The Friday Bacon

The makings of bacon burgers.

Benjamin Franklin Report: 30 Nov 07

An inevitable feature of the give and take in our economic system is the fact that we have to pay back whatever it is that we use. In simplistic terms, when you spend money, it has to come from somewhere, be it in the form of a trade item or currency. Or, if you really need money, you can spend your future earnings, which has gotten us into a bit of a bind recently, as I previously reported. In summary, the market is looking like it's rebounding nicely. Freddie Mac (NYSE:FRE) and Fannie Mae (NYSE:FNM) managed to issue some short-term debt items to raise enough capital to keep their operations afloat at least for another 90 days. (Wait, what is an S&L again? Why were they so controversial again?) The really big news item of the day, though, is this article. Countrywide Financial is dealing with the private ramifications of the ongoing credit crisis, although there is a whiff of hope in the air that is pushing Countrywide's stock (NYSE:CFC) up by more than 14% at press time. Citigroup (NYSE:C) is also benefiting from what some jackass business correspondent might call headwind generated in the markets by potential government intervention. I guess if Hope is not readily apparent, corporations are not forced to create their own by saddling their duly paid representative to take on their misguided liabilities.

Something of a Splash

Over at Youtube today, Mike Gravel's campaign has caused another minor internet sensation. Perhaps the grass roots can cause trouble for the established media system yet.

The First Amendment

As has been the case more times than necessary to enumerate here, the Bill of Rights in general, and the Freedom of Speech enshrined in the first Amendment specifically has come under attack in the years of the Bush administration. In a more local example, a blogger known as daTruthSquad has come under attack for revealing details of an underhanded land deal. The Township of Manalapan in New Jersey has gone so far as to file for an injunction to force Google to reveal the identity of the blogger in a tax-payer sponsored fishing expedition. Check it out, and here.

We are Imbued With Certain Natural Rights From Our Creator

http://www.reason.com/news/show/123496.html
Its nice to see a judge that has respect for Ron Paul, even though he uses terms that make me uncomfortable. I get the feeling that if Ron Paul started comparing himself to Barry Goldwater, about half of his support would vanish. Its also nice to see a judge with an honest opinion of the President refer to average Americans as sheeple.

Here, the government is asking firemen to spy on you. What could possibly go wrong? For one, lots more lawsuits.

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5gek2oSZ_67sh2ukVvXaCGCXzpypwD8T3IFL81

Something that is rarely pointed out, the case that established the state secrets defence was actually an example of government lies. Years later when the requested documents were made public it was revealed that infact, there was no secret mission, and there was no spy equipment. It was just some guys on a normal plane on a normal training run. The government just wanted to avoid liability for a wrongfull death.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071126/ap_on_go_co/state_secrets_4;_ylt=AjLTg3ieO32EurPT9pvqFOoE1vAI

Big suprise!

The U.N. added tazers to its list of torture devices.
http://wcbstv.com/national/taser.torture.united.2.595058.html
The language in the article is pretty stark. I feel like we have been doing shoddy work if we only have re-reported 2 of the 6 recent deaths from tazers. Does this recent move by the U.N. mean local police departments will have to stop using tazers or just reign in their yahoo sadistic officers.

I am not saying the peace officers in any of these incidents are sadists or were acting in a sadistic manner. I am just saying it would behoove local law enforcement bodies to take more time training the officers in their midst that could be percieved as "sadistic."

The Friday Bacon

Wisconsin Crazy: At Least He Didn't Shoot the Kid

In a case that tests our typical definition of the Wisconsin Crazy, a poor hunter who couldn't get a beer got a little heated and used his personal firearm to shoot his farm animal on his own property. As of publication, it is unclear whether or not the goat made a good stew. This article also serves as further evidence as to why Fark needs a Wisconsin tag.

(Red Herring: Fuck tha Police!, that's what she said.)

