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Lovely attitude… 30 March 2009

Posted by marisacat in Divertissements, Inconvenient Voice of the Voter.
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nycchildrenhelenlevitt

© Estate of Helen Levitt

I snagged these wonderful masked children from Madman’s comment in the last thread, Helen Levitt the NYC street photographer…

From the NYT obit, with reference to the photo above…

In Ms. Levitt’s best-known picture, three properly dressed children prepare to go trick-or-treating on Halloween 1939. Standing on the stoop outside their house, they are in almost metaphorical stages of readiness. The girl on the top step is putting on her mask; a boy near her, his mask in place, takes a graceful step down, while another boy, also masked, lounges on a lower step, coolly surveying the world.

An exquisite eye for patterning in life…

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1. marisacat - 30 March 2009

At the other end of the stick…

From the Miami Herald…

Trying to buy health insurance on your own and have gallstones? You’ll automatically be denied coverage. Rheumatoid arthritis? Automatic denial. Severe acne? Probably denied. Do you take metformin, a popular drug for diabetes? Denied. Use the anti-clotting drug Plavix or Seroquel, prescribed for anti-psychotic or sleep problems? Forget about it.

This confidential information on some insurers’ practices is available on the Web — if you know where to look.

What’s more, you can discover that if you lie to an insurer about your medical history and drug use, you will be rejected because data-mining companies sell information to insurers about your health, including detailed usage of prescription drugs.

These issues are moving to the forefront as the Obama administration and Congress gear up for discussions about how to reform the healthcare system so that Americans won’t be rejected for insurance.

It’s especially timely because growing numbers are looking for individual health insurance after losing their jobs. On top of that, small businesses, which make up the bulk of South Florida’s economy, are frequently finding health policies too expensive and are dropping coverage, sending even more people shopping for insurance. …

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Madman in the Marketplace - 31 March 2009

oh, but everything will be okay if they force people to buy insurance, right donks?

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marisacat - 31 March 2009

it was a frightening,, tho not surprising article.. the second half is about the data mining the companies do… apparently a few of them accidentally included their confidential systems for exclusion based on pharmacy history, online at their own websites.

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Madman in the Marketplace - 31 March 2009

that’s horrible

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2. marisacat - 31 March 2009

I say we lock them all in a room. And never let them out.

Nicolas Sarkozy’s threat to walk out of global summit

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3. marisacat - 31 March 2009

Chomsky at Real News (right side bar has other entries, also Part 2 from NC – video and transcripts)

…CHOMSKY: If you’re the investor, yeah.

JAY: If you’re the investor.

CHOMSKY: For the public it’s a lose-lose situation. But they’re simply recycling, pretty much, the Bush-Paulson measures and changing them a little, but essentially the same idea: keep the institutional structure the same, try to kind of pass things up, bribe the banks and investors to help out, but avoid the measures that might get to the heart of the problem—however, at the cost, if you consider it a cost, of changing the institutional structure.

JAY: What’s the plan you would support?

CHOMSKY: Well, I mean, say, for example, take the bonuses, the AIG bonuses that are, you know, causing such anger, rightfully. Dean Baker pointed out that there’s an easy way to deal with it.

Since the government pretty much owns AIG anyway (it just doesn’t use its power to make decisions), split off the section of AIG—the financial investment section—that caused all the problems, split it off, and let it go bankrupt. And then the executives can seek to get their bonuses from a bankrupt firm if they like.

So that would pretty much take care of the bankruptcy problem, and the government would still maintain its large-scale effective control, if it wants to exert it, of what’s viable in AIG. And with the banks, the big banks, like Bank of America, one of the big problems is nobody knows what’s going on inside. You know, there are very opaque devices and manipulations which technically the government—. They’re not going to tell you themselves. You know, why should they? It’s not their business. In fact, when Associated Press sent journalists to interview bank managers and investment-firm managers and ask them what they’ve done with the TARP [Troubled Assets Relief Program] money, they just laughed. They said, “It’s none of your business. We’re private enterprises. Your task, the public, is to fund us, but not to know what we’re doing.” But the government could find out—namely, essentially, take over the banks. …

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4. NYCO - 31 March 2009

What’s more, you can discover that if you lie to an insurer about your medical history

Which is another good reason why it’s not a good idea to go to the doctor unless you’re barfing up a lung. No doctor visits… no medical history.

The way I see it, you’re going to die anyway at some point. Better to be well taken care of by your insurer in the final days of your life, than to be prescribed a billion pills for non-life-threatening conditions and then get screwed by your insurer later.

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5. ms_xeno - 31 March 2009

Well, the whole problem with not attending to troublesome but not-life-threatening conditions is that they make it kinda’ hard to race around in the job wheel like a good little hamster.

OTOH, once you’re out of work, you can sidestep most of the customary disease vectors, which at least cuts down on colds and flu. I’ve had neither since joining the ranks of the unemployed.

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Madman in the Marketplace - 31 March 2009

as long as you stay out of the tent cities and shelters …

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6. marisacat - 31 March 2009

We’re moving, we’re rising… we’re soaring.. !

The Dow is up about 100 points Tuesday, despite the morning’s bleak housing report.

Session wraps up the best month in years on Wall Street.

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7. liberalcatnip - 31 March 2009

I snatched this link from your McClatchy headlines feed: Life in Mendota, Calif., where the jobless rate is 41 percent

I don’t know how anybody could not call this a depression.

Also, last nite’s CBC’s ‘The National’ paid a visit to Detroit and Florida. Equally depressing. You can watch those stories here starting at about the 30 minute mark. They reported that the median house price in Detroit is $6,000.

