G-EffingU.S.-E

This is how it should work in the U.S.:

Campaign via social media networks blocks Dutch bankers' bonuses | Business | The Observer

This is how is actually works in the U.S.:

Senate Dems cede more ground, offer Republicans $30 billion in budget cuts

Fucking Democrats selling us up the river... again.

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We hoped we elected Kennedy. Would have settled for Clinton. We got Bush-lite.

ThinkProgress � After Paying Zero Income Taxes, GE Plans To Ask Its Union Workers To Make Wage And Benefits Concessions

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Feingold calls for GE CEO Immelt to step down as Obama jobs chief | The Raw Story:

"'But what really adds insult to injury is the prestigious and influential position Jeffrey Immelt holds as chair of President Obama’s Council on Jobs and Competitiveness,' the former Democratic senator wrote. 'That's wrong.'

'Someone like Immelt, who has helped his company evade taxes on its huge profits -- and is now looking to workers to take major pay cuts after his compensation was doubled -- should not lead the administration’s effort to create jobs,' he added.

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Daily Kos: America is Giving Up: Why Geithner and GE CEO MUST GO!:

"The hypocrisy and political ineptitude here is appalling. We're talking about an administration that axed Shirley Sherrod just days after trumped up reports by right-wing media smeared her as a racist. Sure, Tom Vilsack later apologized. But the incident showed that the White House is not above getting rid of someone solely based on fears that such a person would be a political liability.

Jeffrey Immelt is a HUGE liability. He is like a disillusionment and despair machine. He is a bright big bonus golden parachute package to the right wrapped up with a shiny bow. Ordinary people already know this story. It's just cementing in their minds that both parties are puppets of the super-rich."

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No, We Can't

I'm pretty sure if you put me in a room with the Prez, without me saying a word, five minutes later I'd come out with his lunch money, his bicycle, all his comic books and a sandwich made by the First Lady... possibly his shoes.... OK, definitely his shoes.

AMERICAblog News: Government shutdown, here we come!:

"For some reason we still can't fathom, the President simply joined the Hoover Economics bandwagon (as Krugman calls it), risking our economic recovery, in addition to a lot of good government services. Anyone who complained about the President's poor negotiating skills during health care reform, or during the recent cave on the Bush tax cuts, will recognize the pattern. This is why Joe, Chris and I said early on in this administration that the President's weakness on any one issue shouldn't be ignored or written off as a one-time thing. It's the way he operates, and it will affect every single deal he ever makes on every single issue you care about.

I do love how the Republicans keep saying $60bn in cuts, and the Dems keep inching towards the Republicans, while the GOP holds firm. Same old same old. It's not a negotiation, it's a conquest. Business as usual. What I fear even more than a shutdown is the President's refusal to ever not-blink during a negotiation. He'll never let it to come that - he doesn't let hostage takers kill the hostages, and will do almost anything to make it stop - and the Republicans know it."

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From one Nobel prize winner to another.

The President Is A Lousy Negotiator - NYTimes.com:

"So, can we now count on Obama, at least, not to preemptively surrender to the right by proposing Social Security cuts — cuts that we know will be a starting point, not an end to the discussion?

No, we can’t."

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Jon Stewart ‘gives up’ on GE tax shenanigans�|�Raw Replay

Nightly News stays mum on GE’s $0 tax bill - Yahoo! News:

"In spite of robust profits of $14.2 billion worldwide, GE has calculated a corporate tax bill for 2010 that adds up to zero, via a creative series of tax referrals and revenue shifts. (This was, indeed, the second year running that the company—which has an enormous, and famously nimble, 975-employee tax division, led by former Treasury official John Samuels"

Heckuva job, Obama.

G.E.’s Strategies Let It Avoid Taxes Altogether - NYTimes.com:

A PRESIDENT’S BUSINESS LIAISON
In January, President Obama named Jeffrey R. Immelt, General Electric’s chief executive, to head the President’s Council on Jobs and Competitiveness. “He understands what it takes for America to compete in the global economy,” Mr. Obama said."

