Lynda

Please Send All Your Positive Thoughts And Prayers To Lynda

Today, my friend and blogging partner, Lynda, is having surgery for some skin cancers she has been diagnosed with. This is a fine person, who loves and cares about her fellow man. I believe that she deserves any person’s positive thoughts and/or prayers (no matter your religious persuasion). Just knowing you care is extremely important.

I also want to share some links that a visitor called “Don’t Freakout” shared here and found the information extremely enlightening to me (and should be a wonderful resource for the future, should you be faced with any of this).

If you are fighting cancer, start here:

Green Med Info For Cancers

Then go here:

Squamous and Basal Cell Carcinoma Treatment Strategies Part I

A Good Video on History and Related Cures which are Alternative

My Friend is Correct—

Watch Video–

   http://youtu.be/lW0-HdN0cK8

Then as now— it all echoes back , for me, to hearing Dwight David Eisenhower’s Presidential Departure speech “Beware of the Industrial/Military Complex”.

Currently trying to wrap my weary brain around the fact that our government is going to intentionally flood miles of farmland, homes and businesses to supposedly save miles of farmland, homes and businesses that WHAT???— are more important? more valuable? AND pay nothing to these people that THEY are doing this too??? I am SO like Carlin right now. And I shouldn’t be… really I just shouldn’t be. There actually still should be a voice in me that does and says more than Fuck It, I give up.

                                  I miss you B’man…  love to all!

BuelahMan Sits In His Front Row Seat With His Notebook

When you are born in this world, you are given a ticket to this freak show.

When you are born in America, you are given a front row seat.

Kelso shared this video below on Facebook a few weeks ago and it stuck with me, for it sort of explains my transition lately. When I started this blog in 2007, I was one of the people who thought I might be able to make a difference, especially towards reaching Southern Folk. I endearingly call us all “rednecks”, in such a way NOT to offend, but to try to bring humor to what many take offensively (or perhaps better yet, what many others use AGAINST southern folks offensively). I splattered around some funny stuff every now and then, hoping this might also attract a few folks whose work and over-burdened lives was causing them great distress.

Image via Wikipedia

As I read and learned and as I experienced my own many problems (bankruptcy, medical issues in my family, deaths, loss of job and basically the falling apart of everything I ever worked for), I began to realize that there was something afoot that was beyond my ability to make change or improve (or even slow or stop the demise I was personally experiencing). So, I evolved and this blog evolved. She (the blog) and I both became angry. We both saw that something was purposefully being done to change our lives in America and the rest of the world.

I began researching and then sharing what I found in commentary. I began asking others to join me and share their thoughts, because I want to hear others’ progression thru their change/evolution and be able to share that here. Linda put up with a lot of my assholeness, but still loves me. Kelso joined up in an attempt to share a very different perspective (and he truly has a gift for writing, among many other gifts). Then I reached out to an old friend when I saw him on Facebook (Dr Doug).

Dr Doug was one of those staunch Republicans, at one time. He has shared with me that thru things he and I discussed, he started seeing some truths as I do (I am not suggesting that we see everything eye to eye). He is one of those folks that gave me hope that maybe there was something I could do to make a change in American perception and attitude (especially among “rednecks”). He proved to me that people are not beyond reach and if they simply open their minds, things like 911 suddenly become “not so clearly” the official story (not to mention how bogus the D vs R false political paradigm is). I was very glad when he agreed to share things here and he brings a different take to a lot of issues and has many alternate skills that The Revolt needed.

There are quite a few excellent regulars that share in comments and the wealth of information I learn from them is amazing. I have also set up a very nice, but evolving set of reference blog links. They generally all have different strengths and even purposes. I have made a lot of online friends and recently one of these fine folks wrote me, noticing that my family and I are going thru some rough times, and offered to send me some money to help us. That particular person may never understand what such a thought means to me (don’t worry, everybody, I ain’t asking for money and turned him down, too, with much gratitude).

In many cases, some of these blogs have changed in some way and end up writing shit that causes me to re-question their motives. When and IF I see that something is looking dubious or peculiar, I cull them much like I recently culled over 125 Facebook “friends” (and then I de-activated the account, no longer considering that the network is a means to reach people). Sure, several of them enjoyed what I would share, but if I were a fly on the wall in the majority’s homes as they looked at their FB wall, I bet 1/2 or more had blocked my feed (and I understand that a lot of what I shared rubbed them and their comfort zones in a really bad way). Such is life and such is blogging (sometimes you just got to cull the baggage or the wolf that is dressed in sheep’s clothing or simply the dumbasses).

I had mentioned leaving FB several times before on my wall and inevitably, several people would write and ask me not to, but I was still only preaching to an ever-shrinking choir. I had shared enough links from here that if they want to know what I think, they can come read (and would be welcome). Many have recently joined by subscribing, as a matter of fact (thank you all). I like to think that these people, who are mostly folks that I have known for a very long time (many going to highschool with), know I am genuine and that I ain’t stupid. I believe they know that I try my best to study, evaluate, and take time to form an educated opinion, altho I am an expert in only a couple of things (and I NEVER write about those things).

