They still don't get it

Why all the fuss over whether Wall Street loves Obama's plans for the economy? It should be obvious to all but the most dim witted conservative troglodyte that what Wall Street wants and likes is not good for you and me. When stocks go up on news about layoffs then there is something seriously wrong with the whole financial system. When it's investors who are the only ones getting ahead financially in this country then something is seriously wrong. When the people who work hard and play by the rigged rules set up by Wall Street and the corporate shills in our government in Washington DC can't buy a house or send their kids to college on what they make then there is something seriously wrong with financial system in this country.


Work should be rewarded, not parasitic investment.

We had a great opportunity during this financial melt down to blow up the rotten crooked system that's failed us for so many years now. But it looks like we're going to let it pass by us and we're going to let the same Wall Street and Federal Reserve crooks and greedy corporate weasels keep on plundering us yet again because we're afraid to tame big business. Oh well, maybe everything they're trying now will backfire and we'll get the economic revolution this country so desperately needs.

The chickens, they have come home to roost

For the past 30 years the Republicans have been hell bent on deregulating everything from the pharmaceutical industry to mining to banking and look what it's gotten us, untold deaths from drugs that have rushed to market too soon, mine collapses, and now the imminent collapse of jeebus knows how many Wall Street banks. Golly gee whiz, it looks like those old radical "socialists" led by FDR in the 1930's knew just exactly what they were doing when they enacted all those laws that prevented this type of shit for 40 years until people who look this
decided they weren't making enough money and that all businesses and industries had to be deregulated.

With more government bail outs of Wall Street banks coming I wonder when us poor and working class people can get some of that government welfare money. If you ask me it's people like us who need bailing out more than the greedy bastards on Wall Street do. The Merrill Lynch has done pretty well for long enough. Lehman Bros. made a ton of money while people like us got laid off. E. F. Hutton spoke and we all listened to them make money hand over fist while you and me and every one who didn't make over $100,000 a year got shafted. It's time we roll up our sleeves, put on our American hats,

and put back into place the laws that reigned in the Wall Street greed junkies and the blood sucking bankers that have preyed on us for too long. The Christian church used to be against all types of usury and unethical business dealings, maybe once all their followers get shafted out of their pay checks by Republican business practices and they can't donate money then they'll wise up and they'll start speaking out against the conservative Republican free market business practices and policies that have gotten us into so much trouble.

Personally though, I hope this latest money crisis ripples through the country like a tsunami so that it wakes people up to the damage that the Republicans and their compliant enablers, most of the Democrats in Congress, have done to our country. Maybe if enough people get hurt by this latest financial chicanery then we can all wise up and we can put some sensible regulation back on banks and big business.

How's that workin' for us now?

Some of you may not be old enough to remember when St. Ronnie, patron saint of greedy corporations and big business, said that government wasn't the solution to the problems facing our country and that indeed, government was the problem.  

Well, a succession of US Presidents, including Bill Clinton, after him took his mantra to heart and they cut government programs and used that money for corporate welfare and they privatized many essential governmental services.  I got to wondering how all that has worked out for us and here's what I came up with:

• We've had more food and product recalls than ever before. 
• FAA inspectors have been told to go easy on airline safety checks.
• We've had more deaths due to shoddy FDA tests on drugs than ever before.
• We are losing millions of dollars a day to companies like KBR, Halliburton, and Blackwater in what are known as "cost plus" contracts with the federal government.  Cost plus means the companies in question don't have to be competitive in price, they charge the government what ever they like for what they provide and we have to pay for it,
• Corporate America is running, or should I say ruining, the Labor Department, HUD, the FDA, the USDA, and many other cabinet level offices and departments.
• Corporate America is writing our laws and paying our legislators to vote for them.  Case in point, I refer you to the Medicare Prescription Drug program, it was written by big pharma lobbyists.  
• Our legislators are not beholden to us, they are beholden to whoever pays for their reelection campaigns.

