Today the Wall Street Journal gave space to the sleazey, disgraced AIG executive Maurice Greenberg. Maury did a piece titled " Six Steps Toward Financial Reform".
Yes, Maury we know you know how to reform the financial system. Because you were one of the first to identify its weakness' in regulatory oversight and bring on the collapse of your own firm.
What stopped Rep. Jack Murtha? Death done him in. The House ethics commettee never found anything wrong inspite of the hundreds of violations that they examined- amazing. Jack died quietly and successfully after years of stealing. His life reads like a nickel novel.
Can the U.S. wait for natural causes to end the tenure of unnaturally greedy members of Congress? Return power and money to the states and limit the amount of stealing by representatives in government.
The Wall Street Journal today carried the news that 4 unnamed, key senators are against limiting proprietary trading by Wall Street firms. This is another example of how we are alone against the gangsters of Wall Street and their contemptable, bribed enablers in Congress. Proprietary trading by banks that have insured deposits by the government is how and why we had the recent financial meltdown in worldwide financial markets. And we are not through with that debacle yet. But our law makers refuse to reform the Street and are setting up an even greater collapse in the future.
The Journal also carried the news in another article that the Wall Street bankers received app. $20 billion in bonus money in 2009. That's a 17% increase from the year before despite the near depression. There you have it. All it takes is money and congress is yours.
Meantime Obama and Congress are spending money like drunken sailors and prodding all in the U.S. to spend. How can people or business owners feel secure about the future when the predators of Wall Street are still roaming and still able to financially kill at will?
The New York Times carried an article on how many states are liberalizing their gun laws. Take advantage of these new laws and prepare for the future. Hopefully it won't be necessary but how can one trust in any government?
A person called a philosopher was many years ago a high honor. Well now if a person is called a rockstar that is the ultimate. A word or a few words to the wise would be enough. I.E. philosopher being replaced by rockstar would speak volumes about the evolution or the devolution of the human.
The last time I saw a rockstar, he was emaciated,raging ,couldn't speak clearly or quietly and looked like he needed a shower with strong cleaning solvents. On the other hand my last experience with a philosopher was reading Plato's accounts of Socratic conversations. Something entirely different. They did share one common thread. Both philosopher Socrates and rockstar indulged in a kind of rage. Both commented on society. But the rockstar's rage was brutal, blurred and hard to follow. The philosopher's rage was thoughtful, thought provoking and pleasant.
February is drawing to a close. It's Black History Month. Why do we have a Black History Month? It's very apparent that every month is Jewish History Month. Maybe because they are better organized and have a lot more to try to explain away. But why are there no French History Month, Chinese History Month, Irish History Month etc, etc, . You get the idea.
Well since this is Black History Month, what have the blacks learned or want to say about things? Have they anything to offer or thump their chests about ? Or is this all about the selling of guilt to any buyers who think so little of themselves that they think they still owe the blacks more than they owe all the rest?
Successful blacks are a plenty. Most of all of blacks have worked into the system. So this special month is about the holdouts who still don't get it or want to game the society for power and profit.
All democracies including Greece's current problem will teeter and totter then ultimately fail because they can't pay the interest on the fundamentally illogical and unworkable, expensive programs that grant equal results to all the unequal citizens.
Ever look in a microscope or telescope and see something like interest on money? You won't. It's a man-made alchemy and will go the way of another abomination that's called "political correctness".
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has released figures boasting that their disease prevention measures in Africa have saved approximately 7 million lives so far. Sounds like good news. But now that the lives have been saved, now come other questions. I.E. What have the saved lives been saved for?What are their prospects? How will they eat? How will they work? How will they be shelterd? What will we do with their children who Bill and Melinda will presumbably save also?
Have Bill and Melinda thought through the whole process of creation which includes maintenance and death?I suspect no.
"Fools rush in where wise men fear to tread".
I wonder if the prospects of the newly released book titled "The Death of American Virtue" By Ken Gormley had anything to do with Bill Blythe III a.k.a. President Bill Clinton's recent heart attack. The book revists the Clinton sexual scandals with Paula Jones, his impeachment and other Clinton poor judgements and maybe crimes some years ago. Bill thought he did a make over of his slimy past by his well- advertised, chest-thumping, outright bragging and good works largely financed by the U.S. tax code. But his pesky history just won't go away.
It's seemingly appropriate that his heart attack was so close to Presidents Day and Valentines Day. His own heart spoke the truth by fluttering in reaction to the glare of scrutiny by the spotlight of his own President Day participation immediately followed by the shadow of his past as illuminated by the book and his persistance/sickness of self exposure.
According to many economists and the governments own General Accounting Office, by the year 2020, Social Security, Medicare and interest on the national debt will take up 80% of the projected Federal Budget.
That leaves the Departments ofAgriculture,Commerce,Defense,Education,Energy,Health & Human Services,Homeland Security,Housing & Urban Development,Interior, Labor,State,Transportation,Treasury,Veterans Affairs and Attorney General effectively without money. Philosophically speaking that is not a bad thing. But it still doesn't solve the original problems of Socail Security, Medicare and the National debt.
Both major political parties are playing a game of chicken with the American electorate. As long as they both spend too much the people have no where to turn. That's a mistake to think that way. The French nobility lost their heads and the Brits lost a colony called America because of that cavalier attitude. Repeat after me, "DUMP CONGRESS".
The best place to hold a military or civilian trial of 9/11 participants should be on an aircrft carrier. The ship could be stationed off shore and shuttle participants to shore by helicopter. It would be the cheapest and the most secure venue.
Of course this makes sense. Which qualifies for a dismissal out of hand by government officials.
P.S. How about making Congress have its sessions on a barge in the middle of the Potomac? No one could leave or change clothes or wash while Congress was in session. I think it would speed up deliberations and shorten up considerations.
Academy Award winning motion picture writer and director Roman Polanski is in the news again. The 72 year old fugitive from justice was granted a stay from extradition to the U.S. by the Swiss government.
He achieved success and wealth at making sick and depraved movies. Perhaps he drew on his personal experiences. His family was exterminated by the Nazis. His wife was butchered by the Charles Manson gang. And he personally contributed to his sick and depraved heritage and life by raping a 13 year old.
It kind of all fits together in a sick and depraved way.
Todays news includes the death of two white Rhinos in Kenya. They were slaughtered by poachers for their horns which are used for Asian medicines and Middle Eastern decorative handles on knives.
Other news includes the opening of the worlds tallest building- 800 meters/2650 stories- in the Middle Eastern country of Dubai which is part of the United Arab Emirates. Dubai is a known user of Rhino horn decoration. Dubai also defaulted on 30 billion dollars of debt last month. Dubai's vast income is not enough. They have to borrow money to build the worlds tallest structure and also use some percentage of borrowed moneys to promote the killing of peaceful endangered animals.
