Goodluck on this plan.....

Not a whole lot of money extra but keeping the service below 10 bucks kept millions of people watching instead of using alternatives. People are lazy and get set in their ways. Screw them over for a couple of bucks and the head for the tall grass.

Simple solution:

Add a app called Boxee, HDMI cable and a wireless mouse and keyboard to an old desktop and connect to a HD TV and watch yourself silly!

Oh yea, at no extra cost or logins, fees, price increases, etc.

Netflix changes reflect evolving market - Washington Times

Netflix changes reflect evolving market
Users see move phasing out DVDs
8 Comments and 4 Reactions|ShareTweet|Email|Print|
Under a new pricing policy, Netflix customers will have to buy separate plans if they want to rent DVDs by mail and watch video on the Internet. Subscribers will be paying as much as 60 percent more as a result. (Associated Press)Under a new pricing policy, Netflix customers will have to buy separate plans if they want to rent DVDs by mail and watch video on the Internet. Subscribers will be paying as much as 60 percent more as a result. (Associated Press)

By Claire Courchane

-

The Washington Times

8:44 p.m., Thursday, July 21, 2011

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College student Lydia Statz was one of more than 23 million Netflix users who received a jolt when the DVD rental and online streaming company announced major price increases last week.

“They had such a good model going,” said Miss Statz, adding that college students used Netflix because it was cheaper than purchasing cable. “Why ruin it?”

The answer, according to numerous angry customers, is so people would drop the DVD option and Netflix could save money on postage and the famous red envelopes. Instead of unlimited DVDs and unlimited online streaming for $9.99 a month, new customers now must pay $7.99 a month separately for each service. Existing customers must do the same, starting Sept. 1.

Miss Statz is not the only unhappy customer — according to a Mashable.com poll, 38 percent of users claim they will quit using Netflix. Almost 80,000 comments appeared on the company’s Facebook page, ranging from the civil (“Why

I know... You can't make this up!...

Somewhere someone is giving birth to more of these guys!

THEY'RE HERE! 2010 DARWIN AWARDS - You've been waiting for them with bated breath, so without further ado, here are the 2010 Darwin Awards.

After stepping around a marked police patrol car parked at the front door, a man walked into H&J Leather & Firearms intent on robbing the store. The shop was full of customers and a uniformed officer was standing at the counter. Upon seeing the officer, the would-be robber announced a hold-up and fired a few wild shots from a target pistol.

The officer and a clerk promptly returned fire, and several customers also drew their guns and fired. The robber was pronounced dead at the scene by Paramedics. Crime scene investigators located 47 expended cartridge cases in the shop. The subsequent autopsy revealed 23 gunshot wounds. Ballistics identified rounds from 7 different weapons. No one else was hurt.

Need to see more?

As long as these guys get free money from the state they can do this shit. You can't tell me the universities can't find competent help without raising the salaries 100,000 bucks more  a year? Of course, most of the money comes from the state raising taxes and cutting services to the working stiff. But as long as these suckers keep living there they have no one to blame but themselves.

State bankruptcies are easily explained... They are either run by morons or a criminal conspiracy!

College presidents' paychecks raise brows - USATODAY.com

Literally moments after the system's Board of Trustees announced that it was going to increase next fall's tuition by 12 percent, an additional $294 a semester, the board turned around and approved a salary of $400,000 for the new president of San Diego State, Elliot Hirshman -- $350,000 in state funds and $50,000 from the campus's foundation -- a bump of more than $100,000 from what his predecessor made last year. "There's never a good time to raise presidents' pay," said Michael Uhlenkamp, a spokesman for the Cal State system. "But when there are immediate needs, whether taboo or not, we have to fill them."

The question of whether it's appropriate for higher education administrators to be making very large salaries (often in the hundreds of thousands of dollars) is highly contentious, with vocal advocates on each side of the issue. 

Wonder which company is paying for this?.....

 

The Path Not Taken - NYTimes.com

The doctrine in question amounts to the assertion that, in the aftermath of a financial crisis, banks must be bailed out but the general public must pay the price. So a crisis brought on by deregulation becomes a reason to move even further to the right; a time of mass unemployment, instead of spurring public efforts to create jobs, becomes an era of austerity, in which government spending and social programs are slashed. This doctrine was sold both with claims that there was no alternative — that both bailouts and spending cuts were necessary to satisfy financial markets — and with claims that fiscal austerity would actually create jobs. The idea was that spending cuts would make consumers and businesses more confident. And this confidence would supposedly stimulate private spending, more than offsetting the depressing effects of government cutbacks.

Wonder which company is paying for this?.....

There are no coincidences in Washington. Somebody is on the take. How else can we read this and not wonder about the people involved in it?

FDA to Diamond Foods: “Your Walnuts Are Drugs” « LewRockwell.com Blog

Just recently I posted about the Feds crashing a Kansas winery to seize the illegal contraband ("drugs") being produced by the company: elderberry wine. Come to find out that prior to that the FDA had gone after Diamond Foods for its claims that its walnuts are good for overall health. Here is the full letter sent from the FDA to Diamond Foods. A snippet:

Based on claims made on your firm's website, we have determined that your walnut products are promoted for conditions that cause them to be drugs because these products are intended for use in the prevention, mitigation, and treatment of disease.

This part of the FDA letter is predictably curious:

The back of your product label also bears the following statement: "The omega-3 in walnuts can help you get the proper balance of fatty acids your body needs for promoting and maintaining heart health. In fact, according to the Food and Drug Administration, supportive but not conclusive research shows that eating 1.5 oz of walnuts per day, as part of a low saturated fat and low cholesterol diet, and not resulting in increased caloric intake, may reduce the risk of coronary heart disease. Please refer to nutrition information for fat content and other details about the nutritional profile of walnuts." Although FDA exercises enforcement discretion over the last two sentences of this statement, which meet the criteria for a qualified health claim for walnuts and coronary heart disease, the last two sentences read in conjunction with the first sentence makes the entire statement an unauthorized health claim.

An article by William Faloon in Life Extension magazine (he's a co-founder of the foundation) points out that "the FDA has no problem allowing the Frito-Lay® website to state the following" about its "heart healthy" snacks:

“Frito-Lay® snacks start with real farm-grown ingredients. You might be surprised at how much good stuff goes into your favorite snack. Good stuff like potatoes, which naturally contain vitamin C and essential minerals. Or corn, one of the world’s most popular grains, packed with thiamin, vitamin B6, and phosphorous—all necessary for healthy bones, teeth, nerves and muscles.

“And it’s not just the obvious ingredients. Our all-natural sunflower, corn and soybean oils contain good polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fats, which help lower total and LDL ‘bad’ cholesterol and maintain HDL ‘good’ cholesterol levels, which can support a healthy heart. Even salt, when eaten in moderation as part of a balanced diet, is essential for the body.”

You can see it for yourself on the Frito-Lay website. (Thanks to Mickey Propadovich for the tip.) A few years ago, the Life Extension foundation covered the FDA's attack on the cherry industry for stating that the fruit contained beneficial anti-oxidants. Twenty-nine companies were ordered by the FDA to stop making health claims regarding their cherries, otherwise the FDA would designate their cherries as drugs, meaning the FDA would have to raid the warehouses and seize the "untested drugs."

What if.....

Obama and the Dems would have cut a 800 billion tarp bailout and gave me and you 20 grand?

Think he would have been popular?

What about the deficit? Do you seriously think we wouldn't be in the same position?

Except the economy would have boomed again!

Our problem is we are collectively broke. Broke dicks can't or wont buy, save or invest. Once your broke you head for the tall grass and lay low. We then pay off debts, if still working, and recoup our credit status. Then we shop, invest or buy at GM.

Economics 101!

Hey, I'm pretty cute ain't I......

gary has a fish.MOV

Obama has failed to rectify Bush's screwup....

No one has been punished for making this mess in our economy!

Washington's Blog

Robert Shiller - one of the top housing experts in the United States - says that the mortgage fraud is a lot like the fraud which occurred during the Great Depression. As Fortune notes:

Shiller said the danger of foreclosuregate -- the scandal in which it has come to light that the biggest banks have routinely mishandled homeownership documents, putting the legality of foreclosures and related sales in doubt -- is a replay of the 1930s, when Americans lost faith that institutions such as business and government were dealing fairly.

