Obituaries

Famous radio broadcaster and commentator Paul Harvey has died at the age of 90.

His "news" program, which was sprinkled with commentary, was a fixture for years and years and years. He liked to report on the offbeat as well as the big stories.

The one thing I couldn't stand about Harvey's radio program was the fact his reports and the commercials, which he did, were not separate. He would say "page one" or "page two" or whatever, and I guess that indicated to listeners more astute than I a commercial was coming up, but it drove me absolutely batshit crazy. When he would pitch a product, it sounded like it was a regular story.

Harvey was known as a political conservative, but to his credit he did criticize American involvement in Vietnam and suggested Nixon resign, so he wasn't all bad.

As a trivia note, the late televangelist, Garner Ted Armstrong, patterned his delivery on Harvey's.

Harvey's wife, Angel, died last year.

Well, These Environmentalists

who push extreme ideas can kiss my ass, and it's no business of theirs WHAT I use to wipe my ass.

I am just kidding; I guess there are some serious issues with the use of virgin wood as opposed to recycled stuff.

Actually I don't care for Northern or for Charmin or any of the ultrasoft brands; I personally think the best TP out there is Scott's 1000 single-ply tissue. A four-roll package can last two or three weeks for me, unlike other brands.

A Bad Penny Always Returns

You'd think after his highly publicized fall from grace, old Newt Gingrich would go back and hide under the rock from which he came, but no such luck. His face is everywhere trying to diagnose what is ailing the country.

Well, Newt, your day has passed. It's time to continue writing books nobody reads and writing reviews of mystery novels for Amazon.com.

Well, Every Time We Have an Economic Downturn,

many professional workers find themselves out of a job and have to resort to taking any piece of crap that comes along, and yes, it does wound the ego and obliterates the identity.

In yours truly's case, I am not sure I will go back into the education field after having been treated like shit for two years, and having been lied to by the union, by bosses, by union attorneys, by seemingly everybody in that district. I am glad I am out of that hellhole, but now I have to worry about what I'll do next.

Right now I am not taking any piece of shit that comes along, especially when there is no car.

The Economy

The US economy shrinks at a 6.2 percent rate.

Miscellaneous News

There is a special place in hell for people who sexually abuse children, and this person is certainly going to go to prison for a long, long time. And probably in solitary confinement, for other inmates will certainly feel outraged enough to knock this guy off.

This case is awful beyond belief.
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There is also a special place in hell for people who abuse animals.
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There is talk of a bill being proposed in Oregon which would ban pit bulls, although those who currently have them would be allowed to keep them.

I seriously doubt this will be law, although breed specific laws have passed in other jurisdictions and countries.
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If the trends from the past election are any indication of how young people will be voting in the future, the GOP might find itself shit out of luck for a generation.
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The judge can send the emerald to me; I can make good use of it.
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Robert Parry Asks a Question That is So Silly,

it really isn't worth an entry on this blog, and I haven't felt very motivated to post here as of late. He asks the question whether Republicans can be trusted.

I mean, for Chrissake, if people have to ask that question, they've been comatose or living in a cave for the past 40 years, or at least since the radical right hijacked the party.

Parry goes way back, though probably not far enough back, to try and make sense of how the radical right of the Republican Party got as far as it got. I can summarize it by saying the GOP created its own reality, thanks to its large network of billionaire-financed "think tanks" and media (the repeal of the Fairness Act was essential in the right-wing takeover of large chunks of the media), which was totally at odds with the real reality. They embraced a cult, and now they feel they can't let go of this cult for fear their whole house of cards of an alternate reality will collapse. It already has, but that doesn't mean it will stop them from clinging tenaciously to the discredited cult of Friedmanism. They will go all out to obstruct Obama because they think this will help them return to power in 2010 and 2012, but the turnip truck has left the station. The people, or at least a growing number of people, finally realize they've been had by a giant con and now want some action.

The GOP is trying the same damned thing to Obama they did with Clinton, but it is with hope Obama doesn't fall into the trap. Perhaps both Clintons are giving him advice as to how to deal with these people.

Oh, For Shit's Sake

Kids aren't being "shamed" into eating cheese sandwiches because their parents are irresponsible; parents need to either apply for free lunch help or pay the goddamned debt. This post, like so many by so-called liberals, treats the so-called poor like they always deserve everything for free no matter how irresponsible a few parents are.

Besides, if parents regardless of income don't pay the lunch bill, ALL kids regardless of income have to have a cheese sandwich until the bill is paid. The kids AREN'T being "starved," for shit's sake.

It's about parental responsibility, dumbass, not about "shaming."

Yeah, there are a few teachers out there who allow themselves to be used by unscrupulous parents and actually are stupid enough to loan the kids money for lunch or buy their lunches. I NEVER did that as a teacher.

Political Grandstanding

Republican Jim DeMint (the last name sounds like DeMented) is on a ramage again, claiming Obama's a great salesperson for "socialism." The bugaboo has to be "socialism" since Ronald Reagan brought about the downfall of communism, or so we have been told by GOP "historians" and flaks in the media.

When you don't have an argument except the fact you are representing the tiny economic and business elite of this country and nobody else, you resort to name calling. Besides, to them government policies benefitting the vast majority of people are considered "socialism," but giving gigantic handouts to their constituents in the rich and business sectors is considered responsible governing.

Dumbass GOP Governors

want to keep fucking over the unemployed because they think the unemployed won't fight back, but I think they are going to find out they can.

Not only that, but the stimulus package isn't a cafeteria deal.

Conscience Clause

It appears the Obama administration is ready to overturn the Bush administration's rather vague rules regarding "conscience clauses" for medical personnel, which could deny women not only abortion referrals, but also referrals for contraception. Personnel can deny rape victims such services.

Miscellaneous News

A 4.1 earthquake shook southern Oregon around the Grants Pass/Gold Beach area, close to my hometown.
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It's more good news from the economy, as California's unemployment rate has shot past 10 percent.

Which means it is bad for Nevada. Nobody is coming to visit, except for the various conventions, and in the north it is just dying.
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Is it time to ban the sale and breeding of pit bulls?
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Miscellaneous News

An octopus opened a valve and flooded a Santa Monica aquarium.
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Kenneth Douglas is probably going to pay for his perversion, and yes, sex with corpses IS a perversion:

At least three of those women were dead when he had sex with them, Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters said Thursday.

But if Douglas is to be believed, he could have had sex with as many as “over a hundred” bodies in the 16 years he worked as the night attendant at the Hamilton County morgue.

“I am sure there are more (victims). I’m certain of it,” Deters said today in announcing new indictments against Douglas.

“This guy’s just a pig. I can’t explain why someone would do something like this. … This is off-the-charts weird.”

Douglas, 55, of Westwood, already is serving a prison sentence after he pleaded guilty last year to abuse of a corpse when he admitted he had sex with the bloody, nearly beheaded body of 18-year-old murder victim Karen Range in 1982.

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Who needs friends like these anyway?
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An old corpse is found in a Piedmont, California, home, but we don't know if the corpse is old because the woman was old, or it was old because it had been lying around for a long time.

The body was mummified, and it had been at the home four to five years. Yet somebody was paying the utilities and so on.

Watch the news video. What a bizarre story.
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More Bad News

While the San Francisco Chronicle faces closure, the Rocky Mountain News will cease publication after tomorrow:

The Rocky Mountain News, less than two months away from its 150th anniversary, will be closed after a search for a buyer proved unsuccessful, the E.W. Scripps Co. announced today.

"Today the Rocky Mountain News, long the leading voice in Denver, becomes a victim of changing times in our industry and huge economic challenges," Rich Boehne, chief executive officer of Scripps, said in a prepared statement. "The Rocky is one of America’s very best examples of what local news organizations need to be in the future. Unfortunately, the partnership’s business model is locked in the past."

