Atlas Sucked

via Hey Jenny Slater:

So I've been reading at several different blogs how a small but vocal cadre of libertarian right-wing-authoritarian-masquerading-as-libertarian bloggers are threatening to respond to Barack Obama's cruel, Marxist attempts to make us all communist put the highest marginal income-tax rate back where it was in the late 1990s by "going John Galt" -- i.e. quitting work in protest and ceasing to make contributions to a society that supposedly only wants to suck off of them like leeches -- and I was prepared to write a long, withering rant about how stupid that is, but a) DougJ at Balloon Juice has already done a better and more succinct job than I would've done (and is named Doug to boot) and b) there's no empirical proof that anyone's actually done it yet.

So in lieu of that rant, I will simply say this: If you're basing your lifestyle, your belief system, or even the name of one of your pets on Atlas Shrugged or anything else written by Ayn Rand, you are a tool.

This isn't even the cranky asshole left-wing liberal in me telling you this, this is the cranky asshole English-lit minor: Atlas Shrugged sucks. It sucks as both a political allegory and a work of fiction. It sucks hard. Atlas Shrugged is not a novel, it is a pissy, monotonous political treatise disguised as a novel....read more.

driftglass takes on " The Authoritarian Mind"

"They [Native Americans] didn’t have any rights to the land,
and there was no reason for anyone to grant them rights
which they had not conceived and were not using . . . .
What was it that they were fighting for,
when they opposed white men on this continent?
For their wish to continue a primitive existence,
their ‘right’ to keep part of the earth untouched,
unused and not even as property, but just keep everybody out
so that you will live practically like an animal,
or a few caves above it.
Any white person who brings the element of civilization
has the right to take over this continent."














-- Wingnut Oligarch Bitch Goddess Ayn Rand,
during the Q&A after her address to West Point, 1974



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March is the 6th Aniversary of the Iraq War...

Think Progress has the sobering timeline.






The badly staged launch... .

look at that ghastly make up.












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Pfc. Jessica Lynch recovered by U.S. forces.

What the Pentagon framed as a heroic rescue was later revealed to have been staged.













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Saddam Statue Toppled...

The Los Angeles Times later reported that the fall was “stage-managed” by the Army.









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Funnys..haha...uhuh...PFfft.

See the whole cartoon here.

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The Ocarina of Rhyme

Interesting...Zelda - Hip Hip Mashup. Uhhh...give the pirate gangstas' a listen first.
(nsfw) I like it all but the last song = Slim Thug & Mike Jones - Still Tippin' (Great Fairy's Fountain) is trippin and my favorite...


OOPS!...almost forgot.

Happy Birfday Barbie!





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How to Blow Your Credit Limit -- Without Spending

If you haven't had the credit limit cut on your credit card recently, count yourself lucky. Risk-averse card issuers are getting slash happy. And while many cardholders gripe that such cuts slice razor-close to their balance amounts, for an unfortunate few the cuts go far deeper: below what they currently owe.

Under different circumstances, David Chaplin-Loebell wouldn't have minded that American Express cut his unlimited credit line to just $5,000. Except that when AmEx reduced his line in October, he had an outstanding balance of $10,000. "I found out by having a business purchase declined," he says. Repeated calls to AmEx failed to yield an answer about why the cut was made. Chaplin-Loebell, who lives in Philadelphia, is now paying the balance under his regular card terms, and presumes the line will free up for new purchases once he's below the limit. "For now, they've essentially frozen the account," he says, leaving him to juggle business expenses on his personal cards. American Express did not respond to requests for comment.

Nasty as it may be, the practice of cutting credit lines below the balance is legal -- at least, for now, says Chi Chi Wu, a staff attorney for the National Consumer Law Center, a consumer advocacy group. Federal Reserve rules requiring lenders to give cardholders 45 days notice before reducing a credit line to the point that it would trigger penalties won't go into effect until July 2010. "[Until] then, there are no federal protections," says Wu.

Congress is also hoping to rein in unscrupulous credit-card practices. In February, Sen. Chris Dodd (D., Conn.), chairman of the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs, reintroduced the Credit CARD Act, which among other things, offers cardholder protections like the ability to pay under the existing terms if an account is closed and requiring issuers to lower penalty rates within six months once a cardholder gets back on track with payments. Earlier this month, the House Committee on Financial Services chairman Barney Frank, announced a series of four hearings that will include discussions about credit card reform.

