Monday, December 31, 2007

Israeli Government Stiffs Holocaust Survivors

In his book The Holocaust Industry, Norman Finkelstein documents the disgraceful shakedown of Swiss banks in the guise of helping holocaust survivors. The Swiss ultimately forked over more than $1 billion when they may have owed something like $60 million. Math was never my strong point, but even I can say that 1 billion is a heck of a lot more than 60 million.

Now some Israeli holocaust survivors have actually moved to European countries, including Germany, where they are guaranteed generous social service benefits. The government had the gall to increase payments to elderly survivors by a mere $20 per month.

In 2007, survivors were promised $7.7 million would be deposited in a government welfare fund for their benefit. Only half that amount ever reached its destination.

By the way, "pro bono" lawyer Burt Neuborne walked away with $3 million for representing the claims of holocaust survivors. I thought pro bono meant free.

Sunday, December 30, 2007

Bill Kristol and the New York Times

The New York Times confirmed that Bill Kristol will now join their stable of op-ed columnists. Here is my letter to publisher Bill Keller.

"I think it is an open question whether the Times itself should be prosecuted for this totally gratuitous revealing of an ongoing secret classified program that is part of the war on terror.”
Bill Kristol

Who is the biggest hypocrite here, you or Kristol? He either knew he was full of it when he made that statement or he decided to forget about it so he could make more money and have a platform for his pro-empire, pro-war propaganda. You and your colleagues have decided to forget that you were slandered so that you could suck up to the right wing in a first class way.

When I first read that the Times was hiring Kristol I decided that I would never read his column. I thought about it for a while and realized that response was inadequate. Instead I have decided not to pay to read your paper as long as Kristol is a columnist. Today I can save $4.00 and tip the waiter who serves my brunch. Whoever that person is deserves my cash far more than you or this blood thirsty, hateful man.

Margaret Kimberley
New York, NY

Monday, December 17, 2007

Wal-Mart Seizes Employee's Lawsuit Settlement

Just when you think that Wal-Mart, and the rest of corporate America, can't sink any lower they do just that. Deborah Shank can tell you all about it, or she could if she weren't brain damaged. Shank won a settlement after a car accident and her employer, Wal-Mart, went to court and took the cash to compensate themselves for her health care costs.

I like to think of myself as being inured to shock, but then along comes Wal-Mart to disabuse me of my arrogance. As Glen Ford said in Black Agenda Report, "Wal-Mart resists modest wage increases and decent health care for workers because it does not want its employees to think of their jobs as careers."

It is all very simple. The shanking of Shank teaches Wal-Mart employees a powerful lesson. Don't stick around Wal-Mart. Keep the turnover at fast food restaurant rates. Don't even think about working here.

Saturday, December 15, 2007

Dear Andrew Young, Don't Let the Door Hit You

Isn't it bad enough that Andrew Young supports the disenfranchisement of black voters, or that he is now "a prostitute for the most rapacious corporations in the world?"

Apparently he doesn't see how low he has sunk, because he keeps sinking further. In the You Tube video posted below you can see him making an absolute ass out of himself in order to suck up to Bill and Hill.

I'm no fan of Clinton or Obama, but for Christ's sake, couldn't Young come up with a substantive reason to support Hillary Clinton? His greed and lack of principle have finally caught up with him. He doesn't even know how to pretend anymore. If Hillary should become president she ought to make Young persona non grata for insulting her and her husband so publicly. What happens to Clinton supporters when they get near a microphone? It seems they automatically say something stupid about Obama.

Bill Shaheen had to resign as co-Chair of Clinton's New Hampshire campaign after he criticized Obama's admission of youthful drug use. Not only did Shaheen have to step down, but Clinton had to personally apologize to Obama.

But I digress, back to the pathetic Andew Young. Not only was he dumb enough to remind the public about Bill Clinton's romantic past, but to raise memories of the sad history of black women's sexual exploitation. But there's more! He clearly made up a story about Bill and Hillary dancing at a party for Nelson Mandela's inauguration. Words like idiot don't begin to describe him.

What the F_ _k?

"Bill is every bit as black as Barack. He's probably gone with more black women than Barack. Ah, I'm just clowning." I'll say.

Wish I'd Said That

"The US media has no investigative capability and serves up the lies that serve short-term corporate and political interests. If it were not for the Internet that provides Americans with access to foreign news sources, Americans would live in a world of perfect disinformation."

Paul Craig Roberts

Rep. Wexler Wants Cheney Impeachment Hearings

Thank God someone does. Committee chairman John Conyers is too busy hiding behind Nancy Pelosi's skirts.

