The Green Bay Packers Are COMMIE/PINKO/ SOSHULISTS!

Via Digby:

Background (via Amato/BlueAmerica):

The Packers are the model sports franchise, because there are no greedy owners demanding profits over people and players above everything else. Check out this great article on ESPN, written by Patrick Hruby, called: "The right way? The Green Bay way Here's how to fix professional sports in one simple lesson: Use the Packers model"

Since 1923, Green Bay has been the only publicly owned, nonprofit major professional sports team in the nation. And that doesn't just make the franchise a charming anachronism, or the answer to a barstool trivia question.

It makes them an example. A case study. A working model for a better way to organize and administer pro sports.

Namely, through public ownership, a system that could mitigate some of the most irritating ills plaguing our games -- and with little downside, to boot.

Provided you're a fan, that is. And not, say, Jerry Jones...read on

And here's follow-up from Cenk @ TYT:
P.S.: Jerry Jones, the Arkie bazillionaire who owns the Dallas Cowboys--in which stadium (built with public money) the contest will be palyed--is gonna charge folks $200 just to stand OUTSIDE the stadium, in the freezing fucking cold just to watch on huge monitors.

Probably charge to use the fucking porta-potties, too, the shitwhitsles.

(It will also surprise no one that three of the biggest crooks, scammers, and "anything-it-takes" bastards on the national sports stage over the last 30 years--Jimmy Johnson, Barry Switzer, and Jerry Jones--are all joined together at the Cowboy's wallet.)

Reagan Is Still Dead!

Via Real News: Just about anything at all to which you can point which signals the decline of the Nation, the3 weakening of the Polity, and the loss of sovereignty of the People you can lay at the feet of that fucking fucknozzle, Ronald Wilson Reagan, into whose mouth--live or dead--I would like to have delivered a drippy, running shit.

Mapping the Intransigence of USer Racial Separation

Despite almost half-a-century of social movement and struggle to ensure equal rights and equal opportunity for all citizens, there is still disturbing evidence that much of the progress may be illusory. The data assembled here suggests that there have been relatively small results, at least as measured as changes in housing/neighborhood diversity.
N.B.: The Mapping Tool is linked in the headline directly below
Mapping and analysis of new data documents still-segregated America

January 18, 2011 — In the first analysis of new 5-year data from the American Community Survey at the Census Block Group level, Remapping Debate has found that reports that a long-term trend towards greater integration "overall" has continued leave out fundamental aspects of current-day residential reality. Census Blocks Groups represent smaller geographic areas than do Census Tracts.

Working with tools provided by Social Explorer, Remapping Debate is also releasing interactive maps that can zoom down to the Census Block Group level anywhere in the United States, revealing high levels of segregation that are cloaked at larger geographic levels (see example in the box at the end of this article).



Key data findings

It turns out that these ACS data, covering the period 2005 to 2009 and released last month, reveal that:

In a country that is only 12.1 percent African-American, 30 percent of African-Americans live in Census Block Groups that are 75 percent African-American or more.

75 percent of African-Americans in the country live in only 16 percent of the Census Block Groups in the United States.

50 percent of African-Americans live in Census Block Groups that have a combined African-American and Latino population of 66.85 percent or more (nationally, the latino population is approximately 15.8 percent, so the combined African-American and Latino population is just shy of only 28 percent).

There is much more data, and explanatory methodology, as well as thorough instructions for reading and exploring the map here.

It's A Fuukin' BIGGUN!

It's Climate-Change, friendz.

The global air-mass is warming, due to anthropogenic pollution.

Warm air absorbs more moisture water vapor than cold air does. When the saturated air encounters a wintry blast like this one, the moisture freezes and precipitates.

Hence: Snow.
NASA image release January 31, 2011. This visible image was captured by the GOES-13 satellite and shows the low pressure area bringing snowfall to the Midwest Jan. 31, 2011. Heavy snow is expected today in portions of northern Iowa, southern Minnesota and Wisconsin. Snowfall from the system extends from Michigan west to Montana, Idaho, Utah and Arizona. A mix of rain and snow also stretches into the Ohio and Tennessee valleys, and it is all moving east. This system appears to be as large as 1/3rd of the Continental U.S. The image was created on Jan. 31 at 12:45 p.m. EST (1745 UTC) by the NASA GOES Project, located at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. The GOES series of satellites are operated by NOAA. Image Credit: NOAA/NASA GOES Project.

One of the largest winter storms since the 1950s is affecting 30 U.S. states today with snow, sleet, freezing rain and rain. NASA satellites have gathering data on the storm that stretches from Texas and the Rockies to the New England states.

NASA's Aqua and Terra satellites have been providing visible, infrared and microwave looks at the storm system's clouds, precipitation, temperatures and extent.

Visible and infrared images and animations of the storm's clouds and movement are created every 15 minutes by the NASA GOES Project at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. using data from GOES-11 and GOES-13, the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites. The GOES-13 and GOES-11 satellites that cover the eastern and western U.S., respectively, are operated by NOAA.

A visible image captured by the GOES-13 satellite this morning, Feb. 1 at 1401 UTC (9:01 a.m. EST) showed the low pressure area stretching from the Colorado Rockies and Texas east to New England and a massive area of clouds over the Midwest. The image showed what appeared to be "tails" over Texas and the Gulf coast. Those "tails" are areas where severe thunderstorms are possible today. To see an animation of the last two days of GOES-13 satellite images that show the progression of the storm, go to: http://goes.gsfc.nasa.gov/goescolor/goeseast/hurricane2/movie/latest_sml.mov.

Another amazing satellite image created at NASA Goddard involved data from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) that flies aboard NASA's Terra satellite. Because of its massive size, three MODIS images were combined to create an image of the storm system. The images were captured each time the Terra satellite passed over the U.S. on January 31 at 10:30 a.m., 12:05 p.m., and 1:45 p.m. Eastern Time (15:30, 17:05, and 18:45 UTC). The image clearly shows snow on the ground from Pennsylvania into the New England states, while the large area of clouds associated with the storm lie to the west. The image has a resolution of one kilometer per pixel.

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. supplied infrared data of the storm system. The Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) instrument that flies aboard NASA's Aqua satellite captured infrared imagery of the storm on Jan. 31, 2011 at 18:47 UTC (1:47 p.m. EST). The image showed the early stages of a developing storm in the plains and Midwestern states and highlighted a preponderance of cold air in Canada and the northern U.S. that set the stage for the snowfall today.

A visible image created from AIRS data on Jan. 31 showed thickening clouds along a developing intense front in the plains and Midwestern states that will produce excessive snow, freezing rain, sleet, and wind in those areas today. The associated low pressure area guiding the storm will slide from Texas through the Mississippi Valley, Ohio Valley and then into New England.

NOAA's National Weather Service noted in their discussion today that this winter storm could easily be "one of the worst this season with blizzard conditions throughout much of the Midwest states, severe ice accretion from the middle Mississippi River valley eastward through parts of the Ohio Valley and into southern New England and heavy rain and severe thunderstorms over the deep south."

