June « 2010 « POWIP

25Jun/1010

Friday Conspiracy Musings

I like to do this just for fun - and by saying that, I have enough cover to pretty much disguise what I believe to be afoot, what I sense is afoot, and what I am just wondering at. So, the views below do not necessarily represent those of the author. How's that for putting on my dance shoes?

As mentioned before, there is corruption and dishonesty everywhere in this world. I have witnessed it firsthand many times. I have seen it in the personal relationships between friends, married couples. As we all have. No one is perfect, I'll grant you. But I have also seen it firsthand in business. At low levels, at high levels. In small companies, in medium-sized firms, and in giant firms. As for government, we needn't wonder about corruption and dishonesty in DC. We needn't worry about running out of it at the state level or at the local level either. It seems wherever people are, evil necessarily is.

I say Evil, because corruption and dishonesty are the components of Evil. They distort the Call of Man to live in the Light of Truth. Corruption deprives all citizens who have a rights to expect due process, the prudent use of their tax dollars, and the confidence that their "representatives" are representing their interests as instructed. Dishonesty robs the onlooker of being able to discern what is what. Robbing the onlooker of being able to have confidence in what they are seeing and hearing. Again, the idea of dishonesty is to distort to such an extent that none can make sense of what is so and what is not so. In creating chaos within reality - by distorting what is perceived - nefarious, evil people can operate in Darkness. I do not for a moment believe that sophisticated operators do not know this. I see it when I press my 4 year old daughter as to how the lamp fell off the end table. She is learning to lie about such things. And at the tender age of four, she is quite adept at it. My 12 year old daughter is more sophisticated, of course. Where my four year old might blame the lamp on the dog who has been tethered outside all day or on her younger brother (who can't defend himself (as he can barely speak)), my twelve year old will first deny any knowledge, then stew up some plausible circumstance which she thinks will assess blame to some other person (no one in particular, just not her). And when she is busted for lying, she might persist in denial, becoming angry and attempting to make the topic about anything else than the topic at hand. My fourteen year old is more apt to at first claim not to know. She will not attempt to assess blame to "someone else" or compound the eventuality of the truth of the matter being dis-covered by heaping lie upon lie. Distortion upon distortion. Then to come to her senses and simply come clean.

The point is that there is a craft to deception. And anyone with half a brain can deceive. If they choose to do so, of course. And herein is the crux of the matter. If you believe there are good people and bad people on this planet, then it is hard to argue that while good people choose not to distort even if they stand to gain a great deal from causing confusion or the distortion of truth, surely evil people cannot be expected to defend truth when a Lie will better serve them.

For the most part, we "little people" wield little mistruths, even if they are extremely damaging at the micro-level. That is, our mistruths are locational. Impacting relatively few. The victims of our distortions and corruptions of Truth usually only immediately impact those who are unfortunate enough to be in our social and professional circles. What then of a corrupt manager? What can we say about a corrupt executive? Howabout a corrupt mayor? A corrupt state senator? A corrupt teacher? A corrupt dean? A corrupt governor? A corrupt senator? A corrupt cabinet-member? A corrupt FED chairman? A corrupt attorney general? A corrupt ambassador? A corrupt president? How extensive is the damage they, individually or in cahoots with one-another, cause with their distortions? I mean to ask, how far do the ripples of their misdeeds reach?

As far as the depth and breadth of corruption, it would enough to say that the more places to hide, the more pervasive the corruption. This is all about visibility. Or as Obama would say, "transparency." Essentially, the larger the organism, the more difficult to detect a bad malignant cell here or there.

I would also like to add that as the opportunities to profit become more lucrative, the more willing to gamble Evil people are.

As for the Gulf... many are already all over the standard and obvious conspiracy theories. Financial gain of this actor or that actor. And it is certainly plausible, given that I have zero faith in anyone drunk with power, devoid of conscience, and self-serving. I certainly have less faith in groups of Evil people. Nothing would I put beyond them. Financial gain is an obvious motivator. And Greed is among the most common of the Deadly Sins exhibited by human creatures. So, it makes sense to start there. This line of conspiracy meme is interesting enough. But for me, when I think as a conspiracy theorist might, I turn my attention to wilder, more far-flung considerations.

For instance: is it conceivable that there is some purpose beyond the financial gain to be made in fabricated green "markets" by those who have been hell-bent on replicating the Ethanol Scam? I mean to say, is it possible that cap and trade is just one of a line of corruptions that though bad enough individually, when stacked on atop the other amount to something far more devious.

