Saturday, September 17, 2011

Blackout: CNN, Fox, and MSNBC Ignore Thousands Of US Day Of Rage Protesters

Blackout: CNN, Fox, and MSNBC Ignore Thousands Of US Day Of Rage Protesters: "Most Americans are being kept in the dark about the US Day of Rage by the corporate cable news giants at CNN, Fox News, and MSNBC who have imposed a de facto blackout on the protest.

Even though an estimated 50,000 protesters have flooded into Manhattan to, “nonviolently disrupt the disloyal, incompetent, and corrupt special interests which have usurped our nation’s civil and military power, spawning a host of threats to our liberty, lives and national security,” the three cable news networks have devoted no airtime to the story.

This is becoming an all too familiar scene. In Wisconsin hundreds of thousands of regular people took to the streets each weekend to protest the theft of their rights, and were completely ignored by CNN, Fox News, and MSNBC...."

Statue of Liberty



We definitely don't live by this very well anymore...

Live Wall Street Protests #OccupyWallStreet #Sep17

Watch live streaming video from globalrevolution at livestream.com

Wall Street Protest Begins, With Demonstrators Blocked

Wall Street Protest Begins, With Demonstrators Blocked: "For months the protesters had planned to descend on Wall Street on a Saturday and occupy parts of it as an expression of anger over a financial system that they said favors the rich and powerful at the expense of ordinary citizens.

As it turned out, the demonstrators found much of their target off limits on Saturday as the city shut down sections of Wall Street near the New York Stock Exchange and Federal Hall well before their arrival.

By 10:00 a.m., metal barricades manned by uniformed police officers ringed the blocks of Wall Street between Broadway and William Street to the east....."

President John F Kennedy Secret Society Speech

10 Signs God Is Furious With the Right

10 Signs God Is Furious With the Right: "Whatever disaster strikes, there's always an upside in religious rightland, always somebody to point the finger at with glee. Let's turn the tables.

Editor's note: the following is satire... for the most part.


Why is it that whenever disaster strikes, right-wing religious nuts seem to have all the fun? Some might say it's just because they're sadists, but they always seem to find the silver lining. 9/11? God's calling on America to repent! (No, not for it's foreign policy, you dummy!) Hurricane Katrina? It was that darned homosexual parade the organizers forgot to tell anyone about!

Whatever disaster strikes, there's always an up-side in religious rightland, always somebody to point the finger at with glee. How come they get all the fun?...."

#TakeWallStreet

"Why am I surprised that these young people behave destructively, "mindlessly", motivated only by self-interest? How should we describe the actions of the city bankers who brought our economy to its knees in 2010? Altruistic? Mindful? Kind? But then again, they do wear suits, so they deserve to be bailed out, perhaps that's why not one of them has been imprisoned. And they got away with a lot more than a few fucking pairs of trainers. These young people have no sense of community because they haven't been given one. They have no stake in society because Cameron's mentor Margaret Thatcher told us there's no such thing. If we don't want our young people to tear apart our communities then don't let people in power tear apart the values that hold our communities together."
~Russell Brand

This was Brand's take on the London protests. But I feel that it fits our situation now with everything that's gone on in the last few years. I just hope that we continue to have peaceful protests and that we don't have to resort to violence.

Pat Robertson's comments about Alzheimer's and marriage

Pat Robertson: Divorce is 'OK' If Your Wife Has Alzheimer's!

Bachmann Claims Wall Street Reform Is ‘Killing The Banking Industry’ As Banks Post Record Profits

Bachmann Claims Wall Street Reform Is ‘Killing The Banking Industry’ As Banks Post Record Profits: "Three years ago this week, the financial crisis began in earnest with the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers and the $85 billion bailout of mega-insurer American International Group. However, during Monday night’s GOP presidential primary debate, the candidates proved that they have no interest in learning the lessons of that crisis, as they called for the [...]"