The Rocky has been in a joint operating agreement with The Denver Post since 2001. The arrangement approved by the U.S. Justice Department allowed the papers to share all business services, from advertising to printing, in order to preserve two editorial voices in the community.

Jimbo Eruptions

Our dipshit governor decides he wants to flex his muscle against the federal stimulus package states the obvious about the state budget.

Regardless of the federal money, state cuts still have to be made.

More Wrongheadedness by the Nutroots

Some of them have set up a group called "Accountability Now" which instead of challenging Republican incumbents, which is the sane move, they want to go after Democrats who do NOT fit in with their idea of what a Democrat should be, i.e., "blue dog" Democrats who come from conservative districts and cannot ever elected if they voted like Dennis Kucinich.

If Democrats made up of 2/3rds of Congress, such an idea wouldn't be bad, but not right now. Democrats don't even have a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate right now.

The Economy

Let's quit calling the rich "affluent" or merely "wealthy," for one thing. Obama is going to HAVE to reverse tax policies favoring the few at the expense of everybody else. Our country can't survive much longer without a reversal. I would go much further than Obama, who is afraid of alienating his rich donors and Wall Street.

But his proposed budget is a step in the right direction. Robert Reich for one likes what he is seeing with Obama.

It's about time a presidential budget uneqivocally redistributed income from the very rich to the middle class and poor. The incomes of the top 1 percent have soared for thirty years while median wages have slowed or declined in real terms. As economists Thomas Piketty and Emanuel Saez have shown, in the 1970s the top-earning 1 percent of Americans took home 8 percent of total income; as recently as 1980 they took home 9 percent. After that, total income became more and more concentrated at the top. By 2007, the top 1 percent took home over 22 percent. Meanwhile, even as their incomes dramatically increased, the total federal tax rates paid by the top 1 percent dropped. According to the Congressional Budget Office, the top 1 percent paid a total federal tax rate of 37 percent three decades ago; now it's paying 31 percent.

Fairness is at stake but so is the economy as a whole. This Mini Depression is partly the result of a widening gap between what Americans can afford to buy and what Americans when fully employed can produce. And that gap is in no small measure due to the widening gap in incomes, since the rich don't devote nearly as large a portion of their incomes to buying things than middle and lower-income people. The rich, after all, already have most of what they want.

Obama will have to go much further, though, to get this country back where it should be. But at least he recognizes the overconcentration of wealth in this country as THE problem.

Mountain Sage has the links to the proposed 2010 budget, if people are interested in actually reading it.

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This piece agrees with me about Obama needing to reverse the destructive tax policy which has benefitted the tiny numbers of financial elite to the detriment of everybody else.

And Congress better not EVER repeal the estate tax. It is un-American. We do NOT want or need a hereditary aristocracy in this country.

The Economic Mess

Jobless claims continue to rise, which is no surprise here.

And, in the neighborhood where I live, apartment and house vacancies are up, and they are hard to rent out or sell. Across the street is an apartment complex, and the rent for a two-bedroom is now $625. I am paying this landlord $650 for a one-bedroom, and I am extremely pissed off at him as a result. He jacked the rent up $100 a month last summer, and he should never have done it. He lives on site in the basement apartment, yet he still lives like he has the old guesthouse he operated for 37 years until he sold it ten years ago (it was later demolished). Back then, he was getting $2,000 or more a week from over 20 tenants and over $100K a year. He had expenses, to be sure, but he would squander money on stupid things like his POS truck and a 27-foot sailboat he has NEVER had in the water (he bought it in 1987 using his CDs he had for years after he inherited money from his parents). Worse still, although he was self-employed, he NEVER paid into Social Security. He receives only the minimum from the years when he held jobs pre-1961. He STILL has the boat AND the truck and is paying ridiculous amounts of auto insurance for the latter ($1,800 a year for a 42-year-old truck he rarely drives anywhere). The fact is he shouldn't have either thing and should sell them. If the tenant next door moves or I do (which is a probability now since there are NO job prospects at all in northern Nevada), this landlord is going to be in dire, dire straits. I am so disgusted with him, words can't even describe it, not even obscenities.

Just How

can one explain the likes of Madoff, who ripped off even his friends to enrich himself?

The thing is, he isn't the only robber baron out there who has destroyed people's lives. The sociopathy was actually encouraged by years of propaganda of "I want mine and to hell with you."

Fight of the Week

Women can act so stupid over men, it isn't even funny.

So why didn't the wife confront the husband? It takes two, you know.

Jindal Response

My God, Governor Jindal sounded as if he were auditioning for Sesame Street:




I mean, has this guy EVER given a speech before? Awful, just awful.

His last name is pronounced "Gin-dull," by the way, with the accent on the "gin."


Here is one scathing review of the dismal performance.

Octupletgate

Problems may develop for Nadya Suleman, and she expressed her concerns to Dr. Phil:

McGraw said the 33-year-old unemployed mother called him Tuesday, distraught that Kaiser Permanente officials told her they were concerned about the babies living at her home in suburban Los Angeles.

"What she is telling me is that unless and until she has a better living arrangement, that they are not likely to release the children to her," McGraw told the Los Angeles Times.

Suleman has taped two episodes of McGraw's "Dr. Phil" show. The first was scheduled to air Wednesday.

Assuming, of course, Suleman is telling the truth, and we all know how honest she is.

Meanwhile, she has an offer to do porn for a million and a year's worth of health insurance. She must have horrific stretch marks from her most recent pregnancy, however, judging from those well-publicized pregnancy photos.

The WSWS

took great offense to Obama's speech of last night, and objected to his attitude about high school dropouts, among other things:

This was expressed in perhaps the most chilling passage of the speech, when he declared, "dropping out of high school is no longer an option. It's not just quitting on yourself, it's quitting on your country." This was followed by a call for "a renewed spirit of national service" and the passage of legislation to expand programs that pay for college education for youth who join the military or enroll in other government service programs.

The real meaning of this extraordinary statement can be summarized as follows: Young people who drop out of school are not victims of a social crisis produced by the failure of the profit system. On the contrary, they are criminals who are undermining the viability of American capitalism by their refusal to be educated to the level required to become productive (i.e., to generate profits for the capitalist class). And they will pay for their "crime" by being drafted into the military to serve as cannon fodder in the imperialist which Obama, like Bush, will continue and escalate.

To say nothing of the fact the test maniacs WANT to force MORE young people to drop out of high school so they can depress wages even more on the so-called "less-skilled" jobs, and also to enlarge the already huge poverty class.

In Case You Missed It,

here is the entire speech from President Obama, who spoke in front of both houses of Congress last night:



link

Jimbo Eruptions

Chickenshit Jimbo got his way, and there will be a "liaison" or go-between between himself and the Board of Regents, specifically Chancellor Jim Rogers, who wrote in a column the other day (see Monday's entry) which mentioned Jimbo's obvious intellectual and ideological shortcomings.

I Agree

with Gerald Bracey who wrote on a education board about what Obama said regarding education:

I have not the expertise to address the merits of President Obama’s speech to Congress on the issues of the economy. I do claim some expertise on education. He blew it.

He accepted the same garbage that the propagandists, fear mongers such as Lou Gerstner, Bill Gates, Roy Romer, Bob Wise, Craig Barrett and many others—God help us, Arne Duncan?--have been spewing for years.

Obama said, “”Right now, three quarters of the fastest-growing occupations require more than a high school diploma, and yet just over half of our citizens have that level of education. Scary, huh? Not really. This statistic was a favorite of ex secretary of education of education Margaret Spellings, about whom we can all express a sigh of relief that the operative word is, “ex.”

If you look at the Bureau of Labor Statistics stats on job projections, it is almost true (but not really) that what Obama said is right. But there are two hugely compromising factors that make this statistic much less fearsome that it first appears:

1. The definition of “more than a high school diploma” is a weasel phrase, an incredibly slippery statistic. It does not mean a B. A., an Associates Degree, nor even a year of on-the-job training. The BLS projects that the overwhelming majority of jobs to be created between now and 2016 will require “short term on the job training.” That’s one week to three months.

