ThinkFast: June 16, 2008
ThinkFast: June 16, 2008
A new Pew poll finds that “Americans dissatisfied with political sound bites are turning to the Internet for a more complete picture.” Nearly 30 percent of adults have “used the Internet to read or watch unfiltered campaign material” and 6 percent have “contributed to a campaign using the Internet, compared with 2% in 2004.”
In a “new phase” of the Justice Department’s investigation of the U.S. attorneys scandal, department lawyers have filed a grand-jury referral relating to “allegations of political meddling in the Justice Department’s civil-rights division.” The referral, which is “the first time the probe has moved beyond the investigative phase,” is said to be focused on possible perjury by former Missouri U.S. Attorney Bradley Schlozman.
After an eight month investigation “in 11 countries on three continents,” McClatchy Newspapers found that after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the U.S. has wrongfully imprisoned “perhaps hundreds” of men “in Afghanistan, Cuba and elsewhere on the basis of flimsy or fabricated evidence, old personal scores or bounty payments.”
FEMA director David Paulison blamed Louisiana officials for turning down $85 million of emergency supplies that that agency recently gave away, after they had “lingered on storage shelves while hurricane victims suffered without the items they needed.” “We did ask Louisiana, ‘Do you want these?’ They said, ‘No, we don’t need them.’ So we offered them to the other states,” Paulison said.
On the trail today: While Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) postponed a Texas fundraiser with Texas oilman Clayton Williams, he will be holding multiple others in the Dallas area today. Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) will hold a rally in Flint, Michigan to kick off the second week of the “Change That Works For You” Tour.
Launching a new Politico series dubbed “Dear 44,” Center for American Progress CEO John Podesta calls on progressives to “look beyond skimpy policy proposals and meager reforms to provide leadership and an alternative vision” on the key issues of the day, including restoring America’s international standing, solving the climate crisis, and recreating economic security for the middle class.
Same-sex couples will get the chance to begin exchanging vows today in California. “San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom plans to officiate at the private ceremony” of Phyllis Lyon and Del Martin, who will become one of the first couples to legally marry in the state. The couple, both of whom are in their 80s, have been “pioneers of the gay rights movement.”
“Less than a month after declaring polar bears a threatened species because of global warming, the Bush administration is giving oil companies permission to annoy and potentially harm them in the pursuit of oil and natural gas.” New regulations give seven oil companies legal protection if “small numbers” of polar bears are harmed while they search for oil and gas in Alaska’s Chukchi Sea.
When DMC Pharmacy opens this summer in Chantilly, VA,”anyone who wants condoms, birth control pills or the Plan B emergency contraceptive will be turned away.” The pharmacy is among a growing number of drugstores around the country “pitting patients’ rights against those of health-care workers who assert a ‘right of conscience’ to refuse to provide care or products that they find objectionable.”
And finally: Writer Stephen E. Frantzich has coaxed the normally spotlight-averse C-SPAN founder Brian Lamb into cooperating on a new biography. “I really don’t think I am very interesting,” said Lamb. Some revelations from the book include the fact that Lamb’s appearance is often compared to Tweety Bird, and he has a collection of the cartoon figurines. He is also the godfather of one of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia’s children, and “is in bed by 8 p.m. and up at 3 a.m.”
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Protesters clash with police in attempt to storm Whitehall
Police wielding batons clashed with protesters last night when a demonstration against George Bush’s farewell visit to Britain turned violent a few hundred metres from where the US President was dining with Gordon Brown. Within the shadow of the Houses of Parliament, officers dressed in riot gear skirmished with several hundred demonstrators who had been attending a rally organised by the Stop the War Coalition.
The Metropolitan Police said 25 protesters were arrested. In some cases, squads of police in riot gear had swooped upon individual demonstrators, picking out their target then barging through the crowd to detain them. Police drew batons and truncheons in an attempt to push back a crowd which at 6.20pm moved from the rally on Parliament Square to try to gain entry to Whitehall. A squad of riot officers and horses were later sent to reinforce the barricade as protesters chanting “George Bush, terrorist” and “Bush go home” repeatedly tried to break through the reinforced crowd barriers and concrete blocks.
Iqbal Siddiq, 26, a student at the Windsor protest, said: “The message is good riddance. He’s still the mass murderer-in-chief. But … he’s yesterday’s man. A Stop the War spokesman, Andrew Burgin, said: “What would the Americans think if Gordon Brown turned up with a 700-strong entourage who told them to close down central Washington? It is the sort of high-handed attitude that has been shown by Bush all along.”
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/protesters-clash-with-police-in-attempt-to-storm-whitehall-847833.html
I understand how the protestors feel. We are neither proud nor happy that our president is viewed as the “mass murderer-in-chief”. It is a fitting title for Bush though– it sums up his 7 ½ year war-mongering legacy. In January, we will be able to say “good riddance” to his fascist rule and take our country back.
June 16th, 2008 at 9:01 amMany conservatives here in Georgia are excited about voting for Barr. Pair that with the record black voter turn-out here, and I’ll be surprised if the state doesn’t go to Obama.
Paul, Barr may be forging an alliance for fall election
…The Libertarian Party plans to get Barr on the ballot in 48 states in November, and Barr could get a significant boost if a sizable number of the 1.1 million people who voted for Paul during the Republican primaries go his way. Some analysts say Barr could be a spoiler, taking votes away from presumptive Republican nominee John McCain in key swing states, including Colorado, Nevada, and his home state of Georgia…
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2008/06/14/paul_barr_may_be_forging_an_alliance_for_fall_election/
June 16th, 2008 at 9:01 amHonda rolls out fuel cell car
TAKANEZAWA, Japan (AP) — Honda’s new zero-emission, hydrogen fuel cell car rolled off a Japanese production line Monday and is headed to southern California, where Hollywood is already abuzz over the latest splash in green motoring.
The FCX Clarity, which runs on hydrogen and electricity, emits only water and none of the gases believed to induce global warming. It is also two times more energy efficient than a gas-electric hybrid and three times that of a standard gasoline-powered car, the company says.
Honda expects to lease out a “few dozen” units this year and about 200 units within a year. In California, a three-year lease will run $600 a month, which includes maintenance and collision coverage.
Among the first customers are actress Jamie Lee Curtis and filmmaker husband Christopher Guest, actress Laura Harris, film producer Ron Yerxa, as well as businessmen Jon Spallino and Jim Salomon.
The biggest obstacles standing in the way of wider adoption of fuel cell vehicles are cost and the dearth of hydrogen fuel stations. For the Clarity’s release in California, Honda said it received 50,000 applications through its Web site but considered only buyers living near hydrogen fuel stations in Torrance, Santa Monica and Irvine.
“This is indeed a historic day for both Honda and American Honda – a new chapter in our nearly fifty-year history in America,” said John Mendel, a senior vice president at America Honda Motor Co. at a morning ceremony here. “It’s an especially significant day for American Honda as we plant firm footsteps toward the mainstreaming of fuel cell cars.”
http://money.cnn.com/2008/06/16/autos/honda_zev.ap/index.htm?cnn=yes
June 16th, 2008 at 9:02 amI’m still waiting for a neocon to explain to me how anyone who works 40 hours a week should live in poverty so that the CEO of that company can live beyond his/her means:
CEO pay rose higher in ‘07 despite economic woes
As the American economy slowed to a crawl and stockholders watched their money evaporate, CEO pay still chugged to yet more dizzying heights last year, an Associated Press analysis shows. The AP review of compensation for the heads of companies in the Standard & Poor’s 500 index finds the median pay package added up to nearly $8.4 million. That’s a comfortable gain of about $280,000 from 2006. The 3 1/2 percent pay increase for CEOs came even as the landscape for both workers and shareholders darkened considerably and the economy was choked by a housing market in free fall, layoffs and soaring prices for fuel and food. Collectively, the 10 best-paid CEOs made more than half a billion dollars last year. Yet half the members of this stratospheric club were leading companies whose profits shrank dramatically.
http://www.buzzflash.net/story.php?id=55704
June 16th, 2008 at 9:02 am“Less than a month after declaring polar bears a threatened species because of global warming, the Bush administration is giving oil companies permission to annoy and potentially harm them in the pursuit of oil and natural gas.” New regulations give seven oil companies legal protection if “small numbers” of polar bears are harmed while they search for oil and gas in Alaska’s Chukchi Sea.
Bush finally put Polar Bears on the Endangered Species list, but tells the Oil Companies it’s okay if you only “kill a small percentage”. Republicans just hate environmental and wildlife conservation. They get in the way of making more money.
June 16th, 2008 at 9:03 amHow People Making $200,000 Or More Avoid Paying Taxes
Death is inevitable, but federal income taxes aren’t for an increased number of high-income earners.
New IRS statistics show 7,389 federal tax returns with $200,000 or more in adjusted gross income reported no federal income taxes in 2005. That’s a 161% jump from the 2,833 comparable returns filed in 2004.
Additionally, 4,224 of the over-$200,000 earners reported no worldwide income tax liability on their 2005 returns, the IRS data show. That represents a 75% increase from the 2,420 comparable returns filed in 2004.
The data are the most recent available from the IRS. It shows a rising number of high-income earners have avoided the alternative minimum tax, which was intended to ensure that tax shelters, deductions and loopholes wouldn’t exempt wealthy Americans from paying at least some federal income tax.
http://abcnews.go.com/Business/story?id=5058692&page=1
June 16th, 2008 at 9:03 amAre Arctic Sea Ice Melts Causing Sea Levels to Rise?
Researchers were astounded when, in the fall of 2007, they discovered that the year-round ice pack in the Arctic Ocean had lost some 20 percent of its mass in just two years, setting a new record low since satellite imagery began documenting the terrain in 1978. Without action to stave off climate change, some scientists believe that, at that rate, all of the year-round ice in the Arctic could be gone by as early as 2030.
