If we all do one Random Act of Kindness
Sunday, February 22nd, 2009
Photo taken by heathbrandon on flickr
Google Earth Shows U.S. Drones at Pakistani Base?
By Noah Shachtman
Archive for February, 2009
Regular sized lips at the Oscars
Sunday, February 22nd, 2009I was kinda playin’ with my last post, since there is SO MUCH HYPE about the Oscars this year.
There’s talk of a billion viewers, which is just plain wrong.
The good news?
There are some normal sized lips at the Oscars, y’all!
Not everyone has hit the ON switch on the air compressor… because sadly when you DO, sometimes you look like a caricature of yourself…
I think I can safely go back to my very busy life, assured that I’ve tongue-in-cheek pointed out the crazy ways we define ‘pretty’…
Truth in reporting, here are my lips, 48 years old, for some odd reason the camera didn’t capture all the lines at the top of my lips, must be the crappy iPhone camera…
America’s obsession with Hemorrhoid Lips, Trout Pout
Sunday, February 22nd, 2009Yikes. Its hard to be a little girl growing up in America when the most visible pretty women have lips that look pneumatically inflated.
Its Oscar Night and we’re gonna be posting LIPS.
Here’s Lisa Rinna, the reigning queen of WTF… arriving on the red carpet… lips leading ahead of the rest of her.
The top lip is two times the size of the bottom lip. Why? Doesn’t that get in the way of drinking champagne from a flute? Doesn’t it use up a whole tube of lipstick in one wearing? I imagine that the forehead and eye area Botox and the Restylane needled into all the nasal labial folds and around her jaw make her look so perfectly plumply youthful, but THOSE LIPS, they are BEYOND beyond. Her upper lip is bigger than each EYE!
Here’s an older photo of Jessica Simpson, with inflated lips:
Another painful mouth,
I guess with the economy going to hell in a handbasket, sexualized engorged lips are suddenly valuable, to put you at the top of the food chain…
So I’ll be covering what most other bloggers won’t today, during Oscar Night, I’ll cover the a** shaped lips…
By the by, look what came up when I google’d ‘a** lips’!!
Ugh. The American definition of BEAUTY could use a bit of a conscious re-do.
Ridge: Detainees deserved due process
Saturday, February 21st, 2009Former U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge say WHAAAAAAA?????
In a classic example of WHAT WENT WRONG THE LAST 8 YEARS, Tom Ridge is only NOW brave enough to say that he believes the United States was unjust to go against International Law.
Speaking on the BBC’s ‘World Today” program, the former Pennsylvania governor and first federal homeland security chief said he accepts some of the criticisms levied in a recent report International Commission of Jurists.
“regardless of what terror suspects are accused of doing, they deserve “some sense of due process.”
Bravery and courage require SPEAKING OUT when your morals and values are violated. Ridge did neither. Sure, its great that he mea culpas now, but what about the hundreds of thousands of moments of torture that happened under his watch, because he did not speak out?
Ridge has a history of abdicating his conscience and blindly following George Bush’s leadership. According to USA Today,
The Bush administration periodically put the USA on high alert for terrorist attacks even though then-Homeland Security chief Tom Ridge argued there was only flimsy evidence to justify raising the threat level, Ridge now says.
Ridge … said … that he often disagreed with administration officials who wanted to elevate the threat level to orange, or “high” risk of terrorist attack, but was overruled.
In case you’re wondering, here is the level of ALERT for today:
Bank of America CEO: We can make it thru downturn alone. Problem is: BofA got INTO downturn on its own, by leveraging its lending 32x each dollar it had in the bank
Saturday, February 21st, 2009
Nationalization is a strange, new concept for me, so I agree with ‘going slow, taking all ideas into consideration’ before going that route.
However, here’s how leveraged BofA is, (TED talk by Juan Enriquez: Beyond the Crisis):
And BofA’s CEO thinks (after taking $45 billion in our tax dollars/federal funds) he can stoicly go it alone and fix his bank.
