be careful what you wish for...

this puts crazy eyes across the line & into the sanity column...

email request to expand House Homeland Security investigation into 'homegrown' extremism...

here is the full text of the email i sent to the Democratic minority members of Rep. King's investigation into 'homegrown' extremism requesting they ask for an expansion of the hearing to include ALL extremism:

"Date: March 11, 2011

To:
Bennie Thompson, Mississippi, Ranking Member
Loretta Sanchez, California
Jane Harman, California
Sheila Jackson-Lee, Texas
Henry Cuellar, Texas
Yvette Clarke, New York
Laura Richardson, California
Donna Christian-Christensen, Virgin Islands
Danny K. Davis, Illinois
Brian Higgins, New York
Jackie Speier, California
Cedric Richmond, Louisiana
Hansen Clarke, Michigan
William R. Keating, Massachusetts

Re: Request for Expansion of Hearing on public examination of Muslim extremism in America

From: J Michael Ireland


In light of Chairman King's investigation into the public examination of Muslim extremism in America, I believe it would be of greater benefit to our country to expand the investigation of extremism to include groups of all faiths including Christians, Mormons, Jews, Jehovah Witnesses, etc. along with all other extremist groups identified by the Department of Homeland security. It should include all sides of the spectrum - including the right and the left. I would include the political parties also, eg Democrats, Republicans, Teabaggers, Independents, Green. etc,.as well as groups such as PETA, Cato Institute, SEIU, Alliance Defense Fund, AFL-CIO, etal.

We will never get a true picture of just how much extremism is effecting/affecting our security unless a thorough study is completed. Focusing on only one group is unclear and incomplete. We should leave no stone unturned.

With the recent occurrences such as what happened to Rep. Giffords, the bomb at the Martin Luther King Jr. parade, and the murder of Dr. George Tiller, it would behoove us to have a complete picture of all threats.

Though I realize that the majority on the committee would probably vote down any such motion, I believe it should be brought to the attention of the American people as a whole.

I also request a personal favor. Unfortunately, I was unable to find all of the minority members' email addresses and would appreciate it if you could share my concern with those I could not contact. Thank you, very much.

I appreciate your taking time to consider this request and I hope that you will be able to calm the sense of urgency and fear that the entire country has been hit with by Mr. King's hearings. It is of the utmost importance that every aspect of this concern be addressed.

Very truly yours,

J Michael Ireland
jm****@comcast.net

There is nothing wrong; only things that are missing."

captain bullshit...

got this email from a friend...



Senator Alan Simpson, from Wyoming, calls senior citizens the Greediest Generation as he compared " Social Security " to a Milk Cow with 310 million teats. August, 2010 .

Here’s a response in a letter from a unknown fellow in Montana, I think he is a little ticked off !


“Hey Alan, let’s get a few things straight…

1. As a career politician, you have been on the public dole for FIFTY YEARS.

2. I have been paying Social Security taxes for 48 YEARS (since I was 15 years old. I am now 63.)

3. My Social Security payments, and those of millions of other Americans, were safely tucked away in an interest bearing account for decades until you political pukes decided to raid the account and give OUR money to a bunch of zero ambition losers in return for votes, thus bankrupting the system and turning Social Security into a Ponzi scheme that would have made Bernie Madoff proud.

4. Recently, just like Lucy & Charlie Brown, you and your ilk pulled the proverbial football away from millions of American seniors nearing retirement and moved the goalposts for full retirement from age 65 to age 67. NOW, you and your shill commission is proposing to move the goalposts YET AGAIN.

5. I, and millions of other Americans, have been paying into Medicare from Day One, and now you morons propose to change the rules of the game. Why? Because you idiots mismanaged other parts of the economy to such an extent that you need to steal money from Medicare to pay the bills.

6. I, and millions of other Americans, have been paying income taxes our entire lives, and now you propose to increase our taxes yet again. Why? Because you incompetent bums spent our money so profligately that you just kept on spending even after you ran out of money. Now, you come to the American taxpayers and say you need more to pay off YOUR debt.

To add insult to injury, you label us “greedy” for calling “bullshit” on your incompetence. Well, Captain Bullshit, I have a few questions for YOU.

1. How much money have you earned from the American taxpayers during your pathetic 50-year political career?

2. At what age did you retire from your pathetic political career, and how much are you receiving in annual retirement benefits from the American taxpayers?

