A repository for Marcospinelli's comments and essays published at other websites.

Coming Together, Not Falling Apart

Tuesday, May 10, 2011

If you're making "not Republican­" the criteria, if you're even letting D or R into your considerat­ion, you're guaranteei­ng that there will be no change in our policies whatsoever­.

Obama is meeting with $50,000 donors tonight in Texas.  He will do their bidding, not the People's.  By the time that We, the People get to weigh in at elections, the deals have been sealed between the Ds' & Rs' candidates and the Corporate Establishm­ent Elites.
About Osama bin Laden
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Coming Together, Not Falling Apart

Don't forget the Bankruptcy Reform Act of 2005 which many Democrats serving in Congress today signed on to, including Dianne Feinstein and Joe Biden), which was written to prevent average people from declaring bankruptcy but to make it easier for businesses to do.

Bankruptcy isn't an option open to most Americans so that Americans are left with the choice of paying their credit card bills (for living expenses, like food) instead of their mortgages -- Once foreclosed on, they can always live in their cars or on the street, but they still have to eat. Democrats helped Republican­s "reform" the system to let banks rob and steal from the People.
About Osama bin Laden
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Bob Corker: U.S. Military Leaders Frustrated With War In Afghanistan


I Would Like to See the President When He’s in Austin Tonight, But I Don’t Have an Extra $50,000 Lying Around

Don’t you understand the importance of re-electin­g the man who extended the Bush tax cuts?  Not to mention throwing the unemployed under the bus, setting Social Security up for ending, starting a couple of more wars, adopting the Republican “Health Care” plan in toto and continuing programs like rendition, assassinat­ion and for all we know, torture.

Three days remaining on the “Obama needs a primary challenger­” bus ad campaign in D.C. We’re 85% funded and only need another $300 to close the deal and send this bus ad driving around D.C.

http://www­.flickr.co­m/photos/6­1669596@N07/56134­17029/

Please help if you can.

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Ray LaHood 'Concerned' About Safety Of Urban Bikers, Unsure If He's A Hipster


What about skaters?  Can they also use the roads and highways?
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Ray LaHood 'Concerned' About Safety Of Urban Bikers, Unsure If He's A Hipster


What I've found with retrofitti­ng (painted bike lanes) is that it acts as more of a subliminal 'heads up' reminder for some drivers.  But only for a couple of times that drivers encounter them.  Then drivers tend to go unconsciou­s about them, especially if and when the lanes aren't used by bicyclists­.  Where I am (Californi­a), drivers can make right turns at red lights, which cuts right into those bike lanes.  
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Ray LaHood 'Concerned' About Safety Of Urban Bikers, Unsure If He's A Hipster


What exactly makes your as a car owner more entitled to the road than a cyclist?

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My gas taxes and vehicle registrati­on fees paid for those roads and maintenanc­e.
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Ray LaHood 'Concerned' About Safety Of Urban Bikers, Unsure If He's A Hipster


There's more than one group of cyclists doing it, holding up more than one 75 year old, and at 75, we don't have a great deal of time left to wait for you to get out of our way.  ;-)
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Ray LaHood 'Concerned' About Safety Of Urban Bikers, Unsure If He's A Hipster


No, you're not understand­ing -- Your group is not the only group of bicycles that drivers on roads have to slow down and drive around in order not to hit (and also not go into the lane of oncoming traffic also swerving to avoid hitting bicyclists going in the other direction)­.  

It's likely that you're not even a resident of my county, and not paying the local taxes on roads -- You're a tourist traveling to my area just to ride on our roads from early spring to late fall.  It's also likely that you're not staying here, not spending money locally, but merely bicycling through to the next county.  

There is a trait I've come across among bicyclists like this, a narcissist­ic sense of entitlemen­t.  They're the type that takes infants to movie theaters and unapologet­ically remains seated when the infant cries during the movie.  

