Monday, December 31, 2012

By the way  --  HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

Revealed: how the FBI coordinated the crackdown on Occupy New documents prove what was once dismissed as paranoid fantasy: totally integrated corporate-state repression of dissent

This from "The Guardian", by Naomi Wolf. 

It seems the FBI wanted to have SNIPERS "take out" Occupy Wall Street leaders.  I guess all the ridicule and negative press didn't work  --  they didn't shoot, so they arrested, beat, imprisoned, set up, ridiculed, ans who knows what else!  All this CO-ORDINATED with THE BANKS!

"Home Of The Brave, Land Of The Free"  --  tell me about it!
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http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/dec/29/fbi-coordinated-crackdown-occupy

It was more sophisticated than we had imagined: new documents show that the violent crackdown on Occupy last fall – so mystifying at the time – was not just coordinated at the level of the FBI, the Department of Homeland Security, and local police. The crackdown, which involved, as you may recall, violent arrests, group disruption, canister missiles to the skulls of protesters, people held in handcuffs so tight they were injured, people held in bondage till they were forced to wet or soil themselves –was coordinated with the big banks themselves.
The Partnership for Civil Justice Fund, in a groundbreaking scoop that should once more shame major US media outlets (why are nonprofits now some of the only entities in America left breaking major civil liberties news?), filed this request. The document – reproduced here in an easily searchable format – shows a terrifying network of coordinated DHS, FBI, police, regional fusion center, and private-sector activity so completely merged into one another that the monstrous whole is, in fact, one entity: in some cases, bearing a single name, the Domestic Security Alliance Council. And it reveals this merged entity to have one centrally planned, locally executed mission. The documents, in short, show the cops and DHS working for and with banks to target, arrest, and politically disable peaceful American citizens.
The documents, released after long delay in the week between Christmas and New Year, show a nationwide meta-plot unfolding in city after city in an Orwellian world: six American universities are sites where campus police funneled information about students involved with OWS to the FBI, with the administrations' knowledge (p51); banks sat down with FBI officials to pool information about OWS protesters harvested by private security; plans to crush Occupy events, planned for a month down the road, were made by the FBI – and offered to the representatives of the same organizations that the protests would target; and even threats of the assassination of OWS leaders by sniper fire – by whom? Where? – now remain redacted and undisclosed to those American citizens in danger, contrary to standard FBI practice to inform the person concerned when there is a threat against a political leader (p61).
As Mara Verheyden-Hilliard, executive director of the PCJF, put it, the documents show that from the start, the FBI – though it acknowledges Occupy movement as being, in fact, a peaceful organization – nonetheless designated OWS repeatedly as a "terrorist threat":
"FBI documents just obtained by the Partnership for Civil Justice Fund (PCJF) … reveal that from its inception, the FBI treated the Occupy movement as a potential criminal and terrorist threat … The PCJF has obtained heavily redacted documents showing that FBI offices and agents around the country were in high gear conducting surveillance against the movement even as early as August 2011, a month prior to the establishment of the OWS encampment in Zuccotti Park and other Occupy actions around the country."
Verheyden-Hilliard points out the close partnering of banks, the New York Stock Exchange and at least one local Federal Reserve with the FBI and DHS, and calls it "police-statism":
"This production [of documents], which we believe is just the tip of the iceberg, is a window into the nationwide scope of the FBI's surveillance, monitoring, and reporting on peaceful protestors organizing with the Occupy movement … These documents also show these federal agencies functioning as a de facto intelligence arm of Wall Street and Corporate America."
The documents show stunning range: in Denver, Colorado, that branch of the FBI and a "Bank Fraud Working Group" met in November 2011 – during the Occupy protests – to surveil the group. The Federal Reserve of Richmond, Virginia had its own private security surveilling Occupy Tampa and Tampa Veterans for Peace and passing privately-collected information on activists back to the Richmond FBI, which, in turn, categorized OWS activities under its "domestic terrorism" unit. The Anchorage, Alaska "terrorism task force" was watching Occupy Anchorage. The Jackson, Michigan "joint terrorism task force" was issuing a "counterterrorism preparedness alert" about the ill-organized grandmas and college sophomores in Occupy there. Also in Jackson, Michigan, the FBI and the "Bank Security Group" – multiple private banks – met to discuss the reaction to "National Bad Bank Sit-in Day" (the response was violent, as you may recall). The Virginia FBI sent that state's Occupy members' details to the Virginia terrorism fusion center. The Memphis FBI tracked OWS under its "joint terrorism task force" aegis, too. And so on, for over 100 pages.
Jason Leopold, at Truthout.org, who has sought similar documents for more than a year, reported that the FBI falsely asserted in response to his own FOIA requests that no documents related to its infiltration of Occupy Wall Street existed at all. But the release may be strategic: if you are an Occupy activist and see how your information is being sent to terrorism task forces and fusion centers, not to mention the "longterm plans" of some redacted group to shoot you, this document is quite the deterrent.
There is a new twist: the merger of the private sector, DHS and the FBI means that any of us can become WikiLeaks, a point that Julian Assange was trying to make in explaining the argument behind his recent book. The fusion of the tracking of money and the suppression of dissent means that a huge area of vulnerability in civil society – people's income streams and financial records – is now firmly in the hands of the banks, which are, in turn, now in the business of tracking your dissent.
Remember that only 10% of the money donated to WikiLeaks can be processed – because of financial sector and DHS-sponsored targeting of PayPal data. With this merger, that crushing of one's personal or business financial freedom can happen to any of us. How messy, criminalizing and prosecuting dissent. How simple, by contrast, just to label an entity a "terrorist organization" and choke off, disrupt or indict its sources of financing.
Why the huge push for counterterrorism "fusion centers", the DHS militarizing of police departments, and so on? It was never really about "the terrorists". It was not even about civil unrest. It was always about this moment, when vast crimes might be uncovered by citizens – it was always, that is to say, meant to be about you.

