Starbucks hates Shutdowns

On Oct 10, Starbucks CEO requested its patrons to sign a petition asking Congress to open the Government, pay debt and all that good stuff.

IMHO, Starbucks should stick to selling overpriced coffee, drop this false equivalency and leave the political activism to the informed public. (Starbucks fanatics, don't get angry. I'm also a patron!)

One small... sorry Tall Cafe Vanilla Frappucino Lite please!

Reason I'm angry is, Howard Schultz wants us to petition to whole congress to do it's job. Only part of Republican House Members are refusing to do their jobs and holding country hostage every few months. It's not the whole Republican party either. I call bullshit on this false equivalency.

If you look at what starbucks is asking patrons to petition, that's exactly  President pleaded Tea Party and they refused. So instead of calling out Tea Party, Starbucks CEO was telling people that Congress isn't working, which isn't true. So why not just stay quiet and President and House settle this.
 

Problem with these me too campaigns is, people fail to notice that a faction of Republicans asked for this and caused this. What Tea party blames as the threat to American Way is the ObamaCare. The healthcare law passed by Congress, upheld by Supreme Court and based on which Obama got relected. And now Congress refuses to pass budget unless healtcare law is defunded. If you look back, Democrats got majority in house in 2006. Even though they hated Iraq war, they didn't force Bush to defund that war to keep the government running. For one one thing, ObamaCare is self-funded, Congress can't defund it. Once people realized that, TeaParty changed their demand to an 1 year delay.

Surprisingly President refused to negotiate, held his ground. As there's no leverage left, Tea party backed off and Republicans potty trained adults cleaned up the mess. Government will be open until jan 15th , debt ceiling extended until Feb 7th. Mark my words, we'll be here again, sooner than we think. You might ask why? That's cause 2010 and '12 elections bought so many Tea Party freshmen into house who wouldn't even listen to their Speaker. They'd voted for repeal of ObamaCare, 46 times. Needless to say, the mandate from their districts is to rescue the country from the jaws of socialism. In their hatred for President, they're weakening the country with these shutdown threats and debt ceiling fights. So much for patriotism. Not every republican is responsible for this, only the Tea party caucus refuses to be reasonable. Below is the voting pattern in the last CR vote which ended shutdown, you can see which house member is sane and otherwise.

Fl-22, a typical gerrymandered district.
Allen West won this in 2010, but lost in 2012.

You might be wondering, don't these wingnuts fear for re-election. No they don't fear general election, they fear primaries. If they don't vote based on these party lines, PACs and Tea Party groups like Senate Conservatives Fund and Club for Growth will draft a challenger and defeat the member in primaries. Their districts are safe cause of Gerrymandering. It's a process in which state governments carefully redraw electoral district lines to remove demographics which might vote for other party. This makes these districts very safe in General elections for the parties which're in power in States.

See how bad few districts are drawn. There's no way the other party can win in these districsts. Redistricting happens every 10 years based on census. Make no mistake, both the parties does this but in 2010 Republicans pushed the envelope too far. And it's helping them. You'll be surprised how extreme it became.

Healthcare bill opponents say that we've the world's finest health care system and it doesn't require any change. We all knew it's a lie, we've read and heard many stories about pricey healthcare is in our country. Ours is the only developed country without universal healthcare. And then, we all have a personal experience or two about how insurance companies try to nickel and dime us.

The U.S. stands almost entirely alone among developed nations that lack universal health care.

Tea Party people oppose the healthcare just cause of  ideology. On a second thought no, they just hate president. Health care bill is based on personal responsibility, preached by Republicans. As I mentioned many times here, Heritage foundation is the one who invented this Individual mandate. Romney adapted it successfully in Mass. Now the same Heritage foundation opposes it as the individual mandate infringes on our Liberties. Consider it a dog whistle.

Also not to be forgotten, the billionaires who're behind this Defund ObamaCare movement. Koch Brothers. They're the one who funded this. They grew up with Libertarian ideas, nothing wrong with it. But they're also trying shape the government as per their dreams by pumping millions of dollars into elections and primaries. Small government (read as Weak government) is good for their business as they routinely run into trouble with EPA and other regulatory agencies. Not just the Tea party, they fund think tanks, opinion journalists and universities to get legitimacy to their Small Government/Free Market ideas. So far it's working.

