Grit TV

I am? Shazam.

Is that really enough? Ensign and Sanford must think so!

woot woot

does anybody know how to make the flashplayer ad go away?

will leave office at the end of the month

~`~`~`~`~`~
Jamesbennett

Palin will not seek re-election
KTVA CBS 11 Newsroom
Updated: 07/03/2009 11:19:44 AM AKDT

http://www.ktva.com/ci_12746301

At an 11:00 a.m. press conference today, Governor Sarah Palin announced that she would not seek a second term as governor. The governor continued saying in a few weeks she would resign the governorship.

On a day that most public employees have off, Palin sent out an early morning press release indicating that she would be giving an announcement from her home in Wasilla. Joining Palin were her parents, family and state commissioners.

Palin did not field questions and would not give any indications as to her future plans.

Palin announced that she will transfer power to Lt. Governor Sean Parnell. Parnell will be sworn in during the upcoming governor's picnic in Fairbanks.

Stay connected to KTVA.com for future updates.

~`~`~`~`~`~
Jamesbennett

Have a good safe weekend, folks...

And remember...

"When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, ..."

Geraldo should have included Possibility Five (hold up the whole hand with fingers stretched wide): The insurance companies wanted to have something to hide them from public scrutiny on the Healthcare Reform Debate!!!

Thanks, Sam, for addressing the child abuse of Michael Jackson.

Now that Jackson's death is being weaved into the cloth of the Corporate Mass Media Veil to Hide the Truth -- we can see that the abuse of Jackson is only continuing, using his images and corpse. And it clarifies that WE ALL live in an abusive system lacking ethics and humanity, but never missing any opportunity to make a buck, manipulate human caring, and change the subject to divert attention from their past, present and future crimes.

(Makes me curious: Was the O.J. Trial used to mask some important national issue/occurrence? What was going on then?)

the obvious is that she is going to go full tilt gonzo on running for president but you would think she would be well served by staying on as governor.

Palin will not seek re-election
new
Submitted by jbenet on Fri, 07/03/2009 - 3:29pm.
Palin will not seek re-election
KTVA CBS 11 Newsroom
Updated: 07/03/2009 11:19:44 AM AKDT

http://www.ktva.com/ci_12746301
*******

What's the name of that Alaskan Blogger that does alot of Palin stories ?
She might know what's going on..

"Hello to our friends and fans in domestic surveillance."

"the world needs more Trigs, not fewer...

~`~`~`~`~`~
Jamesbennett

Submitted by MMRules on Fri, 07/03/2009 - 3:47pm
What's the name of that Alaskan Blogger that does alot of Palin stories ?
She might know what's going on..

This Maybe?
http://shannynmoore.wordpress.com/

Shannyn Moore

Just a girl from Homer.
Posted: July 3, 2009 03:18 PM
BIO Become a Fan
Get Email Alerts Bloggers' Index
Sarah Palin Resigning as Alaska's Governor

fter Sarah Palin's Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Week she has announced she will be stepping down in a few weeks. In a press conference call this morning, Alaska's Governor Sarah Palin has announced she will not run for re-election and is stepping down as governor.

She had a brief statement. She took no questions.

Her commissioners and Lt. Governor were with her at her home. Palin did not relinquished the reigns of the state to the Lt. Governor while running for vice president.

Lt. Governor Sean Parnell will step in to the roll as governor at the end of the month. He was defeated by Congressman Don Young in the Republican primary last year.

Rumors of an "iceberg scandal" have been circulating.

Resignation is certainly out of character for Sarah Palin. Senator Mark Begich had a meeting with Sarah Palin two days ago with no mention of her leaving office. Palin's press secretary, David Murrow had posted on his facebook page Wednesday, "David Murrow is considering life's ironies." He was hired less than a month ago. Yesterday he wrote, "There's gonna be some fireworks this weekend!"

Palin's brother, Chuck Heath, told Fox News he thought her resignation was due to the negativity from the media. According to Heath, the governor was unable to be affective while she was constantly having to defend herself against ethics complaints and the media.

You betcha!

Follow Shannyn Moore on Twitter: www.twitter.com/shannynmoore

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/shannyn-moore/sarah-palin-resigns-as-al_b_...

http://mudflats.wordpress.com/2009/07/03/palin-resigns/#comments
the new mudflats
http://www.themudflats.net/
~`~`~`~`~`~
Jamesbennett

I keep meaning to watch it more, but keep forgetting.

You were charming as ever.

"Palin's brother, Chuck Heath, told Fox News he thought her resignation was due to the negativity from the media. "

What? Since when? I thought she was a 'tough bear-hunting cookie'. Plus if she didn't like the media attention, maybe she shouldn't have said such stupid things. Not to mention, she certainly didn't mind collecting all that money on speaking engagements out of her home state; nor starting up her PR campaign with the conjured up brouhaha over Letterman's joke.

Please. She must have been caught doing something really really really bad to make her quit so suddenly.

Everyone here was whining about the Michael Jackson coverage... until Palin resigned.
Now the Michael Jackson story seems like a welcome thing.

"Music is real. Everything else is tricks, and games and bullshit."
www.sigzone.blogspot.com

and taking more tips on how to ruin your career from him. I'm sure he's got plenty.

Buchanan babbling about how Moose for Brains is doing
exactly the correct & wise thing by resigning..

He makes me sick !

"Hello to our friends and fans in domestic surveillance."

What happened? Does he know anything?

i think i'll stick with jerry.

We all know U can't believe much that comes out of Palins mouth..

So,hopefully things will get more interesting & negative for the Wolf Killer..

"Hello to our friends and fans in domestic surveillance."

and you decide to eat some nasty pudding....

don't forget to put those thumbs to work.

Don't leave those digits just hanging around.

'A shot in the dark' theory. A wild guess.

She'll appoint herself to Begich's Senate seat.

MMRules: Why is he saying she is doing the wise thing?
new
Submitted by Catharine on Fri, 07/03/2009 - 4:30pm.
What happened? Does he know anything?
*******

He, of course tries to make the Rethugs look good..
It's his job..

Other than that,I don't know..I turned him off..

"Hello to our friends and fans in domestic surveillance."

I forget to watch it too.

If it were on the links, it might help me remember....

For every crazy Palin tidbit you post, post something about your greatest concerns. We mustn't let the crazy right and Diverting M$M drown out the priorities with their manufactured news.

Mark P. Begich (pronounced /ˈbɛɡɪtʃ/; born March 30, 1962) is the junior United States Senator from Alaska and a member of the Democratic Party. A former mayor of Anchorage, he served on the Anchorage Assembly for ten years before being elected mayor in 2003. In the highly competitive 2008 Alaska Senate election, Begich defeated incumbent Ted Stevens, the longest serving Republican member of the Senate at the time.

===

did begich resign or is he under investigation for something?

i know the part about palin calling for him to resign because she claims the election should be overturned once that corrupt stevens got a get out of jail free card but that doesn't seem to be gaining a lot of traction.

"....and I was... until little Triptruck (or whatever the fuck) came running to me and said 'mama, why don't you for president?' with a little tear streaming down the corner of her eye. Then I realized... sniff... I realized that there was a massive amount of people who wanted me to run."

*DRAMA*

Hollywood has nothin' on political phoniness.

"Music is real. Everything else is tricks, and games and bullshit."
www.sigzone.blogspot.com

Stay on target, bloggers.
new
Submitted by nora on Fri, 07/03/2009 - 4:49pm
*******

:)

"Hello to our friends and fans in domestic surveillance."

let the coming scandal be about her vagina and not about her checkbook.

like what she said that she thinks she's going to run. She said she can do things outside of politics to change things.

She seems to do what she wants and may think she can jump in to the presidential race in 2012.

Others seem to think she won't. Even the repubs. I wouldn't listen to Buchanan because he's always liked her. And he's way out there on other things also.

Later

Sarah is good for a joke but
MJ - that's a story that has legs.
;)
=
Do the Palins own a dog named 'Checkers'?
~`~`~`~`~`~
Jamesbennett

Obama doesn't have the guts to visit one -- or to go see the destruction or meet with locals who are suffering. Does he?

Obama doesn't have the guts needed to stop MOUNTAIN TOP REMOVAL! So why should he have the guts to witness the insanity of it firsthand?

http://blogs.wvgazette.com/coaltattoo/2009/06/29/bloggers-to-obama-visit...

[excerpt]

Bloggers to Obama: Visit mountaintop removal site
by Ken Ward Jr.

Over the weekend, a movement began among bloggers to urge President Obama to visit a mountaintop removal site, and talk with residents who live nearby…

As best I can tell, it started on Daily Kos, with a post that started out:

You don’t have to travel to the far side of the world to see protesters being arrested as they attempt to save their families, communities, and future. You don’t have to travel to the far side of the world to find a place where the powerful oppress the poor, and where corruption breeds poverty. You don’t have to travel to the far side of the world to find tragedy being written in people’s lives and in the land. You can get in your car and drive there in less than six hours.

[end excerpt]

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

The M$M may want to put the spotlight on one pop artist's death and funeral -- but MOUNTAIN TOP REMOVAL IS KILLING EVERYDAY, causing the death of an ecosystem everyday, killing people directly or a little bit more everyday.

And the motive is PROFIT.

And it's obvious neither the Energy Industry nor the Corporate Media wants to have a HIGHSPEED, HIGH TECH EDUCATIONAL CAMPAIGN to REDUCE CONSUMPTION of energy! Because that means loss of profits.

They know the American People would gladly learn the conservation methods needed to cut our daily individual consumption by 5-40 percent in months! They don't want Americans to even catch up to Europeans in conservation practices. We have all this media, more centralized government and educational systems than ever before -- and the Power Structure REFUSES to use these systems to their maximum regarding the improved conservation we need to adopt!

They are replaying her speech on MSNBC.

Folks, it sounds utterly insane. It seems like she woke up this morning and said, "I haven't been in the media coverage lately. How can I upstage the Michael Jackson stuff? I know! I'll resign. I'll do a little improvised speech. Let's go!"
It LITERALLY seems like that was her thought process today.

"Music is real. Everything else is tricks, and games and bullshit."
www.sigzone.blogspot.com

4th of July protest? How about red bandannas,

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3732/is_200601/ai_n17174894/

"They shot one of those Bolsheviks up in Knox County this morning, Harry Sims his name was. . . . That deputy knew his business. He didn't give the redneck a chance to talk, he just plugged him in the stomach. We need some shooting like that down here in Pineville." So Malcolm Cowley, writing in The New Republic in 1932, recounted a local coal operator's response to the murder of a nineteen-year-old Young Communist League union organizer in eastern Kentucky (1932:70).
...
Then again, its popularizers may have been agents of the Baldwin-Feltz Detective Agency, an industrial espionage and mine security company headquartered in Bluefield, West Virginia, who worked as company guards and spies in both the West Virginia and the Colorado strikes. What is relatively certain, however, is that it originated as an epithet.
...
Clearly, the best explanation of redneck to mean "union man" is that the word refers to the red handkerchiefs that striking union coal miners in both southern West Virginia and southern Colorado often wore around their necks or arms as a part of their informal uniform

~`~`~`~`~`~
Jamesbennett

was just chiming in on msnbc saying that sarah koo koo for cocoa puffs palin was probably thru.

what he said that i find unbelieveable is that palin has a 47% approval rating in america. i know she appeals to the derranged right, but thats a lot less than 47%.

its insulting for schuster to say the dean scream in 2004 when marked the departure of a great man from politics is about the same as her press conference.

Just a guess. Popped into my head. Not a fact to base it on. Sorry for the stream of consciousness post.

The source we need to visit on Palin is the BOOK MAKERS! What are the odds of Palin hiding something versus getting to Washington on our dime?

i always thought it referred to the perpertual sunburn from being outdoors down south but i like your explanation better.

still its an insult to the unions who worked and sacrificed to improve the life of the worker the way its used today.

nothing to apologize for. i have no doubt that if they could foment something and get him to resign or invalidate the election that we would get ms. palin goes to washington in a new york minute.

I have to say, they really do absorb head sweat...

Anywhoozle....

Western Governments Funding Taliban & Al-Qaeda To Kill U.S. Troops, Destabilize Countries

http://www.blacklistednews.com/news-4722-0-20-20--.html

The term red-neck, as you say has been perverted.
I'm saying red kerchief. Miners died wearing them and the battle continues on the same ground.

==
later - get ready for work

~`ordinary's just not good enough today - olp`~
Jamesbennett

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/scienceandtechnology/technology/5719599/Big-b...

*

MM...http://nader.org

http://rawstory.com/08/news/2009/07/03/us-colombian-soldiers-innocent-ca...

i'm sure murdoch already has the contract inked.

Highly competitive USA is just a loser when it comes to energy conservation!

http://www.bdcnetwork.com/article/CA6643178.html

...what do the Europeans know (and do) that we don't know (and should be doing), and why? What are some fundamental differences in the way Europeans and Americans or Canadians approach sustainable design? When comparing the driving forces for sustainability in Europe and North America, it is instructive to consider the experiences and perspectives of leading practitioners, some of whom have practiced in both regions.

John Echlin is an American architect and former president of an architecture firm in Portland, Ore., who worked in Switzerland for two firms over a period of seven years in the 1990s. “What drives buildings in the U.S. are free-market conditions and private development,” he told me. “There's no doubt that in Europe what drives things are essentially culture and public benefit. In the U.S., we typically build buildings to last 20 years and don't really think much beyond that. But in Europe the cultural norm is really to build permanently. Because of that, all building strategies relate to finding the most permanent solution. It tends to drive efficiency in operations and promote design approaches that make multiple uses out of single elements.”

...

What kinds of innovations and practices will we see? A 2006 study of green offices built in the United Kingdom in the 1990s offers a laundry list of green measures that have been incorporated in U.K. projects about a decade earlier than in the U.S.:

On-site renewable energy, especially solar and geothermal
External solar shading devices
Atrium space integrated with the climate management system
Triple glazing (typically one outer layer and a double-skin inner layer)
Operable windows
Use of water (with its far-higher heat capacity) instead of air for cooling
Radiant cooling systems, including chilled beams and chilled ceilings
Façade venting for natural ventilation
Shallow (or narrow) floor plans, offering daylighting to all workspaces
Mixed-mode ventilation, using thermal chimneys whenever possible
BIPVs
Rain capture and water recycling

[end excerpt]

it will likely be with Fox and there will be just a few nervous male hosts. Watch out Hannity... what if Palin, a girl [ooooh], beat your numbers??!! It's good when there's a little competition. I am 100% positive that they will try to bring each other down. Good.

Submitted by Alice on Fri, 07/03/2009 - 5:53pm.
...

Western Governments Funding Taliban & Al-Qaeda To Kill U.S. Troops, Destabilize Countries

http://www.blacklistednews.com/news-4722-0-20-20--.html

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

Thanks for this post.

Terra-ism is EXPENSIVE. How could it survive and thrive anywhere -- and especially in places where most people are living by subsistence methods only -- without the infusion of outside cash from the Filthy Rich!

It defies logic to avoid the conclusion that terra-ism is mostly really state-sponsored terra-ism!

ProsperityAgenda.US

Write your representatives and the President to support a single payer national health care system.

*Congress is proving that a multi-payer system based on private insurance primarily through employment is unaffordably bureaucratic and wasteful. The Congress is considering taxing employers as well as taxing employees to pay for reforms that will give the insurance industry hundreds of billions in new revenue annually. And, the Congressional Budget Office estimates that the most robust Democratic plan will result in 37 million still being uninsured in ten years. This is not real health care reform. This is a giveaway to the insurance industry that fails to solve America’s health care problems.