I guess what I am saying is that I have (in Carlin’s words) become one of those people who sit back in my front row seat and take notes. I wish I had his gift for humor and insight, for he was an amazing individual, but I am what I am, lacking in many ways.

Listen to a genius describe what I am trying to say:

If you like what you see here at The Revolt, please subscribe via Email subscription or by the RSS Feed button found on the upper right hand corner of this page and/or hit the Share Button at the bottom of the post to share via various means.

All posts are opinions meant to foster comment, reporting, teaching & study under the “fair use doctrine” in Sec. 107 of U.S. Code Title 17. No statement of fact is made or should be implied. Ads appearing on this blog are solely the product of the advertiser and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of BuehlahMan’s Revolt or WordPress.com

Act of God debate

I was pondering all the cases lately that made their way to the Supreme Court and then an “Act of God” ran through my mind. I guess with everything else that has been changed or challenged lately I was sort of surprised when I thought– ” It is a wonder this has never been challenged or tested as a defense”. First that the word ‘God’ remains… and second I had always felt that no one could prove what God did or didn’t do or cause or produce. How could someone prove God didn’t tell me nor motivate me to kill my husband? [just an example folks!!!! lol] Think about it. The courts would have to either abolish the word ‘God’ or state that God remains God, or re-constitute a definition for God. This being such a ‘Global’  but ‘politically correct’ world, the outcome would be the lighting of the final fuse I would think. But I sure as hell see it happening. I know for myself, there have been times that I 100% knew and felt God set before me an action. This one statement or explaination as to why something happened is huge. Here are a few definitions… then I want the debate to start!
Seems to me that someone would have to prove, literally prove there is no God and no evil. OR finally define ‘God’.  Again– I can see this coming!
1]
n., pl., acts of God.
A manifestation especially of a violent or destructive natural force, such as a lightning strike or earthquake, that is beyond human power to cause, prevent, or control.

2]

http://www.jstor.org/pss/3474465

3] [insurances]

Quote
WHAT IS NOT COVERED: THIS PLAN DOES NOT COVER: (1) INCIDENTAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (2) PRE-EXISTING CONDITIONS; (3) DAMAGE FROM ABUSE, MISUSE, INTRODUCTION OF FOREIGN OBJECTS INTO THE PRODUCT, UNAUTHORIZED PRODUCT MODIFICATIONS OR ALTERATIONS, FAILURE TO FOLLOW THE MANUFACTURER’S INSTRUCTIONS; (4) ACCESSORIES AND SUPPLIES, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO: BULBS AND/OR LAMPS, BATTERIES, ANTENNAS, CARTRIDGES, STYLUSES, RECORDS, AUDIO/VIDEO DISKS, TAPES, COMPUTER SOFTWARE OR DISKS, PRINT ELEMENTS, EXTERNAL POWER SUPPLIES; (5) ACTS OF GOD; (6) PREVENTATIVE MAINTENANCE; (7) INHERENT PRODUCT DEFECTS, ( MULTI-USER ORGANIZATIONS, PUBLIC RENTAL, OR COMMUNAL USE IN MULTI-FAMILY HOUSING; (9) DAMAGE WHICH IS NOT REPORTED WITHIN 30 DAYS AFTER EXPIRATION OF THIS PLAN; (10) LOSS OR DAMAGE TO STORED DATA, REPAIRS RELATED TO INSTALLED SOFTWARE, COMPUTER VIRUSES, CRACKED OR PHYSICALLY DAMAGED SCREENS OR COMPUTER HARDWARE WHICH IS ADDED AFTER THE ORIGINAL PURCHASE; (11) BURNED-IN PHOSPHOR IN CATHODE RAY TUBES OR ANY OTHER TYPE OF DISPLAY; (12) ANY DAMAGE TO RECORDING MEDIA INCLUDING ANY SOFTWARE PROGRAMS, DATA, OR CONFIGURATION/SETUP INFORMATION RESIDENT ON ANY MASS STORAGE DEVICES SUCH AS HARD DRIVES, CD-ROM DRIVES, DVD DRIVES, FLOPPY DISKETTES, TAPE DRIVES OR TAPE BACKUP SYSTEMS, AS A RESULT OF THE MALFUNCTIONING OR DAMAGE OF AN OPERATING OR NON-OPERATING PART, OR AS A RESULT OF ANY REPAIRS OR REPLACEMENT UNDER THIS PLAN; (13) PRODUCTS WITH REMOVED OR ALTERED SERIAL NUMBERS; (14) LOSS OR CORRUPTION OF DATA AND/OR THE RESTORATION OF SOFTWARE AND OPERATING SYSTEMS; (15) LOSS AND/OR THEFT OF THE PRODUCT; (16) LOSS OF USE, LOSS OF BUSINESS, LOSS OF PROFITS, DOWN-TIME AND CHARGES FOR TIME AND EFFORT; (17) ANY FAILURES, OR PARTS AND/OR LABOR COST INCURRED AS A RESULT OF A MANUFACTURER’S RECALL (18) DAMAGE COVERED UNDER ANY INSURANCE POLICY, OR ANY OTHER WARRANTY OR SERVICE PLAN.

