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excerpt:It’s strange sometimes how things occur. Nevertheless, what goes around will always, ultimately, come around.click link to read the entire article
A very short while ago I sat staring at the contents of a package I had just received from the US Department of Veterans Affairs. It was a certificate with the US eagle and concomitant coat of arms emblazoned in gold at its top, which read, in relevant part, “The United States of America honors the memory of” my late father “in recognition” of his “devoted and selfless consecration to the service of our country in the Armed Forces of the United States.” It was signed by the current President of the United States.
As I stared blankly down at the awarded certificate and thought of my deceased father, the tears swelled and streamed down my face and I wondered how many thousands of sons and daughters of US armed forces Black American veterans had received such certificates honoring their fathers or mothers. I thought of the pain, futility and the utter horror of combat and of war for the masses of people. And then, like a lightning bolt, the thought struck me that some in this nation are actually seriously considering the candidacy of Barack Obama to be President of the United States and concomitantly Commander-In-Chief of its potent Armed Forces.
This is a man who has enjoyed the fruits of America at the blood and expense of Black Americans and others, but who has paid virtually no dues.
This is a man whose father had also enjoyed the fruits of university schooling in America but subsequently returned to his native Kenya.
This is a man, who also like his father before him, neither served in a branch of the US military nor in any organization in America opposed to US military adventurism.
This is a man who as a deeply corporate military industrial complex US Presidential candidate, has called for “unilateral” US military actions in other nations. [And why not? After-all, his father, himself, or his wife and children were not and will not be the ones killing and being killed.]
This is a man who, in Chicago, pretended to support the human rights of the Palestinian people but who is now known to be a huge supporter of the apartheid Zionists and their powerful and insidious political lobby in America. This is a man who dares opportunistically to feign admiration for the late Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., but does not share the collective memory, pain and deep concerns of Black America, other people of color, or even of numerous white Americans for that matter - in the ongoing struggle for equality and justice in this nation.
[...]
This man, Barack Obama, is but a more articulate, younger, and shinier version of the current and infamous US Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, adorning himself dangerously and abundantly in superficiality and double-speak.
Times are perilous and how deeply I fear for my Black, Brown, and Red sisters and brothers. Indeed, how I fear for America as a whole, and the peoples of the world. It would seem that the US imperialists of the corporate and military elite may have at last found a black face. Unfortunately, for the moment at least, some of the American people might very well be blinded by the lightness of this black face, until such time as the horrors really begin to sink in. But will it be too late then?
wst... had our best traffic day yesterday -- thanks to michiel rivero, who runs the website what really happened, for linking to our post about unhinged democrats.
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statcounter for 30 january 2008
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wdsu reports that republican state senator (rino) julie quinn is being sued by jefferson parish in an attempt to get her to fix up her house. senator quinn was cited last september for a code violation and she refused to comply, so jefferson parish has taken her to court. wdsu says that around fifty residents in senator quinn's subdivision were cited, forty-six complied and brought their homes up to code.
a sad day for the democratic party. by the way, have you heard about larry sinclair's allegations of adult drug use and homosexuality by barack obama? details here, here and here.
UPDATE: robert novak alluded to larry sinclair being a clinton plant in november 2007
UPDATE: larry sinclair has more barack obama drugs and homosexual sex limo party videos for youwe've gotta admit that we've had more than one good horse laugh at barack obama's rather misguided backers who, by the way, are alarmingly reminiscent of the snake-charmed and beguiled piyush "bobby" jindal supporters, ever since larry sinclair's barack obama video burst on the scene.
----ORIGINAL POST----
now much to our glee and entertainment we see that their strategery is a weak attempt to tie the larry sinclair allegations around ron paul and his supporters neck. a local blog, cenlamar, run by democratic party apparatchiks has joined in the fray.
this is very odd since ron paul (always) had zero chance of receiving the republican nomination. it would seem that attempting to link mr. sinclair to john mcmadman mccain or flip romney would be the prudent move. oh wait - neither has any online support to speak of.
the thing is though is that bloggers and netizens who have been either outright paul supporters or sympathetic to his cause have been shown to be the most internet savvy. so it makes sense that the internet talk over the larry sinclair video would naturally be more likely to be seen as having a ron paul link simply because paul's supporters are more likely to be using the internet in the first place and not because there is some conspiracy amongst ron paul supporters.
speaking of conspiracies, we had to chuckle at how cenlamar seemingly attempts to knock and dismiss jeff rense as a merely a conspiracy theory site, while at the same time peddling their own barack obama/larry sinclair/ron paul conspiracy theory.====
related posts
city council harold chambers dispute clipsee central la politics blog for more recap of the alexandria city council meeting!====
related posts
barbaro photo courtesy www.kentuckyderby.com/2006LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) -- Barbaro will be buried at the site of his greatest triumph. The 2006 Kentucky Derby champion, who was euthanized Jan. 29, 2007 from complications of a breakdown suffered at the Preakness, will have his ashes interred at Churchill Downs.
