US Drops to 22nd in Corruption Index

Now we got the Chamber of Commerce and Republicans taking money from Communist China and India to sell American jobs…

U.S. slips to historic low in global corruption index

The United States has dropped out of the “top 20” in a global league table of least corrupt nations, tarnished by financial scandals and the influence of money in politics, Transparency International said on Tuesday.

Somalia was judged the most corrupt country, followed by Myanmar and Afghanistan at joint second-worst and then by Iraq, in the Berlin-based watchdog TI’s annual corruption perceptions index (CPI).

The United States fell to 22nd from 19th last year, with its CPI score dropping to 7.1 from 7.5 in the 178-nation index, which is based on independent surveys on corruption.

This was the lowest score awarded to the United States in the index’s 15-year history and also the first time it had fallen out of the top 20.

In the Americas, this put the United States behind Canada in sixth place, Barbados at 17th and Chile in 21st place.

Jointly heading the index — in which a score of 10 indicates a country with the highest standards, and 0 as highly corrupt — were Denmark, New Zealand and Singapore with 9.3. They were also at the top of the table last year.

Somalia scored 1.1. The watchdog group said its table was based on “different assessments and business opinion surveys carried out by independent and reputable institutions.”

U.S. “INTEGRITY DEFICIT”

Nancy Boswell, president of TI in the United States, said lending practices in the subprime crisis, the disclosure of Bernard Madoff’s Ponzi scheme and rows over political funding had all rattled public faith about prevailing ethics in America.

“We’re not talking about corruption in the sense of breaking the law,” she said. “We’re talking about a sense that the system is corrupted by these practices. There’s an integrity deficit.”

Various financial scandals at state and city level had encouraged the impression that the regulatory oversight was weak and that influence could be bought, she added.

The index showed a number of countries — including Iran — climbing up the chart significantly from 2009, though TI said this could often be ascribed to the fact that different surveys were being used that offered no direct comparison to last year.

The fact that nearly three quarters of the countries scored 5.0 or less showed corruption was still a major global problem, said Robin Hodess, director of policy and research at TI.

However, the watchdog identified Bhutan, Chile, Ecuador, Macedonia, Gambia, Haiti, Jamaica, Kuwait, and Qatar as states where improvement had been made over the past year.

By contrast, it highlighted the Czech Republic, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Madagascar, Niger and the United States as nations where perceptions had deteriorated.

 

 

Pigs Get Fed… Hogs Get Slaughtered

Looks like a regular Hog Roast in California… Meg Whitman spent $141 million of her own money, and Carly Fiorina spent $40 million

It is looking more and more like the MSM’s propagandized Republican sweep…

Pigs Get Fed... Hogs Get Eaten

Got swept out from under them.

Jerry Brown’s lead doubles in a month; little change in Senate race

…Brown, the Democratic attorney general and former governor, led Whitman 52% to 39% among likely voters, the poll found. His advantage has more than doubled since aTimes/USC poll in September.

The abrupt movement in the race for governor came as Democratic incumbent Barbara Boxer held onto her 8-point margin over Republican Carly Fiorina in the U.S. Senatecontest. Boxer’s 50% to 42% lead was statistically unchanged from September’s 51% to 43% edge.

For both Democrats, the month between the two polls found the party’s strongest supporters rallying to the candidates’ sides: liberals, women and Latinos either solidified or expanded their backing for Brown and Boxer. Nonpartisan voters, whom Republicans had counted on to overcome the Democratic advantage in voter registration, moved away from the two Republican candidates, and moderate voters also tilted toward the Democrats.

Paula Bennett, a schoolteacher in the Sacramento-area town of Acampo, said she was drawn to Brown in part by the blizzard of cash Whitman has thrown at the race.

“I like the little guy; he didn’t have the money behind him like she did,” she said in a follow-up interview, adding that she sided with Brown for the same reason that she favors a mom-and-pop establishment over a retail behemoth.

“We don’t shop at Walmart. We shop at the local store. He just seemed like more of a down-home candidate.”

 

Stewart-Colbert -“Sanity Rally” Goes Worldwide

This is shaping up to be the proverbial 2×4 right between the Glenn Beck Tea Baggers beady eyes.

Not only are Americans sick and tired of the crazy ranting and frothing at the mouth by extremists trying to take over our Political Systems – but the idea has resonated worldwide, that if we don’t do something, the whack jobs will be in control.

