Bat Shit Crazy Sarah Palin was For Death Panels Before She was Against Them, Go Figure...
As ThinkProgress reports today, Sarah Palin was for end-of-life counseling before she was against it.
As governor, Palin declared April 16, 2008, "Healthcare Decisions Day," signing a proclamation to "encourage medical professionals and lawyers to volunteer their time and efforts to ... increase the number of Alaska's citizens with advance directives."
An advance directive can be a living will, which describes the medical treatments you do or do not want at the end of life, or a power of attorney, which designates someone to make those decisions for you....
The hidden truth behind drug company profits
This is the story of one of the great unspoken scandals of our times. Today, the people across the world who most need life-saving medicine are being prevented from producing it. Here's the latest example: factories across the poor world are desperate to start producing their own cheaper Tamiflu to protect their populations – but they are being sternly told not to. Why? So rich drug companies can protect their patents – and profits. There is an alternative to this sick system, but we are choosing to ignore it.
To understand this tale, we have to start with an apparent mystery. The World Health Organisation (WHO) has been correctly warning for months that if swine flu spreads to the poorest parts of the world, it could cull hundreds of thousands of people – or more. Yet they have also been telling the governments of the poor world not to go ahead and produce as much Tamiflu – the only drug we have to reduce the symptoms, and potentially save lives – as they possibly can.....
Bat Shit Crazy Republican Senator Repeats Bat Shit Crazy Ex-Governor Palin's Imaginary "Death Panel" Smear on Health Care Reform
Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) continued the thoroughly debunked right wing euthanasia/death panel meme today, telling a town hall crowd, "You have every right to fear....a government run plan to decide when to pull the plug on Grandma."....
The food additive MSG (Mono-Sodium Glutamate) is a slow poison. MSG hides behind 25 or more names, such as "Natural Flavoring."
MSG is even in your favorite coffee from Tim Horton's and Starbucks coffee shops!
I wondered if there could be an actual chemical causing the massive obesity epidemic, and so did a friend of mine, John Erb. He was a research assistant at the University of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada, and spent years working for the government. He made an amazing discovery while going through scientific journals for a book he was writing called The Slow Poisoning of America...Many more of the studies mentioned in John Erb's book link MSG to diabetes, migraines and headaches, autism, ADHD, and even Alzheimer's....
Clues Coming In Ponzi Scum Madoff "Conspiracy"?
Now that Bernie Madoff is ensconced in federal prison, we've all grown a bit tired of the story. But things could get a little more interesting, as one of Madoff's key minions - Frank DiPascali Jr. - is expected to be charged today and to plead guilty to, multiple criminal charges, including conspiracy, securities fraud, perjury and tax evasion.
It only takes two to conspire, so it is possible that DiPascali schemed only with Madoff. But, unlike Madoff, DiPascali apparently has a plea deal with the government. And it of course seems unlikely the government would make a deal with DiPascali without a trade of information. With Bernie already locked up for life, information about the fraud is really only interesting to the extent he tells prosecutors who else knew about and helped orchestrate the Ponzi scheme...
Madoff Aide Reveals Details of Ponzi Scheme
On Tuesday, Mr. DiPascali stood in a federal courtroom in Lower Manhattan and admitted that, for at least the last 20 years, he had helped Mr. Madoff carry out one of the biggest frauds in Wall Street history.
Indeed, he detailed for the first time how he and unidentified others helped Mr. Madoff perpetuate the crime — using historical stock data from the Internet to create fake trade blotters, sending out fraudulent account statements to clients and arranging wire transfers between Mr. Madoff’s London and New York offices to create the impression that the firm was earning commissions from stock trades.
Is It Now a Crime to Be Poor?
IT’S too bad so many people are falling into poverty at a time when it’s almost illegal to be poor. You won’t be arrested for shopping in a Dollar Store, but if you are truly, deeply, in-the-streets poor, you’re well advised not to engage in any of the biological necessities of life — like sitting, sleeping, lying down or loitering. City officials boast that there is nothing discriminatory about the ordinances that afflict the destitute, most of which go back to the dawn of gentrification in the ’80s and ’90s. “If you’re lying on a sidewalk, whether you’re homeless or a millionaire, you’re in violation of the ordinance,” a city attorney in St. Petersburg, Fla., said in June, echoing Anatole France’s immortal observation that “the law, in its majestic equality, forbids the rich as well as the poor to sleep under bridges.....
White House proposal to track government website users stirs fears
A White House proposal to end a long-standing policy forbidding government websites from tracking users could lead to "the mass collection of personal information of every user of a federal government website," says the ACLU.
