Step up the pressure on these dicks...
Write Queen Nancey an e-mail. I just e-mailed her about her
covering Charlie Rangle. Of course he didn't do anything wrong!
He isn't a republican. Had it been a republican he/she would
have already been gone. Send her a message you lazy fucks
www.speaker.gov
Friday, February 26, 2010
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
So is this really that far off? I mean really is it?
ORDERING PIZZA IN 2011
Operator: Thank you for calling Pizza Hut. May I have your national ID number?
Customer: Hi, I'd like to place an order.
Operator: I must have your NIDM first, sir.
Customer: My National ID Number, yeah, hold on, eh, it's, 3897950001-54-66689.
Operator: Thank you Mr. Phelps. I see your E-mail address is, phelps@home.net and that you live at, 8257 Private Drive. Your home phone number is, 505-7633, your office number over at Brave New World Insurance is, 254-7697 and your cell number is, 733-7433. Which number are you calling from sir?
Customer: Huh? I’m at home. Where’d you get all this information?
Operator: We’re wired into the HSS, sir.
Customer: The HSS, what is that?
Operator: We’re wired into the Homeland Security System, sir. It will add only 15 seconds to your ordering time.
Customer: (sighs) Oh well — I'd like to order a couple of your All-Meat Special pizzas.
Operator: I don't think that's a good idea, sir.
Customer: Whaddya mean?
Operator: Sir, your medical records and commode sensors indicate that you've got very high blood pressure and extremely high cholesterol. Your National Health Care provider won't allow such an unhealthy choice.
Customer: What?!?! What do you recommend, then?
Operator: You might try our low-fat Soybean Pizza. I'm sure you'll like it.
Customer: What makes you think I'd like something like that?
Operator: Well, you checked out 'Gourmet Soybean Recipes' from your local library last week, sir. That's why I made the suggestion.
Customer: All right, all right. Give me two family-sized ones, then.
Operator: That should be plenty for you, your wife and your four kids, and your 2 dogs can finish the crusts, sir. Your total is $49.99.
Customer: Lemme give you my credit card number.
Operator: I'm sorry sir, but I'm afraid you'll have to pay in cash. Your credit card balance is over its limit.
Customer: I'll run over to the ATM and get some cash before your driver gets here.
Operator: That may not work either, sir. Your checking account is also overdrawn.
Customer: Never mind! Just send the pizzas. I'll have the cash ready. How long will it take?
Operator: We're running a little behind, sir. It'll be about 45 minutes, sir. If you're in a hurry you might want to pick'em up while you're out getting the cash, but then, carrying pizzas on a motorcycle can be a little awkward.
Customer: Wait! How do you know I ride a scooter?
Operator: It says here you're in arrears on your car payments, so your car got repo'ed. But your Harley's paid for and you just filled the tank yesterday.
Customer: Well, I'll be a #%#^*^&$%^$@#!
Operator: I'd advise watching your language, sir. You've already got a July 4, 2006 conviction for cussing out a cop and another one I see here in September for contempt at your hearing for cussing at a judge. Oh yes, I see here that you just got out from a 90 day stay in the State Correctional Facility. Is this your first pizza since your return to society?
Customer: (speechless)
Operator: Will there be anything else, sir?
Customer: Yes, I have a coupon for a free 2 liter of Coke.
Operator: I'm sorry sir, but our ad's exclusionary clause prevents us from offering free soda to diabetics. The New Constitution prohibits this.
Thank you for calling Pizza Hut.
Operator: Thank you for calling Pizza Hut. May I have your national ID number?
Customer: Hi, I'd like to place an order.
Operator: I must have your NIDM first, sir.
Customer: My National ID Number, yeah, hold on, eh, it's, 3897950001-54-66689.
Operator: Thank you Mr. Phelps. I see your E-mail address is, phelps@home.net and that you live at, 8257 Private Drive. Your home phone number is, 505-7633, your office number over at Brave New World Insurance is, 254-7697 and your cell number is, 733-7433. Which number are you calling from sir?
Customer: Huh? I’m at home. Where’d you get all this information?
Operator: We’re wired into the HSS, sir.
Customer: The HSS, what is that?
Operator: We’re wired into the Homeland Security System, sir. It will add only 15 seconds to your ordering time.
Customer: (sighs) Oh well — I'd like to order a couple of your All-Meat Special pizzas.
Operator: I don't think that's a good idea, sir.
Customer: Whaddya mean?
Operator: Sir, your medical records and commode sensors indicate that you've got very high blood pressure and extremely high cholesterol. Your National Health Care provider won't allow such an unhealthy choice.
Customer: What?!?! What do you recommend, then?
Operator: You might try our low-fat Soybean Pizza. I'm sure you'll like it.
Customer: What makes you think I'd like something like that?
Operator: Well, you checked out 'Gourmet Soybean Recipes' from your local library last week, sir. That's why I made the suggestion.
Customer: All right, all right. Give me two family-sized ones, then.
Operator: That should be plenty for you, your wife and your four kids, and your 2 dogs can finish the crusts, sir. Your total is $49.99.
Customer: Lemme give you my credit card number.
Operator: I'm sorry sir, but I'm afraid you'll have to pay in cash. Your credit card balance is over its limit.
Customer: I'll run over to the ATM and get some cash before your driver gets here.
Operator: That may not work either, sir. Your checking account is also overdrawn.
Customer: Never mind! Just send the pizzas. I'll have the cash ready. How long will it take?
Operator: We're running a little behind, sir. It'll be about 45 minutes, sir. If you're in a hurry you might want to pick'em up while you're out getting the cash, but then, carrying pizzas on a motorcycle can be a little awkward.
Customer: Wait! How do you know I ride a scooter?
Operator: It says here you're in arrears on your car payments, so your car got repo'ed. But your Harley's paid for and you just filled the tank yesterday.
Customer: Well, I'll be a #%#^*^&$%^$@#!
Operator: I'd advise watching your language, sir. You've already got a July 4, 2006 conviction for cussing out a cop and another one I see here in September for contempt at your hearing for cussing at a judge. Oh yes, I see here that you just got out from a 90 day stay in the State Correctional Facility. Is this your first pizza since your return to society?
Customer: (speechless)
Operator: Will there be anything else, sir?
Customer: Yes, I have a coupon for a free 2 liter of Coke.
Operator: I'm sorry sir, but our ad's exclusionary clause prevents us from offering free soda to diabetics. The New Constitution prohibits this.
Thank you for calling Pizza Hut.
Couldn't Have Said It Better Myself
Found on www.angrywhiteguy.com
Attack of the killer Hot Dogs
Doctors Urging for a Safer, Choke-Free Hot Dog
When 4-year-old Eric Stavros Adler choked to death on a piece of hot dog, his anguished mother never dreamed that the popular kids’ food could be so dangerous.
Some food makers including Oscar Mayer have warning labels about choking, but not nearly enough, says Joan Stavros Adler, Eric’s mom.
The American Academy of Pediatrics agrees. The nation’s largest pediatricians group is calling for sweeping changes in the way food is designed and labeled to minimize children’s chances for choking.
Choking kills more than 100 U.S. children 14 years or younger each year and thousands more — 15,000 in 2001 — are treated in emergency rooms. Food, including candy and gum, is among the leading culprits, along with items like coins and balloons. Of the 141 choking deaths in kids in 2006, 61 were food-related.
The frankfurter aka the “hot dog” has been around since about 1480 AD the sausage in casings have been around since as early as 900 BC both similar in shape and have been eating and enjoyed billions upon billions of people countless times over the last 2500 years but now they need a warning label… Oh Lord give me strength!
I sorry this lady lost her child nothing could be worse than a parent losing a child, but to change the shape of design of a food that has been around 2500 is just ridiculous. How about you be the parent and teach your child to chew their food and if that’s to much work on you then slice the hot dog up and if that still to much burden on you to be a responsible parent then don’t give them the damn hot dogs in the first place – don’t punish an ancient food type for your short-coming as a overseer of your child’s well being.
You don’t change the shape of the wheel because people get run over. The reality is it is not societies or the government’s responsibility to be your child’s nanny and it is sad that 100 kids a year die from choking accidents. The reality is 1800’s child mortality was a 100 times or more higher than it is today and the further reality is you can not eliminate every danger for your children. But why is child mortality lower today? Simple science and medicine and the science says chew your damn food before swallowing and leave my hot dogs alone.
Let’s do the cold heartless task of risk management something industry and government does daily – nobody wants anyone to die choking, especially children and while the story states that 100 children a year die choking it doesn’t not say how many are the result of hot dogs. You make think it’s a little cold to think of it in terms of risk management, but at some point reality has to enter into it and for the record the leading caused of child mortality is auto accidents at 7,677 (2003) drowning 1,062 (2003) and sadly suicide at 1,737 (2003). The facts are every year American eat more then 150 million hot dogs on the 4th of July and over 2 billion in the month of July alone. So one could conservatively estimate that Americans eat about 8-10 billion hot dogs a year and the American Academy of Pediatrics wants to change a entire industry? In other words you stand a far better chance of winning the lottery than choking on a hot dog. Now we’re talking hot dogs alone, not Little Smokies, Brats, Sausage links etc. So I fail to see that based on the volume of consumption verses the health risk an industry wide change is merited. It’s just not a viable option and as I’ve said I don’t want anyone to die choking on a hot dog especially children, but at some point personal responsibility kicks in and if a child is too young to exercise that responsibility then the parent needs to step up and be the parent.
