StumbleUpon Some Movie Posters.... And laugh!

This one is my favourite.

300 was certainly one of the worst thing that happened to celluloid.

But this makes it worthwhile.

At Listall, a list added by Chani at
http://www.listal.com/list/m-p-t-t-t.

State of the Union Corporation

Where I am, there is a small blizzard and the girls are joyously rioting in the snow.

But for me, to paraphrase Shaky, this is the winter of my discontent.

The political landscape that is emerging from the cold here is one of catastrophic, epic shithole proportion.

Stephen Harper have decided that he doesn't need parliament to have a good time after all and decreed - by some imaginary superhero' s omnipotence - that they can all go take a hike until March... because the economy is getting better and he needs to think!

In my birth country, the judges of the Supreme Court have decided that corporation needed free reign on every political aspect of governance and could flux and influence as many 'guns-for-hire' they wanted to make sure their satisfaction was guaranteed.

And Haiti, birth place of my mother and her 12 long-exiled siblings, is oozing and burning like an infected blister in the sun, while every doctor on the planet is making promises of doing something very soon about it.

Obama - and this is no typo - Obama lost Massachussetts' election AND the Kennedy seat (!) because he believed- unlike every single voter that choose his name over McPalin - the right-wing dream pairing of the century- that he must represent the center and keep the Bushes' legacy alive. Even if it means taking the blame for all their failures, excesses, ugliness, law breaking craziness and their deficit.

Somehow, change meant not rocking the boat.

Believe me, I know he must feel pressured from all over to keep quiet, lay low and let the Big Boys handle it. He actually, like Colin Powell before him, spent all his political capital, credence and reputation for the status quo so as to make those Big Boys as comfy as possible.

All the while, the middle class and Main Street were ready to follow him anywhere as long as it wasn't to More of the Same.

But he's not the only one that should be blamed.

Those famous blue dog Dems should all be called teh 'We're in the Pockets of the Healthcare Industry ... and They're in Mine! Tee-Hee!' stupid coalition. They're exchangeable monkeywrenches needed to grind everything to a halt.

And the Supreme Court just gave them a raise. Indirectly, of course...

Now what?

What is wrong with this pictures? The entire population wants Obama to create jobs while keeping government spending low. Most gave a blank check to the private sector and are still waiting for the trickle down thingy to take effect. (Jobs? From the private sector? They have jets and bonuses to think of!) They want the Golden Days to come back but without any rules, unions, taxes, trade barriers and a war that eats 70% of all the government's budget.

Yeah... Right...

Mr. President. Good luck. And forgive the Middle Class because they just don't know in what mess they're in. Too bad they'll blame you for all of it.

But I can't help it, I still hope for you.
Read a lefty someday. Better yet: take one in your administration.
They might surprise you. Maybe even help you. You would need a friend.

The Military Wants More Toys, More Time, More Lives...

10:40 AM

(The) conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience. The total influence -- economic, political, even spiritual -- is felt in every city, every State house, every office of the Federal government. We recognize the imperative need for this development. Yet we must not fail to comprehend its grave implications. Our toil, resources and livelihood are all involved; so is the very structure of our society.

In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.

We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted. Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defence with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together.

President Eisenhower (1961)

Pasted from <http://coursesa.matrix.msu.edu/~hst306/documents/indust.html>

Nobody was duped. Really. Secret report 'leaked'. A General giving speeches out of the border criticizing his Commander-In-Chief. Gates saying, before even reading McChrystal's paper, that he is sure that it will be on target 'and set for the challenges we have in front of us.'

The military wants to do war. On a big scale.

It does not want to stop. For security reasons? Maybe.

For political and financial reasons? Surely.

Well, that's what the journalist Seymour Hersh thinks.

And i don't think he's too far from the truth.

From Huffington:

Seymour Hersh: Military Is Waging War Against The White House

In addition to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the United States military is also fighting a war against the Obama administration at the White House, Seymour Hersh said in a little-noted speech at Duke University on October 13. The military is "in a war against the White House -- and they feel they have Obama boxed in," he said.

Hersh, a Pulitzer-prize winning investigative journalist who exposed the My Lai massacre in Vietnam and the Abu Ghraib scandal in Iraq, sees an undercurrent of racism in the Pentagon's dealings with the White House. "They think he's weak and the wrong color. Yes, there's racism in the Pentagon. We may not like to think that, but it's true and we all know it."