Civil liberties groups like the ACLU and the Electronic Privacy Information Center are lining up against a plan, proposed by the Obama administration, to end a policy that has been in place since 2000 preventing government websites from installing tracking cookies on users' computers....
"Allowing the Federal Government to gather data and place tracking cookies on users computers is a terrible idea, that should be opposed by all Americans. The Federal Government has no business collecting information about visitors to it's websites. This proposal will eventually lead to greater monitoring of citizens, with the potentual for abuse by future administrations being very high. There is a term called "Misson Creep" in the computer industry, this policy is not just "Mission Creep", it's "Mission Creepy" and should be deleted. Shame on the Obama adminiistration for even considering such a stupid idea." Willy Bova
Jon Stewart’s ’sh*tty daydream’ recalls attacks on anti-war protester (Video)
Comedy Central host Jon Stewart has access to video archives, and he’s not afraid to use them.
Analyzing angry conservative protests against health care reform, Stewart experienced what he jokingly called “the shittiest day-dream I ever had” and flashed back to a time, not so long ago, when anti-war protesters were smeared as “anti-American” and even “Nazis” by right-wing pundits.
After a series of clips showing conservatives screaming things like, “We’re scared of Obama!” and “Watch Glenn Beck!” he zeroed in on an ABC News interview with Matt Kibbe, president of Washington, D.C. lobbying firm “Freedom Works,” founded by former Republican majority leader Dick Armey.
“When the left does this, it’s celebrated as the best of democracy, community organizing,” said Kibbe. “When conservative, free market activists show up, they’re called mobs.”
Stewart replied: “All we’re doing is enraging people with misleading information, then having them show up at meetings with the intent of shouting down the speakers and physically intimidating them. If that’s what you call a mob, well, then I guess … Well ...
Bush's Treasury Secratary Violated Ethics aggreement with Contacts during bailout with his old Firm Goldman Sach's
.....Of the dozens of phone calls between Paulson and Blankfein, 26 occurred before Paulson requested and obtained a waiver to deal with matters relating to Goldman Sachs, the New York Times reported Sunday. The content of the calls is unknown. But two were the morning of Sept. 17, a day after the AIG bailout, which ultimately handed Goldman $13 billion of taxpayers' money -- before Paulson obtained the ethics waiver.
In Paulson's ethics agreement, written after President Bush plucked him from Goldman to be Treasury Secretary, all but two of eight pages mention Goldman. He concludes it by saying "these steps will ensure that I avoid even the appearance of a conflict of interest."....
It turns out that Government Worked Directly With Goldman
It's hard to know whether to be outraged or yawn at the revelations that Henry Paulson with Bush's Treasury talked constantly on the phone with the head of Goldman Sachs, probably in violation of every ethics rule on the books, during those bailout days......
The secret history of TARP: How Goldman bailed out Goldman…
Former Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson wasn’t on Goldman Sachs’ payroll when the US government bailed out his former employer, but he may as well have been. That’s the implication in a New York Times article, published Saturday, that shows President George W. Bush’s last treasury secretary, a former CEO of investment bank Goldman Sachs, had frequent conversations with the current CEO of Goldman during the week of Sept. 16, when the US government handed over $85 billion to rescue the troubled insurance giant AIG.
AIG’s outstanding debts to Goldman Sachs meant that $13 billion of the money handed over to AIG went directly to Goldman Sachs....
The Hank Paulson Goldman Sachs Party Line
Before he became President George W. Bush’s Treasury secretary in 2006, Henry M. Paulson Jr. agreed to hold himself to a higher ethical standard than his predecessors. He not only sold all his holdings in Goldman Sachs, the investment bank he had run, but also specifically said that he would avoid any substantive interaction with Goldman executives for his entire term unless he first obtained an ethics waiver from the government.
But today, seven months after Mr. Paulson left office, questions are still being asked about his part in decisions last fall to prop up the teetering financial system with tens of billions of taxpayer dollars, including aid that directly benefited his former firm. Testifying on Capitol Hill last month, he was grilled about his relationship with Goldman.....
Where did that bank bailout go? Watchdogs aren't sure
Although hundreds of well-trained eyes are watching over the $700 billion that Congress last year decided to spend bailing out the nation's financial sector, it's still difficult to answer some of the most basic questions about where the money went.
Despite a new oversight panel, a new special inspector general, the existing Government Accountability Office and eight other inspectors general, those charged with minding the store say they don't have all the weapons they need. Ten months into the Troubled Asset Relief Program, some members of Congress say that some oversight of bailout dollars has been so lacking that it's essentially worthless....