My bumper stickers are not working. Barbaric and hubristic events just continue to get worse. The time for bumper stickers is past. Better to use the whole bumper on some poacher and his client.
Today is the 1 year anniversary of Israel's attack on Gaza. The Zionists killed over 1300 trapped Palestinians. The only weapon that was not used was one of their 200 nuclear devices. It would have been used but Gaza is too near. In a related event a Nigerian man tried to blow up a Northwest Airline over Detroit. It would be a symbolic and lethal attack to an American airplane and its passengers because of the U.S. support of Israel.
Israel is not worth supporting. The country should be boycotted, sanctioned and Israeli investments should be avoided. The Zionists have been a caricature of uncivilized behavior long before the Nazis showed up and have only gotten worse over time.
Last week Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi was assaulted and suffered a broken nose. Yesterday Pope Benedict XVI was knocked down while leading religious services in St. Peter' Basilica. Both assailants were off the street individuals. Nothing points to an organization or a conspiracy behind the two attackers. All this added to the events in Iran where the government is seriously disconnected from its people and it looks like developing trend.
What's this all mean? On its face it looks like two deranged people exercising an anarchistic attitude. If these violent incidents continue and also spread to more countries then something deeper is at work. I.E. a revulsion against extremes and caricatures of power who are bigoted or consumed with only self interest.
Last night, I tuned into the local TV feed of a San Francisco Unified School District Board meeting. It was certainly educational. But the Board didn't talk about education. It talked about a lack of diversity in SF classrooms. The acting chairwoman was bemaoaning the fact of an overwhelming majority of African-Americans, Hispanics and Somoans filling the desks (some of the 5th grader Somoans really fill the desks because of their obesity). Those three races in one classroom sounds like a diversity from hell. The African Americans would walk around the class while the Samoans would sleep and the Hispanics would be texting their plans for their next holdup.
The attendance was sparse. This was inspite of free interpretors being offered at the meeting which included Arab, Vietnamese, Samoan, Russian, Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Spanish and Tagalog (Flipapino). Only 2 white guys addressed the Board and complained about their children being bussed across town to dangerous neighborhoods for schooling. They wanted to know why they couldn't use the schools in their neighbohoods. The Chair didn't answer that question.
Just another day in the SFUSD. Everybody talks but nobody listens.
Standard & Poors reduced the credit rating of Greece's debt. Greece came up with the idea of democracy. They have never lived within their budget since that ancient time. They only deferred the bills. Now S&P is calling them out on their failed social scheme. Look for more riots but only during the work week. The sons and daughters of democracies cherish their weekends.
We need a return to a work standard not a political standard.
Prime Minister of Italy ,Silvio Berlusconi got a broken nose, split lip and broken teeth from a voter in Italy yesterday in the city of Milan. That was Berlusconi's home town. In these days of would be empires e.g. , al Qaida and the United States which are projecting their aspirations among the remains of former empires -Italy's Roman Empire being the most famous- the assault on Berlusconi is worth noting.
A quick look of Berlusoni's history on Wikipedia involves about a 2-3 foot scroll down of mostly allegations of criminal conduct without convictions. The allegations range from collusion with the Mafia in assorted schemes through corruption and bribery of the police and judges to tax fraud and criminal accounting techniques. His personal moral rap sheet is another matter.
But Berlusconi on a number of occasion has used his postion as head of state to pass laws in Italy's paliament to protect himself from prosecution and conviction. In two or three court battles the proceedings were stopped because of a statute of limitations law that was passed by his majority in parlaiment while the court was in session.
One can understand the frustration of Berlusconi's assailant. One can hardly understand why there was only one such incident in Berlusoni's long tenure. Anyway, Berlusconi got off a lot easier than former empire dreamers Julius Caesar and Benito Mussolini did.
All empires dissolve because of corruption. There will always be corruption . But the best way to limit it is to have more power locally so the corruption can be accessed and stopped more quickly and easily. I predict that this physical voter activism towards deseriving unindicted criminal politicians will gain more popularity. George W. Bush and Dick Cheney are on many short lists if opportunity provides an opening.
"Change" has indeed come to Washington. Obama's electioneering mantra has been fufilled. But the change is in fact the reality it's gotten worse in government. The wars are expanding, the deficits are exploding and the Congress has only enhanced their control over personal lives. What's to be done? Boycott Washington is the plan. Vote libertarian.
In 1964 Martin Luther King Jr. won the Nobel Peace Prize for his powerful, successful, non-violent leading of the civil rights movement in America. In 2009 Barack Obama, who is the first Africa-American president, won the Nobel Peace Prize whilst expanding the Afghanistan war.
King, a minority, non-violent leader, set up the opportunity for Obama, a minority to become president. And what did the first minority president do? He took the unprecedented power and became like the majority of greedy presidents who project increasing arrogance. King would disapprove.
"Let's take a poll"is the age old semi-scientific standard for determining the validity of most any idea. "Garbage in garbage out"is an age old comment on "scientific and semi-scientific"tests.
A recent" The New York Times/CBS News Poll" found these two results among some of the answers.
QUESTION: Do you approve or disapprove of sending an additional 30,000 U.S. troops to Afghanistan in the coming months?
ANSWER: 51% Approved; 43% Disapproved; 6% No Opinion.
QUESTION: Do you think sending more U.S. troops to Afghanistan will make the U.S. safer from terrorism, less safe, or wil not affect the U.S.'s safety from terrorism?
ANSWER: 39% Safer; 8% Less Safe; 45% Will not Affect; 8% No Opinion.
In short, the results indicate that the majority think the troops should be sent but the majority also concludes that troops will fail.
I thought that the criminals and the morons in Congress were the basic problem. I was wrong. It obviously goes deeper than that.
P.S. Obama accepts Nobel Peace Prize simultaneouly with Marines leaving for Afghanistan.
P.P.S. Chaos will follow the human spiecies.
Consider the racist treatment of Tiger Woods. How many fire hydrants are hit every day by white people? Do the white people get national attention? Why does the press talk about Tiger's SUV? Is it to remind people that O.J. drove away from the scene of the crime in a SUV also? That's a cheap shot. Talking about shots, where's Tiger's golf glove? Does it fit? O.J.'s glove fit. If the glove fits then wear it I always say. Is Tiger being unfairly treated because of the way he abuses white golf balls? People have noticed the color of the balls. Why no black balls? Could Tiger hit and find a black ball as far as a white ball? Tiger knows when you have a job to do one can't find a black. There's something about color. We can't deny that fact. Yet if we talk about facts then we turn off people. The Florida Highway Patrol wants to talk about facts but that could be racist. What about Tiger's white wife ? How come she can bash in a SUV window and not get questioned? That's a double-standard.