The former chief accountant of the S.E.C., Lynn Turner, told the New York Times that fraud helped cause the Great Depression:

The amount of gimmickry and outright fraud dwarfs any period since the early 1970's, when major accounting scams like Equity Funding surfaced, and the 1920's, when rampant fraud helped cause the crash of 1929 and led to the creation of the S.E.C.

Economist Robert Kuttner writes:

In 1932 through 1934 the Senate Banking Committee, led by its Chief Counsel Ferdinand Pecora, ferreted out the deeper fraud and corruption that led to the Crash of 1929 and the Great Depression.

Similarly, Tom Borgers refers to:

I'm actually speechless.....

And This Man Is the New Secretary of Defense? « LewRockwell.com Blog

Posted by Laurence Vance on July 12, 2011 07:22 PM

Leon Panetta, who was recently confirmed by the Senate to be the new Secretary of Defense, told American troops in Iraq on Monday:

"The reason you guys are here is because of 9/11. The US got attacked and 3,000 human beings got killed because of Al-Qaeda. We've been fighting as a result of that."

Not even George Bush utters that lie anymore.

And what was the Senate vote to confirm Panetta? 100–0.

Somebody has to save the economy....

Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis: Bernanke Pledges More Monetary Stimulus, Dollar Tanks, Gold Soars to Record High

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke told Congress the central bank is prepared to take additional action, including buying more government bonds, if the economy appears to be in danger of stalling.

“The possibility remains that the recent economic weakness may prove more persistent than expected and that deflationary risks might reemerge, implying a need for additional policy support,” Bernanke said in prepared testimony before the House Financial Services Committee in Washington today. “The Federal Reserve remains prepared to respond should economic developments indicate that an adjustment of monetary policy would be appropriate.”

Bernanke acknowledged there are “uncertainties” in both directions -- about the strength of the economic recovery and the prospects for inflation -- over the medium term.

The Fed chief repeated his belief that inflation won’t be a problem for the economy because gasoline and food prices, which had surged earlier this year, are now moderating.

They're firing teachers to balance the budget!....

Talk about desperate!

 Kids are dumb enough now. Maybe we should just shoot our selves and start the country over. Now, state governments budgets are like your household's. Income - outgo must balance. So somebody has to get their ass' kicked when the state governments are in deficit. Let's not forget, government monies fund pay checks. Cut spending you cut someone's pay check.

 Cut someone's pay check and they quit spending at Walmart. And they vote for the other guy!

Most of the state problems stem from the Federal government, who can tax, print or borrow, all the money they need, passing costs for various programs down to the states because of politics. The states then have to borrow money from the Feds to pay for some of these programs if the economy busts. When the bust comes to the economy, and they always do, the states are caught short and have to fire people maximising the down cycle. Hard for the government to cure unemployment if they have to fire the middle class who create most of the jobs with their taxes and consumption of goods and services.

Now we are in the old catch 22. People with jobs spend, borrow and pay taxes to support people who don't! Fire them and all you have left is.....PEOPLE WHO DON'T HAVE JOBS!

I guess it's because few voters and media talking heads have a clue how our system works. Or, more likely, to many people make a living scaring the fuck out of people who don't have a clue how our system works.

Our economy doesn't work like your household. Ours is a sovereign nation , actually a sovereign Empire, and we can print, borrow, or simply confiscate, any U.S dollars we want. If we decide to pay off the National Debt, (an accounting gimmick), we could simply fire up the presses and pass out the cash.

Want to pay Social Security for the next 50 years? No sweat. Need to invade China? Pay 10 million broke dicks a million or so a piece and let 'er rip. Need oil? Borrow 10 times as much and buy it all!

Who's going to stop us? (Not to say we ever would or should) You and I stop this from occurring because we, the people, are sovereign and the guys who rules us are scared shit less of pissing us off if we ever figure it out.

Ours is  the only economy that  rules the planet's resources. Every commodity is delineated in our dollar. Literally every country sells us more than we sell them and this creates surpluses of dollars on their books. All this money has to come home as it is ours. Every country has to buy our shit... stocks, real estate, bonds, etc. or they can't sell us anything because we don't take their money in trade!

We are the sovereigns!

It's amazing that so many people can't figure it out.......  cutting budgets during a bust leads to DEPRESSIONS which is a planet wide phenomenon. You raise taxes and cut government growth only during boom times to slow the economy to a more manageable level.

Bottom line how can firing people who spend their checks in the local economy improve the local economy?

HELLO!

I'm betting he caves.....

The Repubs can't trust Boner! He'll surrender. Let's not forget he was there when Bush and the gang in Washington got the government into this mess.

Did you ever hear him bitch about deficits then?

That's because the public now believes that we are going bankrupt and Congress and the President need to do something about it.

They will!

They'll slow the growth of the Deficit, declare victory and get re-elected! And next election cycle they'll find something else to promise because if the deficit was that important to their survival it would have been fixed a long time ago!

No one who runs our economy will tolerate much if any change in the system. They make billions off our backs for doing nothing but manipulating our money and buying guys like Boner and Oba mama and getting them in office. They pay both Dems and Repubs in the races and always win because they will simply replace these people by financing their opposition in the primaries where most campaign expenditure laws don't apply.

Also,  just check and see how many of these stooges run unopposed or their opponents are broke, stupid, or made to look crazy. Not to say that many of  our elections are fixed to start with.

Just ask newly minted multimillionaire AlGORE!

But more importantly, you can't bankrupt an Empire by the government borrowing it's own money! You only bankrupt a sovereign nation by destroying it's infrastructure. (Germany and Japan are the most famous.)

Besides, if we were in such danger do you think anyone in their right mind would by U.S. bonds at 0% interest? We've sold out every bit of those trillions in debt because our government can always print, kill, steal, tax, sell off their assets and yes, borrow from the oil sheiks.

But it makes for many political careers and sells a lot of copy and TV time. And that's all it's about! Kind of like Jesus' second coming, Alar on your apples, we will all starve by 1975, ice age starting in1980 and ruining our suntans in Florida, rainforest drying up and sending all those rubber plantation workers running amok across our Mexican border, polar bears starving to death because the dumb fuckers couldn't get off the ice berg, something about our computers turning into Y2K killers and destroying the Internet or what ever, and now a 15 trillion dollar economy can't afford to spend enough on my generation in our old age to keep us from murdering the worthless bastards in Washington ?

Want to bet!!!!

Boehner Scales Back Deficit Talks, Citing Tax Increases - NYTimes.com

The decision was a major reversal for Mr. Boehner, a veteran Congressional deal-maker who along with Mr. Obama had been the major advocate for seeking a far-reaching deal that would have combined a debt limit increase with substantial spending cuts, significant changes in social programs like Medicare, Medicaid and perhaps Social Security, and as much as $1 trillion in new revenues. Following a secret meeting between the two last weekend, Mr. Obama went public with his own call for a broad package.

The White House, in its own statement, followed Mr. Boehner’s announcement with the suggestion that the president would try to change Mr. Boehner’s mind in their Sunday session.

“Both parties have made real progress thus far, and to back off now will not only fail to solve our fiscal challenge, it will confirm the cynicism people have about politics in Washington,” Dan Pfeiffer, the White House communications director, said. “The president believes that now is the moment to rise above that cynicism and show the American people that we can still do big things. And so tomorrow, he will make the case to Congressional leaders that we must reject the politics of least resistance and take on this critical challenge.”

But the prospect of getting the bulk of his own Republican majority behind a $4 trillion, 10-year agreement was looming as a very heavy political and policy lift for the speaker who is still in his first year in the position.

Let's see...

We elect Oba mama to the Presidency because he was black, not older than dirt and not Hillary. The guy didn't have a clue then and doesn't have a clue now on what to do.

Why are we surprised?

Just think.... If you were a supporter what has he done for you? Did he soak the rich?

No!

Did he pass socialised medicine the way he promised?

 No!

 Did he get us out of all those wars we can't win without taking out our oil supply?

No!

The following are his accomplishments in three years:

(I'm still looking.)

Pat Buchanan hits the nail on the head....

I bitched about selling our industrial base to foreign countries for over 20 years! I even voted for this guy because being a factory worker in the 70's and 80's I knew how a hard it was to do something else. If you were stuck with a high school diploma or less you would look forward to "gentile poverty " at best without a good paying factory job.

Millions of us were raising families and there was no way to get a college education or start a successful business and maintain a decent standard of living and not work at the plant.

