History unfolding Link
Excerpt:
We learned just days ago that the Federal Reserve, which has little or no real oversight by anyone, has "loaned" two trillion dollars (that is $2,000,000,000,000) over the past few months, but will not tell us to whom or why or disclose the terms. That is our money. Yours and mine. And that is three times the $700 billion we all argued about so strenuously just this past September. Who has this money? Why do they have it? Why are the terms unavailable to us? Who asked for it? Who authorized it? I thought this was a government of "we the people," who loaned our powers to our elected leaders. Apparently not.
We have spent two or more decades intentionally de-industrializing our economy.. Why?
Roll out the aluminum tubes
In the days after the successful talks between Western powers and Iran, which yielded more in one day than eight years of threats by the Cheney Administration, those who profit off of belligerence and confrontation with the world had clearly circled the wagons and planted their stories in the nation's newspapers. If people got the idea that Iran was moving toward cooperation, why, what would the foreign policy "establishment" that thrives off of conflict and military deployment do? Where would the next enemy be found? It's very bad for business.
So out came the links. Helene Cooper typed up the fears of anonymous officials wondering if the agreements in the first round of talks, including a deal where Iran would ship its enriched uranium to Russia to ensure that it would be used for peaceful purposes, were just a tactic by the Iranians to "buy time." Practically the same article popped up in the LA Times, as "experts and government officials" questioned whether the timeline for IAEA inspectors to visit the recently revealed facility at Qom represented another stall tactic. Amid this suspicion, neocon emeritus Elliott Abrams surmised that Iranians would not oppose a military attack on their own country, because there's nothing dissidents enjoy more than bombs raining on their heads (the reformers don't want sanctions either, it will hurt ordinary Iranians rather than the ruling regime). And today, this bombshell is splashed across the New York Times: http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2009/10/roll-out-aluminum-tubes-by-dday-in-days.html
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The Bee Drinks The Kool-Aid: http://www.sacbee.com/838/story/2227149.html
The Twilight Zone loved to threaten us with the end of the world over and over again. And every time good character or bad, the end of the world is always eclipsed by something even worse happening. Take the little man with the huge glasses, Burgess Meridith. All he wanted was peace and quiet so he could read, then the world ends and he's the last man on the face of the Earth with plenty of reading material. Then he breaks his giant coke-bottle glasses. Even fake end of the world can get one-upped by our neighbor's gusto to break down our doors to get into the only shelter.
Some H1N1 advice - ...although it fails to mention that the second phase of the 1918 H1N1 flu pandemic killed 100,000,000 people worldwide.
Frank Rich - The Rabbit Ragu Democrats
Jenny Sanford, the wife of the GOP sex-lizard and notorious Apallachian trail hiking, amateur castanet playing Loathrio, South Carolina Governor Mark "Kiss Me South of the Border" Sanford, plans to release her memoirs in May of next year.
Hmmmm, midterm elections, oh yeah.
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Here's a great site that acts sort of as a clearing house for good deeds. I know that we are in a crippling recession, and that squeezing blood from a rock is harder than ever, but you might be interested in The Animal Rescue Site, regardless if you have nothing more than only a little time to give. You see, they have set up a click program that gives 100% of the proceeds to charity.
It's simple: you click the purple button, your click is counted and you see a page full of adds that run on the site and the money from the click goes to help rescue animals. There's no obligation to do anything more.
So go give 'em a click.
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WellPoint, the largest health insurer in the United States which pays its CEO roughly $10 million, announced that it is cutting back on the health benefits it offers to its own employees. WellPoint also announced that it was eliminated some jobs at the company, while raising deductibles and premiums for some of its employee health benefits.
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The socialists have won Greece's national elections! Technically, now, Barack Obama is the first black president of Greece. WSJ
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$4 million. For a House race. "The suddenly national congressional contest between Rep. Joe Wilson and challenger Rob Miller has blown past the $4 million fundraising record for any U.S. House race in South Carolina - and is on pace to challenge the most expensive campaigns in the country's history. Despite saying they want to move beyond Wilson's now famous "you lie!" yell at President Barack Obama, Wilson and Miller continued to capitalize on the national attention the Springdale Republican's outburst has brought their campaign."
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Quote of the Day It's important to remember that every day about 295 million Americans get up and fail to tune in to Rush Limbaugh. ~ Garry Trudeau