BREAKING NEWS:
O.J. breaks silence and reaches out to brother. O.J. says, " Come home Tiger. Stop playing Uncle Tom on the links. Help me break out of this Nevada cracker box. I know this S&M place with multicultural chicks...."
"Like father, like son".
Barack Obama, our president, was born in 1961. That was roughly the start of the Civil Rights movement. But it was sometime after the start of loose living, drugs and racial and gender sexual experimentation. Obama's hereditary daddy was some black dude from Kenya. Obama's mommy was some eager white gal from Kansas. Daddy went on to other eager gals and mommy just went on . So who raised Obama? Well if he's like most other people or organisms he would be influenced and somewhat raised by his surroundings. These influences include his state, his schools and the morals, customs and politics of the times.
President Lyndon Johnson was in office between 1963 to 1969. Johnson fathered the Great Society which include massive expansions of the federal influence in private lives. These oversized and expensive influences took the form of Medicare, Civil Rights legislation and an expansion of the Viet Nam War. Sound familiar? Were the policies and legacies of Lyndon Johnson a quasi artificial insemination of all the Obama type children that followed? Is Barack Obama part natural and part governmental fathered? Is Barack Obama a cultural product of daddy # 2 Lyndon Johnson?
So what's that mean? Well if B.O. is any example then this new race of Great Society culturally inseminated are weak but addicted to money and control.
What's the score in the American culture war? Well the liberal caricature Oprah Winfrey lost in overtime and over exposure last week. She announced the cancellation of her show in late 2011. It's because her ratings have been cut in half this past 15 years. That hurt her more than someone taking her potato chips and Coke. Winfrey had a lot to do with the liberal caricature, poster boy, Obama getting elected.
Significantly Oprah's guest last week was Sarah Palin. Palin announced a new book and an implied a run for the presidency. Palin is the potser girl and cartoon person for the conservatives. She is going up and Winfrey is going down. If Palin goes all the way up we all better look out below. An air-head discription of her would be generous and less threatening than the truth.
Can't we ever get somebody in between ? Where's the poster person for moderate politics? Only morons think with one half of their brain. Cartoons and caricature are for the funny papers. They don't belong in office.
P.S. My book is at the editor.
I'm writing a political fiction. It's not a love story. For the duration, my production of blogs will be reduced. Thanks to all for your interest.
Barry Leonardini
Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Natanyahu was in Berlin yesterday. He was talking about increasing sanctions on Iran. He didn't mention that Israel had any intention of speeding up the creation of of a Palestinian state and easing the slow-motion genocide of the Palestinian people. While he was there, he was given a yellowing parchment of 29 blueprints of the death camp at Auschwitz. It included details of gas chambers, crematories, delousing facilities and watch towers drawn to scale. The plans were found in an apartment last year.Natanyahu went through the customary outrage drill. It's very dark theater that still sells tickets to the uninformed of which there is less and less every year. I think the Germans are getting fed up with it also.
Do you think maybe the Germans are reminding Natanyahu and his Zionist thugs that it could happen again and these plans show how it was done in the past?
Come to San Francisco and see the morons lead the foxes on a merry chase that the fox has pre-scripted the moron to play the lead.I.E. We have naturally occuring morons who are serviced by sly foxes who would seem to be acting in a moronic way but in fact are in charge of the larcenous scheme .And then there is the eclectorate who fund this madness and seem to be OK with the idea of $1458.00 ambulance pick ups.
A recent example is a 41 year old habitual drunk named Kenny who cost SF over $150,000.00 last year because he was peeled off the pavement in a druken stupor over 100 times. He then was ferried to a hospital for detox at the City's expense and then released to go home to his City provided digs wher he waits for his monthly allowance of $400.00 cash so he can again buy beer ad nauseaum. His food, when he rembers to eat is provided by the City.
What came first, Kenny or the $1458.00 ambulance ride? Kenny came first. In the old days, bums like Kenny would have been found drunk and then lumberd into the back of a paddy wagon . Next day he would be tried for public drunkeness and probably vagrancy and if he had no SF home would have been escorted to the county line. But there's no money in that for City Hall executives and their co-conspiring public unions. With SF awash in revenues, Kenny could and should be turned into a profit center for City executives to build up political patronage jobs so votes could be counted on. Enter the $1458.00 ambulance ride.
But wait thre's more. Kenny really doesn't cost the City $150,000.00 per year.If Kenny died and didn't get his freebe ride the City budget would still be out of pocket the $13,000,000.00 buget per year for ambulance service. The drivers and the rolling stock are now a fact to be funded until the voters take back the City.
America is one of the richest countries on the planet whith a per capita income of app. $48,000.00 per year. In spite of this wealth we are a debtor nation. Our democracy continues to generate new entitlements to any legal or illegal that can yell. And all these entitlements are expensive.
Afghanistan is having another election this weekend. Our politicians are seeing this as progress. How can Afghanistan afford a democracy when the per capita income is about app. $450.00 per year? Will their politicians work for free? Who will be given a subsidy with so little to spare?
President Barack Obama is in Phoenix today trying to drum up support for his Afghanistan War strategy.He will address the Veterans of Foreign Wars. These guys are mostly old. They range from late the 60's to the 80's. Pathetic. The oldest won the second World War but the younger lost in North Korea and Viet Nam. Which was appropriate. The yet-to-be vets lost in Iraq and are losing in Afghanistan.
Obama's speech will be familar. We have to make the world secure for democracy.Part of that "democracy"includes the US supporting Israel's slow motion genocide of the Palestinians and America's policy of preemptive war.Sorry pres most people don't like war and increasingly they don't like you for being a stooge of the military-industrial-complex and Zionists.
Sorry to break it to you boys, but the start of "white male suffrage" in the early 19th century brought the consequences of this crazy democracy we all now suffer through. The Federalist Party collapsed in app.1820.The Federalists held that only white male property owners could vote. But with Maryland's liberalizing who could vote in 1810 and other states following, the election of Andrew Jackson over John Quincy Adams was the first "democratic election". Then came woman sufferage and now illegals sneak a vote.
Of course the seminal moment for ruinous democracy is the disconnect from property ownership and the right to vote. Because it's only a matter of time before the masses out populate and out vote the haves and give it to the have nots. And this includes taking from US citizens and giving to people around the world.
Don't let them vote your gun away. But I think no one trusts the government so when push comes to shove, the haves and the have nots will team up to shoot the politicians. It will be great fun.
