Going To Hell In A Very Stylish Handbasket.
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"The gold standard makes the money's purchasing power independent of the changing ambitions and doctrines of political parties and pressure groups. This is not a defect of the gold standard; it is its main excellence." - Ludwig Von Mises
"In order to acknowledge the collapse of Soviet Communism and the failure of fascism to re-emerge as a potent political force, I ditched Orwell's oppressive totalitarian state in favour of an entertainment-fuelled nihilism in which dim-witted citizens frittered away their lives watching web TV and working at slightly overpaid jobs to buy worthless junk. Where Orwell envisioned endless rows of soldiers marching in perfect unison to the strains of the Two-Minute Hate, I saw a world where nations had been replaced by trading blocs and the objects of hatred were the immigrants in our midst." - Ted Rall, "Why Bush Is Addicted To Perpetual War"
"If stupidity got us into this mess, then why can't stupidity get us out?" -Will Rogers
"While you're out there smashing the state, don't forget to keep a smile on your lips and a song in your heart!" - Faublous Furry Freak Brothers
I find the older I get, the less easily shocked I am and the more easily outraged I become. I don't think it's so much me getting older as it is the times becoming more outrageous. - Falken
Nixon's Head: "My fellow Earthicans, we enjoy so much freedom it's almost sickening. We're free to choose which hand our sex-monitoring chip is implanted in. And if we don't want to pay our taxes, why, we're free to spend a weekend with the Pain Monster."
Pain Monster: "See you April 15th, folks!"
- Futurama,
"A Taste of Freedom"
"People should not be afraid of their governments. Governments should be afraid of their people." - V
"There is in the nature of government an impatience of control that disposes those invested with power to look with an evil eye upon all external attempts to restrain or direct its operations. This has its origin in the love of power. Representatives of the people are not superior to the people themselves." - Alexander Hamilton - Federalist Papers, 1787.
"A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largess from the public treasury. From that time on the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury, with the results that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, always followed by a dictatorship.
The average age of the world’s great civilizations has been 200 years. These nations have progressed through this sequence: from bondage to spiritual faith; from spiritual faith to great courage; from courage to liberty; from liberty to abundance; from abundance to selfishness; from selfishness to complacency; from complacency to apathy; from apathy to dependency; from dependency back again to bondage."
- attributed to Alexander Fraser Tytler "The Decline and Fall of the Athenian Republic" (1776)
"Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in an attractive and well-preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, champagne in one hand, chocolate-covered strawberries in the other, body thoroughly used up, totally worn out and screaming WOO-HOO! ... what a ride!”
"If there is any hope for America, it lies in revolution. And if there is any hope for Revolution, it lies in getting Che Guevara to become Elvis Presley." - Phil Ochs
"Monkeys rule."
Cost of the War in Iraq
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"El diablo sabes mas por viejo que por diablo" - old Mexican proverb
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Achtung! Das machine ist nicht für gerfingerpoken und mittengraben. Ist too easen für schnappen der pringenwerk, blowenfusen, und poppencorken mit spitzensparken. Ist nicht für gewerken by dast dumkopfen - das rubbernecken sightseeren ban keepen das hands in der pocketsen, relaxen und vatchen das blinkenlights.
links:
Grandfather Economic Report
Tom Paine
The Nation
RGE Monitor
The Economist
Landover Baptist Church
The Onion
Ernie's House of Whoop Ass
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Tue, May 20 2008
THE LATEST POLITICAL CIRCLEJERK
Meanwhile, Exxon, Chevron etc (none members of OPEC), are making obscene record profits, no one is pressuring carmakers to build cleaner, high-mileage cars, and we're giving away trillions of taxpayer dollars to crooked bankers and investment houses.
House passes bill to sue OPEC over oil prices
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The House of Representatives overwhelmingly approved legislation on Tuesday allowing the Justice Department to sue OPEC members for limiting oil supplies and working together to set crude prices, but the White House threatened to veto the measure.
The bill would subject OPEC oil producers, including Saudi Arabia, Iran and Venezuela, to the same antitrust laws that U.S. companies must follow.
The measure passed in a 324-84 vote, a big enough margin to override a presidential veto.
The legislation also creates a Justice Department task force to aggressively investigate gasoline price gouging and energy market manipulation.
"This bill guarantees that oil prices will reflect supply and demand economic rules, instead of wildly speculative and perhaps illegal activities," said Democratic Rep. Steve Kagen of Wisconsin, who sponsored the legislation.
The lawmaker said Americans "are at the mercy" of OPEC for how much they pay for gasoline, which this week hit a record average of $3.79 a gallon.
The White House opposes the bill, saying that targeting OPEC investment in the United States as a source for damage awards "would likely spur retaliatory action against American interests in those countries and lead to a reduction in oil available to U.S. refiners."
The administration said less oil going to refineries would limit available gasoline supplies and raise fuel prices.
Foreign investment in U.S. oil infrastructure has declined in the last decade. But the state-owned oil companies of several OPEC nations are owners of U.S. refineries, and those investments could be affected if the legislation becomes law, said Arlington, Virginia-based FBR Capital Markets Corp.
The bill also requires the Government Accountability Office to carryout a study on the effects of prior oil company mergers on energy prices.
The Senate would still have to approve the House measure.
The Senate previously approved similar legislation as part of a broad energy bill. However, the OPEC-suing provision was removed after White House opposition in order to get the underlying energy legislation signed into law.
posted by JDoe at 02:19:17 PM |
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