Open

..but the Democrats best give up some candidates worth voting for or you'll see Mass. replayed over 'n over 'n over...

It's a battle for the independents and if Obama and the Democratic Congress don't produce some meaningful change quickly the Republican's only have to say "We ain't them" and will get the non-ideologue swing vote because they can claim to be the party of change.

Sammy, You remind me on TYT to be to Cenk as Bender to Bobbie & Pap. It would be so perfect, I might watch TYT AGAIN! :D

Thanks. I knew you would know. :)

Great shoe, do it some more!!!

yeah it's the biggest "look over here" moment in corporate mass media marketing and folks from all over the world will remark on their favorite commercial for days and weeks on end. Perhaps it's a local thang moment where friends and family gather, perhaps it's one day to escape the global madness, perhaps it's one day Corporate Media tests ALL of US on its Global Marketing Campaign to see what sells. The irony of it all is that at halftime The Who will play "Won't Get Fooled Again" (meet the new boss same as the old boss) and NOBODY WILL GET IT while they're being laid off or losing their unemployment compensation or losing their house or going bankrupt from some medical malady while the "MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE" are raking in RECORD PROFITS AND BONUSES ON THE BACKS OF U.S. TAXPAYERS. Such is the power of The Corporate Media.

Brick TeeVee XL-IV Economy Special!
http://www.samsedershow.com/node/5645
Brick TeeVee XL-IV Economy Special!

We like the WHO DAT NATION in an historic UPSET.
FWIW.

Every news show, every radio news segment -- they can't stop talking about her. It is sick.

She had 600 attendees listening to her?

As Karel pointed out last week -- progressive radio talk show host events have had sizeable crowds. Hartmann had a capacity event for the venue this weekend -- 300. What if it had been a larger capacity venue?

Nowhere in the media's analysis of 'alternatives to the 2-party system' is Palin's draw compared to anybody else's. And certainly not compared to Ralph Nader's!!! Nader brought in THOUSANDS in stadiums. But of course the media won't mention Nader because in their world Nader and the people who supported Nader NEVER EXISTED IN THE FIRST PLACE!

All this Palin hype is smoke and mirrors by the Corporatist corporate media either because they think her freakishness will improve ratings or because they purposely desire to undermine the voters' right to legitimate candidates or BOTH.

Look. The Media Corporations so enjoyed its past successes in presidency tampering! They just want to taste the thrill of that again. Look how succcessful the MSM was at convincing Americans that a senile old man was an active president -- resulting in the myth of the Reagan Legacy. Oh, that was a challenge, but it was worth it. Then there was Dubya, and it wasn't easy making an ex(?)-cocaine-sniffing, dry drunk frat party boy, brain-damaged incompetent look like a legitimate candidate for governor and president, but the media kept a HEAVY lid on Dubya's biography and wasteland of failures and -- voila! -- he was THERE when the Media called him the winner even though he lost, and he was there when the Supreme Court blocked a real count of the votes in Florida! It was close, but what a thrill!

And, now Palin. To make Palin the first woman president? What a coup that would be...not to mention that it would set back women's ambitions for equal opportunity and status for generations, on top of giving the American Taliban the ability to tear down whatever institutions of government remain left in tatters by Bush Jr. This could be the Corporate Media's finest hour in terms of realizing their fascist agenda of opening the way to complete Privatization and Consolidation of American wealth in the hands of a few.

They would have covered this teabagger event if only twelve had shown up. It is that important to them to create this candidate. If they have to do it out of THIN AIR, they will.

That's what it looks like in the wee hours of Saturday night insomnia.

Can't the FBI just go get them from the NSA?

Anyway, here's the story--

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-10448060-38.html?tag=newsLeadStoriesAr...

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2010/02/06/national/a09...

You were there for the duration almost.

Somebody's gonna write one, might as well be you and possibly some reseacher co-author. Part memoir, part detailed timeline, perhaps?

Hearing your short amount of reminiscence Friday was absorbing....

http://www.truthout.org/white-racial-resentment-bubbles-under-surface-te...

[excerpt]

White Racial Resentment Bubbles Under the Surface of the Tea Party Movement

Friday 05 February 2010

by: Rich Benjamin | AlterNet

(Photo: cometstarmoon / Flickr)
The simmering movement is the whitest phenomenon on the national scene, evident not just in its Caucasian numbers but in the bedrock beliefs stirring its anti-government contempt.
Editor's Note: Rich Benjamin's commentary on the underlying "white grievance" currents in the Tea Party movement were buttressed Thursday by the statements of Republican Tom Tancredo, the opening speaker at the Tea Party convention. Tancredo told attendees that President Barack Obama was elected because "we do not have a civics, literacy test before people can vote in this country," an allusion to how Southern states used literacy tests as part of an effort to deny suffrage to African American voters before the civil rights era.

The Tea Party movement, holding its first convention this weekend, is angling to be the most revolutionary force in American politics in name and in deed, since at least the 1960s counterculture. Only this time, the political insurgents command a party of Flour Power, not flower power.

[end excerpt]

http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&I...

they're really parsing that interview, aren't they? now they left us hangin for episode 4; i guess they really pitching for those donations

excellent stuff: to recap, key words: the right wing base has fire in the belly, the progressive base does not; the republican base makes demands, the progressive base gets activated on the net makes donations and campaigns but does not make demands to the same degrees as rightwingers; the unions do not make demands and for the most part have not been a reliable force for progress (wow, who would have thought! but i must agree); the right wings go for war; the left wings go for truce

enough's enough, we gotta give them no quarter

i agree with jeff cohen, we need to primary any democrat who has campaigned progressive and delivered mush centrism; obama will need to be primaried, that dog landrieu certainly does, sheez, i wonder if we have enough time for that - she up in november 2010 and this is effing louisiana... maybe i should run, not sure i can as i was foreign born....

anyway, i am fired up, coffeed up and ready to go

where's the yathink panel, wake up people

i think i heard malloy mention something like that, that he was working on it, or was it his friend shelby drobny? i think he did write one, or was in the process, anyway i recall him saying that he was waiting for aar to go down completely before he could spill the beans without being sued; i think they put a gag order on all these ex-employees, kinda like paying them salaries even after firing (what a dumb thing to do by the way, sam's right, dumb dumb)

i agree totally on your commentary, they do wanna shove her down our throats; lately i have also stopped watching ed and keith because seems like every time i tune in there's a commercial (their shows are 30% commercials) or sarah' stomach turning face and ass on the monitor, so i immediately turn off in disgust without even needing to un-mute the tv (my tv is constantly on mute just for safe measure)

palin, yeah because what america really needs at this turn in the road is another retarded president; i'd like to put this into a bumper sticker and no, i am not afraid to use the word, she's retarded and so is the whole media establishment that promotes her

Minor set backup in that I don't have coffee yet. Had to soak my new filters before I could make some water to use to make the coffee. We could use you in the discussion today wish you'd get the Skype goin'.

..they are slow to catch on to what is best for everyone, not just the pluto-corporacy, the fascist asses.

glory was asking me

Did you learn some British English first or go straight to US?

concerning smelt, i love that fish! it reminds me of the small mediterraneans like anchovies and sardines, though not really, just size-wise i guess; i always get the smelt roe with quail egg when i go to eat sushi

i know that wasn't your question, now about english; yes ii learnt it in high school and you could say it was british because it was really the beatles that taught me english; was a big fan so i had to learn the words of all the songs; watched the movie a hard day's night over and over in original language; had an english pen pal to exchange correspondence with and she sent me all the little magazines put out by the beatles' fan club... and yes i did live in london for a while after i left italy for good, and was flirting with the idea of moving there, getting a job and a house etc, but somehow it didn't work out that way, i think it was probably the grey and gloomy london weather that deterred me

but i really started speaking english daily during my travels to india, nepal, thailand and malaysia, so my second influence was "pidgeon" english, this weird mixture that suited my italian accent anyway and it was kinda disgusting when i look back on it, really, but this phase didn't last long, because soon i got engaged with this american guy from new york who was to be my husband so my idiom soon became american english

and put the popovers in the oven.

yeah i'd like to participate but skyping, i'm not up to it

i would also be shy to participate, to be honest, because you guys have all gotten so good and comfortable in your talks, i would clem up (is that a word?) see, i still have to look for words, they just don't flow that easily out of me

and when i get excited i talk too fast, remember?

good ole stage fright. i know that feeling well. the fun part though is that if you get over it, they usually have trouble getting you to shut up.

so I scrambled 2 fresh from the farm rooster bullets in some sauteed crushed red pepper, sweet red pepper and sweet onions rolled into a grill warmed tortilla liberally sprinkled with Frank's Red Sauce.

Fired up and Ready to Go doesn't even begin to describe my state of readiness, cuz the coffee is ready too! ;-)

..you're much more clear in your words than I am. There's no pressure. What you and dan would find out is that it's just like talking on the phone except it's a conference call which makes it more like we're all in the same room talking face to face.

I can relate to the stage fright part but this really is different.

and oh, i am going to work on my photos today, i am excited about my new camera

http://picasaweb.google.com/mirella.augusto/IHaveANewCamera#

our posts crossed, mb, while i was looking for this photo from yesterday you were posting about your egg breakfast

If you stare at those eggs long enough they will morph into the face of a wierd looking seafish.

Nice job mire..

clam up -

morning ya all ~
gonna go & get a cup of coffee & wait for my call
(exit stage left)
can I get my eggs over medium please with extra hash
browns & rye toast?

i'm suddenly hungry, don't know how that happened :)

but oops, we're out of rye bread; it will have to be ciabatta

have trouble hearing on the laptop, it's the max and can barely hear; chris voice ok but other peeps need to be jacked up a little

it will have to be ciabatta

coo coo coo

====

must be a skype effect because everyones on and it sounds good.

Where are you??

Missing you on BlueRootsRadio.com ....

Hugs!

not to say that none of us are "birdbrains" ~8p

and if we are hippies we are dirty (paraphrasing the corporatist rahmish wing of the party)

A funny thing happened after Adm. Mike Mullen called for gay men and lesbians to serve openly in the military: A curious silence befell much of the right. If this were a Sherlock Holmes story, it would be the case of the attack dogs that did not bark.
John McCain, commandeering the spotlight as usual, did fulminate against the repeal of “don’t ask, don’t tell.” But the press focus on McCain, the crazy man in Washington’s attic, was misleading. His yapping was an exception, not the rule.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/07/opinion/07rich.html?ref=opinion

GOOD MORNING SEDERVILLE! IT'S A SUNNY, COLD 11F.

It's not enough what the media did during the stolen elections. Neither are they feeling any regrets about their part in the two illegal wars and ultimate collapse of the country. Well, they're at it again with Palin. About 8:00 this morning she was receiving coverage on Cspan, MSNBC and CNN. It was unbelievable. Funny, when Dean had a populist movement going, it was crushed by the media.

May I offer a reminder?

------

MAKE THEM ACCOUNTABLE 12/25/03

EXCERPT:

Koppel and the rest of the corporate media actually believed that a news blackout would eliminate the intense resentment that so many Americans feel about the stolen election – by not reporting the rage they would make it disappear. These elitists are now personally offended that their approach has failed miserably, which helps to explain why they tend to describe crowds of Dean supporters in terms usually reserved for motorcycle gangs.

America’s most influential journalists are extremely comfortable with Bush; he understands that this nation should be run for people just like them. He cuts their taxes and doesn’t arouse feelings of guilt by commiserating with the unsightly vermin at the bottom of the socio-economic ladder. Unlike Bill Clinton and Al Gore, he doesn’t make the media gentry feel dumb, even though most of them are. For Koppel and his affluent peers who inhabit high society, George W. Bush is just about the perfect president. He is one of them, and he takes care of his own.

And they take care of him. They lavish him with unfounded praise and excuse him after each of his frequent pratfalls and when he lies, so do they. Bush lied about his tax cut for the rich being a tax cut for the middle class, and the media played right along with the scam. A little investigative reporting would have derailed the multi-trillion dollar transfer of wealth from the middle class to the monied elite, but the owners of the media are the monied elite, so their employees did not investigate or report.

con't

http://makethemaccountable.com/podvin/media/031225_Courtier.htm

Palin Considering 2012 Run, Defends Limbaugh's Use Of 'Retard' On Fox News Sunday

Former Alaska governor Sarah Palin didn't cage her answer when pressed Sunday morning as to whether she would consider a run for president in 2012.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/02/07/palin-considering-2012-ru_n_452...

