Tag Archives: Plastic

Good news, a back-range express, but is it too late to stop 24 West “vision”?

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cdot 24 west
although there’s a rumor that the sudden lack of money in the Treasury is going to derail 24 West anyway…

But the biggest boohoo about 24 is that the people from the back range somehow would benefit more from spending a quarter of a billion dollars on widening the road, no farther than the corner of 24 and 24, right by the Sinclair station, with the big plastic Dinosaur that’s right at a Bus Stop than by putting in LESS money to expand bus service, notably, a bus to Green Mountain Falls, Cascade, Woodland Park, Divide…

Something the Park and Teller county folk have been asking for but the Republican leadership back in the back range have said is impractical, couldn’t possibly work, nobody would willingly give up paying 50 bux for a round trip to the springs just because of somebody having a better deal.

See the disconnect between Real People and Republican Representation?

Same way a few very rich developers were demanding that we finance their Road to Nowhere to the tune of: utter destruction of WestSide homes, partitioning our neighborhood with an even more insurmountable wall than the existing road, so the Rich Ones could drive their Single Occupant Vehicles into downtown, pay to park (and clog downtown roads with the on street parking) and thus impress their friends with how Important and Rich they are.

I dunno, I see a HumVee and the first impression I get is the dumbass got ripped off.

If you have to pop out a hundred grand for a gas-guzzling Stupid Useless Vehicle just to make a statement of Status…. Face it man, you didn’t have status anyway, and you just ain’t fooling anybody.

I could have sold you a tee-shirt with LOSER written on it for 5 bucks and you could take the other $99,995 and buy something actually useful with it.

a real life leaps to mind.

Simple equation: less cars = less traffic = less congestion, with the attendant headaches of road rage, pollution, time-of-commute, and of course, it will even lower the gas prices if consumption goes down.

Not saying give up your private car, hell no. Just don’t expect us to bend over backwards or forwards to accommodate your ride is all.

You want to drive like that, pay the full price. Get your hands out of our pockets, get your smog out of our lungs and our drinking water, no problem.

Nobody owes them more road.

Day before DNC demo training for all

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DPD watching R68
DENVER- Recreate-68 held its day of training for participants in the upcoming DNC demonstrations. Know Your Rights, Health and Safety, Self-defense, Drumming and How to Be a Legal Observer were the more popular sessions. The Denver police held exercises in regular siren drivebys and keeping four intimidating fronts.

DPD occupy center of Civic Park
From the West.

Bicycle police arrive from East
East.

More cyclists from North
From North

Keeping watch over Civic Center Park
Shade on the South.

Two Corrections Dept buses
Were these buses to serve as paddy wagons, or shuttles for the extra police?

DPD in riot helmets
There were no shortage of SUVs and large white vans. These DPD officers in riot helmets practiced riding on the side rail.

DPD sidewalk encounter
Denver officers kept arriving from neighborhood side streets, each armed with plenty of plastic tie restraints.

Finding respite in Beijing’s hutongs

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Beijing hutongs
BEIJING- Since I arrived in China I’ve made it my mission to avoid Westerners. Hitting the Beijing historical sites a week before the Games, then traveling by overnight train to Xi’an (three Chinese and me in a tiny cubicle with four bunks — now that was fun), I’ve found myself immersed in a sea of Asian faces. An odd feeling, but not as odd as being surrounded by only Chinese voices.

The Chinese are a garrulous people, speaking in monosyllabic singsong nasal tones, downright noisy by my standards. Interestingly, though, the sounds don’t bother me at all. The voices seem to blend with the screeching of the cicadas or the chirping of the birds. I hear them, but since I don’t understand the language, or even the intonation, the noise becomes like background music to me. Less intrusive than listening to my iPod because I don’t feel compelled to fast forward, contemplate lyrics, or sing along. I think it’s like being deaf, only with sound.

Avoiding Westerners has become more difficult now that the Games are underway. Yesterday, I found a safe haven in the hutongs of old Beijing. For several hundred years, the majority of Beijing residents lived in siheyuan, which are housing compounds with rooms arranged around a central courtyard. The hutongs, or narrow alleyways, run between rows of siheyuan. Hutong has come to refer to neighborhoods set up this way.

Life in the hutongs is a slow and simple affair. Elderly women sit side-by-side on stools barely six inches off the ground. The old men squat around wooden game boards, occasionally laughing at one thing or another. Middle-aged women sew or cook in tiny rooms with open doors, always facing the street so as not to miss any of the goings-on. Little children do as little children do everywhere. I didn’t see many young men and women in the hutongs. I imagine they were somewhere in the city, straddling the divide between the old and new China.

Wherever I walked, the people stared at me with undisguised curiosity. They didn’t appear friendly, nor unfriendly. They simply watched. I would return their gaze for a moment, bow my head slightly and smile. “Nin hao,” I’d say, hoping that my attempt to singsong the syllables didn’t pain them too much. Without fail, they smiled and returned the greeting enthusiastically. Often they offered me whatever they had in their hands—a piece of fruit, a paper fan, a plastic-beaded bracelet. I would point to my camera, asking permission to take a picture. They would laugh and blush and hide behind each other in protest. I wasn’t sure how to interpret their apparent reticence, but I thought it was best to accept it at face value and photograph the laundry or the bicycles instead.

With the modernization of Beijing, many residents have moved from the hutong to the high-rise. But I found that a few traditional hutongs, home to lovely people who can remember when, may still be found by a girl on a quest to avoid the West.

Beijing hutongs
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Republicans: they set the tone in politics and then bitch about the tone in politics.

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One of the things I was struck by, as I read the comments at the bottom of news stories about Michelle Obama’s appearance on The View, was how many Conservatives bitched and moaned about how the show wouldn’t give equal time to Cindy McCain. Maybe if they gave more thought to whether what they were saying was true, instead of just — in typical Conservative fashion — flinging their poo at whomever they could like a zoo monkey, they might have found that out that Cindy McCain co-hosted the show in April. And of course, these are the same morons who screech that restoring the FCC Fairness Doctrine would destroy freedom of speech.

Cindy McCain: the ultimate hypocrite. To declare that candidates’ wives should be “off limits,” and then — on the very same day — attack Michelle Obama as “unpatriotic,” makes me wonder if her plastic surgeon has been injecting her botox just a little too deeply.

Hypocrite family values. John W. McCain is bashing Obama for turning down public campaign funding (along with its limits) — never mind that McCain has already done exactly the same thing. Only the terminally stupid or certifiably insane could buy their crap.

Why is it the only way John McCain ever gets asked a real question is when a heckler shows up?

Will the Israeli Mossad assassinate Obama?

Hundreds of military helicopters terrorize Denver. My guess is Cheney is planning a false-flag terrorist attack for the Democratic National Convention in August.

Treason Party. Useless House Democrats vote to legalize Bush’s unconstitutional spying on Americans, and give telecoms immunity for their complicity in his crimes. Anyone who doesn’t see that the Democrats have become just another mask for the NeoFascists is a fool. Our constitutional democracy is dead, and the Democrats are as much to blame for it as the Republicans. If Bush doesn’t suspend the Consitution and declare himself dictator for life soon, the Democrats will probably do it for him.