3. How much do you pay for YOUR government provided health insurance?

4. What cuts in YOUR retirement and health care benefits are you proposing in your disgusting deficit reduction proposal, or, as usual, have you exempted yourself and your political cronies?

It is you, Captain Bullshit, and your political co-conspirators who are “greedy”. It is you and they who have bankrupted America and stolen the American dream from millions of loyal, patriotic taxpayers. And for what? Votes.

That’s right, sir. You and yours have bankrupted America for the sole purpose of advancing your pathetic political careers. You know it, we know it, and you know that we know it.

And you can take that to the bank, you miserable SOB ”

i don't think i can add any more to this...

mayhem...

i come back from Honduras and i have to catch up on the total mayhem about the healthcare proposal(s)...

the biggest issue seems to be on the public option.

hellllloooooooo...

we already have a public option. anyone who goes to an emergency must be cared for! who pays for that? not the government. WE do with the insurance premiums and hospital costs that are passed on to us.

so, why not take and lessen our premiums and putting them into a large national insurance fund?

as far as the Medicare bozos, they are screaming "Don't take away my Medicare." but they are the ones who scream the loudest ABOUT Medicare. are they blowing it out their mouths or their asses?

i heard one person at the riots called town meetings saying, "Read the Bill. Read the Bill." however, having read parts of the bill(s) in the short time i've been back, it's obvious who had NOT been reading the bill(s) - the idiot screaming "Read the Bill!" he was reading from talking points sent out by the Glen Becks of the country who not just twist the truth but fog them up and incite fear and by saying that Obama is going to decide when you will die.

i think the insurance companies and HMO's in particular have been doing a good job about deciding life and death for quite a long time now. and making money from it.

and those twitters by the #1 twit in the world - sarah palin? it's amazing that she doesn't stab herself in the back of her throat with her spiked heels when she puts both of her feet in her mouth because she doesn't know how to think. i believe she's just barely behind Michelle Bachman from MN for the dumbest broad in the world title. trust me, broad is a compliment for these two women. if i were a woman, i'd be insulted if someone referred to them as women. they're not even one of the girls.

and my personal opinion about all of this? IT'S ALL ABOUT RACE. if Obama was totally white, it wouldn't be as bad as it is. the one's doing the loudest screaming are old white men with their women-folk following in the love, honor and OBEY oath they still hold to. they all watch Fox and are dittoheads.

if the heat weren't so bad this year down in Honduras because they've had very little rain during this rainy season, i'd go back. i loved working with the kids in the schools for the last week.

at least i'm only here for a couple of weeks. i'm off to Egypt, Greece and Italy at the end of the month for three weeks.

maybe the nutters will implode while i'm gone?

nahhhhhhhhh...

the devil, you say?

Crooks and Liars had this photo-op of Michelle Bachmann [R-MN] who may not only be the nuttiest congressperson in the country but possibly in the entire country, if not the whole world.



scary...

after hearing what comes out of her mouth about the government and our country's history, i wonder how she was able to pass a required Constitution test to graduate from elementary school, high school and college.

maybe it's not a requirement in Minnesota? i'll have to ask my friend who's from the state.

in Illinois you have to pass a Constitution test at all three levels to graduate.

obfuscating obfuscations...

the video from Rachel Maddow's show last night really speaks for itself. it's not just as obfuscation, it's pure hypocrisy.




and they call themselves christian!

i worry for Mr. Dias on appearing on Rachel's show.

anyone want to bet he is punished in some way? suspended? kicked out?

no bets? didn't think so...

another thing Mr. Vitter needs to keep zipped up...

Hurricane season begins June 1, and yet the Federal Emergency Management Agency still has no new director. Two months ago, President Obama nominated Craig Fugate, the state emergency chief who excelled in Florida. The choice was hailed widely, on both sides of the aisle, as ideal. But Mr. Fugate is being held hostage in the Senate by David Vitter of Louisiana.

