Don’t Be Their Tool

Don’t fall for the faux two party system (Hi, Jack).

We can form the alliances needed to stop this takeover, but you will never do it being the tool of the Democrat/Republican Corporatist Agenda.

h/t Poli-Tea

B’Man’s Hypocrite Watch: Post Christmas Edition

I love Christmas. It is one day that I promise to put away all anger (best I can). I don’t do it for any religious reasons, but because I always believed those words that say, “Peace on Earth and Good Will Towards Man” (Luke 2:14). Yep. I took it from a Bible, but it is the sentiment that means something to me. The spirit of peace, based from love, is an important ingredient missing nowadays that my friend Kelso keeps insisting that Americans seem to have lost for each other. The loss of love causes loss of peace, for I cannot see how it is conceivably possible to love and war your enemy simultaneously. It is impossible to show “good will” towards someone you are warring against.

So, I kept my mouth shut yesterday.

Today is different. Today I want to point out some hypocrisy that should inflame your redneck hide because it simply proves that those whom many of you think are Patriots and respect as Mavericks and the new “Conservatives” are nothing but what they “say” they despise… Welfare Queens and Kings (by way of the Young Turks):

Disgusting, but not surprising.

And before you get all mad at me, Mr Southern Republican, I don’t care a rat’s ass for the other “side” you want to paint me as. You see, there are plenty of rocks to throw at the “other side”. Basically, you have the leader of our country caught, red-handed, in a blatant lie of expediency (which is his modus operandi) regarding healthcare and his desires (by way of AfterDowningStreet):

This is true of many of the “centrist” (gag) Democrats who have bought Medicare/Medicaid improvements for their states and other forms of pork:

This vote was also a political win. It was a big deal for politicians–like Barack Obama, Max Baucus, Rahm Emanuel, and Harry Reid–who cared more about putting up a “W” on the scoreboard than about the policy. It was also a big day for senators like Blanche Lincoln, Mary Landrieu, Ben Nelson, and Joe Lieberman. The incredibly broken rules of the Senate gave them an absurd amount of anti-constitutional power that allowed them to hold reform hostage for pork and industry favors.

It was loss for the country. Our broken health care system will remain broken and costs will continue to rise at an alarming rate. Things like drug re-importation and a robust public option, which would have helped bring down prices for millions of Americans, were stripped from the bill at the request of powerful industry lobbyists.

All-the-while these “moderate” congresspeople are insisting that coverage for all Americans (as in a Single Payer System) is un-American or Socialist or whatever boogey man scare tactic they can dream up. But, as I always point out here, follow my advice and follow the money to see how the Quid Pro Quo works (all from the current year contributionsbribes):

Sen Mary Landrieu

Sen Blanche Lincoln

Sen Ben Nelson

Joe LIEberman

The last numbers for Barack Obama are from 2008. You can see them here, if interested. It is overwhelming and simply shows that every one of these people are owned by the very industries that give the most and vote/manipulate the system to the dictate of their coffers.

In a poignant display of Christmas “peace” hypocrisy, understand that Karl Rove was born on Christmas Day, 1950. This fact, in and of itself, is reason enough to change the Holiday date.

Charge the Aunt too!!!! Merry Christmas

She KNEW he was a sex-offender, she KNEW he was a career criminal, she KNEW his history with children– she KNOWINGLY and ASSISTEDLY placed this child that was IN HER CARE in harms way!!! CHARGE THE AUNT WITH MURDER TOO!!!!!

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/34591818/

SALISBURY, Md. – The body of a Maryland girl who authorities say was abducted by a registered sex offender was found Friday in a wooded area near the Delaware state line after thousands of volunteers spent Christmas searching for her.
Wicomico County Sheriff Mike Lewis said the body of 11-year-old Sarah H. Foxwell was discovered about 4 p.m. He offered few other details. Thomas J. Leggs Jr., 30, was arrested Wednesday and charged in her kidnapping.
Wicomico County State’s Attorney Davis R. Ruark said authorities remain focused on Leggs as they investigate the killing.
“There’s no indication of involvement of any other individuals at this point,” he said.
Leggs is a former boyfriend of the girl’s aunt, who is her legal guardian. A public defender representing him has not returned a phone call.
Lewis said the body was found in the northern part of the county, in the area where authorities had been focusing their search.
“This is not the way we wanted to find our young lady on Christmas, but at the very least we’ve given closure to the family,” Ruark said at the news conference.
Lewis said Sarah was last seen Tuesday night at her home on Maryland’s Eastern Shore. A relative discovered she was missing early Wednesday while checking on Sarah and her 6-year-old sister. A charging document says Leggs was the last person seen with Sarah.
A “juvenile witness” awoke during the night Tuesday and saw Sarah leave the bedroom with “Tommy,” and said he was wearing blue jeans, an orange jacket and white sneakers, the charging document says.
Sarah lived with her aunt, Amy Fothergill, who told police the child’s toothbrush was missing from the home, according to the statement of probable cause.
Deputies said they found a green toothbrush and a lollipop in a truck Leggs admitted driving. Leggs said he had been wearing jeans and white sneakers the previous night — the same clothes he was wearing when police questioned him.
The sheriff said Thursday that Leggs has been uncooperative and “of no assistance to our investigators.”
Leggs is listed on the Maryland and Delaware sex offender registries. The Maryland listing notes that he is a child sex offender, but does not give details about his conviction.
Lewis said Leggs has been convicted of a sex offense in Wicomico County and was charged Oct. 29 with fourth-degree burglary.