Wednesday, December 05, 2007

WTF?

God bless Whoopi, trying desperately to keep her colleague from looking stupid.

Actually they all looked stupid. Did the Greeks come first or the Romans? I think the Egyptians, and Chinese came before all of them.

As for nothing predating Jesus, if Shepherd wasn't speaking metaphorically, she is in fact dumb as a post.

WTF?

God bless Whoopi, trying desperately to keep her colleague from looking stupid.

Actually they all looked stupid. Did the Greeks come first or the Romans? I think the Egyptians, and Chinese came before all of them.

As for nothing predating Jesus, if Shepherd wasn't speaking metaphorically, she is in fact dumb as a post.

Tuesday, December 04, 2007

Lies About Iran

"So I've told people that if you're interested in avoiding World War III, it seems like you ought to be interested in preventing them from have the knowledge necessary to make a nuclear weapon. " George W. Bush on October 17, 2007

It seems the Onion was right. Iran is full of atoms, and must be stopped. Oh to have been a fly on the wall when the administration realized the National Intelligence Estimate could no longer be kept hidden. Bush knew it would all come out, namely that the CIA would not be bullied into saying that Iran was making nukes. That is why he backtracked and said that knowledge alone was reason enough for Americans to kill thousands of Iranians. Proof of nuclear capability would no longer be sufficient. The very existence of atoms was a cause for war.

Of course there is still no reason to celebrate. They fall back on claiming that Iran once had designs on nukes. Maybe they did, but I won't believe it because the CIA says so.

It is also important to say that there is nothing wrong with Iran having the bomb. It is no worse than Israel having it. Actually it would be better if Israel were not the only nuclear kid on the Middle East block. If the concept of mutually assured destruction worked for the U.S. and U.S.S.R., why can't it work for Iran and Israel?

At any rate, it is good news that the Bushies have to stop telling the worst lies about Iran, but there is still cause for alarm. If Bush had pushed the issue, Congress would have caved. They had already done so by passing resolutions condemning Iran, each one more slanderous than the one before. Each one would have been used by the Democrats to help make the case for war.

The Israeli lobby made sure that Democratic presidential candidates toed the line. They all stuck with their "all options on the table" stump speech rhetoric. Biden said he would favor impeachment if Bush attacked Iran without authorization from Congress. Sounds good, until you realize that waiting for war would be too late. Biden is as toothless as the rest.

So we will never know who did what to whom that caused this information to finally come out, but we have to thank whomever is responsible. They saved the American people from looking like Germans in the 1930s.

Actually, Americans are already there. One million Iraqis are dead, one million are in exile and now there is a cholera epidemic. One genocide at a time please.

Sherri Shepherd Thinks the Earth is Flat

Sherri Shepherd is the Dumbest Person on Television


Whoopi Goldberg: Is the world flat?
Sherri Shepherd: Is the world flat? I don't know.
Whoopi Goldberg: What do you think?
Sherri Shepherd: I never thought about it Whoopi.
Barbara Walters: You never thought about whether the world is flat?
Sherri Shepherd: I can tell you that I have thought about whether I was going to feed my child, how I'm going to take care of my family.
Barbara Walters: Well you can do both.
I have a day job, so I miss daytime television. Thank God for small favors.

In the now infamous flat earth discussion, Sherri Shepherd was so intent on stating that she doesn't believe in the theory of evolution, she feared acknowledging that the earth is round. I guess she was afraid that the bible made reference to a flat world. Well, she was wrong. You can be a fundie and still acknowledge that the earth is in fact round.

Not content to have gone down in history in a memorable moment of idiocy, today Shepherd claimed, "I don't think anything pre-dated Christians." Her colleagues didn't do much better, sounding like confused high school students wondering whether the Greeks came before the Romans. But none of them claimed that no other religion existed before Christianity.

How is it possible to give her the benefit of the doubt? Did she mean that Jesus was infinite? Well she should have said so. Instead she adamantly stated that no one even existed before the followers of Christ.

After the flat earth debacle, Shepherd claimed to have misheard Whoopi's question. I wonder what she will say tomorrow.

Saturday, December 01, 2007

Nooses Out of the Closet

Robert Minten napped on the job and woke up to find a noose around his neck. When he reported what can only be described as a murder attempt he was fired. His tormentors were fired too, but they should have been.

The incident took place four years ago, but Minten's law suit against the Noble Drilling company is just now making its way through the court system. Hopefully he will have some measure of justice.