Nine states are under blizzard warnings today and Chicago is expecting two feet of snow by the evening commute and overnight. Residents of Oklahoma City are experiencing snow and gusty winds and expecting up to one and a half feet of snow today. On the southern end of this storm system, severe storms moved through Texas this morning, while areas from Birmingham to Memphis and Atlanta may also receive severe weather and between 1 and 2 inches of heavy rainfall as the system continues move east today.

The U.S. northeast is expecting snow, sleet and rain. Some northeastern U.S. cities have already recorded record snowfall and more is expected from this storm. Philadelphia has already recorded 37 inches of snow and New York City has received 56 inches. Philadelphia is expecting freezing rain today while New York City is forecast to receive between 3 and 6 inches of snow and sleet and between a quarter to 4 tenths of an inch of ice accumulation by late Wednesday.

As the system continues east, the National Weather Service is forecasting a large snowfall for New England. Boston is forecast to receive between 8 and 18 inches of snow and Portland, Maine, is expected to receive between 11 and 17 inches. It has already been a long winter in the U.S. northeast and today is the first day of February, a month known to be the snowiest of the season.

Rob Gutro
NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center

These ferocious winter storms are both congruent and coordinate with the increased cyclonic activity this summer in the Southern Hemisphere, which further illustrates why we're dealing with a global CLIMACTIC phenomena, not merely a localized WEATHER events.

Are the Job Losses Permanent? You Betcher Sweet Ass They Are!

The Boss got it right on his classic 1984 release, Born In The USA, with "My Home Town."

Reagan At 100: Here's 20 Things You WON"T Hear Fuck-All About

‎"Where's The Rest of Me?"

I posted this on the fifth anniversary of Reagan's (welcome) death, in 2009. Ronnie Raygun's most unintentionally revealing line, from his one non-B pic, King's Road, in which the RR character gets his legs amputated by a train. So as we approach the 100th Anniversary of Reagan's unlucky birth, here's "the rest of Reagan," (an incomplete list of ) 20 or so things the hagiographers won't mention this week...

I am resurrecting it now because this week marks the 100th anniversary of his misbegotten birth, and there will be shit-storms of mis- and dis-information about the grinning dolt's "accomplishments," among which will be alleged to be the "defeat of the Soviets and the rebirth of Murka.

To which anyone with even a scintilla of a nematode brain must reply "HORSE-SHIT!"

Tomorrow, Thursday, June 4, is the fifth anniversary of the death of Ronald Wilson Reagan, 40th President of the United States and arguably the author (in a Foucauldian sense, anyway) of more mischief upon the Nation than any other previous official, elected, political actor. No regime before his had more actively sought to overthrow, undermine, undo, obstruct, and otherwise hamstring the authority of the Congress, to suppress the rights of the people, and attack the Constitution in the pursuit of mere political advantage, without any appeal to, or concern for, the real good of "the People."

So I won't be listening to the radio, or watching SCUM TeeVee, either...

I wanted to spare my dogs.

Poor dumb beasts, they get worried when I hurl loud invective and obloquy--to say nothing about ash-trays and flower pots--at the disembodied voices on the radio.

And, given the outpouring of sanctimonious twaddle, gratuitous propaganda and lugubrious schmaltz over the anniversary of the death of Ronald Reagan which will surely occupy virtually the entire news spectrum of the day, I would have plenty of opportunity to launch barrages of vivid vituperation, epic expletive, and ubiquitous obloquy against both the dearly-departed "American Hero," and the obsequious drone of the sycophants who will be reciting their eulogies.

Lest we/you forget, I have assembled a list of some 20 of the most compelling reasons that Ronald Reagan SHOULD NOT BE so universally esteemed, his passing so mourned, and his memory so honored:

1) Treason: As a private citizen, and BEFORE the election, in contravention of both law and tradition, Reagan's minions and handlers illegally negotiated with the Iranians to induce them hold the American Embassy hostages until after the elections,to embarrass President Carer and to prevent his successful negotiation of an "October Surprise." Sent future VP George Bush, Sr., and future CIA chief William Casey to Paris to negotiate the deal.

2) Sent arms, including chemical weapons, to both Iraq and Iran during the decade-long Iran-Iraq war, making those two countries the two biggest US arms trading partners at precisely the time when it was illegal to trade with either due to both US and UN laws.

3) Iran/Contra: Used drug traffickers to transport illegal arms to Nicaragua, ignoring the contraband which was brought back on the return trip, creating a massive and immediate increase in cocaine trade in urban California. Illegally used the CIA to mine harbors and ferry Contra troops in Nicaragua. Eventually, several administration staffers were convicted of crimes ranging from lying to Congress to conspiracy to defraud the U.S. The scandal involved the administration selling arms to Iran and using proceeds from the sales to fund a guerrilla insurgent group in Nicaragua

4) Created alQaeda in Afghanistan to oppose the Soviet puppet/occupation there

5) Sponsored right-wing, State terrorism in El Salvador, Honduras, Haiti, and Guatemala against indigenous insurgents who were fighting the dictatorial, hereditary regimes there. Illegally invaded and occupied Grenada, overthrowing the democratically elected President

6) Lied about ALL of this activity before Congress, and suborned his Secretary of Defense to perjury, as well.

7) Rescinded Carter policy that all US international financial support be based upon valid human rights records.

8) Took the world to the brink of nuclear war, putting nuclear weapons into Europe, violating the very provision that was the settlement to the Cuban missile crisis.

9) Instituted the so-called "Mexico City" doctrine, effectively barring recipients of U.S. foreign aid from promoting abortion as a method of family planning.

10) Instigated trickle-down/voodoo economics, which was the beginning of what has recently culminated in the crash of the bubbles. Here is a subset of his regime's economic sins:

a) Within the first year of the policy, we were in a depression caused in large measure by the policy. The "historic" 27% tax-cut was skewed two to one in favor of those making over $200,000 per year, in percentages, and far more in real dollars. By the end of the second year, increases in state and local taxes more than replaced the cuts for the middle class.

b) Wages throughout Reagan/Bush remained stagnant in real dollars for the next 12 years, the longest and worst growth performance in middle class wages in US history. Average national growth was the lowest since the early 30s.

c) Conspired with corpoRat and congressional allies to sustain spending by loosening credit, to replace the wages they were not going to increase.

d) Named Ayn Rand acolyte and free-market apostle Alan Greenspan as Chief of the Federal Reserve.

11) The HUD/DoI Scandals: Samuel Pierce and his associates were found to have rewarded wealthy contributors to the administration's campaign with funding for low income housing development without the customary background checks, and lobbyists, such as former Secretary of the Interior James G. Watt, were rewarded with huge lobbying fees for assisting campaign contributors with receiving government loans and guarantees. Sixteen convictions were eventually handed down, including several members of the Reagan administration.

12) Appointed some of the "worst" Federalist Society/strict constructionists to the federal bench, including Scalia, Kennedy, and O'Connor, ALL of whose votes were crucial in (illegally) installing GW Bush in the presidency in 2000, and named Rehnquist Chief Justice.

