Twelfth Bough

Military flags have gold fringe. More information here. I'm just saying.

In the long run, truth is aided by nothing so much as by opposition, and by the opposition of those who can give the full strength of the argument on the side of error. In an age of authority and spiritual bondage, the opinions of an individual are often important, -- sometimes decisive. One voice may determine the judgment of a country. But in an age of free discussion, little is to be feared from great names, on whatever side arrayed. When I hear a man complaining that some cause which he has at heart will be put back for years by a speech of a book, I suspect that his attachment to it is prejudice, that he has no consciousness of standing on a rock. The more discussion the better, if passion and personality be eschewed; and discussion, even if stormy, often winnows truth from error, a good never to be expected in an uninquiring age. -- William Ellery Channing, American preacher and religious reformer, 1780-1842, on the slavery question The proposed bailout will not work because it d...

These assholes have supposedly worked it all out. So they say. ( Does Henry Paulson look like a bloodsucking ghoul all the time?) Behold the cornucopia of hedging language to describe this deal. The plan calls for the Treasury Department to buy deeply distressed mortgage-backed securities and other bad debts held by banks and other investors. The money should help [or not help] troubled lenders make new loans and keep credit lines open. The government would later try [they will try, but they will fail] to sell the discounted loan packages at the best possible price. At the insistence of House Republicans, some [unspecified amount] of the program's $700 billion would be devoted to a program that would encourage [as opposed to require] holders of distressed mortgage-backed securities to keep them and buy government insurance to cover defaults. The legislation would place "reasonable" limits [as determined by the ultra-rich] on severance packages for executives ...

Tbogg wins the coveted Moniker Lewinsky Award for: Bible Spice. Responsibly, we have turned the prize monies over to Hank Paulson for safekeeping in his lizard cave (DON'T LOOK AT HIS RIGHT EYE!!!!).

Go here to see some wonderful righteous indignation and SOLUTIONS, and videos, and letters from outraged Americans, and every manner of truth about the financial crisis and proposed abhorrent bailout. If you have not made any phone calls yet, what the sam-hell are you waiting for? The phone calls are working. At long last, Americans have been aroused from their stupor, praise God. Let us break their bonds asunder, and cast away their yoke from us! Psalm 2:3 UPDATE: Read Joan Veon.

All the war dead couldn't do what the economy seems to be doing: waking people up. It shows us the power of money, does it not? Sad, but we'll take the wake up call any way we can get it. The division between left and right is easily manipulated for the ruling class. The division between ultra-rich and everybody else...not so much. The ruling class may have touched the third rail this time, as they have purposely set themselves apart from everyone else. So. Now they are apart from everyone else, as in pretty much every single person you know, whether democrat or republican, left or right, does not belong to the ruling class. The people who want to be bailed out travel in their own circles. That's the way they like it. They do not want to mingle with the hoi polloi, like you bubba, even though you might think you shit chocolate bars because you have a nice house and a nice car. Whatever. What I'm trying to say is when you get into us v them games, and you are so very ser...

Original here. I thank God for Americans like this man. Please, if you haven't started making phone calls and applying pressure to our elected representatives, now is the time. It is working. Stand up for yourself and be counted. - A. Peasant The headline's oscillate between proclamations of bailout success and dark forebodings--the visual representation of this is conveniently graphed for us on the stock indexes for the day. "See?" they taunt. "See how the market gets better when we say the bailout is at hand? See how it gets worse when word of your stonewalling gets out? "We cannot let up on the Congress, and, frankly, at this point we should be calling our state representatives as well. We must accept the reality of this situation: This bailout has minimal impact on the American people; it is primarily about paying off foreign interests before the collapse, even if that process is to be heavily veiled and masked by transactions. The $700 billion dollars ...

If you can stand it, watch the video of Bush delivering his little pep talk to the nation last night. When he delivers his vicious lies, cleverly honed though they may be by his writers, the truth flickers across his face. You can see it in his eye area and around his mouth, the ripples of astonishment, the fleeting smirks, the lips pursed in disgust, the arched brow as he delivers what he absolutely, positively knows are LIES to the American people. The expressions go by very quickly, in fractions of seconds, but they are there. I'm sure somewhere our government has this super technology that they use in airports to analyze our faces for terrorist intent, and if they have that trained on GWB they must be laughing their asses off right now, as he leads the charge to rape our country one more time for the road. It's as if he almost can't believe we're going to fall for it again, but he'll give it the old college try. Rah rah. This bailout plan is a trap, of that I am...

