We're Not Paying For Your Crisis!

Novel idea. Since the rich have gotten so much richer, let them pay for the bailouts.

German Anti-Globalization Campaigner: 'We're Not Paying For Your Crisis!' - SPIEGEL ONLINE

The German government has now pledged €480 billion ($613 billion) in guarantees and cash injections for banks. In the year 2002 alone, private assets in Germany increased by almost €800 billion. There is lots to draw on.

The interview is a very quick read.

New Graphics

I'd be a pretty crappy Presidential candidate if I didn't listen to what the people want. Not that you have to give them what they want. You just have to listen and pretend to care and pretend to agree. Which is precisely why I am a really crappy candidate.

But my ways may be changing. That's right, I decided to sell out. Just a little bit. People love the "Still Fisting the American Dream" phrase and graphic. They want more. And I've come up with more.

Check out the new round feature version. I'm thinking of offering these printed on panties. Imagine going to a strip club and the dancer shaking her rump in your face as you stare at these graphics. Or would it be better on the front crotch with my blog address across the rear?

I'm listening (for a change).

Pot Crusaders Never Surrendor

Those damn pot crusaders just won't give up. Ever. They seem to think that just because a law doesn't make sense that somehow means it should be overturned, ignored, or both.

At least that's the way California Assemblyman Tom Ammiano sees it.

Ammiano Introduces Marijuana Legalization Bill to the Press

In a nutshell, here's what the bill would do: 'Remove all penalties under California law for the cultivation, transportation, sale, purchase, possession, and use of marijuana, natural THC and paraphernalia by persons over the age of 21,' 'prohibit local and state law enforcement officials from enforcing federal marijuana laws' and establish a fee of $50 an ounce on marijuana on top of whatever pot will cost in a legal future - which legalization advocates say is about half what it costs now. This tax rate figures at about a buck a joint.

We've all heard the reasons. Do we really need to go over them again? We know that pot is safer than alcohol, tobacco, and aspirin. We know that in general potheads are more docile creatures than drunks. We know that the government could tax the hell out of the stuff. We know the courts and prisons have filled up with non-violent drug offenders.

Yet people still oppose legalization. Not Ammio. He's not only should California legalize it, but the state should instruct law enforcement to ignore all federal laws pertaining to pot prohibition. That's rather bold.

Face it. These damn potheads are never going to give up. They will not go away. They are empowered by evidence and facts. While I hate drum circles and tie-dyes as much as the next beer drinking American, the day will come when pot is legal. This time? I give it a 15% chance because I'm in such a lovely mood without the aid of cannabis.

Then again if I were high I probably wouldn't put forth the effort to bitch about such insanities all the time.* My ten daily martinis tend to put the angry in the blood.

* That's a hint to the FBI agents who shadow me.

When Do We Grow Up?

It's like they are taunting us, daring us to kick their asses to the curb with extreme prejudice.

Banks Spend TARP Funds on Anti-Consumer Lobbying Campaign

Last month, the Huffington Post’s Sam Stein reported that three days after Bank of America accepted $25 billion in TARP funds, it hosted a conference call with movement conservatives and business heavyweights in order to organize opposition to the Employee Free Choice Act, a key bill intended to protect the right of workers to organize and join unions. Two weeks later, Change to Win discovered that the Financial Services Roundtable, a financial industry lobbying group whose members received 78% of the hundreds of billions of dollars distributed by the TARP program, intended to host a meeting of CEOs at a $530/night resort on the Gulf of Mexico, where they could coordinate their anti-worker lobbying campaign.

Just like high school. If the rich kid asks for a buck, you have to give it to him because he's rich. You know he's good for it, right? And then you never see it again. If the poor kid asks for a buck you don't give it to him because he's poor and has no way of ever paying you back.

And no matter how annoying, nobody beats up the rich kid because he's, well, rich. Anybody can punch the poor kid. Unless the rich kid hits all the people poorer than he. Eventually the group will get fed up, band together, and beat him within an inch of his life.

