skippy the bush kangaroo

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10:20  they did it, norway:  that norwegian paper, which got cable dump late, remains most active now in posting them.

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but the bush tax cut extension just passed by a political elite increasingly united on economic policy—a ‘repo-demo’ party dominated by corporate interests—is only the first of three phases in a new policy offensive designed to protect the incomes of the wealthy and corporate america for another decade, to be paid for directly by middle- and working-class america. together, the three phases represent the emerging u.s. variant of a general austerity strategy, similar in objective but different in content to other austerity programs now emerging as well in the eurozone, japan and elsewhere. - common dreams

Labels: austerity, class warfare, democrats, middle class, republicans, social security, workers

male reindeer shed their antlers at the beginning of december, whereas the females retain their antlers throughout the winter. so sorry kids, rudolph and "his" gang appear to be all be female! - scienceblogs

Labels: animals, christmas, feminism

the federal communications commission's top official has given his approval to comcast corp's purchase of nbc universal with a number of tough and narrowly tailored conditions on the deal.

conditions for approval would address several key areas, including online video, program access and program carriage, according fcc officials who declined to be named. - reuters

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according to an article by facing south, department of corrections have been nervous about deteriorating conditions in georgia’s prisons since early 2010. wardens started triple bunking prisoners in response to budget cuts—squeezing three prisoners into cells intended for one. prison officials have kept a watchful eye out for prisoners meaning to riot, for prisoners’ rights lawyers to litigate, or both.

poor conditions and substandard medical care are also on the inmates’ list of demands. however, the jailed’s main gripe seems to center on landing recognition as workers entitled to fair pay.

as it goes, prisoners in georgia are forced to work without pay for their labor—seemingly a violation of the 13th amendment, which prohibits slavery and involuntary servitude.

for months the prisoners had apparently used cell phones to get in touch with inmates from other prisons, organizing a non-violent strike. the outcome began the morning of dec. 9—by dec. 13 the gdc issued a statement that four prisons were completely on strike. - death and taxes

Labels: multi-millionaire media, prisoner, strikes

In recent days, at least 439 Internet domain names that are critical of the bank’s top officials were taken off the market. The registrations of the domain names, which include imaginative swipes at the bank’s CEO, such as BrianMoynihanBlows.com and BrianTMoynihanSucks.net, effectively stop BofA-haters from slamming the bank’s top executives and directors –- or at least blocks any slams using a couple of very specific pejoratives.

Labels: banking, financial markets, internets

if elected president, barack obama plans to prioritize, well, barring broadband providers like at&t and comcast from prioritizing internet content.

affixing his signature to federal net neutrality rules would be high on the list during his first year in the oval office, the junior senator from illinois said during an interactive forum monday afternoon with the popular contender put on by mtv and myspace at coe college in iowa. - cnet

Labels: net neutrality, obama

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it rarely rains for days on end in southern california but when it does it doesn't just pour, it seriously kills the vibe.

in a part of the country where people conduct much of their lives in shorts and flip-flops, the half-dozen or so inches of rain that have drenched the los angeles area since friday — something that might be shrugged off in a place like portland, ore. — has all but created social catastrophe.

In the days leading up to christmas, outdoor shopping malls have been deserted, a phenomenon caused by people who see no need to ever leave the house if they have to take an umbrella and who, once they do leave home in the rain, are ready to turn around in terror at the sight of the first flooded intersection.

....in trendy santa monica, beach yoga had to be canceled.

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...when it comes to the fiscal problems with the states and cities, all you hear about are greedy, middle-class school teachers and firefighters. the 60 minutes interview even called their benefits "golden parachutes", as if they can be compared to the multi-billion dollar wall street benefits. what 60 minutes failed to mention was how wall street was extracting $4 billion from the states through financial wizardry. how many teachers and policemen could be paid with that much money?

...you might be under the impression that this class-based theft and destruction of the working class is self-defeating. after all, the wealthy have to live somewhere too. that would be naive, because the wealthy know exactly what they are doing and have planned for it. 

...you see, if you have enough money you can go anywhere. the wealthy know that patriotism is for suckers. that's why you don't see the sons of the elite on the front lines of wars. war is a racket, a profitable one for a select few, and paid with the blood of the poor. - gjohnsit over at the great orange satan

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just a week before the fcc holds a vote on whether to apply fairness rules to some of the nation’s internet service providers, two companies that sell their services to the country’s largest cellular companies showed off a different vision of the future: one where you’ll have to pay extra to watch youtube or use facebook.

the companies, allot communications and openet — suppliers to large wireless companies including att and verizon — showed off a new product in a web seminar tuesday, which included a powerpoint presentation (1.5-MB .pdf) that was sent to wired by a trusted source.

the idea? make it possible for your wireless provider to monitor everything you do online and charge you extra for using facebook, skype or netflix. - wired

Labels: big brother, cell phones, congress, corporations, fcc, franken, net neutrality

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Labels: 9/11, congress, daily show, gop, healthcare, jon stewart

napa state hospital, a 135-year-old facility for the mentally ill, sprawls over hundreds of acres in wine country, its grounds dotted with palm, oak and redwood trees.

but in this pastoral setting, an epidemic of violence has scared staff members and patients, leading state legislators to call for emergency financing to help make the hospital safe.

in october, a psychiatric technician was strangled inside the hospital’s “secured treatment area,” where the criminally insane live. last saturday, a rehabilitation therapist sustained four skull fractures when he was assaulted, allegedly by a patient who, days earlier, was accused of attacking a custodian.

in interviews, staff members describe an environment in which predatory patients prey upon the more vulnerable. the secured treatment area, which is surrounded by a fence topped by razor wire, is rife with gang activity, methamphetamine use, pimping and extortion, staff members say. yet, hospital police officers are prohibited from carrying firearms or tasers.

