Displaying 2,521 To 2,550 Of 3,237 Comments JUST TOO FUNNY….TOO WEIRD….TOO SAD….ALL AT THE SAME TIME. Man prints fake obituary of own mom to get day off work A 45-year-old Pennsylvania man has been charged with a crime after publishing a fake obituary of his own mother in order to get time off work. It sounds like the sort of unfeeling stunt worthy of “Seinfeld” character George Costanza, but Scott Bennett has been charged with disorderly conduct after sending in the fake obituary to the Jeffersonian Democrat newspaper, which then ran the story. Democrat editor Randy Bartley said the obituary was accepted in good faith, even though his staff had been unable to confirm the funeral arrangement details as of press time. And to paraphrase the famous Mark Twain line, reports of the woman’s death were greatly exaggerated. Bennet’s mother was, indeed, the whistleblower in the case, placing a series of calls to Bartley and Democrat staffers, insisting she was in fact still alive. But like any good journalism outlet, the Jeffersonian Democrat needed more facts. So Ms. Bennett showed up to the paper in person to prove her existence. Bartley said that, all things considered, she was “very understanding” about her own falsely reported death. Police Chief Ken Dworek says Bennett wrote up the memorial notice because he didn’t want to get fired for taking time off. From Yahoo News (the URL is 6 lines long…ridiculous) » Posted By MurphTheSurf3 On December 17, 2011 @ 9:01 am I got a Christmas Card “from” the Obamas with this photo. The card was signed by all including Beau (with a paw print). Loved it. Love them. » Posted By MurphTheSurf3 On December 15, 2011 @ 4:28 pm Hello Planeteers, I spent a good bit of time today selling the following story to a number of media outlets (print, on line, cable/satellite). Had a few nibbles. The Planet (i.e. AdLib) was among the first to sound the warning, but few of the MSM types have picked up on it. Please feel free to copy, paste, edit, redo any of this and pass it on via your resources. Much of the material is AdLibs, but there is other material here from Irregular Times. I believe the GOP is hedging its bets with Block the Vote, Media Control, and Fake Grassroots Groups…..This initiative takes it one step further. ================================== Americans Elect: Another Tea Party Trojan Horse??? I have been looking at a lot of material from Americans Elect. http://www.americanselect.org/ Most media have covered this story very lightly to date…mostly as part of another story. I call the group Tea Party II because the group gives the appearance of being a grass roots initiative of just ordinary folks. We now know how much big money was behind the Tea Party from the start. In 2000, the Ralph Nader third party run significantly cut into Al Gore’s base. I believe it cost Gore three states, with Florida the most significant. Over the years I have read stories that have demonstrated that there were significant donations from the Right intended to provide the Nader campaign with sufficient funds to do just what it did: siphon away votes. The Tea Party was a more sophisticated operation. And now Americans Elect comes along.Its website seems to be designed to engage activists from the left- writing style, methods proposed, issues cited, language used. BUT…. the disingenuous nature of an organization claiming to serve the public while keeping much of its organizational, operational and financing information as secret as possible is a cause of real concern. Who is behind the organization? Who is funding it? The group does not say and states it has no obligation to say and has no intention of doing so. A lot of hedge fund money has been linked to the group and it certainly is spending a lot of money on advertisements and pledge drives. Who is on the Board of Directors? Also not known. They keep changing their rules. The selection process has been altered in ways that seem calculated to direct the results. Final decisions regarding the “people’s nominee” will be made by the board at Americans Elect. Odd. Americans Elect has raised $20 million from just 50 people, a whopping average contribution of $400,000 per person. Not just anybody can write a check for 400 grand; these are 50 mostly anonymous people to whom Americans Elect owes a big debt of gratitude. We know from other documents that two private investment executives have made donations to Americans Elect: Rockport Capital chief Peter Ackerman to the tune of $1.55 million and hedge fund operator Kirk Rostron in an undisclosed amount. Incomplete documentation of a “giving stream” to Americans Elect also names Melvin Andrews of Los Angeles as a contributor. Melvin Andrews of Los Angeles is the President of Lakeside Capital Partners. Outside of the capital investment business, but definitely in the realm of a “special interest,” is the donation to Americans Elect by Jim Holbrook, Chairman of the Promotion Marketing Association. Some other intriguing informaton: The group was originally organized as a political organization and at that time tax documents show that Peter Ackerman, father of the Chief Operating Officer Elliot Ackerman, had contributed $1.55 million. In 2011, it changed its designation to a 501(c)4 social welfare