But we take our shoes off…

… and put everything into the screeners-box…??? right?? The so called security crap from the git-go sucked!! I am a firm believer that it has crap to to with anything we attempt to do at the gates– look– it was a civilian flyer to the recue– AGAIN… with a nut case on the no-fly list that WAS flying with his lighter etc. This makes me just nuts! People like this have been flying and traveling by rail forever and ever– read your history!!! But what will happen is that the color code will go past orange [whatever the fuck that is]… and I will still catch a cold walking around an airports germy floor barefooted.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/34592031/ns/us_news-crime_and_courts/

ROMULUS, Mich. – A Nigerian man tried to light a powder aboard a commercial jetliner before it landed Friday in Detroit in what senior U.S. officials called an attempted act of terrorism.
Flight 253 with 278 passengers aboard was 20 minutes from the airport when it sounded like a firecracker had exploded, witnesses said. Passengers saw the attempted attack, and one of them jumped on the man and subdued him, an airline official told NBC News.
Stricter security measures were imposed on airline travel, but those were not specified.
The man had “some kind of incendiary device he tried to ignite” in a bag strapped to his body, U.S. officials told NBC News. Other officials told NBC station WDIV-TV of Detroit that the device was a mixture of powder and liquid, which failed to ignite when the passenger tried to detonate it during the plane’s descent into Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport.
Federal officials identified the man as Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, 23, of Nigeria, who was traveling one way, without a return ticket. Dawn Griffith, who was waiting for her husband on the plane, said she saw the man being carted away on a gurney or bed, with his bandaged hands handcuffed to the railing.
The man was being treated at the burn unit of the University of Michigan Medical Center in Ann Arbor, officials said.
In terrorism files?
On Rep. Peter King of New York, the senior Republican on the House Homeland Security Committee, who was briefed on the incident, said Abdulmutallab was known in federal counterterrorism files and may have been on the government’s list of suspicious passengers banned from flying in the United States.
King said the incident raised troubling questions about airline security. “It must be looked into” how Abdulmutallab was able to sneak a “somewhat sophisticated device” on board, he said.
Abdulmutallab told investigators that he wanted to set off a bomb over the United States, counterterrorism officials said.
A counterterrorism official said Abdulmutallab, who was subdued by the crew of Northwest Air Lines Flight 253 from Amsterdam, left Lagos, Nigeria, on Thursday and boarded the flight in Amsterdam on Friday.
The timing of the attempted attack could be significant. It was eight years ago this week that a similar attempted attack was launched by a British member of al-Qaida who tried to blow up a flight from Paris to Miami by igniting explosives in his shoes. And the attempted attack comes on the same day that the Taliban released a video of a U.S. soldier it is holding captive in Afghanistan.
Al-Qaida was responsible for the attacks that killed more than 3,000 people in the United States on Sept. 11, 2001.
News organizations, including msnbc.com, initially reported that the government had raised the terrorism alert for flights after the incident. Those reports were inaccurate; the flight alert had been at orange before the incident.
A pop, and then smoke
There was nothing out of the ordinary until Flight 253, an Airbus 330 carrying 278 passengers, was on final approach to Detroit. Although the jet bore the insignia of Delta Airlines, it was operated by Northwest.
Then came the disturbance in the passenger cabin, and that is when the pilot declared an emergency, said Elizabeth Isham Cory, a spokeswoman for the Federal Aviation Administration, in an e-mail message.
“It sounded like a firecracker in a pillowcase,” said Peter Smith, a passenger from the Netherlands told The Associated Press. “First there was a pop, and then (there) was smoke.”
At least one passenger acted heroically.
Smith said the passenger, sitting opposite the man, climbed over passengers, went across the aisle and tried to restrain the man. He said the heroic passenger appeared to have been burned.

The plane landed at 11:51 a.m. ET. The Transportation Security Administration reported that the plane was taken to a remote area of the Detroit airport and that all passengers left the plane and were rescreened, along with all the luggage on the flight. In addition, all passengers were interviewed, a TSA statement said, before they were allowed to go on their way.
President Barack Obama, who is on vacation in Hawaii, was informed of the incident Friday morning by his National Security Council staff, said Bill Burton, a spokesman for the White House.
An interagency meeting of senior intelligence, law enforcement and security was convened out of Washington to discuss the incident and possible measures to ensure that there no similar attacks, Burton said. Officials would not discuss the security measures, but they said passengers across the country should expect some delays Friday night.