When fracking came to suburban Texas Residents of Gardendale, a suburb near the hub of the west Texas oil industry, face having up to 300 wells in their backyards

From "The Guardian"  --  this is sort of, "be careful what you wish for, or support, it might just come true"  --  please follow link to original
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http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2012/dec/31/fracking-in-towns-texas-oil 

The corner of Goldenrod and Western streets, with its grid of modest homes, could be almost any suburb that went up in a hurry – except of course for the giant screeching oil rig tearing up the earth and making the pavement shudder underfoot.
Fracking, the technology that opened up America's vast deposits of unconventional oil and gas, has moved beyond remote locations and landed at the front door, with oil operations now planned or under way in suburbs, mid-sized towns and large metropolitan areas.
Some cities have moved to limit fracking or ban it outright – even in the heart of oil and gas country. Tulsa, Oklahoma, which once billed itself as the oil capital of the world, banned fracking inside city limits. The authorities in Dallas last week blocked what would have been the first natural gas well in town. The town of Longmont, just outside Denver, meanwhile, is fighting off attempts by industry groups to overturn a fracking ban.
But Gardendale, a suburb of 1,500 people near the hub of the west Texas oil industry, exists in a legal and political environment in which there are seemingly few restrictions on fracking, even inside city limits. For residents here, fracking is part of daily life.
"You can hear it, you can smell it, and you are always breathing it. It's just like being behind a car exhaust," said Debbie Leverett, during a tour of the area last October organised by the Society of Environmental Journalists. "All of your senses change."
Over the last few years oil companies have drilled 51 wells in Gardendale, an area that covers about 11 square miles – and that's just the start.
Berry Petroleum, the main oil developer, plans to drill as many as 300 wells in Gardendale. "Berry's current plan is to drill approximately 140 wells on 40-acre spacing in and around the Gardendale area," Jeff Coyle, a company spokesman, wrote in an email. "Additionally, we are preparing to conduct a pilot study on 20-acre spacing and, if those test results are encouraging and economic conditions warrant, we may drill up to 160 additional wells."
Some of those wells will be drilled within 150ft of residents' front doors – far closer than in other towns in Texas.
In the nearby city of Midland, the oil industry hub and childhood home of George W Bush, the city council capped the number of wells inside city limits at 30. The town requires oil companies to stay 500ft away from buildings and homes. In some circumstances oil companies may be required to landscape around a well.
"People are still not really happy when an oil well turns up in the backyard," said Wes Perry, Midland's mayor and an oil man himself. But he added: "We are an oil town. We can't be hypocrites."
However, Gardendale lacks the legal authority to keep fracking at a distance. The suburb, just outside Midland and Odessa, is unincorporated, so it does not have the legal authority to impose zoning restrictions. Residents voted down an attempt to incorporate last year, fearing it would lead to higher taxes.
Berry argues the close proximity serves to encourage industry and residents to co-exist. "What we have here is a situation where we have to find the best way to work together, where mineral rights owners and surface rights owners can co-exist," Coyle said.
But co-existence does not work for Shane Leverett, Debbie's husband. Leverett has worked in the oil industry, but he said the drilling plan for Gardendale was excessive. "This is a fantastic opportunity for oil and gas development, but it is coming at the expense of all of us," he said.
The couple are suing the oil company to try to block drilling on their 130 acres on the edge of town. The land is staked with bright plastic strips marking potential oil wells.
Current plans call for seven wells on the property. "They're talking about a well every 600 feet and a pad every 300 feet," Shane Leverett said. "Do the math. There's not much room left over for us."
The suit seeks to challenge a pillar of Texas law: that property owners have no control over the extraction of the oil that lies beneath their land, unless they also own mineral rights. The Leveretts only own the surface rights to their land. The mineral rights were sold off decades ago – a fact the Leveretts were aware of when they bought their property, but they did not think there was a real prospect of drilling at the time.
Fracking changed that, however, making it profitable to drill on the Leveretts' land.
"This case is of historic importance," said Steve Hershberger, the Leveretts' lawyer. "Now that the oil companies have found oil and gas through fracking and horizontal drilling they are going into residential areas and urban areas. This case is going to define the relationship between mineral owners and surface owners in a big way."
The oil company argues the Leveretts got what they paid for. "Essentially, each Gardendale surface owner bought his or her surface property (at a discounted price without the minerals) betting, wrongfully as it turned out, on the proposition that oil and gas development would not occur in the area," Coyle said.
Other residents complain the oil company dictates what property owners can do above ground, even without definitive drilling plans.
Hector Rodriguez said he was barred from expanding his trailer home or putting in a bigger dog house on his six acres because the oil company insisted on protecting access.
"They told me they might not ever drill there, but they put the stake there just in case," he said. "They told me I could not do anything there. I have no rights."
Coyle said the company believes the Rodriguez property sits atop a potential oil well – although it is not currently scheduled for drilling.
Rodriguez, back at home, is unimpressed. "We're just talking about a dog house," he said. "I should be able to decide about that."
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I guess Gardendale is a "libertarians paradise".  Also, why not send all the rest of the, "I oppose any, and ALL, regulation." bunch there for about six months?

Sunday, December 30, 2012

OWS a "terrorist"organization?? WTF?

I've been reading about the branding of "Occupy Wall Street" as a "terrorist" organization  --  this fro "Naked Capitalism" should make it clear to just about anyone:

"Banks Deeply Involved in FBI-Coordinated Suppression of “Terrorist” Occupy Wall Street
If you had any doubts of the veracity of former IMF chief economist Simon Johnson’s depiction of the financial crisis as a “quiet coup,” a pre-Christmas release of FBI documents should put them to rest. While I linked to a discussion of the results of the Partnership for Civil Justice’s FOIA of FBI materials on Occupy Wall Street, I was remiss in not writing them up earlier. Both the Partnership for Civil Justice and Naomi Wolf at the Guardian (hat tip Scott A) provide good overviews. The PCJ also published the FBI documents it obtained.
If you’ve been following the story of the official response to Occupy Wall Street, it was apparent that the 17 city paramilitary crackdown was coordinated; it came out later that the Department of Homeland Security was the nexus of that operation. The deep FBI involvement is a new and ugly addition to this picture. Several impressions emerge from reading the summaries and dipping into the FBI documents:
The FBI deemed OWS to be a terrorist organization and went into “guilty until proven innocent” mode. Many of the FBI descriptions of possible OWS actions or those of affiliated organizations like Adbusters consistently look to have taken the most inflammatory snippets and presented them out of context.
The FBI also seems to believe that there is no such thing as peaceful protest, that any non-violent activity has the potential to turn violent and therefore should be treated as violent. One document to corporate “clients” warned:
Even seemingly peaceful rallies can spur violent activity or be met with resistance by security forces. Bystanders may be arrested or harmed by security forces using water cannons, tear gas or other measures to control crowds.
The banks were deeply involved in the effort to put down OWS. The executive director of the PCJ stated, “These documents also show these federal agencies functioning as a de facto intelligence arm of Wall Street and Corporate America.” Naomi Wolf adds:
The documents, released after long delay in the week between Christmas and New Year, show a nationwide meta-plot unfolding in city after city in an Orwellian world: six American universities are sites where campus police funneled information about students involved with OWS to the FBI, with the administrations’ knowledge (p51); banks sat down with FBI officials to pool information about OWS protesters harvested by private security; plans to crush Occupy events, planned for a month down the road, were made by the FBI – and offered to the representatives of the same organizations that the protests would target; and even threats of the assassination of OWS leaders by sniper fire – by whom? Where? – now remain redacted and undisclosed to those American citizens in danger, contrary to standard FBI practice to inform the person concerned when there is a threat against a political leader (p61).
More details from the PCJ summary:
As early as August 19, 2011, the FBI in New York was meeting with the New York Stock Exchange to discuss the Occupy Wall Street protests that wouldn’t start for another month. By September, prior to the start of the OWS, the FBI was notifying businesses that they might be the focus of an OWS protest…
Documents released show coordination between the FBI, Department of Homeland Security and corporate America. They include a report by the Domestic Security Alliance Council (DSAC), described by the federal government as “a strategic partnership between the FBI, the Department of Homeland Security and the private sector.” The DSAC report shows the nature of secret collaboration between American intelligence agencies and their corporate clients – the document contains a “handling notice” that the information is “meant for use primarily within the corporate security community. Such messages shall not be released in either written or oral form to the media, the general public or other personnel…”….DSAC issued several tips to its corporate clients on “civil unrest” which it defines as ranging from “small, organized rallies to large-scale demonstrations and rioting.”…
The Federal Reserve in Richmond appears to have had personnel surveilling OWS planning. They were in contact with the FBI in Richmond to “pass on information regarding the movement known as occupy Wall Street.” There were repeated communications “to pass on updates of the events and decisions made during the small rallies and the following information received from the Capital Police Intelligence Unit through JTTF (Joint Terrorism Task Force).”…
The Jackson, Mississippi division of the FBI attended a meeting of the Bank Security Group in Biloxi, MS with multiple private banks and the Biloxi Police Department, in which they discussed an announced protest for “National Bad Bank Sit-In-Day” on December 7, 2011.
As a result, many of the perceptions of threats were paranoid. The FBI’s search for Communists in woodpiles Occupiers in midsized and small cities is obvious ovekill. And mind you, this is the same FBI that is nowhere to be found in investigating crisis-related big bank fraud. An individual “leading” Occupy Tampa was tracked when he went to Gainesville. Anchorage, Alaska, Denver, Colorado, Birmingham, Alabama, Jackson, Mississippi, Memphis, Tennessee, and Green Bay, Wisconsin all had Occupy-related briefings and FBI activity.
The rationale for this overkill was that OWS was a terrorist threat. That’s a striking contrast with the media depiction of the movement when it was in its encampment phase as a bunch of directionless hippies with no message. But the FBI response highlights how anything other than corporate or otherwise officially sanctioned assembly is no longer permitted in America. The main objection to OWS really isn’t violence, even though that serves as the excuse for the official crackdown. It was that it would be inconvenient and embarrassing to Important Organizations and People. Now I have to tell you as a resident of New York City, we are subject to inconvenient things on a regular basis. I’d have a lot less reason to take exception to the eviction of OWS if the officialdom was evenhanded about making the city efficient and keeping the streets clear by getting rid of (for starters) all parades, all street fairs, the marathon, and all Presidential visits (well maybe he can make a minimally invasive stop, say by going down the FDR to the UN and staying in those environs).
Wolf draws the ugly conclusion:
Jason Leopold, at Truthout.org, who has sought similar documents for more than a year, reported that the FBI falsely asserted in response to his own FOIA requests that no documents related to its infiltration of Occupy Wall Street existed at all. But the release may be strategic: if you are an Occupy activist and see how your information is being sent to terrorism task forces and fusion centers, not to mention the “longterm plans” of some redacted group to shoot you, this document is quite the deterrent.
There is a new twist: the merger of the private sector, DHS and the FBI means that any of us can become WikiLeaks, a point that Julian Assange was trying to make in explaining the argument behind his recent book. The fusion of the tracking of money and the suppression of dissent means that a huge area of vulnerability in civil society – people’s income streams and financial records – is now firmly in the hands of the banks, which are, in turn, now in the business of tracking your dissent.
Assange has suggested a partial solution: the widespread use of encryption. The problem with using encryption now is that it’s like waving a red flag in front of the NSA and asking them to take interest in you. But if a meaningful percentage of the population, say as many as 3%, were to start using it for most of their communications as part of a large-scale plan, it would throw a wrench into the system. The officialdom would be presented with an unduly large list of parties of interest, most of whom by design would be uninteresting from a threat/intelligence perspective. And if this sort of thing were to take place, anyone who thought they might be objects of interest for the wrong reasons, as in they were members of Occupy, could also take up encrypting their messages for fun and sport.
The peculiar part of this overreaction is it says that banks and government officials see peaceful protests as a threat to their hold on power. It’s odd that they see their position as precarious, unless they have convinced themselves of their vulnerability as an excuse for clamping down even harder on the rest of us.
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The United States Of America has lost its way.  Whoever is put up to be a "leader" is just a lackey of the cabal that actually runs this country.  

"We The People" is just a JOKE!!  
Until WE are ready to actually vote for folks that actually support us, that will not be sidetracked by phoney "social issues", that understand WE ARE NOT the "1%", and will not be, that FREE health care is the RIGHT of EVERYONE in this country, that Social Security is at best the absolute MINIMUM  --  NOTHING will change.

Time to put down those "smart phones", learn to read, and look around.  It's the woefully uneducated young people we actually depend on  --  G*d help us.

The Five Satins - In The Still Of The Night - 1956


The Elegants - Twinkle little star (original demo)


George Thorogood and The Destroyers - Bad to the bone


Peggy Sue - Buddy Holly


Danny & The Juniors - Rock N Roll is here to stay


The Dubs - "Could This Be Magic"


Crows - GEE - 1953


Saturday, December 29, 2012

King Pleasure Moody's Mood For Love


Manteca - Dizzy Gillespie (1947)


Hampton Hawes Quartet 1958 ~ Love Is Just Around The Corner


Hush-A-Bye by Johnny Griffin



Johnny Griffin: Tenor Sax
Michael Weiss: Piano
Dennis Irwin: Bass
Kenny Washington: Drums

A visit to Some Assembly Required

I've been going through "blogger burnout" (again).  There really isn't that much good news, and most of the stuff that is reported is CRAP.  As a result, and to keep this blog from becoming ALL MUSIC  --  ALL THE TIME!!  --  here are some items from "Some Assembly Required"  --  please follow link to original  --  read more, you will thank me  --  when you stop crying.
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http://ckm3.blogspot.com/

Fact: The US Government has more information on US citizens than any other government ever. It collects – and stores – every phone call, purchase, email, text, and internet search made. It tracks your browsing history, your health records, your employment, your friends and your travels. It knows where you are – or at least your cell phone is – 24/7. It probably knows more about you than Google does.

Too Late The Dawn: Within the next few years there will be more than 30,000 drones deployed domestically over the United States. FBI, Homeland Security, ICE and such, as well as state and local police agencies. Some will be Raptor and Predator sized, but many will be smaller, much smaller and equipped with cameras and microphones instead of missiles. Think hummingbirds. Think of them looking in your windows or perched near you, listening as you talk with your co-conspirators friends. Don't think of protesting; protests will be monitored by drones that will call in bigger drones designed for crowd suppression and dispersal drones. No riot police necessary - the cops'll know who you are and where you are and will pick you up at their leisure. They call it "full spectrum surveillance". 