The motivation among issuers to make such deep cuts that they plunge below a cardholder's balance amount isn't very clear. Usually, issuers cut credit lines to reduce outstanding liabilities -- they sometimes may even chase the balance on riskier accounts with further limit cuts as cardholders pay down debts, explains Bill Carcache, an analyst with investment bank Fox-Pitt Kelton. But cutting below the balance doesn't reduce an issuer's liability: The cardholder still owes the outstanding debt.

One possibility is that this is yet another attempt by card issuers to get consumers to close their accounts (while bringing in a little fee income in the short term), says Dennis Moroney, research director and senior analyst for consulting firm Tower Group. "I can't rationalize in my mind what other motivation there would be," he says.

Paul Pensabene of Saratoga Springs, N.Y., received a statement from HSBC on Dec. 8 that said he had a $359.99 balance and remaining available credit of $8,640. But when he went online to pay the bill several days later, his online account showed that same balance put him over his newly-reduced credit line of $300. And that didn't include the $35 over-limit fee. Pensabene grappled with customer service until they agreed to remove the fee, and then paid the balance in full. "All I could think was, 'Good lord, what if this is happening to someone that couldn't pay their balance off in one shot?'" he says. "They'd end up in default with these fees piling up."

HSBC declined to comment on individual cardholder accounts. Spokeswoman Cindy Savio says the issuer has tightened its credit standards based on the economy. "As we have previously stated, in an effort to reduce credit risk and refine strategies for our card business, we have tightened credit standards, reduced or canceled higher risk credit lines, and closed a number of inactive accounts," she says.

While the fees, frozen accounts and default interest rates resulting from credit-line cuts can sting your finances, they can do some serious long-term damage to your credit score. Your credit utilization ratio -- the total amount of debt you owe in relation to the amount of credit available to you -- accounts for roughly 30% of your score. A credit line cut has the potential to decrease your score by 50 points or more if you don't have much other available credit, says Craig Watts, spokesman for FICO, the company that calculates and issues the credit score that most lenders use.

Even cuts that are close to the balance have the potential to devastate if they're not caught quickly. Luckily for Carol Gressett of Decatur, Miss., she noticed the reduction in her Discover-branded Sam's Club card limit just days after it happened. The limit was cut to within $100 of her $3,000 balance. The official letter notifying her of the reduction arrived three weeks later. "We could easily have gone over if I hadn't been paying attention," she says.

(A Discover spokesperson says GE Money issues the cards, and so is responsible for managing credit lines. GE Money did not respond to requests for comment.)

source


Via Americablog:

You do the Math...


December 23, 2008: American Express Will Get $3.39 Billion in TARP Funds

March 16, 2009: American Express paid CEO $27.3 million in 2008

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Not to be out done by the bloodsucking, thieving credit card companies...

Pennsylvania Banks profit from unemployed customers

With about 434,000 unemployed statewide in December, about 200,000 Pennsylvanians use debit cards. In the seven-county Pittsburgh region, about 35,000 of 76,200 unemployed individuals use debit cards.

The state handed over negotiated with Affiliated Computer various fees attached to transactions. Users withdrawing cash from a PNC or Wachovia ATM get one free withdrawal per deposit. If the deposit is $1,000 or more, the person gets an additional free ATM withdrawal for each $500 deposited. After that, the cost is $1.50 for each successful withdrawal.

Surcharges are attached to most ATMs with the exception of those operated by PNC, Wachovia, credit unions belonging to the Alliance One ATM program and machines at 7 Eleven stores.

ATM balance inquiries cost 40 cents each, while ATM denials, following one free transaction, cost 50 cents apiece.

"We took the ponzi scheme bait negotiated reduced fees compared to what was being charged in other states," Smith said.


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Osama bin Laden aka Dick Cheney's opening act...speaks again.

On Saturday, Al Jazeera TV broadcast Bin Laden’s 29th tape since 9/11, wherein the Al Qaeda chief branded Israel’s Gaza offensive a “holocaust”, condemned moderate Arab leaders and urged his followers to prepare for holy war....and then asked everyone to please give a warm welcome to Dick Cheney:

FREE rim shot!
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Dick Cheney takes the GOP lead to attack Obama


Former Vice President Dick Cheney told CNN's John King Sunday that he believed President Obama's decision to eliminate the use of many of the most controversial interrogation practices used under the former administration had put the country at risk.




