Ain’t it the truth.

Lottakatz,

That’s precisely the language in the ad that made me look at the fine print in the first place. If there’s some kind of Native American Indian exception to loan sharking it’s just f’n criminal; period.

I don’t care what kind of sob story you tell me, the tragedies of the past does not grant license to victimize people in the present.

The commercials make me sad/angry because they are targeting such desperate people that they tell them they are going to screw them up front, just not as badly as the other predatory lenders. There ought'a be a law. But that would be an unfair burden on capitalism which of course operates best (for all) when it is unfettered.

thanks for making sure your buddies dont use them 10 dollar words or high falutin theories when responding to me. It is greatly appreciated.

The eclat of their words may be too much for me to contemplate.

here is the link to the definition to spare you and your friends the trouble of typing:

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/%C3%A9clat

see 2.

“…there is a force in women’s issues- take contraception- that transcends the misogynistic bias of the system and the convenient D or R labels. The recent Komen dust up shows it’s power.”

The ability of women to see through the b.s. of the two leaders of Komen and quickly understand that they were being attacked by an organization that they had greatly revered- and their instant and powerful response showed the power that women have if they will only stand up for their rights and rip some asses when anyone tries to marginalize them. I believe the vast majority of men were as outraged as the women by the attempt to destroy Planned Parenthood. What decent man wants to see the women in his life deprived of the healthcare they need?

During the self- destruction of the Komen Foundation, I frequently heard the statistic that 98% of women of child-bearing age have used birth-control at some time in their life. How is it then that the Catholic Church still has so much destructive power over women’s choices in such a private matter? And how do Republican (and some Democratic) politicians continue to get away with passing laws destructive to women’s health and women’s rights?

If anyone in our society deserves to be marginalized, it’s the degenerate old men who run the Catholic Church- who spent decades trying to cover up their serial molestation of children and centuries keeping women in a condition of subservient baby-machines.

The other group that needs to be marginalized in our society is the Republican Party. The Rick Santorums, the Newt Gingriches, the Sarah Palins, the Michele Bachmanns- the Bible-thumping loudmouths who have instilled so much fear in the rank and file of their party that anyone who dares to express a rational idea is instantly lynched by their compliant media sycophants.

The Komen incident and the Occupy Movement, gives me some hope that people are starting to get fed up with the status quo and taking action to protect themselves. I don’t think the Occupy Movement is dead, just hibernating for the Winter- (I haven’t frozen my ass in a tent since 1965 and at the age of 70, I don’t intend to repeat that experience now!). I believe that when Spring arrives, Occupy will be back and play a significant role in the 2012 elections. “It ain’t over ’till it’s over!”

REED BRODY: As well. He was the one who opened the investigation into Guantánamo. That investigation remains open, but the fact that the judge who opened the investigation is now being cast aside is a warning that Spain will tolerate only subservient judges.

http://www.democracynow.org/2012/2/10/spanish_judge_baltasar_garzn_disbarred_in

Spanish Judge Garzón Disbarred in Trial Seen as Retaliation for Trailblazing Human Rights Work

(Video via above link.)

Spain’s most famous judge, Baltasar Garzón, has been disbarred for 11 years after being found guilty of ordering illegal monitoring. Garzón is known for taking on global human rights cases under the doctrine of universal jurisdiction, with actions including ordering the arrest of former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet in 1998, indicting Osama bin Laden for the 9/11 attacks, and probing the abuse of U.S. prisoners at Guantánamo Bay. Garzón cannot appeal his disbarment, which effectively ends his career as a judge. We speak to Human Rights Watch’s Reed Brody, who observed Garzón’s trial in Madrid. Brody says the case marks “a massive attack on the independence of the judiciary and on a very brave judge.”

JUAN GONZALEZ: Spain’s most famous judge, Baltasar Garzón, known for ordering the arrest of Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet, was himself found guilty yesterday of authorizing illegal recordings between clients and their lawyers in a corruption case involving the Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy’s People’s Party. Spain’s Supreme Court has banned Garzón from the legal profession for 11 years, effectively ending his career as a judge. The court also said he could not appeal the ruling.

