Computer viruses are a well-known threat, but did you know there are many different types of computer viruses? Let's look at the various types and see how they differ and the dangers they pose. We'll examine trojans, macro viruses, polymorphic viruses, and more.
Different Kinds of Computer Threats
The term computer virus is well known. There are different kinds of viruses however, and some of these types are less well known than others. Viruses have been around almost since the beginning of computers. Before almost all computers were networked, viruses would spread much more slowly. They often spread on floppy disks; it was important to scan the disks to ensure that viruses were not present. Viruses can spread much more quickly today with the near ubiquitous connectivity to the Internet.
There are several different kinds of computer viruses. The possible types have expanded as operating systems have grown in features and complexity. The same is true of software programs, scripting languages, and server applications. Programmers are trained these days to work to limit the possibilities of virus infection, and there are programming tools to assist in strengthening code. Still, viruses are prevalent. Let's look at the different kinds of viruses.
Types of Viruses
Boot sector viruses - Computer operating systems use part of the hard disk when starting up after the computer is turned on. This area of the hard disk is called the boot sector. When a virus infects the boot sector it can load itself before the operating system. When floppy disks (which also have boot sectors) were common they could be used to boot as well and were a common vector for infection.
Memory resident viruses - These viruses stay in memory, like the name suggests. Others just move from file to file and program and program.
Polymorphic viruses - These change their "shape" to make them harder for anti-virus software to detect.
Macro viruses - Many business software programs and suites have macro language and scripting features that can be converted to use for viruses.
CSS viruses - Browsers that have scripting functionality enabled can be exploited by cross-site scripting. Web sites with advertisements that come from another source (as most do) can be especially vulnerable.
Cavity viruses - These viruses hide within executable files using the "free space" within the files so that the total file size does not change and arouse suspicion.
Metamorphic viruses - these rewrite themselves each time they infect a new file.
Trojans - A trojan appears to be one type of file or program but is actually a virus.
Worms - Worms do not require user actions to spread, they move from system to system over networks on their own. For more information see my articles on computer worms, specifically the Conficker worm, and how to protect your computers and networks from them.
Forewarned Is Forearmed
The best defense is to ensure you have anti-virus software installed and keep it up to date. Most modern anti-virus software automatically updates, but don't take it for granted that this is happening. Many personal firewalls will also provide protection against viruses and against their spread. I hope this article has broadened your view of computer viruses.
Source of article:http://www.brighthub.com
Sunday, June 14, 2009
Monday, June 1, 2009
How to Achieve a Flexible Home Based Internet Business
An internet home based business is an appropriate choice if you have played your cards well. The variety of opportunities that can be accessed to work from home is colossal. You can make your selection from active or passive work depending upon your convenience. Jobs can be easily availed depending upon your abilities as well as talents. The amount of investment required for the home based business depends upon the kind of work you select and how much time you can give it on daily basis. So, make your own choice or rather create one you actually enjoy doing. With Internet you attain a great source to make large sum of money. The crucial thing while selecting is a business is to chalk out a perfect strategy for the flourishing of the business.
The active work entitles you to a specific sum of money subsequent to the completion of the task. If you are seeking to earn higher amount of money you must either perform the similar act number of times or you can choose a work which on repetition pays you large sum. An instance of such internet home based business is that you can opt for the completion of directory articles. In such a work negotiations are possible, which are generally are assessed on the way tou write.
Another way of earning through home based business is through passive opportunities. This can be elaborated upon through an example which is by placing the ads of Google AdSense on your personal website. With this the income comes by pay per click. So, if you have your own blog or website then this kind of income will easily add to your regularly earned income. More the traffic your website attracts, the brighter your chances are to earn passive income.
When you are deciding to make your pick from the choices available to you, it is recommended to keep your likes as well as dislikes into consideration. The selection of the job that best suits your experience, education, personality as well as work style should be made. This will lead you to great level of satisfaction from job. Monetary consideration also plays a crucial role while making your choice. For this you have to make a thorough research on the Internet selecting those that match your preferences, which will make you enthusiastic of the choices you have made.
The condition of working is another important factor that will determine your overall growth and success in your chosen business. Working at home renders you free from the stress of daily commuting to your work place, which indeed saves your time as well as money also. The time and money saved could be put into use for other constructive activities, with which you can make more profits. Moreover, your working time depends on the time that best suits your convenience. So, in case if at night you can work with full zeal and enthusiasm than you can take your sleep in the morning hours.
Article Source:Articlecity
The active work entitles you to a specific sum of money subsequent to the completion of the task. If you are seeking to earn higher amount of money you must either perform the similar act number of times or you can choose a work which on repetition pays you large sum. An instance of such internet home based business is that you can opt for the completion of directory articles. In such a work negotiations are possible, which are generally are assessed on the way tou write.
Another way of earning through home based business is through passive opportunities. This can be elaborated upon through an example which is by placing the ads of Google AdSense on your personal website. With this the income comes by pay per click. So, if you have your own blog or website then this kind of income will easily add to your regularly earned income. More the traffic your website attracts, the brighter your chances are to earn passive income.
When you are deciding to make your pick from the choices available to you, it is recommended to keep your likes as well as dislikes into consideration. The selection of the job that best suits your experience, education, personality as well as work style should be made. This will lead you to great level of satisfaction from job. Monetary consideration also plays a crucial role while making your choice. For this you have to make a thorough research on the Internet selecting those that match your preferences, which will make you enthusiastic of the choices you have made.
The condition of working is another important factor that will determine your overall growth and success in your chosen business. Working at home renders you free from the stress of daily commuting to your work place, which indeed saves your time as well as money also. The time and money saved could be put into use for other constructive activities, with which you can make more profits. Moreover, your working time depends on the time that best suits your convenience. So, in case if at night you can work with full zeal and enthusiasm than you can take your sleep in the morning hours.
Article Source:Articlecity
What You Need To Know About Computer Viruses
What, another computer security article? Who needs it? Aren't we tired of all that techie stuff that only geeks can comprehend? Virus my foot! But seriously. Computer security is an important topic and those who neglect it will surely get themselves in trouble sooner or later.
There is much confusion about what exactly a computer virus is. To many people a virus is simply any kind of bad thing that happens to their computer. This would be more or less correct around 1995, but since then several other threats have appeared and using a blanket term like 'virus' for all of them is misleading. Having said that, I don't mean any disrespect to the word 'virus'. After all, it is the granddaddy of all malicious software (or malware for short).
Old School Viruses
At first viruses were rather simple-minded, although dangerous at times. All they wanted was to enter your computer and destroy some data. Their favorite way of transmission was to attach themselves to otherwise harmless programs.
Worms
As "state of the art" viruses developed, a new breed came to the scene: worms. This charming name is used to describe a type of virus that not only infects the host machine, but also replicates itself over the network. In practice that means that a well-written worm can create real mayhem around the world in a matter of days. It is estimated that damage from some famous worms reaches billions of dollars.
Trojan Horses
Many programs, multimedia or other goodies can be found on the Internet. Often they are free and, let's face it, there are very few things that people like more than free stuff. The trouble with some free software is that it also comes with one or more viruses already included free of charge. Hence the name "Trojan Horse".
Are viruses good for my computer?
Absolutely! If you want to get rid of all that data clogging up your hard drive, a virus is a wonderful solution. If you want your spanking new computer to slow down to a crawl, then a virus is the way to go. If you're lucky, you may even get a worm which will not only help you clean up your computer from all those annoying files, but will also send a copy of itself to all your friends that it finds in your Outlook address book. In short, if you think that your computer is too fast and gives you too little trouble, a virus or two can really help!
Thankfully, you don't have to try too hard to get a virus. Simply connect an unprotected computer to the Internet for a few hours and let them come. That's all it takes.
Tips on How to Protect Yourself
Truth be told, viruses are not as hot as they used to be. It turns out that there's not much money in writing them. This of course doesn't mean that you should neglect the virus threat. There are quite a few dangerous viruses roaming the Internet. So keep your hard drive happy and don't let the viruses ruin your day. Here is what you can do:
1) Use a good antivirus program and update it regularly. Unfortunately, some antivirus products inflict more damage than actual viruses do. So, before getting an antivirus program, be sure to read some professional reviews and user feedback.
2) If you download software from the Internet, use only reputable sources. Scan the installation file with an antivirus program before running it.
3) Be very careful about opening email attachments. Be particularly vigilant if you use Microsoft Outlook.
Since you are reading this page, you are already in better shape than most computer users. So keep it this way and visit
Article Source:Articlecity
There is much confusion about what exactly a computer virus is. To many people a virus is simply any kind of bad thing that happens to their computer. This would be more or less correct around 1995, but since then several other threats have appeared and using a blanket term like 'virus' for all of them is misleading. Having said that, I don't mean any disrespect to the word 'virus'. After all, it is the granddaddy of all malicious software (or malware for short).
Old School Viruses
At first viruses were rather simple-minded, although dangerous at times. All they wanted was to enter your computer and destroy some data. Their favorite way of transmission was to attach themselves to otherwise harmless programs.
Worms
As "state of the art" viruses developed, a new breed came to the scene: worms. This charming name is used to describe a type of virus that not only infects the host machine, but also replicates itself over the network. In practice that means that a well-written worm can create real mayhem around the world in a matter of days. It is estimated that damage from some famous worms reaches billions of dollars.
Trojan Horses
Many programs, multimedia or other goodies can be found on the Internet. Often they are free and, let's face it, there are very few things that people like more than free stuff. The trouble with some free software is that it also comes with one or more viruses already included free of charge. Hence the name "Trojan Horse".
Are viruses good for my computer?
Absolutely! If you want to get rid of all that data clogging up your hard drive, a virus is a wonderful solution. If you want your spanking new computer to slow down to a crawl, then a virus is the way to go. If you're lucky, you may even get a worm which will not only help you clean up your computer from all those annoying files, but will also send a copy of itself to all your friends that it finds in your Outlook address book. In short, if you think that your computer is too fast and gives you too little trouble, a virus or two can really help!
Thankfully, you don't have to try too hard to get a virus. Simply connect an unprotected computer to the Internet for a few hours and let them come. That's all it takes.
Tips on How to Protect Yourself
Truth be told, viruses are not as hot as they used to be. It turns out that there's not much money in writing them. This of course doesn't mean that you should neglect the virus threat. There are quite a few dangerous viruses roaming the Internet. So keep your hard drive happy and don't let the viruses ruin your day. Here is what you can do:
1) Use a good antivirus program and update it regularly. Unfortunately, some antivirus products inflict more damage than actual viruses do. So, before getting an antivirus program, be sure to read some professional reviews and user feedback.
2) If you download software from the Internet, use only reputable sources. Scan the installation file with an antivirus program before running it.
3) Be very careful about opening email attachments. Be particularly vigilant if you use Microsoft Outlook.
Since you are reading this page, you are already in better shape than most computer users. So keep it this way and visit
Article Source:Articlecity
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
UEFA Championship League Final 2009 Result
The 2009 UEFA Championship League final between Manchester United and FC Barcelona ended a shortwhile ago with FC Barcelona winning by 2 goels to nil.
Thursday, May 21, 2009
2010 Olympic Torch
It’s Spring 2009 and already the 2010 Winter Olympics are a cause for sensation and controversy. The mini-scandal of the day? The 2010 Olympic Torch or — as some are already referring to it as — the 2010 Olympic Toke. This oh-so-clever entendre of course refers to the observation, now made by many, that the official 2010 Olympic Torch sorta-kinda looks like a joint. And you know what, I sorta-kinda have to agree.
Now, not too surprisingly, Olympic officials are hurrying to deny the allegation. According to them, the torch is supposed to look like the snow and ice marks left behind an Olympic skier or skater. Which, to be fair, I can certainly see. Mark Busse, an Industrial designer familiar with the behind-the-scenes making of the torch remarked, “Sure, it may look a little bit like a joint, but I can tell you that what they were going for was ergonomics, sleekness, modernity.”
Still, not everyone is convinced and new interpretations seem to be coming by the minute. In fact, David Schmader of The Stranger just noted how the torch resembled “a pregnancy test that reveals you’re having Satan’s baby.” Another worthy observation I suppose.
So which is it? A joint? Satan’s baby? Or a sleek and modern ski track? Knowing Vancouver, I think I’m going with all of the above.
Courtesy: Stephen Kral
Now, not too surprisingly, Olympic officials are hurrying to deny the allegation. According to them, the torch is supposed to look like the snow and ice marks left behind an Olympic skier or skater. Which, to be fair, I can certainly see. Mark Busse, an Industrial designer familiar with the behind-the-scenes making of the torch remarked, “Sure, it may look a little bit like a joint, but I can tell you that what they were going for was ergonomics, sleekness, modernity.”
Still, not everyone is convinced and new interpretations seem to be coming by the minute. In fact, David Schmader of The Stranger just noted how the torch resembled “a pregnancy test that reveals you’re having Satan’s baby.” Another worthy observation I suppose.
So which is it? A joint? Satan’s baby? Or a sleek and modern ski track? Knowing Vancouver, I think I’m going with all of the above.
Courtesy: Stephen Kral
Sunday, May 10, 2009
Mama Pelagai Villaflor Soliven Remembered
MY Mama will always be my idol, a woman whom I strive to emulate even as I realize that I could never measure up to her.
Mama—Pelagia Villaflor Soliven—was born on July 11, 1910, in Sto. Domingo, Ilocos. She was the second of three daughters of Agripino Villaflor, then chief of customs, and Gregoria Tesoro Jaramillo, one of the first teachers recruited by the Americans.
In her autobiography A Woman So Valiant, Mama recounts that her first glimpse of my Papa, the young Atty. Benito Tagorda Soliven, was at the family’s favorite Panciteria Antigua, where her father hosted a lunch in “Bitong’s” honor.
Mama recalls that the photographer made her squat at the foot of the honoree. She was 11 years old and Papa was 23!
It was that summer that the two actually met at a banquet mounted by the Sto. Domingo townsfolk to honor their favorite “son”, Benito T. Soliven, for having passed the Bar.
Mama and Papa got married when she was 18 in December 1928 at the Manila Cathedral. The reception was held at The Manila Hotel. Papa had just been elected representative for Ilocos Sur and so the ninongs were no less than then-Speaker Manuel Roxas and Sen. Elpidio Quirino.
In less than 12 years later, the young couple had 10 children. The youngest, Benito Jr., died, however, as an infant from dysentery during the outbreak of war.
Papa died from complications of malaria. He had fought in the battle of Bataan, survived the infamous Death March, and was a prisoner of war in Capas, Tarlac.
I have never forgiven the Japanese for what they did, depriving me of a father whom I never knew, because I was a toddler when Papa left for the war.
It was the worse time for a young widow (age 33 years!) to be left with nine orphaned children.
Mama, who never went to college, knew only to sew dresses, which she had been doing since she was a teenager. Mama built a wooden box house in Herran near the corner of San Marcelino, Paco, where my parents used to live. The original house had been burned to the ground during the Liberation of Manila.
I loved that house, even though the upstairs “bedroom” was a single room where everybody slept on the floor on mats. I slept on a shelf built over the stairwell. During the day we stored our mats, blankets, mosquito nets and pillows on the shelf.
Mama opened a tiny dress shop in front of the house. She sewed ladies’ dresses for P3.50 apiece and soutanas for the Jesuits at P5 apiece (for which she bought Indian cotton in Divisoria).
We were dirt-poor but we had the happiest childhood that anyone would wish! We had nothing, and yet we had everything. We were nine children plus our cousins, the Cardenas family who lived in the compound, with three kids. When the de Villas moved next door, that added three more playmates. We had a birthday winnie roast every month!
We played games that children play—piko, sipa, cops-and-robbers, hide-and-seek, jumping rope, etc.
The Jesuits from Ateneo Padre Faura, a 12-block walk away, would come to sing along as my brother Willie was a whiz at the small upright piano my Mama purchased.
The Jesuits donated a basketball goal and Mama had a hardcourt cemented in the yard. This later became a favorite venue for class parties, as well as games.
All my brothers’ classmates and even the Jesuits themselves came to play basketball because Mama loved to entertain. It seemed like all that we sisters (her four daughters) did was to make sandwiches and Kool-Aid drinks.
Years later, my brothers’ friends from the Student Catholic Action, a multicollege organization, began meeting and holding parties also in our house in Herran. I learned to dance early because the boys would use me as their dance partner to practice for the parties.
And they all loved “Mommy Soliven”. For many years later, as a journalist I would encounter people from all sectors—the newspaper and broadcast industry, politics, the rich and famous—who would remember the “house in Herran” and “Mommy Soliven”. Inevitably they would say, “And you must have been that little girl making sandwiches....”
So many memories came flooding back yesterday on Mother’s Day, such as when the National Federation of Women’s Clubs of the Philippines named Pelagia V. Soliven as “Outstanding Mother of the Year” on December 3, 1962.
Mama deserved the award, for sure, for every year she singlehandedly raised her nine children. Mama had an unshakable faith in God’s Providence. She would declare that if God took our father away, He would surely provide for us. Through those difficult early years, God must have honored her faith and her perseverance.
I recall waking each morning at the sound of Mama working at her foot-pedaled sewing machine, and going to sleep to the same sound. Before she sat at her sewing machine, Mama would have already gone to the market and cooked the day’s meals for us.
Everything she cooked came in soups and with sauces, the better to spread the ulam. But she was an excellent cook. We loved her picadillos, monggo with alugbati, karne norte with potatoes, higado (bopis Ilocano-style), arroz caldo, atbp. I don’t think I ever saw a whole chicken, because it was always chopped into small pieces.
A rimas tree grew in the yard, and so Mama would make kinalti with this breadfruit and panocha, a favorite merienda.
Mama did push and prod us to become achievers in the tradition of Papa, a brilliant and respected politician, eloquent public speaker and lawyer. Silver was good enough for other students but the Soliven kids had to go for gold, which my brothers and sisters did, mostly in essaywriting and elocution contests. I brought home a few for writing and for English grammar.
There is an advantage to being the youngest. I never had to grab for food, since Mama would always set aside my share before everybody else. Neither did I have many house choirs like the rest.
I wasn’t a beautiful child—scrawny and with big eyes like a “plucked chicken,” as I would tell friends. Yet I knew that Mama loved me as only a mother would, and I miss her to this day.
I guess one never outgrows his/her Mama.
Courtesy: Business Mirror
Mama—Pelagia Villaflor Soliven—was born on July 11, 1910, in Sto. Domingo, Ilocos. She was the second of three daughters of Agripino Villaflor, then chief of customs, and Gregoria Tesoro Jaramillo, one of the first teachers recruited by the Americans.
In her autobiography A Woman So Valiant, Mama recounts that her first glimpse of my Papa, the young Atty. Benito Tagorda Soliven, was at the family’s favorite Panciteria Antigua, where her father hosted a lunch in “Bitong’s” honor.
Mama recalls that the photographer made her squat at the foot of the honoree. She was 11 years old and Papa was 23!
