Happy Birthday Cesar.

Cesar Estrada Chavez would of been 82 today. He is buried up the road from me in Keene, CA which I drive by every time I go east. He left this world on April 23,1993.

I marched with him. I took shit from the cops and rednecks for him and the cause of Farmworkers being paid a living wage. I had vegetables thrown at me, I had obscenities screamed at me for my belief in Cesar and his mission to get a living wage and decent working conditions for farm workers. I have picked fruit. I know what it's like to be a farm worker.

I would do it all again. In a NY minute. From Las Culturas:

THE LAST MARCH WITH CESAR CHAVEZ

On April 29, 1993, Cesar Estrada Chavez was honored in death by those he led in life. More than 50,000 mourners came to honor the charismatic labor leader at the site of his first public fast in 1968 and his last in 1988, the United Farm Workers Delano Field Office at "Forty Acres."

It was the largest funeral of any labor leader in the history of the U.S. They came in caravans from Florida to California to pay respect to a man whose strength was in his simplicity.

Farm workers, family members, friends and union staff took turns standing vigil over the plain pine coffin which held the body of Cesar Chavez. Among the honor guard were many celebrities who had supported Chavez throughout his years of struggle to better the lot of farmworkers throughout America.

Many of the mourners had marched side by side with Chavez during his tumultuous years in the vineyards and farms of America. For the last time, they came to march by the side of the man who had taught them to stand up for their rights, through nonviolent protest and collective bargaining.

Cardinal Roger M. Mahoney, who celebrated the funeral mass, called Chavez "a special prophet for the worlds' farm workers." Pall bearers, including crews of these workers, Chavez children and grandchildren, then carried their fallen leader, resting at last, from the Memorial Park to Forty Acres.

The death of Chavez marked an era of dramatic changes in American agriculture. His contributions would be eroded, and others would have to shoulder the burden of his work. But, Cesar Chavez, who insisted that those who labor in the earth were entitled to share fairly in the rewards of their toil, would never be forgotten.

We can not forget him...ever. We also can never forget the farm workers and what they deal with to make a living...ever. You might not understand why this is important to me, but I hope you get the gist of it.

No one works harder for a living than farm workers, and they do it for pennies. They still die in the fields because of heat stroke or because some asshole farmer had a field sprayed while the workers were working there, every year here in the San Joaquin valley. It gets over 100 daily here in the summer. But no one goes to jail here for a dead farm worker.

There is still lots of work to be done and the UFW is trying to level the playing field. Eight states recognize Cesar Chavez's birthday with a state holiday. Yet... all 50 states eat the food farm workers pick....

Professor Turley on the Spanish Inquisition.

He also talks about the failure of torture as a method to gather evidence..and the Big Dick Cheney and how Obama and Holder might be protecting The Shrub and the Big Dick from prosecution.

Matt Taibbi-I love you dude!!

Matt's latest piece is a wonderful bitchslap of the AIG carpetbaggers. He is responding to the recent NYT OpEd by one of their employees...actually former employee. Executive VP Jake DeSantis. Jake was a big wig in the Financial Products division...you know, the one that created the credit default swaps bullshit. It's a must read! Just a small tidbit:

Are we supposed to believe that Jake DeSantis knew nothing about Joe Cassano's CDS deals? If your boss and the top guys in your firm were all making a killing selling anything at all -- whether it was rubber kayaks, generic Levitra or credit default swaps -- you really wouldn't bother to find out what that thing they were selling was? You'd really just mind your own business, sit at your cubicle and put your faith in the guys up top to fill you in if there was something you needed to know?

This would be a believable claim for an employee of some other wing of AIG, a company with well over 100,000 employees. But DeSantis works for tiny, 377-person AIGFP, a unit that had only two offices -- one in London and one in Greenwich, Conn.

And we're talking about financial professionals, the most shameless group of tirelessly envious gossips ever to walk the face of the earth. The likelihood that Cassano would pull in $280 million for himself, and his equally greedy, hopelessly jealous employees wouldn't know not only exactly how he made that money but every last ugly detail about his life -- from what skank he's sleeping with to what side of his trousers he hangs on -- is almost zero.

I know plenty of people who work in this world, and I've met very few who didn't hate with every cell in their bodies anyone in their own companies who made more money than they did or got bigger bonuses at Christmastime. Gossiping about each others' bonuses, and bitching about each others' compensation, is the national pastime for these people.

So forgive me if I don't buy this story that poor Jake and his buddies didn't know about Cassano's CDS business.

Get em Matt!!! Bitchslap the living shit out of these punks. Taibbi is one of the best journalists out there..I can never get enough of him.

H/T to MPS and the Vanity Press for having this up on their sites.

A budget without numbers is like a car without wheels.

Hug and a hat-tip to Fran for emailing me this sucker. ;)

Feline Friday!

Ok, so this is Scooter, the Alpha Male:
Scooter is a bully, he takes their lunch money and their seat on the bus. Wait! That is the grade school bully...Scooter takes their cat food and their favorite seat by the open window in my bedroom. He is a big, fat, white bastard..but I love him anyway. Two of the teenage cats, Jack and his sister Charlie have been on a mission to knock Scooter down a peg.
(We recycle those plastic bottles btw.)

