Morning Druid! Well, after reading more about this Hackett situation and hearing Malloy go off on it. I’m still pissed. They act like the senate is some sort of special club to get into. Pretty good DLC! :fu:
I can hardly maintain my anger towards those evil beings that call themselves (wrongly) Americans. Impeach or fire those of this evil administration, bush included, that caused this and other horrid actions — I DO NOT WANT MY HARD EARNED TAXES FOR THEIR RETIREMENT! Torture the torturers! See how they like it.
Just for the record, since at least one person who posted yesterday was either confused or somewhat snarky…
Rep. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) is a guy. And don’t call him Sherry. So there.
Has anyone else noticed that Scott McClellan looks even puffier than usual lately? Must be the stress from Dickhead’s birdshot facial. Maybe he should lay off the Cheesy Poofs. :crap:
I agree with everything Howard Dean just said concerning the Ohio Democratic primary (or lack thereof).
Hey, ex-, if you’re over here today, the answer is that this cartoon appeared Monday, before Whittington’s heart attack. (I have to admit, it grows on me more each time I look at it.)
Little Scottie’s face is bloated like he’s had one too many :40: lately. Who can blame him? How would you like to be the the spokesman for this disgraceful administration? I’d be completely F’d up all the time!:40::bong::barf:
Yeah, well it was really warm here on this side of the ocean. We really haven’t had much rain here this winter…but the typhoon season will come as usual. :gate:
In that NY Times article regarding Hackett they said that Move On is starting a campaign to get rid of all the conservative Democrats. So, who exactly would that be?
And, is this true?
Did anyone else have realplayer trying to run a script during the go to my PC ads? It locks up realplayer and I’ve got to restart the stream. This sucks because my computer is upstairs.:no:
Congressional Probe of NSA Spying Is in Doubt
White House Sways Some GOP Lawmakers
By Charles Babington
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, February 15, 2006; Page A03
“Congress appeared ready to launch an investigation into the Bush administration’s warrantless domestic surveillance program last week, but an all-out White House lobbying campaign has dramatically slowed the effort and may kill it, key Republican and Democratic sources said yesterday.”
I was surprised to see the Madison station not carrying the Morning Shows. Did that change when they got rid of Morning Sedition? Serves ’em right! :rant1:
The National Counterterrorism Center maintains a central repository of 325,000 names of alleged international terrorism suspects or people who aid them, a number that has more than quadrupled since the fall of 2003, according to counterterrorism officials.
The list kept by the National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC) – created in 2004 to be the primary U.S. terrorism intelligence agency – contains a far greater number of international terrorist suspects and associated names in a single government database than has previously been disclosed. Because the same person may appear under different spellings or aliases, the true number of separate individuals is estimated to be more than 200,000, according to NCTC officials.
U.S. citizens make up “only a very, very small fraction” of that number, said an administration official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of his agency’s policies. “The vast majority are non-U.S. persons and do not live in the U.S.,” he added. An NCTC official refused to say how many on the list – put together from reports supplied by the CIA, the FBI, the National Security Agency (NSA) and other agencies – were U.S. citizens.
“We have lists that are having baby lists at this point; they’re spawning faster than rabbits,” Sparapani said. “If we have over 300,000 known terrorists who want to do this country harm, we’ve got a much bigger problem than deciding which names go on which list. But I highly doubt that is the case.”
Pressuring Paul Hackett To Abandon Campaign is Old Politics at its Worst
Based on news reports alone and knowing nothing (thank goodness) about behind-the-scenes politics, the pressure brought on Paul Hackett, the bold Iraqi veteran, to abandon his campaign for the U.S. Senate from Ohio is deplorable.
This is simply old politics at its worst. There is a party which hand-picks its candidates, decides who can and cannot run, directs money to the favorite candidate, and dictate terms. Up till now, that party has been the Republican party.
Now, it seems, my Democratic party is once again imitating the Republican party in a desperate effort to regain power. With the McGovern democratic reforms in the early 1970s, political bosses were diminished and grassroots voters were elevated. The theme was, Let the people decide.
Telling Paul Hackett that he cannot run for the Senate, and purportedly calling contributers to dry up his funds, is the worse kind of old politics. It will drive voters away from the supposedly “open” party, the Democrats, and further add to public cynicism about how politics in America is played in the early 21st century.
What IF . . . the White House turns the Cheney debacle into an opportunity? I keep wondering what can be gained by his steadfast refusal to make a public statement. What IF . . . this is their opportunity to get rid of Cheney and replace him with someone like Frist (I’m not sure he would be the choice, just using an example), who could then be ideally positioned in ’08?
:omg:
Moveon is doing a poll of their members to see if they should indeed start a movement to replace all the DINO democrats, all the pro war democrats and all the DLC democrats. They just sent out emails yesterday.
Dean has said several times that what the Democratic party needs is some “new” democrats.. I think that means they need to get rid of the ones stuck in the muck of DC.. Hacket should have worked in that light.
You need some dems that don’t appear to be too woosey but don’t support the corportists interests either. Now that Bush has pissed the whole world off they are not likely to see that the US has suddenly become non Empiristic right away.
An email to both of North Carolina’s rethug Senators and my Congressman:
I read in the February 15th Washington Post where the Republicans are trying to stonewall yet another Congressional investigation, this time into the Administration’s NSA spying scandal. We as Americans cannot let that happen. The American people must know if our President is subverting the Constitution. Our democratic system of government and free and open society are at risk.
Too many investigations into suspected Republican wrong-doing have been suppressed by members of that Party. Too many prosecutions of accused and indicted Republican functionaries have been squelched and halted. Too many assaults on our democratic processes have been allowed, to a point where no one knows just how corrupt our government has become.
It is bad enough the Republican Party – especially this incompetent excuse of a President – has been waging war against the American people since Ronald Reagan first entered the White House. I say it is time the criminals in our government and those elected persons crippling our government and society must be held responsible for their inhumane and un-American words and actions.
Bowers takes a reasoned look at why so many people are furious at the Hackett withdrawal. If nothing else, perhaps it will send notice to the establishment that we’re not ideologically hard-left. Otherwise, Brown would’ve been the consensus choice being more liberal than Hackett. Probably not, but whatever. As it was, while views on the best candidate might’ve been split, there’s no doubt that Brown’s support was very passive compared to Hackett’s rabid supporters. More evidence for my theory that ideology isn’t what really motivates netroot activists into action. It’s things like straight-talking, partisanship, and fearlessness.
by kos
Tue Feb 14, 2006 at 11:51:36 AM PDT http://www.dailykos.com
SSo now I’m getting go to my pc pop ups when the commercial comes on.:mad: You know, that kind of advertizing just pisses me off. Now I don’t want to ever use go to my pc because they have annoyed me. Who responds to ads that annoy them?
Hacket was on Ed Schultz’s show yesterday PM and said that Reid and Schumer were the primary ones applying pressure. He also said that he had gotten emails from some his “supporters” telling him to not to expect contributions to finalize his war chest.. he never mentioned Dean by name.
I’m not sure, Brayn Lentz, my guy in the 7th congressional district of Pa. was forced out too. I think it may have been a local decision, but then again both Hackett and Lentz are “Fighting Dems”. Coincidence?:???:
I really didn’t have a handle on Hackett’s positions on the issues. I just knew he called Bush a few names and I liked that. Would he have been a better Senator than Brown?? I’m not familiar enough with the two candidates. Maybe an Ohioan can weigh in here.
Did Dean ever support Hackett? It seems to me that Hackett is the kind of candidate Dean is looking for. Man, we really need to push for campaign finance reform. Everybody should have the same amount of money to run, I wanna see candidates speaking from the caboose of a train, not their slanted commercials.
try turning off realplayers message center. Tools > Preferences > Message Center. The go to my PC ad hasn’t played yet so I don’t know if that will work yet.
Krista : What are you listening to and with what are you listening to it that you get pop up adds ? If its AAR and the stupid real player with messages box you can right click on the green bar at the bottom and choose to just play it in Real player.
I can hardly maintain my anger towards those evil beings that call themselves (wrongly) Americans. Impeach or fire those of this evil administration, bush included, that caused this and other horrid actions — I DO NOT WANT MY HARD EARNED TAXES FOR THEIR RETIREMENT! Torture the torturers! See how they like it.
We don’t need to reform campaign financing. We need to reform campaign spending. Every candidate in a given race should spend the exact same amount of shekels.
There was a baseball pitcher in the early 20th century named Sherrod Smith. Had a world series pitching duel with Babe Ruth. He was called Sherry Smith.
Who gives a fuck what we call Ohio Brown?.
Why the capitalist pigs, Rachel? Yes, business dominates. Unless we specifically state how they are to be regulated, they will continue to dominate us. Get a clue, Maddow.:omg:
It looks like the conversation has moved on. I will deal with a possible pro dem/anti dem at another time. I should get a bit of sleep anyway since there is a major local meeting tonight. 🙂 :yawn: :fire:
The reason you need the dems is that the way congress works (?) the party with the majority of members gets to run the show and as you may have noticed can completely leave the other party out of any decision making. Breaking the democratic party into two factions while leaving the rethugs pretty much intact will only make things worse. On the other hand another two to four years, maybe even another six months of this kind of stuff and the US will become no better than it would have been if Kruschev had won the cold war.
Hey all, you might want to give Real Alternative a try. It looks like the old “classic” windows media player, but let’s you play real and windows media stuff, w/o installing RealPlayer and all it’s nasty terrible shit.
Fred, we didn’t have a cohesive Democratic Party during the Reagan years. If we had we wouldn’t have a deregulated society where CEOs make 400 times more than their average employee’s wages. Even if we had 100 Democrats in the Senate we would still have gridlock.
Why is it I can’t seem to laugh during the Rachel Maddow and Kent Jones bits? Does it seem forced to you? Is it the time restraints? Like if they had an extra hour, there would be more relaxation and intimacy with an audience? Anyone feel the same way? I like the Maddow show, but it aint MS! 😐
Nicki, they are Democrats. Put two in a room and you get an argument over just about anything. That is the beauty and downfall of the party. We all have different ideas, while the rethugs have only one viewpoint.
Hey Farmerkat, to answer your question from yesterday, no I’m not a vegetarian and I have a grapefruit tree, an olive tree and a walnut tree in the yard. Currently I have a 4’x 16′ plot and I really like broccoli a lot and it takes up alot of space. I think I can carve out another 16′-20′ sq ft if I take out some aloe. My co worker has some friends that live a couple of blocks away from me and are interested in having a farmers market in the neighborhood. The local health food co-op is moving away so maybe we can arrange with them to provide produce for it once a week and the neighbors can trade or sell their extra produce. Lots of orange trees in the neighborhood.
Nicki: If the MASTER you refer to is Corporations. You’re right. It’s time to wake up and see that it’s Emperical American Corporations and the US Government who advances their agenda without reprisals. Why do you think most of the oppressed 3rd world hates us? Wake up :sheep:
Getting the Dems back into power and having nothing change is a real worry. The corporate money rules you can see that in the bankruptcy legislation and the Roberts and Alito nominations. If we are to turn this around it is going to take more than just the 2006 election and I fear there is so little time left.
NCBlue, good luck on the interview. (I’m thinking it for you, too, as my timing sucks.)
Krista, GRAPEFRUIT! Drooooool!
Jason, I have the same problem with Maddow and Jones. I can tell that what they’re saying is funny but it doesn’t make me laugh. Crack a smile from time to time but not laugh. And the blatant rip-off “Radio Theater” bit just made me angry so that even if it had been well-performed I wouldn’t have found it funny. Most of the humor seems forced and boring and :jerk: on Maddow’s show. I like her commenting on the news but the comedy bits need to go away.
Do you have ANY idea how long I’ve been wanting to use the :jerk: icon?
Goyette is talking about a story in an msnbc story where they have a paragraph that mentions,citing the Rancher woman,that beer may have been at a picnic earlier in the day during this hunting trip. But, Goyette says that paragraph is now GONE! This was one of the first stories to come out about this. I missed who wrote the story.
Krista if you go to the democratic underground they have a pic of the google search where the MSNBC article still had the beer reference…that was then quickly deleted
Isi, I’ve seen a few olives but I haven’t paid much attention to it. I have been thinking about giving it the right fertilizers and watering it more regularly but I am so busy with other things.
I figured they isolated Cheney for a while after the accident so he could pass a sobriety test if it was required. He’s the kind of hunter who is surely downing more than a few cool ones while shooting at animals that have been raised for the sole purpose of being shot at. (I’m getting a little too “Daily Show” for my own good here…) Hunting from the car is such a fake sport, anyway, surely massive amounts of partying are part of the deal. But that’s just my view of things, and I don’t hunt.
BTW, my sister in Ohio is running for some kind of Dem Central Committe precint thing in her county. She told me some of why Hackett was booted off the ballot and while I agree he was treated like shit, he did apparently shoot off his mouth without warning them first. I can see why there might have been a knee-jerk reaction within the party. That said, she’s pissed that he was jerked around like that and it’s why she’s running for a position within the party herself.
And today’s recipe is from yet another mailing list I’m on. But it’s making my mouth water.
SPANAKORIZO (Greek Spinach with Rice)
Yield: 4-6 servings
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 large onion, peeled and coarsely chopped
1 cup raw long grain rice
1/4 cup tomato sauce
2 cups boiling water
Vegetarian broth powder to yield 2 cups broth
6 to 8 ounces spinach, rinsed and with stems removed)
Juice of 1/2 lemon
Heat olive oil in 12-inch diameter skillet (or large pot).
Add onion; saute until tender.
Add rice; saute for about 3 minutes, stirring constantly.
Add tomato sauce, water, and bouillon cubes; bring to a boil.
Reduce flame until mixture is simmering, pour spinach over rice, cover pot, and simmer until rice is tender and liquid is absorbed (20-30 minutes).
“Happy Valentine’s Day. Good news, good news today — so far Dick Cheney has not shot anybody,” David Letterman said in his “Late Night” monologue on CBS.
“But the real question now is — is this a one-time thing or will the vice president try to kill again?” Mr. Letterman said later.
Hi you guys! I have been wanting to post for a long time..this site just gets better and better..you all have been my funny fix the past few weeks.Anyway check AAR–they at last mention WHERE IS MARON
Thanks a lot Sister Tea and Welcome! :love:
I don’t know about that Where’s Maron thing they have?
It’s a little like Waldo or something. They are presenting Marc as being some far out there person. I don’t get it!
I will say this, his bits will rule! They’ll be way funnier than any of the other AAR hosts are doing and very real and pertinent. Why make Marc look like he’s some comedic crackpot?
MIAMI: Democratic party chair Howard Dean says he’s not happy that Iraqi war veteran Paul Hackett is dropping out of the race for U-S Senate in Ohio.
Dean told a student audience in Miami that “some skulduggery in Washington” improperly led to Hackett’s decision to end his bid. And he said Democrats will have a tough time winning if similar things happen to others.
Hackett was vying with Ohio congressman Sherrod Brown for the Democratic nomination. He said that Hackett was a “great candidate,” and that a primary in Ohio wouldn’t have hurt the party. Hackett says he’s ending his eleven-month political career.
————-
Sounds good
I keep getting requests for money from the dnc. finally, rather than send them the long-winded complaints about the party that I often send, I decided to go the short-but-sweet route:
“Please send your requests for funds to the DLC’ers, centrists and independents that the national party is trying so hard to represent. I do not send money to organizations that spurn my liberal values.”
funny how sending a simple email can make me happy. :doh::doh::doh:
Sirius radio’s Alex Bennett just broke a rumor that the delay in reporting the news that Cheney shot an old man in the heart was due to an effort to hide or spin Cheney’s female companion.
Pamela Willeford (shown right), ambassador to Switzerland and — yes — Liechtenstein, was part of the hunting excursion with Cheney and Whittington. And according to Willeford’s account, Cheney and the ambassador were side-by-side when the shooting of Whittington took place.
The vice president’s Secret Service detail had to decide what to do with Willeford by way of perhaps covering up her relationship with Cheney, and thus the delay in reporting the news.
The rumor goes that Lynn Cheney isn’t happy with Cheney’s close relationship with Willeford.
NBC, MSNBC and news services
Updated: 11:14 a.m. ET Feb. 15, 2006
WASHINGTON – Vice President Dick Cheney on Wednesday will make his first public comments on the accidental shooting of a hunting partner.
The White House announced Wednesday morning that Cheney would be interviewed on Fox News at 2 p.m. ET. 🙄
Received this email from Doug Kreeger regarding Marc’s new show.
I too am waiting and I’m told at this point it will be the last days of the month. Because it is originating from our LA affiliate, it’s been somewhat of a moving target. Hopefully in the next few days, they’ll have some more info on our website. Thanks for you patience.
Best,
Doug Kreeger
As a father who recently introduced my 12-year-old son to the sport of hunting, I would like to thank Dick Cheney for providing such a great example of what not to do while hunting.
I sat my son down yesterday to review all the mistakes made by the vice president. First, I said, you are responsible that all required licenses and stamps be in order before you hunt. This is not the responsibility of anyone but you.
Second, I told my son, the shooter is always responsible for where and what he shoots. It was not the fault of Dick Cheney’s hunting buddy that he was shot.
Third, never shoot low birds. To hit his hunting buddy with birdshot at 30 yards, Dick Cheney was shooting flat and at shoulder height.
Fourth, when bird hunting, always know the position of your hunting buddies. If your buddy is not in front of you, then assume that he is behind you.
And fifth, always take responsibility for your actions. You shoot your hunting buddy: it is your fault, no matter what.
Kristapea, I’d think if you carve out that other section you’ll have enough space. I’d do raised beds. my Bible (Storey’s Basic Country Skills) suggests 16″ wide beds but you can do 3 – 4 ft ones, too. As for your broccoli The cabbage family tends to need a wide bed. Also, don’t plant straberries near your broccoli. It’s good to plant beans and then rotate after with your broccoli. Do NOT follow then with onions or garlic.
There are some great web sites for community gardens. Also, I thought at first you might have wanted to raise your own farm animals, but I assumed wrong. my bad
I need to build a coop. But that’s another story.
hope that helps
:doh:all done with coulter i surprisingly didnt put the icepick in my ear surprised i didnt sleepwalk stab my eardrums since i fell asleep with her cd on anyway she actually says in her book somewhere that she is non-partisan:rofl2:
she says somewhere else that she hopes that one day the conventions are of the conservative republican party and the moderate republican party i think that is what it is already am i wrong?
you got it, lieberman is proof of that (I listened to the young turks last night and they got me all riled up over that goof-ball).
now i really must go!