Tradition: The generation of homeless Vietnam veterans is being replaced by a generation of homeless veterans of the Oil Wars. The number homeless of Iraq and Afghanistan vets – and those at risk of homelessness – has doubled in the last two years. What have we achieved that was worth this?
  
Two Things: Do we let Russians adopt US orphans? Why do these people want to adopt Russian kids instead of American orphans?

The Map Is Not The Territory: Inflation was once calculated by periodically measuring the increase in price of a basket of goods and services. The same goods and services. Then, after decades of perfectly fine service, that model was replaced with one that gave different weight to various parts of the basket. That lowered the inflation rate, but after a while even more cosmetics were needed, so the formula was changed to put more weight on the things that were stable and less weight to the things that went up in price – think food and fuel. This also lowered the reported rate of inflation enough so that over the last decade or so, the adjustment in purchasing power of Social Security - among other government programs that are keyed to the CPI inflater - has been cut by about 30%.
But wait, there's more: Next came 'hedonic adjustments', in which the BLS imputes the "increased pleasure the consumer derives" from purchasing 'new & improved' items. That new refrigerator didn't really cost 20% more, because the pleasure you get from admiring it is worth the extra $175. Ditto for the TV, which lets you see the advertising even better than before. Especially the political advertising. The costs of EPA regulations are not inflationary, because you get to live to enjoy cleaner air.
The last tweak to reported inflation is 'intervention analysis" which says that there is no increased inflation when the price of food goes up, because you will eat cheaper stuff, hamburger instead of steak, catfood instead of hamburger and so on. If you can't afford gasoline, you'll walk everywhere. If you can't afford the rent, you can sleep in the street. It is no longer a measure of inflation, it is no longer a cost-of-living adjustment. It is a reduction-of-living adjustment. And you don't want to know about chained-CPI, which is fraud on steroids.
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There's more  --  go there



Thursday, December 27, 2012

Some News



BBC News has some interesting stuff today  --  here are excerpts of three articles.  Please follow links to originals.
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Belgium King Albert II Christmas speech sparks controversy
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-20852536

The Belgian king has provoked a sharp response to a Christmas message in which he drew parallels with the rise of fascism in the 1930s.
Albert II warned against the dangers of populists seeking scapegoats for current economic difficulties.
Flemish separatist leader Bart De Wever assumed the remarks were aimed at him and said he had overstepped his role.
Belgian political experts and commentators argued that the broadcast had intervened in political debate.
In his broadcast, the king said that "in these troubled times we live in, we should remain vigilant and see through populist arguments".
Populists were, he said, "trying to find scapegoats for the crisis, whether foreigners or compatriots from another part of the country".
Such thinking persisted in Belgium as much as in other European countries and "the crisis of the 1930s and the populist reactions of that time must not be forgotten", the king said.
Belgium has a deepening divide between its Flemish (Dutch-speaking) north and French-speaking south, and there has been speculation that the country could ultimately break up...............
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 Bankia shares slide on 'negative value' assessment
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-20851106

Shares in Bankia have slid almost 20% after Spain's bank rescue fund said the troubled lender had a negative value of -4.2bn euros (£3.4bn; $5.6bn).
Bankia's parent company, BFA, which is being bailed out, was deemed to be worth -10.4bn euros.
The assessments suggest losses on bad loans are even worse than expected.
Bankia shares will be suspended from Spain's benchmark Ibex index from 2 January until at least after it is recapitalised, the stock exchange said.
The Spanish government-owned bailout fund, which is called the FROB, said that a further 13.5bn euros of rescue money would have to be injected into BFA, on top of the 4.5bn provided by Madrid in September...................
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India tea workers burn boss to death in Assam state
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-india-20849295
 
Hundreds of tea plantation workers have set alight their boss's bungalow in north-east India, burning to death the owner and his wife, officials say.
Angry workers surrounded the bungalow at Kunapathar in Assam state late on Wednesday, following a two-week long dispute with the management.
Police said the incident happened after the management asked some workers to leave their accommodation.
More than half of India's tea output comes from 800 tea estates in Assam.
Local official SS Meenakshi Sundaram said some 700 tea garden workers surrounded the manager's bungalow on Wednesday evening and set it on fire. Two vehicles belonging to the manager were also torched.
The charred bodies of Mridul Kumar Bhattacharyya and his wife, Rita, were later recovered from the debris, Mr Sundaram said.
Police have detained three workers in connection with the incident.
Officials said Mr Bhattacharyya and his workers had been locked in a dispute for the past two weeks.
They said Mr Bhattacharyya had also faced protests at another tea estate that he owned two years ago.
In that dispute, angry workers set fire to his tea factory near the state capital, Guwahati, after he had allegedly fired on a crowd that had gathered near his house to protest against a reported attack on a local woman.
Several incidents of attacks on tea executives by angry workers have been reported from Assam in recent years.
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As "Porky Pig" would say after a "Looney Tunes" cartoon (if I recall correctly)  --  "Th-th-thats all folks".

It's just some more News that points out the total insanity of our world today. 

There's something very wrong with making TAXPAYERS responsible for the insanity of bankers, and the rest of the Plutocrats that infest our world today.  Then, when they lay the blame on all the various "others" of the world, it's even more INSANE.

We are in for a VERY hard fall.  Once again, I'm really happy I'm 73 and not 33.  Good luck to all.


Tuesday, December 25, 2012

Dizzy Gillespie - And Then She Stopped

Trumpet - Dizzy Gillespie
Saxaphone/Flute - James Moody
Bass - Christopher White
Piano - Kenny Barron
Drums - Rudy Collins

On the Sunny Side of the Street



Diz on trumpet, Stitt on alto.

"Lover Man"Sonny Stitt,Walter Bishop,Tommy Potter,Kenny Clarke.



Sonny Stitt Alto Sax,
Walter Bishop Piano.
Tommy Potter Bass,
Kenny Clarke Drums.

Lennie Tristano - Tangerine (Copenhagen '65)


Thelonious Monk-Criss Cross


Sonny Clark - Cool Struttin'


Sonny Criss - Blue Sunset (1969)

Sonny Criss (as)
Hampton Hawes (p)
Monty Budwig (b)
Shelly Manne (ds)
"I'll Catch The Sun!"(1969)

Sunday, December 23, 2012

Charlie Parker, Lennie Tristano & Kenny Clarke in August 1951



Charlie Parker, Lennie Tristano & Kenny Clarke play ALL OF ME & I CAN'T BELIEVE THAT YOU'RE IN LOVE WITH ME in August 1951.

Blues up and down - Dexter Gordon Johnny Griffin


Friday, December 21, 2012

Staver: Supreme Court could spark Second Revolution and Civil War over Marriage Equality

So, the right wing thinks marriage EQUALITY (AKA: "gay marriage") could lead to civil war, and the end of the United States?  WOW!!  It would be that easy?  Perhaps the FBI and other Federal Agencies should investigate and arrest these TREASONOUS ANTI-AMERICAN agents.

