Haiti Braces For Disaster

YubaNet

PORT AU PRINCE, HAITI (The Borowitz Report) December 13, 2010 – Just when Haiti thought it had suffered every disaster imaginable, former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin decided to visit.

In the disaster-torn nation's capital, a leading government minister warned citizens to "prepare for the worst."

"We have suffered earthquakes, flooding, and disease," said Minister of Disaster Jean-Claude Mansaray. "But it remains to be seen whether we can withstand a disaster of Sarah Palin's magnitude."

Across Haiti, citizens prepared themselves for the possible devastation Palin might cause, especially to their language and syntax.

"We have seen what she has done to English, and fear that she could do the same to French," Minister Mansaray said.

Upon her arrival, Gov. Palin seemed to get off on the wrong foot by repeatedly pronouncing the name of the country "Hades."

Minister Mansaray said that he and his countrymen were fearing the worst, but hoping for the best: "Our only hope is that she does what she did in Alaska: leaves early."

Good luck, Haiti. You guys are in deep merde with her there.

Experts: ‘Death Tax’ More Deadly than Gout, Polo Injuries Combined

The Swift Report

WASHINGTON, DC—A new study confirms what the richest Americans and their allies on Capitol Hill have long suspected: the so-called death tax is more hazardous to the health of the nation’s wealthy than gout, which has been linked to excessive consumption of port wine, or injuries suffered during polo matches. The research, based on surveys of obituaries run in such papers as The Rancho Santa Fe News, the Jackson Hole News and Guide and the Chevy Chase Gazette, found that the death tax far surpassed other causes of wealth-related fatalities.

Only silver poisoning, a result of so-called silver spoon related birth syndrome, followed by intermarriage, the practice of marrying among a small group of wealthy individuals, was found to cause any where near the number of fatalities brought about by the death tax.

More.

CNN

Estate tax emerges as key Democratic beef in Obama's compromise

The Dems think it's too low and the Repugs think it's too high. That doesn't surprise me, but I am a little surprised that it's the main sticking point.

I once paid estate tax of $40,000 on an estate valued at $150,000 which mostly consisted of a house which I had to sell to pay the tax. That was all right because I couldn't have afforded to keep the house anyway, but I thought it was unfair. The estate tax has since been modified so that there was a threshold of (I think) $2Million before estate tax kicked in. I think that's a lot fairer. Inheritance tax is a good way to soak the rich, not so good for reg'lar folks who inherit grannie's house and silverware.

I think the threshold should be considerably lower than the proposed $5Million, so I'm down wit da Dems on this one. Tax rate? Mox nix. Get 'em for what ya can, I says.

There is no inheritance tax this year. Look for an uptick in rich old farts kickin' the bucket on New Year's Eve. I can hear it now:

Rich ol' grannie on her deathbed, "What's that electric plug (or hypodermic needle/pillow/.38 Special/etc.) in yer hand, sonny?"

"That's my financial future, grannie, and thank you. Happy New Year!"

Heh.

So ...

You don't wanna pay taxes? No problem. They'll get it out of you, one way or the other:

The FDNY was quick to dismiss any complaints about their proposed charging of drivers for FDNY assistance after an accident, saying that insurance companies would most likely foot the bill. However, that doesn't seem to be the case. "Except for some limited circumstances, a charge by the Fire Department for responding to auto crashes would not be covered under current auto insurance policies," said Insurance Superintendent James Wrynn. And don't even think of complaining, because Bloomberg thinks you should just suck it up.

...

Bloomberg can suck my dick.

The Utility Protection Racket

Good article at Z Magazine about PG&E out here in California.

Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) is a billion-dollar, privately-owned, publicly-regulated utility whose main function is to make enormous profits for its shareholders at great cost to ratepayers. I know this to be true; I'm one of the ratepayers. The California Public Utilities Commission (PUC) permits PG&E to charge rates that are 30 percent higher than the national average.

PG&E's shareholders enjoy a guaranteed 11.35 percent yearly return on equity. That's slightly higher than the 11 percent that Bernard Madoff pretended to offer his investment victims. After Madoff was exposed, his victims were chided for not having realized that no one pulls down an 11 percent return year after year on the stock market. But PG&E investors take in more than that every year. Unlike Madoff, the company's earnings are for real, guaranteed at a fixed return, devoid of risk.

PG&E enjoys a captive consumer market of 15 million customers in northern and central California. The utility is a monument to state-supported monopoly capitalism. If costs rise, then so do customer rates—in order to guarantee the 11.35 percent return. PG&E carries a $17 million insurance premium and additional millions in insurance deductibles; these expenses are picked up by its rate-payers.