Jon Stewart’s Sanity Rally Goes Global

EVENTS SCHEDULED IN 67 COUNTRIES

Jon Stewart’s spoofy politicalRally to Restore Sanity is headed toward world domination. Some 800 Sanity demonstrations in 67 nations are being planned around the globe to coincide with the Daily Show host’s DC demonstration this Saturday. Sanity marchers will gather from Paris to Mt. Everest’s base camp in Nepal. “Everyone was getting excited” about the Washington rally, “so I thought, ‘Gosh, why couldn’t we do something local?'” said a marketing consultant in Paris. She’s organizing the event for the Champs de Mars at the Eiffel Tower through Facebook. “We’ll be doing it sanely and calmly and with a sense of humor—which is a change from what’s been happening,” she adds.

The popularity of the rally reveals a deep-seated desire to pull politics back into rationality, a professor at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government tells the Christian Science Monitor. “It’s weird to see people so worked up for the sake of a more rational political process,” he adds. Stewart has been pitching his rally to those who think “shouting is counterproductive, and terrible for your throat; who feel that the loudest voices shouldn’t be the only ones that get heard.” There’s just one problem: “How does one restore sanity to a part of the world where it never existed?” asks a writer in the Jerusalem Post, who proposes an Israeli rally to “introduce” sanity.

In the words of a 50’s icon – “Be There, or be square!”

 

 

 

That Clarence Thomas Can of Worms…

Virginia Thomas just opened up a 50 Gallon drum of worms for her husband…

Lillian McEwen, a former Senate Judiciary Committee lawyer who said she dated Clarence Thomas from 1979 through the mid-1980s, told The Washington Post in an interview that Hill’s long-ago description of Thomas’s behavior resonated with her.

“The Clarence I know was certainly capable not only of doing the things that Anita Hill said he did, but it would be totally consistent with the way he lived his personal life then,” said McEwen, who is writing her own memoir but has never before publicly discussed her relationship with Clarence Thomas.

McEwen also told the Post she was not surprised that Virginia Thomas would leave Hill a message, even after all these years.

“In his autobiography, Clarence described himself as a person incapable of doing what Anita Hill said he did,” McEwen said. “He is married to a woman who is loyal to him and religious in a way he would like to be. This combination of religiosity and loyalty and belief that he is really the kind of person who he describes in his book would just about compel her to do something like that.”

The message Virginia Thomas left for Hill again revealed the emotional toll that the Hill hearings took on the soon-to-be justice’s wife. In the past, she has made unsolicited phone calls to voice support for people whose reputations have been shaken by what she sees as false accusations.

In one way – I feel for the brother. Despise his politics. Despise his role on the supreme Court, and feel that he is the most destructive force against black America since the KKK.

But this is his personal life being dragged out for all to see.

 

Service Employees Union Ad: Angle Makes Life Worse for Women

Vodpod videos no longer available.

Discovered Service Employees Union Ad: Angle Makes Life Wo… via Ben Smith – Politico
Follow my videos on vodpod

 

MSNBC’s Ed Schultz “Psycho Talk”: Fox News – 10/20/10

Vodpod videos no longer available.

Discovered MSNBC’s Ed Schultz "Psycho Talk": Fox News – 10… via gethehelloffmylawn
Follow my videos on vodpod

 

NAACP vs Tea Party… Part Deux

A few months ago, a relatively mild rebuke by the NAACP brought howls of indignation, and the Tea Bagger Attack Machine into full throttle…

Resulting in the NAACP’s point being proven by Tea Party Express executive Mark Williams, and Andrew Brietbart’s vicious smear of Shirley Sherrod.

In other words, the Tea Party reacted exactly as you would expect the guilty to react after getting their hand caught in the proverbial cookie jar. The problem with Tea Party protestations of innocence is their willingness to provide cover for the scumbags in their midst based on their we versus them, conservatives versus liberals mindset. Making racism a conservative “value”.

Here is the problem – the hundreds of death and terrorism threat received by the NAACP, and those nasty grams and threats received by many ion the black blogsphere – including yours truly – hardly indicates that there isn’t something rotten in Tea Party Denmark. The willingness to call John Lewis a liar in support of a few over-the-top bigots who attached themselves to the Tea Party movement certainly didn’t convince anyone of sound mind that the racism in the Tea Party doesn’t run a lot deeper. The use of professional “Uncle Toms” like Angela McGlowan and LLoyd Marcus as “authentic” black voices hardly endears the Tea Party to minorities.

How do you solve this?

It may be too late this election cycle – BUT, as the Tea Party coalesces into a single organism – it might not be a bad idea to engage with the NAACP this time around…

Instead of ramping up the noise machine. We saw how that worked out last time.