2. The “fastest-growing occupations” account for very few jobs. For every systems engineer, we need about 15 sales people on the floor at Wal-Mart (and we have three newly minted scientists and engineers for every new job in those fields). The huge job numbers in this country are accounted for by retail sales, janitors, maids, food workers, waiters, truck drivers, home care assistants (low paid folk who come to take care those of us who are getting up in years), and similar low-trained, low-paid occupations. Note that I did not say these people are “low-skilled.” As Barbara Ehrenreich showed after she spent two years working in “low-skilled” jobs, there really is no such thing (see her Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America).

“We have one of the highest high school dropout rates of any industrialized nation, and half of our students who begin college never finish.”

Because test scores no longer work to prove American school failure, the statistic of choice to prove what a lousy job we’re doing is the graduation rate. How dare those European and Asian nations have the audacity to recover from World War II! The dropout rates across nations are, so far as I can tell, incomparable, since secondary school programs in other nations range from two to five years. In other nations, once students finish the equivalent of 8th grade, they are tracked into vocational, technical or precollege programs whereas American students go to comprehensive high schools (although, as we all know, there is plenty of informal tracking within those).

Many people do not complete college for many reasons. One of my major regrets as a researcher is a failure to follow up, in the late 60’s, on groups of black students who failed to complete their education at Temple University, a center city school in Philadelphia vs. those who finished on time—at the time restrictions to access to personal data were much freer. The standout statistic in the data I looked at was that the SAT scores of those who finished in four years was only infinitesimally higher than those who had dropped out or been dismissed for academic reasons.

I also don’t know much about college completion rates in Europe, but do know that you can hang around as a student at the Sorbonne in Paris forever. Incidentally, you want a riot in Europe? Try imposing college tuition.

The World Economic Forum, and the Institute for Management Development, two Swiss think tanks, rate the U. S. as the most globally competitive nation in the world, IMD using 50+ nations, WEF, 135. What things will look like when their new rankings emerge from the current catastrophe this fall is hard to say. But looking at tests, high-scoring Iceland is an economic basket case. High-scoring France is on strike. And even higher-scoring Japan, the idol that “A Nation At Risk” prostrated itself to in 1983 because its test scores surely ensured economic prosperity, endured a “lost decade” of recession starting around 1990 and, in 2007 was in recession once again. Japan’s students still ace tests.

When will we ever learn?

That part of his speech is where I shut down the volume because he was spewing the same ignorant claptrap I have heard from politicians for years. Retrain, retrain, retrain for those jobs requiring a college degree, although more than 2/3 of ALL jobs require nothing more than a high school diploma, and only one in four requires a four-year degree. As Bracey says, "fastest-growing" is basically a meaningless term. If the overall numbers aren't there, then it doesn't mean shit. There will ALWAYS be more demand for janitors, food servers, sales clerks, and clerical workers than those in highly technical fields or in the professions. And that's where the jobs are, like it or not.

The only people benefiting from "retraining" are those who are in the business of retraining workers.

I just don't think people should be taking on even more debt for jobs that don't exist. What we need are policies which return manufacturing back to this country and more encouraging of unions, encouraging wasting money.

The Day of Reckoning Has Arrived, [Updated]

or so the president will say in his address to the country tonight.

Actually, it has been in the making for 30 years.

By the way, the speech is technically not a "State of the Union" address. Obama just got inaugurated, and SOTU speeches aren't typically given after a new president is sworn in.

You can watch the live stream here:

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Somebody over at Democratic Underground referred to Governor Bobby Jindal of Louisiana, who gave the GOP response, as "Gunga Dim."

It's Too Bad, So Sad for

those GOP governors who think they can pick and choose what items in the stimulus package they will take; in fact, they can't do it.

Senator Schumer reminds these politically-motivated dipshits:

February 24, 2009

Dear Director Orszag:

In recent days, a small minority of governors, mostly Republicans, have publicly weighed the possibility of foregoing certain emergency provisions provided under the American Economic Recovery and Reinvestment Act signed last week by President Obama. I believe this prospect not only would undercut the stimulative effect of the recovery package, but also is inconsistent with a key provision included in the law passed by Congress. To protect the integrity of the recovery program, I urge the administration to issue implementation guidance clarifying that while any Governor may exercise his or her discretion to accept or reject the federal funds provided in the stimulus, no Governor should have the authority to arbitrarily adopt a select subset of the overall package.

As you know, Section 1607(a) of the economic recovery legislation provides that the Governor of each state must certify a request for stimulus funds before any money can flow. No language in this provision, however, permits the governor to selectively adopt some components of the bill while rejecting others. To allow such picking and choosing would, in effect, empower the governors with a line-item veto authority that President Obama himself did not possess at the time he signed the legislation. It would also undermine the overall success of the bill, as the components most singled out for criticism by these governors are among the most productive measures in terms of stimulating the economy.

For instance, at least two governors have proposed rejecting a program to expand unemployment insurance for laid-off workers. Economists consistently rank unemployment insurance among the most efficient and cost-effective fiscal stimulus measures; by one frequently cited estimate, it provides an economic return of as high as $1.73 for every dollar invested. Thus, by denying this provision for their residents, these governors are not just depriving some of the neediest Americans of relief in a dire economy; they are undermining the overall stimulative impact of the package.

No one would dispute that these governors should be given the choice as to whether to accept the funds or not. But it should not be multiple choice. The composition of the package was rightly dictated by economic considerations; we should not let the implementation of the package be dictated by political considerations.

Sincerely,

Charles E. Schumer
United States Senator

Far too many Republican politicians DESPISE UI because they want the wage base to further be pulled down, and if people on UI are more selective about what they take for employment, employers will be less inclined to pay rockbottom pay.

So Help Me God If Obama

fucks around with Social Security and Medicare, he might just as well resign. I have NEVER trusted him on these issues and feel he is too beholden to the interests of those who would destroy this country once and for all.

It just keeps getting worse and worse, and Obama just doesn't understand WHY the country got into this mess in the first place. It's because of the federal policies favoring the very few at the expense of everybody else.

The Booming Economy

Several teaching positions are being eliminated from Ashland, Oregon's school district because of budget shortfalls.
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Jimbo Eruptions

I HAVE to post this editorial which appeared in yesterday's Nevada Appeal (I am sure other Nevada bloggers have it, too) written by Chancellor Jim Rogers. He basically says what everybody knows the governor is, and that's an empty suit:

I am constantly confused by Jim Gibbons having become the governor of Nevada. What strange set of facts could possibly have come together to elect this man whose every characteristic supports one cause — Jim Gibbons. The man has absolutely no regard for the welfare of any other human being.

Rather than a governor, Nevadans elected an executioner. Did he snooker us all? Was he able to camouflage himself to such an extent and hide behind so many empty slogans that a majority of Nevada would vote for this man in the empty suit, for an ideology that has three simple words, “no new taxes”?

These words from Gibbons’ mouth represent a total lack of understanding of the purpose of government. His words also evidence no understanding of the devastation these three little words can cause.

If implemented, the political and economic policy of this man in the empty suit will shut down Nevada’s programs to provide health care for children and care for the elderly who have no way to care for themselves.

His policies will permanently injure students who hope to grab a part of what used to be the American dream — to get a college education. Without support from the state, that dream will be denied.

That's just for starters. In response to this stinging critique, our beloved governor is asking the Board of Regents, two of whom issued a letter to the guv saying Rogers' remarks weren't representative of the Board in general, to appoint a liaison between himself and the legislature and the Board of Regents. Jimbo apparently doesn't want to face Rogers.

Murder of the Week

The local D.A. doesn't know what he will do about Jordan Anthony Brown, 11, who has been charged in the murder last Friday of his father's pregnant girlfriend. The boy is staying in an adult jail, and authorities there say it is simply not suitable for him to be there.

