Gremalkinsburrow

A Frackin' New Year!

2012-01-01T08:51:00.000-08:00

Whee! Whoopie! It's a brand new year, one I've been hoping (and, there's a good chance) I won't live through because I don't wanna see what kind of damnblasted folderol The Powers That Be Princes of This-World have actually planned to make us, in Machiavellian fashion, roll with it and under it just glad that the 12/21/12 crap that they've been pushing for decades -Nostradamus! Ninurta! Naughty Comets! Mayan and old Book of Common Prayer calendars and Pope predictions running out, ayeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee.

My own default comfort zone explanation For It All is that da grate god Skientz has allegedly disovered that the Universe is expanding 'faster than they thought before', Which I think means them subatomic particles / electronic yinyangs are moving away from each other, causing disintegration and ensuing what the late, great Steve Allen called DUMPTH.

Anywaaaay, I'm back to bitching. (I do thank God for all the Good Stuff & Critters, including the real purty blessed pink 'n' turquoise sunsets the last few days, but oh PLEASE manifest Your YAH-SHUA Name and like totally & permanently RESCUE us!!!)

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Click here: 4.0-Magnitude Earthquake Strikes In Northeast Ohio

Related: "Mort Zuckerman' fracking - Google Search... Will turn up the linked article below. Mort, on The McLaughlin Report, made fracking sound like Our Fossil Fuel Savior. I thought, Inve$$$$tor, perchance??!
Web profracks are heard to say (1) those environmentalists are gonna ruin everything because they're against fracking (2) Fracking is another cracked idea foisted upon us by environmentalists (3) Anti-fracking is an Ay-rab, OPEC plot. We'll see. After all, even if a lotta earthquakes don't come to Previously Stable Ground, there are lots of reasons to brace your water heater, not have shelves overhead, put your collectables behind doors on padding...

http://www.usnews.com/opinion/articles/2011/12/02/zuckerman-with-fracking-american-can-escape-the-energy-trap

McDONALD, Ohio — Officials said Saturday they believe the latest earthquake activity in northeast Ohio is related to the injection of wastewater into the ground near a fault line, creating enough pressure to cause seismic activity.

The brine wastewater comes from drilling operations that use the so-called fracking process to extract gas from underground shale. But Ohio Department of Natural Resources Director Jim Zehringer said during a news teleconference that fracking is not causing the quakes.

"The seismic events are not a direct result of fracking," he said.

~~~Not direct, huh? But maybe only like a car slipping on ice runs into another car that runs into you?~~~

Environmentalists and property owners who live near gas drilling wells have questioned the safety of fracking to the environment and public health. Federal regulators have declared the technology safe, however.

Zehringer said four injection wells within a five-mile radius of an already shuttered well in Youngstown will remain inactive while further scientific research is conducted.

A 4.0 magnitude quake Saturday afternoon in McDonald, outside of Youngstown, was the 11th in a series of minor earthquakes in area, many of which have struck near the Youngstown injection well. The quake caused no serious injuries or property damage, Zehringer said.

Thousands of gallons of brine were injected into the well daily until its owner, Northstar Disposal Services LLC, agreed Friday to stop injecting brine into the earth as a precaution while authorities assess any potential links to the quakes.

Michael Hansen of the Ohio Seismic Network said Saturday that more quakes are possible, most likely small ones, until the pressure at the fault line has been completely relieved.

The temblor Saturday appeared to be stronger than others, which generally had a magnitude of 2.7 or lower. Some residents reported feeling trembling farther south into Columbiana County and east into western Pennsylvania.

Area residents said a loud boom accompanied the shaking. It sent some stunned residents running for cover as bookshelves shook and pictures and lamps fell from tables.

A few miles from the epicenter, Charles Kihm said he was preparing food in his kitchen when he heard a noise and thought a vehicle had hit his Austintown home.

"It really shook, and it rumbled, like there was a sound," said Kihm, 82. "It was loud. It didn't last long. But it really scared me."

There are 177 similar injection wells around the state, and the Youngstown-area well has been the only site with seismic activity, the department said. Zehringer said that to shut down all of the wells because of seismic activity near one would be an overreaction.

Patti Gorcheff, who lives about 15 miles from the epicenter, said her dogs started barking inexplicably Saturday and the ornaments on her Christmas tree began to shake. Her husband thought he heard the sound of some sort of blast.

"This is the biggest one we've had so far," said Gorcheff, a North Lima resident who has raised concerns about quakes and drilling-related activity in the region. "I hope this is a wake-up call."

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Dear Ms Gorcheff: A 4.0 is what we, on the facetiously-named 'Pacific' Coast call an Oh, Doggonit, I Guess That Was a Quake, Please God Let That Be IT, and Not a Prequel to a REAL One.

Safety, Peace, and Clean Truth to us all!!!

Also~

http://realestate.aol.com/blog/2011/12/30/103-year-old-woman-that-faced-eviction-gets-new-lease-on-life/?icid=maing-grid10%7Chtmlws-main-nb%7Cdl9%7Csec3_lnk1%26pLid%3D124000

The Sherriff Andy Taylor Effect

2011-12-30T16:21:00.000-08:00

Crawling out of the pits of suffocating illness, this will probably be my last post for the year. Minus: Too tired to do any kind of comprehensive memorial. Plus: Too tired (even!) for my usual sociopolitical jeremiads.

Now I'm kinda late -a year late, and not a dollar to my name - to say hey to the Golden Anniversary of The Andy Griffith Show. But (who knows?) I may be the first to 'publish' a little-recognized phenomenon. A phenomenon I dearly love, honor and treasure. God bless the TAGS originators and the wonderful authors (and their characters, storylines and tone) inspired by The Andy Griffith Show.

That's right, it's a self-lucent gem of a sub-sub-sub-sub genre of fiction: Mystery/Detective > Cozy > Humorous > Rural: The great ensemble TV show Barney Miller took Mayberry spirit to an urban PD, and there were some semi-cozy TV series featuring rural law enforcers, fish in or out of their accustomed waters, but these were more children of Matt Dillon than of Andy Taylor.

AND ANDY TAYLOR BEGAT: Joan Hess's ARLY HANKS OF MAGGODY, M.C. Beaton's HAMISH MACBETH, Bill Crider's DAN RHODES, and Rhys Bowen's EVAN EVANS. There may be more. If there are, I want to find them! I hope this genre will go on and on, till Jesus comes back and rids existence of badguyness. If you haven't had the pleasure of this deceptively folksy and casual constabulary, detect your way to your local libraries and booksellers, and go for it!

Now, see here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Andy_Griffith_Show

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mayberry

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franklin_Canyon_Park ~'Myers Lake' WARNING: Innumerable visitors have been helplessly seized by the compulsion to whistle the TAGS 'Fishin' Hole' ditty.

Outrageously, there is no Wikipedia page for the great JOAN HESS. You might ought to try these:

http://www.maggody.com/ ... http://www.maggody.com/joanbio.htm Y'all be sure to look into Ms. Hess's CLAIRE MALLOY series, too!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arly_Hanks

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marion_Chesney (a.k.a. M.C. Beaton)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Crider (To their shame, Mr Crider is not on the Alvin, Texas, or Alvin Community College pages. What is it with towns and colleges ignoring their authors... Especially when most of us would probably never have heard of the places 'cept for their noble scribes?)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Janet_Quin-Harkin (a.k.a. Rhys Bowen)

TCM Remembers ~ Film Personalities Who Died in 2011

2011-12-15T15:02:00.000-08:00

http://www.altfg.com/blog/movie/elizabeth-taylor-farley-granger-tcm-remembers-2011-peter-falk/

TCM does it classy, if not always completely. Copyrighted, so use link -- or watch TCM pretty often before the end of the year. R.I.P., y'all.

Naive About Bigotry

2011-12-08T15:41:00.000-08:00

I didn't think someone as vehemently against aliens taking US Citizens' jobs, as pro-moratorium-on-ALL-except-worst-case-refugee-immigration, and as approving of some kinds of TSA-type 'profiling' as I* would be all that naive about remaining bigotry entrenched in this country. Can even I be all that Left Coast multiculturalist? :

Item 1: (BTW: I am an old female used to be 20-30 lbs overweight [but carried it well: Muscles & bazooms! now deflated/gone south] throughout adulthood but now 'the right weight' through the old-fashioned way: Poverty and illness. I was never a chubby-chaser, except from the perverted POV of the 'can't be too thin' sticks-for-brains.) Found out that there's an overwhelming prejudice against 'big'/'plus size'/portly men - or even lowfat big muscle-y guys! Outside of erotic fat fetishism (& I didn't go there!) there is simply no recognition online that big (except tall stringbeans) men can be handsome. BUT THEY SOOOOOOO CAN!!! Image search fashion houses for plus sizes and such, and they'll still show you jackets made for planks. Try 'handsome fat man' and the best you can get are affectionate pix of well-padded tomcats. WTF?! 'Give me some men who are stout-hearted men...' Have we already forgotten those 9/11 heroes, so often real-life grey and girthy (with 'too much' nose and 'too little' chin and unlovely skin...)? I want to be able to see (fully and nicely dressed, in gentlemanly situations) you BHMs with 60-inch chests. From 'pixel pundits' to rappers to athletes and opera stars, you're obviously out there. Why in the name of Santy Claus can you not be recognized as nice-looking men????!!!

Item 2: National coverage of Rick Perry's Iowa campaign ads saying what a Christian he is (fortunately for him, Iowa's not 'the Show Me State'!) as opposed to Obama's 'anti-religious agenda.' It took me some time to figure out what that meant. Couldn't fly on old settled stuff like school prayer and abortion, except for morons who don't realize what was (a) long settled (b) untouched by Bam (c) no FN business of the Prezdint anyhow. Obviously wasn't the real Christian pacifist and/or progressive and/or populist view of BHO as a Trojan Horse for Goldman Sachs 'n' all. Oh. It's the GAAAAAAAY thing! Even though Bam doesn't support gay marriage, and he footdragged on repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell, he hasn't had his panties in a paranoid bunch over the fear and horror and supreme danger of some people doing what is elsewhere hailed as Socially Responsible Stuff - which they kept on doing, de facto, anyway - LEGITMATELY. Oh! CODE-SPEAK. =}}gag{{= !! What kinda 'New Testament' those people readin', anyway?

*And yes, admittedly 'having kooties' toward so much that is the culture of China...

Further Adventures in MULTICULTURAL Alliances

2011-12-04T16:44:00.000-08:00

Remember when Bush said, '- it won't be our kind of democracy...'?

Click here: Hamid Karzai, Afghanistan President, Pardons Imprisoned Rape Victim

KABUL, Afghanistan -- Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Thursday pardoned an Afghan woman serving a 12-year prison sentence for having sex out of wedlock after she was raped by a relative.

Karzai's office said in a statement that the woman and her attacker have agreed to marry. That would reverse an earlier decision by the 19-year-old woman, who had previously refused a judge's offer of freedom if she agreed to marry the rapist.

Her plight was highlighted in a documentary that the European Union blocked because it feared the women featured in the film would be in danger if it were shown.

More than 5,000 people recently signed a petition urging Karzai to release the woman. She had the man's child while in prison and raised her daughter behind bars, which is common among women imprisoned in Afghanistan.

A statement released by Karzai's office says that after hearing from judicial officials, the decision was made to forgive the rest of the sentence she received for having sex out of wedlock, a crime in Afghanistan. The presidential statement did not say when the woman was to be released or how much prison time had been pardoned.

The woman told The Associated Press in an interview last month that she had hoped that attention generated by the EU film might help her get released. With the film blocked, she said that she was losing hope and considering marrying her rapist as a way out. She said her attacker was pressuring her to stop giving interviews.

About half of the 300 to 400 women jailed in Afghanistan are imprisoned for so-called "moral crimes" such as sex outside marriage, or running away from their husbands, according to reports by the United Nations and research organizations. Fleeing husbands isn't considered a crime in Afghanistan.

The EU welcomed the woman's release.

"Her case has served to highlight the plight of Afghan women, who 10 years after the overthrow of the Taliban regime often continue to suffer in unimaginable conditions, deprived of even the most basic human rights," the European Union's Ambassador and Special Representative to Afghanistan, Vygaudas Usackas, said.

He said the EU hoped the same mercy would be extended to other women serving similar terms. Usackas said he planned to raise the issue of Afghan women's rights at an international conference on Afghanistan Dec. 5 in Bonn, Germany.

Some of the most severe restrictions women faced under the Taliban, like a ban on attending schools and having to have a male escort to venture outside the home, were done away with when the radical Islamic movement was driven from power in 2001. But Afghanistan remains a deeply conservative and male-dominated society, meaning women are still sold to husbands and rights enshrined in law are often ignored in practice.

'Commerials' vs. ATM Fees

2011-12-04T16:32:00.000-08:00

Governments constrict, restrict, compel, commandeer, conscript and corrupt their citizens as 'the price of freedom'. The medical industry extorts, experiments and tortures patients, expecting from them not only crippling and sometimes impossible fees, but thanks and reverence. BANKS supposedly exist primarily to hold safe the money and valuables of those who use them, taking in exchange a chance to use this massed lucre to play it prudently in low-risk, high-earning ventures, sharing profits with those whose money they hold. But now they hold YOUR money hostage, gamble wildly with it, and make you pay ruthless ransom to release any of it back to you -and take the taxes you paid for the ostensible services of your government (even if they are foreign or super-national) to 'save' them as of unquestionably, untouchably vital to the world.

Click here: Clinton Townsend's ATM Fee Fix: Watch Ads Instead Of Paying Charge

B of A: Family Wrongly Booted From Home Returns To Wreckage

2011-12-01T19:31:00.000-08:00

Click here: Family Wrongly Booted From Home Returns To Wreckage

AOL Real Estate By Teke Wiggin Posted Dec 1st 2011 10:20AM ~~~Click on above to access other links within article.

Amid the avalanche of foreclosure proceedings unleashed by the housing crisis, thousands of families may have been illegally booted from their homes.

The story of the King family, recently reported by WLUK FOX 11, offers a nightmare scenario of the hardship a family may be forced to endure because of such practices.

The Kings returned this fall to their old home in the town of Clayton, Wis., to find it in utter ruin: The basement was flooded in eight feet of water, the walls covered with mold and the kitchen littered with mouse droppings.

Their ill-fated home had sat unoccupied for more than a year, after the family succumbed to pressure from Bank of America, who notified them that their home would be subject to foreclosure because they had missed a mortgage payment. The Kings, who have eight children, knew that they had actually made their payments but gave in to the bank in order to shelter their children from the rocky proceedings.

"We didn't want to further traumatize our children by having a sheriff show up," Christina King told WLUK.

Originally, in 2009, the family had applied for the Home Affordable Modification Program, an initiative launched by the Obama administration that allows qualified borrowers to receive interest rate reductions on their mortgages. The program, which was recently modified so that it could reach more beleaguered homeowners, would have provided significant relief to the Kings by reducing their rate from 10 percent to 4 percent.

But after a year of cooperating with the bank under the terms of the program, the Kings were informed that they had missed a payment during the program's trial period. Then a steady tide of foreclosure notices arrived, prompting the family to move into a rental property.

Fast forward by about a year, to when the family receives a notice from Bank of America.

"In a previous letter to you, we told you that ... you missed a Trial Period Plan Payment. However, this was incorrect," it reads, according to WLUK. The letter also reportedly informs the family that their mortgage actually was approved for HARP.

The Kings return home, perhaps thinking that their long streak of misfortune may finally have come to an end. Not so. They find a house that has fallen into such disrepair that a contractor estimates that the cost of fixing it exceeds its value.

"It's really awful, it's really awful what was done to us," King told WLUK.

Unfortunately, the story of the Kings is only one of many examples of families who have suffered unjustly at the hands of mortgage lenders.

The practice of "robosigning," which refers to a range of foreclosure paperwork abuses, has launched various probes around the country, including an investigation led by a broad coalition of state attorneys general which reportedly could end up costing banks upward of $20 billion in a settlement. Setting a precedent, Nevada recently filed criminal charges for robosigning by indicting two staffers at a mortgage company for directing employees to falsely notarize foreclosure documents and forge signatures.

And these proceedings have had a very real impact on homeowners. One homeowner in Pittsburgh had her home -- and her parrot -- mistakenly seized by Bank of America, while another family in Houston faced foreclosure simply because their property title wasn't properly transferred.

Victims of Robo-Signing: Fight the Machine!

Foreclosure Mill That Mocked Homeless Going Out of Business

Fed Cracks Down on Online Mortgage Scams As Probe Widens

Another DRAGGED BY ONE'S OWN SEATBELT Death

2011-11-24T09:56:00.000-08:00

Click here: North Carolina Teen Charged In Student's Dragging Death

ELIZABETH CITY, N.C. -- A 16-year-old high school student in North Carolina is being charged with murder in the dragging death of another teenager.

Elizabeth City deputies say the student assaulted James Edward Holley Jr., pushed him out of a car and then drove away with the 17-year-old Holley hanging on the outside of the car by a seat belt. The car eventually crashed into a ditch.

Sheriff Randy Cartwright says deputies received a call just before 5 p.m. Sunday about a traffic accident southwest of Elizabeth City, which is in the northeast part of the state.

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Horrible but familiar. These stories of carjacked people being pulled out of their vehicles while still entangled in their seat belts by barbarous robbers, who then take the driver's seat and peel out on a mad careen, mangling their victims, have been around a long time. Ever since they came out with seatbelt laws - & kids' car seats, air bags, etc. - (and yes, I am obedient), I've wondered if anyone was keeping track of the stats in which people came to grief because they were trammeled by these 'protective restraints'.

Police Brutality Atrocities on the March

2011-11-24T09:35:00.000-08:00

Baby dies, but story has twin with the absolute hosing of absolutely docile, sitting-in-by-Constitutional-rights protesters at U.C. Davis with pepper spray.

Have you ever seen pepper spray used on Dog, the Bounty Hunter? The Dog Team only use it in ultra-dangerous situations, and reluctantly, then, partly because the awful stuff mists about in actual necessary hands-on apprehension of violent fugitives. It's hard for those tough guys (who hav such decency that they usually water-douse the 'skip's' eyes before their own) to bear even second hand capsicum vapor.

Keeping that in mind, the U.C. Davis toxic hosing is at least every bit as vicious and painful as the brutalities inflicted on 60s civil rights protestors. I've been bruised, dog-bit and water-blasted. Burning is worse. And pepper spray burning is a minor sting compared to tazering, and major volt-injury can mess you up very cruelly in a host of ways for the rest of your life.

Click here: Pregnant Seattle protester miscarries after being kicked, pepper sprayed

The Raw Story

By David Edwards Tuesday, November 22, 2011

A woman who was pepper sprayed during during a raid on Occupy Seattle last week is blaming police after she miscarried Sunday.

Jennifer Fox, 19, told The Stranger that she had been with the Occupy protests since they started in Westlake Park. She said she was homeless and three months pregnant, but felt the need to join activists during their march last Tuesday.

“I was standing in the middle of the crowd when the police started moving in,” Fox recalled. “I was screaming, ‘I am pregnant, I am pregnant. Let me through. I am trying to get out.’”

She claimed that police hit her in the stomach twice before pepper spraying her. One officer struck her with his foot and another pushed his bicycle into her. It wasn’t clear if either of those incidents were intentional.

“Right before I turned, both cops lifted their pepper spray and sprayed me. My eyes puffed up and my eyes swelled shut,” Fox said.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer photographer Joshua Trujillo snapped a picture of Fox in apparent agony as another activist carried her to an ambulance.

Seattle fire department spokesman Kyle Moore told The Washington Post that a 19-year-old pregnant woman was among those that were examined by paramedics.

While doctors at Harborview Medical Center didn’t see any problems at the time, things took a turn for the worst Sunday.

“Everything was going okay until yesterday, when I started getting sick, cramps started, and I felt like I was going to pass out,” she explained.

When Fox arrived at the hospital, doctors told her that the baby had no heartbeat.

“They diagnosed that I was having a miscarriage. They said the damage was from the kick and that the pepper spray got to it [the fetus], too,” she said.

“I was worried about it [when I joined the protests], but I didn’t know it would be this bad. I didn’t know that a cop would murder a baby that’s not born yet… I am trying to get lawyers.”

The Scoville heat chart indicates that U.S. grade pepper spray is ten times more painful than the blistering hot habanero pepper, according to Scientific American. While law enforcement officials regularly claim that the spray is safe, researchers at the University of North Carolina and Duke University found that it could “produce adverse cardiac, respiratory, and neurologic effects, including arrhythmias and sudden death.”

and~
Fox News host Megyn Kelly calls pepper spray ‘a food product’
'Better than ketchup, keep kids warm without heating schools' is what I expect these hellions to say next!.

Repubs Un-Zombot for National Security Debate

2011-11-24T08:53:00.000-08:00

Click here: Tonight’s CNN Debate Winner « The Thompsonian Times

I wrote:)

Tonight's show was rather a wow. Almost didn't watch it, since they all had become little more than set pieces of wind-up talking points dolls who would 'stay the course' by ignoring the questions given them to mindlessly repeat slams and slogans that would get rises out of the more Pavlovian Tea Party and neocon audience members.

What broke the brain-freeze ice, I wonder? Was it some eminence gris, a cabal of AEI and Heritage Foundation intellectuals; the Ghost of Nixon Past? They were THINKING and shining tonight! They had JUICE! They understood questions and answered them pretty darn intelligently - one has to admit, even when one disagreed with them.

Were the 12 unconstitutional archons of the soopadoopa Debt Committee exercising their little grey cells as well, or did they stick fingers in ears and butts in cement (as so many expected)?

There's some hope here, even for a Marcy Kapture / Michael Moore fan like me. The candidates sounded like AMERICANS (ADULT Americans, too -not a lot of that around anymore!) Real debating that could usefully feed the Discussion instead of bullying, insatiable attempts to bend the Narrative to zombot partisan dogma.

Goodness, how those 'behind' stepped up - and often over the frontrunners. Bachmann amazed me: From glazed-eyed Stepford queen to sharp as a tack on MidEast strategy (and more!). How did THAT happen?

Domino Theory Resurrection

2011-11-17T12:26:00.000-08:00

I wish our government would send a humanitarian mission to the San Gabriel Valley, the Monterey & Puente Hills, Cerritos, Glendale, etc. to free the army of Asian slaves... But that would be counterproductive to the grand progress made by the plutonomy for their model future: You just might have to free the wageless workers from the mesoamericanos living in Xe-guarded moving van trailers working without protection on Gulf Coast toxic cleanups, to kidnapped Ukrainian 'human traffic' harlots, to media hopefuls carrot-and-sticked to working free for 'exposure', to 'wrong' religion -&/or ethnicity African little kids drudging like Cinderellas-sans-fairy-godmothers for abusive rich arms-&-porn foreign traders.

Click here: Obama: China Must Play By The Rules

CANBERRA, Australia — Signaling a determination to counter a rising China, President Barack Obama vowed Thursday to expand U.S. influence in the Asia-Pacific region and "project power and deter threats to peace" in that part of the world even as he reduces defense spending and winds down two wars.

"The United States is a Pacific power, and we are here to stay," he declared in a speech to the Australian Parliament, sending an unmistakable message to Beijing.

Obama's bullish speech came several hours after announcing he would send military aircraft and up to 2,500 Marines to northern Australia for a training hub to help allies and protect American interests across Asia. He declared the U.S. is not afraid of China, by far the biggest and most powerful country in the region.

China immediately questioned the U.S. move and said it deserved further scrutiny.

Emphasizing that a U.S. presence in the Asia-Pacific region is a top priority of his administration, Obama stressed that any reductions in U.S. defense spending will not come at the expense of that goal.

"Let there be no doubt: in the Asia Pacific in the 21st century, the United States of America is all in," he said.

For Obama, Asia represents both a security challenge and an economic opportunity. Speaking in broad geopolitical terms, the president asserted: "With most of the world's nuclear powers and some half of humanity, Asia will largely define whether the century ahead will be marked by conflict or cooperation, needless suffering or human progress."

Virtually everything Obama is doing on his nine-day trip across the Asia-Pacific region has a Chinese subtext, underscoring a relationship that is at once cooperative and marked by tensions over currency, human rights and military might.

China's military spending has increased threefold since the 1990s to about $160 billion last year, and its military recently tested a new stealth jet fighter and launched its first aircraft carrier. A congressional advisory panel on Wednesday urged the White House and Congress to look more closely at China's military expansion and pressed for a tougher stance against what it called anticompetitive Chinese trade policies.

The expanded basing agreement with Australia is just one of several initiatives Obama has taken that is likely to set Beijing on edge at a tricky time. The U.S. is China's second largest trading partner, and the economies are deeply intertwined. Chinese leaders don't want the economy disrupted when global growth is shaky and they are preparing to transfer power to a new leadership next year.

Over the weekend while playing host to Chinese President Hu Jintao and other Pacific rim leaders at a summit in Hawaii, Obama said the U.S. would join a new regional free trade group that so far has excluded China. That added an economic dimension to what some Chinese commentators have called a new U.S. containment policy that features reinvigorated defense ties with nations along China's perimeter, from traditional allies Japan and the Philippines to former enemy Vietnam, all of whom are anxious about growing Chinese power.

China was immediately leery of the prospect of an expanded U.S. military presence in Australia. Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Weimin said there should be discussion as to whether the plan was in line with the common interests of the international community.

Responding to questions at a news conference Wednesday with Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard, Obama sought to downplay tension between the world powers. "The notion that we fear China is mistaken," he said.

Obama avoided a confrontational tone with China in his speech to the Australian parliament, praising Beijing as a partner in reducing tensions on the Korean Peninsula and preventing proliferation.

"We'll seek more opportunities for cooperation with Beijing, including greater communication between our militaries to promote understanding and avoid miscalculation," he said.

In a note of caution, however, he added: "We will do this, even as continue to speak candidly with Beijing about the importance of upholding international norms and respecting the universal human rights of the Chinese people."

With military bases and tens of thousands of troops in Japan and South Korea, the United States has maintained a significant military presence in Asia for decades. Australia lies about 5,500 miles south of China, and its northern shores would give the U.S. easier access to the South China Sea, a vital commercial route.

The plan outlined by Obama will allow the United States to keep a sustained force on Australian bases and position equipment and supplies there, giving the U.S. ability to train with allies in the region and respond more quickly to humanitarian or other crises. U.S. officials said the pact was not an attempt to create a permanent American military presence in Australia.

About 250 U.S. Marines will begin a rotation in northern Australia starting next year, with a full force of 2,500 military personnel staffing up over the next several years. The United States will bear the cost of the deployment and the troops will be shifted from other deployments around the world. Having ruled out military reductions in Asia and the Pacific, the Obama administration has three main areas where it could cut troop strength: Europe, the Middle East and the U.S.

All U.S. troops are being withdrawn from Iraq by the end of this year, and a drawdown in Afghanistan is underway. But the Pentagon has said recently that the U.S. will maintain a major presence in the greater Middle East as a hedge against Iranian aggression and influence. A more likely area for troop reductions is Europe, although no decisions have been announced.

The debate over defense budgets is just one aspect of a broader political fight over fixing the nation's debt problem during a presidential election season. Already, the Pentagon is facing $450 billion in cuts over ten years, as part of a budget deal approved last summer. And if a special congressional committee can't agree on $1.2 trillion in more long-term cuts or Congress rejects its plan, then cuts of $1.2 trillion kick in, with half coming from defense.

Australia's Gillard said, "We are a region that is growing economically. But stability is important for economic growth, too." She said that "our alliance has been a bedrock of stability in our region."

Obama's visit is intended to show the tightness of that relationship and he hailed the long ties between the United States and Australia, two nations far away that have spilled blood together

"From the trenches of the First World War to the mountains of Afghanistan_Aussies and Americans have stood together, fought together and given their lives together in every single major conflict of the past hundred years. Every single one," he said.

Obama had a packed day-and-a-half in Australia, his first trip here as president after canceling two previous tries. After addressing Parliament, Obama was flying to the northern city of Darwin, where some of the Marines deploying to Australia next year will be based.
___
Associated Press writers Erica Werner and Rod McGuirk in Canberra and Robert Burns in Washington contributed to this report.

Civilization Jettisoned: Libraries Junked, But...

2011-11-17T12:00:00.000-08:00

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/11/16/can-the-american-library-_n_1096484.html?icid=maing-grid10%7Chtmlws-main-nb%7Cdl20%7Csec1_lnk3%7C113415 < load to get other links.
By Lucas Kavner lucas.kavner@huffingtonpost.com

Library Budget Cuts Threaten Community Services Across Country

This is part of our new ongoing series, Libraries in Crisis. To read more about the series, click here.

At the Gilpin County Public Library in Colorado, which serves a community of less than 6,000 people, a sign on the roadside advertises "Free coffee, internet, notary, phone, smiles, restrooms and ideas" to all who enter.

Indeed, all libraries, with their familiar rows of bookshelves and busy, helpful librarians, have remained reliably stable, as ubiquitous in towns throughout the U.S as the local firehouse or the post office. But it is perhaps this familiarity that makes the American library as an institution more vulnerable than ever, and has many wondering: What is in store for its future?

These days, the library's very existence is a question mark, and they face some of the steepest budget cuts in history. According to a Harris/Reader's Digest Poll from late 2010, nearly 40 percent of American mayors plan to reduce hours, shed employees or make other cutbacks in the coming months, while many county libraries have already eliminated branches entirely.

The South Branch Library in Evanston, Illinois, had been open since 1917. One Evanston resident, Barbara Lewis, told Patch that she had originally moved to the neighborhood only so she could walk to her local library. It closed last February.

In Dearborn, Michigan, one of four library branches was forced to close in September; an administrative librarian there said he didn't really believe it would close until it was actually happening. In Fenton-High Ridge, Missouri, they've lost 33 percent of library staff to attrition over the past five years, and a "self-checkout" system was recently put into place to control costs.

"Our interest income has also deteriorated, and that used to give us a bit of a cushion," said Pam Klipsch, the director of Missouri's Jefferson County Library system, which includes the Fenton-High Ridge branches. "We've been very hard hit by this whole recession, and we've had to cut back and cut back and cut back, so when staff leave us now, they just don't get replaced."

In Chicago, Mayor Rahm Emanuel recently proposed a budget that would eliminate "268 currently vacant positions and lay off about 284 employees" from the library system. He was met by hundreds of protesters of all ages, including a group of fist-pumping pre-schoolers. The resulting "Save Chicago Public Libraries and Librarian Jobs" Facebook group now boasts over 2,000 members, but as of today the cuts are still looming.

In Detroit, public library officials, union members and commissioners have deadlocked in a battle over whether to close four of Detroit's 23 public library branches. Though Detroit's Public Library Commissioner, Russell Bellant, supports the closures, administrators and union officials are hanging on for dear life, hoping to save their libraries and the hundreds of jobs they stand to lose.

Though 91 percent of those surveyed for the same Harris Poll said that their local library "improves the quality of life" in their community, the institution remains under attack across the country and worldwide.

Who exactly is to blame, the communities or the libraries themselves? And what will be lost if the library fades into obsolescence?

A MODERN LIBRARY'S ROLE

Maureen Sullivan, president-elect of the American Library Association (ALA), the oldest and largest library nonprofit in the world, said people don't realize how essential their local public library is until it's too late. When it comes to making budget decisions -- "Should we cut funds from the police department or the library?" -- local lawmakers are putting the library at the bottom of the totem poll, and state governments are not stepping in to save them.

"I hear people on a regular basis talking about how the library is the most trusted organization in the community and it being such a public good," Sullivan said. "But many people in our communities have simply taken the library for granted."

Marcia Warner, president of the Public Library Association, a division of the ALA, added that many citizens only start paying attention when libraries begin "cutting branches or cutting hours." Then suddenly they become aware of the problem.

"But it's too late then," Warner said.

Klipsch, the Jefferson County Library system director, thinks a lot of people are confused about how libraries are actually funded, and that's part of a larger issue. "We get people who think all the books are donated by publishers and all the staff are volunteers," she said, laughing a little at the idea. "They have no idea we have to buy books and pay staff, and that librarians don't just sit around all day and occasionally put books back on a shelf."

But the library is serving multiple roles, especially during hard times. For those who cannot afford to sit at a coffee shop and buy a "four-dollar latte" to use their computer on somebody else's Wi-Fi, Warner says, the library provides "the whole shebang": a quiet location to work in private, a staff member willing to answer in-depth questions (about everything from applying for unemployment benefits to where one might learn more about beekeeping), and a meeting place for the community, not to mention those free film and book rentals and an increasingly long list of e-book and digital reading options.

According to the most recent Public Library Funding and Technology Access Study (PLFTAS), libraries and librarians provide essential services that are found scarcely anywhere else, especially to citizens who are struggling economically. Seventy percent of libraries indicated that their Internet services increased in 2010, and 65 percent report that they provide the only source of free public access to computers in their community. Eighty-one percent of Americans who have been "economically impacted" by the recession have a library card today, as supposed to 68 percent of Americans who have not been affected, according to a 2010 study from the Online Computer Library Center.

In Jefferson County, a new program eliminates overdue book fines in exchange for canned food donations. "We forgive the fines, and then provide cans to local food pantries," said library director Klipsch. "We have people who come in, they're literally living in their cars. We give them a safe place to park. It's going on three years and things are not getting any better."

Not only are libraries being used more than ever before, in more ways than ever, but modern librarians have also lengthened their reach, spanning the range of technological and social changes that have taken place in their field over the past ten years.

THE LIBRARIAN ADAPTS

Erin Schreiner, who recently received her Masters in Library Science from Long Island University, with a concentration in rare books and special collections, doesn't think the general public realizes what services are provided by their local libraries these days. She believes that if more people were aware of these services, they might visit their local library more often.

When a friend of Schreiner's was looking to research some of her long-lost Jewish relatives in Calcutta, she started the same way most of us would, with a simple Google search, but she came up empty. Schreiner suggested that her friend head to the New York Public library, home to one of the most expansive Judaica collections in the world. There, she could consult a specialist trained in genealogical queries.

"My friend was like, 'I could just go do that? It's free?'" Schreiner remembers. "People don't realize that their library is this incredible provider of specific information. We shouldn't have to remind them."

The modern librarian is a social networking guru as well as a research specialist. Like many of us, they've grown up with Google and Wikipedia and every blog and online journal in existence, so they know how to navigate the online world, while also providing the services the library has always offered.

"Certain [librarians] used to be able to sit in a room and catalogue books and never have to interact with the public," said Schreiner. "But now if you're working in a library, you're expected to collaborate and be a part of a living organism, to help real people. There's a lot of focus now on the personal side of librarianship and helping people in a more specialized way."

Marilyn Johnson, author of "This Book is Overdue!," wrote that the modern librarian is indeed technologically savvy but also respects a patron's privacy -- and that distinction is important. "A profession dedicated to privacy in charge of our public computers? That's brilliant," she wrote in the LA Times last year. "[Librarians] represent the best civic value out there, an army of resourceful workers that can help us compete in the world."

Still, no matter how successful libraries are at serving their current purpose, it doesn't seem to matter, and they remain at risk. The country's largest circulating library, in Queens, N.Y., was named the best system in the U.S. by Library Journal in 2009, Johnson pointed out, yet its budget was due to shrink by a third. Since most libraries receive the majority of their funding from local and state governments, they remain at the mercy of a struggling economy and are looking at many other options.

THE LASTING RAMIFICATIONS

What can libraries do?

Warner of the Public Library Association admitted that all local services are being threatened -- libraries aren't unique in that regard -- but library directors need to "toot their own horn" a bit more than they have been. She suggested that leaders step up in the community and let their voices be heard, embracing the library's essential role as a "community convener."

While most libraries are still funded locally, and others, like the Jefferson County Library system in Missouri, are levied by the voting public (if the value of appraised property goes up, the library "rolls back the levy" to compensate), Warner also recommends that libraries establish private foundations to offset budget cuts. ALA president-elect Sullivan points to these nonprofits as positive examples, and the ALA itself has received many generous donations from the Bill And Melinda Gates Foundation, among others. A Rhode Island library received a $10,000 donation from Alec Baldwin after he read an article in the New York Times about its potential demise, and other volunteers have stepped in to keep libraries running.

Klipsch, director of the Jefferson County system, recently set up a private foundation so her branches could receive outside funding, but these things take time to initiate and get going, she said, and it could be a while before libraries reap the benefits of these funds.

"We're working on it, but in the meantime, we can't pretend that the cuts aren't affecting us. We have to be really up front, and we're trying to be. But everybody around here is hurting, so we need to take all the steps we can."

Indeed, libraries have the potential to be leaders at the forefront of this Age of Information, in addition to serving as community centers and book lenders and places where one can sit and spend a quiet afternoon. But without the necessary technological and staff-related improvements -- and the funds to implement them -- libraries, especially those in rural and suburban areas, will languish.

Can they survive this current economy, with so much -- and so many lawmakers -- against them?

"This country is where it is today because of our heritage -- and the library has had a whole range of cultural and educational effects," Sullivan said. But if funding continues to decrease, "we really have to think about what the lasting ramifications will be."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Sez I: Totally and desperately on board with saving libraries -and BOOKS, too, but there's something huuuuuuuuuge that needs to be budget-cut: Totally wasteful, massively costly, unneeded 'makeovers' - like H&G Network's renovs, these are also usually less functional / user-friendly / safe, and are really UGLY. But the important thing for the politician-Cof C bunch (local, and, in Californicatia, by-the-rules-of-the-State-giving-back-revenues-they-commandeered-from-the-locals) is that they (1) get to give pain to the people (taxpayers) who actually use and work in and most need the libraries, and (b) make a big killin' in gimme-aggrandizement land by giving the job -and a place with them on the big bronze glory-be-to-we entry plaque - to their favorite crony contractors... So often foreigners employing foreigners, legal or (our business-friendly community will of course give you and all your relatives amnesty, and will never be so un-multicultural as to question if you might be a multigenrational debt-slave back in the Old Country, with your employer taking all you have and making you crib with other slaves in your 'job-creator's garage/basement/warehouse/whorehouse, etc.) otherwise. Amnestia! Your opportunity (and debt to us!) Work hard for us, become a citizen: If you promise to vote for us, you won't have to go back 'home' and eat rats and bamboo. Then your citizen kids can be just like ours, with no jobs available outside of crime and cannon fodder.

That's the way it is, now (and has been for decades): But those revenues could have been and could be used for genuine public and environmental services and improvements. Wotta concept!

Republican Debates:Hottest Reality?

2011-11-17T10:38:00.000-08:00

Colleen O'Connor at the La Jolla Patch wrote:

Opinion: Why Republican Debates are the Hottest Reality TV Shows Around

The recession, unemployment and the mere fact that the Republican presidential candidates are standup thinkers—are reasons you need to watch the debates.

Who knew?

The Republican Presidential Primary debates are so popular that news outlets are scrambling to add even more, according to The New York Times.

Thus far, there have been eleven televised debates—with ten more scheduled. This doesn’t count the Herman Cain and Newt Gingrich sit-downs, or the serialized radio and TV interviews with each candidate. The settings have ranged from sedate round table Q&As to live-audience booing and applause.

Every corporate or educational sponsor knows that the fastest way to improve your brand is to hitch it to a rising star—be it pop, literary, or political—and a big, television audience.

Thus, college campuses, presidential libraries, network studios, newspapers, and even social networking sites are keen to sponsor the GOP debates. For whatever reason, the GOP debates have proven popular.

Thus far, they have produced surprisingly large audiences, some fun news cycles, and, dare I say it, democracy as reality TV.

The latest CNBC “all economics forum” produced the best results yet. Some actual information, some humor, some human and serious push-back moments, and a huge audience share for the cable news network—3.3 million viewers.

CNBC trumped the other cable news channels. Omitting the networks’ Olympic coverage and the O.J. Simpson civil trial, the debate garnered the networks’ highest ratings since 1997, according to the NYT's Media Decoder blog.

The first GOP debate, sponsored by Fox News, understandably, has drawn the largest audience thus far—6.1 million.

But it is the strength of the repeat viewership of these nearly two dozen debates that has many asking “WHY?”

Several answers appear obvious.

No matter one’s political persuasion, these debates make for great television. Someone goes off script. The audience chimes in with boos or applause. The moderators take the hit—because the only group less popular than politicians is the press. And what results is, yes, democracy as reality TV.

Furthermore, the Republican candidates have gone from small-minded attacks against each other (CNN) and armchair brotherhood talks (Gingrich and Cain) to serious, standup thinking. They have “upped their game” from hairstyles, tie colors and put-downs to some intelligent, consequential thinking.

More seriously, the debates occur at a time when the country is lurching for leadership. Increasing unemployment, never-ending wars, fear, and uncertainty make for highly motivated “study-up” time. Viewers and voters want to choose wisely.

In addition, the split in the Republican Party between moderate vs. Tea Party, and cultural vs. economic purity, is compelling—and imbued with great and genuine passion. The differences between the Republicans and the Democrats is even broader and, arguably, even more passionate.

The history of these American divides is long, contentious and serious. The original rift and failure—the Articles of Confederation—almost caused us to become 13 nations instead of one. That issue, as today, remains states’ rights vs. a centralized government.

Who has or should have the ultimate authority? The founding fathers simply finessed the problem when they drafted the U.S. Constitution. Resultant generations did the same—compromise—even as the country expanded from east to west coast, from Canada to Mexico. Compromise always won over disunion—until the 1860s.

It took a civil war and over 600,000 Americans dead to resolve the question in favor of the central government, but the fight—and the debate—remains. That is why the GOP debates are so fascinating. All the changes that the victorious Union forced on the Confederacy are under attack—albeit updated. The Federal Reserve, the states’ rights to decide about health care, education, vaccines, illegal immigration, border security, the environment, aid to the poor, etc.

And the conflicts have taken on more urgency, as the states feel their economies buckle under increased federal mandates—often unaccompanied by any additional funds.

Thus far, no one in American can complain that they are unrepresented. The Democrats have President Obama and the Republicans have a whole smorgasbord of candidates from whom to choose.

Everyone should watch and cheer the GOP primary debates as they represent the “loyal opposition” side of democracy: i.e., the right to dissent, disagree and demand change.

And, everyone should watch and cheer the GOP vs. Democrats general election debates.

Just saying. Time to “study up.”

