Ladywriter

poor lil dead frog ......

enjoy thriller bark

We need to reclaim ALL of the civil liberties ground we've lost in the last seven years. And one bill would do exactly that. The lead sponsor is Congressman Ron Paul, and it's titled, "The American Freedom Agenda Act." <http://www.downsizedc.org/etp/campaigns/82 > The ”American Freedom Agenda Act” is a bill . . . Created by conservatives Supported by progressives And introduced in Congress by Representative Ron Paul, Republican of Texas. The full text of this bill can be found on the Background page. This legislation will . . . Repeal the “Military Commissions Act of 2006” and thereby restore the ancient right of habeas corpus and end legally sanctioned torture by U.S. government agents Restore the ”Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act” (FISA) and thereby outlaw warrantless spying on American citizens by the President of the United States Give Congress standing in court to challenge the President's use of "signing statements" as a means to avoid executing the nation's laws Make it illegal for government agents to kidnap people and send them abroad to be tortured by foreign governments Provide legal protection to journalists who expose wrong-doing by the Federal government Prohibit the use of secret evidence to label groups or individuals as terrorists for the purpose of criminal or civil sanctions This one simple 3-page bill will . . . Restore basic Constitutional protections Empower Americans to support human rights, democracy, and the rule of law in the world at large free from the stink of hypocrisy Protect Americans and American soldiers from blowback by foreign powers in retaliation for our government's transgression of America's most hallowed principles If ever there was a bill that all Americans should support, it is this one. Please use the form below to send a message to your elected representatives asking them to co-sponsor the “American Freedom Agenda Act.” Sending a message is easy. You can write as much or as little as you want. And we start with a brief sentence or two for you. We do this so that . . . The most important point of this campaign is not lost on the Congressional office. No one can hijack our system for a purpose inconsistent with Downsizing DC. But you can still personalize the rest of your message — explain why you were motivated to send this message, or what you believe is the most compelling argument in support of your position. Are these messages read even with so many folks sending a common first line? You bet they are! Congress cannot afford not to pay attention. And many DC Downsizers get responses from their Congressmen. If you receive a letter, feel free to share it with us at comments@DownsizeDC.org. If you've used our Educate the Powerful SystemSM before just enter your user email address and password, and hit GO. You'll be taken to a screen where you can add your own comments to the message to your elected representatives. If you're using our Educate the Powerful SystemSM for the first time, please fill out the form for new users. This information is used to direct your message to the correct Senators. Please provide your own password. Do not let the system create one for you. Remember your password. It will allow you to use our system easily in the future for other issues.

its too bad the EPA has to be under court order to do their fucking job

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Environmental Protection Agency is setting a new health standard for lead to slash the amount of the toxic metal in the nation's air by 90 percent. EPA officials, who were under a federal court order to set a new standard by midnight Wednesday, said the new limit would better protect health, especially children. Our nation's air is cleaner today than just a generation ago, and last night I built upon this progress by signing the strongest air quality standards for lead in our nation's history," Stephen Johnson, the EPA administrator, said Thursday. "Thanks to this stronger standard, EPA will protect my children from remaining sources of airborne lead." The new limit -- 0.15 micrograms per cubic meter -- is the first update to the lead standard since 1978, when it helped phase out leaded gasoline. It is ten times lower than the current standard, which was 1.5 micrograms per cubic meter. The new standard announced on Thursday would require the 16,000 remaining sources of lead, including smelters, metal mines, and waste incinerators, to reduce their emissions.