Doin’ a Heck of a Job, Senator,
Editorial, New York Times
May 9, 2009

always at the people's expense. isn't politics republican-style fun?

i was going to give him/them a chance...

i decided that i cannot.

there is just too much at stake. the battle for change is slow and tedious. though it is necessary to work in this way for continued and permanent change, we cannot afford the comfort. Obama has to do some change in his own thinking and behaviour. in order to do away with the way things were always done in Washington, he need not compromise; he needs to destroy it.

until the ruling members of Congress are out, there will be no difference. there will be no progress. the work of the netroots movement is already being stymied by their blind faith. the roadshow in Elkhart and Fort Meyers was just that - a roadshow. now there needs to be substance.

the first two people that i believe need to go? Pelosi and Reid. they are just going to perpetuate the normal way things have been done.

the next is the Republicans - the entire party. they have been obstructionists ever since Reagan and Gingrich and they hold a new theory behind their behaviour. one that smacks of a reworking of the Divine Right of Kings. privilege is undemocratic and unfair, and they are the epitome of both.



as a reminder: i am not nor was i an Obama supporter after he announced running for the presidency. he reneged on a promise he made to the people of Illinois and he always took the no-road in his decision making. it doesn't work in Washington, and he needs to learn that fast. so if what i write seems harsh, it is. as i said above, there is too much at stake. and if i sound bitter, it's the taste in my mouth because, "I told you so."

no comment...

the HELL i won't comment...

Obama Backs Off a Reversal on Secrets (New York Times, February 9, 2009)

in response to a case before the Ninth Circuit Court

...Binyam Mohamed, an Ethiopian native, and four other detainees filed suit against a subsidiary of Boeing for arranging flights for the Bush administration’s “extraordinary rendition” program, in which terrorism suspects were secretly taken to other countries, where they say they were tortured.

The new administration, who criticized the Bush administration for its handling of terrorism cases, invoked the exact same stance concerning states-secrets

When asked by the justices,

...a government lawyer, Douglas N. Letter, made the same state-secrets argument on Monday, startling several judges on the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.

“Is there anything material that has happened” that might have caused the Justice Department to shift its views, asked Judge Mary M. Schroeder, an appointee of President Jimmy Carter, coyly referring to the recent election.

“No, your honor,” Mr. Letter replied.

Judge Schroeder asked, “The change in administration has no bearing?”

Once more, he said, “No, Your Honor.” The position he was taking in court on behalf of the government had been “thoroughly vetted with the appropriate officials within the new administration,” and “these are the authorized positions,” he said.

The court was surprised and inquired again. The reponse:

“No, your honor,” he said once more. The position he was taking in court on behalf of the government had been “thoroughly vetted with the appropriate officials within the new administration,” and “these are the authorized positions,” he said.

That produced an angry response from Anthony D. Romero, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union, which is representing the plaintiffs in the case.

“This is not change,” he said in a statement. “This is definitely more of the same. Candidate Obama ran on a platform that would reform the abuse of state secrets, but President Obama’s Justice Department has disappointingly reneged on that important civil liberties issue. If this is a harbinger of things to come, it will be a long and arduous road to give us back an America we can be proud of again.”

so, here is the first of what i fear will be a litany of my making this statement:

I TOLD YOU SO!

there will be no change, real change that is. Obama is first and foremost a politician. Nothing more; nothing less.

as another example, Obama has already indicated he is going to take more time to consider revoking DADT. As one blogger, and the New York Times, have already asked, "How many more studies do we have to have when all the research and surveys show this to no longer be a big issue with the brass even asking the same question.

again i say

I TOLD YOU SO!

and so it begins...

The litany of crimes and blunders by the Bush Administration began with an interview on Keith Olbermann last night of NSA Analyst Russell Tice who said that private citizens, including journalists, were wiretapped and eavesdropped - all secretly and without permission from the courts. [see Buzzflash: NSA Spied on Journalists]

As i said in previous posts, the truth is going to start coming out. The one thing it's going to prove is how distressed the government actually became and how compromised.

Previous administrations may have weakened the Executive Branch with actions that were taken, but the Bushies has put the entire constitutional system at question and in jeopardy. They have taken the Declaration of Independence and put it on its head.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

He has obstructed the Administration of Justice by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers.

He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.

He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Powe

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:

For protecting them, by a mock Trial from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:

For depriving us in many cases, of the benefit of Trial by Jury:

For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Yes, these are lines taken directly from the Declaration of Independence. The he in the lines refers to another George - the III.

