Monday, October 27, 2008

Merl Saunders has Died

Merl Saunders and Jerry Garcia - The Harder they Come

“Travel in white light, brother.”

SAN FRANCISCO – Keyboardist Merl Saunders, known as "the godfather of jam bands," died over the weekend of complications from a stroke. He was 74.

Mr. Saunders began playing with Jerry Garcia in 1971 at the Matrix, a small Fillmore Street nightclub where the Grateful Dead guitarist liked to hold informal jam sessions. The Saunders-Garcia Band also played to packed houses at other small local SF clubs like the Keystone Korner in North Beach every weekend the Dead wasn’t touring.

In addition to Merl’s jam band music, he also appeared on such soundtracks as "Fritz the Cat" and "Steelyard Blues" and others.

R.I.P. Merl Saunders.

-2Truthy



Friday, October 24, 2008

2Truthy's Happy Friday with Pat Metheney Live in Switzerland

-This is Not America-

Happy Friday, Loserettes!

-2Truthy

NO ON PROPOSITION 8


(Click on above youtube video for Prop 8 television ad)

Adorable, happy little girl: “Mom, guess what I learned in school today? I learned how a prince can marry a prince and I can marry a princess!”

Mom: Rendered speechless, with eyes bugging out of her head as if she’s about to have a flippin’ coronary. Sheer terror sets into the kitchen….

What kind of a parental reaction is this to direct at a happy young child? This mom acts like she doesn’t even love her kid. This mom acts like she doesn’t tolerate her kid saying anything she doesn’t think is correct - or much less even like. Instead, this mom acts as if this book “King and King” is about to convert her child into a lesbian – and finally, she’s horrified that her school is actually admitting that homosexuals even exist!



Happy Friday!
-2Truthy

Wednesday, October 22, 2008

October Surprise: War on America’s Middle Class (While They Slept)


The Neo-Frat Boy Fascist’s Victory

As we all slumbered, counting our sheep,
The American People were hit in their sleep.
Dreaming of holiday trips to the sea,
Henry Paulson & Friends came looking for me.

There were no loud noises, no sirens or horns,
No flashing red lights through the windows or doors.
Far away on some spreadsheet a liberty lost
Died the death of this Nation, its sovereignty, tossed.
-2Truthy


Are the ruling elites of this country “idiots” or are they instead a clever klatch of diseased sociopaths, drunk on power as they pillage the economy at the expense of the American people? Is the Wall Street Banker Wealth Distribution scheme (otherwise called a “meltdown”) a result of ruling class “mistakes and incompetence?” Or is it the (in) direct result of an emotionally stultified and clueless, indoctrinated public, fed by our media for decades on power delusions of religion, race and social feel-goodism that have diverted attention away from crucial socio-economic policy?

In The Idiots Who Rule America Chris Hedges references the recipe on how to cook up a Fascist state:


“The first three aims of the corporatist movement in Germany, Italy and France during the 1920s, those that went on to become part of the Fascist experience, were “to shift power directly to economic and social interest groups, to push entrepreneurial initiative in areas normally reserved for public bodies” and to “obliterate the boundaries between public and private interest—that is, challenge the idea of the public interest.
Sound familiar?”


While clever Wall Street fox Hank Paulson, King of the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act (EESA) is tasked to “regulate” all of the unprecedented economic misdeeds, the American public is naive about power, which, by training, is at the margins of their attention as jobs disappear to fatten up their profits as no one holds them accountable. Americans have been raised to be good little partisan voters, signing onto a team with “heritage worldviews, as we do in religion.”

Although I must conclude that it was not sheer “idiocy” at all that paved the way for this wealth transfer between Wall Street’s investor class, I do completely agree with the latter part of Hedges’ sentence:

“It is only when these elites are exposed as incompetent parasites and dethroned that we will have any hope of restoring social, economic and political order.”

Indeed, we are in need of a media that is willing to expose the corporate neo-fascist frat boys (who are typically presented as heroes in the media or either completely hidden from view) and a steely, collective public will that is committed to dethroning these panty hamsters. However, I fail to see how scheming bankers can be written off as “incompetent parasites” instead of being called out on their calculated shakedown of John Q. Public. But hey, I’m no economist so what do I know? One thing I strongly suspect is this: We don’t need no stinking EESA. Obama and Pelosi are already planning a new multi-billion dollar "stimulus package" way above and beyond what has already been crammed down our throats. How much “stimulation” can the non-portfolio class of this country possibly take before the whole thing implodes? Never mind.

