Archive for March, 2009
Friday, March 6th, 2009
In the LA Times,:
Before Glenn Beck started his new show on Fox News in January, he sat down with Roger Ailes, the network’s chief executive, to make sure they were on the same page.
“I wanted to meet with Roger and tell him, ‘You may not want to put me on the air. I believe we are in dire trouble, and I will never shut up,’ ” said the conservative radio host.
But before Beck could say anything, Ailes shared a message of his own: The country faced tough times, he said, and Fox News was one of the only news outlets willing to challenge the new administration.
Fox CEO Roger Ailes says:
“I see this as the Alamo,” Ailes said, according to Beck. “If I just had somebody who was willing to sit on the other side of the camera until the last shot is fired, we’d be fine.”
That’s so damn violent!
Does he mean after this last shot is fired?
Does anyone else notice that Fox/Beck/Ailes were silent during the last 8 years of destruction under the Bush Presidency?
Does anyone have the photos of Ailes/Beck at parties with the guys making the $20 million dollars a year in the financial industry? You can tell by looking at Ailes that he’s living the rich life.
So hypocritical, Mr. Ailes, to NOW suddenly be the only ‘voice against the Administration’. Why did you silence critics during the Bush Administration by threatening them with the Patriot Act? Why did you glorify the financial rape of America?
You were silent and complicit in our downfall, Roger, don’t suddenly believe you are our saviour.
And do not threaten the President. Its illegal.
Posted in Break The Cycle, Please, Justice System, News, Rascism, Regular Americans, Silly, Um, NO!, Uncategorized, What the ????? | 1 Comment »
Thursday, March 5th, 2009
Its because he knows he’s going to get press, just for having the cojones (shriveled though they might be by alleged illegal prescription drug use) to challenge Obama. Oh yes, I went there… And I did so, to illustrate how UGLY any conversation involving Limbaugh gets.
However,
In the wake of Rush Limbaugh challenging President Barack Obama to a debate, it has been pointed out to me that before the radio host steps up to face the president, he might want to clear his dance card of some earlier debate challenges. Perhaps he has forgotten, but Limbaugh already has a standing challenge from CNN’s banisher of “bias” and “bull” Campbell Brown, to appear on the air and debate their chief business correspondent, Ali Velshi, who Limbaugh had previously maligned.
Campbell Brown said: Now, Mr. Limbaugh, you may well have a legitimate case to make about tax cuts and what they can do for the economy, but the histrionics and the name-calling, they undermine anything constructive you might have to say. Rush, I would love for you to come on, on this show and debate Ali on the issues. Make a case for your ideas. Our country is in desperate straits right now, and we need ideas. But what we don’t need is nasty rhetoric and useless noise. This doesn’t help anyone get a job or keep a job or feed their family. If there were ever a time to put the meanness behind us and focus on real dialogue and real solutions, this is the time.
If you take the words out of Campbell’s mouth and put them into the mouths of worried Americans, here they are:
What we don’t need is nasty rhetoric and useless noise. This doesn’t help anyone get a job or keep a job or feed their family. If there were ever a time to put the meanness behind us and focus on real dialogue and real solutions, this is the time.
If you read the comments on any blog post related to Rush Limbaugh, they are filled with HATE and SPIT. No common ground can be found under those conditions. No peace can be made, when posturing is more important than solving problems.
I challenge Rush to lower his rhetoric, to show up with some concrete solutions and to listen to other sides, so that we can find a middle ground.
But I’ve already challenged Rush.
And he’s blown me off, too.
Posted in Break The Cycle, Please, Financial Craziness, News, Regular Americans | No Comments »
Thursday, March 5th, 2009
I had a conversation on Twitter with a follower, a Conservative Republican.
I saw that she had posted about ‘genocide on the rich’…
I didn’t think the markets were tumbling because we are ‘soaking the rich’, I thought the markets were tumbling because companies have still not yet written down all their losses. So I asked her about the ‘genocide’ comparison.
Her response was to again say Obama/Dems are advocating an effective ‘genocide’ on our wealthy:
Here is an analysis by Nobel Prize winning economist Paul Krugman on the ACTUAL cost of additional taxes on the rich:
Oy. No, your income tax doesn’t suddenly shoot up if your taxable income rises one penny into a new bracket. To belabor the obvious, the tax code specifies marginal rates: your rate rises from 33 to 35 percent if your taxable income exceeds $372,950, but only the income above $372,950 pays the higher rate.
