Sunday, November 18, 2012
GOP Goes Nuts Over Benghazi! Weeping and Wailing, But Wait!
Hostess Brought Down by Unions? Not So Fast.
The media story going around is that unions demanding reasonable pensions (aka in biz/political speek "outrageous demands" are what brought down Hostess Brands. As usual the news media is choosing to go with the story that their fat cat backers want promoted.
But even the New York Times report had to admit in As Labor Talks Collapse, Hostess Turns Out Lights:
new private equity backers loaded the company with debt, making it difficult to invest in new equipment. Earlier this year, Hostess had more than $860 million of debt
And a report "Creditors Say Hostess Pay Is Questionable" published April at the Wall Street Journal said at that time:
Creditors of Hostess Brands Inc. said in court papers the company may have "manipulated" its executives' salaries higher in the months leading up to its Chapter 11 filing, in what the creditors called a possible effort by Hostess to "sidestep" Bankruptcy Code compensation provisions.
The committee representing Hostess's unsecured creditors alleges that information it has gathered suggests "the possibility" that the company converted a chunk of its top executives' pay from performance-based bonuses to salary, "at least in part to sidestep" rules designed to ensure that companies in bankruptcy aren't enticing their employees to stay on board with the promise ...
Also see: Hostess Blames Union For Bankruptcy After Tripling CEO’s Pay from which I got the WSJ link, though not the NYT's one. Their reference to the Journal article could easily be overlooked, allowing a troll to say -- well that's just Think Progress again. No, it wasn't, it was the Wall Street Journal reporting on court records.
Picture at top above of Long Barn Garden (owned previous to Sissinghurst by the famous couple) is used via Creative Commons License Attribution (CC by 2.0) thanks to Flickr user Jack Holloway who has no connection to this blog or blogger. Link under picture goes to original site where he offers more info on it.
Picture lower on left used via Creative Commons License Attribution (CC by 2.0) thanks to The Knowles Collection at Flickr.com which also has no connection to this blog or blogger. It was placed for all those in mourning over the demise of Twinkies, etc.
Short url = http://x.co/prcM
Saturday, November 17, 2012
Did Israel Stop Reuters From Filming Their Operation on Gaza?
When the sound of trucks were heard again they would stop talking and focus back on a generalized shot in front of them.
At one point one of the men said (that I could hear) "can't do that". I don't know why. That was the only English I heard.
At at least one other point I heard vehicles approach and the feed when down again repeating what happened when just after this video showing though without showing the arriving troops or vehicles.
Look at what you see last in the live video portion of above and tell me these guys did not feel they were under threat for what they were doing. Someone whips the camera around focuses on a canon style weapon on top of one of the trucks that had arrived with the (I assume) IDF just before the feed dies.
Video kept coming on after blackouts for an hour or so more, but then never returned, again suddenly cut off.
I hate to pick on Israel unnecessarily, but they don't seem to be acting with transparency in this case, nor with fairness towards our own people who Nettie wanted to use in a massive invasion of Iran which could have killed 100,000 young Americans and triggered a universal draft.
Update: The Reuters Live Stream camera covered Gaza last night as well. I viewed some video there during their very early morning hours, then it went down. I checked in an hour later and it had become daylight and they were filming again, for a couple of hours. It once went to the whining signal they give, but using alink at the side brought back live (I assume) video. That did not repeat then next time the video disappeared at about 1 am (my time), before I went to bed about 2 am. So, apparently they are not being stopped from their job, but I think it is obvious that they did feel there was a threat when they first encountered the troops. Last night a missel struck close enough to them get dirt on the lens, but did not explode as far as I could see. I assume that since they seem to be filming across a no man's land into Gaza that they are in Israel, and coupled with the fact that the site was not destroyed, that the missile came from Gaza, showing the huge difference in what the two sides are lofting. Some, apparently home made weapons, versus 500 pound monsters that destroy whole buildings and all inside them.
Tuesday, November 13, 2012
TDS: Confronting the Questions Involved in Petraeus' Resignation
Obama!