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marisacat - 31 March 2009

hmm read the piece… bear in mind that is a food shortage in the Central Valley… one of the greatest food producing areas on earth. The slam on pistacios that is going on has global repercussions. CA pistacio production is No 2 on earth (not sure who is No 1).

AND worse, there is talk around that while rain has been low .. that is all it is: LOW… and the winter before we had a lot of rain, enough that reports were (then) if we had low even borderline drought levels the following year we were OK. Not what they are saying this year. When they get around to reporting on it.

So……………….. I say, people are being starved out – or a good chance of it.. Growers and ag business can get welfare subsidies. But the people who work the land? Not. Legal OR illegal.

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liberalcatnip - 31 March 2009

I just heard about the pistachio recall. Sheesh. Like they say, ‘it never rains in California, it pours’.

It’s this century’s Grapes of Wrath.

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Arcturus - 31 March 2009

And some single-family homes are occupied by two or three families, in what Amador described as “basically labor camps.”

as if that were any different when the water was flowing to Westlands’ corporate farms

problem is they over-subscribed deliveries a long time ago

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8. liberalcatnip - 31 March 2009

Afghan leader accused of bid to ‘legalise rape’

Afghanistan’s President, Hamid Karzai, has signed a law which “legalises” rape, women’s groups and the United Nations warn. Critics claim the president helped rush the bill through parliament in a bid to appease Islamic fundamentalists ahead of elections in August.

In a massive blow for women’s rights, the new Shia Family Law negates the need for sexual consent between married couples, tacitly approves child marriage and restricts a woman’s right to leave the home, according to UN papers seen by The Independent.

So, Mr Obama, what do you think of that?

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marisacat - 31 March 2009

we’re off — to Pahkeestan! Always other wimmens to save, elsewhere.

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9. liberalcatnip - 31 March 2009
liberalcatnip - 31 March 2009

I see they have a blog too.

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10. liberalcatnip - 31 March 2009

The Chicago Sun-Times has filed for bankruptcy.

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11. NYCO - 31 March 2009

14. Hate to say it but I’ve seen this whole “let’s recolonize the Rust Belt” thing before and the results are very dependent on local political quirks of which the colonizers often know little. However, it can sometimes produce striking situations such as the Braddock, Pa. experiment.

Here in Syracuse there is now a whole cottage-collegiate industry of downtown revitalization of the small-entrepreneur/funky-gallery variety. It has not gotten off the ground terribly much, mostly because all of the tax breaks and coffeehouses in the world can’t make a dent in the local political-economic complex. One highly touted community renovator, who had previously worked magic in Paducah, Ky., staggered off in a daze when he realized the local police force wasn’t under the control of the people who hired him and that the plans wouldn’t get realized in 6 months to 2 years like he was probably used to.

I do have to say that I appreciate the Detroit or Braddock efforts better because these people do go into the neighborhoods that are on the edge of the night. In Syracuse there is a little disgruntlement that the focus is more on pleasing arts types and not on getting involved in political things that would help truly blighted neighborhoods.

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catnip - 31 March 2009

I thought this was an interesting entry in that Power House blog:

Detroit ///Democracy for all…

Detroit is the most democratic city in America.

Not in the political sense or government, but because the neighborhoods are ruled and run and controlled and developed by it’s local citizens. It’s a city where you can do things, both bad and good as you choose without much oversight, inforcement [sic] of law or rules imposed from above. It is up to the residents to decide what it is they want to do, how they govern their particular block or street and therefore what they want their city to be.

Democracy in Detroit has ironically come out of the lack of a functional government/political democracy. Because large parts of the city do not have direct representation in the government they are left under the control of each resident, their churches, their businesses and their families. For some this could be mistaken for a blank slate, but it should be seen more importantly as the real Detroit, the peoples Detroit. On a large scale overlooking the city as a whole it may look like controlled chaos or just chaos, but within the chaos is an ownership that Detroiters feel about their local neighborhood. A sense that it is up to them. This comes at a price however and a great burden, but it is a Detroit fact.

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12. marisacat - 31 March 2009

whoops. Where oh where is the Responsiblity! Mostly, if not all, white.. surely good Republicans and Democrats…

They often sandpaper over the names and file off the registry numbers, doing their best to render the boats, and themselves, untraceable. Then they casually ditch the vessels in the middle of busy harbors, beach them at low tide on the banks of creeks or occasionally scuttle them outright. …

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13. Arcturus - 31 March 2009

see if this moves any faster than CA’s 15 years + lawsuits:

A federal judge in Nevada on Tuesday certified class action status for a lawsuit filed by inmates who claim inadequate medical care at Ely State Prison constitutes cruel and unusual punishment and civil rights violations.

. . .

It alleges that deprivation of medical care is so extreme that all inmates are subjected to “constant significant risk of serious injury, medical harm, premature death, and the needless infliction of great physical pain and suffering.”

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marisacat - 31 March 2009

hmm frm the Sacramento Bee report:

Hicks’ ruling comes a week after he refused to dismiss a separate lawsuit alleging prison and medical staff deliberately withheld medical treatment from the former manager of the 1950s Coasters music group, leading to his slow and painful death from gangrene while on death row in Nevada.

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Arcturus - 31 March 2009

that was a horrid, nasty case – I need to run now or would find a link – diff is that Dept of Corrections (or whatever Nev calls theirs) was excluded from that suit by the judgge – it’s all personal liability of involved officials, whereas this opens the system to oversight (not that it’s done much good yet in CA)

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14. Madman in the Marketplace - 31 March 2009
15. marisacat - 31 March 2009

moiv sent me this…

I am so happy for Newt I could explode. Really. He and Tony Blair can do three ways with B16. Conf calls… you know. 4 ways if Ben lets Ganswein dial in too….