13) Ordered the revocation of the FCC regulation called "the Fairness Doctrine," and opened up the Press to the rash of consolidations which has led, now, to a compromised, toothless, stenographic, lap-dog "Fourth Estate."

14) Initiated the attack on labor unions by attacking PATCO, the Air Traffic Controllers union, creating a crisis in airport control towers nation-wide, and importantly, started the slow erosion of US worker wages and benefits.

15) Through the appointment of James Watt, who claimed that the environment was "expendable" since the "second coming of Christ was at hand,", Reagan reduced clean water and air standards, reduced labor, mine, and industrial safety standards,and cut funding to supervisory and regulatory agencies charged with monitoring those industries.

16) Increased the defense budget to 240% previous levels.

17) Systematically ignored the beginning of the AIDS/HIV epidemic, blaming the victims publically.

18)The S&L collapse: Reagan's "elimination of loopholes" in the tax code included the elimination of the "passive loss" provisions that subsidized rental housing. Because this was removed retroactively, it bankrupted many real estate developments made with this tax break as a premise. This with some other "deregulation" policies ultimately led to the largest political and financial scandal in U.S. history: The Savings and Loan crisis. The ultimate cost of the crisis is estimated to have totaled around USD$150 billion, about $125 billion of which was consequently and directly subsidized by the U.S. government, which contributed to the large budget deficits of the early 1990s.

19) Called ketchup a vegetable for the purposes of school-lunch funding and reduced early education and head-start funding.

20) Symbolically ripped the solar panels, installed by Pres. Carter, from the WhiteHouse,and blamed trees for causing air pollution.

No, I do not miss the son-of-a-bitch. To the extent that the coverage of the anniversary of the demise of this traitorous, vile sock-puppet ignores or ignored these "tiny missteps," that is the extent to which I would have been obliged to disturb my dogs with my curses.

I would without compunction defile his grave.

If either Jon Stewart of Colbert has the stones to cover the memorials "unfairly," I could be tempted. C'mon, Jon, Stephen! TEMPT ME!!!

Two more things the psychopathic fellators will certainly overlook in the rush to canonize this grinning fuck:

1) they won't describe in any detail is how his decision to open his campaign in Philadelphia, Mississippi, was a conscious gesture to locate his campaign in the very HEART of festering racial antagonisms, where civil rights workers Shermer, Goodwin & Chaney were murdered by crackers in 1964, and

2) how doing so encouraged the vitriolic recrudescence of racialist rhetoric in the country, wiping away the gains achieved under the regime of "political correctness."

I would have died a happy man had I been able, in my life-time, to take a runny shit on Reagan's corpse. I loathe, detest, and despise him more than ANY political figure in my life-time, period...

G-Sachs Didn't HAVE To Buy More Banks, Cuz They Already Own The US Gummint

And when you already won the US Gummint, you don't NEED to buy more banks to be too big to fail...

Citizen Jane vs. the Citizens United Decision

Take A (Mid-Level) Fascist Fuck With You

Back in the halcyon days, I stumbled upon a plan by which we could reduce the influence of the Murkin Fascisti, one fucktard at a time. I suggested a program I called TAFFWY, or "Take A Fascist Fuck With You." By means of this program, I hoped to entice folks with terminal, impendingly fatal illnesses to--instead of spending all their remaining resources to stay alive--devoting those resources to eliminating one or more of the really malign figures in public life who are standing in the way of measures to spare the human species and prevent the further fucking up of the life-world.

Below, via Treehugger blog you would find a "Rolling Stone" list of 12 likely candidates (to which I would add the five Opus Deists on the SCROTUS):

The vast majority of scientists -- even American ones! -- agree that human beings are pumping too much carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, and that this is causing the global climate to warm. So why aren't we trying to do anything about it? Well, we are. Millions of concerned citizens, climate activists, scientists, business leaders and policymakers understand the grave threat climate change poses, and are actively working to find the best ways to curb our emissions. But these 12 people -- very, very powerful people -- are doing their damnedest to stop them. And it's working.

Here's Rolling Stone's list, the Top 12 Politicians and Execs Blocking Progress on Global Warming -- the abridged edition...

12. Fred Upton -- The moderate-representative-turned-Tea-Party-favorite who now sits as the Chairman of the House Energy Committee. He'll lead the charge in dismantling the EPA.

11. Bjørn Lomborg -- Danish climate skeptic who traffics in making misleading but vaguely believable (to the layperson) claims about global warming, arguing action isn't needed.

10. Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) -- Chairman of the House Oversight Committee who's making "investigating" climate scientists who have already been exonerated numerous times one of his chief goals.

9. Senator Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) -- Claims to want to fight climate, but is intent on blocking the EPA, and is integral in keeping the coal industry powerful.

8. Ken Cuccinelli -- "Here's a novel strategy to make sure nobody thinks too hard about the risks of global warming: Criminalize climate science. Cuccinelli, Virginia's ultraright attorney general, is using his prosecutorial power to harass and intimidate those who are raising the alarm about climate change..."

7. Tim Phillips -- As leader of AFP, a corporate front group that funnels cash to the Tea Party, Phillips is on a mission to convince Americans that global warming is a plot hatched by Al Gore to take away their freedom and destroy the economy....

6. Rex Tillerson -- The CEO of Exxon, Tillerson helms the biggest carbon-polluting company in the world. He directs millions towards lobbying against climate action.

5 Tom Donahue -- As head of the US Chamber of Commerce, Donahue is one of the nation's most powerful opponents to climate legislation, directing millions of dollars and untold influence against it.

4. Gregory Boyce -- The owner of the world's largest publicly-owned coal company--the infamous Peabody Coal Company..

3. Sarah Palin, Retired half-term governor, Alaska -- 'Nuff said.

2. Charles and David Koch -- The notorious billionaire brothers who bankroll just about every effort to block climate progress imaginable -- these guys need no introduction. (In case they do, see this brief synopsis of their wide-ranging influence)

1. Rupert Murdoch -- "No one does more to spread dangerous disinformation about global warming than Murdoch. In a year of rec­ord heat waves in Africa, freak snowstorms in America and epic flooding in Pakistan, the Fox network continued to dismiss climate change as nothing but a conspiracy by liberal scientists and Big Government."

I feel no remorse for suggesting "targeting" this band of gunsels, murderers and thieves. I wouldn't shed a single snivel for the whole feculent lot of 'em, were they ALL to perish tomorrow...

"For The Love Of God, Shut The FUCK Up!"

I am utterly SMITTEN by this young woman, a Romanian emigre, I believe; Eastern European, in any case. She reveals a subtlety of perception and a clarity of analysis that her apparent youth might belie, and are probably unmatched by any other "web"-lebrity within 15 years of her age.

Putatively "Liberal" HuffPost Sells Sexism via "Link-bait"

You gotta wonder at the way E X P E D I E N C Y + M A R K E T = "Liberal," innit?