McCain, the son and grandson of four-star Navy admirals, was nearly a decade into a rather undistinguished career as a Navy pilot when he was shot down over North Vietnam in October 1967, landing him for the next five and a half years in a Vietnamese prisoner of war camp. Before his plane went down, he had spent about 20 hours in combat in the skies over Vietnam, dropping high explosives on the towns and people below during short flights from an American aircraft carrier parked in the South China Sea. He had volunteered to participate in an operation known as “Rolling Thunder” launched by the Democratic administration of President Lyndon Johnson in an attempt to break the will of the Vietnamese people. The aim was to use sustained bombing to destroy the country’s economy and infrastructure and kill or maim large numbers of its citizens. Before the war was over, US warplanes dropped close to eight million tons of explosives—four times the bombs dropped in all of World War II—on a country roughly the size of New Mexico. This, the most intense and sustained bombing campaign in history, devastated Vietnam’s cities and destroyed its industrial, transportation and communications infrastructure. Before the war was over, some five million Vietnamese were killed, many of them victims of US aerial bombardments. In his book Vietnam: A History, veteran journalist Stanley Karnow presents the account given by a Vietnamese peasant of one bombing raid: “The bombing started at about eight o’clock in the morning and lasted for hours. When we first heard the explosions, we rushed into the tunnels but not everyone made it. When there was a pause in the attack, some of us climbed out to see what we could do, and the scene was terrifying. Bodies had been torn to pieces—limbs were hanging from trees and scattered around the ground. The bombing began again, this time with napalm, and the village went up in flames. The napalm hit me. I felt as if I was burning all over, like a piece of coal. I lost consciousness. Friends took me to the hospital, and my wounds didn’t begin to heal until six months later. Over 200 people died in the raid, including my mother, sister-in-law and three nephews. They were buried alive when the tunnel collapsed.” What is described here is not an act of heroism, but a war crime carried out by what was militarily the most powerful nation on earth against an impoverished and historically oppressed country. When McCain was shot down, he was completing such a bombing run against a power plant in a heavily populated area of Hanoi. McCain’s survival after parachuting into Hanoi is testimony to the humanity of the Vietnamese people and was owed in particular to one Vietnamese worker who swam into the lake where the wounded pilot had landed, pulled him out before he drowned and then protected him from an enraged crowd. One can only imagine the reaction if a foreign pilot—whose own country was never attacked—were to parachute into Phoenix or any other US city or town after bombing raids that had torn men, women and children to pieces and reduced homes to rubble. more

Our animal instincts demand Wall Street blood

Similar technology marketed as a way to control video games by thought Read This Thought: The U.S. Army is developing a technology known as synthetic telepathy that would allow someone to create email or voice mail and send it by thought alone. The concept is based on reading electrical activity in the brain using an electroencephalograph, or EEG. By Eric Bland updated 10:52 a.m. ET, Mon., Oct. 13, 2008 Vocal cords were overrated anyway. A new Army grant aims to create email or voice mail and send it by thought alone. No need to type an e-mail, dial a phone or even speak a word. Known as synthetic telepathy, the technology is based on reading electrical activity in the brain using an electroencephalograph, or EEG. Similar technology is being marketed as a way to control video games by thought. "I think that this will eventually become just another way of communicating," said Mike D'Zmura, from the University of California, Irvine and the lead scientist on the project. "It will take a lot of research, and a lot of time, but there are also a lot of commercial applications, not just military applications," he said. The idea of communicating by thought alone is not a new one. In the 1960s, a researcher strapped an EEG to his head and, with some training, could stop and start his brain's alpha waves to compose Morse code messages. The Army grant to researchers at University of California, Irvine, Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Maryland has two objectives. The first is to compose a message using, as D'Zmura puts it, "that little voice in your head." The second part is to send that message to a particular individual or object (like a radio), also just with the power of thought. Once the message reaches the recipient, it could be read as text or as a voice mail. While the money may come from the Army and its first use could be for covert operations, D'Zmura thinks that thought-based communication will find more use in the civilian realm. "The eventual application I see is for students sitting in the back of the lecture hall not paying attention because they are texting," said D'Zmura. "Instead, students could be back there, just thinking to each other." EEG-based gaming devices are large and fairly conspicuous, but D'Zmura thinks that eventually they could be incorporated into a baseball hat or a hood. Another use for such a system is for patients with Lou Gehrig's disease, or ALS. As the disease progresses, patients have fully functional brains but slowly lose control over their muscles. Synthetic telepathy could be a way for these patients to communicate. One of the first areas for thought-based communication is in the gaming world, said Paul Sajda of Columbia University. Commercial EEG headsets already exist that allow wearers to manipulate virtual objects by thought alone, noted Sajda, but thinking "move rock" is easier than, say, "Have everyone meet at Starbucks at 5:30." One difficulty in composing specific messages is fundamental — EEGs are not very specific. They can only locate a signal to within about one to two centimeters. That's a large distance in the brain. In the brain's auditory cortex, for example, two centimeters is the difference between low notes and high notes, D'Zmura said. Placing electrodes between the skull and the brain would offer more precise readings, but it is expensive and requires invasive surgery. To work around this problem, the scientists need to gain a much better understanding of what words and phrases light up what brain sections. To create a detailed map of the brain scientists will also use functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and magnetoencephalography (MEG). Each technology has its own strengths and weaknesses. EEGs detect brain activity only on the outer bulges of the brain's folds. MEGs read brain activity on the inner folds but are too large to put on your head. FMRIs detect brain activity more accurately than either but are heavy and expensive. Of all three technologies EEG is the one currently cheap enough, light enough and fast enough for a mass market device. The map generated by all three technologies will help the computer guess which word of phrase a person means when a part of the brain is lights up on the EEG. The idea is similar to how dictation software like Dragon NaturallySpeaking uses context to help determine which word you said. Mapping the brain's response to most of the English language is a large task, and D'Zmura says that it will be 15-20 years before thought-based communication is reality. Sajda, who is on sabbatical in Japan to research using EEGs to scan images rapidly, sounded skeptical but excited. "There are technical hurdles that need to be ovecome first, but then again, 20 years ago people would have thought that the two of us talking to each other half a world away over Skype (and Internet-based phone service) was crazy," said Sajda. To those who might be nervous about thought-based communication turning into a sci-fi comedy of errors, D'Zmura says not to worry. Mind-message composition would take specific conscious thoughts and training to develop them. The device would also have a on/off switch. "When I was a kid I occasionally said things that were inappropriate, and I learned not to do that," said D'Zmura. "I think that people would learn to think in a way the computer couldn't interpret. Or they can just switch it off."