It is going to take a long time to reestablish the democracy we've enjoyed for more than two-hundred years, to put the separation of the three branches back into place so that they can provide checks and balances again, and to build the trust the people have in their government.

Mr. Obama has his work cut out for him. It will take some time, but the one thing history has proven, whether it be the Civil War, Teapot Dome, or Watergate, we've been able to step up and correct the abuses that knocked the march forward off its tracks.

I just hope that this time these abuses are not so earth-shattering that they can't be fixed. Being the cynic that I am, I'm not at all sure it can happen in my lifetime.

I do have one suggestion that I think will help - term limits in the House and Senate just as in the Presidency and eliminate life-tenure for justices and judges. Six consecutive two-year terms for Representatives and two for the Senate. Twelve years is long enough. Reevaluation of judges and justices on a set schedule by both/either legislative and citizen election procedures. If these men/women don't have to be politicking and running for reelection starting the day after an election, perhaps the focus will be on bringing about the true reasons for government - a contract between citizens for their own and future generations, justice for all people, equality for everyone and a sharing of the benefits equally.

and so it begins...

where is the "change" we can believe in?

so far, almost every appointment Obama has made is a Clintonite!

he was elected with the help and power of youth, African-Americans and LGBTQ.

so far, there are very few of them...

looks like more same old, same old to me.

soooo, where is the change?

just asking...

presidential press conferences...

is it my imagination or does it seem like we've had more press conferences from President-elect Barack Obama since November 4th than we have in the entire eight years of the Tsar's regime?

just asking...

there is one other thing everybody in Chicago is saying...

I'm sick of hearing about this s***.

the national media is having a field day...

and everyone with whom i'm talking here in Chicago is amused.

we shrug our shoulders because the idea of corruption in the city goes back well over a hundred years. the history of the city around the turn of the 19th to the 20th centuries makes fascinating reading in books like The Devil in the White City and Sin in the Second City: Madams, Ministers, Playboys, and the Battle for America's Soul, two of the more unique stories.

truthfully, Chicago can be blamed for the ascension of religion into politics that has had the country in a mess for the last 20-30 years. the stage was set right here. if you're familiar with the second book i mentioned, Sex in the Second City, you will discover just how that is the truth.

our biggest amazement is just how stupid Gov. Blago has been. real stupid! one local politician told one of the local TV stations that he is learning sign language to talk with colleagues because "You have to believe that everyone you're talking is wearing a wire." sad, but true.

Rachel Maddow last night pointed out that the media in Chicago was not focusing on what Blago did but on the possibility that he might just be loco. she seemed surprised with it. there are stories popping up about his delusions and behaviours all over the Chicago media. Check out this story in today's Chicago Sun-Times: Hairbrained? Is Blago's hair a sign of sickness?

or the Chicago Tribune: By Chicago standards, Blagojevich isn't crazy.

Illinois' Attorney General, Lisa Madigan [who i wouldn't trust as far as i can spit either] is talking about going to the Illinois Supreme Court to declare Blago unfit: What's next for Blagojevich? Removal?



Obama at his new conference this morning was asked what's wrong with politics in Illinois. he has two views of people involved in government, first as service to others and second as a business; a business that says, "What's in it for me?" he went on to say that there is a great history of Illinois politicians who have been of the former view, but you also have people with bad habits and a culture of politics as a means of self-aggrandizement. that has to change. the latter is the far end of the spectrum, but there are elements that are more subtle in the middle. he mentioned other governments even the federal that do things for political reasons. he hopes his campaign modeled and hi administration will model it. [the previous are more or less my notes while listening to Obama this morning.]

i would add another element - enriching your friends. Bush is using his pen and pencil to do all kinds of orders that Mr. Obama can't do anything about for at least a year. today he doomed polar bears by an order allowing more exploration for oil, gas, etc. and he is about ready to destroy the Utah Redrock wilderness for the same thing.

of course, this is the same thing as Blago did, but Tsar George was willing to wait the eight years to get all the money after he leaves the White House. Blago wanted the money now. it's all a matter of degree.

to paraphrase an old adage:

politicians - you can't live with them...
and you can't kill them.

[for those of you unfamiliar with the original, the word politician was family.]

one of the sadder parts to the Blago business is...