OK, look. I'm no economist. This is the situation as best I can tell. We can pick Door #1: No bailout, severe recession; or Door #2: Bailout, greedy bankers happy, hyperinflationary depression follows, martial law, new currency (Amero) forced on Americans, NWO victory. If you are not outraged yet, you need to pay closer attention. These Wall Street people have been screwing us every way to Sunday. These high rollers, these are the people ordering the 100 foot yachts and having to get on a waiting list because the demand is so high and there aren't enough crewmen! to service their amazing lifestyles, these are the people you are being asked -- nay THREATENED by Hank Paulson and other White House goons -- to bail out. Or else our economy will go in to a severe recession and credit will be tightened. Is that right? A severe recession? In the unforgettable words of GWB, bring it on. We can survive a severe recession people. It's the 'Rescue Plan' we need to avoid. WAK...

First off, let us consider the hinterlands, the great unwashed, the American people who have been forced to pay for the Iraq War and its consequences with their ever-stagnant salaries. What do they think about all this brouhaha? The American people blame the GOP 2:1 for the unfolding economic disaster. WASHINGTON (AFP) - The financial turmoil that has rocked global markets appears to be benefiting US presidential hopeful Barack Obama, according to a new poll released Monday that finds the Democratic candidate pulling ahead of his Republican opponent John McCain with a 51 percent to 46 percent lead. The CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll also finds that by a two-to-one margin Americans blame Republicans for the current financial crisis. Forty-seven percent of registered voters say Republicans are more responsible for the state of the economy, compared to 24 percent of registered voters who say Democrats are more responsible. Yes. Of course we do. We may be flouridated and gamma-rayed...

I tried to call the senators and reps this weekend, just for shits and giggles. The following mailboxes were full: Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi, John Kerry. I was able to leave a couple of messages for other people. What currently transpires is not wealth destruction, but a massive transfer . Some few people, somewhere, sit atop mountains of money. Furthermore, as of this point, we have been left to the mercy and judgment of this man . I warn you, you will see a high definition close up picture of his face. Please note the eyes (as if you couldn't). WTF?

Regarding Sarah Palin, we have all seen and read much. Yes she has become an enormous distraction, but this is a teaching moment for the American people. We have been here before, eight years ago, and this time one can only hope (please, please God have mercy on your people) that we have learned something in the intervening period of pure misery. Why do we still find this all so shocking?!? Someone at DKos parses the curious tale of how Sarah Palin reacted when John McCain asked her to be his VP. This is something I can't let pass--not without taking notice. Sarah Palin has just made her most blatant lie yet. It's one that the average television viewer can catch. And most tellingly, it's a lie that exposes not just mendacity, but a compulsion to lie. In a transparent attempt to shore up her feminist appeal, she's changed her story on how she accepted the offer to run for vice-president. Which one is it, Sarah? The problem with lying isn't so much putting the l...

These people who have of late destroyed the world? What menace courses through their bodies where a soul belongs? Who are these people? What are these people? I believe in aristocracy though, if that is the right word and if a democrat may use it. Not an aristocracy of power based upon rank and influence, but an aristocracy of the sensitive, the considerate and the plucky. Its members are to be found in all nations and classes and all through the ages and there is a secret understanding between them when they meet. They represent the true human tradition, the one permanent victory of our queer race over cruelty and chaos. - From a 1941 essay by EM Forster Some people will screw you at the slightest provocation. Some people go way out of their way to screw you. But others just won't do it, even if you earned it. They are the true aristocracy. Why? Because they are better, bigger, deeper, made of a finer substance. More human. More humane. Generous. Compassionate. Plucky. Brave. If y...

At the risk of sounding really crazy, I do think now is as good a time as any to think through the worst case scenarios which may lie directly ahead. Obviously, the economy is collapsing; though so far the major tremors shake the shadow economy of big Wall Street firms. While scary to watch on the news, you may wonder how this will affect you. Aside from the fact that you, dear US taxpayer, your children, your grandchildren and your great great grandchildren have been made wage slaves -- well aside from that -- it probably doesn't affect you at all, as long as you can keep your job. But it may affect your employer, like say if you work in the financial industry or the insurance industry, or if your employer relies on the financial industry or the insurance industry as a customer base, or any infinite number of scenarios by which we have all become trapped in a sticky spiderweb of financial interconnectedness. However, and this is important, this disaster may possibly help avert an...

Following the news can easily become a full-time job, and interpreting the news takes the wisdom of Solomon. Since I am unqualified for that task, let me just wish all of you the best of luck and I'll do what I can with the cards we've been dealt. As for the financial meltdown currently taking place, I see it but I'm not sure what it really means yet. It appears to be planned event, but the timing seems off. Perhaps "they" hoped to forestall it until after the elections to insure that McCain could get in first. In addition, it does not seem that everyone expected to have both feet on the reservation about McCain got the memo. Perhaps Palin is a bridge too far. The overall problem appears to be that events are happening so quickly that they defy coordination and control. Considering how orchestrated our lives have become, the advantage accrues to those paying attention -- as long as you can keep up. Good luck. Meanwhile, the revelations about the DOJ and Cheney...