Con't..

http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/1312/t/9277/campaign.jsp?campaign_K...

"Hello to our friends and fans in domestic surveillance."

This lady is a gift from SHECKY, the God of Comedians.

Give her space and give her time to lay her bounty upon us.

May we laugh 'til Florida drowns in melted ice.

When is this going to be fixed?

That's my motto.

(well, one of them.)

go after the same demographic.... uh oh.

guacamole [fresh avocados, cilantro, red onions, and a squirt of a fresh lime]
mango salsa
black beans [cooked up with minced garlic and cumin]

yum

I'm not much of a cook, but I am happy with this....

the fourth of july is our celebration of our independence from the king of england.

NOT our celebration of our imperialism.

not rule of the king

EFF SUES DOJ FOR PUBLIC RELEASE OF FBI SURVEILLANCE RULES. EFF filed
suit against the Department of Justice this week, demanding the public
release of the "Domestic Investigative Operational Guidelines" that
govern surveillance of Americans by the FBI. "Americans have the right
to know the basic surveillance policies used by federal investigators
and how their privacy is -- or is not -- being protected," explains
EFF Senior Counsel David Sobel.

For the full press release:
http://www.eff.org/press/archives/2009/06/23

Iran ambassador suggests CIA could have killed Neda Agha-Soltan

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/washington/2009/06/neda-cia-cnn-killing....

http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/meast/06/25/iran.ambassador/index.html

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3737891,00.html

Submitted by jbenet on Fri, 07/03/2009 - 3:07pm.
[dan] thanks for asking.
No, I've tried over the years to get in the road show crew club but not been accepted.
Wicked is currently a touring road (and Broadway) show.
--------
Do you have to pass a show tune pop quiz? Do you have to describe five ways to make Peter Pan fly? Do you have to know when Andrew Lloyd Webber was knighted? Do they make you spell Jellicle and Munkustrap correctly on the first try?

Inquiring jackasses want to know.

Submitted by dan on Fri, 07/03/2009 - 3:39pm.
the obvious is that she is going to go full tilt gonzo on running for president but you would think she would be well served by staying on as governor.

...

On a note related to all of this, the Obama administration -- which has repeatedly delayed releasing a less redacted version of the 2004 report of the CIA's Inspector General that aggressively challenged both the legality and efficacy of torture -- today announced that it would delay its disclosure by at least another seven weeks, to August 31, 2009. We're in the New Era of Transparency.

http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/

I agree, but I am also a little surprised that 'the powers that be' didn't insist that she stay in political office because she would be more useful to them there.

I can't imagine she's totally free to do what she wants. There must be more to this. Unless, it is as simple as Murdoch or someone else at another network pulling some strings.

OBITUTAINMENT -- that's abusive behavior too
Submitted by nora on Fri, 07/03/2009 - 3:37pm.
Geraldo should have included Possibility Five (hold up the whole hand with fingers stretched wide): The insurance companies wanted to have something to hide them from public scrutiny on the Healthcare Reform Debate!!!...
---------
Geraldo should have included Possibility Six (hold up the whole hand with six fingers stretched wide): Aliens!

(The probing kind who don't charge for lab tests.)

wow. in modern times that Freudian saying took on new meaning, didn't it?

Oh my!

Funny, but she has a point. In fact, that was the topic of discussion: the MSM and their focus on the circus that is coverage of MJ's death to the detriment of more important news.

Submitted by MMRules on Fri, 07/03/2009 - 4:29pm.
Buchanan babbling about how Moose for Brains is doing
exactly the correct & wise thing by resigning..
--------
If you are constructing a Pro and Con list, you can include in the Pro column that Palin can say and do outlandish things when she is not on the Alaska payroll.

My gut reaction (which I am always loathe to reveal because it is based on nothing of substance) is that Palin has a few skeletons pounding on the closet door so loudly that journalists are hearing them.

the most difficult part is telling stage left from stage right.

i'll betcha its a secret handshake thing like the masons had in peggy sue got married

she was really rattled at the news conference, not smooth at all. one of the toddian analysis's said that the mainstream republican as in business suits don't want her around. she kept talking about the little guy and bottom up governance. i bet she shows up on the liberterian side, maybe a palin / paul ticket. the biggest reason is she can tell the main stream republicans and handlers to stuff it.

"My gut reaction (which I am always loathe to reveal because it is based on nothing of substance) is that Palin has a few skeletons pounding on the closet door so loudly that journalists are hearing them."

Stop the presses. I think you're right. Substance schmubstance.

Dan--Sorry
Submitted by nora on Fri, 07/03/2009 - 5:45pm.
Just a guess. Popped into my head. Not a fact to base it on. Sorry for the stream of consciousness post...
---------
Your contrition and self-awareness has been noted.

Or...the CIA is holding your DOG in a WAREHOUSE OUTSIDE OF THE CITY!!!

(Could go either way.)

now this is good shit. Michael Jackson is old news.

Juicy.

I am praying it's really really that bad, and that we shall soon find out and do a happy happy dance.

shouldn't that be...

"have" instead of "has"?

Crank: "Your contrition and self-awareness has been noted."

[Ironic, huh?]

Submitted by Catharine on Fri, 07/03/2009 - 7:58pm.
...Substance schmubstance.
--------
I can't say "substance schmubstance" and when I try I start laughing.

You're gonna hafta give me something else to work with if you expect me to keep a straight face.

Submitted by Catharine on Fri, 07/03/2009 - 8:04pm.
shouldn't that be...

"have" instead of "has"?

Crank: "Your contrition and self-awareness has been noted."
--------
You are correct if I am not willing to make a grammarific case that the two combine to be a unit.

...and I'm not willing, so you are correct.

Sort of.

Nope.

Why would I want you to keep a straight face?

Why is the left in a panic? She's just one little girl.

"I believe all these things because freedom is not America's gift to the world, it is the Almighty God's gift to every man and woman in this world."

George W. Bush

"Sort of."

No. You are right. It could go either way. That's why I prefaced my statement with "I could be wrong..."

proof of Trig's real mother has come to her attention?

Fernando: "What is she quit because proof of Trig's real mother has come to her attention?"

***

And there's always....

Aliens!

the Lizard brain is strong with her.

Bait News Service

Dateline: Now

Alaska Governor To Lie In State

This reporter has just learned via Twitter that a memorial service for the resigning Governor of Alaska will be held in the VFW lodge in Wasilla at a date to be announced.

Refreshents will be served by the Wasilla Dairy Queen.

Wasilla officials met in emergency council following the Twitter followers' news, concerned about the cost of an additional three police officers for crowd control and security needs. The Alaska town, like many across the U.S., is strapped for operating cash. Aldermen are considering a bake sale to cover costs.

"It's going to be BIG!" exclaimed Wasilla High's band director, Maurice, who prefers to go by his first name only.

"We can have the bake sale in my place" said Daisy "Bee" Begun, who owns the Wasilla True Value hardware store on Sarah Street.

Several objections were raised during the council meeting including that by Hugh Jaistline, owner and operator of the Wasilla Bakery, "Why should a hardware store host a bake sale? Who wants to eat their nuts?"

"What's the big deal?" interjected Wasilla citizen Jess Wate, "Governor Palin has been lying in state for years."

Council adjourned to consult their iPhones.

Fernando: "What is she quit because proof of Trig's real mother has come to her attention?"

Catharine: And there's always....Aliens!

Fernando: the Lizard brain is strong with her.

is there a secret meaning to "the world needs more trigs"

mmm. baked alaska.

is the wasilla dairy queen anywhere near the wasilla snow queen?

that takes religion

h/t mike malloy last nights show

The American Revolution occurred from a colonial society far enough away from England to attain its own unique societal identity, and out of that new culture a new government was envisioned and born.

Can this be done again? Here I try to find the answer.

Today we are at the mercy of corporate mainstream media for the information we need to make correct choices and decisions. And the M$M is failing us.

But it goes beyond the Corporate Media's failure to honestly and objectively supply us information.

Our very culture also is now dominated by the M$M's choices and censorship and profit-motive. And, since corporations dominate the media, it is a reach that should be called corporatist.

In the past only government had such an ability to dominate our lives. Sometimes, when the people had had enough bad government, they rose up in force -- group force -- to change it. Culture was the vessel that held the understanding and communication of the people's needs and desires and values. Culture was the source from which to create a group force to alter government (through reform or revolution). Where is that cultural/societal group force now? Has it been replaced by those glowing blue tv screens one can see through windows of every home? Was our ability to muster our group force stolen away when corporate-defined Culture became our only perceived definition of our societal expression? Did it flee with the first mass consumption of the Superbowl, or the O.J. Trial, or the last episode of Seinfeld?

Something now makes us quiet when we should be noisy. Most of us watch UNMOVED as our government continues to be engulfed with corruption, continues to destroy and torture in our name, continues to choose to give us wars instead of real healthcare.

Americans believe what their media shows them IS their culture. Is that so? Are we what we see on the tv machine? Is that all we are, or are we more? Do we have an American Culture separate from the Media's projections and propaganda? Or have several generations of seeing what is permitted on The Box made us what we see on The Box?

If government improves ONLY as a result of the force of the people's culture/society/civilization demanding improvement, are we in trouble now? Where can change come from now? If our entire culture is dictated by that which we desire to change -- from where does change arise now?

If we are to attain change now, it is going to be AT LEAST in three steps: 1.) Reject the hoax perpetrated by the Corporatists' smoke and mirrors of media lies and censorship, 2.) Rediscover or remake a REALWORLD Culture that can birth our group force, 3.) Take that group force and with it create the government that serves our needs and wants and preserves and actualizes our greatest collective aspirations.

Happy Fourth of July. Make your own fireworks; blow-up your TV. (Just a figure of speech, of course.)

is as one would expect. Left, left, left....

The best race today was the Koni Challenge in the GS series imo. Mustangs spanked Porsche and BMW's best as their drivers complained it's not fair. The team won first AND second place. whaaaaaa...

The Mustangs can go just as fast going around a curve sideways as their straight lines!

Tomorrow ABC will host Indy at Watkins Glen around 1ET! The NASCAR Sprint Cup Daytona Coke 400 starts at 7:30 ET on TNT.

Trig To Speak Out Against Levi

Following Levi's (Sarah Palin's son-in-law to be and then not to be following the out-of-wedlock in a half-ton Chevy pickup impregnation of Palin's daughter Bristol) comments against True Love Waits (a sexual abstinence movement sometimes confused with Tom Waits), his main squeeze Bristol spoke out against Levi (who, despite the name, is not Jewish), who signed a deal with an unnamed Hollywood promotion firm (which IS Jewish), followed by David Letterman's joke misinterpreted to be directed at Willow who is not yet pregnant but who really likes baseball park franks, which was attacked by Governor Palin who gave birth to Trig (though the details are murky) immediately prior to John McCain's choice of Palin as his Vice-President candidate and running mate, which was much before the leaks from McCain staff members indicating that Governor Palin is a mental dwarf somewhat like Trig but older and...(I forgot where I was headed with all of this background stuff which reads like a six year synopsis of As The World Turns).

The current Bait News Service report has been pulled pending further clarification. Please check back later.

proof that Trig is the reincarnation of the original Lizard brain is about to come out? What if he is the father of Neo Conservationism?

We should prepare just in case.

Stream Of Unconscionableness
Submitted by Crank Bait on Fri, 07/03/2009 - 8:01pm.
Dan--Sorry
Submitted by nora on Fri, 07/03/2009 - 5:45pm.
Just a guess. Popped into my head. Not a fact to base it on. Sorry for the stream of consciousness post...
---------
Your contrition and self-awareness has been noted.

Or...the CIA is holding your DOG in a WAREHOUSE OUTSIDE OF THE CITY!!!

(Could go either way.)

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

Shoo-shoo.

Get off the roof of my car...get off my hood.

When these GORILLAS come out of nowhere and start -- THUMP-THUMP-THUMP-THUMP-THUMP -- pounding their chests with their hairy knuckles, the spittle flying from their lips, battering away, it's -- it's -- it's very repetitious.

Amen.

you know, shooting squirrells for her squirrel patty recipe and exposing us loony lefties as the sushi eating faghags we are.

bet they'll let her bag bin ladin.
pay per view.

"I'm better now, I'm O.K."

for good people to do evil things
Submitted by dan on Fri, 07/03/2009 - 8:53pm.
that takes religion

I agree but would come at it from this direction: It's not religion - it's the personality disorders and mental illnesses of people that hide so effectively, not coincidentally, behind the mantle of religion. Religion is nothing and can't exist by itself. People bring neurosis along for the ride wherever they go. Take our own Mullet-Dog, for instance.

15 min warning to the top of act one.

~`ordinary's just not good enough today - olp`~
Jamesbennett

the Jesus car had it's rear reamed by the #8 Chevy car (Kerry Earnhardt). As the two cars drifted away from each other and the Jesus car stalled on the apron helplessly unable to stop the Chevy's advance into the pits, Earnhardt's Car mysteriously and spontaneously combusted from bow to stearn.

Jesus must really hate the homo's and the homoluvin commie supporters.

Edging Out jbenet
Submitted by Crank Bait on Fri, 07/03/2009 - 7:38pm.
==
- prerequisites -
1. who are you related to
2. are you an ex felon
3. you are interested in Art only is he can get you some meth
4. who are you related to.
[I'll make additions as I think of them]

~`ordinary's just not good enough today - olp`~
Jamesbennett

Edging Out jbenet
Submitted by dan on Fri, 07/03/2009 - 7:59pm.
the most difficult part is telling stage left from stage right.
i'll betcha its a secret handshake thing like the masons had in peggy sue got married
==
stand on the stage and looking at the audience - to your right is stage right.

[I thinking of doing a live jb-tv broadcast from here one of these days when things settle down. See if palin can survive that ;) ]

~`ordinary's just not good enough today - olp`~
Jamesbennett

Just mention Uncle Rush.

That should cover everything.

Submitted by jbenet on Fri, 07/03/2009 - 10:33pm.
stand on the stage and looking at the audience - to your right is stage right.
---------
(Also known as the Snagglepuss Constant.)

Ozian(Male or Female):
No one mourns the Wicked

Ozian(Female):
No one cries "They won't return!"

Ozians:
No one lays a lily on their grave

Ozian(male):
The good man scorns the Wicked!

~`ordinary's just not good enough today - olp`~
Jamesbennett

On Earth as it is in Heaven stuff. Divine order.

Government by priesthood.

Because we've grown up in a secular society we tend to buy the fall-back position of religion -- that is, religion as the holy and singular bearer of connection to the Infinite.

It's still about raw Power though.

Whether the power is physical (brute force and conversions) or metaphysical (prayer and conversions) or theocratic (your god helping you pull the trigger and convert*), the priesthood has to pay the bills and so comes the necessity to convince the faithful to reach deep into their pockets and fill the collection plates high (or allow the priests to hold all the grain at their temple graneries).

I think the good and evil part is not the main part. But it is scary-fying enough to keep the converted looking over their shoulders, and looking for safety in numbers.

And being told one is in the good category serves as a handy rationale when called by the priesthood (isn't a divine right king part of the priesthood?) to increase the priesthood's real estate holdings.

[* Is forced so-called 'democratization' a form of conversion to the corporatist way of life? Is consumerism a new form of religion? Are people willing to die for their god-given right to too much stuff? Just asking.]

the " holy hustle "

at least you can get lain in politics.

"I'm better now, I'm O.K."

