Oh, hell, I can’t think of anything to say – you guys come up with something.
Posted by pjsauter on October 3, 2006
Posted in Uncategorized | 238 Comments
Oh, hell, I can’t think of anything to say – you guys come up with something.
:?::?::?::?::?::?::?::?::?::?::?::?::?::?::?::?::?::?:
:eek::eek::eek::eek::yuck::yuck::yuck::crap::crap::crap:
❓ whatever :sheep: le
MEXICO CITY – As Mexico marked the anniversary of a 1968 student massacre, President Vicente Fox warned Monday that force could be used to remove protesters in the southern state of Oaxaca if negotiations fail.
Military helicopters flew over Oaxaca City, the state capital, during the weekend, and members of leftist groups and striking teachers prepared Molotov cocktails and set up barricades in anticipation of police and military action.
The protesters, demanding the resignation of Gov. Ulises Ruiz, have held the city center for four months. Fox has pledged to resolve the conflict before leaving office Dec. 1. advertisement
At a meeting of the Inter American Press Association in Mexico City, Fox said enforcing the law could be the next step after weeks of talks, which resume Wednesday.
“As long as the possibility exists of an agreement, we are going to insist on that, that an agreement is reached and things are resolved in that way,” Fox said.
“But if that doesn’t happen, the transgression of the law must be stopped and must be punished.”
http://tinyurl.com/knzxz
===============================
Historically speaking the Mexican government has not been afraid of shooting (at) its citizens….
One would have thought that they might have anticipated this.. Standing in the streets holding cute signs and yelling cute chants has never been the real factor in bringing down a government.:eek::eek::yuck::paranoid:
GAZA: Gun battles erupted Monday night between Fatah gunmen and Hamas militiamen in the southern Gaza town of Rafah, killing one person and wounding 15, a day after a deadly explosion of internal violence paralyzed the Gaza Strip.
The fighting was the latest in a series of sporadic battles throughout the day as tensions remained high between the two groups. Fatah militants enforced a general strike in many West Bank towns in a show of strength against Hamas, while the Hamas-led government ordered all ministries closed to protest Fatah attacks on government buildings.
But the level of violence was far below the chaos and running street battles that had killed 8 people and wounded 100 across Gaza on Sunday.
http://tinyurl.com/kgush
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It wasn’t bad enough that Israel tries to kill them off so now they do it to themselves.:eek::eek:
North Korea says it will conduct a nuclear test
Pyongyang says it must bolster self-defense amid ‘extreme threat’ from U.S.
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/15113036/
================================
AAAh… the signs of a successful foreign policy.:yuck:
State board will hear woman’s objections to Harry Potter
In Harry Potter’s world, the Ministry of Magic governs things. In Georgia, the state Board of Education rules over public schools.
These two worlds come together Tuesday when the state board has a public hearing on a parent’s request to remove the popular series from Gwinnett County public school libraries. The hearing officer presiding over the appeal will make a recommendation to the state board, which is scheduled to rule on the case during its December meeting.
Laura Mallory, a Loganville parent, challenged the books in September 2005, saying the stories promote and glorify witchcraft. She wants the books removed from her children’s school, J.C. Magill Elementary, and all Gwinnett public school libraries.
http://tinyurl.com/oqtgg
==========================
:gate::omg:
House approves Iran Freedom Support Act
Associated Press
WASHINGTON – The House voted Thursday to impose mandatory sanctions on entities that provide goods or services for Iran’s weapons programs. The vote came as U.S diplomats continued to press the U.N. Security Council to penalize Tehran if it fails to end its uranium enrichment program.
House sponsors of the Iran Freedom Support Act said they expected the Senate to act quickly on the measure, sending it to President Bush for his signature this week.
The bill, passed by a voice vote, sanctions any entity that contributes to Iran’s ability to acquire chemical, biological or nuclear weapons. The president has the authority to waive those sanctions, but only when he can show that it is in the vital national interest.
“It would be a critical mistake to allow a regime with a track record as bloody and as dangerous as Iran to obtain nuclear weapons,” said Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Fla., sponsor of the measure. “Enough with the carrots. It’s time for the stick.”
http://tinyurl.com/ezk3o
===============================
So what do we still export other than hot air :gate::omg::jason::jason::jason::fist:..
Washington Times Editorial “Resign, Mr. Speaker”
This links to the Washington Times article so if you don’t want to contaminate your browser don’t go there.
http://tinyurl.com/r32ye
Fred, can you tell me anything regarding having a blog and posting another “bloody” (:growl:) post (to comment on):?: — before I start throwing this computer :spank: or hitting:fist:… Breathe or … :tommygun:
Fred, re 2 thru 7 :omg: :The Scream:
:tommygun:
So, I think I’m going to form a scary industrial electronic band called Silly Puppy. We’ll chase bouncing balls around the stage and yap at the audience.
Comment by Kristapea — October 2, 2006 @ 10:25 pm
You might want to consult an entertainment attorney first. Copyright infringement and all that.
http://tinyurl.com/ntx6l
:pup::pup::pup:
Or was that the joke? I’m not really awake enough yet to be able to tell.
ABC says that other pages are coming forward, and that more Distinguished Gentlemen might have been getting all inappropriate with the kids. There could be a few more middle-of-the-night resignations and checkins into rehab coming up.
Why didn’t they just become priests?
Four More Queers! Four More Queers!
Sorry.
I’ll take back the House any way possible, short of violence, as long as we get some subpoena power going here. Lets get a nice perjury case going against old walnut cheeks, for starters. :sammy:
WJ is most disturbing this morning the thugbots calling in can not see the difference between the Foley problem and Monica and Barny Franks:yuck::eek::paranoid::gate::omg::jason::jason::jason:
good morning: :sheep::sheep::sheep: el
:yippee::yippee::yippee: Its Susan :yippee::yippee::yippee:
Feeling better ??
Ahhh. the rethug solution .. have the pages sign a release absolving the grown ups (?) they work with of liability if they have inappropriate contact.:barf::barf::barf:
somewhat, thank you Fred. I’d use a banana emo if it was grinning but not dancing, I’m not at the dancing stage presently. How are you? Just put on the Turks
NEW YORK: The US economy has slowed more dramatically than most economists expected just a few weeks ago, leaving it more vulnerable to a recession. Forecasters at Goldman Sachs and AllianceBernstein Holding in New York have cut their growth estimates for the just-ended third quarter to an annual rate of 2% or less.
http://tinyurl.com/fzddk
===============================
but .. but….but .. the DOW is at an all time high( a longer distance to fall makes you make a bigger splat when you hit the bottom)
:yuck::gate::omg:
Fred still has “the cold” cough… cough… snort… snort… blow.. blow… hack..hack …:yuck::shock::paranoid:
BERLIN -(yahoo news)
Germany could modify a law that forbids the distribution and display of Nazi symbols after a court fined a man for using crossed-out swastikas to protest far-right extremists, the justice minister was quoted Monday as saying.
The ruling on Friday by a Stuttgart court, which fined 32-year-old Juergen Kamm $4,060 for using the crossed-out symbols on stickers, buttons and T-shirts, has drawn widespread political criticism.
Post-World War II German laws make it illegal to display or reproduce symbols used by the Nazis, except for scientific or educational purposes, and the court said it was upholding a “basic taboo” against them. The defense has said it will appeal.
Lawmakers including the leader of the opposition Greens party, Claudia Roth, have reported themselves to Stuttgart prosecutors for wearing anti-Nazi T-shirts and buttons that include the banned symbols.
“Should the Federal Court of Justice also come to the opinion that our courts demand punishment in these cases, then something is wrong with the law — and we will change that,” Justice Minister Brigitte Zypries was quoted as telling the Tageszeitung daily.
Prosecutors have argued that what happened under Nazi rule was too horrifying to allow for the reproduction of swastikas as any kind of “fashion accessory.”
oy…have to send you some chicken soup… better than vitamin C doses…
Merkel’s government is seen to be pretty Reich wing .. they wouldn’t want to remind any of those “Good Germans” about what happened last time.:eek::eek::yuck::gate::omg:
I’ve always felt Germany’s very strong censorship laws to be a case od “don’t see it, don’t say, don’t talk about it” because on one level they don’t want to discuss their own role, and on a deeper level they’re afraid of groups like that taking power again. I’m more afraid of groups like that taking power if they’re repressed, but that’s just my psychology background.
I had about half a bottle of 1000mg Vit C tablets and have use almost all of it in the last 10 days or so.. The daytime cold medicines and work seems to be somewhat incompatible. :shock::fustrate:
Hey Druid, re: #8, if you mean you want to start a blog, probably the easiest thing to do is go to Blogger.com, set up an account, and you can have as many blogs as you want. All for free, and all quite easy to set up.
I don’t know if Europeans are any more intellectually advanced than the people in the SBR are. One would think that having an open society would be a better way of making sure that history doesn’t repeat its self.:rant1:
Hey, hey, hey. WTF are the Young Turds doing using the Morning Sedition Hot Chili Peppers music? :fu: Dirty rotten bastids.