MY PATRICK HENRaY AWARDS FOR 2009

2009 Annual Awards Winners

CONGRESSMEN: Dennis Kucinich, Dr Ron Paul

CONGRESSWOMEN: Tammy Baldwin, Maxine Waters

Senator: Bernie Sanders

Republican: Walter Jones, Jr

State Legislator: Judith Meyer (CT)

World Leader: Evo Morales (BOL), Rafael Correa (ECU) (tie)

Tough World Losses Eduardo Frei CHILE, Balbina Herrera PANAMA

Surprisingly Good World Wins Mauricio Funes EL SALVADOR, Jose Mujica URUGUAY

Villain: FOX, MSNBC

Online News Journal: Black Agenda Report

Online News Service: McClatchy

Political Writer: Glenn Greewald, Chris Floyd

BEST ARTICLE GREG PALAST GM FUCKUP

Courage Under Fire: Cynthia McKinney

Grass Roots Motivator: Ron Paul

Peace Activist: Cindy Sheehan

Peace Organizer: Cindy Sheehan

Foreign Peace Activist Piedad Cordoba

Chickenhawk: BARACK OBAMA

Thief: Ben Bernanke

Traitor: Rahm Emanuel, Barack Obama

Sadist. Stanley McChrystal

Failures Congressional Black Caucus, Congressional Progressive Caucus

Self Important Liars Barack Obama, Paul Krugman

Modest Truth Tellers Dr Ron Paul, Lt Dan Choi

New Heroes Alan Grayson, Lt Dan Choi

Lost Heroes Greg Missman, George Carlin

Worst Members Of Obama Admin Rahm Emanuel, Eric Holder

Least Worst Hilda Solis, Dawn Johnsen STILL ON SENATE HOLD BECAUSE SHE’S A LESBIAN

POLITICAL IRONY Hugo Chavez, Hu Jintao, Patel & Singh, Dmitriy Medvedev, all propagandized to villains, have kept USA afloat through this first hideous year of Barack Obama

PLEASE FEEL FREE TO CONTRIBUTE CATEGORIES AND WINNERS. DICKHEADS ALWAYS WELCOME IN FAILURE OR LARCENY OR COWARDICE CATEGORIES

The Recession Is Over… I Want My Caviar and Bubbly

Time to celebrate. No sky falling. Its all just been a bunch of raving blogger lunatics like me who scream Chicken Little.

Sorry about that.

I mean, gosh, since we have so many of the Talking Heads telling us that we are on the rebound, it might be time to party hardy (almost like it was 1999 again). I can just see my guests as they file in through my front door, explain to me how good their “recovery” is right now. I can just imagine how my buddy Ray in Memphis feels about the recovery since he lost his job (and can’t find one for many months).

Shoot, since we only lost 19,000 jobs last month, we should pop the corks, shouldn’t we. Maybe break out the little fish eggs like real rich folk.

There may be a problem buying the caviar, though. It appears that when we compare real numbers in the world, we see what a recession really is and that our Trade War enemy seems to be fairing quite well for themselves. With that many fish egg eaters doing so well, we might be able to just find our own carp eggs and do the best we can with a Budweiser.

And speaking of food (or the lack thereof)… it appears that someone is lying to us about how much food is available in America and what is available can’t be afforded by over 10% of our fellow Americans. In a Reuter’s Article titled Record Number of Americans Using Food Stamps breaks the numbers down:

Last month, the USDA said 36.2 million Americans or 11 percent of households struggle to get enough food to eat, and one-third of them had to sometimes skip or cut back on meals.

The previous high was 10.5% (and this in the aftermath of Katrina).

Well, forget all that shit. The recession is over and they will begin adding jobs very soon, right? Just around the corner?

Better not listen to another raving lunatic blogger, Mr Dave Lindorff as he explains the contrary view over at AfterDowningStreet (some might even call it the “reality” view) in an article called, “Forget the Happy Talk: Longer, Deeper Recession Ahead, Execs Warn“. It appears that someone is telling some mistruths and reality from those that ARE in-the-know (as opposed to in-the-propaganda-business) needs some illumination if you are going to be an educated redneck:

What didn’t get widely reported was a report by the Association of Financial Professionals, a trade association that includes CFOs, treasurers, comptrollers, and risk managers of mid-sized and large corporations, which asked over 1000 of these executives the question: “When do you expect your company to begin hiring again?”

The answer tells you all you need to know about the depth of the current economic crisis, and blows all the media and government happy talk out of the water.

This Outlook Survey by the APF, which was funded by Wells Fargo Bank, shows that 26 percent of executives expect to see their company payrolls continue to shrink in 2010, while 46% more expect employoment to stay at current low levels. Put another way,only 25% of companies surveyed expect to return to pre-recession hiring levels in 2011, while 32% don’t expect a hiring rebound until 2012. And fully 30% “do not expect their organizations ever to return their payrolls to pre-recessionary levels.”

And here’s another troubling bit of news. The same survey respondents say that their companies’ access to credit–the willingness of banks to lend–has barely budged. In fact only one in six reported that the had found credit a little easier to obtain in the last six months, while one in five actually reported that it had become harder to obtain credit. So much for the Obama administration’s and the Federal Reserve’s vaunted efforts to throw so much money–literally trillions of dollars–at the banks that they would start lending.

