A fall harvest at the White House kitchen garden

First lady Michelle Obama led groups of fifth graders from Bancroft Elementary and Kimball Elementary schools in the fall harvesting of the White House Kitchen Garden Thursday afternoon:

What a lovely story, and a lovely thing to do...GO.READ

Bill Moyers Essay: Restoring Accountability for Washington's Wars:

PLEASE WATCH THIS.  PLEASE COPY/PASTE IT, PASS IT AROUND, FORWARD IT, QUOTE IT AND OTHERWISE SPREAD THE WORD.  MOYERS HAS, ONCE AGAIN,  FOUND A HARD TRUTH THAT WE, AS AMERICANS NEED TO SEE.

SOME NEWS:

The Full Story
Of How Tim Geithner
Secretly Bailed Out
Wall Street
And Screwed The
Taxpayer Last Fall >

Dear President Obama -

how about you fire that

weasely
little motherfucker?

Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel
siding with Republicans 

for political gain
at the expense of good
public policy >

Speaking of
firing weasely motherfuckers...

I could haz this guys
head on a dish?

Members of the
congressional elite,

they and their families
are governmentally blessed

with their very own
gold-plated, taxpayer-financed,

government-run health care system.>

I suppose this means
THEY GOT THEIRS

AND WE
AINT GETTIN ANY.  

More weasels in high places.

I hope they choke!

Al Franken Thinks Fewer Medical Bankruptcies Are Better, Conservatives Disagree

Lieberman Vows Health Care Reform Filibuster Over Public Option

WHAT SORT OF SOCIETY EVEN NEEDS TO DISCUSS WHETHER TO PROVIDE HEALTH CARE TO IT'S CITIZENS?  PLEASE BUY OUR HOME LISTED OVER IN THE RIGHT SIDE-BAR SO MY WIFE AND I CAN BE ON OUR WAY TO NEW ZEALAND.  Thank you.

Gen. McChrystal angling for new civilian job? Mr. President, it's time to cut McChrystal/McArthur loose for leaking national security documents (among other things):

"...Since the leakage of his confidential report, General McChrystal has seen fit to make provocative and controversial public statements in a high profile appearance in London...startling amount of naivete concerning the culture of Afghanistan...When President Truman realized that General MacArthur was insubordinate, he dismissed him..."
GO.READ 

McChrystal has gotten a total pass on his involvement with the Pat Tillman cover-up, as well as for his involvement in torture. This guy is used to getting away with anything and everything he feels like doing. No wonder he doesn’t care what his boss, the president, thinks about him.

There's more here

THE LONG WAR RIPOFF 
IS AN EVEN BETTER SCAM 

THAN THE BANK BAILOUTS - 

everyone on everyone's friends list 
gets a defense contract.

What a Whacky World We Wander Through

Health care reform?  NOT YET, it's only been a hundred years trying:

Electric cars?  Not yet, but Korean company will build the batteries:

 Stop American torturing?  Not yet, but YES WE CAN:

Battle at Coal River Mountain Explodes: Green Jobs Vs. Big Coal Showdown (EXCLUSIVE PHOTOS) WTF? OVER?

The President of the United States of America proposed to build a landmark wind energy park there.  BIG COAL is poking our President in the eye.  Let's watch and see what happens, shall we?  This will tell us a lot about how the future is going to actually be, or, really, if there is going to even BE a future.  LINK

U.S. ARMY CONTAMINATING OUR WORLD WITH URANIUM DUST - SEEKS PERMIT

"...The U.S. government is continuing to warn about the danger of terrorists acquiring the materials to make a "dirty" bomb that could spread radioactive material in the U.S., the U.S. military has for years been doing exactly that, and continues to do so, with no intention to clean up its messes, many of which are allowing depleted uranium to percolate into ground water or flow down streams to more populated areas.

The Army is actually seeking a master permit from the NRC to cover all the sites where it has fired DU weapons, including penetrator shells that, unlike the M101, are designed to hit targets and burn on impact, turning the DU in the warhead into a fine dust of uranium oxide.