Our government is supposed to be a government of the people, that is run by the people, for the people.  Instead ever since St. Ronnie hoodwinked us, it's become a government of the corrupt corporations, that is run by the corrupt corporations, in order to line the pockets of rich white men and women.  Reagan started it, Bush the elder continued it, Clinton went along, and Bush the idiot perfected it.  And we're all getting screwed as a result.

Maybe after the other shoe drops in the current financial meltdown we can kick these greedy bastards out and we can rebuild our country like FDR and the Democratic Party did after the Great Depression.  All those programs and laws that they enacted helped people like you and me, the working class that built this country.  And they, Reagan, Bill "NAFTA is good!" Clinton, the Bushes, and their enablers in Congress, dismantled them.  

The period after the Great Depression, which by the way was brought on by out of control capitalism which is what we have today, and after World War 2 was the most productive period ever for working class people.  Our parents and grandparents were able to climb out of poverty, buy homes, cars, and give us baby boomers great childhoods because laws were written that reigned in big business.  Big business still made money, they just didn't make as much as they wanted, some of their profits went back to their employees and to the cities and states where they had their factories and stores.  The big difference between then and now is big business doesn't care about you or me anymore, they don't have to care because they got the laws changed in their favor.  The money that used to go to our parents and grandparents and to our communities now goes to the people at the top of the corporate food chain, look at how much their pay has increased and look at how much yours has decreased.

St. Ronnie led us all down a rathole.  And then him and his buddies in big business filled the hole in with dirt.  It's time to dig out and take back our country, our economy, our Congress, and our world.  What Wall Street wants is not what's good for us, less restrictions and less taxes on big businesses and the rich is not the answer, the fact that they do not pay their fair share is the fucking problem.  It's time to make big business and the rich pay their fair share again and to have some regulation again. 

One down, two to go

Castro resigned today.

Too bad these two won't do the same thing.

If they did then we'd be rid of three of the world's dictators. And then maybe after those asshats were gone we could start dismantling the corporate power structure that is strangling us all.

The wheels of the car go 'round and 'round

They're having trouble paying for the schools here in Washington County, TN so they decided to put a fund raising measure on the primary ballot. When I say "fund raising measure" what I mean is they want us to vote on a tax, specifically it's a wheel tax and the powers that be in our county want to use that money for education.

I was surprised that they allowed us to vote on this in the first place, they usually impose such things on us by fiat and then say "Pay up or else!" What also surprised me was the fact they floated the idea of a wheel tax at all. Most people in the surrounding counties where I live routinely vote these kinds of taxes down and I expect we'll do the same thing here. I know I voted against it. But I didn't vote against it because I hate the little kiddies in schools. I voted against it becasue it is another in a long line of regressive taxes they want to foist on us.

You see folks, here in TN we have no income tax. What we have instead is one of the highest sales taxes in the nation. And it goes up almost every year. The last time they raised it they said they had to do it to pay for TennCare, our states one time version of Medicaid, but then the gutless politicians in Nashville gutted TennCare and they tossed all people off it except for children under the age of 18 and expectant mothers. Now, did the gutless wonders in Nashville give us back our tax increase once we no longer had TennCare? Nope. They continued to stick it to us and more specifically stick it to the poor and working class people of this state.

The poor and worknig class pay a high percentage of taxes under a sales tax only system. The rich and high income earners pay a far lower percentage of their earnings in taxes while reaping more rewards the state offers, such as tax breaks for businesses and tax breaks on the purchase of big ticket items like cars and homes. The sales tax rates are configured differently in this state for big ticket items because the state knows that if the rates were the same on expensive items, like cars and such, as they are for groceries and everyday items then people, especially people like Sparky and I who live near the Virginia and North Carolina borders, would buy those big ticket items out of state to avoid paying such high sales taxes.

This wheel tax business they are trying to get us to vote for says that any person who owns a vehicle with four wheels must pay a $50 a year fee. Some of you are saying, "That's not much to pay." Well if you drive one of these, it's not:
But if you drive a beat up one of these:
Hell yes it is too much to pay.

In this area where everything is spread out you must have a car to get around and to get by and this wheel tax would unfairly impinge more heavily on the already over taxed poor and working classes. Once again they'd be asked to pay a higher percentage of taxes than the wealthier citizens of this county. And I know damn well that the schools that would benefit the most from the tax would be the ones in the cities and not the ones that need it most, the ones in the outlying rural areas.