Pot 4 Pain

We ALL already knew this– but hey, as long as it keeps getting postivie press— YEA!

http://www.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/08/30/health.pot.reduce.pain/index.html

(Health.com) — People with chronic pain who aren’t getting enough relief from medications may be able to ease their pain by smoking small amounts of marijuana, a new study suggests.
Marijuana also helps pain patients fall asleep more easily and sleep more soundly, according to the report, one of the first real-world studies to look at the medicinal use of smoked marijuana. Most previous research has used extracts of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the active ingredient in the cannabis plant.
“This is the first time anyone has done a trial of smoked cannabis on an outpatient basis,” says the lead researcher, Mark Ware, M.B.B.S., the director of clinical research at McGill University’s Alan Edwards Centre for Research on Pain, in Montreal.
Health.com: Medicinal marijuana, state by state
The study included 21 adults with nervous-system (neuropathic) pain stemming from surgery, accidents, or other trauma. Fourteen of the participants were on short-term disability or permanently disabled. All of them had tried marijuana before, but none were current or habitual smokers.
“They were not experienced marijuana users,” Ware says. “They came because they had severe pain that was not responding to any conventional treatment.”
Each patient in the study smoked four different strengths of marijuana over a period of 56 days. The THC potency ranged from 9.4 percent — the strongest dose the researchers could obtain legally — to 0 percent, a “placebo” pot that looked and tasted like the real thing but was stripped of THC. (By comparison, the strongest marijuana available on the street has a THC potency of about 15 percent, Ware estimates.)
Health.com: Medical marijuana may help fibromyalgia pain
The participants — who weren’t told which strength they were getting — were instructed to smoke a thimbleful (25 milligrams) from a small pipe three times a day for five days. After a nine-day break, they switched to a different potency.
The highest dose of THC yielded the best results. It lessened pain and improved sleep more effectively than the placebo and the two medium-strength doses (which produced no measurable relief), and it also reduced anxiety and depression.
The effects lasted for about 90 minutes to two hours, according to the study.
The results were published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal.
Health.com: 8 natural remedies to help you sleep
Though small, the study adds to a growing body of evidence suggesting that cannabis has painkilling properties that may be useful in medicine, perhaps in addition to other treatments. THC extracts have been shown to help ease cancer pain and the nausea associated with chemotherapy, while a few small studies in hospital populations have found that smoked marijuana can help relieve neuropathic pain.
But medical marijuana isn’t ready to become a mainstream chronic pain treatment, says Andrew McDavid, M.D., director of the division of pain management at Scott & White Healthcare, in Temple, Texas.
“The studies out there show some decrease in pain, but it’s not alarmingly or shockingly great,” says McDavid, who was not involved in the new research. “Although it may have some use, it’s probably going to need to be used with something else, if it’s approved.”
As the study notes, the pain relief the patients experienced from marijuana was modest compared to that seen in studies of analgesic medications such as gabapentin (Neurontin) and pregabalin (Lyrica).
Health.com: 6 mistakes pain patients make
Christopher Gharibo, M.D., an anesthesiologist at the New York University Hospital for Joint Diseases, in New York City, points out that the study didn’t address whether marijuana enabled the patients to perform everyday activities without pain — the best test of a chronic pain treatment.
“I’m not convinced [marijuana] helps from a functional standpoint,” he says. “I’m not even impressed by the pain reduction. We have analgesics that do much better.”
The potential long-term side effects of habitual marijuana use could prove problematic as well, Gharibo adds. Over time some patients may experience weight gain, a generalized feeling of sedation, and even changes in mood and cognitive function, he says.
Health.com: Can psychedelic drugs treat depression?
The study participants did report some minor side effects, including coughing, dizziness, headache, and dry eyes. Few reported feeling “high” or euphoric, however, which suggests that abuse or addiction is not a major concern with amounts as small as those used in the study.
“We had a total of three single episodes where patients felt a little bit high,” Ware says. “So it was extremely rare. The possibility that one would become addicted is low.”
Still, if marijuana were to become a more common pain treatment, it’s possible that some patients might overdo it, McDavid says.
“We saw the problem with narcotics. You can’t ever predict which people, when prescribed, will abuse it or not. Obviously there needs to be more research.”

Viva de Gangsta– ASSHOLES!

This post is from todays AOL News Page.

Ballad and narcocorrido singer Sergio Vega was shot and killed while driving on a highway near Los Mochis on June 26 — just hours after he contacted the press to refute rumors of death. The gunmen who murdered the singer have not been apprehended.

As Mexico grapples with a lengthy and increasingly bloody drug war, tunes glorifying drug runners, gang enforcers and narcotics cartels have emerged as the songs of an era.

“Narcocorridos” are in many ways a continuation of Mexico’s long “corrido” tradition of lyrical storytelling. But instead of singing the praises of folk heroes like Pancho Villa or a woman who saved her village from a flood, these ballads are musical tributes to the generals and foot soldiers in a drug war that, according to the U.S. State Department, has claimed some 23,000 lives since December 2006.

