American's Without Health Insurance Rising - Costs Everyone

The problem of uninsured American's might seem like a problem for somebody else, but it's yours.

Roughly 8% or about $1,100 per year of average family's health insurance is actually a cost shifted to them due to our broken system that fails to cover the uninsured.

In 2007 and 2008 roughly 87 million Americans went without health insurance at some point. As unemployment rises another 14,000 lose their health insurance every day. Furthermore according to a report from the Center for American Progress:

The uninsured pay more for care—and get less—than those with insurance. But when the uninsured cannot pay, health care providers shift those costs to those who can pay—those who have insurance coverage. This leads to higher premiums for those who buy their insurance on the individual market, as well as workers who get insurance for themselves and their families through their job.

Our health care system in the US is broken. Putting the burden of health insurance on employers makes us less competitive with the rest of the world and as more and more companies cut payrolls the number of uninsured will increase. More unemployment pulls the economy down as well..

Isn't it time for a national health insurance plan? We are the only industrialized country without one and we rank far down the scale on the quality of our health care.

GOP Would Rather Cheney Returned To Undisclosed Location

Remember when Dick Cheney was that shadowy figure lurking somewhere at an undisclosed location? Well the GOP wishes he would return to his lair.

According to an article in The Hill, Republican legislators find Cheney's recent media appearances detrimental to their cause. Cheney has been on a series of talk shows defending the Bush-Cheney legacy, and though it is understandable, many in the GOP would rather he didn't.

According to the report Rep. John Duncan of Tennessee said,"He became so unpopular while he was in the White House that it would probably be better for us politically if he wouldn’t be so public."

Another noted, "Cheney did House Republicans no favors,” adding, “I could never understand him anyway."

Such is the real legacy of Dick Cheney.

JP Morgan Uses Bail Out Funds To Buy Luxury Private Jets

I guess the fat cats at JP Morgan never had to go through their pockets to find enough change to buy gas just to get to work. I would bet they never had to negotiate with a creditor a payout agreement for an overdue bill. I would also bet they haven't traveled by a means of public transportation since college, if then.

These guys are so out of touch they have no idea how "real people" live, and that's why they are buying new luxury private jets. Yup, the same guys who took the $25 billion in TARP funds are tossing a cool $138 million for a couple of new Jetstream runabouts. Top that off with their plans to build a new hanger in Westchester for another $18 mill and you have a whole lot of crazy going on.

Needless to say, outrage has followed this decision, and rightly so. Next time these guys need to go somewhere, wouldn't a first class ticket on a commercial flight be good enough? Heck they would even afford a few extra cigars and hundred dollar bills to light them with.

If the business tycoons who got us into this mess don't wise up and start behaving like the failed businessmen they are, I wouldn't be surprised if the current populist trend doesn't turn into full blown socialism. It won't take much more for folks to storm their offices with torches and pitchforks. Wise up guys!

Portia De Rossi - Sorry For Getting Married

Ellen DeGeneres and Portia De Rossi got married before Proposition 8. Now Portia apologizes to all the people their marriage hurt.

Ted Haggard - Media Whore Again!

Just when you think a tired story has thankfully disappeared from the media radar, here it comes again! Ted Haggard, former evangelical preacher and media whore is making a joint appearance with his wife in court. Not just any court though, but TV's "Divorce Court"!

Appropriately the show will air April 1, and these two April Fools will be discussing how Ted's "struggle with homosexuality" has made their marriage stronger. Funny place to do it on a show about divorce?

According to Huffington Post:

The couple will be paid an undisclosed amount for the interview, the latest in a
series of public appearances that started in January when Ted Haggard began
promoting an HBO documentary about his time in exile.

Come out Ted! We have all had enough of your tortured existence in the media. Let your wife go and find a nice twink to settle down with. Give us all a rest!

Michael Steele - Open Mouth, Insert Foot!

Seems Michael Steele just can't quit talking. The beleagured GOP party figure-head is back on the airwaves and he charasticly makes another gaff. This time he misquotes the First Ammendment to the Constitution. You know the one about freedom of the press, religion and freedom to assemble?

Well on Bill Bennett's radio show today he agreed with a caller who said that trying to tax Wall Street Bailout recipients was against the first ammendment, "the first amendment…specifically states that a law cannot be passed to specifically target a person or a group of people.”

Well actually that's way off the mark. Perhaps he was referring to Article I of the U.S. Constitution which bans bills of attainder. Or perhaps he was just carried away with the moment. Either way, he continues to be an easy target for those who want him gone.

City Council Members Call For Judge Lander To Resign

When I hear calls for Judge C. Victor Lander to resign I am awestruck. He has been accused of using racially charged language when he praised District Attorney Craig Watkins. Judge Lander said, "black folks have been cleaning up white folks' messes for hundreds of years."

Truer words have rarely been spoken and though they were intended as a dose of irony, some have taken it without a grin. Lander is an African-American judge who as been on the bench for 12 years and with that time has come a lot of wisdom and a good understanding of irony. Apparently, some on the city council live in an "irony free zone".

I sincerely hope the judge stays put. As for the city council? Well maybe they should lighten up and understand that there is a lot of truth behind the remark Judge Lander said.

US Signs UN Gay Rights Declaration

It's about time! The US will finally signed the UN declaration calling for the worldwide decriminalization of homosexuality. Obama is doing what Bush refused to do and brings us into accord with 27 European Union members as well as Japan, Australia, Mexico and three dozen other countries.

When the United States the supposed beacon of freedom in the world is one of the last to sign this declaration, it's pretty sad. I am grateful that President Obama is bringing us into the 21st Century!

AIG Bonus Contract Exposed!

God bless Barney Frank and Andrew Cuomo! They have rooted out the rats at AIG and exposed their shenanigans to daylight.

The bonuses paid as "retention bonuses" are nothing of the sort. Eleven (11) of the people receiving them no longer work for AIG which I believe would be the opposite of retention.

According to Cuomo's office the following details were revealed when the contracts were examined:

• The top recipient received more than $6.4 million;
• The top seven bonus recipients received more than $4 million each;
• The top ten bonus recipients received a combined $42 million;
• 22 individuals received bonuses of $2 million or more, and combined they
  received more than $72 million;
• 73 individuals received bonuses of $1 million or more; and
• Eleven of the individuals who received "retention" bonuses of $1 million
  or more are no longer working at AIG, including one who received $4.6
  million;
  
  Again, these payments were all made to individuals in the subsidiary whose performance
  led to crushing losses and the near failure of AIG. Thus, last week, AIG made more than 73
  millionaires in the unit which lost so much money that it brought the firm to its knees, forcing taxpayer bailout. Something is deeply wrong with this outcome. I hope the Committee will
  address it head on.
  
  We have also now obtained the contracts under which AIG decided to make these
  payments. The contracts shockingly contain a provision that required most individuals' bonuses to be 100% of their 2007 bonuses. Thus, in the Spring of last year, AIG chose to lock in bonuses for 2008 at 2007 levels despite obvious signs that 2008 performance would be disastrous in comparison to the year before. My Office has thus begun to closely examine the circumstances under which the plan was created.
  

More details are available including a scan of the letter from the New York Attorney General are available on Huffington Post.

Oy! Danny Boy. Happy St. Paddy's Day

Pope Says Condoms Don't Prevent AIDS - Say What?

Pope Benedict XVI is doing his part to help spread the HIV virus. He boldly proclaimed on his way to Africa that "You can't resolve it with the distribution of condoms...on the contrary, it increases the problem."

The Vatican apparently is living in the fantasy world that the GOP inhabits when they push abstinence only sex education and watch the pregnancy rate and STD rates rise. I suspect the pope feels that by admitting that condoms can indeed stop the spread of the disease he would in some way undermine the church's stand on procreation. Whatever his reason it is a strange position for the man who claims the right as the "Vicker of Christ" to take. He would rather see people infected and die than use any method of birth control. That is a really odd "sanctity of life" argument.

