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China prepares for real war
China's underground nuclear sub base
While the U.S. plays in its Iraq sand box, China prepares for a real war. They want Taiwan back. They want it back bad. This underground nuclear submarine base will help.
*** *** ***
Did she or didn't she? She did, per Time. She didn't, per Prison Planet.
According to Time, "Palfrey had been free pending her scheduled July 24 sentencing." As July 24 is almost 3 months away, I say she didn't. Why kill yourself today when you can put it off until tomorrow?
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When China decides to make its big move, I sure hope I'll be dead already.
And as recently as an hour ago (see below) I was on the fence and tilting ever-so-slightly toward believing Deborah Jeane Palfrey had killed herself. But as often happens, SirJ, your logic is impeccable. It sorta shoves me off the fence, and redoubles my skepticism.
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Learning evil
by JR Mooneyham
| May 3, 2008 |
Tories kill information registry
Canadian conservatives are learning evil from Bush.
Don't torture yourself, Gomez. That's my job.
by Lucy Lindblad
| May 3, 2008 |
RudePundit visualizes the McCain love life:| |
Excerpt: ... It's foreplay. See, whenever Cindy McCain is feeling frisky, she knows that the only way her nearly disabled, PTS-haunted, ex-POW husband can get even a semi-erection is through a continuous, escalating series of insults and return insults, eventually leading to violence which culminates in sexual congress. ... Grabbing her ass and squeezing until she started to whimper, McCain yelled, "I'm gonna show you how we dealt with traitors back at the Hilton, bitch."
And this, of course, was followed by more insults, medals pinned to butt cheeks, balls pounded, a few desperate thrusts, a few more desperate sucks and fondles to try to coax a hard-on, followed by curses, weeping, a flashback or two involving fellatio in exchange for food, more weeping, and then, finally, the two of them on their backs with McCain saying, "That was good. Make sure you do that hair thing again tomorrow." |
That reminds me of The Addams Family movie...| |
"Gomez..."
"Querida?"
"Last night you were unhinged. ... You were like some desperate howling demon. ... You frightened me. ... Do it again." ...
"It is a milestone, Tish. This very night, our 25th seance. All those years gnawed by guilt... undone by woe... burning with uncertainty."
"Don't torture yourself, Gomez. That's my job."
"Oh, Tish."
"Imagine, darling, if Fester did come back... half alive... barely human, a rotting shell."
"Don't tease." |
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Lucy Lindblad
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DC Madam "suicided"
Re What's coming to Tehran
I just had to play along so here's what I found. Take the sources with a grain (a LOT of
grains) of course...
#1 Petraeus, Crocker criticize Iran, call for halt to troop pullout
#3 Hamas serving as Iran's 'proxy warriors,' Rice says
#4 Gates: Iran assured Iraq on weapons
#5 Iran, Syria pact raises eyebrows
#8 Iranian unit to be labeled 'Terrorist'
#7 I can't check because it's not next week and #4 I wasn't sure what The Canadian meant by "interfering".
*** *** ***
YouTube clip of Deborah Jeane Palfrey saying she has no intentions of taking her own life.
BUT when we (Jeane and I) emailed back and forth months ago I asked her to get a myspace page or any medium that was worldwide, to get bodyguards, and to give the names not the phone numbers of her clients to someone just in case. Why she didn't I will never know. Who knows maybe she did and it'll come out later...
One can only hope.
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Her death sure is convenient for a lot of people, definitely raises questions, but I'm holding my suspicions in check because it's so plausible. I know, if I was looking at a long prison term, knowing what I know about America's medieval prison system (which Palfrey had experienced in the past) I'd at least consider killing myself.
But you were in contact with Deborah Jeane Palfrey? If so and you don’t think she'd be suicidal, well, that could help rejigger my thinking.
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Wham
by Angry Annie
| May 3, 2008 |
Obama calls for $15 billion tax on oil company profit| |
Excerpt: The plan would target profit from the biggest oil companies by taxing each barrel of oil costing more than $80, according to a fact sheet on the proposal. The tax would help pay for a $1,000 tax cut for working families, an expansion of the earned- income tax credit and assistance for people who can't afford their energy bills. |
I'm not sure this is wise. The proposal is fine, heck, I'd favor a windfall profits tax ten times as big, but I wonder if it's wise to propose it now. We all remember that Howard Dean was shot down in the media almost immediately after he said that if elected he'd look into breaking up mass media monopolies. Wham, all of the sudden he went from being a media darling to being portrayed everywhere as a nut (even before the phonied-up "scream"). The oil industry frickin' owns the United States of America, and with one phone call to Media Inc., the CEO of ExxonMobil could probably obliterate Obama's campaign.
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Angry Annie
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Bill & Hillary
O’Reilly: ‘It’s bull’ that torture doesn’t work
In addition to his routine dishonesty and monstrosity, it's worth noting that Bill O'Reilly said this directly to Hillary Clinton, face to face on his TV show. So why is an alleged Democrat appearing on not just America's most infamous TV network, but that network's most infamous show?
Good question.
