Loyalty without truth
is a trail to tyranny.
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a middle-aged George Washington
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Saturday, 8 April 2006 at 13h 17m 25s | Reality Check that Fantasy world | This is from my friend Chris:
Everything you think you own is borrowed from foreign countries, and they will
eventually come to collect, and when they do, your fancy job, fancy car, and
whatever else you hold dear will dissappear. cause you see, since the reagan
years, we have what is called a trade debt, a national debt, and personal debt.
when china and the other foreign countries we owe decide they will no longer
fund our debt, guess what, they will just come over and take what is rightfully
theirs. so prepare to become indentured servants and for your children to
become slaves cause that's what the reagan and bush administrations have
afforded you, and they've played you like a fiddle in the process. so enjoy
your "fantasy baseball" and your "fantasy world" in general cause when you get
old and your children are broke and begging in the streets, you will be too old
and senile to even know what's happening to you when they decide to pull the
plug on your ass to free up what little cash they can ge their hands on.
reality check yourselves.
| Sunday, 26 March 2006 at 20h 15m 32s | Student Loans | The student loan program is a subsidy to the banking industry.
what?
Yep,
it's true.
Let me explain.
You see, every student loan made is a "guaranteed student loan." That means
the government pays for the loan, in case you didn't know. The financial
institution arranges the loan, than sells the loan to the government, and
collects the receipts.
That essentially means that instead of just giving the money directly to the
students, the government makes the students fill out paperwork to get an 8 per
cent loan from a private bank. The private bank takes no risk because the
government is buying the loans. The profits from the loan go to the private
bank however.
So, you spend X dollars, get an X dollar refund, and then -- despite spending a
net zero dollars -- receive monthly checks from students repaying their student
loans.
Those students spend 10 to 15 years repaying their loans, enriching the banking
firms. Had the students been given the money outright, they would have had
more money to spend during those 10 to 15 years. Instead, this potential cash
gets alloted to the banking industry.
Investment in student education is important in any society, but to make that
investment in a way which enhances private interests while putting young people
in debt servitude isn't the most efficient method of investment in education.
It doesn't make sense to have wealth or lack thereof become the determinant of
a quality education. Rather then subsidizing the banking industry, investment
in the education of youth should be without strings attached.
The problem in the United States has been that education's historical
development was due to a combination of private and public efforts. The
importance of education is so paramount that the private sector will be able to
accrue a niche in the absence of a state educational system. The problem when
the private sector becomes the provider, however, is that education becomes
segregated
by wealth, thus fostering the neverending massive efforts to create forms of
public education during the last 150 years.
| Friday, 24 March 2006 at 2h 49m 58s | F**k**g idiots who think they have a clue | You know it amazes me how the self-appointed (self) right (eous) declares me
some sort of "liberal " or "Democratic" opposition, without knowing anything
about me, merely making those assumptions because they receive legitimate
intelligent criticism.
Uh, dumb-asses, Republican Teddy Roosevelt bolted his party because he thought
it was corrupted. Abraham Lincoln was deeply concerned about the infiltration
of financial shysters into the Republican party during the Civil War -- in fact
one of the suspected reasons for his assassination is that he intended to pull
the reigns in upon large corporatization of finance that he felt would
eventually take away the freedom of small businesses. And he would know, he
was railroad lawyer for nearly 20 years before he became a politician in the
1850's.
Dwight Eisenhower warned the nation of about the dangers of collusion between
defense contractors, the military, and large financial interests in his
fairwell speech in 1961. The current list of Republicans disgusted by the Bush
gangsters is growing.
Oh but I suppose that when you brain is constantly spoonfed by liars and
misinformation you wouldn't realize truth if it surrounded you like a plastic
bag.
"See, in my line of work you got to keep repeating things over and over and
over again for the truth to sink in, to kind of catapult the propaganda. "
-- George W. Bush, speaking off the cuff to a fake town meeting in 2005.