As Neil Offen writes in the Durham Herald Sun:

"A lot of people in the Pentagon would like to see him get into trouble," he said. By leaking information that the commanding officer in Afghanistan, Gen. Stanley McChrystal, says the war would be lost without an additional 40,000 American troops, top brass have put Obama in a no-win situation, Hersh contended.

"If he gives them the extra troops they're asking for, he loses politically," Hersh said. "And if he doesn't give them the troops, he also loses politically."

Hersh considers the worsening situation in Afghanistan and Pakistan as the principal test of the Obama presidency, which will require the cooperation of the top military brass. Obama must face up to the military, Hersh said. "He's either going to let the Pentagon run him or he has to run the Pentagon." If he doesn't, according to Hersh, "this stuff is going to be the ruin of his presidency."

Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/10/23/seymour-hersh-military-is_n_332139.html

Actually, let's put it another way.
Stop the war, get healthcare to pay for itself.

The wars crippled the nation. We started something we just couldn't afford.
The time has come for O.B. Man to learn from past mistakes and take
the steps to create wealth by creating peace. And jobs.

Don't let war, big porky business and neowingnuts eviscerate everything we hold dear for a buck and a half and a private jet.

Again, in the famous words of President Eisenhower:

'America is today the strongest, the most influential and most productive nation in the world. Understandably proud of this pre-eminence, we yet realize that America's leadership and prestige depend, not merely upon our unmatched material progress, riches and military strength, but on how we use our power in the interests of world peace and human betterment.'

They Say it so Much Better Than I Could...

From Seeing the Forest, always on target:

Fight the Big Boys on Wall Street at www.BanksterUSA.org

The Banksters have pulled off the biggest heist of all time. They have crashed the global economy, throwing 7.5 million Americans out of work, emptying retirement and college funds and forcing many into hardship and homelessness. Yet they continue to be rewarded with trillions of taxpayer dollars that underwrite their Bankster bonuses, they prey upon the vulnerable with ballooning bank fees and macabre investment schemes such as "death bonds" and their taxpayer-subsidized lobbyists swarm Capitol Hill to prevent the passage of any meaningful reform of the financial system.

The Smackdown Starts Now

This fall is a critical time. Congress is now taking up a series of bills to restore confidence in the financial sector. If you want to rein in the Banksters and if you think America deserves better than a "boom and bail" economy, you need to muscle up and weigh in. Only you can tell Congress to prioritize the interests of Main Street over the interests of Wall Street.

Bust the Banksters at BanksterUSA

www.BanksterUSA.org is the go-to site for updates on the financial services re-regulation fights in Congress and for progressive netroots campaigning against the big boys on Wall Street.

Our "Action Center" is a hotbed of popular campaigning on the crisis.

We know that it is wrong that a full year since the Wall Street meltdown no employee of any major American bank or blue chip financial institution is behind bars. Compare this to the Savings and Loan crisis 20 years ago. No less than 1,852 S&L officials were prosecuted and 1,072 were jailed.

Our motto? Too big to fail, but not too big for jail! Click here to email the U.S. Department of Justice and the FBI and tell them to get cracking!

This week Congress is debating a key Obama administration reform proposal, one that would create a new "top cop" for consumers in the form of a Consumer Financial Protection Agency (CFPA). This new agency will tackle abusive lending practices and protect consumers from the deceptive tricks and traps of the financial services industry. We need to pass a strong bill to empower the agency to do battle with the Banksters, but the Banksters have promised to "kill" it.

Click here to tell Congress to ignore the Banksters and "Put a New Sheriff on the Block" with a Consumer Financial Protection Agency!

Our Action Center highlights the upcoming "Showdown in Chicago" which promises to be the largest grassroots protest against the Banksters of the American Bankers Association. The Action Center will also help us ramp up the campaign against Goldman Sachs' despicable "death bonds" - an investment scheme you have to see to believe.

Sign up to get the latest news and receive regular email alerts and action items. The Banksters may have the big bucks, but we have the big numbers. The only way to win reform is to make our voices heard!

Don't Let the Banksters Write the History of These Turbulent Times!

