Born in Italy, Mr. Vellucci and his wife migrated here as teenagers. They raised children, bought a house, lived their dream in Technicolor. Then his kidney gave out and their economic slide began. After court on this day, he would go for dialysis. The couple hope the lawsuit might give them one more shot at the Obama plan.

“I don’t sleep at night, I don’t sleep at all,” he said, rising slowly. “I tell Maria, ‘If we lose the house, I want to stop my dialysis.’ I want to die, honestly.”

Ten months ago President Obama announced a $75 billion program to keep as many as four million Americans in their homes by persuading banks to renegotiate their mortgages. Lenders have accepted more than one million applications and cut three-month trial deals with 759,000 homeowners. But they have converted just 31,000 of those to the permanent new mortgages that are the plan’s goal.

Read the whole thing here:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12…

And teenage runaways/homelessness are now often due to foreclosure:

Over the past two years, government officials and experts have seen an increasing number of children leave home for life on the streets, including many under 13. Foreclosures, layoffs, rising food and fuel prices and inadequate supplies of low-cost housing have stretched families to the extreme, and those pressures have trickled down to teenagers and preteens.

Read this one too– http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10…

This is Obama’s America, Bush’s America-and still the richest country in the world.  The people being hurt the most, are the weakest–the sick, the old, children, those without relatives to fall back on.  

According to the NYT, Goldman Sachs and other banks sold their customers collateralized debt obligations, or C.D.O.’s, and then bet heavily that these investments would fail.

Goldman Saw It Coming

Before the financial crisis, many investors – large American and European banks, pension funds, insurance companies and even some hedge funds – failed to recognize that overextended borrowers would default on their mortgages, and they kept increasing their investments in mortgage-related securities. As the mortgage market collapsed, they suffered steep losses.

“The simultaneous selling of securities to customers and shorting them because they believed they were going to default is the most cynical use of credit information that I have ever seen,” said Sylvain R. Raynes, an expert in structured finance at R & R Consulting in New York. “When you buy protection against an event that you have a hand in causing, you are buying fire insurance on someone else’s house and then committing arson.”

The woeful performance of some C.D.O.’s issued by Goldman made them ideal for betting against. As of September 2007, for example, just five months after Goldman had sold a new Abacus C.D.O., the ratings on 84 percent of the mortgages underlying it had been downgraded, indicating growing concerns about borrowers’ ability to repay the loans, according to research from UBS, the big Swiss bank. Of more than 500 C.D.O.’s analyzed by UBS, only two were worse than the Abacus deal.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12…

Lewis Sachs, left, who oversaw C.D.O.’s before becoming a Treasury adviser (ie he works for Geithner now) , and John Paulson, whose company profited as the housing market collapsed.:

So, basically, not only are we not regulating these guys, we’re rewarding them– and more importantly promoting them into the government to run the show–where they presumably steal directly from the US Treasury.

How is this different from what Mussilini had in mind as a system of government? Such a constant revolving of government, military, and corporate figures, that the lines are entirely blurred.  

I’d never really read her before-or if I had, I quickly forgot about it.

So I went over to FDL, and what did I find? Really flaming crazy, nutso, lefty stuff –she’s really far, far from the mainstream:

So if anyone’s got a story about a remarkable medical pet recovery, please share it, because we could use some hope and inspiration tonight. Kobe sent me packing a short time ago because he said I was a big drag and I need to get myself in a better place so I can be there for him.

And this:

Susan Boyle Final Performance Video, “Britain’s Got Talent”

And, of course this:

I’m sure Michael Jackson is happy he’s not around to see all the psychobabble being dished up about his life. Did the crappy upbringing really doom him to brooding unhappiness, or did it fuel his otherwordly talent? Would he have been just as strange and troubled without the fame and fortune, or was being “Michael Jackson” the only thing that kept him out of Leavenworth? We’ll never know.

So, in response to all this radical communist propaganda, I have asked Meteor to re-instate my account over at dk, so that I could attack it, and help save the world from pernicious socialistic, communist-y, nazi-like posts like these.

He immediately re-instated me, and they gave me a thumbs up, a pat on the back, and a cold diet coke.

Here’s an excerpt from my first ever rec list diary:

Don’t you fucking fools understand that we need to kill muslims in Afghanistan because Obama says so, and he’s our LEADER, and he WANTS TO HELP THE UNEMPLOYED (so that they can kill people in Afghanistan too).  

And don’t you understand that mandated mandates to pay our American corp-o-crocy will save 300,000,000,000,000.26 lives every year ? Rahm told us so.  Twice.