I agree, Fred (26)
OMG
turks just used the ms theme /chilli peppers
NO NO NO
lets see the liberal solution to the Foley problem is to get rid of the problem(s) the rethug solution is to get rid of the pages .. Makes sense for some reason.. but has reinforced Fred’s preconceived notions about rethugs
Rethugs are 👿
Rethugs must be eliminated :gate::omg:
They’re trying to BE Morning Sedition…those wannabes…
Young Jerks have no shame .. :gate::omg::jason::jason::jason:
it just shows they’re not comfortable with their own identity and need to bite off MS…it’s an ass-backwards compliment to MS show actually…
Maybe in Maron’s first contract with AAR he released the use of any of his inventions to the company.. The Young Jerks will never replace Morning Sedition. :fist::fist:
Well, really, kids shouldn’t be around any of these politicians. Not just because they’re a buncha perverts, but because they’re (mostly) horrible, evil, lying, corrupt beasts.
And this page thing is bad (the coverup part is the worst; Hastert, Reynold, Boehner and their ilk will be lucky if parents with torches and pitchforks don’t descend upon DC), but, frankly, so is diddling young but “legal age” interns, staffers, and the like.
When I worked in academia, had I messed around with an over-18 student worker, I’d have had my ass kicked to the curb (not to mention what my wife would’ve done to me). Being legal don’t make it right.
I wish Cenk wouldn’t do that panting stuff…
Well, frankly, I’ve heard that HCP song used eleswhere. Just a shock to hear these bozos use it. This yank or crank or whatever his name is, is kinda annoying to listen to.
Why is it that wealthy people whether they made the money or inherited it seem to always be like that.???. 😮
I dunno, Fred. I would like to try an experiment. What say we give me a billion dollars or so, and see if I become evil and corrupt. I think it’s an important social experiment, and my PayPal account is….
Fifth girl dies after Amish schoolhouse shooting
Five victims in critical condition following
Pa. rampage; shooter kills self
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/15113706/from/RS.1/
==============================
The lady on C-span took a minute to remind us that politics is not all that is happening.
:-(:-(
pjsauter, I already have made a blogspot and printed up the first post, but I had tried to do 2nd post and it will not behave. I just checked again. No place new to try and will check again, and I have tried “previous Posts. Archive, and even About me. 😮
But thx if you can “get it”, since it is apparent I don’t. Then I have another “mystery” but for me :doh:. : – D 😮
After you have to get a second or maybe a third private phone number to handle all the GIVEME’s and Invest here’s you will also become a cynical old grouch. :growl:
Frist has already disavowed his “misquoted” Afghanistan statements.
Druid, when you log in to blogger (not your blog page, but blogger.com), you should see a “dashboard,” with a list of your blogs, and a “new post” button to click.
And I am so glad others even said WTF re “them” using MS Maron’s Red Hot
#
:nod: Now you’re awake.
Every time C-span has a Reich winger on it seems to bring out the crusty old conservative “stupids”
Rethugs are 👿
Rethugs need to be eliminated :gate::omg:
druid
did you get e-mail from me?
:rofl2::yuck:
pjsauter, :doh: On left it says: search this blog (word post doesn’t work)
and search all blogs beneath, and Blog This next to search all blogs.
on right says in this order: get your own blog , flag, next blog
I am on my page and it shows my 200 character statement.
To left: Recent posts, Archives — then Post #1
Bah Humbug :- D
By MATT APUZZO, Associated Press Writer
Attorneys for 25 men being held in Afghanistan launched a pre-emptive strike Monday against President Bush’s plan to prosecute and interrogate terror suspects.
Court documents filed Monday demand that the men be released or charged and allowed to meet with attorneys. Such a filing, known as a habeas corpus petition, is prohibited under the legislation approved by Congress last week.
(snip)
Monday’s filing initiates what is likely to be a drawn-out legal fight similar to the one over detainees at a military prison in Guantanamo Bay. Detainees there have dozens of petitions pending.
In civilian courts, the government is required to tell people why they are being held and allow them access to attorneys. People accused of crimes are then afforded speedy trials before juries of their peers.
“With the move that Congress made, the capitulation it made to the president, those rights are in danger of being curtailed,” said Vincent Warren, executive director for the Center for Constitutional Rights, which filed the lawsuit.
(/snip)
http://tinyurl.com/ekolx
=============================
:yippee::yippee::yippee::yippee:
Hey, Druid, what is the URL (web address) of the page you’re on? Is it something like “whatever.blogspot.com” or are you going to http://www.blogger.com?
PJ, If you have to run to work, shoot :tommygun: 😉 NO HURRY. I have dealt with this for several days now. :growl: :spank: Bad blogspot (i.e. = me)
Well, it just sounds as if you’re going to the page where your blog is, rather than logging in to the blogger.com page, and then creating a new post.
the ick factor
what drudge, gingridge etc don’t seem to realize is that they’re totally alienating young folks…
it’s not the abuse of power from one more “adult authority figure” and it’s not about sex — it’s just such a gross-out dudes and dudettes.
Druid, click on the eblogger logo in the upper left corner. Or double click and it will get you to the dashboard. It took me a while to find it too. They don’t make it very obvious.
RoxieSeattle , I did not get email yet, but I did get something really neat. :love: I was going to email when I awoke. Tres cool 😎 and I haven’t even investigated yet. :KISS: :love:
I was going to call you and let you know what I have been up to, after I email’d. 😉
I’ll bet some of these kids are grossed out, some are terrified, and some probably even think these old perverts are funny – at least until they win the “free steak dinner” with Congressman Scumbag, and find themselves all alone with some sweaty, leering, grabby old bastid.
PJ, Http/whatever.blogspot.com
I wonder who the female Republican pages have been warned about. You have to figure there are at least a few, and you have to figure there aren’t any “known” Democratic perverts, or you can bet that woul’ve come out already. Of course, that doesn’t prevent some former pages and interns being found and paraded out for the media.
OK, click on this link:
Blogger.com (and then bookmark it).
If you aren’t logged in automatically, enter your username and password. Once logged in, you’ll see a dashboard. Either click on the green “+” to add a new post, or click on the name of your blog, and you’ll go to the blog dashboard, with a link to create new posts, edit past posts, and do a buncha other things.
I doubt that the thugs care about alienating young people because
1. They typically don’t vote
2. They typically don’t donate to political campaigns
3. They are not invested in the stock market.
4. They have liberal view points.
Every thing and every one is for them to exploit
Rethugs are 👿
Rethugs must be eliminated :gate::omg:
druid
excellent. let me know if it loads ok.
If you’re using the blogger navigation bar (which it sounds like you are; I think it’s on by default), you can also click on the blogger link on the top left side (as KP said; it has an “e” looking thing, and says “Blogger”)
Kristapea and PJ , I guess I am to sign in again, but tried before and it “hates me”, but I will keep trying :- D. I did click eblogger on top left. hmmmm
But Thanks:!: 😉
Well, underage kids definitely don’t vote. But their parents do, and parents tend to not like icky old perverts and they kinda despise the people who protect and enable them.
Druid, go here if you forgot your username and/or password.
On AOL you can find all the info on rethugs you ever wanted by entering GO Pervert. :shock::paranoid:
Oh, and when you go to log in, click the “remember me” box, so you don’t have to keep logging in.
hey everyone!!!
Ive been fighting with mom over Woodward, Huffpo’s view of the late-to-the-party sceneario…and my blog entry today, which is not exactly fawning oner all of this “revelation”
I hate to be that way, but people piss me off so much …in their wide eyed wonder.
Like, they had to be shown how reallybad these people are, as opposed to just feeling it in their gut enough to get off the couch and change the channel….
When I worked at Cosanti, Scottsdale’s version of Arcosanti, I was warned about Paolo Soleri requesting all the women to pose nude for him. I think his lawyer put a stop to that before I got there.
Hey, did those seattleites post pictures of their meetup?
It would depend a lot on whether the kids parents were thugs or are ethical concerned parents. There seems to be some difference. :rant1:
Hey Krista, how is Nell?
…is she into crazy puppy mode yet?
PJ , it is even more ridiculous than forgetting username. I have copies of it ALL .
The husband says it is a :slap: with computer and my electricity.
pj
many of the kids actually involved probably were pretty freaked out. I imagine anyone applying for the job would be more strait-arrow than the typical h.s. kid. I was thinking more of teenagers in general. do they still teach “social studies” in h.s.?
if so, I bet this is topic #1 this week.
Puppy here keeps stealing the little plastic bird/cat balls with a bell in em, and she gets em stuck on her fingernails and is linping around trying to shake em off…very funny.