The United States might just be one food shortage away from revolution right now.

Torches.

Pitchforks.

Guillotines.

Geekonomics

While looking over metric measurement notation I hit upon an idea. A very geeky idea. A geeky idea for a nation quickly going geek out of necessity.

Our current designation system of monetary sums becomes a blur. So rhymey that people get lost in a Seussian haze. Million, billion, trillion, gazillion. It all sounds the same after a while.

Instead we could use metric denominations made popular by the techification of the nation. I call it Geekonomics.

• one thousand = kilo
• one million = mega
• one billion = giga
• one trillion = tera

To show how this could prove useful, let's look at one of today's top news stories.

Obama aims to cut deficit in half by 2013

'The deficit this administration inherited was $1.3 trillion or 9.2 percent of GDP. By 2013, the end of the president's first term, the budget cuts the deficit to $533 billion or 3.0 percent of GDP,' the official told Reuters on condition of anonymity.

'Most of the savings will come from winding down the war in Iraq, increased (tax) revenue from those making more than $250,000 a year, and savings from making government work more efficiently and eliminating programs that do not work,' the official said.

The United States spent about $190 billion on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan in 2008. Obama has pledged to withdraw U.S. combat troops from Iraq within 16 months while ramping up the U.S. military effort in Afghanistan.

Let's reread this using Geekonomics.

'The deficit this administration inherited was 1.3 terabucks or 9.2 percent of GDP. By 2013, the end of the president's first term, the budget cuts the deficit to 533 gigabucks or 3.0 percent of GDP,' the official told Reuters on condition of anonymity.

'Most of the savings will come from winding down the war in Iraq, increased (tax) revenue from those making more than 250 kilobucks a year, and savings from making government work more efficiently and eliminating programs that do not work,' the official said.

The United States spent about 190 gigabucks on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan in 2008. Obama has pledged to withdraw U.S. combat troops from Iraq within 16 months while ramping up the U.S. military effort in Afghanistan.

For me, Geekonomics makes the differences between denominations clearer. And who wouldn't love a meg in the safe*?

* I'd say in the bank, but under the current conditions I'd feel better hiding it under my mattress rather than handing it over to a bunch of known crooks.

It's Been Done, but is Worth Doing Again

They did it in Italy when they elected Chicholina. Now there is a call in the United States to make famous porn star Stormy Daniels a Senator.

Push to make porn star a senator no stunt, fan says

I have to get the obvious joke out of the way. Government is always out to fuck you and Stormy Daniels has shown considerable talent in that department.

Which is a total lie. Government fucks EVERYBODY. In comparison Ms. Daniels has only fucked a few select people. That could be a welcome change.

And who better to represent a state famous for its annual Mardi Gras celebrations?

I encourage voters in Louisiana to vote for Stormy. Current Senator Vitter (Republican) paid for sex when he could have been getting it for free. Stormy got paid to have sex. That's sound fiscal policy.

How to Recycle

Have you ever woke up Sunday morning, looked around the house, and wondered what to do with all the empties littering the floor?

The Buddhist temple built using 1.5 million recycled beer bottles

Built using more than a million beer bottles, this incredible temple in the north-east of Thailand is a novel way to recycle any empties.

In other words, the average American football fan would be able to save up enough for a mansion in just one season.

And the bathroom kicks ass. Westerners may not be accustomed to the Asian squat toilets. I've never tried one. Though if you drank enough beer to build a room like this, what better place to give it a go?

Liberal Whiplash

Burn the False Gods!

As someone who writes a lot of angry rants about politics, I find that I also enjoy angry rants about politics. Nothing like a good angry rant to get the blood flowing. Angry rants and machetes. Good stuff for blood flow.

Mmmm, blood. More people are calling for it these days.

Who Keeps Screwing Us Over?

