Saturday, April 15, 2006

Couldn't they have protested in their hearts?

For Immigrants and Business, Rift on Protests
"I have no problem with the demonstration, but this is a business," said Charley Bohley, an owner of Rodes restaurant and fishmarket in Bonita Springs, who fired the 10 workers there after posting a note warning employees that they could not miss work for a rally on Monday. "Couldn't they have protested in the morning before work? Couldn't they have protested in their hearts?"


Couldn't they have protested in their hearts?

Couldn't they have just shut the fuck up?

Couldn't they have thought of their own security?

Couldn't they have seen that I would fire them?

Couldn't they put themselves before their fellow humans?

Couldn't they accept their place?

Couldn't they just pray for change, instead of acting to affect change?

Couldn't they see that I hold the power, to hire, to fire, to glare in disapproval at certain conversations, to use their very job as blackmail, to see them as dollars and cents with unfortunate biological functions, to see them as interchangeable with the next slob to come in the door?

Couldn't they see that I. am. fucking. in. charge. here?

Couldn't they?

Friday, April 14, 2006

Regarding the swamps of the internets

This post is, as they say, a must read.

Thursday, April 13, 2006

In the America that we are taught about in our schools, this would not be considered a win.

But in TCFKAUSA, it is.

Librarians Win as U.S. Relents on Secrecy Law
After fighting ferociously for months, federal prosecutors relented yesterday and agreed to allow a Connecticut library group to identify itself as the recipient of a secret F.B.I. demand for records in a counterterrorism investigation.

Unless I'm too dense to see it, the article does not address whether or not the library group will have to turn over their records.

This "win" is simply that the library group can publicly say that they were subpeonaed, or served with a national security lettter, or whatever the appropriate totalitarian term is. Before, they were under a gag order.

Hooray! Three cheers for pseudo-liberty! Hooray!
Just wanted to put this marker in the ground. Something tells me I'll need it later.

Analysts Say a Nuclear Iran Is Years Away
The official, Muhammad Saeedi, the deputy head of Iran's atomic energy organization, said Iran would push quickly to put 54,000 centrifuges on line — a vast increase from the 164 the Iranians said Tuesday that they had used to enrich uranium to levels that could fuel a nuclear reactor.

Still, nuclear analysts called the claims exaggerated. They said nothing had changed to alter current estimates of when Iran might be able to make a single nuclear weapon, assuming that is its ultimate goal. The United States government has put that at 5 to 10 years, and some analysts have said it could come as late as 2020.

Tuesday, April 11, 2006

Speculative scenarios, based on what we know at this point.

1. Bush ordered cheney and Libby to selectively release the NIE. The "Bush is a petty, vindictive hypocrite" scenario.

2. Cheney and Libby came to Bush with a plan to selectively release the NIE, and Bush approves. The "Bush is a delegatin' CEO president, and still a hypocrite" scenario.

3. Cheney and Libby tell Bush in an extremely vague way about selectively releasing the NIE, and Bush approves. The "Bush is clueless" scenario. This scenario involves all of the white House PR rodents scurrying around, trying to think up ways to get the public to cut Bush as much slack as they used to cut for Reagan.

4. Cheney and Libby came up with a plan to selectively release the NIE, and told Bush little or nothing about it. The "Bush is an empty figurehead" scenario.

Take your pick. None of 'em are what you would objectively call "good." We are definitely in "least bad" territory here.
Immigrants Rally in Scores of Cities for Legal Status

Some good news for a change. Positive citizen action.

Get these people in unions, get them in the Democratic Party. Get them citizenship, and keep them involved.

The power of the people is the only thing that can counterbalance the power of the corporations and the wealthy, and the politicians who cater to both.

Spilling words on the internets means nothing. People spilling out into the streets, that means something.

Monday, April 10, 2006

Military Plays Up Role of Zarqawi
In a transcript of the meeting, Harvey said, "Our own focus on Zarqawi has enlarged his caricature, if you will -- made him more important than he really is, in some ways."

"The long-term threat is not Zarqawi or religious extremists, but these former regime types and their friends," said Harvey, who did not return phone calls seeking comment on his remarks.

Somebody tell you-know-who.

Contractors Cash Out but Try to Stay Humble
The growth in government contracting has transformed the Washington region, pumping billions of dollars into local companies, luring workers from around the country, inflating home prices and taxing already-crowded roads. It has also created a new class of multimillionaires -- entrepreneurs like Howton who started small companies, expanded them, then sold them at premium prices. If the government's influence here has led to steady jobs and pensions for the federal workforce, it is changing to include another dimension: catalyst for private wealth.

"There has been a lot of trapped, passive equity released -- released to the owners and to the local economy. Without a doubt it's billions of dollars," said Rick Knop, managing director of BB&T Capital Markets/Windsor Group, a company that helped negotiate the sale of 20 local government contractors in 2005.

If everyone would speak the same damn language, then maybe the public wouldn't be so f*ing ill informed all the time.

"Trapped, passive equity." Call me crazy, but in this context it sounds like it should be called "tax dollars," or more specifically "your tax dollars."

One more example of the con game that is conservative government.