posted by The Vidiot @ 7:53 PM Permalink
The media (I think, because I don't really watch it much) would have you believe that the folks in Wisconsin are battling for more money, those greedy bastard teachers. However, they are not. Maybe you knew that, maybe you didn't. Some folks still don't, so you should send them this guy's explanation of what the loss of collective bargaining really means:
Imagine a local school system. Every year, without any negotiation at all, the school board could make a single take-it or leave-it offer, and could hire replacements for all [who] didn't accept the offer.
Even if the offer is to cut wages by 25 percent.
Then the board could require teachers to attend ten weeks of training every summer, paying the tuition out of their pocket.
The list of possibilities goes on and on. In effect, professional teachers would become WalMart employees.
posted by The Vidiot @ 10:09 AM Permalink
It's a huge change from New York City for a lot of reasons, not the least of which is when you're in bed and you hear air sirens, you're supposed to pay attention.
Last night at about 10:30 pm. We're laying there and hear the sirens and were thinking, hmmmm, what's that all about then? Then the sirens stopped. So we thought, meh, it's nothing. Then a few minutes later, more sirens. THAT got us out of bed to turn on the TV and we saw the FOX news station going on about how they were on backup generators and were all hiding out in the broadcast booth. A few touched down just a few miles from here.
The only indicator we had that we were going to be fine was that the dog was just sitting there wondering what all the fuss was about. If she wasn't panicking, I wasn't panicking because dogs know better when something like that is happening.
At least, that's what I told myself.
Tornadoes. Jeebus.
On a lighter note, yesterday was Barkus (Mardi Gras Dog Parade) and we took Lagniappe. We tried to dress her up as flashdance but she refused to wear the legwarmers. We beaded her up instead. She looked pretty, no?
But this guy was my favorite:
"That's right. Take my picture 'cause I look fine. Now, if you'll excuse me, I've got some bitches waiting for me back at my place. And by 'bitches' I mean 'bitches. Alright."
posted by The Vidiot @ 4:08 PM Permalink
If you want to keep up on with the goings on in Libya (and the Middle East in general), don't forget to check out Juan Cole's blog. Always a good starting point. Here's a great map
posted by The Vidiot @ 3:53 PM Permalink
...so I couldn't tell you if their coverage of the Christchurch earthquake is any good or not. I'm suspecting not, but that's my my cynicism.
Anyway, I knew it was bad, but how bad, I did NOT know.
What really gets my goat is the BS coming from the parliamentarians. The city is smashed beyong repair - even the Chamber of Commerce CEO has placed a figure of $20 BILLION on reconstruction,which is simply beyond the capacity of 4 million people to fund. It must be at least 25% of our current GDP. Couple this with the fact that with every earth movement there is going to be further liquifaction, and it makes the whole city an uninsurable risk!
posted by The Vidiot @ 1:38 PM Permalink
Some of what he said was completely loopy, and a lot of what he said was hilarious. But the fact that to punish him, the corporation that is Chuck Lorre canned their multibillion dollar enterprise to punish one, piss-ant, spoiled star is shocking. In one punitive swoop, they put tons of people out of a job.
As the name implies, Cheetah is designed to be a four-legged robot with a flexible spine and articulated head (and potentially a tail) that runs faster than the fastest human. In addition to raw speed, Cheetah’s makers promise that it will have the agility to make tight turns so that it can “zigzag to chase and evade” and be able to stop on a dime.
The project is being run out of Darpa, which should give one pause. Darpa is the kind of place that would build these things and install brain scanners as part of the standard software:
The Malintent system is in its 'test' stage at the moment, but is said to be able to predict whether or not a person will be threatening on a flight, by looking for non-verbal clues.
Hey, if I thought of it, you KNOW they have.
Like Dr. Vidiot says, at some point, they won't have to build any more jails because all of society will be a jail.
Rolling Stone reveals Jedi mind tricks being used to finance Afghanistan War…
posted by Bill Arnett @ 2:12 PM Permalink
…and has even gone to the extent of naming names, such as Sen. John McCain (need I say more?), Sen. Joe Lieberman (cain't keep an old, well slavered, warhorse like Smokin' Joe from smokin' 'em up on his submarine port), Sen. Jack Reed (some people just need to retire), Rep. Steve Israel (they take 'em young and dumb, too), Sen. Carl Levin and Admiral Mike Mullen (there's that need to retire thing again), and, last on my list and the only dubious candidate, Sen. Al Franken, the only man in the Senate to have watched all six Star Wars flicks and way too smart to fall for an old Jedi mind trick.
