PG&E Facebook Identity Theft

Today is primary election day here in California. Pacific Gas & Electric, one of our state's largest utilities (not mine, thank my lucky stars) is trying to pass Prop. 16 for its own monopolistic purposes and calling it the "right to vote" act. Total misdirection, and it had better not pass. We will see, but check out one of their tactics:

BeyondChron

Several weeks ago, I noticed that one of my friends on Facebook was a “fan” of Proposition 16 - PG&E’s Monopoly Protection Act that is easily the worst measure on the June ballot. After I chewed him out for it, he expressed shock to even be on that page. Apparently, PG&E had added him on as a supporter without his consent. Today, just as the Prop 16 campaign boasted that it now has 50,000 “fans” on Facebook, I received a press release from the Sunrise Center in Marin County - who complained that some of their own staffers (who are working hard to defeat Prop 16) have also been added as “fans.” Besides exposing a serious loophole in Facebook’s privacy features, it also proves that PG&E’s $40 million campaign to pass Prop 16 includes committing identity theft.

Attorney General Jerry Brown should consider pressing criminal charges against PG&E, who appears to have committed identity theft. Ironically, Facebook’s former Chief Privacy Officer -- Chris Kelly -- is running to replace Brown in next week’s election.

Heh. The Daisy Chain proceeds apace...

Repug rattlesnakes

Legal Schnauzer

From the outset of his administration, President Barack Obama has said that he will "look forward, not backwards" when it comes to apparent crimes by the George W. Bush administration.

What has been Obama's reward? Republicans now are pushing for an investigation of his administration over alleged dealmaking connected to senatorial campaigns.

You heard that right. Karl Rove and other "loyal Bushies" apparently will escape scrutiny, while Obama could be under fire for his involvement with U.S. Senate campaigns in Pennsylvania and Colorado.

Could we see Obama officials, perhaps the very ones who turned a blind eye toward Bush-era wrongdoing, being investigated while Rove & Co. go free?

This is just the latest example of a lesson that Democrats never seem to get: Republicans are like a bunch of coiled rattlesnakes, who have no sense of justice or fairness and will strike blindly at the first opportunity. In fact, we have posited numerous times that quite a few Republicans are sociopaths, the kind of individuals who have no conscience and no empathy for others. They look out for No. 1 and nobody else.

Obama still has time to take off the blinders and give his OK for a full-scale investigation of Bush-era crimes. But it appears that he wants to continue using a gentle touch in dealing with GOP rattlesnakes. That's a good way to get yourself bit.

Remember, Barry, even after you cut Repugs' heads off, they don't die 'til sundown...

Match, Meet Gasoline...

Iran Red Crescent to send aid to Gaza

It's gonna happen so fuck it, get it over with. Maybe Israel and Iran will beat each other up bad enough they'll both STFU for a while. Can we pump oil up through the ashes of the Middle East?

Note to Jordan: Keep yer head down.

"it was like Pearl Harbor with wheelchairs"

The Bobblespeak Translations, "What They're Really Saying When They're Saying What They're Saying" on last Sunday's This Week:

Guests:
Adm. Thad Allen (Cmdr. Coast Guard)
John Kerry (D-MA)
John Cornyn (R-TX)
Panel:
George Will
Liz Cheney
Arianna Huffington
Markos Moulitsas

Tapper: Cornyn do you have a double standard for Republicans who lie about their war records

Cornyn: oh no I don’t - but Blumenthal was wrong and Kirk is a great guy who just slipped up claiming he fought alongside Patton in Khe Sanh

Kerry: I should’ve just stayed here and gotten my damm medals out of a cracker jack box

Tapper: Rupert Murdoch told me you did

Cheney: Obama caused this oil spill and he must clean it up

Huffington: you lying idiot - Dick Cheney deregulated the oil industry and BP wrecked
the economy!

Cheney: Obama should have stopped them!