Barbaro's remains will be placed outside of an entrance gate in a large elevated space enclosed by bricks. The site will also include a bronze statue commissioned by owners Roy and Gretchen Jackson and loaned to the track as part of the official memorial site. The track will install a bronze marker at the site soon. The track plans to unveil the statue and formally dedicate the site in 2009.
Gretchen Jackson said Churchill Downs was the best place to honor the colt, who won the Derby by a dominating 6- 1/2 lengths before being injured in the Preakness two weeks later.
"(The Derby) was for us the greatest race that Barbaro ran," she said. "When we think about Barbaro, we think about him running around the track out there. We'll always have that joyous memory." ~ link
according to the town talk (see link) former alexandria mayoral chief of staff harold chambers is set to get a big "consulting" contract from the city of alexandria, la.
town talk excerpt:"Chambers, who was chief of staff was fired by then-Mayor Ned Randolph in September 2005. Chambers' dismissal came after he called Cleco officials following a city executive session in which two former Cleco employees accused the utility company of defrauding Alexandria..."
so lets see if we can get this right...heres a guy, mr. chambers, who was the then mayors chief of staff. the city had an executive session which is a private, non-public session in which they supposedly learned that cleco had been overbilling the city to the tune of millions of dollars...so mr. chambers called cleco to let them know what was discussed in the private, secret executive session.
now there is a lawsuit, in federal court no less and still on going, where the city is suing cleco for among a litany of other things including "intending to cause economic damage to the city while benefiting cleco." now, amazingly, the city wants to hire the guy who ratted them out to cleco to be a consultant and the person who is pushing this idea is non other than charles frederick "droopy-draws" smith. you think there isnt some (no pun intended) blackmail going on?
with this news article (see link) we see that at media general, inc. managerial 'puzzlement' starts at the very top of this company and extends downward into the management at its local properties such as kalb-tv.
media general's stock has been in a virtual free-fall for the past year declining according to the news article almost 50%. as recently as 09 january 2008, media general's stock hit a 52 week low of $15.75.
nine days later, on the 18th january 2008, it was reported that harbert management corp. through its hedge fund, harbinger capital partners, had increased their holdings in media general from 9.9% to 18.4%.
harbart/harbinger didnt waste any time because on the 21st, it was reported that they wanted to "share ideas on value" with media general.Harbert Management Corp., the second-largest shareholder of Media General Inc., may seek a transaction that would boost the stock price of the Richmond-based newspaper and television company.
sure enough, on the 25th january 2008 reuters carried an item by michele gershberg, about how harbinger capital partners had formally filed regulatory papers in which they disclosed that they were seeking "to elect three members to the board of u.s. newspaper and broadcast company media general inc." the names of the men harbinger plans to nominate to media general's board to replace board members whose term expires at the company's 2008 annual meeting are, eugene davis, jack liebau and daniel sullivan.
Harbert, an Alabama-based investment management company, said Monday in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing that it may contact management, directors and shareholders about steps Media General can take to "maximize shareholder value." The firm also said it may nominate candidates for election to the board. ~ sourceaccording to the winston-salem journal, eugene davis is the chairman of pirinate consulting group; jack liebau is the president of liebau asset management and j.daniel sullivan is a media investor. ~ source
that same day media general released a statement:
see also harbinger capital partners master fund i ltd./ harbinger capital partners special situations fund lp:
notice of nominationMarshall N. Morton, president and chief executive officer, said: "We are frankly puzzled as to what Harbinger hopes to achieve by its hostile actions. The Harbinger hedge funds appear to have a high portfolio turnover rate, rotating out of numerous holdings every six to twelve months. A Board member or members having such a short-term perspective would be disruptive to our company and, in our view, be adverse to the legitimate, long-term interests of all Media General stockholders.
