Esoteric Agenda

I haven't yet watched this film, but when I find time I most definitely will. People have called this film "the second Zeitgeist." I have no idea if the makers of Zeitgeist have anything to do with this new film, but that should tell you a little something about its contents.

More to come soon on my reaction to this film (and your reactions too, I hope), Esoteric Agenda.

Well, great.

"The plan would beef up the powers of the Fed"
US officials are planning a complete overhaul of the US financial sector, they say, but only once the current turmoil is over. If we get through this any time soon, the plan is to give the Fed much broader powers in order to be able to assess and regulate the financial markets in order to "avoid" recession or other negative economic situations. Give the Fed more power? Again, at best the Fed is a semi-private bank, designed in such a way that it must operate with its own interests in mind, why would the US government hand over power to control the country's economy to a group of president-appointed bankers largely unsupervised in their decision-making?
Also, if you noticed, the Fed gave JP Morgan Chase a $30 billion loan to purchase the ailing investment bank Bear Stearns. JP Morgan Chase(another link,) already claims to have up to $800 billion in assets and to do business with 99% of Fortune 1000 companies, why is the Fed encouraging them to buy up a large bank at a fraction of its previous value?

Fed Watch

BBC reports today that US Treasury Secretary Paulson has developed a plan that would ease economic woes. This plan would, "give sweeping powers to the Federal Reserve - enabling it to tackle the kind of turmoil that is currently hitting financial markets," as reported by BBC.

"The Fed would become 'market stability regulator' - allowing it to examine the books of any financial institution deemed to potentially threaten the stability of the financial system."

Which means these reforms would give an insulated financial institution governmental control, further blurring the line between government and the elite bank/corps.

"The review into the sector began early in 2007 after the financial services industry complained that over-regulation from Washington meant US firms were not as globally competitive as they could be."

Banks are trying to hijack the government.

what does the T stand for?

I pity da foo who in a coma!

"Ima tell this nigga when I see him, “Stop that bullshit. Stop that bullshit” [laughs] “That ain’t your fuckin’ name.” Your momma ain’t name you no damn Barack."

-DMX

he and hillary agree on one point:
talk is cheap mothafucka

We outsource pregnancy now

Pregnancy becomes latest job outsourced to India
Damn, this is wild. I imagine that it could be beneficial when for one reason or another, a woman is unable to carry her child to term.
"So what do you do for a living?"
"I'm professionally pregnant"
"Wait, does that mean I don't have to wear a condom?"

Cool

Gravel switching

gravel switched parties, thread just to continue our conversation pb

Some voting information.

Everyone talks about the presidential election a lot, but I became curious about who else will control public activity after November. It seems like very few people are aware of the positions they are electing individuals to before voting, which seems like a good way to make an uninformed decision. The only office everyone in the US votes for is the president, so I made a list of offices to vote for in the state of North Carolina, to remain sufficiently general but also relevant.

US Senate
NC Governor
NC Lieutenant Governor
NC Secretary of State
NC Attorney General
NC State Auditor
NC State Treasurer
NC State Agriculture Commissioner
NC State Labor Commissioner
NC State Insurance Commissioner
NC Superintendent of Public Instruction
NC Supreme Court Seat (Associate Justice)
6 NC Court of Appeals Seats

Some counties/districts are voting for US House, NC Senate, NC House, County Commissioner, Register of Deeds, District Court Judges and other more local offices I wasn't able to account for because they vary so much from area to area.

Frontline: Bush's War

I love PBS, and I'm growing especially partial to the Frontline series. Last night and tonight, PBS is airing a two-part special on the history of the Iraq War. From what I've watched so far, it's great. You can watch it online for free.

So, watch it.

Did you know this about No Child Left Behind?

I'm currently reading a book by Gerald W. Bracey called Setting the Record Straight: Responses to Misconceptions About Public Education in the U.S. Wonderful book. I highly suggest that you read it if time allows. In the book, there is an entire section devoted to NCLB, and it inspired me to do some of my own research on the act.

I found something that's a little disturbing.

Sec. 9528 reads: "Each local educational agency receiving assistance under this Act shall provide, on a request made by military recruiters or an institution of higher education, access to secondary school students names, addresses, and telephone listings" (NCLB Act, Public Law 107-110, Sec. 9528).

