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.

Is a revolution overdue in India? Depends on whom you ask...

At any NRI gathering, if we're not talking about immigration or how people are suffering cause of Thaman's music, we talk about India politics. Wherever the discussion starts, we end up with corrupt AP politics, by that I mean how much wealth Jagan amassed with his father's influence, how he might come out before elections and how corrupt was YSR's administration. Some of us will proclaim that, one day a change will occur and it'll cleanse the system. Few other places and settings, it's also called a revolt or revolution.

I'm skeptical about that revolution or change...cause most of the revolutions happen when people are vexed and their lives become unbearable. If you pay attention, in India, particularly in AP, only middle class is suffering. Poor are happy with their upgraded living standards.

Yes there're poor people and poverty exists. But it's not like 80s or 90s, any poor who has vote is covered by one or more welfare scheme. In AP I can list Paniki Aaharam, Jala Yagnam, Fee Reimbursement Scheme, Bangaru Thalli, Mana Biyyam and then Aarogyasri. At central level Food Security Bill, Cash Transfer Scheme etc. As counter intuitive it sounds, it's not that bad to be poor in India.

Poor aren't struggling. They've cellphones, bikes and all other stuff which were considered as comforts 10,15 years ago. It's not like they've running water and 24 hours power supply. Consistency of life is not what's important for them. Middle class yearns for it, cause they paid their dues. What poor look out for themselves is food and shelter. No matter how much corruption exists in India, most of the poor with a vote gets these. It's good thing to be poor and born in Lower Caste. Cause you'll be benefited by poverty schemes and reservations.

But upper middle class, salaried people with professional jobs. They have to pay all kinds of taxes, as taxes are deducted at source. There's no such thing called black money...other than some money which they might've made with a real estate sale. But there's no reliable power supply, no proper roads, and no consistent supply of water. In the year of 2013, power and water became luxuries.

In Guntur, AP the place where I come from, a 3 BR apartment of standard living area goes for 1 cr. But there's no ground water, you've to buy water through tankers every day. Yes there's no ground water in Hyderabad or Vijayawada, but they've river water which is pumped to homes by Muncipal corporations. But there's no such thing for our area. The last few days, with all the bandhs you can't expect tankers to be on time.1 cr for an apartment where you don't reliable water which you're willing to pay. And when there's an unregulated industry, a cartel develops. e.g. Banglore water mafia.

Rich and wealthy, as you know they can get all the GOs passed and they're prospering. Look at all the scams Emaar, VANPIC, Bayyaram Mines, Outer Ring road. And the people who're in jail now, Koneru Rajendra Prasad, Gali Janardhana Reddy, Nimmagadda Prasad and others. All those construction projects, road widenings, mining projects gotta make somebody rich right?! It's not that all the rich are happy about this. Corruption and racketeering became so prevalent in YSR's administration that reputed business families in AP like GMR, GVK and Lanco stayed out of AP as they couldn't play by Jagan's rules. But again, being capitalists they investing elsewhere to the loss of AP. Rich didn't loose any, more of an inconvenience for them and loss of GDP for the state.

Jagan's Empire : But how much a poor voter cares

Coming back to Welfare schemes, I've relatives who got benefited by Aarogyasri. On of my distant aunts, approximately 55 year old widow had a leg fracture and got treated under Aarogyasri. Issue here is, middle class pay for all this and poor are getting benefits cause of the politicians. My aunt who's barely educated, wouldn't think who paid for this, who's becoming rich cause of this and all the economic theories. Back in the day, government hospital might not've treated her at all, but she got treatment at corporate hospital cause of Aarogyasri. That's all she cares and that's all she could. You can't explain a daily wage earner, how much govt land is lost cause of SEZs and mining lands.

Entitlements/Welfare schemes, they exists here in US also, but that money spent should at least be budgeted for. Social Security and Medicare operate that way. But Medicaid wasn't. Food Stamps  budgeted for. But in AP, I don't think it's a problem, NTR might've started Rs.2 rice with good intentions but he never cared for budget. YSR started most number of populist schemes, nobody cared for budget as liquor sales are paying the bills, and it made his friends and followers extremely rich

Most of the Telugu NRIs who despise YSR have a level of disconnect about Aarogyasri. Yes, it's cronyism, but poor got benefited by it and they'll vote for his son. Same with fee reimbursement. More people are getting false income statements to get that fee. Middle class are the one who pay for all these, rich they'll never pay their fair share. cause most of the income is never accounted for. Poor would never have any income that can taxed, other than the sales taxes which they pay.

