Open

frist

and coffeeing up!

"this machine kills fascists"

Rachel Maddow - The Nation's Chris Hayes, on the path to the Public Option

Bernie Sanders said the same thing yesterday on the Thom Hartmann show, Brunch with Bernie.

Have to get ready for work. I really don't want to go today. The weather is terrible and I am feeling it big time today. Just want to go back to sleep for awhile.

toniD's Ya Think?

Alternate Universe?
Submitted by toniD on Sat, 03/13/2010 - 10:52am.
Quote of the Day
"Gingrich is smarter than Einstein, because he invented the theory of relativity as told to him by God"

-- Scumbag Frank Luntz, quoted by the New York Times, on Newt Gingrich.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/13/us/politics/13gingrich.html

not an exact quote
but not exactly far fetched either...
Texas Board of Education cuts Thomas Jefferson out of its textbooks.
http://thinkprogress.org/2010/03/12/texas-education-board-cuts-thomas-je...

and sam
your blog needs a tune up

but both venues are 25 or less. Having pondered it a bit I think I'll make me another pot and work on my homeowners association instead.

Besides I have a loaf of bread in the machine that won't be done for another hour. I hate leaving them in the machine for a long time after they are done. It soaks all the freshness out of them imho. Gotta get it out and let it breathe like a fine bottle of 2 Dog wine. ;-)

But...fucking YouTube Nazis.

So I had to go this way...

I CAN EMBED HERE!!!! YAY!!!

that aren't accompanied by something interesting, amusing, or relevant
is lazy & indulgent
and it sucks

http://legalschnauzer.blogspot.com/2010/03/siegelman-shines-spotlight-on...

To me anyhow.

allow me to demonstrate errors of ommission

cat chew, you tacky thing
cee cee, your face is a mess
nightbird you're a tramp
and mire you're juvenile

on the outset it could be misconstrued that i'm being insulting, right
but, ah-ha, let me put it into context...
david, if you'll be so kind

You've got your mother in a whirl
She's not sure if you're a boy or a girl
Hey babe, your hair's alright
Hey babe, let's go out tonight
You like me, and I like it all
We like dancing and we look divine
You love bands when they're playing hard
You want more and you want it fast
They put you down, they say I'm wrong
You tacky thing, you put them on

Rebel Rebel, you've torn your dress
Rebel Rebel, your face is a mess
Rebel Rebel, how could they know?
Hot tramp, I love you so!

And I love your dress
You're a juvenile success

now you're stars encrusted in a rock song
now you're immortal
(eh, just an excuse to play bowie)
(he was far ahead of his time: a pioneer in music & a pirate long before the somalis)

:)

(Anyhow. Don't see how it's lazy...or I don't see how that's confined to YTs. Or even if I kinda do tough titty.

And I'm not supposed to be here, so I'm not.

Squonk!

scritch scritch scritch...

Is approximately = to "quack! quack!"

oh, so, according to the NY Times, we "miss W" and Gingrich?
Pah!!

For the birds among us.

Morning Jim and everyone.

I'll be off to work in a bit.

So far slow news day, but that could change fast.

Thanks for reposting my news ono. Time before work is difficult.

Senate, Obama spar over health plan's pet projects
AP – 1 hr 56 mins ago

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama says he wants projects helping specific states yanked from the health care bill Congress is writing. Democratic senators, being senators, beg to differ. Full Story »

LINK

toniD's Ya Think?

Have a great day

Later!

toniD's Ya Think?

tough titty.

Submitted by gloryoski on Sat, 03/13/2010 - 11:47am

*******

I haven't heard that saying in years and,
it just cracked me up !

And,it slowed down Martha Stewart of the blog
for a Nano second ! ;)

*******

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

MMRules

The Twilight of the Elites

"In the past decade, nearly every pillar institution in American society — whether it's General Motors, Congress, Wall Street, Major League Baseball, the Catholic Church or the mainstream media — has revealed itself to be corrupt, incompetent or both. And at the root of these failures are the people who run these institutions, the bright and industrious minds who occupy the commanding heights of our meritocratic order. In exchange for their power, status and remuneration, they are supposed to make sure everything operates smoothly. But after a cascade of scandals and catastrophes, that implicit social contract lies in ruins, replaced by mass skepticism, contempt and disillusionment.

In the wake of the implosion of nearly all sources of American authority, this new decade will have to be about reforming our institutions to reconstitute a more reliable and democratic form of authority. Scholarly research shows a firm correlation between strong institutions, accountable élites and highly functional economies; mistrust and corruption, meanwhile, feed each other in a vicious circle. If our current crisis continues, we risk a long, ugly process of de-development: higher levels of corruption and tax evasion and an increasingly fractured public sphere, in which both public consensus and reform become all but impossible."

"this machine kills fascists"

Can anyone think of any other names you've heard for the USB Flash Drive?

So far I have : Thumb Drive, Jump Drive, Memory Stick, Stick

Bgurl figured out what i meant.

Naming

By August 2008, "USB flash drive" had emerged as a common term for these devices, and most major manufacturers [40] use similar wording on their packaging, although potentially confusing alternatives (such as Memory Stick or USB memory key) still occur.

The myriad different brand names and terminology used, in the past and currently[update], make USB flash drives more difficult for manufacturers to market and for consumers to research. Some commonly-used names actually represent trademarks of particular companies, such as Cruzer, TravelDrive, ThumbDrive, and Disgo.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USB_flash_drive#Naming

was it not supposed to come from search results? Sorry if so. :}

and Memory Key....

very good, thanks you twos!

back to it...

cool.

But it's spelled the same.

Well, actually I can't guarantee that. Probably it's written down "wrong" in some store somewhere.

Finding out how it's said in other languages...

Remember to bring the gangster cigarettes!!!

The rode to my hot is closed for repairs.

Come the back way.

not funny ha-ha?

Cuz I don't think you can use _humorous_ for that.

The soap plant is very valuable and can be eaten but it's hardly as excellent as fresh cilantro.

I've been working on the yard all day. My herb bed is ready but I won't be planting it for at least another week. I'll be planting some cilantro for you folks.

It's better to disagree without twisting each others words out of context. I can agree that we all favor different foods but it was shocking to read what Chew wrote about cilantro. I dated a lady for a year who hated cilatro. Then she called me up two years later and we went out again and she loved the stuff. I never understood that.

ring of fire is on kptk 1090, right now.

*

I have to weigh in on cilantro...and corriander...

I love them both with extreme passion.

Salsa must contain cilantro. Corriander seeds ground-up are good on sandwiches to me.

Cilantro is very good for covering up your front tooth after lunch. Thereby reinforcing the hillbilly library assistant image...with glasses and a bun of course.

Where I live now, I've tried to grow cilantro. Here it seeds too early and the givings are small for the leaf. But for coriander this is a good place to grow it.

makes me drool...

functions for nourishment...how can you not worship that?

oh gawd. Drizzled with lime.

pant, pant, pant. And a hint of fresh chile serano.

I wanted to say something about Carlos Slim. It's insulting to me that the wealthiest man in the world rules Mexico as he does.

Mexico - a socialist "leftist" state has been bought out by large multi-national interests, much like our country is being transformed. The political parties are total slaves to the corporatist agenda. Brace yourselves folks. Love each other and learn to enjoy suffering. That's our future if we can't correct the fascist Scalia agenda of corporate run elections. Our Senate is already full of whores.

We have lost so much. Let's not lose each other.

As many disagreements as I have started, and as flaky as I see some comments, they are pure gold compared to the future America is paving.

Forcing my hand..yes I must really mean that, g.
new
Submitted by Alice on Sat, 03/13/2010 - 4:14pm.

*

I have to weigh in on cilantro...and corriander...

I love them both with extreme passion.

-----
Another normal person. (This is not solely determined by the cilantro variable, but I can't imagine "normality" existing in the absence of the "like cilantro" gene. )

and the Unpacking My Library from Walter Benjamin, via Leah, and the Dramatic Chipmunk...I cannot concentrate on what I'm supposed to be doing....

I could live the rest of my life without Parsley...

Parsley tastes like soap to me.... I hated it for years.

But try to make a good meat ball with out it. Try to stuff a cheese manacotti with out it. You can't do it. It's required.

Alice - seriously, use yellow onions with cilantro and lime. White onions are way bitter.

There are currently 2 users and 105 guests online.
Online users

* Fernando
* mire

Like I said no absolute correlation...

Do you really think this has only been since Carlos Slim has been around?

During Cardenas (padre) kinda sorta maybe a little it was somewhat socialist and not barely closeted corporatist/national-capitalist. The only real difference has been the degree and openness or not of trans-national control as opposed to control by Mexican elites.

So we would have had to kiss and make up for the sake of enjoying our suffering as a constructed monolithic entity (for them to piss on) for like--way before there was an "us" (as if).

What are you talking about?

It's a rhetorical question...

Well, there is that "if we can't" buried in that big...

Bye.

That's a new one to me.. ;)

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

MMRules

I'll remember the yellow onion next time, Fernie...

Ok finished my homework...Thanks for the help...Now I have to wipe off everything I own that is going back into my house...ick...

11 Central. Kurt Busch should take his 1970 street legal Challenger to the drag strip on SPEED channel for the Gainsville qualifiers on a super gas drag strip.

yeah, I said drag & strip. 1167 horses being de-tuned to run 9.9's.

It started way before Slim of course. I said I was insulted by it and made no reference as to how long Mexican politicians have solicited being bought out.

Bye.

Can one mild-mannered Harvard law professor help the Democrats avoid an electoral calamity this November? It's possible.

The person I have in mind is Elizabeth Warren. She chairs the Congressional Oversight Panel, which monitors the TARP bailout. But perhaps more important is her unofficial title: mother of the proposed Consumer Financial Protection Agency. Several years ago -- before the 2008 crash -- she cooked up the idea of a federal agency that would set and enforce rules to protect consumers from the unscrupulous practices of banks, credit card companies, mortgage lenders and other financial firms. After the subprime crisis led to a global meltdown, her proposal picked up momentum, eventually becoming a centerpiece of President Obama's financial reform package. In the fall, the House passed a mostly strong version of the CFPA. Now, it's being considered by the Senate -- where Big Finance lobbyists and Republicans are trying to strangle this watchdog in the crib. On Monday, Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.), chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, is scheduled to release his financial reform package, and observers, including Warren, are waiting to see if it will contain a muscular and independent CFPA.

..more from David Corn

Nobody really leaves us. They simply stop contributing. Tag, you are it.

excuse me while my head explodes

Getting To The Root Of The Great Cilantro Divide

"Wysocki took some chopped up cilantro to Twinsburg, Ohio, for the annual twins festival, and had identical and fraternal twins sniff cilantro and rate pleasantness. People tended to fall mainly into two groups — the lovers and the haters — and identical twins almost always rated cilantro the same way as their sibling counterpart.

This, it turns out, is the real problem. My whole life I've been unable to pick up on the scent that is so overwhelmingly good for cilantro lovers that it trumps any possible bad. I come to a disappointing realization: I am not an X-Man with superkeen sensory abilities. I am a sensory dud who's missing the true nature of cilantro."

Ya got that right brother! Cilantro is deeeelicious!

Oh well, more for me :)

"this machine kills fascists"

Theodore Olbermann Dead: Keith Olbermann's Father Dies

"My father died, in the city of his birth, New York, at 3:50 EST this afternoon.

Though the financial constraints of his youth made college infeasible, he accomplished the near-impossible, becoming an architect licensed in 40 states. Much of his work was commercial, for a series of shoe store chains and department stores. There was a time in the 1970's when nearly all of the Baskin-Robbins outlets in the country had been built to his design, and under his direction"

"this machine kills fascists"

they do look alike and i need to make a confession

i bought a beautiful parsley plant at the supermarket last week; i use parsley a lot, it's an indispensable ingredient in most italian dishes; it pairs well with garlic and you cannot have any kind of seafood pasta dish without starting with garlic, parsley, and hot peppers in olive oil first...

so anyway, i bought this little parsley thing with roots and replanted in a bigger pot with a lot of good soil, set in my backyard and it's doing great. why was i telling this story, i forgot

ah yes, this morning i just wanted to try it and bit on one of those gorgeous fresh green leaves; it tasted like cilantro (=soap, sorry fern); so now i am too embarassed to say i don't even know what that "thing" is; i'ma gonna have to buy some fresh parsley tomorrow and bite into one of its leaves and compare, so i can find out what i have there in my backyard

fact is, when you use a herb in cooking, mix it with a bunch of other stuff (lime juisce or garlic), fry in oil, add it to the main dish whatever it is that you're cooking, the taste changes totally; yeah prolly they all taste like soap if you just eat them raw. well, not all, but you know what i mean. cilantro is good in some thai food, like a clear chicken broth, pretty sure the soap flavor dissolves completely in something like that

and fernando, that soap plant you showed us looks gorgeous, such pretty flowers

I had to take the drain pump apart and there was a drill bit lodged in the turny thing (impeller?).

Took the pump completely apart made sure all the parts were dry, put it back together, reinstalled it and, VOILA! Draining!

I love DIY!

I wonder how long that bit was in there before it worked its way down into the pump.

"this machine kills fascists"

but it sure gets better with tomatoes garlic and onion.

Reminds me of Dales Steak sauce. Doesn't smell good at all but whatever you marinate in it gets 100% better.

I did that once before and remember when I got up the next day I actually felt like I slept in. Hope it happens again.

wait a minute... all my clocks are digital, satellite, computer, cell phone.... they change on their own :(

it's been ages since i owned a regular wrist watch, i miss that

telling me it's 8:30, way past my bedtime

not sure i like this :(

didn't. It's genius I tell ya. If only I could bottle this stuff...

gee i must have had a great time last night, been real drunk, don't remember what i did or where i was from midnight to one

I told michele today that if we do a show tomorrow we'll push it forward an hour to accommodate the climatic change in chronology.

..and I'm already drunk!

Fuckin' daylight savings!

"this machine kills fascists"

by the way, i think i won't be able to blog the live show tomorrow, i've gotta a busy day ahead, like it was today, got a lot done but i'm exhausted

still considering going to italy to vote in a couple of weeks - still undecided - but in the meantime i am starting to get ready, just in case, making telephone calls, plans, itineraries, putting ducks in a row as they say

election day in Tuscany with old friends i haven't seen in 13 years, and then Easter with my brother in the French Riviera, where he bought a house last year... but i've no idea what the weather is going to be like

just starting to be real nice around here, and i hear it's aweful over there

my last residence in italy was here and that's where i am still eligible to vote

http://www.toscanaviva.com/Greve_in_Chianti/Greve_in_Chianti.htm

and oh, too, i am not sure i can really afford it, will have to do some budgeting

if you let me carry your luggage. ;-)

If folks show up and we do one, I will podcast it immediately after the show because I have a plateful of cilantro to get to tomorrow too. Plant my seeds, start a batch of wine, laundry, blah, blah, blah. The only thing not on my list is planning a trip to Tuscany. ;-(

Tuscany. I think the prettiest part of Italy. I love Florence too. My Ex's family were from Tuscany.

I went into the kitchen 3 times to change the clock on the microwave and a big ole round battery clock on the Kitchen wall. All 3 times I found something else to do and forgot to change the clocks.

Long busy day at work and I didn't stop from the moment I got there. Problems day. I'm wiped tonight.

toniD's Ya Think?

and had a blast. Met some super nice smart people and a gorgeous guy who is running for Lt. gov. was there. He is for campaign finance reform and is running against a real douch bag. i met an old friend of Steves who is always chatting it up on my debate threads on FB. I am going to get the organizers on Cory's show which is now on the lib station.

We also saw Green Zone and I really liked it.

I love cilantro

I love parsely too.

Don't love liver tho.

Former SNL star and current Senator Al Franken made a pitch on YouTube to make two Minnesota cities the test sites for Google's broadband internet service.

Franken mined his "Answer Man" sketch, in which he tells a Duluth tourist facts about the city, to persuade viewers to sign a petition for Duluth and Superior as the first stop for Google Fiber.

"In those days, Google didn't exist, cities had to rely on people to remember all its key facts," Franken says before showing a clip of himself playing the suit-clad nerd known as the "Duluth Answer Man."

It's the only the latest gimmick with the intent of catching Google's intention. The search-engine giant recently announced its intent to "test ultra-high speed broadband networks in one or more trial locations across the country" and asked people to nominate their city.

The contest ends March 26 and towns across the country have gone to absurd lengths to gain Google's favor. Topeka, Kan., and Sarasota, Fla., renamed their towns "Google" and "Google Island" to bolster their chances.

Franken isn't the only Congressman pushing for Google's attentions. Virginia Rep. Rick Boucher has said several of his staff members are devoted to bringing Google Fiber to his district.

toniD's Ya Think?

on the phone, getting in touch with old friends who've been out of my life for years, but the budgeting part, not fun... making a list of all the things i won't be able to do this year - and some of these are necessities, i hate to say - if i do this...

also feeling guilty... about spending money - yeah but think about all the nice photos i can take, yeah but think maybe there'll be snow and wind and rain and probably i'll get sick, i might have to drive my rental car on ice... yeah but think, it'll be nice to see my brother and talk politics, last time i saw him it was at my daughter's wedding...

oh well, i need to sleep on it

I went to dinner tonight at a popular DC political watering hole. I’d never been there before. The atmosphere was so heavy and the mood of the room so strange it was hard to concentrate.

“It’s Paths of Glory, and these are the trenches,” said my dinner companion.

I had no idea what that meant.

“You know, Stanley Kubrick, World War I — the generals know it’s a suicide mission but they don’t care. They think they might get a promotion so they send the troops in anyway. But the troops won’t go, so the generals start firing on their own men in the trenches.”

Yep, that was it was it: fear. Icy cold fingers up your back, smell-of-death fear.

“You mean over the health care bill? I said. “Because they’re forcing everyone to sacrifice themselves and take the vote.”

“Yep.”

...rest by Jane @ FDL just posted

for a part time job

looking back to when i had part-time jobs, i found they're just as much work if not more, than full time... most of it being having to get ready for work and the commute, hell, once you're there you might as well work a few more and earn the extra bucks... i mean if you have a choice of course, when i was a part-timer it was because that's all i could have at the time

and green zone (I wanna see it too)

it does sound like a great day

fwiw, i do like liver :) but i hope it doesn't turn into another one of these blog long drawn discussions about liver next

I voted for Duluth.

But the PD hired a new part time girl and she is in the process of bing trained so I am sure I wlll have less hours in the future. If I can keep it at 15 hours a week, I will be fine.

toniD's Ya Think?

that's a bummer, mb, very true, though

(what's duluth?)

will pour some brandy on it

bread pudding, was part of a dinner plate a neighbor brought to my house yesterday... he came to my door with a plate of food, yesterday, as i was coming home from work... i said i didn't need it and wasn't hungry, but he insisted, said that if i didn't want it he was gonna have to throw it away... so i had to take it to make him happy, and ate it today when i was too busy too cook

yes, it's that kind of neighborhood

and yes, it's that kind of city... crazy city, number 10 on that list of craziest places toni or someone else posted here last week, i was surprised to see it rank that low...

what did i see today... i had to stop in the middle of traffic with cars honking behind me... a car, a big truck really, looked like it had a bunch of coconuts sticking out of its body, no it looked like breasts, droopy breasts, dozens of them, all over the body of the car... on closer inspections, they were cut-off footballs and they had the saints logo on them... the owner was there shining the car proudly with passers by gawking....

and in case you're wondering, that food offering, it was delicious, beans and rice done just like they should, meat balls, also good, i was surprised...