The spread of AIDS is not just an African problem. In a recent study, our nation's capital has an astounding infection rate of 3% of the population. That is 2% higher than the official benchmark at which a disease becomes a "generalized and severe" epidemic. In Africa things are even worse and one would think the sanctity of preserving life would trump the idology of condeming condom use, but I guess I am just not pious enough to get it.

Alan Livingston - Creator of Bozo Dies

My friend, the late Larry Harmon, used to bristle at the name Alan Livingston. Livingston was the man who created Bozo the Clown for Capitol Records back in 1946. Larry was the man who rescued Bozo from obscurity and turned the red haired clown into a national brand long after the 78rmp records of Bozo at the Circus had joined the landfills.

Today comes news that Alan Livingston has died at age 91. Alan outlived Larry by about 7 months. Both men were part of a childhood tradition for millions of Americans. Though the creator and chief evangelist for Bozo are gone, Bozo still lives on. I suspect that someday the venerable clown will make a comeback.

Steele Will Limit His Media Exposure...Forever?

The long slow descent of Michael Steele continues. Word comes now that he will curtail his media appearances for a while...meaning he will quietly fade away.

The Washington Post says that Steele will take some time off from his media appearance to work on the "nuts and bolts" of the party. I suspect nest will be his taking time away to "spend more time with his family". That is GOP doublespeak for getting canned!

Steele has made one gaff after another with the "base" of the Republican Party. I suspect most are not happy to see a diverse face on the GOP. The base of the party knows what it is and Steele is not even close.

The illusion that the GOP is a "big Tent" faded a log time ago and to try to continue that by adding a few minorities in places of prominence is a side show, not the main event.

Harlow Cuadra Guilty!

Never heard of Harlow Cuadra? Welcome to the club.

Gay porn star, Cuadra was convicted of murdering Bryan Kocis, 44, at Kocis' Dallas Township home in January 2007. That is Dallas Township, Pennsylvania, not Texas.

Apparently Mr. Cuadra decided to kill Bryan Kocis as a business decision. Seems Kocis was a rival adult star and because he wanted to work with adult gay film actor Sean Lockhart, who was a contract actor for Kocis' company, Cobra Video.

Strange times these.

Dow Closes Up Again!

The Dow closed up again today for the third straight day - 7,233.98 up 53.92!

That's a ray of hope in the doom and gloom that has overtaken Wall Street. Glad to see it. I have to wonder if it isn't a result of Jim Cramer being rendered impotent last night on the Daily Show?

Jon Stewart Eviscerates Cramer - Best TV Interview In Years

I just watched Jon Stewart eviscerate Jim Cramer on his show live and face to face and Cramer doesn't even know he is being destroyed. Stewart is mad as hell and echos the feelings of the country. He exposes Cramer's illegal trading ion the tape of him describing his techniques as a hedge fund manager and then proceeds to indict the whole financial broadcast industry.

Stewart is doing what the press should have done all along with these financial liars. This is a program worthy of an Emmy as an example of great journalism.

When he asks Cramer who he is responsible to. His assessment that the networks have been irresponsible and facilitated the wild swings in the market. He reminds Cramer who pleads innocent that as a reporter, he should investigate the statements that companies and executives make with impunity. Stewart has asked the real question of the decade and that is when did journalism stop seeking the truth and started just reprinting press releases?

Watch the whole uncensored interview here.

Michael Steele Angers The Base Again!

Watching Michael Steele as he continues his slow death spiral as head of the RNC is not very much fun. It's no secret his decline started when he angered Rush Limbaugh, the real leader of the GOP, and now he's gone and directly attacked the base.

In an interview with GQ, Steele said unequivocally that he believed in a woman's right to choose when it came to abortion.

GQ: Are you saying you think women have the right to choose abortion?

STEELE: Yeah. I mean, again, I think that’s an individual choice.

And now after a firestorm of criticism, he is recanting. Now he states that he supports overturning Roe v. Wade and has always been pro-life.

Steele is caught in a trap. He is a very smart guy, but he is not ready for the careful dance that is part of leading a party with as hard-boiled a base as the Republicans. His inability to tread the thin line between reality and idology is his downfall and I expect his resignation to "spend more time with his family" in a week or so.

Chicago GOP Chair Caught With Prostitutes! But Wait, There's More!

Sometimes real life is much better than fiction. Even the writers of Desperate Housewives couldn't top this juicy tidbit.

Cook County Republican Chairman Gary Skoien, (thank God it's a Republican this time) was beaten by his wife. Now spousal abuse is never a good thing and I condemn it, but you have to admit, this one might bring a grin to you. Seems, according to police reports, Mr. Skoien was caught by his wife in his children's playroom with two prostitutes!

Nice move, bringing home a couple of working girls and having a tryst in the kids playroom! Apparently Mrs. Skoien was not amused and the diminutive woman, 5-foot-4-inches and 110-pounds, picked up an electric guitar and began walloping her husband for his indiscretion.

The police report says she also beat him with her fists, but how could you follow the scene with the electric guitar?

Mrs. Skoien spent two nights in jail before being released on a $10,000 personal recognizance bond. I suspect after a jury hears this, and stops laughing, they might acquit her.

Another Thought About Jim Cramer

I rarely post twice about a subject, but I just watched the Jim Cramer clip again where he discusses with glee how he and other hedge fund gurus manipulate the market. Not only is it illegal, but he is proud of his crime. Amazing!

It's time the whole wall street system gets a good shakedown. Scumbags like Cramer are gaming the system like Enron did the energy trading market. Hell, Las Vegas is a safer bet than the markets with folks like Cramer in positions of power.

The SEC needs to get it's teeth back.

War On Rich, Who Is The Enemy?

Newsweek has a really insightful column on what has been widely billed as the "War on the Rich". That alleged war is not being waged by the middle class or Washington, but by greedy rich people themselves. It's an enlightening read.

For almost every one of the current economic problems faced by banks or investment firms Newsweek's Daniel Gross traces the root cause...and it is often the same people experiencing the crisis.

Bristol Palin & Levi Johnston Call Off Wedding - More Alaskan Drama!

I suspect that nobody believed the "engagement" that was announced at the GOP convention between Bristol Palin and Levi Johnston. That shotgun wedding announcement was meant to appease the base and preserve what little virtue the Palin family might have left.

Today comes word that the engagement is "off". Is anyone really surprised?

Now Sarah and her family go back to the trailer park drama that is their life. Do my words sound tinged with schadenfreude? A little, yes. I feel so ashamed...yeah, that's it, ashamed!

Jim Cramer Admits To Illegal Activities - Market Manipulation

Pretty shocking footage. Cramer, the wacky stock guru admitting to illegal practices while trading.

GOP Descends Into "Race War"

The Republican "race war" is heating up. I call it a race war because it centers on Michael Steele, the token minority seated as GOP chairman to put a more inclusive face on the party. That hasn't set well with the party loyalists, old white men.

Now former member of a Whites Only club, South Carolina GOP leader Katon Dawson is pushing hard for the "no confidence" vote on Steele. No surprise since Dawson was once considered a front runner for the post of GOP Chair.

Time for me to sit back and watch the carnage!

Cramer Flails While Stewart Giggles

Jim Cramer, the loudmouth wild man of financial analysis is looking worse and worse. What started as a simple bit on the Daily Show has become a feud, and a hilarious one at that.

Jon Stewart has lampooned Cramer for his extremely bad advice to "buy Bear Stearns", a statement that Cramer first denied. Stewart and his staff then browsed through the archive and found numerous clips of Cramer touting Bear Stearns as a good deal just days before its colapse.

Cramer instead of just rolling with the punches began a furious campaign to deny any mistakes on every NBC talk show he could get on. That was a fatal mistaken because the more he squawked, the more foolish The Daily Show made him look.

What started as a comedy bit has become a one-sided war. Cramer furiously fighting while Steward sits on the sidelines and throws spit-balls. Trying to fight a comedian, especially one who has a battery of video tape to support his comedy is futile, and that's what makes this so funny.