Oh, I see how it is. It's not ok to regulate Wall Street so they don't destroy American lives. But it's ok to let them run wild and destroy American lives. Wow, I'm glad I got that straightened out.

Motivated In Ohio: Honest John - Pro Death

Motivated In Ohio: Honest John - Pro Death

Bachmann HPV Mental Retardation Story

Robert Reich Debunks 6 Big GOP Lies About The Economy

John Boehner’s Endless Economy Killing Insanity Loop

John Boehner’s Endless Economy Killing Insanity Loop: "There are many maladies that beset human beings that are invisible to all except medical professionals who read laboratory results or various imaging technologies that reveal internal problems. Although diseases like cancer are imperceptible in early stages, as it advances patients show signs of deteriorating health that are noticeable to family members and acquaintances alike. Mental disease is nearly impossible to observe and seemingly normal people may suffer debilitating effects without ever displaying abnormal behavior even though they are considered insane by psychiatrists. People who are criminally insane often appear rational and intelligent, but when they are committing heinous acts, their symptoms may include sexual stimulation because of the pleasure they receive from causing fear and pain to their victims. It begs the question; what gets John Boehner’s knickers wet?

The answer has been playing out every day for the past two years and eight months and it is obvious that lying, killing jobs, destroying the middle class, and eliminating social safety nets gives great sexual satisfaction to the criminals in the Republican Party. When House Speaker Boehner gave a speech at the Economic Club in Washington, he proposed reforming the tax code as a means of cutting the deficit and creating jobs. Boehner also said tax increases were off the table and that allowing the Bush-era tax cuts for the wealthy to expire was tantamount to a tax increase Republicans would not abide. Boehner is criminally insane for proposing more entitlements for the wealthy and corporations that will have to be offset by spending cuts on programs for the poor, elderly, and children. Then there is the recurring theme that cutting the deficit creates jobs...."

Double Take 'Toons: Off The Job?

God's Message To Rick Perry, Part 2

Friday, September 16, 2011

Motivated In Ohio: What is ‘Biblical Politics’? - Jim Wallis - God's ...

Motivated In Ohio: What is ‘Biblical Politics’? - Jim Wallis - God's ...: What is ‘Biblical Politics’? - Jim Wallis - God's Politics Blog Sojourners has always tried to understand and advocate for “biblical poli...

Soulja Boy Says F The Troops - Action Figure Therapy

*Vulgar Language Warning*

Answer The Question

Hidden Tax: US Families Pay an Extra $1,000 per Year to Support Religion

Hidden Tax: US Families Pay an Extra $1,000 per Year to Support Religion: "When the Constitution’s framers wrote the Bill of Rights, they had a profound purpose for the first amendment’s prohibition on religion in government. Whether or not the framers knew that in the 21st Century the Religious Right would emerge as a real and present danger to America is unknown, but the threat is real and the government is complicit in aiding Dominionists in their takeover attempts. Republicans have assailed women since the start of the 112th Congress at the behest of religious groups, and in states and at the Federal level homophobes are pursuing legislation to deny gays equal rights guaranteed in the Constitution. Beyond supporting legislation to impose Christianity’s beliefs on the entire country, churches receive unconstitutional non-profit tax-exempt status and the clergy receive special tax cuts and privileges working Americans are forbidden from taking. For churches to keep their tax-exempt status they are forbidden from campaigning from the pulpit; however, a religious group is pushing the IRS to remove the prohibition on actively campaigning for legislation or candidates while still maintaining their non-profit status...."

The Reaper Takes an Interest in Politics

Winners and Losers

Occupy Wall Street September 17,2011

Would God Be A Republican Or Democrat?

FBI Investigating Scott Walker?

WHY Do Liberals Defend Obama?