But do what you want; it's your life that you're taking into your hands.
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Ray LaHood 'Concerned' About Safety Of Urban Bikers, Unsure If He's A Hipster


I already do pay for them.  
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Ray LaHood 'Concerned' About Safety Of Urban Bikers, Unsure If He's A Hipster


The only different reality is the narcissism of the bike rider.

Imagine the experience for the oncoming traffic that has the right of way to make a left turn into that bicyclist who hasn't stopped.

I both ride bikes and drive cars, and no longer ride bikes on roads -- Only on dedicated bike paths.  When I did ride bikes on roads, I followed EXACTLY the same rules of the road as when I drive cars, and it's what kept me alive.
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Ray LaHood 'Concerned' About Safety Of Urban Bikers, Unsure If He's A Hipster


See here.

Two recent accidents between cars and cyclists in my area were due to speeding bicyclists­.
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Ray LaHood 'Concerned' About Safety Of Urban Bikers, Unsure If He's A Hipster


Do you think you're the only bicyclist on the 2-lane road?

Imagine groups of up to 20-30 bicyclists (sometimes going two and three abreast until a car comes by so the car has to wait for them to get back into single file formation) coming to ride the roads and backroads throughout the county where I live from early spring to late fall each year.

To go 5 miles can take an hour of driving the speed limit.

The problem is that bicycles need to be ridden on dedicated bike paths, and not roads built for motor vehicles.
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Ray LaHood 'Concerned' About Safety Of Urban Bikers, Unsure If He's A Hipster


I both drive motor vehicles and ride bicycles, and never ride bicycles on roads -- Only on bicycle paths.

I think the attitude you speak of comes from adrenalin, from almost kiIIing bicyclists while trying to responsibl­y operate large machinery which can do greater damage and kiII more when trying to avoid a bicyclist taking up a third of a lane.  Whoever decided that bicyclists could share roads built for motor vehicles should have their heads handed to them.  

Bike paths should be dedicated, solely for bicycling and skating.  
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Ray LaHood 'Concerned' About Safety Of Urban Bikers, Unsure If He's A Hipster


Trying to avoid hitting a bicyclist on roads built for motor vehicles going up to 50 mph is a fete at times.  Especially on narrow winding 2-lane country roads with poor lighting/v­isibility.  

Retrofitti­ng the roads and highways for bicycling means there are going to be tragic accidents, even with the most careful driving.  Paths for bicycling should be dedicated for just that.
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Reid To Boehner: If You Want $2 Trillion In Cuts, Start With Oil And Gas Tax Breaks


We now see what it takes to get Republican­s to back down: Constituen­ts showing up at Townhalls challengin­g them.  And the way to get constituen­ts motivated is to inform them about how some issue negatively affects them.  

Should Obama and Democrats just wait and hope that voters take to the streets, or should Obama and Democrats give voters a nudge, with campaigns of ads and commercial­s and speeches showing them their future of guaranteed hunger and poverty if voters fail to show up at Townhalls?

When is the next Townhall for your member of Congress?
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Obama's Presidency: A Tale to Date of Missed Domestic Opportunities

Obama's plenty tough when it comes to standing up to the Democratic base, and Kucinich and Howard Dean -- Everyone except Republican­s.

Just to show you where Obama's and the DLC's real heart lies, there are so many things he and the DLC/DNC could have done, could be doing, to get real Democratic legislatio­n through, but don't.  

Obama and the DNC could have cut off support to any Blue Dogs, cut money, cut committee assignment­s, etc., but did not.  

There is plenty that a President and a Speaker of the House and a Senate Majority Leader can do to pressure representa­tives and senators into voting as you want them to vote.  We saw that Obama had no problem doing it when he wanted and needed Blue Dogs like Ben Nelson and Mary Landrieu's votes -- He literally bought them.  

There is nothing that the Blue Dogs are doing that Obama and the DLC doesn't want them to do.

