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THE MOTHER OF ALL LISTS
Alegre's Corner Latest - 3 hours 6 min ago
Did you know if you Google "ways to survive the recession," you will come up with no less than 241,000 sources of information? I Googled the inquiry after coming across one of these ubiquitous articles in the Sunday Chicago Tribune, which listed ten things Americans can do to survive. The listing is in keeping with the over-arching style of many survival articles; a quick overview of just a few pages of my Google list showed sources listing anywhere from 5 to 119 ways that we can survive.
By coincidence, on Sunday, I also viewed NOW on PBS. The program looked at the recession from a different angle. It highlighted the plight of an Iraq War veteran, who had won the right to a position in his local police department, but who had to wait to be hired because of a law that requires vets to have a two-year cooling-off period for such positions. The young man and his wife had bought a small home, eventually his mortgage ballooned, and their debts began to rise. Like so many families facing financial problems in a free-falling economy they turned to credit cards, which had only exacerbated their financial plight.
NOW explored whether credit card companies take advantage of families as they struggle to make ends meet? The program showcased families struggling to pay off their credit card debt, which in many cases had increased over time because of the unscrupulous credit industry practices of doubling and even tripling interest rates, and ever-increasing late penalties and hidden fees. The program also explored the regulatory role that Congress has and hasn't played in the credit card component to the current financial debacle.
All across our country, there are decent law-abiding people, who are struggling, in different stages of desperation. Some have lost their jobs, while others know it's only a matter of time. Some are retired and have seen their retirement nest egg dwindle before their eyes, while others were planning to retire, but don't know how that is now possible given the state of their 401K's. Others are wondering how they will pay for their children's college education, while some college graduates are wondering if they will ever get a good-paying job. Then, there are the people like the Iraq vet and his wife, who can't seem to catch a break and who are victimized by a entity endorsed by our Congress, which should give us all pause.
The people hit by this recession represent different ethnic, racial, and religious backgrounds and span age groups, but they share one commonality. They have been screwed by a system that was supposed to work for them, because the people who engineered the system were greedy bastards with no ethics, and the elected leaders whose responsibility it was to safeguard the system basically sold them out. Yet, rather than focus on the felons and their crimes; our Fourth Estate gives us lists that allow us to absorb both the blame and the shame for our country's dire financial straits.
I have nothing against lists, but I believe the lists that have been offered up to this point have put the onus on the victims rather than the perpetrators. It is time to correct that wrong. I ask you to join me in compiling a list that makes sense. I will begin, but I don't want to miss anything so please feel free to add on.
The Mother of All Lists:
How to Survive this Recession and Never Repeat It
1. The Global Economy isn't working. Time to rethink that proposition. We built the economies of India and China and destroyed the job prospects in our own country. Why was that, exactly? So that the Greedy of the world could prosper?
People have rioted in Greece and rioting has spread across Europe. They are questioning globalization and the soaring unemployment. They don't want to be in the service industry. Americans have the same worries, but we have made the mistake of believing the pols who are greased by the lobbyists. Time to wake up! (Guess the world isn't as flat as Friedman wishes it to be.).
2. Any CEO of any company that goes bankrupt must forfeit the salary and bonus money accrued to stockholders, since s/he was the Chief Executive Officer presiding over the company's demise. (Cruel? I think not.)
3. Cap CEO and executive pay, and give more of the profits to stockholders. (No one is worth what some of these people are paid.)
4. Cease and desist the Board of Directors ruse. (End the mentality of "you wash my back, I'll...." From what I've read, some of these board members make a good life for themselves just rubberstamping what's pushed in front of them.)
5. Any corporate/ financial officer, who has swindled the public and is caught, will not be offered bail and will lose any personal holdings they have garnered. Like the drug traffickers who have their funds and personal property seized by the Feds, corporate and financial thieves must be treated like the criminals they are. White-collar crime is still criminal. (Tell me, why isn't Bernie Madhoff in jail?)