It was that summer that the two actually met at a banquet mounted by the Sto. Domingo townsfolk to honor their favorite “son”, Benito T. Soliven, for having passed the Bar.
Mama and Papa got married when she was 18 in December 1928 at the Manila Cathedral. The reception was held at The Manila Hotel. Papa had just been elected representative for Ilocos Sur and so the ninongs were no less than then-Speaker Manuel Roxas and Sen. Elpidio Quirino.
In less than 12 years later, the young couple had 10 children. The youngest, Benito Jr., died, however, as an infant from dysentery during the outbreak of war.
Papa died from complications of malaria. He had fought in the battle of Bataan, survived the infamous Death March, and was a prisoner of war in Capas, Tarlac.
I have never forgiven the Japanese for what they did, depriving me of a father whom I never knew, because I was a toddler when Papa left for the war.
It was the worse time for a young widow (age 33 years!) to be left with nine orphaned children.
Mama, who never went to college, knew only to sew dresses, which she had been doing since she was a teenager. Mama built a wooden box house in Herran near the corner of San Marcelino, Paco, where my parents used to live. The original house had been burned to the ground during the Liberation of Manila.
I loved that house, even though the upstairs “bedroom” was a single room where everybody slept on the floor on mats. I slept on a shelf built over the stairwell. During the day we stored our mats, blankets, mosquito nets and pillows on the shelf.
Mama opened a tiny dress shop in front of the house. She sewed ladies’ dresses for P3.50 apiece and soutanas for the Jesuits at P5 apiece (for which she bought Indian cotton in Divisoria).
We were dirt-poor but we had the happiest childhood that anyone would wish! We had nothing, and yet we had everything. We were nine children plus our cousins, the Cardenas family who lived in the compound, with three kids. When the de Villas moved next door, that added three more playmates. We had a birthday winnie roast every month!
We played games that children play—piko, sipa, cops-and-robbers, hide-and-seek, jumping rope, etc.
The Jesuits from Ateneo Padre Faura, a 12-block walk away, would come to sing along as my brother Willie was a whiz at the small upright piano my Mama purchased.
The Jesuits donated a basketball goal and Mama had a hardcourt cemented in the yard. This later became a favorite venue for class parties, as well as games.
All my brothers’ classmates and even the Jesuits themselves came to play basketball because Mama loved to entertain. It seemed like all that we sisters (her four daughters) did was to make sandwiches and Kool-Aid drinks.
Years later, my brothers’ friends from the Student Catholic Action, a multicollege organization, began meeting and holding parties also in our house in Herran. I learned to dance early because the boys would use me as their dance partner to practice for the parties.
And they all loved “Mommy Soliven”. For many years later, as a journalist I would encounter people from all sectors—the newspaper and broadcast industry, politics, the rich and famous—who would remember the “house in Herran” and “Mommy Soliven”. Inevitably they would say, “And you must have been that little girl making sandwiches....”
So many memories came flooding back yesterday on Mother’s Day, such as when the National Federation of Women’s Clubs of the Philippines named Pelagia V. Soliven as “Outstanding Mother of the Year” on December 3, 1962.
Mama deserved the award, for sure, for every year she singlehandedly raised her nine children. Mama had an unshakable faith in God’s Providence. She would declare that if God took our father away, He would surely provide for us. Through those difficult early years, God must have honored her faith and her perseverance.
I recall waking each morning at the sound of Mama working at her foot-pedaled sewing machine, and going to sleep to the same sound. Before she sat at her sewing machine, Mama would have already gone to the market and cooked the day’s meals for us.
Everything she cooked came in soups and with sauces, the better to spread the ulam. But she was an excellent cook. We loved her picadillos, monggo with alugbati, karne norte with potatoes, higado (bopis Ilocano-style), arroz caldo, atbp. I don’t think I ever saw a whole chicken, because it was always chopped into small pieces.
A rimas tree grew in the yard, and so Mama would make kinalti with this breadfruit and panocha, a favorite merienda.
Mama did push and prod us to become achievers in the tradition of Papa, a brilliant and respected politician, eloquent public speaker and lawyer. Silver was good enough for other students but the Soliven kids had to go for gold, which my brothers and sisters did, mostly in essaywriting and elocution contests. I brought home a few for writing and for English grammar.
There is an advantage to being the youngest. I never had to grab for food, since Mama would always set aside my share before everybody else. Neither did I have many house choirs like the rest.
I wasn’t a beautiful child—scrawny and with big eyes like a “plucked chicken,” as I would tell friends. Yet I knew that Mama loved me as only a mother would, and I miss her to this day.
I guess one never outgrows his/her Mama.
Courtesy: Business Mirror
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
First Pooch Bo Got Star Treatment
WASHINGTON (AP) — First pooch Bo got star treatment and his first backyard romp at the White House on Tuesday — and even presidential clearance to visit the Oval Office. But he better not get any inflated ideas about doggy sleeping arrangements. "Not in my bed," declared Barack Obama.
The nation got its long-awaited first look at Bo in action as the Obamas showed off the family's new dog on the South Lawn. First lady Michelle Obama did most of the walking while the 6-month-old Portuguese water dog scampered about. Then daughter Malia took a turn, and Bo took off running.
Despite the name of the dog's breed, daughter Sasha pointed out to reporters, "He doesn't know how to swim."
"Yeah, apparently they have to be taught how to swim," Obama added.
The girls grinned as they played with Bo. The wet lawn, chilly air and gray sky didn't put a damper on Bo's debut.
Sasha clapped her hands at one point, calling for the dog's attention. Bo wagged his tail as each of the Obamas bent down to pet him.
Plainly pleased, the president said: "He's a star. He's got star quality."
Obama had promised his daughters, 10-year-old Malia and 7-year-old Sasha, a puppy during the presidential campaign. The dog finally arrived Tuesday after the girls came home from school.
The commander in chief laid down some guidelines.
Each family member is going to have to help out, Obama said. "We all have to take turns walking the dog."
Asked by a reporter where the dog would sleep, the president said Bo would have his own spot. A bed? "Not in my bed," Obama said.
The president had a word of warning for the first lady. He said he had heard the breed likes tomatoes, so "Michelle's garden is in danger."
The White House will be the puppy's fourth home. He was born in Texas, then moved to his first owner's home in Washington, D.C., then spent nearly a month with Sen. Edward M. Kennedy's dog trainer in Virginia, and now is moving to 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.
Bo was given up by his first owner because things weren't working out with the family's other dog. Kennedy and his wife, Victoria, who had two Portuguese water dogs from Bo's breeder and acquired a third from Bo's litter, thought Bo would be perfect for the Obamas and gave the dog to Malia and Sasha as a gift, the dog's breeder and a spokeswoman for Michelle Obama said.
At 6 months, Bo is still a "goofy puppy" and, like many Portuguese water dogs, may still be that way up to age 2 or even 4, said Stu Freeman, president of the Portuguese Water Dog Club of America. "A puppy is a puppy and these are very active puppies," he said.
The pup is mostly black, but he has white fur on his chest and front feet. The dog's non-shedding coat also makes him a good pick for the family, given Malia's allergies.
After a reporter reminded him of President Harry S. Truman's line, "If you want a friend in Washington, get a dog," Obama joked, "I finally got a friend."
Courtesy: The Associated Press
The nation got its long-awaited first look at Bo in action as the Obamas showed off the family's new dog on the South Lawn. First lady Michelle Obama did most of the walking while the 6-month-old Portuguese water dog scampered about. Then daughter Malia took a turn, and Bo took off running.
Despite the name of the dog's breed, daughter Sasha pointed out to reporters, "He doesn't know how to swim."
"Yeah, apparently they have to be taught how to swim," Obama added.
The girls grinned as they played with Bo. The wet lawn, chilly air and gray sky didn't put a damper on Bo's debut.
Sasha clapped her hands at one point, calling for the dog's attention. Bo wagged his tail as each of the Obamas bent down to pet him.
Plainly pleased, the president said: "He's a star. He's got star quality."
Obama had promised his daughters, 10-year-old Malia and 7-year-old Sasha, a puppy during the presidential campaign. The dog finally arrived Tuesday after the girls came home from school.
The commander in chief laid down some guidelines.
Each family member is going to have to help out, Obama said. "We all have to take turns walking the dog."
Asked by a reporter where the dog would sleep, the president said Bo would have his own spot. A bed? "Not in my bed," Obama said.
The president had a word of warning for the first lady. He said he had heard the breed likes tomatoes, so "Michelle's garden is in danger."
The White House will be the puppy's fourth home. He was born in Texas, then moved to his first owner's home in Washington, D.C., then spent nearly a month with Sen. Edward M. Kennedy's dog trainer in Virginia, and now is moving to 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.
Bo was given up by his first owner because things weren't working out with the family's other dog. Kennedy and his wife, Victoria, who had two Portuguese water dogs from Bo's breeder and acquired a third from Bo's litter, thought Bo would be perfect for the Obamas and gave the dog to Malia and Sasha as a gift, the dog's breeder and a spokeswoman for Michelle Obama said.
At 6 months, Bo is still a "goofy puppy" and, like many Portuguese water dogs, may still be that way up to age 2 or even 4, said Stu Freeman, president of the Portuguese Water Dog Club of America. "A puppy is a puppy and these are very active puppies," he said.
The pup is mostly black, but he has white fur on his chest and front feet. The dog's non-shedding coat also makes him a good pick for the family, given Malia's allergies.
After a reporter reminded him of President Harry S. Truman's line, "If you want a friend in Washington, get a dog," Obama joked, "I finally got a friend."
Courtesy: The Associated Press
Monday, April 13, 2009
Harry Kalas Dies
Harry Kalas, legendary broadcaster for the Philadelphia Phillies and the voice of NFL Films has passed way at the age of 73.
Kalas, who had done the Phillies since 1971, was taken to a hospital Monday after passing out prior to the Washington Nationals-Phillies game in D.C.
Today's game - Washington's home opener - is being played at Nationals Park, but the defending world champions will not go to the White House Tuesday as scheduled.
A moment of silence was observed before the Phils-Nats took the field.
In 2002, Kalas was named the Ford C. Frick Award winner at the Baseball Hall of Fame.
Phillies president David Montgomery said "we have lost our voice" in announcing the death.
Kalas, who had been with the Phillies since 1971, was known for his distinctive "Outta here!" home run call, a fact Phillies legend Mike Schmidt knew very well.
“The best way I can sum up Harry’s relationship to me was he gave me my sports name," Schmidt told ESPN shortly after learning of the his friend's death. "People all over the country refer to me by the name Harry actually gave me: ‘Michael Jack.’ Everytime I hear it now the rest of my life, his face and smile will resonate.”
“I think he’ll go down over time as one of the top two or three ever (to) grace a microphone," Schmidt told the cable network. "He had a way with those home runs that was a really beautiful thing.”
Kalas used the 'Michael Jack Schmidt' moniker when he called the Hall of Famer's 500th home run in 1987.
ESPN also reached John Kruk, an analyst for the cable network and a first baseman on the Phillies 1993 NL pennant winners.
“He was the Phillies," Kruk said. "He’s a friend to all of us. He was as big a part of the team as any player, coach, manager.”
Longtime Philadelphia announcer Bill Campbell told KYW Newsradio in the city that Kalas had leg circulation problems and had a heart procedure to address those problems.
Kalas missed most of spring training after undergoing surgery in early February, the Philadelphia Daily News reported. The Phils declined to provide specifics of the surgery at that time, saying only that it was a "minor medical procedure" and that there was no reason for concern, the paper also said.
Courtesy: USA TODAY
Kalas, who had done the Phillies since 1971, was taken to a hospital Monday after passing out prior to the Washington Nationals-Phillies game in D.C.
Today's game - Washington's home opener - is being played at Nationals Park, but the defending world champions will not go to the White House Tuesday as scheduled.
A moment of silence was observed before the Phils-Nats took the field.
In 2002, Kalas was named the Ford C. Frick Award winner at the Baseball Hall of Fame.
Phillies president David Montgomery said "we have lost our voice" in announcing the death.
Kalas, who had been with the Phillies since 1971, was known for his distinctive "Outta here!" home run call, a fact Phillies legend Mike Schmidt knew very well.
“The best way I can sum up Harry’s relationship to me was he gave me my sports name," Schmidt told ESPN shortly after learning of the his friend's death. "People all over the country refer to me by the name Harry actually gave me: ‘Michael Jack.’ Everytime I hear it now the rest of my life, his face and smile will resonate.”
“I think he’ll go down over time as one of the top two or three ever (to) grace a microphone," Schmidt told the cable network. "He had a way with those home runs that was a really beautiful thing.”
Kalas used the 'Michael Jack Schmidt' moniker when he called the Hall of Famer's 500th home run in 1987.
ESPN also reached John Kruk, an analyst for the cable network and a first baseman on the Phillies 1993 NL pennant winners.
“He was the Phillies," Kruk said. "He’s a friend to all of us. He was as big a part of the team as any player, coach, manager.”
Longtime Philadelphia announcer Bill Campbell told KYW Newsradio in the city that Kalas had leg circulation problems and had a heart procedure to address those problems.
Kalas missed most of spring training after undergoing surgery in early February, the Philadelphia Daily News reported. The Phils declined to provide specifics of the surgery at that time, saying only that it was a "minor medical procedure" and that there was no reason for concern, the paper also said.
Courtesy: USA TODAY
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
Kenneth Faried's 14 Points Help Morehead State Rout Alabama State
Kenneth Faried had 14 points and 21 rebounds to help Morehead State rout Alabama State, 58-43, in the NCAA tournament play-in game last night in Dayton, Ohio.
The Eagles (20-15), making their first tourney appearance since 1984, never trailed and earned a first-round rematch Friday against top-seeded Louisville. The Cardinals pounded Morehead by 38 in November.
Alabama State finished the season 22-10.
In NIT action:
Rhode Island 68, Niagara 62 - Kahiem Seawright scored 20 points in the second half - including 10 in a critical run - and the Rams (23-10) beat the Purple Eagles (26-9) in a first-round game in Lewiston, N.Y.
Jimmy Baron scored 20, including six late free throws, for sixth-seeded URI, which will face Penn State next.
In the College Basketball Invitational:
Northeastern 64, Wyoming 62 - Matt Janning scored 20 points and the Huskies (19-12) surprised the Cowboys (19-14) in a first-round game in Laramie, Wyo.
NU will face either Nevada or UTEP in Monday’s quarterfinals.
In Division 2:
C.W. Post 82, Bentley 76 - Kenny Burkes scored 23 points and the No. 1 Pioneers (30-0) rallied from a 13-point halftime deficit to beat the Falcons (26-7) in Brookville, N.Y., and advance to the Elite Eight of the NCAA tournament in Springfield.
Jason Westrol was 7-of-8 on 3-pointers and had 28 points for Bentley.
By Herald Wire Services
The Eagles (20-15), making their first tourney appearance since 1984, never trailed and earned a first-round rematch Friday against top-seeded Louisville. The Cardinals pounded Morehead by 38 in November.
Alabama State finished the season 22-10.
In NIT action:
Rhode Island 68, Niagara 62 - Kahiem Seawright scored 20 points in the second half - including 10 in a critical run - and the Rams (23-10) beat the Purple Eagles (26-9) in a first-round game in Lewiston, N.Y.
Jimmy Baron scored 20, including six late free throws, for sixth-seeded URI, which will face Penn State next.
In the College Basketball Invitational:
Northeastern 64, Wyoming 62 - Matt Janning scored 20 points and the Huskies (19-12) surprised the Cowboys (19-14) in a first-round game in Laramie, Wyo.
NU will face either Nevada or UTEP in Monday’s quarterfinals.
In Division 2:
C.W. Post 82, Bentley 76 - Kenny Burkes scored 23 points and the No. 1 Pioneers (30-0) rallied from a 13-point halftime deficit to beat the Falcons (26-7) in Brookville, N.Y., and advance to the Elite Eight of the NCAA tournament in Springfield.
Jason Westrol was 7-of-8 on 3-pointers and had 28 points for Bentley.
By Herald Wire Services
Job Fair To Fill 200 Positions
KENTVILLE — A job fair here today will introduce people seeking employment to about 200 positions available in the Kings County area, which has been hard hit by job losses over the past couple of months.
The Kings Community Economic Development Agency is hosting the fair at the Nova Scotia Community College’s Kingstec campus.
The full-day event starts with information sessions for job seekers between 8:30 a.m. and noon. Colby Clarke, a development officer with the agency, said the sessions will include information on employment insurance programs, health plan coverage and other issues facing people dealing with unemployment.
From noon to 7 p.m., more than a dozen employers with job openings will be on hand to let job seekers know about these positions.
"Some have a pretty significant number of jobs," Mr. Clarke said. "There are 200 positions available; that’s a pretty good number for these days."
The jobs include full- and part-time employment and seasonal work. Mr. Clarke said even a six-month job could be enough to give some people the "buffer zone" they need for better EI benefits.
Employers with jobs on offer include Larsens, Frito Lay, call centre Online Support, seniors facilities, and some trades.
He said a group of seniors facilities is also receiving funds to train continuing care assistants.
"We’re doing what we can so people are aware of the options that are out there," Mr. Clarke said.
He said the last time the agency held a job fair like this was two years ago, when Maple Leaf Foods closed its chicken-processing plant in Canard.
More than 700 people turned out for those sessions.
This one was organized in the wake of more job losses in the Valley.
About 300 people lost their jobs last month when ACA Cooperative closed its Eastern Protein chicken plant in Kentville and cut more jobs at its main plant in New Minas. KLJ Field Services, a Windsor call centre, closed at the cost of 90 jobs and Michelin laid off 95 flex workers at its Waterville plant
Reported By: Ian Fairclough
The Kings Community Economic Development Agency is hosting the fair at the Nova Scotia Community College’s Kingstec campus.
The full-day event starts with information sessions for job seekers between 8:30 a.m. and noon. Colby Clarke, a development officer with the agency, said the sessions will include information on employment insurance programs, health plan coverage and other issues facing people dealing with unemployment.
From noon to 7 p.m., more than a dozen employers with job openings will be on hand to let job seekers know about these positions.
"Some have a pretty significant number of jobs," Mr. Clarke said. "There are 200 positions available; that’s a pretty good number for these days."
The jobs include full- and part-time employment and seasonal work. Mr. Clarke said even a six-month job could be enough to give some people the "buffer zone" they need for better EI benefits.
Employers with jobs on offer include Larsens, Frito Lay, call centre Online Support, seniors facilities, and some trades.
He said a group of seniors facilities is also receiving funds to train continuing care assistants.
"We’re doing what we can so people are aware of the options that are out there," Mr. Clarke said.
He said the last time the agency held a job fair like this was two years ago, when Maple Leaf Foods closed its chicken-processing plant in Canard.
More than 700 people turned out for those sessions.
This one was organized in the wake of more job losses in the Valley.