Attack of the killer Hot Dogs
Doctors Urging for a Safer, Choke-Free Hot Dog
When 4-year-old Eric Stavros Adler choked to death on a piece of hot dog, his anguished mother never dreamed that the popular kids’ food could be so dangerous.
Some food makers including Oscar Mayer have warning labels about choking, but not nearly enough, says Joan Stavros Adler, Eric’s mom.
The American Academy of Pediatrics agrees. The nation’s largest pediatricians group is calling for sweeping changes in the way food is designed and labeled to minimize children’s chances for choking.
Choking kills more than 100 U.S. children 14 years or younger each year and thousands more — 15,000 in 2001 — are treated in emergency rooms. Food, including candy and gum, is among the leading culprits, along with items like coins and balloons. Of the 141 choking deaths in kids in 2006, 61 were food-related.
The frankfurter aka the “hot dog” has been around since about 1480 AD the sausage in casings have been around since as early as 900 BC both similar in shape and have been eating and enjoyed billions upon billions of people countless times over the last 2500 years but now they need a warning label… Oh Lord give me strength!
I sorry this lady lost her child nothing could be worse than a parent losing a child, but to change the shape of design of a food that has been around 2500 is just ridiculous. How about you be the parent and teach your child to chew their food and if that’s to much work on you then slice the hot dog up and if that still to much burden on you to be a responsible parent then don’t give them the damn hot dogs in the first place – don’t punish an ancient food type for your short-coming as a overseer of your child’s well being.
You don’t change the shape of the wheel because people get run over. The reality is it is not societies or the government’s responsibility to be your child’s nanny and it is sad that 100 kids a year die from choking accidents. The reality is 1800’s child mortality was a 100 times or more higher than it is today and the further reality is you can not eliminate every danger for your children. But why is child mortality lower today? Simple science and medicine and the science says chew your damn food before swallowing and leave my hot dogs alone.
Let’s do the cold heartless task of risk management something industry and government does daily – nobody wants anyone to die choking, especially children and while the story states that 100 children a year die choking it doesn’t not say how many are the result of hot dogs. You make think it’s a little cold to think of it in terms of risk management, but at some point reality has to enter into it and for the record the leading caused of child mortality is auto accidents at 7,677 (2003) drowning 1,062 (2003) and sadly suicide at 1,737 (2003). The facts are every year American eat more then 150 million hot dogs on the 4th of July and over 2 billion in the month of July alone. So one could conservatively estimate that Americans eat about 8-10 billion hot dogs a year and the American Academy of Pediatrics wants to change a entire industry? In other words you stand a far better chance of winning the lottery than choking on a hot dog. Now we’re talking hot dogs alone, not Little Smokies, Brats, Sausage links etc. So I fail to see that based on the volume of consumption verses the health risk an industry wide change is merited. It’s just not a viable option and as I’ve said I don’t want anyone to die choking on a hot dog especially children, but at some point personal responsibility kicks in and if a child is too young to exercise that responsibility then the parent needs to step up and be the parent.
Read the last part if nothng else
Bayh's explanation that he is quitting because he no longer likes Congress not only came off as whiny, it was indicative of his gutless style. No one would disagree that Congress is dysfunctional, though the problem isn't partisanship, as Bayh suggests. It's that Democrats, because of guys like Evan Bayh, can't lead. Period.
Yes, Congress's inability to represent the people is a crisis that threatens our society. But Bayh's reaction to that challenge is not to stand up and fight, it's to wrinkle his noise and quit. Since he leaves no legacy of any kind from his 12 years in the Senate, and since he has been and always would have been one of its most ineffectual members, it's no surprise that when the going got tough, the senator chose to split.
Evan Bayh has no vision, he's no fighter, and he's no Democrat. He's a child of destiny. He touts bipartisanship because he's a Republican stuck with a Democratic family.
Democracy never has been a cherished institution in Indiana, which was openly controlled by the Ku Klux Klan in the early 20th century and spawned the John Birch Society in the 1950s. With one of the most restrictive ballot access laws in the nation, the state is one of only four in the nation where Ralph Nader was unable to get on the ballot for president. It is virtually impossible for anyone other than establishment Democrats, Republicans and Libertarians to provide electoral alternatives to Indiana voters at the state and national levels.
So, it again came as no surprise that Bayh waited to announce his retirement until it was too late for the electorate to determine his replacement. He announced his decision on the last day that candidates had to collect and submit signatures for ballot placement.
Only one candidate, Bloomington cafe owner Tamyra d'Ippolito, had initiated a petition drive to seek Bayh's seat. On Feb. 19, she announced she did not obtain the 5,000 signatures necessary but will challenge Indiana election laws in court. If d'Ippolito's legal challenge fails, the Indiana Democratic Party will select the candidate for Bayh's seat.
One of two things happened here. Either Bayh did just reach a decision, in which case he's an impulsive quitter. Or, he knew all along and deliberately chose to circumvent state Democratic Primary voters.
The National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) believes it was the latter. "It raises serious questions whether he purposefully timed his announcement to deny Hoosiers a voice in the political process," NRSC spokesman Brian Walsh said in a Feb. 17 news release.
Only Evan Bayh could make the National Republican Senatorial Committee seem noble. What an embarrassment.
Steven Higgs is editor of The Bloomington Alternative. He can be reached at editor@BloomingtonAlternative.com
Yes, Congress's inability to represent the people is a crisis that threatens our society. But Bayh's reaction to that challenge is not to stand up and fight, it's to wrinkle his noise and quit. Since he leaves no legacy of any kind from his 12 years in the Senate, and since he has been and always would have been one of its most ineffectual members, it's no surprise that when the going got tough, the senator chose to split.
Evan Bayh has no vision, he's no fighter, and he's no Democrat. He's a child of destiny. He touts bipartisanship because he's a Republican stuck with a Democratic family.
Democracy never has been a cherished institution in Indiana, which was openly controlled by the Ku Klux Klan in the early 20th century and spawned the John Birch Society in the 1950s. With one of the most restrictive ballot access laws in the nation, the state is one of only four in the nation where Ralph Nader was unable to get on the ballot for president. It is virtually impossible for anyone other than establishment Democrats, Republicans and Libertarians to provide electoral alternatives to Indiana voters at the state and national levels.
So, it again came as no surprise that Bayh waited to announce his retirement until it was too late for the electorate to determine his replacement. He announced his decision on the last day that candidates had to collect and submit signatures for ballot placement.
Only one candidate, Bloomington cafe owner Tamyra d'Ippolito, had initiated a petition drive to seek Bayh's seat. On Feb. 19, she announced she did not obtain the 5,000 signatures necessary but will challenge Indiana election laws in court. If d'Ippolito's legal challenge fails, the Indiana Democratic Party will select the candidate for Bayh's seat.
One of two things happened here. Either Bayh did just reach a decision, in which case he's an impulsive quitter. Or, he knew all along and deliberately chose to circumvent state Democratic Primary voters.
The National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) believes it was the latter. "It raises serious questions whether he purposefully timed his announcement to deny Hoosiers a voice in the political process," NRSC spokesman Brian Walsh said in a Feb. 17 news release.
Only Evan Bayh could make the National Republican Senatorial Committee seem noble. What an embarrassment.
Steven Higgs is editor of The Bloomington Alternative. He can be reached at editor@BloomingtonAlternative.com
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
Sunday, February 21, 2010
The world economy is a house of cards!
I hope you all are getting ready. Our government just can't print a gazillion dollars out of thin air and expect it will keep it's value. If that worked, we would all be wealthy!
I am not a rich man by today's standards, and even poorer by yesterday's standards. Every time I come up with an extra $20, I buy a 1 oz silver coin. It won't be enough, but perhaps it will soften the blow.
I am not a rich man by today's standards, and even poorer by yesterday's standards. Every time I come up with an extra $20, I buy a 1 oz silver coin. It won't be enough, but perhaps it will soften the blow.
Watch this. It's coming here. It's time. Man up.
Thursday, February 18, 2010
I just found this.
By Dewie Whetsell, Alaskan Fisherman..
As posted in comments on Greta's article referencing the MOVEON ad about
Sarah Palin.
The last 45 of my 66 years I've spent in a commercial fishing town in Alaska
. I understand Alaska politics but never understood national politics well
until this last year. Here's the breaking point: Neither side of the Palin
controversy gets it. It's not about persona, style, rhetoric, it's about
doing things. Even Palin supporters never mention the things that I'm about
to mention here.
1. Democrats forget when Palin was the Darling of the Democrats, because as
soon as Palin took the Governor's office away from a fellow Republican and
tough SOB, Frank Murkowski, she tore into the Republican's "Corrupt Bastards
Club" (CBC) and sent them packing. Many of them are now residing in State
housing and wearing orange jump suits The Democrats reacted by skipping
around the yard, throwing confetti and singing, "la la la la" (well, you
know how they are). Name another governor in this country that has ever done
anything similar.
