1/ Tax Cuts for the Rich.
A/ Wonder where President Obama stands on the unnecessary and stupid tax cuts to the wealthy? Now we know. Paul Krugman with a devastating column....
But he didn’t. Instead, he apparently intended the pay freeze announcement as a peace gesture to Republicans the day before a bipartisan summit. At that meeting, Mr. Obama, who has faced two years of complete scorched-earth opposition, declared that he had failed to reach out sufficiently to his implacable enemies. He did not, as far as anyone knows, wear a sign on his back saying “Kick me,” although he might as well have.
There were no comparable gestures from the other side. Instead, Senate Republicans declared that none of the rest of the legislation on the table — legislation that includes such things as a strategic arms treaty that’s vital to national security — would be acted on until the tax-cut issue was resolved, presumably on their terms.
It’s hard to escape the impression that Republicans have taken Mr. Obama’s measure — that they’re calling his bluff in the belief that he can be counted on to fold. And it’s also hard to escape the impression that they’re right.
..............................
Instead, however, Mr. Obama almost seems as if he’s trying, systematically, to disappoint his once-fervent supporters, to convince the people who put him where he is that they made an embarrassing mistake.
Whatever is going on inside the White House, from the outside it looks like moral collapse — a complete failure of purpose and loss of direction.
So what are Democrats to do? The answer, increasingly, seems to be that they’ll have to strike out on their own.
B/ A New York Times editorial on how disastrously bad an idea the top 2% tax cuts are, how focused and ruthless the Republicans are and how weak our President is.......
Just remember - the only people the Republicans care about are the rich. Unemployed? Screw 'em. National security? Nope.
The Dems pretend to be concerned about the middle class but aren't. All of them, Obama included, are dancing to the tune of the oligarchs, who want us, the middle class, to make the wealthy even richer and make us pay for their tax cuts....or the Chinese....or our kids and grandkids......as long as it isn't them.....
A sense of resolve and a clear purpose should not be partisan commodities, yet, in Washington, only the Republicans seem to have them. They know exactly what they want and pursue it with ruthless efficiency: preserve all the Bush-era tax cuts, no matter the cost, and make sure President Obama gets nothing done.
In the last few weeks, Republicans have blocked or vowed to kill: an extension of jobless benefits; the first real arms reduction treaty with the Russians in nearly a decade; the repeal of “don’t ask, don’t tell”; and, most significantly for the nation’s financial future, the expiration of unnecessary and expensive tax cuts for the rich.
Where has the president been through all this, as the sand runs out on a Congress with two Democratic majorities? He has issued a few mild statements and urged everyone to work together, when everyone knows the Republicans will refuse.
C/ And how do the oligarchs persuade the American public to vote against their own interests, time and time again? Through our corrupted corporate media, led by Fox News.
And why do the scum in the media ignore or downplay the tax cut story? Because they will benefit from it. The outgoing Alan Grayson on the House floor, showing how Rush Limbaugh will get an additional $2.7m on his $58 million salary, and Hannity, and O'Reilly.......I have a feeling Grayson will be back.....
2/ David Brooks, the conservative columnist with a tax plan for the President that makes a lot of sense and might even work.....but of course it might take some nerve and guts to do.....so we'll just file this under "President Weenie".....
If every concession is regarded as an unprincipled surrender that takes us inexorably farther down the road to serfdom, then nothing will get done and the nation will go bankrupt.
If Obama moved vigorously on this sort of tax reform, starting at the State of the Union, he would vindicate my description of him, which would be nice. He would also change the tone in Washington. The health care reform debate was polarized, but the tax reform debate is not. Almost everybody agrees on the basic outlines. The current system is so rotten everybody could get something they want out of reforming it.
3/ When we see these videos of incredible athletic skill they all seem to be Chinese, so here's a video of two German girls doing amazing stuff on bicycles in what appears to be a local gym....about 5 minutes.....achtung.....
4/ Jeb Bush, a possible Republican presidential candidate for 2012, held a two day conference on education reform....but look at the sponsors of the meeting. A who's who of the oligarchy.....