Perhaps what we need instead is a Department of Deprogramming led by smart, non-think-tanky economists with consciences and a sense of civic duty to replace this Department of Shit for Brains at the “T” to lead us out of this economic quagmire.

What we are now left with for “news” from “progressive” media run by the Power Elite is in crucial ways false and contrary to the public greater good. They tell us lies and instill a false consciousness not because they are idiots, but because they seek to gate-keep the scoop and then plunder and control us. Soon, when Emperor Obama takes the throne, his gr$$n backers will unveil their carbon cap and trade/footprint schemes that will further reduce us to the unsustainable numbers that we, Joe Consumer, in this new world order of dispensable human capital that We, the Disposable People, really are in their eyes:


“Listen to our officials talk about consumers—we’re only valuable to them insofar as we are predictable statistical constructs defined by corporations. Have you heard the Federal Reserve call for a new stimulus package? Beyond the fact that the Fed isn’t even a part of the government, their call represents one of the most troubling features from Hayek’s critique of scientific socialism: that the individual is treated as a means rather than as an end. They would manage us like cattle—not as living beings, mind you, but as potential dollars. None of this is new, and none of this is incompetence. This isn’t a financial collapse; it’s an engineered redistribution of wealth. It’s not a banking failure; it’s a dazzling success for bankers.” - Georg Poothausenschlofths


-2Truthy

Crossposted at BlondeSense

Monday, October 20, 2008

Noam Chomsky Says "Pick the Lesser of Two Evils"

Ali G Interviews Noam Chomsky

Caution: It is not advisable to view the above video without first altering your consciousnes. Exactly how you do this, it's your choice...

Then, right after viewing that, make sure to click here for this Real News Network interview and listen to the venerable Noam Chomsky all over again.

This time, Noam tells you why "picking the lesser of two evils" for POTUS is not only a "good thing", but that it's basically no different than getting to choose between jumping off the Sears Tower (without a parachute) or aiming your parachute into an elaborate mesh of high tension wires during an Oklahoma thunderstorm!

It's true! Either way -- there IS a choice, after all.



Party on, plebes!

-2Truthy

If I Were a Carpenter: In Memory of Levi Stubbs

LEVI STUBBS (STUBBLES), THE FOUR TOPS
LEAD SINGER
6/6/36 -10/17/08

It's Motown 24/7 at LWOH, where we will be featuring The Four Tops this week in memory of the late, great Levi Stubbs.

As an Accordionist who has dabbled around with the piano keys and always maintains she was a black gospel singer with pipes quite arguably almost-in- a-million-years like Mahalia Jackson in a past life, the loss of this Motown pillar has struck a melancholy, minor chord...Ever the sucker for a minor chord, yours truly today features this Four Tops gem of a minor chord Tim Hardin arrangement, "If I Were a Carpenter", delivered with Stubbs' signature moody and romantic, pleading gospel vocals that go straight to the heart.

And this, from one of my other favorite all-time female vocalists:

The singer Gladys Knight, the Four Tops' Tamla stable-mate, described Levi Stubbs as an immensely talented and kind man. "His voice was so emotional, crisp with energy and an edge. So many artists don't like to share but he was very unassuming and so very humble."

-2Truthy

Friday, October 17, 2008

Four Tops Frontman Levi Stubbs has Died

R.I.P. Levi Stubbs

Breaking News

Levi Stubbs, the lead singer in the Motown rhythm and blues quartet, the Four Tops, died Friday at the age of 72 in Michigan after a long battle with illness, an official at the regional coroner's office said.

In 1986, Stubbs' baritone voice was used in the film "Little Shop of Horrors" for Audrey II, the man-eating plant.

He died at his home. Click here for "Walk Away Renee," my favorite Four Tops song. What's yours?

-2Truthy

2Truthy's Happy Friday with Jo Baker & Elvin Bishop: Turn Up the Volume

Rock My Soul


In memory of Jo Baker, who died 11-11-96 at the age of 48.

