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@Staggerlee: re: oil and sex. Apparently oil and sex do mix after all. Unfortunately, petroleum products erode condoms, so they can still reproduce. Too many gushers.
BBC report on Greek protest (re: my last post). Getting real crazy over there.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8661385.stm
N
OUTRAGE! Headline..it ought to be the death penalty for eating a minor child!
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2010/05/05/world/AP-EU-Russia-Cannibals-Sentenced.html?_r=1&ref=news
Whoa, whoa, whoa, what's this about riots in Greece? I knew Greece was tanking, but on the news break (KTLK LA) they talked about 3 bank workers being killed by being trapped in a bank set afire by protesters against the Government that's trying to prevent bankruptcy. Anyone know more about this story? or is this something that's going to take 5 days of festering before we pay attention to it?
N
If we're gonna be talking about grammar, here's a slide show from the NYTimes website showing some amusing useage of the English language in Shanghai.
http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2010/05/03/world/asia/20100503_CHINGLIS...
Here's the associated article -
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/03/world/asia/03chinglish.html?src=me&ref...
The Texas School board are just a bunch of (_)_)'s
Hello! I posted a rant about leverage buyouts, I know it did not actually fit here except for the pig, but I don't see my post? this is my first time posting as I've never figured out how to reach Tom and/or blog. Maybe I still haven't?? could you e-mail me?
@mstaggerlee, they're in bed together, and we're getting screwed. Lube up, here it comes again.
@harry, America is a 1st world country and Mexico (our next door neighbor) is a 3rd world country, there is something awfully wrong with this picture.
re: people don't want to do this job or that job because its demeaning... that's just BS. I don't want to do the job I do day after day, I do it because I need to support my family, eat and have a roof over my head. If I qualify for several jobs, I'll take the job that pays me the most vs working me the hardest. I believe most people would do so too.
N
Re: Texas Board of Ed - Getting Thomas Jefferson out of the textbooks won't be their biggest problem. Their real headaches will come when they try to shut down the Jefferson Memorial in DC, and to get his face off of Mount Rushmore. :D :D :D
By the way, friends, when Thom says that Bush administration's regulators were "in bed" with the Oil industry, it is becoming pretty apparent that he's NOT speaking colloquially. You can take the phrase quite LITERALLY!
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-f-kennedy-jr/sex-lies-and-oil-spill...
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/11/washington/11royalty.html?_r=4&hp&oref...
@mstaggerlee, I believe (as I think Thom points out), that the real issue it businesses wanting (not needing) cheap labor. I truly believe that the first thing to be done is to fine (heavily) organizations that specifically hire immigrants and exploit them. As well as tightening up laws that allow business to transfer their liability of hiring immigrants to the immigrants. I worked for a company that to this day is legally hiring Mexican immigrants that provide false Social Security numbers, if one number they give is listed as illegit, they're allowed to go get another one and try that one. Its perfectly legal for the company to do that, they only need to have records that show that the Social Security number didn't show up as illicit. It BS, management knows exactly who is and isn't legitimate, and they know whose wages they can therefore keep low.
So long as companies are allowed to act so, labor will continue to have boots to their neck. Labor Unions and Immigration Activist better cooperate, because each ones interest overlaps and is tied together.
N
re: immigration: here's an idea...let's treat the problem rather than the symptoms. the problem is poverty and repression in Latin America; at least partly due to our international monetary and trade policies, esp. NAFTA. That's more the base of the problem than US employers. Lets do both.
As I stated in a late post yesterday, the "crime" of being an illegal immigrant is (in most states) a Class D Misdemeanor - classified right up there with other dangerous crimes as vagrancy and loitering - i. e., a crime of POVERTY. That, in my opinion, is the crime that the right wing seeks to prosecute more often than any other - the crime of living while non-wealthy.
I agree in the most part with Congressman Gutierrez, but I think we can go further. More than just pseudo amnesty. Change the function of the Immigration Agency, make it their job to inspect businesses employee rolls, and if they find business that obviously hire immigrants, ensure that they are paying adequate wages. Return the labor dept. back to being an agency that protects and advocates for labor. Drastically reduce the draconian blockades at the borders, we can approve several times more people to come in to our country. Having an implausibly long waiting period to get in legally is just encouraging people to jump the boarder.
N
Feliz Cinco de Mayo a todos mis muchachos! Cerveza para todos!
Happy Cinco de Mayo!
Here's some great music from La Santa Cecilia
http://www.myspace.com/lasantacecilia/music/playlists
All for songs are worth listening to.
Doh!
John McCain was not born in the canal zone. He was born in the civilian hospital in the city of Colon outside of the canal zone.
Congress actually passed a resolution (sponsored by Obama and Hillary Clinton) that said he was eligible to run for president because he was a "natural born" citizen born in the canal zone, but they were factually in error on that last point.