Monday, November 5, 2012
HERE'S AN 800 NUMBER TO THE FBI IN CASE U SEE OR SUFFER VOTER SUPRESSION
I was leery of the 202 number because I thought it might just be local, but the 202 # and the 1-800 are on this page plus one for just Wester PA (grab it if it fits you area for the fastest service).
Excerpt Hispanic Business.com :
It doesn't sound like it's just for Spanish speakers, and hopefully they can accomidate either. I still think that if you can't get help otherwise, call 911. The cops should help too. They're real Americans, many of minority backgrounds, some even the children of immigrants.
I'm pretty sure you know if you should have the right to vote. It is true that Republican operatives may have thrown some registration forms away, but I'm sure if you honestly did your part the cops should take your word for it. Be strong in your faith.
And hopefully those who threw away the forms will be wearing stripes or orange or something like that for a long time. And those harassing people at the polls can join them.
Pass these numbers around. And people recommend you take a phone to the polls, and a camera (if you have them) to record any problems.
Excerpt Hispanic Business.com :
Federal prosecutors and FBI agents will be on duty on Election Day to field complaints of voter intimidation, bribery, vote buying and related crimes, U.S. Attorney David Hickton announced today.I've taken a much larger portion of this report than I usually do because this is urgent and important for our nation and for voters.
The office has set up a hotline at 412-894-7516. Mr. Hickton has appointed Assistant U.S. Attorney Shaun Sweeney as Western Pennsylvania's district election officer.
FBI agents can be reached on Tuesday at 412-432-4000, and the Department of Justice Civil Rights Division Voting Section in Washington can be reached at 1-800-253-3931 or 202-307-2767 or online, the office announced.
"The Department of Justice will act promptly and aggressively to protect the integrity of the election process," Mr. Hickton said in a press release, which indicated that enforcement of voter rights is a longstanding role of the Department of Justice.
Federal law, according to the release, "contains special protections for the rights of voters and provides that they can vote free from acts that intimidate or harass them. For example, actions of persons designed to interrupt or intimidate voters at polling places by questioning or challenging them, or by photographing or videotaping them, under the pretext that these are actions to uncover illegal voting may violate federal voting rights law.
It doesn't sound like it's just for Spanish speakers, and hopefully they can accomidate either. I still think that if you can't get help otherwise, call 911. The cops should help too. They're real Americans, many of minority backgrounds, some even the children of immigrants.
I'm pretty sure you know if you should have the right to vote. It is true that Republican operatives may have thrown some registration forms away, but I'm sure if you honestly did your part the cops should take your word for it. Be strong in your faith.
And hopefully those who threw away the forms will be wearing stripes or orange or something like that for a long time. And those harassing people at the polls can join them.
Pass these numbers around. And people recommend you take a phone to the polls, and a camera (if you have them) to record any problems.
Is Karl Rove Playing California Through Ad Buys Promoting Proposition 32 and Against Prop 30?
What happened according to A San Jose Mercury News report is:
[A] donation was made last month to the Small Business Action Committee, which has been running campaigns against Proposition 30, Gov. Jerry Brown's tax-hike initiative, and for Proposition 32, the measure that would curb labor's ability to collect political cash.The California Fair Political Practices Committee and California's Attorney General Kamala Harris got a ruling from a Sacramento judge to submit to an investigation over whether the ad buyers broke campaign finance rules. Subsequently the ad buying group got out their lawyers to whine about political oppression and got a stay from an appeals court, but not before I got the horrific vision of Rove locked in a filthy prison cell lacking his expensive girdle and suits that makes me want to burn out the part of my brain in which that is stored,
Today though the California Supreme Court ruled that the groups had to give up their donor information and, no surprize, the purchasing entity shares an address with American Crossroads at the offices of Crossroads Media and Rove's group denies any connection with either. So I guess Rove can't make up original names and wanders around like a kindergartner copying that which other people make up.
It's worth a reporters job, though, to put two and two together.
So, unless we want Rove shagging us, why don't we just get out and vote against everything he's for and for everything he hates.
Sounds like a plan.
Political cash floods California races at the LA Times, which is trying to collect online subscription payments these days. If you have reached your limit for the month (set very low there), take the title to Google News and search on it and click on the Times article there. GN has it in their contracts that publications must allow a reader access to 5 articles a day from their news search site..