6. The mug shots of corporate and financial criminals, who have duped the American public, will be widely disseminated and distributed for public ridicule. If it good enough for Nick Nolte and Brittany Spears, it's good enough for them. (Children must me deterred from following in their footsteps.)
7. End the American Media Monopoly, because concentration of corporate ownership has destroyed the Fourth Estate and diminished our democracy. (Can you share with me the names of news outlets that warned of the mortgage meltdown or the stock market's plunge? I can name some that suggested we end social security and allow people to invest in the stock market instead.)
8. Any corporation or financial institution that is bailed out by the Federal Government must give a full accounting of how that money is used and must pay it back with interest. (If they don't want to agree to this request; let them go down in flames.)
9. End the access of lobbyists to Washington, DC. (Make it like Iraq's Green Zone. Lobbyists are our enemy, so they must be denied access.)
10. No government money or contracts for infrastructure projects, until its agreed that the companies working on these projects hire American workers first. No bringing in employees from other countries.
11. Senators and Representatives should have term limits. Move on, already.
Ok, now it's your turn; please tweak this thing. Add and/or subtract to the list. Do as you will. Hint: Keep saying, "It's not our fault." It will put your mind in the right train of thought.
Categories: Our Friends
Sic Semper Tyrannis
The Confluence - 6 hours 29 min ago
“Thus ever to tyrants”
(Artwork by State of Disbelief)
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Categories: Our Friends
Overnight Happy Song
PUMA PAC - Wed, 01/07/2009 - 12:12am
Just remember Kewlaid Kidz, cheaters never win.
Categories: Our Friends
Senator Diane Feinstein says that Roland Burris’ Appointment is Legitimate
The Confluence - Tue, 01/06/2009 - 11:35pm
California Sen. Dianne Feinstein, chairwoman of the Senate Rules Committee that soon could take up Burris’ case, said Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich has the right to appoint a senator despite the allegations of corruption against him.
“Does the governor have the power, under law, to make the appointment? And the answer is yes,” Feinstein said, urging the Senate to settle the matter. “If you don’t seat Mr. Burris, it has ramifications for gubernatorial appointments all over America. … Mr. Burris is a senior, experienced politician.”
The comments flew in the face of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s assertion that Burris should not be seated in part because the move would be tainted by the Blagojevich scandal. Feinstein’s stance is the latest sign of intra-party tensions over the matter.
Democratic leaders, set to meet with Burris on Wednesday, are searching for a way to defuse the dispute before it further overshadows the 111th Congress. Knowledgeable Senate officials of both parties widely predicted that the saga would end with Burris being seated. They spoke on condition of anonymity because the were not authorized to speak publicly.
Ooops! Maybe it wasn’t such a brilliant move for President-elect Obama to poke Senator Feinstein in the eye by appointing Leon Panetta CIA chief without giving them a heads up.
President-elect Barack Obama and Vice President-elect Joe Biden apologized Tuesday to Sen. Dianne Feinstein, head of the Senate Intelligence Committee, for failing to consult her about appointing Leon Panetta to head the CIA.
Obama and Biden called Feinstein one day after her spokesman said the California senator did not receive a phone call about Panetta from anyone in the Obama camp and learned about the decision to nominate him from news reports. Feinstein’s committee would be in charge of holding Panetta’s confirmation hearing.
“I have been contacted by both President-elect Obama and Vice President-elect Biden, and they have explained to me the reasons why they believe Leon Panetta is the best candidate for CIA director,” she said in a written statement.
“I look forward to speaking with Mr. Panetta about the critical issues facing the intelligence community and his plans to address them,” she added.
Feinstein told Roll Call, a newspaper on Capitol Hill, that Obama and Biden “apologized profusely” for not calling her and that she has no hard feelings.
Yeah, I’ll just bet she has no hard feelings. Uh huh. Just like I’ll bet Senator Feinstein will just looooove listening to JayZ on inauguration eve too.
Jay-Z will play a special concert in Washington, D.C., on January 19, the night before President-elect Barack Obama’s inauguration, it was announced Tuesday (January 6).
Billed “In Concert on the Eve of Change,” the “intimate performance” will take place at the 1,847-capacity Warner Theater and will feature Jay performing with his full band.
