Happy Anything Goes Friday

My frustration is, that in light of the existence of undetectably hackable, rigable voting machines, I see no real need for debate here in discussing elections, especially in terms of winning or loosing the vote because the candidate is or is not the favorite and the choice of the people or will ruin his/her chances for election by certain actions; and I wish that some influential groups - those we have supported for their great work now and in the past, you know, Green Peace, Unions, Progressive Magazines, progressive Web Sites and TV shows, any Progressive organizations with legal teams and with fund-raising capabilities, Van Jones?……. - would initiate a fund-raising push to legally get rid of computerized voting machines now inherent and clearly doing their dirty work in our precious election system. I believe that what happens in our next election will mirror what happened in Wisconsin’s recent recall. See Thom Hartmann Pahrumplife comment. http://www.thomhartmann.com/blog/2011/08/democracy-died-first-wisconsin-%E2%80%93-long-live-oligarchs#comment-92442 “The two Democrats’ winning” really has no significance if their vote in a “rubber stamp” forum is impotent. The massive passive resistance in Madison, the “punking” of Walker in the lap of the Koch brothers, the indignant Unions, the weeks of comment by progressive media outlets, the parades of intellectuals, of blue collar workers and of the usually conservative farmers couldn’t put the legislative forum in the control of progressive humanitarian brains and even notwithstanding the fishy delays in releasing the voting results in the final decisive ward, the legislative control remains with the conservatives.

Going on as if any and all elections these days are fair and just and veridical seems to engage in some kind of deceit. It tends to eliminate or lessen the significance of talking points and heated debates about election contenders for talk shows and websites, both progressive and so-called conservative, especially during election campaigns which essentially begin right after the last election in today’s media; but, having any faith in the vote in the presence of the easily hacked machines makes any talk-show or website host look like a Pollyanna or one who is OK with the status quo use of any voting machines because they can and no doubt will make any vote a vote for the Kochs and their ilk even if it’s a vote for a hamstrung Democrat.

No matter how many people can be mustered in the usual grassroots neighborhood-organized proven method, “the referendum,” this process would effect a conundrum, would be futile with manipulated voting machines. And civil disobedience would make a strong statement but would feed the empires doing the arresting, imprisoning, litigating, trying in the business of the courts, and bending the media and would exacerbate and waste brilliance effectively preoccupied with dire trouble. Instead grassroots is going to need money, organization, decorum and major legal skills to influence the legislature.

Please start copiously talking about how we can get rid of voting machines. I believe that many of us do and will appreciate any discussion on the subject. Occasionally touching on it just won’t get rid of this key problem. Talking up and effecting our best options for the people to support just may.

Do as I say, not as I do...

Divorce rates in Bible Belt higher than in NYC

Divorce rates are higher in the Bible Belt than in liberal bastions like New York City. So says the U.S. Census Bureau, whose first-ever analysis found that marriages are more likely to make it in New York or New Jersey than in socially conservative states like Oklahoma, Georgia or Alabama.

"The reason is that young adults in the South and West tend to have less education and marry earlier, both of which lead to a higher risk of divorce," said Andrew Cherlin, a sociology professor at Johns Hopkins University.

http://www.nydailynews.com/lifestyle/2011/08/25/2011-08-25_divorce_rates_in_the_south_and_west_are_higher_than_in_new_york_city_new_census_.html

"as soon as the book hit shelves next Tuesday – it should immediately be entered into evidence in the war crimes trial against the Bush administration."

It is only fair this should happen when a woman can go on Dr. Phil for help and then be arrrested and convicted of child abuse using his tapes as evidence.

When is this trial, anyway?

How do we get out of the negative "entitlement" connotation? When we pay for something, we are entitled to it! I've seen people react as though being shot when some right winger sneers "entitlement"!

This is crazy stuff!

Remember, it's only called "class war" when we fight back!

The AG won't go after Cheney. Obama has let all of these guys off the hook. Even Nancy Pelosi said congress won't go after the Bush Admin for war crimes. If we truely are a nation of laws, then this should be automatic and we should at least have hearings on the Bush fiasco. This should include 9/11 failures, Katrina failures, economy failures, rigged voting results, supreme court irregularities and on and on and on. Sadly, Obama, and Congress are too chicken or have been paid off. I suspect both. Obama has dissapointed us all! He was suppose to be for the majority of us and is proving to be just another pawn for Wall Street and big multi-national corporations.

I'd like to see if you could live on what they (ss receipients) are getting. I bet it's alot less than your income even with a 50-60% decrease! How would you feel if you lost your job and all you got was social security?

I agree. I must also add that in all fairness, former VP Cheney did serve one very good purpose for the last administration. Everyone who detested Bush still had a vested interest in keeping him allive and healthy... Knowing that Cheney was waiting with baited breath in the wing to usurp control and send us cascading back into the dark ages. Choosing him as the VP candidate was probably the smartest and most sinister thing G.W. did from before he became president, right on up till he finaly left the place.