I got her a black shirt with a glo in the dark skeleton on it for halloween….Old Navy has some very cute, simple things….
theyre trying to say now that a bunch of the kid (and the repub kids were the only ones warned, but it was known that this guy was a creep) lured him into incriminating situations…but hell, they are kids, and if youre a pedophile and the kids someday strike back, whos fault is that?
If anything might make younger kids want to vote it is something like this….
Well, I guess we’ll see how the “blame the kids” campaign goes. But, i dunno, even these kids aren’t getting to Page School ‘cuz they come from non-elite Republican families, and while these parents might not care about what happens to those evil Marilyn Manson listening peasant children, you can bet they don’t want Congressman Dirtbag putting their hands on little Johnny or Jill.
Nellie is definitely getting more at ease but she’s still pretty mellow for a puppy. Yesterday was my first day back to work since I got her and she didn’t chew anything. Good puppy! :pup: She’s starting to yap at me, I think she wants to play when she does that. She’s still really frightened of the outside world. That could take a while.
I seem to be getting poked by a dog nose here (either that, or Mark Foley escaped from rehab), so I guess that means it’s time for walkies.
Fred, try Airborn, that stuff has been doing wonders for my cold. Plus it’s tasty and the fizzy feels really good going down your throat.
PJ, I just wanted to also say THX for encouraging to click on “Remember Me” since normally I do not click that — oh but will now, if ever it lets me in again. :doh::eek::doh:
senator byrd is former kkk why is he still in office? friggin dumbass republicans! is mark ruffalo a robot?
colds/flu
Zand (herbal brand) “Insure Herbal” tincture
+ zinc lozenges or throat spray + Zicam zinc nasal gel or (i prefer) swabs + Airborne or Emergen-C or just extra vitamin C. Start at first tickle and the bad part will be over in a day or 2.
And THX tygers (or tigars 3) :cat: and Siggy :pup: and Nellie :pup: for loaning me time with your Human Pals 😉
I have to go and make Rat Food and feed.
Melina, Also, Tres Cool 😎 re skeleton shirt. :parrot: :pup: 😉
:evil:republicans suck they suck suck suck suck suck they suck!
SeanMS , re 90 :nod: :omg: :barf: rethugs = :yuck:
:eek:my mom wants to borrow money
from my friend in japan! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DWMDxHeA5KQ
Did anyone catch Brian from Everett on Young Turks this morning?
It’s confirmed. Congressman Tom Reynolds’ (R-NY) chief of staff, Kirk Fordham, tried to broker a secret deal last Friday to get ABC News to cover up the worst part of the Foley child predator scandal, the lurid five-plus-page instant message chat in which Foley asked a child to measure his penis and then led the child into a detailed discussion of masturbatory techniques.
snip
Congressman Reynolds, you’ll recall, is the head of the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC), the congressional body in charge of helping House republicans get re-elected. Reynolds had been notified about Foley’s page-baiting months ago, yet wants us to believe he did everything he could and that he’s not responsible for the sexual predator getting an easy ride, for his being permitted to remain in congress, permitted to remain the chair of the House caucus on missing and exploited children, and being permitted to remain in the House Republican leadership.
http://tinyurl.com/n3pza
i’m on the phone with rep. weldons office now.
did he tell them they suck compared to marc?
It seems Weldon is waiting for all the facts to come in before he makes a decision. “representative Weldon wouldn’t want to be too hasty”. Yeah, too hasty in kicking out a couple of assholes who covered up for a pedophile.
Sorry Sean, he didn’t.
kurt?
Sue P YEA :yippee:, the stupid :jerk: :barf:
I just fed Rats and found two :cat: had had taken my office chair. Time for :yawn: as soon as I call Boxer and Feinstein.
SeanMS, watched some and will continue when awaken. 😎 :yawn: re 93
Yep, Curt. Time to go to work.
Melina, I think it was you but forgot to do, regarding many moons ago, you saying to hit “Remember Me” to be remembered on blogspot. Hopefully with PJ now saying to Click It , I Will Remember:!: I just hope I can get in someday. ;-D.
You can always just start over again with a new one.
:penguin:fuck the young turks liberal assholes is what they are!
really though i swear i heard one of them praising george h w the other day fucking bastards!
:yawn:Boxer and Feinstein called in Washington DC offices thus on that note I bid thee ALL a G’Night,G’Day.
:yawn::knit::gate:Good Journeys
pjsauter, Good Idea 😉 :yawn:
:nana:here something to watch
JIDDA, Saudi Arabia, Oct. 2 — A review of White House records has determined that George J. Tenet, then the director of central intelligence, did brief Condoleezza Rice and other top officials on July 10, 2001, about the looming threat from Al Qaeda, a State Department spokesman said Monday.
The account by Sean McCormack came hours after Ms. Rice, the secretary of state, told reporters aboard her airplane that she did not recall the specific meeting on July 10, 2001, noting that she had met repeatedly with Mr. Tenet that summer about terrorist threats. Ms. Rice, the national security adviser at the time, said it was “incomprehensible” she ignored dire terrorist threats two months before the Sept. 11 attacks.
http://tinyurl.com/gfug2
==============================
:gate::omg:
The Turks, Hartman, Marvin, Maddow, Franken and Bender are all DLC centrist sell outs.. Until the thugs are out of office anyone who promotes gun control has to be out of their mind. Guns don’t kill people … people do. No one has ever effected change by standing in the street yelling chants and waving signs.:gate::omg::jason::jason::jason::fist::fist::fist:
:cat:lunch then sleep!
Hey Seditionists!
Here’s are some links to a stories about the manipulation of the price of gas and the upcoming elections.
The Closer the Election, the Lower the Price of Gas
U.S. Controls Price of Crude Oil
Gypsy, hope you are feeling better. Thank you for the birthday wishes.
Again, does anyone know if Marc Maron’s P.O. Box he listed on the old show (TMMS) still work?
Thanks. :sammy:
I would almost bet that someone higher up told AAR to crank down the rhetoric a bit because they were getting the left ticked off to much. Is it possible for someone that has been listening for a year and a half to not be completely ticked off and if they aren’t were they really listening ?? Ok.. Walgreen’s is having a special on Prozac this week if you are interested.:eek::alc::paranoid::fustrate:
:nana:i am going to athens ohio tomorrow um yep ok then later sheeple!
:jason:tour dates see when i am coming to your town!
Hey, guys. We’re in loz anGeles and planning on seeing Maron tonight! Feel out of touch with everyone – too much going on that I haven’t been able to jump on the computer much. Hope you’re all well and animals, too! I’ll check in with you tomorrow and report back.
XXOOOO
Seanie-eat here
I worked there in the late 70’s.
Great enchilada sauce…
I have a sick kitty. :-(:barf::billcat:
see i knew i remembered somebody on here used to live in athens!
Well, Fred, we know youve stocked up on you Prozac…yup….thats for sure.,,,But maybe you need more of an anti anxiety. You seem really stressed and angry all the time….How is the revolution gonna come off if you have a heart attack?
Yes, crank or whatever hisname is was a former republican and apparently one of his heros was George HW…I had to turn it off around then….but it was about a specific thing.
I dont like them much and I doubt they have control over the muzac. They had…or have…horrid, horiible rap and house crap stuff on their site, so I doubt they would have enough taste to use RHC…..and I hope to god it wasnt the special cut of it that they did for Marc and Mark…
Bobby Kennedy jr and Mike Pap used it too, but ti was the original song, Dont Stop.
If Brian called in I will listen to today’s later, but…oh maybe not because Sam was back….
Im tired of it all….
seanie can you get to somerville mass by the 20th or the 21st? Im thinking of heading up there and meeting Blue for a Maron fest at Jimmy Tingles…..
OK, everybody call in to Crank on Al’s show, and tell him to never use the RHCP’s music from MS ever, ever again.
:jason:the fucker was praising his foreign policy if my memory serves me right
Nope, nope. They used the MS music as their bumper music, it wasn’t part of the horrid AAR muzak.
I will allow Pap and Bobby to use it. Just not these Young Turds. Me no likey.
young terds!:tommygun:
I heard them become indignant when somebody called the bushies fascists, whch is when I really started to dsilike them. Plus, yank poo-pooed my suggestion that the bushies were twisting the Democrats arms by threatening to deny Katrina relief and mining reform over the Alito filibuster.
:doh:i will be in lexington ky then ok well i am out of here need food need sleep! oh ummmm fuck this republicrat terd fucker! (no offense c-nick)
Gee, how many times did Al have Marc on his show?
ABC will soon report who had knowledge of the Mark Foley page scandal, and when they became aware of it, RAW STORY has learned.
In an interview with DemocracyNow, ABC’s Maddy Sauer has shared some startling facts about the story.
Pages have, according to Sauer, been able to produce instant message conversations going back as far as five years. Some of them are reportedly sexually explicit.
The FBI, Sauer claims, will be interviewing pages starting today.
Sauer also indicated that ABC’s next wave of reports on the Foley scandal will focus on who in Congress was aware of the situation, how much they knew, and when they were alerted.