About 300 people lost their jobs last month when ACA Cooperative closed its Eastern Protein chicken plant in Kentville and cut more jobs at its main plant in New Minas. KLJ Field Services, a Windsor call centre, closed at the cost of 90 jobs and Michelin laid off 95 flex workers at its Waterville plant
Reported By: Ian Fairclough
Monday, March 16, 2009
Free Napkin Is Online Trading Without the Trade
I recently wrote about the online bartering trend. Now there's a site getting tons of hits, Free Napkin, that is a similar idea to online bartering sites in terms of creating a profile, leaving feedback, etc, just without the actual trade--you just give some stuff away for free. Here's an example from the site's FAQ:
Registered freenapkin user Bob has a father who owns a farm. His dads farm has a lot of old equipment. Much of the equipment is old and non-functional and takes up a lot of space. Bobs dad is old and he himself does not have enough money to hire movers to come haul away some of the big equipment. He decides its better and more lucrative if he registers a free account on freenapkin so that his father can get rid of his equipment that he needs at will. His 80 yr old father was able to take a photo of his farming equipment and then with no help at all upload the photos onto his freenapkin account. The items were claimed within a few days. See how simple and easy a freenapkin account is. Senior citizens might not be able to help lift heavy objects but they can take a picture.
I haven't been able to find many testimonials from people about how they have liked using this site. But assuming it's legit, the idea is a bit strange. People who want to donate items for humanitarian purposes would probably prefer to do so at a place like Goodwill or Salvation Army where they know their donation is going to support the needy--not just someone who wants free stuff. For people looking to unload unwanted items, Craigslist (or any of the online bartering sites) seem just as easy to use, but with the added bonus of getting something in return.
Courtesy: Mark Bandyk, US News
Registered freenapkin user Bob has a father who owns a farm. His dads farm has a lot of old equipment. Much of the equipment is old and non-functional and takes up a lot of space. Bobs dad is old and he himself does not have enough money to hire movers to come haul away some of the big equipment. He decides its better and more lucrative if he registers a free account on freenapkin so that his father can get rid of his equipment that he needs at will. His 80 yr old father was able to take a photo of his farming equipment and then with no help at all upload the photos onto his freenapkin account. The items were claimed within a few days. See how simple and easy a freenapkin account is. Senior citizens might not be able to help lift heavy objects but they can take a picture.
I haven't been able to find many testimonials from people about how they have liked using this site. But assuming it's legit, the idea is a bit strange. People who want to donate items for humanitarian purposes would probably prefer to do so at a place like Goodwill or Salvation Army where they know their donation is going to support the needy--not just someone who wants free stuff. For people looking to unload unwanted items, Craigslist (or any of the online bartering sites) seem just as easy to use, but with the added bonus of getting something in return.
Courtesy: Mark Bandyk, US News
Saturday, March 14, 2009
DESIREE ROGERS, WHITEHOUSE SOCIAL SECRETARY SETS A NEW STANDARD
WASHINGTON — Desiree Rogers once made millionaires of a lucky few everyday people. Now she plans to give Americans dinner invitations to the White House.
Rogers, a svelte, stylish Chicago business executive and socialite—and a former Illinois lottery director—is turning again to Lady Luck in her new role as social secretary for a White House that hopes to balance glamor, history and an urban sensibility with plenty of populism.
"Something that we've talked about from early on is making it the people's house," said Rogers, sitting at a table in her East Wing office, a view of the Truman Balcony behind her. "How can we salute—encourage the American spirit? That means many different things to many different people."
Her vision includes inviting ordinary citizens chosen by lottery to join in a social life that reflects the eclectic interests of a sophisticated, young First Couple, Barack and Michelle Obama. Along with glittering state events and intimate dinners hosting artists and intellectuals, the calendar she plans includes edgy poetry slams and an egalitarian ball celebrating everyday American heroes.
Obama's FDA leader, food safety plans You can already see changes. The R&B band Earth, Wind and Fire was the entertainment at the Obamas' first formal dinner, hosting the nation's governors, and soul legend Stevie Wonder was honored with a White House concert. The black-tie governors' dinner had a more casual, modern feel with mixed-china place settings.
Among the first events have been a Super Bowl party and a dinner for congressional committee chairmen and their Republican counterparts. It was the first time even many of the GOP members of Congress had been invited to dinner at the White House despite their party's control of the presidency for the past eight years. The Super Bowl party included a children's play area featuring Nintendo Wii.
The traditional White House Easter Egg Roll this year is planned to be the largest ever, with tens of thousands of visitors and tickets distributed to the public online for the first time. The idea is that an assured spot will make it easier for families to come from across the country to join the egg hunt on the South Lawn; in the past, tickets were distributed in Washington the previous Saturday, making it less likely people would travel a long distance.
For many, the Obamas evoke John and Jacqueline Kennedy and Camelot, a presidency surrounded by an enduring mystique and sense of possibility. That image was created in part by an elegant White House social life that included a storied dinner with Nobel Prize winners and a performance by classical cellist Pablo Casals marking his celebrated return to America. Even before the election, Vogue editor at large Andre Leon Talley dubbed the Obama era "Black Camelot."
Whatever epithet ultimately sticks to the Obama White House, Rogers will be its impresario. And she, for one, rejects comparisons with Camelot: "This is not necessarily a presidency that duplicates, or copies. The Obamas have their own style," she said in an interview.
That style is livelier than the Bushes, more hip than the Reagans, more multicultural than the Clintons and more accessible than the Kennedys.
In an office that derives its greatest power from the opportunity to forge a direct relationship with the American people, and amid a celebrity culture that elevates the details of personal life, style can be critical.
"To have a successful presidency, the social life of the White House has to match the times. That's when it becomes such an added benefit to the presidency. It happened in its greatest form with the Kennedys," said Kennedy biographer Laurence Leamer. "There's no book that tells you how to do this. You have to feel your way through what you want to do."
The woman who will be helping the Obamas feel their way is a poised 5-foot, 10-inch Wellesley graduate with fashionable, close-shorn hair and a flair for designer clothing. Long before Rogers was associated with the White House, she was profiled in the September 2004 issue of Vogue, which praised her as "proving that chic and executive can co-exist."
A native of New Orleans and two-time queen of the Zulu Mardi Gras krewe, the 49-year-old Rogers has been a prominent presence on the Chicago social scene since her marriage to (now ex-husband) John Rogers, an Obama confidant and founder of Ariel Investments.
"She's a wonderful person to have in a room. She's fun and witty and lovely to look at," said Linda Johnson Rice, chairwoman and CEO of Johnson Publishing, a longtime friend and frequent guest at Rogers' Art Deco duplex in Chicago's Gold Coast. "When you walk into her home, everything is perfect: the candles are the right scent, the flowers are perfect and she's very welcoming."
Michigan Rep. Dave Camp, the top-ranking Republican on the powerful House Ways and Means Committee, who sat next to Rogers at a recent White House dinner, gushes, "She's someone who puts you at ease instantly. You feel like you've known her a long time."
Though Rogers now has an apartment in Washington, she still shuttles back and forth to Chicago, returning three weeks ago for a surprise party for interior designer and Table Fifty-Two co-owner Julie Latsko.
Not only is Rogers the first African-American to be White House social secretary but she is the first with a Harvard MBA. She's spent much of her career at the intersection of politics, business and marketing.
After working as state lottery director, Rogers was a communications executive at People's Energy Corp. and then president of its two regulated utilities, steering them through a political backlash against rapidly rising gas prices. Before coming to the White House, she worked in another highly regulated industry: insurance. At Allstate, she was in charge of creating a social network to connect with customers.
Rogers is bringing some corporate marketing techniques to her new job. As she looks for ways to incorporate more modern touches in the Easter Egg Roll, she plans to test ideas with a focus group of children, said Cynthia Torres, a business school roommate who remains a close friend.
"She's investigating and trying to think through each event," Torres said.
Though Rogers approaches planning events with an eye toward imagery that will reinforce Obama's vision of the presidency and help him build relationships with the capital's other political players, she said her job ultimately is about "creating environments where people can kind of relax a little bit and experience a tiny slice of what America has to offer."
Like the conga line at the governor's ball.
"In the course of the evening, I looked up and they were doing a conga line," said White House senior adviser Valerie Jarrett. "That's the perfect example of how comfortable people were able to get very quickly. And, you know, when you've done the conga line with somebody, it's very hard to have a heated dispute with them the next day."
Reported By: Mike Dorning, Chicago Tribune
Rogers, a svelte, stylish Chicago business executive and socialite—and a former Illinois lottery director—is turning again to Lady Luck in her new role as social secretary for a White House that hopes to balance glamor, history and an urban sensibility with plenty of populism.
"Something that we've talked about from early on is making it the people's house," said Rogers, sitting at a table in her East Wing office, a view of the Truman Balcony behind her. "How can we salute—encourage the American spirit? That means many different things to many different people."
Her vision includes inviting ordinary citizens chosen by lottery to join in a social life that reflects the eclectic interests of a sophisticated, young First Couple, Barack and Michelle Obama. Along with glittering state events and intimate dinners hosting artists and intellectuals, the calendar she plans includes edgy poetry slams and an egalitarian ball celebrating everyday American heroes.
Obama's FDA leader, food safety plans You can already see changes. The R&B band Earth, Wind and Fire was the entertainment at the Obamas' first formal dinner, hosting the nation's governors, and soul legend Stevie Wonder was honored with a White House concert. The black-tie governors' dinner had a more casual, modern feel with mixed-china place settings.
Among the first events have been a Super Bowl party and a dinner for congressional committee chairmen and their Republican counterparts. It was the first time even many of the GOP members of Congress had been invited to dinner at the White House despite their party's control of the presidency for the past eight years. The Super Bowl party included a children's play area featuring Nintendo Wii.
The traditional White House Easter Egg Roll this year is planned to be the largest ever, with tens of thousands of visitors and tickets distributed to the public online for the first time. The idea is that an assured spot will make it easier for families to come from across the country to join the egg hunt on the South Lawn; in the past, tickets were distributed in Washington the previous Saturday, making it less likely people would travel a long distance.
For many, the Obamas evoke John and Jacqueline Kennedy and Camelot, a presidency surrounded by an enduring mystique and sense of possibility. That image was created in part by an elegant White House social life that included a storied dinner with Nobel Prize winners and a performance by classical cellist Pablo Casals marking his celebrated return to America. Even before the election, Vogue editor at large Andre Leon Talley dubbed the Obama era "Black Camelot."
Whatever epithet ultimately sticks to the Obama White House, Rogers will be its impresario. And she, for one, rejects comparisons with Camelot: "This is not necessarily a presidency that duplicates, or copies. The Obamas have their own style," she said in an interview.
That style is livelier than the Bushes, more hip than the Reagans, more multicultural than the Clintons and more accessible than the Kennedys.
In an office that derives its greatest power from the opportunity to forge a direct relationship with the American people, and amid a celebrity culture that elevates the details of personal life, style can be critical.
"To have a successful presidency, the social life of the White House has to match the times. That's when it becomes such an added benefit to the presidency. It happened in its greatest form with the Kennedys," said Kennedy biographer Laurence Leamer. "There's no book that tells you how to do this. You have to feel your way through what you want to do."
The woman who will be helping the Obamas feel their way is a poised 5-foot, 10-inch Wellesley graduate with fashionable, close-shorn hair and a flair for designer clothing. Long before Rogers was associated with the White House, she was profiled in the September 2004 issue of Vogue, which praised her as "proving that chic and executive can co-exist."
A native of New Orleans and two-time queen of the Zulu Mardi Gras krewe, the 49-year-old Rogers has been a prominent presence on the Chicago social scene since her marriage to (now ex-husband) John Rogers, an Obama confidant and founder of Ariel Investments.
"She's a wonderful person to have in a room. She's fun and witty and lovely to look at," said Linda Johnson Rice, chairwoman and CEO of Johnson Publishing, a longtime friend and frequent guest at Rogers' Art Deco duplex in Chicago's Gold Coast. "When you walk into her home, everything is perfect: the candles are the right scent, the flowers are perfect and she's very welcoming."
Michigan Rep. Dave Camp, the top-ranking Republican on the powerful House Ways and Means Committee, who sat next to Rogers at a recent White House dinner, gushes, "She's someone who puts you at ease instantly. You feel like you've known her a long time."
Though Rogers now has an apartment in Washington, she still shuttles back and forth to Chicago, returning three weeks ago for a surprise party for interior designer and Table Fifty-Two co-owner Julie Latsko.
Not only is Rogers the first African-American to be White House social secretary but she is the first with a Harvard MBA. She's spent much of her career at the intersection of politics, business and marketing.
After working as state lottery director, Rogers was a communications executive at People's Energy Corp. and then president of its two regulated utilities, steering them through a political backlash against rapidly rising gas prices. Before coming to the White House, she worked in another highly regulated industry: insurance. At Allstate, she was in charge of creating a social network to connect with customers.
Rogers is bringing some corporate marketing techniques to her new job. As she looks for ways to incorporate more modern touches in the Easter Egg Roll, she plans to test ideas with a focus group of children, said Cynthia Torres, a business school roommate who remains a close friend.
"She's investigating and trying to think through each event," Torres said.
Though Rogers approaches planning events with an eye toward imagery that will reinforce Obama's vision of the presidency and help him build relationships with the capital's other political players, she said her job ultimately is about "creating environments where people can kind of relax a little bit and experience a tiny slice of what America has to offer."
Like the conga line at the governor's ball.
"In the course of the evening, I looked up and they were doing a conga line," said White House senior adviser Valerie Jarrett. "That's the perfect example of how comfortable people were able to get very quickly. And, you know, when you've done the conga line with somebody, it's very hard to have a heated dispute with them the next day."
Reported By: Mike Dorning, Chicago Tribune
Sunday, March 8, 2009
THERE IS NO SLOWING CHEIFTIANS.....
Paddy Moloney, founder of The Chieftains, long has been credited as an ambassador of Irish music.
He could just as easily be described as an ambassador of Galician, Scottish, American country or rock 'n' roll music, to name just a few of the varieties he has explored with The Chieftains.
Moloney digs up Celtic roots in unexpected places. Currently, he is delving into the musical influence of the Irish diaspora in Mexico, focusing on the presence of the "Batallon de San Patricio" during the Mexican-American War of the mid-1840s.
The St. Patrick's Battalion consisted primarily of recent Irish immigrants who deserted the U.S. Army to fight alongside the Mexicans. Many were caught and executed as traitors. Some historians view these soldiers as mercenaries or opportunists, while others think their status as a religious minority, as well as class issues, played a role in their desertion.
"It seems they didn't like the Protestant generals telling them to shoot their fellow Catholics," is how Moloney sees it.
The as-yet-untitled Chieftains album, which features Linda Ronstadt, still is a work in progress.
"We hope to have it finished by the end of April and to have it out by September," Moloney said.
Audiences who see The Chieftains during their jam-packed St. Patrick's season won't have to wait that long, as the band will preview new material. The Chieftains' tour includes concerts Thursday at the Count Basie Theatre in Red Bank, March 15 at the Kimmel Center in Philadelphia and March 16 at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center in Newark.
"The first tune in the set is from the new album, about a Galician musician who went to Mexico," Moloney said. "And in the second half, we go berserk altogether with a full pipe band doing the march I wrote, and a lament for the Irish battalion."
Moloney, who plays uilleann pipes and tin whistle, is joined on this tour by longtime members Kevin Conneff (bodhran and vocals) and Matt Molloy (flute).
Missing this year will be the fiddler Sean Keane, who still is with The Chieftains and recorded with the band for its upcoming album, but who cannot tour right now for "personal family reasons," according to Moloney.
Courtesy: Kelly-Jane Cotter, Music Writer
He could just as easily be described as an ambassador of Galician, Scottish, American country or rock 'n' roll music, to name just a few of the varieties he has explored with The Chieftains.
Moloney digs up Celtic roots in unexpected places. Currently, he is delving into the musical influence of the Irish diaspora in Mexico, focusing on the presence of the "Batallon de San Patricio" during the Mexican-American War of the mid-1840s.
The St. Patrick's Battalion consisted primarily of recent Irish immigrants who deserted the U.S. Army to fight alongside the Mexicans. Many were caught and executed as traitors. Some historians view these soldiers as mercenaries or opportunists, while others think their status as a religious minority, as well as class issues, played a role in their desertion.
"It seems they didn't like the Protestant generals telling them to shoot their fellow Catholics," is how Moloney sees it.
The as-yet-untitled Chieftains album, which features Linda Ronstadt, still is a work in progress.
"We hope to have it finished by the end of April and to have it out by September," Moloney said.
Audiences who see The Chieftains during their jam-packed St. Patrick's season won't have to wait that long, as the band will preview new material. The Chieftains' tour includes concerts Thursday at the Count Basie Theatre in Red Bank, March 15 at the Kimmel Center in Philadelphia and March 16 at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center in Newark.
"The first tune in the set is from the new album, about a Galician musician who went to Mexico," Moloney said. "And in the second half, we go berserk altogether with a full pipe band doing the march I wrote, and a lament for the Irish battalion."
Moloney, who plays uilleann pipes and tin whistle, is joined on this tour by longtime members Kevin Conneff (bodhran and vocals) and Matt Molloy (flute).
Missing this year will be the fiddler Sean Keane, who still is with The Chieftains and recorded with the band for its upcoming album, but who cannot tour right now for "personal family reasons," according to Moloney.
Courtesy: Kelly-Jane Cotter, Music Writer
IT'S LATER THAN YOU THINK; DAYLIGHT SAVING TIME RETURNED THIS MORNING
It's Later Than You Think; Daylight Saving Time Returned This Morning
Christine Bellini
You get an extra hour of daylight starting today so use your time wisely as Spring and its wiles are just around the corner.
Southampton - If you are just waking up this Sunday morning and thinking you have nabbed yourself a little extra time before the bustle begins, chances are my friend you are already an hour behind schedule. Daylight Saving Time arrived at 2 a.m. and snatched a hour of your precious time while you were sleeping.
The good news is, days will seem longer and daylight will advance the late afternoon and evening hours, allowing for more post-work activities.
First proposed by Englishman William Willett in 1907, he continued to unsuccessfully lobby for the time alteration until his death in 1915. Germany was the first to implement the system on April 30, 1916 as it served as a means to conserve fuel during the campaigns of WWI. Britian, the Allies and most of neutral European countries soon followed suit. Russia got on board in 1917 and the United States made it official on March 19, 1918.
Daylight Saving Time (DST) was subsequently repealed in 1919 and it wasn't until Feb. 9, 1942 that President Franklin D. Roosevelt reinstituted the time change for the duration of WWII, running to Sept. 30, 1945.
And for nearly 30 years Americans didn't alter their time clocks until President Richard M. Nixon signed the Emergency Daylight Saving Time Energy Conservation Act in 1973 during the height of the fuel crisis, officially making DST law. The act has been amended several times in the years that followed.