Usually we blame politicians for all the problems. but voters are never blamed. Voters are the culprits here. (In US you can blame candidates first, as they take bribes, oops..I mean contributions from corporations for their PACs) I've seen last panchayati elections closely. Villagers expect money from all the contestants. In a moderate village, almost 50 lakhs was spent. The person who won the election, he expects that money, interest and profit from his term. And how would he get that money back? Development funds. How can villagers ask for better roads, power or drains if they're sold out.
This repeats for Assembly, Parliament, Cabinet etc.

Poor are always well engaged with voting. By that I means, they'll vote for highest bidder. Upper middle class are always disengaged. To vote, they need to register for vote, which many wouldn't. But again they don't have much choice. You've Congress or TDP candidate, most probably both of them entered politics to make money. If you're from lower caste in India, you're very well represented. if you belong to an upper caste but poor, tough luck.

If you look at the immigration patterns in western countries, more than ever..very big number of educated and working Indian youngsters are living outside the country. And those are votes which aren't cast. It's not to imply that people living abroad are smarter than people living in India. These votes could've tilted results of many constituencies where the winning margin was low.

Here in US, people of all economic classes, corporations are engaged in politics. Rich to protect their lower taxes and poor to protect their entitlements. Of course there's a set of people who vote against their interests, like a hedge fund manager's social conscious wife who votes for democrats and a poor plant worker in red state  who votes for republican. Why, cause it's the right thing to do. Middle class get swayed by social issue/culture wars that year. Gay marriage, Abortion, Immigration..

The lowest strata of the society is happy with the way things are. Affluent are prospering even more. A change or mass movement usually comes from these two. With poor it's genuine and rich can orchestrate a AstroTurf campaign or use hired goons. And upper middle class they've jobs to do, spouses and kids to go home to. They need their salaries to pay for their house, car, kids education and all other. There's no energy or drive left for these. That could be one of the reasons why the Anna Hazare movement lost its steam. There's political spinoff by name Aam Aadmi Party, but I don't know how effective it would be.

There's one way this could end, when governments run  out of money for  these welfare programs. In AP I've seen these schemes in full swing since 2004, they haven't stopped until now. As long as India can borrow and taxable base increases, this will go on.

With the complacency of middle class and the entitlements of poor and luxurious lives of rich, I don't see a incentive/opportunity for any change. Poor doesn't want anything taken away from them. Rich are happy at where they're. Who cares if politicians are corrupt, about their nepotism, cronyism or how much public wealth is plundered.

I used almost 1500 words for this, but Sri Gollapudi Maruti Rao said this more effectively in 2 minutes.in Leader movie.

 

Unlike other arguments, I'd like to be proven wrong about this.

But I just don't know how I can lose on this.

The Way We Were

Remember how we're when we're kids....until that age we didn't know what worry is and what it means. Everything is taken care of by parents and grandparents, we just grew up, get used to parents, home, surroundings and don't need to do anything else.

(I can only speak for myself and friends who grew up along with me in a middle class upbringing. Anybody born into poverty or a broken home, might've experienced hunger or abusive parent very early.)

As we grow up slowly we wouldn't be worried ...but we come to know what money is and that few posses it more than us and few less than us. That might be one of the important things which we discover ourselves in our lifetime. It wouldn't be an epiphany, but a slow process.

Then we would be worried about homework, exams and movies which we couldn't go even though all our friends are going. As we get into teens, it's all about impressing the opposite sex. Then for the chosen few (from Indian perspective) girlfriend or boyfriend issues. Then study abroad / job search..

Few just cruised through, few worked hard and few struggled, but I didn't experience phenomenon by name frustration. That helpless feeling that sinks in when there's so many things in this world which're unjust and we can't do anything about it.

For me I guess the first thing (apart from personal things) which got me all worked up and frustrated was Iraq war. I couldn't get my head around thought that we can go to war with less powered nation for made up reason with clever media management and a bumper sticker 'war against terrorism'.

It took me years but I made peace with it, then the financial crisis, my immigration hassles and related issues. Then right wing group, their thinly veiled racism and their aversion to science, gender equality, social safety net and rise of batshit crazy people like sarah palin, michele bachmann, allen west et al. I've grievances with liberals also.