I first saw Elvin Bishop and his band perform in Champaign, IL, home to my Alma Mater, the University of Illinois. They pulled into this little bar on a hot, Saturday night during a late spring thunderstorm. When they broke out into "Rock My Soul" the place went wild. Literally. Bishop also dragged along his horn section, and between the thunder outside and the incredible music shaking the tables and walls, nobody seemed to care if the roof blew off -- for no want of Jo Baker trying. It was Jo Baker's incredibly fierce, pure gospel wailing voice that led Elvin Bishop's R&B sound --- as if he and his hellaciously great band were all the backup singers.

Jo Baker was a strong, beautiful, amazing percussionist and vocalist who worked with Elvin Bishop (Did,"Do Nobody Wrong" and "Juke Point Jump"), Eddie Money, Stoneground (They did,"Prove It") and Quicksilver Messenger Service.

On that stormy Saturday night when the band came back onstage for a second encore, Jo Baker blew away the clouds with "Rock Bottom." We left, soaking our feet in the gravel parking lot puddles left by the storm. The rain and wind stopped.


Happy Friday, Loserettes!

-2Truthy






Is Politics Religion?

A Mel Toast Exclusive

That Old Time Religion


Politics is religion.

The oft-maligned Christian fundamentalist groups have always been referred to as the “base” of the
Republican Party. But I wonder, who represents the base for the Democratic Party? Without a doubt, one group that qualifies must be the civil service, made up of mandarins (and their various eunuchs) in thrall to the Holy Grail of big government—lifetime pensions.

Christian fundamentalists may be crucified for seeking the right to life for the unborn at the expense of a certain liberal or libertine lifestyle, but government workers also seek a special right, the right to a sinecure—a taxpayer-secured pension for life—and that would be at everyone’s expense.

Taxpayers should not be responsible for the pensions of government workers, be they elected officials or their appointed underlings. Taxpayers should also be free from paying the pensions for firefighters, police officers and teachers. Salaries, yes. Pensions no.

We must all learn to carry our own weight. The cost of living today is just too high to be letting anyone off the hook. Communities owe their “servants” no debt beyond their years of service to the community. And unlike
Social Security, which is a minimal, federally administered, taxpayer-shouldered provision guaranteed for all, work-life pensions should be a personal, not a public responsibility.

Cordially,

Mel Toast


Thursday, October 16, 2008

Who Won the Debate?


The blogosphere is buzzing with analysis and commentaries over who the REAL winner was after last night's pre-presidential debate held at Hofstra University. Esteemed economic guru to the Stars, The Dark Wraith Gets it and Gets it Right (on Free Trade, Anyway) on citing Obama's superior foreign trade policy assessment. Obama defended his superior position:

"I believe in free trade. But I also believe that for far too long, certainly during the course of the Bush administration with the support of Sen. McCain, the attitude has been that any trade agreement is a good trade agreement. And NAFTA doesn't have -- did not have enforceable labor agreements and environmental agreements. And what I said was we should include those and make them enforceable, in the same way that we should enforce rules against China manipulating its currency to make our exports more expensive and their exports to us cheaper..."

We've decided, too. Here are the highlights:

