The Natives Get Restless

Wow! Two hundred show up to be a thorn in the side of these plutocrats. Good for them! I notice how it's local police, state police, and secret service providing security at this private event. Our tax dollars at work.

Occupy Wall Street

Have you heard of this wannabe movement, or what appears to be a sister site, the other 99?

Here's a good report by Amy Goodman from Democracy Now!

A good long article at Alernet.

And a bit of good criticism by Maha.

Solyndra Scandadl: Republican Smear

This pretty much sums up the recent "Solyndra Scandal" Republicans and right wing media are hyping:

Why Working People Are Not Doing So Good

This chart tells the story of the present depression:

This one is related:

http://blogs.reuters.com/felix-salmon/2011/03/30/chart-of-the-day-us-financial-profits/

Boehner Sides With Qaddafi

If there was a liberal news media that operated like Fox and Roger Ailes, this is how the headline would read.

The hypocrisy of Boehner demanding the "constitutionality" of the Libya bombing in a NATO operation, after leading the charge into Afghanistan and Iraq under Bush, just makes me want to puke.

These Republicans know no shame.

Rick Santorum: Really Ignorant

Recently, Rick Santorum, presidential candidate of the religious right, had this to say:

I believe the earth gets warmer and I also believe the earth gets cooler, and I think history points out that it does that and that the idea that man, through the production of CO2 -- which is a trace gas in the atmosphere, and the manmade part of that trace gas is itself a trace gas -- is somehow responsible for climate change is, I think, just patently absurd.

Seriously? The either Mr. Santorum is either ignorant of the science behind carbon dioxide's greenhouse effect, or is willfully in denial of the same. Note his accent on what he "believes."

Whether or not greenhouse gasses are the sole responsibility for climate change is not entirely relevant. The fact is, greenhouse gasses trap heat that would have escaped under normal conditions. Heat is energy and it's the energy that is producing climate change. The amount of carbon dioxide gas necessary for this to occur is 350 parts per million (ppm). Sure it's a trace gas, but that is all that is necessary. We are well past 350 ppm, having blown by 380 ppm. Every year tens of millions of tons of new CO2 are pumped into the atmosphere by the burning of fossil fuels. This has been plenty more than enough over any natural source to attribute this increase in greenhouse gas to humans.

Mr. Santorum thinking this is patently absurd is patently absurd itself. All he does is show willful ignorance of the topic. This tendency itself disqualifies this man.

Faith Based Everything

We all know the term "faith-based." It's usually applied to religious groups, who coined the phrase. It is, in fact, how they pursue their religion, and ostensibly their god.

It's not the religious context I want to bring up. The most powerful faith based idea around is in the economic realm. This global, free market, libertarian, neo-conservative capitalism, that has been embraced by conservatives and the Republican Party, including the wholey owned subsidiary Tea Party, is an entirely faith based economic ideology. It has it's holy scriptures, tenets of the faith, it's prophets, high priests, preachers, evangelists, seminaries, churches and cathedrals. To speak against this economic religion is to commit blasphemy and be branded a heretic.

Another is that of the military-industrial complex. However, there's a lot of corruption by the above. The whole basis of the MIC is there's a lot of MONEY to be made, and the way to do it is by imagining enemies everywhere that want to kill us. With making money the prime virtue of the faith, only a few heretics question it.

The big problem with faith based anything is that it obscures reality, making any problems that arise out of the idea in question nearly impossible to overcome.