GREED ISN'T GOOD EDITION

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Yo MacYippers!

If you're in western PA this weekend and you want to know whether to jump off a cliff or rob a liquor store... or just quietly go on with your life... there may be hints about your future below!

SEWICKLEY PATCH.COM:
http://sewickley.patch.com/articles/for-psychic-lovers-the-spirits-are-about-to-speak
I have been to psychics in Sewickley. Does that make me crazy? Did they give me some valuable advice? Or did I just convince myself they gave me valuable advice because I paid for psychic “readings?”



NYTIMES.COM - PAUL KRUGMAN:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/25/opinion/25krugman.html?_r=2&nl=todaysheadlines&emc=tha212
What’s happening in Wisconsin is, instead, a power grab — an attempt to exploit the fiscal crisis to destroy the last major counterweight to the political power of corporations and the wealthy. And the power grab goes beyond union-busting. The bill in question is 144 pages long, and there are some extraordinary things hidden deep inside.

What he said!

WE'RE ALL GREEDY ON THIS BUS

With apologies to Gordon Gekko, greed isn't good. But it's there. We're all greedy.

What, you never ate the last piece of pie?

Greed is everywhere. It consumes us all. We all pretend not to be greedy, but that's just so we don't look bad.

So, for example, when predatory lenders get greedy about making giant profits and make loans they shouldn't make, and play bundling games to get rich while the entire financial system collapses, threatening another Great Depression, you could say that, um, that kinda greed is bad.

Here's another kind of greed. When a public union leader knows he's got a politician by the balls 'cause he needs union support, and hence extorts larger than necessary amounts of public money, that too ain't right.

But let's be clear. The first example is about OBSCENELY GREEDY PROFITS that damn near killed the country and STILL have us facing the continued recession.

The latter is people who make a modest living trying to be a little more comfortable. Or trying to get a pension that will mean SOME SORT OF MEASLY QUALITY OF LIFE at the end.

That's not to excuse the latter greed. It is to say that while all expenditures of taxpayers money contribute to huge deficits, and some is clearly more wasteful than others, IT'S RIDICULOUS TO POUND THE PUBLIC EMPLOYEES UNIONS AS IF THEY ARE CRIMINALS WHEN MOST OF THESE WALL STREET SATANIC GREEDY ASSHOLES GOT OFF SCOTT FREE.

Once again, my head wants to explode whenever I see the "one side says this, one side says that, the truth lies somewhere in the middle" coverage of these major issues.

Because once again, this time in Wisconsin, the truth does not lie somewhere in the middle.

I'm now going to repeat a fact that is constantly repeated on the air and in print. But the other side seems so good at telling the big lie, repeating it over and over until many believe, I feel we must continue to repeat the big (albeit obvious) truth.

And that is, the Cheesehead unions have agreed to the major financial concessions Governor Walker demanded.

Since they conceded, and his stance about taking away their collective bargaining rights hasn't changed, his motive is obvious. And you already know it. But I'm going to say it anyway.

This is just an asshole who wants to bust unions. Eliminate them, in order to pay less for more in the future. Because that is what assholes do.

Let me repeat some more obvious facts. If you've ever had a good job that paid well, and the hours were good, and the working conditions were reasonable, it's quite possible you have unions and the labor movement to thank.

It doesn't matter if unions had nothing to do with your job. They set the standard. People paid more and treated you better because you might go get one of them quality union jobs. Of course that was back when they were much more plentiful.

The USA today poll finds the public is overwhelmingly in favor of public employee unions keeping the power to bargain collectively. So this "will of the people" nonsense is just that.

USATODAY.COM:

http://content.usatoday.com/dist/custom/gci/InsidePage.aspx?cId=tallahassee&sParam=44031390.story
MADISON, Wis. — Americans strongly oppose laws taking away the collective bargaining power of public employee unions, according to a new USA TODAY/Gallup Poll. The poll found 61% would oppose a law in their state similar to such a proposal in Wisconsin, compared with 33% who would favor such a law.