President Obama was pushing his health care reform at a town hall meeting in Belgrade, Montana today. He said, " Insurance companies are holding America hostage". Well if they are they have Congress' help. Because the insurance lobby is one of the biggest bribers in that outlaw town of Washington, D.C. Also the lawyers bribe Congress to let them second-guess doctors and hospitals on care and drive costs up by forcing defensive medicine and no-caps on judgements.
Methinks that sans government people could better defend themselves.
Yesterday President Obama awarded a Medal of Freedom to sixteen diverse recipients. Included was San Francisco Supervisor, homosexual activist Harvey Milk who was assassinated in 1978.Milk did much to spread the homosexual movement. Of course HIV/AIDS infections and deaths tracked his questionable "progress" with gruesome statistics.
Nazi Germany targeted homosexuals. America gives homosexuals awards. Neither is appropriate.
The spending monkeys in Washington have been spending trillions trying to keep the economy afloat. They have been doing this since the Reagan years. Remember "deficits don't matter". That's partially true. If one is on the receiving side of deficit spending then deficits don't matter. But one who doesn't get the benefits but on the contrary has to payoff the deficits for years to come then deficits do indeed matter.Government employees, politicians, Wall St, banks, special interests foreign and domestic ,military-industrial-complex etc celebrate deficit spending. Most everyone else pays the tab.
Nothing lasts forever. When we do finally go broke it won't make much of a difference to most people unlike the privateers who have been gaming the system.
When someone is legally stealing they should not be comfortable. I'm talking about members of Congress. Their stealing of our future by auctioning off our rights to the highest bidder cannot continue. Congress passes laws which make their actions legal. But that does not make the laws moral. For instance, the Iraq invasion was not moral or justified. Yet the House funded the desires of the military-industrial-complex. The bailout of Wall Street bankers after they recklessly undermined the security of the US should not have happened. The potential seizure of the health system by Washington and the roving lawyers should not happen.
The least all of us can do is make the lives of members of Congress, lawyers, military-industrial-complex operatives not pleasant within legal limits. This includes peer pressure. Whether it takes the form of simple, nasty but purposeful e-mails or piketing their homes or snubbing them in public. Keep it legal for now.
Some of the people I would love to see dead or missing were reinforcing my opinions about them with their individual responses to the Obamacare backlash. Senator Barbara Boxer, the Jew who can't get past her ethnicity was quoted ,"These town hall agitators are professional". Jews talking about etiquette?
Speaker Nancy Pelosi, the Italian greaser who can't wear the same clothes twice because of her staining capability mentioned, " The disruptors at these meetings are Nazi-like ". Hey Bag, go check your mail bag for the new bribes.
And what about President Obama ? Our grinning monkey talks about "...lies and misinformation about his healthcare proposals.." So the top lying politician wants to speak about other's "lying"?
Newly confirmed Justice Sonia Sotomayor is a Hispanic. She looks like a field hand through no fault of her own. But she favors low class people by choice and identification. Not all Hispanics look like field hands. On the contrary they can be extremely handsome. Not all Hispanics favor low class people.
We could have done much better. It's time to upgrade the population rather than be defined by the latest off- the- wall, odd- ball special interest. And this includes retrofitting our out dated notions of obligation and equality.
The new health care bill that is being debated includes many promises. All of them expensive. One of the ways to keep the costs under control is to ration medical care to the aged. This includes counseling older folks about ending their lives when they are chronically ill. There is also the provision that precludes aged, sick people from paying for their own life sustaining procedures. This tantamont to a death sentence issued by the government.
How much of all this talk and proposals are real or taken out of context is unknown to me at this time. But if the government really means to get proactive about eliminating old people from health care. Then "old age"has opened up some new and exciting vistas that will certainly shake off boredom.
Forget the new set of golf clubs or the extra martini. It's time for a gun and target practice.
Give a monkey a money printing machine and a worldwide communication ability and what do you get? Presto, chango Barack Obama appears. Obama has taken Bill Clinton's permanent campaign and Bush's reckless foreign and domestic policies and added steroids. Trillions here trillions there, no lobbyist left behind and added a multi-cultural after burner to the agenda.
Whoppee, it's easy. Money is the answer.
The great peacemakers and warmongers in Washington are looking favorably on Iraq's request for a purchase of 18 F-16s. America's leaders rotate between war and peace because its good for business overall. Iraq is proposing an initial purchase of 18 in what could eventually total 96 warplanes. Iraq's leaders would rather spend money on planes than repair the infrastructure or help displaced people. The poor people of Iraq get no respect from their government or our government. It adds up to another victory for the military-industrial-complex. Iraq rearms, Iran responds, Israel responds, Turkey responds etc etc. and the US sells arms to all .
People of war should not be mourned when they die. They fulfilled their destiny .
Times up. The grinning and spending monkeys in Washington should empty their pockets call a cab a get out of town before it's too late. The biggest grinner and spender is Obama. The president and Washington have become caricatures of the irresponsible homo frivolous. More and more money being spent on more and more projects in this country and around the world that benefit a very few at the expense of very many. And we have to borrow from all to pay for this nonsense.
The French took care of their royalty with the plunging blade. Wouldn't that be fun?
Goldman Sachs continues to maintain a 20% allotment of white and other non- Jewish employees. Most of them are assigned to public relation slots. They are the "face" of Goldman in public venues. Whites come in handy when Goldman is summoned before Congress. It's an image thing. There is so much baggage and so little time or inclination to clean it up.
Of course Yankees like Hank Paulson could teach Shylock a thing or two. And let's not forget Congress. For every theft by Goldman Sachs there was an equal amount of doors cracked open by Congress so Goldman could enter.
Ignoring CIT and the small/medium size business' it serves would be a tactical and financial mistake by the Obama Administration. It would be a breaking of faith with small and medium sized business. These are the job creators in the past, now and in the future. The app. 1,000,000 accounts that CIT serves would not easily, if at all find a replacement. Big bank business models are not geared for CIT-type accounts. Consequently bankrupties would follow for some of those accounts and include others in their greater spheres of influence.
The chump change of $4 billion that CIT needs is relatively nothing compared to the hundreds of billions that already have gone out the window to the constructive criminals at AIG,B of A, Citigroup, GM and Chrysler. Small business built this country. Small business owners ran for office . Now many of our politicians are lawyers or people who never had a real job. This results in leadership that doesn't get it or worse get it but are paid to ignore it.
Sonia Sotomayor looks like she is going to get a pass on her racist "wise Latina"preferential comment. Also her racist affirmative action credentials demonstrated in her ruling against the white firefighters in the "Ricci Case"certainly leave no doubt that race matters in her decisions.
