Month: December 2011

The world really is a strange and amazing place:

BAGHDAD — One by one, the Marines sat down, swore to tell the truth and began to give secret interviews discussing one of the most horrific episodes of America’s time in Iraq: the 2005 massacre by Marines of Iraqi civilians in the town of Haditha.

“I mean, whether it’s a result of our action or other action, you know, discovering 20 bodies, throats slit, 20 bodies, you know, beheaded, 20 bodies here, 20 bodies there,” Col. Thomas Cariker, a commander in Anbar Province at the time, said to investigators as he described the chaos of Iraq. At times, he said, deaths were caused by “grenade attacks on a checkpoint and, you know, collateral with civilians.”

The 400 pages of interrogations, once closely guarded as secrets of war, were supposed to have been destroyed as the last American troops prepare to leave Iraq. Instead, they were discovered along with reams of other classified documents, including military maps showing helicopter routes and radar capabilities, by a reporter for The New York Times at a junkyard outside Baghdad. An attendant was burning them as fuel to cook a dinner of smoked carp.

One wonders what other dinners have been cooked using evidence of some of our worst war crimes. Could it be that the prospect of justice for the people who started this war rests on such bizarre twists of fate?

The Guardian today has a nice photo gallery of the highest paid rogues (based on 2010 compensation – 2011 numbers not yet in) in what is quickly becoming the greatest oligarchy in the world. I suggest you go take a look at the faces on display of the top five monsters criminals hard working folks who are American CEO’s, starting with:

1. John Hammergren, McKesson Corporation: $145,266,971.

He runs the largest health care firm in the known universe (Gross revenues of $108.7 BILLION) and if his company is merged or otherwise acquired his take from this year’s stock options (part of his compensation) would be roughly $469 MILLION.

2. Joel F. Gemunder, Omnicare, $98,283242

Omnicare provides “pharmaceutical care” for old people (i.e, sells meds to nursing homes). He retired this year, will receive a severance package of $6 MILLION and all his stock options and restricted stock are immediately vested (value roughly $18 to $22 Million). Morningstar Footnoted calculates his going away presents at $133 MILLION which is higher than The Guardian’s numbers, but in any case he still comes in at second place.

3. John Plant, TRW Automotive Holdings, $76,841,646.

He was actually given a $2.5 MILLION bonus for not leaving the company and $4.5 MILLION for unspecified “additional factors.” Where can I find a job like that? I have additional factors up the wazoo.

4. Frank Coyne, CEO Verisk Analytics Inc. $76,416,276.

Verisk Analytics Inc. is the “leading source of information about risk.” I guess it’s a lucrative field these days. Over the 12 months ending September 30, 2011 it earned gross profits of $765.08 MILLION.

5. Thomas M Ryan, CVS Caremark Corporation. $68,079,823

From the Guardian: “Ryan made $50m on the pharmacy chain’s shares last year. During his 13 years as CEO the firm’s share price has halved.” Heck I would have done that for them at half the cost and saved them a bundle! Extra bonus information: CVS Caremark manages my prescription insurance plan and I can assure you it lives up to its reputation for exceptionally poor costumer service.

To be honest I was going to run down the whole list for you but I just got sick to my stomach after the first five. Of course, this list doesn’t include the people with the highest incomes in 2010 or 2011, just CEO’s. In fact, the guys on the Guardian’s list look like pikers compared to the people who pull down the really big bucks.

For the highest income earners you have to go through the toxic waste manufacturers otherwise known as Hedge Fund managers. The best of the best (or worst of the worst, depending on your point of view) of those people (i.e., the top ten) averaged 2.2 Billion Dollars in 2010. However, I can only wade through so much muck in a day.

So for all of you who are working two (or three) jobs, are underemployed or can’t find a job to save your home and/or life because there aren’t enough to go around, just think of these lovely people with all their lovely piles of money and that warm glow you feel about their obscene riches might just help you make it through our joyous holiday season should your heat be cut off this winter.

Ps. And people still ask what the Occupy Wall Street protestors want?

My office just got off the phone with Erin Kelly, head of political ad sales at the Fox News Channel. She told us our ad “French Romney” was rejected because everything Fox airs “has to be truthful.”

No, I’m not making this up.  60 seconds after the call ended, Erin called back to clarify. She says our ad was rejected because it was “misleading.”

Really.

Because if it’s one thing we can all agree with, there would never be anything on the airwaves at Fox that a fair-minded person could construe as misleading.<!–more–>

To borrow a phrase from Fox, “We report, you decide” Here is the ad in question below.

