Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev: By the way, in 1987, after my first visit to the United States, Vice President Bush accompanied me to the airport, and told me: "Reagan is a conservative. An extreme conservative. All the blockheads and dummies are for him, and when he says that something is necessary, they trust him. But if some Democrat had proposed what Reagan did, with you, they might not have trusted him."

That woman then asked if Clinton considers drone attacks and bombings like the one that killed more than 100 civilians in the city of Peshawar earlier this week to both be acts of terrorism.

"No, I do not," Clinton replied.

"Hey, That's America!"



No more delicious chocolate cookies?

I think Bloomberg is planning some terrorist activity for his third term.

Q: How Could It Be Against the Law to Spread Public Information?

A: Because we live under a highly oppressive government. Unfortunately, the vast majority of our citizens don't realize this BECAUSE THEY DON'T GIVE A FUCK. And why bother ruining your life by trying to accept reality. Just ignore it until it happens to you. That seems to work best.

How to Annoy the Fuckers:

A top U.S. official in Afghanistan has resigned in protest of the war, the Washington Post reports. "I have lost understanding of and confidence in the strategic purposes of the United States' presence in Afghanistan," Matthew Hoh said in his letter of resignation.

I agreed...EIGHT FUCKING YEARS AGO!

"Killing mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, sons, daughters, friends, lovers, babies, and pets is fine. As long as they're not mine." -Assholes of the World

Twin car bomb attacks just outside the Green Zone in
Baghdad destroyed three government buildings, killed 155
people, and injured 520. The attack was the country's
worst since 2007 and killed an unspecified number of
children at the Justice Ministry day-care center. "There
were children killed in the swings," said a rescuer,
"others who died right where they sat on the see-saws."
More violence is expected as elections near; three
beheaded bodies were found in the province of
Babel. Fourteen Americans were killed in two helicopter
crashes in Afghanistan, and the Department of Defense
announced that 72 members of the U.S. military had
recently died while serving in Operation Enduring Freedom
in Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Jordan, Kenya, Kyrgyzstan,
the Philippines, the Seychelles, the Sudan, Tajikistan,
Turkey, and Yemen, as well as at Guantanamo Bay.

golly gee, thanks, america

It is now official. Bloomfuck has spent more money on an election than ANYONE, ANYWHERE, EVER. Yes, he even spent more than himself.

Which is weird, because you can only be mayor for two terms in New York City.

Oh, yeah, and the piece of shit propaganda publishers that wholeheartedly cheered us into killing HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE, have now endorsed the fat fuck. Big surprise.

Obama Every Bit as Bad as Bush/Cheney on Patriot Act

While battling the FBI's expanded surveillance guidelines, Sen. Russ Feingold, D-Wis., also revealed (Daily Kos, Oct. 8) that in the Senate Judiciary Committee review of the Patriot Act (also Oct. 8), Republicans protecting the Act were joined, in a closed-door classified session, by Obama officials with amendments further preserving it. Then, in a public session, all but three Democrats voted for a watered-down "compromise" bill by Patrick Leahy and Diane Feinstein.

As unappetizing as nuclear waste might sound, its radioactive salts strontium and cesium were apparently irresistible to rabbits, badgers, and other wild animals.

"They loved it," Bo Weir, project manager for CH2M HILL Plateau Remediation Company, the government contractor, told the Tri-City Herald newspaper, which first reported the helicopter flights.

The bodies of thousands of rabbits culled every year from the parks in Stockholm’s Kungsholmen neighbourhood are being used to fuel a heating plant in central Sweden.

Breaking News

I just called Citibank, and it turns out, you're not allowed to refer to Citibank as "You Fucks."

God DAMN I love change!!!!!!!!!!

Today's Big Surprise #1:

The Obama administration is increasing warnings it could delay its planned withdrawal from Iraq. The U.S. has pledged to end combat operations by September 2010 and withdraw all troops by the end of 2011. But on Wednesday, undersecretary of defense for policy Michele Flournoy told a Congressional hearing the U.S. could reevaluate its drawdown plans if Iraq delays national elections scheduled for January. Flournoy said the U.S. withdrawal plan is “not rigid.”

Today's Big Surprise #2:

Conservation groups based in Alaska have accused the Obama administration of repeating the mistakes of George Bush after it gave the conditional go-ahead for Shell to begin drilling offshore for oil and natural gas in the environmentally sensitive Beaufort Sea.

