The Hilton County Jail

"Sorry dude, I'm broke."

In another example of budget belt-tightening, a Southern California county will soon be charging room and board to incarcerated prisoners. The Riverside board of supervisors approved a measure that allows the county to charge prisoners $142.42 per day in the county lock-up.

In an effort to save approx.$3-$5 million annually, the county plans to start charging some of the 60,000 prisoner's that pass through Riverside's jail every year. Since most criminals by nature are broke, the county figures they can at least snag a few here and there who might happen to have a job, they figure roughly 25% of all those incarcerated can be forced to pay, which could at least off-set some of the cost.

The board of supervisors made the decision after the county's lawyer determined that this type of reimbursement is legal under state law. But this is not a blanket decision. The county will review the reimbursement requirements of prisoners on a case-by-case basis, and make determinations based on their ability, or inability, to pay.

Other states are trying to cope with budget cuts and prison systems as well;

Washington state corrections officials are considering leaving unsupervised thousands of former prisoners currently on parole in an attempt to cut costs, according to the Seattle Times.

Thousands of prisoners in Texas have been eating two meals a day on weekends since April in a bid to save the prison system money.

In Camden County, Georgia, officials mulled the idea of sending prisoners to work as firefighters to cope with budget woes.

Criminal defendants already carry a huge financial burden as a result of their arrests and convictions. Requiring them to pay for their incarceration will further impede their ability to return to their community successfully. Has the Board considered the cost of collection vs. the actual amount that will be collected?

And you know collection agencies will be all over these folks, which means their credit will be ruined, and in some states people are now being jailed for not paying a debt. This sounds like an endless loop system, where some dumb chump enters, getting a weekend in jail for a petty crime, and comes out the other end being thrown back into the system for inability to pay.

Meanwhile, not one rich bankster has spent a single day in jail for helping facilitate the economic crisis.

And what's the penalty for not paying, more jail time? Additionally, some inmates are incarcerated through no fault of their own, these are the accused who are never brought to court or who are actually innocent of the charges. Are you going to expect them to pay as well?

Justice has been thrown a curve ball by the 1% who have knocked her on her ass.

For the rest of the 99% of America, Justice means...


just-is, as in take it or leave it. 

ickenittle

WalMart Caught Cheating Customers

Be careful about returning gift items from Walmart. The biggest retailer in America has been caught on numerous occasions refunding customers the sale price on gift items that were purchased at full price. In an underhanded, " if they don't notice, don't tell them" kind of way, Walmart is becoming more and more like the big banks-- mining for profits.

 Whether cashiers have been instructed by management to look the other way, or it's simply a glitch in the system, shorting customers just doesn't bode well for this already unpopular giant.

In most people's minds this would be described as a dishonest business practice. Not alerting the customer (especially kids and the elderly) that they have more credit due them, is akin to not reporting a crime if it benefits you. To some of our current crop of profit worshipping "job creators" keeping the customer unaware of the "error" is good for the bottom line.

When confronted by reporters for CBS 13, Walmart said in a statement, " It is our practice to refund the original price paid to the customer when returning an item with a gift receipt. We will be communicating with our store associates to reinforce this practice."

As in practice makes perfect?

Sure you will-- 6 months later Walmart is still under refunding customers.

In spite of being caught red handed shorting customers on gift purchase refunds, and getting caught by the media, Walmart is still screwing over customers when they try to return a gift. This time it's the cash registers' fault.

A reporter for KATU in Portland recently did some gift shopping at Walmart, Target, and Fred Meyer stores to find out if Walmart is a bald faced liar.
When she went to return the items using gift receipts, the reporter had no problem getting the full amount back from everyone but Walmart. According to the reporter the cashier at the returns counter tried repeatedly to scan 10 gift receipts, and told the reporter that the gift receipts, "never work" and the "system always has trouble with them." Walmart has since disputed this claim.

Still practicing correct policy, are we Walmart?

When the clerk scanned the products bar codes instead of the receipts the sale price popped up for each item rather than the full price paid, so the clerk entered the difference manually and still came up short. Though the reporter paid $92.69. Walmart refunded only $79.21 pocketing for themselves a cool $13,48 of free money.

