In Brief

"Chevron has fortified its defenses with at least twelve different public relations firms whose..."

Mon, 08 Feb 2010 11:17:33 -0800

“Chevron has fortified its defenses with at least twelve different public relations firms whose purpose is to debunk the claims made against the company by indigenous people living in the Amazon forests of Ecuador… Having initially lauded Ecuador’s legal system in an effort to have the case moved there, Chevron later changed its mind and began attacking the system when that system found the company liable for damages.”

- “Chevron hires twelve public relations firms to discredit indigenous Indians in Ecuador” from Natural News.

"The question is, what do the people want, lower taxes or more services? The answer is yes."

Sun, 07 Feb 2010 23:45:00 -0800

“The question is, what do the people want, lower taxes or more services? The answer is yes.”

- Joe Dear, former chief of staff to Governor Gary Locke, several weeks after Locke’s reelection in January 2001 (as quoted by The Seattle Times).

"I believe it ends this way: It ends the way so many Colts games have ended this year and in past..."

Sun, 07 Feb 2010 19:02:28 -0800

“I believe it ends this way: It ends the way so many Colts games have ended this year and in past years. I believe it ends with Manning leading a late scoring drive. I believe Manning walks off with his second Super Bowl MVP, and offensive line coach Howard Mudd leaves the game on top, and veteran defensive coordinator Larry Coyer finally earns a ring after a long and storied career.”

- Indianapolis Star columnist Bob Kravitz, predicting the outcome of the forty fourth Super Bowl. The game went instead to the New Orleans Saints, 31-17.

"Reporters complaining about newsroom cutbacks and blaming bloggers should consider the resources..."

Sun, 07 Feb 2010 14:35:32 -0800

“Reporters complaining about newsroom cutbacks and blaming bloggers should consider the resources used to cover the Tea Party and the former governor who will never again hold elected office.”

- Eschaton’s Duncan Black, commenting on the traditional media’s obsession with covering Sarah Palin

"I joined the war when I was still in school. I witnessed a lot of repression of the poor [and] this..."

Sun, 07 Feb 2010 10:04:31 -0800

“I joined the war when I was still in school. I witnessed a lot of repression of the poor [and] this provoked me to do something when I was still a young girl… The UN rehabilitation package is not going to make things better for me. They want to train us to weave baskets and make candles. They want to sponsor my schooling, but I am already educated. I don’t want to spend my life making baskets.”

- NEPAL: Shanta Karki, “I don’t need rehabilitation” from the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

Hey KOMO... it's "Democratic"

Sat, 06 Feb 2010 11:47:00 -0800

KOMO continues to allow its conservative/Republican bias to show, this time by garbling the name of the Democratic Party in a summary of a news story about I-960:

Initiative King Tim Eyman lashed out at Democrat lawmakers who are repealing the need for a two-thirds vote to raise taxes, which was approved by voters just two years ago.

What KOMO’s copy editor meant to type is Democratic lawmakers. Not “Democrat lawmakers”. Come on, guys. You make money putting this stuff on the air… can’t you get your spelling and grammar correct?

And by the way, Tim Eyman is not a “king” of anything. Democracies don’t have rulers, so your metaphor stinks. Eyman is not even figuratively a “king” of initiatives… most of the measures he has sponsored have been failures.

Also, Initiative 960 was approved in November 2007, which was more than two years ago. Since then voters have overwhelmingly rejected two Eyman initiatives.

"In other words, looking to get approval for this merger, you sat there in my office and told me to..."

Sat, 06 Feb 2010 11:07:26 -0800

“In other words, looking to get approval for this merger, you sat there in my office and told me to my face that these rules would protect consumers but your lawyers had just finished arguing in front of the Commission that it would be unconstitutional to apply these rules.”

- Sen. Al Franken (D-MN) to Comcast CEO Brian Roberts. From The Consumerist.

Reminder to the traditional media: Report on polls, don't worship them

Thu, 04 Feb 2010 21:18:23 -0800

Reminder to the traditional media: Report on polls, don't worship them:

Cartoonist Jorge Cham humorously reminds us that the traditional media too often gets obsessed with polling, in a cartoon he says sixty three percent of Internet readers are sure to like. (Nice touch, Jorge).

"When the lawyers were offered $30 an hour their question was “Am I the kind of person who..."

Thu, 04 Feb 2010 11:31:00 -0800

“When the lawyers were offered $30 an hour their question was “Am I the kind of person who works for $30 an hour?” The answer was clearly no. But when they were asked to do it as a favor? Their new question was “Am I the kind of person who helps people in need?” And then their answer was yes.”

- “A Story About Motivation” from Harvard Business Review.

More Hondurans Protest Inauguration than Attend

Wed, 03 Feb 2010 11:44:43 -0800

More Hondurans Protest Inauguration than Attend:

“over 200,000 Honduran teachers, small business owners, lawyers, youth, farmers, and many other employed and unemployed people march 5 kilometers across the city. They are protesting what they see as corruption and an illegitimate government… Since the coup… thirty-two activists have been reported assassinated”

"While “defense” spending does boost GDP, and preserve (politically important) jobs, it’s still a..."

