pitchers tuck by buddy don: grate apes at the Bronx Zoo

yesterdy me n miz bd tuck the #2 train up to Tremont Avenue in the Bronx, witch frum thar tiz jes a cuple blocks to the Bronx Zoo. tiz a grate place to visit n we had us such a wunderfull time that we deecided to join the Wildlife Conservation Society, witch that means we kin go back fer free n i reckon we will wear that privlidge out.

innywho, heres sum pitchers that cum out ok. twuz hard to git good pitchers on a counta all the folks thats visitin. twuz also difficult to git good pitchers on a counta the plexiglass twixt folks n critters in lots of places. but heres a few pitchers that cum out ok.

this silverback seemed to be king of his lil worl, witch they gut em a purty big place to live in even ifn taint the wild ...



thisn heres a yungster, but not the yungest of em ...



the Bronx Zoo is famus fer thar gorillas on a counta how thar breedin so much. one of them liluns is on its mamas back, witch thisn aint but a few munths old ...



this is a differnt newborn, witch thisns a lil older, but not much ...



ye kin see how them folks n gorillas wuz bof intrested in gittin a closer look ...



ye kin git a good idee of how them grate apes has gut em a purty good place to live by these pitchers.

furstns a ebony langur takin a nap way up in a tree ...



nextuns a silver leaf monkey lookin verr cumposed ...



ifn ye click on them pitchers, twill open em up in a nuther browser in thar full size.

ifn ye wonta make a comment, ye gut to click on 'link'.

pomes of buddy don: Not A Class War

Not A Class War

It's not a class war, can't you see?
It's more of a class rout.
The rich are winning handily –
The rest have been left out.

pitcher tuck by buddy don: parkin liberty

lets hope we kin git er back sumday. heres a pitcher that splains a lot of whuts happenin rite in frunt of our eyes, liberty bein parked.

mayhap they kin brang er back out once sum of them offendin frazes has all been scraped offn er. i thank ye know the ones i mean, the ones writ by emma lazerus:

"Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

pitchers tuck by buddy don: sum flowers grow in brooklyn

heres a few more pitchers i tuck tuther day at that brooklyn botanic garden. whut a deelite that place is. ye kin git away frum most everthang, witch after readin this mornins papers, thats jes whut i am trine to do.

ifn ye click on the pitchers ye kin see em full sized, witch thays much better thataway.

there heres a yellow shrimp plant ...




chive blossoms attrack honeybees ...




clematis name of elsa spath ...



them lilacs wuz in bloom ...



ifn ye wonta make a comment, click on 'link' below ...

pomes of buddy don: Or Would That Be Classified Too?

Would That Be Classified Too?

How many plots have we identified
How many bombings obstructed?
Were the plots local or were they worldwide?
And how many have we abducted
And jailed without true judicial review?
Or would that be classified too?

And how many terrorists have we bagged
In casting our nets so wide?
How many evil-doers have we snagged?
And were they indicted and finally tried
In courts, whether legal or kangaroo?
Or would that be classified too?

How has the Patriot act been abused
To target the presidents foes?
And how do we know if it's ever been used
To threaten those who oppose
Whatever the president wants to pursue?
Or would that be classified too?

Are our votes counted?
Our voices heard?
Do we even matter?
Or is it absurd
That we the people believe we do?
Or would that be classified too?


(ifn ye wonta make a comment, ye gut to click on the wurd 'link' below)

pitchers tuck by buddy don: Brooklyn Botanic Garden

yesterdy loretta n paddy tuck joined me n miz bd out at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden fer a mothers day stroll. tiz one of the most beeyootifull parks on this here earth n as ye mite jes magine, i tuck a slew of pitchers, witch heres a few fer this mornin.

ye herd bout water runnin offn a ducks back? well, ifn ye click on this pitcher to make it big, ye will see how water kin stay thar in lil droplets ...



them ducks wuz a'cortin lack most everthang in the garden ...



i wuz hopin to git sum pitchers of sacrd lotus blossoms, but they wudnt up yet, so i gut a cuple pitchers of them lily blossoms ...





twuz a beeyootifull day even tho twuz overcast n threatnin rain, but i reckun thats all jes a matter of yer perspecktiv ...



ifn ye wonta make a comment, click on 'link' below.

pitchers tuck by buddy don: mother goose with her gander n goslings

happy mothers day to all them mamas out thar, witch heres a pitcher of a purty goodn:

pomes of buddy don: You Need Not Be Proved Guilty

You Need Not Be Proved Guilty

You need not be proved guilty to sustain
More troubles than you ever could expect –
For if the president should ascertain –
From phone records he claims he may collect –
That your calling patterns might contain
Suggestions that you might just be suspect –
You could lose the few rights you think remain
And be thrown into prison to protect
Your fellow citizens, for to be plain
They cannot risk the chance you might defect!