There goes breakfast, after seeing those photos at dailykos (my first time there). 😥 As a nurse, I am sickened at psychological and medical torture and how health ‘professionals’ participate. Sick sick sick. I still have the occasional nightmare just from translating Salvadoran torture survivor testimony from the 1980’s for an activist psychiatrist in the Bay Area. Spoons scooping out eyeballs and buckets slung from testicles stick in my mind (guess the Salvadoran death squads didn’t have the sophisticated equipment available to ‘our’ troops and operatives).:-( The format at dailykos was really confusing for me (was that Meline or Nickirose that mentionted how easier the format is here? I have to agree after seeing dailykos and having scanned a few other blogs in the past – it seems inpenetrable to jump in on a conversation, I can’t tell where the hell to start). I had to guess which specific photos people were commenting on, and couldn’t look at much more, since I propped my eyes open into the wee hours as Druid can attest (Druid, were you lauging at my ranting? That’s ok, I got really worked up last night).
Let’s all end our posts with :fu: Cheney, I’m for that. :fu: Cheney
Jason, where is Saitama, I have no idea.
Sean, have you had a chance to email me the Shatner thing yet? I emailed you yesterday afternoon about it. Was it something I said or are you busy/taking a break?
:fu: Cheney
I simply cannot understand the Left’s fascination with Coulter. Is it because she wears miniskirts that she’s viewed as a turncoat in some bizarre way? She’s obviously a provocator, trying to outrage by any means possible, and in today’s market, she can make a lot more money that way than she can lawyering. Or hooking.
Sorry, I just gave into the impulse. Won’t happen again.
The attention should be on the faux objective reporters, like Russert and Matthews, who give an impression of being down the middle, but who support the right more effectively than Fox ever could. I mean, who watches Fox without knowing that you’re hearing the Voice of Rove? Russert and Matthews fool a lot of people who don’t pay attention, and that’s dangerous. Coulter doesn’t convince anybody.
am i allowed to swear on aar blogs? i just posted this on kyle jasons page
what the fuck i demand new kyle jason you scumbag sons of bitches i cant take this shit every show i like gets fucking cancelled first it was unfiltered then my beloved morning sedition and i just realized my fucking kyle jason too what the fuck ive been wondering why the fuck he hasnt been on on saturday nights i swear this shit is so frustrating so when are you bastards cancelling malloy so there is nothing left on the station that makes me giddy with joy when the show begins argh fuck fuckity fuck fuck fuck i cant take this shit ugh ok im done bitching but uh this cant be a good thing
I simply cannot understand the Left’s fascination with Coulter. Is it because she wears miniskirts that she’s viewed as a turncoat in some bizarre way? She’s obviously a provocator, trying to outrage by any means possible, and in today’s market, she can make a lot more money that way than she can lawyering. Or hooking.
hooking:rofl2: she is too skinny to hook nobody would want her she looks too cracky
You need some dems that don’t appear to be too woosey but don’t support the corportists interests either. Fred, that’s be Peace and Freedom Party and Green Party. See my bilious rants late last night on the Dems.
Wow, Sean, what happened with Jason Kyle? Folks, don’t expect any of this to last on AAR. I watched Malloy move from ieamerica radio to AAR, and had to leave the excellent Peter Werbe behind, although he was able to get Werbe to sub for him at times on aar. Frankly I was very sceptical about AAR when it was launched when I heard Franken’s was to be the flagship show. I figured the whole thing would be a storefront for the DLC with a few radicals thrown in to attract us more radical folks, and I think my original estimate is proving correct.
How to get a truly independent network with a real variety of commentators, wonks, hosts, etc? Under capitalist constraints? Pacifica was an attempt, but they’ve been turned into NPR lite (read David Barsamian’s quick read The Fall and Deline of National Public Broadcasting, or decline and fall, I forget which right now).
Someone in yesterday’s discussion mentioned the whole fixed balloting thing. Yes, what about that? These facist fucks couldn’t win a fair election, so does it matter how many people vote Dem anyway? I read Bev Harris’ Black Box Voting from cover to cover, and although quite a bit of it was technically over my head (and she claims not to be any kind of techie!) and then I heard there was dirt about her misusing funds that Randi raised for her on the air and boom, that was the last I heard of her. The time I brought up her book to a conservative down the hall from me at work he sweetly shot back “ohh, but isn’t there some scandal around her? her stuff must be suspect”. Fuck. And I had nothing to retort because I hadn’t heard anything, still haven’t. Has there been a smear campaign against Bev Harris, or what? Funny how these Republican fucks commit wholesale slaughter and mayhem while the press portrays them as patriots, but when a self described retired and retiring housewife with no agenda other than reclaiming one person one vote writes a widely discussed and respected book about the problem and spawns web discussion, funny how there’s some scandal. Did I miss the boat on this scandal, does anyone have more info about what happened to Bev Harris’ credibility and why we don’t hear her anymore? Or am I wrong, is she still alive and kicking?
all i know is that randi apoloogized about telling us to send her money other than that i heard nothing either not a peep
:paranoid:guess she must of been onto something
Sorry, I meant for that quote from Fred to be in italics, not the entire remainder of my post. Forgive my unfamiliarity with operating these tabs and emoticons (I notice when I insert an emoticon the writing cursor jumps back to the beginning of the emoticon characters, so that I have to press the space bar two or three times to continue typing text. I also notice that if I’m done typing a post and try to insert a post while reviewing what I wrote, even when I’m careful to put the cursor exactly where I want the emoticon in the text, it automatically gets shunted to the end of the post, unless I make a new line, insert the emoticon, then delete or backspace to connect the text again. Very time consuming and annoying. And one emoticon didn’t even appear when I submitted, I guess I had it too close to text).
Re devil woman Coulter – why why why bother? Talk about :doh:
(I mean this as a concerned nurse, truly – don’t do this to yourself! If it’s the miniskirts and blond hair, try bubblehead but good vegan activist Pamela Anderson instead) 😆
Ok, maybe not your type, what do I know?
All well and good to want to ‘know the enemy’ and all, but as cresstwo so aptly wrote:
“The attention should be on the faux objective reporters, like Russert and Matthews, who give an impression of being down the middle, but who support the right more effectively than Fox ever could. I mean, who watches Fox without knowing that you’re hearing the Voice of Rove? Russert and Matthews fool a lot of people who don’t pay attention, and that’s dangerous. Coulter doesn’t convince anybody.”
(Y’all don’t know how many backspaces, deletes and etc. to get that to look like italics, I hope it works this time).
And I don’t follow Russert and Matthews, don’t know if I could stomach it, but good point, cresttwo. But I suspect a lot of folks watching Fucked/FOX never even heard of Rove. My family in NY sure hasn’t. They wouldn’t even watch the dvd I sent them of Outfoxed, and asked for no more political gifts, please! But they all object to WalMart trying to build in Staten Island. I gave them a rave review of the WalMart movie but they can go get it for themselves since they want no more ‘political’ gifts. Maybe someday they’ll come to see that trying to avoid politics is like trying to avoid gravity.
I still get the occasional update from Black Box Voting. There was a big furor and upreoar over at DU over her and one of the folks who worked at BBV that took a couple days off when his dad died, so they shitcanned him on the spot. I never really figured out what it was all about. It’s hard to tell with Randi, because if she feels she’s not getting enough attention, she gets pretty PO’d. Plus, to hear her tell it, you’d think she’s the only one out there disseminating information (and so many of her devout listeners fall all over themselves, telling her how wonderful she is and how nobody but her talks about these things). Fact is, I often hear about things days before she mentions anything (often, it’s been talked about right here, first).
That said, sometimes she’s pretty frickin’ funny, and she can slap down those freepers pretty good. She just needs to let the good folks speak a little bit (she just might learn something).
Great – good movie. Next time, get it right from Robert Greenwald. I gave him a donation to finish the move, and got mine before it opened.
Plus, Best Buy is red, and:
Best Buy Hit With Lawsuit Over Layoffs of IT Workers
November 22, 2004 – Richard Walstrom said that he sensed something was wrong during a job fair in May, when he saw some of his IT co-workers who had also recently been told by Best Buy Co. that they were losing their jobs. “There were a high percentage of people with gray hair,” said Walstrom, who’s 57. “It was a lot of us. I didn’t really realize what had happened until you look around and say, ‘What’s wrong with this picture?’ ” Walstrom was one of 44 former Best Buy IT workers who filed a class-action lawsuit last Wednesday claiming that the electronics retailer engaged in a pattern of age discrimination in terminating their jobs.
Best Buy faces allegations of discrimination
12/9/2005 – Six former and current employees of Best Buy (BBY) have sued the electronics retailer, alleging the company has purposefully excluded women and minorities from top-paying jobs as part of a culture catering to white men. The civil complaint, filed in a San Francisco federal court Thursday, seeks to be certified as a class action so it can potentially represent thousands of women, blacks and Hispanics who work in Best Buy’s 731 stores nationwide.
Well, I don’t know what the hell has happened between Bev Harris and the other BBV folks but here’s the disclaimer at the excellent http://www.blackboxboting.com website:
“Disclaimer:
We have nothing to do with Bev Harris or her foundation. This site does not solicit any funds for our operation, nor do we receive any support from any agency or individual.
Representations made by Ms. Harris or her foundations about this site and/or her former colleagues should be viewed with skepticism.
(Why can’t I get the hang of this italics thing, it jumps beyond the text I paste and then I have to do a ton of fiddling. This sucks, i’m sorry!)
If you want italics, hit the italic button above type the words you want in italic, when you want it to stop being, italic, hit the italic button again (notice it now says /italic) and then keep on typing. 😉
Or, paste a bunch of text in, highlight the text you want to be italic, and then hit the italic button (with the text still highlighted). No need to close the tag, ‘cuz it knows what to do.
:nod:i gotta get it where i can on the road. i was surprised i was even able to get it. not to mention that i got it in macon ga. if i wasnt out here travelling, i would order a lot of stuff straight from people. such as marc maron and his cds!!!!!
PJ, that’s exactly how I feel about Randi. Her voice grates on my nerves, I’ll be honest. Just sounds too much like she’s in severe need of either ADD medication (I’m anti-medication, believe me – my primary care provider is a homeopath, and I’m a nurse, mind you) or good non-allopathic treatment. Sorry if any Randi-heads take offense but I can’t tolerate listening to her anymore even at her funniest. I boycotted her for the longest time after she practically stuffed a shoe down Ralph Nader’s throat during the presidential primaries. Telling him “you’re like a fancy pair of shoes I can’t afford, Ralph – I want you, I’d love to have you, but I just can’t afford you!” But then she’s courting Bev Harris and demanding people fight for the franchise (by which I mean one person one vote). What’s the point of a franchise if we tell people they can’t run? Some democracy, huh? I’m sorry, but that gets me boiling mad, and I’m not even a strong Nader supporter (as you found out if you read through one of my interminable (but righteous at least in my own mind, and I thank the blog being here for that, though I wish I’d gotten some comment, but I guess I caught up with you all too late in the day). Whew.
Ok, this dial up at home is making it difficult to keep up, it’s taking me awhile to post. I’ll be off soon but next I’ll post an interesting article from marxists.com called Finance Capitalism: The Perfect Circle.
i think randi is horrible at dealing with republican callers if she would let them speak a little bit more they would ruin themselves she is too quick to jump on them and not let them speak i wish she had it in her to deal with them more like :love:malloy
:love:i especially love it when a rethug calls malloy and tries to quote scripture thats the best malloy rips the bible out their hands and burns em with it
Thanks PJ, I know that’s elemental insructions, but it’s sophisticated to me. Maybe I’m just too worked up while I’m writing to pay attention to fine tuning that stuff. Funny, I used italics here without even thining about is when I started a few days ago. Oh well.
Sean, *you’re* the trucker – takes me awhile :doh:
But trucker friend, why have you not sent me the Shatner fix yet? I emailed you privately, although it meant you had to post your email address here. Should I post my email address here? I’m a little afraid to, although I understand we are all traceable from our blog posts for anyone who cares to. Do others of you post your email addresses here?
One thing is, this isn’t about the Republicans and the other flavor of Republicans (aka, the Democrats), as much as it’s about this fascist, neocon death brigade that currently runs the show, and their enablers and apologists that allow them to continue doing what they’re doing.
So, while the Dmocratic establishment and many (most) of their members serve their corporate masters, the first thing that needs to happen is to get the Republicans out of control of at least one branch of government. A John Conyers as Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee is far better than a James Sensenbrenner. Can you say, impeachment? I knew you could.
If you look at all the ranking members of the House and Senate committees, there aren’t many that wouldn’t be huge improvements over what we have right now.
In the long run, we either need better Deomocrats from the local level on up (and it’ll take a long time to build that up), or we need to start building a new party by getting progressive candidates elected at the local levels on up (which might take even longer).
We need election reform, and that won’t happen with either of these parties.
“I was the one who pulled the trigger” – Cheney, under heavy pressure. If Whittington dies, grand jury in Texas could bring indictment for negligent homicide – just heard this on KPFA radio. Why does it take shooting an old white Republican to possibly get rid of this fuck? And not all the millions he’s robbed and murdered around the world and here in the U.S.?
:fu::fu::fu::fu::fu: Cheney
What a difficult time I would have abiding by the nurses’ code of do no harm if I were your nurse, Cheney.
hey heres something i wrote a long time ago that i just dug up i dont like it but anyway here
i believe in a $10 an hour minimum wage
i believe in universal health care
i believe every home should have cheap access to the internet
i believe in a constitutional right to privacy
i do not believe in state sponsored marriage
i believe in progressive taxation those who benefit more from the economic freedoms of this country should pay more in taxes not less
i believe in americas middle class
i believe in a right to organize
i do not believe in corporate welfare
i believe my country is headed towards fascism
i believe the war against fascism is just as important as the war against terrorism
i do not believe in censorship
i believe in a peacefull revolution
i believe this revolution will begin in the house of representatives
i believe americas two party system is corrupt
Marxist class in session, for those who are interested 😀 :
Enjoy:
Finance Capitalism: The Perfect Circle of Success by Michael Roberts
From Marxists.com
The perfect circle of success
By Michael Roberts
Friday, 10 February 2006
It works like this. The economies of the advanced world, as represented by what is called the G7 countries (the US, Japan, Germany, the UK, France, Italy and Canada – in that order), no longer need to make things. Increasingly, they just need to invent, design and market things. They can leave the making of things to the less developed world – in particular, China and other parts of Asia, Mexico and Brazil.
Also the G7 countries (and other smaller advanced economies like Switzerland) can concentrate on financing the investment in the making of things in the less developed world. The banks and financial institutions based in New York, London and Geneva, along with Paris and Frankfurt can suck up the huge savings generated in China, Japan, Korea and the oil-rich economies of the Middle East and Russia. These savings, in the hands of the global financial sector, are used to buy the bonds of the G7 governments, the bonds of the big corporations and mortgage banks and the shares of the major G7 corporations.
Looking down the telescope from the other end, this means that the G7 governments and the big corporations and the average households on the G7 countries can borrow huge amounts of money to finance their purchases of houses, pay for government spending on arms, education etc., and finance the building of factories in the so-called Third World.
It’s perfect. The US now runs a huge trade deficit equivalent to 7% of its annual national income. It also has built up net debts with the rest of the world equivalent to 25% of its annual output and rising. But no problem. It has this deficit because it is buying truckloads of ‘things’ from China at very cheap prices to fill its shops. It does not need to make these things at home any more when they are so cheap from China, Mexico or the rest of Asia. And these things are being made in China by American, Japanese and European corporations who have transferred their factories to China and other cheap-wage, plentiful labour locations.
It all works because the export revenues generated by Chinese sales to the US and the rest of the G7 are put in the Chinese banks by the foreign-owned corporations, which promptly use the money to buy US bonds and other financial assets. Indeed, in 2005, the US ran up a trade deficit of nearly $700bn, but it received back over $900bn in credit as foreigners bought US government bonds, corporation bonds and mortgage bonds.
As a result, the US financial system is flush with cash. It can lend money at historically very low rates of interest to Americans to buy ever more expensive houses or purchase ever more quantities of Chinese goods, or ever more clever hi-tech services from India and techno gadgets from Korea, Taiwan and Japan.
Such is the perfect circle of success. So perfect is it that some strategists of capital are now convinced that this has guaranteed a prosperous capitalist world for some time ahead. They have called it Our Brave New World. In this world, G7 capitalist companies are ‘platform companies’. They won’t make anything. “The new business model is to produce nowhere, but sell everywhere… platform companies then simply organise the ordering by the clients and delivery by the producers…they keep the high value-added parts of the research, development and marketing in-house and farm out all the rest to external producers”.
Think of the Brave New World as a new stage of capitalism. First, there was the development of agricultural capitalism in the 17th and 18th centuries in Europe and in the 19th century in the US and Japan. Then came industrial capitalism, pioneered by the UK at first and then adopted by the US, Europe and later Japan. The rest of the world was reduced to providing the raw materials and food that enabled industrial capitalist countries to make the things everybody wanted.
But now has come finance capitalism (more broadly defined to include what Marx called the unproductive sectors of capitalism, namely, finance, marketing, legal services, property ‘development’ etc). This is how the G7 economies increase their wealth. They take the savings of the newly industrialised world and invest or spend it for them!
Indeed, if you take the argument further, China would have no market to sell its TVs, toys, textiles, bras and every other item you can think of, if American households did not have the money or credit to buy them. What is important in this view of capitalism is not production, but consumption.
It is a repeat of the ironic story first raised by the great Dutch economist, Bernard Mandeville way back in 1705 of the Fable of the Bees. As he explained in his brilliant doggerel verse, it is not the bees (workers) that are important. Without the drones (the do-nothing members of the community who just consume the honey), there would be no point to the worker bees. Without somebody ready to eat you out of house and home, there would be no need to make any food or the shopping – it’s logical isn’t it? So without Americans spending like there was no tomorrow, China would not be able to sell and it would have no place to lend its money. The US spender/debtor keeps the capitalist world going round, not the Chinese saver/lender.
