not really covered in the news was this huge demonstration on wall street protesting the bailout plan that took place on September 25th. the chant goes something like “the bailout is bullshit. you broke it. you bought it.” i am a sucker for alliteration. combine that with a political protest and you’ve got me.
are you upset? are you worried? i am. whenever i have gone to Las Vegas and lost money gambling, the casinos NEVER ONCE covered my losses. NOT ONCE! i took risks and gambled and had some really great up moments. but i did gamble and lose - not only my gains, but all of my money. the fact that no casino has come forward to pay me back my losses is just wrong. so i got a lawyer and plan on suing Las Vegas and the casinos and insist they cover my risks and pay for my travel expenses as well.
okay, back to reality: does that sound stupid to you? it should.
we (you and i) are being asked - told - to cover and pay for the losses of the wealthiest of wall street and in paying for those losses will get nothing in return. does that sound good to you? sound fair? it is robbery. what can be done right now is to call and email your elected representatives and oppose the $700 billion bailout. i cannot stress that enough. stop whatever it is that you are doing and CALL THEM RIGHT NOW TO OPPOSSE THIS BAILOUT. if you have time to think about it, you can do it.
i am completely beside myself anger and resentment with the railroaded plan to give $700 billion (actually with interest $1.2 trillion) to save wall street from its bad investments. i hope you are too. if not, keep sleeping.
if your elected official doesn’t oppose this bailout, then it’s safe to assume they are in the back pocket of a corporation or company that is a part of this mess. yes, i am watching you barack obama.
from the article by William Greider titled ‘Paulson Bailout Plan a Historic Swindle‘: If Wall Street gets away with this, it will represent an historic swindle of the American public–all sugar for the villains, lasting pain and damage for the victims.
from the article by Paul Krugman titled ‘Good Ideas and Lies‘: if Paulson can’t be honest about what he himself sent to Congress — if he not only made an incredible power grab, but is now engaged in black-is-white claims that he didn’t — there is no reason to trust him on anything related to his bailout plan.
big thanks to CSPAN junkie for the availability of the video clips!
when politics collide with my hard wired sense of star wars nerdy-ness, magical things can happen. the battles and infighting between our next president barack obama and former first lady hilary clinton can best be summed up in this awesome clip titled the empire strikes barrack. totally laugh it up fuzzball - it’s good stuff! i feel oddly compelled to watch the empire strikes back again. thanks brit for the link!
i just read this story titled drug czar gives warning: federal official calls marijuana growers dangerous terrorists. terrorists? i have to do a double take on the use of the word ‘terrorists’. really? are you serious? yes, i guess you are. John P. Walters, the director of National Drug Control Policy in the US states is noted as saying ‘the people who plant and tend the gardens are terrorists who wouldn’t hesitate to help other terrorists get into the country with the aim of causing mass casualties.‘ wow. that is pretty heavy. so marijuana growers are classified as terrorists? i have yet to see any pot growers bomb embassies or fly planes into buildings. but he must know what he’s talking about. Mr. Walters, directing a message at marijuana smokers & users, is also quoted as saying “Don’t buy drugs. They fund violence and terror.” really? okay. i agree on that - funding violence and terror is a bad thing.
“Don’t buy drugs. They fund violence and terror.” i love the irony of our federal government. really. it’s fantastic! take the profit out of pot and legalize marijuana already. this war on drugs is just idiotic.
president bush has nominated michael baroody to be the head of the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC). ironically, baroody’s background is on the other side of consumer safety, serving as executive vice president at the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) for the last 13+ years. see any conflict of interest there? as stated on CNN with Lou Dobbs, “you can’t make this stuff up.” from the website stopbaroody.com, baroody fought to allow a higher level of arsenic in drinking water, lobbied to eliminate the rights of Americans exposed to asbestos, lobbied to keep corporate documents regarding unsafe products from the public, worked to immunize corporate CEOs from criminal liability for marketing deadly products to the public, and much more anti-consumer protection measures. should he get the nomination, he is slated to receive a $150,000 severance package from NAM. wow! you can take some action by emailing your senators using the handy form at peopleoverprofits.org. some senators are aware of what a poor choice baroody is to the CPSC and have moved to block baroody’s nomination. but the more voices that weigh in the better.
like wow man, it’s totally psychedelic republicans trading cards! all colorful and crazy. hilarious website with equally hilarious images and hippied-out bios of george w bush, jesse helms, dick cheney, antonin scalia, laura bush, john ashcroft, and so many others. fun facts like nickname, favorite album, christian coalition rating, and spirit animal for each character card. there’s desktops too! quality funny-ness. cards are limited edition print too (order fast!). they sort of take the edge off how horrible this administration is. actually, no, i take that back - that’s not possible. but at least the cards are funny!
the united states is finally getting its priorities in serious order. you know what i’m talking about. and - no - not those silly things like universal health care for every american, a clean & renewable energy policy, diplomacy, restoration of habeus corpus, electric cars for everybody, or open source voting machines. nope. that’s silly. but dude - we’re going to the moon! totally! we are going, then we’ll build a permanent moon base, and then head off to mars too! sure, it will cost 100’s of billions of dollars. but dude - it’s the moon! yes! i am all for advancing scientific discovery - but - i really think we should fix simple things here on earth first, like levees and pollution. seems easier. i believe david cross summarizes this best …
there is a great timeline listing the facts and events surrounding the latest dishonest dance of alberto gonzales called the purgegate primer. if you are having trouble keeping up with the cover up surrounding the firing of eight U.S. attorneys for political motives, matthew baldwin (author of the article) over on morning news does a great job in summarizing the controversy.