Some Madrid residents expressed disappointment at the outcome of the case.

PATRICIA: [translated] I think Garzón has done the best he can, and what he did, I think, is right. He didn’t do anything wrong. And whether he did or he didn’t, he is the only one to have ever done something for this country. So I think the decision is incorrect.

AMY GOODMAN: In addition to ordering Pinochet’s arrest, Judge Garzón used the doctrine of universal jurisdiction to investigate war crimes and torture across national lines, famously indicting Osama bin Laden and others of al-Qaeda in 2003, and opening an investigation into the potential criminal liability of Bush administration officials for acts of torture at Guantánamo.

Garzón still has two other cases pending against him, including allegedly exceeding his authority by investigating atrocities committed by supporters of the dictator Francisco Franco. The human rights crimes came during Franco’s reign from ’36 to 1975. More than 100,000 opponents of the regime were executed or disappeared. While prosecutors reportedly disagreed with the charges that Garzón had exceeded his authority, Spanish law allows civilians to lodge criminal charges.

Well, to talk more about the ruling against Judge Garzón, we’re joined by Reed Brody, counsel and spokesperson for Human Rights Watch in Brussels. He was observing Garzón’s trial in Madrid, is now with us in New York.

Can you just tell us what happened?

REED BRODY: Sure. Well, as you said, there were three cases against Garzón. I mean, this was a concerted effort by his enemies within the conservative Spanish judiciary essentially to get rid of him. And the first case, accusing him of failing to apply Spain’s amnesty law, got such a bad reaction internationally, but other cases were leapfrogged in front of that.

And in this case, he ordered that the alleged ringleaders of a massive corruption scandal—over 120 million euros, $180 million, involving payoffs within the now-ruling Popular Party—he ordered that the defendants be wiretapped, because, allegedly, the lawyers, who were in conversation with them, were laundering the money. And in fact, one of the lawyers was actually indicted for money laundering. He ordered the wiretaps on the recommendation of a prosecutor. When the case was moved to another jurisdiction, the new prosecutor recommended the wiretaps, and the new judge continued the wiretaps. And despite the fact that one of the lawyers was in fact indicted for laundering the proceeds of this scandal, the wiretaps were quashed. That’s OK. What then happened, though, is that he was actually prosecuted by the defendants. And the conservative judiciary accepted the case, and he has now been convicted of having abused his authority by ordering these wiretaps.

JUAN GONZALEZ: Well, I mean, it almost seems that as long as he was willing to deal with cases internationally, that it was OK by the Spanish judiciary. But as soon as he began to look at the Franco regime, the atrocities of the Franco regime, or begin to zero in on possible corruption within his own government, suddenly they went out to get him.

REED BRODY: Well, he has made a lot of enemies, particularly in the Popular Party. But also, let’s not forget that he had—his actions resulted in the indictment of a Socialist Interior Ministry for supporting death squads in the Basque country. So he had made enemies on both sides of the spectrum. And this was really a concerted effort to cut him down to size, which—a massive attack on the independence of the judiciary and on a very brave judge.

AMY GOODMAN: So what can’t he do right now? And we have less than a minute.

REED BRODY: Well, he can’t serve as a judge in Spain. And this is really—for him, that’s not—it’s not he who will suffer. It’s Spain. It’s all of those of us who look to the Spanish judiciary to take on the tough cases, to investigate Guantánamo, the Salvadoran and Argentinian and Chilean victims who went to the Spanish judiciary because there was a judge there willing to apply the law. And now that judge is being—

AMY GOODMAN: Bush administration officials being investigated for torture at Guantánamo?

REED BRODY: As well. He was the one who opened the investigation into Guantánamo. That investigation remains open, but the fact that the judge who opened the investigation is now being cast aside is a warning that Spain will tolerate only subservient judges.

