The moustache of understanding...

Next week we watch President Obama take charge...

Will things change in Gaza..??

Iraq...???

Afghanistan...???

Iran...???

And most important, what will Cindy think about that..??

I continue to read things about Jimmy Carter's foreign policy accomplishments that impress me.
He actually wasn't the disaster at foreign policy that most people portray him as. In many respects he was quite... REAGANESQUE.

"If I had even a QUARTER of Dick Clark's money I would quit TODAY, and I would do NOTHING."
-Maron.
www.sigzone.blogspot.com

Will the Left call him a Neocon...???

Will Protesters circle the White House...???

Or will the 3% fold up thier tents a join the 97%...???

I wonder if the Government is going to force you to buy Health Insurance..

That would be a change...

Folks bein forced to do the right thing..!!!

I can hang it on the wall next to my Reagan and Bush Collector Plates...

I wonder if Barack will send me a Thank You letter like Bush did..!!!

Don't you just love having something signed by The President of the United
States of America..!!!

I know I do..!!!!

This probably means that that even money in something like a TIAA annuity should be gotten out and put in something FDIC insured, right? Or not?

Terrorism on the New York Times Op-Ed Page
Friedman supports civilian suffering as "education"
http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=3679

It is sooooooo 3% to think Bush, Rove, Cheney or anyone else has broken any laws...

It ranks right up there with Bush stole the election...

Twice....

Hahahahahahahahahahaha...

I'm gonna miss Good ol' George...!!!!

But I'm sure the 3% will be at Obama throat all too soon..!!!

Why are you being so in your face rude today?

Are they paying you more?

Microsoft considering 'significant' job cuts: WSJ

Microsoft Corp. is considering "significant" layoffs across various divisions that could be announced as early as next week, The Wall Street Journal reported late Wednesday.

The newspaper, in its online edition, said the Redmond, Washington, software giant was "seriously exploring significant work force reductions."

Citing "people familiar with its plans," the Journal said Microsoft was "considering layoffs across its various divisions," what it called "a rare occurrence for the world's largest software company."

"However, plans for the cutbacks are still in flux and Microsoft could end up finding alternative methods of reining in costs," the Journal quoted one unidentified source as saying.

The Journal said the number of potential job cuts was "likely to be far less than the 15,000 positions that have been rumored in recent weeks."

Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer declined in an interview with the Journal last week to say whether the company was planning layoffs, though he said the economic slowdown was forcing it to think seriously about cost-cutting moves.

"We're finding our right balance," Ballmer said. "When we find it, I'm sure we'll communicate that publicly."

http://rawstory.com/news/afp/Microsoft_considering_significant_j_0114200...

I am just commenting on the Outcomes we are seeing after the election...

Congress on Gaza...

Congress on Bush...

Obama on Taxes...

Obama on War...

Obama on Health Care..

Don't you find it interesting to see how things really work out...???

You can't be pro-waterboarding and pro-troops. To be so implies you think it's OK for our troops to be waterboarded. Right?

Israel continues to destroy itself...
The latest chapter in the Gaza crisis is the Israeli bombing of United Nations HQ in Gaza, because Israel is working hard to destroy any support it might have had or will have in the future. Ehud Olmert needs to go, period. He has already resigned, trying to avoid impeachment. Why is he still there?

http://www.atlargely.com/2009/01/israel-continues-to-destroy-itself.html

Goading is your game. You are a semi professional shit disturber. Sometimes your need to rile others grows more intense. Your shit disturbing becomes more sophomoric and silly, like it is today. Something is up with you. Why are you taking it out on the few folks who refuge here? Why are you such a goading, self aggrandizing asshole?

The mental patient might have a point.

Obama is quite possibly a Republican.

"If I had even a QUARTER of Dick Clark's money I would quit TODAY, and I would do NOTHING."
-Maron.
www.sigzone.blogspot.com

insurance-

I have been effectively "forced" for the past several years asshat!

If they want to force me de jure now, good luck to them getting blood from a stone!

Obama's pick for Treasury Secretary has some serious strikes against him -- especially when it comes to regulation.
(4 pages)
As president of the New York Federal Reserve Bank, Timothy Geithner often preached that gargantuan financial firms like Citigroup should be held to the highest regulatory standards to make sure they couldn't take on too much risk.

But when it came to supervising Citigroup in recent years, the record shows that the New York Fed eased the reins as the company blew billions on subprime mortgages and other risky deals that ultimately forced the biggest bank rescue in U.S. history
http://www.alternet.org/workplace/119871/how_citigroup_unraveled_under_g...

"If you whistle while you're pissing, you have two minds, where one is quite sufficient. If you have two minds, you are at war with yourself. If you are at war with yourself, it is easy for an external force to defeat you. This is why Mong-tse wrote. "A man must destroy himself before others can destroy him."

or as good as a vacuous republican monster is able to look.

Kcin - are you sure that applies? Does it hold true if he whistles while pissing on himself?

What a Cheesy 1980s Teen-Flick Can Teach Us About the Bush Doctrine

By Brad Reed, AlterNet. Posted January 15, 2009.

From rejecting diplomacy to abusing prisoners to disdaining Europe, "Red Dawn" offers a blueprint for the Bush years.

Red Dawn, an M-grade action-thriller starring a young Patrick Swayze, has been justifiably touted by movement conservatives as the defining work of the right wing's artistic canon. In his infamously short-lived blog on the Washington Post Web site, RedState.org founder Ben Domenech praised Red Dawn as "the greatest pro-gun movie ever" because "they actually show the jackbooted communist thugs prying the guns from cold dead hands." Meanwhile, one of columnist Jonah Goldberg's readers was even more enthusiastic about the film, saying that thinking about it made him want to "grab a cold one and shout ‘Wolverines!' from my roof deck."
http://www.alternet.org/audits/119254/what_a_cheesy_1980s_teen-flick_can...

Oh brother! - SPTimes has an op-ed by Friedman today that made me want to puke - headlined: "Gazans enduring painful education " = P

http://www.tampabay.com/opinion/columns/article967665.ece

Wondering if it's the same 1 Taibbi's referring to...?(I couldn't finish reading it coz it was so infuriating)

Submitted by gloryoski on Thu, 01/15/2009 - 12:46pm.
...good luck to them getting blood from a stone!
-----
Even if they do, you can't afford the basic metabolic panel lab results.

I think Waterboarding was used on Terrorists....

And only a few at that...

But Terrorists are not covered in the Geneva Conventions..

Neither are saboteurs, spies, and traitors...

If you are expecting mercy from The Terrorists, you are over-working your Pretend..!!!

That can be clearly seen in the videos they make where they saw the heads off of folks ....

How quickly we forget....

We are at War....!!!

>>What a Cheesy 1980s Teen-Flick Can Teach Us About the Bush Doctrine

If you really want a good look at the neo-con mind set, watch the 1961 Irwin Allen movie, `Voyage to the bottom of the sea'. The Van Allen Belt catches fire and the Earth is doomed to "fry like a frito in hell."

Ignoring international and scientific consensus a wealthy American scientist/industrialist with his own private nuclear submarine takes matter in his own hands by nuking the Van Allen belt.

Of course the movie is filled with cold-war metaphors, disdain for Europeans and intellectuals.

Other high points include Barbra Eden go-go dancing (in high heels, no less!) on the nuclear submarine while Frankie Avalon sings...
*************************

"The Once and Future Rajah of Bhong."

For many months, the GEO600 team-members had been scratching their heads over inexplicable noise that is plaguing their giant detector. Then, out of the blue, a researcher approached them with an explanation. In fact, he had even predicted the noise before he knew they were detecting it. According to Craig Hogan, a physicist at the Fermilab particle physics lab in Batavia, Illinois, GEO600 has stumbled upon the fundamental limit of space-time - the point where space-time stops behaving like the smooth continuum Einstein described and instead dissolves into "grains", just as a newspaper photograph dissolves into dots as you zoom in. "It looks like GEO600 is being buffeted by the microscopic quantum convulsions of space-time," says Hogan.

If this doesn't blow your socks off, then Hogan, who has just been appointed director of Fermilab's Center for Particle Astrophysics, has an even bigger shock in store: "If the GEO600 result is what I suspect it is, then we are all living in a giant cosmic hologram." - NS

done in high heels?

I figure someone here will definitely know the answer.

No.
Mostly a critique of Friedman's sudden sham conversion to anti-consumerism and environmentalism.
But, yes, his latest bloodthirsty article does reveal his true colors.

To review quickly, the “Long Bomb” Iraq war plan Friedman supported as a means of transforming the Middle East blew up in his and everyone else’s face; the “Electronic Herd” of highly volatile international capital markets he once touted as an economic cure-all not only didn’t pan out, but led the world into a terrifying chasm of seemingly irreversible economic catastrophe; his beloved “Golden Straitjacket” of American-style global development (forced on the world by the “hidden fist” of American military power) turned out to be the vehicle for the very energy/ecological crisis Friedman himself warns about in his new book; and, most humorously, the “Flat World” consumer economics Friedman marveled at so voluminously turned out to be grounded in such total unreality that even his wife’s once-mighty shopping mall empire, General Growth Properties, has lost 99 percent of its value in this year alone.

So, yes, Friedman is suddenly an environmentalist of sorts.

What the fuck else is he going to be? All the other ideas he spent the last ten years humping have been blown to hell. Color me unimpressed that he scrounged one more thing to sell out of the smoldering, discredited wreck that should be his career; that he had the good sense to quickly reinvent himself before angry Gods remembered to dash his brains out with a lightning bolt.

Submitted by Chubby Bubba on Thu, 01/15/2009 - 1:23pm.
`Voyage to the bottom of the sea'.
-----
On a completely unrelated note but for the shared noun in the titles, I still have fantasies about removing the antibodies from Raquel Welch's breasts in Fantastic Voyage.

I don't know about go-go dancing and high heels, but high heels and nuclear subs don't mix...
*************************

"The Once and Future Rajah of Bhong."

maybe there's something to this *poof* thing...

have to rent them film. still fantasize about keeping a women in bottle to bust-out when needed

i'm holding back regarding existence and the measurement of man. They are reserved out of decorum in broad daylight.

Seriously loose fittings....

Back to the halodeck...I've got the "up to my ass in work" simulation scenario running at the moment....

Israel shells Gaza U.N. warehouse, hospital, news bureaus

Another strike hit several high-rise buildings, including one that houses the Thomson Reuters news offices. The Associated Press reported that gunfire struck its office in a separate building.

In response to the strike on media offices in Gaza City, the Foreign Press Association in Israel denounced Israel's "unconscionable breaches" and urged members not to distribute or broadcast photos or video that the Israeli military gave them until there was a formal apology.

Since early November, Israel has imposed a near-blanket ban on international reporters entering Gaza, a decision that the press association, including McClatchy, is challenging.
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/world/story/59768.html

Thomas Friedman is not a president, a pope, a general on the
field of battle or any other kind of man of action. He doesn’t actually
do anything apart from talk about shit in a newspaper
-----

Oh so true Sam. George Will is of the same ilk. Other than throwing bombs from their ivory towers,they don't do a damn thing. It has always been amazing to me- that we seek expert advice from those whose views of the human race- comes from avoiding and degrading humanity. Jonathan Kozel has every right to write about inequality and poverty. After all, he move from Harvard Square to the Hood to write his book. But you won't see him pontificating in mainstream media. Real experts aren't invited.

Let's face it, the Will's & the Friedman's are cowards. We all know it! They resort to conservatism or fake ideology- because it protects them from the truth about themselves. Their source of power is the powerful. To relate with the rest of us, is too difficult. That pat on the head from their rich masters is what they seek. The proverbial Uncle Toms, they are.

Wanted: Better Press
A Reader writes in ...

From the WashPost homepage comes a vivid illustration of the opportunities and challenges facing the new administration:
"Adviser's Plan Would Alter Financial System: A top Obama adviser proposes measures that would dramatically expand government control over the free market in the United States."