~~~~~~~~

And I replied (redundant* to this blog, but... )

'No one's unrepresented'??? Obama's a Trojan Horse. AIG bankrolled him. He does essentially everything the neocons want and gets away with it because the Far Unbalanced Network zombots are pushbuttoned to mewl what a lefty radical he is. I don't understand this pandemic of blind idiocy. Before drugs and mass psychological programming had taken over society, the Soviets countered our scorn of totalitarian one-party government by saying we has a one-and-a-half party system. Now it's so much less! All a big FAKE (more obviously than those masking-tape-and-plastic-wrap Kumtag Desert 'mysterious structures') - and we're buying it when we have no money left and 'employers' who only offer no-wage jobs. Daft as his pronouncements sometimes get, Gore Vidal is right in saying we have only one party, the BANK Party.

Who represents pacifists? No one. Who represents those who want an economy based on the production and fair exchange of actual useful goods instead of stock market gambling and money manipulation? No one. What politicians truly in power are TRULY against: Petrochemical and nuke dependence? NAFTA/our goods being made /jobs taken by foreigners? The juggernaut fascism of eminent domain, 'private mandates', the military-industrial complex and other forms of pouring both our rights and tax money into the hands of private contractors? Marketing obscenity, waste, greed and brutality? Lobbies /the buying of pols and 'legal outcomes'? Etc. Who's really for what 'right to life', 'right to privacy' and protection of the helpless/voiceless, 'the family' and the environment ought all to really imply? NO ONE. They're played as hot buttons and hot potatoes -and as stupidly as possible- to bemuse voters by politicians and pundits who NEVER WANT THESE PROBLEMS SOLVED, only money thrown at them and rights surrendered to them.

* Then, I watched the Republican debates until it was obvious they were redundant - and I have only so much taste for comedies of horror.

Afghanistan's Untapped Mineral Riches

2011-11-09T21:44:00.000-08:00

My only comment is oblique, this time: I remember an insider-type saying the real reason for WWI (and a lot of events since) was jockeying for dominance of the unparalleled mineral riches of the Dead Sea. Maybe kinda Larouche or 'a-albionics' conspiracy-theory-generated. Anyway, the alleged reason for 'The Great Game' jockeying over Afghanistan has always been that that land - which looks so all-mineral that one would think the natives must eat dust and rocks and snow because what else is there!? - is the key/pass from Central Asia to the sea. But maybe those (true-life, usually, really, quite scientific) types who provided the models for Rudyard Kipling, Jules Verne, Talbot Mundy, John Buchan, etc. to spin wild & woolly spy adventures really discerned the rocks of desire long ago...

Click here: Riches in the Midst of War - Marketing, News, and Educational Communications http://cahnrsnews.wsu.edu/2010/08/03/riches-in-the-midst-of-war/

By Dr. E. Kirsten Peters < Real name of Quaker ~ Elizabeth Elliot Series author Irene Allen. That's a mystery series built on deep Christian discipleship and conscience shown by the elderly reluctant-non-pro-detective heroine. The last book was in 1998; unfortunately none since. This last, Quaker Indictment, used fiction to dramatize the hideous your-tax-dollars-at-work industry of mass murder and multi-millenial plutonium toxicity from Washington State's Hanford plant. The name Irene Allen is on the 'Net mostly as a litigant name '...vs. the United States', in regard to Nevada nuclear tests. Hmm. She wrote:

*****************
Some geologists are heroes.

That was the thought that came to my mind when I read of what Afghan geologists had done during the long and difficult time the Taliban had run their country.

Even without real hope they might ever do geology again, but with fears about what might happen at any time to the reports of previous geological mapping work, the Afghan geologists took the records home to preserve them. When the dust of the American invasion had settled and the Afghan government had been restored, the local geologists brought back the reports.

The records were the starting point for the effort in recent years to explore Afghanistan for mineral resources using fully modern methods. The results have astonished geologists because the riches of the war-torn country are so great.

As the New York Times reported this summer, many geologists now working in Afghanistan feel they are “in the midst of one of the great discoveries of their careers.”

From estimates of what’s under the ground, both at depth and near the surface, Afghanistan may contain nearly $1 trillion worth of minerals. Along the Pashtun area in the south there is gold; in western Afghanistan there is apparently abundant lithium; and elsewhere there are major deposits of copper, iron, cobalt and rare metals like niobium.

As a student, I studied mineral resources intensively. The richest of those here in the U.S. were mined out in the 1800s and early 1900s. There is a cycle in such matters, and the richest deposits are – at least generally – the first discovered and mined. But Afghanistan stands today where the U.S. did long ago, so it’s no surprise that Afghan mineral wealth is likely quite high.

But a $1 trillion bonanza is greater than this geologist would have guessed.

In short, it looks like there is enough mineral wealth in Afghanistan it could alter both the war and the way of life in the impoverished nation where the gross domestic product is only about $12 billion. If investment materializes to exploit the mineral wealth, jobs in mining could employ many men currently involved in the war, U.S. officials speculate.

“There is stunning potential here,” Gen. David H. Petraeus said to the New York Times. “There are a lot of ifs, of course, but I think the potential is hugely significant.”

The ore was discovered because the U.S. Geological Survey and some others went to work in 2006 using modern methods of exploration throughout the country. In the old days, geologists used to travel by Jeep (or even on foot and horseback) to outcrops. The accepted technique was to knock off pieces of rock with a hammer and inspect what you had in your hand. The approach still works, but it’s obviously labor intensive and slow.

If you want to rapidly explore a whole country these days, the way to do it is by air. So the Americans flew over Afghanistan with sophisticated gravity measurement devices. The results were highly encouraging. In 2007, the geologists again flew over the country, this time with devices that offer three-dimensional information about mineral concentrations.

The results were “astonishing” to the geologists who saw the data. The story even recently merited a piece in the prestigious journal Science, so impressive is the tale of mineral exploration and discovery.

There seems little doubt that Afghanistan is sitting on wealth that could dwarf the opium trade and what money reaches the war torn country from outside aid. But it remains to be seen how the wealth from the Earth is exploited and used.

Afghanistan is not a developed country with infrastructure or environmental controls. Mining can ruin countryside and destroy water resources if it’s unregulated. And, to complicate matters, the government in the country has had trouble with corruption. Indeed, last year the minister of mines stood accused of accepting a $30 million bribe in connection with giving rights to China to develop a copper mine. (The good news is that the official is no longer in office.)

But still, the challenges of wealth rather than chronic poverty could be a fine change of pace of a nation in need of some good news.

Salute, Curmugeon!

2011-11-07T13:01:00.000-08:00

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-20111105-andy-rooney-obituary-story,0,5496226.story

By Dennis McLellan Los Angeles Times Staff Writer 9:50 a.m. CDT, November 5, 2011
Copyright © 2011, Los Angeles Times

Too long to copy, but a good'n.

Ayn Rand's Satanic Thelemicism Suffusing the Tea Party?

2011-11-07T12:58:00.000-08:00

Click here: Ayn Rand’s Atheists are Crashing the Tea Party

FrumForum November 4th, 2011 at 2:45 pm by Gary Weiss ( info on his forthcoming book Ayn Rand Nation: The Hidden Struggle for America's Soul ): http://www.amazon.com/Ayn-Rand-Nation-Struggle-Americas/dp/0312590733?_encoding=UTF8&tag=borntostealby-20&linkCode=ur2&camp=1789&creative=9325)