More than half of the executives responding to the survey said that if credit doesn’t become more accessible by mid-2010, their firms will have to take steps to conserve cash–steps which could include cutting capital spending (68%), freezing or cutting hiring (62%), cutting inventory (25%), delaying payments to suppliers (23%), tightening credit offered to customers (23%) and drawing down existing credit lines (22%). Note that all of these steps are things that would put a further drag on the economy and could push it into a second downward spiral.

Lunatic Blogger Example

The people who hire employees don’t seem to have such a glowing review, nor the small business owners who “thought” that the huge banker bail-outs would free that credit again. Nope. None of that.

That seems to be the overall consensus of the situation, but in my line of work (manufacturing) things are VERY BLEAK in the USA and LOOKING SWEET with our Trade War Enemy (China). You see, when it comes to making stuff (you know, the thing we were once known and renowned for in the world as the masters of), China is doing pretty dad gum good, where we are sucking hind teat.

What? {You ask in total surprise that I didn’t explain how Americans are the “most productive workers in the world” (or any of that other lying BS)}

Here are the facts: China Adds Almost As Many Manufacturing Jobs As Exist In America

This little article by Richard McCormack at Manufacturing & Technology News breaks down the numbers for you. Yes. That title is correct. In this “recession” for America, China has added as many manufacturing jobs to their economy as exists in TOTAL in America.

While the United States was losing millions of manufacturing jobs over the past decade, China was gaining many millions more. China’s manufacturing employment increased by 10 percent in four years, from 100.9 million workers in 2002 to 112 million in 2006, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). The increase was almost equal to the total number of Americans working in the U.S. manufacturing sector (14 million at the end of 2006, declining to 11.6 million in November, 2009). China has 100 million more people working in its manufacturing sector than does the United States.
The massive growth in manufacturing employment in China counters a myth propagated in America’s economic circles that China’s manufacturing employment is declining, just as it is in America.Yet the number of manufacturing workers in China is equal to 33 percent of the U.S. population. By comparison, the 11.7 million U.S. manufacturing workers at the end of November represented an order of magnitude less — 3.8 percent of the U.S. population.

You see, you hard working American (Redneck, like me, or not), as our recession is bottoming out and the “green shoots” start swelling you with pride at our recovery, and the bankers’ bonuses hitting a 40% increase from last year (on your dime, I might add), we (normal Americans) are still losing only 19,000 jobs per month (a point that Mr Lindorff points out to be a sham by seeing how the beginning of Dec showed an “unexpected increase” of  unemployment claims of 474,000).

We are losing jobs, China is adding them. We barely make anything and they make it all for us, by and large.

So, what happens when you find out that we are about to see a record loss in food production and exporting? What if you knew that one of the few things that stand between us making it through this recession/depression and not making it is that we provide around 40% of the world’s corn and soy beans (and a lot of other food stuff). As long as the supply is good, we have them by the starvation balls.

But it appears that this past year was not as wonderful as some government agencies would lead us to believe. And that a disruption and/or major shortage may be the catalyst for all the other countries invested in the American dollar to say, “Enough is enough!”

Read this article if you want to have the scare of your life (and a glimpse into the doomsday scenario I have been trying to link  with all the actions of our Corporate Elitist owned government).

*****2010 Food Crisis for Dummies*****

Over the last two years, the world has faced a series of unprecedented financial crises: the collapse of the housing market, the freezing of the credit markets, the failure of Wall Street brokerage firms (Bear Stearns/Lehman Brothers), the failure of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, the failure of AIG, Iceland’s economic collapse, the bankruptcy of the major auto manufacturers (General Motors, Ford, and Chrysler), etc… In the face of all these challenges, the demise of the dollar, derivative markets, and the modern international system of credit has been repeatedly forecasted and feared. However, all these doomsday scenarios have so far been proved false, and, despite tremendous chaos and losses, the global financial system has held together.
The 2010 Food Crisis is different. It is THE CRISIS. The one that makes all doomsday scenarios come true. The government bailouts and central bank interventions, which have held the financial world together during the last two years, will be powerless to prevent the 2010 Food Crisis from bringing the global financial system to its knees.

You will find how the losses this year are not being reported as they should and what this effect will be on the world. I did hear an interview with a Mississippi Sweet Potato Council member on MPBOnline last week as he explained that the Sweet potato crop last year was devastated (Mississippi is the sweet potato capital of the world). He said you better buy what you want now, because there will be a huge shortage soon.

So, from what I understand (and have heard on the periphery), there are shortages not being heavily reported and they could be the straw that breaks the camel’s back regarding the Dollar. When she fails, that is it.

But WAIT… there is more. What if you found out that the gold in Fort Knox is 70 – 80% Tungston and that we are shipping bogus gold to the rest of the world. What of India bought a bunch of it and found out it was bogus. What if the world finds this out?

