The HB Gary Email That Should Concern Us All

Original Article

  Written by    Happy Rockefeller    Wed Feb 16, 2011

As I  wrote yesterday , there is a leaked email that has gotten surprisingly little attention around here. It's the one where Aaron Barr discusses his intention to post at Daily Kos - presumably something negative about Anonymous, the hacking group. But that's not the email I'm talking about here.

As I also mentioned yesterday, in some of the emails, HB Gary people are talking about creating "personas", what we would call sockpuppets. This is not new. PR firms have been using fake "people" to promote products and other things for a while now, both online and even in bars and coffee houses.

But for a defense contractor with ties to the federal government, Hunton & Williams, DOD, NSA, and the CIA -  whose enemies are labor unions, progressive organizations,  journalists, and progressive bloggers,  a persona apparently goes far beyond creating a mere sockpuppet.

According to an embedded MS Word document found in one of the HB Gary emails, it involves creating an army of sockpuppets, with sophisticated "persona management" software that allows a small team of only a few people to appear to be many, while keeping the personas from accidentally cross-contaminating each other. Then, to top it off, the team can actually automate some functions so one persona can appear to be an entire Brooks Brothers riot online.

Persona management entails not just the deconfliction of persona artifacts such as names, email addresses, landing pages, and associated content.  It also requires providing the human actors technology that takes the decision process out of the loop when using a specific persona.  For this purpose we custom developed either virtual machines or thumb drives for each persona.  This allowed the human actor to open a virtual machine or thumb drive with an associated persona and have all the appropriate email accounts, associations, web pages, social media accounts, etc. pre-established and configured with visual cues to remind the actor which persona he/she is using so as not to accidentally cross-contaminate personas during use.

And all of this is for the purposes of infiltration, data mining, and (here's the one that really worries me) ganging up on bloggers, commenters  and otherwise "real" people to smear enemies and distort the truth.

This is an excerpt from one of the Word Documents, which was sent as an attachment by Aaron Barr, CEO of HB Gary's Federal subsidiary, to several of his colleagues to present to clients:

To build this capability we will create a set of personas on twitter,‭ ‬blogs,‭ ‬forums,‭ ‬buzz,‭ ‬and myspace under created names that fit the profile‭ (‬satellitejockey,‭ ‬hack3rman,‭ ‬etc‭)‬.‭  ‬These accounts are maintained and updated automatically through RSS feeds,‭ ‬retweets,‭ ‬and linking together social media commenting between platforms.‭  ‬With a pool of these accounts to choose from,‭ ‬once you have a real name persona you create a Facebook and LinkedIn account using the given name,‭ ‬lock those accounts down and link these accounts to a selected‭ ‬#‭ ‬of previously created social media accounts,‭ ‬automatically pre-aging the real accounts.

Yes!!! That's how democracy and the first amendment are supposed to work.

In another Word document, one of the team spells out how automation can work so one person can be many personas:

Using the assigned social media accounts we can automate the posting of content that is relevant to the persona.  In this case there are specific social media strategy website RSS feeds we can subscribe to and then repost content on twitter with the appropriate hashtags.  In fact using hashtags and gaming some location based check-in services we can make it appear as if a persona was actually at a conference and introduce himself/herself to key individuals as part of the exercise, as one example.  There are a variety of social media tricks we can use to add a level of realness to all fictitious personas

I don't know about you, but this concerns me greatly. It goes far beyond the mere ability for a government stooge, corporation or PR firm to hire people to post on sites like this one. They are talking about creating  the illusion of consensus. And consensus is a powerful persuader. What has more effect, one guy saying BP is not at fault? Or 20 people saying it? For the weak minded, the number can make all the difference.

And another thing, this is just one little company of assholes. I can't believe there aren't others doing this already. From oil companies, political campaigns, PR firms, you name it. Public opinion means big bucks. And let's face it, what these guys are talking about is easy.

Just today I was listening to Stand Up with Pete Dominic on XM's POTUS channel. He was talking about the Wisconsin labor attack and how he had seen a lot of people email and contact the show in support of the Teachers there. Then he added a "but": "I've also seen a lot of anti-labor people on Twitter..."

Really? I thought. How do we know if those are real people? Twitter has to be the easiest thing to fake and to automate with retweets and 180 characrer max sentences. To the extent that the propaganda technique known as "Bandwagon" is an effective form of persuasion, which it definitely is, the ability for a few people to infiltrate a blog or social media site and appear to be many people, all taking one position in a debate, all agreeing, for example, that so and so is not credible, or a crook, is an incredibly powerful weapon.

How many times have you seen a diary get posted that reports some revelatory yet unfavorable tidbit about someone only to see a swarm of commenters arrive who hijack the thread, distract with a bunch of irrelevant nonsense, start throwing unsubstantiated accusations and ad hominem attacks to where before you know it, everyone's pretty much forgotten what the diary said in the first place.

Some times diaries deserve to be swarmed. But what if a diary is swarmed and it's really just one asshole working for a law firm that represents the oil company your diary was attacking?

I don't know about you, but it matters to me what fellow progressives think. I consider all views. And if there appears to be a consensus that some reporter isn't credible, for example, or some candidate for congress in another state can't be trusted, I won't base my entire judgment on it, but it carries some weight.

That's me. I believe there are many people though who will base their judgment on rumors and mob attacks. And for those people, a fake mob can be really effective.

I have no idea what to do about this problem, except just make sure everyone knows its possible, and so watches out for it.

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

Lastly, some here are falling for the meme that HB Gary personel, and especially Aaron Barr himself, are incompetent buffoons. This is a mistake. While Mr Barr may be a fool, he was not the one who fell for a spear fishing attack that allow an, apparently, 16 year old girl to gain access to their servers.

I have rummaged through the leaked email, some of which contain resumes for employees there. These guys are recruiting people with incredibly advanced skills from many different agencies and top universities like MIT.

HB Gary and its subsidiary, HB Gary Federal, as well as Berinco and Palantir, employed a lot of extremely qualified people with backgrounds in the NSA and ATT and other major organizations/corporations. These guys are pros.

Aaron Barr may be a mockery to Anonymous for running his mouth off. As he should be. But he's not an idiot and he wasn't the one who gave out the company's keys to a 16 yo girl.

I wanted to make this clear because it is in the interests of government and propagandists, and anyone else who wants this story to go away to try and blow all this off as one little company who wrote a proposal no one even read and who isn't even competent enough to protect its own servers so no one should pay any attention at all to what they were up to.

That is the narrative being spun, even here on this site, and it is entirely fictitious.

We are under attack. And the attackers are damn good at what they do. Pretending they're not, or that this isn't happening isn't going to make it better.

I do believe there are limitation to the effectiveness of such an attack on this site and others like it. This isn't twitter, and bullshit only goes so far, no matter how many personas are spreading it.

But everyone needs to be aware that not only are sites like this a target of attack, but that Daily Kos has been mentioned specifically as a target of attack.