Indeed, on Sunday, March 29, Gingrich converted to Catholicism, the faith of his third wife, Calista Bisek. Though the ceremony was announced without fanfare, leading Catholic conservatives like Deal Hudson are brimming with excitement. Hudson was the most important Catholic political adviser to President Bush and Karl Rove, founder of the seminal Catholic journal, Crisis magazine, and self-described “theocon.” He contends that Gingrich’s conversion represents more than a concession to his wife; it signals a dramatic break from the past, both personally and politically.

“From a Catholic point of view,” Hudson told me, “Newt’s sins no longer exist—they’ve been absolved. He’s made a fresh start in life. So Newt will continue to sin and confess but there aren’t going to be a lot of Catholics who will hold that against him. They understand why being a Catholic makes a difference.” …

What a little properly cooked Holy Water will do. Properly administered, of course.

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marisacat - 31 March 2009

the article has tons of dish on Deal Hudson. Whew.

More Holy Water is needed, is all I can say.

One page version

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marisacat - 31 March 2009

… and the years will be long.

The close:

According to Hudson, Gingrich’s outrage over Obama’s speech at Notre Dame was his first act as a Catholic politician. “When I learned he was about to convert, I understood his concern,” Hudson said. “He was worried about the Church he was about to enter.”

With his sins officially expunged, Gingrich appears poised to play a decisive role in the 2012 Republican presidential sweepstakes. Whether or not Gingrich declares his candidacy, Hudson, who advised John McCain in 2008 and plans to participate in the next campaign, says he believes Gingrich has consolidated his influence in the party. “[Gingrich] has gone through a change in his life through his third marriage and he has decided to settle down,” Hudson said. “You’re never too old to settle down.”

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Madman in the Marketplace - 31 March 2009

oh, 2012 is gonna be loads of fucking fun.

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liberalcatnip - 31 March 2009

So Newt will continue to sin and confess but there aren’t going to be a lot of Catholics who will hold that against him. They understand why being a Catholic makes a difference.”…

It sure does. It makes a big difference when you can get away with crusades, inquisitions, molestation, and the modern-day version of killing Africans by telling them that condoms make things worse for them.

It’s the Teflon religion.

So go forth and sin. No big deal.

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Madman in the Marketplace - 31 March 2009

Gingrich: We should have Singapore-style drug tests for Americans

Gingrich: Well, I think it’s time we get the stomach for that, Bill. And I think we need a program — I would dramatically expand testing. I think we have — and I agree with you. I would try to use rehabilitation, I’d make it mandatory. And I think we have every right as a country to demand of our citizens that they quit doing illegal things which are funding, both in Afghanistan and in Mexico and in Colombia, people who are destroying civilization.

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marisacat - 31 March 2009

hmm I think it is NV that has just remanded (or is in the process) a boatload of prisoners to rehab and out of VERY EXPENSIVE prison for drug offenses.

CA seems freakishly scared to bite the bullet but they have GOT to find a way to drive down the prison population. Too fucking expensive. Not working!

These states need to figure it out… it has failed. War on Drugs, War on Life… Three strikes for non violent offenders, prison for life, children condemned to life…

all we got was horrors called prisons and the FUCKING PRISON GUARD LOBBY.

And pols who kiss their asses. Democrat Republican, all the same.

I saw on Amy that the former Chief of Police of Seattle is calling for sanity. It may be too late however.

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Madman in the Marketplace - 31 March 2009

that former Chief has been pretty vocal for a while. I’ve seen him make a really strong case on a couple of shows.

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16. liberalcatnip - 31 March 2009

It’s a freaking epidemic!

POLITICO Breaking News:
—————————————————–

Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius has paid back taxes of more than $7,000 stemming from “unintentional errors” revealed during her accountant’s review of recent tax returns.

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17. Madman in the Marketplace - 31 March 2009
18. catnip - 31 March 2009

BHHM, your mission, should you choose to accept it.

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19. marisacat - 31 March 2009

fwiw… or not worth… in NY-20 the former Gillibrand seat.

Upstate New York House Race Is Too Close to Call

By DAVID M. HALBFINGER 30 minutes ago

Scott Murphy, the Democratic contender, holds a mere 65-vote lead in a closely-watched Congressional race.

***

Snagged from NRO…

History of Recent Elections in NY-20:

• President Obama carried the district by a margin of 51%-48% in 2008.
• Kirsten Gillibrand won re-election in 2008 by a margin of 62%-38% against a challenger who spent $6 million.
• Eliot Spitzer carried the district by a margin of 57%-36% in 2006.
• Chuck Schumer carried the district in 2004, as did Hillary Clinton in 2006.

All true, but Bush carried the district twice. It’s a purple district. The good news for Tedisco is that he’s got a great shot at making up the difference in absentee ballots, and he seemed to shift momentum back in his favor in those last couple days. The bad news is, he lost a lead, and the race is probably going to end up very, very close.

I have not heard Murphy, but heard Tedisco this morning. UGH. The Dems did what they often do, from what I read, they wedged in a transplant from MO (his wife’s family is local) against a local guy.

The military vote has yet to be counted… and whatever else…

May they claw each other to death.

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20. marisacat - 31 March 2009

May they claw each other to death too… LOL

Judge Freezes Assets Of Madoff’s Family And Feeders

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21. marisacat - 1 April 2009

hmm I got onto thsi via Sully.. it’s hilarious… he is unhappy iwth his liege lord. Oops. On cannabis (the subject of the link), Iraq (they might be executing gays, if what a UK LGBT group says is accurate), AfPak and wowowow, Detroit too.

Times are hard.

