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Bode Miller

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I was watching the nooz and the episode of Bode Miller was aired.  Christin Cooper repeatedly asked him about his dead brother until he began to cry.  She didn’t just ask him once and let it go…but kept bringing it up until she got what she wanted–him breaking down in tears in what should have been  a private moment.  For shame.

Bode was interviewed later and was defending this callous behavior, saying it was her job to push and get the reaction.  Bullshit.  Reporters need to push when a leader or public figure is hiding the truth—not athletes who lost a brother to seizures.  That’s just cold and unnecessary.  As a viewer, I don’t want to see someone in distress by being badgered by a reporter.  That’s not journalism, but sensationalism.

U of Illinois faculty on strike ** edited

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Fred Klonsky has a picture blog up on the U of Illinois at Chicago faculty strike.  I hope he’ll provide more details as it goes…

**edited:  Fred wrote about it last week.  Link.

People don’t understand that faculty are not making the big $$$.  When I graduated in 2000, the new hires (assistant professors) were making a whopping $25,000.  This while the university was funneling money into athletics.

The case against Hillary Clinton as President

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Ralph Nader has this up on the actions of Hillary Clinton and why she would not be a good President.  I heart Ralph and wrote his name on a ballot once, along with 26 other souls in my republican stronghold small town.

…former Secretary of State Clinton ordered U.S. officials to spy on top UN diplomats including Secretary General of the UN, Ban Ki-Moon, and those from the United Kingdom. She ordered her emissaries around the world to obtain DNA data, iris scans and fingerprints along with credit card and frequent flier numbers. Not only was this a clear violation of the 1946 UN convention, but after admitting what happened she didn’t even make a public apology to the affected parties.

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Big Brother, meet Big Sister…of course Hillary would not make an apology….she clearly feels she did nothing wrong.  Stunning.  Absolutely stunning the hubris of this politician.

Nader also notes her actions getting us into Libya with no Congressional approval.

Like I’ve said before, I’m sick of Bushes and Clintons in the White House.  They have come to believe they are entitled to the position, for one.  For another, their policies, along with Ronald Reagan, have led this country into the pit it is in now.  How anyone could vote for her or support her after the revelations of what she has done is beyond me.

Nader links to the Nixon and Kissinger article in the NY Times, as Hillary Clinton is best buds with Henry Kissinger.  Another article on Kissinger and Nixon here with more details.

If you recall, he was in the I’m-not-running-for-president video of Hillary Clinton, along with Benjamin Netanyahu:

…and Tony Blair..? Of the Downing Street Memo…?

Yes, yes, he is yet another example of ethics and humanity. /snark

 

 

The NSA uses intelligence to interfere with trade

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Well, now, just when you think things can’t get any worse with the NSA…they continually amaze one with their lack of ethics.

Liaison officials asked the NSA general counsel’s office, on behalf of the Australians, for guidance about the spying. The bulletin notes only that the counsel’s office “provided clear guidance” and that the Australian eavesdropping agency “has been able to continue to cover the talks, providing highly useful intelligence for interested U.S. customers,” according to the Times story.

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…and the question of the hour is…would any of this come to light if Edward Snowdon had not brought it to light?

And yet another example why we need diversity in media.  The whistleblowers of the world will not get a chance to be heard if media continues to be consolidated into a few privileged hands….

It’s snowing again….what to do…

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…when the kids are driving you crazy:

1. Throw a blanket over a card table for a “house” or a “fort”. Or, if you don’t have a card table, put sturdy string between two points and throw a blanket over that for a tent.

2.  Play hide and seek (this works better if your house is big).

3.  Have a scavenger hunt by hiding items around the house and giving each kid a list of things to find.

4.  Back in the days of hardwood floors, my brothers and sisters and I would sit on pillows and fly down our stairs.  We had a blast and it would occupy us for hours.

5.  Play charades.

6.  When my kids were really little, I used to put them in our empty laundry baskets and push them around the house as fast as I could go, making car noises as I went. They loved it and ole’ Mom got some exercise.

7.  Encourage them to put on a talent show.

8.  A deck of cards or box of crayons and blank paper are always welcome.

Okay…that’s all I can remember right now…if I think of any more, I’ll be back.

Video segments of Kochs Exposed

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Here are snippets of the documentary on the grip the Kochs have on policy.  It’s truly heartening what happened in Wake County, a southern area, and how they were not willing to go backward.

Also, this documentary leaves out the Gates Foundation and Eli Broad and the Walton family’s influence on destroying public education…just wanted to note that important piece of this pie.

 

 

Kochs Exposed: one of the most important films…

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…you will ever see is here.

It is just mindboggling how the Koch brothers have their tentacles in every aspect of society: union busting, voting rights, livable wages, social security, corporate taxes, healthcare, etc….

Not only that, but equally troubling is how easily Congress and politicians can be bought.

They are more than willing to endorse the racist ideas of the Kochs by a stealth way of re-segregating schools, interfering with one’s right to vote, and dumping toxins in poor and black neighborhoods.  The only thing missing from this documentary is how BP is right there with Koch and will most likely accept the petcoke byproduct of tar sands at the Whiting, Indiana refineries.  Indiana always seems to get lost in the concerns of pollution.

Another troubling aspect of this documentary is how Ed Shultz is featured as being against the Kochs, but he is for XL pipeline….which the Kochs are behind!  One can only wonder how much the Kochs have paid to MSNBC or to Shultz (which I would find it hard to believe, but Kochs seem to go on the belief that everyone has a price…and they only need to find out what that price tag is…)  since Ed has changed his tune, and the Kochs are known for greasing palms to buy people’s silence or worse, it’s not without merit to question if they have paid somebody off to get Ed to promote the pipeline.

I’m glad, however, to say that some of us care about the environment and our health and our children’s health and are resistant to this dirty money…

 

Corporate Welfare

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So…when the corporations, and their toadies in Congress, are spewing forth the lie that corporations pay too much in taxes, inhibiting job growth, you can cite this.

S&P 500 members citing effective tax rates of 0% in past twelve months, ranked by market value (in billions):

Verizon: $146.4

MetLife: $53.9

Eaton: $32.7

Regeneron Pharmaceuticals: $29.6

Public Storage: $29.5

Ventas: $19.3

Avalonbay Communities: $17.4

Agilent Technologies: $16.9

Vornado Realty Trust: $16.8

Boston Properites: $16.7

Seagate Technology: $15.9

Broadcom: $15.7

News Corp.: $9.8

Lam Research: $8.8

Kimco Realty: $8.6

Waters: $8.5

Macerich: $8.3

Plum Creek Timber: $8.4

PulteGroup: $6.4

Apartment Investment & Management: $4.3

Perkin Elmer: $4.2

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Story here on paying a living wage…why can Costco pay a living wage and be successful..? Because the owners are not looking to be super-rich like the Waltons…

Well, this is different…dancers disrupt protest

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Well, you have to hand it to them–the Vietnamese gov’t deployed ballroom dancers to disrupt Vietnamese folks from laying wreaths and chanting anti-China slogans.

The protesters were marking the 35th anniversary of a bloody border war between China and Vietnam, where anger over Beijing’s increasingly assertive territorial claims on islands in the South China Sea that Hanoi insists belong to it is already running high.

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Instead of using guns and armed forces, they use…dancers.