This Negro Here...

Fresh from our "You big dummy" file, Alyssa Newcomb of ABC News is reporting that LaDondrell Montgomery, a man sentenced to life in prison for a conviction for armed robbery, had his sentence overturned thanks to his attorney's discovery that he was in jail at the time of the crime.
Brace yourself: Montgomery was in and out of jail so much that he actually forgot he was in jail at the time of the crime for which he was charged, convicted and sentenced to life in prison. Montgomery's father says that some in his neighborhood had vendettas against his son and testified against him. Newcomb writes:
"My son had previously been in and out of incarceration before and had trouble remembering the dates," said Larry Montgomery, LaDondrell's elderly father.
LaDondrell Montgomery insisted throughout the trial that he was not the man in the surveillance footage that was used to convict him and sentence him to life in prison. Montgomery's life sentence was thrown out after his attorney, Ronald Ray, scoured his rap sheet and realized he had been in jail at the time on a misdemeanor domestic violence charge and hadn't been released until nine hours after the crime. State District Judge Mark Kent Ellis chided Ray and Assistant Harris County District Attorney Alison Baimbridge for being "spectacularly incompetent," according to the Houston Chronicle.

[Source]

Can't even feel sorry for this Negro.  You're facing life and you can't even remember if you were actually free at the time of the crime they are accusing you of?  Yes the D.A. and the police force proved to be incompetent (surprise), but if you're in and out of jail so much that you can't even account for your own whereabouts when your life is on the line, there's not much I can say in your defense. 

Things You Don't Care About But Should

On Tuesday 60 members of the United States Senate voted to preserve a provision in the National Defense Authorization Act—that would be the bill that funds the Pentagon—allowing the U.S. military to pick up and detain, without charges or trial, anyone suspected of terrorism, including American citizens, and to restrict transfers of prisoners out of Guantanamo Bay. Specifically, 60 senators voted against an amendment that would have invalidated the part of the bill which empowers the president and the military to detain anyone they suspect was involved in the 9/11 attacks or supports al-Qaida, the Taliban, or “associated forces that are engaged in hostilities against the United States or its coalition partners.”

There are two disputed sections of the bill, as Charlie Savage explains. One “would require the government to place into military custody any suspected member of Al Qaeda or one of its allies connected to a plot against the United States or its allies. The provision would exempt American citizens, but would otherwise extend to arrests on United States soil. The executive branch could issue a waiver and keep such a prisoner in the civilian system.” The second provision “would create a federal statute saying the government has the legal authority to keep people suspected of terrorism in military custody, indefinitely and without trial. It contains no exception for American citizens.”

So forget the presumption of innocence. Forget the protections of the Constitution. If you are suspected of terrorism, you may be held indefinitely, maybe even shipped off to Guantanamo. And in this war that will last forever and play out on every square inch of the planet, the chances that these new powers will ever be rolled back are negligible. Even long after the war on terror has waned.

Now, perhaps you suspect these thorny questions about the handling of terrorists are best left to the experts, and that the Senate was simply listening to them. Such suspicions would be unfounded. The secretary of defense, the director of national intelligence, the director of the FBI, the CIA director, and the head of the Justice Department’s national security division have all said that the indefinite detention provisions in the bill are a bad idea. And the White House continues to say that the president will veto the bill if the detainee provisions are not removed. It sees the proposed language as limiting its flexibility.

[Source]


All I have to say about this is, keep thinking this doesn't apply to you, until the day you find out it does.  Either you raise your voice to stop this before it happens or you complain about it once it effects you and yours.  There is no good reason for this, and no good that can come of this. 

We Getting Money Up Under You

Federal agents in California have uncovered the "most sophisticated" drug tunnel in years, the latest discovery in what an official said had become a "major phenomenon" in the war on drugs.

A spokesperson for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement declined to give details on the tunnel which ran from Tijuana to San Diego but said, "When we talk about a sophisticated tunnel, we're talking about tunnels that have some type of reinforcement in them and a lot of work has been put into them to help them smuggle the drugs in an easier way.

"In the past we have found tunnels that have railways and lighting and ventilation and all kinds of different scenarios and this is one of the most sophisticated that we have discovered perhaps ever, but definitely at least in the last five years," ICE spokesperson Lauren Mack said.