==============================
So is ABC atoning for their crapudrama or what ..:shock::paranoid::paranoid:
Hey Seanie…looks like Travis and I can rendezvous with you in March in Olympia…plenty of time for me to:knit:
If Al would maybe T—A—L—K—– A—–L–I—T—T—-L—E faster he could get twice as much in each hour.. zzzzzzzzz
:doh:i think he felt threatened by marc he was afraid marcs funny would upstage his
Supposedly the ABC news division was pretty pissed off at the entertainment division. More likely, this is just a story that fell in their laps, and since it is astonishingly easy to follow up on, they’re running with it. Not that CBS and Katie Couric would follow up – they appear to be trying to be the “new” Fux News.
i doubt i will still be on this your then but if i am sweet!
marc and mishna
Yeah, but I may be sober by then, so I don’t know…
you :bong: with maron?
You may have a new knitting habit by then travis!:knit2:
No…Maron got a little freaked out by it being around him. He certainly knew that I had it. But I didn’t have a lighter so he asked a couple people for me if I could borrow theirs. I’ll write more about it later.
Hah. Tom Reynolds.
I feel that I should point out that Reynolds is from Western NY, not Central NY (not that our hopefully soon to be replaced Republican weasel is any better).
I’m hoping Marc will write something about how he got sober.
I’m just sayin’…
:fu:sure PJ put that on me!
Well, Marc musta bought that pink purse when he was still drinkin’.
good thing is that we may finally be rid of reynolds! now if only we could fire his butt buddy BRIAN HIGGINS!
seanie…why would being sober stop you from anything?
It would be great if the NY 24th, 25th, and 26th all flipped over. We’d have the whole Thruway back.
Hey PJ and granny, why dont you come to Boston for Marcs show on the 20th or 21st?
:nod:
I’m going!
we need the 27th back too!
me almost pee meself!
:yippee:delicious whipped cream!
Hmm. Actually, I have an old high school (hell, I’ve known him since fourth grade, come to think of it) friend that lives in Boston (Needham, actually). But, I don’t know if we can actually afford it. Plus, I’d probably have to stay and take care of the dog.
Re 130: Seanie I’m not offended at all. There are many heterosexual men who perform anal sex on women. So “no” I’m not offended at all. I think we should all be demanding the resignation of those members of Congress who knew of Foley’s emails to male pages and did nothing about it.
And the female ones, too. You know damn well these dirty old bastards are after kids of both sexes.
:eek:cnick is gay-bashing! its not that he was e-mailing male pages its the AGE of the pages or something ahhh im just being a dick! anyway i must go get food! then sleepy time! i know i said that forever ago but i mean it now!
So these people: American Family Voices just called me with a scathing tape against Hastert and Foley…saying to go to their web site and sign petition and call your representatives and tell them youre disgusted.
Im not sure if they are a conservative or liberal group, but…..the tape was compelling with things like “hastert knew a sexual predator was there…stalking a 16 year old boy…”
Really good stuff….Its the first time in a long time that I listened to an entire taped call…even from Bill clinton…
They don’t sound rightwing to me.
Go here to read what some on the right are saying about this incident. Surprising!!!
Babs called me yesterday to tell me to vote by mail…
Hey, I think I’ll add Maf54 to my AIM buddy list. I wonder if they have Internet access in rehab?
fyi
ed schultz is bout to interview richard vigary. listen for the sound of a rat leaving……..
hey pj
let’s start a pool on how long after he gets thrown to the lions, will it take Denny boy to rat out a few more rethugs?
Hastert announces strategy for fighting back.
Hastert: Foley Scandal Is A Liberal Conspiracy To ‘Get To Me’ And ‘Affect Our Election’
Interviewed by Rush Limbaugh today, House Speaker Hastert said Mark Foley’s inappropriate behavior was “a political issue” and promised Rush that “we are going on offense.”
The “offense” is an effort to portray the scandal as a conspiracy specifically timed by liberals to effect the elections. “We are the insulation to protect this country,” Hastert declared, “and if they get to me it looks like they could affect our election as well:
SPEAKER HASTERT: There were two pieces of paper out there, one that we knew about and we acted on; one that happened in 2003 we didn’t know about, but somebody had it, and, you know, they’re trying — and they drop it the last day of the session, you know, before we adjourn on an election year. Now, we took care of Mr. Foley. We found out about it, asked him to resign. He did resign. He’s gone. We asked for an investigation. We’ve done that. We’re trying to build better protections for these page programs.
But, you know, this is a political issue in itself, too, and what we’ve tried to do as the Republican Party is make a better economy, protect this country against terrorism — and we’ve worked at it ever since 9/11, worked with the president on it — and there are some people that try to tear us down. We are the insulation to protect this country, and if they get to me it looks like they could affect our election as well.
http://thinkprogress.org/
==============================
Maybe they will screw themselves … err..into the gound.. :paranoid:
heh….well, Im on my way….but the ned lamont guy Luis just called me and Im goning to the farrell shays debate tomorrow to talk to people and try to drum up press….I wish I had my minidisc player or iriver…If I could figure out which to get I might be able to run out and get one…..
Tell me which one is best PJ!!! Which to get?
Nick- which one exactly and which type of mic? MOnaural or bionicle??? Im so confused….
I will check in from my palm pilot…see what the model is….but which one? On the pro sites it seems like the minidisc says that its broadcast quality…is iriver broadcast quality or is it in the microphone?
Ill check back….urgh…
I’m trying to figure thiis skype stuff out. Sorry if Icalled you, PJ. I don’t even have a microphone on this computer yet.
maybe I do have a microphone and just don’t know about it yet:paranoid:
Did anyone else catch Melanie Sloan on the PBS News Hour last night? She was on as part of the Foley coverage. The headshot on Franken’s web page does not do her justice at all. :hubba: Hopefully we’ll be seeing more of her as the story continues to unravel.
Latest news is that both Jeb Bush and FL attorney general Charlie Crist were aware of the Foley situation months ago, and sat on the information. This is not going to be good news for Crist, who is leading in the governor’s race by a wide margin. Or was until now.
Surprisingly, most Floridians frown on child molestation, especially the religious righties that Crist is trying to pander to.
The iriver will record in uncompressed (.wav) or compressed (mp3, ogg, and wma) formats. Mine will do bitrates up to 320 kbps for mp3 (128 mbps is roughly equivalent to CD quality). So, yeah, I would say it’s plenty good enough for broadcast quality. Obviously, the microphone and the type of recording you’re doing will have an affect. For instance, if it’s just you speaking into a mic, then you’d want one that you can shove right in front of your face, but won’t pick up background noise. If you want to sit in the audience at an event and record, you’d want something that will pick up everything.
Oh, did you hear me at all, Travis? You can call me by clicking on my status button there at the bottom of the side nav (if I’m online, and if I didn’t walk away from the computer).
I think people pretty much unversally disapprove of preying on children. Just amazes me when these wingnuts try and blame the kids or in any way justify the inaction on the part of the Republican leadership. I think that will only backfire on them (so to speak). At best, it’ll keep the holier than thou set home on election day, and at worst (for them), they’ll go out and vote for the Democrats. Wait for much dirt to be thrown between now and election day. They’ll dig up something on somebody, I’m sure.
Oh, I had some earbuds plugged into the computer, but I wasn’t wearing them. I didn’t even realize that I made a call. I’m still looking through all the skype stuff.
Oh well. I’m not really all that much fun to talk to anyway.
fred
#-65: interesting wording “WE are the insulation” WTF does that mean?
the question is: will Denny take a bullet for the bushies?
some of his homeboys need to have a chat with poor expendible mr hastert.
back much later bloggerts.
Hey Travis! I just talked to PJ!
Get Skype!:pup::pup::pup:
From TPM Muckraker:
Foley Lawyer To Give Presser at 5:45 PM
Not sure what it’s about, but Mark Foley’s lawyer will be giving a press conference at 5:45 PM. ABC News promises that it will be a “BOMBSHELL.”
Foley’s lawyer’s press conference is starting now. MSNBC has it.
Not much of a bombshell there.
Read this for a little balance:
All About Hypocrisy
The Foley Follies
By GARY LEUPP
I confess to feeling my share of schadenfreude at the fall of Florida Congressman Mark Foley, once chair of the Congressional Missing and Exploited Children’s Caucus, and author of the “Foley Provisions” in the Child Protection and Safety Act of 2006, accused of sending sexual online messages to former and serving Congressional pages. Here is more exposure of the hypocrisy of the Republican Party, publicly pious, privately prone to the same range of prurient behavior as those its targets. Or at least that’s how it looks to many Americans, enraged by Foley’s “perverse” behavior. That image will likely weaken an administration that ought—for any reasons at all—to be weakened as much as possible before it tries to nuke Iran. But I want to be fair and objective too, and rational about the sexual issues here, mindful that nuanced opinions aren’t popular…
http://www.counterpunch.org
:yawn:
I do not get MSNBC. Until I look on computer site, look on New Animals – next to M&M:dancers:. These are Danu Epona (the full:love:) not Danu Green Dragu(o)n Dharma (the hybrid:love:), her’s will be soon.