Such is the price we pay if we neglect
To keep the president's power in check.

pinions of buddy don: furst thangs furst – tax cuts fer the wealthy

lets see whut kinda problems we have facin us.

we dun let our military git tied down in iraq at a cost of $300+ billyuns, 2,400+ dead soljers n marines n sailors, 17,000+ severly injured, uncounted iraqis dead, a safe haven fer terrsts to practiss thar evil arts in iraq (n more often than not, afghanistan n pakistan n who knows whar else), we caint even tell whuther tiz a civil war n we know taint close to bein over on a counta caint nobidy splain how we kin git out of it.

we dun run up the deficit lack nobidys bizness n growd our gummint fastern inny time since lbj.

we gut gas at $3 a gallon in all too minny places n caint do nuthin bout it cept play pall ticks.

we gut immigrunts streamin over the border n the best plan i herd on ackshly dealin with it is, 'larn spanish.'

we gut a medicare seckshun d plan that caint nobidy understand n makes certain that them phramaceuticull cumpnies git freedum frum havin to negotiate bulk deals (whut a waste that wood be! twood save money fer reglar folks at the eggspents of them big cumpnies, and ye know that caint be rite!)

i am shore ye kin find sum other thangs to wurry bout, most of em cawzed by the acks of the presdint n them Rubberstamplicans.

so whut ye a'gone do? eggstend the tax cut we dun give to the richest folks amung us, even ifn it means pushin the debt ceilin up agin! twill be purt near $10 trillion ifn thangs goes the way them publicans wont em to.

hows that a'gone wurk out fer reglar folks them that dont have money left over to invest in stocks n git a brake on the profits n dividend taxes?

Middle-income households would receive an average tax cut of $20 from the agreement, according to the joint Urban Institute-Brookings Institution Tax Policy Center, while 0.02 percent of households with incomes over $1 million would receive average tax cuts of $42,000.

wunder how long twood take a marrd cuple wurkin 50 weeks a year at double the minimum wage to make that $42,000 avridge?

lemme try the math:

• hours wurked in a week by one person = 40
• hours wurked in a week by two persons = (40 * 2) = 80
• pre-tax money earned by two persons wurkin 40 hour weeks at double minimum wage = $11 * (40 * 2) = $880
• pretax money earned in a year of 50 weeks (two weeks off fer vacation n sick time n such) = $880 * 50 = $44,000!

looks lack them hard wurkin folks who wurks 50 weeks at double minimum wage wood cum out with a $2,000 pre-tax surplus over the averidge tax cut give to them makin over $1 millyun a year.

whut could be fairer than that? shorely thay aint no wurkin cuples who couldnt pay thar morgidge n buy food n git health keer n pay fer thar insurants n make thar car payment n have kids n live normal lives with a huge pre-tax paycheck lack that, rite?

the thang bout this tax cut is how it makes it easier fer rich folks to make money offn the stock market, witch that makes it look lack the economy is good even ifn thays pore folks that caint git by wurking full time at duble minimum wage.

could that be the real reason the economy looks good to them thats gut but is terrbull fer them that aint gut nuthin but a job payin duble minimum wage??

corse, thay aint no chants in hell that them rich folks wood reinvest thar money in foreign ventchurs? in offshorin jobs to india n china, rite?

shorely they wood feel cumpelld to invest thar money in the cuntry that give em the grate tax cut, rite?

shorely they woodnt move thar cumpnys headquarters off to bermuda or the cayman islands sos they could git outta payin corprutt taxes, rite?

shorely they wood be too patriotick to do inny of them kinda thangs that makes it jes that much harder to find jobs that pays duble the minimum wage, rite?

shorely they wood wonta repay the cuntry that putt tax cuts ahead of other lil problems in the cuntry lack immigrashun or health keer or the war in iraq, rite?

shorely they wood. ye kin take it to the bank, rite?

pitchers tuck by buddy don: Even More Hoboken Spring Arts and Music Festival – beeyootifull people

i wonted to rite bout sumthin that makes me angry -- nuther tax cut fer the richest folks -- but i need to calm down a lil furst. so with that in mind, heres six pitchers of sum of the beeyootifull people that wuz at the Hoboken Spring Arts and Music Festival.

pitchers tuck by buddy don: More Hoboken Spring Arts and Music Festival

yesterdy i posted sum pitchers of Red Molly, a fantastick group that innertaind at the Hoboken Spring Arts and Music Festival for 2006. thay wuz much moren jes Red Molly, tho, so heres sum more pitchers frum that near purrfeck day.

furst, thay wuz lodes of food. these three pitchers give ye a lil idee, but thay wuz minny more ...






corse, ye caint hardly have a festivull this time of year without sum faeries fairies n dragons showin up ...