group. Chief Executive Kahlil Byrd states between 300 and 400 donors have given Americans Elect $20 million, with no contribution exceeding $5 million. He states that the major donations are technically low-interest loans, the bulk of which the organization says it intends to pay back as it widens its contribution base so that no single individual will have contributed more than $10K. At their website, Americans Elect states that they are a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization that is funded by individual contributions. AE claims that none of its funding comes from special interests or lobbyists. I have a very strong feeling that we are being played for chumps for someone with an vested interest in influencing the upcoming 2012 election towards one party or another. Without transparency, it is a reasonable assumption. I am pitching this story on several fronts, but wanted to pass it your way in my first wave. Irregular times has done most of the work on this and the links provided in the story check out. See it at: irregulartimes.com/index.php/archives/2011/07/24/no-special-interest-funding-for-americans-elect-new-york-times-reports-serious-hedge-fund-money/ Planet POV has an especially fine article as well at https://planetpov.com/2011/08/29/americans-elect-a-wolf-in-sheeps-clothing/ » Posted By MurphTheSurf3 On December 14, 2011 @ 4:14 pm Hey Em….did you get a chance to look at the posts? » Posted By MurphTheSurf3 On December 9, 2011 @ 5:33 pm Me too. The thing is the language seems to explicitly exempt U.S. citizens….that’s Levin’s stand. But Udall and Feinstein want a study committee to further refine this. I do not see the hole they do. Do you? » Posted By MurphTheSurf3 On December 9, 2011 @ 5:28 pm And Texas uses Federal Mones in very suspect ways in general. The Stimulus has less effect in Texas than in many states BECAUSE the state government used that money to pay for services and projects it was required to do. » Posted By MurphTheSurf3 On December 9, 2011 @ 5:20 pm Sue….I have posted on that precise point dozens of times pointing to his record on education, social services, real jobs development, air and water standards, urban mismanagement (no zoning)and an environment of corporate crony payola is what he really has to offer. » Posted By MurphTheSurf3 On December 9, 2011 @ 5:18 pm By the way I have the same reaction to images of Heath as do to River- deep sadness. » Posted By MurphTheSurf3 On December 9, 2011 @ 5:15 pm Is that Romney to his right? » Posted By MurphTheSurf3 On December 9, 2011 @ 5:13 pm Escribat….your sniffer is a good one. The Paulie’s were a real presence in the TP and are so in OWS. The difference is that there are no litmus tests or articles of faith on the OWS side. Everything gets drafted and redrafted. What encourages me is this turn toward legislative, electoral, campaign reform. I am also encourage by strategy that uses tactics like those represented in the Declaration and especially in the video which I find very compelling. As the Fed….it is being used as a scapegoat. Your description of the Fed’s role is mine as well. Focus on Wall Street and all it represents. » Posted By MurphTheSurf3 On December 9, 2011 @ 5:11 pm Sue…I just your response to my links regarding the Defense Authorization Act and Articles 1031 and 1032. Thanks for taking a look. I agree with you re. the concern the U.S. Citizens could be detained without charges, due process, legal counsel…..erasing habeas corpus and posse comitatus. The issue is who is correct in how the bill is interpreted? Levin, or Udall? I still have not gotten to the bottom of it. » Posted By MurphTheSurf3 On December 8, 2011 @ 11:37 pm And texas sucks big time. But they do corporate pay offs and executions real good! » Posted By MurphTheSurf3 On December 8, 2011 @ 11:34 pm And then there is the intersection of federal, state and local aid (or the lack thereof)….Texas tends to run using the principle of not-so-benign neglect. Unless you are very organized, very persistent and pretty bright….it is hard to get help. So they wear out those who petition for help putting the burden on them to get even the smallest assistance. A woman like this will hardly ever get help there. PS My sister is in health care (gerontology) in Houston and she is the one cuing me in on this. » Posted By MurphTheSurf3 On December 8, 2011 @ 11:26 pm Our social safety net has been cut to ribbons. » Posted By MurphTheSurf3 On December 8, 2011 @ 9:04 pm SOME STORIES MANAGE TO CAPTURE A LONG LIST OF WHAT IS WRONG IN THE USA TODAY…THIS IS ONE OF THEM….http://old.news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111209/ap_on_re_us/us_texas_welfare_shootings 2nd child shot by mom in Texas welfare office dies McALLEN, Texas – A 10-year-old son of a woman who shot her two children and then killed herself during a police standoff at a Texas welfare office died on Thursday, a day after his sister succumbed to her wounds. Timothy Grimmer died Thursday evening at a San Antonio hospital after he was removed from life support, Laredo police investigator Joe Baeza said. His sister Ramie, 12, who authorities say was also shot by mother Rachelle Grimmer, died Wednesday night at the same hospital. Their father, Dale Grimmer, spent