So if this wheel tax loses, which I expect it to do, whatever shall we do to fund our schools? They've already raised our property taxes, and we already pay city and county taxes here at El Casa de Monkey, and that's in addition to those scandously high sales taxes we pay too. Until we have a state budget meltdown they will never ever approve an income tax in Nashville. So again, I ask, whatever shall we do? Where shall all that money come from to pay for our schools?

Well, I'm glad you asked. Here's my idea, we pass a tax on the square footage of every business in the county, and why stop there? I say we institute a tax on the square footage of every business in our state. Here's how my idea would work:

• Every business, big and or small across the state pays a yearly tax of one dollar per square foot of their buisness. This would mean that businesses that are huge, like Wal-Mart, Best Buy, hospitals, etc, would pay far more in taxes than small Mom and Pop businesses.

That's it. The big boys, for once, pay more in taxes than the small businesses. We use that money to fund schools and to make other community improvements. Some of you might say, "That will kill business! The big corporations will just pack up and leave if you tax them like that." Bull shit, of course they won't. What they'll do in fact is to try to open more stores or hospitals or whatever in order to make up for the revenues that thay are now paying in taxes. And of course some of them would raise their prices to offset the tax increase on their business, some people will of course pay the increased prices but some will shop elsewhere at stores that choose to make a little less profit and to be a better community partner.

Of course I am under no illusion that my plan will ever be adopted in this state because like their counterparts in the US Congress, our legislators in Nashville are in the pockets of every coroporate lobbyist who ever put on a pair of loafers or high heels and walked the halls of power. They'll continue to put the wants and alleged needs of big business ahead of the citizens of this state for as long as we have this corrupt political and economic system.

So long shithead

Bye bye Rudy. It was 9/11 fun making 9/11 of you 9/11. But honestly 9/11, did you really 9/11 think you'd be elected 9/11 President 9/11? Just because you brow beat 9/11 New Yorkers into electing your 9/11 crazy fascist ass 9/11, that didn't mean 9/11 that the rest of us 9/11 would fall for your crap too 9/11.

So now you'll 9/11 McCain and you and 9/11 Cruella DeVille will 9/11 back to Slytherin house for a bit of a 9/11 rest before you continue to make money off of 9/11. Defeat could not have happened to a more deserving human being. 9/11.

********

(Welcome to the folks visiting from Oliver Willis's blog. Look around and enjoy your stay!)

Two balls, one strike

Writers in the entertainment industry are scheduled to go on strike tomorrow (Monday Nov. 5, 2007) which means that many TV shows will be shut down and go into reruns and that no new movies or TV shows will be written or produced until the strike is resolved. Where do we here at Monkey Muck stand on this matter? By way of an answer let me quote some lyrics of an old labor movement song:

"Stick to the union, stick to the union, I'm sticking to the union till the day I die." That's right boy and girls, we are supporting the writers in this and every other strike they may have in the future. The hitch, as I understand it, is that the writers want their fair share of DVD sales revenue and they want to be paid when the fruits of their labors are used in the so called "new media," which is the internets and all the ancillary media that stems from the internets. Seems reasonable to me, after all without the writers there would be no product to put out there in the first place, so it's only fair that writers get paid for all the ways the TV and movie studios profit from their works.

This country would be in far worse shape than it is today if the brave men and women of organized labor had not taken a stand in the many stand off all those years ago and up to the present. You would not have a 5 day work week if it had not been for unions, nor would you have any other benefits that unions brought us. In the dark days before organized labor there was no such thing as workman's compensation insurance, health insurance (and I realize that most employers are cutting this out even as I write this), 40 hour work week, work place safety standards, and laws that prohibited child labor. Company bosses pretty much had the run of things and there was no recourse for any grievance and if you complained you were fired and or beaten up and killed.