This is a classic case of jealousy on the part of the boy, and too-easy access to firearms. Apparently his dad gave him a shotgun for Christmas.

In the old days, boys that age who were interested in firearms received BB guns. Not anymore, apparently. It goes without saying the boy shouldn't have had access to guns at all or the father should have locked up all weapons in his house and not have allowed the boy any unsupervised access.

Jordan's mugshot has been published. Looking at those eyes, they are the eyes of somebody without a conscience; I call them "dead eyes."
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GOP Infighting

It's nice to finally see cracks in the loyal opposition's armour. More concerned about their fortunes in 2010 and beyond than giving a crap about the American people, the GOP politicians are arguing over the stimulus. Idiot governors like SC's Mark Sanford are grandstanding by claiming they will not accept parts or all of the stimulus, despite the fact it was written in the legislation governors could NOT willy-nilly deny the money; the state legislatures can override any governor's opposition. The governors' "target" in their opposition is extended unemployment benefits. People have to understand these rich assholes who compromise much of the GOP are opposed to UI on principle. They think people who are laid off or fired are responsible for their own fate, and nobody should "bail them out" despite the fact it is businesses who do the layoffs. People on UI don't get it if they quit their jobs (with a few rare exceptions). No, the few GOP governors bitching about UI want the unemployed to go to states with more generous benefits so they don't have to pay out. Well, too goddamned bad.

The idiocy of these cultists knows no bounds. The unemployed do vote, you know, and not all of them are non-voters, Democrats, or even independents.

Miscellaneous Politics

Karl Rove is supposed to testify, but former Alabama governor/political prisoner Don Siegelman doesn't believe Rove will ever tell the truth. Not that everybody believed he ever would.
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It's a Month into Obama's Administration,

so how is he doing so far? Not so great, according to the WSWS, predictably. Obama, in their eyes, is little more than Bush III.

The Oscars

There were no surprises this year. Slumdog Millionaire was voted Best Picture at the 81st Academy Awards. Sean Penn won Best Actor for the title role in Milk, while Kate Winslet won Best Actress for The Reader.

Oscar results are here.

Man On Wire, the documentary about that wild and crazy guy Philippe Petit, who gained notoriety as the first and only person to have been crazy enough to cross the Twin Towers via highwire, won Best Documentary.

I bought the film on DVD, but there was no film footage of the actual crossing, since Petit and his co-conspirators had planned his walk in secret, although there are photographs. He plotted the walk for six years, as the Twin Towers were being built. In any case, it was actually a very interesting movie, emphasizing the fact it was an artistic "heist." Petit, now 60, looks none the worse for the wear. But it was still a batshit thing to do. Although 9/11 was never mentioned in the film, the movie really was a tribute of sorts to the buildings, as at least one critic noted. The World Trade Center was as much a star in this picture as Petit.

Quote of the Day

"Even though she was operated on, usually, nine months is the longest that anybody would live after (being diagnosed) with pancreatic cancer."--Senator Jim Bunning (R-KY), giving his diagnosis of USSC associate justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who recently had surgery to remove a couple of tumors from her pancreas, one small tumor having been malignant.

Kentucky really knows how to pick senators. There's this clown Bunning and then there's Mitch McConnell, probably the biggest asshole in the U.S. Senate.

It's time for the state to get some new blood in the Senate.

Miscellaneous News

A man who suffered from severe injuries as a result of a chimp attack knows how mauling victim Charla Nash feels.

St. James Davis still has to undergo surgeries to try and reconstruct his face.
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Levi Leipheimer won his third Tour of California.
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No, It Wasn't an "Honor Killing,"

so let's quit pretending the Aasiya Hassan murder is anything other than murder. It doesn't matter if she had been shot, stabbed, poisoned, run over by a car, strangled, beaten, or beheaded, she was murdered, and by a violent, estranged husband.

Sure, beheading is a bit unusual, but I think a more important factor in this sensational case is the irony of it all. Muzzamil Hassan owned a television station promoting tolerance and understanding of Muslims and countering stereotypes of Muslims. I mean, come on, the irony is more the reason the murder has been sensationalized than the manner of it.

Dumbass Republican Posturing

A few nitwit GOP governors, including Sanford (SC), Jindal (LA), and Barbour (MS), are posturing for 2012 by saying they are going to reject some stimulus money, this despite the fact they have NO say about it, for Congress made sure of it that the legislators can overrule the moronic governors. Municipalities can take the money as well.

Mostly these bastards are bitching about UI. Unemployed people can go to hell, as far as they are concerned, and move to other states, provided they can afford to move at all.

Wall Street "Brain Drain"

If Wall Street incompetents are upset because of pay caps, then this is the "brain drain" the country can well afford.

The more they have screwed up and stole, the better they do, and the greater chance they get away with it.

The Stimulus

Will Nevada, which is dying on the vine, benefit from the stimulus?

If California turns around, then Nevada will eventually, but I don't intend to be here when it does.

And while the stimulus takes effect, Obama is looking at ways to reduce the deficit.

This is all well and good, but he needs to realize the problems with the economy are a direct result of federal policies which heavily support a tiny economic elite to the detriment of everybody else; i.e., wealth distribution upward to the point where there is overconcentration of wealth. Since there is a finite amount of wealth, this state of affairs can't go on forever. With more people with less in the way of money, products aren't bought and products aren't made. Eventually the whole economic system collapses.

In other words, the right wing has waged a relentless class war, which I have talked about and written about for 25 or more years, and so far there has been no serious attempt to reverse it. We will be a third world country if these policies are not reversed.

Barlett and Steele, who had written for the Philadelphia Enquirer, had three books published in the 1990s which explained why the economy was going into the crapper: America: What Went Wrong, America: Who Pays the Taxes, and America: Whole Stole the Dream? The only thing the authors were wrong about was their belief Social Security should be means-tested, which is simply silly and ultimately destructive to the program by undermining the pact made between generations and by undermining public support by making SS into a "welfare" program, which it is certainly not.

Miscellaneous News

If the economic news is too depressing, don't fret: A Salvadoran by the name of Ingmar Guandique is said to be close to being arrested in the Chandra Levy murder case from 2001. He is already doing time in California for a couple of rapes.

You remember the Levy case, don't you? During the summer of 2001, this was THE big story in the tabloid media and cable channels. The ONLY reason it was anything other than the routine killing it was had to do with Levy's relationship with former congressman Gary Condit of California. Thanks to her distraught parents fanning the media-induced flames, it was Condit who supposedly had something to do with her disappearance and murder, despite the fact he had nothing to do with either. It didn't matter, for what counted was the fact a conservative Democrat was supposedly involved with her, and it was time to take him down. It was 24/7 Condit/Levy until the 9/11 attacks buried it into irrelevance.

Condit's career and life were ruined simply because he wasn't the world's greatest husband, but that didn't matter to the vultures in the media.
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Is this for real about an otter discovered with a video camera?
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Ted Kennedy turns 77 tomorrow, but it is way too premature to write the obituaries and eulogies.
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Funeral directors aren't immune to the economy; instead of fancy funerals, some remains remain unclaimed.
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The Economy

The taxes on the rich HAVE to be raised in order for this economy to ever get back on track.

We KNOW what works for this economy, and these Friedmanite bastards have all but destroyed it because of their being brainwashed by a economic cult.

Obama

wants to help alleviate the foreclosure crisis, but is it enough?

All of these things he's trying to do are well meaning, but there needs to be a halt to the upward distribution of wealth which is destroying everybody underneath, and a complete reversal of tax policy heavily benefiting the rich. As I said, tax rates need to go back to 1950s levels, combined with strict regulations and penalties on companies which outsource jobs and universal health care, and the economic problems would reverse very quickly.

It's political will that is the problem. We have all of these legislators who are on the take from the same financial and corporate interests, and they are afraid of losing contributions if they do the right thing.