Maybe this whole thing will be liberating. Maybe people will develop stronger spines and not be so easily swayed by raving mobs.

UPDATE: From another email, I found a  government solicitation for this "Persona Management Software".

This confirms that in fact, the US Gov. is attempting to use this kind of technology. But it appears from the solicitation it is contracted for use in foreign theaters like Afghanistan and Iraq. I can't imagine why this is posted on an open site. And whenthis was discovered by a couple of HB Gary staffers, they weren't too happy about it either:

The first email just had the title, "WTF Dude?"
The response email said, "This is posted on open source.  Are you fucking serious?"

Here's the link to the solicitation at website "FedBizOps.gov". Yes, that name doesn't sound like cronyism at all...

Link

Technorati Tags: HB Gary,Federal Government,CyberOps,Hunton & Williams,Anonymous,WikiLeaks,Current Events

Iranian Warships In Suez Canal?

  No, not yet but they could be passing through the canal in the near future if one is to believe the Israelis.

  What we have here is Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman saying that Iran will be sailing through the canal on Wednesday and he really has no proof that that is going to happen. He has not offered to explain just how he happens to know this and he calls the planned trip an Iranian “ provocation.”

               YahooNews

"This is a provocation that proves that Iranian audacity and insolence are increasing," he said in a statement.

The Egyptian body that runs the Suez Canal denied the claim.

Ahmed el-Manakhli, head of the canal operations room, said warships must get permission 48 hours before crossing, and "so far, we have not been notified."

  So what does Washington say about this?

State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley confirmed the presence of the ships in the area of the canal but would not say whether that was considered provocative.

"There are two ships in the Red Sea," he said, "What their intention is, what their destination is, I can't say."

  This is just Israel looking for a reason to start some shit with Iran over nothing at this point. Israel would like nothing more than to attack these 2 ships for even the smallest perceived slight.

"The international community must understand that Israel cannot ignore these provocations forever," he said, according to the statement. "We expect the international community to act with haste and determination against the Iranian provocations that are intended to destabilize the situation in the region."

     I take it that the canal is only to be used by those countries that Israel is not afraid of?

    We have the U.S. aircraft carrier USS Enterprise passing through the canal so I seriously doubt if the Iranians are going to start anything.

Technorati Tags: Israel,Iran,Middle East,Suez Canal,Current Events

Live Writer/Linux Test

  This is my last attempt at getting Windows Live Writer to work in a Linux O/S. I have had to download/install a virtual machine and then install my Windows 7 into it just to get this mess to work in Ubuntu.

   Here’s hoping!

Technorati Tags: Linux,Ubuntu,Windows,Live Writer,Current Events,Blogging

Glenn Greenwald Blasts government help in B of A's war on WikiLeaks & Anonymous

   The following article is one of many that have been ongoing over the past week or so, dealing with Bank of America’s attempt to illegally sabotage WikiLeaks and the hacker group Anonymous, using help from various “security” companies. This whole story came about because Anonymous beat one such company (HBGary) at its own game, and they posted many emails detailing just how far the corporations in the United States will go to keep their dirty little secrets. I’ll post other articles on this subject over the next few days.

Original Article

Glenn Greenwald Blasts government help in B of A's war on WikiLeaks & Anonymous    by Lefty Coaster

Glenn Greenwald launches a scathing attack on the double standard at work shielding the Bank of America's private war on WikiLeaks, and Anonymous, that made Greenwald into a target. Glenn examines the merging of corporate and government corrosion, effectively resulting in privatizing the Rule of Law.

The leaked campaign to attack WikiLeaks and its supporters .
Hunton & Williams was recommended to Bank of America's General Counsel by the Justice Department -- meaning the U.S. Government is aiding Bank of America in its defense against/attacks on WikiLeaks.

Especially (though by no means only) in the worlds of the Surveillance and National Security State, the powers of the state have become largely privatized. There is very little separation between government power and corporate power. Those who wield the latter intrinsically wield the former. The revolving door between the highest levels of government and corporate offices rotates so fast and continuously that it has basically flown off its track and no longer provides even the minimal barrier it once did. It's not merely that corporate power is unrestrained; it's worse than that: corporations actively exploit the power of the state to further entrench and enhance their power.

The exemption from the rule of law has been fully transferred from the highest level political elites to their counterparts in the private sector. "Law" is something used to restrain ordinary Americans and especially those who oppose this consortium of government and corporate power, but it manifestly does not apply to restrain these elites.

Because crimes carried out that serve the Government's agenda and target its opponents are permitted and even encouraged; cyber-attacks are "crimes" only when undertaken by those whom the Government dislikes, but are perfectly permissible when the Government itself or those with a sympathetic agenda unleash them. Whoever launched those cyber attacks at WikiLeaks (whether government or private actors) had no more legal right to do so than Anonymous, but only the latter will be prosecuted.

What accounts for that brazen disregard of risk? In this world, law does not exist as a constraint. It's impossible to imagine the DOJ ever, ever prosecuting a huge entity like Bank of America for doing something like waging war against WikiLeaks and its supporters. These massive corporations and the firms that serve them have no fear of law or government because they control each. That's why they so freely plot to target those who oppose them in any way. They not only have massive resources to devote to such attacks, but the ability to act without limits.
John Cole put it this way: .

One thing that even the dim bulbs in the media should understand by now is that there is in fact a class war going on, and it is the rich and powerful who are waging it. Anyone who does anything that empowers the little people or that threatens the wealth and power of the plutocracy must be destroyed. There is a reason for these clowns going after Think Progress and unions, just like there is a reason they are targeting Wikileaks and Glenn Greenwald, Planned Parenthood, and Acorn. . . .

You have to understand the mindset- they are playing for keeps. The vast majority of the wealth isn't enough. They want it all. Anything that gets in their way must be destroyed. . . . And they are well financed, have a strong infrastructure, a sympathetic media, and entire organizations dedicated to running cover for them . . . .

I don't even know why we bother to hold elections any more, to be honest, the game is so rigged. We're a banana republic, and it is just a matter of time before we descend into necklacing and other tribal bullshit.

There are supposed to be institutions which limit what can be done in pursuit of those private-sector goals. They're called "government" and "law." But those institutions are so annexed by the most powerful private-sector elites, and so corrupted by the public officials who run them, that nobody -- least of all those elites -- has any expectation that they will limit anything. To the contrary, the full force of government and law will be unleashed against anyone who undermines Bank of America and Wall Street executives and telecoms and government and the like (such as WikiLeaks and supporters), and will be further exploited to advance the interests of those entities, but will never be used to constrain what they do. These firms vying for Bank of America's anti-WikiLeaks business know all of this full well, which is why they concluded that proposing such pernicious and possibly illegal attacks would be deemed not just acceptable but commendable.

From the New York Times:

Hackers Reveal Offers to Spy on Corporate Rivals One idea was to submit fake documents covertly to WikiLeaks, and then expose them as forgeries to discredit the group. It also suggested pressuring WikiLeaks’ supporters — notably Glenn Greenwald of Salon.com — by threatening their careers.

