The Velvet Hammer

Listen to the monsters...

My gift to you....this was SO much my family!

Warning; BAD language!

It takes a lot for a child actor to revisit his 8 year old self, especially when he is a successful director and has moved on. This takes a lot of guts!

http://www.funnyordie.com/videos/cc65ed650d

And the joke on us if McCain gets in?

Just keep clicking once you get there...

http://www.palinaspresident.us/

Just don't click on the red phone!

From my desktop Algonquin Table gadget:

I'm tired of hearing it said that democracy doesn't work. Of course it doesn't work. We are supposed to work it.

Alexander Woollcott

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

545 PEOPLE By Charlie Reese

[Charlie Reese is a former columnist of the Orlando Sentinel Newspaper]

Politicians are the only people in the world who create problems and then campaign against them.

Have you ever wondered why, if both the Democrats and the Republicans are against deficits, WHY do we have deficits?

Have you ever wondered why, if all the politicians are against inflation and high taxes, WHY do we have inflation and high taxes?

You and I don't propose a federal budget. The president does.

You and I don't have the Constitutional authority to vote on appropriations. The House of Representatives does.

You and I don't write the tax code, Congress does.

You and I don't set fiscal policy, Congress does.

You and I don't control monetary policy, the Federal Reserve Bank does.

One hundred senators, 435 congressmen, one president, and nine Supreme Court justices 545 human beings out of the 300 million are directly, legally, morally, and individually responsible for the domestic problems that plague this country.

Read more! »

This is my main bitch about the bitch. I love animals. Nature. Wildlife. I want a Sarah hunting season, frankly. I know the language is misspelled and that bothers me but the heart that put this together and the song combination shows good intelligence.

Do you really want this Lord of the Flies female in control of your life? Shoot...she might define US as huntable things!

The queen is a germanic cold so and so but Brit intelligence is not utterly dead...

It's Parrot's Day! Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaar!

James is the brightest young man I have run in to....ever. Enjoy.

And he is right - you can hear it at his Myspace:

http://www.myspace.com/jamesatwar

As if those pretentious and squinty glasses being snapped up by gop sheeple were not enough, they have actually made her an "action figure"/Barbie. You have three choices of the dollies:

The school girl - for dim Johnny and other lechers:

Mrs Smith Wanna Be Barbie

or............gop fave!

Executive Barbie

Here is Arrietty's recipe for any palin Barbie:

Get one (or more) palin Barbies.

Stick seamstress pins in it - those ones with colored knobby ends. Or nail it to an endangered tree. Smear it with your choice of eeewy geeewy. (Write me privately for the ones I use.)

Now tell that dang thing everything you dislike about her and call her the names that come to mind.

Then toss her in the Barby.

In the fullness of time her own karma will also do this to her.

This is a no-fail recipe.

Actually bonfires are best.

Call it The Bonfire of the Vanities.

(Hugs all round - EXCEPT [palin, grampy, shrubbery etc.)

Let's spend money like water. Let's fiddle while Rome burns. Hell on earth!

My Dad was a mathematician whose specialty was trigonometry and abstract arts that left me fuddled but he taught me math basics. Maybe I should go down to the Hill and explain them. Here are the big (and certainly not all burdens being heaped upon the public backs:

Thanks to http://www.warresisters.org

Total Outlays (Federal Funds): $2,650 billion

MILITARY: 54% and $1,449 billion

NON-MILITARY: 46% and $1,210 billion

Current Military

$965 billion:
• Military Personnel $129 billion
• Operation & Maint. $241 billion
• Procurement $143 billion
• Research & Dev. $79 billion
• Construction $15 billion
• Family Housing $3 billion
• DoD misc. $4 billion
• Retired Pay $70 billion
• DoE nuclear weapons $17 billion
• NASA (50%) $9 billion
• International Security $9 billion
• Homeland Secur. (military) $35 billion
• State Dept. (partial) $6 billion
• other military (non-DoD) $5 billion
• “Global War on Terror” $200 billion
[We added $162 billion to the last item to supplement the Budget’s grossly underestimated $38 billion in “allowances” to be spent in 2009 for the “War on Terror,” which includes
the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan]

Public demographics:

Children (people under age 18) made up one-fourth of the US population (24.6%), and people over age 65 one-eighth (12.7%) in 2006. [4]

24.6 children and 12.7 retired people are 37.3%. 100 less 37.3 is 72.7%.