Not quite sure what this means, but if it's good for the oligarchs, it's bad for our kids and the middle class. I really don't like this new attitude I have but the evidence is all around us....so if Jeb Bush is pushing something, you know it's really good for our Jeb.....and may have some minor, peripheral benefits for education. Maybe. A little....a smidgin....
Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
The Broad Foundation
The Walton Family Foundation
Charles and Helen Schwab Foundation
IQity
The Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
McGraw Hill Education
WIN
Apex Learning
Cisco
Learnin3.com
Susan and Bill Oberndorf
The Foundation for Educational Choice
SMART
Apex Learning
Barton Malow Design/Construction Services
Charter Schools USA
The Broad Foundation
The Walton Family Foundation
Charles and Helen Schwab Foundation
IQity
The Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
McGraw Hill Education
WIN
Apex Learning
Cisco
Learnin3.com
Susan and Bill Oberndorf
The Foundation for Educational Choice
SMART
Apex Learning
Barton Malow Design/Construction Services
Charter Schools USA
Big money, big business. That’s school reform today.
5/ Funny video of how some of our older rock stars might update their lyrics.....good one.....6 minutes....
6/ A crack in the facade - a distraught man barricaded in his home, a nasty murder.....
Celebration, Florida - Disney's wonderful vision of living revealing an ugly side.
Of course - they're not immune from the disaster that is Florida's real estate market. Homes that were $1 million are now half that....and it's creating pressure....
.....two major crimes in the span of less than a week have made even the fake snow that blankets the town square every evening hour on the hour seem a little less cheery.
Late into Thursday night, sheriff’s deputies barricaded several blocks in this neo-traditional town of 10,000 people and miles of white rail fencing, trying to talk a despondent and armed 52-year-old man out of his home. After more than 14 hours, sheriff’s deputies entered his home early Friday and found him dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
And here's an essay by two people who lived in Celebration on what it's like to live there, and how it's changed.....amusing.....
We moved to Celebration with our two children in 1997. We were among the first residents, though we arrived with our eyes wide open and a contract to write a book about living in Disney’s brave new town. We found out just how strange a place we had chosen when a new neighbor told us that he and his family had considered going to Mexico for vacation, but found they had just as much fun at the Mexico pavilion at Epcot Center at Disney World. Another neighbor — a security guard at Disney — kept a six-foot-high Mickey Mouse in his front window, which our children found a little creepy. But there was a spirit of camaraderie that everyone embraced, even we skeptics.
7/ A pretty good Jon Stewart on the lame duck session of Congress......6 minutes....
8/ Wikileaks - a story on how their servers are under attack......remember they have released thousands of secret cables from US and many other governments.......so they are not popular with a lot of countries......and Julian Assange is now wanted by Interpol for alleged and transparently bogus sexual assault charges. Straightforward you think? Wikileaks has angered governments, so this is what happens?
Well consider this - they announced a couple of weeks ago their next target was a major US bank, and they had huge files of internal emails and documents relating to the recent financial crisis.....so now they have one very pissed oligarch against them......coincidence? Ha......
Given the delicate political nature of the documents released by WikiLeaks, chatter in technology circles immediately centered on the notion that a government body had spearheaded the disruptions.
But security experts cautioned that the attacks were likely to remain murky because data about them had not been made public, and because it was easy for hackers to conceal their identity. “We’re at a loss as to what individuals they are and whose behalf they might be acting on,” said Dr. Jose Nazario, senior security researcher at Arbor Networks, which provides network security technology.
Wikileaks - Canada
Some diplomatic correspondence from Canada....nothing earth-shattering, but our Canadian readers might find this amusing.....
In a confidential diplomatic cable sent back to the State Department, the American Embassy warned of increasing mistrust of the United States by its northern neighbor, with which it shares some $500 billion in annual trade, the world’s longest unsecured border and a joint military mission in Afghanistan.
9/ Afghanistan - how billions and billions of dollars are being wasted.......why bother....this story writes itself, it's hard to care any more.....our government doesn't, so what are wegoing to do.....slideshow....