There is the perfect storm that has come together. We are prepping by having forces all over the world and bases to make it possible for a first strike on any of the remaining enemies that we owe and seemingly have cheated.

Last month, the USDA said 36.2 million Americans or 11 percent of households struggle to get enough food to eat, and one-third of them had to sometimes skip or cut back on meals.

Rest In Peace RainMan!

   http://www.thestar.com/entertainment/article/741847–man-who-inspired-rain-man-dies

RIP Rainman…. My heart goes out to his loyal, selfless and trusting Father. His unique gift– gifted the world!

rehire from the same toxic pond…

Obama to name Howard Schmidt as cybersecurity coordinator

By Ellen NakashimaWashington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, December 22, 2009
Seven months after President Obama vowed to “personally select” an adviser to orchestrate the government’s strategy for protecting computer systems, the White House will name a former Bush administration official to the job Tuesday.
Howard A. Schmidt, who was a cyber-adviser in President George W. Bush’s White House, will be Obama’s new cybersecurity coordinator, an administration official said Monday night.
Schmidt declined to comment.
The mission is challenging: to coordinate cybersecurity policy across the federal government, from the military to civilian agencies. Schmidt’s appointment comes as the Pentagon launches a major new “cyber-command” unit up and running and the Department of Homeland Security works to improve protection of civilian networks.

In May, Obama declared the nation’s digital networks a “strategic national asset” and said protecting them would be a “national security priority.” Creating a White House cybersecurity office, run by a senior White House official, would be key to that effort, he said. “I’ll depend on this official in all matters relating to cybersecurity, and this official will have my full support and regular access to me as we confront these challenges,” Obama said from the East Room.
But his remarks were undercut by internal tension over how much authority the “cyber-czar” would have and to whom the official would report. White House economic adviser Lawrence H. Summers insisted that the new coordinator report to him as well, arguing that cybersecurity is also a matter of national economic security, sources said. The new coordinator, who does not require Senate confirmation, will report to deputy national security adviser John O. Brennan and will “work closely with and collaborate with” the economic council on cyber-issues, the administration official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity because the choice was not yet official.

Schmidt was chosen after a long process in which dozens of people were sounded out. Many declined the post, largely out of concern that the job conferred much responsibility with little true authority, some of them said.
The cybersecurity chief at the National Security Council, Christopher Painter, has served as the de facto coordinator, trying to push ahead the 60-day cyberspace policy review plan unveiled by Obama in May. That plan’s formulation was led by Melissa Hathaway, who resigned in frustration in August after delays in naming a cyber-coordinator.
Schmidt served as special adviser for cyberspace security from 2001 to 2003 and shepherded the National Strategy to Secure Cyberspace, a plan that then was largely ignored. He left that job also frustrated, colleagues said.
The administration official lauded Schmidt’s “unique background and skill sets” as readying him for the job. Schmidt’s résumé reflects experience in the private sector, law enforcement and government.
Before he joined the Bush White House, he worked as chief security officer at Microsoft. He then became vice president and chief information security officer at eBay. He served in the Air Force from 1967 to 1983 in various roles, both active-duty and civilian, and headed the computer exploitation team at the FBI’s National Drug Intelligence Center in the 1990s.
He is now president of the Information Security Forum, a nonprofit consortium of corporations and public-sector organizations working to resolve cybercrime and cybersecurity issues.
“He has many of the qualities and connections that one would think would be good for the position,” said a colleague who spoke on the condition of anonymity in order to be candid. “He is a team player. I don’t have high expectations for that position as it is currently defined, so he’s very possibly overqualified for it.”

BIO: http://www.aeispeakers.com/speakerbio.php?SpeakerID=1192

What exactly were his claims to success…?? not just his board lsitings etc…

Keep Being a Menance Dennis!

Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio), chairman of a subcommittee on domestic policy, called the ruling a “farce” and an “outrage.” (Joshua Roberts/bloomberg News)

By Binyamin AppelbaumWashington Post Staff Writer
Friday, December 18, 2009
A House subcommittee said Thursday that it will investigate the Treasury Department’s decision to change a long-standing law so that Citigroup could keep billions of dollars in tax breaks.
Rep. Dennis J. Kucinich (D-Ohio) called Treasury’s action a “farce” and an “outrage” during a hearing Thursday of the domestic policy subcommittee of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. Kucinich, the subcommittee chairman, said that he would demand an explanation from Treasury officials.
“This committee is not going to rest until we’ve examined this last deal threadbare, until we have spoken to every individual associated with it, examined every communication related to it, with every person that may have had an interest in it, or who may have had some kind of a channel of influence,” Kucinich said.