Let me say that Sonia looks better than the Jew Ruth Bader Ginsburg but less attractive compared to the black Clarence Thomas. That comparison has nothing to do with the law nor does affirmative action have anything to do with the law.
Cheney is in the news again. This time he's accused of ordering a CIA "couterterrorism"program kept secret from Congress. I hope they nail the SOB. In the old days one could challenge guys like this to a duel and get some quick satisfaction. But today Cheney hides behind layers and layers of legal manuevering to avoid prosecution. Basically it's a de facto innocent until proven broke strategy . But I'd settle for his bankruptcy from legal fees. He values money and power more than his life anyway.
I don't like lawyers. But I don't like Cheney more. Get an asshole to go after an asshole.
Noted composer and musician Quincy Jones remarked on the late Michael Jackson. He said,"He [Jackson] took dancing to another level from where Astaire and Kelly left it."
But Astaire and Kelly danced and accomodated partners. Jackson didn't. Jackson was really a one-man exhibition. To be more accurate, the "man" is somewhat hidden by a hermaphroditic visage. I.E. After much time and money Jackson became a Diana Ross look alike. He was a couple-both man and woman. He achieved uniqueness. Many would say he became a freak.
Freak is not too harsh. Consider Jackson partially changed his sexual appearance with the Diana Ross ploy and engaged in bisexuality which included charges of child molestation. I'm sure death was welcomed by him.
White, Alaska Governor Sarah Palin will drop out of her job one year and a half early and challenge black stay-in-office President Barack Obama in 2012. That's the message in her"..moving in new directions."statement yesterday.
She got a lucrative book offer from Rabbi Rupert Murdoch's HarperCollins and learned how to talk on Saturday Night Live. So what more does a spending and grinning monkey need to have or know about winning American elections? George Bush Sr. was accused of having a "Silver foot in his mouth."by the late Texas Governor Ann Richards. That's more than Palin has in her mouth.
In the interim, Palin will tour the country making speeches to pay her legal bills and to build a war chest for the 2012 presidential run. Palin wants to help the country move forward. So she quits her job!
Don't worry America. Every politician is working for the individual. The politician will spend all the money that they can tax away from everyone else to make sure the individual is happy and by implication will vote for that politician. Only everyone else has to worry.
Democracy is failing in America like it failed in Greece some 2500 years ago. For starters vote libertarian.
While we slept our democracy was taking new shapes. Al Franken defeated Norm Coleman. Franken now will go to the U S Senate to represent Minnesota. Some choice. Both guys are Zionists who have and will continue to keep Israel afloat at the expense of U S prestige and treasure. Can it get any better for the Israeli lobby? The lobby backs the 2 guys that are running!
Meanwhile President Obama is taking the democracy to the next evolutionary step which cracks open the socialism door. Trillions of dollars passed out to the largely unworthy and making more ever more dependant on central planning. Also Obama is sending an affirmative action poster girl-Sonia Sotomayor-to the Senate for approval to serve on the Supreme Court.
The homosexual crowd not satisfied with social acceptance now marry and also adopt unsuspecting children.
Also while we slept, some legal or illegal immigrant came here and lowered the bar for equality status in our country . It may be a 3'8'' Philipina, transgender, pregnant, obese diabetic, bad teeth, blind and argumentative who needs a face transplant who is fleeing her country because of discrimination. Yea, I can see that country's point. But she is the new gold standard by which all future applicants are now measured. And she may get that face transplant for free.
The good news is California's broke. This beautiful state is largely the recipient of the worlds human overflow. But without the do-re-me(money) the state will have to stop a lot of the silly equality entitlements for these strange strangers that come here.
Jacko is gone. How about mummification for the King Of Pop? All that plastic surgery nearly did the job already. Bill Clinton is determined to head the Michael Jackson grief conga line. Maybe Bill could pre-record his own eulogy now and then pre-announce it at a Jackson Celebration of Life event.
Bernie Madoff will be sentenced on Monday. Professional Holocaust exploiter Elie Wiesel was big loser of Holocaust writings royalties that he invested with the Ponzi schemer. Losing relatives in the concentration camps is one thing but losing money really hurts.
Abraham Lincoln was quoted, " These capitalists generally act to fleece the people". What would Abe say about the United Auto Workers?
Obama ,who likes to invoke Lincoln, said something about the UAW . He fleeced the capitalists by giving the UAW more of Chrysler and General Motors than the bond holders after the federal bailout. That's an ironic metaphor for the North usurping states rights in the South by way of a Civil War. A reversal of South Carolina firing on Fort Sumter.
Prepare for the future. The government is getting more aggressive.
" Allahu Akbar " means " God is Great "in Arabic. The reformist oppostion shouts that phrase from the rooftops in Tehran, Iran. But the ruling, elite clergy also invoke Allah. So both do agree on one major point.
In America the opposing democrats and republicans do agree on the implied major point of U.S. government. It is the implied jingo of "In Growth We Trust".
One civilization is rooted in heaven and the other is rooted on earth. One civilization will fight and die for god while the other will fight and maybe die if paid enough. We need better goals to defeat the low- cost oppostion Iranians. A better goal and an immediate victory in foreign affairs would be for America to stay out of Iranian affairs.
The U.S. will have peace when there is money to be made in peace. There will be some peace when we can't afford some wars. It's our choice.
Todays front page of The Wall Street Journal shows a club-wielding Tehran, Iran policeman beating a man in front of Tehran University. The graffiti on the wall behind the combatants is written in Farsi-the language since the 9th century. Yet on the back of the police officers uniform are the words "Police" written in English not Farsi !
Looks like propaganda by the WSJ and others served up for dummies.
There's an assumption that one of the missed targets on September 11, 2001 was Congress and the Capitol. The United Airlines flight that crash landed in a Pennsylvania field was to have done that chore.
Congress now has an approval rating lower than the infamous Dick Cheney when he left office. Congress' approval rating is grasping to a 12% mark. One wonders if Al Qeada took out the 545 spending and conspiring monkeys of our Capitol how many real tears would have been shed? We will never know.
President Obama was in Cairo, Egypt yesterday . He was shown the pryamids. Last month he visited Israel . He was shown Yad Vashem, the Holocaust History Museum.
Egypt has pride. Israel has no pride.
General Motors is planning a special edition of Cadillac. It will be called the "Presidential Limited ". Only 100,000 will be made. Considering the vast sums of money that President Obama has given the greatly diminished auto giant, it's a small token.
The Caddie will be somewhat retro in style, accessaries and colors. Style- wise it will resemble the "fin tail" Cadillacs of the late '50s and early '60s. The colors will be in African Union light greens and yellow with a purple colored Fleetwood in a very limited edition. Accessaries will include, leopard -skin seat covers, jeweled mud flaps and fluffy steering wheels. The car screams "Pussy".
