Sunday, June 28, 2009

R-I-G-H-T-!

Ahh...  Reality...  Isn’t It A Bitch?
Because Reality Has Been Smacking Us All Around For Some Time Now.

Read 
Health Care??? - We Don’t Even Know How Much We're Missing
Food Inc: The Food Industry's Darkest Secrets - Revealed
White House Drafts Indefinite Detention Order
Guess Who’s Selling Wall Street’s Bull?
Climate Bill: Too Little Too Late
Foreclosure Fiasco Continues:
A British Rum Maker?!?

So Whatever Happened to Obama’s ‘Sunlight’?

[A Jon Stewart Video Commentary - 7:32]

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A “Below The Fold” Bonus “Worth Your Time” Political Cartoon...

Adam Zyglis


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Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Says It All...

Some Can Nail It With “Jest”, Some Just Nail It.
by Tom Tomorrow


by Tom Tomorrow


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Nailed it for me.  How about you?



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Tuesday, June 23, 2009

You Keep Doing Nothing. . .

The Thieves Can't Even Restrain Their Hubristic Sneers Anymore.
Because The Corporatists, And Bankers, (The Thieves,) Know You’ll Continue To Do Nothing.

  -  “Suck on Our Yachts”
      Goldman Sachs Lloyd Blankfein says he’s sorry, then proceeds to
      brag about screwing us all.  Has an act of contrition ever in history 
      been more worthless and insincere?

  -  “Where Are They Now?”  Ex-Bush Loyalists Cash In.
      As more Americans lose their jobs, homes, healthcare, and their
      “way of life,” and finally, to lose, (the most crushing of all,)  hope.

  -  “The Policy That Dare Not Speak Its Name”
      Medicare-for-All is something regular people, [2/3s,] understand.
 Your Right

by Joel Pett

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A“Below The Fold” bonus Article - Speaking of damage already done...  That you did allow...

[Reprised in case you missed it, or forgot about the ongoing “allowed” wealth-transfer.]

EFCA Setbacks: A Familiar Story of Corporate Power vs. The Middle Class

by Amy Traub, via DMI Blog, April 23, 2009


The Employee Free Choice Act is key to rebuilding the American middle classnews of Senators wavering in their support for the bill revalidates a key truth about Congress: the main stumbling block to strengthening and expanding the middle class is corporate power.

The same pattern emerges every year on TheMiddleClass.org.  Throughout the year, DMI uses the site to share analysis about the impact of Congressional legislation on Americans’ ability to gain – and hold onto – a middle-class standard of living.  Once a year, we take a step back and look at the big picture.  It often looks depressingly familiar: fiscal conservatives notwithstanding, Congress does fairly well when it comes to measures that simply involve spending more, but falls short – often far short – when powerful corporate interests clash with the wellbeing of the nation’s current and aspiring middle class.

In 2008, for example, Congress stood up for the middle-class on issues like providing more funds to higher education and passing a consumer safety bill that’s even been endorsed by the industry its regulating.  Virtually all Democrats voted for these bills, and most Republicans as well. Similarly in 2007, college aid did well and majorities from both parties in the House voted for common sense contracting reforms.

But Congressional support for middle-class Americans falls off precipitously as soon as major corporate interests are at stake.

In 2007, the Peru trade bill was the skunk at the garden party, provoking 64 percent of Senate Democrats and 48 percent of House Democrats (along with nearly every Republican) to vote for multinational corporations and large investors at the expense of their middle-class constituents.  Last year, it was a willingness to put banks before struggling homeowners, telecommunications companies before consumers, and those @%$& banks again before taxpayers.  These weren’t the only policy disappointments of the year for middle-class Americans, but they were the main cases where significant numbers of Democrats joined nearly all Republicans in selling out the middle class.

This year, I fear Thomas Frank is right when he predicts the same fate for EFCA. Sure, Congress will approve health coverage for low-income kids (an important boost for aspiring middle-class families in its own right) but when it comes to standing up for middle-class Americans against a full-scale corporate lobbying campaign, Congress may not have the guts.  That's terrible news for the middle class.


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Thursday, June 18, 2009

RE: Reality...

Ah Reality...  Denial Of It Is Dangerous, And Ignoring It Is Worse.
Because The Continuation Of The Allowing Should Be Stopped.

Patriot 
The American Empire Is Bankrupt ...what will come will be very... painful.
Could Food Shortages Bring Down Civilization?
  (Scientific American)
Health Care Lobbyists Are Winning the Battle to Screw Us All.
Obama and Transparency:  Judge for Yourself...
  (Updates Included)
Health Insurers Refuse to Limit Rescission of Coverage.
All But 32 House Dems Back Bad Wars, Big Banks.
Obama a Very Smooth Liar


by Bruce Plante


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A “Below The Fold” Bonus Article...


“Obama's Money Men Finally Get It”


by By Robert Scheer, June 17, 2009, via The Nation Magazine


“Now they tell us.

On Monday, two men with considerable responsibility for enabling the banking meltdown confronted the error of their ways.  Not directly, of course, for accountability is hardly the mark of either Lawrence Summers, the top White House economic adviser, or Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner.

Their careers have long been fueled by error.  Summers was one of the leading prophets of radical financial deregulation in the Clinton administration.  And Geithner, as head of the New York Fed, looked the other way during Wall Street’s collapse and then responded by opening wide the spigot of taxpayer dollars to resuscitate Citigroup and AIG.