The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) reports that low-lying island nations, especially in equatorial regions, have been hardest hit by this phenomenon, and some are threatened with total disappearance. Rising seas have already swallowed up two uninhabited islands in the Central Pacific. On Samoa, thousands of residents have moved to higher ground as shorelines have retreated by as much as 160 feet. And islanders on Tuvalu are scrambling to find new homes as salt water intrusion has made their groundwater undrinkable while increasingly strong hurricanes and ocean swells have devastated shoreline structures.
WWF says that rising seas throughout tropical and sub-tropical regions of the world have inundated coastal ecosystems, decimating local plant and wildlife populations. In Bangladesh and Thailand, coastal mangrove forests—important buffers against storms and tidal waves—are giving way to ocean water.
Unfortunately, even if we curb global warming emissions today, these problems are likely to get worse before they get better. According to marine geophysicist Robin Bell of Columbia University’s Earth Institute, sea levels rise by about 1/16” for every 150 cubic miles of ice that melts off one of the poles.
“That may not sound like a lot, but consider the volume of ice now locked up in the planet’s three greatest ice sheets,” she writes in a recent issue of Scientific American. “If the West Antarctic ice sheet were to disappear, sea level would rise almost 19 feet; the ice in the Greenland ice sheet could add 24 feet to that; and the East Antarctic ice sheet could add yet another 170 feet to the level of the world’s oceans: more than 213 feet in all.” Bell underscores the severity of the situation by pointing out that the 150-foot tall Statue of Liberty could be completely submerged within a matter of decades.
http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=arctic-ice-melts-cause-rising-sea
June 16th, 2008 at 9:03 amBush contemplates writing his memoir
President George W. Bush, scrutinized in books by former colleagues including a blistering critique by his ex-spokesman, is considering writing a memoir of his own. Asked if he planned to pen his own book after leaving office in January, Bush said it was a possibility. “I’m going to think about that, yes — writing a book,” Bush said in an interview with Britain’s Observer newspaper published on Sunday.
http://www.reuters.com/article/domesticNews/idUSN1539398320080615
I have a few title suggestions: 1. How I Stolen The Presidency 2. Life Under A Fascist Government 3. 10 Easy Ways To Ruin A Country 4. War, Torture, & Imprisonment
If Bush actually does a memoir, he is going to have to hire a writer he can’t string two sentences together.
June 16th, 2008 at 9:04 amFreedom Rebel Says: Bush contemplates writing his memoir
To be shelved in bookstores under “Humor”, next to the other tomes on ‘Bushisms’.
June 16th, 2008 at 9:07 amUS soldier refuses to report for active duty in Iraq
A month after US army reservist Matthis Chiroux publicly refused to deploy to Iraq, the former sergeant on Sunday set himself up for possible prosecution by failing to report for active duty with his unit in South Carolina. “Tonight at midnight, I may face further action from the army for refusing to reactivate to participate in the Iraq occupation,” Chiroux told reporters in Washington.
“I stand here today in defense of those who have been stripped of their voices in this occupation, the warriors of this nation…”, Chiroux read from a statement as his father Rob, who had travelled to Washington from Alabama to support his son on Father’s Day, stood beside him. Last month, Chiroux rejected an order calling him back to active duty in Iraq, saying he considers the war “illegal and unconstitutional.”
Chiroux served five years in the army, with tours in Afghanistan, Japan, Germany and the Philippines. He was honorably discharged last year and was placed in the Individual Ready Reserves (IRR), a pool of former soldiers who can be “reactivated” in a national emergency or war.
Prior to the Iraq war, IRR members were rarely recalled to active duty, according to the Military Times, an independent newspaper for members of the US armed forces and their families. According to the paper, hundreds of IRR members “refused to report or simply ignored their mailed mobilization orders.”
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080615/ts_alt_afp/usiraqmilitaryprotest_080615214802
I do not blame him for not wanting to go back after serving 5 years. I don’t know how this administration can possibly justify calling these IRR members back to duty. They have already served their country now they want to penalize them for staying alive and coming home. This has been a long time coming and the Bush Administration doesn’t want to institute the draft because there would be such an outcry from parents with eligible teenagers. We would really see Bush’s approval rating drop even further.
June 16th, 2008 at 9:09 amUHH OHHH …….. This can’t be good for Johnny Boy and the Repugs; using the internets and the google for political news.
Hell, Johnny admits he can’t even use a computer, much like his 23%er base.
Gotta love those “bunch of pipes”.
Heh Heh
June 16th, 2008 at 9:10 amOn this morning’s NBC TODAY show:
TIMMYPALOOZA 2008.
With drug commercials.
And as little actual news as possible.
June 16th, 2008 at 9:12 amDubya… still phucking everyone around
Dubya… welcomed to Northern Ireland (see picture 6)
June 16th, 2008 at 9:14 am#7 unbelievable Says:
Freedom Rebel Says: Bush contemplates writing his memoir
To be shelved in bookstores under “Humor”, next to the other tomes on ‘Bushisms’.
Good Morning unbelievable :) I thought it was pretty funny myself. I’m thinkin’ someone needs to give him a reality check. (No one cares what you think, Bush) I can’t imagine any publishing house would even contemplate it.
June 16th, 2008 at 9:14 amSame-sex couples will get the chance to begin exchanging vows today in California. “San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom plans to officiate at the private ceremony” of Phyllis Lyon and Del Martin, who will become one of the first couples to legally marry in the state. The couple, both of whom are in their 80s, have been “pioneers of the gay rights movement.”
Lordie…I hope my “traditional” marriage can survive this.
snark/off :)~
June 16th, 2008 at 9:17 amI’ll never look at Brian Lamb the same again. Scalia should be imprisoned.
June 16th, 2008 at 9:18 amFreedom Rebel Says: I can’t imagine any publishing house would even contemplate it.
Considering no one would buy it (his 25% base can’t/won’t read).
And this sort of thing can’t help:
June 16th, 2008 at 9:18 am
STATE OF OKLAHOMA
2nd Session of the 51st Legislature (2008)
HOUSE JOINT
RESOLUTION 1089 By: Key
AS INTRODUCED
A Joint Resolution claiming sovereignty under the
Tenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United
States over certain powers; serving notice to the
federal government to cease and desist certain
mandates; and directing distribution.
WHEREAS, the Tenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United
States reads as follows:
“The powers not delegated to the United States by the
Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to
the States respectively, or to the people.”; and
WHEREAS, the Tenth Amendment defines the total scope of federal power as being that specifically granted by the Constitution of the United States and no more; and WHEREAS, the scope of power defined by the Tenth Amendment means
that the federal government was created by the states specifically…
here is the full wording of the resolution
http://www.ok-safe.com/files/documents/1/HJR1089_int.pdf
Here is the vote…
http://www.okhouse.gov/51LEG/Leg_Votesxx.aspx?include=okh01983.txt
**Oklahoma has declared itself sovereign. Will this play itelf out or just get ignored like most other stories.
June 16th, 2008 at 9:19 amNearly 30 percent of adults have “used the Internet to read or watch unfiltered campaign material”
_________________________________________________________
Kind of makes me wonder where the other 70% are getting their campaign information. I would like to think that they make an effort to read in-depth an*lyses (don’t want to get moderated for that word) in newspapers and news magazines. But the cynic in me figures that most of them just sit on their couch and absorb the soundbites they are fed.
And the internet surfers making up the other 30%? I would hope that most of them are visiting neutral sites as well as both left and right sites. It would be interesting to know how many of those are only visiting sites skewed to their ideology.
I like to visit TP, C&L, DailyKos, Huffpo, and Media Matters on the left, Townhall and Newsbusters on the right, Ann Coulter (only because she is so far off the planet she makes me laugh) on the right, and CNN, MSNBC, Newsweek, NYT, and Washington Post for more “neutral” information. Off the internet, I watch CNN, MSNBC, Bill Moyers, Jon Stewart on The Daily Show, and the Colbert Report. And I read my local newspaper.
I also like to look at foreign news sources — it’s always good to find out what non-Americans are thinking.
June 16th, 2008 at 9:19 am“The message is good riddance. He’s still the mass murderer-in-chief. But … he’s yesterday’s man.
That’s quite a legacy georgie boy. Reviled and despised both here and abroad. Is it Jan. ‘09 yet?
June 16th, 2008 at 9:20 amNew IRS statistics show 7,389 federal tax returns with $200,000 or more in adjusted gross income reported no federal income taxes in 2005. That’s a 161% jump from the 2,833 comparable returns filed in 2004.
That is great news on the day my 2nd quarter estimated taxes are due. NOT.
June 16th, 2008 at 9:22 amFreedom Rebel Says:
I have a few title suggestions: 1. How I Stolen The Presidency 2. Life Under A Fascist Government 3. 10 Easy Ways To Ruin A Country 4. War, Torture, & Imprisonment
May I suggest a title?
I Really Suck by Chimpie the Moron
June 16th, 2008 at 9:23 amWhen DMC Pharmacy opens this summer in Chantilly, VA,”anyone who wants condoms, birth control pills or the Plan B emergency contraceptive will be turned away.” The pharmacy is among a growing number of drugstores around the country “pitting patients’ rights against those of health-care workers who assert a ‘right of conscience’ to refuse to provide care or products that they find objectionable.”
As long as they make their Dark Ages attitude known — with a sign on the outside or really stupid commercials — I don’t care if they want to live in the Dark Ages.
Guys & girls, the dimwits you see going in and out of those stores are the ones to avoid on date night.
June 16th, 2008 at 9:25 amSchlozman would be a very good domino to fall, but you can bet Mukasey will stretch that one out until after November!
June 16th, 2008 at 9:25 amIt’s wonderful that a gay couple in their 80’s, who have been together for 55 years, are finally being allowed to be married.
Perhaps one of the trolls will explain how this is going to destroy his heterosexual marriage.
June 16th, 2008 at 9:25 amleft_hack Says: The rev Al Gore’s Church of if you’re rich then you can pollute. Continues wreaking our country with is his love and compassion for the world in which we live. Thanks Al Gore, you are a GOD!!
For the one hundredth time, Al Gore’s home is run off green energy (wind, solar, etc.) These neither pollute nor pull from the oil supply. Capisce?