[SOURCE]
TRANSLATION: You see, we have to lie, because if we ever told the people the
truth of our real intentions, they would send us all to maximum security
prisons for a hundred years.
| Wednesday, 22 March 2006 at 2h 44m 19s | Right? Left? Ahkkk.... | The difference between the left and right is not what the self-proclaimed right
thinks.
The difference is that there is no left or right. Those words are used and
tossed about like they have meaning in and of themselves, but they are just
microscopic non-entities that negate anything meaningful that might come out of
anyone's mouth.
There are people who march in the parades sponsored by the governing elites,
who imbibe senselessly the propaganda monitored and paid for by those who mind
the interests of those who own the economic hierarchy. Such people are
innocently duped for various reasons, but nevertheless they still mouth the
words and images that find their way into their rationales, unable to combat
the disingenuious lies and fables that gather on their sense of pride.
Others see the gathering storm clouds on the economic horizon, loathing the
pitiful small-minded power-trips, pompous assertions, and foolish decisions
made by governing elites. These people react in many different ways, but
mostly with the idea of doing the right thing, and making the best decisions.
Now these ideas are common to almost everyone regardless of stripes, however
when you see through lies and understand the actual truth in the history of
events, you can be accused of some quite ridiculous meaningless things.
And damn, when you lie your way into making a huge mistake, and then blame your
critics for all the wrath which follows after the critics tried to warn you of
the wrath that did follow ... what can you say. You tried to crawl across the
interstate highway, and when you got run over by a truck, don't sit in the
hospital and blame those nay-sayers who told you long before that your gonna
get hit by a truck, especially when building a damn bridge across the highway
would have been a better idea. But stupid pride and vainglorious mentalities
will insist upon their perfumed stupidity while proclaiming superior
intellectual credentials -- even if they have to forge those credentials.
We are wasting time pounding on these things called left and right. As
corporate forms of aristocratic wealth gradually carve out the land, sending
jobs to countries that have virtual slave-labor, bankrupting the middle class,
and destroying this government "of, by, and for the people" -- there will only
be three types people soon enough : the super-rich, their high-paid servants,
and the poor.
| Saturday, 11 February 2006 at 21h 39m 35s | The insurance scam | Okay here's the reason relying on "personal savings accounts" for anything is
bad social policy.
A person who saves $100 a month for 20 years at 3% annual interest will have
only $32,830 if no withdrawals occur. If the average rate of inflation for 20
years is 2% (big low end assumption, the value of that $32,830 in today's terms
would be only $21,917.
Mind you this is meant to cover the medical expenses or retirement fund of the
elderly. The average catastrophic hospital visit is more than $30,000. Also, a
person who withdrew $800 a month from the built-up $32,830 account, could do so
for only 3.61 years before the account is exhausted.
Now a person who saves $200 a month over the same 20 year period, will have
$65,000. Still expecting citizens to have enough left over at the end of the
month to save is rather foolish expectation of the social system. The more
efficient system is to nationalize retirement and health care, and have every
single citizen pay a small amount into the system. The burdens of financing
retirement and health care should not be placed on the individual or the
company, because the costs are too unmanageable and the inevitable end result
is larger expenses than would be the case if the system was nationalized.
This idea is not "communistic." The financing comes from everyone, but no
goverment is owning the means of production. The government merely pays the
bills from the fund, and audits the costs. It is the same idea as a credit
union. If all citizens were in the same system, the payment and costs of these
two essential elements of society -- old age and health care -- would be more
efficiently managed and beneficial for businesses and individuals.
It's really that simple. The arguments to the contrary are either financed by
the insurance monolith, or they indicate an inflexibility when it comes to the
dualism between private and public economics. Private economics will not
always have the public interest in mind when the desire is to make a buck. The
assumption that it is in the best interest of private economics to provide
quality service has been shown to be a historically inadequate expectation.
Sometimes the people, in the form of public economics, have to take part in
their own best interest, because the private interests won't be able to see
beyond a short-term fixation with profit. Sometimes decisions have to be made
for society as a whole.
| Friday, 10 February 2006 at 1h 53m 41s | How the corruption of the law occurs | This is from the Tennessean [SOURCE]
WASHINGTON — Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist and House Speaker Dennis Hastert
engineered a backroom legislative maneuver to protect pharmaceutical companies
from lawsuits, say witnesses to the pre-Christmas power play.