“The ballad is completely alive in the present day, and it’s about things going on in the present day,” said Elijah Wald, author of “Narcocorrido: A Journey Into the Music of Drugs, Guns, and Guerrillas.”

Corridos first emerged in the 1800s as a kind of historical ballad that honored famous people and notable exploits. Though there were some Prohibition-era crooners who sang about booze smugglers sneaking liquor across the border, modern narcocorridos only emerged in the 1970s as drug trafficking became increasingly lucrative in Mexico.

That’s when groups like Los Tigres del Norte began documenting the drug trade with tunes like “Contrabando y Traicion” (“Contraband and Betrayal”), a song detailing a Bonnie and Clyde-style couple who smuggle drugs across the border, only for the girlfriend to gun down her man and escape with the money.

A decade later, Mexican immigrant and Los Angeles resident “Chalino” Sanchez brought a gruff voice and a tough persona to the world of narcocorridos. While earlier singers of narcocorridos became popular as documentarians of the drug trade, Sanchez became a star by acting as if he was a part of it himself.

Eduardo Parra, WireImage
The Mexican group Los Tigres del Norte has been singing about the drug trade with narcocorridos for more than 30 years. The band, pictured here playing in Spain in 2009, started with a Bonnie and Clyde-style tune called “Contrabando y Traicion.” Newer tunes include political commentary about Mexico’s drug war.
“Chalino Sanchez was a little more like Tupac [Shakur] in a sense,” said Mark Edberg, author of “El Narcotraficante: Narcocorridos and the Construction of a Cultural Persona on the U.S.-Mexico Border.”

“He was a little bit more in that world, unlike some of the other singers. In fact, he pulled out a gun and fired at the crowd at one of his shows,” Edberg said.

Sanchez was shot and killed in 1992 after a concert in the Mexican state of Sinaloa, a major drug-running region. But his violent death only added to the mystique of narcocorrido songs and their singers.

above:
The Mexican group Los Tigres del Norte has been singing about the drug trade with narcocorridos for more than 30 years. The band, pictured here playing in Spain in 2009, started with a Bonnie and Clyde-style tune called “Contrabando y Traicion.” Newer tunes include political commentary about Mexico’s drug war.

“After some of the original narcocorrido heroes like Chalino Sanchez, the record companies realized that there is street cred and street value in these things, and they started marketing them and playing them up, looking for the most exaggerated and extreme form of the character,” said Edberg, an associate professor at George Washington University. “The marketing becomes the reality — like gangsta rap.”

Since then, narcocorridos have continued to gain fans both north and south of the border.

The tunes themselves aren’t bound to a distinct sound — they can be performed over a number of different musical arrangements, from brass-heavy “banda” stylings to “norteno” backings featuring an accordion, a 12-string guitar called a “bajo sexto” and other instruments.

That said, many narcocorridos have powerful lead vocals, a steady, polka-influenced beat and intricately crafted lyrics filled with evocative language and thinly veiled puns.

For instance, if you ever hear the words “cuerno de chivo” — literally a “goat horn” — the singer is really talking about an AK-47 assault rifle.

“Corridos are an old, traditional form,” said Edberg. “There are little subtexts and humor that you find in these things. At a concert where narcocorridos are played, there may be exaggerated gunfire sounds — but people are dancing happily and treating it almost like pro wrestling, almost like a cartoon

It’s the lyrics that make a tune a narcocorrido, and like the historical corridos of yesteryear, today’s songs often describe specific events such as shootouts and drug runs.

Narcocorridos can also be boastful “corridos de amistad” — songs of friendship — that are reminiscent of many boastful gangsta rap songs.

“Corridos de amistad don’t tell a story, they just say, So-and-so is the greatest ever, he has the biggest guns, the fastest cars, the prettiest girlfriends,” said Wald.

“The big advantage of the corrido de amistad is that [the subjects] don’t have to have done anything impressive,” he said. “It means they can hire someone to write one. A lot of corrido writing is done for hire — particularly the corridos de amistad.”

In a music market largely demonetized by piracy, connections to drug traffickers can prove lucrative for musicians and songwriters. For the narcotics cartels, the songs serve as a kind of an ad, according to Edberg.

“The traffickers commission them,” he said. “They are like advertisements in a cultural form that are known.”

As narcocorrido musicians have emerged as historians of the drug trade — and sometimes even hire court singers for drug cartels — some musicians have met the same violent fates as the characters in their songs.

Gregory Bull, AP
Ballad and narcocorrido singer Sergio Vega was shot and killed while driving on a highway near Los Mochis on June 26 — just hours after he contacted the press to refute rumors of death. The gunmen who murdered the singer have not been apprehended.
Singer Valentin Elizalde was murdered in 2006, and many fans of narcocorridos believe his death was linked to his song “A Mis Enemigos” — “To My Enemies” — which mocked the Gulf Cartel drug gang.

The following year, Sergio Gomez, the lead singer of the group K-Paz de la Sierra, was kidnapped, tortured and strangled to death after a concert. Gomez wasn’t known for his narcocorridos but rather his love songs. However, some speculate that the 34-year-old was murdered by drug gangs in the Michoacan state because of ties to rival narcotics traffickers.