Plastic bag, rope and bottle cap appear to have killed 3-ton female KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia - A beached whale has died in Malaysia after swallowing a plastic bag, a rope and a bottle cap, a marine researcher said Wednesday.The 30-foot-long Bryde's whale got stranded in eastern Pahang state Monday and died a day later despite villagers' efforts to save it, said Mohamad Lazim Mohamad Saif, a researcher with the Turtle and Marine Ecosystem Center, who was at the scene. Mohamad Lazim said the preliminary findings of an autopsy showed the female had swallowed a black plastic bag, a rope and a bottle cap, which clogged its intestine. "When they come to the beach, this means they want to die. Usually it's like that," Mohamad Lazim told The Associated Press. He said the sick whale may alternatively have ended up at the beach after getting separated from its pod and losing direction. Marine boats managed to pull the 3 ton whale whale back into the sea during high tide late Monday, but by Tuesday it was back on the beach. Villagers sprinkled it with sea water and covered it with wet blankets and a mattress, Mohamad Lazim said. The state's veterinarian department will continue to examine the whale, which was to later be buried nearby, he said. Bryde's whales are members of the baleen whale suborder and are found in tropical waters.

GAO concerned about lack of cameras, alarms, armed guards at key sites WASHINGTON - Intruders could easily break into two U.S. laboratories where researchers handle some of the world's deadliest germs, according to congressional investigators. The Associated Press identified the vulnerable lab locations as Atlanta and San Antonio.The serious security problems at the two labs were described by the Government Accountability Office in a report expected to be released publicly as early as Thursday. The GAO, Congress' investigative and auditing arm, did not identify the labs except to say they were classified as Biosafety Level 4 facilities, but the report included enough details for the AP — and others knowledgeable about such labs — to determine their locations. Biosafety Level 4 labs do research on deadly germs and toxins. In Texas, the Southwest Foundation for Biomedical Research features an outside window that looks directly into the room where the deadly germs are handled. The lab, which is privately run, also lacks many security cameras, intrusion detection alarms or visible armed guards at its public entrances. Officials there said they will tighten security. "We already have an initiative under way to look at perimeter security," said Kenneth Trevett, president of the lab in San Antonio. "We're waiting for additional input but we're not waiting long. The GAO would like us to do some fairly significant things. They would like us to do it sooner rather than later." Unguarded loading dock The other lab described with weak security in the report is operated by Georgia State University in Atlanta. That lab lacked complete security barriers and any integrated security system, including any live monitoring by security cameras. During their review, investigators said they watched an unidentified pedestrian enter the building through an unguarded loading dock. "Georgia State clearly wants its BSL-4 to be as safe as possible," said DeAnna Hines, assistant vice president for university relations. "We are already taking steps that will enhance the lab's safety and security standards." Hines did not confirm the school's research lab was the one mentioned in the congressional report as lacking proper security. Investigators said the lab in San Antonio used unarmed guards inside antiquated guardhouses with a gate across the access road. An outside company monitors alarms at the lab and calls police in emergencies, which investigators said could delay a quick response in a crisis. They called the San Antonio lab the most vulnerable of all the labs they studied. wow I feel safe

