September 26, 2009 archive

Hey GOP — Time to Get-a-Clue-is-stan!

KNOCK, KNOCK!

Who’s There?

Chuck.

Chuck WHO?

Chuck Doesnt-have-any-Guts Grassley!

Grassley: “go work for the federal government” for affordable insurance



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v…

Great Advice Mr. Grassley! … Yes, ALL of America — Should go work for the Govt, because that way we’ll all get Good Insurance, finally?

Say Chuck, Do you know what they call it, in Countries where EVERYONE works for the Govt?

They call it   Socialism!

Weekend News Digest

Weekend News Digest is an Open Thread

From Yahoo News Top Stories

1 Bombs kill 15 in Pakistan towns: police

by Lehaz Ali, AFP

Sat Sep 26, 11:06 am ET

PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AFP) – Suicide bombers blew up vehicles in two attacks Saturday that killed 15 people in northwest Pakistan, in an escalating revenge campaign against security forces, officials said.

The second attack in Pakistan’s northwest city of Peshawar ripped through a crowded area near banks, shops and a wedding hall on a road leading to the army cantonment, hours after a similar attack outside a police station in Bannu.

Ten people were killed in Peshawar and another five on the outskirts of Bannu in a district close to the rugged tribal region of North Waziristan where Washington says Al-Qaeda and the Taliban are plotting attacks on the West.

D.S.S. Fail: Day 4 of No Hot Water or Heat

(Cross-posted from the Free Speech Zone.)

While being cold and becoming sick I decided that the time was right for me to call the Emergency Service Hotline for Suffolk County’s Department of Social Services to request an emergency oil delivery.  We had a choice between rent and heat so we had to pass on such a luxury as a warm place to live in order to settle for just a place to live.  The other sideswipe we got was that our bank, that has what little money we have, decided to update their everything so our accounts don’t reflect what we actually have while also rendering our ATM and Debit options non-existent.

I figured it was worth a shot to call the county, and seeing as we make WAY too much money to be eligible for any assistance that would of prevented this, I feel they should at the very least be informed of my situation.

On Bannings and Losing Your 1st Amendment rights of speech and assembly

Recently a good friend here on teh toobz was banned from public discourse in a private setting, a limitation of his personal freedom of speech in a private place. Though he was offered reinstatement, he refused it on principle. He stood by his perinciple. He defended his freedom.

   Personally, I think the whole situation sucks.

But MUCH BIGGER than that was the Police State RIOT SQUADS brutal response to PROPERTY DAMAGE in Pittsburgh, PA this weekend, when protestors without Government permission to exercisize.

   This is my point.

   If you have to ASK PERMISSION to use your rights, you never really had that right in the first place.

The Love Buffet

   E and I met him by the pool when we were drunk. I think we were drunk most of that year. We all hate our jobs. Lucky I didn’t stay there for twenty. I thought he was decent looking and articulate. He also had a good job which was a rarity in that town. When we went out to the local bars we were screwed. The women got pissed off at us because their men asked us to dance and the men got pissed off at us when we said no in order to avoid angry women confronting us in the battered washrooms. We learned to drink out of town fairly early after our arrival. I dated a local for a while he was a long haul trucker with other girlfriends no doubt, but when he was in town he always brought me lunch at work and took me dancing at the clubs in Mexico.

Anyway. I liked this guy for E who was still mooning over some ex university boyfriend. He offered to take us out to the lake in his boat. He was careful to suggest she bring a couple of friends. So we did and we had a nice day. They went out on a few dates and I thought: finally I will stop hearing about this stupid ex.

Sadly E informed me that he kissed like a lizard and she ended the relationship. Every time I saw him at the apartment complex after she shared this information I saw him as a skinny green lizard and in time we called him lizard man behind his back. He stopped me one day and told me that she was “too nice” for him and he hoped he did not hurt her feelings when he ended things. On balance, I believed E’s version simply because I to had been kissed in a lizard like fashion and concluded there was no hope for for pleasant coupling. E later dated and married R who apparently kissed rather well but had severe employment difficulties. He didn’t want to work as much as talk about what he wanted to do with his life one day. Initially E took this talk for greater ambition. We all did.

J dragged me to the rodeo and then to the bars after to met a cowboy. She actually met a rancher. He was very unavailable at times. He lied to her about where he was going. J made me go out on stakeouts with her to track him down. We drank in the car and then one of her colleagues suggested she go to a spell casting woman since some other woman obviously either put evil upon J or her own powers over the rancher. These things make ultimate sense when sobriety is rare and the weather is constantly hot. The spell casting woman made up a dubious concoction for J to drink and wanted once weekly sessions to strengthen the spell. J ditched the concoction and just continued stalking the rancher. I tried to point out that in a small town there was a high degree of certainty he would realize she was dogging him. As it happened he did notice and he thought it was “cute”. They got married.