*Vulgar Language Warning*

Christian-in-Chief: Rick Perry's Campaign of Lies, Lynch-Mobs & Christian Hypocrisy

Ron Paul's Uninsured, Dead Campaign Manager

That Custom-Tailored Obama Scandal You Ordered Is Finally Here

Thursday, September 15, 2011

The 10 Types Of Republicans

Islam

So I had quite a long conversation with a Muslim coworker tonight and boy did I learn a whole lot of things that people in power/Christians don't want us to know. Apparently not all Muslim women wear a Hijab 24/7. Some of them only wear them while they're praying or in a Mosque. I totally didn't know this and it sort of blew my mind. I also got the Taliban explained to me a little bit. Apparently they're like a huge gang that some really smart/crazy/rich person makes out of poor and uneducated people. Which in a way makes sense because if you're in those conditions some people will do anything to get out of them and listen to pretty much anyone.

Which is why the best thing we can do for these people is to educate them and give them a chance at life where they don't have to live in poverty and be uneducated. If you haven't read my blog post Where Do We Go From Here I really encourage you to do so. It is very insightful and elaborates on some of the points I made in this post about education.

Criminal Probe Closes In as FBI Raids the Home of Gov Scott Walker’s Top Aide

Criminal Probe Closes In as FBI Raids the Home of Gov Scott Walker’s Top Aide: "Hauling a banker’s box among other times out of her home, about a dozen law enforcement officers including the Milwaukee FBI raided Cindy Archer’s Madison home yesterday, after arriving with a battering ram in the early hours of the morning. The FBI is investigating allegations that staffers of Walker’s worked on his campaign on the county dime while he was running for governor.

This investigation may be a part of the “John Doe” investigation which already resulted in two felony violations resulting in the conviction of William Gardner, the president and CEO of Wisconsin & Southern Railroad Co, and which we reported on here months ago indicated that a criminal probe into Walker’s campaign was imminent.

Here is your criminal probe; it was unsurprisingly in the works already pre-Gardner news. Justice takes her sweet time...."

The Tea Party Takes a Break

Wednesday, September 14, 2011

What Am I, The Idiot Whisperer?

Strengthen Social Security

Republican Health Care Plan: Die Quickly

Personhood Movement Abuses Democracy To Enforce Biblical Edicts On America

Personhood Movement Abuses Democracy To Enforce Biblical Edicts On America: "There are myriad threats to any nation’s existence that do not all issue forth from invading armies or terrorist threats. Indeed, Thomas Jefferson warned that “banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies,” and since the Reagan era, America has witnessed that danger growing exponentially with every Republican Congress. In America today, although banking institutions and corporatism appear to be the greatest threats to economic freedom and personal well-being, they pale in comparison to a silent threat that is gaining momentum at such a rapid pace that without interdiction, the country as we know it is finished. Financial institutions and corporatism are overt in their attacks on working Americans, but there is another danger, a covert threat, that Jefferson sought to neutralize by prohibiting religious interference in government and people’s private lives....."

This is just insane. The more that this stuff goes on the more I want to move to another country that isn't full of a bunch of cretins that want to do something like this. And people freak out about Sharia law. Mosaic law is starting to take over the country and the minority is starting to out voice the majority when it comes down to it. I'm more worried about Christian extremists than I am about Muslim extremists. I have no interest in living in a Theocracy dammit!

The Elizabeth Warren Wordcloud

I HATE PENNIES!!!! (Also Nickels.)



UPDATE: Those statistics are out of date. In 2009, it cost 1.6 cents to make a penny and 6.1 cents to make a nickel; the US Mint lost 22 million on penny and nickel production, not the 70 million they lost in 2008. (This is because the recession has made zinc and nickel cheaper.)

The Good, The Bad, and the Very Very Lectually Ugly

12 Oil Spills In One Year—And They Want To Build Another One?



To be able to read everything better click on the image.

Double Take 'Toons: Too Rich For Their Blood?