The Biggest Idiot in the Country

The fallout continues over "intellectual" millionaire Stephen Fowler's outrageous treatment of midwesterner Gayla Long in the Wife Swap program of a couple of weeks ago. I decided to upload the YouTube of it and saved it to the iPod for future reference. It ranks among the all-time worst episodes in the history of television. And the worst part of the show was the way he shit all over Long in front of his children. It makes me wonder how he treats his own wife.

Now Fowler, who has "suffered" a ton of backlash over his performance, is threatening to take legal action against those who have set up blog sites like StephenFowlerSucks.com for publishing his address, and what few friends he has left have come to his defense claiming Wife Swap's producers carefully edited the show to make him look bad.

Unfortunately for him, he hasn't got a leg to stand on. He chose to appear on the show and suddenly became a public figure, and now he has to pay the price for his assholery.

That's basically what this Fox segment with a couple of attorneys concluded:



He and his wife may end up losing their business ventures and even have to move from their million-dollar Noe Valley home, but the worst is the ridicule those children will have to endure because their dad is such a total jerk.

Obituaries

Socks, the former White House cat during the Clinton presidency, has died. He had cancer of the jaw, and his owner, Betty Currie, decided to have him euthanzed.

A veterinarian recently estimated Socks, who was a stray cat originally, would have been 20 this spring. This seems about right.
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The Booming Economy

As anybody who has been following the news knows, the number of people getting unemployment benefits is the highest in 27 years.

Public employees are NOT immune to layoffs:

States and public institutions, hard hit by falling revenues and federal budget cuts, are also cutting jobs.


After a five-day impasse the California state legislature approved a $41 billion budget Thursday morning. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, who had initially crafted the budget in conjunction with state Democrats, is expected to sign the deal, which includes billions in spending cuts for schools, healthcare institutions and social programs and which will inevitably result in large job cuts.


The governor of Tennessee said that because of monies received from the federal stimulus package the state would reduce a number of planned layoffs, originally set at 2,300, but would still have to cut other jobs nonetheless.


In Pennsylvania, Governor Edward Rendell said that if the unions accepted $80 million in concessions over the next two years the number of layoffs would stay below 1,000. If not, up to 3,000 workers would lose their jobs.


Governors in Maryland, Kentucky and other states have also indicated that layoffs are coming.

Miscellaneous News

The funny part about this story is the fact this idiot had a repair business in Lake Tahoe, a place where repair businesses aren't likely to thrive in the first place because the overabundance of rich people living there.
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To the moron calling itself "Puss 'n' Hooker Boots": Your comments will not be read and will not make it past the moderation "hopper," so don't waste your fucking time trying to insult me.
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Octupletgate

Nadya Suleman's father doesn't have very many good things to say about his irresponsible daughter. At the same time he believes his daughter and especially his grandchildren need help. He was on Oprah Winfrey's program.

The One Thing

I am totally opposed to is the so-called "open primary." As we have seen, open primaries tend to encourage people who would not vote for a candidate in the general election to manipulate the process and pick a candidate who they believe cannot win.

No, if people want to vote in primaries, let them register as either a Democrat or a Republican or minor party.
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Miscellaneous News

Sandra Herold had an unusual relationship with her late chimp, Travis.
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Jurors in the Phil Spector Trial Part 2 got the privilege of going to the scene of the crime.
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Is It a Hoax?

Questions are being raised all over the place about UK's alleged 13-year-old father. Is it possible somebody is trying to cash in?

Some British newspapers reported that Penny Steadman, the baby's grandmother, might have devised a plan to cash in on all the publicity she knew the story would create. A friend of the Steadman family, Clive Sim, revealed to the Mirror that Penny told Chantelle to stay quiet about all the other boys she'd slept with because "she knew Alfie being the dad makes a better story." Sim said, "I think there's a big scam going on here."

The Booming Economy

American automakers outlining a massive attack against their workers.

This is a video of Chrysler workers critical of the company's demands.

The march to third worldom continues...

Octupletgate

It looks like Nadya Suleman and the 14 kids could be out on the street thanks to a foreclosure on her mother's house.

At least I hope somebody takes the kids in.
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As Yours Truly Has Said

over and over, the biggest problem facing our country, indeed the world, is the overconcentration of wealth, which is just ruining everything we hold dear.

It's really not hard to fix at all. Repeal ALL of the economic policies of the past 30 years favoring such a disparity of wealth and return the tax structure back to where it was in the 1950s and early 1960s. The economy would turn around almost instantly.

Our problems are structural and can be solved, but the problem is with our politicians who lack the political will to do anything.

It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out what in the hell went wrong:

There is a finite amount of wealth in any system, and when too much of it is in the hands of the upper echelons, an insufficient amount is money left in customers' pockets to support the growth of commerce and industry. We are now in only the very first stages of experiencing the pain of this imbalance although we have actually been suffering from it for quite a while, perhaps a quarter-century, since the effects of Reagan's "supply-side" policies began to take hold. The growth of unsecured credit has effectively masked the pain of it for the majority of Americans by permitting a larger portion of the population to make purchases in greater quantities than their level of income would normally allow. The credit crunch has revealed, rather than caused, the ravages of the disease itself, sort of like an anesthetic pancake makeup that hides the pain and disfigurement caused by melanoma.

It is easy to see how we got into this mess. The rich have always gotten richer like the old saying says, but this has accelerated tremendously since the election of Ronald Reagan. His policies attempted to remove the burden of paying for our society's governance by reducing taxes even as he tried to curtail the provision of government programs and services that met the needs of our poor and middle classes. He also greatly encouraged highly speculative investment while reversing gains in worker rights and fighting a war against unionization and anti-trust. This caused vast quantities of cash to flow toward the least productive activities, even while embarking on an internationalist policies that depressed American wages by transferring jobs, and even entire industries formerly dominated by American firms, overseas, even while requiring American workers to compete against much lower-wage workers in third-world countries. The percentage of America's wealth in the hands of the wealthiest Americans increased rapidly even as the lower, oh, 80% of our population saw our standard of living fall, a condition that persists to this day. Indeed, under Bush, it has been only the top 2% or so that have prospered while the rest of our incomes, and net worth, have actually declined.

Bill Clinton only slowed down this rightward-flowing flood of money away from workers and into the hands of the economic aristocracy. It has never stopped, and it accelerated rapidly after Bush was installed into the White House. The economic events we are seeing now were inevitable, with the only question being precisely when the breaking point would finally occur. This happened last September, and now we're trying to figure out what to do about it.

Aye, that's the rub! First of all, we need to recognize what has caused this problem. When we understand that the problem is the overconcentration of wealth, we must avoid any policies that make this problem worse. Tax cuts make the problem worse, and so they must be ABSOLUTELY shunned, and indeed taxes must be judiciously increased. We must devise some effective mechanism by which not only income, but actual WEALTH, can be distributed more equitably. This is our only path out of this mess.

Wealth will ALWAYS be redistributed; it's just a question of whether a handful of people benefit or the masses benefit.

Personal Stuff

I haven't felt like posting much mostly because I don't really have anything worth contributing at the moment. Besides, I have gone apeshit over at Facebook posting a ton of photographs that I have, although it is a small percentage of what I DO have.

It's fun to go back through the photo albums and find all of these pictures.

Miscellaneous News

Here is yet another reason why people should avoid being on "reality television" programs.

When your own wife condemns your behavior, you might as well hang it up.

Snip:

In this case, Fowler was cast as the elitist, self-satisfied San Francisco liberal, and his visitor, Long, was the slow-minded Midwesterner. During the episode, Gayla mispronounces the word "agenda," a flub for which Fowler is quick to humiliate her.

He later calls her, "Undereducated, over-opinionated and overweight."

At least she wasn't stupid.

This is the anti-Fowler blog mentioned in the piece.

The entire show can be seen at this YouTube link and sidebar. Apparently it's okay to post the show, but the person who posted it couldn't use the actual series name, just the initials.