I could be wrong, but...
Submitted by Catharine on Fri, 07/03/2009 - 8:08pm.

[Ironic, huh?]

~`ordinary's just not good enough today - olp`~
Jamesbennett

http://www.eandppub.com/2009/07/dead-skunk-in-the-middle-of-the-page.htm...

By the way, I hear War Dog is busy writing new lyrics for Candle in the Wind.

http://dissidentvoice.org/2009/07/u-s-on-the-fourth-of-july-more-unequal...

[excerpt]

U. S. on the Fourth of July: More Unequal than Ever
by Don Monkerud / July 3rd, 2009

...

Only two years ago, Steve Forbes, CEO of Forbes magazine, declared 2007 “the richest year ever in human history.” During eight years of the Bush Administration, the 400 richest Americans, who now own more than the bottom 150 million Americans, increased their net worth by $700 billion. In 2005, the top one percent claimed 22 percent of the national income, while the top ten percent took half of the total income, the largest share since 1928.

In June 2009, the Merrill Lynch Global Wealth Report estimated the number of the world’s wealthiest people declined by 15 percent, the steepest decline in the report’s 13-year history. The number of millionaires in the U.S. fell by 19 percent to 2.5 million people.

Analysts tell us the economy is being restructured, but how will the disparities in wealth between the rich and the poor play out?

“The source of wealth has changed over the past thirty years; corporations have become the engine of inequality in the U.S.,” says Sam Pizzigati, associate fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies in Washington D.C. “In the past, wealth came from ownership: Today it comes increasingly from income.”

The highest incomes come from executive pay at top corporations. In 2007, the ratio of CEO pay to the average paycheck was 344 to one, lower than the record 525 to one ratio set in 2001, but substantial. This year’s ratio is estimated to decrease to 317 to one. In the 60s, 70s and 80s, the average ratio fluctuated between 30 and 40 to 1.

[end excerpt]

Yesterday I spoke with a young man I know who goes by his initials, J.R.

Many of his friends call him Junior. He has a son who is four years old or so. I asked J.R. if anyone has called his son Junior Junior?

"Nope." (J.R. is a young man of few words.)

So I asked if anyone has called his son Junior Squared?

"Nope."

I should have said, "Work with me, here!" but I let it go.

i guess i know what it feels like to read one of my awful half jokes now.

like,

how much does a penny pincher make?

(wait for it)

....

as much as penny will pay him.

"I'm better now, I'm O.K."

PRAYING FOR THE INDICTMENT!

EXCLUSIVE: PALIN RESIGNATION 'DAMAGE CONTROL' FOR COMING 'ICEBERG SCANDAL' ... MORE: EMBEZZLEMENT INDICTMENTS COMING?
UPDATED: Alaskan reporter Shannyn Moore offers The BRAD BLOG hints about reasons for Alaska Gov's resignation

FURTHER UPDATE: Sources say embezzlement scandal, federal indictments may soon break concerning use of Wasilla Sport Complex building materials for Palin's home...

[See update below for exclusive source details from Alaska...FURTHER UPDATE now added below: AK sources say 'embezzlement' scandal, federal indictments may be in offing. See below...]

Palin resigns. She was to have been in office until 2010. Something else is going on here above and beyond what she's saying, though I don't know what yet. Josh Marshall seems to agree, noting in his "first signs of what happened" coverage:

[T]his clearly happened so quickly that Palin hasn't even had a chance to come up with a coherent cover story for her resignation. ... Remember that based on the public record, Palin is a wildly unethical public official, guilty at a minimum of numerous instances of abusing her authority as governor. And a lot of very damaging information has come out about her in the last few days --- though mainly embarrassing information about her character rather than new evidence of bad acts. I would not be surprised if this latest round of revelations shook something else loose that we haven't heard about yet."
I'd expect another shoe to drop very soon here...Looking into it...More shortly here...

UPDATE: Alaskan Sarah Palin authority (and occasional BRAD BLOG guest blogger) Shannyn Moore, who broke the news at HuffPo today, tells me she believes, with good reason, that there is an "iceberg scandal that's about to break. She's doing damage control."

She says Palin is "resigning as part of damage control" due to a scandal that is "not of a family nature." ...

con't

http://www.bradblog.com/?p=7280

US Marine commander out shopping in Afghanistan
AFP - ‎1 hour ago‎
GARMSIR, Afghanistan (AFP) - Brigadier General Larry Nicholson demonstrated the more open approach he wants to see among the new US troops sent to southern Afghanistan by going shopping for melons...
--------
How does it feel having a Hearts and Minds campaign shoved right up your Neoconservative ass?

You will recall that I supported Hearts and Minds policies as cheaper, faster, more affective and more effective while you denigrated the tactic as Hippy-Dippy idiocy.

You will eat shit and die. That's not a policy. That's a prediction.

Did it ever occur to you that your methods mirror the Rooskies' methods? Salute your patriotism:

Another powerful piece from Dissident Voice.

Maybe Cheney figured if the Saudis and the Israelis could get away with torture, then he could, too?

This Dr. Blachar sounds awful...Cheney with a stethascope.

http://dissidentvoice.org/2009/06/israeli-doctors-colluding-in-torture-w...

[excerpt]

More than 700 doctors have signed a petition arguing that Dr. Blachar has disqualified himself from leadership of the WMA, the profession’s governing ethical body, by effectively condoning torture in Israel.

The campaign against Dr. Blachar has gained ground rapidly since his appointment as president in November. Critics said his alleged complicity in the use of torture in Israeli detention facilities could be traced to 1995, when he became chairman of the IMA.

Until 1999, when Israel’s Supreme Court restricted torture, Israeli doctors routinely supervised the medical treatment of abused detainees, mostly Palestinians from the occupied territories.

During that period Dr. Blachar surprised many colleagues by expressing support for Israeli interrogators’ use of “moderate physical pressure” in a letter to The Lancet, the British medical journal. The phrase covers a wide range of practices from beatings and binding prisoners in painful positions to sleep deprivation. It is regarded by human rights organizations as a euphemism for torture.

Despite the 1999 court ruling, a coalition of 14 Israeli human rights groups known as United Against Torture concluded in its latest annual report in November that Israeli detention facilities are still using torture systematically. Israeli doctors are also being relied on to treat the resulting injuries.

Last week, Physicians for Human Rights and the Public Committee against Torture in Israel published a joint report examining hundreds of arrests in which Palestinians were bound in “distorted and unnatural” ways to inflict “pain and humiliation” amounting to torture.

The report noted instances where prisoners, including a pregnant woman and a dying man, were shackled while doctors carried out emergency procedures in a hospital.

[end excerpt]

Submitted by Rich Phittswell on Fri, 07/03/2009 - 11:06pm.
i guess i know what it feels like to read one of my awful half jokes now...
--------
Hey, work with me here!

Journalist: "What did you mean when you said you were resigning because you didn't want to be a lame duck?"

Sarah Palin: "I can see indictments from my house!"

Also from above article--

http://dissidentvoice.org/2009/06/israeli-doctors-colluding-in-torture-w...

[excerpt]

The WMA, with nine million members in more than 80 countries, was established in 1947 as a response to the abuses sanctioned by German and Japanese doctors during the Second World War.

In 2007, the WMA’s general assembly called on doctors to document and report all cases of suspected torture.

[end excerpt]

A Huffington Post writer is defending Mrs. Palin's honor by insinuating that the hostilities against her are a result of jealousy. This is a false and worn out theory of chauvinism. It is also lazy reporting. Funny, when men critique men- at no time are they accused of being jealous. Here are a couple of excerpts from the article:

Palin, Vanity Fair, Envy, and Hate
Douglas MacKinnonFormer press secretary to Sen. Bob Dole
Posted: July 2, 2009 08:09 AM

As to why Vanity Fair and other liberal outlets go after her, the answer is quite simple: money. With uncounted thousands from the left who equally hate Palin, Vanity Fair and the other outlets understand -- especially in a bad economy with declining circulation -- that there is gold to be mined from the fragile minds of those who hate. For them, this is the story that keeps giving. And as long as the uncounted haters from the left continue to froth at the mouth at the very mention of Palin, Vanity Fair, Keith Olbermann, and others, will feed the beast for ratings and revenue.

Fine. I get that. But why Dowd and the feminists? With regard to The New York Times columnist, I asked a female friend of mine who happens to be a psychologist, what might prompt the anger? She mentioned a host of possibilities, but settled on one theory. That being that Dowd "may be threatened or envious of Palin... or both. As an aging but still attractive woman, Dowd may resent Palin's good looks. Further, as a single woman of a certain age, she may be envious that Palin has a husband, a family, and has carved out an accomplished political career."

con't

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/douglas-mackinnon/palin-vanity-fair-envy-a...

Cat Chew: By the way, I hear War Dog is busy writing new lyrics for Candle in the Wind.

"It's the inequality, stupid"

http://thomaspainescorner.wordpress.com/2009/07/03/its-the-inequality-st...

[excerpt]

By Vi Ransel

7/3/09

Our government, composed, ostensibly, of the people’s own representatives has refused to take the banks – merely corporations initially created to serve the needs of the people – in hand and deal with them. The tail has become the dog. The Federal Reserve and Rubin’s sorcerer’s apprentices of deregulation have unleashed the hounds of economic hell and allowed the few who rule from behind the curtains of the financial system to sit upon the rest of the American people as if on a throne.

...

Keep in mind that if you make $50,000 a year, you will have to work for 20,000 years to make a billion dollars, a mere 10,000 years to make half a billion. A billion is one thousand million. The richest man in the world is worth $40 billion. What does one do with $40 billion? That’s an awful lot of shiny dimes. And these billionaires are certainly not giving until it hurts. They’re too busy taking. And damn the consequences. “When questioned about the devastation that currency speculation caused to countless millions in Asia when his type of gambling caused cataclysmic chaos, (George) Soros replied casually that ‘As a market participant, I don’t need to be concerned with the consequences of my actions.’” (1)

...

Between the Plutocrats sucking us dry and “our” Congress and the Obama Administration sucking up to them, all that suction has sucked us up to the top of that sheer cliff overlooking the abyss of total economic collapse. We the people have nothing left for the predatory Plutocrats to suck. And we’re sick of sucking on their yachts.

But note, when they’ve taken everything from us and we have nothing left to lose, they’ve inadvertently set us free, hoisting themselves on their own petard. Let’s finish the revolution.

[end excerpt]

If I deciphered Sarah Palin's insane ramblings today correctly she actually said that she is going to resign because her resignation is the best course for the people of Alaska.

Utter bullshit.

Anyone who knows anything about politicians knows that their first concerns are self-preservation and self-advancement. No one knows exactly why she announced her resignation today, but we know that she actually believes that it somehow advances her national prospects.

"Music is real. Everything else is tricks, and games and bullshit."
www.sigzone.blogspot.com

Someone posted an article regarding Sanford's wife in which she was described as having " investment-banker steel".

dada made a joke about it, pointing out the irony of this term. It says a lot about our culture and who and what we admire.

The other irony, though, is that within banking the "investment bankers" are considered the biggest pansies of the bunch. They are allegorically the 'white-shoe' bunch that takes long lunches and makes the really really big bucks, while the trading desk people are [supposedly though not really] the 'tough guys'. Everyone else always hated the investment bankers.

It was interesting to me that on 9/11 it was the 'tough' men in all kinds of banking [and not the women] who 'freaked out' to a large extent. Suddenly, there were grown men, senior investment bankers, owners of companies, tough talking traders, who were talking about how they needed to go buy guns, or going on about the stash of guns they have up in their home in Vermont. Not people who you'd want to depend on in a crisis. Where was that investment banker steel then?

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap090703.html

This year Aphelion, the point in Earth's elliptical orbit when it is farthest from the Sun, occurs tomorrow, July 4th.
==
places top of act two

~`ordinary's just not good enough today - olp`~
Jamesbennett

This year Aphelion, the point in Earth's elliptical orbit when it is farthest from the Sun, occurs tomorrow, July 4th.

that your suspicions only reinforces the belief that Trig is Prescott Bush Reincarnated?

Sarah Palin: "I can see indictments from my house!"

Dragonetti as quoted by Thomas Paine:

"The science...of the politician consists in fixing the true point of happiness and freedom. Those men would deserve the gratitude of ages, who should discover a mode of government that contained the greatest sum of individual happiness, with the least national expence." Dragonetti on Virtue and Rewards

President Obama, please don't keep us profit slaves to the Insurance Industry slavers. The happiness of millions of citizens receiving efficient health care -- that's good vibes. Abolish profiteering on the backs of sick Americans!

This term has been bothering me since it started being adopted [by many of us] to describe what we want to see happen. It bothers me because it doesn't really have any meaning other than there is one single payer of health care. It can, technically, mean a combination of private health insurers and/or government or community based.

So, when it is used, I still wonder what the person using it really wants to see happen.

It means the agent paying for the services negotiates as one party maximizing it's negotiating potential.

I think comprehensive single payer says what would be best. What do you think.

I heard Bernie Sanders clarifying that we need COMPREHENSIVE healthcare so we don't become paupers from healthcare debt, so that every procedure needed is covered, and so on....

there is a god.

now if those bristol bay fisher families would get off their asses and save bristol bay i'd really be smiling.

Can the Rethugs be any funnier lately ?

What a bunch of crazy ass asshats..

"Hello to our friends and fans in domestic surveillance."

show almost over

~`ordinary's just not good enough today - olp`~
Jamesbennett

a hat that smells like ass,
or an actual hat made of cheeks?

either way youd have to be crazy.

---

I'd work with you if you could offer health insurance.

"I'm better now, I'm O.K."

actually what i've seen is a determined move by repub AND dem in congress to pass some of the costliest and most repressive legislation in US history.

Obamarama is going right along with it.

what amazes me is how many people here still are looking at this with rose colored glasses.

I applaud those who at least understand that we're in the middle of a class/race war and losing badly.

being surrounded by jackals , jim.

or worse, desperate folks with better resumes than you.

"I'm better now, I'm O.K."

Your right..
I was being a bit sarcastic..

But,if in their misfortune I can get a laugh out of it,so be it.

It's just great to see some of these hypocritical psycho's get busted..

Anyhoo,The best way to relieve stress is by laughing.. :)

*Lewis Black is on Comedy Central now..

"Hello to our friends and fans in domestic surveillance."

http://www.truthdig.com/avbooth/item/20090703_video_honduran_soldiers_sh...

July 4, Saturday, 7pm

Revolution Books annual anti-July 4th poetry event:

What To the Slave is Your Fourth of July?

This year's theme: "Stop thinking like Americans....Start thinking about humanity!"

Spend the evening with poets, fighters and dreamers as we envision a world without America, without exploitation and oppression, a world without imperialism.....

(donation $4 and up)

Revolution Books
2425 Channing Way
Berkeley, CA

http://revolutionbooks.org/

the most important thing to me is to cut out the insurance industry altogether. If they are in the mix, then we will still be in deep doo-doo. It will be like the credit card bill, totally toothless.

I think this is one of those things that has no middle ground. 'For-profit' health care came from the insurance industry. Industry generally connotes profit taking. The government can try to make all these rules about what the insurance companies will have to cover till they are blue in the face and they will still find ways to 'profit' by cutting coverage and denying services.

Health care is something that should not ever be determined by making a profit. It is one thing to say "control costs", but a wholly different thing to say 'make a profit'. If they couldn't make a profit, they'd quit the business. Think about it, people [Congress]!

"No more insurance industry!"