NAACP Issues Report That Links Tea Party Leaders to ‘Hate Groups’

The charge of “racism” is one that the Tea Party movement would like to shake. In the past, it has dismissed the label as only representing a few of its members on the fringe. However, the issue surfaced again on Wednesday when the NAACP — which made news in July when it asked the Tea Party to repudiate racist elements within its ranks – issued a report that details associations between Tea Party organizations and hate groups in this country.

In a conference call with journalists, NAACP President Benjamin Jealous said that while there are policy disagreements, the civil rights group has “no problem with the Tea Party expressing their views in their great debate in our great democracy.” The majority of Tea Party members “are sincere,” and some are also in the NAACP, he said.

“We do however have a problem when prominent Tea Party members” use Tea Party events to recruit people for white supremacist groups, Jealous said. The NAACP is urging leadership and members of the Tea Party movement to take additional steps to distance themselves from those Tea Party leaders “who espouse racist ideas, advocate violence, or are formally affiliated with white supremacist organizations.”He said the expulsion of Mark Williams of Tea Party Express was a step in the right direction, but said that Williams had been making controversial statements long before he was ousted for writing a mocking letter suggesting that blacks preferred life under slavery.Some Tea Party leaders condemned the report, accusing the NAACP of abandoning its civil rights mission and of becoming a mouthpiece of the liberal left.

 

Juan Williams Gets Canned at NPR

Always felt William’s role at Faux News as the House Negro would get him in trouble with any serious news outfit. That ticking time bomb has finally exploded.

NPR fires Juan Williams over anti-Muslim remarks

Veteran journalist Juan Williams was fired from his job as senior news analyst for National Public Radio late Wednesday because of comments he made about Muslims and terrorism on “The O’Reilly Factor” on Fox News Channel.

NPR said in a statement that Williams’s remarks – including that he gets “worried” and “nervous” when he sees people dressed in Muslim-style clothing on airplanes – “were inconsistent with our editorial standards and practices, and undermined his credibility as a news analyst with NPR.”

Williams, 56, made the remarks after the show’s host, Bill O’Reilly, asked him whether he thought the United States was facing a “Muslim dilemma.” “The cold truth is that in the world today, jihad, aided and abetted by some Muslim nations, is the biggest threat on the planet,” O’Reilly said.

Williams, who is African American and writes and speaks frequently on race, told O’Reilly that he agreed with his assessment.

“I mean, look, Bill, I’m not a bigot. You know the kind of books I’ve written about the civil rights movement in this country,” he said. “But when I get on a plane, I got to tell you, if I see people who are in Muslim garb and I think, you know, they’re identifying themselves first and foremost as Muslims, I get worried. I get nervous.”

Williams then brought up a statement made in a New York courtroom this month by Faisal Shahzad, the Pakistani American who pleaded guilty to trying to detonate a bomb in Times Square and was sentenced to life in prison.

“He said the war with Muslims, America’s war is just beginning, first drop of blood. I don’t think there’s any way to get away from these facts,” Williams said…

Muslim advocacy groups and liberal commentators reacted with outrage to Williams’s comments on “The O’Reilly Factor” and called for his ouster. Conservative bloggers, in turn, blasted the dismissal as political-correctness spiraling out of control.

“NPR should address the fact that one of its news analysts seems to believe that all airline passengers who are perceived to be Muslim can legitimately be viewed as security threats,” Nihad Awad, national executive director of the Council on American Islamic Relations, said in a statement issued before the firing was announced. “Such irresponsible and inflammatory comments would not be tolerated if they targeted any other racial, ethnic or religious minority, and they should not pass without action by NPR.”

 

 

 

 

Those Invisible Black Confedrates Appear Again in Virginia Textbook

One more time… There were NO black confederate soldiers in Virginia! And I highly doubt there were any anywhere else other than the documented case of the New Orleans Regiment, which promptly defected and became the 1st US Colored, and two slave regiments assembled in South Carolina in the last days of the war.

What there were were slaves, who had been lent to the confederate Army in exchange for their Masters not having to serve. These slaves dug fortifications, latrines, and cooked for white confederate troops. They did not carry guns, they did not fight… AND THEY DIED a lot, from diseases infecting the camps. During the siege of Petersberg and Richmond near the end of the war, free blacks were impressed into service, often at gunpoint to dig fortifications.

The question here is why is Virginia using a “history textbook” written by someone who isn’t even a historian? Who is stupid enough (or racist enough) to quote a widely debunked fairy tale used to bolster the Southern Myth…

What it looks like here is that neo-confederate racist Republicans who hold the Virginia Governor’s office are screwing up Virginia’s textbooks the same way the clowns did to Texas’ there.