Submitted by gbasin on Sun, 02/07/2010 - 1:04am.

He really his best live and is the perfect example of a Pisces musican. I am getting some tube amps fixed for him just tonight as you posted this. he resides on an island in Seattle and his wife is a very good artist. I would like to meet you by seeing and hearing how you post. I took him to the Apollo to be on with Elvis Costello 's show which was a blast to be in on that.. today I will get the Oregon group to a studio to record new material after 30 years (Ralph Towner's band.) I think you would like them alot.

Bill plays alot with Ron Carter the bass player from miles davis herbie hancock
period . Ron just got a French medal something like being SIR Ron carter. He had a little celebration with champagne and his friends( I was honored to be invited.) Ron has quite a collection of modern art in his crib. Bill has been making records with JIm Hall another master guitarist on Artist Share records
. ..

Submitted by smcgee43 on Sun, 02/07/2010 - 10:29am.
Palin Considering 2012 Run, Defends Limbaugh's Use Of 'Retard' On Fox News Sunda
-----

Come on Smcgee. You're as smart as a whip. Did you really think she was going to call out Limbaugh?

THE MEDIA COVER-UP OF THE GORE VICTORY
PART FOUR: DEMOCRACY, GENERAL ELECTRIC STYLE

EXCERPT:

Shortly after George W. Bush declared his candidacy for president in June of 1999, General Electric Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Jack Welch was contacted by Bush political advisor Karl Rove. Welch later informed associates that Rove told him a Bush administration would initiate comprehensive deregulation of the broadcast industry. Rove guaranteed that deregulation would be implemented in a way that would create phenomenal profits for conglomerates with significant media holdings, like GE. Rove forcefully argued that General Electric and the other media giants had a compelling financial interest to see Bush become president.

http://www.makethemaccountable.com/coverup/Part_04.htm

"Did you really think she was going to call out Limbaugh?"

ST. CHARLES STREETCAR CAM ...
Parade Soon ;) Tea &/or Wine Cheers ;D
{oooOOOooo FUN ;) 2B a voyeur but with no sex nor pain attached hehehe ;}

Total chaos?

As was said[cent?] Take it over don't leave it.

~`ordinary's just not good enough today - olp`~
Jamesbenet
plad
Blue Roots Radio

The Media Is the Mess
By Robert Parry
July 17, 2001

EXCERPT:

By having a powerful media of its own – from TV networks to nationwide talk radio, from news magazines to daily newspapers – the conservative movement can give its stamp to events during the crucial few days when the public is paying attention. By the time, the truth comes out – if it does – it's often too late to change the outcome.

con't

http://www.consortiumnews.com/2001/071601a.html

Submitted by edna ellen poe on Sun, 02/07/2010 - 10:51am.

is that Barfaloma (Tart?) that is on CNBC financial news. She sucks {that's how she got the gig}

Ge had to sell it's NBC stuff to bail them out of rediculoso loans ,yet barfaloma stays on .I guess she is passed around as community property amongst the Worst Players in the M$M> I really dislike her(can't you tell)

A friend/neighbor sold some paintings to Jack Welch last month and his Karma has caught up with him and he is spiralling down into bad dope with the 20 grand he made. Any connection to Welch is a bad thing the paintings were terrible mostly black bubbles, it fits somehow.

Worldfocus was launched in October 2008 as a nightly broadcast focused exclusively on international news. The program aims to fill a major void in television news, which devoted just seven percent of its airtime in 2008 to world news.
At a time when most major news organizations are closing foreign bureaus and cutting back on overseas staff, Worldfocus brings viewers a truly global perspective on the world around them:
* Every weeknight, our 30-minute program airs breaking news and reports from our partners, which represent media in over 50 nations and include some of the most respected news organizations in the world. We select stories that offer viewers fresh insight and information on the issues that are transforming our society and those throughout the world.
* News stories are paired with studio interviews conducted by host Daljit Dhaliwal and featuring a diverse range of analysts from academia, diplomacy, and international media. On Friday, our roundtable offers an intelligent recap of the week’s most topical stories with a rotating series of guests.
* Worldfocus also offers original content — our signature stories — on topics rarely seen on television news, such as global health care; human rights and conflict; and women’s changing roles around the globe.
Worldfocus reaches across multiple platforms. The website features full episodes of Worldfocus, individual show segments and web exclusive video. Extended coverage multimedia pages combine web original reporting with news stories from the broadcast.

http://worldfocus.org/

Thanks for the info,
WTTW Tv-11 and WYCC Tv-20 are about
the only Chicago Tv stations I watch.

I'll have to remember to look for that show.

sometimes I wish the blog was more concerned with world focus issues.
It seems we get preoccupied with state politics. I was annoyed last night to hear the BBC talking about Sarah Palin. I guess they want to distract US from more inportant issues like getting Tony Blair or the problems with worldwide banking scandals or the effects of International CODEX rulings

Yeah I like the show - I find it very informative.
I like the host's 2.

Submitted by mire on Sun, 02/07/2010 - 8:30am.
...i would also be shy to participate, to be honest, because you guys have all gotten so good and comfortable in your talks, i would clem up (is that a word?)
-----------
It is if you learned English by listening to Firesign Theatre records.

in that picture Submitted by smcgee43 on Sun, 02/07/2010 - 11:37am.it seems she has notes written on her left hand?

Oh # 43!
Submitted by edna ellen poe on Sun, 02/07/2010 - 10:36am.
-----------
That's Ms. 43 to you.

Obama the peace president is fighting battles his country cannot afford

By ERIC MARGOLIS, QMI Agency

Last Updated: 5th February 2010, 1:25pm

U.S. President Barack Obama calls the $3.8-trillion US budget he just sent to Congress a major step in restoring America’s economic health.

In fact, it’s another potent fix given to a sick patient deeply addicted to the dangerous drug — debt.

More empires have fallen because of reckless finances than invasion. The latest example was the Soviet Union, which spent itself into ruin by buying tanks.

Washington’s deficit (the difference between spending and income from taxes) will reach a vertiginous $1.6 trillion US this year. The huge sum will be borrowed, mostly from China and Japan, to which the U.S. already owes $1.5 trillion. Debt service will cost $250 billion.

To spend $1 trillion, one would have had to start spending $1 million daily soon after Rome was founded and continue for 2,738 years until today.

Obama’s total military budget is nearly $1 trillion. This includes Pentagon spending of $880 billion. Add secret black programs (about $70 billion); military aid to foreign nations like Egypt, Israel and Pakistan; 225,000 military “contractors” (mercenaries and workers); and veterans’ costs. Add $75 billion (nearly four times Canada’s total defence budget) for 16 intelligence agencies with 200,000 employees.

The Afghanistan and Iraq wars ($1 trillion so far), will cost $200-250 billion more this year, including hidden and indirect expenses. Obama’s Afghan “surge” of 30,000 new troops will cost an additional $33 billion — more than Germany’s total defence budget.

No wonder U.S. defence stocks rose after Peace Laureate Obama’s “austerity” budget.

Military and intelligence spending relentlessly increase as unemployment heads over 10% and the economy bleeds red ink. America has become the Sick Man of the Western Hemisphere, an economic cripple like the defunct Ottoman Empire.

The Pentagon now accounts for half of total world military spending. Add America’s rich NATO allies and Japan, and the figure reaches 75%.

China and Russia combined spend only a paltry 10% of what the U.S. spends on defence.

There are 750 U.S. military bases in 50 nations and 255,000 service members stationed abroad, 116,000 in Europe, nearly 100,000 in Japan and South Korea.

continued....> torontosun.com <

.
.
.
_ _ _
brr

brl vod | wtf

Move along. Nothing to see here.

Mildred's Temple Kitchen, Canadian Restaurant, Encourages Sex In Its Bathrooms ~
Visitors to Mildred's Temple Kitchen, a restaurant in Toronto, Canada, are invited to spice up their love life this Valentine's Day with a trip to the bathroom.
"Have you given any thought to moving beyond the bedroom?" patrons were asked in a not-too-subtle promotional e-mail.
The individual bathrooms will be open for sexual escapades from the 12-15th February. According to the manager, Rory Gallagher, a french maid will be working the toilets, making sure everything is "going smoothly and kept clean."
"We've always had little trysts in our bathrooms," co-owner Donna Dooher told The Toronto Star. "We're taking it to the next level on Valentine's weekend." She added that customers are expected to bring their own condoms.
Perhaps surprisingly, Toronto's Public Health food safety program manager said the restaurant wasn't breaking any laws as long as there's no intercourse in the kitchen and the bathrooms are kept clean.
"As far as bodily fluids, it's pretty much similar to the other human functions going on in there," said Chan, slightly undercutting the erotic value of the venture.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/02/04/mildreds-temple-kitchen-c_n_449...

In old Jazz musican parlance a clam is a mistake. Mire might have made a typo n'est pas?

After 20 years, oil from the Exxon Valdez disaster is still trapped on beaches in Alaska.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/34908872/ns/us_news-environment/

Wars sending U.S. into ruin
Submitted by Jmach1JP on Sun, 02/07/2010 - 11:45am.

If we woke up everyday to this kind of info on The M$M I think we could possibly recover and save the planet.

Joseph Stiglitz
guardian.co.uk, Saturday 6 February 2010 12.00 GMT

The president is trying to please everyone, but he needs to take
tough action to prevent the US economy's second freefall

Defeat in the Massachusetts senatorial election has deprived US
Democrats of the 60 votes needed to pass healthcare reform and other legislation, and it has changed American politics – at least for the moment. But what does that vote say about American voters and the economy?

It does not herald a shift to the right, as some pundits suggest. Rather, the message it sends is the same as that sent by voters to former president Bill Clinton 17 years ago: "It's the economy, stupid!" and "Jobs, jobs, jobs". Indeed, on the other side of the United States from Massachusetts, voters in Oregon passed a referendum supporting a tax increase.

The US economy is in a mess, even if growth has resumed, and bankers are once again receiving huge bonuses. More than one out of six Americans who would like a full-time job cannot get one; and 40% of the unemployed have been out of a job for more than six months.

As Europe learned long ago, hardship increases with the length of unemployment, as job skills and prospects deteriorate and savings gets wiped out. The 2.5-3.5m foreclosures expected this year will exceed those of 2009, and the year began with what is expected to be the first of many large commercial real-estate bankruptcies. Even the Congressional budget office is predicting that it will be the middle of the decade before unemployment returns to more normal levels, as America experiences its own version of "Japanese malaise".

As I wrote in my new book Freefall, Barack Obama took a big gamble at the start of his administration. Instead of the marked change that his campaign had promised, he kept many of the same officials and maintained the same "trickle down" strategy to confront the financial crisis. Providing enough money to the banks was, his team seemed to say, the best way to help ordinary homeowners and workers.

When America reformed its welfare programs for the poor under Clinton, it put conditions on recipients: they had to look for a job or enroll in training programs. But when the banks received welfare benefits, no conditions were imposed on them. Had Obama's attempt at muddling through worked, it would have avoided some big philosophical battles. But it didn't work, and it has been a long time since popular antipathy to banks has been so great.

Obama wanted to bridge the divides among Americans that George W Bush had opened. But now those divides are wider. His attempts to please everyone, so evident in the last few weeks, are likely to mollify no one.

continued... > guardian.co.uk <

.
.
.
_ _ _
brr

brl vod | wtf

U have to b fucking kidding me
Submitted by smcgee43 on Sun, 02/07/2010 - 10:29am.
...Palin...Defends Limbaugh's Use Of 'Retard' On Fox News Sunday
------------------------------
Margaret Carlson was certain that the use of "retard" struck a chord in Palin. Carlson was unusually strident with her comments (she was speaking on Olbermann's show).

Margaret Carlson is usually jocular and tongue-in-cheek, so her serious comments about the power of motherhood and protecting the weak made me very curious about Carlson's own past (ya gots to get up PERTY early in the mornin' to slip one by the ol' Baitster).