This frustration might vary from person to person, I can see why these bother me so much. The amount of time I spend reading the news, columns, listening and sometimes writing. I've been interested in reading since I was kid, but when you're 9 year old your focus will be about how things work. My initial interests were stories, astronomy, then slowly progressed into how things work, politics, movies, technology. I was interested about politics in India also, but that never caused frustration. What was missing then...which exists right now? I guess until I came to US, I only read how things're and how things work. I might not've read why is system flawed and who is benefiting from it.

I was never frustrated about any singular thing as I'm about gun control now. Even Visa hassles which gave me so much pain, didn't make me this frustrated. I already read and heard so much about guns  and culture even before the rampage of all these shootings. So nothing is really surprising to me. But after Sandy Hook there's scrutiny of NRA's process, which was missing before. The travesty in the name of second amendment protection is sickening.

How much NRA bullied politicians, influenced Gun regulation or lack thereof is mind boggling.

Tiahrt Amendment

Ban on CDC research on Gun Violence

Restrictions on ATF

No centralized database of guns

When you walk through an airport security, a shampoo bottle bigger than 3oz or grandma's medicine is a security risk. In the same country, in almost all the cities you can walk with concealed weapon or automatic weapon with minimal restrictions. It's like we live in two parallel worlds. Any form of gun control is considered as infringement of second amendment.

After Sandy Hook, I'd a breakdown on social networks, donated money to Gun Control advocacy groups, will donate again,  But I can't go to rallies cause of work. In the past, no matter what we did, NRA got the upper hand. Because they've a product to sell...and we oppose the product. They've a monetary cause, ours is safety/survival cause. That could be the reason they're winning. Same with Arizona and other states immigration laws. Private prison lobbied for AZ law as this law will keep the inmates coming to these prisons. As a bonus conservatives can rally the extreme right voters.

That feeling of loss isn't boding well with me and I really look back at days of those blissful innocence. The more we know, the more cynical we become. Information or facts are only useful when you can use them for our advancement or society upliftment. Information might be power, but ignorance is a bliss.

Is there any reason to be optimistic? So much money poured into last election to defeat Obama. Koch brothers had spent almost 400 Million USD, Adelson spent another 100 Million and all those SuperPACs. But Obama prevailed. I'm not saying he's messiah or anything...he's just another politician. But money can't buy all the elections, that's one of the takeaways from last general election.

I hope common sense will prevail over money in Gun Control fight also. The stake are high, it's our next generation lives.

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.

Front Row tickets

George Carlin said this in 2004.

"When you are born in this world, you are given a ticket to the Freak Show, and when you are born in America, you have a front row seat"

If you're an average educated & informed voter (or an aspiring immigrant like me) who's angered by these Tea Party shenanigans in this Debt Ceiling drama, don't get outraged. Consider this as a front row ticket to freak show in the name of American Political Bankruptcy.

Poor and middle class people who voted for these tea party hacks, where would you go crying once Ayn Rand's fan boy Ryan starts cutting your Social security, medicare and medicaid benefits? Enjoy the fruits of your labor. Oh btw, keep watching the fox news.

Middle class who voted otherwise, you aren't alone. You've the company of rich people. I know! The average 2 and 20 hedge fund guy, investment bankers, Wall St CEOs are all tired and vexed with these retards in the House.

For a change, I don't have any endless tirade about this. But I've two opinion pieces. One from the Free Markets savior WSJ and another from a successful financial advisor. Both are capitalists, not your average tax and spend liberals whom the wall st dreads most.

Here's WSJ opinion piece
The GOP's Reality Test
These below line sums up the Wall Street's frustration.
....The idea seems to be that if the House GOP refuses to raise the debt ceiling, a default crisis or gradual government shutdown will ensue, and the public will turn en masse against . . . Barack Obama. The Republican House that failed to raise the debt ceiling would somehow escape all blame. Then Democrats would have no choice but to pass a balanced-budget amendment and reform entitlements, and the tea-party Hobbits could return to Middle Earth having defeated Mordor.