time at his son’s bedside Thursday before consulting with doctors and deciding to pull Timothy off of life support, said Mary Lee Shepherd, the children’s grandmother. …..she had asked to speak to a caseworker about why her food stamps application had been rejected and pulled a gun after being taken to a private room to speak. …..The family had been living in a rundown trailer park, and Rachelle Grimmer had been seeking food stamps since July, shortly after they moved to Texas from Ohio. ……her former daughter-in-law had a history of mental illness and Dale Grimmer tried three times to have the children removed from her custody while they were living in Anaconda, Mont., and Ohio with no results. “Many, many times he tried to tell people what was happening and nobody would listen,” Shepherd said. …….a possible neglect report after Rachelle Grimmer and her two children were found living in a tent on a South Texas beach. Investigators found no evidence of neglect and closed the case, spokesman Patrick Crimmins said. » Posted By MurphTheSurf3 On December 8, 2011 @ 8:46 pm Thanksgiving….wonderful and difficult. I have a friend who is fighting drug addiction as a result of getting hooked on pain pills when he had neck surgery. He needed much more supervision and/or alternate therapy but it is easier to push the meds. We invited him to spend the the week with us, giving his own family some relief. It is complicated as they say. Still, the day went very well and he was a big part of our “thanksgiving.” » Posted By MurphTheSurf3 On December 8, 2011 @ 6:55 am OK….you are correct. Every link was broken. So I went back and tracked down each page and copied the address from the page. They are all still there. Let’s see if this works. http://www.greeleygazette.com/press/?p=12076 http://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread780914/pg1 » Posted By MurphTheSurf3 On December 8, 2011 @ 6:46 am OCCUPY CONTINUES TO MULTIPLY THE 99 PERCENT DECLARATION….an outgrowth of OWS Here is the CHILLING public announcement video that just began airing.
» Posted By MurphTheSurf3 On December 7, 2011 @ 8:56 pm Hello Em….haven’t spoken with you in more than a week. Hope all is well. » Posted By MurphTheSurf3 On December 7, 2011 @ 8:29 pm I posted this before. It helps confirm the confusion that exists in this matter. A Confusing Story: Where’s the Truth? Below please find four links. The first provides the exact wording of the provision with some comment pointing out the key lines; the second is Sen. Udall’s Amendment, the third is Sen. Levin’s response to the attacks on the Appropriations Bills, the fourth is a commentary that provides the best analysis I have found so far. Bottom Line: It appears that Levin’s Bill is the one that respects citizens rights more than the Udall Amendment. And hardly anyone has spoken of the impact of the Supreme Court Hamdi Case which is very germane. Here they are: http://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread780914/pg1 http://www.greeleygazette.com/press/?p=12076 I have also spoken to a legislative aide in both Levin’s and Udall’s offices and as a result am no clearer on this matter. Any thoughts? » Posted By MurphTheSurf3 On December 7, 2011 @ 8:27 pm Remarks by the President on the Economy in Osawatomie, Kansas Yes, he gave a nod to the TP but his address was about Occupy issues. I really think we saw his heart today. Whenever I see him with a crowd, knowing how much of every speech is HIS through and through, and aware of how effective he is one to one, or one to group or one to crowd, I think of the teleprompter nonsense. For those who hate him, they NEED to make a case for Obama as a hollow man, an empty shell…but addresses like today’s puts that to flight. » Posted By MurphTheSurf3 On December 6, 2011 @ 10:14 pm Me as well (and he has also frustrated me). » Posted By MurphTheSurf3 On December 6, 2011 @ 10:04 pm The list…. • 83 percent of all U.S. stocks are in the hands of 1 percent of the people. » Posted By MurphTheSurf3 On December 6, 2011 @ 10:03 pm SallyT….Obama is working from a real base, TR was not (and did not realize it). » Posted By MurphTheSurf3 On December 6, 2011 @ 10:01 pm He was a mass of contradictions. But a progressive vision definitely took hold as he aged. When he saw what a mess his anointed successor was making of the presidency, he tried to take him down from the Left….without success. » Posted By MurphTheSurf3 On December 6, 2011 @ 10:00 pm I suspect there will be an address when he invokes Ike who warned of the the economic and diplomatic dangers in militarization, support high taxes for the top two brackets to pay down the debt from the New Deal, WWII, Marshall Plan and Cold War start-up, invested heavily in the national transportation infrastructure, believed in unions and expanded Social Security to cover four exempted categories. Have you ever read the GOP platform from Ike’s two candidacies…..talk about progressive! » Posted By MurphTheSurf3 On December 6, 2011 @ 9:58 pm Bito….did my response to your earlier question make sense to you. I just finished watching the speech again – long, intense, serious, and totally enthralling. Very important I think and a very clear marker for his campaign and second term. Audience reactions