N'en déplaise à ces fous nommés sages de Grèce, En ce monde il n'est point de parfaite sagesse; Tous les hommes sont fous, et malgré tous leurs soîns Ne diffèrent entre eux que du plus ou du moins. - BOILEAU

Whatever these crazy appointed sages of Greece, In this world there is no perfect wisdom; All men are mad, and despite all their care Differ among themselves as more or less.

Promoted. Originally posted 2009-02-08 04:08:51 -0500. -- GH

Wikileaks just notified people that they are releasing over $1 billion dollars' worth of reports gathered by the Congressional Research Services (CRS).  These reports are provided to members of the US Congress and are legally in the public domain.  However, they are only released to the public with the permission of Congress in a complex system of permissions and protocols and ass-covering politicians.  Needless to say, attempts to free this information from the 'red tape' that keeps it from actually being released to the public have been met with resistance.Well, leave it to Wikileaks to strike a blow for transparency.

Libertarianism: If Not Now, Then When?

Joel S. Hirschhorn

With the meltdown of the American economy, what better time to ask: Can libertarianism come to the rescue?

Perhaps the most interesting statement in the Wikipedia discussion of libertarianism is that

Is the United States of America the world's largest dealer of illegal drugs?  What about the world's largest gun runner?  For years our government has used the CIA, NSA & other super-secret 'intelligence' agencies to cultivate drug harvest and distribution in SE Asia and Afghanistan.  We offer 'aid' and 'trade' to countries in the forms of weapons and ammunition.  The drugs come home to the US to poison and kill our own population.  The weapons we sell are used either against us directly by people to kill others, who then seek to kill Americans.  Did the founding fathers envision a country that would become the world's largest debtor and blood merchant?

 Lawyer gets 5-cent IRS bill, 4-cent refund

James Howarth is a little confused by two letters he has received from the Internal Revenue Service.

So, he gets a letter containing a bill for 5-cents ... then gets a letter with a notice that he has a 4-cent refund coming.  Both letters were ... mailed. Just what is the cost of mailng a letter these days? Does the IRS have to pay postage? How many of these types of letters do you suppose get mailed by the IRS every year? 

Don't you think they could tell the computer to kick back any bills or refunds that are under $1.00? or $.50? The expense of printing the invoice (along with the accompanying payment coupons, etc) stuffing the envelope, mailing the letters ... cost us a whole lot more than the 5-cents the IRS would have collected.

[sigh]

Promoted. Originally posted 2009-01-03 12:14:17 -0500. -- GH

Last night, 1-02-009, on the PBS News Hour they held a discussion with "Frontline" correspondent and filmmaker June Cross who describes her documentary "The Old Man and the Storm" which will air on PBS's "Frontline" on Jan. 6th, New Orleans: Three Years After Katrina.

This is a timely documentary more than three years after Katrina and especially as to the way the Government has been handling that compared to the extremely quick bailouts of the financial institutions in the present economic collapse and at other times when the corporate elite demanded their political friends come to their aid. There are three short video's at the 'Frontline' site that I'm embedding below, the third one touches on just that, especially as to the promises made by the President bush and other Government Officials and to the rapidly failing 'free market' 'trickle down' economic policy of the GOP.

(Cross posted at The National Gadfly)

Hi everybody! 

CrissCrossingOhio

Are you puzzled by government in general and Ohio government in particular? Don’t have a clue about what’s happening, what it means or who’s responsible for it?

At a time when the American economy appears to be suffering from a financial decline, or a recession, there is a constant need and a certain desperation for production to continue-wherever it is possible. Having said that, in the entertainment industry, shouldn't the business (among other prospects) be allowed to expand beyond their simple conquests and explore new pastures, starting with the decrease of censorship?

Promoted -- GH

This week, May 12-16, the International Assembly of Whistleblowers will hold a conference in Washington, D.C. to publicly describe the challenges they faced in bringing to light corruption and abuses of power by the federal government, its contractors and the medical community.

The event is free, and the public is welcome to attend. (If you register for the event here, disregard the request for a registration fee, which is in error.) The schedule of events (including times and locations) is available on the IAW website. Below, I have summarized the schedule and added details not available on the website.

And why, you might ask, actually the obvious:

Who Blew Whistle on Wasteful Spending

The following is a short discussion, abit of a long read, by two Vietnam Veterans, on a VFP/VVAW, group board. The first post is a copy of a question asked and answered by another Vietnam Veteran. The two posts following that are a reply to the original than an answer to that reply.

I would hope that it might help our present Brothers and Sisters, serving in Theaters of War and when they return from, to help find the answers to any questions that may be.

With the Mutiple Tours, Extended Tours, ever Changing Reasons For, and the initial ignorance of what type of Conflict they were led into, as this countries military had already had a long running battle with Guerilla/Insurgent warfare and those lessons still aren't being applied, there will be many more questions that need answering than even we 'Nam vets have been seeking answers for, to the closed ears of our Government and the People of this Country.

Promoted by GreyHawk.

I saw something about this last night, posted on a few sites.

This is about an Extremely Important Report that will be out tomorrow in the Sunday's issue of the New York Times Magazine.

I just caught it again posted over at After Downing Street where Dave put up the New York Times Magazine link along with posting the article.