305,186,613 current US population time 72.7% is 221,870,668.

2,650,000,000,000 Federal Budget
850,000,000,000 Mortgage Bailout
700,000,000,000 Bank Bailout
85,000,000,000 AIG Bailout

This makes a whopping $4,185,000,000,000!

If this is divided by adult population of 221,870,668 we get $188,623 per person. Chump change.

Side note: AIG was bailed out but NOT Lehman brothers.

http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSTRE4954DL20081007

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Richard Fuld, the disgraced head of Lehman Brothers, said he would wonder "until they put me in the ground" why the U.S. government did not rescue the 158-year-old Wall Street firm and claimed regulators knew the full scale of its condition far before its collapse.

One day after Lehman filed for bankruptcy protection, U.S. authorities stepped in to rescue AIG with a plan to lend the insurer up to $85 billion.

Is it because they are Jewish?

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=95602684&ft=1&f=1017

The bailout did nothing. The move to buy commercial paper did nothing. The fundamentals of the economy are evidently off, says Adam Davidson. Is there a solution? We explore the "heart attack of American commerce."

Now lets put the whole federal debt in the big picture of the financial health of the people who are meant to pay this bill.

Unemployment

Jobs are being lost at a record rate. Jobs that are not coming back. Jobs that are offered mostly are lower paid jobs or part-time jobs and most lack benefits.

http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/10/02/business/02usecon.php

U.S. unemployment rate soars

Analysts had estimated so-called continued claims to be 3.55 million. It was the 23rd straight week that claims were above 3 million, in another sign that the slowing economy is making it harder for U.S. workers to find jobs.

6.1% will be 7.1 (or more) by April 2009. Tax time.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-fi-economy6-2008sep06,0,3121791.story

U.S. unemployment rate hits 6.1%, highest level in five years

Employers slashed 84,000 jobs in August, steeper cuts than analysts expected.

By Maura Reynolds, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
September 6, 2008

WASHINGTON -- The economy shoved its way to the front of the presidential campaign once again, as the nation's jobless rate shot to a five-year high -- escalating fears that the country is spiraling into a full recession.

The unexpected jump in unemployment -- from 5.7% in July to 6.1% in August -- provided prime fodder for both presidential nominees as the fall campaign season kicked into high
gear. But with a Republican now in the White House, analysts said the news would give Democrat Barack Obama an edge over Republican John McCain.

Uninsured

I work in Insurance. I won't defend everything that they do ever. But it has a role in preventing financial ruin. One serious illness and you can lose everything. My husband was homeless once and several "families" had lost a loved one to illness, could not pay the bill and lost their homes. Families with children.

http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/full/333/7567/516?rss

More US citizens lack health insurance

New York Janice Tanne

The number of US citizens without health insurance reached a record 46.6 million this year—an increase of 1.3 million on last year. This is according to the latest US Census Bureau’s survey (www.census.gov/cps).

Almost one in six US residents lacks health insurance. The number of uninsured people has increased by seven million since 2000.

Nearly all the new people without insurance were working adults aged 18 to 64, who might previously have had employer based insurance cover. The proportion of people covered by employer based plans, the most common form of insurance, fell from 59.8% to 59.5% of the population.

Credit Cards

Let us not forget the favorite financial tool - The People's Bank - Plastic. Credit cards. Suddenly most people (85%) are being turned down for credit cards. Most credit cards are extending minimal additional available funds - usually $1,000. Oh, and the rates of interest will be climbing sharply. It's all good.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ike-eze/stay-away-from-me-credit_b_132463.html

Stay Away From Me, Credit Card Crisis
by Ike Eze

In June, consumer credit rose at an annual rate of 6.5 percent to a record $2.459 trillion, the Federal Reserve reported this month. Revolving credit -- the category that includes credit-card debt -- jumped 8.4 percent. Delinquencies and charge-offs are at their highest levels in years.

All this means that the credit card companies are scared out of their mind.

http://finance.yahoo.com/banking-budgeting/article/103811/The-915B-Bomb-in-Consumers%27-Wallets

The $915 Billion Bomb in Consumers' Wallets
by Peter Gumbel
Thursday, November 1, 2007

The doomsday scenario would play out something like this: Just like CDOs and other asset-backed securities, credit card debt is sliced, diced, and sold off again as packages of securities. Rising delinquencies would hurt not only the banks involved but the securities backed by the credit card receivables. Those securities would decline in value as consumers defaulted, leading to bank losses as well as portfolio losses in the hedge funds, institutions, and pensions that own the securities. If the damage is widespread enough, it could wreak havoc on the economy much as the subprime crisis has done.