This 'single payer' phrase is awkward and ineffective. I think 'they' are deliberately using this phrase to confuse the issue and divide people. It allows them to offer these complicated proposals that we know instinctively won't work, but then they start discussing them as a diversion from the real issue.

"No more insurance industry!"

"Comprehensive coverage for all!"

First rule of negotiating.

If we ideally want comprehensive health care from the best doctors for every single person, no exceptions, then that's where we start. If we start out by suggesting that we would take a lot less, then we are going to get even less than the "lot less" that we suggested.

http://hypem.com/track/856631/X+-+4th+of+July

"Hello to our friends and fans in domestic surveillance."

I'm in the midst of a particular health scare myself. I have insurance. But can I pay my deductable? I don't know. All I know is I'm having surgery next week and the state of my health is uncertain. Scary. God just imagine if I could take the money worry off the table and focus on wellness. What a concept. ________________________________

Meg - Dirty Hippie Spicy Mustard-Eating Liberal

I'm in the midst of a particular health scare myself. I have insurance. But can I pay my deductable? I don't know. All I know is I'm having surgery next week and the state of my health is uncertain. Scary. God just imagine if I could take the money worry off the table and focus on wellness. What a concept. ________________________________

Meg - Dirty Hippie Spicy Mustard-Eating Liberal

I'm in the midst of a particular health scare myself. I have insurance. But can I pay my deductable? I don't know. All I know is I'm having surgery next week and the state of my health is uncertain. Scary. God just imagine if I could take the money worry off the table and focus on wellness. What a concept. ________________________________

Meg - Dirty Hippie Spicy Mustard-Eating Liberal

You are absolutely right - imagine if you could just focus on wellness. What a concept.

Try not to worry about the deductible. If they have already approved the surgery then you are halfway home. If the worst happens and after you have already gotten the surgery you can't pay the deductible, then... nothing... what are they going to do to you? Nothing. They can't repossess your surgery. Really, they can't do anything to you. So, go in peace and remember it's only money, and you do need to think of your well being.

In '88 I left working for az dept of trans doing road bed inspection et al and a year later worked a couple of jobs where the move had been made to 'privatize' the inspecting. That meant that the that the person w/ the power to shut the job down [or how I liked to look at it - help the contractor do a good job] now worked for that same contractor. Ass*oles. I didn't last long..I guess it is still being done that way.

My point being the privatization mantra has been going strong for a long time.
=
re sj's rose colored glasses
I found this
http://www.playlist.com/searchbeta/results/426889489
“Through A Glass Darkly” by Don Hill

~`ordinary's just not good enough today - olp`~
Jamesbennett

And it disempowers people. Or rather we let ourselves feel powerless. When you have serious health issues or other important issues that need your focus, then you need to go into that feeling empowered, and not as a victim. Whatever it takes to get to that place, do it.

Vee-rum.

"...We Are Never Going To Survive Unless,
We Go A Little Crazy..."

the dreaded triple post-fluenzia
:)

health care
new
Submitted by Meg on Sat, 07/04/2009 - 2:20am.
=
I kid dear
As Catharine said... and also...

My name is Jamesbennett and I ask for you Meg;
that the doctors and nurses are ALL paying attention and in in top form for Meg's surgery and that her surgery be completed successfully with no complications and that Meg's recovery is complete and Meg's return to Health is certain and swift.

~`ordinary's just not good enough today - olp`~
Jamesbennett

I've been travelling today and haven't really
Followed the story. But I have to say that if she resigned for anything other than a scandal of some sort ill eat my hat.All I had to hear was the announcement. Her voice was shaky and she sounded unstaedy and scared. She may say a bunch of stupid crap, but she always sounded steady and confident while doing it.

Something big is going down. Mark my words, she's in some deep shit.

________________________________

Meg - Dirty Hippie Spicy Mustard-Eating Liberal

Yup.

never to late to Impeach
=
DOJ Confirms Cheney's Key Role in CIA Leak Case
by Avenging Angel
Digg this! Share this on Twitter - DOJ Confirms Cheney's Key Role in CIA Leak CaseTweet this submit to reddit Share This
Fri Jul 03, 2009 at 09:58:22 AM PDT
=

=What is this bs that our doj is worried about. These guys are crooks and should be striped of their ill gotten wealth and liberty.=

"
President Bush told the special prosecutor in the CIA leak case that he directed Vice President Dick Cheney to personally lead an effort to counter allegations made by former Ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV that his administration had misrepresented intelligence information to make the case to go to war with Iraq, according to people familiar with the president's interview.

Bush also told federal prosecutors during his June 24, 2004, interview in the Oval Office that he had directed Cheney, as part of that broader effort, to disclose highly classified intelligence information that would not only defend his administration but also discredit Wilson, the sources said.

But Bush told investigators that he was unaware that Cheney had directed I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, the vice president's chief of staff, to covertly leak the classified information to the media instead of releasing it to the public after undergoing the formal governmental declassification processes.
"

~`ordinary's just not good enough today - olp`~
Jamesbennett

Catherine said:
Oh Meg, that sucks
new
Submitted by Catharine on Sat, 07/04/2009 - 2:25am.
You are absolutely right - imagine if you could just focus on wellness. What a concept.

Try not to worry about the deductible. If they have already approved the surgery then you are halfway home. If the worst happens and after you have already gotten the surgery you can't pay the deductible, then... nothing... what are they going to do to you? Nothing. They can't repossess your surgery. Really, they can't do anything to you. So, go in peace and remember it's only money, and you do need to think of your well being.

also /|\)0( Blessings

Thx for the well wishes. Im will talk more on it later. Need sleep now. ________________________________

Meg - Dirty Hippie Spicy Mustard-Eating Liberal

good night all

Yesterday, the San Diego Union-Tribune reported that the body of openly gay Seaman August Provost was discovered in a guard shack at Camp Pendelton. A “person of interest” in connection to the suspected homicide is now being held in the Navy brig at Marine Corps Air Station Miramar. According to Provost’s sister, he had recently complained to his family that “someone was harassing and bothering him.” According to the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network, Provost likely didn’t report the harassment because of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell”:

The Navy would not comment on whether Provost’s orientation had anything to do with the death.

“While ‘Don’t ask, Don’t tell’ is in place, anybody in the military who is a homosexual has no place to go to get assistance or counseling,” said Ben Gomez of Servicemembers Legal Defense Network, an advocacy group for gays in the military.

(HT: Raw Story)

http://thinkprogress.org/2009/07/02/gay-sailor-dead/

As job losses accelerated in June, the unemployment rate ticked up 0.1 percentage point to 9.5%, the highest level since August 1983.

But another more comprehensive gauge of unemployment also continued to tick up. The government’s broader measure, known as the “U-6″ for its data classification, hit 16.5% in June, 0.1 percentage point higher than March.
...

http://blogs.wsj.com/economics/2009/07/02/broader-unemployment-rate-hit-...

How About Independence Day from Corporations Controlling Our Government? Now That Would be Change We Could Believe In.

By Mark Karlin

Our hearts and spirits soared as Barack Obama was swept into the White House in a landslide on election day in 2008.

It was one of those historic moments of hope, of the dark cloud of the Bush-Cheney years being lifted from our shoulders, of a desire for a restored democracy being fulfilled, of a candidate worthy of our great nation being elected.

During the days leading to the Inauguration and the cherished ceremony itself, we soared with the elation of a great experiment in governance, innovation, and freedom being vindicated and restored.

But then we were disgusted and horrified by how Wall Street was paid ransom welfare to keep an economy from entirely collapsing that they had gambled away. We saw President Obama surround himself not with populist economic advisors that would restore financial power to Main Street, but rather with the very architects of America's riverboat gambler financial swindles and collapse, many of them from Goldman Sachs which Matt Taibbi just definitively revealed as a predator financial institution.

And if there is any doubt that the multi-national "globalist" corporations -- who have left the American worker to rot -- control Congress, just look at how much Obama's "audacity of hope" has turned into the mush of "compromise." Ironically, the audacity and hope have definitely been on the side of the "K Street" lobbyists representing the wealth that controls our Congress and our national domestic economic policies for the most part.

...

http://blog.buzzflash.com/node/8898

Thanks to the Majority Report archivists, this lives again:

Katrina economic impact likely limited - White House

WASHINGTON, Aug 31 (Reuters) - Hurricane Katrina is likely to have only a modest impact on the U.S. economy as long as the hit to the energy sector proves transitory, White House economic adviser Ben Bernanke said on Wednesday.

"Clearly, it's going to affect the Gulf Coast economy quite a bit," Bernanke told CNBC television. "That's going to be enough to have at least a noticeable or at least some impact on the aggregate (national) data.

"Looking forward ... reconstruction is going to add jobs and growth to the economy," he added.

[Good to know the asshats are on top of things and predicting this'll be good for the country because it'll make Bush's "job creation" and economic "growth" record better.]

Posted by: White House says "No biggie" link here at September 1, 2005 9:23 AM

Article by Robert F. Kennedy--

http://www.truthout.org/070309R?n

If only our government could govern
independent of the Oil Lobby.

If only laws could be created independent of
Insurance and Drug Cos.

If only the pentagon could operate
independent of the military industrial complex.

I won't hold my breath waiting.

Submitted by Cathy in Seattle on Fri, 07/03/2009 - 9:59pm.
Make your own fireworks; blow-up your TV."

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

Here is towards a speedy and full recovery, Meg.

I could not agree more with Catharine's statements on the matter. Here is what irks me (and what we need to focus on making explicit and changing:

" If they have already approved the surgery then you are halfway home. . ."

Approval for the best treatment needs to become automatic (and easily affordable).

crashed the US economy and the world economies and also did damage to the future of our economy.

India Joins Russia, China in Questioning U.S. Dollar Dominance

By Mark Deen and Isabelle Mas

July 4 (Bloomberg) -- Suresh Tendulkar, an economic adviser to Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, said he is urging the government to diversify its $264.6 billion foreign-exchange reserves and hold fewer dollars.

“The major part of Indian reserves is in dollars -- that is something that’s a problem for us,” Tendulkar, chairman of the Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Council, said in an interview yesterday in Aix-en-Provence, France, where he was attending an economic conference.

Singh is preparing to join leaders from the Group of Eight industrialized nations -- the U.S., Japan, Germany, Britain, France, Italy, Canada and Russia -- at a summit in Italy next week which is due to tackle the global economy. China and Brazil will also send representative to the summit.

As the talks have neared, China and Russia have stepped up calls for a rethink of how global currency reserves are composed and managed, underlining a power shift to emerging markets from the developed nations that spawned the financial crisis.

“There should be a system to maintain the stability of the major reserve currencies,” Former Chinese Vice Premier Zeng Peiyan said in a speech in Beijing yesterday, highlighting China’s concerns about a global financial system dominated by the dollar.

Fiscal and current-account deficits must be supervised as “your currency is likely to become my problem,” said Zeng, who is now the head of a research center under the government’s top economic planning agency. The People’s Bank of China said June 26 that the International Monetary Fund should manage more of members’ reserves.

Russian Proposals

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has repeatedly called for creating a mix of regional reserve currencies as part of the drive to address the global financial crisis, while questioning the dollar’s future as a global reserve currency. Russia’s proposals for the Group of 20 major developed and developing nations summit in London in April included the creation of a supranational currency.

“We will resume” talks on the supranational currency proposal at the G-8 summit in L’Aquila on July 8-10, Medvedev aide Sergei Prikhodko told reporters in Moscow yesterday.

Singh adviser Tendulkar said that big dollar holders face a “prisoner’s dilemma” in terms of managing their holdings. “That’s why I’m telling them to do this,” he said.

He also said that world currencies need to adjust to help unwind trade imbalances that have contributed to the global financial crisis.

“The major imbalances which led to the current situation, the current account surpluses and deficits, have to be addressed,” he said. “Currency adjustment is one thing that suggests itself.”

Emerging-Market Dependence

For all the complaints about the dollar, emerging markets such as India remain dependent on the currency of the U.S., the world’s largest economy and a $2.5 trillion export market. The IMF said June 30 that the share of dollars in global foreign- exchange reserves increased to 65 percent in the first three months of this year, the highest since 2007.

Tendulkar said that the matter needs to be taken up in international talks, and that it emphasizes the need for those talks to go beyond the traditional G-8.

“They can meet if they want to,” he said. “The G-20 has a wider role, has representation of the countries that are likely to lead the recovery process.”

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aR7yfqUwTb4M

North Korea fired seven missiles off its eastern coast today, South Korea said, in what was seen as a message of defiance to the United States on its Independence Day holiday. The launches, which came 2 days after North Korea fired four short-range missiles, could further escalate tensions in the region as the US tries to muster support for tough enforcement of a UN resolution against Pyongyang.

South Korea's Yonhap news agency quoted military officials as saying the missiles appeared to be a type of Scud missile, banned by the UN resolution. A senior presidential official told the AP that the missiles fired are believed to have a range of less than 300 miles. North Korea had warned shippers to stay away from its east coast effective through July 10.

http://www.newser.com/article/d997iupg2/south-korea-north-korea-fires-7-...

The billionaire chief of Formula One racing admires Adolf Hitler, disses democracy, and applauds Margaret Thatcher—but slams the West for lacking cultural sensitivity. Hitler "could command a lot of people" and was "able to get things done," Bernie Ecclestone tells the Times of London. But Germany's tyrant allowed others to persuade him "to do things that I have no idea whether he wanted to do or not ... In the end he got lost."

The outspoken 78-year-old, whose tongue has enraged critics before, dismisses democracy—“it hasn’t done a lot of good for many countries"—and laments the "terrible" decision to oust Saddam Hussein. "We move into countries and we have no idea of the culture," he says. Politicians and Jewish groups quickly returned fire: "This fashionable contempt for the right of people to elect their own leaders is frankly frightening," says a Labour MP.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/formula_1/article6633340.ece#cid=...

Honduras' Supreme Court today rejected an ultimatum to restore ousted President Manuel Zelaya to power. Court spokesman Danilo Izaguirre says the head of the Organization of American States asked the president of the court to reinstate Zelaya, but he said no. Izaguirre said today: "Now the OAS has to decide what it will do."

The OAS has said it will suspend Honduras tomorrow unless Zelaya is reinstated. Zelaya was seized by the military Sunday and flown into exile.

http://www.newser.com/article/d9977grg2/honduras-rejects-oas-appeal-to-r...

The last time Barack Obama went to Russia, he and another senator were detained by border guards for hours—and his upcoming trip won't be much fun either, say the editors of the Economist. Russia's economy is beholden to unstable oil and gas prices, the country's mortality rate is spiking, and the political system has devolved into "a pretense of democracy." Obama must placate Moscow's "kleptocratic courtiers and former spies" without coming off as a pushover.

The president's famous calm and his willingness to admit American mistakes will benefit him in Russia, "a country whose national pride is spiked with a sense of inferiority." Perhaps his biggest opportunity lies in arms control; Russia, the world's second nuclear power, could be a key ally in reining in Iran and stabilizing Pakistan. "But this is going to be an awkward relationship," the editors write, "one where the West’s expectations of success should be low."

http://www.economist.com/opinion/displayStory.cfm?story_id=13944748&sour...

And Now, A Word From Sarah Palin…

by Ruth Ann Harnisch on 07/03/09 at 4:35 pm

When I heard that Sarah Palin was turning over the keys to the Alaska governor’s office to her lieutenant, I couldn’t help wondering what she was seeing from that famous front porch.

Health crisis? Another out-of-wedlock pregnancy in the family? Burgeoning scandal about to hit the fan? Time will tell, but if I were to bet money today, it would be on this: Fox News has made the sassy superstar of Republican politics an offer she can’t refuse. If I were in her mukluks, I’d be all over that like white on snow.