Tapper: Hey the Israel National Rappelling Team boarded a ship this week

Cheney: Turkey launched a surprise armed attack on Israel by sailing in international waters with
a boat filled with aid

Moulitsas: look everybody but Deferment Liz knows that Israel totally fucked up

Cheney: Turkey attacked Israel’s ocean

Tapper: hey speaking of institutional fuck-ups - this week baseball ruined a perfect game

Will: oh my stars perfection is overrated - look if we start demanding white people get everything right then where will be?

Much more.

Quote of the Day

From the Prince of Rudeness:

... [BP CEO]Tony Hayward could go door to door along the Gulf Coast, giving blow jobs and eating pussy until his jaw is distended and his belly is bloated, and BP wouldn't even have gotten started on making it right ...

Journalism v. "Journalism"

Fez:

I'm not going to defend Helen Thomas' offensive remarks -- any more than I spend any time defending Pat Buchanan's offensive remarks...

...

But 90 plus year old Helen Thomas gets the boot...because she's just not practicing in the proper village way, whatever that is. But apparently, below is the proper way to commit journalism!

...

Anniversaries ...

Three months after 9/11, every major Taliban city in Afghanistan had fallen — first Mazar-i-Sharif, then Kabul, finally Kandahar. Osama bin Laden and Mullah Omar were on the run. It looked as if the war was over, and the Americans and their Afghan allies had won.

Butch Ivie, then a school administrator in Winfield, Ala., remembers, "We thought we'd soon have it tied up in a neat little bag."

But bin Laden and Omar eluded capture. The Taliban regrouped. Today, Kandahar again is up for grabs. And soon, Afghanistan will pass Vietnam as America's longest war. [my em]

...

And what do we have to show for it but a buncha dead American kids. Another Bush Administration SNAFU that cost too many lives.

Thanks to Nicole for the link.

Paging Dr. Mengele ...

...

Of course they used detainees as guinea pigs and of course they documented it. The question is, are they still doing it?

...

It was the documentation that sank the Nazis. One day it will sink us too.

Quote of the Day II

Cheney’s memoir could be called, ‘I Upped Halliburton’s Income – So Up Yours.’ - Scott McClellan

Headline of the Day

Artists Asked to Lighten Faces of Latino, Black Kids on Arizona School Mural

Update:

Warning From Frommer's: Arizona Too Dangerous For Americans?

Oh, the irony...

Ironic Times

BP Orders Containment Booms Around Beachgoers
Those covered in oil will be scrubbed, released.

Radioactive Fish Found In Connecticut River
Don't need refrigeration, cook themselves.

Americans Prefer Drugs to Psychotherapy for Depression
The more the better.

Teenage Female Knuckleballer Makes Her Pro Debut
She's clobbered, yanked, booed, released, hits skids, takes HGH, makes comeback, signed by Mets.

Survey: Brits Worst-Dressed Tourists
There was no runner-up.

Being I lived in Ft. Worth for a couple years ...

This doesn't surprise me:

Louis Torres has a can-do attitude.

Just one glance at his yard, which is adorned with thousands of beer cans -- some strung together, others crafted into ornaments -- provides proof.

Torres began putting together his beer-can canopy a couple of years ago. He and his buddies share an affinity for Miller Lite and Milwaukee's Best Light, and when the cans began to pile up, Torres went to work.

...

Far be it one of them yahoos would toss the load into the back of his pickemup and drag 'em to the recycling center. I know I rag on Texas a lot, but this shit writes itself:

Q - What's a 'Texas savings account'?

A - A string of beer cans hanging from a tree.

...

The cans not only serve as yard art; they're a savings account of sorts.

"If I'm short of money and need cigarettes or beer, I'll pull down a string and cash it in," Torres said.

...

I'll say this; in my neighborhood, if that guy strung up a buncha beer cans in his yard at night, they'd be gone by morning and somebody else would be cashin' 'em in.

Yeah ...

BP is gonna pay all right ... not:

...