Ex-Madoff Finance Chief Could Point U.S. to Other Accomplices
Frank DiPascali, the finance chief at Bernard Madoff’s investment advisory business who agreed to plead guilty, could help prosecutors build criminal cases against other players in his boss’s $65 billion Ponzi scheme.DiPascali, 52, is scheduled to enter his plea tomorrow in federal court in Manhattan, U.S. Attorney Lev Dassin told a judge in an Aug. 8 letter that didn’t specify the charges. DiPascali would waive indictment and plead guilty, which signals to lawyers that he is cooperating to lessen his prison term.
“I believe he’s cooperating,” said John J. Fahy, a former federal prosecutor not involved in the case. “He would be very valuable to the government because he has been close to Madoff for so many years and had to have seen some of the fraudulent transactions that went on. From what we know of Madoff, he trusted very few people.”...
Jesse Ventura's new venture: 'Conspiracy Theories'
With careers in wrestling, movies, radio and government under his belt, Jesse Ventura is adding a line to his résumé: professional conspiracy theorist....Talking about dark conspiracies is not exactly virgin territory for Ventura. In his books and repeated TV interviews, he has repeatedly maintained that the assassination of John Kennedy and the 9/11 terrorist attacks were hatched by conspirators unknown to the general public....
Jon Stewart: Let’s send ‘death to me’ teddy bear to celebrate Ahmadinejad’s ‘bullshit’ victory (Video)
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad took the oath of office for a second term this week but Comedy Central’s John Stewart says the election was illegitimate.
“You may remember six weeks ago they had the big election,” said Stewart. “The election was bullshit.”..
"Kinda Like the 2000 Election in America. I wonder where Iran got the Idea to Steal an Election?
Willy Bova
CEO of Health Care Company that Was Fined $1.7 Billion for Medicare Fraud is leading Fund Raiser for Anti Health Care Protests. CNN Anchor Calls Him on His BULLSHIT (Must See Video)
A CNN anchor today tore down Rick Scott, the founder of an organization that's been funding anti-health care reform protests and the former CEO of a hospital company that, as Sanchez pointed out, paid $1.7 billion to settle charges of overcharging Medicare and Medicaid.
It was brutal.....
Barack Obama So Far
(Three leading political observers grade the first six months)
During Franklin Roosevelt's first 100 days in office, congress granted every request the new president made. Barack Obama, despite enjoying a decisive majority in both houses of Congress, hasn't been so fortunate. His economic stimulus package failed to win a single Republican vote in the House, and conservative members of his own party are trying to block his ambitious plans to provide universal health care and curb global warming. What's more, Obama himself has alarmed supporters by compromising on key issues, and he has yet to flex his political muscle by mobilizing the tech-savvy network of grass-roots activists he assembled during last year's campaign. All of which raises the question: Is Obama raising false hopes? Or does he have what it takes to deliver real change?.....
About half of U.S. mortgages seen underwater by 2011
(US Dollar has lost Over 20% Vrs Canadian Dollar in 4 months....)
The percentage of U.S. homeowners who owe more than their house is worth will nearly double to 48 percent in 2011 from 26 percent at the end of March, portending another blow to the housing market, Deutsche Bank said on Wednesday....
This Depression is just beginning
Too bad Pulitzers aren't handed out for blog-entries. This year's award would go to Zero Hedge for its "The 'Money on the Sidelines' Fallacy" post. This short entry shows why the economy will continue its downward slide and why the US consumer will not get off the mat and resume spending as he has in the past. The fact is the Net Wealth of US Households has "declined from a peak of $22 trillion to just under $12 trillion in early March."
Ouch!
The problem is compounded by the fact that Total US Household debt, as of first quarter 2009, amounts to roughly $13 trillion, and has stayed within that range for the last 3 and a half years.
Zero Hedge:
"From the end of 2007 through Q1 of 2009, household equity has declined by 94%. Is it surprising that today's GDP number would have been a complete debacle if the consumer had been left alone to prop the U.S. economy, on whom 70% of the economy is reliant? Obama pulled a Hail Mary with the stimulus: without it there would be no debate America is in a depression right now." (http://www.zerohedge.com/article/money-sidelines-fallacy)...
Report: Ex-Marine, employee link Blackwater founder Erik Prince to murders
In sworn statements filed with a Virginia court last night, a former Marine and a former Blackwater employee claim that the company’s founder and former CEO, Erik Prince, “may have murdered or facilitated the murder” of people who were aiding a federal investigation into a Baghdad massacre that left 17 dead, according to Nation reporter Jeremy Scahill.