June 16th, 2008 at 9:26 am…he (McCain) will be holding multiple others in the Dallas area today
From what I can see, McCain is spending a lot more time at fund raisers than he is campaigning. That’s a good sign for the Democrats.
June 16th, 2008 at 9:28 amleft_hack Says: This is an extremely racist comment. What’s wrong with being too black? Apparently Obama thinks its bad thing if he calling the GOP out on it.
No it isn’t. Accusing someone else of racism isn’t racist, especially when that person in the spotlight has a history of racism.
You seriously should demand your money back from all of the schools you’ve ever attended, including kindergarden. They didn’t teach you a single critical thinking skill or useful thing.
June 16th, 2008 at 9:29 amZooey Says:
Guys & girls, the dimwits you see going in and out of those stores are the ones to avoid on date night.
Just freakin hilarious :)~
June 16th, 2008 at 9:30 amIraqi Refugee Crisis Grows As West Turns Its Back
With millions displaced, foreign countries take increasingly hardline stance
The plight of Iraqi refugees is now worse than ever, with millions struggling to survive in desperate conditions and with little hope of finding sanctuary. While the crisis continues, the world community, especially Western countries, have not only failed to help but are also erecting fresh obstacles to prevent the dispossessed men, women and children from settling on their shores, says a new report by Amnesty International.
Many governments have attempted to justify their hardline stance by citing supposed improvements in the security situation in Iraq. But after a marked decline, the level of violence is rising again. The numbers killed each month fell from 1,800 in August 2007 to 541 in January 2008. However, in March and April alone, more than 2,000 people, mostly civilians, died during clashes between US and Iraqi government forces and the Shia militia Mehdi Army.
http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/06/15/9640/
They couldn’t stay in their own country, they would have been contaminated by the chemical weapons we used. The mothers that were pregnant would have had children with deformities and other genetic problems.
Bush thinks he did a great service giving these millions that are displaced democracy?? Where is his Christian Charity–absent–what a surprise. I don’ think the Iraqi’s want democracy if it looks like this, cities destroyed, not enough medical supplies, relatives missing or killed and possibly being detained for years. I think they faired far better with Saddam.
June 16th, 2008 at 9:30 amAnother wicked weather weekend here in the Upper Midwest…
Iowa farmers are watching their corn & soybean crops drown.
Tornadoes, high winds & heavy rains deluged much of the region again, as well.
Wind chills were in the 30’s Saturday, & many of the already flooded areas receive more heavy rains.
Politics takes a back seat to weather up here, as you may know.
Meanwhile, Bush is too busy on his ‘Farewell ‘08′ tour to actually take any interest in what’s going on in the USA.
On a lighter note, no rain predicted this week, with temps actually reaching normal levels. If you can, please contribute what you can to flood relief funds; your donations will help provide resources to flood victims.
June 16th, 2008 at 9:30 ammisshusseinmolly Says:
Perhaps one of the trolls will explain how this is going to destroy his heterosexual marriage.
If my daughter marries another woman some day, does that mean it’s her fault my marriage to her mom ended in 1997? :)~
June 16th, 2008 at 9:33 amWhen DMC Pharmacy opens this summer in Chantilly, VA,”anyone who wants condoms, birth control pills or the Plan B emergency contraceptive will be turned away.”
The thing that is sad about this is that these pharmacies are in small towns and are probably the only game in town. I really do think those towns need to boycott the pharmacy and put it out of business. It would be worth it to me to drive to the next town to visit a pharmacy that doesn’t try to foist it’s religious beliefs on me.
June 16th, 2008 at 9:34 amleft_hack Says
June 16th, 2008 at 9:21 am
This is an extremely racist comment. What’s wrong with being too black? Apparently Obama thinks its bad thing if he calling the GOP out on it.
____________________________________________________
No, what Obama is saying isn’t racist. He’s merely responding to the racism being used by his detractors. If you don’t see racism in the smears being used against the Obamas, you’ve got blinders on.
Because Obama can’t be portrayed as a “scary black preacher” as Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton have been, a “scary black preacher” had to be found to associate him with (and Wright was able to be painted as such). And now Michelle Obama is being smears with rumors of a rant-filled, “whitey” calling diatribe that never happened.
The opposition is doing everything they can to paint the Obamas as “scary black people”, because they know they can’t get him on issues or his record. Obama is speaking the truth. And that’s not racist.
June 16th, 2008 at 9:34 amBilbo Hussein Baggins Says:
It would be worth it to me to drive to the next town to visit a pharmacy that doesn’t try to foist it’s religious beliefs on me.
My daughter found a bumper sticker on the internet that addresses this issue:
PLEASE KEEP YOUR RELIGION AWAY
June 16th, 2008 at 9:37 amFROM ANY LAWS THAT MAY AFFECT ME
Here’s a ‘missed item’ :
Remeber that $8 Billion in CPA money that couldn’t be accounted for? That later turned into $11 Billion ? Well, the BBC’s Panorama (possibly the best investigative news show in the world) figured out from examining public sources that there’s probably $23 Billion unaccounted-for/
And everyone who knows anything about it is under a US gag order.
http://video.google.com/videosearch?q=bbc+panorama+iraq+billions&hl=en&sitesearch=#
We all know there’s been massive theft and incomptency, but this is TWICE the scale—and though the program aired last week the US media has been dead silent. There hasn’t even been a passing mention of it.
June 16th, 2008 at 9:40 amThe reich is itching to be right about something on Obama. Something.
GOP 2008!
June 16th, 2008 at 9:42 amThrowing shit at the wall to see what stic– er, the change you deserve.
left hack, does mbush wish that the nixon administration hadn’t appeased the north vietnamese in paris so he could come home?
June 16th, 2008 at 9:42 amZimzone Says: Another wicked weather weekend here in the Upper Midwest…
The problem with Global Warming, for the deniers, is that when people have to live with its consequences, they find it hard to deny. This is sad and terrible news. And, unfortunately, it is only a very small part of the impact that GW is having on the rest of the world, as the water from melting glaciers raises water levels across the planet.
June 16th, 2008 at 9:43 amafter the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the U.S. has wrongfully imprisoned “perhaps hundreds” of men “in Afghanistan, Cuba and elsewhere on the basis of flimsy or fabricated evidence, old personal scores or bounty payments.”
And WITH habeus corpus, these wrongfully incarcerated prisoners would have been freed in, at most, a couple of months.
The best goddamn recruiting tool Al Qaeda has, BushitCo.
June 16th, 2008 at 9:44 amaccording to left hack’s logic, mcbush must think there’s something wrong with being old because he is always whining that Obama says he’s confused or has lost his bearings.
June 16th, 2008 at 9:45 amDoc Rock Says:
Schlozman would be a very good domino to fall, but you can bet Mukasey will stretch that one out until after November!
That doesn’t mean it’s just going to go away. Obama will sweep out all the garbage at the DOJ and the new kids in town are going to be really busy for a long time. The crimes these people have committed don’t go away the day Bush leaves office.
June 16th, 2008 at 9:45 amUN #3 ~ Where the hell is MY Hydrogen Filling Station????
June 16th, 2008 at 9:46 amBilbo Hussein Baggins Says
June 16th, 2008 at 9:34 am
The thing that is sad about this is that these pharmacies are in small towns and are probably the only game in town.
_________________________________________________
Ordinarily I wouldn’t have a problem with a pharmacy that only sold some but not all legal prescription meds — as long as it was in an area with plenty of competition.
However there are too many of them that ARE “the only game in town”, and for that reason, I believe that pharmacies must be able to fill ALL prescriptions, not just some. If a pharmacy has a problem with that, perhaps they should close and open a pizza parlor.
Does this mean that I also believe ALL medical facilities must provide ALL legal procedures, such as abortions? (this is generally the next argument coming from the right). To a point, yes. If a mother’s life is at stake, and she doesn’t have time to travel far away to get a life-saving abortion, then yes — I believe that the Catholic hospital in town has an obligation to save her life, even if it requires an abortion to do so. In situations that aren’t life threatening, a woman usually has time to find alternatives.
This also goes for pharmaceuticals. When a woman is seeking the “morning after” pill, time is of the essence. She may not have time to drive to the nearest big city to get the meds she needs.
As far as condoms go, they are sold places other than pharmacies. As far as birth control pills go — this is a puzzler. Does the DMC Pharmacy fill prescriptions for Viagra and Cialis? If so, why do they think it’s OK for men to have sex, but not OK for women to have sex? Just who are men supposed to be having sex with? Each other? Hmmm…what is the message here, exactly?
June 16th, 2008 at 9:47 amBush’s Memoir
[Rated BG: Bad Grammar]
June 16th, 2008 at 9:48 amleft_hack Says: Obama is not Black, so according to everyone’s new right to not be offended in America, he can’t say anything about black people or he is a racist. You guys came up with this rule!
Obama is half black. However, in our country, he’s probably been treated as fully black more often than he’s been treated as “part white” by racists. He is qualified to speak to this subject.
Do you need a link to dictionary.com to look up the word racist to understand that racism isn’t about discussing black (or gay or female) issues, but about treating people poorly because of who they are? It’s okay to discuss black issues. They are serious in our country. It’s not okay to make dolls of Obama that look like Curious George. Do you see the difference? The first one is positive and the other is derogatory.
June 16th, 2008 at 9:48 amIran withdraws $75 billion from Europe: report
REUTERS
Reuters US Online Report World News
Jun 16, 2008 03:58 EST
TEHRAN (Reuters) – Iran has withdrawn around $75 billion from Europe to prevent the assets from being blocked under threatened new sanctions over Tehran’s disputed nuclear ambitions, an Iranian weekly said.
Western powers are warning the Islamic Republic of more punitive measures if it rejects an incentives offer and presses on with sensitive nuclear work, but the world’s fourth-largest oil exporter is showing no sign of backing down.
“Part of Iran’s assets in European banks have been converted to gold and shares and another part has been transferred to Asian banks,” Mohsen Talaie, deputy foreign minister in charge of economic affairs, was quoted as saying.
