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Monday, November 5. 2007How boomers ageFrom PJ O'Rourke in Generation Vex, Weekly Standard last year (h/t, Buddy). One quote:
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I'm going over to the other side.
The free market has been a total failure for the average citizen. A $12,000 job adjusted for inflation today would have a starting salary north of $60,000...know of any of those for a regulation BA/BS holder? At the same time executive compensation has gone to other galaxy rates, and I can guarantee you that 90% of them are frauds and don't deserve anything close to their compensation. Stan O'Neill at Merrill Lynch just tried in the dead of night to trip a clause in his contract that would have enriched him by 250 million dollars AFTER guiding ML to over 10 billion in losses.....good gig...I was lucky having worked for the CIA. I learned from my seniors how to skim tens of thousands off the system. In the 1972-73 recession when my salary was $14,000 I made $70,000. $56,000 was untaxed and unreported. Today adjusted for inflation that would be 336,623USD total compensation. But the regular Joe is getting screwed. Enron , WorldCom , Dennis Kozlowski at Tyco, and now the shoes are beginning to drop again on the likes of Merrill Lynch and Citigroup..wanna bet they can stand the light of day? And Wall Street flocks so they'll be more who are culpable. Meanwhile the FED lowers rates,and pumps 41 billion into the system to help subprime lenders weather their mistakes that any first year economics student could have told you had no validity in sound underwriting principles...it was just a fast buck now being paid for by Joe Sixpack ...everything is too big to fail so they take our money and reward the Stan O'Neills for 10 billion in losses.....hey it's all good...right. Our Congress has taken care of itself with fat retirements and health care not to mention the lobbying laws they ignore,as they do practically all other US laws...don't you know they're our rulers, not representatives. The big camapign money is all foreign money run through taxi cab drivers and Chinese fortune cookies makers. I wonder what the politicians are promising in return? I mean Clinton sold via Loral our top secret missile stuff. Aw, there's plenty left to sell. The capitalist system is junk now. FDR socialized it fully in the 30's and we liked it because it look to many,(in an entirely different USA) as a savior. Now it's a pork ranch. So I want all the things O'Rourke mentioned. Let the next generation pay, if they can. Meanwhile with our voting power and the yearly Fcuk ups by BIG BUSINESS and guvment there are enough Boomers to party till the ship goes down. And we;ve already got most of the politicians willing to party with us. Yeah , theyres that atavistic portion of the population that clings to the Constitution but how silly is that when you have the takings clause of the Fifth Amendment (that's Bill of Rights territory) being totally shredded by the Kelo decision.....done for...money, mo money. So, I'll be pulling for more big govment..I may even get into the grant writing business to "help" Indians in Montana learn to use computers or how to be a conduit for campaign contributions...Of course that's tough country so I'll need a new Hummer to get 'er done.... Naw fights over ...... Boomers rule, the old system is dead ..long live largess to the Boomers... Oh yeah and while we're at it, let the Mexicans in. They'll work for peanuts and we'll still need all the dirt jobs Americans won't do. Soveriegnty, huh...a distant dream and soon to be even less of one with the non existent North American Union and the SPP. Party time folks !! No need to think it all through like that--it'll give you a headache--nah, just vote Democrat--they'll take care of the details for us.
Well when you give it some thought it makes sense.
The famous Red/Blue state map...well 95% of the wealth in the country is in the blue states. The Dems are way, way ahead on using the Internet for propaganda, with only ,lonely, displaced Tom Delay attempting any organized a counter attack. He even admits it'll take five years plus to catch up. In the meantime I'll be headed to 70. Know when to hold 'em and know when to fold 'em ..know when to wlk away because you've been badly outflanked and are now taking withering enfilade fire. I rarely watch 60 Minutes. Maybe once in the past 10 years, seriously, but I was surfing and this caught my ears....seems like this entire time we on the right who have argues the WMD trilogy were wrong..if this is right and no one is disputing it.
George Tenet should be put in a permanent state of extreme scrotal torque and left to rot somewhere. '60 Minutes' Identifies 'Curve Ball' Source Who Led U.S. to Invade Iraq Friday , November 02, 2007 The identity of the man who claimed former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein had biological weapons, a key piece of information that helped lead the U.S. charge to invade Iraq, has been outed by CBS' "60 Minutes" news show. Rafid Ahmed Alwan, known as "Curve Ball" in intelligence circles, is not a chemical engineering expert, according to the report, which instead characterized Alwan as a liar, a thief and poor student. The CIA received hundreds of summaries of debriefings with Alwan, contributing to other intelligence reports that led the United States to bomb and invade Iraq. Former CIA Director George Tenet gave Alwan's allegations to Secretary of State Colin Powell for his report to the United Nations in the argument to take military action against Iraq, the news magazine reports. The two-year investigation undertaken found that Alwan arrived in a refugee camp in Germany in 1999 and claimed to be a chemical engineer leading a facility at Djerf al Nadaf that was making mobile biological weapons. The news magazine reports that Alwan was looking for asylum and used his claims to bolster his case. Click here to read the CBS report. Alwan did study chemical engineering but he received poor grades. The investigation also found an arrest warrant for theft for Alwan. Alwan led officials to believe Saddam possessed biological weapons, telling German intelligence officials about his insight with mostly accurate descriptions of a plant outside Baghdad. He told officials 12 workers were killed by biological agents at the plant. A letter addressed to Tenet from the head of German intelligence states that Alwan's information appeared to be believable, but there was nothing to back up his allegations. Tenet denies seeing the letter, a spokesman told "60 Minutes." But CIA weapons inspectors visited the plant at Djerf al Nadaf before the invasion, finding no evidence of biological agents, CBS states in its report, adding that Alwan is likely in Germany today, living freely under an assumed name. There's more out on the internet on the hoax we took to war. The CIA officers should be shot. No wonder Colin Powell is so hot about it all...when you read more it gets uglier and uglier....... way too pat. Seems to exist in a vacuum--except for the Colin Powell part. Tebnet should make a ststement--then we'd know what not to believe.
My conspiracy-theory nose still wrinkles over GWB keeping George Tenet on board for such a long span of time when by any measure he was not up to anything good. When he and Jamie Gorelick shook hands at the 911 Commission hearings I've never seen two people trying harder not to look at each other lest a camera catch the nuance ("nuance" meaning any visual clues to each other's familiarity with each other's radioactive rottenness). ''Tebnet should make a ststement'' is Serbo-Croatian for 'Tenet should make a statement'.
I couldn't figure out Bush keeping Tenet either..a linton man in that sensitive a position. From wha I've read and trying ti interpret the goat entrails I think Tenet had nothing but this Curve-Ball, thet the other intel Agencies were in the same boat, depending on this joker and we got hosed.
We need to waterboard Tenet and get some truth out. |
A wave of the fat capitalist cigar to Bird Dog for spotting this little piece from PJ O'Rourke, published in The Weekly Standard O rend thy garments, America! Heap ashes upon thy head. We, the generation of generations--triumphant in our...
Tracked: Nov 06, 03:44