natcherly ye speck thar to be sum artists, witch i cawt a cuple of em a'wurkin ...



then thay wuz a acktin cumpny name of Hudson Theatre Ensemble, witch they wuz happy to have thar pitcher tuck ...




this yung lady name of Susanne Newman proovd how deesignin thangs is also art ...


tiz obveeus that ye gut to have yer clowns, witch we gut us a local one thats a lil on the famus side name of Polka Dot ...


the crowd wuz the mane attackshun tho n whut a fine bunch of folks twuz ...

pitchers tuck by buddy don: Hoboken Spring Arts and Music Festival

yesterdy they had em a sprang arts n musick festivull in hoboken, new jersey, witch me n miz bd wuz lucky a nuff to go (they have a nuthern in the fall). ye couldnt git no better weather than we had n one result wuz how washington street wuz jammed with folks.

one of the mane attackshuns, lease fer me, wuz Red Molly, witch ye mite know how i am good friens with red molly of the blue page special.

i tuck the camera n gut sum good pitchers, witch the shame is ye caint here the fine musick Red Molly wuz playin. heres sum pitchers:




Laurie MacAllister (vocals, banjo, guitar)


Abbie Gardner (vocals, dobro, guitar)


Carolann Solebello (vocals, guitar, bass, mandolin)


as ye kin see, they had em quite a crowd n kep em in the palms of thar hands.



i will cover more of the festivull in the mornin, but i gut to git now sos i wont be late fer wurk.

pitchers tuck by buddy don: Revlon Run/Walk for Women in Times Square

cleanup reprint: duz it take a evil dicktater?

[i gut hit with a nuther of them filthy lank spam comment thangs on this here post that i dun way back on november 29, 2005, so i am deeletin the ole one n reprintin it here. far as i kin tell, the questchun still stands – duz it take a evil dicktater?]

thays lots of reasons our gummint give us bout why we had to quit goin after osama n invade iraq. dint matter that our own intelligents had splaind to the administrayshun how thay wuznt no lank twixt al qaeda n saddam to the point whar saddam wonted to infiltrate al qaeda to perteck himself.

but that wuz ignord n we wuz tole overn over agin how thay wuz 'lanks' twixt the two evildoers.

we wuz tole stories bout unmanned drone aircraft that could bomb us (twenrt so), bout curveballs mobile labs (turnt out not to be whut he claimd they wuz, even ifn they did trick mr bush into claimin durin a trip to poland that we had found wmd).

we wuz tole we had to git rid of the dicktater saddam on a counta how he had dun such awful thangs to his own folks, but nary a wurd wuz sed bout other evil dicktaters lack kim jong-il or the folks runnin places lack the sudan (they gut slaves still) or liberia or probly duzens of other places with evil dicktaters. fack is, takin out evil dicktaters that aint never attacked wuznt sumthin we dun, period. thay wuz even a treaty on it name of the treaty of westphalia whar ye couldnt justify yer war on a counta wontin to force regime change. that treaty lasted frum 1648 till mr bush gut us to go agin it.

now that we are thar, we been a'sayin we caint 'cut n run' on a counta how twood result in civil war of sumthin. turns out, that thar civil war is a'gone on right under our noses!

not that mr bush wood be lackly to notiss – W deaf to bad news on Iraq, says mag:

President Bush will hear no evil on the Iraq war - even when the bad news comes from military brass and top government officials, a new report says.

Bush "remains convinced that it is his personal mission to bring democracy to Iraq," according to The New Yorker magazine.

The article, echoing a Daily News story yesterday, says Bush and his inner circle are so determined to follow their own plan that generals fear saying what's wrong in Iraq - and senior advisers are snubbed if they have bad news.

"I tried to tell" the President about problems in Iraq, one former senior official told the magazine. "And he couldn't hear it."

The News quoted another Bush confidant yesterday saying that Team Bush has an "unyielding belief in the wisdom of what they're doing" in Iraq and elsewhere, and that "they're talking to people who could help them, but they're not listening."

but other folks is notissin n thays two articulls splainin all bout it today, one frum the new york times n tuther frum the los angelees times. the one frum the new york times is Sunnis Accuse Iraqi Military of Kidnappings and Slayings:

BAGHDAD, Iraq, Nov. 28 - As the American military pushes the largely Shiite Iraqi security services into a larger role in combating the insurgency, evidence has begun to mount suggesting that the Iraqi forces are carrying out executions in predominantly Sunni neighborhoods.

Hundreds of accounts of killings and abductions have emerged in recent weeks, most of them brought forward by Sunni civilians, who claim that their relatives have been taken away by Iraqi men in uniform without warrant or explanation.

Some Sunni men have been found dead in ditches and fields, with bullet holes in their temples, acid burns on their skin, and holes in their bodies apparently made by electric drills. Many have simply vanished.