...and let's not forget when Mayor Bloomberg said, "Fuck the 9/11 heroes! Heroes my ass! I am the real hero! Look at me! Look at my bags! They're full of money!

“There is a special place in hell reserved for Mike Bloomberg,” said Valentin, a father of three who launched the 9/11 Police Aid Foundation to help other ill and struggling responders.

...and this...

Mayor Bloomberg killed a study on the city's response to the 9/11 attacks after his lawyers said they did not want a report that cited any missteps or dealt with "environmental" or "respirator issues," says a former city official.

City lawyers raised fears that the proposed "after-action report" - which the U.S. Department of Justice had offered to fund - could lead to criticism and fuel lawsuits, David Longshore, former director of special programs for the city's Office of Emergency Management, told The Post.

"The Bloomberg administration acted to sweep any potential problems under the rug," said Longshore, who was trapped in a loading dock outside the WTC while both towers collapsed. He later developed sinusitis and throat polyps and sued the city.

Longshore, who left his city job last year, showed The Post his work notes on internal OEM discussions with city lawyers in February 2003. His notes say the Law Department "doesn't want a critical report" and "does not want a report that says we did anything wrong."

I love super sticky stickers. Please click on the photo.

Three towns face lawsuits from timber company

One of the nation's largest timber companies is suing three local towns.

Plum Creek Timberland, which owns thousands of acres of forestland in Big Flats, Rome and Saratoga, is fighting what it calls an unfair tax.

None of the communities provided Plum Creek property with fire protection during the years they charged fees for the service, the company said in the three lawsuits. The company also maintains that the state Department of Natural Resources, not the towns, is responsible for fire protection on forestland.

Big Flats Chairman Todd Peterson disagrees.

"That's a total lie by Plum Creek," he said. "It's very clear in state statutes that, if there's a fire in your town, you have to respond."

Exhilaration As Dam Falls on Rogue River

On October 2 2009, Earthjustice attorney Mike Sherwood watched as Savage Rapids dam was demolished, allowing the Rogue River to run free for the first time in 88 years. Torn down in large part because of Mike's legal efforts, the dam was widely regarded as the river's number one salmon killer. Here, Mike talks of what it was like to see the fruits of his labors flow by, and he tells how this dam removal is just part of the larger effort to restore salmon and steelhead runs throughout the West Coast.

From the people who can prove Dick Cheney founded democracy:






















These people are currently claiming Obama should not have received a Nobel peace prize, because he hasn't done anything. These people also applauded Saturday Night Live for making fun of the fact that Obama hasn't done anything. So, the man who has yet to overturn ANY of the Bush/Cheney bits of new world order, needs to be impeached?

These people also have conflicting quotes on this call to action.

30 GOP Senators Vote to Defend Gang Rape

In 2005, Jamie Leigh Jones was gang-raped by her co-workers while she was working for Halliburton/KBR in Baghdad. She was detained in a shipping container for at least 24 hours without food, water, or a bed, and "warned her that if she left Iraq for medical treatment, she'd be out of a job." (Jones was not an isolated case.) Jones was prevented from bringing charges in court against KBR because her employment contract stipulated that sexual assault allegations would only be heard in private arbitration.

Offering Ms. Jones legal relief was Senator Al Franken of Minnesota who offered an amendment to the 2010 Defense Appropriations bill that would withhold defense contracts from companies like KBR "if they restrict their employees from taking workplace sexual assault, battery and discrimination cases to court."

Seems simple enough. And yet, to GOP Senator Jefferson Beauregard Sessions of Alabama allowing victims of sexual assault a day in court is tantamount to a "political attack" at Halliburton. That 29 others, all men, chose to join him in opposing the Franken amendment is simply mind-boggling.