important:
california governor arnold schwarzenegger is holding a press conference right now. giantmonster camera crews are there. click here for a live feed of governor schwarzenegger ’s speech now …
in light of the current and growing fake news reports and bogus claims to hype up and ‘justify’ a new war with iran, please be sure to watch this amazing video by margo guryan titled Margo Guryan / 16 words. brilliant animation and political commentary. these are the same 16 words from bush’s 2003 state of the union speech to justify a war with iraq. lies, lies, and more lies.
according to cnn money, exxon earned a record breaking $377.6 billion dollars last year. wow. that registers as making $75,000 per minute in 2006. again, that’s seventy five thousand dollars per minute. holy crap. in the time it took for you to read this post, the kids at exxon would have earned over $10,000. wow.
how do you deal with a truly bullshit media circus? the same media that gives a cake walk to our political leaders on pretty much everything but gets irate when their own dumb dialouge and faux discussion format is spun back at them? simple: talk about hair. just hair. and take talking about hair seriously. very seriously. then watch the press get mad. brilliant. i love these guys! also, does this look like a bomb to you? then how about this? ‘dude, there’s a light-up LED thingy with a bit-map character flipping me off on the overpass … must be a terrorist bomb plot.’ are we that far gone? then we have become too paranoid. or is only the city of boston (or boston’s mayor) that lame? good photo gallery of the event. and a great video of the making of the LED signs on youtube too. the hair-raising press conference is below.
did somebody say that the democrats took the senate too? that would give this congress - house and senate - a complete democrat majority. wow - i just may take off work tomorrow.
the widely scattered yet collectively unified minds of giantmonster raise a mighty full glass and toast the sad sack of shit in the white house and all his pals on this very excellent election day afterglow. it’s okay to start drinking again george. thanks to everyone who came out and voted.
so, yeah, liquid explosives. how is everyone handling that notion? doesn’t sit well with me. why would DHS & airport security dump out all potential and suspect liquid explosives into the same garbage cans and do so out in public? seems to be more of a spectacle than a safety measure. actual liquid explosives (note: this does not include breast milk) are extremely volatile. mixing them up in a garbage can in the middle of an airport would also strike me as being more volatile and outright dangerous. doesn’t make sense. and of the twenty four muslims arrested so far, none were in possession of any explosives nor any explosive devices, only the ‘precursors’ for possible liquid explosives: baked beans, peanut butter, and sugar solutions. yup. no joke (read page one of the previous link). so this ban on liquids & gels doesn’t make sense to me. unless it’s meant to simply panic, inconvenience, or distract people. why would the people of the UK or the USA need to be distracted right now? oh, yes, the israel-lebanon war, right. and now while at the airport you can be detained for having a mean face or just exhibiting possible hostile intent. but with all that’s going on, how can you not have a mean face? so much paranoia - it’s just absurd. a better perspective to the liquid explosive hype & plot comes from craig murray, UK ambassador to Uzbekistan. please read the article The UK Terror plot: what’s really going on? i hope more media outlets actually look into this story and not just regurgitate talking points and headlines. meanwhile, i have to go re-pack my bags for airport travel.
someday people will regard the word and concept of ‘war’ as offensive and unthinkable. i feel it has to reach that phase on a much larger scale as a word to carry any weight and affect one’s thinking. i equate war as i do the words and concepts of murder and rape. when i hear people use the term ‘well, war is sometimes necessary’ i have sympathy for them, being locked in that mindset. is rape sometimes necessary? do you feel the need to resort to rape to resolve a conflict? rape to get what you want? how about murder? or incenst or child abuse - ever find those sometimes necessary to deal with situations in life? it’s the same type of thinking, so what is the difference? strange that the onset of war allows for all of those atrocities and more to take place under the veil of war. all based around ‘war is sometimes necessary.’ if you subscribe to ‘war is necessary’ then you should think of that term as ’sometimes i feel it is necessary to rape and murder another man or woman to get what i want.’ that means that it is hard wired within you to fight with your neighbor, brother, and sister until you are strengthened or avenged and they are weakened and fearful. war is the complete and absolute absense of intelligence, compassion, love, understanding, empathy, and thought. i am incredibly saddened by all the events of late in the world. so much war, touching on every continent on the planet. i don’t really have a comment on any of it right now. i just wish for common sense and compassion. i wish for peace and civility. war is depressing, vile, and atrocious.
i keep watching this clip from the daily show segment called snakes on a plame and laughing. so good. novak is such a pet reporter for the white house, but combined with the rove and the cheney, it’s deadly. just watch. thanks crooks and liars for the post! & thank you jon stewart and crew for the laughs.
giantmonster would like to thank ohio congressman 
i just read this story titled 
are you drinking non-organic milk or eating non-organic dairy products? please stop. chances are the milk and dairy products you are consuming contain a gift from 
the widely scattered yet collectively unified minds of giantmonster raise a mighty full glass and toast the 