The article itself details a report from a Group of 30 panel chaired by Paul Volcker, not from the Transition. It does, indeed, call for a thorough regulatory overhaul, including limiting the size of banks so they won't be too big to fail. But the entire point of the report is that we presently do not have a functioning free market. Insisting upon transparency, accountability, and oversight is the necessary precondition for restoring the health of the free market.

I expect this kind of distortion from AEI and Cato. But the panicked press reaction to this proposal helps explain why Obama seems so intent on retaining the capacity to communicate directly with the public. Even with the financial world teetering on the brink, the prospect of Change is deeply frightening to its denizens. This is going to get interesting.

--Josh Marshall

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2009/01/wanted_better_press.ph...

Were Geithner's unpaid taxes errors or cheating?

He hasn't explained publicly, but in private, apparently his pitch is simply that the tax code is complex, especially for the self-employed. His backers say that these were simply honest mistakes.

"This is an example of the average taxpayer doing his own return..."
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/227/story/59703.html

"Average" indeed--

Cheating Uncle Sam

America's tax cheats come disproportionately and overwhelmingly from the ranks of America's rich.

Back in 2005, IRS officials released a major new report on the "tax gap," the difference between what Americans owe in federal income tax and what they actually pay. The next year, an IRS update to the data in the original analysis put that gap at a stunning $345 billion a year.

But left unclear in this IRS data dump: Who exactly is cheating at tax time?

Now we know.

America's tax cheats, says an analysis of IRS data that surfaced last week, come disproportionately and overwhelmingly from the ranks of America's rich.

Americans who make between $500,000 and $1 million a year underreport their incomes by a whopping 21 percent. That's triple the 7 percent "misreport" rate of taxpayers who make between $30,000 and $50,000 and well over double the 8 percent cheating rate by taxpayers between $50,000 and $100,000.
http://www.alternet.org/workplace/105085/cheating_uncle_sam/

Joe the new Treasury Secretary and Joe the Plumber both tax cheats.

Minnesota Ballot High-Jinks: One Man's Story
By Eric Kleefeld - January 15, 2009, 11:27AM
Meet Dennis Peterson, a retired engineering consultant from the Democratic stronghold of St. Louis County, Minnesota, whose absentee ballot was rejected through an apparent clerical error. He voted for Al Franken, and he's now a plaintiff in the new class-action lawsuit from 64 Minnesotans who are seeking to get their votes counted.

Peterson lives in a Democratic bastion, he's donated to Dem state legislative candidates, and he's attended the local Democratic caucuses. It turns out the Coleman campaign vetoed the inclusion of his ballot, under the state Supreme Court's controversial decision to give both campaigns this power over wrongly-rejected ballot envelopes.

"St. Louis County was heavily Democratic. They probably tried to reject every ballot they could," Peterson told Election Central, as he's worked to figure out his situation. "And they had two months to research this thing, so they could probably figure out who was a Democrat."

And likewise, Team Franken had an obvious incentive to track him down and help him.

In late October, Peterson drove 50 miles from his rural home to the courthouse. He submitted an absentee ballot application, then on the spot was given an absentee ballot that he then filled in and handed right back. "Part of the reason I did that was to make sure I did it right," Peterson explained to us.

But this past weekend, Peterson says, he was contacted by the Franken campaign and informed that his vote was never counted, and they invited him to join in as a plaintiff on the class-action lawsuit. "I didn't bother to ask them how they knew I probably voted for them," said Peterson, "though I did tell them off the bat that I did."

The county later told Peterson that the rejection of his ballot had been a clerical error. When the Coleman campaign vetoed Peterson's ballot, their stated reason was that they didn't think his signature was genuine. Peterson finds this baffling: "I had my signature signed in front of the deputy registrar, and I had just showed her my driver's license. This was not a reasonable objection."

So let's ponder this: When the wrongly-rejected absentees ballots were being sorted through, how much did the Coleman and Franken camps know about the votes that they were shooting down? How many problems did the state Supreme Court create by giving the campaigns this power?

And looking further ahead, Coleman also has a list of about 650 rejected envelopes that he wants to be put into the count, and which the local officials around the state still insist should be kept out. Just how much info does he have about those people? And what does the Franken camp know about their own list of rejected ballots, which they're prepared to fight for if it comes to this?

We often say that every vote counts. But this race teaches us that when an election happens in which every vote truly does count, we're all in trouble.

http://tpmelectioncentral.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/01/minnesota_ballot...

US suspends munitions delivery to Israel

The Pentagon has suspended the delivery of a shipload of munitions to Israel after international concern that it could be used by Israeli forces in Gaza.

The German-owned cargo vessel, Wehr Elbe, under charter by the US Military Sea­lift Command, is currently in Greek waters with its transponder tracking turned off to prevent its location being identified.

The Wehr Elbe, owned by the Hamburg company Oskar Wehr, arrived outside the Greek port of Astakos on 1 January, where it was due to transfer its 1,000 containers to another vessel for delivery to Ashdod in Israel.

But after a two week stand-off, amid local protests in Greece, it moved out into the Mediterranean two days ago and disappeared off tracking websites.

He said the ship's journey had been delayed due to "safety concerns" about unloading the cargo at Ashdod and that other arrangements were being made by the Military Sealift Command's European office in Naples
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jan/15/pentagon-munitions-israel-ga...

Heat wave!!!

Hi bloggerites. 'nando. Alice. Guys. How's it goin'?

Typical American worker here, been going since 8:30, 1 break that almost left me frost-bit, and so far, no lunch.

But, thanking God for employment!

My husband says I should give 'em hell about breaks and lunch and stuff. I say, nah, I enjoyed the raise too much for that...

Difficult to believe:
Submitted by ghettodefender on Thu, 01/15/2009 - 2:30pm
-----
There's got to be a catch!

they are making the case that a methane producing microb is at work.

Wait till those microbes find out they are a halogram...

Good afternoon Annette.

United Arab Emirates and US sign nuclear cooperation pact
• UAE says it seeks technology for energy not weapons use
• Bush faced congressional opposition to agreement

The United Arab Emirates took a major step today towards becoming the first Arab country to acquire a nuclear capability, a move that could prompt other states to seek to join the club and fundamentally alter the balance of the power in the region.

The UAE embassy in Washington confirmed today the US secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, was scheduled later in the day to sign a nuclear cooperation pact with her UAE counterpart, Sheikh Abdallah Bin Zayid Al Nahyan, at a ceremony at the state department.

The pact had been repeatedly delayed because of protests by members of Congress that this could be dangerous, accelerating nuclear proliferation and adding to the volatility in the region.

It will be one of the last acts of the Bush administration, in defiance of concerns raised by Congress.

Arab countries having reactors within the next decade would mean stockpiles of nuclear material accumulating in the region. One estimate is there would be enough to build between 1,000 and 2,000 nuclear bombs.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jan/15/uae-united-arab-emirates-nuc...

Damn those Martian Cows....

...and that the US said they will find another way to get the weapons there..

yea, I smell bs. The "war" is over, or we're just laying low.

:)

But is this still the "beginning of the year rally?"

Whereat did ya hear that Alice?

Meanwhile, the US has been forced to cancel a weapons shipment to Israel after the Greek government refused to allow it to pass through its ports. The US says it will seek an alternative site.

http://www.democracynow.org/2009/1/15/headlines

... that Blago is selling freakin' hot chocolate at $10,000 a cup.

From today's RedEye Chicago Twitter ...

or just have a smoke?

911 911 911 911 911, and, in conclusion, 911.

Stand your ground Holder. Fuck these blood thirsty idiots.

assume that agressive techniques will give you accurate information, would you use it then?

Happily Eric just laughed at him.

Sounds pretty cool for a guy who reminds me a little of a skinny dolphin.

pretty cool. No real conflict there.

While Still Moving Forward

By Arianna Huffington, Huffington Post. Posted January 15, 2009.

Yeah, that's one pretty cool lil' dolphin.

Senate approves wilderness expansion in 9 states
2 hours, 23 minutes ago
WASHINGTON - The Senate has approved a bill setting aside more than 2 million acres in nine states as protected wilderness.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090115/ap_on_go_co/congress_wilderness;_ylt...

FDA pledges openness on gene-altered products
18 minutes ago
WASHINGTON - Federal health officials Thursday pledged a new, open process for approving drugs and foods from genetically engineered animals.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090115/ap_on_he_me/gene_altered_animals;_yl...

Children's health debate moves to Senate
2 hours, 34 minutes ago
WASHINGTON - Legislation that would increase spending for children's health care has lost support from some key Senate Republicans, but they acknowledged that they probably can't do much to block the effort.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090115/ap_on_go_co/children_s_health_senate...

Holder pledges to review case against Schlozman
Thu Jan 15, 12:06 PM ET
WASHINGTON - If confirmed as attorney general, Eric Holder says he'll review the decision not to prosecute a former Justice Department official for making false statements to Congress.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090115/ap_on_go_co/holder_confirmation_schl...

Yay flipper!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QpBnHtGUKs0

near Manhattan. It's a US Airways plane.

My nephew is a pilot for US Airways. Now I'm worrying.

Re: MSNBC

Hopefully he's OK and will call someone in the family soon to let you all know.

Thank goodness. although I do feel bad for the passengers and crew.

It was a US Airways Airbus From La Guardia to Charlotte NC.
Ran into a flock of geese. engine trouble. 146 passengers 5 crew members. Seems everyone is alive.

House to seek $825 billion in economic stimulus

Tucked into the "American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan" is $650 million that would continue a program that helps consumers buy converter boxes so their televisions still work after February 17 when the switch is made to crisper digital signals from analog.
http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSTRE50E4P020090115?pageNumber=...

If you can't read it, here's the url:

http://news.yahoo.com/edcartoons/jeffdanziger;_ylt=AtDcF2eMfzUy3ZXh7Wfl4...

Plane Crashes Into Hudson River

http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/01/15/plane-crashes-into-hudson-r...
Plane Crashes Into Hudson River
By Ken Belson
4:05 p.m. |

Boats are converging on a USAirways plane that is mostly submerged in the Hudson River off the West 50’s of Manhattan.

According to Channel 4 television news, the plane, USAirways flight 1549, took off from LaGuardia Airport at 3:26 p.m. was bound for Charlotte, N.C. and had 146 passengers and 5 crew members. The plane, according to the news report, may have hit a flock of birds. The pilot tried to return to the airport when the plane fell into the Hudson.

Television reports show several boats around where the plane, an Airbus A320, was in the water. New York Police Department divers dove into the water to assist with the rescue as plane floated southbound on the river, possibly due to the tidal direction.

The divers were dropped into the water from helicopters overhead, police officials said. Some passengers were able to free themselves from the plane. They could be seen on the exterior in televised reports.

Some passengers being plucked from the frigid water were being taken to the Circle Line piers nearby at West 42nd Street. It was less than 20-degrees in New York City at the time. Fire and police rescue crews were rushing to the water.

One witness interviewed by Channel 4 said he saw the plane decending steadily without its landing gear down.

For a live video link of the rescue efforts, see:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/22887506#22887506

We would like to hear from witnesses who saw the plane go down. Call our Metro Desk at 212 556 1533.

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

"The Once and Future Rajah of Bhong."

That's scary that geese can do that to a plane though.

My Nephew did call his dad who called me. What a relief.

There are not too many places to crash land in NYC and not kill anyone.

Amazing.

The football players were killed by bombing raids while in their own homes. The most prominent player was Palestinian national team member Ayman al-Kurd, who was killed alongside his three children.

...

There were two more rocket strikes on hospital around lunchtime, one went through the hospital wall into the pharmacy, the other hit the neighbouring cultural centre and medics went to put the fire out there.