But credit card debt is different from subprime debt in another way: Unlike mortgages, credit card debt is unsecured, so a default means a total loss.

Welcome to the new Depression, darlings! I am recommending "Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?" as our new national anthem.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jD1yWIId9rg

Let's start with Sarah... She is turning into the mother load of bad ideas and bad taste. This is going to be fun. I didn't even need to wander outside of today's columns and comments to come up with enough for my own debate.

From England, the article "Sarah Palin unleashed by John McCain for attacks on Barack Obama - US elections" by Toby Harnden in Washington
Last Updated: 7:43PM BST 05 Oct 2008

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/uselection2008/sarahpalin/3141071/Sarah-Palin-unleashed-by-John-McCain-for-attacks-on-Barack-Obama---US-elections.html

"Sarah Palin was deployed by John McCain as his election "attack dog" at the weekend as the race for the White House entered its final month."

Pittbull Palin went after Obama like a junk yard dog. Her basis for the attack was as flimsy as her sense of geography and statesmanship. But she has a big yap.

Then from CBS "Palin: Obama Began His Political Career In Terrorist’s Living Room" by Scott Conroy

http://www.cbsnews.com/blogs/2008/10/05/politics/fromtheroad/entry4502414.shtml

"In what the AP called “a deliberate attempt to smear Obama” in a way that was “exaggerated at best if not outright false” and at a time when the McCain campaign has been losing ground in the polls, Palin on Saturday told an enormous crowd in Carson, California, that Obama “sees America as imperfect enough to pal around with terrorists.”

"Let off the leash on Saturday, Mrs Palin accused Mr Obama of "palling around with terrorists who would target their own country" in a reference to him once being a member of a Chicago community group with William Ayers. The former member of the Weather Underground was last active in the domestic terrorist group during the presidential candidate's childhood.

She added: "This is not a man who sees America as you see America and as I see America."

So now campaign contributors are guiding the candidate's philosophy. I'll bet Toxic Sarah never heard about Lobbyists!

As one comment to this article stated:

"Additionly, the Chicago Tribune wrote that in introducing the association into the campaign , it should be accompanied with the association of John McCain''s association with the convicted Watergate burglar Gordon Liddy. "

And so far as the way we see America crap, she is insane. Psychotic Sarah's vision of anything is the mirror opposite of how I perceive life on planet Earth.

I don't want a world run by dim, vicious cutie-pies. I don't want a mountain of severed wolf forelegs for money. I actually respect life.

Then there were the funny bits.

Sarah Palin's candidacy is insultin,' dontcha know?
by Robert Remington, Calgary Herald
Published: Sunday, October 05, 2008

http://www.canada.com/calgaryherald/columnists/story.html?id=a54510a2-f4c6-42cb-b72e-b49e3fcd80cd

"Trouble is, this ain't the Miss Alaska competition. Gee willikers, folks, this is a contest to see who's best suited to lead the U.S. in the event the president becomes incapacitated or dead. And Palin -- who prefaced one of her answers by saying "I've only been at this, what, five weeks" -- just doesn't have what it takes."

Kansas City showed some humor in their poll:

Which was more annoying: Palin's pronunciation of nook-yoo-ler or Biden's Bosniacs?

It's all pretty annoying at this point.

What astounds me is how repeatedly I hear GOP otherwise intelligent people go on about her flaws and end the lists invariably with "but she sure is good-looking!"

Tell you what: leave my country in peace and I will buy you a Barbie Doll.

In case you have not noticed, being a 3rd (perhaps more) generation musician and music lover off the charts, I tend to "teach"/"share" through music and broad, broad humor. So until tomorrow here is my lullaby for the Dumby on the Hill

p.s. I have this wax record...

I've missed myself actually. Been so busy being worked to death by corporate amerikkka that I barely have heard the news let alone brooded upon it so that I could respond...

That, my dears, is about to change.

I am hoping to post a few tomorrow. Something on Savage Sarah. Something on the fiasco bailout. Something on the future, if any.

Watch this space.