Carlson's bio's are sparse but you can learn this much from her recent column:
---------
...I get a slew of hate mail about my opinions, stupidity and hair. It comes with the privilege of writing a column. The only cruelty I can’t stand is against my mentally disabled brother. I spent much of my childhood forcing the neighborhood kids to choose him for their teams. Now that I’m his guardian, I run a Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Jimmy. The need to protect never goes away...
---------
You can read the entire column here:

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601039&sid=anEaeFteiOKE

Submitted by maggiesboy on Sat, 02/06/2010 - 9:45pm.
Who gives a rats ass what that psychopath has to say? It's only time wasted that should be spent solving real problems.
------

Just another example Mag's, of why we should not ignore the Teabaggers.

Sgt. Charles Alan Dyer

TEABAGGER, OATHKEEPER ARRESTED FOR RAPE; POLICE FIND GRENADE LAUNCHER IN HIS HOME

Lady Liberty's Lamp has written extensively about the "we must take our country back" hatemongering crowd that cropped up via the tea parties called the Oathkeepers - or "Oafkeepers", as they have been termed. They sounded the alarm that something was amiss with this group, particularly how they seemed to be recruiting amongst the white power circles. Our thing here at OPP was to just watch and see how things went, because it was pretty curious how very few if any mainstream conservatives were talking them up. Sooner or later something would come up. It just did, courtesy of ex-Marine Sgt. Charles Alan Dyer who has made a name for himself at Tea Parties and on this YouTube channel as "July4Patriot". What is not being said just yet is that he more or less got drummed out in August for his political activities, which he boasted on videos, saying that he plans to be "one of those domestic terrorists that you're so afraid of from the DHS reports!" Well, the government took him at his word apparently and now he has other problems now. On Jan. 15, Dyer was arrested on a rape and forcable sodomy of a child. It's gets worse. The child was a family member. It gets worse! When police search his home in Marlow, OKlahoma, they find a Colt M-203, 40-millimeter grenade launcher. It gets worse! The launcher might have been stolen from an Army post in California. IT GETS WORSE! This clown is also a Ron Paul supporter - the Militia contingent. He is getting huge support in spite of the charges from that crowd who prefers to see him as a POW in jail on trumped up charges. We can all but assure that this will be all over the place very soon, and when it is, you can pretty much put the Oafkeepers in the footnote category. Meanwhile, we just added as a permanent link, the website Hate Trackers, better known as Gossip Boy. They were the ones who broke this story and we like what we see there in general. We think you will too!

You've gotta watch it. It would be funny, if it wasn't so dangerous.

sources:

http://www.onepeoplesproject.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=artic...

http://crooksandliars.com/david-neiwert/tea-party-leader-arrested-rape

Oh Crankenstein's gonna get me.

Within seconds of viewing the photograph linked below, you will be making your own sides hurt from an onslaught of bon mots.

The best caption wins a Dutch treat lunch date with maggiesboy.

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6160DM20100207

Excellent + REPETITION IS {A} THE KEY ;)

Excellent + REPETITION IS {A} THE KEY ;)

February 4, 2010

Billy Kennedy Will Be Declaring His Candidacy For Virginia Foxx's Seat On Monday

Howie Klein, 02.06.2010

Down With Tyranny

I'm wondering if Billy Kennedy may not be the kind of extraordinary person -- someone who will go to Washington and never really become one of them.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/howie-klein/billy-kennedy-will-be-dec_b_45...

toniD's Ya Think?

Sanders Introduces Major Solar Energy Initiative

February 4, 2010

WASHINGTON, February 4 - Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), chairman of the Senate's green jobs subcommittee, today introduced legislation with nine cosponsors to encourage the installation of 10 million solar systems on the rooftops of homes and businesses over the next decade.

"At a time when we spend $350 billion importing oil from Saudi Arabia and other countries every year, the United States must move away from foreign oil to energy independence," Sanders said. "A dramatic expansion of solar power is a clean and economical way to help break our dependence on foreign oil, reduce greenhouse gas emissions that cause global warming, improve our geopolitical position, and create good-paying green jobs."

At a Senate committee hearing today, Sanders questioned Energy Secretary Steven Chu about President Obama's budget for next year. The White House requested $2.4 billion for energy efficiency and renewable energy programs. The requested 5 percent boost overall included a 22 percent increase for solar power.

The potential for solar power also was the subject of testimony last week before Sanders' green jobs subcommittee by Jeff Wolfe, chief executive officer of groSolar in White River Junction, Vt. Wolfe said Sanders' bill "would help homeowners and small businesses stabilize their energy costs."

Sanders' bill would authorize rebates which, along with other incentives, would cover up to half the cost of the 10 million solar power systems and 200,000 water heating systems. Non-profit groups and state and local governments also would be eligible. The legislation would ensure that participating homeowners and businesses also receive information on incentives to improve energy efficiency....

...The legislation's cosponsors include Environment and Public Works Committee Chairman Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) and Sens. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.), Robert Menendez (D-N.J.), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), Ben Cardin (D-Md.), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) and Sen. Arlen Specter (D-Pa.).

continued...> sanders.senate.gov <

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/02/07/snl-takes-on-rahm-emanuel_n_452...

This psychopath represents what the teaparty is all about? What percentage of teaparty members hold these extreme views and are you saying Sarah Palin endorses and encourages these people?

The answer is as clear as the writing on the wall, er Sarah Palin's hand.

These people have always existed as skinheads, neonazis,the KKK. Don't give Sarah Palin credit she doesn't deserve.

I find it way too paranoid to even consider such a tiny group poses any real threat to the country. Yes they have the potential to inflict harm, like the OKC bombing, but they are not a major movement, nor are they representative of the already fractured teaparty movement.

This is why we have the FBI and ATF.

the process works both ways...he was easily the most liberal mainstream candidate (kucinich not withstanding) ...I would hate to be considered a narcissistic asshole just because I liked his politics.....

I would prefer people judge me as a narcissistic asshole based on my own merit. :)

Progressives and liberals have hosted many mass-media-friendly conventions over the last few years, like the KOS conventions and what's now called Campaign for America's Future (sign up for the convention June 7-9 here https://secure.ourfuture.org/afn10/) And a two weeks ago was the Health Action 2010 in DC. Media coverage? Not so much. And remember the anti-war rallies and marches? Coverage on mass media? Nope. Nada, Nuttin'. Who remembers Al Gore's "Constitutional Crisis" speech back in Jan 2006? (see The Nation Gore to Address "Constitutional Crisis" ) Didn't even make the nightly news or top-of-the-hour headlines.

A few teabaggers make up dumb signs like "Keep the Gummint out of my Medicare" and the media is ALL OVER 'EM! I remember Randi Rhodes explaining, "If it's not on yer teevee it just DIDN'T HAPPEN." Of course all the talking heads this AM just HAD to bring up the Teabagger Convention and gush about it.

Surprised?
When does news turn into propaganda?
Liberal Media Bias my a$$.

skips to his lou -
answer the question with
a YES or NO. How hard is
that.?? Politicians always
run around the fucking
answer. er I mean question (duh)

He is pitching their torture schpiel on zakaria right now...

They are trying very hard to maintain this legitimacy argument in the media...imo, to keep their asses from being prosecuted for crimes against humanity...

It will start locally with a progressive group in your area, if you can find one where you live. I am sure there are some.

Then you hook up with other progressive groups outside your area and demand on a meet up.

Everyone on this blog should do that locally and we can use each other to expand the movement so things can be planned to happen on an issue, one to start, on the same day. If something is happening on the same issue in many places, it is more likely to be picked up by the media.

These sit ins or protests or whatever you want to call them have to be ongoing and advertised heavily. And if a Senator or rep is in the area or if you can travel to their local office, it would be good to hold a protest there.

Have speakers that are good on the issues and send letters to the editor about them. See if your local paper will publicize it for you. Old fashioned flyers and email blasts
are good to get the word out as well.

Any ideas from the other bloggers would be good here.

The main thing is you have to start. Once you start, hopefully it will get legs and grow from there.

toniD's Ya Think?

Submitted by FilthyRich on Sun, 02/07/2010 - 1:13pm.
Progressives and liberals have hosted many mass-media
----

Indeed Filthy. The last I heard the organization Move On had about 4 million members. They were never described as a populist movement. They were however, very much savaged by the mainstream and right wing media.

Submitted by maggiesboy on Sun, 02/07/2010 - 12:59pm.
The answer is as clear as the writing on the wall, er Sarah Palin's hand.
------

I love you baby.

for me...I have the fire in my belly and can deliver the rhetoric, but I am hopelessly organizationally challenged in pretty much all aspects for my life...you should see my office...and my garage...fugitabodit...if wifey wasn't so good at keeping track of things I would probably get lost in my own house and never be heard from again...

...and you are right, there are small groups EVERYWHERE...even this religious conservative part of the country has a small but dedicated Liberal base...

Please keep pushing, everybody...we need your energy...

While initially they did great things they have largely become a tool for the DNC and need to rethink their strategy if they are going to be a positive force for democracy.

Look how many members OFA collected over the campaign. Where are they now? Like we discussed today on Ya Think? progressives are famous for working hard to get populist sounding candidates elected and then perfect happy to to be kicked to the curb immediately following the swearing in ceremony only to come back the next election cycle and get kicked to the curb again.

I'm sick of it. I'm ready to crawl out of the gutter.

..and I want the whole world to know it. ;-)

I don't want you to be afraid of those crazies. If you feel their fear, they win.

we all need to get INTO the gutter...

or at least into the STREET! ;)

Can Blair become Caesar of all Europe?

He's earned $25 million just from his speeches since 2007, but his sun may have already set

Since he left office two years ago, Britain's former prime minister Tony Blair has transformed himself into a marketing phenomenon: the Blair Brand, which may also be the most remarkable political Ponzi scheme of our times.

British media estimate Blair has made $25 million just from his speeches at $150,000 a pop since quitting Downing Street in June 2007. That's a lot to pay for packaging.

Even seasoned political reporters had a hard time finding enough substance to justify a story when Blair spoke to a Fraser Valley municipality development conference this month.

con't

http://www.vancouversun.com/news/Blair+become+Caesar+Europe/2153772/stor...

-----------------

Rio 2016 hires Tony Blair as paid consultant

Monday, 01 February 2010

By Duncan Mackay

February 1 - Former Prime Minister Tony Blair (pictured) has been hired as a paid consultant by the organisers of the 2016 Olympics and Paralympics in Rio de Janeiro to give them advice on preparing for the Games, it has been revealed.

Blair was offered a consultancy post after Sergio Cabral, the Governor of Rio State, Brazilian Sports Minister Orlando Silva and Rio 2016 President Carlos Nuzman met him in London on Saturday.

con't

http://www.insidethegames.biz/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&...

You can download it to iTunes or go to the website and listen to it on demand.

Now you can click on the Ya Think? logo on the homepage and go directly to the page with all the podcasts.

..or just click this one!

Check the rules and regs in your area about holding a protest so you won't have problems right away. And just ot let you know, there will be counter protests. Just keep your cool and don't allow the other side to bring you down to their level.

This is your chance to educate people so have all the facts you can and if someone comes up with a question you can't answer, tell them you will find out the info, backed up, and you will present it at your next meeting and invite those people to your meeting.

They'll try to get you off subject so you need to keep on topic and say that you will be covering the other issue next time.

toniD's Ya Think?

their logo looks. ;-)

Report: 50 dead, 250 injured in Connecticut power plant blast -

Link

We won’t sit by ...

while the bankers and militarists plunder this country
and send our loved ones to fight in a war for empire!

The outrage continues and gets worse.

When tens of thousands march in Washington, D.C., San Francisco and Los Angeles on March 20 – we are going to tie together the issue of endless war and skyrocketing unemployment and poverty.

If we don’t act, no one will.Consider these scandalous facts:

• Today, the Pentagon announced that tens of thousands of Marines are invading the southern provinces of Afghanistan in the next few days. General Barry McCaffrey predicts 300-500 killed and wounded each month in the next few months. The generals never bother talking about the loss of Afghan lives.
• Yesterday, Secretary of Defense Gates submitted the largest military budget in U.S. history. The $708 billion includes nearly $500 million each day for Iraq and Afghanistan.
• Hours later, the bankrupt insurance giant AIG announced that it was doling out $100 million more in bonuses. AIG exists because it received $180 billion in taxpayers’ bailout. The federal government received an 80 percent share in AIG, which means Obama’s Treasury Secretary Geithner agreed to these bonuses. AIG will give millions more bonuses in March.

  More than 25 million people are unemployed or seriously underemployed while the bankers, war contractors and other corporate crooks make record profits and record bonuses.

  Personal bankruptcies rose 32 percent in the past year as families lost their jobs, medical benefits and their homes.