...the Illinois state legislature was getting ready to vote on a bill giving civil union rights to same-sex partners. Blago was a supporter and said he would sign the bill if it came to his desk. his sister-in-law, Debbie Mell, was just elected to the Illinois House of Representatives as openly lesbian/gay, ironically to Blago's own old state seat in the House.

now, that's all on hold. [i'm sure Peter LaBarbera is down on his knees thanking his god for that right now.] it may not even be possible for the new legislature taking office in January to deal with it.

with the pressing matter of this folly and the dire straits of the state budget, it's going to be tabled. it was the closest to passage from years past. Chicago and most of Illinois is quite accepting of LGBTQ citizens. there are detractors, like LaBarbera, but most go with a live and let live outlook.

big mistake in Illinois?

living in Chicagoland all my life, none of the Governor Blago stuff is surprising. [we can't spell the governor's name so we just call him Blago] it's politics as usual. it's tit for tat. it's the way things are and always have been.

ABC World News interviewed people in Chicago and made a point of saying that no one they spoke to here really saw it as a big deal. there was no real reaction to speak, well except from other places around the country that aren't used to the way we do things here. remember, we are The City That Works, and there are reasons for that.

at the least, it sells newspapers and that's something that the Chicago Tribune can use right now.

however, did U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald get pushed into something that will not hold up in court? is there a political agenda for which he has fallen? was he made to jump the gun before he had a solid case? think about it.


what exactly did Blago do that is illegal? Pat Buchanan brought this up on the Cris Matthews' show tonight. Blago is taped saying some things he could do, some things he could ask for, and some things that had naughty words in it. does saying things that might or could happen constitute illegal behaviour?

did he accept any bribe? did he coerce any one to do anything illegal? did he break any ethics laws? these are all questions that will have to be answered in a court of law.

now, they are reporting that Rahm Emanuel was the one who alerted Fitzgerald. possibly because Blago would not name the person that Obama and Rahm wanted to replace Obama in the Senate? like i said in the first paragraph - politics as usual, and Emanuel is an expert at it, even more than Blago.

i may have used this metaphor in previous posts, but it bears repeating. in Chicago we have da Bears, da Bulls, da Cubs, da Sox, and da Blackhawks but the favorite sport in the city [county and state for that matter] is politics.

now the rest of the country gets to be part of the team playing, fan rooting, unquestioning supporting, cross-town fighting...

enjoy...


oh, and if i may add my 2¢, i think Governor Blago should go ahead and name Obama's replacement, that is totally within his legal right as governor, but i think that he should screw them all by naming his arch-enemy's daughter to the post - Lisa Madigan! her father, Speaker of the Illinois House of Representatives Michael Madigan, has been doing everything in his power to undermine everything that not just Blago but all other Democrats and Republicans in Illinois have been trying to do. IMHO, only for getting her elected governor. Madigan has refused to even meet with Blago for years.

i'd love to see some corruption stuff on them. everything they've done is under the (dis)guise of making her governor.

it would also make for greater sport...

the use of fear in the United States...

I would also add hatred, but it would be an oxymoron because hatred is being used to promote the fear.

It's taken me awhile to digest a report at Media Matters from November 13, 2008 -

Women, minorities, autistic children: Conservative radio's vitriol not reserved for Obama

by Eric Boehlert and Jamison Foser on their blog County Fair that is part of the broader Media Matters site.

Today, there was a follow-up to the report - Homophobic Hate Speech "More Than Offensive" - on County Fair that addresses the specific reaction to the LGBTQ venom that the conservative right-wing media spreads.

LGBTQ is only a part of the initial report. It includes smears against immigrants, sex & gender, race and ethnicity, the poor, "those with HIV/AIDS, people with autism, teachers, other radio hosts, comedians perceived as progressive, Democrats in the House and Senate, and the organizations that document their attacks."

Just one example cited in the article by ultra-conservative radio blatherer Michael Savage on his show The Savage Nation:

... Democratic Party's "membership is made up largely of minority blocs ... that are all against the white person..."

Racist, sexist, homophopic, anti-Latino, and all blatant and non-apologetic. All men, and women, are not created equal to these people. No matter what the Declaration of Independence nor the Constitution of the United States say, even though these men quote and spout it at every turn as justification for what they say.

Every member of the right-wing media has one thing in common. They all profess to be christian.

