GOP RESPONSE TO UPCOMING JOBS PLANS:

"just because you're rich don't make you smart and just because you're poor don't make you a fool" SOME NEWS:

Billions Meant for Struggling Homeowners May Pay Down Deficit Instead

Lois Beckett, News Analysis: “With housing prices dropping sharply, and foreclosure filings against more than 1 million properties in the first half of this year, the Obama administration is scrambling for ways to help homeowners. One place they won't be looking: an estimated $30 billion from the bailout that was slated to help homeowners but is likely to remain unspent. Instead, Congress has mandated that the leftover money be used to pay down the debt. Of the $45.6 billion in Trouble Asset Relief Program funds meant to aid homeowners, the most recent numbers available show that only about $2 billion has actually gone out the door.”

 |The Real Obama

Alexander Cockburn, Op-Ed: “As president, Obama is not doing well. It's not just a matter of the 53 percent disapproval rating, reported Wednesday by Gallup. After two-and-a-half years, people are beginning to come to settled opinions about their president, and many of these aren't flattering. In 2008, liberals and most leftists were deeply in love with Obama. They genuinely believed the promissory notes about a better America that he strewed along the campaign trail and has since welshed on at a rate of well over 90 percent. The face-off over the debt ceiling, at the start of this month, was the final straw.”

 Exposed: 10 Largest Banks in America Received Secret Loans of $1.2 Trillion from Fed

Richard (RJ) Eskow, Op-Ed: “We've just learned about the Federal Reserve's extraordinary secret bailout of the country's big banks. We now know that the TARP bailout program was only the tip of the iceberg, and that financial institutions received a total of $1.2 trillion in loans and other funds while the rest of the country was left to struggle for economic survival. We also know that, despite all that "we got our money back" rhetoric, these loans represent a cash giveaway to the banks that totals up to tens of billions of dollars - while homeowners and student loan borrowers continue to struggle. Here's what we now know about this secret bailout, thanks to a Bloomberg report, along with what we already knew - and what we still don't know.” 

AND SO, BECAUSE I AM ONE OF THE FORTUNATE HOMEOWNERS WHOSE HOME IS NO LONGER WORTH FUCK-ALL WHO DIDN'T HAVE A FUCKING MORTGAGE TO BE FUCKED WITH BY THE BIG RICH GUYS WHO OUR PREZ SEEMS TO LOVE-A-LOT, LIKE MANY MILLIONS OF OTHERS SUDDENLY FIND MYSELF TO BE POOR FOLKS.

BEING A CLEVER OLD TIMER, I HAVE COME UP WITH WAYS TO ENHANCE OUR MEAGER INCOME.  BELOW IS A PICTURE OF ONE OF THE THINGS THAT I DO THESE DAYS FOR EXTRA MONEY.

click for the big ugly

FROM WHICH I EXTRACT CLEAN SHEET AND EXTRUDED ALUMINUM,  DIRTY ALUMINUM, STEEL, COPPER, BRASS, AND THE ODD VINTAGE FIXTURE TO SELL ON EBAY.

"just because you're rich don't make you smart and just because you're poor don't make you a fool"

funny - sez me...

AMERICAN FIGHTING SPIRIT - WE GOT - NOW LETS GO GET THE SUITS!

IF YOU ARE ABLE TO ATTEND THIS MEETING TO HELP STOP A MEGA-COAL-EXPORT FACILITY ON THE COLUMBIA RIVER, PLEASE DO.

Coal-Free in Cowlitz County: Join us at a public forum

Thursday, Aug. 25
7-9pm
The Fairgrounds (1900 7th Avenue, Longview)

Next Thursday, the County Commissioners and the Cowlitz League of Women Voters will hold a public hearing to gauge public opinion on coal in our community. We need to fill the hearing to send a strong message that dirty coal isn't in our future.

Cowlitz County residents have a unique opportunity to voice their opposition to Millennium Bulk Logistics' proposed coal terminal in Longview. Coal will do real damage to our communities. Black coal dust will pollute our air and water, cancer-causing pollution will drift back to our skies, and increased train traffic will snarl our roads with gridlock.

THE SEATTLE DECLARATION:

 - DENNIS KUCINICH CALL TO ACTION - 

Click here to view video.

I gave a speech in Seattle this past weekend, at Hempfest, the text of which appears and video of which is available, which spoke to a new civic activism sweeping the world, the American tradition of activism. Please read the speech.