The tunnel was discovered by San Diego's Tunnel Task Force in cooperation with Mexican authorities, Mack said. The task force, whose sole job is to uncover drug smuggling tunnels, is made up of agents from ICE, Customs and Border Protection and the Drug Enforcement Administration.

More than 70 tunnels have been discovered by federal authorities since October 2008, according to a report by The Associated Press, which first reported the new find. 

[Source]

Last month there were a couple of high profile drug bust netting billions of dollars worth of drugs.  That's not a typo, billions with a "B".  At the time I thought a drought would be coming soon.  Well an informal survey of all the hustlers I know, shows that drought never came.  The implications of that are simple, there are so much drugs coming across the border that even taking tons of it out of circulation, hasn't put a dent in the supply.  Think about that, while you think about how much money our nation spends and has spent, on the so called "War On Drugs".  Not to beat a dead horse...

If You Live In A Glass House...

Pinellas County Sheriff's deputies responded to Heather Lynn Mayo's call for help on Monday, the Associated Press says. She wanted help kicking out her boyfriend, Robert Worden, from her apartment where he showed up after 40 days in the county jail, according to The Times.
Mayo claimed she was frightened of Worden, and he said he dropped in to visit his seven-year-old daughter.
After deputies arrived, he agreed to leave, but on his way out he showed a Ford Ranger pickup to police which matched the description of a truck that fatally ran down a woman earlier this year.
The truck belonged to Mayo's neighbor and Worden said his girlfriend borrowed it Feb. 4, the night that Jeannie Fisher, a pedestrian, was struck by a motorist who fled the scene, Patch reports. Fisher died later from her injuries.
Mayo first claimed to Worden that she hit a deer that night, but later unburdened herself by admitting she knew she hit and killed a woman. Mayo didn't wait for cops, because she feared going to jail, The Times says.

[Source]




Hilarity, pure and simple.  Maybe calling the cops on the guy who knows you murdered a person isn't the best idea in the world?  But what do I know?

Well How Do You Like That

Every civil servant wants to experience his or her legacy firsthand--but not the way that onetime Arapahoe Sheriff Patrick J. Sullivan Jr. has. Sullivan, a nationally renowned law enforcement leader, was arrested on drug charges and is now being detained in the Denver area jail that bears his name.
Sullivan, who in 2001 was named the National Sheriff Association's "Sheriff of the Year," was arrested on suspicion of trafficking methamphetamines.
Local news station CBS4 began an investigation of Sullivan last month on a tip that he had agreed to meet a male informant, providing drugs in exchange for sex. He was subsequently arrested by the South Metro Drug Task Force and is currently being held on a $250,000 bond.
And in an incredible twist of fate, Sullivan now cooling his heels at The Patrick J. Sullivan Jr. Detention Facility, named in his honor.

[Source]


Well I for one find this quite amusing. 

Things You Don't Care About But Should

Imagine you walked into a bank, applied for a personal line of credit, and filled out all the paperwork claiming to have no debts and an income of $200,000 per year. The bank, based on these representations, extended you the line of credit. Then, three years later, after fighting disclosure all the way, you were forced by a court to tell the truth: At the time you made the statements to the bank, you actually were unemployed, you had a $1 million mortgage on your house on which you had failed to make payments for six months, and you hadn’t paid even the minimum on your credit-card bills for three months. Do you think the bank would just say: Never mind, don’t worry about it? Of course not. Whether or not you had paid back the personal line of credit, three FBI agents would be at your door within hours.

Yet this is exactly what the major American banks have done to the public. During the deepest, darkest period of the financial cataclysm, the CEOs of major banks maintained in statements to the public, to the market at large, and to their own shareholders that the banks were in good financial shape, didn’t want to take TARP funds, and that the regulatory framework governing our banking system should not be altered. Trust us, they said. Yet, unknown to the public and the Congress, these same banks had been borrowing massive amounts from the government to remain afloat. The total numbers are staggering: $7.7 trillion of credit—one-half of the GDP of the entire nation. $460 billion was lent to J.P. Morgan, Bank of America, Citibank, Wells Fargo, Goldman Sachs, and Morgan Stanley alone—without anybody other than a few select officials at the Fed and the Treasury knowing. This was perhaps the single most massive allocation of capital from public to private hands in our history, and nobody was told. This was not TARP: This was secret Fed lending. And although it has since been repaid, it is clear why the banks didn’t want us to know about it: They didn’t want to admit the magnitude of their financial distress.