But thanks to the brave union men and women of the late 19th and early 20th century we have a much safer, saner, and more equitable working environment today, even in spite of the Bush administration's anti union propaganda and their attempts to drag labor back to the 70's, the 1770's. The next time you hear someone bad mouth unions remind them that without unions that they'd be working about 80 hours a week in unsafe conditions with no insurance whatsoever and with no legal rights to sue if something went wrong on the job.So of course I am supporting the writers and I hope they stay out on strike until they get what they want. Speaking as a writer, albeit a not for profit writer, and I intend to stay that way since I won't put ads on my blog, I'd want to be properly compensated too if I was in their shoes. The works of these writers will live for many many years in reruns, on DVD's, and on the net, so hell yes, the writers deserve to get every penny they can out of the studios and entertainment corporations. I've lived through coal miners strikes, a UPS strike, the writers strike of the late 80's and you know what? None of those strikes hurt this country at all, in fact they made things better for the working man. So what if I miss a few episodes of The Daily Show and so what if The Late Show with David Letterman sucks a little if his writers walk? I'll gladly take the temporary inconvenience if working and creative people get paid what they're worth in the long run.

Naomi Klein on the Presidential race

Hello everyone. I'm Naomi Klein, best selling author, fair trade and anti corporate activist, and all around Canadian cutie. I'm here to tell you some things about a certain blogger candidate that you may not know.
Some of you may have heard that the iSplotchy has made quite the impact on the current Presidential race and it has even picked up some endorsements from other bloggers. But did you also know that it's for sale to the highest bidder? Talk about a corporate sell out! Having your next President be for sale to the highest bidder is something that even George Bush shied away from, well at least he was not so nakedly greedy about it. Can you imagine if someone in the defense industry buys the iSplotchy? Or if one of those mega churches buys it? What then? I for one shudder to think about it. I hope you US citizens don't fall vote to elect a candidate that may be a tool of Blackwater or Hustler magazine. You also need to know that the US corporate media is not reporting on the backlash against the iSplotchy that has been taking place in the heartland of America. The CBC, that Canadian Broadcasting Corp., has done several reports about unhappy iSplotchy owners. Apple will not refund money on these horrendous products that are being made in sweatshops on certain Pacific islands, so the unhappy owners are simply throwing their iSplotchy's away. Some of these people agreed to tell me about their unhappiness with this defective by design product:

"The iSplotchy ruined my life! It's ambient radiation has made me impotent and sterile!"

"After we smash every iSplotchy we can find we're going to march on Steve Jobs office and beat him up for inventing them!"

"iSplotchy? More like itSuckee! This damn thing has never worked properly and now they won't refund my money! To hell with this worthless piece of crap!"

"iSplotchy is poopy! It make me cry."

So there you have it, the iSplotchy is a horrendous product that it's multi national corporate manufacturer will not stand behind and as a candidate it is for sale to the highest bidder. This is clearly a case of corporatism run amok and a case of blurring the lines between business and government.

Thankfully there is one set of candidates who are not like the iSplotchy. In fact, these candidates are the polar opposite of that disgusting product. These candidates are smart, they are kind, they offer real solutions to the problems facing the world today. They will roll up their sleeves and get to work as soon as they get elected. They are not tools of the corporate beast, instead they are the multinational corporations worst nightmares because they will reign in the runaway greed. And best of all, one of them is a pure 100% hottie.
Yeah, I said it, Monkerstein is hot as hell and the chick ain't so bad either! I'm just kidding, wow, look at her working that dress! Man oh man, I wish it was me she was kissing. Oooooohhhhh, Kristi, call me!!!! Who said that? Huh? What?

Sorry, I got lost there for a second. America, don't be fooled by Apple's lies, the ISplotchy is not something you need running your country. You need Monkey/Love in 2008. I urge you to choose Monkey/Love because only a good dose of sweet hot Monkey/Love will make things right.

Thanks! I've got to run now. Hey, don't forget to buy my new book The Shock Doctrine, it makes a wonderful holiday gift!

Broken

I had been saving my nickels, dimes, and pennies for months so that I could finally buy an iSplotchy of my very own.

The day finally arrived when I had enough cash and I ran to my local iSplotchy retailer and I plunked down my money.