Yes, unions have made excessive demands. But it was all legal. Nobody put a gun to any politician's head. And when the deal was done, you KNEW the details.

On the other hand, rich folks are constantly doing underhanded greedy deals (not all, maybe even not most, but a large portion... see "damn-near-new-great-depression") and you never have any idea what went down until the feces hits the fan and we're screwed.

Governor Asshole came into office, gave giant corporations big tax breaks, which drains the treasury, and then he complains the coffers are bear.

Gee. I wonder why.

I was once a press secretary for a Republican state treasurer in Rhode Island. We went after some union members for abusing the pension system (claiming time they did not deserve, because they hadn't performed the work they claimed to perform).

I'm not against punishing abuse. I'm not against extracting concessions.

But this union busting stand by Governor Asshole is the most outrageous... well, one of the most outrageous gambits ever attempted by the Grand Old Party.

They don't care if you have no money. They don't care if you die poor. They feel if you didn't figure out a way to get rich, or at least comfortable, it's your own damn fault, and why should they, or anyone subsidize your failure to become rich?

It's a narrow minded, greedy, vicious, unconscionable attitude. And it's the primary motivating force behind so many members of the G.O.P., who got power not because everyone decided they had answers (they don't), but because it seemed that the Dems did NOT have the answers to get the economy moving again.

Listen up MacYippers. This isn't just your typical right/left ideological battle.

It's a battle for the soul of the country. Do you want a survival-of-the-fittest-those-who-don't-make-it-be-damned country? Or do you want to try to ensure a decent living for anyone willing to work hard? A decent retirement for everyone?

Now I can just hear some of your complaints. "Oh, there's so many damn welfare cheats! Hey, how come that poor person gets to buy doritos?"

Perspective people. You can take all the money wasted on lazy welfare cheats over the years and purchase maybe a couple of fancy jets for the Air Force.

But if you take all the money wasted because we all went down the financial shitter thanks to greedy irresponsible rich folks... shit, you could save Medicare.

My point is that everyone is greedy, everyone is wasteful, but the poor people simply do NOT have the financial clout to kill us all financially, even if some of them are freeloaders.

Only the rich have the juice to screw us all, as they just did in this Armageddon of financial scandals.

It's not six of one, half a dozen of the other. It's Dubya (sorry those of you who now thinks he looks like a cute chimp and we ought to lay off), his Veep Dr. Evil (he of the energy vampire trade), and their wealthy friends that punched us in the face financially.

Wake up, smell the GOP selfish greed (phone the department of redundancy), and realize that despite public employee union excesses over the years, THEY ARE SMALL POTATOES COMPARED TO WALL STREET WASTE, FRAUD, ABUSE AND GREED.

It is NOT six of one, half a dozen of the other.

Stop worrying about small potato waste. The rich, greedy folk (see Koch brothers, evil rich goons backing Governor Asshole) want to make you poorer and them richer.
PERIOD.

Two more quick things. Have you heard? For the last couple of decades the rich have been getting richer, the poor poorer, and (as if that's not bad enough), the disparity is greater than its ever been.

And financial experts will tell you not only is that unfair bullshit, it's a very dangerous precarious place for this country to be financially.

The rich (at least a big percentage) care not.

And finally, only a true asshole could be pranked by someone posing as one of his rich puppeteers. Governor Asshole whiled away the day commiserating with his evil benefactor about busting union heads with a baseball bat, and the great party they were going to have in California when it was all said and done.

If you've been living a cave and don't know what I'm talking about, click below:

BUFFALOBEAST.COM:
http://www.buffalobeast.com/?p=5045

Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker answers his master’s call

“David Koch”: We’ll back you any way we can. What we were thinking about the crowd was, uh, was planting some troublemakers.

Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker: You know, well, the only problem with that—because we thought about that…

Scott Walker. Horrible. Human. Being.

Greed is bad. We're all greedy bastards.
But the richest and the greediest are the ones with the clout to kill us all financially.

So stop whining about poor people eating snickers bars and keep your eye on the ball.