The banks’ claims of financial stability and solvency appear at a minimum to have been misleading—and may have been worse. Misleading statements and deception of this sort would ordinarily put a small-market player or borrower on the wrong end of a criminal investigation.


[Source]


While I realize this isn't as sexy as the latest episode of whatever reality show people are watching these days (I gave up keeping track), this is way more important.  Also contrary to what you may think you have the ability to do something about this.  Write your Congressperson, write your Senator, get your friends and neighbors to do the same.  It's kind of, sort of, your duty as a citizen to hold your elected officials accountable.  One would be surprised at how many folks who bash immigrants yet, don't have the first clue about their own civic duty.  

When Keeping It Real Goes Wrong

Twelve members of a Milwaukee rap collective are now sitting behind bars after one of their rap videos pretty much proved the police's drug case against them.
After years of investigation, authorities rounded up the individuals and confiscated all of their paraphernalia. While that evidence is pretty solid, they were blessed with even more when two other members of the group posted a video for their song "Trap House Money."

In the video ringleaders Eastside L Boog and Eazy (real names: Larry Hooker and Earl Willams) are seen enjoying the spoils of a successful dopeboy: jewelry, cars, stacks of cash and shopping sprees at the sneaker store.
They are also seen giving a tutorial on how to cook crack cocaine and warning listeners about various "snitches on the block" and admitting to keeping weapons handy just in case they have to "let off a couple shots" if the "cops run up in the spot." They also mentioned just how many packs they move a day
While Hooker and Williams are still on the run, when they do get caught, just know that they pretty much wrote out the prosecution's case for them. At least we know they were authentic.

[Source]

"I try not to say nothing the D.A. might want to play in court..."

Name The Gimmick(s) Vol. 2

You can view volume 1 here.

Now one wouldn't think a political group like P.E. would use gimmicks, but they actually used more than a few.  Flavor Flav being first and foremost on the list.  The clock, the glasses, everything about Flav was just a gimmick.  Second the militant dancers.  Third the legendary PE logo.  One could claim the political stance was a gimmick, but Chuck has put in enough work to say that claim is outlandish...

Name The Gimmick(s) Vol. 1

Gimmick- (noun) A trick or device intended to attract attention, publicity, or business. 

So what are we looking for?  Anything added to the product that doesn't improve the quality of the product, but is just there to make the product stand out, is a gimmick.  What is the product here?  Ostensibly the music, while one could rightly argue that having a video for a song is itself a gimmick, lets just assume the video is a part of the presentation of said music.  So everything else can be considered a gimmick.  The artist' image?  Gimmick.  A trademark fashion?  Gimmick.  Controversy surrounding the artist or song?  Gimmick.  In fact anything attached to the music/video that isn't about the quality of the music or the video is a gimmick.  Just for fun try naming the gimmicks before you read them.  If I missed anything feel free to point it out in the comments.

Did Eminem make any sense?! aka "Hi Rhianna"

I never watch the Nigger Network Hip Hop awards, as a dear friend of mine put it, I'm too much of an "Uppity High Class Negro" for that.  Shout out to Huey Freeman.  While I never watch the actual "award show"  I always check out the cyphers the next day, I am an Emcee after all, I gotta see what's what.  Without a doubt the Shady camp's cypher was the highlight of the night, Royce 5'9's verse being my personal favorite "Hi Rhianna..." At any rate a fellow Emcee made the claim that Em's verse was a bunch of nothing, while he is a known Em hater, I none the less wondered "what planet do you live on?!" and so I will undertake the task of breaking his verse down.

You Want To Cut Spending? Start Here

Around the World with Christiane Amanpour debuts as we approach a decade of war in Afghanistan, and the question on the lips of Americans and Afghans alike is "what's next?"
Ten years after the attack on World Trade Center, Osama Bin Laden is dead, but how will this chapter in the longest war in American history be written?
ABC News foreign correspondent Nick Schifrin joins Christiane Amanpour from Kabul, Afghanistan, taking the pulse of that country amidst an explosion of violence at the hands of the resurgent Taliban.
Then a revealing interview with Ahmed Rashid, the world's foremost authority on the Taliban, about the very real concerns over potential violence between the United States uneasy ally Pakistan.
The critical question must be asked: Is war with Pakistan a real possibility?