Word of the car leaked to President Obama. He was heard to remark, " Sounds like a Polish delight".
George W. Bush and Bill Clinton were in Toronto, Canada last night. They were both paid to show up and talk their contrasting political views. Well they showed up. But the expected contrasts didn't. There would have been more animation and interest if either spilled a water glass on stage.
Welcome to Nerf politicians. Two overpaid foam rubber men who would do anything and have to get elected but privately only believe in money and wont sweat an uncontested or ungraded debate. The commentator should have sprung a "winner take all" purse of $300,000 to the winner of the debate as per the audience vote. That will be the day.
Short of that, the audience should have been peppered with a couple of shoe throwers or rag heads with grenades. One can only dream when reality is so boring and decadant.
How about ignoring North Korea? It would be a Trojan Horse ploy in reverse. One evening the U.S. would pull its front line troops from the North/South border. By morning thousands of American forces would be at least 100 miles away. Over a period of weeks the U.S. garrison of 37,000 would be brought home and immediately spend their payrolls on our own soil. Leave a note to Kim Jong Il stating we no longer care about the actions of North Korea and as far as we are concerned his people can all starve to death. Also if he wants to nuke Japan so be it. We been there done that.
Kim Jong Il and his father before him are the mirror image of American foreign policy. Without our foreign policy Kim would be shucking clams on the coast.
As Jimmy Durante sometimes said, " Everybody wants to get into the act".
Give an economist a Nobel Prize and suddenly he wants to parlay himself into a bleeding-heart liberal politician and maybe run for the senate. Like we need another Jew in the senate. Krugman's piece in todays NYT says that California's budget problems started with the passage of Propostion 13 in 1978. Prop 13 was a property tax limitation initiative and also required a 2/3 majority vote by the legislature to raise income taxes. It passed overwhelmingly. I paid property taxes pre-Prop 13. I kept up with the never-ending increases. But many could not. Many older people lost or had to sell their homes because they couldn't keep up with taxes.
Krugman wants Propostion 13 repealed. He presumably wants unlimited tax and spending in its place. He sounds more like a bleeding-heart liberal politician than a disciplined economist who is guided by prudent, realistic policies.
About 70,000 random-urinating runners were in San Francisco's 98th Annual Bay To Breakers yesterday. The smelly majority were joined by what passes for elite dignataries for the 8 mile course. Mayor Gavin Newsom ran alongside Senator Dianne Feinstein.
There was a group of Central American illegals who gave out free meth. Handicapped were out in force with an estimated 600 wheelchairs. Police and fire crews were accomodative. Maybe because the police and fire crews were all listening to iPods which had recorded memos from their various union steering committees on how they wanted the City to declare bankruptcy before they would give back on wages and benefits. After all the UAW workers at Chrysler are going to own 55% of the company after it emerges from UAW- caused bankruptcy proceedings. The police and fire unions think they can get title to half the City's real estate.
The World Health Organization was busy collecting urine samples off the pavement. The WHO has a thesis that within a few decades the residue of drugs in U.S. urine will contaminate all the groundwater water in the continental U.S. which will necessitate a draining of Lake Victoria and other bodies of water in Africa to provide drinking water for America.
On a lighter note, both Newsom and Feinstein were run over and killed by two "Hummer-Class" wheelchairs that were operated by "350-pounders" who were distracted by in route refueling of pizza. Feinstein's husband, Dick Blum retreived the Senators cell phone and credit cards but refused to identify the body. He avoided burial expenses. Newsom's body decomposed so quickly that only a leased pair of shorts from Gordon Getty Enterprises identified his remains.
There were 10 same-sex marriages during the race. But 2 divorces of those same marriages took place before the race could be completed. The Gay,Lesbian,Bisexual and Transgender Association began hurling excrement at the straights who they blamed for the 2 divorces. The straights chanted, " More AIDS, more AIDS" as they headed to the surf to clean up.
President Barack Obama has commited to running next years race. He has not decided whether to represent the secular or the spiritual world.
" Good morning. 'Torture, what did I know and when did I know it?' Does that sum it up? Waterboarding? Big deal. When you have had as many hair dye jobs and rinses as I have had waterboarding seems comparable. What about my Botox injections, hair removal, face lifts, tucks, birthing ordeals, being groped by high schoolers and older guys who looked like some of the detainees and now hear rumors of Paul's affairs? Yea there is a little 'it's my turn now'. When the CIA briefed me on torture these are the images that popped up in my mine.
I'm off to Iraq because it's too hot here."
President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan pulled Secretary of State Hillary Clinton aside for a quick private conversation at yesterdays state visit.
Karzai: Hey Hill, I need more money. These civilian deaths in my country caused by U.S. airstrikes are getting my people very upset and I have an election coming up and my expenses....
Hillary: Yeah,yeah,yeah ya want me to play a violin ? Bury the fuckin' dead and tell those rag heads to tape an aspirin to the wounds.
Karzai: I WANT MORE MONEY BITCH. It's going to be an additional $10,000.00 per month.
Hillary: OK, OK . Same deal? Bill's foundation gets 10% of the increase via the Afghan woman you send him each month?
Karzai: No problemo. And I'll throw in a "no grouse" vow for deaths under 5 per U.S. airstrike.
Hillary: Bill says the Afghan woman is very experienced and novel orally speaking. I want some of that.
Karzai: I've got a person in mind. She's yours.
Hillary: Fuckin' Americans are so stupid. We should have surrended in Afghanistan years ago but the U.S. citizens love to hate someone. So Bill and I will service the account. Later Hamid.
The AIPAC (American Israel Public Affairs Committee) convention/political power display is now playing in Washington. Half the members of the U.S. Congress (this is true) is in attendance along with the Jewish delegates. But last nights events were more than the AIPAC delegates planned for.
A Hamas waiter spiked the Kool-Aid with a culture of swine flu. The Kool Aid appeared on the dinner menu as a "Free, confiscated Palestinian Childrens Treat" . It proved to be irresistable to the delegates. But the swine flu had no effect on the AIPAC members! What's that tell you about AIPAC and its members? The Hamas waiter fled in disbelief vowing to use only hygenically prepared Kool Aid next time as the logical alternative for use against aliens.
The entertainment included a Dreamworks skit. A satellite feed from Ariel Sharon's hospital room was seamlesssly added to computer- animated characters of Jack Warner of Warner Bros. escorting Marilyn Monroe to Sharon's bedside who is still on life support (this is true)from his seizure more than 3 years ago. Since he was the PM of Israel at the time , he continues to collect a salary which delights his eager family.