Here are those who vote to protect a corporation over a victim of rape:

Alexander (R-TN)
Barrasso (R-WY)
Bond (R-MO)
Brownback (R-KS)
Bunning (R-KY)
Burr (R-NC)
Chambliss (R-GA)
Coburn (R-OK)
Cochran (R-MS)
Corker (R-TN)
Cornyn (R-TX)
Crapo (R-ID)
DeMint (R-SC)
Ensign (R-NV)
Enzi (R-WY)
Graham (R-SC)
Gregg (R-NH)
Inhofe (R-OK)
Isakson (R-GA)
Johanns (R-NE)
Kyl (R-AZ)
McCain (R-AZ)
McConnell (R-KY)
Risch (R-ID)
Roberts (R-KS)
Sessions (R-AL)
Shelby (R-AL)
Thune (R-SD)
Vitter (R-LA)
Wicker (R-MS)


This for an American Halliburton employee. Imagine how these "men" feel about the common Iraqi.

the L Magazine features The Heroes and Villains of New York City including one of my personal heroes, Heidi Boghosian

Fuck the iPhone

The Department of Justice has finally admitted it in court papers: The nation’s telecom companies are an arm of the government — at least when it comes to secret spying.

Last night was one of the greatest television viewing experiences of my life. Bloomberg was destroyed. Not so much because Thompson is the most amazing man in the city, but because Bloomberg is such a weak little wimp. He can't handle not being in control every second. And here was a rare hour where Mike got to be treated like an "equal" to someone else. I look at the face of Bloomberg in that debate, and I compare it to his faces on the 14 full-color advertisements in my mailbox. They don't look like the same man.

He's not a leader. He a boss.

All but one of the NY1 pundits saw it as a clear win for Thompson. And I believe Bloomberg was totally destroyed (I'm not saying his run is destroyed since voting is purely about $$$, but if people were to actually watch that debate and vote based on it, Bloomberg would be done) I was by no means shocked when I looked in the NY Times this morning to find out that Bill Thompson was the clear loser. Thanks New York Times. How you liking your new building?

NEW YORK The U.S. military in eastern Afghanistan recently changed its media embed rules to ban pictures of troops killed in the war.

“Media will not be allowed to photograph or record video of U.S. personnel killed in action,” says a ground rules document issued Sept. 15 by Regional Command East at Bagram Air Field.

This language is new. A version of the same document dated July 23 says, “Media will not be prohibited from covering casualties” as long as a series of conditions are met.

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
CNN Leaves It There
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Ron Paul Interview

A YOUNG Afghan girl suffered fatal injuries (she fucking died) after a box of public information leaflets, dropped from a British RAF transport aircraft over Helmand province, landed on top of her.
The accident, which the UK Ministry of Defence said yesterday was "highly regrettable", is being investigated.

I find it hard to be supportive of murderers, but maybe a little positive reinforcement is all the evil empire needs. Darth Vader came around eventually.

The Obama administration declared Fox News - and its owner, reporters and commentators - shills for the President's Republican opponents Sunday.

"Let's not pretend they're a news network," White House communications director Anita Dunn said on CNN's "Reliable Sources," firing the latest salvo in the long-simmering feud.

"Fox News often operates almost as either the research arm or the communications arm of the Republican Party," Dunn said.

"What I think is fair to say about Fox, and certainly the way we view it, is that it really is more a wing of the Republican Party," she added.

Now we just need them to admit the same about the CNN, MSNBC, and the entire Democratic party: that they really are more a wing of the Republican party.

With honesty like this, in a few centuries maybe we'll get politicians who will DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT.

Secondly, thanks for endorsing Bill Thompson. The people of New York made it clear that you can only be a mayor for 8 years. Bloomberg despises democracy. Not only should he lose, his face should be shat upon by every single New Yorker. Twice.

Now go back to killing people for fun and profit.

I heard Naomi Klein's gut reaction to Obama's Nobel Peace Prize the day it was announced on WBAI. I found it very interesting that Monica Crowley's assesment on yesterday's McLaughlin sounded almost identical.



Naomi Klein on Democracy Now, October 9, 2009:

JUAN GONZALEZ: Your reaction to this surprise announcement?

NAOMI KLEIN: You know, I try not to speak about things before I really had a process—you know, a chance to process it, because my raw reaction is really that this represents—it’s very significant and disappointing, cheapening of the Nobel Prize. And, you know, it’s been cheapened before, and it will cheapen again—be cheapened again, but I think there’s something really striking here. And even just listening to the rationale that, despite overwhelming evidence, they’re giving this prize in the hopes that it will change Obama’s mind or encourage him to do things he hasn’t done—this is a candidate that ran a campaign that was much more based on hope and wishful thinking than it was on concrete policy. So we have hopes being piled on hope and wishful thinking.