Asked whether he thought those moves had made the United States less safe, Cheney said he did. "I think those programs were absolutely essential to the success we enjoy, of being able to collect the intelligence that let us defeat all further attempts to launch attacks against the United States since 9/11," he said on State of the Union. "I think it's a great success story. It was done legally, it was done in accordance with our constitutional practices and principles…"

Obama campaigned against those practices, said Cheney, "and now he's making some choices that in my mind will raise the risk to the American people of another attack."

via foxnewslite - CNN
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Alan Grayson Questions AIG Math: Let's Change the Length of Inches So I'm Shorter!

via: Hufpo's Ryan Grim...

Regulator: Before Banks Collapsed, They Pleaded With Feds To Let Them Fudge Their Books





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Family Guy: Stewie Griffin Meets Wall Street

Enjoy!....if only.

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Obama’s rejection of the Bush administration’s war on science

"I am also signing a Presidential Memorandum directing the head of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy to develop a strategy for restoring scientific integrity to government decision making. To ensure that in this new Administration, we base our public policies on the soundest science; that we appoint scientific advisers based on their credentials and experience, not their politics or ideology; and that we are open and honest with the American people about the science behind our decisions. That is how we will harness the power of science to achieve our goals – to preserve our environment and protect our national security; to create the jobs of the future, and live longer, healthier lives."




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H - E - double hockey sticks

via Slacktivist and (a place of recognition I recently arrived at.)

Carlton Pearson's church, Higher Dimensions, was once one of the biggest in the city, drawing crowds of 5,000 people every Sunday. But several years ago, scandal engulfed the reverend. He didn't have an affair. He didn't embezzle lots of money. His sin was something that to a lot of people is far worse: He stopped believing in Hell.

That didn't go over too well in the Pentecostal/evangelical circles in which Pearson used to be a rock star. It got him officially branded as a heretic by a Pentecostal bishops group. His congregation dwindled to a fifth of its previous size and its makeup changed to include all sorts of dubious types, like Episcopalians, homosexuals and Unitarians.

Wikipedia has a brief but useful entry on Carlton Pearson, the site for his New Dimensions church has a bit more information, and Selwyn Crawford of the Dallas Morning News fleshes out the story in his article, "The fall and rise of Carlton Pearson."

What I find most interesting in this whole saga is that Pearson was never condemned for his earlier heresies, which strike me as more extravagant. He began his ministry, after all, as a protege of Oral Roberts and for years taught a variant of Roberts' "prosperity" doctrines. Going around and telling people that serving Mammon is the same as serving God apparently doesn't get you in hot water with the Joint College of African-American Pentecostal Bishops. Denying the existence of Hell does.

That's curious, since the Bible spends much, much, much more time on the dangers of chasing money than it ever does on the subject of eternal torment. The Bible's priorities, however, have been inverted by evangelicals, for whom Hell has become a central, essential doctrine.

I'm not sure how that happened. St. Paul had precisely nothing to say on the subject of Hell. He had a lot to say about death, resurrection and the kingdom, but not one word about Hell. The Nicene Creed, similarly, mentions heaven three time, but never mentions Hell at all. The Apostle's Creed mentions it. Once. It says Jesus went there. (Yes, that Jesus).

Yet ask any evangelical Christian about their faith and Hell is one of the first things they'll mention. And they know all about the subject. They can describe Hell, earnestly providing details from Dante or Fantasia while dimly believing these come from the Bible (you know, the Epistle to the Ghibelines or something).

So let's take a quick look at what the Bible actually does have to say on the subject of Hell. Specifically, let's look at three passages that Carlton Pearson has been condemned for not "interpreting literally."

1. Luke 16:19-31 describes a soul in agony in "Hades." He is described as being "in fire" and "in this place of torment."

2. Matthew 25:31-46 says that the unrighteous "will go away to eternal punishment" sent "into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels."

3. Revelation 20:11-15 describes the judgment of the living and the dead. "The lake of fire is the second death," it says. "If anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire."

That's three separate mentions of eternal, fiery torment. Sure sounds a lot like the Hell all those evangelical preachers love to talk about.

And yet this doesn't fully convey how deeply, deeply weird it is for such preachers to turn to these three passages and to come away from them with nothing other than a belief in hellfire and torment.

That's not what these stories are about. The preachers seemed to have latched on to the descriptions of hellfire and torment in these stories because those tangential details seemed less troublesome and dangerous than the central themes of the stories. Those central themes may be more threatening than anything Carlton Pearson has ever had to say.

read more

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ASHAMED...&%^&$#@!