Father Time was readdressed yet once more by an act of congress in 2005 when the Energy Policy Act, which standardized the DST period from 2 a.m. on the second Sunday of March to 2 a.m. on the first Sunday in November, went into effect.
Courtesy: Christine Bellini
Christine Bellini
You get an extra hour of daylight starting today so use your time wisely as Spring and its wiles are just around the corner.
Southampton - If you are just waking up this Sunday morning and thinking you have nabbed yourself a little extra time before the bustle begins, chances are my friend you are already an hour behind schedule. Daylight Saving Time arrived at 2 a.m. and snatched a hour of your precious time while you were sleeping.
The good news is, days will seem longer and daylight will advance the late afternoon and evening hours, allowing for more post-work activities.
First proposed by Englishman William Willett in 1907, he continued to unsuccessfully lobby for the time alteration until his death in 1915. Germany was the first to implement the system on April 30, 1916 as it served as a means to conserve fuel during the campaigns of WWI. Britian, the Allies and most of neutral European countries soon followed suit. Russia got on board in 1917 and the United States made it official on March 19, 1918.
Daylight Saving Time (DST) was subsequently repealed in 1919 and it wasn't until Feb. 9, 1942 that President Franklin D. Roosevelt reinstituted the time change for the duration of WWII, running to Sept. 30, 1945.
And for nearly 30 years Americans didn't alter their time clocks until President Richard M. Nixon signed the Emergency Daylight Saving Time Energy Conservation Act in 1973 during the height of the fuel crisis, officially making DST law. The act has been amended several times in the years that followed.
Father Time was readdressed yet once more by an act of congress in 2005 when the Energy Policy Act, which standardized the DST period from 2 a.m. on the second Sunday of March to 2 a.m. on the first Sunday in November, went into effect.
Courtesy: Christine Bellini
Thursday, March 5, 2009
GAS EXPLOSION AND FIRE DESTROY BUSINESSES
BOZEMAN, Mont. (AP) — A natural gas explosion and fire rocked downtown Bozeman Thursday morning, collapsing three buildings and prompting evacuation of a two-block area, officials said.
Crews were allowing the fire to burn because officials hadn't been able to completely shut off a natural gas line.
Assistant City Manager Chuck Winn said there were no reports of casualties, but said the rubble of the collapsed buildings was not yet safe to search.
"There's so much damage there and so much fire still that we cannot get our crews in," to search the rubble, Winn said.
City officials said four businesses were destroyed — a restaurant and bar, two other bars and a gallery.
The blast shook ceiling tiles at Schnee's Boots and Shoes three blocks from the explosion and knocked down shoes that were on display, said Dawn McClelland, who had just reported for work.
"The whole building shook," she said. "I thought somebody had rammed (a car) into the back of the building. The people up front thought the ceiling was falling in."
Copyright © 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
Crews were allowing the fire to burn because officials hadn't been able to completely shut off a natural gas line.
Assistant City Manager Chuck Winn said there were no reports of casualties, but said the rubble of the collapsed buildings was not yet safe to search.
"There's so much damage there and so much fire still that we cannot get our crews in," to search the rubble, Winn said.
City officials said four businesses were destroyed — a restaurant and bar, two other bars and a gallery.
The blast shook ceiling tiles at Schnee's Boots and Shoes three blocks from the explosion and knocked down shoes that were on display, said Dawn McClelland, who had just reported for work.
"The whole building shook," she said. "I thought somebody had rammed (a car) into the back of the building. The people up front thought the ceiling was falling in."
Copyright © 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
D.C.'S CTO, VIVEK KUNDRA APPOINTED CIO
President Barack Obama today appointed D.C.’s Chief Technology Officer Vivek Kundra to the new administrative position of federal chief information officer.
As the nation’s CIO, Kundra will direct the policy and strategic planning of federal information technology investments.
Lowering the cost of government operations through the use of technology, interoperability of technology across government agencies, and security are other major objectives.
“Vivek Kundra will bring a depth of experience in the technology arena and a commitment to lowering the cost of government operations to this position,” Obama said in a statement.
“As chief information officer, he will play a key role in making sure our government is running in the most secure, open, and efficient way possible.”
Kundra will work with Obama’s yet-to-be-named chief technology officer to promote the president’s technology agenda.
Kundra was rumored to be in the running for several tech-related positions that Obama promised to create, including the chief technology officer position for which newly tapped Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski also was said to be considered.
In D.C., Kundra was responsible for the city’s telecommunications and IT infrastructure. He was appointed the city’s CTO on March 27, 2007, by Mayor Adrian Fenty and has implemented technology-based programs to streamline government procurement and make citywide data more transparent and accessible to citizens.
Before serving in the District, Virginia Gov. Timothy Kaine named him assistant secretary of commerce and technology, the first dual cabinet role in the state’s history.
In the private sector, Kundra was vice president of marketing for Evincible Software, a company focused on electronic signatures and identity management for the financial services and defense sectors, and as chief executive officer of Creostar he advised government and industry clients on IT governance and strategy.
Courtesy: Darlene Darcy
Washington Business Journal
As the nation’s CIO, Kundra will direct the policy and strategic planning of federal information technology investments.
Lowering the cost of government operations through the use of technology, interoperability of technology across government agencies, and security are other major objectives.
“Vivek Kundra will bring a depth of experience in the technology arena and a commitment to lowering the cost of government operations to this position,” Obama said in a statement.
“As chief information officer, he will play a key role in making sure our government is running in the most secure, open, and efficient way possible.”
Kundra will work with Obama’s yet-to-be-named chief technology officer to promote the president’s technology agenda.
Kundra was rumored to be in the running for several tech-related positions that Obama promised to create, including the chief technology officer position for which newly tapped Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski also was said to be considered.
In D.C., Kundra was responsible for the city’s telecommunications and IT infrastructure. He was appointed the city’s CTO on March 27, 2007, by Mayor Adrian Fenty and has implemented technology-based programs to streamline government procurement and make citywide data more transparent and accessible to citizens.
Before serving in the District, Virginia Gov. Timothy Kaine named him assistant secretary of commerce and technology, the first dual cabinet role in the state’s history.
In the private sector, Kundra was vice president of marketing for Evincible Software, a company focused on electronic signatures and identity management for the financial services and defense sectors, and as chief executive officer of Creostar he advised government and industry clients on IT governance and strategy.
Courtesy: Darlene Darcy
Washington Business Journal
STARS TRYING TO HELP DIEING GIRL FIND DONOR
Top News
Alfred Giancarli, NY Daily News (March 4) – Celebrities have stepped up to help a 6-year-old New York City girl who is suffering from a rare and particularly deadly form of leukemia.
Doctors fear Little Jasmina Anema could die unless she receives a bone-marrow transplant soon, according to the New York Daily News..
Singers Kelly Rowland and Rihanna and NBA star Paul Pierce are spreading the word about a bone marrow drive to be held Saturday in hopes of finding a match for Jasmina.
The best bets for donors are usually family members and, in the case of Jasmina, a donor who is African-American like her. But Jasmina was adopted, and her mother is white.
"I need thousands of people to come," Theodora Anema, Jasmina's mother, told the newspaper.
The "One for Jasmina" Web site has information about the donor drive, as well as how to become a donor by requesting a simple kit.
Courtesy: Black Voices
Alfred Giancarli, NY Daily News (March 4) – Celebrities have stepped up to help a 6-year-old New York City girl who is suffering from a rare and particularly deadly form of leukemia.
Doctors fear Little Jasmina Anema could die unless she receives a bone-marrow transplant soon, according to the New York Daily News..
Singers Kelly Rowland and Rihanna and NBA star Paul Pierce are spreading the word about a bone marrow drive to be held Saturday in hopes of finding a match for Jasmina.
The best bets for donors are usually family members and, in the case of Jasmina, a donor who is African-American like her. But Jasmina was adopted, and her mother is white.
"I need thousands of people to come," Theodora Anema, Jasmina's mother, told the newspaper.
The "One for Jasmina" Web site has information about the donor drive, as well as how to become a donor by requesting a simple kit.
Courtesy: Black Voices
RADIAT TUMMY TUCK CREAM REVIEW
I was lucky enough to get picked for a panel of mums to try out some tummy toning products for one of the famous Parenting magazines earlier this year.
The options were a diet, exercise or this cream, and luckily for me, I got to use the cream! I didn’t actually know what cream it was, so I went into with an open mind…until my curiosity got the better of me! I found the cream was made by Rodial and that it was rather expensive….100 a bottle! So I began to use it and carried on doing so for 4 weeks. So here goes my review.
Rodial is a company which uses the best of nature’s ingredients in order to make wonder creams and treatments which claim to make drastic changes to your body when you use them regularly.
Apparently Rodial uses Pomegranate Ellagic Tannin in all of their products, as this is an anti-ageing firming product with collagen boosters in it. Their slogan is “Nature-Science”Skincare”.
After having a browse through their website, I could see that they offered many different products for different areas of your bodies, and each of them did a different thing as well.
The main categories of products available are skincare, which is mainly products for the face, Bodycare for all areas of the body and Suncare. The products are not cheap, in fact some of the most expensive I have seen in a while!
Courtesy: Night-Surfer,Latest News
The options were a diet, exercise or this cream, and luckily for me, I got to use the cream! I didn’t actually know what cream it was, so I went into with an open mind…until my curiosity got the better of me! I found the cream was made by Rodial and that it was rather expensive….100 a bottle! So I began to use it and carried on doing so for 4 weeks. So here goes my review.
Rodial is a company which uses the best of nature’s ingredients in order to make wonder creams and treatments which claim to make drastic changes to your body when you use them regularly.
Apparently Rodial uses Pomegranate Ellagic Tannin in all of their products, as this is an anti-ageing firming product with collagen boosters in it. Their slogan is “Nature-Science”Skincare”.
After having a browse through their website, I could see that they offered many different products for different areas of your bodies, and each of them did a different thing as well.
The main categories of products available are skincare, which is mainly products for the face, Bodycare for all areas of the body and Suncare. The products are not cheap, in fact some of the most expensive I have seen in a while!
Courtesy: Night-Surfer,Latest News
Tuesday, March 3, 2009
TERM ASSET BACKED SECURITIES LOAN FACILITY
The Term Asset Backed Securities Loan Facility (TALF) will start disbursing funds March 25. The Term Asset Backed Securities Loan Facility was created back in November 2008.
Now today the Fed said $1 trillion in TALF will be given as it accepts securities backed by vehicles and equipment. The hope of TALF is to improve the credit crisis.
The Fed issued a statement today:
“The expanded program will remain focused on securities that will have the greatest macroeconomic impact and can most efficiently be added to the TALF at a low and manageable risk to the government.”
Back in November, the FED announced the creation of TALF with the following statement:
The Federal Reserve Board on Tuesday announced the creation of the Term Asset-Backed Securities Loan Facility (TALF), a facility that will help market participants meet the credit needs of households and small businesses by supporting the issuance of asset-backed securities (ABS) collateralized by student loans, auto loans, credit card loans, and loans guaranteed by the Small Business Administration (SBA).
Under the TALF, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York (FRBNY) will lend up to $200 billion on a non-recourse basis to holders of certain AAA-rated ABS backed by newly and recently originated consumer and small business loans. The FRBNY will lend an amount equal to the market value of the ABS less a haircut and will be secured at all times by the ABS. The U.S. Treasury Department–under the Troubled Assets Relief Program (TARP) of the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008–will provide $20 billion of credit protection to the FRBNY in connection with the TALF. The attached terms and conditions document describes the basic terms and operational details of the facility. The terms and conditions are subject to change based on discussions with market participants in the coming weeks.
New issuance of ABS declined precipitously in September and came to a halt in October. At the same time, interest rate spreads on AAA-rated tranches of ABS soared to levels well outside the range of historical experience, reflecting unusually high risk premiums. The ABS markets historically have funded a substantial share of consumer credit and SBA-guaranteed small business loans. Continued disruption of these markets could significantly limit the availability of credit to households and small businesses and thereby contribute to further weakening of U.S. economic activity. The TALF is designed to increase credit availability and support economic activity by facilitating renewed issuance of consumer and small business ABS at more normal interest rate spreads.
COURTESY: LALATE(USA) NEWS
Now today the Fed said $1 trillion in TALF will be given as it accepts securities backed by vehicles and equipment. The hope of TALF is to improve the credit crisis.
The Fed issued a statement today:
“The expanded program will remain focused on securities that will have the greatest macroeconomic impact and can most efficiently be added to the TALF at a low and manageable risk to the government.”
Back in November, the FED announced the creation of TALF with the following statement:
The Federal Reserve Board on Tuesday announced the creation of the Term Asset-Backed Securities Loan Facility (TALF), a facility that will help market participants meet the credit needs of households and small businesses by supporting the issuance of asset-backed securities (ABS) collateralized by student loans, auto loans, credit card loans, and loans guaranteed by the Small Business Administration (SBA).
Under the TALF, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York (FRBNY) will lend up to $200 billion on a non-recourse basis to holders of certain AAA-rated ABS backed by newly and recently originated consumer and small business loans. The FRBNY will lend an amount equal to the market value of the ABS less a haircut and will be secured at all times by the ABS. The U.S. Treasury Department–under the Troubled Assets Relief Program (TARP) of the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008–will provide $20 billion of credit protection to the FRBNY in connection with the TALF. The attached terms and conditions document describes the basic terms and operational details of the facility. The terms and conditions are subject to change based on discussions with market participants in the coming weeks.
New issuance of ABS declined precipitously in September and came to a halt in October. At the same time, interest rate spreads on AAA-rated tranches of ABS soared to levels well outside the range of historical experience, reflecting unusually high risk premiums. The ABS markets historically have funded a substantial share of consumer credit and SBA-guaranteed small business loans. Continued disruption of these markets could significantly limit the availability of credit to households and small businesses and thereby contribute to further weakening of U.S. economic activity. The TALF is designed to increase credit availability and support economic activity by facilitating renewed issuance of consumer and small business ABS at more normal interest rate spreads.
COURTESY: LALATE(USA) NEWS
TODAY IS SQUARE ROOT DAY
Redwood City (AP) - Today is a big day for math fanatics. It's Square Root Day today, a special day that comes only nine times during every century.
The odd calendar event makes today Square Root Day because it falls on 3/3/09. In Redwood City, teacher Ron Gordon has started a contest meant to get people excited about the event. The winner gets -- of course -- $339 for having the biggest Square Root Day event.
The last such day was five years ago, Feb. 2, 2004, which coincided with Groundhog Day. The next is seven years away, on April 4, 2016.
COURTESY:SILICON VALLEY NEWS
The odd calendar event makes today Square Root Day because it falls on 3/3/09. In Redwood City, teacher Ron Gordon has started a contest meant to get people excited about the event. The winner gets -- of course -- $339 for having the biggest Square Root Day event.
The last such day was five years ago, Feb. 2, 2004, which coincided with Groundhog Day. The next is seven years away, on April 4, 2016.
COURTESY:SILICON VALLEY NEWS
KOOBFACE WARM RESURFACES ON FACEBOOK,MYSPACE
Having just finished battling some nasty viruses on my home computer, I looked at the news today and realized something: There is no rest for the weary.
The "Koobface" worm or infamous "Facebook Worm" that was first discovered last July has made a comeback, attacking users on social networking websites such as Facebook and MySpace. Needless to say, the worm has been improved."Koobface" Worm Attacks Facebook, MySpace and Other Social Networking Sites
This new and improved version of Koobface is seen as an invitation from a friend of the account owner. It invites you to click on a link and view a video on a counterfeit YouTube site. Everything may look alright to the average user. The video even has fake comments and video responses. However, when you try to watch the video, a pop-up states that you need to install Adobe Flash plug-in to view it. When users attempt to download the fake plug-in, they really download a Trojan horse program that gives the Koobface creator(s) control over the computer. The worm then takes over your social networking account, sending the same message to your own friends.
According to The Washington Post, other networks currently seeing evidence of the Koobface worm are hi5.com, friendster.com, myyearbook.com, bebo.com and livejournal.com. Engineers at Trendmicro.com have seen the worm at tagged.com, netlog.com and fubar.com.
The new worm is clever and knows how to pull in the tiny details necessary to fool someone into thinking it is the real deal. The YouTube video, besides having comments and responses, even lists the author as the friend who sent you the message. The worm even pulls the friend's picture from the social networking site.
The original Koobface worm had two variants and was first discovered last July by secure content developer, Kaspersky Lab. These worms, Win32.Koobface.a. and Win32.Koobface.b, attacked MySpace and Facebook respectively and operated in the same way as this newer strain.
How do you keep the worms out of your computer? Don't invite them in in the first place. Basic Internet awareness and keeping your computer's antivirus updated and running every day is enough to keep you safe.
BY SARAH SULLIVAN
The "Koobface" worm or infamous "Facebook Worm" that was first discovered last July has made a comeback, attacking users on social networking websites such as Facebook and MySpace. Needless to say, the worm has been improved."Koobface" Worm Attacks Facebook, MySpace and Other Social Networking Sites
This new and improved version of Koobface is seen as an invitation from a friend of the account owner. It invites you to click on a link and view a video on a counterfeit YouTube site. Everything may look alright to the average user. The video even has fake comments and video responses. However, when you try to watch the video, a pop-up states that you need to install Adobe Flash plug-in to view it. When users attempt to download the fake plug-in, they really download a Trojan horse program that gives the Koobface creator(s) control over the computer. The worm then takes over your social networking account, sending the same message to your own friends.
According to The Washington Post, other networks currently seeing evidence of the Koobface worm are hi5.com, friendster.com, myyearbook.com, bebo.com and livejournal.com. Engineers at Trendmicro.com have seen the worm at tagged.com, netlog.com and fubar.com.
The new worm is clever and knows how to pull in the tiny details necessary to fool someone into thinking it is the real deal. The YouTube video, besides having comments and responses, even lists the author as the friend who sent you the message. The worm even pulls the friend's picture from the social networking site.
The original Koobface worm had two variants and was first discovered last July by secure content developer, Kaspersky Lab. These worms, Win32.Koobface.a. and Win32.Koobface.b, attacked MySpace and Facebook respectively and operated in the same way as this newer strain.
How do you keep the worms out of your computer? Don't invite them in in the first place. Basic Internet awareness and keeping your computer's antivirus updated and running every day is enough to keep you safe.
BY SARAH SULLIVAN
VIOLENCE IN STATE PRISONS
Violence Continues in Arizona Prisons; Inmate Possibly Stabbed
By Ray Stern in NewsThursday, Feb. 26 2009 @ 1:09PM
Less than a week after our report on the high number of 2008 inmate homicides in Arizona prisons, the state Department of Corrections is reporting another possible stabbing.
Maybe this latest incident will help draw attention to the inmate-on-inmate violence in state prisons -- which has apparently grown out of control. As we reported, at least four inmates (pictured) were killed by other inmates in state prisons last year. The number may even be higher after the department completes all of its death investigations.