Ron Paul's Campaign Manager Died, Uninsured With Massive Medical Bill Debt



Wow. :|

Rearranging the Captains' Chairs

The Book of Cletis: Letter to FDR Regarding Old-Age Pensions

The Book of Cletis: Letter to FDR Regarding Old-Age Pensions: Note from Cletis: I found this on the Social Security web site ( http://www.ssa.gov/history/lettertoFDR.html ) and was deeply moved by the s...

Tuesday, September 13, 2011

Sen. Brown speaking about new state voting laws

Painting Of A Burning Bank Fetches $25,000 At Auction

Painting Of A Burning Bank Fetches $25,000 At Auction: "One California artist has made some serious money with a series of paintings that have struck a chord internationally. In an auction on Ebay, Alex Schaefer sold a 22-by-28 inch oil painting of a burning Chase Bank branch in Los Angeles for $25,200.

Schaefer tells The Los Angeles Times that his painting is a "visual metaphor for the havoc that banking practices have caused to the economy."

Prior to the sale, the painting got media attention, because it caught the eye of police. According to Schaefer's blog, he was visited by police twice. One time they asked if he was a terrorist. He said he wasn't and the police went on their way...."

"The Years of Shame" - The Conservative Legacy

She’s In: Elizabeth Warren To Run For US Senate

She’s In: Elizabeth Warren To Run For US Senate: "She’s in, Elizabeth Warren is making it official. Tomorrow September 14th, 2011 she will announce that she’s running for U.S. Senate against Republican Scott Brown.

Elizabeth Warren was tapped by President Obama to head the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. She hit a Republican brick wall of opposition, which sent her back to Massachusetts to take on the same cause of fighting for the average person, but in a different capacity.

Senator Brown is already ramping up the case that he is also the Wall St. reformer because of his vote in favor of the Dodd-Frank bill....."

Is Poverty a Death Sentence?

It's Rough in the Top 1 Percent

'Shouting into the wind' in Mississippi

'Shouting into the wind' in Mississippi: "Personhood Amendments, where they've been tried, tend to fail. That's because defining personhood as beginning at fertilization comes with unintended consequences, like outlawing popular forms of birth control and making IVF a lot more complicated. Can embryos in an IVF clinic inherit property? If you crash your bike and miscarry, is that a crime?

Cristen Hemmins was one of two plaintiffs who sued to stop the Personhood Amendment from going to referendum. The Mississippi Supreme Court said last week that the measure can go forward, and so far the campaign to defeat it amounts to a Facebook page. The vote's in November. "It's an uphill battle, and we're not helped by the fact that we've got seven weeks to educate the entire state of Mississippi," says Hemmins. Mississippi remains a place where politics and religion are not always separate ideas...."

Sunday, September 11, 2011

Where Do We Go From Here - David T. Ives

Where do we go from here!

I remember watching the images of the World Trade Center collapsing on TV and a friend of mine saying that the world would never be the same again. It turns out that many people around the country were thinking and saying the same thing. I have often wondered what this attack would mean for the future directions of our policies as a nation and our values as a people and, indeed, how we make decisions to intervene in any situation around the world, whether it be a military or economic or educational intervention or a choice for no intervention at all.

I remember reading articles about the Taliban and their involvement in Afghanistan immediately after the 9/11 attacks and most people in the United States did not know where Afghanistan was located and had to look it up on a map. The same thing occurred when we decided to go to war in Iraq even though the United States had intervened militarily in the region in 1991, an intervention called the Gulf War.

Not only did we not know the geographic location of a country to which we would commit billions of dollars without much thought and analysis, but we did not know the language nor much about the culture nor did we take into consideration the historical and political development of the country nor did we know much about the religions in the country.