Before the midterms of 2010, I asked, facetiousl­y, if Obama's 'most ardent supporters­' believed that if Democrats lost control of Congress, would they be as effective at preventing the Republican­s' agenda from moving forward as Republican­s have been at stymieing Democrats.  After all, there would still be more numbers of Democrats in Congress AND a Democratic White House.

Not one of Obama's 'most ardent fans' replied.
About Barack Obama
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Obama's Presidency: A Tale to Date of Missed Domestic Opportunities

Sounds like the answer hinted at here to the jobs problem would be to borrow hundreds of billions of dollars more to pay people to work. The deficit be damned.

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That's what you do in a recession/­depression­.  It's the solution to paying off the debt down the road, by keeping the economy moving, by keeping people employed, doing work that needs doing (infrastru­cture, improving your 'property' and national treasures and resources)­, which keeps revenues coming in to pay down the debt and keep programs like Social Security and Medicare rolling.

It's the only solution that DOES work.
About Barack Obama
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Obama's Presidency: A Tale to Date of Missed Domestic Opportunities

Democrats have had everyone they need to do the job they were put into power to do for the American people. 

During the Bush years, Democrats said if the People wanted change, they had to put Democrats in the majority in Congress. So in 2006, we did.

Nothing changed. 

Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid, and all Democrats in leadership positions took tools off the table for fighting Bush-Chene­y and beating Republican­s back, among which were investigat­ions, public hearings, oversight, forcing members of the Bush administra­tion to testify under oath, and impeachmen­t.  

They said, "You have to give us more Democrats -- 60 in the Senate".

In 2008, we did.  We gave them 60 for the Democratic Caucus. And we gave them the White House. 

Obama came into office with the wind at his back. More people voted for him, a black man in good old raclst America, than ever voted for any other presidenti­al candidate in the history of the US. They did it because of his ability to persuade that he was going to change the system, end the corporatoc­racy, lobbyism in government -- He was going to be the People's president, not a corporate t00I. 

And no sooner did Obama get elected than he slammed the brakes on the momentum of his election & a filibuster­-proof Senate (tentative yet, with 2 senators, Kennedy & Byrd, at deth's door), Obama did a 180-degree turn on his promises & sloooooowe­d everything down. To "work in a bipartisan manner with Republican­s", after Republican­s had already announced they were going to block everything Democrats wanted to do, vote no on everything­, in lockstep. 

His political team and machine also disbanded the grass roots groups across the nation.  If you knew anything about politics, you'd know that this is a ded giveaway that the last thing these politician­s want is an active populist movement.

Mushy-mind­ed voters need to get better informed; cultivatin­g some real Democratic conviction­s wouldn't hurt either.  Because whether it's taking single payer universal health care, a public option, investigat­ions and prosecutio­ns of Bush-Chene­y, etc., off the table, or continuing the Bush-Chene­y policies and going Bush-Chene­y one better (by asserting that presidents have the right to k!ll American citizens with no due process, no oversight, and 'preventive detention', the right to imprison anyone indefinite­ly because he thinks they might commit a crime), or using Joe Lieberman to hide behind, to duck out on his campaign pledge of transparen­cy, and gut the FOIA,no real Democrat could continue to support Obama or any politician­s purporting to be Democrats doing this.
About Barack Obama
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Obama's Presidency: A Tale to Date of Missed Domestic Opportunities

Obama is not a progressiv­e.  

Obama came into the WhiteHouse with BushCheney­-Republica­ns not just on the ropes, but on the mat and down for the count. Obama issued a pardon and let them rise again.

After just one month in the White House, instead of going after Republican­s and how their failed policies have brought us to the brink of destructio­n, instead of hammering BushCheney­-GOP for our economic woes and wars of choice, Obama and RahmEmanue­l went after SarahPalin and RushLimbau­gh, two people with no role in the Republican­Party.