Imagine doing this thousands-millions? of times.

This has happened all over America. Walmart has been caught red-handed cheating customers from California, to Texas, to New Jersey. And their response has always been the same.

There appeared to be a scanning issue that required our associate to process the return differently. We take these matters seriously and apologize for any inconvenience... It's our expectation to refund the original purchase price when returning an item with a gift receipt... We are reviewing that process to look for ways to make it more efficient and reliable for our customers.

It seems pretty safe to say that this isn't just a little scanning issue but more of a "scamming issue" on behalf of Walmart. Even if you give them room on employee training errors, as being behind the unfortunate mistakes it just seems fishy that these sorts of screw ups, whether they be coming from a retail giant like Walmart of an investment bank-- are always in their favor.

If it were the other way around, how long do you think it would be allowed to continue?

Oh, no worries, Walmart. Your shortchanging customers millions of dollars is not an inconvenience. No big deal. You keep the money; you deserve it. We need to support our blessed Job Creator Gods' of Profit who are keeping America exceptional.

If there are a higher percentage of too low refunds vs. higher ones, they are purposely committing fraud.
If it was a simple computer glitch, you would expect, roughly, an equal number of too high and too low refund amounts. Which do you suspect it is?

If Bank of America accidentally began depositing your checking account fees back into your account each month rather than the reverse, do you really think they wouldn't catch on and fix it?

If Visa accidentally began paying you interest to use your card, how long do you think it would continue?

"We take these matters seriously and apologize for any inconvenience..."


Translation:

"We take these matters seriously when the media asks about it and we apologize for getting caught...this time."

Walmart Casualty

Lesson of this story is, don't shop at Walmart because that cheap plastic junk you think is cheap--really isn't.


And it ends up in the guts of sea creatures.


ickenittle

Bank on the Brink



Even the Kraken wasn't too big
to fail.

Bank of America has officially been notified by U.S. regulators that the bank could face public enforcement action (take-over) if they aren't satisfied with the results from the banks' feeble attempts to put it's financial house in order.

This bank has been deemed a 'systematic risk' meaning if it goes down it takes the economy with it.

BofA has been running it's predatory gambling casino under a memorandum since 2009 where problems within the too-big-to-fail banking behemoth have been highlighted as being in it's governance, risk management, and slippery liquidity that eludes basic accounting.

Regulators have met with BofA's board in recent months warning they wanted to see more progress on compliance with the memorandum. If there is no progress and the bank has not been found to comply then regulators will take the memorandum from an informal order to formal and public action with intensified scrutiny and heavier restrictions.

The banks directors ague that BofA has met demands set out in the 2009 document. Apparently regulators aren't convinced that everything at Bank of America is rainbows and unicorns like they claim.

Bank of America has been propping itself up through credit default swaps and they were moving these radioactive assets from it's Merrill Lynch division plugging holes in it's banking arm. After getting a credit downgrade in September they have been effectively been using FDIC insured deposits as collateral to keep from appearing bankrupt. Regulators can pull the plug on any of the big zombie banks before everything blows- spreading what's called contagion from bank to bank.


Another downgrade by the ratings agencies would leave Bank of America having to come up with another 8 billion in collateral which would likely mean the end of the first too-big-to-fail banks to finally fall.

Boo-hoo.

Even CEO Brian Moynihan had to admit Bank of America's glory days are over, and blames regulations and the economy for the "new normal" of decreased profitability, which really means customer gouging just doesn't pay off like it used to.

The Occupy movement has brought awareness to the sheeple. Folks are paying attention and are catching onto the schemes and scams that have become the standard business model of the Wall Street banking Cartels.


Currently the Justice Department is reviewing claims that the banking industry officials colluded on the debit card fee hike, which violates antitrust laws. Congressman Peter Welsh (D-Vt.) asked the Justice Dept. to investigate the banks after banking officials' public statements indicated that the banks may have coordinated the fees in order to make up for lost revenue.

We all know how well the debit card fee hike went over with the public. More than 650,000 people moved their money from the zombie banks to credit unions and community banks.

It seems back-lash is the new customer model towards corrupt and greedy business.

Serves them right.