on the 26th the winston-salem journal reported that:
"Since Harbinger first disclosed this past summer that it had acquired a 9.1 percent stake in Media General's public, Class A stock, including last week, when Harbinger disclosed through an amended filing that it had increased its economic interest in that stock to more than 21 percent, we have sought repeatedly to talk with Harbinger and learn what is on their mind. Harbinger, however, has persistently refused to return our calls.Mario Gabelli, the biggest investor in Media General Inc., backed calls for changes to the newspaper publisher’s board after shareholder Harbinger Capital Partners proposed replacing three directors.
in that article we found media general's ceo marshall morton's remarks especially humorous:
Gabelli hasn’t decided whether to back Harbinger’s entire slate of nominees to replace directors elected by common shareholders, he said yesterday in an interview. He did say he supports Jack Liebau, one candidate for the nine-person board.
“I do think it’s time for a change for this board,” said Gabelli, whose Gamco Investors Inc. owned a 20.9 percent stake in Media General in November. “We’re not sure how we’ll vote on this proposal - we might abstain. But we do think change would be good here.” ~ sourceHarbinger should cease its “ill-advised, hostile and thoroughly unwarranted course of action.” Harbinger has a “short-term perspective” on Media General and hasn’t considered the steps the company is taking to improve its operations, Morton said.
a blogger named jim bacon whose apparently a media professional and writes for a blog called bacon's rebellion wrote a post "hedge fund stalks media general." a commenter at that post offers us some insight:In the past several years MEG's stock has plummeted from about $70 a share to $15 a share, although it's up to $19 or so last time I checked. It is true that plenty of media companies have trouble but I don't believe they have seen so much market cap disappear at once as MEG's has.
many people around cenla, ourselves included, thought that it was just kalb's management that was arrogant and incompetent in their outright refusal to report news and instead choosing to ply us with fluff. however, its somewhat bittersweet to learn that the whole of media general's management is made up of buffoons. lets hope that harbinger does succeed in their takeover, they cant be any worse than what is there now.
MEG's problem is that it is based on cost-cutting, not growth. The leadership has no ideas. They pushed "Convergence" and "Clustering" about 10 years ago, but they haven't worked. These involved trying to trade content across print/tv/Web but instead of creating new and valuable content, they were just dicing up stale content again and again. Clustering involved buying up dinky papers in the Southern exburbia. Neither strategy has worked, as the stock price shows.
Morton, let's not forget, is from the textile industry, which is not exactly known for successful growth strategies. He complained last week that the hedge fund didn't appreciate "a research-driven understanding of our local markets" or the "heightened focus on customers" or the "continually growing number of new products and new sources of revenue, or the "successful "Web-First" approach to local news reporting that is generating increased page views and visitors" and the "new partnerships, diversification and regulatory gains that have strengthened and validated our convergence strategy."
What a pile of nonesense. Take their Web pages. They are horrible! Just about any regional media firm is far ahead. MEG is where The Virginian-Pilot was 10 years ago and that might insult the Pilot!
Look at the Times-Dispatch. There is a massive rush for the exits as experienced reporters flee from the hare-brained news policies of Thomas A. Silvestri and his new management crew. Just look at Sunday's front-page. Obama's win in S. Carolina was huge. Yet, the TD editors gave 75 percent of the front page to the mock convention held at Washington & Lee in which they nominated Hillary. Huh? Let's have Frazier Millner, their marketing expert, explain that one. Also don't know if you've noticed but there's one heck of a lot less content in the TD than ever. The "2-Minute TD" is more like the "30-second TD."
MEG has been in a tailspin for several years now. Nevertheless, Marshall Morton tried to get his corporate officers a bonus a couple of years ago, until Mario Gabelli, another rogue investor, put a stop to it.
Best thing that can happen is if the Gabelli's and hedge fund folk get rid of the current management. Let's wish them well. Maybe they can put a stop to the arrogance and the incompetence.
some interesting intrigue is to be had in reading the recently posted city of alexandria, la. council agenda for tuesday, 29 january 2008:
5) Introduction of an ordinance authorizing the Mayor to enter into a Professional Services Agreement with KJA Communications Group for the maintenance and production of programming for the City’s Government Access Channel and development of the City’s web site.we've raised some of these questions before and always being in need to something to post, this gave us a good opportunity to point out the scam again.
la sec'y of state corporations database entry for kja communications group
city of alexandria, louisiana mayoral welcome letter26) To consider final adoption of an ordinance authorizing the Mayor to enter into an agreement with KJA Communications Group to begin Phase IV enhancement of the City of Alexandria Website.so we see that kja communications group has been in charge of the city's website and public access channel four, for years and years. yet just about every city council committee meeting and sometimes council meetings we see councilman myron lawson talking about upgrading the public access channel and the city's website "take it to the next level," as councilman lawson is so fond of reciting.