Please follow link to original, and complete story.
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http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/staver-supreme-court-could-spark-second-revolution-and-civil-war-over-marriage-equality

According to Liberty Counsel head Mat Staver, if the Supreme Court rules in favor of marriage equality, America may head toward outright revolt and a second civil war. Staver told Janet Parshall that marriage equality will mean that the institution of marriage, freedom of speech and the freedom of religion will be “destroyed” and “bulldozed over.”
Like Family Research Council president Tony Perkins who last month maintained that the Supreme Court may start a “revolution” and “break this nation apart” by striking down gay marriage bans, Staver said that the court “could split the country right in two” as “this is the thing that revolutions literally are made of.”
“This would be more devastating to our freedom, to our religious freedom, to the rights of pastors and their duty to be able to speak and to Christians around the country, then anything that the revolutionaries during the American Revolution even dreamed of facing,” Staver said, “This could cause another civil war.”

We're Still Here

No magnetic shifts, no floods, no end of the world  --  gosh, I guess all those folks HOPING for some sort of final apocalypse are terribly disappointed.

Not to worry  --  I suspect they made an error in their "calculations".  A "new improved" date for "The End Of The World As We Know It" (TEOTWAWKI) will soon be forthcoming.

I have a suggestion  --  why not accept reality.  We ALL get old and DIE!  We are destroying the earth for no good reason.  We are also destroying each other for no good reason.

It's time to stop all that crap.  HOW MUCH DO YOU NEED?

Try to be a real person.  Stop all the pride, greed, anger, driven stuff.  End ALL religion.  Live and let live.

Thursday, December 20, 2012

A Visit To: "Some Assembly Required"

I wasn't going to do it  --  but, there are just too many "interesting" tid-bits at "Some Assembly Required"  --  so, here are a few.  As usual, please follow link to original.
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http://ckm3.blogspot.com/

In The Beginning: The New Orleans school board, in open defiance of Bobby Jindal's efforts to completely pervert education in Louisianna, has banned both textbooks and teachers that "present creationism or intelligent design as science," as well as textbooks based on the strange version of history ( the Trail of Tears was God's way of bringing Christ to heathens) mandated by the esteemed Texas legislature. It's a start.

Fraud Alert: Those who insist on including Social Security in any deficit reduction discussions are con men. Social Security is solvent for many years to come thanks to its Trust Fund. The fact that Bush and the Republicans took those moneys and gave them to the rich via tax cuts does not invalidate the bonds held by the Trust Fund. If they will not raise taxes to pay that money back, they are committing theft and should be jailed.

Omission: Boehner, under the mistaken impression that he has backing from his own party to pass his 'Plan B', says that President Obama will have to sign it or veto it. Mr. Boehner seems to forget that the Senate would have to pass his ridiculous plan, which ain't gonna happen.

Noted: According to the Agriculture Department, in 2010 20% of households receiving food stamps had no cash income.

Guns & Butter: Here's what at steak stake as Obama joins the Republicans in undermining Social Security via “chained-CPI': the cost of living increases will assume that when prices go up, retirees will switch from all-meat catfood to the cheaper grain-based, meat-flavored brands. This will let the country Congress divert even more Social Security funds to the arms industry.


"Headline of the day" - from Joe.My.God.

Mosque arsonist tells court: ‘I only know what I hear on Fox News’

What has happened to my country??

This from "Raw Story" - please follow link to original
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http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/12/20/mosque-arsonist-tells-court-i-only-know-what-i-hear-on-fox-news/

An Indiana man convicted of setting fire to a mosque in Ohio told a judge on Wednesday that he committed the crimes because Fox News and conservative talk radio had convinced him that “most Muslims are terrorists.”
Randolph Linn, 52, accepted a plea deal in which he pled guilty to all charges in connection to setting a fire in the prayer room at the Islamic Center of Greater Toledo on Sept. 30. Under the deal, Linn is expected to serve 20 years in prison instead of 40.
Linn explained to the court that he had gotten “riled up” after watching Fox News.
“And I was more sad when Judge [Jack] Zouhary asked him that, ‘Do you know any Muslims or do you know what Islam is?’” one mosque member who attended the hearing recalled to WNWO. “And he said, ‘No, I only know what I hear on Fox News and what I hear on radio.’”
“Muslims are killing Americans and trying to blow stuff up,” Linn also reportedly told the judge. “Most Muslims are terrorists and don’t believe in Jesus Christ.”
Linn claimed that he had consumed 45 beers in the 6 hours before leaving his Indiana home to set fire to the mosque, which he had discovered while working as a truck driver.
After his arrest on Oct. 2, Assistant U.S. Attorney Ava Dusten said that Linn had told officers, “Fuck those Muslims… They would kill us if they got the chance.”
Linn is due back in court on April 16, 2013 for a formal sentencing.
A survey released by Fairleigh Dickinson University earlier this year determined that Fox News viewers were actually less informed that Americans who watched no news at all. In fact, at least seven studies in recent years have confirmed that Fox News viewers are more likely to be misinformed than other Americans.
Raw Story (http://s.tt/1xuMg)

John Coltrane & Johnny Hartman - My One And Only Love 1963


They Say It's Wonderful - John Coltrane & Johnny Hartman


Dry your eyes - Brenda & The Tabulations


The Flamingos - I Only Have Eyes For You


What's Your Name?/Don and Juan


The Chantels - Maybe (1958)


THE JAGUARS - THE WAY YOU LOOK TONIGHT


THE SHIELDS - YOU CHEATED


The Dubs - "Could This Be Magic"


Come And Go With Me- The Dell Vikings


You're So Fine-The Falcons-original song-1959


Smoke From Your Cigarette-The Mellows


Wednesday, December 19, 2012

Buffalo Springfield - For What It's Worth 1967


Blackbird - Crosby, Stills & Nash


Crosby, Stills & Nash - Suite: Judy Blue Eyes (Studio Version)


Oh-Oh

Dr. Krugman says it better than I can - follow link to original
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http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/

That Old Sick Feeling
Here we go again — or so I find myself fearing.
Obama’s fiscal deal offer was already distressing — cuts to Social Security, and a big concession, it turns out, on taxation of dividends, retaining most of the Bush cut (with the benefits flowing overwhelmingly to the top 1 percent). It wasn’t clear that the deal would have gotten nearly enough in return.
But sure enough, it looks as if Republicans have taken the offer as a sign of weakness, as a starting point from which they can bargain Obama down. Oh, and they’re not giving up at all on the idea of using the debt ceiling for further blackmail.
In other words, all of a sudden it’s feeling a lot like 2011 again, with the president negotiating with himself while the other side enjoys the process.
So Obama needs to draw a line right now: no further concessions. None. He’s already given too much.
Yes, this probably means going over the cliff. So be it: it’s less bad than the alternative.
And if Obama does try to make more concessions, Democrats in Congress need to let him know that they’re not behind him, that he cannot count on their votes.

