Friday, September 30, 2011

Al-Awlaki Shot Down (with the whine against his hit)

Click here: Anwar Al-Awlaki Dead: U.S.-Born Al Qaeda Cleric Killed In Yemen


To which commenter the crustybastard wrote, which should settle the fatuous arguments* that Al-Awlaki ought to have been given all the legal protections ideally due to American citizens:

'Anwar Al-Awlaka was born a US citizen, but he didn't die one.

"America was my home. I was a preacher of Islam involved in non-violen­t Islamic activism..­.eventuall­y came to the conclusion that jihad against America is binding upon myself just as it is binding on every other able Muslim...T­he operation of our brother Umar Farouk [the underpants bomber] was in retaliatio­n to American cruise missiles and cluster bombs...Vi­ctory is on our side because there is a difference between us and you....You have your B52's, your Apaches, your Abrahams, and your cruise missiles and we have small arms and simple IED's but we have men who are dedicated and sincere with hearts of lions and blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the world."

"The American Muslim’s loyalty is to the Muslim Nation and not to America, and brother Nidal [Hassan] is a proof on that through his blessed operation [the Ft. Hood mass murder] so may Allah reward him the best of the rewards for that."

8 U.S.C. §1481(a)(7­) A person who is a national of the United States whether by birth or naturaliza­tion, shall lose his nationalit­y by voluntaril­y performing any of the following acts with the intention of relinquish­ing United States nationalit­y...commit­ting any act of treason against, or attempting by force to overthrow, or bearing arms against, the United States.'

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

Other links:

Anwar al-Awlaki - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Anwar al-Awlaki Dead: Politicians React To Death Of U.S.-Born Al Qaeda Cleric

Anwar Al-Awlaki: The English Voice Of Jihad

Brian Levin, J.D.: Anwar Al-Awlaki, American Internet Terrorist Pioneer and Plotter Killed in Yemen

Officials: Radical American imam killed in Yemen - World news ...

Anwar al-Awlaki killed in Yemen - Middle East - Al Jazeera English

* like: Click here: Ron Paul: U.S. Born Al-Awaki Was 'Assassinated'
Mediaite

BBC News - Profile: Anwar al-Awlaki

The Myth of Anwar al-Awlaki - By J.M. Berger
Foreign Policy

Thursday, September 29, 2011

BATTLE FOR BROOKLYN Reveals Realities of Rights-Protection

This review is from President of the L.A. Film Critics Association BRENT SIMON, in his superb blog, Shared Darkness:
http://shareddarkness.com/2011/08/20/battle-for-brooklyn.aspx  Categories: Film Reviews, Politics



Battle For Brooklyn


When people talk about a movie being depressing, whether in a context either admiring or dismissive, they're almost always talking about and assessing the dramatic heft of a down-tempo narrative film — how a writer, director and actors worked in concert to shine a light on various human frailties, turmoils and difficulties, and in doing so impacted a viewer's mood in a manner that lingered with them long after the theater lights came up. Real life, however, is even more full of disease and death, moral injustice and underdogs being smacked down by the powers that be.

That may not always be what one wishes to see in a movie, but it can sometimes be bracing, in a good way, to be confronted by the ugliness of reality on its own terms, in broad daylight. And that's the kind of beautiful, heart-rending melancholy on display in Battle For Brooklyn,  a surprisingly touching documentary from husband-and-wife filmmakers Michael Galinsky and Suki Hawley that details the struggle of a small group of Brooklynites as they try to prevent New York State from seizing 22 acres of land to hand off to a commercial real estate developer with grand designs on building a new arena for the NBA's New Jersey Nets.

The film focuses on Daniel Goldstein (above), a graphic designer turned reluctant but square-jawed activist whose apartment sits almost at what would be center court of said shimmering new arena, part of a polarizing Atlantic Yards project to overhaul the neighborhood of Prospect Heights and also erect a dozen-plus skyscrapers. When the plans were announced in 2004, it was a shock to those whose lives might be most impacted, since they had never heard of it, or been consulted. Developer Bruce Ratner owned a parcel of Brooklyn land easily big enough to house plans for the stadium, but basically wanted to keep that so he could build (and then of course make lots of money leasing) other commercial buildings. So Ratner's plan called for the displacement of 800-plus residents, ranging in socioeconomic status from the very poor to the much better-off, part of a group of new townhome apartments. Forcing them to move would involve invoking the power of "eminent domain," which is used when government is building something expressly for the good and benefit of the public — mostly with highways, and sometimes schools.

A very substantial public gift to a private developer, though, didn't sit well with Goldstein and others, so they fought back. Pitted against them was an entourage of lawyers and public relations emissaries, as well as the entire local government, fans of the basketball team, and other residents excited by the lure of potential construction and/or concession jobs. Spanning years of this fight, Galinsky and Hawley's film is an engrossing and sometimes even chilling portrait of the way underclasses can and will always be pitted and played off against one another, for veritable scraps off a table. Goldstein is an involving subject, and some of the case's dark developments — including the revelation of air-quote community groups funded by Ratner to give the appearance of public embrace of the project — are worthy of a regular narrative thriller.

Battle For Brooklyn is in some ways reminiscent of Don Argott's 2010 documentary The Art of the Steal, about a decades-long tug-of-war over the late Albert Barnes' $30 billion art collection, and efforts to bring it to Philadelphia, which ran counter to his expressly indicated wishes. Movies like each of these both deftly illustrate the ravenous impulses of capitalism, which abhors unexploited value, and confirm the fact that  A powerful movie about an important and little-reflected-upon topic, Battle For Brooklyn is a telling snapshot of (offscreen) political maneuvering, and the tossed-around wrecking-ball weight of corporate might as it relates to individual rights. (Rumur Productions, unrated, 93 minutes)

*******
In case you missed it~'the American legal system, as it pertains to non-criminal matters, is basically just a gamed system for moneyed and mighty interests to eventually win out.'