Two of the four had been in prison for non-violent offenses, which makes their deaths seem like even more of a shame.
While at the downtown Phoenix office of the Department of Corrections last week, a couple of former prisoners came in to speak to the staff about various paperwork issues. One struck up a conversation as he waited his turn, and we asked him to name the single biggest problem these days in state prisons.
The man, a burly, pimply-faced Hispanic guy who looked like was about 30, shook his head at the question and complained there were too many problems to choose from. Finally, at our urging, he picks one:
"The violence," he says.
BY RAY STERN IN NEWS
By Ray Stern in NewsThursday, Feb. 26 2009 @ 1:09PM
Less than a week after our report on the high number of 2008 inmate homicides in Arizona prisons, the state Department of Corrections is reporting another possible stabbing.
Maybe this latest incident will help draw attention to the inmate-on-inmate violence in state prisons -- which has apparently grown out of control. As we reported, at least four inmates (pictured) were killed by other inmates in state prisons last year. The number may even be higher after the department completes all of its death investigations.
Two of the four had been in prison for non-violent offenses, which makes their deaths seem like even more of a shame.
While at the downtown Phoenix office of the Department of Corrections last week, a couple of former prisoners came in to speak to the staff about various paperwork issues. One struck up a conversation as he waited his turn, and we asked him to name the single biggest problem these days in state prisons.
The man, a burly, pimply-faced Hispanic guy who looked like was about 30, shook his head at the question and complained there were too many problems to choose from. Finally, at our urging, he picks one:
"The violence," he says.
BY RAY STERN IN NEWS
Sunday, March 1, 2009
BARRACK OBAMA'S BIRTH RECORD
Sunday, March 1, 2009
Obama's birth record was mentioned at CPAC(video)
When Accuracy in Media's Cliff Kincaid questioned whether Obama was born in the US, the crowd broke into applause. Obama supporters and a few conservatives have tried to degrade Americans who believe it is important to see Barack Obama's original birth record. They have labeled this group as "birthers" and called them a fringe group. Based on the applause to Cliff Kincaid's statement, this group is a lot more mainstream than they would like to admit.
Posted by The Intellectual Redneck at 8:26 AM
Obama's birth record was mentioned at CPAC(video)
When Accuracy in Media's Cliff Kincaid questioned whether Obama was born in the US, the crowd broke into applause. Obama supporters and a few conservatives have tried to degrade Americans who believe it is important to see Barack Obama's original birth record. They have labeled this group as "birthers" and called them a fringe group. Based on the applause to Cliff Kincaid's statement, this group is a lot more mainstream than they would like to admit.
Posted by The Intellectual Redneck at 8:26 AM
Ty PENNINGTON AND HIS TEAM HELPS A FAMILY WITH PREMATURE BABY
« Dancing With The Stars: Toni Braxton Admits To Religious Differences With Pro Partner Last Season | Home | Reality TV Casting Calls For The Week Of March 1, 2009 »
Extreme Makeover: Home Edition Helps Family Involved With Premature Babies
March 1, 2009 08:00:29 by Joe Reality
On this week’s episode of Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, Ty Pennington and his team once again aid a family actively involved in helping others. The Augustin family from Keller, Texas were victims of a flood that destroyed their home and not-for-profit photography studio.
Amber Augustin’s third child Lane was born prematurely. The challenges surrounding Lane’s birth caused emotional and financial struggles for the family. Knowing firsthand the difficulties faced by families with premature babies, Amber was inspired to create “Tiny Works of Heart,” which is a volunteer photography business.
“Tiny Works of Heart” takes pictures of babies born in the neonatal intensive care unit. Because sometimes N.I.C.U. babies don’t survive, it is important to families to have pictures of their babies. “Tiny Works of Heart” takes photos of families with their child. Amber also works with an organization that helps to provide hope and comfort to families during this difficult time.
In 2007 on Father’s Day, the Augustin family home was ravaged by flood waters. The home was so badly damaged that it along with Amber’s photography studio had to be destroyed. Ty Pennington, his design team, local builder Wall Homes and hundreds of volunteers will help to rebuild the Augustin family home and photography studio.
While the home is being rebuilt, the Augustin family will enjoy a Hilton vacation in Hawaii. The design team for this episode consists of designers Paul DiMeo, Eduardo Xol, Tracy Hutson and John Littlefield. Extreme Makeover: Home Edition airs on Sunday, March 1 from 8 PM to 9 PM ET on ABC.
Extreme Makeover: Home Edition Helps Family Involved With Premature Babies
March 1, 2009 08:00:29 by Joe Reality
On this week’s episode of Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, Ty Pennington and his team once again aid a family actively involved in helping others. The Augustin family from Keller, Texas were victims of a flood that destroyed their home and not-for-profit photography studio.
Amber Augustin’s third child Lane was born prematurely. The challenges surrounding Lane’s birth caused emotional and financial struggles for the family. Knowing firsthand the difficulties faced by families with premature babies, Amber was inspired to create “Tiny Works of Heart,” which is a volunteer photography business.
“Tiny Works of Heart” takes pictures of babies born in the neonatal intensive care unit. Because sometimes N.I.C.U. babies don’t survive, it is important to families to have pictures of their babies. “Tiny Works of Heart” takes photos of families with their child. Amber also works with an organization that helps to provide hope and comfort to families during this difficult time.
In 2007 on Father’s Day, the Augustin family home was ravaged by flood waters. The home was so badly damaged that it along with Amber’s photography studio had to be destroyed. Ty Pennington, his design team, local builder Wall Homes and hundreds of volunteers will help to rebuild the Augustin family home and photography studio.
While the home is being rebuilt, the Augustin family will enjoy a Hilton vacation in Hawaii. The design team for this episode consists of designers Paul DiMeo, Eduardo Xol, Tracy Hutson and John Littlefield. Extreme Makeover: Home Edition airs on Sunday, March 1 from 8 PM to 9 PM ET on ABC.
GREENVILLE SCHOOLS AND OFFICES CLOSED
Nearly 30,000 customers of Duke Energy are without power, and children in at least six Upstate counties are looking forward to a holiday Monday as the winter’s first snowstorm continues to rumble across the Upstate.
Closed school districts include: Greenville County schools and offices; Pickens County; Anderson Districts 1, 4, and 5, Laurens District 55, Oconee County and Spartanburg District 5.
In less than four hours, state troopers responded to more than 130 calls about collisions, hazards in roads and motorists who needed help in Greenville, Anderson, Pickens and Oconee counties, according to the state Highway Patrol.
Lance Cpl. Kathy Hiles of the Highway Patrol advised people to stay home if they can. Those who do go out should allow their cars to warm up and their windows to clear, she said.
She also recommended that motorists carry a charged cell phone and blanket. If there is a wreck, it could take a while for emergency services to get there, she said. ¶
Snow and ice caused WSPA-TV’s tower on Hogback Mountain to collapse, injuring no one but interfering with normal service for some viewers, said the station’s marketing director Megan Hannigan. ¶
Dish Network customers can pick up CBS programming on the analog tier, while viewers with a digital converter box can tune in on channel 62.2, she said. Charter Communications customers are unaffected, Hannigan said. ¶
The National Weather Service in Greer received several reports of thunder rumbling while it snowed, which happens every four or five years in the Upstate, said meteorologist Justin Lane. ¶
"It means that you’re probably going to have some very heavy snow falling," he said. "It’s basically a thunderstorm, but instead of rain falling you have snow falling." ¶
Fourteen trucks from the state Department of Transportation were out monitoring roads and applying salt and sand where needed, said Kevin Coyle, an assistant resident maintenance engineer in Greenville. ¶
Coyle urged drivers to give the DOT trucks room to work. ¶
"You can't apply this type of mixture at 60 mph," he said. "You've got to slow down to do it." ¶
Greenville firefighters decided about 6 p.m. to put chains on the tires of all their trucks. The decision came after a battalion chief drove some of the city's steeper streets to see how slick they were, said Lt. Chris Shipman. ¶
"We're very cautious on that," he said. "If there's one bad street in the city, most of the time we go ahead and chain them up just to be safe." ¶
While Duke Energy had crews ready to go throughout South and North Carolina, it generally takes eight inches of snow to cause widespread outages, spokesman Dave Scanzoni said. ¶
"We’ve got our folks working on it in all the affected areas, and we can always bring in more if necessary," he said. ¶
The storm is expected to leave behind a slushy mess that could freeze on the roads overnight, according to the Weather Service. ¶
Greenville and areas to the north are expected to receive about 2-4 inches of snow, while areas to the south and east will get 3-5 inches, said meteorologist Bryan McAvoy of the Weather Service. ¶
McAvoy said the snow should last until about midnight.
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Read reactions to this story
Courtesy: Paul Alongi-Staff Writer
Closed school districts include: Greenville County schools and offices; Pickens County; Anderson Districts 1, 4, and 5, Laurens District 55, Oconee County and Spartanburg District 5.
In less than four hours, state troopers responded to more than 130 calls about collisions, hazards in roads and motorists who needed help in Greenville, Anderson, Pickens and Oconee counties, according to the state Highway Patrol.
Lance Cpl. Kathy Hiles of the Highway Patrol advised people to stay home if they can. Those who do go out should allow their cars to warm up and their windows to clear, she said.
She also recommended that motorists carry a charged cell phone and blanket. If there is a wreck, it could take a while for emergency services to get there, she said. ¶
Snow and ice caused WSPA-TV’s tower on Hogback Mountain to collapse, injuring no one but interfering with normal service for some viewers, said the station’s marketing director Megan Hannigan. ¶
Dish Network customers can pick up CBS programming on the analog tier, while viewers with a digital converter box can tune in on channel 62.2, she said. Charter Communications customers are unaffected, Hannigan said. ¶
The National Weather Service in Greer received several reports of thunder rumbling while it snowed, which happens every four or five years in the Upstate, said meteorologist Justin Lane. ¶
"It means that you’re probably going to have some very heavy snow falling," he said. "It’s basically a thunderstorm, but instead of rain falling you have snow falling." ¶
Fourteen trucks from the state Department of Transportation were out monitoring roads and applying salt and sand where needed, said Kevin Coyle, an assistant resident maintenance engineer in Greenville. ¶
Coyle urged drivers to give the DOT trucks room to work. ¶
"You can't apply this type of mixture at 60 mph," he said. "You've got to slow down to do it." ¶
Greenville firefighters decided about 6 p.m. to put chains on the tires of all their trucks. The decision came after a battalion chief drove some of the city's steeper streets to see how slick they were, said Lt. Chris Shipman. ¶
"We're very cautious on that," he said. "If there's one bad street in the city, most of the time we go ahead and chain them up just to be safe." ¶
While Duke Energy had crews ready to go throughout South and North Carolina, it generally takes eight inches of snow to cause widespread outages, spokesman Dave Scanzoni said. ¶
"We’ve got our folks working on it in all the affected areas, and we can always bring in more if necessary," he said. ¶
The storm is expected to leave behind a slushy mess that could freeze on the roads overnight, according to the Weather Service. ¶
Greenville and areas to the north are expected to receive about 2-4 inches of snow, while areas to the south and east will get 3-5 inches, said meteorologist Bryan McAvoy of the Weather Service. ¶
McAvoy said the snow should last until about midnight.
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Courtesy: Paul Alongi-Staff Writer
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
GOOGLE MAKES GMAIL AVAILABLE OFFLINE
Google Makes Gmail Available Offline
By Miguel Helft
The biggest drawback of Web-based software, including e-mail programs like Gmail, Yahoo Mail and Microsoft’s Hotmail, is that they don’t work when users are offline — say, while on an airplane or on the road without access to a Wi-Fi connection.
On Tuesday evening, Google made Gmail available for offline use, in what the company calls an “experimental feature.”
Google is not the first of the major Web e-mail providers to provide offline access to its service. Yahoo did it last year, though its approach requires users to download a desktop e-mail software program called Zimbra, which Yahoo acquired in 2007. (Zimbra can also be used for offline access to Gmail and AOL Mail.) Microsoft’s Windows Live Mail offers limited offline access. And Zoho, a smaller provider of Web e-mail, has provided offline access since October.
Most Web e-mail services have long allowed users to download their messages to desktop clients like Microsoft Outlook via POP or IMAP technology.
But Gmail’s new offline feature will allow users to handle their e-mail within the familiar Gmail interface, with automatic synchronization of changes when an Internet connection is available.
Offline access to Gmail from Google has long been expected. In 2007, the company introduced a set of programmer tools called Google Gears, which allow developers to adapt Web programs so they can be used offline. Google has made its blog reading service, Google Reader, and its suite of office software, Google Docs, accessible offline. It has long said that offline access to Gmail was in the works.
The new service will be in the “Labs” section of Gmail, which the company uses to introduce experimental features. And Google warns that users may run into bugs. “Offline Gmail is still an early experimental feature, so don’t be surprised if you run into some kinks that haven’t been completely ironed out yet,” Andy Palay, a Gmail engineer wrote on a company blog.
But Mr. Palay said the software had worked well inside Google. “We’ve been using offline Gmail internally at Google for quite a while (I’ve read thousands of messages and answered hundreds en route to visit my son and my daughter),” he said. “And it’s saved me more than once when my home network connection ran into issues (we have squirrels at home that love to chew through outside cable wires).”
Google said offline access to Gmail would be available to users in the United States and Britain over the next couple of days.
Courtesy: Bits
By Miguel Helft
The biggest drawback of Web-based software, including e-mail programs like Gmail, Yahoo Mail and Microsoft’s Hotmail, is that they don’t work when users are offline — say, while on an airplane or on the road without access to a Wi-Fi connection.
On Tuesday evening, Google made Gmail available for offline use, in what the company calls an “experimental feature.”
Google is not the first of the major Web e-mail providers to provide offline access to its service. Yahoo did it last year, though its approach requires users to download a desktop e-mail software program called Zimbra, which Yahoo acquired in 2007. (Zimbra can also be used for offline access to Gmail and AOL Mail.) Microsoft’s Windows Live Mail offers limited offline access. And Zoho, a smaller provider of Web e-mail, has provided offline access since October.
Most Web e-mail services have long allowed users to download their messages to desktop clients like Microsoft Outlook via POP or IMAP technology.
But Gmail’s new offline feature will allow users to handle their e-mail within the familiar Gmail interface, with automatic synchronization of changes when an Internet connection is available.
Offline access to Gmail from Google has long been expected. In 2007, the company introduced a set of programmer tools called Google Gears, which allow developers to adapt Web programs so they can be used offline. Google has made its blog reading service, Google Reader, and its suite of office software, Google Docs, accessible offline. It has long said that offline access to Gmail was in the works.
The new service will be in the “Labs” section of Gmail, which the company uses to introduce experimental features. And Google warns that users may run into bugs. “Offline Gmail is still an early experimental feature, so don’t be surprised if you run into some kinks that haven’t been completely ironed out yet,” Andy Palay, a Gmail engineer wrote on a company blog.
But Mr. Palay said the software had worked well inside Google. “We’ve been using offline Gmail internally at Google for quite a while (I’ve read thousands of messages and answered hundreds en route to visit my son and my daughter),” he said. “And it’s saved me more than once when my home network connection ran into issues (we have squirrels at home that love to chew through outside cable wires).”
Google said offline access to Gmail would be available to users in the United States and Britain over the next couple of days.
Courtesy: Bits
FAST SPREADING PHISHING SCAM HITS GMAIL USERS
Fast-Spreading Phishing Scam Hits Gmail Users
By Jenna Wortham
UPDATE 6:45 p.m. : This post has been updated to include analysis from a security expert.
Google just can’t get a break today.
First, Google’s e-mail service froze for several hours, locking out millions of users. Now its chat service appears to be the conduit for a rapidly spreading phishing scam.
Gmail users who are logged into the accompanying chat service Google Talk, or GTalk, have been getting messages that appear to be from friends, urging them to click on a TinyURL Web address that redirects to a Web site called “ViddyHo.” The site asks for the person’s Gmail log-in information and then sends out chat messages to all of the user’s contacts, spreading itself further.
The online service Twitter had a steady stream of complaints and warnings about the attack. “To anyone who receives a Viddyho invite from me, please ignore it,” a Twitter user named Zaffi cautioned Tuesday. “I think I’ve been duped.”
Avivah Litan, a security analyst with the research firm Gartner, said phishing attacks luring Web surfers to click on videos have been steadily increasing over the last six months. Consumers have “wised up” to e-mail messages masquerading as notes from banks and credit card companies, Ms. Litan said. Now, she said, phishers are sending video invites that play on hot topics and news events (in this case, a video starring the comedy troupe The Lonely Island and the singer T-Pain). While the video plays, the site might be downloading so-called malware in the background to infect the victim’s computer.
“These criminals really know how to get people’s attention,” she said. “It’s the modus operandi that’s favored by the crooks, and it’s working pretty well. They laugh all the way to the bank.”
For users who fell victim to ViddyHo, Ms. Litan recommends changing passwords and running a virus scan, although she warns that might not be enough. “In the really sophisticated cases, you could run 40 antivirus programs and it might not find any malware,” she said. “You may need to make a backup, delete everything and start over. That’s the safest thing to do.”
By Jenna Wortham
UPDATE 6:45 p.m. : This post has been updated to include analysis from a security expert.
Google just can’t get a break today.
First, Google’s e-mail service froze for several hours, locking out millions of users. Now its chat service appears to be the conduit for a rapidly spreading phishing scam.
Gmail users who are logged into the accompanying chat service Google Talk, or GTalk, have been getting messages that appear to be from friends, urging them to click on a TinyURL Web address that redirects to a Web site called “ViddyHo.” The site asks for the person’s Gmail log-in information and then sends out chat messages to all of the user’s contacts, spreading itself further.
The online service Twitter had a steady stream of complaints and warnings about the attack. “To anyone who receives a Viddyho invite from me, please ignore it,” a Twitter user named Zaffi cautioned Tuesday. “I think I’ve been duped.”
Avivah Litan, a security analyst with the research firm Gartner, said phishing attacks luring Web surfers to click on videos have been steadily increasing over the last six months. Consumers have “wised up” to e-mail messages masquerading as notes from banks and credit card companies, Ms. Litan said. Now, she said, phishers are sending video invites that play on hot topics and news events (in this case, a video starring the comedy troupe The Lonely Island and the singer T-Pain). While the video plays, the site might be downloading so-called malware in the background to infect the victim’s computer.
“These criminals really know how to get people’s attention,” she said. “It’s the modus operandi that’s favored by the crooks, and it’s working pretty well. They laugh all the way to the bank.”
For users who fell victim to ViddyHo, Ms. Litan recommends changing passwords and running a virus scan, although she warns that might not be enough. “In the really sophisticated cases, you could run 40 antivirus programs and it might not find any malware,” she said. “You may need to make a backup, delete everything and start over. That’s the safest thing to do.”