Uranium particles, whether pure uranium or in an oxidized form, are alpha emitters, and can be highly carcinogenic and mutagenic if ingested or inhaled, since they can lodge in one part of the body – kidney, lung, or gonad, for example -- and then irradiate surrounding cells with large, destructive alpha particles (actually helium atoms), until some gene is compromised and a cell become malignant.

Among the sites identified by the NRC as being contaminated with DU are: Ft. Hood, TX; Ft. Benning, GA; Ft. Campbell, KY; Ft. Knox, KY; Ft. Lewis, WA; Ft. Riley, KS; Aberdeen Proving Grounds, MD; Ft. Dix, NJ; and Makua Military Reservation, HI.
 
Other locations identified as having DU weapons contamination are: China Lake Air Warfare Center, CA; Eglin AFB, FL; Nellis AFB, NV; Davis-Monthan AFB; Kirkland AFB, NM; White Sands Missile Range, NM; Ethan Allen Firing Range, VT; and New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology.

An application for a 99-year permit to test DU weapons at the NM Institute Of Mining and Technology claimed that that site's test area was "so contaminated with DU…as to preclude any other use"!..." GO.READ

There are many many documented cases of iraq civilians and war veterans' children being born deformed because of this contamination.  what sort of world are we building, and why does it continue?

Grayson/Franken 2016 - THESE GUYS ARE WINNERS. Brilliant at Breakfast HAS IT. We need leaders who will STAND AND SPEAK to power, who will BRING WHAT WE NEED. Click Here to use our handy CLICK~N~READ

EX - vice Dick Cheeney (R. worst person in the world) says Obama 'Dithering' On War Policy

PRESIDENT Obama would have to do some serious dither training to get anywhere NEAR this master ditherer's world record dither-death-count.  The Dick Cheeney's of this country just can not STAND that we see the world differently than they do - that we do not see the world as being owned by corporations and managed for the welfare of those corporations. Fuck him and the horse he rode in on.

THE EMPIRE THIEVES HAVE 'HONORED' CHEENEY WITH THEIR HIGHEST AWARD: THE KEEPER OF THE FLAME AWARD.  Well wa-fucking-hoo!  Click the link to see the men responsible for hundreds of thousands of innocents dying and frying in America's worldwide business and military empire over the decades.  Previous recipients include Ronald Reagan, Donald Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfowitz and Joe Lieberman. DON'T IT JUST MAKE YA PROUD?  These men are more than thieves, they are cold hearted murderers and barons of the dark side...may they all lie dead and rotting in the streets in front of their mothers' houses as they have left so many...

FAUX NEWS STARTED THIS RUMBLE:

THE WHITE HOUSE DID NOT START THIS WAR:

IF FAUX NEWS WANTS TO RUMBLE, WE LIBERALS AND PROGRESSIVES ARE READY TO GO.  THEY MIGHT BE SURPRISED TO LEARN HOW MANY OF US REALLY ARE ARMED...

SOME NEWS FROM OUT AND AROUND IN THE REAL WORLD:

OIL TYCOON: OUR TROOPS DIED ... WE'RE "ENTITLED" TO SWEET CONTRACTS IN IRAQ!


PERU WILL HOLD TORTURERS ACCOUNTABLE: WHY CAN'T THE U.S. DO THE SAME?


BILL MOYERS: HOW CAN THE U.S. BE AN EMPIRE AND A DEMOCRACY AT THE SAME TIME?