Some of the young men have turned up alive in prison. In a secret bunker discovered earlier this month in an Interior Ministry building in Baghdad, American and Iraqi officials acknowledged that some of the mostly Sunni inmates appeared to have been tortured.

ye probly orta quit readin that thar articull after them few paragrafs since it gits a lil on the gruesum side. but taint nuthin fer the gruesum details in that la time articull name of Killings Linked to Shiite Squads in Iraqi Police Force; With loyalties to banned paramilitary groups, the fighters have kidnapped, tortured and slain Sunnis, officials and witnesses say. i add vise ye NOT to read it. tiz awful whuts bein dun. heres a lil bit of it:

In recent months, hundreds of bodies have been discovered in rivers, garbage dumps, sewage treatment facilities and alongside roads and in desert ravines. Many of them are thought to be victims of Sunni insurgents, who are known to target Shiite civilians and Iraqi security forces, and even Sunni Arabs believed to be collaborating with U.S. forces or the Iraqi government. But increasingly, the Shiite militias operating within the national police force are also suspected of committing atrocities.

The Baghdad morgue reports that dozens of bodies arrive at the same time on a weekly basis, including scores of corpses with wrists bound by police handcuffs.

Over several months, the Muslim Scholars Assn., a Sunni organization, has compiled a library of grisly autopsy photos, lists of hundreds of missing and dead Sunnis and electronic recordings of testimonies by people who say they witnessed abuses by police officers affiliated with Shiite militias.

U.S. officials have long been concerned about extrajudicial killings in Iraq, but until recently they have refrained from calling violent elements within the police force "death squads" — a loaded term that conjures up the U.S.-backed paramilitaries that killed thousands of civilians during the Latin American civil wars of the 1970s and 1980s.

But U.S. military advisors in Iraq say the term is apt, and the Interior Ministry's inspector general concurs that extrajudicial killings are being carried out by ministry forces.

"There are such groups operating — yes, this is correct," said Interior Ministry Inspector General Nori Nori.

More than 40 people were interviewed for this report, including U.S. diplomats and generals in Iraq, Iraqi politicians, the Interior Ministry's intelligence chief and inspector general, the leader of the ministry's special commando unit, former and current police officers, morgue officials and human rights activists.

i lef out the most gory of the deetails.

corse we bleeve in usin tortchur (thankee mr cheney fer deefendin our rite to tortchur, long as tiz dun in secret lack ye lack to do everthang else) n go agin the rule of law on a counta how awful them terrsts is. n turns out them iraqis on bof sides lacks to use 'exter-legal' means.

whut duz it take to run that place n have wurking lecktricity moren four hours a day or runnin water or securty innyway? a evil dicktater?

random thirteen of buddy don: nuther beeyootifull day

By moon
We walk
To the brujo’s door
Along a path of river stone
Women with their nursing children
Seated on the floor
We join the fevers
And the broken bones

1. Spirit Voices by Paul Simon frum 1964-1993
2. The Disappointed by XTC frum Nonsuch
3. Little Queen of Spades by Robert Johnson frum Delta Blues Legend: Masterworks
4. Gold Dust Woman by Fleetwood Mac frum Rumours
5. Think by James Brown frum The CD of JB
6. Indian Summer by Suzanne Rhatigan frum To Hell with Love
7. Until You Come Back To Me by Aretha Franklin frum Queen Of Soul
8. Tequila Sunrise by The Eagles frum Desperado
9. Jesus of Suburbia by Green Day frum American Idiot
10. Down the Line by Johnny Cash frum Unearthed II: Trouble in Mind
11. Parakeet by R.E.M. frum Up
12. Half as Much by Hank Williams frum 40 Greatest Hits
13. Money (That's What I Want) by The Beatles frum With the Beatles

pinions of buddy don: is that pendulum swangin back?

fer the last thrity years or so, the pallitickull pendulum has been swangin to the rite, hepped by big pushes frum greedy rich folk such as richard mellon scaife, joseph coors, harry bradley n charles koch, to name a few of em. tiz amazin whut folks lack these have accomplishd, but fack is, a pendulum has gut to swang both ways, jes lack a childs swang, no matter how hard sumbidy mite push.

so heres sum articulls on the pendulum swangin back –

• Specter Grants Judicial Nominee Second Hearing; Kavanaugh to Answer Questions on Role in Torture and Spying:

  Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter today averted -- for now -- a possible Democratic filibuster over D.C. federal appeals court nominee Brett M. Kavanaugh by granting a hearing into the White House aide's possible role in controversial Bush administration policies.
  
  Specter (R-Pa.) said Kavanaugh would appear before the committee Tuesday to respond to questions about whether he had a role in the administration's torture and domestic surveillance policies and whether he had dealings with convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff.