“Without the support of people like Glenn, WikiLeaks would fold,” the presentation said.

Another set of documents proposed similar ways to embarrass adversaries of the Chamber of Commerce for an initial fee of $200,000 and $2 million later.

The e-mails include what appears to be an exchange on Nov. 9, 2010, between Aaron Barr, HBGary Federal’s chief executive, and John W. Woods, a Hunton & Williams partner who focuses on corporate investigations. Mr. Barr recounted biographical tidbits about the family of a one-time employee of a union-backed group that had challenged the chamber’s opposition to Obama administration initiatives like health care legislation.

“They go to a Jewish church in DC,” Mr. Barr apparently wrote. “They have 2 kids, son and daughter.”

A week later, Mr. Barr submitted a detailed plan to Hunton & Williams for an extensive investigation into U.S. Chamber Watch and other critics of the chamber, including the possible creation of “in-depth target dossiers” and the identification of vulnerabilities in their computer networks that might be exploited.

Like Greenwald I am appalled by the growing merger between Corporate and Governmental power that this disclosure of Bank of America's hiring HBGary and Palantir at the DOJ's recommendation to attack WikiLeaks, and Anonymous (extending to even Glenn Greenwald) revealed. I find this frightening. I am reminded of a famous old quote on the nature of Fascism: “Fascism should more appropriately be called Corporatism because it is a merger of state and corporate power ~ Benito Mussolini
Please take to time to read the whole Greenwald piece at the link above.

In the 21st century unrestrained Corporate power has become the greatest threat to Americans' freedom and well being.

Technorati Tags: Anonymous,Bank of America,Glenn Greenwald,HBGary,Palantir,Corporate Crime,Current Events,Department of Justice

Testing Software

It has been one of those days as I have spent most of it playing around with an Linux operating system, and trying ti find blogging software that works in the manner which I would like it to. I have tried all of the top software, with no luck in getting the programs to post my articles.

This is a test of another, very simple program, which I already do not care for.

Is there a Linux version of Windows Live Writer out there?

Obama’s 2012 Budget

   From what I have gather thus far, the liberals dislike most of the budget proposals because the poor will suffer more than need be, and the conservatives dislike the plans because not enough is cut from the budget according to them.

CNN

Outraged liberals called it a callous assault on the poor; dismissive conservatives labeled it a debt-riddled assault on future generations.

  Obama’s 2012 budget would cut  the deficit by $1.1 trillion over the next 10 years with 2/3 coming from reductions in spending and the rest from tax increases.

The plan includes a five-year freeze on nonsecurity discretionary spending. Some programs, such as low-income heating assistance, would face the budget knife. New limits would be placed on deductions for home mortgage interest and charitable contributions.

   Even with some annual deficit trimming, this budget will still add $7.2 trillion to the national debt by 2021. That will be the same time that I hit my “ retirement age,” and I will be able to draw from my Roth IRA, which will be worth not to much by that time, at the current earning levels in the stock market amongst middle/lower class earners.

  So who is not happy with the budget plans?

"Every cut to necessary programs ... needs to be judged in the context of the unnecessary tax cuts for Wall Street millionaires that passed at the end of last year," the Progressive Change Campaign Committee (PCCC) said in a statement, referring to Obama's deal extending the Bush-era tax cuts for two more years.

"We must make bigger investments in America's future starting now -- and ask the Wall Street millionaires who got us into this mess to do more to help pay for it."

The PCCC counts hundreds of 2008 Obama campaign staffers among its members.

Obama "says that he wants to work with us to begin reining in spending, but ... (his budget goes) in exactly the opposite direction," said New Jersey Representative Scott Garrett, a top House Budget Committee Republican. "Today is Valentine's Day, but I don't know if this is the card that America was hoping to get from the administration. It's a card that says you owe more to the federal government."

   No entitlement reforms are proposed for either Social Security or Medicare at this time. Obama and the Republicans are placing that issue on the back-burner for now. There will be day of reckoning in our future, especially with Medicare. Voters aren’t concerned yet, but they will be.

But roughly 80 percent of Americans would rather prevent significant cuts to Medicare and Social Security than reduce the deficit. Overwhelming majorities also shy away from cuts in education, veterans' benefits, infrastructure spending or aid to the unemployed.

Cut, but not too much. And steer clear of the most popular programs.

Technorati Tags: Barack Obama,President Obama,2012,Budget Cuts,Current Events,Deficits

On paper, at least, the broader electorate appears to be embracing positions fairly closely in line with an administration now gearing up for a tough re-election fight.

 

A Total Idiot…

…. is all that one can say that Oregon resident Stanislav Vadimovich Bakanov is after getting arrested because the man filmed himself going some 140 miles per hour so that he could post the video up on YouTube.

Stanislav Vadimovich Bakanov was pulled over by police on Oregon Interstate 5 after he was clocked driving his black 2005 BMW at 118 mph. He filmed Sheriff's Deputy Ryan Postlewait as he approached the car.

When Postlewait asked why he was videotaping, Bakanov said he was filming his speedometer, and his arrest, to post on Youtube. The video later revealed that Bakanov had attained speeds in excess of 140 mph.

   He was arrested and charged with speeding (3rd time) and reckless driving. The video will be used as evidence against him.

Technorati Tags: Portland Oregon,Speeding Tickets,Current Events

Jeb Bush Says No Run For President In 2012…

…and that is one load of worry off my mind! That’s all that we need, another Bush family member in the White House. I do not think that dear ole Jeb would beat Obama anyway,but, the citizens of the United States are short on memory and  long on stupid when it come to politics. I refer generally to the population living in the state of Florida, who put this man in as their governor two times. He had a hand in making Florida the crappy state that it is today, with help from the Republican controlled “ good ole boys “ state legislature.

   Of course, the Republican thinking (?) is that Jeb Bush could help to garner more of the Hispanic vote, which the GOP badly will need to win the election in 2012.

  St. Petersburg Times

"There's no question Jeb Bush is one of, if not the, most popular Republican in the country, but the fact is he's not running,'' said Ron Kaufman, a veteran Republican strategist who helped Jeb's father win the White House in 1988.

In 2010, Senate candidates like Marco Rubio in Florida and Pat Toomey in Pennsylvania showed Republicans how ardent and uncompromising conservatives can win not only primaries, but also general elections. This year the Republican frontrunner is Romney, with his reputation for flip-flops and a record of enacting health care reform in Massachusetts that looks a lot like "ObamaCare."

National Review editor Rich Lowry wrote a column last week practically begging Bush to run and making a strong case for why he should.

"Obama is slightly below 50 percent in the polls, with a real weakness in the middle of the country, and he's saddled with a recovery that has yet to produce substantial job growth," Lowry wrote. "Yet there is no true frontrunner in the race to challenge him. It's hard to imagine an environment better suited for a heavyweight like Jeb to make a run."