Problem is:
He’s had all this time to do it and GUESS WHAT? His bank is a huge part of the problem. Why trust an unqualified plumber to keep putting pipes into your home if he’s already mis-connected things and your kitchen sink is spewing sewage?
These guys had their chance. They are so dangerously over-leveraged that the whole world waits to see the collapse of banking.
And yet they blame the individual homeowners, for daring to buy with loans given to them by banks. The bible says don’t point out the cinder in your brother’s eye when you have a 2×4 in your own.
Its not the home mortgages, its the excess leverage. Excess leverage means NO MONEY IS IN THE BANK. Rick Santelli is WRONG, its not the couple hundred bucks you are now being asked to pay to cover some ‘dummy’s’ excess mortgage, its the banks’ stupidity at lending out $32 for one dollar it has in its coffers.
And this CEO let Merrill’s CEO pre-pay bonuses before the merger, saying ‘we strongly advised against but couldn’t stop’ Merrill.
NEW YORK, Feb. 11, 2009 (Reuters) — Merrill Lynch “secretly” accelerated bonus payments last year and gave at least $1 million to each of nearly 700 employees, even as the brokerage was amassing billions of dollars in losses, New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo said in a letter to U.S. Rep. Barney Frank.
This is the cat who wants us to let him run the show, alone, unsupervised?
Um, NO!
The rich are still buying CRAZY STUFF
Friday, February 20th, 2009
I have always thought Paris Hilton has a hidden intelligence, because she pulled herself from obscurity to international fame and fortune, with no observable talents. Sure, she has a wealthy sounding last name, but Hilton Hotels are not 5 star hotels where Hollywood hangs out and she doesn’t have a Hilton Trust Fund. Paris got herself some plastic surgery and a publicist (shades of Octomom) and has been HIRED for years to show up at parties, for thousands of dollars, tens of thousands of dollars a pop. While you are worried about making your rent or mortgage payments, just think! Paris is still raking in enough money to keep doctors fully employed.
This photo shows recent lip plumping, called ‘hemorrhoid lips’ by the gossip sites. Icky. They call them a**-lips, trout pout, duck lips, and they are NOT attractive.
Anyhoo, I was going to post about this crazy $7,280 dress for sale, only available in a SIZE 1, because, you know, the rich have tiny bodies. So here it is, in case you’d like to snap it up:
And then I found these Halston Cluny (no, not George Clooney, though I’d consider buying them if he came with them) high heeled gladiator sandals (they trick you by calling them BOOTS, as though that makes all the holes in them more valuable) for, wait for it, $1,495!!!!
And guess what? Many sizes are SOLD OUT. Yes, they have sold many pair at $1500 a pop.
So while you’re toughing it out, choosing between the gas and electric bill or a movie night out, rest assured that the financial geniuses that brought you this recession/depression are still spending THEIR HARD EARNED DOLLARS, keeping the economy afloat.
Octo-mom walking thru $1.24 million home! Being interviewed there NOW
Thursday, February 19th, 2009According to TMZ.com,
UPDATE: 4:54 ET PM. We just called back our contact at Century 21, the agency that has listed the house. They claim Nadya is indeed an interested buyer. But here’s the rub. We’re told a big TV show has the house for the day and is there doing a sit-down interview with Nadya….
UNBELIEVABLE!!! We’ve confirmed OctoMom Nadya Suleman is looking to buy a home listed for $1.24 MILLION!
Octo is there right now … the house is in Whittier, California. It has 4 bedrooms, 2 1/2 bathrooms and a pool with no safety gates. Perfect for 14 kids.
A real estate source tells TMZ the owner canceled showings today specifically because Octo wanted to see it. She needs it because the house she’s living in now may be on its way to the auction block — as in foreclosure.
How is she getting the money? Put it this way — this chick works the media better than Obama.