Where Senator Al wants Google to try the new thingie.

By Madeleine Morris
BBC News, Washington

A grassroots political grouping that has emerged in recent months in opposition to the conservative Tea Party movement has been holding its first national day of meetings in the United States.

The BBC's Madeleine Morris met some of the members of the Coffee Party in - where else? - a coffee house in Washington.

Looking for a little bit of civil political discussion with your decaf latte? Well the newly formed Coffee Party movement may be for you.

Evolving in the United States over the last couple of months through social media in response to the conservative Tea Party movement, coffee partiers share the Tea Party's disillusionment with mainstream politicians.

Internet traction

Saturday saw over 350 Coffee Party events held in cafes across the United States and abroad, bringing activists together in person for the first time for a national day of conversation and, of course, espressos and cappuccinos.

“ We recognize that the federal government is not the enemy of the people, but the expression of our collective will ”
Coffee Party mission statement

"If our children acted like our politicians are acting right now they would be grounded for a very long time," says Ryan Clayton, a Coffee Party spokesperson in Washington DC.

Like the Tea Party, the Coffee Party is a movement, not a registered political entity. But that is where the similarities end.

The Tea Party is a loose affiliation of activists from all over America who are distrustful of the federal government, and what they see as bloated government spending.

Over the past year Tea Party groups have held a number of loud, angry rallies across America denouncing President Barack Obama and other politicians.

The first national Tea Party convention in February featured former Alaskan governor Sarah Palin as its keynote speaker. Unlike their Tea Party counterparts, who want a smaller government with less influence, coffee partiers believe government can provide solutions, and they want politicians to work together in a more civilised way.

"We need to get together as citizens and show them [politicians] that we can sit down and talk about these issues; that we can solve problems and develop solutions; that we may not agree on everything, but that we can agree on a lot," says Mr Clayton.

Silent majority?

Founder Annabel Park, who began the Coffee Party on her Facebook page out of anger at the Tea Party and its growing influence, has seen it rapidly gain traction on the internet.

Its Facebook page has picked up over 138,000 fans in less than two months.

While the Tea Party can claim to have already helped win elections, including the vote for the new Massachusetts Senator, Scott Brown, can the Coffee Party gain the same sway on American politics?

"We're trying to approach politics differently so it's hard to compare the level of influence," says Annabel Park.

"Changing the political culture is not something you can measure by saying how many elections you've won."

But she maintains the coffee party represents the silent majority, who feel angry at politicians but do not want to voice their frustration by adopting the same aggressive and frequently negative tactics the Tea Party has.

"The two-party structure is just not working. There are so many of us who feel these labels are outdated, that we're much more complex and interconnected. And people are coming to us exhilarated that there's finally a place for them to have a voice," she says.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/americas/8566574.stm

toniD's Ya Think?

found this map and I'm thinking, "What's mire up to this time?!?!?"

"We recognize that the federal government is not the enemy of the people, but the expression of our collective will"
Coffee Party mission statement

"Collective will" except the Senators and the Reps! All they collect is corp. bribes.

toniD's Ya Think?

In theory yes, in practice not so much, huh?

The Coffee Party is going to have to get some muscle (how I have no idea) but for now they are bringing a pea-shooter to a gun fight. Not that the cause is not noble but the other side doesn't play fair. First they have to symbolically kick the Tea Party in the nuts when no one is looking or the media will just treat them like they are a bunch of Democrats. Unless of course they can turn it into a missing blonde in the Caribbean kinda story.

That's it for me, geez look how late it is. Yawnnnnnnnnnnnn!

g'nite.

to avoid confusion

that was not a bum, coming to my door with food

some people around here cook at home and set up makeshift tables in front of the house to sell food to make ends meet... sometimes they don't even have the makeshifts, neighbors know what's going on, even though there's no sign on the houses of course and this is totally under the table economy, so to speak

word of mouth circulates in the street about what the menu of the day is and if you want you just knock on the door and buy whatever it's cooking, for 10 dollars or so you get the works, including bread and dessert... as i said, i was a little suspicious of these proceedings at first, but when i tried the fried trout and potato salad one friday afternoon, i was pleasantly surprised

and ya'll

i'm going to bed with a movie. I'll see if they have path of glory on netflix...

"We recognize that the federal government is not the enemy of the people, but the expression of our collective will"
Coffee Party mission statement

"Collective will" except the Senators and the Reps! All they collect is corp. bribes.

toniD's Ya Think?

that guy could have come in the batter
i'm just saying...
trust no one
lol

i went out for drinks with this insane bouncer, ex-gangster
and he told me when someone offers you a drink, always sniff it in case it's been spiked
um, dan (that was his name & he had several other), the substance would likely be odorless
i would have told him this if i thought it wasn't a waste off time
instead i just nodded, listening to the insanity
thinking "oh, fuck"

the title "i'm not indulging, i'm edifying" should of had a smiley attached

i was tired

Effort to Widen U.S. Internet Access Sets Up Battle
By BRIAN STELTER and JENNA WORTHAM

The Federal Communications Commission is proposing an ambitious 10-year plan that will reimagine the nation’s media and technology priorities by establishing high-speed Internet as the country’s dominant communication network.

The plan, which will be submitted to Congress on Tuesday, is likely to generate debate in Washington and a lobbying battle among the telecommunication giants, which over time may face new competition for customers. Already, the broadcast television industry is resisting a proposal to give back spectrum the government wants to use for future mobile service.

The blueprint reflects the government’s view that broadband Internet is becoming the common medium of the United States, gradually displacing the telephone and broadcast television industries. It also signals a shift at the F.C.C., which under the administration of President George W. Bush gained more attention for policing indecency on the television airwaves than for promoting Internet access.

According to F.C.C. officials briefed on the plan, the commission’s recommendations will include a subsidy for Internet providers to wire rural parts of the country now without access, a controversial auction of some broadcast spectrum to free up space for wireless devices, and the development of a new universal set-top box that connects to the Internet and cable service.

The effort will influence billions of dollars in federal spending, although the F.C.C. will argue that the plan should pay for itself through the spectrum auctions. Some recommendations will require Congressional action and industry support, and will affect users only years from now.

Still, “each bullet point will trigger its own tortuous battle,” said Craig Moffett, a senior analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein & Company.

For much of the last year, Julius Genachowski, the F.C.C. chairman and the plan’s chief salesman, has laid the groundwork for the Congressionally mandated plan by asserting that the United States is lagging far behind other countries in broadband adoption and speed. About a third of Americans have no access to high-speed Internet service, cannot afford it or choose not to have it.

In a speech last month, Mr. Genachowski observed that the country could build state-of-the-art computers and applications, but without equivalent broadband wiring, “it would be like having the technology for great electric cars, but terrible roads.”

The plan envisions a fully Web-connected world with split-second access to health care information and online classrooms, delivered through wireless devices yet to be dreamed up in Silicon Valley. But to get there, analysts say the F.C.C. must tread carefully with companies like Comcast and AT&T that largely control Internet pricing and speeds. Already, there are questions about the extent to which the F.C.C. has jurisdiction over Internet providers.

The F.C.C. says it can make some important changes on its own. They include reforms to the Universal Service Fund, which spends $8 billion a year from telephone surcharges to ensure that rural and poor people have phone lines at home. It also supplies Internet access to schools, libraries and rural clinics.

By reducing the phone subsidies over time, the fund could instead “support broadband access and affordability,” especially in remote locations where private companies have little incentive to build networks, said Colin Crowell, a senior counselor to Mr. Genachowski. more...

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/13/business/media/13fcc.html?pagewanted=p...

toniD's Ya Think?

never accept a cup of coffee from toni
i caught her spitting in mine
she denied it, of course
"who you gonna believe me or your lying eyes"
well, i'm going to believe you toni
then she said, "anyway, i tripped & accidently spat in it"
so i'm rattling my brain trying to reconcile both statements
and i wanted to point out to her that they're mutually exclusive, but i idn't
hey, she's from chicago, old school - she's bound to have mob connections
instead i just nodded & politely listened to the insanity

: )

i'm glad that someone else is making movie references to explain the insanity

Fenugreek Seeds ground fine. On vegetables and rice. Alone or with one or more other spices (cumin, fennel, turmeric, ginger....).

A late discovery. I wish I'd known about Fenugreek Seeds my whole life.

And those Coriander seeds, fresh from the garden. Throw them in with a stir fry and get them cooked with the veggies. They have a tiny little crunch and then a big POW of flavor.

Life is good.

BREAKING: Life is good.
Submitted by nora on Sat, 03/13/2010 - 11:14pm.
Throw them in with a stir fry... They have a tiny little crunch and then a big P.O.W.

Paths of Glory Act II: The Health Care Bill
Submitted by maggiesboy on Sat, 03/13/2010 - 9:33pm.
//Yep, that was it was it: fear. Icy cold fingers up your back, smell-of-death fear.//
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3lkKyaj1GF4

The Democrats' scam becomes more transparent
http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2010/03/12/democrats/i...
Submitted by air-ono on Sat, 03/13/2010 - 12:14am.

Newstainment (cut backs in msm news)
Submitted by CeeCee on Fri, 03/12/2010 - 11:52pm.
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20100329/alterman

Right Wing Media is Booming
Submitted by air-ono on Sat, 03/13/2010 - 9:07am.
http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2010/03/it-matters.html
digby concIudes that "I recently watched Hotel Rwanda again. And I got the uneasiest feeling."

Texas Board of Education cuts Thomas Jefferson out of its textbooks.
http://thinkprogress.org/2010/03/12/texas-education-board-cuts-thomas-je...
Submitted by toniD on Sat, 03/13/2010 - 12:32am.

"the system is working"

but i gotta go

Correction: Life is good while I eat the Fenugreek on my rice and vegetables.

Thanks for setting me right on that.

And you did it in a civilized manner. Just the perfect soupcon of irony, Air-ono.

& I have anew freshly brewed tea cheers...

Talk'n about synchronicity, Air-Ono ;D

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-food13-2010mar13,0,7317978.story

[excerpt]

Food sector faces sweeping antitrust investigation

Officials are looking into the gaps between what farmers earn and what shoppers pay at the grocery store. The Justice Department and the USDA pledge an examination of alleged monopolistic practices.

Reporting from Ankeny, Iowa
U.S. Atty. Gen. Eric Holder and a team of top federal officials on Friday pledged a sweeping examination of alleged monopolistic practices in the food sector, and promised to bust those who violate antitrust laws.

But it was the issue of competition -- and veiled nods to the government's current probe into seed giant Monsanto Co.'s marketing practices -- that emerged as a dominant theme of the day.

Speaking at a public workshop organized by the Justice Department and the U.S. Department of Agriculture at a community college, Holder told the packed conference hall that "concrete action" would emerge from the unusual coordination between the two federal agencies.

The gathering was the first in a yearlong series of public meetings to examine whether consolidation in the food sector, and alleged monopolistic practices in agriculture, are driving food prices higher.

The government is also trying to ferret out reasons for the sometimes vast gaps between what farmers are paid for the food they produce and the retail prices that shoppers pay at the grocery store. Time and again, federal officials underscored that the government was going to push for more transparency in the food sector's business practices.

Many farmers in the audience expressed concern about rising prices for seed needed to grow crops such as corn and soybeans. The seed industry has consolidated in recent years, leaving just a handful of large players that now dominate the market. Farmers have been pressuring lawmakers to investigate seed pricing, particularly for varieties produced by Monsanto, the world's largest seed company. U.S. farmers spent about $17 billion on seed last year, up 56% from 2006, the USDA said.

None of the federal officials mentioned Monsanto by name. But Assistant U.S. Atty. Christine Varney, Holder's antitrust chief, acknowledged that such consolidation can lead to problems. "Big is not bad," she said, "but with big comes an awful lot of responsibility."

The Justice Department is investigating Monsanto's marketing practices. And at least three state attorneys general have begun probes into whether the St. Louis company has abused its market dominance to undermine rivals and raise prices.

Varney, whom many people here say is spearheading the Justice Department's ramped-up probe into big-business antitrust concerns, promised that the government was undertaking an "unrelenting quest to find the correct balance" within the agricultural industry.

[end excerpt]

http://tvnewslies.org/tvnl/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=...

[excerpt]

Federal Vaccine Court Rules Against Autism Families

Government's Refusal to Fund Sound Science Stacks Deck Against Vaccine-Injured Children and Casts Doubt on the Integrity of the National Immunization Program says SafeMinds.

...

"The government has its thumb on the scales of justice," said Laura Bono, parent of a vaccine injured child whose case was dismissed. "The Vaccine Injury Compensation Act passed by Congress in 1986 gave immunity to vaccine manufacturers and diminished the incentive to create safer products. Meanwhile, the law only gives the illusion that parents will have their day in court. The process is dysfunctional and many families will not see justice done."

Two HHS agencies, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH), are responsible for conducting vaccine safety research. Calling into question the scientific integrity of this research, a top CDC-funded vaccine researcher, Poul Thorsen, responsible for the oversight of some of the most influential and controversial studies that have been claimed as evidence for no link between autism and thimerosal, is alleged to be under investigation when funding documents were found to be forgeries and millions of dollars were missing.

The director of the NIH institute in charge of autism studies has admitted that HHS has a conflict of interest in conducting autism-vaccine research due to the court cases. Last year, the government-dominated Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee blocked critical vaccine-autism research studies from moving forward. "The government must fund an extensive vaccine safety program, including studies of the health outcomes of vaccinated and unvaccinated children," stated Lyn Redwood, Vice President of SafeMinds. "Trust in the immunization program will continue to deteriorate without adequate and unbiased safety science."

[end excerpt]

Plus video--

http://rawstory.com/2010/03/ventura-youre-allowed-ask-911/

[excerpt]

...

"I can't believe the Huffington Post today will practice censorship," Ventura says in astonishment. "I've got news for them. ... I won't ever write for 'em again."

Ventura had posted an item on Tuesday which took note of a recent conference at which "more than one thousand architects and engineers signed a petition demanding that Congress begin a new investigation into the destruction of the World Trade Center skyscrapers on 9/11." He also quoted a few paragraphs from his new book, American Conspiracies, to explain why some of those experts see signs of controlled demolition.

The item was featured on the front page of Huffington Post when it first went up, but after a few hours it vanished. All that appears now at its original location is an editor's note saying, "The Huffington Post's editorial policy, laid out in our blogger guidelines, prohibits the promotion and promulgation of conspiracy theories -- including those about 9/11. As such, we have removed this post."

The note is followed by three pages of comments, enthusiastically arguing the pros and cons of controlled demolition and other 9/11 theories, that were posted during the couple of hours before the entry was deleted and comments were closed.

[end excerpt]

Plenty of profits skimmed off by the middlemen, but no money for kibble and water, etc.?

Privatization at work.

http://www.startribune.com/business/87138722.html?elr=KArks:DCiUMEaPc:Ui...

[excerpt]

WASHINGTON - The Navy says that three dogs died and dozens more were in poor health after being neglected by a private security contractor in Chicago that had been hired to train the dogs to detect explosives.

A team of military handlers discovered the dogs last October at a facility run by Securitas Security Services USA after the Navy terminated a $7.5 million contract.

Navy spokesman Capt. William Fenick said that of the 49 dogs discovered, two were dead and the rest were in poor health. Another dog died soon after being recovered.

Securitas Security Services did not immediately provide comment.

The incident was first reported by The Virginian-Pilot, which says it obtained a picture of one of the rescued dogs, whose rib cage and hip bones were protruding.

The discovery is the latest in a string of contracting woes for the Defense Department. Lawmakers and government watchdog groups say they are concerned that the military is relying too heavily on outside vendors to do many of the jobs that should be handled internally.

In December 2008, the Navy signed a $350 million contract with Lockheed Martin Corp. to help guard its installations. The five-year contract included $7.5 million for 49 highly specialized K-9 units to sniff out explosives. To meet the K-9 requirement, Lockheed in turn hired Securitas Security Services, headquartered in Parsippany, N.J.

But after the dogs failed to demonstrate they could perform as promised, the Navy canceled the contract in July, Fenick said. The team of handlers were sent three months later to pick up the dogs from the Securitas' dog-training facility near Chicago.

Fenick declined to say how much the Navy had already paid Lockheed under the agreement, saying that the contract details are under review.

...

[end except]

This wonderful woman performs in Second Life as Idella Quandry. This story is both sad, and infuriating.
Please take a moment to check out her website.
There are links to her music videos, and also a link to purchase her book.

Latin is hot!


Thanks for the positive comment on an earlier thread, Alice.

wandered through, good interesting link and stumbled across these:

Iconoclast Report
Host: Carolyn Harris
Website: NWO Library
Program Archives

She also runs the website The Library which houses a large number of hard to find documents and studies on History, Secret and Secretive Societies, Think Tanks and Foundations, the UN and Global Governance, Psychology, Public Education, Eugenics and Population Control/Reduction, Environmentalism and Global Warming, Food and Pharmaceuticals, Religious Manipulation, Biological Research, Social Engineering and Perpetual War for Perpetual "Peace."

http://www.nwolibrary.com/

she has an article or two there you might find interesting.

"Of Libraries and Librations

The Library

A curious place.

Save for traditional churches or morgues, perhaps no other place in the world is sacrosanct as to preserving silence than libraries. There is a traditional layer of respect within Western society that upon entering a library, respect and silence are deemed proper and expected. And just as one would not loudly shout and speak in disrespect at a local church or morgue, so too does no cultured and civilized individual violate the sanctity of a library.

What few know, however, is that a library is a form of morgue: it's shelves, containing rows and rows of books, are therefore stacked with the very embodiment of Osiris.

This article will delve into the philosophical underpinning of libraries and with it, send you into a journey of mythological decoding. "

Come here and respond:

http://www.samsedershow.com/node/5677#comment-400266

[excerpt]

Under the banner of ENRON....
...
I see that the corporate model is imposed on more and more institutions which previously had more governmental bureaucratic structures: CEOs are now heading universities, utilities are being privatized, schools (take for instance New York's experiment with privatizing its schools), public and non-profit hospitals are flipping over into private/corporate profit centers, and so on. As the corporate model spreads (Privatization), it seems to me that the opportunities for more and more predatory antisocial/sociopathic/psychopathic behavior is being made possible in these new environments.

Remember, the predatory types have that mix of IRRESPONSIBILITY and inability to commit to any long-term goal. This mix is perfect for the MANIPULATE & PLUNDER pattern we see expressed in so much corporate behavior, for example ENRON, the DOD contractors (missing equipment, overcharges, other abuses), Wall Street Banksters, etcetera. Across the board, those who run these institutions show they are INCAPABLE of running business with the OBJECTIVE of establishing LONG-TERM STABILITY and social/societal cohesiveness which go hand-in-hand with it.

CRANK, I'm waiting for your response.

[end excerpt]

Beck is attempting to destroy an icon of his opposition--

http://rawstory.com/2010/03/beck-springsteens-classic-born-usa-antiameri...