Why ? Crime, greed, avarice pays great in the USA

As Chicken Hawk in Chief we should never be surprised what little dicky is up to.

Regretfully we have entered a time of no reprisals against the true criminal element. I guess it's better business to incarcerate pot heads than those who piss on the Constitution for profit.

I worked in your so called real world for almost 23 years before switching to a unionized public sector job 14 years ago. Guess what, I took a big pay cut and still come home tired, yes it's real work, but I'm treated with respect and am much happier. So maybe the answer for you would be the creation of more jobs like mine so you too could have one and experience Democratic Socialism instead of suffering big drops in pay everytime a few rich guys decide to do a hedgey bubble dance.

Finally someone has awakened to the facts, George Bush should be tried not only as a war criminal, but also a traitor. Both of his wars have caused the present economic chrisis in this country. He did not even have the good sense to see what war did to Russia in Afghanistan, and not repeat the mistake here in the U.S. Alchida should write him a letter of thanks, for he did more damage to the U.S. than any Alchida operative ever could. None of the terrorists were from Iraq. I wonder how many jobs have been lost as a result of the previous leadership? It will take decades for us to recover from George, if ever.

Will little Dick's confession save us tax payers any money.....no drawn out trial?

Mr. Cheney will never face trial nor spend a moment in confinement any more than Kissinger has. I would also like to add that Cheney was the first Vice-President in our nation's history who refused to put his financial holdings in a blind trust. Those holdings included his Halliburton stock. After negotiating a very favorable Pentagon contract for Halliburton to provide "logistical support" to our armed services, he became their CEO in 1995. Lynne Cheney served on the board of Lockheed Martin from 1995 to 2001 and was paid millions of dollars from that defense contractor. According to Naomi Klein's book "The Shock Doctrine: The rise of disaster capitalism," when Dick Cheney left Halliburton to become Vice President, he received both stock options and Halliburton stock as part of his retirement package. He sold some shares making $18.5 million in profit. He held onto another 189,000 shares and 500,000 unvested options. Halliburton received billions in government funds in no-bid military contracts. Before the Iraq war, Halliburton stock was valued under $10.00 per share. Cheney finally sold his Halliburton shares three years after the start of the Iraq war for $41.00 per share.

Dick Cheney is not only a draft dodger and a war criminal, he is also a war profiteer. He and his wife made tens of millions of dollars off the blood of our troops fighting a war he and his financial allies invented for profit. Words are insufficient to for the treason he has committed and the profits he has made on the blood and sacrifice of others. He is a coward and a traitor. By the way, Donald Rumsfeld did the same thing with his Gilead Sciences stock. The Pentagon bought billions of dollars of Tamiflu from Gilead, Rumsfeld's prior employer, while he was acting defense secretary.

As a small family owned electrical contracting business who always paid its bills on time for over 30 years and who's credit was cut off by Chase and US Bank anyway, and loss of income caused by customer bankruptcies, and countless hours spent dealing with angry creditors, and loss of credibility with employees, and loss of credibility with customers, and customer service that we no longer can provide in full due to reduced staff, and no credit line to manage cash flow, and a child ready for college with no help from his parents so he can register, and no health insurance for my wife who almost died in 2001 at the age of 41 from a heart attack caused by a blood clot, and the infinite stress caused by all of this that is killing me except for anti depressant pills that I think keep me alive in some way but still not alive as I recall in a former life when my teacher father had benefits that paid for me to go to a doctor when needed.

I remember when I started my electrical business in 1986 and did most of the installations myself with a helper when needed. I met with some union electricians and could not hire any of them since they expected more than I could possibly pay them. Now in 2012 I get resumes and calls from former union electricians who have no work anymore so they cannot afford to keep paying their dues.

I am a licensed supervising electrician, licensed electrical contractor and licensed general contractor in Chicago IL. It has always been a struggle to survive since I discovered along the way that contractors tend to be at the bottom of the feeding chain. Especially in the financial area but not limited to any type of humiliation that can be visited upon any person.

I always hope for better days to come. I no longer see any hope for anyone who works for a living.

Sincerely,

John Meyer

Meyer Electrical Construction Inc

Chicago, IL

I totally agree with you. Dick Cheney, who along with others in the Bush White House, lied in order to gt us into two wars that have killed hundreds of thousands of innocent people, is a totally good person. I mean come on, it's not like God cares about those foreigners we have killed. In fact, God wants us to kill lots more of them. But when they kill one of us, oh, God just hates that. And don't get me started on those illegal aliens, because God hates them, too. He told me so.

Presidents don't go after other aministrations. I think it has something to do with the each adminstration making the constitution their own personal joke. Mutally Assured Destruction!

Tell it like it is: your income has gone down because government workers are paid a fair living wage. If we could only stop those government workers from being paid a fair living wage, you would make more money. I say, when a wealthy guy who lives in a gated community offshores your job to India, you should blame the schoolteacher who lives down the street from you. It doesn't have to make sense and it doesn't have to be true. Just blame who you are told to blame!