The language was tucked into a Defense Department appropriations bill at the
last minute without the approval of members of a House-Senate conference
committee, say several witnesses, including a top Republican staff member
...
Trial lawyers and other groups condemn the law, saying it could make it nearly
impossible for people harmed by a vaccine to force the drug maker to pay for
their injuries
...
At issue is what happened Dec. 18 as Congress scrambled to finish its business
and head home for the Christmas holiday.
That day, a conference committee made up of 38 senators and House members met
several times to work out differences on the 2006 Defense Department
appropriations bill.
Rep. David Obey, D-Wis., the ranking minority House member on the conference
committee, said he asked Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, the conference chairman,
whether the vaccine liability language was in the massive bill or would be
placed in it.
Obey and four others at the meeting said Stevens told him no. Committee members
signed off on the bill and the conference broke up.
...
Keith Kennedy, who works for Sen. Thad Cochran, R-Miss., as staff director
for the Senate Appropriations Committee, said at a seminar for reporters last
month that the language was inserted by Frist and Hastert, R-Ill., after the
conference committee ended its work.
"There should be no dispute. That was an absolute travesty," Kennedy said at a
videotaped Washington, D.C., forum sponsored by the Center on Congress at
Indiana University.
"It was added after the conference had concluded. It was added at the specific
direction of the speaker of the House and the majority leader of the Senate.
The conferees did not vote on it. It's a true travesty of the process."
After the conference committee broke up, a meeting was called in Hastert's
office, Kennedy said. Also at the meeting, according to a congressional
staffer, were Frist, Stevens and House Majority Whip Roy Blunt, R-Mo.
"They (committee staff members) were given the language and then it was put in
the document," Kennedy said.
About 10 or 10:30 p.m., Democratic staff members were handed the language and
told it was now in the bill, Obey said.
He took to the House floor in a rage. He called Frist and Hastert "a couple of
musclemen in Congress who think they have a right to tell everybody else that
they have to do their bidding."
Rep. Dan Burton, R-Ind., also was critical of inserting the vaccine language
after the conference committee had adjourned.
"It sucks," he told Congress Daily that night.
Rep. Jim Moran, D-Va., another member of the conference committee, was upset,
too, a staff member said, because he didn't have enough time to read the
language. The final bill was filed in the House at 11:54 p.m. and passed 308-
102 at 5:02 the next morning.
This is what these Rethuglican's do. They manipulate their power over the
legislative process to pull every dirty trick imaginable in order to placate
the corporations that finance their campaigns.
Just look at these corrupt faces of internal guilt:
Bill Frist
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Dennis Hastert
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| Thursday, 9 February 2006 at 2h 12m 38s | Mr Crowley | Funny how this song means more to me now, than it did when I heard it first in
1982 as an 8th grader at Barbre Middle School in Kenner, Louisiana.
Mr. Crowley, what went on in your head
(Oh) Mr. Crowley, did you talk to the dead
Your lifestyle to me seemed so tragic
With the thrill of it all
You fooled all the people with magic
(Yea)You waited on Satan's call
Mr. Charming, did you think you were pure
Mr. Alarming, in nocturnal rapport
Uncovering things that were sacred, manifest on this earth
(Ah)Conceived in the eye of a secret
Yeah, they scattered the afterbirth
Solo
Mr. Crowley, won't you ride my white horse?
Mr. Crowley, it's symbolic of course
Approaching a time that is classic
I hear that maidens call
Approaching a time that is drastic
Standing with their backs to the wall
Was it polemically sent
I wanna know what you meant
I wanna know
I wanna know what you meant, yeah!
| Thursday, 9 February 2006 at 1h 32m 21s | Lest we forget | Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Peter Pace, yesterday:
“Pace said only one Iraqi army battalion is capable of fighting without U.S.
help. That is the same number as in September, when U.S. commanders disclosed
that the number of such highly trained battalions had dropped from three to
one, prompting criticism from lawmakers.” [AP, 2/7/06]
For those of you who don't know, that "one battalion" consists of 800 men.