Financiers and Politicians are masters at passing the buck. Everything good that happens is a reflection of their talent- but everything bad is blamed on someone or something else.

Especially when they get caught red-handed.

We can all thank the occupy movement for bringing this about. It just goes to show that the people united will never be defeated.

We are the genuine too-big-to-fail.

ickenittle

Crack-Down Madness

No We Won't!

In recent weeks, there seems to be a new virus infecting law enforcement agencies nationwide, concerning a kind of insanity which could be deemed- crackdownmadness.

Crack-down madness began breaking out in cities where the largest groups of Occupy Wall Street had become a political pain in the ass. Suddenly without warning the largest Occupy encampments became another example of the disappeared.

Multiple cities were under siege in a matter of days- leaving angry protesters speculating about the possibility of collusion between city mayors and some  mysterious entity with very deep pockets. On one day these same mayors were slashing public services in budget quick fixes- then on another, their coffers were suddenly flushed with fresh cash for extra cops and law enforcement candy that seemed more geared toward military operations, than local law enforcement.

Where did this money is coming from? and were Mayors simply talking amongst themselves or did they get instructions for the crack-down from the Federal Government.


Yes-- that Obama Federal Government.

Hmmmmmmm.

This idea started when Oakland's Mayor Jean Quan mentioned that she'd taken part in conference call with officials from 18 other cities to figure out what to do with the occupations, which were obviously become bothersome....and expensive.

Then there was the rumor that the Justice Dept was using the FBI and DHS to work within local police departments and offer assistance in finding cause, justifying the evictions, like safety and health violations. These manufactured reasons became the justification for breaking up the encampments. Some of these laws were literally dragged out of the legal history museum. Old worn out laws got fresh inspection from over-eager legal beavers mining laws as if looking for gold.

Where there's a will (to find illegal activity)- there's a way. (to make it stick)

Laws that dictate such rules like, 'no more than three persons can wear masks in public at any one time.' from the good ole days of the Ku Klux Klan. Other laws were reinterpreted, taken out of context, and given more power where littering could be warped into a felony offense if done on federal land. Being cited for erecting illegal structures could mean you put your picnic umbrella and folding chair in the wrong spot.

We all know that after 911 all law enforcement agencies became seriously unhinged and worked fervently to coordinate with each other under the guise of keeping us safe. These coordinated efforts were a top down deal that blurred the lines between policing and national security. Today's law enforcement has become something more akin to black ops than the beat cop.

When every American has been deemed a potential threat, then any large movement of these same Americans can be perceived as a threat against national security which requires by law-- hauling out the big guns.

They are set up to coordinate against enemies of the state. But now they are coordinating against the citizens of the state - which is a huge difference and a huge mistake.


The problem for them is the more they coordinate against the movement, the bigger the movement becomes.

Either way the timing's very interesting - and, for some people, very convenient. The nation's expecting a deficit package from the undemocratic Super Committee, anticipating another possible free trade deal, and waiting to see whether Wall Street will go unpunished for its foreclosure crime wave. All that makes this a very good time for dissident voices to suddenly disappear.

Unfortunately for them, it's not going to be that easy.

When the Super Congress cracks down on the American people with their proposed cuts to Medicare and Social Security while bailing out the super rich with a new Republican proposal to make the Bush tax cuts permanent. Things might get a little hot.

The Occupy movement has raised the hackles of the financial hyenas and political sell-outs that work hard to maintain the status quo. They seem to believe throwing money and gasoline onto a fire will put it out.

 They don't understand people are starting to pay attention and are becoming galvanized.
  

The old way isn't working, and every day more Americans know it.

That's half the battle.

The sleeping sheeple can't afford cable anymore, and the spell is wearing off. Now they look out the window for entertainment.

They don't like what they see.

They see a mirror.


The Revolution has already begun.

ickenittle

Call it What You Want-It's Still Torture.

Yesterday's version of
enhanced interrogation 

If you are a Republican authoritarian, chances are, your definition of torture depends not on the act itself but the words chosen for you to define it.