Commenter hisgirlfriday // wrote, on Nov 4, 2011 at 5:00 pm, first quoting commenter zephae:

~~~~~'...it is downright wrong (and offensive) to claim that you can’t have morality, strong families, and a sense of social responsibility without a belief in the Judeo-Christian religion. In fact, I don’t see what good the abdication of responsibility at the center of Christianity does for society at large. In fact, atheism says absolutely nothing on any of the issues you raised, which isn’t surprising for a self-contained intellectual position.'~~~~~

I agree with you that you do not have to subscribe to the Judeo-Christian religion (Or Islam because that is an Abrahamic faith as well) to have morality, strong families or a sense of social responsibility.

Outside of the religious doctrine though, there is such a thing as Judeo-Christian values that emphasize honoring your parents, parents providing for their children, and neighbors treating each other as they would want to be treated. It is these values (and I am not even claiming Judeo-Christians have a monopoly on these values but merely refer to them as Judeo-Christian because that’s how they manifested in Western civilization) that provide the prosperity, peace and stability that make democratic republican civilization possible.

However, I don’t think Ayn Rand has been accurately characterized by her opponents by simply lumping her in with atheists who may or may not be hostile to Judeo-Christian values. Rand would be more correctly characterized instead as an antiChristian or a Satanist. Rather than “do unto others as you’d have them do unto you,” Rand espouses the philosophy of “do what thou wilt.” Rather than preach self-sacrifice for the greater community in connection with the past sacrifices of the People of Israel or Jesus on the cross, Rand preaches that sacrifice itself is immoral.

If Rand worships anything beside herself, it is Moloch, the golden calf that provides immediate gratification to its selfish followers willing to sacrifice their (or their nation’s) children’s future rather than sacrifice anything themselves.

Those who care deeply about Judeo-Christian values are put in something of an impossible place by our current political alignment in this country. Pro-life Republicans obviously see the Democrats as the Moloch worshippers with the abortion issue as just the latest form of child sacrifice to rear its ugly head in human history. Social justice-seeking Democrats meanwhile see the Republican Party as the worse Moloch worshippers for being more concerned about selfishly gathering up tax cuts and lavish benefits for themselves now with no concern for the sacrifice their children are making to pay for it in terms of a massive amount of national debt, military service in endless wars and the lack of adequate education, economic opportunity, healthcare, and environmental stewardship.

Giant Asteroid Coming Close This Coming Tuesday

2011-11-05T15:17:00.000-07:00

Satanist-infested rocketry nuts at Devil's Gate - a.k.a the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, tell us there's no chance it'll harm us this time at least, so why not trust them/NASA as we've trusted them with Not Putting Their Research to Bad Use Like Weapons, safe disposal of rocket fuel and such, and using our tax dollars for maximum humanitarian needs with maximum economic efficiency. Don't we all want to be trusting souls? Especially with people who use sliderules and do math in their heads and can speak with such self-assurance as to declare absolutes about vast moving astronomical objects in future events?

Ever hear of Chaos Theory? If you don't believe it now... If you live longer, you will.

I'm not worried. Worry has no good use except in the very short term to prompt some practical strategies regarding the thing in question. If a big-ass asteroid hits our planet (or even moon), or throws things awry on them onnaconna gravitatonal pull or cosmic rays or sompin... Well, if we survive, we'll probably soon wish we hadn't. NOTHIN WE CAN DO ABOUT IT (forget those sci-fis wherein we're saved by rocketry; that's a cometload of BS hitting the oscellator of reality.) As the guy who managed to get his innocent 'best friend' sent to jail for his own crimes explained, 'What can I say, Judge Judy: SHIT HAPPENS!'

Even the Teeps Can't Qwell Pol's Pet Pork Projects

2011-11-03T11:16:00.000-07:00

Go to ( archives of the sadly moribund of late)
http://naturalareafriends.net/ & especially http://naturalareafriends.net/our_blog
and get the MASSIVELY SUCKING YOUR TAX DOLLARS to pay for a destructive and wildly hypocritical white-elephant unneeded project - WHILE THE WHITTIER NARROWS DAM ITSELF IS FALLING APART AND NOTHING IS BEING DONE ABOUT THAT - lowdown on what the 'Discovery Center' is all about - including the board's decision to head the project with a professional contractor whose proven record as dirty crony appointed politician includes another really expensive failure of another 'discovery center'. Don't think the talk of private funding now includes returning the vast fortune you paid for or will better protect your public spaces.

And have you sadly noted how many things around your community are being 'renovated and improved' by old revenue-alloted decisions or new 'Stimulus' money that didn't need fixing, while the things that need fixing are still going unfixed? Is the school or city hall or athletic field getting a cosmetic makeover while the cracks in the bridges are widening and the walkways are hedged with filthy debris and broken glass? Are the libraries and police services getting new gadget$ while laying off workers and cutting pensions and operating hours?

Cherchez les CRONIES!

*****************
San Gabriel River Discovery Center sheds lawsuit, begins fundraising for Whittier Narrows center

By Steve Scauzillo, Staff Writer Posted: 10/28/2011 04:16:37 PM PDT
SOUTH EL MONTE - The San Gabriel River Discovery Center board last week settled a lawsuit brought by an opposition group, paving the way for a major fundraising campaign and possible construction of the nature center by late 2012.

By settling with the Friends of the Whittier Narrows Natural Area, the joint-powers board overseeing the proposed $22 million, 14,000-square-foot nature and water museum at Whittier Narrows Recreation Area was able to finalize the project's environmental impact report, according to the San Gabriel River Discovery Center Authority.

The opposition group agreed to drop an appeal of its lawsuit, which claimed the environmental report was insufficient. That petition was initially dismissed by a Superior Court judge in March. The Discovery Center Authority in turn agreed to waive recovery of about $10,142 in court costs, authority officials said.

The agreement did not change the environmental report or the plans for the project, said sources close to the project.

"One reason we decided not to pursue the suit was why spend more of our dollars when we don't think (the project) will go anywhere?" said Jim Odling, leader of the Friends group, which sent out a press release saying the project is "on its deathbed."

"There is public opposition to it, and they can't raise the money," Odling said Tuesday.

However, the authority board, made up of water and park officials, said the project is moving into a
new fundraising phase and is far from over.

The authority so far has $9.8 million for the project, but it still needs another $12 million before the education center can be built, said Jane Beesley, the interim executive officer of the San Gabriel River Discovery Center Authority..

"In order to move forward to the next step, it needs an infusion of cash," Beesley said.

The authority board last week transferred about $98,000 from its budget to a newly created San Gabriel River Discovery Center Foundation, a private, nonprofit organization as defined by the federal tax code, Beesley said.

The foundation then hired NPO Solutions, a Studio City-based consultant, to form a fundraising board and ramp up a massive campaign. The foundation is paying NPO $80,000, Beesley said. NPO Solutions lists several Pasadena-area clients on its website, including the Pasadena Symphony, Sequoyah School and Pacific Clinics.

The foundation will be soliciting cash from corporations, private foundations and individuals interested in education, water and environmental issues.

"They (the Friends group) may think they've killed the project. But the project is not dead. It will be moving forward," Beesley said Tuesday.

The project absorbed a huge blow this spring when the State Parks Department denied the authority's application for a $7 million grant.

Last year, the Gabrielino Band of Mission Indians came out in opposition to the project.

Opponents want to preserve the 2,000-square-foot nature center on the site, at 1000 N. Durfee Ave. They say the Discovery Center is too large, would destroy local habitat, and would become a monument to water districts and other governmental bureaucracies.

Odling's group took a new tack, asking the authority last week if it will agree to renovate the nature center.

Storm: Death, Destruction, Misery, Millions Without Power - AGAIN

2011-11-03T10:06:00.000-07:00

Click here: Northeast Snowstorm Leaves Millions Without Power

Because, for more than a century of obvious need ignored, of valuing war and irresponsible slapdash profiteering over lives, safety, beauty, rights of ownership and sheer common sense, we still have an exposed power grid, now the obivious and supremely ideal target of seriously inimical human forces as well as that of an increasingly roiling, hostile meteorology.

Two Great 'Occupy Wall Street' Signs

2011-10-29T12:01:00.000-07:00

Ironically found in a pro-corporate-rights neoconjob article at Frum Forum:

I CAN'T AFFORD MY OWN POLITICIAN SO I MADE THIS SIGN

I'LL BELIEVE A CORPORATION IS A PERSON WHEN GEORGIA EXECUTES ONE

And, seen scrawled on rough bark of someone's tree in my neck o' the asphalt:
END WAR
END WASTE
RICH PAY
FORTRESS USA

Margin Call-ing at the Crater's Rim

2011-10-22T17:25:00.000-07:00

Superb review with political-angle relevance as usual from Telly Davidson:

http://www.frumforum.com/in-the-financial-meltdown-who-made-the-margin-call#comments

Here's a great quote from commentor Graychin:
'The highest-paid people in America don’t create value. They only trade the value that others create – like Monopoly deeds.'

US Wants Drinking Water from Mexico - Like, Really!

2011-10-22T16:37:00.000-07:00

More blind madness based on 'forgetting' that FREE ENERGY - tidal, wind, sun, methane and other biofuels, and the wasted, unrecycled heat and motion of urban/highway busy-ness is in immeasurably vast abundance and availability all over the places mentioned. The head of the Gulf of California / Sea of Cortez, where the depleted Colorado River trinkles to the ocean, is one of the greatest natural places in the world for tidal power, far better than Biscay and Fundy where the tides have electric-powered ever-growing cities effectively for around a century. And forgetting that salt and other natural sea water matter and particulates are valuable, salable commodities.

When will we stop FUKUSHIMAing ourselves - why do the Powers That Be / Princes of the World who rule in a manner that says we can't wipe ourselves out fast enough, but we must try, only delaying if the methods thereto can maximize power and lucre to to those insatiable bloodsuckers - and get real with using
FREE CLEAN ENERGY???????

We know about the Club of Rome -scratch their 'humanitarian' veneer and find that 'humane' for them means anything that reduces the Excess Population, and the pseudo-ecologists (pseudo-animal rightsists, etc.) who want all humans and any life 'compromised' / modified by humans: Domestic animals, horticultural species, any wild flora & fauna who have adjusted to or thrived or been endangered - reduced to (ahem, some humans' notion of a not-good-enough gene pool - by human activity. These are the Let It Burn-ers, the Fire and Death worshippers, the sick, sick souls who cannot imagine a peace that is not the barren rock and lifeless water of post-Ragnarok-without hope. We know about them; we know they are often in very high places; positions of rule. The other side of the coin of these most bleak Robinson Jeffers-style romantics are the Black Metal raving lunatics rioting to cast themselves into the depths of 'the Satanic Paradise'. These drive each other on, misery after misery, exulting in the triumphs of cynicism proved by every act of theirs that makes things worse. The greater mystery is of those who seem to want - to think they can get - a good outcome by supporting cruel wasteful polluters.

It can be hard, sometimes, not to believe in the sci-fi cliche of inimical alien life-forms out to utterly change our poor planet and its natives into things annihilated or drastically re-made as hopeless slaves to themselves. So hard to think that our own can be that bad.

Click here: US Looks to Mexico for More Water

Fox News Latino

Western states have long relied on the drought-prone Colorado River for water to fill drinking glasses, flush toilets and sprinkle lawns. But now it's looking south of the border to fill up on water.

Mexico may start sending water north as four major U.S. water districts help plan one of two huge desalination plant proposals in Playas de Rosarito, about 15 miles south of San Diego. Combined, they would produce 150 million gallons a day, enough to supply more than 300,000 homes on both sides of the border.

The plants are one strategy by both countries to wean themselves off of the Colorado River, which flows 1,450 miles from the Rocky Mountains to the Sea of Cortez. Decades of friction over the Colorado, in fact, are said to be a hurdle to current desalination negotiations.

The proposed plants have also sparked concerns that American water interests looking to Mexico are simply trying to dodge U.S. environmental reviews and legal challenges.

Desalination plants can blight coastal landscapes, sucking in and killing fish eggs and larvae. They require massive amounts of electricity and dump millions of gallons of brine back into the ocean that can, if not properly disposed, also be harmful to fish.

But desalination has helped quench demand in Australia, Saudi Arabia and other countries lacking fresh water.

Dozens of proposals are on the drawing board in the United States to address water scarcity but the only big project to recently win regulators' blessings would produce 50 million gallons a day in Carlsbad, near San Diego. A smaller plant was approved last year in Monterey, some 110 miles south of San Francisco.

Mexico is a relative newcomer to desalination. Its largest plant supplies 5 million gallons a day in the Baja California resort town of Cabo San Lucas, with a smattering of tiny ones on the Baja peninsula. Skeptics already question the two proposed plants in Playas de Rosarito — known as Rosarito Beach to American expatriates and visiting college spring-breakers.

"It raises all kinds of red flags," said Joe Geever, California policy coordinator for the Surfrider Foundation, an environmentalist group that has fought the Carlsbad plant for years in court, saying it will kill marine life and require too much electricity.

Water agencies that supply much of Southern California, Phoenix, Las Vegas and Tijuana, Mexico, are pursuing the plant that would produce 50 million gallons a day in Rosarito near an existing electricity plant. They commissioned a study last year that found no fatal flaws and ordered another one that will include a cost estimate, with an eye toward starting operations in three to five years.

Potential disagreements between the two countries include how the new water stores will be used.

The U.S. agencies want to consider helping pay for the plant and letting Mexico keep the water for booming areas of Tijuana and Rosarito. In exchange, Mexico would surrender some of its allotment from the Colorado River, sparing the cost of laying pipes from the plant to California.

Mexico would never give up water from the Colorado, which feeds seven western U.S. states and northwest Mexico, said Jose Gutierrez, assistant director for binational affairs at Mexico's National Water Commission. Mexico's rights are enshrined in a 1944 treaty.

"The treaty carries great significance in our country. We have to protect it fiercely," Gutierrez said.

Rick Van Schoik, director of Arizona State University's North American Center for Transborder Studies, said laying a pipeline across the border would be too costly.

"It's expensive enough to desalinate. I just don't see how it calculates out," he said.

The other big plant proposal joins Consolidated Water Co., a Cayman Islands company, with Mexican investors. Their proposal would send much of its 100 million gallons a day from Rosarito to the United States via a new pipeline, with operations beginning in 2014.

Mexico isn't likely to approve both plants, said Gutierrez, whose government is sponsoring the 50-million-gallon-a-day plant with the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, the San Diego County Water Authority, the Central Arizona Water Conservation District and the Southern Nevada Water Authority.

A key question is whether Mexico will allow water first used at the neighboring electric plant to be desalinated — a giant potential savings. California recently adopted rules that prohibit the state's electric plants from sucking in vast amounts of seawater to cool their machinery.

The Carlsbad plant illustrates how difficult it can be to build a plant in California. Poseidon Resources Corp., based in Stamford, Conn., has survived about a decade of legal challenges and regulatory review.

The company, which plans to begin major construction when it secures financing, was required to restore 66 acres of wetlands and take other measures to offset carbon emission from the electricity it consumes.

The San Diego County Water Authority is also considering a plant at Southern California's Camp Pendleton that would produce up to 150 million gallons a day. Poseidon wants to build one in Huntington Beach, near Los Angeles, that would churn out 50 million gallons a day. Those ideas face significant challenges.

"The planets will never be in alignment like they were in Carlsbad," said Tom Pankrantz, editor of Water Desalination Report. "They had the right project, at the right place, at the right time."

The San Diego agency wants to get 10 percent of the region's water from desalination by 2020 as a way to lessen its dependence on the Colorado River, which is connected by aqueduct about 200 miles away. Tijuana also wants to rely less on the river, a priority that gained urgency after a 2010 earthquake knocked out its aqueduct for about three weeks.

The U.S. and Mexico can save money by joining forces, achieving economies of scale, said Halla Razak, the San Diego agency's Colorado River program manager. At least half of the plant's water would stay in Mexico, she said.

"Mexico is the entity that is driving the project, even more than the United States," she said.

U.S. and Mexican officials say they expect the new plants will adhere to the same standards as California, including water quality, but that Mexico's regulators may act faster and shield sponsors from legal challenges.

"The Mexicans will ask all the same questions that we ask here, but it's not endless lawsuits," said Mark Watton, general manager of Otay Water District, which would buy about 20 million gallons a day from Consolidated's Mexico plant for its San Diego-area customers. "You get an answer quicker."

Based on reporting by The Associated Press.

Sorry About the Link Misdirections

2011-10-22T15:07:00.000-07:00

For long while, I couldn't get any links to load via the my blog toolbar um, LINK link, except the URL to my own blog. I thought maybe the magic sprites of the unfathomable mysteries of electronic communication would re-translate the links to their proper venues. As usual in the 'Net world, Blogger offers almost no useful help or instruction. Anyhow, it now seems to work right if one has the HTTP type URL link. Not going to try to go back & correct, but hope things will make more sense in the future. (Yeah, right, we know about 'those hopey changey things'! )

Right Back to the Worst of the Right 'Round a Century Ago

2011-10-22T14:53:00.000-07:00

Click here: Robert Reich: The Rise of the Regressive Right and the Reawakening of America

A fundamental war has been waged in this nation since its founding, between progressive forces pushing us forward and regressive forces pulling us backward.

We are going to battle once again.

Progressives believe in openness, equal opportunity, and tolerance. Progressives assume we're all in it together: We all benefit from public investments in schools and health care and infrastructure. And we all do better with strong safety nets, reasonable constraints on Wall Street and big business, and a truly progressive tax system. Progressives worry when the rich and privileged become powerful enough to undermine democracy.

Regressives take the opposite positions.

Eric Cantor, Paul Ryan, Rick Perry, Michele Bachmann and the other tribunes of today's Republican right aren't really conservatives. Their goal isn't to conserve what we have. It's to take us backwards.

They'd like to return to the 1920s -- before Social Security, unemployment insurance, labor laws, the minimum wage, Medicare and Medicaid, worker safety laws, the Environmental Protection Act, the Glass-Steagall Act, the Securities and Exchange Act, and the Voting Rights Act.

In the 1920s Wall Street was unfettered, the rich grew far richer and everyone else went deep into debt, and the nation closed its doors to immigrants.

Rather than conserve the economy, these regressives want to resurrect the classical economics of the 1920s -- the view that economic downturns are best addressed by doing nothing until the "rot" is purged out of the system (as Andrew Mellon, Herbert Hoover's Treasury Secretary, so decorously put it).

In truth, if they had their way we'd be back in the late nineteenth century -- before the federal income tax, antitrust laws, the Pure Food and Drug Act, and the Federal Reserve. A time when robber barons -- railroad, financial, and oil titans -- ran the country. A time of wrenching squalor for the many and mind-numbing wealth for the few.

Listen carefully to today's Republican right and you hear the same Social Darwinism Americans were fed more than a century ago to justify the brazen inequality of the Gilded Age: Survival of the fittest. Don't help the poor or unemployed or anyone who's fallen on bad times, they say, because this only encourages laziness. America will be strong only if we reward the rich and punish the needy.

The regressive right has slowly consolidated power over the last three decades as income and wealth have concentrated at the top. In the late 1970s the richest 1 percent of Americans received 9 percent of total income and held 18 percent of the nation's wealth; by 2007, they had more than 23 percent of total income and 35 percent of America's wealth. CEOs of the 1970s were paid 40 times the average worker's wage; now CEOs receive 300 times the typical workers' wage.

This concentration of income and wealth has generated the political heft to deregulate Wall Street and halve top tax rates. It has bankrolled the so-called Tea Party movement, and captured the House of Representatives and many state governments. Through a sequence of presidential appointments it has also overtaken the Supreme Court.

Scalia, Alito, Thomas, and Roberts (and, all too often, Kennedy) claim they're conservative jurists. But they're judicial activists bent on overturning 75 years of jurisprudence by resurrecting states' rights, treating the 2nd Amendment as if America still relied on local militias, narrowing the Commerce Clause, and calling money speech and corporations people.

Yet the great arc of American history reveals an unmistakable pattern. Whenever privilege and power conspire to pull us backward, the nation eventually rallies and moves forward. Sometimes it takes an economic shock like the bursting of a giant speculative bubble; sometimes we just reach a tipping point where the frustrations of average Americans turn into action.

Look at the Progressive reforms between 1900 and 1916; the New Deal of the 1930s; the Civil Rights struggle of the 1950s and 1960s; the widening opportunities for women, minorities, people with disabilities, and gays; and the environmental reforms of the 1970s.

In each of these eras, regressive forces reignited the progressive ideals on which America is built. The result was fundamental reform.

Perhaps this is what's beginning to happen again across America.

MISSION CREEP: Is It Inevitable?

2011-10-11T11:46:00.000-07:00

Should there be a Constitutional amendment limiting federal MISSION CREEP in... Military intervention abroad, at home (installations, investigations, flyovers, takeovers of anything including disaster relief, and that planet-sized Godzilla in the room, the Military-Industrial Complex); ports 'n' borders*. in declared and undeclared acts of war...In paramilitary wars like the War On Drugs**, in metaphorical wars like the War On Poverty and the War On Cancer, and on all sorts of other things that were originally mandated within certain parameters and even time limits but even-if-you-think-they're-mosty-for-the-good,-can-we-use-the-term-metastacized??

Click here: Mission creep - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

*Ports 'n' borders is where I think they should be...

**Click here: Mexico: Marines Seize Marijuana, Kill Drug Cartel Members
Now, these are Mexican Marines, in a country wherein the national military forces have acually spent most of their history in policing their own fellow-citizens with pretty much the willful freedom of an 'occupying' alien conqueror army (thus eliciting all those attempts at revolution), but, considering what they'e up against - narcotraficante warlords, really, with burgeoning cells and agents all over our own USA - it has already become un grito de mas norteamericanos, from racist-paranoid militia types to antiwar lefties and libertarians, that we ought to bring our troops home and go General Pershing on our perimeters to sew up the 'haemorrhaging borders' from continuing to cause bloodshed all over the land.

STRESS> The Reaper

2011-10-08T10:48:00.000-07:00

Click here: Top Cause Of Workplace Sickness Dubbed 'Black Death Of 21st Century' - Careers Articles

By Claire Gordon

It's been dubbed the "21st century equivalent of the Black Death." In the U.K., it's the most common reason employees take long-term sick leave. It costs American companies $300 billion a year. In Japan, it's a fatal epidemic.

It's stress.Stress has beaten out stroke, heart attack, cancer and back problems as the main reason British workers take four or more weeks away from the job, according to a new report by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development. The Japan Ministry of Labor began publishing official statistics on "Karoshi" (death from overwork) in 1987, but the first case was documented in 1969, when a worker dropped dead of a stroke. He was 29.

The symptoms of stress are similar to those of someone in withdrawal from an addictive drug: finding it difficult to focus; losing your sense of humor; irritability; and shortened temper. Stress can also lead to under- and overeating, as well as smoking and drinking to excess. And in its most extreme forms it can result in stomach and bowel problems, heart disease and stroke.

"Cortisol, the hormone that the body releases under stress, is the strongest immunosuppressant known," write evolutionary biology researchers Christopher Ryan and Cacilda Jethá. When Sheldon Cohen studied the sleep habits of 153 healthy men and women and then exposed them to the virus that causes the common cold, he found that individuals who slept less than seven hours per night were three times as likely to get sick.

Human beings haven't evolved to cope with the levels of work in modern society, they claim. For a healthy and long life, people should model themselves on our hunter-gatherer ancestors.

"If you hunt or gather just enough low-fat food to forestall serious hunger pangs," they write, "and spend the rest of your time in low-stress activities, such as telling stories by the fire, taking extended hammock-embraced naps, and playing with children, you'd be engaged in the optimal lifestyle for human longevity."

Unfortunately, that kind of lifestyle isn't particularly practical today, and increasingly less so. In what Mother Jones magazine dubs the "The Great Speedup" middle-income and professional Americans have been working more and more hours since the late 1970s. In that same time period, a full-time American male worker has seen his real wages decline.

The definition of speedup is "an employer's demand for accelerated output without increased pay." It used to be a household word, but today it's so normal it's hardly acknowledged.

The recession has only piled on the stress. And not just for millions of laid-off workers, but for the ones lucky enough to keep their jobs too. While economic production recovered to near-recession levels months ago, Mother Jones notes, the employment rate has not. Not hardly, and particularly not in the U.S. That lost productivity has been made up by those still clinging to their posts.

In the U.K. report, stress was a more common affliction at companies that had announced redundancies.

America is also notoriously frugal in its vacation time. We're one of only five countries in the world without legally mandated paid vacation time, and over a quarter of American workers don't receive any. We're one of only six countries without paid maternity leave (the others are Papua New Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Samoa, and Swaziland). We're one of only handful of countries in the world that doesn't guarantee any paid sick days. When 46 percent of Americans have to skip work from sickness, they lose the day's wages, and risk being fired.

Americans work more than most people in the world, 122 hours more a year than the British, and nearly 10 weeks more than Germans. And the U.S. economy has swelled, thanks to this labor, doubling in size over the last 30 years.

"We're not sharing in these productivity gains," says John de Graaf, the national coordinator for Take Back Your Time, an advocacy group pushing for paid vacation time and other worker protections, and the author of the forthcoming book "What's the Economy for Anyway?."

And the extra work has taken a toll on America's health. A 2007 study by Emory University's school of public health found that Americans 50 years or older were more likely to suffer from cancer, diabetes and heart disease than Europeans at the same age. "We have more chronic diseases in old age," says de Graaf. "And those are very expensive diseases."

To really battle stress, de Graaf believes we need to reduce our country's vast disparities in wealth. "Taming inequality is the most important thing. The top one percent is garnering nearly a quarter of all the income in this country. It's outrageous, really."

"There's no silver bullet here," he admits, but he believes increasing the minimum wage would be one powerful way to reduce the psychological burden on many Americans. Giving workers greater control over their hours would also go far. A law passed in Netherlands in 2000 allows employees to request a reduction in their hours, from five days to four, for example. Their wages are cut proportionately and their benefits pro-rated, but the employer must grant the request, unless it's at an intolerable financial cost to the company.

Such a bill would likely get strangled on arrival in America's political system. Not only does the lack of universal health care make such a law immensely more complicated, but America's political attitudes are in general more hostile to mandates on business.

De Graaf helped Rep. Alan Grayson draft his "Paid Vacation Act" back in 2009, which would, if successful, have required companies with more than 100 employees to offer one week of paid vacation time.

"We were attacked for that as if we were advocating the end of human civilization," says De Graaf. The bill found only five Democratic co-sponsors.

A few companies these days seem to understand the importance of workers' health and well-being to productivity and profits. Zappos, Patagonia, and a handful of other firms offer flexible policies to balance work and life, and have become sought-after destinations for young talent.

But this doesn't necessarily represent a tidal change.

"This is going to take rules," says de Graaf. "It's going to take legislation. We need regulations. A football game doesn't work if one team can go in wearing brass knuckles."

It used to be the oft-repeated dream of economists and philosophers that productivity could reach a point where human beings would only need to a work a few hours a day, and still provide for all their needs.

More than 200 years ago Benjamin Franklin wrote: "If every Man and Woman would work for four Hours each Day on something useful, that Labour would produce sufficient to procure all the Necessities and Comforts of Life, Want and Misery would be banished out of the World, and the rest of the 24 hours might be Leisure and Pleasure."

Since Franklin's day, efficiency has increased mightily, but the 20-hour work week is too ludicrous an idea to pass the lips of any mainstream politician.

In an interview in last month's Businessweek, Mitt Romney said "the primary role of the government is to encourage the innovation and risk-taking and entrepreneurship of the American people."

"That would come as news to Thomas Jefferson," says de Graaf. "He said on a number of occasions that the only purpose of government was to increase the happiness of its citizens.

~~~~~~~~~~
Luke 21:26 'Men's hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth...' Luke 21:34 ^'But take heed to yourselves and be on your guard, lest your hearts be overburdened and depressed (weighed down) with the giddiness and headache and nausea of self-indulgence, drunkenness, and worldly worries and cares pertaining to [the business of] this life, and [lest] that day come upon you suddenly like a trap or a noose...'
James 2:1 My brethren, have not the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, with respect of persons.

2 For if there come unto your assembly a man with a gold ring, in goodly apparel, and there come in also a poor man in vile raiment;

3 And ye have respect to him that weareth the gay clothing, and say unto him, Sit thou here in a good place; and say to the poor, Stand thou there, or sit here under my footstool:

4 Are ye not then partial in yourselves, and are become judges of evil thoughts?

5 Hearken, my beloved brethren, Hath not God chosen the poor of this world rich in faith, and heirs of the kingdom which he hath promised to them that love him?

6 But ye have despised the poor. Do not rich men oppress you, and draw you before the judgment seats?

7 Do not they blaspheme that worthy name by the which ye are called?

8 If ye fulfil the royal law according to the scripture, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself, ye do well:

9 But if ye have respect to persons, ye commit sin, and are convinced of the law as transgressors.

10 For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all.

11 For he that said, Do not commit adultery, said also, Do not kill. Now if thou commit no adultery, yet if thou kill, thou art become a transgressor of the law.

12 So speak ye, and so do, as they that shall be judged by the law of liberty.

13 For he shall have judgment without mercy, that hath shewed no mercy; and mercy rejoiceth against judgment.

James 5:1 Go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you.

2 Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are motheaten.

3 Your gold and silver is cankered; and the rust of them shall be a witness against you, and shall eat your flesh as it were fire. Ye have heaped treasure together for the last days.

4 Behold, the hire of the labourers who have reaped down your fields, which is of you kept back by fraud, crieth: and the cries of them which have reaped are entered into the ears of the Lord of sabaoth.

5 Ye have lived in pleasure on the earth, and been wanton; ye have nourished your hearts, as in a day of slaughter.

6 Ye have condemned and killed the just; and he doth not resist you.

7 Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. Behold, the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it, until he receive the early and latter rain.

8 Be ye also patient; stablish your hearts: for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh.

9 Grudge not one against another, brethren, lest ye be condemned: behold, the judge standeth before the door.

10 Take, my brethren, the prophets, who have spoken in the name of the Lord, for an example of suffering affliction, and of patience.

11 Behold, we count them happy which endure. Ye have heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the end of the Lord; that the Lord is very pitiful, and of tender mercy.

12 But above all things, my brethren, swear not, neither by heaven, neither by the earth, neither by any other oath: but let your yea be yea; and your nay, nay; lest ye fall into condemnation.

13 Is any among you afflicted? let him pray. Is any merry? let him sing psalms.

14 Is any sick among you? let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord:

15 And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him.

16 Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.

17 Elias was a man subject to like passions as we are, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain: and it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six months.

18 And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth brought forth her fruit.

19 Brethren, if any of you do err from the truth, and one convert him;

20 Let him know, that he which converteth the sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death, and shall hide a multitude of sins.

Face it: The Stock Market is the Evillest Gambling In the World

2011-10-08T09:26:00.000-07:00

Click here: Occupy Wall Street - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Keep on a'walkin', keep on a'talkin'; carry it on. On to victory!

Supernatural Bernadette Peters

2011-10-08T08:26:00.000-07:00

Hey! I'm saying something nice, for a change!: BERNADETTE PETERS!!! What great person she is! Take a look:

Click here: Bernadette Peters - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

What the article doesn't say (but pictures tend to confirm) was what prompted me to look her up: I saw her recently, and again thought as I have over many years, she hasn't aged since she was eighteen! Live as long as you want to, wondrous B, and age only in refinement of perfection!

Bachmann: Mandate Sonograms for Abortion-Hunters

2011-10-07T20:34:00.000-07:00

Points:

1. Who gonna PAY, for it, Mitch? Socialized medicine? If not, how can it be Constitutionally mandated? ...Among other problems of Constitutionality...

2. If (it's paid for by public revenue, and) it's only going to be mandated 'for those thinking of having abortions', it would sorely tempt pregnant women who intend to give birth, and want ultrasound (perhaps also urged by physicians, kin, friends, etc.) to take the no-cost-to-themselves route and pretend that they sought abortion but changed their minds.

3. What of those who, by the process, discovered significant health defects in the child and decided against keeping it alive?

4. In India and China, ultrasound is commonly used to discover the sex of the child, so that females can be aborted. In India, especially Rajasthan, breeding females has blamed on wives - often child brides - and used as an excuse to murder mothers and girl-children, often with particularly deliberate vengeful cruelty. What is to stop state-mandated ultrasound from being misused for vain and bigoted purposes?

5. The process is not nearly as invasive or painful as abortion... Probably no more than any one of the number of pelvic exams gynecologists consider a necessary part of PRE-NATAL CARE. How 'bout them healthy babies? How 'bout taking care of them in womb and out? Who should pay for 'em? If parents can't, should the state, or should they be aborted?

Click here: Michele Bachmann Proposes Mandatory Ultrasounds For Women Seeking Abortions

World's Most Beautiful and Romantic Building

2011-10-06T11:03:00.000-07:00

How symbolic can you get!?

Click here: India's Taj Mahal In Danger Of Collapsing

India's iconic Taj Mahal is in danger of collapsing within five years if the issue of its rotting wooden foundation isn't addressed.

The 358-year-old-structure is located in the city of Agra, and serves as a mausoleum in memory of the wife of an emperor. As the most famous of India's tourist attractions, it draws four million visitors annually.

Campaigners exist to protect the Taj Mahal, and according to the Daily Mail, they believe its foundations are compromised, having become brittle over the centuries. Evidence of structural problems include cracks that appeared in the structure last year, and signs that its four minarets are tilting.