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Rebecca
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Nuke China
Chinese nuclear submarine base| |
Excerpt: China has secretly built a major underground nuclear submarine base that could threaten Asian countries and challenge American power in the region, it can be disclosed. |
So Bush now wants to nuke China?
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Wig
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Both sides now
Re Love is workI went a lot of years with no love at all, and having found it I'd never, ever use the word "vague" to describe it.
Maybe this.| |
"Moons and Junes and Ferris wheels the dizzy dancing way you feel
As every fairy tale comes real, I've looked at love that way
But now it's just another show, you leave 'em laughing when you go
And if you care don't let them know, don't give yourself away
I've looked at love from both sides now
From give and take and still somehow
It's love's illusions I recall
I really don't know love at all"
"Both Sides Now", Joni Mitchell |
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Chris M.
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Hating Bush is getting popular
by Marshall S.
| May 3, 2008 |
Ohio County prepares to sue Diebold| |
Excerpt: Cuyahoga County hired a nationally renowned lab on Thursday to prepare for a possible lawsuit against the maker of the $21 million touch-screen voting system scrapped in December.
The county -- currently shopping for voting equipment for the November presidential election - wants to recoup its $7 million investment in the old system, which is only two years old. The rest of the purchase price was supplied by the federal government. |
It's bad enough that Diebold fixes the election. But charging $7 million for it? Talk about working both ends against the middle.
*** *** ***
Methodists reject SMU Bush Presidential Library 844-20| |
Excerpt: This rejection passed on Wednesday morning, 30-April-08, at the quadrennial General Conference of the United Methodist Church that is still meeting in Fort Worth, Texas.
This body is the highest authority of the denomination and cannot be over-ruled by any other body within the denomination. |
Hating Bush is getting popular.
*** *** ***
U.S. has Mandela on terrorist list| |
Excerpt: Nobel Peace Prize winner and international symbol of freedom Nelson Mandela is flagged on U.S. terrorist watch lists and needs special permission to visit the USA. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice calls the situation "embarrassing," and some members of Congress vow to fix it. |
I wonder if Jesus is on the terrorist list.
*** *** ***
Rep. Fossella arrested on charges of driving while intoxicated| |
Excerpt: Rep. Vito J. Fossella (R-N.Y.) was arrested overnight in Alexandria and charged with driving while intoxicated, court records showed today. |
I wonder if Congresscritters show up to vote in a drunken state. I'd have to be drunk to suck up to Bush like they do.
*** *** ***
D.C. forging surveillance network| |
Excerpt: The system will feature round-the-clock monitoring of the closed-circuit video systems run by nine city agencies. In the first phase, about 4,500 cameras trained on schools, public housing, traffic and government buildings will feed into a central office at the D.C. Homeland Security and Emergency Management Agency. Hundreds more will be added this year. |
What will they do if they see a politician committing a crime? Nothing, like they do now?
*** *** ***
Federal agency declares West Coast salmon fishery a disaster| |
Excerpt: Federal authorities have declared the West Coast ocean salmon fishery a failure, opening the way for Congress to appropriate economic disaster assistance for coastal communities in California, Oregon and Washington.
The declaration Thursday stems from the sudden collapse of the Chinook salmon run in California's Sacramento River, where the salmon return to spawn. Scientists are studying the causes of the collapse, with possible factors ranging from ocean conditions and habitat destruction to dam operations and agricultural pollution. |
It must really be bad if anti-environmental Bush administration even notices it, much less does something about it.
*** *** ***
W.Va.U. embroiled in scandal over degree for Governor's daughter| |
Excerpt: Six months after his inauguration, President Mike Garrison is struggling to hold his administration together -- and keep his job -- amid a scandal that erupted after the school granted Gov. Joe Manchin's daughter a master's degree she didn't earn. |
Ever wonder if that surgeon about to cut into you had a fake degree? It's not so farfetched.
*** *** ***
Reading program doesn't boost comprehension| |
Excerpt: The $6 billion reading program at the center of President Bush's signature education law has failed to make a difference in how well children understand what they read, according to a study by the program's own champion -- the U.S. Department of Education. |
Yet another boondoggle for incompetent Bush cronies.
*** *** ***
VA report rips care level for veterans with brain injuries| |
Excerpt: Many Iraq war veterans with traumatic brain injury are not getting adequate health care and job assistance for their long-term recovery despite years of government pledges to do so, Veterans Affairs Department investigators say. |
We may support the troops, but the government doesn't.
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Marshall S.
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I love the longshoremen
by Angry Annie
| May 2, 2008 |
This made me weep for a few minutes...
Strike against war shuts down West Coast ports| |
Excerpt: Ports along the U.S. West Coast, including the country's busiest port complex in Los Angeles, shut down on Thursday as some 10,000 dock workers went on a one-day strike to protest the war in Iraq, port and union officials said.
Twenty-nine ports from San Diego to Washington state that handle more than half of US waterborne trade ground to a halt, but shipping experts said the economic costs of the walk-out would be limited.