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:McCain_Certificate_of_Birth.jpg
However "2. Born abroad of US Citizens" I believe does satisfy the eligility rules so long as he resided in the US later.
Happy Cinco de Mayo everybody... and Happy Birthday Karl Marx, you wild and crazy German Philosopher!!
Lets all drink some Pacifico, Revolt and move to a Commune... woo hoo!
N
For some reason my obsession as it has been for awhile is leveraged buyouts, equity investment firms buying most of the time old i.e. profitable corporations that make things, and then equity firms gut them and resell making millions by selling to another investment firm who again guts i.e. lays off workers, raise prices of products, pays equity investors more money, add more debt to company, equity investment company sells for more millions to another investment company, and maybe after four sales and millions made by investment firms, the company has to file for bankruptcy.
This has been going on since the 80's and is still going on. NBC/Comcast - is that a leverage buyout? now Centruy Tel/QWest is that a leveraged buyout? Now, these two companies are part of the 21st century infrastructure and public airways which really aren't public anymore, thank you Clinton. CH2M here in Oregon was bought out by equity firm a few months back and there were layoffs.
While paying attention to this over the last 30 years, details of what I've read is not still in my boomer brain, I have come to the conclusion: This is one of the major causes of what has driven up prices of everything. We use to talk about projects in the thousands, then millions, then billions and now trillions. You see reports of companies selling for $x and then 3 years later selling for $xxx and then again in a few years for $xxxxxxxx, my backing and knowledge of business practices and accounting does not accept that these firms could of grown that fast to be worth that much more??
Profitable US firms have been gutted, American workers loose jobs, prices of products go up and investment bankers get rich. America manufacturing has been gutted by this practice as well as by outsourcing.
These banksters (financial terrorist) need to be called out on this more. I've read John Kennedy Jr. and Matt Taibbi and Thom you've spoken of this before and I'm sure others I don't remember but these banksters are only helping themselves to Americas wealth which was our value of productivity.
I would love to hear/read a rant on this by you Thom and or Louise. You guys are my rock.
SOME SUPER-RICH CAN SAVE US!!
good morning from camp luna linda --
FYI Ralph Nader's booktour thru PDX Saturday night May 8th --
Portland, OR
Saturday, May 8, 2010
7:30pm-9:30pm
Progressive Party of Oregon
Ralph Nader Presentation & Book Signing
“Obama So Far . . . A New Strategy for Progressives”
First Unitarian Church Sanctuary
1211 SW Main Street
Portland, OR
Suggested donation: $5
full tour -- http://onlythesuperrich.org/tour.php --
Ralph's address to Montgomery college :
PEACE AND JUSTICE STRATEGIES - Can some super-rich save us?
podcast here --
http://podcast.montgomerycollege.edu/podcast.php?rcdid=304 --
YES -- ALL super-rich are noit the SAME!!!
William Gate's SENIOR (a character in the book) is sponsoring the WA state initiative --
#1077 -- taxing the richest to educate all!!
thank-you for your consideration --
GRATEFULLY EVERYTHING CHANGE --
with so many options -- MM
William Gates Sr portrayed in
From what I understand, there are three ways to become a citizen of the United States.
1. Born in the United States of America or a Territory (Does not include Military Bases, does include Puerto Rico).
2. Born abroad of US Citizens
3. Naturalization.
The only one that qualifies someone to be President is the first one. If you give birth to a child in Canada, they have all rights of citizenship except that they cannot become President. Congress requires your citizenship to have been at least a specified time before being elected, but Naturalized citizens can be Senators, but not President.
The reason John McCain did qualify to be President is because when he was born there, the Canal Zone was considered a US Territory. It has nothing to do with the military base there. From work I did for the government, I know that when he was born there, it was considered being born in the United States.
I did not include the word, learn. AMERICANS CAN LEARN SOMETHING FROM THESE EUROPEAN COUNTRIES.
@Meet John Doh, what I am trying to do is to emulate the goose-stepping Republicans. What the GOP is doing is spreading nonsense but their major objective is to condition the average American psyche into believing their nonsense. I believe that many of links are good reading. I must admit that I am trying to condition Americans to a FACT that the United States is not such a great country. Thom has shared his information on several European countries that are great and that Americans can something from these countries. Americans must become more discerning right from wrong. We can resolve many of our problems by listening to Thom Hartmann. Here is an example, prosecute employers for hiring illegal immigrants; regulate the banks ans the financial institutions; prosecute employers who are negligent in killing employees; subject heavy fines for negligence as well. These are some examples for resolving our problems. And, I even held back on my belief that religion is important in our lives and that we need to practice the Golden Rule.
Please listen carefully to Thom Hartmann!!!
Maxrot, I know that other nations have terrible records in the killing of human beings. The United States of Hell was seeking an amendment to make Christianity our country's religion. We go around functioning above the law because we are supposedly a good, holy, and saintly people. There is no nation on earth that practices so much hypocrisy as the United States of Hell.