GUARDING THE BACON
Sheila Bair was reappointed by President Obama to head the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. A Republican, she is protecting the interest of taxpayers as no Democrat has in this administration. Huge financial decisions are being made by the government, involving trillions in future obligations of U.S. taxpayers, and Bair has been a rare effective voice for the interests of ordinary folk. That is why the big guys on Wall Street and their allies in the administration are out to get her.
(TRUTHDIG)
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
Kansas City - Fat City - Nothing to see here folks. Rockstar Energy drink is in no way connected with Michael Savage.
BITTER TEA
Michael Savage's "Savage Nation" holds the third-largest radio audience in the country. His son is the founder of the popular Rockstar Energy drinks. Savage is using legal means to silence Web sites and even Facebook groups publicizing any connection between the two. Just to be clear, Michael Savage (real name Michael Weiner) has no connection to Rockstar. Even though his son is the founder and CEO and even though his wife is both secretary and treasurer for Rockstar, Michael Savage is shocked that this would lead some Web sites to believe that he has any connection with the company. In fact, as far as we know, Savage has never even heard of the energy drink that shares the same mailbox as his company.
Michael Savage's "Savage Nation" holds the third-largest radio audience in the country. His son is the founder of the popular Rockstar Energy drinks. Savage is using legal means to silence Web sites and even Facebook groups publicizing any connection between the two. Just to be clear, Michael Savage (real name Michael Weiner) has no connection to Rockstar. Even though his son is the founder and CEO and even though his wife is both secretary and treasurer for Rockstar, Michael Savage is shocked that this would lead some Web sites to believe that he has any connection with the company. In fact, as far as we know, Savage has never even heard of the energy drink that shares the same mailbox as his company.
SEE ALSO
(GAYWIRED, suggested by ALTERNET)
Tuesday, June 09, 2009
BASEBALL AND THE "LITTLE EASY"The Mobile Satchel Paige returned to in 1923 was full of optimism. The Great War had been good to the city, expanding Alabama's only deep-water port and making Mobile a trading hub for products as varied as lumber, tractors, and blackstrap molasses. Mardi Gras was back after a wartime siesta, as was the city's reputation as the Little Easy. It was less commercial and more free-spirited than its Big Easy neighbor to the West, New Orleans. Mobile joyfully embraced prostitution and intoxication and disdained the old evangelist Sam Jones, who a generation earlier had declared, "I'd be a stockbroker in hell before I'd be a director of a Mardi Gras . . . [where] men are drunk and carousing on the streets and girls go about in men's clothing." Keep it up, Jones admonished Mobilians, and "your city will be damned eternally."
(NPR, suggested by Garet Cox)
Friday, June 05, 2009
Obama and the Press | vanityfair.com
HANDLING THE FOURTH ESTATE
The Obama Administration may have the smartest, most finely calibrated press operation in White House history, parceling out scoops, partisan talking points, and First Family tidbits to a desperate media. Just don't ask them to admit it. The administration has started with 14 professionals working in the office of the press secretary—and an astounding 47 more devoted to other aspects of media and message - which is significantly more than the communications staffs of many Fortune 500 corporations. But the media operation goes deeper than that. It’s more central than in any previous administration, and run more knowledgeably.
(VANITY FAIR)
The Obama Administration may have the smartest, most finely calibrated press operation in White House history, parceling out scoops, partisan talking points, and First Family tidbits to a desperate media. Just don't ask them to admit it. The administration has started with 14 professionals working in the office of the press secretary—and an astounding 47 more devoted to other aspects of media and message - which is significantly more than the communications staffs of many Fortune 500 corporations. But the media operation goes deeper than that. It’s more central than in any previous administration, and run more knowledgeably.
(VANITY FAIR)
Thursday, June 04, 2009
THE VIRUS OF RACISM
Some pundits are engaging in blather about the emergence of a "New Racism", insisting rather ironically that whites rather than people of color are the real victims of personal and institutional racism. This article does a tremendous job in describing the reality of an emerging "New Racism". It's fault, I think, lies in treating the two as separate things and in talking about "Old Racism" as something whose time has passed. They can be more easily explained as permutations of each other not unlike a virus that has reconstituted itself. The "old racism", defines differences in terms of fixed biological categories. The emerging strain operates in various guises, proclaiming race-neutrality, asserting culture as a marker of racial difference or marking race as a private matter. While the old crude form of racism uses biological referents and pseudo-scientific legitimations and buttresses its appeal to white racial superiority, this new strain cynically recodes itself within the vocabulary of the civil rights movement, invoking the language of Martin Luther King Jr. to argue that individuals should be judged by the "content of their character" and not by the color of their skin.