"We are hearing there is no activity taking place up and down the West Coast," said Steve Getzug, spokesman of the Pacific Maritime Association, which represents all 29 ports. "There is no unloading or loading." |
How long has it been since you've seen any progressive political action from the Longshoremen's Union? I think I remember reading about actions like this... in history class... but I don't remember ever reading about it in the newspaper.
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Yeah, this is terrific. The Bush administration blithely dismissed of the huge anti-war protests before the savage attack on Iraq, and I think that sucked the wind out of a lot of people. It's very dispiriting to realize that in this so-called democracy, the will of the people doesn’t matter in the slightest even if it’s expressed very, very plainly.
But we have to be stubborn, we have to go at it again, and maybe again and again and again ad nauseum. At some point our voices will be heard, if we're loud enough.
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Helen & Harry
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What's coming to Tehran
by The Canadian
| May 2, 2008 |
Well, let's see the roster of recent events and some to come...| |
1. Petraeus tells the Congress that Iran is directly "interfering" with their Iraq efforts
2. Petraeus gets promoted to regional commander of the Middle East.
3. Secy Rice calls Hamas a proxy army for Iran.
4. Defense Secy Gates says Iran is interfering in Iraq.
5. CIA Chief says Iran funded the Syrian reactor destroyed by Israel and that it could have been used to create plutonium for dirty bombs.
6. Adm Michael Mullen openly declares that the US is planning for offensives against Iran, but is not committed to such action. He also states the US retains the capacity to go to war with Iran.
7. Next week Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki is about to confront Iran with proof of weapons and guerrilla tactics used against Iraqi and US forces in Iraq.
8. The groundwork in US law was laid to consider the Iranian Revolutionary Guards as Terrorists.
9. 2 aircraft carriers are now in the Gulf and 2 more are on the way. |
What's coming seems rather obvious by now, eh.
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I've seen diddlysquat in the way of evidence to back the allegations of #1, #3, #4, #5, or #8, and I'll be curious to see what piffle is presented for #7. But in a post-9/11 world, facts and evidence are superfluous anyway.
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Mark Leno v. Joe Nation
by "Name Withheld" for security reasons
| May 2, 2008 |
to: info@markleno.com
cc: senate@joenation.com
Hello Mark,
It looks like you will get my vote, but I am cc'ing Joe to give him a chance to respond.
First off, I am not surprised that Joe's Issues page includes the word "solar", and I notice from your About page that you have worked to increase solar power usage in the past. I strongly support individual and community use of solar power. The new thin-film systems from companies like First Solar and NanoSolar are going to drive costs down tremendously -- then all we need to do is get permission to hook the systems into the grid. That will cut greenhouse gas emissions dramatically, especially once hybrid-elective plug-compatible cars start becoming widely available (esp. for short-haul trips.)
Secondly, on the issue of "universal" healthcare and single-payer vs. "mandate", I understand that going to a national single-payer system would crush profits at the big health insurance companies. And individual mandates with taxpayer subsidies are not only personally intrusive but simply continue the process by which America's capital is drained off into "Big Medicine". The key issue in this is Affordability, and proper cost containment would make the hospitals squeak louder than the health insurers! (If we had universal healthcare via single-payer at the Federal level, it would be very bullish for other businesses!)
I read recently that a woman was denied cancer treatment until she made a $45,000 down payment. Then when her bill was scrutinized by an expert it turned out that they were billing her $20 for each pair of disposable latex gloves. This was at a non-profit hospital. Perhaps something ought to be done about gouging at hospitals? Another item: after she did go ahead and get insurance for the remainder of her treatment, the hospital gave the insurer a 25% discount, and belatedly offered her a 10% discount on the remaining unpaid $100,000.
Isn't it about time to outlaw the practice where people paying cash out of pocket are charged MORE than people with insurance?
And maybe could we allow foreign doctors to practice here, maybe in some low-cost walk-in clinics where people aren't getting gouged for basic care? And let's rein in the AMA and graduate more M.D.'s!
Speaking of laws, I notice that both of you are very proud of the number of laws you have helped pass. How many laws did you help "un-pass"? Isn't it about time we started conserving taxpayer money by decriminalizing pot and other victimless "crimes"?
How many people need to be in jail, and how many billions of dollars do you politicos plan to squander before accepting the fact that drug prohibition creates the monetary ecosystem which produces crime and finances gangs, not to mention clogging the criminal justice system, corrupting law enforcement, and generally speaking, helping to create an overbearing police state always looking for a chance to nail people for petty stuff -- instead of protecting good people from actual dangers?
Finally, politicians are hammering poor people with an excessive sales tax, which is nearly 8% now (depending on city). That is totally regressive. Can we get a break next time, and maybe y'all can find some other way to fund your salaries?
Best wishes, and good luck,
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"Name Withheld" for security reasons
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I don't know the name Joe Nation, but I remember the name Mark Leno. Didn't know he's running for California State Senate. He was a city supervisor in San Francisco when I lived there, but for reasons I can't remember, I remember him as sort of a wanker. This might be miles off the mark, but in my memory he's tilted a little to the right by San Francisco standards (though I suppose he'd be a flaming liberal anywhere else).