• Rumsfeld Is Confronted by Antiwar Protesters:

  ATLANTA, May 4 -- Antiwar protesters repeatedly interrupted Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld during a speech Thursday, and one man, a former CIA analyst, accused him in a question-and-answer session of lying about prewar intelligence on Iraq.
  
  "Why did you lie to get us into a war that caused these kind of casualties and was not necessary?" asked Ray McGovern, the former analyst.
  
  "I did not lie," shot back Rumsfeld, who waved off security guards ready to remove McGovern from the hall at the Southern Center for International Studies.
  With support for the war in Iraq remaining low, it is not unusual for top administration officials to encounter protests and hostile questions.
  
  But the outbursts Rumsfeld confronted on Thursday seemed beyond the usual.
  
  Three protesters were escorted away by security as each interrupted Rumsfeld's speech by jumping up and shouting antiwar messages. Throughout the speech, a fourth protester stood up in the middle of the room with his back to Rumsfeld in silent protest.

• $100 Rebate: Rise and Fall of G.O.P. Idea:

  WASHINGTON, May 4 — Senate Republicans were frantic. Returning from a two-week recess that had been dominated by a spike in gasoline prices — and heading into a midterm election looking increasingly good for Democrats — they began scrambling for ways to calm angry voters.
  
  The date was Wednesday, April 26. Inside the Capitol complex, Senator John Thune, a first-term Republican from South Dakota, pressed his idea for a gas-tax holiday before a handful of colleagues who called themselves the Energy Working Group. But the group rejected the idea, leaving aides to the Republican leader, Senator Bill Frist, groping for another way to address the issue.
  
  That night, Mr. Frist's chief of staff, Eric Ueland, and a handful of other Senate staff members — the worker bees who drive the machinery of Congress while their bosses take either the credit or the heat — came up with their own version of an idea that had been circulating among Democrats: a rebate to taxpayers, in this case for $100. Mr. Frist signed off and made plans to introduce it at a news conference the next day.
  
  But the idea, part of a larger eight-point plan, fell flat. It was ridiculed by consumers and scorned by fellow Republicans in and out of Congress, including some of the seven senators who, like Mr. Thune, had stood beside Mr. Frist to announce it.

• Our Sick Society:

  Is being an American bad for your health? That's the apparent implication of a study just published in The Journal of the American Medical Association.
  
  It's not news that something is very wrong with the state of America's health. International comparisons show that the United States has achieved a sort of inverse miracle: we spend much more per person on health care than any other nation, yet we have lower life expectancy and higher infant mortality than Canada, Japan and most of Europe.

• Iraq: Get out now:

  The prewar dream of a liberal Iraqi democracy friendly to the United States is no longer credible. No Iraqi leader with enough power and legitimacy to control the country will be pro-American. Still, President Bush says the United States must stay the course. Why? Let's consider his administration's most popular arguments for not leaving Iraq.
  
  • If we leave, there will be a civil war. In reality, a civil war in Iraq began just weeks after U.S. forces toppled Saddam Hussein. Even Bush, who is normally impervious to uncomfortable facts, recently admitted that Iraq has peered into the abyss of civil war. He ought to look a little closer. Iraqis are fighting Iraqis. Insurgents have killed far more Iraqis than Americans. That's civil war.
  
  • Withdrawal will encourage the terrorists. True, but that is the price we are doomed to pay. Our occupation of Iraq also encourages the killers — precisely because our invasion made Iraq safe for them. Our occupation also left the surviving Baathists with a choice: Surrender, or ally with Al Qaeda. They chose the latter. Staying the course will not change this fact. Pulling out will most likely result in Sunni groups' turning against Al Qaeda and its sympathizers, driving them out of Iraq.
  
  • Before U.S. forces stand down, Iraqi security forces must stand up. The problem in Iraq is not military competence. The problem is loyalty. To whom can Iraqi officers and troops afford to give their loyalty? The political camps in Iraq are still shifting. So every Iraqi soldier and officer risks choosing the wrong side. As a result, most choose to retain as much latitude as possible to switch allegiances. All the U.S. military trainers in the world cannot remove that reality. But political consolidation will. Political power can only be established via Iraqi guns and civil war, not through elections or U.S. colonialism by ventriloquism.
  
  • Setting a withdrawal deadline will damage the morale of U.S. troops. Hiding behind the argument of troop morale shows no willingness to accept the responsibilities of command. The truth is, most wars would stop early if soldiers had the choice of whether to continue. This is certainly true in Iraq, where a withdrawal is likely to raise morale among U.S. forces. A recent Zogby poll suggests that most U.S. troops would welcome an early withdrawal deadline. But the strategic question of how to extract the United States from the Iraq disaster is not a matter to be decided by soldiers. Carl von Clausewitz spoke of two kinds of courage: first, bravery in the face of mortal danger; second, the willingness to accept personal responsibility for command decisions. The former is expected of the troops. The latter must be demanded of high-level commanders, including the president.
  