And if you think tempers raised, Tea party Congress men wanted to please voters in their districts, it's not true. It's a process deliberated and orchestrated by outside groups for months. While the people and corporations are suffering with shutdown, Ted Cruz raised used huge haul of cash by scaring people. There're two primary Public figures in this shutdown. Rafael Edward "Ted" Cruz is the self serving Canadian born, half Cuban half Caucasian Senator from Texas. He's the one who pushed the house members into this shutdown. Then there's former Senator of South Carolina, Jim DeMint. Senate didn't provide him the platform big enough to spread his Small government message, so he resigned and took the job of Heritage Foundation's President. Once a respected conservative think tank with few ideas, is now sending emails to support the United States Government to shutdown under his direction.

 

If you stop and think, it's not about deficits or saving country for next generation. If they care for Liberty and privacy, they'll be protesting NSA. If they want an accountable government they'll be fighting to stop Obama's drone program which had granted itself  legitimacy to kill American citizens without trial. This is the seething anger that a African-American president. Few days ago, a Tea party protestor showed up at the White House with Confederate flag. That indicates that South is in control of Tea party and this isn't about Health Care. They're still bitter about loosing Civil War and they still haven't gotten over it.

So what's the end game, I don't know.  We'll be back into this by end of this year. House will be with Republicans for atleast 7 more years. But cause of changing demographics Democrats will have more chances to retain majority seats in senate. If they don't screw up, may be White house also. But again Dems know a thing or two about pulling  Defeat out of the jaws of Victory. So get used to this.

There's a glimmer of hope, US chamber of Commerce is now disappointed with Tea Party congressmen whom they supported, funded and sent to Washington. It's repenting now and is planning to support less crazy candidates in the 2014. House might still be under Republicans control, but with people who're smarter than batshit crazy Tea party members who're in control now.

They say elections have consequences, these are the consequences. Call you voter friends in South Carolina and Texas and thank them for sending these traitors to Washington.

Come for the overpriced produce, stay for the ugly rhetoric

On Wednesday 01/16th, Whole Paycheck CEO John Mackey called the ObamaCare as Fascist law  while promoting his book on npr's morning edition. And then, shitstorm ensued.

Let's get a few things out of our way. Mackey is entitled to his opinion and he can voice it. I understand the frustration of providing health insurance because of a government mandate as his primary duty is to increase the shareholder equity. ;)

But the paradox here is, you run a store where a gallon of milk costs double or triple the price in a regular grocery store. That's because you sell food with organic ingredients and you've some policies about procuring produce locally, not to sell foods with certain kind of ingredients and all. And who're the typical patrons of whole foods? Hipsters who live beyond their means and Liberal Ladies who drive LandRovers. OK that's stereotyping, but you get the picture. Most of the whole foods customer base which includes above stereotypes and people who fall in between these two extremes voted for Obama and supported his healthcare law.

CEO of an upscale Organic Store which sells $10 soaps and 100 types of cheses and gourmet salts (wtf?) should tread carefully on political issues. Calling healthcare law as fascism is like Zuckerburg making fun of moms who facebook their baby pictures for the lack of productivity or Instagram founder ridiculing people who lounge in Starbucks during working hours and instagram pics of their sugary drinks and sunsets. Those analogies are little far fetched, but what I'm trying to say is why would anybody alienate their customer base, particularly when you're running a business which solely relies on the concept of customer paying high for the greater good of society and sustainability of earth.

And Mackey chose the best platform to reach out to customer base and then blew it. You don't go on Morning Edition and talk ill about healthcare law. No self respecting liberal driving a volvo / sipping her chai latte / eating his granola would miss that. This shit would've flied, if this's Cracker Barrel CEO complaining on Fox news. It could've brought more old people into those restaurants as a freedom appreciation day or some BS name to it. I said cracker barrel as it's the exact opposite of whole foods. And the existence of this restaurant or shop gives you a rough idea whether you're in blue or red area.

Once this shit had hit the fan, Mackey forced to give a pseudo-apology, he likes a Swiss model here in USA.

I believe that, if the goal is universal health care, our country would be far better served by combining free enterprise capitalism with a strong governmental safety net for our poorest citizens and those with preexisting conditions, helping everyone to be able to buy insurance. This is what Switzerland does and I think we would be much better off copying that system than where we are currently headed in the United States.