I went home for a visit and ran into a guy I went to school with who suggested a movie. He let me pick the movie and then complained about the subtitles even though I asked him several times if he minded seeing it. It was weird to see you there with a blonde version of me. Ironically my date was also blonde. My date asked me after if I liked “American” movies. I said,” you mean where a bunch of shit gets blown up or where some really hot woman gets won over my a nerdy guy.” A mutual friend told me that he talked obsessively about me but then declared he never wanted to see me again. We only had a few dates when I visited home from time to time and he never really enjoyed whatever I suggested we do. I thought it was interesting that he jumped right in the shower after we had sex.

F and R had a problematic relationship. R’s parents had a habit of showing up at their place unannounced and then inviting him out for lunch or dinner. Just him. She got annoyed by this and pushed R to confront his parents about the exclusion. His parents were puzzled when he finally did and said,”what are you talking about.” F and R broke up and his parents gave him money to go back to university. He dropped out after a year and married a woman a few years older than him. F was outraged when she ran into them. The woman was quite plain when contrasted with F. F was also an excellent cook and far more organized than I. ” Fuck”, she said,” I don’t get it aren’t you supposed to upgrade in your next relationship?” F later married a christian drug addict. She was an atheist and not much into drugs. They divorced because the religion thing got too much for her to handle. She did not mind paying for rehab.

Docudharma Times Saturday September 26




Saturday’s Headlines:

Republicans want answers in NEA flap

Sources: Gitmo might not close by January

Chechnya president sues human rights activist over murder claim

Has Ireland become a nation of yes men?

Why Iran confessed to secret nuclear site built inside mountain

Bribes firm ordered to pay £6m for breaching Iraq sanctions

Bird-eating frog among several new species found in Greater Mekong

In northern India, village elders order ‘honor killings’

For Mexicans seeking to cross the US border, it’s not just about jobs anymore

For Obama, Focus Shifts From Engagement To Pursuit of Concerted, Tough Measures



By Glenn Kessler

Washington Post Staff Writer

Saturday, September 26, 2009


The disclosure of a second uranium enrichment site in Iran has led the Obama administration to shift the emphasis in its dealings with the Islamic republic — away from engagement and toward building an international consensus for sterner action against Tehran.

The effort to directly engage Iran was a hallmark of the early months of the administration, with President Obama offering a televised greeting in honor of the Persian New Year and sending private letters to the country’s supreme leader. But the gestures went largely unreciprocated. Now, while not shutting the door on engagement entirely, the United States and its allies plan to forcefully press the case that Tehran has been caught, red-handed, in yet another violation of international rules.

The dark secrets of the trillion-dollar oil trade

Tankers full of oil its owners don’t want to sell. Shady deals with brutal regimes. Vast profits. Pollution scandals. Cahal Milmo investigates a very murky business

Saturday, 26 September 2009

With a combined capacity for 313,000 tonnes of oil, the Delta Ios and the NS Burgas supertankers were launched two months ago to criss-cross the globe in search of trade. Instead, the vast vessels were to be found yesterday lying idle off the coast of Singapore after their owners were paid by two of the world’s richest and most secretive oil companies to turn them into floating petrochemical warehouses.

At first glance, the decision by Trafigura Group and Vitol Holding BV to charter the newly built ships at an estimated cost of £47,000 a day to do nothing for up to four months in South-east Asia while laden with cargos of diesel worth at least £77m per vessel makes little economic sense.

My One World Indoctrination 20090926

After all the controversy about the kids in grade school (purported as preschool, but those kids look a bit older to me) singing the praises about President Obama, I thought that I would tell of my experience.  You have to know that I was raised in that bastion of left thinking, liberal political area of west central Arkansas (yes, that was with a chuckle).

The last Democrat that carried the county until after Rockefeller (yes, Arkansas elected a Rockefeller to office) was elected to the office of governor was Orval Faubus, mainly because he stood up to “the niggers” and the federal government during the desegregation conflict at Central High School in Little Rock during the year of my birth, 1957 CE.

Here is a bit of what I grew up with in public school, so that the record may be set straight.  I was indoctrinated.

Late Night Karaoke

Open Thread

FRIDAY NIGHT DISTRACTIONS

As usual I`m here trying to distract you on this Friday night.

I`ve been setting up my place to distract from the usual pace here since I have a four month old grandson that will be here for a week.

He just arrived a few hours ago, & was left by his tearful mother who is off to Atlanta with her husband.

