DEC. 11, 2009-- THE TARP FUND

AS PROMISED, HERE IS THE THE WEBSITE INFORMATION FOR THE CONGRESSIONAL OVERSIGHT PANEL OF THE TARP FUND.
THE GIST OF IT IS THAT BANKS ARE BEGINNING TO REPAY THEIR LOANS AND THE POWERS-THAT-BE SEEM TO THINK THE FUND HAS OFFSET ECONOMIC PANIC.

I SAY NO IT HASN'T. IT HAS SIMPLY MADE US 'LITTLE PEOPLE' REALIZE THAT WE ARE ON OUR OWN AND WE HAVE TO MAKE IT WORK... IN OTHER WORDS, IT KEEPS US QUIET AND DOCILE. FOR HOW LONG, I'M NOT SO SURE.

PRESIDENT OBAMA STARTED OFF THIS WEEK SAYING HE WAS HE WAS GOING TO END THE TARP FUND, AND EVEN BETTER, IT DIDN'T COST AS MUCH AS THEY THOUGHT. SO HE PLANNED TO REALLOCATE THE FUNDS INTO A JOBS-CREATION PACKAGE.

THIS ANNOUNCEMENT WAS QUICKLY RETRACTED, NOT BY THE MAN HIMSELF, BUT BY THE TREASURY DEPARTMENT. THEY ANNOUNCED THURSDAY THAT THE PROGRAM WILL BE EXTENDED THROUGH OCTOBER OF 2010.

WHAT THE HELL!

HERE ARE A FEW LINKS TO HELP YOU CATCH UP.

DON'T FORGET TO LISTEN IN TO THE SOAPBOX EVERY FRIDAY, 1-2 P.M. ON CAL STATE LONG BEACH'S GLOBAL RADIO STATION AT KBEACH.ORG.

OBAMA ADMINISTRATION EXTENDS TARP DEADLINE

CONGRESSIONAL OVERSIGHT REPORT, DEC. 9, 2009

Can't Hate the Hatred

Tiger Woods, an SUV and a golf club run into a tree.

There's a whole lot of smoke for there not to be some kind of fire AND he's one one of the most famous people in the world - anything he does is of magnified importance whether we're talking about a fender bender, knocking a ball into a hole in the ground or some off color trash-talking in the locker room.

Grabbing fame by the hand comes with as much risk as it does reward and at some level it is truly impossible to manage that fame. Like the veteran gangster in American Gangster said, "Your success took a shot at you. Whaddya gonna do, become 'unsuccessful?'"

And finally, this is America. This is what we do. It's awful for us but you know we love a good salacious story. So then over and over again it's been agreed that it's the burden of the individual (you, me, Sarah Palin) to avoid becoming the focus of a sensational episode. Tiger Woods has been exceptional at doing just that for somebody who's so well-known and popular. For our tabloid-obsessed, celebutard culture, catching Tiger Woods in some less-than-presentable story is the holy grail. Culturally we want to be able to talk shit on somebody to distract us (that's the whole point right?) and he's probably the most famous person about whom you couldn't really complain up until now. Even him simply getting into a boneheaded accident is satisfies the player-hater in us to a certain extent. Choking in a golf tournament offers no satisfaction because he more than likely won the previous one or will win the next one.

We've got a well built, finely tuned media machine that distracts, distorts and degrades common sense better than anything anywhere ever. This is just the latest morsel being fed into it and it's spitting out that which we've demanded it to spit out: entertainment.

Now if you want to talk about why we have this insatiable, unrealistic, unhelpful desire to be entertained then let's do that. But don't get mad at the apparatus that we've built when it's merely doing its job.

Topics of the Week: Nov. 20, 2009

UCLA RALLY:
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA’S BOARD OF REGENTS APPROVED A 32 PERCENT HIKE IN FEES FOR THEIR SCHOOLS, RAISING THEIR FEES TO ABOUT $10,300 PER YEAR FOR UNDERGRADS.
STUDENTS DIDN’T MAKE IT EASY, ABOUT 500 PROTESTERS GATHERED OUTSIDE THE MEETING HALL THE HIKE. AFTER THE SIGNING SOME GOT A LITTLE VIOLENT, THROWING STICKS AND BOTTLES AT POLICE. THE CAMPUS POLICE TOOK ACTION USING TASERS TWICE AND MAKING 14 ARRESTS.