Tuesday, December 18, 2012

Dizzy Reece - I'll Close My Eyes


Blue Mitchell - I Wish I Knew


Chet Atkins + Vince Gil Together. Rare.


At the Jazz Band Ball - Bix Beiderbecke and His Gang, 1927


Cell Phones, Smart Phones, Guns, etc., etc., etc.

As statistics become available it is becoming clear that speaking or texting while driving are leading causes of accidents and death.  Therefore  --  BAN CELL PHONES!

No one really needs this technology.  We lived for many, many, years without such things. 

It is also clear that inattentive WALKING leads to accident and injury.  Once again, cell phones are to blame.

BAN CELL PHONES!!

No different from GUNS.  Doesn't matter what the "engine of destruction" is  --  BAN THEM ALL!!

http://livewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/entry/poll-michigan-gov-snyders-popularity-tanks-after-right

From "Talking Points Memo"  --  follow link to original.
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 http://livewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/entry/poll-michigan-gov-snyders-popularity-tanks-after-right

The approval rating of Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder (R) is in the gutter, according to a poll released Tuesday, the strongest evidence yet of the political perils associated with the right-to-work legislation he signed into law last week.
According to the latest automated survey from Democratic-leaning Public Policy Polling, only 38 percent of Michigan voters approve of the job Snyder is doing, compared with 56 percent who disapprove. In PPP's previous survey of Michigan in November, Snyder's approval rating was 10 points above water: 47 percent of voters approved of his performance as governor, while 37 percent disapproved.
The right-to-work bill, signed by Snyder amid mass protests, appears to have changed the political climate in the Great Lake State. Fifty-one percent of Michigan voters oppose the bill, which made Michigan the country's 24th right-to-work state, while 41 percent support the legislation. Moreover, Snyder trails every Democrat in hypothetical matchups of the 2014 gubernatorial election.

Majority see Sandy Hook killings as “societal problem,” not just isolated act of one person

This from "AmericaBlog"  --  please follow link to original
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http://americablog.com/2012/12/majority-see-sandy-hook-as-societal-problem.html

As you might imagine, lots of polls are coming out following the Sandy Hook school killings. A solid majority of Americans are against high-capacity ammunition clips, and a slim majority favor stricter gun laws.
While support for stricter gun laws has not changed significantly, one significant development is that Americans are increasingly seeing mass shootings like this as a societal issue. As I mentioned yesterday, over here in Europe, we see the same TV shows, the same movies and have the same video games yet we don’t see the same number of mass shootings. They happen, but not with anywhere near the same regularity as in the US.
Something else is going on.  It maybe the availability of guns. It may also be something in the American character, or culture, that’s more violent.
The center-right is blaming the problem on Hollywood and video games, but that doesn’t seem to work when you view this issue globally. It’s more than just TV and video games.
ABC News:
Mass Shootings around the world
Mass Shootings around the world
The public by 52-43 percent sees the atrocity in Connecticut as indicating “broader problems in American society” rather than just the isolated act of a troubled individual. Many fewer saw the shootings last July in Aurora, Colorado, or last year in Tucson, Arizona, as signs of a broader societal problem, 24 and 31 percent, respectively, in polls by the Pew Research Center.
Views were more similar to today’s after the shootings at Virginia Tech in 2007, when the public divided, 46-47 percent in a Pew poll, on whether broader societal problems were at play. But the Connecticut shootings mark the first of these incidents that’s been seen by more than half the public as indicating a broader problem.
Notably, political and ideological differences are muted in this assessment: Half or more of Democrats, independents and Republicans alike see a broader societal problem (51, 52 and 57 percent, respectively). It’s also about half both among liberals and conservatives.
Meanwhile over at Fox, Rupert Murdoch and Roger Ailes can’t seem to agree on the issue of gun control. Murdoch is somewhat surprisingly in favor of gun control, while Ailes is holding firm on his preference of guns over people

Domino's Pizza Founder Sues To Block Employee Access To Birth Control

I have NEVER had a Domino's Pizza, and NEVER WILL!  It's time for EVERYONE to boycott Domino's!  Haven't you all had enough of these "godbags"  --  of EVERY religion  --  who want to control everyones behavior?

This from "Joe.My.God.  --  please follow link to original.
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http://joemygod.blogspot.com/

Tom Monaghan, the founder of Domino's Pizza, has filed a lawsuit to prevent employees from using the company health plan to get birth control.

Monaghan is a devout Catholic and believes that using contraception is “gravely immoral,” according to his court filing. The suit adds that prior to the Affordable Care Act’s passage, the company specifically sought out insurance that does not cover contraception. The suit adds that prior to the Affordable Care Act’s passage, the company specifically sought out insurance that does not cover contraception.  One of the regulations implemented after the Affordable Care Act was signed into law requires that all health insurance plans cover preventative care — which includes regular cancer and STD screenings, annual checkups and contraception for both men and women — free of charge. Employers that are morally opposed to providing contraception are allowed a religious exception that places the financial burden entirely upon the insurer. In his lawsuit, however, Monaghan insists that his religious freedom is being infringed upon by the coverage mandate. The billionaire argues that he’s actually paying for “abortions” by way of supplying workers with access to emergency contraception like “Plan B” and “ella,” which the lawsuit calls “abortifacients.”

Unhinged Right-Wing Responses to Connecticut Massacre - there are also unhinged LEFT-WING responses

Some responses to the recent murder of children.  Just about everyone is pushing THEIR agenda  --  from the anti-gun folks to the "Christians", the NRA, and various right-wing organizations, spokespersons, and politicians.  It seems as if the KIDS have been lost in all the noise.

By the way, what about the MOTHER, who was killed with her own guns  --  the ones she owned for SELF-PROTECTION  --  how did that work out?

Just owning a gun is not enough.  You need to be trained, and to keep them secure.

I also read she was a prepper  --  waiting for some sort of a"apocalypse".  Do you think that message, along with all the "doomsday" crap on TV might have affected the young man who killed all those young people?  There are a number of "apocolypse" shows on TV, along with a**holes like Ted Nugent.  We also have folks calling for an end to "Obamacare", an end to The United States (secession), and predicting the collapse of civil society - "any day now".  There are a number of TV shows and various web entities that promote this crap.

Don't you think they also have a part in this crap?  It's about much more than just "THE GUNS!!!"

From "Alternet" - please follow link to original
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http://www.alternet.org/tea-party-and-right/7-unhinged-right-wing-responses-connecticut-massacre?paging=off

Bryan Fischer: God let massacre happen in public school because he's not wanted there. The noxious radio-show host and spokesperson for the anti-gay hate group known as the American Family Association, put the blame for the massacre squarely on the Supreme Court, which outlawed organized public school prayer in 1962, as seen in this clip captured by Right Wing Watch.
"I think God would say to us, 'Hey, I'd be glad to protect your children, but you've got to invite me back into your world first,'" Fischer told his listeners. "'I'm not gonna go where I'm not wanted; I am a gentleman.'" Fischer continued in his imagined voice of God. So much of a gentleman is Fischer's God that the Almighty would await an invitation before rushing in to protect 20 children from being gunned down. Thank goodness the police and firefighters who responded were so terribly rude.