The Internal Revenue Service, an arm of Treasury, ruled last Friday that Citigroup could keep $38 billion in tax breaks that otherwise would decline in value as the government sells its stake in the company. Federal law lets companies shelter profits from taxes in good years based on the amount of losses in previous bad years. But the law restricts the use of past losses if a company changes hands, to discourage profitable companies from buying unprofitable firms to avoid paying taxes.
Treasury’s plan to sell its $25 billion stake in Citigroup would have qualified as a change of ownership under the law. The sale was postponed Wednesday after Citigroup’s stock plunged in value, but Treasury officials said they still planned to sell the government’s shares over the next year.
Treasury officials said the government needed to grant the tax break in order to sell its shares in Citigroup because the company could not afford the loss. Officials also said that preserving the tax break would help the government sell its shares at a higher price. And they said the law was never intended to apply to deals involving the government.

Kucinich tore into that logic Thursday, questioning why the government needed to sell its shares immediately. He said that the government was inherently conflicted by its roles as a tax collector and as a shareholder in the company. He said it appeared that the shareholders had gotten the upper hand.
“This does a disservice to the taxpayers, it does not help the taxpayers recover the value of their investment and it raises troubling questions about how the administration is negotiating its role,” Kucinich said in an interview Thursday.
Kucinich also said that he planned to investigate whether the IRS had the legal authority to issue the ruling that benefited Citigroup.
“The idea that the government is using its authority to pick winners and losers is very dangerous,” Kucinich said.

Pajama Day

In honor of BuelahGirl’s “Pajama Day” (and thanks to Lynda for sharing), I present Ernie Ford:

ErnieFord

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Oral Was Hung…

… like a children’s pencil… “You can’t stick it in the nose orifICEs”:

What is truly interesting about this tape is that the next few things he said were truly “out there”. One sentence that caught my attention was when he caught himself and ask that they edit the tape:

God made the female breasts, young man—what’s wrong with you handling it, fondling it? Oh, sure, you’re married to this girl, you’re married to this man, but awww, come on now, let’s have a good time. Somebody go get a six pack. Bring in some bourbon. Uhhh, pick up the phone and send in a couple call girls. I go to church, too, but, uh, you know, it didn’t make me queer. Well, I wouldn’t buy that 100%. [aside] Um, please erase that from the tape, uh, I didn’t—let’s edit that out, will ya?

h/t Pam’s House Blend

God made the female breasts, young man—what’s wrong with you handling it, fondling it? Oh, sure, you’re married to this girl, you’re married to this man, but awww, come on now, let’s have a good time. Somebody go get a six pack. Bring in some bourbon. Uhhh, pick up the phone and send in a couple call girls. I go to church, too, but, uh, you know, it didn’t make me queer. Well, I wouldn’t buy that 100%. [aside] Um, please erase that from the tape, uh, I didn’t—let’s edit that out, will ya?

Barack Obama’s Presidency Expressed In A Video

Video Depiction Of The Obama Presidency

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Yes, that shitty disappointment is real…

The “Fat Cat Banker” Sleight of Hand

It appears that the media clowns are going to tell you about how pissed off Barack Obama is with the bankers:

Obama Complains About “Fat cat bankers”

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama complained about “fat-cat bankers” and sharply criticized Wall Street banks for paying out big bonuses to executives in a television interview to air on Sunday.

Obama, who has taken some heat from Americans for supporting a Wall Street bailout, told CBS’ “60 Minutes” banks do not understand how angry people are with them.

“I did not run for office to be helping out a bunch of fat cat bankers on Wall Street,” Obama said.

cont at link…

So, when you read something like that, Mr ObamaManiac, what comes to mind? That he is doing the best he can and he will take these bankers to task for what they have done? Or, do you think that like everything else that comes from this shell of a man, he is lying?

My lil ole Mama has always said, “Actions speak louder than words“. Take a look at this action:

Do you REALLY think that he meant what he said? Remember when he said this about having Lobbyists in his administration?

Or any number of things to convince you to vote for him, like the gullible Two-Party Sheople you have become.

In the case of financial focus, he began the campaign with a couple of folks who were critical of Wall Street, but what happened after his election? Matt Taibbi explained it in his article, “Obama’s Big Sellout“:

But come November 5th, both were banished from Obama’s inner circle — and replaced with a group of Wall Street bankers. Leading the search for the president’s new economic team was his close friend and Harvard Law classmate Michael Froman, a high-ranking executive at Citigroup. During the campaign, Froman had emerged as one of Obama’s biggest fundraisers, bundling $200,000 in contributions and introducing the candidate to a host of heavy hitters — chief among them his mentor Bob Rubin, the former co-chairman of Goldman Sachs who served as Treasury secretary under Bill Clinton. Froman had served as chief of staff to Rubin at Treasury, and had followed his boss when Rubin left the Clinton administration to serve as a senior counselor to Citigroup (a massive new financial conglomerate created by deregulatory moves pushed through by Rubin himself).

Incredibly, Froman did not resign from the bank when he went to work for Obama: He remained in the employ of Citigroup for two more months, even as he helped appoint the very people who would shape the future of his own firm. And to help him pick Obama’s economic team, Froman brought in none other than Jamie Rubin who happens to be Bob Rubin’s son. At the time, Jamie’s dad was still earning roughly $15 million a year working for Citigroup, which was in the midst of a collapse brought on in part because Rubin had pushed the bank to invest heavily in mortgage-backed CDOs and other risky instruments.