I watched Senator Franken (on a speeded-up tape probably two-three minutes long of a much longer event) where, while joking with and responding to the comments of those close to him, he drew a complete map of the United States of America from memory (I actually frantically dug out a map of the U.S. for comparison. 'Twas perfect as hand drawn can be); one of the single-most amazing thing I ever saw and I would bet hard money that no other member of the legislative, judicial, or executive branches of government could duplicate.
I can just see military men in camouflaged ponchos darting from one potted plant to another calling gently, "Joe Lieber-m-a-n-n-n…(slowly trailing off into what sounds like the hiss of a snake).
Sen Lieberman would turn toward the potted plant and kneel in deference, though he would seem to be tying is shoes, and say, "Command me, my Dark Master, bend my mind, my will, my body in any way that you desire…"
"There will be a committee meeting today discussing reducing the funding of our sacred, holy war against simple Afghani people that will impact severely on the heroin trade there."
"What do you desire, my Dark Master, and where did you get that camouflaged poncho? That's slammin', my Master."
"I'll order you one, now shut up and listen, you will do whatever it takes to sustain our funding level…remember, grasshopper, there is no fun without funding, so take one for the team, even if you must abandon the democratic party…do you understand?"
"Yes, my mother…uh…Master, yeah, that's it, my Dark Master, I shall obey gladly."
"Great! Now when you stand up from worsh - tying your shoe grab Admiral Mike Mullen and send him to tie his boots here so we can chat long."
"As you command, my Dark Master." Lieberman turns, sees Mullen coming down the hall, and congenially calls him over.
"Well, hey, Joe, what can I do for you," asked the Admiral.
Joe walked over, grabbed Mullen's "package", squeezing it twice, causing the Admiral's eyes to glaze over and his posture to become relaxed. Then Joe told him, "It's your turn at the potted plants, Mike…make it so."
The Admiral slowly replied, as if in a trance, "Yes, Joe, I will go to the plant to tie my boots and I will listen and follow all orders from our Dark Master."
Joe, eyes still glazed gives a simple wave of his hand as the Admiral knelt in supplication to the plant with the soldier in a completely camouflaged poncho.
posted by The Vidiot @ 10:00 AM Permalink
One of the most daunting things about protesting in the USA is NOT the barbaric cops, though, they suck. No, the most daunting thing is rallying numbers so that they are visible to the general public. Obviously, the most visible cities would be NYC and LA. Unfortunately, those cities have the rents so jacked up that nobody can take time out to protest. Money is WAY too important there and most folks are barely getting by.
I admire what's going on in Wisconsin but keep in mind, they're not fighting for any overthrow. They're just trying to keep what they already have. There will be solidarity rallies in a bunch of cities (not in mine unfortunately) tomorrow. So if you can get to one, go to one.
The reason? The writing was crap. The only character that was well-developed was the city of New Orleans herself. THAT, they got. The Tulane Professor? Not even close. Hell, what they had him do he would've NEVER have done. Nobody in his position would. Now, had they bothered to establish some sort of history of him, then MAYBE, but still, no. There were so many weak points, so many out of character moments.
Here's one that's not a spoiler. There's a character that is a chef. She's hyper hard-core. VERY good at what she does and VERY serious about it. Yet, on Mardi Gras, they had her dancing around in a pink tutu singing "Iko Iko" for heaven's sake. She would NOT have been that whimsical. Perhaps they could've established that she had a whimsical streak, but they didn't.
That's what I'm talking about with the poor character development.
Sure, I'll watch the second season, but only because I'll watch anything having to do with New Orleans.
Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to get the ingredients so I can attempt to make my first Mardi Gras King Cake. St. Louis has a dead serious Mardi Gras so I must prepare.
posted by The Vidiot @ 12:03 PM Permalink
That's Colin Powell's defense of his WMD claims? Really? Is that his final answer?