Tuesday, September 27, 2011

Power to Elizabeth Warren

WASHINGTON -- Elizabeth Warren's campaign for U.S. Senate received a major endorsement on Tuesday, picking up the support of former Wisconsin senator Russ Feingold. It's Feingold's first Senate endorsement of the 2012 election season and a clear indication that Warren's race will be a top priority for progressives around the country.


In an email scheduled to be sent Tuesday morning, and provided to The Huffington Post by Feingold's staff, Feingold calls support for Warren's campaign "an absolutely crucial part of our fight against the nasty influence of corporate money in politics."

"Elizabeth has fought for years to rein in Wall Street and protect the middle class," writes Feingold in the email to backers of Progressives United, his political action committee.

"In 2005, she stood up against the Wall Street wish list of a bankruptcy bill -- a huge corporate giveaway I opposed in the Senate. And after the big banks drove us into a recession, Elizabeth proposed a new Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection, and then fought tirelessly to make sure the Obama administration created it. So when Elizabeth announced her decision to run for the U.S. Senate in Massachusetts this month, to keep fighting for middle class families on Capitol Hill, I couldn't have been happier."

Feingold even hints that Warren may be the best person to carry on his legacy in the Senate.

"In all my years in the Senate, I always took positions that I believed in, even when my own party tried to stand in the way," he writes. "I know Elizabeth will be exactly the same kind of senator."

He then calls on the email's recipients to donate $5 before Warren has to submit her first public financial data on Friday, which will show how much she has raised.

Warren is the Democratic frontrunner to unseat Sen. Scott Brown (R-Mass.), although she faces several primary challengers.

The national Democratic Party has insisted it's neutral in the primary in the race, but based on the number of emails sent out about Warren as opposed to the other candidates, it's seems clear who officials are pushing for.

Feingold's endorsement gives perhaps the strongest signal yet that Warren's race is also a top priority for progressive leaders, and the nod could likely lead to a surge of online donations from around the country.

It's also building on a progressive anti-Wall Street movement that has been growing, as Politico's Ben Smith has pointed out.

Feingold has long been an advocate for strong Wall Street reform and cleaning up corporations -- he opposed the Dodd-Frank legislation because it didn't go far enough and called on Democrats to stop taking corporate contributions. Warren has been called "Wall Street's worst nightmare" for building the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

Progressives United also recently backed the New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman (D), a public official who is becoming a favorite of progressives for his push to hold banks liable for claims that they illegally foreclosed on American homeowners.

Last month, Feingold announced that he would not be seeking elected office in 2012, dashing the hopes of many progressives who were hoping to see him run for Senate again or even challenge Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) in a possible recall election.

Feingold's PAC and his affiliated nonprofit aim to mitigate the effects of -- and eventually overturn -- the Supreme Court's Citizens United decision. It has launched advocacy campaigns calling out corporate corruption and given money to progressive candidates, but the Warren announcement is the first actual endorsement.

According to a recent survey by Public Policy Polling, Warren narrowly leads Brown, 46 to 44 percent.

Monday, September 26, 2011

Paranoia= Paying Attention, pt. 80zillion

Click here: GM Facing Privacy Grilling Over OnStar GPS


Internet cookies, FourSquare, Facebook check-ins, street cameras everywhere and in-car global positioning systems. There are so many ways to track the movements of consumers, some for which they even volunteer. But people may have their limits.

The Internet and media are abuzz with complaints over the redesign of Facebook, which has been done to make it easier for the company to sell the online behavior of members to third parties. But the latest marketer to set off those who are against all this constant monitoring and tracking is General Motors and its satellite-based OnStar system that does everything from unlock your car when the keys are locked inside, to diagnose a mechanical problem, give you directions from a live person or notify first responders if your car goes off the road.

Last week, OnStar made a change to its "Terms and Conditions," that stipulates it can not only track data such as mileage, speed and location of vehicles, but that it can continue to do so even after the vehicle owner has stopped subscribing to the service, and can sell the data to third parties.

GM, which owns and operates OnStar, can do this because most of its cars are fitted with OnStar hardware. GM gives new buyers a trial period to subscribe to OnStar service packages. Then, they hope owners will re-up with subscriptions that start at $18.95 per month. OnStar also offers OnStar retrofit kits for non GM vehicles.

Senator Charles "Chuck" Schumer (D-NY) who often takes up consumer issues, is calling for a full investigation into OnStar's plan. "By tracking drivers even after they've canceled their service, OnStar is attempting one of the most brazen invasions of privacy in recent memory," said Schumer. "I urge OnStar to abandon this policy and for (the Federal Trade Commission) to immediately launch a full investigation to determine whether the company's actions constitute an unfair trade practice."

So far, GM executives are standing pat, saying over the weekend that it apologized for confusion over the move, but that they are planning to stick with it.

Joanne Finnorn, vice president of OnStar Subscriber Services issued a video of herself explaining the changes. Finnorn says that OnStar will not monitor continuous speed and location of vehicles, though such information is in the memory of the car and systems and can be accessed periodically. She also said OnStar does not have the capability to eavesdrop, though there is a voice connectivity between the driver and an OnStar representative when the OnStar button is pushed.

In explaining the new policy, Finnorn said, "OnStar will maintain a two-way connection to their vehicle unless they ask us not to do so [by specifically opting out after a subscription is canceled]." Like many issues that arise over privacy, GM, as with other marketers, have an "opt out" provision that enables consumers to do just that. Privacy hawks, though, want the systems to be opt-in, forcing consumers who don't mind to make the first move.

OnStar is part of the trend toward more so-called "telematics" in cars. The technology makes a vehicle a rolling smart-phone with as much hands-free operation as possible. OnStar was the first to enter into this area, and GM has, by far, the largest number of vehicles on the road with OnStar hardware installed.