CSULB RALLY:
A LITTLE MORE SUBDUES WAS OUR CROWD OUTSIDE CHANCELLOR REED’S OFFICE, WITH ABOUT 130 STUDENTS AND FACULTY MEMBERS. THIS EVENT WAS ORGANIZED BY THE CALIFORNIA FACULTY ASSOCIATION AND FOCUSED ON CLASS AND PROGRAM CUTS MADE BY THE UNIVERSITY.

LET’S BREAK THIS DOWN…..I LOOKED AT A COST INCREASE CHART FROM THE U-C’S. SO IN 1979, THE YEAR I WAS BORN, ONE YEAR TUITION AT A U-C WAS $685. IN 1990, WHEN I WAS TEN, IT WAS $1,624. IN 1999, THE YEAR MY DAUGHTER WAS BORN: 3,429. THIS YEAR, AFTER THE BUDGET CUTS $7,788.
ARE YOU FOLLOWING? EVERY TEN YEARS IT SEEMS TO DOUBLE, WHICH MAKES SENSE. SO ALL OF A SUDDEN NEXT YEAR IT’S GOING TO JUMP TO $10,302. I MEAN, WHAT WENT WRONG HERE? I MEAN, WAS THE STATE WAS ALWAYS OVER SPENDING, IN WHICH IS HARD TO FATHOM THAT WAS SPENDING ON ACTUAL EDUCATION, THE TEACHERS HAVE NEVER BEEN THAT WELL PAID

ENOUGH ABOUT US NOW, LET’S TALK ABOUT OUR FUTURE, AND OUR FUTURE HEALTH. THE SENATE HAS PUT OUT THEIR VERSION OF A HEALTH CARE BILL. SENATE MAJORITY LEADER HARRY REID PRESENTED A BILL THAT WILL SUPPOSEDLY COST $849 BILLION. AS OPPOSED TO THE HOUSE’S WHICH IS $1.05 TRILLION.

HE SAYS IT WILL HELP WITH THE DEFICIT AS WELL BY MAKING CUTS TO MEDICARE , ADDING TAXES TO WHAT ARE CALLED CADILLAC PLANS AND RAISING TAXES ON WEALTHY AMERICANS…. DON’T WORRY, IF YOU ARE HERE AT CAL STATE LONG BEACH THAT DOES NOT MEAN YOU OR YOUR PARENTS…..$200, 000

MOST IMPORTANTLY, THIS BILL IS PROJECTED TO HELP RAISE THE NUMBER OF NON-ELDERLY AMERICANS FROM 83% TO 94% OVER THE NEXT 10 YEARS.

THE GOP, AS USUAL IS NOT COOPERATING, THE ARE THREATENING THE “HOLY WAR OF DELAYS”. THEY ARE SCHEDULED TO VOTE IN ORDER TO START DEBATE, TOMORROW. IN THE SENATE THEY NEED 60 VOTES TO DO ANYTHING…. SO WITH 58 DEMS AND 2 INDIES THEY NEED BECAUSE THE 40 REPS, SUCK.

I CALL YOU ALL TO ACTION AGAIN, CONTACT NOT OUR SENATORS, THEY ARE OK. BUT CONTACT THE REP SENATORS.

Really, Germany!!!

The European Union wants the countries who belong to minimize their debt. Chancellor Angela Merkel wants to achieve this by cutting taxes to stimulate spending. That also means social services will suffer.
A group of ultra wealthy Germans wants to help ease this, so they are asking to have their taxes raised.
How is it that Germany, a place where there was once a wall separating it in two, has citizens who are very rich willing to, no, asking to have their taxes raised? Not only that… but they want to make sure the money is designated for social programs that will suffer cuts
There is such a group of activists in this country.
They are Wealth for the Common Good

Dear President (on health care)

My post to Obama’s Facebook about healthcare 8/19

Here's the deal. WE THE PEOPLE support a public option. I am a student/single mom. We don't have insurance for two reasons... #1- we can't afford it... #2 we don't trust it. I am at this moment watching Sicko for the 3rd time and getting angry all over again. I just read an article on the health "expo" (for lack of a better word) held at the Forum in Los Angeles... and I'm fuming at the fact that you shut down the public option.