Colin Powell's ex-chief of staff said Thursday the former Secretary of State was lied to and manipulated by Vice President Dick Cheney into justifying the US invasion of Iraq.
In what union leaders say is becoming a national fight, protests against legislation to restrict public employees’ collective-bargaining rights spread from Wisconsin to Ohio.
I certainly do hope Chomsky is right when he says he thinks Wisconsin is 'the start' of a revolution here in the US.
What kinda crap is this that some members of congress…
posted by Bill Arnett @ 2:44 PM Permalink
…sleep in their government offices supplied to enable their work for their constituents. How many of the lower class citizens they represent are getting free lodging from one of the two or sometimes three different jobs they must work to support their families? NONE, I would wager.
These rich jerkoffs should be required to pay whatever the median, no, strike that, they should be paying the maximum rents paid in Washington in return for taking up lodgings in some of the most famous buildings and offices of all. They should also be taxed or charged the same or greater commuting cost as paid by the lower class employees they employ.
It is outrageous to me that these already rich bastards are seeking to stick it to the state with ever greater privileges that were formerly not even considered to be privileges. Let them pay their own way just as every other American has to do, and if they cannot afford rent in Washington, D.C., let them find a large refrigerator box, a vent blowing hot air, and let them sleep and suffer as far too many of their constituents must do.
This really ticks me off - we've already devolved into just two classes, upper class with tons of money and lower class struggling every day to try and make ends meet. As far as I can discern the middle class has gone the way of the dinosaurs - extinct.
Now comes this where these rich bastards who spent millions to get elected now want taxpayer-supported and paid for lodging in Washington.
posted by The Vidiot @ 4:19 PM Permalink
Is the noticing the existence of chemtrails. I took these today.
This is the first one I took, driving west in I-70, so that would make it North West of St. Louis
This I took when I was walking the dog. That's North West of St. Louis, but it was blowing towards the East.
And just to show you that the aren't contrails like the government would have you believe, just as I was talking the pictures, a regular passenger plane (the little black spec nearly dead center of the image) flew by and, whaddya know, it wasn't spewing a trail.
I don't know what they are or what they do. When someone says "Hey, I don't remember seeing crap like that in the sky when I was a kid back in the 60s and 70s," (Try it. Go look at some old family photos. You'll not find one chem-trailed sky.)the powers that be usually say, "Well, air traffic is heavier now. There's just so much more of it and that's why you see as so much of it now." Which, as I showed above, a regular airliner was NOT spewing crap.
I can tell you the first time I noticed them here was a day or so before that terrible snow storm hit the area. One possible explanation:
Before a storm there is a front, the front clears the air before a storm, pushing particulate matter ahead of it, leaving a space relatively clear of particulate matter. UV radiation levels rise in these areas, sometimes to dangerous levels. The shield must be maintained. Since barium absorbs water as well as carbon dioxide, precipitation has been affected. Other kinds of sprays are in development and testing which may reduce the affects on precipitation. As I stated above, this is a new technology we are working with, it is still in its infancy and there are some problems with it.
I'm not saying the chemtrails caused the storm, but I it seemed like an odd coincidence. I'll be curious to see what these line up with. Weather storm? Solar storm? Who knows?
They certainly are striking though. Didn't see that much of it in NYC. Sometimes I saw it, but it was infrequent and sparse.
Here in the midwest, it's huge and covers the entire sky.
UPDATE: Well, it could be because a solar storm is coming/has happened:
"On February 13, a faint Earth directed CME was detected. It was associated with a M6.6 flare from NOAA AR 1158, peaking at 17:38 UT and related to a type II and a type IV radio bursts. The CME is expected to arrive to the Earth on, or around, February 16. "
The most amazing thing made evident by this recent upheaval…
posted by Bill Arnett @ 1:48 PM Permalink
…in Egypt is that a nation state with really active citizens can accomplish more in a scant few days than America can get done after years of legislative party games, spinning the bottle (of Jack Daniels), filibusters that aren't filibusters, republican senators unafraid to stop all progress in America by using a senator's absolute privilege to put the screaming skids to any piece of legislation they chose, while chickenhearted democratic senators are seemingly unaware of this privilege or, for some reason, deathly afraid to use it.