Iranian officials were not immediately available to comment on the report in Shahrvand-e Emrouz, a moderate weekly, which did not specify the time period for the withdrawals which it said were ordered by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
“About $75 billion of Iran’s foreign assets which were under threat of being blocked were wired back to Iran based on Ahmadinejad’s order,” the weekly said.
Iran’s Etemad-e Melli newspaper, also quoting Talai, last week also reported the country was withdrawing assets from European banks but did not give any figures.
On Saturday, Iran again ruled out suspending uranium enrichment despite the offer by six world powers of help in developing a civilian nuclear program if it stopped activities the United States and others suspect are designed to make bombs.
The offer — agreed last month by the United States, Britain, Russia, China, Germany and France — is a revised version of one rejected by Tehran two years ago.
Iran’s refusal to suspend nuclear enrichment, which can provide fuel for power plants or material for weapons if refined much more, has drawn three rounds of U.N. sanctions since 2006. Tehran says it aims only to generate electricity.
http://www.rawstory.com/news/mochila/Iran_withdraws_75_billion_from_Euro_06162008.html
**This is deja vu all over again. Come on…we already know how this story will play out. Fool me once..fool me twice…fool me 4 or 5 or 6 tiems more?
June 16th, 2008 at 9:49 am#23 Exit Stage Left Says:
Freedom Rebel Says:
I have a few title suggestions: 1. How I Stolen The Presidency 2. Life Under A Fascist Government 3. 10 Easy Ways To Ruin A Country 4. War, Torture, & Imprisonment
May I suggest a title?
I Really Suck by Chimpie the Moron
Good Morning Exit Stage Left :) That is a good one also. He is such a loser.
June 16th, 2008 at 9:50 amRUCerious Says:
The best goddamn recruiting tool Al Qaeda has, BushitCo.
I read recently that he is now going to put some effort into finding Osama. Bush seems to think that if he finds and kills Osama, he will go down in history as a great president for taking out Saddam and Osama. Unfortunately for Bush, historians look at all the events in the middle. And they will conclude that Bush created 10 times as many terrorists as he killed. He definitely will go down in history as the worst president ever. What a legacy.
June 16th, 2008 at 9:51 amI noted not one mention of Kucinich’s impeachment bill in the Sunday talking heads programs. I’m not surprised, I guess, but it sure seemed like ‘real’ news to me last week.
As 5th Estate mentions above, not even billions of missing dollars appear to be newsworthy.
It’s time America addressed our shoddy media. Today’s media seems to think their job is to make news, not report it. Couple that with 30 minutes/hour of commercials, & they DON’T HAVE TIME to report the news.
Airwaves are owned by the public. Corporate interests now think they ‘own’ the airwaves, and are targeting the internet for their next conquest. As many posters have mentioned, a lot of us now get our news off the internet. This is driving media’s bottom line down and they are working quietly & behind closed doors to influence legislation that will put a subscription price on information on the Net, or Web.2.0.
Call or e-mail your congress critter. Tell them our internet must remain accessible & free!
June 16th, 2008 at 9:53 amWhat did we miss?
Just this;
Radio talk show host calls for murder of anti-war activist.
Michael Reagan(yes, THAT Michael Reagan, son of Ronnie Ray-gun) called for the murder of anti-war activist Mark Dice, calling him and others ‘traitors’ and even offered to pay for the bullet.
the acorn has not fallen far from the tree. In the 60s, his father advocated the shooting of anti-war protesters on the college campuses.
Everyone, and I mean EVERYONE should demand that his talk show be yanked off the air and newspapers(including my own Port Huron Times Herald) yank his syndicated coluumns, and report him to the FBI.
June 16th, 2008 at 9:53 amRUCerious Says: UN #3 ~ Where the hell is MY Hydrogen Filling Station????
Probably the same place as mine :(
I imagine that Exxon is working on it… (I seriously hope not, but am too much of a realist to imagine otherwise).
In 100 years people will be having a discussion over the high price of hydrogen fuel. I really think we need solar powered vehicles or something that won’t require traditional ‘fuel’ at all.
June 16th, 2008 at 9:53 amcaption:
“The tubes? Yes! I see them…they’re round, right? Heh heh…”
June 16th, 2008 at 9:57 amstory about Michael Reagan on http://www.rawstory
June 16th, 2008 at 9:58 amold hack:
in 1927 we had an out of touch republican in the whitehouse too…what are the odds of that? The Johnstown flood was caused by selfish robber barons who didn’t maintain their property and were never held accountable for any of the death and destruction they caused…what are the odds of that?
The odds of the current flooding in the midwest is 1 in 500, as in once every 500 years this happens. Ten years after a once in 100 year flood…what are the odds of that?
But you go ahead and keep blaming al gore for this. it’s what you do.
June 16th, 2008 at 9:58 amThe msm has failed so miserably in its mission as the fourth estate that the internet has filled the void.
June 16th, 2008 at 9:59 amThat is no surprise. Unfortunately, everything on the internet is not fact-checked, but then again, neither does the msm fact-check their reports, preferring to be a propaganda outlet for Bush&Co, or the msm provides a verbal boxing ring for two screeching heads and calls it journalism..
Bloggers and the internet have become a force to reckon with in the news industry today – and despite its growing pains, the public is beginning to see that it is more honest than the msm.
left_hack Says: Those pesky records !
Once again, you can’t weigh these events by their dead toll. We have better technology now that prevents such high death rates.
You have to weigh these events by how high the river rose. This time, the river level was it’s highest in recorded history. Meteorologists are refering to it as a “500 year flood”. Normally, they only reference 100 year floods, because 500 year levels are so rare. Well, not anymore. And it’s Global Warming driven.
June 16th, 2008 at 9:59 amHave any of the Bushies toured the disaster areas of the midwest?
June 16th, 2008 at 10:01 amCities are under water — oh, wait, I forgot — been there, done that.
Lanny Davis is going to work for Fox.
June 16th, 2008 at 10:02 amSpeaking of the weather, it’s been hot and humid here in NJ for two weeks now. The four or so ‘decent’ storms we’ve had have provided no relief. I’ve experienced 5 momentary brownouts in 2 weeks that weren’t my fault, though I’m not sure of the causes.
June 16th, 2008 at 10:03 amLong Island of course gets hammered by storms and ALWAYS ends up with around 100,000 losing power, because LILCO and the municipalities are too lazy/stupid to learn from decades of experience–excposed powerlines strung through trees are going to be damaged in a strom–Duh!
I;m fortunate I live in a real city which, although famous for corrupt mayors, actually maintains infrastructure and services (though some parts better than others).
#19, missmolly
June 16th, 2008 at 10:03 amI see we frequent the same sources for news. It’s the only way to get the full story.
Polar bears are declared a threatened species, but if drilling kills off a few more, that’s OK with Bush&Co.
June 16th, 2008 at 10:06 amThere is no redemption for them — they are amoral, unethical, selfish and greedy.
Marie Says: Lanny Davis is going to work for Fox.
Sore losers usually do…
June 16th, 2008 at 10:08 amUncle Ho, thanks for bringing Michael Reagan to everyone’s attention. He should be arrested and charged by the FBI.
June 16th, 2008 at 10:12 amleft_hack Says: U.S. oil companies averaged 8.3 percent profit margins last year. That’s less than manufacturing companies (8.9 percent), tobacco and beverage makers (19.1 percent) and pharmaceutical producers (18.4 percent).
Your gas price doesn’t go down for being a shill, you know.
While we don’t NEED tobacco or ‘beverages’, while gas is, you seem to miss the general anti-Corporate America sentiment for ALL of these folks who run these greedy companies who milk the Middle Class. And we most definietly point out that BIG Pharma is another greedy pig. Why we want National Heathcare. Hello?
June 16th, 2008 at 10:20 amI think I’ve found the problem with your statement, Bobwurst.
June 16th, 2008 at 10:20 amI just love to shoot down such hyperbole as this:
There is a direct connection between the Global Warming frenzy and $4-a-gallon gas -=[Faux] Left_Hack=-
Well, yes, since the price of fuel is so high demand has decreased Q1 2008 by 1.4%. And in fact the IEA is warning governments against lowering fuel taxes and keeping fuel prices high so the market will balance. Fuel production increased in the US by 1.5%. Do you see anyone in line for fuel [faux]Left_Hack??
Meanwhile, Paul Craig Roberts, Reagan treasury official, says speculators are to blame for a good part of the high prices of oil. http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=9300
Roberts doesnt mention Al Gore….
June 16th, 2008 at 10:28 amleft_hack Says:
Obama is not Black, so according to everyone’s new right to not be offended in America, he can’t say anything about black people or he is a racist. You guys came up with this rule!
June 16th, 2008 at 9:35 am
______
Racism isn’t about color or ethnicity or who can say what about whom. It’s about power. Nothing else.
Perhaps when you understand this simple fact, you will be able to talk intelligently about race.
June 16th, 2008 at 10:33 amWhy does [faux]Left_Hack believe the hyperbole about Gore and high fuel prices?
Because he wants to!!
Why doesnt [faux]Left_Hack do any research before posting tabloidal bilge?
Because it conflicts with tabloidal reality!
June 16th, 2008 at 10:34 amunbelievable Says:
Meteorologists are refering to it as a “500 year flood”. Normally, they only reference 100 year floods, because 500 year levels are so rare. Well, not anymore. And it’s Global Warming driven.
I believe we will be seeing more 500 and 1000 year flood plain floods.
June 16th, 2008 at 10:36 amThe stupid left_hack troll’s posts so ignorant its not even worth my time to even respond it’s drivel.
left_hack Says:
unbelievable Says:
Furniture is not a necessity?
Furniture is a necessity that doesn’t need to be purchased every other week.
June 16th, 2008 at 10:39 amfurniture is nice but it is not in fact a neccessity.
June 16th, 2008 at 10:43 amObama is not Black, so according to everyone’s new right to not be offended in America, he can’t say anything about black people or he is a racist. You guys came up with this rule -=LH=-
What dont you understand about light? Everything apparently.