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Helen & Harry
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Happier
by JR Mooneyham
| May 2, 2008 |
| | When researchers ask parents what they enjoy, it turns out that they prefer almost anything to looking after their children ...
There are many things in a parent's life that bring great joy. For example, spending time away from [one's] children ...
So much for right versus left. Mr Brooks also finds that extremists of both sides are happier than moderates. Some 35% of those who call themselves "extremely liberal" say they are very happy, against only 22% of ordinary liberals. For conservatives, the gap is smaller: 48% to 43%. Extremists are happy, Mr Brooks reckons, because they are certain they are right. Alas, this often leads them to conclude that the other side is not merely wrong, but evil. Some two-thirds of America's far left and half of the far right say they dislike not only the other side's ideas, but also the people who hold them.
The joys of parenthood |
I've noticed this is true in my own experience as well. Parents seem to abhor watching their own kids. And love leaving them with someone else while they (the parents) escape to other places, for as long as they can possibly arrange it.
Virtually all the parents I personally know are also conservatives in voting preferences. Maybe radical/extremist conservatives, by many measures.
In my own opinion, ignorance and closed-mindedness can also help one be happier in general. And helps explain the possibly greater happiness among extremists. Note how many drugs which dull the senses and the intellect tend to make their users happier -- until they wear off. So I too can be as happy as a mindless Fox News/Rush Limbaugh fan, by drinking myself into such a stupor that I no long sense or understand what's happening around me...
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People unburdened by a conscience would tend to make better criminals, and it stands to reason that people unburdened by much intellect, or unconcerned about things like Iraqi deaths because "they deserve it" or "they're less human than we are", would be able to find a somewhat happier existence. I've also noticed a tendency (with exceptions, yes) among liberal friends, that they become somewhat less liberal upon becoming parents. And I don't like it, but I guess I can understand it without much trouble.
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Helen & Harry
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Chicago, May 1, 1886 -- marching for the 8-hour day & TODAY?
Today in Istanbul, Turkish workers were NOT treated with respect. Thankfully, no one was killed -- mainly a lot of water and tear gas were used to stop their meetings. Some were arrested. Very sad. Today in the US, workers/the work force, having faced underemployment, cuts in benefits, and being forced to work part-time, are NOW facing unemployment or further cuts in pay and hours of work -- it’s not a pretty picture.
To me, showing some respect means looking for info that workers/everyone ought to know about so that we all have a better chance to make informed decisions. A while back I linked to a Global Europe Anticipation Bulletin (GEAB) public announcement -- that one was No. 22. Since the public announcements are just excerpts, I thought I’d look at several of them both before and after No. 22. The links to them are below. Some of the info is related to the US and some to other countries/regions. Sorry, it got a little long.
INFO RELATED TO THE US| |
• No. 15: “The US consumer ... is defaulting ... and this trend is strengthened by the fact that employment too in [is] now affected and that layoffs are considerably increasing in the manufacturing industry and retail trade, after real-estate and construction, and before is [it] spreads out to services.”
• No. 18: “In a decade from now, European and Asian [including Russian university] degrees will be more reputable than any national [US] degree.” “Today’s heavy trends ... put Europe and Asia at the center of all upcoming scientific, technological and cultural tendencies.” “ ... the world emerging from global systemic crisis require[s] elites [univ. graduates] capable of adapting to a diversity of cultures, civilizations and people. Companies, public institutions, NGOs, universities themselves, must now seek skills that can only be gained through a live confrontation to differences.” “Command of geographically and culturally diversified networks, capacity to speak 3 to 4 different languages, ... capability to question authority, ability to manage conflicts, ... are the decisive skills.” The question parents/students must ask about the universities they are considering is “what sort of common curricula has this university developed with institutions from other countries?”
• No. 20: The US Federal Reserve “has just lost the ability to steer by itself the entire global financial system,” an ability it’s had since 1945.
• No. 20: “The evolution [of the financial system] will be painful for the US ... as, inevitably the new system will no longer be organized along their interest as was the case in the past sixty years.”
• No. 22: “The collapse [of Municipal bonds] will freeze all investment projects scheduled by local authorities in the US.”
• No. 23: “By the end of 2008, a formidable debacle will affect pension funds all over the world ...”
• No. 23: “In the event of a severe crisis ‘Cash becomes king’ ...”
• No. 23: “The collapse of the US Dollar [USD] is the result of a US economy in recession and a related devaluation by 50 percent against the other big currencies.” “In the case of a combined US/Israel attack on Iran this year,” the outlook for the USD would be worse. Other central banks “will not put a stop to the plummeting of the US currency ... because they “now have diverging interests due to the decoupling of the world’s largest economic regions ...”
• No. 24 (latest): 4 trends for the 2008-2013 time period are given: “Global financial crisis--savers and investors trapped into USD 10,000 billion worth of ‘ghost assets’[worthless assets], USD-denominated asset crisis -- End of 2008: the US Federal Reserve and its network of ‘Primary Dealers’ fight for their institutional and financial survival, Foreign exchange crisis -- Horizon 2011/2013: Sustainable changes in the hierarchy of foreign currencies, [and a] Global social crisis -- From hunger riots worldwide to the 25 million unemployed of the Very Great US Depression.”