27) To consider final adoption of an ordinance authorizing the Mayor to enter into an agreement with KJA Communications Group to begin enhancement of the City’s Government Access Channel.
sounds interesting but we would prefer to have the original napster back.
From The Times
January 28, 2008
From today, feel free to download another 25 million songs - legally
Adam Sherwin, Media Correspondent, in Cannes
excerpt:
After a decade fighting to stop illegal file-sharing, the music industry will give fans today what they have always wanted: an unlimited supply of free and legal songs.
With CD sales in free fall and legal downloads yet to fill the gap, the music industry has reluctantly embraced the file-sharing technology that threatened to destroy it. Qtrax, a digital service announced today, promises a catalogue of more than 25 million songs that users can download to keep, free and with no limit on the number of tracks.
The service has been endorsed by the very same record companies - including EMI, Universal Music and Warner Music – that have chased file-sharers through the courts in a doomed attempt to prevent piracy. The gamble is that fans will put up with a limited amount of advertising around the Qtrax website’s jukebox in return for authorised use of almost every song available.
The service will use the “peer-to-peer” network, which contains not just hit songs but rarities and live tracks from the world’s leading artists.
click here to read more from the times online.
heres some advertisements from the past -- more at the link
back when "lard ass" was a compliment
a lysol douche
this seems to be a variation of the old theme "mama's baby daddy's maybe"
heres a cool .gif someone sent usthe town talk has a story today by r.t. morgan "area real estate sources say housing here holding up well" (see link) the thing is though, is that all of the town talk's "sources" are realtors!
the best observation of the story's lacking comes from a town talk story chat commenter, JJS who opined:This just doesn't seem right. I mean, the Town Talk asked people who were brokers. Is there a broker anywhere that would actually say sales were flat or in decline?
another story chat commenter, Alamo hit the nail on the head too with "[T]he T.T. isn't going to print anything negative about local Real Estate because they're big advertisers, especially in the Sunday Paper."
The reporter should have provided support through a review of sales in the courthouse and building permits. Of course, if building permits were in decline one could always blame the highly expensive, convoluted procedures of the Rapides Parish Planning Commission/Police Jury who have singlehandedly added 15% to the cost of any project.
alamo is right too, because when you really look at the article for what it is, you cant help but notice that its really an advertisement for certain local realtors and real estate developments masquerading as a legitimate news story.
of coz, the town talk's rather juvenile treatment of this story isnt limited to just the town talk as those of us in the blogosphere cant help but recall the attitude of kalb's news director michele godard in (not) reporting this past summers cleco stock trading story.
in that incident, some anonymous person provided ms. godard with information suggesting "proof of serious insider trading," amongst some cleco executives. ms. godard's idea of investigative journalism was to phone up cleco's public relations officer, susan broussard for an explanation. ms. broussard (because its kinda like her job) assured ms. godard that there was nothing amiss. which in turn led ms godard to inform the blogosphere via her (now defunct) blog "no story here." lol
heres the latest list of links and resources on the louisiana reservoir of corruption
http://www.angelfire.com/gundam/reservoir0
Moon Griffon audio on reservoir political shenanigans:
http://www.angelfire.com/gundam/no-lake
Louisiana Reservoir of Corruption
http://www.povertypointreservoir.blogspot.com/
drudge report archiveshave you heard about larry sinclair's allegations of adult drug use and homosexuality by barack obama? details here, here and here.====
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last updated 24 may 2008
note: this isnt meant to be an exhaustive list - its just the ones we've caught.
turner.com
news corporation
cbs, inc. ip number 170.20.11.118 resolves to cbs in new york, new york.
turner.com
heres a screen grab of a hit we received last night from an ip that the whois resolves to an ip registered to cbs, inc. someone from cbs was googling "obama gay sex and drugs larry sinclair" and arrived at our post here.
tribune.com google blog searching for "larry sinclair"