Politico on Friday offered up its own Jeb buzz: "More and more Wall Streeters think (hope?) Jeb Bush will let the other GOP candidates beat each other up then swoop in late as the savior. These people say Bush fatigue will fade once people realize how different Jeb is from W."

Don't bet on it.

   Make my day, Bush. the public may be short on memory, but your dear brothers sad leadership and the sad leader that you were in Florida would be brought back to the voters attention.

    Barack Obama may not be a 10, but it sure as hell beats another 0 in the White House.

Technorati Tags: 2012 Elections,Republicans,Jeb Bush,Mitt Romney,Newt Gingrich,Politics,Current Events

Egyptian Revolution and America

 

11-2-11

By Clayton Swisher   on February 11th, 2011.

Finally a recent date has come to pass reflecting positively on the people of the Middle East. They richly deserve it. September 11, 2001, was a horrendous crime against the world. But on this day it's worth remembering that those who attacked on that day drew inspirations, at least in part, from the hands of their torturers in Egyptian jails.

On 11/2/11, the world can collectively celebrate, as it witnesses a persistent civilisation courageously revolting to earn their freedom, secret police be damned.  
That Mubarak was an authoritarian dictator kept on political life support by the West, especially the United States Congress, will remain fresh in people's minds, and a stain on America's own foreign policy.

But all that's for the historians. After dithering and taking wishy-washiness to new levels since the revolution began, President Obama's foreign policy team is resigned to the category of regional irrelevance that it merits. So too are the Johnny-come-latelies in the EU and elsewhere, who only phoned in their support once the presidential plane was wheels up for Sharm El Sheikh.  

The Egyptian people know they ousted Mubarak in spite of Washington, Brussels, or Tel Aviv.  The entire Arab world knew from the beginning that all those parties, especially the US, were singularly obsessed with one pathetic question throughout: whether the next Egyptian leadership would continue to support the peace agreement with Israel.

The American blinders were far narrower than the masses at Tahrir Square could have possibly appreciated.  As they stood outside day and night there was no time for them to watch episodically interested American networks. Spotty internet service probably denied them the ability to peruse the latest WikiLeaks revelations. If they had, they would have noted, perhaps to no surprise, that their unelected vice-president Omar Suleiman was so eager to do the US-Israeli bidding that in December 2007 he advocated seeing the people of Gaza (fellow Muslims no less) "go hungry but not starve" in response to the election of Hamas. There are much worse anecdotes in our recently released Palestine Papers.  How about that freedom agenda, America?

That logic taken further, it means the same Suleiman would do far worse to suppress the Muslim Brotherhood within Egypt, which is especially what the American Right and the eager-to-prove-their-security-credentials Left would like.  "The Muslim Brotherhood is a mortal enemy of our civilization," says Newt Gingrich, the revered Republican party strategist.  Even if they were, and they most clearly are not, Gingrich and any other US political parties will have to come to terms with a reality they have so far failed to grasp. The Arab and Muslim world are making changes with their feet. They draw their strength and power from the numbers they bring and the righteousness of their causes. They are unafraid and unshackled to take on the status quo.  

These are the same people who will determine their destiny, arbitrarily chosen for them by Westerners with last names like Sykes and Picot and by DC-based lobbies and think tanks that once mattered in the scheme of things but don't so much any more.

This is not a time in history to fear, though many would like us to. The devil we have known has not been good to the world either.

In its place, the Egyptian people step forward to offer this inspiring gift, a moment of change for the Arab people, and a real opportunity for the West to reflect on its sordid Middle East interventions.

The best lesson of all, of course, is the promise of what the Arabs can accomplish not on the back of an American tank, but through the coalescing of masses around information and ideas, which in the New Media age of Facebook and Twitter, is beholden to no dictator, lobby, or monopoly.  

           

Technorati Tags: Egypt,Middle East,United States,Foreign Policy,Barack Obama,Current Events

So What’s Up In Egypt Now?

   I have had to reinstall my Windows 7 from a recent snap-shot, but not recent enough, so here is some of the latest from Al Jazeera blog feeds

(All times are local in Egypt, GMT+2)

4:00pm Al Jazeera's James Bays, reporting from Cairo, says the curfew hours in the country have been reduced, and are now in effect from midnight until 6 am. Meanwhile, state tv announced that the stock market is due to open on Wednesday.

3:29pm The New York Times reports on how Friday's events in Egypt seemed to take many news organisations by suprise - many except for Al Jazeera:

There was no hesitation on the English-language service of Al Jazeera, which covered the uprising 24 hours a day and provided an up-close, almost personal experience of populist revolt. At times, the coverage looked less like a front-row seat to history than a video game — World of Warcraft: Anti-Mubarak Edition.

3:11pm Egypt's Supreme Council of the Armed Forces has just issued its fourth communiqué broadcast live on state television.

In the announcement, the country's new military rulers promised to hand power to an elected, civilian government. They also pledged that Egypt would remain committed to all international treaties - in an apparent nod to its 1979 peace treaty with Israel.

11:50 The Associated Press news agency has reported that Syria's state-run press is praising the fall of the Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak.
The Al-Baath daily of Syria's ruling Baath Party said Mubarak's departure will change the "face of Egypt, the region and the entire world."

Al-Baath said Egypt under Mubarak was "at the service of the Zionist and American project."

Technorati Tags: Egypt,Middle East,Hosni Mubarak,Current Events,Al Jazeera

Saturday Satire

    Another one of those hectic weeks has come and gone. Hosni Mubarak has left the Egyptian capitol for his massive palace to plot his next move. Mitt Romney has taken to scrubbing his support for mandated healthcare from his book which came out about a year ago. Another GOP two-faced piece of garbage.

     So let us have a few laughs from the late-night talk show crowd.

Conan O'Brien :

"The demonstrations are getting bigger in Cairo. The Egyptian government tried to disperse the crowd with tear gas, and when that didn’t work, a Black Eyed Peas halftime show."

"Christina Aguilera is bouncing back from her Super Bowl appearance by singing at the Grammys. She’ll be accompanied by a full orchestra and 135 teleprompters."

Craig Ferguson:

"Michelle Obama says her husband, President Obama, has quit smoking. Fox News reported this as 'Obama Destroying the Tobacco Industry.'"

Jay Leno:
"President Obama had lunch with Republican leaders at the White House today and had to do without salt, pepper and butter. Not for dietary reasons. The Republicans refused to pass anything.

"The problem in Egypt is that so many government officials are rich and the people are poor. I think it’s a pyramid scheme."

Jimmy Fallon:

"On the 'Today' show, Michelle Obama called the Bush twins 'magnificent' and Chelsea Clinton a 'solid young woman.' In fact, the only president’s kid she didn’t compliment was George Bush Sr.’s."

"Nancy Pelosi described Justin Bieber as 'adorable but also substantial,' while Justin Bieber described Nancy Pelosi as 'court ordered to maintain a distance of 300 feet at all times.'

"Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak is the richest man in the world, with more than $70 billion in hidden assets. That will go up even more once his unemployment kicks in."