There must be something wrong with this! And there is. This whole view of capitalism assumes that profits are irrelevant. What is important is that the price of stocks and shares keep rising, the price of property keeps rising and that interest rates keep low, not making profits. If the value of your house keeps going up you can borrow more to spend more, if the value of shares keeps rising you can borrow more to invest in factories in China and design new things for the Chinese to make. If interest rates stay low, the government and others can borrow more to build more armaments while keeping taxes relatively low.
This is the view of capitalism as seen by the banker or the rich consumer. It is not the reality of capitalism. That’s because the prices of property, shares and government debt won’t go up forever because they depend on something else: profits of capitalists. This is the lifeblood of capitalism. If the profits of the big corporations start to wane, then all bets are off. Investment into China will fall off, share prices will fall and fewer goods will be purchased. G7 economies will slow.
And profits do not come from bankers lending money, rich people buying luxury goods, governments selling arms or people buying houses. The profits have already been made. These economic actors are merely redistributing profit made by others –namely the producers of things in the US and China. This is one of the fundamental discoveries of Marxist economics.
Profits are the unpaid labour of the working class, but also they only arise from the sale of things made that people want. The marketing, advertising and distribution of goods add nothing to profit; but are just a necessary (under capitalism) cost of making a profit for individual capitalists in competition with each other.
Similarly, workers in public services are necessary to capitalism to keep the workforce healthy, educated and functioning. But they don’t produce profits for capitalists. In that sense, they are ‘unproductive’ for capitalism. Bankers, mortgage and insurance brokers, real estate agents and financial analysts may get paid huge sums but they do not make profits for the capitalist system, even if they do for the companies they work for. In that sense too, they are unproductive.
Yet the Brave New World of capitalism now suggests that it is precisely these unproductive sectors of capitalism that keep the whole system going. Buying a house in America keeps the whole world going round. What will prove this wrong is when the profitability of the capitalist system starts to fall. At present, US profitability in the whole economy is around 8.5% of annual output. That’s very near the historic peak of the last 25 years of 9%. But it is now beginning to decline.
There are three indicators of whether the Brave New World will end in tears. First, are US housing prices falling? If they start to do so, then the profit of investing US mortgage bonds for foreigners will decline and they will stop buying them. That will force up interest rates in the US and make it more difficult to finance the huge trade deficit. As of now, US house prices are shooting along at near 15% a year. But they have just started to slow.
The second indicator will be how much the US and other G7 companies keep investing in China to boost profitability. If that starts to decline, then it means that G7 corporations have less to spend or they are worried about not getting enough profit out of the workers in China. In 2005, foreign capitalists invested $58bn in China. That’s very high, but it is slightly less than in 2004. Just the first signs.
Finally, there are the figures for Chinese exports to the rest of the world. If they start to decline, it means that G7 consumers have less money to spend on goods in the shops and/or foreign manufacturers are experiencing a slowdown or fall in the profits they are making from their exports. In 2005, exports from China were at record levels.
So far then, the Brave New World of capitalism is still holding together. It still seems that the bankers, property developers and arms manufacturers of the G7 economies are successful and profitable. But there are signs of fraying at the edges.
Let’s go back to Mandeville’s fable. In the natural world, of course, the drones do have a role. They may do nothing and do not even guard the Queen bee. But they are the only males of the bee community and so they mate with the queen, thus providing a role in procreation. The worker bees are all female. Once mating is over, the drones are driven out of the hive by the worker bees and left to die. In the human world, worker bees are both male and female and do their own mating. So they have no need of drones at all!
January 2006
(PJ, I tried hightlighing a line in here to put in bold, but all that happened from what I see before submitting is that two codes called ‘strong’ get inserted at the end of the whole post. Same when I highlight text and press italics).
Dick Cheney may have demonstrated his ability yet again to go after the wrong target when he bagged his hunting companion instead of his quarry, but the Democratic Party leadership is proving to be even more treacherous in the field than Deadeye Dick.
Party leaders, including Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) recently pressured Cindy Sheehan not to mount a primary campaign against California Senator Diane Feinstein, a woman who has betrayed party principles, such as they are, at almost every turn and deserves to go down to defeat. (It was only after Sheehan said she was considering a primary fight that Feinstein announced she would support a filibuster on Alito.) Now they’ve killed the campaign of Paul Hackett, an Iraq War vet and sharp critic of the war and the president and a candidate who had a strong shot at snatching a Senate seat for the Democrats this fall in Ohio.
For months, the Democratic National Committee, and the Democratic Senate Campaign Committee chair, Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY), have been working behind the scenes to undermine Hackett’s campaign in favor of Rep. Sherrod Brown. When Hackett announced his intention to run, he met with party leaders, and with Ohio Rep. Sherrod Brown, and won a commitment from Brown not to enter into a primary fight for the Democratic senate nomination. Later, the party leadership undercut him and had Brown go back on his promise, forcing a primary battle. The undermining effort continued and Hackett finally decided Monday he didn’t want the fight.
Saying he had been betrayed by his country when he was sent to Iraq, and now by his party, Hackett, a Marine reservist and a lawyer, said he was quitting politics in understandable disgust, but would continue to speak out against the war. I’m sorry he decided not to fight, but understand his disgust. . . http://www.counterpunch.org
Israel’s acting prime minister, Ehud Olmert, declared last week that his country plans to “separate” from “most of the Palestinian population that lives in the West Bank.” He indicated that Israel will absorb the main settlement blocs in the West Bank and retain all of Jerusalem as well as control over the Jordan valley. “The direction is clear,” Olmert concluded. “We are moving toward separation from the Palestinians, toward setting Israel’s permanent border.”
Of course, Olmert was trying to make it seem that this is a new policy, determined in part by Hamas’s victory in the recent Palestinian elections and the consequent absence of what Israel calls “a partner for peace.”
And, of course, he was being disingenuous.
First of all, Hamas has not yet formed a Palestinian government. And even when it does, there’s nothing to suggest that it would not be willing to negotiate with Israel—indeed, it has repeatedly signaled its intention to do just that. Anyway, governments enter into agreements with each other as governments, not as political parties—so the agreements already signed by the Palestinian Authority in that sense would be more binding on any future Hamas government than Hamas’s own charter, about which we have heard so much in recent weeks. Moreover, Hamas members ran for elections not on the basis of the party’s charter, but rather on the basis of a platform that included neither a call for the destruction of Israel, nor a call for the establishment of a Palestinian state in all of historic Palestine.
Second, Olmert’s announcement does not differ substantively from various pronouncements made by Ariel Sharon in recent years, long before Hamas’s electoral victory, including a December 2004 speech in which Sharon claimed that the agreements he’d reached with the US “protect Israel’s most essential interests: first and foremost, not demanding a return to the ‘67 borders; allowing Israel to permanently keep large settlement blocs which have high Israeli populations; and the total refusal of allowing Palestinian refugees to return to Israel.” […]
Sorry ex, don’t know what the trouble is, but you can always just put the tags in yourself.
HTML tags go inside these things <> For bold, you put <strong> in front of the words you want to be bold, and </strong> when you want it to stop being bold. For italic use <em>italic</em> You can also use <b> and <i> for bold and italic, if you want (just make sure to close the tags).
got an e-mail from my roommate about uae buying our ports so uh here
this is tricky because although most of the hijackers were saudis they were not sanctioned by the saudi government. And you’ll say how do I know that? and I’ll say logic. the terrorists that hate us for being over there (and that’s why they hate us, because we stay too close for them to fuck with Israel) hate the saudi govt for letting us be over there. If we ever left the area, the saudi royal family would be the ones who would bear the brunt of the ensuing shit storm (Israel’s army could pretty much handle the whole region by itself right now, with Iraq basically out of comission and egypt a shell of itself, only iran would mount any sort of threat to Israel but they’re not even in the same league as far as equipment or training goes and only slightly ahead in religious zealotry (it gets no press but Israeli’s are crazy all manifest destiny and shit) so the UAE has everything to lose by us getting fucked over. It’s to the point with them that even if they turned on us and openly praised attacks on us they still wouldn’t, couldn’t ever, regain popular support. The idea that because this company is owned by the country that owns the bank, it has to be bad because bad people invest in the bank, is flawed, at best. People need to understand the idea that banks everywhere else are nowhere near as willing to rat out their investors as American banks. A bank has one principle keep the money coming in. If al qaeda was using swiss or cayman banks (and they probably do) they wouldn’t give up the information either. (and right here everybody will get all high pitched and shit and say ‘oh, yes they would’ but they wouldn’t. ever. because then the much richer although somewhat less blood-thirsty super rich white criminals that also use these banks would begin to question whether or not this was the best arrangement for them. Super rich criminals are by their nature a nervous bunch, and the bankers that get super rich off of their money will do anything – hide al qaeda’s or say nazi germany’s financial records – no matter how seemingly unpalatable, to asuage their fears. its not like our port security could get much worse. Also, middle eastern countries know a fuck of a lot more about security than we do. That being said, the idea still makes me feel… um…icky. It’s just that I feel icky for reasons other than the reactionary ones given in the article. I feel just as icky as I felt when Japan was running around buying up everything, (land, buildings, companies, ideas) they could get their tiny little yellow small hands on. It’s not just outsourcing jobs, it’s like outsourcing America y’know?(very cheesy but I couldn’t think how else to phrase it). you see why I ignore you? I don’t have time to think like this.
Thank you Fred and Gypsy for the rethug definition, never heard that before, but it sure is apt. PJ, thank you for posting that bit about Best Buy. My mother found out about this while she was volunteering with Marin ABB (Anybody But Bush, a sorryass pro-Kerry attempt), but my staunch unionist brother in NYC often wants a Best Buy gift certificate for his birthday and I’ve been meaning to look for info to send him for why I don’t want to patronize them. Hope you don’t mind if I forward that to him (minus you identifying info, of course!).
SeanieSean, thank you so much for sending the Shatner. Your next email is taking forever to download for some reason, did you send a huge graphic? Hey, I didn’t realize you were stuck in the sticks of Georgia needing audio to keep you awake. That’s gotta be rough. If you have time, maybe you could browse the used books on cd sections at better bookstores when you’re in big cities. Here in San Francisco, Green Apple Boods at Clement and Sixth in the Inner Richmond has a mouthwatering used and new secion of these. Here’s what I got there last payday:
on cd:
-Molly Ivins reading Bushwacked (abridged, 5 discs, 6 hours, marked down to $18 from $29.95)
-David Brock reading The Republican Noise Machine (abridged, marked down to $14 from $29.95, 5 discs, 6 hours, still unopened!)
-The Book on Bush (Unabridged, unopened, read by Nick Sullivan, 19 hours 28 minutes, marked down to an unbelieveable $20 from $49.95)
and as if that weren’t enough: The Beatles Biography by Bob Spitz, abridged, read by Alfred Molina (yes, the actor), marked down to $25 from $39.95, running time approx. 10 hours.
I ran outta Green Apple guarding these like gold, I could not believe my luck. Maybe this isn’t fair, I barely have time to listen, but when there’s nothing on the radio or in an audio file online that I desperately need to hear, I’m working my through the Beatles bio first, and it is great! Sean, go to the Green Apple annex next time you’re in town. I didn’t even bother looking at the new ones, they were much too expensive for me. And lots of crap, imo; I had to wade through a lot of stuff to find these gems. Did my yoga over the weekend soaking in the fab four’s teen exploits to Melina’s mellifluous (sp?) and intelligent reading.
[…]The Vice President’s endorsed bombing wasn’t the only killer in Iraq; Gore also embraced the horrific UN sanctions, which accounted for at least a half a million deaths, mostly poor women and children.
Al Gore was certainly no peacenik during his days as serving under Bill Clinton. He supported NATO’s intervention in Bosnia and bombing of the Sudan. Up until George W. Bush’s Iraq invasion Gore was even delivering stump speeches highlighting Saddam’s potential threat.
“Iraq’s search for weapons of mass destruction has proven impossible to deter,” Gore said on September 23, 2002. “[W]e should assume that it will continue for as long as Saddam is in power.”
It may be comforting for some to think Al Gore’s has had a change of heart on Iraq. But Gore will still not delve into any of the deeper issues that influence US foreign policy. As the Bushites shift their wanton attention to Iran, Gore remains unwilling and unable to recognize one of the primary perpetrators of another war in the region: Israel.
During a talk at the Jeddah Economic Forum in Saudi Arabia last week, Al Gore pontificated about US policy in the Middle East. When pressed by the largely Saudi audience as to whether or not America’s allegiance to Israel was heightening the chance of a war on Iran, Gore remained evasive. “We can’t solve that long [Palestine/Israel] conflict in exchanges here,” he said.
I wonder if AAR is starting to understand all the hate and discontent they could avoid by just being honest and showing a little respect for their audience? Of course, instead of playign where’s Maron, they could have just not killed Morning Sedition in the first place (no, sorry, I’m not over it).
But if they’d just put somethign up earlier that said “we’re sorry, but getting Marc’s show together is taking longer that we’d hoped, but we’ll keep you updated,” then alot of this would have been avoided. Had it not been for Marc e-mailing us and spreading the word through our underground seditionist network, we’d have no idea what was going on. And had we not started pestering them on Monday, they still wouldn’t have told us anything (hell, if Marc hadn’t told us what was going on way back when – giving us time to mount at least some sort of a campaign to keep MS – he’d have just suddenly disappeard one day).
Speaking of dogs, Greenies are a lot like “conservative” values — gulping without thought or effort is bad for your health.
My first two dogs “knew” how to eat a Greenie: spend a half hour gnawing and grinding away at it to savor it. My current pup bit it in half then swallowed both pieces. Last Greenie for her. (She also stole a chicken drumstick at a BBQ and swallowed it whole. Luckily it passed a couple of days later, but her diet is rigorously controlled as to size of treats. Probably like Bush not being allowed pretzels anymore.)
You might want to try out the Free Documentaries site, too. Downloads can be a bit spotty, but there are some real eye-openers out there (Afghan Massacre: Convoy of Death is a pleasant little movie, for example).
Imprisoned in New Orleans
by Jordan Flaherty and Tamika Middleton; Colorlines Magazine ; February 15, 2006
When hurricane Katrina hit, there was no evacuation plan for 7,000 prisoners in the New Orleans city jail, generally known as Orleans Parish Prison (OPP), or the approximate 1,500 prisoners in nearby jails. According to first-hand accounts gathered by advocates, prisoners were abandoned in their cells while the water was rising around them. They were subjected to a heavily armed “rescue” by state prison guards that involved beatings, mace and being left in the sun with no water or food for several days, followed by a transfer to state maximum security prisons. Although their treatment brought national attention to the condition of prisoners in Louisiana, and comparison to prison abuse scandals from Attica to Abu Ghraib, local government officials have attempted to dodge accountability and continue with business as usual.
Raphael Schwartz, a 26-year-old Missouri man arrested and imprisoned for public intoxication in New Orleans on August 27, was sprayed with mace and abandoned by officers in a locked cell with seven other prisoners. According to papers filed by the ACLU of Louisiana, the man had no ventilation and nothing to eat or drink for four days.
Quintano Williams, a 31-year-old office manager picked up on marijuana charges just before the storm hit, testified in ACLU papers to being abandoned for days and then relocated to Hunts Correction Facility, a rural Louisiana maximum security prison, where he was left with thousands of detainees on a football field. There, he witnessed stabbings, but, he said, prison staff “did not interfere with anything that was going on as long as people did not try to get out of the area.”
Rachel Francois was arrested in mid-August, and as far as her family was able to discover never had charges filed against her. “We tried to bail her out,” her mother, Althea Francois, said. “It was the day before Katrina, and the bail bonds places were all closed. If they had been open, she would have been released that day. Instead, we could not get her released until two months later.” Francois, a prisoner-rights advocate, searched for two weeks before she found out where her daughter was being held.
Rachel and other women were taken to Hunts and then Angola, an all-male prison. “When I found out she was at Angola prison, just the idea really broke my heart,” her mother said. “She didn’t have a bed until the last few days she was there. She had no food for four days. She saw them throw food at the men like they were animals, but even then they didn’t give the women anything. The women were having panic attacks and were in fear for their lives. ”
Most of the people trapped in this brutal web of governmental abuse and neglect would have been released within a few weeks even if convicted. However, as of this writing several months later, many remain locked in maximum security prisons such as Angola, Louisiana’s notorious former slave plantation.
The flooding of New Orleans showed vividly the results of local, state and federal governments’ misplaced priorities, as well as the privatizing and militarizing of relief. In the months after the disaster, while the people of New Orleans wanted to return and rebuild their city, what they got instead was “security.” Hundreds of National Guard troops, as well as police forces from across the U.S. and private security forces including Blackwater, Wackenhut and an Israeli company called Instinctive Shooting International began patrolling the nearly empty city.
Long before Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans was hit by hurricanes of disinvestment, deindustrialization, corruption and neglect… http://www.znet.org
“The image of him falling is something I’ll never ever be able to get out of my mind,” Cheney said. “I fired, and there’s Harry falling. It was, I’d have to say, one of the worst days of my life at that moment.”
maybe we should have cheney go to iraq with his friends so he can really have a bad day hunting
no i dont listen to him anymore ive been truck driving for four years now and we didnt always have xm and aar out here on the open road and npr is normally playing classical by that time of night
God it is hard to tear myself away from you people, thank you for waking me up! But life and fleeting sunshine here in SF call, and I’ve got to pick up my CityCarShare reservation in two hours, and before then have got to do some yoga stretches (this is a necessity for me, not a vanity – some of you young’ns’ll find this out some day – if you’re already cycling or doing yoga regularly, my nurse’s advice is don’t stop!), bathe, eat (omigod – 1pm, stomach’s growling and I haven’t minded til right now) and hop over to Rainbow Grocery to lug home more groceries than’ll fit on the trusty bicycle. How’s that for a smarmy oh-so-pc San Francisco style brag?
Keep well, keep on, curse and carry on. The times I’ve managed to stomach rightwing talk radio, I was astounded at the real hate speech I heard there. I used to think Malloy was gratuitously raw, now I think he’s restrained (and given the fcc he has to be, while fuckheads like Coulter, Limbaugh, Savage, ad nauseum :barf: don’t restrain themselves at all).
