– At Occupy Seattle and in general, I’ve only had positive experiences with Seattle police. But this is unacceptable.
– Surely they all deserved it.
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Another Democrat shyster! Where is the Fleabagger outrage at Corzine?
The MoveOn.org sponsored fleabag movement avoids Fannie, Freddie and Democrats like Corzine? How ironic!
OK OK OK OK!!!!!!!!!
Uncle. I give up.
Democrat Corzine is an absolute PIKER!…a RANK AMATEUR next to those smooth and accomplished Republican theives crooks and liars!
Nice catch asshole. I’ll concede the point.
To approximately quote Ross Perot, “I look at these guys with their blow-dried hair and their Armani suits and their 23-year-old trophy wives, and I think, ‘My God, these men are stewards to millions of jobs.'”
A Koch-supported political group has confirmed its ties to charities run by Herman Cain’s campaign manager that may have illegally supported Cain’s campaign.
http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com.....gn-manager
@1 Corzine is a One Percenter, a Wall Streeter, a former Goldman Sachs CEO, a bankster — and a thief.
Yeah, he ran (and got elected) as a Democrat.
Does it come as a surprise to you that Wall Street owns both political parties? That politics is so corrupted by money that it has become a hobby for the rich and all congress critters are One Percenters?
Don’t you realize this is what the Occupy protests are about? That the other 99% are fed up because no one represents them?
Wake up and smell the coffee, dude.
@2 Concede what point? That the banksters not only own the GOP, but also infiltrated and co-opted the Democrats?
What’s really stupid is that our wingnut friends don’t realize the banksters are their enemies, too.
In fact, the redder you are, the more likely you’re being screwed by the Masters Of The Universe. Just bend over, Fido, and take it like a doggy.
Washington state needs tax reform, period! It’s time to update our 19th-century tax code to the 21st century.
“State governments across the United States are just a few months into their fiscal years and already … tax revenues are running short of forecasts.
“This is getting to be an annual ritual. Officials in New York, California, Florida and Washington this year have all expressed concerns about the outlook.
The problem stems partly from short-term issues, including a weak economy and woozy real estate markets, but more basic flaws explain the diminished capacity of states to raise adequate revenues ….
“State tax codes were developed in a bricks-and-mortar era dominated by manufacturing and tangible goods, making them ill-suited to today’s Web-based service economy.
“Efforts to drag state tax systems into the modern age are making halting progress against a wave of anti-tax fervor and resistance from businesses.”
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45....._business/
Wshington growers complain they can’t get workers to pick tree fruit. The illegals who formerly performed this back-breaking and low-paying manual labor have been deported. The few gringos who try it usually last only a couple days — it’s not easy to pick 10 bins of fruit a day. And there are few harder ways to earn $100 – $150.
It isn’t just the hard physical labor, low pay, piecework wages, seasonal unemployment, and lack of benefits that keep workers away. Farmworkers and pickers also have to put up with shoddy housing and living conditions that would be considered inhumane even in Third World countries.
Ooops — my bad — America is a Third World country. We rank way down the scale on measures like infant mortality, etc.
http://fieldnotes.msnbc.msn.co.....ts-illness
Roger Rabbit Commentary: The agricultural industry is exempt from minimum-wage laws. They’re apparently also exempt from enforcement of housing codes and public health laws. The result is pay and working conditions that only slaves or undocumented immigrants are willing to put up with. If growers tried to hire donkeys for this work, the donkeys would go on strike.
The solution is simple: Stop trying to produce cheap food on the backs of exploited laborers. Clean up the industry. Pay decent wages, provide family housing, offer health benefits — in short, make it possible for people to make a living in this line of work and still live like human beings. So what if apples cost $4/lb. instead of $2/lb.? If you can’t afford to buy apples for what it really costs to produce them, eat half as many apples. All you humans are too fat anyway. And quite smoking; you’ll live longer.
Actually, I don’t mind if Republicans smoke, provided they don’t do it around me.*
* Just kidding! This is merely another Ann Coulter-style death joke. I often crack Republican jokes on this blog, because they get big laughs from our wingnut friends, and I want to keep them entertained. In reality, I don’t want to encourage anyone to smoke, not even Republicans; but hey, if they wanna commit suicide I can’t stop them.
@8 A bigger factor, in fact, than the supposed “get tough” actions of the INS (which actually lead not so much to deportations as to long-term incarcerations at privately-run “detention centers”) is that fewer Mexicans are coming here and many are going back of their own accord. That’s partly due to the rapid deterioration of our economy and our increasingly nasty social atmosphere, and partly because there’s more work than there used to be south of the border. You know those nice juicy blackberries you can get in stores here in the dead of winter? They come from large-scale farms in Mexico operated by Driscolls.
Don’t bother trying to ride the bus in Detroit.