The reason OnStar is a subscription base is that the system is hard-wired into the car. Other vehicle manufacturers, such as Ford, have installed systems that work with a consumer's own smart-phones and MP3 players via a bluetooth connection. OnStar is under pressure to make its system look like the better system, and generate more profit from the operation; hence the move to sell more data to third parties.

One of the sticky issues GM will have to grapple with is that GM is still approximately one-third owned by the Federal government. GM management is anxious for the government to sell its stake, dating back GM's 2009 bankruptcy and bailout by the taxpayer. But with GM's stock tanking to well below its 2010 offering price, the taxpayer would take a major hit if the government sold the stock now.

Taking a hard line against Senators that stood up for GM's bailout when the government still own one-third of the company could be more than awkward.

MMMMMMMMMM-HMMMMMMM!!





'Goldman Sachs Rules the World' Today's News (of years past!)

Remember Shirley Feeney getting so terrified in an allegedly haunted house that (homage to Shirley Jackson's The Haunting ?) that she went clear through it, 'accepted her fate' and sat serenely down with the words, 'LAVERNE, I AM AT PEACE' ? 

My own reaction when I hear the words 'Goldman Sachs' - except all the OTHER stuff - is of a mile by half-mile patch of rugged arid, Puente Hills land~ north end of old Whittier to the south, gated community to the west, and one of the world's largest cemeteries and sanitary landfills to the north and east.  One often finds remnants of burnt offerings, including the ever-popular 'Bank of Hell' notes floating about the lovely, green (if at times, overmanicured) elegantly parklike 'view lot' high hills of the rolling miles of cemetery.  Creepy to you RedStaters, perhaps, 'multicultural' in California.  While California is full of Asian 'debt slaves' life-bound to work off ancestral debt to living people or their heirs or companies*, many of these same are also paying off the guardians of the Place of Departed Spirits for their ancestors.  It's really not so different, now, is it? 

The thing is, this park is (so I understand) named HELLMAN Wilderness Park, not (as I once thought, for a late lamented bakery-goods vendor who truck-delivered through the neighborhoods like the ice cream man, nor) for pleasing those myriads with Tim Burton-like sensibilities, but for California pioneer Isaias Hellman, father of UCLA ('the wellspring of the Military-Industrial Complex') and of GOLDMAN $ACH$.

Hellman Wilderness Park offers spectacular views of the Lost Angels  Los Angeles Basin and most of its most of its facing mountain ranges, a vast lot of OC from peak to $hore, and, of course, Catalina.  If you can get up the steep, unshaded slick-rock trail sections without killing yourself.  Acres of full-thrust prickly pear cacti, milk thistle and tall dead weeds!  Quaint rattlesnakes and turkey vultures for that Old West flavor in the middle of the megalopolis! Chain link to keep citizens out of EliteGate and vile graffiti on rusty water tanks lest the urb seem too far away... But no water, benches... There are misdirecting signs that 'lead you back' off  precipitous cliffs into tangled gullies.  A feast of metaphor if you want it.  HELLMAN!!
  