This is supposed to be a prize that rewards concrete behavior, concrete action. And there are many people out there in the world who were under consideration for this prize, who every day perform acts that are taken at enormous risk for concrete benefit. I mean, I think that one of the people—one of the names under consideration this year was Dr. Mukwege in the Congo, in the DRC. This is somebody who is under personal threat because he is saving the lives of women every day who have been violently raped. And giving the prize to Dr. Mukwege—and I’m just giving one example—would have been such a concrete victory and encouragement for that action. It would have put pressure on the United States to take action, on the international community to take action, for the women of the Congo. And instead of that, we have this very, very political decision, and in many ways it’s like a pat on the head for good behavior or the hope of good behavior, because actually we’ve seen a lot of bad behavior. And we can come back to this.

But what I’m working on right now is a piece for Rolling Stone about the climate negotiations leading up to Copenhagen. And one of the things that the Obama administration is being rewarded for with this prize or what Barack Obama is personally being rewarded for in this prize is his supposed breakthroughs on international relations. What we’re actually seeing, as we speak, in Bangkok—this is the final day of two weeks of climate negotiations—has been extraordinarily destructive behavior on the part of the United States government, on the part of the Obama administration, absolutely derailing the climate negotiations in the lead-up to Copenhagen. Developing countries are absolutely shocked by what US climate negotiators have done. They have gone into these talks saying, you know, “We’re back. We want to reengage with the world.” What they’ve actually done is made a series of demands that would destroy the Kyoto Protocol and the binding emission architecture that was set up under Kyoto. So, to reward the Nobel Prize in the context of destroying the climate, where the US is destroying the climate negotiations, or threatening to, to me, is just shocking.

JUAN GONZALEZ: Naomi, the Nobel Committee specifically cited Obama’s outreach to the Muslim world. And I’d like you to comment, especially in light of the fact that right now the President is considering a dramatic escalation of the war in Afghanistan and also the US government’s criticism of the Goldstone report on the Israeli war in Gaza.

NAOMI KLEIN: Well, I’ll start with the second point, because this is something else that is so strange about the timing. I think the moment of just rewarding Obama for awakening hope and optimism has clearly passed. And we certainly see this in the context of Israel-Palestine, where there was a huge amount of hope that was awakened and inspired by Obama’s rhetoric, by his historic Cairo speech. But now we’re past that moment. He didn’t just give that speech yesterday. And now is the moment when we’re seeing his actual commitment to change. And it has been one disappointment after the next.

First, an extremely half-hearted attempt to get tough with the Netanyahu government when it comes to settlement expansion. I say “half-hearted,” because demands were made, but they weren’t followed through with any kind of muscle. As we know, the US has more than moral suasion to use with the Netanyahu government, if it’s really opposed to settlement expansion. There are billions of military aid that, of course, is never put on the table. And after a little bit of moral suasion failed, we see the same defeatism setting in.

And then the Goldstone report. You know, one of the supposed victories of the US reengagement with multilateralism has been the US taking a seat on the Human Rights Council. But what we see, as in the context of the climate negotiations, is the US is reengaging, but in an extremely destructive way, using their status, their seat at the table, to undermine international law. That’s happening in the context of the climate negotiations, and now it’s happened in the context of the Goldstone report, where, rather than strengthening international law, the US pressure on Abbas and also their own words and actions undermine a crucial report, which should have been a breakthrough.

And the Obama administration wasted absolutely no time in selling out Judge Richard Goldstone with no basis of fact whatsoever. The report was extremely balanced. The Obama administration could have stepped back and allowed it to work its way through the UN system, really kind of hid behind the UN on this one. Here you have a judge with an extraordinary international reputation for his belief in international law and his commitment to the reality of the—of “never again,” whether in the context of Rwanda or the former Yugoslavia. And this is somebody who’s really, really been committed to that idea. And the US has allowed his reputation to be destroyed, and contributed to it in many ways. So this is a moment where Palestinians more and more are saying, “OK, you raised our hopes, and now you’re dashing them.”