2. Now with the CBC gone, there were fewer Alaskan politicians to protect
the huge, giant oil companies here. So she constructed and enacted a new
system of splitting the oil profits called "ACES." Exxon (the biggest
corporation in the world) protested and Sarah told them, "don't let the door
hit you in the stern on your way out." They stayed, and Alaska residents
went from being merely wealthy to being filthy rich. Of course, the other
huge international oil companies meekly fell in line. Again, give me the
name of any other governor in the country that has done anything similar.
3. The other thing she did when she walked into the governor's office is she
got the list of State requests for federal funding for projects, known as
"pork." She went through the list, took 85% of them and placed them in the
"when-hell-freezes-over" stack. She let locals know that if we need
something built, we'll pay for it ourselves. Maybe she figured she could use
the money she got from selling the previous governor's jet because it was
extravagant.
Maybe she could use the money she saved by dismissing the governor's cook
(remarking that she could cook for her own family), giving back the State
vehicle issued to her, maintaining that she already had a car, and
dismissing her State provided security force (never mentioning - I imagine -
that she's packing heat herself). I'm still waiting to hear the names of
those other governors.
4. Now, even with her much-ridiculed "gosh and golly" mannerism, she also
managed to put together a totally new approach to getting a natural gas
pipeline built which will be the biggest private construction project in the
history of North America. No one else could do it although they tried. If
that doesn't impress you, then you're trying too hard to be unimpressed
while watching her do things like this while baking up a batch of brownies
with her other hand.
5. For 30 years, Exxon held a lease to do exploratory drilling at a place
called Point Thompson. They made excuses the entire time why they couldn't
start drilling. In truth they were holding it like an investment. No
governor for 30 years could make them get started. Then, she told them she
was revoking their lease and kicking them out.. They protested and
threatened court action. She shrugged and reminded them that she knew the
way to the court house. Alaska won again.
6. President Obama wants the nation to be on 25% renewable resources for
electricity by 2025. Sarah went to the legislature and submitted her plan
for Alaska to be at 50% renewables by 2025. We are already at 25%. I can
give you more specifics about things done, as opposed to style and persona
Everybody wants to be cool, sound cool, look cool. But that's just a
cover-up. I'm still waiting to hear from liberals the names of other
governors who can match what mine has done in two and a half years. I won't
be holding my breath.
By the way, she was content to return to AK after the national election and
go to work, but the haters wouldn't let her. Now these adolescent screechers
are obviously not scuba divers. And no one ever told them what happens when
you continually jab and pester a barracuda. Without warning, it will spin
around and tear your face off. Shoulda known better.
You have just read the truth about Sarah Palin that sends the media, along
with the democrat party, into a wild uncontrolled frenzy to discredit her. I
guess they are only interested in skirt chasers, dishonesty, immoral people,
liars, womanizers, murderers, and bitter ex-presidents' wives.
If you've read this far ................................................
First Lady Michelle Obama's Servant List and Pay Scale
First Lady Requires More Than Twenty Attendants
1. $172,2000 - Sher, Susan (Chief Of Staff)
2. $140,000 - Frye, Jocelyn C . (Deputy Assistant to the President and
Director of Policy And Projects For The First Lady)
3. $113,000 - Rogers, Desiree G (Special Assistant to the President and
White House Social Secretary)
4. $102,000 - Johnston, Camille Y. (Special Assistant to the President and
Director of Communications for the First Lady)
5. $100,000 - Winter, Melissa E. (Special Assistant to the President and
Deputy Chief Of Staff to the First Lady)
6. $90,000 - Medina , David S. (Deputy Chief Of Staff to the First Lady)
7. $84,000 - Lelyveld, Catherine M. (Director and Press Secretary to the
First Lady)
8. $75,000 - Starkey, Frances M. (Director of Scheduling and Advance for the
First Lady)
9. $70,000 - Sanders, Trooper (Deputy Director of Policy and Projects for
the First Lady)
10. $65,000 - Burnough, Erinn J. (Deputy Director and Deputy Social
Secretary)
11.. $64,000 - Reinstein, Joseph B. (Deputy Director and Deputy Social
Secretary)
12. $62,000 - Goodman, Jennifer R. (Deputy Director of Scheduling and Events
Coordinator For The First Lady)
13. $60,000 - Fitts, Alan O. (Deputy Dir ector of Advance and Trip Director
for the First Lady)
14. $57,500 - Lewis, Dana M. (Special Assistant and Personal Aide to the
First Lady)
15. $52,500 - Mustaphi, Semonti M. (Associate Director and Deputy Press
Secretary To The First Lady)
16. $50,000 - Jarvis, Kristen E. (Special=2 0Assistant for Scheduling and
Traveling Aide To The First Lady)
17. $45,000 - Lechtenberg, Tyler A. (Associate Director of Correspondence
For The First Lady)
18. $43,000 - Tubman, Samantha (Deputy Associate Director, Social Office)
19. $40,000 - Boswell, Joseph J.. (Executive Assistant to the Chief Of Staff
to the First Lady)
20. $36,000 - Armbruster, Sally M. (Staff Assistant to the Social Secretary)
21. $35,000 - Bookey, Natalie (Staff Assistant)
22. $35,000 - Jackson, Deilia A. (Deputy Associate Director of
Correspondence for the First Lady)
(This is community organizing at it's finest.)
There has NEVER been anyone in the White House at any time who has created
such an army of staffers whose sole duties are the facilitation of the First
Lady's social life. One wonders why she needs so much help, at taxpayer
expense, when even Hillary, only had three; Jackie Kennedy one; Laura Bush
one; and prior to Mamie Eisenhower social help came from the President's own
pocket.
Note: This does not include makeup artist Ingrid Grimes-Miles, 49, and
"First Hairstylist" Johnny Wright, 31, both of whom traveled aboard Air
Force One to Europe .
FRIENDS.....THESE SALARIES ADD UP TO SIX MILLION, THREE HUNDRED SIXTY FOUR
THOUSAND DOLLARS ($6,364,000)FOR THE 4 YEARS OF OFFICE????? AND WE ARE IN
A RECESSION????? WELL....MOST OF US ARE.. I GUESS IT'S OK TO SPEND WILDLY
WHEN IT'S NOT YOUR OWN MONEY?????
As posted in comments on Greta's article referencing the MOVEON ad about
Sarah Palin.
The last 45 of my 66 years I've spent in a commercial fishing town in Alaska
. I understand Alaska politics but never understood national politics well
until this last year. Here's the breaking point: Neither side of the Palin
controversy gets it. It's not about persona, style, rhetoric, it's about
doing things. Even Palin supporters never mention the things that I'm about
to mention here.
1. Democrats forget when Palin was the Darling of the Democrats, because as
soon as Palin took the Governor's office away from a fellow Republican and
tough SOB, Frank Murkowski, she tore into the Republican's "Corrupt Bastards
Club" (CBC) and sent them packing. Many of them are now residing in State
housing and wearing orange jump suits The Democrats reacted by skipping
around the yard, throwing confetti and singing, "la la la la" (well, you
know how they are). Name another governor in this country that has ever done
anything similar.
2. Now with the CBC gone, there were fewer Alaskan politicians to protect
the huge, giant oil companies here. So she constructed and enacted a new
system of splitting the oil profits called "ACES." Exxon (the biggest
corporation in the world) protested and Sarah told them, "don't let the door
hit you in the stern on your way out." They stayed, and Alaska residents
went from being merely wealthy to being filthy rich. Of course, the other
huge international oil companies meekly fell in line. Again, give me the
name of any other governor in the country that has done anything similar.
3. The other thing she did when she walked into the governor's office is she
got the list of State requests for federal funding for projects, known as
"pork." She went through the list, took 85% of them and placed them in the
"when-hell-freezes-over" stack. She let locals know that if we need
something built, we'll pay for it ourselves. Maybe she figured she could use
the money she got from selling the previous governor's jet because it was
extravagant.
Maybe she could use the money she saved by dismissing the governor's cook
(remarking that she could cook for her own family), giving back the State
vehicle issued to her, maintaining that she already had a car, and
dismissing her State provided security force (never mentioning - I imagine -
that she's packing heat herself). I'm still waiting to hear the names of
those other governors.
4. Now, even with her much-ridiculed "gosh and golly" mannerism, she also
managed to put together a totally new approach to getting a natural gas
pipeline built which will be the biggest private construction project in the
history of North America. No one else could do it although they tried. If
that doesn't impress you, then you're trying too hard to be unimpressed
while watching her do things like this while baking up a batch of brownies
with her other hand.
5. For 30 years, Exxon held a lease to do exploratory drilling at a place
called Point Thompson. They made excuses the entire time why they couldn't
start drilling. In truth they were holding it like an investment. No
governor for 30 years could make them get started. Then, she told them she
was revoking their lease and kicking them out.. They protested and
threatened court action. She shrugged and reminded them that she knew the
way to the court house. Alaska won again.
6. President Obama wants the nation to be on 25% renewable resources for
electricity by 2025. Sarah went to the legislature and submitted her plan
for Alaska to be at 50% renewables by 2025. We are already at 25%. I can
give you more specifics about things done, as opposed to style and persona
Everybody wants to be cool, sound cool, look cool. But that's just a
cover-up. I'm still waiting to hear from liberals the names of other
governors who can match what mine has done in two and a half years. I won't
be holding my breath.