[K]udos to the reporters who held the White House’s feet to the fire on this one. First, Gibbs is asked:

“When the President said he doesn’t think that legalizing marijuana would give the economy a boost was he giving a political answer or an economic answer? Does he have numbers to back (his position) up?”

The pained expression on Gibbs’ face says it all as he mumbles that, in fact, he is aware of no economic analyses — as in zip, nada — that support the President’s dismissive position. Naturally, we have numerous credible economic reports proving just the opposite. Perhaps Mr. Gibbs would like to review them here, here, here, and here.

Minutes later, the White House Press Secretary appears even more desperate for a place to hide when a second reporter asked Gibbs to articulate the reasons why the President refuses to consider the issue. Gibbs’ response is priceless.

“Uh, he, he does not think that, uh, uh, that that is uh, uh, [pause] he opposes it, he doesn’t think that that’s the, the right plan for America.” …

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22. Arcturus - 1 April 2009
marisacat - 1 April 2009

hmm the first few graphs:

NEW DELHI – The horror that is unfolding in Sri Lanka becomes possible because of the silence that surrounds it. There is almost no reporting in the international press – or in the mainstream media in India, where I live – about what is happening. From the little information that is filtering through, it looks as though the Sri Lankan government is using the propaganda of “the war on terror” as a fig leaf to dismantle any semblance of democracy in the country and commit unspeakable crimes against the Tamil people.

The government is working on the principle that every Tamil is a terrorist unless he or she can prove otherwise, and civilian areas, hospitals, and shelters are being bombed and turned into a war zone. Reliable estimates put the number of civilians trapped at over 200,000. The Sri Lankan army is advancing, armed with tanks and aircraft.

Meanwhile, there are reports that several “welfare villages” have been established to house displaced Tamils in the Vavuniya and Mannar districts. The Daily Telegraph in London reports that these villages “will be compulsory holding centers for all civilians fleeing the fighting.” Is this a euphemism for concentration camps? ….

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23. catnip - 1 April 2009

From the No Surprise There department:

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Former Indianapolis Colts coach Tony Dungy has been invited to join a White House faith-based advisory council.

Dungy publicist Todd Starowitz confirmed Tuesday that President Barack Obama had invited the former coach to join the Advisory Council on Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships. He said Dungy had not decided whether to accept.

White House deputy press secretary Bill Burton declined comment. The Associated Press left a message for Dungy on his home answering machine.

Americans United for Separation of Church and State has criticized Dungy’s selection, citing his 2007 support for efforts in Indiana to ban same-sex marriage.

“We’re not trying to downgrade anyone else,” Dungy told a crowd of 700 while accepting a “Friend of Family” award from the conservative Indiana Family Institute in 2007. “But we’re trying to promote the family — family values the Lord’s way.”

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Madman in the Marketplace - 1 April 2009

well, Dungy will fit right in with the other religious nuts Ob likes to snuggle with:

Indianapolis Colts head coach Tony Dungy will be the honored guest of the Indiana Family Institute at the group’s “Friends of the Family Banquet” in March. The organization, among other things, fights the right of same-sex couples to marry and the right of gay people to adopt children in Indiana.

The event’s invitation (right, click to enlarge) features Dungy in his Colts sideline uniform. There is no price listed but the invitation reads: “An opportunity to financially support the Indiana Family Institute will be presented.”

IFI is affiliated with Focus on the Family, a rabidly anti-gay organization that has made it its mission to oppose gay marriage rights, among other issues of gay equality. Focus on the Family hosts a conference series called Love Won Out, which asserts that gay people can be “cured” of being gay. Among the group’s online initiatives is No Moo Lies, which claims that, because dogs can’t moo like a cow, people aren’t supposed to be gay.

IFI’s stated mission is to protect traditional marriage.

“We believe firmly that the family is the key institution of society, and that the overall health of any city, state, region or nation is largely determined by the health of this bedrock institution,” the group’s Web site reads under the heading, Our Mission. “Our objective is two-fold: Preserve pro-family policy already within State Government and push for additional policies that will strengthen Indiana families.”

That’s an older story, but I’ve heard interviews with him since. He’s a fucking nut. I don’t think much has changed.

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catnip - 1 April 2009

Among the group’s online initiatives is No Moo Lies, which claims that, because dogs can’t moo like a cow, people aren’t supposed to be gay.

WTF??

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marisacat - 1 April 2009

WTF??

seems a really bizarre stretch doesn’t it? As metaphor, as simple thought…

What does go on in Indiana at night I wonder…

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Madman in the Marketplace - 1 April 2009

fundies are a strange lot …

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24. catnip - 1 April 2009

Hillary’s science and tech adviser is pushing GM food.

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25. catnip - 1 April 2009

lol…a CBC teevee banner for their crawl is showing “Financial Fools Day” as the headline under video of the G20.

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26. catnip - 1 April 2009

If you missed it, check out the clips of TDS for March 31 about Obamalama’s rebranding and “redfinition accomplished”. :D

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27. catnip - 1 April 2009
28. catnip - 1 April 2009

Somebody seriously needs to get a life. Mon dieu.

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29. marisacat - 1 April 2009

Cali… Don Perata decided, he says, at the funeral services for the cops that he must must must run for Oakland mayor.

We go from slack jaw worked the system for 40 years shyster black Dellums to suburban white mini “don” dictator worked the system for 40 years shyster Perata.

We get a change in dose of melanin.

Whoooooooopee.

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30. BooHooHooMan - 1 April 2009

Much of what’s said here is so patently offensive, that I’ve decided to return to Catholicism.

Obama just landed in the Oval Office and has had all this sprung on him..