Technorati Tags: Politics,Political Humor,Jokes,Jay Leno,Conan O'Brian,Jimmy Fallon,Current Events,Mitt Romney

http://no-dictator-needed.blogspot.com

Gallop: Jobs Rank Number 1

    While the Republican Party, lead by their little Teabagger Party , run around looking for government programs to disembowel, they may wish to take a very good look at what concerns the American public. It surely is not the deficit, which seems to be the only thing that Republicans can focus on.

All told, 7 in 10 Americans mention some economic issue when asked to name the most important problem facing the country, and the top two problems Americans cite as the most important ones facing the country directly reflect on the economic situation in the United States.

Technorati Tags: Gallop,Polling,Unemployment,Jobs,The Deficit,The Economy,Current Events

 

Mubarak Steps Down

Hosni Mubarak has stepped aside as President of Egypt and he has handed power to Supreme Council for the Armed Forces.

Watch Live

                       Celebration in Egypt

NYT:

CAIRO — President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt turned over all power to the military, and left the Egyptian capital for his resort home in Sharm el-Sheik, Vice President Omar Suleiman announced on state television on Friday.

The announcement, delivered during evening prayers in Cairo, set off a frenzy of celebration, with protesters shouting “Egypt is free!”

The Egyptian military issued a communiqué pledging to carry out a variety of constitutional reforms in a statement notable for its commanding tone. The military’s statement alluded to the delegation of power to Vice President Omar Suleiman and it suggested that the military would supervise implementation of the reforms.

Update: CNN's Saeed Ahmed tweets:

Tanks outside prez palace turn their barrels away from crowd. Cheer goes up. One soldier climbs out of tank, hangs #Egypt flag on turret

Omar Suleiman, the vice-president, announced in a televised address that the president was "waiving" his office, and had handed over authority to the Supreme Council of the armed forces.

Suleiman's short statement was received with a roar of approval and by celebratory chanting and flag-waving from a crowd of hundreds of thousands in Cairo's Tahrir Square, as well by pro-democracy campaigners who attended protests across the country on Friday.

The crowd in Tahrir chanted "We have brought down the regime",  while many were seen crying, cheering and embracing one another.

"Tonight, after all of these weeks of frustration, of violence, of intimidation ... today the people of Egypt undoubtedly [feel they] have been heard, not only by the president, but by people all around the world," our correspondent at Tahrir Square reported, following the announcement.

Technorati Tags: Hosni Mubarak,Egypt,Middle East,Omar Suleiman,Supreme Council for the Armed Forces,Egyptian Military,Current Events

16 House Republicans Learn the Cost Of Health Care

    Some of those new House Republicans are finding out for themselves just how expensive healthcare can cost when you have pre-existing conditions, and the government isn’t paying for your coverage.

Original Article

Hey Remember those 16 GOP that declined their healthcare?

by lanae     Wed Feb 09, 2011

Remember the 16 GOP members who declined their healthcare because the dems called them out of being HYPOCRITES of taking a government run plan but then denying others of the same plan? Remember they said they will repeal it because of their "PRINCIPLE" and wanting to defund that "MONSTROCITY" of a healthcare law. Well some are finally getting a taste of buying their own family's healthcare on the market out of their own pockets and they are going broke paying for it....hahahaha

http://dyn.politico.com/...

Ask any House Republican about repealing President Barack Obama’s health care law, and you’ll get the same fiery, self-assured talking points about tearing down what Speaker John Boehner has called a "monstrosity."

But talk to some of the 16 freshman lawmakers who have declined their government health benefits, and you’ll hear a different side of the story — about tough out-of-pocket expenses, pre-existing conditions and support for health reforms that would help those who struggle with their coverage. As they venture into the free market for health insurance, these lawmakers — many of whom swept into office fueled by tea party anger over the health care law — are facing monthly premiums of $1,200 and fears of double-digit rate hikes.

The experience has caused some of them to think harder about the "replace" part of the "repeal and replace" mantra the GOP has adopted regarding the health care law.

"I have a niece who has pre-existing conditions, and I worry about her if she was ever to lose her job," said Florida Rep. Richard Nugent, one of the freshman lawmakers who declined federal health insurance benefits.

Maryland Rep. Andy Harris caused an uproar during freshman orientation when he demanded to know how long it would take for his federal health insurance policy to kick in. Since then, the question of whether lawmakers who ran against the health law should accept their own government benefits has become a favorite game of partisan ping-pong in Washington. Democrats are demanding that the lawmakers who voted to deny reform benefits to the American public turn down their own federal employee health insurance, and Republicans have argued that accepting benefits from the government is not inconsistent with GOP support for employer-based coverage.

The freshman members who declined insurance have had to find other ways to cover their health needs.

Louisiana Rep. Jeff Landry is enrolled in an individual health savings account. New York Rep. Nan Hayworth, an ophthalmologist, gets employer-based coverage through her husband, who is a doctor. Rep. Cory Gardner of Colorado purchases his plan through an insurer in his home state.

Now that Republicans have made good on their pledge to repeal the health care law, some of them are already feeling pressure to offer policy solutions that would address the problems in the insurance market — ones that the new members, having declined benefits, should have some experience with.

One new Republican House member, Rep. Sean Duffy of Wisconsin, recently told a local TV program that he needed a commitment from GOP leaders that they’d offer their own health care proposals before he voted to repeal the Democrats’ bill.

"My position during the campaign and today is, let’s reform the reform or repeal and replace. And so, I wasn’t going vote for it," Duffy said. "But I went and spoke to the leadership, and I got a commitment that we were going to bring forward our ideas on this replacement bill."

Looks like the new members of congress are feeling the heat of paying for their monstrosity of a healthcare cost. Serves them right. Now they get a taste of what 'REGULAR" folks out here are going through with regards to their heatlhcare.. I hope they go bankrupt.

Technorati Tags: GOP,Health Care,Healthcare Repeal,Current Events

Egyptian Protesters “Farewell Friday” Rally…

     is happening at this moment with the protesters once again chanting for former president Mubarak to leave.

  Al Jazeera Live

   It is also just now being reported by the AFP news agency  that Mubarak and his family have left Cairo, according to a government source. At this time, the dictators destination is unknown.

Technorati Tags: Egypt Protesters,AFP,Mubarak,Current Events

 

Mubarak’s Vice President Gets The Job….

   ….which is pretty much be the same as George Bush stepping down as President and giving the job to Cheney. Nothing would change.

   Let’s take a look at some of the Egyptian Citizens feelings about Mubarak giving the post to his second in command.

RawyaRageh Important question arising after Mubarak's speech -- is there a split btw the military and the presidency? #Egypt #Jan25 #Tahrir 54 minutes ago · reply

RawyaRageh Many now wondering -- how come the military made the statement that it's standing by protesters, then this speech by Mubarak? #Jan25 55 minutes ago · reply

RawyaRageh #Tahrir protesters chant 'Where is the army, where is the army' - a call for officers to stage a coup? #Egypt #Jan25 about 1 hour ago · reply

RawyaRageh Mona Seif, pro-democ activist on AJE now saying protesters marched on State TV, 'never seen #Tahrir crowd this angry' #Egypt #Jan25 about 1 hour ago · reply

Technorati Tags: Egypt,Egypt Protests,Mubarak,Omar Suleiman,Current Events

Mubarak To Step Down?

