Annoucement

All of my agitations will be posted on Info Ink for the time being…..please stop by and enjoy.

Is The Economy In Danger?

So you want an easy answer….then yes, Irene, it is!  It is in danger of having the same result as that of the Japanese in the 90’s.  Apparently, that is what you dicks are looking for…..the Repubs are hoping for it…for it will return them to power.  That is why they ALL want Obama to FAIL.  They may try to make it sound more noble than that, but the bottom line is they want him to fall on his face and the economy to collapse completely.

So yes Irene, you bet your scrawny ass the economy is in danger!

Joseph Stiglitz recently wrote on wsws.org:

The banking system has just been tested to see if it is adequately capitalized – a “stress” test that involved no stress – and some couldn’t pass muster. But, rather than welcoming the opportunity to recapitalize, perhaps with government help, the banks seem to prefer a Japanese-style response: we will muddle through.

“Zombie” banks – dead but still walking among the living – are, in Ed Kane’s immortal words, “gambling on resurrection.” Repeating the Savings & Loan debacle of the 1980’s. the banks are using bad accounting (they were allowed, for example, to keep impaired assets on their books without writing them down, on the fiction that they might be held to maturity and somehow turn healthy). Worse still, they are being allowed to borrow cheaply from the United States Federal Reserve, on the basis of poor collateral, and simultaneously to take risky positions.

Every downturn comes to an end. The question is how long and deep this downturn will be. In spite of some spring sprouts, we should prepare for another dark winter: it’s time for Plan B in bank restructuring and another dose of Keynesian medicine.

as usual the help is always for Wall Street….Main Street is struggling and dying….no one seems to care, especially Wall Street and Washington…their survival is all that matters.

Playboy Gets Fined

British media regulator Ofcom has fined Playboy TV 22,500 pounds ($32,990) for airing sexually explicit images in breach of broadcasting rules.

It said on Thursday the free-to-air channel Playboy One had broadcast unencrypted raunchy, and what the watchdog deemed offensive, material until September 2008.

Ofcom had received five complaints relating to seven late night programs broadcast between September and December 2007.

Shows investigated included: “Sexy Girls Next Door,” “Sexy Urban Legends” and “Adult Stars Close-up.”

“Depending on the individual breach, the explicitness, strength and, or, sustained nature of the sexual content and language was unacceptable for broadcast on an unencrypted free-to-air channel,” Ofcom ruled.

It said Playboy TV UK/Benelux Ltd had failed to ensure adequate protection for viewers from “potentially harmful or offensive material.

First of all….HUH?  What did they think they were gonna see when they tune in to a channel labeled “the Playboy Channel”?  Are there people that stupid that they think a show called “Sexy Girls Next Door” was about 6 maids a milking?  Absolutely no one is that flipping stupid!  This is just a ridiculous story.

To Smoke Or Not To Smoke

OKay, Irene….where do these people plan to stop this whole thingy?

Oregon smokers have been elbowed out of bars, shooed away from entrances, and now they could get a ticket for lighting up in their own car.

The Oregon House voted Wednesday to fine anyone caught smoking with a child in a vehicle, windows rolled up or not. Minors are defined as children younger than 17 and tobacco as cigarettes, cigars or the loose stuff in pipes.

If approved, House Bill 2385 would make such smoking a primary offense, punishable by a maximum $90 fine for a first-time offender.

I can see where they are going with this and I can see where it would be a more healthy thing…but I also see where it is involving the government into the lives of a family…..child abuse?  Then why not say because the government is not moving fast enough on emissions that they are also practicing a form of child abuse?  We can play this lame ass game for ever.

Vermont Joins Other States

Vermont on Tuesday became the fourth state to legalize gay marriage — and the first to do so with a legislature’s vote.

The House recorded a dramatic 100-49 vote, the minimum needed, to override Gov. Jim Douglas’ veto. Its vote followed a much easier override vote in the Senate, which rebuffed the Republican governor with a vote of 23-5.

Vermont was the first state to legalize civil unions for same-sex couples and joins Connecticut, Massachusetts and Iowa in giving gays the right to marry. Their approval of gay marriage came from the courts.

Tuesday morning’s legislative action came less than a day after Douglas issued a veto message saying the bill would not improve the lot of gay and lesbian couples because it still would not provide them rights under federal and other states’ laws.

Douglas called override “not unexpected.” He had called the issue of gay marriage a distraction during a time when economic and budget issues were more important.

The list grows longer and longer.

Sh!t Happens!

Found while surfing…..reported by the Associated Press…..

A federal judge sentenced a Sioux Falls man to probation, a fine and restitution for sending a letter containing animal feces in the mail. Jeffrey Dezeeuw, 45, pleaded guilty to a count of mailing injurious articles.

Prosecutors said he smeared the excrement on a traffic citation, a note and cash that he sent to the Minnehaha County Clerk of Courts on July 21.

