Newsclipping of the Day :: Naomi Klein Interview

If you haven't read Naomi Klein's The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism this is a really good INTERVIEW with her today.

Praying This Will Come to our Little Town!

And the OFFICIAL WEBSITE

Let us all fall down and thank brother bill for tackling this subject.

“Since starting on Politically Incorrect in 1993, it has been my pleasure over the last decade and a half to make organized religion one of my favorite targets. I often explained to people, ‘I don’t need to make fun of religion, it makes fun of itself.’ And, then I go ahead and make fun of it too, just for laughs.

With religious fanatics like George Bush and Osama bin Laden now taking over the world, it seemed to me in recent years that this issue—this cause of debunking the man behind the curtain—needed to have a larger, more insistent and focused forum than late night television. I wanted to make a documentary, and I wanted it to be funny. In fact, since there is nothing more ridiculous than the ancient mythological stories that live on as today’s religions, this movie would try to be a real knee slapper. Unless, of course, you’re religious, then you might not like it.

Who could I get to direct me on such an epic event? In reality, there was only one man, and his name is Larry Charles. I hope that together we fulfilled that quest. Which really isn’t that hard, considering that comedically speaking, the topic of religion is pretty much hitting the side of a barn.

As a comedian, religion has always interested me—it was the single easiest subject to make jokes about. I think that tells us something: comedians look for things that don’t make sense, that are illogical.

Even as a young comedian, routines I did that got the biggest laughs and got me invited back on the Tonight Show were the religious ones—like the one about being half Catholic and half Jewish and bringing a lawyer into confession: ‘Bless me father for I have sinned—and I think you know Mr. Cohen…’

Politics is a rich area, but even politicians, although they promise some ridiculous stuff, don’t approach the level of, for example, the Mormon practice of promising couples a planet to rule over in the after life if they have a really good marriage on earth. They give you a planet—kinda like when someone gives you a certificate that says a star has been named after you—except here, they really give you the star!

Join me in this final battle between intelligence and stupidity that will decide the future of humanity. Coming soon to a house of false idols near you.”

-Bill Maher

Socialized Losses, Privatized Profits

If anybody wants to actually see the bill, HERE it is.

As the Magna Carta was to individual rights, this bill may very well be to the Fall of the American Empire.

Surely disaster will result, despite Nancy Pelosi's self-congratulation and smiles today at the press conference.

Precedent and the Law Being Swept Away in Financial Crisis

WOW

VOTE TODAY!

Be sure to go HERE and vote in this NOW (Bill Moyers) poll on whether or not Sarah Palin is qualified to be veep.

Newsclipping of the Day :: The Coming Security & Surveillance State

Canadian investigative journalist Naomi Klein--of No Logo and Disaster Capitalism fame--wrote a REALLY SCARY PIECE about all kinds of developments in harnessing the power of technology to spy on us all. It appeared 3 months ago now, in the Rolling Stone. And it is a whopper.

When the revolution comes, these simple tools will be used to stop it in its nascent state. Before guns and bombs and barricades and guillotines are even taken up.

Newsclipping of the Day :: John McCain and Wrecking our Economy

HERE is a completely scary piece on John McCain and Phil Gramm--McCain's dream Treasury Secretary--and their hefty roles in the current meltdown we see happening in the economy. I am really scared about where the bottom of this thing may be.

Meltdown?

What happened to The Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890 ??

Why doesn't it apply to the United States Government?

How can Bank of America be allowed to swallow Merril Lynch, to become an even bigger, unaccountable-to-anyone behemoth?

Why does our Government bail out big corporations--say Chrysler or Bear Stearns or AIG--but is unconcerned with its individual citizens facing bankruptcy over the mortgage crisis?

When did we start selectively enforcing the laws of the land and blowing off others?

Isn't our Supreme Court in place to prevent that happening?

The corruption and collusion and desperately dishonest GREEDY dealings happening right now WILL make it into Civics Textbooks and History Textbooks before long.

Will we go even deeper into the dark beyond this? Or will we wake up and make real, systemic change to resteer our course?

We are on a hairpin curve right now.

We are at such a turning point. We either plunge into a real Dark Age, in which we all become pawns and soldiers in a war waged by Corporations-as-Commanding-Generals; or, we make a real effort to rediscover what We the People means, and how that ethos is made manifest in our everyday life.

We have very little Government left, it has all been outsourced to crony capitalist "companies" such as Blackwater and Halliburton. Once we had Government, now we have Corporations.

The coup--performed by Corporations--has already occurred folks.

Newsclipping of the Day :: Lehman Bros Make Out!

This is sooo fake. but still funny.