The rightfully proud people of Egypt have disposed peacefully of a corrupt government supported by other corrupt governments such as the government here in America.
By showing unity, determination, resolve to change the status quo, even by violence if need be, these people accomplished a greater feat even than the creation of the United States of America - a change of power in a bloodless coup.
We Americans seem to have lost the ability to settle affairs, whether internal or external, without extreme talk of violence or installing a so-called democracy at the point of our guns, beneath our dropping bombs, our cruise missiles blasting lasered targets with pinpoint accuracy, committing genocide, and causing many of the worst human disasters in the history of man in the manner of war criminals seeking total annihilation of forces so much weaker than our forces.
It seems to me that in this regard the Egyptian people are, and were, better aware of the power of peaceful or relatively peaceful civil uprising in changing the course of governments and that they have comported themselves in a manner we Americans are no longer able.
I think all we Americans can hope for is that when the time comes, and it draws nearer everyday, that the teabagger-gop-ers believe they have a lock on our government and can run roughshod right over the will of the people that we Americans will have the courage to follow the example of the Egyptians.
But I ask you all to remember that we are Americans, that Americans live to be free of the harness of government, and that our government was formed by and for the citizens of our once great country and that we can only regain our prestigious position in the world by regaining control of our government and not by government controlling us for the evil ends of so few.
My favorite image. Don't know where its' from though so I can't give credit. Wish I could.
It's wonderful to be an Egyptian right now. They succeeded. They got Mubarak to go. But, as we all know, the Nation State will not be denied. It will continue. Already, the media is taking charge of the dominate discourse. There is some potential with youtube and twitter to subvert this, but what you see in the coverage is the legitimacy of a person (Mubarak) has eroded, but the legitimacy of the Nation State is still upheld. The movement has been validated and now the power structures will take over. Even though they will have a 'democratic elections,' they will still be choosing a leader, and they will still be choosing that leader from a handpicked few, handpicked by those in power.
The most wonderful thing about what happened in Egypt is that it was leaderless. The PEOPLE did it, and right now, they are empowered. They don't need a Nation State. Nobody does. It is shame that at the end of this process, the PEOPLE will give up their power to a leader, one most likely chosen by the already existing power structures.
"It's a beautiful day in this neighborhood, A beautiful day for a neighbor.…
posted by Bill Arnett @ 2:14 PM Permalink
…Would you be mine? Could you be mine?...
Y'know, sometimes I get lost within my mind searching for memories of a better time, struggling to break the artificial boundaries imposed by those whom we would call leaders, those whom would restrict our freedoms in the name of fighting wars against terror, drugs, poverty, abortion or whatever else they have set their sights upon that day.
And it strikes me that it is true that most of us have learned all we really need to know by the time we leave kindergarten if not before. It also could be true that many of us never needed kindergarten to learn the basics.
In support of this position I would like to reintroduce you to someone I believe to be one of the great philosophers of my short time on earth, a man whose identity cannot be concealed from most Americans who grew up listening and hanging onto his every word, Mr. Fred Rogers, perhaps one of the kindest and most loving people ever.
"Part of the problem with the word 'disabilities' is that it immediately suggests an inability to see or hear or walk or do other things that many of us take for granted. But what of people who can't feel? Or talk about their feelings? Or manage their feelings in constructive ways? What of people who aren't able to form close and strong relationships? And people who cannot find fulfillment in their lives, or those who have lost hope, who live in disappointment and bitterness and find in life no joy, no love? These, it seems to me, are the real disabilities." — Fred Rogers (The World According to Mister Rogers)
"When I say it's you I like, I'm talking about that part of you that knows that life is far more than anything you can ever see or hear or touch. That deep part of you that allows you to stand for those things without which humankind cannot survive. Love that conquers hate, peace that rises triumphant over war, and justice that proves more powerful than greed." — Fred Rogers
"Anyone who does anything to help a child in his life is a hero to me. " — Fred Rogers
"Forgiveness is a strange thing. It can sometimes be easier to forgive our enemies than our friends. It can be hardest of all to forgive people we love. Like all of life's important coping skills, the ability to forgive and the capacity to let go of resentments most likely take root very early in our lives." — Fred Rogers
"It's very dramatic when two people come together to work something out. It's easy to take a gun and annihilate your opposition, but what is really exciting to me is to see people with differing views come together and finally respect each other." — Fred Rogers (The World According to Mister Rogers)
"In the external scheme of things, shining moments are as brief as the twinkling of an eye, yet such twinklings are what eternity is made of -- moments when we human beings can say, "I love you," "I'm proud of you," "I forgive you," "I'm grateful for you." That's what eternity is made of: invisible imperishable good stuff." — Fred Rogers (The World According to Mister Rogers)
[And, of course, his signature song.]
