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From Ted Rall. Open Thread below...

About Bluegal aka Fran
Bluegal aka Fran's picture
Executive Producer of The Professional Left Podcast. On staff at Crooks and Liars since 2007. Master's degree from Harvard. Happy wife of Driftglass. Mother of three geniuses. Obsessive knitter. Blogs at http://bgalrstate.blogspot.com. .
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Alerta_Alerta's picture

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8438852.stm

"The US Secret Service says it is investigating after an effigy of Barack Obama was found hanging in the home town of former President Jimmy Carter."

It's not racism d00d.


Bite my shiny metal ass.
http://www.startalkradio.net/

Turn the Bluegrass Blue's picture

I'm sure they just want their government white, er, back.

congressive's picture

"Curtis Allina, the man credited with putting heads on the famous candy dispenser, passed away Dec. 15 at his home in Olympia, Wash. Mr. Allina was 87."

R.I.P., Mr. Allina, R.I.P.

was made during one summer before Hitler rose to power...


"Parachutes are allowed in checked or carry-on baggage, but may not be worn in flight."

---Southwest Airlines

route today.

He says that rich people have "earned" their health care, and that if we just give people good health care, they won't have any incentive to excell in the workplace. He said that if you invent the computer, of course you should have the best health care out there.

Only seconds before he was bemoaning the fact that a friend of his may lose her Medicaid access to a home nurse.

I should have asked him if she's who invented the computer. *sigh*


"The greatest tyranny is censoring information in order to be better able to control people." - Cristina Saralegui

AGold's picture

Didn't you know that people only get rich in America from inventing things? They NEVER get rich from crime, vulture capitalism, inheritance, privilege, laying off or shipping thousands of American jobs overseas, or anything like that. They all have simply earned their wanton greed and selfishness.

Link by Heather Saturday.

http://www.archive.org/details/ThePowerOfNigh...

Everything seems to be connecting.

MountainMan23's picture

Reuters Video from YouTube:

China's jaw-dropping ice festival

The annual International Ice and Snow Festival begins in Harbin, northern China, featuring giant luminous ice sculptures and a fireworks display.


When will government of the people, by the politicians, for the corporations perish from this Earth?

Not soon enough!

Rascalcat's picture

Despite the fact that my job, as well as most of my friends jobs, have been exported to China, I bear them no ill will. I will not say the same for the US corporate greed heads responsible.

Afganistan should just about tap us out, as it did Russia. China, on the other hand, goes into Iraq building schools and hospitals. Wonder who will win the "hearts and minds"?

ysbaddaden's picture
)O(

Kang and Kodos?


Diabolus est Deus Inversus

CoIntelPro.PronktasticlyAgainst.SCLM.E-Voting.Incumbents's picture

the coupon circulars.


Some stuff you can't make up!

Rascalcat's picture

Incumbent Dem Gov. Ritter pulls, unexpectedly out of race. Believe me, there is no wringing of hands or gnashing of teeth from progressives. Probably something dirty here, but no one so far knows what it is. Got a feeling mid-terms are going to be a "throw the bums out" election for both sides. Might be time for Congress to take jobs really seriously.

Rich H's picture

I kind of dismissed them as they trumpted the rush to war along with most other media outlets. When I figured they weren't reporting the truth I decided there was no need for them.

Too bad really.

In L.A. where I live there is the mistaken belief that the Times is a liberal paper. Well, years ago they let Robert Scheer go and replaced him with Max Boot and another nut job. Meanwhile if you look at the letters section they still publish ones from nutjobs saying what a liberal rag they are. Go figure.

I remember when advocating for the common man was a function of the media.

Rich H's picture

I remember it well. Perhaps that's why I miss it so much. Once upon a time I grew up reading the Boston Globe with my dad. Now that was a paper.

But was so let down by the times in the Iraq war run up, stopped trusting any of them.

India has a law that only allows one business location for any business. That means in all of India there is only one Wal-Mart.

Is that really such a bad thing?

Because where we live (city of San Diego) our local paper is shit.
The LA Times is light years better, but from what I understand, it used to be much better.
In fact, the Union Tribune called me last night asking if I would come back to them.
I said we started taking the Times because the Tribune was nothing more than pages of reprinted AP, UPI and NYTimes service stories so what was the point. There appeared to be like 4 people left working there.
He said that they were under new management and trying to change again, etc.. and that he hoped we would try them again at some point.
We shall see.

the Seattle P.I. went internet only. They printed the same news as the Seattle Times but had a seperate editorial page. The Far Left Media is a myth.

