Awwwwwwww
posted by The Vidiot @ 4:45 PM Permalink We feel so bad. Really.Even millionaires are feeling the economic squeeze, with many saying they don’t even “feel” wealthy.
Labels: snark
Even millionaires are feeling the economic squeeze, with many saying they don’t even “feel” wealthy.
Labels: snark
The latest contribution to good government from Vice President Dick Cheney: preventing the implementation of rules to protect the endangered right whale.I mean, you can't even make this shit up.
Labels: darth cheney
Albert Hofmann, 102, a Swiss chemist and accidental father of LSD who came to view the much-vilified and abused hallucinogen he discovered in 1938 as his "problem child," died April 29 at his home in Burg, a village near Basel, Switzerland, after a heart attack.Mike McConnel and the senior staff at the CIA mourns the loss of this pioneer in the use of psycho-tropic drugs to torture unsuspecting prisoners, people selected off the street at random, and staff alike.
Labels: snark
The head of the agency that administers federal contracts has resigned amid allegations of engaging in illegal political activities and doling out no-bid awards.I believe that this establishes a new record: Someone NOT citing the, "I need to spend more time with my family," anticipatory defense to future corruption allegations.
The General Services Administration on Wednesday announced the departure of Lurita Doan, who was appointed by President Bush two years ago.
The White House made no mention of why Doan resigned in an e-mailed statement that noted the president's gratitude for her service.
Labels: Bushco, Conservatives, conspiracy, corptocracy, corruption, disinformation, GOP, lies, neocons
Aw, c'mon, honey, I won't c*m in your mouth again like last time, I promise.And remember, we Southerners may not always be right, but by golly we're never wrong. Besides which, I NEVER lie unless I am alone or with someone or under the influence of alcohol, sex, drugs, and rock & roll.
Of course I believe you're a 'good girl' and I'll still respect you in the morning.
Don't foreclose yet! The check's in the mail!
Give us another six months and we will win in Iraq!
The surge is working! We're really making progress now!
The rising death toll for American troops shows we're winning!
The rising numbers of Iraqi fatalities proves the surge is working!
The lack of political progress in Iraq is a sign that the surge is working!
We are not in a recession!
The fundamentals of our economy are sound!
The Iraqi Oil War has nothing to do with oil.
The coming Iranian Oil War has nothing to do with oil.
The coming Venezuela Oil War has nothing to do with oil.
Inflation is low!
Unemployment is down and jobs are up!
Children like going to bed hungry!
Seniors just hate taking medicine all the time.
Israel is in full compliance with U.N. Resolution 242!
And you can get all the truthful important news that counts from Fox News Channel.
ADDITION: "I'm resigning my post in the administration to spend more time with my family."
Labels: liars, lies, more Bush lies, mortgage crisis, Oil, Spokes liars, subprime loans
So, here is the point. If Barack Obama shares the guilt-by-association of a Pastor who says inflammatory things, then Hillary has to share the guilt-by-association with drug smugglers, pimps, and child molesters.
Labels: 2008 election, politics, Religion
More than a quarter of senators and congressmen have invested at least $196 million of their own money in companies doing business with the Department of Defense (DoD) that profit from the death and destruction in Iraq.No wonder they voted for it.
Labels: corporate greed, politics
Consumer Confidence Slips as Home Prices DropThere can be no consumer confidence as long as the Republican Party is in charge as one of the stated aims of the party is to minimize government until they, "can drown it in a bathtub…" and thereby destroy America.
Vote Republican and Help Finish Destroying America!We don't need just peace movements, we need to restore our government and destroy the Republican Party. Put an end to it. Kill it, stake it through the heart, decapitate it, set it afire, and when only faint embers are left WE need to drown them and extinguish any hope of a Republican restarting the fire.
Labels: conspiracy, corruption, Economy, GOP, neocons, republican party
Labels: conspiracy, corruption, disinformation, Economy, fear mongering, foreclosures, hypocrisy, inhumane cruelty., iran war prep, Iraq war, neocons, police state, republican party, US hegemony, USA
‘Day of Silence’ Spurs ProtestIsn't it just like these christofascists to reject Jesus' teachings to complain about students' silent protest regarding the bullying and murdering of their fellow students for being gay.
A one-day school boycott is urged to counter support for bullied gay students
Some conservative groups are urging parents to keep children home from school today if their fellow students will be taking part in the annual Day of Silence observation.
Thousands of middle- and high-school students across the nation, including some in the Triangle, plan to take a vow of silence today to bring attention to the bullying of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered students.
[...]
But this year, a network of local and national conservative groups is calling for a boycott. They claim that allowing some students to be silent in class will not only promote homosexuality, it also will disrupt education.