Government helping poor people buy insurance, isn't that socialism? Or whatever thing which Republicans call as wealth redistribution? Healthcare is screwed up in USA, there's no denial about it. That's how insurance companies make profit. And this whole government take over is utter nonsense. Obama gave a gift to insurance companies, which keeps on giving in the form of healthcare mandate which was first proposed by Heritage foundation in 1989, not a liberal group by any measure. Once a self-responsibility idea supported by Bob Dole (1996 Republican candidate for President) became a government takeover in 2010. I don't know why, but I'm pretty sure that Black man in White House now is just a coincidence.

I don't run any business, so I might be misinformed about many things. But as an employee, I pay my health insurance, and when the rates went up I took the brunt, not my employer. And if whole foods is already paying health insurance, why is he bothered about ObamaCare. Wait, I know ..libertarians don't want government to tell them anything. In that Utopian land, there wouldn't be FDA, FAA, clean air/water act or any law of the land.

 

For Mackey, this isn't a moment he got carried away and said something which he didn't mean. He wrote an op-ed in WSJ in summer of '09 calling it socialism even before the bill was presented in Congress. This is the same genius who was caught bashing Wild Oats in 2005 with a pseudonym on yahoo finance, at that time Whole Foods was trying to take over Wild Oats

My Question here is, is this just the Mackey's Cognitive dissonance where his ideology contradicts their company mission statement and operating model. Or is it just bad PR training which he gets.

Talking about PR, who're the hacks training this guy and that Chick-fil-A CEO. Or all those Republican politicians who just can't resist talking about rape. I feel that I can run a better shop than these clueless numbnuts who're training/advising these CEOs and politicians.  Only if my rich friends are reading this..

Thanks in advance for your seed money fellas.

Greatest Country in the World

Beginning scene of the new HBO series The Newsroom.
This video pretty much sums up most of the rants from my previous posts here.



Created by Aaron Sorkin, who also wrote screenplay of Social Network and co-wrote Moneyball.

My Christmas Wish

TIME magazine is famous for dumbing down the news coverage and there's no bigger contrarian indicator than their cover page.

Every new Warner Brothers movie gets a cover story, every apple device launch gets one, and if there's dearth of publicist driven stories...there's holy Mary, Jesus to fall back on.

Fine, every magazine does the same thing, wait....there's Housing bubble, what housing bubble?
There's no year-end media circus event which is more idiotic and unimportant than the TIME person of the year. (Excluding TIME 100, that's beyond my intellectual ability). Every President elect will be chosen as TIME person of the year, that's a default. Enemies of US, no matter how much they changed the course of our lives, wouldn't be the person of the year. Osama bin Laden wasn't the person of that year, Rudy Giuliani was. (Of course Stalin and Hitler were exceptions, not quite sure where we stand on Putin though). See the previous person gallery here

As God is my witness (intended to dramatize), here's the list of probable people I wrote for this year, before checking TIME website.

Arab Uprisings
Occupy Wall St
Anonymous
Navy seals
Barack Obama
Grover Norquist
Steve Jobs
Kim Kardashian
Rupert Murdoch

I checked TIME website and they didn't disappoint. Below are the few people who're nominated for this year, and I'm delighted to see Kim on the list

Usually TIME probables can be broadly categorized into these
Obvious picks
Barack Obama
Anonymous
Navy Seal Team 6
1%, 99%
Steve Jobs

Lame picks
Gabriel Giffords (I don't mean to diminish the Congress Woman's shooting, but she's only a victim of a deranged person's shooting)
Kate Middleton (A British woman married to a British prince, 2nd in line to throne)
Dominique Strauss-Kahn (accused of raping a hotel maid, but prosecution dropped the charges)
Charlie Sheen

"Who the F is this again" picks
Recep Tayyip Erdogan (Turkey's PM)
Lionel Messi (Argentina's soccer player)
Ai Weiwei

"Intended to rage readers" picks
Reed Hastings (Netflix CEO, who have a knack for splitting companies and sending emails to all the subscribers after having too many drinks)
Casey Anthony
Michele Bachmann
Rupert Murdoch
Kim Kardashian

The last section is the reason why I love TIME. Just for the web hits, robo voting...they'll let people vote for their choice, even though Time's contributors pick the person. the panel for this year is very diversified(for the lack of better word)..Brian Williams, Mario Batali, Anita Hill, Jesse Eisenberg, Grover Norquist and Seth Meyers.