The Banksters may be whitewashing, but we can Wiki! We need your help to build a fully-sourced research companion to BankstersUSA.org on the web. It is a collection of editable Wiki profiles of the financial institutions, CEOs, lobbyists, front groups, issues and legislation related to the crisis and the bailout. It builds on our powerful Sourcewatch Wiki with its proven capacity to raise critical information in the Google-sphere so it can be easily found and used by citizens and journalists. We need citizen journalists to help us build this important resource and document the truth about these turbulent times. This Wiki is not a place for editorializing, but for quality research based on top-notch source material. Please visit the "Help Out" section of our Real Economy Project Wiki portal to learn more. It is easy and fun! Our motto? "Fair, accurate and documented."

About Us

The www.BanksterUSA.org site and our larger Real Economy Project are part of the Center for Media and Democracy (CMD). CMD was founded in 1993 as an independent, non-profit, non-partisan, public interest group focusing on exposing corporate spin and government propaganda. CMD brought you the book "Weapons for Mass Deception" before the Bush team failed to find weapons in Iraq, and we exposed "Fake News" in the media and the "Pentagon Pundits" on cable news. With this new effort, we will debunk the spinmeisters of the powerful financial services industry and help ordinary Americans take positive action on the financial crisis and the real economy.

StumbleUpon Makes my Heart Beat Faster Sometimes...

Some nice pix from Alan Taylor's The Big Picture.

I'm particularly fond of the one showing the possible beauty contains in the workers' life,
some of which are, of course, just children.

Umbrella Art Installation by Oz Collective

I Love Him... But I just Want to Kick his Butt

'I really do love him but…' It's what comes to mind every time I see him.

Yes, I'm talking about my ex.

But I'm also talking about my dear President.

The list gets longer after the' but' in my ex's case. Unfortunately, it's starting to be the same situation with my Prez.

Who writes his speeches? Who could tell him he's not in class or in court anymore? Who could tell him to buy a barf bag, sit down and actually study Bush-moron Junior for a little while?

I'm shocked at my self to even suggest this but O.B. Man needs to study the nitwit in chief and let some of his sweat locker monosyllabic charm rub off on him.

'O the Man' forgot that what he was voted for was to be the champion of the Little Guys of the nation, the champion of inclusion and the end of exploitation of the Everyday people by the 1% of the Porky Pigs (thus, the Nobel. But those feelings of vindication are so long past and forgotten, we just don't know why O's here anymore.)

He should remember that the middle class put him as Commander-in-Chief to clean house and bust heads. (Yeah… They were stereotyping.) And he needs to lead by being clear about his targets, zeroing in on identifiable enemies and stopping all appeasement actions toward the neo-KKK movement now at the heart of the so-called Republican party.

'Cynical claims...' speech lingo, talk-show tennis talk and, no, not even a consumer protection bill won't cut it (Funnily enough, most won't feel concern about it as rules can sometimes be easily circumvent by business, as we all saw…)

We feel hesitancy, anxiety and downright unwillingness to shake up the established order of things. People pleasing is not an attractive quality in a leader.

Bill Scher of Liberal Oasis talks about the need for the US to remember who we are. I would add a nuance and say that the US needs to remember that we can change and accomplished more by cooperation than savage competition. That we always did. That's who we can be anytime we chose to. And no one give a tone and a sense of identity or direction to this nation as it's President.

Well, it's between him and Paris Hilton.

Seriously though, Obama is poised to become one of the greatest. If he can find the right voice to communicate with his constituents, if he can learn from all his predecessors and most importantly, if he starts to yield a big whacking stick that he'll use unapologetically for the common good.

I'm shock again, but Biden did it well against Vampire-in-chief Cheney. Simple, monosyllabic and on target.

Beauty in Paper Cut: Yulia Brodskaya's beautiful illustrations

Art, talent and beauty make those hard times less painful for some of us. I am addicted to them like Madoff was addicted to added zeroes in his bank accounts. Brodskaya's talent is one I admire. The precision and dedication needed to create her figures are staggering. And, of course, like any really talented artist, she makes it seem like a breeze. You can see more of her art on DesignBoom.

Tears of a Clown.....

President Obama still doesn't seem to understand that he won.
It's over, you're in. You don't have to charm and cuddle anymore. You got the job.
Now, it will be good if you could get the job done.

I don't know who got the bright idea of putting him on Leno but now, thanks to this 10 watt light bulb, Obama might lose most of his political capital and the confidence of the American people at the time where he needs it the most.