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Asides from the lunacy that one would be poor making 174k a year, how about NOT HAVING 6 FUCKING KIDS.

And the mound of debt is your own damn fault.

GOP Rep: I'm 'Struggling' On My $174K Salary (VIDEO) | TPMDC:

"I can guarantee you, or most of you, I guarantee that I have more debt than all of you. With 6 kids, I still pay off my student loans."

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Just sayin...

Chinese Traffic Cameras In Heze City, Shandong Capture Gruesome Accidents (VIDEO)

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Taxes: Admission to a Civilized Society

Not all Progressives. Some realize he's home where he is.

John R. Talbott: Progressives Cry Out: "Obama, Come Home":

"Last month, Obama named Jeffrey Immelt to the President's Economic Recovery Board and then we find out it was GE that designed and built the Japanese reactors. Yesterday we hear that GE is not paying any taxes on $14 billion of profits but is instead receiving a $3.2 billion rebate. And Immelt is the man that is supposed to be investigating how to close corporate tax loopholes?"

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Japanese corporations agree to forgo tax cuts, for good of their country | The Raw Story

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States broke? Maybe they cut taxes too much | McClatchy

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Maybe somebody should do something. Little help here. Dems?

Telecoms want ‘to put Netflix out of business entirely,’ Sen. Franken tells SXSW:

"'I came here to warn you the party may be over,' Franken said. 'They're coming after the Internet hoping to destroy the very thing that makes it such an important [medium] for independent artists and entrepreneurs: its openness and freedom.'

He warned that pay-walls may soon be erected to enhance the content of wealthy interests, ensuring some voices are heard over others and removing the level playing field of today's Internet. Franken called this a new business model that telecoms like Comcast were keen on implementing, purely in the interests of making money."

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What Teachers Make

Herbert's last column at the NYT:

Losing Our Way - NYTimes.com:

"The U.S. has not just misplaced its priorities. When the most powerful country ever to inhabit the earth finds it so easy to plunge into the horror of warfare but almost impossible to find adequate work for its people or to properly educate its young, it has lost its way entirely."
.....

"G.E. is the nation’s largest corporation. Its chief executive, Jeffrey Immelt, is the leader of President Obama’s Council on Jobs and Competitiveness. You can understand how ordinary workers might look at this cozy corporate-government arrangement and conclude that it is not fully committed to the best interests of working people.

Overwhelming imbalances in wealth and income inevitably result in enormous imbalances of political power. So the corporations and the very wealthy continue to do well. The employment crisis never gets addressed. The wars never end. And nation-building never gets a foothold here at home.

New ideas and new leadership have seldom been more urgently needed."

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ThinkProgress � London: Half A Million In The Streets To Protest Massive Government Cuts

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Daily Kos: Why Do We Put Up With It?:

"Looking at all this from across the Atlantic, a German acquaintance of mine recently noted “if this happened in Germany, cars would be burning in the streets.” Why, he wondered, were working and middle class Americans so docile in the face of this aggression by Wall Street and its paid-for politicians in both major parties? Why were the protests in Wisconsin an anomaly, rather than part of a nation-wide outcry against the persistent assaults on the vast majority of the population by the plutocratic few?"

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The West coast through progressive eyes

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DBT Week in Review - 3/25/11

DBT!