Excerpted from Thomas McCullock’s notes, June 21, thomasmc.com

If stupidity were an energy source, Republicans could save the world!

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Desperate Clintonistas. Psychopathic liar (as proven by not one, but TWO lie detector tests) Larry Sinclair arrested at press conference where he again claimed he was Barack Obama’s crack whore.

John McCain, creepiest presidential candidate, ever!

So, Ms. McCain thinks it’s ok to go after a presidential candidate’s wife? Ok, who’s going to be the first to ask her about her past – and possibly current – drug addictions? If the McCain camp is smart, they will lock her up until after the election. Her proving she’s a cold-hearted bitch isn’t going to win him any votes, especially when she is contrasted with a class-act like Michelle Obama. Cindy McCain thinks that just being filthy rich somehow makes her classy. It doesn’t, and her mouth proves it. Her only talent is scaring small children. Between her facial plastic surgeries, and pulling her hair back as tight as possible, she looks like she’s falling backwards into a black hole.

Transcendental Politication.

Dennis Kucinich says if Judiciary Committee ignores his 35 articles of impeachment for 30 days, he will reintroduce with 60.

If stupidity were an energy source, Republicans could save the world!

Excerpted from Thomas McCullock’s June 19 notes, thomasmc.com.

List of top privately held US companies

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The shift of businesses into private ownership represents the eroding stake which common Americans have in the Capitalist system. Stock holdings in most public corporations are predominantly in wealthy hands, but private corporations drop even the pretense of serving the middle class economy. Biggest ($90B) is Koch Industries which provides “beef, fuels, fertilizer and plastics.”

Forbes has a list of America’s largest privately held companies, 424 of which have yearly earnings over one billion dollars. We’ve grouped them by category for easier perusal, ranked by their earnings. Colorado is headquarters to twelve: TransMontaigne, First Data, Pro-Build Holdings, CH2N Hill Cos, Vistar, Sports Authority, Leprino Foods, Hensel Phelps Construction, TIC Holdings, MediaNews Group and NWH.

CONSUMER PRODUCTS:
Mars VA -Combos, Dove, M&Ms, Pedigree, Snickers, Uncle Ben’s Rice
Levi Strauss & Co CA Textile – Apparel Clothing
SC Johnson & Son WI Personal Products
Ashley Furniture Industries WI Home Furnishings & Fixtures
Rich Products NY Confectioners
MGA Entertainment CA Toys & Games
Mary Kay TX Cleaning Products
Alticor MI Personal Products
Conair CT Personal Products
JohnsonDiversey WI Cleaning Products
ViewSonic CA Computer Peripherals
New Balance Athletic Shoe MA Textile – Apparel Footwear
Dawn Food Products MI Confectioners to Starbucks, Krispy Kreme
Roll International CA -Teleflora, Fiji Water, POM, Suterra
Genmar Holdings MN Recreational Boats
Williamson-Dickie Manufacturing TX Textile – Apparel Clothing
McKee Foods TN Confectioners: Little Debbie, Sunbelt
Samsonite MA Personal Products
NewPage OH Paper & Paper Products
Bose MA Electronic Equipment
WL Gore & Associates DE Textile – Apparel Clothing
Milliken & Co SC Textile – Apparel Clothing
MTD Products OH Recreational Goods, Other

RETAILERS:
Toys “R” Us NJ Toy & Hobby Stores
Dollar General TN Discount, Variety Stores
Menard WI Home Improvement Stores
Neiman Marcus Group TX Department Stores
84 Lumber PA Home Improvement Stores
Hallmark Cards MO Entertainment – Diversified
Michaels Stores TX Specialty Retail, Other
Belk NC Department Stores
Burlington Coat Factory NJ Apparel Stores
Linens ‘n Things NJ Home Furnishing Stores
Sports Authority CO Sporting Goods Stores
Bass Pro Shops MO Sporting Goods Stores
Fry’s Electronics CA Specialty Retail, Other
Mervyns CA Department Stores
Follett IL Specialty Retail, Other
General Parts NC Auto Parts Stores
ShopKo Stores Operating WI Discount, Variety Stores
Petco Animal Supplies CA Specialty Retail, Other
Discount Tire AZ Auto Parts Stores
Guitar Center CA Music & Video Stores
Academy Sports & Outdoors TX Sporting Goods Stores
Rooms To Go FL Home Furnishing Stores
Hobby Lobby Stores OK Toy & Hobby Stores
Barnes & Noble College Booksellers NJ Specialty Retail, Other
Duane Reade NY Drug Stores
LL Bean ME Catalog & Mail Order Houses
Newegg.com CA Specialty Retail, Other
GNC PA Drug Stores
Goody’s Family Clothing TN Department Stores
Les Schwab Tire Centers OR Auto Parts Stores
Beall’s FL Department Stores
PC Richard & Son NY Specialty Retail, Other
Micro Electronics OH Specialty Retail, Other
Sutherland Lumber MO Home Improvement Stores
Boscov’s PA Department Stores
24 Hour Fitness Worldwide CA Consumer Services
Ritz Camera Centers MD Specialty Retail, Other
Schottenstein Stores OH Home Furnishing Stores
Cinemark USA TX General Entertainment
Marc Glassman OH Drug Stores
Bally Total Fitness IL Specialized Health Services
ClubCorp TX Consumer Services
Forever 21 CA Apparel Stores
BrandsMart USA FL Specialty Retail, Other
Steve and Barry’s NY Apparel Stores

HOSPITALITY:
Hilton Hotels CA Lodging
Love’s Travel Stops OK Lodging
Carlson Cos MN Lodging
Global Hyatt IL Lodging
Delaware North Cos NY Specialty Eateries
Ilitch Holdings MI Restaurants
Buffets MN Restaurants

GROCERS:
Meijer MI Grocery Stores
HE Butt Grocery TX Grocery Stores
Giant Eagle PA Grocery Stores
Cumberland Farms MA Grocery Stores
QuikTrip OK Grocery Stores
Hy-Vee IA Grocery Stores
Save Mart Supermarkets CA Grocery Stores
RaceTrac Petroleum GA Grocery Stores
Wawa PA Grocery Stores
Wegmans Food Markets NY Grocery Stores
Bi-Lo Holdings SC Grocery Stores
Stater Bros CA Grocery Stores
Sheetz PA Grocery Stores
Raley’s CA Grocery Stores
Golub NY Grocery Stores
WinCo Foods ID Grocery Stores
Schnuck Markets MO Grocery Stores
Demoulas Super Markets MA Grocery Stores
Brookshire Grocery TX Grocery Stores
Bashas’ AZ Grocery Stores
Houchens Industries KY Grocery Stores
Holiday Cos MN Grocery Stores
Marsh Supermarkets IN Grocery Stores
K-VA-T Food Stores VA Grocery Stores
Kum & Go IA Grocery Stores
Big Y Foods MA Grocery Stores
Gate Petroleum FL Grocery Stores
Foodarama Supermarkets NJ Grocery Stores
Thorntons KY Grocery Stores
Brookshire Brothers TX Grocery Stores
Minyard Food Stores TX Grocery Stores
Inserra Supermarkets NJ Grocery Stores
Stewart’s Shops NY Grocery Stores