This is soooooo ‘American’! Octo-mom has three kids on disability, 8 babies in ICU at hundreds of thousands of dollars a day cost paid for by California taxpayers, she has bankrupted her parents and put their house nearly into foreclosure, but the media frenzy around her actions are propelling her into big money paychecks for interviews and probably a million dollar home.
Still, no one is concerned that her mental illness has caused her to get plastic surgery to look like Angelina Jolie, 
that she is incompetent as a mother of six, let alone 14, and that now she is somehow able to purchase a million dollar home?
Nadya Suleman got the Denver boot two years ago for not paying parking tickets. The pic was taken in the parking lot of the Cal State Fullerton Children’s Center. The future Octomom was attending school there when she came out to her Toyota Sienna to find she got the boot. Two of her kids — #2 and #3 — were in the front seat.
Such a metaphor for America’s blind need to be entertained.
Rick Santelli’s ‘Rant of the Year’ highlights Wall Street Hypocrisy
Thursday, February 19th, 2009Rick Santelli went bonkers on the trading floor against the stimulus package and the ‘shocking’ plan to forestall foreclosures across the US. He sees it clearly as ‘why should we help those idiot homeowners who got in over their heads?’
Who is Rick Santelli? A veteran trader and financial executive, Santelli has provided live reports on the markets in print and on local and national radio and television. He joined CNBC from the Institutional Financial Futures and Options at Sanwa Futures, L.L.C. There, he was a vice president handling institutional trading and hedge accounts for a variety of futures related products.
Hhmmm. What’s missing in this rant?
Oh yes, the trillions of dollars that the banking industry and Wall Street (his effective employer) BLEW, which has now trickled down to little homeowners in the form of excess debt!
He’s railing, screaming, shrieking and says NOTHING about his own culpability, about the stock exchange, about the crappy ratings companies who fraudulently misrated financial instruments that he bought and sold.
Mortgages, Mr. Santilli?
That’s not the problem.
Your greed is. Your rant is dangerous, similar to screaming “FIRE” in a crowded theater, because you are inflaming people’s fear when your own actions and the actions of companies you have bought and sold have caused this problem and you are deflecting responsibility.
Here is a CNBC Interview by Melissa Francis with JPMorgan Chase President and CEO. Dimon took $25 billion in bailout funds and refused to let Melissa Francis know where he’s spent it, but he’s belligerent about homeowners not being released from their home ownership debts.
Seriously, does anyone still believe we are in the financial straights we are in, as a country and as a global economy, because SOME US HOMEOWNERS HAVE NEGATIVE EQUITY?
They’re screaming about a few thousand dollars in mortgage, versus $25 billion that Dimon took and won’t tell us where he spent it?
Its ass-backwards and hypocritical…
Remember this blog post?
Stop blaming the little guy. Its you big wig Wall Streeters/Bankers BITCHING OUT IN PUBLIC who caused this.
The innocent homeowners, talked into dangerous mortgages?
They’re killing themselves quietly, they’re shame-faced, working extra jobs to try to maintain their homes, or they’re walking away declaring bankruptcy, which you and your banking and corporate Wall Street friends refuse to do.
US Military squatting not going so well, akshually
Thursday, February 19th, 2009
Like a lolcat photo, things are happening around the globe that aren’t being connected by MainStream Media and captioned… I’ll put the puzzle together for you:
A lineup of U.S. air force KC-135 tanker planes seen at the Manas air base in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan(AP Photo/Azamat Imanaliev)
Kyrgyz parliament approves US base closure
BISHKEK, Kyrgyzstan (AP) — Kyrgyzstan’s parliament voted Thursday to close a key U.S. air base in the country — a move that could hamper President Barack Obama’s efforts to increase the number of U.S. forces in Afghanistan.
Deputies voted 78-1 for the government-backed bill to cancel the lease agreement on the Manas air base, a transit point for 15,000 troops and 500 tons of cargo each month to and from Afghanistan. Two deputies abstained.
If President Kurmanbek Bakiyev signs the bill and Kyrgyz authorities issue an eviction notice, the United States will have 180 days to vacate the base.