One family were crying on the hospital stairs - they had fled their home in fear, but the Israeli snipers shot at them, and got the father in the leg, and one daughter with the bullet going through one cheek and out the other. Two medics went to get the other daughter, but more families were out in street trying to flee to the hospital, with grown men crying in fear. Many men had been taken from flats leaving only women & children. (Israeli) snipers and (Palestinian) fighters are active in the area too. No co-ordination was possible with Israeli forces. 500 people were got to safety with white flags, with people in Israel phoning through to government and it was press released that an international (the blogger) was present. It seems that this made the difference and though the army kept firing in the vicinity, not actually on people at that time.

There was not enough space in the hospital for all the terrified people, and a few Red Cross people arrived and were talking about a walking evacuation co-ordinated with Israeli army, with two ambulances for the people who couldn’t walk. People were being evacuated to an UNRWA school, but it’s next to continuing explosions and a massive cloud of black smoke near, from burning medical supplies & fuel tanks in the UN HQ compound. Many people went to other places in the end.

Blogger heading back to hospital now. Another update later, phone networks willing.

14.45 UK time - phones still down
Still no phone contact with the blogger - we will post something as soon as we hear.

1:05 pm GMT/15:05 Gaza time:
The phone network there is still not working, so no news I’m afraid of what’s happened. Will let you know when I hear anything.

9:45 am GMT/11:45 Gaza time:
Families from neighbouring buildings trying to run to safety to hospital from fire & gunfire. Most staff wearing masks due to fear of phosphorous gas attack.

9:04 am GMT/11:04 Gaza time:
fire out window 10 yards from babies in incubators, putting out fire with pots and pans as hose does not reach.

8:51 am GMT/10:51 Gaza time:
a rocket hit the back of the hospital, where there are only houses. A fire has started. Doctors are running to put it out. A second rocket hit the same point. Doctors are running back to care for their patients & away from the rockets.

7:26 am GMT/9:26 Gaza time:
Al-Quds hospital now has army outside, snipers next door, 50 hits near us during the night and 4 hits to us. Fire in apartments behind. Wounded kids near who we can’t collect though would like to ask if I can help with this.

Al-Quds hospital, Gaza City, located in the Tel al Huwa neighbourhood of Gaza, has been under attack by the Israeli army since 1:30 AM.

“Israeli snipers are shooting at families attempting to get to the hospital. They are frightened and have no where to go. At least two families have been shot at now, children have been wounded.”

“The hospital has received over 150 calls for help from people including many children in the surrounding area who have been wounded and are in desperate need of medical care. The Israeli army has surrounded the hospital and no one is able to get in or out.”

Plane crashes into Hudson River
Submitted by toniD on Thu, 01/15/2009 - 3:44pm.
-----
Thus far it appears to me that it was a controlled landing in the river.

The difference between crashing in a river and a controlled landing in a river is huge. If you ever have the choice, choose the latter.

?

Submitted by cent on Thu, 01/15/2009 - 4:13pm.
There are not too many places to crash land in NYC and not kill anyone.
------
The offices of Lehman Brothers would be a good choice.

off the bone?

Removing some doubt about her intentions to run for governor in 2010, Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas) has transferred nearly her entire federal campaign account to her gubernatorial exploratory committee. - The Hill

It's the battle of the perfect haired GOP morons. Hutchinson would beat Rick Perry today. This is going to be fun to watch. She's going to take his nutz off.

I saw your name on line and I wondered if you knew about Baker's Dozen. The AZ State library has set up an online learning site for librarians about Web 2.0. It's at www.bakersdozenarizona.wetpaint.com

that..thanks for the lead....I like taking the free web seminars and classes and stuff..

the plane....Hudson River, at midtown? It will probably just dissolve.

nobody sends me chorizo...

the rich get richer...
*************************

"The Once and Future Rajah of Bhong."

Cease Fire Now in Gaza!

It’s Time to End the Violence in the Middle East—Once and for All
Convene an International Middle East Peace Conference to facilitate a lasting and just settlement for all parties.

The world’s attention is focused on the Middle East for a fleeting moment. Let’s seize this opportunity to insist on an end to this struggle in all its dimensions.

A Call for Lasting Peace

President-elect Obama: When you become president, please call for an immediate CEASE-FIRE in GAZA and for an International Peace Conference to implement a fair and lasting solution to all aspects of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The solution must also address the conflict between Israel and other states in the region. The international community must stop the violence and terror against Israeli civilians and against Palestinian civilians in Gaza and the West Bank. The international community must also stop the hidden but persistent violence of the Occupation itself.

Such a solution would be based on the following conditions:

a. The creation of an economically and politically viable Palestinian state (roughly on the pre-1967 borders, with minor border modifications mutually agreed upon between Israel and Palestine).
b. The withdrawal of Israel from the Golan Heights, and simultaneously the full and unequivocal recognition by Palestinians and the State of Palestine and all surrounding Arab states of Israel’s right to exist. Meanwhile Israel must offer full and equal rights to all of its non-Jewish citizens. Preferential treatment for Jews should exist only with regard to immigration, and that must be phased out when anti-Semitism in the world has disappeared. The same preferential treatment for Palestinians should exist in the Palestinian state as long as they face discrimination, reduced rights, or threats to their safety in other parts of the world.
c. The creation of an international consortium to provide generous reparations for Palestinians who have lost homes or property from 1947 to the present, and generous reparations for Jewish refugees from Arab states from 1947 to 1967.
d. The deployment of a long-term international peacekeeping force to separate Hezbollah and Israel in southern Lebanon and northern Israel, to ensure demilitarization of the Golan Heights, to protect Israel and Palestine from each other, to police the borders and the corridor that will need to be established linking Gaza with the West Bank, and to protect both Israel and Palestine from other forces in the region that might seek to control or destroy either state. In addition, treaty agreements must be made with the United States and other Western states to protect both Israel and Palestine from any assault by other countries (e.g. Iran, Pakistan, China, or Russia).
e. The quick imposition of robust sanctions against any party that refuses to sign or that violates these agreements.

It would be in the interests of Israel, the Palestinians, the Arab states, the Jewish people, the United States, and the world if this solution could be imposed on the parties now. It breaks our hearts to see the suffering of the Israeli people, the Palestinian people, the Lebanese people, and others in the region when we know how unnecessary it is. The basic issues can be resolved. No matter how maximalist the fantasies are on each side about eliminating their perceived enemies, and how enticing they seem when people feel powerless in any other way to stop the violence and oppression, the truth is that the majority of the people on all sides of the struggle would embrace peace if they thought it could be established in ways that provided for genuine security from military assault and terrorism for everyone, real justice for Palestinians, and acknowledgment of the wrongs that have been done to each side as a first step in healing the humiliations and huge psychic wounds suffered by Arabs and Jews throughout their histories.

A New Spirit of Openheartedness and Reconciliation

We know that no political solution can work without a change in consciousness that minimally includes an openheartedness and willingness to recognize the humanity of the other, as well as repentance and atonement for the long history of insensitivity and cruelty each side has shown toward the other side.

All sides must take immediate steps to stop the discourse of violence. Members of each side must stop the demeaning of the other in their media, their religious institutions, and their school textbooks and educational systems. They should implement this by creating a joint authority with each other and with moral leaders in the international community. The joint authority must be able to supervise and, if necessary, replace those in positions of power in Jewish, Islamic, and Arab societies who continue to use the public institutions of the society to spread hatred or nurture anger at the other.

Once the other parts of a lasting peace have been set in place, we call upon the parties to this struggle to launch a Truth and Reconciliation Commission, following the model used in South Africa.

We Affirm the Sacredness of All Human Beings

President Obama, your presidency might well be the last chance we in the advanced industrial societies have to avert international catastrophe (either environmental or nuclear). To do so, our way of dealing with the world must model something else besides brute military might, economic self-interest, and indifference to the well-being of others. If not now, when?

It is time to overcome national chauvinism and arrogance. Instead we must build ethical and spiritual solidarity among the people of the world. Our well-being depends on the well-being of everyone else on the planet. So we need to build and strengthen those international institutions that can foster this sense of solidarity, which is the necessary foundation for global peace, social and economic justice, and ecological repair of the planet.

A Domestic and Global Marshall Plan—Starting with Israel/Palestine

The self-described “realistic” version of global politics asserts that we live in a world in which our safety can only be achieved through domination because others are always seeking to dominate us first. Of course, when we act on this assumption, it becomes self-fulfilling.

We propose, instead, a strategy of generosity—to act on the assumption that people have an enormous capacity for goodness and generosity (without negating the truth that certain conditions promote fear, anger, and hatred, which sometimes are expressed in horribly destructive ways). For the United States and other G-8 countries, we call for a domestic and global Marshall Plan: for each of the next twenty years, the United States and other G-8 countries should dedicate between 1 percent and 2 percent of their Gross Domestic Product to eliminating hunger, homelessness, poverty, inadequate health care, and inadequate education both at home and around the world, to be paid for by a tax on international financial transactions and a reduction in the military budgets of these countries. We’ve developed the details of a domestic and global Marshall Plan at www.spiritualprogressives.org.

If done in a way that emphasizes caring and solidarity, and not just the money, this strategy of generosity can help heal the angers and feelings of humiliation and abandonment that have been part of the psychological legacy that has made it easier for haters to recruit people into acts of terror or into extremist and fundamentalist consciousness. Just as a domestic Marshall Plan will help build a new sense of solidarity and hope in our country, so a global plan beginning in the Middle East (a plan that you, President Obama, introduce as part of the International Peace Conference) would reduce tensions there, not only by reducing physical suffering, but also by showing the people of the area, as well as people around the world, that selfishness is finally being challenged by a spirit of love and caring.

Israel’s security would be greatly enhanced if the money spent on enforcing an occupation and protecting West Bank settlements went instead toward building a prosperous Palestinian economy. The “cynical realists” claim that others are entrenched in their hatefulness, and that war is the only way to confront them. This kind of thinking has led to 5,000 years of people fighting wars in order to “end all wars”—and it has not worked. It’s time now to try a new strategy of generosity, both economic generosity and generosity of spirit. As stated above, there will first have to be a transitional period in which real military protections are available to people on all sides of the struggle. But by beginning now to simultaneously commit our economic resources and change the way that we talk about those whom we previously designated as “enemies,” we can begin the long process of thawing out angers that have existed for many generations. Precisely at this moment, when our global economic meltdown requires a fundamental rethinking of how we’ve organized our global economy, we can now shift the funds from military spending and other wasteful production toward building a sustainable global reality. You, President Obama, could be the leader who teaches Americans this new way to understand America’s self-interest.

Nothing can redeem the deaths and suffering that all sides have faced in this struggle for the past 120 years. But this very moment could also be the time in which the human race realizes the futility of violence and comes together not only to impose a lasting solution for the Middle East, but also to recognize that our own well-being depends on the well-being of everyone else on the planet. The International Middle East Peace Conference should be structured to achieve this end. In short, it should have an explicit psychological and spiritual dimension and a visionary agenda.

Unrealistic? Not at all. What has proved unrealistic time and again—whether we are talking about U.S. policy in Vietnam and Iraq, or Israeli and Arab policies in the Middle East—is the fantasy that one more war will put an end to wars. The path to peace must be a path of peace.

Signed by:

http://www.spiritualprogressives.org/article.php?story=gaza_text

I've asked you for an address twice.

Well, at least they won't have to worry about recovering
Submitted by cent on Thu, 01/15/2009 - 4:32pm.
the plane....Hudson River, at midtown? It will probably just dissolve.
------
cent, you are a man after my own heart:

In the face of disaster, we form an orderly line toward the nearest cheap joke.

Bite me Chubby
Submitted by Fernando on Thu, 01/15/2009 - 4:38pm.
I've asked you for an address twice.
------
The one I got was illegible. There's that to consider.

Interested Chubbs?

Va. company recalls peanut butter nationwide

Salazar Vows to ‘Clean Up Mess’ at Interior Dept. - NYT

These were the clowns having sex in the conf rooms. They had a different definition for Break Room Live.