I'm appalled that heavy weights like Miley Cyrus, Taylor Swift and Sarah Palin aren't on list, I'm gonna weep to sleep tonight. Meh, my intellectual inspiration Rep. Michele Bachmann is here..I'll take it.

Folks I'll cut to the chase, I want Kim Kardashian to be the new Person of the year. Please TIME, please! She's the epitome of the moral bankruptcy of the American culture, that is putting very mildly. She got everything you're looking for. No real talent in whatsoever form, sex tape, reality show, perfume, overpriced clothing, paid appearances, discontinued charge card, dimwitted athlete husband. Wait there're spin off reality shows for her sisters and other family members also.

She divorced her second husband with in the span of 72 days and that tipped off the Public. They actually believed that the fairy tale wedding was real and they'll live together ever after. Now they all feet cheated, they're angered and outraged that she took' em all for a ride.

Please TIME, keep it real, and make this woman the Person of the year.
(Don't mind the 19220 haters who voted against her, haters gonna hate)

Peace.

P.S. For what it's worth, time predicted the next president right. It's a kinda bold move for 2006, as Spitzer/Obama was perceived as hot ticket at that time and then Eliot Spitzer got caught in a sex scandal.

Update 12/03/2011
There's one more media event, which is more trivial and idiotic than this. It's the year-end sex surveys in Indian news magazines. For some reason, they do it every year and each year it's shocking. India Today just released theirs and Outlook might send one our way pretty soon.
Here's BBC's Indian Correspondent's column about this topic.

images via TIME

Good looks are a curse

Yes, Good looks are a curse. As per this NY Times profile of Olivia Wilde. Oh wait, there's another NYT profile of yet another good looking woman Brit Marling who has to work extra hard to make her mark in Hollywood. Listen kids, don't aspire a career in Hollywood, if you're even remotely good looking. Or prepare to work very hard to go past an ordinary person.

Here's li'l bit of my personal experience. All doors open for good looking people, either men or women. Period. I work in IT, not a glamorous field by any measure. And I've seen many people, whose good looks and charm gave'em li'l push on their way up on corporate ladder. Trust me, there's no such thing called glass ceiling for these people.

Back to the NYT articles, these are the article Headlines.
Look Past the Beauty, if You Can.
How to Succeed in Hollywood Despite Being Really Beautiful.

There was a time, I was naive and I've this impression that all I read in Newspaper or magazines is objective reporting. Slowly I woke up to fact that there's a profession by name Publicist. Whose job is make sure that his/her client gets enough visibility in all the media. Client could be anybody or anything. A new website, app, artist, athlete, tech entrepreneur, VC et al. So the publicists hired by the agencies of Ms.Wilde and Ms.Marling are behind these articles. This doesn't feel good to me but I don't have any problem with this. No harm whatsoever.

But these attention seeking faux headlines makes me cringe. We're talking about Hollywood, where good looks are a pre-requisite. And when was the last time good looks became liability to any actress. This whole argument sounds preposterous to me. Olivia Wilde's profile itself quotes that her parents are influential journalists with beltway contacts and that's how she got a job in a casting agency. So the family background and good looks which gave her a break early in her career are suddenly a liability?

I like Olivia Wilde, saw her on Bill Maher once and found her very informed about social issues. Haven't seen any movie or TV series starring her. I've no idea who the other lady is. I don't have any beef with magazines profiling these artists, whenever their new movie/memoir/music album comes out. My only problem is with these catchy Headlines, these show business reporters come up with. If this article is all about beauty being a bane, then they should've skipped the photoshopped pic. Nope, that wasn't the case.

Being beautiful is not a liability. It never was and never would be. Media should stop using this overplayed meme. Just imagine how many people would recognize Olivia or the other woman, if they haven't inherited that good gene pool. This is show business, not Financial Engineering or Nuclear Science.

Peace.

Oh, the fourth estate

Few random observations on print and electronic media.

--Right now I'm watching a BMW's paid commercial err...special documentary about BMW on CNBC. I've seen similar programs about Ford, P&G and others. Are these the new Special advertising sections of TV? For these programs who pays who? I mean, would BMW pay for these programs as this is cheap advertising? or would CNBC offers this free slot of time to gain more commercials later.