June 16th, 2008 at 10:44 amleft hack says: “Furniture is not a necessity?”
LOL
I recently watched a customer at Office Depot buying a desk.
She had obviously been waiting some time for the staff to get the desk out of the back, check it out, and as three of them were loading it into the back of a truck, it literally fell apart into several pieces.
The sides peeled out, the drawers dropped away, and the top was left in the hands of the workers.
Reading their faces, I realized they knew the desk was shaky and ready to fall apart. They continued on, hoping to get it into the truck, and the customer drive out the lot….. cie le vie…
I laughed out loud as I walked past, saying “Made in China, huh?”
June 16th, 2008 at 10:45 amleft-hack: Those pesky records!
Sometime between the Creation and Methusalah’s birth, THE Great Flood killed everyone in the world except Noah, who presumably had to start the human race all over again by shagging his wife and his daughters ragged until he died–with no time to visit the Grand Canyon even (which as we all know was created by the flood). In today’s terms the econmic loss was equivalent to 12 million plastic Jesus and a minto condition first edition of the Left Behind series signed by the author.
The Flood was a direction action by God,which of course all weather events are,as insurance companies never hesitate to point out.
Al Gore claims that the weather is being altered by humans therefore not by God. This denies God one of his favorite tools of retribution against those being “wicked in his sight”–God doesn’t get the credit, which miffs Him mightily.
God would dearly like to smite Al Gore’s house with a righteous and cleansing weather-event but Al Gore’s house seems to be protected by solar panels and whatnot, and Al himself is hard to pind down, what with his busy schedule and travelling and all.
God’s only option then is to plague and kill others with extreme weather events and put His faith in those who their fatih in Him.
Unfortunately then, the Faithful get killed and made destitute whilst Al Gore goes scot-free,and the faithful wonder at this, and they cry out “Is Al Gore actually a God himself? He keeps saying bad things will happen, and they do! Oh show me a Sign, Lord, and say it ain’t so! I’ll barbecue my only son if you tell me to, just give me a sign!”
So God sends his Faithful some Signs, like the burning Bush–but the literal version used in California these last couple of years set light to everything else and the message got lost, whilst the metaphorical version, Geore W. Bush, isn’t really working out, so God has had to settle for images of Jesus or Mary on bits of toast and so on, and whilst that kind of thing always gets plenty of media coverage, it still doesn;t do the trick.
If only God had mad PowerPoint skillz, like Al Gore! But he doesn’t! So is Al Gore actually a God, more powerful and omnioscient than the “God” god? Is Al Gore GOD 2.0 ?!
Well, no he isn;t. Because Al Gore doesn’t go around killing poeple en masse like God does, and he doesn’t claim that he himself will fix the world if only we’d all have fatih in him; he says we have to fix it ourselves.
GOD on the other hand says we can;t fix anything until we first bow down to Him–if we don’t He’ll kill us, and to get his point across He’ll kill a bunch of us, on a regular basis, until we all knuckle under–THEN He’ll save what’s left of us.
Oh that pesky record, the Bible. It’s all true you know, every blessed word!
June 16th, 2008 at 10:49 amBilbo Hussein Baggins Says:
…he (McCain) will be holding multiple others in the Dallas area today
From what I can see, McCain is spending a lot more time at fund raisers than he is campaigning. That’s a good sign for the Democrats.
Beg to disagree. I’d like McIIIrd to be out there every waking moment blundering about saying stupid shit that can be seen by all to show his true colors.
June 16th, 2008 at 10:52 amBush contemplates writing his memoir
LONDON (Reuters) – President George W. Bush, scrutinized in books by former colleagues including a blistering critique by his ex-spokesman, is considering writing a memoir of his own.
In crayon.
June 16th, 2008 at 10:54 amWell, according to Genesis, it was HAM, Noahs son, apparently a ‘white’ light reflecting guy who was cursed by Noah, for seeing his fathers drunken nakedness, which gave Ham pigment that from that point on reflected ‘black’ light.
So Ham, is a white man with pigment that reflects black light.
Now, Left_Hack, how is Ham a different race? He is still the son of Noah, right?
So If I put a curse on say, Left_hack, and he begets pigment that reflects green light, why, hes a whole new race of beings, and probably from outer space, one of them little aliens that go around surgically removing cow anuses and probing human behinds…right?
Heh.
June 16th, 2008 at 10:57 amSo if Obama gets the presidency, only light skinned people can scream racism? Your logic is completely miscued by your misconception of People in general. You must be a very unhappy person to have that kind mindset. -=LH=-
If we are all of the same family of Noah how are we different races? Thats biblical and how dare you challenge the word of GOD!
June 16th, 2008 at 10:59 am“HAM, Noahs son, apparently a ‘white’ light reflecting guy who was cursed by Noah, for seeing his fathers drunken nakedness,…”
June 16th, 2008 at 11:01 amLOL
“Damn it all, son, I told you to stay in your room while I run around drunk and naked!”
So if Obama gets the presidency, only light skinned people can scream racism? Your logic is completely miscued by your misconception of People in general. You must be a very unhappy person to have that kind mindset. — LH
Does anybody know of a good Trollish to English translator, free to use?
June 16th, 2008 at 11:02 amI’m not a Christian you jackass, so take your biblical crap and smoke it. -=LH=-
Doesnt matter if your christian or not, its only pigment that makes your brain interpret varying frequencies as differing colors of light.
June 16th, 2008 at 11:03 am“Does anybody know of a good Trollish to English translator, free to use?”
I believe they are saying “my hovercraft is full of eels”
June 16th, 2008 at 11:05 amWhat did we miss?
Israeli settlers’ attack on Palestinian family captured on video
By Arthur Bright
A Palestinian family’s brutal beating by Israeli settlers has been captured on video and aired just a week before the UN Security Council is set to consider a resolution condemning construction of Israeli settlements in Palestinian territory.
The BBC reports that the video, recorded last Sunday, shows four men attacking an elderly shepherd, his wife, and his nephew after the four told the shepherd to move his flock, which was grazing near the settlement of Susia in the West Bank. The BBC describes the film, which is available on its website:
Over the brow of the hill walk four masked men holding baseball bats. To the right of the screen, in the foreground, stands a 58-year-old Palestinian woman.
Thamam al-Nawaja has been herding her goats close to the Jewish settlement of Susia, near Hebron in the southern West Bank.
Within a few seconds, she, along with her 70-year-old husband and one of her nephews, will be beaten up.
As the first blows land, the woman filming – the daughter-in-law of the elderly couple – drops the camera and runs for help.
The BBC writes that Mrs. Nawaja was hospitalized for three days after the attack with a broken arm and fractured cheek. After returning home, she told the BBC that her attackers “don’t want us to stay on our land. But we won’t leave. We’ll die here. It’s ours.” Agence France-Presse reports that an Israeli police spokesperson says an investigation has been opened, but no arrests have been made.
The International Middle East Media Center, a joint media effort between Palestinian and international journalists, reports that “Attacks by extremist Israeli Jewish settlers against the indigenous Palestinian population of the West Bank are common, and the incidents have increased as Israeli settlements have expanded on Palestinian land over the last 15 years.”
The recording of this particular attack was made possible by the “Shooting Back” project launched by the Israeli human rights group B’Tselem. On its website, B’Tselem writes that by handing out more than 100 video cameras to Palestinian families in the West Bank, it hopes to provide them with a tool to prove illegal abuses they suffer at the hands of settlers.
June 16th, 2008 at 11:05 amOkay them, Laugh_Hack, lets take the Greek version of Noah, Deucalion
.
Durn, still just one race of humans..
June 16th, 2008 at 11:08 amleft_hack Says:
So if Obama gets the presidency, only light skinned people can scream racism? Your logic is completely miscued by your misconception of People in general. You must be a very unhappy person to have that kind mindset.
Yup! That is exactly what I’m saying.
Obama winning the Presidency will completely undo the legacy of 400+ years of slavery, Jim Crow laws, poll taxes, grandfather clauses, segregated schooling, disproportionate incarceration, and predatory lending. Completely! African-Americans will immediately grasp the reins of social and economic power in the United States and lead the vast majority of Fortune 500 companies and be the dominant majority in the legislatures and judicial systems of all 50 states.
White people will, thus, be an oppressed minority and will be holding all manner of White Pride parades and White Power marches and when a hurricane hits a predominantly white area our country singers will wail that President Obama don’t care about white people.
Well sussed, left_hack! You figured out the plan!
June 16th, 2008 at 11:09 amleft_hack Says: Furniture is not a necessity?
Ask a college student.
Like many people, I’ve owned the same furntiture for 9 years. It’s still in excellent condition and will probably last a good while longer. Gas, however, I have to purchase every week. Hardly an apples to apples comparision.
June 16th, 2008 at 11:13 am“…our country singers will wail that President Obama don’t care about white people.”
They’ll be singing the blues…
June 16th, 2008 at 11:17 amWayne Says: I believe we will be seeing more 500 and 1000 year flood plain floods. The stupid left_hack troll’s posts so ignorant its not even worth my time to even respond it’s drivel.
Absolutely.
I’m compelled, as a teacher, to try and educate him/her, even though I know it’s futile. I do think that years of us at least trying has made a difference for others who read the comments and have a high enough IQ to see the logic in our counter arguments.
It’s done wonders for Atheism. We’re not nearly as maligned by the average Christain as we were two years ago. :D
June 16th, 2008 at 11:18 amNevar Says: I laughed out loud as I walked past, saying “Made in China, huh?”
LOL. The Righties better get a grip on Capitalism begfore it fails and we too end up being Communists :D
June 16th, 2008 at 11:20 ambush lied us into a war for starters.
June 16th, 2008 at 11:21 amXisithrus Says:
Durn, still just one race of humans..
Something Native people have been saying a long time, to deaf ears.
June 16th, 2008 at 11:21 amMitake Oyasin.
5th Estate Says: Oh that pesky record, the Bible. It’s all true you know, every blessed word!
Excellent post!
