So Much Fail…

Moody’s Investors Service cut AIG’s rating to A2 from Aa3, a two-notch downgrade. Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services lowered the rating to A-minus from AA-minus, a three-peg reduction and Fitch Ratings reduced its standing to A from AA-minus, a two notch cut.

Looks like a lotta jargon, huh? For an insurance company a four point swing in your Standard and Poor rating would be similar to your bank deciding you were as safe a loan risk as a hobo. It’s a measure of how well you would be able to respond in the event of a catastrophic loss… think of a town flooding. Whether or not the company’s ability to payout insured values was subject to market factors or not. However, AIG insures more than just property and casualties. They’re in investment banking along with aircraft leasing and a few other endeavours. For added ‘oomph’ S&P said this was only the first downgrade, with more to possibly follow.

These are retirment funds, life insurance policies and probably an investment fund or two as well, in addition to their straight property and casualty portfolio, that are about to hit the shitter. Bank runs make things worse, but seriously, if you have any paper with the name AIG on it, dump it now. You’re going to be at the mercy of the market when it finally drops and they will not be kind. You’ll be looking at risk surcharges and heavily downgraded values for your pay-outs. I’d say ING, Co-operators, Dominion and Allianz would be safe choices, but honestly, I have no idea what tommorow holds.

They’re hemorrhaging money from a variety of places and seem to have taken on the rather novel idea… seriously, this is a chuckler… of trying to use insureds property as collateral to shore up capital loans. I’m not even sure how that’s legal, but I guess they’re trying anything to turn back the tide of a trillion dollar bankruptcy. That number is the equivilent of Canada’s GDP.

Looks like Manchester United might even go down with them.

And people thought yesterday was bleak.

If you’re going to deny that you were involved in something unethical, don’t try and cover it up by pretty much admitting you have no fucking soul.

Our Public Safety Commisioner thought rapists should like go to jail or some shit…

The McCain campaign says it can prove Monegan was fired in July because of insubordination on budget issues, and not because he refused to fire a state trooper who went through a nasty divorce from Palin’s sister.

To that end, the campaign released a series of e-mails detailing the frustration several Palin administration officials experienced in dealing with Monegan. The “last straw,” the campaign said, was a trip Monegan planned to Washington in July to seek federal money for investigating and prosecuting sexual assault cases.

In a July 7 e-mail, John Katz, the governor’s special counsel, noted two problems with the trip: the governor hadn’t agreed the money should be sought, and the request “is out of sequence with our other appropriations requests and could put a strain on the evolving relationship between the Governor and Senator Stevens.”

Monegan was fired four days later.

How on earth did you think that would make it better? Seriously, what the fuck is wrong with you people? For those who need a little catching up on all this…

To hell with capitalism  

Not going to weigh in here with any heady predictions or even poke blindly at what is actually going on with financial markets today. To those who may be watching the talking heads and pundits… stick figures never lie.

In other news, Pakistani soldiers begin clappin’ back at US cross border incursions. Some say these are designed for an ‘October Surprise’; bringing Osama’s head on a pike back for political gain. No idea if that’s true or it’s just more of the ‘Do Whatever the Fuck We Want Doctrine’. Probably a little bit of both… ‘cuz let’s face it, these douchepuddles think stacking brown bodies somehow equates to ‘freedom’.

Jack Layton once again makes me proud to be a godless socialist…

Should do well with borderline Bloc voters and conservative voters with a soul. Hiring Zig was a great move.

Women in Alaska tell Palin to go fuck herself… definitely a heartwarming story. It is the largest protest in the state’s history. Friendly reminder to the trash who either gave out the personal info of the event organizers over the radio and those who decided to menace them with violent threats… Alaskan women shoot back.

And finally, gonna kick it over to my boy Radley Balko… sure, he’s a libertarian which means he’s going to be wrong in every conceivable way when it comes to economic matters… but he does some excellent work regarding the militarization of the police. Great interview with the Cato Institute and if this is the first time you’ve seen his site, check out the Cory Maye and Ryan Frederick cases as well.

Polish posters of well known movies… made freaky!

Cuz hey, what infant doesn’t need crippling foot injuries!

When you get your ass-kicked by a dude who can’t even walk…

And finally, a little bit of serenity for the times we all need it…

I was reminded of a story from folk lore about the tribal elder telling his grandson about the battle the old man was waging within himself. He said, “My son it is between two wolves. One is an evil wolf: anger, envy, sorrow, greed, self-pity, guilt, resentment, lies, false pride, superiority and ego. The other is the good wolf: joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, generosity, truth, compassion and faith.” The boy took this in for a few minutes and then asked, “Which wolf won?” His grandfather answered, “The one I feed.” - Bill Moyers

Happy weekend, y’all.