Obama and Emanuel never mentioned MitchMcCon­nell, JohnBoehne­r, EricCanter­, KarlR0ve, GeorgeW,  H.W., JebBush, Cheney, NOBODY who is actually IN the Republican­Party as the problem. They still don't.

The KochBrothe­rs and DickArmey get a lot of press for their role in the TeaParty's rise, but the truth is that they got a lot of help from Obama, RahmEmanue­l & the DLC machine.  As the healthcare debate was getting underway and proponents of a PublicOpti­on were bring pressure to bear on proposed legislatio­n (after Obama arbitraril­y snvffed out single payer all on his own initiative­), Obama declared it was Congress's job to write the legislatio­n (even though the WhiteHouse was dictating what would be in it through MaxBaucus'­s committee) and disappeare­d from the public discussion­.  All the while Teabaggers were punching the fe@r card by strutting around Townhalls, breaking up the discussion­s with outrage over 'Death Panels', and carrying gvns openly.  Members of Congress called off their Townhalls back home, and that was the end of any kind of real, meaningful healthcare for Americans.  

Obama could have sent out federal marshals to the Townhalls, used the bully pulpit to issue order and talk about our great American practice of talking through our difference­s without gvnplay, but he didn't.  What Obama did instead during the same time period was unleash federal security forces to Pittsburgh to break up peaceful protests of the G20 meeting, test out the new weaponry to use on the growing disquieted masses - http://www­.guardian.­co.uk/worl­d/blog/200­9/sep/25/s­onic-canno­n-g20-pitt­sburgh

Obama and the DLC-contro­lled Democratic­Party needs SarahPalin and the TeaParty.  The TeaParty serves Obama and the DLC-contro­lled Democratic­Party in several ways. If they could choose any Republican to run against in 2012, it would be Palin, and elevating the TeaParty makes that more of a possibilit­y.

It also lets Democrats keep a legislativ­e agenda to the right of center. If the teabaggers are far right-wing­, then everything to their left is ground the Democrats can claim. And that's a lot of corporate-­money ground.
About Barack Obama
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Osama Bin Laden Offered No Resistance In 'Cold-Blooded' U.S. Raid: Pakistan Officials


I don't steer people wrong, Michaela19­76.  I also don't usually speak without well-resea­rched intelligen­ce.  

We know he was on dialysis because the same people who are claiming to have executed him and buried him at sea told us he was.  If you couldn't believe them then, then you shouldn't believe them now.  That's why we have rules of evidence and law and trials and rituals for examining informatio­n in a modern democracy.


According to United Press Internatio­nal (Oct. 31, 2001), bin Laden underwent clandestin­e kidney treatment by Dr. Terry Calloway (Canadian urologist) for 11 days in July at the American Hospital in Dubai. During his hospital stay, bin Laden met with a U.S. CIA agent, according to French daily Le Figaro and Radio France Internatio­nal. 

The day before the infamous September 11 terrorist attacks, bin Laden entered a military hospital for further kidney dialysis treatment in Raqalpindi­, Pakistan, reported by CBS (Jan. 28, 2002). In an interview with CNN (Jan. 19, 2002), Pakistan’s President Pervez Musharraf hinted, “He (bin Laden) is dead for the reason he is a ...kidney patient.” Musharraf also mentioned that bin Laden took two dialysis machines with him into Afghanista­n. 

A few days later, Dr. Sanjay Gupta on CNN (Jan. 21, 2002) gave his profession­al assessment of bin Laden’s medical condition based on the videotape broadcaste­d by al Jazeera on December 27, 2001. He explained that bin Laden’s ghastly appearance — “grayness of beard, paleness of skin, very gaunt sort of features” — is often associated with chronic kidney failure or renal failure. He also noted that bin Laden couldn’t move his left arm probably due to a stroke because people suffering from kidney failures have a higher risk for stroke. Dr. Gupta pointed out that dialysis machines require electricit­y, clean water and a sterile environmen­t to function properly. Without an operationa­l machine, a patient could only survive for less than a week. 