In watching the YouTube clips, while it is obvious the show is scripted as all get-go, ol' Stephen came across horrid regardless.

Jimbo Eruptions

I will likely be moving out of state by the time Mazzeo's lawsuit against Jimbo goes to trial, if it ever does. Jimbo's team wants to delay the discovery process in the lawsuit.

Gene Lyons

Once again the national media refuses to do its collective job and take the economic crisis seriously.

Lyons reminds us of the fact these Washington pundits, especially those on television, make gigantic salaries and have more in common with the moneyed elite than they do the masses who watch their shows or read their papers.

I think Obama may have finally learned that his "transformative politics" drivel of reaching across the aisle and singing "kumbaya" isn't reality.

PBS's Frontline

has an episode tonight about the worst economic mess in 70 years:



This is the first part of it.


link


It's a must-see.

Obama's Next Move

Now that he has signed the stimulus package, Obama is now looking to fix the foreclosure crisis, a crisis which helped precipitate the current economic mess.

You Can File This

under "no shit, Sherlock." I have no doubt in my mind men who look at "sexy" pictures of women tend to objectify them.

And of course the reason there are "sexy" pictures of women, especially porn pictures, is to objectify them. They aren't people, just things to be acted upon rather than with as this passage notes:

Susan Fiske, a psychologist at Princeton University in New Jersey, said the changes in brain activity suggest sexy images can shift the way men perceive women, turning them from people to interact with, to objects to act upon.

The finding confirms a long-suspected effect of sexy images on the way women are perceived, and one which persists in workplaces and the wider world today, Fiske said.

Speaking of porn, after reading articles and the like about how the people who work in the industry are treated and the abominable working conditions, you couldn't get me near porn with a 1,000-foot pole. Workers' rights violations abound in that industry.

Of course people who consume these products don't think of the people who are depicted in the pictures and the videos. They are objects, not people.

Obama's Stimulus Plan

It's stating the obvious to say Republicans are worried sick people might actually like the government spending involved in the new stimulus package and thus their political fortunes are further down the shitter.

They believed they had to vote against it to help them next year and in 2012, but they'd have been better off if they'd just voted for it and taken partial credit for when the economy finally gets back on track.

Media Corruption

The website Politico has succeeded thanks to the decline in print journalism, but the site as far as I am concerned isn't worth the paper its printed on.

Speed rules this enterprise more than accuracy. The scoop is the most important thing to this outfit.
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California Scheming

California's economy is in a mess, and now it seems the governor is plotting to send out "warning" pink slips to as many as 20,000 employees unless he gets his way on a compromise budget.
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Miscellaneous News

Since chimpanzees are so strong and can be extremely dangerous, people should avoid them like the plague. Unfortunately, a friend of an owner of one got badly mauled. Police, meanwhile, shot the chimp dead. The 200-pound chimp was an animal actor in the past.

In all honesty, people have no business having chimps as pets.
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Roman Polanski's hearing over an ancient unlawful sexual intercourse case puts focus on a documentary filmmaker whose film on Polanski is being used by his attorneys to throw the case out.

As mentioned previously, Polanski's goal in having the case dismissed is so he is able to work outside of France. He has no intention of returning to the U.S., but he would like to be able to go to other countries to make films.
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The Economy

The WSWS, not surprisingly, thinks the Obama administration is out to gut the UAW.
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Paul Krugman

People, including many "middle class" people, thought they were getting "richer" this decade, but now they have come to the painful conclusion it was all an illusion.

They got "richer" only because they took on tons of debt and their "assets," including their homes, were wildly overinflated.

It's going to be a long, hard climb out of the quicksand we've landed into.

The Crook Chronicles

Although it is a truism the less one does, the more money one makes, and the more an executive screws up on the job, the more he or she is compensated, it is still considered smart business to reward these incompetents. Now Wall Street is upset there are strings attached to any bailout plan which dares to cap salaries.

Of course what the WSWS advocates isn't going to be realistic, but it is true there has a been a class war waged in the past 30 years, only this was waged by the elite few and their hacks in Washington against everybody else. Even now most people don't know there is a class war going on.

Miscellaneous

A Reno woman is fighting for her life after suffering carbon monoxide poisoning as a result of being trapped in her car in the snow. She was running the car to keep warm, a big if not fatal mistake, without clearing out the area of snow around it. From the report it sounds like she is going to make it.
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They can feed a few of our Washington politicians to the mountain lions, if wildlife officials are worried about the decline in deer.
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Personal Stuff

I missed this hilarious blog post by my nephew which notes his brother's 40th birthday back in 2007. It is funny.


The Cheese Stands Alone

A snip:

In the latter half of 1966 and for two-thirds of the following year, I’d had a fine existence. I was doted on by new parents eager to give their young son a good life—or so I must have thought. In retrospect, it is clear those seemingly loving parents were plotting against me from the beginning. Undoubtedly I needed something from them that November night when I was barely 3 months old. My cries, however—for food, comfort, or a clean diaper—went cruelly unheeded as they traipsed off to begin production of my nemesis. This was the beginning of a long list of resentments I would harbor against them but lying there in my crib—hungry, shivering, and packing a full diaper—I was hardly in a position to stop them. He was born just nine days after my first birthday. My idyllic childhood had come to an end.

My nephew is majoring in writing at Southern Oregon University. He also has this blog.

As the World Turns

It is very possibly little Alfie Patten, 13 but looks like he is 8 years old, may not be the daddy. Other teens are claiming to be the father of little Maisie. Alfie's family wants him to take a DNA test to prove whether or not he is the father.

Snip:

However, it has now emerged that two other boys, aged 14 and 16, claim they could have fathered the child.
Chantelle's neighbours in Eastbourne, Sussex, have also alleged that at least four boys had been allowed to spend the night in her room.

The schoolgirl and her mother, Penelope, 38, have insisted the claims are false.

Alfie, who stands just 4ft tall, also defended her.

He told The People: "Other stupid boys are lying, saying bad things, like they have slept with Chantelle too.
"But I am the only boyfriend she has had and we've been together for two years, so I must be the dad.

Stay tuned...

Presidential Rankings

I disagree with a lot of this most recent ranking of the presidents by historians.

Bush II, Reagan, Kennedy, Grant, and Nixon should be lower on the list, while FDR should be above Washington and maybe even Lincoln, but historians are loath to rank anybody above the top two. Carter should be higher than Grant, who went down in scandal regardless of whatever civil rights he supported.

JFK died, of course, before he could really get much accomplished. However, he was the one who started the ball rolling on civil rights legislation, and only after he was assassinated could the proposals actually get enacted. And when they did, the Democrats lost the deep South forever. A more important accomplishment of JFK was instituting the space program, specifically explorations to the moon, which are not appreciated now but will in the very long term when more and more explorations, including manned explorations become more common. I liken JFK's "vision" regarding landing on the moon to Queen Isabella having Christopher Columbus travel to the "Indies," which lead to the "discovery" of the New World. Hundreds of years from now, JFK's call for space exploration could be as important to the human race as the discovery of America.

And Reagan? The only good thing about him is his rise helped set the stage for the ultimate downfall of the GOP.

I can't stand revisionists.
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Miscellaneous [Updated]

I found this interesting: While some 350 people in the United States are killed each year by police, few cops ever are tried for murder. This article is about one former cop being charged, but the report mentions few police will ever receive serious punishment.
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The PETA wackos want Obama to shove their crappy vegetarian lifestyle on school children, who need meat and dairy products in order to function.

Fucking goddamned weirdos.
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Lance Armstrong is on the road back to the Tour de France by competing in the Amgen Tour of California. However, Armstrong had a few harsh words for a reporter who called him a "cancer" on the sport of professional cycling.

