@Louise, a feature I would like to see on this page is an auto-refresh added to it (seems like I'm wearing out my refresh button on my browser ;-) )

During the first hour Thom was talking about domestic terrorism. Does anyone know the exact quote from Glenn Beck regarding strangling?

Foodfascist - We had a few issues with the new site - but everything seems ok now....hopefully...<s> Louise

@rladlof

I vote for changing "Free Trade" to "Anarchy Trade"

@constans aka Mark K. I wouldn't let the name change bother you, other bloggers here will soon recognize your style and identify it with the new name soon enough.

"A rose by any other name..." etc.

My morning rant . . . The OC (Orange County in CA) Register is whining that Orange County businesses have to pay for education for the rabble and they are ticked off about it. The truth is that businesses get the same benefit as the rest of society when society provides basic educational services to its peoples:

1. A common transactional language & basic understanding of the monetary system

2. A workforce oriented towards performing tasks for a delayed reward system

3. Lower crime rates

4. Innovation and efficiency

I HATE it when sociopaths get a little money in their pockets then fervently work to force others to make do with less. GRRRR . . .

There seems to have been some changes here. My user ID is constans, but I have been identifying myself as Mark K, which is my first name and last initial. I can't seem to be able to change it back to this in the account edit.

The Powell Manifesto:

http://reclaimdemocracy.org/corporate_accountability/powell_memo_lewis.html

Anyways, last Sunday evening my brother flew in from California to help me celebrate my birthday. Before he got on the Rockaraoke stage at one of the reservation (where every man sang a metal monstrosity, and every woman a country tune) to sing a Billy Idol song—which caused me to reminded him (again) that I had wanted to leave the place an hour ago—we had a discussion on the issues of the day. It wasn’t quite as contentious as a waitress thought—she hoped that we wouldn’t use the steak knives for a sword fight. My brother is a conservative on the “common sense” side (I think). As an entrepreneur, he still thought there was too much, not too little, regulation, and that selling health insurance over state lines would reduce costs. However, he surprised me by offering as his principle objection to the health care bill was that it was too convoluted and complicated. Why didn’t they just extend Medicare to the uninsured? Yeah, I said, why didn’t they just pass something that gave people that option, providing the uninsured with something like a W-4 form except as a health care form in which a person would note the number of dependents, and taking into account income level, that person would be subject to a tax deduction off each paycheck that went directly to the Medicare fund? It made perfect sense to both of us. I had to point out, however, that all the Republicans and 33 Democrats in the House voted against the current bill not because it didn’t go this far, but because it went “too far.”

My laissez-faire brother also surprised me by expressing a curiosity as to why someone might call Sarah Palin a fascist. He seemed to accept my argument that Palin’s politics bore some resemblance at least to the Nazi version of fascism with a modicum of sincerity. For example, Palin’s appeal to suggestions of racism and violence does mirror the Nazis’ efforts to use Jews and other “untermenschen” as a focal point of the “master race’s” paranoia. Palin’s “populist” appeal also bore some similarity to the Nazis’ “working man” propaganda, which might give people a notion of populist “power,” but in actuality maintained their status of powerlessness before the supremacy of the corporate world. While Hitler threw workers a self-image bone while actively reducing their rights, behind the scenes he was dealing with the major German business conglomerations and banking institutions to help him create his war machine, which he had every intention on unleashing on the world as soon as feasible. I don’t know if Palin is capable of all this, but her power-hunger, her appeal to national chauvinism, and lack of judgment or prudence can make anything possible.

The aptly-named Vanity Fair is coming out with a 14-page blockbuster spread on Tiger Woods, revealing what Fox “Sports” calls “shocking” and “explosive” details on his sexual escapades, which a former adviser blamed on his hanging out with “SOBs” like Michael Jordan and Charles Barkley. You know, any minute description of a sexual act and sexual parts, no matter how “normal,” is bound to sound “shocking” and icky, especially when it is a so-called “mainstream” publication that wades into this cesspool. There comes a saturation point when the reporting starts to say more about the reporter than the reportee.

I was in the mortgage business for about 40 years and nothing they have come up with has surprised me at all. Recently I talked to a friend in the mortgage business who said "are you surprised there are not more foreclosures for sale. The reason is that the banks are holding back their foreclosures so as not to cause tremendous drops in prices. So my question is, are they eventually going to have to let them out on the public and what do you think will happen. I tried to find a foreclosed home and saw the NOD but then I lost it and it is still in limbo?? This is another black eye for the banks.

Too true Nels... I know that the individual health care mandate was a Republicant idea and the corporations drool at the prospect of this kind of 'managed' economy where we the people are all forced into contractual agreements to pay that corps(e). But I am pretty sure that the mandate will generate unintended consequences even tho' it has no teeth (at present) - the Democrats have tried to make it seem kind and safe. But the fact that it is a corporate Republicant idea that will not stop the right from blasting out ads against it from now until the mid-terms. We 'll see, but the Republicants usually can't pass up that kind of opportunistic doublespeak.