REVEALED: AMERICAN DIPLOMAT'S TROUBLING ROLE IN IRAQI OIL POLITICS

Rep. John Conyers: Wall Street and Their Seductive Loan Promotions Tricked Many on Main Street

Success! Salazar Announces Investigation of Shady GWTF Bush Administration Oil Shale Deals

"In the final few days before President GWTF Bush left office, his Interior Department worked out a sweetheart deal with oil companies, giving them great rates to destroy tracts of land in Colorado, Utah and Wyoming for oil shale. "

GO.READ

The Congress today had five minutes of worthwhile dialogue: REPRESENTATIVE GRAYSON IS ON A SHORT LIST OF LEGISLATIVE HEROES

Rep. Alan Grayson tries to explain the U.S. Constitution to House Republicans
By Glenn Greenwald

Earlier today, GOP Congressman Paul Broun of Georgia introduced yet another amendment to deny all funding to ACORN.  Rep. Alan Grayson took the five minutes allotted to him to question Rep. Broun about this thing called "the Constitution" and, specifically, "bills of attainder," which happen to be prohibited by the "Constitution."  What ensued is both hilarious and very worthwhile.  Every member of Congress should be subjected to questioning like this on a daily basis:



For those interested, my his interview with Grayson several weeks ago about ACORN and bills of attainder is here.

Or, as we might say out here in the rurals of coastal Washington state - fuck those republicans. Every goddamned one of them.

REMEMBER MR. PRESIDENT, WE DO HAVE ENEMIES!

THESE ARE A COUPLE OF THE GUYS WHO MEAN OUR PRESIDENT, AND OUR NATION OF PEOPLE NO GOOD.  THESE ARE THE GUYS WHO WORK TIRELESSLY TO BRING FAILURE AND SCORN UPON OUR PRESIDENT AND OUR CITIZENRY.  THEY DO NOT WANT US TO HAVE AN EQUITABLE AND SOCIETY.  THEY REPRESENT ONLY THE RICH AND POWERFUL, NO MATTER HOW MUCH THE PEOPLE WHO CONTINUE TO VOTE FOR THEM REFUSE TO BELIEVE IT.

Tell Harry Reid: Stop the Silent Filibuster of a Public Option

At least one senator in the Democratic caucus is blocking a public option - but we don't know who.   

That's because Majority Leader Harry Reid is protecting any senator who wants to join a Republican filibuster of health care reform.

This isn't just wrong, it's deeply immoral.  If a Democrat wants to filibuster a public option, make them do it in public.Harry Reid can no longer allow members of the Democratic caucus to block a public option behind the closed doors of the Senate.

Can you do me a quick favor?  

Will you join me and hundreds (thousands?) of others who have signed the petition to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid demanding he stop the silent filibuster of the public option by a Democratic senator.  Thanks so much for your support.
We have some big news coming in the next couple days in our fight for the public option with Harry Reid.  It's time to kick it up a notch and bring in more people to our campaign.  
Can you invite your friends, family, coworkers - anyone else you know who supports a public option - and ask them to sign our petition?  Just forward the post and ask them to sign here:

http://action.firedoglake.com/page/s/hccallthemout?source=email&subsource=fwd

Thanks so much for all you do.

Take care,

Jane Hamsher
FDL Action PAC 

SOME NEWS:

MAJORITY OF US FIRMS CUTTING BONUSES



Wall Street bonuses jump 40%

National median home prices predicted to drop another 11%.

I just want to take this opportunity to thank the republicans and both parties' pals on Wall Street for totally ruining my (and thousands of other Americans') hopes for selling our home of 20 years for a new future.  At least our home is paid for and is a nice little outfit.  We were hoping to sell and move on now that we are in our 60's but the criminal Bush Gang and criminals on Wall street and congress will go unpunished and totally unaware of what they have done...assholes

COP15: What's at Stake in Under 5 Minutes Your guide to the UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen

"...odds are pretty good that you know there's a huge climate change conference taking place in Copenhagen at the start of December. And you probably know that it's known by the acronym COP15. But, if that's all you know about it, and actually are a bit confused about what exactly is going on and why you should pay attention..."  CLICK~N~READ

Republicans are such transparently "big business at all costs" horrible people:

The Very Separate World of Conservative Republicans
They SHOULD be separate - they are dangerous and anti-American...

Maddow and Olbermann Respond to GH WTF Bush's Attack on Them as SICK PUPPIES
(this from the asshole who invaded Iraq on lies the FIRST time...


The two above stories show the hubris, lack of empathy and pure hate of the republicans.  Please read, copy/paste, whatever...