This is the kind of crack political thinking that turned Sharron Angle and Christine O'Donnell into GOP Senate nominees

And here's a financial Advisor Joshua M. Brown's outrage in his blog The Reformed Broker
Traitors.
And the only thing worse than an economic dilettante voting idiotically in Congress is when someone who's actually worked on The Street acts like they don't know any better. For shame to the hedge fund managers and finance guys who are providing intellectual cover for the bastards who dare push this nation closer to the cliff's edge!

To Stanley Druckenmiller and the rest of the Oldtimers' Game brain trust, let me say this: Your ideas about missing a Treasury coupon "just to see what would happen" are so dangerous that I fear someone's been tampering with your meds. How is it possible that otherwise intelligent people could reasonably believe that the world's reserve debt instrument should be used for a political gambit? Mr. Druckenmiller (and friends), we agree on the need to get our house cleaned up, just not on your plan of swinging a wrecking ball at it to get the maids' attention. Congrats on your retirement, please don't feel the need to ever offer public comment again.

Sit back, relax and enjoy the freak show (or apocalypse).

Sources:
WSJ
The Reformed Broker

State of uncertainity.. I mean unemployment.

I've been living here in USA for the last 9 years and I consider myself pretty assimilated. One of the things which I found very pleasant and surprising is the way college grads ease into the job and life. Almost every college grad used to land in job right after college. Parents will start feeling like empty nesters and suddenly have an extra room or two to use.

But college grads these days are really struggling. they consider themselves very lucky if they've jobs. Read this blog post by yves smith in naked capitalism about fresh college grad working as a doorman. The earlier doorman was also a college grad. That kinda struck me and reminded me of India in 70s and 80s.

India used to have socialist leanings in those days, hence there're not many private enterprises creating jobs. Very few private jobs and rest of them are government jobs. And there's affirmative action in the name of 'reservations'. So an average college grad with liberal arts diploma can't really land in a job. That's why all the movie heroes used to play the roles of unemployed angry young man who couldn't land into a job cause of corrupt officers and system.

As Bob Dylan sang, the times they are a-changing. India changed so much and it's a market bases economy now. Private enterprises are booming and GDP is growing at the rate of 7%. I don't hear about chronic unemployment which was staple of our society until mid 1990s. Even though unemployment rate is at 10%, it's better than 70s and 80s. At the same time, we here in USA are afraid of our jobs every day and unemployment is 9.1% and GDP growth rate slowed down to 3.1%.

As you might see it, there's not many jobs around in this country. And boomers are postponing their retirements, which means new grads can't get into market yet. Not to state the obvious, there're not many manufacturing jobs left behind in this country. As you can see from this picture, financial sector profits reached 41% of US Business Profits by 2009. They might've came down little bit by this year. Point I want to make is, we're not creating anything. Wall street is manipulating and minting money rather than managing and lending it. We don't have any good consumer devices from USA except the apple products. But they're all made in China and we made Foxconn a million employee company and lot richer. Facebook, twitter and other social networking innovations, yeah they're based in USA but they don't employ many people here. Facebook have development centers in India, Ireland and they use they to route profits to tax havens. All these IPOs and social networking only helps the rich and chosen few.

Lemme break down a myth perpetuated by Republicans. "Regulation is killing the jobs. Obama administration is a job killer". Well do you really think, corporations wouldn't hire, if there's enough demand. Post recession, many managers realized that they can milk the employees, as they've no place to go. Companies are sitting on record amount of Cash here and overseas. They're not hiring as they can't be sure of the demand cause of the doldrums in housing and job market.

Republicans portray themselves as strong at military and job creation. Obama proved the contrary on first point and I'll do the second one. (pun intended) Mitt Romney and Jon Huntsman, two presidential candidates are eager to tell how Obama failed to create jobs and how they're adept at it. Mitt Romney is partner of Bain Capital, a private equity group. Private equity group, by definition will buy a distressed company, lay off employees, optimize operations and issue an IPO and run with the profits. That's how Mitt Romney made part of his fortune. And Jon Huntsman and his family owns a billion dollar company Huntsman Corp. Out of 12,000 worldwide employees only 2,174 are inside USA. Effectively these two candidates who call themselves as job creators are job killers.

Meanwhile Obama got criticized for bailing out Detroit Auto Industry, which saved 1 million jobs. Just imagine how the situation could've be, if not for that. Every generation in this country reinvented itself. Steel industry, automotive jobs helped a generation survive and then call centre and IT jobs came along. They're all outsourced to India. These days except Healthcare and retail sector jobs, anything can be outsourced. Manufacturing sector isn't doing bad but the rate of job growth has to go up really fast to take more people off the unemployment.