• No. 24: To find some tangible assets to replace those “created from nothing” using the “miracle” of new finance, we see “new bubbles always more fragile and transient: real estate, US T-bonds, stocks, food commodities ...” created “in vain.”
• No. 24: All of the USDs of “ghost assets” are what “is called inflation” ... “real inflation (food and energy included) will reach a yearly 10 percent average in the US [in the 2nd half of 2008].” |
INFO RELATED TO OTHER COUNTRIES/REGIONS
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• No. 15: As unemployment in the US increases, it will weigh down on consumption and on the profits of companies depending on the US market. However, companies trading in the Asian and European markets will gain “a double asset: a sustained growth in these regions and a positive exchange effect if their results are labeled in [the devaluing] USD.”
• No. 15: Trade tensions will increase between the US and its trade partners -- such as China, Japan, and the European countries as they suffer declines in their export profits.
• No. 20: “We are now witnessing an increasing divergence in economic interests among the different components of the global financial system.”
• No. 20: “By summer 2008, it will be possible to distinguish more clearly the lines along which the global financial system will reorganize once the break point has been reached.” It will be the Europeans along with Japan and China who with Russia and the oil exporting countries will be structuring a new financial system.
• No. 21: “ ... The magnitude of the upcoming monetary, financial and economic turmoil ... could be lethal for small-sized economies not protected by a complete integration to larger entities.”
• No. 24: Real inflation “will go above 5 percent in Europe; and approach 20 percent in China. In developing countries ... it “will surge as a result of different strains: energy, food, currency weakness ...”
• No. 24: “It is now obvious ... that the British pound and economy are free falling.” In the coming months, “the negative impact of the collapsing British pound-denominated assets will combine with the negative impact of the collapsing US dollar-denominated assets. From Hong-Kong to [the] Scandinavian countries (thus two times exposed), the shock will be hard.” |
OK, I don’t think I can take anymore info. I highly recommend that you check out the links to more excerpts listed at the bottom of each page linked below. The “Notes” after each excerpt are also very useful.
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Marie K.
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A treasure
by Herb Ruhs, MD
| May 2, 2008 |
You can terrorize some of the people all of the time, and you can terrorize all of the people some of the time, but you can't terrorize all the people all of the time. Eventually people will fight back because we understand that not fighting back means all terror all of the time.
*** *** ***
Re All crime
Yes, as Samuel Johnson said, "Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel." Politics is a moral swamp.
On the other hand, some groups of politicians, the Republicans just now, are always out front in the race to the bottom. Currently the Republicans have committed themselves to the service of the underworld more fervently than the Democrats, but in reality the entire political class has been corrupted beyond recognition. Totally FUBAR.
Corruption and politics may be inseparable, I don't know. But the corruption we are seeing now really is much greater than past generations ever experienced. People are just beginning to figure this out. This is what is meant by a revolutionary moment.
People face the choice of struggling against this corruption or becoming slaves to the designs of criminals. From the point of view of spiritual growth, such a moment is a treasure.
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I shall endeavor to maintain that spiritual perspective, next time I head President Bush's amazingly empty head intoning words he doesn't understand... "This moment is a treasure. A treasure, damn it ..."
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Helen & Harry
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Love is work
Brooks: Demography is king| |
Excerpt: But that's all changed. In the decades since, some social divides, mostly involving ethnicity, have narrowed. But others, mostly involving education, have widened. Today there is a mass educated class. The college educated and non-college educated are likely to live in different towns. They have radically different divorce rates and starkly different ways of raising their children. The non-college educated not only earn less, they smoke more, grow more obese and die sooner. |
This is what I've been trying to say, but less eloquently.| |
In Pennsylvania, Obama did everything conceivable to win over Clinton's working-class voters. The effort was a failure. The great uniter failed to unite. In this election, persuasion isn't important. Social identity is everything. Demography is king. |
And a lot of it (less education) is a matter of choice rather than intelligence or opportunity. Especially with men who have chosen to pursue the trades.| |
None of these theories really fit the facts. It's more accurate to say that the country has simply drifted apart into different subcultures. There's no great hostility between the cultures. Americans have a fuzzy sense of where the boundaries lie. But people in different niches have developed different unconscious maps of reality. They have developed different communal understandings of what constitutes a good leader, of what sort of world they live in. They have developed different communal definitions, which they can't even articulate, of what they mean by liberty, security and virtue. Demographic groups have begun to function like tribes or cultures. |
Here I do disagree. There is hostility and resentment. I know because I have witnessed it personally. Those of the "working class" resent the way the upwardly mobile treat them as "stupid" or "uncouth" or somehow lacking in social morals.
*** *** ***
Without ceremony| |
Excerpt: But when you have no religion, no god, no spiritual practice to turn to for comfort, it's easy to turn your relationship into your altar, to give it the power to heal you, transform you and save you. That's why most relationships crack under pressure, I think -- they're not built to fix us. We're supposed to fix them. If Russell is right that religion is the last place to go to if you're looking for God, then perhaps marriage is the last place to go to if you're looking for love. |
I have been told that "Love is work" by more than a few people and various "self help" books, seemingly by those who are supposed to know about such things. However there is one little piece of information they are all resolutely silent on. That is what one gets from this "work". I do not dispute in the least the existence of love, just the benefits to either party ... which seem vague at best.