Rolling Stone Live: Drive-By Truckers Play Pared-Down Southern Rock | Rolling Stone Culture | Video Blog | Music Entertainment Videos

The Righteous Path - The Barnes & Noble Review: "Robert Christgau"

Suicidegirls.comInterviews - Mike Cooley, Drive-By Truckers

Skyscraper Magazine � Drive-By Truckers

KEXP 90.3 FM - Live Performance: Drive-By Truckers on 3/13/2011

Amazon.com: The Secret to a Happy Ending: Drive-By Truckers, Barr Weissman: Instant Video

Review: Drive By Truckers at the McDonald | Eugene Daily News

Album Review: Drive-By Truckers – Go-Go Boots | One Thirty BPM

Drive-By Truckers at the Ogden - Denver - Slideshows

Truckers treat fans live

The Drive By Truckers-Go Go Boots review � WickedChannel.com:

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YouTube - CNN: Music, Drive-By Truckers keep on truckin'

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Wes Freed - Mag-Bats

My DBT/Wes Freed inspired shoes are done! Not bad... - Gravity's Gone

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Wes' band The Mag-Bats performing at Crackers' Campout East:

Campout East

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Swampland:The Wes Freed Interview

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Eddie Hinton

An Open Bama Letter to Oxford American � The Nashville Bridge

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Jason Isbell

SXSW Interview: Jason Isbell | Rolling Stone Music | Videos

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Will Johnson

HughShows: First/Last 'The Essentials'-Will Johnson

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The Civil Wars

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Music

R.I.P. Pinetop Perkins - Americana and roots music - No Depression

Axis Of Awesome Updates 'Four Chord Song' To Include 'Double Rainbow' Lyrics (VIDEO)

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Getting Rolled

If only we had a President and Democratic party willing to fight. Leadership, I think it is called.

We are getting our asses kicked daily.

AMERICAblog News: Warren Buffet: Wealthiest winning class war in US:

"The real and only class warfare in America is the ultra-rich versus everyone else. And yes, they're winning in a big way and the Democrats can't figure out how to even slow it down. Heck, we even have a Democratic president that talks about Reagan as though he was one of the great presidents of the US"

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New Civil War erupts, led by super rich, GOP Paul B. Farrell - MarketWatch:

"Wake up America. You are under attack. Stop kidding yourself. We are at war. In fact, we have been fighting this Civil War for a generation, since Ronald Reagan was elected in 1981. Recently Buffett renewed the battle cry: The “rich class” is winning this war. Except most Americans still don’t realize they’re losing, don’t see the prize at stake.

All this was predicted back in September 2008 by Naomi Klein, author of “Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism.” Yes, we were warned that the GOP’s Reaganomics ideology would stage a rapid comeback … warned before the market collapsed … before Wall Street was virtually bankrupt. … before Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson conned Congress into $787 billion in bailouts … warned before Obama’s 2008 election"

....

“But rest assured,” continued Klein in September 2008, Reaganomics “ideology will come roaring back when the bailouts are done. The massive debts the public is accumulating to bail out the speculators will then become part of a global budget crisis that will be the rationalization for deep cuts to social programs, and for a renewed push to privatize.”"

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Infographic: How unions succeeded in making your workplace safer in the 100 years since the deadly Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire

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He was against illegal wars before he was for them.

Joe Biden Warned In 2007 That He'd Impeach Bush For Waging War Without Congressional Approval

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Change and all.

Obama takes ‘unprecedented’ aim at leakers | The Raw Story:

"WASHINGTON (AFP) – Elected on a promise of a more transparent government, President Barack Obama has taken 'unprecedented' aim at leakers who divulge classified information to journalists, critics say.

'We've seen the current president bringing five prosecutions so far... against people for whistleblowing, for leaks of classified information,' said Daniel Ellsberg, famous for his 1971 leak of the 'Pentagon Papers,' which helped turn the tide of public opinion against the Vietnam War.

'All previous presidents put together brought three prosecutions... We see a campaign here against whistleblowing that is highly unprecedented in legal terms.'"

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Expect More Losing

Love Uptown Almanac:

A Cross to Bear | Uptown Almanac

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This slogan is not Sheen approved (and just as vapid as anything Bush came up with).