Rascalcat's picture

Boy, Howdee! Them's fightin' words for me.

over the years they cut staff, then more, and so on and so on. Eventually they outsourced all of their layout work to Korea. Yeah, it's done overnight in Korea and just sent back over. They closed the Orange County plant.

Too bad too. I wrote and complained of their shift in coverage and editorial stance a few times. I even wrote to a few of the columnists I used to admire. Never once receiving any acknowledgment.

I can't help but think the newspaper industry did themselves in.

ron's picture

make a comeback. Print real news.

Alerta_Alerta's picture

Haha, you jester!


Bite my shiny metal ass.
http://www.startalkradio.net/

ron's picture

not would. They all seem to be bought by the neocons.

Rascalcat's picture

...piss on a liberals dream. What else do we have?

Rich H's picture

I was just thinking of my old home town. Wistfully remembering Arthur Fiedler, John Williams and Seiji Ozawa. Only to be replaced by Keith Lockhart. That's a shame too - but another subject altogether.

Rascalcat's picture

Give me hope for the future.

Hayduke lives. (hit the google)

ysbaddaden's picture
)O(

An informal John Wayne.


Diabolus est Deus Inversus

Shadowgm's picture

He seems to be a decent enough conductor.

(Unless, of course, he's gone on record in the media saying something stupid.)

Rich H's picture

only basing my observation from his rookie season. Having the pleasure to see all of the above conductors at the half shell on the fourth and making the trip cross country to watch it again.

I was severly dissapointed in the program. I'd have to look it up, but I'm pretty sure he didn't finish with stars and stripes - and music was piped in over speakers.

At that point in his career, he clearly wasn't up to the task. It was an immense dissapointment. Of course he's probably improved over the years.

Alerta_Alerta's picture

Science? The fuck i know!

(science is my religion. i pray to quark. and his overlord, dark matter!)


Bite my shiny metal ass.
http://www.startalkradio.net/

Rascalcat's picture

...when you bring logic into the equation?

Alerta_Alerta's picture

Confuse the hell out of people, and when they get angry......throw smoke grenades....and run.

RUN!!!12shift5^6


Bite my shiny metal ass.
http://www.startalkradio.net/

ysbaddaden's picture
)O(

Tue, 01/05/2010 - 21:58 — Alerta_Alerta
Science? The fuck i know!

(science is my religion. i pray to quark). _______________________________________________________________

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_pqLjOg0hwo

I'd rather pray to the twins.


Diabolus est Deus Inversus

ron's picture

you're talking to someone who started reading the newspaper in the fifties when I had a paper route.

Rascalcat's picture

6:00 AM every freakiing morning!

Good times!

ron's picture

at 3:00 A.M. inthe morning and hope to catch an hour or two of sleep before school. Yeah, the good ol days.

Edwin's picture

Ha! Looxury! When I was a kid... :)


far left loon >.<

ron's picture

Looxury of helping pay the mortgage so I had a place to try to get that one or two hours of sleep before school.

Shadowgm's picture

... 'liberal' San Francisco Bay Area, the Vallejo newspaper trends conservative, and the comments threads run deep with right-wing/evangelical screeds.

Of course, we also currently have a mayor who said 'gays ain't going to heaven' and sees no issue with calling Vallejo, 'The City of God,' because, like, God already owns everything, right?

Tequila's picture

Thanks for nothing, Dodd. Oh, and Dorgan retires, too. Our health care system leaves autistic children behind. Taiwan once again bans certain types of meat imports from the U.S.
Americans don't like their jobs, for some reason. Another Obama effigy in the South.

Turn the Bluegrass Blue's picture

I used to have a job watching news broadcasts. One of the programs I had to watch was footage of Senate on C-SPAN. During the Bill Frist era, before Senate needed 60 votes to call for a bathroom break, Byron Dorgan's speeches were a gasp of air to keep me going through the suffocation by bullshit that was the Republican side of the Senate. Godspeed, Sen. Dorgan. You will be missed.

Liberal AND Proud's picture

Remember what I said several months ago, kids.

There isn't going to be a shift in majority power. But there is going to be considerable change within each party with incumbents facing primary challenges all over the place.

This is why the healthcare bill should be killed. We will have more progressives when this election is over, and the incumbents that remain will be running scared.


Vote GOP and move forward to the 18th Century.

Edwin's picture

I was having me some fun at the Aussie KFC racist/not-racist TV ad. The one shown at HuffPo today.


far left loon >.<

justadood's picture

but the macbook would keep one warmer than papers.... those (and my core-duo MBPro) run *HOT*....

VegasRage's picture

because he knew Peter Schiff would win.