AMY GOODMAN: We’ll leave it there. Reed Brody, we thank you very much for being with us, counsel and spokesperson for Human Rights Watch in Brussels, has been observing the trial of Judge Baltasar Garzón in Spain. Judge Baltasar Garzón has been convicted.

As far as the phrase “American Indian” uh, the name America comes from the Spanish who FIRST began killing
and claiming land, and that makes you happy to be called that?

I am Celtic by heritage. My race in Scotland was brutally enslaved by the Britons and by the Romans with the aim of wiping us from the face of the earth.

Just about every culture/race has, at one time or another, throughout history, been enslaved etc.

As a Native Born Son of Mississippi I have to watch as cultural icons of my heritage are destroyed and legislated against, by people of ignorance as to their true meaning and background.

It’s a cruel world out there campers, put on your “big girl/big boy” underwear and deal with it!

Blouise: I wikied Manifest Destiny, will absorb that for now.
Dredd,: Your epístomology(?) blog covered a lot of sick places. fine work.
===================================
“Manifest Destiny” is just another way of saying “American Exceptionalism” in the form of the right to practice “holy genocide”, rather than “bad genocide.”

This sickness is condensing most noticeably within the right-wing, however, it is obviously contagious, and pulling the left-wing into the right-wing cesspool.

There was a time in this country when that was true; a time before vested medical establishment interests decided that only Drs could decide what drug were dispensed and to whom, all of course, for a small fee.

No, not even 2 pounds would be enough as the prohibition against marijuana is absurd.

Are you a Native American? Here is what a real Native American has to say, pretty similar to what I said above.

Ben Chavis “argues that the federal government has turned American Indian Tribes that have federal recognition into freeloaders,”

Chavis believes that federally recognized American Indian tribes survive on federal government handouts, which accompany the recognition, but little else. He is against the Lumbee Tribal Council’s attempt to gain federal recognition because, he says, with it comes listlessness and greed.

“This is what federal recognition says: ‘We’re whipped,’” Chavis told The Robesonian Thursday. “Lumbees are undefeated. We never lost the war. We never lost our land. Why should we qualify for government handouts?

“I don’t need the government to tell me I’m Indian,” Chavis said. “We don’t want to be like those Indians out west.”

Chavis said that the Lumbee tribe has thrived without governmental aid. He pointed out that the tribe has produced many prominent community members, including doctors and lawyers.

“They are like the Jews,” Chavis said. “Hardworking, businessmen and landowners.”

Chavis also had this to say:

“it is racist mentality to believe minorities should not have standards.”

“We are now faced with the fact that tomorrow is today. We are confronted
with the fierce urgency of now. In this unfolding conundrum of life and history
there is such a thing as being too late. Procrastination is still the thief of
time. Life often leaves us standing bare, naked and dejected with a lost
opportunity. The ‘tide in the affairs of men’ does not remain at the
flood; it ebbs. We may cry out desperately for time to pause in her passage,
but time is deaf to every plea and rushes on. Over the bleached bones and
jumbled residue of numerous civilizations are written the pathetic words:
‘Too late.’”

- Martin Luther King (April 1967)

He should have been our first black president.

Or a damn small Montezuma’s revenge for genocide—-if we compare the survivors to who were here and viable then.
Come on—’fess up.

Noght all, it’s midnight here.

Sweet nightmares Bron. See GBK chasing you with his Sovjet style tanks?

I kid you not.

http://www.westernsky.com/General/Rates.aspx

I learns reel good. No matr wut Gene H sez. He doen no nutin anyways.

Learns me sumpin good. Eyes allredy axed wut books yu thot wer gooden, but yu nevir ansered.

Weel I gotz to go and pley wit my dawg Blu and reed ma bible an kleen ma gun cuz weer goin snipe huntin in the mornin wit da preecherman and da kernal.

Sinsarley,

X

(caus eye don kno how to spel ma name)

Are you frickin’ kidding!? I have to leave now but I hope to read more about this tomorrow.

Raylan Rules!

GBK—–you did so well what I tried to do with my meager knowledge.
Knowledge and character assassination delivered in a mild tone. Outstanding.