ABC Ignores Personal Responsibility in Segment on Home Foreclosures
ABC Ignores Personal Responsibility in Segment on Home Foreclosures
By Scott Whitlock (Bio | Archive)
February 24, 2009 - 15:55 ET
Tuesday's "Good Morning America" ignored the liberal leanings of a Florida attorney who is instructing people on how to stall home foreclosures. In the segment, reporter Jim Avila showcased individuals who have drawn out the process by demanding that banks produce the original note to their home (which has often been sold in loan packages that are then traded on Wall Street). At no time did he ever question if the homeowners in question had any responsibility for their current situation.
Avila talked to lawyer Chris Hoyer who runs the Consumer Warning Network [CWN], a group whose stated purpose is to investigate fraud by large companies. The CWN website features an interview conducted by Hoyer in summer 2008 of former Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean. In that video, Hoyer can be seen telling Dean that he hopes the coming White House "will be a Democratic administration in tune with consumers." Of course, at no time in Avila's piece did he identify the partisan leanings of the Florida lawyer.
By: Scott Whitlock
By Scott Whitlock (Bio | Archive)
February 24, 2009 - 15:55 ET
Tuesday's "Good Morning America" ignored the liberal leanings of a Florida attorney who is instructing people on how to stall home foreclosures. In the segment, reporter Jim Avila showcased individuals who have drawn out the process by demanding that banks produce the original note to their home (which has often been sold in loan packages that are then traded on Wall Street). At no time did he ever question if the homeowners in question had any responsibility for their current situation.
Avila talked to lawyer Chris Hoyer who runs the Consumer Warning Network [CWN], a group whose stated purpose is to investigate fraud by large companies. The CWN website features an interview conducted by Hoyer in summer 2008 of former Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean. In that video, Hoyer can be seen telling Dean that he hopes the coming White House "will be a Democratic administration in tune with consumers." Of course, at no time in Avila's piece did he identify the partisan leanings of the Florida lawyer.
By: Scott Whitlock
Saturday, February 21, 2009
THE BASTARD IS DEAD!
The Bastard Is DEAD!!
"Government does not solve problems; it subsidizes them.
-Imperial Grand Prophet Ronald Reagan (mystically foreseeing TARP")
With the passage of the massive economic stimulus plan set to be signed into law by President Obama on Tuesday in Denver the dying squeals of Republican piggies grown fat on the failed policies of Ronald Wilson Reagan are becoming more shrill, psychotic and deafening. The stimulus plan, even as diluted as it is by the inclusion of all of those great tax cuts that have resulted only in proving that trickle down economics is nothing more than Gulliver pissing on the heads of the Lilliputians (translation: the working class) and doing so with sadistic mirth. What the stimulus package represents more than anything even including the ridiculous f*cking tax cuts is that the end of an era is nigh and that the machinery of government is being slowly redirected to a previous form where it was not weaponized by overly wealthy pigs, Wall Street looter capitalists and avaricious corporations who only stand for, to borrow form the words of the late Hunter S. Thompson:
... the systematic destruction of everything this country claims to stand for except the rights of the rich to put saddles on the backs of the poor and use public funds to build jails for anybody who complained about it."
::::::::
It is the entire American fascist system that has been so painstakingly and expensively constructed over the last half-century this is now at stake, the bullshit war on the American middle class that was cloaked in anti-communism, sanctified by Senator McCarthy’s witch hunts, cemented into place by the resentment politics of Richard M. Nixon and writ into religion by the cult or Reagan is in serious jeopardy. The withering attacks of the minority Republicans along with their ugly public tantrums promoted by a plethora of pocket media kingmakers and a propaganda machine still owned by the ruling classes are nothing more than a siege on the Alamo battle to preserve the false legacy of their false prophet Saint Ronnie of Pleasantville, USA.
I: The Cult of Reagan Idolatry
He was always a fraud! There wasn’t a legitimate bone in the man’s body, he was a failed movie star who hit the political jackpot when he slithered into the Republican party and onto the ultimate stage of national politics. From the beginning Ronald Reagan was a phony, a bad B movie actor who found his place as a pitchman for the conservative movement. Reagan was a rat bastard and a fink who sold out his Hollywood peers to the anti Communist rage of the McCarthy witch hunts of the fifties and used his tenure as leader of the Screen Actors Guild as a springboard to launch his political career.
His presidency was the result of an America struggling against itself to come to terms with societal contradictions brought on as a result of the civil rights movement, the counterculture of the sixties, Vietnam and Watergate and none other than William F. Buckley himself put it best when he used the following description in a column regarding Saint Ronnie: .. “a bumpkin with oratorical gifts pandering to American self-esteem”. Reagan was a man who put forth a strong daddy image and was able to reduce complex issues to their simplest terms, the better for a populace slowly undergoing the chronic dumbing down perpetuated by the cable and satellite television explosion of the 1980s.
Nearly every one of the serious problems that America faces today and that newly crowned President Barack Obama faces had its roots during the Reagan era. The rich got richer and the rest, well let them go eat some f*cking government surplus cheese, especially the goddamned welfare queens. The Reagan administration was a breeding ground for the delusional, non-reality based crony capitalists and Ayn Rand worshipping ‘free-market’ fanatics whose worship at the altar of laissez-faire economics still has them out prospecting for fool’s gold in Galt’s Gulch. It was Reagan appointee Alan Greenspan who actually hung out with Rand along with a gaggle of ghouls and assorted other weirdos in a group known as The Collective during the period that the holy tome Atlas Shrugged was being written. The canonization of Rand and the greedy and callous selfishness called objectivism and the absorption of the absurd crock of horseshit came to become dogma in America where monopoly and the destruction of economies are the end result of this sort of sociopathic behavior. When boiling all of this misbegotten and ultimately ruinous junk science down to its very essence it is an unwritten rule that for every f*cker there are tenfold of f*ckees, that is what capitalism is when it becomes cancerous and co-opted by the rentier class and the sleazy operators who rapaciously wring every last penny of profitability out even if it means offshoring millions of jobs and creating a permanent underclass who are born into this world without any shot at the mythical American Dream.
Now as the entire big con game becomes more apparent, we can all thank Ronald Reagan and the slavish devotees to the grand myth for the era of sloth, stupidity and scumbags that produced a generation of toxic sh*t that has set America back a century and set the nation on a course towards insolvency. The ugly lie of Reaganism must be exposed, stripped naked and laid out on an autopsy table, a bit of skillful use of a scalpel utilized to peel back the rotten flesh and expose the diseased organs. In less graphic terms, the legend itself needs to be debunked. The signs of desperation in the Republican ranks are encouraging as well as the books that are beginning to be written, books like Will Bunch’s Tear Down This Myth, the first of what I hope will be an attempt to strip away the revisionist history of the past three decades or so and allow for a national rejuvenation along to a return to true American values of economic fairness, equality and compassion that have been buried under a mountain of manure.
In order to roll back the creeping tide of fascism that has become so much a part of all that is American in early 2009 it is of utmost importance that Reaganism be recognized as the product of right-wing crackpots who in a mere quarter century have gutted this country in the name of voodoo economics and promoted an authoritarian dogma that served as a springboard for the rule of the Bush-Cheney-Rove Axis of Evil and the corruption of every relevant institution that has been staffed by fascism enabling cronies, zealots, crooks, grifters, con-artists, jack booted thugs and flim flam men. Such is the system as it exists today and as we now slowly begin to sift through the wreckage it is the mutated capitalist strain virus of Reaganism that infected the body, destroyed the immune system once known as checks and balances and then metastasized further into the global financial system which is now in freefall and widespread unrest threatens to bring down entire governments.
As with alcoholics and drug addicts, the recognition of a problem is the first step to recovery and the canonization of doddering Dutch as some sort of iconic national father figure needs to be exposed as the heretical think tank folderol that it always has been since its initial rollout as a product in the aftermath of one of the darkest and most tumultuous eras in our history. The Reagan administration went for the throat right out of the gates, organized labor was attacked with vigor with the firing of striking air traffic controllers and destruction of their union, the Sherman antitrust act became irrelevant and the fairness doctrine was eliminated to allow for the right-wing to use their limitless resources to propagandize the media. The return of the wealthy elite and robber barons to power and prominence was facilitated by the ability to distract and deceive. Karl Marx was only partially right when he stated that religion was the opiate of the masses, it is but that was prior to the advent of television and when the two are combined the potency is jacked up to the highest possible level. The power brokers knew this and with his Hollywood background Ronald Wilson Reagan was the perfect front man for the myriad of their ideological schemes that would wage war on progressive society and deal a staggering blow to economic fairness and equality in the land of plenty.
The 1980’s and the coming of Reagan’s cutthroat neoliberalism gave rise to the mantra of Gordon Gekko’s “greed is good” in a decade where corporate raiders became role models and unfettered Wall Street uber capitalism became the driving force of our social order. It was the great national regeneration decade and that fabulous and almighty leader was our champion, the iconic president who would make things right, who would deal harshly with those bastards in Iran unlike his milquetoast predecessor, who would restore the national glory and make us that shining city on the hill.
It was morning in America again.
A couple of ambitious young Republican gangsters Grover Norquist and Jack Abramoff who would contribute largely to the decimation of America long after the hallowed Ronnie had left the building. The story of these two scumbags who would along with a cast of thousands turn the entire government into a spoils system with a ruthless cadre of fixers to ensure compliance is told very well by author Thomas Frank (What’s the Matter With Kansas?) in his latest book called The Wrecking Crew: How Conservatives Rule. I excerpt the following from Frank’s lengthy piece in a recent issue of Harpers Magazine similarly entitled The wrecking crew: How a gang of right-wing con men destroyed Washington and made a killing:
The story begins in 1980, the year of the “Reagan Revolution,” when there appeared on the national scene a phenomenon that bewildered political observers: legions of politicized, energetic college students who were conservatives rather than liberals or radicals, as had been typical in the two decades previous. And not only were their politics deeply square but the idol of this unlikely youth craze was the oldest president ever. Reagan’s entire Pennsylvania campaign, for example, was run by a lad of twenty. In 1984, the aged actor won 60 percent of the college-student vote. The historical turnabout was irresistible, and Reagan Youth became one of the great journalistic clichés of the period, powering hundreds of newspaper columns and at least one beloved TV sitcom.
These sons of Reagan had a strong sense of generational self-awareness, and they loudly told the world how they had come by it. In the midst of the interminable Iran hostage crisis, a crowd of them at one college campus were supposedly so moved by a showing of Patton that they demonstrated spontaneously in favor of a nuclear attack on that country, shaking the ivory tower with chants of “First strike now!” Another well-known story of the era was how a bunch of privileged kids at Dartmouth College, a traditional fortress of privilege, decided that embracing the traditional politics of privilege and mimicking the traditional manners of the privileged were actually acts of great daring, exposing them to persecution by tyrannical liberals. Then there was Jack Abramoff, a College Republican leader in the Boston area who gained, according to the John Birch Society’s Review of the News, a “reputation as one of the most innovative of the national Conservative youth leaders” after he mounted such a massive grassroots push for Reagan in 1980 that he almost single-handedly shifted Massachusetts into the Republican column.
Abramoff, a burly fellow from Beverly Hills, came to Washington in 1981 to assume the chairmanship of the College Republican National Committee. Back in the Vietnam days it had been leftists who fought the power, he explained to reporters. But “now we’re the campus radicals.” His newly energized College Republicans (CRs) fanned out across the nation, instructing clean-cut kids on how to use the tactics of the Sixties left for their own causes. A snapshot of Abramoff using a bullhorn to rally a conservative throng was proudly reproduced in the CRs’ Annual Report for 1983, just across the page from a photo of Ralph Reed, who was then Abramoff’s right-hand man, pumping his fist at the head of a swarm of angry, sign-waving conservatives. In both instances the young men had gone into action wearing neckties.
It was Abramoff’s friend Grover Norquist, then a recent graduate of Harvard Business School, who came up with a plan for changing the very nature of the College Republicans. Norquist made a study of the CRs, developing a scheme to transform them from “a resume-padding social club,” as one account puts it, into “an ideological, grassroots organization.” Abramoff made Nor-quist the College Republicans’ executive director, and the two put Norquist’s theory into action. They purged the “old guard.” They amended the group’s constitution, establishing a structure that made the Washington office more powerful, and rewarded proselytizing on campus.
What the rising conservative sensibility of those years treasured above all else was “confrontation” with the left. It called for a quasi-military victory over liberalism; it would have no truck with civility or fair play; and it made heroes out of outrage-courting lib-fighters like Reagan’s communications director Pat Buchanan, the organizer Howard Phillips, and the young Jack Abramoff.
The first and most noticeable characteristic of this new militancy was an air of swaggering truculence. There are, of course, bullies from every walk of life and every political persuasion, but on the right bullying holds a special, exalted position. It is no accident that two of the movement’s greatest heroes—Tom DeLay and Oliver North—had the same nickname: “the Hammer.”
Jack Abramoff filled this bill perfectly. He had reportedly been something of a bully in high school and had now grown into a “hard-charging” and “dynamic” leader, in the assessment of conservative magazines, an ass-kicking weight lifter who could quiet the commies with his fists if they got out of line. The gangster fetish of his later years is by now familiar to the whole world—his constant references to The Godfather, his black trench coat and fedora, his Meyer Lansky memorabilia, the murderer argot that will no doubt serve him and his friends well during their prison years.
Abramoff himself derided the moderates he had ousted from control of the CRs as “wishy-washy country-clubbers” and insisted that he had transformed the organization into an “ideological, well-trained, aggressive, conservative” outfit. “Fighting the Left with a goal of victory” became the official, stated purpose of his College Republican cadres, according to an essay Abramoff wrote for the group’s 1983 Annual Report. The CRs were “fighting America’s last stand,” he blustered; they would “defund the enemy wherever possible,” one of his lieutenants added. According to the journalist Nina Easton, CR officers had their underlings memorize the gory opening monologue from the movie Patton, only with the word “Demo crat” standing in for the word “Nazi.” Other young rightists of the period went a step further. J. Michael Waller, the editor of the Sequent, a student paper at George Washington University, actually took breaks from red-baiting professors in order to zip down to Central America and hang out with the Nicaraguan Contras and the death-squad faction in El Salvador.
War was the order of the day, from President Reagan’s fight with the air-traffic controllers right down to the college campus, where Abramoff became famous for his declaration: “It is not our job to seek peaceful coexistence with the Left. Our job is to remove them from power permanently.” War plus revolution, actually. Abramoff liked to describe his CRs as “the sword and shield of the Reagan Revolution,” and in 1984 the young firebrand used his moment at the rostrum of the G.O.P. convention in Dallas to lecture the assembled small-business types on revolutionary theory.
That notorious chickenshits like Abramoff and Norquist sought to cloak their assault on America in militarist terms while not serving themselves is basically a requirement for entry into the fascist Republican party. Hell, what could be more Republican than using whatever means possible to weasel out of actual military service and then send others to die for your smug arrogance and the freedom to sh*t on all that is American. The list is long, too long of those sort of neocons, the adult versions of the nerd pack who used to huddle in the high school library conquering the world by Avalon Hill board games and the always popular Risk. Sure there are some who actually have served such as George W. Bush who flew a desk in a reserve unit until his coke habit got out of hand and the media creation that is John McCain whose recklessness as a Make Believe Maverick ironically resulted in his being shot down in Vietnam and winning a stay in the infamous Hanoi Hilton that he would use as the launch pad for his national political career – but the list of those who have actually had the guts to serve and serve honorably is short and bereft. Of course there is General David Petraeus but that ass kissing little chickenshit is a story for another time and ties into a much deeper and more disturbing fixation with the culture of the glorification of militarism here in the Homeland.
II: Adrift in the Land of the Angry White Male
It was always absurd, this idea of a savage campaign against “elites” being led by a poofy wordsmith like Rush Limbaugh, a Harvard fatty like Grover Norquist, a dickless academic like Newt Gingrich, and a diaper-dumping oligarch like George W. Bush. They were just another band of mischievous aristocrats who played at being the voice of the common man - these new wingers sold themselves as the champions of the f*cked-over little guy, in this case the terminally frustrated boobus Americanus, who for decades had been made to sit idly by while ethnics stole his job, evil liberals mocked his religion and his simple way of life, and media “elitists” shut out his views and sent porn and married queers into his living room via the television set.
-Matt Taibbi
In their rise the brink of conquest the Republican party became masters at harnessing backlash politics or the politics of resentment as a basis for duping befuddled and angry Americans into voting against their own economic self-interests out of a need for revenge against minorities and the great liberal conspiarcy of the cultural elites. The dark master Richard Nixon was of course a criminal mastermind and practically wrote the book on the politics of divsion. Tricky Dick excelled in using red-baiting, race-baiting and whatever divisive tactic would allow him to rise to power. The best study of Nixonian tactics is in Rick Perlstein’s brilliant Nixonland where it is also noted that Ronald Reagan built his own political career on a similar strategy. It was during Reagan’s reign as Governor of California during the tumultuous period of societal unrest during the 1960s that Reagan became a right-wing hero. His denunciations of the hippies, "look like Tarzan, walk like Jane, and smell like Cheetah" and the hated University of Cal-Berkeley, "a hotbed of communism and homosexuality" made him into a rising star. When the now infamous Powell Memorandum laid the blueprint for the think tanks, the media takeover and the preservation of the status quo it was only a matter of time until the actor Reagan could be rolled out as the smooth talking frontman for the product of oligarchy and imperialism.
Of course the hippies would have to be demonized, turned into cartoon characters as would the effete snob liberals who would stand in the way of the new fascism and it's avuncular face, that of the great communicator, the strident anti-communist warrior king. The failure of the Vietnam war would be blamed on the liberals and the media and the seeds of white populist resentment would be sown as the farm crisis decimated the American heartland and a porcine loser named Rush Hudson Limbaugh III was plucked from obscurity and transformed into a modern day Father Coughlin. Evangelical Christian churches would be subverted by well financed, politically connected fanatics to wage the culture wars and to become the foot soldiers of the Reagan (and later Bush) Revolution. The hostility level had to be cranked up in order for the Republicans to succeed in remaking America in the image of the same jokers who once glorified the uber fascist Benito Mussolini by featuring him on the cover of Fortune Magazine while singing the praises of the efficiency of his business model. There was the ugly and some might say outright treasonous takedown of Bill Clinton over his sexual dalliances which provided rocket fuel for the extremist reactionary right's hate machine, and on the morning of September 11th 2001 that fuel became nuclear.
But I digress....
The conditions on the ground in early 2009, the beginning of the era of Barack Obama and the end of the lie of Reaganism are those of unmitigated fury as the right confronts the greatest threat to the supremacy of their cancerous capitalism since the days of the hated Franklin Delano Roosevelt. The battlefield is overrun by the defenders of failed dogma and by the well paid servants who stand to lose their meal tickets. Already, in the early weeks of the Obama administration the Republicans have squealed like stuck pigs, outraged at the massive jacking up of the debt to somehow staunch the bleeding and to create jobs for the jobless. Of course they never gave a rat’s a**hole when Lord Bush was robbing from their grandchildren to build the police state infrastructure, wage illegal wars of aggression where trillions of dollars were sucked down a black hole inhabited by the slime creatures that are blood barters and war profiteers.