And don’t you realize that if we don’t stick together, then we’ll LOSE in 2012–and that would be a disaster, because then Jane Hamsher would be IN CHARGE. And we’d ALL be mandated to SHARE OUR PET STORIES.

How’s that for socialisty, femi-nazi stuff?  (look at that chicks HAIR!)

I mean SHARE. How American is that ?

Sharrrrreeee.

Like equally.

You have to do it, and so do I, and then we’d all be sharing…..

All the Senate Dimocrats have voted for the health care reform bill, and with little fanfare Bernie Sanders joined them becoming the 60ith asshole.

http://politics.nytimes.com/co…

Did it have anything to do with this? Eh, Bernie?

WASHINGTON, December 17 – The U.S. Department of Agriculture today detailed plans to distribute $290 million to struggling dairy farmers. The assistance is part of a $350 million dairy assistance measure Congress approved at the request of Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.).

The measure that provides $290 million for direct support to dairy farmers will result in a payment of about $8,000 to the typical Vermont farmer.  Another $60 million was set aside nationwide to purchase cheese for food banks and nutrition progr….

http://sanders.senate.gov/news…

Fuck each and every senator.

Fuck You Too, Bernie ! May you all go to hell.

http://religionclause.blogspot…

Monday, November 09, 2009

House Health Care Bill Tracks FICA Exemption For Religious Objectors

The House version of the health care bill passed Saturday, HR 3962, imposes a 2.5% penalty tax on anyone who fails to obtain acceptable health care coverage. (Internal Revenue Code Sec. 59B(a) [pg. 297 of PDF]). However the bill does provide a “conscience exemption” for members of religious sects whose tenets reject insurance benefits. The exemption in Section 501of the bill [IRC Sec. 59B(c)(5) at pg. 299 of PDF] tracks the exemption from payment of social security and self-employment taxes for members of groups such as the Old Order Amish, described in Section 1402(g) of the Internal Revenue Code. (See prior related posting.)

Of course, this will probably be stripped after reconcilliations (see they can make it worse).

These are people that cannot handle truth–it’s simply too depressing for them.

People there are dying for any excuse to support the American system as it is.  

Eventually, they’ll find one.

Then they’ll get disillusioned again, as reality surfaces.

Rinse Repeat

They’ve been doing this for years and years–since the start of blogging, in fact.

When the Dems voted for the Afghan war.

And the Iraq war.

And all the supplementals.

When they won the house, and nothing changed, they found an excuse.

When they won the Senate–and still nothing changed, they found an excuse.

And now with all three branches–excuse after excuse. And for the currently disillusioned–that’s only temporary.

Because they want to believe–in fact they need to or their whole America first world view goes poof.

You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make it think.

The reason for this isn’t about Obama or Obama-Bots, although let’s face it-he was a brilliant choice to star in this play.  It’s because most of these people still believe in the myths of Americana they were taught in school, that are re-enforced daily on tv, in the echo chamber that is modern blogging (where any diversity of opinion can be wiped off of their lcd screeens by 10 like minded ‘bots’ giving a neg rating) .  You can’t fight all that. Not on their turf-with all the rules set against you.  

The real battle for American hearts and minds starts long before bots become bots in the first place. It starts in the schools, the churches, the TVs that their sat in front of at age 2.  It starts with the made in Texas, government approved Houghton-Mifflin textbooks they’re forced to regurgitate from age 5 onwards to age 18, age 22, or more.

It starts with an educational system that rewards puking up a canned answer, over careful thought.  And one that has largely entrenched the military into the schools.

The Republican and neo liberalist idealists know this–this is why they’ve attacked all these primary systems for years–schools, churches, non-profits, local government, military, and so on.  This is where the battle lines are drawn-the real world.   And the attitudes one faces are indoctrinated in, from an early age.

I didn’t think he had it in him:

(from DK)

With great sadness – and with full acknowledgment that this is hardly all his doing – I must also address this president directly, about his lack of leadership.

And he concludes:

There are many who can act here but the leadership must come from the White House, or we will see enacted into statute the equivalent of Medical Mobster Protection Money, the forced purchase of a product, by the citizens of this country, which is significantly regulated only in the establishment of a law requiring us to buy it.

     And in that event, I feel – and will express tonight – the necessity of violating any such law, as obviously, frequently, and loudly as possible.

Read the whole thing here:

http://www.dailykos.com/story/…

He’s right, and it may well be our only recourse.   Maybe it always was our only recourse.  

is here:

http://sanders.senate.gov/cont…

He may be the only hope to stop the health care bill.  