  • Withdrawal would undermine U.S. credibility in the world. Were the United States a middling power, this case might hold some water. But for the world's only superpower, it's patently phony. A rapid reversal of our present course in Iraq would improve U.S. credibility around the world. The same argument was made against withdrawal from Vietnam. It was proved wrong then, and it would be proved wrong today. Since Sept. 11, 2001, the world's opinion of the United States has plummeted. The U.S. now garners as much international esteem as Russia. Withdrawing and admitting our mistake would reverse this trend. Very few countries have that kind of corrective capacity. We do.

• A rising tide that lifts only yachts:

  Incoming White House Chief of Staff Josh Bolten has promised "more happy talk about the economy" as part of his five-point plan for righting the president's poll numbers. And President Bush himself has been bragging that "thanks to tax relief, and spending restraint, and pro-growth economic policies, this economy is strong, businesses are booming and the people in this country are working."
  
  Strangely, though, the public doesn't seem to be listening. Americans are more than twice as likely to give pollsters a negative assessment of the economy as a positive one — 64% disapprove of Bush's handling of the economy. It's strange. The macroeconomic numbers are decidedly robust, but the public remains determinedly glum.
  
  If you dig a bit deeper than the base growth statistics, though, the picture clarifies considerably. Our economy has grown so starkly unequal that the statistician's view now says surprisingly little about the average American's experience. Last quarter may have seen 4.8% growth, but hidden in those numbers was a depressing factoid: Wages had only grown 0.7% — slower than housing, health or gasoline costs.
  
  That's been the story of the last few years, a rising tide that lifts only yachts. It used to be that economic growth ensured wide benefits across society. But the last four years of economic expansion have been historic for the steadily increasing poverty rate — a depressing sign that inequality has so split the poor from the rich that the two hardly inhabit the same economy.

pinions of buddy don: cuple stories that make ye go hmmm

furst thays thisn: Tax Deal Sets Day of Reckoning; Tough Choice on Deficit in Store for President, Congress in 2011:

With this week's hard-fought agreement on a $70 billion tax-cut extension, President Bush and congressional Republicans have effectively set a date for a fiscal day of reckoning for the next president and a future Congress: Jan. 1, 2011.

[...]

According to CBO projections, if the Bush tax cuts are extended in 2011, a deficit of $114 billion forecast for the year of their expiration will more than double, to $274 billion. A budget surplus of $67 billion, anticipated for 2016 if all the tax cuts expired, would turn into a $310 billion deficit.

And the red ink would only grow worse from there, as the baby-boom generation swells Medicare and Social Security costs, said Douglas Holtz-Eakin, a former Bush White House economist who recently retired as CBO director.

In that sense, Holtz-Eakin said, synchronizing the tax-cut expiration dates will have a positive impact, forcing politicians to confront what they so far have refused to acknowledge: the mathematical disconnect between government spending and a tax system that can no longer finance those programs.

"The next president has to have a plan for this, at a minimum," Holtz-Eakin said. "This is going to have to be elevated to the top end of the political spectrum soon."

Both Bush and the Republican congressional leadership expressed no alarm yesterday. Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) said sharp reductions in the tax rates on dividends and capital gains have boosted business investment, created jobs and buoyed the economy since their passage in 2003. That outcome, in turn, brought more revenue to the federal government, not less, he said.

Bush said the budget could be balanced by controlling spending while maintaining his tax cuts.

so we gut to cut down on our spendin, accordin to mr bush. how kin that square with this articull, To Earmarking Senators, Veto Seems to Spell Vote:

Senators keep stuffing new provisions into an emergency spending bill for Iraq and hurricane recovery, ignoring President Bush's veto threat to advance their priorities.

[...]

At the bill's core is $72 billion in war-related funding and about $27 billion to aid Hurricane Katrina recovery in Mississippi and Louisiana. But with November midterm elections approaching, senators showed little restraint on items that would prove popular with constituents or important interest groups.

For example, the legislation includes $4 billion in aid to farmers and ranchers to offset rising natural gas costs and provide new relief from drought, floods and wildfires. It contains nearly $800 million in additional highway and transit funding and $2.3 billion to prepare for a possible flu pandemic.

everbidy that bleeves bush is a'gone finely use his veto, clap yer hands till tinkerbell kin fly. everbidy that bleeves palltishuns kin keep frum spendin, clap yer hands till peter pan kin fly with er.

so how bout that tax cut? how will that wurk out fer folks? Big Gain for Rich Seen in Tax Cuts for Investments:

The analysis found the following:

¶Among taxpayers with incomes greater than $10 million, the amount by which their investment tax bill was reduced averaged about $500,000 in 2003, and total tax savings, which included the two Bush tax cuts on compensation, nearly doubled, to slightly more than $1 million.