were especially interesting. Odd moments when there was sustained applause that seemed to surprise him. Like you, the moment when he said “I’m here to say they are wrong” paused and the applause went on and on and on. Oh my. Chilling. » Posted By MurphTheSurf3 On December 6, 2011 @ 9:53 pm Watched the entire address today, the moments of sustained applause were extraordinary. Barack seemed to be in tune with his audience in ways I saw on the campaign trail time and again. This could have been an address to the Occupy crowd. » Posted By MurphTheSurf3 On December 6, 2011 @ 9:16 pm agreed. Thomas Frank was the guest, a liberal idealist, whose has done some very good work. He writes for Harper’s. I have read his book “What’s the Matter with Kansas?” and “What’s the Matter with America? The Resistible Rise of the American Right”. He tends to think in terms of lofty goals and like you I found his tepid response to Obama’s landmark address to be disappointing, but Ed pushed him. » Posted By MurphTheSurf3 On December 6, 2011 @ 9:14 pm Obama’s speech was great. My comment was not about what he said. I am for it. My points are about the context. Obama and TR are in very different places. I pray that Obama’s words are not recalled just as good oratory but as agenda setting. TR failed. The GOP turned further to the right as a result of his third party run. He lost the 1912 election and drifted into irrelevancy. I don’t want either for Barack. Obama identified many of the common themes linking then and now, but he got a lot of criticism for not spelling out what needs to be done. Those critics missed the point. The social safety net that TR, FDR dreamed of, has been in place and it works. Obama is leading a crusade to hold on to it. Lastly, there have been lots of calls today for Obama to really go on the offensive and use the bully pulpit more fully and forcefully. I point out limitations built into our current political/social/economic system; and the power of money to influence everyone in politics today because it has become so overwhelmingly important to have lots of it. Lastly, I note that while Barack and TR have words and beliefs that are similar, their styles make their approach to the bully pulpit very, very different. I suggest Barack as a sitting president may prove to be far more effective than TR IF he can capitalize on what appears to be a building momentum in support of his message. Sorry if I was not clear. I am a Barack backer…..have been since 2002 when I lived in Illinois. » Posted By MurphTheSurf3 On December 6, 2011 @ 6:51 pmComments Posted By MurphTheSurf3
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https://sites.google.com/site/the99percentdeclaration/
• 61 percent of Americans “always or usually” live paycheck to paycheck, which was up from 49 percent in 2008 and 43 percent in 2007.
• 66 percent of the income growth between 2001 and 2007 went to the top 1% of all Americans.
• 36 percent of Americans say that they don’t contribute anything to retirement savings.
• A staggering 43 percent of Americans have less than $10,000 saved up for retirement¬.
• 24 percent of American workers say that they have postponed their planned retirement age in the past year.
• Over 1.4 million Americans filed for personal bankruptcy in 2009, which represente¬d a 32 percent increase over 2008.
• Only the top 5 percent of U.S. households have earned enough additional income to match the rise in housing costs since 1975.
• For the first time in U.S. history, banks own a greater share of residentia¬l housing net worth in the United States than all individual Americans put together.
• In 1950, the ratio of the average executive’¬s paycheck to the average worker’s paycheck was about 30 to 1. Since the year 2000, that ratio has exploded to between 300 to 500 to one.
• As of 2007, the bottom 80 percent of American households held about 7% of the liquid financial assets.
• The bottom 50 percent of income earners in the United States now collective¬ly own less than 1 percent of the nation’s wealth.
• Average Wall Street bonuses for 2009 were up 17 percent when compared with 2008.
• The top 1 percent of U.S. households own nearly twice as much of America’s corporate wealth as they did just 15 years ago.
• In America today, the average time needed to find a job has risen to a record 35.2 weeks.
• More than 40 percent of Americans who actually are employed are now working in service jobs, which are often very low paying.
• or the first time in U.S. history, more than 40 million Americans are on food stamps, and the U.S. Department of Agricultur¬e projects that number will go up to 43 million Americans in 2011.
• This is what American workers now must compete against: in China a garment worker makes approximat¬ely 86 cents an hour and in Cambodia a garment worker makes approximat¬ely 22 cents an hour.
• Approximat¬ely 21 percent of all children in the United States are living below the poverty line in 2010 – the highest rate in 20 years.
• Despite the financial crisis, the number of millionair¬es in the United States rose a whopping 16 percent to 7.8 million in 2009.
• The top 10 percent of Americans now earn around 50 percent of our national income.
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