Al Jazeera Live

   That is the latest report coming from YahooNews this morning.

  They say that military commander Gen. Hassan al-Roueini told the protesters at Tahrir Square that, "All your demands will be met today."

   The military’s top brass has been meeting on Thursday and has told state TV that it supports the legitimate demands of the Egyptian people.

The statement was labelled "communique number 1," a phrasing that suggests a military coup.

The head of the ruling party, Hossam Badrawi, told The Associated Press that he expects that Mubarak will "address the people tonight to respond to protesters demands."         YahooNews

Technorati Tags: Egyptian Protesters,Egypt,Hosni Mubarak,Current Events,Breaking News

BUSTED: Anonymous Uncovers Corporate ( BofA) Proposal to Take Down Wikileaks

Original

by an0nym0us   Wed Feb 09, 2011

   Anonymous counter-intelligence operations have uncovered evidence of an effort by Bank Of America (BoA) to disrupt both Wikileaks and Anonymous. Details of BoA's involvement began emerging on February 8th, 2011, during Anonymous' Operation #HBGary.

   Operation #HBGary was retribution against (in)security firm HBGary, and its associate company HBGary Federal, for threatening to release innacurate and fallacious information about Anonymous. During the operation, Anonymous double-penetrated HBGary's corporate network, compromised the personal email and social networking accounts of several HBGary employees (evidence of which is still online at the time of this document's creation), retrieved some 50,000 corporate emails, discovered HBGary "product" source code, and wiped Aaron Barr's personal iPad (for shits 'n' giggles).

   Among the emails retrieved from HBGary, Anonymous uncovered communications between Bank of America's legal representation, HBGary, Palantir, and BericoTechnologies detailing efforts to weaken Wikileaks through misinformation and targeted cyber attacks.

   In the proposal to be presented to Bank of America, representatives from the three security companies outlined strategic operations against Wikileaks and its supporters, including psy-ops and cyber attacks against the Wikileaks infrastructure and its supporters.

   BoA's interest in supressing/disrupting Wikileaks is evidence that they fear becoming the next focal point of Wikileaks, and that they, and their associates, will stop at nothing to protect their own selfish interests at the expense of innocent people around the globe.  Anonymous will not sit idle while corporate greed and government power-mongering wreak havok on civil liberties.

   The unedited emails are included at the end of this release and the proposal can be viewed on-line at: http://goo.gl/...

Anonymous has a message for corporations and governments around the world:
Fuck with the truth at your own peril.

We are Anonymous.
We are Legion.
We do not forgive.
We do not forget.
Expect us.

P.S.: The kind of "research" being conducted by HBGary and co. is a flagrant violation of Facebook's Terms of Service. See Article 5.7 for further clarification:

   * "Article 5. Protecting People's Rights. Subarticle 7. If you collect information from users, you will: obtain their consent, make it clear you (and not Facebook) are the one collecting their information, and post a privacy policy explaining what information you collect and how you will use it."

Read The Emails. After clicking the link, you must scroll down to the bottom of the article.

Technorati Tags: BofA,Bank Of America,Wikileaks,Fraud,Anonymous

The Muslim Brotherhood

  We hear a lot of stories about the Muslim Brotherhood since the outbreak of protests in Egypt, and we hear how terrible it would be if this group got a foothold in the political running of the country.

   Egyptian president Mubarak has been scaring his people with stories of how Egypt would be in turmoil if the brotherhood should ever get a stronghold in the country. It should be noted that they have had a pretty good influence in Egypt long before now. That is why its leaders are imprisoned and/or executed. The Muslim Brotherhood speaks out against Mubarak and they are then punished for doing it. Terrorist? Not yet.

Al Jazeera

Who's afraid of the Muslim Brothers

Western fears of 'Islamism' have been aided by Arab autocrats seeking to prolong their iron-fisted rule.

Mohammed Khan Last Modified: 09 Feb 2011

There are offshoots of the Muslim Brotherhood in countries across the region [EPA]

"Islamism" has been sending jitters through Western political corridors over recent years readily aided and abetted by Arab autocrats who have exaggerated and harnessed the "Islamist" threat to prolong their iron-fisted rule.
In the case of Egypt, the biggest bogeyman in this long-running battle over political supremacy with the state is the Muslim Brotherhood (the Ikhwan al-Muslimun) whose influence extends across the Arab and Islamic world.
With the Middle East and North Africa currently convulsed by popular uprisings against political repression, the Muslim Brotherhood has been thrust into the limelight, not only by those seeking a better insight into the origins and goals of the movement as they try to peer into Egypt's future, but also by those whose entire raison d'etre consists of demonising the Ikhwan for ulterior political ends.

"I'm fed up" of ruling Egypt, complained Hosni Mubarak to an American news channel on February 4 as protests against his 30-year presidency accelerated. "But if I resign now, there will be chaos. And I'm afraid the Muslim Brotherhood will take over," he warned.
In a couple of short sentences, Mubarak wonderfully encapsulated the fear that his regime has generated over three decades in order to maintain control. With little concern for the sentiments of his people, Mubarak played directly to the fears of his Western backers: Either support my despotism, whatever its limitations, he was saying, or face having to deal with the "Islamists".
While leaders in the US and the EU stutter over how to respond to the new realities in the region, unfortunately for Mubarak, the people of Egypt are refusing to buy into his fear-mongering. The Muslim Brotherhood - whether Mubarak's regime and his backers like it or not - is part and parcel of Egyptian society.

The Ikhwan is the "father" of Islamic political activism, tracing its roots back to 1928 when it emerged as a movement advocating a return to Islamic morals. Its early political activism was against British rule in Egypt when it opposed the Westernisation of the country. While its formative years were devoted to overcoming imperialism, its history has been marked by challenges to the political status quo and, thus, to fending off state repression. The Muslim Brotherhood has alternately been tolerated, outlawed, its leaders assassinated and/or executed.
Despite the suppression, its popularity has grown owing mainly to a network of medical, legal, social and charitable services that it continues to provide. Where the state has failed Egyptians, the Ikhwan has helped prop up peoples' lives.
Such is its influence that it has spawned offshoots in Algeria, Tunisia, Sudan, Libya and Somalia in Africa, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Palestine and Israel in the Levant, across the Gulf States and further afield in places such as Pakistan. Misconceptions in the West about the movement do not detract from the Brotherhood's popular following in Egypt and beyond. 

Milestones to where?