>>I've asked you for an address twice.

didn't I email it to you? I'm sure I did when we talked about aquarium cleaners...

but no biggie, I'll just slowly waste away from chorizo-deficiency.

I don't mind...
*************************

"The Once and Future Rajah of Bhong."

Maybe not so different, depending on your definition of foreplay. :O ;P

I even use coupons...

Hey man, times are tough, ya know? :)

- MSNBC

Water, a requirement for life, bursts onto the stage in a gigantic cosmic flood.

let there be light... my ass!

Overwhelming Israeli support of Gaza op

By ETGAR LEFKOVITS

The Israeli military operation against Hamas in Gaza enjoys the overwhelming support of Israeli Jews despite the loss of civilian life in the Hamas-run territory, a survey released Wednesday showed.

An IDF reservist checks his weapon as he and others stand near the Gaza border.
Photo: AP

Slideshow: Gaza op, day 20 A whopping 94% of the public support or strongly support the operation while 92% think it benefits Israel's security, according to the Tel Aviv University survey.

The poll found that 92% of Israeli Jews justify the air force's attacks in Gaza despite the suffering of the civilian population in the Strip and the damage they cause to infrastructure.

definition.

Bush, Obama, Congress, and the Israeli Public blame Hamas...

So who blames Israel..... The 3%....

So who blames the United States...... The 3%....

Do you wonder why The 3% is The 3%....????

Bush to spin it with TV Farwell

Bush will give a farewell address to the nation Thursday night, billed by the administration as a chance to reflect on his tenure and welcome Barack Obama without fighting old battles one last time.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090113/ap_on_go_pr_wh/bush_farewell_address...

not covered in the definition of "source" from the other day because, while related (A for effort there), they actually denote three different things.

(Edit: Snark-above-my-pay-grade karma comes back to bite me again.)

Libraries a Cheap Refuge, But Top Target for Budget Cuts
Posted 1 hour, 29 minutes ago in Arts & Living, Business

Whether you’re looking for a job, or just a cheap respite from the horrors of the economy, the public library has become the place to be, the Wall Street Journal reports. But even as attendance swells, the same financial crisis that brings patrons has left many branches cash-poor. One North Carolina library has seen its carpeting deteriorate from a 25% jump in borrowers, but can’t afford to replace it.

Free internet access at many libraries is a draw for job seekers, as are books on employment and community seminars. And, as always, libraries can be a place for dreaming. “We just want to go to Hawaii,” an applicant for a library card said. “We don’t have a computer, so we’ll start coming here to find a job there.”

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123197709459483585.html

I wonder WTF is the matter with the 97%...which includes you....

retired...

...

a chance to reflect...? On what???

Vampires have no reflection.

Just STFU and fade away, George...before I get rude.

is still here,

and now it claims to be an Obama supporter,

so, so sad.

Is that an observation, or a command, Fernando?

Lighting farts in doors can be dangerous dude. Especially if you still have any of that black bean burger in your belly.

Proceed with caution...

We in the 97% know Hamas provoked this war...

Just like Bin Laden did in NYC...

If you protest by attacking civilians, you will pay the price...

There are better ways...

But Hamas wants war...

Don't they...???

So everyone should be happy...!!!

Obama is makin the 97% happy...

What's not to support...????

students who weren't studying the presidency shouldn't be allowed to watch the swearing-in ceremony. - WFAA Dallas

I deserve that one cent...

WH e-mail in "true emergency conditions"-Magistrate judge orders search of all White House computers

White House e-mail in "true emergency conditions"

Magistrate judge orders search of all White House computers, grants plaintiffs' request for inventories and preservation of evidence

For more information contact:
Meredith Fuchs/Tom Blanton - 202/994-7000
Sheila L. Shadmand - 202/879-3939

Posted: January 15, 2009

Washington, D.C., January 15, 2009 - The federal magistrate judge overseeing the White House e-mail litigation today said the issue had reached "true emergency conditions" with only "two business days before the new President takes office" and that "the importance of preserving the e-mails cannot be exaggerated," according to the court's Memorandum Opinion issued this morning along with an Order and posted on the National Security Archive website, www.nsarchive.org .

Magistrate Judge John Facciola formally ordered the White House to search all Executive Office of the President components' workstations and portable media for possibly missing e-mail -- enforcing yesterday's order from U.S. District Judge Henry Kennedy -- after government lawyers at a hearing yesterday represented that they would only search those EOP components that create federal agency records and leave out offices that create presidential records.

Today's order also granted plaintiffs' requests that a full inventory of all backup tapes and portable media containing White House e-mail be delivered to the Archivist of the United States and filed with the court, and that the full administrative record and all other evidence related to the White House e-mail be preserved under the custody of the Archivist.

"From the outset, the White House has fought tooth and nail against having to preserve sources of missing e-mail as well as other evidence relating to this case," said Sheila Shadmand of Jones Day, counsel for the Archive. "For the umpteenth time, this Court has commanded that they do so. We expect they will yet again object to the terms of these Orders, when instead they should be busy complying with it. The clock is running out."

http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/news/20090115/index.htm

7 States Sue Over Bush Rule on Health Workers (with religious, moral objections)

Seven states sued the federal government Thursday over a new rule that expands protections for doctors and other health care workers who refuse to participate in abortions and other medical procedures because of religious or moral objections.

Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal filed the lawsuit in federal court in Hartford on behalf of the states. They claim the federal rule, issued by the Bush administration last month and set to take effect Tuesday, would trump state laws protecting women's access to birth control, reproductive health services and emergency contraception.

Blumenthal said the regulations ''are flawed and defective'' and would ''unconstitutionally and unconscionably interfere with women's health care rights.'' Blumenthal said the rule ''shrouds the term abortion in new and unnecessary ambiguity'' and encourages medical providers to define it themselves and deny patients contraception, including emergency contraception for rape victims....

***

California, Illinois, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Oregon and Rhode Island joined Connecticut in the lawsuit, which seeks a court order blocking the new rule. Planned Parenthood of Federation of America Inc. and National Family Planning and Reproductive Health Association said they are filing separate, parallel lawsuits....

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2009/01/15/us/AP-Abortion-Rule-Lawsuits....

That law should be done away with asap!

Methane plumes spotted on Mars may be a sign of life
USA Today - 1 hour ago
-----
Why do I have the feeling that long-suffering wives are running NASA?

US Democrats introduce bill to curb card practices (to go into effect in 90 days after enactment)

WASHINGTON, Jan 15 (Reuters) - Democratic U.S. lawmakers said on Thursday they reintroduced credit card legislation aimed at curbing "unfair and deceptive" practices against consumers hit by unexpected rate increases and other fees.

The action comes almost one month after the Federal Reserve approved final rules to prohibit a number of highly criticized practices starting next year but lawmakers said the Fed rules failed to go far enough sooner to rein in the industry.

Maloney plans to reintroduce her "Credit Cardholders Bill of Rights" in the House of Representatives, which approved it last year.

"It is time that we give the power back to the consumer," Schumer said. The bill will help holders "by outlawing predatory practices and banning unannounced, unfair and deceptive fees and rate increases."

She is seeking to have the rules go into effect 90 days after enacted instead of a full year as the bill previously stated.

http://www.reuters.com/article/bondsNews/idUSN1551955120090115

that makes me sick....congress...puhleeze what a joke that is!

Such as?

The corporate forces that are looting the Treasury and have plunged us into a depression will not be contained by the two main political parties. The Democratic and Republican parties have become little more than squalid clubs of privilege and wealth, whores to money and corporate interests, hostage to a massive arms industry, and so adept at deception and self-delusion they no longer know truth from lies.

http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/20081229_why_i_am_a_socialist/

being elected by the people...

http://globalvoicesonline.org/2009/01/15/israel-arab-parties-banned-from...

Elections will be held in Israel on 10 February 2009, and the Central Elections Committee has voted to ban two Palestinian (Arab) political parties from participating. In this post we hear the reaction from bloggers within Israel and outside.

The Palestinian citizens of Israel (also known as Israeli Arabs) make up nearly 20 per cent of Israel's population. Of 120 seats in the Knesset (parliament), there are currently 12 Arab members (MKs), and seven of them belong to the parties that were voted to be banned: the United Arab List-Ta'al (UAL-Ta'al) and Balad. The Central Elections Committee, made up of representatives from major political parties, voted on a proposal put forward by two-ultranationalist parties based on an accusation that UAL-Ta'al and Balad were guilty of incitement, supported terrorist groups, and did not recognise Israel's right to exist. This follows harsh criticism by the parties of the attacks on Gaza, and the arrest of hundreds of Palestinian demonstrators in the last few weeks.

However, the parties intend to challenge the decision in the Supreme Court, and there is little chance the ban will be upheld. This has not stopped some bloggers expressing their anger.
...

OLoofa said so.....

I feel ya sista....

I actually thought this was an appropriate question to ask the guy that plays War Dog on the internet.

It fell on deaf ears.

hitting the engine of a plane

lol

the momentum around the president's goodbye speech

oh shucks just more bad luck

or maybe just a good occasion to remind people of 9/11, his crown achievement

a hologram.

about guns, jeez what mental midgets they are

just catching a little bit of it on the span replay, unfortunately missed most of it

I caught much of it.

I've spent most of my day watching that hearing and wondering what word or phrase to use for tonight's presidential address.

I think I'll use 9/11. It hasn't been used in a while and I think it's due.

trans. Of course if you want to be maybe slightly over-paranoid, you could say they decided he could act like a "hero" because Bush was probably going to pardon everyone anyway.

Maybe he doesn't have anything to say.

I can't wait to hear Bush's speech...

I just love when The President takes time to talk to the folks...

It's been a great run...

Bush changed the world as few men ever will...

Lucky he will be around for many years...!!!

not that i'd be watching, i'm already sorting through my movie library to select a watch for tonight to cover the void while all channels will be focused on the bastid

but i think 9/11 will come up because of what happened today, to wax poetic on the heroism of the humbl people, the ferry boat and tug boat operators, the pilot, the people of new york, so quick to come to the rescue

it really makes you wonder once again how it could have been so botched on that awful day when the norad was ordered to stand down or during katrina, when the rescue buses were ordered to turn back

ciao and good riddance

be around him tonight

just caught a glimpse of that blood sucking vampire negroponte in the wings, next to condoleeza

they are burying him on MSNBC.

It's like they are putting the casket of some villain in the ground.

Which of course it is.

go back to work M. and let your blood pressure "cool" down?
eye-roll!
I NEED TO BREW MORE TEA.

Alice, I got a Vet's appointment tomorrow morn for my new wee stray & if wee meow doesn't get caught in gear box or it I don't fall asleep waiting, again. YEA, Yippie to tears, to the Vet at 8:30am in "morn"...
{gosh I am crying even moreso lately, eek)
{but the little girl of 5 to 6 plus...weep'd to her mother, "But I am not being "dramatic", I REALLY FEEL THIS WAY."

--Vet bills grrr ugh grrr
*a wee poof*
Tea Party TIME [oh Fernando ;) also great pix of cosmos(I have a an ex-stray named after the cosmos)]

now icky bushrethug FAREWELL )barf)

The last speech, thank the gods and godesses!

and two

back to back tequila shots. it's like an alcohol waterboard...

Thanks for the pretty kitty get well wish!

The small, pathetic neocon puppet pleads with the nation to push his approval rating above 35%.

not-gonna-do-it

unbelievable

the air and water are cleaner too!

yippee!!!!

so out of sync with what he's talking about

tomorrow's gonna be another one of front pages in the papers with split screens of tics and squints and smirks splattered from coast to coast

I don't guess you 3%'rs get that.

Those children in Faluja needed that burning phosphorous to clean out their souls.

is a walking Psyche 101 text...

utterly D-E-L-U-S-I-O-N-A-L!

a lie in every sentence.

oh are they ever so subtle

Bush world there is nothing else

I just made goo in my pants.