By the way, she was content to return to AK after the national election and
go to work, but the haters wouldn't let her. Now these adolescent screechers
are obviously not scuba divers. And no one ever told them what happens when
you continually jab and pester a barracuda. Without warning, it will spin
around and tear your face off. Shoulda known better.
You have just read the truth about Sarah Palin that sends the media, along
with the democrat party, into a wild uncontrolled frenzy to discredit her. I
guess they are only interested in skirt chasers, dishonesty, immoral people,
liars, womanizers, murderers, and bitter ex-presidents' wives.
If you've read this far ................................................
First Lady Michelle Obama's Servant List and Pay Scale
First Lady Requires More Than Twenty Attendants
1. $172,2000 - Sher, Susan (Chief Of Staff)
2. $140,000 - Frye, Jocelyn C . (Deputy Assistant to the President and
Director of Policy And Projects For The First Lady)
3. $113,000 - Rogers, Desiree G (Special Assistant to the President and
White House Social Secretary)
4. $102,000 - Johnston, Camille Y. (Special Assistant to the President and
Director of Communications for the First Lady)
5. $100,000 - Winter, Melissa E. (Special Assistant to the President and
Deputy Chief Of Staff to the First Lady)
6. $90,000 - Medina , David S. (Deputy Chief Of Staff to the First Lady)
7. $84,000 - Lelyveld, Catherine M. (Director and Press Secretary to the
First Lady)
8. $75,000 - Starkey, Frances M. (Director of Scheduling and Advance for the
First Lady)
9. $70,000 - Sanders, Trooper (Deputy Director of Policy and Projects for
the First Lady)
10. $65,000 - Burnough, Erinn J. (Deputy Director and Deputy Social
Secretary)
11.. $64,000 - Reinstein, Joseph B. (Deputy Director and Deputy Social
Secretary)
12. $62,000 - Goodman, Jennifer R. (Deputy Director of Scheduling and Events
Coordinator For The First Lady)
13. $60,000 - Fitts, Alan O. (Deputy Dir ector of Advance and Trip Director
for the First Lady)
14. $57,500 - Lewis, Dana M. (Special Assistant and Personal Aide to the
First Lady)
15. $52,500 - Mustaphi, Semonti M. (Associate Director and Deputy Press
Secretary To The First Lady)
16. $50,000 - Jarvis, Kristen E. (Special=2 0Assistant for Scheduling and
Traveling Aide To The First Lady)
17. $45,000 - Lechtenberg, Tyler A. (Associate Director of Correspondence
For The First Lady)
18. $43,000 - Tubman, Samantha (Deputy Associate Director, Social Office)
19. $40,000 - Boswell, Joseph J.. (Executive Assistant to the Chief Of Staff
to the First Lady)
20. $36,000 - Armbruster, Sally M. (Staff Assistant to the Social Secretary)
21. $35,000 - Bookey, Natalie (Staff Assistant)
22. $35,000 - Jackson, Deilia A. (Deputy Associate Director of
Correspondence for the First Lady)
(This is community organizing at it's finest.)
There has NEVER been anyone in the White House at any time who has created
such an army of staffers whose sole duties are the facilitation of the First
Lady's social life. One wonders why she needs so much help, at taxpayer
expense, when even Hillary, only had three; Jackie Kennedy one; Laura Bush
one; and prior to Mamie Eisenhower social help came from the President's own
pocket.
Note: This does not include makeup artist Ingrid Grimes-Miles, 49, and
"First Hairstylist" Johnny Wright, 31, both of whom traveled aboard Air
Force One to Europe .
FRIENDS.....THESE SALARIES ADD UP TO SIX MILLION, THREE HUNDRED SIXTY FOUR
THOUSAND DOLLARS ($6,364,000)FOR THE 4 YEARS OF OFFICE????? AND WE ARE IN
A RECESSION????? WELL....MOST OF US ARE.. I GUESS IT'S OK TO SPEND WILDLY
WHEN IT'S NOT YOUR OWN MONEY?????
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
What are they thinking?
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CONGRESS REFUSES TO BRING HOME MILLIONS OF JOBSPART 1 of 2
By: DevvyFebruary 15, 2010© 2010 - NewsWithViews.com
"He, therefore, who is now against domestic manufacture, must be for reducing us either to dependence on that foreign nation, or to be clothed in skins, and to live like wild beasts in dens and caverns. I am not one of these; experience has taught me that manufactures are now as necessary to our independence as to our comfort; and if those who quote me as of a different opinion, will keep pace with me in purchasing nothing foreign where an equivalent of domestic fabric can be obtained, without regard to difference of price, it will not be our fault if we do not soon have a supply at home equal to our demand, and wrest that weapon of distress from the hand which has wielded it." The Letters of Thomas Jefferson: 1743-1826. To Benjamin Austin Monticello, January 9, 1816
I was in Denver recently. As I refuse to fly commercial, I drive. From Big Spring, Texas, where I live, to Denver and back, the number one subject of discussion is jobs. People are very afraid; you can see it in their eyes and hear it in their voice as they say, "I thought we were in a recovery."
It is not the job of the federal government to create jobs, yet the thieves in the Outlaw Congress right now are bickering over another con job called a "jobs bill". This is just more of the same: increasing the debt, weaning more Americans into government jobs and possibly another extension of unemployment benefits:
"Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) and Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) worked for weeks with Reid's blessing and frequent involvement to craft an $85 billion jobs bill, a measure that seemed destined to break the partisan logjam that has ground the Senate to a halt.
"[Reid's] trying to keep it simple," Harkin said emerging from the meeting, "but what I think ought to be in the package is unemployment insurance for one year."
The Marxist usurper in the White House just (without any legal authority) signed another law raising the public debt limit from $12.4 TRILLION "dollars" to $14.3 TRILLION "dollars".
Heck, what's another $85 BILLION tacked on for you, me, our children and grand children to labor like oxen under the yoke to do nothing more than pay the interest on that debt for our entire lifetimes? The people's purse is overdrawn, well, go look at the debt clock; it runs faster than I can type. But, the Outlaw Congress wants to spend another $85 BILLION "dollars" that will have to be borrowed? Create jobs out of borrowed debt? Does anyone see the insanity of this? Remember: you are going to work today to help pay $800 MILLION dollars a week just on the interest to commie China for "our" debt.
It is impossible to pay off this Congressionally created debt, signed off by every president for the past 100 years:
"A lot of people are very upset about the rapidly increasing U.S. national debt these days and they are demanding a solution. What they don't realize is that there simply is not a solution under the current U.S. financial system. It is now mathematically impossible for the U.S. government to pay off the U.S. national debt. You see, the truth is that the U.S. government now owes more dollars than actually exist. If the U.S. government went out today and took every single penny from every single American bank, business and taxpayer, they still would not be able to pay off the national debt. And if they did that, obviously American society would stop functioning because nobody would have any money to buy or sell anything.
"And the U.S. government would still be massively in debt."
Unemployment checks are replacing paychecks. This has done nothing to restore our most important and good paying job sectors. This has done nothing and will do nothing towards putting Americans back to work. More Band Aids to cover the massive bleeding. Employers will not hire unless there is an increase in their business and 17 MILLION unemployed Americans are only buying diapers, food, gas and other essentials. Too many are living in tents or their cars. Then, there are consumers like me who will NOT buy Made in commie China or India. I go without if I can't find what I want, so retailers are not getting our money. Employers also cannot hire when being hit by massive unemployment taxes.
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Folks have been sending me their candidate of choice for Congress in the coming November elections. The only problem is -- why are none of the candidates (that I've seen so far) addressing real solutions instead of just more pap and warmed over political rhetoric? John Dennis is running against Marxist Nancy Pelosi. He is a great constitutional candidate, except I don't see him stepping forward with the taking the first step in bringing home MILLIONS of good paying jobs: "As a country we should welcome trade with all countries, resolve our outstanding disputes with countries considered unfriendly and have diplomatic relations with all."
Well said, but, like so many of the other candidates for Congress, where is your pledge to introduce and fight to get passed, bills that will get America out of three unconstitutional treaties: NAFTA, CAFTA and GATT?
Full page ad, NY Times, April 15, 1994:1944. Bretton Woods: The IMF and the World Bank. 1945. San Francisco: The United Nations. 1994, Marrakech: The World Trade Organization. History knows where its going. The final act of the Uruguay Round....to the WTO, the third pillar of the New World Order, along with the UN and the IMF." Henry Kissinger, a tried and true traitor and Soviet agent recently said when asked the most important role Marxist Obama can play regarding the middle East: "Obama can give a new impetus to American foreign policy....his task is to step forward to create a new world."
People like me fought tooth and nail against all of those treaties. Job killers. The destruction of our most important job sectors, agriculture, manufacturing and industrial have been destroyed by those treaties. The Republicans had 12 years to get us out of those treaties and out of the communist controlled UN. Instead, they did NOTHING while this nation hemorrhaged jobs by the millions.
