Hey Erwin Listen up

Get out the history books, this is Howard Zinns 'History as a weapon'

Chapter 1: Columbus, The Indians, and Human Progress

Arawak men and women, naked, tawny, and full of wonder, emerged from their villages onto the island's beaches and swam out to get a closer look at the strange big boat. When Columbus and his sailors came ashore, carrying swords, speaking oddly, the Arawaks ran to greet them, brought them food, water, gifts. He later wrote of this in his log:

They ... brought us parrots and balls of cotton and spears and many other things, which they exchanged for the glass beads and hawks' bells. They willingly traded everything they owned... . They were well-built, with good bodies and handsome features.... They do not bear arms, and do not know them, for I showed them a sword, they took it by the edge and cut themselves out of ignorance. They have no iron. Their spears are made of cane... . They would make fine servants.... With fifty men we could subjugate them all and make them do whatever we want.

These Arawaks of the Bahama Islands were much like Indians on the mainland, who were remarkable (European observers were to say again and again) for their hospitality, their belief in sharing. These traits did not stand out in the Europe of the Renaissance, dominated as it was by the religion of popes, the government of kings, the frenzy for money that marked Western civilization and its first messenger to the Americas, Christopher Columbus.

Columbus wrote:

As soon as I arrived in the Indies, on the first Island which I found, I took some of the natives by force in order that they might learn and might give me information of whatever there is in these parts.

Today our people are united with the Occupy Wall Street around the country and this is their statement;

  The indigenous platform calls for recognition of Indigenous Peoples right to self-determination, the repeal of the papal bull Inter Caetera (1493), and the repeal of the Columbus Day holiday among other items.

In Memory

I could not tell you 'He was one of you.'

More than likely too why you don't see this in network news programs, the story is dead there. On link tv, democracy now, Rachel Maddow, and others.

Some history first and search on this blog for "The Family" for more I have written about.


Part One


Part Two

More...

Information you need to know if you are conservative cultural type 'Christian'

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

I wonder what the 'Family' has done to influence the ethical wrongs being done by our own Air Force, read about this and see what you think, I will be glad to discuss.




Sex and power inside "the C Street House" 



I will let Democracy Now's Amy Goodman tell you who killed all those innocent people in Norway.

Talk to Action has more .... and more

Woe

starving turtles

States Shortchange The Unemployed With Junk Debit Card Fees: Study

Tennessee stands out for having the card with the most "junk fees," the study says. Tennessee's card, provided by JPMorgan Chase, charges $1 for initial ATM withdrawals, 40 cents for balance inquiries, and 25 cents whenever someone swipes the card at checkout. It's one of just four states that doesn't provide even one free ATM withdrawal per deposit.

Tennessee doesn't think its card's fees are junk.

"I’m not sure calling them 'junk fees' is a fair statement," said Jeff Hentschell, a spokesman for the Tennessee Department of Workforce Development, which distributes Tennessee Automated Payment cards for jobless benefits. "When you look at the context of where we were and where we are today, the fees are actually minimal compared to where people were going to cash paper checks before."

Indeed: The NCLC study itself points out that for people without bank accounts, "getting cash from a UC prepaid card will usually be cheaper than paying a check casher to cash a paper check."

Roe, GOP are peddling snake oil

Rep. Phil Roe is selling snake oil by comparing vouchers to his benefits since most seniors don’t have his retirement income. Congress members, who are mostly wealthy, can draw full pension at age 62 after just five years of service, at age 50 with 20 years service, as compared to the average senior whose retirement consists mostly of Social Security. Under the GOP plan, seniors would have high premiums, high deductibles, no guarantee of coverage, and no guarantee of a Social Security check, since this plan also begins the privatization of Social Security. They’re guaranteed the possibility of running out of voucher money before the year is up, with the result of no health care at all. They also say those of us over 55 shouldn’t be concerned since it won’t affect us, assuming this will pacify seniors. They would be wrong.

No one should be thrown to the wolves so for-profit insurance companies can make millions off senior citizens, whether it’s now or 50 years from now. This profit motive is the real reason behind this roadmap. Their claim of saving Medicare is belied by the $4 trillion in tax cuts they want to give millionaires and corporations.

Here’s a simple plan to reduce the deficit, though reducing debt is certainly a new concern to GOP members, who took a balanced budget and ran up trillions on the credit card. Roll back the Bush millionaire tax cuts, end subsidies for record-profit oil companies, raise the income cap on SS payments, allow anyone that wants to sign on the option of buying into Medicare (Medicare currently consists only of old and sick people, guaranteeing financial problems) and end the wars. Also, let’s cut back on congressional pensions and medical plans. Give them a taste of their own snake oil.