The nation is suffering and scared of what's to come. It doesn't need a star or a comedian (except for Jon Stewart) but a President that seem conscious of the degree of damage afflicted by the financial crisis and capable of mitigating the worst of what's to come. It needs ideas, inspiration, faith, a clear-headed leader and a new path. Not a chuckling, silly beer buddy. We had one for awhile. Didn't do us much good. Left us with a hell of hangover and an empty wallet.

Even Clinton, who was a congenial crowd pleaser, could put a serious face when needed, though an attentive viewer could fell a jocular smile hovering just beneath the daddy-knows-best mask. I'm sure we all know a guy like this who just can't resist a joke , even in the most inopportune of moments. Usually, I love this kind of humour. My husband is one of those guys always seeing the absurd facet of every situation, wowing the crowd with a joke a minute and loving it. But it all can get a bit tiring when every circumstances gets trivialized and humour becomes a crutch, or worse, an apparent escape from reality.

With in-fighting within the Democrats ranks and the neonuts job getting trigger happy and closer to the looney bin day by day, with financial crisis, unemployment, military uncertainty, poverty and crooks getting away with murder, President Obama have enough on his plate that parading on Leno does not count as a capital imperative let alone a sane decision. Cleaning house at AIG looks less glamorous but much more urgent in the grand scheme of things.

Obama does not have a Cheney to act as his rapacious looney watchdog. Or a Rove to be his personal Machiavellian voodoo witch doctor. He has to do it all himself and play the bad cop/good cop role alone. But he does need to find a way to stop being a mere sitting duck for criticism. And finding the real culprits in these messy affairs is the only logical beginning. Gave the public the real frauds. Madoff didn't not act alone. Create a sense of justice being accomplish or the Obama presidency will be tainted as accomplice to the deeds instead of exactors of redress ant truth.

We elected a President, not the class clown. If President Obama needs our help, he has to ask us through the proper presidential channels, not with a comedy routine on late-night TV. His foe, in the meantime, are very serious. And they seriously want to see him and this country fail miserably. You better get on the same page quick, Mr. President, and get serious too.

Michael Hudson Knows Where It's At...

Really. He does.

His article in Counterpunch, "The Cash-for-Trash Economy", is the most comprehensible and extensive explanation of how we got into this horrendous financial mess.

To read Hudson is to finally understand that the "too big to fail" doctrine does not apply only to different American industries but to America as a whole.

"Our deficit, their problem" "Our war, their problem" " Our gas guzzling SUV, their problem": we have been letting the world clean up our problems for so long while stuffing their banks with our worthless money and wriggling our holier-than-thou middle finger under their noses that we just thought we could go on forever.

Well, the party's over and Wall Street still doesn't get it. Bernanke still thinks we should give more money to the bank so that they could keep doing business as usual. "Our deficit, the taxpayer problem". But let's keep all the players and the deficient structures in place and hope for different results.

So your taxes' dollars should go 1/2 to the military, 1/4 to repay those banks' debts and the rest for tax cut for the rich or interest repayment. Shame on you should you ask for good schools, good health care or consumer protection. The market will provide. The Repugs have only your best interest at heart. And yes I said Repug. If Obama does not accomplish a clean break with the past 8 years or so, it will only be a continuation of a destructive "conservative" philosophy that rhymes with sacrificing the weak and poor for the profit a very small incredibly toxic minority. It's too bad many take their toxicity for strength, power or even worse, wisdom.

From the Mouth of Babes...: Heard Today on the Blogosphere

From the HuffPost Forum from goodog:

Landrieu, Lincoln, and Bayh will be to the Obama's what Sam Nunn, Patrick Moynihan, and George Mitchell were to the Clinton's.

Long after Bayh's forgotten and out of office, it will be remembered that Obama's agenda collapsed on account of Michelle Obama's bare arms.

Healthcare will have deteriorated further, and the Obama's will be blamed for the failure to pass any reform at all.

Only Landrieu, Lincoln, and Bayh will gloat, knowing they led the bible thumper's splintering of the Democratic agenda.

T-Shirt Art

Some amazing graphic art from a Russian blog that loves the Shirt Woot web site.

Glass Art from Dale Chihuly.

Beautiful pieces from the artist Dale Chihuly. You can see more of his pieces at the Desert Botanical Garden in Phoenix Arizona right now. Or visit his web site at chihuly.com.