Fuck You Cheney :fu: and Bush :fu: Rove :fu: Feith :fu: Pipes :fu: Condaskeeza 👿 (‘Condaskeeza’ I heard from local dj’s at KPOO radio – give them a listen please, they carry some good programming. Time for Guns and Butter now on KPFA, one of the few radical shows left there – you can listen to KPFA live now at http://www.kpfa.org and KPOO at http://www.kpoo.com/
On KPFA right now: Jeffrey Smith talking about his book Seeds of Deception. Check it out!)
Wow, Sean, that second post of yours just now finished downloading to my computer, would you believe it? I’ll let you know how the mp3 works for me. Listen, are you at all interested in me copying some of these cd’s I bought and sending them to you? If it’ll keep you from listening to Coulter, I’ll do it! I’m a little stressed and pressed for time right now but I could probably get it together during the next week or so. Let me know.
Bye for now, stay human all; I’ll read over your excellent articles later, I had to skim over them for now.
With Hackett Departure, Old Politics Win
The Associated Press
Wednesday 15 February 2006
Washington – With a shove from party leaders, Iraq war veteran Paul Hackett abruptly quit a key Senate race in Ohio and further exposed a disconnect between the Democratic establishment and Internet-fueled challengers.
The political novice withdrew under intense pressure from party leaders in Washington, clearing the field for Rep. Sherrod Brown – a 30-year veteran of Democratic politics with more than $2.5 million in the bank.
Phil Singer, spokesman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, said Hackett’s decision to quit gives the party a better chance of beating two-term GOP Sen. Mike DeWine in November. Hackett drew his strongest support from Democratic activists outside Washington and Ohio who donated money and time via the Internet, including many who considered his military record an asset against DeWine.
“Hackett would have probably won this seat,” David Nir, one of three founders of the liberal Web site SwingStateProject.com, contended in a blog posting Tuesday. “It’s much harder for me to envision the ‘northeastern Ohio liberal’ Sherrod Brown breaking the 49-percent barrier, particularly with DeWine moving to the center.”
mr farmerkat posted his first blog (his bio not is up yet)
i asked him if he thought the photos shouldn’t be out there and he said it’s important that they are; he’s just talking about their effect.
Opus Dei holds out for ‘Da Vinci’ changes
By NICOLE WINFIELD
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
This photo provided by Sony Pictures shows the poster for the film, “The Da Vinci Code,” scheduled for release May 2006 at the Cannes Film Festival in France. (AP Photo/Sony Pictures)m
ROME — The conservative Roman Catholic group Opus Dei said Tuesday it had no intention of calling for a boycott of the upcoming film “The Da Vinci Code,” but said it hopes the much-awaited film could still be changed so that “there aren’t references that would hurt Catholics.”
In a statement released in Rome, Opus Dei said Sony Pictures still had time to make changes that would be appreciated by Catholics, “particularly in these days in which everyone has noted the painful consequences of intolerance” – an apparent reference to violence in the Muslim world sparked by the publication of caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad.
The film, starring Tom Hanks and scheduled for a May 19 release, is based on the best-selling Dan Brown novel, which portrayed Opus Dei as a murderous, power-hungry sect. The novel contends that Jesus married Mary Magdalene and had descendants, and that Opus Dei and the Catholic Church were at the center of covering it up.
The low-profile spiritual group has embarked on something of a public-relations campaign to improve its image before release of the film. It says it isn’t calling for a boycott because it prefers to follow a more “constructive” path.
“‘The Da Vinci Code’ offers a deformed image of the Catholic Church,” Tuesday’s statement said, adding that the statement was issued because the organization had received many questions about the upcoming film.
Sony reiterated its view that “The Da Vinci Code” is a work of fiction.
The work is “not a religious tract, and it is certainly not meant to criticize any group, religious or otherwise,” Jim Kennedy, a spokesman for Sony Pictures Entertainment, commented via e-mail.
Opus Dei should chill. That book sucked!:rofl2:
Oh, that’s right. Bad novels frequently make good scripts for Hollywood.:omg:
Whenever people start complaining about the scandalously biased press coverage of Israel’s conduct towards Palestinians, by way of cheering them up, I remind them that 20 years ago the coverage was even worse.
Back then, remember, reviewers gave a respectful welcome to Joan Peters’ book From Times Immemorial, which purported to argue that Palestinians had no claims on the land of Canaan, and that they had snuck into Israel from Saudi Arabia in comparatively recent times. The New York Times lavished praise on this nonsense which was duly exposed as fraudulent from start to finish. Back then, newspapers gave similarly polite coverage to prime minister Golda Meir’s pronouncement that there were no such people as Palestinians. To write, as I often did, about Palestinians’ just claims, as represented by the PLO, was to invite torrents of abuse. In New York particularly it was virtually impossible to have a rational political discussion on the topic.
If today the coverage is fractionally more honest, credit should go in part to a quirky, cantankerous professor of organic chemistry, born in a cultivated Jewish family in Warsaw, who died last week in his apartment in Jerusalem, his body worn out at the early age of 68, thanks in no small measure to the two years he spent as a boy in the German concentration camp at Bergen Belsen.
Year after year those on Shahak’s mailing list would get, every few weeks, a package containing six or so single-space typewritten foolscap pages of his translations from the Hebrew-language press in Israel, studded with his own acerbic and often eruditely amusing comments. Each package would usually address a theme, such as housing demolitions of Palestinians by the Israelis, or corruption in the IDF and Mossad…
Alexander Cockburn
i thought the da vinci code was a fun read….but i like reading people magazine when i go to the doctor’s. 😳
had a professor once who thought there should be a class called, Bad French Literature since all we read were the classics (I was a French Study’s major in undergrad).
I was an English major–and failed high school english teacher. I found The DaVinci Code to be a very badly written book. The editors should have sent it back for an extensive re-write. Brown blew it.
ex-ny’er Bye I got caught up reading this blog —
I THOUGHT ALL YOU SAID ON THAT FIRST BLOG WAS PROFOUND and I was laughing at my need to research more what you were talking about. (Plus I was falling asleep.):fire:
hey everyone- Im still running around like crazy but I was able to read the blog today at the gym on my lil’ computer phone…very cool! Anyway, it occurs to me that this “wheres Maron?” thing is someone trying to cleverly ocver up the huge fuck up of not getting him on the page sooner…or booking the time with the LA station or telling us or them or anyone…of figureing which was their ass and which was their elbow….
So now they can make it like they meant to keep us guessing…I suppose the whole contract thing with him worrying and all of the ranting was just part of a huge ruse that would be used for publibity to launch the Wheres Maron show!!!…the only problem is that they have missed every opportunity for publicity along the way, so I dont buy it.
Nice try tho…
And Im happy that they are admiting that they know Maron and that he is supposed to have a show. Yay! They posted a whole paragraph and a little graphic with a link…now how hard could that have been?
The long awaited debut of Marc Maron’s new show, of which I am part, has been delayed pending negotiations pertaining to my dressing room. Please accept these hastily written jokes in the meantime.
:fu: cheney
I believe the Debate should be between the Dems and the Grns — re rethugs, if you voted for bush the 2nd time then you are part of the problem. They (the republicans of any kind) should now be “handled”. They should not be part of the solution. They should be treated as school bullys.
:fire:
PS I just read a great article in the new NY Mag about the blogosphere and bloggers in general…very interesting. I will try to find it online when I get back…might have to be a subscriber to get on their website…
February 15, 2006
FUCKING COWARD
“Ultimately I’m the guy who pulled the trigger that fired the round that hit Harry,” Cheney said in his first interview since the incident. “I’m the guy who pulled the trigger and shot my friend, and that’s something I’ll never forget.”
That’s nice, but what’s with “ultimately?” Sorry Dick, “ultimately” is what you say when, say, you’re a senior military official and something happened that was in your chain of command but about which you didn’t know.
There’s no “ultimately” here.
This guy doesn’t have the balls to step up, and then when he does decide to come out of his hidey hole to step up, he still can’t do it.
He’s never taken “full responsibility” in his life. When he was in college, he didn’t take responsibility for a war he supported but was too cowardly to fight himself, and he’s not taking responsibility now.
The interview with Paul Hackett just now on The Randi Rhodes Show was very good. Both Schumer and Reid and their wives lobbied Paul & his wife to enter the senate race in Ohio. They promised monetary support. Hackett also met with Sherrod Brown before deciding to run and Brown assured him he was not going to run. Then all of a sudden Brown decided to get in the race and bring 2 million with him from his congressional position. Then Schumer and Reid started calling Hackett’s donors asking them not to give him money. He seemed resigned to his decision to get out of the race. And, said he would support Brown. Democratic Party Skullduggery!:blech:
Hackett also met with Sherrod Brown before deciding to run and Brown assured him he was not going to run. Then all of a sudden Brown decided to get in the race and bring 2 million with him from his congressional position.
Comment by isi — February 15, 2006 @ 5:56 pm
See, now I’m confused, because I thought I remembered Brown already having declared himself a candidate when Hackett entered the race. Hackett has no reason to lie about it at this point in time, though, so my timeline must be off. :doh:
I hope Hackett reconsiders in 2008, although given the circumstances of his ouster this week, it would be understandable if he didn’t. How sweet it would be to see him defeat George Voinovich and give Ohio two Dem senators, the way life used to be when I lived there and we had Glenn and Metzenbaum. :peace:
Fucker. Yeah, one beer, I believe that. If they admit to one, you know it was at leat a sixer (speaking from experience). Sure, just a beer at lunch five hours earlier. So, why go and hide behind the Secret Sevice until he was sober enough to talk to the cops?
CNN today reports that Armstrong had told CNN she never saw Cheney or Whittington “drink at all on the day of the shooting until after the accident occurred, when the vice president fixed himself a cocktail back at the house.”
Kevin M, :rofl2: I have said both VIGILANCE and IMPEACHMENT (I have had a bumper sticker saying that since they stole Gore’s Pres.) but never as my blog ending – the two words together. I took the symbol for Marc from Kristapea’s suggestion now I want to join with you with your Chant as my ending — ALWAYS PROCLAIMING (when asked) IT WAS ORIGINALLY STARTED BY YOU. I hope you don’t mind :nod: — but I will probably hear from you on this blog if you do. :rofl2:
I feel The Chant reminds one what we are All (I hope) should be focusing on whether breathing, eating, :crap:, or whatever :banana::rofl2:
:rant1: on All. :banana:
IMPEACHMENT!!! (bush & his adm)
VIGILANCE!!!
:fire:
two things I learned from the legal profession:
1) people wanting to hide drinking (or drugs) leave the scene of the crime and wait to come forward
2) when stopped for drunk driving, the most common comment a drinking driver will say is, “I just had one beer (or wine…).”
–> just ask a cop
—-
PJ – mucho thanks for the link. :bow:
Awhile back I mentioned the website blogactive.com, which is dedicated to outing closeted politicians who propose and vote for legislation hostile to the gay community. They have published an open letter to a closeted Republican Senator that if he votes to curtail the rights of gays, he will be outed. Everyone was guessing which Senator. Well, just now, Sam Seder did his “shut the closet door” remark right after he mentioned Senator Mitch McConnell. Very interesting. 😕
:banana:ha hackett was reading the blog before he went on randi and he ripped me off from post 174 (well it was similar and i can pretend right?)
“The image of him falling is something I’ll never ever be able to get out of my mind,” Cheney said. “I fired, and there’s Harry falling. It was, I’d have to say, one of the worst days of my life at that moment.”
maybe we should have cheney go to iraq with his friends so he can really have a bad day hunting
:rofl2::rofl2::rofl2::rofl2::rofl2::rofl2::rofl2::rofl2:
New research shows that obesity is contagious in chickens, and suggests that humans may be susceptible to viral obesity as well.
The researchers went on to warn citizens to wear face masks whenever they’re in the vicinity of Chastity Bono.
Researchers say the first sign you¹ve got the fat virus is having a “fever for the flavor of a Pringle.”
:rofl2::rofl2::rofl2::rofl2::rofl2::rofl2::rofl2::rofl2:
Anyway, I’m done being stupid. Check out this bob herbert piece. He’s calling for the VP to pack his bags and high-tail it back to Wy-f’n-oming (if that makes any sense)
travisdem_04, the odds are we will not go to Juneau, but maybe if hubby has to. I told him we almost made it once — but now :doh:
I will try to type in full thus Juneau (thanks for correct spelling — its been awhile (I think 5th grade or 7th) since seeing it. And I just didn’t want to find my Atlas, since moved. Again :doh: Put on list or, gosh, I can GOOGLE now, too. Again :doh:
:fire::fist:
:banana: May Dance always be within your spirit.
:fire:
Morning Druid! Well, after reading more about this Hackett situation and hearing Malloy go off on it. I’m still pissed. They act like the senate is some sort of special club to get into. Pretty good DLC! :fu:
Man, it was a beautiful day here in Saitama. It got up to like 70 degrees! What, am I talking to myself? :doh:
I can hardly maintain my anger towards those evil beings that call themselves (wrongly) Americans. Impeach or fire those of this evil administration, bush included, that caused this and other horrid actions — I DO NOT WANT MY HARD EARNED TAXES FOR THEIR RETIREMENT! Torture the torturers! See how they like it.
RE: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2006/2/14/183059/640
:fire:
jasonwkinney I agree regarding the DLC :fu:
jasonwkinney, Cheers. Sorry but I was busy looking at that site.
70 degrees, I am jealous. 166% of rainfall, so far, this year and it is raining. 😥 Global Warming.
:fire::gate:
:omg: Oh, no!!! :omg:
Don’t give your doggies these:
Greenies:omg::no::billcat:
Our doggie likes his Scooby snacks best:love:
:no:No Greenies for our little Siggy:no::eek:
jasonwkinney, that was suppose to be a sarcastic joke, but although Marc and I share similar birthdays — he definitely has The Funny. :fire:
I don’t get it. What was suppose to be a sarcastic joke?
Anyway, I was workin’ on my site! I’m a goofball! :doh:
:sammy:
Ooooh, the thing about torturing the torturers? Is that what you’re referring too? I’m sorry I leave for a bit and I get all confused…:40:
Just for the record, since at least one person who posted yesterday was either confused or somewhat snarky…
Rep. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) is a guy. And don’t call him Sherry. So there.
Has anyone else noticed that Scott McClellan looks even puffier than usual lately? Must be the stress from Dickhead’s birdshot facial. Maybe he should lay off the Cheesy Poofs. :crap:
I agree with everything Howard Dean just said concerning the Ohio Democratic primary (or lack thereof).
:fire::fire::fire:
Hey, ex-, if you’re over here today, the answer is that this cartoon appeared Monday, before Whittington’s heart attack. (I have to admit, it grows on me more each time I look at it.)
Maybe they’ve got him on steroids. They make you testy and help erase your conscience . . .
That was a good one Kahn! :rofl2:
jasonwkinney, no worries. I was just referring to your 70 degrees compared to my 166 % of rainfall and ITS RAINING AGAIN:!: :fire:
Little Scottie’s face is bloated like he’s had one too many :40: lately. Who can blame him? How would you like to be the the spokesman for this disgraceful administration? I’d be completely F’d up all the time!:40::bong::barf:
Yeah, well it was really warm here on this side of the ocean. We really haven’t had much rain here this winter…but the typhoon season will come as usual. :gate:
Chris, NO GREENIES for Danu ever. THX for the alert.:smile:
In that NY Times article regarding Hackett they said that Move On is starting a campaign to get rid of all the conservative Democrats. So, who exactly would that be?
And, is this true?
Hello All,
Did anyone else have realplayer trying to run a script during the go to my PC ads? It locks up realplayer and I’ve got to restart the stream. This sucks because my computer is upstairs.:no:
Andy try the Madison, Wis stream..no don’t try that. I guess they don’t carry the morning show anymore
On this site click on the KTLK Progressive radio…they have a stream…it’s up in the right hand side under multi media
I don’t know exactly if that’ll get rid of the ads. I’m on a mac and I use my favorite widget! 😆
Congressional Probe of NSA Spying Is in Doubt
White House Sways Some GOP Lawmakers
By Charles Babington
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, February 15, 2006; Page A03
“Congress appeared ready to launch an investigation into the Bush administration’s warrantless domestic surveillance program last week, but an all-out White House lobbying campaign has dramatically slowed the effort and may kill it, key Republican and Democratic sources said yesterday.”
Entire article available at
http://www.washingtonpost.com
Andy, I hoped that helped you out…:fist:
I was surprised to see the Madison station not carrying the Morning Shows. Did that change when they got rid of Morning Sedition? Serves ’em right! :rant1:
U.S. Terrorism Watch List Now Has 325,000 Names
The National Counterterrorism Center maintains a central repository of 325,000 names of alleged international terrorism suspects or people who aid them, a number that has more than quadrupled since the fall of 2003, according to counterterrorism officials.
The list kept by the National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC) – created in 2004 to be the primary U.S. terrorism intelligence agency – contains a far greater number of international terrorist suspects and associated names in a single government database than has previously been disclosed. Because the same person may appear under different spellings or aliases, the true number of separate individuals is estimated to be more than 200,000, according to NCTC officials.
U.S. citizens make up “only a very, very small fraction” of that number, said an administration official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of his agency’s policies. “The vast majority are non-U.S. persons and do not live in the U.S.,” he added. An NCTC official refused to say how many on the list – put together from reports supplied by the CIA, the FBI, the National Security Agency (NSA) and other agencies – were U.S. citizens.
“We have lists that are having baby lists at this point; they’re spawning faster than rabbits,” Sparapani said. “If we have over 300,000 known terrorists who want to do this country harm, we’ve got a much bigger problem than deciding which names go on which list. But I highly doubt that is the case.”
http://freeinternetpress.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=5900
Uh oh, AAR is a broken record.
Democratic bloggers abuzz over Hackett exit
Activists angry Marine reservist was allegedly pressured out of Ohio race
By Tom Curry
National affairs writer
MSNBC
Updated: 7:26 p.m. ET Feb. 14, 2006
You’re right Krista! We need the Funny back! :fire:
Hacketts not a career politician, Hackett scares the DLC!
Hackett speaks his mind! Hackett frightens Harry Reid!:fu:
Haven’t you heard? The Senate is an old boys club! You’re not elected, you’re invited! :rant1:
Pressuring Paul Hackett To Abandon Campaign is Old Politics at its Worst
Based on news reports alone and knowing nothing (thank goodness) about behind-the-scenes politics, the pressure brought on Paul Hackett, the bold Iraqi veteran, to abandon his campaign for the U.S. Senate from Ohio is deplorable.