George Bush's pretzel logic defined torture as enhanced interrogation, as a way to scrub up a despicable act condemned by former American administrations and considered by the world at large as a crime against humanity. Calling torture, ( in this case water boarding ) enhanced interrogation by those in power is just re-branding the unacceptable. It's bottling rat poison and calling it Pepsi.

Beware Republican snake oil.


At the most recent Republican debate the candidates were asked if they were for or against repeating the Bush War Crimes in the future.

But of course the moderator didn't use the words war crimes because that might make everyone in favor of torture actually have to think about the reality of the heinous act they support, making some right-wingers in the audience squirm just a tad too much in their cushy seats.

To avoid offending , and implicating the blood lustians for their taste for torture, the term "enhanced interrogation" was (and is) offered as a save for squeamish, faint-of-heart conservatives, and the blood thirsty tribe of hawkish supporters who throw money at their feet.

It's a not- so- feel- bad description dished up for the masses that might other-wise frown on the notion of torture. By inserting the term enhanced as in advertising gimmick-these clever hucksters began marketing torture as easily as pancake mix, which might promise "better flavor-better texture and enhanced fluffiness!"

"No one is killed- no one is scarred-no bones were broken!"

Torture as a word was left for real villains like terrorists and serial killers not the good guys waving the American flag. The general public had to be misled when the Bush horror peddlers started marketing their soft-porn political ideas, which were coming from the Grand Inquisitor himself, Dick Cheney.

The slogan for Enhanced interrogation being sold by the GOP might as well read. "We extract information not fingernails." 

Michelle Bachmann stated, "If I were president, I would be willing to use water boarding." Unfortunately we all know these words are hollow because she wouldn't actually be doing the dirty work herself, instead she'd hand the job over to an enhanced interrogation inquisitor. Talk is cheap and whatever sounds tough will surely ring the bell for the Pavlovian droolers in the republican party.

She can talk the talk but knows she will never be the one with dirty hands, as putting her in this position would be deemed uncivilized. Leave the ugly stuff for the Department of Sick &Twisted.

Maybe a president who approves torture should be forced to witness and take part in the process-call it hands-on experience.

But these are the people who pull the strings, to ensure their own children never go to war, and will never be bound or gagged in order extract information from someone elses' idea of an "enhanced interrogation technique." Nope that job's left for the children of the 99%


Herman Cain on the other hand skirted the topic of torture by glossing over the ugly word with distancing language Ala- George Orwell, where he neither agrees or disagrees, instead he sees.

Cain said this; "I don't see it as torture, I see it as enhanced interrogation." Maybe Herman needs to actually witness water-boarding so he can make up his mind.

In Cain and Bachmann's world any reprehensible act could 'seen' as being reasonable especially if they never have to see it, feel it or smell it.

Harsh words that speak the truth have been systematically removed from our collective memory replaced with foggy double meanings, that not only neuter their power-- but confuse the meaning all together.

You can always tell when someone is dishonest when they use these rubber words.

In the apologist's lingo, a rape could be seen an "enhanced sexual technique."

 Child abuse may one day be considered as "enhanced corporal punishment?" especially if the one in power is a child abuser.

When does a can of mace become a "behavioral modification device?" When it's in the hands of an authoritarian torturer. The same can be said for the warmongering conservatives who use the words,
terror, freedom, and security in a single sentence.


Call water-boarding what it really is.."an enhanced suffocation technique."

Tell me that isn't torture.

Bachmann and her kind believe if you say something enough times people will begin to believe it.

It's called an enhanced information dispersal technique. In former times it was simply called a lie.

Fox News is a regular user of this technique.


And in the old days people like Michelle Bachmann and Herman Cain, would each be given a comfortable jacket to wear to keep us safe from them.


Now-a-days they run for president.





ickenittle.

Maybe it's Time to Replace Congress with People.

With a 9% approval rating our Congress seems to be proving the Republican talking point that 'government is the problem."

The only thing Congress seems to accomplish these days is passing bills that do absolutely nothing to improve or resolve any of America's serious problems, unless of course you were losing sleep at night worrying about our nations motto not being  In God We Trust. Even though this bumper-sticker logo wasn't being threatened with a replacement, (although America Sucks  might actually be more relevant) republicans were incensed when President Obama mentioned e pluribus unum as being the correct motto meaning: One of many.