I posted my guess on Twitter, saying that I thought the Murdoch machine had dangled Oprah-type money, plus the promise of a 24/7 platform from which she can energize the base for a few years. I suggested that the Fox GOP cheerleading squad could rah-rah-rah around the clock until she resigns to run for president. (OK, I didn’t say exactly that, given the 140 character limit, but you get the idea.)

On Fox, she would have a happy home from which to develop her policy skills, bone up on the basics of the Constitution, capitalize on her people skills, while enjoying the perks of celebrity with nobody complaining about the cost of her wardrobe.

Instant pundits are saying it’s a stupid move if she wants to be president, but I think it’s smart.

Given her capabilities and her flaws, it’s smart to get out of public office right now. While she’s a servant of the people, she is held to a standard of accountability which has been a challenge for her to meet. And she is constrained from attacking her attackers - a governor’s standard of conduct is different from that of a talk-show host.

Palin has been vocal about being attentive to the doors that God opens for her, and this could be a big ‘un. Rush Limbaugh is the most powerful spokesperson for the GOP, and she knows she’s at least that credible, has at least that much charisma, and is a whole lot more attractive and likeable.

It’s much harder to be a good public official than it is to be a good “personality.”

http://ruthannharnisch.com/the-recovering-journalist/and-now-a-word-from...

boner is in town this week for fourth of july recess and of course he's not content to stfu.

i hate to say it but he makes a good point, where are the jobs that the stimulus plan was supposed to bring.

all i know is that my kids and their friends have found very little summer work, our infrastructure is crumbling, we have roads that are worse than wagon trails, and there is no construction in sight (remember shovel ready).

"They're out to get you...
... zombie walk mwah haha

Who do you believe?
by Chris in Paris on 7/03/2009 03:47:00 PM
I'll go out on a limb and say this former executive is on to something but who knows? Maybe the insurance industry really is like a big cuddly bear that only wants to pass along hugs and would never dream of purging customers. It's a big mistake and we need to hear their side of the story because they're always been so kind and flexible with everyone. CNN:

In his testimony and during an interview with CNN, Potter described how underwriters at his former company would drive small businesses with expensive insurance claims to dump their Cigna policies. Industry executives refer to the practice as "purging," Potter said.

"When that business comes up for renewal, the underwriters jack the rates up so much, the employer has no choice but to drop insurance," Potter said.

CNN obtained a transcript of a 2008 Cigna conference call with investors in which company executives use the term "purge."

But in an e-mail to CNN, Cigna spokesman Chris Curran denied the company engages in purging.

"We do not practice that. We will offer rates that are reflective of the competitive group health insurance market. We always encourage our clients to compare our proposed rates to those available from other carriers," Curran wrote.

Cigna had revenue of $19.1 billion in 2008, according to the company Web site.

Nice profits for an industry that never knows when to stop raising costs on consumers while delivering less by the day. At least the executive team is living the good life because that's all that matters

http://www.americablog.com/2009/07/who-do-you-believe.html

INSIDE WASHINGTON: Items missing from Archives

WASHINGTON – National Archives visitors know they'll find the Declaration of Independence, the U.S. Constitution and the Bill of Rights in the main building's magnificent rotunda in Washington. But they won't find the patent file for the Wright Brothers' Flying Machine or the maps for the first atomic bomb missions anywhere in the Archives inventory.

Many historical items the Archives once possessed are missing, including:

_Civil War telegrams from Abraham Lincoln.

_Original signatures of Andrew Jackson.

_Presidential portraits of Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

_NASA photographs from space and on the moon.

_Presidential pardons.

Some were stolen by researchers or Archives employees. Others simply disappeared without a trace.

And there's more gone from the nation's record keeper.

The Archives' inspector general, Paul Brachfeld, is conducting a criminal investigation into a missing external hard drive with copies of sensitive records from the Clinton administration. On the hard drive were Social Security numbers, including one for one of former Vice President Al Gore's daughters.

Because the equipment also may include classified information, Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, calls it a a major national security breach.

Brachfeld has documented thousands of electronic storage devices, including computers and servers, that have gone missing over the past decade from the National Archives and Records Administration.

Grassley, who has demanded an accounting of all missing items, said the loss of historical documents "robs our nation of its history and is completely unacceptable."

The Archives' stewardship of the nation's records has been questioned before. In a well-publicized incident, former President Bill Clinton's national security adviser, Sandy Berger, took documents from the Archives in the fall of 2003 while preparing, along with other ex-Clinton administration officials, for testimony to the Sept. 11 commission.

In September 2005, Berger was sentenced to two years of probation, 100 hours of community service, a $50,000 fine and loss of his security clearance for three years.

Some records have been missing for decades from the Archives' 44 facilities in 20 states and the capital, including 13 presidential libraries.

"When I came here nine years ago, there was no acknowledgment that we had a problem," Brachfeld said in an interview with The Associated Press.

Since then, he has started an recovery team that attends trade shows and Civil War re-enactments, and enlists the help of dealers and researchers to recover historical items that belong to the government.

The agency has two missions that sometimes are in conflict: preserving documents and making them available to the public in monitored research rooms with surveillance cameras.

"We do not have item-by-item control," said Archives spokeswoman Susan Cooper. "We can't. We have 9 billion documents. We don't know exactly what's in each of those boxes. There's no point in preserving materials that cannot be used."

Each missing historical item has its own story.

_From 1969 to 1980, the patent file for the Wright Brothers Flyer was passed around multiple Archives offices, the Patents and Trademarks Office and the National Air and Space Museum. It was returned to the Archives in 1979, and was last seen in 1980.

_In 1962, military representatives checked out the target maps for the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan. The maps have been missing ever since.

_In May 2004, one of FDR's grandsons asked to see a portrait of his grandfather at the Roosevelt presidential library in Hyde Park, N.Y. It couldn't be found, and hasn't been seen since 2001.

_Shaun Aubitz, a former employee at the Archives' facility in Philadelphia, pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 21 months in prison in 2002 for stealing — among other items — 71 pardons signed by Presidents James Madison, James Polk, Zachary Taylor, Millard Fillmore, Franklin Pierce, James Buchanan, Andrew Johnson, Ulysses S. Grant, Rutherford B. Hayes and Lincoln. The Archives recovered 59 of the records that had been sold to manuscript dealers and collectors.

_In 2005, researcher Howard Harner was sentenced to two years in prison, two years probation, and a $10,000 fine after pleading guilty to stealing more than 100 Civil War-era documents from the Archives between 1996 and 2002. Fewer than half were recovered.

_A 40-year-old National Archives intern in Philadelphia stole 160 Civil War documents. About half were sold on eBay. The documents included telegrams about the troops' weaponry, the War Department's announcement of Lincoln's death sent to soldiers, and a letter from famed Confederate cavalryman James Ewell Brown Stuart.

A financially strapped Denning McTague was sentenced in the case to 15 months in prison in 2007. He had told a psychiatrist that he was angry that his internship was unpaid.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090704/ap_on_go_ot/us_archives_missing_hist...

"I recently returned from a literary festival that was to have opened and closed in Jerusalem; but which, to our surprise, opened in France and closed in the United Kingdom.

Some 20-odd writers from the world over–including the popular British travel writer and comedian Michael Palin; Sweden’s preeminent thriller writer Henning Mankell; and Canada’s Giller Prize-winning M.G. Vassanji – found our events at Jerusalem’s Palestine National Theater shut down by machine-gun toting Israeli soldiers in flak jackets. On the first evening, with a Gallic flourish, Jean-Paul Ghoneim of the French Consulate opened the French Cultural Center impromptu, and hosted our event on nominally French soil: we paraded through the streets in our party clothes, bearing trays of canapés and looking, I’m sure, very threatening indeed.

By the festival’s closing night, the British Consul General Richard Makepeace had made plans to welcome us at the British Council – which was fitting because the British Council was the festival’s primary sponsor.

You might well ask how a bunch of novelists and nonfiction writers could be so dangerous as to require a military-ordained ban in a democratic country. I can’t tell you; except that our literary festival had the word “Palestine’’ in its title, and the use of this word in Jerusalem apparently constitutes a security threat. The city has been declared the Capital of Arab Culture for 2009, and according to Palestinians we met, the Jerusalem police have shut down more cultural events than they have permitted–including the timed release, by schoolchildren, of colored balloons in celebration of Al-Quds. Balloons are also a security risk.

http://pulsemedia.org/2009/06/30/walking-miles-in-palestinian-feet/

What is a world where you cannot go for a walk, cannot assemble to read and discuss literature in public, cannot be certain of visiting your grandmother in a neighboring city? What is a world where you cannot lose your temper, cannot laugh in the wrong place? (Imagine, if you will, living your entire life in the security line at the airport, on a bad day.) For us, the French and British consulates opened their doors; but they can’t always do so for the Palestinians.

This dystopian surreality is not reserved for Palestinians: on our last night, we adjourned after our reading to a restaurant where, in the din of live music, I tried to speak to a nut-brown man in a worn windbreaker who sat apparently forlorn, while others chattered and laughed around him. He said his name, but the noise was too great. “Have you heard of me?’’ he asked. I indicated that I couldn’t hear. He reached into his breast pocket, drew out a calling card, and pressed it into my hand.

He was Mordechai Vanunu, the Israeli whistle-blower who exposed his country’s nuclear capability almost 25 years ago. His card reads: “VANUNU MORDECHAI For a world free from all atomic weapons, kidnapped in Rome Sep 30th 1986. After 18 years in Israel prison, waiting in East Jerusalem to be free. To leave–SEE THE WORLD.’’

I've been reading the Declaration of Independence and have come to the conclusion that it really is a radical document.
Not in a bad way of course.

From the Declaration:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. — Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government.

http://www.ushistory.org/declaration/document/index.htm

HAHAHAAHA!

Somehow appropriate.

Submitted by Catharine on Sat, 07/04/2009 - 12:13am.
Someone posted an article regarding Sanford's wife in which she was described as having " investment-banker steel".

dada made a joke about it, pointing out the irony of this term. It says a lot about our culture and who and what we admire.

The other irony, though, is that within banking the "investment bankers" are considered the biggest pansies of the bunch...
-----------------
Such is the case with language. You can find cultural influences all over it (even influences of cultures long dead) which is one of the aspects of language that interests me (see etymology).

Although it is true that one can write by first deciding to implant subliminal ideas to further propaganda of some sort, it is also true that one can write using language to clarify ideas with no intent of making investment bankers out to be superhuman.

Catharine makes the point by saying that many of the investment bankers she has known are cowards, but the idea expressed in the article (unrattled under the stress of risk) was communicated nonetheless.

There are zillions of examples that can be picked apart. Here is but one: "a dog's life."

What the fuck does that mean? Is it good or bad? Is it not the case that different dogs have lives of vastly different qualities?

I don't use the idiom because it has lost its clarity. For anyone wondering, "a dog's life" implies a miserable existence even though most dogs seem to be pretty happy most of the time.

So it is with "investment banker steel." It implies unflappability even though Catharine knows several investment bankers who are pantywaists.

(See "pantywaist" for clarification.)

MOUNTAIN OF DEBT: Rising debt may be next crisis

WASHINGTON — The Founding Fathers left one legacy not celebrated on Independence Day but which affects us all. It's the national debt.

The country first got into debt to help pay for the Revolutionary War. Growing ever since, the debt stands today at a staggering $11.5 trillion _ equivalent to over $37,000 for each and every American. And it's expanding by over $1 trillion a year.

The mountain of debt easily could become the next full-fledged economic crisis without firm action from Washington, economists of all stripes warn.

"Unless we demonstrate a strong commitment to fiscal sustainability in the longer term, we will have neither financial stability nor healthy economic growth," Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke recently told Congress.

Higher taxes, or reduced federal benefits and services _ or a combination of both _ may be the inevitable consequences.

The debt is complicating efforts by President Barack Obama and Congress to cope with the worst recession in decades as stimulus and bailout spending combine with lower tax revenues to widen the gap.

Interest payments on the debt alone cost $452 billion last year _ the largest federal spending category after Medicare-Medicaid, Social Security and defense. It's quickly crowding out all other government spending. And the Treasury is finding it harder to find new lenders.

The United States went into the red the first time in 1790 when it assumed $75 million in the war debts of the Continental Congress.

Alexander Hamilton, the first treasury secretary, said, "A national debt, if not excessive, will be to us a national blessing."

Some blessing.

Since then, the nation has only been free of debt once, in 1834-1835.

More here:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/07/03/mountain-of-debt-rising-d_n_225...

The Real Story Behind Palin's Bombshell

Anyone who is in any way surprised by Sarah Palin's announcement today that she will not be seeking re-election, and, even more significantly, is stepping down as Governor of Alaska, has not been paying close attention. The signs have been everywhere.

Palin has absolutely zero interest in running the State of Alaska. She steadfastly refused to live in Juneau after her first year there, had the gall to charge the state for residing at her home in Wasilla 600 miles away, and she basically mailed in her performance as the state's top administrator during Alaska's most recent legislative session. She has alienated virtually all the key legislators in her own party--that's right, Republicans--and had failed to move any key legislation forward since her return to Alaska from the national campaign trail last November.

In fact, her bizarre appointment for Attorney General, Wayne Anthony Ross, was rejected nearly unanimously by the state legislature--a first in Alaskan history. Even in respect to energy policy, her supposed bailiwick, she has been categorically ineffective. When I asked those in-the-know what role Palin had played in putting together the recent pipeline deal between TransCanada and Exxon, their response was simple: "None."

None. That about sums up Palin's accomplishments as Governor of the Last Frontier.

The evangelical right can wallow in denial all they want about Palin being victimized by liberals or Democrats or even George Soros (some illiterate wingnut recently tried to link me to him), but the fact is that most of the people with really bad things to say about Palin--from John McCain's staff to conservatives in Alaska--come from the Republican Party. The charges of a left-wing conspiracy are so ridiculous as to be absolutely absurd.

But then what coming from the Palin camp isn't?

Moreover, Palin was facing what would have been a hugely embarrassing veto override by the Alaska legislature at the beginning of the next session in January over her politically postured refusal to accept Federal stimulus funds. If this past legislative session was a setback for Palin, the upcoming session would have been an absolute public relations disaster--hardly the proper entree for her presidential campaign. More...

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/geoffrey-dunn/the-real-story-behind-pal_b_...

Hypocrisy in Red and Blue: How Republicans and Democrats Betray Their Principles Differently

Stephen Ducat, 07.02.2009

Deomcrats don't have to wrap themselves in the American flag on every occasion, they just have to stop waving the white one when confronted by Republican hypocrites.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/stephen-ducat/hypocrisy-in-red-and-blue_b_...

"It says a lot about our culture and who and what we admire."

That it does. And it's very revealing, without intending to be.

Submitted by nora on Sat, 07/04/2009 - 12:47am.
I think comprehensive single payer says what would be best...
-------
I think that incomprehensible health care is where we are headed.

Keep in mind that national health care has been my greatest peeve for decades. I do not agree that insurance companies are the key element needing elimination. It's a biggie, but the rehabilitation of our fucked up system requires a lot more than ditching the insurance companies.

I won't go into details because most of you can identify the many fucked-up aspects in health care as readily as I can, but I add the following anecdote to the volumes of anecdotes (and by the way, Meg, "break a leg!").

Over the Memorial Day weekend my mom spent three days in a hospital after being unable to walk due to pain. It was sufficiently excruciating to make it impossible to help her to the car, so an ambulance was called into action.