And Ludakris and his pals are hosting an “urban inaugural ball” in DC on Inauguration night:
Luda and T-Pain bring the inaugural celebration to the streets.
Barack Obama’s inauguration is causing quite the hullaballo in Washington, with highly priced hotel rooms already sold out and a black market for accommodations on the rise. People are willing to sacrifice their first born for a ticket to the event.
Ludacris and Outkast’s Big Boi are getting in on the political action, hosting their own inaugural event. The Urban Ball, part of the American Music Inaugural Balls taking place in D.C, will feature performances by T-Pain, Lil John, Fantasia, and the Cheetah Girls. Somehow we don’t think there was an Urban Ball at Dubya’s inauguration. A Barn Dance, maybe.
Categories: Our Friends
Wordless Wednesday - Maria Mitchell's Telescope
Women's History at About.com - Tue, 01/06/2009 - 10:32pm
Maria Mitchell's TelescopeImage © Jone Lewis 2009 See more Wordless Wednesday images Wordless Wednesday around About.com Read about Maria Mitchell: Maria Mitchell Biography Maria Mitchell Quotes Maria Mitchell Picture Gallery Maria Mitchell's Reminiscences of the Herschels Maria...
Categories: Women's History
Sanjay Gupta? Hunh?
Alegre's Corner Latest - Tue, 01/06/2009 - 8:55pm
But what is wrong with Howie Dean? Didn't everyone expect early in the campaign that there would be a place for Howie at the table, er at least at the cabinet? And Howard is a doctor, too. Didn't everyone expect that this table setting would be for him?
But alas, it's Sanjay Gupta who will be the new Surgeon General, and who will suggest teaching masturbation to school children.(GASP) Oh wait, wrong administration.
Funny fact I learned tonight. Gupta served in the 1990s as a White House fellow, where he was a special adviser to Hillary Clinton, writing speeches and helping her formulate policies.
http://www.reuters.com/article...
Did you know that?
Obama is obsessed with people who have associated with a Clinton, or worked for one of them. And I thought it was Reagan, he admired so.
Sanjay has quite an impressive resume as outlined in the Reuters article. And here I thought he was just a pretty face.
I always liked Gupta, though. Right up until the point where he fought Michael Moore on CNN, taking a stand against government sponsored universal health care. He in his slick suit and big income, took a stand against universal health care and stood up for the insurance giants, and the status quo.(That's my interpretation of what I saw.) Michael and I parted ways when he dissed Hillary during the campaign, and now Sanjay and I aren't buddies anymore, either.
Nothing stays the same forever. Friendships come and go.
Categories: Our Friends
Wankit
PUMA PAC - Tue, 01/06/2009 - 8:19pm
Obama supporters are cheating. And winning. Again.
We are ruled by teenaged boys.
What a bunch of creeps.
“There are two kinds of humor. One kind that makes us chuckle about our foibles and our shared humanity — like what Garrison Keillor does. The other kind holds people up to public contempt and ridicule — that’s what I do. Satire is traditionally the weapon of the powerless against the powerful. I only aim at the powerful. When satire is aimed at the powerless, it is not only cruel — it’s vulgar.”
– Molly Ivins, via The Confluence.
Vote again today if you haven’t already. The wankettes and obots are cheating on THIS contest and THIS one. Vote against cheating by supporting The Confluence and Nice Deb. Vote for Uppity Woman because she’s Very Puma. Tell your friends.
Join The PUMASPHERE! Small bloggers and individuals are encouraged to join. To fight Swamp Misogyny we must make unity and being wonderful to each other our bedrock foundation.
To help dissipate the foul air, here’s a nice song:
Categories: Our Friends
We Get Letters
The Confluence - Tue, 01/06/2009 - 8:15pm
Cue the bouncy 50’s ad music.
Good evening, Conflucians. Today was the second day to vote for Best Liberal Blog at the 2008 Weblog Awards. Did you cast your vote today? One vote per person per day. We want to win fair and square.