They tag team ole Scooters ass, and he can't deal with it...he just sits there and cries when they get him cornered. So I get out the fire hose. Ok, really it's just a spray bottle with water in it, but it shoots a stream of water about 15 feet. I hose down the two offending teenie boppers and all is quiet again in the humble abode.

Then, Pee Wee and Spanky start running through the house like their asses are on fire. At least Spanky has a play pal now. They sound like a herd of horses. Spanky has eye issues, so meds were obtained from our vet, the world's most wonderful pet doctor, Dr. Anderson. Here is PW looking innocent. He is one sneaky little fucker.
Ok, that concludes todays Feline Friday post. Obviously I have other things going on and politics can go straight to hell today, for me at least. Time for ye olde hippy speedball. ;)

Enjoy your weekend folks and do something fun and entertaining..treat yourselves to something nice.

The real Afghanistan by PJ Tobia

PJ writes for the Village Voice. He has a five page article on the VillageVoice today about his fall trip to Afghanistan.

It ain't pretty...its gritty as hell and doesn't mince words. It's a great read to get a grasp of what the media and our government don't tell us about Afghanistan and our war there. In the section below, he describes the interpreters (called 'terps') that are essential to the troops, and how the Americans and NATO view and treat them:

Like soldiers, terps get to take leave for weeks at a time. But unlike soldiers, they don't get transport to their home provinces, often hundreds of miles from their bases. They must travel alone for days over roads crawling with men who want to kill them. "I am from Paktika province," says Farah. "The military flies there every day, but I am not allowed to get on those planes."

It's a strange policy, considering terps are indispensable to the U.S. Very few Americans speak Pashto or Dari, Afghanistan's two most common languages, so nearly every platoon needs an interpreter.

Yet they're stuck with older body armor and they don't have guns, sticking out as easy targets for insurgents.

Everybody complains in war, of course. But the terps' gripes are very different from those of the U.S. soldiers. Though they don't expressly say it, there's a sense of hurt in their words, a feeling that they're being used. While NATO is ostensibly here for the Afghan people, they remain secondary citizens.

Still, it's hard to blame the U.S. forces, who've come to understand that today's friend is tomorrow's assassin.

I understand the fear that must be heavy when it comes to dealing with Afghan citizens. I get it. What I don't get is what we are doing there now. How are our troops making a difference, how are they cleaning out the Taliban and Al-Qaeda? What are they doing to gain the trust of the Afghani's? What is the plan man? From PJ's article:

"My buddy was killed by a terp who got religion," says a sergeant with the 101st Airborne out of Fort Campbell, Kentucky, near the Tennessee border. He recalls standing next to the soldier on base. Suddenly, a terp grabbed a gun and started shooting at everything in uniform.

The sergeant turned toward the shooter, never guessing that his terp had gone rogue. A bullet ripped through his sleeve, missing flesh. His buddy standing next to him wasn't so lucky. By the time the sergeant realized what had happened, both his friend and the terp were dead.

"All it takes is for one of these guys to get religion, and that's all she wrote," he says.

The situation is indicative of the relationship between the coalition forces and the Afghans. In dozens of conversations with soldiers, they gave the impression that while they wish the country well, they're equally frustrated with the Afghans' lack of willingness to rise to their own defense.

A second lieutenant tells the story of some Afghan workers in a parking lot outside a base: "The workers—maybe about 30 of them—were walking to their cars. The Taliban rolls up, two guys in a car with AKs. They single out two of the local nationals, pull them aside, and execute them on the spot. What did the other Afghans do? They put their fingers in their ears so the gunshots wouldn't be so loud."

What a fucking nightmare, what a clusterfuck it has become in Afghanistan.

Yet NATO isn't chipping in much help and we are sending another 17,000 soldiers there.

Geithner wants super powers...

Not like Superman of course, more like Bush43. Oh, and Benny Bernanke wants them too! From the NYT article on the subject:

The Federal Reserve Chairman, Ben S. Bernanke, agreed with Mr. Geithner that Congress should grant the Treasury Department and Federal Reserve new powers. Mr. Bernanke told members of the House Financial Services Committee that if the government had had such authority in September, when the depth of A.I.G.’s troubles became obvious, the company could have been put into receivership or conservatorship and regulators would have been able to “unwind it slowly, protect policyholders” and take other prudent measures.

We have foxes in charge of the financial hen house now...why would we want to give them more power?

The Glass-Steagall act and the 1956 Bank Holding Company Act were rolled back by greedy Phil Gramm and his cohorts when they created the Financial Services Modernization Act, which was signed into law by Bill Clinton. We need to re-institute them and make them stronger. We don't need a Financial Czar like Bernanke or Geithner.

Absolute power corrupts.

Thoughts on Geithner and Bernanke's appearance today

As I watched the dog and pony show in the House Financial Services committee this morning I thought aloud:

Timmy G looked a little pissed off at all the grilling he was getting.

Bennie Bernanke got down right hostile at one point. From the WaPo link above:

Earlier, Bernanke came the closest that anyone is likely to see to flashing public anger when responding to some hounding from Rep. Donald Manzullo (R-Ill.), who was demanding a "simple yes or no" from Bernanke, Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner and N.Y. Fed President Bill Dudley on a complicated matter.

"Not one of you three can give me a yes or no?" Manzullo thundered.