“If you’re not going to be educated that day, why let them go to school?” said Bill Brooks, executive director of the N.C. Family Policy Council, one of the groups encouraging parents to consider taking their children out of school today.
[...]
Groups such as the American Family Association have developed forms for parents to use to argue that their children should get an excused absence if they boycott school today.
[...]
Matt Wight, principal of Apex High School, said he has heard from parents who have asked why the school is participating. He said he has explained to them that it’s a student-sponsored event.
“My sense is people are getting misinformation and it’s being manipulated into being a school-sponsored event,” Wight said.
But Creech said it doesn’t matter whether the event is student sponsored. He said a school is complicit if it allows students to remain silent.
[...]
This year’s Day of Silence is in remembrance of a 15-year-old California student who was killed by a classmate in February because of his sexual orientation.
[...]
Creech said such activities normalize homosexuality.
Labels: bad Religion
The Justice Department has told Congress that American intelligence operatives attempting to thwart terrorist attacks can legally use interrogation methods that might otherwise be prohibited under international law.[…]Aw, c'mon people! Under these terms any one of us could be snatched off the street and tortured just because your next door neighbor is tired of your barking dog and calls in a report that you are engaged in 'terrorist activity.'
“The fact that an act is undertaken to prevent a threatened terrorist attack, rather than for the purpose of humiliation or abuse, would be relevant to a reasonable observer in measuring the outrageousness of the act,” said Brian A. Benczkowski, a deputy assistant attorney general, in the letter, which had not previously been made public.[…]
If the United States used subjective standards in applying its interrogation rules, he said, then potential enemies might adopt different standards of treatment for American detainees based on an officer’s rank or other factors.
“The cumulative effect in my interpretation is to put American troops at risk,” Mr. Wyden said.
Labels: Bush, bush as chimp, bush war doctrine, cheney, cheney secrecy, CIA, civil liberties, civil rights, conspiracy, corruption, disinformation, hypocrisy, inhumane cruelty., military industrial complex
Why is Richard Cheney now spending an estimated $1,500,000 to construct a 12,765 square-foot "bungalow" with four bedrooms, nine baths and his and hers libraries with fireplaces on his long-vacant lot at 1126 Chain Bridge Road [in Fairfax County, Virginia, across the Potomac from Washington DC.]?Interesting indeed.
Does this have any implications as to when George Bush's term will come to an end, or Cheney's plans to continue to influence American policies? After eight long years of pain intentionally inflicted upon Americans and tens of millions of others worldwide, what further damage does Cheney have in store?
Labels: cheney
The nation's top military officer said yesterday that the Pentagon is planning for "potential military courses of action" as one of several options against Iran, criticizing what he called the Tehran government's "increasingly lethal and malign influence" in Iraq.It's official, people.
Labels: bush war doctrine, conspiracy, disinformation, more Bush lies, neocons, propaganda, US hegemony
Labels: police state, state power
In announcing his verdict in the non-jury trial, the judge said that the inconsistent testimony, courtroom demeanor and rap sheets of the prosecution witnesses — mainly Bell's friends — "had the effect of eviscerating" their credibility.But of course their testimony sounds more credible, because these cops are in courtrooms on a daily basis, they're trained on how to behave in court and coached by expensive lawyers. And the uniform, in itself, makes them appear more credible in the eyes or the so-called 'decent' of the American society as well as the courtroom. The courtroom is the police officers' backyard, their turf, where they have authority and are well respected. It is their home-field advantage.
Labels: police state, power, racism
It is more than a little suspicious that the ever-secretive Bush administration has suddenly decided to go public with what it knows about North Korea’s nuclear connection with Syria. After seven months of refusing to acknowledge Israel’s air strike last Sept. 6 on a suspected Syrian nuclear reactor, the intelligence community has now provided Congress with video images showing North Koreans inside the secret facility.This is so utterly asinine it's hard to know where to start, so I'll keep it to a single point.
It is another example of this administration insisting that information be withheld for national security reasons — until there is a political reason to release it.[…]
Israel’s attack has at least ensured that the Syrian reactor will not be a threat.…
Labels: Bush, bush as chimp, bush war doctrine, disinformation, Israel, liars, propaganda, secrecy, US hegemony
"Unfortunately, the direction for the foreseeable future is down."From a NYT Editorial.
Labels: Bush, bush as chimp, bush war doctrine, Censorship, conspiracy, corruption, cronyism, disinformation, Economy, hypocrisy, more Bush lies, scandal
Labels: brooklyn, scabby the rat, unions
Labels: bush as chimp, bush war doctrine, disinformation, neocons, propaganda, rant, US hegemony
One of the toughest questions that will face the next president is what to do about taxes. There can be no real progress on health care, rebuilding the military or any other major issue without dealing with rising budget deficits and mounting debt from nearly eight years of profligate spending and tax breaks for the wealthy.I absolutely agree and have known for some time now that this country is not long going to be able to maintain a viable government at the current rate of spending.