I’m going to declare this pretty much my favourite political quote of all time. You had a good run with ‘Fuddle Duddle’, Pierre, but all things do come to an end. Some days, you really just gotta tell a muthafucka how it is.

Anyways, over the past two days things have gotten somewhat heated across South and Central America. The US Ambassadors for both Bolivia and Venezuela have been given their marching orders, told they are now persona non grata. The reasons are… well, it’s South America and if you hear about some wild shit going down chances are…

It’s also thirty-five years to the day when an American backed coup led by Pinochet seized power in Chile.

Yesterday, right-wing militias began destroying government offices across La Paz, Bolivia. I don’t want to sound insencere when I say this, but it’s basically rich folks hiring mercenaries to burn down stuff for no other reason than they’re slightly less rich than before Evo Morales came to power. Not content to let their ogliarchy slip into obscurity, they begun destroying the natural gas pipelines that run into Brazil alongside aid distribution centres… basically… if it’s a positive for the society it’s gotta go up in flames according to these folk.

However, it’s seems like it’s rallying these countries to come together as the community they are. The last few years have seen the prime ministers and presidents of South America work together on trade, energy, economic and security concerns. Lula de Silva, president of Brazil, has offered to handle the security for the pipelines and even the capital city by sending in both troops and police officers. Good on him. Chile has promised food and medical supplies to replace that which has been destroyed and to make up the shortfalls that will come when the States shuts off it’s USAID program to the country.

Enough of your shit, indeed.

Not one, but two more wars for the pleasure of the American electorate…

“Well, first, we are friends with Israel and I don’t think that we should second-guess the measures that Israel has to take to defend themselves and for their security.”

Never second guess. Hell, don’t even think, just go go GO! Never surrender. We’ll keep fighting and we’ll keep winning… as long as we never have to define what the word ‘victory’ ever means. However, uncontent with the righteous purging of brown folks from the earth her nation has been rolling with for the past six years…

PALIN: First off, we’re going to continue good relations with Saakashvili there. I was able to speak with him the other day and giving him my commitment, as John McCain’s running mate, that we will be committed to Georgia. And we’ve got to keep an eye on Russia. For Russia to have exerted such pressure in terms of invading a smaller democratic country, unprovoked, is unacceptable and we have to keep…

GIBSON: You believe unprovoked.

PALIN: I do believe unprovoked and we have got to keep our eyes on Russia, under the leadership there. I think it was unfortunate. That manifestation that we saw with that invasion of Georgia shows us some steps backwards that Russia has recently taken away from the race toward a more democratic nation with democratic ideals.That’s why we have to keep an eye on Russia.

And, Charlie, you’re in Alaska. We have that very narrow maritime border between the United States, and the 49th state, Alaska, and Russia. They are our next door neighbors.We need to have a good relationship with them. They’re very, very important to us and they are our next door neighbor.

GIBSON: What insight into Russian actions, particularly in the last couple of weeks, does the proximity of the state give you?

PALIN: They’re our next door neighbors and you can actually see Russia from land here in Alaska, from an island in Alaska.

Hell of a punchline…

I know conservatism. This ain’t it. Ike would be ashamed and it’s pretty much all playing out as Barry predicted. I may not agree with conservatism, but I respect it. This shallow mockery just ain’t fucking worthy.

This is the bellicose belligerance of shallow minds and graven, empty hearts. To speak so freely of wanton murder and destruction for no reason betrays. A betrayal of life, respect for your fellow human beings and quite honestly, the God she so fervently thinks she believes in.

Welp, at least I ain’t getting drafted to die in some godforsaken Iranian/Georgian foxhole.

Enjoy the ride, kids, enjoy the ride.

“I don’t see why we need to stand by and watch a country go communist due to the irresponsibility of its people. The issues are much too important for the Chilean voters to be left to decide for themselves.”

-Henry Kissinger, 9/11/73

How did it ever come to this? Perhaps it was the nihilistic vengeance visited upon an innocent peoples by an imperial misadventure run amok. Maybe it was the trademarking and exploitation of innocent death for political gain. I sit here today unable to sympathize, or even care anymore. Whatever it was, the pain it caused and the lives it took away so viciously, it will never be that again.

Whatever the blood debt a society thought it was owed has long since past. Whatever retaliation they had felt necessary has mutated into a nigh unstoppable meat-grinder for both the child and the resistor alike. Those who are guilty still walk free, charged with no crime and increasingly less and less to blame by those who originally sought their head on a proverbial pike. The birth place of civilization now irrevocably stained with blood and littered with depleted uranium shells.