Dikipedia Sir Allen Stanford
Sir Robert Allen Stanford, KCN (born March 24, 1950) is a dick financier, dick philanthropist (or, as it is sometimes referred to, “philanthrodick”), and dick sponsor of professional sports, who, throughout his illustrious career, has dicked investors out of $8 billion. Dick.
Allen Stanford is the founder, chairman, CEO, and whole owner of Stanford Financial Group, which consists of Stanford Capital Management, Stanford International Bank, Stanford Group, Stanford Trust, and Stanford Coins and Bullion. He also plays synth for new wave pop trio Stanford!
In early 2009, Allen Stanford became the subject of several financial malfeasance investigations, eventually facing civil and criminal charges in both the United States and Antigua. When a country like Antigua charges you with bank fraud and money laundering, you know you’ve been up to some real sketch.
On top of everything else, Allen Stanford is one of those Americans who likes to pretend to be British, like those total meat-wipes who come back from a semester in London dipping their “chips” in vinegar and listening to Radiohead. Not only is Stanford a noted cricket fan, he also holds a dual citizenship with Antigua, a country that knighted him for some reason. One imagines that reason to be a sizable cash donation to the Governor-General.
When the light hits his moustache in a certain way, Allen Stanford bears a striking resemblance to Adolph Hitler, if Hitler wore bright pink golf shirts and a $25,000 watch.
Say what you will about Allen Stanford, at least he was defrauding drug kingpins and international weapons dealers, as opposed to Nobel Peace Prize laureates, say, or Stephen Spielberg.....
Jon Stewart: Fox News instigating town hall disruptions (Video)
On Monday night, Comedy Central host Jon Stewart drew a direct line between recent disruptions at congressional town hall meetings and a certain GOP-favoring network. And he’s not alone in believing that fake outrage is behind the recent, high-profile confrontations.
Showing a clip from a recent town hall attended by Senator Arlen Specter (D-PA) and Health and Human Services chief Kathleen Sebelius, Stewart highlighted a Fox talking point that was repeated by an off-camera woman.
“You want us to believe that a government that can’t even run a cash for clunkers program is going to run 1/7th of our U.S. economy?” she rattled into the mic to a growing chorus of cheers. “No sir! No.”
“Does every town in America have one of those ladies?” asked Stewart. “Or has that lady been going around to every town?”....
Stewart: Media gave Obama a pass on 48th birthday ’scam' (Video)
Reports that President Barack Obama was not born in the US have convinced Jon Stewart that he may also be lying about his age. The Comedy Central comedian chided the mainstream media Tuesday for giving President Barack Obama ‘a pass’ on his 48th birthday.
“You would think that the MSM would be coming at the White House hard and fast on this birthday scam but what do we get?” Stewart asked sarcastically. The media bought the hoax “hook, line and sinker,” he said.
“This story is more full of wholes than a $40 hooker with a piercing fetish, a heroin habit, a tracheotomy and three anuses,” Stewart joked....
Russian Subs Patrolling Off East Coast of U.S.
A pair of nuclear-powered Russian attack submarines has been patrolling off the eastern seaboard of the United States in recent days, a rare mission that has raised concerns inside the Pentagon and intelligence agencies about a more assertive stance by the Russian military.
The episode has echoes of the cold war era, when the United States and the Soviet Union regularly parked submarines off each other’s coasts to steal military secrets, track the movements of their underwater fleets — and be poised for war.....
Olbermann: Health reform now, or else (Video)
Olbermann explains:
I warn you all.
You were not elected to create a Democratic majority.
You were elected to restore this country.
You were not elected to serve the corporations and the trusts who the government has enabled for the last eight years.
You were elected to serve the people.
And if you fail to pass or support this legislation, the full wrath of the progressive and the moderate movements in this country will come down on your heads.
Explain yourselves not to me, but to them.
They elected you, and in the blink of an eye, they will replace you.
If you will behave as if you are Republicans - as if you are the prostitutes of our system - you will be judged as such.
And you will lose not merely our respect. You will lose your jobs!
Every poll, every analysis, every vote, every region of this country supports health care reform, and the essential great leveling agent of a government-funded alternative to the unchecked duopoly of profiteering private insurance corporations.