These Republicans just had to waste more money and Congressional time to remind Obama who really runs the country.

Our clueless Congress doesn't even seem to read the new data from one of their own agencies- like the Census Bureau that finds an all time high poverty rate (since the original depression) spiking at 16%-- or 49.1 million people in America living at or below the poverty rate. This will be the good news coming 2012, as our spin masters will look back and declare--"See... things are getting better!"

Last weeks' bad news becomes today's good...even though it's a lie.

To the 1% money just becomes numbers. As these numbers rise and fall they take a laisezsez faire approach to cash. Take the emotion out of it. Once you have enough money that allows you not to worry about tomorrow you become relaxed in your own sense of entitlement. You are secure in knowing which car to drive today--which college the kids will be attending, and how many generations of your own family you will provide for in the future.


Everything is cool in your world..... just chill.

As Congress proceeds to get nothing done due to so-called bipartisan bickering remember this;

They work less. They produce less and they voted themselves a pay raise. And if those worthless slackers of the "Super Congress" don't come up with some plan for deficit reduction by November 23rd the god's of the ratings agencies will further down-grade our credit status.


And we get hammered for having a crappy credit score.

By the close of 2011 our Worthless Congress will have worked only 109 days. And they have the nerve to complain about teachers getting the summer off.

It comes as no surprise there is an Occupy movement.

How would "Doing a Congress" apply in your real life? Imagine using these tactics to solve real life problems.


Just try grid-lock with your spouse-- I dare you.


Try brinkmanship on the job-- I dare you.


Tell your eighty -year old Mother to stop expecting someone else to pay the PUD bill she can no longer afford because Ben Bernanke dropped her interest rate on her CD in order to bail out Bank of America.


Tell your wife of 30 years she's  just going to have to" suck it up" and forgo that cancer surgery because America needs to provide for Israel.


Imagine only working 105 days out of 365 and still be able to go on vacation and send the kids to college and save for your retirement.


As much as Republicans claim to hate government, they sure love working for it. Where else can you get a job that only pays roughly $175 K to start, and at the end of your term you come out a multi-millionaire complete with generous life-long retirement packages? All paid for by your sick Mother, or wife, or son.

Government must be a pretty sweet deal indeed-- no wonder they want to keep it for themselves, and control it.

Republicans are the Carp in the pond.

Big Fish--Little Pond


Both Republicans and Democrats are in the pockets of Big-Daddy Corporation and the Kings of Wall Street.
Just listen to the rhetoric, especially from the right-wing news propagandists who claim; over half of all Americans don't pay taxes. What they forget to mention is they count children, disabled, and retired people in their numbers.

How many 10 year-olds' do you know that pay taxes? And what about dead people? If you die in June-your death won't be "officially" counted until the following year. How many dead people are being counted as not paying taxes?

They forget to tell you those facts...on purpose.

They misuse the word "entitlement." In Republicrat double-speak entitlement is akin to Welfare. This word has been more maligned than the word 'freedom.' To be entitled to something means it is owed to you. Social Security is an entitlement because you paid the government an insurance premium in your working years that 'entitles' you to your payout when you retire. Medicare is the same--you paid for it, and the government used those collective monies to invest and grow those accounts to provide for future generations.

To call Social Security a "Ponzi scheme" is no different than calling your car insurance a Ponzi scheme.

But they don't tell you that either. No, they try to turn us against each other in a feeble, predictable attempt to draw awareness from the real crooks and liars, to focus on those with the least as being the real problem in America--the poor, the elderly, children, and those falling into the pit of poverty, each and every day.


It's your fault if you're not rich.

At least we can be comforted to know In God We Trust will be our national motto in hard times to come- to lift us up from our miserable lives as a kind of American cheer brought to us by our so-called leaders sponsored by the1%.

WE ARE THE  99% Expect us.

It's a kind of Plutocrat's -- Go team go!

What they don't seem to know, or want to understand just yet..is... that we are on to them.


The Sheeple have awakened.

Become a serf or fight back.