--Sheryl Sandberg's PR offensive is firing on all cylinders. In the last 2 months I read a cover story of her in BusinessWeek, lengthy profile in Newyorker and heard about her on a morning talk show. Oh well, BusinessInsider also threw her in name for next Treasury Secretary position. What's she up to? Is facebook pumping her image or is this her own PR to show how important she's for facebook. Just another day in the movers and shakers of Social Network and Media Management world, I guess. Surprisingly her equivalent on Google Marissa Mayer is staying away from media.
--In good ol' days, there used to be a Missing white woman syndrome. Now there's Casey Anthony! I don't even know, where to start. Every morning I'll have 5 mins of TV time while tying my shoe laces and I couldn't escape her face at all for the last 3 or 4 weeks. When you come back home, you'll have Nancy Grace and even more crazier women (who makes Nancy Grace look like Katie Couric) calling Casey Anthony names. An apocalyptic music score and mind numbing graphics accompanies. I don't want to diminish the death of that child, but this is a tailor made ratings program for TV channels. An young, attractive white woman weeping on camera, no sane TV guy would loose that ratings chance. CNN Headline News, I get it. It's US Weekly of News channels serving the LCD of audience. But I'm appalled (not shocked) by the fact that abc news paid for her defense to get exclusive rights of her home videos.

How low could the media go.
Oh surprisingly we've an answer. From across the pond. Murdoch's Tabloids have been paying Police and private investigators to hack phone voice-mails of dead people for scoops, get access to tax records through illegal means. Not even the Queen, Royal family, former PM are immune from these criminals. They tried to hack 9/11 victims phones and London Bomb victims phones. They even published about Gordon Brown's son's illness in a tabloid. Here's the kicker, they even hacked phones of the investigators investigating these crimes.

But it all ended on a high note in the last one week. 168 years old tabloid got shut down, David Cameron's ex communications director got arrested, Sith lord dropped the bid for BSkyB. Not a bad week. Honestly, all this news from UK sounded like music to me. I feel the pain of all the common people who got hacked or exposed.

I didn't write anything about Fox News, as it's motives are very obvious. For the uninitiated Fox, Fox News, 20th Century Fox are all controlled by Rupert Murdoch and his family as majority share holders.

Peace.

Can we hold financial analysts responsible for their calls?

If you're a regular viewer of 60 Minutes, last December you might've seen Meredith Whitney predicting 50 to 100 significant municipal bond defaults in 2011. She made the headlines with just that call.

Please endure Chris Christie for 30 secs or you can scroll


For the starters, she's one of the very few analysts who predicted the '07 financial meltdown in one form or other. Back then her prediction was, Citigroup would lower its dividend and that it was time to sell bank stocks. It could be cause of her financial acumen or sheer luck. That's her ticket to fame, till date that's the only good substantial call she ever made. She resigned from Oppenheimer on February 19, 2009 and started her own adivsory group.

But this muni default call didn't go unnoticed and critics pounced on it, from day one.
“You could see 50 sizeable defaults. Fifty to 100 sizeable defaults. More. This will amount to hundreds of billions of dollars’ worth of defaults.”
But as we're approaching mid of they year, she's getting very defensive on the call. Last Wednesday she's on CNBC squawk box.

Needless to say she's very tense and strangely she got pointed Questions from Becky and our new Free markets champion Joe Kernen. Here's few of her statements and my observations.

Muni defaults isn't part of large issue.
But her whole 60 minutes appearance was about her defaults call.

Tried to change definition of default as reduced services.
Her call specifically mentioned hundreds of billions Dollars of deficits.

Talks about state difficulties while the topic is muni-bonds.
State bonds are different from muni-bonds

She never mentioned 12 months
In 60 minutes video, she said 12 months

And here's response from Cumberland Advisors, her main detractors on this issue. Unlike Meredith, this firm isn't one trick pony and have gravitas.

I was thinking that she or her clients might be shorting municipal bonds. But she said on air that she doesn't have a position in bonds neither does her clients. Makes me think why would she make that kind of controversial call.