I’d like to thank Wonkette for boosting our blog stats today. Things got a little slow during the holidays and post election but we’re doing pretty good today for an itty bitty liberal blog. {{Snarf!}} Wonkette’s writers committed the cardinal sin of blogging. One *never* acknowledges one’s rivals. They have just realized that they have made this strategic error and are trying to call it back but it’s TOO LATE! We never considered Wonkette to be rivals so it’s fine and dandy for us to ride this baby for awhile.
Tonight, I’d like to read a few of our letters from our readers. These letters were carefully selected from our SPAM filter. I had to dispose of the hipwaders afterwards but let’s give our fans credit for their, um, creativity.
Let’s go to the first one. This is part of a spam message from Lauren. I would print the whole thing but Lauren is messianic in her anti-feminist zeal and it gets old after awhile. But I happen to agree with her, in part, on point number 4 in her commentary regarding the video compilation of misogynistic advertisments:
4. Shoddy research– the Puma sneaker ad with the dripped semen is a well known fake/joke. It was not produced by their company and its inclusion in the video shows that the producer is out of touch and may not be getting all the subtext in these ads. That’s unfortunate, because it would have been a great commentary on marketing messages–
“Cute girls who wear Pumas totally give head! Drop of a hat! WEARING THEIR SHOES! They don’t swallow, though…”
No one takes ads like that literally, not consciously or subconsciously. No one. I think we damage our cause as feminists when we deliberately refuse to recognize bawdy humor, because most young people quite literally do not have the excess energy to be ticked off all the time after they get done with work and school. I think, “Ha! I get it!” is a better angle for dialogue, but YMMV.
I like bawdy humor. It’s raunchy and acknowledges the differences between men and women in a fun, harmless way. Sort of like Olaf and Lena jokes. Or something stupid that myiq2xu posted in his Balloon Juice days. We are patiently housebreaking him because he’s really smart and we know he has a good heart. Well, what’s left of it anyway.
But Lauren, some of those ads are not parodies. Some of the Heroin Chic ads are deliberate because pale, skinny women look good when the clothes they wear are flapping around them like laundry on the line in a breeze. We just object to pale, skinny women who look drugged lying at the feet of some guy who is standing over them in a menacing way OR throwing her in the trunk of his car, not that there’s anything wrong with riding in the trunk aside from the carbon monoxide and general lack of breathable air. Hey, if Lauren likes shooting up only to be bundled into the trunk of her boyfriend’s car in an unconscious state, who am I to tsk-tsk her bawdy fun? Jocularity! Jocularity!
Moving on.
Our next letter is from GoldJeffBlum:
MAKE ME A SAMMINCH YOU UGLY, SMELLY WIMMINZ!!!!!! I AM REINFORCING YOUR OPINIONS!!!! AASSSFUCKING!!!!
Mr. GoldJeffBlum has us confused with Ana Maria Cox who as I recall wrote odes to the art of ASSF$^&king. Please correct me if I’m wrong.
Reader Patrickkelley makes some predictions:
Okay, I know I’m going to get tagged as spam, but I’ll try anyway. Here’s my prediction, inspired by the “I will work for Hillary in ‘12″ comment somebody posted. Hillary will be Obama’s VP in 2012. Biden will bow out. They will probably win. In 2016 it will probably be Hillary versus Palin, and Palin will clean her clock. I almost this.
By the time all this comes through, this blog will still be whining and spamming comments from anybody that laughs at you over it.
Wow, that was amazing! Mr. Kelley’s comment was tagged as spam just as he said it would be. But maybe he didn’t really deserve to be put in the spam filter. Let’s look at the rest of his comment. He predicts that Hillary will try to run for president again but that Palin “will clean her clock”. Interesting. Actually, I think the chances of Hillary ever running again approach a limit of negative infinity. Hmmm, I wonder if Mr. Kelly even knows why he hates Hillary?
A for whining and spamming comments, pish-tosh, we don’t give a flying fig. Most of the time, the spam filter picks up the offensive material automatically. We never even see it. And in the spam filter, no one gets to hear you scream.