[excerpt]

Beck: Springsteen’s ‘Born in the USA’ is ‘anti-American,’ ‘propaganda’

By Stephen C. Webster
Thursday, March 11th, 2010 -- 8:32 pm

A song that's been played over speakers at hundreds of campaign rallies, vibrated in the space between drinks at everyone's favorite bar and set millions of heads nodding from radio stations coast to coast -- a piece of music that is literally stitched into the fabric of American blue-collar culture, Bruce Springsteen's "Born in the USA" -- is, according to right-wing pundit Glenn Beck, "anti-American" and "propaganda" that people must "wake up" from.

[end excerpt]

Good to see you!

That looks like a great link. I'm going to check it out.

I saw the blacklisted news radio show...

Jeff Rense has some new hairdo, eh?

*

Hey Bob...glad you like whatever it was...hope you're all fine and dandy lately...

Peace of the Action

Cindy Sheehan, mother of Spc. Casey Sheehan, who was killed in the illegal U.S. occupation of Iraq, and a coalition of Peace and Social Justice activists, will be erecting a Peace Camp on the lawn of the Washington Monument on March 15th and a dedication and press conference will be held on Tuesday, March 16th at 11:00 at Camp.

Parking on Constitution Ave.

Speakers:

Cindy Sheehan: Peace Activist, author, radio talk show host, and national Executive Director of Peace of the Action, will speak about the need for a new and more aggressive peace movement to challenge Democratic policies and politicians to do the will of their base. Sheehan has also just returned from meeting with and interviewing Venezuelan President, Hugo Chavez.

Kevin Zeese: Activist, author and Executive Director of Voters for Peace, will talk about the connection between the failing economy and the foreign wars.

Ray McGovern: former CIA analyst and Peace Activist will speak on the connection between US and Israeli foreign policy on the anniversary of Rachel Corrie’s death.

Brian Becker: Director of the A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition and sponsor of March 20th march on Washington.

Others have been invited and this advisory will be updated.

http://votersforpeace.us/press/index.php?itemid=4108

good to read ya too.

i'd take exeption to this:

"Remember, the predatory types have that mix of IRRESPONSIBILITY and inability to commit to any long-term goal."

only in the sense that they dedicate themselves to greed.

was listening in to the current stream on that network. the broadcaster is stunningly uninformed on his topic. the lack of research is glaringly apparent to me but might seem interesting to an uninformed listener. oh well, anything that jiggles grey matter is OK with me.

that's an old still photo he uses.

...it's Brick Teevee!

THROW BRICKS AT KKKARL ROVE!!!

Brick TeeVee Another Health Care "Debate"!

http://www.samsedershow.com/node/5713

Yeah. And there's this.

Normalizing the police state (and how it ends with taser-firing drones)

. . . Sinclair Lewis said, “When fascism comes to America it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross.” I think people expect the end of America’s free society to look like a violent apocalyptic scene in some Hollywood film, but that’s not how it will happen. Government officials figured out that suppressing riots with bullets is bad PR. They have learned to do it quietly, and in a way where they can claim they’re being humane about the whole thing. Look! We don’t shoot people anymore! We taser them!

The end product is the same, though. Rebellion is suppressed. Activism is thwarted. . . .

According to my LA CA source the teachers union there has devolved into "Is MY job safe" mode basically NOT standing up as ONE and taking a PRINCIPLED STAND for ALL union members. His union members are basically in COVER-YER-OWN-ASS mode as drastic cuts are made in large swaths of California. He missed the last cut but isn't too sure about the next one. And his students are about 80%+ English-as-a-second-language.

As they say "As California goes, so goes the country".
Hang on America!

Lest we forget:

To secure [people's] rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government. . . When a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.

Here's the Whole Biz: http://tinyurl.com/yk7fqrj

eya Nora!
new
Submitted by Sunshine Jim on Sun, 03/14/2010 - 4:55am.
good to read ya too.

i'd take exeption to this:

"Remember, the predatory types have that mix of IRRESPONSIBILITY and inability to commit to any long-term goal."

only in the sense that they dedicate themselves to greed.

was listening in to the current stream on that network. the broadcaster is stunningly uninformed on his topic. the lack of research is glaringly apparent to me but might seem interesting to an uninformed listener. oh well, anything that jiggles grey matter is OK with me.
========================

The predators can commit to their own self-interested predatory activities and those activities have a ready, essential short-term objective to complete the scam/profiteering outside any larger social contract (laws for instance). It is not like commitment or loyalty or responsibility to a future rooted in stability (for the long-term good of a company, society, nation, Planet).

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/mombono5

This is a weird story:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100314/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/us_pentagon_metro_...

[excerpt]

WASHINGTON – Two guns used in high-profile shootings this year at the Pentagon and a Las Vegas courthouse both came from the same unlikely place: the police and court system of Memphis, Tenn.

Law enforcement officials told The Associated Press that both guns were once seized in criminal cases in Memphis. The officials described how the weapons made their separate ways from an evidence vault to gun dealers and to the shooters.

The use of guns that were once in police custody to attack police officers highlights a little-known divide in gun policy in the U.S.: Many cities and states destroy guns gathered in criminal probes, but others sell or trade the weapons in order to get other guns or buy police equipment.

In fact, on the day of the Pentagon shooting, March 4, the Tennessee governor signed legislation revising state law on confiscated guns. Before, law enforcement agencies in the state had the option of destroying a gun. Under the new version, agencies can only destroy a gun if it's inoperable or unsafe.

Kentucky has a similar law, but it's not clear how many other states have laws specifically designed to promote the police sale or trade of confiscated weapons.

A nationwide review by The Associated Press in December found that over the previous two years, 24 states — mostly in the South and West, where gun-rights advocates are particularly strong — have passed 47 new laws loosening gun restrictions. Gun rights groups are making a greater effort to pass favorable legislation in state capitals.

John Timoney, who led the Philadelphia and Miami police departments and served as New York's No. 2 police official, said he doesn't believe police departments should be putting more guns into the market.

"I just think it's unseemly for police departments to be selling guns that later turn up," he said, recalling that he had once been offered the chance to sell guns to raise money for the police budget.

[end excerpt]

---------------
===============

Question I have: Is Memphis keeping track of who buys their guns and can they be tracked from the purchaser as well? It would be interesting to find out if the two perpetrators got their guns from the same source that got the guns from the Memphis police.

White House Identifies 3 to Fill Vacancies on Federal Reserve Board

Moving quickly to put its mark on the Federal Reserve, the
White House on Friday identified two economists and a lawyer
as its choices to fill all three vacancies on the central
bank's board of governors.

The economists are Janet L. Yellen, president of the Federal
Reserve Bank of San Francisco, who is the top choice for vice
chairman, and Peter A. Diamond, an M.I.T. economist who is an
authority on Social Security, pensions and taxation. The
lawyer, Sarah Bloom Raskin, is the Maryland commissioner of
financial regulation.

The Obama administration stopped short of saying that it
would formally nominate all three to the Senate, stating only
that Ms. Yellen was "a leading contender" and that Mr.
Diamond and Ms. Raskin were "under consideration."

Read More:
http://www.nytimes.com?emc=na

toniD's Ya Think?

I had not actually used anything but the examples of how to post the http link, and it all went to bold after that.
This is what happens when you get out of practice.

Forgive.

Close the gap between the rhetoric,
and the reality.- President Obama, 01-29-10
The World Needs More SEDER!!!

It's such a negative commentary on our society to have to say what's happing to Morgan and her family is now typical in America.

I'm having fun! Please join in! Friday's @1:PM EST Thanks again Alice.

Cloudy & 43°F here.

_ _ _ _
Ya Think?

We're all doing the show in the nude if that's any incentive.

Submitted by nora on Sun, 03/14/2010 - 2:14am.

What are you afraid of? Huffington Post is a waste of time.

Liberal Americans choke on their pretzels
as Karl Rove rewrites history

It has been fun watching the man known
as 'Bush's brain' squirm on the TV talk shows
as he tries to sell his self-serving memoir

Paul Harris in New York
The Observer, Sunday 14 March 2010

For Karl Rove's legions of liberal detractors –
who did not manage to lay a hand on him while he
was in power – it has been a case of too little,
too late.

But watching the man dubbed "Bush's brain" take to
the media circuit to flog his self-serving memoir
Courage and Consequence has at last provided a tiny
bit of satisfying blood sport at Rove's expense.
It has not been a pretty sight and is one that Rove,
no doubt, will blame on the natural liberal tendencies
of America's media classes.
Yet it has been fun watching a man whose name became a
byword for brutal, dirty politics go cap in hand
around the talk shows and get a thorough roasting.

Leading the charge was normally genial daytime TV
host Matt Lauer, who laid into Rove over everything
from the lack of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq
to Hurricane Katrina to his role in the leak of the
identity of CIA spy Valerie Plame. "Some are saying
this is 500 pages of you rewriting history,"
Lauer said. He was wrong. It's 608 pages.

The book stands accused of being a towering monument to
self-denial of what are now seen as self-evident truths.

More _ Here _
_ _ _ _
Ya Think?

Submitted by nora on Sun, 03/14/2010 - 12:14am.

no prescription so not very much press. it has a long history .Read the link
http://www.indolink.com/Health/Herbal/fenugrik.html

Submitted by Jmach1JP on Sun, 03/14/2010 - 11:07am.

WOW MATT LAUER GIVES KARL ROVE THE SLAP HE DESERVES

As I have mentioned my dad was a Valerie Plame type in the WW11 . When Dad figured out how Cheney/ Bush had acted in a treasonous way he took off his flag pin and gave up on the Rethugs completely. two months later the market crashed and my dad became my bestfriend and started to repsect my constant NORAD warnings.

will never be on equal footing as the tea party

they have the support of people and organizations with money, their puppetmasters have an agenda and ready to go broke for it - the coffee party has nothing like this

so the media will never cover them to the same extent

from obama behind the scenes manipulating the blue dogs

no, 60th, obama is not gonna be in favor of this

haven't you guys watched the documentary the corporation?

what a concept

it's so true that if you don't know how to spell you may have some difficulty with the google, getting the results you search for

will be starting in the San Paulo Brazil running of the Indy race today. - Listen on the IRL track stream

Watch live Here.

It's raining in turn 2 so the teams are trying to figure out which tire to run with minutes to the green flag.

very good conversation

Salon Radio: Manipulative use
of the term "Terrorism"

By Glenn Greenwald
Sunday, Mar 14, 2010 05:16 EDT

There's a great paradox in the American political
landscape:  the word that is used most
frequently to justify everything from invasions
and bombings to torture, indefinite detention,
and the sprawling Surveillance State -
- Terrorism -
- is also the most ill-defined and manipulated word.  
It has no fixed meaning,
and thus applies to virtually anything the user
wishes to demonize (while excluding the user's own
behavior and other acts one seeks to justify). 

More _ Here _
_ _ _ _
brr

turned up 6 fans with the quote, "If it's good enough for Jesus, it's good enough for you!"

concepts indeed

Saying Stupak is a good progressive except when it comes to the rights of women to make their own decisions reminds me of Reid saying Lieberman is a good Democrat, votes with us on everything, except the war. This is not a minor difference.

Ya think?: Thanks guys and gals. It's always a pleasure listening to you all.

Marco Andretti is my least favorite Andretti but he just had Mario Moraes' car land straight down on his head.

Unbelievably, he just crawled out shaken but in one piece from under his car. This happened in turn 1 of lap 1.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/motorsport/formula_one/8566770.stm

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu voiced regret on Sunday for the announcement of a Jewish settlement plan that has strained ties with Washington and threatens the revival of Middle East peace talks.

In his first public remarks on what Israeli commentators called his most serious crisis with Washington since taking office a year ago, he gave no sign he would meet Palestinian demands to cancel a project for 1,600 new settler homes.

"I suggest not to get carried away and to calm down," Netanyahu told his cabinet, after a reprimand by U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and written statements issued by the prime minister's office that failed to calm the dispute.

"There was a regrettable incident here, that occurred innocently," Netanyahu said, referring to an announcement by a government ministry during a visit last week by Vice President Joe Biden, of planned construction in an area of the West Bank that Israel has annexed to Jerusalem.

The timing of the disclosure, after Palestinians agreed to indirect peace talks, embarrassed Biden and raised questions over whether Israel's settlement policy could harm U.S.-Israeli security cooperation on the question of Iran.

"It was hurtful and certainly it should not have happened," Netanyahu said of the announcement by the Interior Ministry, controlled by the religious Shas party, a member of a governing coalition dominated by pro-settler parties, including his own.

David Axelrod, a senior aide to President Barack Obama, told NBC's "Meet the Press" program that Netanyahu's comments in response to U.S. criticism showed "the message was received."

A senior U.S. official forecast "a dicey period here in the next couple days to a couple of weeks" as Palestinians demanded reversal of the settlement plan.

A U.S. envoy is due back in the region later in the week to try to get peace talks suspended since December 2008 under way. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas had resisted restarting negotiations without a total Israeli settlement freeze.

An Abbas aide, Nabil Abu Rdainah, said Netanyahu's comments fell short of what was needed for the talks to begin.

"What is required is the annulment of the Israeli decision and no return to the policy of provoking the Palestinian side," Abu Rdainah said.

INSULT

In unusually blunt remarks, Clinton had called Israel's behavior "insulting" after it approved the project while hosting Biden, who had focused during his visit on Washington's commitment to Israeli security and sanctions against Iran.

Although Clinton stressed Washington's ties with Israel were "durable and strong," she told Netanyahu in a telephone call on Friday he must act to repair the relationship.

Netanyahu said at the cabinet meeting he had appointed a team of senior officials to look into the process leading up to the settlement project announcement and "to ensure procedures will be in place to prevent these kinds of incidents."

It was not immediately clear whether the inquiry would help smooth relations with Washington after the latest display of friction between Netanyahu and Obama.

"In flames," read the front-page headline in Maariv, a mass circulation, mainstream Israeli newspaper, underneath a cartoon depicting Obama boiling Netanyahu in a cooking pot.

Writing in the left-leaning Haaretz newspaper, commentator Aluf Benn said Netanyahu has reached "the moment of truth."

He said Netanyahu must choose between political cooperation with the right and his need for U.S. support in curbing Iran's nuclear program the West says is aimed a producing nuclear weapons, an allegation Iran denies.

Angering settlers and their supporters, Netanyahu announced in November a 10-month moratorium on new housing starts in West Bank settlements -- but exempted Jerusalem from the order. Washington praised the move.

Palestinians fear settlements on land Israel captured in the 1967 Middle East war will deny them a viable state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, with East Jerusalem as its capital.

Israel considers all of Jerusalem its capital, a claim that is not recognized internationally.

Thirteen people have been killed in an outbreak of drug-related violence in the southern Mexican beach resort of Acapulco, officials have said.

Five of the dead were police officers whose patrol was machine gunned.

Eight other bullet-riddled bodies were discovered in different areas around the city - four had been beheaded.

Acapulco is one of Mexico's biggest tourist resorts, but in recent years it has been the scene of bloody turf wars between rival drug cartels.

In June, 18 people were killed in a shootout between drug gangs and soldiers in the city, which is home to about 600,000 people.

Tourist season

The Pacific states of Guerrero and neighbouring Michoacan are largely under the control of the powerful "La Familia" cartel.

President Felipe Calderon has deployed thousands of troops and police across Mexico in an attempt to combat drug-related violence, which has left more than 15,000 people dead in the past three years.

The latest bloodshed could not have come at a worse time: it is a holiday weekend in Mexico and the start of the spring break, which brings a surge of American visitors.

At least two of the decapitated victims were dumped close to the centre of Acapulco, on a highway popular with tourists for its scenic views.

The BBC's Julian Miglierini, in Mexico City, says the country's drugs war has cast a long shadow on the world-famous sunny beaches of the city known as Mexico's Pacific Jewel.

Although many Mexicans and foreigners continue to choose Acapulco as a holiday destination, Saturday's events seem to confirm that its reputation as an idyllic destination is long gone, he adds.
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/americas/8566557.stm

Published: 2010/03/14 01:03:32 GMT

I saw the F1 race early this morning in Bahrain. Fernando Alonso won it. I like F1 but that was a boring race.

This Indy race is amazing to watch. And the big surprise is Swiss' Simona Di Silvesto. A rookie that lead several laps, currently in 3rd stunned many of the veterans. This is her very first race!

In this race they have had heavy dust, clear and dry, heavy rains, even hail. I'm waiting for the plague to walk in....

well, hell. Here came the floods.

You know the drill. I tell you to eat only vegetables and no alcohol for three months, and we talk about accidents make a great car race.

It is so sad in Mexico with all the drug violence .

anyway how fucked up is Texas with it's taking Jefferson out of the text books?

is doing a show on Health Care in America and it has all to do with the delivery systems. Doctors and Hospitals. And the difference in other nations. It's on now and interesting.

toniD's Ya Think?

Kill every young man thats acts out of frustration and causes the Little Israel all that trouble

Israel does not want to deal and they are so foolish not to come to the table.

Mrs Clinton should give them hell everyday..

It's almost spring, my Dr. cut back all of my meds and I feel strong as a horse. My doctor says what ever I'm doing, it's working for me. I eat plenty of meat and drink moderately for my good health, but thank you. Too many vegetables screws up my digestion and gives me way too much gas.

We have just as much drug violence here and Texas schools force you to think and learn on your own. The school isn't going to give you any knowledge. They only teach conformance.

Moderation works /peace out

yay taozen - good news

taozen. I've done without meat and not drinking any alcohol. I'm hyperglycemic so my blood sugars shot up and I couldn't control my salt intake because my digestion got so bad. Plus, I was miserable. I'm glad it works for you.

As a great blogmaster once said:

"Have at it!"

;-)

Will Power took the checker after a late horrific accident by team mate Ryan Brisco. Team Penske prevails! In Atlanta Penske team mate Brad Keselowski was intentionally flipped by Carl Edwards going 196mph but the Blue Deuce took Kurt Busch to victory lane.

MAKING AMERICANS PROUD

No pain no gain.

East coast under water, very bad rain and winds, tristate is

treacherous (not talking about the media attack Gov Paterson)

I hope it back fires on the Friends Of Bloomberg. Again Bloomberg made big money last year no wonder he doesn't want to bring in ethical capitalism and ruin a good thing. Cuomo gets big monies from Turtle heads friends in real estate Class warfare is alive and well in NYC.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UYOa07hCJH4

i'll have at it

http://seminal.firedoglake.com/diary/35181

or not?

CALLING ON Markos Moulitsas of DAILY KOS and Moveon.org to BACK Kucinich!

American forces occupying Iraq have opened fire on a car in Baghdad, killing an Iraqi reporter and her husband, a police official announces.

Aseel al-Obeidi, the reporter of Dijla television, an independent Baghdad station, was killed by the US troops on Wednesday as she was travelling with her husband in the Tobchi neighborhood in western Baghdad, AP reported on Thursday.

Morgue officials said the bodies of the couple were riddled with bullets.

The US military said it was investigating the killing of two Iraqis during a patrol in western Baghdad.

The Iraqi journalists' union condemned the killings, urging Iraqi police to investigate the circumstances of the shooting.

According to the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists, more than 140 journalists have been killed in Iraq since the US-led invasion of the country in 2003.