I once tried to claculate how 6 people 4,000 years ago could create 6.5 billion people today. Even if no one ever died, it’s still impossible. Guess that’s why they have to have faith…
June 16th, 2008 at 11:23 amleft_hack Says: I’m not a Christian you jackass, so take your biblical crap and smoke it.
You’re Muslim then?
;)
June 16th, 2008 at 11:25 amleft_hack Says: NO!
Jewish?
June 16th, 2008 at 11:30 amhussein toasterhead Says:
White people will, thus, be an oppressed minority and will be holding all manner of White Pride parades and White Power marches and when a hurricane hits a predominantly white area our country singers will wail that President Obama don’t care about white people.
—–
June 16th, 2008 at 11:30 amYou forgot to mention that the media will completely ignore the abductions of little white girls
unbelievable Says:
I’m compelled, as a teacher, to try and educate him/her, even though I know it’s futile.
At times I will try to enlighten them to their fallacies, but I am on the 3rd day of some flu bug or something, better, but aching from my toenails to the hair on my head, it wasn’t worth it to me this morning, heh.
June 16th, 2008 at 11:31 amunbelievable Says:
Nevar Says: I laughed out loud as I walked past, saying “Made in China, huh?”
LOL. The Righties better get a grip on Capitalism begfore it fails and we too end up being Communists :D
The corporate obsession with profit at the expense of sustainability is enabling other world economies to flood the United States with cheap, dangerous, and toxic goods which will only weaken and debilitate this country.
June 16th, 2008 at 11:34 amAdd to this the psychological effect of removing from society the benefits of pride in their work, and we have the results I witnessed. Employees simply trying to get shoddy goods out the door and down the street far enough so they would not have to be accountable.
Had the customer made it home with the desk before it fell apart, she would have been referred to a “customer service representative”, whose only task is to find some reason for the customer to be at fault, and avoid compensation for selling cheap and substandard goods.
Diverse criminal backgrounds don’t count.
June 16th, 2008 at 11:34 amWayne Says: At times I will try to enlighten them to their fallacies, but I am on the 3rd day of some flu bug or something, better, but aching from my toenails to the hair on my head, it wasn’t worth it to me this morning, heh.
Yuck – hope you feel better soon.
He’s probably never worth it. But, Daryll isn’t here, so… :D
June 16th, 2008 at 11:35 amwhy aren’t any of the blogs covering the explicit on-air death threats mike reagan has made against anti-war activists? could you imagine if some air america host made these threats against conservative activists? it would be headline news in the msm… at least rawstory is covering it.
http://rawstory.com/news08/2008/06/15/radio-talk-show-host-calls-for-murder-of-anti-war-activist/
June 16th, 2008 at 11:37 amleft_hack Says:
Bobwurst Says:
——————————————————————————–
bush lied us into a war for starters.
–
Bush has one of the most diverse administrations in presidential history!
Have to agree to that.
June 16th, 2008 at 11:37 amDiverse enough that it took 35 articles of impeachment to cover only a small part of the criminal diversity.
We need about 100 more articles, maybe more.
left_hack Says:
Bush has one of the most diverse administrations in presidential history!
June 16th, 2008 at 11:32 am
_____
That’s true – he has neocons who started their political careers in Nixon administration, the Ford administration, AND the Reagan administration. Talk about age diversity!
June 16th, 2008 at 11:39 amleft_hack Says:
What has the evil white man done to you to make you so bitter towards the white race?
Don’t mind Toasterhead, Hackie, he just doesn’t understand the white man’s burden. As the preeminent cultural group, sometimes they must kill a whole bunch of wogs, simply to get their message across. Shock and Awe are all these dusky types understand.
June 16th, 2008 at 11:39 amNevar Says: Had the customer made it home with the desk before it fell apart, she would have been referred to a “customer service representative”, whose only task is to find some reason for the customer to be at fault, and avoid compensation for selling cheap and substandard goods.
When I left California three years ago, I sold everything I didn’t need, and have been working hard to keep my pile of possessions to a minimum. As a result, despite a low-paying career change, I was able to get out of debt, and put away a significant amount of savings without living like a pauper. Based on my experience, I’m convinced that it’s partly our addiction to Consummerism that keeps us plugged into the Matrix and enslaved by Corporations. Americans really need to learn to live without the unnecessary things.
June 16th, 2008 at 11:41 amleft_hack Says:
What has the evil white man done to you to make you so bitter towards the white race?
June 16th, 2008 at 11:18 am
_______
Made me read about history in a textbook. If I only didn’t have to learn about all those bad things we did, I wouldn’t have to feel bad about them. I’m being oppressed by the legacy of oppression!
June 16th, 2008 at 11:42 amHere’s Obama speaking to black men about fatherhood. It’s a message that a white person couldn’t give. It’s remarkable because it’s not a status quo message and it’s politically risky.
I think it shows real leadership and leads me to believe that there is substance behind the change message.
http://www.comcast.net/articles/news-general/20080615/Obama/
June 16th, 2008 at 11:47 am@104 unbelievable..
June 16th, 2008 at 11:48 amthanks for the praise (and ignoring the typos).
The Bible is a rich vein for thougth and writing. I tried calculating hopw many God killed directly in the Old Testament–it’s tricky but it’s a t least 1 million, and maybe 5 million. And then there’s all the people He gave Jacob/Israel permission to kill, and that’s in the hundreds of thousands ( Moab, Canaan etc), not to mention the slavery and theft. These were brutal actions, even in those times.
unbelievable Says:
I once tried to claculate how 6 people 4,000 years ago could create 6.5 billion people today. Even if no one ever died, it’s still impossible. Guess that’s why they have to have faith…
June 16th, 2008 at 11:23 am
______
I wouldn’t say it’s impossible, but definitely improbable. Remember – five billion of those six billion people were just added in the last two centuries.
And we shouldn’t underestimate the human capacity to reproduce, as Genghis Khan’s 16 million great-great-great-great-great^9 grandchildren would attest.
Of course, the 6,000-year-Earth idea is wholly refuted by solid science, but that’s just a minor detail.
June 16th, 2008 at 11:53 am5th Estate Says: Thanks for the praise (and ignoring the typos).
You deserved it :D (I’m NOT one to ever notice typos. I type like I have two fingers…)
The Bible is a rich vein for thougth and writing. I tried calculating hopw many God killed directly in the Old Testament–it’s tricky but it’s a t least 1 million, and maybe 5 million. And then there’s all the people He gave Jacob/Israel permission to kill, and that’s in the hundreds of thousands ( Moab, Canaan etc), not to mention the slavery and theft. These were brutal actions, even in those times.
That’s a holocaust. But, most modern Christians ignore these things. They just focus on the handful of ‘love thy neighbor’ passages, and ignore the rest. But I think it’s important to point out the mass-scale murder committed in the name of organized religions, as I truly believe that it’s one of the most destructive and devisive forces in the world, even today.
June 16th, 2008 at 11:56 amleft-hack – why are you ignoring my question? Are you ashamed of your religious preference?
June 16th, 2008 at 11:57 amleft_hack Says:
Why would you want to live in a country in which you have so much animosity and resentment for? If I hated the place I lived as much as this site and like minds, I would pack my crap and never look back. You would have an easier time creating a new nation somewhere else than to try and fix all the problems you see with this country.
June 16th, 2008 at 11:48 am
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You’d think that, but you’d be wrong. Startup countries are much more difficult to run than you think, which is why 40% of them fail within the first three years.
Also, your underlying assumption – that I and my fellow liberals hate this country – is categorically wrong. I hate my country for its past sins no more than a parent hates their own children for breaking a vase.
I scold my country, I criticize my country, and I want my country to learn a lesson from its mistakes. But I don’t hate it, and I have no desire to leave it to you cheerleaders who think it can do no wrong. Nope – I’m going to stay and raise a ruckus until I’m satisfied with my country.
June 16th, 2008 at 11:58 amunbelievable Says: “…it’s partly our addiction to Consummerism that keeps us plugged into the Matrix and enslaved by Corporations.”
Consumerism is the new religion of the middle class. The lower classes can still be manipulated by organized religion, in particular christianity, which has little in the way of incentive to provide for temporal quality of life.
Consumerism has substituted gadgets for knowledge and social structure. It is easier for parents to park their children in front of the television, the game boy, and the X-Box than it is to offer direct interaction. The messages corporate culture can then inundate it’s captive audience with perpetuates the cycle of buy, use, throw away, buy, throw away…….
June 16th, 2008 at 12:00 pmleft_Hack
“Why would you want to live in a country in which you have so much animosity and resentment for? If I hated the place I lived as much as this site and like minds, I would pack my crap and never look back. You would have an easier time creating a new nation somewhere else than to try and fix all the problems you see with this country.”
And to think I had pegged you as one of those “the big government is too big and has too many regulations and my tax are too high type of whiners”.
June 16th, 2008 at 12:04 pmNevar Says:
Consumerism is the new religion of the middle class. The lower classes can still be manipulated by organized religion, in particular christianity, which has little in the way of incentive to provide for temporal quality of life.
June 16th, 2008 at 12:00 pm
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Just the middle class? You think it’s only middle class people buying $200 sneakers and Xboxes?
The corporations realized long ago that low-income people, collectively, have a crapload of money, and can be easily manipulated into parting with it.
June 16th, 2008 at 12:07 pmmonotheism in particular. The problems with competing claims to the holy land (and the atrocities that result), Islamic intolerance with non-Muslims and Christians using God to justify imperialism.
If the monotheistic religions could give up that one concept (intolerance for other religions), which I believe is a man made construct to promote the influence of each particular religion; the dark side of those religions would be mitigated.
I wish the message could get thru to the individual flocks. Love thy neighbor, regardless of their religious beliefs; maybe we could spend our collective energy on more significant problems.
June 16th, 2008 at 12:08 pmhussein toasterhead Says: I wouldn’t say it’s impossible, but definitely improbable. Remember – five billion of those six billion people were just added in the last two centuries.
If it takes one billion people to get to six billion in two centuries, then getting to one billion people in two centuries from 6 people is impossible. Especially when you begin to factor in miscarriage and infant mortality rates in third world nations (where this all started).