Native Musician JOHN TRUDELL - THE FUTURISTIC POLICE STATE (2003 Video)
Britain To Put CCTV Cameras Inside Private Homes
As an ex-Brit, I’m well aware of the authorities’ love of surveillance and snooping, but even I, a pessimistic cynic, am amazed by the governments latest plan: to install Orwell’s telescreens in 20,000 homes. £400 million ($668 million) will be spend on installing and monitoring CCTV cameras in the homes of private citizens. Why? To make sure the kids are doing their homework, going to bed early and eating their vegetables. The scheme has, astonishingly, already been running in 2,000 family homes. The government’s “children’s secretary” Ed Balls is behind the plan, which is aimed at problem, antisocial families. The idea is that, if a child has a more stable home life, he or she will be less likely to stray into crime and drugs.
It gets worse. The government is also maintaining a private army, incredibly not called “Thought Police”, which will “be sent round to carry out home checks,”.....
Apple, AT&T Questioned About Google Voice Application
The Federal Communications Commission on Friday launched inquiries of Apple and AT&T for denying iPhone users access to Google's voice application, another sign of the administration's heightened scrutiny of competition in the high-tech and telecommunications sectors.
In letters to Apple and AT&T, the FCC asked the companies to explain why Google's voice application was rejected from the cell phone and removed from Apple's iPhone applications store. The agency also asked AT&T, the exclusive service provider for the iPhone, what role it may have had in making that decision....
Diet Sweeteners Can Make You Sick and Fat
If you are among those calorie-conscious consumers who opt for diet sodas or other diet products, you may actually ruin your health and become fat, according to several new studies. A Purdue University study published 10 February 2008 in the journal Behavioral Neuroscience reported that rats on diets containing the artificial sweetener saccharin gained more weight than rats given sugary food, casting doubt on the benefits of low-calorie sweeteners......
Happy 67th Birthday Jerry,
(Truckin Video from Denmark 1972)
"Sometimes the Cards ain't worth a dime if you don't Lay'em Down.....'
Time for Obama to lay down his health care cards, because the Republicans are holding a pair of duces....Willy Bova
Touch of Grey Music Video 1987
AT&T, Verizon, Sprint, T-Mobile, Are Screwing Cell phone Customers Out of $Billions, With Useless Voicemail add on Messages...
These messages are outrageous for two reasons. First, they waste your time. Good heavens: it’s 2009. WE KNOW WHAT TO DO AT THE BEEP.
Do we really need to be told to hang up when we’re finished!? Would anyone, ever, want to “send a numeric page?” Who still carries a pager, for heaven’s sake? Or what about “leave a callback number?” We can SEE the callback number right on our phones!
Second, we’re PAYING for these messages. These little 15-second waits add up–bigtime. If Verizon’s 70 million customers leave or check messages twice a weekday, Verizon rakes in about $620 million a year. That’s your money. And your time: three hours of your time a year, just sitting there listening to the same message over and over again every year...
Larry David Talks 'Seinfeld' Cast Reunion
(Not that there is anything wrong with that...)
Larry David says the on-screen reunion of the "Seinfeld" cast will be "tough to beat."
The "Seinfeld" co-creator and "Curb Your Enthusiasm" creator-star says the cast will appear together in the finale of the upcoming seventh season of the HBO comedy series. It marks the first time in 11 years that Jerry Seinfeld, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Jason Alexander and Michael Richards have appeared together on screen. David says the "Seinfeld" stars will appear in five "Curb" episodes during the season in a storyline about the cast reuniting. He says he worked closely with Seinfeld on the show-within-a-show script....
Daily Show's John Hodgman: To solve health crisis, let homeless sell organs (Video)
The Daily Show's John Hodgman has a very Soylent Green-flavored healthcare solution: Just take organs from homeless people. "Diagnosis: Great idea," he said on Thursday night's show. "Prescription: Pay for healthcare by letting people sell their organs." Hodgman claimed that a healthy human kidney is worth $160,000, "And we all have two of them, like big, fat money bags nestled right here behind the spleen."...
Colbert: Republicans made Obama water down his Budweiser (Video)
On Thursday night’s show, Stephen Colbert saluted President Barack Obama’s “beer summit” with Henry Louis Gates Jr. and Sergeant James Crowley. “Nation, right now our country is embroiled in a heated debate that affects every single American, particularly those of us who are sick…sick of talking about health care. Let’s talk about beer!” Colbert declared.
Colbert said he considered “being sober a pre-existing condition...