Why does it seem that the population that lives in the SE US are being nudged, prodded, and more or less forced from that area of the US? What benefit is there to some diaspora? What would BP or the Federales stand to gain by an evacuation of that particular area of the United States?

Further, is there cause to believe that there is a larger purpose that involves killing off a portion of the population?

We see that corruption and distortion reach as far up the "Ladder" as the Ladder reaches. Up in the clouds, beyond the visibility of the Little People. What goes on up there? How far "up there" is Up There? This reminds me of the United Nations, the IMF, and other supranational organizations. Hmmmm. and the World Bank. What are the stakes waaaay up there?

And what about people like Soros? What about people like Brzezinski? What about GW, his dad, Obama, Clinton, Emmanual, etc? Do we know these people? I mean, these are small societies of power-players. They, all of them, run in the same circles. All of them attend the same schools, parties, events. They know the same people. Sure, some wear Packers jerseys, some Bears jerseys. But who are the coaches? Are there coaches? Who are the commissioners?

I am just musing here. But, while people want to assume the best about powerful people, I see no reason to at all. To the contrary, I presume they are corrupt. I presume they distort. Because wanting to be powerful is one thing. Being able to claw yourself to the top is quite another. And most people don't have the stomach for what it takes.

Ummmm. We should tax those.

I would suggest that it is at least plausible that much more is afoot here. At least for the purposes of this post from the land of conspiracy. We could discuss Monsanto. We could discuss the Invasion of the US and occupation of swaths of land by drug runners. We could discuss the Feds unwillingness to act on illegal immigration. We could talk about Christians being subjected to arrest in Dearborn while attending a Muslim Festival. We could talk about activist Marxist judges, Nation-State Haters, One World Government proponents, the Union Thugs and the ferocity with which they are "getting in people's faces" - and the frequency of attacks. We could speak about the farce that is voting. Hispanics being able to vote multiple times in a mayoral election in the Northeast - solely because they are Hispanic. We could mention the G8/G20 Summit in Canukistan - and the amazing amount of security in place. We could talk about the Bildaberg Summit held just weeks prior to the Summit in Canada - or how the G8/G20 coincides with the World Cup (hey look a shiny penny). We could discuss the MSM's silence on everything from Gore to Obama's purported affairs.

Why, it's General Chaos - what's he doing here?

Or we could just party like it's Nineteen Ninety Nine... Good Gaea, it's Friday!

Enoch_Root

AKA. Bobby Donn Brubaker (the most popular man in Mesa, AZ), the Umbrella of Terror, Jack Ketch.

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Filed under: Ni Una Idea, Politicas Desnudas!, Womens with Boobs - that them Smell Good 10 Comments

25Jun/100

Pensions news with a British Flavo[u]r

After princesses, back to the pensions grind.

UK transsexual gets pension backdated to age 60, women's retirement age, as opposed to age 65, men's retirement age.. More details at link.
The UK doesn't have to worry about these shenanigans for much longer. No, not b/c they'll change the laws about same sex marriage or laws regarding transsexuals. It's because men and women will have the same official retirement age.

And yes, if anything, women should have higher retirement ages than men due to women's greater longevity, which is on the order of 3-7 years in most developed nations. [the differences here can come from what the “starting age” from which you're measuring survival. Life expectancy from birth really isn't appropriate.]
Two great disasters go great together: NY pensions v. BP: “On Wednesday, New York state Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli announced he had hired a law firm to start the process of seeking damages from BP caused by a 50% drop in stock value since the April 20 explosion at a deep-water drilling site.”
Good luck with that. Perhaps y'all will get to belly up to the bar before Obama's folks suck all the BP $$ away with a straw and plug that hole of payouts.
UK PM calls political bluff, forgos pension to be able to tackle spending and pension cuts. In your court, Labo[u]r.
Acceleration of changing retirement age in UK, with a little tardiness on getting women up to the same age. In addition to raising the retirement age, they are axing mandatory retirement ages as well [mandatory retirement ages seem good for certain positions, but in general are a stupid result of people not being allowed to say that yes, some people are no good for their positions any more. One of the best math profs at NCSU was in his 80s [I think] when I was there, and a few others had gone senile in their 50s. Can't predict these things.]
A little Greece for extra seasoning: middle-aged women collecting survivor's pensions... from their mothers. If they don't wed. And the arduous jobs that allow for super-early retirement: car washers, hairdressers, steam bath attendants. Kicker: there are 1.7 workers per pensioner.
As for the moocher collecting her mother's pension, she claims no one will hire an over-60-year-old woman. In Greece, sure, because none of you are doing work in the first place. But my 70-year-old ma-in-law gets regular work in a medical lab. Seems if you have actual skills and actually will do work, people might hire you.