Our chief competitor China is investing and prospering in all sectors. Education, Infrastructure, new jobs and investments in overseas. Remember, USA used to be that country. Not anymore. We've an effective conservative rhetoric in DC, which paints President as spendthrift even if he wants to invest in Infrastructure and education.

While the rest of world is busy in investing in kids and future, our Legislatures are busy passing bills to protect fetuses.

Peace.

Graph from Atlantic

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

Tea Parties : Grassroots or Astroturf?

With broken laptop(that's a second dell) and layoffs at work, I'm not getting much impulse/opportunities to blog. But these tea parties are forcing me to rant.

I didn't clearly understand what're these people angry about. Govt spending, Taxes, bailouts...? If the bailouts are what you're complaining, it's Bush who approved no questions asked $700 bill to Henry Paulson. And if you're complaining about Obama's bailouts, please let him know what's the better way to do it.

If your beef is Government spending, how else you'd pump money into crippling economy where credit is virtually frozen. And America suddenly got a strange disease by name Thriftiness. Now pls don't give me that less govt spending, less taxes and less govt are good for country. We're enjoying the fruits of Bush taxes now. In Bush's 8 years Rich became filthy rich and middle class slipped into poverty.

Conservatives are still singing the old song of tax cuts for corporations. How the F in this world would that benefit us. Don't we have tax cuts for all Big corporations, including oil corporations. And how exactly did that benefit us. Yeah I hear your thing, Trickle Down Economics!! That less taxes means corporations hire more people. Oh really? All these corporations took record profits, laid off people at slightest whims of market and outsourced major chunks of their businesses. Forget about employing more people. It's about retaining jobs now, and for the less fortunate it's about unemployment benefits.

Your conservative hero Reagan raised taxes, not once but twice. And no one talks about it. And please stop quoting his tired Government is not a solution to our problem, government is the problem line. With the deregulation spree, we're in this shithole now. And guess what, his so called legacy is being Questioned now

And Question to these so called angry protesters. How many of you make more than $250K per annum. If you're below that, you wouldn't see a single penny increase in tax. For those who make more than $250K, isn't that time that you pay taxes like rest of us.

It appears to me that these conservatives are just angry cause they're out of power. Didn't you enjoy power and ruin it for 8 years. And first 4 years, you didn't even win that.

Now the new poster boy of these retards, Gov. of Texas Rick Perry. He's threatening to cede from the union. Please do, and don't let the 21st century hit you on the way out. (Quoting Bill Maher's line)

Meh, we'll be fine without those good ol' Texas 'tards. And they'll be fine with oil. Oh wait, didn't the mighty US invade Iraq for oil......

And for the faux news contributors and few retards claiming this as grassroots campaign, this ain't grassroots. This is a astroturf campaign

Peace

Jan 20th, 2009 : End of an error

8 years of Bush in 8 minutes by Keith Olbermann



Enough said!
Title Courtesy : A user's comment on Digg.com

Peace.

sarah palin

I was thinking about right words to describe sarah palin. Yeah, she's a bimbo.... But that ain't enough.

Last Friday, Dana Gould coined this word on 'Real Time with Bill Maher'.

Evangelical Dominatrix !!
This would sum up her whole appearance, folksiness, stupid ignorance, darn rights, you betchas...

Here's the clip.



and the money line from Bill Maher "She is with out the gene, which tells you that you should be embarrassed"

Peace

What a moron !

Please watch this



Rape or incest victims, she wants to counsel them. No, abortion ain't right for them.

She's OK with morning after pill, oh wait she is not endorsing that contraceptive!

Just think about this Moron being the next VP. As if Dick Cheney isn't evil enough.

Gosh, what's she talking about!!

Tina Fey - Sarah Palin, CNN compares

CNN compares Tina Fey parody to real Palin interview

Lipstick on a Pig

Looks like party is over for Sarah Palin.

She got Cliff notes training in foreign affairs for two days. Then she showed up for interview with Katie Couric.

And here's a good Q by Katie and Sarah's response to that..

COURIC: Why isn't it better, Governor Palin, to spend $700 billion helping middle-class families who are struggling with health care, housing, gas and groceries; allow them to spend more and put more money into the economy instead of helping these big financial institutions that played a role in creating this mess?