[Source]

Ten years, trillions of dollars and no real end in sight? Why are we even there?  Bin Laden is dead, Al Qaeda is in Pakistan and The Taliban is still running things.  "We" had a chance to establish a lasting peace there but W decided to start another war instead of finishing what he started.  That chance has been blown, and those cost are sunk, it's past time "we" admit that and cut our losses.

OccupyWallStreet Rant

It’s illustrative to look at how the media has covered the origin and growth of the tea party movement with the OccupyWallStreet protests. Even a handful of self-identified tea party activists, with tea bags stapled to their tricorn hats and misspelled signs, were covered breathlessly as the birth of this new populist movement, angry with the direction of the country, and rising influence.
That, of course, was all completely untrue. The tea party movement was an astroturfed movement from the beginning, funded and organized by conservative organizations under jingoistic and quasi-populist names like “Americans for Prosperity” and "FreedomWorks".
Compare that to the OccupyWallStreet protesters. Truly grassroots, the media—when they do pay attention—deride them for not having a clear, unified goal (as if the tea party could be more precise than “take our country back”), for being disorganized (which is what happens when Dick Armey isn’t ordering up the signs) and for their inability to effect change (because it’s completely reasonable to expect 10 days of protests to change the status quo of 30 years of Reaganomics on Wall St). Moreover, the truly populist concerns are largely ignored by the media, who are almost monolithically more interested in what’s happening to the privileged few inside the Washington Beltway than the 99% of people who live outside it.

[Source]

        I'll never forget something one of my more radical professors back in college said to me, "the reason people tolerate extreme wealth in this nation is because they all want their turn.  No matter how unlikely it is, they all believe they too can one day be one of those on top looking down on the rest of their countrymen."  Those words proved themselves to be true a million times over since he said them to me.  

People never see something as a problem until it effects them personally, and then when it does they wonder why no one did something about it sooner.  They look down on the people trying to address something they don't see as a problem.  Millions of people may be effected by something but until you become one of those millions chances are you don't care about it.  Right now you have a group of people trying to do something about a problem that effects the entire country.  You would think we all would be on board with this. 

It Could Happen To You.

"In 1977, small amounts of marijuana were decriminalized in the New York State Legislature," says Kassandra Frederique of the Drug Policy Alliance. "So you can have up to 25 grams, which is seven-eighths of an ounce, on your person, and that would be a violation similar to jaywalking or traffic tickets." It's something that could carry a $100 fine, she explains, and is only an "arrestable offense . . . if it's in plain view or if it's burning."*
And yet, try explaining that to the NYPD. Their boss might have admitted to having smoked weed himself, as did Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance (and nearly every candidate running for his job in 2009). But Mayor Bloomberg has not only forced New York City's finest to match his predecessor in marijuana arrests, he has also made Rudy "Broken Windows" Giuliani look like Dr. Timothy Leary by comparison.

"Protect Yourself At All Times aka Fair Is as Fair Does."

Turnabout is fair play.

So by now we all know what happened in the Mayweather vs. Ortiz match.  Floyd KO'd Oritz in controversial fashion.  Now before I get into this, lets get one thing out the way:  I am not one of these die hard Floyd Mayweather fans.  I'm a boxing fan.  As it pertains to Floyd I'm firmly in the "stop making excuses and fight Pacman" camp.

Negros Puhlease: Parkway Edition

NEW YORK (WABC) -- The NYPD is investigating a video that surfaced of some officers doing some dirty dancing at the West Indian American Day Parade.

The parade took place over Labor Day Weekend.
The video was posted online by worldstarhiphop.com.

 http://www.worldstarhiphop.com/videos/video.php?v=wshh119k832Gb7nAfp16

NYPD brass knows who the officers are and they have seen the video.
In most cases, it appears the women approach the officers, and none appear to object to the behavior of the officers, but it's clear the officers involved are acting inappropriately for men with guns who are on the job, and in some cases beyond a suggestive manner.
Of course it raises questions about how well were some officers doing their job during a parade that, remember, three people were shot in two separate incidents.
The officers in the video were just a couple of blocks from the shootings and it's not clear yet if they responded to the shootings or stayed at their posts along the route.
Three people were wounded that day and there was a fatal shooting that night nearby.
It's all just adding to the controversy surrounding the annual parade which has a history of shootings and arrests.
There are no departmental charges yet against the officers, but, again, police are investigating.
They have not said if they know yet what disciplinary actions they are considering.