More details at
San Jose Mercury News: State Court of Appeal sides with Arizona group and issues stay; state's highest court to take up case
KPCC UPDATE: Groups behind anti-Prop 30 donation revealed.
Edit: No matter whether the Center to Protect Patient Rights were working with Karl Rove I have learned is a front group for the Koch bros. No kidding. That was reported on KPCC's website. Since the Koch bros regularly work with Rove, I see no reason not to suspect it happened this year too, but even more importantly, if the CPR collects donations from outsiders, an investigation should at least be held to see if they promote their group as an actual patient protection group when seeking funds. It is dishonest to call yourself such a high sounding name while playing politics outside its realm, but if they collect money using the implication they are helping patients, then its criminal.
Sunday, November 4, 2012
California: Monsanto is Playing Us For Chumps! Soymilk is Not Milk
California Coastal Redwoods
Yeah, we could have guessed those were coastal redwoods.
(Even I can, and I'm no hippy living out in the woods, but I've visited the coastal redwood areas as well as the mountainous areas where the giant redwoods naturally grow).
But in food, things aren't that clear, anymore.
So Monsanto decided to play with us, hoping we're too stupid to figure out their mind games.
You've likely heard their Rovian commercial whining that Soymilk would have to declare whether it was made from GMO enabled plants, but not real milk, implying that there was something unfair in that one kid of milk was targeted, but not another.
But we're not that stupid, are we?
Soy milk is not real milk. I use it on my cereal, It's a good substitute, has calcium added, and I like the taste though I also use a little regular milk so I won't become latose intolerant. (I'm not a vegetarian, and only was introduced to soy milk when I ran out and tried my vegan daughter's.)
But they are not the same product. Soy milk is made by grinding up soybeans and letting them soak, then filtering the solids out. That transfers products in the soy beans straight to you.
With milk, cows are fed silage of GMO corn and soy plants as well as other plant products, but, in the first place, cows have incredible digestive tracts. Remember the seven stomachs? And each of those stomachs have been developed by their genetic history to take plants that are mostly indigestible to us, and give them a different environment that will turn their food into massive amount of flesh and with the females a copious amount of milk given the proper conditions.
Most animals have strong immune systems, and combined with the cows digestive tract what she eats is dealt with much more effectively than how you would fair consuming it. At the very least, You can't eat grass and the leaves and stems of soy and corn plants and hope to get through a reasonable day that way. You aren't a cow.
Furthermore, if the stalks and leaves of GMO corn and soy plants cause intestinal problems in cows, dairy farmers have a lot more clout than you have. They buy a lot of that feed for their herds, and the producers of it are going to pay attention. Unfortunately, similar eating problems in humans often take years to be identified, especially on a large scale. Think of all the years we thought that fatty steaks were a good thing to eat though most of us were a so much less active than our ancestors.
Monsanto has created GMO products that can give many people digestive problems that might mimic trying to eat normally indigestible grass and leaves. Remember how some scientists found a bacteria that kills caterpillars? We all went out and bought the new natural product BT to protect our flowering plants instead of dangerous pesticides. But you wouldn't want to consume the toxin those bacteria create and release into caterpillars who eat your flowers or food crops. (Hint: it explodes their stomachs.)
You would wash the food sprayed with it completely. That's because the BT is a bacteria. It shouldn't infect you, but it does create a toxin that can make humans sick as well. Guess what Monsanto's GMO corn and soy contain. The genes of that bacteria that make a toxin that cause some human stomachs to have problems, and voila' the plant makes the toxin itself and distributes it through out, including into the parts that we eat. Suddenly someone is getting sick and doesn't know why. If they're a middle or working class person, they might not even be able afford thousands of dollars of medical tests to find out why. And , even those might not pinpoint the cause as being common forms of GMO foods, especially if GMO containing foods are not identified.
Those people who have natural chronic problems with digestion can tell you, you don't need that. You don't need the pain and weakness, or the missed work. There are bad enough diseases out there that even people who eat healthy food can have, but at least they aren't being tortured by unknowingly eating a known toxin. The last thing that hard working people need is to try to live on food that makes them sick.