Meep

Meep is a member of the Irish Catholic mafia, having a suspiciously high number of green-eyed, red-haired friends. While she doesn’t have red hair herself [except when she goes into the sun (rare for any vampire)], she does have green eyes. She’s a raving Papist and is a life actuary on the side [i.e., she counts dead people]. An amateur pain-in-the-ass [willing to go pro!], she likes covering retirement, mortality, math, and education issues.

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24Jun/103

Louisiana Woman Gives Inside View of BP Spill Response

Disclose TV, via Before It's News:

Disclose.tv - louisiana resident speaks about BP Video

Dan Collins

Dan Collins is a dude who blogs. He used to blog elsewhere. Now he blogs here.

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Filed under: Too Lazy to Categorize 3 Comments

23Jun/1010

Any Other Name

Okay, so what is with this Al Gore allegedly sexually assaulting a massage therapist?

Oh. Wait. In all the stuff I've read, she's a masseuse. I hate to be all "I'm not a stewardess, I'm a flight attendant" here, but thanks to the evolution of the word and its connotation, there's a big difference. Sure, I get some people who just don't know any better and I don't get huffy about it--but I do correct them. "Massage therapist" implies education, licensing, ethics, and being legal. "Masseuse" is code for someone who works in a "massage parlor."

I'm not accusing the accuser of being a hooker. I just wanted to set the record straight because I am tired of people calling me a masseuse and asking about happy endings.

One last thing: while there are a variety of reasons the woman may have declined pursuing a police investigation (money, power, threat of losing her job, fear of having to put up with Al Gore being super serial) the whole thing makes me cringe. You don't report these things just for yourself, but also to attempt to protect others in the profession from being subjected to a known perv. Well, known forceful perv, anyway.

I don't expect to see ManBearPig (emphasis on "pig") anytime soon, but I'm getting to work on a new sign for my business: "We reserve the right to refuse business to anyone. Especially Al Gore."

UPDATE: @jtLOL just tweeted this article, which is the first time I've seen "massage therapist" used. The fact she's a licensed massage therapist makes this particularly interesting to me. Also interesting is the article says the massage took place in his hotel room; this is not unheard of and on some level makes sense from a business perspective. I interviewed with a massage outfit that offered in-room massages and had a list of the people willing to do them. I briefly considered offering something similar in my own practice but dismissed it after deciding massaging while wearing a hip holster would be a bit too awkward. And while I'd like to believe in the goodness of people (ha), I just felt hotel room massages conveyed the wrong message and were asking for trouble.

Of course, the real story isn't about masseuse vs. massage therapist, but about this: "The FBI, Secret Service and Oregon State Police all declined Portland Police request to investigate the assault claim against Gore, according to the police report."

This sounds super serial, guys.

Falahime

Falahime Blah blah blah, Wyoming, blah blah, massage therapist, details cars, used to sell beer, blah blah, hunts big game. That’s about all there is to me; I’m pretty simple.

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23Jun/103

Obama Replaces McChrystal with Petraeus

That was then (Sept. 11, 2007), this is now:

Kicking A-S-S.

Dan Collins

Dan Collins is a dude who blogs. He used to blog elsewhere. Now he blogs here.

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23Jun/1050

Big Oil Maneuvering and Vestiture, or The Unified Theory of Obama Fail

As William Teach points out, the left blogosphere is freaking out over the revelation that the judge who overturned the moratorium on deep-water drilling has investments in oil stocks. I would rather that that weren't the case [correction: it was not actually the case], honestly, but it is a demonstrable fact that the Obama administration deliberately misrepresented the findings and recommendations of their panel of experts regarding what should be done. Ken Salazar is seeking the overturning of the overturning of the moratorium on drilling.