Dezeeuw was sentenced to three years of probation, a $500 fine and ordered to pay restitution of $451.

There is NO humor in the court system what so ever……joking…….

About Damn Time

The Iowa Supreme Court issued a unanimous ruling Friday finding that the state’s same-sex-marriage ban violates the constitutional rights of gay and lesbian couples, making Iowa the third state where marriage is legal.

In its decision, the court upheld a 2007 district court judge’s ruling that the law violates the state constitution. It strikes the language from Iowa code limiting marriage to only between a man a woman.

“The court reaffirmed that a statute inconsistent with the Iowa constitution must be declared void even though it may be supported by strong and deep-seated traditional beliefs and popular opinion,” said a summary of the ruling issued by the court.

Are you sure we are talking about Iowa?  A unanimous decision?  All the others like New Hampshire or California were split decisions, but Iowa?

This is a great civil rights victory for gays and will be interesting to see where it will lead.  Will other states follow suit?

Someone Thank A Smoker

Federal taxes also are going up Wednesday on other tobacco products, including cigars. Federal per-cigar taxes, which vary based on weight and price, used to be capped at 4.9 cents but now are capped at 40.26 cents.

The tobacco tax hikes, which President Obama signed into law in February, will be used to finance an expansion of the State Children’s Health Insurance Program, or SCHIP. The expansion, which will cost $35 million over five years, is expected to secure federally funded health care for an additional 4 million children.

Before the expansion, SCHIP covered almost 7 million children whose parents earn too much to qualify for Medicaid — the federal health insurance program for the poor — but can’t afford private insurance.

So if anyone is benefitting from the SCHIP program in the future then the smoker is helping your child get the medical care that they are needing.

Someone…somewhere…say thanks.

Workers Beware!

The measures announced Monday confirm once again that the Obama administration is a government of, by and for the financial elite which exerts a stranglehold over the economy and controls the entire political establishment.

The investment bankers represented by Obama are using the economic crisis as an opportunity to fundamentally restructure class relations in America. Culminating a three-decade offensive against working people, they are destroying whatever remains of the gains made by previous generations of workers so as to intensify the exploitation of the working class.

The attack on auto workers will become the spearhead for similar attacks against workers throughout the country and internationally, in every sector of the economy. Wage cuts, layoffs and cuts in benefits and social programs will be implemented across the board. The Obama administration has already made clear that it is targeting basic entitlement programs such as Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.

After the auto companies received government loans last year, the UAW promoted the lie that the Obama administration would take a pro-worker position and the union bureaucracy enthusiastically backed his campaign. This, just as every other policy of the union, has proven to be a trap and betrayal of the workers’ interests.

The War of the Collars is approaching……which side of the line will you stand?

Here Is A Thought

When did identity theft become a big problem?  Could it have been around 2000 or 2001?  Why do you ask, Professor?

Back in the days of all the arguing about the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act of 1999 and then the Financial Services Modernization Act of 2000, which by the way, could be traced back as the beginning of the economic crisis, because of its deregul;ation of the finance industry, which in turn allowed all the credit trading and as we have been told was the “culprit” in the present economic situation.

But there was another argument in the opposition to these two pieces of legislation….it was the fact that the personal information of consumers was not adequately protected.  All the supporters of the Act assured the people that the Act was not going to effect consumers in anyway, but rather make it easier for the people to have access to loans to better their lives.

In a report written by the Electronic Privacy Information Center:

Consumers have no right under the GLBA to stop sharing of NPI among affiliates. An affiliate is any company that controls, is controlled by, or is under common control with another company. The individual consumer has absolutely no control over this kind of “corporate family” trading of personal information.

There are several exemptions under the GLBA that can permit information sharing over the consumer’s objection. For instance, if a financial institution wishes to engage the services of a separate company, they can transfer personal information to that company by arguing that the information is necessary to the services that the company will perform. A financial institution can transfer information to a marketing or sales company to sell new products (different stocks) or jointly offered products (co-sponsored credit cards). Once this unaffiliated third party has your personal information, they can share it with their own “corporate family.” However, they themselves cannot likewise transfer the information to further companies through this exemption.

Last year, identity theft cost the consumer billions upon billions, and it has been steadily on the rise since the enacting of the FSMA of 2000.

Sen. Dorgan of North Dakota said the the Act would put the US economy in peril in 10 years and so far …HE WAS RIGHT.  And consumer institutions were concerned that the people’s privacy was not protected in the ACT….so far…THEY WERE RIGHT!

So far the FSMA,  started in the Clinton Admin,  has been nothing but sorrow for the people of the US.  It helped make the economic crisis….it did not protect the consumer……and it definitely help turn the American consumer into an incurable credit addict…….it was a lose…lose…lose….piece of legislation that made millionaires into billionaires and the middle class into the homeless.

We can all be proud of Washington……(btw, that is sarcasm)