I watched the news today, oh boy...

[BO]

Interesting news day today. Here's a summary:

1. The US plans to shoot down a [supposedly] dying satellite before it spins out of orbit and kills millions. The real news: The US wants to test a new anti-ballistic missile. I'm sure the Russians and Chinese are thrilled.

2. Another college shooting. Hardly news-worthy anymore now that they've become so common. Question is: Has it become too risky to send your kid off to college?

3. The housing market is still fucked. And getting fucked-ter. People walking away from their homes in droves. Prices expected to come down another 25%.

4. The fed was all over the teevee today telling people the economy wasn't doing so well and bond insurers might start to default soon. The real news: Depression on the way. Fasten your seat belts, folks. Oh wait, I forgot about the rebate. Yeah right, that'll save us.

5. And my favorite: All misplaced Katrina folk have to move out of their FEMA trailers due to formaldehyde poisoning--all 35,000 of 'em. How ironic. Gee, I wonder what effect this might have on the mobil home/RV industry? And of course, the lawyers are all over it.

Did I miss anything?

[Mark]

Who Owns Congress?

This is Senator Bernie Sanders. He's not a Democrat or a Republican, he's an Independent from the State of Vermont. He knows who owns Congress--the same folks who stole this country.


The corporations don't give campaign donations to only one party. They don't lobby only one party. They own both parties. But they don't own Bernie Sanders. Not that one lone man in Congress can accomplish anything, but his loyalty is to his constituents, not to corporate donors. The corporations stole this country by controlling Congress. It is the corporations, not the legislators, who write legislation. The corporations also own the White House. Neither party would nominate a Presidential candidate who didn't get the nod of approval from the Trilateral Commission, the Council on Foreign Relations, and Rockefeller's other "policy-making bodies." I put that in quotes because actually Rockefeller makes the policies and the "policy-making bodies" Rockefeller (a previous Rockefeller, I believe) founded just pass along his orders to our government.

Immigration policies are not controlled by immigrants but by corporations who own Congress and want cheap labor. Both parties are beholden to the corporations and do whatever Rockefeller tells them to do. If they didn't, they wouldn't get the corporate campaign donations they need in order to survive. He literally owns them. They're bought and paid for. They are owned by the corporations and they operate on behalf of corporations. The corporations who own this country are the ones who stole this country. If they want more cheap labor here, they order the U.S. to pass Free Trade agreements or to invade other countries or to overthrow democratically elected foreign leaders, so that the people there can be forced off their land and the land given to corporations and the people will have to come here illegally and work for peanuts. If Members of Congress represented their constituents, they would never have passed legislation to reward American companies with taxpayer money for outsourcing American jobs. But they did. And both parties voted for it. They had their marching orders and they had no choice. And hey, they can always blame the victims and some Americans will be dumb enough to believe them.

[waldopaper]

Mark- you know that. I know that. But asking young people (or ANY USAn) to understand "Estate Corporativo" is like asking a goldfish to understand water. For at LEAST two generations... they have never KNOWN anything else. Where does one begin?

To simply tell them directly about "corporate ownership" sounds like "conspiracy theory" and (as Ms. Waldo says) "outer-space shit." I will try putting up this video and see what happens. I suspect the usual snitches and weasels will run to the Dean and complain that I am "biased" and "liberal" and "pushing my liberal agenda" and that it's not "subject-related" (like, "thesis statements" or "signal phrases" or any of that other "academic" muck that has shit to do with nothing).

I could be wrong.

[BO]

I think you're right, Waldo. It's been a slow grind to the bottom--at least 40 years worth. So slow, that only those old enough to remember better days know how rotten things have become.

Use to be paranoia strikes deep. Now it's full-blown Stockholm syndrome. And if you don't have it yet, the screachers will make sure you do.

[Mark]

Bernie's a straight-talker, Waldo, and that suits Vermonters just fine, but would probably sound alien in most other states. Yeah, they'll probably snitch. Straight talk won't sound just alien--it will sound downright illegal alien. ;)

[BO]

Actually, claiming victimization is what we Americans do best. Victims get to relinquish all responsibility for their own predicaments and remain children forever. Growing up is for wimps.