PALIN: That's why I say I, like every American I'm speaking with, were ill about this position that we have been put in where it is the taxpayers looking to bail out. But ultimately, what the bailout does is help those who are concerned about the health-care reform that is needed to help shore up our economy, helping the—it's got to be all about job creation, too, shoring up our economy and putting it back on the right track. So health-care reform and reducing taxes and reining in spending has got to accompany tax reductions and tax relief for Americans. And trade, we've got to see trade as opportunity, not as a competitive, scary thing. But one in five jobs being created in the trade sector today, we've got to look at that as more opportunity. All those things under the umbrella of job creation. This bailout is a part of that.

Here's the youtube video



Can anybody pls translate Sarah's response into comprehensible English.
WTF is she talking about. In a way, Tina Fey job is very easy on SNL. Just talk like palin, you look like a dumbwit with out a clue.

We had enough of dumb people in White House. Please America, vote for Obama. He might not be flawless, but Obama-Biden is better than this McCain and Palin ticket.

Courtesty: Good Commentatory by Fareed Zakaria on Sarah Palin.

Peace.

Political Pundits and their BS

Sarah Palin huh...

The gun trotting, bible thumping, Pro-life extreme Right wing Hockey mom (what is hockey mom anyway...)

She sounds like second coming of W. And the abc interview shows her understanding of today's issues..which is zero. Now the conservative Political Consultants wants to Project her as able leader who might not be sharp but ABLE. Just like they projected W in 2000 and '04.

So I was watching Real time with Bill Maher on youtube. Bill asked John Fund (conservative reporter of WSJ) whether Sarah Palin would know anything about Sarabanes Oxley. His answer, "are we here for a trivia contest ?".

John, listen up dude. Since when, SOX became trivia in corporate America ? Corporations are spending Billions of dollars for the compliance of these regulations. (This SOX in reality is just a pay check for auditing firms). And is it too much to ask for a VP candidate's view on SOX.

There's no end in sight for this Right wing Spin.

Peace.

Other people's money, baby!!

Just read this

While VA employees are busy spending YOUR money in Sharper Image (I always ask my friend; who'll buy this overpriced stuff at this store) and departmental stores Veterans returning from Iraq are struggling for proper health care in Walter reed. Imagine how a veteran feels when he wasn't getting proper treatment after getting injured in a Iraqi civil war

This is all peanuts when compared to what Bush did to this country. Now avg debt for each American is $16,500. I mean to say, total national debt divided by population.


Share the pain, people.
Peace out.

5 years in iraq

It's been 5 years since USA invaded Iraq. More than 4000 US soldiers died. 1,197,469 iraqis died. This is not something which is on neocons mind when they're pitching this war on to us.

What did we achieve from this war? not every one lost something. haliburton, blackwater made hell a lot of money. All the dick cheney's buddies might've got few oil contracts. for every one else this is a $12 trillion expenditure with no real reason/result.

I've so many things on my mind. Space isn't a constraint on this blog but John Cusack spoke his mind beautifully. Many thanks to youtube.

All the civilians and soldiers who died in this war, RIP.
Hope this war ends one day and I pray that people would remember how they got into this war, before voting this year.

Peace.

Pakistan proposes lifting ban on Indian films

Just read this news.
Yeah I know, it's good for Indian economy, good for building up friendship between India and Pakistan, yada yada yada..

But I wonder how a Hindi movie will shape up with this new revenue avenue. Imagine a movie opening in Pakistan on the same Friday it's hitting screens in India and elsewhere. Already Yash Raj movies and Karan Johar movies are made for NRIs (read south Asian diaspora aka muslims).

Seriously, Hindi Film heroes might be named as Salim/ali/hussein..instead of eternal prem/rahul/rohit... Throw in a Hindu villain and ahhh..a Hindu heroine name wouldn't hurt either.

Before the readers come into a conclusion that I'm a racist, please recall this movie. main hoon na Here is the plot in nutshell. A army major rescues another major's daughter from a hindu extremist ...WTF. Director Farah Khan intelligently establishes the Hindu Extremist Raghavan's charecter with this scene. Raghavan (played by sunil shetty) kills a innocent Pakistani kid in Point Blank range just for crossing the border. And the intelligence continues in character names also. Sharukh and Zayed characters are named as Ram and Lakshman.