Let's use this moment to circulate the speech far and wide about the need for a new activism in the United States.

---

Hello Seattle.

On this day, in this place of great beauty we celebrate the beauty of nature. The wondrous nature of each other. Our presence here binds us as a community. It empowers us. It strengthens us. We become most visible, en mass. We extend our reach. We sense new possibilities. And the creative spark which births action can usher in a new world.

Open America! Show yourself! Mass action! This is why, and how, recent movements for freedom in Tunisia and Egypt gained momentum. This is how Gandhi's march to the sea cast off the British Empire. This is how America's suffragettes gained for women the right to vote. This is how Dr. Martin Luther King's March on Washington became a pivotal moment in the history of the civil rights movement.

People became visible. They went to the streets. They linked arms. They marched. They sang: "We Shall Overcome". They walked the uplit path of social and economic justice. They marched to glory, not for themselves, but for generations to come.

We gather in a common determination for change. A sense of commonality of purpose awakens. An awareness grows. The moment arrives to exercise a new commitment to cast off an old order of things. This same awareness brought America's founders to put in writing a Declaration of Independence to proclaim "A New Order Follows". Today it is not a financial deficit that will bring America down, it is a deficit of public action. When people discover what happens when one person determines to make a difference and then merges with the many like-minded, new possibilities unfold.

Seattle, you understand this. Because in 1999, tens of thousands of citizen activists, including Teamsters and "Turtles", coursed through nearby streets on behalf of social and economic justice. They marched. They chanted. They sang: We Shall Overcome, and Solidarity Forever!" They spoke of Union. Acting in unity their presence was felt.

The Seattle WTO protests shined light upon the World Trade Organization's workings. Seattlites, union members and trade activists helped spark a world-wide awareness that trade agreements must have enforceable workers' rights, human rights and environmental quality principles. You identified the child labor, slave labor and prison labor that was driving international corporate profits. While the cause of justice in our trade agreements has yet to be served, you, Seattle brought it forward. You nurtured it. You kept it alive.

Large, intentional gatherings can be a catalyst for dramatic change. But only if we are prepared, as George Bernard Shaw wrote, "to dream things that never were and ask: 'Why not?' Let us dream about the America we want. And let us give our dreams firmament.

Let our dreams, our thoughts, become words. Let our words become deeds. Let our deeds bring action. Let our actions build a new America and a new world.

Seattle, you shook the world once, can you shake it again? Will you?

Are you prepared to declare and demand, here and now that it is time that the United States brings an end to the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya?

Are you prepared to demand our troops be brought home?

Are you prepared to demand America end our world-wide military presence?

Are you prepared to demand America must lead the world in the abolition of nuclear weapons?

Are you prepared to demand the Patriot Act must be repealed?

Are you prepared to demand that government spying, eavesdropping, and wiretapping of law abiding citizens must end?

That our sisters' Right to Privacy be protected and decisions about women's reproductive health be between a woman and her doctor?

Are you prepared to demand that our brothers and sisters who are gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered have equal rights, including the right to marry?

Are you prepared to demand we decriminalize and legalize marijuana, demand hospitalization not incarceration for those with drug problems?

Are you prepared to demand Not-for-profit Health Care for All?

Education for All?

Retirement Security for All?

Jobs for All?

Are you prepared to rescue our federal government from corporate interests by calling for a constitutional amendment which establishes only public financing of federal elections?

Are you prepared to rescue our planet, to protect our air, water, and land from further exploitation by demanding an end to drilling the earth, fracking the earth, cracking the earth, and end to poisoning the seas and the skies with carbon based energies, and a rapid transition to an environmentally friendly, socially responsible green economy?

This day, here and now, you have now voiced the Seattle Declaration. Let the sound of your voice be heard far and wide. Let your affirmations give birth to new actions, a new nation and a new world. Let your voice cause America to march. Let your voice cause America to sing. Let your voice cause America to seek new freedoms. Let your voice cause America to seek a newer world. Ours is a restless quest for freedom. We know wars make us less free. Fear makes us less free. Social and economic insecurity makes us less free. If it is for freedom's sake we gather, so then let it be for freedom's sake that we act!

Our individual desire for change carries extraordinary power to become more than we are. Better than we are. Forged in the human heart, ignited by love and passion for transformation, our common unity, our common purpose and our common action carry the power to change everything. This is the power of human unity. This is the power of our Oneness. Feel it. Own it. Act upon it

Thank you Seattle.