We have time for only one more. Let me see if I can find a truly offensive one. It’s pretty hard to do these days. During the primary, we got death threats but this stuff is kind of mild.
Ah, this one by SheWomanWomanHater is really over the top:
I read Wonkette religiously. I am also a woman. Before you go suggesting that I am self-loathing, understand that I am a staunch feminist. My mother is continuing to blaze trails and bust balls in a male-dominated profession and she taught me everything she knows.
She and my father taught me to exercise tact and to take time to laugh at myself. Perhaps I can extend these lessons to The Confluence. Getting bent out of shape when a humor blog has some laughs, crying foul at even the most minor encroachment, and calling Wonkette readers childish names while lifting yourself up as the righteous and mature parties is not the way to win favor.
You’ll probably say that you don’t care if you piss us off or not, but realize this: No movement gains traction without popular support.
If I were a fundy, I’d say SWWH had committed blasphemy but she’s likely to think I meant that seriously when I’m really just making fun of her.
The nerve! She is threatening to keep us from sitting at the popular lunch table. Apparently, the entire civilized world beats a path to the door of Wonkette everyday and she is going to withhold all of the splendors of being on the inside if we don’t learn to respect our elders. The entire, vast blogosphere with billions and billions of blogs revolves around Wonkette and we will be thrown into the primordial echo of the Internet Big Bang, forced to ftp our comments and posts and all because we cannot keep a civil tongue in our mouths. How DARE we?!! I am shocked and appalled by our behavior. To think that we would aspire to take them on and win all of the fabulous prizes? What were we thinking?
Well, I was thinking, “Who the hell reads Wonkette anymore?” I stand corrected. Clearly we have overestimated the intelligence of the left blogosphere.
Live and Learn. Keep those cards and letters coming.
Categories: Our Friends
An Inconvenient Election
Alegre's Corner Latest - Tue, 01/06/2009 - 8:13pm
What have I learned from the 2008 election?
I learned that:
Voter fraud, vote theft and voter intimidation are all OK with the Democratic Party, so long as they're done on behalf of their chosen candidate, Barack Obama.
It's all right with the Democratic Party to have incompetent, immature twits on your staff -- sexists included -- so long as they're part of Barack Obama's staff. (No need to worry about your liberal credentials, boys! So long as you're for Obama, that's just fine with us.)
It's all right with the Democratic Party if, after being handed the nomination and winning a general election by a relatively close margin considering the huge amounts of money spent by their own candidate, that candidate (Barack Obama) then proceeds to throw most of the party apparatus under the bus. (No need to worry, folks. Howard Dean was just leaving anyway! And you'll love Tim Kaine, right? Who cares that he's neither liberal nor progressive, and is a DINO? He's pro-Obama, so he's one of us!)
No, when your name is Barack Obama, you're a sacred cow -- to the Democratic Party, anyway -- and you can do no wrong whatsoever. Vetting is certainly optional, and everything you do after being elected in a tainted and highly corrupt process is golden precisely because -- well, you're Barack Obama! And you're golden because the media says you are!
(I'm just getting started.)
What's the worst thing about all this is that a conservative friend of mine years ago predicted all this. He said that while I was good, and I was tolerant, and I wanted a free and fair exchange of ideas, most liberals didn't. Or at any rate, that the liberals who were drawn to high office didn't -- and those were the dangerous ones, because if you didn't agree with them wholeheartedly, in lockstep, they'd treat you the same way as they did conservatives. (Like dirt.) And the liberals who failed to agree with them -- such as myself, in his long-ago hypothesis -- would be the "first up against the wall." (Once again, hypothetically. Or at minimum, figuratively.)
And isn't this what we've seen from the Obama team (not to mention the Obama true believers)? That any criticism, no matter how gentle, is disloyal or wrong or "giving aid to the enemy" (that is, the conservatives); that vetting isn't needed because mass hypnosis will do the trick in half the time; that "Dem-on-Dem violence," as Corrente Wire has put it so aptly, is OK so long as you're going after those who don't worship at the altar of the Great Obama?