Voters, tired, hungry and jobless or having lost their good factory job now working for minimum wage, continue to vote back into the office the same turncoats who voted for these job killing treaties: John Boehner, Dana Rohrabacher, Newt globalist Gingrich, Tom Delay, Dennis Hastert, Nancy Pelosi, Steny Hoyer and so many more; the list is here. On the senate side: Grassley sold us out as well as McCain, Lott, Shelby, Kay Bailey Hutchinson and more; the list is here. Some of the crooks are gone (Hastert, Gingrich, Lott), but I can tell you that the aforementioned (with possibly the exception of Pelosi and Hutchinson who is running for Governor in Texas) will all be rewarded with reelection for their treachery in handing over our jobs to communist countries. Pro-communism is anti-American.
The Pelosi/Reid team has had control of Congress since January 2007. They have done NOTHING to get us out of those destructive trade treaties. Instead, they continue to spend more debt, not money, and creating more government jobs from borrowed, worthless paper that produce nothing but higher taxes to pay for those jobs. What they have done is simply light a bigger bonfire for what's coming very soon and it can't be stopped. The same policies pursued by FDR are being replayed today and the results will be the same - financial Armageddon - just on a grander scale. As Bob Chapman so correctly states in his recent International Forecaster:
Revising The Economic Problems Wont Make Them Go Away. "The inflationary depression still dominates and probably will continue to do so. In time the stimulus will fail to work and the world will slip into total insolvency and deflationary depression. The old M3 is about 3%, but we still have $23.7 trillion floating around. Not only is the US bankrupt, but also so is the rest of the world. It is now only a question of when the dominos will fall.
It looks like the first wave in the collapse of the bear market rally is underway. Bonds will follow with higher interest rates and eventually commodities will be hit. Only gold and silver will survive, as the bankers and Wall Street complete their destruction of the world economy." For part two click below.
Click here for part -----> 2,
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Devvy Kidd authored the booklets, Why A Bankrupt America and Blind Loyalty; 2 million copies sold. Devvy appears on radio shows all over the country. She left the Republican Party in 1996 and has been an independent voter ever since. Devvy isn't left, right or in the middle; she is a constitutionalist who believes in the supreme law of the land, not some political party.
Devvy's regularly posted new columns are on her site at: www.devvy.com. You can also sign up for her free email alerts.
E-mail is: devvyk@earthlink.net
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It looks like the first wave in the collapse of the bear market rally is underway. Bonds will follow with higher interest rates and eventually commodities will be hit. Only gold and silver will survive...
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
I have a rant for you guys...
I was watching "the news" and they were talking about the rules of engagement for our boys and girls over in the sand pit. The rules are that they can not fire on anyone unless they actually see a weapon. The S.N.'s fire on our troops under cover. then drop their weapons and taunt our troops and walk away, knowing that our troops can not return fire. What the fuck? That is just crazy. If that's how "our government" wants it run over there then it's high time we demand that they be brought back. This is bullshit. You know what else is bullshit? My frigging state senator King Durbin! I email this shit bag about once a week. Probably won't be long till the FBI are knocking my door down but who gives a shit. I walked Federal Penitentiaries for 23 years I can make it fine. Back to the point of this rant, if there is one, I first contacted King Durbin I always refer to him in my E-mails as King Durbin or Big Dick Durbin (LOL) I asked him to come to southern Illinois and meet with me and about 500 of my closest friends to discuss the, at that time, purposed health care bill. His response was that he didn't feel as if town hall meetings were productive so he doesn't have them. Well anyone that knows me knows that kind of shit makes me see red. Anyway I keep telling Big Dick Durbin to enjoy it while he can cause he's about through. I always get stupid responses from his people. But this week was the fucking straw that broke the camels back. This motherfucker is on a trip to Africa!!!!! So I email his stupid ass yesterday and ask them what in the name of all that is holy is his stupid ass doing in Africa! Their response? He's over there on a fact finding tour to see how we can assist them! Oh My God! I mail them back and ask him why the hell is he trying to help africa out when we have Veterans here in the United States sleeping in motherfucking refrigerator boxes!!! I haven't received a reply yet although I know it will be a good one. It's time my Sisters & Brothers, It's time for a revolution.
Okay rant over for today....Thank you for your time.
Okay rant over for today....Thank you for your time.
This goes with my last post
No wonder America is broke
Entrepreneur?????
It took me a couple of minutes to get it, but imagine, NINE welfare recipients collecting $1500 each......that equals $13,500 a month !!! Now add food stamps, free medical, free school lunches, on and on and on. Now that to me is a real Entrepreneur. Makes one proud to be a Democrat.
Entrepreneur?????
It took me a couple of minutes to get it, but imagine, NINE welfare recipients collecting $1500 each......that equals $13,500 a month !!! Now add food stamps, free medical, free school lunches, on and on and on. Now that to me is a real Entrepreneur. Makes one proud to be a Democrat.
This oughta piss you off
I know I have posted about this before but this is an Angry Mob site so I feel the need to break it down and update it.
I'm talking about Federal tax refunds.
Background Information:
I have 15 employees. I'm going to talk about one of those employees.
This employee has 6 kids might be 7 I'm not sure. She is unmarried and none of the
kids have the same father. She lives in a 4 bedroom government house and pays about $150.00 a month in rent. The state pays her utility bills. How she does that I do not know. She receives over $900.00 a month in link (Food Stamps), she has a government paid medical card. She makes $620.00 every two weeks. She has a fairly nice car. She has a big screen TV and a nice new lap top.
As I am her employer I know what she paid in Federal Taxes for 2009. She paid zero!!!!! nothing, nada. Too many deductions. She filed her taxes, Yea I'm still scratching my head over that she comes in and shows me how much she is getting back. Ready for this? She's only getting back $9,526.00 this year!!!! I sat down and half assed figured her TRUE income for 2009. I got the figure right at $60,000. when you consider everything we are giving her.
I don't have a point over than this is one fucking person!!!!! I have asked her why she works and her reply is for spending money!!!!! MF'ER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Me, I work, well I have responsibilities and I have held a job since I was 9 years old, mowing lawns and what do I get back this year? I have to pay $1,189.00 is all.
Wheres the justice?
I'm talking about Federal tax refunds.
Background Information:
I have 15 employees. I'm going to talk about one of those employees.
This employee has 6 kids might be 7 I'm not sure. She is unmarried and none of the
kids have the same father. She lives in a 4 bedroom government house and pays about $150.00 a month in rent. The state pays her utility bills. How she does that I do not know. She receives over $900.00 a month in link (Food Stamps), she has a government paid medical card. She makes $620.00 every two weeks. She has a fairly nice car. She has a big screen TV and a nice new lap top.
As I am her employer I know what she paid in Federal Taxes for 2009. She paid zero!!!!! nothing, nada. Too many deductions. She filed her taxes, Yea I'm still scratching my head over that she comes in and shows me how much she is getting back. Ready for this? She's only getting back $9,526.00 this year!!!! I sat down and half assed figured her TRUE income for 2009. I got the figure right at $60,000. when you consider everything we are giving her.
I don't have a point over than this is one fucking person!!!!! I have asked her why she works and her reply is for spending money!!!!! MF'ER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Me, I work, well I have responsibilities and I have held a job since I was 9 years old, mowing lawns and what do I get back this year? I have to pay $1,189.00 is all.
Wheres the justice?
Monday, February 15, 2010
Friday, February 12, 2010
LOL--- A word from the other side
It's a good read,
Fuck the South. Fuck 'em. We should have let them go when they wanted to leave. But no, we had to kill half a million people so they'd stay part of our special Union. Fighting for the right to keep slaves - yeah, those are states we want to keep.
And now what do we get? We're the fucking Arrogant Northeast Liberal Elite? How about this for arrogant: the South is the Real America? The Authentic America. Really?
Cause we fucking founded this country, assholes. Those Founding Fathers you keep going on and on about? All that bullshit about what you think they meant by the Second Amendment giving you the right to keep your assault weapons in the glove compartment because you didn't bother to read the first half of the fucking sentence? Who do you think those wig-wearing lacy-shirt sporting revolutionaries were? They were fucking blue-staters, dickhead. Boston? Philadelphia? New York? Hello? Think there might be a reason all the fucking monuments are up here in our backyard?
No, No. Get the fuck out. We're not letting you visit the Liberty Bell and fucking Plymouth Rock anymore until you get over your real American selves and start respecting those other nine amendments. Who do you think those fucking stripes on the flag are for? Nine are for fucking blue states. And it would be 10 if those Vermonters had gotten their fucking Subarus together and broken off from New York a little earlier. Get it? We started this shit, so don't get all uppity about how real you are you Johnny-come-lately "Oooooh I've been a state for almost a hundred years" dickheads. Fuck off.
Arrogant? You wanna talk about us Northeasterners being fucking arrogant? What's more American than arrogance? Hmmm? Maybe horsies? I don't think so. Arrogance is the fucking cornerstone of what it means to be American. And I wouldn't be so fucking arrogant if I wasn't paying for your fucking bridges, bitch.
All those Federal taxes you love to hate? It all comes from us and goes to you, so shut up and enjoy your fucking Tennessee Valley Authority electricity and your fancy highways that we paid for. And the next time Florida gets hit by a hurricane you can come crying to us if you want to, but you're the ones who built on a fucking swamp. "Let the Spanish keep it, it’s a shithole," we said, but you had to have your fucking orange juice.