One would figure that the Republican fascist party would have been somewhat humbled after their mangy asses were taken to the woodshed by voters back in November but that would be naïve. Hitler never stopped after his failed beer hall putsch and neither will the devil-spawn of McCarthy, Nixon Reagan and the Bush family. Despite a silly and childish attempt at crafting some sort of bi-partisanship by the Obama administration they were shanked in the back by a dirty pack of double-dealing, jack-booted, America hating vermin who damn near succeeded in derailing the stimulus. Not that it won’t fall anyway after the king of capitulation Harry Reid and his fellow Democrat assclowns in the Senate allowed the poison pill of hundreds of billion dollars in those wonderful tax cuts that have worked so well at destabilizing the country by destroying the middle class to be inserted into the goddamned thing. The most unsurprising kick in the balls to Obama came from media darling and reputed ‘maverick’ John McCain (you may remember him as Sarah Palin’s running-mate) who spat on the new president’s outstretched hand. Of course McCain is also the self-admitted former war criminal who dropped napalm on civilians and then when his plane was shot down in Nam went on to make propaganda pieces for those dirty communists. But yet in this land of the dumb it is Jane Fonda who is still vilified decades after that filthy illegal murderous war ended with America slinking off after igniting the entire region, killing millions and allowing a rogue faction of the intelligence sector to establish a massive drug trafficking network, some of the profits of which would fund Reagan’s bloody little soirees into Central America to prop up despots and their vile torturing regimes.
The Republican party has long been a haven for reactionary thugs, neo-Nazis, out and out fascists, perverts, pederasts, braggarts, loudmouths, authority worshippers and the same sort of immoral degenerates, the dregs of society that Hitler used to much success in populating the ranks of his Sturmabteilung (SA). It worked out so well that Der Führer had to ultimately undertake an intervention to prevent them from turning on him that is famously known as the Night of the Long Knives. In any sort of normally functioning political system a similar purge would have occurred in a failed reactionary party after having their clocks cleaned but America post-9/11 is anything but a normally functioning society. If nothing else the remnants of the disciples of the false god Reagan have dug in even deeper, real dead enders, like the Japanese who had to be literally burned out of their caves and tunnels even after defeat was a certainty. One gets an idea of just how demented that this particular party is when one member, Pete Sessions of Texas proudly compared his party to the Taliban when being interview about strategy during the Obama era. What the f*ck is up with that? Didn’t the Taliban become the enemy after that oh so glorious and politically serendipitous day of 9/11/01? Isn’t America at war with the Taliban for allegedly aiding and abetting the great bogeyman Osama bin Laden? Did Sessions really just come out and say that he and his party are studying the methods of terrorists? Such a thing would have been cause for an extraordinary rendition under the Bush-Cheney junta, perhaps closing Gitmo is premature because we have an admitted fifth column waging war against America from within and being far more successful than al-CIAda could have ever hoped to be in even their wildest of wet dreams.
And there is also opportunity in undermining Obama and allowing the economy to continue to deteriorate so that he can be blamed in 2010. A rising star is a guy named Eric Cantor, a bespectacled little snake whose role model is none other than Newt Gingrich is a rising power in the neo-Confederate rump that is still beholden to the preservation of the Reagan temple of greed and has emerged as a particularly virulent critic of President Obama’s attempts to save capitalism from itself. Hanoi John along with his loyal sidekick Lindsey ‘five rugs for five bucks’ Graham, (the South Carolina Senator least likely to surprise anyone were he found in the men’s room of a rest area off of I-95 with a co*k in his mouth ala Larry Craig)."If this is going to be bipartisanship, the country's screwed" hissped Graham in his Gomer Pyle singsong, a longtime component of the three headed monster of McCain-Lieberman-Graham (although the wandering Jew has been somewhat chastened after his fall betrayal and his unconscionable holding onto his prized seat as Der Chairman of Der Kommitee of Heimat Security). You have to love the way that the fascist Republican party is now crying like a pack of Sarah Palin's clubbed baby seals...wasn’t this the criminal syndicate that once boasted as a national leader a slimy little greaseball from Texas named Tom DeLay who once allegedly said on bi-partisanship “f*ck that, it’s time for all out war?”.
The losers of November’s election were out hitting the Sunday morning horseshit circuit in force decrying the lack of deference from Obama and the supine twits in Harry Reid’s Senate when it came to honoring the spirit of Reaganism, what’s next, they exhume the old bastard’s rotting corpse and haul it around like some ghoulish sequel to Weekend at Bernie’s? The house still sets the rules too, the media is still bought and paid for, this much is already evident with this beautiful little example: Obama's use of fear card may backfire. So Obama is now a fear-monger despite not one f*cking peep about the eight year reign of terror by the Bush regime during which Americans were conditioned to see swarthy Arab terrorists in every dark corner, under their beds and as a result turned into the world’s largest coward colony courtesy of apocalyptic conjecture about smoking mushroom clouds, manipulation of the infamous threat level matrix for political means and the canonization of Jack Bauer, a man who would rip the testicles off of a toddler with a pair of pliers in front of it's mother for god and country. Obama is going to have a rough time taking on the consolidated fascist media colossus and the highly paid celebrity whores who pass themselves off as journalists. Operation Mockingbird is alive and well and even more dangerous now that the entire national media is owned by a handful of corporations with interlocking directorates. Now there has been talk about reinstating the Fairness Doctrine which might not be a bad idea in leveling the playing field against the sort of fascists that former Roosevelt Vice President Henry A. Wallace once so accurately pegged:
The American fascists are most easily recognized by their deliberate perversion of truth and fact. Their newspapers and propaganda carefully cultivate every fissure of disunity, every crack in the common front against fascism.
But any reinstatement of such rules in the current era of systemic rot and deterioration would only be selectively enforced to keep out those who question the state and the system itself. You will never see the Fairness Doctrine used to offset Limbaugh, Hannity, O’Reilly and any number of other demagogic clones. While this is a popular idea with many liberals it is only going to be eventually turned on them and other alternative media voices including bloggers who dare to question the legitimacy of the oligarchic status quo. But the media is a huge problem and the onslaught of propaganda pumped out to prevent even a diluted bucket of horse piss of a stimulus package illustrates that any sort of return of the government from its current role of protector of corporate interests and the wealthy will be fought tooth, fang and claw in a destructive battle of attrition that will continue to transform families and friends into warring factions that can be exploited by the same ruthless scum who have rigged the tables so successfully, some could say too successfully.
How this is all going to end up is impossible to tell, the American eugenics project to create the perfect Idiocracy, a reverse master-race has any sort of reformer like Obama facing some seriously nasty odds, just think of the Detroit Lions hoisting the Lombardi Trophy after next year's Super Bowl and you get the general idea. Frank Rich of the damned liberal New York Times wrote a piece this weekend entitled They Sure Showed That Obama that would tend to create some optimism in those readers less cynical than I. It was this line that killed me though and only further underlines the ongoing demographic problems facing Obama and anyone else who tries to change the system. Rich refers to: The beefy, beer-drinking, deer-hunting white guys — incessantly interviewed in bars and diners — would never buy the skinny black intellectual. Herein lies the problem, despite what may have happened during the election this is a nightmare block of the population and not one to be trifled with because old prejudices die hard and as always liberals have shown a proclivity in overestimating their ability to reach those who within their thick, Neanderthal skulls have banned logic and reason. I'll put in a plug for a big favorite of mine, the moral beacon in this sick land of denial and dumbness and that would be for the brilliant writer Joe Bageant and his book Deer Hunting With Jesus, trust me, it's a must read.
Now I may not be a hunter (personally I think it’s f*cking slaughter) but I am one hell of a beefy, beer-drinking white dude, a military veteran and have 11 tattoos as well if that is any sort of an added qualification to the sh*thack D.C. conventional wisdom. Despite that I am smart enough to not be hoodwinked by a bunch of pampered, elitist, chickenhawk charlatans trying to bait folks like American Me into voting against my own economic self interests. sh*t, my grandfather was a Romanian immigrant who joined a union to go work at a meat packing house (but only after at age 15 he filled his pockets full of ball bearings in order to qualify for the job's required weight), fought in World War II in the Pacific in some of the most vicious of cleanup operations and as an FDR democrat hated the sleazy, fascist snake oil salesmen that were Republicans. Thank God that he died before that fraudulent piece of sh*t Ronald Reagan was President but my grandmother who survived him by nearly thirty years cursed the Gipper and that punk assed borderline retard George W. Bush until her dying breath. The point is that most people from that particular era (never mind the 'greatest generation' hogwash) weren't so easily duped, and their ability to own a home, raise a family, take vacations on one income are a testament to they way that things used to be in this country before the rats and chiselers hijacked the system.
So as one of the manly men who are largely supposed to buy into the anti-elite propaganda peddled by the fifty-million dollar a year degenerate child f*cking dope addict I have always taken great offense at just how f*cking stupid that the average American beer swilling, swinging dick angry white male can be. Hell, I love drinking beer (and lots of it), shooting guns (although not at unarmed animals), watching football, driving fast, hating the insipid tyranny of political correctness and ogling nekkid women but I also don’t get suckered into that anti-intellectual horseshit that makes one of those clueless, testosterone and alcohol fueled dopes who are as mad as hell but too f*cking dumb to realize that they should be really mad at the millionaire lardasses like Limbaugh who are very well paid to dupe these knuckle-draggers into consistently voting AGAINST their own economic well being. Listen dudes, there is nothing macho in being stupid and unless y’all get a clue your sex lives will continue to be comprised of drinking a twelve pack of cheap malt liquor and whacking off over the latest issue of Penthouse or whatever other f*ckrag that you pick up at your local convenience store's jack rack. Stop fantasizing about coming on Sarah Palin’s t*ts, stop reveling in the falsehood that everyman Joe the Plumber is a working class hero and pick up a book once in awhile, the mind that you save may be your own.
And maybe, just maybe the inhabitants of this land of shame, sin and sorrow can finally shrink the legacy of Ronald Wilson Reagan to the size where it can be drowned in a bathtub. In a time when even the maestro Greenspan openly admits that he f*cked up big time then I suppose that anything is theoretically possible.
Ed Encho is a free lance writer, activist and consultant who resides in West Central Florida and author of the upcoming "A Monolithic and Ruthless Conspiracy".
"Government does not solve problems; it subsidizes them.
-Imperial Grand Prophet Ronald Reagan (mystically foreseeing TARP")
With the passage of the massive economic stimulus plan set to be signed into law by President Obama on Tuesday in Denver the dying squeals of Republican piggies grown fat on the failed policies of Ronald Wilson Reagan are becoming more shrill, psychotic and deafening. The stimulus plan, even as diluted as it is by the inclusion of all of those great tax cuts that have resulted only in proving that trickle down economics is nothing more than Gulliver pissing on the heads of the Lilliputians (translation: the working class) and doing so with sadistic mirth. What the stimulus package represents more than anything even including the ridiculous f*cking tax cuts is that the end of an era is nigh and that the machinery of government is being slowly redirected to a previous form where it was not weaponized by overly wealthy pigs, Wall Street looter capitalists and avaricious corporations who only stand for, to borrow form the words of the late Hunter S. Thompson:
... the systematic destruction of everything this country claims to stand for except the rights of the rich to put saddles on the backs of the poor and use public funds to build jails for anybody who complained about it."
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It is the entire American fascist system that has been so painstakingly and expensively constructed over the last half-century this is now at stake, the bullshit war on the American middle class that was cloaked in anti-communism, sanctified by Senator McCarthy’s witch hunts, cemented into place by the resentment politics of Richard M. Nixon and writ into religion by the cult or Reagan is in serious jeopardy. The withering attacks of the minority Republicans along with their ugly public tantrums promoted by a plethora of pocket media kingmakers and a propaganda machine still owned by the ruling classes are nothing more than a siege on the Alamo battle to preserve the false legacy of their false prophet Saint Ronnie of Pleasantville, USA.
I: The Cult of Reagan Idolatry
He was always a fraud! There wasn’t a legitimate bone in the man’s body, he was a failed movie star who hit the political jackpot when he slithered into the Republican party and onto the ultimate stage of national politics. From the beginning Ronald Reagan was a phony, a bad B movie actor who found his place as a pitchman for the conservative movement. Reagan was a rat bastard and a fink who sold out his Hollywood peers to the anti Communist rage of the McCarthy witch hunts of the fifties and used his tenure as leader of the Screen Actors Guild as a springboard to launch his political career.
His presidency was the result of an America struggling against itself to come to terms with societal contradictions brought on as a result of the civil rights movement, the counterculture of the sixties, Vietnam and Watergate and none other than William F. Buckley himself put it best when he used the following description in a column regarding Saint Ronnie: .. “a bumpkin with oratorical gifts pandering to American self-esteem”. Reagan was a man who put forth a strong daddy image and was able to reduce complex issues to their simplest terms, the better for a populace slowly undergoing the chronic dumbing down perpetuated by the cable and satellite television explosion of the 1980s.
Nearly every one of the serious problems that America faces today and that newly crowned President Barack Obama faces had its roots during the Reagan era. The rich got richer and the rest, well let them go eat some f*cking government surplus cheese, especially the goddamned welfare queens. The Reagan administration was a breeding ground for the delusional, non-reality based crony capitalists and Ayn Rand worshipping ‘free-market’ fanatics whose worship at the altar of laissez-faire economics still has them out prospecting for fool’s gold in Galt’s Gulch. It was Reagan appointee Alan Greenspan who actually hung out with Rand along with a gaggle of ghouls and assorted other weirdos in a group known as The Collective during the period that the holy tome Atlas Shrugged was being written. The canonization of Rand and the greedy and callous selfishness called objectivism and the absorption of the absurd crock of horseshit came to become dogma in America where monopoly and the destruction of economies are the end result of this sort of sociopathic behavior. When boiling all of this misbegotten and ultimately ruinous junk science down to its very essence it is an unwritten rule that for every f*cker there are tenfold of f*ckees, that is what capitalism is when it becomes cancerous and co-opted by the rentier class and the sleazy operators who rapaciously wring every last penny of profitability out even if it means offshoring millions of jobs and creating a permanent underclass who are born into this world without any shot at the mythical American Dream.
Now as the entire big con game becomes more apparent, we can all thank Ronald Reagan and the slavish devotees to the grand myth for the era of sloth, stupidity and scumbags that produced a generation of toxic sh*t that has set America back a century and set the nation on a course towards insolvency. The ugly lie of Reaganism must be exposed, stripped naked and laid out on an autopsy table, a bit of skillful use of a scalpel utilized to peel back the rotten flesh and expose the diseased organs. In less graphic terms, the legend itself needs to be debunked. The signs of desperation in the Republican ranks are encouraging as well as the books that are beginning to be written, books like Will Bunch’s Tear Down This Myth, the first of what I hope will be an attempt to strip away the revisionist history of the past three decades or so and allow for a national rejuvenation along to a return to true American values of economic fairness, equality and compassion that have been buried under a mountain of manure.
In order to roll back the creeping tide of fascism that has become so much a part of all that is American in early 2009 it is of utmost importance that Reaganism be recognized as the product of right-wing crackpots who in a mere quarter century have gutted this country in the name of voodoo economics and promoted an authoritarian dogma that served as a springboard for the rule of the Bush-Cheney-Rove Axis of Evil and the corruption of every relevant institution that has been staffed by fascism enabling cronies, zealots, crooks, grifters, con-artists, jack booted thugs and flim flam men. Such is the system as it exists today and as we now slowly begin to sift through the wreckage it is the mutated capitalist strain virus of Reaganism that infected the body, destroyed the immune system once known as checks and balances and then metastasized further into the global financial system which is now in freefall and widespread unrest threatens to bring down entire governments.
As with alcoholics and drug addicts, the recognition of a problem is the first step to recovery and the canonization of doddering Dutch as some sort of iconic national father figure needs to be exposed as the heretical think tank folderol that it always has been since its initial rollout as a product in the aftermath of one of the darkest and most tumultuous eras in our history. The Reagan administration went for the throat right out of the gates, organized labor was attacked with vigor with the firing of striking air traffic controllers and destruction of their union, the Sherman antitrust act became irrelevant and the fairness doctrine was eliminated to allow for the right-wing to use their limitless resources to propagandize the media. The return of the wealthy elite and robber barons to power and prominence was facilitated by the ability to distract and deceive. Karl Marx was only partially right when he stated that religion was the opiate of the masses, it is but that was prior to the advent of television and when the two are combined the potency is jacked up to the highest possible level. The power brokers knew this and with his Hollywood background Ronald Wilson Reagan was the perfect front man for the myriad of their ideological schemes that would wage war on progressive society and deal a staggering blow to economic fairness and equality in the land of plenty.
The 1980’s and the coming of Reagan’s cutthroat neoliberalism gave rise to the mantra of Gordon Gekko’s “greed is good” in a decade where corporate raiders became role models and unfettered Wall Street uber capitalism became the driving force of our social order. It was the great national regeneration decade and that fabulous and almighty leader was our champion, the iconic president who would make things right, who would deal harshly with those bastards in Iran unlike his milquetoast predecessor, who would restore the national glory and make us that shining city on the hill.
It was morning in America again.
A couple of ambitious young Republican gangsters Grover Norquist and Jack Abramoff who would contribute largely to the decimation of America long after the hallowed Ronnie had left the building. The story of these two scumbags who would along with a cast of thousands turn the entire government into a spoils system with a ruthless cadre of fixers to ensure compliance is told very well by author Thomas Frank (What’s the Matter With Kansas?) in his latest book called The Wrecking Crew: How Conservatives Rule. I excerpt the following from Frank’s lengthy piece in a recent issue of Harpers Magazine similarly entitled The wrecking crew: How a gang of right-wing con men destroyed Washington and made a killing:
The story begins in 1980, the year of the “Reagan Revolution,” when there appeared on the national scene a phenomenon that bewildered political observers: legions of politicized, energetic college students who were conservatives rather than liberals or radicals, as had been typical in the two decades previous. And not only were their politics deeply square but the idol of this unlikely youth craze was the oldest president ever. Reagan’s entire Pennsylvania campaign, for example, was run by a lad of twenty. In 1984, the aged actor won 60 percent of the college-student vote. The historical turnabout was irresistible, and Reagan Youth became one of the great journalistic clichés of the period, powering hundreds of newspaper columns and at least one beloved TV sitcom.