Today’s a good day to get some things off my chest, although, unfortunately, the middle aged Turtle Titties are likely to remain..I”ve come to a bit of an awakening , and rediscovered the keen insight at the vanguard of the Progressive movement, The Dailykos.
Another thing that’s been bothering me: the awful treatment of Mr. and Mrs Madoff. The man is a Zionist and that’s good enuf for me, as Israel is our best chance for peace, the killings aside.

I’ll have you all know that I left the Holy Catholic and Apostolic yada yada for the soul purpose of making room for converts like Mr. Gingrich.

April Trolls! LOL.

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marisacat - 1 April 2009

the Gingrich thing is just hilarious.

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BooHooHooMan - 1 April 2009

LOL When I first read the comment, I thought it was an April Fools. There’s this great bit I forget which comic Eddie Izzard maybe , regarding The Pope having a Nazi agenda, the twist being “Well fuck, maybe it will water down the Catholic Agenda…” LOL.

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marisacat - 1 April 2009

regarding The Pope having a Nazi agenda, the twist being “Well fuck, maybe it will water down the Catholic Agenda…” LOL.

Oh very very funny…

I read at breathless Sully (very excited he was too) that Benny is going to ”investigate” the Legionaires for Christ… the Maciel group. Which would be believable but they have been all over Rome for years. Stories that Opus Dei entities moved over into LoC as OD got too much notice. Last I looked, a LofC was the Catholic commenter for MSNBC. Think he is Fr Williams…

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marisacat - 1 April 2009

I see there has been some heavy as in heavy cleansing of the Wiki LofC page. Whew. And I see that Wiki has entered itno some collaboartion with the church for better coverage. LOL

This article is within the scope of WikiProject Catholicism, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of Roman Catholic Church on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.

Okaay. Wear your little Catholic cheerleader outfit when you show up for that collaborative effort… :roll: Whatever! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Legion_of_Christ

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BooHooHooMan - 1 April 2009

Gahhd, now I feel really screwed.
The Little Catholic Cheerleader Outfit?
Jeeziz. They used to be concrete and steel reinforced Hoop-skirt things the size of the dome St Peters , the mass and protective perimeter alone obviating Chastity Turret Gunners. A fixed placement cheerleader bunker as it were, upper torso handwaving and rah rah rah okay, with the optional sandbag rampart built around, further fortifying the cheerleader in place…
if anyone got any….”ideas”…

LOL

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Madman in the Marketplace - 1 April 2009

fuckers co-opt everything, if you give them enough time.

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BooHooHooMan - 1 April 2009

Cult within a Cult within a Cult.
~Great~

Organization-wise?
Everything for the myriad Boxcar Blogs and 527′s , to PACS, Bundlers and Superbundlers…
nothing on the Vatican …
The orders and fraternal organizations, etc, the Honorifics, “for ‘service” [---->MONEY<---]

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catnip - 1 April 2009

April Trolls! LOL.

I was going to say that whatever you’ve been smoking should definitely be banned.

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BooHooHooMan - 1 April 2009

Listen – if you propose to send me to
Neutered Roots Nation, I better have sumpin. LOL

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catnip - 1 April 2009

If you’re willing to actually go, I’m sure we can negotiate that “sumpin”. :D

(Really – who’d want to go there straight??)

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31. marisacat - 1 April 2009

Timmy, from the used car lot…

Via The Page http://thepage.time.com/

The Treasury Secretary conducts a round of TV interviews from London.

Tells Bloomberg he sees “encouraging signs of improvement in our markets… I’ve never seen this much support around the world.”

Tells ABC: “There is very, very broad support already for the kind of program the president came here with.”

Tells NBC: “National financial systems… were created a long time ago. They were not up to the challenge.”

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BooHooHooMan - 1 April 2009

Breaking: Secretary of Treasury’s Pants
on Fire.

Wait!- He’s not even wearing pants!

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32. catnip - 1 April 2009

Question from the back of the room: if this global financial crisis isn’t the US’ fault, whose fault is it?

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marisacat - 1 April 2009

Well Mother Angela did nto mince words, starting months ago, waning days of Bushiter era… they are sick and tired of our booms and busts. Sick of being dragged into them. as in, Get a better system.

I am SURE the US is absolutely freaked that there is even casual, however very intentional!, conversation of a new global currency. Biting their wee fingers to the bone, they are.

The photos from the UK trip are a SCREAM!

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catnip - 1 April 2009

As I heard one British commentator say today (paraphrasing): it’s not that there’s a problem affecting capitalism, capitalism IS the problem.

I asked that question because it seems too many in the press as well as some of the world leaders seem to be pussy-footing around the massive blame that ought to be landing squarely on the US gov’t – perhaps because they feel they need to coddle Obamalama?

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marisacat - 1 April 2009

well that is for public consumption WHILE he is there. Trashing comes later. prolly as he transits France for the Eastern Regions.

In brighter news, they/minions programmed the Ipod with their selections of music. So the story goes. I wonder, do we have no brand new technology, barely released, to give the QEII? An Ipod seems kinda old hat.

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BooHooHooMan - 1 April 2009

Obama: “Here, this is for you – an I-Pod, the last thing of value we have in the United States.”

The Queen, like that line from Catcher in the Rye, “holding it like it was a turd or something”,:::

The Queen: ” Oh, I do see. An I-Pod, is it?”
“Phillip? ”
“Ixnay on the ricepless itshay erwereway onnagivvem.”

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marisacat - 1 April 2009

well I guess he could have bought her a bridge. So many are for sale in the US of A.
:roll:

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Arcturus - 1 April 2009

how loverlie . . .

Every day millions of children are forced to crawl into underground mines on their hands and knees to dig for the essential raw material, coltan, to make electronic gadgets like cell phones, iPods, laptop computers, play stations, wireless systems, DVD players, blackberries and pagers possible.