Apparently the Taj Mahal stands on the edge of a now dried-up river, and the foundations are rotting due to lack of water.

"This was never anticipated by its builders," Professor Ram Nath, a historian and leading Taj Mahal authority told the Daily Mail. "The river is a constituent of its architectural design and if the river dies, the Taj cannot survive."

The Indian government has set up a body to deal with the preservation of this UNESCO World Heritage site.

Gee, Oh Pee! Candidate Shuffle

2011-10-06T10:51:00.000-07:00

I've been late in posting; just as well when I can't keep up with the hoof-in-mouth adventures of politicos out there. Lots of reshuffling of players, lately.

Some will remember the manipulative games the media played during the last few months of Bush (Sr.) - Clinton - Perot. The pundits, publishers and poll-controllers would give each candidate turns of ascendancy for about 3 weeks, musical-chairs switcheroo & over again. Was That Agency or Something Like It really after Perot's daughter? Nuff to have him say so and sound dippy, and hero Stockdale to be incoherent... Like Nixon's enemies back-when: Really more subtle than what happened to Bobby Kennedy and George Wallace and Wallace's wives. A pure repetition of the Wallace woes on another too-warm 3rd-party contender and people might get suspicious. But the R-D Bank Party cloven hoof must not stumble, nor the Cassandra who warned against NAFTA and the burgeoning slag-mountain of debt go unsacrificed!

Games are still being played, but it may be that there is no longer any need for sudden mindforks... When so much of both the electorate and their candidates are zomboid, schizoid and as ready to render and accept the grossest hypocrisies as certifiable pathological liars. Here are some searches. I started with Ms Entertainment Misinformation, then the Globalist Opportunist Pimps:

Click here: "Bachmann watch" - Google Search

Click here: "GOP candidates watch" - Google Search

But the most fun of all - in the last few days, anyway - has been the GOP Back Room Boys' hysterical scramble to try to run Chris Christie up their flagpole the moment Herman Cain won a Florida poll. And now the fat man* won't sing, and erstwhile saint Sarah's said no, too. Hey, what if it's true: Once they've had black (even with a lot of cream, apparently!) they won't go back... Or maybe America is gonna just keep on tryin' till we get DENNIS HAYSBERT or MORGAN FREEMAN. You know they're what we really want!
*There is nothing wrong with cuddly!!!

What F-Word?

2011-10-04T12:14:00.000-07:00

Click here: Bono: The F Word

Bono argues that the truly obscene F-word is FAMINE, and no decent being could argue that, but let's consider the eFFing traditional word, and its original meaning: FOLKing, that which tends to produce more folk. People in a situation (which, arguably, is the whole WORLD right now, need to not produce folk - little, tender, helpless, innocent folk whom the wretched present situation is likely to lead into desperate, tormenting need, innumerable brutalities and corruption. The times are so bad, it's a bad time to bring a little trustafarian into the world at the family estate on a lovely private lake in the 'First World'; it's sheer horror guaranteed to bring one into Somalia.

Why do 'they' do it? It's a biological imperative: Sexual desire is a delirious fever that makes almost everyone crazed, heedless, stupid; compulsively overridden. Who has not given in when their better selves have said NO? And all it takes is once. If it's unbearable to the advantaged, how much more to those who have no other comfort? And, in Somalia and so much of the EFFING WORLD, men define themselves by sex-act dominance and begetting, forcing women...

In times like these, perhaps we should ask if FAITH, as the holiest F-word, ought rather to come behind FOOD and even FIX, as in 'have your pets FIXED!!!

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

2011-09-30T11:30:00.000-07:00

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

BATTLE FOR BROOKLYN Reveals Realities of Rights-Protection

2011-09-29T16:47:00.000-07:00

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.'

Power to Elizabeth Warren

2011-09-27T11:09:00.000-07:00

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.

Paranoia= Paying Attention, pt. 80zillion

2011-09-26T20:47:00.000-07:00

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!)

2011-09-26T20:27:00.000-07:00

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

But of Course They Want THOSE Children to Die

2011-09-25T14:33:00.000-07:00

...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

Totalitarian Atheism Legislates Control of Reincarnation

2011-09-24T12:04:00.000-07:00

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.

Murders: Widely Separate; Strangely Conjoined

2011-09-23T02:43:00.000-07:00

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.

Candidate Qs Wish-List from Frum

2011-09-21T21:50:00.000-07:00

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?

Nostalgia for the Relative Sanity of the Worst of McCarthyism

2011-09-18T11:46:00.000-07:00

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

2011-09-18T10:37:00.000-07:00

(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.

Win Your Case With Demagoguery, or, The Courtroom Machiavel

2011-09-16T10:59:00.000-07:00

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

POWER POWER GRID POWER GRID

2011-09-04T13:01:00.000-07:00

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!

Necessary Infrastructure in OUTER SPACE endangered, too!

2011-09-01T17:26:00.000-07:00

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

2011-09-01T17:18:00.000-07:00

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.

Disgraceful MLK Statue

2011-08-28T20:24:00.000-07:00

MLK as antique vowelless Semitic = 'Moloch'*? No, dispite appearances, this misbegotten sculpture in a style that hybridizes that of ancient inferno-idols with those colossi of 20th-Century self-deified tyrants is just 'Part Two' to the Final Insult Memorial to WWII Veterans made by an Austrian Albert Speer wannabe in pure 3rd Reich NeoKlassik style. Made in China by a former sculptor of Mao idols. Maybe MLK in this case is a version of MKUltra, the most notorious of US government-blessed mindforks. Yet another 'swallow it, citizen scumsuckers! America(ns) cannot do anything!'

I've seen innumerable still and moving photographic images of Martin Luther King, Jr. Whether you think he was a pure saint or a clever demagogue, he had a magnificent talent for appearances and would not -did not - allow himself to go about scouling like Mr Grumpy when the nasty neighborhood whelps left a flaming bag of dogdoo on his front steps. Who can think that he'd want to be 'immortalized' in granite that way?

*Yes, I know it means 'King'.

THIRD (and more) PARTIES: A REAL Venue for Hope

2011-08-28T19:34:00.000-07:00

Click here: How Ron Paul Could Save Obama FrumForum#more-102358
Dumb damn old whine about how any at-all-popular candidate not from what 'Mister Veedle' justly calls The Bank Party ~ Democrats and Republicans, boo-hoo-hoo ruins it for the Establishment puppet-'bots We All Should Want.

But here's the noble TommyO's comment:
http://www.frumforum.com/how-ron-paul-could-save-obama#comment-331349

I love it. It's so me - except for having faith in Ron Paul: He has his own imperfections, like anyone; on top of that, he's a politician, and, this might not be his fault, but his son acts like a goofball with a thug posse...And Ron just has not been embarrassed enough.

The Curmudgeoness Returns!

2011-08-28T18:04:00.000-07:00

...To the sound of thousands cheering...Or maybe just one hand clapping (against my head). Even if nobody reads this but I (and that may be for the best [=sigh=] - but I don't think so! ), I may as well just go with the flow to use what remaining cheapy-freebie things this straightened (-to-crushed) yet crooked world yet provides to keep the Excess Population docile. Bitchin n moanin may not be noble, but (1) the temptations are all but infinite, (2) I'm good at it (there had to be something!), and (3) hey, that's just who I am. Doggonit & fooey on that, too!

SUPER CONGRESS ~ Unconstitutional! Junta! Coup d'etat!

2011-08-01T17:58:00.000-07:00

Click here: SUPER CONGRESS IS UNCONSTITUTIONAL.....

Petition2Congress / http://www.petition2congress.com/4842/supper-congress-is-unconstitutionalno-voteno/

Got to this (third down) from Google search:

Showing results for super congress junta OR unconstitutional OR "coup d'etat". 8. 8 MILLION results (and mounting, hm?), right after the hysteric vote on the debt ceiling Trojan Horsed this dastard duodeciviriate.

Kumfee Skripchurz

2011-05-27T16:17:00.000-07:00

These copied from the Lolcat Bible; I (practice!) paraphrased some bits closer to what I thought was meant in the source:

Psalm 23

1 Ceiling Cat iz mai sheprd (which is funni if u knowz teh joek about herdin catz LOL.) He givz me evrithin I need.

2 He letz me sleeps in teh sunni spot an haz liek nice waterz r ovar thar.
3 He makez mai soul happi an maeks sure I go teh riet wai for him. Liek thru teh cat flap instead of out teh opin windo LOL.

4 I iz in teh valli of dogz, fearin no pooch, bcz Ceiling Cat iz besied me rubbin' mah ears, an it maek me so kumfy.

5 He letz me sit at teh taebl evn when peepl who duzint liek me iz watchn.

He givz me a flea baff an so much gooshy fud it runz out of mai bowl LOL.

6 Niec things an luvstuf wil chase me evrydai, an I wil liv in Ceiling Cat's houz forevr.
Psalm 91

1 Dem what iz in teh hidey patio wif Ceiling Cat iz bunkered under teh sayftee shade of All-Pwnzer

2 Sez uv Ceiling Cat, iz mah under-cowch an bukkit, an i gots trust in Him.

3 Iz gonna saev U frum teh spyderwebz an frum teh vakuum cleenr.

4 Him iz can cuvr U wif fethrs an under Hiz wings U iz safe (Ceiling Cat iz burdy?) Hiz truth is can be ur bukkit.

5 U iz not skeerd uv big skaries in nite, r the bad throwy pplz in day

6 Or chompyz or sikkyz in drkness, r of all teh boomz n skreechy wrekkrz of daytiem.

7 1000 can haz fall dwn, 10000 goz bum, but not u! Srsly.

8 U just see teh nastiez getz pwnd, k?

9 C u maded Ceiling Cat ur howz (Hez mah bukkit, Hez so kewl);

10 No bad stuffz can pwn you lol, no herpiz up in ur houz 4 real.

11 He iz making Hiz angels watch ovr u wif mad skillz, dey keepz u safe evrywhere (even in teh sanbox!)

12 Dere pawz iz holding u up so u don getz owiez.

13 U can stomp teh lions and teh poyzensnayx; sabbij lionses an trajktrukz u can squish dem wif ur paw.

14 C, he setted hiz luv on Me, Ceiling Cat, so I safe him kthx. 'He can haz top of shelf cuz he noes Mai Naym'.

15 Wen he sez 'Hay r U dere?' I be liek 'Oh, Hai!'. In teh bad tiems I be dere, I safes him an giv cookies.

16 He can haz nine liefs long as he needz, an c I haz him be safed.

PREACHIEZ UPONNA TEH MOWTN BY HAPPY CAT - exrpz fum St. Mafu Kumfeen00z:

Teh BeCatitudes

5:1 Wen He seez lotz kittehz, He climbz tree. His BFz climbz tree too. (2) He sez hai and He teaches teh kittehs, He sez:

3 Cheezburgrz 4 teh needyn00bz in spirit, theys can has teh Ceiling.

4 Cheezburgrz 4 teh sad kittehs, theys can has purry petting.

5 Cheezburgrz 4 teh m33k kittehs, theys can has teh urfs.

6 Cheezburgrz 4 teh kittehs who sez "I can has gud, plz?", theys can has it.

7 Cheezburgrz 4 teh kittehs dat no pwns, Ceiling Cat no pwnz0rz thems.

8 Cheezburgrz 4 teh kittehs purr in hartz, theys can sees Ceiling Cat.

9 Cheezburgrz 4 teh kittehs dat make 4 calmiez n 2 gif selfz spitbafs insted, Ceiling Cat is liek 'u Mai own huny babykitts.'

10 Cheezburgrz 4 teh kittehs wut gets pwned whencuz theys tryn to be gud; Theys got Ceiling, too.

11 Cheezburgrz wen u get snarlz & kikz & "DO NOT WANT" skrambulancez 2 u, an liez abt u, coz u wurkn 4 Meh.

12 B teh happys n party, coz u can has noenda livrcookiez n kremeyz & tooneycakez n chzbrgrs n lounjin n kudlz & kissiez n happyrompz in Ceiling's Foofyfieldz . Membr teh gud ol holee kittehs b4 got treetd bad toos (but theys made teh rght choys, u betr bleevit!)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

6:25 so I sez, stop havin teh kittibirfs bout ur lifes, wat cheezburgerz or drinx u is havin, or about ur bodeez n how u iz furfulld. Iz life not moar importint den teh fudz, and teh bodeez moar importint den foofyz? 26 Lookit teh birdz in teh ceilingz, dey dont be in fieldz hordin up f00dz or puttin dem away in barnz, but Ceiling Cat givez dem f00dz anywayz so twete, lolz. Wat, u aint more pricy den dem? 27 U shur cant make yr life longur by havin teh kittibirf fiz bout it aniwayz.

28 And y u be havin woeiz about yr kittisootz? Lookit teh lileez in teh fieldz. Dey dont work or nuffingz 29 but Solom0n koont pwn them even with his pimp outfitz. No rly. 30 If Ceiling Cat makes teh grass all pritty, and it gets thrwn into teh 0venz 2morr0w, He kn make floofiez 4 u, u por dowtykatz. 31 So plz to be stoppin havin teh mowiwoeiz n sayin "oh noez, can i has cheezburger?" "Dey good or gotz hidy skariez? "Iz enuf or notz?" or "how much spiffyz in ma kittisoot 2dae?" 32 Bcuz onlee teh n00bz be havin kittibirfz about thees thingz, k? Ceiling Cat noez wat u need. srsly. 33 Be hunty 1st for teh kingd0m and teh duguddinessment of teh Ceiling Cat, an u can has all dese thingz. 34 So stop havin teh frikin kittibirfz and chuuyrsef woeiz bout teh f00chr bcuz it prolly g0tz mo than nuff nastiz alreddy wif0ut u pilin on xtra. 2dae pwns enuff!! Kthxbai.

I Can Has Bukkit Definition

2011-05-27T15:39:00.000-07:00

Maybe... In any event, As the aion gets more and more wildly doomy -and I (conspiracy theorist!!) suspect most of it has come by way of bad guys with propaganda weapons, HAARP-fears weapons, etc., I'm currently trying to get back to being something other than a squeeker version of an Old Testament prophet. I s'pose I've already said most of my What the FN Problems Are & What We Oughta Do spiels, so instead of Yet More Repetition of same, perhaps my work here should get back to the original, more FLOOFY - or at least less political - mandate. How? With So Many and Great Temptations? Well, maybe~~~

LOLSPEAK TRANSLATIONS

With the added safety (I hope) of, if I'm tooooooooo tempted by news items, rendering them into loopy baby pidjin will diffuse some of the wounded wrath and self-righteousness.

I spend much of my spare time - especially now that I'm really a physical wreck - with the Consolations of Philosophy... Which in my case, beyond Religion, is mostly nature guide aided dreams, and cozy / humorous mystery novels (occasionally finding a curiously-shaped link in cryptozoology); so I really ought to try harder to spread some comfort. If anyone reads this... Well, I expect the homeless people in the death and wreckage of disaster-and-war zones don't really need to hear another (essentially powerless) voice telling them that Our Priorities Need Big-Time Re-Adjustment!

But first, I had to try to get one thing straight. My Glorious Quest thereto has shown that this is (if not at the profound level of Why Has a Good God Allowed Evil, or even the True Meaning of Louie, Louie), it still is a widespread mystery to many longing souls:

Click here: bukkit lolrus - Google Search about 15,000. Haven't been able to find a straight definition. Don't think anyone knows for sure; just like the whimsy. 'Bucket' in slang mostly relates to 'kick the bucket' -which goes back to the Hindu 'kick the frame' = soul kicks itself off the body (recently, 'bucket list' has come to mean, 'list of things to do before one dies'), to an overly cavernous vagina, or to a useable but obviously decaying car. It also may be literal: 'Sumtienz a bukkit iz jus a bukkit', but it is supremely precious to the fabled 'lolrus' /walrus. The obvious real-world connection is, the zoo walrus has his meals brought to him in the BUCKET. However, in the 'saga';

http://speaklolspeak.com/.../Teh+story+of+teh+lolrus+who+haz+lost+his+Bukkit
http://icanhascheezburger.com/lolrus/
http://www.walrusbucketsaga.com/

'The Lolrus and Bukkit talked about everything under the sun...' The bukkit is confidante, best friend, beloved: Not the body kicked by the escaping soul, but more nearly the soul and metaphorical 'heart' itself. The shadings of the pejorative other uses and the singular pathos of the walrus's search for his own bucket suggest the BUKKIT is something most precious to an individual, though the object be scorned as of little value to others.

Then there is the Walrus:

(1) Also known as the lolrus, which may = 'laughs out loud are us', or (see:)
(2) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Am_the_Walrus This song has frequently been attached, apparently by sheer bizarreness and its own partial inspiration in Lewis Carroll's The Walrus and the Carpenter with The White Album, and has been covered by doom groups, suggesting that the Walrus is or brings death. As such, The Walrus and his Bukkit may be a lite, Cheez-y, bathetic parody of Death Takes a Holiday (radio play online here).
(3) The Farfarers.

Two Snappy Comments From FrumForum

2011-05-20T12:12:00.000-07:00

Cantor: GOP Won’t Budge on Cuts | FrumForum

Comments:

LFC // May 18, 2011 at 10:48 am

Dear Dems. Grow a f***ing sack and tell them that you simply won’t stand for a refusal to negotiate. If they don’t come to the table, go to every media outlet you can and repeat over and over and over and over that the Republicans refuse to negotiate and would rather destroy our nation’s fragile economic recovery than to compromise on anything. Don’t let up. Don’t change message.

And when they start getting the blame for the shut-down, and they will, they will negotiate. At that point, go to every media outlet you can and repeat over and over and over and over that you are happy that the Republicans have finally agreed to compromise. Damn them with faint praise. They will think twice about holding their breath and stamping their feet on crucial issues in the future.