One of the most seminal works to emanate from the ranks of the Ikhwan, one which led the Egyptian regime at the time to clamp down massively against the movement, was Milestones, written by a powerful Brotherhood ideologue, Sayyid Qutb, in 1964.
The publication of Qutb's book, which called for the reinstatement of Sharia as the basis of Egyptian law and for the overthrow of what he labelled the "Jahili" (i.e. pre-Islamic) system prevalent in the country, led to his execution.
That Milestones is today considered the principal reference book for a myriad of armed Islamic groups across the world is testament to its influence. The book was used to discredit the entire Muslim Brotherhood with accusations that it advocated the violent overthrow of secular regimes. Anti-Ikhwan proponents felt little need to explain the circumstances under which Qutb penned his treatise: The fact that he was utterly disillusioned with the prevailing system after being subjected to years of solitary confinement and torture for his political beliefs made little difference to his opponents who sought to characterise his rejectionism as representative of Islamic political movements in their entirety.
Despite proclaiming to be a bottom-up "reformist" movement and eschewing violence, the charge of extremism has subsequently hung over the Brotherhood. Given the historical antipathy of the Ikhwan to the West, furthermore, Western governments have easily bought into the Egyptian regime's claims that the movement is a threat to their way of life. The old fears of, and tricks against, the Ikhwan are once again being employed as the most organised challenger to Mubarak's despotism joins (not leads) protesters in calling for his removal.

Although depicted as a regressive movement, the Brotherhood's membership is anything but unenlightened. The top tier of the movement is made up of doctors, lawyers, engineers and teachers, or the crème de la crème of the Egyptian middle class. The Ikhwan's social activism is derived from its members' ability to live and breathe the problems that average Egyptians face.

It is essentially a grassroots movement campaigning for the betterment of Egyptian society. That the movement gained an impressive 88 seats in the 2005 parliamentary election, or 20 per cent of the total, despite widespread electoral fraud (in 2010 it lost all its seats after Mubarak's National Democratic Party massively rigged the election once more, this time leaving nothing to chance) speaks volumes about its popularity.
Even in districts that are predominantly Christian, many voters opted to back the Ikhwan against the regime. Christian protesters are as resolute against Mubarak's dictatorship as their Muslim counterparts and many have expressed little worry about the Muslim Brotherhood despite the fear perpetuated by the regime.
In talks with senior US officials in 2006, the newly-appointed Egyptian vice-president, Omar Suleiman, termed the Ikhwan's parliamentary success in 2005 "unfortunate". Private US cables released by Wikileaks (from where the previous quote was taken) reveal starkly the obstacles that the Brotherhood has faced under Mubarak.

Opponents of the movement will continue to stoke fears about its apparent "clandestine" motives. The cry of "one man, one vote, one time" will be heard loudly and relentlessly from those seeking to deny the Brotherhood a role in Egypt's political future. This is one scare tactic, however, that the people of Egypt will not fall for. Political Islam is a force with strong roots in the country and in the wider Islamic world and will continue to remain so.

Algeria set a precedent in the early 1990s of the levels to which opponents of Islamic movements will sink to deny them a political role. A brutal civil war was the cost of voting for the Islamic Salvation Front back then. The people of Palestine are similarly being ostracised by the "international community" for voting in Hamas, an offshoot of the Ikhwan.
However, the people of Egypt, and only the people of Egypt, will decide what part the Muslim Brotherhood will play in Egypt's future development.
What will its detractors do in response? Scream, shout, curse and maybe try to prevent such an eventuality, if recent history is any guide.
Mohammed Khan is a political analyst based in the UAE.

Technorati Tags: Egypt,Egyptian Protests,Husni Mubarak,Muslim Brotherhood,Dictators,Middle East,Current Events

Obama’s New Budget Adds More Cash For High Speed Rail…

… which is a good thing for this country. The problem is that the Republicans living over in fantasy land will argue that the United States cannot afford it due to the deficit.

    In case you have not noticed, the GOP is still the party of “no.”

   President Obama proposing to spend $53 billion over the next 6 years  adding to the $10.5 billion spent at this point in time.

                       CNN

"There are key places where we cannot afford to sacrifice as a nation -- one of which is infrastructure," Biden said in a written statement. There is a pressing need "to invest in a modern rail system that will help connect communities, reduce congestion and create quality, skilled manufacturing jobs that cannot be outsourced."

   Rethugnicans will have fun screaming bloody murder over the spending proposal only because they don’t have a corporate stooge sitting up in the White House, when deficits and such do not matter.

Technorati Tags: High Speed Rail,Barack Obama,Deficit,Unemployment,Republicans,Current Events

Florida: Why Many Hourly Workers Are Poor or Worse

   THIS is why many employers can’t get good workers in the state of Florida, those that are hiring. THIS is also why the unemployed would rather draw an unemployment check than to find a job.

looking for a mac+pc tech.
must know how to replace LCD screens & dc power jacks.
send phone number & work history.
flexible hours. (part time)

• Location: Tampa
• Compensation: minimum wage.
• This is a part-time job.

   That job listing is representative of the earnings that many hourly workers find in this area.

Technorati Tags: Tampa,Florida,Unemployment,Minimum Wage,Current Events

The Post About Nothing…

…is exactly what this post is.

  I am doing this little post only because an exchange that I use stopped my rotation and flagged me with a warning. I can only surmise that a member complained about some of my content, which is pretty absurd since the only thing that a member will see is my recently posted page. That would be the post below this one.

    What is really messed up is that this particular exchange has no way to contact the administrator to find out what the content problem is, which makes it difficult to correct the problem. I used to run on another exchange not to long ago, and when there was a problem, I’d get an email telling me what was going on.  At least the group showed some common courtesy. The worst part is that I’ve been on this exchange for around 3 months or so posting all kinds of content that was much rougher than anything of recent.

  Hopefully this problem will be resolved in a quick manner, because I do like this group.  If not. Well, there are many more boats in the ocean to sail on.

   GO FIGURE

Technorati Tags: Traffic Exchanges,Alexa Rankings,Ciurrent Events.

Obama's Misunderstanding of Corporate America

DailyKos

by thereisnospoon    Mon Feb 07, 2011

President Obama's speech to the Chamber of Commerce today has been the subject of much praise and criticism. It deserves both, for in fact the critics and the enthusiasts are both right.

It's an extraordinarily well-crafted speech, from a rhetorical point of view. It makes a strong defense of progressive ideas; it shames the Right with their history of moral evil and factual inaccuracy; and it gently but strongly encourages business leaders to try to do the right thing. In that sense, the speech is a home run.

But the one blind spot in the speech is the one that plagues the entire Administration in its approach on everything from healthcare reform to recession abatement: a fundamental misunderstanding of economic incentives in the corporate world.

Obama's approach in the address was to request that business leaders do more to hire American workers rather than outsource jobs abroad; do more to stimulate the broader economy than their own bottom lines, and to ask not what America can do for them, but what they can do for America.

Sounds fair enough. But the President's speech, while intending to be conciliatory to business leaders, is actually incredibly insulting to them. In fact, a CEO of a major corporation with an ounce of intelligence would be more insulted by Obama's speech than by any Ed Schultz rant.