Along with all the other expenses they bear, PG&E's ratepayers usually pay for the enormous costs of utility accidents. This may still prove to be the case with the disaster recently in San Bruno. On September 9, 2010, a PG&E pipeline blew apart. Gas explosions and flames ripped through the San Bruno community, taking the lives of at least 8, injuring over 50 others (some very seriously), and completely destroying or damaging upwards of 100 homes. An official from the National Transportation Safety Board described it: "My immediate assessment was the amazing destruction, the charred trees, the melted and charred cars, the houses disappeared."

One wonders how many other California communities are at risk from aging and deficient pipelines. So much for the superior performance of a giant private-profit corporation.

Left out of the picture is how corporate malfeasance and corporate-generated disasters are a reflection of the capitalist system. If a gas pipeline had exploded in communist Cuba, killing people and destroying homes, the incident would immediately have been treated by U.S. commentators as evidence of the deficiencies of the broader economic system, as proof that socialism cannot do it right.

But disasters in our society are seen simply as immediate mishaps, at worst, instances of negligence and mismanagement by a particular company, never as the outcome of a broader capitalist system that steadfastly puts profits before people, with immense costs passed along to the public.

The same is true of mining accidents, train wrecks, plane crashes, unsafe auto vehicles, unsafe consumer products and foods, toxic spills, offshore-drilling calamities, and a host of other noxious things that corporate America foists on us. Private industries are not in the safety business. All of them are in the business of creating the largest possible profits for their shareholders and their executives.

I'm one of the lucky ones who don't get their gas and electric from PG&E. Our electric company (TDPUD) is pretty generally on the ball and our gas lines (SWG) are only a few years old.

And how are the utilities in your neck of the woods doing? Anything rusting its way to catastrophe in your back yard?

Oh, the irony...

Ironic Times

Obama Forces GOP to Accept Compromise
GOP agrees to permanent unemployment benefits for the rich.

Lieberman Suggests New York Times Violated Espionage Act
Suggests waterboarding Paul Krugman.

Leaked Fox News Memo: Network Discouraged Use of Term "Public Option"
In favor of “Stalinist Death Machine.”

French Library Finds Previously Unknown Leonardo Da Vinci Manuscript
In it, he describes a vast web-like system connecting people so they can exchange short, banal messages with each other.

I got my own crooks ...

But the next county over (Nassau, home of Rep. Peter King) has another idiot they just elected and he's managed to make their fiscal situation worse:

MINEOLA, N.Y. — Facing a huge budget deficit when he took office in January, Nassau County Executive Edward P. Mangano did not impose a hiring freeze. He did not stop borrowing to subsidize some of the richest school districts in the country. He did not eliminate the Police Department’s beloved mounted unit.

Instead, Mr. Mangano, a Republican who won one of the first upsets of the Tea Party era, did what he had promised: He cut taxes, adding $40 million to the county’s deficit, which has since reached nearly $350 million.

Now, with its bonds suddenly downgraded and a state oversight agency preparing to seize its checkbook and credit cards, Nassau is on the verge of a full-fledged fiscal crisis. [my em]

...

You expect this shit from a place like Deepinahearta, Texas, but if there's a place in this area where the Republicans run rampant and turn things to shit, it's Nassau. You can thank all the Wall St. types on the North Shore and the retirees on the South Shore, the former, voting to protect their interest and the latter doing whatever Fox 'News' tells them.

Great thanks to my pal, and fellow football nut, W.K. Maier for the heads up via email.

Sunday Crazy Maltese Redneck Music & Linedancing Blogging

It's a crazy world...

Jailhouse floor Line Dance
Choreographed by Malcolm Russell
32 Count 4 Wall Improver Level
Music: "I found Jesus on a jailhouse floor" by George Strait

Video produced for "Country Jamboree" 2009
ONE TV MALTA

Thanks to LinedancerMalta.

Peaceful Counter-protest At Edwards Funeral

Think Progress. Many comments.

300 Show Up In The Rain To Counterprotest 5 Westboro Protesters At Elizabeth Edwards’ Funeral

Two of the WBC assholes are children. I can't really tell, but I think the other three are women. The big brave male WBC assholes musta been reading the blogs where all the peacelovedope libruls were espousing beatin' the crap out of 'em and stayed away. Heh.

Whatever we may feel viscerally, non-violence is better if it works. It looks like it worked.

Rigging the game ...

So much for change:

On the third Wednesday of every month, the nine members of an elite Wall Street society gather in Midtown Manhattan.

The men share a common goal: to protect the interests of big banks in the vast market for derivatives, one of the most profitable — and controversial — fields in finance. They also share a common secret: The details of their meetings, even their identities, have been strictly confidential.

...

Our governance and our economy are all just one big backroom deal.

...

But big banks influence the rules governing derivatives through a variety of industry groups. The banks’ latest point of influence are clearinghouses like ICE Trust, which holds the monthly meetings with the nine bankers in New York.