[Source]

So every year in New York City on Labor Day weekend there is a West Indian Day Parade on Eastern Parkway.   

This year the above video surfaced and I saw an explosion on my FB newsfeed with people acting outraged at this cop, at his post, having a little fun.   Over and over I kept seeing this same video and pic.  All you have to do is watch the video and see, he was standing at his post and she came to him.  Just like every other cop in that video.  The only difference was he had some fun with it.  And I say, why not?    "He was dancing while people were getting shot."

WTF?

How does the Republican Party continue to win elections? The Associated Press is reporting that GOP legislators are opposing the extension of a payroll tax cut that will expire on Jan. 1. The clear, unavoidable message: Americans workers should pay more taxes, while the rich should pay less.
That's not a joke, and it's not an Onion headline. The very same Republicans who have fought tooth-and-nail to keep George W. Bush's tax cuts for the wealthy from expiring are now in favor of doing away with a tax cut that will primarily hit wage-earners -- people who actually have to work for a living, people who are struggling to pay their mortgages and wincing every time they fill up their gas tank.
There's not even any attempt to hide the hypocrisy.

"It's always a net positive to let taxpayers keep more of what they earn," says Rep. Jeb Hensarling, "but not all tax relief is created equal for the purposes of helping to get the economy moving again." The Texas lawmaker is on the House GOP leadership team.

The theoretical basis for this argument, such as it is, is based on the assumption that keeping taxes low on the "job-creators" -- the rich, and corporations -- will spur investment and hiring. The empirical evidence for this theory has always been slim -- some of the strongest economic growth rates of the last century in the United States occurred when taxes on the wealthy were at their highest rates -- but it's particularly absurd right now, after two years in which corporate profits have been high, taxes have been low, and employment growth has been paltry.
On the other hand, there's little doubt that raising taxes on American workers during a slow economy will further depress consumer demand -- which is exactly the wrong way to spur economic growth. It's so wrong, in fact, that the suspicion that such tactics are being excuted on purpose is spreading beyond the usual liberal suspects.

[Source]

Wow.  Just.  Wow.  I'm having a hard time with this.  All I have to say is, if Obama doesn't fight this BS  tooth and nail...

Yall Got The Game Twisted

A man claims he was assaulted after trying to sell marijuana to former Portland Trail Blazer Zach Randolph at his home in West Linn Sunday.
James Beasley, 26, told KGW that he went to Randolph's home to sell marijuana and when there was a disagreement over price, so several men beat him up and hit him with a pool stick.
After Beasley told the same story to detectives from the Clackamas County Sheriff's Office, they searched Randolph's home around 12:30 Sunday morning. Clackamas County Sheriff's Sgt. James Rhodes said evidence taken from the home backs up the victim's allegations.

 [Source]


How you selling weed and go to the police cuz you get beat up?  What type of Hustler you 'sposed to be?  This behavior isn't any where in my edition of The Code.

 

Bon Voyage!!!

 Pay Pal founder and early Facebook investor Peter Thiel has given $1.25 million to an initiative to create floating libertarian countries in international waters, according to a profile of the billionaire in Details magazine.
Thiel has been a big backer of the Seasteading Institute, which seeks to build sovereign nations on oil rig-like platforms to occupy waters beyond the reach of law-of-the-sea treaties. The idea is for these countries to start from scratch--free from the laws, regulations, and moral codes of any existing place. Details says the experiment would be "a kind of floating petri dish for implementing policies that libertarians, stymied by indifference at the voting booths, have been unable to advance: no welfare, looser building codes, no minimum wage, and few restrictions on weapons."
"There are quite a lot of people who think it's not possible," Thiel said at a Seasteading Institute Conference in 2009, according to Details. (His first donation was in 2008, for $500,000.) "That's a good thing. We don't need to really worry about those people very much, because since they don't think it's possible they won't take us very seriously. And they will not actually try to stop us until it's too late."