AIG spent thousands on execs’ hunting trip UK vacation happened as insurer asked for billions more in federal loans CHARLOTTE, North Carolina - First there was the $440,000 American Insurance Group Inc. spent entertaining executives days after receiving an $85 billion lifeline from the Federal Reserve, now it’s $86,000 for a hunting trip in England as the faltering company reaped another $37.8 billion in taxpayer funded loans.News of the hunting trip emerged Wednesday as New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo ordered AIG to do away with golden parachutes for executives, golf outings and parties while taking government money to stay afloat. “Even after the taxpayer-funded bailout of AIG, the company paid hundreds of thousands of dollars for luxurious retreats for its executives, including an overseas hunting party and a golf outing,” Cuomo wrote in a letter to the New York-based insurer. He said the spending could be “fraudulent conveyances” under a state law regarding debtors and creditors and noted that beyond those excesses millions were paid to executives who were running AIG as it faced dissolution with government help. Cuomo said he has the power under state business law to review and possibly rescind any inappropriate AIG spending as long as the Federal Reserve is propping up the huge insurer with almost $123 billion in loans announced since Sept. 16. Company officials said the hunting trip in the English countryside was an annual event for customers that had been planned months before the bailout. The company pledged — as it did following the September trip — to do everything possible to end such extravagances. They declined to say which AIG executives attended. “This was an annual event for customers of the AIG property casualty insurance companies in the U.K. and Europe, and planned months before the Federal Reserve Bank of New York’s loan to AIG,” company spokesman Peter Tulupman said Wednesday morning. In a prepared statement later in the day, the company said, “We will continue to take all measures necessary to ensure that these activities cease immediately. AIG’s priority is to continue focusing on actions necessary to repay the Federal Reserve loan and emerge as a vital, ongoing business.” The company said last week it would stop “all nonessential conferences, meetings and activities that do not clearly maximize value and service given the current conditions.” Last month, and just days after the U.S. government stepped in to save AIG with the $85 billion taxpayer-funded loan, the company picked up a $440,000 tab for a weeklong retreat at the posh St. Regis Resort in California for top-performing insurance agents. Lawmakers investigating AIG’s meltdown said they were enraged that executives of AIG’s main U.S. life insurance subsidiary spent a lavish amount on the retreat, complete with spa treatments, banquets and golf outings. Last week, White House Press Secretary Dana Perino called the event “despicable.” At that time, AIG issued a statement saying that the “business event” was planned months before the Sept. 16 bailout and that it was held for top-producing independent life insurance agents, not AIG employees. Of the 100 attendees, only 10 worked for the AIG unit hosting the event, it said. The insurer said Chief Executive Edward Liddy sent a letter to Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson “clarifying the circumstances” of the event. In the letter, Liddy assured Paulson that AIG is “reevaluating the costs of all aspects of our operations in light of the new circumstances in which we are all operating.” More on this story Ex-AIG boss says terms of loan are too tough The insurer then said it canceled a future California retreat that was to be held later this month. Regarding the recent hunting trip, “We regret that this event was not canceled,” Tulupman said Wednesday. Shares of AIG fell 37 cents, or 13.2 percent, to $2.43 in trading Wednesday.

Obama/Biden McCain/Palin official campaign websites

I'm not that fussy about the lawn.... well okay, maybe there is a lil Hank Hill in me