....riddle me that.

the opposition to this medicare for all is gonna come
Submitted by mire on Sun, 03/14/2010 - 11:32am.

from obama behind the scenes manipulating the blue dogs

Idaho's Crapo will serve on Obama's debt commission

WASHINGTON — Sen. Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, has been selected as one of six congressional Republicans for the debt-reduction commission created last month by President Barack Obama

Crapo, who sits on the Senate Budget Committee, was one of the original co-sponsors of New Hampshire Republican Sen. Judd Gregg's proposal to create a budget commission with more sweeping powers than the one created by Obama's executive order. But Crapo and other Republicans ended up voting against their own proposal because they feared the commission might decide to raise taxes to tackle the deficit.

Obama has said that "everything is on the table," including raising taxes and cutting Medicare and Social Security.
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2010/03/13/90337/idahos-crapo-will-serve-on-o...

Crapo was given the lowest possible score (0%) by the League of Conservation Voters for his voting record in the Senate. This followed his score of 5% in 2005 to bring his lifetime score down to 4%. The LCV uses selected set of votes to determine the scoring for its yearly rating. Reasons for the low score include his votes for offshore drilling, for arctic refuge drilling, against funding to help "low-income families insulate and weatherize their homes", against funding for the environment and natural resources, against independent review of Army Corps of Engineers projects, and for having the Army Corps of Engineers review themselves.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_Crapo

Clarence Thomas' wife becomes Teabagger leader, wants to stop Obama's 'hard-left agenda'
by John Aravosis (DC) on 3/14/2010 02:23:00 PM
Republicans destroy institutions, it's what they do.

Science, media, government - their goal, for whatever reason, is to undermine. It's what they're doing to congress and the presidency, it's what they've been doing to the courts for years (arguing that courts are no longer impartial arbiters), and now it's what they're doing to the Supreme Court. It's no coincidence that at the same time Clarence Thomas' wife is taking corporation donations to influence elections and policy, Justice Roberts is picking a partisan fight with the White House, and Justice Alito had the temerity to speak out against the President at the State of the Union.

For whatever reason, Republicans believe in destroying institutions of authority in our country. It's a scary thought, and it's working.

In January, Virginia Thomas created Liberty Central Inc., a nonprofit lobbying group whose website will organize activism around a set of conservative "core principles," she said.

The group plans to issue score cards for Congress members and be involved in the November election, although Thomas would not specify how. She said it would accept donations from various sources -- including corporations -- as allowed under campaign finance rules recently loosened by the Supreme Court.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nation-and-world/la-na-thomas14-2010mar14,0,...

Must be nice to have your husband help give a kick start to your new financial venture.

http://www.americablog.com/2010/03/clarence-thomas-wife-becomes-teabagge...

toniD's Ya Think?

Warm and very sunny here. I just spent a couple of hrs getting some sun in the back yard. Thank goodness for a good cowboy hat.

Regulators accused of lax oversight at LA oilfield

This sprawling metropolis is built atop one of the richest oil basins in the world. Wells dot the city landscape, some hidden behind hollow building facades much like a Hollywood movie set, or, in the case of Beverly Hills High School, encased in a tower painted with flowers.

For decades it had been assumed that one oil field, the historic Inglewood, just minutes from the downtown skyline, would eventually play out, that the nodding pumpjacks would give way to an elaborately planned, two square-mile park.

But in 2004 Houston-based Plains Exploration & Production Co., which had acquired the drilling rights from Chevron, used new technology to discover that only 35 percent of the reserves had been pumped out and began to drill the first of what would eventually become 600 new wells over the next 20 years. This renewed push for oil was helped along by county and state regulators who determined that the additional wells didn't require any environmental review.

One state engineer charged with granting new permits apparently saw himself as more of a cheerleader for Plains than an impartial regulator, according to e-mails acquired by the Associated Press and an investigation by the state auditor. Not only did he own stock in the company whose wells he was approving, he solicited donations from the oil companies he regulated for his wife's nonprofit.

"Just keep up the good work," state regulator Floyd Leeson wrote to a high-ranking Plains' official in March, 2005, "and I will TRY to keep (my boss) from hitting you guys with any more retarded fines ... Remember, I'm on YOUR side ... go PXP!"

The lack of oversight is now at the center of a lawsuit filed by several environmental and community groups who want stronger environmental standards applied to the Inglewood field. This includes a comprehensive health study, decreasing the number of wells the company can drill per year and requiring the company to drill farther away from residential areas....
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/feedarticle/8988935

will call out the "NRA:"
Russian invasion scare sweeps Georgia after TV hoax

Imedi TV broadcaster provokes panic with report claiming Russian attack in progress
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/mar/14/russia-georgia-fake-invasion...

Wolverines!

Bizarro Health Reform Arguments

As health reform moves to its final, make or break vote — I think it’s going to go through, but I’ll be hanging on by my fingernails all week — Republicans are still denouncing it as a vast, evil government takeover. But they have a problem: Obamacare is very much like the Massachusetts health reform, which was not only implemented by a Republican governor, but by a governor who is a serious contender for the 2012 presidential nomination.

So they insist that the two plans have nothing in common — but the only real difference they can point to is that Massachusetts didn’t fund its plan in part out of Medicare savings.

Of course, it couldn’t. But think about this a bit more: Republicans are saying that what makes Obamacare a socialist takeover, whereas Romneycare wasn’t, is the fact that unlike Romney’s plan, Obama’s plan cuts government spending.

Oh, Kay.

http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/03/14/bizarro-health-reform-argume...

toniD's Ya Think?

Obama picks 1st young, liberal court nominee

Source: Associated Press

WASHINGTON - Thirteen months into his presidency, Barack Obama finally gave liberal supporters the kind of judicial nominee they had sought and conservatives feared.

Goodwin Liu, 39, is an unabashed liberal legal scholar who, if confirmed, could become a force on the federal appeals court for decades. There's talk that in time, the Rhodes Scholar, former high court clerk and current assistant dean and law professor at the University of California, Berkeley, could be the first person of Asian descent chosen for the Supreme Court.

"I can easily imagine him" as a high court nominee, said Erwin Chemerinsky, a Liu supporter and dean of the law school at the University of California, Irvine.

Obama's choice of Liu for the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco drew quick and vociferous criticism from conservatives. Sen. Jeff Sessions of Alabama, the senior Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, described Liu as "far outside the mainstream of American jurisprudence."

http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/2010/03/13/20100313obama-judges-l...

toniD's Ya Think?

Split among abortion opponents widens as Catholic hospitals publicly support health care bill Updated at 7:11 PM

Source: Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) -- A group representing Catholic hospitals Saturday rallied behind President Barack Obama's health care bill ahead of a House vote in which anti-abortion lawmakers could play a decisive role.

The chief executive of the Catholic Health Association, Carol Keehan, wrote on the group's Web site that although the legislation isn't perfect, it represents a "major first step" toward covering all Americans and would make "great improvements" for millions of people. The more than 600 Catholic hospitals across the country do not provide abortions as a matter of conscience.

The association's support widens a split among abortion foes on whether the bill goes far enough to prevent taxpayer funding for the procedure. House Democratic leaders are trying to turn that debate to their advantage as they press for a vote on Obama's bill as early as this coming week. Winning over even a handful of anti-abortion Democrats could help Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., find a clear path to the 216 votes she needs for passage.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_HEALTH_OVERHAUL_ABORTION?SITE=...

toniD's Ya Think?

Obama picks 1st young,
Submitted by toniD on Sun, 03/14/2010 - 6:27pm.

Obama picks 1st young, liberal court nominee

The Video That Will Put Geithner Behind Bars
The NY Fed, and likely Geithner himself, undermined, perhaps even violated, laws designed to protect investors and markets.
March 13, 2010 |
You gotta see this! If this doesn't convince you that Timothy Geithner knew about the securities shenanigans that were going on at Lehman, than I don't know what will....
http://www.alternet.org/economy/146026/the_video_that_will_put_geithner_...

Keep it:
Texas' so-called Board of Education had its reactionary way today, approving a right-wing version of history for its social studies curriculum that will teach kids about the NRA, the Moral Majority, the virtues of McCarthyism and "the unintended consequences" of affirmative action. Their version of things canned Hispanic role models, the words 'democratic' and 'capitalism,' and Thomas Jefferson, who touted the separation of church and state, a no-good-commie idea if ever there was one.
http://www.commondreams.org/further/2010/03/12-4

KUCINICH: If being the Ralph Nader of health care means I’m against consumer fraud and against monopolies, that’s OK. But if being the Ralph Nader of health care means that I’m scuttling the Democratic Party, that’s not true. I’m inside the party. I represent a voice inside the party that has helped to make health care an issue in three successive Democratic Platform committees and two national campaigns . . . I haven’t gone outside the party, and the party still has a chance to be able to deliver to the American people a health care bill that would be worthy of broader support.
===
Eventually, progressives must come to realize that the Democratic Party is a weak (at best) reform party, and necessary change will never come about as long as FDL and others swear fealty to the party.. Look how tough it's been to even get a glimmer of hope for a public option.

Confucius Say
A politician is one who shakes your hand before elections and your confidence after.

toniD's Ya Think?

Thank you, I will. Texas is a beautiful state.

But if you think our teachers or yours have been on the up and up before any of that mumbo jumbo then you haven't heard and seen what I have. I don't care what state or country you live in.

Really, it's odd hearing you believe that Texas students, or any others don't question authority. It's what students do.

But I'll confess, not really looking forward to tornado season.

the old MRR blog and then some. 125+ users and 500+ guests. The 'baggers are trying to divert the conversation from what I've seen. I think they could use a little help from the fact-based community over there.

Politicians kinda act like a prostitute , 'cept they take your (campaign) money now and wait to screw ya later.

..cuz big PhRMA, big Bank and big Insurance gave so, so, so much more.

Stupak
Submitted by Cat Chew on Sun, 03/14/2010 - 12:03pm.
Saying Stupak is a good progressive except when it comes to the rights of women to make their own decisions reminds me of Reid saying Lieberman is a good Democrat, votes with us on everything, except the war. This is not a minor difference.
...

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

COMPULSORY PREGNANCY.

Stupak advocates Compulsory Pregnancy. In so doing he makes women's rights a rightwing multiple choice quiz with only some rights permitted and others criminalized.

http://www.truthout.org/what-torture-is-and-why-its-illegal-and-not-poor...

[excerpt]

What Torture Is and Why It's Illegal and Not "Poor Judgment"
Saturday 13 March 2010

Yoo, notoriously, had lifted his description of the physical effects of torture from a Medicare benefits statute and other health care provisions in a deliberate attempt to circumvent the UN Convention Against Torture, signed by President Reagan in 1988 and incorporated into US federal law, in which torture is defined as:
any act by which severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, is intentionally inflicted on a person for such purposes as obtaining from him or a third person information or a confession, punishing him for an act he or a third person has committed or is suspected of having committed, or intimidating or coercing him or a third person ...

Obsessed with finding ways in which "severe pain" could be defined so that the CIA could torture detainees and get away with it, Yoo drew on some truly revolting examples of physical torture, citing a particularly brutal case, Mehinovic v. Vuckovic, in which, during the Bosnian war, a Serb soldier named Nikola Vuckovic had tortured his Bosnian neighbor, Kemal Mehinovic, with savage and sadistic brutality. Yoo dismissed the possibility that other torture techniques - waterboarding, for example, which is a form of controlled drowning, and prolonged sleep deprivation - might cause "significant psychological harm of significant duration," or physical pain rising to a level that a judge might regard as torture.
In both of his definitions, however, Yoo was clearly mistaken. No detailed studies have yet emerged regarding the prolonged psychological effects of the torture program approved by Yoo and Bybee, largely because lawyers for the "high-value detainees" in Guantánamo have been prevented - first under Bush, and now under Obama - from revealing anything publicly about their clients.
However, lawyers for Ramzi bin al-Shibh, who was charged in the Bush administration's military commissions, made a good show of demonstrating that bin al-Shibh is schizophrenic and on serious medication, when they argued throughout 2008 that he was not fit to stand trial, and I have seen no evidence to suggest that bin al-Shibh was in a similar state before his four years in secret CIA prisons.

...

Moreover, when it came to defining physical torture, the OPR report's authors noted that, as so often in the memos, Yoo had ignored relevant case history. The key passage in the report deals with the US courts' decisions regarding the Torture Victim Protection Act (TVPA). Yoo had drawn on Mehinovic for his description of physical torture "of an especially cruel and even sadistic nature," and, as the authors noted, he also argued that only 'acts of an extreme nature' that were 'well over the line of what constitutes torture' have been alleged in TVPA cases."

[end excerpt]

MELCHIOR
There’s a moment you know…you’re fucked –
Not an inch more room to self-destruct
No more moves
– oh yeah, the dead-end zone
Man, you just can’t call your soul your own

OTTO (Spoken)
But the thing that makes you really jump
Is that the weirdest shit is still to come
You can ask yourself: “Hey, what have I done?”
You’re just a fly – the little guys, they kill for fun

GEORG
Man, you’re fucked if you just freeze up
Can’t do that thing – that keeping still

HANSCHEN
But, you’re fucked if you speak your mind

GEORG, HANSECHEN & OTTO
And you know – uh huh – you will

ALL
Yeah, you’re fucked all right – and all for spite
You can kiss your sorry ass goodbye
Totally fucked – will they mess you up?
Well you know they’re gonna try

MELCHIOR (Spoken)
Blah blah blah blah blah blah blah

ALL (Spoken)
Blah blah blah blah blah blah blah

MELCHIOR
Disappear – yeah, well, you wanna try
Wanna bundle up into some big ass lie
Long enough for them to all just quit
Long enough for you to get out of it

ALL
Yeah, you’re fucked all right – and all for spite
You can kiss your sorry ass goodbye
Totally fucked – will they mess you up?
Well you know they’re gonna try

Yeah, you’re fucked all right – and all for spite
You can kiss your sorry ass goodbye
Totally fucked – will they mess you up?
Well you know they’re gonna try

Blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah
Blah blah blah blah blah
Blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah
Blah blah blah blah blah
Blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah
Blah blah blah blah blah
Blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah
Blah blah blah blah blah

Totally fucked!

So you saw what happened to Marco at Sao Paulo? Or did you mean generally speaking? I'll never understand why people simply say Life sucks then you die unless they finish the quote with So have a party today!

Lehman failed the "stress tests" and Geithner let it pass...

http://www.alternet.org/economy/146026/the_video_that_will_put_geithner_...

http://dissidentvoice.org/2010/03/haiti-disaster-capitalism-on-steroids/

[excerpt]

Robert Roth: The situation is a catastrophe. At this point about 230,000 people have died and 3,000,000 people are still left homeless. Hundreds of thousands of people have no shelter whatsoever and are literally sleeping outside. Under sheets, not in tents. In many, many areas there is no water, no tents, no healthcare. One to two million people are in internal refugee camps that are now dotting Port-au-Prince. They were set up by international aid agencies, but they are in terrible shape.

The lack of housing is truly astounding. We have been getting numerous requests from the poorest communities in Haiti for funds for tents. With the rainy season coming, there is a very grave danger of the spread of typhoid, measles, and dysentery. It could be one these situations in which the aftermath of a disaster is even worse than the disaster itself. The situation was, and is, truly criminal.

JVH: Considering the hundreds of international aid organizations working in Haiti, how could it have come to this situation?

RR: The total amount of financial support that has gone through aid groups is close to one billion dollars. Haiti is truly flooded with aid organizations and yet very few aid goods have been distributed. Most goods have been sitting at the airport or in big warehouses. People who were pulled out under the rubble by Haitians could not receive medical aid because it was not distributed efficiently.

You have to distinguish among the aid groups, of course. Two groups which have been very consistent in distributing aid goods are Partners in Health and Doctors Without Borders. On the other hand, the Red Cross has been mostly invisible in the poorest communities in Haiti. There have been protests directly at the Red Cross warehouses and offices, demanding that the aid be distributed. The effectiveness of a number of the aid agencies has been astonishingly weak. And when a country has been occupied, when its democratic organizations have been repressed, and when community-based organizations are marginalized, earthquake relief just will not immediately get into the hands of the people.

JVH: What is the role of the UN and the US – which have been major players in Haitian history – in the current catastrophe?

RR: The UN and the US have looked at their role as a security measure. Their concept of aid has been militarized, which means that they have not been diligent in handing out aid to communities. The US military has eleven thousand soldiers down there, the UN nine thousand. Six thousand UN troops have been there since the coup against the democratically elected president Aristide in 2004 and they have been a repressive force, an occupying army in Haiti. In the wake of the earthquake, the US and UN armies have been essentially patrolling Haiti. I am not saying that there has been no help. They háve started to distribute food, tents, health supplies. But it has been much more limited than you would expect. There have been many reports from various communities about how armed vehicles just drove by their communities without helping them.

[end excerpt]

1) Refuse to purchase anything from the three largest companies in any industry. This would eliminate the incentive to glean maximum profit no matter what the cost to human lives or the environment. For example, imagine how the oil business would change if all of a sudden Exxon, Shell, and BP were trying to be #4 instead of #1. If you’re feeling really daring, you can refuse to buy anything sold by a Fortune 500 company.

2) Shop more at yard sales and thrift shops, and engage in the ancient practice of bartering. Our culture is already saturated with material goods. Anything we buy new is probably already sitting unused in one of our neighbors’ houses. The idea that we should purchase something new every time we need something is a false imperative created by the corporate marketing and advertising machine.

3) Eat locally grown and unprocessed food. It’s better for you, better for the planet, and better for the non-corporate farmers. Plus, it almost always tastes better.

4) Stop watching television. Or at least watch it with an awareness of how the advertising is manipulating you. Marketing firms pay the best psychologists a lot of money to help them produce commercials to make you buy their products. The best defense against them is the "off" button.

5) Read, write, and talk about the dangers of corporate control. Even the most knowledgeable of consumers have been "branded" and make shopping decisions for reasons they’re not consciously aware of. Research shows that children begin forming brand loyalties at a very young age. I’m a pastor, but my 4-year old son can name more brand names than Biblical characters. It’s not unreasonable to say that consumerism and corporatism have become the true belief systems in our country. Like an addiction, the first step to recovery is admitting we have a problem. And we can’t admit it unless enough people know about it.

..more ways here

That Peter Graves passed away.

Actor Peter Graves dead of heart attack at 83
‘Mission: Impossible’ star collapsed after a family brunch

Peter Graves, the tall, stalwart actor likely best known for his portrayal of Jim Phelps, leader of a gang of special agents who battled evil conspirators in the long-running television series "Mission: Impossible," died Sunday.

Graves died of an apparent heart attack outside his Los Angeles home, publicist Sandy Brokaw said. He would have been 84 this week.
Story continues below ↓advertisement | your ad here

Graves had just returned from brunch with his wife and kids and collapsed before he made it into the house, Brokaw said. One of his daughters administered CPR but was unable to revive him. Graves' family doctor visited the house and believed he had a heart attack, Brokaw said.

Although Graves never achieved the stardom his older brother, James Arness, enjoyed as Marshall Matt Dillon on TV's "Gunsmoke," he had a number of memorable roles in both films and television.

Normally cast as a hero, he turned in an unforgettable performance early in his career as the treacherous Nazi spy in Billy Wilder's 1953 prisoner-of-war drama "Stalag 17."

He also masterfully lampooned his straight-arrow image when he portrayed bumbling airline pilot Clarence Oveur in the 1980 disaster movie spoof "Airplane!"