I was giddy with happiness. My feet barely touched the ground as I ran home. But then I tripped as I crossed the threshold of el Casa de Monkey and my iSplotchy flew out of my hand, fell on the floor, and it shattered into a million pieces.

I took my now useless iSplotchy back to the store but I was told that there was no warranty on it. What a rip off. I'm begging you people out there not to believe the hype. The iSplotchy sucks, don't waste any of your hard earned money on it.

Charter Cable's new slogan!

You load 16 tons and what do you get?

These days you get more absurd crap from this guy: Yep, that's the guy who owns the mine in Utah where those six miners are buried now and where some rescuers died when they tried to dig them out. But have no fear, those brave miners and rescuers did not die in vain, or would it be vein? The memory of those brave men will live on because Mr. Murray wants to reopen the mine in question! That's right, the bodies of those dead miners are still warm but that's not going to stop the relentless march of disaster capitalism!


From Think Progress:
Yesterday, Crandall Canyon mine co-owner Robert Murray said that while he plans to “abandon any effort” to mine at the site of the initial collapse where six miners were trapped, he believes “that other parts of the mine remained safe for work and that mining should resume.” An MSHA official said he was “shocked that the subject was even brought up.”


Don't get the wrong impression about all this though, Mr. Murray is suffering as much if not more than the miners and their grieving families.


From the AP:
Coal mine boss Bob Murray said he is hurt and stung by criticism that he operated an unsafe mine and wasn't doing enough to find six miners trapped more than two weeks ago in a cave-in. "I didn't desert anybody,'' he said early Wednesday, responding to victims' relatives who say officials have given up on finding their loved ones. "I've been living on this mountain every day, living in a little trailer.''


My god what a heroic sacrifice! He's living in a little trailer! Do I smell a Time Man of the Year award for his noble sacrifice? Nobel Prize? MacArthur Genius Grant perhaps? When you stop and think about what this man has lost in the past few weeks it should make you weep. He's lost valuable exploitation of the workers time, he's lost money due to his mine being closed, and now he tell us he's given up living in one of his luxury homes! I am on my knees worshipping this selfless human being. Move over Gandhi, step aside Mother Theresa, get off that cloud Martin Luther King, there's a new humanitarian in town!

If there is any justice in this world or the next then Murray the Mine Owner will be locked in a prison cell with Michael Vick and they'll both die long painful deaths.

Charter Cable Sucks Like A Vacuum Cleaner

Since today is a day with a Y in it my internet is off and on again. It's been spotty all week but since the 15th of this month it's been off for anywhere from 1/2 hr to 9 hrs a freakin' day, every day. And of course I'll be billed for all those hours it was off. Except that I've been keeping a log of your internet outages Charter and I'm going to the local office at the end of the month and I'm giving them a copy and I'll be asking, politely of course, for credit for all the times your shitty internet service was out.

Oh, Mr. Charter Cable CEO, I'm still waiting for my written apology from you for your company's shitty service.

How long will we tolerate this?

I found this over at D Cup's blog, I only steal from the best.

Seriously, how long are we going to put up with this shit? They trample our Constitution, they invade our privacy, they keep an endless war going even though most of us want out of that quagmire, they allow their corporate buddies to run rough shod over us, and they sneer at us while they do it. If the Democrats, who I must admit I am quite pissed off at because they seem to be more than willing to just roll over and let the Bush junta screw us without even kissing us, want to win the White House back in 2008, they need to refer to whoever the Republican nominee is as 'Bush' Whatever, for example Bush Guilani, Bush Romney, Bush Huckabee, Bush McCain, etc. They've got to tie Bush to every Republican candidate and make them answer for all his bull shit and law breaking.

Here's the lyrics to one of my favorite Elvis Costello songs 'Tramp the Dirt Down.' I know he wrote it about Margret Thatcher but the sentiment covers how I feel about that criminal posse in the White House perfectly:

I saw a newspaper picture from the political campaign
A woman was kissing a child, who was obviously in pain
She spills with compassion, as that young child's face in her hands she grips
Can you imagine all that greed and avarice coming down on that child's lips?

