Aptenobytes

Note to self: Invest in torch and pitchfork manufacturers.

If the politicians let the massive theft of money from the public by the banks, then the Americans better get out on the streets and start literally tearing down the banks and emptying them.

Capitalism fails when risk isn't there. Regulators, auditors and CEO's should be going to jail, not rubber stamping a massive transfer of wealth from the taxpayers of the nation to the richest people in the world. It's appalling.

This kind of shit is what causes revolutions.

Oh, and fuck McCain.

Looks like Obama has a lock

It’s September 12, 2001. You’re sitting in front of a TV, watching footage of the World Trade Center collapse over and over and over again. All of a sudden, someone from seven years in the future walks out of a tiny temporal vortex, and tells you: George W. Bush is going to fuck this up so badly that in 2008, the United States of America will likely elect as president a black man whose middle name is Hussein and whose father was Muslim. Oh, and he also admits he’s used cocaine. I think it would have been easier to convince me of the reality of time travel. “No, no, I believe you really are from the future. But the other stuff, that’s CRAZY.” [courtesy Tom Tomorrow]

With a clear win in North Carolina, and what is for all intents and purposes a tie in Indiana, I just can't see how Obama can lose the nomination at this point.

One thing that has been amusing me up here in the Great White is that every time they play the Jeremy Wright stuff, we as a nation kind of nod our heads and say 'No Shit'. Which of the following do I disagree with? None. Which do you disagree with?

1. “We bombed Hiroshima, we bombed Nagasaki, and we nuked far more than the thousands in New York and the Pentagon, and we never batted an eye.”
2. “We have supported state terrorism against the Palestinians and black South Africans, and now we are indignant because the stuff we have done overseas is now brought right back to our own front yards. America’s chickens are coming home to roost.” (Sep 2001)
   
3. “The government gives them the drugs, builds bigger prisons, passes a three-strike law and then wants us to sing ‘God Bless America.’ No, no, no, God damn America, that’s in the Bible for killing innocent people. God damn America for treating our citizens as less than human. God damn America for as long as she acts like she is God and she is supreme.” (2003)
   
4. “In the 21st century, white America got a wake-up call after 9/11/01. White America and the western world came to realize that people of color had not gone away, faded into the woodwork or just ‘disappeared’ as the Great White West kept on its merry way of ignoring black concerns.” (magazine article)
   
5. “Racism is how this country was founded and how this country is still run!…We [in the U.S.] believe in white supremacy and black inferiority and believe it more than we believe in God.” (sermon)
   
6. “Barack knows what it means living in a country and a culture that is controlled by rich white people. Hillary would never know that. Hillary ain’t never been called a nigger. Hillary has never had a people defined as a non-person.”
   
7. “Hillary is married to Bill, and Bill has been good to us. No he ain’t! Bill did us, just like he did Monica Lewinsky. He was riding dirty.” (sermon)
   
8. “The Israelis have illegally occupied Palestinian territories for over 40 years now. Divestment has now hit the table again as a strategy to wake the business community and wake up Americans concerning the injustice and the racism under which the Palestinians have lived because of Zionism.”
   

Now, let's talk about the spiritual advisor for McCain, Rod Parsley....

Judge Orders FBI to Release Abuse Records

Judge Orders FBI to Release Abuse Records:

This will be fun to watch as it plays out.

Now that's an attack ad

I'm starting to like this YouTube thing.

October Surprise?

Saddam Accepted the American Ultimatum Before the US Invasion, According to Rights and Freedom International:
A former political adviser to Saddam Hussein's son said today that Saddam was willing to yield to all American demands before the U.S. invasion of Iraq -- but that the Bush administration refused his offers.

Words fail me.

This years nobel prize

Peace 2006:
Too cool! Grameen bank and Muhammad Yunus gets it for micro-credit. I've been a fairly big fan of the whole concept for years. Nice to see the concept get some credit.

What is also heartening is that this reflects a baseline assumption that peace is inextricably linked with economic and social justice.

Nice to see the Nobel commitee get it right. God knows they've got it wrong in the past.

Scary times

'Course, the scariest thing for me today is that it's my birthday...

On a more serious note, last night while I was washing dishes, I got to remembering stuff. Growing up with the bomb.... I remember having fantasies about what I would do if they decided to drop the bomb.... some of course were Red Dawn fantasies of going off into the bushes and surviving somehow. Some were the typical teenage sexual fantasies (going out with a bang as it were). I was thinking how nice it was that kids today aren't really to aware that the world could end in minutes. It probably changes everything about your world view as you grow up...

With the North Koreans now joining the nuclear club, I wonder how soon we'll be thinking in the real short term again? Non-proliferation has failed. That seems clear. What was once a private club for the US, Russia, France, UK and China now must also include Pakistan, India, Israel and North Korea at a minimum. Add in the various nations that could put together a nuclear weapon without effort, like Canada or Brazil, and you have a recipe for getting lots of people all nervous and stuff.

Well, I'm done work now. I'm going to have a birthday drink.

Cheers!

Hmmm.

From Labor Blog:


And the new expansive definition of "supervisor" means that more workers will be given nominal supervisory responsibilities to undermine their right to unionize-- and lock every union vote in endless delays as companies litigate who is and who is not a supervisor. Even if the workers "win", the election will probably be delayed long enough to kill the union drive.
And here are the dynamics when large numbers of workers are declared to be supervisors-- it means that friends in the workplace immediately are turned into enemies as supervisors are told to spy on their friends or lose their jobs. Instead of a union being about workers challenging the power of top management, it is turned into an internal workplace civil war.

What's that I smell. Oh, yeah it's that putrid stench that only happens when they put a McDonalds inside a Wal-Mart....

Guess I should comment on Dick shoots Harry

What a dick! The guy broke rule #1. You never point a gun at anything you aren't willing to destroy.

Folks, gun safety is drilled into anyone who uses guns regularly. Whenever I teach someone how to shoot a gun, the first thing I tell them is that "guns are always loaded, and the safety is not on". Don't 'act' like they are loaded. Treat them exactly as if they are loaded. The second thing I teach them is that you don't put your finger on the trigger until you are looking through the sights, and know that whatever you shoot when you pull the trigger is something that you are prepared to destroy. I do a lot of trap shooting, and I understand exactly what happens as you swing your gun, and I can see how the shooting could have occurred. The fact is that what had to have happened is that the Vice President of the United States pulled the trigger without knowing what was in the path of his swing. That shows excruciatingly bad judgement

This shooting is not excusable for someone who is one heartbeat away from the Presidency. I could excuse it for someone whose judgement isn't so critical. From this man, it is not excusable. Not one little bit.

The man should resign. His judgement is flawed, and it is perhaps quite literally fatally flawed.

Cartoons, Muslims, and a complete lack of sense or proportion.

OK, so let's see what the arab street is getting so worked up about:

Hunh. Not too provocative. Sometimes I just don't get religious fanaticism. Make that always. I don't get it.