You are the 99%

Say it out loud............... say it again. 

ickenittle

To Protect and Serve the 1%

Starve the Poor but Save the War Machine

As the deadline for the "Super Congress" to agree on a deficit reduction plan draws near, wary republicans and skittish democrats are becoming gloomy at the prospect of another epic fail, and the two headed beast has begun lashing out at itself in a one head blaming the other for the punishment to come.


For Democrats that punishment is mandatory cuts to Medicare. 
For Republicans the punishment cuts come out of their beloved Pentagon.


Since the "Super Congress" was created to stop gridlock, the Obama Administration put in automatic cuts that would happen if the two sides refused to negotiate on some sort of bi-partisan plan to reduce deficits. 


The only way to get children to abide by certain rules is to threaten to take away their candy.


Democrats stepped up to the plate, and in their typical gutless fashion offered up more cuts than were necessary, like a terrified kid giving his lunch to a school yard bully before he asks for it. Some of the new cuts are against Social Security, in the form of the "Chained CPI" which in layman's terms, means future raises will be set at a rip-off rate.


Republicans on the other hand are in full panic at the possibility of having the military cut one iota, and have decided to do what they do best...change the rules retroactively by introducing new legislation, and obstruction.


War mongering Republicans are attempting an undo-redo of the automatic $500 billion in "penalty" cuts that will taken out of the pentagon. Fox News propagandists will have you believe that this is akin to staging an open house for terrorists.  In fact these cuts aren't geared towards the "real" Department of Defense but would most likely affect the Dept. of Think-Tank  that swamp of waste responsible for brewing up such money eating monstrosities that fuel the Department of Homeland Security, and all of those occupations we have going on around the globe.


Desperate to spare the Pentagon from cuts, some Republicans are willing to throw themselves onto their own swords by offering to take an across the board 10% pay-cut for all of Congress.


Now that's sacrifice.


Fear monger in chief Senator Lindsey Graham (R) has concocted a fix-it-better-bill  called sequestration which would allow "other" cuts to be exchanged for cuts to the war machine.


Efforts to undo the automatic cuts could lead to another downgrade of federal debt, since part of this deal was to appease the god's of the ratings agencies.


But that's just fine to many Republicans, who can rationalise making up the difference with a new war or three.

The special panel has been hamstrung by the same partisan divisions that have hampered negotiations on spending for the last 10 months. Democrats on the committee offered a plan to slash $2.5 trillion to $3 trillion through cuts in the growth of federal entitlement programs, including Medicare, and more than $1 trillion in new tax revenues, but it was rejected by Republicans (surprise!)


Since Republicans are so eager to protect their wealthy benefactors from tax increases they call for austerity for the 99% of America as a necessary evil. If austerity is such a great thing, and can solve our growing deficit problem, then it should be a plan for all--especially those in the fat-cat military industrial complex.


Maybe a little belt tightening would be good for those in the Pentagon as all they seem to do these days is invent new ways to spy on Americans, ( Dept. Homeland Security) create intrusive devises, (naked body scanners) and run around the world looking for new-worse terrorists that threaten our f-r-e-e-d-o-m.


If the Pentagon had to live like the rest of us, maybe just maybe they might learn to prioritize. As more people are being throw into poverty, they are forced to live within their means by making discretionary spending cuts like having to down-grade from Cup-O-Noodles to Top Ramen.


A little fat trimming from our so called Department of Defense just might return it back into something that actually defends-- rather than a way for "Think Tanks" and military contractors to sponge off a living at tax-payer expense. God forbid the military be like it was in the 1950's where the branches of the armed forces were forced to compete with each other for the same funds.


If you listen to Republicans harp about the beauty of capitalism, where competition and innovation is the engine that made America great, then why do they continue to support those in the think-tank industry who sit around dreaming up ways for more military misadventures-- all at tax-payer expense. These folks are behind the bizarro world that enabled Dick Cheney's paranoid philosophy that believes, " If something isn't there, means it is." Imaginary WMD's that weren't there. 

The Pentagon has become like a windshield repair company that goes around throwing rocks at people's cars to justify the need for it's business.


And as this fake business grows, the CEO decides to expand and crack windshields worldwide, hiring rock throwers.
 Now the company is called a "job-creator" and gets all kinds of tax-breaks. 