Excuse me.
and... now he's gone :)

what a gruesome spectacle

thank gawd it was short

Freddie, Fannie Force Borrowers to Waive Legal Rights
Housing Advocates, Congressional Leaders Call Practice Abusive
By Mary Kane 1/15/09 11:36 AM

The waiver of legal rights is buried among a long list of requirements in loan modification agreements for delinquent borrowers seeking more affordable loans under the new loan program, which began on Dec. 15. Some experts say the waivers are problematic, because they could require a homeowner to give up all legal claims related to their mortgage, not just to the loan modification. And some consumer advocates were unaware of its inclusion until notified by TWI. They plan to bring the waivers to the attention of House Financial Services Chairman Barney Frank (D-Mass.), who has been trying to stop private lenders from using such waivers.

“I’m a little shocked by this, frankly,” said Julia Gordon, senior policy counsel for the Center for Responsible Lending, a research and policy organization that fights abusive financial practices and has pushed for more loan modifications. “I’m going to do my best to get rid of it.”

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac together own or guarantee some 31 million mortgages, or about 58 percent of all single family home loans. Both announced a foreclosure eviction freeze over the holidays to give the streamlining plan a chance to work. The freeze was set to expire on Jan. 9, but was extended to Jan. 31.

Under the program, high-risk borrowers at least three payments behind in their mortgages are eligible for the modifications. Servicers get paid $800 for each modification as well.

But also included in the Fannie agreement is a provision stating that “borrower has no right of set off or counterclaim or any defense to the obligations of the Note or Security Instrument.” The waiver is part of the borrower requirements that must be signed for the loan modification. Fannie Mae’s sample version is available on one of its websites; the Freddie Mac agreement, which has similar language, can be accessed only by servicers. The agreements were designed by Fannie and Freddie.

In plain English, the waivers mean a borrower can’t sue the lender who originated the mortgage if the loan modification goes bad, or for any other lending abuses concerning their loan, Gordon said. Such waivers are regularly required in the settlement of class action suits, but they haven’t been included as a matter of course in individual loan modifications agreements until lately. “I find this outrageous,” she said.

http://washingtonindependent.com/25765/freddie-fannie-force-borrowers-to...

20 minutes?

I know I did...!!!

There wasn't a dry eye in the house...

We can only hope President Obama can keep the folks as safe as President Bush has over the last seven years...!!!!

not watching.
I would have thrown a brick at it.

Radios are less expensive to replace.

...now fuck off!

It was evident he was reading it. And it was evident he wasn't feeling it.

Ding Dong, the witch is going, the wicked witch, the witch is going!

like 2 shots wasn't enough.

He can't even get to three....

He'll keep coming back every night until Tuesday and keep trying to make our opinions line up with his delusions.

Would you really put it past someone so completely insane?

Snotty McFelon would be on KO on this night 3 years ago?

Wow, the LAST Bush 'presidential' presentation. After Bush introduced all those human props, then he finished it up with something actually touching -- introducing the one who got him through the toughest times, his best friend, "This is him. Jim Beam."

18 hours

and 25 minutes

and the Asshole and

torture boy are bad memories.

)

Just found this. As good a time to watch it as ever...

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-223865000828471342

and when?

by killing a million people in the mid-east
G.W. B&$# has created 2 million people who
whould like to destroy america for killing their
family members.

By killing 200,000 in central america in the 1980's
R.Reagan created at least 400,000 people who would
like to destroy america for killing their family members.

By killing millions in South East Asia in the 1950's -
mid 1970's R. Nixion has created millions of people who
would like to destroy america for killing their family
members.

Each time the U.S. millitary kills 1 person in another
nation, at least 2 new "terrorists" are created.
Each human has a mother and father. = 2 people.

We are less safe wardog you dumb ass !

Better watch out for those Jap and German Terrorists!!!!

Oh and the North Vietnamese Terrorists...

And the Korean Terrorists....

Let's not leave out the Mexican Terrorists...

There has been War since the day man took his first breath...

And you are going to have winners and losers...

Ask Hamas...

Losers are always pissed...

Or dead.....

Seven years - No attacks..!!!

Pray for Obama..!!!

It's all up to him now...

Bush torture pardons expected
After torture admitted by Bush aide, lawyers brace for incoming pardons.

http://www.theage.com.au/world/bush-expected-to-pardon-those-with-tortur...

you are one pathetic yellow motherfucker WaDo...

what's the most you've ever sacrificed for the empty words you offer?

We all know the answer: Z-E-R-O.

Armchair warriors and the war mongering politicians they fellate are the most gutless and worthless assholes on the planet.

...thing... LOL LOL LOL

I'm left cold
new
Submitted by Fernando on Thu, 01/15/2009 - 8:22pm.

like 2 shots wasn't enough.

He can't even get to three....

...stil hahaha LOL LOL LOL

Hahahahahahahahahaha...

Temper, temper...

You mustn't Pop a Blood Vessel in your eye...!!!!

You better stick to Pretend....

You're not ready for the truth..!!!

Why don't you Pretend Rove is going to jail....

Hahahahahahahahahaha...

That's on of my Favs...!!!

thank goodness I recorded it and put it on replay.

darling, look. You crapped yourself again.

Go clean up.

Oh well, then do Bush is going to be Impeached....

That's a good one too...!!!

Tell me again about the Crime Family..!!!!!

Hahahahahahahahahaha...

Time is gettin short on your Pretend..!!!

She don't look so good.....

apparently you aren't done pooping yourself.

You made a puddle too. Hazmat comes to mind.

just not so made up. I like that.

You and I will never have a common understanding of existence.

I wish you well and only advise that you visit your dentist regularly and wash your bum.

You won't do it tonight, will you....???

How about Cheney doin the Perp-walk out of the White House...

Common...

Just a little....

It always brings a laugh...

you mean come on? It's so cute when your type starts speaking.

looks like a lot of the old timers showed up to comment on W's `buh-bye' speech...I was too busy yelling at my tv set to hit the refresh button.

video at eleven.
*************************

"The Once and Future Rajah of Bhong."

a bit. Her hair is down in her face and much less make up. She also looks like she did not get much sleep last night.

hahaha snicker yippee
Meanwhile.....
new
Submitted by 60th Street on Thu, 01/15/2009 - 9:05pm.

Dance'n Snoopy

{RE: YIPPIE & YIPPEE BTW Fernando is right - I was just make'n a "weak" "joke" :D :|:}

dyke up?

Didn't she just have that special meeting of liberal media folks with President-Elect Obama?

I wouldn't have been able to sleep either...

The power of accurate observation is commonly called cynicism by those who have not got it. ~ George Bernard Shaw

Democrats sneak Net neutrality rules into 'stimulus' bill

The House Democrats' $825 billion legislation released on Thursday was supposedly intended to "stimulate" the economy. Backers claimed that speedy approval was vital because the nation is in "a crisis not seen since the Great Depression" and "the economy is shutting down."

That's the rhetoric. But in reality, Democrats are using the 258-page legislation to sneak Net neutrality rules in through the back door.

The so-called stimulus package hands out billions of dollars in grants for broadband and wireless development, primarily in what are called "unserved" and "underserved" areas. The U.S. Department of Commerce is charged with writing checks-with-many-zeros-on-them to eligible recipients, including telecommunications companies, local and state governments, and even construction companies and other businesses that might be interested.

The catch is that the federal largesse comes with Net neutrality strings attached. The Commerce Department must ensure that the recipients "adhere to" the Federal Communications Commission's 2005 broadband policy statement (PDF)--which the FCC said at the time was advisory and "not enforceable," and has become the subject of a lawsuit before a federal appeals court in Washington, D.C.

One interpretation of the "adhere to" requirement is that a company like AT&T, Verizon, or Comcast that takes "stimulus" dollars to deploy broadband in, say, Nebraska must abide by these rules nationwide. (It's rather like the state of Nebraska demanding that a broadband provider filter out porn nationwide in exchange for a lucrative government contract.)

In addition, recipients must operate broadband and high-speed wireless networks on an "open access basis." The FCC, soon to be under Democratic control, is charged with deciding what that means. Congress didn't see fit to include a definition.

The Bush administration has taken a dim view of Internet regulations in the form of Net neutrality rules, warning last year that they could "inefficiently skew investment, delay innovation, and diminish consumer welfare, and there is reason to believe that the kinds of broad marketplace restrictions proposed in the name of 'neutrality' would do just that, with respect to the Internet." A report from the Federal Trade Commission reached the same conclusion in 2007.

In addition, a recent study from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce says that the absence of Net neutrality laws or similar federally mandated regulations has spurred telecommunications companies to invest heavily in infrastructure, and changing the rules "would have a devastating effect on the U.S. economy, investment, and innovation."

Now, perhaps extensive Net neutrality regulations are wise. But enough people seem to have honest, deep-seated reservations about them to justify a sincere discussion of costs and benefits--rather than having the requirements stealthily injected into what supposed to be an emergency save-the-economy bill scheduled for a floor vote within a week or so.

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-10144035-38.html?part=rss&subj=news&ta...

Palestinian sources told Ynet on Thursday evening that Israel and Hamas have agreed on all the general outlines of the Egyptian ceasefire initiative to end the fighting in Gaza.

According to the report, the sides have agreed on the truce, on the supervision of the smuggling issue, on the crossings and on lifting of the blockade imposed on the Strip.

According to the sources, the two sides are expected to agree on a ceasefire which will likely begin within 72 hours and last up to two weeks.

During this period of time, the parties will discuss the Israel Defense Forces' withdrawal from Gaza and the withdrawal's timing. Palestinian sources estimated that the pullback into Israel would be swift.

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3657085,00.html

if puffy under her eyes. Could be alergies or sinus problems. Cut her some slack!

By Lance Selfa
Haymarket Books, 2008

The countdown to George W. Bush’s final day in office put a smile on most progressive faces. As Jan. 20 rolls around, it’s hard to resist the urge to cheer the departure of one of the world’s chief warmongers. But will Barack Obama’s ascension mean anything beyond the symbolic, or will it be business-as-usual, at the behest of a more articulate, more likeable, head of state?

Lance Selfa has crafted a smart, readable history of the Democrats that reminds us of the party’s allegiance to capital. Despite forward-leaning spurts — the New Deal, the War on Poverty and the creation of programs such as food stamps, Medicaid, Medicare, Social Security and unemployment insurance — time and again we’ve seen Democrats capitulate on issues that matter, whether supporting militarism or slashing spending for human needs. “These Democratic betrayals are not primarily the result of unscrupulous politicians or office holders who sell out,” Selfa writes. “Rather, they are the inevitable outcome of a political institution that socialists have long described as a capitalist party that only pretends to be a friend of working people.”

The Democrats is at its best not just when analyzing Democratic foibles — and there are plenty — but when assessing how the party stifles dissent. Take trade unions. Selfa harkens back to the 1930s when militant strikes and on-the-ground activism swelled organized labor’s ranks from 2.7 million in 1933 to seven million four years later. “A remade Democratic Party was the vehicle Roosevelt used to absorb the rising labor movement within the confines of the existing political establishment,” Selfa continues. “By supporting the creation of Social Security and passage of the National Labor Relations Act of 1935, Roosevelt laid the groundwork for capturing the labor movement vote for the Democrats in 1936 and beyond.”

What’s more, labor leaders itching to enter the halls of power willingly sacrificed bellicosity and allowed themselves and their organizations to be co-opted. Labor honchos willingly agreed to nostrike pledges during World War II, and by the 1950s they lined up to sign anti-communist loyalty oaths. Indeed, for upwards of 60 years, organized labor has consistently championed Democratic politicians while rarely if ever challenging the status quo.

So what’s to be done? While it’s easy to conclude that the lesser of two evils is still evil, third-party efforts have repeatedly floundered, and despite Selfa’s plea for socialist alternatives to Republicrat rule, such alternatives have failed to materialize. Yes, Eugene Debs, Robert LaFollette and Ralph Nader won millions of votes when they ran — but they still lost.