Found on the Very Very Fun web site.

Slippers-Shoes Anyone?

It makes me laugh but when I stop I think I actually want a pair of those....

From Tourist Attraction.

Nice House.. if You Can Get it

The owners are probably living in their car by now but this house makes me sigh with envy and delight.

It's more museum than home but it is beautiful with wood, light and great design galore.

From the Furniture Fashion web site.

Who's watching the Watchmen? Who cares! Who's watching Wall Street!

I saw the Watchmen movie last week-end. I loved it if you really want to know. I seemed to be one of the few that did.

I have to applaud a superhero movie that finally did not forget to be a movie too. I loved the interplay of time, music and visual American icons, I loved the stylized fights, I loved the different textures that could be rendered on the screen from gritty polar noir to slick 80's rock video designs. I really love the syncretism of different moments in American history that created a surreal portrait of what it could mean to be an American in such times and how do one dealt with the anxiety of living in an empire gone mad. With masks and self-defeating prophecies or harrowing auto-fictions, seemed to suggest Moore and the directors. And love, love, love, of course... Girls, put your f*ck me leather boots on!

I was surprised to found out that Zack "We are Sparta" Snyder was responsible for such a coherent, successful, sharp-eyed adaptation of Alan Moore's comic. It was far from perfect, mind you. Xena look-a-like Silk Spectre, played by actress Malin Ackerman, was gorgeous and could deliver a kick but her acting was a bit as thin as her costume, unfortunately, with no second degree. Compare it to the three-names-guys, Jackie Earle Haley or especially Jeffrey Dean Morgan, who's somehow channeling a very, very mean Robert Downey jr, and it's clear that Spectre was not in the same league.

Nixon, Kissinger and all the other crazy boys of "How I learned to stop worrying and love the Bomb..." make an appearance and the only one missing was Peter Sellers. But every single frame is charged with a sense of hopeless irony and absurdist folly that Sellers himself would probably have recognize. Of course, if you like your movies quick and empty, this one is not for you. It's fast and furious enough but catching a bad guy and beating him to a pulp is not the whole point here. In this story, the villain is within. And catching him makes for a bitter harvest, indeed.

But I digress...

While we're watching the Watchmen, who's watching Wall Street? In fact, who's watching the government guys who are supposed to watch Wall Street?

We're in a freaking deep mess that is itself in a deeper mess. in literature, we call this "une mise en abyme" - or to be put into an abyss. Harry Shearer from HuffPost just discovered that in New Orleans (remember them?) just as much was spend in administrative cost than on building affordable housing units there. We're talking 40 to 50 millions for the pencil pushers and another 40 to 50 for the contractors/landlords to fix their units. Results? A little more than a 1000 units in two years. And the money keeps on coming...

I hope you see there is a big problem here.

Henry "Hank" Paulson worked at Goldman Sachs, he headed the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and repealed the "net capital rule" that required brokerage firm to hold reserve capital that limited their investments and could offset their risks. He championed "voluntary regulation"(!!). In a way, he was one of the Wall Street elite, to use a word the Repugs love to hurl around, and he was ask to cuddle their way out of a mess he helped create. And somehow his decisions were made non-reviewable or unchallengeable by law.

I hope you see there is a problem here.

So not wanting to alarm the Rush Limbaugh of this world, we cannot talk of temporary nationalization as we should, so we can't clean house, we can't move in and react quickly enough to stop the crisis from getting worse. Obama is caught trying to be all thing to all people, unable to believe that we put him in power so he could tell a major "Fuck you" to the Wall Street Frat boys and their Bush Dynasty crew. He is stuck in pleasuring the masses mode warming up to the crooks and forgetting his main plan: getting Main Street it's due after years of numbskulls rulers.

So, Obama, you are either FDR or a sitting duck. Your choice. Emergency Banking Act, a restructuration of the SEC, a bonification of Unemployment benefits, Homeowner Loan's Corp. II and jobs, jobs, jobs…

Or be ready to start licking Limbaugh's feet like the rest of the yellow livered Dems BNO.

But incredibly, I still believe you can...

While We Wait for the Chuck Norris Revolution...

We can laugh before, during and after the Revolution.... Just like a real Chuck Norris show!

In the meantime I just love these. StumbleUpon, marry me, please!

And thanx to JustWhatever web site' Musical Statistic by redboobs. Can't believe I just typed that...