OY VEY. Let’s leave inflammatory words like GENOCIDE to its actual definition:
Genocide is the deliberate and systematic destruction, in whole or in part, of an ethnic, racial, religious, or national group.
Its not genocide if someone who makes $20 million a year has to pay an extra 2% taxes on income above certain rates. And its really not genocide if that person made money while actively participating in the tanking of the US and world economies. Its also not genocide if a family’s joint income is $400,000 and they are taxed an additional 2% on $27,100.
While we talk with each other and share our opinions, its important to temper our statements with reality. That way we can find new collaborative solutions.
Posted in Financial Craziness, News, Regular Americans, What the ????? | 1 Comment »
Thursday, March 5th, 2009
I’m sorry, that picture says it ALL.
So, Mr. Vitter (recently called a two-faced adulterer by one of his constituents) was caught up in the D.C. Madam Prostitution scandal just MONTHS ago. His phone number was in her black book.
Yet Vitter has the gall to introduce legislation slashing funding for family planning services:
The Louisiana senator has introduced an amendment to the omnibus spending bill before the Senate to drastically cut funding for family planning programs. Vitter’s amendment states that “none of the funds appropriated under this Act shall be made available to Planned Parenthood for any purpose under title X of the Public Health Service Act.”
He’s also ‘famous’ for co-sponsoring the Marriage Protection Amendment, which would amend the Constitution to declare that marriage “shall consist only of the union of a man and a woman.”
What a great guy! His motto could be interpreted as: I can totally disregard marriage vows and have sex outside of marriage, but YOU can’t.
Funny, how he feels gays and lesbians are untrustworthy with regards to honoring the sanctity of a loving commitment between two people. And he feels that other people don’t deserve the dignity of safe sex, provided in part by education from Planned Parenthood.
Oh yes, I forgot to tell you! When he’d have sex with the hooker, he’d wear a condom! And then take it home with him, used!
He can use condoms to betray his wife, but YOU CAN’T use them to save your life!
Hmmm, this is what his integrity looks like, to me:
Posted in Break The Cycle, Please, Justice System, News, Regular Americans, Um, NO!, What the ????? | No Comments »
Wednesday, March 4th, 2009
(AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty, File)
According to the Huffington Post:
HOUSTON — Former first lady Barbara Bush was resting comfortably after undergoing successful open heart surgery Wednesday to replace her aortic valve, a family spokesman and hospital officials said.
The surgery at The Methodist Hospital lasted about 2 1/2 hours and was scheduled last week after Bush, 83, experienced a shortness of breath, family spokesman Jim McGrath said.
He said doctors determined the aortic valve had started to harden.
Dr. Gerald Lawrie, a heart surgeon at the Methodist DeBakey Heart & Vascular Center, replaced the valve with a biologic valve, the hospital said in a statement. He said the surgery went “extremely well.”
“I expect her to recover fully and soon resume her normal activities,” Lawrie said.
When left untreated, a hardened aortic valve can result in heart failure or sudden cardiac death, the hospital said. The valve, on the left side of the heart, can harden with age and become less effective. Symptoms of aortic valve disease include shortness of breath, chest pains and dizziness.
Former President George H.W. Bush was at the hospital with his wife, who McGrath said was resting comfortably in the intensive care unit. The hospital said the former first lady was expected to be released in seven to 10 days.
“I am very impressed with and grateful to the wonderful team of doctors and nurses at The Methodist Hospital who have helped Barbara,” the former president said. “We have every confidence she is in the best hands.”
McGrath said Bush was already up and talking Wednesday night.
Houston television station KRTK reported that Bush almost didn’t want her children to know about the surgery because she didn’t think it was a big deal.
Barbara Bush is lucky to have lifetime free medical care, because her husband was President and she was his dependent.
Barbara Bush did not have to call her bank and borrow $100,000 from the equity in her home (if the equity was still there, in this crushed real estate market). Barbara Bush did not have to go to relatives to ask for money. She did not have to check at the hospital Admitting Desk to see if she could use credit cards for her hospital bills.
Barbara Bush might have HAD to tell her children that she was going to have heart surgery, because she might have HAD to impose on them financially, as many Americans do these days. Personal bankruptcy filings are littered with ill people who cannot pay their health care bills.