Here's the latest salvo in the "war":

The Daily Show With Jon StewartM - Th 11p / 10c

Basic Cable Personality Clash Skirmish '09

Daily Show Full Episodes
Important Things With Demetri Martin

Political Humor
Economic Crisis

Steele Faces Vote Of "No Confidence" From GOP

I'll put this in the "I told you so" column. Michael Steele looks like he is facing a "no confidence" vote after the special election on March 31 -- regardless of whether Republicans win the seat or not.

The Republican's brief flirtation with inclusion has produced predictably disastrous results. The GOP is not inclusive and never will be in its current incarnation. The idea of an African American as GOP party chair might have looked good in a focus group, but in practice it just makes the white bigots in the party angry. Additionally, because Steele is not particularly a great leader, it makes the idea of a minority as the leader of the GOP look like an inherently bad concept.

Aside from Steele's qualifications, he also dismissed the real party head, Rush Limbaugh and that was his diwnfall. As long as the figure head is obedient and doesn't rock the boat, the GOP is happy to have a token face as its symbol. Once that symbol flexes his power....well that's a different story.

Jon Stewart Exposes Jim Cramer's Crap

Jon Stewart once again does what the mainstream media should do, check facts! Wacko screaming stock guru Jim Cramer gives me a headache. His wild gesticulations and pontifications are as silly as my alliterations, but some people listen to him and worse, CNN sells him and his snake oil.

The Daily Show With Jon StewartM - Th 11p / 10c

In Cramer We Trust

Daily Show Full Episodes
Important Things With Demetri Martin

Political Humor
Economic Crisis

Stop Worrying About A "Depression"

Listening to the 24 hour news cycle on TV and Radio will make you crazy! Every other story is a ratcheted up "gloom and doom" scenario about the economy. One pundit says the stimulus will destroy us and another says it will save us! In reality is will do neither.

I have been listening to Warren Buffett lately and he seems to think things are bad, but will get better. Now Buffett is no oracle, after all he encouraged people to buy stocks a few months ago and I doubt if those who listened are very happy, but his overall philosophy is probably right.

The people running around with their hair on fire are not the ones you should be following. They are mostly reactionaries and have little sense of long term trends. I prefer to watch those folks who take a measured approach and ride out the rough patches with calmness.

As to the stimulus package? Well I suspect more will be needed to keep the economy afloat. Those Republicans who just want to go ahead and let industry and banking fail are driven by ideology and not practicality. I know the stimulus spending is costing us a lot, but doing nothing would cost more. It is the do nothing, regulate nothing policies of the former Bush administration that helped get us into this mess and it will take time and money to get us out of it.

My suggestion, and it is only a suggestion, is to stay calm, save a little and don't listen to CNBC or FOX all day. Your blood pressure will stay lower and you will be able to enjoy your life more. Don't stop spending on everything. Treat yourself to a movie now and then and go out to eat if you can afford it. Don't charge up your credit cards...that's just good advice anytime! Save them for emergencies.

If we cower in fear and cease doing anything we will stall our economy to a crawl. I know we can't spend our way out of this, but we can use common sense. Hopefully, Congress will get back to the business at hand, re-regulate the financial institutions that got us into this mess and set us back on an even keel.

I am reminded that my parents lived through the Great Depression and they survived. This is not a Great Depression and we can avoid that if we saty calm and encourage our elected officials to act now.

Saudi's Give 40 Lashes To 70 Year Old Woman for "Mingling"

Once again I really have to wonder what kind of allies we have. Saudi Arabia, one of our alleged allies is a kingdom with a medieval justice system that would be seen as barbaric anywhere else in the world, yet we continue to call them our buds.

Today comes news that an elderly Syrian woman has been sentenced to 40 lashes...that's right "lashes" as in with a whip and deportation for having two unrelated men in her house.

Saudi Arabia is an example of fundamentalism run rampant! The Wahhabist justice system prohibits "mingling" something that would be considered a basic human right in any other civilized country. Yet, in Saudi Arabia, it can bring a woman a brutal whipping and imprisonment.

Of course if they didn't have OIL we would condemn them, but since we rely on the Saudi's to fuel our oil addiction we conveniently ignore their inhumane actions.

The faster we can become energy independent the better!

Not Just Another Cat Video

AmericaBlog.com seems to always find the most interesting videos that somehow relate to my life!

This one is an "Engineer's Guide to Cats", and living with an engineer, as well as cats, I really identify.

Specter Under Pressure To Leave GOP

Latest rumblings are that Arlen Specter is being pressured to leave the Republican Party. He has opposition in the upcoming primaries from former Rep. Pat Toomey a conservative who ran against the incumbent Senator and nearly won last time. The Pennsylvania Republican Party has taken a decidedly more conservative turn and it might leave Specter out in the cold.

Unlike Connecticut, where Joe Lieberman could run as an independent, after deserting the Democrats, Pennsylvania has no such provision. Specter’s moderate voice has often sided with Democrats on the hill, so it would not be a stretch to see him running as a Democrat.

Time will tell.

Bush Library News

Seems the Bush Library is having trouble being found by search engines. Here is my personal contribution to that effort. Lying War Criminal Library.

Perhaps this little link can help people who are trying to find Mr. Bush and prosecute him. Let's hope so. By linking to the site, search engines rank keywords in order of most relevant. Therefore if everyone linked to the library using the above words, Lying War Criminal Library, well you get the idea!

Michael Steele's Blog Is No More - The Wrath Of Rush!

Want further proof Rush Limbaugh is the leader of the GOP?

Michael Steele, token minority face and front for the "newer more inclusive' Republican Party used to have a blog. The key word here is "used". His blog has been cut off by the RNC.

I give him until Monday to mysteriously resign to spend more time with his family.

Close Call With Asteroid - A Near Miss!

There was a wake up call for some real basic research that came in the middle of the night and most folks on Earth missed it. Actually it missed Earth.

Asteroid 2009 DD45 flew past our tiny planet at an altitude above the Earth of only 48,800 miles, and that puts it close to the orbits of some of our communications satellites. That is close.
The space rock was only spotted in February by an Australian observatory. Within a few hours of its discovery scientists realized it would not strike Earth, but the message is clear. We are constantly being bombarded by space debris and it is only a matter of time before something big will get here with disastrous results. What we need is more data.

That means much more work tracking asteroids and comets to give us as much warning as possible. Then we need a plan to deal with a big asteroid that might not burn up in the atmosphere. Remember the dinosaurs? They might be walking around as sentient and dominant life forms today had not a huge asteroid crashed into the earth somewhere near the Gulf of Mexico. That impact wiped out most life on earth and there is absolutely no reason it couldn’t happen again.

Basic research into asteroids and space can warn or possibly prevent this but that will take funding and the will of the people of Earth. I speak of us as one people, because such a catastrophic event would not respect any artificial borders. We need to have a plan.

There are some organizations doing this kind of research, but they are underfunded and working in a scientific backwater. Their efforts need to be brought to the forefront. Just to give you a sense of proportion, the next time an object will get closer to Earth will be in 2029 when an 885-foot asteroid called 99942 Apophis comes within 20,000 miles. There may be others we don’t know about, and that is the problem.

Sleep on it and then write your Congressperson.

FedEx Office Offers Free Resume Printing

Sure it's a PR gimmick, but it's a socially responsible one and that is something I can get behind. FedEx Office (formerly FedEx Kinko's) has announced it will offer, "FedEx Office Free Resume Printing Day” on March 10, 2009, offering to print up to 25 copies of each customer’s resume for free. In troubled economic times it's nice to see a company, particularly a very big one trying to help.

As reported by the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor, the nation’s unemployment rate rose to 7.6 percent and the number of unemployed persons increased to 11.6 million in January 2009. With so many people looking to get their printed resumes in the hands of recruiters and hiring managers, FedEx Office is prepared to help.

Now if the banks would follow suit and losen up their credit instead of paying out big bonuses, we could all get over this rough patch and grow the economy again.

Calls For Steele To Go! More GOP Meltdown.