Banks Paid $32.6 Billion in Bonuses Amid U.S. Bailout
Citigroup Inc., Merrill Lynch & Co. and seven other U.S. banks paid $32.6 billion in bonuses in 2008 while receiving $175 billion in taxpayer funds, according to a report by New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo. Cuomo analyzed 2008 bonuses at nine banks that received Trouble Asset Relief Program financing from the U.S. government. New York-based Citigroup and Merrill, which has since been taken over by Bank of America Corp., received TARP funding totaling $55 billion, Cuomo said.
“When the banks did well, their employees were paid well. When the banks did poorly, their employees were paid well,” Cuomo’s office said in the 22-page report. “When the banks did very poorly, they were bailed out by taxpayers and their employees were still paid well. Bonuses and overall compensation did not vary significantly as profits diminished.”...
Washington Post: Swine Flu Vaccine Will Contain Mercury
The Washington Post confirmed today that the swine flu vaccine, which is set to be rolled out nationwide this fall in what some fear could ultimately become a mandatory vaccination program, will contain mercury, a toxin linked with autism and neurological disorders. Claims by the CDC and the Institute of Medicine, following a whitewash study that ignored previously verified evidence, that thimerosal, a mercury based preservative, has no causal relationship to skyrocketing cases of autism have been soundly rejected by top doctors and scientists ever since....
What’s in the regular flu shot?
Egg proteins: including avian contaminant viruses
Gelatin: known to cause allergic reactions and anaphylaxis are usually associated with sensitivity to egg or gelatin
Polysorbate 80 (Tween80™): can cause severe allergic reactions, including anaphylaxis
Formaldehyde: known carcinogen
Triton X100: a strong detergent
Sucrose: table sugar
Resin: known to cause allergic reactions
Gentamycin: an antibiotic
Thimerosal: mercury is still in multidose flu shot vials...
The Daily Show: Treasury Secratary Tim Geithner Can't Sell His Home (Video)
The Daily Show recently ran a hilarious segment on Tim Geithner's protracted attempts to sell his Larchmont home. Last we heard, Geithner's home was listed at $1.6 million. Turns out that price was just a tad high.
Is it a bit ironic that the one of the people charged with fixing the housing crisis can't sell his own home? The Daily Show's John Oliver put it this way: "How can the American people trust the policies of a man who can't sell his house? Isn't this like hiring a personal trainer that's morbidly obese?"
President Barack Obama is set to meet with Professor Henry Louis Gates and Sergeant James Crowley early Thursday evening to discuss how the black scholar’s arrest can be a “teaching moment.” Wednesday night, Stephen Colbert used his “The Word” segment to explain how racism is like farts and neither should be discussed.
“Nation, as you know, I don’t see race,” Colbert said. “People tell me I’m white and I believe them because my fridge is full of drinkable yogurt.”
Colbert blasted President Obama, because “six months after racism officially ended, he fanned the flames of prejudice by taking sides in the Gates arrest controversy.”
Obama’s use of the word “stupidly” divided “Americans into two groups: those outraged over Gates’ arrest and those outraged at the other group’s outrage.”
Apple’s iPhone of Mass Destruction Nonsense
Via Cryptogon: it’s not a locked down vending machine, 100% controlled by Apple, it’s a weapon of mass destruction. HAHAHA
I’m very glad to have an excuse to post this Onion piece to go along with this: Apple Claims New iPhone Only Visible To Most Loyal Of Customers.
Via:Threat Level:
The nation’s cellphone networks could suffer “potentially catastrophic” cyberattacks by iPhone-wielding hackers at home and abroad if iPhone owners are permitted to legally jailbreak their shiny wireless devices — that’s what Apple claims.
Emails Show Cozy Ties Between Bush Federal Pension Guarantor And Wall Street Firms He Hired
Remember our old friend Charles Millard? He's the former Lehman investment banker who, after taking over the federal agency that guarantees our pension systems, had the genius idea to ignore a host of warnings and switch the agency's investment portfolio from conservative bonds to risky stocks -- just as last year's financial storm was gathering.
We also learned -- thanks to an inquiry by the inspector general for the agency, the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation -- that Millard had had extensive contacts with staff at Goldman Sachs, BlackRock Capital, and JP Morgan, during the period that the P.B.G.C. was choosing firms to hire as managers for its fund. And that Millard also raised the issue of getting a job with these firms once he left the government. All three firms ended up winning contracts -- which were recently revoked, thanks to concern about those contacts....
....that any of this worked out too well for Millard. A group of senators has called for a criminal investigation into Millard's relationships with his Wall Street friends, and whether they affected his agency's hiring decisions.
And since leaving government earlier this year, he still hasn't found a job.