This is simply old politics at its worst. There is a party which hand-picks its candidates, decides who can and cannot run, directs money to the favorite candidate, and dictate terms. Up till now, that party has been the Republican party.
Now, it seems, my Democratic party is once again imitating the Republican party in a desperate effort to regain power. With the McGovern democratic reforms in the early 1970s, political bosses were diminished and grassroots voters were elevated. The theme was, Let the people decide.
Telling Paul Hackett that he cannot run for the Senate, and purportedly calling contributers to dry up his funds, is the worse kind of old politics. It will drive voters away from the supposedly “open” party, the Democrats, and further add to public cynicism about how politics in America is played in the early 21st century.
Shame on us.
Gary Hart
2/14/06
http://www.huffingtonpost.com
Ugh. Just had a nasty thought.
What IF . . . the White House turns the Cheney debacle into an opportunity? I keep wondering what can be gained by his steadfast refusal to make a public statement. What IF . . . this is their opportunity to get rid of Cheney and replace him with someone like Frist (I’m not sure he would be the choice, just using an example), who could then be ideally positioned in ’08?
:omg:
How about Lieberman! He loves to suck face with Bush! :sheep:
Then Bush can claim he’s reaching across party lines…:mad:
Yes
Moveon is doing a poll of their members to see if they should indeed start a movement to replace all the DINO democrats, all the pro war democrats and all the DLC democrats. They just sent out emails yesterday.
thanks jasonwkinney I’ll give it a try. 🙂
Fred: Isn’t that nearly all the democrats? I mean how many of the current Democrats are really liberal? I’d think most of them are conservatives…
Not that Jason, I was having the same problem as Andy.
fred, yes I just checked my other site and I had gotten that email. 😉 :fire:
Oh, sorry Krista…:paranoid:
Maybe that’s why Dean is focusing on local elections, The Democratic party needs an infusion of LIBERALS!
Well, what does everyone think about that move by Move On? :ear:
I personally think what they did to Hackett was wrong. On the other hand I’m all for the liberals taking charge. I hope Brown wins!
Dean has said several times that what the Democratic party needs is some “new” democrats.. I think that means they need to get rid of the ones stuck in the muck of DC.. Hacket should have worked in that light.
I think so too Fred
You need some dems that don’t appear to be too woosey but don’t support the corportists interests either. Now that Bush has pissed the whole world off they are not likely to see that the US has suddenly become non Empiristic right away.
An email to both of North Carolina’s rethug Senators and my Congressman:
I just replied to the Moveon poll. Did Dean have anything to do with pressuring Hackett?
Bowers takes a reasoned look at why so many people are furious at the Hackett withdrawal. If nothing else, perhaps it will send notice to the establishment that we’re not ideologically hard-left. Otherwise, Brown would’ve been the consensus choice being more liberal than Hackett. Probably not, but whatever. As it was, while views on the best candidate might’ve been split, there’s no doubt that Brown’s support was very passive compared to Hackett’s rabid supporters. More evidence for my theory that ideology isn’t what really motivates netroot activists into action. It’s things like straight-talking, partisanship, and fearlessness.
by kos
Tue Feb 14, 2006 at 11:51:36 AM PDT
http://www.dailykos.com
SSo now I’m getting go to my pc pop ups when the commercial comes on.:mad: You know, that kind of advertizing just pisses me off. Now I don’t want to ever use go to my pc because they have annoyed me. Who responds to ads that annoy them?
Hacket was on Ed Schultz’s show yesterday PM and said that Reid and Schumer were the primary ones applying pressure. He also said that he had gotten emails from some his “supporters” telling him to not to expect contributions to finalize his war chest.. he never mentioned Dean by name.
Kristapea,
I’m not sure, Brayn Lentz, my guy in the 7th congressional district of Pa. was forced out too. I think it may have been a local decision, but then again both Hackett and Lentz are “Fighting Dems”. Coincidence?:???:
I really didn’t have a handle on Hackett’s positions on the issues. I just knew he called Bush a few names and I liked that. Would he have been a better Senator than Brown?? I’m not familiar enough with the two candidates. Maybe an Ohioan can weigh in here.
Did Dean ever support Hackett? It seems to me that Hackett is the kind of candidate Dean is looking for. Man, we really need to push for campaign finance reform. Everybody should have the same amount of money to run, I wanna see candidates speaking from the caboose of a train, not their slanted commercials.
Kristapea,
try turning off realplayers message center. Tools > Preferences > Message Center. The go to my PC ad hasn’t played yet so I don’t know if that will work yet.
Krista : What are you listening to and with what are you listening to it that you get pop up adds ? If its AAR and the stupid real player with messages box you can right click on the green bar at the bottom and choose to just play it in Real player.
I switch over to the realplayer all the time but today I am getting popups. I’ll try your sol;ution Andy.
I can hardly maintain my anger towards those evil beings that call themselves (wrongly) Americans. Impeach or fire those of this evil administration, bush included, that caused this and other horrid actions — I DO NOT WANT MY HARD EARNED TAXES FOR THEIR RETIREMENT! Torture the torturers! See how they like it.
RE: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2006/2/14/183059/640
Comment by Druid_666 — February 15, 2006 @ 6:25 am
Okay, it looks like time for a rip roaring debate re the dems — I am a dem and the only reason I am staying in is for CERTAIN strategy.
We don’t need to reform campaign financing. We need to reform campaign spending. Every candidate in a given race should spend the exact same amount of shekels.
There was a baseball pitcher in the early 20th century named Sherrod Smith. Had a world series pitching duel with Babe Ruth. He was called Sherry Smith.
Who gives a fuck what we call Ohio Brown?.
Why the capitalist pigs, Rachel? Yes, business dominates. Unless we specifically state how they are to be regulated, they will continue to dominate us. Get a clue, Maddow.:omg:
How would Paul Hackett/Sherrod Brown have voted on the filibuster of Samuel Alito??
It looks like the conversation has moved on. I will deal with a possible pro dem/anti dem at another time. I should get a bit of sleep anyway since there is a major local meeting tonight. 🙂 :yawn: :fire:
Did you get the pop up Andy? I was changing settings as it came on so I got it.
The reason you need the dems is that the way congress works (?) the party with the majority of members gets to run the show and as you may have noticed can completely leave the other party out of any decision making. Breaking the democratic party into two factions while leaving the rethugs pretty much intact will only make things worse. On the other hand another two to four years, maybe even another six months of this kind of stuff and the US will become no better than it would have been if Kruschev had won the cold war.
Hey all, you might want to give Real Alternative a try. It looks like the old “classic” windows media player, but let’s you play real and windows media stuff, w/o installing RealPlayer and all it’s nasty terrible shit.
Fred, we didn’t have a cohesive Democratic Party during the Reagan years. If we had we wouldn’t have a deregulated society where CEOs make 400 times more than their average employee’s wages. Even if we had 100 Democrats in the Senate we would still have gridlock.
Crucify :jesus:! What a dumb exercize!:omg:
Why is it I can’t seem to laugh during the Rachel Maddow and Kent Jones bits? Does it seem forced to you? Is it the time restraints? Like if they had an extra hour, there would be more relaxation and intimacy with an audience? Anyone feel the same way? I like the Maddow show, but it aint MS! 😐
Gridlock, even with 100 senators from the same party? Please explain.
Krista,
Nahh, it didn’t work. I’ll check my tech resources, in the mean time I’ll try WMP and see if I get the popups with that. 🙄
Nicki, they are Democrats. Put two in a room and you get an argument over just about anything. That is the beauty and downfall of the party. We all have different ideas, while the rethugs have only one viewpoint.
I thought it might have more to do with both parties serving the same Master.
Hey Farmerkat, to answer your question from yesterday, no I’m not a vegetarian and I have a grapefruit tree, an olive tree and a walnut tree in the yard. Currently I have a 4’x 16′ plot and I really like broccoli a lot and it takes up alot of space. I think I can carve out another 16′-20′ sq ft if I take out some aloe. My co worker has some friends that live a couple of blocks away from me and are interested in having a farmers market in the neighborhood. The local health food co-op is moving away so maybe we can arrange with them to provide produce for it once a week and the neighbors can trade or sell their extra produce. Lots of orange trees in the neighborhood.
Gotta get. Job interview over in Durham. Later, libs…
Nicki: If the MASTER you refer to is Corporations. You’re right. It’s time to wake up and see that it’s Emperical American Corporations and the US Government who advances their agenda without reprisals. Why do you think most of the oppressed 3rd world hates us? Wake up :sheep:
Springer on Cheney.
Exemplifies the problem we are having in America over a whole range of issues.:sheep::sheep:Press is not doing its job.
Cheney is not working for us. StoneWall. StoneWall. StoneWall.
Will Springer talk about Paul Hackett getting “deaned” in Ohio?:rofl2::omg::rofl2::omg:
:fu:Cheney.
Later Guys,
Time to split
Hear Hear Nicki! :fu: Cheney!
Getting the Dems back into power and having nothing change is a real worry. The corporate money rules you can see that in the bankruptcy legislation and the Roberts and Alito nominations. If we are to turn this around it is going to take more than just the 2006 election and I fear there is so little time left.
Krista. You are sitting on 666!:omg::rofl2::nixon::peace::jesus:
:fu:Cheney!
Later Andy! Good luck with the interview NC Blue! :peace:
Mornin’, blog sibs.
NCBlue, good luck on the interview. (I’m thinking it for you, too, as my timing sucks.)
Krista, GRAPEFRUIT! Drooooool!
Jason, I have the same problem with Maddow and Jones. I can tell that what they’re saying is funny but it doesn’t make me laugh. Crack a smile from time to time but not laugh. And the blatant rip-off “Radio Theater” bit just made me angry so that even if it had been well-performed I wouldn’t have found it funny. Most of the humor seems forced and boring and :jerk: on Maddow’s show. I like her commenting on the news but the comedy bits need to go away.
Do you have ANY idea how long I’ve been wanting to use the :jerk: icon?
666!:rofl2:
Beast within Corrupted systems…:nixon:
Goyette is talking about a story in an msnbc story where they have a paragraph that mentions,citing the Rancher woman,that beer may have been at a picnic earlier in the day during this hunting trip. But, Goyette says that paragraph is now GONE! This was one of the first stories to come out about this. I missed who wrote the story.
gypsy! It’s a circle jerk! :jerk:
Cheney was drunk!:40:
Krista if you go to the democratic underground they have a pic of the google search where the MSNBC article still had the beer reference…that was then quickly deleted
Duplicate comment detected; it looks as though you’ve already said that!:lol:
Nicki: Did you see my previous post regarding your Master reference? Agreed? Disagree? :ear:
Well. I had bette rgo!
Dick Cheney Gun Safety Course.:omg:
krista, aaaahh an olive tree :banana:
Do you get many olives?
Isi, I’ve seen a few olives but I haven’t paid much attention to it. I have been thinking about giving it the right fertilizers and watering it more regularly but I am so busy with other things.
I figured they isolated Cheney for a while after the accident so he could pass a sobriety test if it was required. He’s the kind of hunter who is surely downing more than a few cool ones while shooting at animals that have been raised for the sole purpose of being shot at. (I’m getting a little too “Daily Show” for my own good here…) Hunting from the car is such a fake sport, anyway, surely massive amounts of partying are part of the deal. But that’s just my view of things, and I don’t hunt.
BTW, my sister in Ohio is running for some kind of Dem Central Committe precint thing in her county. She told me some of why Hackett was booted off the ballot and while I agree he was treated like shit, he did apparently shoot off his mouth without warning them first. I can see why there might have been a knee-jerk reaction within the party. That said, she’s pissed that he was jerked around like that and it’s why she’s running for a position within the party herself.
And today’s recipe is from yet another mailing list I’m on. But it’s making my mouth water.
SPANAKORIZO (Greek Spinach with Rice)
Yield: 4-6 servings
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 large onion, peeled and coarsely chopped
1 cup raw long grain rice
1/4 cup tomato sauce
2 cups boiling water
Vegetarian broth powder to yield 2 cups broth
6 to 8 ounces spinach, rinsed and with stems removed)
Juice of 1/2 lemon
Heat olive oil in 12-inch diameter skillet (or large pot).
Add onion; saute until tender.
Add rice; saute for about 3 minutes, stirring constantly.
Add tomato sauce, water, and bouillon cubes; bring to a boil.
Reduce flame until mixture is simmering, pour spinach over rice, cover pot, and simmer until rice is tender and liquid is absorbed (20-30 minutes).
Gently stir spinach into rice.
Let stand (covered) for 15 minutes.
Sprinkle lemon juice over top.
Serve hot.
via Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
2/15/06
“Happy Valentine’s Day. Good news, good news today — so far Dick Cheney has not shot anybody,” David Letterman said in his “Late Night” monologue on CBS.
“But the real question now is — is this a one-time thing or will the vice president try to kill again?” Mr. Letterman said later.
Hi you guys! I have been wanting to post for a long time..this site just gets better and better..you all have been my funny fix the past few weeks.Anyway check AAR–they at last mention WHERE IS MARON
Hi Sister Tea, Welcome! I saw that too.:fist:Seditionists!
Later all!
Thanks a lot Sister Tea and Welcome! :love:
I don’t know about that Where’s Maron thing they have?
It’s a little like Waldo or something. They are presenting Marc as being some far out there person. I don’t get it!
I will say this, his bits will rule! They’ll be way funnier than any of the other AAR hosts are doing and very real and pertinent. Why make Marc look like he’s some comedic crackpot?
Lets just hope for decent airtime! :fist:
Dean on Hacket fiasco
MIAMI: Democratic party chair Howard Dean says he’s not happy that Iraqi war veteran Paul Hackett is dropping out of the race for U-S Senate in Ohio.
Dean told a student audience in Miami that “some skulduggery in Washington” improperly led to Hackett’s decision to end his bid. And he said Democrats will have a tough time winning if similar things happen to others.
Hackett was vying with Ohio congressman Sherrod Brown for the Democratic nomination. He said that Hackett was a “great candidate,” and that a primary in Ohio wouldn’t have hurt the party. Hackett says he’s ending his eleven-month political career.
————-
Sounds good
I keep getting requests for money from the dnc. finally, rather than send them the long-winded complaints about the party that I often send, I decided to go the short-but-sweet route:
“Please send your requests for funds to the DLC’ers, centrists and independents that the national party is trying so hard to represent. I do not send money to organizations that spurn my liberal values.”
funny how sending a simple email can make me happy. :doh::doh::doh:
Thanks fred for that quote from Dean regarding Hackett!
😀
Bob Cesca
02.15.2006
http://www.huffingtonpost.com
Was Cheney Hiding His Lewinsky?
Sirius radio’s Alex Bennett just broke a rumor that the delay in reporting the news that Cheney shot an old man in the heart was due to an effort to hide or spin Cheney’s female companion.
Pamela Willeford (shown right), ambassador to Switzerland and — yes — Liechtenstein, was part of the hunting excursion with Cheney and Whittington. And according to Willeford’s account, Cheney and the ambassador were side-by-side when the shooting of Whittington took place.
The vice president’s Secret Service detail had to decide what to do with Willeford by way of perhaps covering up her relationship with Cheney, and thus the delay in reporting the news.
The rumor goes that Lynn Cheney isn’t happy with Cheney’s close relationship with Willeford.
Again, just a rumor.
NBC, MSNBC and news services
Updated: 11:14 a.m. ET Feb. 15, 2006
WASHINGTON – Vice President Dick Cheney on Wednesday will make his first public comments on the accidental shooting of a hunting partner.
The White House announced Wednesday morning that Cheney would be interviewed on Fox News at 2 p.m. ET. 🙄
Received this email from Doug Kreeger regarding Marc’s new show.
I too am waiting and I’m told at this point it will be the last days of the month. Because it is originating from our LA affiliate, it’s been somewhat of a moving target. Hopefully in the next few days, they’ll have some more info on our website. Thanks for you patience.
Best,
Doug Kreeger
Greetings boat people! :gate:
Yay! Maron is on the AAR web site! I’m delighted to finally witness a commitment to the funny – YIPPEE! :banana:
:fire:
:bow:i found maron yay found waldo too
Kristapea, I’d think if you carve out that other section you’ll have enough space. I’d do raised beds. my Bible (Storey’s Basic Country Skills) suggests 16″ wide beds but you can do 3 – 4 ft ones, too. As for your broccoli The cabbage family tends to need a wide bed. Also, don’t plant straberries near your broccoli. It’s good to plant beans and then rotate after with your broccoli. Do NOT follow then with onions or garlic.
There are some great web sites for community gardens. Also, I thought at first you might have wanted to raise your own farm animals, but I assumed wrong. my bad
I need to build a coop. But that’s another story.
hope that helps
:doh:all done with coulter i surprisingly didnt put the icepick in my ear surprised i didnt sleepwalk stab my eardrums since i fell asleep with her cd on anyway she actually says in her book somewhere that she is non-partisan:rofl2:
hey sean, it looks someone was practice shooting at our hero 😮
she actually says in her book somewhere that she is non-partisan
you have GOT to be kidding… now stay out of the south or you’ll kill yourself!
gotta run, be safe seaniesean
:fist:AAR IN BUFFALO YAY
she says somewhere else that she hopes that one day the conventions are of the conservative republican party and the moderate republican party i think that is what it is already am i wrong?
:rant1:friggin they changed the morning sedition page on the aar site what the hell no more cartoon maron and riley
you got it, lieberman is proof of that (I listened to the young turks last night and they got me all riled up over that goof-ball).
now i really must go!
There goes breakfast, after seeing those photos at dailykos (my first time there). 😥 As a nurse, I am sickened at psychological and medical torture and how health ‘professionals’ participate. Sick sick sick. I still have the occasional nightmare just from translating Salvadoran torture survivor testimony from the 1980’s for an activist psychiatrist in the Bay Area. Spoons scooping out eyeballs and buckets slung from testicles stick in my mind (guess the Salvadoran death squads didn’t have the sophisticated equipment available to ‘our’ troops and operatives).:-( The format at dailykos was really confusing for me (was that Meline or Nickirose that mentionted how easier the format is here? I have to agree after seeing dailykos and having scanned a few other blogs in the past – it seems inpenetrable to jump in on a conversation, I can’t tell where the hell to start). I had to guess which specific photos people were commenting on, and couldn’t look at much more, since I propped my eyes open into the wee hours as Druid can attest (Druid, were you lauging at my ranting? That’s ok, I got really worked up last night).
