a conscience in this administration, so it looks hopeless to me.
I'm optimistic as hell that eventually, "we the people" will rise up and jail criminal "leaders"... but I don't think it'll happen in my lifetime. My form of optimism is a hope that maybe my husband and I are old enough that we'll die of natural causes before the worst of what's to come.
|
A Christian named Clairborne
first, i have not visited your site in some time -- i am overwhelmed and
thrilled to see how your site has gotten BETTER and more POWERFUL. thank
you so very much for the very great work that you are doing.
P.S. i believe this is a remarkable story ...
here's a link, and then gotta follow lots of other links to get the idea
of the story, but is it quite a story about a new Christian movement in
the US.
from the movement itself:
theredrevolution.com
from a fellow covering this movement:
revolutioninjesusland.com/index.php/2007/11/19/in-case-youve-missed-it-so-far/
from a blog about this movement:
wreckedfortheordinary.com/index.asp?
filename=it-had-flesh-on-a-day-with-shane-claiborne
| |
I clicked all the links you sent and a few more, and I'm glad I did. Thanks for sending this. It's something I'd heard nothing about before, never heard of Shane Claiborne, but it sounds promising. Basically, it looks like it's kick-ass Christianity in the spirit of Christ himself, and it's definitely reassuring (and rare) to see that.
"With governments that kill, we will not comply, With the theology of empire, we will not comply, With the business of militarism, we will not comply, With the hoarding of riches, we will not comply, With the dissemination of fear, we will not comply ..."
Still, I wonder how many of these people in an arena-size gathering, repeating such an inspiring oath, then take it home and live it?
|
|
Helen & Harry
|
|
Here it comes
by Kathy Fisher
| Mar. 28, 2008 |
More attacks in US-protected "Green Zone"
They hit the US Embassy attack in Iraq. Here it comes! They're saying the bombs used in the attack can be traced to Iran. Of course anyone can mark a bomb with anything they want, take photos of it and say what they will. Nevertheless I don't think the Bush/Cheney war machine will stop with this one! They're going to push this baby.
I'm betting on airstrikes on Iran by the summer.
Web hosting
I have a controversial web site also, and somehow my email is not being delivered. Hmmmmm. Now how is that even possible? This is still a free cou ...uh, I still have righ ...uh, this is a police state, isn't it?
Anyway, it's really starting to piss me off and I want to know if you use a web host because I obviously need to find one that isn't in the Homeland Security Peanut Gallery. Any ideas?
| | We use pair.com for our hosting. We've used them for years with only the briefest, rarest technical
problems, and certainly no censorship issues. Their prices aren't the cheapest but their service kicks butt and that's worth a little more. :)
But we don't use them for email. We use yahoo and other freebie sites...
|
|
Helen & Harry
|
|
McBush
The photo of McBush is such a hoot, I made a screen capture of it and am sending it in
e-mails. Anybody who wants to use it is welcome.
http://files.myopera.com/mydeadac/albums/498135/McBush.png
| |
Excellence. I'd love to see that li'l image everywhere. And as you're too kind to say but no doubt noticed, I had the picture and text laid out in a format that couldn't easily be swiped and spread around -- I did it the best I know how, but I don't have much fancy software or pooter knowledge. You've merged the words and image into one file, which I've already used to replace my clumsy version. Jumbo thanks.
|
|
Helen & Harry
|
|
Sensory overload
by Sherri B.
| Mar. 27, 2008 |
It is strange for me that this is the first time that I ever noticed how people can get so lost and confused. It is not strange to see how easily media can be used to frighten, circumvent plans, confuse, and downright mislead those that fight the good fight. ... MORE ...
|
Sherri B.
|
|
Our main enemy is our willingness to pursue fantasies
by Herb Ruhs, MD
| Mar. 27, 2008 |
Taking control of our lives back from the fascists will likely not be a pretty process, but imperfect starts toward self-reliance are what we will need to depend on to get the process off the ground. ... MORE ...
|
Herb Ruhs, MD
|
|
A poor starving "long hair"
Re Misses the pointDefinitely good guys. Have you used their services?
When I was a poor starving student up there I did. Very nice people and they listened to you. But then nearly everyone involved was a poor starving "long hair".
*** *** ***
Where are the first-time buyers? Day of reckoning near for the housing market| |
Excerpt: Banks are keeping their money for themselves and winding in risky lending that only a year ago they were reveling in. That is where the impact spills out of the credit markets and into the real economy -- and that is where the pain is being felt.
"There is a lot of credit rationing going on. Indeed, the credit markets are pricing in Armageddon," says Richard Batty, a strategist at Standard Life Investments. He says this is showing up in the US mortgage market, where interest rates on the long-term mortgages beloved of Americans have pushed up above 6%, even though the Federal Reserve has been slashing short-term rates, bringing them last week down to 2.25%.