Also, maybe suggest he run for president in 2012 ?

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10…

The striking thing here, is that no one is looking, or even cares, and if they are caught the situation likely gets even worse.  They’re not even bothering to keep the statistics.  

Let’s shovel some more cash to General Dynamics and Goldman Sux.  

I find all this legalist mumbo jumbo to be ludicrous.

So and so has the right to censor, because he “owns” a web site.

Please.

There is no part of the web that is not “owned” by someone.

None.

Here’s an example:

My route here:

Items 3-10 of the route my connection takes to reach www.docudharma.com

(I eliminated my country/location at the start and Docudharma’s location at the end, although I can clearly see everything about them, and admins at docudharma can clearly see me, unless I try to hide myself)

1…REDACTED!

2…

3…  

4  xe-10-2-0.bar1.Houston1.Level3.net (4.78.14.5)  84.910 ms  159.320 ms  86.412 ms

5  ae-13-13.ebr1.Dallas1.Level3.net (4.69.137.138)  98.405 ms  90.392 ms  90.703 ms

6  ae-82-88.ebr2.Dallas1.Level3.net (4.69.146.83)  88.706 ms  89.860 ms ae-92-98.ebr2.Dallas1.Level3.net (4.69.146.91)  90.654 ms

7  ae-2.ebr1.Denver1.Level3.net (4.69.132.105)  117.342 ms  107.607 ms  110.644 ms

8  ae-1-100.ebr2.Denver1.Level3.net (4.69.132.38)  114.238 ms  107.093 ms  108.657 ms

9   REDACTED !

10  REDACTED !

11…

12…

13…

So, you can’t even reach this site, w/o bumping through:

1. An ISP

2. 7-10 or more in my case relay points (hops).

Each is likely to be a separate corporate entity.  None are “Not For Profit” None.

Each might have reasons for you to not say what you just said.

3. the webhost of this blog

4. Finally, the blog owner (Ie the owner of the domain name Docudharma.com –which is worth around $6.99)

If you’re in some nations (like China) this blog is probably completely blocked, by the way.  

That’s legal too.

Mexico Temex blocked all VOIP for a long time, and finally gave up.

Not illegal either.

So, to claim that Kos has the right to censor, you have to also claim that your ISP, Microsoft (which runs many relays) ,  well some 7-10 corporate entites in fact, all have the legal right to censor your content.

Which they do, in fact.

But, it’s entirely besides the point.

Corporate censorship is not illegal.

They own the servers, they own the wire.

Censorship by a country is not illegal either: they make the rules !

In summation: for those that keep arguing that censorship is OK when a corporation is involved: well there’s no difference between one corporation and another, is there?

If you want to post something; post it.  

If some corporation complains about it: screw them !

Both you and they are within all legal rights.

But morally?

Are we to claim that all of those hops above, the ISP, the host, the owner of a $6.99 domain name, and the one’s I redacted, PLUS the various nations at the endpoints, or countries in-between the two, have the right to censorship?

Bullsh*t.

Another stunning about face today from the NYT:

(after proclaiming ‘no more settlements)

Obama Pivots in His in Mideast Peace Bid

By HELENE COOPER and MARK LANDLER

President Obama is largely setting aside his demand for a full freeze on settlements in the West Bank.

And yesterday another one :

(after already expanding the war, adding 17,000 troops)

Obama Considers Strategy Shift in Afghan War

By PETER BAKER and ELISABETH BUMILLER

Published: September 22, 2009

WASHINGTON – President Obama is exploring alternatives to a major troop increase in Afghanistan, including a plan advocated by Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. to scale back American forces and focus more on rooting out Al Qaeda there and in Pakistan, officials said Tuesday.

June 4th:

(after promising no mandates in the campaign)

Obama Open to a Mandate on Health Insurance

By ROBERT PEAR

Published: June 3, 2009

WASHINGTON – President Obama said Wednesday that he was receptive to Congressional proposals that would require Americans to have health insurance and oblige employers to share in the cost. But he said there should be exemptions for people who cannot afford insurance and for small businesses in general.

Obama: ‘Nobody’ Considers Health Care Mandate a Tax Increase

January:

Anti-War Activists Disappointed With Obama’s Iraq Withdrawal Plan

President Obama’s plan will take three months longer than he promised on the campaign trail and will leave a residual force of between 35,000 and 50,000 troops, which many Democrats say is too many.

I could go on and on.   The ‘exchange’ is actually the McCain ‘plan’ which he argued against.  

Crazy, delusional, Stupid?