Ladies and Gentlemen, the Future of the GOP: Glenn Beck

I have just met Glen Beck today. A girl goes for some education, comes back and what's the first thing she sees on her computer after witnessing Obama finally putting some fear in AIG smug face? Glenn Beck.

I never watched Fox News, I never will. I tried once, on YouTube so it doesn't count. But what the American public now calls tv "news" or "journalism" have no more credible link with reality. So I avoid it. But today I wanted to know why the creation of a governmental banking overseer was taking so long or why the Summers/Geithner duo could not remember that they're not in Wall Street anymore partying on but protectors of Main Street assets. But what I found was this: Glenn Beck.

At first, I thought it was just another infomercial for some 12 steps-like program to get rich fast. But no, it was a new breed of stupid and dangerous from the same guys that gave us O'Reilly, Limbaugh and Tucker Carlson: the desperate Republican dittoheads. But this one was just a little bit more creepy than your usual brand of crazy.

The language used by the this particular nutjob is actually not funny at all: he's deliberately putting a religious fervor into his demented political ideals while denying actually doing it. The denial is the usual Repug tactic. But the feverish emotional hysterics coupled with hypnotic speech pattern and images are all too close to cult-like group models to my liking.

"Belief v/s intellect", "Uniqueness of the movement", "Shared belief in a saying" are all some of the "most common features of religious movements" or cults according to the Cult Help and Information web site and I would add the "Us v/s the World" mentality, "shared common rituals giving shared powers" and those regular rituals becoming a necessity to rid members of their collective anxieties and fears. And guess what? Glenn got them all covered in his show, with Chuck "Texas President" Norris as the Looney Star cherry on this mess of a sundae.

Glenn "emotionally disturbed" Beck, prone to give 2 sorts of speech - a lenient one and a raving mad "fire and brimstone" other one - just wants to save America from the Big Bad Government in a Patriotic way that doesn't sound like Anarchy or Right Wing Led Class Warfare . Here's an example taken from BuzzFlash Blog:

Beck lists nine principles guiding his new movement on his Web site. The principles contain the usual right-wing "government ain't the boss of me," pro-Christianity propaganda. My favorite, though, marks a turnaround for the hardcore right. After years of conservatives screaming that those who don't support the president are un-American and want our troops to die terrible deaths, Beck comes out with principle number eight:

"It is not un-American for me to disagree with authority or to share my personal opinion."

Beck said this on his show when introducing the eighth principle: "My opinion or others' opinions may be anti-American. Anti-American rhetoric would be anything that's destructive to the Constitution and our country as the founders understood it unless you want to change that."

He then called his audience to action saying, "If you agree with seven of these nine, please, stand up and fight for them."

What gets me is the fact that all his "outrage" is a reflection of what I felt towards the Republicans when they were selling out this country to the highest bidder while trying all they could to bankrupt it morally as well as financially, sucking it dry of any hope. The controlling GOP mentality who made sure to call every dissent voice unpatriotic, telling others who they should marry, love, hire, fire, let live or harass, was patiently tolerated for all those years. But threatening to secede 4 months after the legal election of a Democrat. And to give way to what solution? More big men with big guns!!!

If you want to know how it feels to be in the Revolution with Glen and Chuck at your side, just knock yourself out and watch the video. Bet you'll feel an urgent need either to pray to any god out there or to take a very long shower before you get to the end of it all....

Love Vertigo: A King is Dead

I know I haven't been posting for a long time. I just gave priority to my studies for now and my outrage towards the Repug camp and their desperate head games to paint Obama as the father of the deficit or to cut unemployment benefit program during a national financial crisis of THEIR doing or again to spit on Limbaugh before kissing his feet and crowning him Repug-in-chief....
What can I say, I can't wait to come back to my firebreathing days so I can burn some neocon ass once angain...

But what brought me back was not the usual backstabbing or yellow pissing of the Democrats once in power - this behaviour is nothing surprising and, like spring, it's a messy, stinking rite of new beginning where all the hidden garbage resurface and rot. Hope it doesn't kill the burgeoning talents or wonderful momentum Obama was able to foster. (Though: Why why why the Tonite Show??!)

No I decided to do a Schwarzenegger-style come back to tip my hat to one of the best singer, poet and overall artist that France ever had: Alain Bashung.