This is the reality:
To restore the health of the budget, let alone keep ambitious campaign pledges for spending more money, the next president, regardless of which party wins, will have to tax the American people more than any of the candidates has been willing to admit.
Senator John McCain’s tax talk is particularly divorced from reality
Labels: Budget, Bush, bush as chimp, bush war doctrine, conspiracy, corruption, disinformation, economics, flip-flops, foreign policy, military industrial complex, neocons
Labels: Supreme Court
VA Hid Suicide Risk, Internal E-Mails ShowIn related news:
In San Francisco federal court Monday, attorneys for veterans' rights groups accused the U.S. Department of Veteran's Affairs of nothing less than a cover-up - deliberately concealing the real risk of suicide among veterans.
[...]
The charges were backed by internal e-mails written by Dr. Ira Katz, the VA's head of Mental Health.
In the past, Katz has repeatedly insisted while the risk of suicide among veterans is serious, it's not outside the norm.
"There is no epidemic in suicide in VA," Katz told Keteyian in November.
But in this e-mail to his top media adviser, written two months ago, Katz appears to be saying something very different, stating: "Our suicide prevention coordinators are identifying about 1,000 suicide attempts per month among veterans we see in our medical facilities."
Katz's e-mail was written shortly after the VA provided CBS News data showing there were only 790 attempted suicides in all 2007 - a fraction of Katz's estimate.
[...]
And it appears that Katz went out of his way to conceal these numbers.
First, he titled his e-mail: "Not for the CBS News Interview Request."
He opened it with "Shh!" - as in keep it quiet - before ending with
"Is this something we should (carefully) address … before someone stumbles on it?"
[...]
Last November when CBS News exposed an epidemic of more than 6,200 suicides in 2005 among those who had served in the military, Katz attacked our report.
"Their number is not, in fact, an accurate reflection of the rate," he said last November.
But it turns out they were, as Katz admitted in this e-mail, just three days later.
He wrote: there "are about 18 suicides per day among America's 25 million veterans."
That works out to about 6,570 per year, which Katz admits in the same e-mail, "is supported by the CBS numbers."
In 2005, for example, in just those 45 states, there were at least 6,256 suicides among those who served in the armed forces. That’s 120 each and every week, in just one year.Obviously, aside from the song lyric at the top of the post, suicide isn't painless. For an individual to commit, or even attempt, suicide they have to be in overwhelming pain. And the individual doesn't care whether it's physical or mental. And the pain inflicted on their families is probably worse.
Dr. Steve Rathbun is the acting head of the Epidemiology and Biostatistics Department at the University of Georgia. CBS News asked him to run a detailed analysis of the raw numbers that we obtained from state authorities for 2004 and 2005.
It found that veterans were more than twice as likely to commit suicide in 2005 than non-vets. (Veterans committed suicide at the rate of between 18.7 to 20.8 per 100,000, compared to other Americans, who did so at the rate of 8.9 per 100,000.)
One age group stood out. Veterans aged 20 through 24, those who have served during the war on terror. They had the highest suicide rate among all veterans, estimated between two and four times higher than civilians the same age. (The suicide rate for non-veterans is 8.3 per 100,000, while the rate for veterans was found to be between 22.9 and 31.9 per 100,000.)
Labels: Iraq war, more Bush lies, veteran health care
"The proposed version, which you have sent over, has been shared with staff, and is now going through final technical stages. It is true that it caused a few titters among some staff when viewed on its side, but on consideration we concluded that the effect was generic to the particular combination of the letters 'OGC' - and is not inappropriate to an organisation that's looking to have a firm grip on government spend!"
Hillary Clinton emerged from her hole in Pennsylvania yesterday, looked around, and saw her shadow of a chance at victory. Sorry, folks; looks like six more weeks of primary season.
Labels: 2008 election, clinton, Obama
Sarah Medhurst (nee Black) shocked journalists and legal scholars at a press conference held at the Black family estate Monday when she revealed that Black's Law Dictionary, a highly regarded legal reference text, was originally written as a joke by her eccentric great grandfather Henry Campbell Black.I'm guilty of only reading the article superficially, so I can't really judge its 'truthiness.' But honestly, if the article itself isn't satire, then the whole thing is like, totally AWESOME.