. Louie Gohmert: If only Sandy Hook principal had an assault rifle, everyone would have been saved. Speaking to host Chris Wallace on Fox News Sunday, the Republican congressman from Texas let loose with this, as transcribed by the Huffington Post:
"Chris, I wish to God she had had an M4 in her office, locked up so when she heard gunfire, she pulls it out ... and takes him out and takes his head off before he can kill those precious kids," Gohmert said.
The M4 is the rifle favored by the U.S. military; you can view its specs on the site of its manufacturer, Colt. Yeah, that'll fix everything.

  Larry Pratt: Making schools gun-free zones caused the problem. The executive director of Gun Owners of America, a far-right group allied with the militia movement, makes a leap of logic by claiming that because the massacre happened in an school designated as a "gun-free zone," that the absence of guns in Sandy Hook Elementary School must have caused the problem.
Despite the fact that Pratt once addressed a group of white supremacists and advocated for the creation of militias in the U.S. based on the model of anti-communist Guatemalan death squads, the USA Today Web site gave Pratt a big megaphone to its millions of unique viewers (23 million in May 2011, according to the company's media kit), the day after the Sandy Hook tragedy, in the opinion section of the site.
There, Pratt asserts:
Hopefully, the Connecticut tragedy will be the tipping point after which a rising chorus of Americans will demand elimination of the gun-free zone laws that are in fact criminal-safe zones.
One measure of insanity is repeating the same failure time after time, hoping that the next time the failure will turn out to be a success. Gun-free zones are a lethal insanity.
As AlterNet reported in 2010, Pratt told a rally of gun owners at the Washington Monument that the Oklahoma City bombing was but a battle in a war between the citizens and the government. (He cited the assault on David Koresh's compound by federal law enforcement in Waco, Texas, as evidence of a purported war on citizens by the government. As we reported in April 2010, Pratt continued his rally speech, saying:
We're in a war. The other side knows they're at war, because they started it. They're comin' for our freedom, for our money, for our kids, for our property. They're comin' for everything because they're a bunch of socialists.
Shame on USA Today for publishing Pratt as some kind of expert. Guess they couldn't find a Ku Klux Klan official.

Tennessee pastor: Mass shootings because schools teach evolution and ‘how to be a homo’

This from "Raw Story" - please follow link to original
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 http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/12/17/tennessee-pastor-mass-shootings-because-schools-teach-evolution-and-how-to-be-a-homo/


A Tennessee pastor on Sunday told his congregation that the number of mass shooting were escalating because of schools were government “mind-control centers” that taught “junk about evolution” and “how to be a homo.”
Old Paths Baptist Church Pastor Sam Morris began speaking about last week’s school massacre in Newtown, Connecticut by warning that “this sermon will not be pleasant.”
“We get all up in arms about 20 children being shot in a day care but we don’t give one good-glory rip about the 4,000 that were removed violently from the wombs of their mothers [in abortion procedures] the same day,” he explained. “I believe they use children and Christmas and all that to pull on our heart strings about gun control. That’s what it’s all about.”
Morris asserted that equal rights was a “sham” because it’s “equal immorality” and that authorities should take the body of the suspected shooter, 20-year-old Adam Lanza, “and string him up in public and set his body on fire and leave it out there to let the birds pick his bones.”
“We’re going to see more of this,” he continued. “Because notice, the first thing in America we start yelling about is gun control is gun control. Have you noticed that? Gun control. No one’s even thought about the fact that these shootings only happened at places where guns are banned. Have you noticed that? They have never had a mass shooting at a gun show, where you can find over a thousand loaded guns at one time.”
“Why do you still send your kids to the governmental schools?” the pastor asked the congregation. “What’s behind this shooting that we saw on Dec. 14 in Newtown, Connecticut and the other one’s like it? What’s going on. Well, number one, deception… I got news for you, when you kicked God out of schools, you’re going to be judged for that.”
Morris insisted that “humanism” in schools taught Lanza that he was God and “he can just go blow away anybody he wants.”
“When I got in high school, man, I started learning all this kingdom, phylum stuff, all this junk about evolution,” he recalled. “And I want to tell you what evolution teaches — here’s the bottom line — that you’re an animal. That’s what it teaches. So, you’re an animal, you can act like an animal. Amen.”
“So, here you are, you’re an animal and you’re a god! So, what are we going to teach you about in school? Well, we can teach you about sex, we can teach you how to rebel to you parents, we can teach you how to be a homo! But we’re definitely not going to teach you about the word of God! Amen.”
He added: “They think homeschoolers are a bunch of crazies, man. But I’m going to tell you something, I’ve never seen a police officer or a medal detector at a home school. Never. Amen. Now, there’s plenty of guns at my home school. Amen. I guarantee you we’re not going to have a mass shooting at any of the schools that are represented in this building today. I guarantee you, if there is a shooting, it won’t last very long. Amen.”
“I guarantee you there’s at least six or seven guns in this place right now. Amen.”
Morris confirmed to Raw Story on Monday that he had preached the sermon uploaded to SermonAudio.com but declined to answer any additional questions.

Sunday, December 16, 2012

More on THE SHOOTINGS

An unbalanced person went into a school and killed 27 people.  As a result every damn interest group has seized on this horrific event to push their own agenda.  The religious "godbags" say it has to do with a lack of prayer in school.  One went so far to say ,God didn't stop it because "he's a gentleman, and doesn't go where he's not wanted".

That's just plain INSANE!!

The pro gun folks seem to want an AR15 in every classroom.

The anti-gun folks blame the guns.

Everyone seems to have an axe to grind.

No one points to the lack of mental health services.  No one points to the insane violence we see in movies and video games.

No one looks at our anti-community society.  Our society where we are all either "winners" or "losers"  --  and MONEY is how you keep score.  It's not about integrity, not about human values, but about MONEY.  No one points at the "greedheads"  --  many of whom are also "godbags" of one sort or another.

Now we find out the shooters mother was both a gun nut AND a "doomsday prepper".  No one points to all the "reality" TV shows that actually PROMOTE this anti-social insanity.

It's that we either need more guns, more God, or no guns.

The very same teachers who were being damned two days ago as overpaid leeches are now heroes.  Still, we defund schools, cut back on services, eliminate Unions, good jobs, and wonder why there's so much insanity.  Entire States want to leave the Union.  Governors want to cut back on ALL medical services.  Rich folks say FUCK YOU to the rest of society  --  any sense of community is dissolving  --  but it's all about "the guns".

When will we, the supposed "good people" look at ourselves and see how wrong the path we've been on since 1980, and the "Sainted Ronnie Raygun" took over, has been.