Every elder deserves to have health care, especially when they are most physically vulnerable, in illness.
I know Barbara Bush is surrounded by loving family and friends as she recovers and I wish her well.
I hope that she speaks out about all elders deserving the care that she received because of her husband’s employment.
Health care is a right, not a privilege.
Posted in Break The Cycle, Please, News, Regular Americans | 3 Comments »
Wednesday, March 4th, 2009
You thought George Bush’s trillion dollar ‘government interference in the economy‘ was unprecedented and obscene.
The central bank — supposed to be the lender of the last resort — became the lender of first and only resort!
We’ve supposedly recapitalized our financial institutions, and had massive government intervention in the markets, but the Wall Street Journal finally tells the truth about all the good money we are throwing after bad: It has gone from ‘saving the banks’, to ‘jump starting the shadow banking system’.
Why? Because the ‘no regulation’ people opened up financial markets to anyone with enough money to print a business card.
When I worked in the insurance industry, insurance companies were not allowed to sell bank products. These days, whether they can sell stocks and bonds is irrelevant. They used their savings, their reserves, to buy assets that were dangerously overvalued.
Notice the date above of 2007. Problem is, its 2009 and those reserves are further eroded by the devaluation of assets, whether admitted by shadow banks or denied.
So now we’re not just ‘saving banks’.
We’re in the business of running up and down the scaffolding at the dike, putting tiny pebbles (billions of dollars) into the wall, hoping the crushing weight of the unacknowledged losses won’t push their way thru.
The best way to view the shadow banking system is as a financial amplification system. A byproduct of its operation is that it can take small financial events and convert them into
financial nuclear weapons that explode with a spectacular display and devastating effect. Worse, since the entire global economic system is deeply turbulent, we can expect to see more financial nuclear explosions than ever before as the shadow banking system amplifies an increasing number of small and unexpected events into disasters.
Next, there is the global economy.
Finally, there is the US economy.
Our problem today?
You can’t JUMP START something the size of GODZILLA…
Posted in Break The Cycle, Please, Financial Craziness, News, What the ????? | 1 Comment »
Monday, March 2nd, 2009
Republicans argue for the ‘right to life’ of infants, Terry Schiavo, etc. People.
When a bank like Bank of America is technically INSOLVENT, Bush/Bernanke pushed to give money rather than turning off the spigot of federal bailout.
But when Americans rightly ask to divert the billions from already failing, dying corporations to living people, Rick Santelli and Rush Limbaugh act as though they are being betrayed.
We’re in a market economy that has failed.
Who knows what the future looks like?
Putting more money into companies that have already destroyed the US financial system makes NO sense.
Deleting taxes, giving money to social systems, deleting mortgages would have much more impact on the short term spending necessary to bring our economy back from the edge. And real humans would benefit.
Republicans are treating corporations better than humans.
‘Right to Life’, when politically expedient.
Posted in Break The Cycle, Please, Financial Craziness, News, Regular Americans | No Comments »
Monday, March 2nd, 2009
Can you imagine an alleged ‘wife’-beater, who admitted to doing this:
to be out on the freaking water on a jet-ski? Smiling at the joy of riding the waves?
Is it just me, or are other people wondering if he’s got advisors that should be fired? He admits to beating the crap out of his girlfriend, he’s about to go into a court hearing and he’s gallivanting around the waters of Florida on a jet-ski, partying like its just another rich day in the life of Chris Brown…
Hey, Chris! Its Mary, I’m thinking you should be in counseling, doing community service (oh yes, its possible to actually DO SERVICE before a court orders you to), showing that you understand the depth of destructiveness of each and every blow you pounded onto Rihanna’s face. I’m thinking you’d better get your butt out of the beach clothes and start looking like you actually give a damn about domestic violence, since you say you witnessed it as a kid and now you’ve continued the cycle. I’m thinking you need to leave Diddy’s water palace and get back to the real world, where the consequences of your actions would be strict jail time, not jet-ski time.
You have a court appearance coming up. Show you give a damn about the women in your life, not just RiRi, but your family AND your fans, by being a man and fixing yourself. Don’t flaunt your stupidity, use your public image to do some good, so some other woman doesn’t end up as beaten up as Rihanna.
as of 10:20 a.m. PST, on 3/2/09, TMZ.com’s poll:
Posted in Break The Cycle, Please, Justice System, News, Um, NO!, What the ????? | No Comments »