The National Center for Health Statistics released a study today that shows an increase of 2.5 million people aged 19-25 who have health insurance thanks to the Affordable Care Act. When accounting for other factors, it appears that the entirety of the increase is due to a provision that allows parents to carry their children on their insurance until they turn 26 years-old. The percentage of people receiving Medicaid was stable, as was the percentage of people aged 26-35 who are insured. So, we have 2.5 million more young adults who have access to quality health care if they are injured in a car crash, or if they need mental health care, or if they are unlucky enough to come down with some disease. Overall, 73% of young adults are now covered, up from 64% before the reforms.

But, you know, Death Panels!!

You gotta love the headline of George Will’s latest piece: Newt Gingrich commits a capital crime. Mr. Will really lays down some heavy snark as he takes Gingrich apart limb by limb. It’s unusually good writing from Will. But he still misses an important point. Here is Will’s defense of Vulture Capitalism:

Romney, while at Bain, performed the essential social function of connecting investment resources with opportunities. Firms such as Bain are indispensable for wealth creation, which often involves taking over badly run companies, shedding dead weight and thereby liberating remaining elements that add value. The process, like surgery, can be lifesaving. And like surgery, society would rather benefit from it than watch it.

I don’t really disagree with what Mr. Will is saying here, but he isn’t defining what he means by ‘society.’ He’s also failing to acknowledge that it matters how you go about “connecting investment resources with opportunities” to create wealth. Too often, Bain Capital has created wealth only for themselves. The most famous example is American Pad & Paper Co. (Ampad), which they bled dry until it was forced into bankruptcy. And it didn’t help that they were simultaneously funding mega-retailers like Staples that only exacerbated Ampad’s problems.

When a company specializes in outsourcing jobs to other countries with cheaper labor, the ‘society’ that benefits is global. The wealth that is created no longer benefits our local communities. And when a company enriches itself by bleeding their acquisitions into bankruptcy through excessive fees, it isn’t even performing its job as a scavenger. It’s acting as a predator.

We need scavengers to create efficiencies, but we don’t need a race to the bottom on wages, nor do we need predators to come into our communities and destroy our jobs. That’s what Bain Capital did under Romney’s leadership. He didn’t serve the country. Too often, he didn’t even serve the investors in the companies he acquired. He served himself. So, as far as I am concerned, Gingrich’s criticism that Romney earned his money “bankrupting companies and laying off employees” is a completely valid criticism.

Or is it here comes the neighborhood???

Just sayin’…

Saaaay…she looks suspiciously like…like a movie star underneath that burqa-ish thing. Why it’s…it’s Angelina Jolie!!! I didn’t know the “Protester” movie was out yet. Oh. It’s just a teaser? Oh. Nevermind.

But…wait a minute!!! Why is a heroic “protester” wearing something that resemble a burqa!!!??? Oh!!! Oh!!! The cognitive dissonance of it all!!! I think I’m gonna faint. At least it’s a woman. Women won’t hurtcha, right? They’re mommies, ain’t they? Phew!!! I guess I’m gonna be OK now.

‘Protester’ named Time’s person of year (AFP)

NEW YORK — Time magazine named the collective “protester” around the world as its person of the year Wednesday, citing the change brought by street demonstrations from Arab countries to New York.

The shared honor for protesters beat the traditional individual contenders, who included Admiral William McCraven, commander of the US mission to kill Al-Qaeda founder Osama bin Laden.

More important than an assassin with an Admiral’s title!!! Someone who took part in one of the most blatant coverups in the history of modern mediafare? Hoooey!!! Thats’a some spicy meatball!!!

And…”McCraven!!!??? Who’s writing this movie? Charles Dickens? Terry Southern? Dr. Strangelove? Henry fucking Kissinger?
Wow!!!

In a Freudian slip of the tongue, a spokesman for Time Mag added:

“There’s this contagion of protest,” managing editor Richard Stengel said on NBC television.

Hey! Wait another minute!!! That’s what I said almost six months ago!!! (War + Revolution as Earthbound, Traveling Infections) They are getting so much quicker on the uptake than they used to be.

Hmmmm…

Definition of CONTAGION:

1a : a contagious disease
  b : the transmission of a disease by direct or indirect contact
  c : a disease-producing agent (as a virus)
2a : poison
  b : contagious influence, quality, or nature
  c : corrupting influence or contact
3a : rapid communication of an influence (as a doctrine or emotional state)
  b : an influence that spreads rapidly

Examples of CONTAGION

a disease that spreads by contagion
People have been warned to keep out of the area to avoid contagion.

Origin of CONTAGION

Middle English, from Latin contagion-, contagio, from contingere to have contact with, pollute

I can hear the conversation in Mr. Stengel’s office now.

The Real Boss: You said what!!!???

Stengel: Ah’s so sorry, boss. Ah dunno what came ober me. Ah’s never gon’ make a mistake like dat again. Ah promises!!! Pleeze don’ sell me down de ribber to Newstweak or one’a dem udder sad mags. Pleeze !!! Ah’s got chillun t’feed!!! A mortgage t’pay!!! PLEEZE suh!!!