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/35866150

toniD's Ya Think?

The Media Rhetoric of Law and Order: How ABC Framed the Mumia Abu-Jamal Story
Gardner, Thomas N.

This work presents a case study of journalism as persuasion through a triangulated examination of ABC 20/20’s story “Hollywood’s Unlikely Hero” (December 1998), which reports on the death penalty case of Mumia Abu-Jamal. The methodology includes rhetorical analysis, experimental design, and focus group audience research. It also examines the impact of a media literacy intervention on news reception by showing the video “Framing an Execution: the Media and Mumia Abu-Jamal” and measuring its effects on audience perceptions of the 20/20 story.

Each book includes a DVD copy of the “Framing an Execution: the Media and Mumia Abu-Jamal”.
http://www.mellenpress.com/mellenpress.cfm?bookid=7869&pc=9

The search for Jewish identity in the Twenty-First century

In a telling episode at the start of his latest book Out of the ashes, Professor Marc H. Ellis tells of an encounter, in New Zealand during a speaking tour, when his arguments were dismissed by an Israeli member of the panel with the simple but caustic phrase “he doesn’t even speak our language”. And indeed Ellis freely admits that he doesn’t speak ‘their’ language, taking that language to be a state form of Hebrew, a Hebrew that has moved “from the liturgical sphere to the nation state”.
Ellis, the Director of the Center for American and Jewish Studies at Baylor University, Texas, is a prolific and outspoken writer on the subject of Jewish identity. He strongly defends his right as an American Jew to discuss the Israel/Palestine question, and has done so eloquently and repeatedly. His writings have received praise from quarters such as Edward Said, Noam Chomsky and Archbishop Tutu, amongst others. At the same time his criticism of Israeli militarism has put him on top of the list of so-called ‘self-hating’ Jews. He calls for the re-finding of the ‘prophetic’, and, in this writer’s opinion, he leads courageously through his own actions.
http://www.threemonkeysonline.com/als/Out%20of%20the%20ashes.html

The search for Jewish identity in the Twenty-First century
Your book centres on the re-assertion of the prophetic tradition in the face of State brutality on the part of Israel against the Palestinians. What do you mean by the 'prophetic tradition'? Is it something inherently Judaic? Is it open to the secular world? How does it manifest itself?

Yes there is something inherently Judaic in the prophetic, as it was the ancient Israelites that gave the prophetic to the world. Judaism included the prophetic in our canon; it became available to Christianity and Islam through us. Some non-Jews forget this tremendous contribution of the Jewish people - I believe the greatest gift in world history. At the same time, most Jews try to forget that the prophetic was developed in opposition to the misuse of Jewish power and applies today to the misuse of Israeli power. When the prophets are read in our synagogues it is thought that they are always about someone else. That is another aspect of Constantinian Judaism.

Marc Ellis

http://www.threemonkeysonline.com/als/Out%20of%20the%20ashes.html

Maggies Boy..Is this anywhere's near you ?

**

MSNBC reports on Euclid, Ohio UFO sightings now 9 days in a row

MSNBC Reporter David Shuster reports again today on the continuing UFO sightings by 20-year-old Euclid, OH, resident Eugene Erlikh.

While these videos were shot last evening, Mutual UFO Network (MUFON) Field Investigator Tom Wertman was on the scene.

Con't..

http://tinyurl.com/y8domon

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

MMRules

Just started following this, may be nothing, may be something

Public Option in the reconciliation bill? What?

"Where the tips came from first, I have no idea. But without fanfare -- and you should perhaps take that as a clue -- the House Budget Committee has posted a 2,309 page bill (PDF) that purports to be the text of the upcoming reconciliation bill. And as early sneak-peekers saw almost right away, it appears to contain... the public option.

I'm just not entirely sure what this thing is."

To me it seems something the House already had in preparation in the event it had to be passed via Reconciliation. The deadline was back in October and back then the Public Option was still in the spotlight.

"this machine kills fascists"

from
Columbus.

Maybe we should be wondering if Dennis is going home anytime soon?

Course mb could do something in his livingroom with mashed potatoes. I'm sure the dogs wouldn't interfere at all.

Thanks..

How ya doing ?

Good I hope.. :)

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

MMRules

Can't sleep though.

Wanting to fix Philippe Sands' collar as he's testifying before some Parliament committee last year is also making me nuts. He's so cool. He should never be allowed to have spinach on his teeth, or parsley. (An angel should come down and whisper in his ear, "I know you'd want me to tell you...")

Maybe cilantro..

I was just talking to org group about Randi, Thom and Ed. (In re ads.)

Busman's holiday. (I said.)

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

MMRules

It's just a "Shell bill" that had to be submitted by the Oct 15 deadline

"Well, under the reconciliation rules in last year's budget, any reconciliation bill would have to have been submitted to the Budget Committee by October 15, 2009. It just so happens that earlier versions of health care legislation cleared the Ways and Means and Education and Labor Committees last year. So Democrats just dusted that legislation off, and are using that as the vehicle to begin the reconciliation process. That's why, for instance, if you look through the 2,309 page bill that was released Sunday night, you'll find a public option, which leadership has indicated would not actually be in the final bill. (Interestingly, the student loan bill is also tacked on at the end.)"

But, the weird thing is that the student loan language is included. So, apparently the Dems anticipated student loan legislation as also running into problems getting 60 votes and included it in the reconciliation bill by the Oct 15, 2009 deadline, just in case.

"this machine kills fascists"

Ouch!

"Palin, the former half-term Governor, current-nothing and future-even-less, charmed the all-Republican audience with her folksy folksiness and her homespun homespunnery. Atypically, Palin was wearing clothes that she had paid for herself. At the end of the event, she shared her recipe for mooseface pie."

"this machine kills fascists"

Dances and prances and pulls at its rein
Winks and twinkles with a bright blue eye
Kicks up its heels and heads for the sky
Dances and dances until
The lights go out and the music is still"

I think that was my first-ever favorite poem. You see...there's no hope for me.

As long as I live...I'll never stop buying things from Sting.

:) :( :l :[ ;) :P :D

Tinfoil Hat Time.. :)
new
Submitted by MMRules on Sun, 03/14/2010 - 11:19pm.
Maggies Boy..Is this anywhere's near you ?

**

MSNBC reports on Euclid, Ohio UFO sightings now 9 days in a row

MSNBC Reporter David Shuster reports again today on the continuing UFO sightings by 20-year-old Euclid, OH, resident Eugene Erlikh.

While these videos were shot last evening, Mutual UFO Network (MUFON) Field Investigator Tom Wertman was on the scene.

Con't..

http://tinyurl.com/y8domon

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

This could have religious significance in some quarters!

RELAX

Thank goodness it's not the...

nevermind.

So many super essays at this site--

http://dissidentvoice.org/2010/03/ayn-rand-in-uganda-2/

[excerpt]

Ayn Rand in Uganda
by Scott Noble / March 13th, 2010

If the Tea Partiers have a guru, her name is Ayn Rand. So who is she, and why has she captured the spirit of rebellion amongst the populist right?

It would be difficult to establish that Ayn Rand’s importance derives from any philosophical breakthrough or literary talent. On the latter point, her more well-read acolytes will agree. Philosophers and political scientists have dismissed her theory of “Objectivism”, citing so many fallacies and contradictions that anti-Rand critique has evolved into something of a sport.

Her personal life was a train wreck. Described in biographies as cruel, megalomaniacal, ungrateful and tasteless, she surrounded herself with a cult of loyal followers. She made a cuckold of her husband and humiliated him in public when he began suffering from dementia. She was addicted to amphetamines. By all accounts, she was not a very nice person.

The key to understanding why Ayn Rand became a famous philosopher in the United States has nothing to do with the merits of her work and everything to do with its utility. Like her political descendant, the gynecologist turned Senator Ron Paul, she is widely described as a “libertarian” or sometimes “Minarchist” (an advocate of small government). Paul has stated that Rand “contributed immensely” to the libertarian movement and that “all of her novels are worth reading”. He has also stated that he “disagrees strongly” with her on some “important matters”, but these matters are not delineated. Strangely, he has also stated that Rand was not a real libertarian but a “militant”. This might have something to do with the fact that the heroes of her books frequently engage in terrorism; usually this occurs when uppity workers start demanding a more equal share of the pie via progressive taxation or some other atrocity.

Paul is by no means alone. Other notable Rand fans include former Chairman of the Federal Reserve, Alan Greenspan, and SEC Commissioner Chris Cox. During the ‘50’s, Greenspan was a member of Rand’s inner circle. Radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh is a great admirer, as is Supreme Court justice Clarence Thomas. Thomas is such a fan of Rand’s Fountainhead, in fact, that he requires his clerks to read it. And you thought your boss was an asshole.

There is a big difference between a Ron Paul and a Milton Friedman. Free Market ideology is useful for the ruling class because it can be used to discipline the poor. While the rich cooperate and receive subsidies by the state, the poor are told to compete and pull themselves up by their bootstraps. It is doubtful that very many people in Washington actually believe in the “free market”. Paul is an exception.

[end excerpt]

[constinued below]

[excerpt continued]

You might say that Marx’s nightmare is Paul’s utopia. According to Marx, the defining characteristic of capitalism is the commodification of human labor. He described this arrangement as “transitory serfdom”. According to libertarians, not only is the sale of one’s labor power not exploitative or serf-like, it is an expression of human freedom. American anarchist Voltairine De Cleyre called this “freedom” a “mysterious wetness” unconnected to anything tangible or real; others, that it represents the “freedom to starve”. The relationship between the capitalist and the worker is similar to the relationship between an armed robber and his victim. A mugging victim has the choice not to turn over his wallet, but the power imbalance is so severe that the decision is mostly made for him. The same analogy can be drawn to workers under authoritarian communism.

Although it is unlikely the establishment would ever allow someone like Paul to assume power, libertarians serve a useful purpose in that they equate freedom with wage slavery. Their insistence that nearly all forms of public ownership (or “collectivism”, as they like to refer to it) are evil, and that pure capitalism would produce a legitimate meritocracy, are also useful myths.

Capitalist markets must always produce large wealth disparities, which in turn consolidate power into the hands of the few. This power is then used to create even larger wealth disparities. Call it corporatism, monopoly capitalism or just capitalism, it is the natural and entirely predictable end result of market competition. As the anarchist Pierre-Joseph Proudhon famously remarked, “Competition kills competition”, resulting in monopoly.

The only way we have of redressing this power imbalance is collective action, which explains why libertarians are opposed to democracy. To libertarians, democracy is not the rising up of the common man to his proper place at the table, it is the lowering down of the justly elite to the lowest common denominator. In place of solidarity, we should embrace “rational self-interest”. The idea that community and common ownership could actually enhance individualism by correcting the power imbalance is not considered, despite numerous studies and anthropological examples, and despite the dismal trade record of capitalist “individuality”. In No Contest: The Case against competition, Alife Kohn argues convincingly that cooperation and wealth sharing are the result of “rational self-interest”, not its antithesis.

Rand’s philosophy is not difficult to articulate. It can be summed up by the title of one her books, The Virtue of Selfishness....

[end exerpt]

LOL ;) GREAT ONE!

i blame everything on Richard Nixon.

April 2-4, 2010--

http://www.talk2action.org/

...to say: Freshly Brewed Tea Cheers Sunshine Jim ;) ... HaHaHa gotta reread LOL ;)

i think Cat Chew was the one who turned me on to the "Non Sequitur" comic strip by Wiley Miller. this one is absolutely in synch with my thinking as well...

Gee,who woulda thunk it ?

*******

WASHINGTON — In his first full day at the White House almost 14 months ago, President Obama declared openness and transparency to be touchstones of his administration, and he ordered federal agencies to make it easier for the public to get information on the workings of government.

Indeed, Mr. Obama’s administration has posted White House visitor logs online, it has made public the once-classified memorandums on torture policies in the George W. Bush administration, and it has developed an internal system for archiving its own unclassified e-mail messages.

But a new report released Sunday by a private research group, the National Security Archive, suggests that the results of Mr. Obama’s push for transparency have been decidedly mixed across the federal government, with progress slow and erratic.

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

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

MMRules

Social Security to start cashing Uncle Sam's IOUs
By STEPHEN OHLEMACHER, Associated Press Writer Stephen Ohlemacher, Associated Press Writer Mon Mar 15, 12:00 am ET

PARKERSBURG, W.Va. – The retirement nest egg of an entire generation is stashed away in this small town along the Ohio River: $2.5 trillion in IOUs from the federal government, payable to the Social Security Administration.

It's time to start cashing them in.

For more than two decades, Social Security collected more money in payroll taxes than it paid out in benefits — billions more each year.

Not anymore. This year, for the first time since the 1980s, when Congress last overhauled Social Security, the retirement program is projected to pay out more in benefits than it collects in taxes — nearly $29 billion more.

Sounds like a good time to start tapping the nest egg. Too bad the federal government already spent that money over the years on other programs, preferring to borrow from Social Security rather than foreign creditors. In return, the Treasury Department issued a stack of IOUs — in the form of Treasury bonds — which are kept in a nondescript office building just down the street from Parkersburg's municipal offices.

Now the government will have to borrow even more money, much of it abroad, to start paying back the IOUs, and the timing couldn't be worse. The government is projected to post a record $1.5 trillion budget deficit this year, followed by trillion dollar deficits for years to come.

Social Security's shortfall will not affect current benefits. As long as the IOUs last, benefits will keep flowing. But experts say it is a warning sign that the program's finances are deteriorating. Social Security is projected to drain its trust funds by 2037 unless Congress acts, and there's concern that the looming crisis will lead to reduced benefits.

"This is not just a wake-up call, this is it. We're here," said Mary Johnson, a policy analyst with The Senior Citizens League, an advocacy group. "We are not going to be able to put it off any more."

For more than two decades, regardless of which political party was in power, Congress has been accused of raiding the Social Security trust funds to pay for other programs, masking the size of the budget deficit.

Remember Al Gore's "lockbox," the one he was going to use to protect Social Security? The former vice president talked about it so much during the 2000 presidential campaign that he was parodied on "Saturday Night Live."

Gore lost the election and never got his lockbox. But to illustrate the government's commitment to repaying Social Security, the Treasury Department has been issuing special bonds that earn interest for the retirement program. The bonds are unique because they are actually printed on paper, while other government bonds exist only in electronic form.

They are stored in a three-ring binder, locked in the bottom drawer of a white metal filing cabinet in the Parkersburg offices of Bureau of Public Debt. The agency, which is part of the Treasury Department, opened offices in Parkersburg in the 1950s as part of a plan to locate important government functions away from Washington, D.C., in case of an attack during the Cold War.

One bond is worth a little more than $15.1 billion and another is valued at just under $10.7 billion. In all, the agency has about $2.5 trillion in bonds, all backed by the full faith and credit of the U.S. government. But don't bother trying to steal them; they're nonnegotiable, which means they are worthless on the open market.

More than 52 million people receive old age or disability benefits from Social Security. The average benefit for retirees is a little under $1,200 a month. Disabled workers get an average of $1,100 a month. more...

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100315/ap_on_bi_ge/us_social_security_ious/...

toniD's Ya Think?

By: Attaturk Monday March 15, 2010 1:30 am
TweetTweet Share

It has become apparent that from Roberts, to Scalia, to Alito, to Thomas there is no such thing as an appearance of impropriety to a conservative justice.

But how nice for Clarence Thomas that in voting with the 5-4 majority in Citizens United he not only saw no conflict of interest; he managed to give his wife a business opportunity CA-CHING!

As “an ordinary citizen from Omaha, Neb.” and Teabagger.

Although the busier Mrs. Thomas stays, the less likely she is to review her husband’s “history” file on the home PC. After all, as long as she thinks “Red-tube” is like You-Tube for monitoring liberal propaganda, as he’s explained to her, the better it is for domestic tranquility.

http://firedoglake.com/2010/03/15/the-appearance-of-profitability/

toniD's Ya Think?

White House uses strong language following Israeli settlement announcement
by Chris in Paris on 3/14/2010 06:52:00 PM

Netanyahu is a bully, so I'm glad to see the White House pushing back. AFP:

Israel's announcement of plans to build 1,600 settler homes in east Jerusalem was not only an "insult" to the United States but "destructive" of the Middle East peace process, a top White House official said Sunday.

"This was an affront, it was an insult but most importantly it undermined this very fragile effort to bring peace to that region," said David Axelrod, one of President Barack Obama's closest advisers.

"We have just started proximity talks, that is shuttle diplomacy, between the Palestinians and the Israelis, and for this announcement to come at that time was very destructive," he said on NBC television's Meet the Press show.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100314/ts_afp/mideastdiplomacyusisraelaxel...

toniD's Ya Think?

Did the House just release its reconciliation package?

Nope. The bill on the House Budget Committee's web site that's being called the reconciliation bill is not the reconciliation bill, or at least not what people mean when they talk about the reconciliation bill. It's the bill that will become the reconciliation bill. You see this occasionally in the House and Senate, where the oddities of the rules occasionally make it useful to put a new bill in the hollowed-out shell of an old bill.

TARP, for instance, was passed using Paul Wellstone and Pete Domenici's Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act of 2008. The Senate health bill was written on the pages of the Service Members Home Ownership Tax Act of 2009. And the reconciliation bill will be written on this earlier piece of legislation.

The reason for this? The original reconciliation instructions require Democrats to use a bill written before 10/15/09, and this bill fits, well, the bill. What'll happen next is that the legislation will head to the Rules Committee, who'll erase what's currently on the page and replace it with the real reconciliation package. It's a bit like how painters will reuse a canvas they've already painted on, though they're doing it to save money and the House and Senate do it because their rulebooks are confusing.

This has been yet another perplexing lesson in how a bill actually becomes a law.

By Ezra Klein | March 15, 2010; 12:05 AM ET

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/ezra-klein/2010/03/did_the_house_just_r...

toniD's Ya Think?

Monsanto May Have Antitrust Edge as Protecting Patents Trumps Competition Monsanto Co., facing antitrust probes into its genetically modified seeds, may benefit from previous court rulings in which intellectual property rights trumped competition concerns, antitrust lawyers say.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601109&sid=aQPm3qhHbo78

toniD's Ya Think?

Wen Rebuffs U.S. Calls for Higher Yuan, Risking Retaliation From Congress China’s Premier Wen Jiabao rebuffed calls for the yuan to appreciate, risking a further deterioration in relations with the U.S. where lawmakers and economists say his stance is hampering a global recovery.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601068&sid=adgSFPqllr68

toniD's Ya Think?

China Uses Rules on Global Trade to Its Advantage
By KEITH BRADSHER
Published: March 14, 2010

HONG KONG — With China’s exports soaring, even as other major economies struggle to recover from the recession, evidence is mounting that Beijing is skillfully using inconsistencies in international trade rules to spur its own economy at the expense of others, including the United States.

Seeking to maintain its export dominance, China is engaged in a two-pronged effort: fighting protectionism among its trade partners and holding down the value of its currency.

China vigorously defends its economic policies. On Sunday, Premier Wen Jiabao criticized international pressure on China to let the currency appreciate, calling it “finger pointing.” He said that the renminbi, China’s currency, would be kept “basically stable.”