Our entire society has become insane.  We have lost our humanity.

Please remember, ALL soldiers, sailors, and air force folks are NOT "heroes"  --  the idea of a "greatest generation" was started as a way to SELL BOOKS.  We once had a sense of humor about ourselves and our society.

It's about a lot more than THE GUNS  --  they are just a means to an end.

It amazes me there is not MORE VIOLENCE.  

FBI: Anti-Muslim Hate Crimes Remain Relatively High

From "Hatewatch"  --  please follow link to original
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http://www.splcenter.org/blog/2012/12/10/fbi-anti-muslim-hate-crimes-remain-relatively-high/

Hate crimes against perceived Muslims, which jumped up 50% in 2010 largely as a result of anti-Muslim propagandizing, remained at relatively high levels last year, according to 2011 hate crime statistics released today by the FBI.
The bureau reported that there were 157 reported anti-Muslim hate crimes in 2011, down slightly from the 160 recorded in 2010. The 2011 crimes occurred during a period when Islam-bashing propaganda, which initially took off in 2010, continued apace.
The FBI statistics, which are compilations of state numbers, are notoriously understated. Two Department of Justice studies have indicated that the real level of hate crimes in America is some 20-30 times the number reported in the FBI statistics, in part because some 56% of hate crimes are never reported to police and more than half of those that are are mischaracterized as non-hate crimes. Nevertheless, the FBI statistics can be used to get a sense of general trends.
Last year saw continued high levels of anti-Muslim propaganda such as the crusade by some against the alleged Muslim plan to impose religious Shariah law on the United States. There were a number of local battles over the construction of new mosques, and several were attacked by apparent Islamophobes.
At the same time, the FBI statistics suggested that there was a 31% drop in anti-Latino hate crimes, from 534 in 2010 to 405 last year. It’s not clear what might be behind that drop, other than an apparent diminution in anti-Latino and anti-immigrant propaganda as negative attention focused on Muslims.
Other hate crime categories remained relatively steady. Anti-Jewish hate crimes fell from 887 in 2010 to 771 last year, while anti-LGBT hate crimes rose slightly, from 1,256 to 1,277. Anti-black hate crimes also fell slightly, continuing a trend of dropping from a high of 2,876 in 2008 (when Barack Obama appeared on the national political scene, fueling anti-black hatred in some quarters) to 2,076 last year.

Saturday, December 15, 2012

Ella Fitzgerald - Blue Skies

With Paul Weston's Orchestra: John Best, Pete Candoli, Harry "Sweets" Edison, Don Fagerquist, Mannie Klein (tpt); Edward Kusby, Dick Noel, William Schaefer (trmb); Juan Tizol (v trmb); Chuck Gentry, Matty Matlock, Ted Nash, Babe Russin, Fred Stulce (reeds); Paul Smith (p); Barney Kessel (g); Joe Mondragon (b); Alvin Stoller (d); Weston (arr, cond).

Ella Fitzgerald & Joe Pass - Gee Baby Ain't I Good To You


Joe Pass - Summertime [1992]


Stanley Jordan - Stairway to Heaven


Horace Silver - SeƱor Blues (Horace Silver, Blue Mitchell & Junior Cook)


Missing You - Blue Mitchell

Blue Mitchell (tp)
Benny Golson (ts)
Wynton Kelly (p)
Paul Chambers (b)
Art Blakey (ds)

DEXTER GORDON, Stairway To The Stars (Parish-Melnick-Signorelli)

Dexter Gordon (tenor saxophone); Bud Powell (piano); Pierre Michelot (bass); Kenny Clarke (drums).

DEXTER GORDON "Body and soul"


Lucky Thompson Sextet 1956 - Lullaby In Rhythm



Lucky Thompson - Tenor Sax
Michel Hausser - Vibes
Jean-Pierre Sasson - Guitar
Martial Solal - Piano
Pierre Michelot - Bass
GĆ©rard 'Dave' Pochonet - Drums

Friday, December 14, 2012

#51




Bank of Sullivan, Sullivan, Missouri, Assumes All of the Deposits of Community Bank of the Ozarks, Sunrise Beach, Missouri

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
December 14, 2012
Media Contact:
Greg Hernandez (202) 898-6984
Cell: (202) 340-4922
Email: ghernandez@fdic.gov

Community Bank of the Ozarks, Sunrise Beach, Missouri, was closed today by the Missouri Division of Finance, which appointed the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) as receiver. To protect the depositors, the FDIC entered into a purchase and assumption agreement with Bank of Sullivan, Sullivan, Missouri, to assume all of the deposits of Community Bank of the Ozarks.
The two branches of Community Bank of the Ozarks will reopen on Saturday as branches of Bank of Sullivan. Depositors of Community Bank of the Ozarks will automatically become depositors of Bank of Sullivan. Deposits will continue to be insured by the FDIC, so there is no need for customers to change their banking relationship in order to retain their deposit insurance coverage up to applicable limits. Customers of Community Bank of the Ozarks should continue to use their existing branch until they receive notice from Bank of Sullivan that it has completed systems changes to allow other Bank of Sullivan branches to process their accounts as well.
This evening and over the weekend, depositors of Community Bank of the Ozarks can access their money by writing checks or using ATM or debit cards. Checks drawn on the bank will continue to be processed. Loan customers should continue to make their payments as usual.
As of September 30, 2012, Community Bank of the Ozarks had approximately $42.8 million in total assets and $41.9 million in total deposits. In addition to assuming all of the deposits of the failed bank, Bank of Sullivan agreed to purchase essentially all of the assets.
The FDIC and Bank of Sullivan entered into a loss-share transaction on $37.3 million of Community Bank of the Ozarks' assets. Bank of Sullivan will share in the losses on the asset pools covered under the loss-share agreement. The loss-share transaction is projected to maximize returns on the assets covered by keeping them in the private sector. The transaction also is expected to minimize disruptions for loan customers. For more information on loss share, please visit: http://www.fdic.gov/bank/individual/failed/lossshare/index.html.
Customers with questions about today's transaction should call the FDIC toll-free at 1-800-830-6698. The phone number will be operational this evening until 9:00 p.m., Central Standard Time (CST); on Saturday from 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m., CST; on Sunday from noon to 6:00 p.m., CST; on Monday from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., CST; and thereafter from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., CST. Interested parties also can visit the FDIC's Web site at http://www.fdic.gov/bank/individual/failed/cmbkozarks.html.
The FDIC estimates that the cost to the Deposit Insurance Fund (DIF) will be $10.4 million. Compared to other alternatives, Bank of Sullivan's acquisition was the least costly resolution for the FDIC's DIF. Community Bank of the Ozarks is the 51st FDIC-insured institution to fail in the nation this year, and the fourth in Missouri. The last FDIC-insured institution closed in the state was Excel Bank, Sedalia, on October 19, 2012.