Next comes offering it's stock on the open market, and speculators jump on board, calculating fantasy profits made in the future. This fake stock then takes on a life of it's own and financial elites like pension fund managers invest other people's money while pocketing for themselves enormous fees. With so much at stake--the company has become too-big-to-fail, and paid off politicians enact legislation to protect it. 
Since the wealthy 1% own the media outlets, and are also heavily invested, they manipulate the public with lies and fear to convince them that all hell will break out if the company is threatened.


Sound familiar? 


It's all about the money that can be made through exploiting a money making machine.


That's what the Pentagon represents.


And don't think Republicans will go down easy, or compromise, or consider America's welfare
as a priority. 


They have some pretty serious benefactors yanking on their leashes.


As the deadline looms over the horizon you will hear the propagandist's baying at the moon.

Be Afraid.

This time it's Iran's turn to be the next imaginary threat.




Gotta keep that war machine well lubed with tax-payer money.


Just in case something really is there.




ickenittle  

Top 30 Tax-Dodging Cheap Bastard Corporations in America

Here they are-- for all to see, the top 30 Cheap Bastard Corporations batting 100 in the American Tax-Dodgers' league.

HERE


Are you still a corporate apologist? Do you still believe you aren't part of the 99%?

Denial is delusion my friend, and can become pathological.

If you still believe that you too--will become a millionaire-someday....(at 60 years old)

odds are you are in denial, or a member of the Tea Party, which really means the same thing.


Dreams are one thing friend -- delusions are another.


Pull your head out before it's too late.


ickenittle

But...Where are the Jobs?

When he is being misappropriated

The U.S. (stands for useless) House of reprehensible Representatives will vote Tuesday on a resolution to affirm the phrase "in god We Trust" as the nation's official (bumper-sticker-slogan) motto.

Rep. Randy Forbes (R-VA), the founder and chairman of the Congressional Prayer Caucus, sponsored the legislation. It would encourage the public display of the motto in all public buildings, public schools and government institutions.

Forbes said he introduced the bill in January because he was troubled by a pattern of omitting God from the nation’s heritage.

“Tomorrow, the House of Representatives will have the same opportunity to reaffirm our national motto and directly confront a disturbing trend of inaccuracies and omissions, misunderstandings of church and state, rogue court challenges, and efforts to remove God from the public domain by unelected bureaucrats,” Forbes said.

“As our nation faces challenging times, it is appropriate for Members of Congress and our nation—like our predecessors—to firmly declare our trust in God, believing that it will sustain us for generations to come.”
The resolution was approved by the House Judiciary Committee in March.
The legislation has 64 co-sponsors, including a handful of Democrats.

The phrase “In God We Trust” was made the official U.S. motto in 1956, one year after the phrase “under God” was incorporated into the Pledge of Allegiance.

These must be the "predecessors" he is talking about.

Critics of the resolution said it violated the establishment clause of the Constitution, which states that “Congress shall make no law respecting the establishment of religion.”

According to Sean Faircloth. executive director of the secular Coalition for America, "The phrase 'in God We Trust' does not apply to the more than the 16% of Americans who identify themselves as atheist, agnostic, nonreligious, or unaffiliated, and does not apply to religious Americans who do not have Judeo-Christian beliefs."

"Branding our secular country with a religious motto only creates division amongst its citizens and erodes the wall of separation between church and state.


Forbes claimed the resolution addressed different religions across the country and was not “just about Christians.” He said the resolution is meant to affirm the importance of God in the heritage of the United States.

As Congress fiddles while America burns, anyone with half a brain can see this as yet another Republican dog and pony show designed to fritter away precious time from the real important issues..like;

Jobs? Economy? Helllooooo?

Apparently to these protectors of the 1%, America is running like a well-oiled machine. Just ask the lobbyists, corporations, and paid for Congress.

In God We Trust, all others pay cash.

Is it any wonder Congress boasts a 9% approval rating? Maybe they have just given up, and are hoping God will take notice and do the job for them.

Update; the House passed the bill in a 396-9 vote in favor of keeping our nations official bumper-sticker in favor of "In God We Trust."


How patriotic- just ask Thomas Jefferson.





ickenittle