I [of course] have included a funny Weiner article, and there is no excuse, no rationalisation for his narcissism. Just stupid. But great jokes....
But did you know......Weiner was about to lead an investigation into Justice Clarence Thomas and his Tea Party wife, and how this blatant conflict of interest affects the Supreme Court's biased decisions?
Hmmm.....is it possible the Koch brothers said to Andrew Breitbart [the videomaker who who started this story] "get us something on Weiner"? And it turns up there was a lot on Weiner....weiners galore.....
Hmmm.....
1/ Wow.
This article should be required reading for every Democrat so that you know what your leaders are up against in this partisan gridlock, and it would also be nice if the present incumbent in the White House gave it a glance.
It lays out the strategy of the right to get power at all costs up to and including destabilizing the economy. There is no chance of bi-partisanship, no chance of cooperation for the good of the country, the only mode for the Republican Party is "attack the incumbent" so they can get complete power [Presidency and the Senate as well as the House] back.
Hopefully the Weenie will "get" this eventually....
Very, very interesting, and highly recommended.....
Making the US Economy ‘Scream’
Exclusive: Over the past several decades, Republican methods for winning national power have come to resemble CIA techniques for destabilizing an enemy country — through the use of black propaganda, political skullduggery and economic disruptions. Now, heading toward Election 2012, the Republicans appear poised to make the U.S. economy “scream,” observes Robert Parry.
By Robert Parry
June 3, 2011
Modern Republicans have a simple approach to politics when they are not in the White House: Make America as ungovernable as possible by using almost any means available, from challenging the legitimacy of opponents to spreading lies and disinformation to sabotaging the economy.
Over the past four decades or so, the Republicans have simply not played by the old give-and-take rules of politics. Indeed, if one were to step back and assess this Republican approach, what you would see is something akin to how the CIA has destabilized target countries, especially those that seek to organize themselves in defiance of capitalist orthodoxy.
2/ And to follow that, a fairy tale from Tom Tomorrow about a wonderful future with our bold, successful President, in a country free from strife.......
3/ Another excellent column from Paul Krugman.....the economic and political case for much more effort on job creation, which is being completely ignored by the elites who rule us [the oligarchy] because anything the government might do to get people back to work could hurt the interests of the wealthy.....
And since the plutocrats basically own all of the politicians of both parties, we are screwed folks....
Rule by Rentiers
By PAUL KRUGMAN
Published: June 9, 2011
The latest economic data have dashed any hope of a quick end to America’s job drought, which has already gone on so long that the average unemployed American has been out of work for almost 40 weeks. Yet there is no political will to do anything about the situation. Far from being ready to spend more on job creation, both parties agree that it’s time to slash spending — destroying jobs in the process — with the only difference being one of degree.
Fred R. Conrad/The New York Times
Paul Krugman
Readers' Comments
Readers shared their thoughts on this article.
Nor is the Federal Reserve riding to the rescue. On Tuesday, Ben Bernanke, the Fed chairman, acknowledged the grimness of the economic picture but indicated that he will do nothing about it.
And debt relief for homeowners — which could have done a lot to promote overall economic recovery — has simply dropped off the agenda. The existing program for mortgage relief has been a bust, spending only a tiny fraction of the funds allocated, but there seems to be no interest in revamping and restarting the effort.
The situation is similar in Europe, but arguably even worse. In particular, the European Central Bank’s hard-money, anti-debt-relief rhetoric makes Mr. Bernanke sound like William Jennings Bryan.
What lies behind this trans-Atlantic policy paralysis? I’m increasingly convinced that it’s a response to interest-group pressure. Consciously or not, policy makers are catering almost exclusively to the interests of rentiers — those who derive lots of income from assets, who lent large sums of money in the past, often unwisely, but are now being protected from loss at everyone else’s expense.
Of course, that’s not the way what I call the Pain Caucus makes its case. Instead, the argument against helping the unemployed is framed in terms of economic risks: Do anything to create jobs and interest rates will soar, runaway inflation will break out, and so on. But these risks keep not materializing. Interest rates remain near historic lows, while inflation outside the price of oil — which is determined by world markets and events, not U.S. policy — remains low.