These sons of Reagan had a strong sense of generational self-awareness, and they loudly told the world how they had come by it. In the midst of the interminable Iran hostage crisis, a crowd of them at one college campus were supposedly so moved by a showing of Patton that they demonstrated spontaneously in favor of a nuclear attack on that country, shaking the ivory tower with chants of “First strike now!” Another well-known story of the era was how a bunch of privileged kids at Dartmouth College, a traditional fortress of privilege, decided that embracing the traditional politics of privilege and mimicking the traditional manners of the privileged were actually acts of great daring, exposing them to persecution by tyrannical liberals. Then there was Jack Abramoff, a College Republican leader in the Boston area who gained, according to the John Birch Society’s Review of the News, a “reputation as one of the most innovative of the national Conservative youth leaders” after he mounted such a massive grassroots push for Reagan in 1980 that he almost single-handedly shifted Massachusetts into the Republican column.
Abramoff, a burly fellow from Beverly Hills, came to Washington in 1981 to assume the chairmanship of the College Republican National Committee. Back in the Vietnam days it had been leftists who fought the power, he explained to reporters. But “now we’re the campus radicals.” His newly energized College Republicans (CRs) fanned out across the nation, instructing clean-cut kids on how to use the tactics of the Sixties left for their own causes. A snapshot of Abramoff using a bullhorn to rally a conservative throng was proudly reproduced in the CRs’ Annual Report for 1983, just across the page from a photo of Ralph Reed, who was then Abramoff’s right-hand man, pumping his fist at the head of a swarm of angry, sign-waving conservatives. In both instances the young men had gone into action wearing neckties.
It was Abramoff’s friend Grover Norquist, then a recent graduate of Harvard Business School, who came up with a plan for changing the very nature of the College Republicans. Norquist made a study of the CRs, developing a scheme to transform them from “a resume-padding social club,” as one account puts it, into “an ideological, grassroots organization.” Abramoff made Nor-quist the College Republicans’ executive director, and the two put Norquist’s theory into action. They purged the “old guard.” They amended the group’s constitution, establishing a structure that made the Washington office more powerful, and rewarded proselytizing on campus.
What the rising conservative sensibility of those years treasured above all else was “confrontation” with the left. It called for a quasi-military victory over liberalism; it would have no truck with civility or fair play; and it made heroes out of outrage-courting lib-fighters like Reagan’s communications director Pat Buchanan, the organizer Howard Phillips, and the young Jack Abramoff.
The first and most noticeable characteristic of this new militancy was an air of swaggering truculence. There are, of course, bullies from every walk of life and every political persuasion, but on the right bullying holds a special, exalted position. It is no accident that two of the movement’s greatest heroes—Tom DeLay and Oliver North—had the same nickname: “the Hammer.”
Jack Abramoff filled this bill perfectly. He had reportedly been something of a bully in high school and had now grown into a “hard-charging” and “dynamic” leader, in the assessment of conservative magazines, an ass-kicking weight lifter who could quiet the commies with his fists if they got out of line. The gangster fetish of his later years is by now familiar to the whole world—his constant references to The Godfather, his black trench coat and fedora, his Meyer Lansky memorabilia, the murderer argot that will no doubt serve him and his friends well during their prison years.
Abramoff himself derided the moderates he had ousted from control of the CRs as “wishy-washy country-clubbers” and insisted that he had transformed the organization into an “ideological, well-trained, aggressive, conservative” outfit. “Fighting the Left with a goal of victory” became the official, stated purpose of his College Republican cadres, according to an essay Abramoff wrote for the group’s 1983 Annual Report. The CRs were “fighting America’s last stand,” he blustered; they would “defund the enemy wherever possible,” one of his lieutenants added. According to the journalist Nina Easton, CR officers had their underlings memorize the gory opening monologue from the movie Patton, only with the word “Demo crat” standing in for the word “Nazi.” Other young rightists of the period went a step further. J. Michael Waller, the editor of the Sequent, a student paper at George Washington University, actually took breaks from red-baiting professors in order to zip down to Central America and hang out with the Nicaraguan Contras and the death-squad faction in El Salvador.
War was the order of the day, from President Reagan’s fight with the air-traffic controllers right down to the college campus, where Abramoff became famous for his declaration: “It is not our job to seek peaceful coexistence with the Left. Our job is to remove them from power permanently.” War plus revolution, actually. Abramoff liked to describe his CRs as “the sword and shield of the Reagan Revolution,” and in 1984 the young firebrand used his moment at the rostrum of the G.O.P. convention in Dallas to lecture the assembled small-business types on revolutionary theory.
That notorious chickenshits like Abramoff and Norquist sought to cloak their assault on America in militarist terms while not serving themselves is basically a requirement for entry into the fascist Republican party. Hell, what could be more Republican than using whatever means possible to weasel out of actual military service and then send others to die for your smug arrogance and the freedom to sh*t on all that is American. The list is long, too long of those sort of neocons, the adult versions of the nerd pack who used to huddle in the high school library conquering the world by Avalon Hill board games and the always popular Risk. Sure there are some who actually have served such as George W. Bush who flew a desk in a reserve unit until his coke habit got out of hand and the media creation that is John McCain whose recklessness as a Make Believe Maverick ironically resulted in his being shot down in Vietnam and winning a stay in the infamous Hanoi Hilton that he would use as the launch pad for his national political career – but the list of those who have actually had the guts to serve and serve honorably is short and bereft. Of course there is General David Petraeus but that ass kissing little chickenshit is a story for another time and ties into a much deeper and more disturbing fixation with the culture of the glorification of militarism here in the Homeland.
II: Adrift in the Land of the Angry White Male
It was always absurd, this idea of a savage campaign against “elites” being led by a poofy wordsmith like Rush Limbaugh, a Harvard fatty like Grover Norquist, a dickless academic like Newt Gingrich, and a diaper-dumping oligarch like George W. Bush. They were just another band of mischievous aristocrats who played at being the voice of the common man - these new wingers sold themselves as the champions of the f*cked-over little guy, in this case the terminally frustrated boobus Americanus, who for decades had been made to sit idly by while ethnics stole his job, evil liberals mocked his religion and his simple way of life, and media “elitists” shut out his views and sent porn and married queers into his living room via the television set.
-Matt Taibbi
In their rise the brink of conquest the Republican party became masters at harnessing backlash politics or the politics of resentment as a basis for duping befuddled and angry Americans into voting against their own economic self-interests out of a need for revenge against minorities and the great liberal conspiarcy of the cultural elites. The dark master Richard Nixon was of course a criminal mastermind and practically wrote the book on the politics of divsion. Tricky Dick excelled in using red-baiting, race-baiting and whatever divisive tactic would allow him to rise to power. The best study of Nixonian tactics is in Rick Perlstein’s brilliant Nixonland where it is also noted that Ronald Reagan built his own political career on a similar strategy. It was during Reagan’s reign as Governor of California during the tumultuous period of societal unrest during the 1960s that Reagan became a right-wing hero. His denunciations of the hippies, "look like Tarzan, walk like Jane, and smell like Cheetah" and the hated University of Cal-Berkeley, "a hotbed of communism and homosexuality" made him into a rising star. When the now infamous Powell Memorandum laid the blueprint for the think tanks, the media takeover and the preservation of the status quo it was only a matter of time until the actor Reagan could be rolled out as the smooth talking frontman for the product of oligarchy and imperialism.
Of course the hippies would have to be demonized, turned into cartoon characters as would the effete snob liberals who would stand in the way of the new fascism and it's avuncular face, that of the great communicator, the strident anti-communist warrior king. The failure of the Vietnam war would be blamed on the liberals and the media and the seeds of white populist resentment would be sown as the farm crisis decimated the American heartland and a porcine loser named Rush Hudson Limbaugh III was plucked from obscurity and transformed into a modern day Father Coughlin. Evangelical Christian churches would be subverted by well financed, politically connected fanatics to wage the culture wars and to become the foot soldiers of the Reagan (and later Bush) Revolution. The hostility level had to be cranked up in order for the Republicans to succeed in remaking America in the image of the same jokers who once glorified the uber fascist Benito Mussolini by featuring him on the cover of Fortune Magazine while singing the praises of the efficiency of his business model. There was the ugly and some might say outright treasonous takedown of Bill Clinton over his sexual dalliances which provided rocket fuel for the extremist reactionary right's hate machine, and on the morning of September 11th 2001 that fuel became nuclear.
But I digress....
The conditions on the ground in early 2009, the beginning of the era of Barack Obama and the end of the lie of Reaganism are those of unmitigated fury as the right confronts the greatest threat to the supremacy of their cancerous capitalism since the days of the hated Franklin Delano Roosevelt. The battlefield is overrun by the defenders of failed dogma and by the well paid servants who stand to lose their meal tickets. Already, in the early weeks of the Obama administration the Republicans have squealed like stuck pigs, outraged at the massive jacking up of the debt to somehow staunch the bleeding and to create jobs for the jobless. Of course they never gave a rat’s a**hole when Lord Bush was robbing from their grandchildren to build the police state infrastructure, wage illegal wars of aggression where trillions of dollars were sucked down a black hole inhabited by the slime creatures that are blood barters and war profiteers.
One would figure that the Republican fascist party would have been somewhat humbled after their mangy asses were taken to the woodshed by voters back in November but that would be naïve. Hitler never stopped after his failed beer hall putsch and neither will the devil-spawn of McCarthy, Nixon Reagan and the Bush family. Despite a silly and childish attempt at crafting some sort of bi-partisanship by the Obama administration they were shanked in the back by a dirty pack of double-dealing, jack-booted, America hating vermin who damn near succeeded in derailing the stimulus. Not that it won’t fall anyway after the king of capitulation Harry Reid and his fellow Democrat assclowns in the Senate allowed the poison pill of hundreds of billion dollars in those wonderful tax cuts that have worked so well at destabilizing the country by destroying the middle class to be inserted into the goddamned thing. The most unsurprising kick in the balls to Obama came from media darling and reputed ‘maverick’ John McCain (you may remember him as Sarah Palin’s running-mate) who spat on the new president’s outstretched hand. Of course McCain is also the self-admitted former war criminal who dropped napalm on civilians and then when his plane was shot down in Nam went on to make propaganda pieces for those dirty communists. But yet in this land of the dumb it is Jane Fonda who is still vilified decades after that filthy illegal murderous war ended with America slinking off after igniting the entire region, killing millions and allowing a rogue faction of the intelligence sector to establish a massive drug trafficking network, some of the profits of which would fund Reagan’s bloody little soirees into Central America to prop up despots and their vile torturing regimes.
The Republican party has long been a haven for reactionary thugs, neo-Nazis, out and out fascists, perverts, pederasts, braggarts, loudmouths, authority worshippers and the same sort of immoral degenerates, the dregs of society that Hitler used to much success in populating the ranks of his Sturmabteilung (SA). It worked out so well that Der Führer had to ultimately undertake an intervention to prevent them from turning on him that is famously known as the Night of the Long Knives. In any sort of normally functioning political system a similar purge would have occurred in a failed reactionary party after having their clocks cleaned but America post-9/11 is anything but a normally functioning society. If nothing else the remnants of the disciples of the false god Reagan have dug in even deeper, real dead enders, like the Japanese who had to be literally burned out of their caves and tunnels even after defeat was a certainty. One gets an idea of just how demented that this particular party is when one member, Pete Sessions of Texas proudly compared his party to the Taliban when being interview about strategy during the Obama era. What the f*ck is up with that? Didn’t the Taliban become the enemy after that oh so glorious and politically serendipitous day of 9/11/01? Isn’t America at war with the Taliban for allegedly aiding and abetting the great bogeyman Osama bin Laden? Did Sessions really just come out and say that he and his party are studying the methods of terrorists? Such a thing would have been cause for an extraordinary rendition under the Bush-Cheney junta, perhaps closing Gitmo is premature because we have an admitted fifth column waging war against America from within and being far more successful than al-CIAda could have ever hoped to be in even their wildest of wet dreams.
And there is also opportunity in undermining Obama and allowing the economy to continue to deteriorate so that he can be blamed in 2010. A rising star is a guy named Eric Cantor, a bespectacled little snake whose role model is none other than Newt Gingrich is a rising power in the neo-Confederate rump that is still beholden to the preservation of the Reagan temple of greed and has emerged as a particularly virulent critic of President Obama’s attempts to save capitalism from itself. Hanoi John along with his loyal sidekick Lindsey ‘five rugs for five bucks’ Graham, (the South Carolina Senator least likely to surprise anyone were he found in the men’s room of a rest area off of I-95 with a co*k in his mouth ala Larry Craig)."If this is going to be bipartisanship, the country's screwed" hissped Graham in his Gomer Pyle singsong, a longtime component of the three headed monster of McCain-Lieberman-Graham (although the wandering Jew has been somewhat chastened after his fall betrayal and his unconscionable holding onto his prized seat as Der Chairman of Der Kommitee of Heimat Security). You have to love the way that the fascist Republican party is now crying like a pack of Sarah Palin's clubbed baby seals...wasn’t this the criminal syndicate that once boasted as a national leader a slimy little greaseball from Texas named Tom DeLay who once allegedly said on bi-partisanship “f*ck that, it’s time for all out war?”.
The losers of November’s election were out hitting the Sunday morning horseshit circuit in force decrying the lack of deference from Obama and the supine twits in Harry Reid’s Senate when it came to honoring the spirit of Reaganism, what’s next, they exhume the old bastard’s rotting corpse and haul it around like some ghoulish sequel to Weekend at Bernie’s? The house still sets the rules too, the media is still bought and paid for, this much is already evident with this beautiful little example: Obama's use of fear card may backfire. So Obama is now a fear-monger despite not one f*cking peep about the eight year reign of terror by the Bush regime during which Americans were conditioned to see swarthy Arab terrorists in every dark corner, under their beds and as a result turned into the world’s largest coward colony courtesy of apocalyptic conjecture about smoking mushroom clouds, manipulation of the infamous threat level matrix for political means and the canonization of Jack Bauer, a man who would rip the testicles off of a toddler with a pair of pliers in front of it's mother for god and country. Obama is going to have a rough time taking on the consolidated fascist media colossus and the highly paid celebrity whores who pass themselves off as journalists. Operation Mockingbird is alive and well and even more dangerous now that the entire national media is owned by a handful of corporations with interlocking directorates. Now there has been talk about reinstating the Fairness Doctrine which might not be a bad idea in leveling the playing field against the sort of fascists that former Roosevelt Vice President Henry A. Wallace once so accurately pegged:
The American fascists are most easily recognized by their deliberate perversion of truth and fact. Their newspapers and propaganda carefully cultivate every fissure of disunity, every crack in the common front against fascism.
But any reinstatement of such rules in the current era of systemic rot and deterioration would only be selectively enforced to keep out those who question the state and the system itself. You will never see the Fairness Doctrine used to offset Limbaugh, Hannity, O’Reilly and any number of other demagogic clones. While this is a popular idea with many liberals it is only going to be eventually turned on them and other alternative media voices including bloggers who dare to question the legitimacy of the oligarchic status quo. But the media is a huge problem and the onslaught of propaganda pumped out to prevent even a diluted bucket of horse piss of a stimulus package illustrates that any sort of return of the government from its current role of protector of corporate interests and the wealthy will be fought tooth, fang and claw in a destructive battle of attrition that will continue to transform families and friends into warring factions that can be exploited by the same ruthless scum who have rigged the tables so successfully, some could say too successfully.
How this is all going to end up is impossible to tell, the American eugenics project to create the perfect Idiocracy, a reverse master-race has any sort of reformer like Obama facing some seriously nasty odds, just think of the Detroit Lions hoisting the Lombardi Trophy after next year's Super Bowl and you get the general idea. Frank Rich of the damned liberal New York Times wrote a piece this weekend entitled They Sure Showed That Obama that would tend to create some optimism in those readers less cynical than I. It was this line that killed me though and only further underlines the ongoing demographic problems facing Obama and anyone else who tries to change the system. Rich refers to: The beefy, beer-drinking, deer-hunting white guys — incessantly interviewed in bars and diners — would never buy the skinny black intellectual. Herein lies the problem, despite what may have happened during the election this is a nightmare block of the population and not one to be trifled with because old prejudices die hard and as always liberals have shown a proclivity in overestimating their ability to reach those who within their thick, Neanderthal skulls have banned logic and reason. I'll put in a plug for a big favorite of mine, the moral beacon in this sick land of denial and dumbness and that would be for the brilliant writer Joe Bageant and his book Deer Hunting With Jesus, trust me, it's a must read.
Now I may not be a hunter (personally I think it’s f*cking slaughter) but I am one hell of a beefy, beer-drinking white dude, a military veteran and have 11 tattoos as well if that is any sort of an added qualification to the sh*thack D.C. conventional wisdom. Despite that I am smart enough to not be hoodwinked by a bunch of pampered, elitist, chickenhawk charlatans trying to bait folks like American Me into voting against my own economic self interests. sh*t, my grandfather was a Romanian immigrant who joined a union to go work at a meat packing house (but only after at age 15 he filled his pockets full of ball bearings in order to qualify for the job's required weight), fought in World War II in the Pacific in some of the most vicious of cleanup operations and as an FDR democrat hated the sleazy, fascist snake oil salesmen that were Republicans. Thank God that he died before that fraudulent piece of sh*t Ronald Reagan was President but my grandmother who survived him by nearly thirty years cursed the Gipper and that punk assed borderline retard George W. Bush until her dying breath. The point is that most people from that particular era (never mind the 'greatest generation' hogwash) weren't so easily duped, and their ability to own a home, raise a family, take vacations on one income are a testament to they way that things used to be in this country before the rats and chiselers hijacked the system.
So as one of the manly men who are largely supposed to buy into the anti-elite propaganda peddled by the fifty-million dollar a year degenerate child f*cking dope addict I have always taken great offense at just how f*cking stupid that the average American beer swilling, swinging dick angry white male can be. Hell, I love drinking beer (and lots of it), shooting guns (although not at unarmed animals), watching football, driving fast, hating the insipid tyranny of political correctness and ogling nekkid women but I also don’t get suckered into that anti-intellectual horseshit that makes one of those clueless, testosterone and alcohol fueled dopes who are as mad as hell but too f*cking dumb to realize that they should be really mad at the millionaire lardasses like Limbaugh who are very well paid to dupe these knuckle-draggers into consistently voting AGAINST their own economic well being. Listen dudes, there is nothing macho in being stupid and unless y’all get a clue your sex lives will continue to be comprised of drinking a twelve pack of cheap malt liquor and whacking off over the latest issue of Penthouse or whatever other f*ckrag that you pick up at your local convenience store's jack rack. Stop fantasizing about coming on Sarah Palin’s t*ts, stop reveling in the falsehood that everyman Joe the Plumber is a working class hero and pick up a book once in awhile, the mind that you save may be your own.
And maybe, just maybe the inhabitants of this land of shame, sin and sorrow can finally shrink the legacy of Ronald Wilson Reagan to the size where it can be drowned in a bathtub. In a time when even the maestro Greenspan openly admits that he f*cked up big time then I suppose that anything is theoretically possible.
Ed Encho is a free lance writer, activist and consultant who resides in West Central Florida and author of the upcoming "A Monolithic and Ruthless Conspiracy".
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