To maximize its advantage, Beijing is exploiting a fundamental difference between two major international bodies: the World Trade Organization, which wields strict, enforceable penalties for countries that impede trade, and the International Monetary Fund, which acts as a kind of watchdog for global economic policy but has no power over countries like China that do not borrow money from it.

China had a $198 billion trade surplus with the rest of the world last year, with its exports to the United States outpacing imports by more than four to one. Despite that, in the last 12 months, Beijing has filed more cases with the W.T.O.’s powerful trade tribunals in Geneva than any other country complaining about another’s trade practices.

In addition, Beijing has worked to suppress a series of I.M.F. reports since 2007 documenting how the country has substantially undervalued its currency, the renminbi, said three people with detailed knowledge of China’s actions.

China buys dollars and other foreign currencies — worth several hundred billion dollars a year — by selling more of its own currency, which then depresses its value. That intervention helped Chinese exports to surge 46 percent in February compared with a year earlier.

Many prominent academic economists see a basic contradiction in the global system of oversight on trade and currency.

“Many of us would like to see the W.T.O.-style commitments — with people’s feet being held to the fire — at other international agencies, like the I.M.F.,” said Jagdish Bhagwati, a Columbia University economist.

Western countries hoped last year to bring international pressure to bear on China, after years of complaining that Beijing keeps the renminbi artificially low.

An undervalued currency keeps a country’s exports inexpensive in foreign markets while making imports expensive. That makes a trade surplus more likely, reducing unemployment for that country while increasing unemployment in its trading partners. more...

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/15/business/global/15yuan.html?th&emc=th

toniD's Ya Think?

Taking On China
By PAUL KRUGMAN

Tensions are rising over Chinese economic policy, and rightly so: China’s policy of keeping its currency, the renminbi, undervalued has become a significant drag on global economic recovery. Something must be done.

To give you a sense of the problem: Widespread complaints that China was manipulating its currency — selling renminbi and buying foreign currencies, so as to keep the renminbi weak and China’s exports artificially competitive — began around 2003. At that point China was adding about $10 billion a month to its reserves, and in 2003 it ran an overall surplus on its current account — a broad measure of the trade balance — of $46 billion.

Today, China is adding more than $30 billion a month to its $2.4 trillion hoard of reserves. The International Monetary Fund expects China to have a 2010 current surplus of more than $450 billion — 10 times the 2003 figure. This is the most distortionary exchange rate policy any major nation has ever followed.

And it’s a policy that seriously damages the rest of the world. Most of the world’s large economies are stuck in a liquidity trap — deeply depressed, but unable to generate a recovery by cutting interest rates because the relevant rates are already near zero. China, by engineering an unwarranted trade surplus, is in effect imposing an anti-stimulus on these economies, which they can’t offset.

So how should we respond? First of all, the U.S. Treasury Department must stop fudging and obfuscating.

Twice a year, by law, Treasury must issue a report identifying nations that “manipulate the rate of exchange between their currency and the United States dollar for purposes of preventing effective balance of payments adjustments or gaining unfair competitive advantage in international trade.” The law’s intent is clear: the report should be a factual determination, not a policy statement. In practice, however, Treasury has been both unwilling to take action on the renminbi and unwilling to do what the law requires, namely explain to Congress why it isn’t taking action. Instead, it has spent the past six or seven years pretending not to see the obvious.

Will the next report, due April 15, continue this tradition? Stay tuned.

If Treasury does find Chinese currency manipulation, then what? Here, we have to get past a common misunderstanding: the view that the Chinese have us over a barrel, because we don’t dare provoke China into dumping its dollar assets.

What you have to ask is, What would happen if China tried to sell a large share of its U.S. assets? Would interest rates soar? Short-term U.S. interest rates wouldn’t change: they’re being kept near zero by the Fed, which won’t raise rates until the unemployment rate comes down. Long-term rates might rise slightly, but they’re mainly determined by market expectations of future short-term rates. Also, the Fed could offset any interest-rate impact of a Chinese pullback by expanding its own purchases of long-term bonds.

It’s true that if China dumped its U.S. assets the value of the dollar would fall against other major currencies, such as the euro. But that would be a good thing for the United States, since it would make our goods more competitive and reduce our trade deficit. On the other hand, it would be a bad thing for China, which would suffer large losses on its dollar holdings. In short, right now America has China over a barrel, not the other way around.

So we have no reason to fear China. But what should we do?

Some still argue that we must reason gently with China, not confront it. But we’ve been reasoning with China for years, as its surplus ballooned, and gotten nowhere: on Sunday Wen Jiabao, the Chinese prime minister, declared — absurdly — that his nation’s currency is not undervalued. (The Peterson Institute for International Economics estimates that the renminbi is undervalued by between 20 and 40 percent.) And Mr. Wen accused other nations of doing what China actually does, seeking to weaken their currencies “just for the purposes of increasing their own exports.”

But if sweet reason won’t work, what’s the alternative? In 1971 the United States dealt with a similar but much less severe problem of foreign undervaluation by imposing a temporary 10 percent surcharge on imports, which was removed a few months later after Germany, Japan and other nations raised the dollar value of their currencies. At this point, it’s hard to see China changing its policies unless faced with the threat of similar action — except that this time the surcharge would have to be much larger, say 25 percent. (But will the US do this?)

I don’t propose this turn to policy hardball lightly. But Chinese currency policy is adding materially to the world’s economic problems at a time when those problems are already very severe. It’s time to take a stand.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/15/opinion/15krugman.html?th=&emc=th&page...

toniD's Ya Think?

U.S. Defense Contractors Tied to Effort to Track and Kill Militants

Under the cover of a benign government information-gathering
program, a Defense Department official set up a network of
private contractors in Afghanistan and Pakistan to help track
and kill suspected militants, according to military officials
and businessmen in Afghanistan and the United States.

Read More:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/15/world/asia/15contractors.html?emc=na

toniD's Ya Think?

Dodd's Financial Overhaul Plan Said to Call for Consumer Division at Fed

Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd will unveil financial-regulation legislation that may create a consumer division at the Federal Reserve with power to write rules that could be overturned by a systemic-risk council, according to a Senate aide with knowledge of the plan.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601068&sid=a.2rPYXdOgSs

toniD's Ya Think?

I seem always running late {i.e. I'm Late ...etc} even in my Saturnian (sp) Day {thx Men In Black 4 definition} but I said to my Ex-Ferals and one new Feral, I am now feeding
>>> HAPPY PI DAY {now belated} <<<

...especially since my new feral I call Pyewacket * Pye {Pi} 4 short... mwah haha
;)

WHEN most people think of hunger in America, the images that leap to mind are of ragged toddlers in Appalachia or rail-thin children in dingy apartments reaching for empty bottles of milk. Once, maybe. But a recent survey found that the most severe hunger-related problems in the nation are in the South Bronx, long one of the country’s capitals of obesity. Experts say these are not parallel problems persisting in side-by-side neighborhoods, but plagues often seen in the same households, even the same person: the hungriest people in America today, statistically speaking, may well be not sickly skinny, but excessively fat.

Call it the Bronx Paradox. “Hunger and obesity are often flip sides to the same malnutrition coin,” said Joel Berg, executive director of the New York City Coalition Against Hunger. “Hunger is certainly almost an exclusive symptom of poverty. And extra obesity is one of the symptoms of poverty.” The Bronx has the city’s highest rate of obesity, with residents facing an estimated 85 percent higher risk of being obese than people in Manhattan, according to Andrew G. Rundle, an epidemiologist at the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University.

But the Bronx also faces stubborn hunger problems. According to a survey released in January by the Food Research and Action Center, an antihunger group, nearly 37 percent of residents in the 16th Congressional District, which encompasses the South Bronx, said they lacked money to buy food at some point in the past 12 months. That is more than any other Congressional district in the country and twice the national average, 18.5 percent, in the fourth quarter of 2009.

Such studies present a different way to look at hunger: not starving, but “food insecure,” as the researchers call it (the Department of Agriculture in 2006 stopped using the word “hunger” in its reports). This might mean simply being unable to afford the basics, unable to get to the grocery or unable to find fresh produce among the pizza shops, doughnut stores and fried-everything restaurants of East Fordham Road.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/14/nyregion/14hunger.html?src=me

toniD's Ya Think?

Grayson absolutely skewers Palin!

On Friday night, Sarah Palin came to Orlando, and attacked Rep. Alan Grayson. This is what she said:

"I got to meet quite a few candidates who are lining up in a contested primary who want to take out Alan Grayson. And I think Alan Grayson -- what can you say about Alan Grayson? Piper is with me tonight, so I won't say anything about Alan Grayson that can't be said around children. But thank you, Florida, for allowing candidates in a contested primary to duke it out over ideas and principles and values, all with the same goal, and that is unseating those who have such a disconnect from the people of America. That's what the goal is here in this race against Alan Grayson. Please fight hard, and do this for the rest of the country. Fight hard, and send a conservative to Washington, DC."

Palin, the former half-term Governor, current-nothing and future-even-less, charmed the all-Republican audience with her folksy folksiness and her homespun homespunnery. Atypically, Palin was wearing clothes that she had paid for herself. At the end of the event, she shared her recipe for mooseface pie.

In response to Palin's attack on Rep Grayson, Grayson actually complimented Palin. Grayson praised Palin for having a hand large enough to fit Grayson's entire name on it. He thanked Palin for alleviating the growing shortage of platitudes in Central Florida. Grayson added that Palin deserved credit for getting through the entire hour-long program without quitting. Grayson also said that Palin really had mastered Palin's imitation of Tina Fey imitating Palin. Grayson observed that Palin is the most-intelligent leader that the Republican Party has produced since George W. Bush.

When asked to comment about what effect Palin's criticism might have, Grayson pointed out, "As the Knave's horse says in Alice in Wonderland, 'dogs will believe anything.'" Earlier, as the Orlando Sentinel reported, Grayson said, "I'm sure Palin knows all about politics in Central Florida, since from her porch she can see Winter Park," which is part of Grayson's district.

Grayson said that the Alaskan chillbilly was welcome to return to Central Florida anytime, as long as she brings lots of money with her, and spends it. "I look forward to an honest debate with Governor Palin on the issues, in the unlikely event that she ever learns anything about them," Grayson added, alluding to Politifact's "liar, liar, pants on fire" evaluation of much of what Palin has said .

Scientists are studying Sarah Palin's travel between Alaska and Florida carefully. They hope to learn more about the flight patterns of that elusive migratory species, the wild Alaskan dingbat.

http://www.graysonforcongress.com/newsletter_detail_print.asp?OptInEmail...

toniD's Ya Think?

White House stands ground on high court criticism Updated at 12:31 AM

Source: Associated Press

WASHINGTON – The White House on Sunday defended President Barack Obama's scathing criticism of a Supreme Court decision that allows unions and corporations to funnel unlimited dollars to political campaigns.

Senior adviser David Axelrod and press secretary Robert Gibbs refused to retreat from criticism Obama leveled during his State of the Union address, with six of the nine members of the court sitting a few feet in front of him. The two White House officials defended Obama's statement that the ruling was seriously flawed.

"Under the ruling of the Supreme Court, any lobbyist could go in to any legislator and say, `If you don't vote our way on this bill, we're going to run a million-dollar campaign against you in your district.' And that is a threat to our democracy," Axelrod said. "It's going to further reduce the voice of the American people, and it's something we have to push back vigorously on."

Chief Justice John Roberts said this week that Obama's unusually open criticism was "very troubling" and questioned whether justices should attend the annual address.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_white_house_supreme_court

toniD's Ya Think?

Submitted by maggiesboy on Sun, 03/14/2010 - 10:05pm.

5 ways to fight corporate power

A pleasant surprise! when one scrolls from the bottom of a post to the beginning and find to your surprise it is not who you thought it was.

=====
I also agree with a earlier statement from MB about centering in on Campaign financing reform seems like the most logical step forward.

http://samsedershow.com/node/5712#comment-400359

By Jeffrey Heller

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel and the United States are in a "crisis of historic proportions" over a settlement dispute that has brought relations to a 35-year low, Israel's ambassador to Washington was quoted on Monday as saying.

The comments attributed to envoy Michael Oren clashed with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's attempts to play down tensions with U.S. President Barack Obama's administration over a West Bank settlement project threatening to derail the renewal of Israeli-Palestinian talks.

"Israel's ties with the United States are in their worst crisis since 1975 ... a crisis of historic proportions," the Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper quoted Oren as telling other Israeli diplomats in a telephone briefing over the weekend.

The remarks, also carried by other Israeli media, appeared to refer to U.S. pressure in 1975 for an Israeli redeployment in the Egyptian Sinai, occupied by Israel since the 1967 war and the site of renewed fighting in 1973.

Israel's Foreign Ministry had no immediate comment.

An Israeli plan to build 1,600 more homes for Jews in West Bank land annexed to Jerusalem was announced during a visit by U.S. Vice President Joe Biden aimed at ushering in indirect peace negotiations with the Palestinians.

Using unusually blunt language, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called Israel's behavior "insulting". But in a CNN interview on Friday, she said bilateral ties were "not at risk. I mean, our relationship is durable and strong."

Netanyahu voiced regret on Sunday for what he described as bureaucratic happenstance.

"We know how to deal with these situations -- with equanimity, responsibly and seriously," he said.

SETTLEMENT CONSTRUCTION

Israeli media reported that Clinton, in a telephone call to Netanyahu on Friday, demanded he reverse the decision to construct the settler homes at Ramat Shlomo.

A spokesman for Netanyahu declined to comment. Palestinian officials have said indirect peace talks, which they agreed last week to hold with Israel under U.S. mediation, could not begin unless the settlement project was canceled.

Scrapping the construction could destabilize Netanyahu's governing coalition, dominated by pro-settler parties, including his own.

During his visit to Israel, Biden steered clear of any public demand of Israel to cancel the project. He termed "significant" assurances from Netanyahu that building at the site, a religious settlement, would not start for years.

In Washington, the influential pro-Israel lobbying group, AIPAC, weighed in with a statement that called on the White House to take immediate steps to defuse tension with Israel.

"The Obama administration's recent statements regarding the U.S. relationship with Israel are a matter of serious concern," AIPAC said.

Netanyahu, who has vowed to continue building in and around Jerusalem while reining in construction of Jewish settlements on other occupied land where Palestinians seek a state, is due to attend AIPAC's annual conference in Washington next week.

A U.S. envoy is expected back in the region later in the week to try to get peace talks, suspended since December 2008, under way. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas had resisted restarting negotiations without a settlement freeze. (Writing by Jeffrey Heller and Dan Williams; editing by Samia Nakhoul)

the grand-daughter of Packard from Hewlit Packard donated $20,000 to Barbara Boxer Campaign going against Carly Fiorina.

toniD's Ya Think?

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/10/opinion/10Ablin.html

(snip)
Numerous early screening proponents, including Thomas Stamey, a well-known Stanford University urologist, have come out against routine testing; last month, the American Cancer Society urged more caution in using the test. The American College of Preventive Medicine also concluded that there was insufficient evidence to recommend routine screening.

So why is it still used? Because drug companies continue peddling the tests and advocacy groups push “prostate cancer awareness” by encouraging men to get screened. Shamefully, the American Urological Association still recommends screening, while the National Cancer Institute is vague on the issue, stating that the evidence is unclear.

π

"It's Pi Day, so I thought I would have some fun with numbers, while also revisiting a very old argument about the nature of numbers I've written about before.

But what are Pi, 0, 1, or for that matter, numbers in general? Here's a nice little mind-bender that's been around for a while: Is mathematics a human invention, or a discovery made by humanity? It seems like a simple question, but not quite."

"this machine kills fascists"

'Hit teams' attack US consular staff, families in Mexico: US

(AFP) – 22 hours ago

WASHINGTON — Suspected drug cartel "hit teams" gunned down an American consular employee and her husband in a Mexican border city and killed a co-worker's Mexican husband in a separate attack, a US official said Sunday.

The victims -- two Americans and a Mexican -- came under fire in separate locations as they were driving Saturday through Ciudad Juarez after earlier attending the same social event, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The killings marked an ominous turn in the drug violence wracking northern Mexico, and prompted the State Department to announce that Americans working at six US consulates in the border area could send their families away.

President Barack Obama said he was "deeply saddened and outraged by the news of the brutal murders," said National Security Council spokesman Mike Hammer.

[...]

AFP

Are they really this dumb?

If the Drug Lords are actually targeting American State Dept. Officials, they are finished...don't they have any idea what Hillary is capable of?

One of these guys is going to wake up screaming at the sight of Pablo Escobar's preserved severed head in their bed....

Something tells me General Atomics is going to receive a sudden boost in sales too...

Which begs the cryptic query..."Is it live...or is it Memorex...?"

lastly...a Spook named Mike Hammer?...you've got to be kidding me....

The Last Republican Moderate

Jeffrey Toobin, on Justice John Paul Stevens and what the Court will look like without him.

--David Kurtz

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2010/03/22/100322fa_fact_toobin?curre...

toniD's Ya Think?

another indy film...after reading that post you put up, I think you might like it...

I thought it was pretty clever...

Bachmann: We're Not Going To Obey Health Care Law -- 'We Don't Have To' (VIDEO)

Eric Kleefeld | March 15, 2010, 10:34AM

Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) is going a step beyond simply pledging to fight efforts to pass the health care bill -- she's openly pronouncing that people should personally declare it unconstitutional and defy it, depending on how it ends up getting passed.

At a rally at the Minnesota State Capitol on Saturday, Bachmann declared illegitimate the potential route that House Democrats could take to pass the health care bill. She was specifically railing against a parliamentary tactic by which the House could skip voting on the Senate bill by declaring it passed as part of the reconciliation bill. Bachmann pronounced this to be taxation without representation. "They have just started a revolution -- and they did it," said Bachmann.

"But mark my words, the American people aren't gonna take this lying down," Bachmann later said. "We aren't gonna play their game, we're not gonna pay their taxes. They want us to pay for this? Because we don't have to. We don't have to. We don't have to follow a bill that isn't law. That's not the American way, and that's not what we're going to do."

Read more »

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/03/bachmann-were-not-going-to-ob...

toniD's Ya Think?

Nevada Tea Battle: Grassroots Groups Call New Third Party Fake, Ban It From Events
Christina Bellantoni | March 15, 2010, 9:48AM

Is there a fake tea party brewing in Nevada? Tea partiers who have declared Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) public enemy No. 1 sure seem to think so.

The Tea Party of Nevada formed an official third party in the Silver State, with candidate Jon Ashjian hoping to defeat Reid. But tea party groups that oppose becoming official third parties cried foul. Some conservatives have even accused Ashjian of being a front for Reid supporters who hope to dilute the Republican and tea party votes in the fall.

Twenty of Nevada's self-proclaimed "grassroots tea party groups" signed a statement denouncing the Tea Party of Nevada. The groups issued a blanket ban, saying the third party won't be invited to or welcome at any grassroots events in the state.

Read more »

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/03/weak-tea-new-tea-party-of-nev...

toniD's Ya Think?

His Own History of Activism, and the Importance of Speaking Out

http://media.libsyn.com/media/democracynow/dn2010-0315-1.mp3

http://www.thesecretofkells.com

Obama Begins Summoning Undecided House Dems For One-On-One Meetings

The full court press is underway.

Late last week, a source says, President Obama summoned a key undecided House Democrat, New York Rep Scott Murphy, for a one-on-one meeting at the White House — a sign that he’s beginning to lavish direct personal attention on individual members of Congress to persuade them to vote for the Senate bill.