And against these hypothetical risks one must set the reality of an economy that remains deeply depressed, at great cost both to today’s workers and to our nation’s future. After all, how can we expect to prosper two decades from now when millions of young graduates are, in effect, being denied the chance to get started on their careers?
Ask for a coherent theory behind the abandonment of the unemployed and you won’t get an answer. Instead, members of the Pain Caucus seem to be making it up as they go along, inventing ever-changing rationales for their never-changing policy prescriptions.
While the ostensible reasons for inflicting pain keep changing, however, the policy prescriptions of the Pain Caucus all have one thing in common: They protect the interests of creditors, no matter the cost. Deficit spending could put the unemployed to work — but it might hurt the interests of existing bondholders. More aggressive action by the Fed could help boost us out of this slump — in fact, even Republican economists have argued that a bit of inflation might be exactly what the doctor ordered — but deflation, not inflation, serves the interests of creditors. And, of course, there’s fierce opposition to anything smacking of debt relief.
Who are these creditors I’m talking about? Not hard-working, thrifty small business owners and workers, although it serves the interests of the big players to pretend that it’s all about protecting little guys who play by the rules. The reality is that both small businesses and workers are hurt far more by the weak economy than they would be by, say, modest inflation that helps promote recovery.
No, the only real beneficiaries of Pain Caucus policies (aside from the Chinese government) are the rentiers: bankers and wealthy individuals with lots of bonds in their portfolios.
And that explains why creditor interests bulk so large in policy; not only is this the class that makes big campaign contributions, it’s the class that has personal access to policy makers — many of whom go to work for these people when they exit government through the revolving door. The process of influence doesn’t have to involve raw corruption (although that happens, too). All it requires is the tendency to assume that what’s good for the people you hang out with, the people who seem so impressive in meetings — hey, they’re rich, they’re smart, and they have great tailors — must be good for the economy as a whole.
But the reality is just the opposite: creditor-friendly policies are crippling the economy. This is a negative-sum game, in which the attempt to protect the rentiers from any losses is inflicting much larger losses on everyone else. And the only way to get a real recovery is to stop playing that game.
4/ Fascinating article about Sarah Palin and what her tour of the country really means to her campaign and her strategy......she's teaching the "lamestream media" a lesson. Why is she doing this? Because she can.......
WASHINGTON — If a maybe-candidate for president does not issue an “official schedule” to the news media as she tours around in something that closely resembles a campaign bus, did the tour really happen?
You betcha it did — as evidenced by the all-terrain coverage that, true to precedent, trailed Sarah Palin wherever she motored last week.
But how dare she disregard the media like that?
That was a subtext of so much of the press grumbling that followed Ms. Palin and her family as they zigzagged through a Northeast itinerary of “biker caravanning” (at a veterans’ motorcycle rally), historic sightseeing (Gettysburg, etc.), office politicking (the headquarters of her employer, Fox News) and Donald Trump (his own category). By “winging it,” or at least not telling journalists where she was headed next and leading them on what some called a “wild goose chase,” Ms. Palin once again showed contempt for a class of people she plainly despises.
“I don’t think I owe anything to the mainstream media,” Ms. Palin said in an interview aboard her bus with Greta Van Susteren of Fox News.
Ms. Van Susteren’s husband, John Coale, a longtime Democratic fund-raiser who became a Palin friend in 2008, marveled at the media’s nerve. “They have trashed her every which way, and they still expect to be kowtowed to?” he said.
You could argue — as many exasperated bus-chasers argued — that dispensing the most basic of logistical information would not fall under the category of “kowtowing.” Rather, they would say, it would fall somewhere between common courtesy and rudimentary public relations.