*** *** ***
McCain endorser Pastor John Hagee: God curse and doom America| |
Excerpt: "As a nation, America is under the curse of God, even now." That ominous slam at America came from Pastor John Hagee, whose endorsement Republican presidential candidate John McCain sought, secured, and recently affirmed to ABC News that he is "glad to have." Hagee claims God's "curse" and "doom" is upon America because of two key issues: reproductive freedom and broad support for the teaching of the theory of evolution. |
This guy and those like him can come out with the most bombastic and hateful speech and no one bats and eye. But when some Black preacher speaks the truth it's a major scandal. What's wrong with this picture??
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If you ask people with money and power, the ruling elite, they'd answer "Nothing at all." And then they'd have your name added to the federal watch list. And if you ask God about cursing and dooming America, I think He's say, Why bother? America's cursed and damned of its own doing.
As for love, well, have you ever been in love, Chris? The benefits might sound vague, I suppose, if you’re trying to put it into words, but that's just because some things don't fit well into words. I went a lot of years with no love at all, and having found it I'd never, ever use the word "vague" to describe it.
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As someone once said, "Made this planet is some other planet's version of hell."
"Have you ever been in love, Chris?" I was going to let this pass but it does deserve a reply. I would suppose I would have to say maybe. The last time was in Junior High. However my life got very complicated very shortly there after and as the years went on, well one thing pushes out another as the saying is.
As I understand it one needs to be able to look at people (and things I suppose) through a certain amount of "rose colored mist". Which I have not been able to do since then. I guess I have become far too cynical to but too much stock in "falling in love" (or romantic love) as they say.
I'll just have to take your word for it.
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Spock: I would say her struggle in this would strengthen her
entire ego structure.
Kirk: Would either of you credit Scotty's steadfast belief in her
as a factor?
Spock: You mean, love as motivation? Hmm. Humans do claim a great deal for that particular emotion. I suppose it is possible: however..."Star Trek, "The Lights of Zetar"
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Love comes when and where you least expect it, and chances are, it'll come for you.
Also, at the risk of revealing myself to be an enormous geek, I must add that the noted and annoying puppeteer Shari Lewis co-wrote the script for that episode.
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Bollocks
by Yadda Yadda Yadda
| May 2, 2008 |
Re Doubt
Bollocks. Top to bottom, upside and over, without exception.
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Yes, but can you be more specific?
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Helen & Harry
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Roped
'Free Tibet' flags made in China
And the definition of a capitalist is that he will try to sell you the rope you are going to hang him with?
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Jos
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Cloned
by JR Mooneyham
| May 1, 2008 |
Great article on fake economic numbers, but apparently the article in on a pay-per-view site, so it's been cloned
here.:
Numbers Racket: Why the economy is worse than we know
All crime
by Herb Ruhs, MD
| May 1, 2008 |
I was amused to read the Raw Story article about a professed criminal becoming the San Diego Republican Party Chairman.
Considering this selection, in light of the selection of the
convicted criminal Kenny Rogers (not the singer) as Chairman of the
Republican Party of Mendocino County, California (which I have
written about on Unknown News ), it would be reasonable to ask if we are seeing the beginning of a trend in the Republican Party, at least in California.
Of course, maybe the trend has become an aspect of the status quo since criminals generally act in secret and hide their criminal identities. It would correlate with our direct experience of reality to see the Republican Party as a vast criminal conspiracy that is only occasionally revealed. All crime all the time.
| | Yeah, I hope the revelation of Republican criminality is the beginning of a trend. Of course, the Republican criminality itself has been going on longer than either of us have been alive.
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Just another political a$$hole
Singapore succeeds at managing everything -- except dating| |
Excerpt: The course, which is in its second year at two polytechnic institutes, is the latest of many, mostly futile, campaigns by the government to get its citizens to mate and multiply. Its popularity last year has led to talk of expansion through the higher education system.
"We want to tell students: Don't wait until you have built up your career," Yu-Foo Yee Shoon, minister of state for community development, youth and sports, said at a news conference last month. "Sometimes, it is too late, especially for girls." |
I do not believe this. This is insane. The last thing this planet needs is more people, we can't support those we have right now. We have water shortages, food shortages, starvation. The ONLY reason this or any other government would want to increase its population is to supply their corporate greed heads with a steady supply of sheeple consumers.
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When Obama gets pissed| |
Excerpt: “The person I saw yesterday was not the person that I met 20 years ago. His comments were not only divisive and destructive, but I believe that they end up giving comfort to those who prey on hate, and I believe that they do not portray accurately the perspective of the black church. |
NO that's not what's divisive and destructive. What's divisive and destructive is starting a war with a country that did not was not going to attack us on trumped up evidence, giving welfare to corporations while the middle class working people were loosing there jobs, dismantling the constitution, supporting a country involved with apartheid and genocide, destroying the economy, destroying the environment ... that's divisive and destructive. You are just another political a$$hole, no better than the rest.