“The decision to shut the American base reflects the will of the Kyrgyz people,” said Nurbyubyu Kerimova, a deputy with the pro-government party that overwhelmingly dominates parliament in the former Soviet bloc nation.
Bakiyev unexpectedly called this month for the closure of Manas, complaining that the United States was not paying enough rent for the base.
His announcement of the base closure was made in Moscow, shortly after Russia offered his impoverished country $2.15 billion in aid and loans. Analysts say the closure and the aid appeared to be linked, although officials deny any connection.
Hmmmm, why isn’t the US known for its aid and loans? We seem to only want military bases, not to rebuild countries in their own vision. We can help Trent Lott rebuild his New Orleans mansion but can’t stand to let Kyrgyzstand build itself unless we can land our bombers
Next up:
Don’t take a Senator’s word for it. Old Google Earth satellite photos, dug up by the News of Pakistan, show U.S. drones, parked on a Pakistani runway, back in 2006.
The paper ID’s the robotic planes as massive Global Hawk drones — unlikely, the shape’s all wrong. More likely, the aircraft found at coordinates 27 degrees 51 minutes North, 65 degrees and 10 minutes East are Predator drones.
Google Earth no longer shows the planes at the airfield, “built by Arab sheiks for falconry trips,” according to the Times of London. But the 2009-edition images do show several new buildings — including what appears to be a hangar, big enough for several Predators.
Don’t take a Senator’s word for it. Old Google Earth satellite photos, dug up by the News of Pakistan, show U.S. drones, parked on a Pakistani runway, back in 2006.
The paper ID’s the robotic planes as massive Global Hawk drones — unlikely, the shape’s all wrong. More likely, the aircraft found at coordinates 27 degrees 51 minutes North, 65 degrees and 10 minutes East are Predator drones.
Google Earth no longer shows the planes at the airfield, “built by Arab sheiks for falconry trips,” according to the Times of London. But the 2009-edition images do show several new buildings — including what appears to be a hangar, big enough for several Predators.
Pakistani blogger Teeth Maestro, for one, is not at all pleased by what he sees. His latest headline: “Drones parked in our own backyard, to Bomb our own People.”
DRONES???
Gaza mother fears for children hurt in Israeli drone strike
• Target was Hamas member riding motorbike past bus stop
A Doctor treats a wounded Palestinian boy following an Israeli air strike in Khan Younis, Gaza. Photograph: Hatem Omar/UPPA/Photoshot
Lying in bed, their lower limbs were bandaged and bloodied. “What kind of criminals do this?” asked Rewaa al-Farah, clutching her daughter’s hand where the child lay in her bloodied gingham school dress. “They can see what they are doing [when they launch the missile] but they don’t care. If they can see the motorcyclist then they can see the children waiting for the bus as well.
Abdel Majid, 12, was waiting for the bus to take him home from school when the Israeli drone struck. Its target was a Hamas member riding a motorbike past a bus stop crowded with children.
“I could hear the zanana [drone] above me,” Majid said today from his bed in Naser hospital, in Khan Younis, Gaza. “Then it fired a rocket.”
The shrapnel from the drone peppered his legs as it knocked him down. It also hit Ola and Yahyeh al-Farah, aged 10 and nine, as well as Insherah al-Wan, eight.
Know what?
Countries around the world are getting fed up with being used as landing strips for US military weapons.
Pakistanis, Palestinians, Iraqis, pretty much everyone we’re in contact with DO NOT LIKE TO BE BOMBED by drones. Its taken war-mongering to the next level of inhumanity. Sure George Lucas had his clone army, but that’ supposed to be Sci-Fi. Bringing it into 2009, its no wonder the Kyrgyzstani people evicted us. No wonder the Pakistanis don’t want our drones on their land.
US military bases on sovereign lands serve, guess who? The US military. The US military consists of people, corporations, and hardware. Its the corporations who want expansion, for profit, and the hardware that needs to be housed close to where its going to do its damage.