Oh, Greetings all :dancers:.
Danu looks like Sly!:pup:
I saw those, Druid, and even sent them to my sister as e-cards. How beautiful they are.
No Foley bombshells. Foley is gay. And he was abused by a clergyman between the ages of 13 and 15.
Sorry Melina
I’ve been doing other things this afternoon. So I just noticed your question about the iRiver. I really do not know to much about the iRiver. I use the Electro-Voice RE50B to record from my MiniDisc. My new in-ear binaural SP-TFB-2 microphones arrived this afternoon from Sound Professionals. I’ll use them to record with my Minidisc. I plan on taking them out tomorrow and will include some of that audio in tomorrow afternoon’s podcast. If you want to hear what the binaural microphones sound like go here and listen to John Ong’s podcast # 186 “Raw Inspiration”.
😥 I miss Her, The Full, soooo very much, I still and always just ache.
(She died of old age and I probably never will get another. :cry:)
Here is the real issue:
http://www.counterpunch.org/moses10032006.html
Congressional pages involved in the Foley sex messages scandal are receiving threats via emails, Representative Rodney Alexander (R-LA) told CNN today. Alexander sponsored one of the pages that received inappropriate instant messages from Rep. Foley.
Alexander explains that he believes he let the page down, saying, “My job was to do what I could do to protect the young man’s interest and I failed. I apologize for that. The parents have had a horrible week. The young man is beginning to get some threats. The media has been aggressively seeking his conversation at school, his home and that’s the most disturbing thing. It’s just simply not fair. The young man has gotten caught up in something that — and he’s getting bruised — for something that he should not be a part of.”
http://tinyurl.com/ha3tk
===============================
:gate::omg:
SBlueHeron, Awwwww Sly. :love:
PJS, cool regarding sister, tell her 😉 and Hi from me. I will slowly put on more PIXS, even of Cats:billcat: & :cat: & :RATS: — then, gosh she might even email :dancers: TeeHee. Awwww 😀 regarding Danu Epona and :cry:.
I am still possessed by Danu Epona — but I force me to make sure I release the Imprinting.
Fred, 189 F#$% = :fu: = :fist: (death grip) = 👿 Bloody Hell:!:
Just looked at the pictures of Danu. A wolf? Beautiful animal. :love: Please tell the Danu story, Druid.
:joe: and fire :tommygun: and animals and the call to Vote (MoveOn). 😮 ( And looking at PIXS 😥 😮 )
oy vey…
Labor Board Ruling May Bar Millions of Workers from Forming Unions
by James Parks, Oct 3, 2006
The Republican-dominated National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) voted along party lines to slash long-time federal labor laws protecting workers’ freedom to form unions and opened the door for employers to classify millions of workers as supervisors. Under federal labor law, supervisors are prohibited from forming unions.
The NLRB ruled on three cases, collectively known as “Kentucky River,” but it’s the lead case Oakwood Healthcare Inc. that creates a new definition of supervisor. Dozens of cases involving the definition of supervisor now before the NLRB will be sent back, with employers having the option to craft arguments that will meet the new definition of supervisor and limit the number of workers who can join a union.
Although the Oakwood decision covers only nurses, the expanded definition of superviors means up to 8 million workers, including nurses, building trades workers, newspaper and television employees and others may be barred from joining unions. In Oakwood, the board agreed with the employer that charge nurses are supervisors. But the ruling also sets broad definitions for determining who is a supervisor that invites employers to classify nurses and many low-level employees with minor authority as supervisors. The decision was issued Sept. 29 but not released until today.
http://tinyurl.com/h3uch
===============================
:gate::omg:
How long does it take madcow disease to really deprive one from thinking.??. Rachel seems to have gone into terminal babble on mode.:yuck::yuck::eek::paranoid:
I was driving home today and I thought how unlucky I was to not get the NY AA station…then I realized Rachel was on and I knew how lucky I was…
Beats me, I switched over to the funny.
Fred looks at TV schedule to see when the news is on PBS, hides laptop.. determines the batteries in the remote are dead :crap::crap::crap::yuck::alc::40::40:
Melina,
John Ong uses an iRiver to record his podcasts. I love the sound quality of his podcasts. So I’d opt for the iRiver as both a studio and a portable recording device. Regarding my post of 186. Follow the link provided and listen to some of Jon’s podcasts. If you like what you hear then you’ll like the sound quality of the iRiver. It’s really a question of money. Or if your like me (I’d advise otherwise) you can just say, “Charge it!” I’m two hundred dollars away from paying off my Sony Minidisc and RE50B mic. But I still owe quite a lot on my Intel iMac computer. If these were all the bills I had I’d feel pretty good. Maybe one day a long lost rich deceased Aunt or Uncle will leave me their millions. If not . . . you can’t get blood from a turnip! Later.
pmurray41, I would love to tell regarding wolves stories (all true) but especially regarding Danu Epona, alpha female full, and even regarding :love: beta female hybrid and … :wink:, but let me get tights on and let Danu (Green Dragun Dharma) in from back.
I am here. MoveOn will have to wait until tomorrow since I must run to Co-Op in a wee bit.
RENO, United States (AFP) – US President George W. Bush said it was only a “matter of time” until the elusive Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden faces justice.
“I’m just telling you we’re dismantling Al-Qaeda one person at a time. We’re on the hunt,” Bush said at a congressional campaign event here.
“And it’s just a matter of time before Osama bin Laden gets the justice he deserves,” he said.
http://tinyurl.com/oyrrw
===========================
The Oct surprise .. ??? Unfortunately AQ does not have just one or two leaders 😮
pmurray41, the quick story is I was a leader in early ’80’s to stop arial wolf hunts (which have recently started again, especially in Alaska but have started in many places now):!: Then, I got to know a special underground how to get from zoos and other “overflow”. I did not want to have, especially spiritually, full wolf in cities area, so went to mountains (also with husband primarily, teehee) on raw land with army tents (but was better than a yurt, at the time). They were my Art and Writings and Soul Teachers and were imprinted with me as #1 alpha. They were alphas but respected me (had to prove) as Top alpha. (Mostly since most did not understand Wolf. :love:). Other wolf stories, perhaps go to my main email. Also one can ask away any questions. 😉
That’s pretty cool, Druid.
Again, does anyone know if Marc Maron’s P.O. Box he listed on the old show (TMMS) still work?
Thanks. :sammy:
Comment by Darkjstz — October 3, 2006 @ 12:30 pm
Most likely it will. It’s probably the same PO he uses to mail out cd’s. I have the envelopes around still but it’s gonna take some hunting and I have to go pick up a friend right now but will check in later and confirm.
Hey, do you prefer the hotmail or the gmail address? I want to give my sister your e-mail, if that’s OK. Of course, she doesn’t really look at her e-mail all that often, though she’s better than she used to be.
Druid, lovely pictures of Danu. A beautiful animal.
By the way, if you’re out in LA, you’ve got about 2 1/2 hours to get over to the UCB Theater to see Marc.
pjsauter , If you mean me, hotmail first, since it is usually all I have time to mostly view but then other to speak more freely, since I also did many other issues, too, if truly me you speak of. ;-D
Yep, it is of you I speak.
PJ, I wish I could see Marc. I think I would quickly become a “stalker” of each of his shows. :nod:
Damn! It seems that people around here are streaming David Bender’s show. 2 calls from Oregon. KPOJ does not carry his show live. Lively discussion tonight.
what show is on now in Portland? I don’t even know what’s on the NY station, I stream everything now
Sue P, Thx (with more to oneday follow — even current Danu, plus cats & rats (chuckle))
Randi Rhodes. David Bender gets an hour on Saturday here.
Here is another way in which the Repigs use children. From today’s Dailykos:
Tom Reynolds is facing a barrage of questions about what he knew in the Foley scandal, when he knew it, and why he didn’t do anything about it other than passing it off to Dennis Hastert.
So today he held a news conference, in which he “rented out a daycare facility” in order to surround himself with small children to talk about on Foley’s sexual predation in the halls of Congress.
Even the reporters couldn’t believe the rancidity of it:
Reporter: Congressman, do you mind asking the children to leave the room so we can have a frank discussion of this, because it’s an adult topic. It just doesn’t seem appropriate to me.
Reynolds: I’ll take your questions, but I’m not going to ask any of my supporters to leave. […]
Reporter: Who are the children, Congressman? Who are these children?
Reynolds: Pardon me?
Reporter: Who are these children?
Reynolds: Well, a number of them are from the community. There are several of the “thirtysomething” set that are here and uh I’ve known them and I’ve known their children as they were born.
Reporter: Do you think it’s appropriate for them to be listening to the subject matter though?