Take to streets. Tell every family and friend, co-worker and fellow student that it's time to get on the bus. It’s time for the people to speak out. It’s time to raise hell!

We should start "The REAL Teaparty" party. ;-)

Crap, look who already has http://teaparty.com lol!

wonder how much they'll get for that URL if they decide to sell?

Submitted by maggiesboy on Sun, 02/07/2010 - 2:11pm.
I just realized, the Ya Thinkers? are starting to sound like their logo looks.
--------------------------

After 4 proof readings by both her and myself, and some comments on the font size and the page setups, we finally got the final proof and it looks good. So today I went to her apartment and sent the email of approval and her book is going to print. Thank goodness. She's ecstatic. It was the last thing she wanted to do before she died and I feel good that I helped her to get it done.

Her son sent me a check for $100 which I wasn't expecting plus she has invited me, via her son, for a luncheon for her friends that have helped her this past year. It's going to be at Cantigny Country Club.

She always wanted to pay me and I refused to take money, but, her son insisted because of my help to her. She barely knows how to send emails, let alone downloading pdf formatted documents and a document that had to be done electronically for the proof mistakes.

toniD's Ya Think?

We know you didn't do it for the $$$ but that's nothing compared to the joy you've given her.

Go get yourself something pretty, you earned it!

{{{toniD}}}

Should he primary Obama as a Democrat or run head to head as an Independent...?

Does it cost anything to put a podcast on iTunes?
I gots me some homies I be wantin' to make one wid.

"You look so tired-unhappy
Bring down the government
They don't, they don't speak for us"
-Radiohead.
www.sigzone.blogspot.com

Good for you toniD
Submitted by maggiesboy on Sun, 02/07/2010 - 3:38pm.
...Go get yourself something pretty, you earned it!
----------
No way.

She'll blow it on ouzo and tzatziki like she always does.

U should come on the show with us. Why not???

rumor has it the writing on her right hand said see other hand.

MIDDLE EAST:
Palestinians battle Israeli wall
Palestinians and Israeli dissenters are getting together to fight Israel's plan to build another section of the separation wall in the occupied West Bank.
According to environmentalists, the wall will stop the flow of water to the natural springs and thus threatens to dry out much of the Palestinian land.
They also see the wall - illegal under international law - as a part of long-term Israeli policy to grab more and more Palestinian land in the West Bank.
But the Israeli government says the separation wall is for security reasons, in order to stop Palestinians carrying out attacks in Israel.
Al Jazeera Sherine Tadros reports from Wadi Fukin, the village that is now at the centre of the legal battle.

"

Go & have a nice dinner with some drinks
(alcoholic ones)

Submitted by smcgee43 on Sun, 02/07/2010 - 4:07pm.
Go & have a nice dinner with some drinks
(alcoholic ones)
----------
Like I said, she'll blow it on ouzo and tzatziki like she always does.

"Like I said, she'll blow it on ouzo and tzatziki like she always does."

I have enough trouble with my legs and feet, I don't need help from something else!

Tzatziki is something else again! Very good with Gyros!

toniD's Ya Think?

Hell, I've got a coat. Can I come over tD? I'll protect you from that terrible ouzo.

Crank's thinking I'm going to buy some. You're welcome to come over but all I have is Rum and wine, white and red. I use it for cooking.

toniD's Ya Think?

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/manhattan/rich_ma_kills_kid_in_slay_s...

before her suicide attempt/ and murder of her son ,Gigi wrote 20 million dollars in two checks . one for 12 mil went to Doctor's without borders and 8 mil. for Haiti. She had made most of her money from pharmaceuticals.

This story doesn't get much traction. The newer articles skip over the checks (possibly written out of guilt). Her son is now dead and she gets to finish her life up in jail.
Have any of you seen the info about the checks? I guess she could cancel them and use the money for her lawyer. it is so sad to see the son dead at 8 over the mother's fear of losing a custody battle.

Chevron hires twelve public relations firms to discredit indigenous Indians in Ecuador
Saturday, February 06, 2010 by: Ethan A. Huff, staff writer

NaturalNews) In response to an environmental lawsuit filed against the oil giant, Chevron has fortified its defenses with at least twelve different public relations firms whose purpose is to debunk the claims made against the company by indigenous people living in the Amazon forests of Ecuador. According to them, Chevron dumped billions of gallons of toxic waste in the Amazon between 1964 and 1990, causing damages assessed at more than $27 billion.

The company is being criticized by people and organizations from across the social and political spectrum for its unethical behavior in regards to the case. Originally filed in U.S. federal district court back in 1993, the lawsuit was eventually moved to courts in Ecuador at Chevron's behest. Having initially lauded Ecuador's legal system in an effort to have the case moved there, Chevron later changed its mind and began attacking the system when that system found the company liable for damages.

Shareholders are also upset with Chevron for its gross mismanagement of the case in which it has sidestepped the rule of law and employed guerilla-style tactics in a last ditch effort to fend off an unfavorable ruling. Part of this includes hiring Hill & Knowlton, the same firm that represented the tobacco industry during its indictment over tobacco causing cancer, to perform the same task concerning toxic oil contaminants.

Evidence presented at Chevron's trial included over 50,000 chemical samples taken by the company itself which proved that all of its former oil drilling sites are contaminated with toxic byproducts that cause cancer. Many of these wells have contaminated rivers, streams, and other water sources which natives use for drinking water. Despite all the undeniable evidence, Chevron is working hard to cover up the facts and dismiss its responsibility in the matter.

http://www.naturalnews.com/028108_Chevron_Ecuador.html

toniD's Ya Think?

All the information can be found on iTunes...on the podcast page.

Here's one of the faq's you'll run into there:

http://www.apple.com/itunes/podcasts/fanfaq.html

US Congressman Jimmy Hayes of Louisiana - a conservative Democrat who supported the Gulf War - later estimated that the government of Kuwait funded as many as 20 PR, law and lobby firms in its campaign to mobilize US opinion and force against Hussein.72 Participating firms included the Rendon Group, which received a retainer of $100,000 per month for media work, and Neill & Co., which received $50,000 per month for lobbying Congress. Sam Zakhem, a former US ambassador to the oil-rich gulf state of Bahrain, funneled $7.7 million in advertising and lobbying dollars through two front groups, the "Coalition for Americans at Risk" and the "Freedom Task Force." The Coalition, which began in the 1980s as a front for the contras in Nicaragua, prepared and placed TV and newspaper ads, and kept a stable of fifty speakers available for pro-war rallies and publicity events.73

Hill & Knowlton, then the world's largest PR firm, served as mastermind for the Kuwaiti campaign. Its activities alone would have constituted the largest foreign-funded campaign ever aimed at manipulating American public opinion. By law, the Foreign Agents Registration Act should have exposed this propaganda campaign to the American people, but the Justice Department chose not to enforce it. Nine days after Saddam's army marched into Kuwait, the Emir's government agreed to fund a contract under which Hill & Knowlton would represent "Citizens for a Free Kuwait," a classic PR front group designed to hide the real role of the Kuwaiti government and its collusion with the Bush administration. Over the next six months, the Kuwaiti government channeled $11.9 million dollars to Citizens for a Free Kuwait, whose only other funding totalled $17,861 from 78 individuals. Virtually all of CFK's budget - $10.8 million - went to Hill & Knowlton in the form of fees.74

The man running Hill & Knowlton's Washington office was Craig Fuller, one of Bush's closest friends and inside political advisors. The news media never bothered to examine Fuller's role until after the war had ended, but if America's editors had read the PR trade press, they might have noticed this announcement, published in O'Dwyer's PR Services before the fighting began: "Craig L. Fuller, chief of staff to Bush when he was vice-president, has been on the Kuwaiti account at Hill & Knowlton since the first day. He and Dilenschneider at one point made a trip to Saudi Arabia, observing the production of some 20 videotapes, among other chores. The Wirthlin Group, research arm of H&K, was the pollster for the Reagan Administration. . . . Wirthlin has reported receiving $1.1 million in fees for research assignments for the Kuwaitis. Robert K. Gray, Chairman of H&K/USA based in Washington, DC had leading roles in both Reagan campaigns. He has been involved in foreign nation accounts for many years. . . . Lauri J. Fitz-Pegado, account supervisor on the Kuwait account, is a former Foreign Service Officer at the US Information Agency who joined Gray when he set up his firm in 1982."75
more...

http://www.prwatch.org/books/tsigfy10.html

toniD's Ya Think?

only twelve?

GE wont clean the Hudson. Exxon hasn't really fixed things up since the Valdez.

Bad drugs from the big Pharmaceuticals are still sold even when the authorities know of the dangers.

The bisphemol -plastic( baby bottles) has been known to be harmful since the 30's.

the list is long. God help the Ecuadorians!!

Hill & Knowlton is also running the nuclear industry PR campaign

Old Consultant Welcomes New Sucker

Source: Philadelphia Inquirer, November 5, 2009

The Philadelphia Inquirer is the latest news outlet to fail to disclose the fact that Patrick Moore, a former Greenpeace activist turned PR consultant, is on the nuclear industry payroll. A recent 690-word opinion column by Moore, titled "Old foes welcome clean fuel," promotes nuclear power as a "solution" to global warming. At the foot of the column, the biographical note states that Moore "co-chairs the Clean and Safe Energy Coalition (CASEnergy), which promotes the economic and environmental benefits of nuclear power as part of a green energy economy." What it doesn't state is that CASEnergy is a front group created by Hill & Knowlton for the Nuclear Energy Institute, the peak lobby group for the U.S. nuclear industry. Just over three years ago, shortly after Moore's "coalition" was launched, Hill and Knowlton's Frank Mankiewicz insisted in a letter to the Columbia Journalism Review that Moore “has been completely transparent about funding sources and relationships with the Nuclear Energy Institute and the public relations firm of Hill & Knowlton."

http://www.prwatch.org/node/8679

toniD's Ya Think?

The man running Hill & Knowlton's Washington office was Craig Fuller, one of Bush's closest friends and inside political advisors.

See .... no matter who those assholes know - there's
always blood on somebody's hand. Always!!

from a poster at Dem Underground. There is also a linked Time Mag article.

The photos are unbelievable. How can the people working for Exxon see this and not, in good conscience, say something or quit or something?

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&fo...
toniD's Ya Think?

This past week Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair confirmed that the Obama administration is targeting U.S. citizens for assassination abroad, assuming the right to execute an American in a foreign country without giving him or her so much as a military tribunal. Mr. Blair also upheld the 2007 National Intelligence Estimate in testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee, reaffirming that the U.S. intelligence community has no evidence Iran's leaders have made the decision to build nuclear weapons. Meanwhile, increasingly less covert but still officially denied U.S. wars continued to expand, with three American soldiers killed in northwest Pakistan.

With that in mind, here is the entirety of David Gregory's questions for Deputy National Security Adviser John Brennan on today's Meet the Press:

..be prepared to not be amazed

RT @charlesdavis84 "Paraphrase of every question from David Gregory for John Brennan: how scared should we be? http://bit.ly/90vTYi "
12 minutes ago from web

Informmed Comment - Juan Cole :

Sunday, February 07, 2010
Saying 'Constitution' while meaning 'Lawlessness': Palin attacks Obama

Sarah Palin's turn before the teabaggers was an exercise in emptying the US Constitution of meaning while seeming to exalt it.
She praised US military personnel for defending the constitution.
But she complained that constitutional protections were offered to Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the underpants bomber. She said it is 'our' constitution, reducing it from a universal document (the Declaration of Independence says 'all men' are endowed with inalienable rights) to a tribal one.
She said Abdulmutallab could otherwise have been questioned. But why should he have answered, rights or no? Holder's methods got him talking. (Nor is it likely constitutional to arrest a lawbreaker on US soil and whisk him off to military detention.

www.juancole.com

China’s hawks demand cold war on the US

Source: Times

MORE than half of Chinese people questioned in a poll believe China and America are heading for a new “cold war”.

The finding came after battles over Taiwan, Tibet, trade, climate change, internet freedom and human rights which have poisoned relations in the three months since President Barack Obama made a fruitless visit to Beijing.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article7017951.ece

toniD's Ya Think?

Submitted by toniD on Sun, 02/07/2010 - 5:14pm.

The photos are unbelievable. How can the people working for Exxon see this and not, in good conscience, say something or quit or something?

con science is the only listed spelling I could find!