But when rich people create financial problems for America and those problems directly result in me making less money, I prefer to blame the firefighters. It's, like, totally their fault. If their trucks weren't red, I would still have my job.

And I will tell you why trillions of dollars in bailout money was given to the richest people in America. It's because policemen are paid a fair living wage. If policemen were not paid a fair living wage, the rich people would never have held America's economy hostage and demanded trillions of dollars in bailout money. Everyone knows this.

But we're not done yet, because all of the money in the Social Security fund has to be given to the Wall Street crooks who got all of the bailout money, because how can we fix Social Security unless we give all of the Social Security money to the crooks?

And there are only two more things that have to happen in order for America to return to her former glory as the boss of the entire world: all of the money in Medicare and Medicaid also has to be given to the rich people. I mean, it's not like we have any sick people in America. God loves America, which is why no one in America ever gets sick. So if someone does get sick in America, well, that's proof that they are not an American and that God doesn't love them, so why in the world would we give medical treatment to an illegal alien who God doesn't love?

And when all of these things are done, you will make more money as a salesman. I'm sure of it.

It should be noted, that the first thing FDR did in 1933, was to bailout the banks. The Federal Reserve was instructed to get money to the banks, make those that were viable fully funded. The FDR version of TARP. That was in March of 1933. In May, FDR instituted is QE1, which was the injection of $3billion dollars into the economy backed by nothing but the credit of the US. In 2009 money, that is about $721 billion. That does not include the doubling of what the US would pay for gold, and the purchase of silver. It also did as much.

FDR also convinced capitalists to invest in their government and towns with the purchase of special tax condition federal bonds. In Fort Wayne, it was private investors buying Home Owners Loan Corporation Bonds and Federal National Mortgage Securities that gave money to banks for refinancing the mortgages of the roaring twenties.

He had the choice of dealing with robber barons or a nation living in boxes.

The Federal Reserve is suppose to be separate, in that it isn't suppose to be political, but since the President appoints all the main players, the senate confims all the main players, and congress has oversight, it is hard to think of it as being privately owned. Member banks get interest on the reserves deposited with the Fed, and then all profit is given to the US Treasury. Since the Fed determines the reserve requirement, it only seems fair.

I suppose you would prefer the democrat Andrew Jackson's approach. He deposited the funds in state banks, carefully selected for patronage, infact they were referred to as his "pet banks", and in the first recession, they didn't perform at all. Then the Pres Van Buren, democrat from NY, created the "sub treasury" system, which was a patronage run system, and was structually unable to administer monetary policy. After the recession of 1907, democratic President Wilson pushed for creation of the Federal Reserve, the central bank of the US.

Voter ID will solve many of your issues because it will help eliminate uninformed non resident voters from even getting the chance to cast problem ballots.

How is it possible to have an unauthorized autobiography?

Don't expect any help from Obama...he'd pardon Cheney in an instance. Although he wouldn't get pardons from many other world leaders.

Chicago????

You'd think that this event would make McCain go crawl back under a rock from where he came:

Very, Very Ugly:
"As Ed Schultz noted earlier this week, it looks Sen. John McCain, who's done nothing but criticize President Obama at every turn for his handling of the situation in Libya, has a little explaining to do. This Friday, Chris Hayes went after him for talking tough and playing the bully, when in reality he's just another deal making politician who will cozy up with dictators if he feels it's necessary.

A leaked U.S. diplomatic cable shows that Arizona Republican Sen. John McCain promised to help Libyan dictator Muammar Qadhafi obtain U.S. military hardware in 2009.

The cable, released by the open information group WikiLeaks, reveals the pledge came at meeting that was attended by other prominent members of Congress, including Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.).

In the meeting, Muatassim Qadhafi, the Libyan leader’s fifth son and national security adviser, requested U.S. assistance in obtaining military supplies, both lethal and non-lethal.

The cable indicates that McCain was the dominant voice among the congressional delegation in a push for military hardware for Qadhafi.

“Sen. McCain assured Muatassim that the United States wanted to provide Libya with the equipment it needs for its … security,” according to the cable.

McCain said that he understood the need for Libya to upgrade its existing ranks of C-130 Hercules aircraft. Libya had bought eight of the military cargo aircraft in the 1970s, but as bilateral relationships with the United States deteriorated, a ban of arms sales prevented the aircraft from being moved to North Africa. McCain pledged to do what he could to move the issue forward in Congress.

McCain stressed that Libya needed to fulfill its commitments of giving up its weapons of mass destruction in order for bilateral engagement to go forward."

Quote from Crooks and Liars website featuring...
The last word with Lawrence O'donnell on MSNBC and the video shows McCain shaking hands with the terrorists he had previously ranted against.

And heres the Politico article about the Wikileaks leak:
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0811/62114.html