  • Healthcare: Neither John McCain or Barack Obama offer Single Payer insurance, which means that as long as jobs continue to be outsourced and wages plummet and people won't have money to pay for health insurance premiums anyway, they'll soon be forced to making budgetary "sacrifices" on all kinds of indulgences like eating melamine infused cans of Purina cat chow, routine colonoscopies, or skipping their weekly bowling nights out. Who won? Barry, only because he says he'll provide insurance for the uninsured with pre-exisiting conditions. We thought we saw his nose growing...)
  • Roe v. Wade: In McCain's mixed up, muffled up, shook up, PTSD world, Women don't get to keep their reproductive rights to themselves and everybody better hide the coat hangers, because if this bitch wins, he'll make sure that SCOTUS will be in your SCROTUS, or, ehm, the female equivalent thereof. Who won? Barry.
  • Tax Cuts: McCain, true to the old GOP "soak those suckers" rule, wants to stick it to the non-portfolio class (Joe Wage Slave) while Obama wants to only tax people in the $250K and north club. Who the hell won? Barry, like $250K times over!
  • Bill Ayers: Shesh, just because he bombed the Pentagon and championed pro-Palestinian rights causes... Not everyone gets to associate with smart guys and besides, he's not the candidate. Who won? Barry.
  • No Child Left Behind/School Vouchers: If you don't have to go to D.C. public schools, you dodged a bullet. Who won? Barry.
  • Iraq/Iran/Afghanistan. Funny, that never came up. Who won? Barry.
  • Who Looked More like a Lawyer Defending Himself Against John McCain? Barry.
  • Who Had Beadier Eyes? John McCain.
  • Who Would You Not Even Trust to Park Your Car? John McCain.
  • Whose Hair Had So Much Hairspray it Looked like a Helmut? Katie Couric.
  • Whose Post-Debate Analysis Revealed Nada and Whose Hair ALSO looked like a Helmut? Dee-Dee Myers.
Who really should be the next POTUS? Ralph Nader.

-2Truthy


Wednesday, October 15, 2008

Last Man Standing in a Sea of Fascists



















A
Mel Toast World Exclusive


Save the Rich!

Jesus, and George W. Bush, would not have it any other way.

Isn’t it peculiar, to say the least, to see McCain now preaching a (traditionally Democratic) populist message? I have to admit that, given my own dismal financial portfolio, I am moved by Obama’s soaring rhetoric that espouses an economic strategy that can be summed up succinctly in the phrase “string up those rich, thieving bastards.”

Whether or not he’d actually punish those responsible for this mess is another matter, but for the moment, his words are welcome. Remember that the trickle down theory can apply as accurately to a lynch mob as it can to economic theory.

However in the former, historically, the trickle often becomes a torrential flood. In the latter, the long hoped for trickle often evaporates before it reaches the lips of those it could help the most.

Is this some communist- or Mother Theresa-inspired tirade of mine? No, not at all.

But it is an indication of my current lack of respect for those who would come forth to govern this great nation.

I see plenty of smart people out there. Far too many smart people, in fact. But I see precious few good people holding court. And, although I may be starting to sound like Savonarola with a case of hemorrhoids, someone has to be in charge of the complaining.

John Steinbeck said it best: “Must the hunger become anger and the anger fury before anything will be done?”

Then there’s this old chestnut: “To suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, or to take arms against a sea of troubles and, by opposing, end them.”

That last one sounds more like our Founding Fathers in the Declaration of Independence calling for revolution whenever government gets too high and mighty, instead of Shakespeare’s Hamlet worrying over whatever was rotten in Denmark.


Cordially,

Mel Toast

Monday, October 13, 2008

When the Long Arm of the Lawlessness Knocks...

"Suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of Congress. But I repeat myself."
-Mark Twain, 1912


As details of Wall Street's bumpy $700 billion bailout ride to the bottom of the financial abyss unfolds, jangled sounds from the merchant class in steerage shout "Hey, who's running this ship?" "Mwahahaha! It self-selects!" laughs and laughs the ghost rider second mate at this woeful lot, these Chaucer's pilgrims -- as the hapless souls on board scramble to grab the last chairs on the deck, scrimmaging to hold onto anything that isn't moving.

Like a tangled web of global GPS systems accountable only unto themselves, these plundering pirates of the damned wrestle not with their flimsy excuses of collective (non) conscience but with plans to to socialize their corporate ponzi schemes as they buy off Congress and show the slaves who's REALLY boss right before this presidential election. "They'll never know!" Shouts the burly first mate --not unlike a whole first row of concert goers wearing tee-shirts emblazoned "He'll Never Know" at a Stevie Wonder concert.

At a meeting of the World Bank's policy-setting committee, former CEO of Goldman Sachs, King Hank Paulson, gets to make it all up as he goes along! Hank has now declared that despite the corporate looting of middle class America that has gone without massive protest, his watch has absolutely no plans to enact laws that protect American jobs:

"Although we in the United States are taking many extraordinary measures to ease the crisis, we are not pursuing policies that would limit the flow of goods, services or capital, as such measures would only intensify the risks of a prolonged crisis."