Now here’s where it gets really interesting. It’s three weeks after the election. You have a lame-duck president in George W. Bush — still nominally in charge, but in reality already halfway to the golf-and-O’Doul’s portion of his career and more than happy to vacate the scene. Left to deal with the still-reeling economy are lame-duck Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, a former head of Goldman Sachs, and New York Fed chief Timothy Geithner, who served under Bob Rubin in the Clinton White House. Running Obama’s economic team are a still-employed Citigroup executive and the son of another Citigroup executive, who himself joined Obama’s transition team that same month.

So on November 23rd, 2008, a deal is announced in which the government will bail out Rubin’s messes at Citigroup with a massive buffet of taxpayer-funded cash and guarantees. It is a terrible deal for the government, almost universally panned by all serious economists, an outrage to anyone who pays taxes. Under the deal, the bank gets $20 billion in cash, on top of the $25 billion it had already received just weeks before as part of the Troubled Asset Relief Program. But that’s just the appetizer. The government also agrees to charge taxpayers for up to $277 billion in losses on troubled Citi assets, many of them those toxic CDOs that Rubin had pushed Citi to invest in. No Citi executives are replaced, and few restrictions are placed on their compensation. It’s the sweetheart deal of the century, putting generations of working-stiff taxpayers on the hook to pay off Bob Rubin’s fuck-up-rich tenure at Citi. “If you had any doubts at all about the primacy of Wall Street over Main Street,” former labor secretary Robert Reich declares when the bailout is announced, “your doubts should be laid to rest.”

It is bad enough that one of Bob Rubin’s former protégés from the Clinton years, the New York Fed chief Geithner, is intimately involved in the negotiations, which unsurprisingly leave the Federal Reserve massively exposed to future Citi losses. But the real stunner comes only hours after the bailout deal is struck, when the Obama transition team makes a cheerful announcement: Timothy Geithner is going to be Barack Obama’s Treasury secretary!

Geithner, in other words, is hired to head the U.S. Treasury by an executive from Citigroup — Michael Froman — before the ink is even dry on a massive government giveaway to Citigroup that Geithner himself was instrumental in delivering. In the annals of brazen political swindles, this one has to go in the all-time Fuck-the-Optics Hall of Fame.

Wall Street loved the Citi bailout and the Geithner nomination so much that the Dow immediately posted its biggest two-day jump since 1987, rising 11.8 percent. Citi shares jumped 58 percent in a single day, and JP Morgan Chase, Merrill Lynch and Morgan Stanley soared more than 20 percent, as Wall Street embraced the news that the government’s bailout generosity would not die with George W. Bush and Hank Paulson.

Isn’t it funny how it all works out for the bankers? Or how what actually happened (the ACTION) is so very different from the WORDS.

I dunno ’bout you, but they call that “lying” down in these parts. Or worse. Thievery. But if your gullible blood isn’t boiling just yet, listen to the interview with Matt for the whole picture of how we were duped into “hope” for “change” when there was never any intention of that, whatsoever.

Pissed yet? Mr Obama is “telling” you how pissed he is at these guys, yet he takes them into his administration to form and carry out the current debacle that has ONLY benefited the ones he is now using harsh words on. Yeah, he is really upset. So much so that he took more money from them than any other politician last election cycle.

Prick Kickers

I love to watch the lunatic fringe squirm as they realize that their little kingdom is falling apart. Its not that I get jollies knowing the demoRAT party will probably increase the next election round overall, even if the ObamaMeister will force the reTHUGlicans back into the Whitehouse. It is all crazy shit and I blame Americans for being too partisan, stupid, scared or gullible to clearly back away from those “parties” and the devastation the participation brings to our way of life.

So, as I did my morning lunatic fringe reading yesterday, I find that Erick Erickson, the chief nincompoop at Redstate is calling for a Republican Party Civil War, or maybe a coup (to use his word). I wonder if he is thinking an automobile (no, that has an e on the end)? Wait, he tries to explain what he means:

But what do I mean? It’s pretty simple.

The media narrative every time Republicans lose is not that Republicans lose, but that conservatives lose. Without fail, every election cycle, made worse by John McCain being the 2008 nominee, is that conservatives cannot win. In 2008, the narrative was that conservatives cannot even make it out of the GOP primary.

Maybe we should all finally determine precisely what a “conservative” is. Is a conservative the kind of person who would support illegal invasions and occupations of people that did nothing to us, while spending untold $BILLIONS we cannot afford to spend? Would they continue to pour American money down that shithole of conservatism called the Military Industrial Complex? Would they fight each and every fiscally sound approach to healthcare (like a Single Payer system), if they were “conservative”? Or would they be ok with their coffers (entities like the Health Insurance Companies, Big Oil, Big Military, etc) causing prices to skyrocket at least 30% more than they should, just for bonuses and exorbitant overhead costs?