(TRUTHOUT)
Some pundits are engaging in blather about the emergence of a "New Racism", insisting rather ironically that whites rather than people of color are the real victims of personal and institutional racism. This article does a tremendous job in describing the reality of an emerging "New Racism". It's fault, I think, lies in treating the two as separate things and in talking about "Old Racism" as something whose time has passed. They can be more easily explained as permutations of each other not unlike a virus that has reconstituted itself. The "old racism", defines differences in terms of fixed biological categories. The emerging strain operates in various guises, proclaiming race-neutrality, asserting culture as a marker of racial difference or marking race as a private matter. While the old crude form of racism uses biological referents and pseudo-scientific legitimations and buttresses its appeal to white racial superiority, this new strain cynically recodes itself within the vocabulary of the civil rights movement, invoking the language of Martin Luther King Jr. to argue that individuals should be judged by the "content of their character" and not by the color of their skin.
(TRUTHOUT)
OBAMA MORE POPULAR THAN CHENEY WITH GOPers
A new survey shows that the Cheney and Sotomayor debates threaten to further Isolate the GOP. President Obama's job approval stands at 57 percent among likely voters, virtually unchanged over the last four months and just a point off his all-time high. But Cheney's persistent visibility does not appear to be helping matters for the Republicans. With a 51 percent unfavorable rating, the former vice president is at his lowest level of popularity since Democracy Corps first measured it in 1999.
A new survey shows that the Cheney and Sotomayor debates threaten to further Isolate the GOP. President Obama's job approval stands at 57 percent among likely voters, virtually unchanged over the last four months and just a point off his all-time high. But Cheney's persistent visibility does not appear to be helping matters for the Republicans. With a 51 percent unfavorable rating, the former vice president is at his lowest level of popularity since Democracy Corps first measured it in 1999.
Cheney is a deeply divisive figure, popular only with the conservative base of the Republican Party but unpopular with everyone else, including independents and moderate Republicans. In fact, President Obama (+5) is more popular with moderate Republicans than Cheney.
(Democracy Corps and Greenberg Quinlan Rosner)
AARC Public Library - Church Committee Reports
WHY WE WORRY
One unfortunate byproduct of 911 was the excuse it provided for a relapse to things Big Brother. Published in 1975 and 1976, the Church Committee Reports are the most extensive review of intelligence activities. They detail the formation, operation, and abuses of U.S. intelligence agencies and help explain the subsequent limitations placed on them.
(AARC LIBRARY)
One unfortunate byproduct of 911 was the excuse it provided for a relapse to things Big Brother. Published in 1975 and 1976, the Church Committee Reports are the most extensive review of intelligence activities. They detail the formation, operation, and abuses of U.S. intelligence agencies and help explain the subsequent limitations placed on them.
(AARC LIBRARY)
Wednesday, June 03, 2009
Truthdig - Reports - Reagan Didn’t Do It
BOTH SIDES TO BLAME
In 1997 a cabal of powerful Democrats and Republicans enabled the wave of newfangled financial gimmicks that resulted in our current economic collapse. They blocked any effective regulation of the over-the-counter derivatives that turned into the toxic assets now being paid for with tax dollars. Earlier, Ronald Reagan had signed legislation making it easier for people to obtain mortgages with lower down payments. But as long as the banks that made those loans expected to have to carry them for 30 years they did the due diligence needed to qualify creditworthy applicants. The problem occurred only when that mortgage debt could be aggregated and sold as securities to others in an unregulated market.
(TRUTHDIG)
In 1997 a cabal of powerful Democrats and Republicans enabled the wave of newfangled financial gimmicks that resulted in our current economic collapse. They blocked any effective regulation of the over-the-counter derivatives that turned into the toxic assets now being paid for with tax dollars. Earlier, Ronald Reagan had signed legislation making it easier for people to obtain mortgages with lower down payments. But as long as the banks that made those loans expected to have to carry them for 30 years they did the due diligence needed to qualify creditworthy applicants. The problem occurred only when that mortgage debt could be aggregated and sold as securities to others in an unregulated market.