June 16th, 2008 at 12:09 pmNevar Says: Consumerism has substituted gadgets for knowledge and social structure. It is easier for parents to park their children in front of the television, the game boy, and the X-Box than it is to offer direct interaction. The messages corporate culture can then inundate it’s captive audience with perpetuates the cycle of buy, use, throw away, buy, throw away…….
You’re right. We’ve definitely substituted the television set for human relationships. It’s easier. I’ve noticed with my niece and nephews that if you turn on the set, they become little zombies. Makes me wonder what that will do for their social skills.
June 16th, 2008 at 12:15 pmbackup Says: I wish the message could get thru to the individual flocks. Love thy neighbor, regardless of their religious beliefs; maybe we could spend our collective energy on more significant problems.
I agree. But I also think that a large part of organized religion is valuing ignorance, which is also extremely dangerous. We see what it’s done to our government, and obviously to a population who would elect a man who thinks that his god is guiding him.
June 16th, 2008 at 12:18 pmI agree with you and your sentiment. You should stay and keep trying to make this a better place.
I would only suggest that sometimes, the intense focus on American missteps, overemphasises the negatives while ignoring any positives.
Europeans, Asians, South Americans, Africans, Australians, and our North American neighbors to the north and south; are wonderful people.
But, they all have their own problems (that were not created by the U.S.) for as many faults as America has, there are positive aspects. Aspects that rarely receive any liberal notice.
America gets more than it’s share of scrutiny (not unlike China) not necessarily because it’s farther off track, but more so, because it exerts more influence (positive and negative).
The U.S. is a good place with problems. The whole world is like that.
toasterhead. I applaud your sentiment to stay here and make it better. Because we can all be better tomorrow than we are today.
June 16th, 2008 at 12:19 pmleft_hack Says: But I’ve never heard anything positive from this site regarding America.
Brace yourself – I am very proud of my country for picking Barack Obama for the Democratic nominee. I’ll be even more proud when we elect him President in November.
June 16th, 2008 at 12:20 pmtoasterhead: “Just the middle class? You think it’s only middle class people buying $200 sneakers and Xboxes?”
Not at all. It is the illusion of middle class status that people think they can purchase, regardless of their economic reality. $200.00 sneakers can give someone the illusion they are as wealthy and popular as the sports stars name on the side of the shoe. And the X-Box is currently the ultimate mind numbing direct link to furthering the greed and violence.
June 16th, 2008 at 12:25 pmBesides all that, people of less fortunate economics will steal the sneakers and the electronics.
left_hack Says:
I see nothing wrong with criticism, and I think it’s very healthy for nation’s citizens to be able to voice opposition to the way its run. But I’ve never heard anything positive from this site regarding America. How does one country that has been the world’s super power for almost 100 years have the flaws you say it does? In the business world if you and idea, and the negative out ways the positive you scrap it and move on.
June 16th, 2008 at 12:09 pm
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There hasn’t been much to praise about this country’s government in the time this site has been up. It’s pretty much been a long string of failures. However, to say that the site never says anything good about the United States is patently wrong. There are often stories in ThinkFast and elsewhere that reflect a more engaged electorate, a more dilligent press corps, a sensible judiciary, or the many organizations working towards positive social and environmental outcomes. You can’t see any of it, of course, because you have your conservatroll blinders on, but it’s there.
As for your “praise it or scrap it” philosophy, I must remind you that, despite the past several decades of neocon leaders attempting to privatize the government, a country is NOT A BUSINESS.
June 16th, 2008 at 12:26 pmOn furniture (prompted by left hack and mentioned by others, as an ecomonic indicator and example of economic inequaltiy etc:
I was a custom cabinetmaker, furniture maker and architectural woodworker for about 15 years. My 4-man company’s clients were for the most-part multi-millionaires. Everything we built was unique in size fit and finish. Most t our jobs were ‘brokered’ by architectsand designers (most of whom couldn’t design to budget or to practicality). About 50% of our end-clients were too busy or too snotty or too ignorant to deal directly with us plebes who actually re-designed the architects and designers efforts and built and installed what they wanted and needed. We made on average 10% profit. The designers and architects made 35-50% profit with minimal or no effort of their own, and sometimes much more.
It was access to the client that paid more than the workmanship and skill the product required.
In the mass-market stores provide that client access, the nauifacturers settle for volume production over quality. An ignorant consumer base is encouraged to stay ignorant by the middlemen. A small manufacturer is often too busy manufacturing the goods to work on sales–a return on production and investment is the largest priority. A large manufacturer has the same issue but depends on volume, not quality and efficiency of immediate manufacture and a flow of generic business to make a profit.
Even when I was still in the business, I bought Ikea furniture because I couldn’t afford to make the same item yself in my own workshop at the same price–I didn’t get paid enough to do so. Skilled labor accounts for 70% of the cost and value of such work, but when no significant skill is involved that cost and value is reduced. As a result “unskilled” labor produces a crappy product, yet it is still marked-up to the consumer at the same rate. The middlemen determine the street cavalue and and ignorant public eaccepts the price, but then complains about the quality and thereofore when outraged demands higher quality for the SMAE price. Not possible.
June 16th, 2008 at 12:27 pmWhy would you want to live in a country in which you have so much animosity and resentment for? If I hated the place I lived as much as this site and like minds, I would pack my crap and never look back. You would have an easier time creating a new nation somewhere else than to try and fix all the problems you see with this country.
Because I was raised never to run from a fight. We will restore the country to its former glory, after politically marginalizing all you conservatives – well, actually, you’re doing that part just fine with out my help.
June 16th, 2008 at 12:27 pm5th Estate Says:
——————————————————————————–
On furniture (prompted by left hack and mentioned by others, as an ecomonic indicator and example of economic inequaltiy etc:
I was a custom cabinetmaker, furniture maker and architectural woodworker for about 15 years. My 4-man company’s clients were for the most-part multi-millionaires. Everything we built was unique in size fit and finish. Most t our jobs were ‘brokered’ by architectsand designers (most of whom couldn’t design to budget or to practicality). About 50% of our end-clients were too busy or too snotty or too ignorant to deal directly with us plebes who actually re-designed the architects and designers efforts and built and installed what they wanted and needed. We made on average 10% profit. The designers and architects made 35-50% profit with minimal or no effort of their own, and sometimes much more.
It was access to the client that paid more than the workmanship and skill the product required.
In the mass-market stores provide that client access, the nauifacturers settle for volume production over quality. An ignorant consumer base is encouraged to stay ignorant by the middlemen. A small manufacturer is often too busy manufacturing the goods to work on sales–a return on production and investment is the largest priority. A large manufacturer has the same issue but depends on volume, not quality and efficiency of immediate manufacture and a flow of generic business to make a profit.
Even when I was still in the business, I bought Ikea furniture because I couldn’t afford to make the same item yself in my own workshop at the same price–I didn’t get paid enough to do so. Skilled labor accounts for 70% of the cost and value of such work, but when no significant skill is involved that cost and value is reduced. As a result “unskilled” labor produces a crappy product, yet it is still marked-up to the consumer at the same rate. The middlemen determine the street cavalue and and ignorant public eaccepts the price, but then complains about the quality and thereofore when outraged demands higher quality for the SMAE price. Not possible.
I would argue that it is possible, just not on your scale. I’ve worked in mass-production cabinet-making, and it’s all about templates and tooling. The shop I worked in produced quality cabinetry, for a substantially lower price, yet was able to pay it’s employees a competitive wage, because they worked almost exclusively with forming/drilling jigs and templates, and mass-produced many different product lines, according to customer demand. There was little measurement, simply grabbing the correct tooling to fasten to the preformed pieces.
June 16th, 2008 at 12:37 pmTP: You pulled your punch
RE: McClatchy Newspapers found that after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the U.S. has wrongfully imprisoned “perhaps hundreds” of men
NPR had a segment on this yesterday. Additionally, the McClatchy papers interviewed a group of folks who had been released. They found that the torture in Afghanistan followed by Gitmo set the folks up for proseletizing from Al Q.
In short, our actions in our illegal prisons took a lot of innocent folks and turned them into terrorists.
Of course, the librals have been saying this for years.
June 16th, 2008 at 12:38 pm5th Estate. If the middle men didn’t provide any value, what kept you from going into business on your own and keeping 100% of the profits for yourself?
June 16th, 2008 at 12:42 pmbackup Says:
Still sifting through the broken shards of your ideology, looking for any last bit of relevance that hasn’t yet evaporated, I see.
Found any?
June 16th, 2008 at 12:48 pmbarfly. If I’m looking for relevance, I probably won’t find any by engaging someone who’s more interested in payback than progress.
And I hope progress is more than just more of the same, only in the opposite direction.
But, I’m still out here hoping to engage you in some substance. And I’ll still be here when you’re ready. Take your time.
June 16th, 2008 at 1:03 pmbackup – most of those well-off enough to buy custom furniture do not want to bother with dealing directly with the suppliers. They hire designers and architects to take care of all that for them.
As an added bonus, they can them drop phrases like, “My designer” or “my architect” at the club…
June 16th, 2008 at 1:06 pmleft hack: How does one country that has been the world’s super power for almost 100 years have the flaws you say it does?
just look at the Britsh Empire, 1845 to 1945. It abolished British involvement in the slave trade in 1807 and declared slavery immoralin the 1830’s. As the world’s super-power it then attempted to eliminate slavery globally through its naval supremacey and imperial influence. Nonetheless the US as policy maintained the slave-trade, and then slavery which was allowed to continue because Britain was busing fighting the ‘Hitler’ of that time, Napoleon Bonaparte.
At the same time as ’slavery’ was being abolished indentured servitude was being introduced (or rather re-introduced) during the Industrial Revolution of the mid to late 1800’s. By 1900 whilst Britain controlled and influenced over 1/4 of the world and exploited much that that entailed the vast majority of its own citizens were slaves by any other name, servants of an industrial machine controlled by an elite who reaped all the profits and gove none to those who made their wealth and power possible.