Reynolds: Sir, I’ll be happy to answer your questions, I’m still, uh…
Hiding behind children. Literally, in this case, holding them up to shield himself from the questions the reporters were trying to ask.
I’m looking at this point for one man in the entire Republican leadership with the integrity of a fleabitten stray dog. I’m still looking for that one man.
Update [2006-10-3 20:9:19 by Hunter]: BuffaloBlogger clarifies that he didn’t _literally_ “rent a daycare center”, just commandeered the student center of a local college for his kids-on-parade press conference. So you know, it’s not actual child labor for the GOP yet, LOL.
That was bizarre.:omg:
see you in a bit — gotta go to co-op
I have to say, this pup is pretty gentle with the stuffed animals I got her. Not a tear in either one yet. Sweet jane would have made roadkill of them within a day. :pup:
I like David Bender. He talks good. :tongue:
Hey, watch IT. My lil flea bitten pound pup most definitely has more integrity than these perverts. Especially when I squirt her in the back of the ear withy a squirt gun. :pup: Just wish these Repugs would respond as well and that the Dems would at least wield a squirt gun.
Nellie doesn’t even know how to beg. And I’m not gonna teach her either. Not that I taught Jane that. She picked that up when I lived in the same house as my current land lord and he would feed all 5 dogs from his very own dinner plate as all of them surrounded him. :no:
Wow, I just heard an ad on our local “alternative :roll:” station telling folks to get to know the candidates and vote.
Hey PJ- youre fun to talk to!
Im getting a skype cordless phone instead of the box that lets the regular phone also do skype. I just dont want to gum things up with another voice mail….so I got a nice little cordless phone that is part Linksys, which is the router I use, so Im sure Ill be set. It was more expensive that the real cheapos but I figured that the quality is worth the price. Ima slo thinking that if my Verizon account isnt good in Mexico I can use this with the laptop because the hotel at club med has wireless available.
Anyway, I should be on soon….
And I guess I should go for the refurbished iriver, huh?
And then get a good mic.
So, I should record at 128? I have a podcasting book that I have to go through to find out the best settings but Ill take any and all advice I can get…. is 128 what you broadcast it at? what is the best program to edit it? Should I just upgrade the wavepad?…I see that some people are using soundforge and its offered with some of the minidiscs in the pro bundles…..
Hey, so, Bush is gonna be at the Camelback Inn tomorrow between 5:30-8:30 AM. I’m gonna go. I missed Rove on Friday because I was busy getting sick. I’ll bring my camera. Can anyone think of a better sign than “IMPEACH!”
Wow, the Camelback on Van Buren?? Is there still a greyhound racing park behind it?
If I were to be cruel and dress up my doggie in a costume I would dress her as a clown with a little clown hat and clown ruffles round the neck and paws and a ball at the end of her tail. I wonder if she would tolerate it. Jane wouldn’t have.:tongue:
No, it’s on Lincoln Dr. Paradise Valley. I would love to see him behind the Greyhound park. IN THE GUTTER! 😀
Krista- they have some cool stuff at old navy. A nice halloween neck ruffle and a skirt if she will keep it on. I have to take somepics of Angie pup in her Tshirt…very cool…but I want to go to petco and get her and lola Devil suits….or angel and devil for trick or treating.
Right!! My father made a movie there and the director (him,) his wifey at the time, and star actors stayed there at Camelback, and we all (crew and minor actors) stayed at the Caravan Inn with the greyhound park behind it…very fun over there…that was 1979….can you believe that?
Afghanistan: Lost time
“The United States is beginning to recognize that its project in Afghanistan will fail unless it addresses the sanctuary and support that the Taliban enjoys in Pakistan,” says Steve Coll. “But the United States has not yet reached the point where it knows what kind of … policy it is prepared to carry out.”
However incredible it may sound today, particularly to the younger members of the audience, the IMF and the World Bank were seen as progressive institutions. They were sometimes called Keynes’s twins because they were the brain-children of Keynes and Harry Dexter White, one of Franklin Roosevelt’s closest advisors. When these institutions were created at Bretton Woods in 1944, their mandate was to help prevent future conflicts by lending for reconstruction and development and by smoothing out temporary balance of payments problems. They had no control over individual government’s economic decisions nor did their mandate include a licence to intervene in national policy.
In the Western nations, the Welfare State and the New Deal had got underway in the 1930s but their spread had been interrupted by the war. The first order of business in the post-war world was to put them back in place. The other major item on the agenda was to get world trade moving–this was accomplished through the Marshall Plan which established Europe once again as the major trading partner for the US, the most powerful economy in the world. And it was at this time that the strong winds of decolonisation also began to blow, whether freedom was obtained by grant as in India or through armed struggle as in Kenya, Vietnam and other nations.
On the whole, the world had signed on for an extremely progressive agenda. The great scholar Karl Polanyi published his masterwork, The Great Transformation in 1944, a fierce critique of 19th century industrial, market-based society. Over 50 years ago Polanyi made this amazingly prophetic and modern statement: “To allow the market mechanism to be sole director of the fate of human beings and their natural environment…would result in the demolition of society” [p.73]. However, Polanyi was convinced that such a demolition could no longer happen in the post-war world because, as he said [p.251], “Within the nations we are witnessing a development under which the economic system ceases to lay down the law to society and the primacy of society over that system is secured”.
Alas, Polanyi’s optimism was misplaced–the whole point of neo-liberalism is that the market mechanism should be allowed to direct the fate of human beings. The economy should dictate its rules to society, not the other way around. And just as Polanyi foresaw, this doctrine is leading us directly towards the “demolition of society”.
So what happened? Why have we reached this point half a century after the end of the Second World War? Or, as the organisers ask, “Why are we having this conference right now?” The short answer is “Because of the series of recent financial crises, especially in Asia”. But this begs the question–the question they are really asking is “How did neo-liberalism ever emerge from its ultra-minoritarian ghetto to become the dominant doctrine in the world today?” Why can the IMF and the Bank intervene at will and force countries to participate in the world economy on basically unfavourable terms. Why is the Welfare State under threat in all the countries where it was established? Why is the environment on the edge of collapse and why are there so many poor people in both the rich and the poor countries at a time when there has never existed such great wealth? Those are the questions that need to be answered from an historical perspective.
As I’ve argued in detail in the US quarterly journal Dissent, one explanation for this triumph of neo-liberalism and the economic, political, social and ecological disasters that go with it is that neo-liberals have bought and paid for their own vicious and regressive “Great Transformation”. They have understood, as progressives have not, that ideas have consequences. Starting from a tiny embryo at the University of Chicago with the philosopher-economist Friedrich von Hayek and his students like Milton Friedman at its nucleus, the neo-liberals and their funders have created a huge international network of foundations, institutes, research centers, publications, scholars, writers and public relations hacks to develop, package and push their ideas and doctrine relentlessly.
They have built this highly efficient ideological cadre because they understand what the Italian Marxist thinker Antonio Gramsci was talking about when he developed the concept of cultural hegemony. If you can occupy peoples’ heads, their hearts and their hands will follow. I do not have time to give you details here, but believe me, the ideological and promotional work of the right has been absolutely brilliant. They have spent hundreds of millions of dollars, but the result has been worth every penny to them because they have made neo-liberalism seem as if it were the natural and normal condition of humankind. No matter how many disasters of all kinds the neo-liberal system has visibly created, no matter what financial crises it may engender, no matter how many losers and outcasts it may create, it is still made to seem inevitable, like an act of God, the only possible economic and social order available to us.
Let me stress how important it is to understand that this vast neo-liberal experiment we are all being forced to live under has been created by people with a purpose. Once you grasp this, once you understand that neo-liberalism is not a force like gravity but a totally artificial construct, you can also understand that what some people have created, other people can change. But they cannot change it without recognising the importance of ideas. I’m all for grassroots projects, but I also warn that these will collapse if the overall ideological climate is hostile to their goals.
So, from a small, unpopular sect with virtually no influence, neo-liberalism has become the major world religion with its dogmatic doctrine, its priesthood, its law-giving institutions and perhaps most important of all, its hell for heathen and sinners who dare to contest the revealed truth. Oskar Lafontaine, the ex-German Finance Minister who the Financial Times called an “unreconstructed Keynesian” has just been consigned to that hell because he dared to propose higher taxes on corporations and tax cuts for ordinary and less well-off families.
Having set the ideological stage and the context, now let me fast-forward so that we are back in the twenty year time frame. That means 1979, the year Margaret Thatcher came to power and undertook the neo-liberal revolution in Britain. The Iron Lady was herself a disciple of Friedrich von Hayek, she was a social Darwinist and had no qualms about expressing her convictions. She was well known for justifying her programme with the single word TINA, short for There Is No Alternative. The central value of Thatcher’s doctrine and of neo-liberalism itself is the notion of competition–competition between nations, regions, firms and of course between individuals. Competition is central because it separates the sheep from the goats, the men from the boys, the fit from the unfit. It is supposed to allocate all resources, whether physical, natural, human or financial with the greatest possible efficiency.