These technologically advanced toys are given life from capacitors, which are made from coltan, dug up from dangerous mines by children, under age 10.

Read more: “Child Labour: the Congo’s Big Sin: Two Million Congolese Children Dead From Hard Work” – http://childrens-rights.suite101.com/article.cfm/child_labour_the_congos_big_sin#ixzz0BTGu8HUC

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Madman in the Marketplace - 1 April 2009

Maybe they could have gotten her one of these.

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BooHooHooMan - 1 April 2009

The “exquisite eye” : thanks for the Helen Levitt, mcat.
Sad but uplifting at the same time…
So here’s to all of the “exquisite eye”…
I’ve got to pack it in early tonight,
so Thanks all, for lending sight….

I’m Out.

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33. Arcturus - 1 April 2009

Campaigners who have collected 400 tonnes of food and medical aid for the 150,000 Tamil civilians trapped by the fighting between the Sri Lankan army and the Tamil Tigers have reacted angrily to claims from Colombo that the aid mission could be a cover for supplying weapons to the rebels.
. . .
Act Now, the campaign group co-ordinating the mission, says the Vananga Man will transport only medicine, baby milk, rice and chapati flour to Tamils caught in the “no fire zone” declared by the Sri Lankan government . . .

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34. marisacat - 1 April 2009

We’ll be monitoring those hate filled war mongering Canadian geese that fly over the borders and mount aggressive strikes on our domestic aircraft.

We’ve always suspected that “migrating” excuse they use….

[T]he cameras will be used to zoom in on a boat that left Canada, for instance, and watch where it goes and what it does, said Mark Borkowski, executive director of the Secure Border Initiative at Customs and Border Protection.

“So the idea is to have cameras watch, and then agents are freed up to respond,” Borkowski said in an interview with the Associated Press. The cameras will cut down the agent’s response time by minutes, he said.

Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies in Washington, D.C., said the Detroit surveillance towers sound like a good idea.

The technology can be especially helpful on the northern border, he said, where the number of illegal immigrants crossing is much lower than on the southern border but, proportionally, “they’re much more likely to be bad guys.” [or bad geese!, why be delicate?]

Security operations along the northern border include the use of unmanned aerial vehicles and coordination and intelligence sharing with local law enforcement.

The government awarded the $20 million tower project to Boeing Co., which has been criticized for faulty technology with its so-called “virtual fence” along the U.S.-Mexico boundary. …

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catnip - 1 April 2009

but, proportionally, “they’re much more likely to be bad guys.

Oh really? And they have stats to prove that, do they?

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marisacat - 1 April 2009

LOL

Krikorian is a schnauzer from The Corner… probably makes up his own stats..

The whole thing is looney.

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35. BooHooHooMan - 1 April 2009

I’m back in-
I’m just seeing this.
But Holy Fuckin Shit. No JOKE-
Can you fucking believe this?
Talk about balls-up, shit-the-bed complicity.
These motherfuckers should be shot.

The D.O. Fuckin J is going to to TOSS Stevens conviction.

U.S. to Drop Stevens Charges

It’s that fucking Breuer, That Rubin Schumer Clinton Motherfucker calling the shots at the Criminal Division.

What Motherfuckers, man.
Bastards.
Obama should be fuckin Impeached.
Fuckin GANGSTERS.

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BooHooHooMan - 1 April 2009

Of all the wrongful convictions they are rushing to kiss Stevens ASS. “Bush’s” DOJ sabatoged the case So Let him appeal. but these Democratic bagmen won’t even send Marshalls to bring a corruption witness before Congress. It’s A fucking thoroughly corrupt Gangster State. The sooner it collapses the better. About the only thing I get from it is the source of my hostility.

This has to be tied in with Murtha particularly now, but the list goes on and on – Schumer, Dodd, Biden, Clinton and on and on and on…

—- > All motherfucking crooks < —-
who sold people like slaves and authorized the destruction of those who are in the way…

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BooHooHooMan - 1 April 2009

And Obama and entourage in the UK. Perfect.
It will be a dead story by the Sunday talk shows.

I’m out – before I have a fuckin stroke. LOL.

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36. NYCO - 1 April 2009

71. You know, if they’d just stuck with the plan to make Lake Ontario into a Coast Guard “free-fire zone,” they wouldn’t have needed to spend all this dough on watchtowers…

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marisacat - 1 April 2009

well I remember the plan to put (LOL basically) howitzers on boats that would patrol the Lake.. iirc lotta moaning and dropping of the plan.. then a couple years ago I read those big guns did not really go away.

We should just get big steel roll down doors for both borders. obviously we just hate everyone.

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37. marisacat - 1 April 2009

What is the mattter? Can’t we all just get along? Be happy in .. you know, Happyland.

Nobel Laureate Stiglitz: Geithner’s Plan Is Just Robbery

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38. Madman in the Marketplace - 1 April 2009

Ah Pook Is Here – William S. Burroughs animated film, via a link from boing boing.

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Madman in the Marketplace - 1 April 2009
39. Madman in the Marketplace - 1 April 2009

‘Plumber’ stirs anger during rally

Joe Wurzelbacher would not say who paid for him to come to Harrisburg to speak out against the proposed Employee Free Choice Act. Neither would organizers of the rally, Americans for Prosperity, a nonprofit that takes donations from conservative donors.

But that doesn’t mean “Joe the Plumber” — who drove his own pickup from Toledo, Ohio, to Harrisburg and was eager to drive home again — didn’t earn his money on Tuesday.

Before he could utter his first words, Wurzelbacher was jeered and heckled by dozens of central Pennsylvania union members who flocked to the Capitol steps to give a rowdy voice of support for the legislation better known as “card check.”