In June, narcocorrido singer Sergio Vega, 40, was killed hours after he gave an interview to a news website, denying rumors of his murder.

“It has happened to me for years now — someone tells a radio station or a newspaper I have been killed, or suffered an accident,” Vega told La Oreja shortly before gunmen ambushed his vehicle with automatic weapons. “And then I have to call my dear mother, who has heart trouble, to reassure her.”

Wald doesn’t think narcocorrido singers are necessarily being targeted because of the content of their music — unlike many American gangsta rappers from the 1990s.

“These are people who play at parties for the drug lords, they do songs for the drug world,” he said. “They are in that world, and that is a very dangerous world to be in. Whether the murders have any connection to the music, nobody you ever talk to will know the answer to those questions.

“Once you are in a world where they are killing a dozen people a day, it doesn’t take a lot to get killed,” he said.

As the Mexican government has attempted to crack down on drug cartels, there has been a push to limit the radio play of narcocorridos, and even imprison musicians who sing them. But according to Wald, the tunes were never big radio hits — instead they were performed live and distributed on bootleg tapes, CDs and now YouTube.

“Now they are talking about a national ban in Mexico,” he said. “Nobody in the business is bothered by the concept of a ban. The government is just posturing.”

Despite governmental opposition, the music remains popular in Mexican regions where the narcotics trade thrives, like the states of Sinaloa, Sonora and Michoacan. The tunes are also popular in Mexican neighborhoods around the U.S.

Why? Well, for the same reasons that gangsta rap, crime movies and violent video games have found audiences, said Edberg.

“You do get a lot of people saying, ‘This is horrible, this is terrible,’” he said. “But you also have people saying, ‘This just reflects reality — we’re just telling stories about what we see every day.’”

All posts are opinions meant to foster comment, reporting, teaching & study under the “fair use doctrine” in Sec. 107 of U.S. Code Title 17. No statement of fact is made or should be implied. Ads appearing on this blog are solely the product of the advertiser and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of BuehlahMan’s Redstate Revolt or WordPress.com

The Sweetest Deal EVER made—

…. who made it and who was in on it????

Okay folks– just for the sheer sake of jumpstarting your nervous system today. Read this report. I promise you that in it you will discover one sentence that will make you pause your breath for a second– and then you will think “ How did I not already figure that was coming”. What a deal folks, what a deal!!!!!!!!!!!

European Stocks Climb for Sixth Day; BMW, BP Shares Advance
July 13, 2010, 12:14 PM EDT

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-07-13/european-stocks-climb-for-sixth-day-bmw-bp-shares-advance.html

July 13 (Bloomberg) — European stocks climbed for a sixth day to a three-week high as Alcoa Inc. began the U.S. earnings season with profit that beat estimates, Bayerische Motoren Werke AG raised its forecast and BP Plc gained.
BMW, the world’s biggest maker of luxury cars, jumped the most in 15 months after saying higher volumes in 2010 will boost profit. BP increased 2.9 percent after installing a new cap on its leaking oil well in the Gulf of Mexico and as Abu Dhabi said it’s considering making an investment in the company.
The Stoxx Europe 600 Index advanced 1.9 percent to 255.99, erasing this year’s losses. The measure has risen 8.2 percent over the past six days amid easing concern about the economic recovery and speculation that the selloff in equities since April has overshot the outlook for company profits. The gauge remains 5.9 percent below this year’s high.
Earnings “forecasts look too low and we expect a strong majority of companies to beat their numbers,” said Graham Bishop, the London-based head of pan-European equity strategy at Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc. “We already know a great deal about the performance of the global economy through the second quarter. Consensus economic forecasts have actually been revised materially higher.”
Portugal’s PSI-20 Index was the second-weakest western European market today as Moody’s Investors Service cut the nation’s credit rating by two notches to A1 because of a growing debt burden and weak economic growth prospects. The gauge gained 0.1 percent, while the U.K.’s FTSE 100 and France’s CAC 40 surged 2 percent. Germany’s DAX rallied 1.9 percent.
Greek Bond Sale
Greece’s ASE Index surged 2.6 percent as the nation sold 1.63 billion euros ($2.1 billion) of 26-week Treasury bills at a rate below the 5 percent charged by the European Union for its bailout package, easing concern the country faces punitive costs to borrow.
BMW rallied 8.3 percent to 42.13 euros, leading a gauge of auto stocks to the biggest gain among 19 industry groups in the Stoxx 600. The luxury-car maker forecast 2010 sales volumes will rise by about 10 percent to more than 1.4 million units, with a full-year profit margin of more than 5 percent expected for the automobiles segment. Rival Daimler AG advanced 5.4 percent to 43.81 euros.
Automakers Advance
Peugeot SA climbed 5.3 percent to 24.37 euros and Volkswagen AG preferred shares gained 5.2 percent to 77 euros. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised its price estimate on the French carmaker by 3 percent to 34 euros and on the German automaker by 4 percent to 78 euros, saying increased demand and “attractive valuations” favor the industry, according to a report today.
BP advanced 2.9 percent to 410.35 pence, extending yesterday’s 9.4 percent jump. The oil company installed a new cap on its leaking Gulf of Mexico well and will start testing today whether this will stop the gusher while work continues on a permanent plug. Separately, the Financial Times reported that BP expects to be able to write off the oil-spill cleanup costs against taxes, without saying where it got its information.
Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan said the emirate is considering making an investment in BP.
‘Still Thinking’
“We are still thinking about it,” he said in an interview in Abu Dhabi today, when asked about potentially buying a stake in the London-based oil producer. “We are looking across the board. We have been partners with BP for years.”
Alcoa, the largest U.S. aluminum producer reported second- quarter profit that topped analysts’ projections as higher metal prices boosted sales. Earnings from continuing operations were 13 cents a share, exceeding the 11-cent average estimate of 17 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg.
Profits for S&P 500 companies are projected to have increased 34 percent in the second quarter and by the same amount in 2010, according to analysts’ estimates compiled by Bloomberg. Intel Corp., the biggest maker of semiconductors which reports quarterly earnings after the close of U.S. exchanges today, is among 23 companies in the index to announce results this week.
Burberry Group Plc surged 3.7 percent to 818.5 pence, the highest level since at least 2002. The U.K.’s largest luxury retailer posted a 27 percent gain in first-quarter sales, beating analysts’ estimates, led by growth in Asia and deliveries to wholesale customers.
Unilever, BAT
Unilever, the world’s second-largest maker of consumer products, gained 2.9 percent to 1,898 pence and British American Tobacco Plc advanced 2.6 percent to 2,277 pence as Goldman Sachs Group Inc. upgraded both companies to “buy” from “neutral.”
SEB AB surged 4.9 percent to 48.75 kronor after the second- largest bank in the Baltic countries returned to profit in the second quarter as loan losses in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania decreased.
DNO International ASA rallied 4.9 percent to 8.74 kroner, the highest close since April, after the Daily Telegraph reported that RAK Petroleum Pcl has made an offer to buy the remainder of the Norwegian oil producer. DNO Chief Executive Officer Helge Eide said he had “no comment and no information” on the report.
–Editors: Andrew Rummer, David Merritt.