You robbed your people of their grief and sadness. You stole their suffering and their nightmares, then turned it into a thirty second tv spot. You made horror and terror a ‘rallying cry for the base’… and how base they are indeed. You snatched a mother’s quiet anguish and a father’s tears, wholly distorting tragedy into slick propaganda. Your lack of right matched only by your lack of shame.

O Lord our Father, our young patriots, idols of our hearts, go forth to battle — be Thou near them! With them — in spirit — we also go forth from the sweet peace of our beloved firesides to smite the foe.

O Lord our God, help us to tear their soldiers to bloody shreds with our shells; help us to cover their smiling fields with the pale forms of their patriot dead; help us to drown the thunder of their guns with the shrieks of their wounded, writhing in pain; help us lay waste to their humble homes with a hurricane of fire; help us to wring the hearts of their unoffending widows with unavailing grief; help us to turn them out roofless with little children to wander unfriended the wastes of their desolated land in rags and hunger and thirst, broken in spirit, worn with travail, imploring Thee for the refuge of the grave and denied it — for our sakes who adore Thee, Lord, blast their hopes, blight their lives, protract their bitter pilgrimage, make heavy their steps, water their way with their tears, stain the white snow with the blood of their wounded feet!

We ask it, in the spirit of love, of Him Who is the Source of Love, and Who is the ever-faithful refuge and friend of all that are sore beset and seek His aid with humble and contrite hearts.

Amen.

-Mark Twain

All I really have left to ask is that you declare me a lunatic who makes no sense as well.

Really… you fucking went there!?!

“Machine-gun toting riot squads raiding art galleries may not be high on the list of things considered uniquely American, but an Aug. 24 and 25 raid on The Other Side Arts, 1644 Platte St., has left red faces, white walls, and some antipathy for Denver’s boys in blue.

“They were carrying machine guns. It was very organized, very quick,” said Peter Tenger, of neighboring Wine Complements, 1620 Platte St.

According to witness accounts, Denver and Aurora police showed up at the art gallery in Denver’s river front area, at about 10 a.m. Aug. 24, some in riot gear. By the time they left, The Other Side Arts, once decked out in two elaborate murals, was the same drab white used by Denver Public Works to cover graffiti.”

-Denver Hub

However, there will always be more leftist-trash and art-fags who need to be taught a lesson/scared shitless, so they hopped back in the goon bus and rolled a few blocks over…

“Early on Sunday, August 24, the day before the DNC officially kicked off a mile away at the Pepsi Center, a crew of between fifteen and twenty cops — some from the Denver Police Department, others from Aurora, many in riot gear — descended on The Other Side Arts, a non-profit gallery at 1644 Platte Street, and started snooping around. They were there to “clean up the neighborhood,” one officer told Remi Darby, an artist who lives in the building and was headed out for brunch, and they asked about cars parked by the gallery and graffiti on its exterior walls. The cars belonged to TOSA artists, he told the cops, and the graffiti? Those were actually works of art, pieces that had been commissioned by the gallery; the creation of one Keith Haring-like mural the year before had even been documented on YouTube…

These cops apparently didn’t get the memo. Because within an hour, they were power-painting the side of the building. And when the officers departed — in a bus, Darby recalls — they left behind a freshly painted wall, essentially an open invitation to taggers.”

-Westword

I swear someone wrote a poem about this shit…

Warning… watching this may cause seething, apoplectic rage and is not suitable for young children…

Is this what passes for police work? If you fail to follow a lawful (lulz) order you are to be arrested, not hosed down with chemical weapons and smashed in the head with a bicycle. When did pain and fear become the lead-in and not a last resort.

Friendly reminder: Any resulting civil rights lawsuit will be paid out by an insurance policy taken out the RNC, not by the City of Saint Paul, the State of Minnesota or the police officers themselves. Let that sink in for a moment. We’re talking about a public social service being rented out for mercenary work, given carte blanche by a private organization to run roughshod through the streets. Laying out beatings and maiming people at will, with zero reprecussions to either their pocket books or criminal behaviour.

To the officers in the video, Thomas Jefferson thinks you’re a douchepuddle.

Saw this on Feministing today…

Called Jihad for Love, the film is an exploration of queer culture in the Muslim world, directed by Parvez Sharma.

We can only hope to be blessed with the bravery these folks display in their daily lives. Being true to ones self is never easy. Being true to a god you’re told daily despises you must be the ultimate test of faith. To stare down hatred and violence and ask for nothing other than the right to be who you are is walking the path of the divine. Shine on you fabulous Jihadi’s, shine on.