---

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some groovy ebay stuff from ME (joetruck101)

DEMOCRACY IS FOR PEOPLE

“Money and Democracy Update” is Public Citizen’s weekly e-newsletter about the intersection of money and politics. It is part of our ongoing campaign to track the results of — and ultimately overturn — the U.S. Supreme Court’s reckless decision in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, which allows for-profit corporations to spend unlimited amounts of money to support or attack political candidates. We’ll update you regularly with select news stories and blog posts, legislative developments and ways to get involved.

Stunning Statistics of the Week:

• 12: The number of lawmakers that make up the bipartisan “super committee” created under the debt ceiling deal
• $64.6 million: The amount that super committee members received in campaign contributions from special interests over the past decade
• More than 100: Number of staffers for super committee members who have moved on to lobbying shops

Contributions and cuts
Members of the “super committee” created to find $1.2 trillion to cut from the budget have received $64.6 million from political action committees and other industry groups representing the health care industry, financial industry, defense contractors and more. It’s hard to imagine that campaign money won’t affect the super committee’s recommendation, which is even more of a reason that the committee members should stop fundraising while they do their work, as two dozen public interest groups have called for.

18 August 2011 - Oklahoma's Tom Coburn Jokes About Shooting Senate Colleagues:

Sen. Tom Coburn on Wednesday joked about shooting some fellow lawmakers on the Senate floor.

Tom Coburn of Oklahoma said President Barack Obama espouses a “goofy and wrong” political philosophy and seeks to “create dependency” on programs that helped black males like him.

That's the way it is in Oklahoma, is it?  Have difficulty getting people to do everything YOUR way so you pack a gun to work?  Is that how it's done there?   Continuing idiot racism is how Oklahoma rolls is it?

MORE Some News? Ya shur, ya betcha!

Is the SEC Covering Up Wall Street Crimes? A whistleblower claims that over the past two decades, the agency has destroyed records of thousands of investigations, whitewashing the files of some of the nation's worst financial criminals.

Rick Perry and the Environment:
He's got a lot going for him: cowboy boots, oil and gas money, Ken-doll hair and a GI Joe name.  Most of all, he has a vision for America's energy future that is so blindingly nostalgic and aggressively anti-science that it makes George W. Bush look, in retrospect, like a commie tree hugger.

FBI Brags About Chasing Down Mortgage Fraudsters But Big Banks Are Left Untouched:
FBI is missing the big picture, focusing its investigative muscle on small-time crooks and turning a blind eye to misconduct by big banks.

he FBI is missing the big picture, focusing its investigative muscle on small-time crooks and turning a blind eye to misconduct by big banks.The FBI is missing the big picture, focusing its investigative muscle on small-time crooks and turning a blind eye to misconduct by big banks.

Local Artist Shows Work At High Roller Gallery:
Having been raised by master crap stackers, I find that I now have five workbenches in three buildings. Each workbench has its own stash of materials and tools...

he FBI is missing the big picture, focusing its investigative muscle on small-time crooks and turning a blind eye to misconduct by big banks.

he FBI is missing the big picture, focusing its investigative muscle on small-time crooks and turning a blind eye to misconduct by big banks.

Consumer advocates say the FBI is missing the big picture, focusing its investigative muscle on small-time crooks and turning a blind eye to misconduct by big banks.

Consumer advocates say the FBI is missing the big picture, focusing its investigative muscle on small-time crooks and turning a blind eye to misconduct by big banks.

Consumer advocates say the FBI is missing the big picture, focusing its investigative muscle on small-time crooks and turning a blind eye to misconduct by big banks.

the crew and I here at Left Edge North have decided that as much as we admire President Obama, he aint no JOHNNY B GOODE

4 minutes of Jimi Hendrix performing the great Chuck Berry song



3 minutes of Chuck Berry in 1958

MY RESPONSE IN [ RED IN BRACKETS ] TO LOCAL NEWSPAPER STORY ABOUT APPEARANCE OF OUR LOCAL TEEPUBLICAN REPRESENTATIVE WHO ONLY LET HER WHACKY BASE KNOW SHE WAS GOING TO BE IN TOWN....