So it looks like Michael Steele might be out soon. Dr. Ada Fisher a member of the Republican National Committee has called on Steele to step down. She is one of a growing number of voices calling for his head. Steele has tried to be hip and relevant like the idiots at the GOP wanted. He tried to be the “minority” face of the party and peppered his comments with as many buzz words as possible. Bad idea!

Now that Steele has angered Rush Limbaugh, the real leader of the party, he is suddenly the party’s Jonah, and now he may be jettisoned. Rush is not to be toyed with and his power as far as what is left of the GOP base is awesome. Now it’s damage control and lots of back-peddling. Personally, I figure he has about a month before leaving to spend more time with his family.

Ada Fisher was on Rachael Maddow tonight and she is not happy and though she is making as many excuses as she can think of, it's all about Rush. Here's why. Rush is the base and they bring the money and without the base, no GOP.

Bank TV Spot Features Transgender Character

It isn't often that a bak advertisement makes me cry but this one from the Spanish bank, Banco Provincia really does the trick. What a first! A transgender woman shown in a positive light with no jokes or winking. Enjoy.

Rush Limbaugh - The Real Face Of The GOP

Watching tapes of Rush Limbaugh at the CPAC gathering this week really showed me how bankrupt the GOP is. I listened to his ad-lib speech, which sounded a lot like someone who was high on pain-killer, and marveled. He simultaneously misquoted the Constitution, as well as the Declaration of Independence and went on to reaffirm his wish that our president fail in his attempts to reinvigorate the economy.

Worse still was his and the rest of the speakers attempts to distance themselves from the Bush administration. Say what? Last year at this same meeting the audience chanted "four more years" when President Bush took the stage. Apparently the Republican talent for denying reality is very well developed.

Limbaugh even went so far as to group Bush and Obama in the same sentence referring to our economic policy as the "Bush/ Obama" policy.

If anyone ever had any doubts they were erased at that meeting. Rush Limbaugh is the leader of the Republican Party. Michael Steele is just a convienent token puppet to enable the GOP to "re-brand" itself.

Re-branding is a difficult task, just ask the coal industry how well that "clean coal" thing is going.

Man WIth Subtitles - (Video)

Shades of Monty Python! This is a very clever video.

Subtitled Man - watch more funny videos

"Joe The Plumber" Advocates Assassination

Everybody's friend, "Joe the Plumber" is really getting gutsy. In a video posted by ThinkProgress.org, he advocates assassination of members of Congress who in his words, "talk about our military in a poor way".

I think that is called a "terroristic threat" especially when it concerns an elected official. Maybe the Secret Service or FBI needs to monitor this jerk a little bit closer.

Clean Coal Ad From The Coen Brothers

The oxymoronic expression "clean coal" has got to be one of the oddest re-branding efforts in history. The Coen Brothers directed this biting satire:

Kenneth From 30 Rock - Bobby Jindal - Seperated at Birth?

The title speaks for itself!

Bobby Jindal - Sad, Lame Response To Obama's Speech

If you look up "lame" in Wikipedia, I suspect there is a photo of Bobby Jindal. His GOP response to the Obama speech was about as amateurish and tired a piece of rhetoric as I have ever heard - and I've heard a lot of them!

It was a tired rehash of the "government can't do anything" that has been the Republican mantra for years. The problem is, back when the GOP was running the government, they tried to prove that point. The government is actually pretty good at a lot of things and unfortunately those are precisely what Bobby targeted.

A state that was devastated by a natural disaster would seem to be a state where people understood the value of things like monitoring nature. Without the Hurricane Prediction Center, Louisiana would have been even worse off with Katrina. That's why scoffing at spending money to monitor volcanoes seems silly. Of course we need to monitor them, and considering that there are several large US cities like Seattle and Portland who live in the shadow of very large volcanoes we absolutely should spend $140 million to monitor them!

He also tried to characterize $8 billion for high speed rail as an earmark. For who? Anyone who needs to travel? High Speed Rail had been far too long in coming to our country and $8 billion will only be a start for the actual cost. Here in my home town, our light-rail system cost almost $1 billion and it's just for the DFW Metroplex. That is not an earmark, it's a necessity!

Even conservatives thought it was lame. Juan Williams, conservative columnist said this.

"It came off as amateurish, and even the tempo in which he spoke was sing-songy. He was telling stories that seemed very simplistic and almost childish."

If Jindal is the great GOP hope for 2012, they are really out of ideas.

More Poison Chinese Goods! This Time It's Drywall.

Gee, it's been a while since I found a story of products from China that are poisoning Americans, but hey it's a new year!

The latest batch of tainted goods from China is that ubiquitous material , drywall. Seems we can't make enough drywall here in America (ironic statement for those who are irony impaired) so we have to import it from half way around the globe. But hey, it's cheap!

And the reason it's cheap is that it is made with substandard materials. The drywall board from China has a high sulfur content. So high that residents have noticed the smell and the following problems are happening with alarming frequency.

• Homeowners, building owners, or occupants in most cases will have seen continuous failures of their air conditioning coils, or HVAC units beyond anything normal.
  
• Homeowners, building owners, or occupants may have noticed corroded electrical wiring in their walls, in properties built, or remodeled since 2001.
  
• Homeowners, building owners or occupants may have experienced mild to severe upper respiratory problems, nose bleeds, headaches or other potentially serious medical conditions.

More on this story here on Huffington Post.

Wall Street's Bipolar Behavior

If you ever had any doubt about the bipolar nature of Wall Street, take the latest example. Last week Senator Chris Dodd mentioned the possibility of nationalization of banks and the market tumbled. This week, it looks like Citigroup will become in effect an nationalized bank and the market rallies. What gives?

My opinion is that the guys who make the trades on Wall Street are drinking way too much Starbuck's and not getting enough sleep. If they were anything but stockbrokers, they would be in treatment by now.

It is weird how our economy is influenced by a bunch of gamblers making side bets on the strength or weakness of various companies. The craps table that is the market has changed from investors, the kind of people who put money into a company because they believe it has long term potential, to slot players. These guys slam funds into whatever they think will bring a fast return and when the first pull brings up lemons, the flee for another opportunity.

Sean Penn Wins For Harvey Milk

Sean Penn won for his portrayal of Harvey Milk and it is justly deserved. His work was so convincing that watching him in the movie, I forgot he was Sean Penn and believed he was Harvey.

Glad to see him win and the film be recognized for its importance. He also gave a great shout out against the ban on gay marriage! Thank you Sean!

Oscars - Who Knew Hugh Jackman Could Dance?

Watching the Oscars tonight I was struck by one thing. Well, actually several things, so here goes.

First, Hugh Jackman can sing and dance! So not only is he a symbol of pure testosterone as Wolverine, but he is light on his feet and sings pretty well. What would be great is to actually give him a good song or medley to sing instead of the disjointed mess that featured him and Beyonce in top hat and tails. Their performances were just fine, but the musical score sounded like a record that was skipping. The songs moved from one to another without any rhyme or reason and without any sense of cleverness or skill. What a pity that the Academy Awards continue to do insipid musical numbers to celebrate the world's best music and movies. Why not get the people who do the pictures to write something for this show instead of throwing this crap together?

Second, much as I like Bruce Vilanche, he needs to stop writing the Oscars. I could phone this stuff in and he gets paid for it. Amazing!

Third, the new "format" of the awards is as ungainly and cumbersome as ever, the problem is all the stiff teleprompter readings by Hollywoods best actors doing their worst work live on TV. But maybe that is just Bruce at work again? I love you Bruce, but please!

And finally, a nod to the glamorous wardrobe this year, only a few celebs wore those, "what were they thinking" outfits. Classic good taste still can't be beat.

China's Gleaming Towers Stand Empty!

The miracle that was Beijing during the Olympics seems to be a distant dream now. The Bird's Nest stadium with it's incredible architectural design sits empty. This year there was one event scheduled for it, a soccer game whose teams decided to change venues since the 90,000 seat stadium would feel empty with the 10,000 people attracted for an average game.

The stadium built for baseball that opened last spring is being demolished to make way for a shopping center. The Aquatic Center has become a site for sound and light shows, with dancing fountains in the pool where the events took place.