Mike Malloy Schools Some Thuggish Punk On Social Security

I really LIKE Mike Malloy...Smart, smart guy.

Black Folks "Offended" By Use of "Gringo" In NPR Interview? BWAHAHAHA

Where Woody lives, "Gringo" is tame. Hereabouts, the dominant latino culture refers to us Anglos as "gabachos" (gabacho = French idiot), "güeros"(pronounced 'wheros' = light-skinned), "bolillos" (white-bread, French roll they love) and "yanquis" (imperialists), and my friend Cheeser from El Modena came up with anglosangrones (Anglo assholes)...


Cenk IS correct about this: The FRucktard Right is gearing up to bring down NPR/PBS, and O'Bama will fold on that issue, if the GOPukes press it really hard, like he's folded on EVERY OTHER big GOPuke point, like the empty fucking suit he is.

People Power vs. Corporate Power -- "For the People Summit Jan. 20-22, 2011"

"You Cannot Holler 'Ready-Aim-Fire" In A Crowded Election Booth"

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Who Votes For These Cretinous Moronic Fucknozzles, Anyway?

A story on AOLOnline today caught my eye. It reports that approximately 49% of 'elected officials' couldn't correctly answer even HALF of the questions.

For five years now, the Intercollegiate Studies Institute has been conducting a national survey to gauge the quality of civic education in the country. We've surveyed more than 30,000 Americans, most of them college students, but also a random sample of adults from all educational and demographic backgrounds.

Included in the adult sample was a small subset of Americans (165 in all) who, when asked, identified themselves as having been "successfully elected to government office at least once in their life" -- which can include federal, state or local offices.

The survey asks 33 basic civics questions, many taken from other nationally recognized instruments like the U.S. Citizenship Exam. It also asks 10 questions related to the U.S. Constitution.

So what did we find? Well, to put it simply, the results are not pretty.

Elected officials at many levels of government, not just the federal government, swear an oath to "uphold and protect" the U.S. Constitution.

• But those elected officials who took the test scored an average 5 percentage points lower than the national average (49 percent vs. 54 percent), with ordinary citizens outscoring these elected officials on each constitutional question. Examples:
• Only 49 percent of elected officials could name all three branches of government, compared with 50 percent of the general public.
• Only 46 percent knew that Congress, not the president, has the power to declare war -- 54 percent of the general public knows that.
• Just 15 percent answered correctly that the phrase "wall of separation" appears in Thomas Jefferson's letters -- not in the U.S. Constitution -- compared with 19 percent of the general public.
• And only 57 percent of those who've held elective office know what the Electoral College does, while 66 percent of the public got that answer right. (Of elected officials, 20 percent thought the Electoral College was a school for "training those aspiring for higher political office.")

* * *
Are you smarter than an elected official?
If you can correctly answer five or more of these basic Constitution-related questions, congratulations! You're smarter than the average elected official! (Answers are below -- but no peeking!)

1) What are the three branches of government?
A. executive, legislative, judicial
B. executive, legislative, military
C. bureaucratic, military, industry
D. federal, state, local

2) What part of the government has the power to declare war?
A. Congress
B. the president
C. the Supreme Court
D. the Joint Chiefs of Staff

3) In the area of United States foreign policy, Congress shares power with the:
A. president
B. Supreme Court
C. state governments
D. United Nations

4) The United States Electoral College:
A. trains those aspiring for higher political office
B. was established to supervise the first televised presidential debates
C. is otherwise known as the U.S. Congress
D. is a constitutionally mandated assembly that elects the president
E. was ruled undemocratic by the Supreme Court

5) What impact did the Anti-Federalists have on the United States Constitution?
A. their arguments helped lead to the adoption of the Bill of Rights
B. their arguments helped lead to the abolition of the slave trade
C. their influence ensured that the federal government would maintain a standing army
D. their influence ensured that the federal government would have the power to tax

6) The phrase that in America there should be a "wall of separation" between church and state appears in:
A. George Washington's Farewell Address
B. the Mayflower Compact
C. the Constitution
D. the Declaration of Independence
E. Thomas Jefferson's letters

7) The Bill of Rights explicitly prohibits:
A. prayer in public school
B. discrimination based on race, sex, or religion
C. the ownership of guns by private individuals
D. establishing an official religion for the United States
E. the president from vetoing a line item in a spending bill

8) Identify one right or freedom below guaranteed by the first amendment.
A. Right to bear arms
B. Due process
C. Religion
D. Right to counsel

9) Under our Constitution, some powers belong to the federal government. What is one power of the federal government listed below?
A. Make treaties
B. Make zoning laws
C. Maintain prisons
D. Establish standards for doctors and lawyers

10) Who is the commander in chief of the U.S. military?
A. Secretary of the army
B. Secretary of state
C. President
D. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs

The answer key is in comments, below.

?

Listen to this Lying, Skeevy, Worthless Piece of SHIT Ratiocinate

Rep. Hurt (R., VA) will "support" repeal of the Obama health insurance reform. You heard him say so. Meanwhile he has no compunction about accepting his OWN grift/package.

Were the microphone in my hand, I would have asked him if his soul were so full of shit that he didn't have a tiny piece of it which regretted such SPECTACULAR fucking hypocrisy.

If he's YOUR representative, I hope you know where the motherfucker lives, and you can deliver your own personal greeting to him. If he were MY 'representative,' I'd deliver a big, steaming bag of dog-shit onto his porch.

Please, don't hurt the livestock; they're not responsible.

The (Slightly Bowdlerized) "Story Of Suzy," A Believer

Created by "ThinkingAtheist," on July 18, 2009, Lil Suzie's garnered just over 100 THOUSAND views on YouTuve, with 3,101 likes, and 98 dislikes.

The original edit of "The Story of Suzie" video was wildly popular. Unfortunately, someone felt it was "inappropriate for minors," almost certainly due to an animated scene of a church shooting.

I've contested the flagging with YouTube, but to make "Suzie" (and the debate about Jesus) accessible to an unrestricted audience, I've re-produced the video and censored the shooting segment.

The message is still very plain and clear. And my hope is that those who disagree will simply comment and move on, rather than attempting to quash any opinion that contradicts their own.

Enjoy.

Project Censored, 2010: The Top Ten Most Important, Least Reported Stories of the Year

These are the stories which, despite their importance, implications, and entailments, no one other than a total news-junkie would recognize, because they NEVER made it to either "Page 1" or the TV Nooz.

None of these stories literally "bleeds," so there's that!

1. Global Plans to Replace the Dollar

Nations have reached their limit in subsidizing the United States’ military adventures. During meetings in June 2009 in Yekaterinburg, Russia, world leaders such as China’s President Hu Jintao, Russia’s President Dmitry Medvedev, and other top officials of the six-nation Shanghai Cooperation Organisation took the first formal step to replace the dollar as the world’s reserve currency. The United States was denied admission to the meetings. If the world leaders succeed, the dollar will dramatically plummet in value; the cost of imports, including oil, will skyrocket; and interest rates will climb.