Meanwhile, what's not receiving a lot of focus is Obama's own economic interests in preventing Gulf drilling. As I mentioned yesterday, Obama's wealth is largely held in two Vanguard funds. Vanguard was among the companies that dumped BP stock shortly before the disaster. It now turns out that BP informed the office of mineral managment that there were problems with the well back in mid-February. That led to the sacking of Birnbaum, no doubt, though Pelosi tried, with her usual mendacity, to blame it on burrowed-in Bush holdovers. Apart from the timing of the stock dumping, and the revelation that the feds had indeed been informed earlier on of potential problems, there's the issue of Soros' timely investment in Petrobras, backed up by US billions. Many of us found it scandalous that Obama was opposed to US offshore drilling before the disaster, but ready to invest in offshore drilling for Brazil, which, environmentalists will tell you, has the greatest biodiversity on the planet. Those rigs represent an enormous investment. If there's a moratorium, they're not going to wait around for it to be lifted: instead, they will move to where they are permitted to be utilized, in this case, Brazil.

China is backing Cuba to perform drilling in the Gulf. Other countries will no doubt wish to up their stakes. Those operations will be completely outside of US control.

But for Obama and company, that's not a bug, but a feature, because what they really want to do is convert the US economy away from oil towards biofuels, wind, and other renewables, despite the disastrous economic consequences already experienced by nations that tried to bottle unicorn farts. That they have significant investment in such projects is entirely justifiable in their eyes, because of the benefits they naively believe such schemes will confer. These projects are to be mandated by the EPA power grab and the imposition of cap-and-trade schemes, benefitting the likes of Franklin Raines, and justified through the cultivation of climate hysteria.

Mistress of Disaster and Serial Architect of Fail Jamie Gorelick meanwhile works as legal counsel for BP, and like Raines earned millions for driving Fannie and Freddie into the ground and imposing an enormous burden on US taxpayers. No clawback for them.

Circling back to Salazar, the Department of the Interior has been charging the Border Patrol millions in fines for "ecological damage" inflicted in the performance of their duties. It's my belief that those people negatively affected by the federal government's refusal to enforce the laws of the US ought to sue the hairy hide off of the agencies responsible. That Mexico has gotten involved in this dispute is a travesty. And it turns out that Kyl was absolutely right about what Obama intends: to make border security, despite the invasion of savage Mexican drug lords, hostage to the vote-building strategy of blanket legalization.

There's simply no other way to explain the administration's refusal, rather than mere inability, to come to grips with the spill. They see it as an opportunity, and Rahm has already signalled that in the upcoming elections, the Dems intend to run against BP, despite their own links with the company that was going to save the world.

UPDATE: La Malkin, The Threat of Illegal Alien Amnesty-by-Executive Order.

IBD on Soros and Salazar. More on Petrobras.

Dan Collins

Dan Collins is a dude who blogs. He used to blog elsewhere. Now he blogs here.

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Filed under: Too Lazy to Categorize 50 Comments

23Jun/101

Snark and Boobs on the radio!

Lori Ziganto

Caleb Howe

Podcasts are like radio right? Turns out my "friend", Lori Ziganto, that started blogging the same time as I did, the friend that tweets and crossposts circles around me, the friend that Newsweek and the entire modern feminist movement detests, now has a fancy schmancy podcast. I'm. Very. Happy. For her.

It's called "The Needle". As in, if politics were drugs (they are) then this show would be the needle. (Good God, someone get me a needle. Fill it with bleach. Who even cares anymore?) Red State hot shot, freelance writer and twitterus emeritus, Caleb Howe, is her cohost, sidekick, helper monkey, handmaiden, bitch.

That's about all I know about it. They're recording from 10 to 11 am tomorrow, and it should hit the dubya-dubya-dubya around noon, then repeat every Wednesday. Yeah, it's as easy as that. (Oh, gag me.)

I'm totally kidding, you guys. Lori is a dear friend, and I am sincerely happy for her. It's just that some chicks on the left and the right like to give her a hard time because they're jealous and uptight. Good luck, you guys! (Back off, her coat-tails are full)

Kill Truck

KillTruck is a wife, mother, blogger and native midwesterner now living in Eastern Washington state. She writes about politics, pop culture, parenting, wifing and a few other subjects she has no authority to write about. She has macabre fascinations with prostitution and/or cannibalism. In her free time she enjoys eating and/or drinking her feelings, liveblogging Lifetime movies, thinking about Scott Brown and mocking things she doesn’t understand.

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Tagged as: caleb howe, lori ziganto, snark and boobs, the needle 1 Comment

23Jun/103

Bad Medicine

(via @crazywtf on Twitter)

Dan Collins

Dan Collins is a dude who blogs. He used to blog elsewhere. Now he blogs here.

