says the swine flue "peaked" in mid October.........so WHY is a national emergency being called??? More people die every year from the "regular" flu than have died from swine flu...........something is rotten in Den....uh......DC.

After the Billionaires Plundered Alabama Town, Troops Were Called in ... Illegally

Editor's Note: The shocking transfer of public wealth to Wall Street's pockets is illustrated vividly in Mark Ames' article below, which covers some very disturbing recent events in Alabama, where billionaires and banks are squeezing the locals so hard that they're literally going bankrupt just for flushing their toilets, where violence and the threat of violence are reaching a boiling point and where even the Posse Comitatus Act is under threat. "We have to tolerate the inequality as a way to achieve greater prosperity and opportunity for all," said one Goldman Sachs vice-chairman recently. Well, here's a tale of the kind of inequality the finance industry expects citizens to tolerate.

In light of all of this, the Army's brief, illegal occupation of a string of towns in Alabama this past spring no longer looks like a freak one-off, but rather a logical progression in the ongoing billionaire plunder of America.

It gives new meaning to what MSNBC host Dylan Ratigan is calling "corporate communism." Not only are banking billionaires on permanent state wealthfare, but even worse, as the wealth available becomes increasingly scarce and there isn't enough left to satisfy the billionaires' grotesque appetites and regular citizens' needs to flush their toilets or heat their homes, we're heading to the point that all Third World countries come to -- calling out the troops to ensure that the peasants pay their tithes to their absentee masters in New York and Connecticut and don't get all uppity like those Europeans.

Which might explain that odd story from several weeks or so ago, of some southern Sheriff's dept seizing the county computer/civics center at gunpoint, prob the only way to stop it falling into the hands of the banksters and bankruptcy lawyers, and it then being sold off and lost to the county.

From TheRealNews:

Uzbek terror and the UK/USA

[Former British Ambassador to Uzbekistan] Murray: CIA used Uzbek torture to create false intelligence; support for regime continues

This is in response to "As Technology Changes" thread.
My degree hasn't done shit for me. In fact, I'm more like one of these losers. And then I read the latest Newsweek which says we should lower the length of time it takes to finish college to three years, and I'm thinking, "How about emphasizing courses which actually net people a job in the real world?" Because those textbooks don't do that, either, even if the universities fucking gave them away themselves.

As for the "R.I.P. GOP" thing, this is what I had to say.
They need another Ike. Someone who respects the rule of law, when it comes to things like Brown vs Board of Education, and doesn't resort to calling them "activist judges". Someone willing to end a war, and recognize the value of a social safety net. I know that he's also responsible for our problems with Iran and Iraq, but he still comes off a lot more respectable than his successors in that party. As for the party itself making a come-back, um, no, not gonna happen. I know we believed it wouldn't happen in '92, either, but back then, they still had the glow of Ray-gun to hide behind. There's no way they'll ever be able to excuse Bush the way they were with Nixon, because the latter Prez was shoved in the middle of a political and social crisis, while Dumbya created the current crisis. Though I do think that if the Dems keep play their stalling games, instead of appeasing the progressives, then they'll probably lose to another third party.

Anyway, hope for the blind.
Obama goes on the offensive against global warming deniers. The number of failed banks thus far is 106. Holbrooke imagines the elections in Afghanistan will go smoothly this time, honest. Swine flu is declared a national emergency. Repugs pretend to give a fuck about spending, but only for health care. Climate change we can believe in...More Saudi-style feminism. Republicrats throw Obama under the bus over his FOX feud.

From experiences fishing and my knowledge of porpoise behavior......these porpoise are probably pissed about being pursued and are trying to launch stinging tentacle jellyfish into the boat following them. When porpoises enjoy themselves they like to ride the waves/wake of boats or the pressure wave at the bow of larger vessels, but to be pursued is improper behavior for humans in boats so I hope the stupid woman in that video got a facefull.

Banks should lend money to small businesses?! What, are you going to demand they hire competent people next time, too? Ridiculous. Those poor execs busted their humps coming up with ways to con the public, and they shouldn't have to give away their hard-stolen cash to any Johnny Come Lately Welfare Queen coming up from the ghetto who hasn't done anything to prove they deserve a line of credit. I hope our savior Sarah chains his dangerous black ass in 2012, so we can go back to the good old days when capitalism was a shell game, and not a commie system where businesses are expected to provide reliable goods and services to consumers.

Great Aunt Margaret today. She had the good life. WWI, the depression, WWII, Korean War, Viet Nam and the Middle East bull shit, but she got through it. We will survive this. GNA!

Oh, I forgot to mention, she will be 100 tomorrow.

The revenge of the dolphins has begun.

on the public option.

Stand up for the rights of the poor beleaguered jellyfish! That can't be fun to be kicked about like that.