"That's because it's a poorly posed question," Bernanke zinged back. Naturally, Bernanke's facial expression remained unchanged.

The members of the committee, especially Maxine Waters, were not in a happy place today. They looked and sounded highly pissed off. Ms Waters is a democrat, but that didn't stop her from going off on Geithner.

You can read Bernanke's opening statement here.

Oh, and I finally got Sirens Chronicles back to normal, graphics and all. Happy Happy Joy Joy! ;) I am checking on strengthening the security on the site.

My mood? It ain't good...

Yesterday, someone hacked my group blog Sirens Chronicles. Hacked as in totally deleted everything from the site except the template.

Half the night and most of this morning I have been trying to restore the site. I finally was able to restore the database, but we can not upload graphics to the new posts. That seems to be the only problem, but it's a big problem none the less.

What kind of asshole gets their jolly's from that kind of fuckery? It's a rhetorical question....but feel free to answer it in the comments section.

Watched Obama on 60 minutes...anyone else see it?

Rightwing hate speech pumps up the wacko's.

This week Bill Maher has a good show. Bernie Sanders representative for Vermont and KO are on for starters. C&L has the transcript of this exchange here. As Olbermann notes, this kind of bullshit and bravado hate talk incited good ole Timmy McVeigh.

And before Steve, our resident rightwing nutjob, starts bitching that the left does it too...we folks don't go out and kill people, we just warn and whine a LOT.




These folks have a huge bully pulpit at their disposal...the airwaves. I can easily name 8-10 of these sick fucks that condone or attempt to inflame the violent extreme rightwing nutjobs. You, the reader, can probably do it too. This shitfest below is just one example of outright fuckery with not even an ounce of truth in it. Beck and the NRA..sweet-fucking-jesus-in-a-speedo...make it stop before someone else dies at the hand of a lunatic that can read on a 6th grade level, but owns a fucking gun or two.BTW, I personally own a gun, I am not against gun ownership per se.



Where is the responsibility for what comes out of your piehole when you use America's airwaves to reach millions? It's bullshit for the masses.

Thanks to C&L for both videos. They so rock, don't cha know?

AG Holder changes FOIA guidelines.

Thursday, Holder released new guidelines for complying with the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). His intent is to make government more accessible and transparent. From Jurist:

The new guidelines, designed to increase transparency in government, will rescind the Attorney General's FOIA Memorandum of October 12, 2001, which stated that the Department of Justice would defend decisions to withhold records "unless they lack a sound legal basis or present an unwarranted risk of adverse impact on the ability of other agencies to protect other important records." Instead, the Department of Justice will defend a denial of a FOIA request only if (1) the agency reasonably foresees that disclosure would harm an interest protected by one of the statutory exemptions, or (2) disclosure is prohibited by law.

This is a good thing for severals reasons and on many levels. In January, President Obama released a memo directing all department heads and agencies to lean towards transparency when dealing with FOIA requests. A section of his directive below:

All agencies should adopt a presumption in favor of disclosure, in order to renew their commitment to the principles embodied in FOIA, and to usher in a new era of open Government. The presumption of disclosure should be applied to all decisions involving FOIA.

The presumption of disclosure also means that agencies should take affirmative steps to make information public. They should not wait for specific requests from the public. All agencies should use modern technology to inform citizens about what is known and done by their Government. Disclosure should be timely.

I direct the Attorney General to issue new guidelines governing the FOIA to the heads of executive departments and agencies, reaffirming the commitment to accountability and transparency.

Good on ya President Obama...good on ya dude.

Six years ago the lights went out in Iraq

Bush invaded Iraq six years ago today.From ICasualties.org:

U.S. Confirmed Deaths
Reported Deaths: 4259
Confirmed Deaths: 4258
Pending Confirmation: 1
DoD Confirmation List

From Just Foreign Policy.org


My video from last years anniversary:

The bonuses...its all about the damn bonuses?

I am really tired of this subject. AIG was not the only financial company to reward failure. Lehman Bros did too. Hell, I would be willing to bet all if not most of the banks and financial houses did prior to putting their hand out for that corporate welfare check.

Timmy Geithner needs to set the record straight on what he knew and when. Chris Dodd needs to name the 'administration official' that told him to change the language in the stimulus bill from wiping out all bonuses to letting a few of them slide through.

So what did the folks in the House of Reps do today? Why they passed a bill that smells totally illegal and unconstitutional..it taxes anyone that received a bonus or will receive a bonus...to the tune of a 90% tax rate. Retroactive legislation is rarely legal...they should know that. It was pure unadulterated theater folks! From CNN:

The measure would tax individuals on any bonuses received in 2009 from companies getting $5 billion or more in money from the Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP. Bonuses for people with incomes over $250,000 would be taxed at a 90 percent rate.

Yes we are outraged...but I think we are pissed at the wrong people...Timmy G and Benny Bernanke should be higher on our shit list than the folks that took the bonuses their companies were contractually obligated to pay.

Timmy has been on the side of the carpetbaggers since day one. Five bucks says he is the one that told Dodd to remove the section prohibiting bonuses.

And Bernanke knew about these fucking bonuses for months and never informed anyone in the new administration? WTF dude? He just moved up my shit list too.