AlterNet readers respond to the latest evidence of just how bad Sarah Palin is for an office that puts her a heartbeat away from the presidency. Bgroat makes the point that by McCain and Palin's standards, McCain would be considered a "terrorist": ... the fact that McCain has worked with Obama for the past four years puts him in the same boat. In other words, they can't paint Obama as a terrorist using their logic without simultaneously painting McCain as one, as McCain, through working in the Senate with Obama, has done exactly the same thing they accuse Obama of doing (associating with former member of the Weather Underground Bill Ayers). Waimea Witch agrees, pointing out that if we judge politicians by their "associates," we should be deeply concerned that every Washington senator is on the verge of lobbing bombs at federal buildings: ... Senator Robert Byrd is an ex-KKK member, so, does that make every member of the Senate a domestic terrorist by association? Purple Girl invokes yet another fine illustration of the maxim about stones and glass houses, pointing out that unlike Barack Obama, Sarah Palin actually shares the ideologies of many domestic terrorists: Sarah has some Ideologies which are akin to some rather notorious Domestic Terrorists -- McVeigh (hated U.S. Govt too), Charlie Manson (End Of Dayer, with Death Valley as the "Refuge"), and of course the "Pro Lifers" who thought nothing of Bombing Planned Parenthood Clinics, assassinating MD and Blowing a Pipe bomb Off in the middle of the Atlanta Olympics. Strike 3 Sarah, YOU ARE A BONAFIDE SOCIOPATH. Terrorist Doctrines spew out your mouth, and have been unearthed from your Recent History. Jest2007 highlights another worrisome aspect of Palin's history: her connection to the Alaskan Independence Party, a radical organization that calls for Alaska's succession from the United States: Maybe this would be a good time to examine Palin's association with the AIP. The AIP's creation was inspired by the rabidly violent anti-Americanism of its founding father Joe Vogler. The central purpose of the AIP is to drive Alaska's secession from the United States. In 1992 Vogler renounced his allegiance to the United States explaining that, "The fires of hell are frozen glaciers compared to my hatred for the American government." He cursed the stars and stripes, promising, "I won't be buried under their damned flag ... when Alaska is an independent nation they can bring my bones home." Palin has never denounced Vogler or his detestable anti-Americanism. dayahka optimistically argues that all the recent revelations about Palin are essentially irrelevant, since soon enough the Alaska governor will disappear from the national spotlight: Palin will shortly return to Alaska and will probably be recalled, impeached, censured, and/or jailed. But what of the reckless fool who put this scum on the national scene? But Truthteller is less optimistic, writing that despite Palin's recent embarrassments, she could still help the Republican ticket pull in a last-minute win: I've been saying for a long time that I believe the fix is in and McCain is going to "win" another stolen election. I just couldn't see how they could get it close enough to steal before the Palin selection. Now, I can. All the arguments are in place to explain away the theft like they were four years ago -- religious voters make last-minute turnout surge, they don't like talking to exit pollers, or lie to them to fuck with the results. Tom Degan agrees, pointing out that there's nothing new about Republicans appealing to their base with incompetent candidates: Twenty years ago, Poppy Bush nominated a man who had all the substance of a department store mannequin -- and yet the GOP won that election! The Democrats have every reason to be cautious. Given the American people's absolute genius for doing the wrong thing in the voting booth, anything can happen between now and Election Day -- and probably will. Lreal also argues that while Palin's methods are detestable, they may turn out to be effective: The history books of the future will show that the Republicans from 1980 to present and probably at least 10 years into the future is a party of dangerous demagoguery. Sarah Palin, and the acceptance by the majority of people in her own party shows that a demagogue mentality can get you far within this sector of the population no matter your true and obvious intellect. This also shows that if you can magnify this demagogue quality, then it can replace intelligence as a matter of accepted quality; and any opponent with a bit of intelligence is a liberal elite, no matter how much more humble they are than the subject. Spritgirl writes that McCain and Palin are resorting to the usual Republican tactics: using Rovian character assaults to get bad candidates into office: ... the McShame/Failin ticket should not be rewarded for their efforts! These tactics of appealing thru peoples fears are straight out of the Lee Atwater/Karl Rove book, they are despicable and dangerous! Since they cannot run on the issues, they should both just sit down and shut up!!! These are extremely desperate attempts by two very unqualified individuals to get into the Oval Office! Their theory of divide (the body politic) and conquer appeals to those sheeple that want to be led around, and hopefully they will lead themselves and their sheeple off a cliff!

