Copyright and Patent Reform - The Nexus of All Things

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So what do Microsoft, the RIAA, the MPAA, and Monsanto all have in common? They want to keep you from accessing the things that culturally belong to everyone. They want you to embrace their monocultures of corporate control.

We are gearing up for famine. It will be televised by those that control your electronic devices and the right to the media. Live or die, your fate will be decided by corporations.

The judgment of fictitious person upon natural persons is upon us.

Maybe it's time to give power back to the commons.

"There's a crack in everything, that's how the light gets in" - Leonard Cohen

Torture Roundup

The 13 people who made torture possible
http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2009/05/18/torture/print.html

01. Dick Cheney
02. David Addington
03. Alberto Gonzales
04. James Mitchell
05. George Tenet
06. Condoleezza Rice
07. John Yoo
08. Jay Bybee
09. William "Jim" Haynes
10. Donald Rumsfeld
11. John Rizzo
12. Steven Bradbury
13. George W. Bush

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These people are an embarrassment to the rest of us in the United States. Right now, Obama is choosing to do exactly the wrong thing about it - which is nothing. He claims he doesn't want to look at the past but rather toward the future. The problem is that he is tasked as President of the U.S. to prosecute exactly these sorts of crimes. Obama is the chief law enforcement officer on matters of national policy with this much gravity. So choosing to do nothing sends the message that there are people that are above the law; or alternatively, beneath the notice of the current Prez.

I would suggest the following two options:
1. Prosecute every one of these assholes to the fullest extent of the law and then hopefully throw them in jail once they've had their day in court.
2. Pardon them for their various crimes by first enumerating each and every one of said crimes and then explaining why the grant of a pardon is somehow in keeping with the national policies or security interests of this nation.

Personally, I'd like to see a real prison time price paid for these types of crimes. Torture is an ugly crime and a blot upon our national pride. A simple political spanking will not do in my opinion.

But doing nothing is completely unacceptable, Mr. Prez.

Why Obama Sucks Cock in Hell

Obama Nominates Superfund Polluter Lawyer To Run DOJ Environment Division
http://thinkprogress.org/2009/05/15/ignacia-moreno-superfund/

Obama picks RIAA's favorite lawyer for a top Justice post
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-10133425-38.html

Obama adds yet another RIAA attorney to Justice Department roster (now there are 5)
http://boingboing.net/2009/04/13/obama-adds-yet-anoth.html

That Didn't Take Long: Insurance Industry Breaks Promise To President Obama
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jason-rosenbaum/that-didnt-take-long-insu_b_203863.html

Obama's top 10 stocks
http://money.cnn.com/2009/05/15/news/economy/obama-stocks/index.htm

The fund's Top 10 holdings, according to the Vanguard site are:
01. JP Morgan Chase (JPM, Fortune 500)
02. Apple (AAPL, Fortune 500)
03. Google (GOOG, Fortune 500)
04. Intel (INTC, Fortune 500)
05. Qualcomm (QCOM, Fortune 500)
06. McDonald's (MCD, Fortune 500)
07. Bank of America (BAC, Fortune 500)
08. Amgen (AMGN, Fortune 500)
09. CVS Caremark (CVS, Fortune 500)
10. Gilead (GILD, Fortune 500)

The Federal Reserve Cannot Account For $9 Trillion In Off-Balance Sheet Transactions
http://zerohedge.blogspot.com/2009/05/federal-reserve-can-not-account-for-9.html

AP Sources: Obama wants Fed to be finance supercop
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/huff-wires/20090508/us-financial-meltdown-supercop/

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And this is really just the tip of the iceberg.

The continuing bailout of the banks and financial institutions is just a handout via Wall Street butt-boy Geithner. There's no real oversight. What corruption exists in the process is known about and desired by this administration. Main street can go fuck itself - the only way people will get help with their mortgages is if the banks can get another handout along the way. Credit card reforms? Don't hold your breath...

Obama never preached a single-payer healthcare plan. He always wanted to court the healthcare industry as it is today. In other words, Obama means to enshrine the current corrupt and comepletely broken healthcare system.

We're not really leaving Iraq. We are entering into Afghanistan. So Obama is another military-industrial complex styled warmonger. Natch! So much for hope for peace...

Obama is not progressive in any sense of the word. The people he picks are not at all progressive. The plans he wants to implement are not progressive. FWIW, he didn't run as a progressive either.

So we got exactly what was promised: a corporate cocksucker wholly sold out to the biggest multinationals. He pretends much and accomplishes little. It's reverse Robin Hood all the way: grandma is taxed to pay for bankster bonuses.

But this is not a failure of liberal or progressive policy. Progressives must distance themselves from Obama and admit that all they really did was vote against McCain.

The right rhetoric spills from Obama's lips for the most part. But he does not do the right things. His interests are perfectly aligned to those of his corporate masters.

We are in Mouseland:
http://www.saskndp.com/history/mouseland.php3

Voting for centrists will get you nowhere.

GOP on Healthcare: Revenge!

With no public support and with health insurers actually at the negotiating table, the GOP has decided to stick to its obstructionist ways and sought the advice of Frank Luntz to stop healthcare reform. Luntz is a spin-doctor that comes up with rhetorical devices used to shift public opinion in specific ways. Luntz has drafted a memo for the GOP on the subject of healthcare reform and that memo has been leaked here:

http://wonkroom.thinkprogress.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/frank-luntz-the-language-of-healthcare-20091.pdf

It's pretty good reading. And yes, the whole point does seem to be to obstruct the inevitable. By dragging down healthcare reform the GOP once again positions itself as the party of irrelevance.

We're going to have to put the GOP down at some point. It can't be saved and it's kicking and screaming all the way to its own slow demise. A very poor showing, all in all. I hoped for some dignity from the party exhibiting so much bravado over the decades.

The GOP now shows its truest self: the whiny, colicky baby.

Mother's Day Humor

First there was "Dick in a Box":

http://www.nbc.com/Saturday_Night_Live/video/clips/d-in-a-box/51523/
...and "Dick in a Box - Uncensored Version":
http://www.nbc.com/Saturday_Night_Live/uncensored.shtml


...then "Jizz in My Pants":

http://www.nbc.com/Saturday_Night_Live/video/clips/digital-short-j-in-my-pants/1037122/

...and now there is "Motherlover":

http://www.nbc.com/Saturday_Night_Live/video/clips/digital-short-motherlover/1099491/

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Feel the love!

Klein/Maddow on Bailout

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Calling the bailout the "greatest heist in monetary history," Klein goes on to state that "the crisis on Wall Street created by deregulated capitalism is not actually being solved, it's being moved. A private sector crisis is being turned into a public sector crisis."

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The countdown to bank nationalization continues.

Obama and congress cannot have it all ways and they cannot please everyone. The evidence shows that they will please their financial and corporate masters first.

You and yours can get fucked.

Food is Culture

Country Watch: France
http://www.schoolfoodpolicy.com/2009/05/04/country-watch-france/

Here’s what students in one Paris school district ate for lunch last Tuesday: cucumbers with garlic and fine herbs; Basque chicken thigh with herbs, red and green bell peppers and olive oil; couscous; organic yogurt and an apple. For snack, they had organic bread, butter, hot chocolate and fruit.

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Wow. I know some Americans that had not tried some of the constituent items in that menu until well into their thirties. I have known Americans that would only eat junk food like potato chips. I have known Americans that ate only meat. What I rarely perceived was any sense of variety or true culture in what they were eating. They ate what they liked and that to which they had grown accustomed.

In all reality, I wish that I ate like that more regularly. I hate to admit that despite my own excellent palate I often eat far below my self-imposed standards.