Selfa criticizes efforts to change the Democratic Party from within — efforts promoted by the Democratic Socialists of America and Progressive Democrats of America — arguing that “the party of the World Bank, the CIA and the Vietnam War” will never allow substantive changes.
...

WASHINGTON, Jan 15 (Reuters) - A push by congressional Democrats to make good on Barack Obama's pledge to provide millions more American children with health care coverage has Republicans accusing them of breaking the president-elect's promise of bipartisanship.

Senate Finance Committee Republicans said legislation approved by the committee on Thursday that would expand a popular children's health insurance program violated a spirit of bipartisanship that went into earlier versions of the legislation.

"That spirit of bipartisan partnership for low-income children appears to be disappearing before our very eyes. It's being replaced with partisan exploitation" said Sen. Charles Grassley of Iowa, the top Republican on the usually collegial Finance Committee.

He called it "damn disgusting."

Grassley blamed Democratic leaders rather than committee Chairman Max Baucus, a Montana Democrat, for producing a bill that he said omits a number of items sought by Republicans including provisions aimed at preventing the government run program from "crowding out" private insurance plans.

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N15543384.htm

This little graphic helps a little--

http://www.slate.com/id/2195533/

I don't care about the "door" into which they "inject" it, especially since the "back door" isn't mine for once.

Kind of like Holder said something she expected to hear....

Nice to see the moral baseline is starting to return to something resembling normal.

Now we need to push it left.

THEN we can go back to the spontaneous orgasms. :)

Since this Middle East mess really does concern me, I do not just post screeds on Truthdig. I contacted the office of Senator Sherrod Brown, saying in effect, what a shameful business it is to find the Ohio Senator’s name as a co-sponsor of S. Res 10, the complete congressional cave-in to the Zionist lobby. Here is part of what he wrote to me in reply:

“Thank you for sharing your thoughts on the current situation in Gaza.

Israel has a right and a duty to defend its people from terrorism. For too long Hamas has used Gaza as a staging ground for terrorism, including the recent escalation of rocket launches against Israeli citizens, to the detriment of the Palestinian people. I cosponsored S. Res. 10, a resolution reaffirming support for the Israel-Palestinian peace process, because it states that right and asserts our concern about humanitarian aid and protecting civilian lives.”

There you have it folks. A United States Senator responding like some AIPAC programmed puppet. “Israel has a right and duty to defend its people from terrorism”. But I guess, according to the Senator, the Palestinians have no right to defend themselves against state sponsored terrorism? The utter deceit of S. Res 10, “reaffirming the Israeli-Palestinian peace process”, when in fact, the only peace truly being sought is that of putting all the Palestinian people into graves! But then, my good Senator Sherrod, offers this little nugget:
“I am deeply concerned by the growing number of civilian casualties.”

These people are insufferable. If anyone thinks the Democratic congress advocates for justice, please dear friends, think again.

Peace. It’s an action, not a concept.

on the fragile side.

I know it sounds dumb...but I worry about her sometimes.

We need her and KO to get to where we are going. The same way the thugs need Rush.

Repugs are disgusted and sad sad sad.

I like that little song. You don't hear that everyday.

If I were a lone gay liberal in a of nest corporatists, I'd bring all my own food, drink, shampoo, mousse, and make-up!

Air Obama: will new president swap Boeing for Airbus?

Airbus, based in Toulouse, is preparing to offer Obama an A380 superjumbo, its flagship aircraft and the world's largest passenger plane, to replace the ageing pair of Boeing 747s that currently do the job, it emerged yesterday. Tom Enders, Airbus chief executive, said the US was already thinking about new aircraft for the presidential fleet, and that it was "not completely absurd" to consider the superjumbo as an alternative.

Obama's transition team did not comment on the possible offer, but the A380 might also enable the new president to claim environmental points: although the 840-capacity plane is much bigger than the 747, which can carry around 500 passengers, Airbus claims the A380 is at least 25% more fuel-efficient and emits far fewer greenhouse gases.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jan/16/boeing-airbus-air-force-one

What if she wants you to see her worrying about other things?

Rachel is Rachel and I love her "made" or "wrecked" and she wasn't wrecked.

Rachel wears her funk on her sleeve.

I'm telling ya she has a heavy eye baggage night at least once a week. Think how hard she must work to produce all the high quality media she does. And then she commutes to and from MA.

Rush compared to who...????

Good Rachel. No spontaneous orgasm this time....
new
Submitted by cent on Thu, 01/15/2009 - 9:53pm.
Kind of like Holder said something she expected to hear....

Nice to see the moral baseline is starting to return to something resembling normal.

Now we need to push it left.

THEN we can go back to the spontaneous orgasms. :)

» ==============================

Waterboarding has been the line drawn in the sand.

Actually the ENTIRE Detainee System should be the torture line we MUST NOT CROSS because incarcerating detainees without charges indefinitely is PSYCHOLOGICAL TORTURE!

Psychological torture is given equal weight with physical torture in the Geneva agreements!

No they won't. Including public financing of elections which would usher in viable third party candidates.

Israel's crimes against humanity ARE UNACCEPTABLE!

STOP THE SIEGE. LIFT THE BLOCKADE.

Israel proves it's Militarism IS identical to U.S. Militarism!!!

CUT U.S. military funding. End U.S. funding of Israeli Militarism!

i hear you but i think thats an oxymoron for the current generation.

It is not enough to call for another ceasefire, or more humanitarian assistance. It is not enough to urge the renewal of dialogue and to acknowledge the concerns and suffering of both sides. If we believe in the principle of democratic self-determination, if we affirm the right to resist military aggression and colonial occupation, then we are obliged to take sides... against Israel, and with the people of Gaza and the West Bank.

The massacres in Gaza are the latest phase of a war that Israel has been waging against the people of Palestine for more than 60 years. The goal of this war has never changed: to use overwhelming military power to eradicate the Palestinians as a political force, one capable of resisting Israel's ongoing appropriation of their land and resources. Israel's war against the Palestinians has turned Gaza and the West Bank into a pair of gigantic political prisons.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jan/16/gaza-israel-petitions

...If they put the choice to you as a DTV PSA maybe....Or an AAR host suddenly mentioned the possibility.....Or the nightly news...Or KO RM or any of the other Dem media...

ol American COMPETITION?

Notice how Laura wore red?

Spotting, I guess.

Johannes Mehserle, who was videotaped shooting to death a Bart train passenger on a platform in Oakland, California, was arrested, returned to California, and charged with murder.

Watch for the Taser Defense. It appears Mehserle may claim he was reaching for his Taser and grabbed his gun by mistake.

Tasers are a lethal weapon of torture and this tragedy is an opportunity to protect other domestic civilian 'detainees' like Oscar Grant from being treated as if the police are -- alone and single-handedly -- capable of being police, torturer, judge, jury, and executioner all at one and the same time, any time.

Take away their Tasers. Take away their excuses for murder.

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

article here--

http://www.mercurynews.com/ci_11455856?source=most_emailed

to rolling back a lot of the problems in Congress.

That was something Obama promised early but has since vanished from the horizon.

It is an issue we can not let go of, and need to press in ALL the races we can.

"Pretend"?!

You dodged my question like the lily-livered poseur you've always been.

Again, what have you ever done that even resembles something that takes guts??

Are you a soldier? NO!

You're just another flaccid yammering chickenhawk who can't drum up enough sense to avoid the nonsensical Wario fantasyland you've cobbled together in your terrified little mind.

Weak

Just like your momma raised you.

Hopefully, Obama and the Dems won't back away from their talk about the need for public financing, but I'm sure they will-- They don't need it now being the majority. If we had real public financing, plus an end to media exclusion on minor party candidates from debates we would have immediate explosion of viable candidates. The funny thing is every time minor candidates are given a forum, even the Beltway pundits invariably say: "You know, you gotta love so and so. He's funny and actually makes some sense."

Hahahahahahahahahahaha...

That's a good boy...

Count to 10...

Take a deep breath...

Avoid that stroke...

Then go to the MRR Picture site....

Read em and weep...!!!!

You have a perfect record...

Always wrong... and late..!!!

Crimes of the 97%

http://www.slate.com/id/2195892/sidebar/2195972/

Although Dubya was slow to fulfill Poppy's assignment to take hold of Iraqi oil in wiggleproof contracts, Dubya didn't lose a moment seizing and cranking up the poppy production of Afghanistan!

Dubya can now count the profits of the new flood of street drugs which are appearing just in time for all the troops coming home from Iraq who will need to self-medicate away their physical and psychic pain!

You are going to be soooooooo disappointed...

Can you say Fitzmas II....

Obama is Part of That 97%..!!!

Just heard that on Democracy Now.

The Israelis are out-of-control Militarists who have no sense of right oor wrong whatsoever!

Lucille would have loved that post.

The horrible record of the miserable last eight years boiled down to a couple of pages.

You keep on deluding yourself buddy.

Here's all I need to know about ya:

?

This is nuts...and every Dem towing the AIPAC line is complicit in causing spontaneous amputation...BURNING FLESH RIGHT OFF OF THE BONES OF PEOPLE.....

It goes without saying that Bushco is fucking psycho....

However...

but I knew him as Kahn ... the first showing on Star Trek TV...and in other movies too Blessings /|\)0(
& Blessings to ...

*****

Yet when I hear about Gaza (constantly) I am in a totally helpless quandary ...

Chubby Bubba laid it down.

That bombing was definitely a big fuck you to the UN. The Israelis are out of their friggin minds.

There is a race here to see who will broker the peace in Gaza. A lot of Global clout is riding on it.

My money says Israel has no intention of letting the UN fix this mess. They will wait until Obama and Clinton are in position, and suddenly declare victory and start negotiating peace.

Hahahahahahahahahaha....

Well, let's just see who Obama sides with...

The 3%, Pretending they can Love the Terrorists to Peace...

Or Bush, Cheney, Hillary, and Biden...

Ready to fight and defend the United States...

Who knows, you might be right...!!!

Hahahahahahahahahaha....

Maybe President will follow You and Cindy to Candyland....

We will soon know...

Good Luck on that one..!!!

th.

-totally helpless quandary-

...

Iraq and EVERY OTHER GENOCIDE THIS COUNTRY PERPETRATES VIA IT'S GOVERNMENT AND COMPLICIT PEOPLE was bad enough...

so I can't possibly fathom ...

But....

There are terrorists everywhere!!! Waaaa!

Why do conservatives always piss their pants and then try and cover it up with everyone else's blood!?!

As if no one can see the giant stains.

Osama bin Laden one ups Bushco and instead of dealing with him they attack a feckless despot with no muscle and bomb millions of people into death and homelessness.

Now Israel does the same in Gaza. How many people have Hamas rockets killed and what is Israel's reaction??

Piss their pants and 1,000 bodies in a month plus white phosphorous burning death.

What utter pussies!

That says it all...

That is why Congress, Bush, Obama, and the Israeli People support this war...

Justifying Terrorism is a long, cold road...

Palestinians elected Hamas...

Hamas wanted this war...

While Iran sits back a pulls the strings...

Everybody got what they wanted...

My read:
Schwarzenegger delivers California on a platter to the Cheney-Bush Enron-supporting scammers. The 'Terminator' terminates our largest state economy. The debt Ahnold incurred in his initial acts as Governator has made the state budget impossible to meet.

California on the verge of collapse BY PLAN.

What comes on the scene on queue to 'save the day'?

DOMESTIC IMPERIALISM. Or rather call it Privatization!!!!!

First Destabalize (Enron Scam, Recall), then Invade (Ahnold), then send out the death squads (insane debt load), then Occupy (PRIVATIZATION of public entities, lands, utilities, etc.).

.

http://ltradio.blogspot.com/

Here's the press release, which just landed in my email box. As it looks, Maddow moves to mornings (for an hour) and Ron Reagan expands his show to 6-9P ET. Evidently, this will compliment her busy schedule, with the MSNBC show taking priority.