"Well now we've solved the difference in approach to the world of Barack Obama and George W. Bush."

The preliminary job loss number for January is “only” 20,000 but the loss for December has been revised from 85,000 up to 150,000. There were also 1.36 million more unemployed in December than previously reported using methods put in place by the Bush Crime Family. On the other hand they reported a sudden drop in the unemployment rate from 10% down to 9.7% but this wasn’t from an upturn in employment (there are those extra 1.36 million unemployed to consider) but instead the Dept. of Labor has changed their estimate of the US population. So that number doesn’t mean much.
The stock market continued its plunge this morning, down 170 points but came back to close ten points up in the final minutes on news that there is more consumer credit available. This raised the spirits of the masters of the universe; there are no jobs, no exports and the Red Chinese who own us are threatening to pull the plug over Taiwan; but consumers can go farther into debt so everything is wonderful.

http://www.prairie2.com/

Reading cuts stress levels by 68%
new
Submitted by smcgee43 on Sun, 02/07/2010 - 5:22pm.

when you read between the lies (lines) in most of the M$M garbage I get very stressed. I think most of our "headaches" in Sederville comes from this.

live: Will Greece set off 'global debt bomb'?
Threat of new crisis hits shaky world economies

Published On Sun Feb 7 2010

By David Olive
Business Columnist

The inevitable "sovereign debt panic" finally struck last week, causing severe one-day drops in stock markets from New York to London to Toronto on Thursday.

Ostensibly, the epicentre of the crisis is Greece, in danger of defaulting on its debt payments to worldwide holders of its government bonds, or sovereign debt.

But the fear about state defaults quickly spread to Spain, Portugal and Ireland, fiscal train wrecks that together with Greece now go by the unfortunate acronym PIGS.

Even then, the scope of a potential second global financial crisis so soon after the credit crisis of 2008-09 goes far beyond the euro zone, the 16 nations sharing a common currency, the euro.

Last week's dramatics could have been far worse. And they may yet manifest themselves in an ugly fashion in weeks to come if the euro-zone countries don't rescue what Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou described last week as "the weakest link in the euro zone."

http://www.thestar.com/news/article/761755--olive-will-greece-set-off-gl...

Guess who will get blamed? The new Prime Minister of course, because he is a leftist.

toniD's Ya Think?

This cold war crap is the MIA complex trying to have an excuse for mor war-
fare. Guns are our best export. I could think of better ways to balance the trade deficit. too bad the Chinese dont want the unused NIHI Flu vaccine.

Sarah's hand notes

toniD's Ya Think?

to see a football game EVER.

-Redneck Teleprompter
Submitted by toniD on Sun, 02/07/2010 - 5:46pm.
Sarah's hand notes-

with my Baked Ziti in tow....man it smells good...

Enjoy the game peeps...

GO SAINTS!!!

Go Saints !

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

MMRules

agree, mire - no quarter for them!!
and nora - how bout SCOTUS decision? Ya think the coprporations won't interfere (although they have interfered)? They'll buy elecions now - before they were jsut for sale (and believe me, they bought congressional majority)

I'd pay $100 to be able to question Sam about that segment.

for winning the Sweetness Award - Brian Waters Foundation

WASHINGTON
Sun Feb 7, 2010 6:17pm EST

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama's top counterterrorism adviser on Sunday lashed out at U.S. lawmakers, accusing them of using national security issues as a "political football" for their own gains.

Barack Obama

Republicans have accused the Obama administration of making mistakes in the handling of the arrest of Nigerian Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, 23, who is accused of trying to blow up a Detroit-bound plan on Christmas Day.

"Quite frankly I'm tiring of politicians using national security issues such as terrorism as political football. They're going out there, they're unknowing of the facts, and they're making charges and allegations that are not anchored in reality," John Brennan told NBC's "Meet the Press."
(article contines)

I think the way this was handled produced good information that might help US get to rotten core of terrorist camps in Yemen.

...with Heisman Trophy winner Tebow tackling his mother.

Did anybody in that PR firm producing the ad see the elephant in the room? Violence against women is not good for the family.

Go Marching in....

Oh when the Saints go Marching in.....

Who Dat!!!

toniD's Ya Think?

http://videos.nola.com/times-picayune/2010/02/mayor-elect_mitch_landrieu...

good guy, i voted for him - might be a good thing for the city at last after that ass ray nagin and a long series of inept and corrupt mayors in the past

mitch landrieu is mary's brother but he's a good guy, don't see a trace of bluedoggery in him

Connecticut Gas Explosion: 'Mass Casualties' Reported At Kleen Energy Systems Power Plant

MIDDLETOWN, Conn. — An explosion blew apart a power plant under construction as workers purged natural gas lines Sunday, killing at least five people and injuring a dozen or more in a blast that shook homes for miles, officials said.

Middletown Mayor Sebastian Giuliano said at a late-afternoon news conference that at least 12 people were injured.

Deputy Fire Marshal Al Santostefano told The Associated Press before a news conference Sunday evening that crews were still searching for survivors in the rubble at the Kleen Energy Systems plant in Middletown, about 20 miles south of Hartford.

Santostefano earlier said about 50 people were in the area around 11:17 a.m., when the explosion occurred. The mayor said at the news conference it was difficult to tell how many people were at the plant because multiple contractors were working on it with their own employee lists.

"They're trying to figure out who was on the job today, and where are they now?" Giuliano said.

The 620-megawatt plant was being built to produce energy primarily using natural gas. Santostefano said workers for the construction company, O&G Industries, were purging the gas lines, a procedure he called a "blow-down," when the explosion occurred.

Lynn Hawley, 54, of Hartland, Conn., told the AP that her son, Brian Hawley, 36, is a pipefitter at the plant. He called her from his cell phone to say he was being rushed to Middlesex Hospital.

"He really couldn't say what happened to him," she said. "He was in a lot of pain, and they got him into surgery as quickly as possible."
Story continues below

She said he had a broken leg and was expected to survive.

Officials had not released the conditions of the other injured people by late Sunday afternoon, but hospitals reported some seriously injured patients.

The thundering blast shook houses for miles.

"I felt the house shake, I thought a tree fell on the house," said Middletown resident Steve Clark. more...

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/02/07/connecticut-gas-explosion_n_452...

toniD's Ya Think?

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran said on Sunday it had arrested seven people accused of stoking unrest after last year's disputed election, including some who it said were employed by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency.

World

The arrests were reported by the official IRNA news agency before possible new anti-government protests on February 11, when Iran marks the 31st anniversary of the 1979 Islamic revolution that toppled the U.S.-backed shah.

Opposition supporters have used such official occasions to try to revive their protests over the poll last June, which they say was rigged to secure the re-election of hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

The authorities have rejected the vote fraud charge and portrayed the huge demonstrations that erupted after the vote as a foreign-backed attempt to undermine the Islamic Republic. They have made clear they will not tolerate more such unrest.

In the most serious violence since the aftermath of the election, eight people were killed in clashes between security forces and opposition backers during demonstrations on Ashura, the ritual Shi'ite day of mourning that fell on December 27.

Opposition websites have invited people to take to the streets also on February 11, raising the prospect of new clashes.

"The security forces will be after maintaining the safety of the demonstrations and will fiercely confront anyone who might want to fall out of line with the revolution's caravan," a Revolutionary Guards commander, Hossein Hamedani, said.

The revolution anniversary "belongs to all 70 million Iranians and we will not let anyone confiscate it for the sake of a certain group," ISNA news agency quoted him as saying.

IRNA quoted an Intelligence Ministry statement as saying seven people "linked to the counter-revolutionaries, the Zionist media and elements of the sedition" had been arrested. It did not name them or say when they were held.

It said the detainees were also linked to a U.S.-backed, Farsi-language radio station and had received training outside Iran, for example in disrupting public order, spreading rumors and conducting sabotage.

"A number of them were officially hired by the U.S. intelligence agency, the CIA," the statement said.

It said they had played an important role in 'post-election riots', particularly those on Ashura.

Western countries have rejected allegations of interfering in Iran's internal affairs after the election.

Thousands of people were arrested after the June vote. More than 80 people, including senior reformist figures, have received jail terms of up to 15 years.

Last month, Iran hanged two people sentenced to death in post-vote trials. The West and human rights groups condemned the executions, accusing Iran of staging "show trials" and of seeking to intimidate the opposition.

GOP Candidates Crowding Primary Races Across The Country

The Los Angeles Times:

As the Republican Party's chances of success in the fall elections increase week by week, so too has the number of Republican candidates jumping into primaries across the country. Party officials claim to welcome the enthusiasm, but in many places it's the sort of welcome reserved for an uninvited guest.

Or eight uninvited guests, as is the case in Arkansas, where the lineup of candidates wanting to challenge Democratic Sen. Blanche Lincoln has swelled to nine. An open seat in Tennessee has four Republicans vying for the nomination, and one erstwhile Republican running as an independent. Two competitive districts in Virginia have drawn out 11 hopefuls between them. Races in Nevada, New Hampshire and California also are crowding fast

http://www.latimes.com/news/nation-and-world/la-na-republicans7-2010feb0...

toniD's Ya Think?

Reporting from Jerusalem - A U.S.-based philanthropy that funds human rights groups in Israel is under fire amid accusations that its recipients provided the bulk of evidence to a U.N. commission that issued a report highly critical of Israel's Gaza Strip offensive a year ago.

Leaders of the Washington-based New Israel Fund, whose recipients include several organizations that promote Palestinian rights, said Sunday that they are being unfairly targeted by conservatives in Israel seeking to silence opposing viewpoints.

"It's an attempt to stifle dissent," said Daniel Sokatch, chief executive of the fund, which donates about $15 million annually to human rights and civil society groups in Israel.

The group's donations were the focus of a Jan. 29 report by Im Tirtzu, a self-described centrist Zionist group that alleged 92% of the material collected inside Israel by the United Nations' Goldstone Commission originated with New Israel Fund grantees.

Last fall, the U.N. panel, headed by South African jurist Richard Goldstone, accused Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas of committing war crimes during Israel's 22-day assault in Gaza, which has been under an Israeli blockade since 2007. The Israeli offensive, launched in response to rocket fire by Hamas and other groups into Israel, killed about 1,400 Palestinians. Thirteen Israelis died during the assault.

The Israeli military has condemned the findings as biased and inaccurate. The Goldstone report accuses the military of using disproportionate force and deliberately targeting civilians. Many Israelis have expressed concerns that the report has tarnished their nation's reputation.
-------
for the full article
http://www.latimes.com/news/nation-and-world/la-fg-israel-fund8-2010feb0...

geezer guitardists want to know.

Super Bowl XLIII was 3 hours and 38 minutes long.

I have been trying to learn how many minutes of television commercial time was aired within the game time.

It's a statistic that is eluding me.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/dailydish/2010/02/its-the-26th-annual-wi...

'How Mushrooms Can Save the Planet': It's the 26th Annual Wild Mushroom Fair!
We don't celebrate the mushroom enough. But the Los Angeles Mycological Society does its part to remedy that by hosting its annual Wild Mushroom Fair, to be held next week at the L.A. County Arboretum and Botanic Garden.

Events include: a cooking demonstration; mushroom growing demonstrations; wild mushroom displays; books, collectibles and art; children’s activities; a film screening; and wild mushroom identification.

Plus, mycologist Paul Stamets will speak about "How Mushrooms Can Save the Planet" -- a discussion of how the biological properties of fungi help heal the environment.

The 26th Annual Wild Mushroom Fair takes place Sunday, Feb. 14, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the L.A. County Arboretum and Botanic Garden, 301 North Baldwin Avenue, Arcadia.

"Most of it" isn't good enough for you?

Submitted by maggiesboy on Sun, 02/07/2010 - 7:58pm.
"Most of it" isn't good enough for you?
---------
Oh, you broadcasting moguls and your technical jargon.

The CSI programs on CBS use the Who songs for their programs.

toniD's Ya Think?

Green tea party better pick that up as a slogan.

----The who's side men really did a good job how bout that drummer?

Geezer guitardists appproved.

You can see the fifteen second advertisement featuring Letterman, Oprah and Leno sharing a sofa and watching the game here. (It's an ad for The Late Show.)

http://watching-tv.ew.com/2010/02/07/letterman-leno-super-bowl/

Touch down for the Saints!

toniD's Ya Think?