Via Mic Check:

After a thorough chastisement from lawmakers for lavish sponsorship of parties and concerts at a professional golf tournament, Northern Trust Corp. said it will pay back a $1.6 billion federal bailout loan as quickly as possible. Although government funds weren’t used for the events, lawmakers were outraged that a bailout was requested during such lavish parties.

read more at msnbc

Entertainment Web site TMZ.com on Tuesday reported that Northern flew hundreds of clients and workers to California and put some of them up at ritzy hotels, including the Ritz Carlton in the Los Angeles area, and entertained them with such groups as Chicago, Earth Wind & Fire and Sheryl Crow.

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Citi spends $3.5M to reward Smith Barney brokers

By STEPHEN BERNARD

NEW YORK (AP) — Embattled banking giant Citigroup Inc. spent about $3.5 million to provide rewards for top-performing advisers at its Smith Barney brokerage unit.

The payments are in lieu of three trips Citi usually plans for its top revenue-generating advisers in the division. Those trips were canceled earlier in the year as Citi attempts to slash costs amid the ongoing economic downturn. Citi has posted five consecutive quarterly losses and received $45 billion in government assistance during the ongoing credit crisis and recession.

Many major financial firms that have received government funding in recent months have drastically scaled back spending on events and perks for employees amid growing anger from politicians in Washington about how they spend money.

The money quote:

"Citi said none of the money from the government investment is being used for the rewards."

driftglass comments:

Because what we stupid f@%&ing taxpayers fail to understand is that the cash marked "bonus money" and the cash marked "bailout money" come from two, different pockets entirely! And as the Law of Inter-Pocket-Monetary-Non-Fungiblity-Osmotics clearly states, cash from your front pocket that you were gonna use to buy beer can never, ever be used to pay your rent.

Because rent money comes from the back pocket. Dumbass.

Well at least after 30 years of dining out on Ronald Reagan's imaginary, racist, Cadillac-driving "welfare queens", Republican class-warriors finally have real villains who really are collectively scamming and mooching billions off the hard-working American taxpayer.

Unfortunately for the Shiftless Negro mythos that holds much of their base together, America's Welfare Kings appear to be wealthy, white males whose Escalades are likely still festooned with Bush/Cheney and McCain/Palin bumper stickers.

"...the Law of Inter-Pocket-Monetary-Non-Fungiblity-Osmotics "...

ROFLMAO!













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Karl Rove Agrees To Testify

Via Huffington Post:

A deal has been reached whereby Karl Rove will finally testify, under oath, before the House Judiciary Committee, according to chairman John Conyers' office.

Rove has long avoided and ignored subpoenas in the past by claiming executive privilege -- his deference now comes as a big victory for many Bush administration critics.

Read the press release here.

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From HufPo commenter bethea3:


Do not get excited about this victory too soon.
This process still has a very long way to go. The incriminating documents still require review prior to Rove being questioned. Then his testimony will be reviewed against those records. Then he will be questioned again. Considering the volumes of paperwork involved it will be months before the gavel is struck.
I am grateful the the two administrations did not have to go head to head at this time on the issue of executive privilege. It will happen in the future but right now I would rather have BHO focused on the major issues affecting us all right now and not distracted by the likes of Rove and his ilk. That would be akin to going to war with Iraq when bin Laden is in another country altogether.
Is it just me or does it seem strange that the State Department got the bin Laden relations out of the country shortly after 9/11 even while the whole US was a not fly zone? Could that have any baring on why we never really pursued Osama to the ends of the earth? Did we use the distraction of the war to placate the bin laden family and not kill their son? Did we spend billions of dollars and 4000 plus American lives as a diversion? Those are the questions I want answered. And prosecuting, believe it or not, Rove may be the first step. Think about it.



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FDR 1936

"I welcome their hatred!"

"“We had to struggle with the old enemies of peace — business and financial monopoly, speculation, reckless banking, class antagonism, sectionalism, war profiteering. ... Never before in all our history have these forces been so united against one candidate as they stand today. They are unanimous in their hate for me. And I welcome their hatred!"

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And you said I was paranoid...

George W. Bush’s Disposable Constitution

By Scott Horton

Yesterday the Obama Administration released a series of nine previously secret legal opinions crafted by the Office of Legal Counsel to enhance the presidential powers of George W. Bush...


...We may not have realized it at the time, but in the period from late 2001-January 19, 2009, this country was a dictatorship. The constitutional rights we learned about in high school civics were suspended. That was thanks to secret memos crafted deep inside the Justice Department that effectively trashed the Constitution. What we know now is likely the least of it.




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The Rachel Maddow Show: Apocalypse Now?

Rachel interviews the rapture ready Left Behind series authors, apparently lots of people have fear of abandonment issues.

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