Words of Wisdom from....Larry Flynt!?!

I think most people would agree thatHustler Magazine Publisher Larry Flynt is one of the greatest slimeballs of all time. Having said that, even slimeballs can have a flash of insight now and again. The following Flynt OpEd from the Huffington Post is really pretty stunning in its clarity. Take a few minutes out of your busy schedules and give his comments an eyeballing:

Common Sense 2009

" The American government -- which we once called our government -- has been taken over by Wall Street, the mega-corporations and the super-rich. They are the ones who decide our fate. It is this group of powerful elites, the people President Franklin D. Roosevelt called "economic royalists," who choose our elected officials -- indeed, our very form of government. Both Democrats and Republicans dance to the tune of their corporate masters. In America, corporations do not control the government. In America, corporations are the government.

This was never more obvious than with the Wall Street bailout, whereby the very corporations that caused the collapse of our economy were rewarded with taxpayer dollars. So arrogant, so smug were they that, without a moment's hesitation, they took our money -- yours and mine -- to pay their executives multimillion-dollar bonuses, something they continue doing to this very day. They have no shame. They don't care what you and I think about them. Henry Kissinger refers to us as "useless eaters."

But, you say, we have elected a candidate of change. To which I respond: Do these words of President Obama sound like change?

"A culture of irresponsibility took root, from Wall Street to Washington to Main Street." There it is. Right there. We are Main Street. We must, according to our president, share the blame. He went on to say: "And a regulatory regime basically crafted in the wake of a 20th-century economic crisis -- the Great Depression -- was overwhelmed by the speed, scope and sophistication of a 21st-century global economy."

This is nonsense.

The reason Wall Street was able to game the system the way it did -- knowing that they would become rich at the expense of the American people (oh, yes, they most certainly knew that) -- was because the financial elite had bribed our legislators to roll back the protections enacted after the Stock Market Crash of 1929.

Congress gutted the Glass-Steagall Act, which separated commercial lending banks from investment banks, and passed the Commodity Futures Modernization Act, which allowed for self-regulation with no oversight. The Securities and Exchange Commission subsequently revised its rules to allow for even less oversight -- and we've all seen how well that worked out. To date, no serious legislation has been offered by the Obama administration to correct these problems.

Instead, Obama wants to increase the oversight power of the Federal Reserve. Never mind that it already had significant oversight power before our most recent economic meltdown, yet failed to take action. Never mind that the Fed is not a government agency but a cartel of private bankers that cannot be held accountable by Washington. Whatever the Fed does with these supposed new oversight powers will be behind closed doors.

Obama's failure to act sends one message loud and clear: He cannot stand up to the powerful Wall Street interests that supplied the bulk of his campaign money for the 2008 election. Nor, for that matter, can Congress, for much the same reason.

Consider what multibillionaire banker David Rockefeller wrote in his 2002 memoirs:
"Some even believe we are part of a secret cabal working against the best interests of the United States, characterizing my family and me as 'internationalists' and of conspiring with others around the world to build a more integrated global political and economic structure -- one world, if you will. If that's the charge, I stand guilty, and I am proud of it."

Read Rockefeller's words again. He actually admits to working against the "best interests of the United States."

Need more? Here's what Rockefeller said in 1994 at a U.N. dinner: "We are on the verge of a global transformation. All we need is the right major crisis, and the nations will accept the New World Order." They're gaming us. Our country has been stolen from us.

Journalist Matt Taibbi, writing in Rolling Stone, notes that esteemed economist John Kenneth Galbraith laid the 1929 crash at the feet of banking giant Goldman Sachs. Taibbi goes on to say that Goldman Sachs has been behind every other economic downturn as well, including the most recent one. As if that wasn't enough, Goldman Sachs even had a hand in pushing gas prices up to $4 a gallon.

The problem with bankers is longstanding. Here's what one of our Founding Fathers, Thomas Jefferson, had to say about them:

"If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issuance of their currency, first by inflation, and then by deflation, the banks and the corporations that will grow up around them will deprive the people of all property until their children wake up homeless on the continent their father's conquered."

We all know that the first American Revolution officially began in 1776, with the Declaration of Independence. Less well known is that the single strongest motivating factor for revolution was the colonists' attempt to free themselves from the Bank of England. But how many of you know about the second revolution, referred to by historians as Shays' Rebellion? It took place in 1786-87, and once again the banks were the cause. This time they were putting the screws to America's farmers.