CSI: Watergate
( 18 1/2 Minute Gap may be Recovered, any bets whether the Kennedy Assassination is discussed)
ON JUNE 20, 1972, President Richard Nixon and his chief of staff, H.R. "Bob" Haldeman, met in Nixon's hideaway office at the Old Executive Office Building. Three days earlier, White House-connected dirty tricksters had been nabbed breaking into the Democratic National Committee's Watergate offices, and the 79-minute-long conversation—with Nixon's secret taping system running and Haldeman taking his typically meticulous notes on a tablet of yellow lined paper with a ballpoint pen—at one point turned toward the break-in and how to craft a counterattack. What exactly the two men said to one another would become one of the great political mysteries of the 20th century: Sometime during the Watergate scandal, 18 ½ minutes were suspiciously erased from the tape recording of this meeting....
Daily Show Gets Right Wing Nut Bill Kristol to admit govt.-run health care can be better than private (VIDEO)
Weekly Standard editor and Fox News pundit Bill Kristol got booed heavily on The Daily Show Monday night when he said that ordinary Americans don’t “deserve” the same standard of health care that soldiers receive.
But the show’s truly revealing moment came when host Jon Stewart caught Kristol — long an opponent of public health care — admitting that government-run health care for soldiers is superior to private health plans.
Colbert: Tased grandma should thank cop for ‘pre-fibrillating’ her (Video)
Stephen Colbert, reporting on the mostly “non-lethal” Taser weapon, noted on Monday night its recent and unfortunate use against a 72-year-old woman near Austin. Taking the side of the local department in standing behind the deputy, the Comedy Central host joked that the woman should thank the officer for “pre-fibrillating” her....
'Daily Show' Bids Farewell To Palin By Poking Holes In Her Farewell Speech (VIDEO)
Sarah Palin's resignation, while a boon for her opponents, is a great loss for many in the comedy world who rely on her special brand of mavricky speech nuggets for fodder. Jon Stewart said goodbye to the oft-mocked governor last night by poking holes in her farewell speech, beginning with her claim that she is stepping down to avoid a politics-as-usual lame-duck session. "When you have 15 months to go in your first term in office I don't think that's lame duck status. I think that's just...you're bored."...
George W Bush's Buddy, Ponzi Scum Sir Allen Stanford Complains about Prison, Too Bad So Sad....
Allen Stanford, the Texas banker charged with orchestrating an $8 billion fraud, isn't too happy behind bars, it seems. His attorney, the heavy-hitting criminal defense lawyer Dick DeGuerin, has filed papers calling conditions at the federal detention facility north of Houston where Stanford is being held "oppressive," and asking that the cricket-loving billionaire be moved.
DeGuerin notes that "during the hottest part of the summer, with outside temperatures of 100 degrees or more," Stanford is being held in a facility that was without air conditioning "for at least a week" during a recent power outage.
According to the filing, Stanford is housed in a single cell with as many as ten other men. "There are no windows for light or ventilation and the conditions are intolerable," the filing says.
The filing also notes that Stanford is unable to consult with his attorneys or review evidence at the facility, since most of the evidence is on computer files and the facility does not allow inmates to use computers. No word on whether Stanford would also prefer that a larger menu of food options be made available to him...
Whistleblower tells of America's hidden nightmare for its sick poor
Wendell Potter can remember exactly when he took the first steps on his journey to becoming a whistleblower and turning against one of the most powerful industries in America.
It was July 2007 and Potter, a senior executive at giant US healthcare firm Cigna, was visiting relatives in the poverty-ridden mountain districts of northeast Tennessee. He saw an advert in a local paper for a touring free medical clinic at a fairground just across the state border in Wise County, Virginia.
Potter, who had worked at Cigna for 15 years, decided to check it out. What he saw appalled him. Hundreds of desperate people, most without any medical insurance, descended on the clinic from out of the hills. People queued in long lines to have the most basic medical procedures carried out free of charge. Some had driven more than 200 miles from Georgia. Many were treated in the open air. Potter took pictures of patients lying on trolleys on rain-soaked pavements.
For Potter it was a dreadful realisation that healthcare in America had failed millions of poor, sick people and that he, and the industry he worked for, did not care about the human cost of their relentless search for profits. "It was over-powering. It was just more than I could possibly have imagined could be happening in America," he told the Observer...
72 Million Americans are either uninsured or underinsured...
President Obama will be promoting health care reform this week in Virginia and North Carolina, and plans to keep the pressure on Congress during next month's recess. One argument for health care reform is that 47 million Americans are uninsured.
But not everyone knows that another 25 million are underinsured as CBS News correspondent Michelle Miller reports.