2. US Department of Defense is the Worst Polluter on the Planet

The US military is responsible for the most egregious and widespread pollution of the planet, yet this information and accompanying documentation goes almost entirely unreported. In spite of the evidence, the environmental impact of the US military goes largely unaddressed by environmental organizations and was not the focus of any discussions or proposed restrictions at the recent UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen. This impact includes uninhibited use of fossil fuels, massive creation of greenhouse gases, and extensive release of radioactive and chemical contaminants into the air, water, and soil.

3. Internet Privacy and Personal Access at Risk

Following in the steps of its predecessor, the Obama administration is expanding mass government surveillance of personal electronic communications. This surveillance, which includes the monitoring of the Internet as well as private (nongovernmental) computers, is proceeding with the proposal or passage of new laws granting government agencies increasingly wider latitude in their monitoring activities. At the same time, private companies and even some schools are engaging in surveillance activities that further diminish personal privacy.

4. ICE Operates Secret Detention and Courts

Agents of the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) are holding thousands of US residents in unlisted and unmarked subfield offices and deporting tens of thousands in secret court hearings.
“If you don’t have enough evidence to charge someone criminally but you think he’s illegal, we can make him disappear.” Those chilling words were spoken by James Pendergraph, then executive director of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Office of State and Local Coordination, at a conference of police and sheriffs in August 2008.

5. Blackwater (Xe): The Secret US War in Pakistan

At a covert forward operating base run by the US Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) in the Pakistani port city of Karachi, members of an elite division of Blackwater are at the center of a secret program in which they plan targeted assassinations of suspected Taliban and al-Qaeda operatives inside and outside Pakistan. The Blackwater operatives also gather intelligence and help direct a secret US military drone bombing campaign that runs parallel to the well-documented CIA predator strikes, according to a well-placed source within the US military intelligence apparatus

Six thru 10, along with the links, can be found on the Project Censored page. They are:

6. Health Care Restrictions Cost Thousands of Lives in US
7. External Capitalist Forces Wreak Havoc in Africa
8. Massacre in Peruvian Amazon over US Free Trade Agreement
9. Human Rights Abuses Continue in Palestine
10. US Funds and Supports the Taliban

All of the top 25 are here, in descending order.

Excuse Me, Please. I Need TO GO Weep For My Dying Country

The creator of this vid sez:

The quotes are real.

They came from Obama administration officials, Obama himself, Organizing For America staff, Obama supporters, newspaper columnists, various bloggers, progressive activists and progressive critics.

"It's Preferrable That People Know Where You're Coming From"

The "Objectivity" of the press was a lie fostered and used by Hearst to shove a shitty stick in the eye of his major competitor, Pulitzer. Hearst claimed his papers had it, and Pulitzer's didn't. It has NEVER existed except as a marketing ploy designed to give advertizers the appearance of NOT being allied with unpopular opinion. American media may not portray an obvious "political" bias (pace, Fox), but they all betray the same "economic" bias (pro business, pro-status quo), the political implications of which they are continually at pains to ignore, deny and/or conceal. What it conceals, of course, is the incredible narrowness of the range of acceptable opinion in the USer "press."

Here, NPR's David Folkenflik reports from Britain, where the pretense of "objectivity" is recognized for what it is. E.G.:

The Battle Of What Makes News

On the wintry day I visited the Houses of Parliament, Conservative Prime Minister David Cameron was taking questions from his foes in Parliament. It's a weekly exercise in public accountability and political theater.

Labor leader Ed Miliband accused Cameron of being out of touch with working-class Britons: "It's no wonder that today we learn the foreign secretary describes this gang as the children of [former Prime Minister Margaret] Thatcher. It sounds just like the 1980s."

Cameron's retort was greeted with cheers: "Let me say this: I'd rather be a child of Thatcher than a son of Brown."

The exchange was in all the newspapers the next day with Cameron as the winner. Each had a distinct take:

The conservative Daily Telegraph said, "Time after time Mr Miliband hit a weak serve, trotted to the net in the hope of an easy volley, and was blown away by a merciless return from Mr Cameron."

Compare that with the left-of-center Daily Mirror's analysis: "David Cameron yesterday showed his true colours ... declaring his love for a woman who took the axe to industry, destroyed local communities, crushed unions and threw thousands on the dole."

Those are just a couple of examples that help illuminate what many see as a key difference between British and American media.

Guardian Editor-in-Chief Alan Rusbridger argued that British papers give more room than their American counterparts to voices that challenge conventional wisdom.

"I think it's quite a striking thing about the British press that you get this polemical battle over the basis for what news is, which I feel is to a large extent missing in the American scene," Rusbridger says. "No judgments are free of ideologies, so who you choose to quote and how you structure stories are highly political judgments. I think that's the problem with trying to place too much faith in something called objectivity."

Rusbridger points to coverage of the push for war with Iraq in advance of the 2003 U.S. and U.K.-led invasion. He says British coverage was more skeptical of the justification for war because the range of acceptable opinions is far broader in British newspapers.

This was/is the first in a two-part series heard on the programme, "Morning Edition." The second installment, focusing on the USer press

Higher Taxes on Wealthy = More Productive Economy

If they don't like it, there ought to be a way to remind them that if they're not WILLING to accede to the greater good, there are ways to make it involuntary.

I suggest taking their children hostage, and sending back the odd bit if they displease us.

Guns and Butter - "Banks, Bailouts and Manufactured Market Crashes" with Max Keiser.

This appearance on KPFA may be Max Keiser's Public Radio breakthrough. I certaqinly never heard him before, outside AlJazeera and R/T. In sum:

Stock price manipulation through electronic high speed trading; global totalitarian oligarchy; HSBC & JP Morgan manipulation of the silver market; stock market crashes more profitable than growth periods for traders; computers set up to steal; financial terrorism; suicide bankers; Fed policy that benefits the top 1%; growing social unrest; plague of mortgage fraud; IMF leveraged buy-out of Ireland, Greece, etc.; outsourcing of money creation; control through debt.

The Most Pointed, Most Apposite Editorial Cartoon of the Year

Yes. You Should Not Listen To Jim Cramer & The Psychopathic Super-Whores ON CNBC

CJR Interviews William Greider : Changes Coming to Soc.Sec. (part 3)

"Over the year the country’s elite news outlets and bloggers have carried on quite a conversation about the proposed changes (to Social Security)—but how these proposals affect ordinary people has been largely absent from the discussion.

CJR's exemplary Trudy Lieberman tolls the depths with nationally renowned political economy commentator, William Greider to reveal what the changes mean toi just-plain-Joe. Read the whole fucking thing, and then read Part 1 and Part 2:

I sat down with longtime political reporter William Greider to find out why. Greider recently won the Nyhan Prize for political reporting, given by the Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics, and Public Policy at Harvard University. He is currently the national affairs correspondent for The Nation and has written about about Social Security for that publication. He has also worked for The Washington Post and Rolling Stone, and has written several best-selling books, including Who Will Tell the People: A Betrayal of American Democracy, which touches on the media’s role in American democracy.