The next dickwad who says, "It’s your money, not the government's money" is gonna get their ass kicked. Nine of the ten states that get the most federal fucking dollars and pay the least... can you guess? Go on, guess. That’s right, motherfucker, they're red states. And eight of the ten states that receive the least and pay the most? It’s too easy, asshole, they’re blue states. It’s not your money, assholes, it’s fucking our money. What was that Real American Value you were spouting a minute ago? Self reliance? Try this for self reliance: buy your own fucking stop signs, assholes.
Let’s talk about those values for a fucking minute. You and your Southern values can bite my ass because the blue states got the values over you fucking Real Americans every day of the goddamn week. Which state do you think has the lowest divorce rate you marriage-hyping dickwads? Well? Can you guess? It’s fucking Massachusetts, the fucking center of the gay marriage universe. Yes, that’s right, the state you love to tie around the neck of anyone to the left of Strom Thurmond has the lowest divorce rate in the fucking nation. Think that’s just some aberration? How about this: 9 of the 10 lowest divorce rates are fucking blue states, asshole, and most are in the Northeast, where our values suck so bad. And where are the highest divorce rates? Care to fucking guess? 10 of the top 10 are fucking red-ass we're-so-fucking-moral states. And while Nevada is the worst, the Bible Belt is doing its fucking part.
But two guys making out is going to fucking ruin marriage for you? Yeah? Seems like you're ruining it pretty well on your own, you little bastards. Oh, but that's ok because you go to church, right? I mean you do, right? Cause we fucking get to hear about it every goddamn year at election time. Yes, we're fascinated by how you get up every Sunday morning and sing, and then you're fucking towers of moral superiority. Yeah, that's a workable formula. Maybe us fucking Northerners don't talk about religion as much as you because we're not so busy sinning, hmmm? Ever think of that, you self-righteous assholes? No, you're too busy erecting giant stone tablets of the Ten Commandments in buildings paid for by the fucking Northeast Liberal Elite. And who has the highest murder rates in the nation? It ain't us up here in the North, assholes.
Well this gravy train is fucking over. Take your liberal-bashing, federal-tax-leaching, confederate-flag-waving, holier-than-thou, hypocritical bullshit and shove it up your ass.
And no, you can't have your fucking convention in New York next time. Fuck off.
Thursday, February 4, 2010
A very good read
The Coming Fury Of An Angry America
By Aetius Romulous
06 January, 2010
Countercurrents.org
A tiny part of a tiny part of the population of the earth will set the terms for the future of all humans. A tiny part that is broken, spent out, and increasingly disillusioned. That sliver of humanity is the broken, spent out, and increasingly disillusioned American middle class, burdened with the task of spending all America out of catastrophe. When they break under the weight of desperate impossibility, how will the heartlands good citizens react, and what will they do?
According to the World Bank, there are 6,692,030,277 human beings on the earth. 308,108,741 of them live in the United States, about 4.6% of the total. Of these fortunate Americans, about 231,000,000 are of voting age. In general elections in history's greatest democracy, about half those eligible to vote actually do...115 million people. History's greatest democracy has only two options every election, a choice between two almost similar positions, and the winning option typically enjoys the support of only half of those who choose, approximately 60 million individuals.
For a scant 90 years, America has been the wealthiest, most powerful group of humans in all 20,000 years of recorded civilization. Decisions made by Americans can and do affect the lives of every other human on the planet, often for both present and future, good and bad. By brute force of American economics alone, a single, small 0.9% of the 6.6 billion people who call earth home set the agenda for each and every one of all the rest of us. Not even by force of arms has there ever been a time in glorious history when so few people dominated so many in so complete a way.
Centuries from now, historians will want to know whom these few people were, if only to understand how they lived and thought, and better know the cause of global events that shaped the world they live in. As we in our time grapple to understand who the powers were that made a Roman, a Roman, future thinkers will want to dissect the condition of the less than one per cent of all humanity who call themselves American, and who alone make America, America... and the earth, American as well.
It cost 1 billion dollars and four years to have .9% of the earth elect the President of the United States in 2008. It took a similar amount of time and money to be the guy that lost. Hundreds of millions more are expended to elect the 435 people who make up the United States Congress. No statistical analysis is required to understand that these are among the wealthiest and most privileged humans in all of history. A tiny fraction of a tiny fraction of a tiny fraction of the population of the planet. This, we are led to believe is democracy, and so this small sliver is at least nominally responsible to those few who elected them, and nobody else.
Like all great empires, America has a well-defined class structure. As a fedora on a table, at one brim is the thin cruel line of poverty and disenfranchisement, at the other brim another thin line of luxury and excess, and a middle where the head goes which has historically been the big, fat, American middle class. The middle class sets the agenda by dearth of weight, the luxury class promoting the agenda where and when it suits them. The lower class don't matter at all.
The great American middle class, then, at least nominally controls the fate of the planet. They do so by electing wealthy folks who pander to their interests, those wealthy folks whose interpretations of the middle class becomes policy. Future folks will want to understand how representative those interpretations were, and will want to see if changes in the middle class over time were responsible for changes in American policy towards the world.
If anything defines the great American middle class, it is the concept of the American Dream. The basic building block of the American Dream is the family - mom, dad, 2.4 kids and a dog. The "dream" part is the very American right to economic freedom, freedom to accumulate stuff. A box on a postage stamp in a sea of urban sprawl called home, a couple of cars, a good education for the kids, and unrestricted ability to consume as much surplus crap as possible. Americans define success completely in economic terms and then attach the flag, religion, and everything else to it. Without this absolute right to consume hordes of junk, there is no American Dream, and no middle class. There is left only a lower class, (whatever that is), and a powerful capitalist class existing as it always has throughout time, changing flags and philosophy depending on how the winds blow. Caesar, Czar, King, or CEO of Goldman Sachs.
The rise of the middle class at the end of the 19th century tracks the rise of wealth and power for most western, industrialized nations. Production, trade, and consumption of machine made goods became a near universal indicator of the rise of modern civilization. However, 40 years of crushing war amongst European powers stalled the growth for most, but emerging America remained unscathed, benefiting from the misdemeanours of a now dead age. History will fix the date of the birth of absolute America to the year 1914, the dawn of the American age to 1945, and no doubt, the golden era to the short period that began to erode in 1971. Of the time since, we the generation here and now and in the teeth of it, can only speculate.
In the summer of 1914, America was an outlier in a world of teetering monarchies, festering colonial empires, and rancid landed aristocracies. While the rest of the world fed its gold and its young to the insatiable maw of industrial war, Americans were building a dream from limitless resources and the economic opportunities of a conflict that left America unspoiled and prosperous. By the close of hostilities in 1945, with the capital of the planet spent and exhausted, America burst from the ruins to begin the greatest run of prosperity and innovation of all time. The American middle class exploded, living the dream so thoughtfully given to them over a generation of global war.
Powerhouse America imposed its vision of a liberal, free market democracy on the "free world" through the Bretton Woods agreement of 1944. The United States became the world's greatest manufacturer of goods, trader of goods, and consumer of goods. Rebuilding the planet became a God given mission, the profits manna from heaven. The American dollar became the world's dollar. Freedom and cash registers rang.
But with the US greenback backed by gold, American economic expansion was limited to the bullion it horded. Wars in Korea and Viet Nam, and the massive expansion of "entitlements" with Social Security and Medicare among others, began to strain the American Dream. By the early 1970's the US had ceased to be an exporter of stuff, and the middle class began to buy increasingly cheaper stuff from abroad - at the expense of their own manufacturing and jobs. Given that the dream of freewheeling consumption was the bedrock of the burgeoning, voting middle class, politics insisted on a populist solution to the increasingly broke US economy. In 1971, Richard Nixon elected to abandon Bretton Woods, leave the gold standard, and America was free to print its way out of deficit and keep the dream alive.
At the same time as the US set the world awash in USD's, untold wealth and prosperity inflated its way through the massive baby boomer cohort. Women were entering the workforce in exponential numbers, soaking up inflated dollars with double incomes - and less expensive kids. American politics became a contest of pandering to the hedonistic desires of the American household, boom times embraced and fuelled by lax regulation and credit, busts fought off with the simple printing of even more money. Good times.
The American household saved 11% of its income in 1970, and had only 1.4% of its cash going to newfangled credit cards and auto loans. Everything else exchanged for clothes, appliances, food, houses, and shiny happy stuff, increasingly from overseas. Unknown to all, it was to be the high water mark for the middle class of America.
In 1971, American imports exceeded exports for the first time in modern history, by 2.6 billion dollars. At a time when a billion was a lot, America began paying to simply exist. Gross Public Debt had grown from 43 billion in 1940, to 381 billion by 1970. Within a single generation - the age of narcissism, the computer age, the age of globalization - the baby boomers of the American middle class had tilted the entire planets resources towards an unsustainable consumer culture. No longer living the dream, those alive just moments before Lehman Brothers listed over, rolled under, and disappeared below the waves of history, were fighting simply to keep the stuff they had.
The future had evaporated right before their shuttered eyes, and for over forty years.
The current version of the American middle class bears no resemblance at all to that of the end of the golden era in 1970. Forty years ago, Americans saved 11% of their earnings - which had evaporated by 2005, reaching the oxymoron of negative savings. Credit card debt shot from 1.4% to 15%. In the space of a generation, a single income family flush with cash, savings, and dreams had become a double income nightmare staggered with debt.