"Flow of goods"? As if we need any more tainted milk products from China. Willie Nelson and his fellow Farm Aid board members John Mellencamp, Neil Young and Dave Matthews sent an open letter to Congress asking that some of that money be redirected to farmers across the U.S. so that we can better strengthen our food supply and safety and restore prosperity to this nation's once abundant family farms. How about restoring "Services"? Who wants to pay three times as much for their weekly mow & blow? (Certainly, not yours truly. Tough choices, indeed.) Oh, and about that "capital" thing: we of course know that "capital" is HR speak for "cheap imported labor from third world countries" that were supposed to make the Captains of Industry squeal with delight over all of those increased profits that were supposed to increase job opportunities for white collar workers (we all know how that turned out.) But don't count on the two presidential candidates "debating" any of these key issues during their upcoming "debate."

Maybe we are just not looking at the bright side... As long as we can keep buying all that crap from China and importing cheap labor into this country to take white collar jobs from our own citizens during this economic collapse, we don't have to be guilty of not being superstitious... So far, things are working out just great for Paulson and Kashkari & Co., as long as the plebes keep believing in things they don't understand...

Meanwhile, Spain and other countries are facing severe economic difficulties, as governments everywhere are hunkering down to protect their own.


And what of our Government? What government? Our degenerate government largely consists of actors, wannabes, pedophiles, and a whole casts of characters slopping around the trough with great abandon, viewing the neighborhood voters as the suckers they have proven themselves to be. The U.S. Congress is nothing but a melamine coated candy store without any clerks minding the till. These scallywags and their Wall Street Sugar Daddies succeed in hornswaggling the plebes to row in the galleys despite dwindling human and labor rights, as they grant themselves cushy compensation plans and benefits on the taxpayer dime, throwing out labor protections along the high seas of Greed, Hubris, and Enmity. But it's not about the people, and the people know it's not really about the people. It's about a rudderless ship that is remote-control operated by a few corporate, upstairs greedstas who have no more use for an educated middle class who dare to believe that they actually deserve healthcare, good paying jobs, privacy and civil rights.


Fascist America in 10 Easy Steps?

"I know people from all kinds of backgrounds - the very rich, to the very poor. The socioeconomic divisions are greater than any of race, creed, or color. Period. The historical record clearly represents that the very wealthy despise the poor and even the "merchant class". The "merchant class" of today includes all white collar workers, the so-called Upper Middle Class. The Republicans do not serve them either. Small business is not served by either party - but especially not among the old wealth elites who really run the Republican party. The Democrats are no better. Their allegiance is to a foreign power instead of the best interests of the USA."

There is some good news -- our nation's Capital will soon be losing its eight-year extended stay village idiot.


-2Truthy

Thursday, October 9, 2008

Economic Woes will Save the Planet from Climate Change

NICOSIA (Reuters) - A slowdown in the global economy "may give the planet a breather from the excessively high carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions responsible for climate change" according to one report this week byNobel Prize winning scientist, Paul J. Crutzen.

According to the report, when the economy is in the shitter, everyone else is, too! As Crutzen suggests, sluggish economic global growth could help slow down carbon dioxide emissions and trigger more careful use of energy resources, though the global economic turmoil may also divert focus from efforts to counter climate change, said Crutzen, winner of the 1995 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his work on the depletion of the ozone layer.

"It's a cruel thing to say ... but if we are looking at a slowdown in the economy, there will be less fossil fuels burning, so for the climate it could be an advantage."

Stay tuned to find out what the two fastest growing polluters with billions of citizens, China and India, will do to stop the unsustainable output of global carbon dioxide emissions.

-2Truthy

Tuesday, October 7, 2008

Taxation without Representation: Dennis Kucinich on the Democrats' Bailout Betrayal

Photo credits/special thanks to Russmo

“This single vote will define the careers of everyone. We are back to taxation without representation, to markets that are openly rigged.”
-Dennis Kucinich on Wall Street Bailout



Truthdig features Chris Hedges’ column this week entitled Dennis Kucinich on the Democrats’ Bailout Betrayal that describes in detail the corporate kleptocracy’s chokehold on our newly deceased democracy and the players on the lifeless Party of FDR who folded, and sold out the Democrats, along with everyone else who isn’t on the Inside Straight.