Friggin carpetbaggers, and their friends in high places...kiss my brown ass. I hope all your names are released publically and you are shamed into returning those bonuses.

As for Benny and Timmy..they need to resign their posts...but they won't. Obama can fire Timmy, but not Bernanke.

Sigh....

Baseball has commenced. This makes me happy as I can break away from MSNBC when I feel like I am going starkers and watch a simple yet very satisfying spring training game on the MLB Network, or the World Baseball Classic.

The WBC is interesting in that the foreign-born players that usually play for MLB teams here in the US are playing for their 'home' team now...A lot of countries are well represented...by far the Dominican Republic had the best of our gents..but they were eliminated by the upstart team from the Netherlands. I shit you not, the Netherlands.

In other news, Spanky is learning all of Pee Wee's bad habits. They have bonded quite well and PW is showing him the ropes..as in hanging off the drapes and destroying my desk by knocking all the interesting shit on the floor to play with and then hide when they are bored with a particular object. The other house cats are still pissed that I brought another orphan into the house. But they bascially ignore him, no fighting or scuffling allowed here, just a little hissing.

I have a fantasy baseball draft today, so that will take up a large portion of my day.

Is it too early to make a Cosmo? Probably...It's Happy Hour somewhere in the world isn't it??

Obama - 'pursue every legal avenue' to stop AIG from paying huge bonuses

Let me start by saying I watch every Presidential news conference. Sorry folks but I am calling bullshit on the Presidents newest declaration. He is publicly feigning outrage at AIG because he already knows there is nothing that can be done to stop the millions being handed out to the assholes that helped make this economic mess.

It's simply populous rhetoric on his part, designed to show that he feels our pain.

He is, after all, a politician.

I have nothing against Obama, I just think his presser was theater at its finest. A Time magazine article says it best for me:

Obama's AIG Outrage: All Talk, No Action

In the middle of decrying the misdeeds of the financial firm AIG, President Obama cracked a joke. "Excuse me," he said Monday, after coughing into the microphone. "I am choked up with anger here." There were laughs all around the gilded East Room of the White House, because he didn't sound angry at all.

The laughter, of course, did not fit the occasion, the latest in a seemingly endless stream of public events at which Washington's political leaders work themselves into high dudgeon over the sins of financial wizards who, we are told over and over again, have messed up the world for everyone else. But then, you can only act outraged about the same thing so many times before it all starts to sound stale. These spectacles, the public rhetorical floggings, have become teleplays, as predictable as a daytime soap opera, as comforting as a wet rock. (See pictures of the top 10 scared traders.)

*snip*

Obama had promised weeks ago to stop the excessive bonuses on Wall Street, at a time when the existence of the coming AIG bonuses had already been disclosed by the excellent reporting of Bloomberg News. Obama's staff had vowed more recently that the further infusion of taxpayer money into AIG, which the federal government now controls 80% of, was appropriate and necessary. And now he was faced with the fact that his new executive compensation policy, which only applied to a narrow subset of executives at a few institutions, had been powerless to stop the worst violators at AIG from getting their undeserved payday. (See the worst business deals of 2008.)

I realize that this mess wasn't created by Obama. I realize he is doing what he can, but damn dude, don't play me...I ain't stupid.

Bernanke-Friend or Foe of the common man and woman?

Last night, Ben Bernanke, the Federal Reserve Chairman, did an extended interview with 60 Minutes. This is news unto itself as the Fed Chair never does interviews. He spent his time defending the bank bailout, which should be expected. The section regarding AIG, is below:

(PELLEY ) There have now been four rescues of AIG, for about $160 billion. Why is that necessary?

(BERNANKE) Let me just first say that- of all the events and all of the things we’ve done in the last 18 months, the- the single one that makes me the angriest, that gives me the most angst, is the intervention with AIG. Here was a company that made all kinds of unconscionable bets. Then, when those bets went wrong, they had a- we had a situation where the failure of that company would have brought down the financial system.

(PELLEY) You say it makes you angry? What do you mean by that?

(BERNANKE) It makes me angry. I slammed the phone more than a few times on discussing AIG. It’s- it’s just absolutely- I understand why the American people are angry. It’s absolutely unfair that taxpayer dollars are going to prop up a company that made these terrible bets- that was operating out of the sight of regulators, but which we have no choice but the stabilize, or else risk enormous impact, not just in the financial system, but on the whole U.S. economy.

Notice he uses the word “bet”. The Stock Market is legalized gambling at its best. Why then, would we continue to shore up these gamblers? According to Bernanke, if we don’t, Armageddon could be on the horizon. Below is his analogy:

(PELLEY) You know, Mr. Chairman, there are so many people outside this
building, across this country, who say, “To hell with them. They made bad bets. the wages of failure on Wall Street should be failure.”

(BERNANKE) Let me give you an analogy, if I might. If you have a neighbor, who smokes in bed. And he’s a risk to everybody. If suppose he sets fire to his- to his house, and you might say to yourself, you know, “I’m not going to call the fire department. Let his house burn down. It’s fine with me.” But then, of course, but what if your house is made of wood? And it’s right next door to his house? What if the whole town is made of wood? Well, I think we’d all agree that the right thing to do is put out that fire first, and then say, “What punishment is appropriate? How should we change the fire code? What needs to be done to make sure this doesn’t happen in the future? How
can we fire proof our houses?” That’s where we are now. We’re having-
we have a fire going on.

