JKane

Or, if this gets any closer to being like the Great Depression we could follow your advice in the other direction! Fuck the worthless fat-cat middlemen siphoning off this money--let their 'invisible hand' decide THEIR fate for once! RE-establish public works and have the government directly hire people or SMALL subcontractors to build things we need anyway like solar power plants and wind farms, plus road improvements and help the army core of engineers put levies and such in places in Sacramento and Louisiana, among others. Gov't hired census workers had an impact in unemployment, let's hire at least a similar number a bit longer term to do the other things that need to be done! Gov't isn't as bad at these things as the 'right' would have us believe, just compare Medicare's overhead to private insurances and then consider who each is insuring!

Wow, that's pretty damn evil, but it was my understanding that this was pretty much the default practice of the banks at the time. Think Suze Orman mentioned it months or a year ago. I'd occasionally dip into my overdraft protection line of credit (which I knew I was signed up for and didn't incur an overdraft charge) but not more than once every couple of months. Once I really looked at the fees for even that I said screw it and simply started keeping more money in checking. I do still like the overdraft protection being attached though, it's fees are far less than a dishonored check's would be. I did notice the debit card having a hard limit around when they did it. Kinda annoying when you pull up to an Arco or Coscto Gas with the gas idiot light on and the only method of payment they accept doesn't work!

Yes actually, though I don't remember the details now I read a couple stories about it and heard an interview or two with locals. My recollection is that she left the city in a lot of debt and services had to be cut. Her half-term as Governor didn't seem so disastrous, but that's because of all the regulation and near socialization of all oil companies working in Alaska... you know, which she doesn't want anywhere else to have. The answer to the BP spill is LESS REGULATION remember! But in Wasilla she seemed much like Bush (in Texas and the US). It's the republican way: Cut taxes, but only ever substantially on the rich, then cut back services for the middle class and the poor. Then sell yourself to those same people as a populist--helping them keep their money. Tell that to any Californian that's had to pay a bill for UC system tuition in the last several years! That said, I'd say hate isn't a strong enough word. Loathe is closer. She has no ideas, no convictions. She wants power and will vacantly recite whatever talking points she thinks will get it for her, regardless of if it includes fomenting civil war beside the nuttiest tea-baggers. It's tragic that people like her and Newt can start class warfare of the poor/middle against the poor! A friend of mine had a great point about the argument that it's critical to extend the Bush tax cuts to save the economy... if those cuts are so great for the economy how the fuck is it in the toilet after so many years of them already?

What are everybody's ideas on the best way to book flights for the best price? I've played with several itineraries on AA.com that seemed like pretty good deals, but had trouble setting up something similar at other sites. (On AA.com it's fairly easy to set it up so you can stay several days or weeks in cities you have to fly through anyway, they call it multi-city.)

India?? Granted, they have some strife, but this really surprises me.

You know, as many problems as many of us have had with Daddy, some of the things he links on his main page really are profound. Thank you for your call.

Maybe I got the wrong idea from the original story I read, but I really don't like something about this... It's like somebody is saying Oh yeah? Well what if we surround you with evil fags? And it's doubly insulting if it's nothing but a right-wing political ploy with no chance of happening. How did we become somebody's attack dogs?

Yep, he's officially a press whore. But he'd probably do a better job than Sarah!

Ok, how do we put up Youtube videos again? Ah: use the page address, not the embed code!

<object width="480" height="385"><param name="movie" value=" name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src=" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"></embed></object>

There's further information that he recently lost his dad to ALS and is losing his mother to cancer. He should have been on leave... dealing with New York passengers on top of that was really just too much for anybody!

Yeah, this one incident in pretty much the history of flying where a flight attendant under stress did something rash that didn't endanger anybody... In fact this was about the least destructive he could've done in that emotional state... I would've grabbed a portable O2 bottle and bludgeoned the person to death after they hit me in the head with a suitcase they had no business getting out. Ideally he would've just gone to the back, called the flight deck and asked them to have police meet the plane, then announced to the cabin that due to the actions of that passenger and the assault on the FA's person there would be a delay at the gate while we await police to take that person into custody. Interfering with/disobeying flight crew is a real crime. Not sure the unintentional assault is a criminal matter, but if he claimed double vision and neck pain it sure could be a civil one! It's a pitty that instead he ended his career--which he did, not just with Jet Blue... I'm sure most top-tier airlines have flight attendants go through those psyc questionnaires, and since even during a boom time there's more applicants than positions they drop anybody who doesn't 'pass'. Dozens (more like hundreds) of FAs have been maimed or killed performing their primary duty--seeing to the safety of the passengers in an emergency, yet I recall no incident of them endangering/destroying a plane. Other airline employees and even a couple pilots have, (but hey, the pilots get firearms in the cockpit if they want now!). But let us have this single event on a slow news day shit all over those facts... So, do we need a whole new bureaucracy to handle your screenings or maybe just add it to the plate of the sages at TSA, since now that they've taken care of the snow globe menace they have plenty of extra time?

I didn't say it'd be a *good* movie. I do hope Airbender finally put an end to his career. But I've hoped that after his previous flops too.

The problem there is most people don't know what the hell they're talking about when they label themselves a conservative! When you ask people about issues the large majority are actually progressive. Things like abortion rights, social safety net, progressive income tax, access to health care, equal rights, etc., etc. Conservatives crowing about these kind of polls smacks of 'The American Independent Party' claiming to be the third largest party. But it shows again how the conservatives dominate the language and therefor the debate almost totally.

That's the most gorgeous batch yet! I like the variety it shows, because it's not that hard to get sexy young latinos in Los Angeles for fairly reasonable prices...