Trudy Lieberman: What are we to make of this consensus on fixes to Social Security that some in the media tell us has been reached?

William Greider: This is a staggering scandal for the media. I have yet to see a straightforward, non-ideological, non-argumentative piece in any major paper that describes the actual condition of Social Security. The core fact is that Social Security has not contributed a dime to the deficit, but has piled up trillions in surpluses, which the government has borrowed and spent. Social Security’s surpluses have actually offset the impact of the deficit, beginning with Reagan.

TL: Why don’t reporters report this?

WG: They identify with the wisdom of the elites who don’t want to talk about this—because if people understand that Social Security has a $2.5 trillion surplus, building toward more than $4 trillion, people will ask why are politicians trying to cut Social Security benefits?

TL: Is that why coverage has been so one-sided?

WG: Most reporters, with few exceptions, assume the respectables are telling the truth about Social Security, when it is really propaganda. What elites are saying is deeply misleading, and they deliberately are distorting the story. But reporters think they are smart people and must know what they are talking about.

TL: Who influences the coverage?

WG: There are layers of influence that tell reporters this is the safe side of the story. They don’t go to people who might be unsafe sources, like labor leaders who know how changes will affect workers, or to old liberals who are out of favor but who know the origins of Social Security and why it was set up in the first place, or to neutral experts like actuaries who actually understand how it works and what the trust funds are all about. If they write about what the AFL-CIO thinks, they are out of the orthodoxy.

TL: What are other layers?

WG: Most reporters who cover difficult areas typically develop sources, and they write for those sources. They don’t want to offend them for fear they will lose access. Reporters, we know, are sensitive, nervous animals; they act like scared little rabbits. They also know what the owners of their publications think. And those owners think pretty much what the Business Roundtable and Chamber of Commerce think.

TL: Are reporters disconnected from the public?

WG: Reporters are so embedded in the established way of understanding things. They are distanced from people at large and don’t spend much time trying to see why ordinary people see things differently from the people in power—and why people are often right about things.

TL: Is this different than in the past?

WG: Yes. In the last twenty years, as media ownership became highly concentrated, the gulf between the governing elites, both in and out of government, and the broad range of ordinary citizens has gotten much worse. The press chose to side with the governing elites and look down on the citizenry as ignorant or irrational, greedy, or even nutty.

TL: Why is this so?

WG: The press is dangerously over-educated itself, in that reporters have developed different kinds of expertise themselves. And that brings them closer to their sources, more motivated to write for their approval. All this technocratic expertise encourages them to take a condescending view of the people they are writing for, especially in finance and economics. If all the elite experts assume Social Security is a problem, a reporter would lose respect if he or she seriously examined the counter arguments. Frankly, most political reporters don’t have a clue about the real facts. They write about Social Security as if it were just another welfare program. They do not seem to understand the surpluses are actually the savings of American workers—the money set aside for future retirement. This is virtuous behavior—the opposite of greed or the recklessness of financial elites.

TL: What has been other fallout from the rise of the techno-expert reporter?

WG: The new technological knowledge becomes a tool that blocks old-fashioned street reporting. The polling and focus groups work against old style reporting. Political reporters rely on the pseudo-science to tell them what people think instead of doing what reporters are supposed to do—talking to real people where they live, listening to their perspectives and respecting their views.

TL: How does this play out in day-to-day reporting?

WG: My sense from the way stories are written is that unless you have the “facts” of pseudo-scientific evidence, editors don’t want reporters making any observations on what they learned as reporters. This supposedly makes them more “objective,” but it does the opposite. They become more one-sided in their reporting.

TL: Doesn’t that make them more disconnected from the public?

WG: Yes. Reporters and editors are disturbed to learn that growing sectors of the public do not trust their reporting. But this is the natural result of one-sided reporting. It reflects the unconscious class bias of the media—looking up to selected expertise that’s in power and looking down on the everyday citizens. In the old days, when I started as a reporter, newspapers were far more diverse and representative in speaking to and for the variety of popular perspectives. Each newspaper might have its bias, left or right or something else, but there were countering opinions and perspectives that tended to keep the other side more honest. That variety is pretty much gone now, so lots of citizens are finding their own ways to inform themselves, putting their faith in the bloggers or other renegade sources. Who can blame them?

TL: Who are the losers in this paradigm?

WG: It’s pretty obvious. I start with the conviction that people in every station of life are not stupid. Most people are pretty capable of forming opinions and insights of their own, based on their own experiences and what they see happening around them. They don’t get everything right but—guess what—neither do the governing elites, the economists and policy wonks who tell us what is correct thinking. The financial collapse and economic breakdown are dramatic evidence of elite failure, yet I see most media reporting still relying on the same old sources as if nothing went wrong. In a functioning democracy, what the people think would be regarded as a vital source for informing democratic debate. That is what the people lose—their seat at the table.

TL: Do the losers care?

WG: As we are learning every day, most of them gave up on the press a long time ago. They realized that newspapers were not on their side. There was no longer that old-time relationship. People got the feeling that newspapers weren’t speaking for them. The new technologies give the “losers” new options for how to inform themselves. Some of these are half-baked or worse, but people will keep exploring alternatives and refining what they are willing to trust. The crucial point I am trying to make is that this process of citizens in a democracy keeping themselves informed does not belong to private enterprise. It does not depend on finding the right business model. People must find a way—and I think they will—regardless of whether newspaper and broadcasting owners want to assist them, or merely make money.

TL: Let’s go back and put all this in the context of the press coverage of Social Security. What should the press be reporting that they haven’t been?

WG: Opponents of Social Security are deliberately confusing Social Security with Medicare; they are distorting reality. There are simple facts that should be reported: 1) Social Security never contributed a dime to the deficit; 2) Social Security softened the impact of the Reagan deficits by building up a surplus; 3) the federal government borrowed the money and spent it on other things; 4) the federal government has to pay this money back because it really belongs to the working people who paid their FICA deductions every pay day. The elites in both parties know the day is approaching when the federal government has to come up with the trillions it borrowed from the workers. That is the crisis the politicians don’t want to deal with, so they create a phony argument that slyly blames working people for their problem. That’s the propaganda they want the public to believe.

TL: What are the facts about Medicare that they should be reporting?

WG: Medicare is separate and in serious financial trouble for two basic reasons driving up costs. First, thanks to medical advances and the effective public health system, our aging population gets to live steadily longer. That ought to be understood as good news for people and society, but instead elite opinion laments it. Second, the private health-care system is still centered on the profit motive, and that gives virtually every health care provider from doctors to drug companies strong incentive to keep raising the costs. That debate has also been grossly distorted in media coverage that typically dismisses alternatives as socialist—and that ends the discussion.

TL: Who is representing the public in this debate?

WG: The same people who rallied the public against Social Security privatization in the Bush administration. They have organized again. Some are the same players. Labor is on the barricades. Some righteous members of Congress. But in general the mass media don’t go to those dissenting voices. Instead, they are reporting factual errors as correct opinion.