Let’s all end our posts with :fu: Cheney, I’m for that. :fu: Cheney
Jason, where is Saitama, I have no idea.
Sean, have you had a chance to email me the Shatner thing yet? I emailed you yesterday afternoon about it. Was it something I said or are you busy/taking a break?
:fu: Cheney
I simply cannot understand the Left’s fascination with Coulter. Is it because she wears miniskirts that she’s viewed as a turncoat in some bizarre way? She’s obviously a provocator, trying to outrage by any means possible, and in today’s market, she can make a lot more money that way than she can lawyering. Or hooking.
Sorry, I just gave into the impulse. Won’t happen again.
The attention should be on the faux objective reporters, like Russert and Matthews, who give an impression of being down the middle, but who support the right more effectively than Fox ever could. I mean, who watches Fox without knowing that you’re hearing the Voice of Rove? Russert and Matthews fool a lot of people who don’t pay attention, and that’s dangerous. Coulter doesn’t convince anybody.
am i allowed to swear on aar blogs? i just posted this on kyle jasons page
what the fuck i demand new kyle jason you scumbag sons of bitches i cant take this shit every show i like gets fucking cancelled first it was unfiltered then my beloved morning sedition and i just realized my fucking kyle jason too what the fuck ive been wondering why the fuck he hasnt been on on saturday nights i swear this shit is so frustrating so when are you bastards cancelling malloy so there is nothing left on the station that makes me giddy with joy when the show begins argh fuck fuckity fuck fuck fuck i cant take this shit ugh ok im done bitching but uh this cant be a good thing
:paranoid:e-mail me again i didnt get it seaniesean5@aol.com
:banana:ok i got your e-mail ex it got kicked to spam shatner is on his way
I simply cannot understand the Left’s fascination with Coulter. Is it because she wears miniskirts that she’s viewed as a turncoat in some bizarre way? She’s obviously a provocator, trying to outrage by any means possible, and in today’s market, she can make a lot more money that way than she can lawyering. Or hooking.
hooking:rofl2: she is too skinny to hook nobody would want her she looks too cracky
Sean–
I think it’s okay to swear on the AAR blogs . . . I mean, when the MS blog was hacked there was a lot worse stuff up there!
Anyway, fuck ’em if they can’t take the truth!
You need some dems that don’t appear to be too woosey but don’t support the corportists interests either. Fred, that’s be Peace and Freedom Party and Green Party. See my bilious rants late last night on the Dems.
Wow, Sean, what happened with Jason Kyle? Folks, don’t expect any of this to last on AAR. I watched Malloy move from ieamerica radio to AAR, and had to leave the excellent Peter Werbe behind, although he was able to get Werbe to sub for him at times on aar. Frankly I was very sceptical about AAR when it was launched when I heard Franken’s was to be the flagship show. I figured the whole thing would be a storefront for the DLC with a few radicals thrown in to attract us more radical folks, and I think my original estimate is proving correct.
How to get a truly independent network with a real variety of commentators, wonks, hosts, etc? Under capitalist constraints? Pacifica was an attempt, but they’ve been turned into NPR lite (read David Barsamian’s quick read The Fall and Deline of National Public Broadcasting, or decline and fall, I forget which right now).
Someone in yesterday’s discussion mentioned the whole fixed balloting thing. Yes, what about that? These facist fucks couldn’t win a fair election, so does it matter how many people vote Dem anyway? I read Bev Harris’ Black Box Voting from cover to cover, and although quite a bit of it was technically over my head (and she claims not to be any kind of techie!) and then I heard there was dirt about her misusing funds that Randi raised for her on the air and boom, that was the last I heard of her. The time I brought up her book to a conservative down the hall from me at work he sweetly shot back “ohh, but isn’t there some scandal around her? her stuff must be suspect”. Fuck. And I had nothing to retort because I hadn’t heard anything, still haven’t. Has there been a smear campaign against Bev Harris, or what? Funny how these Republican fucks commit wholesale slaughter and mayhem while the press portrays them as patriots, but when a self described retired and retiring housewife with no agenda other than reclaiming one person one vote writes a widely discussed and respected book about the problem and spawns web discussion, funny how there’s some scandal. Did I miss the boat on this scandal, does anyone have more info about what happened to Bev Harris’ credibility and why we don’t hear her anymore? Or am I wrong, is she still alive and kicking?
Before I forget: :fu: Cheney
all i know is that randi apoloogized about telling us to send her money other than that i heard nothing either not a peep
:paranoid:guess she must of been onto something
:doh:
Sorry, I meant for that quote from Fred to be in italics, not the entire remainder of my post. Forgive my unfamiliarity with operating these tabs and emoticons (I notice when I insert an emoticon the writing cursor jumps back to the beginning of the emoticon characters, so that I have to press the space bar two or three times to continue typing text. I also notice that if I’m done typing a post and try to insert a post while reviewing what I wrote, even when I’m careful to put the cursor exactly where I want the emoticon in the text, it automatically gets shunted to the end of the post, unless I make a new line, insert the emoticon, then delete or backspace to connect the text again. Very time consuming and annoying. And one emoticon didn’t even appear when I submitted, I guess I had it too close to text).
Re devil woman Coulter – why why why bother? Talk about :doh:
(I mean this as a concerned nurse, truly – don’t do this to yourself! If it’s the miniskirts and blond hair, try bubblehead but good vegan activist Pamela Anderson instead) 😆
Ok, maybe not your type, what do I know?
All well and good to want to ‘know the enemy’ and all, but as cresstwo so aptly wrote:
“The attention should be on the faux objective reporters, like Russert and Matthews, who give an impression of being down the middle, but who support the right more effectively than Fox ever could. I mean, who watches Fox without knowing that you’re hearing the Voice of Rove? Russert and Matthews fool a lot of people who don’t pay attention, and that’s dangerous. Coulter doesn’t convince anybody.”
(Y’all don’t know how many backspaces, deletes and etc. to get that to look like italics, I hope it works this time).
And I don’t follow Russert and Matthews, don’t know if I could stomach it, but good point, cresttwo. But I suspect a lot of folks watching Fucked/FOX never even heard of Rove. My family in NY sure hasn’t. They wouldn’t even watch the dvd I sent them of Outfoxed, and asked for no more political gifts, please! But they all object to WalMart trying to build in Staten Island. I gave them a rave review of the WalMart movie but they can go get it for themselves since they want no more ‘political’ gifts. Maybe someday they’ll come to see that trying to avoid politics is like trying to avoid gravity.
Aaaaand…
:fu: Cheney
elephants are scared of mice so i propose the dnc change its logo to jerry (you know from tom&jerry)
I still get the occasional update from Black Box Voting. There was a big furor and upreoar over at DU over her and one of the folks who worked at BBV that took a couple days off when his dad died, so they shitcanned him on the spot. I never really figured out what it was all about. It’s hard to tell with Randi, because if she feels she’s not getting enough attention, she gets pretty PO’d. Plus, to hear her tell it, you’d think she’s the only one out there disseminating information (and so many of her devout listeners fall all over themselves, telling her how wonderful she is and how nobody but her talks about these things). Fact is, I often hear about things days before she mentions anything (often, it’s been talked about right here, first).
That said, sometimes she’s pretty frickin’ funny, and she can slap down those freepers pretty good. She just needs to let the good folks speak a little bit (she just might learn something).
i got the wal mart movie at a best buy:banana:
Great – good movie. Next time, get it right from Robert Greenwald. I gave him a donation to finish the move, and got mine before it opened.
Plus, Best Buy is red, and:
http://borgman.enquirer.com/weekly/daily_html/2006/02/021506borgman.html
“Superiors gave orders to leak classified information.”
— Lewis “Scooter” Libby Testimony
Well, I don’t know what the hell has happened between Bev Harris and the other BBV folks but here’s the disclaimer at the excellent http://www.blackboxboting.com website:
“Disclaimer:
We have nothing to do with Bev Harris or her foundation. This site does not solicit any funds for our operation, nor do we receive any support from any agency or individual.
Representations made by Ms. Harris or her foundations about this site and/or her former colleagues should be viewed with skepticism.
(Why can’t I get the hang of this italics thing, it jumps beyond the text I paste and then I have to do a ton of fiddling. This sucks, i’m sorry!)
:fu: Cheney
If you want italics, hit the italic button above type the words you want in italic, when you want it to stop being, italic, hit the italic button again (notice it now says /italic) and then keep on typing. 😉
Or, paste a bunch of text in, highlight the text you want to be italic, and then hit the italic button (with the text still highlighted). No need to close the tag, ‘cuz it knows what to do.
friggin randi :rant1: she is behind so often she just learned about confessions of an economic hitman the other day whatever shes pretty good
:nod:i gotta get it where i can on the road. i was surprised i was even able to get it. not to mention that i got it in macon ga. if i wasnt out here travelling, i would order a lot of stuff straight from people. such as marc maron and his cds!!!!!
PJ, that’s exactly how I feel about Randi. Her voice grates on my nerves, I’ll be honest. Just sounds too much like she’s in severe need of either ADD medication (I’m anti-medication, believe me – my primary care provider is a homeopath, and I’m a nurse, mind you) or good non-allopathic treatment. Sorry if any Randi-heads take offense but I can’t tolerate listening to her anymore even at her funniest. I boycotted her for the longest time after she practically stuffed a shoe down Ralph Nader’s throat during the presidential primaries. Telling him “you’re like a fancy pair of shoes I can’t afford, Ralph – I want you, I’d love to have you, but I just can’t afford you!” But then she’s courting Bev Harris and demanding people fight for the franchise (by which I mean one person one vote). What’s the point of a franchise if we tell people they can’t run? Some democracy, huh? I’m sorry, but that gets me boiling mad, and I’m not even a strong Nader supporter (as you found out if you read through one of my interminable (but righteous at least in my own mind, and I thank the blog being here for that, though I wish I’d gotten some comment, but I guess I caught up with you all too late in the day). Whew.
Ok, this dial up at home is making it difficult to keep up, it’s taking me awhile to post. I’ll be off soon but next I’ll post an interesting article from marxists.com called Finance Capitalism: The Perfect Circle.
:fu: Cheney
i think randi is horrible at dealing with republican callers if she would let them speak a little bit more they would ruin themselves she is too quick to jump on them and not let them speak i wish she had it in her to deal with them more like :love:malloy
:love:i especially love it when a rethug calls malloy and tries to quote scripture thats the best malloy rips the bible out their hands and burns em with it
Thanks PJ, I know that’s elemental insructions, but it’s sophisticated to me. Maybe I’m just too worked up while I’m writing to pay attention to fine tuning that stuff. Funny, I used italics here without even thining about is when I started a few days ago. Oh well.
Sean, *you’re* the trucker – takes me awhile :doh:
But trucker friend, why have you not sent me the Shatner fix yet? I emailed you privately, although it meant you had to post your email address here. Should I post my email address here? I’m a little afraid to, although I understand we are all traceable from our blog posts for anyone who cares to. Do others of you post your email addresses here?
:fu: Cheney
One thing is, this isn’t about the Republicans and the other flavor of Republicans (aka, the Democrats), as much as it’s about this fascist, neocon death brigade that currently runs the show, and their enablers and apologists that allow them to continue doing what they’re doing.
So, while the Dmocratic establishment and many (most) of their members serve their corporate masters, the first thing that needs to happen is to get the Republicans out of control of at least one branch of government. A John Conyers as Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee is far better than a James Sensenbrenner. Can you say, impeachment? I knew you could.
If you look at all the ranking members of the House and Senate committees, there aren’t many that wouldn’t be huge improvements over what we have right now.
In the long run, we either need better Deomocrats from the local level on up (and it’ll take a long time to build that up), or we need to start building a new party by getting progressive candidates elected at the local levels on up (which might take even longer).
We need election reform, and that won’t happen with either of these parties.
“I was the one who pulled the trigger” – Cheney, under heavy pressure. If Whittington dies, grand jury in Texas could bring indictment for negligent homicide – just heard this on KPFA radio. Why does it take shooting an old white Republican to possibly get rid of this fuck? And not all the millions he’s robbed and murdered around the world and here in the U.S.?
:fu::fu::fu::fu::fu: Cheney
What a difficult time I would have abiding by the nurses’ code of do no harm if I were your nurse, Cheney.
What is a rethug?:doh:
Bev Harris’s web site is http://www.blackboxvoting.org
The .com site is as it says not affiliated.
A Rethug is a republican thug… a member of the Bush Crime family. a person who is deaply invested in the Carlyle group.
hey heres something i wrote a long time ago that i just dug up i dont like it but anyway here
i believe in a $10 an hour minimum wage
i believe in universal health care
i believe every home should have cheap access to the internet
i believe in a constitutional right to privacy
i do not believe in state sponsored marriage
i believe in progressive taxation those who benefit more from the economic freedoms of this country should pay more in taxes not less
i believe in americas middle class
i believe in a right to organize
i do not believe in corporate welfare
i believe my country is headed towards fascism
i believe the war against fascism is just as important as the war against terrorism
i do not believe in censorship
i believe in a peacefull revolution
i believe this revolution will begin in the house of representatives
i believe americas two party system is corrupt
Rethug, like Repug and Repig, is a derogatory term used for Republicans.
I finally found Maron. Silly Maron! He can’t hide under that jacket. We fans will always find him! 😆
Marxist class in session, for those who are interested 😀 :
Enjoy:
Finance Capitalism: The Perfect Circle of Success by Michael Roberts
From Marxists.com
The perfect circle of success
By Michael Roberts
Friday, 10 February 2006
It works like this. The economies of the advanced world, as represented by what is called the G7 countries (the US, Japan, Germany, the UK, France, Italy and Canada – in that order), no longer need to make things. Increasingly, they just need to invent, design and market things. They can leave the making of things to the less developed world – in particular, China and other parts of Asia, Mexico and Brazil.
Also the G7 countries (and other smaller advanced economies like Switzerland) can concentrate on financing the investment in the making of things in the less developed world. The banks and financial institutions based in New York, London and Geneva, along with Paris and Frankfurt can suck up the huge savings generated in China, Japan, Korea and the oil-rich economies of the Middle East and Russia. These savings, in the hands of the global financial sector, are used to buy the bonds of the G7 governments, the bonds of the big corporations and mortgage banks and the shares of the major G7 corporations.
Looking down the telescope from the other end, this means that the G7 governments and the big corporations and the average households on the G7 countries can borrow huge amounts of money to finance their purchases of houses, pay for government spending on arms, education etc., and finance the building of factories in the so-called Third World.
It’s perfect. The US now runs a huge trade deficit equivalent to 7% of its annual national income. It also has built up net debts with the rest of the world equivalent to 25% of its annual output and rising. But no problem. It has this deficit because it is buying truckloads of ‘things’ from China at very cheap prices to fill its shops. It does not need to make these things at home any more when they are so cheap from China, Mexico or the rest of Asia. And these things are being made in China by American, Japanese and European corporations who have transferred their factories to China and other cheap-wage, plentiful labour locations.
It all works because the export revenues generated by Chinese sales to the US and the rest of the G7 are put in the Chinese banks by the foreign-owned corporations, which promptly use the money to buy US bonds and other financial assets. Indeed, in 2005, the US ran up a trade deficit of nearly $700bn, but it received back over $900bn in credit as foreigners bought US government bonds, corporation bonds and mortgage bonds.
As a result, the US financial system is flush with cash. It can lend money at historically very low rates of interest to Americans to buy ever more expensive houses or purchase ever more quantities of Chinese goods, or ever more clever hi-tech services from India and techno gadgets from Korea, Taiwan and Japan.
Such is the perfect circle of success. So perfect is it that some strategists of capital are now convinced that this has guaranteed a prosperous capitalist world for some time ahead. They have called it Our Brave New World. In this world, G7 capitalist companies are ‘platform companies’. They won’t make anything. “The new business model is to produce nowhere, but sell everywhere… platform companies then simply organise the ordering by the clients and delivery by the producers…they keep the high value-added parts of the research, development and marketing in-house and farm out all the rest to external producers”.
Think of the Brave New World as a new stage of capitalism. First, there was the development of agricultural capitalism in the 17th and 18th centuries in Europe and in the 19th century in the US and Japan. Then came industrial capitalism, pioneered by the UK at first and then adopted by the US, Europe and later Japan. The rest of the world was reduced to providing the raw materials and food that enabled industrial capitalist countries to make the things everybody wanted.
But now has come finance capitalism (more broadly defined to include what Marx called the unproductive sectors of capitalism, namely, finance, marketing, legal services, property ‘development’ etc). This is how the G7 economies increase their wealth. They take the savings of the newly industrialised world and invest or spend it for them!
Indeed, if you take the argument further, China would have no market to sell its TVs, toys, textiles, bras and every other item you can think of, if American households did not have the money or credit to buy them. What is important in this view of capitalism is not production, but consumption.
It is a repeat of the ironic story first raised by the great Dutch economist, Bernard Mandeville way back in 1705 of the Fable of the Bees. As he explained in his brilliant doggerel verse, it is not the bees (workers) that are important. Without the drones (the do-nothing members of the community who just consume the honey), there would be no point to the worker bees. Without somebody ready to eat you out of house and home, there would be no need to make any food or the shopping – it’s logical isn’t it? So without Americans spending like there was no tomorrow, China would not be able to sell and it would have no place to lend its money. The US spender/debtor keeps the capitalist world going round, not the Chinese saver/lender.
There must be something wrong with this! And there is. This whole view of capitalism assumes that profits are irrelevant. What is important is that the price of stocks and shares keep rising, the price of property keeps rising and that interest rates keep low, not making profits. If the value of your house keeps going up you can borrow more to spend more, if the value of shares keeps rising you can borrow more to invest in factories in China and design new things for the Chinese to make. If interest rates stay low, the government and others can borrow more to build more armaments while keeping taxes relatively low.
This is the view of capitalism as seen by the banker or the rich consumer. It is not the reality of capitalism. That’s because the prices of property, shares and government debt won’t go up forever because they depend on something else: profits of capitalists. This is the lifeblood of capitalism. If the profits of the big corporations start to wane, then all bets are off. Investment into China will fall off, share prices will fall and fewer goods will be purchased. G7 economies will slow.
