From nader.org:

The big time gamblers are on Wall Street and they are gambling with your money, your pensions, and your livelihoods.

Unlike Las Vegas casinos, these big investment banks, commercial banks and stock brokerage houses are supposed to have a fiduciary relationship with your money. They are supposed to be trustees for the money you have given them to safeguard, and tell you when they are making risky investments.

Because Washington, D.C. has increasingly become corporate-occupied territory, the Wall Street Boys have been taking even greater risks with your money. The more they produce cycles of financial failure, the more they pay themselves through their rubberstamp boards of directors.


[...]

Still, there is no regulatory action in Washington which doesn’t even move on behalf of consumers to regulate the New York Mercantile Exchange where rampant speculation, not supply and demand, decides what you are paying for gasoline and heating oil.

click here for the whole thing

I meant to post this back when it was new but I've been pretty busy with work, more so than when I was at school, which I guess is a good thing

Anyway, you're paying more and more for gas because of rich people. Be angry.

John McCain's Gramm Gamble

By Patricia Kilday Hart of the Texas Observer:

In the early evening of Friday, December 15, 2000, with Christmas break only hours away, the U.S. Senate rushed to pass an essential, 11,000-page government reauthorization bill. In what one legal textbook would later call “a stunning departure from normal legislative practice,” the Senate tacked on a complex, 262-page amendment at the urging of Texas Sen. Phil Gramm.

[...]

Gramm promised that the amendment—also known as the Commodity Futures Modernization Act—along with other landmark legislation he had authored, would usher in a new era for the U.S. financial services industry.

[...]

Gramm created what Wall Street analysts now refer to as the “shadow banking system,” an industry that operates outside any government oversight, but, as witnessed by the Bear Stearns debacle, requiring rescue by taxpayers to avert a national economic catastrophe.

[...]

Gramm serves as co-chair of the McCain 2008 presidential campaign. As one of the candidate’s chief economic advisers, he is mentioned as a possible secretary of the treasury in a McCain administration.

click here for all of it

Basically, one of the main guys whose responsible for our screwed up economy, the man who enthusiastically made it possible for corporations to run rampant at the publics' expense: good friend of John McCain, co-chair of his campaign.

Will the mainstream media point this out? Doubtful. They surely won't emphasize how TOXIC Gramm has been to our economy. In fact, I guarantee you they're going to spin it as if Gramm's policies had no effect on the economy whatsoever, they'll just blame it on the terrorists or something. That is, if they ever mention his name at all.

I'm not supporting Obama or anything, but for the love of God: don't vote for McCain.

No, really. Don't vote for John McCain.

The Muffs

A long time ago my brother and I tuned in to 91.7 ktru Houston (Rice University's station) and they were playing this punk/garage set. We caught the latter half of a song that was obviously called "Oh Nina." I was enthralled with this song. The chorus was so infectious to me I just couldn't stand it; the raunchy female vocals strummed my newfound punk rock heartstrings with a strength they hadn't yet felt before. The song haunted and alluded me for years, as I didn't catch the name of the group who performed it. I never even heard the song again or found out who played it until literally about five minutes ago. Funny thing is, I've known about the Muffs for a while but never bothered to check them out.

Without further adieu, I give you The Muffs and "Oh Nina":



..and here's some Wiki info:

After releasing their initial 7" EPs and singles independently and on local labels, The Muffs signed to Warner Bros. Records in the early '90s. After the release of their first album, Warner Brothers failed to promote the band. In spite of this the Muffs set the stage for the success of bands like Green Day, and producer Rob Cavallo. Despite the wide exposure afforded by appearing on a wide variety of movie soundtracks (Clueless director Amy Heckerling, in particular, had taken a keen interest in their songs) as well as a lucrative Fruitopia commercial, The Muffs were eventually dropped from the label. The Muffs have since continued to release new records on various independent labels.

Baytown, Texas has a curb-side recycling program!

From the Baytown Sun:

“We’re really anxious to get it started,” deputy city manager Bob Leiper said of the long-awaited curbside recycling program that kicks off next week.

Baytown City Council members unanimously approved the program in January and the purchase of 21,000 18-gallon plastic tubs that will hold residents’ newspapers, plastics 1 and 2, (labels can be found on the bottom of bottles), and aluminum cans until they can be picked up and sorted.

click here for the whole thing

OH MY GOD I had no idea about this program until today, when I found this article at the Baytown Sun's website. Curbside recycling makes Baytown like a hundred points cooler in my book. It costs residents only $2.25 a month to get their recyclables picked up by Waste Management, according to this article. Supposedly it was originally going to cost $2.50 but Bayer Material Science supposedly purchased the recycling bins for the city and that brought down the monthly cost by $.50.

Now all we gotta do is petition Exxon and Shell to start getting serious about alternative fuels.

This Brave Nation: new documentary

Sorry I haven't posted in a while. I'm working back at the power plant again with my dad, making money for school. My band is also kinda busy trying to learn some new material and record and recruit a new sub bass player.

Anyshways, there's a cool new documentary by Brave New Films called This Brave Nation and you can watch it at this website.