COULD THE PHONY PHONE CALL PROVE THE GUV BROKE THE LAW?
http://www.businessinsider.com/why-a-reporters-prank-call-to-david-koch-is-no-laughing-matter-2011-2

But the Governor also explains how he is going to lay off thousands of Wisconsin workers as a tactic to get the Democrats to cooperate: "So, we're trying about four or five different angles. Each day we crank up a little bit more pressure. The other thing is I've got layoff notices ready, we put out the at-risk notices, we'll announce Thursday, they'll go out early next week and we'll probably get five to six thousand state workers will get at-risk notices for layoffs. We might
 ratchet that up a little bit too."

The move has been called "despicable" and "ruthless " and "sickening." But most importantly, if Walker is choosing to lay off workers as a political tactic when he wasn't otherwise planning to do so, then it is not just morally repugnant, but legally questionable. State and federal contract and labor law has protections against this type of abusive behavior and inappropriate quid pro quo.


IF YOU'RE ALL ABOUT CRISIS IN CHEESEHEADVILLE, HERE'S A GOOD LINK!
http://www.greenbayprogressive.com/progressive/

POST-GAZETTE'S BRIAN O'NEILL REVIEWS MAC-YAPPER VIDEO

Brian O'Neill is a fine columnist for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

He happened upon the MacYapper blog the other day, and was amused by my jealously of homeless-guy-turned-guy-with-several-lucrative-offers Ted Williams.

Hence he wrote the following. Enjoy. Or not. I thought it was groovy.

POST-GAZETTE.COM:
http://post-gazette.com/pg/11034/1122562-155.stm?cmpid=bcpanel2
I'm not sure I've ever helped anyone go viral, at least not since I went to work at Waldbaum's deli with bronchitis 35 years ago.

But "going viral'' is now the buzzword of new media. Ya gotta make something wildly popular in a flash, even if that popularity has a shorter shelf life than your average banana.

The most obvious recent example would be Ted Williams, the homeless fellow with the sonorous voice whose image was captured last month at a highway off-ramp by a videographer with The Columbus Dispatch. Mr. Williams' baritone was so captivating that he wound up all over the TV talk shows and was offered more jobs than most Ivy Leaguers.

Long battling alcoholism, he entered rehab after receiving national attention. I saw a report that he's out again, but in this hyperspeed age, Mr. Williams is already yesterday's news. The media are now going 24/7 with Steelers/brrr-it's-cold/Egypt, roughly in that order. The mid-January fame of Mr. Williams now seems a very long time ago.

John McIntire remembers, though. I called up his MacYapper blog the other day and found Pittsburgh's own "underemployed broadcaster and comedian'' going full tilt, like an auctioneer with two minutes to live, in an ostentatiously envious, politically incorrect way about how this homeless man gets all the breaks.

His screed had only 162 views by Wednesday morning, which is more like a polite cough than a virus. But it's funny.

Here is the video to which Brian refers.



Just as it is as American as apple pie to romanticize about a rags to riches fairytale, so too is it as American as wasting money on crap at Target, to envy those who convert the aforementioned rags to actual cash-money.

Hence, I join a long list of extinguished Americans in my effort to keep up with the Joneses. Or in this case the Williams. ses.

Can I out homeless the homeless guy and hence out succeed him in the long run?

Ah, the great American soap opera. You doubt me? Wash your mouth out with soap opera.

ACTING!

I'm not an actor but I play one on TV. Well, on the innertubes. I play a liberal US Senate Candidate. He makes a big mistake. Hence, he loses. Coincidentally, the script was written by a GOP ad man. Go figure.

MOVING NUMBERS_EPISODE 8_Fourth And Ten from Zolitics on Vimeo.

IN OTHER NEWS, PEOPLE STILL **DEBATE** WHETHER PALIN'S AN IDIOT



INTERNET TEE VEE SHOW - GENERATION WARS!

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ROCK ON MAC-YIPPERS!

Email me at johnmcintire@comcast.net