The $700 billion BANKSTA“bailout” led by a couple of Goldman Sachs alums is of course, no bailout at all, but a giveaway to insiders to sell out their bad bets. Make no mistake that this giveaway is designed to deliver a major, one time mega wealth transfer to insiders who have been playing the system and funneling off the proceeds to themselves, and any fund manager or WS banker knows this. The only thing worse than this is the fact that the more information Democratic voters know about greedy corporate insiders and politicians responsible for selling out America’s middle class, the more rabid many of them become.


Why do voters keep electing corporate welfare queen enablers for presidents? The collapse of Wall Street with the subprime mortgage crisis was brought on by corporate crooks who worked for banks and excelled at accounting fraud (like the kind of fraud that led to the outster of AIG's Maurice Greenberg along with his counterparts at other companies such as Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae which engaged in Enron-esque accounting methods). These converging forces have made the public at large question why we have unelected, former Goldman Sachs bankstas speaking on behalf of the public and then acting against the economy in their claims to “save” it with this unprecedented giveaway.


Party on, plebes!


-2Truthy


Monday, October 6, 2008

Bailout Bill Smells Fishy


Bailout Bill Cans American Jobs



Has anyone wondered why the so-called “bailout bill” has coincided with gazillions of lost white collar jobs to India and who has been guarding that chicken coop? Or why Goldman Sachs bribed the Senate to pass the “bailout bill” that it had first overwhelmingly rejected?

Is the $700 Billion Wall Street Bailout Bill designed to sell American white collar jobs to India? Who couldn’t be in a better position than Hank Paulson’s insider protégé, Neel Kashkari (pronounced cash - carry) of Goldman Sachs to pave the way?

As The Wall Street Journal’s Deborah Solomon reported today, Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson has promoted fellow Goldman Sachs alum Neel Kashkari, 35, the Treasury’s assistant secretary for international affairs, as the new “point man overseeing the $700 billion financial bailout as the interim head of Paulson’s Office of Financial Stability.”

How and why did the original 3 page document turn into a four hundred page-plus “bailout-bill” that that loops in green tech giveaways and IRS snooping? (hint: SF is home to Al Gore’s leading green tech, pro-outsourcing venture capital firm that is addled with former investment bankers such as Kashkari.)

Kashkari reportedly was one of three Treasury staffers–including general counsel Robert Hoyt and head of legislative affairs Kevin Fromer–who stayed up until 4 a.m. last Sunday putting together the $700 billion bailout bill that was shot down by House Republicans the next day. (Kashkari was a vice president-level banker in Goldman’s San Francisco technology banking effort when Paulson reportedly tapped him to join Treasury.)

“It’s starting to look more and more like the bailout is actually a Goldman Sach’s bailout. Something smells fishy about this appointment! Ex-Goldman Sach’s people are getting ready to clean out the American people’s 700 billion. They are drooling and getting their own pockets ready to get filled up with chunks of the 700 billion jackpot!”

Smells fishy? As the New York Post pointed out, “millions in tax breaks and related pork for kids' wooden arrows, Puerto Rican rum producers, auto race tracks, and corporations operating in American Samoa” also came out winners. American Samoa? It turns out that StarKist has a large tuna-canning operation smack-dab in American Samoa and its parent company happens to be located smack-dab in the district of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

Hahaha. Oh, the drama…As if this little old 3 page bill ever were really a 3 page bill and that the subprime mortgage scam combined with continued, legalized purging of white collar jobs were based on some Great Labor Shortage or some accident. Or that we don’t know who is already a slam dunk for president next month to be the new Crime Boss of these totalitarian nanny states of feudal serf America, wrapped up in shiny, happy people sheeple speak…

Stay tuned for tomorrow's segment called "The Plebian peanut butter and crapola sandwich!"

-2Truthy


Friday, October 3, 2008

Say "No Deal" to the Raw Deal: Wall Street Bailout Blows Bigtime

Wall Street’s Billionaire Blowhard Bailout “Rescue”


The long-anticipated and overhyped Palin-Biden debate has come and gone but today, Denver based columnist and author David Sirota has hit one out of the park, resurrecting his pull-no-punches "Great Labor Shortage Myth" journalistic street cred as he artfully paints a grisly, domestic crime scene picture of the Wall Street Bailout in all of its naked truth.