Well I hope I don't die too soon, I pray the Lord my soul to save
Yes, I'll be a good boy, I'm trying so hard to behave
Because there's one thing I know, I'd like to live long enough to savour
That's when they finally put you in the ground
I'll stand on your grave and tramp the dirt down

When England was the whore of the world, Margaret was her madam
And the future looked as bright and as clear as the black tarmacadam
Well I hope that she sleeps well at night, isn't haunted by every tiny detail
When she held that lovely face in her hands all she thought of was betrayal

And now the cynical ones say that it all ends the same in the long run
Try telling that to the desperate father who just squeezed the life from his only son
And how it's only voices in your head and dreams you never dreamt
Try telling him the subtle difference between justice and contempt
Try telling me she isn't angry with this pitiful discontent
When they flaunt it in your face as you line up for punishment
And then expect you to say "Thank you", straighten up, look proud and pleased
Because you've only got the symptoms, you haven't got the whole disease

Just like a schoolboy, whose head's like a tin-can
Filled up with dreams then poured down the drain
Try telling that to the boys on both sides, being blown to bits or beaten and maimed
Who takes all the glory but none of the shame?

Well I hope you live long now, I pray the Lord your soul to keep
I think I'll be going before we fold our arms and start to weep
I never thought for a moment that human life could be so cheap
But when they finally put you in the ground
They'll stand there laughing and tramp the dirt down

A message from President Bush

Howdy there. I just wanted to say a few words about that mine collapse thing in Utah before I go back out to get some more Jack Daniels, oops I mean, clear brush.
What ya'll got to understand is that if we are gonna win the global war on coal then things like this are gonna happen. We are gonna take some casualties and they may be heavy at times but it's gonna be well worth it, especially when that day arrives when we have burned up all the coal everywhere. Ya'll got to have patience, this is gonna be a long struggle.
I have instructed all MSHA employees to stop inpspecting so much and to start helpng the mine owners get more coal out of the ground. Only when we get government regulations off the backs of the mine owners will we win this struggle. I am fully aware that more men will die but it's okay. I mean it's not like them miners ever gave me or the Republican Party a cent anyway. And from what I heared most of them is Mexicans anyways.

So lemme just sum up my points, in other words coal miners gonna die but it's okay because if they don't then we ain't gonna win the global war against all other fuels besides oil and natural gas.



Now ya'll go on and leave me alone because I'm about to go set the record for most vacation days took by a sitting President. Help yourselves to a Stuckey's Pecan Log Roll on your way out. They're not only good and good for ya, they also come in handy pleasing your lady wife if you can't git it up.
Bye now.

He's joking right?

So the Chickenhawk in Chief wants to cut more taxes huh. But it's not your taxes he wants to cut Mr. and Mrs. America, no sir. The taxes he wants to cut are those of American corporations. He says we've got to cut their taxes even more, and let's remember that most of them pay NEXT TO NOTHING in taxes in the first place, so that they can be more competitive around the world.

Holy shit. Is he kidding? Does he think we are that stupid that we would believe that shit he's trying to pass off on us? I the eyes of the law a corporation is a person and it has all the rights a person has. But on the other hand it has none of the responsibilities. They weasel their way out of paying what taxes we do place on them while the burden of their non payment is met by us, the working class citizens. Bush Jr. wants them to pay even less now as he makes us pay more for his war. It's more tax cuts for his buddies and more tax burden for me and you.

He doesn't want you to think about all those corporations that are based in countries that make them pay taxes yet who still rake in millions globally. He doesn't want you to think about the fact that most of our European allies and BFF's governments are socialist style governments, France, Germany, Sweden, the UK, etc, that make their corporate citizens pay their fair share.
Here's the logo's of some of those companies that do pretty fucking well without having their taxes cut every five fucking minutes:

Other companies that fit into this category are ADIDAS, Astra Zeneca, BBC, BP, Fiat, GlaxoSmithKline, Jaguar, Kangol, Landrover, Lego, L'Oreal, Michelin, Reebok, Rolls Royce, Ubisoft, and Vivendi Universal. It's funny how those companies can make millions worldwide and still have to pay taxes and yet the Idiot in Chief says that American companies can't do the same thing.