Wisconsin finally getting some God damn respect

I hate how the old media always ignores that UW-Madison led the way in stem sell research like it has in biotechnology for over a hundred years. They prefer to mention California for some inexplicable reason. So California gave a grant to its researchers? I think its more noteworthy when a state that doesnt have an economy to rival Germany it means they care more to spend the few dollars they have.

The real issue that raises my ire is hidden on page 5 of the article. These rat bastards have been using foreskin. Skummy doctors are harvesting foreskin for research and mutilating poor defenceless childrens sex organs. They tack on an extra surgery to a healthy pregnancy to raise their profit margins like Best Buy tacks on the extended warrenty. What the hell is with the double standard in this country? We get outraged when some villagers in Egypt or Afganistan perform a cliterodectimy but expect a man in this country to have his sexual organs mutilated in an unnessary operation. No outrage, we fucking expect it as the norm. It makes me sick.

http://www.newsweek.com/id/71441/page/1

Walk of Shame

In Hamlet they called this incest. In Christianity its called Adultary.



http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071119/ap_on_re_us/preacher_paternity;_ylt=AgivIHlMuxhkSP4DfrF3N5as0NUE





Warren Jeffs goes to jail.





http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20071121/ts_nm/usa_polygamy_jeffs_dc_3



Some guy is accused of using a popular photoshop gag to slander his wife. He also had kiddy porn. Get it?



http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20071121/ts_nm/usa_polygamy_jeffs_dc_3

Simple Logic

If A, then B. (by the by)

KITTENS!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/scotland/north_east/7101506.stm
A bunny is foster parenting a litter of kittens. How adoreable.

More Tazing, More Questions

A 20 year old man in Frederick, Maryland died after police deployed a taser and stunned him. Allegedly, he and three other suspects were fighting when police arrived on the scene, and they tasered this guy. As of publication, there is no official cause of death.

So, if you run over a cop's foot, side-swipe a taxi, and then smash into a police cruiser to avoid getting arrested for driving drunk without a license, and then resist the police? That's a tasing, as this Ottawa woman found out.

To be filed in the "WTF" category, is this case which comes to us from Jacksonville, Florida. Allegedly, police had their suspect detained in the car, after zapping him for an undisclosed number of times for an undisclosed duration, and then during the four minutes between when the EMTs left and got the "cardiac red" call from the police officers, the man died. I'll take a shot in the dark here and say that this incident is probably as fishy as it sounds.

Talk about a lousy punchline, a Bradenton, Florida man was tased and arrested for being drunk in a joke store. The real punchline is that this incident is still fishy. For instance, even though officers had restrained the suspect on the ground, they tasered him to invoke cooperation with the handcuffs.

"Do it."

This is one of the more neuanced tazer stories. Clearly the kid was acting really stupid, and probably deserved to be tazed. However, from the article its not entirely clear that it was necessary. This article shows the police mentality that I have spoken about previously, that everything is percieved as a hostile act when all you deal with is the scum of humanity. Its also pretty clear that both sides are streaching the truth to make themselves seem as good as possible.

http://www.fredericknewspost.com/sections/news/display.htm?storyID=67793

Trifecta of trifectas is now in play!

Another case of tasing, the walk of shame, and the Wisconsin Crazy! This just goes to show that it doesn't pay to be a janitor at the wrong place at the wrong time. How long will it be until we have a trifecta of trifectas?

Feeling Sub-Prime?

The thing I want to point out here, that hasnt been mentioned except as denials that it is a consern, is that when the subprime mortgage market is allowed to push off its horrid investments on Fannie May and Freddie Mac this amounts to welfare. This is fucking corporate welfare. These are opportunistic people who took advantage of poor optimistic people who only wanted in on Bush's "ownership society." These subprime lenders were only conserned with making a buck and they all knew they were making a bad investment, which is why they hid these in larger investment packages and passed them off like hot fucking potatoes. Now that the investment has turned out to be a bad one they want to pass the burden of cleaning up the mess on to you and me, the fucking tax payers, and they want to leave the Joe and Jane Doe holding the bag. The poor people that got suckered into these predatory loans are still going to loose their home, while the fucking asshole real estate "flippers" got rich off of over inflated house values.