A $50M raise in this economy? Where’s the outrage, people?
So it turns out that John Corzine and the guy that’s going to be investigating him and MF Global happen to be joined at the hip.
$50M pay raises for the bosses while workers get laid off, regulators and investigators in cozy with the people they’re supposed to be over seeing and people wonder why there’s protests. The only thing I wonder is why aren’t there more protests.
Perfect example of a captive board. As long as Wall Street rewards the stock, execs will continue to cash in.
And even if it doesn’t well it takes a shareholder revolt to change things and IIRC, there’s ways around that too.
Hmmm. The Montana friendo @ 1 must consider Jesus the first “fleabagger”:
http://images1.dailykos.com/i/user/310373/813.png
Heh..
3. ArtFart spews:
“To approximately quote Ross Perot, “I look at these guys with their blow-dried hair”
Corzine is f*&king bald!!
So, working class folks can’t even ride the bus to interview for a job while CEO’s get $50M raises. When are the uber wealthy and their Republican handmaidens going to own up to waging class war against the bottom 90%?
It’s not like its some big secret or anything. We all know what’s going down here.
Everyone knows (or should know, by now) that there’s a fundamental problem. Wall Street executives rotate between jobs on the Federal Researve, then the Treasury, then back to Wall Street. We’ve seen it in both Republican and Democratic administrations.
If you try to put someone else into the mix, then those same folks will insist that only a handful of guys (seldom women) really understand the global economic and financial systems, and that it would be folly to have anyone else in those positions, and we just need to “trust them” to do what is right. If you put in someone who doesn’t play the game, then they will refuse to cooperate, proclaim loudly and repeatedly that the person is “incomptent” and “doesn’t understand the system”, until they are removed.
Remember that there are hundreds of lobbyist in Washington D.C. who represent various aspects of the financial industry FOR EACH MEMBER OF CONGRESS. Talk about being outnumbered!
I’m hoping that in the President’s second term he can break this cycle. It’s little more than a “hope”, you can be sure. But you CAN be sure that if the Republicans win, they will fight to make sure the cycle NEVER gets broken.
Republican stratagy for the past thirty years or so has been to deprive any group which supports Democrats of it’s financial base.
That’s why they’ve been attacking plaintiff’s lawyers and contingent fees for so many years. Sure, rich Republicans benefit if it’s harder to sue companies they own commit fraud, take undue advantage of customers, or outright kill or maim them from their products. But the more direct benefit is that Plaintiff’s lawyers won’t have as much money to contribute towards Democratic nominees.
Likewise, why should they care about public employee unions? Because they contribute mostly to Democratic nominees. Cut the union off at the knees, and there is no group which can counter the large corporate contributions to Republican candidates.
I say that we should adopt this strategy when dealing with Wall Street. Tax their profits, and cap their executive’s salaries. Make sure any payments to lobbying firms is non-deductable. Place an extra “head” tax on each lobbiest they employee. That should equalize things a bit.
Well, we’ve all known that the Koch brothers were pulling the strings on the Cain campaign. But Cain’s statements today still surpised me:
Cain: ‘I’m very proud to know the Koch brothers’ (my ephasis added)
Well, my guess is that the Koch brothers view him as a “useful tool”, not a “brother” with equal status. They might even be a little offended by Cain making the equivilency.
But maybe Cain just realizes he made a mistake by not being up front about the recent sexual harrassment scandal, so he’s going to handle this one by admitting it up front.
@21 Anyone who thinks the Koch brothers take all of our best interests to heart should vote for Herman Cain, the Koch-embedded candidate.
Cain’s candidacy is kind of like the Apprentice running for president as a stalking horse for The Donald.
How Banks Rob The Poor And Unemployed
“In 41 states major banks and financial firms have secured contracts to provide access to public benefits via prepaid debit cards. And banks are increasingly extracting hefty cuts of these funds through an assortment of small fees. U.S. Bank, JP Morgan Chase, Wells Fargo, Bank of America and other institutions hold contracts to distribute these benefits on prepaid debit cards.”
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/.....f=business
Roger Rabbit Commentary: That’s right, in the vast majority of states, the poor and unemployed can’t access their welfare or unemployment benefits without paying a bank to give them the money the government gave them for their basic subsistence. That’s how far corporate greed has gone in this country. Believe me, the Occupy movement isn’t a flash in the pan; tens of millions of ordinary Americans are fed up with corporate greed and abuse.
Even the rich are fed up with Wall Street and banksters.
http://www.dailyfinance.com/20.....ll-street/
Herman Cain is really a piece of work:
“Cain also embraced his friendship and ideological alliance with David and Charles Koch, the billionaire businessmen who have helped grow the tea party and founded Americans for Prosperity.