Subject: Do you know who the "Primary Dealers" are? There's a lot of evidence that we've been scammed. Treasury Secretary Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Bernanke told us they needed to spend $700 billion of your money to buy supposedly toxic assets that were crippling major firms and for which there was no immediate market. This was a lie even when they said it, because . . . Merrill Lynch was able to sell it's most troubled assets back in July. <http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/080729/merrill_lynch_sale.html> If Merrill could do it, other firms could do it too. They might not have liked the price they got, but it could have been done. The Big Bailout was purposely designed to give favored firms a better deal than they could have gotten in the market. We've also been told, constantly, that credit markets are frozen. We're still being told that today, constantly, around the clock, on the cable business channels. It wasn't true before, and it isn't true now. We could point you to many places for the evidence, but here's one great graph from the blog Carpe Diem to give you the evidence in one pretty picture. <http://mjperry.blogspot.com/2008/10/total-commercial-bank-loans-reach-new.html> The hysteria mongers would tell you that even if consumer credit is okay (and you would have to hammer them with the evidence to get them to admit it), commercial credit is still in big trouble. But that isn't true either. Here's a good summary from the great scholar Robert Higgs, at the Independent Institute . . . <http://www.independent.org/blog/?p=289> "Looking at the data for the first four business days of the past week, I find that firms sold from $179 billion to $205 billion of commercial paper per day; the number of separate issuances per day ranged from 6,761 to 7,298. Both the total amount borrowed and the number of issuances per day increased steadily throughout the week (data for Friday have not yet been reported)." Higgs goes on to compare the current numbers with past periods and finds NO CREDIT FREEZE! But what about the stock market? Doesn't its fall tell us there's a crisis? Perhaps, until you consider what's causing stocks to fall. The really big drops began when Paulson and Bernanke began peddling their fear to Congress. And since then, nearly every time some government official has opened his or her mouth, with some new claim or some new plan, the stock market has taken another nose dive. A good chunk of the decline appears to be driven by fear mongering. Want more evidence? This is the season when firms report their earnings, and many companies are beating the estimates, but their stock prices are still falling. This is about fear, not fundamentals. Who is responsible for this scam? Who are the con artists? One big culprit in every supposed crisis is the media. They always blow everything out of proportion. Doing so is good for business. CNBC's ratings are soaring. <http://tvdecoder.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/09/18/ratings-at-cnbc-the-bad-times-keep-coming/> Another culprit is the politicians, who gain power from hysteria. In the last supposed crisis (terrorism) it was the Republicans who primarily benefited. This time it will be the Democrats, who have a decade of pent-up desires to re-engineer American society. These dreams may now become reality in the wake of the current fear mongering. And last, but not least among the con artists, are a group of businesses with an official government relationship that earns them the designation of "Primary Dealers." Here's what Wikipedia has to say about the Primary Dealers . . . <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Primary_dealers> "A primary dealer is a bank or securities broker-dealer that may trade directly with the Federal Reserve System of the United States.[1] They are required to make bids or offers when the Fed conducts open market operations, provide information to the Fed's open market trading desk, and to participate actively in U.S. Treasury securities auctions.[2] They consult with both the U.S. Treasury and the Fed about funding the budget deficit and implementing monetary policy. Many former employees of primary dealers work at the Treasury, because of their expertise in the government debt markets, though the Fed avoids a similar revolving door policy.[1][2] Between them, these dealers purchase the vast majority of the U.S. Treasury securities (T-bills, T-notes, and T-bonds) sold at auction, and resell them to the public." Who are the Primary Dealers? Look at this roster (which used to include Bear Stearns) . . . * BNP Paribas Securities Corp. * Bank of America Securities LLC * Barclays Capital Inc. * Cantor Fitzgerald & Co. * Citigroup Global Markets Inc. * Credit Suisse Securities (USA) LLC * Daiwa Securities America Inc. * Deutsche Bank Securities Inc. * Dresdner Kleinwort Securities LLC. * Goldman, Sachs & Co. * HSBC Securities (USA) Inc. * J. P. Morgan Securities Inc. * Lehman Brothers Inc. * Merrill Lynch Government Securities Inc. * Mizuho Securities USA Inc. * Morgan Stanley & Co. Incorporated * UBS Securities LLC. We should notice several things about this list . . . * These are among the primary firms that collaborated with the government to create the housing bubble * These are the primary firms that profit from the financing of the national debt and who are benefiting from the current explosion in the federal debt and the Federal Reserve's massive inflation of the money supply * These are probably the primary firms that will work with the Treasury Department to manage the auction of toxic assets * These are also probably the primary firms that have toxic assets to sell (they will be both sellers and brokers in the Big Bailout) * And most of these firms have been made "too big to fail" through their business dealings with the government These Primary Dealers are the primary players in the Big Bailout con-game. And they are part of the crowd who are looting the country. You can sit back and accept the Big Bailout and the on-going Big Interventions as an accomplished fact, or you can rage and protest to Congress. If we fall silent then the con-artists will be emboldened to do more and more. We must not fall silent. We must protest constantly. We've created a new generic campaign to oppose all government bailouts. Please use this campaign to send Congress another message. Ask them to reconsider the Big Bailout. Ask them to roll-it-back. Use your personal comments to mention some of the facts described in this article. You can send your message using our Educate the Powerful System. <http://www.downsizedc.org/etp/campaigns/106> Thank you for being a part of the growing Downsize DC army. Jim Babka & Perry Willis President & Communications Director DownsizeDC.org, Inc.

this thing reads like a dream The only thing that I wasn't crazy about was in subtitle B funding sec 211 c funding c the "instituting a modest and progressive excise tax on payroll and self employment income" National Health Insurance Bill Read the actual bill (pdf) Read PNHP’s Press Release Watch the Webcast of the Press Conference List of Cosponsors of HR 676 in the 110th Congress Write a letter to your representative. PNHP has a two sample letters. Sample Letter 1 | Sample Letter 2 Make Sure Your Rep. Supports H.R. 676

Ron Paul: Washington’s True Maverick Talks Bailouts, the United States Constitution and Re-Making the US Dollar By Allison Kugel, Senior Editor - October 15, 2008

with the financial and ecological/environmental cost of driving to the next village once a week to do clothes.... after 9+ years in the same house I now have a washer >.<