Small wonder that experts in the US predict another 10-15% off house prices there in the next year, adding to the 15% drop seen over the past year. A 25-30% house price fall in two years counts as a crash in anyone's book. |
Of course you won't read this in the US media. But the Guardian (the UK's version of NYT and WAPO) is significant to say the least. That being said (playing the devil's advocate, if you will), I don't blame our media entirely for not telling it like it is. This is an extremely reactionary country. Can you imagine the panic that would ensue if the MSM really reported how bad things are like in this article?
The mere mention of the "C" or "D" word would cause pandemonium on the NYSE and runs on nearly every bank in this country. Panic and over the top reactions are one of the few things Americans do well.
|
Chris M.
|
|
Upskirts up North
Re Upskirts
I don't know how things are done in the US but when someone takes sexually purposed
photographs of a minor it tends to result in being registered as a sex offender, getting
blacklisted, being forced to keep your distance from schools and youth centers, and
generally receiving treatment as though the person taking the photos were a disgusting
mentally diseased monster that preys on children. The legality of sticking a camera into a stranger's clothing and getting a snapshot of their undergarments and/or genitals tends not to even make it into the conversation in those cases.
But y'know, that's just us crazy Canucks.
| |
Canadians don’t tolerate upskirt photography? Is it actually prosecuted when it happens? You people are so damn civilized…
|
I'm not sure about the legality of that crap up here but I don't hear about it much. I've heard about a couple of cases where perverts sticking cameras in toilets have had the book thrown at them and I think that falls under the same domain so it's probably not legal here. I don't think it should be legal anywhere as all privacy concerns aside consent is not given for what is essentially a sexual act. I'm just noting that the victim of this unwanted act was 16 -- legally a minor -- and when someone takes a picture of a sexual nature featuring a minor it's called child pornography and we descend upon them like the hand of the Old Testament God in a smiting mood on a bad day.
| |
I guess I don't think the age of the victim much matters, but if it helps bring the wrath of the law upon the perv that's a good thing and three cheers for that. I'm assuming all good people agree that a girl or woman wearing a skirt is dressed, and thus has a reasonable expectation of privacy between her legs.
|
|
Helen & Harry
|
|
Bizarro world
Re Constitution-trasher John Yoo -- who
OK'd torture and warrantless wiretaps
-- writes for Rupert Murdoch's Wall Street Journal
Who was it that said you can fool all the people some of the time, or some such? I think we're living in a Bizarro world, a Mad Magazine universe, when the guy who greenlit torture can criticize the Democratic Party for being somehow unconstitutional in its selection process...
|
Mike E.
|
|
Bread, circuses, and football
by Angry Annie
| Mar. 27, 2008 |
NFL considering earlier start to opening night game to avoid clash with GOP convention
This casts a little light on the bread-and-circuses nature of the unfolding political 'drama'. It's all phony, all orchestrated by the fascist elite to use the illusion of democracy to pre-empt the real thing. So of course, the NFL will reschedule its season-opener to ensure that the widest possible audience is watching the grand conclusion of the week-long TV commercial called the Republican convention.
|
Angry Annie
|
|
Money settles everything
US mistakenly ships ICBM parts to Taiwan| |
Excerpt: The Defense Department announced Tuesday that the United States mistakenly shipped to Taiwan four electrical fuses designed for use on intercontinental ballistic missiles but has since recovered them. |
... Asleep at the switch. LOL!
*** *** ***
Cowboy mentality. Bush's policy is to shoot first ask questions later:
US embassy says Egyptian was killed in Suez Canal shooting| |
Excerpt: The navy added that some form of compensation would be arranged for the
family, which angrily buried Mohammed Fouad on Tuesday amid recriminations
against the U.S. military and the Egyptian government. |
Right., Money settles everything according to this crowd.
| |
Near as I can figure, under the insane circumstances created by our insane leaders, Navy security arguably "did the right thing" by shooting the cigarette salesman dead. All the big aspects of the situation are so certifiably bonkers, it makes tragedies like this inevitable.
|
|
Helen & Harry
|
|
Cheezier and sleezier
by Marshall S.
| Mar. 27, 2008 |
Court overturns air passenger rights law| |
Excerpt: A federal appeals court Tuesday struck down a state law requiring airlines to give food, water, clean toilets and fresh air to passengers stuck in delayed planes, saying the measure was well-intentioned but stepped on federal authority. |
And will the feds do anything? No. They like people to suffer.
*** *** ***
British government defeats opposition calls for Iraq inquiry| |
Excerpt: Britain's Labour government defeated opposition Conservative proposals for an inquiry into the Iraq war late Tuesday, albeit with a slim majority. |
They can't have an inquiry. Too many heads would roll.