I shouldn't be surprised by now. But I still was when I read the article this morning in the Washington Post explaining that the cap on executive pay has been removed from the stimulus bill. I knew what Congress was doing yesterday by bringing the Wall Street executives in and scolding them in public was a dog and pony show. But I had not realized how profoundly full of shit these politicians are.

They make a big display of yelling at the CEOs and then the very next day they quietly remove any cap on their compensation. These people are not on our side. This is why so many Americans are so damn frustrated. Everyone in power appears to be bought and paid for. There is a circle of people in DC and NY that keep passing the money around to one another and then come and collect it from us.

They pulled the windfall tax on the oil companies before even getting into office. Now they pull the pay cap on banks getting 'emergency bailout funds'.

Let's have an intervention for the alcoholic uncle. I'll pick up the keg.

We're wasting our time here. Just nationalize the damn banks already. Almost all of the top economists are now in agreement that we should take this step. The people who put the money in are the people who own the company -- that's how capitalism works. I'm a die-hard capitalist. I don't want the federal government owning banks for an extended period of time. But what's worse is to continue letting these bankers rob us of our money day in and day out while we sit around like fools.

We buy it, we own it. Kick the clowns out. Run it for a limited amount of time while we stabilize the credit markets. And then sell them off in the free market. Instead of begging the bankers to loosen up credit, we take the banks and do it ourselves.

First off, if the government takes over the banks, they'll do it for keeps. Same people in charge, inconvenient new location.

As for Mr. die-hard capitalist, good for you. We humans love to believe in things. If believing in money helps you sleep at night, more power to you.

I wish people would stop forcing their belief systems on others. Just because I see representations of the Easter Bunny every year does not make the Easter Bunny real no matter how hard I believe. Lots of myth and theory behind it, no bunny leaving eggs. A lot of messed up BS* that may have meant something believable at one time but has gotten so far removed from reality we can't even recognize it any more.

Just like money.

*Belief System

Goodfellas Save the Day

The laws of free market supply and demand economics are providing a rare opportunity to organized crime. I speak of mafia types, not the kind of organized crime that did an electronic run on the banks and uses their business clout to pick puppet politicians to run things the way they see fit.

Mafia millions buoying banks

'You have the supply — an organized crime industry with enormous amounts of cash, estimated at $322 billion in 2005, not any more stored in banks — and the demand, a banking sector strapped for liquidity,' said Costa.

'This is a supply- and demand-driven situation. Our intuition, based on logic, is now supported by ample evidence.'

And the UN wants to STOP this? If they really want to save this propped up hoax of an economy, the black market could turn into their savior.

Lucifer, the light bringer. The wicked shall save us.

Propped Up Economy

In this video Democratic Congressman Paul Kanjorski of Pennsylvania tells us...

"The Treasury opened its window to help. They pumped a $105 billion dollars into the system and quickly realized that they could not stem the tide. We were having an electronic run on the banks. They decided to close the operation, close down the money accounts, and announce a guarantee of $250,000 per account so there wouldn't be further panic ... If they had not done that their estimation was that by two o'clock that afternoon, $5.5 trillion dollars would have been drawn out of the money market system of the United States, would have collapsed the entire economy of the United States, and within 24 hours the world economy would have collapsed."

"It would have been the end of our economic system and our political system as we know it."

Call me a cynic, but that last line reads like, "We spent tax payer money to save our own asses."



He speaks of events back in September. Remember back in September? We still had that crime family holding office. Many conspiracy theorists were predicting an event that would lead to a declaration of martial law thus sticking us with, BLEAH! Don't even want to say.

Did they actually try to pull off a double heist that day?

For those who want a positive in this, those people who pulled all that money on that day technically still have it, will need to do something with it, and once they have finished crying over their failed plan might decide to go back to a life of limited riches and control (poor things).

Call that hot cash injection by the government the most expensive condom to date.

How to Not Fail at Life - NSFW?

Successful Potheads

Keeping the meme going...

Yet more proof that pot will make you a lethargic do nothing couch potato whose highest aspirations consist of turning everything they see into a bong.