He died this week-end and it's a great lost. In inventiveness and creativity he was unequal or only by Gainsbourg and Jacques Dutronc. Musically, he succeeded where a lot of his compatriots failed and gave an American feel to his very personnal chansons francaises without kitchiness or overkill. His French rock was based on blues, steel guitar and the evocation of an elegant Western, cool as suede. He was cool, with a wonderful malleable dark rhum voice, and not a lot of modern French artist will be able to make us forget his unique contribution and place he held in the music scene.

So, goodbye Alain, mon gangster prefere. Bon retour chez Madame Reve....

TADAIMA!: I'm back ! ( or Some come, some go...)

Haaaa! School life....

One day all is under control, the other you hope to get through that ridiculously empty, self-absorbed, , "post-modern" bs-full French deconstructivist jargon - all 250 pages of that disgusting, vile stuff - and, at the same time, not rip all your hair out at the gall of the Republicans to try that "we are the common people" barf inducing joke again and again.... And see them succeed, again and again!!

Yep, so I'm studying Japanese/French/comparative literature and translation. Last leg before starting my Master's, if all goes well, so I'm psyched!

But Obama is still in the back of my mind and I was soooo proud of him, even though 2 HUGE party-pooper problems still made me wish for perfection to exist...

Yeah, one is easy to guess because it's bloody, ugly and shameless despite all proof: it's Gaza.

The other might be more difficult to understand for those who are still on post-election cloud 9: the Democrats systematic capitulation of the agenda setting's rhythm to the Republicans.

Still, to this day, we have to "negotiate", we have to give them the damn inch that they will transform exponentially and voraciously into light-years, we have to act kindly while they stump their feet.

Every mother of a 2 or 3 years old knows what to do in a case like this but not the bleeding heart Dems.

When a child is having a tantrum, you watch him kindly, smile and move away firmly and resolutely from the scene. You wait 'till they get their senses back, then you repeat your instructions until they sink in.

You do not give in. You do not negotiate (too much. But that depends on the degree of maturity of your toddler. Since this is the Repugs we're talking about, the level is -1 to nil. So just skip that part), you do not give candy for bad behaviour and to make peace at all cost or to look good for company because then your toddler will take you for a deranged idiot, and rightly so.

You stand firm.

When will that happen, with the Dems?

Good that some nutcases have left the building, but this sinking ship is still full of rats.
Obama, our new captain and his crew must do all in their power to keep us safe, not throw us overboard or feed us to the disloyal, deceiving thieves that put us all in this mess in the first place...

Perfect Back to School Doonesbury Humor

Just perfect Doonesbury.
I've been reading it for 20 years now and I still love it sooo much!

Yeah, I know: we should get married...

Go read it at Yahoo! Comics. As Homer -the cartoon guy with two kids, not the Greek - once said: "It's funny because it's true!!"

Hope the Dems are taking notes for real...

And why do the only one with cojones enough to just go against the wind is the bat-shit crazy one?

Yes, Blogo, I'm finally talking about you. And, no, it's not totally a compliment...

Addictive Sunny Colors

Sculpture by Jennifer Maestre.

Yes it does!

Soothing Picture of the Week...

Still Reality Everywhere on the Globe...

Old Facts to be Aware of... U.S. Foreign Aid

Things to remember in 2009: How Georges Bush finalized the transformation of the concept of foreign aid from helping countries in difficulty to just another arm of the military "operational plans".

When you see children dying in Gaza, remember that we bought some of the weapons killing them. Ignorance is not a defense anymore, never was. "Aid" is never neutral or perfectly selfless.

From Parade Magazine, of all places:

Who Gets U.S. Foreign Aid

The U.S. will give an estimated $26 billion in foreign aid in 2008—70% more than when President George W. Bush took office (the figure doesn’t include funds related to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan). More than 150 countries get financial assistance from the U.S. Here are the six that received the most this year.