Everywhere in downtown Beijing the shiny new buildings that pierce the sky may sparkle at night with computerized light shows, but during the day they are empty husks. Some have no tenants whatsoever according to an article in the Los Angeles Times.

The scene sounds like downtown Houston a few years back when the first oil bust happened. Many of the skyscrapers are literally "see through" buildings, with completed outer walls and windows but nothing inside. The Chinese boom has ended with a thud.

The sad part is that 1.5 million people were displaced from their homes to build the venues for the games. Equally as bad is the fact that many of the entrepreneurs who spearheaded these projects saw the problem approaching and simply took the money and fled the country.

I guess there are Bernie Madoffs everywhere?

Fashion Week In New York - What A Bunch Of Crap!

OK guess I gotta turn in my gay card? I just watched a video of some of the shows at this years "Fashion Week" in New York and I almost threw up. I have never seen such a pile of unmitigated crap in my life.

Let me qualify this. First the designs could have been pulled fro the pages of Vogue in 1966. Hats and dresses that would make Emilio Pucci cringe. The whole show I watched might have well have been the Braniff stewardess collection, and if you remember that you are both old and... well just old!

The day-glo fake fur coats and hats look like something rejected by the Muppets and the feedbag hat with eye holes for the model to see from reminds me of the episode of "I Love Lucy" where the girls go to France and their husbands give them gunny sacks and horse feedbags as "high-fashion" originals.

What a joke these designers are playing on the public, They dress a bunch of sickly aneorexic women up like clowns and pass it off as fashion. The critics rave, because if they don't they won't get invited to next years show and the public is told crap is genius. Sheesh!

Watch the video and try not to throw up.

Further Proof Sarah Palin Is A Jerk

If you ever needed proof that Sarah Palin was a jerk, the new biography of her, "Trailblazer" gives this interesting detail when it came to banning books. Back in 1996 she grilled the local library director about the appropriateness of certain books.

"Daddy’s Roommate," was one she felt should be hidden behind the desk and distributed only if a special request was made. According to an entry on Thinkprogress.org her campaign manager had this to say.

I found it to be a sensitive book about showing love for additional family members. I took the book to show the other council members and said I felt it was inoffensive and suggested for everyone to read it, but there were not takers. I said, ‘Sarah why don’t you take it home and read it.’ I could tell by her body language she cringed at the idea.I was shocked. It blew my mind that she wouldn’t look at it. [p. 77]

Ah, condemning something before even looking at it, true Trailblazer behavior!

Fingers Crossed

I’ve got my fingers crossed. For a lot of reasons .

First I am hoping that the economy can turn around. I know we often speak of the economy as something separate and apart from our lives, but it really is our lives, at least the way they relate to the world of commerce and finance. Until that time when we all board the Enterprise and money is no longer an issue, we will continue to be part of the economy.

Specifically the LGBT economy, and yes there really is one, has ground to a crawl just like the rest of the country. If you don’t believe me, talk to a few friends about how secure they feel in their jobs, or with their current financial position. If you are like me, you will hear the same kind of trepidation that is reflected in the stock market and on the news.

That fear is the real problem. Roosevelt was absolutely right about “nothing to fear but fear itself”. In this age of 24 hour blather that passes for news the fear meter is really ratcheted up. It is that fear that slows everything down. If you are afraid of losing your job, you pull back on spending. When you do that stores where you shop pull back on things like new orders and employees, the salon you patronize lays off a stylist, the café drops a couple of waiters, the bookstore closes and the newspaper gets fewer advertisers and sooner or later it affects you. It’s a downward spiral that is driven somewhat by big factors like tight credit and a lot by small factors like fear.

I am no Pollyanna, though I think I might look pretty good in gingham. I do not believe we can just all go out and start spending and crank up the local LGBT economy as if my magic. I do believe we can minimize the effects by being rational and perhaps turning off FOX or CNN for a while and just calm down.

There is about to be almost $800 billion flowing into the nation’s economy for projects like rebuilding roads and fixing our infrastructure. Additionally, there are plans afoot to help out people who are crushed by mortgage debt left over from the housing bubble.

It’s not going to be a quick fix, but it is a start. Getting money flowing again is what it is all about. That’s why the banks are being rescued and why automakers are working out plans to stay in business. ON a local level, we haven’t been hit as hard as many communities, but still people are in financial trouble and their problems affect us all.

The LGBT community has traditionally been in a better position to whether recessions better than our straight friends, but that was before we started having gaybies and buying homes in the suburbs. Still many LGBT people have a bit more disposable income than those with large families and the financial obligations they bring.

Why does this matter and what the heck can we do about it? Well, here is my suggestion.

First don’t be foolish. Have a prudent reserve of some kind. I once heard a figure that showed most American’s are one paycheck away from the street. Perhaps having a couple of months rent saved up is a good idea.

Second, don’t cower in fear. If you succumb to the fear the news is selling you will find yourself in a state of inertia. That does no one any good.

Third, find a way to help others. A little volunteer work goes a long way, and local LGBT service organizations are hurting from lack of donations. They can always use extra hands and that costs you nothing but a little time. You’d probably spend that time watching the news and being afraid.

Fourth, when you do spend money, patronize LGBT and LGBT friendly businesses. There are lots of them in Dallas both in the gayborhood and elsewhere.

Finally, take a few minutes to find those things in your life that really are important. I know I am often caught in a whirlwind of meaningless minor irritations that blind me to the good things that I have. A loving partner, a large family of choice, a couple of enigmatic cats, and an outlet for my creativity.

If all this sounds like a recipe to avoid depression, it is. The economy can sink or float on how we feel, and why should we let ourselves or our economy sink into depressions. As Auntie Mamie said, “Life is a banquet and most poor suckers are starving to death! “

Peanut Butter Recall Information

So many products have to be recalled from the contaminated peanut products of Peanut Corporation of America that the FDA built this widget to help you search. Enjoy!
FDA Product Recall List

Time For A Real Health Care Program

Let's talk about health care. Now there is a conversation stopper, at least in Congress. Seems no one wants to seriously approach the issue for fear of being attacked by lobbyists and the health care industry. And there is the problem. Health care has become an industry not a healing profession.

I was raised in a hospital. My father was a director of the laboratories at a local medical center and a microbiologist and hematologist. I spent much of my formative years hanging out at the lab and the hospital and seeing the work that was done there.

At that time, in the bucolic past, hospitals were concerned with healing not making money. Oh sure, they had administrators who made sure they didn't go broke, but most hospitals were supported by non-profits like denominations or charitable foundations. They concerned themselves with doing the work.

Somewhere along the way, that all changed and hospitals became big business. Now they are no longer owned or supported by the churches or charities but by large health services firms who still hide behind the charity name but in reality are in it for the bucks.

What that leaves is a big gaping hole into which millions and millions of Americans are falling, there they become, "the uninsured"! 14,000 a day are losing their insurance and that is bad news for all of us.

It's time Congress moves beyond the stimulus package and gets on with the real reform of the health care system we have in our country. It is so badly broken that we are receiving the kind of care you would expect in a third world country in many cases. We pay more for health care than almost any other developed country and get less for our money. Why? The elephant in the room is "profit".

Insurance companies spend millions to deny coverage to maximize profits. Hospitals spend millions building luxury rooms and fancy lobbies to impress the wealthy who can afford the best and latest treatment and the poor are relegated to overcrowded ER's where they often wait until they die from life threatening complications. It's all about money. If you have it, you can have good health care and if not, too bad.

It's high time our health care system got back to providing health care and got out of the business of generating profits for investors. There are better things for people to invest in.

How about this? We set up a National Health Insurance Fund. Everyone is eligible and they can either join it , the payments for this are taken out of taxes and or payrolls just like payroll tax. If they opt out, they can buy their own health insurance and deal with a private company.

All hospitals and doctors are required to accept the NHIF insurance and the government pays the going rates for care. Meanwhile, rich folk can see whatever expensive specialist they want and stay in whatever spa/hospital they want at their own expense, but those institutions will not receive any government money or tax breaks.