In sharp contrast, the great Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu ended his Tao-te Ching with these words: “Above all, do not compete”. The only actors in the neo-liberal world who seem to have taken his advice are the largest actors of all, the Transnational Corporations. The principle of competition scarcely applies to them; they prefer to practise what we could call Alliance Capitalism. It is no accident that, depending on the year, two-thirds to three-quarters of all the money labeled “Foreign Direct Investment” is not devoted to new, job-creating investment but to Mergers and Acquisitions which almost invariably result in job losses.
Because competition is always a virtue, its results cannot be bad. For the neo-liberal, the market is so wise and so good that like God, the Invisible Hand can bring good out of apparent evil. Thus Thatcher once said in a speech, “It is our job to glory in inequality and see that talents and abilities are given vent and expression for the benefit of us all.” In other words, don’t worry about those who might be left behind in the competitive struggle. People are unequal by nature, but this is good because the contributions of the well-born, the best-educated, the toughest, will eventually benefit everyone. Nothing in particular is owed to the weak, the poorly educated, what happens to them is their own fault, never the fault of society. If the competitive system is “given vent” as Margaret says, society will be the better for it. Unfortunately, the history of the past twenty years teaches us that exactly the opposite is the case.
In pre-Thatcher Britain, about one person in ten was classed as living below the poverty line, not a brilliant result but honourable as nations go and a lot better than in the pre-War period. Now one person in four, and one child in three is officially poor. This is the meaning of survival of the fittest: people who cannot heat their houses in winter, who must put a coin in the meter before they can have electricity or water, who do not own a warm waterproof coat, etc. I am taking these examples from the 1996 report of the British Child Poverty Action Group. I will illustrate the result of the Thatcher-Major “tax reforms” with a single example: During the 1980s, 1 percent of taxpayers received 29 percent of all the tax reduction benefits, such that a single person earning half the average salary found his or her taxes had gone up by 7 percent, whereas a single person earning 10 times the average salary got a reduction of 21%.
Another implication of competition as the central value of neo-liberalism is that the public sector must be brutally downsized because it does not and cannot obey the basic law of competing for profits or for market share. Privatisation is one of the major economic transformations of the past twenty years. The trend began in Britain and has spread throughout the world.
Let me start by asking why capitalist countries, particularly in Europe, had public services to begin with, and why many still do. In reality, nearly all public services constitute what economists call “natural monopolies”. A natural monopoly exists when the minimum size to guarantee maximum economic efficiency is equal to the actual size of the market. In other words, a company has to be a certain size to realise economies of scale and thus provide the best possible service at the lowest possible cost to the consumer. Public services also require very large investment outlays at the beginning–like railroad tracks or power grids–which does not encourage competition either. That’s why public monopolies were the obvious optimum solution. But neo-liberals define anything public as ipso facto “inefficient”.
So what happens when a natural monopoly is privatised? Quite normally and naturally, the new capitalist owners tend to impose monopoly prices on the public, while richly remunerating themselves. Classical economists call this outcome “structural market failure” because prices are higher than they ought to be and service to the consumer is not necessarily good. In order to prevent structural market failures, up to the mid-1980s, the capitalist countries of Europe almost universally entrusted the post office, telecomms, electricity, gas, railways, metros, air transport and usually other services like water, rubbish collection, etc. to state-owned monopolies. The USA is the big exception, perhaps because it is too huge geographically to favour natural monopolies.
In any event, Margaret Thatcher set out to change all that. As an added bonus, she could also use privatisation to break the power of the trade unions. By destroying the public sector where unions were strongest, she was able to weaken them drastically. Thus between 1979 and 1994, the number of jobs in the public sector in Britain was reduced from over 7 million to 5 million, a drop of 29 percent. Virtually all the jobs eliminated were unionised jobs. Since private sector employment was stagnant during those fifteen years, the overall reduction in the number of British jobs came to 1.7 million, a drop of 7% compared to 1979. To neo-liberals, fewer workers is always better than more because workers impinge on shareholder value.
As for other effects of privatisation, they were predictable and predicted. The managers of the newly privatised enterprises, often exactly the same people as before, doubled or tripled their own salaries. The government used taxpayer money to wipe out debts and recapitalise firms before putting them on the market–for example, the water authority got 5 billion pounds of debt relief plus 1.6 billion pounds called the “green dowry” to make the bride more attractive to prospective buyers. A lot of Public Relations fuss was made about how small stockholders would have a stake in these companies–and in fact 9 million Brits did buy shares–but half of them invested less than a thousand pounds and most of them sold their shares rather quickly, as soon as they could cash in on the instant profits.
>From the results, one can easily see that the whole point of privatisation is neither economic efficiency or improved services to the consumer but simply to transfer wealth from the public purse–which could redistribute it to even out social inequalities–to private hands. In Britain and elsewhere, the overwhelming majority of privatised company shares are now in the hands of financial institutions and very large investors. The employees of British Telecom bought only 1 percent of the shares, those of British Aerospace 1.3 percent, etc. Prior to Ms Thatcher’s onslaught, a lot of the public sector in Britain was profitable. Consequently, in 1984, public companies contributed over 7 billion pounds to the treasury. All that money is now going to private shareholders. Service in the privatised industries is now often disastrous–the Financial Times reported an invasion of rats in the Yorkshire Water system and anyone who has survived taking Thames trains in Britain deserves a medal.
Exactly the same mechanisms have been at work throughout the world. In Britain, the Adam Smith Institute was the intellectual partner for creating the privatisation ideology. USAID and the World Bank have also used Adam Smith experts and have pushed the privatisation doctrine in the South. By 1991 the Bank had already made 114 loans to speed the process, and every year its Global Development Finance report lists hundreds of privatisations carried out in the Bank’s borrowing countries.
I submit that we should stop talking about privatisation and use words that tell the truth: we are talking about alienation and surrender of the product of decades of work by thousands of people to a tiny minority of large investors. This is one of the greatest hold-ups of ours or any generation.
Another structural feature of neo-liberalism consists in remunerating capital to the detriment of labour and thus moving wealth from the bottom of society to the top. If you are, roughly, in the top 20 percent of the income scale, you are likely to gain something from neo-liberalism and the higher you are up the ladder, the more you gain. Conversely, the bottom 80 percent all lose and the lower they are to begin with, the more they lose proportionally.
Lest you thought I had forgotten Ronald Reagan, let me illustrate this point with the observations of Kevin Phillips, a Republican analyst and former aid to President Nixon, who published a book in 1990 called The Politics of Rich and Poor. He charted the way Reagan’s neo-liberal doctrine and policies had changed American income distribution between 1977 and 1988. These policies were largely elaborated by the conservative Heritage Foundation, the principle think-tank of the Reagan administration and still an important force in American politics. Over the decade of the 1980s, the top 10 percent of American families increased their average family income by 16 percent, the top 5 percent increased theirs by 23 percent, but the extremely lucky top 1 percent of American families could thank Reagan for a 50 percent increase. Their revenues went from an affluent $270.000 to a heady $405.000. As for poorer Americans, the bottom 80 percent all lost something; true to the rule, the lower they were on the scale, the more they lost. The bottom 10 percent of Americans reached the nadir: according to Phillip’s figures, they lost 15% of their already meagre incomes: from an already rock-bottom average of $4.113 annually, they dropped to an inhuman $3.504. In 1977, the top 1 percent of American families had average incomes 65 times as great as those of the bottom 10 percent. A decade later, the top 1 percent was 115 times as well off as the bottom decile.
America is one of the most unequal societies on earth, but virtually all countries have seen inequalities increase over the past twenty years because of neo-liberal policies. UNCTAD published some damning evidence to this effect in its 1997 Trade and Development Report based on some 2600 separate studies of income inequalities, impoverishment and the hollowing out of the middle classes. The UNCTAD team documents these trends in dozens of widely differing societies, including China, Russia and the other former Socialist countries.
There is nothing mysterious about this trend towards greater inequality. Policies are specifically designed to give the already rich more disposable income, particularly through tax cuts and by pushing down wages. The theory and ideological justification for such measures is that higher incomes for the rich and higher profits will lead to more investment, better allocation of resources and therefore more jobs and welfare for everyone. In reality, as was perfectly predictable, moving money up the economic ladder has led to stock market bubbles, untold paper wealth for the few, and the kind of financial crises we shall be hearing a lot about in the course of this conference. If income is redistributed towards the bottom 80 percent of society, it will be used for consumption and consequently benefit employment. If wealth is redistributed towards the top, where people already have most of the things they need, it will go not into the local or national economy but to international stockmarkets.