*** *** ***
Canada defiant over annual seal pup cull| |
Excerpt: Hundreds of thousands of seal pups will be clubbed to death in Canada over the next few days despite protests.
Given the helpless, photogenic nature of the prey and the hunting technique in which the creatures are chased over the ice and clubbed to death with a heavy stick, the practice has long prompted protests and anger. |
The link has nice pictures of the seals.
*** *** ***
Telecom lobbyists tied to McCain| |
Excerpt: Republican presidential candidate John McCain has condemned the influence of "special interest lobbyists," yet dozens of lobbyists have political and financial ties to his presidential campaign -- particularly from telecommunications companies, an industry he helps oversee in the Senate. |
McCain appears cheezier and sleezier every day.
*** *** ***
Cigarette company paid for lung-cancer study| |
Excerpt: A prominent scientist accepted money from the tobacco industry through a hastily created non-profit group that helped finance research that suggested CT scans could boost the long-term survival rates of lung cancer patients. |
At least she didn't conclude that cigarettes are safe. That will come in the next paper.
|
Marshall S.
|
|
Too many lies
I don't expect great integrity from politicians, but I'm really taken aback by Hillary Clinton's dishonesty in "explaining" her tall tales about coming under fire in Bosnia as "I mis-spoke". "Mis-speaking" is when you say Cincinnati but you meant Chicago, or even saying "left" when you meant "right". Telling an elaborate story of how the plane had to take evasive maneuvers and the greeting ceremony was cancelled and you were told to run straight to waiting vehicles -- when none of the above happened, and it was an utterly ordinary landing and ceremonial greeting -- that isn't "mis-speaking." That's bullsh*t on a Bush-Cheney level. That's just another lie, and we've been lied to by people named Bush and Clinton for too many years already.
|
Max
|
|
The next super big crash
by Kathy Fisher
| Mar. 26, 2008 |
Derivatives are a weapon of Mass Financial Destruction. Speculated capital was your game, sorry boys it didn't work. More banks will fall. Time to speculate how many nails your coffins will need!
The next super big crash will be in September. I wasn't wrong on my last prediction, I wrote that it would collapse in early spring. I didn't think they would get some quick cash and buy themselves and their billionaire friends some time! I didn't count on that one...
Then again I never remembered reading on one single website I peruse daily reminding all of us that Bill Clinton gave the bastards the right to do what they wanted to when he repealed the Glass-Steagall Act in 1999. Bush didn't change it when he got in so I am assuming their boy Clinton did exactly what he was told to do. Just like signing NAFTA.
Meanwhile they can flood the banks with money but the people have no stomach for it any more, they're downright leery and paranoid (can ya blame them?) How many damn times can a person in hock remortgage? Everyone and his brother took out all the phony wrongly speculated equity loans, as many as they could, and now there's nothing left. Equity no longer exists.
Home prices which were grossly overvalued are coming down faster than the New Years Eve ball at Times Square. Food prices and gas prices have taken their toll. Every day people will be breaking their kid's piggy banks and smoking less cigarettes and drinking less beers getting more agitated, they're not quite there yet but they will be there soon. The repo man will be knocking at the door with the tow truck! Auto sales dropping more by the day. When summer's over they will start counting the NO SALES. One by one they will go by the wayside, pink slips are coming, hours will be cut.
Those who are used to swiping their credit card because they have trained themselves to live large on less real cash will now be going nuts, irritable and hard to live with! Look out for fights in the food stores, even more road rage and bank runs. I don't know what they will be running to the bank for when they're broke. The only thing some will have will be their IRAs and their 401-Ks and some insured CDs, if they haven't already used them up to pay a few months mortgage payments and credit card debt. Many will turn to their guns for killing robing and defending.
14 thousand employees REGULAR middle class white collar folks, the kind that never expected this to happen to them, have now lost their jobs at Bear Sterns. I heard many people claiming they didn't see it coming. We did. Leon wrote about it in The future looks very bleak and Let it crash. Mike Rivero warned us over and over. Jim Kirwan wrote endless essays warning us that this was coming down the pyke.
We all knew and those crooks that run Wall Street knew, that's why they pulled a counterfeit ace out of their sleeve just in the nick of time. The shady, shadow banking system is being exposed for what is on the internet, but never mentioned by our media whores. Well, I got news for them, the next one will hit them front and center and every other way too! There's no way they will be able to hide it.
I'm not looking forward to this!
Putrid good-ole boy farts
Re Judge gives White House three days to explain why it shouldn't have to copy its computer hard drives
Notice the legalisms and qualifiers in the White House reply. We'll see if the judge folds or stands up to this bullshit: Generally as in "hard drives are generally sent offsite." Doesn't know as in "The White House says it does not know if any e-mails are missing." But the biggest piece of BushShit is saved for the last sentence: "It would be costly and time-consuming for the White House to institute an e-mail retrieval program that entails pulling data off each individual workstation, the court papers filed Friday state."