Labels: lawyers
The United States has less than 5 percent of the world’s population. But it has almost a quarter of the world’s prisoners.No, sir, them thar communist countries and others who ain't even communist pale in comparison to America when it comes to jailing every citizen they can, for whatever reason they can imagine, while ignoring solutions to prison overcrowding since privatized prisons are now profit making ventures that depend on a steady stream of bodies to keep them profitable.
Indeed, the United States leads the world in producing prisoners, a reflection of a relatively recent and now entirely distinctive American approach to crime and punishment. Americans are locked up for crimes — from writing bad checks to using drugs — that would rarely produce prison sentences in other countries. And in particular they are kept incarcerated far longer than prisoners in other nations.
Criminologists and legal scholars in other industrialized nations say they are mystified and appalled by the number and length of American prison sentences.
The United States has, for instance, 2.3 million criminals behind bars, more than any other nation, according to data maintained by the International Center for Prison Studies at King’s College London.
China, which is four times more populous than the United States, is a distant second, with 1.6 million people in prison. (That number excludes hundreds of thousands of people held in administrative detention, most of them in China’s extrajudicial system of re-education through labor, which often singles out political activists who have not committed crimes.)
[PROPAGANDA ALERT!] There is little question that the high incarceration rate here has helped drive down crime, though there is debate about how much.[PROPAGANDA ALERT STAND DOWN! BILL][…]This is really a fairly well written article, but assumes facts not in evidence and draws conclusions only a government bean-counter with an agenda would love. Let's examine the propaganda:
It used to be that Europeans came to the United States to study its prison systems. They came away impressed.[…]
Prison sentences here have become “vastly harsher than in any other country to which the United States would ordinarily be compared,” Michael H. Tonry, a leading authority on crime policy, wrote in “The Handbook of Crime and Punishment.”
Indeed, said Vivien Stern, a research fellow at the prison studies center in London, the American incarceration rate has made the United States “a rogue state, a country that has made a decision not to follow what is a normal Western approach.”[…]
People who commit nonviolent crimes in the rest of the world are less likely to receive prison time and certainly less likely to receive long sentences. The United States is, for instance, the only advanced country that incarcerates people for minor property crimes like passing bad checks, Mr. Whitman wrote.
Efforts to combat illegal drugs play a major role in explaining long prison sentences in the United States as well. In 1980, there were about 40,000 people in American jails and prisons for drug crimes. These days, there are almost 500,000.
Those figures have drawn contempt from European critics. “The U.S. pursues the war on drugs with an ignorant fanaticism,” said Ms. Stern of King’s College.[…]
[PROPAGANDA ALERT!] Many American prosecutors, on the other hand, say that locking up people involved in the drug trade is imperative, as it helps thwart demand for illegal drugs and drives down other kinds of crime. Attorney General Michael B. Mukasey, for instance, has fought hard to prevent the early release of people in federal prison on crack cocaine offenses, saying that many of them “are among the most serious and violent offenders.” [PROPAGANDA ALERT STAND DOWN! BILL]
[PROPAGANDA ALERT!] Whatever the reasons, there is little dispute that America’s exceptional incarceration rate has had an impact on crime.[PROPAGANDA ALERT STAND DOWN. BILL] […]
[PROPAGANDA ALERT!] Other commentators were more definitive. “The simple truth is that imprisonment works,” wrote Kent Scheidegger and Michael Rushford of the Criminal Justice Legal Foundation in The Stanford Law and Policy Review. “Locking up criminals for longer periods reduces the level of crime. The benefits of doing so far offset the costs.” [PROPAGANDA ALERT STAND DOWN! BILL]
The rate of violent crime in America increased last year for the first time since 1991, according to a new FBI report. The increase coincides with dramatic cuts to state and local law enforcement funding by Republicans each year since President Bush took office. The $2.3 billion recently approved by the House amounts to nearly half of the $4.5 billion appropriated in 2001.So it would seem that Clinton's program of putting 100,000 extra police on the streets reduced the crime rate. Take away that extra funding and whoosh!, back up goes the crime rates.
To put this into concrete terms, the average cost of a prisoner remains generally between $20,000 and $30,000 per year in various systems. Again, consider California, which is facing a truly dangerous crisis of overcrowding and recidivism in its system. In that state, the annual cost of a prisoner is over $26,000. The cost of an older or geriatric inmate is likely between $40,000 to $70,000 per year. Obviously, due to serious illness and disability, it is not uncommon to find geriatric inmates who cost the system in excess of $100,000 per year.I guess I could go on and on, but why is this article espousing incarceration of people for even minor crimes with low recidivism rate at this time?
Labels: broadway, civil rights, class warfare, corruption, Courts, criminal justice system, disinformation, propaganda
Condoleezza Rice mocks Sadr as a coward.That's rich coming from Rice who has to sneak into Baghdad unannounced for a six hour tour and still has to duck and cover several times in the Green Zone during her stealth visit.
“Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice mocked anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr as a coward on Sunday, hours after the radical leader threatened to declare war unless U.S. and Iraqi forces end a military crackdown on his followers.”[...] VetVoice’s Brandon Friedman notes that this echoes Bush’s “Bring ‘em on.”
U.S. and Iran find common ground in Iraq's Shiite conflictIt's hardly an original thought, but CondiLiar's challenge to the second most powerful faction in Iraq smacks of Bush stating "Bring 'em on"
Labels: iran war prep, Iraq war, more Bush lies
The life of 20-year-old Emine, and her 24-year-old husband Ramazan Çalçoban was pretty much the normal life of any couple in a separation process. After deciding to split up, the two kept having bitter arguments over the cellphone, sending text messages to each other until one day Ramazan wrote "you change the topic every time you run out of arguments." That day, the lack of a single dot over a letter—product of a faulty localization of the cellphone's typing system—caused a chain of events that ended in a violent blood bath.Additionally, it is very hard to communicate snark via email.
Labels: texting
"Existing home sales decline as housing slump continues" washingtonpost.comAnd this is just the easy stuff to find from only two newspapers.
"Dollar slumps to new record low versus euro" washingtonpost.com
"Triple-A Failure" NYT where it is stated: …Presumably to forestall criticism and possible legislation, Moody’s and S.&P. have announced reforms.…
"Oil Rises Above $118 a Barrel on Supply Concerns" NYT
"Fuel Costs Pummel Airlines in First Quarter" NYT
"Stocks Fall as Investors Analyze Earnings Reports" also from NYT
"Price Volatility Adds to Worry on U.S. Farms" NYT
"Re-examining Nafta in Hopes of Curing U.S. Manufacturing" NYT
Labels: bush as chimp, Conservatives, conspiracy, consumerism, corporate greed, corruption, cronyism, disinformation, Economy, flip-flops, foreclosures, hypocrisy, NOLA, propaganda
Labels: bush as chimp, Bushco, cheney secrecy, disclosure
Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Monday the Air Force is not doing enough to help in the Iraq and Afghanistan war effort, complaining that some military leaders are "stuck in old ways of doing business."So in other words Gates is pleading for the equipment they should have had ready before the war commenced, just like body armor, and specially armored vehicles for the troops.
Gates said in a speech at Maxwell Air Force Base, Ala., that getting the Air Force to send more surveillance and reconnaissance aircraft to Iraq and Afghanistan has been "like pulling teeth."
Addressing officer students at the Air Force's Air University, the Pentagon chief praised the Air Force for its overall contributions but made a point of urging it to do more and to undertake new and creative ways of thinking about helping the war effort instead of focusing mainly on future threats.
"In my view we can do and we should do more to meet the needs of men and women fighting in the current conflicts while their outcome may still be in doubt," he said. "My concern is that our services are still not moving aggressively in wartime to provide resources needed now on the battlefield."[…]
He likened the urgency of the task force's work to that of a similar organization he created last year to push for faster production and deployment of mine-resistant, ambush-protected armored vehicles that have been credited with saving lives of troops facing attacks by roadside bombs in Iraq.
Labels: bush as chimp, bush war doctrine, Bushco, cheney, disinformation, GWOT, military industrical complex, propaganda
Unlike many hard drives, which show strengths and weaknesses in our tests, the $300 VelociRaptor actually demonstrated its strength across the PC World Test Center's entire suite of hard drive tests. In one of its most impressive feats, the VelociRaptor required just 89 seconds to write 3.06GB of files and folders, besting the next-best drive in our chart, the Western Digital Caviar SE16 750GB, by 32 seconds--a 26 percent improvement.I used to get excited about this stuff. Imagine! 32 seconds faster, a 26% speed increase! Wow!
Edward Lorenz, father of chaos theory, dead at 90For the vox populi I'll just mention he's responsible for the phrase 'butterfly effect.'
Labels: science
Labels: papal visit, Pope
then you've got bigger problems with your higher brain function.To the public, these men are members of a familiar fraternity, presented tens of thousands of times on television and radio as “military analysts” whose long service has equipped them to give authoritative and unfettered judgments about the most pressing issues of the post-Sept. 11 world.
Hidden behind that appearance of objectivity, though, is a Pentagon information apparatus that has used those analysts in a campaign to generate favorable news coverage of the administration’s wartime performance, an examination by The New York Times has found.
Labels: propaganda
Al-Qaida No. 2 al-Zawahri says US options in Iraq all badAt least someone is calling a spade a spade and telling America how it is on the other side of the world in bush's Oil War. Why are Republicans just genetically incapable of telling the truth?