Another Dreamworks skit involved a simulated piano wire hanging of Bernie Madoff. The delegates actually responded more favorably to the Madoff fantasy. The Madoff presentation was followed by a business infomercial describing the advantages of giving money to Israel and buying land through the Israel/Palestine Land Development Company. It's all tax deductable. Israel is a tax haven. The IRS code provides that a U.S. citizen who also has a dual Israeli citizenship can satisfy his or hers tax obligations to the U.S. by paying the same amount to Israel (this is true). I wonder if Bernie Madoff knew this?
What great fun was had by all. And it will continue until everyone gets fed up with AIPAC and deports or jails treasonous individuals.
Epic times, epic proportions, symbols, revenge, false values are all just too much . Why only today First Lady Michelle Obama, who herself is a first in this storied America turned epic Kabuki Theater, will dedicate a bust of abolitionist Sojourner Truth who was a 19th century slave turned woman activist. Some of the other epic symbols of woman power will be there i.e. Nancy and Hillary etc. .
America can do the guilt pageantry flawlessly. Why can't the U.S. balance the budget? Why can't the U.S. mind its own business in foreign affairs? Why can't we make a car that our people want to drive and can afford? No, we have made a caricature of the principles of democracy as a nation and now largely live our public lives in the pursuit of symbolic gestures. Schools, government and our legal sysytem to name a few exist it would seem, for the active purpose of making the heretofore slaves of history or slaves of poor intellect much more comfortable than they deserve.
Michelle et al's finger wagging which is full of guilt for all is yet another waste of time and an empty banal gesture. I don't know where in Africa Sojourner Truth's family came from or where Michelle Obama's family hailed from either. But it was their lucky day when their African relatives sold them into slavery and they wound up in the U.S.A. How about it Michelle? Eating termites on a convenient stick in Africa is not like being First Lady? Get off your guilt peddling pedestal.
" Hi, I'm Gavin Newsom and I'm running away from my mayors job and running for governor of California. My plans for California and philosophy in general can be summed up in Cole Porter's hit "Anything Goes". That's why you can hear his song in the backround. I believe that California's borders and laws are virtual and consequently left to interpretation. All peoples are invited. Now that's a simple a message.
Please hit up Twitter, My Space, Facebook and other popular web sites to read and hear my message in 32 different languages including Yiddish and trash- rap- gangsta dialects. Also I appear in frontal nudity on a restricted porn site together with my wife and selected members of the gay/boy, lesbian/girl benevolent societies.
Keep in mind that this is only a start. Together we can take it all to the next level. Vote Gavin Newsom."
Don: Looks like Obama and AG Holder want to come after us for torture.
Dick: That's graitude. After making the country comfy for blacks by destroying our education system and banning critical thinking among white students now they want to preach morals to their betters.
Don: That's irritating. Torture? How about 40 years of political correctness torture? All are equal? What a crock. What's George think?
Dick: I havn't told him what to think yet.
Don: He's writing a book?
Dick: Now that's torture.
Don: How's your heart Dick?
Dick: What are you getting at?
Don: Fight political correctness with political correctness. You know. Get a wheelchair. Strap an oxygen bottle to it. Be escorted by some uniformed contractors. Try to look like Lord Nelson did. Sling your arm. Wear an eye patch. Get sympathy form congress and the American people. Turn in your bird shooting guns. Kick a Jew and then embrace the same Jew. You know something for everyone. Broaden out.
Dick: How about me being a witness for the prosecution?
One can pay a news reader millions per year in salary but that doesn't necessarily make the news readers personal advice worth taking.
Tom Brokaw for example wrote an op-ed piece in todays NYT pushing the idea of consolidating New York states 10,500 local governments into one large agency administered at the state level. What could possibly go wrong? How many people in New York would like more central control from Albany? Governor David Paterson for one would like it. And I'll bet the labor union bosses that put Tom up to the op-ed piece are at least one other.
And it came to pass that a Goldman Sachs broker committed suicide. And all knew that the end times had arrived.
And it came to pass that the New Jerusalem provided a new stock exchange to replace the rapture of the old New York Stock Exchange which was cleared of the homeless.
And it came to pass that the Speaker of the House Pelosi was led by the 16 Jewish Senators to the steps of the White House which was inhabited by a black man. They shouted, " B.O. must G.O.".
And it came to pass that BO did indeed go .
And it came to pass that Mayor Bloomberg was lifted up helped also by his elevator shoes to become the rabbi/president of the New Jerusalem.
And they all shouted, " What could possibly go wrong now?"
The fair sex in Afghanistan are furious about recently passed Taliban-friendly laws regarding men's veto rights over women's preferances in conjugal and personal matters. Simply the men are the roosters and can demand sitting rights on their hens when they want without regard to the hens appetite. Also if men think that the proper role for their wife is barefoot, pregnant and shut in then so be the will of the bearded one.
Of course this is well over the limits of a harmonious marriage relationship. Our western democracies threw out such bad behavior ages ago. But look what that liberality got us. Women like Hillary Clinton, Barbra Striesand, Whoopi Goldberg and Madonna are given freedom to roam and influence others with their bad behavior. And the further fallout is the children that sprang from a decandant philosophy of social rights both for men and women.
An example of that decandance would be the kike Woody Allen. He's in the news today because he's suing American Apparel for using his unauthorized image in Hasidic hair style and clothing. Woody is the guy who was tried for molesting his 7 year old adopted son. He also married his former wife Mia Farrow's adopted daughter. He was having an affair with Soon-Yi Previn while married to Farrow. Ironically he got an Oscar from the other kikes in Hollywood who continually piss on what's left of the important parts of American culture for his women's picture "Annie Hall".
Somewhere in the middle of Islamic and democratic laws of society is where we should aim to be. But there shouldn't be a place for Woody in any culture.
According to well publicized specifications capabilities of modern unmanned drone aircraft, facial features can be determined from a height of 35,000 feet. That's a startling capability. Actually the old, manned, unarmed U2 spy planes of the late 1950s could do the same feat from 18,000 feet.
Recent "accidental" deaths of men, women and children in Afghanistan and Pakistan inflicted by U.S. unmanned aircraft beg the question, " Why are beardless humans being targeted along with bearded 'militants'?".
These are not the values and deeds that will bring peace.
Here's the latest bombast of cultural decay in San Francisco. This putrid policy assaults the school- going youth. School Superintendent Carlos Garcia whose own backround grew from all-is-good petri-dish wants to "revolutionize the San Francisco school experience". To that end ,he's co-opted the retro psychedelic "Jimi Hendrix Experience" album cover to put on the City's 51-page educational guide for the current school year. Mr. Jimi was a great guitarist in the 1960's , but he also had a militant message and actually died from a drug overdose at the age of 27. Is he the man for the message? What message? Probably for Superintendent Garcia's message he's perfect but that begs the question is Super Garcia's message the correct message for young or old ? NO !