As you are all aware, the same policies have been carried out throughout the South and East under the guise of structural adjustment, which is merely another name for neo-liberalism. I’ve used Thatcher and Reagan to illustrate the policies at the national level. At the international level, neo-liberals have concentrated all their efforts on three fundamental points:
–free trade in goods and services
–free circulation of capital
–freedom of investment
Over the past twenty years, the IMF has been strengthened enormously. Thanks to the debt crisis and the mechanism of conditionality, it has moved from balance of payments support to being quasi-universal dictator of so-called “sound” economic policies, meaning of course neo-liberal ones. The World Trade Organisation was finally put in place in January 1995 after long and laborious negotiations, often rammed through parliaments which had little idea what they were ratifying. Thankfully, the most recent effort to make binding and universal neo-liberal rules, the Multilateral Agreement on Investment, has failed, at least temporarily. It would have given all rights to corporations, all obligations to governments and no rights at all to citizens.
The common denominator of these institutions is their lack of transparency and democratic accountability. This is the essence of neo-liberalism. It claims that the economy should dictate its rules to society, not the other way around. Democracy is an encumbrance, neo-liberalism is designed for winners, not for voters who, necessarily encompass the categories of both winners and losers.
I’d like to conclude by asking you to take very seriously indeed the neo-liberal definition of the loser, to whom nothing in particular is owed. Anyone can be ejected from the system at any time–because of illness, age, pregnancy, perceived failure, or simply because economic circumstances and the relentless transfer of wealth from top to bottom demand it. Shareholder value is all. Recently the International Herald Tribunereported that foreign investors are “snapping up” Thai and Korean companies and Banks. Not surprisingly, these purchases are expected to result in “heavy layoffs”.
In other words, the results of years of work by thousands of Thais and Koreans is being transferred into foreign corporate hands. Many of those who laboured to create that wealth have already been, or soon will be left on the pavement. Under the principles of competition and maximising shareholder value, such behaviour is seen not as criminally unjust but as normal and indeed virtuous.
I submit that neo-liberalism has changed the fundamental nature of politics. Politics used to be primarily about who ruled whom and who got what share of the pie. Aspects of both these central questions remain, of course, but the great new central question of politics is, in my view, “Who has a right to live and who does not”. Radical exclusion is now the order of the day, I mean this deadly seriously.
I’ve given you rather a lot of bad news because the history of the past 20 years is full of it. But I don’t want to end on such a depressing and pessimistic note. A lot is already happening to counter these life-threatening trends and there is enormous scope for further action.
This conference is going to help define much of that action which I believe must include an ideological offensive. It’s time we set the agenda instead of letting the Masters of the Universe set it at Davos. I hope funders may also understand that they should not be funding just projects but also ideas. We can’t count on the neo-liberals to do it, so we need to design workable and equitable international taxation systems, including a Tobin Tax on all monetary and financial market transactions and taxes on Transnational Corporation sales on a pro-rata basis. I expect we will go into detail on such questions in the workshops here. The proceeds of an international tax system should go to closing the North-South gap and to redistribution to all the people who have been robbed over the past twenty years.
Let me repeat what I said earlier: neo-liberalism is not the natural human condition, it is not supernatural, it can be challenged and replaced because its own failures will require this. We have to be ready with replacement policies which restore power to communities and democratic States while working to institute democracy, the rule of law and fair distribution at the international level. Business and the market have their place, but this place cannot occupy the entire sphere of human existence.
Further good news is that there is plenty of money sloshing around out there and a tiny fraction, a ridiculous, infinitesimal proportion of it would be enough to provide a decent life to every person on earth, to supply universal health and education, to clean up the environment and prevent further destruction to the planet, to close the North-South gap–at least according to the UNDP which calls for a paltry $40 billion a year. That, frankly, is peanuts.
Finally, please remember that neo-liberalism may be insatiable but it is not invulnerable. A coalition of international activists only yesterday obliged them to abandon, at least temporarily, their project to liberalise all investment through the MAI. The surprise victory of its opponents infuriated the supporters of corporate rule and demonstrates that well organised network guerillas can win battles. Now we have to regroup our forces and keep at them so that they cannot transfer the MAI to the WTO.
Look at it this way. We have the numbers on our side, because there are far more losers than winners in the neo-liberal game. We have the ideas, whereas theirs are finally coming into question because of repeated crisis. What we lack, so far, is the organisation and the unity which in this age of advanced technology we can overcome. The threat is clearly transnational so the response must also be transnational. Solidarity no longer means aid, or not just aid, but finding the hidden synergies in each other’s struggles so that our numerical force and the power of our ideas become overwhelming. I’m convinced this conference will contribute mightily to this goal and I thank you all for your kind attention.
OUT IN THE STREETS!
Enormous Public Turnout Despite Police Crackdown
Estimates ranged from 50,000 to 100,000 protestors. Protesters came from all over the world, not just the developed countries. They ranged from human rights groups, students, environmental groups, religious leaders, labor rights activists etc wanting fairer trade with less exploitation. Even right-wing protectionist groups were there also arguing against the current corporate-led free trade, (although the protectionists were there for very different reasons).
The fact that 50,000 to 100,000 people turned up in the pouring rain, through all the police crackdowns etc indicates the sheer number of people who are concerned at the current issues, as obviously not everyone could be in Seattle. How many more would have turned up had it not been raining so bad!
I’m a post graduate and I get 12 bucks an hour working my ass off tutoring, and because of no-child left behind I can’t get my certification back without going to school for a few years though I have FIVE years of teaching background…12 bucks an hour and I’m a well educated professional…capitalism has set it up so teachers are the lowest pieces of crap on the earth and are kicked in the mud at every opportunity and under capitalism our standard of education in this country has dropped to that of a third world country because business is oh so more important
[…]
Without for a moment minimizing the vile acts of Mark Foley, it is shameful that Congressional Democrats have staked their election-year strategy as an “opposition party” around opposing the acts of a lone Republican sexual predator, while assisting Republicans in whipping up a bi-partisan xenophobic frenzy.
In the final days of this pre-election Congressional session (before breaking for five-weeks of campaigning), 12 Senate Democrats joined 53 Republicans to endorse Bush’s anti-terrorism legislation intended to allow evidence acquired through torture. Twenty-six Democrats (including Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama) also joined Republicans to overwhelmingly pass a draconian bill calling for construction of a 700-mile wall along the U.S. border with Mexico, in a vote of 80 to 19.
On November 7, voters will unfortunately be left with no choice other than to kick the Republican “bums” out, only to be replaced by the bums of the pseudo-opposition party. A genuine third-party has never been more desperately needed.
Sharon Smith
Revoking 1776
Fear, Liberty and the Military Commissions Act of 2006
By FELICE PACE
Passage of the Military Commissions Act by Congress will be remembered as a black days in the history of our republic. Congress has sullied the “Spirit of 76”–the revolutionary tradition of this nation. The Founding Fathers fought a revolution and founded a nation to assure that all citizens would be provided basic rights and most especially the right to confront involuntary detention before a competent tribunal.
Rejecting the International Law of War, Congress has accepted the Bush Administration’s formulation of the War on Terror. Under this formulation the struggle to prevent and punish those who engage in terrorist acts against US interests is defined as war but those seized in the war’s prosecution are not afforded the status of Prisoners of War. This proposition–a new type of war requiring new rules–has been used to seize citizens of this and other nations anywhere in the world, transfer those individuals to secret prisons, torture them and deny them the rights and protections due to Prisoners of War under the Geneva Conventions.
Bush, his Administration and the Republican Majority in Congress are hoping that our fear will convince us to give up the very freedoms and rights on which this country was founded. They have reason for optimism on this score. Several times before American’s have supported abridgement of citizen rights in the interest of security. Most recently, Japanese and Italian Americans were removed to concentration camps after Pearl Harbor and everyday citizens were blackballed because they chose to associate with those whom a Congressional Committee accused of being “Un-American”.
If Americans allow the Bush Administration to restrict our rights and liberties in the interest of security it will be because we as a society are singularly ignorant about our own history and history generally. Too many Americans have retained allegiance to the symbols of the “Spirit of 76” but have forgotten the meaning. Those who fought to create our republic understood that the right to challenge one’s detention, the Writ of Habeas Corpus, the Great Writ, is the cornerstone of liberty. The revolutionary generation understood that this right must be universal. Without the Great Writ tyrants can rule unimpeded, with it tyranny is circumscribed, forced to reveal its methods and thus is undermined.
Because of his refusal to recognize the universal application of the Writ of Habeas Corpus, England’s King George became an everlasting symbol of tyranny. This symbol is once again relevant. It falls to the current generation, to us, to recognize the fundamental threat which the Bush Administration has posed to our republic and to beat back the Administration’s attacks on liberty and human rights.
We must recapture the “Spirit of 76” which recognized that fundamental rights are universal–applying to all humans, in all portions of the world and at all times. It is time for true patriots to take up pen, take to the streets and turn out to vote in order to deliver an unequivocal message to Bush and the other rulers. It is time for the Spirit of 76 to rise once again and to once again beat back the tyranny of the contemporary version of King George.
Felice Pace