Black confederates in Civil War? Sure there were...

Virginia 4th-grade textbook criticized over claims on black Confederate soldiers

A textbook distributed to Virginia fourth-graders says that thousands of African Americans fought for the South during the Civil War — a claim rejected by most historians but often made by groups seeking to play down slavery’s role as a cause of the conflict.

The passage appears in “Our Virginia: Past and Present,” which was distributed in the state’s public elementary schools for the first time last month. The author, Joy Masoff, who is not a trained historian but has written several books, said she found the information about black Confederate soldiers primarily through Internet research, which turned up work by members of the Sons of Confederate Veterans.

Scholars are nearly unanimous in calling these accounts of black Confederate soldiers a misrepresentation of history. Virginia education officials, after being told by The Washington Post of the issues related to the textbook, said that the vetting of the book was flawed and that they will contact school districts across the state to caution them against teaching the passage.

“Just because a book is approved doesn’t mean the Department of Education endorses every sentence,” said spokesman Charles Pyle. He also called the book’s assertion about black Confederate soldiers “outside mainstream Civil War scholarship.”

Masoff defended her work. “As controversial as it is, I stand by what I write,” she said. “I am a fairly respected writer.”

The issues first came to light after College of William & Mary historian Carol Sheriff opened her daughter’s copy of “Our Virginia” and saw the reference to black Confederate soldiers.

“It’s disconcerting that the next generation is being taught history based on an unfounded claim instead of accepted scholarship,” Sheriff said. “It concerns me not just as a professional historian but as a parent.”

Virginia, which is preparing to mark the 150th anniversary of the beginning of the Civil War, has long struggled to appropriately commemorate its Confederate past. The debate was reinvigorated this spring, when Gov. Robert F. Mc­Don­nell (R) introduced “Confederate History Month” in Virginia without mentioning slavery’s role in the Civil War. He later apologized.

The Sons of Confederate Veterans, a group of male descendants of Confederate soldiers based in Columbia, Tenn., has long maintained that substantial numbers of black soldiers fought for the South The group’s historian-in-chief, Charles Kelly Barrow, has written the book “Black Confederates.”

The Sons of Confederate Veterans also disputes the widely accepted conclusion that the struggle over slavery was the main cause of the Civil War. Instead, the group says, the war was fought “to preserve their homes and livelihood,” according to John Sawyer, chief of staff of the Sons of Confederate Veterans’ Army of Northern Virginia. He said the group was pleased that a state textbook accepted some of its views.

The state’s curriculum requires textbook publishers and educators to explore the role African Americans played in the Confederacy, including their work on plantations and on the sidelines of battle. Those standards have evolved in recent years to make lessons on the Civil War more inclusive in a state that is growing increasingly diverse.

When Masoff began work on the textbook, she said she consulted a variety of sources — history books, experts and the Internet. But when it came to one of the Civil War’s most controversial themes — the role of African Americans in the Confederacy — she relied primarily on an Internet search.

 

Thomas v Hill… Round 2

In another one of those conservatism will make you stark raving crazy moments – Virginia Thomas, wife of Justice Clarence Thomas has called Anita Hill to demand an apology! WTF! Why the hey, after all this time would Virginia Hill want to stir up this one all over again? I mean – not only does it have to be painful to Hill – it has to be painful to Clarence Thomas, Virginia’s husband. You have to know the media is going to drag the whole thing up again, and re-debate the whole sexual harassment issue.

This is a no-win for Clarence Thomas – which raises the question as to whether Ginny Thomas has been drinking that Tea Bagger Kool-Aid so long as to get Christine O’Donnell/Sno’ Ho’ stupid. Or is she out to deliberately hurt her husband?

Hill doubly has nothing to say, especially after conservative “scions” took revenge on her in later years by getting her fired from her previous job at University of Oklahoma, and tried to ruin her both financially and professionally. Not to mention the book published by David Brock, though the conservative faux-publishing outlets which was a libelous hatchet job on her character.

 

Clarence and Virginia Thomas - Anita Hill

Anita Hill: No apology coming for Thomas testimony

Anita Hill, whose accusations of sexual harassment almost derailed Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas’ high court nomination, has no plans to apologize for the charges she made nearly two decades ago.

The response from Hill, now a law professor at Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts, comes following a voice-mail message left for her by Thomas’ wife, Virginia, over the weekend, requesting an apology.

Charles Radin, the Brandeis director of news and communications, said Hill received the voice mail and turned it over to the campus Department of Public Safety, which then turned it over to the FBI.

Special Agent Jason Pack, an FBI spokesman in Washington, declined to comment late Tuesday.