Being a superpower does not make a nation super-good. Try reading something other than GOP Action Alert e-mails, would you? “Information is power”–that’s a fact, regardless of politcal proclivies. Verifiable information is more power, and aren;t you feeling a little powerless these days? That’s because the information you subscribe-to is bad, false, unverifiable information, on every count. You don;t have to agree with every opinion espressed here, but at least start your arguments based on reason derived from facts, and then accept when your reason is challenged by other facts. Jeez! I only bother lecturing you because you insist on showing up here, so I assume you want to be challenged.
IMHO you’re batting about .0001. But don’t give up slugger! Any monoment now you’ll hit one out of the ballpark! Any moment now…maybe now…okay maybe now….no, apparently not…maybe if you change your approach somehow…well, too late for this innings at any rate, maybe in the next game!
June 16th, 2008 at 1:07 pmbackup, since you must have missed this on a previous post, I’ll repost:
In the true spirit of progressivism , I’ll offer you a deal (let’s call it the barfly compromise): if you (or any other conservative/republican) wants to offer serious comment on any issue that Bush and the republicans in power have demonstrably bungled,unchallenged, you first must preface your opening comment with “as a conservative (/republican), I know that in the past, my judgement has been terribly wrong, on this and many other issues, and that I have no right to speak on this topic, because of that past bad judgement, but still…”
If you will do that, whenever you offer your first post of the thread, I’ll cut you some slack.
It’s the virtual dead-chicken that you must wear, to attone for your past anti-American, pro-party synchophancy.
June 16th, 2008 at 1:21 pmbarfly. kind of like a scarlet letter. Is that what passes for your brand of progress?
Good luck with that. Apparently, you’ve learned well from intolerant partisans of the past. In your mind, it’s a much more productive endeavor to build a wall than extend a hand.
You’re not here for progress, you’re here for a sad, unproductive payback.
When you change your mind, I’ll be here.
June 16th, 2008 at 1:33 pmmary. I assume designers serve a purpose like a general contractor that oversees the construction of a home.
you could do the work yourself (and employ the individual subcontractors) but, you may not do as good a job, and it may end up costing you more money and hastle.
I suggest that if designers didn’t provide any value, they wouldn’t make any money.
June 16th, 2008 at 1:36 pmbackup Says:
5th Estate. If the middle men didn’t provide any value, what kept you from going into business on your own and keeping 100% of the profits for yourself?
Ethics perhaps, maybe a conscience?
June 16th, 2008 at 2:02 pm(If you’re unfamiliar with those words, you’ll just have to Google them…)
left_hack Says:
Bush has one of the most perverse administrations in presidential history!
There, I corrected your post for you.
June 16th, 2008 at 2:05 pmRE: my post # 151…..
June 16th, 2008 at 2:08 pmOoops, my bad, I read backup’s question as “Why don’t you become a middle man”.
Apologies.
PS… 5th Estate answered that question in his first post on the subject, backup….
“A small manufacturer is often too busy manufacturing the goods to work on sales–a return on production and investment is the largest priority.”
5th estate is lamenting that he/she made only 10% of the profit when designers and architects made 35-50% with little effort.
I don’t think it’s a question of ethics or conscience. If the architects and designers don’t provide value, what is preventing 5th estate from running the business and righting the perceived misapplication of the rewards of the effort?
I’ll bet the rich people would rather not pay for a service that provides no value. And I also suggest that 5th estate would rather have the profit that the architects and designers enjoy.
I’m only asking, if the architects and designers really provide little or no value, why wouldn’t 5th estate run a competing enterprise and pocket all (and not only 10%) of the profit?
June 16th, 2008 at 2:15 pmBut, if the small manufacturer takes the responsibility for running the business (initial investments, taxes, payroll, etc) and the risks of failure; they could hire those architects and designers that provide little value for much more reasonable wages. The resulting savings would be put back into the enterprise or pocketed by the manufacturer/owner as a reward for taking on the responsibility and the risk.
June 16th, 2008 at 2:20 pmbackup Says: 5th Estate. If the middle men didn’t provide any value, what kept you from going into business on your own and keeping 100% of the profits for yourself?
I and my brothers and our non-familial partner were in business for ourselves. It took the four of us to eatablish the business and for some time did well with it–we all had some distinct skills that meshed very well. But as I stated in my comment we, like other small shops in the business, were very busy producing–that’s what small businesses do, produce first and build the business from there.
I wrote “It was access to the client that paid more than the workmanship and skill the product required”.
My company was NOT the best in the business, or in the Manhattan market, but we did manage to provide a very respectable balance between product price and quality and rather significantly, warranty service.
I never said that the middlemen (architects and designers) “never provided any value”, but my inference was that very few of them provided value commensurate with the fees they charged their clients (who were our company’s ultimate clients). I assert that that was true.
I wrote “It was access to the client that paid more than the workmanship and skill the product required ” and that is absolutely true.
My eldest brother was a natural salesman–he was our own ‘middleman’–at times he promised things the rest of us strongly objected-to as an ‘over-sell’ of our skills and time but in the end we did the work anyway to satisfy the agreement he’d brokered and commited the rest of us to.
Every so often we’d be able to contract with an end-client directly, e.g having completed a ‘middleman job’ in one of the client’s homes we’d get a second job on their second home by the client’s insistence, based on their experience with us. Even so we would NEVER make 100% ‘middleman-free’ profit because “the lead” deserved a “finders-fee” and that’s how the business works; BUT when we did operate directly with the clients we made more money and the client SAVED money.
A few of the middle-men did indeed ‘add value’, for the clinet and ourselves, but they were rare. In the custom-woodworking industry as a whole which is made up of very small manufacturers (4-10 employees) most are dependent on local market conditions. My company had a wealthy market it could service, but 10# profits weren’t enough to cmpensate for the national economic downturn that begun in 1991 and that hit our multi-millionaire clientele in 92-93. They had to shelve their plans to have a custom $100,000 kitchen or media-room or $70,000 home office or %50,000 kids bedroom, and as a result my company was ’shelved’ in the process, despuite hanging-on for six months with no work.
So I became unemployed and thanks to Clinton I then re-trained for a new career in IT.
BTW backup… having distorted my words in your response, you didn;t deserve any of the above information, and my aploigies to my fellow TP commenters for the indulgence.
June 16th, 2008 at 2:34 pmGood luck with that. Apparently, you’ve learned well from intolerant partisans of the past. In your mind, it’s a much more productive endeavor to build a wall than extend a hand.
I’m sorry you think your comments have any relevance. If you won’t acknowledge past errors in judgement, don’t worry, I’m here to point them out. You should rightly feel shame, and if you don’t, you will, when I’m done.
Or, you just won’t be back.
Either’s good with me, toady.
June 16th, 2008 at 2:45 pmRush Limbaugh should be very glad that he doesn’t live in Japan.
June 16th, 2008 at 2:54 pmleft_hack.
My little business succumbed to a variety of ecomomic forces which a 10$ profit margin couldn’t compensate for. I guess market forces decided the fate of my company. I explained the some of those forces at work, I didn’t “blame” those forces forces for my company’s demise.
Where we had direct access to the market we did better than we we didn’t have direct access. The same applies to the comnsumer–direct access reduces the cost of purchase. The question is, what value do middlemen provide? Some provide value by contributing to the product delvered, others simply control the contact they are fortunate enough to have, by dint of their social standing or their appreciation of the business dynamics.
As a small business, my business was supposedly the backbone of the US economy. We did manage to employ for about 18 months three to four others. The company grew at 50% (gross) a year,EVERY year, for 5 years. We invested $300,000 in our company when our take-home pay was $20,000 each. Then my small business folded because multimillionaires couldn’t afford to pay us at a rate of 20K each, without health benefeits or retirment plans and give our company a 10% pathetic 10% profit on no-volume service and products because all their anticipated income suddenly disappeared as a consequence of Reagan’s deficit spending and Bush41’s choice to increase taxes on the lower half of income scale.
Had our profits been higher we could have weathered the downturn, or had we become a purely service company we could have done better, but we had bills to pay and that’s the way it went. Pardon me for not buying into the right wing rhetoric about how hard work leads to the American Dream–it’s all about knowing when and how a dishonest day’s ‘work’ pays better than anything. We were too slow to realize that.
June 16th, 2008 at 3:16 pmIgnoranceIsNotBliss
what will happen to all those Sumo wrestlers?
Inquiring minds want to know.
June 16th, 2008 at 3:24 pm5th estate:
You say both these in your last post:
Who’s responsibility is it to ferret out the middle men that add value from those that don’t? I suggest it is the owner of the business. If the owner is unwilling or unable to determine and promote those that add value to the detriment of those that don’t; they will languish.
Are the middle men that don’t provide value, ‘dishonest’. If they are not providing value, but the owners still employ them, aren’t the owners responsible for the percieved ‘dishonest’ disconnect between value and compensation?
There are many good people that fail at business. I’m not confident that those failures are mostly due to a dishonest system or dishonest people. But, when the failures occur, it promotes a better application of capital; as in the case of your switch to information technology.
June 16th, 2008 at 4:15 pmbarfly. Nice try. You’ll recall that I have conceded that it was wrong for conservatives to question the patriotism of progressives in the run up to war. I believe I apologized to you personally. I’ve also conceded that, in hindsight, we had more time to engage Saddam without war. I’ve also conceded that it was naive to think we could transplant democracy. And that the effort in Iraq was vastly underestimated and poorly executed. And that Bush’s hubris resulted in strained relations around the world. But, apparently, those don’t qualify as acknowledgement of ‘past errors in judgement’.
No matter.
My long journey to better understanding has maybe only just begun, but I will persist, despite your efforts.
Please feel confident that your responses provide some affirmation that I am making some progress, even if only by comparison.
June 16th, 2008 at 4:27 pmThe public has turned to the internet because the criminal Zionists have monopolized the mass media. Americans are sick of the hate they preach against Muslims and anyone who disagrees with them.
June 17th, 2008 at 3:14 am