Saying No Deal to the New Deal offers a shocking and sickening portrait of the raw deal we got today, comparing it to what spousal abuse must look like behind the gilded, closed doors of corporate elites and beltway politicians:

“The marriage of American capitalism and democracy has always been stormy and erratic. But during the debate over a Wall Street bailout, we watched that matrimonial knot unwind into a tangled tale of terror.”

Sirota reminds us that although the marriage of American democracy and capitalism has “always been stormy and erratic”, but today, democracy has died and in one month, people will elect a president from a whopping one big money party pool of candidates, McBama, both whom voted for this bill and killed democracy along with it. Is this what House Speaker Nancy Pelosi meant when she famously declared that “Americans get the government they deserve?”



It did not have to go down like this. There were many sound alternatives presented to Congress and the Senate and yet, this husband-and-wife spat escalated into a full-blown, “grisly crime of passion” that proved how corporations have hijacked democratic deliberations, as if government resources now rightfully belong exclusively to Wall Street:


“By the time the fight hit Congress' upper chamber, senatorial morticians were embalming democracy's corpse. Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., permitted consideration of just one alternative, and he rigged parliamentary procedure to guarantee its defeat.”


Today, capitalism took democracy's life by killing it “through a perverse legislative process” only to then rob its grave with the bailout bill's "lack of substance" or protections for the American people. American democracy is dead. What we have now, effective today, is a system that is no longer defined by vested government power in rules and systems, but by elitist individuals and their personal whims:

“Instead of responding to this meltdown by updating regulatory institutions or investing in job-creating infrastructure, the bailout proposes giving one unelected appointee — the Treasury secretary — complete authority to dole out $700 billion to bank executives, with little oversight. And here's the scary part: That lurch toward dictatorship was motivated not just by crony corruption, but also by a deeper ideological shift.”



WHAT party of FDR? Why does the Democratic candidate, Obama, keep insisting that it is “unpatriotic” to oppose this bill? In another article this week Sirota describes this bipartisan “bubble” mentality in which corporate elites and lawmakers, including (McBama) live in that keeps them about as far away from reality as the rest of us are from Mars:



“O'Neill and Joseph Stiglitz, both bailout critics, are top advisers to Barack Obama on this bailout issue, but the Democratic nominee keeps insisting that it is unpatriotic to oppose this bill. John McCain is even crazier - saying that the bill is going to "put us on the brink of economic disaster" right after he voted for it. And worst of all, both Obama and McCain are insisting that the bill just hasn't been sold properly as a "rescue" instead of a "bailout" - the implication being that public opposition is borne out of stupidity rather than sanity.”



Gone are the days of civility and respect for democratic governance, as Sirota paints the bleak, post-mortem picture of an autocratic aristocracy of grotesque, blowhardy feudal lords like billionaire Tom Friedman and legions of sycophants riding roughshod over a pillaged empire of the beleaguered with a fine brush across the canvass of, well, this country’s sorry derriere:


“This bailout, marketed as a speed enhancer, is an aggressive attempt to discard democracy's checks and balances and pantomime that kind of autocracy.”



How did we the people get such a raw deal this week? Does this come as any surprise?



“This week's spousal killing wasn't random. It was the beginning of a systematic assault on our Constitution and a radical departure from Franklin Roosevelt's original covenant — a dangerous "new deal" we must say "no deal.”



David is right. We must say “no” to this colossal raw deal, as there are plenty more of them to come. Maybe the plebes will finally vote the bums out in November?

When pigs fly.

-2Truthy

$700 Billion Wall Street Bailout "Rescue" Bill Spares No Bacon

Which part of the pig gives tax breaks to rum makers?
(Photo credit/story special thanks to Lee Brandenburg at captiveamerican.com)


FROM THE DESK OF QUINCY


Hello Everybody, it’s me. QUINCY,

Guess What? The Wall Street Bailout Bill Blows even MORE than it did yesterday!

Instead of the House curbing its insatiable appetite for the other white meat today by imposing a long overdue national ban on Pork, the Wall Street Bailout overindulged way bigtime.