But whatever. This is all part of the familiar Palin approach. Call it “The Politics of Doing Whatever the Heck I Want.” There she went again, disrespecting the almighty “process,” playing by her own rules and seeming not to give a flying hoot what anyone thought about it. That included the so-called key Republicans, party insiders and self-important activists whom she also seemed to ignore en route. These are many of the same people who trashed Ms. Palin’s bus tour as ill-conceived and disorganized in (often anonymous) comments to the wild-goose-chasers.
5/ Carl Hiassen with an utterly logical column on why the mandate for everyone in the country to be required to buy health insurance is a good thing.....
‘Utterly insane’ healthcare insurance situation
BY CARL HIAASEN
CHIAASEN@MIAMIHERALD.COM
Legal opposition to the new federal health-care plan is focused on the part requiring almost all Americans to carry health insurance, which has widely been denounced as intrusive and unconstitutional.
Government, the opponents cry, cannot compel citizens to pay for products such as insurance policies.
If that argument prevails in court, I look forward to the day when I can tear up my auto insurance policy, which the state of Florida makes me purchase every year if I want to drive a car. Likewise, I can put a torch to the flood insurance that I’m required to own because my house sits in a zone that nosy Uncle Sam says is at risk of being swamped in a storm.
Now, I admit that my auto policy would protect me financially if I get T-boned by some halfwit who doesn’t carry any coverage. And obviously that flood policy – although I’ve never filed a claim – would enable my family to rebuild after a Katrina-type disaster.
But, heck, isn’t principle more important than practicality?
Last week in Atlanta, three federal appeals judges heard arguments for and against President Obama’s health-care reform package, which was passed last year by Congress. The lawsuit challenging the plan was filed by 26 states, including Florida, and a group of small businesses and conservative activists.
6/ You can't say the President isn't doing his best to correct our huge deficit problem - Onion News has the story.....
7/ "There's no global warming or climate change", which is what Fox News is feeding the stupids......which is what big oil and coal want them to say.......
We are so toast......look at the reality.....
The US East coast......
It was so hot in St. Paul that a once-giant snow pile, the remnant of a long, harsh and suddenly vanquished winter, succumbed this week in 103-degree heat.
Related
Hot Enough to Exasperate, Since It’s Technically Spring(June 9, 2011)
So stifling in Indianapolis that a projected high on the cool side of 90 degrees — even if that meant 89 — was greeted with thanks worthy of benediction. And so miserable in Philadelphia that a meteorologist summed up the forecast in three words: “considerably more disgusting” than the day before.
A heat wave that has taken hold across much of the Central and Eastern United States intensified Thursday, with cities from St. Louis to Richmond, Va., seeing record or near-record high temperatures, cloying humidity and dangerously elevated ozone levels.
The US West coast....
These were not bitter-enders hoping to eke out runs on a thin swatch of snow. At this northern Utah resort, it is still winter. There is hardly a bare spot on the mountain. Piles of snow line the vast parking lot. With much of the country in the grip of record-high temperatures, it was 31 degrees here Friday morning. Snowbird has announced that it will be open for snow sports three days a week until July 4. And it could stay open even later.
An unusually heavy winter snowfall and a cold, wet spring have resulted in a record snowpack in much of the mountain regions of the West. Bob Bonar, the general manager at Snowbird, said the mountain received more than 775 inches of snow this season, well above its average of 500.
“We even got 20 inches of powder over Memorial Day weekend, and our current average base is more than 15 feet,” Bonar said. “The holiday may not even be the end. We may stay open a few weekends longer if the snow stays good.”
But if the giant snowpack remains a boon to skiers at Snowbird and at Snowbasin Resort about 70 miles to the north, it has been problematic to others.
Northern Europe.....
PARIS — Suffering from a record-shattering drought, European nations started preparing emergency plans this week to conserve water and provide millions of euros in aid to farmers, including the deployment of soldiers to deliver hay for cattle grazing on sun-baked soil.
On Thursday, President Nicolas Sarkozy toured a cattle farm in western France to announce an aid package and the service of soldiers and national trains to deliver fodder for livestock farmers. They are comparing the warm temperatures to the heat wave in the summer of 2003, when more than 10,000 people died in Europe.