To facilitate the transition, the government will have to hire lots of people who will be put out of work when the private health insurance companies get out of the business.

It works for Medicare, for the Veterans Administration and for every other civilized country, why not ours. Meanwhile businesses, freed from having to provide health care can become competitive in the world market again and unions can stop having to spend funds managing health care programs thus lowering their dues. Everybody wins, but the middle men making big bucks off the poor health of Americans. I weep for them, but only a little.

Japanese Finance Minister Shows Up Blotto At Press Conference

If you wondered how bad things were for the economy of Japan, all you had to do was take a look at the Japanese Finance Minister, Shoichi Nakagawa at a press conference yesterday. I was watching Rachael Maddow's show and I didn't even have to wait for her comment to know that Mr. Nakagawa was sloshed!

The guy claimed he took an overdose of cold medicine, but I think he was drowning his sorrows at one too many Karaoke bars. Nakagawa, today resigned! Cold medicine or Johnny Walker?
You decide.

Space Debris Rains On Texas

NASA says it isn't but after having watched the space shuttle disintegrate a few years ago, this sure looks like space debris burning up in the atmosphere. My guess is it is the remnants of the Russian communications satellite and the Iridium satellite that collided over Siberia. Why NASA isn't owning up to it is a mystery, the FAA issues a warning to pilots about debris.

Watch it yourself and decide. The video is from near Austin in Williamson County.

Dubai Starts To Crumble

I love playing the game Jenga. In it players try to remove as many blocks from a stack as possible and then place them on top making the tower higher and higher. The game ends when someone pulls one too many blocks from the tower and it falls.

Well I have long thought Dubai was a big-money version of that game. The fantastic architecture and obscene lifestyles of its residents always made me nervous. I wondered when someone would pull the last block out and the whole thing would come crashing to the ground.

Cover your head, because it looks like the blocks are falling.

People from all over the world who flocked to Dubai to live the high-life are fleeing the emerate and headed home. According to a report in the TimesOnline, more than 3000 cars have been abandonded at the Dubai airport, many with keys in the ignitions. Mostly big SUV's and a few Mercedes were abandonded by foreigners buried in debt on their lavish new homes. The value of those has plumeted in recent days and the once-booming economy slowed to a snail's pace.

According to the report, Christmas was the worst day. Over a dozen abandonded cars in the parking lot of the airport that day!

Bubye Dubai!

Bush Ranks In The Top Ten WORST Presidents In History

Here's a surprise, a group of historians were asked to rank the greatest and the worst U.S. presidents in history and George W. Bush was right in there. In the bottom 10!

C-SPAN released its second Historians Survey of Presidential Leadership made by a cross-section of 65 presidential historians who ranked the 42 former occupants of the White House on ten attributes of leadership. The top? Abraham Lincoln.

Down at the bottom was, no surprise, James Buchanan. Dubbya ranked right above Millard Fillmore, number 7 from the bottom.

US Military Censors Details Of Torture Information From The President!

Seems the military has been playing lots of non-consensual games in their little dungeon at Gitmo. The problem is, other than they have been torturing people, is they are refusing to give an uncensored account of their SM games to the Commander in Chief!

For the faint at heart I will warn you to read no further.

Lawyers for Binyam Mohamed a British resident and current Guantanamo Bay detainee have been trying to prove his innocence and prove that the techniques used by the US Military were torture. The problem comes when a British High Court ruled against releasing documents describing torture techniques used against Mohamed while in U.S. custody, reportedly because the documents also prove British collaboration in his torture.

The Center For American Progress has more.

Here is the kinky part. According to a source with the London Telegraph,

The 25 lines edited out of the court papers contained details of how Mr Mohamed’s genitals were sliced with a scalpel and other torture methods so extreme that waterboarding, the controversial technique of simulated drowning, “is very far down the list of things they did,” the official said.

It's time these amateur sadists got out of the SM business and left it to real sadists like me. Guess they never heard of "safe, sane and consensual"?

Satellites Collide Over Siberia

Back in the 1960 a movie came out titled, "The Crowded Sky". It was about a military aircraft that collides with a civilian airliner. The implication was that though things look clear over our heads, it's actually quite a busy place.

The same can be said for space, or at least the space surrounding our planet. Thousands of satellites and various bits of space debris orbit the earth and amazingly are tracked by scientists on the ground. Those small bits of used rocket boosters and chunks of old space craft that have not fallen into the atmosphere and been incinerated pose a threat to space travelers. Think of that space junk as the pellets of a shotgun. The speed they travel makes them lethal to other spacecraft.

Today comes news that two satellites have collided. The event took place about 500 miles above Siberia when a dead Russian communications satellite smashed into an operating "Iridium" communications satellite. Iridium was the system of low orbiting satellites Motorola put into orbit back in the late 1990's. Economically unsuccessful due to the high cost of Iridium phones the system was later resurrected and forms a big part of our communications network, especially the military.

Luckily, the Iridium system has spare satellites in orbit to take up the slack, some 60 in all. However, the cloud of debris caused by the violent impact will bear watching. Another couple of hundred chunks of space junk must now be tracked and it all makes getting off our small blue planet just that much more difficult.

The craft weighed about a ton each, far from the Sputnik sized image many of us have of what satellites look like. Imagine a couple of Volkswagens colliding at a few hundred miles an hour and you get the picture.

Citi Group President Contrite To Congress While Co-President Hands Out Bonuses!

Vikram Pandit was telling Congress today that "I get the new reality and I will make sure Citi gets it as well" at the same time his Co-President James Gorman was having a conference call reassuring top management that they would receive fat bonuses discuised as "Retention Awards".

See my previous entry.

Nice to see these guys know how to lie with a straight face. "I'll take $1 in salary"...of course they have already fleeced their corporations for millions in "awards" and "bonuses" before the current fad of fiscal responsibility!

Bailed Out Banks Hand Out Bonuses Disguised As "Retention Awards"

The Ultra-rich who run America's failing financial institutions are once again sticking their hands in the lucrative cookie jar. The firms, Morgan Stanley and Citigroup's Smith Barney which are soon merging following the huge losses on their balance sheets, are planning to distribute to their top managers, "retention awards". Never heard of this? Well it would be called a bonus in English, but in the corporate double speak of the board room it's considered an award to keep top employees at the companies.

Now considering how many people including "top financial experts" are out of work, retention would seem to be something that would be of little concern. The award would be keeping your 7 or 8 figure a year job!

In a recorded conference call obtained by Huffington Post one senior executive described the "very generous" awards and then urged all the listeners "Please do not call it a bonus." The quote was from James Gorman, co-president of Morgan Stanley.

"It is not a bonus. It is an award. And it recognizes the importance of keeping our team in place as we go through this integration."

I have to wonder if I were someone like a board member who actually had the interests of the company in mind, would I want the same bad management who got us into hot water to stay in place? Hell no! But I am not a Wall Street boys club member.

You and I gave this firm $60 billion to save its collective butt, and now they are handing out jumbo party favors in the tune of MILLIONS to the bad management who drove the company into near failure?

Excuse my righteous anger, but the hell you say!

This is being done just in advance of any kind of salary cap imposed by the government on these bums and so , now, they are taking a big grab from the cookie jar before pretending to suffer the same economic deprivation as the rest of us.

Listen to the audio on Huffington Post and don't slug your computer!

Obama's First News Conference A Masterful Display

I am watching the Presidential New Conference and smiling with a broad grin. President Obama is doing a masterful job of taking control of the conference and keeping his answers on point. I have never seen a president give such complete and comprehensive answers. He is not letting the press set the agenda or guide him into a framing that works against his agenda. What's equally amazing is that he is actually answering questions without dodging them in a cloud of platitudes

Now it's a more structured conference since he is calling on the reporters by name rather than just pointing at waving hands in the crowd. The outstanding thing is that he is speaking in complete sentences with thought and genuine intelligence. What a refreshing break from the half sentences and psuedo-English of President Bush.