FOOD SUPPLY:
C&S Wholesale Grocers NH Food Wholesale
US Foodservice MD Food – Major Diversified
Reyes Holdings IL Food Wholesale
Gordon Food Service MI Food Wholesale
MBM NC Food Wholesale
OSI Group IL Meat Products
Roundy’s Supermarkets WI Food Wholesale
HT Hackney TN Food Wholesale
Keystone Foods PA Meat Products
Perdue Farms MD Meat Products
Schwan Food MN Dairy Products
Eby-Brown IL Food Wholesale
Schreiber Foods WI Dairy Products
Vistar CO Food Wholesale: ROMA
Alex Lee NC Food Wholesale
Grocers Supply TX Food Wholesale
HP Hood MA Dairy Products
Services Group of America AZ Food Wholesale
Dot Foods IL Food Wholesale
Leprino Foods CO Dairy Products: mozzarella cheese
Rosen’s Diversified MN Meat Products
Ben E Keith TX Food Wholesale
Smart & Final CA Food Wholesale
Maines Paper & Food Service NY Food Wholesale
Foster Farms CA Meat Products
Koch Foods IL Meat Products
Red Chamber Group CA Food Wholesale
Shamrock Foods AZ Food Wholesale
ContiGroup Cos NY Meat Products
Pinnacle Foods NJ Food – Major Diversified
Great Lakes Cheese OH Dairy Products
GSC Enterprises TX Food Wholesale
Michael Foods MN Dairy Products
Bozzuto’s CT Food Wholesale
Goya Foods NJ Food – Major Diversified
Wells’ Dairy IA Dairy Products

FARMING:
Cargill MN Farm Products
Transammonia NY Agricultural Chemicals
Murdock Holding Company CA Farm Products
DeBruce Grain MO Farm Products
Scoular NE Farm Products
JR Simplot ID Farm Products
Golden State Foods CA Farm Products
Dunavant Enterprises TN Farm Products
Bartlett & Co MO Farm Products

DRINK:
Southern Wine & Spirits FL Beverages – Wineries & Distillers
Charmer Sunbelt Group NY Beverages – Wineries & Distillers
Republic National Distributing Company TX Wineries & Distillers
Glazer’s Wholesale Drug TX Beverages – Wineries & Distillers
E&J Gallo Winery CA Beverages – Wineries & Distillers
Young’s Market CA Beverages – Wineries & Distillers
Honickman Affiliates NJ Beverages – Soft Drinks
Wirtz IL Beverages – Wineries & Distillers
Topa Equities CA Beverages – Wineries & Distillers

HEALTH:
US Oncology TX Hospitals
Vanguard Health Systems TN Hospitals
Quintiles Transnational NC Medical Laboratories & Research
Golden Living AR Home Health Care
Medline Industries IL Medical Instruments & Supplies
Bausch & Lomb NY Medical Appliances & Equipment
Biomet IN Medical Instruments & Supplies
Iasis Healthcare TN Hospitals
Life Care Centers of America TN Long-Term Care Facilities
Select Medical PA Long-Term Care Facilities
Catalent Pharma Solutions NJ Medical Instruments & Supplies
Ardent Health Services TN Hospitals
FHC Health Systems VA Specialized Health Services
Concentra Operating TX Specialized Health Services
Gateway Health Plan PA Health Care Plans
SavaSeniorCare GA Long-Term Care Facilities
TeamHealth TN Medical Practitioners
Cook Group IN Medical Instruments & Supplies

MEDIA:
Cox Enterprises GA Entertainment – Diversified
Advance Publications NY Publishing – Newspapers
Bloomberg NY Information & Delivery Services
Hearst NY Publishing – Newspapers
International Data Group MA Publishing – Periodicals
Reader’s Digest Association NY Publishing – Periodicals
AMC Entertainment MO General Entertainment
Univision Communications NY Entertainment – Diversified
Quad/Graphics WI Publishing – Periodicals
Ebsco Industries AL Publishing – Periodicals
Landmark Communications VA Publishing – Newspapers
Taylor MN Publishing – Periodicals
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer CA General Entertainment
MediaNews Group CO Newspapers: Denver Post, Detroit News

INVESTMENT:
GMAC Financial Services MI Mortgage Investment
Fidelity Investments MA Asset Management
Capital Group Cos CA Asset Management
Edward Jones MO Investment Brokerage – National
LPL Financial Services CA Investment Brokerage – National

AUTOMOTIVE:
Chrysler MI Auto Manufacturers
Gulf States Toyota TX Auto Manufacturers – Major
JM Family Enterprises FL Auto Manufacturers
Tower Automotive MI Auto Parts
Cooper-Standard Automotive MI Auto Parts
Affinia Group MI Auto Parts
Guardian Industries MI Auto Parts
CC Industries IL Auto Parts
American Tire Distributors Holdings NC Auto Parts
Remy International IN Auto Parts
Plastech Engineered Products MI Auto Parts
Key Safety Systems MI Auto Parts
Interstate Battery Systems of America TX Auto Parts
KAR Holdings IN Auto Dealerships

BUSINESS:
PricewaterhouseCoopers NY Business Services
Ernst & Young NY Business Services
First Data CO Business Services
Allegis Group MD Information Technology Services
SunGard Data Systems PA Business Software & Services
Booz Allen Hamilton VA Technical Services
Grant Thornton International IL Business Services
Asplundh Tree Expert PA Business Services
SAS Institute NC Business Software & Services
Skadden, Arps NY Business Services
Reynolds and Reynolds OH Business Software & Services
Bain & Co MA Business Services
Jones Day OH Business Services
Freeman TX Business Services
Sidley Austin IL Business Services
White & Case NY Business Services
NCO Group PA Business Services
Alsco UT Business Services
Kirkland & Ellis IL Business Services
Affinion Group CT Business Services
RGIS Holdings MI Business Services
Mayer Brown IL Business Services
Lifetouch MN Business Services
Weil, Gotshal & Manges NY Business Services
Keane CA Business Services
Latham & Watkins CA Business Services
Guthy-Renker CA Business Services
Haworth MI Business Equipment
Vertis MD Marketing Services
Towers Perrin CT Management Services
Visant NY Marketing Services

CONSTRUCTION:
Bechtel CA Heavy Construction
Peter Kiewit Sons’ NE Heavy Construction
CH2M Hill Cos CO Heavy Construction
Whiting-Turner Contracting MD Heavy Construction
Gilbane RI Heavy Construction
Parsons CA Heavy Construction
JE Dunn Construction Group MO Heavy Construction
Black & Veatch KS Heavy Construction
Hensel Phelps Construction CO Heavy Construction
McCarthy Building Cos MO Heavy Construction
Yates Cos MS Heavy Construction
Hunt Construction Group AZ Heavy Construction
TIC Holdings CO Heavy Construction
Parsons Brinckerhoff NY Heavy Construction
Swinerton CA Heavy Construction
Zachry Construction TX Heavy Construction
AG Spanos Cos CA Heavy Construction
Turner Industries Group LA Heavy Construction
Barton Malow MI Heavy Construction
M A Mortenson MN Heavy Construction
Day & Zimmermann PA Heavy Construction
Warren Equipment TX Heavy Construction
Austin Industries TX Heavy Construction