If my memory is not wrong, Kamal Hasan rejected this hindu extremist's role coz of the characterization. Any sensible actor would do the same thing. Now I'm not the only one complaining. Please follow this link.


....there are increasingly large numbers who charge there is undercurrent of pro-Islamist and subtle anti-Hindu messaging in Khan's brand of cinema planted within the rest of the entertainment. An industry observer points out that while Shahrukh Khan has never made a film targetting Islamic terrorists, the villain in Khan's previous high profile production, Main Hoon Na also was instead a 'Hindu terrorist' of none other than the Indian army itself.

Hope the Hindi movies remain close to Indian/Hindu tastes and sentiments.

Jai Hind.

Mega fanatics!

2007 was one of the worst years in Chiru's career. Not only did he not have a successful movie, but personally he suffered the loss of his father and also his younger daughter. Anyone that believes in Karma relate his youger daughter's episode to that of Uday Kiran's. An upcoming hero and a hard core fan of chiru almost became his idol's son-in-law and a mega-alludu; Uday Kiran's career would have been very different had things gone his way. Chiru's political aspirations made Uday an instant star, an inter-caste marriage would have fetched chiru good support, however it is believed that due to the force from his community, chiru had to call off the wedding. Unfortunately, Uday was made a scapegoat. Coming back to Karma, chiru got back his dues in the form of Srija. It's hard to blame chiru in this episode, there probably is nothing he could have done, but, nobody knows what exactly happened behind those closed doors when Srija was locked up. 

During that whole episode, there was nothing chiru could have done better. He handled himself well and fast forwarding to the current episode, between Chiru and Rajasekhar, there is nothing he could have done here either. Like Srija said, it is not just about Chiru. It's his fans that she was afraid of. Chiru's fans are probably the worst anyone can have. Some of them love chiru so much that they hate everything about others. They view all others as chiru's enemies. I could hardly find fault with Rajasekhar's statement. When asked if he would join Chiru's party, RS said he would not and when asked for the reason he said, Chiru does not have political experience. An ordinary person would see that as a true statement. However, chiru's so called fans who cannot think straight are hurt by that statement and decide to prove a point and attack Rajasekhar and his family. They also shoot this entire episode and send it to TV9 so they can get their point across? What exactly is their point??? Anyone who speak against chiru, even if it is the truth will not be spared and will be attacked?! Is that what they were trying to say?

I am pretty sure, Mohan Babu is next on their list. If there is a list that mega fans maintain it would definitely be incomplete without his name. It's time for chiru to make up his mind. He exactly might not be responsible directly to any of this, but the way he treats his fans and the way he interacts with his various fans associations, he is sending them wrong messages. He is probably misled by his brothers and brother-in-law. He is getting carried away and is blinded by the people behind him. Unfortunately, he will never be able to realize this. But if he really wants to help people and enter into politics he should look beyond his fans and family. He should start ignoring those fans who expect to be noticed by doing stupid things like this. Democracy and dictatorship cannot coexist. Unfortunately, for Chiru, he has to choose his path before he enters politics. If he truly believes in democracy, he should stop encouraging his stupid fans. Chiru's brother Nagababu issued a statement saying these fans that attacked Rajasekhar and his family are not registered Chiru fans. I wonder what he exactly meant. Something definitely is fishy the way things are. I cannot mention this enough, but Chiru should wake up!!!

For more info and videos:

http://www.indiaglitz.com/channels/telugu/gallery/events/14328.html

GOP and the Conservative Values

GOP always protrays itelf as a party with Conservative and family values. Their position on most of the issues also proves that. Pro-Life, anti Gay rights, "Intelligent Design", Opposition to contraceptives...

But lately, the party is losing it's image. Let's see the events.

Evangelical preacher Ted Haggard. Ok, this guy might not be a GOP senator or something but this guy was an adviser to White House on gay issues. Last November, a male prostitute alleged that Ted haggard paid him for sex and used Meth. Then the denials quickly followed and then the resignations. We've to see the guy in the movies Jesus Camp, in which he preaches, "we don't have to debate about what we should think about homosexual activity. It’s written in the Bible."

Then this guy went through a therapy and he's supposedly complete heterosexual Sexual now :-). We've preachers in church, who can just change the sexual orientation with some bible classes.