Bottled Water: The Height of Stupidity When they use the words tap water they are primarily talking about urban/suburban public drinking water, not well water in rural areas. I was fortunate enough to be raised on well water (Skaneateles Lake aquifer) and in the house I've been in for almost ten years now also uses a well. Fluoride is added to ALL public drinking water. What's in your water? before I had 1408 everything went into the blog

hmmm... where was the rest of the we while I was out there fixing my yard, digging a dry well and leech trench? I guess my shovel and I are a we ...... and had I not been the "chelle climb up there and pass me that dresser" bitch at the garage I coulda been here to hang out with sledgers and my dad as they literally watched spray paint dry..... and now I get to do laundry 5 days a week on top of all my other list of fun things to do but fuck it saves money and everyone elses time my muscles hurt but theres plenty of clean towels >.>

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You decide 08 thread has over 1000 views we are so paying attention! ^___^

Backlash: Six Challenges to McCain's Racist Fearmongering _LXMMmfd1lw

Hank Paulson and His Wall Street Cronies Move to Plan B By Nomi Prins, The Nation. Posted October 15, 2008. How do you stop a ship from sinking, and simultaneously rebuild it to prevent its future destruction? That was the question in the minds of the world's central bankers as they sat down over the weekend to figure out how to right the global financial Titanic. European leaders came up with a plan to inject "unlimited short-term funds" into the system in addition to $2.3 trillion of guarantees and various emergency measures (pledged by Germany, Britain, France, The Netherlands, Spain, Portugal and Austria). This could be like dumping money into a black hole, since most of these funds will be given in the form of loans, which means banks must come up with adequate collateral to back them, which is in short supply these days. But it's more decisive than anything the Treasury or Federal Reserve has done so far. Indeed, the coordinated efforts of the European central banks have had a more positive initial impact on the markets than the bipartisan passage of Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson's $700 billion rescue fund did. That announcement preceded an eight-day market selloff and the global freezing of credit. This one sent the Dow zooming up 11.1 percent, its biggest percentage gain since 1933. But the week is young. Meanwhile, the question addressed by Paulson Monday is what to do with that $700 billion? To answer this, he sat down with his friends, the leaders of the largest financial institutions in America that got us into this mess. Namely, Ken Lewis, CEO of Bank of America; Jamie Dimon, CEO of J.P. Morgan Chase; Lloyd Blankfein, Paulson's successor at Goldman Sachs; John Mack, CEO of Morgan Stanley; and Vikram Pandit, CEO of Citigroup. These men have shown themselves to be far more interested in preserving themselves than in stabilizing the general economy for American citizens. And it's a safe bet (probably the safest out there) that their philosophy remains intact. Economists and media pundits over the weekend optimistically hoped that Paulson might get a clue that his initial idea of purchasing $700 billion of toxic assets would not stabilize the financial system. Having worked on Wall Street, I remain cynical about the notion that purchasing assets was off the table. And it turns out that Paulson's Plan B is not to completely abandon plan A. So far, he has decided to spend $250 billion of that $700 billion to buy equity stakes in banks whose future losses are still unknown. The rest could conceivably be used to buy up toxic assets. These, and other related decisions are to be made, in large part, by Paulson's former protégé at Goldman Sachs (and now interim assistant treasury secretary) Neel Kashkari. Kashkari described the equity purchase program as "voluntary and designed with attractive terms to encourage participation from healthy institutions." But encouraging participation hardly seems an issue. There's not a bank around that wouldn't want its stock price boosted by a Treasury purchase of its bleeding shares. Equally, every bank has a bunch of toxic assets good to go. There are equally eager participants running this plan, too. No fewer than seven policy teams and five veteran government officials have been culled to figure out which banks will receive the most help. (This comes as the leaders of the top five cozy up to Paulson.) There's also no shortage of firms wanting a piece of the action of the bright new Treasury hedge fund. Seventy financial firms have made bids (i.e., asked for money) to become master custodian of the fund, managing inflow and outflow. One hundred firms have bid to become one of the five master program operators that will decide which assets to buy and how to manage them. Let's see if Goldman Sachs makes the cut. The outcome of Monday's meeting included no request for more stringent banking regulations going forward. That would require a complete restructuring of the financial landscape into transparent, manageable parts à la the Glass Steagall Act of 1933, which separated commercial banks, investment banks, and insurance companies. The meeting did not provide a much-needed disclosure of the dangers that still lurk on the books of these firms, in a painfully transparent manner that will illuminate future losses, a move that would help alleviate the uncertainty that has been dragging down the market and freezing corporate and consumer credit alike. As Paulson waffles on action and plans, always weighing Wall Street demands first, European leaders are taking more decisive action with their coordinated capital-injection moves. But it remains to be seen whether these will work. Perhaps their actions are an admission of responsibility; British and European institutions also made reckless bets with inadequate capital backing them. But they all of the world's central bankers should really consider injecting more transparency and regulation, to restore international confidence, not just money. They must create a global financial structure that will both contain the fallout and avoid a repeat performance--one that never again will be so opaque, over-leveraged and dangerous.