Before during and after she is repeatedly described by physicians as being one of the healthiest 85-year-old women that they see. She hasn't been admitted to a hospital in decades.

After a number of tests, morphine injections, and a MRI scan, she was sent home with three tentative diagnoses and pain medication. The true (we think?) diagnosis came later from the pain specialist who said, "It is common for this to happen to people of all ages" which begs the question, "If it's so fucking common, why was it diagnosed AFTER she was discharged?"

Anyway, one suggested diagnosis was gallstones until my sister pointed out that mom has had no gall bladder for over forty years and has a long scar on her abdomen as a tip-off to anyone examining her unclothed self.

I'm rambling. The real point of the anecdote is that the billing (paid, fortunately, by various types of government and private insurance) for the three hospital days is $35,000.

That's $8.10 per minute to be sent home with pain medication and no final diagnosis for a condition later described as "common and transient" by the pain specialist.

We got elephants. Also a 500 pound gorilla in the room. And an emperor with no clothes.

We got elephants.

dada,

"The emporer penguin has no clothes!"

(Maybe, with your support, the expression will catch on.)

is whether health care is about to go the way of the stimulus bill.

At the beginning of this year, you may remember, Obama made an eloquent case for a strong economic stimulus — then delivered a proposal falling well short of what independent analysts (and, I suspect, his own economists) considered necessary. The goal, presumably, was to attract bipartisan support. But in the event, Obama was able to pick up only three Senate Republicans by making a plan that was already too weak even weaker.

At the time, some of us warned about what might happen: If unemployment surpassed the administration's optimistic projections, Republicans wouldn't accept the need for more stimulus. Instead, they'd declare the whole economic policy a failure. And that's exactly how it's playing out. With the unemployment rate now almost certain to pass 10 percent, there's an overwhelming economic case for more stimulus. But as a political matter it's going to be harder, not easier, to get that extra stimulus now than it would have been to get the plan right in the first place.

The point is that if you're making big policy changes, the final form of the policy has to be good enough to do the job. You might think that half a loaf is always better than none — but it isn't if the failure of half-measures ends up discrediting your whole policy approach.

Which brings us back to health care. It would be a crushing blow to progressive hopes if Obama doesn't succeed in getting some form of universal care through Congress. But even so, reform isn't worth having if you can only get it on terms so compromised that it's doomed to fail.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/opinion/2009389490_krugman28.html

Are nuns penguins in disguise?

http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Are_nuns_penguins_in_disguise

http://www.flickr.com/photos/13521837@N00/3296333245/

A greener 4th of July.

Scientists are increasingly worried that the beautiful fireworks millions of Americans will be watching this Independence Day contain toxic chemicals that may pose a threat to the environment. A particular focus is perchlorate, which helps “create the combustion reaction needed for the explosion.” According to a 2009 article in the journal Environmental Science and Technology, “the amount of perchlorate in nearby bodies of water could increase by anywhere from 24 to 1,068 times the amount present before the fireworks, and that it takes 20 to 80 days for the chemical levels to subside.” When ingested, perchlorate can hinder the thyroid’s production of growth hormones. In response, some chemists are looking for other solutions, including cleaner-burning fireworks that use nitrate-based oxidants.

http://thinkprogress.org/2009/07/04/perchlorate-fireworks/

America's far from perfect. I'll leave it up to you individually to determine what percentage is good/bad or whatever.

I've lived with extreme abuse and yet still could find a way to be perfectly happy at times. I've lived with perfection and still managed to be ungrateful, unable to appreciate what I had. People are like that.

America is not all bad, neither is it all good, nor will it ever be. It is what we make it, and working to make the bad parts good is what gives us hope and inspiration, and gets us up out of bed in the morning. Appreciating what is good and grand is the other side of that coin.

Anyway, here's one of my favorite songs about America. Happy July 4th, and please no one lose any fingers tonight.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l_sl4r0eGVY

"Many's the time I've been mistaken
And many times confused
Yes, and I've often felt forsaken
And certainly misused
Oh, but I'm all right, I'm all right
I'm just weary to my bones
Still, you don't expect to be
Bright and bon vivant
So far away from home, so far away from home

And I don't know a soul who's not been battered
I don't have a friend who feels at ease
I don't know a dream that's not been shattered
or driven to its knees
but it's all right, it's all right
for we lived so well so long
Still, when I think of the
road we're traveling on
I wonder what's gone wrong
I can't help it, I wonder what's gone wrong

And I dreamed I was dying
I dreamed that my soul rose unexpectedly
And looking back down at me
Smiled reassuringly
And I dreamed I was flying
And high up above my eyes could clearly see
The Statue of Liberty
Sailing away to sea
And I dreamed I was crying

We come on the ship they call the Mayflower
We come on the ship that sailed the moon
We come in the age's most uncertain hours
and sing an American tune
Oh, and it's alright, it's all right, it's all right
You can't be forever blessed
Still, tomorrow's going to be another working day
And I'm trying to get some rest
That's all I'm trying to get some rest"

... The real point of the anecdote is that the billing (paid, fortunately, by various types of government and private insurance) for the three hospital days is $35,000.
======
Who gets stuck with that bill?

Mitt Romney: "My god, it's so easy now. I basically just have to announce that I'm going to run.... unless a truck hits me first." (not an actual quotation)

"Music is real. Everything else is tricks, and games and bullshit."
www.sigzone.blogspot.com

EXCLUSIVE: PALIN RESIGNATION 'DAMAGE CONTROL' FOR COMING 'ICEBERG SCANDAL' ... MORE: EMBEZZLEMENT INDICTMENTS COMING?
UPDATED: Alaskan reporter Shannyn Moore offers The BRAD BLOG hints about reasons for Alaska Gov's resignation
FURTHER UPDATE: Sources say embezzlement scandal, federal indictments may soon break concerning use of Wasilla Sport Complex building materials for Palin's home...

http://www.bradblog.com/?p=7280

Is showing the story of the Revolution and what led up to our 4th of July

X - 4th of July..
http://hypem.com/track/856631/X+-+4th+of+July

They Might Be Giants - The Shadow Government - Live on XM

http://hypem.com/track/856806/They+Might+Be+Giants+-+The+Shadow+Governme...

"Hello to our friends and fans in domestic surveillance."

The term 'reality' First appeared in the English language in 1550, originally a legal term in the sense of "fixed property. It originated from the Modern Latin term 'realitatem' which was from Late Latin 'realis'; The meaning such as "real existence" is from 1647 onwards.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reality

From a great thread here

http://rigorousintuition.ca/board/viewtopic.php?t=24411

What is the most common educational degree in New Mexico?
Kindergarten dropout.

Why do New Mexicans drink less Kool-Aid than folks in other states?
Because they have such a hard time getting two quarts of water into that little envelope.

How do you recognize a Virginian staying in a fancy hotel?
He's the one trying to slam the revolving door.

Did you hear about the Baton Rouge bride who cancelled the wedding when she heard her friends were planning to give her a shower?

A Bangor resident went to the airport and asked for a roundtrip ticket.
The ticket agent asked, "Where to?"
The Mainer said, "Well, back here, of course."

Why is Otto the most common name in Minnesota?
There's only two letters to remember.

How did the Cleveland cop lose his contact lens?
The putty fell out of his eye!

Did you hear about the Georgia accountant who absconded with all the accounts payable?

A Toledo man was admitted to the city hospital last night with severe burns after dunking for French fries at a Halloween party.

"They caught Hughie last night burglarizin' a house in Birmingham 'cause he broke two windows."
"Why'd he do that?"
"One to get in, and one to get out."

What can most Alabama kids do by the age of twelve?
Wave bye-bye.

How can you tell when a North Dakotan has class?
When the words on his tattoo are spelled correctly.

Did you hear about the Omaha mother who got tired of putting name tags on her son's shirts, so she had his name legally changed to "Machine Washable"?

Did you hear about the New Yorker who was killed in a pie-eating contest?
The cow sat on him.

What's considered a major cultural event with social significance in Idaho?
A black-and-white Road Runner cartoon.

"How come you're only watering half your lawn?" a perplexed tourist asked a Richmond resident.
"I just heard there was a fifty percent chance of rain."

What's considered a solid hour's reading in Iowa?
The back of a cereal box.

A North Dakota farmer was visiting Las Vegas. He had no money to gamble, so he watched the games and bet mentally. In no time at all, he'd lost his mind.

Did you hear about the Texan who moved to Oklahoma and raised the IQ level of both states?

How many South Dakotans does it take to go ice fishing?
Four. One to cut the hole in the ice, and three to push the boat through.

A woman walked into a South Carolina country store and said, "Do you keep brown sugar?"
"No, ma'am," replied the owner. "When it gets dirty we throw it away."

Iowa girl: Daddy, I'm pregnant. Father: Are you sure it's yours?

Why don't Nebraskans throw dinner parties? They can't remember how to spell R.S.V.P.

What do they call anybody with an IQ of ninety in Louisiana?
Governor.

What's a henpecked Georgia husband?
A guy who doesn't know how to tell his pregnant wife he's sterile.

What do Mississippi mothers write on the labels of their kids' clothes?
"Shirt . . . Pants . . . Dress . . ."

Did you hear about the Montana moron who went looking for a gas leak with a safety match?

What are the rules of the famous Virginia Beach guessing game?
One player leaves the room, and the others have to guess which one of them has left.

Why did the Minnesotan buy only one snow boot for winter?
He'd heard there was going to be only one foot of snow.

What are the worst five years in the life of a West Virginian?
Third grade.

What's the difference between a Kansan and Yogurt?
Yogurt has culture.

Did you hear about the Murfreesboro muddlebrain whose father told him about the birds and the bees?
The next day, the Tennessean was stung by a bee and thought he was pregnant.

Why do folks from Arkansas find it so hard to read?
Because they never learned to move their lips right.

How do Alaska CB radio operators say "10-4"?
"5-5-2-2."

What's the only thing thicker than a Kansan's sideburns? What's between them.

Treadwell walked into a Biloxi stationery store and asked, "Have you got any invisible ink?"
"Certainly sir," said the owner. "What color?"

What's the most popular TV show in Billings?
"90 Minutes" they have to slow it down so people can follow it.

Did you ever see a country boy in New York whistle for a cab?
He puts two fingers in his mouth and hollers, "Taxi!"

What's the first lesson a Staten Island teenager learns at driving school?
How to open a locked car with a coat hanger.

What does a Wisconsinite call his pet zebra? "Spot."

What do you call a Georgian who works for the U.S. Forest Service?
An overachiever.

What do you get when you cross a flower with a Montana civil service worker?
A blooming idiot.

What's the easiest job in Florida?
Intelligence officer in the Florida National Guard.

Did you hear about the Brooklyn bubble brain who was two hours late for work because the escalator got stuck?

Free Democracy

MMR - how do you do moving graphics like that?

...
Well, while Obama’s signaling very clearly his intention to establish a firm and large-scale presence in the region, he’s also, as you know, sharply escalating the AfPak war, following Petraeus’s strategy to drive the Taliban into Pakistan, with potentially awful results for this extremely dangerous and unstable state, which is facing insurrections throughout its territory. These are the most extreme in the tribal areas, which cross the AfPak border. It’s an artificial line imposed by the British called the Durand Line, and the same people live on both sides of it—Pashtun tribes—and they’ve never accepted it. And, in fact, the Afghanistan government never accepted it either, as long as it was independent. Well, that’s where most of the fighting is going on. One of the leading specialists on the region, Selig Harrison, he recently wrote that the outcome of Washington’s current policies, Obama’s policies, might well be, what he calls them, “Islamic Pashtunistan,” Pashtun-based separate kind of quasi-state. The Pakistani ambassador warned that if the Taliban and Pashtun nationalism merge, we’ve had it. And we’re on the verge of that.

The prospects become still more ominous with the escalation of drone attacks that embitter the population with their huge civilian toll, and more recently, just a couple days ago, in fact, with the unprecedented authority that has just been granted to General Stanley McChrystal, who’s taking charge. He’s a kind of a wild-eyed Special Forces assassin. He’s been put in charge of heading the operations. Petraeus’s own counterinsurgency adviser in Iraq, General David Kilcullen—Colonel, I think—he describes the Obama-Petraeus-McChrystal policies as a fundamental “strategic error” which may lead to the collapse of Pakistan. He says it’s a calamity that would “dwarf” all other current issues, given the country’s size, strategic location and nuclear stockpile.

It’s also not too encouraging that Pakistan and India are now rapidly expanding their nuclear arsenals. Pakistan’s nuclear arsenals were developed with Reagan’s crucial aid. And India’s nuclear weapons program got a major shot in the arm with the recent US-India nuclear agreement. It’s also a sharp blow to the Non-Proliferation Treaty. Two countries have twice come close to nuclear war over Kashmir, and they’re also engaged in a kind of a proxy war in Afghanistan. These developments pose a very serious threat to world peace, even to human survival. Well, a lot to say about this crisis, but no time here.
...

http://www.democracynow.org/2009/7/3/noam_chomsky_on_crisis_and_hope

...
There’s a striking gap between public opinion and public policy on a host of major issues, domestic and foreign. And, at least in my judgment, public opinion is often a lot more sane. It also tends to be fairly consistent over time, which is pretty astonishing, because public concerns and aspirations, if they’re even mentioned, are marginalized and ridiculed. It’s one very significant feature of the yawning democratic deficit, as we call it in other countries. That’s the failure of formal democratic institutions to function properly. And that’s no trivial matter. Arundhati Roy has a book, soon to come out, in which she asks whether the evolution of formal democracy in India and the United States, in fact, not only there—her words—might turn out to be the “endgame of the human race.” And that’s not an idle question.

It should be recalled that the American Republic was founded on the principle that there should be a democratic deficit. James Madison, the main framer of the constitutional order, his view was that power should be in the hands of the wealth of the nation, the more responsible set of men who have sympathy for property owners and their rights. And Madison sought to construct a system of government that would, in his words, “protect the minority of the opulent from the majority.” That’s why the constitutional system that he framed did not have co-equal branches. The executive was supposed to be an administrator, and the legislature was supposed to be dominant, but not the House of Representatives, rather the Senate, where power was vested and protected from the public in many ways. That’s where the wealth of the nation would be concentrated. This is not overlooked by historians. Gordon Wood, for example, summarizes the thoughts of the founders, saying that “The Constitution was intrinsically an aristocratic document designed to check the democratic tendencies of the period,” delivering power to a “better sort” of people and excluding “those who were not rich, well born, or prominent from exercising political power.”
...

Q: What's red, white and blue and makes the entire community happy?

A: Smurfette deep-throating a candy cane.

MMR - how do you do moving
Submitted by Cathy in Seattle on Sat, 07/04/2009 - 1:09pm.
MMR - how do you do moving graphics like that?

"Hello to our friends and fans in domestic surveillance."

Eager to Tap Iraq's Vast Oil Reserves, Industry Execs Suggested Invasion

By Jason Leopold

Two years before the invasion of Iraq, oil executives and foreign policy advisers told the Bush administration that the United States would remain "a prisoner of its energy dilemma" as long as Saddam Hussein was in power.

That April 2001 report, "Strategic Policy Challenges for the 21st Century," was prepared by the James A. Baker Institute for Public Policy and the U.S. Council on Foreign Relations at the request of then-Vice President Dick Cheney.

In retrospect, it appears that the report helped focus administration thinking on why it made geopolitical sense to oust Hussein, whose country sat on the world's second largest oil reserves.

