3-Card Marney & Another Cup Of Coffee

Without consumers to lead the charge, an economic recovery will be hard to achieve. And yet everyone agrees that we need to start saving more. So should I buy to stimulate the economy? Or should I save the money in order to “grow” the economy and provide for my own old age? I can’t do both.

This is the dilemma that 30 years of Reaganomics (the real Reaganomics — keeping the economy overstimulated with huge deficits and irresponsible [lending and] borrowing — not the fantasy Reaganomics of government run like a family and tax cuts that pay for themselves) has left us with. So what do we do? The nearest thing to an actual plan seems to be something like this: stimulate first, to avert various short-term disasters, and then — at some signal from the Treasury Department — turn around and start saving like mad, to avert various long-term disasters. In other words, we need to get back our consumer confidence, and then lose it again."

--Michael Kinsley
published Friday, November 14, 2008
The New York Times
page A33

Top 25 Censored News Stories

#1. Over One Million Iraqi Deaths Caused by US Occupation

# 2 Security and Prosperity Partnership: Militarized NAFTA

# 3 InfraGard: The FBI Deputizes Business

# 4 ILEA: Is the US Restarting Dirty Wars in Latin America?

# 5 Seizing War Protesters’ Assets

# 6 The Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act

# 7 Guest Workers Inc.: Fraud and Human Trafficking

# 8 Executive Orders Can Be Changed Secretly

#9 Iraq and Afghanistan Vets Testify

# 10 APA Complicit in CIA Torture

# 11 El Salvador’s Water Privatization and the Global War on Terror

# 12 Bush Profiteers Collect Billions From No Child Left Behind

# 13 Tracking Billions of Dollars Lost in Iraq

# 14 Mainstreaming Nuclear Waste

# 15 Worldwide Slavery

# 16 Annual Survey on Trade Union Rights

# 17 UN’s Empty Declaration of Indigenous Rights

# 18 Epidemic of Cruelty and Death in Juvenile Detention Centers

# 19 Industrial Farming Triggering Widespread Extinction of Species

# 20 Marijuana Arrests Set New Record

# 21 NATO Considers “First Strike” Nuclear Option

# 22 CARE Rejects US Food Aid

# 23 FDA Complicit in Pushing Pharmaceutical Drugs

# 24 Japan Questions 9/11 and the Global War on Terror

# 25 Bush’s Real Problem with Eliot Spitzer

Fridge

First Date Rememberance

Allan Smithee Nov 15th, 2008 at 3:58 pm

This is silly and only sort of related but the “first date” I ever went on, was probably around 14 years old. The waiter came up and asked whether we would like cocktails. Being the man and seasoned pro I asked the waiter what kind of cocktails they had.

He responded by saying, “Sir, we have all kinds of cocktails.”

After some silent and mental deliberation I said, “in that case, I’ll have a shrimp cocktail.”

At that point, the waiter cracked a smile and realised we were both a little young to be drinking. Oh, yeah, they didn’t have shrimp cocktails.


comment from Readers Write: Best Shrimp Cocktail In Town?

Hot or Not? (*)

(*) Bad Pun - was feeling ill when photos & video were taken/made and might also have been running a fever, hence the question.

Update: Critics far from silent on library closings

Desperate to find revenue, the Nutter administration made the difficult choice to shutter 11 libraries and save $8 million.

The hope was that the remaining libraries, left to function unimpeded by further cuts, could still serve the city without too much inconvenience.

What city officials might not have calculated was the outrage fomented in communities that see the facilities as havens meant to protect and edify children, and as tiny oases of culture that improve life in worsening times.

Community protests already have begun, with more being contemplated.

If the plan holds, Philadelphia will be the only major U.S. city responding to the sickened economy by closing a large number of its library branches, a leading library authority says.


click here for complete article by Alfred Lubrano
published Friday, Nov. 14, 2008
The Philadelphia Inquirer
page A1


More History:

A Library Legend - The Fishtown Branch was saved once before.

This past Monday night, more than 100 people rallied outside the tiny Fishtown Library on Montgomery Avenue to show their support for the institution and to protest Mayor Nutter's recent announcement that, due to a budget shortfall, it and 10other neighborhood branches would be closed.

The library staff — clearly happy to see the support, but also rattled by the invasion — watched a little nervously as the crowd poured in and out of the small building to sign petitions.

Amid the throng sat an elderly man, plopped comfortably in a chair and chatting with people as they went by and paid polite respects.

"He's kind of like the patriarch of Fishtown," one woman explained to me.

The man, who is 84 years old (he adamantly refused to allow his name to be printed, saying he didn't want people in Fishtown to think his head had gotten big; let's call him Frank) had come out with his neighbors to support the library, of which he is a grateful patron.

"I like thrillers!" he declared. The possible closing of the library, he said, was "very distressing."

But living in the same neighborhood for more than 80 years lends a bit of perspective. And this, he explained, wasn't the first time the library had been in trouble.

"The last time it happened, there was a lady, Mrs. Stepnowski," Frank said, "who saved it."

click here for complete article by Isaiah Thompson
Published: Nov 12, 2008
Philadelphia City Paper

11 Free Library Branches to be Closed...

and the buildings to be sold!




------- FORWARD THIS TO YOUR FRIENDS -------

Hi,

I wanted to draw your attention to this important petition that I recently signed:

"Save Philadelphia Free Library Branches"

I really think this is an important cause, and I'd like to encourage you to add your signature, too. It's free and takes less than a minute of your time.

Thanks!


The petition

We, the undersigned, demand that the City of Philadelphia stop the closure of 11 library branches and roll back the layoff of 36 branch library staff. We demand that the burden of the economic downturn not be placed on the backs of our children, elderly, students of all ages, unemployed or transitioning workers, or those on the wrong side of the digital divide. We demand that enough funding be allocated so that all Philadelphians have equal access to the informational and educational opportunities available only at our libraries.

Sign the petition


Note: This Blog entry and many others on Automotive Acne (Productions) were posted from the Free Library of Philadelphia. It is 7:20 p.m., Wednesday, November 12, 2008. The Port Richmond branch will close in approximately 29 minutes and reopen tomorrow at 10 a.m.


addendum:

djlynnabraham Says:
November 12th, 2008 at 6:08 pm

"that petition site kind of sucks. please make sure that when you click “submit,” and are automagically taken to a page that asks for a monetary pledge of your support, that you understand that money going to the website — iPetition.com — and not to the libraries or a fund to help fight the closing of the libraries. the page does call out that a pledge would fund the site and not the cause, but it’s also a little misleading."

Mocking Bird & Bldg

Apartment Window - Port Richmond - Philadelphia




Abandoned Bldg
Port Richmond - Philadelphia
Clementine St./Emery St. off Richmond St.

No To Bipartisan Unity

"I've heard President-elect Obama call for a spirit of unity. Sorry. It's not going to happen. For years Democrats castigated President Bush mercilessly. The election has validated their campaign of vituperation. Republicans have learned the lesson. We will now give the new president the same treatment.
The values of 401(k)s and houses had better increase, but not inflation or joblessness. There had better be no domestic disturbances or terrorist attacks on our shores. Osama bin Laden must be caught or killed. We must win the war in Afghanistan. No excuses. Otherwise, we will call Obama a liar, an incompetent, evil and stupid and impugn his motives. So please, Democrats, no lectures. You had your chance to practice bipartisanship. You didn't."

Bill Hickey
Meadowbrook, Pa
Letter to the Editor
Philadelphia Inquirer
Monday, November 10, 2008
page A14


Editorial Cartoon by Bill Bramhall
published Monday, November 10, 2008
New York Daily News
page 27