"It's a beautiful day in this neighborhood, A beautiful day for a neighbor. Would you be mine? Could you be mine?...
It's a neighborly day in this beauty wood, A neighborly day for a beauty. Would you be mine? Could you be mine?...
I've always wanted to have a neighbor just like you. I've always wanted to live in a neighborhood with you.
So, let's make the most of this beautiful day. Since we're together we might as well say: Would you be mine? Could you be mine? Won't you be my neighbor?
Won't you please, Won't you please? Please won't you be my neighbor?" — Fred Rogers
I do hope many of you will like this walk down memory lane and consider, perhaps for the first time, what a gentle, genuinely nice man was Fred Rogers, whom also happened to be a great philosopher as well. I wish for you all "invisible imperishable good stuff."
In an unprecedented move, apparently one that has never happened before, nearly all U.S. Ambassadors to all nations have been called back to Washington for a summit conference this week.
Welcome back to our ongoing 24/7/365 coverage of Egypt…Yes, all Egypt, all the time…
posted by Bill Arnett @ 2:13 PM Permalink
…and boy howdy do we have exciting new developments to report to you today friends and readers, or just friendly readers.
This exciting news was brought to me by my friend Bobby Briggs, my inside confidential informant working with the throngs of other negotiators and can therefore give me the news firsthand. However, due to his important position he has requested total anonymity which was ok'd by my editors so I will not identify him.
Anyway, in the most exciting development yet since the difficulties began for President Mubarak I can now reveal that an anonymous source has informed this reporter that former boy king, Tutankhamun, has agreed to be rehydrated, have all his organs replaced within his body, and receive the blood transfusions necessary to come out of his mummy status to regain control of his subjects by showering the entire country with millions of solid gold trinkets the King had retained in his still hidden, location unknown, carefully concealed, booby-trapped and cursed treasury that has remained undiscovered since King Tut, as the people of Egypt fondly refer to him before he passed away.
It is the King's theory that his people will be too busy collecting enough gold to make them forever self-sufficient and able to live like a pharaoh the rest of their natural lives, and that they will no longer have the time nor the inclination to protest any further.
Let's take a moment here to check on other newsworthy events elsewhere in the world. There is nothing happening in the rest of the world so we will now return to our 24/7/365 coverage of events as they happen on the ground in Egypt.
We can now report, based upon information provided by our anonymous source, that there has been what is being called a "minor snag" in the negotiations for the return of King Tut. The boy King, in return for saving the country of his birth, has demanded telepathically (the only means by which he can communicate with the negotiation team) that former queen Nefertiti, his former mother-in-law and seven-time winner of the "Babe from Babylonia" beauty contest also be revived as King Tut had secretly lusted for her for years before settling for her daughter.
Former Queen Nefertiti is still, perhaps, most infamous for telling the stonecutters to inscribe above the main entrance to her tomb that she could, "See Saudi Arabia from the top of the pyramids."
Now for a brief break to bring you on-going events in the U.S. financial situation…uh…wait, I have just been informed that there is nothing happening in America's financial community today so we now return to our coverage of Egyptian events.
The reported efforts to revive King Tut and Queen Nefertiti has suffered a hugh setback as the Mummy Revival and Stonecutters Union, Local 904, has gone on strike demanding higher wages, more vacation time, and to be forever released from responsibility for building the new pyramids that the King and Queen will undoubtedly order upon revival.
The king, according to my sources, has telepathically advised the negotiation team to agree to the demands of the unions involved as he will have them all fed to his dogs after they've had a brief trip through cobra-filled snake pits. Related to this is the King's demand that all Egyptian asps must be caught and killed, hunted to the point of extinction.