SOME NEWS:

• The U.S. wants fast delivery of a new bunker-buster bomb that can penetrate tons of concrete, destroy hidden weapons caches, and keep a Nobel Peace Prize laureate from looking like a weenie.
• Bernie Madoff masks are hot for this Halloween!  And if you buy 15 of them, and get 15 other people to buy 15, yours ends up being free, or something.
• Looks like the president may soon be sending in more troops. Yeah, this fight with Fox News is getting nasty.
• JP Morgan profits are up 600%, so five rich guys just got way richer again.  Whoop-dee-do.
• Seriously, if you were Olympia Snowe, wouldn’t you make the Democrats stand on their chairs, flap their arms and cluck like chickens to earn your vote on the health care bill? Because you know they would. 
  

AND SOME MUSIC: 

• Keep The Coffee Coming
• There's Always Someone Cooler Than You 
• Locust Street
  

Droves of Recruits to Ease Burden on Troops

Droves of Recruits to Ease Burden on Troops
The U.S. military Tuesday reported the biggest surge in recruits since the end of the draft - an increase that likely will relieve pressure on troops serving in Iraq and Afghanistan by allowing them to spend more time at home between overseas deployments. STORY

Let's see if we can figure out this sudden increase in desire to join up with the Army and other killing organizations:  

• After reading the above story, you learn that the recruiting rate is highest since ending the draft, or forced service for those of you too young to remember.
• Someone has manufactured the worst economic times for American citizens since before the ending of the draft, or forced service - the military gives a monthly paycheck and meals.
• More and higher percentage of Americans out of work and losing/lost their homes since 1932.
• More and more Americans have less and less health care coverage/security, causing more and more of scarce money to go toward fighting symptoms instead of being healthy, productive citizens.
  
• Money manipulators and war materiel manufacturers desperate to keep investors and owners rolling in money. 
• Congress, enablers of money manipulators and war materiel manufacturers desperate to keep themselves rolling in money.  

See any trends there?  We have been PUNKED - bought and sold by those named above, and it dosen't look like there is a damned thing we can do except to support those who speak out and advocate truth...

VOTE NO ON 1033

 Everyone thinks 

Tim Eyman's Initiative 1033 is a terrible idea 

and we should VOTE NO against it

-- even Tim Eyman himself!

REGISTERED VOTER IN WASHINGTON STATE?

Vote YES on Referendum 71. If this measure fails, important protections will be taken away from Washington's domestic partners. Vote NO on Initiative 1033. Tim Eyman's Initiative 1033 will hurt our communities by taking away needed resources.

These races are hotly contested, and your vote and support are needed!

And these aren't the only important races on the ballot. For more Democratic nominees and endorsements, visit:

http://www.wa-democrats.org/2009candidates

Also, did you know that there's still time to register to vote for the 2009 General Election? For this information and answers to more of your questions, visit our Voting Information page:

http://www.wa-democrats.org/2009votinginfo

How the Servant Became a Predator: Finance's Five Fatal Flaws/Crimes

The financial industry's power and progressive corruption combined to produce the perfect white-collar crimes.

After you read THAT horror story, have a look at TAX DODGER CRACKDOWN SHELVED BY OBAMA.  UNFUCKINGBELIEVABLE!

- THIS IS FOR ALL OF YOU 

REPUBLICAN ASSHOLES -

FEEL LOST?  YOU LOST,

TOUGH SHIT, EH?

 

Some Members Of Congress DON'T GET IT. This Guy Clearly DOES GET IT. We Here At Left Edge North Think Congressman Grayson From Florida Should Be Commended:

4 minutes - have a look.  Email it around.  Send it to the PRESIDENT.

WANDA SYKES ON HEALTH CARE REFORM AND DEATH PANELS

SOME NEWS:

Senate loosens ban on offshore companies with federal contracts.
Perhaps if American citizens had lobbyists they could get health care insurance?

Geithner and the billionaires.
Obama's Treasury Secretary never strays far from his wall street connections.