The Real Boss: OK Stengel. Don’t have a cow. We’ll eventually manage to excise it from the public record. If only you were as clever as your father Casey…

Read on for more.
Regarding the fight against greed and murder in government, Mahatma Gandhi famously said “First they laugh at you, then they ignore you, then they fight you. Then you win.”

Perhaps he should have included the phrase “Then they try to co-opt you” somewhere in there.

Time Magazine…the middle of the middle of the middle of the PermaGov-owned and controlled media for over 85 years and part of the CIA’s “Operation Mockingbird” disinfo/propaganda system from 1953 on…has tried (and will continue to try) to trivialize the impact of the various dissident movements (from the left and the right) that are happening all over the world. Except of course for those that can be used to promote U.S./PermaGov interests.

Just sayin’…they had to kill Gandhi in order to stop him and his movement. Can you imagine a Mahatma Gandhi-led and/or heavily influenced government becoming a nuclear weapon-armed superpower? Please.

Now they just mediatize movements.

Mediocritize them.

The very first successful “mediocritization”-style destruction of a popular movement? The end of the youth movement in the late ’60s. An “Ah HA!” moment for the controllers. Bet on it.

Altamont.

“Got ’em!!!”

Bet on it.

And now they are at it again.

Oh…aren’t they heroic!!! Let’s take ’em home, give ’em a good bath and some dinner. Everything’s gonna be just fine!!! Four more years of Obama and all of our problems will be solved.

Riiiiiight.

Any day now.

Aaaaany day now.

First the compliment and then they slip the knife in.

Deep.

Just sayin’.

Do not be fooled. If it is in the mainstream media, it is a lie. Decepticon in action.

A Deceptician all bundled up to look like that sweet little e-Trade baby whose real job it is to keep you in a state of blind trust that the stock market isn’t really a total game of three card monte.

Saaaayyyy…didja notice? He looks a lot like baby Shiva, just beginning the process of growing those extra arms.

Hmmmm….

Just sayin’.

Just sayin’…WAKE THE FUCK UP!!!

And of course, the leftinesses will say “Oh. Well. I neither read nor put any stock whatsoever in such middle of the road media!” As they open their NY Times/Washington Post morning read and turn on PBS/NPR for the latest in what is not really happening.

Dig it.

If it is in any way funded by the government, billion dollar so-called “grants” or almost all of corporate America, it is one or another flavor of sheer bullshit.

Bet on it.

I am.

Bet on that as well.

Station WTFU once again signing off the air.

Sigh.

Later…

AG

More, please:

Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. on Tuesday entered the turbulent political waters of voting rights, signaling that the Justice Department would be aggressive in reviewing new voting laws that civil rights advocates say will dampen minority participation in next year’s elections.

…Mr. Holder also laid out a case for replacing the “antiquated” voter registration system by automatically registering all eligible voters; for barring state legislators from gerrymandering their own districts, and for creating a federal statute prohibiting the dissemination of fraudulent information to deceive people into not voting.

We now have a decade’s worth of evidence that vote fraud, of the type that involves unregistered people voting or people voting multiple times, is so rare as to be inconsequential, while reports of voter suppression (almost all by Republicans) have over the same period been epidemic.

Holder and the Obama administration should run with this. It is, first of all, morally the right thing to do. Secondly, it’s politically advantageous, given who is primarily being targeted by these local efforts. But it is also a winning argument. On the one side, you have Republicans engaging in self-serving behavior ostensibly to combat a problem that according to the experts does not exist. On the other side, you have a large group of Americans being denied a fundamental constitutional right.

It’s also good to see that Holder is expanding this discussion beyond voter ID laws, and treating such laws, gerrymandering, and voter suppression tactics as of a piece. Hopefully he will add caging, frivolous voter eligibility challenges, and other vote suppression tactics to his agenda. And in the best of all worlds his people will also explore and highlight the coordinated national effort to enact such laws on the local level.

Politically, taking on this issue should be a no-brainer for the Obama administration, particularly since it’s not just minorities but also the elderly, disabled, and young adults who are disproportionately affected by many of these tactics. It’s always easy to scare people, and Fox News has raised it to an art form. But there are probably literally millions of people who can tell stories of being shut out from their own democracy, where a straight line can be drawn from their stories to the coordinated Republican efforts to shut them out. That sort of storytelling needs to happen. If the civil rights division of the Department of Justice can document the abuses and get some of these laws shut down, great. But even the effort to do so has the benefit of telling a story: Republicans don’t want you to vote.

Also, too, there’s no reason the White House and civil rights advocates should be taking this on alone. Hopefully, somewhere, some PAC is making a slick “I deserve to vote” TV ad with a rainbow of people (young, old, white, minority) describing how some politicians are passing laws and enacting policies and regulations because they’re afraid of us exercising our constitutional rights. It dovetails perfectly with the 99% narrative, too, since most of the politicians pursuing that agenda are in the pocket of the one percent. It’s an issue that needs to be pushed. Hard.