[Mark]

Man, what timing! Here's the latest message from Michael Moore about his new film:

'Capitalism' as Comedy and Tragedy Now Playing in NY and L.A.

Friday, September 25th, 2009

Friends,

The time has arrived for, as Time magazine called it, my "magnum opus." I only had a year of Latin when I was in high school, so I'm not quite sure what that means, but I think it's good.

I've spent nearly two years on this new movie, "Capitalism: A Love Story," and have poured my heart and soul into this project. Many early critics and viewers have called it my "best film yet." That's a hard call for me to make as I'm proud of all of my films -- but I will tell you this: What you are about to see in "Capitalism" is going to stun you. It's going to make some of you angry and I believe it's going to give most of you a new sense of hope that we are going to turn the sick and twisted mess made by the last president around. Oh, and you're going to have a good laugh at the expense of all the banking and corporate criminals who've made out like bandits in the past year.

I'm gonna show you the stuff the nightly news will rarely show you. Ever meet a pilot for American Airlines on food stamps because his pay's been cut so low? Ever meet a judge who gets kickbacks for sending innocent kids to a private prison? Ever meet someone from the Wall Street Journal who bluntly states on camera that he doesn't much care for democracy and that capitalism should be our only ruling concern?

You'll meet all these guys in "Capitalism." You'll also meet a whistleblower who, with documents in hand, tells us about the million-dollar-plus sweetheart loans he approved for the head of Senate Banking Committee -- the very committee that was supposed to be regulating his lending institution! You'll hear from a bank regulator why Timothy Geithner has no business being our Treasury Secretary. And you'll learn, from the woman who heads up the congressional commission charged with keeping an eye on the bailout money, how Alan Greenspan & Co. schemed and connived the public into putting up their inflated valued homes as collateral -- thus causing the biggest foreclosure epidemic in our history.

There is now a foreclosure filed in the U.S. once every seven-and-half SECONDS.

None of this is an accident, and I name the names others seem to be afraid to name, the men who have ransacked the pensions of working people and plundered the future of our kids and grandkids. Somehow they thought they were going to get away with this, that we'd believe their Big Lie that this crash was caused by a bunch of low-income people who took out loans they couldn't afford. Much of the mainstream media bought this storyline. No wonder Wall Street thought they could pull this off.

Jeez, I guess they forgot about me and my crew. You'd think we would've made a better impression on these wealthy thieves by now. Guess not.

So here we come! It's all there, up on the silver screen, two hours of a tragicomedy crime story starring a bunch of vampires who just weren't satisfied with simply destroying Flint, Michigan -- they had to try and see if they
could take down the whole damn country. So come see this cops and robbers movie! The robbers this time wear suits and ties, and the cops -- well, if you're willing to accept a guy in a ballcap with a high school education as a stand-in until the real deal shows up to haul 'em away, then I humbly request your presence at your local cinema this weekend in New York and Los Angeles (and next Friday, October 2nd, all across America).

In the meantime, you can catch us on some of the TV shows that have been brave enough to let me on in the past week or so:

- Nightline (as we take a stroll down Wall Street to Goldman Sachs) ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v3DGDrFZktpv9k )

- Good Morning America (where they let me talk about Disney employees who don't get medical benefits) ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v3DJY1pcoBWp3Q )

- The View (where the Republican co-host told everyone to go see it! Whoa!)
( http://theview.abc.go.com/video/michael-moore )

- The Colbert Report (this guy is a genius, seriously) ( http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/250350/septe... )

- Larry King (where a spokesperson for the Senator who got the sweetheart loans responds for the first time) ( http://edition.cnn.com/2009/SHOWBIZ/Movies/09/24/lkl.michael.moore/... )

- Keith Olberman (where we both wonder just how long these media corps are going to let us get away with what we do) ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v3D0URCqniVTOY )

- Wolf Blitzer (yes, he's back for more abuse - and lovin' it) ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v3DNqRvpBqEgCE )