“The Koch brothers are my brothers from another mother!” Cain boomed to an enormous convention hall filled with conservative activists from across the nation, who laughed, cheered and rose to their feet several times during his brief speech.”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/.....ory_1.html
Speaking of corporate greed, a Yakima fruit packer allegedly made North Carolina schoolkids sick by reprocessing and repackaging moldy applesauce:
“A Washington state fruit processor that supplies the nation’s schools and a baby food maker is under scrutiny by federal health regulators for repackaging applesauce contaminated with several kinds of potentially dangerous, multi-colored molds ….
“Food and Drug Administration officials this week posted a warning letter to Snokist Growers of Yakima, Wash., saying the company cannot ensure the safety of moldy applesauce and fruit puree that has been reconditioned for human consumption. …
“Products recalled earlier this year by Snokist were blamed for illnesses of nine North Carolina children who became sick after eating applesauce at school.”
http://vitals.msnbc.msn.com/_n.....h-supplier
Roger Rabbit Commentary: I think we should each buy a case of this crap and give it to our wingnut friends who think government regulation of private businesses is a bad thing … um, nah, on second thought I can’t do that; their kids can’t help it that their parents are wingnuts.
But they’d never show it. White man’s burden.
Do the Koch Bros. ever show themselves at these political confabs? I guess they do. David Koch was reportedly in attendance at that speech.
Charles is a strange one. David is the lumbering, social-climbing reformed playboy (with stunning trophy wife and kids to show for it) and Charles is the severe buttoned-down businessman.. I don’t know if he ever shows up at anything beyond the exclusive invitees-only get-togethers at exclusive resorts.
You’ve got to read this:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/.....the-banker
# 28: Curious, I checked online to see what David Kock’s wife looked like using Google Image search. I quickly found the picture in this article:
David & Julia Kock
But I read the first couple of pages of the article, which included a near-death encounter he had in an airplane crash. Portions of it were rather disturbing:
Yea, I know that nobody really knows how they are going to react in an emergency like that. But when your first instinct is to beat an elderly couple to the emergency exit, something is seriously wrong with your priorities.
Of course, just about everything the GOP candidates say in a debate is a lie, but this highlights just a couple of points. Surprisingly, only Michele Bachman is closest to the reality:
The myths of Obamacare in GOP campaign
I think this is priceless
Union haters whine about lack of Democratic National Convention work
Shorter: “We hate you, and want do everything to destroy you…but hey, don’t not hire us!”
@32
Awesome.
@30 That wasn’t David’s only skirmish with the Grim Reaper. He also nearly died of cancer. I’d say it’s a pretty safe bet that what makes him tick is pretty similar to what motivates Paul Allen–if you’ve survived something like that and you have a lot of resources, you’re stuck with the unavoidable awareness that you don’t have an infinite amount of time to do something with all that.
Mind you, I’m not suggesting that I think either of them is doing what you or I or anyone else might do under similar circumstances.
As to what motivates Herman Cain, on the other hand…all evidence is that the man is simply a fucking idiot.
@7 What Washington State needs, first and foremost, is for Tim Eyman to brush his teeth with super glue.
Ahhh. Love those right wing family values:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/.....via=blog_1
A right wing deadbeat dad in arrears to the tune of $117,000..
What a “patriot”.. I guess to a wingnut it’s excusable if the ex leans liberal and “irreconcilable differences” are over said ex refusing to vote to hubby’s dictates.
@14 You wonder why the only riots so far as the police rioting against peaceful protesters. In a rational scheme of things it would be the other way around.
@30 Geez, she looks only 40 years younger than him. For $22.5 billion, you’d think he could buy a 12-year-old from Thailand.
Fun Facts About David Koch
“David Koch (pronounced ‘coke’) is now New York’s richest man, passing Mayor Bloomberg, and the fifth richest man in America, as he and his brother Charles each gained $5.5 billion of wealth over the past year to bring their total to $21.5 billion each. …
“Americans for Prosperity, the conservative non-profit founded by Koch, put at least $45 million dollars into the 2010 midterm elections ….
“In 2008 Koch’s young wife Julia, a former fashion assistant 23 years younger than Koch, debuted on Vanity Fair’s international best-dressed list.
“From 1998 to 2008, Koch-controlled foundations gave out $196 million, much of it to conservative causes and institutions. This does not include $50 million in Koch Industries lobbying or $4 million in campaign contributions.
“Koch Industries has lead all other energy companies in political contributions every year since 2006 and has spent more money on congressional lobbyists than any other energy company since 1989. Koch Industries has been labeled the tenth largest air polluter in the United States ….
“Koch Industries and the Koch family are the largest funders of climate science denying organizations in the world, spending nearly $50 million dollars. Koch is pro-global warming, whether it is caused by humans or not, claiming it would allow the earth to feed more people. …
“The brothers’ combined wealth is only surpassed in the US by Bill Gates and Warren Buffett. … David is considered the principal bankroller, the sugar daddy if you will, of the anti-climate science lobby, the Tea Party movement, and assorted libertarian causes.