"Iraq remains a de-stabilizing influence to the flow of oil to international markets from the Middle East," the report said.

"Saddam Hussein has also demonstrated a willingness to threaten to use the oil weapon and to use his own export program to manipulate oil markets. Therefore the U.S. should conduct an immediate policy review toward Iraq including military, energy, economic and political/diplomatic assessments. More...

http://www.pubrecord.org/nationworld/978-eager-to-tap-iraqs-vast-oil-res...

I don't imbed pics, either.

ok, I'm lame because many of you have helped me with this before. I don't do it enough to remember how...

Someday I may get my posting act together and learn the codes or write them down or something. I need more hours in the day after work.

(as a state employee in a state institution I'm not allowed to use state property for anything that is not directly state business. This is considered abuse of the taxpayer's money, and there are people who will sue my state if they think we are using their precious computers for personal reasons. Actually, I agree.)

In Colonial America, the rich were getting richer and the poor were getting much poorer. In 1687 in Boston, the top 1% owned about 25% of the wealth. By 1770, the top 1% owned 44%. In those same years, the poor--those who owned no property--represented 14% in 1687 and 29% in 1770.

In the various colonies the wealthy merchant class introduced property qualifications for voting in order to disenfranchise the poor and protect their own privileges:

In Pennsylvania, white males had to have 50 pounds of "lawful money" or own fifty acres of land.
The result was that only 8% of the rural population and 2% of the urban population of Philadelphia could vote

George Washington was the richest man in America, a man who enslaved 216 human beings who were not emancipated until after he and his wife had both died. Benjamin Franklin had a personal fortune worth at least $20 million in today's money. He was a champion of the Quaker plutocrats in Philadelphia and vigorously opposed the democratic western farmers of Pennsylvania.
more:http://www.hermes-press.com/completing.htm

I thought you said,how do you post them..

How to make them is above my pay grade..

Most them are Automated GIF's..

There are sites that show U how to make them..
But,I think you need some extra software..

I just pimp them from the internets.. :)

*Oh..You can google (Automated Gif)and find a bunch of websites with them..Or,google
(4th of July Animated Gif)

I'd like to learn how to make them,one of these days..

"Hello to our friends and fans in domestic surveillance."

As they wipe the egg off their face, Washington Post executives are probably wondering why they got slammed so badly for selling access to Washington bigwigs and Post reporters at "salons" at the publisher's home. At least two other news organizations—the Wall Street Journal and the Economist—are doing much the same thing, Politico reports.

For a few thousand bucks, the Economist arranges intimate, off-the-record meetings with world leaders. The Journal, meanwhile, is charging $7,500 for a November gathering including the paper’s editors, Tony Blair, Rupert Murdoch, and Arne Duncan. That event is at least on the record, potentially benefiting readers. But in March the Journal arranged an off-record talk by Larry Summers, at the White House, as part of a $5,000-a-head conference

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0709/24496.html

Sarah Palin’s reasons for leaving office early ring exceedingly hollow to the editors of the Anchorage Daily News. She “baffled Alaskans with her explanation that, having decided not to seek a second term, she doesn't want to be a lame duck until December 2010. That explanation is more lame than the duck.”

Whatever Palin is leaving office for, her resignation “looks like self-service, not public service.” What’s worse, “she spoke as if she were making a sacrifice for the good of Alaska, but it's hard to see how.” Palin’s charisma and ambition are clear, “so there's no surprise if she sees a future for herself beyond Alaska,” the editors write. “But we thought she'd finish her work on the home front first. She hasn't made clear why she won't.”

http://www.adn.com/opinion/view/story/852900.html

By ALEXANDER COCKBURN

There’s no continent where the pwogwessive “left” (I have to set this exhausted noun on the crutches of gloomy quotemarks) in the United States has entertained higher hopes of Obamian change from traditional U.S. thuggery than Latin America. This was a big constituency for Obama to allure last year. Radicals here in their senior decades have been rooting for Cuba ever since they cheered Fidel’s triumphant entry into Havana in 1959. Twenty-five years later in the late 70s and mid-80s the hottest issue for young people on the left in the US was the brutal and ultimately successful efforts of the US government in the Carter and Reagan years to crush revolutions in El Salvador and Nicaragua. To this day the “Hands off Central America” movement of those years remains by far the most determined mobilization of the US left in the post Vietnam era.

Now, after six months, the desire among many of these pwogs to believe that in the White House resides Gob (Good Obama) rather than Jaaap (Just Another Awful American President) is pitiful to behold. What, in Latin America, do they have to hang their hat on, regarding Gob’s actual performance? He’s maintaining the embargo on Cuba, pushing for the “free trade pacts” that have laid waste Latin American for a generation. He fondly embraces the vicious Uribe regime in Colombia.

The zig-zagging response of the Obama administration to last Sunday’s coup in Honduras has now put these hopes to to the test of reality yet again, and already the progressives are successfully persuading themselves that either it’s “unclear” what Obama’s complicity amounted to, or even that he opposed it from the getgo. To believe this nonsense requires powerful doses of self-deception about the nature of this presidency...
www.counterpunch.org

on every houses lawn. Someone stole mine while I was at the market. I won't be here to enjoy it, but still...

~`ordinary's just not good enough today - olp`~
Jamesbennett

I don't remember how to post pictures, either, unless they are at a website and I simply link to them, not actually imbedding them. My posts are colorless and boring!

Blue Roots Radio

http://bluerootsradio.com/Site/Home.html

How the Declaration of Independence changed the world
In between mouthfuls of hot dogs and potato salad, Americans on this July Fourth might actually ponder those famous phrases scrawled near the top of the Declaration of Independence.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/20090703/sc_livescience/howthedeclar...

Georgia freemasons at loggerheads over admission of black man

There is much about Freemasonry that remains shrouded in mystery to the outside world. But a group of members in the US state of Georgia appear to have clarified one thing - the supreme being in which all Masons are required to believe is not likely to be black.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jul/03/atlanta-georgia-freemasons-r...

Much-needed tax refunds
delayed from Ga. to Calif.
That prospect could soon become a reality in Georgia and Alabama, where tax officials are racing to beat a mid-July deadline to send hundreds of thousands of tax refunds or risk racking up millions of dollars in interest.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090703/ap_on_re_us/us_state_budgets_tax_ret...

http://www.gif-animator.com/

just googled this

I know nothing about the site. I do know how to make them.
how much do you want to know?

bbl - to work.

~`ordinary's just not good enough today - olp`~
Jamesbennett

here's the "formula"

I'm going to use the ( instead of the < but when you post use the <> instead of the ()

pictures or graphics ( write it down )

(img src="url address"/)

You can find the url address of a photo by right clicking on the photo and selecting properties. While you are there, check the width and if it is more than 450 you will stretch the blog.

so you can adjust the width of a picture this way:

(img src="url address" width="450"/>

That stuff stinks and I swear that it attracts bugs instead of driving them away..

I'll look at that gifs site later, too. Many thanks, jbenet, MMR, & Kevin~

Paul and I are off to find materials to modify our washing machine and bathtub so that we can capture the grey water for the herb and rose garden.

(Should have done this years ago, but we thought the rain barrels were enough.. they were good, but there's always more to do...)

Thanks for the link to BRR, Toni!

bbl

Declaring Independence Day From the "Fixed Market" Oligarchy that Runs D.C.

By Mark Karlin

The Civil War ended in 1865, but we are still two Americas.

The Republican Party is one – composed of Neo-Confederacy politicians, corporations and Wall Street titans who want fixed markets to cover their losses at the taxpayer’s expense, and fundamentalists who believe (in general) in a divine guarantee of white entitlement.

If the last century belonged to America dominance in industrial might and innovation, this century is turning out to belong to corporations and Neo-Confederates who want to stifle innovation and true entrepeneurship in order to return to a "fixed" world order a lot like the ante-bellum South: cheap labor (and you can’t get much cheaper than slaves) and a social order dominated by the wealthy white male plantation owners. The GOP and corporatists don’t want dynamic change and innovation; they want the guarantee of wealth to those who are already on top. If innovators enter the market -- let's say in relation to reducing oil consumption -- their gross profits are threatened. This you must understand: the corporations calling the shots in D.C. don't want progress and competition; they want a fixed dependency on their products.

While in the 1800s the North of the United States advanced and celebrated new inventions, industrialization, and the fruits of the enlightenment, the South lived in a delusional Biblical dream world in which God sanctioned owning other people to do your work and make you rich. It was an economy built on cheap labor and natural resources, not scientific advancement. (If this doesn’t sound like Dick Cheney to you, then you’re obviously not a BuzzFlash reader.)

Currently, the "fixed or rigged market" forces control Congress and the financial advisers that President Obama has chosen. Their goal is not to encourage innovation and the emancipation of the American worker through the creation of new industry; their goal is to stifle competition and thus prevent the unleashing of the creative American economic spirit. Their idea of a healthy economy is ensuring that they get rich and richer, not to advance the economic interests of the nation and create jobs.

Meanwhile, as the reactionary economic forces control D.C. through the power of money and the good old boys club, other nations (such as China and India) are racing ahead without the constraints of forces that are suppressing change and progress out of their own greed.

Right now, the three branches of the American government are appearing more and more beholden to the power of money, not to the people of the United States. And we are losing our economic independence more and more as our heritage of invention and creativity and economic progress is stifled by those who only want to preserve the status quo of their wealth at the expense of our nation’s future and greatness.

It is time to declare our Independence from the pernicious forces who undermine the American dream and our Constitutional right to a level economic playing field, it is time for a democratic revolution that will unleash another era of American innovation and job growth.

More:

http://blog.buzzflash.com/node/8901

Posting Spooner's work is the highlight of this mock-holiday week for me, thanks...

http://www.lysanderspooner.org/bib_new.htm

annoying to me, next to christmas...

escaped"

Turning now from our constitution, as it is in theory, and looking at our government, as it is in practice, what do we find? Do we find our national government securing to all its citizens the right~ which it is constitutionally bound to secure to them? No. It does not know, nor even profess to know, for [*29] itself, who its own citizens are. It does not even profess to have any citizens, except such as the separate States may see fit to allow it to have. It dares not perform the first political duty towards the people of the United States individually, without first humbly asking the permission of the State governments. It ventures timidly, and hat in hand, within each State, as if fearful of being treated as an intruder, and obsequiously inquires if the State government will be pleased to allow “the supreme law of the land” the privilege of having a few citizens within the State, to save it from falling into contempt, and becoming a dead letter? Shamefacedly confessing its own barrenness, it simply offers itself as a dry nurse to any political children whom the States may see fit to commit partially to its care. Some of the States, confiding in its subserviency and desire to please, graciously suffer the forlorn and harmless creature to busy itself in various subordinate services, such as carrying letters, &c , for all their citizens. Others, less gracious towards it, or less disposed to allow their citizens the luxury of such a servant, give it strict orders to do nothing for these, those, and the others of their people - the exceptions amounting, in some States, to one half of the whole population. And the submissive creature follows these instruc­tions to the letter, living, as it does, in perpetual fear lest the slightest transgression, on its part, should be followed by its summary dismissal from the political household. The only dig­nity left it is its name. It still calls itself the United States Government; fancies it has citizens of its own, whom it protects; plumes itself, i1i the eyes of the world, on its greatness and strength; talks contemptuously, and even indignantly, of those governments that suffer their subjects to be oppressed; and ostentatiously proffers its protection to those of all lands who will accept it. Yet all the while the aifrighted and imbecile thing sees its own citizens snatched away from it, at the rate of a hundred thousand per annum, by the State governments, and dares neither lift its finger, nor raise its voice, to save one of them from the auctioneer’s block, the slave-driver’s whip, the ravisher’s lust, the kidnapper’s rapacity, or the ruffian’s violence. The number of its living citizens (to say nothing of the dead) of [*30] whom it has thus been robbed, amounts at this day to some four millions; and the number doubles in every twenty-five years. Nevertheless, its greatest anxiety still is lest its servility and acquiescence shall not be so complete as to satisfy these kidnap­pers of its citizens. The only symptom of courage it dares ever exhibit, as against a State, is when it attempts some rapacious or unequal taxation, or commits the unnatural crime of pursuing its own flying citizens, not to protect them, but to subject them again to the tyranny from which they have once escaped.

http://www.lysanderspooner.org/address.htm

ADDRESS OF THE FREE CONSTITUTIONALISTS TO THE PEOPLE OF TUE UNITED STATES.

According to news received by the International Committee against Executions, 29 people are to be executed tomorrow, Saturday, in Ghezal Hesar prison in Karaj. It has been reported that the 29 have been separated from other prisoners. There is no information on their charges.

The executions are being carried out in order to intimidate people and is directed at the protesting people of Iran.

We are calling for people in Iran and everywhere to condemn the executions and exert pressure to stop them.

http://shooresh1917.blogspot.com/2009/07/29-people-to-be-executed-tomorr...

This just ruined my day. Sorry to post this news.

N.Y. Times Editorial: “Let Them Run”

July 4th, 2009

The July 4 New York Times has this editorial, titled “Let Them Run.” It criticizes President Obama and other leading Democrats who are trying to persuade various New York Democrats not to mount a primary challenge in 2010 to appointed incumbent Senator Kirsten Gillibrand. The editorial says, “An election should offer choices.”

The editorial is a refreshing change from a New York Times editorial of June 30, 2000, which said that Ralph Nader and Pat Buchanan should not run for president, so as to make it possible for the two major party candidates to “compete on an uncluttered playing field.”

must ruin your day too...

Officials, Congress and Reporters

Mike Allen’s story on Politico today on how The Washington Post attempted to sell access to Obama administration officials, members of Congress and the Post’s reporters for the small price of $25,000-250,000 is a must read. In an ironic twist, the pay-for-access scandal was brought to public light by a health care lobbyist who was given a flier promoting one of the Washington Post’s exclusive “Salons.”

Key excerpts from Politico:

“Underwriting Opportunity: An evening with the right people can alter the debate,” says the one-page flier. “Underwrite and participate in this intimate and exclusive Washington Post Salon, an off-the-record dinner and discussion at the home of CEO and Publisher Katharine Weymouth. … Bring your organization’s CEO or executive director literally to the table. Interact with key Obama administration and congressional leaders.”

[…]

The flier says: “Spirited? Yes. Confrontational? No. The relaxed setting in the home of Katharine Weymouth assures it. What is guaranteed is a collegial evening, with Obama administration officials, Congress members, business leaders, advocacy leaders and other select minds typically on the guest list of 20 or less. …

“Offered at $25,000 per sponsor, per Salon. Maximum of two sponsors per Salon. Underwriters’ CEO or Executive Director participates in the discussion. Underwriters appreciatively acknowledged in printed invitations and at the dinner. Annual series sponsorship of 11 Salons offered at $250,000 … Hosts and Discussion Leaders … Health-care reporting and editorial staff members of The Washington Post … An exclusive opportunity to participate in the health-care reform debate among the select few who will actually get it done. … A Washington Post Salon … July 21, 2009 6:30 p.m. …

“Washington Post Salons are extensions of The Washington Post brand of journalistic inquiry into the issues, a unique opportunity for stakeholders to hear and be heard,” the flier says. “At the core is a critical topic of our day. Dinner and a volley of ideas unfold in an evening of intelligent, news-driven and off-the-record conversation. … By bringing together those powerful few in business and policy-making who are forwarding, legislating and reporting on the issues, Washington Post Salons give life to the debate. Be at this nexus of business and policy with your underwriting of Washington Post Salons.”