*This thralldom is still technically illegal in the USA, but almost nothing is done to investigate the problem, let alone free the slaves.  After all, the JOB CREATOR$ CLA$$ are all for it, and tirele$$ly work to re$tore thi$ anciently traditional economic $y$tem for all of US in America and the whole world.

~~~~~~~~~

Click here: Trader Alessio Rastani To BBC: 'Governments Don't Rule The World, Goldman Sachs Rules The World'


Goldman Sachs rules the world and the Euro zone is poised to crash, according to trader Alessio Rastani.

"This is not a time right now for wishful thinking that governments are going to sort things out," Rastani said on an interview with BBC on Monday morning. "The governments don't rule the world, Goldman Sachs rules the world."

The statement came towards the end of an almost three and a half minute interview in which Rastani warned viewers to "get prepared" for the inevitable: "The savings of millions of people are going to vanish" in less than a year, he said.

"This economic crisis is like a cancer, if you just wait and wait thinking this will go away, just like a cancer it's going to grow and it's going to be too late," he continued.'

Fear over the fragility of the European economy has become pronounced in recent weeks. Prompted in part by concerns that the region could enter recession and affect the global economy, stocks composing the Dow Jones Industrial Average suffered their worst week since 2008 last week, according to Reuters.

In spite of statements like Rastani's, Euro policymakers continue to press ahead with possible reforms. Currently, they are working to bolster their 440 billion-euro rescue fund, after being criticized by leaders from both China and the U.S. for letting Greece's debt crisis already wreak havoc on global stocks, according to Reuters.

But the crash will be good news for traders, Rastani told the stunned BBC anchors.

"For most traders we don't really care about having a fixed economy, having a fixed situation, our job is to make money from it," he said. "Personally, I've been dreaming of this moment for three years. I go to bed every night and I dream of another recession."

Rastani said traders aren't the only ones who can benefit from the crisis.

"When the market crashes... if you know what to do, if you have the right plan set up, you can make a lot of money from this."

Stockbrokers Bigger Risk-Takers, More Competitive Than Psychopaths: Study

Report Officially Blames PG&E For Deadly San Bruno Blast

Suggested defense strategy:  Countersue Erin Brockovitch:  Because of her efforts, PG & E has a lake full of Chromium 6 (or whatever it is - they may call it KareBeers Kumfee Slurpz now) and they couldn't do anything with it, till their esteemed board of scientists on loan from Baghdad and Bopal suggested it might be used as a sealant to repair those eroding pipes in San Bruno... And their honorable efforts at due diligence had unforseen and unforseeable results...

Texas Oil Refineries May Get Tax Refund Out Of Public School, Community Money

10 Highest Paid Bank CEOs



Sunday, September 25, 2011

But of Course They Want THOSE Children to Die


...And (as Scrooge Not Yet Penitent said) 'reduce the EXCESS POPULATION!'  ...The voiceless, the drone-unfit as work units or cannon fodder for the remaining jobs; those who cling stubbornly to antique populist ideals and resist the Stockholm Syndrome lemming parade directed by the bloodsucking fingers of Abaddon.

Except, perhaps, for naive - if not lungshot rhetorical - thought that the demagogic powers and their minions are unaware of the delicious thrill of release they get in contemplating Apocalyptic slaughter, and the rather inept title*, this is an extraordinarily superb article:
* Then again, it may allude to the lesser-known fact that the Titanic disaster may have happened because the captain acceded to his overlords' vain and heedless wish to race the ship.

Click here: Marian Wright Edelman: Is Our Nation on the Titanic?

A theologian friend took her car to a Jiffy Lube for servicing. Not having anything to read, she picked up a manual on the coffee table about boating. A chapter on the rules for what happens when boats encounter one another on the open sea described two kinds of craft: burdened and privileged. The craft with power that can accelerate and push its way through the waves, change direction, and stop on demand is the burdened one. The craft dependent on the forces of nature, wind, tide, and human effort to keep going is the privileged craft. Since powerful boats can forge their way forward under their own power, they are burdened with responsibility to give the right of way to the powerless or privileged vessels dependent on the vagaries of the tide, wind, and weather. "Who wrote this thing?" my friend asked. "Mother Teresa? What's going on in our land when the New Jersey State Department of Transportation knows that the powerful must give way if the powerless are to make safe harbor and the government of the United States and the church of Jesus Christ and other people of God are having trouble with the concept?"


How do we answer her, political, faith, and community leaders and citizens of our nation? What is our "theory of action" or values compass as we seek solutions to rampant joblessness and poverty among millions of Americans, including 16.4 million poor children according to national U.S. census data released last week? What beyond politics and unbridled greed and power will calibrate our nation's decision making? Is cutting helpless babies the same as cutting some of the many budget-busting tax loopholes for millionaires and billionaires? Is cutting our children's teachers, nutrition supplements, Head Start and child care the same as cutting powerful corporate subsidies or tax breaks for corporate jets? A child cut from health care or unable to get services when abused or neglected may never heal. Is it right or fair for Congress to wield a budget guillotine -- called sequestration -- if a Super Committee of 12 cannot reach a responsible agreement on both revenue and budget cuts? This will leave a range of discretionary programs for children, the poor and middle class, and seniors on the chopping block. Does the irresponsible no-new-tax pledge signed by an astounding 279 current members of Congress (238 Representatives and 41 Senators), including the six Republican members of the Congressional "Super Committee," make the latter an irrelevant and unjust nonstarter? Are the hungry child and the huge corporate farmer who gets massive government "subsidies" (welfare) equally responsible for the deficit? I am reminded of French writer Anatole France's passage in The Red Lily: "The law, in its majestic equality, forbids the rich as well as the poor to sleep under bridges, to beg in the streets, and to steal bread." Is that our leaders' and nation's code of morality and justice? If so, the very dream and idea of an America where all have a fair chance and level playing field is dead.

According to new national U.S. census data, over 46 million people in America are poor -- more than the entire combined populations of Iraq and Niger. A 2010 front page New York Times story reported that one in 50 -- or six million -- people in America had no income and depended on food stamps to stave off the wolves of hunger. It provoked almost no response. Children -- the most vulnerable and least culpable among us for the deficit -- are the poorest age group. And the younger they are the poorer they are. Inadequate national and state investment in early childhood and education, and government's failure to protect children now from continuing economic downturn, are making them poorer. More than one million children fell into poverty between 2009 and 2010; almost a half million fell into extreme poverty.