In all likelihood pearls before a swine.

But I guess you enjoyed it, and taught us teachables something which we can try to teach others. But how do we disguise ourselves as teabaggers?
The RWA’s “anti-knowledge” alarm will awaken them otherwise.

Meanwhile I strive to suppress my sorrow for what my ancestors did. But i can’t make the bell not ring, as someone pointed out. Just do the right thing now.

I don’t like to mess in other people’s religion so understand what I’m trying to say … These Bishops are the responsibility of Catholics and as so many people tell devout Muslims to speak-up to Islam, I encourage Catholics to do as mespo did … if you disagree, let them know. It has greater impact coming from a member of the flock than coming from a non-member like me.

Now, I have dinner with the ladies … talk with you tomorrow.

What is confirmation bias? There are at least 1,000 ways to skin a cat.

“For a $2,600 loan, Western Sky Financial publishes a 139.22% APR. For this loan, you would make 47 payments of $294.46 for a total of $13,839.62. Of course, you are really only getting $2,525 in proceeds, since Western Sky charges a $75 origination fee.”

http://www.debtorsunite.com/Blog/Debtors-Fight-Back/June-2011/What-Interest-Rate-Does-Western-Sky-Financial-Char.aspx

Are Native American Indians given a ‘loan shark’ type immunity or something?

Thanks for the link. The book is not available for my Nook (though it is for those who own a Kindle) so I pre-ordered the paperback which is due out in August.

Too inflammatory or possibly true?

“As a Native American rights attorney since 1973, Walter worked at the epicenter of a great social movement alongside visionary tribal leaders, visited tribes in indigenous habitats throughout North America, and was instrumental in the passage of landmark laws—such as, the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (1990) and the American Indian Religious Freedom Act Amendments (1994). He litigated in many of the epic struggles and has written extensively about the rise of modern Indian nations as a Native American author with first-hand experience, most recently in his new groundbreaking book, In the Courts of the Conqueror: The 10 Worst Indian Law Cases Ever Decided (2010) .

http://www.walterechohawk.com/?page=books

“In the Courts of the Conqueror should be required reading for all Americans who care about the inherent human rights of religious and political freedom.”
–Phil Cousineau, author of The Art of Pilgrimage

Good luck, id707.

I’ll just say you aren’t the first one to attempt that task and leave it at that.

What did I tell you … that is gbk … always, always worth the read!

“alcoholism was rampant in Soviet Russia as well. I wonder if that might be the problem? Dont the reservations provide for everything for the inhabitants.”

It’s great that you so easily share the fruits of your wisdom, Bron. I think you’re onto something with your observation of Soviet Russia and the Oglala Sioux having problems with alcoholism.

“They should depend on themselves and not the great father in the east to provide them the necessaries of life.”

Right you are again, Bron! If the reservation just practiced your “free market” ideology I’m sure there would be no problems.

Here are some facts for you to ponder:

In 1868 the Fort Laramie Treaty established approximately 93,000 square miles of contiguous land, “set apart for the absolute and undisturbed use and occupation of the Indians herein named…” This area encompassed about 2/3 of Nebraska, all of North and South Dakota west of the Missouri River, and large areas of both Montana and Wyoming. The reservation today consists of approximately 11,300 square miles of fractured holdings.

A rough map of the Greater Sioux Reservation established by the Fort Laramie Treaty is here:

http://www.republicoflakotah.com/2008/the-treaty-area/

After the discovery of gold in the Black Hills, Congress in 1876 broke up the reservation, appropriated roughly 12,000 square miles and sold the land to “settlers” and mining concerns. There was no compensation for the affected tribes.

The Dawes Act of 1887 allotted 160 acres to every adult Indian from remaining reservation lands and sold the rest to ranchers and farmers, again with no compensation for the Indians. This highly fractured the land holdings, and the land allotted was usually very poor in resources and agricultural capacity (unlike the Black Hills area).