And, as a matter of fact, WalMart has announced that it will start selling corn from plants that have the genes that create the toxin right in them. Formerly, such corn was used to make corn sugar because the heavy processing denatured the toxin.
WalMart thinks it can be successful selling the GMO corn, because only a portion of the population gets sick from the toxin, but what if it's you, or your significant other, and without Proposition 37 other retailers don't have to identify their corn as containing anything different than other corn? It is likely that many more stores will slip in the pretty corn that is not missing kernels.
Monsanto should at least have to tell us what they are doing to our food when we are the primary consumer. Their word games are just an attempt to evade accountability.
Please ignore Monsanto's mind games and vote yes on Prop 37.
More on this subject:
CA: Yes on Prop 37 Is the Only Way to Keep Your Family From Being Fed An Agent Orange Toxin As one of Monsanto's herbicides stops working the company seeks to create food plants that will resist the effect of another of their products which just happens to be half of the blend called Agent Orange which has been recognized as toxic to humans. Then the chemical won't just be used on the borders and between seasons in food crop fields, but right on them, and the only way you will know which ones they may be the GMO label on the packaging --- if we pass Prop 37. Otherwise, you and your family can play the eating version of Russian Roulette.
Video: Our families are being used as lab rats. Kids have something to say about that.
Picture above used via Creative Commons License Attribution (CC by 2.0) thanks to Flickr user Carodean Road Designs who has no connection to this blog or blogger.
Saturday, November 3, 2012
Tim Kaine V George Allen Virginia Senate Seat
Surprising as it is to find George "Macaca man" Allen with a chance to sell the rights of the citizens of the state of VA to the billionaires, who never actually care a bit about normal citizens, this apparently has happened.
And a poll days ago said that Romney may win the state's electoral college votes, too, putting the presidency more up in the air than I'd heard before.
Well, I'm sure that the people of the commonwealth can make up their own minds but I'm concerned they don't understand what all of Mr. Allen's positions are.
George Allen refuses to condemn the state actions towards women such are requiring an ultrasound before an abortion. This could cause an extra charge of hundreds of dollars added to the substantial cost of the ultimate procedure. If this becomes too costly women will find other methods than having the procedure done by a doctor which could risk her life and health, and even her freedom and that of any one who aids her in the quest to not be pregnant.
In fact, George Allen, says he favors a "Personhood" amendment. His excuse he said that was because it would help "punish a pregnant woman's attacker". I'm thinking that Virginia has plenty of laws in place for criminals. But in case Mr. Allen didn't know, the Personhood deal actually prohibits the use of the most effective birth control options putting our nation back into the 50s and requiring the use of condoms for even a modicum of prevention. Personhood actually prevents the use of The Pill and the IUD. Last I heard, condoms success rate is not anywhere as good as those two methods and some guys complain loudly about the "rubbers".
As even Grover Norquist noted, a Romney presidency is only another situation in which disinterested GOP showman like George W. Bush will drag out his hand to sign bills that Norquist crafts for the billionaires and the Republicans in Congress pass.
If billionaires want us to invade some country for resources, Americans under GOP Congress and President are sent off to war.
And when the nation goes bankrupt because of war and tax cuts for billionaires they can just dismantle all the intelligence industry they said they needed in the years of Dubya and Obama. And get rid of FEMA which does nothing but help communities recover from disasters like hurricanes, and floods, etc.
I could be fun getting back to those days like in the Confederacy where the rich fared well and the poor died, except during war when everybody died.
No one thought we'd get to war so fast when Dubya was elected, but they sure showed us. Boom within 10 months we were ar war, and then the lies came fast and furious about why we had to invade Iraq because, you know Al Qaeda! (which turned out wasn't in Saddam's part of Iraq until after we invaded and toppled him. Now, Netanyahu, with whom Romney's had two meetings since Spring (and who wants Obama out because the Prez refused to invade Iran for a guaranteed second term), wants us to attack Iran.
War gaming showed that, if attacked, Iran, would not only mine the Strait of Hormuz, but also bomb the Saudi oil fields which would cause global economic collapse (except for oil companies of course who would make out like bandits). According to the war planning, that could not be fixed until we invaded Iran and cause regime change.