Just finished the Moyers w/Lessig vs The Libertarian
new
Submitted by maggiesboy on Sun, 02/07/2010 - 6:18pm.

I'd pay $100 to be able to question Sam about that segment.

What a great game - Go Saints!

just got in from watching the Olympic Torch go by a hundred feet from the house on Old Yale rd. Old Yale is the original road going from the west coast to the east coast in Canada.

lots of protestors across the street and cops keeping them off the sidewalks.

the libertarian did not win...

Fucking great call to challenge that shit!

Total posession!

Amazing catch!

"this machine kills fascists"

Somebody break out the fondue forks.

The colts are done and ready to dip.

-

.
.
.
_ _ _
brr

brl vod | wtf

The best I've personally seen since the 85 Bears! But I'm prejudiced there!

WHO DAT!!! WHO WON? WHO DAT!!! wHO wON!!!

toniD's Ya Think?

GW Bush and Heckuva Job Brownie. NOLA is back baby!

Really great SuperBowl game.
Very happy New Orleans won :)

so i guess they must have won :)

YEA!!! ;D

i didn't watch the game because i don't understand it and i didn't wanna go to a bar

but i'm happy, so at least tomorrow at the office everyone will be in a good mood

and i guess it will be good for the city; that and we'll have a new mayor, a real democrat, at least that's the hope

Best. Superbowl. EVAR!

"this machine kills fascists"

Like Cinderella.

Oh I wish I had a liquor license in NOLa about now...

Sunshine Jim - how is it going?
I haven't read ya in awhile.
Hope things r okay with everyone
in the old household.

I was thinking to myself - that would be
a mistake not to review that play, he HAD
total possession of that ball. 60th took
the words right out of my mouth.

Hell yeah!
new
Submitted by 60th Street on Sun, 02/07/2010 - 9:19pm.

Fucking great call to challenge that shit!

Total posession!

Amazing catch!

All licensing proceeds from NFL using Arcade Fire song "Wake Up" to go to Haiti relief.

Arcade Fire licenses 'Wake Up' to Superbowl for charity

"Arcade Fire, Partners in Health, the NFL, Merge Records and Bank Robber Music have collectively agreed upon a unique 100% for charity Superbowl licensing of 'Wake Up' from the band's 2004 album Funeral. All proceeds from the song's airing on the live Superbowl broadcast and subsequent airings on the NFL Network will go directly to Partners In Health's Stand With Haiti relief efforts.""

Suck on that Hank Williams Jr!!

"this machine kills fascists"

I forgot about my chili!

CHILI!!!

"this machine kills fascists"

Hey, Lionel: 600 people applauded Sarah's dumbassery. Not exactly Woodstock.
7:29 PM Feb 6th from mobile web

from O'Toole fan

"You look so tired-unhappy
Bring down the government
They don't, they don't speak for us"
-Radiohead.
www.sigzone.blogspot.com

new roof nearly done, have'nt fallen off yet.

no snow at all since that inch in january. very spooky.

me and Bgurl and pups doing fairly well but in the hole financially again.

life goes on, i'm pruning on the fruit trees recently, trying to get my leg working again.

This will be a fine Mardi Gras!

Still pissed off that Mitch didn't take on Piyush for governor.

Saints Win !

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

MMRules

Great game...

Mardi Gras started when Porter made that interception...

Who Dat...?

hard to miss with that head of his...

Perfect!

"this machine kills fascists"

Bush plans flyover to congratulate Saints...
Submitted by maggiesboy on Sun, 02/07/2010 - 10:07pm.
---------
...Decides Houston Is Close Enough.

hahaha...Round Eye's Revenge...no tickey, no laundry!

(sorry, couldn't resist)

I don't know toni...watching the heavily underdogged Giants beat hell out of Brady and Sammy's Pats a couple years ago was definitely one of the Super Bowls finer moments.... :)

Thank you!

concept...If they are too chicken shit to demand the wealthy and Corporations pay their fair share, a Lottery is a cheap easy way out of this mess, IMO...but raiding the Social Security chest is not an option...

Hyperbole, Distortion Won’t Narrow U.S. Deficit Albert Hunt

February 07, 2010, 08:11 PM EST

Commentary by Albert R. Hunt

Feb. 8 (Bloomberg) -- Social Security “is being used as a piggy bank” for the U.S. government as retirees are asked to “pay the price for the excess of Wall Street.”

“We don’t have the courage to reduce spending so we increase taxes,” the approach politicians use “every time we get into a deficit situation.”

The first observation was from former Democratic Congresswoman Barbara Kennelly of Connecticut, now a lobbyist for senior citizens. The other is from Arizona’s Jon Kyl, the second-ranking Republican in the Senate.

[...]

BusinessWeek

You have to love that kid from Austin ! :)

Too bad,the Chargers didn't keep him..

*
I'm so happy for the City of New Orleans.. :)
Sometimes there is a Happy Ending..

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

MMRules

PayPal Halts Personal Payment Transactions From And To India

by Robin Wauters on February 5, 2010

PayPal isn’t working properly in India. eBay’s electronic payment juggernaut appears to be blocking personal transactions to or from accounts of India-based users. It is reversing personal transactions; transactions involving businesses are still allowed.

A reader checked in with us yesterday to let us know PayPal notified him that the company had stopped allowing personal payments to be sent to or from India (full e-mail can be found below).

This does not appear to be an isolated incident: see here, here and here for more reports, although we gather commercial payment transactions are unaffected at this point.

[...]

TechCrunch

Linus Torvalds: Google’s Nexus One First Mobile Phone I Don’t Hate

by Robin Wauters on February 7, 2010

Linus Torvalds, the inventor of the Linux kernel, has an absolute disdain for mobile phones. All of the ones he has purchased in the past, the man writes on his personal blog, ended up being “mostly used for playing Galaga and Solitaire on long flights” even though they were naturally all phones run on open source operating systems.

Things have changed now, he adds, now that he has caved and bought Google’s Nexus One a couple of days ago.

Torvalds has owned a number of phones before, including Google’s G1 device and ‘one of the early China-only Motorola Linux phones’, but it took for Google to add multi-touch capabilities to the Nexus One before he finally broke down and bought one from the company’s web store.

And he’s loving it:

But I have to admit, the Nexus One is a winner. I wasn’t enthusiastic about buying a phone on the internet sight unseen, but the day it was reported that it finally had the pinch-to-zoom thing enabled, I decided to take the plunge. I’ve wanted to have a GPS unit for my car anyway, and I thought that google navigation might finally make a phone useful.

And it does. What a difference! I no longer feel like I’m dragging a phone with me “just in case” I would need to get in touch with somebody – now I’m having a useful (and admittedly pretty good-looking) gadget instead. The fact that you can use it as a phone too is kind of secondary.

While Google hasn’t disclosed how many phones it’s sold so far, the company is believed to have sold closer to 100,000 than 1 million devices. But at least one of them made one of the most famous software engineers in the world one happy camper.

TechCrunch

Submitted by cent on Mon, 02/08/2010 - 12:31am.
Linus Torvalds, the inventor of the Linux kernel...
-------------
You can't fool me.

Torvalds was a wrestler who played a cop in Plan 9 From Outer Space.

time for breakfast
Submitted by mire on Sun, 02/07/2010 - 8:43am.
...
====================

Your breakfast stared at me!

Can I just say 1 thing, WALLS DON'T WORK - STUPID IDEA
Submitted by smcgee43 on Sun, 02/07/2010 - 4:04pm.
MIDDLE EAST:
Palestinians battle Israeli wall
Palestinians and Israeli dissenters are getting together to fight Israel's plan to build another section of the separation wall in the occupied West Bank.
According to environmentalists, the wall will stop the flow of water to the natural springs and thus threatens to dry out much of the Palestinian land.
They also see the wall - illegal under international law - as a part of long-term Israeli policy to grab more and more Palestinian land in the West Bank.
But the Israeli government says the separation wall is for security reasons, in order to stop Palestinians carrying out attacks in Israel.
Al Jazeera Sherine Tadros reports from Wadi Fukin, the village that is now at the centre of the legal battle.

...

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

Here is an observation that seems superficial, but I think it gets to the heart of the matter:

In the video one sees the beauty of the Palestinian countryside and ability to live in harmony with the landscape. One also can see the utter ugliness and destructiveness of the Israeli-conceived and Israeli-built apartheid WALLS/BARRIERS.

Are Imperialists/Colonialists capable of appreciating beauty? Are they capable of BRINGING beauty to the world community? What is the VALUE of the Imperialist/Colonialist mindset to Civilization or the individual? When a group produces mostly ugliness and destruction through chauvinism and brutality -- are they worthy of their power?

The UGLY FACTOR ought to be a dead give-away to the failure of a power center. Are they capable of creating a far-reaching benefit of any kind (and particularly the soul-nourishing presence of beauty) in their own culture and environs? Looks to me Israel is bringing humongous ulgliness to the Earth and, so, has gotten too high in the Ugly Factor.

(I also apply the Ugly Factor to our Corporate-dictated culture in the U.S.)

Started reading this book this weekend and it is super!

The intro chapter is written in a manner that is a tad florid, but the body of the book is fast-moving analytical history. It's SO good.

WALL STREET: American Dream Palace by Steve Fraser.

He starts the book out by describing the setting for the first Wall Street crash by inside traders in 1792. Amazing!

:D teehee ;)
{LBH * giggle} {...it's a joke :}}

space shuttle endeavour blasted off this morning on a trip to the space station.

Joe is pontificating again this AM.

He's pushing tort reform again.

Mika said that the repubs ruined our economy and Joe says that the dems are the ones that want to spend.

toniD's Ya Think?

The Scar is on the Today show also. Saying the same thing.

When he gets like that I want to punch him in the stomach to let the hot air out of him!

toniD's Ya Think?

America Is Not Yet Lost
By PAUL KRUGMAN

We’ve always known that America’s reign as the world’s greatest nation would eventually end. But most of us imagined that our downfall, when it came, would be something grand and tragic.

What we’re getting instead is less a tragedy than a deadly farce. Instead of fraying under the strain of imperial overstretch, we’re paralyzed by procedure. Instead of re-enacting the decline and fall of Rome, we’re re-enacting the dissolution of 18th-century Poland.

A brief history lesson: In the 17th and 18th centuries, the Polish legislature, the Sejm, operated on the unanimity principle: any member could nullify legislation by shouting “I do not allow!” This made the nation largely ungovernable, and neighboring regimes began hacking off pieces of its territory. By 1795 Poland had disappeared, not to re-emerge for more than a century.

Today, the U.S. Senate seems determined to make the Sejm look good by comparison.

Last week, after nine months, the Senate finally approved Martha Johnson to head the General Services Administration, which runs government buildings and purchases supplies. It’s an essentially nonpolitical position, and nobody questioned Ms. Johnson’s qualifications: she was approved by a vote of 94 to 2. But Senator Christopher Bond, Republican of Missouri, had put a “hold” on her appointment to pressure the government into approving a building project in Kansas City.

This dubious achievement may have inspired Senator Richard Shelby, Republican of Alabama. In any case, Mr. Shelby has now placed a hold on all outstanding Obama administration nominations — about 70 high-level government positions — until his state gets a tanker contract and a counterterrorism center.

What gives individual senators this kind of power? Much of the Senate’s business relies on unanimous consent: it’s difficult to get anything done unless everyone agrees on procedure. And a tradition has grown up under which senators, in return for not gumming up everything, get the right to block nominees they don’t like.

In the past, holds were used sparingly. That’s because, as a Congressional Research Service report on the practice says, the Senate used to be ruled by “traditions of comity, courtesy, reciprocity, and accommodation.” But that was then. Rules that used to be workable have become crippling now that one of the nation’s major political parties has descended into nihilism, seeing no harm — in fact, political dividends — in making the nation ungovernable.

How bad is it? It’s so bad that I miss Newt Gingrich.

Readers may recall that in 1995 Mr. Gingrich, then speaker of the House, cut off the federal government’s funding and forced a temporary government shutdown. It was ugly and extreme, but at least Mr. Gingrich had specific demands: he wanted Bill Clinton to agree to sharp cuts in Medicare.

Today, by contrast, the Republican leaders refuse to offer any specific proposals. They inveigh against the deficit — and last month their senators voted in lockstep against any increase in the federal debt limit, a move that would have precipitated another government shutdown if Democrats hadn’t had 60 votes. But they also denounce anything that might actually reduce the deficit, including, ironically, any effort to spend Medicare funds more wisely.