All posts are opinions meant to foster comment, reporting, teaching & study under the “fair use doctrine” in Sec. 107 of U.S. Code Title 17. No statement of fact is made or should be implied. Ads appearing on this blog are solely the product of the advertiser and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of BuehlahMan’s Redstate Revolt or WordPress.com

$16.00 Per Month…

I am lost and forgotten in this hell where countless Americans exist!! My Unemployment runs out very soon… and also while you read this, know that they only cleared me for $16.00 per month for Food Stamps! Now let me bitch about the new healthcare for Pre-Existing folks. What I feared the most about this bill came true! I knew they all talked about healthcare for everyone– no one turned away or denied. BUT what they never ever said was ’ affordable to the poor”. I contacted the state about the pre-existing Ins. Oh, I can get it– but the premium is 600 per month!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Suck, things suck badly! WTF! People need jobs!!!!!!

http://www.comcast.net/articles/news-national/20100712/US.Jobless.Aid.Analysis/

WASHINGTON — Keeping unemployment benefits flowing for millions of workers whose jobs were eaten by the recession should have been a slam dunk in an election year.
But until this month, Senate Democrats have been unable to bring themselves to pass a simple bill that just does it. Instead they’ve demanded a series of unrelated and often controversial tax and spending add-ons that have enabled Republicans to mount successful filibusters.
Now that the legislation has been shorn of all the extras, the bill could win final passage soon. It can’t come soon enough for more than 2 million people whose checks have been cut off in a five-month impasse in which there’s plenty of blame to go around:
_ Democrats and their leaders made several decisions that in retrospect look like miscalculations, like pulling the rug out from under a bipartisan measure launched back in February and loading a subsequent bill with $24 billion for governors — guaranteeing that most Republicans would vote against it.
_ Republican moderates voted one way in March to help the bill pass but changed their minds just weeks later, having gotten religion from GOP leaders and tea partiers on the budget deficit.
Little remembered amid the ongoing partisanship and recrimination is that jobless benefits also got sideswiped by President Barack Obama’s health care overhaul.
To reduce the health care bill’s impact on the deficit, Democrats decided to close almost $30 billion in tax loopholes. Until the final health care push, those revenues had been designated to cover the cost of extending other popular family and business tax breaks as part of a broad bipartisan jobless benefits package.
Besides the jobless aid, the measure contained a payroll tax holiday for businesses, tax breaks for business, health insurance subsidies and help for doctors facing a cut in their Medicaid payments. It had support from across the political spectrum, from Obama to conservative Senate Republicans.
Some liberals, however, balked at the deal, which was cut principally by Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., and the committee’s senior Republican, Sen. Charles Grassley of Iowa. The liberals didn’t like that their “jobs agenda” seemed hijacked by business lobbyists, who won items like research and development tax credits and some arcane measures such as tax breaks for NASCAR tracks. With unemployment hovering just under 10 percent, they also thought it was too light on subsidies for preserving and creating jobs.
So Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid blew up the agreement, instead advancing a pared-back jobs bill excusing businesses from having to pay the employer share of Social Security taxes this year on any new workers they hire. Economists were dubious it would produce many jobs. Meanwhile, unemployment aid would wait for later legislation.
“We could have had this bill passed in three days and … Reid decided to scuttle it,” Grassley complained. “Baucus read about it in the paper.”
The delays meant that Congress had to pass a short-term extension of jobless benefits at the end of February. Reid and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., worked out a deal for a quick vote to avoid an interruption in benefits.
But another Kentucky Republican, Sen. Jim Bunning, single-handedly held up the bill for days, demanding that government spending elsewhere be cut to pay for the jobless benefits rather than add to the federal debt. Bunning folded on March 2. But his fight resonated with tea partiers and millions of other voters worried about year after year of trillion-dollar deficits.
In the meantime, Reid resurrected the longer-term jobless aid package. He mixed in familiar elements like extending expired tax breaks and added a $24 billion package of aid to cash-starved state governments so they could avoid layoffs of tens of thousands of public employees — a key part of last year’s economic stimulus bill.
The result was a bill adding almost $100 billion to the deficit. That meant that GOP support would be limited. But it still passed in March with support from several Republicans, including key moderate Sens. Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins of Maine and George Voinovich of Ohio.