(TRUTHDIG)
Saturday, May 30, 2009
F#@K A DUCK! (A JON STEWART HEADLINE)
A music video response to Pat Robertson's inane comment that gay marriage would lead to legalizing sex with ducks.
(Suggested by ALTERNET)
A music video response to Pat Robertson's inane comment that gay marriage would lead to legalizing sex with ducks.
(Suggested by ALTERNET)
Thursday, May 28, 2009
HOW SHE DO THAT?
Okay, Jesse Ventura was hard enough to explain. But, how do you figure the most well-educated, progressive state in the union electing Michele Bachmann? Our friends over at City Pages ran this cute little cartoon about our favorite little wingnut. The links are set out below:
Okay, Jesse Ventura was hard enough to explain. But, how do you figure the most well-educated, progressive state in the union electing Michele Bachmann? Our friends over at City Pages ran this cute little cartoon about our favorite little wingnut. The links are set out below:
Friday, May 22, 2009
MOVE ON
Rather than acknowledging the party's failed policies and reaching out to new constituencies, the GOP's dominant faction is retrenching around the anti-government, free-market, fundamentalist strain of Republicanism last championed by Barry Goldwater when in 1964 he steered the party to one of its most crushing defeats.
(ROLLING STONE)
Rather than acknowledging the party's failed policies and reaching out to new constituencies, the GOP's dominant faction is retrenching around the anti-government, free-market, fundamentalist strain of Republicanism last championed by Barry Goldwater when in 1964 he steered the party to one of its most crushing defeats.
(ROLLING STONE)
The Daily Dish | By Andrew Sullivan
ON CHENEY
Andrew Sullivan's reflections are more than just a chillingly accurate criticism of the former Veep, they hold true for many others:
Andrew Sullivan's reflections are more than just a chillingly accurate criticism of the former Veep, they hold true for many others:
It confirms the very worst of [him], and reveals just how callow, just how arrogant, and just how reckless and unrepentant [this man] is and has long been. There was not a whisper of regret or reflection; there was a series of lies and distortions, a reckless attack on a graceful successor, inheriting a world of intractable problems, and a reminder that while serious men and women will indeed move on, [Cheney] never will.
(ATLANTIC MONTHLY, suggested by WEST VIRGINIA BLUE)
Thursday, May 21, 2009
Welcome to BayFest - Mobile's Music Festival
BAYFEST POSTER IS STUNNING
BayFest has announced the winner of its competition to design the official event poster and it is a stunner. The winning piece was created by Fairhope resident Sam Gambino and is sure to make the Mobile event stand out. More information and samples of Gambino’s other work can be found at www.samgambino.com.
Monday, May 18, 2009
The Associated Press: Despite embargo, Cuba imports daiquiris from US
BUT WE CAN DO BUSINESS WITH THEM?
Amid calls for a fresh start in U.S./Cuban relations, sales of high-end treats and other seemingly nonessential items highlight the inconsistencies in the current American policy. The waiver is so broad that it includes beer, soda and a host of inedible items such as beauty products, artwork, utility poles, kitchen cabinets and Alabama newsprint, which totaled $6 million in sales last year.
(GOOGLE, suggested by CUBAN WEEKLY NEWS DIGEST)
Amid calls for a fresh start in U.S./Cuban relations, sales of high-end treats and other seemingly nonessential items highlight the inconsistencies in the current American policy. The waiver is so broad that it includes beer, soda and a host of inedible items such as beauty products, artwork, utility poles, kitchen cabinets and Alabama newsprint, which totaled $6 million in sales last year.
(GOOGLE, suggested by CUBAN WEEKLY NEWS DIGEST)
Connecting Americans & Cubans through the freedom to travel - opencuba.org | supported by orbitz.com
HELP END THE BAN
Obama has made it easier for Cuban Americans to visit their families in Cuba. Opinion polls show that the overwhelming majority of Americans believes that all U.S. citizens should have the freedom to travel to Cuba. Seize the opportunity to help end the 50-year travel ban by signing this petition.
(ORBITZ, suggested by CUBAN WEEKLY NEWS DIGEST)
Obama has made it easier for Cuban Americans to visit their families in Cuba. Opinion polls show that the overwhelming majority of Americans believes that all U.S. citizens should have the freedom to travel to Cuba. Seize the opportunity to help end the 50-year travel ban by signing this petition.
(ORBITZ, suggested by CUBAN WEEKLY NEWS DIGEST)
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