Goodnight, Frau Blücher

Andy K's picture

You just keep on thinking that.

Connecticut will end up electing another Democrat very much like Dodd, but without the ethically questionable below-market-rate mortgage. Bet the house on it.

Alice X - Chomsky Nader's picture

May the good folks of Connecticut come to their senses and elect a Socialist to the Senate.


statusquObama, change you can only pretend in

Shadowgm's picture

... plutocrat-shaped would be welcome.

Tequila's picture

Really run for election? I mean, he took Fannie and Freddie's bribes and was a cheerleader for watered-down Obamacare.

Los Angeles, California (CNN) -- The substance that spurred an evacuation at a California airport Tuesday was simply honey, the Kern County Sheriff's Department said.

http://www.cnn.com/2010/TRAVEL/01/05/californ...


far left loon >.<

Shadowgm's picture

... so how does HONEY trip off a swab for TNT/TATP?

... is that the USUAL appearance of TNT/TATP?

... what caused the agents to become nauseous?

... why is everything we don't recognize TERRORISM! OMGZ! MAN THE BARRICADES, THEY'RE HEEEEEERE!

*sigh*

Shadowgm's picture

... less than 3 oz. of TATP is enough to destroy a plane, by some accounts. (It's also so unstable that you'll probably do more than blow your junk off.)

So limiting travelers to 3 oz. bottles makes us safer how?

Shadowgm's picture

... you can run, but you can't hive.

Turn the Bluegrass Blue's picture

...if you bee something, say something.

ysbaddaden's picture
)O(

You can attract more flies with honey than vinegar.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PJv92VfGAaA


Diabolus est Deus Inversus

Tequila's picture

I hate L.A. At least this explains why I can't get work-because I'd be onto this bullshit.

Alice X - Chomsky Nader's picture

Surplus labor, times two.


statusquObama, change you can only pretend in

Shadowgm's picture

... or, at least, the small press, could theoretically enjoy a resurgence if we lose net neutrality. AT&T, Comcast ... they're not going to protect it; media conglomerates have been securing their footholds of content and distribution since the 1990's (a combination of changes to ownership rules on radio/television stations, and no real regulation/guidance on internet presence).

So when the internet becomes a solely corporate playground, being able to publish small-scale will again become valuable.

pissed off patricia's picture

My husband just had to de-ice his windshield before he could leave for work. It's in the upper 20s here this morning in frigid sunny Florida.
There is frost on everything. It must be winter. It definately is cold.


Say what you mean. Mean what you say. But don't say it mean.

congressive's picture

...a good use for an Apple laptop. :)

Shadowgm's picture

... the PC's are lining birdcages. :)

ysbaddaden's picture
)O(

I remember an old Mother Goose and Grimm strip where Adam and Eve were kicked out of the Garden, because Adam committed the sin of trying to combine his Adam computer with an Apple computer.


Diabolus est Deus Inversus

pissed off patricia's picture

Is anyone else watching morning joe? Did you just hear the writer from Playboy telling about the guy who conned the CIA? Back when Ridge was in charge of whatever the hell he was in charge of, this guy convinced the CIA and apparently all the way to the oval office that he could decode messagaes and tell where the next terrorist attack would be. Many in the CIA thought it was bs, but the higher ups bought the story. He made about 20 or 30 million with his scam. He only last year got another contract from some part of the air force to do the same thing. He convinced everyone that he was a scientist with some special powers. He wasn't a scientist at all and last year he filed and went bankrupt because he owed 13 million to casinos. I gotta get a copy of Playboy and read this article.


Say what you mean. Mean what you say. But don't say it mean.

ysbaddaden's picture
)O(

I got the one with the Marge Simpson pictorial.


Diabolus est Deus Inversus

Turn the Bluegrass Blue's picture

That's why you're getting a copy of Playboy, to "read the articles." Who do you think we are, CIA chiefs being sold on a magic decoder ring?

Liberal AND Proud's picture

I only "read" the January issue.


Vote GOP and move forward to the 18th Century.

MikeD's picture

This is an amazing interview: http://www.democracynow.org/2009/12/28/the_ma...

And here is the online version of the Playboy article: http://www.playboy.com/articles/the-man-who-c...

The stunning thing is that anyone who knows a decent amount about computer software or a little about intelligence gathering could recognize that the con man's claims of picking up hidden "barcode" messages in video feeds from Al Jazeera were obviously false. Yet, he was able to con the higher up in the Bush admin. Also, it shows how classification and secrecy can be abused not to hide actual secrets but to enable people to bilk millions from the government with no accountability.

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