Daniel Shays was a farmer in western Massachusetts. Like many other farmers of the day, he was being driven into bankruptcy by the banks' predatory lending practices. (Sound familiar?) Rallying other farmers to his side, Shays led his rebels in an attack on the courts and the local armory. The rebellion itself failed, but a message had been sent: The bankers (and the politicians who supported them) ultimately backed off. As Thomas Jefferson famously quipped in regard to the insurrection: "A little rebellion now and then is a good thing. The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants."

Perhaps it's time to consider that option once again.

I'm calling for a national strike, one designed to close the country down for a day. The intent? Real campaign-finance reform and strong restrictions on lobbying. Because nothing will change until we take corporate money out of politics. Nothing will improve until our politicians are once again answerable to their constituents, not the rich and powerful.

Let's set a date. No one goes to work. No one buys anything. And if that isn't effective -- if the politicians ignore us -- we do it again. And again. And again.

The real war is not between the left and the right. It is between the average American and the ruling class. If we come together on this single issue, everything else will resolve itself. It's time we took back our government from those who would make us their slaves.
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Pretty surprising...no? On this one Larry you get a thumbs up.

Big Brother is Here: DHS Secure Flight Final Rule

In a post a while back I mentioned that although the United States has its share of problems, at least we do not have to show an internal passport to travel between the contiguous states.

Well, we still do not have to do that, but as of August 15, 2009 you now need the government's permission to travel by air.

From the Homeland Security website:

Release Date: October 22, 2008

For Immediate ReleaseOffice of the Press SecretaryContact: 202-282-8010

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) today announced the issuance of the Secure Flight Final Rule, which shifts pre-departure watch list matching responsibilities from individual aircraft operators to the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) and carries out a key recommendation of the 9/11 Commission. By bringing watch list matching responsibilities in-house, TSA can better remedy possible misidentifications when a traveler's name is similar to one found on a watch list.

"Secure Flight is a critical tool that will further improve aviation security and fix the major customer service issue of watch list misidentifications, a frustratingly common occurrence for travelers under the existing airline-based system," said Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff. "We know that threats to our aviation system persist, and Secure Flight will help us better protect the traveling public while creating a more consistent passenger prescreening process, ultimately reducing the number of misidentification issues."

Airlines will be required under Secure Flight to collect a passenger's full name, date of birth, and gender when making an airline reservation. This additional information is expected to prevent most inconveniences at the airport, and will be particularly important for those individuals with names similar to those on the watch list.

"Secure Flight will improve security by maintaining the confidentiality of the government's watch list information while fully protecting passengers' privacy and civil liberties," said TSA Administrator Kip Hawley. "Ensuring privacy has been a cornerstone of this program and TSA has developed a comprehensive privacy plan to incorporate privacy laws and practices into all areas of Secure Flight."

TSA will receive limited information for each passenger, as well as for certain non-traveling individuals, such as those escorting a minor or disabled passenger to the gate. TSA will determine if their information matches the No Fly or Selectee lists and will transmit results back to airlines. Data retention for the vast majority of individuals will be no more than seven days.
Secure Flight will be implemented in two phases. The program will initially assume the watch list matching responsibility for passengers on domestic flights from aircraft operators beginning early 2009. In a second stage of implementation, which is targeted to begin in late 2009, the Secure Flight program would assume, from U.S. Customs and Border Protection and the international air carriers, the watch list matching function for passengers on international flights.

While TSA expects Secure Flight to dramatically reduce the number of passengers misidentified as a match to the watch list, TSA will continue to provide a robust redress process through the Department of Homeland Security's Traveler Redress Inquiry Program (DHS TRIP) (www.dhs.gov/trip), a single portal for travelers to seek redress for adverse screening experiences and resolve possible watch list misidentification issues. Secure Flight will integrate DHS TRIP, preventing future delays for passengers who have successfully completed the redress process.

The 9/11 Commission Report to Congress recommends that the watch list matching function "should be performed by TSA and it should utilize the larger set of watch lists maintained by the Federal Government."

The Secure Flight Final Rule follows a Notice of Proposed Rule Making (NPRM) published in the Federal Register in August 2007. The NPRM initiated a public comment period that ran through Nov. 21, 2007. The Secure Flight Final Rule is currently available at www.dhs.gov and will soon be published in the Federal Register.