Labels: al-Qaeda, bush as chimp, bush war doctrine, elections, fear mongering, hypocrisy, propaganda
In a statement entitled "Bush's Neanderthal speech," German Environment Minister Sigmar Gabriel said: "His speech showed not leadership but losership. We are glad that there are also other voices in the United States."Quick! Someone call David Brooks and tell him what real people are saying for attribution about his Fearful Leader, on the record and not hiding behind some made up or anonymous clown from the right wing speaking anonymously.
Labels: bush as chimp, climate change, corruption, disinformation, environment, free and independent press, human rights, liars, more Bush lies, neocons, propaganda
Then he made an iron vow to get American troops out of Iraq within 16 months. Neither Obama nor anyone else has any clue what the conditions will be like when the next president takes office. He could have responsibly said that he aims to bring the troops home but will make a judgment at the time. Instead, he rigidly locked himself into a policy that will not be fully implemented for another three years.This is from an opinion column from David Brooks of the NYT (I will not link to him and cause our readers unnecessary pain from his poison prose).
If Obama is elected, he will either go back on this pledge — in which case he would destroy his credibility — or he will risk genocide in the region and a viciously polarizing political war at home.
When Obama began this ride, he seemed like a transcendent figure who could understand a wide variety of life experiences. But over the past months, things have happened that make him seem more like my old neighbors in Hyde Park in Chicago.Damn Obama with faint praise and then let the vitriol begin!
John Judis and Ruy Teixeira have estimated a Democrat has to win 45 percent of such voters to take the White House. I’ve asked several of the most skillful Democratic politicians over the past few weeks, and they all think that’s going to be hard."…several of the most skillful Democratic politicians…" My goodness, that rings as true as, "…an unidentified senior administration official," an, "unidentified White House source," a, "person who is not authorized to release this information," or, "someone in government who isn't authorized to reveal the contents of…" and all the other chickedsh*t mealy-mouthed, weasel-worded, utter nonsense spouted by opinion writers who absolutely must make themselves appear as if they are more knowledgeable, intelligent, insightful, and just as good as plain old-fashioned prognosticators able to accurately see the future.
Labels: Barrack Obama, class warfare, disinformation, elections, prejudice, presidential candidates, propaganda
Iraqis often complain about the problems in their country and the government's lack of obvious progress in solving them.But as drivers in traffic-clogged Baghdad learned this week, Iraqi officials are taking action in one area: strict enforcement of a seat belt law.
The enforcement of seat belt laws will:
Even as he came on stage to give the keynote address at the National Association of Broadcasters Show in Las Vegas, it was obvious that Tim Robbins' remarks had caused controversy backstage. The Academy Award-winning actor and critically acclaimed screenwriter, director and producer first indicated to the audience that he would not be giving his speech. Then, floor agents of the NAB organizers ordered journalists' video cameras turned off. An NAB spokesman later said Mr. Robbins contract had a "no filming" clause. Ultimately, Mr. Robbins changed his mind and started talking. Listen to the six best minutes of the speech.
Labels: MSM
Labels: Afghanistan war, Bush, bush war doctrine, conspiracy, corruption, hypocrisy, Pakistan, US hegemony
The delivery by Russia of nuclear fuel to Iran probably says more about Russia's attitude towards Iran and the West than it does about Iran's nuclear intentions.Our ally and friend Russia is certainly not the only government to have made substantial investments in Iran and would probably look with disfavor upon any other country or countries that would start bombing the nuclear plant that no doubt costs several hundreds of millions of dollars to build, but also represents long-term contracts with Russia and others for the supplying of enriched uranium.
It appears that Russia is unconcerned about Western fears over Iran. The implication is that it will not easily agree to an increase in UN sanctions on Iran.
The fuel, enriched uranium, is to be used in the nuclear plant near Bushehr in southern Iran. This plant is quite separate from Iran's own uranium enrichment facility at Natanz. The Bushehr power station has been under construction for a long time and is under international inspection.[…]
Russia itself has enriched the uranium for Bushehr. The argument about Iran is that Iran should not do the enrichment, in case it one day uses the technology to make a nuclear bomb.
Nevertheless, Western governments had hoped that Russia would delay delivery, in order to increase the pressure on Iran over its enrichment policy.
"It appears that Russia has decided that there is no longer a political reason to hold up the provision of fuel," said Mark Fitzpatrick, nuclear expert at the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London.