¶These taxpayers, whose average income was $26 million, paid about the same share of their income in income taxes as those making $200,000 to $500,000 because of the lowered rates on investment income.

¶Americans with annual incomes of $1 million or more, about one-tenth of 1 percent all taxpayers, reaped 43 percent of all the savings on investment taxes in 2003. The savings for these taxpayers averaged about $41,400 each. By comparison, these same Americans received less than 10 percent of the savings from the other Bush tax cuts, which applied primarily to wages, though that share is expected to grow in coming years.

¶The savings from the investment tax cuts are expected to be larger in subsequent years because of gains in the stock market.

did ye ever wunder how long twood take to urn $500,000 wurkin minimum wage? i caint hep but wunder now n then. heres my math (subjeck to miss takes, so lemme know ifn i git it rong):

hours in a year = 24 * 365 = 8,760

hours in a year of 40-hour wurk weeks = 40 * 52 = 2,080

hours in a year of 40-hour wurk weeks minus two weeks of unpaid vacayshun = 40 * 50 = 2,000

urnins in a year of 40-hour wurk weeks minus two weeks of unpaid vacayshun = 2,000 * $5.50 = $11,000

hours of wurk at minimum wage to urn $500,000 (avridge tax cut fer them urnin avridge over $10,000,000 frum articull above) = $500,000 / $5.50 = 90,909.09

years of wurk at minimum wage with two weeks of unpaid vacayshun needed to urn $500,000 = $500,000 / ($5.5 * 2,000) = $500,000 / $11,000 = 45.45

corse, life aint fair, is it?

ifn ye wonta make a comment, ye gut to click 'link' below, witch as that grate fotogruffer fletch ritely notes, tiz sumwhut nixonian. problem is, i caint make the comments show on the mane page no matter how i trick out my blogger template, witch i orta start all over n keep nuthin but the banner tennessee jed made fer me.

pomes of buddy don: The Bee and The Weevil

The Bee and The Weevil

Some folks compare Bush to Richard Nixon
In terms of arrogance and power lust,
But Bush's nasty habit of affixin'
Signing statements to the laws he doesn't trust
Shows that in terms of presidential evil
Nixon was the bee and Bush the weevil.

full disclozure: i voted fer richard nixon in my furst chants to vote, 1972. i wuz verr disappointed at whut cum after that, but the differnts twixt the two publicans is this: when the publick wuz shown the depth of nixons presidentchull violayshuns, he had the good sense to resine. bush is differnt: he brags about the laws he intends not to execute, not to uphold, but to brake. whenever he duz that, he violates the oath he tuck to uphold the constitushun.

i am hopin that arlen specter kin be this generayshuns howard baker ("What did the President know and when did he know it?"). but i fear he will be brung under the wheel lack ever other publican. i pray fer a patriot to emerge frum amung them publicans, but seems lack we only git partisans. we will see whuther arlen specter cums thru on this: Hearing vowed on Bush's powers; Senator questions bypassing of laws.

ifn ye wonta make a comment, click on 'link' below.

ramblins of buddy don: cuple thangs

aint gut much time, but i half to menchun a cuple articulls i almost missed.

furst, did ye ketch thisn? tiz a story bout a meat packin cumpny that deecided it wood test everone of its cattle befor servin to innybidy, the hope bein that folks wood be more cumfterbull eatin meat that wuz tested to make shore it dont have no mad cow disease. seems lack a grate use of the free market principills that them publicans claims they bleeve (mayhap thems the same publicans that bleeves in small gummint n balanced budgets, witch seems lack they dun gone eggstink.)

innywho, here tiz, a sine that our gummint will do innythang to perteck ... well, not usns, but thar clients, the big corporayshuns that dont wonta half to deal with too much competishun – Mad cow madness: USDA stands in the way of broader testing:

If a hospital wanted to advertise that it upholds sanitary standards higher than any required by the government, no one would object. A used-car dealer who decided to offer only vehicles with the best crash-test scores would be free to do so. But after a meatpacker announced plans to establish the strictest program around to protect consumers from mad cow disease, the U.S. Department of Agriculture replied: fat chance.

Eating meat from animals afflicted with the illness can cause irreversible, fatal damage to the brain. Last month, a cow in Alabama was found to be infected, the third confirmed case in this country. Canada, which has similar regulations to prevent the disease, has had five.

You would think those cases would indicate the need for more testing of cattle to keep contaminated beef off our tables. In fact, the USDA, which now tests only 1 percent of all slaughtered cows, is planning to cut back on that effort. Crazier yet, it also intends to keep anyone else from conducting more tests.