But our jobs slowly then rapidly were shipped over seas and booze, drugs, and unemployment checks were all that was left as working class  America became known as "the rust belt".

Does anyone think it will ever change back? Or will we have to kill everyone on the planet just to eat?

Don't be surprised if that is all that's left to keep us going!

Manufacturing's dismal decade

.....far exceeding our trade deficit in crude oil. A decade of such deficits in manufactures has devastated the industrial states.

From December 2000 to December 2010, 22 states lost a third or more of their manufacturing jobs. Massachusetts, New York and Ohio lost 38 percent of their manufacturing jobs, New Jersey 39 percent, North Carolina 42 percent, Rhode Island 44 percent, Michigan 48 percent.

Political result: Free-trader John McCain lost all seven, including the formerly "red" states of Ohio and North Carolina.

Trade in autos, trucks and parts, an industry in which America was dominant in the lifetime of many of us, tells the story.

Last year, the United States ran a trade deficit in autos, trucks and parts of $110 billion. The deficits with Germany, Japan, South Korea and Mexico account for that entire total.

Consider South Korea. Though she has an economy one-fifteenth the size of ours, she exported to us 12 times the dollar volume of trucks, cars and parts that we exported to her.

Rather than make a free-trade agreement with South Korea, why not tell our friends in Seoul: We are tired of arguing with you folks about opening your markets to our goods. Since you folks buy less than $1 billion in autos, etc., from us, while you sell almost $12 billion in your cars and trucks to us, you keep your market. We're taking back ours.

Now what?....

Depressions are a bitch.

Want to end it at least until another bust ? Send us a check! You have to stimulate demand. Give me enough money to pay my car off and I'll buy a house and then a new car. So give me some big spending money.

 In the next boom housing will double in price as 2 million new households a year look for a place to live. And few new houses are being built. So you have to stimulate this demand. Who is going to build a house when we can't afford to buy?

Remember, broke dicks can't buy shit even if they want to. And everybody wants to! So send us a big check!

But what you'll get is more bullshit about deficits and tax increases which slaughter the business community and scare the beJesus out of them.

Oh yea, it's all Bush's fault!!!

Jesus, what a mess...

People who invested in war....

Are rich beyond their dreams! Always count on it. War is a good like any other.More money is used to encourage it, maintain it  and continue it.

 And it's good politics. Worked for Bush jr. and now look at Caesar  Oba mama!

Because of this little piece of reality no one can cut spending in Washington even if they were serious. Can't cut anything but "discretionary items" and that means the Pentagon.

 Yea, right!

Oba mama needs to stick it to the Republicans because they have to defend the military-industrial complex and Oba mama will defend the voters against the meanies on the right.

Guess who wins!

THREE TITLES [3] for the PRICE OF ONE.

WAR is a racket. It always has been.

It is possibly the oldest, easily the most profitable, surely the most vicious. It is the only one international in scope. It is the only one in which the profits are reckoned in dollars and the losses in lives.

A racket is best described, I believe, as something that is not what it seems to the majority of the people. Only a small "inside" group knows what it is about. It is conducted for the benefit of the very few, at the expense of the very many. Out of war a few people make huge fortunes.

In the World War [I] a mere handful garnered the profits of the conflict. At least 21,000 new millionaires and billionaires were made in the United States during the World War. That many admitted their huge blood gains in their income tax returns. How many other war millionaires falsified their tax returns no one knows.

How many of these war millionaires shouldered a rifle? How many of them dug a trench? How many of them knew what it meant to go hungry in a rat-infested dug-out? How many of them spent sleepless, frightened nights, ducking shells and shrapnel and machine gun bullets? How many of them parried a bayonet thrust of an enemy? How many of them were wounded or killed in battle?

Out of war nations acquire additional territory, if they are victorious. They just take it. This newly acquired territory promptly is exploited by the few – the selfsame few who wrung dollars out of blood in the war. The general public shoulders the bill.

And what is this bill?

This bill renders a horrible accounting. Newly placed gravestones. Mangled bodies. Shattered minds. Broken hearts and homes. Economic instability. Depression and all its attendant miseries. Back-breaking taxation for generations and generations.

For a great many years, as a soldier, I had a suspicion that war was a racket; not until I retired to civil life did I fully realize it. Now that I see the international war clouds gathering, as they are today, I must face it and speak out.

Again they are choosing sides. France and Russia met and agreed to stand side by side. Italy and Austria hurried to make a similar agreement. Poland and Germany cast sheep's eyes at each other, forgetting for the nonce [one unique occasion], their dispute over the Polish Corridor.

The assassination of King Alexander of Jugoslavia [Yugoslavia] complicated matters. Jugoslavia and Hungary, long bitter enemies, were almost at each other's throats. Italy was ready to jump in. But France was waiting. So was Czechoslovakia. All of them are looking ahead to war. Not the people – not those who fight and pay and die – only those who foment wars and remain safely at home to profit.

There are 40,000,000 men under arms in the world today, and our statesmen and diplomats have the temerity to say that war is not in the making.

Still think we don't control the world's oil?

Don't worry Oba mama doesn't have a clue on creating jobs but he does have killing people figured out.

 Just blame it on Bush!

Anyways, all the smart money is overseas and buying commodities because this guy is seen as a nitwit. Clueless is being polite. Chasing people around in the deserts is not working. Creating jobs by stealing money from Social Security is not working. Waving a magic wand and creating money out of thin air is not working

Bringing back Jimmy Carter"s policies, for Christ's sake. back is not working.

Leave the Middle East alone and drill here will work!

I'm off for the holiday see you next week!

New Statesman - Obama’s empire

In December 2008, shortly before being sworn in as the 44th president of the United States, Barack Obama pledged his belief that, "to ensure prosperity here at home and peace abroad", it was vital to maintain "the strongest military on the planet". Unveiling his national security team, including George Bush's defence secretary, Robert Gates, he said: "We also agree the strength of our military has to be combined with the wisdom and force of diplomacy, and that we are going to be committed to rebuilding and restrengthening alliances around the world to advance American interests and American security."

Unfortunately, many of the Obama administration's diplomatic efforts are being directed towards maintaining and garnering new access for the US military across the globe. US military officials, through their Korean proxies, have completed the eviction of resistant rice farmers from their land around Camp Humphreys, South Korea, for its expansion (including a new 18-hole golf course); they are busily making back-room deals with officials in the Northern Mariana Islands to gain the use of the Pacific islands there for bombing and training purposes; and they are scrambling to express support for a regime in Kyrgyzstan that has been implicated in the murder of its political opponents but whose Manas Airbase, used to stage US military actions in Afghanistan since 2001, Obama and the Pentagon consider crucial for the expanded war there.

Sounds good, doesn't it?.....

But who's going to collect the taxes? Not the Greek government, They haven't collect half or so of the taxes from the last bailout, LOL!

We'll be hearing more in a few months of other European governments entering bankruptcy and needing a bailout. Ok don't think for a minute Greece wont be one of them!

The Coming Depression: Greece pulls back from the brink

By Kerin Hope and Ralph Atkins in Athens

Greece has pulled back from the brink of default and averted a broader eurozone crisis after backing sweeping austerity measures in a knife-edge parliamentary vote.

George Papandreou, Greece’s socialist prime minister, won support on Wednesday for €28bn ($40.4bn) of tax increases and spending cuts, with just one of his party’s 155 parliamentary deputies voting against the package demanded by the European Union and International Monetary Fund.

Making money, of course......

Walmart gives it's customers what they want. They hire people at a set wage that the new hires agree to accept. They promote people on merit. Any woman who wanted a promotion had to earn it. Unfortunately for too many people, they couldn't measure up so they sue. By suing and winning they get a few bucks and the lawyers get millions. You and I pay for it in higher prices, lower stock values, and smaller bonuses for the rest of employees.

Now we know the real crime!

P.s a woman I know who used worked for Walmart joined a class action suit and won. She received a check for 25$.

 No, really. 25$ !

What Is Walmart's Crime? - William L. Anderson - Mises Daily

The Supreme Court's recent Walmart decision has stirred a hornet's nest at the New York Times. Indeed, what else can one expect from that paper but the belief that it would be a very good thing for lawyers and the government to loot one of the country's most successful businesses?