My goals at this point are to get my education and try to find work in another county, a socialist one with universal health care along with other blessings. I hate living in a place that puts making money for corporations ahead of protecting their citizens.

WE THE POEPLE voted you into office for change, not compromise. Please keep this in mind....

Not that I expect this to be read admist the thousands of other FB comments.... but maybe, just maybe .... It will be taken to heart.

All Love, Kiva Hewett

NO MERCY

here's the article

ON WEDNESDAY ONE OF CHARLES MANSON’S MOST LOYAL FOLLOWERS WAS DENIED PAROLE … FOR THE 13TH TIME.
SUSAN ATKINS PETITIONED THIS TIME FOR A COMPASSIONATE RELEASE BECAUSE SHE IS DYING OF BRAIN CANCER AND DOCTORS SAY SHE ONLY HAS MONTHS TO LIVE. SHE IS NOW BED-RIDDEN WITH ONE AMPUTATED LEG AND THE OTHER PARALYZED.
L.A. COUNTY DEPUTY DISTRICT ATTORNEY PATRICK SEQUEIRA SAID TO THE LA TIMES:

“As sad as Mrs. Atkins looks today, it pales against the crime scene photos,”

HE HAS AVIDLY OPPOSED THE RELEASE OF MANSON KILLERS OVER THE YEARS.

So Years ago, this woman was influenced by some crazy man who convinced her and many others that he was some sort of god and got them to do horrible things to other people. For this she was sentenced life in prison.

OK, I get that. No mercy for her.

But, this is now and now she gets to live among other people who also have a bad reputation and can empathize with her situation. On top of it she gets brain cancer and instead of suffering with it she gets treatment... on our dime.

This is the definition of no mercy here, eh. If I got brain cancer I would surely suffer and die from it with no treatment cause I can't afford it.

Gee wiz, people! The brain cancer and being paralyzed and having a leg amputated IS the no mercy part. The universe handled it. Read between the lines..... that means relatives of the victims too... you have been paying for her to live and receive treatment over the years. Do you understand? You are footing the bill for the life of this person who killed someone you love.

Had she been released, say, 10 years ago and told she now had to make her own way it would have been very difficult for her and she would have had to live among NORMAL people who disapprove of what she did, and she would have had to explain her way through life. (i.e. Getting a job, who would hire her. Finding a place to live, who would want her in their building.)
You wanna be hard core, that's no mercy. let them sit with themselves in prison for awhile to stew in what they did and lose out on part of life. When it comes time for parole hearings and they seem genuinely sorry let them go, monitor them heavily and let them fend for themselves. LIKE THE REST OF US DO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Damn It Feels Good

....to see people up on it. "The Vapors" is one of those classic hip hop tunes that you forgot how much you loved until you hear that key verse. I mean, it does feel good to see people up on it because that means I don't have to help them get up on it or otherwise worry about their "on it" status. It's sweet relief.

With that said, this dude Jay Smooth has one of the clearest, most useful recipes on how to cope with the topic of racism in a nation that's proven itself to be hypocritical, indignant and extremely uncomfortable when it comes to discussing differences.

Check it and tell me he ain't right:

Somebody Forgot to Tell Us

I just heard Pat Buchanan, one of the more useless talking heads in the talking head industry, say that being black was "an advantage" in Barack Obama's rise to the presidency. This was mixed with other thoughts like "he won because he's black" and being a woman is an advantage as well. Now, Buchanan's word isn't worth the oxygen he uses to say it, but the significance of this comment can't be taken lightly.

This is exactly the type of thought that I believe was thrown around kitchen tables, neighborhood bars and other informal gathering places before Obama was elected. For the most part, the professional pundits refrained from saying the exact same thing, because for some reason we expect them to be more eloquent and insightful in their comments; otherwise why have these idiots on radio and TV to begin with? But now that there is a Barack Obama in office, it's even MORE unprofessional and tacky for somebody like Buchanan to say what everybody already thought, two years ago. Buchanan is still expected to take the high road, be thoughtul and give us the insight and point of view of somebody who supposedly knows what he talks about.