Jobs top question for Herrera

By CATE GABLE
Observer correspondent | Posted: Tuesday, August 16, 2011 7:00 pm
SEAVIEW — On summer break after raucous debt-ceiling debates, our congressional Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler made an appearance at a fundraising open house at the Seaview home of Brett and Nansen Malin [I know (?) malin from the local arts community and she appears to be nothing more than an opportunist and social  climber]  last Thursday evening.
“We’ve been meeting our constituents all around the county,” said Herrera Beutler. “We were in Cathlamet this morning for coffee. We stopped by to talk to the Nisbets at Goose Point Oysters. I spoke to Fritzi Cohen at the Moby Dick [Cohen is no longer a dependable liberal or any other sort of political ally.  Her live-in boyfriend (handler) is the guy who is well known as NAZI or skinhead and a very violent reactionary person]. I love being back home.”
Herrera Beutler looked relaxed as she stood speaking to groupings of potluck diners, about 60 in number. This was not an official visit so her entourage was not accompanying her. Herrera Beutler simply listened to the concerns of constituents.
Jobs, jobs, jobs [NOPE, not a single jobs bill]

[Notice the non-answer to the jobs questions as is her 'style']

“Everyone I’ve spoken to has said jobs need to be our first priority,” Herrera Beutler said. “I’ve heard that from everyone across the board. But the question is, how can we work together for a solution?” [ you and the teepublicans have offered NO bills or usable ideas for job creation other than to de-fund important programs for everyday Americans and to block everything the President attempts]

“I’m not convinced that we need to throw money at the problem,” she said. “And let me get one thing straight — I want fair taxes. One person, a small business owner, brought in 15 years of tax returns to show me what he’s up against. I do think there are some tax loopholes [AFTER we bring the credit rating of the USA to it's knees and work on abortion and keep the President from getting anything through or anyone appointed] to close — I support that.”
Earlier in the day during a visit to the Chinook Observer, she noted that “ending the ethanol subsidy isn’t a tax increase.” Tax fairness is “a passionate issue for me,” she said. “I don’t think families and small businesses should be asked to prop up spending by Bush or Obama.”[evidently NOBODY needs to pay for any federal government programs]
Later in Seaview, she added, “And we need to get our financial house in order. Congress can help by cutting out some of the fat — at the Pentagon or EPA,” the Environmental Protection Agency. [that darned EPA - teepublicans don't need no stinking clean air or water, why do the REST of them think they need it?
“At Goose Point, I was told that they have four different agencies that come around to test or evaluate the same things. And they have to write a report to each of those four agencies and get an independent audit. There must be some regulation streamlining that we can work together on — even the president has called for that.” [so, as the teepublicans believe, if they just de-fund the agencies without any regard to their usefulness, all will be fine in teepubblicanville]
The debt deal
At the Observer, Herrera Beutler talked about the recent compromise that resulted in a last-minute increase in the nation’s debt ceiling. She said that the across-the-board cuts that will impact the U.S. military are a “very strong deterrent” to the six Republican members of the “super committee” working on the next phase of debt reduction. There already has been a lot cut from Pentagon spending, and the GOP will work hard to come to an agreement [meaning 'our way or the hiway'] to avoid additional blanket cuts, she said.
She said that although she is a strong supporter of the military, it is appropriate to look for savings there. The nation should be much more selective about where it stations troops and what wars it fights, Herrera Beutler said. We had good cause to go into Afghanistan [Bin Laden was in Pakistan, you twit!], she said, but have no business being involved in the Libyan civil war.
Airline baggage fees for the military
Karla Webber, a South Bend resident at the Seaview gathering, asked about the airline fees for the military, an issue which has received some attention in the Chinook Observer’s letters to the editor section.
“I have a son in the military. There was a letter that said you voted against this,” Webber said to Herrera Beutler.
“I did not vote against this — I co-sponsored the bill,” said Herrera Beutler. “Maybe it was a ‘vote to recommit’ problem.”
[Herrera explained that the vote to recommit is a gimmick used by both sides  of the house to make it appear that representatives are taking positions counter to their party’s intent. When a bill is proposed, it is often followed by a ‘vote to recommit’ which although not its original purpose has now become a standard way to trip up representatives. If a majority votes “Yes” on the vote to recommit, the original bill is killed; so a “No” vote actually supports the original bill.
Casey Bowman, Herrera’s communications director, further explained that the military airline baggage fees was an action, co-sponsored by Herrera, not a bill per se since Congress does not want to be in the position of mandating how businesses are run. It was a suggestion. It was the vote to recommit on this action that Herrera voted no on, allowing the action to stand.]?
Bowman also noted that “Jaime’s percentage of votes in the 112th Congress (2011-12) were 87 percent with her party.” Representatives’ votes, both past and current, can be found at the Washington Post Votes Database: www.tinyurl.com/3dslkjl.
Downturn in natural resources businesses
Jamie Webber, president of Willapa Bay Hardwood in north Pacific County, made his concerns clear. “The economy is so awful in our area. So many natural resources businesses are hurting. The business in our mill is way down. Job creation is what we need.”[lumber mills are having to compete with log exporters who evidently have deeper pockets than they do.  Log exports do NOT help the economy, only a few fallers, truck drivers and the exporters.  Oh yea, and easy money for the local port authorities]