BUILDING:
Pro-Build Holdings CO Building Materials Wholesale
Kohler WI General Building Materials
Clark Enterprises MD General Contractors
JF Shea CA Residential Construction
Structure Tone NY General Contractors
Jeld-Wen OR General Building Materials
Andersen MN General Building Materials
ABC Supply WI Building Materials Wholesale
Walsh Group IL General Contractors
Tishman Construction NY General Contractors
NTK Holdings RI General Building Materials
WinWholesale OH Building Materials Wholesale
Brasfield & Gorrie AL General Contractors
G-I Holdings NJ General Building Materials
Bradco Supply NJ Building Materials Wholesale
National Gypsum NC General Building Materials
Hoffman OR General Contractors
DPR Construction CA General Contractors
David Weekley Homes TX Residential Construction
Pella IA General Building Materials
BE&K AL General Contractors
William Lyon Homes CA Residential Construction
Weitz IA General Contractors
Mercedes Homes FL Residential Construction
Rooney Holdings FL General Contractors
Associated Materials OH General Building Materials
Beaulieu of America Group GA Home Furnishings & Fixtures
Suffolk Construction MA General Contractors
Kimball Hill IL Residential Construction
Drees Co KY Residential Construction
Shapell Industries CA Residential Construction
MWH CO General Contractors
Pacific Coast Building Products CA General Building Materials

WOOD:
Boise Cascade ID Lumber, Wood Production
Sierra Pacific Industries CA Lumber, Wood Production
North Pacific Group OR Lumber, Wood Production
Roseburg Forest Products OR Lumber, Wood Production
Columbia Forest Prods OR Lumber, Wood Production
Hampton Affiliates OR Lumber, Wood Production

EXTRACTION:
SemGroup OK Oil & Gas Refining & Marketing
Flying J UT Oil & Gas Refining & Marketing
TransMontaigne CO Oil & Gas Pipelines
Drummond AL Nonmetallic Mineral Mining
Sinclair Oil UT Oil & Gas Refining & Marketing
Colonial Group GA Oil & Gas Refining & Marketing
Oxbow FL Nonmetallic Mineral Mining
Ergon MS Oil & Gas Refining & Marketing
Red Apple Group NY Oil & Gas Refining & Marketing
Mansfield Oil GA Oil & Gas Refining & Marketing
Truman Arnold Cos TX Oil & Gas Refining & Marketing
Hunt Consolidated/Hunt Oil TX Oil & Gas Drilling & Exploration
Red Man Pipe & Supply OK Oil & Gas Equipment & Services
Dresser TX Oil & Gas Equipment & Services
Warren Equities RI Oil & Gas Refining & Marketing
Merit Energy TX Oil & Gas Refining & Marketing
Arctic Slope Regional AK Oil & Gas Refining & Marketing
US Oil WI Oil & Gas Refining & Marketing
Camac International TX Oil & Gas Drilling & Exploration

UTILITIES:
Energy Future Holdings TX Electric Utilities
Tenaska Energy NE Diversified Utilities

CONGLOMERATES:
Platinum Equity CA -USRobotics
Sammons Enterprises TX -Midland National Life Insurance, Briggs
Ingram Industries TN
Berwind PA -Elmers Glue
Petters Group Worldwide MN
Washington Cos MT -mining, rail, marine, equip

ELECTRONIC:
CDW IL Computer Based Systems
Freescale Semiconductor TX Semiconductor – Specialized
Avaya NJ Communication Equipment
Graybar Electric MO Electronics Wholesale
Kingston Technology CA Semiconductor- Memory Chips
Brightstar FL Communication Equipment
World Wide Technology MO Computers Wholesale
Infor GA Computer Based Systems

INDUSTRIAL:
Marmon Group IL Industrial Equipment & Components
Southwire GA Industrial Equipment & Components
Aleris International OH Metal Fabrication
Amsted Industries IL Diversified Machinery
O’Neal Steel AL Steel & Iron
Heico Cos IL Industrial Equipment & Components
Renco Group NY Steel & Iron
Metals USA TX Metal Fabrication
McWane AL Industrial Equipment & Components
McJunkin WV Industrial Equipment & Components
Electro-Motive Diesel IL Industrial Equipment & Components
Crown Equipment OH Industrial Equipment & Components
Rexnord WI Industrial Equipment & Components
Tang Industries NV Metal Fabrication
Soave Enterprises MI Steel & Iron
Indalex IL Aluminum
Euramax International GA Metal Fabrication
Advanced Drainage Systems OH Industrial Equipment & Components
Goss International IL Industrial Equipment & Components
Swagelok OH Industrial Equipment & Components
Utility Trailer Manufacturing CA Industrial Equipment & Components

CHEMICAL:
Koch Industries KS Chemicals – Major Diversified
Hexion Specialty Chemicals OH Specialty Chemicals
InterTech Group SC Synthetics
Berry Plastics IN Rubber & Plastics
JM Huber NJ Specialty Chemicals
Carpenter VA Synthetics
Wilbur-Ellis CA Agricultural Chemicals
International Specialty Products NJ Specialty Chemicals
Sigma Plastics Group NJ Synthetics
ICC Industries NY Specialty Chemicals
Nypro MA Rubber & Plastics

PAPER:
Central National-Gottesman NY Paper & Paper Products
Verso Paper TN Paper & Paper Products
The Kraft Group MA Paper & Paper Products
Gould Paper NY Paper & Paper Products
Appleton Papers WI Paper & Paper Products

TRANSPORTATION:
Unisource Worldwide GA Packaging & Containers
Schneider National WI Trucking
Swift Transportation AZ Trucks & Other Vehicles
Graham Packaging Holdings PA Packaging & Containers
Solo Cup IL Packaging & Containers
UniGroup MO Trucking
Altivity Packaging IL Packaging & Containers
SSA Marine WA Shipping
Dart Container MI Packaging & Containers
Plastipak Holdings MI Packaging & Containers
Crowley Maritime FL Shipping
Estes Express Lines VA Trucking
Global Aero Logistics IN Air Services, Other
Printpack GA Packaging & Containers
Pliant IL Packaging & Containers
Crete Carrier NE Trucking

WHOLESALE:
Kinray NY Drugs Wholesale
Consolidated Elec Distributors CA Wholesale, Other
VWR International PA Wholesale, Other
Anderson Cos AL Wholesale, Other
Quality King Distributors NY Drugs Wholesale
Software House Intl NJ Electronics Wholesale
Baker & Taylor NC Wholesale, Other
JM Smith SC Drugs Wholesale
D&H Distributing PA Computers Wholesale
Ma Labs CA Electronics Wholesale
Apex Oil MO Wholesale, Other
ASI CA Computers Wholesale
Orgill TN Wholesale, Other

MISC. SERVICES:
Enterprise Rent-A-Car MO Rental & Leasing Services
Frank Consolidated Enterprises IL Rental & Leasing Services
McKinsey & Co NY Research Services
Travelport NJ Consumer Services
HealthMarkets TX Insurance Brokers
West Corp NE Diversified Communication Services
Boston Consulting Group MA Research Services
Knowledge Learning OR Education & Training Services
Maritz MO Research Services
Education Management PA Education & Training Services
Laureate Education MD Education & Training Services

MISC:
JD Heiskell & Co CA NA
Vought Aircraft Industries TX Aerospace/Defense – Major Diversified
Ash Grove Cement KS NA
Deseret Management UT NA
Safety-Kleen Systems TX Waste Management

We have fed you all for a thousand years

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One two three four, I declare a class war
 
Here’s an old labor anthem, addressed to the idle rich who claim the fruit of other men’s labor. To whom belongs the wealth generated by work?