Under the Dodd-Frank financial overhaul, many derivatives will be traded via such clearinghouses. Mr. Gensler wants to lessen banks’ control over these new institutions. But Republican lawmakers, many of whom received large campaign contributions from bankers who want to influence how the derivatives rules are written, say they plan to push back against much of the coming reform. On Thursday, the commission canceled a vote over a proposal to make prices more transparent, raising speculation that Mr. Gensler did not have enough support from his fellow commissioners. [my em]

...

The banksters own the pols and police themselves. Good thing they reformed the system after the meltdown 2 years ago, eh? It's gonna get worse come January too.

Saturday Homebrew Not-So-Crazy Redneck Music Video Blogging

Me'n Mrs. G got this album in the mail yesterday on our way to Reno. When this song came on, lemme tell ya it ain't easy to ROTFLMAO when yer driving but I managed it!

You Ford* fans will get a kick out of the album cover. I know I do:



*Fuckin' Okies Really Dig'em

Inside the album cover is "If it ain't broke, we can FIX that". Heh. My sentiments exactly sometimes.

This song is the way I feel too. Sometimes I think the yuppies dragged the Bay Area up here on a chain behind their Volvo just to fuck with me.

Rodney Dillard & The Dillard Band do "There Goes The Neighborhood" from their 2010 CD "I Wish Life Was Like Mayberry".

As a member of The Dillards way back when, Rodney was the slack-jawed guitar player in The Darlings on The Andy Griffith Show.

Video is a rural road in the Sierra Nevada.

I had to shorten the title of the song due to the character limit of the bargain-basement software that came with my video camera.

Confederacy nostalgia finds disturbing echoes in contemporary conservative politics

From a 'must read' article in The Guardian, UK:

These days, conservatives are the new Confederates. They may not all dress up and play Scarlett and Rhett, but their politics are at least 150 years old. Since Barack Obama was elected president, Fox News apocalypticist Glenn Beck has predicted a new civil war is coming. Senator-elect Rand Paul has expressed distaste for the Civil Rights Act. "Tenthers" – those who believe that the 10th Amendment gives states sovereignty – are increasing in number in state legislatures and in Washington. Recently, a Tea Party leader in North Carolina wrote in his newsletter, "Washington DC has become destructive of our economy and liberty. It is our right and our duty to throw off such a government."

Such language echoes the old southern justifications for secession: a "destructive and overweaning" federal government and a president seen as alien to their values. I guess that makes Barack Obama Abraham Lincoln. It's hardly surprising that the first black president has been an intestine-rocking shock for folks accustomed to power residing only in people who look like them. The coming years of American civil war commemorations will only throw gasoline on the fire already burning in the brains of white America. As William Faulkner famously said, "The past is never dead. It's not even past."

I believe the south will rise again. Shit floats.

"...founding document has ‘jumped the shark.’ "

The Swift Report

Effort to Merge Constitution, Ten Commandments Gains Steam

A growing body of detractors warns that Constitution “goes too far” and “shouldn’t apply” to luminaries of the political right.

Sources close to the Constitution say that its troubles began as early as 1791 with the adoption of the Bill of Rights. While fans praise the Constitution’s “commitment to free speech” and say it’s “unsurpassed” as a “ruling document,” a growing body of detractors warns that the document “goes too far” and “shouldn’t apply” to “criticism of Sarah Palin” and other luminaries of the political right. The Constitution has also seen its fan base shrink due to a persistent Internet rumor that the words separation of church and state appear in its text—a misconception that lives on despite the efforts of Constitutional experts.

While the two governing documents contain essential differences, even contradictions—experts say that reconciling the 2nd Amendment’s right to bear arms with the 6th Commandment, “thou shall not kill,” could prove difficult—they share one essential attribute: Americans are only vaguely acquainted with either. According to recent reports, fewer than a third of Americans have read the entire Constitution. Meanwhile, few Americans were found to be able to name more than five of the Ten Commandments. If Americans are a bit vague on what the two documents actually say, they have not doubt about who authored both the Ten Commandments and the Constitution. Recent surveys have found that patriotic Americans are more likely than their liberal counterparts to recognize Moses’ role in the creation of both documents.

Headline and Quote of the Day

Renewing the Bush Tax Cuts for the Super Rich is Like Celebrating Sobriety With a Cognac and Crack Party

driving your car off the cliff, paying a tow truck twice the price of the car to haul it back up, then driving it back over because your brother-in-law's cousin's friend told you this time it will fly.

More.

Bumpersticker of the Day

A symbol of peace, love, and understanding! Available here.

A tip o' the Brain to Pablo.

Saturday Emmylou Blogging

Emmylou Harris ~ Mister Sandman

Thanks to SDVideoSD, Санкт-Петербург, Russia.

So ...

You let the bully kick your ass and then get your big brother to convince everybody you won? Plz:

Former President Bill Clinton made a surprise appearance in the White House briefing room Friday afternoon to express his support for the tax cut compromise worked out between President Obama and Congressional Republicans.