Superintendent Garcia and other politicos like Mayor Newsom are part of the San Francisco political machine. That machine is largely controlled by San Fran's 2 mommies- Speaker Pelosi and Senator Feinstein. Garcia and Newsom don't do things that Feinstein or Pelosi don't approve philosophically. And of course this "cover" is front and center while the Mexican drug-cartel wars are playing out on the U.S. border and S.F. is still a sanctuary city.
Pelosi lives about 5 blocks to the northeast of me and Feinstein lives about 7 blocks to the southwest of me. If I stood on a tall building and the day was clear and if both mommies from hell were looking in my direction, I could flip them off.
Defense Secretary Robert Gates was on Fox News Sunday. He said, "The U.S. can do nothing about a North Korea rocket [launch] even though it's a step toward developing an intercontinental ballistic missle that could carry a nuclear warhead". Gee Bob why is this part of the "Axis of Evil"given a pass ? The other parts ,Iraq and Iran, have been invaded, sanctioned and threatened. And they do not have a nuclear weapon as N. Korea does. Could it be that N.Korea was included in the"axis" trio as a red herring? Looks like the U.S. values Israeli security over Japan and South Korea security. As long as those AIPAC checks flow to Congress and the executive branch Israel is safe. But nothing lasts forever. Bye bye Israel.
What ever happened to Condi Rice? Has she voluntarily resegregated herself into a more appropriate non high- profile society? Obama doesn't want a photo-op either. She's too retro in more ways than one.
Barack Obama comes styling into the news conference and starts jiving about how he is going to personally fix the Afghanistan/Pakistan mess. He's going to send in more troops and increase the drone aircraft strikes in both Afghanistan and Pakistan. These increases come despite the fallout of increasing civilian casualties in both countries from American and NATO missions. A few days later a suicide bomber blows himself up in a Pakistani mosque killing 50 worshippers. I would say that's the al Qaeda/Pakistani response to the "new" Obama strategy. This is happening while the Iraqi situation has yet to be stabilized and bombings continue there even after Bush/Cheney have declared "victory".
Looks like Iraq , Pakistan and Afghanistan are now all in the same state of disrepair. But Obama plows ahead with more rhetoric and arms and troops. But Pakistan is a country with WMD. So what happens if an al Qaeda sympathetic government gains power by popular vote? Is it all worth it for the U.S. to be so far from home getting involved in ancient tribal relations for the benefit of American empire and pro-Israel damage control? Of course it's not worth it. Afghanistan is the "graveyard of empires" and Obama's hip- hop approach is no better than the moron Bush's approach. But these two presidents are merely the faces of the military-industrial-complex and the Zionist's lobby.
Speaking of Zionists, Stuart Leibowitz a.k.a. Jon Stewart of The Daily Show is being groomed for a run in politics. Considering the alarming rate of devolution in America he has a good chance of being sworn in as president in 2016.
So how does one run across the backs of alligators without getting eaten? First chum the waters with some red meat and while the critters are munching on the screaming bait you hot-foot across their backs.
Now use "AIG bonus issue" for the screaming red meat and use the snarling congressional panel for the alligators and the hot-footed one will be Goldman Sachs a.k.a. Government Sachs who will escape the glare and jaws of government, public and the news media.
Cui bono? Who profited from the enabling Commodity Futures Modernization Act of 2000? Goldman Sachs et all were the ones who introduced these financial derivatives products from hell that took down brokers, bankers and now threatens the world financial system. The products by law couldn't be regulated or have oversight by any agency including state gaming commissions! They planned well. The bonus babies at AIG are mere fodder at $160 million. AIG alone cost the taxpayers $180 billion for being Goldman Sachs' favorite customer who would say "yes" to any product that Goldman proposed.
But Goldman needed help from the federal government to get the Modernization Act of 2000 into law. For that job they recruited former Senator Phil Gramm of Texas, Senator Richard Lugar of Indiana and others. So government was equally criminally irresponsible for passing this law. That's why the bonus babies at AIG are being scapegoated.
Jesus: Pope Benedict, this is your lord speaking.
Pope: Did you get an appointment?
Jesus: Since when did I need an appointment? Don't bother to answer the rhetorical question.
Pope: Please cut to a short message. I'm on a recruiting mission in Africa and I'm tired.
Jesus: I want to clarify my message and your mission. When I commisioned the original apostles to help the poor and sick I didn't say to PERPETUATE the poor and sick.
Pope: Say what?
Jesus: Condoms are the way to go. It's a humane way to mitigate the growth of the poor and sick.
Pope: Well it's this way now. When you were last here there was only a few of your followers. Now the church has grown and we need more of poor and sick people to spread amongst the new gullable recruits. I.E. we need more of the poor and sick to open a yawning gap of people to make this church, which has become a quasi financial derivative incarnation of your teachings to survive. I want swarms of starving and sickly and mad people behind me who have nothing to lose so that I can march on the capitols of the world and reestablish a kind of new shoddy type of Roman Empire based on the base motivations of mankind.
Jesus: Now I finally see what Satan was talking about.
The sixteen acre Manhattan site that is to be the Freedom Towers is years behind schedule and now is underfunded by billions. The 9/11 event whether carried out by al qaeda or the Israelis or the C.I.A. was not a validation of American foreign policy in general or Middle East policy in particular. The lost wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the policy of official torture by the U.S. , loss of personal freedoms pushed by Bush and Congress and all the rest of evil fallout from our government made the original 9/11 pale in comparison. Why make a monument to those mistakes?
Therefore since the hole in the ground is barely at street level why not make a real statement of freedom? How about we make the site Open Space Freedom Park? Freedom from the restless human scourge of land development, freedom from housing theiving brokers and bankers in a too tall building that blots out the soothing rays of the sun, interferes with the healing smell of a fresh breeze and denies a sanctuary for an urban ecosystem.
In 1932 at the nadir of the depression many WW I vets formed the "bonus marchers" movement . The goal was to get immediate payment from the U.S. government for their military service which ws due in 1945. President Hoover answered "no" . Then Generals Mac Arthur and Patton calvary- charged, bayonetted and tank- prodded the vets back into one of the Hoovervilles across from the nations capitol.
Today the outrage against bonus is for paying a bonus for bad and/or undeserved performance at the financial derivative branches at major banks, brokerage and insurance companies.
One mans bonus is anothers obligation. But one thing is for certain. Don't get in between a politician and his or hers reelection plans.