... And the amazing Jay Leno. This man called me after seeing the movie and asked me to be his only in-studio guest on the second night of his new prime-time show. I said, "Jay, shouldn't you be thinking of your ratings in the first week of the show? Are you sure you didn't misdial Tom Hanks' number (the area code where I live is 231; 213 is LA)?" He told me he was profoundly moved by this film. So I was the guest on his second show, and he told all of America it was my "best film" and to please go see "Capitalism: A Love Story." That was Jay Leno saying that, not Noam Chomsky or Jane Fonda (both of whom I love dearly). The audience responded enthusiastically and, after 20 years of filmmaking, it was a moment where I crossed over deep into the mainstream of middle America. Jay's bosses at General Electric musta been... well, let's just say I hope they didn't place a reprimand in his permanent record. He's one helluva guy (and following the example he set with his free concerts for the unemployed in Michigan and Ohio last spring, I've gotten permission from the studio to do the same with my film in ten of the hardest-hit cities in the U.S. next week).

Oh, and he made me sing! Prepare yourself! ( http://www.thejaylenoshow.com/video/clips/michael-moore-part-2/1157... )

Thanks everyone -- and see you at the movies!

Yours,
Michael Moore
[e-mail]
http://www.michaelmoore.com/

[BO]

Hooray for Michael. Maybe the peeps will be inspired and we'll get to see a few more 'feds' strung up.

[BO]

Bummer. Even more beaners headed to BO's neighborhood. Wonder how many are headed to Canada?

Administration Will Cut Border Patrol Deployed on U.S-Mexico Border

Ought to pass out free condoms as they pass by the border.

[Mark]

And I'll betcha they're foreign robots without work permits.

'Robot' computer to mark English essays

http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2009/sep/25/robots-to-mark-engl...

* Polly Curtis, education editor
* The Guardian, Friday 25 September 2009 00.08 BST

The owner of one of England's three major exam boards is to introduce artificial intelligence-based automated marking of English exam essays in the UK from next month.

Pearson, the American-based parent company of Edexcel, is to use computers to "read" and assess essays for international English tests in a move that has fuelled speculation that GCSEs and A-levels will be next.

All three exam boards are now investing heavily in e-assessment but none has yet perfected a form of marking essays using computers – or "robots" – that it is willing to use in mainstream exams. Academics and leaders in the teaching profession said that using machines to mark papers would create a "disaster waiting to happen".

The Times Educational Supplement (TES) reports today that the Pearson Test of English Academic, an English-­language exam, will launch on 26 October. It includes essay questions and will be used in 20 countries, including the UK, to rate applicants' English skills before they are admitted to university.

Computers have been programmed to scan the papers, recognise the possible right responses and tot up the marks. Pearson claims this will be more accurate than human marking.

John Bangs, head of education at the National Union of Teachers, said that computers could be useful in many areas of assessment but cautioned against their use in English exams: "I'm very concerned that it would constrain the nature of the questions being asked. You won't pick up nuances by machine and it will trigger a trend to answering narrower questions. It could be a disaster waiting to happen."

A Pearson spokesman told the TES that its system produced the accuracy of human markers while eliminating human elements such as tiredness and subjectivity.

Other exam boards said the adoption of computers to mark beyond their current use in multiple choice tests was inevitable. Tim Oates, director of research for Cambridge Assessment, which owns the exam board OCR, said: "It's extremely unlikely that automated systems will not be deployed extensively in educational assessment. The uncertainty is 'when' not 'if'. But all systems need to meet exacting quality criteria and should definitely not be adopted just to make life easier for testing organisations.

"Some approaches look like technology in search of a test, rather than assessment designed to accurately report attainment."

An Edexcel spokesperson said that the board was not planning to use automated marking in mainstream exams such as A-levels and GCSEs. She said that previous trials of the technology in GCSE essay questions had not been expanded.
###
-------------------

Uh-huh. Best way to eliminate tiredness and subjectivity is to eliminate people. The Luddites had it right. Progress and technology doesn't mean a better standard of living--unless you can manage that without a job.