Anyway, the Bailout Bill by these blowhards heaped on so many extra servings of spare ribs, chops and bacon that Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid were found this morning huddling around the Hill’s lavatory with so much indigestion text messaging E-bay orders for dozens and dozens of cases of Pepto-Bismol they had to special order from China (on credit with extra interest) for the whole Congress to wash it all down!

Mr. Lee Brandenburg from captiveamerican.com explains in painful detail how


“our career politicians obviously can’t summon the “courage” to change their votes without getting a whole lot of bacon in return. Exactly how much pork did it take for them to sell out their principles this time? $150.5 billion.”


If something doesn’t smell right about the Wall Street Billionaire Bailout Bill signed today, well, that’s because the barbecue spits are rotating full-bore on Capitol Hill with this half-baked Rump Session legislation passed by all the corpulent Senators and Congress critters on the U.S. Turkey Farm (that also goes by the name “United States Government.”)

I’ll tell you something else…nothing can replace a good old-fashioned plate of hummus, tabouli and organic, free range chicken or tofu skewers soaked in Budweiser (and not rum) on the back yard barbie so, while you still have some funds left in your bank (providing it hasn’t gone under), I say “instead of heading out to that Move-On party to support Obama, invite Obama and his peeps over to your backyard BBQ instead and show him what a real party looks like without ever having to sacrifice one single Pig!”

Ciao Everybody,

QUINCY

Wednesday, October 1, 2008

Mayor Daley Sells Out Midway Airport

Chicago’s Midway Airport to be Privatized


Chicago, IL – Going once, going twice…Midway Airport sold to the highest bidder!




Mayor Richard Daley has announced the city has accepted a bid to hand over Midway Airport to a “private operator” in a deal that he claims would bring in $1 billion for city coffers.


In case you’re wondering who the suitor is, a brief mention is made about the foreign group that goes by the name of Midway Investment and Development Co. (MIDCo), a shadowy bunch of foreign investors headed up by Citi which agreed to pay $2.5 billion for the right to run Midway for 99 years. Want to make a bet that this posse will NOT be flying in and out of the airport on commercial jets or encounter the TSA?


The deal, however, is reportedly not expected to solve Chicago's “current budget problems” as Daley explained:



"We believe this is a very good return, especially given the current stress in the credit markets."



Hmm. The deal won't solve budget problems? N'est pas? And what kind of “problems” are we talking about, here? Let’s see now…apparently, Mayor Daley is taking a page from the Neo-Frat Boy corporate welfare ho playbook by deciding to scrap at least 3,000 jobs and laying off another 1,000 Chicagoans entirely – you know, the new golden rule of privatization dictates that city infrastructures and its people can all take a flying-you-know-what when a few pols and cronies pocket the loot to cover messy investments and bets during these hard times…



“Besides making at least 1,000 layoffs to help balance the city budget, the Daley administration may leave about 3,000 jobs unfilled, a top aide to Mayor Richard Daley said Tuesday.”



Haha, good return indeed, for all those insiders with front row seats at the trough. Now that over 70% of this country’s elites have pulled up the draw bridge on U.S. national wealth and leave the country while their stupid, paid political lackeys ignore US voters and sell out the US infrastructure to the Chinese, Europeans and others in a bargain basement fire sale.” It is no accident that commercial airline deregulation brought about a whole host of disasters like the TSA and shoddy service. Now this. Hellllo Feudal Slave Lord America!


What kind of emphasis will be placed upon safety, efficiency and convenience when a few foreign investors decide to control our fabled Midway?
How are these suitors selected?  Are they "qualified" to change a tire, check the oil level, work a weight & balance sheet or watch the end of the short runway approach as the nosewheel lifts a bit slowly taking off heavy out of Midway while watching the checkerboard rooftop approach while pilot crabbing or anything?  Not to mention, how many other unqualified airline managers have pipe dream visions on how to run airport operations and worse on the cheap in order to crank up profits?


Now that the crisis point has hit with this major global recession taking over, it is sad that this wholesale looting by a few greedy pols and corporate elites is happening before our eyes, in our cities, in America. At our little jewel of an airport inside of my hometown.


-2Truthy