Mike's Blog Round Up

CQPolitics: You don't forget that your mother sued your ex-wife--unless your mind is going.

uggabugga: WaPo B.S.

GOPnot4me: Nebraska rethugs follow the playbook.

American Torture: Physicians, Psychologists and "The Dark Side"

The Opinion Mill's Sunday Bookchat asks: Will the credibility of a major publishing house be the last casualty of the Bush administration? Will a list of books make you a better citizen? Will Hanif Kureishi finally get the recognition he deserves? Will Ron Suskind be the reporter who finally gets the impeachment ball rolling?

OFF THE BEATEN PATH: moose & squirrel, one good move, Walled-In Pond, The Whole American Hog


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Some signs along I-80 and some fave classical guitar pieces:

http://freewayblogger.blogspot.com/2008/08/i-80classical-guitar.html

"Orientale" is just gorgeous.

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About yesterdays forum, a caller on C-SPAN this morning stated that he heard McCain tell his POW story before but that this time McCain added the part about the Vietnamese prison guard tracing a crucifix in the dirt with his foot and then immediately erasing as a symbol of faith. According to the caller McCain probable lifted that scenario from the 1959 movie Ben Hur, which I think is another instance of McCain confusing facts with history and popular culture.

scarlet p. @ 1:

Some signs along I-80 and some fave classical guitar pieces:

http://freewayblogger.blogspot.com/2008/08/i-80classical-guitar.html

"Orientale" is just gorgeous.

Many thanks to the good folks of the Greatest State of California for it feeling of Liberty. If I could live around the kind of people i wanted to and could afford it ... it would be California.

McSame's presenting with the same symptomology by which anyone who actually gave a shit could have spotted Raygun's on-coming dementia.

Plus, bombin John's got the worst comb-over in politics...

If he likes Guantanamo so much, why doesn't he just move there? I bet he could use his wife's private plane to get there in no time at all.

... But these chaps were not much account, really. They were no colonists; their administration was merely a squeeze,
and nothing more, I suspect. They were conquerors, and for that you want only brute force--nothing to boast of,
when you have it, since your strength is just an accident arising from the weakness of others.
They grabbed what they could get for the sake of what was to be got. It was just robbery with violence, aggravated murder on a great scale,
and men going at it blind--as is very proper for those who tackle a darkness.
The conquest of the earth, which mostly means the taking it away from those who have a different complexion
or slightly flatter noses than ourselves, is not a pretty thing when you look into it too much. ...

Heart of Republican Darkness By Gormless Wanker Bushco

me @ 6:

If he likes Guantanamo so much, why doesn't he just move there? I bet he could use his wife's private plane to get there in no time at all.

Guantanamo was chosen to be the place for the captives to be tortured while awaiting their show trials.
We know that they dual used a certain type of TLA transport plane to move them in and out,
there was a crashed cargo plane (loaded with white powder) with Gitmo flight plan history.
Gitmo is within easy flying distance of DC, so it was handy for visiting VIPs to go and watch the inmates, and gloat at them in their cages .
Also to create dehumanized conquistadors for the global neocon plan, you need a close supply of victims for training purposes.

Now we have doctors in TX using foster kids for experiments, and profiting from it.
see http://cabdrollery.blogspot.com/2008/08/did-you-know-you-were-experiment...

Jerome "two shakes short of a martini" Corsi manages to grab another 15 minutes.

http://www.amazon.com/Obama-Nation-Leftist-Politics-Personality/dp/14165...

McCain just can't speak with saying something contradictory or incoherent.

Meanwhile, all stories digging into torture and other war crimes by the current administration are most needed.

After reading the "uggabugga: WaPo B.S." story, I have to disagree with them to large extent. I spent 2-3 years in California's Imperial Valley. For those unfamiliar with the area (which is damned near everyone), it is the site of an ancient seabed, stretching from the Mexican border (15 miles from El Centro), to the Salton Sea. It averages ~100' below sea-level to a maximum of ~240' below. It gets virtually no rainfall, but is heavily irrigated by the Colorado River, by way of the All-American Canal. It produces the vast majority of our winter lettuce, carrots, spring asparagus, sugar beets, onions and a wide variety of lesser crops. The 'Valley' is dominated by agriculture. I would estimate that >75% of all jobs are somehow related to farming.

There is a migration path, which begins in the Winter in the valley, then moves up into the San Joaquin for Spring and Summer, and ends up around Salinas in the Summer. Of course, there are other major agriculture areas, but this is the most travelled path. I worked for a bail bondsman, who was a self-made man and one of the smartest I ever met. He began picking grapes with his family, when he was just a kid. He saved enough money to go to barber school and went to work in Indio. When the owner retired, Henry bought the business from him, and became extremely well-off. He eventually needed a way use his savings more profitably. He found that high-risk bonds were what he was looking for. He hired me in his third year and we made a great team.

Henry and I spent a great deal of time on the road together. He gave me a great schooling on the way the ag business worked, and what life was like being part of it. At its core is the critical requirement for cheap labor. Farmers are paid incredibly bad. I also think this is true for all US farmers. The people making the money are the processors, brokers, speculators/traders, distributors, etc. In order to survive (literally), farmers must produce their crops as cheaply as possible. Labor is a huge cost driver for them. They are only going to get paid the current market price, regardless of what their costs were. Having an available labor pool is essential.

Anyone can get an ag job. You do not have to be Hispanic, or one of the other minorities, which have increased in population. So, the notion that minorities are taking the ag jobs from caucasians is hogwash. But, few white folk want jobs, except as drivers, mechanics, supervisors, etc. Most ag field work is paid by piecework. In other words, you get paid by what you pick. The hours usually begin before sunrise, and end as the sun is beginning to go down. The work is also physically demanding. But again, it is available to anyone who wants it. That includes illegals. Every year, there is a need to replenish the labor pool. The 66K work permit quota, being proposed, might not even keep the Imperial Valley going. But, this same situation is practiced in Texas, Arizona, New Mexico, Eastern Washington, of the places I know of. As long as the money makers keep strangling the farmers, this situation will remain in place, with only a small powerful group benefitting.

Now, there is a contradiction to this, which centers around construction and landscaping, especially in non-union companies. This is done solely for cheap labor and the bottomline. Not all specialities apply, of course. But, there are many jobs which would gladly be taken by whites. Most companies do not hire illegals, and they need ID, Greencards, SSN's. In that regard the laws are being followed, even though the anti-immigration crowd can use this as an example of the worker pool being diluted.

I did not write this in support of the current system. Quite the contrary. I would much rather see the problem addressed. But greed is a powerful motivator to perpetuate it. The are few groups I respect more than the family-owned farmers. They have put food on our tables for well-over a century. And, they risk bankruptcy each year doing it. They are one of the last of the cornerstones of the American culture. If we are going to solve some of these problems, it must start by supporting them, and no, I have never worked on a farm in my life (although I used to pick strawberries/raspberries each summer to pay for school clothes, and a little pocket money.

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