The aid, which officials said could reach €1 billion, or more than $1.4 billion, also includes a year deferment on paying back government farm loans, a land-tax exemption, and the development of a five-year plan to improve water reserves and management.
“It is essentially a cash flow problem,” Mr. Sarkozy said in his tour of a farm in Montemboeuf. “We will find you room to maneuver.”
Farmers are facing difficult conditions. Before rainstorms last week, the period from March to May in France was the driest in the previous 50 years and the warmest since 1900, according to Météo France, the public weather service.
Records have also fallen in England, where the spring has been the driest since 1910 and the warmest since 1659. In Germany, the weather service said the drought was the worst since the nation started measuring rain in 1893.
8/ Love the title of this one " For the Executive with Everything, a $230,000 dog to protect it".....
Interesting story on the specialized world of training "protection" dogs.....
MINNEAPOLIS — Don’t call her a guard dog.
Rainier Ehrhardt for The New York Times
Buffy, a black German shepherd, and Deanna Louvier, a trainer, working out at Harrison K-9 Security Services in Aiken, S.C.
When she costs $230,000, as Julia did, the preferred title is “executive protection dog.” This 3-year-old German shepherd, who commutes by private jet between a Minnesota estate and a home in Arizona, belongs to a canine caste that combines exalted pedigree, child-friendly cuddliness and arm-lacerating ferocity.
Julia and her ilk have some of the same tracking and fighting skills as the dogs used in elite military units like Navy Seal Team 6, which took a dog on its successful raid of Osama bin Laden’s compound in Pakistan.
In fact, Julia was sold by a trainer, Harrison Prather, who used to supply dogs to Seal Team 6 and the British special forces. But then Mr. Prather switched to a more lucrative market.
“Either rich people discovered me or I discovered them — I can’t remember which happened first,” said Mr. Prather, the president of Harrison K-9 Security Services in Aiken, S.C.
9/ Five minute video of the best of YouTube [?], set to Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody.....quite good......
See how many of the multitude of clips in this collage you've seen.....
10/ Prince Philip is 90 this week, and still as feisty as ever. He has always been the "bad boy" of the British Royals, but he is beloved as a character who speaks his mind, often screws up, but never apologises.....a wonderful man....
Anyway here's a very brief bio of Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh......
LONDON JOURNAL
A Diplomat, He Isn’t: Prince Philip’s Tongue Remains Sharp as Ever
By SARAH LYALL
Published: June 9, 2011
LONDON — In a rare move by a man who appears to despise few activities more than speaking to the news media, Prince Philip recently agreed to cooperate in the making of a television documentary about his life. Although “cooperate” might be too strong a word.
Aidan Crawley/European Pressphoto Agency
Prince Philip and Queen Elizabeth last month in Ireland. He celebrates his 90th birthday Friday.
“Well, so what? You just get old,” a testy Philip is shown barking at the hapless interviewer, Alan Titchmarsh, who has just mentioned an award the prince received from The Oldie magazine. Asked if it was hard to give up his naval career when his wife became queen, Philip snorts, “How long is a piece of string?”
It goes on. “No,” he snaps when asked if he thought much about his role as a father when his children were young. “I was a father. Are you a father?”
And this is Philip when he is trying to be helpful.
The prince, also known as the Duke of Edinburgh, turns 90 on Friday. He is a former naval officer, has been married to Queen Elizabeth II since 1947 and is the longest-serving consort in British history. Although he intends to cut back on his engagements in a concession to his age, his propensity for uttering rude off-the-cuff remarks and wildly offensive would-be witticisms looks as if it is set to delight and appall the nation well into his 10th decade
11/ It's been at least two weeks without a Lady Gaga video, so here's "Born this Way" again.....5 minutes of stunning and sometimes gross visual imagery, but a great song.....
12/ What is the kerfuffle about Anthony Weiner? What is the matter with you people? Doesn't everyone take pictures of some of their less attractive parts and immortalise them on the Internet?
13/ Found this column from a former Florida Republican Representative and Senator, who is completely disgusted with the corruption in our politics...and she tells us why.....