It is disgraceful that the number of poor children in our rich nation is greater than the entire combined populations of Haiti and Liberia -- two of the poorest countries on earth -- and that the number of children in extreme poverty is equivalent to the whole population of Israel. The number of poor children under age five, the years of greatest brain development, is more than the population of Sierra Leone. I have yet to hear political leaders in either party nationally or in the states say we will not cut young children who have no belts to tighten. I believe no child cuts and no cuts for the poor should trump no tax increases for the rich in a just society.

The budget debate today and the role of our national government is about who we are or want to be as Americans. Who is government -- our collective voice -- designed to protect? The powerful or the powerless, some or all of us? Whose responsibility is it to ensure all our children are healthy, housed, educated, and prepared to join a workforce to compete with and out innovate the Chinese and others in 5, 10, or 15 years? Parents cannot achieve this alone, especially when millions of jobs and homes have been lost. Will cutting child and family nutrition, early childhood programs, education, child care and after-school enrichment programs, and youth jobs close or widen the huge wealth and income gaps between rich and poor? Will these cuts make us a more or less secure society? Where has our common sense gone? Where has our moral sense gone? Are there no bottom lines? Will children's lives continue to be cut, ignored, and neglected because they don't vote or lobby or make campaign contributions? Will they continue to be punished for parents they did not choose and are not responsible for? Do we just let them die, go homeless, hungry, and unhealthy when jobless parents cannot provide the basic necessities of life through no fault of their own?

The Children's Defense Fund's trademarked logo is based on the old fisherman's prayer -- "Dear Lord be good to me. The sea is so wide and my boat is so small." It shows a tiny little sailboat on a vast sea drawn by a young child many years ago based on the prayer. Never has it seemed more poignant and appropriate than today as our children are being tossed all about in a rough and uncertain sea of life without rafts by killer economic and political waves from the wakes of gigantic, powerful ocean liners -- capsizing small child boats. Is our nation protecting the Titanic -- a burdened boat enjoined to give right of way -- rather than protecting the child's small privileged boat struggling without power to reach safe harbor?

What can you do? Demand your political leaders protect the child's small boat -- the privileged boat -- and tell the powerful burdened boat to give them the right of way.

Follow Marian Wright Edelman on Twitter: www.twitter.com/ChildDefender

Saturday, September 24, 2011

Totalitarian Atheism Legislates Control of Reincarnation

Yes, the world has been immeasurably afflicted by schizoid religious beliefs, the most blastphemous of which is Eternal Punishment from the same God Who Is the Savior of all mankind and the Reconciler of all things to His Perfect Love, 'Almighty' but unable to overcome Satan's power and Free Will Doctrine.  HOWEVER:  Belief in deity and spirit is unnecessary for the dare-we-say deifiers of the materialist state.  This would be high-larious if it wasn't so bedded in more than a half-century of agony from the insatiable perfecters of the prison-industrial complex*

Click here: Dalai Lama Says Reincarnation is My Personal Right

News
Tibetan-English

Snip:

A new Chinese law bans Tibetan lamas, or monks, from reincarnating without Chinese government approval. It says the Chinese government has to approve all reincarnations of living Buddhas or senior religious figures in Tibetan Buddhism.


*Yes, I believe that Capitalism & Communism are two sides of the same coin (and coign), and if you take the 'blame it on the joooooze!!!!' out of the Protocols, the truth is there, just like it was in that inconvenient truth, the arcanum imperii of The Prince

Friday, September 23, 2011

Murders: Widely Separate; Strangely Conjoined

In the news of late:


Click here: Troy Davis case - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia ~put to death after a long imprisonment for the murder of an off-duty police officer, in a case and trial so fraught with improbity in prosecution that the Pope, a Nobel Peace Prize Winner, and former Director of the FBI, among nearly a million others, petitioned that Davis be given clemency. Mr. Davis's last acts strongly suggest imitatio Christi.

Click here: Death of Kelly Thomas - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia ~look at the picture of the victim's face transformed by outrageous tortures inflicted on him by police (Only two charged!) 

I'm from a law enforcement family and am natively pro-police.  I personally witnessed one incident of police brutality decades ago, the victim (a very tall, wiry, vigorous white male in his 20s) a seriously-violent, murder-attempting longtime local menace we wer all glad was finally going to be taken away.  In those days we commonly heard that the 'Angel-Dusted' such as he  felt no pain and could have the strength of 20 men when resisting arrest... So we thought maaaaayyyybe it was okay/necessary that the man -on his knees and cuffed behind his back - was clubbed over the head with the deputy's baton each time he tried to shift position.  But there were plenty of other deputies there, and they could have easily, to all appearances by we non-pros, put him in the wagon directly instead of playing Live Human Skull Whack-a-Mole with him.  Bad as he was, we let force be wantonly abused and remain ashamed of it.

Then all those videos since, which have shown us both police wildings and proper police take-downs, and even the Dog the Bounty Hunter crew who manage to efficiently arrest violent felons with nothing worse than the rare squirt of pepper spray.

By the recounting of incidents leading the smashing and burning of Kelly Thomas, the Orange County District Attorney (who bizarrely exculpated all but two of the several policemen involved), well... We have all become unfortunately familiar with the de facto though illegal cause for official suspicion, detention, frisking, etc. by police, facetiously called 'a DWB'=Driving While Black.  Thomas's 'offense', no doubt about to swell like a tidal wave as America's alleged  Sancrosanct Job Creators Who Must Not Be Taxed Or Subject To Rules Like Lesser Mortals will only hire those who will work for the carrot-and-the-stick (while these gods rip away the drones's houses), seems to be DWH:   Discernble While Homeless.      

Click here: Friends For Fullerton's Future Blog > http://www.fullertonsfuture.org/2011/those-other-cops-and-the-code-of-silence/

Click here: Murder of James Byrd, Jr. - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia ~ dragged and dismembered to death by 3 disgraces to humanity, one of them recently executed.


 

Wednesday, September 21, 2011

Candidate Qs Wish-List from Frum

Generally I disagree with Carney, but he's got some some extraordinary ones here, including the usually untouchable subject of limiting LEGAL immigration:

Click here: What FrumForum Would Ask at the GOP Debate

FrumForum#comments