He is hammering home his intent to save or create 4 million jobs with this package. He also wants to see the credit markets operating again as they should. He isn't mincing words, when he assures the public that it's going to be a difficult year, but he offers hope for the future and that is what we must have.

On Afghanistan he gave a clear answer that he will not allow a safe haven for Al Quaeda and he will work with his advisiors and the other nations involved to assure that the outcome will be successful. No tough talk of bring it on, just honesty about the process and goals in the regions.

It's great to have a REAL president in this great country again!

More Sex Charges At Ted Haggard's New Life Church

Michelangelo Signorile sometimes makes me angry, but most of the time he has something interesting to say. That latter comment is certainly what he is saying today on his Sirius Radio show The Gist.

He has been speaking with people involved in the New Life Church scandal of Ted Haggard, former minister to the Colorado Springs Megachurch. According to his guest, a Colorado Springs bail bondsman, Haggard was implicated in ten more cases of sexual missconduct, some with minors that were hushed up by the church. To make matters worse, other pastors at the church have similar implications. According to what his guest said was a dectective's affidavit, "Stephen Evans, (a former pastor) was convicted in 1999 of sexually assaulting a 14-year-old boy and admitted to sexual contact with his own 14-year-old son and his own 15-year-old daughter."

Seems the New Life Church was a hot bed, (no pun intended...well, maybe) of illicit sex!

Ann Coulter Under Investigation On Federal Charges

The anorexic darling of the right, Ann Coulter is under investigation for voter fraud. Coulter is a resident of Connecticut but has been voting in New York. However the story is not so simple. Coulter actually has listed her parents residence in New Canaan as her home, but she really lives in New York. The details of this mess are myriad, but the real issue is whether she listed the address she actually live at on her voter registration in Connecticut. If not, she is committing fraud.

The investigation by Connecticut’s Elections Enforcement Commission should be interesting.

Don't Divorce Our Parents!

It's a pity this ad didn't run before the Prop 8 vote, but it still works. Even made me cry. Watch!


"Fidelity": Don't Divorce... from Courage Campaign on Vimeo.

7.6% Unemployment, Rewards Of The Bush Years

I know I will hear a lot of Republicans start crying about the "blame game" but let me make this perfectly clear. It is no game, and the blame for the current economic mess can be lain directly at the feet of the failed policies of the Republican lawmakers and their president, George W. Bush.

The unemployment figures came out today and they were even higher than expected. A whopping 7.6%! All of those job losses are a result of a trickle down effect, and not the kind promoted by the GOP. Lack of adequate regulation prompted financial institutions to create more and more exotic instruments to create higher returns. Strange and impenetrable concepts like Credit Default Swaps and derivatives. These odd inventions were not even legal until 2000 and their effect on the economic decline is massive.

Take the lax regulation on Wall Street. That kid of laissez faire oversight bright us folks like Bernie Madoff. People who had no one looking over their shoulders while they fleeced their clients of billions.

The other part of the problem has been the policies that rewarded companies for outsourcing jobs and production as well as a general laid back attitude toward any kind of trade regulation at all. Free trade is a good thing if it has the kind of protections that do not make it a one way street.

But I am preaching to the choir. Now we have a president who is taking a common sense approach to the problem and perhaps he will be able to get things changed. That can happen only is the Congress stops playing games and starts trying to forge a new path. More blanket tax cuts will not fix this mess. It will take some wise spending and in the end a higher tax burden on everyone. Regressive taxes are not the answer, but carefully crafted moves perhaps in the direction of a Value Added Tax might help. Think about it, and write your congressperson and senator!

Hardware Store Offers Bush A Job As A Greeter

Our fair city is blessed with a very rare establishment. An independent hardware store that is perhaps the best in the world. Elliott's Hardware down on Maple Ave, and its sister store in Plano are the place to go when you just can't find it anywhere. I have found rare parts, odd size screws and just about every imaginable kind of oddball hardware there.

They have a staff that knows the store like a book and can easily direct you to the exact location of just about whatever you are looking for. It's also a pretty good place for finding kinky goodies as well. How many hardware stores in big cities have a "Tack" section complete with whips and riding crops?

Aside from being a great place, the owners understand great PR. Today they made an offer to our ex-president, Mr. Bush, to be a greeter at their store. What a great job for a guy who recently retired and is good at glad handing and smiling a lot, no matter what happens?

Though I doubt he will take them up on the offer, I have to say, that is one job I would feel OK about Bush holding. Heck, I might even say howdy on my next trip to the store?

Pete Sessions Admires The Taliban! Really!

I do not even have to wonder what would happen if a Democrat made the analogy that Republican Representative, Pete Sessions of Texas made in an interview today. Mr. Sessions actually said that the GOP should use the Taliban as a model.

“Insurgency, we understand perhaps a little bit more because of the Taliban,” Sessions said during a meeting yesterday with Hotline editors. “And that is that they went about systematically understanding how to disrupt and change a person’s entire processes. "

Yes, taking a page from terrorists would become all the rage for right-wing talkers if it was said by a Democrat, but one of their own is speaking here, and it's time we gave as good as we get.

Sessions should step down as Representative. His admiration of the Taliban, a terrorist group is tantamount to treason!

Obama Shows Rare Candor

I listened to President Obama on CNN last night in one of his many interviews for the day and I heard a phrase that was s refreshing I got chills. When asked about his choice of Tom Daschle as Health Czar he remarked, "I screwed up..."

When is the last time you heard a president speak with that kind of candor? For me it was Harry Truman, who I only remember as a vague shadow from my childhood. I do remember people talking about how he was frank and straightforward and had that famous sign on his desk, "The Buck Stops Here".

It is unfortunate that Daschle pulled out, since many feel he was ideal to bridge the gap between the health care industry and Congress but I feel sure another person with suitable credentials will be found. Daschle's tax payments and use of a limousine would have become the issue and I suspect little would get done because of the poltical hay that could be made of that, so I don't see this as a major roadblock, just a bump in the road.

Meanwhile Obama proposed salary caps for executives at companies we bail out at $500,000. Sounds reasonable to me, since the corporate governance of these firms got them into the mess, they should feel a bit of the pinch as well. Some will say these companies will lose their top talent, but in my opinion if those in charge got them into the mess, then losing them wold be a boon not a blow.

This presidency is getting really interesting, and I like that.

AG Holder Hints At Revealing Secret Bush Torture Memos

My partner and I have been straining our ears listening for that tell tail thud. The other shoe dropping!

As Bush and his criminal cronies left office, we both knew there would be some blockbuster revelations about the mischief they had been up to but I suspect the biggest revelations are about to come out. THUD!

Our newly confirmed Attorney General, Eric Holder has made not so subtle hints that he might make public some of the secret memos sent by the Bush administration about a bushel full of controversial practices including torture and illegal wiretapping.

This may be the reason Obama soft peddled any thoughts of holding Bush and his minions accountable for their crimes. Perhaps he didn't want Bush issuing preemptive pardons?

Wells Fargo Rewards The Guys Who Brought In All Those Bad Mortgages With A Lavish Holiday In Vegas, Baby!

I understand employee incentives. These are the perks that companies give their top sellers and best performing employees and that's fine. However, and you knew there was a "however".

Wells Fargo, the bank that you and I bailed out to the tune of $25 billion has decided to award it's top mortgage producers with a holiday in Las Vegas at the most expensive hotel on the strip, the Wynn Las Vegas. Now if you will remember, it was bad mortgages and sub prime loans that got Wells Fargo into the mess it is in. So how much reward do those top mortgage executives really deserve?

12 nights at the Wynn or the Encore, it's new glitzy sister hotel costs the average Joe about $400.00 per night. Considering these guys are staying 12 nights to the tune of $4800 per guest and all the other perks that would include, you would think they carried the company into record profits instead of the poor house.

I think the feeling I have is not so much outrage, and there is plenty of that to go around, but incredulity. I have to wonder how the executives in that company got where they are. The illusion of meritocracy has long vanished from my thinking. I know full well, the CEO and other fat cats at Wells Fargo got where they are by a rigged system that awards big payoffs to only the already ultra-rich and their buddies. As a stockholder, I think that should come to an end.