“Rat! Rat! Rat!” crowd members shouted.

“Real plumbers are for card check!” another shouted.

Pennsylvania AFL-CIO President William M. George had ordered union-owned buses to haul carpenters, sheet-metal workers, Teamsters, steel workers and, yes, “real” licensed plumbers from the union hall in Steelton to the rally.

But Wurzelbacher stood up straight as a lightning rod — and calmly issued anti-card-check talking points.

“Let me start off right now by saying I’m not against unions,” Wurzelbacher said. “Not at all. Unions have made America strong, no doubt. I have a brother and other family members who are union members, and they tell me … they want to go to work their 40 hours and go home without coercion or intimidation.”

It was hard to hear him, especially when one of the union buses cranked up the radio and blared it over a loudspeaker.

“Is he a real plumber? No!” said Bill Smith, a union member who declined to say where he worked.

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marisacat - 1 April 2009

i”ve reached a point of disliking everyone. Tell the union members to get their unions to pull support from Democrats who sell them out.

The day will never come.

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Madman in the Marketplace - 1 April 2009

oh, that’s a very good point.

Maybe someday they’ll learn … oh, nevermind. They won’t.

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40. catnip - 1 April 2009

Warning: following this link may be stroke-inducing for certain people nicknamed “BHHM”:

So called “progressive” apologists for the Justice Dept dropping the case against Stevens.

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41. Madman in the Marketplace - 1 April 2009

Perrin:

Isn’t it cute when the New York Times discovers populism? Like rich kids in a petting zoo. Of course, the current populism is right wing, what with our new Leninist masters and the socialization of God’s free market America. The Times features a lot of this lately, which makes sense, as they’ve long tried to show the right how evenhanded they are, and the sad fact that there’s no serious left wing alternative.

At the moment, the mainstream “left,” or whatever the fuck it is, still supports their president, ever hopeful that Obama will do what they fantasize he’ll do. And even if he doesn’t, if he stays true to the political class that groomed and promoted him, “progressives” will remain loyal amid the grumbling, especially come re-election time.

As I’ve said ad nauseum, this largely uncritical surrender to Obama, however modified it becomes, hands reactionaries the populism card, making nationalism, xenophobia, and related disorders attractive alternatives — to the degree they are alternatives. Despite all the cultural advances, some of which have been weakened or rolled back, a large chunk of white America remains mired in flag-waving bullshit. They are easily courted by the Limbaughs, Palins, and Glenn Becks who speak the same backward language, however differently these propagandists actually live. Superstition maintains deep appeal.

Whenever I hear liberals gloat over the supposed death of the right, I tighten up, because those people and their offspring aren’t going anywhere. In many ways, they are much more “American” than Obama-lovin’ libs. Oh, you might counter, look at all those disaffected whites who voted for Obama. Surely real change has arrived!

Uh, no. Recall that Obama and McCain were neck-and-neck as late as September. The shit economy saved Obama’s ass, even though he sided, and still sides, with the criminals who created this mess. That’s when his HOPE dope broke wide, because what else can you offer powerless people you want to keep marginalized? How long that meth hit will satisfy the disaffected is unknown, but as with all highs, there’s an inevitable crash. And then what do you offer?

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marisacat - 1 April 2009

I was just there, reading Perrin… that last graph is “it” imo.

And I am thinking that Tedisco pulls it out in NY-20.. even tho the DNC has put out a cock ‘o the walk PR on ”winning”.

“This race became a referendum on President Obama and his leadership of the country and handling of the economy. Murphy’s showing in an overwhelmingly Republican district is affirmation of the direction the President is leading the country.”

Not put out last night, not early today… but late today after Murphy’s lead shrank to 25 and there are thousands of absentee, military and other votes to count… some in, some not due til April 13 (frm what I read) Geesh.

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Madman in the Marketplace - 1 April 2009

they’re already spinning the idea that losing is a “victory”. Hell, even the republican organ the Politico was telling that tale.

It’s all the same fucking party, man.

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marisacat - 1 April 2009

Well Bush carried the district twice… other than that they belly up for Democrats…. Gillibrand was re-elected by wide majority and cut an ad for Murphy.. they voted for Spitzer, Schumer and Hillary… among other state wide Dems…

But Tedisco ran on very timely code words (I am nto saying they are new) of “I am one of you”. Murphy was a transplant as of 3 years ago…

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Madman in the Marketplace - 1 April 2009

I heard one version of the whole tale that Murphy grew up in the area, but I frankly was too lazy to investigate further.

We’re skrewed either way, and one little BS district in NY state doesn’t matter for a hill of beans in this crazy old world
/Rick>

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42. Madman in the Marketplace - 1 April 2009
43. lucid - 1 April 2009

OK, so I now have documentary evidence of why I’m so fucked up… my Father narrating a hymn festival directed by my mother last year [they're both in their 70's] …

I’m going to upload snippets somewhere and link soon… Amazing how the cadence is so internalized….

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44. marisacat - 2 April 2009

jeez loueez… I just heard that a carton of cigarettes in NY now cost 100.00

!!… ???

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45. NYCO - 2 April 2009

99. Not if you go on the rez it doesn’t.

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marisacat - 2 April 2009

agree… and cigarettes online are cheaper…

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NYCO - 2 April 2009

101. Although, apparently online cigarettes are now made out of razor blades and cyanide, from what I read.

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catnip - 2 April 2009

I heard in a news clip yesterday that the average price of smokes in the US is now $5 since taxes went up yesterday. We’ve been paying an average of $10 CDN for years now. From what I’ve read, they pay about $93 for a carton in Nfld.