Yet when you read the article, listen to these people talk and hear the quotes from not only Savage but others like G. Gordon Liddy, Mark Levin, or Bill Cunningham, you see the blatant blindness they have to the law set down by their Jesus in the gospel of Luke,10: 25–37. There is no love in their words; there is no acceptance in their thinking; nor is there any "Go and do likewise."

These people spread fear and hatred in order to maintain their false sense of power. They are losing hold on what they know, deep down in their psyches, is no longer applicable. We no longer live in a White Anglo-Saxon Protestant world. The christian nation they so highly tout has created a world that wants what they have, and they are fighting to keep it away from them. These radio personalities speak out of both sides of their mouths - at the same time.

I recommend that you click on the links to the Media Matters report and today's follow-up. It is long and at times difficult to read without getting angry, but it puts into one place the hypocrisy and an accurate description of these people as the pharisees of today's world.

These men, and they are all men, are not ignorant; they are not stupid; they are idiots. An idiot, according to a group of fourth graders I taught one year, is someone who is too stupid to know they are ignorant.

fourth graders! that would be nine & ten-year olds...

socialism...

She [Sarah Palin] quickly went after opponent Barack Obama, saying his economic plan would raise taxes and equating it with socialism.

Gov. Palin holds rally in Noblesville, MSNBC, Fri., Oct. 17, 2008

socialism |ˈsō sh əˌlizəm|
noun
1. a political theory advocating state ownership of industry

Regulators give banks until mid-November to apply for stock sale to Treasury

WASHINGTON (Thomson Financial) - US banks will have until the middle of next month to apply for the right to participate in the Treasury Department's new capital purchase program, under which banks will sell billions of dollars worth of preferred stock to Treasury in return for much-needed liquidity, according to guidelines released today by key financial regulators.

Forbes.com, 10.20.08, 1:03 PM ET

Mr. McCain did vote for the rescue, didn't he?

This is state ownership, isn't it?

so, what is the difference? i'm confused.


I've traveled in some so-called socialist countries - Canada, France, Great Britain, Italy.... There is one thing that I can personally comment that I observed: I don't remember potholes in their roads; I have never read about bridges collapsing during rush hour; I visited schools that were not falling down and met life safety codes; and I remember that no one was ever turned away from getting care if they were ill.

These socialist countries also have free enterprise and capitalistic working alongside it. See, they have a view of government that they learned from a revolution and a civil war. It's called government by the people, for the people and these countries believe that government is supposed to make the people's lives better and is to work for them.

I wonder where they got that idea?

just asking...

the bottom line...

if anyone has any doubts about the disaster of the last eight years, this is the only information you need...






any questions?


I have one. How is the Mcpain economic plan going to help out?

The McCain Plan to Cut Oil Company Taxes by Nearly $4 Billion

The centerpiece of Sen. John McCain’s (R-AZ) tax plan is two huge tax cuts for Ameri-can corporations. As president, McCain would cut the corporate tax rate from 35 per-cent to 25 percent and allow corporations to deduct immediately all of their investments in equipment and technology. Reducing the corporate tax rate alone would deliver a $3.8 billion tax cut to the five largest American oil companies, according to a Center for American Progress Action Fund analysis of those companies’ financial statements....

The McCain plan would deliver approximately $170 billion a year in tax cuts to corporations, including some corporations that are very large and profitable. Just one of the proposals—cutting the corporate rate from 35 percent to 25 percent—would cut taxes for five largest U.S. oil companies by $3.8 billion a year (see table below). The five corporations analyzed—ExxonMobil, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, Valero Energy, and Marathon—are the five largest oil companies as ranked by Fortune Magazine. All are members of the Fortune 50. Together, they earned $80 billion worldwide in 2007

You can read the entire report at The American Progress in Action.org

any more questions?

little kids logic...

we maybe should consider letting them vote for preznit. their logic is so clear and easy to understand...


A nursery school teacher was delivering a station wagon full of kids home one day when a fire truck zoomed past. Sitting in the front seat of the truck was a Dalmatian dog. The children started discussing the dog's duties.

"They use him to keep crowds back," said one child.

"No," said another, "He's just for good luck."

A third child brought the argument to a close. "They use the dogs," she said firmly, "to find the fire hydrants."


maybe we could put this logic to use in the financial crisis?

nah... too easy!