1/ Whether or not you have been following the events in Wisconsin, this is a pivotal moment in the future of this country. The newly elected Republican Governor is attempting to pass a bill that in essence takes away a labour union's right to collective bargaining. So what is the significance of this, you ask? Here it is.....
1/ In the 2008 elections two unions were in the top 5 organisations in spending on the Obama campaign. In Nov. 2010, after the Citizens United decision from the Supreme Court that freed up unlimited corporate money, the top 5 spenders were all right wing PACS supporting Republicans.....two unions were #6 and #7 in dollars spent. And the corporate oligarchs have just started. Think of this - if they can eliminate union money supporting Democrats it will cost them less to run the ads that sway the stupids - good business.
2/ In 2008 there were two entities trying to help people register to vote, one was Acorn and the second was people from unions around the country working locally. The voters they were trying to register were minorities, the young and new citizens who were more likely to vote Democrat. As we know, with the Koch brothers money the Republicans smashed Acorn in 2009, and now they are after the union movement and if they can defeat it the Democratic Party will find it more and more difficult to get their vote out.
Which leaves us, here in February 2011, with the union movement as a fragile bulwark against the complete domination of American politics by the right wing and superwealthy corporations. Fox is basically a propaganda machine for the Republican Party, and the rest of the corporate media is cowed and muzzled by their corporate owners, so the public never ever gets a balanced view of anything. The boys know if they can crush the union movement, there is nothing left but the Democratic party to protect the middle class and the poor. And with the abandonment of any the principles Obama once had we know how that will end up.....
So if you are middle class, when you watch the news from Wisconsin just remember if this goes the wrong way this moment will be the beginning of the end - the corporate oligarchs, working with their puppets in the Republican Party, will own us all......
The unrest in Wisconsin this week over Gov. Scott Walker’s plan to cut the bargaining rights and benefits of public workers is spreading to other states.
Already, protests erupted in Ohio this week, where another newly elected Republican governor,John Kasich, has been seeking to take away collective bargaining rights from unions.
In Tennessee, a law that would abolish collective bargaining rights for teachers passed a State Senate committee this week despite teachers’ objections. Indiana is weighing proposals to weaken unions. Union members in Pennsylvania, who are not necessarily facing an attack on their bargaining rights, said Friday that they planned to wear red next week to show solidarity with the workers in Wisconsin.
In many states, Republicans who came to power in the November elections, often by defeating union-backed Democrats, are taking aim not only at union wages, but at union power as they face budget gaps in the years ahead.
The images from Wisconsin — with its protests, shutdown of some public services and missing Democratic senators, who fled the state to block a vote — evoked the Middle East more than the Midwest.
The parallels raise the inevitable question: Is Wisconsin the Tunisia of collective bargaining rights?
A rare occasion - the Wisconsin crowd and one one gent in particular chanting "Fox lies" in Madison, and give them credit they showed it, but listen to the spin in the last section of the 90 second clip.....
2/ This is an example of how the right dominates all discussion - as Paul Krugman points out the frenzy over the deficit is BS. It's smoke and mirrors - health care and defense are where the big money is, and they are never mentioned by the Republican noise in Washington....good article.....
But one thing puzzles me. We have had 1 to 2% inflation over the last 5 years, think food, gas, housing and material goods. But every year health care costs seem to go up a minimum of 10%. Why? I have yet to see an article, news story or anything else that explains where this money is going at such a clip. What is driving these increases?
A mystery.....if anyone has an explanation I'd like to hear it......
There are three things you need to know about the current budget debate. First, it’s essentially fraudulent. Second, most people posing as deficit hawks are faking it. Third, while President Obama hasn’t fully avoided the fraudulence, he’s less bad than his opponents — and he deserves much more credit for fiscal responsibility than he’s getting.
But that’s what everyone does. House Republicans talk big about spending cuts — but focus solely on that same small budget sliver.
And by proposing sharp spending cuts right away, Republicans aren’t just going where the money isn’t, they’re also going when the money isn’t. Slashing spending while the economy is still deeply depressed is a recipe for slower economic growth, which means lower tax receipts — so any deficit reduction from G.O.P. cuts would be at least partly offset by lower revenue.
The whole budget debate, then, is a sham. House Republicans, in particular, are literally stealing food from the mouths of babes — nutritional aid to pregnant women and very young children is one of the items on their cutting block — so they can pose, falsely, as deficit hawks.
What would a serious approach to our fiscal problems involve? I can summarize it in seven words: health care, health care, health care, revenue.