Then there's Mark Foley, this Guy is hitting on pages in Capitol Hill. They're all underage males. This guy is confronted by an abc contributor in Washington, and he resigned immediately and went into Rehab. I'm not sure why he's not punished until now. Damn the rehabs.
The problem/irony is, he is one of the opponents of child Pornography and crusader against child abuse and exploitation.

Now Larry Craig. We all know, this old man is caught in Minneapolis airport soliciting sex from a undercover officer. Then a Idaho paper outed this news. This guy went to court to withdraw his guilty petition. Sounds like fun.

No matter how much I hate these right wing nuts, I pity this guy. Poor guy! Didn't get any support from his party people. Mitt Romney literally threw this guy in front of a bus. C'mon man, this guy worked for you party campaign.


Here's the hypocrisy. This Larry Craig boycotted one of Bill Clinton's speech on Capitol Hill, because he "disgraced White House by committing Sex in the Oval office". And there are rumors in the DC area about his homosexuality, even before this Men's room incident. Craig is one of the vocal opponents to Gay rights.

Nice video from Jon Stewart's show, enjoy

David Vitter, Republican Senator from Lousiana. His phone number found in D.C. Madam's client list. Hustler Magazine identified this Phone number. It's funny that even Hustler is into political reporting coz of these "family guys"

Point I want to make here is why the mid America and the Bible Belt still considers the GOP as the savior of the Christianity. Is this cause of Karl Rove marketing skills or the Democrat's failure in wooing the church going public !

Religion blurs the vision so much that, we've people in USA who believe that Gay people getting married is the biggest problem in country right now. It's bigger than Iraq war, Katrina failure, poor infrastructure Children without health care..

Hope it changes in 2008

Peace.

Plight of Hindus in India

Alright, I just want to see the politicians reaction if a Central Government Body gives a report like Allah/Jesus never existed.

Mark my words, heavens will fall down, every thing in India would come to a screeching halt. Now was there a same reaction? Hell no! Why, who gives a shit when you're a Hindu. Oh wait, if you belong to SC, ST yeah politicians care about you. but if you belong to Upper Middle Class OC, no way. Coz no one cares for your vote.

I heard reaction Strong reaction from BJP only. OK it's obvious. But I'm not sure about the reaction from other political parties. TDP, Communists, SJP..list goes on.

And just for the record, I want to see that Central Govt Official who also added this line "We don't have any proof that Rama ever existed". and hit the SOB in the nuts.

Whatever happened to Religious Tolerance in India. I'm not sure, whether we've Uniform civil Code. (Correct me if I'm wrong but Muslims still go by their Muslim Courts and they can be married to multiple ppl at the same time.) Read in BBC last week that an "young IAS officer", made a rule that employees shouldn't put kumkum(red dot) on their forehead. and actually a officer was suspended. Just imagine the same rule, for burkhas. Yeah I know, not in this life time..

And then we've Karunanidhi, CM of TN who asks questions like "Did Rama go to any Engg College, to build that long bridge". See we've these people who worship Ravana and hate Rama.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E._V._Ramasami_Naicker#Dravidar_Kazhagam_and_propaganda

"....including theatrical productions of a "reinterpreted" Ramayana-a version transposing hero and villain, in which the Sri Lankan demon king Ravana becomes a heroic "Dravidian of 'excellent character,' " and the Aryan prince Rama a conniving, "despicable character" .

Would India ever be a secure/nice place for Hindus again. I doubt it, with a Italian Christian ruling the country and government declaring that Rama is a Hoax.

Since the independence or even before that, our aim is to please Muslims. We just have 13% muslims in this country. Of course they're citizens and they'll get their rights. But what about Hindus? Gandhi started fasting in his last days, coz Indian government withhold the transfer of Rs 55 Crores to Pakistan.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nathuram_Godse#Motive

We need more leaders like Bhagat Singh, Subhash chandra Bose, Chandra Sekhar Azad who fought for country and not for fame/legacy. Truth be told, if these insults keep occurring to Hindus, incidents like Gujarat Riots would happen often.

Readers might ask me, what're you doing to prevent these things or Defend Hindus. Answer is nothing, but give me suggestions. I'm willing to Donate Money or spend some time at Organizations if they're in North East corridor.

Jai Hind.

P.S. But here's a request to all my friends in USA, Please stop eating at Pak restaurants. wherever you're. I was forced to do that once, I'm repenting.