(PELLEY) It’s still burning.

(BERNANKE) It’s still burning

The biggest surprise for me was that the Federal Reserve doesn’t use tax payers money…it simply prints more. From the transcript:

(PELLEY) Is that tax money that the Fed is spending?

(BERNANKE) It’s not tax money. the banks have- accounts with the Fed, much the same way that you have an account in a commercial bank. So, to lend to a bank, we simply use the computer to mark up the size of the account that they have with the Fed. so it’s much more akin to printing money than it is to borrowing.

(PELLEY ) You’ve been printing money?

(BERNANKE) Well, effectively. And we need to do that, because our economy is very weak and inflation is very low. when the economy begins to recover, that will be the time that we need to unwind those programs, raise interest rates, reduce the money supply, and make sure that we have a recovery that does not involve inflation.

It all sounds like a dangerous game, where no one is sure of the consequences.Printing money creates inflation doesn’t it? Didn’t I learn that in college?

Didn’t we learn anything from the Great Depression? How does Bernanke think we can fix the financial industry so this kind of crap doesn’t happen again?

(PELLEY ) There was a panic in 1907. So, the Fed was created to prevent that from ever happening again. And then we got the Great Depression. And now we have this. How do we prevent this from occurring another time?

(BERNANKE) well, tougher regulation of large firms. It includes having a set of laws that allows us to wind down. A large, internationally active firm, without the adverse impacts on the markets that a disorderly bankruptcy would have. It includes possibly having a systemic regulator. A- regulator that has some responsibility to look at the system as a whole.

Wait a friggin minute, we had laws and regulations in place to watchdog the financial industry On Bill Clinton’s watch, the Republican-led Congress passed deregulation bills a plenty. Congress neutered that watchdog folks. The Glass-Steagall Act was trashed.

So, my original question remains. Is Bernanke a friend to the little guy or just a supporter of the financial industry that caused this catastrophe? Is he blowing smoke up our collective asses in this interview?

I don’t know..but he doesn’t make me feel warm and fuzzy. How about you?

Introducing Spanky!

Here are some photo's of the new kid in town...currently going by the name of Spanky. He still doesn't like any of the other felines in the house...but I did catch him chasing Pee Wee through the entire house a few minutes ago, he just didn't know what to do when he caught him...so there is hope.

But I have never seen a feline that can eat and growl simultaneously...its quite funny actually.

Why me lord?

It's just a saying, but I do wonder why it is that I am blessed with all the strays in my neighborhood...

Yesterday morning when it was still dark and cold, Casper decided he wanted to go outside. Casper is an 'indoor only' feline. He isn't the brightest bulb in the house, so we really don't trust him to be running around outside.

He managed to stage an escape yesterday morning, so there I was running around the outside of the house chasing him down in my sleepwear, screaming his name like a banshee with a can of catfood in one hand to lure the little fucker.

It wasn't pretty folks...lemme tell ya.

The regular outside cats were watching the show with mild amusement on their faces. Suddenly I saw something move on the seat of the four-wheeler which caught my eye as I rounded the right corner of the front yard...

It was a tiny little orange and white kitten. He was dirty and very disheveled.

I made a mental note to come back to that spot after I caught the escapee.

I finally cornered Casper in the other side yard and like a goalie in hockey, didn't let him get by me. I tossed his long haired worthless little ass into the house and grabbed my can of catfood.

When I approached the little guy, he dived under the motor home. The outside cats were all still there, watching the drama unfold. Of course they were probably silently laughing at me as I was still in sleeping attire and the sun was now coming up so the neighbors would be able to see my dumb ass as well.

I got down on my hands and knees and called the little kitten..he didn't budge. Then I put some catfood down on the ground....he came flying out from under the motor home.

He was starving and suddenly didn't give a shit about the crazy women making weird noises and dressed really, really badly.

So I grabbed him and whisked him into the house before he knew what hit him.

He was so dirty, his white fur was grey and black, his little paws were black with dirt half way up his legs. His fur was all matted down.

But damn he was hungry. He ate almost a whole can of catfood in the kitchen with the house cats sitting in a circle around him as he ate and growled simultaneously.

I am his new best friend...he doesn't leave my side and he wants to be held all the time...just like a baby.

More later...and some pictures too. ;)

Jim Cramer shows up on the Daily Show.

The entire interview can be seen in three parts here. Jon Stewart, as far as I am concerned,was as serious as a heart attack and was a true journalist last night during his interview with Jim Cramer from CNBC. He pointed out time and time again last night, that CNBC is nothing more than a shill for Wall Street and the financial industry, they never do anything negative about the industry or any investigative pieces on the industry. Cramer was apologetic at best and a whiner at worst. Quite a bit of the interview was left on the cutting room floor due to time constraints. But the link above will show you the entire interview uncut. Check out part one and two below.

The Daily Show With Jon StewartM - Th 11p / 10c

Jim Cramer Unedited Interview Pt. 1

Daily Show Full Episodes
Important Things w/ Demetri Martin

Political Humor
Jim Cramer

The Daily Show With Jon StewartM - Th 11p / 10c

Jim Cramer Unedited Interview Pt. 2

Daily Show Full Episodes
Important Things w/ Demetri Martin

Political Humor
Jim Cramer

Jon Stewart said last night, and I believe it to be true...that there are two stock markets...the real one that is dangerous and volatile and the one shown us on networks like CNBC, who shamelessly represent only the interests of Wall Street.