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Filed under: Too Lazy to Categorize 3 Comments

22Jun/101

Communicating with Congressman Peter Welch (D-VT)

June 21, 2010

Dear Mr. Collins,

Thank you for your past contact about federal spending and the importance of fiscal responsibility. I appreciate hearing your concerns and share your view that the federal government must balance its budget and be a careful steward of taxpayer dollars.

As you may know, when President Obama took office, the federal deficit was $1.3 trillion. Since then, the deficit has significantly increased due in large part to the enactment of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, which appropriated nearly $800 billion in emergency spending to stimulate the ailing economy and avert an economic disaster not seen since the Great Depression.

It is clear that the level of federal spending and debt has now reached a crisis stage and that Congress and the President must act to bring it under control. I am a strong supporter of four key budget initiatives that, taken together, will help reduce spending and balance the federal budget.

First, I am a cosponsor of H.R. 1557, which would create a commission to propose options to balance the federal budget. I was pleased that President Obama took the initiative to create a similar commission by executive order, the bipartisan National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform. This commission will propose options to balance the budget by 2015 and reform open-ended entitlement programs to ensure their long term stability. Its recommendations are expected by December 1, 2010.

Second, I co-authored H.R. 2920, the Statutory Pay-As-You-Go Act of 2009, which implements an important "pay as you go" fiscal restraint tool to bring to the federal budget process the same fiscal discipline that exists in the household budgets of working families across the country. This legislation, which was signed into law by President Obama on February 12, 2010, requires Congress to offset most new spending with spending reductions or revenue increases.

Third, I am a cosponsor of H.R. 4871, the Spending Reduction Act of 2010, which would impose spending caps on most domestic discretionary programs resulting in a 6 percent reduction in spending over three years and saving taxpayers over $400 billion. This important legislation has been referred to the House Committee on the Budget for consideration.

Finally, while I believe the United States must maintain a strong national defense, I fully support the top-to-bottom review of defense spending being undertaken by Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, who also served as Secretary of Defense under former President George W. Bush. Secretary Gates has made it clear that current levels of defense spending are not sustainable and has established a process to eliminate wasteful weapons system, layers of bureaucracy, and unnecessary operational spending. I am also working closely with Representative Barney Frank and a group of independent experts to make recommendations to President Obama's budget commission on appropriate Pentagon spending cuts.

Please keep in touch. I hope to see you in Vermont soon.

Sincerely,

PETER WELCH

Member of Congress

Thanks very much,

President Obama put an SEIU member on that board. As you know, Paygo has been a joke since it's been enacted.

Barney Frank was a great enabler of Fannie/Freddie. Franklin Raines, who's made many millions by helping to drive the organization into the ground, stands to make more on peddling cap-and-trade global warmism. Jamie Gorelick, who benefitted to the tune of some millions while she was there now represents BP as legal counsel.

President Obama owned a chunk of BP through Vanguard, which, fortunately for him, sold shortly before the platform disaster. Now it appears that BP may have informed the WH that there were problems back on February 13.

Will the GAO be overseeing the fund that President Obama insists BP place $20 billion in, or is this going to be more campaign capital?

I'm sorry to be so cynical regarding our administration and Congress--which has gotten off far too lightly for their role in the economic collapse--but I have the feeling, whatever your personal graces may be (and thanks for them) that many in your party and some incumbent Republicans are very deservedly going to find themselves out of office come November.

Best regards,
Dan Collins

UPDATE: Yid with Lid is on the same page.

Dan Collins

Dan Collins is a dude who blogs. He used to blog elsewhere. Now he blogs here.

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Filed under: Too Lazy to Categorize 1 Comment

22Jun/104

Screw Mexico

My patience is at an end:

Mexico is asking a federal court in Arizona to declare the state's new immigration law unconstitutional.

Lawyers for Mexico on Tuesday submitted a legal brief in support of a lawsuit challenging the law.

The law generally requires police investigating another incident or crime to ask people about their immigration status if there's a "reasonable suspicion" they're in the country illegally.

It also makes being in Arizona illegally a misdemeanor, and it prohibits seeking day-labor work along the state's streets.

Mexico says its interest in having consistent relations with the United States shouldn't be frustrated by one state.

Mexico also says it has a legitimate interest in defending its citizens' rights and that the law would lead to racial profiling.

Mexico is asking an American court to determine that Mexico ought to be able to overturn laws established by state legislatures representing US citizens.

Related: Interior Dept. has been charging Border Patrol millions for "environmental damages" incidental to performing their duties. Border property owners ought to sue the asses off of the feds.