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I believe Barack Obama is a somewhat better assh*le than the others :) but it's hard to get too enthused about him. He ain't much, but he's better than Bush, Clinton, or McCain, and he's all we've got. And it's way past time for him to stop answering the endless flood of tedious questions about his frickin' ex-minister, and start addressing some of the actual issues you've mentioned, and all the other actual issues being resolutely ignored.
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Helen & Harry
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Ludicrous
White House blocked EPA studies| |
Excerpt: A congressional watchdog agency has found that White House officials repeatedly intervened in the government's scientific process for assessing the health risks of toxic chemicals, prompting Sen. Barbara Boxer to threaten giving Congress control of the program. |
Giving Congress anything more to screw up is ludicrous.
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Melissa H.
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Sad song and dance
Somebody put a lot of work into this, and I think Americans should give it a look-see. This, dear people, is how America is seen by much or most of the world.
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Max
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The truth about the Gang of 545
by Siegfried Lemelson
| Apr. 30, 2008 |
The only link I have for the essay is here:
"Predators" by Ty Andros (he includes Charlie Reese's essay in his own :-)
Charlie is dead on target. Look at the Dems as knowing collaborators since 2001. They aren't voting for or against laws or budgets, they are voting for their jobs! The Dems are like noisy poker players who ante up for every hand and then fold immediately after looking at their cards... every time. Barack won't make much difference, I think. Only a financial/economic catastrophe will force change. That may be a few years out, which is good because we may have enough time to prepare. Or not. (Staying up late every night looking for the matrix, you know...)
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It's a pretty good column regardless of its pedigree, and I like what it’s saying, but I suspect someone's borrowed Charley Reese's byline. Links to his columns always end up in our in-box, sent by several readers almost as soon as the columns are published, but this one we've never seen. It's hard to quantify why but I'm just not sensing Reese on the other end of the words. And it's not in the Reese archive at lewrockwell.com.
That said, of course, hell yes they're 545 collaborators, and I'd take it a little further than just voting them out of office. Prosecution ought to be pursued for many of them.
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Helen & Harry
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Misogyny level has gone up
I looked under your "Crap we don't want" and didn't see anything about quicklinks. I hope that this is ok. This author nailed what I have been trying to say.
On sexist media coverage of Hillary Clinton
Delaying equal rights is like delaying treatment for a painful disease. It's fine for
those who aren't hurting. It looks like I might die before sexism.| |
"...they don't like (Clinton) because she's a manipulative liar who thinks she's entitled to the presidency."Raedix Apr. 12, 2008 |
Let me translate: "she doesn't know her place..." We are taught that any American can be president. What you are experiencing is the same thing that occurred in the 60s when blacks got "uppity" and there was a violent backlash. Chris D. is one of the "good guys." So, why is he ranting at me, when he and I agree that merit should be the focus? Because it isn't.
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M.M.
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But it is a problem
Critics cost Muslim educator her dream school| |
Excerpt: “This is a political, ideological agenda,” said John Esposito, a professor of international affairs and Islamic studies at Georgetown University who has been a focus of Mr. Pipes’s scrutiny. “It’s an agenda to paint Islam, not just extremists, as a major problem.” |
But it is a problem. The same problem that Christianity and Judaism and Hinduism is. The leaders sprout false promises for power and control, and the followers believe these lies and delusions.
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Wright's poison| |
Excerpt: But what he said today extemporaneously, the way in which he said it, the unrepentant manner in which he reiterated some of his most absurd and offensive views, his attempt to equate everything he believes with the black church as a whole, and his open public embrace of Farrakhan and hostility to the existence of Zionism, make any further defense of him impossible. This was a calculated, ugly, repulsive, vile display of arrogance, egotism, and self-regard. |
Oh really ?! The truth is DAMN HARD to hear ain't it, you pissy Republicans and phony progressives. Especially when it comes from a man of the cloth.
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Unless he's running for office, Jeremiah Wright's opinions are of little interest to me, but I've pretty much agreed with most of what I've heard.
And if anything's even more mystifying than the attention the media pays to the opinions of Jeremiah Wright, it's the attention paid to the opinions of Andrew Sullivan. For years he's been hyped as one of the major league bloggers, as must-read material, but in my memory every time I've clicked a link to something Sullivan's written I've been completely unimpressed. I've never understood his success, his appeal, so I'd like to change the subject and ask cordially, why do you read what Andrew Sullivan writes?
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Well for one thing, I have yet to come across anything that comes under the heading of "A must read". I have see a number of things that are presented that way and so far none have fit my definition of "A must read". That being said, I just bop over to his site every now and then like I do to alternet and counterpunch and some others. I do like the indignant replies I read some times. Rather amusing. Sullivan's comments were pretty much along the lines of everybody else's. All puffed up and indignant. I go by a simple rule, "The larger and more defensive the reaction... the closer to the truth the statement must be."