"An important factor was probably the continuation of the International Atomic Energy Agency's work with Iran on questions about its past activities. The recent report from US intelligence in the National Intelligence Estimate [that Iran was not actively seeking a nuclear weapon] probably confirmed the Russian view.[…]
"Russia has probably concluded that Iran is not going to be dissuaded and that enrichment is a fait accompli. Others still believe Iran can be persuaded."[…]
Bushehr is on the verge of completion as a nuclear power plant.
Russia has agreed to supply it with the enriched uranium needed as fuel.[…]
Russia might feel that, since Iran is being offered such a deal, its own delivery of fuel is consistent with that policy.
Labels: Bush, bush war doctrine, diplomacy, disinformation, Economy, hypocrisy, iran war prep, neocons, US hegemony
Lost in the Hillary Rodham Clinton campaign's aggressive attacks on Barack Obama in recent days is a deep and enduring problem that threatens to undercut any inroads Clinton has made in her struggle to overtake him in the Democratic presidential race: She has lost trust among voters, a majority of whom now view her as dishonest.I know that no poll can ever give the definitive answer to any question as it is well known that a poll just represents,"…a snapshot in time," and only represents the current views, which are malleable, of the persons taking the poll. I do, however think that this poll reflects the self-inflicted damage of a candidate who will do or say anything to get elected and say the hell with her party and the fact that she is loading the Republicans up with plenty of ammunition to attack Obama.
Her advisers' efforts to deal with the problem -- by having her acknowledge her mistakes and crack self-deprecating jokes -- do not seem to have succeeded. Privately, the aides admit that the recent controversy over her claim to have ducked sniper fire on a trip to Bosnia probably made things worse.
Clinton is viewed as "honest and trustworthy" by just 39 percent of Americans, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll, compared with 52 percent in May 2006. Nearly six in 10 said in the new poll that she is not honest and trustworthy. And now, compared with Obama, Clinton has a deep trust deficit among Democrats, trailing him by 23 points as the more honest, an area on which she once led both Obama and John Edwards.
Among Democrats, 63 percent called her honest, down 18 points from 2006; among independents, her trust level has dropped 13 points, to 37 percent. Republicans held Clinton in low regard on this in the past (23 percent called her honest two years ago), but it is even lower now, at 16 percent. Majorities of men and women now say the phrase does not apply to Clinton[…]This drop in numbers for Hillary just reinforces my belief that if you lie simply to try and gain some nebulous advantage, even when the truth of the matter gives away the lie, people are naturally going to distrust the candidate.
Advisers argue that her positive ratings have dipped as she has been defined by her opponents… and that her honesty problem reflects the pounding she took from Republicans in the 1990s. But the Bosnia incident and the way the campaign handled it have left advisers divided over what a candidate can do after such a steep drop in trust.
Some of her aides believe that after Clinton told the Bosnia story -- of having run from her military aircraft into a hangar to avoid sniper fire -- when television images of the event showed otherwise, the campaign had no choice but to say she "misspoke."[…]
Other Clinton advisers thought that response did not come quickly enough -- and that when it did, without further explanation or talking points for surrogates to use, it only worsened the perception that she had lied.[…]
"Continuing to say it did happen when it didn't happen is not a strategy," one adviser said.[…]
Senior Clinton advisers argued that the Bosnia story would not have developed the way it did if it were not for a story line about Clinton that goes back to the 1990s, when scandals involving the first lady, including the firings in the White House travel office and her financial dealings, resulted in widespread doubts about her trustworthiness.[…]
The percentage calling Clinton honest has dropped steeply among whites with higher incomes and levels of education.[…]
The percentage of white Democrats without college degrees calling Clinton honest hardly budged in two years, while those with college degrees have dropped off significantly on the question (from 82 percent to 53 percent).[…]
Among whites, the percentage saying Clinton is honest and trustworthy has declined 10 points, compared with 26 points among nonwhites. That number has declined more sharply among liberals (down 30 points) than among moderates (down 13) or conservatives (down 4 points). Head to head with Obama on honesty among Democrats, Clinton faces a 23-point deficit overall, 17 points among whites and nearly 50 points among African Americans.
Labels: 2008 election, corruption, cronyism, disinformation, economics, Economy, flip-flops, Hillary, hypocrisy, polls, propaganda
Labels: Barrack Obama, fox news, MSM, Religion, wright
Official Says Fraud Loophole Was A ‘Mistake’And in related news:
The Bush administration inadvertently exempted foreign contracts in Iraq from fraud oversight, a top administration official said Tuesday, resulting in a loophole that Rep. Peter Welch, D-Vt., said could have protected private firms that steal taxpayer money.
[...]
The administration removed the single paragraph exemption on Monday, hours before a House panel convened a hearing to question officials about its origin and to debate legislation introduced by Welch to close the loophole and punish fraudulent contractors.
[...]