Daily Kos: Winning the future is a great slogan:

"One day, we will all be super-educated and therefore able to outwit everyone else in some sort of global game. One day, we will build stuff again, like bridges and tunnels. One day, we will become a great manufacturing power again. But all of the things that allowed us to do these things in the past, like strong unions, industrial policy, inexpensive education, heavy regulation, and taxation that redistributed wealth downward will not be found in this budget because those things aren't on the table in any branch of government. What is on the table is a future, a future where everything will work out. We will win! Hooray for optimism!

As for today and tomorrow, expect more losing."

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And Geitner is about to blow holes in the few things this bill does do. It'll be just like it never happened (Until it happens again they bail out these bastards with our money again)

Wall Street Won! Nothing to Prevent Another Crisis, Says Former FDIC Chairman Bill Isaac: Tech Ticker, Yahoo! Finance:

"Crisis may create opportunity, but Congress completely flubbed its opportunity to enact meaningful financial reform in the aftermath of the worst crisis since the Great Depression, says the former chairman of the FDIC, Bill Isaac.

The Dodd-Frank reform bill--the one major piece of legislation to emerge since the financial crisis--is mostly meaningless, says Isaac, who is also the chairman of regional bank Fifth Third. Dodd-Frank does nothing to address the root causes of the financial crisis, Isaac says, and it won't prevent the next one."

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Brutal out there.

Hawaiian man killed while surfing at Mavericks

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Nowhere Else to Go

The 'having nowhere else to go' battered wife syndrome Democratic mentality will doom us. If we keep electing the same useless assholes over and over again, well....

Labor movement could kick-start a ‘popular revolt’ in the U.S., Nader claims�:

"In an extended interview with Middle East news network Al Jazeera, consumer advocate and repeat U.S. presidential candidate Ralph Nader suggested that President Barack Obama is not supporting the labor movement because “they have nowhere else to go” except for Democrats.

“If he doesn’t stand up for those millions of workers, we might as well call him a president in a corporate prison called the White House,” Nader said, likening Obama’s “playing” of labor unions to the stretching of an elastic band."

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Amen.

Daily Kos: House Progressives reflect on being in the minority:

"'The sum and substance of our political strategy can't be waiting for them to fuck up.'"

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AMERICAblog News: Foolish consistency: the hobgoblin of little minds:

"These are just two more examples of many messages that the Dems might use to good result if they could just maintain more discipline than a herd of cats.

But recall what Ralph Waldo Emerson said: 'A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines.'

In our current political climate, the quote applies to both parties, but for different reasons. Republicans maintain the foolish consistency -- or better, the fraudulent one -- that they favor small government, low taxes and free enterprise. But the only reason the GOPers succeed in this delusion is because most Dems maintain a foolishly consistent faith in bipartisanship and a similar unwillingness to play hardball. And finally, the mainstream media contributes its own foolish consistency to the train wreck this nation has become: it enables the little minds of both parties by fawning over and identifying with the establishment even as it fails utterly to pursue its principle mission: to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable."

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Starts at the top.

"America's True Crisis: Zero Vision, Zero Leadership":

"Jim Hightower is right. But, he fails to see that the lack of leadership starts at the White House and inhabits the entire Democratic Party. I do not expect leadership from republicans. The republican idea of leadership is to fuck up the nation in some weird idea that making the rich richer without producing anything of value will benefit all, when instead it harms all."

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Daniel Ellsberg arrested at protest for Bradley Manning:

"Manning 'is being selectively prosecuted, pure and simple,' said Zeese.

Whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg of Pentagon Papers fame and retired US colonel Ann Wrightwere among 30 activists detained amid the peaceful demonstration at the Quantico Marine base in Virginia, according to the group."

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Bully

Candidate Obama promised to protect and support whistle-blowers. President Obama's actions reveal otherwise.

The Abuse of Private Manning - NYTimes.com:

"Philip Crowley, a State Department spokesman, committed the classic mistake of a Washington mouthpiece by telling the truth about Private Manning to a small group (including a blogger): that the military’s treatment of Private Manning was “ridiculous and counterproductive and stupid.” He resigned on Sunday.