Here's why: comments suggesting that being a minority is an advantage skips over the entire history and process by which minorities became disadvantage and disenfranchised. Buchanan like so many other people, look at the African Americans, woman and minorities they know in their lives, however casually, see that they appear to be well fed, healthy and happy and instantly presume that racism, prejudice and general player-hating are figments of the imagination. Yes it's wonderful that Americans can no longer get away with lynching blacks and assaulting women with impunity; that is indeed progress. But the measure of progress in America's efforts to be one country with hundreds of participating subgroups is way more sophisticated than "hell, they seem to be doing alright to me. what else do they want?"

Buchanan can be as backward and conservative as he wants to be. Living, like the rest of them, in a world that only exists in their collective imaginations where if you just act like you're always correct and righteous then you will be correct and righteous, is certainly his right. But I would appreciate it if he would stick to loftier conservative rhetoric that doesn't mention, touch on, deal with, affect, regard or otherwise bother real people and real minorities out there in the world trying to live their lives. It's too important a struggle for wayward, careless comments from somebody like Buchanan.

Hey Pat, stick to trying to steal the New World Order, hating Europe and worrying about Michael Steele. Shut your mouth when it comes to boots-on-the-ground real life struggles that have to succeed because that's where the species is headed.

John Legend for President

Forget Obama for just a moment and open your ears to hear another elegant speaker.
Forget "transparency," let's talk truth. I'm afraid I can't do his speech much justice, so instead just watch/listen.....

When I was nine years old, I was somehow acutely aware of the air traffic controller labor union being broken up by then-President Reagan. My mom and I spent a lot of time ferrying my father back and forth to Los Angeles International Airport, where he'd take off to places like Chicago, New York and other cities for work. I didn't know what a labor union was, or what the word "deregulation" meant, but I did know that there were people up in those towers responsible for getting my dad to and from his destinations safely. And if somebody, even if it was the president, was threatening them, they were threatening my family.



The current assault on organized labor isn't hitting as close to home for me as the PATCO-Reagan battle, but it is opening my eyes to the fundamental flaws of our sociopoliticaleconomic system.

So you take a piece of tree branch and chop it out of the tree. Until you put effort into making that branch into an axe handle, it doesn't have value to anybody else except maybe as firewood. Once you've got that axe handle you've got something to sell to somebody else because they can use that axe handle without having put in their own effort to chop down a tree branch, etc. The selling of that axe handle and the assigning of value to that axe handle are parts of the equation that are so ripe to be exploited and thus have been throughout US history. Corporations, with the Federal government backing them up through legislation, have always tried to keep labor costs down while living off of the money generated by the corporation's ability to sell and assign value to products. To be clear, selling and assigning value includes the legimate businesses of marketing, shipping, packaging and other labor-intensive efforts. But as we now see, driving down the labor costs can become dangerous to the whole environment where this axe handle company supposedly operates.

For years we've been hearing about the rich getting richer and the growing gap between rich and poor. It's clear now that too much of that circulating wealth has accumulated at the top where it can't do any good. Too many of the people that are ultra removed from the labor element of business have come up short on too many of their risky moves --in their efforts to sell and assign value of those axe handles-- that now the people who actually make and do things have to be terminated. It's not enough to say "oh rich people" don't get it. Of course they don't. But it's HOW they don't get it, that ruins the life of a hardworker, who may have dreams of striking it rich one day, but in the meantime feels entitled to just get by.

Whether you're talking autoworkers in Michigan, schoolteachers in California or IT personnel in New York, these are people who were doing what they were told --what they had to do if they wanted to keep their jobs-- even if they could see that the plan was unsustainable. Now we're seeing how that unsustainability isn't just company to company, it's country to country.

Breaking up the air traffic controllers union ushered in an era of deregulation that pushed through the 1980s, into the 90s and that we're all suffering through and paying for as you read this. My dad still zips in and out of LAX happily and safely thank goodness, but I still feel like Reagan is threatening my family.

Lift Off

This blog is the combined effort of an incredibly intelligent, hip, sexy, conscious couple. The catch is sometimes we are on the same page and other times our opinions are so far off that one may wonder how we get along.

So we'll be updating as often and as in depth as we like. Fortunately for you, we'll try to keep it on topic. Unfortunately for you, those topics will vary and bounce around from politics, to culture to sociopolitico culture, cultural specifics and back again.

You can never have too much truth and honesty in media. Ours has been missing for too long