That was the bill’s high point. The political sands soon began to shift.
Another short-term unemployment insurance extension — needed to buy time for negotiations on the bigger bill — came at the end of March. It would be the last. Beginning in June, hundreds of thousands of workers unemployed for more than six months started losing the weekly checks.
More Republicans picked up on Bunning’s position and demanded cuts in other programs, including Obama’s $862 billion stimulus bill passed a year earlier, to pay for the extension.
It was a message the party felt increasingly comfortable with after losing the health care fight, especially as the European debt crisis roiled the markets and the U.S. government’s debt topped $13 trillion. Republicans stressed that with the unemployment rate still near double digits, jobless benefits averaging $300 a week should be extended — but that they should be paid for.
“You never know in politics when that magic moment comes when things really begin to change, but I believe that it has occurred now,” GOP Whip Jon Kyl of Arizona told reporters March 26. “I think you’ll see a much greater commitment now to fiscal responsibility.”
The short-term jobless aid extension passed, but it took until late May for their House and Senate negotiators to agree on a longer-term jobless aid package featuring new business tax increases but still racking up $115 billion in new government debt over the next decade.
This time, conservative House Democrats recoiled. House leaders were forced to sharply pare the measure back, eliminating new aid for state governments as well as a longer-term fix for doctors threatened with a 21 percent cut in Medicare payments.
The House passed the bill on May 28, returning the measure to the Senate, where debate consumed the Senate’s entire June schedule. Democrats still wanted to help governors with their payrolls but ultimately acceded to cutting it by one-third and paying for it partly with cuts from last year’s stimulus bill. Even that measure failed just before Congress recessed for the July 4 holiday.
Reid is now resigned to a stand-alone six-month extension of unemployment benefits at a cost of $33 billion. Aides say he will try to pass it when West Virginia Gov. Joe Manchin names a successor to fill the seat of Democratic Sen. Robert C. Byrd, who died two weeks ago. Those who lost benefits will get them retroactively.
Democrats also maintain hopes of passing a $16 billion aid package for governors aimed at preserving the jobs of tens of thousands of state workers through the election. They intend to pay for it in part by cutting food stamp benefits.

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According to Uncle Sam’s Accountants…

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

These are the figures for U.S. Trade per Country….

Call me crazy– but first : I don’t believe ‘all’ the figures
and secondly I just keep thinking ‘ what exactly did we trade for that couldn’t of been produced here?”

And why the hell do we trade with our enemies???? To win their hearts and minds…?  How about winning your own citizens hearts and minds so they can get back to work, make a liveable wage, stay healthy… and pay into their own systems .

This is what BP is saying…

       http://www.bp.com/bodycopyarticle.do?categoryId=1&contentId=7052055

The above link is to their site….

Thought you all might be interested…

General… oh General….

Nation building in Afghanistan is not our job— it is theirs.

By Eugene Robinson
Friday, June 25, 2010
Washington Post

The good news? Nobody has to pretend anymore that Gen. Stanley McChrystal knew how to fix Afghanistan within a year. The bad news? No
President Obama was absolutely right to sack the preening McChrystal, whose inner circle, as portrayed in Rolling Stone magazine, had all the seriousness and decorum of a frat house keg party. And it was a brilliant political move to turn to Petraeus, who is made of purest Teflon. Critics who might have been tempted to blast the president for changing horses in midstream can hardly object when he has given the reins to the man who averted a humiliating U.S. defeat in Iraq.
Note that I didn’t credit Petraeus with “winning” in Iraq. He didn’t. What he managed to do was redeem the situation to the point where the United States could begin bringing home its combat troops. If the Obama administration’s aims in Afghanistan are recalibrated to accommodate objective reality, then Petraeus can succeed there, too. But this means that the general’s assignment should be a narrow one: Lay the groundwork for a U.S. withdrawal to begin next summer, as Obama has pledged.
After relieving McChrystal of his command Wednesday, Obama called in his national security team and read the riot act. No more bickering, sniping, backbiting or name-calling, the president ordered. Play nice.
But all the comity in the world doesn’t resolve the essential tension between those who believe our goal in Afghanistan should be defined as “victory” and those who believe it should be defined as “finding the exit.” Two thousand years of history are on the side of the “exit” camp, and the fact is that at some point we’re going to leave. The question is how much time will pass — and how many more young Americans will be killed or wounded — before that inevitable day comes.