He`s in very good hands (Not mine, but grandma`s)

We always get thrown into life`s vagaries, so I`ll start with a little reminder that

ONE NEVER KNOWS

 WONDER ALWAYS  DSCN7601

G20 Protests = Tear Gas, Sound guns, Rubber Bullets. Teaparties = Promotion. Class War

Crossposted at Daily Kos

2008 Should live on in infamy as the year the class war became OBVIOUS.

No permit was obtained for the grassroots protests of the G20 in Pittsburgh. You have to ask your government permission to protest it. This is what Democracy looks like?

THIS IS WHAT A POLICE STATE LOOKS LIKE!

America, Class War; Battle of Pittsburgh.

~ September 2009

Fascism is coming? IT’S ALREADY HERE!

Random Japan

Money troubles

   *  Police in Osaka and Kobe are warning cashiers to be on guard against con men who claim to be collectors of rare Japanese bank-notes, but who then use sleight of hand to make off with wads of cash. Cops say that ¥1.22 million has been stolen in such ruses.

   * The driver of a cash transport vehicle in Fukuoka told a fellow worker to get out of the truck because there was a mechanical problem, and then drove off with an estimated ¥72 million.

   * Sentence of the Week™: “A 60-year-old woman has been swindled out of ¥1.98 million by a man who pretended to be her flu-stricken son and asked her to pay off his debts because he was too unwell to move, the police said.” (via The Daily Yomiuri)

   * A Panasonic factory in Shiga Prefecture was busted for employing some three dozen illegal Chinese laborers.

   * A Kanagawa-based alcoholism research center found that 60 percent of homeless people around Ikebukuro station are suffering from some kind of mental disorder.

   * It was reported that the Yamaguchi-gumi crime syndicate is forcing members to take an exam on the ins and outs of the revised Anti-Organized Crime Law, out of fear that non-compliance will lead to costly lawsuits.

Corporations & Legalisms and the Web

I find all this legalist mumbo jumbo to be ludicrous.

So and so has the right to censor, because he “owns” a web site.

Please.

There is no part of the web that is not “owned” by someone.

None.

Here’s an example:

My route here:

Items 3-10 of the route my connection takes to reach www.docudharma.com

(I eliminated my country/location at the start and Docudharma’s location at the end, although I can clearly see everything about them, and admins at docudharma can clearly see me, unless I try to hide myself)

1…REDACTED!

2…

3…  

4  xe-10-2-0.bar1.Houston1.Level3.net (4.78.14.5)  84.910 ms  159.320 ms  86.412 ms

5  ae-13-13.ebr1.Dallas1.Level3.net (4.69.137.138)  98.405 ms  90.392 ms  90.703 ms

6  ae-82-88.ebr2.Dallas1.Level3.net (4.69.146.83)  88.706 ms  89.860 ms ae-92-98.ebr2.Dallas1.Level3.net (4.69.146.91)  90.654 ms

7  ae-2.ebr1.Denver1.Level3.net (4.69.132.105)  117.342 ms  107.607 ms  110.644 ms

8  ae-1-100.ebr2.Denver1.Level3.net (4.69.132.38)  114.238 ms  107.093 ms  108.657 ms

9   REDACTED !

10  REDACTED !

11…

12…

13…

So, you can’t even reach this site, w/o bumping through:

1. An ISP

2. 7-10 or more in my case relay points (hops).

Each is likely to be a separate corporate entity.  None are “Not For Profit” None.

Each might have reasons for you to not say what you just said.

3. the webhost of this blog

4. Finally, the blog owner (Ie the owner of the domain name Docudharma.com –which is worth around $6.99)

If you’re in some nations (like China) this blog is probably completely blocked, by the way.  

That’s legal too.

Mexico Temex blocked all VOIP for a long time, and finally gave up.

Not illegal either.

So, to claim that Kos has the right to censor, you have to also claim that your ISP, Microsoft (which runs many relays) ,  well some 7-10 corporate entites in fact, all have the legal right to censor your content.

Which they do, in fact.

But, it’s entirely besides the point.

Corporate censorship is not illegal.

They own the servers, they own the wire.

Censorship by a country is not illegal either: they make the rules !

In summation: for those that keep arguing that censorship is OK when a corporation is involved: well there’s no difference between one corporation and another, is there?

If you want to post something; post it.  

If some corporation complains about it: screw them !

Both you and they are within all legal rights.

But morally?

Are we to claim that all of those hops above, the ISP, the host, the owner of a $6.99 domain name, and the one’s I redacted, PLUS the various nations at the endpoints, or countries in-between the two, have the right to censorship?

Bullsh*t.

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