Yet, as I read an attack op-ed written by Nelson Lichtenstein, a professor of history at the University of California, Santa Barbara, I have to ask myself just what crime the NYT believes Walmart committed in the first place?

The charge was discrimination against women, and when feminists, racialists, and environmentalists make any charge against an American business, the NYT never fails to take their side in knee-jerk fashion. In fact, as the newspaper's editorial laments, the alleged actual damages to individuals were pretty small (maybe about $1,000), but claiming that all women who worked (or had worked) at Walmart after a certain year were victims of discrimination turned this whole thing into a multi-billion-dollar payout.

(Not surprisingly, the NYT's favorite class of lawyers, the plaintiffs' bar, would have had a small group of individuals receive hundreds of millions of dollars apiece while the women they represented wouldn't have got much at all. This is the NYT's version of "justice.")

And Blago proves it.....

Nothing changes in human nature. Power and corruption go hand in hand with big money, fast women and fame.

Add government muscle and look out!

I'm just surprised he was prosecuted. I guess embarrassing the Oba mama ain't cool!


'Government Is Just Another Criminal Gang' « LewRockwell.com Blog

Posted by Thomas DiLorenzo on June 27, 2011 07:23 PM

The Illinois Democratic Party is doing its best to prove this Rothbardian statement correct. The last two governors of Illinois are now convicted felons who are in prison. The Chicago Democratic Party political machine has long been regarded as the most corrupt political organization in America. They consider ACORN to be their "moral compass." Former Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, Danny Rostenkowski of Chicago, spent years in prison for theft, among other crimes. And of course all of these exact same people — Illinois Democrats — are now totally in control of the executive branch of the federal government. The worst DO rise to the top in government, as F.A. Hayek wrote in is classic book, The Road to Serfdom. Government is essentially organized theft, and the most proficient thieves, frauds, and liars naturally rise to the top. It's what an old friend called the "septic tank theory of government": The big chunks float to the top.
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Depend on the government leaders.....

There will be no cuts!

We will see only a slowing in the borrowing as it will prevent  the economy from disappearing. Soon as the Chinese come back into the market and buy us out of this political mess, and they will,  you have to wonder what it will cost us.

 Probably our empire. But not until the next big bust cleans out all the scum in Washington, right?

We have to remember that our government has been running deficits for 60-70 years and can do so for much longer because all world's economies depend on us to buy more of their shit then they buy of ours.

Besides, deficits are a political problem!

 Somebody has to lose and it ain't going to be pretty. And after the next bust, there will be more people bitching about deficits but still unable or refusing to vote for solving these deficits!

P.s we will always have deficits because that's how politicians can appease their constituencies and stay in power. (referred to as compromise and deal making in Washington.) Don't worry, our grandchildren will be bitching about deficits long after we are gone!

Gonzalo Lira: “Dream A Little Dream”: How Long Would It Take To Pay Off The U.S. Federal Government Debt?

How much would they have to cut, in order to pay off the national debt? And how long would it take, to retire that national debt in its entirety?

Well, in order to figure this out, first they’d have to get honest about exactly how much is the U.S. Federal government’s debt. (Honesty is a perverse side-effect of the Responsibility Bug and the Austerity Virus. Scientists are working feverishly to try to stop this honesty stuff.)

Total outstanding Treasury debt is $9.7 trillion—but that’s not the entire Federal government debt. To those $9.7 trillion, you have to add another $4.6 trillion, which corresponds to “intragovernmental holdings”—basically IOU’s or markers the Federal government has put in the famed “Social Security lockbox”.

Thus the total Federal government debt: $14.35 trillion.

That’s the number the Congress and President of our dreams has to close: $14.35 trillion. Or to be more precise: $14,344,491,791,132.71.

The current deficit is $1.65 trillion per year—but that bald number doesn’t help up much.

A better factoid would be knowing, How much revenue does the U.S. Federal government bring in per year, via taxes, fees and so on?

That would be $2.173 trillion, according to the OMB.

So let’s imagine that the Capitol Hill and the White House of our dreams agree to immediately cut all deficit-expenditures—that is, cut $1.65 trillion right off the top—and then they also agree to pay down the national debt on an “accelerated” schedule: Let’s say they set aside a third of all Federal revenue to pay down the Federal government debt. In other words, for every $3 of revenue the Federal government brings in, $2 will be for government services and operations, and another $1 will be for paying down the debt.

A third of $2.173 trillion is $724 billion.

So they start paying off the Federal government debt at this pace: $724 billion a year—a TARP per year. The Federal government “makes do” with just the two-thirds of its revenue, $1.45 trillion.

O.K.....We didn't need the jobs anyways.....

You can't make this shit up! And people wondered why I voted for pat Buchanan back in the '80's. You can't send your jobs overseas and expect to have a healthy economy.

This called 'hollowing out" and some of us told you so. By the way, how much money went into "campaign contributions" for this little plan, hmm?

 We are so fucked!

Bridge Comes to San Francisco, With Made-in-China Label - NYTimes.com

At a sprawling manufacturing complex here, hundreds of Chinese laborers are now completing work on the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge.

Next month, the last four of more than two dozen giant steel modules — each with a roadbed segment about half the size of a football field — will be loaded onto a huge ship and transported 6,500 miles to Oakland. There, they will be assembled to fit into the eastern span of the new Bay Bridge.

The project is part of China’s continual move up the global economic value chain — from cheap toys to Apple iPads to commercial jetliners — as it aims to become the world’s civil engineer.

Manipulating elections is the norm.....

Nothing new in voter registration as dead people have voted every where there's elections. Of course, now days all you have to do is control the electronic programming and give one candidate the "benefit if doubt."

Soros and liberal groups seeking top election posts in battleground states - Washington Times

A small tax-exempt political group with ties to wealthy liberals like billionaire financier George Soros has quietly helped elect 11 reform-minded progressive Democrats as secretaries of state to oversee the election process in battleground states and keep Republican “political operatives from deciding who can vote and how those votes are counted.”

Known as the Secretary of State Project (SOSP), the organization was formed by liberal activists in 2006 to put Democrats in charge of state election offices, where key decisions often are made in close races on which ballots are counted and which are not.

The group’s website said it wants to stop Republicans from “manipulating” election results.

“Any serious commitment to wresting control of the country from the Republican Party must include removing their political operatives from deciding who can vote and whose votes will count,” the group said on its website, accusing some Republican secretaries of state of making “partisan decisions.”

SOSP has sought donations by describing the contributions as a “modest political investment” to elect “clean candidates” to the secretary of state posts.

Named after Section 527 of the Internal Revenue Code, so-called 527 political groups — such as SOSP — have no upper limit on contributions and no restrictions on who may contribute in seeking to influence the selection, nomination, election, appointment or defeat of candidates to federal, state or local public office. They generally are not regulated by the Federal Election Commission (FEC), creating a soft-money loophole

What an exercise in futility!.....

These clowns in Congress aren't serious. If you authorise the funds you are agreeing to the preposition that Oba mama can make war any time any place he wants.

Good thing he's not Bush, though! LOL.

House rebukes Obama on Libya, but lets funding continue - Washington Times

The House defeated two competing measures Friday that would have given President Obama differing levels of authority to continue the war in Libya, signaling a majority want to limit the president but that there is no consensus yet on how to do it.

Taken together, nearly 300 lawmakers voted against fully backing Mr. Obama — a devastating rejection of the president at a time when he has deployed troops overseas.

Yet those lawmakers were split between authorizing a limited support mission and wanting no involvement whatsoever, that division meant the House was unable to agree — essentially leaving Mr. Obama with a free hand to continue to fight the war as he wants.

“Congress today voted overwhelmingly against authorizing the war,” said Rep. Dennis J. Kucinich, an Ohio Democrat who has led anti-war forces in the House.

More lies......

We aint leaving. Just bringing troop levels back to 2009. Remember there's no money or votes in making peace!

Oh yea, Oba mama promised to bring troops home as soon as he was elected, remember?

Or was that re-elected?

Don’t Believe The Hype: Obama’s Af-Pak Troop Withdrawal Is A Propaganda Stunt | AmpedStatus

It is a positive development that the Obama Administration is withdrawing some troops from Afghanistan. However, Obama’s announcement of troop reductions is primarily a propaganda stunt. It is another perfect example of how the Obama Administration and the mainstream media manipulates public opinion and deceives the American public.