The big point again is that you and I are going to have to pay for the bad investments of some selfish dickheads. This whole thing strikes me as hypocritical bullshit. the people that wer making these investments are the kind of assholes that bitch and moan about the cost of social services and demand we privatize everything, but as soon as trouble looks their way and they go crying to the government for help. Every aspect of this makes me sick.

This whole thing is made worse because its tied up with the falling dollar, droping consumer confidance, falling manufacturing, inflation, falling wages, increasing unemployment, vastly increasing deficet.

Loss of International Good WIll

During the initial phases of the feigned outrage in congress over the use of torture on those in U.S. custody, then Attorny General nominee Alberto Gonzales said in responce to criticism that even if we torture people Americans can never be as bad as the terrorists. It has also been remarked with dismay that the whole way in which the Bush administration has been treating detainees is one of the main reasons we are loosing all of our good will internationally.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/politics/2002170340_gonzales04.html

For example, Russia has been throwing obstructions infront of international election monitors that they had origionally invited to oversee their current round of national elections. They dont take kindly to any criticism that they might not be behaving like a democracy should and impugn the recent American human rights record and voting irregularities stating that we are not ones to talk down to them about democracy.

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5iyBfqwTaolA0ETVWNlYycSzVpn8wD8SV0H3O0

Pakistan is less subtle when it points out the speck in our eye to divert criticism from the plank in their own. General/President Pravez Musharrif declared a state of emergency and imprisioned political opponents, and today installed a "caretaker government." Musharrif justifies all this under his countries anti-terrorism laws and points to the U.S. when he justifies locking up dissodents. He says he is doing this to protect his country from radical islamists, but the people he is throwing in jail are the legitimately elected moderates he ousted from power in a military coup. His recent behavior and comments are reminicent of the attitudes of the types of people we have been forced to team up with in Bush's global, generational, war on terror. We have to deal with tribal warlords who see the way we behave and missapprehend it as anti-islam. They say they are also against the Islamists and say they are on our side. Once they have our support they proceed to be corrupt, violent, crime lords.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=a2GeoguY159A&refer=home

http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20071107/Malalai_Joya_071107/20071107/

The Friday Bacon

Chemicles from bacon promote quick recovery after a heart attack.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/11/071112172140.htm

Diabetes = Terrorism

Aparently going into a diabetic coma is not only worthy of being tazed by some rural deputy in Alabama but by police in Leeds U.K. Wilfred Brimley better watch his ass.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/west_yorkshire/7096456.stm

Smell that wound, and tell me if it smells like Limburger

So, apparently the American housing market is going to continue to get worse and worse, judging from the storm surrounding Fannie Mae in the last couple of days. Apparently, the government-run enterprise is exposed to the tune of 270 billion dollars to the subprime housing market. This makes the funny math that Fannie Mae tried to pull on its last accounting statement all the more interesting, as it may indicate that they are already experiencing beyond normal losses, and the CEO is predicting twice the norm for next year. If one believes in the predicative power of the marketplace, the fact that Fannie Mae lost about 10% of its stock value yesterday.

The interesting part of this story comes from the fact that the housing market is eager to to push off their subprime assets onto the big GSEs, such as Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which is why the market is so eager to see Fannie Mae' supervising agency, the OSHEO, to raise the housing lender's government-imposed financing caps. But, in light of the aforementioned outstanding exposure, combined with the fact that Fannie only has $40 billion in capital on hand, the bond issuance of the day before yesterday to the tune of $3 billion backed by home loans. looks like a desperate effort to keep the entire corporation from sinking into the red.

How important is Fannie Mae considering the unfolding crisis? I would say, "very."