The Washington Post has not—as yet—cancelled its Salons, but issued a statement saying the flier was not “properly vetted and this draft does not represent what the company’s vision for these dinners are.” The Post’s news division says its staff will not participate in these meetings.

http://rebelreports.com/post/134201399/for-25-250k-washington-post-offer...

We Continue to Support a Right-Wing Thug in Colombia

By Liliana Segura

Alvaro Uribe could be re-elected through just the type of referendum the ousted Manuel Zelaya has been accused of trying to carry out.

The agitator is the center post in the washing machine that gets the dirt out.

http://www.alternet.org/story/141055/this_july_4th,_rebel_and_agitate_fo...

Against U.S. Drone Attacks

By Jeremy Scahill

Damn those ungrateful Pakistanis. After U.S. drone attacks killed more than 600 of their people since 2006—most of them civilians—it seems they think they have some right to say they don’t want the U.S. flying its “aid” planes to Swat and other “tribal areas.” The New York Times reports that “the Pakistani authorities have refused to allow American workers or planes to distribute the aid in the camps for displaced people.” The paper reports:

Islamist charities and the United States are competing for the allegiance of the two million people displaced by the fight against the Taliban in Swat and other parts of Pakistan — and so far, the Islamists are in the lead.

Top US officials (and the Times) make no apologies for the fact that the aid is intended primarily as a counter-insurgency program:

The inconspicuous back seat is not what American officials had hoped for. At first, the huge exodus of people from Swat, many of whom had suffered from the brutality of the Taliban, seemed to present an opportunity for Washington to improve its image in Pakistan.

“There is an opportunity actually to provide services, much as we did with the earthquake relief, which had a profound impact on the perception of America,” Senator John Kerry, the Massachusetts Democrat who serves as chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, said during a hearing attended by the Obama administration’s special envoy, Richard C. Holbrooke, at the start of the exodus.

Here is the best part of the U.S. effort:

In an effort to highlight American concern for the refugees, Mr. Holbrooke visited the camps in June, sitting on the floor of a sweltering tent and talking to people about their plight. “President Obama has sent us to see how we can help you,” he said.

Poor Dick Holbrooke, having to sit in that sweaty tent. I really hope someone at that meeting said, “Obama can help us by stopping his regular, deadly bombings.” The Times claims that what came out of the meeting “was an effort to send Pakistani-American female doctors to assist women in the camps, who according to their cultural traditions must be treated by women.”
...

http://rebelreports.com/post/134157621/pakistanis-reject-u-s-aid-flights...

A practice board..

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I hope this helps.. :)

"Hello to our friends and fans in domestic surveillance."

I get to be close to people having a good time -
help bring some of the good time to them -
[and double time]

~`ordinary's just not good enough today - olp`~
Jamesbennett

...Sorry,I had to take off for abit..
Submitted by MMRules on Sat, 07/04/2009 - 3:37pm.

Fuck Off!
Submitted by Ducavurl on Sat, 07/04/2009 - 2:21pm.
That stuff stinks...

"Hello to our friends and fans in domestic surveillance."

Submitted by jbenet on Sat, 07/04/2009 - 4:19pm.
I get to be close to people having a good time -
help bring some of the good time to them -
[and double time]
-----------
You have reminded me of a comedy skit.

Department store Santa: "Ho, ho, ho! I love bringing joy to the hearts of little children! Ho, ho, ho!"

Interviewer: "Is that what attracted you to this job?"

Santa: "That, and I lost my previous job."

Interviewer: "What did you do before this?"

Santa: "I served summonses for a divorce attorney."

Sanford heads for Florida for tense reunion with wife
New York Daily News - David Saltonstall - ‎21 hours ago‎
------
"HI, honey. I'm HO-ome."

"Don't you 'honey' ME, you son-of-a-bitch."

she around?
been wondering how she's doing

~`ordinary's just not good enough today - olp`~
Jamesbennett

By ROGER BURBACH

The coup against Manuel Zelaya of Honduras represents a last ditch effort by Honduras’ entrenched economic and political interests to stave off the advance of the new left governments that have taken hold in Latin America over the past decade. As Zelaya proclaimed after being forcibly dumped in Costa Rica: “This is a vicious plot planned by elites. The elites only want to keep the country isolated and in extreme poverty.”

Zelaya should know, since his roots are in the country’s large, land-owning class, having devoted most of his life to agriculture and forestry enterprises that he inherited. He ran for president as the head of the center-right Liberal Party on a fairly conservative platform, promising to be tough on crime and to cut the budget. Inaugurated in January, 2006, he supported the US-backed Central American Free Trade Agreement, which been signed two years earlier, and continued the economic policies of neo-liberalism, privatizing state held enterprises.

But about half way into his four year term, the winds of change blowing from the south caught his imagination, particularly those coming from Hugo Chavez’s Venezuela, the largest regional power fronting on the Caribbean. With no petroleum resources, Honduras signed a generous oil subsidy deal with Venezuela, and then last year joined the emergent regional trade bloc, ALBA, the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas. Inspired by Venezuela it now has Bolivia, Cuba, Nicaragua, Dominica and Ecuador as members. Simultaneously, Zelaya implemented domestic reform policies, significantly increasing the minimum wage of workers and teachers’ salaries, while stepping up spending in health care and education.

The upshot is that a reform-minded president supported by labor unions and social organizations is now pitted against a mafia-like, drug-ridden, corrupt political elite that is accustomed to controlling the Supreme Court, as well as congress and the presidency. It is a story often repeated elsewhere in Latin America, with the United States almost always weighing in on the side of the established, entrenched interests...
http://www.counterpunch.org/burbach07032009.html

Our money system is not what we have been led to believe. The creation of money has been "privatized," or taken over by a private money cartel. Except for coins, all of our money is now created as loans advanced by private banking institutions — including the private Federal Reserve. Banks create the principal but not the interest to service their loans. To find the interest, new loans must continually be taken out, expanding the money supply, inflating prices — and robbing you of the value of your money.

Not only is virtually the entire money supply created privately by banks, but a mere handful of very big banks is responsible for a massive investment scheme known as "derivatives," which now tallies in at hundreds of trillions of dollars. The banking system has been contrived so that these big banks always get bailed out by the taxpayers from their risky ventures, but the scheme has reached its mathematical limits. There isn't enough money in the entire global economy to bail out the banks from a massive derivatives default today. When the investors realize that the "insurance" against catastrophe that they have purchased in the form of derivatives is worthless, they are liable to jump ship and bring the whole shaky edifice crashing down.
Ellen Hodgson Brown
http://www.webofdebt.com/

Honduras Solidarity July 04, 2009
By Danny Glover

Please join me in solidarity with the people of Honduras to determine their own future.

I urge all to support the citizens of Honduras in their demand that President Manuel Zelaya be restored immediately to his constitutionally elected post and authority as President of Honduras. It is imperative that citizens across the United States write and call upon President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to quickly execute every available influence to ensure that President Zelaya is safely returned to his post.

Your voices are urgently needed to encourage our government to exercise its influence to ensure that the Ambassadors of Cuba, Venezuela, and Nicaragua who have been violently kidnapped are not harmed and are immediately safely returned.

The flowering of Participatory Democracy in Latin America has been ruthlessly assaulted by anti-democratic sectors of the Honduran elite in collusion with sectors of the armed forces. Their shameless violation of constitutional laws can not be allowed to take hold. The coup d'état against President Zelaya is a threat to the growing desire and organization of citizens across our hemisphere to more actively seek forms and agendas of governance to achieve their basic social, economic, cultural, and political well being.

Sincerely

Danny Glover

{& I do not mean Sir Crank .. snicker}

chicken or tofu "hot"dogs

to be learned from Honduras:
As we know, President Zelaya was elected as a Center/Right candidate. Supported free trade. However he is now a threat to the Honduranl elite. Why? Because he shifted to the left. Trade unions and social justice organizations had something to do with that, as has the changes in other Central and South American nations. If they can do it, why can't the US do likewise?

What Was Colonial Life Really Like?
Submitted by Leah on Sat, 07/04/2009 - 1:42pm.
In Colonial America, the rich were getting richer and the poor were getting much poorer. In 1687 in Boston, the top 1% owned about 25% of the wealth. By 1770, the top 1% owned 44%. In those same years, the poor--those who owned no property--represented 14% in 1687 and 29% in 1770.

In the various colonies the wealthy merchant class introduced property qualifications for voting in order to disenfranchise the poor and protect their own privileges:

In Pennsylvania, white males had to have 50 pounds of "lawful money" or own fifty acres of land.
The result was that only 8% of the rural population and 2% of the urban population of Philadelphia could vote

George Washington was the richest man in America, a man who enslaved 216 human beings who were not emancipated until after he and his wife had both died. Benjamin Franklin had a personal fortune worth at least $20 million in today's money. He was a champion of the Quaker plutocrats in Philadelphia and vigorously opposed the democratic western farmers of Pennsylvania.
more:http://www.hermes-press.com/completing.htm

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

Interesting.

I did read that Ben Franklin had strong feelings and criticisms about extreme Christian sect behavior and violent behavior. I understood he moved to Philadelphia because there was less violent expression of religion there. He appreciated freedom -- having been very unhappy in the experience of servitude status as an apprentice. Also, the western PA farmers -- weren't they extremely violent and aggressive in the manner they were treating native Americans? That's all I've got rolling around in my memory bank on this.

Franklin became an active abolitionist after the American Revolution.

I didn't ever get that Franklin was an elitest. He always worked to form community, joint efforts to better stimulate education (starting a public university offering scholarships), started public libraries, and the post office.

I think Franklin deserves to be placed into a really separate category of secular renaissance man and egalitarian. That he was a good networker, successful businessman, publisher and inventor (improving the technology of printing), I don't think should detract from his caring nature and amazing contributions.

Thanks for that post.

that Ben Franklin was an amazing and complex man. He did have more of a populist streak than, say, John Adams, but there were times when he sided with the elite. He went along with the elitist Constitution. Supported rule by the "better classes" over the so-called riff-raff. No Tom Paine, to be sure, but he was a leading physicist.

Advocates Should Turn Attention to Promoting Legislation, President Says

President Obama, strategizing yesterday with congressional leaders about health-care reform, complained that liberal advocacy groups ought to drop their attacks on Democratic lawmakers and devote their energy to promoting passage of comprehensive legislation.

In a pre-holiday call with half a dozen top House and Senate Democrats, Obama expressed his concern over advertisements and online campaigns targeting moderate Democrats, whom they criticize for not being fully devoted to "true" health-care reform.

"We shouldn't be focusing resources on each other," Obama opined in the call, according to three sources who participated in or listened to the conversation. "We ought to be focused on winning this debate."

Specifically, Obama said he is hoping left-leaning organizations that worked on his behalf in the presidential campaign will now rally support for "advancing legislation" that fulfills his goal of expanding coverage, controlling rising costs and modernizing the health system.

In the call, leaders of both chambers expressed optimism that they will hold floor votes on legislation to overhaul the $2.2 trillion health system before Congress breaks in early August.

For his part, the president vowed to use his strong approval rating with voters to continue making the case for sweeping reform, according to one congressional staffer with knowledge of the conversation. Obama also hinted that efforts are under way to discourage allies from future attacks on Democrats, according to the source, who did not have permission to speak on the record about the discussion.

The White House had no comment on the president's call.
...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/03/AR200907...

http://www.pbs.org/benfranklin/l3_citizen_abolitionist.html

[excerpt]

The abolitionist movement in colonial America was fairly limited and considered quite radical. By the mid-1770s, a number of abolitionist organizations had begun to form.

After Franklin returned from France in 1785, he joined and eventually became president of an abolitionist group founded a decade earlier by the Pennsylvania Quakers. The group was called the Society for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery and the Relief of Negroes Unlawfully Held in Bondage. Franklin was convinced that not only the slave trade, but slavery itself should be eliminated. He eventually freed his own two slaves.

Franklin recognized that freed slaves could not fend for themselves without help, so he advanced the idea that slaves needed to be educated in order to become contributing members of a free society. In his position of president of the abolitionist society, Franklin wrote and published an "Address to the Public," in which he addressed the education of former slaves. The plan was to "instruct, to advise, to qualify those who have been restored to freedom, for the exercise and enjoyment of civil liberty; to promote in them habits of industry, to furnish them with employment suited to their age, sex, talents, and other circumstances. . . which we conceive will essentially promote the public good, and the happiness of these hitherto much neglected fellow-creatures."

[end excerpt]

...when writing about in the wee hours of the night to "mourn", I had to leave "me mentally" when I was reading.

Honduras Solidarity
new
Submitted by Leah on Sat, 07/04/2009 - 5:44pm.
Honduras Solidarity July 04, 2009
By Danny Glover

Please join me in solidarity with the people of Honduras to determine their own future.

I urge all to support the citizens of Honduras in their demand that President Manuel Zelaya be restored immediately to his constitutionally elected post and authority as President of Honduras. It is imperative that citizens across the United States write and call upon President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to quickly execute every available influence to ensure that President Zelaya is safely returned to his post.
...continue above Leah Post...

...other Leah article re Honduras...
http://www.counterpunch.org/burbach07032009.html

oh woe is me...

I haven't seen him here in a while..

I emailed him last night but,nothing back yet..

Thanks..

"Hello to our friends and fans in domestic surveillance."

Obama Urges [Left] Groups to Stop Attacks [on him]
new
Submitted by Alice on Sat, 07/04/2009 - 6:31pm.
Advocates Should Turn Attention to Promoting Legislation, President Says

President Obama, strategizing yesterday with congressional leaders about health-care reform, complained that liberal advocacy groups ought to drop their attacks on Democratic lawmakers and devote their energy to promoting passage of comprehensive legislation.

...
================================

Maybe he and the Dem legislators should promote legislation and take positions that are worthy of full support from the Left! Sheesh.

F O R G O T T E N
F O U N D E R S
By Bruce E. Johansen

Benjamin Franklin, the Iroquois
and the Rationale for the
American Revolution
http://www.ratical.org/many_worlds/6Nations/FF.html

Enjoy yourselves, all holiday bloggahs!

Will check back later....

It is much better politically in Central and South America today than it was in the 1980s. Leftists are getting elected in lots of places. And the right has fewer tools to beat them back. The coup of '02? Unlike Chile in 1973, it was defeated. No Death Squads, too.
Keep up the solidarity work.

;|

previous post...(much) ;D {alright I will NOW force-read ;}
"I just want to have fun ..." & wine should still be good 4 this day kinda... :D

Tea & Wine & Water Cheers
i guess this cheap CA "Cab" was a bit chewy, and still is,
but weirldly taste a tad better today than yesterday.
{4 many Cab = max drinkable Expensive-ish or Cheap is "usally" 3 days ;) }
;

everybody on stage

~`ordinary's just not good enough today - olp`~
Jamesbennett

before I could respond.

i'm delighted we are'nt in a debtors prison camp somewhere!

i'm reading about one of the incredible wonders we have in Arizona.

Nonnezoshe

http://www.fullbooks.com/Tales-of-lonely-trails1.html

A book by Zane Grey

four skin divers

~`ordinary's just not good enough today - olp`~
Jamesbennett

"Sea" above post by jbenet teehee lol lol lol

Something has got to change re our regular M.O. {modus operandi}

...because I can no longer endure... and I know what happened last time {snicker}.
;)
mwah haha
i'm just say'n
;

http://www.samsedershow.com/node/4985#comments

he bit the end off a submarine
because he heard it was full of seamen.

~`ordinary's just not good enough today - olp`~
Jamesbennett

Sea, it is full of gifts

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