And with the national G.O.P. having abdicated any responsibility for making things work, it’s only natural that individual senators should feel free to take the nation hostage until they get their pet projects funded.

The truth is that given the state of American politics, the way the Senate works is no longer consistent with a functioning government. Senators themselves should recognize this fact and push through changes in those rules, including eliminating or at least limiting the filibuster. This is something they could and should do, by majority vote, on the first day of the next Senate session.

Don’t hold your breath. As it is, Democrats don’t even seem able to score political points by highlighting their opponents’ obstructionism.

It should be a simple message (and it should have been the central message in Massachusetts): a vote for a Republican, no matter what you think of him as a person, is a vote for paralysis. But by now, we know how the Obama administration deals with those who would destroy it: it goes straight for the capillaries. Sure enough, Robert Gibbs, the White House press secretary, accused Mr. Shelby of “silliness.” Yep, that will really resonate with voters.

After the dissolution of Poland, a Polish officer serving under Napoleon penned a song that eventually — after the country’s post-World War I resurrection — became the country’s national anthem. It begins, “Poland is not yet lost.”

Well, America is not yet lost. But the Senate is working on it.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/08/opinion/08krugman.html?partner=rssnyt&...

toniD's Ya Think?

Troubled lender hires troubled CEO
by Chris in Paris on 2/08/2010 06:16:00 AM
Sounds like a marriage made in heaven. He's very highly respected, you know. That's what the "insider" people are saying in the press so it has to be right. Hopefully he owns plenty of debt and can figure out that now may not be the time for a million dollar office decoration plan.

Former Merrill Lynch CEO John Thain, who brokered the investment bank's controversial sale to Bank of America, is taking over as chairman and CEO of CIT Group as the commercial lender continues to restructure its business following a brief stay in bankruptcy protection last year.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/35291470/ns/business-us_business/

CIT Group is the lender to small businesses and Thane is in Charge?

toniD's Ya Think?

This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
Not with a bang but a whimper.

you betcha. its hard to believe that with all the unemployed people that they couldn't find a former wall street executive who wasn't a crook to run the place.

Overhaul’s Failure Will Ignite U.S. Health Industry Mergers

Feb. 8 (Bloomberg) -- Insurers, drugmakers and hospitals will likely slash costs and merge companies to maneuver through a U.S. health-care landscape marked by rising medical expenses and the loss of millions of potential paying customers.

With Congress’ sweeping overhaul of the health system stalled, industry will seek its own answers to a push by government and the private sector to rein in costs, said Curtis Lane, senior managing director at MTS Health Partners, a New York-based equity fund. An aging U.S. population will spur demand for services and, at the same time, boost pressure to control spending, he said.

One solution will be increased consolidation, with companies led by WellPoint Inc., the biggest U.S. insurer by enrollment, and Community Health Systems Inc., the largest publicly traded hospital chain, scooping up rivals unable to “spread rising costs across fewer customers,” said Paul Keckley, of the Deloitte Center for Health Solutions.

The health-care market “certainly seems to favor bigger, innovative, scalable companies,” said Keckley, executive director of the Washington-based center, in a phone interview. Drugmakers facing the loss of patent protection on top-selling medicines “were looking at decelerating revenues, with or without reform,” he said.

President Barack Obama’s plan to expand insurance coverage to more than 30 million Americans and impose more regulations on the medical industry was upended Jan. 19, when Republican Scott Brown won the Massachusetts U.S. Senate seat held for 47 years by the late Edward Kennedy, a Democrat and one of Congress’ staunchest supporters of widening coverage.

Political Dynamic

Brown’s victory deprived congressional Democrats of their 60-vote, filibuster-proof majority in the Senate needed to win passage of the health-care measure. The Standard and Poor’s 500 Managed Health Care Index has fallen 8.3 percent and the S&P 500 Pharmaceutical Index has dropped 7.1 percent since then, compared with the S&P 500’s 6.3 percent decline. That follows a six-month period in which health stocks outperformed the S&P.

The drop is partly the result of uncertainty, said Les Funtleyder, a Miller Tabak & Co. health-care analyst in New York. Democrats have talked of passing stripped-down legislation that would ban insurers from denying coverage to people based on their health, while dropping a mandate in the current bills that more Americans buy their products.

Targets for Cuts

Pharmaceutical companies and hospitals negotiated deals with the Obama administration to forego revenue to help pay the cost of expanded coverage. The companies may be targets for bigger cuts now by Democrats who said the agreements hadn’t cost industry enough, said Jacob Hacker, a Yale University political science professor who supports Democrats’ plans for a comprehensive overhaul.

“Absent reform, fewer and fewer Americans are going to be able to afford their services and products,” Hacker said by e- mail. “And there is no prospect they will get the sweet deals they struck with the White House if a broad bill is not on the table.”

Obama said he won’t abandon the overhaul at a Feb. 2 town- hall meeting in Nashua, New Hampshire, and repeated that vow four days later at the Democratic National Committee’s winter meeting in Washington.

“We’ve got to punch it through,” the President said of the legislation during the Nashua meeting. The House and Senate passed separate bills and were negotiating a final plan when Brown won in Massachusetts. more...

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601109&sid=aBiyYBTjExBI

The insurers will wittle down to almost a single payer when the government could have done the same thing and put these companies out of their and our misery! This would be a good talking point for the pro Medicare for all.

toniD's Ya Think?

I turned the scar off too! Those idiots just don't understand basic economics. I don't either but I know more than him which is really scary!

I need to listen to Moyers again. It seemed that each was talking about two different worlds. Total different paradigms.

Submitted by dan on Mon, 02/08/2010 - 9:04am.
...its hard to believe that with all the unemployed people that they couldn't find a former wall street executive who wasn't a crook...
----------
Bait: "You wanna rethink that?"

dan: "EVERY former exec can't be crooked."

Bait: "Possibly."

dan: "I mean, there has to be a few good guys."

Bait: "Maybe."

dan: "At least one."

Bait: "I suppose."

dan: "A light in the darkness."

Bait: "A distant flickering hope?"

dan: "Okay. I changed my mind. They're all thieves."

Bait: "Playing the odds?"

dan: "Sorta. I'm remembering a scene in Night Of The Living Dead."
-----------------------------
http://www.athensguide.com/journalists/articles/honestman.htm

...A few scholars believe that Diogenes went on his fruitless search as an altruistic philosophical search for a truly evolved human being. However, my years as an archaeology student reading whatever was irrelevant to my studies revealed to me a darker reason.

It may have had to do with the fact that he and his father had been accused of embezzling money from the Corinthian mint, where they had worked. Perhaps Diogenes was trying to prove that nobody is completely honest, and thus wipe the slate clean from his little misdemeanour...

is on DemocracyNow with Amy this morning talking about our cultural relationship food and how it's growing and raised. If you haven't seen it, his documentary and book, "The Botany of Desire" is really good.

This video of Pollan with Bill Maher is disturbing, be warned if you choose to view it...

Becalmed is the two fastest sailing vessels in the world sitting motionless at the start line.
------------------
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/02/08/AR201002...

America's Cup opener postponed by unsteady wind

...Monday's conditions illustrate how difficult this regatta could be.

There were reports throughout the late morning and early afternoon that there was 6 1/2 to 10 knots of wind at the top mark. The problem was, that mark was 20 miles from the starting line, so the two areas were in different weather patterns.

There was little, if any wind, at the starting line...

hahaha...spoken like a true cynic....

Obama’s 2011 Budget Proposal: How It’s Spent

"this machine kills fascists"

on that graph you linked, that Defense budget and Social Security is the same amount.

toniD's Ya Think?

LAYING DOWN THE MARKER.... Richard Clarke, the chief counterterrorism adviser on the U.S. National Security Council for Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, makes note today of what Republicans are doing to the public discourse related to national security.

Recent months have seen the party out of power picking fights over the conduct of our efforts against Al Qaeda, often with total disregard to the facts and frequently blowing issues totally out of proportion, while ignoring the more important challenges we face in defeating terrorists. [...]

It has been hard to escape the conclusion that the goal of these critics is to discredit the President's handling of terrorism for political advantage, whether or not the administration is actually doing a good job. Indeed, they seem to be posturing themselves simply so that if there is a successful terrorist attack on America, they can say "I told you Obama doesn't know how to fight Al Qaeda."

Clarke added that the Republican/Fox News attack dogs don't "bother to learn the facts" and are "wrong morally to attempt to make political gain on the damage inflicted by terrorism." If an attack occurs, "let us hope the American people will reject any attempt to make it a partisan issue. It is not conduct worthy of real patriots."

This is certainly true, and it's also been a political dynamic playing out for over a year.

Just 48 hours after President Obama's inauguration, Marc Thiessen, George W. Bush's former chief speechwriter, argued, "If Obama weakens any of the defenses Bush put in place and terrorists strike our country again, Americans will hold Obama responsible -- and the Democratic Party could find itself unelectable for a generation." Jason Zengerle noted at the time, "You almost get the sense guys like Thiessen are hoping for an attack so that they can blame Obama when it happens."

That was 13 months ago, and it's only gotten worse. In May, after a loathsome speech by Dick Cheney, Jeffrey Toobin explained:

Even worse than Cheney's distortions was the political agenda behind them. The speech was, as politicians say, a marker -- a warning to the new Administration.... Cheney's all but explicit message was that the blame for any new attack against American people or interests would be laid not on the terrorists, or on the worldwide climate of anti-Americanism created by the Bush-Cheney Administration, but on Barack Obama.

For many months after the 9/11 attacks, Democrats refrained from engaging in the blame game with the Bush Administration. Cheney's speech makes it clear that, should terrorists strike again, Republicans may not respond in kind.

This generally goes unsaid, but it's a key aspect of the Republican crusade -- if something horrible happens, we're not supposed to blame the team that left a mess for Obama to clean up, we're supposed to blame Obama himself. If only the president kept torturing people like Cheney wanted, we'd all remain safe indefinitely.

Should tragedy strike, a few too many on the right will want to tear this country apart, and they've been laying the groundwork for quite a while.

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2010_02/022294.php

toniD's Ya Think?

SHELBY SHAKEDOWN SHUT OUT?.... Mark Kleiman raises a good question, which I was curious about, too.

I don't watch the Sunday talk shows. But did anyone ask anyone about the Shelby Shakedown?

It was a pretty big political development last week -- there's no recent precedent for a senator placing a hold on 70 presidential nominees, holding them hostage until the senator is paid off in pork. The White House raised a fuss about Sen. Richard Shelby's (R-Ala.) scheme, and the Senate Majority Leader raised a fuss, so maybe the Sunday shows would devote at least some time to the subject?

I checked the transcripts, and found:

* NBC's "Meet the Press" ignored the story.

* CBS's "Face the Nation" ignored the story.

* ABC's "This Week" ignored the story.*

* "Fox News Sunday" ignored the story.

CNN's "State of the Union," to its credit, was the only Sunday show to mention the story at all, though host Candy Crowley described the controversy as "a little arcane." The discussion lasted about a minute, and concluded with CNN's senior congressional correspondent, Dana Bash, telling viewers:

"I think, politically, the reason why you heard Robert Gibbs go crazy at -- at the White House on Friday, because this is like political manna from heaven for -- for them, you know, of course they say they would rather have their nominees, but because the point that they have been trying to make, the point that the president has been trying to make since Scott Brown was elected is, wait a minute, Washington is frozen because all of a sudden we need 60 votes to do anything in the Senate, you know, never mind the fact that Democrats did the exact same thing when -- when Republicans were in the White House."

Bash's claim is false, and she should know better. Democrats didn't do "the exact same thing" -- not only did Dems filibuster far less often than Republicans, but at no time during the Bush/Cheney era did a Democratic senator put a blanket hold on all administration nominees, holding them hostage until the senator was paid off in earmarks. The media's reflexive "both sides do it" is a real problem for American journalism, and does a disservice to the electorate.

Nevertheless, to Mark's question, there are five Sunday public affairs shows, and four blew off the controversy altogether. The fifth mentioned it, but suggested to viewers that the story isn't especially important.

Your "liberal media" at work.

Update: I was mistaken about one of the four. I thought I had checked the full "This Week" transcript, but the one I referenced was not the entire episode. Host Jake Tapper did bring up the controversy, and to his credit, covered the story better than the four hosts of the Sunday shows.