And profits do not come from bankers lending money, rich people buying luxury goods, governments selling arms or people buying houses. The profits have already been made. These economic actors are merely redistributing profit made by others –namely the producers of things in the US and China. This is one of the fundamental discoveries of Marxist economics.
Profits are the unpaid labour of the working class, but also they only arise from the sale of things made that people want. The marketing, advertising and distribution of goods add nothing to profit; but are just a necessary (under capitalism) cost of making a profit for individual capitalists in competition with each other.
Similarly, workers in public services are necessary to capitalism to keep the workforce healthy, educated and functioning. But they don’t produce profits for capitalists. In that sense, they are ‘unproductive’ for capitalism. Bankers, mortgage and insurance brokers, real estate agents and financial analysts may get paid huge sums but they do not make profits for the capitalist system, even if they do for the companies they work for. In that sense too, they are unproductive.
Yet the Brave New World of capitalism now suggests that it is precisely these unproductive sectors of capitalism that keep the whole system going. Buying a house in America keeps the whole world going round. What will prove this wrong is when the profitability of the capitalist system starts to fall. At present, US profitability in the whole economy is around 8.5% of annual output. That’s very near the historic peak of the last 25 years of 9%. But it is now beginning to decline.
There are three indicators of whether the Brave New World will end in tears. First, are US housing prices falling? If they start to do so, then the profit of investing US mortgage bonds for foreigners will decline and they will stop buying them. That will force up interest rates in the US and make it more difficult to finance the huge trade deficit. As of now, US house prices are shooting along at near 15% a year. But they have just started to slow.
The second indicator will be how much the US and other G7 companies keep investing in China to boost profitability. If that starts to decline, then it means that G7 corporations have less to spend or they are worried about not getting enough profit out of the workers in China. In 2005, foreign capitalists invested $58bn in China. That’s very high, but it is slightly less than in 2004. Just the first signs.
Finally, there are the figures for Chinese exports to the rest of the world. If they start to decline, it means that G7 consumers have less money to spend on goods in the shops and/or foreign manufacturers are experiencing a slowdown or fall in the profits they are making from their exports. In 2005, exports from China were at record levels.
So far then, the Brave New World of capitalism is still holding together. It still seems that the bankers, property developers and arms manufacturers of the G7 economies are successful and profitable. But there are signs of fraying at the edges.
Let’s go back to Mandeville’s fable. In the natural world, of course, the drones do have a role. They may do nothing and do not even guard the Queen bee. But they are the only males of the bee community and so they mate with the queen, thus providing a role in procreation. The worker bees are all female. Once mating is over, the drones are driven out of the hive by the worker bees and left to die. In the human world, worker bees are both male and female and do their own mating. So they have no need of drones at all!
January 2006
(PJ, I tried hightlighing a line in here to put in bold, but all that happened from what I see before submitting is that two codes called ‘strong’ get inserted at the end of the whole post. Same when I highlight text and press italics).
Yes Jason: CORPORATIONS RULE!:omg:
And they Can GFO! (for all I care).:omg:
:fu:Cheney!
Deadeye Dick Isn’t a Lone Gunman
Democrats Shoot Their Own, Too
By DAVE LINDORFF
Dick Cheney may have demonstrated his ability yet again to go after the wrong target when he bagged his hunting companion instead of his quarry, but the Democratic Party leadership is proving to be even more treacherous in the field than Deadeye Dick.
Party leaders, including Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) recently pressured Cindy Sheehan not to mount a primary campaign against California Senator Diane Feinstein, a woman who has betrayed party principles, such as they are, at almost every turn and deserves to go down to defeat. (It was only after Sheehan said she was considering a primary fight that Feinstein announced she would support a filibuster on Alito.) Now they’ve killed the campaign of Paul Hackett, an Iraq War vet and sharp critic of the war and the president and a candidate who had a strong shot at snatching a Senate seat for the Democrats this fall in Ohio.
For months, the Democratic National Committee, and the Democratic Senate Campaign Committee chair, Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY), have been working behind the scenes to undermine Hackett’s campaign in favor of Rep. Sherrod Brown. When Hackett announced his intention to run, he met with party leaders, and with Ohio Rep. Sherrod Brown, and won a commitment from Brown not to enter into a primary fight for the Democratic senate nomination. Later, the party leadership undercut him and had Brown go back on his promise, forcing a primary battle. The undermining effort continued and Hackett finally decided Monday he didn’t want the fight.
Saying he had been betrayed by his country when he was sent to Iraq, and now by his party, Hackett, a Marine reservist and a lawyer, said he was quitting politics in understandable disgust, but would continue to speak out against the war. I’m sorry he decided not to fight, but understand his disgust. . .
http://www.counterpunch.org
:yuck:those sill democrats and their undermining of themselves
:banana:tim russert is from buffalo leave him alone
why does my hometown always have to be associated with bad things
The Same Old Tactics
Israeli Ultimatums
By SAREE MAKDISI
Israel’s acting prime minister, Ehud Olmert, declared last week that his country plans to “separate” from “most of the Palestinian population that lives in the West Bank.” He indicated that Israel will absorb the main settlement blocs in the West Bank and retain all of Jerusalem as well as control over the Jordan valley. “The direction is clear,” Olmert concluded. “We are moving toward separation from the Palestinians, toward setting Israel’s permanent border.”
Of course, Olmert was trying to make it seem that this is a new policy, determined in part by Hamas’s victory in the recent Palestinian elections and the consequent absence of what Israel calls “a partner for peace.”
And, of course, he was being disingenuous.
First of all, Hamas has not yet formed a Palestinian government. And even when it does, there’s nothing to suggest that it would not be willing to negotiate with Israel—indeed, it has repeatedly signaled its intention to do just that. Anyway, governments enter into agreements with each other as governments, not as political parties—so the agreements already signed by the Palestinian Authority in that sense would be more binding on any future Hamas government than Hamas’s own charter, about which we have heard so much in recent weeks. Moreover, Hamas members ran for elections not on the basis of the party’s charter, but rather on the basis of a platform that included neither a call for the destruction of Israel, nor a call for the establishment of a Palestinian state in all of historic Palestine.
Second, Olmert’s announcement does not differ substantively from various pronouncements made by Ariel Sharon in recent years, long before Hamas’s electoral victory, including a December 2004 speech in which Sharon claimed that the agreements he’d reached with the US “protect Israel’s most essential interests: first and foremost, not demanding a return to the ‘67 borders; allowing Israel to permanently keep large settlement blocs which have high Israeli populations; and the total refusal of allowing Palestinian refugees to return to Israel.” […]
http://www.counterpunch.com
Speaking of Buffalo, who is Leon Czolgosz?:rofl2::nixon:
:fu:cheney!
Sorry ex, don’t know what the trouble is, but you can always just put the tags in yourself.
HTML tags go inside these things <> For bold, you put <strong> in front of the words you want to be bold, and </strong> when you want it to stop being bold. For italic use <em>italic</em> You can also use <b> and <i> for bold and italic, if you want (just make sure to close the tags).
got an e-mail from my roommate about uae buying our ports so uh here
this is tricky because although most of the hijackers were saudis they were not sanctioned by the saudi government. And you’ll say how do I know that? and I’ll say logic. the terrorists that hate us for being over there (and that’s why they hate us, because we stay too close for them to fuck with Israel) hate the saudi govt for letting us be over there. If we ever left the area, the saudi royal family would be the ones who would bear the brunt of the ensuing shit storm (Israel’s army could pretty much handle the whole region by itself right now, with Iraq basically out of comission and egypt a shell of itself, only iran would mount any sort of threat to Israel but they’re not even in the same league as far as equipment or training goes and only slightly ahead in religious zealotry (it gets no press but Israeli’s are crazy all manifest destiny and shit) so the UAE has everything to lose by us getting fucked over. It’s to the point with them that even if they turned on us and openly praised attacks on us they still wouldn’t, couldn’t ever, regain popular support. The idea that because this company is owned by the country that owns the bank, it has to be bad because bad people invest in the bank, is flawed, at best. People need to understand the idea that banks everywhere else are nowhere near as willing to rat out their investors as American banks. A bank has one principle keep the money coming in. If al qaeda was using swiss or cayman banks (and they probably do) they wouldn’t give up the information either. (and right here everybody will get all high pitched and shit and say ‘oh, yes they would’ but they wouldn’t. ever. because then the much richer although somewhat less blood-thirsty super rich white criminals that also use these banks would begin to question whether or not this was the best arrangement for them. Super rich criminals are by their nature a nervous bunch, and the bankers that get super rich off of their money will do anything – hide al qaeda’s or say nazi germany’s financial records – no matter how seemingly unpalatable, to asuage their fears. its not like our port security could get much worse. Also, middle eastern countries know a fuck of a lot more about security than we do. That being said, the idea still makes me feel… um…icky. It’s just that I feel icky for reasons other than the reactionary ones given in the article. I feel just as icky as I felt when Japan was running around buying up everything, (land, buildings, companies, ideas) they could get their tiny little yellow small hands on. It’s not just outsourcing jobs, it’s like outsourcing America y’know?(very cheesy but I couldn’t think how else to phrase it). you see why I ignore you? I don’t have time to think like this.
By the way, who’s that out there at the Panera’s? :40:
:priest:i am a secu-socialist zombie brigader of the neo-socialist baby killer cult
Thank you Fred and Gypsy for the rethug definition, never heard that before, but it sure is apt. PJ, thank you for posting that bit about Best Buy. My mother found out about this while she was volunteering with Marin ABB (Anybody But Bush, a sorryass pro-Kerry attempt), but my staunch unionist brother in NYC often wants a Best Buy gift certificate for his birthday and I’ve been meaning to look for info to send him for why I don’t want to patronize them. Hope you don’t mind if I forward that to him (minus you identifying info, of course!).
SeanieSean, thank you so much for sending the Shatner. Your next email is taking forever to download for some reason, did you send a huge graphic? Hey, I didn’t realize you were stuck in the sticks of Georgia needing audio to keep you awake. That’s gotta be rough. If you have time, maybe you could browse the used books on cd sections at better bookstores when you’re in big cities. Here in San Francisco, Green Apple Boods at Clement and Sixth in the Inner Richmond has a mouthwatering used and new secion of these. Here’s what I got there last payday:
on cd:
-Molly Ivins reading Bushwacked (abridged, 5 discs, 6 hours, marked down to $18 from $29.95)
-David Brock reading The Republican Noise Machine (abridged, marked down to $14 from $29.95, 5 discs, 6 hours, still unopened!)
-The Book on Bush (Unabridged, unopened, read by Nick Sullivan, 19 hours 28 minutes, marked down to an unbelieveable $20 from $49.95)
and as if that weren’t enough: The Beatles Biography by Bob Spitz, abridged, read by Alfred Molina (yes, the actor), marked down to $25 from $39.95, running time approx. 10 hours.
I ran outta Green Apple guarding these like gold, I could not believe my luck. Maybe this isn’t fair, I barely have time to listen, but when there’s nothing on the radio or in an audio file online that I desperately need to hear, I’m working my through the Beatles bio first, and it is great! Sean, go to the Green Apple annex next time you’re in town. I didn’t even bother looking at the new ones, they were much too expensive for me. And lots of crap, imo; I had to wade through a lot of stuff to find these gems. Did my yoga over the weekend soaking in the fab four’s teen exploits to Melina’s mellifluous (sp?) and intelligent reading.
dont tell me panera bread is bad too ive heard enough about me always going to red stores i cant help it i have to go to where i can park a semi!!!!!
Al Gore’s war…with his own past
Joshua Frank
[…]The Vice President’s endorsed bombing wasn’t the only killer in Iraq; Gore also embraced the horrific UN sanctions, which accounted for at least a half a million deaths, mostly poor women and children.
Al Gore was certainly no peacenik during his days as serving under Bill Clinton. He supported NATO’s intervention in Bosnia and bombing of the Sudan. Up until George W. Bush’s Iraq invasion Gore was even delivering stump speeches highlighting Saddam’s potential threat.
“Iraq’s search for weapons of mass destruction has proven impossible to deter,” Gore said on September 23, 2002. “[W]e should assume that it will continue for as long as Saddam is in power.”
It may be comforting for some to think Al Gore’s has had a change of heart on Iraq. But Gore will still not delve into any of the deeper issues that influence US foreign policy. As the Bushites shift their wanton attention to Iran, Gore remains unwilling and unable to recognize one of the primary perpetrators of another war in the region: Israel.
During a talk at the Jeddah Economic Forum in Saudi Arabia last week, Al Gore pontificated about US policy in the Middle East. When pressed by the largely Saudi audience as to whether or not America’s allegiance to Israel was heightening the chance of a war on Iran, Gore remained evasive. “We can’t solve that long [Palestine/Israel] conflict in exchanges here,” he said.
In other words, he won’t go there. . .
http://www.counterpunch.com
I wonder if AAR is starting to understand all the hate and discontent they could avoid by just being honest and showing a little respect for their audience? Of course, instead of playign where’s Maron, they could have just not killed Morning Sedition in the first place (no, sorry, I’m not over it).
But if they’d just put somethign up earlier that said “we’re sorry, but getting Marc’s show together is taking longer that we’d hoped, but we’ll keep you updated,” then alot of this would have been avoided. Had it not been for Marc e-mailing us and spreading the word through our underground seditionist network, we’d have no idea what was going on. And had we not started pestering them on Monday, they still wouldn’t have told us anything (hell, if Marc hadn’t told us what was going on way back when – giving us time to mount at least some sort of a campaign to keep MS – he’d have just suddenly disappeard one day).
Speaking of dogs, Greenies are a lot like “conservative” values — gulping without thought or effort is bad for your health.
My first two dogs “knew” how to eat a Greenie: spend a half hour gnawing and grinding away at it to savor it. My current pup bit it in half then swallowed both pieces. Last Greenie for her. (She also stole a chicken drumstick at a BBQ and swallowed it whole. Luckily it passed a couple of days later, but her diet is rigorously controlled as to size of treats. Probably like Bush not being allowed pretzels anymore.)
:fist:i must depart go to jersey ok well adios mi amigos
You might want to try out the Free Documentaries site, too. Downloads can be a bit spotty, but there are some real eye-openers out there (Afghan Massacre: Convoy of Death is a pleasant little movie, for example).
ZNet | U.S.
Imprisoned in New Orleans
by Jordan Flaherty and Tamika Middleton; Colorlines Magazine ; February 15, 2006
When hurricane Katrina hit, there was no evacuation plan for 7,000 prisoners in the New Orleans city jail, generally known as Orleans Parish Prison (OPP), or the approximate 1,500 prisoners in nearby jails. According to first-hand accounts gathered by advocates, prisoners were abandoned in their cells while the water was rising around them. They were subjected to a heavily armed “rescue” by state prison guards that involved beatings, mace and being left in the sun with no water or food for several days, followed by a transfer to state maximum security prisons. Although their treatment brought national attention to the condition of prisoners in Louisiana, and comparison to prison abuse scandals from Attica to Abu Ghraib, local government officials have attempted to dodge accountability and continue with business as usual.
Raphael Schwartz, a 26-year-old Missouri man arrested and imprisoned for public intoxication in New Orleans on August 27, was sprayed with mace and abandoned by officers in a locked cell with seven other prisoners. According to papers filed by the ACLU of Louisiana, the man had no ventilation and nothing to eat or drink for four days.
Quintano Williams, a 31-year-old office manager picked up on marijuana charges just before the storm hit, testified in ACLU papers to being abandoned for days and then relocated to Hunts Correction Facility, a rural Louisiana maximum security prison, where he was left with thousands of detainees on a football field. There, he witnessed stabbings, but, he said, prison staff “did not interfere with anything that was going on as long as people did not try to get out of the area.”
Rachel Francois was arrested in mid-August, and as far as her family was able to discover never had charges filed against her. “We tried to bail her out,” her mother, Althea Francois, said. “It was the day before Katrina, and the bail bonds places were all closed. If they had been open, she would have been released that day. Instead, we could not get her released until two months later.” Francois, a prisoner-rights advocate, searched for two weeks before she found out where her daughter was being held.
Rachel and other women were taken to Hunts and then Angola, an all-male prison. “When I found out she was at Angola prison, just the idea really broke my heart,” her mother said. “She didn’t have a bed until the last few days she was there. She had no food for four days. She saw them throw food at the men like they were animals, but even then they didn’t give the women anything. The women were having panic attacks and were in fear for their lives. ”
Most of the people trapped in this brutal web of governmental abuse and neglect would have been released within a few weeks even if convicted. However, as of this writing several months later, many remain locked in maximum security prisons such as Angola, Louisiana’s notorious former slave plantation.
The flooding of New Orleans showed vividly the results of local, state and federal governments’ misplaced priorities, as well as the privatizing and militarizing of relief. In the months after the disaster, while the people of New Orleans wanted to return and rebuild their city, what they got instead was “security.” Hundreds of National Guard troops, as well as police forces from across the U.S. and private security forces including Blackwater, Wackenhut and an Israeli company called Instinctive Shooting International began patrolling the nearly empty city.
Long before Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans was hit by hurricanes of disinvestment, deindustrialization, corruption and neglect…
http://www.znet.org
Why is Randi peddling gold?:omg:
She should get Patti Smith back on as a guest.:rofl2:
How about Lieberman! He loves to suck face with Bush!
Comment by jasonwkinney — February 15, 2006 @ 7:56 am
Ewwwww… thanks for that visual, Jason. :barf:
“The image of him falling is something I’ll never ever be able to get out of my mind,” Cheney said. “I fired, and there’s Harry falling. It was, I’d have to say, one of the worst days of my life at that moment.”
maybe we should have cheney go to iraq with his friends so he can really have a bad day hunting
friggin randi is putting herself in leauge with michael savage with the gold thing he peddles for the same gold people :paranoid:
no i dont listen to him anymore ive been truck driving for four years now and we didnt always have xm and aar out here on the open road and npr is normally playing classical by that time of night
:shock:im going away now:fire:
Paul Hackett on Randi in the 3rd hour!!
God it is hard to tear myself away from you people, thank you for waking me up! But life and fleeting sunshine here in SF call, and I’ve got to pick up my CityCarShare reservation in two hours, and before then have got to do some yoga stretches (this is a necessity for me, not a vanity – some of you young’ns’ll find this out some day – if you’re already cycling or doing yoga regularly, my nurse’s advice is don’t stop!), bathe, eat (omigod – 1pm, stomach’s growling and I haven’t minded til right now) and hop over to Rainbow Grocery to lug home more groceries than’ll fit on the trusty bicycle. How’s that for a smarmy oh-so-pc San Francisco style brag?