COUNTRY	AID	PURPOSE
1. Israel	$2.4 billion	Virtually all of this money is used to buy weapons (up to 75% made in the U.S.). Beginning in 2009, the U.S. plans to give $30 billion over 10 years.
2. Egypt	$1.7 billion	$1.3 billion to buy weapons; $103 million for education; $74 million for health care; $45 million to promote civic participation and human rights.
3. Pakistan	$798 million	$330 million for security efforts, including military-equipment upgrades and border security; $20 million for infrastructure.
4. Jordan	$688 million	$326 million to fight terrorism and promote regional stability through equipment upgrades and training; $163 million cash payment to the Jordanian government.
5. Kenya	$586 million	$501 million to fight HIV/AIDS through drug treatment and abstinence education and to combat malaria; $15 million for agricultural development; $5.4 million for programs that promote government accountability.
6. South Africa	$574 million	$557 million to fight TB and HIV/AIDS; $3 million for education.
7. Mexico	$551 million	Click here for details.
8. Colombia	$541 million	Click here for details.
9. Nigeria	$491 million	Click here for details.
10. Sudan	$479 million	Click here for details.

*Source: Estimates based on figures and documents from the U.S. Department of State. Click here for more information.

— Rebecca Davis O'Brien


Nigeria?

US Offers Nigeria Military Aid to Protect Offshore Oil

by Hector Igbikiowubo

THE United States, keen to develop new sources of oil supply outside the Middle East, has offered to help Nigeria protect the flow of oil in the Gulf of Guinea and combat terrorist attacks on the oil industry, officials said. The Gulf of Guinea, stretching from Liberia in the west to Angola in the south, currently provides about 15 per cent of US oil supplies. That share is expected to grow to 25 per cent by 2015, according to a recent report commissioned for the U.S. Congress.

Mexico?
The Merida Initiative in two words: immigracion no!


A good place for intelligible and very well dissected info is the Global Issues web site, especially this page here.

So Hillary, what do you intend to do?

Bob Herbert is NOT laughing...

While Bush is chuckling all the way to his white-only neighborhood's mansion, New York Times' Bob Herbert is shaking with indignation.

We shake and glare at the "Cretin on the Hill" with him. But are we moved enough in anger to seek some sort of justice? Can we channel the righteous meanness of the Queen of Heart toward absurdity and scream "Off with his head!" long enough to see it roll?

Do Republicans have the exclusivity in rabid, relentless hounding?
Why couldn't we muster enough support for the impeachment of a genuine crook and easily spend millions of hours and dollars trying to find which consenting adult slept with his secretary?


Remember in 2006? From Professor Smartass' blog:

KEY EXCERPTS:

Zogby Poll: Americans Support Impeaching Bush for Wiretapping
Submitted by Bob Fertik on January 13, 2006
For Release: January 16, 2006

By a margin of 52% to 43%, Americans want Congress to consider impeaching President Bush if he wiretapped American citizens without a judge's approval, according to a new poll commissioned by AfterDowningStreet.org, a grassroots coalition that supports a Congressional investigation of President Bush's decision to invade Iraq in 2003.

Recently White House spokesman Scott McClellan cited a Rasmussen poll that found 64% believe the NSA "should be allowed to intercept telephone conversations between terrorism suspects." Of course, that is exactly what Congress authorized when it created the FISA courts to issue special expedited secret warrants for terrorism suspects. But Bush defied the FISA law and authorized warrantless wiretaps of Americans, which has outraged Americans to the point that a majority believe Congress should consider Bush's impeachment.

"Bush admits he ordered illegal warantless wiretapping, but says it began in response to 9/11 and was limited to a small number of calls to or from Al Qaeda," Fertik said. "But recent reports suggest wiretapping affected a much larger number of Americans, and a report in Friday's Truthout says the wiretapping began before 9/11."

Truthout article
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/011306Z.shtml

Whatever happened to all this support?
Why couldn't the Dems channel all this anger to fight the Repugs?
Are they really just there for show??

Add Up the Damage

By BOB HERBERT

Published: December 29, 2008

Does anyone know where George W. Bush is?

Bob Herbert

You don’t hear much from him anymore. The last image most of us remember is of the president ducking a pair of size 10s that were hurled at him in Baghdad.

We’re still at war in Iraq and Afghanistan. Israel is thrashing the Palestinians in Gaza. And the U.S. economy is about as vibrant as the 0-16 Detroit Lions.

But hardly a peep have we heard from George, the 43rd.

When Mr. Bush officially takes his leave in three weeks (in reality, he checked out long ago), most Americans will be content to sigh good riddance. I disagree. I don’t think he should be allowed to slip quietly out of town. There should be a great hue and cry — a loud, collective angry howl, demonstrations with signs and bullhorns and fiery speeches — over the damage he’s done to this country.