When Afghanistan's vice president visited the United Arab Emirates last year, local authorities working with the Drug Enforcement Administration discovered that he was carrying $52 million in cash. With wry understatement, a cable from the American Embassy in Kabul called the money "a significant amount" that the official, Ahmed Zia Massoud, "was ultimately allowed to keep without revealing the money's origin or destination." (Mr. Massoud denies taking any money out of Afghanistan.)
Yes, that's "a significant amount" of money by normal standards. But by Afghan standards, it's actually small change. The U.S. is spending more than $2 billion a week in a country with a gross domestic product of about $14 billion a year-- and a lot of it isn't going where it's supposed to. Here is a look at some other examples of the vast waste of U.S. taxpayer money in Afghanistan.
10/ Movie - "Black Swan" with Natalie Portman.......ballet movie with a difference, not just the glamour and the beauty but also the pain....looks like a chick-flick but still good....
Here's the two minute trailer....
Todays video - funny condom ad.....
Todays Florida oldies joke
A Florida couple, both well into their 80's, go to a sex therapist's office.
The doctor asks, 'What can I do for you?'
The man says, 'Will you watch us have sexual intercourse?'
The doctor raises both eyebrows, but he is so amazed that such an elderly couple is asking for sexual advice that he agrees.
When the couple finishes, the doctor says, 'There's absolutely nothing wrong with the way you have intercourse..' He thanks them for coming, wishes them good luck, charges them $50 and he says good bye.
The next week, the same couple returns and asks the sex therapist to watch again. The sex therapist is a bit puzzled, but agrees.
This happens several weeks in a row. The couple makes an appointment, has intercourse with no problems, pays the doctor, then leave.
Finally, after 3 months of this routine, the doctor says, 'I'm sorry, but I have to ask. Just what are you trying to find out?'
The man says, 'We're not trying to find out anything. She's married; so we can't go to her house. I'm married; and we can't go to my house. The Holiday Inn charges $98. The Hilton charges $139. We do it here for $50, and Medicare pays $43 of it, leaving me a net cost of $7.
I wonder if your supplemental insurance would pick up the $7.00?
Todays religious jokes
Can you imagine the nun sitting at her desk grading these papers, all the while trying to keep a straight face and maintain her composure!
PAY SPECIAL ATTENTION TO THE WORDING AND SPELLING. IF YOU KNOW THE BIBLE EVEN A LITTLE, YOU'LL FIND THIS HILARIOUS! IT COMES FROM A CATHOLIC ELEMENTARY SCHOOL TEST.
KIDS WERE ASKED QUESTIONS ABOUT THE OLD AND NEW TESTAMENTS. THE FOLLOWING STATEMENTS ABOUT THE BIBLE WERE WRITTEN BY CHILDREN. THEY HAVE NOT BEEN RETOUCHED OR CORRECTED. INCORRECT SPELLING HAS BEEN LEFT IN.
1. IN THE FIRST BOOK OF THE BIBLE, GUINESSIS. GOD GOT TIRED OF CREATING THE WORLD SO HE TOOK THE SABBATH OFF.
2. ADAM AND EVE WERE CREATED FROM AN APPLE TREE. NOAH'S WIFE WAS JOAN OF ARK. NOAH BUILT AND ARK AND THE ANIMALS CAME ON IN PEARS.