Thirty-seven of the 64 active or senior judges in key Gulf Coast districts in Louisiana, Texas, Alabama, Mississippi and Florida have links to oil, gas and related energy industries, including some who own stocks or bonds in BP PLC, Halliburton or Transocean — and others who regularly list receiving royalties from oil and gas production wells, according to the reports judges must file each year. The AP reviewed 2008 disclosure forms, the most recent available.

...

Like Exxon and Union Carbide, BP won't have to pay a dime in damages for decades.

Update:

And if you're waiting for any BP execs to face prosecution, don't hold your breath:

...

Over the years, the Justice Department has repeatedly pursued criminal charges in major environmental accidents, from the Exxon Valdez oil spill in 1989 to the Three Mile Island nuclear accident a decade earlier. In most high-profile environmental cases, criminal charges are brought mainly against the companies involved, while corporate executives typically escape punishment.

...

And our pal Montag sums up my feelings quite well:

...

I am not a lawyer, I didn't even stay at a Holiday Inn Express but it seems to me that the recent SCOTUS grant of human rights to corporations should carry with it the assumption of a grant of human responsibilities/liabilities. If an unincorporated human would be thrown in jail, so too should the executive officers of a corporation. Just my humble opinion.

Welcome to America, where responsibility is assigned to those who can't afford the best lawyers.

Quote of the Day

Fez on BP's sponsorship of the U.S. Swim Team:

... I just hope Dawn detergent works on Dara Torres and Michael Phelps.

It's about time ...

On every trip to Spain, in every city we've been to there, we see more bull rings closed and repurposed. It is a barbaric sport and has no place in the civilized world and it's about time Spain made a national effort to ban the sport. The Catalons are taking up the charge:

...

That day in Barcelona saw the biggest anti-bullfight demonstration of all time: 5,000 people marched from the Ramblas to the Plaza de Toros Monumental, where the bullfight world was busy acclaiming its conquering hero. From here it was but a step to the massive campaign of signatures – a total of 180,000 were collected across Catalonia – which eventually led to a parliamentary bill.

...

Barcelona has three bull rings, only one of which still operates. The other two, one being rebuilt into an apartment complex, the other a sports center, are closed. Hopefully the last one will close when (if) this legislation is passed.

Thanks to Chris for the link.

Gentlemen ...

If you can't do your job around a beautiful woman who dresses appropriately, it's your problem, not hers.

Grow the fuck up.

Thanks to our pal Montag for the MoDo link.

Los Lobos cancels show in Arizona

Crooks and Liars

Mad props to Los Lobos (website) for their principled stand against SB 1070.

This just in from Los Lobos' camp: The band is canceling its performance at the Talking Stick Resort in Arizona's Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community on June 10 as a protest against the passing of the state's controversial new immigration bill, SB1070. The band issued the following statement via its management:

“We support the boycott of Arizona. The new law will inevitably lead to unfair racial profiling and possible abuse of people who just happen to look Latino. As a result, in good conscience, we could not see ourselves performing in Arizona. We regret the inconvenience this may have caused the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community, Casino Arizona, Talking Stick Resort and our fans, but we feel strongly that it is the right thing to do.”

Good on yas, mis East L.A. amigos!

Good advice...

...from Daddy Frank's column today:

Don’t Get Mad, Mr. President. Get Even.

That always works for me.

Sunday Reality Snark

Thanks to rizzio247.

"Queen of the Boogie Piano"

Brainiac Joe the Troll slid me east from Texas a little and had me check out Marcia Ball (website). Thank you, Joe.

I checked out a dozen or so of her vids and chose this older one as pretty representative.

Caution: move everything breakable for several feet around you! Try not to hurt yourself. Enjoy.

from Marcia Ball's 1988 performance on Kentucky Educational Television's "Lonesome Pine Specials"; H. Russell Farmer & Richard Van Kleeck, producers; Clark Santee, director. Copyright 1988 KET

Marcia Ball ~ Eugene

Thanks to rghm.