Mary Acito

Kingsport

Wonder; I second that, Give them a taste of their own snake oil. I've also wondered why John A Boehner seemed to use his emotions as a political tool, he is sincerely crying for himself I believe is his emotional crisis.

Critical Letter by Catholics Cites Boehner on Policies

By LAURIE GOODSTEIN

Published: May 11, 2011

[snip-it]

More than 75 professors at Catholic University and other prominent Catholic colleges have written a pointed letter to Mr. Boehner saying that the Republican-supported budget he shepherded through the House will hurt the poor, the elderly and the vulnerable, and that he therefore has failed to uphold basic Catholic moral teachings.

“Mr. Speaker, your voting record is at variance from one of the church’s most ancient moral teachings,” the letter says. “From the apostles to the present, the magisterium of the church has insisted that those in power are morally obliged to preference the needs of the poor. Your record in support of legislation to address the desperate needs of the poor is among the worst in Congress. This fundamental concern should have great urgency for Catholic policy makers. Yet, even now, you work in opposition to it.”

The letter writers criticize Mr. Boehner’s support for a budget that cut financing for Medicare, Medicaid and the Women, Infants and Children nutrition program, while granting tax cuts to the wealthy and corporations. They call such policies “anti-life,” a particularly biting reference because the phrase is usually applied to politicians and others who support the right to abortion.

Michael Steel, a spokesman for Mr. Boehner, responded by e-mail: “The speaker will be delivering a personal, nonpolitical message at the Catholic University of America that he hopes will speak to all members of the graduating class, regardless of their backgrounds or affiliations. He is deeply honored to have been invited by C.U.A. to address the school’s graduating class, and is looking forward to receiving an honorary degree from the only Catholic college in our country that is chartered by Catholic bishops.”

Wonder

Let’s all unf*ck it up!

Did you?

Has BP Really Cleaned Up the Gulf Oil Spill? [update]


!

What is in OUR water

NFS again, ISS tells me what my government wants to hide from me ...

For example, the typical ratio of Uranium-235 to Uranium-238 found in nature is 0.00725, but the ratio in Nolichucky sediment and water is 0.015. Ketterer's team also found that mollusks in Davy Crockett Lake, a popular fishing spot on the Nolichucky, show uranium signatures that matched those in the water.

The concentrations of enriched uranium that Ketterer found are low and do not exceed federal drinking water standards. But as Ketterer pointed out during a press conference last week, the federal water discharge permit for NFS says the facility is not supposed to be releasing any enriched uranium.

Ketterer presented his findings to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) last week during a public hearing about a proposed 40-year license renewal for the NFS facility, the Greeneville Sun reported.
...
In 2006, there was a leak of highly enriched uranium from the NFS plant. In response, the NRC issued an order modifying the company's special nuclear materials license that cited a "deficient safety culture" at the facility, the Knoxville News-Sentinel reported in 2007.

The order detailed six instances in 2005 and 2006 in which NFS personnel violated NRC regulations. The spill itself resulted in eight separate violations, including failure to notify NRC in a timely manner, and failure to meet safety requirements for a criticality accident, which could lead to the release of a deadly amount of radiation.

In 2006, the NFS facility also failed to meet performance requirements in an exercise designed to test a plant's response to an attack, and there were three instances in 2005 and 2006 where the company failed to secure special nuclear material.

NFS is a subsidiary of the Charlotte, N.C.-based Babcock and Wilcox Co., which provides design, engineering, construction and management services for nuclear power plants.

