SAR #12156

"Unfettered, unregulated capitalism...turns everything into a commodity, human beings become commodities, the natural world becomes a commodity, that it exploits until exhaustion or collapse. In essence it cannibalizes itself, and this is the process that we are undergoing." Chris Hedges

Kickstart: Obama seems to want to give each of us $3,000 to spend on "thingamajigs". Okay, but my old one is in pretty good shape...

The Check's In The Mail: Every politician in Europe is assuring us (or themselves) that “bold actions, courageous decisions, decisive plans” are afoot which will solve all the euro's problems. Or some of them. For a while. Maybe. But promises are promises and a guarantee is just a promise waiting to be broken. False promises based on inaccurate data and fraudulent reports are beginning to wear thin.

No Comment: In April, China bought 100 tons of gold from Hong Kong. What's in your wallet?

Good Idea: There's something called the precautionary principle, the idea that if an action or policy is potentially harmful to the public or the environment, the burden of proof is on those taking the action, not those who would oppose it. Seems like a good policy for a government whose primary goal is the protection of the life and property of its citizens. Maybe we should try it.

Camouflage: Looking at the sad statistics that describe Americans, you would think we were a nation of violent, intolerant, ignorant, superstitious, passive, shallow, boorish, selfish, unhealthy, unhappy people. But that's just on average.

At The Army – Navy Store: The military's National Reconnaissance Office secretly developed and built two space telescopes more powerful than NASA's Hubble – but never deployed them, having more fun spying on earth than staring off into space. Cut the Pentagon's budget? You wouldn't dare.

Quacks Like A Duck: Romney's tax plan would save The Mitten about $5 million a year in taxes. Your mileage may vary.

Our Boy Alan: The man who insisted that credit default swaps had made the financial system stable, that there was no housing bubble, that the housing market was poised for recovery in 2006, is now telling us that with interest rates at their lowest levels ever, what we need to worry about most is … the threat of rising interest rates. Remember when he was our savior? Does anyone remember why?

Qualifying Rounds: Republicans in NC adopted a platform calling for women, black, gay, lesbian, bisexual and trangendered individuals to be excluded from the state's anti-discrimination laws. Rep. Nan Hayworth”s (R-NY)' top aide has resigned after discovering that urging her supporters to “hurl some acid” at female Democrats wasn't such a good idea.

Stranger Than Fiction: Louisiana is embarking on the nation's dumbest boldest experiment in privatizing public education. Starting this fall private “schools” will draw $8,800 per child to teach Bible based arithmetic in cinderblock buildings that have no windows, where lessons consists of an instructional DVD that intersperses Biblical verses with subjects such chemistry or math. Gov. Jindal proudly says “We are letting parents decide what's best for their children...” The state will leave the curricula up to the private schools, and leave it up to the parents to decide how well the school is doing. Figures, when the State's top education administer says “It's a moral outrage that the government would say, 'We know what's best for your child." The public schools will lose the funds that go to the private schools.

No, But... Despite being unable to document a single case of voter fraud, the Republicans happily soldier on – despite a DOJ order to stop in Florida – purging voter rolls around the country because they fear Democratic voters “a massive voter fraud conspiracy.” Why the GOP is afraid is beyond me, the fraudulent conspiracy is them, trying to suppress 5 million Democratic votes.

Porn O'Graph:Damn, there's another of those annoying facts.

The Parting Shot

Store Bought.