Yep, after nearly 3 years of Operation Iraqi freedom, the US military effort
can only convince 800 Iraqi's to willingly support them.
| Thursday, 9 February 2006 at 0h 53m 29s | Heartless, thoughtless bastards | By DAVID ESPO, AP Special Correspondent [SOURCE]
WASHINGTON - President Bush's budget calls for elimination of a $255 lump-
sum death payment that has been part of Social Security for more than 50
years and urges Congress to cut off monthly survivor benefits to 16- and 17-
year-old high school dropouts.
If approved, the two proposals would save a combined $3.4 billion over the next
decade, according to administration estimates....
[T]he benefit is paid in cases in which a surviving spouse was living with the
deceased at the time of his or her death. It is also available in some cases
for a surviving spouse who lived apart and for some surviving children.
Administration officials said the payment began as a burial benefit in 1939, to
assist families with funeral expenses. The amount was set at $255 in 1952 and
until 1981, the payment was made directly to funeral homes, they said.
The second change Bush proposed would terminate monthly survivor benefits for
16- and 17-year-olds who do not attend school full time. Current law requires
18-year-olds to remain in school to receive their benefits. Survivor benefits
are paid in cases in which a parent has died.
| Wednesday, 8 February 2006 at 3h 22m 50s | It's the constitution stupid | except when winning elections are more important than patriotism.
Howie Kurtz manages to put the NSA eavesdropping fiasco in perspective. Go here
The article essentially glosses over all of the items thrown about in the
news. I don't usually like Howie, because he has been wishy-washy in the past,
and he often chooses the facts to make the point, instead of using all of the
facts to figure out the point. Ignoring poignant facts makes me wonder if the
author who does so consistently is really a shill of sorts, as if he is quite
mindfull of which side his bread is buttered.
But Howie gets why the news-fo-tainment industry can't provide anything but a
slanted, inaccurate perspective of all remotely "political" events. Consider
this snippet, which comments on how the news networks covered Senate Judiciary
hearings with Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez yesterday:
The cable nets all made a great show of 'covering' the Senate Judiciary hearing
by carrying the AG's opening statement, then maybe a question or two from Arlen
Specter. Then they trotted out their legal analysts to talk about the meaning
of the hearing, which by then must have been eight or nine minutes old. The
hearing became video wallpaper as the cable talkers talked. They never even got
to Pat Leahy, the panel's top Democrat, meaning that only Republican voices
were heard. Gonzales essentially got a free ride.
Then everyone moved on to other subjects. MSNBC went back to the hearing for a
couple of minutes but thought better of it. We had CNN looking at Fall Fashion
Week, Fox ginning up a debate on Ken Mehlman calling Hillary angry, and MS
doing a 'Massachusetts Murder Mystery.'
Now I'm not saying the Gonzales session should have been covered wall to wall
(though fortunately it was on C-SPAN). America probably got sick of the
preening politicians during the Roberts and Alito hearings. And the cable nets
did deal with other serious issues. But they couldn't even be bothered with
dipping in and out of the first attempt on Capitol Hill to hold the
administration accountable for its domestic spying program. Instead, we had the
appearance of coverage, and even that didn't last long.
It's important to understand the seriousness of what happened yesterday. The
Attorney General of the United States, Alberto Gonzalez, obfuscated every
direct question. He could not answer a simple yes or no to the question
posed by Senator Leahy: does the United States eavesdrop on American citizens?
"I can't
answer that with certainty" , "It is my belief that that is not our policy", "I
believe that our activities are consistent with the Constitution", and anything
else but the one of two words that would have answered the question : yes or no.
Lets not forget that the hearings began with a vote on partisan lines not to
put
Gonzalez under oath. [see it here] Senator
Feingold called for a voice vote, and some of the Republicans uttered "no"
while
looking down at the table, as if ashamed.
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