One company wants to do exactly that. Creekstone Farms, a premium meatpacker based in Kansas, knows bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or BSE, can be deadly for business. After the first American case was discovered in 2003, some 58 countries banned shipments of American beef, costing Creekstone about $100 million in sales.

Those countries were dissatisfied with the safety measures in effect here. So Chief Executive Officer John Stewart decided to address health concerns in places such as Japan and South Korea by going beyond what the U.S. government requires of packers. He pledged to test all his cattle for mad cow in an effort to reassure nervous foreign consumers.

What he didn't account for was that his own government would bar him from doing what his customers want him to do. Creekstone's plan, it said, would undermine federal attempts to "maintain domestic and international confidence in U.S. cattle and beef products." To let the company adopt a more stringent regime would imply the USDA rules were inadequate.

The National Cattlemen's Beef Association agreed, complaining that "if you let one company step out and do that, other companies would have to follow." So last month, Creekstone filed a lawsuit requesting the right to cater to its customers.

fack is, they dont wonta test so much n druther test even less! ye kin read bout it here – Government: Only 4 to 7 Cows Have Mad Cow:

There are probably a few undetected cases of mad cow disease in the United States, but the total - estimated at four to seven - is "extraordinarily low," Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns says.

The calculation comes from new testing data released Friday. Testing is likely to be scaled back after a panel of independent scientists reviews the figures, Johanns said.

"The data shows the prevalence of BSE in the United States is extraordinarily low," Johanns told reporters on a conference call. "In other words, we have an extremely healthy herd of cattle in our country."

The brain-wasting disorder infected more than 180,000 cows and was blamed for more than 150 human deaths during a European outbreak that peaked in 1993.

The first American animal case appeared a decade later, prompting the United States to increase its testing for mad cow disease, which is medically known as bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or BSE. So far, the U.S. has found three cows infected with the disease.

But the first case, a Canadian cow found in Washington state, is not included in the testing analysis. Including that animal would have revised the estimate of infected cows upward to five to 11 nationwide.

The scientific peer review should be finished by the end of May, Johanns said.
Johanns said there is little justification for keeping up the higher testing levels, which rose to about 1,000 samples daily, from about 55 samples daily, after mad cow turned up in the U.S. The current level is around 1 percent of the 35 million cattle slaughtered last year in the U.S.

corse, tiz hard to serve them corporutt masters, witch live by corporutt greed, die by it:

Senate Republicans on Monday hurriedly abandoned a broad tax proposal opposed by the oil industry and business leaders, another sign of their struggle to come up with an acceptable political and legislative answer to high gasoline prices.

Senator Bill Frist of Tennessee, the majority leader, said he had decided to jettison the provision, which would have generated billions of dollars by changing the way businesses treat inventories for tax purposes. Instead, he said the Senate Finance Committee would hold hearings on the plan "later this year, so the pluses and minuses of the provision can become well known."

The retreat came after a torrent of objections from business leaders and their advocates, who typically view Republicans in Congress as allies. They said they had been blindsided by the inclusion of the proposal as a central element of the Republican leadership's energy package late last week.

tiz gittin sos ye caint even buy yer votes when ye need em most, in a eleckshun year:

The public derision of Republicans' idea for a $100 gasoline rebate has focused on the desperate political pandering embodied in the proposal. But there's another view that makes it seem even worse. Consider the China angle.

With the nation already deeply in debt — and with Congress angling this week to cut taxes for affluent investors by more than $20 billion — lawmakers would need to borrow $10 billion to make the rebates happen. Since more than 80 percent of the immense borrowing of the Bush years has been from foreigners, it's safe to assume that most of the rebates would be courtesy of foreign lenders, of which China has been one of the most willing.

It’s the circle of crude: China's competition for the world's oil is pushing up prices. Congress piles on more debt to calm angry consumers with a rebate. The increased debt is a prescription for a weaker dollar, which in turn would make imports, including oil, even more expensive.

the good news is how at lease them publicans is happy with a gummint lack 1984.

or is it that they dun brung back the king to take the place of this messy democrussy thang we used to have?

but the rilly good news is how on sundy thays a'gone be a music n arts festivull in hoboken, new jersey, witch they gut em a band playin named after one of my favert bloggers, red molly.

so it should be a good weekend. we kin eat, drank n be merry n let the devil wurry bout the gummint.

pomes of buddy don: He Is a Crook!

He Is a Crook!

Oh ours is a land of laws, not of men,
Our freedoms fixed by our constitution
And our bill of rights, which we will defend
To the death – be there no substitution!

Yet though we spend more than all other states
Combined on our military machines,
We live as though we were in desperate straits
As if we could be blown to smithereens!

Is there an army, alliance or state
With power enough to invade and win?
No, Sir! For our freedoms to disintegrate
The attack would have to come from within.

And there is the danger, be not mistook,
For our leader admits he is a crook!