According to a source familiar with the meeting, the President asked Murphy what he needed in the bill in order to support it. Murphy is being closely watched right now because he voted No last time, and flipping him to Yes would be a key get for Dem vote-counters.

“It was, `What are you looking for in the bill?’” the source says, describing the President’s request. “Scott was pressing him on the need for cost control. Medicare fraud came up. Scott said we need to step up — what we did in the House last time was not enough.”

The meeting is interesting because it suggests that on-the-fence Dems such as Murphy are seriously in the hunt for something to give them the cover they need to support the bill. That’s because the pressure on them to vote Yes is excrutiatingly intense.

In Murphy’s case, he needs to worry about the fact that the Working Families Party, a third-party powerhouse in New York, is now threatening to mount challenges to Dems who vote No, and SEIU is doing the same. This suggests that, for all the talk from the GOP about how Dems who vote Yes are putting their careers on the line, a No vote also carries a very real risk of being a career-ender.

The White House, too, is amping up the efforts at persuasion, so expect more one-on-one meetings like this one, with the President making a direct effort to give individual House Dems what they need to climb aboard.

http://theplumline.whorunsgov.com/health-care/obama-begins-summoning-und...

toniD's Ya Think?

Pi is a fun movie...I should actually watch it again. It's been awhile...

"this machine kills fascists"

1-Billionth Scale Model of USS Enterprise Measures 8.8-Micrometers Long

"Measuring just 8.8-micrometers long, this 1-billionth scale model of the USS Enterprise "was made with a 30 kV Ga+ focused-ion- beam CVD using phenanthrene gas by Takayuki Hoshino and Shinji Matsui of the Himeji Institute of Technology."

"this machine kills fascists"

Errands this AM. and doc visit.

Obama is really pushing HCR now. He should have been doing this last year! Just watched his rally and people did sound positive although he didn't take questions, they clapped and cheered alot.

I'm conflicted on the bills and the way they are having to do things to pass these bills.

Dodd is up next with his report on his bill.

I'm getting warn down by all this. 60th, I need some of your positive vibes!

toniD's Ya Think?

Rep. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) is introducing himself to Illinois voters with a commercial for his Senate campaign that highlights his fiscal conservatism and naval service.

No surprise there.

But what is striking about Kirk's first spot in the Land of Lincoln's Senate contest is that he also uses another label for himself at the outset of the ad — "Republican."

To be exact, it's "independent-minded Republican," but that Kirk would openly tout his party label, even with a modifier, says much about what sort of election cycle the GOP believes 2010 is shaping up to be. There is no party registration in Illinois, but Republicans haven't won a federal race there since 1998 and they've suffered a string of double-digit losses in presidential contests.

But with former Democratic Gov. Rod Blagojevich under indictment, the calculation among Republicans appears to be that there's now an upside to embracing a label that distinguishes them from a majority party embroiled in scandal.

In this vein, Kirk ends the ad with a pledge to "end the corruption in Illinois." And just in case that isn't clear enough, an image of Blagojevich and Sen. Roland Burris flashes on the screen as he says it.

Kirk's campaign declined to offer details on the size of the buy or whether it was airing on Chicago networks.

"It is running statewide, a mix of cable and broadcast," said campaign spokesman Eric Elk.

Here's the ad: at link if you want to see it.

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0310/34422.html

This is the man that told China:

Illinois state Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias, who is now running for the U.S. Senate seat currently held by Roland Burris in the 2010 election, is now pouncing on GOP Congressman Mark Kirk -- who has been mulling whether to run for Senate himself -- for having openly told the Chinese government not to trust America's budget numbers.
...

toniD's Ya Think?

Obama Brings Dennis Kucinich On Air Force One For Health Care Speech

Traveling to the Cleveland area to make yet another major speech for passing health care reform into law, President Barack Obama chose as a travel companion one very skeptical lawmaker.

Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) is from the area where Obama is speaking. That would normally make his appearance on Air Force One Monday morning a non-event. But the Ohio Democrat also happens to be one of, if not the only progressive holdout in the House, on health care legislation. And he has hinted strongly that his vote, which could be the deciding margin, is firmly in the "no" camp.

The White House pool reporter on the trip did not get an immediate readout of any conversation between Kucinich and Obama. Though accompanying the two on the trip was Phil Schiliro, the president's liaison to Congress.

A White House aide said that this trip would be the last one outside of D.C. that the president will make before heading overseas on March 21. All other lobbying efforts will be conducted inside the beltway via "member meetings and phone calls" such as the one that already took place between Obama and Rep. Scott Murphy (D-N.Y.)

The aide did seem somewhat buoyed by recent news that a group of anti-abortion lawmakers seemed to have lessened their opposition to the bill. And there was, likewise, a bit of optimism that the concerns expressed by Hispanic and conservative Democratic lawmakers would dissipate as the House vote approached.

"We've seen some helpful remarks from these folks in recent days," the aide said

UPDATE: Appearing onstage for his health care speech, the President took time to introduce Kucinich, lauding the congressman's "tireless" work "on behalf of working people." At which point someone in the audience yelled "Vote Yes" -- with the obvious reference being the health care bill. Obama, not missing a beat, asked the audience member to repeat himself. After which he chimed in: "Hear that, Dennis?"
Story continues below

(Here is video of the exchange, with the relevant audio starting around the 1:15 mark at link

Towards the end of the speech Obama came back to Kucinich once again, saying that he had told the congressman that it had been "such a long time since we've made got on the side of ordinary working folks, where we did something for them, that relieves some of their struggles..."

The print pooler attending the event caught up with Kucinich before the speech and reported the following:

He only smiled when asked if he had spoken to the president about health care on the way here. Asked if he was reconsidering his vote, he said, "I'm looking forward to hearing what he has to say." He said he was not commenting on his current position on the bill.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/03/15/obama-brings-dennis-kucin_n_499...

toniD's Ya Think?

Less Than Half Of Americans Consider Themselves Middle Class: Poll

Slightly less than half of Americans consider themselves middle class, according to a new survey by ABC World News, and four in ten people who think they've achieved middle class status say they're struggling to keep it.

Fourteen percent of the 1,005 survey respondents say they consider themselves "upper-middle class," 39 percent working class and 45 percent middle class.

The average income for poll respondents who consider themselves middle class is about $55,000 a year. Self-described working class folks earn roughly $35,000, and those who think they're well-off earn $95,000. "But income is far from the sole determinant of self-defined middle class status, likely because family size, expenses, local costs of living and other circumstances also come into it," the poll notes. "Even among people with incomes under $25,000 a year, 41 percent describe themselves as middle class. So do 38 percent of those with household incomes over $100,000."

(There are plenty of people who do not think that a household income of $250,000 makes for a rich household, as we are reminded whenever the subject of taxes comes up. It's a state of mind.)

The Commerce Department produced a report in January for the Vice President's Middle Class Task Force that objectively measured obstacles to attaining the middle class lifestyle. That report found that it's more difficult to do than it used to be:

"While incomes for married-couple and single-parent families with two children have increased significantly, much of this rise occurred in the 1990s. In part, these increases occurred because parents are working more hours in order to maintain higher income levels," the report said.

"Unfortunately, while incomes have risen, the prices for three large components of middle class expenses have increased faster than income: the cost of college, the cost of health care and the cost of a house. Thus, we conclude that it is harder to attain a middle class lifestyle now than it was in the recent past."
Story continues below

Rebecca Blank, Under Secretary for Economic Affairs at Commerce, told HuffPost on Monday that the increased costs of college and health care justified the administration's focus on reforming those industries.

"In general, I think that's not a very good thing at all" that it's more difficult to obtain a middle class lifestyle, she said.

For most people, homeownership is the benchmark for middle class membership, with 80 percent of ABC's poll respondents saying that owning a home is a "necessary element" of middle class life.

Part of the survey reveals how the recession disproportionately hurts the less well-off. "Underscoring the depths of the economic crisis, 28 percent of middle-income Americans say
someone in their household has been laid off or lost a job in the last year," the poll says. "That jumps even higher, to 39 percent, among lower-income Americans, and drops considerably to 16 percent of those with $100,000-plus incomes. There's a difference in impact at the low end: Less well-off people are much more apt than those who are better off to say the layoff caused them serious financial hardship."

Click here for a PDF of ABC's poll results.

http://abcnews.go.com/images/PollingUnit/1106a1MiddleClass.pdf

Click here for a PDF of the Commerce Department's report.

http://www.commerce.gov/NewsRoom/PressReleases_FactSheets/PROD01_008833

toniD's Ya Think?

Christiane Amanpour Offered 'This Week' Hosting Job On ABC

Christiane Amanpour has been offered the job hosting ABC News' "This Week," FishbowlDC reports.

Amanpour is said to have told her CNN colleagues about the offer, and is said to be "50-50" on whether she would accept it.

It was reported earlier this month that ABC was considering Amanpour for the Sunday morning job, vacated when George Stephanopoulos joined "Good Morning America."

Amanpour is one of the external candidates ABC considered for the job; internally, Jake Tapper and Terry Moran have been among the names considered for the position.

FishBowlDC reports that Amanpour would make "This Week" more internationally-focused and less about domestic politics; she is also said to want to remain based in NY as opposed to Washington, where "This Week" is currently produced, and to travel for the show as appropriate.

If she accepts, Amanpour will be the only female hosting a network Sunday morning public affairs show; Candy Crowley recently became anchor at CNN's "State of the Union."

Amanpour currently hosts a daily show on CNN International and a Sunday global affairs program, "Amanpour," on CNN.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/03/15/christiane-amanpour-offer_n_499...

toniD's Ya Think?

Readers Don't Want To Pay For News Online: Survey

NEW YORK — Getting people to pay for news online at this point would be "like trying to force butterflies back into their cocoons," a new consumer survey suggests.

That was one of several bleak headlines in the Project for Excellence in Journalism's annual assessment of the state of the news industry, released Sunday.

The project's report contained an extensive look at habits of the estimated six in 10 Americans who say they get at least some news online during a typical day. On average, each person spends three minutes and four seconds per visit to a news site.

About 35 percent of online news consumers said they have a favorite site that they check each day. The others are essentially free agents, the project said. Even among those who have their favorites, only 19 percent said they would be willing to pay for news online – including those who already do.

There's little brand loyalty: 82 percent of people with preferred news sites said they'd look elsewhere if their favorites start demanding payment.

"If we move to some pay system, that shift is going to have to surmount significant consumer resistance," said Tom Rosenstiel, director of the project, part of the Pew Research Center.

Last year, online advertising saw its first decline since 2002, according to the research firm eMarketer. Four of five Americans surveyed told the project that they never or hardly ever click on ads.

Despite a lot of choices, traffic on news sites tends to be concentrated on the biggest – Yahoo, MSNBC, CNN, AOL and The New York Times.

"There was this view that we're retreating into our own world of niche sites and that's not true," Rosenstiel said.
Story continues below

That offers a glimmer of hope for establishing a pay system if operators of the biggest sites could somehow agree on how to do it, he said. The survey found that if forced to make a choice, consumers prefer some kind of subscription service to a pay-as-you-go plan.

The Wall Street Journal requires readers to pay for content and The New York Times recently announced plans to charge for full access to its Web site. Starting next year under a metered system, Times readers will be allowed to click on a certain number of stories for free each month, with fees kicking in for readers who exceed that level.

In addition to attempts to reach back and charge readers for content they have become accustomed to getting for free, news executives hope that advances in technology and changes in consumer habits will provide future revenue opportunities.

The Associated Press last month announced a new business unit, AP Gateway, designed to develop and promote products that will help the cooperative, newspapers and broadcasters create revenue-producing products. The AP, for instance, will charge for an application it is developing for use on the iPad, Apple's tablet computer.

While consumers may seem reluctant to pay for news, they're more likely to pay for the functionality of news products on various devices, including smart phones, said Jane Seagrave, senior vice president and chief revenue officer at The Associated Press.

"I'm more hopeful now than I ever have been," Seagrave said. "There seems to be a broad understanding that there is a value to professional journalism that is at risk right now."

Pew's survey also noted how news habits are changing rapidly. Blogging is declining in frequency, one quarter of Americans now say they get some news on their mobile phones and people are looking for news more frequently on social Web sites, the survey found.

For the online survey, the project interviewed 2,259 people from Dec. 28, 2009, to Jan. 19, 2010. The margin of error is plus or minus five percentage points.

Beyond the online activity, the study found that cable news, led by Fox News Channel, seemed to be the only sector of the news industry thriving.

Newspaper advertising revenue fell 26 percent in 2009 compared to the year before, the study said. Local TV and radio ad revenue were both off 22 percent. Network television ad revenue was down 8 percent.

Network news division resources are down more than half since the late 1980s, and that doesn't count ABC News' recent announcement that it could lose as much as a quarter of its staff due to cutbacks.

Newspaper spending on reporting and editing has fallen roughly 30 percent over the past decade, probably more at many big-city dailies, Rosenstiel said.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/03/15/readers-dont-want-to-pay_n_4989...

toniD's Ya Think?

Cracks found in critical reactor parts at Davis-Besse power plant

Source: http://www.cleveland.com/plaindealer /

OAK HARBOR, Ohio -- Inspectors working at FirstEnergy Corp.'s Davis-Besse power plant near Toledo have uncovered the same kind of cracking in critical reactor lid parts that were the cause of massive corrosion found at the plant eight years ago.

In a routine report filed early today with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the company said inspectors using sophisticated ultrasonic instruments had found indications of cracking in 12 of the 69 metal tubes that carry control rods through the reactor lid.

Davis-Besse has been down since Feb. 28 for regular refueling and plant-wide inspections and maintenance. Workers late last week began instrument-assisted inspections of all 69 of the corrosion-resistant tubes, known as "nozzles" in the industry because they protrude from the reactor lid several feet and resemble nozzles.

Reactor operators electrically move control rods through the nozzles in and out of the radioactive reactor core at the bottom of the reactor to speed up or slow down the nuclear reaction. The Davis-Besse reactor is about 40 feet tall and 14 feet across, and holds about 87,000 gallons of boric acid-laced reactor coolant

http://www.cleveland.com/business/index.ssf/2010/03/cracks_found_in_crit...

toniD's Ya Think?

Senator John Kerry Introduces Legislation to Protect Whales

Source: PR-Newswire

Further demonstrating his commitment towards environmental conservation, Senator John Kerry (D-MA) today introduced legislation aimed at protecting whales. The International Whale Conservation and Protection Act of 2010 addresses major threats to whales including commercial whaling, ship strikes, entanglement in fishing gear, ocean noise, and climate change and reasserts the U.S. as a leader in whale conservation.

"Whales are in a sea of trouble, and we must do all we can to mitigate threats to the species and its habitat," said Jeff Flocken, IFAW DC Office Director. "We applaud Senator Kerry's leadership in championing this legislation and hope his colleagues follow suit."

Elements of the legislation include:

* Promoting international efforts to conserve and protect the world's whales throughout their range.
* Strengthening the whale conservation and protection efforts of relevant international organizations including the United Nations Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals, the International Whaling Commission (IWC), the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), and the International Maritime Organization.
* Ensuring that the IWC commercial whaling ban is neither lifted nor weakened and that the related illegal and lethal scientific whaling is ended.
* Reducing and, where possible, eliminating sources of human-caused death, injury, harassment and disturbance of the world's whales.
* Initiating and expanding research to improve our understanding of the world's whales including health and reproduction, whale habitats and the impacts of human activities and other threats to whales.

"Thousands of whales die each year from commercial whaling, ship strikes, and habitat disruption," said Senator Kerry. "We should be leading the effort to protect them."

http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/senator-john-kerry-introduces-le...

toniD's Ya Think?

US wants Israel to cancel Jerusalem building plan
By AMY TEIBEL
Associated Press Writer

JERUSALEM (AP) -- The U.S. is pressing Israel to scrap a contentious east Jerusalem building project whose approval has touched off the most serious diplomatic feud with Washington in years, American and Israeli officials said Monday.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, however, gave no indication he intended to cancel construction of the 1,600 housing units, despite condemnation from a string of U.S. officials. Instead, Netanyahu offered a defense of his country's building in the city's eastern sector, which the Palestinians want as their future capital, and noted that Israel has been building there for more than 40 years

"The building of those Jewish neighborhoods in no way hurt the Arabs of east Jerusalem and did not come at their expense," he said in parliament Monday.

Palestinians say Jewish building in east Jerusalem harms them in various ways. It eats up land they want for a future state, cuts off east Jerusalem from the rest off the West Bank and prevents the expansion of Arab neighborhoods, they say. The Palestinians also point out that much of the land used for Jewish construction was expropriated from Arab owners.

Tensions in the city at the center of the spat were high, with police out in large numbers in Jerusalem's volatile Old City in expectation of renewed clashes and Palestinian shopkeepers shuttering their stores for several hours to protest Israel's actions in the city.

more . . .

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/M/ML_ISRAEL_PALESTINIANS?SITE=FLTAM...

toniD's Ya Think?

Californians for Democracy

There are downloadable petitions you can sign and mail in since their not paying signature gatherers.

THE CALIFORNIA DEMOCRACY ACT

“All legislative actions on revenue and budget
must be determined by a majority vote”

Also known as the CA Majority Rule Campaign, it changes two words in the California Constitution: “Two-thirds” becomes “a majority” in two places.

That’s all it takes to make California sane and solvent again.

The Israeli Defence Force has barred Israelis and foreigners from two West Bank villages, the scene of protests against Israel's "separation wall".

Soldiers have posted flyers declaring areas around the villages of Bilin and Nilin are "closed military zones".

The restriction applies to the areas every Friday, the day that protests are held, for the next six months.

Activists have been protesting against the barrier for five years in what they say are mostly peaceful demonstrations.

But the Israeli Defence Force says it considers the riots to be "violent and illegal".

'Inciters'

Around 100 members of the security forces have been injured policing the demonstrations, a spokesman said.

"Every week violent, illegal riots take place in the area of Nilin and Bilin, during the course of which members of the security forces are wounded and heavy damage is caused to the security fence and to public property," a statement from the IDF said.

"In an effort to prevent the inciters of these riots from reaching the area in which the riots take place, three weeks ago, OC Central Command signed an order designating the area between the fence and the villages of Nilin and Bilin as a closed military zone."

The statement said residents of the villages were exempt from the order.

Protests at the "separation barrier", a fence between Palestinian land and Israeli settlements, had attracted young Israelis and peace activists from around the world.

Some demonstrations had also been attended by stone-throwing Palestinian youths.

Israeli security services have fired tear gas, stun grenades, rubber bullets and on occasion live rounds at protesters.

There have been two fatalities among protesters and an American peace activist remains in a coma after being hit by a rubber bullet.
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/middle_east/8568355.stm

Giannoulias gives up Giannis's cash Updated at 2:13 PM

Illinois Treasurer and Democratic Senate candidate Alexi Giannoulias released a statement Friday announcing he's donating to charity "all campaign contribution" he received from accused bank fraudster Nick Giannis and his family. The money is going to 10 state and local non-profits, according to Giannoulias's campaign.

Here's Giannoulias's statement: "As my campaign said yesterday, I am shocked and appalled by the news reports of the Giannis family's alleged horrible scheme to defraud banks in Chicago including my family's bank. Upon learning all of this, I instructed my campaign immediately to donate all campaign contributions from these individuals to non-profit organizations.