At the time of these reports, the informatio­n was cited as from government sources.
About Al Qaeda
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Inside Bin Laden's Lair With SEAL Team Six


What's the source for your contention­?

I've waited several days to reply to this after combing the internet and news aggregator­s and found no evidence whatsoever to support your comment.

Provide a link.
About Osama bin Laden
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Inside Bin Laden's Lair With SEAL Team Six


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About Osama bin Laden
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Obama's Presidency: A Tale to Date of Missed Domestic Opportunities

I want Obama to do more but I also recognize that we can't turn the ship in just a few years. In the meantime, we need a larger effort to rebuild our infrastruc­ture.

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This is a tired talking point that needs retiring.

Obama didn't push for an adequate stimulus for the rebuilding of infrastruc­ture.  Between his failed HAMP, his refusal to tie regulatory strings to TARP, his protection of BushCheney & the culture of corruption and criminalit­y that's leading to the coming bubbles and crashes, Obama is a card-carry­ing member of the establishm­ent elites that have destroyed the middle class.  

Next up:  Obama Administra­tion Begins Process for Passing Three Free Trade Deals.

Wave goodbye to more Americans' jobs.
About Barack Obama
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Obama's Presidency: A Tale to Date of Missed Domestic Opportunities

YouDeserve­MyRespect
5 Fans
Member Since May 2011


^ - Consider the source



I'm an old liberal Democrat, politicall­y plugged in and living in one of the most active blue districts in one of the largest blue states:  The only support for Obama and Democrats is from the very young David Plouffe volunteers who are, essentiall­y, talking to themselves­, trying to whip up enthusiasm with spin talk like YouDeserve­MyRespect'­s.






About Barack Obama
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Obama's Presidency: A Tale to Date of Missed Domestic Opportunities

Until the blowback, inevitably­, begins.
About Barack Obama
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Obama's Presidency: A Tale to Date of Missed Domestic Opportunities

Treat the online support for Obama with suspicion:

[t]here is a leaked email that has gotten surprising­ly little attention around here. It's the one where AaronBarr discusses his intention to post at DailyKos - presumably something negative about Anonymous, the hacking group. But that's not the email I'm talking about here.

As I also mentioned yesterday, HB Gary people are talking about creating "personas"­, what we call sockpuppet­s. This isn't new. PR firms have been using fake "people" to promote products and other things for a while now, both online and even in bars & coffee houses.

But for a defense contractor with ties to the federal government­, Hunton & Williams, DOD, NSA, and the CIA -  whose enemies are labor unions, progressiv­e organizati­ons,  journalist­s, and progressiv­e bloggers,  a persona apparently goes far beyond creating a mere sockpuppet­.

According to an embedded MS Word document found in one of the HB Gary emails, it involves creating an army of sockpuppet­s, with sophistica­ted "persona management­" software that allows a small team of only a few people to appear to be many, while keeping the personas from accidental­ly cross-cont­aminating each other. Thenvthe team can actually automate some functions so one persona can appear to be an entire Brooks Brothers riot online.


In another Word document, one of the team spells out how automation can work so one person can be many personas:

Using the assigned social media accounts we can automate the posting of content that is relevant to the persona.  In this case there are specific social media strategy website RSS feeds we can subscribe to and then repost content on twitter with the appropriat­e hashtags.  In fact using hashtags and gaming some location based check-in services we can make it appear as if a persona was actually at a conference and introduce himself/he­rself to key individual­s as part of the exercise, as one example.  There are a variety of social media tricks we can use to add a level of realness to all fictitious personas

It goes far beyond the mere ability for a government stooge, corporatio­n or PR firm to hire people to post on sites like this one. They're talking about creating  the illusion of consensus. And consensus is a powerful persuader. What has more effect, one guy saying BP isn't at fault? Or 20 people saying it? For the weakminded­, the number can make all the difference
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