Here is the address for the full PDF: http://www.tsa.dhs.gov/assets/pdf/secureflight_final_rule.pdf

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Although dating from October 2008 (Must have gotten in under the radar), The two phase implementation started in May of 2009, with part two starting 5 days ago.

What does this mean? The feds maintain a "watch list" which currently has over 700,000 names on it. Now every time you book a flight, the government takes your personal information and compares it to the information on the "watch List." If you are on the list, then you do not fly.

The highly disturbing part of all this is that the gubmint gets to eyeball your personal information and track every comair flight you make. If you think this system cannot be open for serious abuse think again. For example, it was reported that many Chrysler dealers who were big contributors to the Republican party had their dealerships revoked while big Dem contributors kept their dealerships. You can now have the same abuse with air travel. Want to take the family on a trip to Hawaii? Contribute to the wrong political party and TSA can flag your flight, causing you and your family endless delay.

If you do not understand all of the potential ills the Secure Flight Rule now brings, then you cannot be helped.

Those my not be goose steps in the background, but someone is reading their playbook.

Never Surrender

For the United States, WWII ended on August 14, 1945 when the Japanese announced their surrender. For Japanese Imperial Army Captain Fumio Nakahira, WWII ended when he was discovered in April, 1980 on Mount Halcon, which is on Mindoro Island in the Philippines.

I think it is a good time to reflect on this man's accomplishment. While many may deride the good Captain Nakahira as just being a dumbass soldier who refused to surrender, I have a different take on it. I consider this man a military hero of the first order. He took an oath to defend his homeland to the death and he did his best to carry out his mission.

Captain Nakahira is a man of incredible determination and fortitude, living off the land for thirty five years. Uh, how many public school educated, lazy assed Americans could match this feat? How many Americans today have any national pride or love of country?

While I'm not upset to see the Democrats imploding, their complete lack of guts on the public option of health care reform is downright sickening. The fact that so few Republicans support that option is utterly disgusting. The health care debate has shown all of us that America's days ARE numbered.

What happened to an educated electorate? Americans who have some sense of national pride and accomplishment? Public officials who do not needlessly send our soldiers to die in some third world sh*thole?----oops, that one hit a bit close to home. Where have all the American Captain Nakahiras gone? They've gone down the crapper, that's where.

We might as well rename the country the United States of morons, lazy asses and gutless wonders. A few of us (on both sides of the aisle) realize what is at stake, but it will take more than a few to solve the problem...........if it can even be solved.

So, do we at least try to support common sense legislation or do we just roll over and take it? I think the Dems have given us the answer (Republican support would be nice, but you Dems have the votes, just twist the arms), but I suppose it is not too late for one last push.

Obama caves on "Public Option", Dems toast!!

Both Bloomberg and AP are reporting that Obama is ready to drop the public option. From AP: "Bowing to Republican pressure, President Barack Obama's administration signaled on Sunday it is ready to abandon the idea of giving Americans the option of government-run insurance as part of a new health care system."

I am probably one of the few hard righters to be unhappy about this as I would have liked to see a public option passed in some form.

It was not that long ago that the left was crowing about the end of the Republican party, how we were finished, blah, blah blah. That assessment may not have been too far off the mark...........until today.

We have a lefty Dem in the White House and veto proof Democratic majorities in the House and Senate and the Dems then go and bitch themselves out to the Republicans. The 'pubs are laughing their asses off at this very moment, and they should.

My question is, what carrot was used to get the public option dropped? Was it solely Republican pressure and armtwisting and threats or did some group offer the Dems a huge wad of cash to just forget about the public option, or, was it some combination of both?

For the Democratic party, the larger issue is what is a party's future that cannot even get pet legislation passed when they control the White House and Congress? The answer, of course, is the the Democrats now have no future. The Republicans will continue on, though a bit leaner than before, but for the Democrats, caving on the public option is the death knell of the party.

Though I won't be losing any sleep over the breakup of the Dems, I am saddened that they were not able to do something really necessary and constructive for the nation. I am also a bit disappointed at the stupidity of much of the American public. Does the average idiot who still has company provided health insurance think that the outfit they work for would not jump at the chance to save a grand a month plus per employee by not providing family health insurance? More and more folks will continue to lose their coverage.

No guts, no glory Dems. Rest in Peace.