"While we're on the subject of returning donations, Mark Kirk has yet to answer if he is going to give back the nearly $3 million in contributions from the corporate special interests and Wall Street CEOs that fund his campaign in return for his repeated votes to protect their exorbitant bonuses. Like a typical Washington insider, he lapped up their dollars and then voted their way, whether it's opposing the TARP Reform and Accountability Act or trying to block the creation of a much-needed Consumer Finance Protection Agency. As much as he tries, Mark Kirk can not escape his anti-consumer, pro-corporate special interest record."

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0310/34352.html

toniD's Ya Think?

Gay seniors come out late,
start second lifetime
Those who work with seniors say they're seeing growth in the number of people in their 60s, 70s and 80s coming out of the closet as gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender.

LINK

toniD's Ya Think?

Obama seeks to reassure seniors on health care
By BEN FELLER, Associated Press Writer Ben Feller, Associated Press Writer 2 mins ago

STRONGSVILLE, Ohio – With a fresh sense of urgency, President Barack Obama sought to reassure seniors Monday about health care legislation approaching a final vote in Congress, pledging it would make preventive care cost-free and close a gap in Medicare prescription drug coverage.

"This proposal adds almost a decade of solvency to Medicare," Obama said in a visit to a senior center.

Obama's trip to Ohio marked his third out-of-town foray as he tries to build support for long-stalled legislation to remake the health care system. Administration officials have predicted the legislation will clear the House by the end of the week, but Democratic leaders had not yet released the measure as the president's helicopter lifted off from the White House grounds.

Even so, the House Budget Committee arranged a mid-afternoon meeting to begin a series of events expected to culminate in a House vote within days.

Guests aboard Air Force One included Democratic Rep. Dennis Kucinich, the local congressman, who voted against the administration-backed health care bill that cleared the House late last year.

There was no word on whether Obama lobbied for his vote en route to Ohio. But shortly after the president began his public remarks, someone in the crowd yelled, "Vote yes," to Kucinich.

"Did you hear that, Dennis?" the president said with a smile. "Go ahead, say that again," he encouraged the voice in the audience.

"Vote yes!" came back the reply.

Obama asked Congress more than a year ago to approve legislation that extends health coverage to tens of millions who lack it, curb industry practices such as denying coverage on the basis of pre-existing medical conditions, and begin to slow the growth of health care nationally.

Legislation seemed to be on the cusp of passage in January, after both houses approved bills and lawmakers began working out a final compromise. But those efforts were sidetracked when Republicans won a special election in Massachusetts, and with it, the ability to block a vote on a final bill in the Senate.

Now, nearly two months later, lawmakers have embarked on a two-step approach that begins with the House approving the Senate-passed measure, despite misgivings on key provisions. That would be followed by both houses quickly passing a second bill that makes numerous changes to the first.

In the Senate, that second bill would come to a vote under rules that deny Republicans the ability to filibuster.

"We need courage," Obama said, adopting a line from an audience member that was directed at skittish Democrats.

A close vote is expected in the House, where a senior lawmaker said the leadership does not yet have enough support to pass the measure. Rep. James Clyburn, D-S.C., the party's whip, also said he was confident the bill would ultimately pass, and later identified four lawmakers who voted against the legislation once but could switch sides in the coming days.

Republicans, determined to kill the bill, immediately highlighted the four — Reps. Jason Altmire of Pennsylvania, Brian Baird of Washington state, John Boccieri of Ohio and Bart Gordon of Tennessee, while also noting Obama's earlier statement that elections will sort out political winners and losers. It was a none-too-subtle warning that any supporters of the bill can expect a tough challenge in the fall. more...

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100315/ap_on_bi_ge/us_health_care_overhaul/...

toniD's Ya Think?

Are you all on Facebook and Twitter?

This is almost creepy. And not great for Sam either!

toniD's Ya Think?

what are you talking about, what boycott?

But I don't feel like I have much to contribute. People talk about many things here I have no knowledge of and some people make it more uncomfortable with personal attacks.
I like reading about people's lives here but I know the group is so small it is hard to keep the conversation going all the time. I've made the leap from reading to commenting at DKos. The wider variety of subjects/diaries there makes it easier to engage in something I know about.

What I wish is for Sam to write in more places. Cenk Ugher writes in many places and I know "our Sam" is just as insightful and funnier.

I do appreciate your wonderful job of compiling important news everyday. By the way, I just retired from Public Education so it is my main area of interest. I've been reading lately about how Duncan's Chicago miracle isn't much of one. I wonder if you or 60th have any insight on that.

busy monday...prepping for a busy tomorrow too...

cloudy and low energy day here...having trouble focusing...

how's things by you?

this is the slowest I've ever seen the blog. Seems like people are moving to facebook and twitter.

Sandy.

Thanks! Arnie Duncan is in to Charter Schools and anti teachers unions. I think the union is good but I think the tenure part has to be modified. There are some bad teachers out there and there should be a way of getting rid of them so if the unions could come up with an idea that would be fair to the teachers and the schools. A bad teacher could ruin it for another teacher. If the first teacher isn't good, the next teacher has a more difficult time with the students. Got any ideas on this Sandy?

toniD's Ya Think?

the 0 users online? This is what I am getting if i look at the column on the right but it's hard to believe, especially since i am a user and i am online. And anyway, it's a monday morning and bla bla

unless you may be referring to something else

but i always read and keep informed, inbetween all the other stuff i am trying to get done

Busy day today for me too. I have a work meeting tonight.
Tomorrow, renew driver's license. Wed. take my car to the mechanic because the engine light is on again. May be catalytic converter, mucho bucks to fix, but I don't get my plates renewed unless it's fixed.

Bad news day for my family too! My brother's computer won't turn on. Thinks he has a virus.

And my nephew's car engine blew.

Hope your day is better.

toniD's Ya Think?

but no one is posting but me. Oh Well. Time to get ready to go to the meeting.

Later

toniD's Ya Think?

If you have questions or comments, please jump in. Especially if you don't understand something. We will explain. And don't be afraid of the posters. Just scroll the ones you see are being bad!

Okay, got to get ready.

toniD's Ya Think?

I have been reading a lot on these subjects. I know that there is a problem with tenured teachers, especially in Urban schools. I do believe that those rules need to be modified but not completely removed. But, I have also read that the Charter schools replacing the regular public ones in Chicago are doing about the same as the ones they replaced. And, if you look at who's pushing the Charter/voucher movements, you'll see the Walton Family Foundation listed prominently. I do worry about privatizing education. Look at what has happened in the military (Blackwater/KBR) They provide no better services and rake off a hugh profit.

What do I think is the core problem? Motivating students. In the olden days parents kept kids motivated, with a spanking if necessary. Now too many parents either don't know how to be good parents, are too busy keeping a roof over their heads, or think that Junior is too precious to do anything wrong. I grew up in the Calumet Region (NW Indiana) and watched the dismantling of the Steel Industry. I'm not surprised kids don't see the value of education when the adults in their lives have little hope of finding decent jobs. When heavy manufacturing got outsourced, the powers that be said retrain for the computer age. Then many of those jobs were outsourced. I know technology changes employment opportunities, your old career as a Travel Agent is a perfect example of that. I think we need to invest in green jobs, have a manufacturing policy and give kids incentives (scholarships)to work hard.

so don't have time to find and post other stuff.

Or come and blather either.

Which is generally true, or should be, anyhow.

But thanks for the great articles.

Sandy, most of the problems you said I agree with--plus the usual (true) cliches; teaching to the test. Other underfunded or unfunded mandates to do things that mostly squelch teacher and student individuality, innovation, creativity anyhow. My friend's son is only about ten and he's begging her to leave the public (which would include charter also in most cases, because same paradigm and also still "state" schools). She raised him to be too much of critical thinker. Now she must pay. But don't know if she can (even with some finaid).

Just fucking sucks that you have to worry about applying for finaid to get a decent education in middle/high school.

appreciates the stellar park employee they have in you. I'm sure you're underpaid for your skill set.

Parks, what a great liberal concept. I live in a community N of Tucson that is mostly populated by retired people. They have their golf courses and community centers in their age-restricted neighborhoods (Sun City,eg). So they think it is horrible to be taxed for things like parks and schools.

What color are these uniforms that you have to wear?

At the Giant (supermarket) they have new shirts that are bright gold since they changed management. Not a flattering color for many...Hurts your eyes to look at them.

Sandy I agree with you completely. There are some charter schools that do good work, but, the teachers are getting the parents involved also. Having them sign a contract of some sort to help their children. This can be used in regular schools also.

Need to pay good teachers more and need to keep educating the teachers as well in different ways to get the students motivated.

It's a big problem and I don't want privatized schools either.

I went to a public grade school for 3 years and then to a parochial school thru 8th grade, then a public high school.
But that was a long time ago when the teachers and parents made you learn.

10 years of Bush's do nothing No Child left behind, made them behind!

toniD's Ya Think?

Well I guess there'll be no useless plastic WalMart toy reward for me.

(Actual example of the above,based on very short SES tutoring job.)

:)

Light blue and navy blue. Lands End stuff. Navy Fleece Jacket with Logo. It's the branding thing.

Black, navy or tan pants. No flip flops, covered toes.

At least it's not just one color.

toniD's Ya Think?

Later guys

Dylan had a good show today.

Everyone is going after Michelle Bachmann today. She's saying not to pay taxes. On Ed Now.

Okay....Bye

toniD's Ya Think?

SEC Watch: Top NYTCo Execs’ Wages Soar
David Kaplan
While the NYTCo (NYSE: NYT) struggled under the weight of economic pressures and debt last year, top execs personally did pretty well, even as the company reduced its newsroom by 100 staffers. As the company’s recent Q4 results showed, cost-cutting led to greater profitability and that appears to show in the compensation of chairman and publisher Arthur Sulzberger, Jr., and president/CEO Janet Robinson, according to the NYTCo’s latest SEC filing.

In total ‘09, Sulzberger’s compensation was $5,986,738, more than double the $2,331,599 he earned last year. His base salary for last year was $1,046,238. Robinson did even better, earning a total of $6,262,755, which included a base salary of $962,500, for a significant 31.9 percent rise in earnings over last year’s $4,753,314.

Other execs also did pretty well. Michael Golden, vice chair and COO of the Regional Media Group, took home a total $2,400,841, which was a 71 percent gain over the $1,496,959 he got in ‘08. CFO Jim Follo earned a total $1,297,269 last year, a 20 percent rise over the $1,096,794 the year before that.

Update: The changes in compensation for the past year may reflect an attempt to balance things for the top execs after the quarterly dividend suspensions for Class A and Class B shares in Feb. ‘09 and Nov. ‘08. After months of speculation from investors and analysts, the company eventually had to pullback on its generosity. But it may have found another way to make up for the temporary reduction in its largesse.
http://www.10kwizard.com/cgi/convert/pdf/NEWYORKTIMESCODEF14A-20100312.p...

http://paidcontent.org/article/419-sec-watch-top-nytco-execs-wages-soar/

...Aren't they special?

anyhow, were you?

Except maybe if you could score a pair of these babies:

I go back and forth on whether or not those are Malkin's actual toenails. I am thinking prolly yeah. She seams like a red toenail polish kinda gal.

http://michellemalkin.com/2010/03/04/national-security-flip-flop-obama-t...

he of course wants out of the public schools. With NCLB we have sucked the joy out of learning. Test prep, bubbling, cram the facts & regurgitate. And, since there is never enough money, the fun, motivating things like art & music get taken away first. When we make all our decisions based on tests scores only the things that effect those scores count.

I just wrote a comment on a DKos diary where the commenter before me asked for ideas. So, here is Sandy's plan to fix public schools.

Extend the day, extend the subject choices & extend the resources. The school day and year is too short. Too many kids are latchkey and that is the time most kids get in trouble. But, instead of adding to the overworked teacher's workload, why not hire more people. I once saw a presentation about an afterschool program in Brazos Port, Texas. They had an afterschool program that combined a schedule of tutoring and retesting with more extra-curricular activities. I think the key to this is using the "fun stuff" to get kids to complete the "work". I always believed in serving dessert as a motivation to eat my vegetables. The spoonful of sugar. Like high school athletes, make all kids qualify academically to participate in the extras. And, use this as part of our jobs program. We could hire artists, musicians & coaches to work with the academic teachers. But of course that would take a lot of money and I've learned to be cynical of any promises for more money.
I got to go to the Tucson Festival of Books on Saturday. Lots of authors, activities and fun (70 & sunny, aren't you all envious?) I caught the end of an author's talk about border crime. He said that in this country we balk at paying 4000. a year to educate a child but have no problem spending 42000. to house an inmate. Too true!

Lotsa good stuff but I'm also busy.

I am going to see this guy though because I will be on my way back from somewhere else and b/c I can probably flyer there and b/c he's cool.

Fady Joudah
The Earth in the Attic

Fady Joudah (The Earth in the Attic), Palestinian-American physician and poet, practices internal medicine in the U.S. and abroad. He explores themes of identity, war, religion, and grave national dilemmas in lyric poems of uncommon specificity and clarity

http://www.vabook.org/site10/program/details.php?eventID=15

E.g, poems here

http://www.poetsagainstthewar.org/newsletter/2006/news_joudah_1_06.asp

And when he gets together with anyone else who did, they share stories about how the Nuns tortured them. Teachers in public schools would be arrested fot the things they described. Good teachers have to be tough, they have to push students and that can't happen without parental support. I always wonder why people don't see this. Everyone understands this when it comes to music or sports. You can have the best coach or music teacher but you won't improve without practice.

The Beck Factor at Fox: Staffers say comments taint their work

By Howard Kurtz
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, March 15, 2010; C01
NEW YORK

In just over a year, Glenn Beck's blinding burst of stardom has often seemed to overshadow the rest of Fox News.

And that may not be a good thing for the top-rated cable news channel, as many of its staffers are acutely aware.

With his celebrity fueled by a Time cover story, best-selling books, cheerleading role at protest rallies and steady stream of divisive remarks, Beck is drawing big ratings. But there is a deep split within Fox between those -- led by Chairman Roger Ailes -- who are supportive, and many journalists who are worried about the prospect that Beck is becoming the face of the network.

By calling President Obama a racist and branding progressivism a "cancer," Beck has achieved a lightning-rod status that is unusual even for the network owned by Rupert Murdoch. And that, in turn, has complicated the channel's efforts to neutralize White House criticism that Fox is not really a news organization. Beck has become a constant topic of conversation among Fox journalists, some of whom say they believe he uses distorted or inflammatory rhetoric that undermines their credibility.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/03/14/AR201003...

...someone needs to tell them it is working at Faux News that undermines their credibility. But they'll figure it out soon enough, when they are laid off to compensate Beck and the executives.

at U.Va, "You have to push people but not over the edge."

True dat. It's a delicate balance. If the parents aren't involved enough, they cannot share info with the teachers about where any given kid's edge is or is not.

I wanted to answer this specifically. Charter school can enforce behavior contracts, a regular public school can't, or at least not as easily. In my reading, for example, I found an interesting fact about the "successful" KIPP Charter School. 50% of the black males who entered the SF KIPP school in 5th grade dropped out by 8th grade and went back to regular public schools. How can a school be considered successful if it can drop half its students without consequence?

Many rules schools have to follow are due to our civil rights and special ed laws. Charters get to skirt or ignore many of those laws. It is already leading to defacto segregation.

And I would love to read Mire's take on it. Arne Duncan said that Hurricane Katrina was the best thing that happened to NOPS. But, I have read that the new (mostly) charter schools are working with half the students and twice the money resources. And, as I wrote before, charters can demand parental suppport.

clearly you've raised the bar too high

there's a new thread over here:

http://www.samsedershow.com/node/5715

but I had to get a better Jeff stream :D

for when you get back because you're surely gone by now

you're not alone; in terms of things going wrong and tons of bullshit errands to attend to; on wednesday after work i have to drive to my homeowner insurance company office - in the suburbs and i kinda hate to drive in the suburbs with my junky old car you never know when she's gonna die on ya

why do i have to go to the homeowner insurance co? because i am getting a car insurance with them, since my regular insurance company effing 21st century (been with them for almost 8 years with not even a parking let alone moving violation ticket) has increased my premium for no fault of my own as they like to say; they told me it's because of some state regulation which raised the minimum standards, whatever, the agent i spoke with today was not sympathetic at all, so i told her i was gonna shop around for a better deal; then i called my home insurance agent and she came up with a quote for me which is half what the 21st century assholes have been charging me all these years....

then on thursday i am taking my car to the mechanic for an oil change and a check up and god knows what else he may find on the check up - my experience is that every time i go he comes up with something, probably new tires and brake work this time i suspect

and as for computer: i did get a horrible virus a month ago n my desktop and have not gotten around to getting it fixed yet; i think i will live with the limitations, since it lets me do what i mostly care for, the internet, this blog and live streaming, wiped out a lot of other programs, the whole windows folder 32 which launches a bunch of important stuff, including yes the freecell game i am addicted to... sigh, what else

coming up: tomorrow is doing my taxes day. i already took a preliminary look and know i am going to have to pay 1,000+ dollars this year and have been putting it off; tomorrow i'll buck up and go for it, actually mail the check....

should i go on?

well like roseanna danna used to say, if it's not one thing it's another

Hiya, Jim. :)

I dunno if I turned you on to Wiley's Non Sequitur or not,
but when Air America finally bit the dust,
I flashed on these (CRAFT syndrome be damned)
from April of 2004, and remembered your delight
at discovering them and bringing some of them to the blog.

http://www.gocomics.com/nonsequitur/2004/04/12/
http://www.gocomics.com/nonsequitur/2004/04/14/
http://www.gocomics.com/nonsequitur/2004/04/26/
http://www.gocomics.com/nonsequitur/2004/04/28/
http://www.gocomics.com/nonsequitur/2004/04/30/

I do love them funny pages. Here're a few more:

"heh! i blame everything on Richard Nixon."
(As I recall, they were pretty drowsy in the 70s, too.)

Not the Limbo Rock.

Sinister compliment

By the way, I'm also in favor of "...very strict banking regulations."
We're short on great lizards, but I think we have a couple of under-utilized volcanos
_______________________________________

Hiya, Fernando :)

It kind of sad when people talk about cilantro like that .
...
It's better to disagree without twisting each others words out of context. I can agree that we all favor different foods but it was shocking to read what Chew wrote about cilantro. I dated a lady for a year who hated cilatro. Then she called me up two years later and we went out again and she loved the stuff. I never understood that.

What can I say? It's a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma; stuffed into a roasted poblano, and cloaked in secret salsa.
_______________________________________

Hiya, Toni :)

Evening all
...
I went into the kitchen 3 times to change the clock on the microwave and a big ole round battery clock on the Kitchen wall. All 3 times I found something else to do and forgot to change the clocks.

Must be that AAADD. AAADD is also my reason for not reponding to your email about AAADD. ;) I've had a couple of peeks at the blog today, but mostly been taking advantage of the mild weather to tidy the yard, sort, breakdown and bundle the cardboard and paper recycleables that have been piling up in the garage all winter,.and culling and packing stuff up because Purple Heart has a pick-up scheduled here in a couple of days. Do enjoy Twitter, but haven't had time today.