Jon Stewart vs Jim Cramer and CNBC

I don't know if anyone is following the skirmish between Jon Stewart and CNBC's Jim Cramer but it's very interesting and funny as hell. From Alternet who has the whole sordid mess from beginning to end:

The fight between Jon Stewart and CNBC started out with a "brutal, but utterly hilarious" attack on Rick Santelli's infamous rant against homeowners, and an insightful look at just how wrong CNBC got it in the days and months before the econopocalypse:

Stewart aped Santelli's newsgrabbing shouty-faced blubber from the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, coyly admitting, "I have to say, I find cheap populism very arousing." And then, for eight minutes, Stewart at his arch best (with the help of the crackerjack Daily Show research team) went on an absolute tear and burned CNBC right down to the doorframes. "If only I'd followed CNBC's advice, I'd have a million dollars, provided I'd started with a hundred million dollars."

The Daily Show With Jon StewartM - Th 11p / 10c

CNBC Gives Financial Advice

Daily Show Full Episodes
Important Things With Demetri Martin

Political Humor
Economic Crisis

Then, Cramer went after Stewart on his show, Morning Joe and the Today Show. Below is Jon Stewarts response:

The Daily Show With Jon StewartM - Th 11p / 10c

Basic Cable Personality Clash Skirmish '09

Daily Show Full Episodes
Important Things With Demetri Martin

Political Humor
Economic Crisis

Cramer will be on The Daily Show Tonight...Its must see tv!

Ari Fleischer is nucking futs.

The video speaks for itself....and count how many times that fuckwit mentions getting rid of Saddam, and that Obama should thank Bush.

Statue of Limitations expired on Bush's wiretapping Americans

FISA you see... has a standard 5-year statute of limitation.

Now, he and his cronies will be able to breathe easier on this front.

And that is wrong, so wrong on every friggin level.

Emptywheel has a good writeup on it, a small blurb from it:

Now, as it happens, a District Court Judge may have or may be about to judge whether or not that wiretapping was illegal. I'm referring, of course, to the al-Haramain suit currently before Vaughn Walker. The last known development in that suit came eleven days ago, when the 9th Circuit ruled that Walker should review the wiretap log to determine whether it shows that al-Haramain is an aggrieved party (meaning they were wiretapped illegally), and when the Obama Administration corrected "inaccurate" information on the wiretap program probably submitted three years ago. Since then, nothing has appeared in the docket for the case.

The absence of any activity in the docket could mean one of two things. First, Vaughn Walker may still be reviewing all the new information he received on February 27--the four new declarations about the program--as well as the rather astonishing OLC opinions revealed last Monday. In other words, by flooding Walker with new information, the Obama Administration may have prevented Walker from ruling quickly on whether the al-Haramain wiretapping was legal until after the statute of limitations expire. He may still be wading through new legal issues that go beyond those raised by the wiretap log itself.

Or, it's possible that Vaughn Walker has already ruled. As I pointed out over the weekend, the Obama Administration requested that Judge Walker show them in his order before he publishes it to the docket so they can conduct a classification review and decide whether to appeal his decision.

Accordingly, the Government respectfully proposes that the Court utilize the following procedures. First, if the Court proceeds on an ex parte, in camera basis to review the Sealed Document in order to address the issue of standing, then regardless of how the Court would then intend to rule, the Government requests that the Court provide notice to the Government of any order it would place on the public record, so that the Government may conduct a classification review and determine whether to appeal before any information over which the Government claims privilege is disclosed to the public.

Of all the crimes committed by BushCo, this one affected or had the ability to affect, all Americans.

John Yoo whines that he is misunderstood.

The Bush administration’s go-to guy on all things Torture and by-passing our Bill of Rights has an OpEd up at the Wall Street Journal. From Jason Leopold at The Public Record:

John Yoo, the former Justice Department attorney and author of several controversial legal opinions including the infamous “torture memo,” continues to live in a state of denial.

In an op-ed published Saturday in the Wall Street Journal, Yoo attempted to defend a handful of legal opinions he drafted in the aftermath of 9/11 that one colleague described as “either incorrect or highly questionable” and another colleague said was “sloppily reasoned.”

Yoo complained that his brief comments about waiving the First Amendment in a highly controversial Oct. 23, 2001 legal opinion released earlier this week were taken out of context by the news media.

“In portraying our answer [regarding Bush's right to ignore the Fourth Amendment], the media has quoted a single out-of-context sentence from our analysis: ‘First Amendment speech and press rights may also be subordinated to the overriding need to wage war successfully.’”

Yoo said his point was simply to highlight a past judicial opinion about the inherent powers of the President at a time of war. However, the First Amendment line in the memo could have become the legal basis for the Bush administration to take action against or interfere with journalists investigating the government’s behavior or citizens protesting Bush’s war policies.