So basically he's saying we have to cut the taxes of a group that can best afford to pay and shift that burden to the group who can least afford to pay more in taxes.

Hey George, I think you're just trying to sell out the American people to the corporations even more than you already have. I say you're a stooge who lost your credibility long ago and no person in their right mind would fall for your insane ramblings on cutting taxes for corporations.
How about you and Dick Cheney resign and let Nancy Pelosi run things until I or Dennis Kucinich gets elected? Will you do that please? Will you and Darth Cheney step down? Well, what do you think about my proposal?

Ok then, fuck you too.

Hey Charter

I know what you guys are up to. You've slowed down my internet whenever I click on my blog. Since it's my home page it's really annoying. But you know what? You know how I'm on to you? No one elses blog on Blogger.com takes so long to load so I know you guys are trying to get me back for letting people know about your shitty service. My internet from you greedy pigs has been acting up ever since I would not talk to your corporate goon Andre. I'm not backing down though, I pay on time every month and you guys screw me over every month, so until you clean up your act I'm putting this on the top of my sidebar:

Deal with it you greedy slow ass internet job outsourcing pig fucking bastards.

Don't poison me Elmo

Pity poor Mattel. They are going to lose $30 million dollars this year because they are too cheap to make their toys in the USA. Yep, that's right. They are too cheap to make their toys in the USA so they contracted some companies in China to make their toys for them. But it turns out those rascals in China used too much lead paint on the toys and now the nosy Parker Feds in DC are making Mattel take those toys off the market, hence losing them $30 million dollars. Everybody together now and let's tell the pricks at Mattel how we feel, "Awwwwwwww." The thing about this is if those toys had not been tested they'd still be on the market. Mattel did not test them for lead paint content, the Feds did. Mattel, no matter what they claim now that they have been caught, could care less about the lead content in the paints used in China. Why do you think they got the toys made in China in the first place? They got the Chinese companies to make their toys for them because they wanted to make more profits and to escape the labor laws and environmental laws of the USA. They wanted more profits for themselves and their shareholders even if that meant using Chinese companies who get the job done for the least amount of money and with the least amount of environmental oversight.

The top brass at Mattel are trying to place blame for this shit storm on the Chinese. One of them said, "Our safety record is exemplary. All of us at Fisher Price are devastated." Fisher Price is a subsidiary of Mattel. He might as well say, "It wasn't our fault, it's the damn Chinese fault! We didn't do nothin' wrong. Honest!" Bull shit. Their safety record is exemplary because they shut down most of the plants that used to make their toys here in the USA and they then contracted the making of their toys out to the Chinese. It's not hard to have a great safety record when you don't make a fucking thing.

Honestly, you can't blame the Chinese for making these toys so cheaply, that's what Mattel and Fisher Price paid them to do. So the blame for toys coated in lead based paints lays with Mattel and especially with their management team. Give them a ring sometime and ask to speak to their CEO and tell his or her ass that they are a bunch of greedy pigs who only care about how much moneythey can squeeze out of us and that they could care less about kids and families, send them an email with those sentiments as well.

If I had small children or very young grandchildren I'd be off the hook mad at these greedy bastards. I'd package up all the Mattel and Fisher Price toys and I'd send them to the CEO and I'd demand a refund and a written apology. But I know what I'd get back for my trouble, not a damn thing because they dont care. Oh sorry, they only care when they get caught and then they act like they care so very much. As long as we let the multi national corporations run roughshod over us and we do not reign them in, then we can expect more of this type of crap. And we can expect their handmaidens in crime in Washington DC to stand by them and to shield them from lawsuits. Corporations will never do the right thing, they will always put profits before people and we will always get screwed over until we demand that the corporations stop being given the same rights as flesh and blood citizens. A corporation is not a person and they do not deserve the same rights as we do. When we reign in the corporations and the runaway greed that they instill in all of us then we will see a huge drop in terrorism and we will begin to heal the divisions in our society.