I went to a yard sale today and bought a little antique book with gilded pages from 1929. I paid ten cents. It is full of beautiful things like this: 41. The Sparrow, by Ivan Sergiewich Turgenev, Russian novelist, 1818-1883 I was returning from hunting and walking along an avenue of the garden, my dog running in front of me. Suddenly he took shorter steps, and began to steal along as though tracking game. I looked along the avenue and saw a young sparrow, with yellow about its beak and down on its head. It had fallen out of the nest (the wind was violently shaking the birch trees in the avenue) and sat unable to move, helplessly flapping its half-grown wings. My dog was slowly approaching it, when, suddenly darting down from a tree close by, an old dark-throated sparrow fell like a stone right before his nose, and all ruffled up, terrified, with despairing and pitiful cheeps, it flung itself twice towards the open jaws of shining teeth. It sprang to save; it cast itself before its nest...

Army: Settlers have crossed the red line http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1221142452189&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull No no no, silly, it's not a problem that they're attacking Palestinian civilians. That kind of thing is routinely overlooked. http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1011977.html The problem is they are attacking the IDF . That, my friends, is crossing a line.

Sarah, Sarah, Sarah... I'm sure the Society of American Sociopaths will be duly impressed. You have conveyed the secret meanings to them. They know you are one of the tribe. Normal people, of course, will be horrified. But that's the fun of it, no? To horrify the normal people, those saps every one of them, who have such silly expectations, who persist in earnest effort against the pitiless tide of corruption? Aha. It must be so entertaining for you to play the role of American folk hero alongside the American war hero. Charlie Gibson asks Sarah if she has the experience to be Vice President, and perhaps, heaven forfend, President of the United States. Palin says she immediately accepted the VP offer from Sen. McCain, despite misgivings Gibson suggested she might have. "I didn't hesitate," she said. "I answered him yes because I have the confidence in that readiness and knowing that you can't blink, you have to be wired in a way of being so committed to ...

Well here we are again. The seventh anniversary of the day of infamy. What can one say about today? Well, that really depends on where your mind has gone over the past seven years. I am going to keep this personal, and tell you how 9/11 has changed my life. I used to be a happy person. When George Bush stole the 2000 election, I knew he was stealing and I knew things were bad. What the hell was the matter with people? How come they could not see through this man? Real men did not need to strut around like roosters and talk with an affected phony accent, but millions found this act charming. The destruction of the American mind, the withering away of our ability to discern reality, had already been sufficiently advanced to allow a complete and obvious impostor like GWB to be taken seriously. Of course, the corporate media shills moved mountains to make this happen. None of this could have happened without their constant facilitation, an unforgivable betrayal that will land many of them...

I think I'm kidding. But seriously, will you look at the location of this earthquake? Right on the Strait of Hormuz. Hmm. What a remarkable coincidence. Go ahead. Type it into Google maps.

Remember when Benazir Bhutto was killed? I wrote a little theory about that assassination , and at the time it made me very nervous because I got some...shall we say...powerful visitors to my blog. The government does not like people poking around their black ops weapons technology. But they want to use the weapons, see, because they are just so sick! , so it's such a damned if you do/damned if you don't kind of problem for them. They have to be totally on their toes to provide alternative explanations and plenty of spin if anyone notices anything amiss. These weapons have been in use, but they've been used on poor people far away for years. Few reporters have written about these dark things, and surely those that could expose them wouldn't for fear of losing their jobs (or worse). Now we have the 'intrepid' Bob Woodward 'breaking the story' in truly titillating fashion through CNN and Larry King. ( link via s o s ) Bob says: “The top secret operations ...

They're everywhere. These shallow people, full of hubris, lacking in all humility and busting at the seams with smug self-righteousness. The people of the lie. Let's begin with Dick Cheney. We don't usually hear too much about him, but lately he's been quite visible. These must be his plans that are falling apart, and therefore he himself has been forced to come out of his lair and straighten it out. We all know that sense of utter frustration when you shove everyone out of the way to fix something yourself? I think that is what we are witnessing now. But it's not working. Which countries have decided to oppose Russia in anything more than words? (crickets) The more Bush, Cheney and Rice open their mouths, the more foolish they look. The more they display their impotence. But do they shut up? Oh no. They are too proud for that. They keep pushing that rock uphill. Then we have Israel and the Zionists. The myth currently known as Jewish history has been debunked by Je...