How Yoo justifies his pov on the various amendments in our Bill of Rights and torture amazes me. That he attempts now to paint himself as a victim just chaps my hide. As Jason notes, Yoo used his OpEd as an opportunity to go after President Obama for releasing the confidential memos stating Obama released the memo’s to ‘appease the anti-war base’, which evidently is not the case. They were released in response to a lawsuit filed by Jose Padilla, which btw, the Obama DOJ is representing John Yoo on.

Talk about friggin irony…

UN Peacekeepers attacked in Darfur

This is the first instance of violence against the Peacekeepers since the murderer that runs Sudan, President Omar al-Bashir, had a warrant issued for him by the ICC (International Criminal Court). From VOA:

The joint UN-African Union peacekeeping mission said the peacekeepers were ambushed by five or six unidentified gunmen on Monday evening while driving near the town of El-Geneina in West Darfur.

The peacekeepers, three Nigerians and one Rwandan, were flown to a base in the town of El-Fasher for treatment, according to the mission, with one of the soldiers in critical condition.

The supporters of Al-Bashir have organized several rallies against American’s and the Europeans that support the ICC warrant. Al-Bashir has expelled at least 13 aid groups, saying they are passing information on to the ICC. It’s going to get uglier before it gets better in Sudan…bet on it. The Sudanese are starving and dying in record numbers and they will pay the ultimate price for the actions of the ICC.

World Bank forecast is ugly..damn ugly.

The World Bank has released a report that has a very grim outlook regarding the global recession/depression. From WaPo:

The report said that 94 out of 116 developing countries have been hit by economic slowdowns. The World Bank projected that the economic crisis will push around 46 million people into poverty in 2009 through job and wage cuts, as well as declining flows of remittances, the money that foreign workers send to their families. Net private capital flows to emerging markets are plunging, set to fall to $165 billion this year -- or 17 percent of their 2007 levels. Falling demand in the West is sparking the sharpest drop in world trade in 80 years, sending sales of the products and commodities of poorer nations spiraling down, the report said.

A great read to start off the week? No, but then...the truth is sometimes very very ugly. What it tells me is that as much as America is hurting, the poorer, third world nations are barely keeping their heads above water.

Afghanistan = Same crap, different country

You need to rethink the Afghanistan War, President Obama. From Brave New Films, Rethink Afghanistan site,:

President Obama has committed 17,000 more troops to Afghanistan. This decision raises serious questions about troops, costs, overall mission, and exit strategy. Historically, it has been Congress’ duty to ask questions in the form of oversight hearings that challenge policymakers, examine military spending, and educate the public. After witnessing the absence of oversight regarding the Iraq war, we must insist Congress hold hearings on Afghanistan. Watch the first part from our full-length documentary that will serve as a driving force to help make oversight hearings a reality. Sign the petition urging oversight and tell us what questions you would ask.

Part One of a new movie by Brave New Films:

Joe Bonamassa has a new cd out.

Enjoy the Ballad of John Henry, the title cut. ;)

Family Research Council uses it's Bully Pulpit

If the Rethugs don't go along, the extreme religious right will punish them. From RightWingWatch:

Yesterday we highlighted a paragraph from a World Magazine article noting that the Family Research Council had pulled out of Sen. Sam Brownback's "Values Action Team" due to his support of Kathleen Sebelius' nomination to be Secretary Health and Human Services.

Today, CBN's David Brody got FRC to go on the record about the decision and Tom McClusky explained that it was more of a "temporary leave of absence" that will be re-evaluated once this nomination is over rather than an outright withdrawal, saying that it was done not just to send a message to Sen. Brownback, but to all Republicans senators about how important this is to the Religious Right and their grassroots activists:

These smarmy bastards will threaten all Rethugs who attempt a bipartisan way...bet on it.

What did you say?:?

Mommie Dearest...she is moving back to Cali. Of course every year she says that at the end of the winter when she heads back, on her broom, to Missouri. 

But I feel this time she means it. Dunno why, but I do.

I am experiencing a plethora of emo's right now about this development, since this winter is the first time in years I have spent any quality time w/the ole biddy. 

And, amazingly enough...she never once instigated any drama. Drama = being hospitalized.

My Republican sista will be torn as well as Mum will be living with her in Sandy Eggo. 

At least Mum and I agree politically. 

Gotta go think on this awhile...have a good Saturday folks. ;)

Attention Kmart bloggers-New commenting system

Now, you must click on the post title and then the comment area will be visible...I think.

It sucks I know...wish I knew how to friggin fix it.

Is AIG the biggest welfare queen in the financial world?

These fuckers have some nads. Begging for additional Billions..

And they got it! $30 Billion more to be exact. From ProPublica:

AIG may be singlehandedly saving hundreds of lawyers from unemployment: In the past week, it sued the IRS over a disputed $306 million in taxes, got sued by former CEO Hank Greenberg and hammered out a new deal with the U.S. that reaped it another $30 billion in aid.

AIG also may have sapped the last of the U.S.’s good will in the process: Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke lashed out at the company’s irresponsibility on Tuesday. A Senate panel then demanded yesterday that the Fed name AIG’s trading partners benefiting from its bailout.

God, I can't believe what they are getting, and how smarmy they are...yet we still try to stretch each dollar we can.

Kern County and unemployment.

We have extraordinarily high unemployment numbers. Double fucking digits. From one of our local channels, the CBS variety:

Kern County's unemployment rate increased to 13.8 percent in January, according to figures released Thursday by the California Employment Development Department.