Leave it to Donald Trump to try to get more publicity out of an unmitigated disaster.

In his announcement tonight that Trump is mercifully cancelling a debate that even the Republican travelling freak show was (mostly) too dignified to legitimize, The Donald justified his wholesale rejection thusly:

The Republican Party candidates are very concerned that sometime after the final episode of “The Apprentice,” on May 20th, when the equal time provisions are no longer applicable to me, I will announce my candidacy for president of the United States as an independent and that, unless I conclusively agree not to run as an independent, they will not agree to attend or be a part of the Newsmax debate scheduled for Dec. 27, 2011. It is very important to me that the right Republican candidate be chosen to defeat the failed and very destructive Obama administration, but if that Republican, in my opinion, is not the right candidate, I am not willing to give up my right to run as an independent candidate.

It says everything about Trump’s gravitas that he considers running for President less important than anchoring a reality TV show. That said, I really hope he runs. He’ll blow a bunch of his own money, and either he’ll draw a lot of votes – in which case some of Teh Stupid will be siphoned off from the vote total of Obama’s opponent – or he won’t, in which case hopefully his TV career is over, too.

What does it say about our culture that half the “serious” candidates this year vying for the most powerful job in the world are doing so because of the marketing and merchandising opportunities?

Actor Gary Busey is endorsing Newt Gingrich, at least until Donald Trump enters the race as an independent. Meanwhile, former Delaware senatorial candidate Christine O’Donnell has endorsed Mitt Romney, leading the #futureromneyendorsements hashtag to trend on Twitter (if you know what that means). Are there any celebrities or politicians whose endorsement might actually sway you in a competitive primary?

Here’s the roll call for Boehner’s stupid bill to do a bunch of radical things in exchange for extending the payroll tax holiday and unemployment insurance benefits. Ten Democrats, most of them reliably terrible, voted for this monstrosity. Fourteen Republicans voted against it, most, if not all, because it wasn’t radical enough. The Speaker wanted 240 Republican votes, but got only 224.

Members approved the bill in a 234-193 vote in which 224 Republicans supported it — short of House Speaker John Boehner’s (R-Ohio) goal of getting 240 GOP votes, which he said would give the House a “strong hand” in negotiations with Senate Democrats.

The White House didn’t wait long to issue their response:

Statement by the Press Secretary on Tonight’s House Vote on the GOP Payroll Tax Cut Plan

This Congress needs to do its job and stop the tax hike that’s scheduled to affect 160 million Americans in 18 days. This is not a time for Washington Republicans to score political points against the President. It’s not a time to refight old ideological battles. And it’s not a time to break last summer’s bipartisan agreement and hurt the middle class by cutting things like education, clean energy, and veterans’ programs without asking the wealthiest Americans to pay their fair share.

This is a time to help the middle class and all those trying to reach it by extending a tax cut worth $1,000 for the average family. The President has been very clear: Congress should not finish their business before finishing the business of the American people. They cannot go on vacation before agreeing to prevent a tax hike on 160 million Americans and extending unemployment insurance. That is simply inexcusable in this economy. It is our expectation that in the eleventh hour Congressional Republicans and Democrats will come to an agreement to protect the middle class and finish their budget work for the year.

As far as the White House is concerned, it’s like the House didn’t pass anything at all. They didn’t even react to the stupid Keystone XL gambit. Boehner went to a lot of effort to pass this stupid bill in the hope that he would gain some leverage, but he fell far short of his goal and he now has even less time to wrap his business.

The vote sets up the prospect of negotiations with the White House and Senate over how to deal with the bill, as the Senate is not expected to approve it. The House all year has moved to pass critical legislation in order to boost its chances of success in negations with Democrats in the Senate and the White House, and appeared to be following that game plan with today’s vote.

Harry Reid slowed down the negotiations over the separate appropriations omnibus bill, preventing Boehner from passing his version of it and then just splitting town and forcing the Senate to take it or leave it.

As for forcing Congress to spend Christmas in Washington, Article II, Section III of the Constitution says this (emphasis mine):

Section 3 – State of the Union, Convening Congress

He [the president] shall from time to time give to the Congress Information of the State of the Union, and recommend to their Consideration such Measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient; he may, on extraordinary Occasions, convene both Houses, or either of them, and in Case of Disagreement between them, with Respect to the Time of Adjournment, he may adjourn them to such Time as he shall think proper; he shall receive Ambassadors and other public Ministers; he shall take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed, and shall Commission all the Officers of the United States.

There’s a whole lot of dysfunction on display in the Capitol. And not much holiday cheer.