Just as Obama has done, you now have the ability to stand up as the adults in the room. Don’t let the opportunity pass because you’re scared.

~~~~~~~~~~~

Rob_654 // May 18, 2011 at 11:52 am

Can we just stop with the Social Conservative babble about the United States being a “Christian Nation”?

No “Christian Nation" would believe that Jesus would prefer that poor people get the proverbial axe to ensure that wealthy people don’t have to give up a few percentage points in taxes.

A Taste of Bhutto Legacy...

2011-05-16T12:09:00.000-07:00

Fascinating and moving Independent Lens thing more-or-less now playing somewhere on PBS. The Bhuttos are perhaps the epitome of the World's long legacy of genuinely heroic martyrs to compassionate idealism and the benefit of suffering humanity while profiteering from power positions. They also (shades of Jimmy Carter!) promoted NUKES, woe is we.

Here is a website of interest to Pakistan-watchers, and a couple of links from it.

Click here: ‘Zulfikarabad’: A great gift to the nation by the PPP government

LUBP

Pakistan’s ISI-backed jihadi media mourns Osama bin Laden

ISI chief had lips sealed when quizzed about Osama bin Laden -by Amir Mir

Mortal Remains to Be Unseen

2011-05-16T11:47:00.000-07:00

(Less fun than the great Joan Hess's Mortal Remains in Maggody, but tidier, one hopes!)

Having been, in main, monstrously ill-used by physicians all my life, I loathe them as a species. This may be unfair and simply mine own schemazel... Though comparable fates seem to be / have been similarly shared by millions, and the sins of individual physicians welded and well mix't with institutional and (at least quasi-) governmental policy & mandate. My moral, yet self-serving-in-many ways answer to the problem of my wanting to KILLLLLLLLLL them like I'd want to kill a nest of wasps at a nursery school, is that I've, for more than a decade, given up going to them (with the possible exception of certain quick/cheap patch jobs and Issues of Public Health. So far, despite innumerable conditions and occasions that would have sent many others to the hospital, in more than a decade, I've only decided: I can has tetanus shot). Besides not having any money, anyway.,

Similarly, from reasons of practicality, 'tude and aesthetics, as I skip at-least-weekly back 'n' forth between Is This Spell Gonna Kill Me Today (?) or Am I at the Point of Being More of a Deplorable Burden to Myself and Others Than A Help (?) and I Can Do This and Make My Breathing (limited as it is) Worthwhile, I contemplate the best things to do with my mortal remains.

It's too cruel an irony for 'way more money to be spent on disposing of my corpse than on real me while still in-body. At first I liked the Giving My Body to Science option, but the diabolical uses to which the industry of Spare Tissue --including that Untimely Rip'd from wombs and the Excess (Third World / poor) Population, made me remove my Donor Dot and Just Say No. I kinda think immune-suppressing drugs for organ transplants had a lot to do with the development of HIV/AIDS, anyway. There are few legally dedicated Green Burial sites, unfortunately, and there's a whole expensive rigamarole for being Dumped in the Ocean, including previous cremation (uhhaggggh, fie, yuchh!!). What Sounds Really Good to Me is:

THE PAIUTE WAY (and the CAT Way; I am Decrepit Catwoman!)~ When a person definitely feels (he or) she's going to be More of a Wretched Burden Than NOT, she goes on walkabout to uninhabited places till she breaks down and dies, with any luck having been able to find some hidey-crevice to lie down in and pull a buncha leaves over herself. THAT's GRACIOUS.

That's what I want to do if I can. It may be really mistaken; I hope it won't make anything worse for my survivors or anyone. God bless them and guide me right!!!

(I'm not going just yet-!).

Nukes Afire - A More Likely Nuclear Catastophe

2011-05-13T19:36:00.000-07:00

Xlnt article; too long to post here:
Click here: The Center for Public Integrity: A More Likely Nuclear Nightmare < +picture stories
By Susan Q. Stranahan

'Courts' Are Not JUSTICE

2011-05-12T09:18:00.000-07:00

Forensic procedure, 'law & order' is not justice. Our major news stories of late have spoken primarily about whether JUSTICE has been served, or not. Vengeance may partake of justice, perhaps more often than proceedings of judicial courts, but it is not justice. ...At least, not 'justice', as we most commonly use the word: As an ideal of EQUAL RETURN; a pure fair compensation.

The judge who convicted a (Ukrainian-born, later 'Ohioan') functionary of the Sobibor Nazi death camp released him pending appeal, said, 'It's the law, so it's justice'. --Translated from the German, apparently, and perhaps faulty in translation, but the sentence remains as either a pointless redundancy~ 'law=justice', or a false invocation of 'justice' as an ideal. 'Government existing by the free advice and consent of a well-informed, sane, honest adult general-public-governed' is an ideal, 'government exists for the convenience of the governors' has been the age-after-age Machiavellian reality. Sometimes 'the people', and even the better Powers That Be influence laws, police forces, and the judicial system, so that there is some benefit to the governed and some approximation of the ideal of justice, but to say the system is actually justice-in-the-ideal is like saying the bright glimmerings on the ocean is the ocean.

Then there's Bin Laden's Son Reportedly Calls Father's Killing 'Criminal' and Michael Moore, the often-real-hero who can sometimes go off the deep end with full-of-himself hot air, suggesting the same thing.

Mass murderers - whether proud admitters like bin Laden, deniers like death camp 'mechanics' who are actually guilty... Or heads of warring nations, their 'universal soldiers' (those who hadn't been turned into zombots by the relentless propaganda of government and popular culture mindfyx-since-birth...And those we-never-did-that-okay-FOIA-so-we-did-but-it-wasn't-really-us-it-was-old-dead-guys-and-we-stopped-a-long-time-ago chem/bio, genetic, foetal-&-infant, often really grotesque and torturous physical & psychosomatic experimentation) and other war/arms profiteers, environment poisoners, cartel-cabalists of manipulated desperation and privation - You know, the folk who get medals, plaques, titles, honors, votes and adulation for herding y'all painfully to your graves... Are not going to get justice in this world (unless you believe in some kind of just recompense by reincarnation - and there are big problems with that!): Real, ideal JUSTICE meas that they'll understand what they did to their fellow creatures as much as they were willing to be done to their felow creatures. We mortals are not able to judge that justly nor enact that righteously. But, at least when the perps have bragged on it, we have the right to take them out.

Dead Bin Laden

2011-05-04T10:53:00.000-07:00

As Jesus watches our sorry efforts ... Relatively neat and tidy hits have to be better than satanic orgies of profiteering and bringing as many of our fellow creatures as possible to grief on the excuse of (allegedly) trying to bringing a coupla handsful of rotters 'to justice'. Here are some worthwhile articles:

Family member of U.S. service members: Bin Laden's death can't replace our loved ones, but it's time to end the wars

Thomas Himes, Staff Writer

Posted: 05/02/2011 05:46:52 PM PDT

While the killing of Osama bin Laden came as little comfort to local people who lost loved ones in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the family members of some servicemen said his death has given them cause to hope for the quick withdraw of U.S. forces from the Middle East.

News that bin Laden was killed by U.S. forces in Pakistan on Sunday after a decade-long manhunt, gave Leticia De La Pena reason to reflect on her son, his life and death, she said.

At 25-years-old, La Puente native Esau De La Pena-Hernandez was on his fifth combat tour when he was shot and killed in a battle outside Chak, Afghanistan on May 15, 2009.

De La Pena said the knowledge that bin Laden was killed is of little solace to her and her family.

"The death of this person isn't going to replace my son or the other young people who gave their life for this country," De La Pena said.

The nearly decade old war in Afghanistan and eight year old war in Iraq reached a grim milestone last month when the Department of Defense reported 6,000 U.S. servicemen and women had been killed in the conflicts.

Wayne Hiltz also said Bin Laden's death has done little to fill the void left by his own son.

Cory Hiltz, 20, was one of five soldiers who died on June 28, 2007 when his unit came under attack in Baghdad, said Irwindale's acting police chief, Hiltz.

"While our family, like all Americans and others around the world who disdain terrorism, are gratified
to see his reign of terror has come to an end - it in no way provides relief from the pain and the anguish that our family suffers every day over the loss of our son," Hiltz said choking back his emotions.

Hiltz, however, said he hopes the killing of bin Laden will save American lives by bringing a speedy end to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

"We are thankful that none of our forces involved in this operation were injured and hopeful that his death, in some significant way, reduces incidents of terrorism and expedites the safe return of our troops who remain in harm's way," Hiltz said.

Rossana Cambron's 27-year-old son is scheduled to make his third deployment to Iraq with the Army at the end of the month. The Whittier woman said in killing bin Laden, the U.S. military has reached its stated objective for wars that need to end.

"The idea was to go after him because he was the one who was responsible for bombing the towers," Cambron said.

"Now it's done. Let's go home. Enough is enough already," she said.

A call from a relative alerted Cindy Rowe about the death of bin Laden at the hands of U.S. military forces.

The Whittier woman doesn't watch the news.

Rowe, 39, stopped watching news broadcasts after her husband, U.S. Army 1st Sgt. Blue Rowe, was killed May 26, 2009, by an improvised bomb in Panjshir, Afghanistan. He was 33.

"It doesn't bring my husband back to me," she said of the president's announcement. "It doesn't change anything."

Although Rowe is glad about bin Laden's death, she worries "there's someone else who's going to take his place."

Cynthia Fisher, of Arcadia, said her 24-year-old son is currently serving in Afghanistan, as a member of an elite special forces unit - Marine recon. Although she has not heard from him since bin Laden was killed, she said she can imagine his reaction.

"He is probably pleased this quest has come to an end," Fisher said. "But he's probably also somewhat disappointed that he didn't get to experience the capture."

Fisher said that while she is pleased by the news of bin Laden's death, she believe a picture of his body would have helped bring her closure.

"It would give me closure if I had seen an actual photo of his corpse before he was buried at sea," Fisher said.

Pat Alviso said Bin Laden's death should leave U.S. policymakers with little cause for continuing the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Alviso has dedicated the last five years of her life to organizing rallies in Los Angeles and Orange County in an effort to bring home U.S. servicemen and women. Her son returned home from his fourth tour in Iraq last week.

"This is another piece we hope that will help us bring our loved ones home," Alviso said. "I can't think of another reason why we would stay there."

De La Hernandez, however, isn't as hopeful as some military family members. She said she has little faith that bin Laden's death will end U.S. military actions in Afghanistan, Iraq and the rest of the Middle East.

"It doesn't really give any comfort to me because I think these kind of political issues will continue."

Staff Writer Sandra T. Molina contributed to this story.

Read more: Family member of U.S. service members: Bin Laden's death can't replace our loved ones, but it's time to end the wars - Whittier Daily News http://www.whittierdailynews.com/news/ci_17977715?source=rss#ixzz1LJ8ljESc

and

Dianne Feinstein: Bin Laden Was At Pakistan Compound For Up To Six Years

http://www.blogger.com/goog_1323154349
Pakistan , Frank Lautenberg , Osama Bin Laden , President Barack Obama , Sen. Dianne Feinstein , Senate Intelligence Committee , Dianne Feinstein , Osama Bin Laden Dead , Osama Bin Laden Pakistan , Sen. Frank Lautenberg , Politics News

WASHINGTON -- Senate Intelligence Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) said Monday that Osama bin Laden had been living on the compound where he was killed for up to six years and expressed concern that the Pakistani government may have known.

“It appears that Osama bin Laden and his family could have lived there for up to six years,” Feinstein told reporters at the Capitol. “This compound has been around [for up to six years] and that’s the belief. I said up to six years.”

The California Democrat voiced concerns that the Pakistani intelligence agency, Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), may have known bin Laden was there and not done anything about it, particularly given the compound’s massive size and proximity to Islamabad.

“It’s very hard for me to understand how Pakistani [leaders], particularly the ISI, would not have known that something was going on in that compound,” she said. “I’ve had a growing concern that the Pakistani government … is really walking both sides of the street.”

Feinstein stopped short of calling for cutting off $1.1 billion in U.S. aid to Pakistan for counter-insurgency efforts. But she floated the idea of restructuring those funds in a different way.

“Our government is in fiscal distress,” she said. “To make contributions to a country that isn’t going to be fully supportive is a problem for many.”

Feinstein noted that members of the Intelligence Committee had been briefed on the compound “for some time” and that fact that nobody leaked information about it is “very special.” She also gave President Barack Obama credit “for having the gumption to make the decision” to attack the compound when it still wasn’t 100 percent certain that bin Laden was there. Intelligence officials had been tracking the compound for a while and there was some “actionable intelligence” that bin Laden was there, but nobody had actually identified him yet, she said.

Feinstein isn’t the only key Democrat raising concerns about the Pakistani government's potential knowledge of bin Laden's whereabouts: Sen. Frank Lautenberg (N.J.), vice chairman of the Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee, said it may be time for “a review” of U.S. aid to Pakistan.

“I hate to take a phrase from the past, but someone once said,‘Trust but verify,’” he said.

~*~*~*~*~*Dude: Trust nobody, trust nothing; try to verify what you can! And let's face it:
Pakistan's 'government' is about as much a single unit as China's in the 1920s or France's in Joan of Arc's time.

Why Did Bin Laden Hide In Plain Sight?

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/05/02/osama-bin-laden-dead-hiding-in-plain-sight_n_856629.html?icid=main%7Chtmlws-main-n%7Cdl1%7Csec3_lnk3%7C211997

NEW YORK -- After living on the run in the wake of the 9/11 attacks, why did the world’s most wanted terrorist decide to stay put for up to six years in a three-story hilltop compound just a thousand yards from Pakistan’s most prestigious military academy?

The resort town of Abbottabad in northwest Pakistan, home to retired military officers, lies less than 40 miles from the capital of Islamabad. It was an unlikely setting for the targeted killing of Osama bin Laden. That incongruity has raised questions about whether Pakistani officials had knowledge of his presence and how American intelligence agencies were finally able to pinpoint his whereabouts after ten years of failing to find the 6’6” terrorist leader with a serious kidney problem.

The house bin Laden was found in had a reputation as a place to be avoided, according to interviews with local residents conducted by USA Today and Time magazine: its threatening exterior boasted 14-foot-high walls topped with barbed wire that surrounded the complex. There was a 7-foot security wall on the second floor, as well as security gates and cameras. The compound was constructed in 2005 to house bin Laden, but it is not clear when he moved in, authorities told The Wall Street Journal. Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) said today that bin Laden had been living on the compound for up to six years and expressed concern that the Pakistani government may have known. And the sleepy town was starting to attract unwanted attention -- four months ago, Pakistani agents there arrested Indonesian al Qaeda member Umar Patek, who had a $1 million bounty on his head as the mastermind of the 2002 suicide bombings that killed 202 at nightclubs in Bali.

bin Laden’s presence in a town teeming with Pakistani military has reinforced for some the widespread suspicion that the country’s intelligence agencies were fully aware of his movements. “It’s very hard for me to understand how Pakistani [leaders], particularly the ISI, would not have known that something was going on in that compound,” Feinstein said. “I’ve had a growing concern that the Pakistani government … is really walking both sides of the street.”

Despite numerous reports in recent years that bin Laden had fled Afghanistan for Pakistan -- a NATO official said last October that he was “living comfortably” in Pakistan -- the country’s officials have consistently denied such reports. Yet bin Laden’s ability to elude capture in Pakistan has helped fuel such suspicions. After crossing the Tora Bora mountains in December 2001 to Parachinar, Pakistan, where an army brigade was deployed to snag him, he slipped away and headed to the Army garrison town of Kohat before vanishing into thin air, according to intelligence reports.

“Many Americans, convinced that Pakistan has done less than it might to confront radical militants and terrorists, see their worst suspicions confirmed by the fact that bin Laden lived in a large, well-protected compound right under the Pakistani military's nose,” says Daniel Markey, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. ”Either Pakistan's intelligence service is terribly incompetent, fatally compromised, or both, raising questions about its utility as a partner.”

Even former Pakistani prime minister Pervez Musharraf was stunned to find out about bin Laden’s hideout. “That really surprises me that it was next to the Pakistan Military Academy,” he told Bloomberg TV. “I used to run 9 miles en route, maybe passing by the house."

The dysfunctional nature of the relationship between the United States and Pakistan was evident in today’s comments describing the operation. According to Pakistani officials, the operation was a joint U.S.-Pakistani operation, but U.S. officials insisted that only U.S. personnel were involved.

On the run since the 9/11 attacks, bin Laden has long been suspected of finding safe harbor in lawless parts of Pakistan, but he was known for never staying in one place too long. So the length of his time in the compound mystifies some former intelligence officials -- what brought him there, and why did he stay for so long?

Jack Cloonan, former FBI special agent with the bin Laden task force, suspects that there is more to the story than just the administration’s claim that the CIA tracked bin Laden’s couriers for several years. “What did it take to get him from wherever he was in August into this compound? And what made him go against his usual M.O. and stay at at a single location for months upon months? There must have been some human intelligence," he said. "Maybe we had an inside source who helped keep him there.”

Former CIA field officer Bob Baer also has his doubts about the official account of how bin Laden was tracked. "Intelligence agencies like the CIA and the US military will simply put out disinformation to protect the real sources, which could have been anything from intercepts to the Pakistani government itself," he told the BBC.

An administration official declined to provide more details about the operation, explaining that some discretion is necessary to avoid tipping off al Qaeda members to methods used by U.S. intelligence agencies. A CIA spokesperson did not return an email requesting more details on the operation either. Efforts to develop double agents among al Qaeda and the Taliban have backfired at times -- last year, a Jordanian double agent blew up seven CIA officers in a suicide bombing at a CIA base in Afghanistan, the second-most deadly attack in CIA history.

Foreign policy experts were split on the impact of bin Laden’s killing. The Council on Foreign Relations’ Richard Haass, the former U.S. coordinator for policy toward the future of Afghanistan, emphasized that it is “not a transformational event,” comparing al Qaeda to an out-of-control medical malady. “You might be successful at attacking this virus but you don’t get rid of the disease. The scourge of terrorism remains.”

He emphasized that al Qaeda’s other prominent leaders, including bin Laden’s number two Ayman al-Zawahiri and American-born Yemeni Anwar al Awlaki, have been preparing for such a possibility for a long time. “Whether either of them comes to the fore, there remains a degree of decentralization within al Qaeda with so many franchises that operate independently of each other," Haass said. "I don’t see this as altering what it might do.”

Though the act of killing bin Laden is symbolically very important, Haass stressed that information that U.S. Special Forces obtain from the computer hard drives found in the compound may ultimately prove more valuable.

Michael O'Hanlon of the Brookings Institute pointed out that over the past ten years, bin Laden's role in al Qaeda had become less operational and more inspirational, as the group itself transformed from a centralized operation into more of a conglomerate. Therefore, his death won't have much of an impact on al Qaeda's ability to pull off future terror attacks. “But his legend may continue to inspire” members of the group, O'Hanlon said.

But former CIA analyst Marc Sageman predicts that bin Laden’s death is further proof of al Qaeda’s decline in influence, adding that its franchises in Yemen, Iraq and North Africa are not that effective. “I suspect the al Qaeda senior leadership will splinter," he said. "This will create a vacuum.”

the Birth of Revelation

2011-04-27T18:43:00.000-07:00

Well, today the Prez 'finally' released his Legendary Long Form Birth Certificate. The Republicans have responded with, among other things, Taking Credit for Having Forced This Supremely Necessary Revelation, saying that It Was Faked, saying that the White House Is Using This - and invented the issue - for Smoke & Mirrors (several versions).

Fast-forward through the obvious counters like Why Couldn't the FN-White-House-Already have Produced the 'Fake' Instantly???? And the next loads, like Obama Musta Gotten Everyplace By Affirmative Action Free Passes from Shadowy Alien Plotters. O ye Teeps of little imagination! Catch up! Isn't it obbbbbbvious that the Halfrican with the Funny Moose-limb name has waited so long to settle the birth certificate bit so that EVERYONE would look at the document? Never mind that it has numbers we don't understand that may, if you bend 'em 'm' mix 'em just right, add up to the Masonic Kabbalistic Bible Code Number of the BEEESST? (remember to close your eyes, stop your ears and hum loudly when anyone mentions what FOX adds up to in alphabetic [the cannibalistic pagan Hawaiian alphabet doesn't have as many letters as the American alphabet!] and touchpad numerology). Never mind that the official that affirmed that the certificate was, um, official has a name that shares most letters with 'Obama'. Go right to the heart! Look at the name of 'Hussein's' mother: (1) It never says that his mother is or was a female, dispite the truthy-filled gonna-be-fact that Donald Trump's zillion$ will be able to prove that Hawaiians have anciently insisted that Mothers Be Female Unless They Are Seahorses. And if he doesn't, Glenn Beck will demand and get proof from the Almighty*. (2) His Mother is-or-was obviously a MALE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! What does this mean, America? Ism't it obvious? The Prezdint and his Daaarrk Cabal's next move is forcing every child in the USA, K-to-Grad School, Public to Private to Homeschool, to read (or have read to them, with GRAPHIC graphics!!) and admire Our President Has Two DADDYS!

Or you could just, on the 'alien' front, wonder how Donald (*a name that means 'Lord of All') Trump (a word that means a loud brass instrument, or, by Irish allusion, fulminating flatulence) has hair that defies all nature and gravity.

We Dug a Hole That Went Clear Down to China

2011-04-23T15:20:00.000-07:00

jg bennet ~ writing comments to David Frum's article
Click here: Why Main Street Takes Trump Seriously FrumForum#comments
and to the comments it elicited in FrumForum:

Apr 21, 2011 at 9:55 am

talk

we are already in a trade war with china and losing badly!

perhaps you are too naive or free trade propagandized to see that we are in a war? well open your eyes and put down the free trade kool-aid and if you have the courage to accept your error read this it is from the horses mouth.

we are losing the trade war big time!!

http://www.census.gov/foreign-trade/balance/c5700.html

china has already decimated our manufacturing base and you know what? that is how wars are won.

once a nations manufacturing base is destroyed it is to the victor goes the spoils. look at the south in the civil war they lost largely because the north had ten times the manufacturing base. we defeated germany by destroying their manufacturing base it is old school how to win a war 101…..

According to Forbes, the United States has lost an average of 50,000 manufacturing jobs per month since China joined the World Trade Organization in 2001. Hundreds of formerly thriving industries in the United States are being totally wiped out. China uses every trick in the book to win trade battles. They deeply subsidize their domestic industries, they openly steal technology, they blatantly manipulate currency rates and they allow their citizens to be paid slave labor wages. So yes, the products coming from China are cheaper, but in the process tens of thousands of factories in the U.S. are shutting down, millions of jobs are being lost and the ability of America to create wealth is being compromised.

~~~~~~~

Times are changing and like it or not free trade has terminal cancer.

A New Economic Paradigm

04/20/11 Singapore, Singapore – Since the 1980s, a culture of debt has arisen in the United States. That change was the consequence of a misguided trade policy that gave rise to a current account deficit of unprecedented size. Between 1982 and 2008, the United States imported $7.4 trillion more than it exported. It financed the shortfall on credit. That credit transformed the structure of the US economy.

Every country’s balance of payments must balance. Thus, between 1982 and 2008, $7.4 trillion in foreign capital entered the United States to finance that deficit. That amount was considerably more than the entire amount of US government debt held by the public at the end of 2008, $5.8 trillion. As the money flowed in, it created a credit-fueled economic bubble—just as foreign capital inflows blew Latin America into an economic bubble in the 1970s and the Asian crisis countries into economic bubbles in the 1990s.

In the process, the structure of the US economy changed. The manufacturing sector was decimated when exposed to ultra-low-wage foreign competition, while the service sector came to dominate the economy and employment as credit-driven asset price inflation created the wealth that made many of those services profitable.

Consequently, over less than three decades, as the US trade deficit grew to previously unimaginable levels, the country’s economic growth model became one of credit-financed consumption that depended on ever-increasing amounts of credit each year to sustain it. In 2008, when the private sector could no longer bear the burden of so much debt, that economic paradigm collapsed.