Headlines throughout the media are declaring: “Obama Announces Troop Withdrawal from Afghanistan” and “Obama to announce return of 30,000 troops from Afghanistan by end of next year.” All of this is designed to give you the impression that Obama is going to end the war, and give his re-election campaign a boast as well. As CBS News reported:

“President Obama’s ‘surge’ of 30,000 troops to Afghanistan announced in late 2009 was meant to be temporary, and Wednesday night the president is expected to announce that they will return home by around the time voters head to the polls to determine whether he gets another term.

These nuts insist on helping Russia.....

Russia jails these morons and pays no attention to anyone getting in the way of their oil supplies. After all, oil is life in the modern economy. Even peacenik Obama is murdering anyone who fucks with our oil.

And it's all our oil!

Why else are we still, after 9+ years, killing anything that moves in Afghanistan?

Environmentalists push to keep U.S., others from oil drilling in Arctic - Washington Times

DUBLIN — Environmentalists are toiling to stop a modern-day gold rush at the top of the world, as the U.S. and four other countries scramble to stake claims to potentially vast oil riches under the frozen waters of the Arctic Ocean.

Environmental activists such as Greenpeace are opposed to any resource extraction in the region.

“Greenpeace has been protesting on all Arctic ice drillings since 2000,” said Truls Gulowsen, program director of Greenpeace Nordic. “We believe it’s high time to put some bars on the industry’s push into the area. It’s too vulnerable, and there is no way to clean an oil spill out of ice.”

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) estimates that the Arctic region contains 90 billion barrels of oil, representing about 13 percent of the undiscovered petroleum in the world. The region could yield about $8.3 trillion in oil revenue at today’s prices.

Some oil experts say the oil fields off the Arctic coasts of the United States, Canada, Norway, Russia and Greenland, which is part of Denmark, could be more than double the USGS estimate.

Solving the debt crisis is easy for the Libs.....

Just take more from the guys who earn it and spend it on their favourite projects saving the world from greedy citizens. After all, that way we all belong to the state and we keep the liberals in charge!

Zakaria: What Greece teaches the U.S. – Global Public Square - CNN.com Blogs

The situation in Greece highlights for me how different America’s economic crisis is from Europe’s economic crisis.

America’s economic crisis is one that is actually economically soluble but politically very difficult to solve.

If we were to repeal the Bush tax cuts, we'd get $4 trillion of revenue over the next 10 years. If we were to enact Simpson-Bowles, we’d get $1.5 trillion by closing various tax loopholes. With a few simple economic decisions, we can solve America’s budgetary problem.

Now, of course, you have long-term healthcare costs to deal with. That’s a huge problem and I don’t pretend it isn't. But in every other respect you can bring down America’s budget deficit to what would be among the lowest levels of any Western country.

Greece faces a much more fundamental problem. There isn't an easy economic solution.

Greece is simply not going to be able to pay back the loans that it owes. If you do the math, it is inconceivable.

That is what people like Alan Greenspan are pointing out. There’s simply no reasonable set of projections that will get you to a place where Greece is going to be able to pay back its loans.

Poor lawyers....

No easy money for them from Walmart. As a stockholder I'm glad. The last class action suit I know of that the company paid the female associates got 25$. The Lawyers made a million or so.

Not exactly a thrill for anyone who works for a living. But the system isn't designed for them is it?

Justices nix Wal-Mart class-action bid - Washington Times

In a landmark decision hailed by major business groups, the Supreme Court quashed what would have been the largest class-action employment lawsuit in U.S. history, affecting potentially 1.6 million female employees of giant retailer Wal-Mart.

In the most closely watched business case of the high court’s term, business interests said the decision will provide a brake on catchall class-action suits that target some of the nation’s biggest employers.

“Defendants should have the opportunity to present individualized evidence to show they complied with the law,” said Robin Conrad, executive vice president of National Chamber Litigation Center, an arm of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. “Too often the class-action device is twisted and abused to force businesses to choose between settling meritless lawsuits or potentially facing financial ruin.”

The court unanimously reversed a 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling that the Wal-Mart case could go ahead as a collective class action, and by a 5-4 margin also held that there were too many female plaintiffs in too many different jobs to justify a class-action lawsuit.

Vacation......

See you in a week or so.

Plan on instability....

The system is sick. As long as the Fed can pour money into the banks and they in turn buy the Federal bonds we will muddle through. But as the banks concentrate on making a free 3% return trading in  government bonds then the system is not getting new money for loans in the quantity it needs to expand. This is the futility of  quantitative easing and it has a  very limited  effect.

If the banks are only borrowing and investing in these bonds It remains to be seen if this can continue much longer without massive changes in the system.

Let's never forget that we can't drill our own oil thanks to the fanatics controlling the Democrats. And we shipped our middle class jobs overseas, thanks to the Republicans and the boy child Clinton, so there is very little wealth creation potential in selling Chinese trinkets and Jap cars to broke dicks without  good paying jobs or credit.

But the main point is the ruling class doesn't have a clue how to fix it!

Too involved in sex scandals and name calling which diverts our attention from the mess they got us into. But of course, you'll vote for them so the bad guys don't get re-elected and make any changes, right?

Death By Debt - Blogs at Chris Martenson

One of the conclusions that I try to coax, lead, and/or nudge people towards is acceptance of the fact that the economy can't be fixed. By this I mean that the old regime of general economic stability and rising standards of living fueled by excessive credit are a thing of the past. At least they are for the debt-encrusted developed nations over the short haul -- and, over the long haul, across the entire soon-to-be energy-starved globe.



The sooner we can accept that idea and make other plans the better. To paraphrase a famous saying, Anything that can't be fixed, won't.

The basis for this view stems from understanding that debt-based money systems operate best when they can grow exponentially forever. Of course, nothing can, which means that even without natural limits, such systems are prone to increasingly chaotic behavior, until the money that undergirds them collapses into utter worthlessness, allowing the cycle to begin anew.

All economic depressions share the same root cause. Too much credit that does not lead to enhanced future cash flows is extended. In other words, this means lending without regard for the ability of the loan to repay both the principal and interest from enhanced production; money is loaned for consumption, and poor investment decisions are made. Eventually gravity takes over, debts are defaulted upon, no more borrowers can be found, and the system is rather painfully scrubbed clean. It's a very normal and usual process.

When we bring in natural limits, however, (such as is the case for petroleum right now), what emerges is a forcing function that pushes a debt-based, exponential money system over the brink all that much faster and harder.

Need more evidence of the rot.....

Here's a Republican joining a company that has supported the Democrats for years. Of course, these guys are instrumental in the '08 meltdown.

Coincidence that they got away with it and were bailed out? Yea, right! If you were to check most of the gang in Congress owns stock and gets bribe money from the very gangsters who got us into this mess.

Gregg Goes to Wall Street, Fantasy Sports Tackle Lobbying and More in Capital Eye Opener: June 1 - OpenSecrets Blog | OpenSecrets

JUDD GREGG JOINS GOLDMAN SACHS: Former Sen. Judd Gregg (R-N.H.) is joining Wall Street giant Goldman Sachs, reports Politico's Chris Frates. The New Hampshire Republican, who retired in November after 18 years in the Senate, joins the prestigious -- and politically powerful -- firm as one of the firm's 17 international advisers.

The post is the second in which Gregg, a former member of the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee, will bring his extensive experience with the intersection between banking issues, politics and policy to the private sector. It was first announced last month that Gregg would be join InterContinentalExchange Inc, an American finance company that operates a commodity-based online marketplace, as a member of the board of directors.

The rot is endemic......

You can't expect these whores in Washington to regulate or protect us from the corporations and Unions if they own their stocks, take their money or use their labor to get elected.

That's what causes the Empire to collapse. Nothing stops these entities from bidding up the price and then changing the rules mid stream as the highest bidder gets their payback. Eventually everyone loses confidence and the system grinds to a halt.

Oil prices high? Gas price ridiculous at the local pump? Blame it on Quantitative Easing from the Fed pouring money into the banks and gangsters on Wall Street and flooding the Commodities Future markets.

P.s, all the big shots in Washington are in on the scam. Click on the jump and read the whole article:

Candidates Scramble for Donors, AT&T Loves on Lawmakers' Charities And More in Capital Eye Opener: June 2 - OpenSecrets Blog | OpenSecrets

AT&T GIVES TO CONGRESS' PET CHARITIES: AT&T is following its own advertising slogan -- "stay connected"-- and applying it to politics.