[Mark]

You ain't seen nothing yet, BO.

If the U.S. sponsored military coup that overthrew yet another democratically elected leader and installed yet another right-wing dictator favorable to Rockefeller business interests, is allowed to stand in Honduras, the human rights abuses will increase as they did under Pinochet, the Shah, and every other right-wing dictator the U.S. installed, and you will see hordes of Hondurans fleeing for their lives.

As soon as the current batch of undocumented workers has learned some English and begun to organize, we tighten up the restrictions, and get rid of them. Then we force another military coup so that we can get a new batch to exploit and we lower the restrictions for a few years. When the new batch has learned some English and begin to organize, we repeat the process. This is all done for the benefit of corporations, so that they have have the cheapest possible labor, and our government does not take your interests into account because you don't make billions in campaign donations like big corporations do.

Honduras isn't very far from here. Below Mexico is Guatemala, and then, right next to each other, El Salvador and Honduras. And since the fleeing Hondurans won't find work in Guatemala or Mexico, they'll come here. Yes, they'll risk getting shot at the border, but if they had a chance of not being shot at home, they'd stay home. I'm sure most would prefer to go to Canada, but these are very poor people and it isn't as if they have travel agents and can choose their destinations.

If every single undocumented immigrant was deported tomorrow, BO, do you think there would be more jobs or less crime? San Diego is right next to the Mexican border, but most crime here is committed by gangs, most of whose members were born right here in ghetto housing, military personnel, almost all of whom were born in the USA but happen to be young and committed to violence as a solution to all problems, and, of course, the white collar criminals who rarely get arrested.

I can't imagine a middle class American woman replacing her undocumented housekeeper, maid, or nanny, with an unemployed American woman who would demand minimum wage and not be as obedient and submissive, can you? A lot of farms and factories would close down and move to another country (many already have) if they couldn't use undocumented immigrant labor--why would they hire Americans who won't work as hard, want better pay and working conditions, talk back, and will walk off the job if abused?

[Mark]

I don't have this inm English, but it seems pretty clear. The coup regime has been attacking the Brazilian embassy in Tegucigalpa where Honduran President Zelaya is, using U.S.-provided weapons that are causing the people in the embassy to become ill, and are not allowing doctors or the Red Cross in. That's an act of war and I hope the Brazilian air force bombs Palmerola, the palace where the coup leader is, and the wealthy neighborhoods of Teguc. If Brazil allows its embassy to be attacked, we'll have another Pinochet in Honduras. Fucking fascists.

Alto al uso de armas químicas por fuerzas militares
Juan Almendares

Los ocupantes de la Embajada de Brasil que acompañan al Presidente Manuel Zelaya Rosales, esposa y familia, comunidades y marchistas están siendo objeto de lanzamiento de armas químicas desde helicópteros y aviones o bien utilizadas por las tropas, aparatos sofisticados de radiaciones sónicas y electromagnéticas que han producido cuadros severos de diarrea, vómitos, hemorragia nasal, gastrointestinal tanto en las personas ocupantes como en las comunidades.

De acuerdo al cuadro clínico podrían se deben a la utilización de sustancias toxicas entre las cuales están: plaguicidas, componentes químicos de los gases, sustancias radiactivas como cesio radioactivo, hongos tóxicos.

Urge misión internacional médica de la ONU, organización mundial de la salud (OMS) , estamos ante una guerra irregular contra el pueblo de Honduras. Las Fuerzas Armadas no dejan entrar a la Embajada de Brasil a médicos ni a la Cruz Roja internacional violan todos los tratados y convenciones internacionales de salud, respeto a los derechos humanos

Favor hacer llegar este llamado urgente en nombre de la vida y el amor a la humanidad planetaria

Tegucigalpa 24 de septiembre 2009

[Mark]

Just got this in my email. In Spanish, but clear enough. The coup is using U.S.-supplied technological weapons to sicken the people in the Brazilian embassy and is not allowing the Red Cross to enter. I hope that Brazil and ALBA will respond to this act of war by U.S. agents in Honduras.