Mr. Obama stood next to Mr. Clinton while the latter made a statement of support for the $858 billion bill, which is facing strong opposition from House Democrats who object to a two-year extension of tax cuts for the highest earners and the levels at which the estate tax would be set.

...

Pussy.

Headline of the Day

Halliburton may pay $500 million to keep Cheney out of prison: report

They'll just take it outta The Dick's next dividend check. Or maybe not. It's just taxpayers' money after all. It's free for nothing and there's plenty of it. The Dick saw to that.

Note to Halliburton: It'd be cheaper to off him. Shit, just stall Nigeria a little. He's damn near dead anyway.

Why the Obama Tax Deal Confirms the Republican Worldview

Robert Reich

Apart from its extraordinary cost and regressive tilt, the tax deal negotiated between the president and the Republicans has another fatal flaw.

It confirms the Republican worldview.

Americans want to know what happened to the economy and how to fix it. At least Republicans have a story -- the same one they've been flogging for thirty years. The bad economy is big government's fault and the solution is to shrink government.

But here's the obstacle. As income and wealth have risen to the top, so has political power. Money is being used to bribe politicians and fill the airwaves with misleading ads that block all of this.

In other words, the problem isn't big government. It's power and privilege at the top.

So another part of the solution is to limit the impact of big money on politics. This requires, for example, publicly-financed campaigns, disclosure of all sources of political spending, and resurrection of the fairness doctrine for broadcasters.

Their blood will run in the streets before the Bigs allow that.

Get it? By agreeing to another round of massive tax cuts for the wealthy, the president confirms the Republican story. Cutting taxes on the rich while freezing discretionary spending (which he's also agreed to do) affirms that the underlying problem is big government, and the solution is to shrink government and expect the extra wealth at the top to trickle down to everyone else.

Obama's new tax compromise is not only bad economics; it's also disastrous from the standpoint of educating the public about what has happened and what needs to happen in the future. It reinforces the Republican story and makes mincemeat out of the truthful one Democrats should be telling.

Make me and Fixer Prez and Veep for a day and we'll bring in a few of our peeps and fix this shit. It won't be pretty but it'll work. All we ask is immunity from prosecution for some of what we will do and pre-signed pardons for the rest. One day. K Street will be a smoking pit and McConnell and Boner and all their henchmen will be on what's left of their knees begging this country for forgiveness.

We won't need any "Second Amendment remedies" either. Maybe a coupla airstrikes, but mostly stuff that goes 'thunk' and 'crunch' and is satisfying to use.

The phony christian haters in the next post have made me a little extra angry today. It's time, has been, to kick wingnut ass. Literally.

Despicable

Pensito Review

Westboro Baptist Church, a group with a history of staging protests at funerals and issuing anti-gay statements, is planning to picket the Saturday funeral of Elizabeth Edwards.
...

Lately, decent Americans have been peacefully counter-protesting this hate group by blocking their signs with large American flags.

Peacefully counter-potesting my ass. Mrs. Edwards was a class act and doesn't deserve this treatment by the Westboro Haters.

Note to the bikers that kept this bunch away from some military funerals: take off the biker garb, show up in cars, and beat the crap outta these assholes.

Update:

See Montag's and Bustednuckles' takes.

Wow. Us usually normal people are gettin' right up off the peace, love, dope, rainbows, and unicorns shit over this. And rightly so.

Update the Twoth:

From El Rude-o:

Note to Conservative Christians: Your God Is Kind of a Dick

He lays into 'em for a variety of things, but on the Westboro assholes:

1. In its increasing effort to be America's most-loathed inbred idiots, the piles of shit from the Westboro Baptist have declared that, like fags, God also hates Elizabeth Edwards and, as a result, said piles of shit will be protesting her funeral on Saturday. To teach the Edwards family a lesson, according to the inbreds, God killed their child: "When they were visited from the Most High God with the death of their 16-year-old son, they did not humble themselves before His mighty hand." Since we're just making shit up about what a fictional character thinks, how about this: God wants the Westboro Baptist Church to commit mass suicide in order to demonstrate how much they love him. The next move is yours, Phelps family.

(You know, as long as the CIA is targeting U.S. citizens for assassination, could we just thin the herd around here a bit? No one would even notice.)

Well, we might notice a slight uptick in peace and quiet.

Like Nucks said in his post, I could do this shit all day. The day is young...

Quote of the Day

From Paul Krugman on "Obama's Hostage Deal":

Well, concerns about the tax deal reflect realism, not purism: Mr. Obama is setting up another hostage situation a year down the road. And given that fact, the last thing we need is the kind of self-indulgent behavior he showed by lashing out at progressives who he feels aren’t giving him enough credit.

He set himself up to fail. Big time.