“Today, David is executive vice president and co-owner, with his brother Charles, of Koch Industries, the second largest privately held company in the US, employing 70,000 people in 60 countries and dealing primarily with oil and gas but also with business as diverse as cattle, chemicals, paper, and commodity trading, and products from Dixie Cups, Quilted Northern paper towels to Lycra.
“His father was a founding member of the radically rightwing John Birch Society, infamous for its paranoia about government regulation and fear of Communist infiltration, and wrote admiringly of Mussolini’s suppression of Italian communists and disparagingly of the American civil rights movement. David has since said that his father taught him at a young age that big government was dangerous and that governmental controls and regulations were detrimental to the economy and society. …
“In 1980 Koch … as the vice presidential candidate for the Libertarian Party …. Calling for the abolition of the FBI, CIA, SEC, Department of Energy, Social Security, public schools, minimum wage laws, gun control and all personal and corporate income taxes, and the legalization of prostitution, drugs, and suicide, they received 1.06% of the vote. The traditional conservative William F. Buckley Jr. referred to their movement as ‘Anarcho-Totalitarianism’.
“After this failed campaign, the Koch brothers began to regard politicians as merely ‘actors playing out a script’ and decided to put their vast resources into the sectors where the themes and words for these scripts are generated. They stepped up their influence of the ‘areas where policy ideas percolate from’ and have together ‘AstroTurfed’ dozens of rightwing think tanks, attack groups and publications. This ideological network has recently been dubbed ‘The Kochtopus’. …
Here are some examples of the Koch family’s political spending. In 1977 Charles Koch founded the Cato Institute …. Cato now has over a hundred full-time employees and has been particularly active in attacking regulations meant to combat global warming. Koch has also funded the Heritage Foundation to this end, as well as more obscure groups like the Independent Women’s Forum, run by a former Koch Industries lobbyist, which challenges the teaching of global warming as a scientific fact in American schools.
“Koch founded and financed group Citizens for a Sound Economy, created in 1984 and active in lobbying against basically all government regulation, but particularly environmental legislation and the Environmental Protection Agency. … In 1990 the group created a spinoff called Concerned Citizens for the Environment that was created to fight legislation meant to deal with acid rain. Critics claimed the group was completely steered from the top down and had zero citizen membership. In 1994 it was ‘rented’ by Phillip Morris and the tobacco industry to organize a campaign against tobacco industry regulations.
“Koch gave $800,000 to Bush and Republicans in the 2000 election …. Bush would later appoint Koch Industries and Citizens for a Sound Economy lobbyists into key environmental positions.
“In 2004 … Koch founded the conservative non-profit Americans for Prosperity. The group has provided funding and training to the Tea Party movement. Americans for Prosperity put at least $45 million dollars into the 2010 midterm elections, giving more money to House candidates than any other organization, and gave generously to many Republican Senate candidates as well. …
“Koch himself has been forthright about his family’s influence on these groups: ‘If we’re going to give a lot of money, we’ll make darn sure they spend it in a way that goes along with our intent. And if they make a wrong turn and start doing things we don’t agree with, we withdraw funding.'”
http://www.cwa1180.org/Politic.....dKoch.aspx
Roger Rabbit Commentary: It’s hard to find any parallel in history of two indivdiuals who are so rich, and so blatantly use their enormous financial and corporate power, to exert so much influence over the political life of a nation. The Koch brothers literally are trying to buy the United States Government and make it a wholly-subordinate subsidiary of Koch Industries.
@39 My bad, she’s only 23 years younger.
David Koch was quite the stud on the court.
He shot hoops for MIT and his single game scoring record of 41 points in ’62 was only beaten in 2009.
Well, we’re talking MIT here – not known for its sports.
I heard that China’s trying to get their little, yellow, commie, hands on a nuclear bomb.
Cain and the Koch Bros. aren’t interested in Democracy, they seem to think the rules only apply to “the little people” and being rich or the boss means you can do what ever you want. Kinda just like it was back in the days of feudal Europe.
They’re in for one hell of a wake-up call.
43 – The pro-blem with yo an-al-i-sis is that it is in-COR-RE-ct..
@43 The problem with nukular bombs is they’re only good for threatening countries that don’t have them, and after everybody has them, they’ll be completely useless.
Why you never hear me complain about all the troops Presidents Bush and Obama have put on the Mexican border.
Mexico’s a failed state fighting a civil war with its home-brew mafias. It’s a good idea to guard that border. Hell, maybe we should put more troops down there.
Mexico’s largest legitimate money maker, by a large shot, is its oil production. Here’s a nice graph that shows what their production looks like:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F.....uction.PNG
And here it is in written form:
OH NOES! PEPPER SPRAY!