We have fed you all for a thousand years

We have fed you all for a thousand years
And you hail us still unfed,
Though there’s never a dollar of all your wealth
But marks the workers’ dead.
We have yielded our best to give you rest
And you lie on crimson wool.
Then if blood be the price of all your wealth,
Good God! We have paid it in full!

There is never a mine blown skyward now
But we’re buried alive for you.
There’s never a wreck drifts shoreward now
But we are its ghastly crew.
Go reckon our dead by the forges red
And the factories where we spin.
If blood be the price of your cursed wealth,
Good God! We have paid it in!

We have fed you all a thousand years-
For that was our doom, you know,
From the days when you chained us in your fields
To the strike a week ago.
You have taken our lives, and our babies and wives,
And we’re told it’s your legal share,
But if blood be the price of your lawful wealth,
Good God! We bought it fair!

And for good measure, from Finian’s Rainbow:
When the Idle Poor Become the Idle Rich

When the idle poor become the idle rich.
You’ll never know just who is who, or who is which.
Won’t it be rich?
When everyone’s poor relative becomes a ‘Rockefellative’,
And palms no longer itch. What a switch!

When we all wear ermine and plastic teeth
How will we determine who’s who underneath?
And when all your neighbors are upper class,
You won’t know your ‘Joneses’ from your ‘Ass-tors’

Let’s toast the day
The day we drink that drinky up, but with a little pinkie up.
The day on which the idle poor become the idle rich

When a rich man doesn’t want to work
He’s a bon vivant. Yes, he’s a bon vivant.
But when a poor man doesn’t want to work,
He’s a loafer, he’s a lounger,
He’s a lazy good for nothing, he’s a jerk!

When a rich man loses on a horse
Isn’t he a sport, oh isn’t he a sport?
When a poor man looses on a horse
He’s a gambler, he’s a spender,
He’s a low life, he’s a reason for divorce!

When a rich man chases after dames
He’s a man about town, a man about town.
But when a poor man chases after dames
He’s a bounder, he’s a rounder,
He’s a rotter, and a lot of dirty names!

When the idle poor become the idle rich
You’ll never know just who is who or who is which.
No one will see the Irish or the Slav in you
‘Cause when you’re on Park Avenue,
Cornelius and Mike, look alike

When poor Tweedle Dum is rich Tweedle Dee
This discrimination will no longer be.
When we’re in the dough and off of the nut
You won’t know your banker from your but…ler.

Let’s make the switch.
With just a few annuities, we’ll hide these incongruities
With clothes from Abercrombie-Fitch
When the idle poor become the idle rich!

Pictures in remembrance of Elizabeth

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Elizabeth FineronA memorial will be held for Wilma Joanne “Elizabeth” Fineron at Benet Hill Chapel, 2pm Monday April 28.
 
Steve Handon will officiate the ceremony. The music will be performed by First Strike Theater alumni. Benet Hill Monastery is at 2577 Chelton Rd. The chapel is located behind the school.
 
The Gazette wrote that Elizabeth walked her talk, the Indy featured a similar tribute. CSAction reprinted an email Elizabeth sent about her hospital ordeal.
 
Below we’ve collected some pictures of Elizabeth.

Early portrait

Already a knowing smile

On the steps with brother and cousin

Long blond hair

Becoming a nun

With friends in Woodland Park

Irish

In the afternoon sun

Birthday

Gathering with friends

Big smile

For a tribute and more pictures, click here.
For an amusing photo sequence, click here.

Elizabeth sent this email about her difficulties at the hospital:

I have had a very rough medical month and a half. I went into Memorial with Pneumonia the second week of March. While there they planned for me to return to have the right Corroded Artery done and in the meantime they sent me to Health South Rehab to work on balance. I stayed there a few days and returned home to wait two days to go back to Memorial for the surgery. I had the surgery and went home. At home I watched the hematoma on my neck get bigger and bigger and me get “dimmer and dimmer”. On Monday I saw Dr. Carlson and the next day (April 1st) I returned to Memorial for him to go in and heal the INFECTION. While in my neck he accidentally cut into the artery. In order to stop the bleeding he had to cut the main nerve to my tongue. A plastic surgeon (Dr. James) came and sewed up the tongue. Then Dr. Carlson put a patch on the Artery. Two days later he went back in to remove the patch and put a vein from the leg. While in something happened to my vocal cord. They kept me in Memorial a few more days and sent me back to Health Care South. I just got home yesterday and will have home medical care for a while. I feel very withdrawn from every thing so Paulette, if you want to call me or come visit me that would be terrific and I can get caught up. Love you both.

Elizabeth.

Money for COS buses is going to HWY 24

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COLORADO SPRINGS- Instead of spending a quarter Billion (minimum bid) to widen two miles of HWY 24, they should/could but probably ain’t would spend half that and double the number of bus routes.

Y’all do realize that the widening of the road is for the people who are building their multi-million dollar houses on the side of the mountain, (the ones that are going to slide into Bear Creek, mountain ground isn’t all that stable, especially when you modify it) and for the dumbasses who are going to get sucked in to Our Very Own Local Love Canal aka the “luxury apartments” they’re fixing to install on top of that toxic waste dum(b)p… no question mark because it isn’t a question.

Folks in Teller and Park counties (the loudmouths who think they run the counties) are yelling that opposition to the widening the road is hurting them… or at least, the developers.

They don’t have enough water in those counties to support the current populations.

But like the song sayeth,

“why they tried to tear the mountain down, to bring in a couple more..
More people, more scars upon the land”

Oh, and lest some of the people who haven’t read what all else was written about that particularly huge monstrous sore spot are browsing, that “road improvement” won’t actually benefit the Teller and Park county folks, it ends up at the corner of HWY 24 and 24W-Business… where the Sinclair station is… right by the big plastic dinosaur… which in turn is right behind the BUS stop.

Bachelor Nutrition, part 1. Breakfast

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Want the quickest, healthiest breakfast? Try this: half a container of cottage cheese, half the blueberries, and a sprinkle of slivered almonds. These should be, respectively, without rBGH, organic, and raw* when possible. The second day this meal will be even more convenient, since the berries are already rinsed and you can combine everything in the dairy container without needing to dirty a bowl. Use a plastic spoon and you can take breakfast for the drive.
Slivered almonds, cottage cheese and blueberries

*The Bachelor Nutrition series is meant to provide simple authoritative culinary guidance without exhaustive explanation. Suffice to say, your food should avoid additives, pesticides, and processing, and should be fresh, not frozen. Which means not just organic, but local. Check eatwild.com for a clean source for meat and dairy. Check localharvest.com for local organic produce.

Eco regressive marketing

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Here’s an idea whose time should not have come: PLASTIC CANS. Supermarket repackaging
Canned fruit purveyors figured out that unlike baked beans or peas, the visual appeal of their produce could be a selling point. As a result, clear plastic bottles lend the appearance of an upscale alternative and command over three times the price -and social cost. What was a recyclable can, is now more plastic landfill. What was a safe container, will now leech plastic into your fruit.