3. LOTS WIFE WAS A PILLAR OF SALT DURING THE DAY, BUT A BALL OF FIRE DURING THE NIGHT.
4. THE JEWS WERE A PROUD PEOPLE AND THROUGHOUT HISTORY THEY HAD TROUBLE WITH UNSYMPATHETIC GENITALS.
5. SAMPSON WAS A STRONGMAN WHO LET HIMSELF BE LED ASTRAY BY A JEZEBEL LIKE DELILAH.
6. SAMSON SLAYED THE PHILISTINES WITH THE AXE OF THE APOSTLES.
7. MOSES LED THE JEWS TO THE RED SEA WHERE THEY MADE UNLEAVENED BREAD WHICH IS BREAD WITHOUT ANY INGREDIENTS.
8. THE EGYPTIANS WERE ALL DROWNED IN THE DESSERT. AFTERWARDS, MOSES WENT UP TO MOUNT CYANIDE TO GET THE TEN COMMANDMENTS
9. THE FIRST COMMANDMENTS WAS WHEN EVE TOLD ADAM TO EAT THE APPLE.
10. THE SEVENTH COMMANDMENT IS THOU SHALT NOT ADMIT ADULTERY.
11. MOSES DIED BEFORE HE EVER REACHED CANADA THEN JOSHUA LED THE HEBREWS IN THE BATTLE OF GERITOL.
12. THE GREATEST MIRICLE IN THE BIBLE IS WHEN JOSHUA TOLD HIS SON TO STAND STILL AND HE OBEYED HIM.
13. DAVID WAS A HEBREW KING WHO WAS SKILLED AT PLAYING THE LIAR. HE FOUGHT THE FINKELSTEINS, A RACE OF PEOPLE WHO LIVED IN BIBLICAL TIMES.
14. SOLOMON, ONE OF DAVIDS SONS, HAD 300 WIVES AND 700 PORCUPINES.
15. WHEN MARY HEARD SHE WAS THE MOTHER OF JESUS, SHE SANG THE MAGNA CARTA.
16. WHEN THE THREE WISE GUYS FROM THE EAST SIDE ARRIVED THEY FOUND JESUS IN THE MANAGER.
17. JESUS WAS BORN BECAUSE MARY HAD AN IMMACULATE CONTRAPTION.
18. ST. JOHN THE BLACKSMITH DUMPED WATER ON HIS HEAD.
19. JESUS ENUNCIATED THE GOLDEN RULE, WHICH SAYS TO DO UNTO OTHERS BEFORE THEY DO ONE TO YOU. HE ALSO EXPLAINED A MAN DOTH NOT LIVE BY SWEAT ALONE.
20. IT WAS A MIRICLE WHEN JESUS ROSE FROM THE DEAD AND MANAGED TO GET THE TOMBSTONE OFF THE ENTRANCE.
21. THE PEOPLE WHO FOLLOWED THE LORD WERE CALLED THE 12 DECIBELS.
22. THE EPISTELS WERE THE WIVES OF THE APOSTLES.
23. ONE OF THE OPPOSSUMS WAS ST. MATTHEW WHO WAS ALSO A TAXIMAN.
24. ST. PAUL CAVORTED TO CHRISTIANITY, HE PREACHED HOLY ACRIMONY WHICH IS ANOTHER NAME FOR MARRAIGE.
25. CHRISTIANS HAVE ONLY ONE SPOUSE. THIS IS CALLED MONOTONY.
Todays Atheist joke [we have to be fair and balanced!]
The Atheist in the Woods
An atheist was walking through the woods, thinking to himself,"How beautiful the animals are!""How majestic the trees are!""How powerful the rivers are!"
As he walked along the river, he heard rustling in the bushes behind him. He turned and saw an 8-foot grizzly bear charging towards him. He ran along the path as fast as he could, but when he looked over his shoulder, he saw that the bear was closing in on him.
He kept running, but when he looked over his shoulder again, and the bear was even closer. Then he tripped and fell on the ground. The bear was right on top of him with his right paw raised to strike him. At that instant, the atheist cried, "God help me!"
Time Stopped.The bear froze.The forest was silent.
A bright light shone upon the man and a voice from the sky said, "You've denied my existence for all these years and have taught others that I don't exist. You've even credited creation to a cosmic accident. Why would you expect me to help you out of this predicament? Are you now a believer?"
The atheist looked into the light and said, "Well, I would be hypocrite to suddenly ask You to treat me as a Christian now, but could you, maybe, make the BEAR a Christian?"
"Very Well," said the voice.
The light went out.The sounds of the forest resumed.
The bear lowered his right paw and brought both paws together. He bowed his head, and said: "Lord, bless this food which I am about to receive from Your bounty through Christ our Lord, Amen."
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