What. The. Fuck. What business does this shit have in this act, a measure that supposedly came into existence to help students in their educational endeavors. This just proves that the United States is becoming/already is a military state.

What do you guys think about this?

oh boy.

bomb bomb bomb bomb bomb Iran.
McCain is having some Bush-esque slip-ups. I mean, who really needs to know things about a country they plan on attacking?


Colbert is funny.

I'm beginning to think they are trying to tell us something

Is it just me or are things like this becoming more common? A result of overfishing, perhaps? Or maybe it's just an interspecies plot to kill all humans. Probably the latter. Who knows?

RIP Steve.

Stuff I've found interesting/appalling lately...

I don't have the time to discuss anything right now, but there are some things that I'd like to throw out for all you folks to read.
Surprise, surprise, Dick Cheney doesn't give a fuck about the American people and their views
Nader speaks the truth There are other good essays he's written on that site. Check it.
Start filling your piggie banks!
And for the music lovers: Atmosphere - Strictly Leakage is a new release online that's free to download. Lots of witty wordplay and typical sour Atmosphere style. I'm digging "Little Math You," "The Things that Hate Us" "Get it to get her," "You played yourself"

I hope everyone's doing fun, rich things. Be well!
Cory

Rough, rugged, and raw - G-style bankrolling

Read this article.
The Fed is still lowering rates, and is now offering to buy up the assets of hard hit banks. What a good opportunity for a rich institution to pick up houses at rock-bottom prices. At least they aren't buying the banks, yet, but I'll be watching for news about JP Morgan Chase buying banks. Then again I might be screaming fire a little early.
Also, How to Create a Gangster Bankroll. I found that accidentally, but that there is for the ballaz.
I hope you're all well. I'm trying to make time for the blog again, but it doesn't look like things will be getting better fast.
Peace

"If Obama was a white man, he would not be in this position."

For anyone who hasn't heard about this yet (even though it's been all over the news), Geraldine Ferraro--former candidate for vice president under Walter Mondale--is in some shit for some comments that she made about Barack Obama. This Clinton supporter asserted that Obama has come so far only because he's black. Kind of like reverse racism. She said something similar about Jesse Jackson when he ran for president in 1984.

Now, Ferraro was a big part of Clinton's campaign. Hillary, in order to save her own reputation, publicly disagreed with her statement. Ferraro subsequently resigned from the campaign, but this did everything but shut her up. In response to all the negative attention that the media was giving her, she said this: "I really think they're attacking me because I'm white."

On March 12, Keith Olbermann made a special comment on this issue. I think he says it well.

But there's also the issue of free speech. Ferraro should be able to say what she wants. She shouldn't have felt obligated to resign from the Clinton campaign. However, she does deserve all of these negative feedback for saying something so ignorant. I'm glad Hillary Clinton is feeling the repercussions of this too. I know that she can't control what comes out of her minions' mouths (or can she?), but you know... she really deserves any shit that comes her way.

I thought this was humorous...

So, it already exists?

Has anyone ever seen the show "Man-Made" on National Geographic? I'm watching the show right now, and I found something that you might want to see.

Here is the description of this episode, coming directly from the National Geographic Channel website: "A crisis is brewing in the American interstate highway system--traffic volumes are rapidly increasing and roads are falling apart faster than they can be fixed. In Man-Made: Super Roads, NGC visits highway construction sites across the country to explore how machinery, technology and engineering keep our interstates flowing smoothly. Travel down some of the nation's busiest major highways as construction workers battle extreme temperatures to fix the crumbling roads and poor traffic design."

Just a show about fixing roads, right? Well, yeah... except what matters is the specific road that they're fixing in this episode: Interstate 35.

Does this remind you of anything?

Milton Friedman on Limited Government

My education professor, Dr. Unks, mentioned Friedman in class yesterday. When he was a graduate student at the University of Chicago and took an economics course from Professor Friedman (this was in 1957), he heard the best argument for the voucher system of education that he had (and has until this day) ever heard. He then went on to reiterate Friedman's argument, and he was right: it was a very good argument.

Tonight, I ran into Milton Friedman on Limited Government. This is a must see. I find it hard to make any sort of argument against him. Why hasn't our government tuned into this yet?