The Seasteading Institute's Patri Friedman says the group plans to launch an office park off the San Francisco coast next year, with the first full-time settlements following seven years later.
Thiel made news earlier this year for putting a portion of his $1.5 billion fortune into an initiative to encourage entrepreneurs to skip college.
Another Silicon Valley titan, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, announced in June that he would be funding the "Clock of the Long Now." The clock is designed to keep ticking for 10,000 years, and will be built in a mountain in west Texas.

[Source]

At This Point It's Cliche

Indiana State Rep. Phillip "Phil" Hinkle, a Republican who recently voted for a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage, had quite a Saturday evening this past weekend in the company of an 18-year-old young man named "Kameryn," to whom Hinkle allegedly showed his penis and then "grabbed in the rear." Isn't life wonderful?

[Source]


Not much to say here.  The more Anti Gay someone is, the more likely that someone has a skeleton, or three hiding in their closest.  The real question is when will the homophobes who keep voting for these schmucks figure that out.

Amen

Billionaire Warren Buffett urged U.S. lawmakers to raise taxes on the country's super-rich to help cut the budget deficit, saying such a move will not hurt investments.

"My friends and I have been coddled long enough by a billionaire-friendly Congress. It's time for our government to get serious about shared sacrifice," The 80-year-old "Oracle of Omaha" wrote in an opinion article in The New York Times.

Buffett, one of the world's richest men and chairman of conglomerate Berkshire Hathaway Inc , said his federal tax bill last year was $6,938,744.

"That sounds like a lot of money. But what I paid was only 17.4 percent of my taxable income - and that's actually a lower percentage than was paid by any of the other 20 people in our office. Their tax burdens ranged from 33 percent to 41 percent and averaged 36 percent," he said.

[Source]

For the life of me, I cannot understand the argument against raising taxes on the wealthy.  Especially when you have guys like Buffet, guys like Bill Gates, saying, "we can afford it."  Why should they, who make so much more than everyone else, pay so much less on a percentage basis than everyone else?   That's before you get into the corporate tax rate.  For nearly a decade we've been told low taxes will make the economy roar to life, and for nearly a decade this has not happened, unless of course you were rich already. 

Really? 50 Cents?

A Bronx teen was charged Thursday with killing a college student who was trying to protect his little brother in a fight over 50 cents.
Cops said Dasheem Campbell was among a group of young men who tried to rob 16-year-old Steven Hernandez near an Allerton deli on Monday night.
Steven and Willmer Hernandez, 20, were at the store to buy food for a planned trip on Wednesday to Universal Studios in Orlando, Fla. The ring of punks demanded 50 cents from Steven and Willmer intervened.
The older brother, who worked at Red Lobster and attended Borough of Manhattan Community College, was shot three times in the midsection just after 11 p.m. Emergency workers took him from Mace Ave. to Jacobi Medical Center where he died.
Campbell, 19, lives in the Pelham Parkway Houses - just six blocks away from the Hernandez brothers. He was charged with murder.
Relatives of the victim and the suspect were grappling with the murder and the arrest.
Through the door at the suspect's apartment,
A man who wouldn't identify himself said through the door of Campbell's apartment: "No words. No words. It's too hard on his mother's heart."
A police source said Campbell has a sealed juvenile record and more recent arrests for grand larceny and robbery.
"I know his family. They all work and go to school. He's got a sister in college," said Campbell's neighbor Mildred Ramos, 60. "I've never seen him in trouble. I'm surprised he would do a bad thing."
Meanwhile, members of the victim's family were making funeral arrangements.
"I just hope he gets what he deserves," Hernandez's friend, Jasmin Garcia, 22, said of the suspect. "But nothing is going to bring Will back."

[Source]

Shocking.  You can find 50 cents laying on the street.  50 cents is nothing to argue about, let alone try and steal or kill over.  For the price of 50 cents, two men lost their lives, both the victim and the killer. 

The Wealth Gap

the typical black household had just $5,677 in wealth (assets minus debts) in 2009, the typical Hispanic household had $6,325 in wealth and the typical white household had $113,149.
Moreover, about a third of black (35%) and Hispanic (31%) households had zero or negative net worth in 2009, compared with 15% of white households. In 2005, the comparable shares had been 29% for blacks, 23% for Hispanics and 11% for whites.

[Source]

You may have noticed my output has slowed up.  The reason for this is simple enough, the things I find worthy of publishing are down right depressing.  I don't much care if Kanye and Jay Z are fighting over their tours production values or not.  I'm not interested in who is the hottest Kardashian.  What I find interesting are things like the above. 