She is articulate, names names and is desperately worried about the future of our state.
A Republican insider spilling the beans.....and boy are we screwed......
Things are worse than you may think
Sunday, June 12, 2011 at 12:00 am (Updated: June 12, 12:02 am)
- Things are worse than you may think
- School board to consider adding aides
- ‘The road of life’ -- Prostate cancer survivor shares his success story
- City council set to approve sewer contract
- Attorney: CMHS bill fits constitutional rules
- Walmart projects progressing
- Manatees pollute
- Raising red kettle awareness
By Nancy Argenziano
Nancy Argenziano.
Make no mistake: This is not about liberals vs. conservatives — or Republicans vs. Democrats; it’s about what is right and what is wrong. The legislation and policies of the governor and legislative leadership are wrong.
It’s about shouting a warning to Floridians that their elected leaders are selling them down the river, saying one thing, but doing another.
In my 16 years in the Florida House, state Senate and Public Service Commission, I have tried to inform people about what was going on in their government and provided the inside scoop that political leaders did not want you to know about. I have been warning for years, and providing examples of our representative government/democracy being sold to the highest contributors, the slush funds, the corruption — that it really is about money.
I have been a Republican, and believe in the Republican principles of long ago: Less government in my private life; don’t tax us to death; personal freedom; personal responsibility; the right to protect myself and family; and for allowing business to do what it does best — do business, without excessive or unnecessary regulations.
But, contrary to the current crop of Republican leaders, I do not want Halliburton in charge of the Pentagon, BP heading up the Department of Environmental Protection, or Enron making energy policy.
In recent years I have seen much corruption; so much so that a grand jury ranked Florida No. 1 in corruption.
I have a problem with those who have hijacked the Republican Party to use it for their own self gain; those who wouldn’t have a clue what a Republican platform is and who have mutated the “R” philosophy beyond recognition.
14/ Movie review - "Super 8", directed by JJ Abrahams and produced by Steven Spielberg.....
Review in the Times is "pretty good", but I also read a critique in Entertainment Weekly that gave it an "A", so it sounds like a pretty decent movie........
The slower, more cumbersome gadgetry of the predigital past provides “Super 8” with some clever jokes and plot twists. In one scene a small-town sheriff is heard muttering about this newfangled contraption called a Walkman, which points down a “slippery slope” of juvenile distraction. Everyone watching — or texting in the theater — will get a chuckle out of that: the 13-year-olds of 2011 and also those who turned 13 in the summer of 1979, a category that happens to include both Mr. Abrams and the present critic, as well some important characters in the film.
Remember Three Mile Island? Remember “My Sharona”? Remember CB radios? Remember Blondie and disco? Mr. Abrams certainly does, and he evokes that bygone world with a sense of period detail that sits right on the line between uncanny and neurotic. His 1979 is more like 1979 than the real 1979, which hardly seemed like a time of innocence and eager wonder.
But no time ever does, except in retrospect, and “Super 8” attempts the difficult feat of balancing self-consciousness about the olden days with wide-eyed, headlong, present-tense fun. For about an hour it succeeds marvelously. The modest letdown that follows exposes the limitations of Mr. Abrams’s imagination. He is clever and sincere — a generous showman, as his work on television series like “Lost” and “Alias” has frequently shown — but still, at least on the big screen, more student than master. Like his previous features, “Mission: Impossible III” and “Star Trek,” “Super 8” is an enticing package without much inside.
"Super 8" trailer.....
15/ Interesting documentary out this week "Queen of the Sun", about bees and the follow up to the real problems bees have been having worldwide, and the serious implications for our food supply.....
Answering its own question, Taggart Siegel’s revelatory documentary “Queen of the Sun: What Are the Bees Telling Us?” would like us to know that its fuzzy subjects are starving, sick and stressed out. Examining the alarming phenomenon known as colony collapse disorder, Mr. Siegel buzzes around the globe and deep into the hive; what he finds is an insect done in by human insult.
Trailer......
Todays Southern jokes
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