That paradigm of debt-fueled consumption can never be resuscitated. The US economy is now on government-funded life support that cannot be paid for over the long run. The limited nature of government resources makes it inevitable that a new economic paradigm will emerge over the next five to ten years. The future of the United States—and the rest of the world—will be determined by the form that new paradigm takes.

~~~~~~~~

valkayec

china will cave because their leaders are basically the mafia not patriots and could care less about their country/people or global politics and more about their personal fortunes………….

WikiLeaks: China’s Politburo a cabal of business empires

China’s ruling Politburo is a cabal of business empires that puts vested interests over the needs of the poor and curtails media freedoms to avoiding having shady business deals exposed in the press, according to a leaked US government diplomatic cable.

The damning description of China’s secretive leadership machinations also described how the descendants of China’s Communist revolutionaries – known as “princelings” – derided officials from less august revolutionary backgrounds as mere “shopkeepers”.

The assessment of what motivates China’s opaque top-level decision-makers was relayed to Washington in July 2009 in one of the 250,000 cables published by the WikiLeaks website.

“China’s top leadership had carved up China’s economic ‘pie,’” the US embassy contact said, “creating an ossified system in which ‘vested interests’ drove decision-making and impeded reform as leaders maneuvered to ensure that those interests were not threatened.” The US embassy contact also asserted there were no “reformers” within the top Communist Party leadership, only competing factions that sought to protect their business empires from attack by in-coming leaderships.

The source said that it was “well known” that former Chinese premier Li Peng and his family controlled China’s “electric power interests” while the country’s security tsar Zhou Yongkang controlled the state monopoly of the oil sector.

The wife of China’s premier Wen Jiabao, a popular figure in China often affectionately referred to as “grandpa Wen” for his feelings for the common man, is said to control China’s “precious gems” sector, while Jia Qinglin, ranked fourth in the Politburo, has “major Beijing real estate developments”.

the rest of the article is here http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/wikileaks/8184216/WikiLeaks-Chinas-Politburo-a-cabal-of-business-empires.html

2011-04-21T10:06:00.000-07:00

Disasters and odd reactions to them:
Twisters Leave Dozens Dead, Destruction in 6 States

Severe Storms' Death Toll Rises to 9 in 2 States

1 Year Later: Could BP Spill Actually Save the Gulf Coast?

Japan Mulls Strictly Enforcing Evacuation Zone Near Plant

Wildfires Rage Across Texas, Scorch Over 1 Million Acres

Cheap Summer Power Predicted for the U.S.

Click here: Arcadia "tree-sitters" get some Hollywood treatment - Whittier Daily News

LOS ANGELES - Hollywood supporters Tuesday called on prosecutors to drop a trespassing case against a group of tree sitters who've become known as the "Arcadia 4."

Actors Ed Begley Jr. and Daryl Hannah (tacitly providing a note of Nordic superiority :-}) said the four should not face charges for climbing into old-growth oaks on Jan. 12 while bulldozers destroyed an 11-acre woodland around them.

"They are heroes in my mind, for sitting in those beautiful trees, as (crews) were trying to cut them down," Begley said at a rally of supporters outside Los Angeles County District Attorney Steve Cooley's downtown headquarters.

Hundreds of old-growth oaks and sycamores were destroyed as part of a Los Angeles County Public Works Department flood-control project to clear the land and spread sediment dredged from Santa Anita Dam and other debris basins.

Begley said he wasn't discounting safety concerns.

"But there are gravel pits to put the debris in - spend the extra money and time to do that," he said, later adding that he'd "pony up" himself.

The Arcadia 4 - John Quigley, 50, of Glendale; Julia Jaye Posin, 23, of Venice Beach; Travis Jochimsen, 28, of Lancaster; and Andrea Bowers, 45, of Los Angeles - pleaded not guilty to one count each of trespassing and obstructing a police officer in Alhambra Superior Court on March 23.

All four rejected an offer of community service and payment of restitution from the DA's office and will appear in court again on Friday for a pre-trialhearing.

In a statement Tuesday, Cooley spokeswoman Sandi Gibbons said the tree-sitters had been extended a "reasonable case settlement."

"Those who engage in civil disobedience should accept the consequences of their acts if they disobey the law," Gibbons' statement said.

Other protesters were not arrested, she said, and the four were taken into custody and charged with trespass when they refused to leave the trees.

Camron Stone, a longtime neighbor of the woodland south of the Santa Anita Dam, said its destruction has raised awareness and organized opposition to other planned county projects.

"It's been a rallying point - there's a whole lot of support out there for what we're doing," said Stone, who is pushing for an investigation of the public works process in the Arcadia woodlands project.

"I think people are really starting to get the message," he said.

Stone pointed to the watchdog Urbanwild Network formed to improve communication between environmental and civic groups. They include the Altadena Crest Trail Restoration Working Group, Pasadena Audubon Society, the Sierra Madre Mountain Conservancy, the Sierra Club in Pasadena, California Oaks, the Pasadena Garden Club and the San Gabriel Mountains Chapter of the Native Plant Society.

"Local people do care about the wildlands in their back yards that are disappearing at an incredible rate," Stone said.

"The next thing we're facing is Hahamongna," he later said of the county's plans to clear 1.6 million cubic yards of debris from Devil's Gate Dam in Pasadena's Hahamongna Watershed Park.

The Urbanwild Network has listed Hahamongna as one of the "five most endangered urban wildlands" in the foothills of L.A. County. The others are the remaining 10 acres of Arcadia woodland; La Tuna Canyon, where plans are to clear woodland for sediment disposal; Whittier Narrows Natural Area, where plans were to build a $22-million water museum and parking lot; and development of Aliso Canyon Park in Granada Hills.

Hannah, who attended the protest at the "incredibly gorgeous" Arcadia woodland in January, said its destruction had raised awareness of other places at risk.

It served to "remind people there's something we can do" in holding public officials' decisions up to scrutiny, she said, "and to make wiser decisions than the death of natural systems."

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Click here: Kyrgyz Parliament Sacrifices 7 Sheep For Evil Spirits

BISHKEK, Kyrgyzstan — Lawmakers in Kyrgyzstan's raucous parliament have sacrificed seven sheep in what they call a bid to drive evil spirits out of the chamber.

Parliament press officer Shairbek Mamatoktorov said almost all the deputies attended Thursday morning's traditional ceremony. He says meat from the slaughtered animals will be sent to homes for the elderly and the disabled.

The impoverished Central Asian nation's fragile three-party coalition has descended into a flurry of squabbling. Deputies from two parties in the fragile coalition government even came to blows earlier this month and traded bitter accusations.

This month marked the first anniversary of a bloody uprising that led to the ouster of the country's authoritarian leader.

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(Donald Trump in secret:) I wonder if that'll work? I wonder if Joan Rivers and Gary Busey know? Got to try it!! What could it hurt? Maybe if I push 'em off Trump Tower - note to self: Get Apprentices to file their hooves and bung up their holes so they don't mess up the freight elevator on the way up. - Maybe they'll take out some otherwise useless bums when they hit below. That would be sooooooo KEWL!! Them spirits gotta like that! ...What if somebody gets pissy about it? What if they give me flack about it? Could I take them out? Naw, I only gotta blame Obama!

(Donald Trump in public:) While Kyrgyzstan has heretofore marched boldly from a Soviet satellite economy based on handwoven grit-encrusted wool products to a dynamic Free Market based on unrestricted trade in old Soviet military hardware, it is to be regretted that they are slipping back to socialist modes of state-provided red meat for those who are only Permanent Dregs on Society.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The Prophet: Now keep the Donald ever far from thy ewe lambs...Which thou shouldst have done all along, anyway!

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Which leads to:
Why Trump Soars

By DAVID BROOKS

Published: April 18, 2011

Very few people have the luxury of being freely obnoxious. Most people have to watch what they say for fear of offending their bosses and colleagues. Others resist saying anything that might make them unpopular.

But, in every society, there are a few rare souls who rise above subservience, insecurity and concern. Each morning they take their own abrasive urges out for parade. They are so impressed by their achievements, so often reminded of their own obvious rightness, that every stray thought and synaptic ripple comes bursting out of their mouth fortified by impregnable certitude. When they have achieved this status they have entered the realm of Upper Blowhardia.

These supremely accomplished blowhards offend some but also arouse intense loyalty in others. Their followers enjoy the brassiness of it all. They live vicariously through their hero’s assertiveness. They delight in hearing those obnoxious things that others are only permitted to think.

Thus, there has always been a fan base for the abrasive rich man. There has always been a market for books by people like George Steinbrenner, Ross Perot, Bill O’Reilly, Rush Limbaugh, Bobby Knight, Howard Stern and George Soros. There has always been a large clump of voters who believe that America could reverse its decline if only a straight-talking, obnoxious blowhard would take control.

And today, apparently, Donald Trump is that man. Trump, currently most famous for telling people that they are fired, has surged toward the top of the presidential primary polls. In one poll, he was in (remote) striking distance in a head-to-head against President Obama. Many people regard Trump as a joke and his popularity a disgrace. But he is actually riding a deep public fantasy: The hunger for the ultimate blowhard who can lead us through dark times.

He is riding something else: The strongest and most subversive ideology in America today. Donald Trump is the living, walking personification of the Gospel of Success.

It is obligatory these days in a polite society to have a complicated attitude toward success. If you attend a prestigious college or professional school, you are supposed to struggle tirelessly for success while denying that you have much interest in it. If you do achieve it, you are expected to shroud your wealth in locally grown produce, understated luxury cars and nubby fabrics.

Trump, on the other hand, is utterly oblivious to such conventions. When it comes to success, as in so many other things, he is the perpetual boy. He is the enthusiastic adventurer thrilled to have acquired a gleaming new bike, and doubly thrilled to be showing it off.

He labors under the belief — unacceptable in post-modernist, environmentally and politically aware polite society — that two is better than one, and that four is better than two. If he can afford a car, a flashy one is better than a boring one. In private jets, lavish is better than dull. In skyscrapers, brass is better than brick, and gold is better than brass.

This boyish enthusiasm for glory has propelled him to enormous accomplishment. He has literally changed the landscape of New York City, Chicago, Las Vegas and many places in between. He has survived a ruinous crash and come back stronger than ever.

Moreover, he shares this unambivalent attitude toward success with millions around the country. Though he cannot possibly need the money, he spends his days proselytizing the Gospel of Success through Trump University, his motivational speeches, his TV shows and relentlessly flowing books.

A child of wealth, his taste is more at home with the proletarian immigrants and the lower-middle-class strivers, who share his straightforward belief in the Gospel of Success, than he is among members of the haute bourgeoisie, who are above it. Like many swashbuckler capitalists, he is essentially anti-elitist.

Now, I don’t mean to say that Donald Trump is going to be president or get close. There is, for example, his hyper-hyperbolism and opportunism standing in the way.

In 2009, Trump published a book with a very Trumpian title: “Think Like a Champion.” In that book, he praised Obama’s “amazing” and “phenomenal” accomplishments. “Barack Obama proved that determination combined with opportunity and intelligence can make things happen — and in an exceptional way,” Trump gushed.

Now he spouts birther nonsense and calls Obama the worst president in American history. Now he leads rallies that make Michele Bachmann events look like the League of Women Voters. Even angry American voters want some level of seriousness, prudence and self-control.

But I do insist that Trump is no joke. He emerges from deep currents in our culture, and he is tapping into powerful sections of the national fantasy life. I would never vote for him, but I would never want to live in a country without people like him.

A version of this op-ed appeared in print on April 19, 2011, on page A25 of the New York edition with the headline: Why Trump Soars.

Damn Unlikely Disasters

2011-04-17T12:00:00.000-07:00

Just a quick groaning note in these mega-disastered times:

Is it HAARP? Is it Planet X or sompin misalligning Earth's orbit? Is it the Almighty doing a major number on account of our pre-Flood-like murderousness 'n' stuff, or...
Whatever it is, I'm old enough to remember when particular kinds of (allegedly natural) disasters kept to their own regions. Earthquakes in Nevada and Argentina? Tornadoes crossing mountain ranges to go from Oklahoma where the wind usually went sweepin cros the plain - to Virginia and the Carolinas? DIDN'T HAPPEN BEFORE. What's next? Blizzards in Benin? Tsunamis in Sioux City?

Bam & Boehner Smile at Budget Brilliance; Only LIVES on Block

2011-04-12T11:44:00.000-07:00

Who gets the money? The military-industrial complex, the SEC, dreamathonic programs of education and high-speed tech (how many billion$ and years will go just to 'study committees'?). What gets butchered? Health programs and repairing the lethally crumbling infrastructure. Just like WAR itself, it's all about (1) increasing and consolidating the power of the elites - the Plutonomy (as Citibank's leaked secret memo appropriately put it~ The memo's essence: At this time, there is no longer any real impediment to achievement of the ideal that the richest 1% of the World's population can hold the rest in utter thralldom except 'one man, one vote') and their syncophant minions and (2) reduction of 'excess' population.

Nothing lost the last presidential election for McCain more than the fear that he would be 'Bush Lite'. Maybe we should have wised up in the precious election when we we given the choice between two flaccid-scion old money elite warmonger hypocrite puppet Bonesmen ...I think of 'election choices' in the Soviet Union... At any rate, we seem to have had no choice except (letter-scramble fun!) BUSH LITE.

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Click here: Budget Tricks Helped Obama Save Favorite Programs From Cuts

Andrew Taylor, AP

WASHINGTON -- Details of last week's hard-won agreement to avoid a government shutdown and cut federal spending by $38 billion were released Tuesday morning. They reveal that the budget cuts, while historic, were significantly eased by pruning money left over from previous years, using accounting sleight of hand and going after programs President Barack Obama had targeted anyway.

Such moves permitted Obama to save favorite programs - Pell grants for poor college students, health research and "Race to the Top" aid for public schools, among others - from Republican knives.

And big holes in foreign aid and Environmental Protection Agency accounts were patched in large part. Republicans also gave up politically treacherous cuts to the Agriculture Department's food inspection program.

The full details of Friday's agreement were released early Tuesday Morning. They reveal a lot of one-time savings and cuts that officially "score" as cuts to pay for spending elsewhere, but often have little to no actual impact on the deficit.

As a result of the legerdemain, Obama was able to reverse many of the cuts passed by House Republicans in February when the chamber approved a bill slashing this year's budget by more than $60 billion. In doing so, the White House protected favorites like the Head Start early learning program, while maintaining the maximum Pell grant of $5,550 and funding for Obama's "Race to the Top" initiative that provides grants to better-performing schools.

Instead, the cuts that actually will make it into law are far tamer, including cuts to earmarks, unspent census money, leftover federal construction funding, and $2.5 billion from the most recent renewal of highway programs that can't be spent because of restrictions set by other legislation. Another $3.5 billion comes from unused spending authority from a program providing health care to children of lower-income families.

Still, Obama and his Democratic allies accepted $600 million in cuts to a community health centers programs, $414 million in cuts to grants for state and local police departments, and a $1.6 billion reduction in the Environmental Protection Agency budget, almost $1 billion of which would come from grants for clean water and other projects by local governments and Indian tribes.

The National Institutes of Health, which funds critical medical research, would absorb a $260 million cut, less than 1 percent of its budget, instead of the $1.6 billion cut sought by House Republicans. Family planning programs would bear a 5 percent cut rather than being completely eliminated.

Homeland security programs would have to take their first-ever cut, though much of the 2 percent decrease comes from a $786 million cut to first responder grants to state and local governments. The IRS would see its budget frozen but be spared the 5 percent cut sought by House Republicans.

About $10 billion of the cuts already have been enacted as the price for keeping the government open as negotiations progressed; lawmakers tipped their hand regarding another $10 billion or so when the House passed a spending bill last week that ran aground in the Senate.

For instance, the spending measure reaps $350 million by cutting a one-year program enacted in 2009 for dairy farmers then suffering from low milk prices. Another $650 million comes by not repeating a one-time infusion into highway programs passed that same year. And just last Friday, Congress approved Obama's $1 billion request for high-speed rail grants - crediting itself with $1.5 billion in savings relative to last year.

The underlying issue is long overdue legislation to finance the day-to-day budget of every Cabinet department, including the Pentagon, for the already half-completed 2011 fiscal year. The measure caps 2011 funding for such operating budgets at about $1.2 trillion.

About $10 billion of the cuts comes from targeting appropriations accounts previously used by lawmakers for so-called earmarks, those pet projects like highways, water projects, community development grants and new equipment for police and fire departments. Republicans had already engineered a ban on earmarks when taking back the House this year.

Republicans also claimed $5 billion in savings by capping payments from a fund awarding compensation to crime victims. Under an arcane bookkeeping rule - used for years by appropriators - placing a cap on spending from the Justice Department crime victims fund allows lawmakers to claim the entire contents of the fund as budget savings. The savings are awarded year after year.

Even before details of the bill came out, some conservative Republicans were assailing it. Rep. Mike Pence, R-Ind., said he probably won't vote for the measure, and tea party favorite Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., is a "nay" as well.

The $38 billion in cuts, Rep. Tim Huelskamp, R-Kan., wrote on his Facebook page, "barely make a dent" in the country's budget woes.

Huelskamp and other conservatives are also upset that most conservative policy "riders" added by Republicans were dropped from the legislation in the course of the talks.

The White House rejected GOP attempts to block the EPA's ability to issue global warming rules and other reversals of environmental regulations. Obama also forced Republicans to drop an effort to cut off Planned Parenthood from federal funding, as well as GOP moves to stop implementation of Obama's overhauls of health care and Wall Street regulation.

The administration also thwarted a GOP attempt to block new rules governing the Internet, as well as a National Rifle Association-backed attempt to neuter a little-noticed initiative aimed at catching people running guns to Mexican drug lords by having regulators gather information on batch purchases of rifles and shotguns.

Anti-abortion lawmakers did, however, succeed in winning a provision to block taxpayer-funded abortions in the District of Columbia. And House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, won funding for a personal initiative to provide federally funded vouchers for District of Columbia students to attend private schools.

Instead of sharply cutting the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodities Futures Trading Commission, both agencies would get increases under the legislation as they gear up to implement last year's overhaul of financial regulation. And renewable energy programs are cut $407 million below last year, almost 20 percent. The Army Corps of Engineers , which funds flood control and inland waterway projects, will absorb a $578 million cut, representing about 10 percent of its budget.

How to Plan a Budget: LIFE FIRST!

2011-04-09T12:44:00.000-07:00

Rajiv Srinivasan's article, Friday, Apr. 08, 2011 from

http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,2064039,00.html#ixzz1IxPuh0DM :

My eyes always cringe at the sight of a homeless veteran. As I know the pains of war firsthand, it breaks my heart to see that people who have sacrificed so much for my freedom are suffering to such a degree. But it's comforting to know that groups like the American Legion Homeless Veterans Housing Project in Jewett City, Conn., have been renovating old buildings and turning them into shelters for veterans for quite some time. They've raised millions of dollars from private businesses and caring citizens. The federal government has even said it would chip in the monthly rent of $875 for 15 veterans each year and provide additional funds for construction.

Unfortunately, in the recent round of intense budget cuts in Congress, this small funding for the homeless-shelter project was slashed, along with a total of $75 million in homeless-veteran benefits. As both a veteran and an American, I don't believe that veterans' programs should ever be isolated from budget cuts. After all, if the nation is hurting, it is we veterans who have sacrificed and will sacrifice first to protect her. But when I turn the pages of the budget to find a $7.4 million guaranteed commitment to fund a U.S. Army NASCAR sponsorship — and $20 million more from the National Guard to do the same — my blood begins to boil. See a TIME photo-essay on the effects of war at home.

Advertising consultants may argue that the marketing statistics actually make the NASCAR project worthwhile, that it's great "bang for the buck" in getting the Army slogan in front of millions of young auto fans salivating at the masculine thrill of modern sport. But is this really what we've come down to in our military-recruitment strategy? Have we boiled down the science of appealing to the core of the most dedicated young Americans to simple ad placement? To more-forgiving critics, this is just a miscalculation. To me, it is a telling exposition of how removed our policymakers are from the personal narratives of the men and women who execute their orders.

Running on my 24th month as a platoon leader — 12 of them in combat — I have had the chance to hear each of my soldiers' life stories from before their enlistment. Some had seen tremendous success; others had seen horrific family pains I know I could never endure. When I ask my soldiers why they joined the Army, each of their answers is unique and far more sophisticated than a halftime commercial.

Michael's dad was once in the Special Forces in Vietnam, and there was a distance between them for some time. Michael joined the Army against his father's wishes to better understand him. Since then, their relationship has grown closer than ever.

Doug hadn't graduated high school and was already in a bad crowd that would have probably led him to an early death or jail time. When his father died, there was no one in his family bringing home a consistent paycheck. He knew he had to make something of his life. He joined the Army. (See TIME's photo-essay "Going Home from Iraq.")

Aaron is a college graduate, deeply interested in politics and energy independence. He chose not to do the ROTC because, in his words, adding up his enlistment bonus and the accelerated promotion points from his degree, it was more profitable for him to enlist than commission. He's now one of the most senior and respected NCOs in the company, as well as a loving husband and father.

America's service members are not one-dimensional people. The military's target audience — those who have the fortitude to sign on the dotted line — are not simpletons who will be called to action by a race car. They are smart. They are thoughtful. They are not children but grown men and women, and they deserve to be treated as such.

That being said, when a smart, young high school student from Connecticut is considering enlistment, what sort of "ad placement" do homeless veterans on his neighborhood block present? What does that high school student think when he sees veterans unemployed or without health insurance?

For many homeless veterans, residual emotional and psychological effects of war are what led to their unfortunate circumstances. When we fail to support our veterans in dire conditions, we present military service as an unsustainable lifestyle to our prime recruitment audience. Those potential enlistees will deduce that they can better care for their families and themselves in other professions — and our front lines will be weaker for it. Thus, this isn't just a veterans'-affairs issue but a national-security issue and should be regarded as one. With every soldier I've met, the common denominator in their decision to join the Army was a caring mentor whom they wanted to make proud. Rather than spending millions chasing stock cars to get attention, why don't we invest in the mentors — the American veteran heroes — who can sell the honor and fulfillment of military service better than any athlete ever could?

I truly hope the American Legion Homeless Veterans Housing Project continues its venture. In the meantime, the manner in which our senior policymakers conceive the psyches of the soldiers, sailors, Marines and airmen who lay their lives on the line each day for this country needs a drastic shift. This oversimplification of our identities costs this nation money; it will eventually cost us military talent and perhaps even lives. If you know a soldier or veteran, don't just thank them for their service. Take the time to understand why they joined — and why they stayed — in the military. It's an issue we must all understand if we are to democratically influence the decisions that will protect our country. Otherwise, we'll just be driving in circles around the same problem for years to come.

Lieutenant Rajiv Srinivasan served for 12 months as a Stryker platoon leader in the Kandahar province of Afghanistan from 2009 to 2010. He hails from Roanoke, Va.
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I also read, from a friend's mail, a richly worthy article which went from the Wisconsin attempt to enslave public workers (my wrathy phrase, not that of the writer, superlative gentleman Larry James Gianakos/ lambros) to greater issues of the nation's tide, in which the author gave a gravely passionate account of his active trade uniomist father who enlisted to suffer in World War II, ans would take no government benefits that were offered him. This man called his (political science major son) to the television as the news of the highjacked 2000 election hardened, and told him that everything he'd fought for had ended. I was unable to find that article, but it seems to be developing into a series: Indeed our coming Second Civil War.

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I am certifiably sub-par; Rainman-in reverse in matters of mathematics and business transactions, but 'simplicity' and poverty can be instructive. So can the Gospel of Jesus Christ - remember what He actually said, and how His Apostles began to organize the nascent Church? Those bleedin' heart commies!! Those deniers of Glenn Beck and Donald-Trump-who-built-a-cloud-cuddled-golden-temple-to-his-own-glory!! If you dare to be so heretical as to try to get your cues from Jesus, you'll look at a budget by separating NEEDS (based on what actually and directly sustains physical life) from DESIRES (which may or may not be commendible but the warm-blooded vertebrate body can exist comfortably enough without. PRIORITIZE LIFE. No more warbux except to bring 'em home and care for them, and give them the jobs (if they can work) that are now given to foreigners. Some of these jobs ought to be made by the government (not private contractors eating the taxpayer's agonized teats) with OSHA, collective bargaining, union oversight, - especially to repair dams, levees, bridges, gas mains; put the power grid underground and guard it; etc. Don't pretend that affordable contraception is abortion - and if your religion tells you you shouldn't fund any kind of sexual protection except saying 'no', then become an activist for the succour of the sick and impoverished (you'll probably find much much more in the texts you allegedly hold holy that calls for the aid and defense of the non-greedy truly needy than you will about corralling the genitals). No more pretending that we need to sacifice more to the insatiable plutocracy that it might finally 'open is bowels of compassion' to Trickle Down and $aaaaaaaaaavvve us US. No more pretending that pet schemes of 'investing in our children's future' with new computer labs and college freebies is as/more important than feeding them now. Realizing NAFTA and Let It Burn and all the other guvmint doctrines to make desperation are from the sucking sadists of Planet Proctology, and get the hell rid of them (though if we could only make them pay reparations - !) ...See?... LIFE FIRST! What an economic concept!

Crystal Lee Sutton, the real NORMA RAE

2011-03-25T19:04:00.000-07:00

Hero and martyr:

(From Wikipedia)
Crystal Lee Sutton (née Pulley; December 31, 1940 – September 11, 2009),[1] formerly known as Crystal Lee Jordan, was an American union organizer and advocate who gained fame during the early 1970s. She was fired from her job at the J.P. Stevens plant in Roanoke Rapids, North Carolina for trying to unionize its employees.

Early life and career

Sutton was earning $2.65 an hour folding towels. The poor working conditions she and her fellow employees suffered compelled her to join forces with Eli Zivkovich, a union organizer, and attempt to unionize the J.P. Stevens employees. “Management and others treated me as if I had leprosy,” she stated.

She received threats and was finally fired from her job. But before she left, she took one final stand, filmed verbatim in the 1979 film Norma Rae. “I took a piece of cardboard and wrote the word UNION on it in big letters, got up on my work table, and slowly turned it around. The workers started cutting their machines off and giving me the victory sign. All of a sudden the plant was very quiet…” [2] Sutton was physically removed from the plant by police, but the result of her actions was staggering. The Amalgamated Clothing and Textile Workers Union won the right to represent the workers at the plant on August 28, 1974. Sutton later became a paid organizer for the ACTWU. Sutton was the 13th recipient of the Pacem in Terris Peace and Freedom Award in 1980. The honor was named after a 1963 encyclical letter, Pacem in Terris (Peace on Earth), by Pope John XXIII, that calls upon all people of good will to secure peace among all nations.[citation needed]

Norma Rae

The 1979 film Norma Rae, starring Sally Field, is based on Sutton's early union work. The movie is based on the 1975 book about her by New York Times reporter Henry "Hank" Leiferman Crystal Lee: A Woman of Inheritance. Her papers and memorabilia are located at Alamance Community College in North Carolina, where she took classes in nursing in 1988.

Personal life

Crystal Lee Pulley was born in Roanoke Rapids. She married at 19, gave birth to her first child at 20, and was widowed at 21. She had a second child out of wedlock at 22. She married Larry Jordan Jr. and had her third child at 25. Following the events that made her famous, and prior to the release of Norma Rae, she and Jordan were divorced. She married Lewis Sutton Jr. about 1977 (obituaries stated they were married 32 years).

Death

Crystal Lee Sutton died, aged 68, at Hospice House in Burlington, North Carolina, on Friday, September 11, 2009, from meningioma, a form of brain cancer that she had been diagnosed as having for several years. She had been struggling with her health insurance company, which had delayed her treatment.

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And there are a number of articles today, memorializing the centennial of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire, the horrible and scandalous tragedy which, at long last, began to turn public opinion - even among some members of the ruling elites - toward acceptance of the aims of 'muckraking progressives' and trade unionists, leading to what would become the American ideal of a prosperous working middle class... And how the inexplicable madness of the Tea Party -zombots of their proudly insatiable NeoCon mindcontrollers- is trying its mightiest to destroy anything that respects and protects the rights of genuinely productive people.

Chernobyl Survivor: RUN!!

2011-03-25T18:41:00.000-07:00

Click here: Chernobyl Cleanup Survivor's Message for Japan: 'Run Away as Quickly as Possible'

by Dana Kennedy Mar 22, 2011 – 1:23 PM

Natalia Manzurova, one of the few survivors among those directly involved in the long cleanup of Chernobyl, was a 35-year-old engineer at a nuclear plant in Ozersk, Russia, in April 1986 when she and 13 other scientists were told to report to the wrecked, burning plant in the northern Ukraine.

It was just four days after the world's biggest nuclear disaster spewed enormous amounts of radiation into the atmosphere and forced the evacuation of 100,000 people.

Manzurova and her colleagues were among the roughly 800,000 "cleaners" or "liquidators" in charge of the removal and burial of all the contamination in what's still called the dead zone.

Natalia Manzurova ... is one of the relatively few survivors among those directly involved in the cleanup of Chernobyl.

She spent 4 1/2 years helping clean the abandoned town of Pripyat, which was less than two miles from the Chernobyl reactors. The plant workers lived there before they were abruptly evacuated.

Manzurova, now 59 and an advocate for radiation victims worldwide, has the "Chernobyl necklace" -- a scar on her throat from the removal of her thyroid -- and myriad health problems. But unlike the rest of her team members, who she said have all died from the results of radiation poisoning, and many other liquidators, she's alive.

AOL News spoke with Manzurova about the nuclear disaster in Japan with the help of a translator on the telephone Monday from Vermont. Manzurova, who still lives in Ozersk, was beginning a one-week informational tour of the U.S. organized by the Beyond Nuclear watchdog group.

AOL News: What was your first reaction when you heard about Fukushima?

Manzurova: It felt like déjà vu. I felt so worried for the people of Japan and the children especially. I know the experience that awaits them.

But experts say Fukushima is not as bad as Chernobyl.

Every nuclear accident is different, and the impact cannot be truly measured for years. The government does not always tell the truth. Many will never return to their homes. Their lives will be divided into two parts: before and after Fukushima. They'll worry about their health and their children's health. The government will probably say there was not that much radiation and that it didn't harm them. And the government will probably not compensate them for all that they've lost. What they lost can't be calculated.

What message do you have for Japan?

Run away as quickly as possible. Don't wait. Save yourself and don't rely on the government because the government lies. They don't want you to know the truth because the nuclear industry is so powerful.

Natalia Manzurova, now 59, has suffered a variety of ailments since she worked at Chernobyl, but she says she is the only member of her team still alive.

When you were called to go to Chernobyl, did you know how bad it was there?

I had no idea and never knew the true scope until much later. It was all covered in secrecy. I went there as a professional because I was told to -- but if I was asked to liquidate such an accident today, I'd never agree. The sacrifices the Fukushima workers are making are too high because the nuclear industry was developed in such a way that the executives don't hold themselves accountable to the human beings who have to clean up a disaster. It's like nuclear slavery.

What was your first impression of Chernobyl?

It was like a war zone where a neutron bomb had gone off. I always felt I was in the middle of a war where the enemy was invisible. All the houses and buildings were intact with all the furniture, but there wasn't a single person left. Just deep silence everywhere. Sometimes I felt I was the only person alive on a strange planet. There are really no words to describe it.

What did your work as a liquidator entail?