via common dreams

BP coffee spill video

BPA

Published on Sunday, November 8, 2009 by the New York Times

Chemicals in Our Food, and Bodies

by Nicholas D. Kristof

Your body is probably home to a chemical called bisphenol A, or BPA. It's a synthetic estrogen that United States factories now use in everything from plastics to epoxies - to the tune of six pounds per American per year [1]. That's a lot of estrogen.
More than 92 percent [2] of Americans have BPA in their urine, and scientists have linked it - though not conclusively - to everything from breast cancer to obesity, from attention deficit disorder to genital abnormalities in boys and girls alike.
Now it turns out it's in our food.
Consumer Reports magazine tested [3] an array of brand-name canned foods for a report in its December issue and found BPA in almost all of them. The magazine says that relatively high levels turned up, for example, in Progresso vegetable soup, Campbell's condensed chicken noodle soup, and Del Monte Blue Lake cut green beans.
The magazine also says it found BPA in the canned liquid version of Similac Advance infant formula (but not in the powdered version) and in canned Nestlé Juicy Juice (but not in the juice boxes). The BPA in the food probably came from an interior coating used in many cans.
Should we be alarmed?
The chemical industry doesn't think so. Steven Hentges of the American Chemistry Council [4] dismissed the testing, noting that Americans absorb quantities of BPA at levels that government regulators have found to be safe. Mr. Hentges also pointed to a new study [5] indicating that BPA exposure did not cause abnormalities in the reproductive health of rats.
But more than 200 other studies have shown links between low doses of BPA and adverse health effects, according to the Breast Cancer Fund [6], which is trying to ban the chemical from food and beverage containers.
"The vast majority of independent scientists - those not working for industry - are concerned about early-life low-dose exposures to BPA," said Janet Gray, a Vassar College professor who is science adviser to the Breast Cancer Fund.
Published journal articles [7] have found that BPA given to pregnant rats or mice can cause malformed genitals in their offspring, as well as reduced sperm count among males. For example, a European journal found that male mice exposed to BPA were less likely to make females pregnant, and the Journal of Occupational Health found that male rats administered BPA had less sperm production and lower testicular weight.
This year, the journal Environmental Health Perspectives found that pregnant mice exposed to BPA had babies with abnormalities in the cervix, uterus and vagina. Reproductive Toxicology found that even low-level exposure to BPA led to the mouse equivalent of early puberty for females. And an array of animal studies link prenatal BPA exposure to breast cancer and prostate cancer.
While most of the studies are on animals, the Journal of the American Medical Association reported last year that humans with higher levels of BPA in their blood have "an increased prevalence of cardiovascular disease, diabetes and liver-enzyme abnormalities." Another published study found that women with higher levels of BPA in their blood had more miscarriages.
Scholars have noted some increasing reports of boys born with malformed genitals, girls who begin puberty at age 6 or 8 or even earlier, breast cancer in women and men alike, and declining sperm counts among men. The Endocrine Society, an association of endocrinologists, warned this year that these kinds of abnormalities may be a consequence of the rise of endocrine-disrupting chemicals, and it specifically called on regulators to re-evaluate BPA.
Last year, Canada became the first country to conclude that BPA can be hazardous to humans, and Massachusetts issued a public health advisory in August warning against any exposure to BPA by pregnant or breast-feeding women or by children under the age of 2.
The Food and Drug Administration, which in the past has relied largely on industry studies - and has generally been asleep at the wheel - is studying the issue again [8]. Bills are also pending [9] in Congress to ban BPA from food and beverage containers.
"When you have 92 percent of the American population exposed to a chemical, this is not one where you want to be wrong," said Dr. Ted Schettler of the Science and Environmental Health Network. "Are we going to quibble over individual rodent studies, or are we going to act?"
While the evidence isn't conclusive, it justifies precautions. In my family, we're cutting down on the use of those plastic containers that contain BPA to store or microwave food, and I'm drinking water out of a metal bottle now. In my reporting around the world, I've come to terms with the threats from warlords, bandits and tarantulas. But endocrine disrupting chemicals - they give me the willies.

© 2009 New York Times

Real staging, Fake News

by way of mediamatters.org





thanks Megan Tady

Bees, Bears

The Bees, the Bears, better listen

Who knew? who Verizon's Friends and Family really were

My cell phone company will soon no longer be providing cell phone services. I've not even begun to 'shop around' but already one is off my list, Verizon Wireless. Sprint might as well be harmful to the environment in some aspect of them doing business, green cell phones who's got em?

time to change "friends and family" selections
Verizon sponsors climate-change-denying mountaintop-removal rally?

Verizon Wireless needs to reconsider its “Friends and Family” feature—or, more pointedly, withdraw its support for Massey Energy’s outrageously bogus “Friends of America” rally on Labor Day weekend.

Do 87 million Verizon Wireless customers, stockholders, and its Public Policy Development and Corporate Responsibility Department know that their company is a cosponsor of next week’s climate change–denying, union-busting, pro–mountaintop removal rally organized by Massey Energy in Logan, W.Va.? (And what about Greenebaum Doll and McDonald, “a top 200 trademark law firm”—perhaps the rally’s most odd sponsor?)