3/ An excellent Jon Stewart, takes on the Obama budget plan and the cuts the Republicans want to make......in particular he makes Jeff Sessions, [R] Alabama look like a complete idiot.....5 minutes.....
On Wednesday night's "Daily Show," Jon Stewart took on Obama's new budget plan for 2012, his proposed cuts and the budget cuts the GOP would rather have made. To him, neither party seems to have the right idea.
4/ Even though real estate has crashed in Dubai, it's airline "Emirates" hasn't. In fact it's on the way to becoming one of the worlds largest airlines, and Dubai Airport one of the major hubs in the world.....who knew.....
BEYOND the artificial archipelagoes shaped like palm trees, not far from the tallest skyscraper in the world, stands another monument to this city-state’s stubborn ambition.
Even in this oasis of extravagance, Terminal 3 at the DubaiInternational Airport startles. It is not merely the world’s largest air terminal. It is the world’s largest building. And all 370 acres of it — all 82 moving walkways, 97 escalators, 157 elevators, 180 check-in counters and 2,600 parking spaces — were built with one very well-connected company in mind: Emirates, Dubai’s fast-growing flagship airline.
Emirates is pressing ahead with an ambitious expansion, despite the city’s financial near-collapse in 2009. Its executives, with the help of Dubai’s rulers, want to place this Persian Gulf city at the center of a transportation network linking vibrant economies like India and China to Europe and the United States.
It might sound like bravado from the bubble years, another case of overreach in this sandy fantasyland. This is, after all, Dubai, where exuberant developers planned not one but three palm-shaped island chains and erected the glass-cladBurj Khalifa — more than twice the height of the Empire State Building — alongside an indoor ski resort. What is more, the recent political upheaval in Egypt provides a potent reminder that Dubai, for all its air-conditioned ease and stability, lives in a dangerous neighborhood.
But here inside Terminal 3, the rise of Emirates hardly seems a mirage. Since its founding in 1985, Emirates, which is fully owned by the government, has grown into the world’s largest airline by passenger miles flown.
5/ Congress has forgotten the procedures for passing a law, and have been searching the archives on what to do....Onion News has the story....satire, but might just be true....
After years of gridlock, Democrats and Republicans have realized no one remembers how to actually enact legislation.
6/ Obesity is the #1 health problem in this country - if you are fat, you're unhealthy. Period. Very interesting article listing the 10 states with the worst eating habits as well as some commentary on why some people are more likely to be porkers......
This trend toward poorer diets has caused obesity to be the most written-about health problem in the United States. Fat Americans are more likely to have diabetes, coronary artery disease, strokes, and certain forms of cancer. Less well reported are links between obesity and dementia, obesity and postmenopausal estrogen receptors, and obesity and social status. Thin people, apparently, are more likely to be chief executives and billionaires. The problem of obesity is so acute that the number of studies about its causes and solutions grows by the day. The journal Health Affairs reported last year that overall obesity-related health spending reaches $147 billion in the US, about double what it was a decade earlier.
7/ A DDD favourite - Arcade Fire with "Ready to Start".....this great Canadian band won the Grammy last week for the best new album "The Suburbs".....so enjoy one of the best live videos this year......3 minutes....
8/ Ah Florida.......
A/ Yeay Florida, we're #1 in the country under the wise leadership of our Governor Uncle Ricky....Yeay - Florida's #1!!!!!!!! Yeay........what's that? Number one in foreclosures? Oh......
Economists were mostly optimistic about the Mortgage Bankers Association report. Nationwide, fewer homeowners fell behind on mortgage payments compared with the third quarter.
But the Sunshine State was singled out during a conference call about the depth of its housing crisis. About 24 percent of home loans in Florida are either in foreclosure or late on payments, the worst rate in the nation.
Because Florida is a judicial foreclosure state, which means all cases must be ruled on by a judge, foreclosures are expected to take longer.
Lender moratoriums after revelations of robo-signing and improper documentation increased the buildup. At the end of 2010, the backlog of foreclosures in Florida courts was estimated at 350,614.
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/
B/ State Farm is a scummy company - no real claims for 5 years, yet they want a 30% rise in rates....what they do is set up a Florida subsidiary that collects premiums and sends them to the head office. Then when there's a claim, oops no money.....absolute, certified bastards......and don't look to Big Rick to solve this ether....remember, he's business friendly [i.e. a crook]...
It’s a shell game that involves moving money from one company to another. The parent company takes your premiums and invests it in other companies or in re-insurance, and the Florida company takes the risk.
And then, when there are problems, the state company suddenly doesn’t have any money and they complain to state regulators that they have to take out a loan from the parent company to stay afloat. And they get their juicy rate hike.