Carney // Sep 20, 2011 at 10:05 am

1. Why do you emphasize domestic oil drilling as a solution to getting off foreign oil when, while we have 25% of world fuel demand, the CIA says that even counting Arctic and offshore we have less than 2% of world oil reserves, and OPEC has more than 78%?

2. Obviously we all want to eat our cake and keep it too, but sometimes we have to choose. Is economic non-interventionism more important than national security?

3. If even free-market founding father Adam Smith supported sailcloth subsidies to prevent Britain from becoming dependent on its enemies for his era’s strategically vital source of transportation motive power, what’s wrong with ethanol subsidies? Was Adam Smith a big government socialist?

4. Do you support the Open Fuel Standards Act, making it a required standard feature of all new gasoline cars that they be able to run on alternative fuel? It only costs $130 per new car for automakers, but they have dragged their feet for 20 years. How long will you put up with our economy and national security held hostage by Mideast petro-tyrants?

5. Why continue large-scale legal immigration during an economic slowdown and high unemployment?

6. Will you end “chain migration” – the immigration of people who would not otherwise be considered desirable enough to admit to the US but are allowed in solely because they have a relative here? If not, since everyone is related to many other people, how is that not a slow-motion open borders policy?

7. Prior waves of immigrants were assimilated and Americanized in part because the wave ended. What will you do to end the current wave of legal immigration? If not, why do you imagine it can be acculturated without a pause?

8. Should ease of assimilation and acculturation be a factor in considering whom to admit to the US, including national origin?

9. After World War 2 Germany and France allowed in millions of so-called temporary or guest workers from Africa and the Middle East who turned out to be permanent; they never left. What can we learn from their example?

10. How will you prevent a guest worker program from becoming a method of mass influx of permanent immigrants? What if the guest worker has a child on US soil? Will you have the willpower to deport that person, in the face of media and ethnic lobby criticism?

11. Isn’t mass immigration just another government program distorting our internal free market?



Sunday, September 18, 2011

Nostalgia for the Relative Sanity of the Worst of McCarthyism

Coming from the past, as I do, I remember the McCarthy hearings.  Yes, Joe McCarthy was a rabid ranter and may have been a type of 'Manchurian Candidate' inasmuch as his berserker style, seemingly utterly indifferent to the 'collateral damage' and 'friendly fire' his everywhere-directed frothing fulminations would bring on the noble cause of anti-communism and even the patriotic efforts of his own friendly witnesses, let alone innocents accused of treachery for having exercized their constitutional rights to sociopolitical curiosity or having been ordered during WWII military/State Dept. service, after Stalin pragmatically changed  from his Axis with Hitler to edgy coordination with the English-Speaking World dominated Allies, to play with the bloodydamn Commies.  McCarthy's eminence gris was the pathological hypocrite, Roy Cohn, whose other main erstwhile servant was (howevermuch effort has been employed to bury the fact) Bobby Kennedy.

I remember the abominations of the Cold War and how much our 'leaders' did to mindfork us into aping the worst ways of all the members of the former-and-yet sadistic totalitarian Axis Powers, allegedly as a necessity of fighting them.  I was up front and personally - repeatedly - chewed up, spit out and pasted back together, as has been so painfully true of countless others of that time and even before.  We wretched, demise-longing sacrifices on the altar of 'science falsely called' were used that discoveries might be made to further the agendae of profit-and-control, so that the victims have since become the general population, numbed and dumbed, the corruption, pain and poverty spread out and made weirdly desirable and aggreeable - 'the Satanic Paradise' - subtle for the mass of human cattle; the poor animals and other 'voiceless' (such as humans in hospitals and prisons; often little ones in 'educational institutions') may still be friercely and directly tormented.

Bringing us to today, and the giddy enthusiasm for Gotterdammerung.

Eisenhower was more justly suspected of pallin' with Stalin than many of today's Tea Party targets are of being anti-American, or even 'Lefties'.     

PRyan, HCain Like Tax Increa$e$ On Middle Class

(From a HuffPost, today's date; I forgot the link.)

I dread to think how much more flagrant these a$$holes can be, and still be accepted by their Stockholm Syndrome zombots:


WASHINGTON -- Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) said on Sunday that House Republicans would oppose President Barack Obama's payroll tax cuts for both employers and employees, arguing that the policy had already failed to provide a sufficient boost to the economy. "It hasn't worked," Ryan said, suggesting the current temporary tax cut should be allowed to expire, which will amount to a 50 percent tax hike on workers making less than $106,000 per year.


He also said he opposes the president's proposal to require millionaires to pay the same tax rate as the middle class, known as the Buffett plan. "Class warfare might make for good politics, but it makes for rotten economics," Ryan said.

As chairman of the House Budget Committee and the author of a long-term plan that radically alters Medicare and slashes tax rates for the wealthy as well as social spending, Ryan serves as something of an economic spokesman for House Republicans.

GOP presidential candidate Herman Cain, who followed Ryan on "Fox News Sunday," seconded his opposition to the tax on millionaires as well as the payroll tax cut extensions. "It's too little, too late," said Cain.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), appearing later on NBC's "Meet The Press," said he too would oppose taxing millionaires at a higher rate, citing Obama's own comments from 2010, when the president argued that taxes shouldn't be raised during rough economic times. "I think what he said then still applies," McConnell said, insisting that small businesses would be hurt by such a tax plan.

As for the namesake of the Buffett plan, McConnell said that if billionaire investor Warren Buffett feels like he's not paying his fair share, "he should send us a check."

"If Warren Buffett would like to give up some of his benefits, we'd be happy to talk about that," McConnell said, suggesting his benefits be means-tested.

Ryan, while backing a payroll tax hike, nevertheless said that tax hikes cannot be part of the deficit-cutting proposal that the super committee comes up with. As part of his explanation, Ryan made it clear that he sees no difference between raising taxes proactively and allowing tax breaks to expire. "You already have a $1.5 trillion tax increase coming in 2013," he said, referring to the expiration of the Bush tax cuts that were extended by President Obama for two years. Ryan's reference to the expiration as an "increase" gives greater weight to his willingness to let tax cuts for the middle class expire.

Because of the looming Bush tax cut expiration, said Ryan, the super committee should eschew tax hikes. "Why on earth would we go with that, especially when the problem is spending?" he said.