The telecom giant has been donating significant money to many charities supported by key congressmen as it waits for federal approval of its merger with T-mobile, Politico reported. If approved, AT&T would become the largest wireless provider in the country.

Many of the charities that have received money from AT&T are affiliated with congressmen who have connections with the Federal Communications Commission.

AT&T, which is listed by The Center for Responsive Politics as a "heavy hitter," is not new to giving to congressmen. During the 2010 election cycle, people and political action committees associated with AT&T contributed $3.7 million to campaigns, and the company itself spent about $15 million on federal lobbying efforts.

And as of 2009, at least 68 lawmakers own AT&T assets, according to the Center's research. Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.), a senior member of the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, which has jurisdiction over the Federal Communications Commission, owns AT&T assets valued between $1.3 million and $1.6 million. New data on federal lawmakers' personal finances will be available later this month.

More nonsensical health scares...

Sell fear (or sex) and you become important and necessary. After all, these people at the World Health Organisation have to stay relevent to keep those cushy checks coming in from me and you.

The Daily Bell - Anthony Wile: Bacteria Hysteria Fanned by WHO Propaganda Machine

Anthony Wile: Bacteria Hysteria Fanned by WHO Propaganda Machine
Saturday, June 04, 2011 – by Russia Today

Russia Today's Bill Dodd interviews Anthony Wile, the founder and chief editor of thedailybell.com, who believes the hysteria about the bacteria behind the food poisoning is artificially created by the mass media – which he calls "the WHO's propaganda machine."

"I do not believe we have enough information at this time to be able to determine whether or not this is going to be a real serious outbreak here that is going to cause serious human casualties. But certainly the mainstream media are having their normal run at trumpeting this to be another grand hysteric situation," he said.

And the main aim for them, he says, is to drive more people into believing that organizations like WHO are there to do something to solve the problem.

"I would not expect them to do anything more than continue trumpeting these headlines in a way which will cause more and more hysteria, because what they are going to do is [to] level society with more rules and more regulations," Wile added.

The garden June 2011 our 41 st wedding anniversary.....

More nonsensical health scares...

Sell fear (or sex) and you become important and necessary. After all, these people at the World Health Organisation have to stay relevent to keep those cushy checks coming in from me and you.

The Daily Bell - Anthony Wile: Bacteria Hysteria Fanned by WHO Propaganda Machine

Anthony Wile: Bacteria Hysteria Fanned by WHO Propaganda Machine
Saturday, June 04, 2011 – by Russia Today

Russia Today's Bill Dodd interviews Anthony Wile, the founder and chief editor of thedailybell.com, who believes the hysteria about the bacteria behind the food poisoning is artificially created by the mass media – which he calls "the WHO's propaganda machine."

"I do not believe we have enough information at this time to be able to determine whether or not this is going to be a real serious outbreak here that is going to cause serious human casualties. But certainly the mainstream media are having their normal run at trumpeting this to be another grand hysteric situation," he said.

And the main aim for them, he says, is to drive more people into believing that organizations like WHO are there to do something to solve the problem.

"I would not expect them to do anything more than continue trumpeting these headlines in a way which will cause more and more hysteria, because what they are going to do is [to] level society with more rules and more regulations," Wile added.

Back to square one with Bin Laden...

good thing the government doesn't lie to us or we would all become conspiracy nuts and start believing in UFOs or something! Next thing you know someone will doubt the Warren Commission   and swear up and down they were idiots cause everybody knows that miracle bullets are not impossible in Washington.

Of course, if Oba mama doesn't get re-elected then we all know that whitey will never vote for a liar twice! (I made that up! Look at Clinton.)

The Daily Bell - Why Can't I See Bin Laden's Dead Body?

I am baffled by this secrecy surrounding Bin Ladens' death. Someone needs to do more explaining than has been done thus far.

Why when American taxpayers have funded a massive manhunt and eventual assassination of Osama bin Laden are they forbidden to see Bin Laden's dead body? Why does president Obama's presumed personal discomfort about seeing Bin Laden's dead body determine whether American citizens may see it? What kind of law authorizes the White House to dictate to American citizens whether they may or may not view Bin Laden's dead body? And I am sure there are many other questions roughly along lines of the above ones that could be asked and for which answers are arguably due us.

Over the nearly ten years since 9/11 there have been all sorts of conspiracy theories circulating about just who ordered the vicious attacks on the Twin Towers and the completely unjustified murder of the airline passengers and World Trade Center workers. Some of the doubters of the official story are difficult to dismiss but arguably certain alternative accounts are far less credible than the official account.

How come this guy is still alive or running around free.....

Obviously he doesn't like our lovable black president. Must be a reason?

Couldn't be all those great successes the Pres has to his credit.

Let me list them:

Oh well, could it?

Ralph Nader: Impeach Obama for Libya, War Crimes

Just what part don't you understand?.....

An Empire just doesn't fall out of the sky. I believe Clinton showed the way when he broke the law by lying in court and kept his job. (all he had to do was pray to Jesus with Jesse Jackson and cry for forgiveness to the women's league of voters or something. No one knows what that was all about but it worked! )

After that criminal left office, the next President, Bush was untouchable as long as he played ball and went after our "enemies" who wanted to sneak on airplanes and run them into perfectly good buildings. so we would quit killing their friends and relatives for having the audacity to live on top of our oil.

Bush and his gang instituted the Patriot Act which means that if the government calls you a terrorist they can arrest and incarcerate you forever and confiscate all your shit! Not that robbing people's shit hasn't been done before, but the scope now is breath taking and it turns out, under the Oba mama's regime it is worse!

Next step is to confiscate your guns and steal your property to pay for it because every scumbag in Washington knows that our guns are to take them out if they get uppity.

But the big problem living in an Empire is the uncertainty involved. Do you expect to start a business if these guys can take it? Are you going to save a lot of money if the banks can hand it over to them because you wont vote correctly? And what happens if you don't rat out your nutty relatives who want to be left alone in the boondocks and play American?

Think you'll be safe? What if they steal your Medicare and SS checks? Think VA benefits are exempt? Or your home?

Read on you might learn something!

Re: Gun Control Through Democratic Executive Legislation? « LewRockwell.com Blog

Manuel, regarding Gun Control Through Democratic Executive Legislation?, I was recently browsing through the List of people pardoned by George W. Bush, as is my wont, and noticed this one: the pardon, on Jan. 1, 2009, of poor Charles Thompson Winters, who was sentenced way back in 1949. After 60 years in jail, Bush let him out. His offense? “Conspiracy to illegally export, and illegal exportation, of a military aircraft to a foreign country; 18 U.S.C. §§ 88 (1946 ed.) and 371, 22 U.S.C. § 452, and Presidential Proclamation 2776 (dated March 26, 1948).”

So the President has taken over the legislative function (making law, via Presidential Proclamation or Executive Order), judicial function (because of the “political question” doctrine or threats such as Court-packing or ignoring the Court (“John Marshall has made his decision; now let him enforce it!“) or even arresting judges), enforcing it (it is the executive branch), and undoing it at will (via pardon or inaction), like an Emperor. (He can also make the equivalent of treaties without getting the Senate’s approval, by using “Executive Agreements,” and this can, possibly, effectively amend the Constitution via the Supremacy Clause—because the Bricker Amendment failed.)

Pretty simple, really.....

They own us. Try living without these giant corporations. Food, clothing, transportation, news, entertainment, you name it they own or control you. They own the media and the government. You can't fart with out their permission.

And most people don't care as long as they have football and shopping.

Live with it!

oftwominds: Models of Community: Alternatives to Corporate America

As I have often observed, the majority of America's household income flows to a handful of corporate cartels protected by the Central State. Most of the mortgage payments flow to the "too big to fail" banks. Most of the telecom payments flow to the few companies in the telecom cartel. Most of the energy money flow to the energy cartel. Most of the food budget go to the Big Ag cartel and the retail cartel. Most of the money spent on "entertainment" flows to the corporate media cartel, and so on.


Most of the global media is owned by 5 or 6 corporations. Most of the radio stations in the U.S. are owned by two corporations. This tremendous concentration of ownership of the nation's assets gives these cartels immense political power, and so the Central State acts as "partner" to Corporate America, protecting the cartels from competition by insuring that regulations are used to stamp out or limit competitors. Corporate losses are shifted to the backs of the taxpayers, all in the name of the "common good." Profits are private but losses are public--a peculiar definition of "common good."