What they wrote this week in a joint op-ed article in the Washington Post is a condemnation of the Wall Street shenanigans they once abetted and celebrated. ... ”


[Above title is a direct link to the full article - Well worth the read.]


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Saturday, June 13, 2009

Redundantly... Yeah, R-I-G-H-T-!

Ahh...  Reality...  Ain’t It A Bastard?
Because Reality Has Been Smacking Us All Around For Some Time Now.

Read 
To Graduates of the Bush Years: Empire Continues in the Obama Era
Conyers Rips Rangel, Waxman for Backing Off Single Payer
The Real [Healthcare] Problem is Lousy Democrats
Ahmadinejad Wins a Dubious Election in Iran
The Rise of Single-Payer Health Care
Oil and Indians Don't Mix
The Big Hate


Not To Be Missed...  (or at least shouldn’t be.)


CREW Releases List of Congressional Members Currently Under Investigation.

“Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington” (CREW) released
a comprehensive list of members of Congress under investigation.

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A “Below The Fold” Bonus Video...

“Save Our CEOs”
Mike's New Movie - Coming October 2nd - A surprise ‘teaser’ - Enjoy



[ Above title is a direct link to his website. ]


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Saturday, June 06, 2009

Okay...

Lot’s Of Weirdness Happening, Some think Too Much Of The Wrong Kind.
by The Old Hippie Because I Thought Seeing Truth Would Help, Obviously It Didn’t.

Hacker
{-The Way Many Picture Me-}
 


Between "FOX, and its sycophantic friends" telling their nuts and morons, (their only believing viewers, which is obviously way too many Americans,) to go out an kill “patriotically,” and the MSM doing its job for the (basically just five) corporations that control 99% of the media of our nation now, and not for what the Founders referred to as “the common good” of its citizens.  Not to mention the control the war-profiteering, ‘healthcare,’ and ag-chem corporations, plus what the banks and Wall Street are doing to make matters worse, with their power over ‘our’ elected representatives in the executive and legislative branches.  We, the rational and reality based, are just basically fucked.  The only branch left that still seems to have a conscience left concerning the Constitution and Bill of Rights is the judicial, and even that branch is corrupted by the right side politically.

As I have observed before...  The planet is more crowded than ever, the global corporations have more power than ever, and “the-very-few” have more money than ever, with its inherent manipulable power that this stolen wealth possesses.  There is much less fresh water available to fewer people worldwide, and the supplies of it are diminishing with the melting of the glaciers planetwide.  Food supplies are short in many areas, more so than ever, and global ag-chem corporations are making the situation far worse, just for the short-term profits to themselves.

We are in a bad situation on this planet right now, a very bad situation indeed, and it is getting worse each day from many complex, and mind-numbing, and varied directions... Fundamentalism, ideology, corporatism, “opportunistic profiteering” of every conceivable kind, not to mention commodification of supplies of food, and water, and healthcare... are destroying much more than “just peoples lives” on this planet, which has been accurately described as... “Spaceship Earth.”

When the revolt comes, whether from the left’s reality-based reaction to the insanity, and/or from the right’s manipulated paranoia, and/or from people simply “refusing” to starve and thirst for someone else’s profits - It will be ugly.  Possibly more than just ugly.  I seriously hope I am long gone from this mortal coil when it finally happens.

Redundant, I know...  But reality is reality, even if it sucks.

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The following is reprised, because not much has really changed as far as the ongoing denial of the insane “allowing” of the theft by the-very-few is concerned...  I will continue to reprise this... as long as the 'citizens' of my nation continue to “allow the allowing.”

It, the insanity, of the “allowing,” is getting worse, in fact it is much worse already.

Go look at all of the MSM’s headlines, at their websites, then compare what you see there with the reality as rationally reported by reality based independent news sites.

If that simple comparison doesn’t open ones closed eyes of denial, nothing will.

To help you remain sane, and not too deeply depressed, you should end your “session of reality” by stopping in at some of the better editorial humorists’ websites - It couldn’t hurt.

That is my main personal method of doing research for this blog - Check in with the right and the right’s insane, then study as much of the reality-based news sites as possible, then check in with the humorists.  I then sleep on it, do it again, and then post what I have learned, observed, or was stunned by, to first, share it, and second, to get it off my chest so that I can remain sane myself.  All the while, trying my best to keep a reality-based perspective in these historically insane times.


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Monday, June 01, 2009

RE: Reality...

Ah Reality...  Denial Of It Is Dangerous, And Ignoring It Is Worse.
Because The Continuation Of The Allowing Should Be Stopped.

Patriot 
Waging a War on Empathy -- We Can't Let Them Win
An Optimistic Michael Moore...  About the Future?!?
When Sallie Met Barack
  [May require login, worth it.]
Cheney and Rice Remember 9/11.  I Do, Too.
Monsanto's G.E. Wheat Rejected Globally
War Is Sin
  (Well just fuckin’ duh...)
Princes Among Men

by Jim Morin


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A “Below The Fold” Bonus Article...


“Is Larry Summers Taking Kickbacks
From the Same Banks He's Bailing Out?”


by Susie Madrak, June 01, 2009, via Crooks and Liars


“This whole incestuous mess just gets worse and worse, doesn't it?  It appears
the foxes are dining quite well while working as henhouse security guards:”


[Above title is a direct link to the full article - Well worth the read.]


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