As a stockholder, so should you! Write President Obama and tell him the days of posh luxury for the executives of failed companies is over. I long for the day when the CEOs of major companies only made a few hundred times the salary of the average employee instead of several thousand times that rate. ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!

Iran Launches Satellite

For many of us the image in our minds of Iran is that of a country awash in sand and just coming out of the middle ages. Perhaps that could be true for some remote parts of the country but we too often confuse Iran with an Arabian country, and that it is not.

Yesterday, Iran joined the Space Age as they launched their first satellite into orbit. That may come as a shock to many, but personally I was not that surprised. I have long known Iran is, in reality, a technologically advanced country with aspirations to expand its technology and industry.

The Safir-2 rocket was launched and successfully inserted a satellite into orbit with the name Omid, meaning hope. According to the Iranian news agency the payload is a data processing device intended as "the first practical step toward acquiring national space technology.”

Why is this story important? Not for the knee jerk fear factor I feel sure it will be used as by the right wing, but as a wake up call to our government to begin seriously diplomatic relations with an emerging technological power in the East. We can only ignore Iran for so long, and now with a new administration it seems there might be a chance to bring Iran back to the international table of diplomacy.

Pittsburgh Steals The Super Bowl!

I am not a football fan, and I rarely watch the Super Bowl, but I caught the end of tonight's match up and I was amazed. This was the most nail biter finish I have ever seen! That Pittsburgh touchdown with 35 seconds left was AMAZING!

OK, so much for my testosterone rush.

Mother Of Octuplets Pregnant By Artificial Means, Now Has 14 Children!

When I heard the story about the woman giving birth to octuplets, I was amazed. My partner and I were talking about it and wondered how on earth the family would support 8 children. Then we found she already had 6 kids and it seemed even more insurmountable.

Well, today the rest of the story came out and it is stranger than fiction. It turns out the mother had been unable to conceive and had her first 6 children by artificial insemination and in vitro fertilization. She is unmarried and always obsessed with having children, according to her mother.

She succeeded 6 times but apparently that was not enough. Nadya Suleman, 33, gave birth to 8 babies Monday in Los Angeles. The 8 newborns are products of the same procedure and are from left over embryos from her previous pregnancies.

Her mother had been caring for the other children until she returns from the hospital, but apparently not after that. According to AP reports:

She said she warned her daughter that when she gets home from the hospital, "I'm going to be gone."

Gone indeed. My question is how can a doctor ethically assist in a pregnancy like this when the woman is unmarried, and already has 6 children?

Now with 14 kids she will be even less able to take care of her offspring than before and I guess no one mentioned that to her or bothered to question assisting in another pregnancy?

I am a big believer in the rights of the mother and that control of a woman's body should be up to her, but artificial insemination and in vitro fertilization takes the cooperation and active involvement of medical professionals. Where does their responsibility for this huge family begin and end?

I feel pretty sure Child Protective Services will end up involved in this mess and after that it will be a tragedy for the children and for the mother. Somebody should have told her "no" at some point and I am amazed it wasn't a doctor who did it.

Blagojevich Hides Out

Well Rob Blagojevich is finally out of office, but not out of the public eye. Why can't the press just let him fade away and save us from his ridiculous rants and protestations. Now the question is what will happen in the Federal case against him?

Rob hid out in his Chicago home all day, not surprisngly. His impeachment marks the first time in 20 years a state governor has been removed from office. Way to go Rob!

Fork Lift Safety - Video

OK, so today was the mini-ice storm here in Dallas and I had some time on my hands. As we all know "idle hands...."

So here is a little video a friend sent me on fork lift safety. It is in German, but no translation is needed. Warning: Contains comic violence and lots of fake blood.

Gay Pepsi Ad In UK!

Just saw this on the Dallas Voice "Instant Tea" blog and had to share it. Pepsi-UK's latest spot is a great breakthrough for gay rights, seriously!

PETA Goes Porn

Ever give money to PETA? Well here's what they are doing with your cash.


'Veggie Love': PETA's Banned Super Bowl Ad

This insipid commercial was rejected by the network for being too sexual for the Soper Bowl. I would reject it because it is ludicrous, much like most of PETA's claims.

Ponzi Scheme Epidemic Spreads - More Fund Managers Arrested

Durn rich people are stupid! They seem to give their money to anyone who promises big returns and never check these guys out. If I didn't have more ethics I'd buy a nice suit and start fleecing the rich, apparently it's easier than you'd think.

Another mini-Madoff has popped up in New York. Nicholas Cosmo, who runs Agape World Inc. is accused of taking investors to the tune of $300 million and pocketing $140 in the process. Sweet deal, huh?

Meanwhile that fund manager who disappeared in Florida, which many thought was a suicide, has turned up in police custody. Arthur Nadel, whose family reported him missing in early January, was arrested on Tuesday by FBI agents in Tampa.

Seems like in these cases as well as the Bernie Madoff magilla, people gave these charlatans their millions without so much as a, "So where are you going to put my money?". As we found out, Madoff may not have ever made a single trade with the Billions he scammed from gullible investors. He just kept moving the money around and skimming off the top.

I have to believe if I had a few million laying around I sure as heck wouldn't give it to a guy I played golf with on a handshake! But then again, I don't have that kind of dough to be careless with.

14 Year Old Boy Impersonates Chicago Policeman - Works Full Shift Before Getting Caught!

OK, many of you know I have a uniform fetish, but a 14 year old boy from Chicago has one that goes way beyond mine. The boy walked into the Grand Crossing police station in Chicago's 3rd district,reported for duty. He was given a police radio and ticket book, then went out on traffic stops with the officer whom he was teamed with for the day.

After a 5 hour shift when he was reporting back to the station he was unable to produce credentials and was busted for impersonating an officer. The kid had a full uniform, empty holster and a vest stuffed with magazines to appear like body armor.

The boy, who is said to have come from a troubled home is in detention, but the police who let him go on patrol are busy trying to explain how this could have happened. So much for Homeland Security!

Citi Group Uses Our Bucks To Buy New $50 Million Jet!

And as we taxpayers bail out Citi Group, the corporate execs there decided it's time for an upgrade in their corporate jet fleet. Seems like a prudent use of funds to me, huh?

$50 million for a new corporate jet that sits 12, the Dassault Falcon 7X, is the epitome of luxury. Leather seats, a new, more quiet interior and....hey!

What the F*&K?

I guess these guys asses are too delicate to sit in plain old First Class on a commercial jet? With the limited seating and the hefty price tag, they would have to be in the air a whole long time before they will use that 4.5 million a seat plus the fuel and staff.

I have to say the idea of nationalization is seeming better and better. Corporate America has run amok and these gilded CEOs need to be tossed out on their ear without that golden parachute.
As long as these kind of narcissistic idiots are allowed to manage these failing companies, we will continue to have trouble. I would be in favor of basing their salaries on a percentage of the company profits. There might be some incentive for them to actually do something to make their company more profitable rather than fretting over super-lux jets!

The Blagojevich Freak Show

When I was a child I remember seeing shows at the State Fair where people who were born with profound bodily deformities or those who could do strange and outrageous acts performed. The called these Freak Shows and with the exception of the sword swallowers and fire eaters, most of these shows faded into history. They were politically incorrect and considered exploitative and uncivilized.

Today we have a return of the Freak Show, but this time it's on TV. We call them things like The View and The Today Show. How else could you explain these programs booking a man who is clearly delusional and by all accounts a pathological liar.

Rod Blagojevich has been booked on all the morning shows instead of standing the the Illinois Senate and defending himself at his impeachment trial. That qualifies pretty freaky and personally I find it distasteful to have this poor creature trotted out for ratings on TV.

The man has been taped demanding bribbes, one would think he would at least try to defend himself instead of raving on about being some later day Nelson Mandella (his comparison, not mine). Personally, I think I will watch reruns of I Love Lucy.