And then, in the middle of all this, the Nobel Prize Committee awards their top honors to Obama. And I think it’s quite insulting. I don’t know what kind of political game they’re playing, but I don’t think that the committee has ever been as political as this or as delusional as this, frankly.


from 10/11/09 McLaughlin Group:

MS. CROWLEY: Honors should be deserved and they should be earned. And the Nobel committee jumped the shark when they gave President Obama this award. This is theater of the absurd. And the Nobel committee did what the International Olympic Committee would not do, which is to give an award to President Obama just for being, well, President Obama.

Look, what this does is actually devalue the award and diminish the actual real world-changing accomplishments of those who've gotten the award before him; namely, Nelson Mandela, Mother Teresa. And it also shows an increasing politicization of the award. We've seen it go to Al Gore. We've seen it go to Jimmy Carter.

And so what the Nobel committee is really doing is saying, "Look, we'll give it to an American as long as it's the right kind of American, who shares our values," where America is essentially the root of all evil in the world. And when you have a president who is essentially acknowledging that or spending a good deal of his time apologizing for this country, it's no wonder that he got this.

Yes!

Senate approves law dismantling media monopolies, president to sign

Senators voted by a surprisingly high 44-24 margin for the law, celebrating the end of dictatorship-era rules...

YAY!!! WHOA!!! YA-HOO!!!

...that enabled a few companies to dominate Argentine media. Opponents say it instead gives the government too much power and will curtail freedom of speech.

Assembly is NOT allowed in America. We are guaranteed it. It's just not allowed.

On a dark day for democracy, the patriotic call for answers by hundreds of 9/11 families, first responders and survivors has been stifled, and the will of the people of New York City once again denied.

Big surprise. I mean, investigating 9/11 seems pretty irrelevant to modern life on Earth. I mean, it has nothing to do with America creating wars in multiple countries out of thin air, the outright demise of the American Constitution, the unknown and untold hundreds of thousands dead, tortured, displaced, disfigured. Oh, right, and didn't some Americans die in that accident? And aren't they still dieing? No, they're not. Why not? Because I said so. Because you don't need to worry about that. You need to worry about protecting innocent peaceful America from the cold-blooded, non-Christian, dark skinned terrorists. The ones we hear about every mother fucking day.

The truth is, it is irrelevant. The truth, that is.

Admin Rejects Kyoto Inclusion in New Climate Deal

The Obama administration is voicing opposition to using the Kyoto Protocol as a basis for a new climate deal. On Wednesday, US climate negotiator Jonathan Pershing said Kyoto should be scrapped because it’s outdated and doesn’t require developing countries to cut emissions. The US is the only major industrial nation not to ratify Kyoto since its inception in 1990. At an energy summit in Mexico, the head of the United Nations Industrial Development Organization, Kandeh Yumkella, said those nations least responsible for global warming are suffering its worst effects.

Kandeh Yumkella: “Climate change continues to punish the poorest of the poor, the so-called bottom billion. It continues to ravage those who contributed the least to greenhouse gas emissions. This year alone, millions of people are at risk from floods in India, China, Burkina Faso, to typhoons in Philippines.”

The highly conservative New York Times claims that "...eating ground beef is still a gamble."

As Lenny Bruce said, “If Jesus had been killed twenty years ago, Catholic school children would be wearing little electric chairs around their necks instead of crosses.” This is a mean country that calls the victims criminals and the criminals innocents. So I've stopped worrying about the coldness of winter, as it will never blow colder than an American's heart.

The Judge proceeded to invite discourse on why an investigation was needed. When McMahon raised as an example the 9/11 Commission’s omission of the collapse of Building 7 from its final report, the Judge replied in puzzlement, “Building what?”

When asked by the Judge whether or not there has been an investigation into 9/11 by New York City authorities, Steve Kitzinger, the City’s lawyer, replied, “It’s irrelevant”, to which the packed courtroom was loudly disdainful, some openly laughing in disbelief. At which point Mr. Kitzinger prevailed upon Judge Lehner to quiet the crowd, which the Judge did.

With order restored, the Judge again asked Kitzinger if the City had done anything to investigate 9/11. Kitzinger flatly responded, “No.”

“The City never did anything?” retorted the Judge in disbelief. “Nothing, Kitzinger admitted.

In America, when 3000 people are murdered, the citizens have to fight for at least ten years for there to even be a discussion on whether or not it should be investigated. This here in the city where I've been to court three times for riding a bike.