Here's the full transcript of the program. Three of the five blew off the story, not four. My apologies.

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2010_02/022293.php

toniD's Ya Think?

A NEW ROUTE TO THE SAME DESTINATION?.... Most observers of the health care reform debate thought they saw the road ahead: House would pass the Senate bill, and the Senate would approve improvements through reconciliation. Yesterday, President Obama announced he's taking a detour, which may or may not reach the same destination.

President Obama said Sunday that he would convene a half-day bipartisan health care session at the White House to be televised live this month, a high-profile gambit that will allow Americans to watch as Democrats and Republicans try to break their political impasse.

Mr. Obama made the announcement in an interview on CBS during the Super Bowl pre-game show, capitalizing on a vast television audience. He set out a plan that would put Republicans on the spot to offer their own ideas on health care and show whether both sides are willing to work together.

"I want to come back and have a large meeting, Republicans and Democrats, to go through systematically all the best ideas that are out there and move it forward," Mr. Obama said in the interview from the White House Library.

The president previewed the kind of questions he'll encourage GOP leaders to answer at the Feb. 25 meeting: "How do you guys want to lower costs? How do you guys intend to reform the insurance market so that people with pre-existing conditions, for example, can get health care? How do you want to make sure that the 30 million people who don't have health insurance can get it? What are your ideas specifically?"

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) both accepted the invitation, though they said they'd like to see the reform discussions start from scratch, with the existing proposal thrown out altogether. The president said that's not an option, and that the talks will be focused on considering improvements to the work that's already been done. "This is not starting over," one White House official said. "Don't make any mistake about that. We are coming with our plan. They can bring their plan."

It is, by some appearances, a call-the-bluff moment, with the president daring Republicans to put their cards on the table. There will be a big, detailed policy discussion, aired on C-SPAN for all the world to see, and GOP solutions will be considered, scrutinized, and weighed against Democratic proposals.

The approach is not without risk. The public's appetite for a prolonged health reform debate may be limited, and it's extremely likely that Republicans will simply continue to reject any Democratic idea, regardless of merit, leading to a summit that brings us right back to where we are now.

But that wouldn't necessarily be an awful outcome.
Continue reading...

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2010_02/022291.php

toniD's Ya Think?

Progressives should find common ground with the teabaggers against the corporations.

I don't understand this tack I've been reading in the blogosphere as of late.

I try and understand the frustration of my compadres here on the left, but how is searching for common ground with the teabaggers any less 'definition-of-insanity' than the WH searching for bipartisanship with Republicans in Congress?

Is it because we've never really tried it?

The picture here is that Congress and the administration are rife with politicians bought and sold by corporations and the position is that they can't be "unsold".

But the picture is also that Teabaggers are bought and sold by xenopobia, racism and generations of religious fundamentalism and right wing propagandizing.

And that's undoable? Kumbaya is possible if only to fight the corporate takeover of government?

"this machine kills fascists"

http://www.thedailybeast.com/cheat-sheet/item/soldier-waterboards-4-year...

Soldier Waterboards 4-Year-Old Daughter
-----------------------------------
This goes to show that headlines can cut both ways.

Cheney and his ilk benefit from any act of terrorism on Obama's watch.

Cheney and his ilk look pretty bad when U.S. soldiers do crazy torture shit back home.

the difference is Obama gave away a lot compromising with the Republicans...

we do not lose anything agreeing with the teabaggers on the points we agree with them on...

as far as "Kumbaya" and "undoable" is concerned, I have no idea what you are talking about...it is not about trying to fix those assholes, just get them to hold up a sign saying "A Corporation IS NOT a Person"

It's not really that difficult to a concept to grasp...

he should have shot for the Baton Rouge mansion and he would have probably won, don't know why he didn't

anyway, this is the email i got from the LA Roots (grassroots) organization

New Orleans Wins!

With the Super Bowl still hours away, New Orleans has already won with yesterday's elections.

Mayor-elect Mitch Landrieu unites the city with a first round open primary victory from among 10 candidates - enjoying 62% of the African American vote and 69% from white voters.

With this Mayor and the next City Council, New Orleans can come together to build the future it deserves.

Here's how La Roots Endorsements shook out:

Mayor Mitch Landrieu - WON!

Councilmember at Large Arnie Fielkow - WON!

Councilmember District A Susan Guidry - 1st place in Primary

Important District A Runoff March 6th! www.electsusanguidry.com

Councilmember District B Stacy Head - WON!

Councilmember District C Kristin Palmer - WON!

Councilmember District D Cynthia Hedge-Morrell - WON!

Councilmember District E ustin Badon - 1st place in Primary

Runoff March 6th www.austinbadon.com

State Senator 5th District Karen Carter Peterson - WON!

Assessor Janis Lemle - defeated, 3rd place

Judge Civil District Court "J" Paula Brown - WON!

Judge Juvenile Court "E" Tracey Flemings-Davillier - WON!
Sheriff arlin Gusman - WON!

Clerk Criminal District Court Arthur Morrell - WON!

SAINTS GEAUX ALL THE WAY

Not at all. The "just get them to hold up a sign saying 'A Corporation IS NOT a Person'", approach sounds wonderfully optimistic and hopeful to me. More power to you.

I just don't see a difference. What a Dem/Obama/whomever has or hasn't given away is irrelevant to the fact that you are engaging someone whose ideology is inseparable from their politics and the polar opposite of your ideology.

Yet you are optimistic enough think it is separable. That's a good thing and I hope it works. But, their ugly and regressive racist, xenophobic underpinnings belie cooperation.

I have just as hard a time picturing you and a teabagger protesting side-by-side holding identical signs, as I do Boehner and Pelosi standing at a podium announcing the successful passage of a bipartisan bill.

"this machine kills fascists"

with his insufferable wife who he claims is also a saints fan - hard to imagine these two on the same team, anyway they are nola residents now and we have to put up with them at Tulane as they are part of the visiting faculty - am not sure what kind of wisdom they can impart but there you have it they treat them like royalty around here just because they are on the tv from time to time

it is not about politicians, it is about policies...and individual actions on specific issues.

I can very easily see me standing next to ANYONE who would hold up the same sign as I do...good thing that it only takes one hand...as the other will be holding my nose against the stench....

United Front is about issues, not ideology...

Maybe not Bohner and Pelosi..but how about "McCain-Finegold" ? At least they agreed on the concept long enough to write a bill...

Submitted by mire on Mon, 02/08/2010 - 11:49am.
SAINTS GEAUX ALL THE WAY
---------
Surrender monkey THIS!

CHICAGO – The Democratic nominee for Illinois' lieutenant governor dropped out of the race Sunday night, less than a week after winning the nomination, amid a political uproar about his past.

Announcing his decision at a Chicago bar packed with patrons watching the Super Bowl, a tearful Scott Lee Cohen said the Democrats were not certain they could win with him on the ticket. He said he was stepping down because he did not want to jeopardize the Democratic Party ticket.

"This is the hardest thing that I ever had to do in my life," he said before choking up with sobs.

Since Cohen won the Democratic nomination on Tuesday, it has become widely known that he was accused of abusing his ex-wife and holding a knife to the throat of an ex-girlfriend — a woman who was herself charged with prostitution. He also admits using steroids in the past.

"For the good of the people of the state of Illinois and the Democratic Party, I will resign," Cohen said in a rambling remarks made as the Super Bowl halftime entertainment blared in the background.

The revelations about Cohen's past came as Illinois was starting to move on from the scandals of ousted Gov. Rod Blagojevich.

Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn, who inherited the job after Blagojevich's ouster following federal corruption charges, would have been paired with Cohen on the November ticket. Quinn, U.S. Rep. Danny Davis and Sen. Dick Durbin all had urged Cohen to leave the race.

Quinn said Cohen had "made the right decision for the Democratic Party and the people of Illinois.

"Now we can continue to focus our efforts on putting our economy back on track and working to bring good jobs to Illinois," the governor said in a written statement.

Surrounded by his sons, his fiancee and her son, Cohen apologized to his family, his supporters and anyone he may have let down.

"All I ever wanted to do was to run for office and to help the people, not to cause chaos, that was never my intention," Cohen said.

Until his nomination, Cohen was a political unknown. Democratic leaders had not considered him a threat to win and didn't highlight his past during the campaign.

Cohen's resignation from the ticket means state party leaders can replace him on the ballot.

"Now we can move on to find a strong replacement," said Steve Brown, spokesman for the Illinois Democratic chairman, House Speaker Michael Madigan.

Cohen, a pawnbroker and owner of a cleaning products distribution company, ran against several veteran politicians, spending $2 million — mostly his own money — on his campaign, more than twice as much as all his opponents combined. He gained strong name recognition with a flurry of advertising featuring people who said they got jobs at employment fairs he held. more...

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100208/ap_on_el_gu/us_illinois_democratic_n...

What sold him to the people was that he was holding Job Fairs and had found people jobs.
There's good and bad in everyone. But if you use the good for your own ambitions then it falls in the bad/evil category.

toniD's Ya Think?

Beer May Be Good For Your Bones

If you downed one too many while watching the Super Bowl, here's at least one reason to hold your head high: Drinking beer can be good for your health.

But seriously, a new analysis of 100 commercial beers shows the hoppy beverage is a significant source of dietary silicon, a key ingredient for bone health.

Though past research has suggested beer is chockfull of silicon, little was known about how silicon levels varied with the type of beer and malting process used. So a pair of researchers took one for the team and ran chemical analyses on beer's raw ingredients. They also picked up 100 commercial beers from the grocery store and measured the silicon content.

The silicon content of the beers ranged from 6.4 mg/L to 56.5 mg/L, with an average of 30 mg/L. Two beers are the equivalent of just under a half liter, so a person could get 30 mg of the nutrient from two beers. And while there is no official recommendation for daily silicon uptake, the researchers say, in the United States, individuals consume between 20 and 50 mg of silicon each day.

However, other studies show that consuming more than one or two alcoholic beverages a day may be, overall, bad for health. ...............

http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/20100208/sc_livescience/beermaybegoo...

toniD's Ya Think?

I like beer! If it helps my bones, why not!
Submitted by toniD on Mon, 02/08/2010 - 12:38pm.
----------
(toniD blows her C-note on "medication.")

Did you see McCain's reaction to the conservative SCOTUS gutting of McCain-Feingold? In a nutshell (pun intended), it was "Oh well!".

McCain is a good example to illustrate what I'm talking about, because the McCain that signed onto McCain-Feingold doesn't exist anymore. Just like Republicans that are willing to compromise to pass legislation don't exist anymore.

Hell, Susan Collins of the 'moderates' just excoriated Obama for reading Abdul Mutallab his Miranda rights and letting the FBI interrogate him vs. shoving him in Gitmo and letting the torturers/military commissions have at him! That's how bad it is now and indicative of how the teabagger cancer has overtaken even the moderates.

I understand what you're saying, and I'm not alleging that you would not be able to stand there next to a racist wingnut on a more populist issue not concerning race, but I highly doubt they would agree to do the same, and that's my point. You are relying on them to be reasonable in a climate where the wingnut gambit is to be increasingly unreasonable.

Parallel: It's not the Democrats that are unwilling to compromise it's the Republicans. Liberals have been holding their noses all year. Comservatives, not so much. They bank on stinking up the place. They're proud of their stink.

You're banking on that wingnut holding the sign in silence and not screeching racist, anti-socialist garbage at the top of their lungs in addition to that anti-corporatist message.

(Yikes! Is this what it feels like to be a cynic? b/c I don't like it! :) )

"this machine kills fascists"

Progressives and the Democratic Party - Part 4

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&add...

toniD's Ya Think?

I don't like it either...my talents are much more suited to fire breathing...

but, like some one has grown fond of saying "everybody's got to do what they got to do".....or not.

http://samsedershow.com/node/5646

I stumbled onto a Seder guest spot on the Joy Behar show from February 3, 2010. If it was posted before now, I missed it.

(I can't stop thinking of Fred Armisen's impression of Joy Behar long enough to take her seriously.)

http://joybehar.blogs.cnn.com/

Scroll down to mid-page. Look for the date.

i knew it would be good for something

a lot.

-

Im still alive here. This place lies alot

full of snakes

nothing a good cant take care of though

anyhoo, peace, anyway

that sounds like a farewell letter, but no I am here