In 2006, they were granted a 52.6 percent increase. It was another 14.8 percent in 2009 (yeah, somehow they were convinced to stay). Hey, that was a bargain. They had been asking for 47.1 percent (on top of the 52.6 they got just three years earlier). And when the state balked, State Farm took Florida to court.
That’s been the strategy ever since the state began allowing these Florida-only subsidiaries to exist.
This time the problem, we’re told, is sinkholes in the western part of the state. State Farm Florida says the sinkholes cost them $351 million over three years.
C/ You're poor, black and probably have a record, so the police arrest you up as a convenient scapegoat, get an eyewitness to finger you and you go to jail for 30 years. Sometime during your sentence you get tested for DNA which proves you are innocent - you get out of jail, but can't get compensation because you have a conviction for something.....
Our scum in Tallahassee passed a bill that sounded good and fair about compensation for travesties of justice like these, but made sure not many blacks could ever collect on it.......what evil rednecks they are.....
Three years ago, Florida lawmakers passed a bill designed to pay people such as Bostic, Boquete and Caravella who should have never been sent to prison: If you were wrongfully convicted, you would get $50,000 for each year you were locked up..
But so far, none of the 12 Florida men cleared by DNA has been able to collect a penny under that statute. That's because it includes a "clean hands" provision — language that bars the state from paying anyone who has a felony conviction. Only one of the 12 meets that standard.
As a consequence, several of those men, most having spent more than 20 years in prison, live in poverty.
"It's just crazy," said John Blue, a former judge on the Second District Court of Appeal in Tampa who tried but failed to convince legislators in 2008 to take out that restriction.
"It's a nice bill. It looks good on paper, but it eliminates at least 90 percent of the people," said Barbara Heyer, a Fort Lauderdale civil-rights lawyer who represents Caravella. She says he can't collect because he has some form of juvenile record "that no one seems to be able to produce."
But so far, none of the 12 Florida men cleared by DNA has been able to collect a penny under that statute. That's because it includes a "clean hands" provision — language that bars the state from paying anyone who has a felony conviction. Only one of the 12 meets that standard.
As a consequence, several of those men, most having spent more than 20 years in prison, live in poverty.
"It's just crazy," said John Blue, a former judge on the Second District Court of Appeal in Tampa who tried but failed to convince legislators in 2008 to take out that restriction.
"It's a nice bill. It looks good on paper, but it eliminates at least 90 percent of the people," said Barbara Heyer, a Fort Lauderdale civil-rights lawyer who represents Caravella. She says he can't collect because he has some form of juvenile record "that no one seems to be able to produce."
9/ Johnny McEntee is the new quarterback for the University of Connecticut, and has made a trick shot video that is amazing. He seems like a talent to watch.....of course what this video doesn't tell you is the number of takes they did to put this together...... but even so, a "wow"......4 minutes......
10/ Book Review
This sounds like a really fun book - "Swamplandia" by Karen Russell.....shades of a Carl Hiaasen plot about an eccentric and dysfunctional Florida....review is most enthusiastic about her writing style.....one for the book club, ladies?
The proof is in “Swamplandia!,” a novel about alligator wrestlers, a balding brown bear named Judy Garland, a Bird Man specializing in buzzard removal, a pair of dueling Florida theme parks, rampaging melaleuca trees, a Ouija board and the dead but still flirtatious Louis Thanksgiving. Sound appealing? No, it does not. Unless Ms. Russell had you at “alligator wrestlers” — not likely — you may well recoil at every noxiously fanciful item on that list.
But wait. Ms. Russell knows how to use bizarre ingredients to absolutely irresistible effect. In her only other book, the 2006 short story collection “St. Lucy’s Home for Girls Raised by Wolves,” the title piece invents a “Jesuit Handbook on Lycanthropic Culture Shock” and imagines nuns who apply its principles to the daughters of werewolves.
..............................
The contrast between story and novel is a writing teacher’s dream. In the intervening years Ms. Russell learned a lot about subtlety. She learned how to show, not tell. She honed her elegant verbal wit and fused it with the nightmare logic that makes “Swamplandia!” such an eccentric yet revelatory family story. And she filled in the blanks, expanding the short story’s Bigtree family and explaining how these snow-white Ohioans wound up masquerading as Indians on a swamp island in the Everglades.
11/ Movie Time
A/ Liam Neeson reprises his man of action role he did so well in "Taken" in the new movie "Unknown"....review is decent, and I'm sure once you get into the movie it'll be a fine diversion..........