Not like Clockwork Orange at all

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Most of us of the somewhat older generation remember well the film, Clockwork Orange, based on a book by an alcoholic, ex-military Brit turned author, Anthony Burgess. The film was for my generation the quintessential horror movie about the dangers to all ordinary people coming from eccentric gang members belonging to the lower classes. It taught a whole generation that different (and especially different and poor) was somehow dangerous and violent, simply by painting a graphic picture that that was the case.

The modern day reality is quite different though. In the real world, it is most often that sameness is much more dangerous than those that are somehow different. It is what has often been called the banality of evil, where the most dangerous evil flows from the top down and comes from ordinariness rather than difference. It is most often that those more different get oppressed by the plastic ordinary types, not the reverse.

In the following news story, Goth clothes ‘prompted killing’, we see a picture of the real world quite different than the world of Clockwork Orange painted by Anthony Burgess. Here, as is almost always the case, it is The Different that is pummeled by those that see themselves as representing The Ordinary, which is an inverse order to the sequence of events place before us by Burgess in Clockwork Orange.

Burgess ultimately has us try to reach the conclusion in Clockwork Orange that the government that tries to compel a good society actually dehumanizes us and turns us into robots. His belief was that we should all just be left alone to be evil or good individually as we will. So if your neighbor, for no good reason at all, wants to come and thump you one, do not call the police to try to get him to desist. I guess that that would be too much oppressive government according to Burgess, The Libertarian. Your neighbor, according to him, must be free to be evil, toherwise government would be too oppressive to want. I think that a rather dubious conclusion.

The actual problem we face is not that government is too harsh on crime, but that it is not harsh at all, but allows the big to be criminal at will. Contrary to Libertarian philosophy we actually need government to punish business people more for their criminality, but to stop picking on the petty vices of the poor so much as they currently do.

Raise awareness to the CAUSE of cancer

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Look at all that pink respect for breast cancer! Breast cancer awareness, I mean to say. As Marie has pointed out, women’s basketball over the weekend was draped in custom pink uniforms for the cause of cancer. “Cause” is an unfortunate pun, actually. No one’s interested in raising awareness of the cause of cancer.

I saw some coaches awarding Coach Yow a symbolic check for $10,000, to go “100% to breast cancer research” the announcers were happy to point out: “Not 93%, or even 99%, but 100% to research!” That’s good. If it had gone toward raising awareness [through ad campaigns], that money would be going 100% back to the television network.

About medical research, I have to wonder, if it weren’t for private fund-raising efforts, would there be insufficient research for a cure for cancer? Without Jerry’s Kids, or Walk for a Cure, etc, would it not be in the public’s interest to cure diseases like cancer? Are the 50,000 women diagnosed with cancer each year going unnoticed? Is the Health Department not picking up on the trend?

Whether our medical/industrial system wants to cure cancer is a matter of reasonable doubt. From a management perspective, can our society afford to stop this natural-seeming population trimmer? Breast Cancer preys generally upon women of post-reproductive age. Is our economy terribly concerned about the longevity of a less productive population segment?

Breast Cancer awareness would appear to be more about remembrance, about honoring those women who’ve lost the lottery of industrial toxin exposure. What about awareness of what’s causing cancer? We’ve researched causal-links plenty. Perhaps we should be raising money to go toward awareness of the cancer culprits. Let’s see if the media talking heads will speak so glibly about that!

Aren’t we learning that cancer behaves like rust? Cancer is oxidation, it’s, well, a cancer, in the figurative sense. Cancer is decay. It can be thwarted by proper avoidance of carcinogens, such as cigarette smoke, pollutants, or toxins. We know the sources of carcinogens: industry, chemicals, manufacture of plastics, poisons, toxic foods, etc.

How does wearing pink make any of that more visible? We’ll cure cancer when we arrest the causes. When we, literally, arrest the purveyors.

Lighting the fire within

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Mother Nature Orange Nipple
Most Americans exist completely apart from the natural order. We live in artificial dwellings, are transported by artificial means and “nourished” by artificial foods. We wear high heels, mask all body odors, prepare meals in toxic cookware, wrap our bodies in synthetic materials. We pop pills to feel better and lose ourselves in electronic black holes to assuage boredom. Many of us live lives of isolation, like lone wolves, instead of in community with our fellow human beings.

Some of the more visionary among us provide suggestions for improvement. No more plastic bags! Wear hemp clothing! Eat organic! Bike to work! Use crystals to deodorize! Give free hugs! Such solutions are mere band-aids on a gaping wound. They are unable to stem the flow of blood, but they somehow make us feel better.

My children are learning about the benefits of recycling. Period. The conversation should be expanded. Instead of taking our cans to the curb, why not vow never again to drink anything that comes in a can? Or, even better, any beverage besides water. Let’s teach our kids that canned and bottled beverages are inherently unhealthy for the body, as well as detrimental to the environment. With a more holistic approach, the need to recycle would become less urgent, and the children would be better educated and healthier.

A holistic solution to energy conservation and national obesity can be found in the home thermostat. Many of us have turned down the heat to conserve energy. Good for the planet, no question. From a more holistic perspective, is it natural for man to live in a tightly climate-controlled environment? It isn’t. But our bodies have adapted to this artificial reality over time and we feel impelled to preserve it. So while we may turn down the thermostat, we bundle ourselves up to maintain the status quo.

I like to keep my house cool, about 60 degrees. I wear t-shirts and drink ice water and my little kids, with barely an ounce of body fat amongst them, play in their underwear, completely impervious to the cold. Remember that human beings are not dependent on the environment to determine body temperature. It is set biologically and will be maintained naturally in nearly all situations. If the outside temperature is hot, we sweat and our metabolism slows down so our bodies don’t overheat. This makes us feel sluggish; hence, the lazy summer day and dog days of summer weather characterizations. If the outer temperature is cooler, the body maintains heat by increasing the rate of metabolism and converting fat to energy. We build a fire within. Not only do we get warmer, we get thinner and more energetic to boot! Over time our metabolic rates are reset at a higher level, and we no longer feel the cold. We are warmed by our own energy source, not by a polyester sweatshirt.

Think about what it means to live naturally, like cave men. Get familiar with the workings of the body. Ponder what the planet was before man imposed his artificial intelligence upon it. Then attempt to conform to that which is natural wherever you can. What is good for the body will be good for the mind and the spirit, and is bound to be good for the environment.

Don’t eat French Fries

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OK, OK! The dittoheads are back to eating French Fries, and we get stuck with the damn Freedom Fries. They taste so damn plastic, too.

Did this ‘socialist ‘French foreign minister, Kouchner, get tutored by the US Democratic Party? He is to socialism as Gorbachev is to communism… a negation. And in the US many Right Wingers are way more ‘Left’ than the Democratic Party ‘progressives’, too. We live in a topsy turvy world, it seems.

Now, we should all begin to pity poor France. Because so many dummies over there hated immigrants more than they ever loved France, now their France will be torn apart like Bush has torn apart America and Americanism.

The least we can do for them to show solidarity is to stop eating French Fries. Let’s try Belgian Fries instead. The Paris Commune is now turned into a Starbucks.