This looks like an exact opposite to Credit Ratings agencies role in sub-prime crisis, but equally harmful. Investors are already shorting the muni-bonds, and she added to it. I can't predict the result though. Looking at rise of income tax returns at state level, I assume/hope that states are in better shape then we all' re afraid of.

Financial industry and press aren't hiding their displeasure and I hope she wouldn't get a free pass. Not quite sure whether regulation covers this area or not.

Peace

P.S. Nice shout out from Meredith to Short Hills, my favorite mall in NJ.

06/14/11
This just in, WSJ itself is publishing contrary evidence to Meredith's predictions.

Grifter from Alaska

Not quite sure why media has always to be so politically correct, just like our President is.

AZ shooting left 6 people dead and put a congresswoman in hospital. The suspect as I see is a mentally unstable person. As per news, he's not influenced by Sarah Palin.

But this grifter from Alaska has been getting a free pass from media for all
these days for all the stupid and hate mongering things she says on facebook and twitter. (On a side note, I can't wait for the actual writer(s) to come out. But that's for another day.) This picture which was on Sarah PAC website since elections was taken down just hours after the shooting. This event should be day of reckoning for her, but no body is pointing fingers to her yet.

When was the last time, this snowbilly showed up for any interview at any news outlet other than faux news. She developed an equally idiotic audience base who worship her. With these worshipers and libraries to buy, she's churning out best sellers like anything.

Why wouldn't media held her accountable for things she say. In Defense of Dr. Laura who said N word on radio repeatedly, Sarah tweeted "Dr.Laura:don't retreat...reload! (Steps aside bc her 1st Amend.rights ceased 2exist thx 2activists trying 2silence"isn't American,not fair")" It's not the point of some nutjob following her advice blindly. It's about making people responsible for the things to say. All the vitriol in the name of first amendment

Now the most disturbing thing, media is discussing Sarah Palin as a serious Presidential contender. I'll be glad to see her elected as Republic nominee but it shows how low the American Public has gone. See this NYT article. They discussed this situation like an election time strategy rather than a tragedy. And how she should handle this situation?

If I may Sarah, the best thing for you to do is STFU and start learning about issues which real Americans are facing. Unemployment, Home foreclosures, declining wages and schools getting closed. No body is loosing sleep over abortion, gays getting married, gun rights and fight over Christmas except you and few other wackos at faux news.

Two things made me rant about this today. One is Glenn Beck writing to Sarah Palin, cause he's worried of her safety.

"Sarah, as you know, peace is always the answer. I know you're feeling the same heat -- if not much more -- on this.

I want you to know you have my support. But please look into protection for your family. An attempt on you could bring the republic down.

Please, call Gavin de Becker in Los Angeles. He is the guy that protects me. They are, bar none, the best. There are nut jobs on all sides."

No body abuses first amendment right more than Glenn Beck. I didn't expect any sane thing from him. But still, instead of mourning for people who got killed, Glenn is advising this grifter about her safety. An attempt on you could bring the republic down, really?? This sounded more of an unspoken forbidden love which is common among closeted gay conservatives or the family values rich republicans who cheat on their wives.

The other thing is Jon Stewart being all neutral, preachy and asking people to slow down in his opening sequence on Today' Daily show. I know it's too early, but he could've utilized this opportunity to name some names. Another lost opportunity.

Peace

Bittersweet Experience

The passage of 'James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act of 2010', the so-called 9/11 First Responders Bill has been a bittersweet experience for me.

It's a pretty much exposed how Republicans will block anything which wouldn't cater to their base, top 2% of income earners. 9/11 has been a catch phrase for the republicans for last 10 years and they dragged country into an unnecessary war using that. But they don't want to help 9/11 first responders when they became sick 'cause of the work they did at Ground Zero.

Republican's excuse for blocking this bill is that they didn't want to vote for any bill until and unless Bush Tax cuts are extended for all including the top 2% income earners. And they don't want to close a tax loophole that "allows companies to incorporate in tax havens and avoid paying taxes on business they conduct in the U.S."

As always, Democrats failed to capitalize on this Republicans blockade. Whoever is running or devising the ad campaign for Democrats should be fired. The thing about Republicans is the conviction with which they do their thing. Even if it means pissing on the middle class or the public servants who served the nation.