The negotiation team has advised that Sarah Palin would be hired to scour the country shooting every snake on sight from the safety of her low and slow flying airplane. When contacted for comment former Gov. Palin was heard to comment that just a few perfectly placed nuclear weapons would, upon detonation, guarantee the death of every asp in Egypt, including ,"…all those Egyptian asp-holes…".
Our Foreign Affairs Division report reveals that there is nothing happening anywhere involving foreign affairs.
So in bringing to a close my segment of the 24/7/365 coverage of Egypt I want to assure all our readers that our "All Egypt, All the Time," will continue in thirty seconds and will continue unabated until we can bring you the news that the King, and the Queen he lusts for, are again in charge, barring any surreptitious, sneaky, lowdown, underhanded, improper, and vicious acts by the American CIA, which was once again caught with their pants down, their male members in hand, and without the faintest idea that there had even been an uprising in Egypt.
In news from America today it has been reported that that there is no news from America today.
Well, time to sign off now, so to all my readers and friends (I think sometimes that only my friends read me!), I say to you:
Egypt eventually acknowledged that it had not fully disclosed the extent of its nuclear facilities, failed to declare the pilot plant used for the plutonium and uranium-separation experiments and did not provide design information for a new facility under construction, also at Inshas.
posted by The Vidiot @ 1:16 PM Permalink
From the outset, when Mubarak saw the writing on the wall, you know he began working with his handlers to make sure that whoever replaced him was just a 'second verse, same as the first."
The Obama administration on Saturday formally threw its weight behind a gradual transition in Egypt, backing attempts by the country’s vice president, Gen. Omar Suleiman, to broker a compromise with opposition groups and prepare for new elections in September.
Surely, a Suleiman presidency was the plan all along.
But hey, look at how stirred up (I think the word is "incited") people are getting all over the place courtesy of the teabaggers…
posted by Bill Arnett @ 12:19 PM Permalink
…whom somehow have discovered the secret to releasing their oral death-grip on the particular teabag they happened to be sucking on and taking all that energy to continue wreakin', freakin', tweakin', and creatin' the mayhem and misery that is their stock in trade. They have become so expert at sucking that blowing hot air gives them both respite and the time for large groups of teabaggers to string together a grammatically correct sentence of more than four words, provided those four words have nothing to do with honesty, commonsense, nor morality.
Let's showcase a fine example of how mean-spirited, cruel, unpatriotic, stupid, shortsighted, and foul these bastards are:
1: The teabagging-rethug-gop-ers were just days ago crowing from the rooftops that the House had succeeded in repealing that awful, communistic, socialist, Satanist health law of the despotic, wanna-be-President/Dictator/Muslim sympathizer Hussein Obama and his surreptitious democratic health care co-conspirators. A teabagger-rethug-gop-er activist judge managed to declare the legislation unconstitutional and thus ensured that 33 Million more of their fellow Americans, the mortal enemies they wish to crush, see driven before them (into the Gulf of Mexico if it's still there), and to hear the lamentations of democratic women as they, their children, and families die horrible deaths choking on the oil the teabaggers-rethugs-gop-ers are all too happy to provide at any cost.
The reason for the overturning of the statute? The courts claim that the government cannot force people to PAY for that insurance!
2. Within two days these same teabagger-rethugs-gop-ers proposed legislation that would not only require EVERYBODY to have a gun, THE LAW STATES CITIZENS HAVE TO PAY FOR THE PRIVILEGE UNDER PENALTY OF LAW! PRECISELY the grounds that merited overturning health care reform. AND citizens would have to break their already-stretched budgets to buy very expensive guns!
Now, now. I don't want any teabaggers out there to drop into their characteristically insipid and rapidly disappearing intelligence mode (as if they ever possessed any intelligence in the first place) and start talking that wild-eyed crazy bat shit that the governments (federal and state) can't and don't make citizens pay for everything the government does, i.e., taxes for infrastructure, licenses for hunting, driving a car, licensing a car, boat, or motorcycle, getting a driver's license, sales taxes on virtually everything that is bought or sold, food, gas, electricity, water, ever higher tuitions to pursue a decent education. Hell one of their major sources of income are the fines, levies, and assessments ordered everyday by courts just like the courts where this teabagging piece of shit judge sit, and thousands of other like-minded jurists breathing our air in their sandcastles in the sky and trying to figure out how to tax oxygen.