Pop goes the US housing bubble- pop goes Colorado’s, too

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First all, there is not just a US housing bubble that is ‘deflating’, there is also a world real estate bubble. It is well burst by now in Japan, and the bust of Japan’s over inflated housing market was one of the prime causes of the crash of that economy more than a decade ago. Japan still has not yet recovered.

Before the market burst in Japan, Americans were scared that they were being economically bypassed by Japan. Then as the US bubble fully inflated there has been American euphoria that our economy appeared so strong. Today there is mainly fear about the US economic future. Things look grim.

Though Colorado is not yet considered one of the US real estate’s metro ‘dead zones’ like Boston, Miami, San Diego, etc., we can see how the bubble has sprouted across the Colorado landscape. Everywhere, there is new ugly housing that has just recently been built on the outskirts of the major Colorado metropolitan areas. Easy come, easy go.

I think of these areas as instant slums. There are few trees, no community, and long commutes amongst and across this plasticized landscape. Meanwhile, there are FOR RENT signs in the older neighborhoods, as people foolishly went rushing off to buy that new, but inferior, housing in the slurbs..

They often bought it with money they just are not going to have, but thought that their ‘investment’ had to just go up, up, up! It doesn’t, and if people begin to lose their jobs they will soon go bankrupt and be unable to pay the mortgage. So much for ‘investment’…

Imagine a near future where many of these shoddy housing areas will be full of vacated properties. Houses that were poorly built in the first place, will begin to fall into quick disrepair. Pop goes the US housing bubble and pop shall go Colorado’s development bubble, too. This is a poor way to plan (if it can be called planning?) communities. Speculation (haste) makes waste, and the landscape will look even more bare than it does now while the development is still fairly new.

Even worse, the housing bubble was built on cheap gasoline and ample supply. That just is not going to be the case, and the US government effort to rob and control the remaining world supplies of underground petrol by military force, are just adding to the economic chaos we will have to soon endure.

The Bush family cash cow

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Curriculum on castorsDespite having no experience in education, Neil Bush is the founder of a Texas-based company called Ignite! Learning, which, since 1999 has peddled strange little devices called “Curriculums on Wheels” (COWs) to schools state and nationwide.
 
Rather than anything bovine, COWs actually resemble bright plastic droids or office chairs gone terribly wrong. Described as “computer/projectors,” it’s not really clear what they do or how they work, and a cursory look at the company’s website does not help. (Apparently it involves swivel action.) Regardless, there are COWs for different subjects: the Math COW, the Science COW (“the ultimate classroom sidekick!”) and the Social Studies COW. No sign of a sex-ed COW. See the complete alternet article

In District 11 Colorado Springs, this sort of robotic device goes by the name ‘the success maker‘. It too, is a cash cow that is a bright ‘droid’ that doesn’t profit the kids at all, but kills them slowly with non-teaching designed to kill the brain. This crap from these corporate vampires is sick, sick, sick…. In fact, it is a form of child abuse pretending to be education reform.

Check out Neil Bush’s website and the lovely Musak he uses to push this nonsense.

Plastic Bags are just garbage

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Speaking of plastic whores, Alternet carried a great article The Great Plastic Bag Plague about the proliferation of plastic bags and possible solutions to it. They also linked to reusablebags.com.

Now, which is the greatest garbage here in Colorado Springs? Is it The Gazette or is it the blue plastic bag it always comes in? And is it any great ecological feat to pick up dog poop in this blue plastic bag, and then toss it at the ‘Freedom Publications’ editors? And is it better to get paper bags or plastic at the factory chain grocery stores when you go through the counter with your plastic food?

Personally, I think that we should do as Ireland seems to be doing. Let’s charge 10-25 cents for each plastic bag and use that fund for saving the ecology of our planet. Such simple remedies for many ecological problems lie all around us and are not being implemented simply because the population passively allows the corporate community to rule over the common folk.

Our US population likes to think of themselves as mainly being rebels, but in reality, a more inert, immobile and passive population could hardly be imagined. How easy it would be to drastically reduce the amount of garbage we throw away in this country! Plastic bags are just garbage and we should pass laws to control how much of this stuff gets poorly used and then discarded.

Dallas whores to visit US troops in Iraq

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Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders do Apocalypse Now
As the morale begins to plummet, there is always one thing that will cheer up The Troops. Just send in the whores!

For over 3 decades as the USO article below states, Dallas’s finest plastic whores have been doing their patriotic duty as military circus clowns. This year will be no different.

How it must cheer up The Troops to have this bit of plastic Barbie Doll whoredom dance their way into the soldier’s none-too-pleasant desert reality, churning these young soldiers stomachs. Whores do love whores!

Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders to Entertain

Tom Landry can’t be there with The Girls, but how about having Franklin Graham on board in Baghdad, at least? Alas, this year’s musical will not be last year’s big hit, Spring Time for Hitler in Germany, but will be a delightful new score, Autumn Time for Bush in Iraq! Lots of song and dance to be had! But where’s the booze?

Harry Potter meets Laura Bush

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The role she was born to play.I wanted to hate Harry Potter’s latest movie but for one happy surprise: the villainous Dolores Umbridge, played not as a malignant Mimi Bobeck, but instead a spot-on incarnation of First Librarian/Educator guess who?! The First Lady played herself, a smiling headmistress pulling a no-child-left-behind clear-skies-initiative at Hogwarts to subvert the education process lest new skilled wizards graduate to jeopardize the duplicitous aims of the state ministry. With a saccharin plastic grimace and trademark twinkle in her eye, Ms Bush thwarted the young wizards’ magic lessons and exacted Kafka’s Penal Colony punishment on her unresisting subjects.

The unflinching First Lady caricature lent this Potter adventure a semblance of social commentary, but betrayed us thereafter, offering nothing else resembling Muggle/human nature or societal fabric to give a viewer insight into their own lives. Except maybe the ugly scarves at Christmas for comic relief. Otherwise Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix was pure entertainment at the cost of two hours of your imagination on idle, but I’ve read no more than a page of Potter, so what do I know?

I also really don’t know enough about Dungeons & Dragons or Tolkien to be able to judge the genre. Is it enough to appreciate J.K. Rowling’s fanciful parallel world like an elaborate puzzle or computer fractal marvel? It’s not my resistance to trivial minutia, it’s that all the clever pieces form an intricate lattice holding up nothing. This is my usual rant against videogame storytelling, always swimming upstream against currents of obstacles, pocketing clues. It’s myth-telling void of any wisdom, natural or historical, unless you count history as keeping a bread crumb trail of Harry’s info quests.

The forces of darkness and light in Harry Potter’s Tatooine lack for every dimension except on/off amplitude, even there without shades of grey. The characters’ actions are driven by neither sociobiology nor mortality. Only at the film’s close does our young Jedi/Chosen One offer an afterthought about team spirit to buoy his friends as they contemplate the battle with evil coming in the next installment: “Unlike Voldemort, we have something to fight for.”

Really? To my mind, anticipating that great evil fights for no reason misjudges its relentless zeal. The misdirection echoes the New World Order fear-mongering against Moslem Evildoers, terrorists apparently who act “because they hate us.”