Congress to cut work 2 1/2 day weeks without pay cut
Long work-weeks doing the peoples work sounded good during the campaign...in MY former career, working 7-12's (6 on/6 off) was normal.

Thousands of homeowners sick from toxic Chinese drywall:
Makes me wonder what must it be like in the factory where this shit is made?

Defining Victory to Win a War

After nearly a decade of war in Afghanistan, the United States has still not defined what it considers success. It needs to do so -- and here's how.

BY DAVID AXE, MALOU INNOCENT, JASON REICH | OCTOBER 6, 2009

 After nearly a decade at war in Afghanistan, the United States still has not defined the terms of the conflict. Seven months after President Barack Obama's administration released its wide-ranging strategic review of the war, basic questions remain. Who is the enemy? What are the objectives? Is counterinsurgency meant to achieve the goal of counterterrorism (beating al Qaeda), state-building (bringing stability and democracy to Afghanistan), or both? What would "victory" in Afghanistan even look like? And how will the war stay won, after the United States leaves?

Without knowing the answers to such questions, the United States has no way of determining whether it is succeeding. And as long as it continues to conflate military and state-building objectives, the United States will always appear to be losing. But by focusing on stamping out al Qaeda with a light military footprint and accepting an Islamist government in Afghanistan, the United States has an opportunity for unqualified success.

GO.READ

NEWS STORY TODAY ABOUT 

BANKS, BANKERS, AND BANK OWNERS: 

'...the most "toxic" loans on bank books were interest-only loans,

which get no benefit from amortization,

since it requires borrowers to repay interest but no principal.

The Journal said the report also stated that banks have been slow
to absorb the losses on their loans, partly due to
"capital preservation" concerns...'

link

WHO GIVES A LARGE SHIT?  

WE ALL HOPE YOU 

WHINEY MOTHERFUKKERS 

CHOKE ON CRAP LIKE 

"INTEREST-ONLY LOANS"

fuck a bank.

I went into my local credit union yesterday to exchange about $15.00 worth of Canadian coins.  "That'll cost you $25.00 sir".  So I sez it seems to me that one of the basic job descriptions of banks and credit unions is to handle MONEY for the clients, and the manager sez, "take it up with corporate".

fuck a bank


Of course, we all understand that JOE'S BANK is an entirely different kettle of bailout...

DAMN THE PENTAGON - HEALTH CARE FOR ALL AMERICANS

THE VOTE IS COMING ON FUNDING FOR THE DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE:
Department of Defense Appropriations Act, 2010 - H.R.3326
The Senate is expected to conclude work on this $636.3 billion bill funding the Department of Defense during fiscal year 2010.

I SAY VOTE NEGATIVE ON THIS UNLESS AND UNTIL CONGRESS CAN SEE IT'S WAY TO APPROVE A MEANINGFUL WORKABLE EASY GOVERNMENT FUNDED OPTION FOR HEALTH CARE INSURANCE FOR EVERY AMERICAN, NOT JUST THE MILITARY AND THE INDUSTRIAL/CONGRESSIONAL SUPPORTERS OF THAT BLACK HOLE.

Somehow, the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines and Coast Guard have become WAY more important than everyday citizens of our country.  It makes no sense!  There have been billion$ and billion$ just plain LOST in Iraq and elsewhere by these outfits, much LESS the horrendous WA$TE they can not account for.

NEWS TODAY: UNITED STATES' PRIORITIES DO NOT LIE WITH THE PEOPLE OF THE COUNTRY....no shit sherlock?

• U.S. general: Taliban growing, Afghan outlook serious Reuters – Thu Oct 1, 9:14 am ET

• Jobless benefits extension hits snag in Senate AP – 31 mins ago 

We got our fukken priorities here in THE GREATEST COUNTRY IN THE WORLD, and evidently it does NOT include taking care of ordinary citizens.  I am 63 years old next Monday, and it seems to me that the military/industrial/congressional complex never DID really factor in the CITIZENS of this fraud of a country unless they needed either canon fodder for a war (two and counting at present) and/or voters to keep their asses in the plush padded leather chairs.