Indeed, of the several hundred people working at our embassy in Iraq, only 6 spoke Arabic with any degree of fluency. Unfortunately, we often implement military solutions to problems overseas without spending the necessary time and effort to prevent conflict by investing in infrastructure, education, and health systems and taking the time to understand the challenges on the ground. This would include, in my mind, understanding the religions of the country and how they interact, the role of women in the society, the history of democratic traditions in the country, the perception of the country’s population towards the United States, the stratification of that country’s society, and the nature of the centers of power in that country to name only a few of the considerations that must be taken into consideration before any intervention of any type should be considered. Indeed, we have a lot to learn from our anthropologist friends in terms of how to assess an environment before drawing any conclusions or attempting to be of help.

An example of what I am talking about was portrayed in the movie Charlie Wilson’s War starring Tom Hanks. It was a movie about how the United States supplied and advised the Taliban and others fighting against the troops of the former Soviet Union in Afghanistan throughout the 1980’s. When the victory was finally won in 1989 and the Soviet Union left Afghanistan, our government thought that was it and any other expenditures of money for things like building schools and training teachers and health needs were essentially eliminated from our foreign aid for Afghanistan.

In my opinion, we therefore could have sowed the seeds of our conflict in Afghanistan and elsewhere in the region through our lack of investment in schools in Afghanistan. We may have won the war there against the former Soviet Union but we lost the peace. The Taliban had an open field in which to work in Afghanistan since 1990 when we left shortly after the Soviet Union did and we did not take advantage of the fact that Americans were very popular in Afghanistan and that Afghans wanted to have good schools for their children after decades of war.

The same thing happened in Central America where the Schweitzer Institute spends a lot of its time and effort. After the civil wars there ended in the late 1980’s and early 1990’s, the United States cut most of their aid to the region because a military solution had seemingly been reached. Indeed, my friend the 1987 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate and two time President of Costa Rica, Dr. Oscar Arias told me that he felt that the region was almost completely abandoned in terms of non-military aid to Central America with the arrival of a relative peace by the signing of the Peace Treaties. Although this abandonment is not the only reason, there has been a steady increase in emigration from these countries to the United States and there has been an increase in the drug trafficking throughout the region as this is one of the few opportunities to become wealthy. Both of these problems have exacerbated the problems of poverty and increased the amount of violence in the region.

One of the biggest problems I see in our relationships with other countries is the idea of American exceptionalism. I have heard many of our political candidates, especially on the right, assert that the world needs American leadership, that we alone seem to have the inherent right to lead other countries and that America has become less exceptional under our current administration. Such a position is arrogant and leads us to make unilateral decisions without consultation with our allies or to ignore their opinions entirely even if our friends give their opinions. While I have criticisms of our current administration, I do think that their basic instinct is correct which is to consult with our allies often and be a part of solutions as in Libya and to thoroughly assess the situation before an intervention, especially a decision as serious as the one to go to war or to retaliate, something I would avoid like the plague.

When I was growing up into manhood, the idea that the west or the democratic world was fighting against the evil ideal of communism was a quite prevalent position to take in the United States. My Dad, when he was angry, would sometimes say that the only good communist was a dead communist. A communist was that dreaded other off in another world who was trying to undermine democracy and eliminate religion and God. Then on my first visit to Brazil when I was 16, I actually met one. He seemed to have the normal amount of legs and arms, a big head of hair that I was jealous of, and there were no horns growing out of his head. I got to thinking that perhaps other communists were actually human beings also and slowly, I changed and started wondering if the stereotypes I had heard in my closed society about black people were true and then it just snowballed. It culminated for me in my work with the Schweitzer Institute whose basic philosophy is something called Reverence for Life, that we are all life struggling to survive on this planet and that anything that has what Albert Schweitzer called a will to live should be regarded as sacred. For Schweitzer, that meant plants, animals, and humans all had the desire to live and should be regarded with awe. When we view other humans with awe, it becomes very hard to kill them.