First, we measured radiation levels and got vegetation samples to see how high the contamination was. Then bulldozers dug holes in the ground and we buried everything -- houses, animals, everything. There were some wild animals that were still alive, and we had to kill them and put them in the holes.

Were any pets left in the houses?

The people had only a few hours to leave, and they weren't allowed to take their dogs or cats with them. The radiation stays in animals' fur and they can't be cleaned, so they had to be abandoned. That's why people were crying when they left. All the animals left behind in the houses were like dried-out mummies. But we found one dog that was still alive.

Where did you find the dog and how did he survive?

We moved into a former kindergarten to use as a laboratory and we found her lying in one of the children's cots there. Her legs were all burned from the radiation and she was half blind. Her eyes were all clouded from the radiation. She was slowly dying.

Were you able to rescue her?

No. Right after we moved in, she disappeared. And this is the amazing part. A month later we found her in the children's ward of the (abandoned) hospital. She was dead. She was lying in a child's bed, the same size bed we found her in the kindergarten. Later we found out that she loved children very much and was always around them.

How did working in the dead zone begin to affect your health?

I started to feel as if I had the flu. I would get a high temperature and start to shiver. What happens during first contact with radiation is that your good flora is depleted and the bad flora starts to flourish. I suddenly wanted to sleep all the time and eat a lot. It was the organism getting all the energy out.

How much radiation were you subjected to?

We were never told. We wore dosimeters which measured radiation and we submitted them to the bosses, but they never gave us the results.

But didn't you realize the danger and want to leave?

Yes, I knew the danger. All sorts of things happened. One colleague stepped into a rainwater pool and the soles of his feet burned off inside his boots. But I felt it was my duty to stay. I was like a firefighter. Imagine if your house was burning and the firemen came and then left because they thought it was too dangerous.

When did you discover the thyroid tumor?

They found it during a routine medical inspection after I had worked there several years. It turned out to be benign. I don't know when it started to develop. I had an operation to remove half the thyroid gland. The tumor grew back, and last year I had the other half removed. I live on (thyroid) hormones now.

Why did you go back to Chernobyl after getting a thyroid tumor?

Right around the time of my operation, the government passed a law saying the liquidators had to work for exactly 4 1/2 years to get our pension and retire. If you left even one day early, you would not get any benefits.

Really? That seems beyond cruel.

It's why the nuclear industry is dangerous. They want to deny the dangers. They kept changing the law about what benefits we'd get because if they admitted how much we were affected, it would look bad for the industry. Now we hardly get any benefits.

Did your health worsen after you finally finished work at Chernobyl?

I was basically disabled at 43. I was having fits similar to epileptic fits. My blood pressure was sky high. It was hard to work for more than six months a year. The doctors didn't know what to do with me. They wanted to put me in a psychiatric ward and call me crazy. Finally they admitted it was because of the radiation.

NUKES: NEVER WORTH IT

2011-03-19T21:39:00.000-07:00

The Angel of the Pit should have never been let loose. To have pursued spitting the atom is perhap the greatest testament to mankind's arrogant, insanely stupid rashness.

Here are some recent woeful stories on the madness that continues as Gojira bangs and breathes on the world:
Japan's Own Erin Brockovich, Hitomi Kamanaka, Laments: 'I Wish I Could Have Done More'

http://www.aolnews.com/2011/03/18/japans-own-erin-brockovich-hitomi-kamanaka-laments-i-wish-i/

Mar 18, 2011 – 6:34 Dana Kennedy Contributor

Hitomi Kamanaka remembers the reaction she got six months ago when she confronted a top official in the city of Fukushima with her fears about the local nuclear power plant.

"I told him the reactors were too old, that they were dangerous, and he didn't say a word," said Kamanaka, 52, a filmmaker who has been on a 13-year crusade to educate Japan about the potential hazards of the country's 54 nuclear reactors. "He was silent. He couldn't answer. And I know why. I know the tremendous pressure he was under and how powerless he was."

One of Kamanaka's worries that day in Fukushima concerned the Japanese government's increasing reliance on mixed oxide (MOX) fuel, which contains reprocessed plutonium as well as uranium.

MOX fuel, which was loaded into Fukushima's Reactor 3 last year, gets hotter than regular uranium-based fuel and is harder to cool down. Critics say MOX is especially dangerous for use in older reactors such as the ones at Fukushima. Because of the plutonium, MOX is also believed to pose a bigger health risk in the event of serious accidents.

Filmmaker Hitomi Kamanaka has been on a 13-year crusade to educate Japan about the potential hazards of its nuclear reactors.

But when Kamanaka first heard the news of the recent earthquake and tsunami, and the resulting damage done to the now dangerously crippled Fukushima reactors, she found it hard not to blame herself.

"I wish there had been more of me, I wish I could have done more," she told AOL News today via Skype from her Tokyo apartment.

"I'm both angry and sad. It's like I have a burning inside myself but I can't cry. It's too big to hold myself. I wish the mass media here had taken all this more seriously."

Kamanaka, who is single and does not have children, is Japan's answer to U.S. environmental activist Erin Brockovich and perhaps the most influential figure in the country's small, grassroots anti-nuclear movement.

She has made a trilogy of documentary films since 2003 designed to raise Japanese awareness on over-reliance on nuclear energy and has shown them around the country, sometimes during protests at nuclear power plants. The most recent, "Ashes to Honey," was released last month. She was showing the film in a Tokyo theater when the quake hit March 11.

http://www.greenconduct.com/articles/2011/02/02/from-ashes-to-honey-nuclear-alternatives/#

Kamanaka said that while making a documentary in Iraq in 1998, she found many children there dying as a result of low-level radiation from Desert Storm-era U.S. weapons using depleted uranium.

She said a 14-year-old girl named Rasha who grew up near the weapon-littered battlefields of Basra wrote her a note saying "Don't forget me" right before she died of leukemia.

Kamanaka has battled big utility companies and politicians over Japan's heavy dependence on nuclear energy, using letter-writing campaigns, in-person confrontations and repeated showings of her films. She has also spoken in the U.S. on the issue, most recently at the University of Chicago in 2008.

"They hate me," Kamanaka said. "But I wasn't just pointing fingers. I want us to change and go forward together. I wanted to open a dialogue so the Japanese people could have more information about what was going on at all the reactors and so we could talk about other sources of energy. But they refused."

The country's 54 reactors provide some 30 percent of Japan's electricity. Before this week's nuclear crisis, that share was expected to increase to at least 40 percent by 2017.

Kamanaka symbolizes the struggle faced by anyone who challenges the Japanese government and the country's big utilities, like Tokyo Electric Co. (TEPCO), which operates the Fukushima nuclear plant.

"The Japanese government are the ones behind TEPCO, make no mistake about it," Kamanaka said. "Everything is tied together in Japan at these high levels. It can get depressing and lonely to try to fight it."

As part of its plan to push for the use of MOX fuel in Japanese reactors, Japan began offering subsidies of $250,000 a year for five years to local governments that agreed to the use of the fuel in the reactors in their regions, according to documents available on the Tokyo-based Citizens' Nuclear Information Center website.

Kamanaka's crusade also takes aim at what it considers a too-cozy relationship between Japan's mainstream media and the government. The majority of important Japanese journalists are almost all members of so-called "press clubs" that are attached to the various ministries, such as the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI).

Because Kamanaka is not a member of a press club, she and others can't get into the government news conferences. The big newspapers and TV networks, in turn, were not terribly interested in writing about the issues she presented, she said.

"Hitomi has been a very significant influence in the movement against nuclear energy and power plants within Japan," the Australian-born Philip White of the Citizen's Nuclear Information Center, told AOL News today. "Her films have had an impact on Japanese of all ages, and she's especially managed to get a number of young people involved."

Kamanaka, White and others interviewed by AOL News said that big Japanese media also are hamstrung by the fact that Tokyo Electric is one of the biggest advertisers on television and in newspapers.

White recalled that his boss was invited by one of Japan's biggest TV news personalities to be on a televised panel after the Japanese earthquakes three years ago.

The TV anchor "is somewhat progressive, and before the show started, he began thinking out loud that he should say something against nuclear power plants," White said. "But then he asked if TEPCO was a sponsor and he was told it was. So he didn't say anything. This is how they control criticism."

Calls and e-mails to TEPCO by AOL News this week were not returned.

Kamanaka has also faced the Japanese people's centuries-old aversion to revealing too much in either their professional or private lives.

"There is a Japanese cultural phenomenon of not being that transparent," said Mark Hibbs, a Berlin-based nuclear policy expert with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. "They don't have the belief system that a lot of communication is a good thing. That's one of the many issues that cropped up at the start of the disaster at the plant. They weren't necessarily holding things back; it's just not their style to tell all."

Kamanaka is not so sure that the Japanese are hearing the whole truth about damage at the plant and resulting radiation levels.

"I don't think they're telling the truth," she said. "They're afraid that everyone will panic. And then what? Because we have nowhere to go. We're on an island."

Kamanaka herself is planning to leave Tokyo soon because of rising radiation levels and seek refuge in the western end of the country.

"After World War II, the Japanese felt the world didn't respect them and they just wanted money and success," she said. "But they ended up destroying nature and polluting everything. I hope we learn from this."

and

Click here: Bid to 'Protect Assets' Slowed Reactor Fight - WSJ.com snips

The plant's operator—Tokyo Electric Power Co., or Tepco—considered using seawater from the nearby coast to cool one of its six reactors at least as early as last Saturday morning, the day after the quake struck. But it didn't do so until that evening, after the prime minister ordered it following an explosion at the facility. Tepco didn't begin using seawater at other reactors until Sunday.

Tepco was reluctant to use seawater because it worried about hurting its long-term investment in the complex, say people involved with the efforts. Seawater, which can render a nuclear reactor permanently inoperable, now is at the center of efforts to keep the plant.

and (remember Chile's recent 9.0 / bigger than March 2011 Japan quake...)

Click here: US and Chile Sign Nuclear Technology Deal

FrumForum ~ BBC News reports:

The United States has signed a long-awaited nuclear accord with Chile despite growing misgivings about the safety of nuclear power in Chile.

The Chilean Government has stressed the deal was about training nuclear engineers and not building a reactor.

But it comes amid fears over a radiation leak at the Fukushima nuclear plant in Japan following last week’s huge earthquake.

Chile suffered its own devastating earthquake last year.

Many environmental groups in Chile have criticised the decision to invest more in nuclear energy as other countries are scaling back their nuclear plans.

‘Closed doors’

The deal was due to be signed by President Barack Obama in a high profile ceremony with his Chilean counterpart, Sebastian Pinera, on his visit to Chile early next week.

But the agreement was signed behind closed doors by Chilean Foreign Minister Alfredo Moreno and US ambassador to Chile Alejandro Wolff.

Mr Moreno reiterated that Chile is not able to produce nuclear energy.

“Chile is not in a condition to have nuclear energy and what has happened in Japan has done nothing more than underline that situation,” he said.

In an Apocalyptic Mood...

2011-03-12T13:17:00.000-08:00

Stream of cracked-dam consciousness:

Record earthquake in Japan with tsunamis all over the Pacific (arrived or coming soon; same with 'inestimable damage') and serious damage to multiple nukes with possibilties of global radiation-cloud catastrophes.

America held hostage by insatiable demonic fascist globalist plutocrats and their lemming-zombie hordes -(I paraphrase, invoke and illustrate: Christine O'Donnell / 'fully functioning' rodent brains in humans...maybe that's what make them think they're so superlatively the victims; the persecuted, that all complaints beyond their own must be the fault of the sufferers; that God must be Teaching a Lesson to the ungrateful bloated parasitic perverted pagan pod-people luxurious layabout leftist nazi nasty anti-gun antiwar crudbum commie [Holly-] weirdo Who Stubbornly See Things Differently Than the Rattlesnake Flag Tea Party and their American Exceptionalism Special Dispensation inside-out-and-backwards interpretation of the Holy Bible and [note to the Teep-indoctrinated: separate entity:] Constitution of the United States) and by the MSNBC -type pundits and dittoheads, equally as mindlessly and hypocritically self-righteous when doing the knee-jerk genuflection to abortion and the 'multiculturalism' that says How Dare You Say 'Invasive Aliens' Even If You Mean Plants and Then It's Still Crypto-KKK Rude and Besides Which Aliens and Even Sharia Court Beliefs Cannot Possibly Do Damage Here. In between: Waffling weenie POTUS. It's contagious: Sometimes you can't blame him; sometimes you really can!

Topping the news: More on Charlie Sheen!!!!!!

Our infrastructure is an everywhere-disaster-waiting-to-happen and I'm stuck in the (dam) middle of all kindsa Potential Catastrophes... -No! Wait! Like Pluto being de-planet-ated, like this Great Depression II being downgraded to Climbing Out of an (Um) Pretty Serious Recession, the Prez said the Japanese Earthquake was potentially 'catastrophic'. I guess this was clarified by the Ploughshares guy on Rachel Maddow who said the worst case scenario for subsequent nuclear disaster could be much worse than all the shakin' & tsunami afflictions. Congratulations on your upgrade, word 'Catastrophe'. Boy, 'Cataclysm' must be Top Outa Sight!!

Maybe t'was the year after year of endless wars and weather horrors - and horror as the favored form of entertainment - that upped the ante.

Then there's personal/family health, income and infrastructure. =Sigh= =Waaaaah!=

I usually don't buy into the apocalyptic mindfork cropp, but today I'm in the mood to see The Birds, especially the old Irish guy who says complacently, 'it's the end of the World'. Ah. (LaVerne and Shirley fans may remember when Shirley settled down in the haunted house [after hysteria]: 'LaVerne, I am at PEACE.' And I always love Magnolia. Really, doesn't it seem just about the ripe time to RAIN FROGS????

Michael Moore's AMERICA IS NOT BROKE

2011-03-09T20:28:00.000-08:00

A wonderful speech. Anyone aware of what we shovel into the military and 'socialism for the rich' bottomless pit (including its special connection in 'foreign aid' which has long been primarily a matter of gouging US taxpayers to pay for arms bought from 'private contractors to give or 'loan' to opprobrious foreign forces~ perhaps both sides... Often against their allegedly own people, and/or US) knows that America is not broke (just indebted to China, Canada, Yurp, etc.), but if we don't reverse the takeover by insatiable vampire plutocrats, hypocrite demagogues, and their 'we're the only victims!' zombots and aliens, AMERICA will be broken, perhaps irrecoverably. The TIME is long past NOW.

http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/mike-friends-blog/america-is-not-broke

America is not broke.

Contrary to what those in power would like you to believe so that you'll give up your pension, cut your wages, and settle for the life your great-grandparents had, America is not broke. Not by a long shot. The country is awash in wealth and cash. It's just that it's not in your hands. It has been transferred, in the greatest heist in history, from the workers and consumers to the banks and the portfolios of the uber-rich.

Today just 400 Americans have the same wealth as half of all Americans combined.

Let me say that again. 400 obscenely rich people, most of whom benefited in some way from the multi-trillion dollar taxpayer "bailout" of 2008, now have as much loot, stock and property as the assets of 155 million Americans combined. If you can't bring yourself to call that a financial coup d'état, then you are simply not being honest about what you know in your heart to be true.

And I can see why. For us to admit that we have let a small group of men abscond with and hoard the bulk of the wealth that runs our economy, would mean that we'd have to accept the humiliating acknowledgment that we have indeed surrendered our precious Democracy to the moneyed elite. Wall Street, the banks and the Fortune 500 now run this Republic -- and, until this past month, the rest of us have felt completely helpless, unable to find a way to do anything about it.

I have nothing more than a high school degree. But back when I was in school, every student had to take one semester of economics in order to graduate. And here's what I learned: Money doesn't grow on trees. It grows when we make things. It grows when we have good jobs with good wages that we use to buy the things we need and thus create more jobs. It grows when we provide an outstanding educational system that then grows a new generation of inventors, entrepreneurs, artists, scientists and thinkers who come up with the next great idea for the planet. And that new idea creates new jobs and that creates revenue for the state. But if those who have the most money don't pay their fair share of taxes, the state can't function. The schools can't produce the best and the brightest who will go on to create those jobs. If the wealthy get to keep most of their money, we have seen what they will do with it: recklessly gamble it on crazy Wall Street schemes and crash our economy. The crash they created cost us millions of jobs. That too caused a reduction in tax revenue. Everyone ended up suffering because of what the rich did.

The nation is not broke, my friends. Wisconsin is not broke. Saying that the country is broke is repeating a Big Lie. It's one of the three biggest lies of the decade: 1) America is broke, 2) Iraq has WMD, and 3) The Packers can't win the Super Bowl without Brett Favre.

The truth is, there's lots of money to go around. LOTS. It's just that those in charge have diverted that wealth into a deep well that sits on their well-guarded estates. They know they have committed crimes to make this happen and they know that someday you may want to see some of that money that used to be yours. So they have bought and paid for hundreds of politicians across the country to do their bidding for them. But just in case that doesn't work, they've got their gated communities, and the luxury jet is always fully fueled, the engines running, waiting for that day they hope never comes. To help prevent that day when the people demand their country back, the wealthy have done two very smart things:

1. They control the message. By owning most of the media they have expertly convinced many Americans of few means to buy their version of the American Dream and to vote for their politicians. Their version of the Dream says that you, too, might be rich some day -- this is America, where anything can happen if you just apply yourself! They have conveniently provided you with believable examples to show you how a poor boy can become a rich man, how the child of a single mother in Hawaii can become president, how a guy with a high school education can become a successful filmmaker. They will play these stories for you over and over again all day long so that the last thing you will want to do is upset the apple cart -- because you -- yes, you, too! -- might be rich/president/an Oscar-winner some day! The message is clear: keep you head down, your nose to the grindstone, don't rock the boat and be sure to vote for the party that protects the rich man that you might be some day.

2. They have created a poison pill that they know you will never want to take. It is their version of mutually assured destruction. And when they threatened to release this weapon of mass economic annihilation in September of 2008, we blinked. As the economy and the stock market went into a tailspin, and the banks were caught conducting a worldwide Ponzi scheme, Wall Street issued this threat: Either hand over trillions of dollars from the American taxpayers or we will crash this economy straight into the ground. Fork it over or it's Goodbye savings accounts. Goodbye pensions. Goodbye United States Treasury. Goodbye jobs and homes and future. It was friggin' awesome and it scared the shit out of everyone. "Here! Take our money! We don't care. We'll even print more for you! Just take it! But, please, leave our lives alone, PLEASE!"

The executives in the board rooms and hedge funds could not contain their laughter, their glee, and within three months they were writing each other huge bonus checks and marveling at how perfectly they had played a nation full of suckers. Millions lost their jobs anyway, and millions lost their homes. But there was no revolt (see #1).

Until now. On Wisconsin! Never has a Michigander been more happy to share a big, great lake with you! You have aroused the sleeping giant known as the working people of the United States of America. Right now the earth is shaking and the ground is shifting under the feet of those who are in charge. Your message has inspired people in all 50 states and that message is: WE HAVE HAD IT! We reject anyone who tells us America is broke and broken. It's just the opposite! We are rich with talent and ideas and hard work and, yes, love. Love and compassion toward those who have, through no fault of their own, ended up as the least among us. But they still crave what we all crave: Our country back! Our democracy back! Our good name back! The United States of America. NOT the Corporate States of America. The United States of America!

So how do we make this happen? Well, we do it with a little bit of Egypt here, a little bit of Madison there. And let us pause for a moment and remember that it was a poor man with a fruit stand in Tunisia who gave his life so that the world might focus its attention on how a government run by billionaires for billionaires is an affront to freedom and morality and humanity.

Thank you, Wisconsin. You have made people realize this was our last best chance to grab the final thread of what was left of who we are as Americans. For three weeks you have stood in the cold, slept on the floor, skipped out of town to Illinois -- whatever it took, you have done it, and one thing is for certain: Madison is only the beginning. The smug rich have overplayed their hand. They couldn't have just been content with the money they raided from the treasury. They couldn't be satiated by simply removing millions of jobs and shipping them overseas to exploit the poor elsewhere. No, they had to have more -- something more than all the riches in the world. They had to have our soul. They had to strip us of our dignity. They had to shut us up and shut us down so that we could not even sit at a table with them and bargain about simple things like classroom size or bulletproof vests for everyone on the police force or letting a pilot just get a few extra hours sleep so he or she can do their job -- their $19,000 a year job. That's how much some rookie pilots on commuter airlines make, maybe even the rookie pilot who flew me here to Madison today. He told me he's stopped hoping for a pay increase. All he's asking for now is enough down time so that he doesn't have to sleep in his car between shifts at O'Hare airport. That's how despicably low we have sunk! The wealthy couldn't be content with just paying this man $19,000 a year. They had to take away his sleep. They had to demean him and dehumanize him and rub his face in it. After all, he's just another slob, isn't he?

And that, my friends, is Corporate America's fatal mistake. But trying to destroy us they have given birth to a movement -- a movement that is becoming a massive, nonviolent revolt across the country. We all knew there had to be a breaking point some day, and that point is upon us. Many people in the media don't understand this. They say they were caught off guard about Egypt, never saw it coming. Now they act surprised and flummoxed about why so many hundreds of thousands have come to Madison over the last three weeks during brutal winter weather. "Why are they all standing out there in the cold?" I mean, there was that election in November and that was supposed to be that!

"There's something happening here, and you don't know what it is, do you ...?"

America ain't broke! The only thing that's broke is the moral compass of the rulers. And we aim to fix that compass and steer the ship ourselves from now on. Never forget, as long as that Constitution of ours still stands, it's one person, one vote, and it's the thing the rich hate most about America -- because even though they seem to hold all the money and all the cards, they begrudgingly know this one unshakeable basic fact: There are more of us than there are of them!

Madison, do not retreat. We are with you. We will win together.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
...And the biggest lie of the last 50 years is that native born US citizens won't work.

Abort the House Budget Bill

2011-02-19T12:42:00.000-08:00

(This copies a reply I made to a talkradiosucks.com article:)

I'm against abortion* and the genocidal bigot Margaret Sanger's dissemblingly-named organization, as I'm against all manner of cruelty and literal as well as metaphorical bloodsucking - so votes to defund PP and its like are fine with me, and represent the one bright spot and tiny twinkle of anything that passes for the 'public interest' and 'Christian values' professed by most of the House members who pushed through this otherwise SADISTIC, MURDERING budget bill.

*Abortion should be allowed in known cases of teratogeny and other incurable sepsis and morbidity. The Republican Party as it is now is a toxic monster made from the unnatural fusing of NeoCons/Global Corporate Statists, Libertarians, and strange zealots who chant their allegiance to the Bible and the US Constitution without having any realistic concept of the essential messages to be found in those documents. Would that IT would have been 'from ... womb untimely ripp't!'

'PRO-LIFE' is only something to be claimed by those who are willing to nurture those kids after they're breathing (and how about pre-natal care, as a lagniappe?!), and honor their lives till the natural expiration point by opposing war and environmental degradation, by promoting an economy that is local/native, independent and diverse, and restricts taxation and the expendatures therefrom to those things that may be of direct (not 'trickle down' will-o'-the-wisps) advantage to ALL.

Two Forms of INVASION USA

2011-02-11T19:22:00.000-08:00

While I fantasize about supernatural power reforming everyone (insofar as I/they/we may need it), and always pray for the soon advent of universal salvation, there's a bummed-out, sarcastic-caustic, way-more-pragmatic-than-Christian-or-intellectual emotional prompting in me that looks at the problem (and character[s]) of GANG-BANGERS, and just sometimes wishes for the Xena Solution ('Kill them all!!'). Just saw part of a thing on TV on Miami's (claiming-Haitian-identity-whether-native-born-citizens-or-not) Zoe Pound Gang. These unspeakables torture children to extort the kids' parents, and sacrifice them to witchdoctors' loa.

I know. Some gangsters reform. Some are pulled into gangs young and helplessly - but, oh -! I think~ Couldn't we just grab all members of these proven reallyreally murderous criminal organizations, run some tests on 'em, weed out those with any promise of being retreaded as mensches, and send the sadistic rest to some super-secure hole to =ah= carve out 'new friendships' among themselves?

Because so many gangs are international/colonial, I went to search the Zoe Pound on VDare, which damnably allows overt racism, but remains a valuable source of news items on the un- or ineffectively- contested toxic tide of foreigners flooding our nation. I didn't find the Zoe Pound, so I tried a more general 'gang' search, and got this facetious use of 'gang'... With very important implications. From 6 years ago:

View From Lodi, CA: Look Out Teachers; The H-1B Visa Gang Wants Your Job By Joe Guzzardi
http://www.vdare.com/guzzardi/050826_vfl.htm

I'm very pro- trade unionist (not pro their corruptions!), but have thought the California State Teachers Association to be among the rottenest. Either their power is misrepresented and they're being steamrollered, or they're almost unimaginably warped, if they allow this. What the Californication??!!

Edmund Burke Asks What May Be Done With 'Freedom'.

2011-02-11T18:00:00.000-08:00

http://www.frumforum.com/edmund-burke-blogs-egypt

When I see the spirit of liberty in action, I see a strong principle at work; and this, for a while, is all I can possibly know of it. The wild gas, the fixed air, is plainly broke loose; but we ought to suspend our judgment until the first effervescence is a little subsided, till the liquor is cleared, and until we see something deeper than the agitation of a troubled and frothy surface. I must be tolerably sure, before I venture publicly to congratulate men upon a blessing, that they have really received one. Flattery corrupts both the receiver and the giver, and adulation is not of more service to the people than to kings. I should, therefore, suspend my congratulations on the new liberty of France until I was informed how it had been combined with government, with public force, with the discipline and obedience of armies, with the collection of an effective and well-distributed revenue, with morality and religion, with the solidity of property, with peace and order, with civil and social manners. All these (in their way) are good things, too, and without them liberty is not a benefit whilst it lasts, and is not likely to continue long. The effect of liberty to individuals is that they may do what they please; we ought to see what it will please them to do, before we risk congratulations which may be soon turned into complaints. Prudence would dictate this in the case of separate, insulated, private men, but liberty, when men act in bodies, is power. Considerate people, before they declare themselves, will observe the use which is made of power and particularly of so trying a thing as new power in new persons of whose principles, tempers, and dispositions they have little or no experience, and in situations where those who appear the most stirring in the scene may possibly not be the real movers.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edmund_Burke

Works by Edmund Burke at Project Gutenberg (including his collected works in twelve volumes)

Collected works of Founding Fathers like John Adams, James Madison, and Charles Pinkney will continue the edification (of those days till now, of the past and speculative future). READ THEM. They knew how to THINK in those days!

'Hosni Mubarak's Economic Achievements'

2011-02-11T11:43:00.000-08:00

Hosni Mubarak's Economic Achievements - DailyFinance

http://www.dailyfinance.com/story/hosni-mubaraks-economic-achievements/19838632/

After an article which largely celebrated Mubarak's 'reforms' of 'economic liberalism /free markets' (privatization, 'friendliness' to business & globalist corporations, anti-tariffs, etc.), the truth of the same to most Egyptians, and most people in the world: (While) 'The economy' (meaning GNP / Some folks getting rich*) 'is doing great ... there was no trickle-down' and average folks just kept on suffering.

*Said on TV: Mubarak 'kleptomaniacally' took about $17 BILLION out of the country for himself. The Swiss have frozen is bank accounts.

MUBARAK RESIGNS, Gives Authority to Military

2011-02-11T11:37:00.000-08:00

Mubarak Resigns; Egyptian Streets Erupt in Cheers

(snips from an article byTheunis Bates on AOL. I have not given the hyperlink, since its title reflects facts no longer true).

Hosni Mubarak resigned as Egyptian president today and handed control to the military, driven from the top after 30 years of autocratic rule.

Seconds after the nationally televised announcement by Vice President Omar Suleiman, celebrations broke out in Cairo's central Tahrir Square, ground zero of the protest movement, which was packed with some 250,000 protesters. They greeted the news with shouts of "Egypt is free! Egypt is free!"

That transition will be overseen by the High Council of the Armed Forces -- a group of generals headed by Defense Minister Mohamed Hussein Tantawi, 75 -- which is now in charge of the country. In a statement issued hours before Mubarak's resignation, the council promised that it would support free and fair elections, and would also scrap the much-hated emergency laws instituted when Mubarak took power in 1981, and which grant police almost unlimited powers of arrest.

"What are you waiting for?" one protester yelled at soldiers stationed outside Mubarak's main residence, Oruba, in northern Cairo, The Associated Press reported this morning. "Did you sign an oath and pledge your allegiance to the president or the people?" shouted another member of the 1,000-strong crowd.

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

DID YOU SIGN AN OATH AND PLEDGE YOUR ALLEGIANCE TO THE PRESIDENT OR THE PEOPLE?

Superb. This is one of the most important questions for all people, all nations, all constitutions of the World, as long as human governments exist.

Do we know????? 'We' as anyone in the World; 'we' specifically as citizens of the United States. We in the USA know that the President is Commander-in-Chief -but we have recently seen POTUS-power ignored, mocked and defied (yea, even in popular electronic media) toward Obama, particularly, and obviously, wantonly subverted and co-opted by Cheney/Rumsfeld/Wolfowitz toward GWB. I speak in main of military authority, but we continue (by mass media) to realize more and more how our elected and appointed officials have been puppet-mastered by purseholders foreign and domestic. The US military has many times turned against First Amendment demonstrations of (among others) tax protestors, states'-rightists, trade unionists, the poor, including, specifically, impoverished military veterans, and patriotic anti-globalists. Is our military a creature of 'the State' - which often means 'de facto present political and other ruling elites', or are they the armed 'arm' of RES PUBLICA?

All honor and congradulations to the Egyptians for effecting one of the most peaceful and rational (as well s amazingly swift) revolutions the World has thus far known. As Vice President Biden noted, the priority must be that further changes must irrevocably promote true democracy and freedom.

The PATRIOT Act & 2 Who Care about the Constitution

2011-02-09T12:21:00.000-08:00

More Examples of How Both Left and Right Pay Lip Service to the Constitution

Charles M. Kozierok (Mr. talkradiosucks.com) said, today:

Lawmakers swear to uphold and defend the Constitution. The House GOP made a grand spectacle of reading it at the start of the year. But there are very, very few who actually give a damn about it.

The ones who do end up forming some rather unusual alliances, such as Dennis Kucinich and Rand Paul, who joined together to oppose extension of the PATRIOT Act. Nobody in favor of that abomination cares about their constitutional oath, and that includes all the legislators who voted for it, and the Obama administration as well.

Kucinich is a guy I don’t care for much (especially after his dental nonsense last month), but he’s right on here:

“The 112th Congress began with a historic reading of the U.S. Constitution,” Kucinich said in a statement. “Will anyone subscribe to the First and Fourth Amendments tomorrow when the PATRIOT Act is up for a vote? I am hopeful that members of the Tea Party who came to Congress to defend the Constitution will join me in challenging the reauthorization.”

On the other side — way on the other side — we have Rand Paul. He not only also opposes the PATRIOT Act, but he has come out vocally against a whole host of other unconstitutional measures as part of his cost-cutting proposals. In return, he has reaped the scorn of just about everyone on both sides of the aisle.

Witness a recent discussion over at FrumForum about how Rand Paul wants to gut the Department of Energy. Some valid arguments were made both in favor and against the proposal, but what’s most interesting to me is the comments that trash Paul as some sort of wild-eyed extremist simply by virtue of wanting to cut a lot of stuff out of the federal budget that, according to the Constitution, should really never have been there in the first place.

One commenter said that Paul’s position was “insanely ideological”. If so, that’s really less about Paul, and more a commentary on our present political climate, and how unimportant our most important law has become.

Ayatollah K & the Muslim Bro's, K-I-S-S-I-N-G

2011-02-09T11:45:00.000-08:00

http://babulilmlibrary.com/news/muslim-brotherhood-hails-imam-khameneis-support-of-the-egyptian-revolution

A senior member of Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood has expressed gratitude to the Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei for his support of the Egyptian revolution.