Without realizing it, the President essentially told every member of the Chamber that they've been bad little boys and girls, who put their own selfish interests ahead of those of the nation at large.  He tried to shame them, like a good parent would, into more altruistic behavior.

It would be nice to think that business leaders have all just had a moral lapse for the last 30 odd years.  But that's not the truth.  The truth is that any CEO who behaved morally in the ways Obama is asking would be in violation of the corporate charter, which demands maximum profit to the shareholder.  Corporations, by definition, exist to maximize shareholder return.  End of story.

So let's engage in a thought experiment.  Let's say that by chance, every major corporation in America were suddenly governed by high-minded altruists serving as CEO and Board of Directors.  Let's say that they did, each and every one of them, exactly as their President asked of them: they hired American workers rather than outsourced the labor overseas; ensured a fair and living wage for every employee; maintained the highest standards of safety in the workplace; made decisions for long-term stability rather than short-term profit; and did their best not to externalize their real costs onto the American public.  What would happen to those patriotic CEOs and Directors?

The answer is that they would get sued or forced out by their shareholders.  And rightly so, because they would be violating their charters and failing to do their jobs.

That is why big business and government will always necessarily be at odds with one another, if the system is functioning properly.  The key is balance: too much regulation and too much equality of outcome begets economic stagnation due to barriers to growth and lack of competitive incentive.  But too little regulation leads to massive exploitation, income inequality, loss of the middle class and destruction of social cohesion, which also begets economic stagnation and lack of incentive to uphold the common good.

There is no such thing as an economic utopia. The perfect economy, insofar as it ever can exist, lies in striking the perfect balance between the necessarily hostile forces of rapacious corporate profiteering, and burdensome government regulation. Both are necessary evils.

Obama's speech, sadly, fails to demonstrate an understanding of that fundamental principle.  This isn't about whether our corporate titans are behaving as good or evil moral actors. It's about whether they're incentivized to do the right thing or not.

The incentives and demands of the corporate charter are clear: maximize value to the shareholder.  Asking nicely of even the most beneficent and moral of the corporate titans that they explicitly violate that charter is worse than useless: it's an insult to their characters.

Only hostile regulation--regulation expressly opposed to the principle of shareholder return, and thus inimical to the individuals whose job it is to maximize that return--can do what is necessary to achieve the closest thing to economic utopia that we imperfect creatures will ever hope to attain.

Technorati Tags: American Corporations,Chamber of Co mmerce,Barack Obama,Current Events

Florida’s Lousy Wages

   THIS is why many employers can’t get good workers in the state of Florida, those that are hiring. THIS is also why the unemployed would rather draw an unemployment check than to find a job.

looking for a mac+pc tech.
must know how to replace LCD screens & dc power jacks.
send phone number & work history.
flexible hours. (part time)

• Location: Tampa
• Compensation: minimum wage.
• This is a part-time job.

   That job listing is representative of the earnings that most hourly workers will find in the Tampa Bay area.

Technorati Tags: Tampa,Florida,Unemployment,Minimum Wage,Current Events

Florida Attempting To Screw The Unemployed…

…and that is another one of those things that creep out of the capitol city ( Tallahassee ) with an intent to screw the general public up.

  This time around, the legislature is looking at ways to replenish the states unemployment trust fund, so it is now time for those morons to come up with something to make some money. Of course, an increase in taxes is off the table because so many darned businesses already pay to much ( 5% ).

   So what can the legislature do?

Gainesville.com

Lawmakers may shorten the time the state pays jobless benefits, make it harder for laid-off workers to win disputes with employers and force people to take low-paying jobs instead of waiting for ones with salaries matching what they previously earned. Legislators may also change tax rates so businesses hit with steep layoffs are more responsible for helping pay for those workers' benefits.

   With so many out of work here in Florida, the state has had to borrow some $2 billion from the feds to be able to pay the unemployment claims. Interest on those loans are coming due in a short time from now, so now the state perps have to scramble to come up with something. I guess  that it would have been to hard on them to work on ideas from the beginning.

   This is a Repugnican run state so it is no big surprise that the ones needing those checks the most will in most instances be the ones to suffer.

Florida's maximum unemployment payment — $275 a week — is among the lowest payments in the nation. But lawmakers, including Detert, have started asking whether the state is doing enough to prod people into work.

    First off, there is not a lot of work in this sorry state, which has it growth in nothing but the construction industry and in tourism. The real estate industry falling to pieces did not help either.

    It does not help to be living in a “ right to fuck you

work state. These states pay no living wages to the hourly worker,but want that worker to come into the job every day and then bend over for table scraps.

   So what else are the House and Senate going to come up with? Try :

Arthur Rosenberg of Florida Legal Services said lawmakers are "blaming a victim for a situation out of their control." He was especially critical of the proposal in both House and Senate bills that would make it harder for employees to win disputes over benefits, saying it will result in fewer people getting anything.

Currently, a laid-off worker has an advantage, but Rosenberg said that's needed because jobless people can't afford attorneys to fight employers in court.

Both the House and Senate have revealed bills this week that would require an initial skills review for those seeking jobless benefits. Detert said the requirement would help people get direction on possible places that they might seek jobs.

"I don't think it's good for anyone's mental health to stay at home and collect a check," Detert said.

Wentworth also raised concerns about a proposal to require laid-off workers to search for low-paying jobs to retain their benefits. Someone who has received 12 weeks of unemployment checks would have to look for "suitable" work paying as little as $275 a week — or $14,300 a year.

        More Here

Technorati Tags: Florida,Unemployment Insurance,Employment,Florida Senate,Current Events

Dumbest Political Quotes

   Another Monday is here and it will be a busy day for me. so, I am leaving you with some of the best jokes and quotes according to those fine people over at PoliticalHumor.com

'''Refudiate,' 'misunderestimate,' 'wee-wee'd up.' English is a living language. Shakespeare liked to coin new words too. Got to celebrate it!'''—-a Tweet sent by Sarah Palin in response to being ridiculed for inventing the word ''refudiate,'' proudly mistaking her illiteracy for literary genius, July 18, 2010

''If you don't hold us accountable, we'll do some real bad things in Washington, D.C.''—Sen. John Ensign (R-NV), who became the subject of a Senate Ethics Committee investigation related to the fallout from an affair he had with the wife of his best friend and co-chief of staff, Sept. 1, 2010

''The ocean will take care of this on its own if it was left alone and left out there. It's natural. It's as natural as the ocean water is.''—Rush Limbaugh, on the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, May 3, 2010

''I could give a flying crap about the political process ... We're an entertainment company.''—FOX News Channel's Glenn Beck, Forbes interview, April, 2010

''What if [Obama] is so outside our comprehension, that only if you understand Kenyan, anti-colonial behavior, can you begin to piece together [his actions]? That is the most accurate, predictive model for his behavior.''—Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, interview with National Review, Sept. 11, 2010

Technorati Tags: Politics,Political Humor,Political Quotes,Sarah Palin,Glenn Beck,Current Events