"You're basically saying there's going to be no bargain, no compromise," host Chris Wallace pointed out.

"Clearly, Democrats could work with us" and get $1.5 trillion in spending cuts with no additional revenue, Ryan said. "That shouldn't be that tough."

As for the budgetary woes outside Washington, Ryan said, "We just don't think we should be bailing out state governments." He added, "That's the constitutional responsibility of state governments, not federal governments."

Former President Bill Clinton, appearing on CBS's "Face The Nation," backed Obama's tax hike on millionaires, but suggested that the singular focus should be on job creation, with tax increases on the wealthy coming once the economy improves. "I don't have any objection to talking about it now," said Clinton. "Whether it's good politics or not, it's an honorable thing to do."

Clinton urged passage of the payroll tax cut extension and the creation of an infrastructure bank to fund investments. He also hit at the major drag on the economy. "I don't believe America can return to the full employment days of the '90s until we can clear this bank debt from the mortgage crisis," he said.

Friday, September 16, 2011

Win Your Case With Demagoguery, or, The Courtroom Machiavel

ADAM HANFT's brilliant essay on selling to the TRUTHINESS* voters on juries and at large.  Too, too large:

Click here: Adam Hanft: The Casey Anthony Brand Wins

Cross-Posted from FastCompany.com


Yesterday's surprising verdict was, simply put, a supremely emotional consumer purchase decision. Though a potential death sentence was at stake, the process by which jurors acted as purchasers followed well-established patterns of perception. Jurors listened, drew conclusions and eliminated unpleasant realities that interrupted their existing belief structures in the same way that consumers hear product arguments -- or political arguments -- and toss out the inconvenient, or painful.

To continue the metaphor, the prosecution lost because they acted like product managers, PowerPoint logic in tow. The product manager says, "Buy our widget for all these rational reasons" and the state argued, "Buy our argument for all these rational reasons."

But the defense understood that the case rested on the strength and believability of the Casey Anthony brand -- a brand that the media had been trashing for years before the trial began. Even though she never took the stand, the case rested on whether or not the jury believed she was capable of the horrific murder of which she stood accused. So while the state tried to connect the dots, the defense knew that they had to overcome the viscerally toxic aspects of her behavior by creating an emotional scaffold for jurors to grab onto, a neural framework for re-branding her, for thinking of Casey Anthony in a way that would allow them to resist the prosecution's logical appeals.

The defense knew that the music mattered as much, if not more than, the words.

Here are three branding strategies that the defense successfully leveraged:

Create positive associations that link to deeply seated emotional networks.

The defense showed a lot of footage of Caylee to convince the jury that Casey was a good mother. It worked. Images are depth charges that function on an unconscious level. Those videos branded Casey brilliantly, connecting her with existing, powerful imprints of mothering. After all, bad mothers don't care enough about their children to memorialize every detail of their lives. That footage normalized her, made her relatable.

The more this footage was shown -- by either side -- the better it was for Casey. And the harder it was for the jury to shut off the neural networks that linked her to the imprint of a loving mother. And, in turn, the easier it was for the jury to accept the defense's arguments -- and to dismiss the hard-partying image the prosecution sought to create.

It's the Casey Anthony version of Johnnie Cochrane's "If it doesn't fit, you must acquit." If the defendant's behavior doesn't fit what you see of them, you must acquit. Behavioral psychologists call in the confirmation bias.

It's a bad time for authority figures. Take advantage of it.

Even though the official syntax is "The People Versus Casey Anthony," jurors can see it as the all-powerful government at war against an individual. And if you read any of the polls, you'll see that Americans are increasingly skeptical of what their government has to say to them, and I believe that translates down to prosecutors -- particularly arrogant ones who laugh and smirk during closing arguments. Because there is such a built-in mistrust of the government, the slightest weakness or flaw in the prosecution's case -- and there was no shortage of them -- becomes magnified.

When Jose Baez, in his summation, said that the government was using "checkbook prosecution" he was tapping into the meme of big, bad government. The government lies and isn't to be trusted in its way -- and Casey Anthony made up imaginary characters and lied in her way. It's a draw.

• It's a good time for accepting the inexplicable.

Terrorists hijack planes and blow up the World Trade Center. The biggest, and allegedly the smartest banks in America created the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression, and nearly bankrupted themselves. Black swans -- the highly improbable -- are everywhere. That's the Casey Anthony brand narrative that the defense sold: The truth can co-exist with a defiance of logic.

The absence of any forensic evidence linking Casey Anthony to the murder gave the jury something to hang their existential doubts on; despite the densely patterned wallpaper of lies she told about one imaginary friend after the other, the mother didn't kill the child. The times in which we live created room for the jury to develop a level of comfort with what, outside the courtroom, appeared to be a totally absurd narrative.

There will be no shortage of theories proffered about this case, but unlike the O.J. judgment, where the arguments revolved around color lines, the Casey Anthony decision is more complex. Beyond the prosecution's tactical mistakes -- and the argument that they should have gone for a lesser charge is a good one -- is the fact that there were two brands fighting for the sale.

On one side was the brand of motherhood. That's a damn strong brand, even when that motherhood waits a month to report her daughter's disappearance, and feels no compunction about pole dancing and getting a tattoo in this frightening period of uncertainty.

On the other side was the brand of power and authority, a brand with unlimited resources, a brand that is trusted less and less every day.

We know the outcome.

Which leads to the question: What kind of brand are you selling?

*Click here: Truthiness - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia



Sunday, September 4, 2011

POWER POWER GRID POWER GRID

Click here: Terror attack on grid would collapse U.S. article by By Shaun Waterman, UPI Homeland and National Security Editor. This is dated Sept. 4 'Copyright © 2001-2003 United Press International'. Note date in context of date of this post, a.k.a 'as we approach the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks', and the recent government reminder for the those who have just emerged from a nearly-as-long-coma: Al Qaeda wants to do bad things with aircraft of various sizes.