Until we force some sane regulation on the mutlinational corporations let's hit them where it hurts and stop buying their cheap ass shit and if they don't get in line after that, then let's take a tip from Mojo Nixon:

Hey Hillary...

... who's going to sell us out to the multinational corporations and to military industrial complex even more than King George The Dumbass?

Ok, got it. Thanks.

Oh really?

I saw an article earlier on Yahoo! that I been dying to write about but then my super shittastic internet went down all day so I haven't been able to write about it until now. I'm not gonna link the article, instead I'm going to quote from it.

The aritcle was about, get this, and make sure your'e sitting down because if you're not then you'll fall over from laughter and then you'll get pissed at me, so sit, how renewable energy is not green and how bad it is going to be for the environment! Imagine that, renewable energy is going to be bad for our planet! Here from the article is it's central point: Building enough wind farms, damming adequate number of rivers and growing sufficient biomass to produce ample kilowatts to make a difference in meeting global energy demands would involve a huge invasion of nature, according to Jesse Ausubel, a researcher at the Rockefeller University in New York.

Wow. Who would have thought that burning all those fossil fuels that are causing our climate to change for the worse was actually so good in comparison to that damn wind, solar, and biomass power!

Stop laughing please, I mean it. Take a deep breath and let's go through this together.

Unless I miss my guess and I don't think I have because I have a degree in history, wasn't Rockefeller University founded by someone named Rockefeller? And wasn't the patriarch of the Rockefeller clan one John D. Rockefeller the late 19th and early 20th century robber baron who made his fortune in oil?

Along those same lines how does Yahoo! make their money? Advertising. Who advertises heavily on Yahoo!? Car manufacturers. Don't car manufacturers want us to keep burning fossil fuels like crazy? Aren't they and the oil companies behind the discrediting of the science behind climate change? Hell yes they are.

So there you have it. A "researcher" at Rockefeller University, a school founded/funded by the family who made it's fortune in oil, says that renewable energy is bad for the planet and Yahoo!, a company that makes millions from auto and truck manufacturers who advertise on their website put that article on the front of their web page which many people use as their homepage, which I must admit I also did until today.

How stupid do they think we are? How much "invaison of nature" do they think something like this would be?

Or this?

I have an idea. My idea is that every city, county, and state mandate that all new buildings, residential and commercial, have some form of electricity producing solar panel built on them. Also every big box retailer, like Wal-Mart, Target, Best Buy, Pet Smart, etc, should retro fit their buildings with energy producing solar panels or they must plant some kind of food producing garden on their roofs and that food must be given away for free to low income people. The energy producing solar panels must also be put on every hospital, church and synagogue, prison, and government building. It's insane that businesses, hospitals, churches, and schools are not already doing this.

Here's another crazy idea for you Jesse, how about instead of building dams that destroy natural habitat and eco systems, we build instead some of these ocean based turbines to generate power? Oh I know you're going to say, "That will kill the little fishies!" Actually, no it won't. We build a mesh curtain in around the turbines so only the very smallest marine organisms will be affected.

Another crazy idea is we put these wind turbines on the tops of the mountains we are currently blowing up so we can strip mine the coal beneath. And we also put them in places where wind blows like crazy, like say in the desolate areas of Oklahoma, which would be pretty much all of Oklahoma.

Then you know what Jesse dude? We could get the US Government to stop the ban on growing hemp. Maybe you did not know that hemp can be made into fuel, food, clothes, and many other products. Or maybe you did and since you work at a university founded and funded by people who made their money in oil you just want to forget that.

One final idea. How about we harness the hotness of Sheila E, Gong Li, Salma Hayek, Scar Jo, and the leads on Weeds and we use that to generate power for ourselves.

Heaven forbid we stop burning gas, coal, oil, and natural gas. Heaven forbid we actually stop listening to people who have been paid by the gas, oil, and automotive industries to write reports that claim renewable energy is not green and is bad for the planet.

Jesse and Yahoo!, you'll both forgive me if I don't believe your lies. You'll forgive me if I don't fall for your fossil fuels burning is good and renewable energy is bad crap. Honestly, are you people bucking for a position in the Bush administration? You both seem to have their backward bizarro thinking down pat.