“I certainly thought the call was inappropriate,” Hill said in a statement to CNN issued by Brandeis. “I have no intention of apologizing because I testified truthfully about my experience and I stand by that testimony.”

In a statement to CNN, Virginia “Ginni” Thomas said: “I did place a call to Ms. Hill at her office extending an olive branch to her after all these years, in hopes that we could ultimately get passed what happened so long ago. That offer still stands, I would be very happy to meet and talk with her if she would be willing to do the same. Certainly no offense was ever intended.”

According to a source at Brandeis, who spoke on condition of not being identified, the message left over the weekend said:

“Good morning, Anita Hill, it’s Ginni Thomas. I just wanted to reach across the airwaves and the years and ask you to consider something. I would love you to consider an apology some time and some full explanation of why you did what you did with my husband. So give it some thought and certainly pray about this and come to understand why you did what you did. OK, have a good day.”

Virginia Thomas is a conservative activist who founded the organization Liberty Central.

Hill declined comment to CNN affiliate WCVB outside her Waltham home on Wednesday, saying, “Please, let me go teach my class.”

 

 

Dumber Than Dumb – Christine O’Donnell…The First Amendment Says …What?

Really bad when your Tea Witch doesn’t know the Constitution she quotes…

This debate was at a Law School.

Check out the laughter from the audience when O’Donnell asks “Where in the Constitution does it mention the Seperation of Church and State”.

Talk about “Dumbing Down America”

 

Rachel Maddow on Psyops – November 2010 elections

Rachel does get it correct that the MSM is spinning for the Republicans. What she gets wrong is why. This election is about race – not the economy, jobs, or the deficit… It is about fear of a non-white America.  One of the best articles on this phenomenon was in the Village Voice – White America Has Lost It’s Mind…

Laying out why whack job right wing candidates suddenly have a chance, despite the reality that these folks are so far out of the mainstream as to be part of the tinfoil hat crowd.

Watched this same movie during the Bushit’s first illegitimate selection by the 5 thugs in robes. Bushit was their Golden Boy. Boy! That turned out well, now – didn’t it?

The really bad news is that things are so screwed up right now – America really can’t afford the off-the-wall isht the Tea Baggers and whack-job righties are going to bring…

So if it does turn out as so heavily advertised by the MSM…

Welcome to Third World America, complete with Banana Government.

Vodpod videos no longer available.

Rachel Maddow on Psyops – November 2010 elections
Follow my videos on vodpod

 

NY Governor Debate – “The Rent is too Damn High!”

From the NY Governor Debate last night…

“The Rent is Too Damn High Party”

 

Eddie Bernice Johnson Scholarship Scandal

A burgeoning scandal on how certain members of the CBC are handing out scholarships to their own relatives, and to political allies. In the spotlight is Dallas Congresswoman Eddie Bernice Johnson, who awarded $31,000 in Congressional Black Caucus Foundation scholarships to her grand children and nieces. Now, accusations have been made that she awarded a $1,000 scholarship to the son of a senior executive at the Dallas Airport who may have had some influence over her business interests.

Now – the money to the relatives was unquestionably wrong. However the accusation relative to the Dallas Airport official seems exceedingly thin. Especially in view of the amount of money involved – $1.000. here are Congressmen and Senators on the Hill who are being slipped tens, if not hundreds of thousands of dollars under the table by Healthcare, communications, and even hostile foreign governments. So the question is…

Why all this focus on small potatoes? Especially in view that some of the elected folks on the Hill are committing what amounts to treason… Some, if accounts are to believed, even accepting Communist Chinese money to fund election ads.

Vodpod videos no longer available.

1st collector for Eddie Bernice Johnson Scholarship Scandal
Follow my videos on vodpod

 

 

 

All Ya’ll Look Alike!

To at least one Republican candidate – it’s hard to tell those Asians and Hispanics apart! After all…All them people look alike to her!

Sharron Angle to Hispanics: You Look Asian

What does a Latino look like? Apparently, Sharron Angle hasn’t a clue. When questioned about her campaign ads that show images of Latinos while blasting Harry Reid over illegal immigration, the Nevada candidate told a Hispanic group that the ads don’t necessarily show Latinos and that they themselves looked a bit like Asians, the Huffington Post reports.

“What we want is a secure and sovereign nation and, you know, I don’t know that all of you are Latino,” Angle told the Hispanic Students Union at a Las Vegas high school. “Some of you look a little more Asian to me. What we know about ourselves is that we are a melting pot in this country.” Angle, who is Caucasian, added that she had been called “the first Asian legislator” in the state assembly.