And so here he is again, racing against time and villainy, this time in “Unknown,” another sleek, preposterously amusing thriller with a single-word title. Like“Taken,” his surprise 2008 hit, this new movie largely banks on the spectacle of Mr. Neeson’s character — here, a botanist, Dr. Martin Harris — pursuing a much younger woman. In “Taken,” the bait was a kidnapped daughter, while in “Unknown” it’s a blank-eyed wife (the suitably cast January Jones). After landing in Berlin and driving to their hotel, the doctor and missus are separated when he realizes that he has left his briefcase at the airport. Hopping in a cab driven by a looker, Gina (Diane Kruger), he soon ends up in a bumper-to-bumper pileup that leads to a dunk in a river and black bags of trouble.
The director Jaume Collet-Serra (“Orphan,” a hoot of a horror flick) knows his way around multilane roadways, and he and his stunt team squeeze in a few slick car chases, including a well-choreographed showdown between a cab and an S.U.V. during which the two vehicles turn in perfectly synched formation, arcing across the asphalt like skaters dancing on ice. Such moments are why movies like “Unknown” exist.
The trailer for "Unknown"....2 minutes
B/ If you ever saw "March of the Penguins", this movie sounds like it on steroids...."The Last Lions" is a documentary about a lioness and her three cubs and they've personalised it so that you are following a family in trouble.....the review is quite good.....this documentary is narrated by Jeremy Irons....
One of the most urgent and certainly among the most beautifully shot documentaries to hit the big screen in recent memory, “The Last Lions” isn’t just another cute and fuzzy encounter session with a different species. It’s a pulse-quickening, tear-duct milking and outrageously dramatized story about the threats — wildfires, chomping teeth, stampeding hooves and, worst of all, unseen humans — that face a female lion trying to protect her cubs. Here, single motherhood doesn’t mean juggling family, work and PTA meetings: it means parking the tots in the bushes and then trying to take down a water buffalo the size of a jeep.
Trailer for 'The Last Lions"....2 minutes
C/ Cult Movie time.
"The Room", directed by Tommy Wiseau. Never heard of it? Not surprising, but it has become a cult movie as "The Room" is in contention for the worst movie ever made. I always thought "Plan 9 From Outer Space" would hold that title forever, but this one is supposed to be even goofier.....funny article for all of you movie buffs.....
Lots of adult beverages and your college buddies would be a requirement for viewing this turkey.....
Late-night showings of cult films such as The Rocky Horror Picture Showand The Big Lebowski are known for their rowdy and strange behavior too. But people who go to see Rocky Horror and Lebowski think those films are good. Tonight's movie, an obscure, five-year-old drama called The Room, holds a different place in the hearts of those present at West Hollywood's Laemmle Sunset 5. ''It's absolutely terrible,'' says Chris Bonk, a talent-agency assistant who has seen the film more than 15 times. ''The script is not the best. The acting is certainly not the best. The music is horrible.''
The Room is a San Francisco-set love triangle involving a banker named Johnny, his friend Mark, and Johnny's fiancée Lisa, who is sleeping with both men. The film does seem to be beset with problems. Various subplots are inadequately resolved or simply disappear altogether, including the throwaway revelation that Lisa's mother is suffering from cancer. The film's many rooftop shots feature an unrealistic San Francisco backdrop, thanks to some less-than-impressive greenscreen work. There are lengthy, unerotic sex scenes, the last of which prompts a section of the audience to depart the auditorium temporarily in mock protest. Finally, in one sequence, a sharp bone seems about to erupt from Lisa's neck for no reason at all.
The film's so-bad-it's-freakin'-awesome vibe has attracted a devout army of aficionados whose membership includes the cream of Hollywood's comedy community.
Here's the two minute trailer so you can appreciate the fine acting.....it's like a parody of every trailer for every drama ever made....but much worse.....
Todays videos - two today.....
1/ How the whole dumb blond thing get started - from the 60's - very funny
2/ The dumbest of all blondes....actually a little scary.....
Todays Mom joke
A few days after Christmas, a mother was working in the kitchen listening to her young son playing with his new electric train in the living room. She heard the train stop and her son said, "All of you sons of bitches who want off, get the f-ck off now, cause this is the last stop! And all of you sons of bitches who are getting on, get your asses in the train, cause we're going down the motherf-cking tracks."
The mother went nuts and told her son, "We don't use that kind of language in this house. Now I want you to go to your room and you are to stay there for TWO HOURS. When you come out, you may play with your train, but I want you to use nice language."