..the department of mental health reports that 92 percent of patients in state mental hospitals were referred by the criminal justice system; 15 years ago it was just 20 percent.- bay citizen

Labels: california, healthcare, mental illness

week after week, month after month, we watch politicians who disappoint us, not just as leaders but as people, failing to achieve the basic life-competency standard we expect of most grown-ups, doing things we wouldn’t tolerate from 15-year-olds. whether it’s mark foley writing sexy letters to little boys, or charlie rangel or duke cunningham or jerry lewis doing the pay-for-play game, or even assholes like orrin hatch roaring with partisan excitement when the individual mandate – his own idea – was recently declared unconstitutional by a federal judge (who himself has financial stake in the health care business), these guys fail the common decency/honesty test with unnerving regularity. It’s sad but true, but in 99.9% of all cases, you wouldn’t think of looking up to an elected official as a moral role model. which is why bernie sanders is such a rarity, and people should appreciate what he’s doing not just for his home state of vermont, but for the reputation of all politicians in general.

...while everyone else in washington was debating the political efficacy of the deal – the hill actually published a piece talking cheerfully about how ceos found a “new friend” in obama, while the new york times shamelessly ran a front-page “analysis” talking up the deal’s supposed benefits to the middle class and the political benefits from same that obama would enjoy – sanders blew all of that off and just looked at the deal’s moral implications. which are these: this tax deal, frankly and unequivocally, is the result of a relatively small group of already-filthy rich people successfully lobbying an even smaller group of morally spineless politicians to shift an ever-bigger share of society’s burdens to the lower and (what’s left of the) middle classes. this is people who already have lots of shit just demanding more shit, for the sheer rotten sake of it.- matt taibbi at rolling stone

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goldman sachs group inc.’s top executives will get about $111.3 million in stock next month in a delayed payout from last year and their record-setting 2007 awards, even as wall street prepares for lower bonuses.- bloomberg

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...from the beginning of his detention, manning has been held in intensive solitary confinement.  for 23 out of 24 hours every day -- for seven straight months and counting -- he sits completely alone in his cell.  even inside his cell, his activities are heavily restricted; he's barred even from exercising and is under constant surveillance to enforce those restrictions.  for reasons that appear completely punitive, he's being denied many of the most basic attributes of civilized imprisonment, including even a pillow or sheets for his bed (he is not and never has been on suicide watch).  for the one hour per day when he is freed from this isolation, he is barred from accessing any news or current events programs.  lt. villiard protested that the conditions are not "like jail movies where someone gets thrown into the hole," but confirmed that he is in solitary confinement, entirely alone in his cell except for the one hour per day he is taken out.

....this is why the conditions under which manning is being detained were once recognized in the u.s. -- and are still recognized in many western nations -- as not only cruel and inhumane, but torture.  more than a century ago, u.s. courts understood that solitary confinement was a barbaric punishment that severely harmed the mental and physical health of those subjected to it.  - glenn greenwald at salon

Labels: torture, wikileaks

....i have no doubt the insurance executives i used to work with were doing high fives when the public option bit the dust, and their favorite part of the bill — the mandate that will require us to buy their insurance products if we're not eligible for an existing public plan like medicare, medicaid or the va program — became the law of the land.

after the recent ruling by the federal judge in virginia that the mandate to purchase health insurance is unconstitutional, however, I'm sure my old buddies who are still in the industry are downright apoplectic.

as i noted in my essay in newsweek last month, the insurers, and the republicans they helped to elect to congress, have a real dilemma on their hands. the republicans led voters to believe that the new health reform law represents a "government takeover" of our health care system (it certainly does not, not by a long shot) and promised to "repeal and replace it." several politically-ambitious gop attorneys general (and one democrat) filed lawsuits challenging the constitutionally of the individual mandate so prized by the insurers.

now that the virginia judge has sided with those ags and other plaintiffs, the insurance industry flacks (like i used to be) are now spinning in overdrive. - wendell's post over at the great orange satan

Labels: daily kos, healthcare, insurance

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...despite the aura of omnipotence most empires project, a look at their history should remind us that they are fragile organisms. so delicate is their ecology of power that, when things start to go truly bad, empires regularly unravel with unholy speed: just a year for portugal, two years for the soviet union, eight years for france, 11 years for the ottomans, 17 years for great britain, and, in all likelihood, 22 years for the united states, counting from the crucial year 2003.

future historians are likely to identify the bush administration’s rash invasion of iraq in that year as the start of america's downfall. however, instead of the bloodshed that marked the end of so many past empires, with cities burning and civilians slaughtered, this twenty-first century imperial collapse could come relatively quietly through the invisible tendrils of economic collapse or cyberwarfare. - salon.com

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