The 10 Most Successful Potheads on the Planet… Cool Enough to Admit It

Where these stereotypes originated remains a mystery to us. In reality, they couldn’t be further from the truth. Not only have 42% of Americans admitted to trying pot, but pot smokers have gone on to become some of the most successful people in our society. We’re not talking about Willie Nelson and Snoop. These guys are on the Forbes 500, they’re leading the free world, and they prove that all existing pothead stereotypes are nothing more than myths.

I've condensed the list here without all the dope on why these people break the stereotype of the lazy stoned out hippie.

• Sir Richard Branson
• Rick Steves
• Aaron Sorkin
• Michael Phelps
• Barack Obama
• Michael Bloomberg
• Ted Turner
• Montel Williams
• Stephen King
• Arnold Schwarzenegger

Carl Sagan missed making the list because he has spent the last 12 years doing nothing.

I personally attribute my not smoking pot to being content with a factory job and having the most cynical Presidential bid of the 21st century.

NSFW: Glow Sticks For All

Signs of hope for a saner drug policy. Not in the United States of course.

Ecstasy 'no more dangerous than horse riding' - Telegraph

Writing in an academic journal, Professor David Nutt said taking ecstasy was no worse than the risks of 'equasy', a term he invented to describe people's addiction to horse-riding.

Why does this guy have to be named Prof Nutt? He is chairman of the Home Office's Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs and an academic at Bristol University and Imperial College, London writing for this statement for a peer reviewed journal. The guy has got the creds. But that name! Can people really get over a name like Prof Nut?

Hopefully they can because he's got something important to say.

In the article, titled "Equasy: An overlooked addiction with implications for the current debate on drug harms", Prof Nutt wrote that "equasy", short for "Equine Addiction Syndrome", had caused 10 deaths and more than 100 road traffic accidents a year.

Through hunting, it also led to "gatherings of users that often are associated with these groups engaging in violent conduct.

"Dependence, as defined by the need to continue to use, has been accepted by the courts in divorce settlements," he wrote. "Based on these harms, it seems likely that the ACMD would recommend control under the MDAct perhaps as a class A drug given it appears more harmful than ecstasy."

I would add that ecstasy has never demanded constant attention, grooming, vet bills, feed, and exercise even when not in use. Ecstasy has never kicked me, trampled my foot, or tried to knock me off by rushing the nearest low hanging limb, nor have I ever had to clean up its shit. It does not require a trailer but like a horse, may come with its own.

Britain's struggling glow stick industry may see brighter days ahead.

* Naked girls on either are fine by me.

Zombie Attack in Washington

Obama's team of zombies

The anecdote highlights how, regardless of election hoopla, Washington is the same one-party town it always has been -- controlled not by Democrats or Republicans, but by Kleptocrats (i.e., thieves). Their ties to money make them the undead zombies in the slash-and-burn horror flick that is American politics: No matter how many times their discredited theologies are stabbed, torched and shot down by verifiable failure, their careers cannot be killed. Somehow, these political immortals are allowed to mindlessly lunge forward, never answering to rivals -- even if that rival is the president himself.

Pot Lies Exposed

Anyone else remember the old McGruff "Take a Bite Out of Crime" ad campaigns? There was one where a bunch of kids sang about how users are losers and losers are users, so don't do drugs.

Turns out that was a lie.

Swimmer Phelps regrets pot pipe

Swimming superstar Michael Phelps has admitted to 'regrettable behaviour', after a UK newspaper published a photo of him apparently smoking cannabis.

So surfing superstar Kelly Slater wins his ninth world title and gets showered with champagne in public for all to see. Phelps wins eight Olympic gold medals, takes a hit off a bong at a college party and has to issue a public apology. Maybe if he had won nine gold medals...

But users are losers. McGruff told me so. Phelps couldn't have won all those gold medals. Either that or McGruff is a propaganda device used to further state control of our lives through complacent acceptance of irrational prohibition.