There is this transcript of an interview with the critic, Paul Kimmage:

This return, he wants us to believe that it's all about saving the world from cancer. That's complete bullshit. It's about revenge It's about ego. It's about Lance Armstrong. I think he's trying to rewrite his exit from the sport. He's sat back and he's watched the last two years and he cannot stand the idea that there are clean cyclists now that will overtake his legacy and buy the memory of all the crap that he put the sport through.

...

When Armstrong talks about transparency, this is the greatest laugh. When he talks about embracing this new transparency . I'm really looking forward to that. I'm really looking forward to my first interview request with him and seeing how that comes back. Because that would really make it interesting.

This guy, any other way but his bullying and intimidation wrapped up in this great cloak, the great cancer martyr . this is what he hides behind all the time. The great man who conquered cancer. Well he is the cancer in this sport. And for two years this sport has been in remission. And now the cancer's back."

Not very tactful, frankly.

And here is the video:




Update: Last year, cycling great and former Reno resident Greg LeMond talked about the issue of doping. Here is the video:



link
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Sam's Little Game

Sometimes Sam plays a "game" with me by pretending he is finished eating from his dish, and then he waits for me to pick it up and runs back to the dish and continues eating.

Obituaries

Estelle Bennett, who with her sister Ronnie and cousin Nedra Talley formed the famous 1960s girl group the Ronettes, has died at age of 67. The cause was colon cancer.

From Shindig:

There are Some Bitter, Cheap People Out There

who rail against Valentine's Day, calling it chintzy, commercialized, and every other excuse in the book.

I've got news for these people: You don't have to be married or even paired to enjoy it. Just treat yourself during these special days. If you want to do something, just do it. You don't need to have somebody else tagging along with you.

This goes for ALL of the special days, including Christmas, Thanksgiving, and Easter. I might leave Mother's Day out of the equation, since my own mother is gone, but the rest I celebrate in my own way.

Octupletgate

Nadya Suleman now has an agent but no publicist. The public relations group decided to get out of the controversy because of death threats.

There are all kinds of sick people in the world. One can vehemently disagree with Suleman's choice without going to such idiotic extremes.

The Economy

Obama's stimulus package will affect almost everybody. Some regard it as a victory of historic proportions.

He is expected to sign the bill next week.

What is funny, or even galling, is some Republicans who voted against the stimulus to help their dismal chances in 2010 and 2012 are now touting it!!!!

Rep. John Mica was gushing after the House of Representatives voted Friday to pass the big stimulus plan.

"I applaud President Obama's recognition that high-speed rail should be part of America's future," the Florida Republican beamed in a press release.

Yet Mica had just joined every other GOP House member in voting against the $787.2 billion economic recovery plan.

As Arlen Specter, one of the three GOP senators to have voted for the stimulus, noted, Republicans supported the stimulus, but they just didn't want to have their "fingerprints" on it.

It's all about 2010 and 2012, as I said above.

Miscellaneous

I say leave the wild horses alone, and if Madeleine Pickens, owner with her late husband Allan Paulson of racing great Cigar, wants to help save them, let her do it.

Nevada has done a lot of stupid things over the years, so it is time to let sanity prevail for once.
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The San Francisco Zoo settled with the parents of a teen who died of a result of a tiger mauling after the victim and his two shithead friends were teasing her.
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What's it all about, Alfie?

There is nothing cute about this, simply tragic.
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Obama's Stimulus Plan

It finally passed Congress:

The vote in the House was 246 to 183, with just 7 Democrats joining all 176 Republicans in opposition. In the Senate, the vote of 60 to 38 was similarly partisan. Only three centrist Republicans joined 55 Democrats and two independents in favor.

The Senate finally adopted the bill at 10:47 p.m. after what appeared to be the longest Congressional vote in history. The peculiar, 5-hour, 16-minute process was required because Senator Sherrod Brown, Democrat of Ohio, had to return to Washington from his home state after attending a funeral home visitation for his mother who died on Feb. 2 at the age of 88.

I Hope, Hope, HOPE This Comes to Pass

All the GOP, especially those in the Senate, can do is obstruct, obstruct, obstruct, and let's hope Democrats can make inroads next November so there will be a cloture-proof margin in the Senate. Democrats then would not have to feel they must be "meek" in a spirit of "cooperation" or "bipartisanship." This, of course, includes Obama--ESPECIALLY Obama:

None of the Democratic seats is in real jeopardy unless Roland Burris chooses to run for reelection. If he demurs, the Illinois seat will certainly remain Democratic. The only other seats even in remote jeopardy are those held by Christopher Dodd and Harry Reid, and I don't foresee much trouble winning either unless the political climate undergoes a sea change between now and election day in 2010. Ted Kaufman, Joe Biden's replacement in Delaware, will be retiring, but that seat is a mortal lock to remain in Democratic hands. Kirsten Gillibrand, Hillary Clinton's replacement in New York, may face a serious primary challenge but the winner is highly likely to retain the seat for the Democrats.

On the other hand, the Republicans have trouble on several fronts. Judd Gregg's announcement today that he will not run for reelection (my mind is racing in speculation about what this might be about) is almost certain to result in a Democratic pick-up. Kit Bond is in terrible trouble in Missouri, and assuming his opponent will be Robin Carnahan this is virtually assured to be a pick-up. If Jim Bunning runs again, and he has made no moves indicating retirement, he will almost certainly be defeated in Kentucky -- there are two very popular Democrats contending for the right to cherry-pick this seat. Mel Martinez' retirement puts Florida's seat up for grabs, although if Charlie Crist runs it is likely he will retain it for the Republicans, if he retains his current party affiliation, which may be in some doubt. George Voinovich's retirement gives us a very real shot at increasingly Democratic Ohio's open seat. In Pennsylvania, our candidate, Joe Torsella, is almost certain to defeat Arlen "Single Bullet" Specter this time out. And Louisiana gives us the delicious prospect of running against David Vitter.

This is a PROBABLE pick-up of six, maybe seven, Senate seats, and some of the Republican seats generally thought of as safe may not turn out to be all that safe, particularly if Obama turns out as popular as he might. Richard Burr in North Carolina and John Thune in North Dakota may have some trouble. McCain might very well retire, and Arizona has been trending Democratic. Even Chuck Grassley might find himself in a fight.

This is SERIOUS trouble for Republicans. If things break right, and that seems the likeliest outcome, we could possibly have seventy Democratic Senators in the next Congress. This would make me very happy indeed!

Let's hope. As it stands, the GOP has a death wish, as their moronic opposition to the stimulus bill attests.

More Outrage

Local public transportation users have every right to be pissed off. It's just another stinking assault on people who can least afford to be screwed over.

Miscellaneous

Amazon has decided not to carry a Japanese PC game which depicts gang rape of women.

What in the HELL is the matter with Japanese businesses that they think something like this is okay?
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A man who, with his wife, started a TV network to show Muslims in a positive light decided to do a Daniel Pearl on his wife.

It took place in Buffalo, New York, which doesn't need any more negative publicity:

Police identified the victim as Aasiya Z. Hassan, 37. Detectives have charged her husband, Muzzammil Hassan, 44, with second-degree murder.

"He came to the police station at 6:20 p.m. [Thursday] and told us that she was dead," Orchard Park Police Chief Andrew Benz said late this morning.

Muzzammil Hassan told police that his wife was at his business, Bridges TV, on Thorn Avenue in the village. Officers went to that location and discovered her body.

Although Whoever Decides

to attempt to destroy Social Security is as good as dead politically, that hasn't stopped the privatizing assholes from trying to destroy it.

The problem with our retirement system ISN'T Social Security but in our private pension system, which is riddled with cheap-assed 401(k)s, accounts which are totally inadequate for retirement for the overwhelming majority of people:

The real crisis, in any case, is not Social Security but the colossal failure of the private pension system. Most people know this, either because their 401(k) account is pitifully inadequate, or their company dumped its pension plan, or the plummeting stock market devoured their savings. Obama can protect himself with the public by speaking candidly about this reality and proposing a forceful, long-term solution. He should expand the guarantees that ordinary people need to get their families through these adverse times. Instead of taking away old promises to people, the president should make some new ones. Healthcare reform is obviously an important imperative, but so is retirement security.