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marisacat - 2 April 2009

well you said you stopped.. but if you had not, online is def the way to go… plus easy online to get cigarettes wtih less additives and lower nicotine… like … I think one of the ones Am Indians produce is “native spirit”…. and the old “Sobranie” line that is much simpler composition.

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lucid - 2 April 2009

I still smoke and yesterday my deli still only charged me $9.75… we’ll see about today. I have a friend who did the online thing for several years before moving to Brighton. A year later he got a tax bill from Bloomberg for all of the online cigarettes he bought… go figure.

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marisacat - 2 April 2009

perfect opportunity to tell Bloombutt to piss off. IMO.

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catnip - 2 April 2009

I smoke one or two cigs a day now, still. Down from a pack a day last fall. I’m a die hard – just not quite ready to totally give it up. I’ve never tried any alternative types.

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46. NYCO - 2 April 2009

All about Jim the Realtor:

The Hunter S. Thompson of real estate

I watch this guy’s videos quite a bit, mainly to gawk at the freakshow that is Sun Belt real estate. I always found his manner strange though, and wondered if we would one day read in the papers that he’d blown his brains out or something. It appears he’s been an outsider in the industry for a long time, though, so these videos aren’t the by-product of a mild-mannered realtor slowly going berserk.

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NYCO - 2 April 2009

of course… then again… what happened to Hunter S. Thompson? :-(

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47. marisacat - 2 April 2009

LOL

sounds like peanuts to me… we’ll see how much shows up. Not that it matters…

$1 trillion has been promised to the IMF and other organisations by world leaders as Gordon Brown closes the G20 summit in London.

For more details: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news

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48. marisacat - 2 April 2009

We are saved!

Breaking News from ABCNEWS.com:

G-20 Optimism Pushes Dow Above 8,000 For First Time in Weeks

[11:15 a.m. ET]

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49. marisacat - 2 April 2009

We are saved, over and over again. Thw world’s economic throes were just a blip! We were fools to worry!

Breaking News from ABCNEWS.com:

G-20 Leaders Will Inject $5 Trillion Into Global Economy, Says Prime Minister Gordon Brown [11:44 a.m. ET]

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50. NYCO - 2 April 2009

107. However, this appears to be a “belief-free” recovery… they can ballyhoo the Dow all they want, but most economic indicators are way in the toilet. Also, this is a recession where major cultural arbiters are simply dropping off into final oblivion: American automakers, the newspaper industry, and you’re even hearing whispers that advertising itself is in trouble… that it really doesn’t work, consumers don’t like it and don’t trust it and don’t want it. Soon CEOs will be wondering why they are paying so much for ads that don’t work.

In short, people are not believing in the underlying crap any more. This is looking like the Great Depression would have looked like if FDR hadn’t outmaneuvered true socialism at home. Obama and the rest of the gang aren’t outmaneuvering anything, they’re just throwing wads of money at their pet beast.

The only question now is when is the bottom going to fall out, and how hard will it be on little people like you and me? Can anyone seriously think – even if we don’t have a grand old World War with capital W’s – that world war isn’t going to increase?

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marisacat - 2 April 2009

Well Obrama and his gang… of which imo he allowed to be the Maitre d… are basically rebuilding the old system, right back again.

So we are headed for more crashes in my ‘scattered and ignorant of all things financial’ opinion.

Oh I think war increase, no matter what, is on the agenda. Soem bloody nightmare resource battles… Seems time that the world wants to throw itself in the air and fall down in a new arrangement. War does that. I don’t think there is any “saving” on view for a long time.

Well hyperinflation will simply crush me… and that may be the least of it… who knows.

Very hilarious to listen to Geithner. What a shill… what a fucking neurotic. In fact I think they ALL are raging neurotics, teeming witih various pathologies and obsessions…. Which is fine, but these unstable fake whatevers want to run the world. And they are incapable.

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51. mattes - 2 April 2009
marisacat - 2 April 2009

AIG formerly General Insurance, in one or some of its earlier incarnations, sold worthless life insurance to poor people. A lifetime of premiums paid for what they thought was at least moneyh for the children to bury them and settle things up. Upon death, worthless. Long time criminal organisation, imo.

I mean decades ago.. long before the reform warriors like ..gah Spritzer. Spitz whatever his name was.

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mattes - 2 April 2009

Look at this shit, Greenberg wants his “cut”.

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0409/20799.html

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marisacat - 2 April 2009

well at the time he OPPOSED a government bail out of AIG. He said very clearly, they should partition the company, sell stable assets to raise money and deal with the failing parts. Junk them if need be.

It was a better idea than what Bush and Obama have done.

None of the above is an endorsement of Greenberg, in the slightest.

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mattes - 2 April 2009

Maybe he opposed it because it was a scam, and the facts might come out. As in jailtime.

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marisacat - 2 April 2009

oh please.

Who has gone to jail.. they hardly wanted to put the big diversion in jail, Madoff. They barely bothered to seize assets in a timely fashion. He made such good copy, I suspect they are sorry to see the story wind down. Maybe they can gin it back up.

None of the captains of industry will be going to jail..

As I said, General Ins ran long term but VERY ORDINARY scams. They did not get to a position of insuring, as example, 90% of world aircraft without government assistance.

The Dow today rose on the fact that “mark to market”, the bloating of the books on toxic assets, is just what business wants.

We exist off hot air. And nothing, really, is being done.

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52. marisacat - 2 April 2009

o god. the tired dead bromides coming from the hot shot young pretzel at his London presser.

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53. marisacat - 2 April 2009

gnu thred…

LINK

……….. :roll: ……….

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54. catnip - 2 April 2009

Our PM announced today that “there are no national economies” – just the global economy.

There’s definitely something scary about that.

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mattes - 2 April 2009

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