In all, according to the Republic of Lokotah web site, there were fifty-two instances of court proceedings that over the course of eighty-some years reduced the reservation created by the Fort Laramie Treaty from 93,000 square miles of contiguous land rich in natural resources to 11,300 square miles of fractured holdings.

More to the point of this thread, in 1882 the White Clay Extension (50 square miles) was created by executive order by President Chester A. Arthur in part as a buffer to control the illegal sale of alcohol to the reservation from white “settlers.” This extension was (all but one square mile) made available for sale in 1904 by an executive order issued by President Theodore Roosevelt. This is the land that the town of Whiteclay sits on.

It would seem to me that — given the White Clay Extension was created in part to help curb alcohol sales to the reservation in 1882 and that in 2012 the town of White Clay sells upwards of 13,000 cans of beer a day to the reservation — there is a very serious problem here that transcends the normal definition of “retail sales,” as our host puts it.

According to the Republic of Lakotah website 40% of the houses on the Pine Ridge Reservation do not have electricity, 33% have no running water. I don’t know, Bron, if you have ever experienced a winter in either of the Dakotas, but the thought of facing a winter there with no electricity or running water would scare the hell out of me.

Your attempt to tie “socialism” to alcoholism based on your observation of Soviet Russia and the Pine Ridge Reservation because, “[d]ont the reservations provide for everything for the inhabitants,” is a such a twisted thought process that it belies its own simplemindedness and greatly insults the people to which you refer.

Additionally, your sentence of, “[t]hey should depend on themselves and not the great father in the east to provide them the necessaries of life,” exposes a callousness to and an ignorance of the history and current plight of the people you refer to as “they.”

The Sioux and Cheyenne have very few reasons to depend on or trust “the great father in the east” as I’ve briefly shown above. To put it in your parlance, they have had the means of production stripped from them in addition to their cultural references over the last two centuries. The world is not a simple place, Bron, and your continual harping on “free markets” shows that you have much to learn and have little empathy for others not as fortunate as yourself.

WASHINGTON, DC — Rep. Tom Price (R-GA) shed his usual placid demeanor when discussing birth control for low-income women on Friday, telling ThinkProgress that “not one” woman doesn’t have access to contraception in the United States.

Price, who serves as the fifth ranking Republican in the House, made the comments to ThinkProgress this morning at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington, D.C. Like virtually all Republicans in Congress, he opposes the recent Obama administration rule requiring employers and insurers to offer birth control at no cost.

We asked Price, who is a medical doctor by trade, what he would say to low-income women who can’t afford birth control if it’s not covered by their insurance policies. Price responded by denying their very existence. “Bring me one woman who has been left behind,” he demanded. “Bring me one. There’s not one”:

KEYES: Obviously one of the main sticking points is whether or not contraception coverage is going to be covered health insurance plans and at hospitals and whether or not they’re going to be able to pay for it, especially for low-income women. Where do we leave these women if this rule is rescinded?

PRICE: Bring me one woman who has been left behind. Bring me one. There’s not one. The fact of the matter is, this is a trampling of religious freedom and religious liberty in this country. The president does not have the power to say that your First Amendment rights go away. That’s wrong.

Excerpt:
President Obama’s regulation mandating that health insurance plans offer free birth control is an issue that most directly affects women. And yet, the cable news chatter over this controversy has been driven mostly by men, according to a new ThinkProgress analysis.

From Monday through Thursday evening, the leading cable news channels – Fox, Fox Business, MSNBC, and CNN – invited almost twice as many men as women onto their shows to discuss contraceptive coverage.
Out of a total of 146 guests who discussed contraception, the cables invited 91 men compared to 55 women as commentators. In other words, males comprised 62 percent of the total guests who commented on contraception.

Here you go … “In Atlanta, Georgia, a store that sold glass, china, and slaves. (Library of Congress)”

http://blogs.voanews.com/tedlandphairsamerica/files/2011/05/03-1864-in-captured-atl-store-that-sold-glass-china-and-slaves-blow-up.jpg

Then you learned who ‘coined’ the phrase … nifty spin from a newspaper guy. (I can’t remember his name)