You see, what Erick does is pretend that he is “conservative” and also uses God in most every post. He is a “Christian”, you see. And everyone knows just how much Christ held back healing people and how He demanded co-pays and out-of-pocket deductibles, etc before He’d lay a hand on you. Everyone knows that Jesus would be the very first to endorse these killings in America’s name and that it is actually He that guides the hands of those who reign those bombs down on the children. That every bomb sent reigning down on a Pakistani child has the Christ’s blessing?

Yes, it is this very same heart-warming Christlike behavior that is attracting so many to that loving party.

So why the coup d’etat from all those other pansy reTHUGlicans? He says it is because the GOP is supporting moderates and liberals over “conservatives”. I don’t know, but in my book, the GOP is doing anything and everything it can to save itself from the very likes of Erick and the fools that follow him and agree.

Let’s look at some facts as they become evident, the “liberal” media keeps painting the “conservatives” as losers. Nevermind that the “liberal” media is owned and operated by “conservative” giants. Nevermind that even Keith Olbermann, the raving “liberal” enemy of that always even-keeled “independent” Bill O’Reilley has turned into nothing more than a mouthpiece for the conservative side of the demoRAT party. Never mind that one of the most liberal TV personalities is still very much in step with the conservative practices of this administration and not speaking her mind like she used to before the GE days of TV (Rachel).

Never mind that David Gregory falls all over himself stacking conservatives over liberals, or that hardly any show will feature “liberals” in mass like they did the “conservatives” over the past 8-10 years (or more).

Yes, Sheople (excuse me, People), the conservatives like Erick don’t think you are “conservative” enough. He thinks that the solution is to be even more vicious red-meaters and to rebel against the rest of the “Party”.

Well, I hope you get your wish, because it will simply highlight what blathering, slathering, atrociously stupid people you have following a dying meme.

But, let me make one suggestion. Take each and every demoRAT with you. Find some way to attract them, too, and as you all form your own ignorant-assed party, maybe the sane people can take back this country from the likes of you and the soulless demoRATS indebted to the Corptocracy you endorsed while a THUG was POTUS and now disallow when a RAT is POTUS.

You see, the real problem has nothing to do with “con” vs “lib”. The real problem are the fools like Erick, or John Amato, or Markos or O’Reilley or any stupid ass who wants to perpetuate and continue the bogus two party Corptocracy ruling our way of life.

Once these fools finally figure out that they are keeping us screwed by drowning us in this never-ending battle between forces that are basically identical in the ravaging of our resources, our treasury and most importantly, our men and women ready to fight and die to protect us. These fools would rather protect and continue the bogus scam than actually come together and fix this mess.

Fools.

So why the Kicking Against The Pricks reference? This entire thing reminds me of the day that Saul was supposedly asked why he was kicking against the pricks (or “goads”).

A prick (in this case we aren’t talking about me for a change) was a wooden device (a stake), sharpened at one end and positioned so a farmer could use it to goad (or drive) an unruly oxen wherever the farmer wanted the ox to go. It was constructed in a way that if the ox kicked back against it, it would tighten and jab the ox even harder.

In other words, the ox would fight the prick, but the prick just got worse.

Well, let me tell you. We have nothing but pricks in Congress (by and large) and every time some little wannabe like Erick kicks back, it just gets worse for the beast.

My hope is that Erick can somehow muster enough like-minded red-meater folks with enough demoRATs and take the entire ignorant cabal will come down.

Otherwise, the pricks will eventually kill us all.

Please visit BlackSunGazette for my new home away from home.

To All My Online Friends: A Desperate Plea For Help to Find Missing Kids

17 year old Kristina Branum and 21 year old Christopher Mittendorf (at the time of disappearance)

I have a buddy I graduated high school with that I just found out has a missing child. There was a small write-up in a local online source (LawrenceburgNow.com), but according to William, little else has been done. At this point, even the TBI (TN Bureau of Investigation) or local Sheriff’s Department won’t return his calls. He has contacted all the major news media, but no one is covering this.

Can you imagine if your child just disappeared with no trace? It would drive me totally insane.

Now consider that this occurred in July 2006 and they have had to live with NOT knowing what has happened for all this time.

She and her boyfriend went missing on July 27, 2006 and their car was found near the OK Missionary Baptist Church just outside of Lawrenceburg, TN (SW TN), about 45 miles from their homes (see the map below).

View Larger Map

The authorities seem to think that maybe they felt they were in trouble and are hiding. But this doesn’t make sense to William, since there is no issues between him and the young man. According to William, there have been all sorts of weird issues and things that don’t add up. There are a numerous amount of dubious characters that are involved and there may be a connection to a recent murder in town. A lot of unknowns.

They fear the worse, but also hope that they are simply hiding for some reason. No matter the reason, if you have seen either of these folks, please tell them to call home and tell them they are safe. If you have any other information, please respond or call the families directly a the numbers llisted below.

Please, all my blogging friends, as a favor (and I never ask for stuff like this), please cross post. Maybe, just maybe, we can find them and help bring peace to these families.

If you have any information call:

William and Teresa Branum may be contacted at 731-926-1215. You may contact Dennis and Cheryl Flatt at 731-412-7876.