“The response to Ron Reagan’s one-hour program has been outstanding and we’re very happy to offer listeners, viewers, and readers even more of Ron’s perspective in 2009,” added Hess.

Sorry, that is as long as it was.

Is it three? I think it's three.
How many people have Hamas rockets killed ????

Did another Israeli die?

Really?

We usually hear about that.

animals..maybe that's why, SAM SEDER, that there is more eco-terrorism?

If I was shooting a rifle into your house every few days...

Would you measure the offense by how many folks got hit by the bullets..???

Or would the outrage of attack be your first concern...

And how many folks would have to go down before you took action...???

Defending Terrorism is a long, cold road...

I had to take that long post down. I'm surprised you all didn't yell at me for it.

As you may have noticed, there was a coding problem causing the whole blog to be tiny-texted.

Since the post was so very, very long and wading through the post to find where the missing `end font tag' belonged was a thing I wanted to avoid, I decided to just delete the whole post.
*************************

"The Once and Future Rajah of Bhong."

IMHO...

economic terrorism?

wha? What's a bazillion?

But it's the text version of the diagram at Slate, right?

Dr Ajjuri, Palestinian Assembly representative in Ireland, pointed out that Israel had ignored no fewer than 30 UN Security Council resolutions over the decades while annexing large swathes of the territory of others. "Gaza has been turned from a big prison into an abattoir, a slaughterhouse," he said.

"I apologise for the killing of 20 innocents," he added, pointing out that Israeli retaliation had killed 3,500 Palestinians -- and this before the opening of the current invasion.

Sinn Fein hurls Nazi smear at Shatter and Israeli ambassador

you were shooting at my house, I'd call a neighbor to poke over the fence and learn you some, dumb ass.

The point is it's not proportional.

Does she have Council on Foreign Relations ties?

s, than people who torture people..Sam Seder said it today...

A BAZILLION is the next number you should learn because that is the next US deficit AND the next US budget and the next US bailout.

War has nothing to do with Proportionality...

Hamas' only goal is war...

Their goal, as is Iran's is the destruction of Israel...

How do you think this will end...

One of the two will be destroyed...

Nothing proportional about that...

anyway...I don't really expect to see the Bush gang go to jail.

But that doesn't mean I don't believe they committed no crimes.

The deal is W's reign of moral relevatism --the upper class walk away from their crimes, while the lower classes get mandatory sentencing.
*************************

"The Once and Future Rajah of Bhong."

We should hope they design tight quarters for the gang in Eglin Federal Prison Camp, Club Fed. During a epidemic dysentery break out of course.

>>But it's the text version of the diagram at Slate, right?

yes it is. thanks for posting the diagram link.

I nearly did not follow it and when I saw all that good information, I wanted to share it.
*************************

"The Once and Future Rajah of Bhong."

I had to take that long post
Submitted by Chubby Bubba on Thu, 01/15/2009 - 11:35pm.
I had to take that long post down. I'm surprised you all didn't yell at me for it.

As you may have noticed, there was a coding problem causing the whole blog to be tiny-texted.

Since the post was so very, very long and wading through the post to find where the missing `end font tag' belonged was a thing I wanted to avoid, I decided to just delete the whole post.
*************************

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

Please, CB?

Malloy is really giving the bull-shit on the Fairness Doctrine. Of course he is thinking about his on job, not the security of this nation. The right wing has approxmiately 3,000 radio station. Progressives have 80. What fair about that?

By Noah Shachtman

Bloggers: If you suddenly find Air Force officers leaving barbed comments after one of your posts, don't be surprised. They're just following the service's new "counter-blogging" flow chart. In a twelve-point plan, put together by the emerging technology division of the Air Force's public affairs arm, airmen are given guidance on how to handle "trolls," "ragers" -- and even well-informed online writers, too. It's all part of an Air Force push to "counter the people out there in the blogosphere who have negative opinions about the U.S. government and the Air Force," Captain David Faggard says.

Over the last couple of years, the armed forces have tried, in fits and starts, to connect more with bloggers. The Army and the Office of the Secretary of Defense now hold regular "bloggers' roundatbles" with generals, colonels, and key civilian leaders. The Navy invited a group of bloggers to embed with them on a humanitarian mission to Central and South America, last summer. Military blogger Michael Yon recently traveled to Afghanistan with Defense Secretary Robert Gates.

In contrast, the Air Force has largely kept the blogosphere at arms' length. Most of the sites are banned from Air Force networks. And the service has mostly stayed away from the Pentagon's blog outreach efforts. Captain Faggard, who's become the Air Force Public Affairs Agency's designated social media guru, has made strides in shifting that attitude. The air service now has a Twitter feed, a blog of its own -- and marching orders, for how to comment on other sites. "We're trying to get people to understand that they can do this," he tells Danger Room.

The flow chart lays out a range of possible responses to a blog post. Airmen can offer a "factual and well-cited response [that] is not factually erroneous, a rant or rage, bashing or negative in nature." They can "let the post stand -- no response." Or they cancan "fix the facts," offering up fresh perspective. No matter what, the chart says, airmen should "disclose your Air Force connection," "respond in a tone that reflects high on the rich heritage of the Air Force," and "focus on the most-used sites related to the Air Force."

Despite the chart's sometimes-stiff language, former military spokesman Steven Field says he's "a fan." Field, who's been occasionally critical of the armed services' blog outreach efforts, tells Danger Room: "I've always thought that a military-like process would be a good bridge to connect the services with the blogosphere. There's a field manual for everything in the military, so this flow-chart presents online communications in a DoD [Department of Defense] friendly format."

One stipulation -- While it should be a guide of communications, it shouldn't become a ball-and-chain. Online comms require some level of nimble, on-your-feet response. As long as the Air Force doesn't use the "evaluate" phase to get approval from every Tom, Dick and Harry in the Pentagon, it should be a good tool.

"Now they just need to lift those damn IP [Internet Protocol] filters," Field adds, so airmen can actually read those blogs that they're supposed to respond to.

And Kerry took a dive....

No..more people are acting out against people who torture animal
Submitted by Alice on Thu, 01/15/2009 - 11:42pm.
s, than people who torture people..Sam Seder said it today...

A BAZILLION is the next number you should learn because that is the next US deficit AND the next US budget and the next US bailout.

» ---------------------------------------

Remember those early atomic bomb test films with animals in cages and troops with goggles -- all subjected to the blast together? The creeps that dream up this stuff are the same demon class.

The culprit torturers of both humans and non-human animals ARE ONE AND THE SAME. FACTORY FARMING, VIVISECTION and TORTURE are defended in the same sick and circular nonlogic and attempts at character assassination and entrapment of opponents.

SOLIDARITY against TORTURE of all sentient beings!

But exactly!

Thank God some people see that now. I felt Really Really alone that dark day.

SKINNED alive is what the Republicans and the Democrats say is OK with them....

Is that ok with you?

we can't even ask for women and children to get such respect.

We have been animals for a while now.

Malloy's take on this caught me offguard too. He's a media person so I wish he'd been more specific.

As a tv-radio media consumer I remember what it was like back then.

I don't recall it being like a station was forced to give other opinions numerically "equal" time, as I remember it. Or even that every station had to have a whole programs from a separate points of view. Or even to be responsible for tracking opinions given.

It was more like, a station could not deny the listening cimmunity the opportunity to offer a come-back. Like an op-ed spot, or something.

Am I Wrong?

I am not sure...but it certainly never felt like point/counterpoint looking back on it...

much longer. Left the house early in the morning for skating with my own college-plus age kinder and their mother. then lunch with all, and then kidnapped my son to buy a much-needed replacement pickup truck for the Vermont house here. Blissful and exhausting. Don't think we tortured any other life-forms unless inviting them into our cellular memory cycles counts as torture. Don't believe it could.
Pleasant dreams - snores coming

(Vids finally up on internets.) I am seeing a Rachel with more makeup (or at least more pink tones en her makeup)and a girlier hairstyle.

And she doesn't look tired to me tonight.

That was my rebuttal.

Methinks twas Nora.

?

I wish I knew how many times that phrase has been on this blog...from mrr to brl...

I just can't get too excited at the prospects, F, our justice system has become 2 tiered the last few decades. There is no leniency in the law for common crimes, mandatory sentencing is established and irrefutable. Meanwhile the crimes that are available only to the wealthiest are more liquid. The judge actually has discretion with sentencing. They very often give a figurative slap on the wrist
*************************

"The Once and Future Rajah of Bhong."

those with opposing opinions, so it is not like the community is being denied a rebuttal to the liberal/progressive viewpoint.

(Most of our progressive shows are NOT like Rush Limpballs and PantyHannity who screen-out opposing views or press the mute button on them instantaneously.)

Tweren't me that posted the diagram link
new
Submitted by gloryoski on Fri, 01/16/2009 - 12:26am.
Methinks twas Nora.

» =====================

Did I miss something? What happened?

90 organizations, mainly French, to prosecute Israel for War Crimes

Nora - yes: the best exemplar of the fairness doctrine was when an announcer read listener/viewer responses to opinions expressed or just outright gave a camera-with-sound space to some Member of the General Public - nervous as hell and stumbling over words but honest-to-God passionate about her or his truth. Kinda like an ideal blog.
Reading Gail Collins's book Scorpion Tongues today, I began to think that we're better off without an artificial Fairness Doctrine and that people are better off preaching to (or being in) the choir - as we pretty much do here and on other leftist blogs. In colonial days in the British colonies that became the original thirteen states, the press pretty much worked like partisan blogs. Those folks - right off the bat - railed against censorship of either speech or Official (metaphysical) Belief. Arf!

seemingly opposite side...

If both sides are full of shit I'm not sure what's so PHUCCING PHAIR about it...

original link to the Bushco crimes diagram on Slate.

It was somebody else--I thought you.

But I still want to know who all made that movie JFK II and when. Do you know?

No idea how many times - I'm kinda new here. "Rhythm" works for me to - probably better. Isn't substance essentially rhythm?

in vain.

I just went out in the yard and stood under the stars and took a couple tokes.

Peaceful night. Coyote's are singing tonight.

>>an Air Force push to "counter the people out there in the blogosphere who have negative opinions about the U.S. government and the Air Force,"

yeah...it's not the war, it's not W's corrupt administration...it's the Air Force that bloggers object to...
*************************

"The Once and Future Rajah of Bhong."

>>an Air Force push to
new
Submitted by Chubby Bubba on Fri, 01/16/2009 - 12:40am.
>>an Air Force push to "counter the people out there in the blogosphere who have negative opinions about the U.S. government and the Air Force,"

yeah...it's not the war, it's not W's corrupt administration...it's the Air Force that blogger object to...
*************************

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

What's this about? Is this about the Christianist Fundamentalist/Dominionist Air Force you refer to who are the arm of the fascist-militarist takeover of our nation?

I don't think of cellular memory and rhythm as comparable.

*

When any Africa is saying you are out of line...you should listen...

South Africa calls on Israel to stop military offensive in Gaza

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-01/16/content_10665875.htm

Which Falls?
Minus 6 is what it was a few minutes ago around here. You must be close by.
Now it's (Lemme check) MINUS TEN FUCKING DEGREES. And the firewood's running low. Emergency!
Sleep first; deal later.

Don't know who made the Bush Family & JFK Assassination movie. But it is amazing.

.

on a 2006 post from my blog...that is so out of the norm that it looks obvious...umm..dare I say..like War Dog...

What are they singing...?

♫♪♫♪♫♪♪♫♪"Baby, my heart's on fire!"♫♪♫♪♫♪♪♫♪

heck nora
Submitted by Fernando on Fri, 01/16/2009 - 12:10am.
we can't even ask for women and children to get such respect.

We have been animals for a while now.

» ============================

Please, I'm missing something. Can you tell me more?