This is not an excuse to break the law, which is what they are admitting they are doing. The White House squawks about cost only when they don't want to do something. Since when does the White House give a shit about how much something costs? Billions spent to bail out banks. Billions spent to stimulate the economy. Billions spent to blow up Iraq. But to abide by the law, nothing spent but hot air. It stinks. Clean, fresh hot air I could tolerate. I'm sick of smelling putrid good-ole boy farts.
|
SirJ
|
|
Drop a flyer
by Angry Annie
| Mar. 26, 2008 |
Re The solution is in the people's hands
This is a co-op I'd join and be an active member of ... and getting it off the ground wouldn't require all that much beyond someone with a medical degree and someone with some insider experience dealing with the insurance industry. I don't think a non-medical person could pull it off, but a doc and an ex-office manager at a doc's office ... Jeez, drop a flyer on doorsteps in ten or twelve city blocks, followed by a few meetings and Q-and-A sessions, and I think there would almost instantly be enough patients signed up to make a go of if...
I'm spreading Doc's original article around, and anyone else who's intrigued ought to push "print" and show it to a few friends...
Basra/Green Zone/S Iraq in general
by The Canadian
| Mar. 26, 2008 |
Inciting widespread fighting in Iraq will certainly prevent the US from redeploying airpower stationed in Iraq to support any attack against Iran/Syria should they initiate any attack against Israel be it directly or indirectly.
Basra in South Iraq is located close to the Iranian border.
|
The Canadian
|
|
I am still fighting
Re Bush haters
| |
"All the miseries and evils which men suffer from, vice, crime, ambition, injustice,
oppression, slavery and war, proceed from their despising or neglecting the precepts
contained in the Bible."
Noah Webster |
| |
“Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, and pray
for those who spitefully use you. To him who strikes you on the one cheek, offer the other
also.”
Jesus |
| |
“Blessed are the peacemakers..”
Jesus |
Bush represents us in the International Theater, but is killing, stealing from, and
sabotaging the future of INNOCENT PEOPLE. If Bush alone were "sinning" everyone would
leave him to him destiny. But he is representing me, and you, and others. By listing the
bible verses, moral codes, and international laws that he and his administration violates,
it is a way to distance ourselves from the evil/greed/hate.
I do not judge my neighbors,
but it is my responsibility as a citizen to judge those appointed to act for us. You may
be picking up on the frustration of those voices you find here. I, for one, feel powerless
to do anything and can only watch things spiral down the drain.
I am a veteran, a
democrat, and a liberal. I didn't serve my country, some duty overseas, to see it
destroyed from the inside. I am still fighting, but now the struggle is within this
nation's borders. And I now see the error in using weapons instead of ideas to fight.
Bless you for looking for love and
compassion, that will do more than any one bullet. I care whether or not a leader claims
Christianity, and you should too.
I love my country and I want it back.
|
M.M.
|
|
Misses the point
This article in In These Times brings up some good parts. However this passage... | |
"What could Americans get instead for that money? How about universal preschool for all 3 year olds and 4 year olds, at the bargain price of $35 billion? How about universal healthcare, a rebuilding of the nation's infrastructure, actually securing our ports as recommended by the 9/11 Commission, and a new 'war' on poverty?" |
... shows that the author, like most progressives, misses the point.
Republicans would rather see "their" money burned to a crisp that have even a nickel of it go to those they consider "underlings". The "niggers" and "white trash" they see as beneath them. The whole idea makes the blood boil and their hair stand on end.
So this comment she has make, makes no sense.
*** *** ***
Re The solution is in the people's hands
We had something similar in Cleveland during the 70s which is still going and has expanded. The Free Clinic.
At the time I was living up there it was the East side and West side Free Clinic staffed by volunteers. Quite often residents from the teaching hospitals in the area. Supported by donations and proceeds from concerts and other events. Works very well.
| |
Poking around their website, it says they have 56 employees and hundreds of volunteers, so I'm guessing the Free Clinic in Cleveland is a pretty major league operation. And more power to 'em. On the opposite end of the spectrum, when we lived in San Francisco, we occasionally came to the Berkeley Free Clinic, a much more amateur effort, where patients saw volunteers -- not doctors -- and the volunteers then called a physician, who OK'd prescriptions and made a diagnosis second-hand.
So it can be done, with or without big-bucks funding, as a charity. And I would think, with a big city full of prospective patients willing and able to pay, the kind of cooperative facility Doc Herb is talking about could be successful, too.
|
Actually when it started in 1970, it was very small. Had few volunteers and was in an old wood frame house circa 1930.
|