Corporate profits are now the bellwether, and the raison d'etre, of the entire U.S. economy. The central State and the Federal Reserve have a single domestic goal: boost the U.S. stock market, which they have made the proxy for the economy's "health." If corporate profits and the stock market are rising, then all is well. Or so we are constantly told by Fed and Treasury hacks, toadies and lackeys.


If The Pledge of Allegiance reflected reality, it should now read: I pledge allegiance to the profits of the Corporate States of America, and to the stock market for which it stands, one nation under the Federal Reserve, with taxation and serfdom for all.


As I noted yesterday, the Central Savior State "makes things happen" via centralized top-down authority, predatory taxation and the ultimate threat of coercion. Community "social capital" is not coercive, centralized or exploitive. Global corporations share many characteristics with central states; the "taxation with representation" offered by our government is a facsimile of representation, for the representatives are all "owned" by or partnered with financial Elites. The U.S. has in essence become a Corporate State.

And the beat goes on.....

Buy any politician you want as long as you pick the right candidate and you get goodies. Pretty simple. What's newsworthy here?

Want to end it?

Remove the corporate tax rate on income earned by private contributions and then tax heavily income from government subsidies. Going to happen? Sure as soon as we find Bin Ladin's body !

Federal Judge Reverses Ban on Direct Corporate Contributions - OpenSecrets Blog | OpenSecrets

A federal judge in Virginia declared on Thursday that the long-standing ban on corporations contributing directly to candidates running for federal office was unconstitutional.

U.S. District Judge James Cacheris based his ruling on the U.S. Supreme Court's Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission decision from January 2010, which made it legal for corporations to make unlimited independent expenditures to support or oppose federal candidates. The controversial 5-4 Supreme Court ruling in Citizens United left intact a ban on direct corporate contributions to federal candidates.

Cacheris' decision struck down sections of the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002, also known as the McCain-Feingold Act, named after its chief sponsors Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Russ Feingold (D-Wis.).

"That logic is inescapable here... if, in Citizens United's interpretation of Bellotti, corporations and human beings are entitled to equal political speech rights, then corporations must also be able to contribute within FECA’s limits," Cacheris states in his opinion for the case, U.S. v. Danielczyk.

The Federal Election Campaign Act (FECA) sets caps on how much money individuals can contribute to federal candidates -- amounts that increase every election cycle. The current contribution limit is $2,500 per election, with a primary election and a general election being viewed as two separate elections.

The defendants in the case before Cacheris -- William Danielczyk, 49, and Eugene Biagi, 76, who live in Oakton, Va.-- allegedly reimbursed $30,200 to eight contributors to Hillary Clinton's 2006 Senate campaign and reimbursed $156,400 to 35 contributors to her 2008 presidential campaign from their company's treasury, the Associated Press reported.

Until Thursday's ruling, the Citizens United case had not been applied to direct contributions by corporations. Earlier this month the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals sided with a federal judge in Minnesota who upheld that state's ban on direct campaign contributions.

Most republicans are of the same mind.....

None of the bastards can cut spending and get re-elected. Bitching about it does no good. Only not voting works. Just look at the great government we got by voting! But but but....Nice try but ignoring them will work better because in order to change these people have to go the way of the Dodo bird because too many people make their living sucking off a government check.

And the system will never end if we keep giving them permission to keep the charade of democracy going by voting for it.

And yes, the system must collapse for any real reform. The criminals must be run out of town or locked up. One can only hope!

In the meantime, there can be no cuts!

 Unless we give up our Social Security, VA., Medicare,welfare, educating the gangsters in the neighbourhood, killing brown people around the world so we don't have to drill our own oil(until it becomes 400 a barrel,I guess.) Giving billions to rich corporations and organisations, spending trillions on chasing goat fuckers around worthless deserts, etc. etc.Let alone taking away  millions of government employee paychecks and let's not forget, billions of handouts to the rich who own our government!

Blaming just the Dems or the Republican for taking care of their own constituencies is politics as usual and it has always been that way and always will be!

None the less, the rate of borrowing , unsustainable any ways, will be lowered and everyone  in Washington goes back to their constituencies and brags about their part in restoring fiscal responsibility and not changing a thing.

As usual, kicking the can down the road and getting rewarded for it by keeping their jobs and prestige. No click on the jump andread the following carefully and simply substitute the opposite party in this screed and you'll see what I mean:

HURT: Democrats addicted to spending our cash - Washington Times

Republicans want to destroy Medicare and persecute the elderly, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi says.

Yes, this is the same woman who for nearly a quarter-century has taken part in stealing from our Social Security account to pay for politicians’ favored welfare programs. The same woman who, as leader of the recalcitrant party for more than 12 years, could have single-handedly brought her people to the table to act like adults and solve these serious problems before they became the full-blown crisis they are now.

Of course, no one can forget the last time that Mrs. Pelosi led her people in a spaz-out worthy of a hormonal teenager.

That was when former President Bush offered a tiny little fix to Social Security. A small fraction of the Social Security taxes you pay would have been earmarked for you in an account that could not be pried open by Congress and pillaged to pay for methadone clinics, the National Endowment for the “Arts” or whatever other crazy schemes Democratic lawmakers can invent.

I think he needed this vacation....

Don't you? Oba mama's only had two or three this year. And look how great the recovery's going, right? And with the pygmies in the Republican race he looks pretty safe right now. Of course, he needs to suck up to the Jews a little more since joining the Hamas and Palistinians but what the Hell he never said he wasn't a Moslem sympathiser now did he! LOL

Obamas receive royal welcome to Britain - Washington Times

LONDON (AP) — President Obama immersed himself in the grandeur of Britain’s royal family Tuesday, as QueenElizabeth II welcomed him to Buckingham Palace for the first day of a state visit that kept the president largely out of sight for most of the British public.

There was an elaborate arrival ceremony on the steps of the palace’s West Terrace, complete with a 41-gun salute; a tour of the queen’s private gallery, where the monarch highlighted items she thought would hold personal significance to the president; and a short meeting with newlyweds Prince William and the Duchess of Cambridge, nee Kate Middleton.

But the pomp and pageantry happened largely behind the palace walls. Though pictures of Mr. Obama‘s visit blanketed British television, the president made no formal remarks Wednesday, except for a brief statement on the deadly tornadoes in the United States.

oh yea,....

Didn't I tell you to buy coffee? Over the last year and and a half!

McDonalds, where Patti and I get a cup every day, is having shortages every week. Have to wait for the truck! McDonalds with out coffee? Like Obama without a vacation!

But you ain't seen nothing yet! Buy food and save a small fortune, LOL.

Smucker Boosts Coffee Prices For Fourth Time In Past Year - WSJ.com

DOW JONES NEWSWIRES

J.M. Smucker Co. (SJM) increased the list price for most of its coffee products by an average 11%, its fourth rise in about a year.

The food company, which also makes jams, ...

We have more energy assets just let us get them!....

The world is awash in oil and natural gas. Our problem is that the oil producers want to keep the supply short to keep their prices up. That's why they give so much money to the world's politicians and "Green" organisations.

That's pretty much why we used to hear so much about the "Global Warming " bullshit. Fear and uncertainty about drilling, burning and nuclear is created by these guys to prop up their balance sheets.

I still remember Dupont scaring the Be-Jesus out of the world with the "Ozone hole" going to give the Penguins a sunburn if we didn't stop using Freon, a heavier than air gas, floating up and chemically destroying the Ozone.

Why would Dupont pay for this scaremongering? Their patent expired on Freon and they had a new one to replace it with!

Shale motherlode brings world of change - Washington Times

WASHINGTON, Pa. — Earlier this year, Phillip Whalen packed his bags, left his home in Louisiana and set up shop in western Pennsylvania.

The 15-year oil and gas industry veteran said work has dried up around the Gulf of Mexico, in part because of the fallout from the BP PLC oil spill last year. In what has become a kind of reverse national oil rush, Mr. Whalen said, his motivation for heading north to this small community 20 miles south of Pittsburgh was simple.

“I’m doing what I have to do to keep a roof over the head and pay the bills,” the grizzled family man said early one morning. He was dressed in a blue jumpsuit and was smoking a last cigarette outside his hotel before heading off to work.