Our military is broken, but the Selective Service still has their plans for a Universal Draft set up waiting for a trigger, ie the next conflict. The Universal Draft calls for conscripting of all males and females from age 18 to 34 without deferments, except in extreme cases. No more educational reprieves.
Another fact people might not know is that, Iran's military is at least 10 times stronger than Iraq's was in 2003 and they were never forced to give up their chemical and biological weapons. Those will be waiting for you, or your kids, grandkids.
This terrifies military leaders, and even gave the Bush administration pause. Of course, Obama, refused to take the bait, but Romney has had two private meetings with the Netanyahu (who covets cheaper Iranian oil because of its superior level of hydrocarbons). And Romney refuses to release transcripts of the talks he's had with the PM, or tell us if he made any deals with him.
And George Allen will be right there in the Senate to help Romney start another war. I guess it could be glorious for a few. Fro the rest, disaster, and don't look for FEMA. Romney's going to hand it over to billionaires.
Oh yeah, I forgot. Picture at top used via Creative Commons License Attribution (CC by 2.0) thanks to Flickr user DonkeyHotey who has no connection to this blog or blogger.
Friday, November 2, 2012
CA-49 Darrell Issa Exposed American Friends in Libya to Possible Capture or Death by al Qaeda Allies
Libyans in Benghazi February 2012 Celebrating Anniversary of Start of Libyan Revolution
Isn't it true that the last thing that Libyan's need right now is Neo-Nixonian gamesmanship over the tragedy that happened in their nation on September 11, 2012? Like we stood with George W. Bush when his dismantling of Clinton's national security apparatus enabled al Qaeda to strike the US, Republicans should allow investigation and improvement in security to continue without the faux Watergate game they are playing, no matter how angry it will make their billionaire backers if they lose this election.
According to a Huffington Post report
House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R- Calif.) has come under fire after posting 166 pages of "sensitive but unclassified" State Department cables online Friday afternoon.What Issa was doing was grandstanding, carrying on another phony investigation like the one over Fast and Furious program started under George W Bush and continued under the perview of the Arizona office of the ATF which Issa tried to pretend was a new Watergate style outrage promoted from the Obama Administration and make open his own way to a future White House bid, by helping the Romney/Ryan ticket this year, and then showing the GOP's billionaire backers, he could be the biggest conspiracy theorist tool they'd ever had.
The documents relate to the Sept. 11 [2012] attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, which killed Ambassador Christopher Stevens and four others. Administration officials, speaking with Foreign Policy magazine, accused Issa of endangering the safety of Libyans working with the U.S. government, whose names were not redacted from the report:
Much like WikiLeaks, when you dump a bunch of documents into the ether, there are a lot of unintended consequences," an administration official told The Cable Friday afternoon. "This does damage to the individuals because they are named, danger to security cooperation because these are militias and groups that we work with and that is now well known, and danger to the investigation, because these people could help us down the road.
Then after the attack on the Benghazi consulate Issa jumped into action again and picked up the Watergate investigator mantle again, developing all kinds of allegations to work "investigation magic and get his cronies installed so they could vote to take away our Social Security (which he's called a Ponzi scheme but I proved is really a savings plan and if the money is diverted to tax cuts for billionaires may turn into the biggest theft ever from Americans.).
In his exitement he allowed some information to be exposed in his televised hearing in October, and then dumped the rest on the Internet without bothering to check to see if there was information that might get our allies killed.
Even when he started the recall that got Gray Davis removed from office just a year after the Governor won billions of dollars from electricity companies that scammed California through the "Energy Crisis" of 2000 and 2001 by proving the entire crisis was a profit increasing shell game played on our state, Issa may not have done as much harm as he did this year.
Issa's opponent is Jerry Tetalman. It's time for CA-49 to clean house and make a change. If you live in the district, you know what to do.
More on Darryl Issa's activities this year and earlier.
Picture used via Creative Commons License (CC by 2.0) Photographer has no connection to this blog or blogger. Yes, I know it's blurry. That's probably for the best.
Steve Colbert Explains Romney-Fema
The Colbert Report
Get More: Colbert Report Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,Video Archive
Get More: Colbert Report Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,Video Archive
Thursday, November 1, 2012
Tuesday, October 30, 2012
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