Does the Environmental Defense Fund, which recognized Verizon’s Green Initiatives—to save energy, support solar and other renewable-energy sources, and lower its greenhouse-gas emissions—know that Verizon Wireless is sponsoring an event at which the featured speaker is Lord Christopher Monckton, a former science adviser to former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and one of the most infamous global-warming deniers?

On its Green Press Kit site, Verizon claims, “Environmental stewardship is ingrained in Verizon’s heritage, and the company prides itself on having a positive influence on the environment in which it operates.” The page links to info on solar-energy and energy-efficiency measures undertaken by various offices.

Does Verizon know that 500 mountains have been destroyed, historic communities devastated, and watersheds polluted by mountaintop removal—and that Massey Energy has worked aggressively to not only wipe out our nation’s carbon sink of deciduous forests in Appalachia, but also any attempts at renewable energy and development in the region? Read about Massey’s role in strip-mining the last ridge on Coal River Mountain and impeding an incredible wind farm.

Do the Communications Workers of America, who represent Verizon technicians, know that the bogus “Friends of America” rally is a blatant anti-union event aimed at taking down the 70th annual United Mine Workers of America picnic, and that Massey Energy is defiantly anti-union?

So why is Verizon sponsoring this pro–mountaintop removal rally on a strip-mine site? Does Verizon support Massey Energy’s ruthless mountaintop-removal campaign and its infamous CEO Don Blankenship? Check out this ABC News report on Blankenship’s campaign to bankroll the West Virginia courts:

During their 4th quarter 2008 earnings call last spring, Massey Energy executives crowed that “2008 was a very exciting and successful year for Massey, by many measures, the most successful in our history. As you know, we undertook a very aggressive expansion plan in late 2007, and our members executed that plan almost to perfection in 2008.” And then, in answering a question about how 2010 guidance could lower production 10 percent and impact the high head count, a Massey executive simply responded with the bottom line of profiteers: “I think the answer would be that we will be able to reduce the workforce with attrition fairly markedly,” and “we also will cut back on salaries.”

Bottom line: Massey Energy profits up, jobs down. Find out more about Massey.

And here’s Lord Monckton:

George Monbiot has thoroughly debunked Monckton’s anti–global warming thesis

Verizon should withdraw its sponsorship of this bogus rally immediately—or explain its support of mountaintop removal, climate-change denial, and union-busting to its 87 million customers.

Call or text or email Verizon Wireless corporate leaders and let them know. CEO Dennis Strigl can be emailed at Dennis.Strigl@verizonwireless.com. Verizon HQ is here:

1 Verizon Way
Basking Ridge, NJ 07920-1097
(908) 559-7000

Jeff Biggers is the American Book Award-winning author of The United States of Appalachia, and In the Sierra Madre. His next book, Reckoning at Eagle Creek: The Secret Legacy of Coal in the Heartland, is forthcoming in January 2010 (The Nation/Basic Books). His website is: www.jeffbiggers.com

The use of a religious label when referencing a group of people, in an area or region even continent is to me like reference labels of race to associate with a typical social behavior. But when within certain boarders define to the world when the reference points to you and yours. When strife is plumped and spiced with strife again, marinated so as to mellow the wild rarely heard click of the Iraqi Oil meter that counts the drops that drain, as with blood.

I believe in things, I have faith for example that using combinations of methods of science will tell us clues and answers to mysterious natural phenomenon. In analysis of energy in our own forces of nature we found to be true, intelligible applications of science and technology for an apatite to digest for the common knowledge. Apply these combinations of sciences to for example to the appearance of the mysterious hexagon shape and how the dynamics of Saturn's rotation, weather and magnetic fields play and form a geometric correct hexagon. Then again what determines the elliptical or spherical or wobbly shapes to stellar bodies. Through the chaos of interaction of these natural forces there is logical expressions or results. What better argument for a logical analytical creator, the natural order to storm is prime and with twice the reason, to create a visible real result from changing or maintaining of all the variables. There is the math, the physics, and geology that can define to almost certainty if the magnetic fields invisible expanding outward from stellar bodies that illustrate our gravitational fields mapped do revel spirals with ridges like conch shells form. perhaps hollow like tubes, perhaps much more. perhaps you want only to accept the simpler explanation instead of learning such advanced math as 'combinatorics' or nuclear science much less can you grasp basic geology, so you go with creationist but wait this is morphing into something other, fast like too. I also believe flower pedals illustrate the math of nature, or even better just signal in the symmetry that there is logic in chaos, that there is rule of kingdom after all, but it is very presumptuous that we would even pretend that it is driven by emotion. Storms form the anger of. Science can define this storm in much further detail and with no emotional blurs. Observance and study are actions of witness to. When the sciences and technology define even to to the point of recreation, the power exhibits and resembles that claimed only of gods. Like cloning, smaller natural structures than entire planets and solar systems. But the power and ability to create is possessed by man. In cultures around the world today these methods to define our world around us is frown on by many religious folk who just don't want to bother with learning the language and probably do not want to come off dumb, an emotion guides this desire. They leave it short, and feel perfectly comfortable taking a stubborn foothold, a strike to think no more for themselves than that. 'Won't be bothered' is a hell of world away from 'you can't either' emotional expression. Even the next sentence they may express sometimes with great pride of signature, seek and you shall find and it ain't simple or easy to follow.