For real news, I go to the BBC, German and Canadian sites though.
I do need to say that I do agree with everything Jeremiah Wright has said so far. Possibly because I take some hedonistic pleasure in seeing and hearing someone getting their "comeuppance". Especially those who insist on remaining on their high horse, be they right wing, left wing or no wing.
PS: HRC in going to be on O’Reilly. To bad I don't have cable as this could
be rather interesting and amusing.
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Well, I shouldn't whine about Sullivan. He's no worse at what he does than half a dozen other big names of blogdom.
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Helen & Harry
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Pathetically sick
by Herb Ruhs, MD
| Apr. 30, 2008 |
The accumulation of evidence firmly indicates that just about everyone in charge of all major institutions in this country is now a pathetically sick individual. This is what comes of having a self-selected leadership.
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Herb Ruhs, MD
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When Clinton, McCain, and the media stand together
I'm largely sickened by the so-called "coverage" of the Presidential campaign, but I'm used to being sickened -- sickened by years of Bush-Cheney malfeasance and treason, and sickened by the knowledge that they're going to get away with everything they've done.
But there is a way to a better future, and that way and that future is Barack Obama. Like Chris has said, Obama needs to kick it up a notch and start being a bit more "real", and like Helen has said so often, Obama's really not very much a progressive or Democrat, but grant me this: There seems to be a human being inside his suit.
For the skeptics, I would say one thing:
Hillary Clinton, John McCain, and the mainstream media are all ganging up on Barack Obama, and that signals something, something important. An alleged Democrat, the Republican standard-bearer, and the media that's been in GW Bush's camp since he took office illegally, all of them are standing together, ganging up on just one person, Barack Obama. Why the sudden unanimity? Because he's the right guy.
Obama is the person that the powers that be on all sides don't want, and that tells me, Barack Obama is the person we need in the White House.
Helen & Harry, I never write in, but I've been reading Unknown News since Bill Clinton was President, so let me say, thanks for all you do.
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Write in more often, John. You make some good sense.
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Helen & Harry
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Cats wouldn't eat it
by Marshall S.
| Apr. 30, 2008 |
Cuba's Raul Castro commutes most death sentences| |
Excerpt: New Cuban President Raul Castro announced on Monday that all death sentences had been commuted to prison terms of 30 years to life, with the exception of three people charged with terrorism. |
Not bad. Maybe we should have Raul running for prez here.
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San Diego GOP chairman co-founded international piracy ring| |
Excerpt: Online research reveals that Krvaric is the co-founder of Fairlight, a band of software crackers which later evolved into an international video and software piracy group that law enforcement authorities say is among the world’s largest such crime rings. After co-founding Fairlight in Sweden, Krvaric established U.S. operations for the organization, including an arm headquartered in Southern California -- a major center for the computer and video game industry.
Krvaric has also been appointed by California Republican Party Chairman Ron Nehring to head up the state party’s budget committee. RAW STORY's investigation reveals the California GOP has put an alleged pirate in charge of its treasure trove. |
Goes along with the Republican mantra "Make money at any cost. It's only illegal if you're caught."
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Albert Hoffman, Discoverer of LSD, dead at 102| |
Excerpt: Albert Hofmann, the Swiss chemist who discovered LSD and thereby gave the psychedelic generation the pharmaceutical vehicle to turn on, tune in and drop out, has died. He was 102. |
I hope he's gone to that great, psychedelic place in the sky.
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Lurita Doan finally forced out at GSA| |
Excerpt: Doan became the subject of congressional scrutiny last year for allegedly using GSA to help Republican lawmakers win re-election. Doan denied the allegation, but her appearance before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee was disastrous. Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.), chairman of the panel, called on Doan to resign over the allegations, but Doan refused to do so. |
Another incompetent, corrupt Bush crony bites the dust.
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Republicans demand networks yank McCain ad| |
Excerpt: The Republican National Committee demanded Monday that television networks stop running a television ad by the Democratic Party that falsely suggests John McCain wants a 100-year war in Iraq.
The ad says President Bush has talked about staying in Iraq for 50 years, then plays a clip of McCain saying, "Maybe 100. That'd be fine with me." |
Mr. Flip-Flop can't stand the heat of the consistent truth.
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Siegelman hit with travel restrictions| |
Excerpt: Former Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman has been barred from traveling without getting prior approval.
Siegelman tells The Associated Press that he was informed by his probation officer Tuesday afternoon that he was being classified as a special offender for travel purposes.
The classification means he must get approval from the judge overseeing his case and from the district where he seeks to travel.
The Democrat was sentenced to more than seven years in prison on corruption charges and was recently released pending his appeal. |
If Karl Rove ever comes to trial for crimes against the US and against humanity, I'm sure this episode will be mentioned. Now, how to bring Rove to trial?
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'Free Tibet' flags made in China| |
Excerpt: Police in southern China have discovered a factory manufacturing Free Tibet flags, media reports say. The factory in Guangdong had been completing overseas orders for the flag of the Tibetan government-in-exile.
Workers said they thought they were just making colorful flags and did not realize their meaning. |
I think the embarrassment to China is n |