I am also very interested in a concept called the Responsibility to Protect which is being promoted by the United Nations. It comes from the former Secretary General of the United Nations Kofi Annan and his experience as the person in charge of the UN peacekeeping operations in Rwanda and Burundi around the time of the genocide that occurred there. In his capacity as the head of UN Peace Keeping forces, SG Annan tried to get over 100 countries to help out in some way, but not one country including the US offered any help. As a result of 800,000 people dying, Kofi Annan initiated a process at the United Nations in which he asserted that when a country cannot or will not take care of its own people, then there is a moral obligation to protect those people despite any claims of national sovereignty. I was the only North American to sit in a meeting of all Spanish speaking diplomats from all of Latin America organized by the Arias Foundation in Costa Rica. Each diplomat had to get up and state their opinion about this idea of a moral obligation to protect endangered people in their own country and each in turn turned to me and said I beg your pardon, I don’t mean to insult you, but I am worried about the history of intervention in my country by your country. When they were done enumerating the incidents of US intervention in their country, they all turned back to me and said that they hoped that I would excuse them for their remarks. Nevertheless, most countries thought that under the right conditions, intervening in another country would be necessary and that a number of countries, not just one no matter how exceptional, should make the decision to intervene in the affairs of another country. Haiti was mentioned as an example of a failed state where intervention is necessary and nowadays, Somalia is mentioned as another failed state where thousands of children are right now starving to death. This idea of a Responsibility to Protect should be given thorough consideration in the coming years and I hope it passes the United Nations soon.

Where I hope we go and that some of us learn from 9/11 is the need to learn where these countries are located, engage with others, learn about their cultures, make friends, listen to differing opinions, to avoid military interventions at almost all costs, and support humanitarian projects that take the opinions of locals into consideration, and indeed, are even designed by locals, not just the elite in a country. I would propose that we do that continuously no matter who might disagree with us and treat the populations and representatives of all countries that politically, philosophically and theologically, they are exceptional.

Remembering 9/11 – and Putting it in Perspective

Remembering 9/11 – and Putting it in Perspective: "It’s hard to believe it’s been 10 years today. We all remember where we were like it was yesterday, what we were doing when we heard what had happened, shortly before 9 a.m. We stood transfixed in front of a television, confused at first, not knowing at first if it had been an accident, then horrified by what we were seeing and hearing as we realized what had actually happened and was happening. The horror of that day won’t be forgotten by those who experienced it. But we could say the same thing of any other horrible event, and we’re not the first generation to feel this way about the defining trauma of our lives.

I have no intention here of downplaying 9/11, what it meant to America and to the world, or of minimizing the horror, chaos, deaths and damage caused by Islamic terrorists when they hijacked four planes and crashed two of them into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. Besides the 19 hijackers, nearly 3,000 Americans died that day. It was horrible and we are all marked by it. And unlike any previous historical trauma, we have it all captured on film, in color and audio recordings of 911 calls and cell phone calls from inside the towers to emergency personal and to loved ones. It is safe to say 9/11 is the best recorded trauma in human history...."

Never Forget The Republican Manipulation of 9/11 For War and Profit

Never Forget The Republican Manipulation of 9/11 For War and Profit: "Many cultures celebrate anniversaries of important events or milestones like the length of a marriage, years a business has existed, or any event important enough to remember on a specific date. For the past week, Americans were reminded to remember the terror attacks on 9/11 and in many cases, organizations repeated the phrase “never forget” as if anyone over the age of fourteen needs to be told to remember the death and devastation America suffered. However, there are reasons to remember the vicious attacks other than the toll in innocent lives; Americans should remember how Republicans used the event and subsequent anniversaries for political gain. 9/11 signifies the beginning of America’s crusade against Islam and Republicans’ money-making scams to enrich the oil industry and corporations. Republican policies since 9/11 have caused untold damage to America and the world making their celebration of 9/11 tantamount to Germans celebrating the Holocaust....."

9/11: Ground Zero Students Sick 10 Years Later

Drug Testing All College Students

FDNY 343 Tribute





"People are always asking me how is it that firefighters run into a burning building when everyone else is running out. Courage is the answer."
~Ladder 49