The evidence and need just keeps piling up as infrastructure deteriorates and those who guard and maintain it are given their pension-sucked walking papers. This is the colossal glacier shard melting above our heads while our so-called protectors light fires and shoot guns under it and distract us from noticing it with 'necessary' grossly humiliating TSA gropings of dying nonagenerians and little children when wastrel (often plutocratic) 'reality' show media whores and sadism-as-entertainment aren't enough.

Olbermann can often go off the deep end, but I was much cheered when he mentioned PUTTING THE POWER GRID UNDERGROUND, something I have been harping on for decades... We who recognize the need - the many needs - to do this should keep harping till it's done. Or until meteorological events, decay, human malignance or any combination thereof make the need too-late-obvious and those still left with sufficient breath and muscle can Start All Over Again, the Right Way This Time.

Among features of the Right* Way

1. Prioritize sanely; get right at what's most needed at once.

2. Get real: This mostly has to be federally funded: Pay for it by stopping war, and being as willing to shell out for it as we ever were for war, taxing the bloodsucker (especially warbux) plutocracy and making them pay reparations - & if you really want justice better served, duly prosecute, them put the CEOs, veeps, raiders and their lawyers on muckbucket chain gangs so they can hands-on support their nearest kin.

3. a. Hire ONLY clean-record American Citizens for every aspect of the project(s), initially/under construction and ongoing/permanent. b. Do not consider individual humans or (gakkk!) corporations-as-persons as possessing clean records if they've knowingly hired more than 9% foreigners. c. Hire plenty, give them the pay and pension and safety-stuff you'd think just for your nearest and dearest if they were taking those jobs. d. Give strong support and incentives for buying local and planting native.

4. No corruption, mordida-payola, private-porkbarreling, politicians' buddy contractors, fascist monopoly public utility dominance, or any other sort of 'insider' advantage.

5. It must be as up-to-the-minute but lastingly and thoroughly 'GREEN' (especially clean and recycle-y: that very much includes energy) and SAFE as possible. This will include ready, swift and easy-access to emergency supplies and alternatives to intensely security-checked authorized personnel, with abundant real-human expert security monitors always 'on the ball'.

6. And this-all must be made to withstand OMHG It's So Much Worse Than The Sliderule Crew Anticipated disasters.

7. Make every effort to avoid public-domaining and other afflictions to the public and other arguably-sentient creatures.

8. Fiercely avoid waste and ruining Good Stuff We Already Have.

9. Thoroughly (but promptly) plan ahead to coordinate-with and make necessary repairs and truly desirable improvements of Other Things Along the Way, such as water and gas mains, railroad crossings and railways / rail trails, dams, levees, safety barriers & retaining walls, reservoirs, cisterns & river trails, etc.,

ETC.

*'Right' as in 'correct' or at least Barry Goldwater-esque (paleo-) conservative-that-is-also-conservationist way, not 'Right' as in neocons and their Viper-Flag Party masochist zombie minions, of course!

Thursday, September 1, 2011

Necessary Infrastructure in OUTER SPACE endangered, too!

Click here: Weather Satellites And Storm Warnings Threatened By Federal Budget Cuts

The Stepford Zombot Medusa-Eyed Lady May be Sorta Right in a Really Screwed-Up Way

Rep. Bachmann has taken some flack lately because she 'joked' (Oh, you so funny and tasteful, Michele! That's why you're the Ishtarbunny of Comedy Central) to her ever-appreciative crowd of Rattlesnake Party Stockholm Syndrome prole-masochists, that God* hath sent The Plagues of Late upon us because we have been Irresponsible With our Stuff.

Maybe that's right, if you: (1) Believe in examples from the Bible and most other historical faiths. It also agrees with heaps of empirical science if you view it phenomenally and leave aside the question of the will and might of supernatural beings. (2) Blow the outrageously insane and antichrist Tea Party's interpretation of what 'irresponsibility' means (not surrendering all wealth, will, and power to the Global Corporatist deities of 'Free' Market Military-Industrial Fascism) down the abyssal drain it belongs.

Whether one believes in a deity who is Almighty and All-Wise, or partly so, loving and saving or tempting and condemning, personal or impersonal (like Collective Intelligence or Natural Consequence), maybe we (including the innumerable innocent sufferers -unless you believe that tormented babies and such are getting karma or necessary lessons from offenses of their past incarnations, or whatever - but that's another question) are Getting What We Deserve from our vain and wicked Incalculable Crappy Choices and Putrid Priorities.

We could have long ago chosen peace and prosperity instead of war and want. We could have provided for the common defense by keeping safe our own borders and business (as in All God's Critters Got Their Own Bizness! - Not obscene travesties of the insatiable Moneychanger State which declares corporations to be persons and lucre to be free speech). We could have promoted the general welfare by doing those things that really make things better for everybody -not just some, or $ome a Whole Helluva Lot More Than Other$ - and NOT doing what's cruel and ruinous, unjust and unhealthy. We could have secured the blessings of liberty by having reverence for blessings and liberty, and not allowing our resources to be squandered by all manner of wantonness and sellouts to and slavery of foreigners.

We could have long ago been free of fossil fuels. Really. Imagine. Especially if we weren't putting them to Satan's work of WAR, and put those warbuck$ to GOOD use. Like actually effecting what George Washington Carver found out could be done with sweet potatoes. You'll be amazed - then you'll be awed by the extent of evil that has been and continues to be because of the suppression of these and other blessedly inspired discoveries ...As well as innumerable Everyday Obvious Better Choices.

Instead of the inevitable (without undeserved Divine Intervention) mega-disasters of more pipelines of poisons, pits of plutonium, power-grids exposed to human terrorism and Nature's blind calamatousness even as their ever-increasing webwork overhead oppresses our souls and 'necessitates' tree-ripping and 'public-domain' plundering, we could have - and long ago could have had ...PIPELINES FOR GOOD STUFF, LIKE EXCESS WATER (and energy...) FROM THE STORMS OF THE EAST TRANSMITTED TO THE DROUGHTS AND FIRES OF THE WEST.

Maychance (as the Bible actually suggests) it would please God if Governor Perry would pray for massive federal projects that actually would 'ordain and establish' Constitutional ideals for the good of ALL citizens, practically and righteously financed by revenues taken from the rapacious rich and formerly channeled to the War Machine.

*Technically (according to some), 'God' is not His Name, and she didn't say JHVH, Jesus/JAHshua, Allah, Brahm or Anything More Personal Like That, so she's not 'taking His Name' in vain. As far as the probably greater offense of blastphemy, which just means bad-mouthing and falsely accusing of bad stuff ('blame' was originally short for 'blastpheme'), it's not for us to judge her, but we can wonder about her - and all-too-easily-noted others' - confidence as being His particularly Chosen Tools, whom they believe - beleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeve!! - for righteousness's sake must be elected by the electorate because they are already les elites of Heaven.