Normally I don't do this but...

Mazel Tov!  Oh what a feel, I'm feeling life!

It's a special occasion after all. Those who know, know.


1st things 1st, Shia LaBeouf is a horrible, horrible, horrible actor.

He just sucks... He must have some good dirt on somebody to keep getting work as an actor, when he cannot in fact act. The major skill you need in his profession, is a skill he simply does not have. In this economy? Seriously.

Remember Building 7

7 Facts about Building 7

1) If fire caused Building 7 to collapse, it would be the first ever fire-induced collapse of a steel-frame high-rise.
2) Building 7’s collapse was not mentioned in the 9/11 Commission Report.
3) According to a Zogby poll in 2006, 43% of Americans did not know about Building 7.
4) It took the federal government seven years to conduct an investigation and issue a report for Building 7.
5) 1,500+ architects and engineers have signed a petition calling for a new investigation into the destruction of Building 7, specifying that it should include a full inquiry into the possible use of explosives.

"Job Creators"

After all, as of last week, as per the website Zero Hedge and data analysts Capital IQ, 29 public companies -- including Bank of America, JP Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, GE and Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway -- each have more cash on hand than the U.S. Treasury. And as Citigroup's Peter Orszag, former director of Obama's Office of Management and Budget, wrote on July 13, we need to be "as bold as we can." Says he, "The right policy response is a combination of more aggressive attention to bolster the job market now and much more deficit reduction enacted now to take effect in a few years."
So why not make a sacrifice bigger than a nice hefty grant to Mount Vernon or the historic location of your choice and commit instead to finding employment for at least some of the 14.1 million out of work? After all, the Republicans keep telling us these corporations and their rich executives and stockholders need every last one of their outlandish tax breaks -- because they're job creators!

Why Junk Food Is Cheaper Than Healthy Food

In this chapter of that larger tragicomedy, lawmakers whose campaigns are underwritten by agribusinesses have used billions of taxpayer dollars to subsidize those agribusinesses' specific commodities (corn, soybeans, wheat, etc.) that are the key ingredients of unhealthy food. Not surprisingly, the subsidies have manufactured a price inequality that helps junk food undersell nutritious-but-unsubsidized foodstuffs like fruits and vegetables. The end result is that recession-battered consumers are increasingly forced by economic circumstance to "choose" the lower-priced junk food that their taxes support.
Corn -- which is processed into the junk-food staple corn syrup and which feeds the livestock that produce meat -- exemplifies the scheme.

Judge A Book By The Cover...

While getting blotto at some Bayview, Idaho bar the other day, 28-year-old white supremacist Daren C. Abbey allegedly threatened and tried to fight Marlon L. Baker, an African-American and rumored "champion" of the Spokane Boxing Club. Bet he regrets that now.

Ideology versus Reality

In 2007, little seemed problematic about the energy-efficient light bulb or the law signed by President George W. Bush, which called for the incandescent bulb to be phased out in favor its energy-saving counterpart. But that was before the rise of the Tea Party.
Suddenly, saving the old-fashioned 100-watt bulb -- which wastes most of the energy it consumes and costs households more in energy bills than the new model -- has become a matter of personal liberty. And so, House Republicans on Monday will seek to repeal the 2007  law, which calls for the phaseout to begin in January 2012.
The law has been dubbed "the light bulb ban" by activists on the right and has struck a Tea Party nerve. Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck and Michele Bachmann have all called it government intrusion par excellence. It essentially mandates that no new bulbs can go on the market after January '12 without meeting a new, higher standard of energy efficiency. Bulbs that don't meet the standard but that are already in stores won't be taken off shelves.
"It is one of those issues out there that just inflames people," Rep. Michael Burgess, R-Texas, co-sponsor of the bill that would reverse the phaseout, told Politico. "What in the world were you doing restricting the kinds of light bulbs in my home?"

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Things like this frustrate me to no end.  We live in a world of finite resources, and here you have people demanding the right to be wasteful.  Only in America where we consume 25% of the worlds resources despite being 5% of the worlds population, can someone think that having a wasteful lightbulb is a right.  The right to waste.  Such a notion offends me.  Never mind that the old bulbs waste energy, or that the new bulbs would save millions if not billions of dollars, we are Americans and no one should tell us not to waste if we feel like it!