Time for a re-evaluation of our mission.
Will.i.am asks “Who are the Colored People” in NAACP?
Monday, February 16th, 2009In order to transcend ‘RACE’, we have to go deeply into how we see the millions of different ‘types’ of people on the planet.
Racism goes against science: we are so truly alike that the amount of DNA responsible for skin color difference is something like one millionth of a strand, even though we act as though its 1/2 a strand. We act as though skin color MEANS SOMETHING and has a significant impact on WHO WE ARE.
It is time for a larger vision, since we are all one human tribe, one human family.
In a Huffington Post blog, musical artist/activist storyteller Will.i.am speaks:
i am so proud to have received a NAACP award by my black community…
because at one point in time i wasn’t even considered “black enough”…
yes…
i am a black man…
i was raised in an all mexican neighborhood…
i attended great schools in white areas…
so…growing up i was looked at as odd…
black people didn’t think i was “black enough”
white people thought i was different than other blacks…
and mexicans thought i was dominican…
life was colorful…
if it wasn’t for that diversity i never would have known what life truly had to offer…
people fought for me to attend brentwood sci mag, paul revere middle school, and palisades high…
people fought for my freedoms…
freedoms i didn’t acknowledge when i was younger…
i went to school with persians, koreans, native americans, french, nigerians, and indians…
another translation would be:
brown, yellow, red, white, black, and blue people…
brave people fought for that…
magnet schools…
equal education…
it was all fought for…
and i reaped the benefits from it…
the invisible freedom fighters fought…
the visible fighters fought as well…
in the 100 years of the existence of the NAACP and fighting for equality they are now victorious…
because a black man is in the white house…
built by slaves now run by a black president…
the battle was won…
and now i ask this question…
what does the “C.P. ” mean in the NAACP now?
today’s definition is…
the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
we have advanced to the highest seat in office…
the president…
we have advanced to oprah status…
we have advanced…
congratulations…
and now…
where do we go?
i know we still have to fix mississippi, new orleans and our ghettos…
but what about the other colors…
filipino?
brazilian?
indian?
cambodian?
afghani?
and chinese?
if the NAACP fought so that a black man could be president in a country that practiced slavery…
then the NAACP should now stand and represent all people of color…
and fight to unite every version of “pigment”…
and lack of it…
the NAACP should now march and protect the most important colors of all…
GREEN…
“the planet”…
and “GREY”…
the mind…
education…
equal education…
because no matter if you’re black, white, blue or orange…
we all live on green…
and we all think with grey…
and what good is a united people if there is no green to live on…???
and what good is a united people if our grey is filled with nothingness…
i am so proud to have performed “take our planet back” at the NAACP image awards…
i am so proud to have use my grey and sing about green in a black gathering…
i am so proud to have performed that song on that night…
during this time in american history…
we have a new mission ahead of us…
we all have to rethink the priorities…
we all have to put our best foot forward and walk together…
all colors…
all the different versions of pigment…
and lack of it…
we all have to protect the important colors…
“green, and grey”
and i propose this new title to the NAACP…
the National Association for the Advancement of Consciousness and People
let’s wake up…
realize how we all contribute to the destruction of our planet and minds…
let’s continue to educate and push…
and remind our government to make laws that protect our “grey”
the mind…
and force our government to make laws that protect our “green, brown, and blue home”
the earth…
let’s take our planet black…
please watch this video and pass it around like a baton and be apart of the new “C.P.”
conscious people…
Already, in the comments on Will.i.am’s blog, sides are being taken: “NAACP has to remain for blacks” vs “NAACP can expand its mission”.
Its dangerous to step into a color-blind world, when vicious racism is still so murderous, both bodily and to the soul.
I believe Will.i.am’s statements are 100% true and we should move towards NAA of Consciousness and People, but we should also maintain NAACP as a leadership voice for young blacks and elder blacks, so that they can expect safety, fairness, diversity and dignity in what is still a race-driven United States of America.