Todd Palin seated behind a White House desk and shaping national policy could be one of the most dangerous aspects of a potential Sarah Palin presidency. An overlooked part of the Alaska state trooper investigation is its finding on the influence of Gov. Palin's husband, Todd -- the "First Dude" or, as he is known around the Alaska statehouse, the "First Gentleman." This is crucial in view of the age of the Republican nominee, John McCain, 72, and the fact that he has suffered from melanoma skin cancer. His doctors have pronounced him in excellent health, but his age and the serious nature of this type of cancer should focus attention on his running mate and her operating methods. A fascinating picture of Todd Palin's influence in Alaska's capital is provided in the report of a legislative investigation that concluded that Gov. Palin unlawfully abused her power in seeking the firing of a state trooper once married to her sister. The report, released Friday, also criticized Palin for allowing Todd Palin to push hard for the dismissal of Trooper Mike Wooten. Wooten had been married to the governor's sister. Their divorce was messy. So, apparently, was Wooten's career as a trooper. He had been accused of illegally shooting a moose, drinking beer in a patrol car and using a Taser gun on his stepson. He was disciplined before Palin became governor and was allowed to remain a trooper. When Palin took over, the Wooten case was high on the family agenda, with Todd Palin leading the effort to get rid of the trooper. As Associated Press writer Mike Apuzzo put it in his story on the report, Todd Palin had "extraordinary access to the governor's office" and he "used that access to try to get [Wooten] fired." His target was Public Safety Commissioner Walter Monegan, who said he lost his job because he refused to fire Wooten. The report, by investigator Stephen Branchflower, a retired state prosecutor, shows how Todd Palin operates. Monegan's secretary, Cassandra Byrne, said that on Jan. 4, 2007, she received a phone call from the governor's office. An aide told her "the First Gentleman would like to have a meeting with Commissioner Walt Monegan. At the time, I was not familiar with the term 'First Gentleman.' So I kept asking 'Who?' and she eventually said 'Todd Palin.' I said, 'Oh, OK,' so we set the time and the place which was the governor's office in Anchorage. " Investigator Branchflower said that when Monegan arrived there he was directed into the governor's office. Todd Palin, wearing a business suit, was alone, waiting for him. "Mr. Palin was seated at a large conference table and invited Mr. Monegan to sit," the report said. Monegan said, "What I recalled was Todd sitting there. He had three stacks of paper in an array in front of him" dealing with the Wooten case. One was from the Department of Public Safety, under which Alaska state troopers serve. Monegan told Branchflower that he got "the impression that Todd was not happy with the investigation [that the department had made before disciplining Wooten]. "He told me that he [Wooten] just got a few days off [suspension] and didn't think that was enough. And this guy shouldn't be a trooper." Describing Todd Palin, Monegan said, "I saw someone who was somewhat animated. Not certainly out of control but he was passionate about how he was addressing the issue. "And my impression was that he was venting. I mean there was a complaint, the troopers investigated it and that they had come up with a conclusion and that he was not happy with the conclusion." The telling vignette shows Todd Palin's position in the governor's office. Dressed in a business suit, seated behind a big conference table with state documents in front of him, he tried to tell the state's top cop how to do his job. This is a man who was a member of the Alaskan Independence Party, a radical group advocating Alaskan secession from the United States. Gail Fenumiai, director of the Alaska Division of Elections, told TPM Muckraker that Palin registered as an AIP member in October 1995 and continued in that status until 2000, when he registered as undeclared for a few months. He registered as an AIP member again and remained with the party until 2002, when he registered as undeclared. What other radical ideas are percolating in the mind of a man who is now portrayed in the media as sort of a lovable guys' guy? If Sarah Palin ever becomes president, it is safe to assume that the First Gentleman of Alaska will slip into the role of First Gentleman of the United States with as much access to the Oval Office as he has to the governor's office in Anchorage. That is a truly scary thought.