Jon Stewart came to the rescue and brought this issue back to the Nation's attention. Except for few, no major media talked about this. Jon ranted about the injustice and invited 4 first responders to his show. After this outrage and media shitstorm, republicans broke ranks and voted along with Democrats to pass the bill. Jon Stewart was compared to Murrow and Cronkite by New York Times. Big praises, but well deserved by Jon and his team.

The bitter part is how they fund this bill. As I said above, Republicans refused to vote to close the tax loophole. Here comes the rescue!! Create another type of fee on companies that rely on H-1B and L-1 visas. I searched so much to find the literature of his bill, but i didn't find anything. I want to see how this new fee would be. H1 visa holders has been taking a beating for a while. Back in summer, Obama administration proposed to pay for Border Security force with a $2000 filing fee increase on H1B visas. Interesting part of this is NY Senior Senator Chuck Schumer is behind both of these bills. I used to think Chuck Grassley of Iowa is the most hostile person to H1-B visa, but publicity maniac Schumer doesn't want to be left behind.

How exactly 9/11 responders and H1B visas are related? House and Senate keep sucking money out of this visa holders whenever they need some funds for bill which doesn't have budget provisions. I understand that democrats tried, but in the end they always give in.

When would this stop? Only if Non immigrant tech workers have some voice like Hispanic communities...

Peace

Comedy Central video

Attractive Blonde Lady

Here's an SNL opening sketch spoofing faux news Greta Van Susteren. I don't know the exact airing date, but I guess it's from the last few months.



The video is spot on about Don't ask, don't tell. As ironical as it can be, I found this video on the webpage of the news pundit S.E.Cupp, who might be the subject of 'Attractive Blond Lady' character. I try to restrain from taking shots at the easy targets, but I couldn't resist.

In retrospect I blogged too much about Sarah Palin, but retrospect always makes me feel dumb.

This Woman S.E.Cupp is a atheist conservative. Yes, you read that right. Atheist Conservative, isn't that an oxymoron. But hey, she has to sell some books to middle America and get some bookings on Cable news shows .

This is about her atheism beliefs on Wikipedia "I like to think I adhere to the same Judeo-Christian values that most of religious America does. It's an understanding of and a respect for these values that keeps me moral." And then she wrote a book by name Losing Our Religion: The Liberal Media's Attack on Christianity. And also she stated that she does not believe in God today, but is open to possible conversion in the future.

If you fail to read between the lines, it's a marketing ploy and carefully built image. Gullible people will be interested to read an atheist point of view. Oh, and she also has a masters degree in Religion. Really?! I thought I read enough already, but she's an atheist Conservative with master's degree in Religion. My head will blow away if she starts telling how Darwin was wrong?

I respect both Christianity and Atheism. But what I fail to comprehend is an atheist writing about supposedly liberal media's attack on Christianity. Isn't that self contradictory. Most probably her next book would be How an atheist found her God. (Quoting Bill Maher)

Here's another video of this woman on Hannity show. She's outraged that Letterman made fun of Sarah Palin. S.E.Cupp mentioned that Obama and his campaign is behind this. Letterman made jokes almost 8 months after Obama won the election. Why would she even pull Obama into this. Oh yeah, she has to feign anger (In her own words)



The point I want to raise is how annoying these cable news shows became. 90% of these news pundits have neither credibility nor knowledge. And no body in the media calls out these people except people like Jon Stewart. And it's a whole new game if you're young female with good looks. Look at her website. (I've to say good Search Engine Optimization though) She got everything for an aspiring news pundit. A new book with good head shot, Check! Fake reading glasses, check! Lots of pictures in revealing outfits. check! Oh yes, lots and lots of videos from Faux News.

This post is very similar to my last post. It almost feels like redundant. But the mediocrity of the television news and the end less self promotion of these narcissist TV people made me do this.

Peace.

P.S. I wish she comes on Jon Stewart show to promote her book. Few times, he'll be merciless to these kool-aid people. But it'll be a delight.

Supply Side Economist or a Snakeoil Salesman

Here's a video from CNN dated Aug 04, 2009. It's an old video, but it's never too old for a good laugh.



Here's a Supply side economist Arthur Laffer, talking about how bad Medicare and Medicaid will be if they're run by Government. Say what? For starters Medicare and Medicaid are govt run programs. They're started like that and they remain the same.