Keep well, keep on, curse and carry on. The times I’ve managed to stomach rightwing talk radio, I was astounded at the real hate speech I heard there. I used to think Malloy was gratuitously raw, now I think he’s restrained (and given the fcc he has to be, while fuckheads like Coulter, Limbaugh, Savage, ad nauseum :barf: don’t restrain themselves at all).
Fuck You Cheney :fu: and Bush :fu: Rove :fu: Feith :fu: Pipes :fu: Condaskeeza 👿 (‘Condaskeeza’ I heard from local dj’s at KPOO radio – give them a listen please, they carry some good programming. Time for Guns and Butter now on KPFA, one of the few radical shows left there – you can listen to KPFA live now at http://www.kpfa.org and KPOO at http://www.kpoo.com/
On KPFA right now: Jeffrey Smith talking about his book Seeds of Deception. Check it out!)
Wow, Sean, that second post of yours just now finished downloading to my computer, would you believe it? I’ll let you know how the mp3 works for me. Listen, are you at all interested in me copying some of these cd’s I bought and sending them to you? If it’ll keep you from listening to Coulter, I’ll do it! I’m a little stressed and pressed for time right now but I could probably get it together during the next week or so. Let me know.
Bye for now, stay human all; I’ll read over your excellent articles later, I had to skim over them for now.
:yinyang::banana:
With Hackett Departure, Old Politics Win
The Associated Press
Wednesday 15 February 2006
Washington – With a shove from party leaders, Iraq war veteran Paul Hackett abruptly quit a key Senate race in Ohio and further exposed a disconnect between the Democratic establishment and Internet-fueled challengers.
The political novice withdrew under intense pressure from party leaders in Washington, clearing the field for Rep. Sherrod Brown – a 30-year veteran of Democratic politics with more than $2.5 million in the bank.
Phil Singer, spokesman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, said Hackett’s decision to quit gives the party a better chance of beating two-term GOP Sen. Mike DeWine in November. Hackett drew his strongest support from Democratic activists outside Washington and Ohio who donated money and time via the Internet, including many who considered his military record an asset against DeWine.
“Hackett would have probably won this seat,” David Nir, one of three founders of the liberal Web site SwingStateProject.com, contended in a blog posting Tuesday. “It’s much harder for me to envision the ‘northeastern Ohio liberal’ Sherrod Brown breaking the 49-percent barrier, particularly with DeWine moving to the center.”
mr farmerkat posted his first blog (his bio not is up yet)
i asked him if he thought the photos shouldn’t be out there and he said it’s important that they are; he’s just talking about their effect.
:rant1:friggin hackett i know i wouldnt of backed out screw that shit let the friggin voters decide in the primary damn it all
Thanks farmerkat, he even gave you a mention 😀
Maybe PJ will put up a link so we can check “Blogging Baghdad” regularly.
Opus Dei holds out for ‘Da Vinci’ changes
By NICOLE WINFIELD
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
This photo provided by Sony Pictures shows the poster for the film, “The Da Vinci Code,” scheduled for release May 2006 at the Cannes Film Festival in France. (AP Photo/Sony Pictures)m
ROME — The conservative Roman Catholic group Opus Dei said Tuesday it had no intention of calling for a boycott of the upcoming film “The Da Vinci Code,” but said it hopes the much-awaited film could still be changed so that “there aren’t references that would hurt Catholics.”
In a statement released in Rome, Opus Dei said Sony Pictures still had time to make changes that would be appreciated by Catholics, “particularly in these days in which everyone has noted the painful consequences of intolerance” – an apparent reference to violence in the Muslim world sparked by the publication of caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad.
The film, starring Tom Hanks and scheduled for a May 19 release, is based on the best-selling Dan Brown novel, which portrayed Opus Dei as a murderous, power-hungry sect. The novel contends that Jesus married Mary Magdalene and had descendants, and that Opus Dei and the Catholic Church were at the center of covering it up.
The low-profile spiritual group has embarked on something of a public-relations campaign to improve its image before release of the film. It says it isn’t calling for a boycott because it prefers to follow a more “constructive” path.
“‘The Da Vinci Code’ offers a deformed image of the Catholic Church,” Tuesday’s statement said, adding that the statement was issued because the organization had received many questions about the upcoming film.
Sony reiterated its view that “The Da Vinci Code” is a work of fiction.
The work is “not a religious tract, and it is certainly not meant to criticize any group, religious or otherwise,” Jim Kennedy, a spokesman for Sony Pictures Entertainment, commented via e-mail.
Opus Dei should chill. That book sucked!:rofl2:
Oh, that’s right. Bad novels frequently make good scripts for Hollywood.:omg:
Randi has brought up the railroading of John Lindh. Some of us knew from the start that that whole episode was a stinking charade.:omg:
:fu:Killer Cheney!
ACLU Director is on Randi’s show now. Good stuff!
:fu:Cheney!
:fu: Rumsfeld!
:fu: Supreme Court Mugwumps!
Auschwitz was legal, Randi! You know how powerful governments work. (We don’t live in a democracy!)
Die, C:omg::rofl2::omg::rofl2::nixon:
i was surprised, isi!
Remembering Israel Shahak
Whenever people start complaining about the scandalously biased press coverage of Israel’s conduct towards Palestinians, by way of cheering them up, I remind them that 20 years ago the coverage was even worse.
Back then, remember, reviewers gave a respectful welcome to Joan Peters’ book From Times Immemorial, which purported to argue that Palestinians had no claims on the land of Canaan, and that they had snuck into Israel from Saudi Arabia in comparatively recent times. The New York Times lavished praise on this nonsense which was duly exposed as fraudulent from start to finish. Back then, newspapers gave similarly polite coverage to prime minister Golda Meir’s pronouncement that there were no such people as Palestinians. To write, as I often did, about Palestinians’ just claims, as represented by the PLO, was to invite torrents of abuse. In New York particularly it was virtually impossible to have a rational political discussion on the topic.
If today the coverage is fractionally more honest, credit should go in part to a quirky, cantankerous professor of organic chemistry, born in a cultivated Jewish family in Warsaw, who died last week in his apartment in Jerusalem, his body worn out at the early age of 68, thanks in no small measure to the two years he spent as a boy in the German concentration camp at Bergen Belsen.
Year after year those on Shahak’s mailing list would get, every few weeks, a package containing six or so single-space typewritten foolscap pages of his translations from the Hebrew-language press in Israel, studded with his own acerbic and often eruditely amusing comments. Each package would usually address a theme, such as housing demolitions of Palestinians by the Israelis, or corruption in the IDF and Mossad…
Alexander Cockburn
i thought the da vinci code was a fun read….but i like reading people magazine when i go to the doctor’s. 😳
had a professor once who thought there should be a class called, Bad French Literature since all we read were the classics (I was a French Study’s major in undergrad).
i’m on the liberal confessional!! :priest:
better get out of here before I get a penance…..
Notice how Randi never talks about the Palestinians, except in rapid, dismissive flourishes?
:omg:
Go to jail, Cheney!
:fu:neocons!
I was an English major–and failed high school english teacher. I found The DaVinci Code to be a very badly written book. The editors should have sent it back for an extensive re-write. Brown blew it.
Got to go make copies of my art zine.:rofl2::omg:
:fu: neocons!
:banana:
PJ just put up a link under NEWS to the “Blogging Baghdad” Blog!
ex-ny’er Bye I got caught up reading this blog —
I THOUGHT ALL YOU SAID ON THAT FIRST BLOG WAS PROFOUND and I was laughing at my need to research more what you were talking about. (Plus I was falling asleep.):fire:
hey everyone- Im still running around like crazy but I was able to read the blog today at the gym on my lil’ computer phone…very cool! Anyway, it occurs to me that this “wheres Maron?” thing is someone trying to cleverly ocver up the huge fuck up of not getting him on the page sooner…or booking the time with the LA station or telling us or them or anyone…of figureing which was their ass and which was their elbow….
So now they can make it like they meant to keep us guessing…I suppose the whole contract thing with him worrying and all of the ranting was just part of a huge ruse that would be used for publibity to launch the Wheres Maron show!!!…the only problem is that they have missed every opportunity for publicity along the way, so I dont buy it.
Nice try tho…
And Im happy that they are admiting that they know Maron and that he is supposed to have a show. Yay! They posted a whole paragraph and a little graphic with a link…now how hard could that have been?
On my way out again…this is my long day….
AHA! Now we know the real story. From Jim Earl’s website:
:fu: cheney
I believe the Debate should be between the Dems and the Grns — re rethugs, if you voted for bush the 2nd time then you are part of the problem. They (the republicans of any kind) should now be “handled”. They should not be part of the solution. They should be treated as school bullys.
:fire:
PS I just read a great article in the new NY Mag about the blogosphere and bloggers in general…very interesting. I will try to find it online when I get back…might have to be a subscriber to get on their website…
February 15, 2006
FUCKING COWARD
“Ultimately I’m the guy who pulled the trigger that fired the round that hit Harry,” Cheney said in his first interview since the incident. “I’m the guy who pulled the trigger and shot my friend, and that’s something I’ll never forget.”
That’s nice, but what’s with “ultimately?” Sorry Dick, “ultimately” is what you say when, say, you’re a senior military official and something happened that was in your chain of command but about which you didn’t know.
There’s no “ultimately” here.
This guy doesn’t have the balls to step up, and then when he does decide to come out of his hidey hole to step up, he still can’t do it.
He’s never taken “full responsibility” in his life. When he was in college, he didn’t take responsibility for a war he supported but was too cowardly to fight himself, and he’s not taking responsibility now.
Cowardly little bitch.
Posted by not sam at 04:13 PM
http://www.majorityreportradio.com
:banana: After seeing “Where’s Marc (Waldo)” last night I knew AAR were LISTENING TO US. :fire:
The interview with Paul Hackett just now on The Randi Rhodes Show was very good. Both Schumer and Reid and their wives lobbied Paul & his wife to enter the senate race in Ohio. They promised monetary support. Hackett also met with Sherrod Brown before deciding to run and Brown assured him he was not going to run. Then all of a sudden Brown decided to get in the race and bring 2 million with him from his congressional position. Then Schumer and Reid started calling Hackett’s donors asking them not to give him money. He seemed resigned to his decision to get out of the race. And, said he would support Brown. Democratic Party Skullduggery!:blech:
Anyway, it occurs to me that this “wheres Maron?” thing is someone trying to cleverly cover up the huge fuck up of not getting him on the page sooner…
Comment by Melina — February 15, 2006 @ 5:31 pm
Indeed, a coverup almost worthy of the administration DG claims to oppose.
Keep the guns away from him before he steals any more repug ideas. It may be radio, but we still want Marc and Jim’s faces birdshot-free.
Oh, yeah, since I forgot before…
:fu: CHENEY!
:fu: RICE!
:fu: RUMSFELD!
:fu: DELAY!
:fu: FRIST!
And especially :fu: THE CHIMP!!!
IMPEACHMENT!!!
VIGILANCE!!!
:fire::fire::fire:
Hackett also met with Sherrod Brown before deciding to run and Brown assured him he was not going to run. Then all of a sudden Brown decided to get in the race and bring 2 million with him from his congressional position.
Comment by isi — February 15, 2006 @ 5:56 pm
See, now I’m confused, because I thought I remembered Brown already having declared himself a candidate when Hackett entered the race. Hackett has no reason to lie about it at this point in time, though, so my timeline must be off. :doh:
I hope Hackett reconsiders in 2008, although given the circumstances of his ouster this week, it would be understandable if he didn’t. How sweet it would be to see him defeat George Voinovich and give Ohio two Dem senators, the way life used to be when I lived there and we had Glenn and Metzenbaum. :peace:
Cheney on TV: Takes Blame for Shooting But ‘Unapologetic’ About Aftermath, Admits Drinking One Beer at Lunch
Fucker. Yeah, one beer, I believe that. If they admit to one, you know it was at leat a sixer (speaking from experience). Sure, just a beer at lunch five hours earlier. So, why go and hide behind the Secret Sevice until he was sober enough to talk to the cops?
From the same thing PJ posted
CNN today reports that Armstrong had told CNN she never saw Cheney or Whittington “drink at all on the day of the shooting until after the accident occurred, when the vice president fixed himself a cocktail back at the house.”
Cheney’s a drunk!
I need a :40:
Kevin M, :rofl2: I have said both VIGILANCE and IMPEACHMENT (I have had a bumper sticker saying that since they stole Gore’s Pres.) but never as my blog ending – the two words together. I took the symbol for Marc from Kristapea’s suggestion now I want to join with you with your Chant as my ending — ALWAYS PROCLAIMING (when asked) IT WAS ORIGINALLY STARTED BY YOU. I hope you don’t mind :nod: — but I will probably hear from you on this blog if you do. :rofl2:
I feel The Chant reminds one what we are All (I hope) should be focusing on whether breathing, eating, :crap:, or whatever :banana::rofl2:
:rant1: on All. :banana:
IMPEACHMENT!!! (bush & his adm)
VIGILANCE!!!
:fire:
two things I learned from the legal profession:
1) people wanting to hide drinking (or drugs) leave the scene of the crime and wait to come forward
2) when stopped for drunk driving, the most common comment a drinking driver will say is, “I just had one beer (or wine…).”
–> just ask a cop
—-
PJ – mucho thanks for the link. :bow:
Awhile back I mentioned the website blogactive.com, which is dedicated to outing closeted politicians who propose and vote for legislation hostile to the gay community. They have published an open letter to a closeted Republican Senator that if he votes to curtail the rights of gays, he will be outed. Everyone was guessing which Senator. Well, just now, Sam Seder did his “shut the closet door” remark right after he mentioned Senator Mitch McConnell. Very interesting. 😕
:bow: Farmerkat ya betcha……cheney the drunk :fu:
and, again, (but paraphrasing Farmerkat) :bow: PJ – THX everso for the link.
Gotta run to another political meet.
:rant1: :growl: on All :fist:
IMPEACHMENT!!! (bush & his adm)
VIGILANCE!!!
:fire:
It’s Hard to leave you people.
Isi OHHHHHHHHHHHHHH :rofl2: 😉 Bye
:rant1:on All:fist:
IMPEACHMENT!!! (bush & his adm)
VIGILANCE!!!
:fire:
:banana:ha hackett was reading the blog before he went on randi and he ripped me off from post 174 (well it was similar and i can pretend right?)
“The image of him falling is something I’ll never ever be able to get out of my mind,” Cheney said. “I fired, and there’s Harry falling. It was, I’d have to say, one of the worst days of my life at that moment.”
maybe we should have cheney go to iraq with his friends so he can really have a bad day hunting
:banana:Gore Kerry 08 yay:banana:
:alc::love::alc:
Duplicate comment detected; it looks as though you’ve already said that!:omg:
Why is AAR running that petty capitalist ad by Andrew Young?:omg:
hey whats up nicki?
huh who is andrew young?
:40::40::40:
Scarborough! Be honest! Cheney was drunk!
Former mayor of Atlanta. Former associate of MLK.
oh that jim earl
:rofl2::rofl2::rofl2::rofl2::rofl2::rofl2::rofl2::rofl2:
New research shows that obesity is contagious in chickens, and suggests that humans may be susceptible to viral obesity as well.
The researchers went on to warn citizens to wear face masks whenever they’re in the vicinity of Chastity Bono.
Researchers say the first sign you¹ve got the fat virus is having a “fever for the flavor of a Pringle.”
:rofl2::rofl2::rofl2::rofl2::rofl2::rofl2::rofl2::rofl2:
Cuellar of Texas. Jerk!:omg:
Bye, now!
:fu:Cheney!
:fu: Shinbet!
does anybody on here ever go on the majority report blog? i cant do it is too overwhelming
CheneyquidDick!
DON’T IMPEACH BUSH! HAVE CHENEY SHOOT HIM IN THE FACE!
Cheney will be charged? :bow::bow:
:fu:Bush!
Charge Bushco!:omg:
I blog a lot on Majority Report blog. Lots of identities.
I want to cleave to a Jewess, Janeane.:bow::nixon::sdavid:
Impeach yourself, Bushco!:fu:
Okay. I have got to go. Glad to hear MR told truth to power about the Dems treachery towards P. Hackett.
Don’t get deaned!:nixon::rofl2::omg:
Malloy, who’s with me :alc:
nevermind:doh: I’ll just wallow in my stupor by myself:40: It’s cool:doh:
OMG!:omg:
:fu:Cheney!
Trigger Cheney!:rofl2::fu:
I’m listening to open source on NPR. Go listen.
I FINALLY GOT ON. WOW.:tongue:
travisdem_04, Hi 🙂 Went to that site — 😎 THX So hows Juno? — I hear its private-ish. Just askin’ and kinda play’n. :doh:
:rant1:on All:fist:
IMPEACHMENT!!! (bush & his adm)
VIGILANCE!!!
:fire:
Juneau is probably worse than Anchortown, but I’ve never been there.
I’m sort of tired. I’m going to start a pot of coffee and think about stuff I could write on the blog.
haha…”where’s Maron?” :doh:
Who’s this Maron you keep refering to? :paranoid:
Anyway, I’m done being stupid. Check out this bob herbert piece. He’s calling for the VP to pack his bags and high-tail it back to Wy-f’n-oming (if that makes any sense)
I think I forgot an R someplace up there. Oh well.
:40:
Where is Maron? :omg:
Sean, I found your semi oo—oo-Bo
Doesn’t look like much, does it?
travisdem_04, the odds are we will not go to Juneau, but maybe if hubby has to. I told him we almost made it once — but now :doh:
I will try to type in full thus Juneau (thanks for correct spelling — its been awhile (I think 5th grade or 7th) since seeing it. And I just didn’t want to find my Atlas, since moved. Again :doh: Put on list or, gosh, I can GOOGLE now, too. Again :doh:
:fire::fist:
travisdem_04 Re Check out site = Yea 😎
That’s what I love hearing. :rofl2:
IMPEACHMENT!!! (bush & his adm)
VIGILANCE!!!
:fist::fire:
What happened to Thursday’s blog????:omg:
❓
Sorry – Have to reload the page every time I want to get the newest thread. Must be my computer 🙁