Hello…hello…anyone home? bueller…buellar…bueller…oh hell, he's out with his girlfriend so we can levy even more fines, penalties, and he's having unprotected sex so his girl will become just another welfare queen driving her 1973 Buick down to pick up her Midas-like check and blow it on all the many, many drugs we have to bust her on now and in the future when she buys her state-ordered Cadillac at taxpayers expense. She'll be a permanent cog in the government money making schemes run by the courts that rule against her and her family.
What? Say it can't happen? Shit it was the God of the rethuglican party, Ronnie Raygun, that identified this existential threat to our republic. And everyone knows he was just kidding when, on national television, he admitted trading military-grade weaponry to TERRORISTS in order to get the Iranians to hold all the hostages so Ronnie would become a mythic, god-like…no…better than god-like statesman when immediately after Carter left office all the hostages were released on inauguration day after Ronnie was erected…uh, ELECTED, that's it! The erection came later when he was alone in the Oval Office…and he didn't need no Monica!
This is a neat little paradox or dichotomy or paradoxical dichotomy or whatever. Never could get the relationship of those words. It'll be fun watching those teabaggers talk out both sides of their mouth at the same time, dontchaknow.
posted by The Vidiot @ 5:30 PM Permalink
When the government does the bidding of large corporate interests, then folks, you have fascism. The big sports corporations, the NFL, NBA, etc., have called on the feds to shut down sites that stream their sports.
The seizure of the site is particularly controversial because Rojadirecta, a Spanish site, was found by Spanish courts to be operating legally. The domain's closure has been accompanied by a spate of other crackdowns by the government: Other sports-streaming websites such as ATDHE.net,Firstrow.net, ChannelSurfing.net, and Ilemi.com have also been seized by the authorities. It's a controversial move that comes just ahead of the Super Bowl.
Honestly, can the number of people who actually 'ripoff' the big monied interests be so great that this was necessary? No, of course not. It's like the mythology behind illegal music downloads. Not that much music was downloaded and in fact, downloaded music led to more legitimate purchases of music.
More than a quarter-million people flooded Cairo's main square Tuesday in a stunning and jubilant array of young and old, urban poor and middle class professionals, mounting by far the largest protest yet in a week of unrelenting demands for President Hosni Mubarak to leave after nearly 30 years in power.
More than a million protesters have flooded into central Cairo, turning Tahrir Square in the Egyptian capital, into a sea of humanity in a massive show of protest against Hosni Mubarak, the country's president for three decades.
1.(sometimes capital letters 'V' and 'S' with no space) a style of writing or saying something using emotion and/or logic and snark, esp. in order to elucidate the obvious while pretending to be objective.
2. anything written by The Vidiot, The Sailor, Mr. Vidiot and anyone else they allow to post on the blog “vidiotspeak”
[Origin: loosely based on new + speak, coined by George Orwell in his novel, 1984 (1949)]
And for godsakes, stay away from FOX, MSNBC, CNN, ABC, CBS, and NBC.
It's ALL CRAP!!!
Watch the BBC news or ITN news instead.
"POSSE COMITATUS ACT" (18 USC 1385)
A Reconstruction Era criminal law proscribing use of Army (later, Air Force) to "execute the laws" except where expressly authorized by Constitution or Congress. Limit on use of military for civilian law enforcement also applies to Navy by regulation. Dec '81 additional laws were enacted (codified 10 USC 371-78) clarifying permissible military assistance to civilian law enforcement agencies--including the Coast Guard--especially in combating drug smuggling into the United States. Posse Comitatus clarifications emphasize supportive and technical assistance (e.g., use of facilities, vessels, aircraft, intelligence, tech aid, surveillance, etc.) while generally prohibiting direct participation of DoD personnel in law enforcement (e.g., search, seizure, and arrests). For example, Coast Guard Law Enforcement Detachments (LEDETS) serve aboard Navy vessels and perform the actual boardings of interdicted suspect drug smuggling vessels and, if needed, arrest their crews). Positive results have been realized especially from Navy ship/aircraft involvement.
from 