When asked what Webber would suggest as possible solutions, he said, “Regulations — not more, fewer! We have to have a storm water permit that costs $3,000. Wastewater must be as clean as drinking water. An air pollution permit, that costs $1,500 to the Olympic Regional Clean Air Agency.” [which might all be of little consequence if the wholesale clearcutting and shipping of timber were stopped.  REMEMBER the muddy floods?]
The other trend Webber sees is the shipping of Pacific Northwest wood overseas. “They’re [China, Russia] willing to buy more lumber than we can saw. China wants hemlock and spruce, white wood, because they have a tariff dispute with Russia — and they’re just using it to make concrete forms. But getting into the shipping business is complicated.”
“Timber has been oversupplied in our market so the prices are down.”[WTF?  If prices are down why aren't builders buying the stuff at low prices and stockpiling it?]
Other views
Anita Baker, West Point graduate from the class of 1982, visiting her parents Bonnie and Konrad Muench, was concerned about the debt. “Obama really got us into debt. But I guess we have to blame both parties for the messy process.” [why do people so ill informed get so much press space?]
Nancy Gorshe, of Seaview, was also on hand speaking to people informally about the need for new leadership at Ocean Beach Hospital. Gorshe is running against incumbent DeWayne LaPointe, chairman of OBH’s board. Gorshe made the rounds at the open house, talking about her education in health care administration at the University of Washington. “We need a change,” she said. “I’m disappointed because these financial problems at the hospital have been known about for six months or so. Why wasn’t the problem addressed sooner?”[one has to wonder what sort of PRICE the organisation HEALTH DIMENSIONS GROUP, would charge the hospital district for the consulting and guidance they would offer through Ms. Gorsche]

Mid-way through the evening, dinner hostess Nan Malin [picture here]formally introduced Herrera Beutler by saying, “I strategized with Ryan Hart after we heard that Congressman Brian Baird was going to step down. We knew right away that Jaime would be perfect.”
“In fact, at her wedding, right after her wedding dance, I caught up to her on the dance floor and said, ‘Would you run for Congress?’ and here she is!” [followed by much clappity clapping and pate' munching fun]
Parting remarks
Herrera ended the evening with a few public remarks about her service to date. [evidence here of her 'service' priorities] “I’ve been in D.C. eight months and it feels like 1,000 years. But the best thing is that a year ago we were still talking about how much we would need to raise the budget, and now we’re talking about how much we’ll need to cut it. We’re not out of the woods but we’re taking baby steps.”
“The problem is that we’re spending more than we’re taking in. We all have to have the discretion and wisdom to make the right decisions. We’re at a hinge point in history — either we’re going to be in that slow decline or we’re going to pass on to our kids and grandkids a better life.”
“Both parties put us here [REALLY rep. (tea.Wa) HB?] — and frankly, sometimes it’s members of my own party that I’m frustrated with. I’ve heard a lot of people say, ‘I’m happy to pay my fair share of taxes but quit expecting my taxes to get the country out of this mess.’”
“This situation is not going to turn on a dime,” she continued. “It took us 40 or 50 years [actually, no, miz H-B] of spending to get into this mess. Someone told me it takes five miles to turn around an aircraft carrier — so that’s how I’m thinking about it.”
Herrera Beutler ended the evening on a gracious, upbeat note. “I’m very humbled to get to do this job — I love being your representative. And I’m confident that we can be the nation we have been blessed to be.”  [enjoy your one term in wa dee see mz H-B]

link to story here