BBC World News, Our World: Brazil's Child Prostitutes Just watched the show, no mention of the saunas or men. They showed 2 underage boys selling themselves as transvestites. Other that that it was all about shamefully young girls, and the European men (?) that exploit them. Didn't hear mention of Americans once. According to this somewhat histrionic show (I'd have thought that unusual for the BBC), now that asia is cracking down Brazil is becoming (or already is) the new capital for underage prostitution. The situation didn't look quite as bad as a documentary I saw on asia, in Brazil the girls were at least teens and some were doing it to feed drug habits (at 13), not just to live. Still pretty grim of course, and likely to attract a lot more attention as things heat up for the World Cup then Olympics...

It'd be more a Shyamalan movie because the twist is things often get so bad that funding for it comes up as yet another proposition, as some form of tax increase or another, which we'll usually vote for! (Only need a simple majority of stupendously uninformed voters in ANY statewide election... which we seem to have at least twice a year... with 4-8 propositions tacked on each.) Even those propositions that raise taxes to pay for something needed are asinine because they are shaped by special interests (like the construction industry) and narrowly defined. Example: we passed a bond to build all kinds of new schools, but that money (PLUS whatever that prop required to match from the general fund) can ONLY go for that, meanwhile we're actively laying off teachers! It's so much better to be locked into stagnation by the tyranny of a minority of Republicans than to have a working government that can make decisions and take action! What if you disagreed with one of those actions?? Better none at all. Soon to be the nationwide model!

That's great! There's really nothing to recommend Best Buy, with their anti-gay donations but also the outright ripping people off with trying to force them into worthless install/optimization services--and then the extended warranty--and then the over-priced peripherals--and then the overpriced cables to connect the peripherals! I know Costco is great for printers and supplies, it may also be worth looking at their computers for anybody in the market.

We do: somebody with FAR more wit than Ann Coulter, and a smaller adam's apple. Bill Mahr. A huge part of the problem is that Republicans automatically fall into line behind whomever has the most money. They do this automatic lockstep. Democrats are, well, ridiculously democratic. Leadership is nearly impossible because everybody has an opinion, and if they don't agree exactly with what the group is doing they'll split off and do it on their own.

Not quite correct, but something most of the Californians here know well. The Party of No (Republicans) are far into the minority in California, but hold onto just enough to prevent the 2/3rds vote required to pass a budget or modify an asinine proposition (which they pretty much all are). So our budgets are routinely many months overdue and are unable to close the budget gap without dramatic cuts to services, because the Republicans are in this death pact that no 'tax increase' (even if it's just closing a loophole) is EVER justified... despite the fact that Rand rated us among the lowest already in Education spending. And it's especially difficult because special interests have passed many propositions that lock in spending on all kinds of things, leaving no discretionary room. Then rich people go and pass things that give them among the lowest property taxes in the nation and require 2/3rds votes on any tax increase. It's a royally fucked system, and that a handful of voters in an obscure election can decide something that is in effect impossible to change later... especially when there's no regulation on the spending of special interests and business, often not even meaningful disclosure of who is behind the prop.

VERY COOL! Ok, how does one give you money? What are the prices for silver/gold membership? Just looked on main page, didn't find...

I also am still of the thought that the ideal solution would be Civil Unions for all. It should be the ONLY thing recognized by governments and institutions to confer the current benefits and responsibilities of marriage. But solving this and re-humanizing gays is not in "the right's" interests at all. Putting marriage back to being a solely religious thing would have another issue, the constitution says no preference or support of one religion over another, so once gov't licenses were gone some churches would be absolutely fine with gay marriage and there wouldn't be any reason (or constitutional way) to stop them. So gays can't (probably ever, under either scenario) get a Catholic marriage; if you could get absolutely every secular right currently associated with it AND an Anglican marriage, it'd be the very best of both worlds, wouldn't it? But this change (removing 'the church' from a power over the state they shouldn't have anyway) seems less likely to happen than gay marriage rights *eventually* coming about, in similar ways to the laws against inter-racial marriage eventually dieing out--despite having been driven by the exact same kinds of hatreds. The Prop 8 decision is another great step in that direction. And if it's upheld it sure seems to me DOMA could come under similar trial.

He says the right things on DOMA and DADT (BOTH signed into law by Clinton!) but takes weak or no action against them. Actually weakening his powers to simply strike down DADT as commander in chief the way the military was desegregated. He also actually seems to have some Christian convictions (unlike so many on the 'religious right' for whom it's nothing more than lipservice for their base) that make him uneasy with gays. That's fine, I'd rather have somebody still struggling his way through something, starting to see the light, and openly politically cautious about it than somebody parroting the hateful far-right anti-gay bullshit out of no conviction whatsoever and refusing to even consider the impact they're having on millions of Americans... In the end Obama's a constitutional law professor, and I think he will do the right thing if given the chance. But the majority of the heavy lifting once Clinton signed the fucking things has to be done by either the congress or the courts. That is not Obama's fault (or Bush's, for a change... well, except for the gaping assholes he appointed to SCOTUS).

That is good, I didn't know he was vocally on our side! Just figured he was in the closet (how many times did he dress up in drag?) and hypocritically fighting against us with all the bile and hatred at his disposal, you know, like every other Republican! Much like Giuliani, I'm not sure Governor Schwarzenegger counts as 'in the GOP' anymore, but the Governor really impressed me with his statement on Prop 8 being overturned. It's clear he's done running for things, maybe we'll get some honesty from him now. California's budget's still fucked though, as usual.

A year or two ago I emailed Brandon Baker about an idea: certified pictures. Pictures with a date stamp taken by somebody trusted (like an established reviewer). Nothing came of it, but I still think it's an interesting idea.