The solution to retirement insecurity is the creation of a national pension, alongside Social Security, that would be the bedrock social insurance. Improving Social Security benefits is one step, but it cannot possibly restore what so many middle-class families have lost. Tinkering with the 401(k) would be doomed, because it is basically a tax subsidy for the middle and upper classes, another way to avoid taxes that failed utterly to produce real savings [see Greider, "Riding Into the Sunset," June 27, 2005].

THIS is the area where people should be concerned about Obama. WILL he be a Democrat and support SS, or will he pander to the Wall Street privatizers and their ilk in "think tanks" like the Cato Institute who want to destroy it to create profits for themselves while impoverishing millions upon millions of people in the process?

Paul Krugman

hits it on the head, as usual. Why is it Obama's victory over the economic stimulus package feels like a defeat?

It is a half-measure, which is certainly better than nothing, but unfortunately we have an opposing political party which is hellbent on destroying the United States because of ideology.

And I don’t know about you, but I’ve got a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach — a feeling that America just isn’t rising to the greatest economic challenge in 70 years. The best may not lack all conviction, but they seem alarmingly willing to settle for half-measures. And the worst are, as ever, full of passionate intensity, oblivious to the grotesque failure of their doctrine in practice.

There’s still time to turn this around. But Mr. Obama has to be stronger looking forward. Otherwise, the verdict on this crisis might be that no, we can’t.

The GOP are slaves to a goddamned cult, there is no other description for it, and because they represent the interests of a tiny, moneyed elite, their policies are by definition catastrophic to the country. They would never win elections if the truth about them were known to EVERYBODY, including their less well-heeled supporters. Hence their continued conning the masses by peddling "social issues" like abortion and the like. As for the Democrats, their lack of political will stems from their desire to get political contributions from the same moneyed elite, and if they go too far to the left, or so they think, they risk losing those donations, which would go to their GOP opponents. For these Democrats, it's political survival for them rather than being slaves to a goddamned Randian/Friedmanite cult.

Meanwhile, the country and the world go down in flames.

The Booming Economy

Jobless benefit rolls have hit an all-time high:

The Labor Department reported that, for the second week in a row, more than 600,000 US workers filed new claims for unemployment benefits last week, bringing the total number of continuing claims—those drawn by workers collecting benefits for more than one week—to a record high of 4,810,000. Continuing claims have risen by more than 2 million over the past year, reaching the highest level since the government began keeping track in 1967.

Initial claims for jobless benefits totaled 623,000, slightly less than the upwardly revised figure of 631,000 for the previous week. The latest weekly figure was significantly higher than analysts’ expectations of 610,000 claims. New jobless claims have nearly doubled from a year ago.

The four-week average of claims jumped 24,000 to 607,500, the highest total since November 1982, when the US was in its most severe recession since the 1930s.

An additional 1.5 million people are receiving benefits under an extended unemployment compensation program approved by Congress last year, bringing the total number of jobless pay recipients to 6.3 million.

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It's a vicious circle: Before you can get many jobs, especially those in the finance industry, they require a credit check, and of course if you have had financial problems, your credit is down the tubes. But if you want to get out of debt, you need a job, and yet employers can deny you the right to be employed and get out of it.

It's truly sick and twisted, just like questions asking whether or not you have ever been fired from a job, but in the latter case, applicants do not have to disclose it and there is no way for employers to find out without the previous employer risking a major civil rights/wrong termination lawsuit. But with credit checks, it's very easy for employers to do.

The real reason they do these checks is simply to screen applicants out. It has NOTHING to do with "security."

It should be made illegal for companies to do credit checks; it is supposedly illegal to discriminate against workers because they have filed for bankruptcy. The law needs to be expanded to ban credit checks.
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Continental Flight 3407 Crash

The death toll from last night's crash near Buffalo, New York, is now 50. Surprisingly, two other people who were in the house where the plane crashed survived with minor injuries and were released from the hospital. One person in the house was killed.

There were many Buffalo residents who died in the crash.

There is some video at the second link.

A Couple of Videos

to mark Valentine's Day. I thought I'd be ahead of schedule. One from JibJab:




And of course a couple of clips from one of my all-time favorites, Eddie Cantor:

"Okay Toots," from Kid Millions (1934). No entertainer living today can match him. The "princess" in this clip is vaudevillian Eve Sully. She appeared in this movie with her husband Jesse Block. Kid Millions was the only film the couple ever made.




Lucille Ball can be seen in this clip. She was a Goldwyn Girl early in her career.


From Roman Scandals (1933), "Put a Tax on Love":



link

I'm surprised nobody has thought of it as a way to pay down the debt.

Ya Think, Andrew?

I have been saying since the late fall the GOP threw the election to Obama because they desperately wanted to hang the economic mess THEY created on Obama and on the Democrats to help their chances in 2010 and 2012.

And they haven't stopped with the election, of course. Their modus operandi is to obstruct, obstruct, and obstruct some more in order to hang Obama in the exact same way the Republicans did to Bill Clinton back during 1993 and 1994.

The only question is whether the voters are paying enough attention this time to realize what in the hell is happening.

Democrats REALLY need over 60 votes in the Senate (where the worst offenders are) after next year to silence these buttholes once and for all.

Apparently the Kool-Aid is wearing off just a little bit for Robert Parry and he also sees the obvious.

It really didn't take long for the media to turn against Obama; I thought they'd do it wholeheartedly during the election, but no, they decided to wait until Obama got in there.

As I Have Said Many Times

over the past 25 years or so and on this blog, Social Security isn't broke, isn't broken, and it doesn't need any kind of drastic fix at all.

After all, those "projections" of a "shortfall" in 2041 or so were based on pessimistic scenarios not indicative of actual economic growth. Not only that, but many if not most of the Baby Boomers will have croaked by that time, and therefore the system may never need a fix.

The only way the program could EVER be broken is if Congress follows the lies of the Cato Institute and their ilk and try to privatize it or try some "means-test" scheme.

It will never happen.

I agree with the writer the program could be expanded, especially considering defined benefit and defined contribution plans are going down the tubes.

It Makes Census

for ol' GOPer Judd Gregg to withdraw himself as Commerce Secretary. I don't blame the White House for overseeing the Census Bureau because of redistricting and the like.

The Republicans gave the game away when they bitched about it.

Maybe now Obama can cut out the "bipartisanship" crap once and for all.

Octupletgate [Updated]

If there is any good to come out of the Suleman case, it is that fertility clinics are under increased scrutiny over their practices.

But unlike some other countries, the United States has no laws to enforce those guidelines. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has a surveillance system that collects data on fertility clinics, but reporting is voluntary and there are no government sanctions for not reporting.

As a result, experts say many doctors are still implanting too many embryos to increase the chance of pregnancy. Only 11 percent of in vitro procedures in the United States involve single embryos, according to 2006 data from the C.D.C.

But the 2008 guidelines say that in many cases, it is healthier to implant only one embryo, even if it means the process has to be repeated, because of the risk of multiple births. In the case of Ms. Suleman, the California Medical Board said it was investigating her fertility doctor, Michael M. Kamrava, to determine whether accepted standards of medical practice had been violated. In an interview with NBC News, Ms. Suleman, 33, said that Dr. Kamrava had implanted six embryos, and that two of them had divided into twins, resulting in eight babies.

This really isn't about "choice" or the dubious rights of people to have children. This is about the health of any babies being born and about their overall well-being.


Updated: By the way, the TMZ picture of Suleman when she was pregnant with the octuplets wasn't photoshopped.

It's a wonder her belly didn't drag on the ground.

Another update: You know the saying "imitation is the sincerest form of flattery"? Well, Angelina Jolie is NOT at all flattered by her imitator. She says Suleman has her "totally creeped out."