Far more troubling is why President Obama, who has forcefully denounced prisoner abuse, is condoning this treatment. Last week, at a news conference, he said the Pentagon had assured him that the terms of the private’s confinement “are appropriate and are meeting our basic standards.” He said he could not go into details, but details are precisely what is needed to explain and correct an abuse that should never have begun."

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Actors, musicians demand end to inhumane treatment of Bradley Manning | The Raw Story

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WTF.

AMERICAblog Gay: Judge asks why Obama admin. seeking unusually tough charges against GetEqual DADT protesters, invokes MLK:

"What happened next was surprising to those in the Courtroom. Judge Facciola got up out of his chair, while pacing, gave a speech about the history of the civil rights movement in the United States. He intimated that there were trumped up charges back in the 50s and 60s, too. And, he evoked the Shuttlesworth v. Birmingham case, Martin Luther King's 'letters from the Birmingham jail' and how civil rights protesters were often brought to court to face stricter charges. The judge clearly linked the protest over Don't Ask, Don't Tell to those earlier civil rights protests."

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If you see this guy at an ass-kicking contest, best run away.

One-Legged Wrestler Wins NCAA Title | ThePostGame

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The perfect response to a bully. Democrats should be forced to watch this until they get it.

Casey Heynes | Bully Video | SportsGrid

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Dream house.

Historic hideway / 1913 home highlighted by quiet location, lower-level speakeasy

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DBT Week in Review - 3/18/11

DBT!

A 'Secret' from Drive-By Truckers - CNN.com

Interview: Patterson Hood of Drive-By Truckers On New Album and Politics of Our Time | HeadCount | Register to Vote!

Drive-By Truckers Rock Out "Everybody Needs Love" @ TeamCoco.com

Keep on truckin'

Album Review: Drive-By Truckers – Go-Go Boots | One Thirty BPM

Patteron Hood of Drive-By Truckers talks to ILSUDH2 | I Listen So You Don't Have To

Drive By Truckers - 3/12/11 - a set on Flickr

Drive-By Truckers make a departure | Vancouver, Canada | Straight.com

Drive-By Truckers deliver at sold-out Seattle show | Seattle's Big Blog - Seattle Post-Intelligencer

De ascultat: cronici albume: Drive-By Truckers - Go-Go Boots

Uprooted Music Revue: Patterson Hood of The Drive-By Truckers Talks "Go-Go Boots"

Q&A With Drive-By Truckers | OurStage

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Brent Best - Slobberbone



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Night One at 35 Conferette '11: Thank Goodness For Mavis Staples and Slobberbone, Who Helped Us Forget The Scheduling Problems. - Dallas Music - DC9 At Night:

"Oh, and to add even more to the evening's pleasant musical surprises, before Slobberbone's set, Best told us that his solo album will be done this spring and that Slobberbone will finally hit the studio this summer to record their first new record in almost a decade."

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Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit

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Wes-Jyl Freed - Dirtball

▶ Dirt Ball DRUNK by Otway3:

"Dirt Ball in the Swamp with Page Wilson"

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Booker T. Jones



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Doc Dailey - Couch X Couch West



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Dexteens

Dexateens, G-Side to perform at Oxford American concert in Florence, Alabama | al.com

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Music

Because he's seen fire and he's seen rain AND seen a tree.

James Taylor Keeps Skiing On Broken Leg

Scott Barry Kaufman, Ph.D.: After the Show: The Many Faces of the Performer

Nate Dogg Dead: Rapper Nathaniel D. Hale Dies At 41

Alice in Chains Bassist Mike Starr Dead | TMZ.com

Phil Collins Quitting Music Due to Health Problems - Music News, Phil Collins : People.com

Railroad Revival Tour: Mumford & Sons, Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeroes, and Old Crow Medicine Show Embark on Epic Train Tour of American Southwest - Transportation - GOOD

American Pickers’ Danielle Colby gets sexy for Farmageddon Records CD release : starcasm.net

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