In 2008, there were more household bankruptcies than divorces.
The cost of crap fell and Wal Mart rose. Debt enslaved suburbanites now spend 32% less on clothing than they did a generation ago. 18% less on food, 52% less on appliances, and 24% less on cars. The middle class is consuming as voraciously as it ever has, however they have replaced sturdy $400.00 American Lawn Boy lawn mowers with $99.00 tin cans from China, and buy them now on credit. Some call that progress, others, value. In reality, it's inflation. The simple fact of the matter is Americans no longer have the disposable income to consume their way out of trouble, and that trouble lies in why it is the American middle class is broke, struggling, and increasingly angry.
At the same time that consumables were falling in price, the fixed portions of the American Dream began an exponential increase. Two incomes meant two cars - or three, or four - and despite the fact that cars were cheaper, the cost of cars to the two-income family rose by 52%. Houses got bigger, and mortgages increased 76% - with 10 million of them in various states of distress and foreclosure. Health insurance rose 76%, taxes 25%. Childcare was an expense nobody had a generation ago, but one that became essential with two adults working. The cost of education had increased - as did the length of time necessary to obtain that education. A ticket to the middle class that cost 12 years of school - grade one through high school - now includes daycare, preschool, grade school, high school, and then college. Americans must now pay for the additional time.
In 2005, that .09% of the earth that set the agenda for the planet was spending over 66% of its income on the fixed costs of the American dream alone, where it once spent less than a third. Or, to frame it in a way that defines the great problem, the American system that depends on rabid consumerism has left its heartland with exponentially decreasing amounts of disposable income, falling from 66% to 33% in a single lifetime. When George W Bush implored the middle class to spend its way out of the 9/11 chaos, in stunned and terrified whispers the American middle class muttered, "With what?"
"The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society. Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country"- Edward Bernays, 1928
"Our enormously productive economy...demands that we make consumption our way of life, that we convert the buying and use of goods into rituals, that we seek our spiritual satisfaction, our ego satisfaction, in consumption.... We need things consumed, burned up, replaced and discarded at an ever-accelerating rate"- Victor Lebeau, 1947
"Too much consumption and too little investment, too many imports and too few exports. We have not been on a sustainable economic track and that has to be changed. But those changes don't come overnight, they don't come in a quarter, they don't come in a year. You can begin them but that is a process that takes time. If we don't make that adjustment and if we again pump up consumption, we will just walk into another crisis."- Paul Volker, 2009
“If you look around, you see how many people is out of work, number one, and you see how many people is in foreclosure or lost their homes or in default because they've lost their jobs, that tells you right there what the economy is doing.” - Middle Class American, 2009
A tiny part of a tiny part of the population of the earth had constructed a global economic architecture that sustained it in wealth and excess, security and predictability. In a scant forty years that wealth, excess, security, and predictability have proved to be entirely unsustainable. The approaching political climate of the American middle class will reflect the shock and desperation that may now be starting to manifest itself. How Americans react to their fast changing circumstance and what they will do about it will deeply affect the 95% of the earth's humans who are really only along for the ride.
In 2008, America gambled on hope, as hope is all it had. A new administration faced the growing catastrophe in the only way it could understand, frantically pumping in dollars to resuscitate a prostrate consumerism. An insane amount of debt piled up, the annual deficit soaring through $1,000,000,000.00. One trillion dollars. Absolutely none of it was used to purchase plasma TV's, hot tubs, or bling. The richest of Americans - as they always have - prospered along Wall Street and summered in the Hamptons while the drought stricken middle class waited for a rain that will never fall.
The American middle class will not spend its way out of disaster, if only because it can't. There are no savings. The house is worthless. The credit cards are gone. Jobs are disappearing. Today is bad and tomorrow looks worse. People are nervous, frightened, worried. They are behind in the mortgage, and struggle to make health insurance payments. All the while, they watch the stock market explode, the bonuses arrogantly roll on, and their government lie to their faces that the "recovery" is underway. China is booming, so is India and Brazil. Beneath the hope, patriotism, and the flag, the American middle class can feel it all slipping away.
In a nation consumed by politics, where pandering and lobbying are two sides of the same platitude, what will the increasingly angry gentle folks of Ohio, Iowa, and Florida demand of their philandering representatives in Washington? What form of instant remedy will some baseless political hack come to offer them as the snake oil for what ails them? How will those decisions come to dominate the lives of those in Canada, Ecuador, and Ghana?
In the distant future, historians will consider the rise, fall, and collapse of the great American Dream and conclude that was the cause of all that followed. None will be surprised at the all too human response of anger, frustration, and action in the teeth of injustice and inequality. After all, history is full of angry people who just weren't going to take it anymore. They will wonder only how it was we could not see it coming - how we could be so stupid to have blown it.
The coming fury of angry America is as palpable as it is silent. What will that tiny part of a tiny part of the earth's population do when the utter hopelessness of the situation washes over them and the tides of history curl around and bear them, inexorably, into the past?
What will they do?
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
One trillion Dollars
All this talk about "stimulus packages" and "bailouts"...
A billion dollars...
A hundred billion dollars...
Eight hundred billion dollars...
One TRILLION dollars...
What does that look like? I mean, these various numbers are tossed around like so many doggie treats, so I thought I'd take Google Sketchup out for a test drive and try to get a sense of what exactly a trillion dollars looks like.
We'll start with a $100 dollar bill. Currently the largest U.S. denomination in general circulation. Most everyone has seen them, slighty fewer have owned them. Guaranteed to make friends wherever they go.
A packet of one hundred $100 bills is less than 1/2" thick and contains $10,000. Fits in your pocket easily and is more than enough for week or two of shamefully decadent fun.
Believe it or not, this next little pile is $1 million dollars (100 packets of $10,000). You could stuff that into a grocery bag and walk around with it.
While a measly $1 million looked a little unimpressive, $100 million is a little more respectable. It fits neatly on a standard pallet...
And $1 BILLION dollars... now we're really getting somewhere...
Next we'll look at ONE TRILLION dollars. This is that number we've been hearing so much about. What is a trillion dollars? Well, it's a million million. It's a thousand billion. It's a one followed by 12 zeros.
You ready for this?
It's pretty surprising.
Ladies and gentlemen... I give you $1 trillion dollars...
Notice those pallets are double stacked and notice our man standing down in the bottom corner.
...and remember those are $100 bills.
So the next time you hear someone toss around the phrase "trillion dollars"... that's what they're talking about.
You can see the original author's page here.
Oh, and just in case you've not puked yet, here's a shot at the national debt, as it was when these picture were made:
A billion dollars...
A hundred billion dollars...
Eight hundred billion dollars...
One TRILLION dollars...
What does that look like? I mean, these various numbers are tossed around like so many doggie treats, so I thought I'd take Google Sketchup out for a test drive and try to get a sense of what exactly a trillion dollars looks like.
We'll start with a $100 dollar bill. Currently the largest U.S. denomination in general circulation. Most everyone has seen them, slighty fewer have owned them. Guaranteed to make friends wherever they go.
A packet of one hundred $100 bills is less than 1/2" thick and contains $10,000. Fits in your pocket easily and is more than enough for week or two of shamefully decadent fun.
Believe it or not, this next little pile is $1 million dollars (100 packets of $10,000). You could stuff that into a grocery bag and walk around with it.
While a measly $1 million looked a little unimpressive, $100 million is a little more respectable. It fits neatly on a standard pallet...
And $1 BILLION dollars... now we're really getting somewhere...
Next we'll look at ONE TRILLION dollars. This is that number we've been hearing so much about. What is a trillion dollars? Well, it's a million million. It's a thousand billion. It's a one followed by 12 zeros.
You ready for this?
It's pretty surprising.
Ladies and gentlemen... I give you $1 trillion dollars...
Notice those pallets are double stacked and notice our man standing down in the bottom corner.
...and remember those are $100 bills.
So the next time you hear someone toss around the phrase "trillion dollars"... that's what they're talking about.
You can see the original author's page here.
Oh, and just in case you've not puked yet, here's a shot at the national debt, as it was when these picture were made:
Here's a good one
We’re in trouble...
The population of this country is 300 million.
160 million are retired.
That leaves 140 million to do the work.
There are 85 million in school.
Which leaves 55 million to do the work.
Of this there are 35 million employed by the federal government.
Leaving 15 million to do the work.
2.8 million are in the armed forces preoccupied with killing Osama Bin-Laden.
Which leaves 12.2 million to do the work.
Take from that total the 10.8 million people who work for state and city Governments. And that leaves 1.4 million to do the work.
At any given time there are 188,000 people in hospitals.
Leaving 1,212,000 to do the work.
Now, there are 1,211,998 people in prisons.
That leaves just two people to do the work.
You and me.
And there you are,
Sitting on your ass,
At your computer, reading jokes.
Nice. Real nice.
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
The War on Drugs
A more apt title for this post may well be "The Republican Version of the Progressive Liberals' position of 'It is not working, therefore we need to do more if it'."
Yesterday, I was again drawn into a conversation concerning farce that is the so-called war on drugs. Literally billions spent, thousands lives ruined, and even the most ardent supporter can not honestly claim this "war" has been any sort of success.