Sleepless?

I am posting here more because I won't work in my wood shop taking pain meds. Might be why I can not sleep, I can not stand the nausea that comes with the meds so no longer taking them. Also pain is bearable now and no longer needed. Normally pain I tolerate very well without medication, but maybe it is age or maybe just the times and my state of mind.

Waking me up about now, reminding me that this is not my diary would be a good thing a good friend would do right now, or an ex screaming shut the hell up. I can't no longer. I have to admit things.

I hate G.W. Bush too, and I hate to hate anyone or anything, but he made me do it. It is his actions, decisions, people, associates, policy, morals yes morals or lack of, and almost everyone that agrees or voted for him, I think I hate all about it, him and these times. No more wondering on this people, I do hate something now. I do admit to that.

You see, I really do not give a big fat rats ass what you might think of me. Before tonight, I did. I wanted you to see an atheist with some morals, some churching, and lots of love. Well the mutter ruckers, all of em, can all go take all that is left of our pride, profits, morals, laws, and more laws, character, justice, international respect, self respect, education, health care, environment, humanity, empathy, on and on endless day after day while night after night war, death, crime, rape, torture, covert ops, black ops, corporate crimes go on and on ON the flip side of this common rock we share [fight over]. It has made me sick.

Yeah analyze, anal-izer-size, analyze .... Then try to figure out how the hell to enjoy such a day as these days. And the sorry low life carpet baggers sons of such, are still there, doing the same ol bullshit of pulling the woo-wool over your dumb shit ass' eyes and you wonder why the fuck you can't afford whatever. Well, I am going to Peru live or die, yep alive or dead in a vase is where I will be, Peru, Machu Pichu (do I have too, ok, sp again or not).

Maybe I should start a blog diary, I have one paper and bound similar to a book written in pen so it needs editing. I will post any disagreeing comments on this or any post I have here, just none about spelling or grammar I know people read words by the shapes mostly, and who knows besides you how to spell, best.

My mind does not work well under the pressures of hate, I do not rant well like the leftwing goddess' and gods, I do not deal with hate it is my creed and when it comes from within it is a battle to keep it well, in control, but I do.

Chris calls me up last night, ask if I have finished the 'Dick Chaney trophy Texas Lawyer Gun Cabinet' yet. I laugh, clear my throat and ask him if he knows what tf I have been through the past week. He wants to be biggest barker to sell it, I told him I might just auction it off to be sent to Mr Dick as just that, a trophy and a statement that I hoped this is all he will ever get out of being vise prez-o-matic-puppet master shotgun slinging errrgh I hate to cuss and fuse. How the hell can any empathetic fool these days talk about life these days with any enjoyment. I guess it began way back when, and it did. The dumbing down of America's biggest resource, it's minds.

Being mean no more, it is over, got something for you to get over it too, the anger, the hate, and the guilt. You got a read this, better than the latenight comedians really this stuff is rolling laughing material to be shared. Like sharing a smile, a simple small response, in thanks for such a damn good laugh. Seriously, I read about the South Carolina bill being up for consideration two days ago I think, I thought to myself what a prime obvious member of the elite chosen to hold government office not by you but by the people behind him, 'the family'. Along with myself these , these , and many more people feel our govie loveless :) loveless govie peeps were complacent or behind 911. Yes America your terrorist is the very people you respect so much for their morals, the very people you trust with your dollar, taxed.

good great day to all take care but rant and raise some sound, dust, voice, get mean really mean cause you haven't a clue how mean they really really are.

Wonder

moma told me not to go