Archive for September 28, 2010
Fat Clothes for Fall
Micro rant: Long, drapey and cheap (no buttons or zippers or hems) — that would be the ugly sweater fashion trend this fall.
Are Howard Kurtz and Fox News in Cahoots — Dredging Up Old News to Bash Democrats?
This would be the Washington Post’s “media critic”and the host of CNN’s “Reliable Sources,” Howard Kurtz today:
Again, Kurtz is allegedly a “media critic.” He sells himself as an objective guy who observes the media from afar.
That said, click on Kurtz’s link and you go to a website nobody has ever heard of called, “EyeblastTV.” Once there, you go to a post showing a 43 second video of Cindy Sheehan speaking on September 10, 2010 — 20 days ago:
On the day before the 9th anniversary of the Sep. 11 terrorist attacks, Cindy Sheehan, the darling protester the media gave plenty of coverage to due to her opposition to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, spoke to a crowd at All Souls Church in Manhattan, stating that she is a 9/11 truther and believes it was an inside job. “I am a 9/11 truther”, Sheehan said. “I do believe it was an inside job.”
She continued, “We just don’t know – I don’t know – how far inside it went. But, you know, I’m sure Dick Cheney had something to do with it.” Her statements were met with a standing ovation from the crowd.
She also claimed that Barack Obama is doing everything he can to “protect the criminals of the Bush regime.”
Yo, Howard. Who sent you a memo asking you to bring this up today?
Corporations are Individuals — Citizens United 2.0
The Supreme Court is getting involved in an unusual freedom of information dispute over whether corporations may assert personal privacy interests to prevent the government from releasing documents about them.
The court on Tuesday agreed to a request from the Obama administration to take up a case involving claims made by telecommunications giant AT&T to keep secret the information gathered by the Federal Communications Commission during an investigation.
The administration wants the high court to rule that corporations may not claim a personal privacy exception contained in the federal Freedom of Information Act.
The exception may be used only by individuals, the administration said in a brief signed by Elena Kagan, the newest justice who served in the Justice Department until last month.
Per the Citizens United ruling, corporations are people. People are obviously individuals so we can see where this is headed.
Lordy, lordy. I don’t know if there’s any stopping this train.
Democrats: “What We Need to Do Before November”
I keep hearing and reading about establishment Democrats talking about “what we need to do before November.”
Hey, the election, and “November,” are five weeks away. Five weeks. It’s time to do “what we need to do before November,” NOW!
The Wholly Owned Corporate Senators of the United States
From The Hill:
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) on Tuesday blasted the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) for opposing legislation that attempts to in-source jobs by granting companies a payroll tax holiday that shift overseas jobs to the U.S. and limits the use of tax deferral.
“Of course they are [opposed],” Sanders told reporters. “They much prefer paying people in Vietnam 20 cents an hour than American workers a living wage.”
Last week, NAM and the Chamber raised concerns that the bill would impose new costs on U.S. multinational companies making them less competitive in the global marketplace and jeopardizing U.S. job creation.
[...]
“It is to their advantage, in many cases, to shut down plants here and pay people a fraction of the wages that American workers lose by going to China,” Sanders said. “What’s the surprise about that?”
Sanders suggested that these organizations oppose the bill because it bolsters the bottom lines of their members.
The bill was defeated in the Senate today:
Forty GOP senators voted against the bill, along with four Democrats and independent Sen. Joe Lieberman (Conn.).
The four Democrats who crossed the aisle to oppose the bill were Sens. Max Baucus and Jon Tester of Montana, Ben Nelson of Nebraska and Mark Warner of Virginia. Sens. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) and Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark.) were not present for the vote.
Every single Republican who was present voted against this, as did four Democrats and of course — no surprise there — Joe Lieberman.
SHAME! on all of them. The corporatists have got to go. I figure November might be our last chance. I fear it’s only going to get worse as corporations become comfortable with Citizens United and they in turn buy more and more legislators.
Break Time — Eggs!
Here’s a cool post titled, “Eggs Around the World,” showing some of the different ways people serve them, primarily for breakfast.
This is the one I’d like to try. Throw in a little bit of chicken stock and it would be grrrrrreat!
Check out the other ones at the link above.
Fox Sends Out Scary Tweet About Unions Containing 19-Day-Old News
Minutes ago I got this tweet from Fox News:
Click on the link and you go to an article with the same headline but — what? — the dateline is September 9. September 9?
Here’s a screen shot, just in case the sleaze bags over there change the date:
Anyway, this is Fox fear mongering at its best. Those lazy union socialists are going to “amass a war chest” and buy the election.
Pretty funny.
Ironically, Mary Kay, the new president of the SEIU, was on The Ed Schultz Show this morning. She and Schultz briefly touched on the Citizens United case which is often cited by wingers as favorable to unions and their ability to affect elections. Yes, it is true that Citizens United gave both corporations and unions the right to contribute unlimited amounts of money to campaigns, but the ability of the two to do so on an equal basis is a farce. According to Kay, this election cycle alone, corporations are giving to conservative campaigns by a margin of 26 to 1 when compared to what unions are able to contribute. So, this talk about unions “amassing a war chest” is crap and Fox knows it but they don’t care. They’re trying to scare their base.
But what’s going on with Fox dragging a 19-day-old article out and tweeting it as if it’s new news? One can only guess. Maybe they are trying to counteract Kay’s appearance on Schultz’s show? Maybe they’re setting it up so they can blame the unions if lots of Republicans lose in November? One can only wonder but guaranteed, they’re up to something.
Good News From the Obama Administration
This is wonderful, but that it took a letter writing campaign to make it happen is kind of disgusting:
Department of Homeland Security Revises Plan — WILL Screen Shelter Dogs!
It’s a victory for shelter dogs and we helped make it happen. When the Department of Homeland Security 9DHS, announced it would be paying breeders to produce several thousand Shepherds, Retrievers, and Labs for DHS security programs, we wrote letters to Director Janet Napolitano and to our congressmen and senators. We respectfully requested that shelter dogs be considered for the project instead.
Folks, we did it. Our requests were heard. The DHS announced last month that it would indeed consider shelter dogs for its programs. The announcement was made via a letter to PETA president, Ingrid Newkirk, who also lobbied passionately on behalf of shelter dogs. Usually, however, it takes many, many voices to impel a ship as big as the federal government away from its chosen course, so credit must be shared with all of us who took action. Thank you, thank you for helping to make a difference.
Wall Street Doesn’t Do Well When Democrats Are in Office
Ah yes, one of the favorite winger memes — that Wall Street hates it when a Democrat is in the White House. Guess they’re hating it all the way to the bank these days:
Good Morning
It’s a good morning because my to do list is short and I think I can “buck up,” “stop whining” and get it all done today!