We see all these fake pundits on TV every day, particularly on CNN, Faux news and MSNBC. No body questions their credibility or what makes them knowledgeable on any topic. No example stands out like Sarah Palin.

And of course the same thing goes with TV news anchors. This woman here in this video didn't even correct him that medicare is indeed a govt run program. I wouldn't be surprised if she's also ignorant of that fact. And faux news, you'll be confused whether you're a watching a news channel or a bimbo parade.

I want to take this opportunity to write about Supply Side Economics. I didn't study economics in college, so I'm no authority on economics to write opinions. But still I'm gonna voice my opinions about it. Supply side economics states that lower taxes for rich and capital gain tax cuts spurs economic growth. That's an over-simplified statement, but again there's not much actual economics in that. Whenever some one says Supply Side Economics, I'll break into laughter. I want to show them Larry Kudlow on CNBC and ask them why he's such an epic fail. Trickle down economics is one of the greatest lies ever told to America. Still there're so many people out there drinking that kool aid.


W implemented few of these supply side economics theories. Tax cuts for rich and lower taxes on capital gain taxes. Federal Deficit increased and (not surprising for a 'Fiscally conservative') Federal spending also increased. Rich became richer and wealth didn't really trickle down. Even now, once in a while I see few conservative boneheads on TV telling how tax cuts and limited government are the silver bullets for every issue.

And you know, Obama is the cause for all the bad things...

Peace

See the actual media matters article here

Creative genius of M.F.Husaain and honor of Hinduism

While browsing aimlessly at work, I stumbled upon this gem of journalism

This BBC journalist got concerned India is loosing a creative genius like M.F.Hussain, 'cause of Hindu fundamentalists. Let's get the facts straight. M.F.Hussain drew nude portraits of Hindu Goddesses and Bharat mata and he's unapologetic about it. He got death threats and he fled abroad. Now he took citizenship of Qatar so that Indian courts can't arraign him. So along with the some secular people of India, this journalist is also saddened and outraged.

Let's give benefit of doubt to Hussain's art and assume that he draws all the feminine form without clothes. Wrong, he only drew Hindu Goddesses and Bharat Mata in nude form. He drew his mother's pictures with clothes only. Now, that's hypocrite.

Ok just for a second, let's buy this bull crap 'Freedom of expression' argument. He drew another painting by name 'Rape of India' in response to Mumbai terrorist attacks. He's a repeat offender. Along with Freedom of Expression, there's a personal responsibility also.

Let's recall how many death threats did the Danish cartoonist receive for depicting mohammed prophet as terrorist. Remember Taslima Nasreen fleeing to Sweden. and who'd forget Salman Rushdie. But I don't recall many Indian journalists outraged about freedom of expression with all those previous instances. All they saw was minorities defending their religion and honor.

The point I'm trying to make here is every body loves their religion and defends it. I don't condone Danish cartoons. I can't speak about Rushdie's and Taslima's works as I didn't read'em. It's natural that people get outraged and issue Fatwas and all that clerical shit. But, I've to say that Islam fundamentalists go overboard on this. I don't see a problem with Hussain taking Qatar citizenship either.

But I've problem with political correctness of media in India and elsewhere. Even if the author doesn't believe in religion, this article is biased. Please stop publishing this kinda BS just to prove your journalistic mettle. And the politicians of India, how much more dignity we've to loose so that you gain muslim vote. Chidambaram offered security for M.F.Hussain also. Please end this religion vote politics. For once, stand up for your country and religion's honor.

As if my words are heard here.

So to answer this journalist's Question, does India deserve M.F.Hussain. Straight answer is NO. Honest answer is fuck M.F.Hussain's art. We'll never understand it and India isn't gaining anything cause of him. I'd rather keep my religion's and country's honor rather than secular label.

Jai Hind

P.S. My friend Karun pointed me to a telugu article published by Telugu movie actor Gollapudi Maruthi Rao about this. If you can read Telugu, please take a moment to read that. Unlike me, he wouldn't curse and his write up is more balanced.

Rick Santelli, new Swift boat Veteran

This tool Rick Santelli, is exposed by playboy.
Here's the article from Big Picture blog.

Actual playboy article (SFW)

I used to watch this guy on '06. I always thought there's something phony about this guy.

Here's video of Matt lauer grilling this tool, about White house threatening his family.

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