Two hours later, the son comes out of the bedroom and resumes playing with his train. Soon the train stopped and the mother heard her son say, "All passengers who are disembarking from the train, please remember to take all of your belongings with you. We thank you for riding with us today and hope your trip was a pleasant one. We hope you will ride with us again soon." She hears the little boy continue, "For those of you just boarding, we ask you to stow all of your hand luggage under your seat. Remember, there is no smoking on the train. We hope you will have a pleasant and relaxing journey with us today."
As the mother began to smile, the child added, "For those of you who are pissed off about the TWO HOUR delay, please see the f-cking bitch in the kitchen."
The mother went nuts and told her son, "We don't use that kind of language in this house. Now I want you to go to your room and you are to stay there for TWO HOURS. When you come out, you may play with your train, but I want you to use nice language."
Two hours later, the son comes out of the bedroom and resumes playing with his train. Soon the train stopped and the mother heard her son say, "All passengers who are disembarking from the train, please remember to take all of your belongings with you. We thank you for riding with us today and hope your trip was a pleasant one. We hope you will ride with us again soon." She hears the little boy continue, "For those of you just boarding, we ask you to stow all of your hand luggage under your seat. Remember, there is no smoking on the train. We hope you will have a pleasant and relaxing journey with us today."
As the mother began to smile, the child added, "For those of you who are pissed off about the TWO HOUR delay, please see the f-cking bitch in the kitchen."
Todays pilot joke
Two blind pilots, both wearing dark glasses, are tapping their way along the aisle with a cane. Nervous laughter spreads through the cabin, but the men enter the cockpit, the door closes, and the engines start up.
The passengers begin glancing nervously around, searching for some sign that this is just a little practical joke. None is forthcoming. The plane moves faster and faster down the runway and the people sitting in the window seats realize they're headed straight for the water at the edge of the airport. As it begins to look as though the plane will plough in to the water, panicked screams fill the cabin. At that moment, the plane lifts smoothly into the air. The passengers relax and laugh a little sheepishly, retreating into their magazines.
In the cockpit, one of the blind pilots turns to the other and says: “Ya know, Bob, one of these days, they're gonna scream too late and we're all gonna die!”
Todays really good philosophical jokes
- Do not argue with an idiot. He will drag you down to his level and beat you with experience.
- I want to die peacefully in my sleep, like my grandfather, not screaming and yelling like the passengers in his car.
- The last thing I want to do is hurt you, but it's still on the list.
- Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until they speak.
- If I agreed with you, we'd both be wrong.
- We never really grow up; we only learn how to act in public.
- War does not determine who is right -- only who is left.
- Knowledge is knowing a tomato is a fruit; wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.
- The early bird might get the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese.
- Evening news is where they begin with "Good evening," and then proceed to tell why it isn't.
- To steal ideas from one person is plagiarism. To steal from many is research.
- A bus station is where a bus stops. A train station is where a train stops. My desk is a work station.
- How is it that one careless match can start a forest fire, but it takes a whole box to start a campfire?
- Dolphins are so smart that within a few weeks of captivity they can train people to stand on the very edge of the pool and throw them fish.
- I thought I wanted a career; turns out I just wanted pay checks.
- A bank is a place that will lend a person money if he can prove that he doesn't need it.
- Whenever I fill out an application, in the part that says "Incase of emergency, notify:" I put "DOCTOR."
- I didn't say it was your fault; I said I was blaming you.
- Why does someone believe you when you say there are four billion stars, but check when you say the paint is wet?
- Why do Americans choose from just two people to run for President and 50 for Miss America ?
- Behind every successful man is his woman. Behind the fall of a successful man is usually another woman.
- A clear conscience is usually the sign of a bad memory.
- You do not need a parachute to skydive. You only need a parachute to skydive twice.
- The voices in my head may not be real, but they have some good ideas!
- Always borrow money from a pessimist. He won't expect it back.
- Hospitality: making your guests feel like they're at home, even if you wish they were.
- Money can't buy happiness, but it sure makes misery easier to live with.
- Some cause happiness wherever they go, others whenever they go.
- There's a fine line between cuddling and holding someone down so he can't get away.
- I used to be indecisive. Now I'm not sure.
- When tempted to fight fire with fire, remember that the fire department usually uses water.
- You're never too old to learn something stupid.
- Nostalgia isn't what it used to be.
- A bus is a vehicle that runs twice as fast when you are after it as when you are in it.
- If you are supposed to learn from your mistakes, why do some people have more than one child?
- Change is inevitable, except from a vending machine.
- I asked God for a bike, but I know God doesn't work that way. So I stole a bike and asked for forgiveness.
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