Mon, 01 Feb 2010 11:04:25 -0800

“While “defense” spending does boost GDP, and preserve (politically important) jobs, it’s still a huge drag on the real economy… shifting those jobs to more productive areas, like energy and manufacturing, would have immensely positive effects on the economy.”

- “Durable Goods: More Guns Than Butter” from Bearish News.

"A month after changing the definition, with just 144 people dead from H1N1, the flu was given the..."

Sun, 31 Jan 2010 09:11:51 -0800

“A month after changing the definition, with just 144 people dead from H1N1, the flu was given the WHO’s highest threat classification: a “stage-six pandemic alert”. By comparison, the mildest 20th Century pandemic killed a million people… One high-level, long-term WHO employee who preferred to remain anonymous for job security, described the WHO as follows: “WHO is infested by corruption. There is big corruption, like the management of H1N1, and there is small corruption; and between the big and the small corruption there is [corruption] in all imaginable forms. Unfortunately, it’s not only the WHO.””

- “Swine Flu Didn’t Fly” from The Huffington Post.

"The New York Fed is in the hot seat for its decision in November 2008 to buy out, for about $30..."

Sat, 30 Jan 2010 10:04:45 -0800

“The New York Fed is in the hot seat for its decision in November 2008 to buy out, for about $30 billion, insurance contracts AIG sold on toxic debt securities to banks… That decision, critics say, amounted to a back-door bailout for the banks… the New York Fed is a quasi-governmental institution that isn’t subject to citizen intrusions such as freedom of information requests, unlike the Federal Reserve… It’s as though the New York Fed was a black-ops outfit for the nation’s central bank.”

- “Secret Banking Cabal Emerges From AIG Shadows” from Bloomberg.

"We have been focusing on supply-side economics for years now. You give more and more money to top..."

Fri, 29 Jan 2010 22:01:32 -0800

“We have been focusing on supply-side economics for years now. You give more and more money to top wage earners and corporations, they then, according to Republicans, take that money and invest it in the economy and create new industry, employ more people and everybody is better off. In fact, in the past 20 years, what we have seen is that these people don’t invest the money in new production, they speculate with it. They speculated on high tech, they speculated on energy futures, and they speculate on mortgage-backed securities. That is why we are in the problems that we are in.”

- Democratic State Senator Craig Pridemore, who is running for Congress in the 3rd District, on how the American economy got to this point.

California Senate Passes Medicare for All Legislation

Fri, 29 Jan 2010 11:29:47 -0800

California Senate Passes Medicare for All Legislation:

“The bill would establish a single-payer system in California, modeled on the healthcare systems flourishing in virtually all other industrialized nations, where better patient outcomes are achieved at a fraction of the cost of the U.S. system.”

"After this video was finished, Cesar and Edwin began traveling around to the barrios in Tegucigalpa,..."

Thu, 28 Jan 2010 08:26:35 -0800

“After this video was finished, Cesar and Edwin began traveling around to the barrios in Tegucigalpa, showing the video… Edwin was assassinated on December 22, 2009… Cesar was chased down and dragged out of a taxi. He was taken into custody and tortured for about 30 hours.”

- “Repression in Honduras” from The Quixote Center.

"If the Republican leadership is going to insist that sixty votes in the Senate are required to do..."

Wed, 27 Jan 2010 19:15:02 -0800

“If the Republican leadership is going to insist that sixty votes in the Senate are required to do any business at all in this town, then the responsibility to govern is now yours as well. Just saying no to everything may be good short-term politics, but it’s not leadership. We were sent here to serve our citizens, not our ambitions.”

- President Barack Obama’s warning to the Party of No (or is it the Graveyard of Progress?) during the 2010 State of the Union Address.

"Democrats, I would remind you that we still have the largest majority in decades, and the people..."

Wed, 27 Jan 2010 19:05:46 -0800

“Democrats, I would remind you that we still have the largest majority in decades, and the people expect us to solve some problems, not run for the hills.”

- President Barack Obama, urging members of his party not to get panicky and forget about the work of remaking America.

Banks monitoring social networks to make loan determinations

Wed, 27 Jan 2010 19:03:58 -0800

Banks monitoring social networks to make loan determinations:

Need to apply for some credit or a loan? Be aware that your bank may be watching your social networks to determine whether or not you get it.

"But what frustrates the American people is a Washington where every day is Election Day. We cannot..."

Wed, 27 Jan 2010 18:54:00 -0800

“But what frustrates the American people is a Washington where every day is Election Day. We cannot wage a perpetual campaign where the only goal is to see who can get the most embarrassing headlines about their opponent – a belief that if you lose, I win. Neither party should delay or obstruct every single bill just because they can. The confirmation of well-qualified public servants should not be held hostage to the pet projects or grudges of a few individual Senators.”

- President Barack Obama, calling for unity and cohesiveness during the 2010 State of the Union address to Congress and the American people.