The White House opposes the measure, saying proposed regulations would implement the same requirements as the legislation.
The Professional Services Council, a trade association that represents more than 300 contractors, like Blackwater Worldwide and KBR, for the former subsidiary of Halliburton, strongly opposes Welch’s legislation.
Fraud Loophole Documents Delayed
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Bush administration has delayed delivering documents to Congress explaining how a multibillion-dollar loophole exempting overseas work from scrutiny was slipped into a rule intended to crack down on fraud in government contracts.
Labels: corruption, more Bush lies
Labels: snark
Labels: Bush, bush war doctrine, criminal justice system, war crimes
The Internal Revenue Service expects to lose more than $37 million by using private debt collectors to pursue tax scofflaws through a program that has outraged consumers and led to charges on Capitol Hill that the agency is wasting money for work that IRS agents could do more effectively.Not to be outdone or worst yet see only Democratic Party quotes, Republicans leapt to defend this wasteful program.
Since 2006, the agency has used three companies to go after a $1 billion slice of the nation's unpaid taxes. Despite aggressive collection tactics, the companies have rounded up only $49 million, little more than half of what it has cost the IRS to implement the program. The debt collectors have pocketed commissions of up to 24 percent.
Now, as Americans file their 2007 taxes, Democratic leaders want to end the effort.
"This program is the hood ornament for incompetence," said Sen. Byron L. Dorgan (D-N.D.), a leading critic who has introduced a bill to stop the program. The measure has 23 co-sponsors, all but one of them Democrats. "It makes no sense at all to be turning over these tax accounts to private tax collectors that end up costing the taxpayers money."
"The real choice is whether we use private collection agencies or let these tax debts go uncollected," said Rep. Jim Ramstad (Minn.), [one of the most bogus straw man arguments I ever heard. We had effective collectors on the gov't payroll that did a better job. Bill] the ranking Republican on the Ways and Means oversight subcommittee. "I hope we don't take an enormous step backward in our efforts to close the tax gap by eliminating a program that's working."[Working? Working? Millions and millions of dollars being lost. Only a Republican could term that a success - unless s/he were receiving hugh donations to keep the program in place. Bill]And to whom are the Republican referring that are making money at taxpayer expense?
After years of lobbying by the private collection industry, the Republican-controlled Congress created the program in 2004. The goal was to use collection agencies to close the relatively easy cases the IRS said it did not have the staff to handle: instances in which the taxpayer is not disputing the debt and in which the amount owed is relatively modest. Supporters hoped that the program would eventually be expanded to take over more of the agency's debt-collection duties, and the IRS predicts that the program will break even by 2010.
Three firms were awarded contracts: Pioneer Credit Recovery, based in the western New York district represented by Rep. Thomas M. Reynolds (R), who supported the program and recently announced his retirement; the CBE Group of Waterloo, Iowa, the home state of Sen. Charles E. Grassley (R), who helped create the program; and Linebarger Goggan Blair and Sampson, a law firm based in Texas, home to President Bush. [No cronyism here! Bill]The Rethugs get hugh donations from these private contractors, reduce the effectiveness of IRS Collections, and give our taxmoney to low performing entities.
Pioneer Credit employees have given congressional candidates and political action committees $117,450 since 1995, including $16,250 to Reynolds. CBE Group employees have given $9,372 during that period, including $2,500 to Grassley.
Linebarger Goggan, one of the nation's largest collection agencies, has extensive government ties. The firm, its employees and their spouses have given PACs and federal candidates in both parties $423,260 since 1995.
Labels: bad laws, christian hypocrisy, conspiracy, disinformation, GOP, hypocrisy, IRS, propaganda, stupid, tax collections
In short, who wants to watch a show that denigrates their country, denigrates their military, and seems to blame the possible evils of the world on corporations? Wouldn't a show about how we pulled together and united against an external threat been a little more palatable?A ridiculous comment made by a brainwashed individual. Corporations, along with nation states (and the military which does the nation state's dirty work) rest at the very crux of the world's problems. Show me a person who can't see that and I'll show you a person who frets over who wins American Idol.
Labels: Jericho
We're doomed.Others disagree that "indigo" has anything to do with the color of an aura. Instead, it is the result of “scientific” observations by a woman who has the brain disorder synesthesia. Either way, so-called Indigos go by different names—e.g., Star Kids (alleged offspring of a human with an alien—no joke) or Crystalline Children. Some integrate competing theories by claiming categorizations, as these, speak to different stages of the upward mobility evolutionary process en route to godhood.
Accordingly, it’s become all the rage to record auras of small children in order to pinpoint purported prodigies who purportedly make up an astonishing 90 percent of the population less than ten years of age.
Labels: stupid new age crap