denuncia mundial urge misión internacional medica
Alto al uso de armas químicas por fuerzas militares
Juan Almendares

Los ocupantes de la Embajada de Brasil que acompañan al Presidente Manuel Zelaya Rosales, esposa y familia, comunidades y marchistas están siendo objeto de lanzamiento de armas químicas desde helicópteros y aviones o bien utilizadas por las tropas, aparatos sofisticados de radiaciones sónicas y electromagnéticas que han producido cuadros severos de diarrea, vómitos, hemorragia nasal, gastrointestinal tanto en las personas ocupantes como en las comunidades.

De acuerdo al cuadro clínico podrían se deben a la utilización de sustancias toxicas entre las cuales están: plaguicidas, componentes químicos de los gases, sustancias radiactivas como cesio radioactivo, hongos tóxicos.

Urge misión internacional médica de la ONU, organización mundial de la salud (OMS) , estamos ante una guerra irregular contra el pueblo de Honduras. Las Fuerzas Armadas no dejan entrar a la Embajada de Brasil a médicos ni a la Cruz Roja internacional violan todos los tratados y convenciones internacionales de salud, respeto a los derechos humanos

Favor hacer llegar este llamado urgente en nombre de la vida y el amor a la humanidad planetaria

Tegucigalpa 24 de septiembre 2009
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

I emailed the Brazilian Embassy in Washington, D.C.:

Estimado Ambassador Antonio de Aguiar Patriota,

I'm an American citizen and I'm sick to death of the way that the Rockefellers have used the U.S. military, CIA, and death squads to further their exploitation of Central and South America for decades. My country is engaged in wars of aggression in Iraq and Afghanistan in violation of all international laws and treaties. I just heard that the U.S.-sponsored coup in Honduras is using sonic and possibly other technological weapons to sicken the people inside the Brazilian embassy in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, where Brazil has given sanctuary to the democratically elected President, Manual Zelaya, and is not allowing doctors or the Red Cross to enter.

I hope that Brazil and ALBA will not allow the U.S. to install another Pinochet. I hope you understand that U.S. imperialism must be stopped. I'm a senior citizen and I don't know what I can do other than to write to you.

Respectfully,

Mark E. Smith
----------------------------------------

I just posted this comment on Newsvine to try to rebut a very misleading MSNBC story:

http://world-news.newsvine.com/_news/2009/09/24/3312646-zelaya-talk...

In order to further Rockefeller business interests, the U.S. had it's agents stage a military coup against yet another democratically elected leader in Latin America. This article is full of outright lies. The removal of a democratically elected leader by means of a military coup is never legal. If he did anything wrong, there are peaceful ways to address it. But he didn't do anything wrong--he merely suggested letting the Honduran people vote on Constitutional amendments that would not have made him President for life, but would have given more power to the people.

The U.S.-trained and supported coup leaders in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, are using U.S.-supplied technological weapons to sicken the people in the Brazilian embassy and are not allowing doctors from the Red Cross to enter. This is yet another war of aggression based on lies by the U.S., this time using its agents who are entirely dependent upon U.S. support.

I hope that Brazil, ALBA, and the United Nations will act to restore democracy to Honduras. The military coup is illegitimate and just another example of U.S. imperialism. It is supported only by the rich and the right wing. The majority of people in Honduras are poor, as is the case everywhere that U.S. imperialism has exploited Latin America.

-----------------------------------------------------------------

I am sick to death at the U.S. overthrowing yet another democratically elected leader and installing yet another right-wing dictator in Honduras. If Obama cared about the rule of law, he would have denounced the coup immediately instead of equivocating. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has been suggesting that there be talks between the democratically elected President and the illegal military coup, as if the coup were legitimate.

So the U.S. had an election in '08. But all the candidates with any chance of winning were hand-picked by Rockefeller to carry out his policies and nothing has changed. Standard Oil, now called Exxon-Mobil, still owns this country and Rockefeller still calls the shots.