TL: What do you want the press to do?

WG: I am daring reporters to go and find out the truth about this and report it. I’m not asking them to draw big conclusions or to assert their opinions. Just be honest reporters. It’s so frustrating to see the coverage. I’m not asking reporters to change any minds. I’m just asking them to do some real reporting. I mean, go to the facts—the actuarial records—and talk to a variety of experts. Reporters ring up the same sources and ask them how to think about Social Security.

TL: What does the public understand about what is happening?

WG: Not everyone understands what is happening. But most do. Most people know they have paid money into Social Security all these years and the money belongs to them, not the federal government. This is not welfare. It’s probably the best-understood program in the federal government. In fact, polls indicate in these troubled times the public believes people need increased benefits.

TL: Why hasn’t the press talked about Social Security as social insurance?

WG: My guess is that very few reporters understand what it is, or know that the concept of social insurance originated as a conservative idea—conserving social solidarity. It was first proposed more than one hundred years ago in Germany by Bismarck—not exactly a left-winger. Today’s critics style it as an entitlement program, and therefore reporters think that it’s like welfare. It’s not something the government gives to greedy old people. Alan Simpson has been relentless on this point. The press has picked up on Simpson’s language and made it sound like it’s a hand-out.

TL: A recent Bloomberg poll shows that two-thirds of those polled think the program should be means-tested. Has the press explained what that means?

WG: Social Security is by far the government’s most popular program precisely because it is universal. Everyone pays in; everyone is protected against catastrophe. The danger in means testing is that it really may turn Social Security into a welfare program—alms for the poor—and eventually doom it by destroying the broad political support it enjoys. That’s another aspect for debate the media has glossed over.

TL: Does Bismarck’s notion of social solidarity resonate in this country?

WG: The idea of social solidarity represents the core of our society. The belief that we’re all in this together has been trampled over in the last thirty years by conservative ideology. Good citizens and politicians have been sucked into believing that solidarity is not the issue. Until Americans rediscover the importance of solidarity, we’re going to be screwed up as a society. We will be trapped in brutal class conflicts and arguments over who gets more, who must be thrown over the side in the interest of business efficiency. I believe deeply most Americans do not want this dog-eat-dog brutality, but do not see much chance of changing it.

TL: What has to happen?

WG: We have to have a come back to this central principle of this society. The Tea Party in its own crude way is reaching for it. What people want is a government that works for them. Social Security is a great test case for what people want. By all means, let’s have a debate. But we haven’t yet had an honest debate.

TL: What can the press do to improve its reporting on Social Security and make this debate happen?

WG: There are a lot of smart, capable reporters. They have to go back to the beginning and put a story together that asks two simple questions: Why go after Social Security now? What is its real condition now? They need to go back to the basics of reporting—talking and listening, observing what people think about everyday reality. Talk to all sides respectfully. On economic issues, talk to the workers, not just the bosses and management experts. You will learn valuable insights from all of them.

TL: Is there any other advice you can give to newbies on this beat?

WG: The media, despite many virtues, are failing their obligations to a functioning democracy. Reporters might ask themselves if they are complicit in this indictment, or if they could do something to prove it is wrong.

Rachel Maddow & Paul Krugman: When the Economy Tanks, The GOPukes Win

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Monty Python ~~ "Christmas In Heaven"

From "The Meaning Of Life"

Kudos to HuffPost for the collection, "The 13 Funniest Christmas Songs You Might Not Have Heard."

Banksters Make More $$$ Foreclosing Vs. Restructuring

So which one do YOU think they PREFER to do?

Via The Real News--These folks do GOOD work. Yves Smith runs the blog, Naked Capitalism.

Banksters Make More $$$ Foreclosing Vs. Restructuring

So which one do YOU think they PREFER to do?

Via The Real News--These folks do GOOD work. Yves Smith runs the blog, No Capital.

The New Right-wing Rhetoric: "Republican Exceptionalism"

Optimistic About World Peace? Watch This Twice & Call Me In The AM

"To Be Continued," in perpetuity most likely.

I Got Yer Fucking Mulligan, "No Labels" Asswipes!

What "No Labels" is, at base, is the desperate, well-financed effort by a LOT of (formerly PROUDLY labelled--mainly "Republican") people who endorsed and encouraged and enthusiastically applauded the clusterfucks and the clusterfuckers of the past 8-10 years--the Busheviks, their wars, their economic collapse, their destruction of civil life and liberty--now trying claim that it really WASN'T them fucking us, and claiming a mulligan, King's X, a fucking a "Do-Over."

These are the same skeevy fux --or their retarded fucking children-- who are STILL blaming me and my fellow "dirty fucking hippies" for being fucking RIGHT for the past 40 years, and never apologizing for it...!

Fuck Dat! Bite me,'No Labels!'~

"I Don't Care..."

An Obama supporter joins a progressive web forum. Predictable results follow.

This Is NEVER Gonna GO Away: The end of Flight 77

Watching this "animation," in utter silence, is spooky.

The Wikileaks Saga: The Wiki-Rebels

It's Simple. It's About World Domination

The Goal of "American foreign policy" IS simple: global, economic, military and political hegemony. In pursuit of that goal, the US Gummint--acting in Y/OUR names--has unleashed its military forces on competing Nations no fewer than 50 (FIFTY) times since the end of World War II. The death toll is staggering; uncountable, really, including the anonymous dead in both Koreas, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Chile, and now, of course, Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen, and Somalia.
We are, indeed, NUMBER ONE in aggressive interference...

Where's President Shamwow? Not Interested? Figgers...

Via CARE2:

On Thursday chief U.N. climate negotiator Christiana Figueres spoke movingly with young climate activists at the Cancun climate talks (COP16). This video shows the strain on Figueres as well as the source of her determination as she took the time to speak to the young people from tcktcktck's Adopt a Negotiator campaign. Figueres tears up when speaking of why the talks are important; she also describes the inspiration that keeps her working toward a global agreement:

Real News Interviews Ray McGovern, re: Iran & Assange

RN: "...It's a little fortuitous that right at a time when Israel would like some support on the issue of Iran as a threat to the region that they get it out of WikiLeaks. Right at a time the Korean crisis is blowing up, you get some disclosures of cables that China may be ready to back away from North Korea, which would help threaten North Korea in some way. So what's your, first of all, take on the credibility of the whole process?"

RAY MCGOVERN, RETIRED CIA ANALYST: It's completely credible to me. I've been around a few years. I think Julian Assange is the real deal. I really kind of resent all the focus on all these trees, missing the forest for what it is. Here's an outfit that had the courage to face into the Defense Department, do what the United States government really warned it against doing, and all because one young private in our Army saw abuses that he couldn't tolerate and wanted to get that out to the rest of the world. That's what he said in his emails. I hope--what my hope is is that this information become available to the American people. Then the American people can debate these issues, which is not the case now, with the fourth estate being in disrepair.