With the legalization of drugs, there are many possible outcomes and only ONE certainty. That organized crime will no longer be part of the equation. Mind you, I don't speak for any party, rather I am a Libertarian stating my take on the matter. Interesting side thought though, is that after all these billions, the percentage of "non-functioning" addicts has remained relatively unchanged compared to the percentage before this charade called the war on drugs started.
The fellow I was speaking with was a classical conservative Republican. He said: @Scott - we have prison overcrowding and we have just shut down one of our county jails due to lack of funding. I would have to believe by shutting that capacity down we are already releasing those non-violent offenders. I say we ship all of them to an island dump some drugs there and make it a free-for-all and the toughest win. We'll send some seeds and they can grow their own. We'll park a war-ship off of the coast and if anyone tries to leave we blow them out of the water.
As far as the existing problem in my area, specifically one house on my street? I m going to speak to my friend at Crime Stoppers on Wednesday and see what he thinks. We have called the police so many times and have turned in pictures of the license plates that are in and out at all hours of the day and night. Unpleasant aromas and odd trash and substances being flushed down the street, but the police do nothing about it. I guess I am going to have to make a stand and get something juicy on this person(s.)
I don't know what the best answer is to defeat the drug problem, but I am can't agree in making it legal would be of a benefit other than reducing the gangs, which mostly kill off one another anyway. - End Quote
My take on that is that his view is similar with the Progressive Liberals', it is just about a different issue. A government program is proven not to work, so let's keep doing it. I think the flaw in his thinking on this issue is that if drugs were legalized, use would automatically increase. Let's not forget, (and you can check this for yourself if you find it too incredible to believe), about 50 years ago, you could buy heroin, complete with a syringe, 3 needles, and a shiny carrying case from the Sears & Robuck catalog. Even with that convenience, there were no more non-functioning addicts than there are now. Now, compare the alcohol prohibition years and discover similar results. The obvious conclusion is that people who are inclined to use drugs are going to do so. The law does not stop them. The question then becomes, what do we do about it? There are many theories I have heard, and I will not waste space with mine, but again, the certainty is that prohibition has introduced the hard-core criminal element into the equation, much as it did during alcohol prohibition.
Much of what I learned about the "war on drugs" was gained from Daniel Williams' book, "The Naked Truth About Drugs". I have met Daniel, and he is a contributor to this blog, a GREAT friend and a fantastic source of real information. For your reference, here is a link to his book:
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=the+naked+truth+about+drugs&x=15&y=14
Back to the point, there is drug use in your community and you are worried that legalization would result in an increase. The question still remains, what to do about the existing problem in your area. We know the current strategy is not working, because he (the repub) says there are currently drugs being used in his neighborhood.
To use loose numbers from memory, the number of non-functioning drug addicts is at almost 3% of the population. Almost exactly the same as it was before prohibition. By non-functioning, I mean people who live only to get high. Don't work, don't have social lives, etc. Only the drugs. Now introduce the "functioning addict", very similar, if not identical, to the functioning alcoholic. Goes to work, has friends, etc. I only mention him to clarify what I mean by non-functioning addict.
It is proven through surveys of non-functioning addicts that if they could do nothing but get high, but had to do so at the cost of loosing their freedom, the vast majority (over 90% if memory serves) would do so.
My solution: Release those who are serving time for simple possession. Use those now emptied prison cells to house addicts and let them have at it. This would
a) get the criminals out of the equation,
b) ensure those addicts were taking "pure drugs", without the "cut" that is so often responsible for the overdoses, and
c) ensure that there was adequate help available for any that would later decide they no longer wanted to do the drugs.
As a side benefit, the cost would be no more than it currently is housing users who are in prison, while providing several benefits that I just mentioned. Plus, the criminals and gangs are removed from the equation, as there is no longer profit to be made for them.
I know, I said I wasn't going to state my theory, but I'm on a roll now.
So to the Conservative Republican's ideas, I'll conclude: "Okay then. Victory at the barrel of a gun." The problem as I see it, it that after untold money being spent, untold bullets being used, and untold lives being ruined, "victory" still has not been achieved. The concept that the gangsters are going to kill one another off is ridiculous. As long as the profits are there to be made, there will always be another to step in the dearly departed's shoes. The local jail shutting down because of over crowding is largely the result of government created "criminals" over crowding the system.
I apologize to the Republicans who share this man's views, but in my humble opinion, his reasoning is flawed on several levels. Perhaps we ought to agree to disagree, because I can not buy into the idea of "what we're doing doesn't work, so let's do more of it".
Yesterday, I was again drawn into a conversation concerning farce that is the so-called war on drugs. Literally billions spent, thousands lives ruined, and even the most ardent supporter can not honestly claim this "war" has been any sort of success.
With the legalization of drugs, there are many possible outcomes and only ONE certainty. That organized crime will no longer be part of the equation. Mind you, I don't speak for any party, rather I am a Libertarian stating my take on the matter. Interesting side thought though, is that after all these billions, the percentage of "non-functioning" addicts has remained relatively unchanged compared to the percentage before this charade called the war on drugs started.
The fellow I was speaking with was a classical conservative Republican. He said: @Scott - we have prison overcrowding and we have just shut down one of our county jails due to lack of funding. I would have to believe by shutting that capacity down we are already releasing those non-violent offenders. I say we ship all of them to an island dump some drugs there and make it a free-for-all and the toughest win. We'll send some seeds and they can grow their own. We'll park a war-ship off of the coast and if anyone tries to leave we blow them out of the water.
As far as the existing problem in my area, specifically one house on my street? I m going to speak to my friend at Crime Stoppers on Wednesday and see what he thinks. We have called the police so many times and have turned in pictures of the license plates that are in and out at all hours of the day and night. Unpleasant aromas and odd trash and substances being flushed down the street, but the police do nothing about it. I guess I am going to have to make a stand and get something juicy on this person(s.)
I don't know what the best answer is to defeat the drug problem, but I am can't agree in making it legal would be of a benefit other than reducing the gangs, which mostly kill off one another anyway. - End Quote
My take on that is that his view is similar with the Progressive Liberals', it is just about a different issue. A government program is proven not to work, so let's keep doing it. I think the flaw in his thinking on this issue is that if drugs were legalized, use would automatically increase. Let's not forget, (and you can check this for yourself if you find it too incredible to believe), about 50 years ago, you could buy heroin, complete with a syringe, 3 needles, and a shiny carrying case from the Sears & Robuck catalog. Even with that convenience, there were no more non-functioning addicts than there are now. Now, compare the alcohol prohibition years and discover similar results. The obvious conclusion is that people who are inclined to use drugs are going to do so. The law does not stop them. The question then becomes, what do we do about it? There are many theories I have heard, and I will not waste space with mine, but again, the certainty is that prohibition has introduced the hard-core criminal element into the equation, much as it did during alcohol prohibition.
Much of what I learned about the "war on drugs" was gained from Daniel Williams' book, "The Naked Truth About Drugs". I have met Daniel, and he is a contributor to this blog, a GREAT friend and a fantastic source of real information. For your reference, here is a link to his book:
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=the+naked+truth+about+drugs&x=15&y=14
Back to the point, there is drug use in your community and you are worried that legalization would result in an increase. The question still remains, what to do about the existing problem in your area. We know the current strategy is not working, because he (the repub) says there are currently drugs being used in his neighborhood.
To use loose numbers from memory, the number of non-functioning drug addicts is at almost 3% of the population. Almost exactly the same as it was before prohibition. By non-functioning, I mean people who live only to get high. Don't work, don't have social lives, etc. Only the drugs. Now introduce the "functioning addict", very similar, if not identical, to the functioning alcoholic. Goes to work, has friends, etc. I only mention him to clarify what I mean by non-functioning addict.
It is proven through surveys of non-functioning addicts that if they could do nothing but get high, but had to do so at the cost of loosing their freedom, the vast majority (over 90% if memory serves) would do so.
My solution: Release those who are serving time for simple possession. Use those now emptied prison cells to house addicts and let them have at it. This would
a) get the criminals out of the equation,
b) ensure those addicts were taking "pure drugs", without the "cut" that is so often responsible for the overdoses, and
c) ensure that there was adequate help available for any that would later decide they no longer wanted to do the drugs.
As a side benefit, the cost would be no more than it currently is housing users who are in prison, while providing several benefits that I just mentioned. Plus, the criminals and gangs are removed from the equation, as there is no longer profit to be made for them.
I know, I said I wasn't going to state my theory, but I'm on a roll now.
So to the Conservative Republican's ideas, I'll conclude: "Okay then. Victory at the barrel of a gun." The problem as I see it, it that after untold money being spent, untold bullets being used, and untold lives being ruined, "victory" still has not been achieved. The concept that the gangsters are going to kill one another off is ridiculous. As long as the profits are there to be made, there will always be another to step in the dearly departed's shoes. The local jail shutting down because of over crowding is largely the result of government created "criminals" over crowding the system.
I apologize to the Republicans who share this man's views, but in my humble opinion, his reasoning is flawed on several levels. Perhaps we ought to agree to disagree, because I can not buy into the idea of "what we're doing doesn't work, so let's do more of it".
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