Not feeling contentious
Wasn't thinking of "cellular memory" as like "collective unconscious."
I way prefer 'rhythm"
Right now I'm fixing to set up a rhythmic pattern.
Thanks newcomer molecules in the series of tubes that I am.
Wish treebu were here tonight for the counterpoint.
ZZZ

I don't speak coyote but guessing from the tune in the breeze tonight...they are complaining that their balls are cold.

It's a brisk eight below at the moment.

I was looking up some ways to explain my idea of cellular memory..and what came to mind was say you had a shoulder pain and then imagine that you had been shot by an arrow in that spot at some point in your past but weren't conscious of that injury but just knew it hurt there for some reason...like that...

With all the talk of "Entitlement Reform" and a VETO DARE by Obama on the remaining $350 BILLION, I found this most apt post by Tiberius @ DU, who nailed it square on the head:

Dear Wall Street, here's your NEW bailout plan

Keep in mind this was written back when the TARP was first discussed and SOMEBODY pushed back. Which didn't last long.

Say, Isn't a TARP you use to COVER SOMETHING UP????
(reprinted without permission - but what the HECK! We're all friends here! Right?)

Dear Wall Street, here's your NEW bailout plan
Mon Sep-29-08 03:50 PM

Dear Wall Street,

Hi, this is the lobbyist for a group called The Taxpayers, Debtors, and Insured People of the United States. Now that we've rejected the first bailout plan, I'm sure that in the spirit of tough, free market capitalism, and spirited negotiations, you'll consider our second offer. Here are some terms that I'm SURE you will find reasonable:

1) We are willing to loan you money at a very low, introductory rate of 8.9%. If you are even one nanosecond late on your payment, your rate will go from 8.9% to 32.9% instantly. You will have no right to appeal this. The interest rate increase will be retroactive. None of this "but I mailed it out Friday" nonsense. We must get it, and the check must clear, for your payment to count. A reminder: transactions that occur after 2pm are not credited until the next business day, so be sure to make your payments before then.

2) If you are late on any of your other payments to your other creditors, your rate will also be spiked to 32.9%. I know it has nothing to do with us, but if you are late paying someone else, then OBVIOUSLY you are a bigger credit risk to us.

3) We will send you onerous terms and conditions 148,000,000 pages long in 6 point font. Of course, those terms can change on a whim, at any time, so we'll be sending you hourly updates to the contract, which we expect you to read and keep up with. Sorry, we will be the only ones that can amend the contract; you cannot.

4) You will have a predetermined credit line, and if you go over it by even $1, your interest rate will spike to 54.9%. Sorry, it's in the contract on page 109,209,392.

5) The bankruptcy laws have now changed. If you get into a bind, I'm afraid you won't find much sympathy; no more silly excuses will be accepted. We are going to have the titles to all of your buildings and physical assets put in our name, so when the inevitable time comes and you trip up, we'll simply take everything from you. There will be no court hearing.

6) We'll be conducting a background check, driving records check, drug test, and disease risk check of all of the top executives of your firm. After all, you're a riskier loan if you have any of those afflictions, aren't you? Well, if we find ANYTHING wrong, your interest rate will skyrocket, instantly, and without notice.

7) If your business is located in a "bad neighborhood", or a "poor city", or a "hurricane zone", or "flood plane", or "terrorist targeted city", as defined by us, we can raise your interest rates at any time, to any rate we choose.

For the last quarter century or so, you've imposed these terms, or some variation of them on us, when loaning us money or insuring us... arguing every single time that it's "necessary" and that these sorts of changes "will result in more profitable companies that will pass the savings along to consumers". Well, now that we're in the role of lender, and you're in the role of borrower, we're sure that you'll find these same terms fair.

Wall Street, prove the cynics wrong and accept our new plan. Prove to everyone that you're not the hypocrites that everyone thinks you are.

Best regards,

THE TAXPAYERS, DEBTORS, AND INSURED PEOPLES OF THE USA

Offer not valid in all 50 states. Terms, conditions, and interest rates subject to change at any time without notice. Borrower subject to intrusive credit, background, education, and criminal checks before issuance of loan. Upon any dispute, arbitration will be decided by someone tilted to rule in favor of taxpayers, and not by any indepedant or otherwise objective authority.

Sooooo.......

H/T to MMR

Economic rescue for the rest of us !
Submitted by MMRules on Tue, 01/13/2009 - 2:22pm.

Federal agencies just finalized new rules to rein in the card companies--but then gave them 18 months before they have to comply! Congress can give you these protections and more, now. So let them know that you want them to:

Stop card companies from randomly hiking the interest rate on your balances any time for any reason;
Require card companies to more fairly distribute your payments to high-interest debt first;
Stop them from changing the terms of your agreement without giving you notice; and
Stop heavy marketing of credit to young people.
Tell your lawmakers to pass these reforms now--and help every family who uses credit cards. That will be an economic rescue for the rest of us.

SIGN NOW! Good Item! @ www.consumersunion.org

Watch Frontline
The Secret History of the Credit Card
Then it all starts to make some sense.

Kevin copyright. Blog God.
Submitted by Alice on Fri, 01/16/2009 - 12:34am.
...

90 organizations, mainly French, to prosecute Israel for War Crimes

»======================================

[excerpt]

The lawyer, Jill Devier, said that a country cannot justify its war crimes by saying that it was subjected to missile fire, “even if the Palestinian homemade shells fired into Israel also constitute a war crime”.

[end excerpt]

Of course, authoritarian force to the point of INHUMANITY and carnage can NEVER be justified by ANYTHING WHATSOEVER. NO argument or justification can prevail in the presence of the proof of the war crimes!

That said, I still don't believe Israel can prove the rocketfire source was HAMAS. Those rockets could have been fired by MOSSAD PROVOCATEURS, who have freedom of movement over all of Israel/Palestine borders. This scenario is obvious: Blame a party for the Mossad false flag event and THEN take EXTRA-LEGAL militarist ACTION to KILL the fall guys. This way, Israel never gives anyone, especially the innocent, a day in court where the accused can defend their innocence!

Israel's EXTRA-LEGAL Militarism MUST be shown for the scam it is!

No way is that out of the realm of possibility...

Oh nora.......nora nora nora...pray tell how you want to turn this pile of shit of government into gold?

...

I probably don't have children for the same reason I would never pretend to buy property or a home on property.

Someday I'll tell you about what Elaine the seer said about the reincarnative interface between a previous life as a mediaeval French swordsman and my current life liver biopsy. Thanks for the three els in "elllsworth" - fits with all the other triples.

http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=80966&sectionid=351021701

Mexico denounces violence in Gaza

My name is Government and what you allege never happened..

Damn! The assholes always fuck things up. Mmmmf . . . Net neutrality. This is where we live and thrive. Fuck them!

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-10144035-38.html?part=rss&subj=news&ta...

My name is TeeVee and if you didn't see it on me it never happened.

http://www.stopbigmedia.com/

Thanks, Alice.

`

Hey. Got your email/post on my dopey cellphone/inbox gadget when it was safe to turn 'em on back on the JFK runway. It was a delightful welcome home.
Thanks

F*ck them indeed. The Corporatist Blue Dog Democrats, that is.

Democrats sneak Net neutrality rules into 'stimulus' bill
~snip~
The catch is that the federal largesse comes with Net neutrality strings attached. The Commerce Department must ensure that the recipients "adhere to" the Federal Communications Commission's 2005 broadband policy statement (pdf)--which the FCC said at the time was advisory and "not enforceable," and has become the subject of a lawsuit before a federal appeals court in Washington, D.C.

One interpretation of the "adhere to" requirement is that a company like AT&T, Verizon, or Comcast that takes "stimulus" dollars to deploy broadband in, say, Nebraska must abide by these rules nationwide. (It's rather like the state of Nebraska demanding that a broadband provider filter out porn nationwide in exchange for a lucrative government contract.)

In addition, recipients must operate broadband and high-speed wireless networks on an "open access basis." The FCC, soon to be under Democratic control, is charged with deciding what that means. Congress didn't see fit to include a definition.

The Republican Congress could NEVER pass this legislation, but in come the Democrats to "save the day". RIGHT?

Thanks, ellwort. We are so DOOMED.

-MOSSAD PROVOCATEURS-
new
Submitted by Alice on Fri, 01/16/2009 - 1:17am.
No way is that out of the realm of possibility...

Oh nora.......nora nora nora...pray tell how you want to turn this pile of shit of government into gold?

» ==================================

More than just our government. It's our whole way of being in the world.

By PLAN (re: Adam Curtis's insights/facts from Century of the Self) the majority in our nation are sleepwalking through reality, uneducated in the very language necessary to name and discuss their own lives and the world around them.

The more ability to name and discuss what is occurring, the greater the awareness. (Isn't this the difference between the U.S. population at large and, say, the indigenous peoples of Central and South America who escaped being totally UNeducated by the modern Consumerism Apparatus? Isn't this why South America is surging ahead of us in reformist movements? I think the indigenous peoples preserved some of their tribal awareness (despite the murder of Catholic social activism by the Vatican Imperialists), and that is carrying them over now.)

Look what a difference just a few radio shows have made! Awareness is delightful, even entertaining!

We must get CONSCIOUS -- and value it every waking second.

So much in our U.S. Consumer Culture is anti-consciousness starting at the chemistry level. Our beautiful bodies are nothing but chemistry experiments to the Oligarchy/Corporatists, selling us numbing products (too much of everything -- sugar, caffeine, likker, ciggies, pharmaceuticals, dead over-processed, chemicalized foods) which unbalance our bodies and minds with no upside. A clear-head is something foreign to us, possibly worrying to us. And experiences, like guilt-free/fear-free sex, or maybe the use of natural substances that might lead to soothing us or even opening consciousness, are demonized. We are even steered away from our creative/expressive/'artistic' natures; it is a great loss that we are convinced to consume prefabricated mass-produced versions of what we need instead of finding joy in creating for ourselves what we need. Finally, the consumer society has exhausted us profoundly since we must scramble and work more and harder to support the Consumer Habits -- and, frazzled/tired, still we push and push on. attempting to fulfill the image of success, to attain the satisfaction from ownership of the latest gadget as promised in endless mass-hypnosis advertisements.

It's all gotta be replaced with Awareness and an ideal of Conscious Living.

(Whoa, could THIS be twisted, huh? -- like Communist China's Cultural Revolution. Yikes!)

But I don't see it as starting as a movement. I see it starting with each individual getting a "Wake UP' call, and answering it personally.

(Of course there are models for it. Models as simple and pure as MARC MARON showing us how to make johnny cakes!)

Anyway, right now, I don't think saving the world is about every human 'attaining' our standard of industrialized consumerist lifestyle, but about each inhabitant of the West waking up and looking in the mirror and saying "It doesn't have to be like this. I can live more elegantly, more healthfully, more happily without dominating the world's resources, without dominating other peoples, without reliance on aggressive Militarism. Being aware and conscious is the biggest and best part of being alive and I've been missing that and I choose to be different from now on."

(Simultaneous with the individual "Aha!" grows a collective expression of it. How much better change would be when freely chosen rather than having changes forced on us by circumstances. And I feel apprehensive that the window of opportunity for choice may have already closed -- both politically and as a result of Planetary Change. But if there is Virtue in the experience of awareness as I picture there is, perhaps it will suffice afterall; that is, if Virtue really is its own reward.)

Is it three? I think it's three.
How many people have Hamas rockets killed ????

Did another Israeli die?
-

On Malloy's program tonight, the question came up. The number is 15.

Still it's the proportionality.

MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay - A Facebook photo showing Uruguay's interior minister in the shower has scandalized opposition leaders, who called her an "exhibitionist" on Thursday. - MSNBC

A politician who doesn't understand scandal and media doesn't deserve her post?

The Senate on Thursday narrowly approved granting the final half of the $700 billion bailout package to the incoming Obama administration. - The Hill