There's a complete transcript on the REAL NEWS link.

From the Department of Ain' Dis Some SHIT?

Yesterday evening, a "shellacked" Pres. Itoljaso Obama met with the leadership ot the GOPukes. A chastened, remorseful, and penitent St. Barry got down on his political knees and begged, and begged, and according to reports from the scene, "SERIOUSLY" begged the Pukes to abandon their plan to torpedo the country and the economy for mere political gain.

But the supplicant's pleas fell on deaf ears, apparently:

Senate Republicans Plan To Block Virtually All Democratic-Backed Bills
DAVID ESPO | 11/30/10 10:25 PM |

WASHINGTON — Senate Republicans intend to block action on virtually all Democratic-backed legislation unrelated to tax cuts and government spending in the current postelection session of Congress, officials said Tuesday, adding that the leadership has quietly collected signatures on a letter pledging to carry out the strategy.

If carried out, it would doom Democratic-backed attempts to end the Pentagon's practice of discharging openly gay members of the military service and give legal status to young illegal immigrants who join the military or attend college.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has made both measures a priority as Democrats attempt to enact legislation long sought by groups that supported them in the recent midterm elections.

A nuclear arms treaty with Russia that President Barack Obama wants ratified would not be affected, since any debate would take place under different rules than those that apply to legislation. Even so, its passage is not assured as Republicans are seeking concessions from the White House.

Officials who disclosed the new Republican maneuver did so on condition of anonymity, saying they were not authorized to discuss it.

It was not known how many of the Senate's 42 Republicans had signed the draft letter, which the leadership intends to make public quickly.

Senate Democrats need 60 votes to overcome any delaying tactics, meaning they could be thwarted if 41 Republicans join in the commitment.


Democrats' chances of passing politically charged legislation will dim when the new Congress convenes in January, since Republicans will take control of the House and gain more Senate seats.

The letter comes after comments by Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell and others in his party that the voters made it clear in the elections they want lawmakers to focus on economic issues.

"Despite what some Democrats in Congress have suggested, voters did not signal they wanted more cooperation on the Democrats' big-government policies that most Americans oppose," McConnell and incoming House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, wrote in an op-ed article published in the Washington Post.

"Human Resources": A film

Have you ever noticed that when CorpoRats talk about "managing" anything, something ALWAYS dies?

Allied Military Smuggling Opium Out of Afghanistan?

Nobody could have EVAR imagined anything like THIS could occur, could they?

Meet Al Stefanelli: "The Myth of Christian Persecution in the United States"

I personally do not find it confidence-inspiring to learn that a secular, political 'leader' consults with imaginary beings--gods, angels, saviors, etc--before or while considering and/or enacting public policy. Stolen whole:

It’s getting to that time of year again when the Christian whiners start complaining about being persecuted because the evil, heathen, baby-eating, godless horde of devil-worshipping atheist are trying to steal Christmas. This is in addition to the whining they normally do, which is sickening enough. They walk around with a Gibralter-sized chip on their shoulders, crying about how they are being treated unfairly and compare themselves with David in that mythical story we all know so well. I won’t even get into the rages they fly into when we have the unmitigated gall to throw up a billboard here and there about godlessness because we all know there are almost NO Christian billboards out there…

The fact is that Christians are very much privileged in the United States. Christianity is an ideology in the US that enjoys implicit, unreflecting, and uncritical acceptance and one would have to be a complete fucking idiot to counter the fact that the mythical delusion of Christianity is dominant here. Christians are continuously told that they are special and deserve privileges. Many stores take the Christian sabbath into account and are not open for business on Sundays. Most Christians don’t have to work on their holidays. They can assume that television programming will be geared toward their holidays. They can generally construct holiday displays such as nativities without fearing vandalism. “Merry Christmas” is a greeting that they will most often hear during this time of year and can, with impunity, ignore and be ignorant of the holidays celebrated by other religious groups. In fact, many school events will probably address Christian holidays. There is no shortage of churches for a traveling Christian to worship at and whenever someone talks about or thanks god, Christians can assume it’s their god. Almost every hotel in the United States has bibles in their rooms and when there is a need, Christians have many charities to donate to or get assistance from.

Persecuted? Please… Unlike those of us who do not believe in a deity, christians won’t be discriminated against because of their religion and can assume that their opinion won’t be ignored because of their religion and they never have to worry about living in a place where they are not welcome because they will almost never encounter groups that exclude Christians. While it can be a gut-wrenching decision for an unbeliever to “come out”, Christians don’t worry about revealing their religion to parents, friends, etc. Without worry of being labeled a bigot amongst their own, they christians can discriminate in ways not otherwise allowed.

Christians can wear evangelistic clothing or jewelry without fear of persecution, as well, and can promote their religion on cars or houses without fear of vandalism. They rarely have to worry if their religion will hinder their professional ambitions, but if you are known as atheist, it becomes very difficult to find or keep a job. In fact, Christians can assume that most neighbors and coworkers share their beliefs and many Christian owned businesses participate in advertising in directories of other Christian-owned businesses. In short, Christians can assume that almost anywhere they go and anything they do, they’ll feel normal.

Many of the laws in the United States come with built-in exemptions for Christians and their beliefs and Christians can assume that most politicians are Christians who represent Christian interests and this is reflected in that almost without exception, government prayers are Christian in nature. Yes, many of these privileges are seeing a decline as more and more of the godless are becoming vocal and getting involved, and so Christians interpret this as persecution, but this is only because privilege is all they have ever known. They have been on top of the food chain in this country for so long that they are largely clueless that in a free society, such privileges are inappropriate.

Of course, you will never get them to admit that as long as they continue suffer under their memetic viral delusions. They will continue to whine like petulant children until they either come to their senses and embrace reason and abandon their silly, outdated and completely ridiculous superstitions, indoctrination and dogmatic bullshit or they manage to die off without infecting their own progeny.

I, for one, refuse to be accommodating. I refuse to stand idly and quietly on the sidelines while my fellow unbelievers get routinely thrown under the bus. I cannot bring myself to keep my mouth shut while the children of our Nation get mentally mind-fucked every Sunday morning, rendering them totally and completely unequipped to integrate into a post-modern society because they believe the earth was created six-thousand years ago, that a nine-hundred-year-old man crammed a shitload of animals into a boat for forty days, that donkeys and snakes talk and all the other countless and totally insane bollocks that they are taught as unmitigated truth. That I should be tolerant and accommodating is an insult to the collective of human intellect and I won’t have any part of it. Call me what you want, I don’t give a shit, really. I am done being nice to these fundamentalist ass-fedoras, and that includes Muslims, as well. You can only beat a dog so much before it bites back.

Woof…

Peggy McIntosh, 20 years bestowed upon us the contents of the knapsack of White privilege. I thank Al for doing us the same service enumerating the extent of Christian privilege.

Thanksgiving

Max Keiser: "Kill JP Morgan With A Silver Bullet"

Max's voice is a bit grating, I'll admit; but tough it out. You'll not regret it.