Surely this underestimates the selfishness or desperation that makes the real world go ’round, motives neatly incomprehensible to young altruist minds. Real evil is an infinitely more ruthless force which preys already on the Harry Potter generation outside the theater doors. That evil is systemic, its motive is greed, and it perpetrates dehumanization. Also like the movie’s corporate makers, it employs misdirection just like Dolores Umbridge Bush to neutralize Harry and his friends.

That said, Imelda Staunton’s flawless turn as our Cretin-in-Chief’s cretinous better half was gloriously, fearlessly in-somebody’s-face.

Thank God our idiotic local selections are finally over

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I have been purposely avoiding writing up to now about the embarrassing Colorado Springs elections where our corporate dictatorship offered up the worst of the worst for our supposed choosing. It was just too ugly for words. There was only one mayoral candidate that offered us much choice. For the city council I just wrote in- NONE of the above rats. What else could a sane person do?

I have seen more substance in high school elections for homecoming queen that what we got. Democracy cannot thrive or even begin to exist in a demobilized and demoralized society like currently exists in Coilorado Springs, and the overwhelming rest of the country, too. This is not a democracy we are living in. It is numbskull land. Our corporatized world is totally TV plastic 99 cent menu everywhere, and nowhere more so than in what passes as ‘elections’. Thank God it is over. I wish it were.

Chemistry in the food supply

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Ask any veterinarian what you’re supposed to be feeding your dog or cat, they’ll tell you dry food only, and water. So perhaps people poisoning their pets with wet canned meals have achieved their result, more recently accelerated by the accidental Melamine additive in wheat gluten imported from China.

The FDA has been reluctant to reveal the companies behind the wayward toxin, even as the public grapples with the possibility that the plastic derivative may have reached the human food supply. Naming names reveals not just the corporate logos but also the extended interweaving of chemical companies in the food industry.

Did you have any idea the can of Alpo held by Mr. Publishers Clearinghouse contained Wheat Gluten from Xuzhou Anying Biologic Technology Development Co. or partner Suzhou Textile Import and Export Co. of Jiangsu, China; imported by ChemNutra Inc. of Las Vegas, Nevada; sold to pet food giants Nestle Purina, Del Monte, Hill’s Pet Nutrition, and behind-the scenes giant Menu Foods Inc. of Canada which makes 100 of the different smaller pet food brands? Whatever are you deliberating in the pet food isle, which TV commercial will best please your domestic companion?

You knew pet food wasn’t made by Keebler Elves or the Jolly Green Giant, but did you suspect the truth was so sordidly mundane? Nearly all people food passes through the chemical fingers of Archer Daniels Midland or Monsanto or both. Wait until the FDA tries to keep their names out of the spotlight.

Ugly Betty’s ugly Golden Globe

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The actress who plays Ugly Betty said she thought it was awesome that America has embraced a completely new face.

Ugly face of American comedyNew face, her ass! Ugly Betty is a new face like Urkel was not Webster, Gary Coleman, Fat Albert, and Kid Dynamite. Like Alf was not Ronald Reagan.

The best thing I can say about Ugly Betty –I learned tonight from the acceptance speech– the show is about hispanic American immigrants, a faction of our population sorely lacking in heroic protagonists on Anglo TV. Too bad the creators consider Hispanic ugly.

Ugly
What does Ugly Betty say about how Americans see themselves on TV when to see ugly, we have to fit an actress with prosthetics, bad hair, braces, and a fat suit. And of course, eyeglasses. Ugly is artificial. We seem also to want to say that ugly is genetic and it’s for keeps.

Although the dental braces indicate Betty is consiously on track for self-improvement and TV normalcy, her transistional ugliness is also a movie insider’s ugly. It’s the stereotypical Hollywood beginner’s ugly where female Horatio Algers start out as caterpillars but everyone is already assured a happy ending because from the begining they could recognize under the familiar cliched trappings the butterfly that is going to emerge, usually a recognizable beautiful actress. The actress who accepted the Golden Globe award was of course very pretty.

Except where most story lines dealing with appearances are guided by the idea that beauty is only skin deep etc, Ugly Betty is self-consciously inferior. struggling as she is every episode to prove and improve herself.

Though not enough to dress better. A superficiality that strikes me with Ugly Betty is the insistence on ugly clothes and support shoes. How many ugly people do you know address corporate boards in their grandmother’s worst frock? One of the glaring aspects about unattractiveness in the real world is the insistence of some homely people to dress like they are not.

World Cinema, like typical domestic independent film, is distinguished by actors who look like authentic people. The faces are real, the complexions imperfect, the looks asymmetric, the hair whatever it is. Their stories are thus easier to communicate and identify with. In Hollywood, plastic is real, and the audiences who watch the blockbusters don’t get anything from the experience but adrenaline.

Why did I not see the Hispanic component in Ugly Betty before -except for the dad who doesn’t speak English and who gets a visit from the INS? Because Ugly Betty’s caricature masks every nuance of reality. Her artificial face shows cultural, social or racial feature. She is a potato head with four or five “ugly” accessories, one of them being race.

A real traffic decongestant

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Heard about the 24 West project? They are literally building not only a house but a whole apartment city on that toxic waste dump in the west side here.
 
But what of these narrow west side roads, how o how are these new residents going to drive their Hummers and such en masse every morning to their Very Important Jobs in the city each morning? Widen 24! Take out Vermijo street, nobody but trash hippies live there anyways, right, the bicycle trail will have to go, or be moved, bye bye greenspace. The creek will have to be re-routed, all at taxpayer expense.

The widening of the road, without this added bullpoopoo, will cost 250,000,000 dollars count the zeroes that’s right a quarter of a Billion smackeroos and that’s just the down payment.

Now, where does this road widening end up at? Manitou, at the corner of 24 and 24, where the Sinclair station is. You know the one, has a big plastic dinosaur, right in front of the BUS STOP?
I don’t know exactly how much a city bus costs to buy and even operate for a few years. But I would just bet that it ain’t nearly a million bucks a pop, so why not buy a hundred new busses and put them to work?

Extend the bus line out to Divide or Florissant, take some of the REAL traffic off the interstate part? The savings in emergency vehicle, hospital, wrecked vehicle towing and not to mention petroleum products being ripped from the ground and put into the air, would be huge, even if they let the people ride free.

Ok ok i got that last part wrong ESPECIALLY if they let the people ride free. But that would be Communism, wouldn’t it.

Privatizing the loo

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John out-house rip offPrivatization is nothing but a scam to lower wages and pocket the difference.
 
A few years ago our city Republicans decided to pull a porta-potty switcheroo. First they convinced the citizens it was too expensive to maintain public facilities in the city parks. To save money they leased portable outhouses from Republican businessmen. Thus the city workers who normally cleaned the bathrooms lost those jobs, union jobs of course. The contractors who supply the Port-a-lets hire day laborers to hose the plastic units down, making for a tremendous savings in labor cost. Every dollar that would have gone for a living wage, benefits, retirement, etc, goes right into stinky Mr. Port-a-let’s pocket.

Might I add there’s a stretch of Highway 24 on the west side of Colorado Springs where, if you have your window rolled down, you can smell a back yard where they service Port-a-lets.

Meanwhile city park patrons are left with the plastic Port-a-let experience, instead of the brick facilities they once paid for thirty or so years ago, unveiled at a ribbon cutting ceremony, when local politicians were not so visionary with their greed.