All of this is deeply disturbing, and yet, it has gone on again and again. It has riven the Democratic Party into shreds -- and yet the people at the top either don't know or don't care, and think they can force us -- fellow liberals -- to believe as they do and throw reason, logic, judgment and justice out the window.
I'm sorry. I can't do that. And I'll never be able to do that.
While I continue to believe that Obama himself means well and isn't a bad man, the people around him embraced "any means to this end" -- and Obama didn't refuse that tactic. Whereas Hillary Clinton absolutely refused it; she knew that scorched earth tactics always come around to bite the person (or people) who has (or have) used them.
The good thing for Clinton Democrats/PUMAs is that we know that Hillary Clinton is a stand-up individual. She did what she felt was right, and she backed the party because she didn't want to cause distress to the party.
No. She did not do that, which once again shows that she puts some things above herself -- probably a great many things -- and that she is a true patriot.
That being said, the closer we get to the Inauguration, the worse I feel. Because I believe the media isn't doing their jobs; they aren't treating this President-elect the same way they'd treat any other; there is gross favoritism going on.
I continue to believe that the Democratic Party wanted Obama all along, and that the election in 2008 was (to their minds) a waste of time. Because they knew what they wanted, and they got it -- and they didn't care what they had to do to get it, either.
In closing, what I've learned from the 2008 elections are nothing I'd ever expected to learn from so-called "Democrats" -- and what I learned shook my faith in the entire Democratic election system.
I've also learned that, to the present neo-lib "Democrats" controlling our once-proud party, principles are optional; the only thing that's important to the Democratic Party is winning -- at any cost. Which is why I became a PUMA Democrat just as soon as I heard about the concept.
In short, when it came to Barack Obama and his team, the 2008 election was just what my title says: An Inconvenient Election.
Categories: Our Friends
Poll: Kennedy could put Senate seat at risk
Politico Blogs - Tue, 01/06/2009 - 6:56pm
Blog: A newly-released poll shows that Caroline Kennedy could put Democrats in danger of losing the New York Senate seat
DiFi backs Burris
Politico Blogs - Tue, 01/06/2009 - 6:50pm
Blog: Dianne Feinstein, reminding us (again) that senior senators don't have a lot of fear, says Burris should be seated, on procedural grounds.
Jeb to GOP: Lay off Obama
Politico Blogs - Tue, 01/06/2009 - 6:22pm
Blog: Jeb Bush gives an interesting interview to the L.A. Times's Peter Wallsten:<br /> <br /> Bush pledged to be involved in rebuilding the Republican
Freshman Congresscritter Committee Appointments
Alegre's Corner Latest - Tue, 01/06/2009 - 6:06pm
Nancy Pelosi's office has just announced the committee assignments for incoming congresspeople. Here are the assignments for the people I've been rooting for:
Armed Services Committee:
Eric Massa - NY
Chellie Pingree - Maine
Larry Kissell - North Carolina
Financial Services Committee:
Mary Jo Kilroy - Ohio
Suzanne Kosmas - Florida (w00t!)
Alan Grayson - Florida (w00t!)
Dan Maffei - New York
Ways & Means Committee:
Linda Sanchez - California
Hurry over and see where your favorite ended up.
Categories: Our Friends
Obama's "The West Wing"
Politico Blogs - Tue, 01/06/2009 - 6:00pm
Blog: OBama's West Wing, West Wing
Coleman contesting recount
Politico Blogs - Tue, 01/06/2009 - 5:59pm
Blog: Sen. Norm Coleman (R-Minn.) is officially contesting the results of the Minnesota Senate recount:
Remainders: Rahm's rabbi
Politico Blogs - Tue, 01/06/2009 - 5:45pm
Blog: <br /> Mike Lux soothes the left regarding Obama appointments.<br /> <br /> Chris Nelson has the State Department job chatter, which includes Pri
Gupta vs. Moore
Politico Blogs - Tue, 01/06/2009 - 5:34pm
Blog: Not everybody on the left loves Dr. Sanjay Gupta, a friend reminds me.