Kamal al-Halbavi made the remark in an interview with the state-funded BBC Persian on Sunday night.

Halbavi further expressed hope that Egypt would have “a good government, like the Iranian government, and a good president like Mr. Ahmadinejad, who is very brave.”

When asked about the Muslim Brotherhood’s opinion of Ayatollah Khamenei’s statements on Egypt’s developments, Halbavi said, “Many thanks for Imam Khamenei and all who support the revolution in Egypt.”

Ayatollah Khamenei said in Tehran’s Friday prayers last week that the recent developments in North Africa are the result of “Islamic awakening, which followed the great Islamic Revolution of the Iranian nation.”

The Leader of the Islamic Revolution made reference to Egyptians’ fight for “dignity and honor” and noted that Mubarak’s biggest crime was turning Egypt into an instrument in the hands of the United States.

The Muslim Brotherhood member added that he wants his country to develop in all spheres “like Iran, achieving more technological and scientific advances and becoming a regional power.”

Sometimes Marxism Gets Right Back to Where It Started From

2011-02-07T12:09:00.000-08:00

Marxism started when a bunch of rich bankers engaged -and financed- Karl Marx to write huge tomes of unoriginal historical commentary and theorizing, with great loads of pretty-much incontrovertable factoids peppered with falsehoods, all of which were meant to overwhelm the reader into supporting The Conclusion: A Conclusion which was usually actually scarcely related to the previous blather, and made such little sense to those still able to shake the paydirt (the actual elements of the Conclusion's supposed triumph and the tome's Premise) from the obfuscating tons of dust and rubble, that what was to be the inescapably ponderous mountain-range weight of 'Proven Theory' was rendered but a fizz of bubbles of mephitic air. This was the common method 19th Century, easily found in still-controversial classics of Darwin and Donnelly, Hislop and Fraser, and was carried creaking into the 20th Century largely by the archons of proto-Wicca and Radical Feminism, especially Margaret Murray, Robert Graves (the Old White Male who originated the rebellion against Old White Males in favor of 'poetic truth'= 'truthiness'; the belief in what Feeeeeeeeels Right to You, howevermuch it may be countered by provable fact), and Marija Gimbutas... And their scholatically degenerated admirers. But no theory of Anunnaki, Atlantises or alternate dimensions can beat Marx's Magic Conclusion, that what best serves the suffering Proletariat is: To reject and sabotage all betterment of their condition, to make the gulf between the rich-ruling and and the poor-oppressed as great as possible, because that will then maaaaaaaaagically make the squashed wretches arise and take over to create the Workers' Paradise: A do-it-yourself resurrection!

Like all the worldly-successful religions, this original Marxism, grubstaked by High Finance dedicated to the goal of Global-Corporate-State Absolutism, has been taken and run with by all manner of quarterbacks, from delusional-do-gooders to demagogic despots trying to put their (necessarily) heterodox notions of Trying to Make Dictatorship of the Proletariat Practicable.

In our Millennial decades, we have seen the Red East, after tormenting hundreds of millions to death for the god Lenin, return to the real goal of Marx and his financiers: The Orwellian 'Economic Freedom' of totalitarian state-monopoly industrialism, a 'more perfect (-even better than mid-20th Century fascism!) union' of Capitalism and Communism. But there are smaller, more personal examples~

I was trying to get away from politics, so I turned from last weekend's Murder, She Wrote Marathon to look up Angela Lansbury (she ever-deserving of immense praise as a talent and a lady) on Wikipedia. I was led (by hyperlink, of course) to her cousin, Oz pol -and plutocrat-

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malcolm_Turnbull

Check him out! Check out the Lansburys! From 'Good Old George' a Labour/Socialist who seems to have come from New Testament 'small-C' communistic ideals, through the luminous Theatrical Side, to Malcolm, pseudo-Liberal playing Anti-Monarchist Labourite on one hand and environment-raping Gold Man's Sacks heaper on the other.

WTF Raw: Obama 4 'TORTURE GUY' Omar Suleiman

2011-02-06T13:49:00.000-08:00

http://www.frumforum.com/white-house-comes-to-support-of-suleiman

Click here: "torture guy" "Omar Suleiman" - Google Search 21 results.

Sire! Sire! The street arabs are revolting... But not as much as you, doin' this.

Surfing links: Spreading Revolution IN & FROM the MidEast.

2011-02-06T12:45:00.000-08:00

http://www.jihadwatch.org/2011/02/as-we-wait-for-the-tsar-to-abdicate.html

"dhimmiwatch" - Google Search about 11,4000

http://www.dhimmiwatch.com/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eurabia *

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bat_Yeor

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/dhimmitude

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muslim_Brotherhood **

*(snips. As always, Wikip. articles I quote will have Other Good Stuff Unsnipped, and even my quote will mot transmit useful links within): Libyan leader Muammar al-Gaddafi, in a speech that aired on Al-Jazeera TV on April 10, 2006, said:[17][18]

"We have 50 million Muslims in Europe. There are signs that Allah will grant Islam victory in Europe - without swords, without guns, without conquests. The 50 million Muslims of Europe will turn it into a Muslim continent within a few decades."

"Allah mobilizes the Muslim nation of Turkey, and adds it to the European Union."

"That's another 50 million Muslims. There will be 100 million Muslims in Europe. Albania, which is a Muslim country, has already entered the E.U."

"Bosnia, which is a Muslim country, has already entered the E.U. Fifty percent of its citizens are Muslims."

"Europe is in a predicament, and so is America. They should agree to become Islamic in the course of time, or else declare war on the Muslims."

**
United States

The Muslim Brotherhood has been active in the US since the 1960s. Its stated goals have included propagating Islam and creating havens for Muslims in the US, and integrating Muslims. A main strategy has been dawah or Islamic renewal and outreach. In the 1960s, groups such as U.S. military personnel, prison inmates and African-Americans were specifically targeted for dawah. According to a report done by the NEFA Foundation which cites evidence from the United States v. Holy Land Foundation trial, the goal of the Muslim Brotherhood in the USA is

Enablement of Islam in North America, meaning: establishing an effective and stable Islamic Movement led by the Muslim Brotherhood which adopts Muslims’ causes domestically and globally, and which works to expand the observant Muslim base, aims at unifying and directing Muslims’ efforts, presents Islam as a civilization alternative, and supports the global Islamic state wherever it is.[74]

The NEFA Foundation report further explains that in the same document where the goal is stated, considerable time is spent explaining the concept of settlement which is central to the Muslim Brotherhood-led efforts in North America. Settlement is defined as follows:

The process of settlement [of Islam in the United States] is a "Civilization-Jihadist" process with all the word means. The Ikhwan must understand that all their work in America is a kind of grand Jihad in eliminating and destroying the Western civilization from within and "sabotaging" their miserable house by their hands and the hands of the believers so that it is eliminated and God's religion is made victorious over all religions. Without this level of understanding, we are not up to this challenge and have not prepared ourselves for Jihad yet. It is a Muslim's destiny to perform Jihad and work wherever he is and wherever he lands until the final hour comes, and there is no escape from that destiny except for those who choose to slack.[75]

Organizations in the US started by activists involved with the Muslim Brotherhood include the Muslim Students Association in 1963,[19] North American Islamic Trust in 1971, the Islamic Society of North America in 1981, the American Muslim Council in 1990, the Muslim American Society in 1992, and the International Institute of Islamic Thought in the 1980s.[19] According to the Washington Post, Muslim activists say MSA's members represent "all schools of Islam and political leanings – many are moderates, while others express anti-U.S. views or support resistance against Israelis."[19]

The Holy Land Foundation trial has led to the release as evidence of [76] several documents on the Muslim Brotherhood. One of these documents, dated in 1991, explains that the goal of the Muslim Brotherhood in the U.S. is “settlement”, defined by the author as a form of jihad aimed at destroying Western civilization from within and allowing for the victory of Islam over other religions.[77] In another one of these documents, "Ikhwan in America", the author alleges that the activities of the Muslim Brotherhood in the US include going to camps to do weapons training (referred to as Special work by the Muslim Brotherhood),[78] as well as engaging in counter-espionage against US government agencies such as the FBI and CIA (referred to as Securing the Group).[79] In November 2008 the Holy Land Foundation was found guilty of illegally funding Palestinian militant group Hamas, which is designated by the United States as a terrorist group.[80]

2 Great Posts From Frum on Egypt's 'Transitioning'

2011-02-04T18:31:00.000-08:00

A Test for the New Egypt February 3rd, 2011 by David Frum ~ FrumForum

http://www.frumforum.com/a-test-for-the-new-egypt

The treaty with Israel contains more than just a promise not to go to war. It contains a series of very specific commitments about Israeli security:

1) It pledges Israeli ships may use the Suez Canal

2) It recognizes the Gulf of Aqaba as an international waterway, precluding Egypt from closing access to the port of Eilat.

3) It demilitarizes the Sinai.

4) It emplaces US military observers at strategic points in the Sinai

5) It provided for normalization of relations, as a consequence of which there is direct air travel between the two countries.

There’s a lot of heady talk in the US media right now, from both liberals and conservatives, about the possibilities in Cairo. We all share those hopes. But we all also ought to recognize that popular protests in the Middle East do not typically generate stable democratic regimes, and that even free elections can bring very nasty people to power, as happened in Gaza in 2005.

Here’s a special request for the US and international journalists doing such impressive work under such dangerous circumstances in Egypt today. When you talk to Egyptian opposition figures, do not ask – and do not accept – generalities about accepting “all of Egypt’s obligations.” Ask them specifically about the individual commitments to open the Canal and maintain normal friendly relations. If they hem and haw, ask them why. Whom are they afraid of offending? Not that questioning will change anything. But it could at least provide some valuable early warnings.

And~

Does Anyone Really Trust the Muslim Brotherhood? FrumForum February 3rd, 2011 David Frum

As readers have probably noted, I’m one of those less excited by – and more wary of – the protests in Egypt. I hold no brief for Hosni Mubarak, but worry greatly that the next regime could be a lot worse for the Egyptians themselves, for peace in the region, and for (no apology for considering these uppermost) the national security interests of the United States.

Those interests require: preserving control of the Egyptian army, security forces and Suez Canal away from the control of radical Islamist groups. Representation of Islamic parties in the Egyptian parliament is one thing. Executive power something very different. Happily the existing Egyptian constitution makes it possible to separate the two.

For those who do feel less cautious about the Egyptian revolutionary movement, please, please do consider this reality check by Barry Rubin of the Gloria Center in Israel:

Consider the following chart:

Who in the Middle East could the United States depend on five years ago to support its basic policy goals?

Egypt, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Turkey

Who in the Middle East can the United States basically depend on today?

Israel, Iraq (?), Jordan (until next week?), Saudi Arabia

Who in the Middle East is likely to oppose basic U.S. policy goals today?

Egypt (soon), Gaza Strip (Hamas), Iran, Lebanon (Hizballah), Libya, Sudan, Syria. Turkey

Might there be a trend here?

Rubin continues:

But what really riles me is when Westerners write a sentence like this one:

“It’s incumbent on Islamists who are elected democratically to behave democratically.”

Please contemplate those dozen words. What if they don’t? What are you going to do about it after they are in power? What if they take your concessions but not your advice? The United States conditioned the Muslim Brotherhood’s participation in Egypt’s next government on that group’s abandoning violence and supporting “democratic goals.” There is no chance that it will meet those conditions and also no chance that the United States would try to enforce them.

I have an idea: why don’t we wait until we have some reason to believe they will behave democratically before you put them into power?

Let’s remember a little detail here: You are all willing to ignore everything the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood has said or done for decades. You have no idea of their proposals in parliament, do you? You have no idea of their recent platform, do you? You have no idea what the Brotherhood’s leader is saying in his speeches, do you? Nor do you take these things into account.

So how dare you tell me that the Brotherhood is or is about to become moderate when you cannot cite a single piece of evidence–well, ElBaradei’s word when he lies to you about these things–to prove your thesis. Not one. Don’t you realize that victory has made the Islamists arrogant. They are becoming more radical, not less so. And mainstream clerics in Egypt, for example, have also become increasingly more extremist, well before the latest crisis.

Frankly, the more these people talk like this about Islamists, the more I don’t believe them. If they had any real proof they would offer it. And their ignorance makes me suspect their conclusions.

Patrick Buchanan's WINNERS AND LOSERS FROM A PHARAOH'S FALL

2011-02-04T12:03:00.000-08:00

http://buchanan.org/blog/winners-and-losers-from-a-pharaohs-fall-4600

By Patrick J. Buchanan     February 1, 2011

Among the biggest losers of the Egyptian uprising are, first, the Mubaraks, who are finished, and, next, the United States and Israel.

Hosni Mubarak will be out by year’s end, if not the end of this month, or week. He will not run again and will not be succeeded by son Gamal, whom he had groomed and who has fled to London.

Today, the lead party in determining Egypt’s future is the army. Cheered in the streets of Cairo, respected by the people, that army is not going to fire on peaceful demonstrators to keep in power a regime with one foot already in the grave.

Only if fired on by provocateurs is the army likely to clear Tahrir Square the way the Chinese army cleared Tiananmen Square.

But the army does have an immense stake in who rules, and that stake would not be well served by one-man, one-vote democracy.

Like the Turkish army, the Egyptian army sees itself as guardian of the nation. From the Egyptian military have come all four of the leaders who have ruled since the 1952 colonel’s revolt that ousted King Farouk: Gens. Naguib, Sadat and Mubarak, and Col. Nasser.

The military has also been for 30 years the recipient of $1.2 billion dollars a year from the United States. Its weapons come from America. Moreover, the army has a vital interest in the “cold peace” with Israel that has kept it out of war since 1973, produced the return of Sinai, and maintained Egypt’s role as the leader of the moderate Arabs and major ally of the United States.

The Egyptian army is also aware of what happened to the Iranian generals when the Shah fell, and what is happening to the Turkish army as the Islamicizing regime of Prime Minister Erdogan strips that army of its role as arbiter of whether a Turkish regime stays or goes.

The Egyptian army will not yield its position readily, which is why it may tilt to the ex-generals Mubarak named Friday as vice president and prime minister.

The army’s rival is the Muslim Brotherhood. The oldest Islamic movement in the Middle East, the most unified opponent of the regime, its future in a democratic Egypt, as part of a ruling coalition or major opposition party, seems assured.

And while the crowds in Cairo and Alexandria are united in what they wish to be rid of, the Muslim Brotherhood is united in knowing the kind of state and nation it wishes to establish.

Why are the United States and Israel seemingly certain losers from the fall of Mubarak? Because in any free and fair election in the Middle East, a majority will vote for rulers who will distance the country from America and sever ties to Israel.

When it comes to America and Israel, there is little doubt where the “Arab street” stands. And the freer the elections, the more the views of the Arab street will be reflected in the new Arab regime.

But why do they hate us? Is it because of who we are?

Surely, it is not our freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom of assembly or free elections for which we are hated. For this is what the demonstrators are clamoring for. Indeed, it is in the name of these freedoms that the Egyptian people are demanding that we cease standing behind Mubarak and stand with them.

No, the United States is not hated across the region because of the freedoms we enjoy or even because of the lectures on democracy we do not cease to deliver. We are hated because we are perceived as hypocrites who say one thing and do another.

The Arabs say we support despots who deny them the rights we cherish. They say we preach endlessly of human rights but imposed savage sanctions on Iraq for a dozen years before 2003 that brought premature death to half a million children. They say we use our power to invade countries that never attacked us.

They say we have provided Israel with the weapons to crush the Palestinians and steal their land, and that we practice a moral double standard. We condemn attacks on Israelis, but sit silent as Israel bombs Lebanon for five weeks and conducts a war on Gaza, killing 1,400 and wounding thousands, most of them civilians.

Any truth to all this? Or is this just Arab propaganda?
After losing Turkey as an ally, Israel has just seen Hezbollah come to power in Beirut and the Palestinian Authority stripped of its credibility by the Wikileaks exposure of its groveling to America and Israel. Now Israel faces the near certainty of a more hostile Egypt.

As for America, if we are about to be thrown out of the Middle East, it would be neither undeserved nor an unmitigated disaster.

After all, it’s their world, not ours.

**********
(My remark~) Yesterday (Feb 03) I turned on KCET (recently independent from PBS) for a travelogue. Instead, they were carrying Israeli TV in English on the crisis in Egypt. Their line was that Middle Eastern cultures (of all affinities) specially scorn those who suddenly pull the plug on old allies, and Iran would particularly make hay in the region on the example of US fecklessness. Of course the Israelis would say this... But it probably is true.

Bridging this and the previous post:
http://gatesofvienna.blogspot.com/2011/02/democracy-and-stoning-no-problem.html#more

Thursday, February 03, 2011Democracy and Stoning? No Problem!   by Baron Bodissey 2/03/2011

We are on the verge of a democratic revolution in Egypt. This is the Egyptian equivalent of 1989, the “Arab Spring”.

If you believe the media, that is. And progressive politicians.

And most (neo)conservatives, for that matter, at least in the United States. For them the events in Egypt are a vindication of the policies of George W. Bush, who championed freedom as a universal right.

It’s a stirring sentiment, and one feels curmudgeonly arguing against it. But let’s pause to take a deep breath here, and then look more closely at what “freedom” means to a Muslim. Diana West, in reference to the Bush Doctrine, has this to say:

Such is “universalist” gospel. Universalists believe all peoples prefer freedom to its absence, which is probably true. But they also believe all peoples define “freedom” in the same way. Is that true?

The answer — and first concept — is no. The entry on freedom, or hurriyya, in the “Encyclopedia of Islam” describes a state of divine enthrallment that bears no resemblance to any Western understanding of freedom as predicated on the workings of the individual conscience. According to the encyclopedia, Islamic freedom is “the recognition of the essential relationship between God the master and His human slaves who are completely dependent on Him.” Ibn Arabi, a Sufi scholar of note, is cited for having defined freedom as “being perfect slavery” to Allah. To put it another way, Islamic-style “freedom” is freedom from unbelief.

And what about democracy? Are Egypt and the Arab world ready for democracy?

You betcha! But it may not be the kind of democracy that the revolution’s Western cheerleaders are thinking of. Democracy means the majority gets to vote for whatever kind of rules and institutions it likes. What do the majority of Muslims want?

For an outline of what ordinary Egyptians are ready to vote for, take a look at this summary from The Globe and Mail of a Pew Research poll conducted last year in Egypt:

Poll Shows Egyptians Favour Democracy and Stoning for Adultery

Egyptians reject radical Islamists, but want Islam to play a large role in politics and think democracy is the best political system, according to poll data collected in Muslim countries last year. The sample group of 1,000 was surveyed in face-to-face interviews in April and May of last year for the U.S.-based Pew Research Center. These results give an idea of Egyptian public opinion before the current protests there broke out.

Democracy

59%: Say democracy is preferable to any other form of government.

22%: Say a non-democratic system can be preferable in certain circumstances

Islam in politics

95%: Say it’s good that Islam plays a large role in politics

85%: Say Islam’s influence on politics is good

48%: Say Islam currently play a large role in Egyptian politics

Islamist extremism

80%: Think suicide bombings are never or rarely justified.

20%: Think suicide bombings are sometimes or often justified

70%: Are concerned or very concerned about Islamist extremism in the world

61%: Are concerned or very concerned about Islamist extremism in the Egypt

Traditional Muslim practices

54%: Believe men and women should be segregated in the workplace

82%: Believe adulterers should be stoned

84%: Believe apostates from Islam should face the death penalty

77%: Believe thieves should be flogged or have their hands cut off

So that gives you an idea of what “freedom” and “democracy” mean to ordinary Egyptians. How well would this checklist have gone over in Philadelphia in 1787?

Sad to say, a year or two from now Hosni Mubarak will start looking pretty good.

Hat tip: TV.

10:28:00 PM

Flogged to Death for Being Raped (at 14 Years Old)

2011-02-04T10:27:00.000-08:00

Click here: http://www.aolnews.com/2011/02/03/bangladeshi-girl-dies-after-public-flogging/...

A 14-year-old Bangladeshi girl allegedly raped by a much older cousin has died after being publicly flogged for adultery, media reports said.

Hena Begum was sentenced to receive 100 lashes by a village council made up of elders and Muslim clerics in the district of Shariatpur, about 35 miles from the capital, Dhaka, the BBC said today.

She endured about 80 lashes before collapsing Monday, according to The Daily Star, a Bangladeshi newspaper. Her family took her to a hospital, where she died.

"What sort of justice is this? My daughter has been beaten to death in the name of justice. If it had been a proper court then my daughter would not have died," Dorbesh Khan, the girl's father, told the BBC.

Family members said Hena was raped by a 40-year-old married cousin, The Daily Star said. The man's family beat up the teen, then accused of her adultery, the newspaper said.

The very next day, she was sentenced to the flogging in a fatwa, or religious ruling, issued by the village council under Islamic Shariah law, the BBC said.

Her father was also told pay a fine of about $700, police told the BBC.

Four people, including a Muslim cleric, have been arrested in connection with Hena's death, the BBC said. Police said they were looking for another 14 people in the case.

Bangladesh's high court has ordered district officials in Shariatpur to explain why they did not protect the girl, The Daily Star said. The court ruled eight months ago that Shariah punishment was illegal.

In December, a 40-year-old woman in Rajshahi district died after she was publicly caned for allegedly carrying on an affair with her stepson.

The Tea Party: More Traditional Than It Thinks

2011-02-03T11:44:00.000-08:00

Perhaps those of us who are annoyed-to-appalled by the highjacking of the early antiwar / populist / paleoconservative-libertarian, as-down-on-the-Republican-Party-as-down-on-the-Democrats Tea Party by Zombies of the Nuttosphere, Pavlovian-programmed to TRUTHINESS
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Truthiness
need to put it all in historical context (& not just the obvious stuff like the Weimar Republic's fast slide down the volcano's inner downslope, and other examples of high cultures decaying so that manipulated mobs who suppose that they are reacting to save civilization become the worst of it). The truthiness of the Teeps in regards to their invocative-idolatry-amidst-ignorance-of the teachings of the New Testament and the content of the Constitution is as drops in the lake compared to that of organized religion and the Supreme Court of the United States, and these old institutions may so much more be suspected of having pursued their perversions intentionally, and for insatiable self-aggrandizement.

CLAN McDUCK!

2011-02-02T11:52:00.000-08:00

Getting away from this wretched political stuff. Oh, take me to better Alternate U's!!!)

Clan McDuck - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia ~snips (but there's so much more, all wonderful.)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clan_McDuck ( lots of things should be linked, here, but I don't know how to do it. Or pix).

The Clan McDuck is a fictional family in the style of a Scottish clan, from which a great number of Walt Disney Company's comic book characters held their origin.

According to Don Rosa's timelines the Clan is known since 122 AD,[1] when an, as of yet, unnamed member of the clan sold stone to the construction crew of Hadrian's wall. The Clan McDuck was originally called the Clan MacDuich, but dropped the Gaelic spelling of the name in 1071 and became the McDucks. The most famous members of the clan are Scrooge McDuck* and Donald Duck.

*'Scrooge McDuck or Uncle Scrooge is a Glaswegian[1] anthropomorphic duck...'

This has been expanded on in the Italian Disney comic universe in the story Storia e gloria della dinastia dei paperi (History and glory of the duck dynasty).[2] According to it, the clan was founded during the 1st century BC by Pah-Peh-Rheo, an Egyptian, who had become a Roman citizen as Petronius Paperonius. Originally following a campaign of the Roman Army to Britain, he eventually decided to settle in Caledonia (the Roman name for Scotland) among the populations of the Picts.

Donald, his sister Della Duck and her children Huey, Dewey and Louie Duck are descendants of the Clan through their maternal line of ancestry.

In the early 1950s Carl Barks was in his second decade of creating comic book stories starring Donald Duck and his various relatives. He had personally created several of the latter, Scrooge McDuck and Gladstone Gander being the most notable among them. But the exact relation between them was still somewhat uncertain. Carl decided to create a personal version of their Family tree. To better define their relations he added several previously unknown relatives. Carl never intended to publish this family tree as he had created it for personal use.

In 1981 Carl was well into his retirement but his stories remained popular and had gained him unexpected fame. He had given several interviews and answered questions about his personal views on the characters and their stories. Among other subjects, Carl described his early version of the family tree. Rough sketches of the tree were published in a number of fanzines. Fans of the characters were pleased for the background it added to them. At this point Mark Worden decided to create a drawing of this family tree including portraits of the characters mentioned. Otherwise Mark made few changes to the tree, most notably adding Daisy Duck as Donald's main love interest. His illustrated version of the tree was published at first in several fanzines and later in the Carl Barks Library. The later was a ten-volume collection of his works in hardcover black-and-white edition.

In 1987 Don Rosa, a long-time fan of Carl Barks and personal friend of Mark Worden, started creating his own stories featuring Scrooge McDuck and his various associates. His stories contained numerous references to older stories by Carl as well as several original ideas. After several years he gained a fanbase of his own. In the early 1990s Egmont, the publishing house employing Don, offered him an ambitious assignment. He was to create the definitive version of Scrooge's biography and a family tree accompanying it. This was supposed to end decades of contradictions between stories which caused confusion to readers. The project was to become The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck. The family tree accompanying it was first published in Norway on July 3, 1993.

In the process of working on Scrooge's biography, Don studied Barks' old stories mentioning his past. Then he added several ideas of his own. Among them were biographical information for Scrooge's supporting cast. In a way Scrooge's biography was also their own biography.

The seat of Clan McDuck is the McDuck Castle. The castle was first featured in the Carl Barks story The Old Castle's Secret in Donald Duck Four Color #189. Barks' only other story to have McDuck Castle was in The Hound of the Whiskervilles.

Don Rosa used the castle in The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck,[4] Parts 1, 5, and 9, and in A Letter from Home/The Old Castle's Other Secret. According to The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck, the castle is located in Dismal Downs, somewhere in Rannoch Moor (a non-fictional location in Scotland). The nearest village is the fictional MacDuich. The McDuck family (except for a few family ghosts) vacated the castle in 1675, relocating to MacDuich, and later to Glasgow due to the depredations of "a monstrous devil dog." [5]

Other comic book artists have used the Castle too. The most famous use of the McDuck Castle outside of the Barks/Rosa universe is an Angus/Vicar story titled The Sobbing Serpent.

According to The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck, the castle was built in 400 AD, as portrayed in the unpublished first draft sketches.[6] It is most probably based upon Andrew Carnegie's Skibo Castle, befitting the character of Scrooge McDuck as a loose caricature of Carnegie.[7] Upon the death of his father, Scrooge McDuck became Laird of The Clan McDuck and owner of the castle and its lands.[8] Indeed, Scrooge had supported the castle financially for many years prior, enabling the McDuck family to reoccupy it in 1885.[8]

In the show DuckTales, McDuck Castle appeared in the Episode The Curse of Castle McDuck where Scrooge, Webby, and the Nephews investigate a crisis in Scotland. That Episode is loosely based on The Hound of the Whiskervilles.[9]

Tartan of Clan MacDuck

Two Tartan patterns are registered with the House of Tartans, MacDuck, and MacDuck Final version (note spelling variation: MacDuck vs. McDuck).[10] These were created and registered by the Walt Disney Corporation, the MacDuck Final version in 1942, and MacDuck in 1984. Both tartans are non-fiction in nature and are available as bolts of cloth or finished kilts and other garments.

Some sources state Disney created the MacDuck Final version with Scrooge McDuck in mind.[11] This is unlikely, as Scrooge McDuck made his first appearance in 1947, in the story Christmas on Bear Mountain.

A tartan which looks like Mac Duck Final version is shown on some Don Rosa stories, such as The Old Castle's Other Secret or A Letter From Home.

Motto of Clan McDuck

Scrooge McDuck's gravestone epitaph reads "Fortuna Favet Fortibus." This is the best candidate for a clan motto.[12] Translated into English, it means "Fortune Favors the Brave" (or "Bold," or "Strong").

Main article: Scrooge McDuck

See also

Duck family (Disney) Don Rosa's Scrooge McDuck chart Rannoch Moor: The region where Dismal Downs is located; a real location in Scotland.

Categories: Donald Duck universe characters | Fictional families | Fictional family trees | Disney comics characters | Fictional Scottish people

Mostly Rotten But Maybe Some Good News

2011-02-02T11:36:00.000-08:00

Egyptian Chaos Amid Protests over Mubarak Could Spell Opportunity for Investors - DailyFinance

http://www.dailyfinance.com/story/investing/egyptian-protesters-chaos-mubarak-opportunity-investors-buy-stock/19822819/ by Vishesh Kumar See full article from DailyFinance: http://srph.it/gd4Q32

Begins by quoting Baron Rothschild: 'The time to buy is when there's blood in the streets.'
Says it all, doesn't it? Bloody bloodsuckers behind all wars, riots and their causes.

also (from Jordan's King Abdullah, who looks about as Arab as Charlie Brown :D)

http://www.aolnews.com/2011/02/01/jordans-king-sacks-government-in-wake-of-protests/?icid=main%7Chtmlws-main-n%7Cdl2%7Csec3_lnk1%7C198543

It could actually work out good for US and Western notions of reform (snips): Abdullah named Marouf al-Bakhit, 63, as Rifai's replacement. Al-Bakhit, an ex-general who supports strong ties with the U.S. and Jordan's peace treaty with Israel, previously served as prime minister from 2005-2007.

Abdullah ordered al-Bakhit to "undertake quick and tangible steps for real political reforms, which reflect our vision for comprehensive modernization and development in Jordan."

"Economic reform is a necessity to provide a better life for our people," the king said in the statement. "But we won't be able to attain that without real political reforms, which must increase popular participation in the decision-making."

Abdullah also demanded an "immediate revision of laws governing politics and public freedoms," including legislation governing political parties, public meetings and elections.

Al-Bakhit is a moderate politician, who served as Jordan's ambassador to Israel earlier this decade.

Like Abdullah, he supports close ties with Israel under a peace treaty signed in 1994 and strong relations with the United States, Jordan's largest aid donor and longtime ally.

In 2005, Abdullah named al-Bakhit as his prime minister days after a triple bombing on Amman hotels claimed by the al-Qaida in Iraq leader, Jordanian-born Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

During his 2005-2007 tenure, al-Bakhit - an ex-army major general and top intelligence adviser - was credited with maintaining security and stability following the attack, which killed 60 people and labeled as the worst in Jordan's modern history.

Replacing Mubarak

2011-01-31T19:30:00.000-08:00

All the media powers and pols on all sides seem to be behind ousting Hosni Mubarak. I remember when the same was true of ousting Fulgencio Batista (Cuba). Batista was toxic waste in an army tank...And 'we' (what Gore Vidal calls the [single] BANK PARTY that controls the US) supported him and vampirized Cuba. Fine. Repentance good. But they then went all for CASTRO. Oops. Mubarak is a Care Bear compared to Batista -or Castro. And maybe compared to anyone (or junta) likely to replace him.

Prayer is very much more appropriate than faith in a blind ride.

Foreign Aid: Prosperity (for a few) and Population Control!

2011-01-29T11:17:00.000-08:00

So I've been mostly posting other people's stuff instead of my own, lately... That may be a good thing, even if I'm just about the only one who ever reads this blog.

If anyone else out there's looking in, keep in mind that people I quote and/or admire are in no way tinged by or responsible for my sometimes 'way to the Left, sometimes 'way to the Right, sometime Just Waaay Out rants and ruminations.

A relative sometimes writes into FrumForum, so I've been reading it 'frum' time to time, and found
http://www.talkradiosucks.com/
Much good stuff. Try this:
http://talkradiosucks.com/2011/01/28/responding-to-guardiano-again-this-time-on-foreign-aid/#comment-111
To which I responded (at this time, I don't know if I'll be Comment Approved, so, what the heck:)

Superb article! One of the first things to get me into ‘conspiracy theories’ (still non-doctrinaire and on the amused sidelines) was finding out – barely teen and several decades ago – that FOREIGN AID was largely MILITARY aid, and we were giving to both sides of most local conflicts.

Our taxes pay for it – oh, but nothing creates jobs like a military-industrial complex: Just close your eyes and ignore that it’s blood trickling down to feed our souls … Still thirsty? Maybe it’s because those jobs at home are necessarily done by aliens since everybody (in the media, the [R]COCs and [D]demagogocracy) knows that Americans Won’t Work. ‘Proof’: Cheney (‘Bush’) wanted to give over the security of our ports to the sheiks, and Bam wanted to give our airport security to an Israeli company. Or maybe it’s because we so often Just Send Money so that our wannabe combat-ready little buddies in both sides can buy from ‘centrist’ Frenchies & Swedes, or from the ex-Soviet scavenged yard sale, or go all Hooray for Global Free Marketing Make Their* Own.

WHO PROFITS? Not me. If only we could reboot the political conversation in this country with the common assent that All Contracts with Government Are Socialism ~ So let’s only allow those which reallyreallyreally provide for the common defense and promote the general welfare: ‘Common’ and ‘general’ meaning EVERY citizen, and understanding that the quintessence of defense and welfare is the freedom of not getting our lives and worth ground up in the insatiable jaws of war.

*via scientists educated at Cal Tech, MIT, UCLA…