The county's unemployment rate jumped from a revised 11.8 percent in December and 9.8 percent last year, according to the department.

The county's unemployment rate remained higher than statewide or national rates.

The Associated Press reported last week that California's unemployment rate jumped to 10.1 percent in January to mark the state's first double-digit jobless reading in a quarter-century. California's unemployment rate was 6.1 percent a year ago.

Across the country, employers cut a net total of nearly 600,000 jobs in January, the highest monthly tally since 1974. That sent the national unemployment rate to 7.6 percent.

Numerous cities in Kern County had January unemployment rates that were much higher than the county's overall rate. Lamont, McFarland, Shafter and Wasco all had unemployment rates above 20 percent and Arvin and Delano each topped 34 percent.

Bakersfield recorded a 9.7 percent unemployment rate in January.

I know it's hard for most everyone at this point, but Jaysus-friggin-Christ...its real bad here folks..

Whats wrong with this picture?

I am in California's San Joaquin Valley. My son is currently living in central Oklahoma.

The temperature at my house @ 10am is a chilly 51 degrees.

My son is enjoying a balmy 74 degrees, at this very moment.

This ain't right people..it just ain't right.

Vasgersian drops the f-bomb on MLB Network

As a lifelong Padre fan, I am very familiar with the nimrod known as Matt Vasgersian. I really am not a fan of his as far as his skills at calling a baseball game....but he is ok on the new MLB Network. Bet the sponsors just love him after his 'wtf is that' moment yesterday:


Congrats Matty, you were the first jock on the network to blow it.

Mark Karlin gets it right.

Hug and a hat tip to the marvelous TexBetsy over at Tengrain's place for this link. Go...read it, then watch the video.

The Daily Show With Jon StewartM - Th 11p / 10c

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Rove and Miers to testify before Conyers.

But.....

It will not be public nor will it be under oath.

WTF?

There will be a transcript however. Jonathan Turley is waxing poetic on this new development on Countdown. Video when available. From the link:

The agreement calls for Rove and Miers, Bush's top political adviser and White House counsel, to testify before the House Judiciary Committee in closed depositions "under the penalty for perjury," said House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers, D-Mich. The committee says it also might call the two for public testimony.

I want to see Karl in prison orange...in the worst possible way.

Arrest warrant issued for Sudanese President

The warrant isn't for genocide...but crimes against humanity. From MSNBC:

THE HAGUE, Netherlands - The Netherlands-based International Criminal Court on Wednesday announced an arrest warrant for Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir on charges of crimes against humanity and war crimes in the Darfur region — a move that could provoke a violent backlash.

But the three-judge panel said there was insufficient evidence to support charges of genocide.

"He is suspected of being criminally responsible ... for intentionally directing attacks against an important part of the civilian population of Darfur, Sudan, murdering, exterminating, raping, torturing and forcibly transferring large numbers of civilians, and pillaging their property," court spokeswoman Laurence Blairon said.

I can't believe there isn't enough evidence of genocide..wtf do these guys need to charge this bastard with genocide?

This is the first warrant against a sitting leader by the ICC. Whether they will ever be able to put this piece of shit on trial is another story entirely.

Earmarks, they aren't just for democrats..

Mitch McConnell loves earmarks, and he also loves to be hypocritical as hell about them. From McClatchy:

Democrats, who have weathered criticism from Republicans over earmarks in recent months, are singling out Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell for the more than $75 million in federal funds for Kentucky projects he requested along with other members of Congress in a $410 billion spending bill.

The federal funds for projects, or earmarks, McConnell asked for in the omnibus spending bill include $1.6 million for a forage animal production research laboratory in Lexington, $1.088 million for an animal waste management research lab in Bowling Green, $2.945 million for LexTran to purchase buses and $950,000 for a Western Kentucky University bikeway project, according to Taxpayers for Common Sense, a group that tracks federal spending.

*snip*

McCaskill, one of only a few Democratic senators who hasn’t requested earmarks for her state, has pledged to "out" Republican earmarks later this week during a speech on the Senate floor.

"Earmarking was taken to a new art form under the Republican Congress and President Bush," McCaskill said. "The Republicans in the Senate have lined up for billions and billions and billions of dollars. You can't have it both ways. You can't be half pregnant on this deal."

McConnell ranked ninth in a Taxpayers for Common Sense analysis of Senate earmark recipients and is solely listed as having requested more than $51 million worth of projects.

The Party Of No just screams and throws tantrums. They are lovers of the pork too, but the bastards actually think their earmarks are not earmarks, as in these comments by two Rethugs:

McConnell defends his earmarks as projects that are necessary to help diversify the economy of Kentucky.

Sen. Jim Bunning, R-Ky., pledged Tuesday to remove his own earmarks, but stressed that doing so would hurt state programs.

Carpetbagging bastards. I can't wait for McCaskill's speech on the hypocrites within the Rethug party.

Tags: earmarks, Pork Spending by Republicans

Women’s History Month: A celebration of women leaders around the world

One never thinks of how many females are leading or have lead nations. Its a large batch o’ women folks…check out the video.



A hug and a Thank You to Judy Silver for making this video and sending us the link at Sirens Chronicles. You are a wonderful part of the female world, and the entire globe, Judy. ;)