John Stewardson is up at dawn, working for the local 602 union in Washington, D.C. But by 11:30 a.m., he's home fixing lunch for his ailing wife Linda, a cancer survivor....
BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOUR BLACKBERRY
With every high-tech gadget we buy, we give up a little more privacy. Many devices today are in constant communication with their manufacturer. And it's not just consumers who are losing their rights -- the technology gives authoritarian states whole new ways of keeping tabs on individuals.
Don't look now, but no matter where you go, you're connected. We -- or most of us, at least -- have opened our front doors to large corporations, hardware manufacturers, software firms and search engines. We have allowed them to rifle through our jacket pockets and handbags. And now they can do as they wish with us, or do the bidding of the powers-that-be -- in the form of a totalitarian government, for example.
Don't believe it? Well, consider a recent incident involving the Internet bookseller Amazon and two works by -- ironically enough -- George Orwell. Amazon had been selling the titles, "1984" and "Animal Farm," to owners of its Kindle reader, the special e-book device the bookseller developed. However, it turned out that the publishers of the Orwell books didn't own the electronic rights to the works. And so, to the surprise of buyers, Amazon erased the two books -- which had been paid for and delivered -- from the electronic reader. Amazon's readers had unwittingly purchased pirate copies, it turned out....
Cable TV Workers Trained To Spy On Citizens
One of the largest cable TV companies in the United States is training its employees to look for suspicious behavior and report it to police under the guise of a neighborhood watch initiative. Since according to law enforcement and Homeland Security guidelines, suspicious behavior includes owning guns, being politically active, and having bumper stickers on your car, the cable guy’s next visit to your house may turn out to have more interesting consequences than you originally anticipated.....
Elliot Spitzer: Federal Reserve is ‘a Ponzi scheme, an inside job: (Video)
The Federal Reserve — the quasi-autonomous body that controls the US’s money supply — is a “Ponzi scheme” that created “bubble after bubble” in the US economy and needs to be held accountable for its actions, says Eliot Spitzer, the former governor and attorney-general of New York.
In a wide-ranging discussion of the bank bailouts on MSNBC’s Morning Meeting, host Dylan Ratigan described the process by which the Federal Reserve exchanged $13.9 trillion of bad bank debt for cash that it gave to the struggling banks....
The rich have never had it so good
Here's a truism: The wealthiest 1 percent have never had it so good.
According to government figures, 1-percenters' share of America's total income is the highest it's been since 1929, and their tax rates are the lowest they've faced in two decades. Through bonuses, many 1-percenters will profit from the $23 trillion in bailout largesse the Treasury Department now says could be headed to financial firms. And most of them benefit from IRS decisions to reduce millionaire audits and collect zero taxes from the majority of major corporations.
But what really makes the ultra-wealthy so fortunate, what truly separates this moment from a run-of-the-mill Gilded Age, is the unprecedented protection the 1-percenters have bought for themselves on the most pressing issues. To review: With 22,000 Americans dying each year because they lack health insurance, Congress is considering universal healthcare legislation financed by a surcharge on income above $280,000 -- that is, a levy almost exclusively on 1-percenters. This surtax would graze just 5 percent of small businesses and would recoup only part of the $700 billion the 1-percenters received from the Bush tax cuts. In fact, it is so minuscule, those making $1 million annually would pay just $9,000 more in taxes every year -- or nine-tenths of 1 percent of their 12-month haul....
The Wall Street Rally: Watch Your Wallets
By Robert Reich
Been Down So Long It Seems Like Up To Me, the precocious 1966 novel by the late Richard Farina, defined the late 1960s counterculture. The stock market rally that's pushed the Dow Jones Industrial Average back above 9000 for the first time since early January could be given the same title, and it might well come to define the much-wished-for financial recovery.
What's pushing the stock market upward? Mainly, unexpectedly positive second-quarter corporate profits. But those profits aren't being powered by consumers who have suddenly found themselves with a lot more money in their pockets. The profits are coming from dramatic cost-cutting -- including, most notably, payroll cuts. If a firm cuts its costs enough, it can show a profit even if its sales are still in the basement.
The problem here is twofold. First, such profits can't be maintained. There's a limit to how much can be cut without a business eventually disappearing -- becoming, in effect, a balance sheet in space. Secondly, when businesses slash payrolls to show profits, consumers end up with even less money in their pockets to buy the things businesses produce. Even if they hold on to their jobs, they're likely to fear that they won't have the jobs for long, which causes them to retreat even further from the malls....