McChrystal, who designed the counterinsurgency strategy being attempted in Afghanistan, didn’t disguise his opposition to administration officials such as Vice President Biden, Ambassador Karl Eikenberry and special envoy Richard Holbrooke, who questioned whether the strategy could work. Petraeus is far too good a politician to fall into that trap. He won’t allow any daylight between himself and the civilian leadership.
But ultimately, there’s going to be no way to avoid the central question: What kind of Afghanistan will we leave behind?
One answer would be that we have to leave in place a durable, functional central government that has full legitimacy and control within the nation’s borders. This would provide the United States with a reliable ally in a dangerous region and also ensure that Afghanistan would never again be used as a launching pad for attacks by al-Qaeda. But to get the country to that point, given where it is now, could take a decade or more of sustained, concentrated attention. It would mean not just defeating the Taliban but molding the regime of Afghan President Hamid Karzai into a reasonably honest, effective government. This would be a tall order even if Karzai were a stable, consistent, loyal partner. Does anybody believe that he is?
A better answer would be that it’s enough to leave behind an Afghanistan that no longer poses a serious threat to the United States or its vital interests. Nation-building would be the Afghans’ problem, not ours.
Petraeus was successful in Iraq because he realized that he couldn’t create an Athenian democracy in Baghdad. But the highly imperfect Iraqi government is light-years beyond what the general is likely to be able to achieve in Kabul. Even after the war, Iraq was left with modern infrastructure, a highly educated and sophisticated population, and a sizable percentage of the world’s proven oil reserves. Afghanistan has none of these advantages. The political culture is stubbornly medieval; the populace is poor, uneducated and wary of foreign influences. Afghanistan does have great mineral wealth, apparently, but no mining industry to dig it out and no railroads to get it to the marketplace.
In recent testimony before Congress, Petraeus was less than definitive when asked about Obama’s July 2011 deadline. Because he has such credibility and standing in Washington, his view on when we can begin to leave Afghanistan will be more important than McChrystal’s ever was. I hope that by putting Petraeus in charge of the war, President Obama hasn’t consigned us to a longer stay. His comments Thursday seem to indicate the possibility.

Oh– and I can bet you that Petraeus told the President that he would accept this position with a few conditions– Like ‘Hey I am a Battle Field General.. And I want to WIN, [ like there is such a thing as win] not mandy-pandy around. I am going to make a few changes to your rules of combat– LIKE allow the men to shoot!!!!!” “ Oh and by the way, Rolling Stone Mag, set up McChrystal!”

America’s Relatively Unknown Disaster

Right here in the middle of Tennessee:

(Posted on behalf of Lynda by BuelahMan)

There are no words….

Home for Sale! Pass it along!

In these times I figured being proactive with my house sale at least makes me feel like I have some control…lol
http://knoxville.craigslist.org/reb/1647273342.html

Pass this along to folks… ya never know who is looking for an awesome home for an awesome price!

Sodom to left of me, Sodom to the right of me…

WTF happened to this child??? Moral and Social Protective Systems everywhere are shot to hell!!!!!

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1263147977500&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

A 12-year-old boy whose mother was convicted of raping him was also allegedly raped at a boarding school and while under the care of the foster family he was subsequently placed with, police suspect.
In 2008, the boy’s mother, of Netivot, was arrested for raping her son and his younger brother in what she said was “vengeance against my husband.” Now, police suspect that the boy’s nightmare of sexual assault continued after the state placed him in a boarding school and under the care of a foster family.
The boy stayed at a boarding school in Bnei Brak after his father, who had since remarried, refused to take him due to objections by his new spouse. He spent weekends and holidays with a foster family from central Israel located by his father.
The boy’s foster mother filed a police complaint against her 51-year-old husband in December at a Rosh Ha’ayin police station, alleging that her husband regularly sodomized the boy. The couple are in the midst of divorce proceedings.
The woman also told police that the boy was sexually assaulted by his councilor at the boarding school.
The councilor, 30, has confessed to police and is expected to be indicted by state prosecutors this week. The boy’s foster father was arrested on Sunday night after having disappeared and apparently evaded police. He has denied all charges.
The woman who lodged the complaint is suspected of not reporting the alleged abuse for several months despite being aware of it.
Police say the boy is facing extreme emotional hardships. He has been sent to a new foster family in a different city.

I want to know what happened to his brother… and the fact that one woman took awhile before she reported the sexual abuse by her husband seems to give her no credit for finally working through fear or whatever and getting it reported!