His company, T3 Energy Services, sent him to Washington, the economic epicenter for exploiting what many think is the nation’s path away from dangerous dependence on foreign oil.
Technicians monitor the status of a fracking drill as it descends thousands of feet below the earth's surface. Opponents say fracking contaminates the water supply with chemicals used in the process. (Andrew S. Geraci/The Washington Times)Technicians monitor the status of a fracking drill as it descends thousands of feet below the earth’s surface. Opponents say fracking contaminates the water supply with chemicals used in the process. (Andrew S. Geraci/The Washington Times)

Big energy companies have set up shop here to tap the Marcellus Shale, a massive chunk of marine sedimentary rock stretching from the Finger Lakes region of New York as far south as Kentucky and Tennessee, holding within its subterranean grip vast deposits of natural gas.

Obama throws Israel under the bus.....

Don't worry the Jews will still give him their money. After all, he's the only Democrat who can veto the evil Republicans cutting handouts.

Speaking of which, I'm told now that 59% of American get a check from the Feds. Still waiting for budget cuts?

 Yea, right!

Obama's speech doesn't sway some key donors - Washington Times

President Obama failed to ease mounting worries of key Jewish donors Sunday at a speech before the annual policy conference for the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC).

Steve Rosen, a former director of foreign policy for AIPAC, said, “the president’s decision to confront Israel’s prime minister in this visit is going to deepen the feeling that Obama will continue to put the U.S.-Israeli relationship in peril. Pro-Israel donors who have been on hold until now will accelerate the search for an alternative to Obama.”

Two such donors who asked not to be named said the president’s speech failed to ease concerns about the lack of trust between the governments of Israel and the United States.

“The speech presented a wonderful opportunity to correct attitudes the White House and supporters of the president believe are misperceptions,” another Jewish community leader told The Washington Times.

“The ball came right over the home plate. He swung hard, but it lined out foul,” said the donor, a prominent Jewish community leader.

The rot we know as Obama's Administration.....

Ho hum, nothing new to see here, move along! Republican or Democrat crime pays!

After approving NBC buyout, FCC Commish becomes Comcast lobbyist

Meredith Attwell Baker, one of the two Republican Commissioners at the Federal Communications Commission, plans to step down—and right into a top lobbying job at Comcast-NBC.

The news, reported this afternoon by the Wall Street Journal, The Hill, and Politico, comes after the hugely controversial merger of Comcast and NBC earlier this year. At the time, Baker objected to FCC attempts to impose conditions on the deal and argued that the "complex and significant transaction" could "bring exciting benefits to consumers that outweigh potential harms."

Four months after approving the massive transaction, Attwell Baker will take a top DC lobbying job for the new Comcast-NBC entity, according to reports.

The response of groups like Free Press was expected in its anger, but not without merit. "No wonder the public is so nauseated by business as usual in Washington—where the complete capture of government by industry barely raises any eyebrows," said Free Press' Craig Aaron. "The continuously revolving door at the FCC continues to erode any prospects for good public policy. We hope—but won't hold our breath—that her replacement will be someone who is not just greasing the way for their next industry job."

Such cash-ins, of course, are a bipartisan affair in Washington.

Attwell Baker this afternoon released a statement once the news broke, explaining that she would leave on June 3 and that she was "privileged to have had the opportunity to serve the country at a time of critical transformation in the telecommunications industry. The continued deployment of our broadband infrastructures will meaningfully impact the lives of all Americans. I am happy to have played a small part in this sucess.

Can you spell whore master?.....

Try getting past the Christian  in the south and you'll see what I mean. This guy, Gingrich, fucked around on his wife while she was dying of cancer in the hospital. How many votes do you see for this scumbag? Then he calls for a form of national health care and more Federal Spending.

Oh yea, I hear he's now a Catholic. The kiss of death in the south. LOL

Newt Gingrich: Health Care Socialist « LewRockwell.com Blog

Posted by Laurence Vance on May 16, 2011 12:56 PM

Gingrich made the case on Meet the Press yesterday, not for a free market in medical care and medical insurance, but for Gingrichcare. Interesting that back in 1993 Gingrich said he favored the federal government requiring individuals to buy health insurance and then subsidizing individuals’ purchase of health insurance on a “sliding scale” determined by their income. Now he supports requiring all individuals to buy health insurance, post a bond to pay for health care, or in some way indicate that they are going to be accountable.

Is any of this a surprise? I think Gingrich for president will turn out to be a total flop like Giuliani for president.

Can you spell whore master?.....

Try getting past the Christian fanatics in the south and see what I mean. This guy, Gingrich, fucked around on his wife while she was dying of cancer in the hospital. How many votes do you see for this scumbag? Then he calls for a form of national health care and more Federal Spending.

Oh yea, I hear he's now a Catholic. The kiss of death in the south. LOL

Newt Gingrich: Health Care Socialist « LewRockwell.com Blog

Posted by Laurence Vance on May 16, 2011 12:56 PM

Gingrich made the case on Meet the Press yesterday, not for a free market in medical care and medical insurance, but for Gingrichcare. Interesting that back in 1993 Gingrich said he favored the federal government requiring individuals to buy health insurance and then subsidizing individuals’ purchase of health insurance on a “sliding scale” determined by their income. Now he supports requiring all individuals to buy health insurance, post a bond to pay for health care, or in some way indicate that they are going to be accountable.

Is any of this a surprise? I think Gingrich for president will turn out to be a total flop like Giuliani for president.

Stupid is?.....

Just think he used to be important. Now he's a joke. Ho hum.

Giuliani Is Evil and Stupid « LewRockwell.com Blog

Giuliani Is Evil and Stupid
Posted by Laurence Vance on May 16, 2011 01:23 PM

And no, I am not exaggerating. In a recent interview, Rudy says he once told President Bush that he wanted to be the one to execute bin Laden. He went on to equate bin Laden with Hitler and Stalin. “Our intelligence ability is terrific,” says America’s mayor. Really? Our great intelligence agencies failed to prevent 9/11 and then took ten years to find bin Laden. And this guy ran for president?

A look at spring in the Rockies.....

There will be no "cuts!"......

A slowing in the borrowing starting some years in the future is all. Watch the moaning and hair pulling as the frauds in office fuck us over. No politician can afford to take one dime a way from anyone and stay in office.

So we kick the can down the road. prepare yourself for the next bust. 5 years, or a couple more, then bam!!!

By the way, how's the recovery working for you? Are you better off now than 4 years ago? And which politician will make it all better? Think Oba mama can be beat by the flyweights in the Republican party?

Yea, right! They need a miracle because this guy can spend damn near a billion to get his gang re-elected.

 And it's all a matter of money now days!

oftwominds: Our Peculiar State of Suspended Animation

The U.S. is in a peculiar state of suspended animation: nothing is actually moving, we're all frozen in an extended moment of disbelief, denial and crisis, waiting for something to finally break loose.


We know the present isn't sustainable, but we go through the motions of phony "reforms" and "trimming the deficit" as if another 1,000 pages of "reforms" will fix what's broken in the economy or that trimming $50 billion from $1.7 trillion annual deficits will actually matter.


The wheels visibly fell off the bubble-debt-fraud economy four years ago in mid-2007. It's worth recalling that the U.S. won a global war (World War II) in less than four years, yet now we are pleased to borrow and and squander an extra $1 trillion a year just to keep our fragile state of suspended animation from being disrupted by unpleaseant reality.


In a nutshell, here's the reality: the entire "prosperity" of the past decade was a false prosperity, constructed entirely of money borrowed by the private sector based on the rising value of McMansions and strip-malls that made no sense except as speculations based on the Federal Reserve's credit-bubble policies and Wall Street's systemic financialization of that debt based on fraud and misrepresentation of risk.


The private sector borrowed and spent an extra $1 trillion a year in the "boom years" of the bubble decade. This debt-based stimulus vanished with the implosion of Wall Street's fraud machine (CDOs, mortgage-backed securities, etc.) and the collapse of bubble-era housing valuations.


As overleveraged households and businesses found they could no longer borrow $1 trillion extra a year to spend, then the Federal government stepped in and borrowed and spent $1 trillion a year to replace the private borrowing which had dried up.


This $1 trillion is incredibly obvious. Federal spending rose by exactly $1 trillion from 2007 to 2010, while revenues fell by $400 billion:


Spending:
2007 $2.72 trillion
2010 $3.72 trillion