Not only are banks getting bailouts and financial institutions turning into banks to get bailed out…

but now, companies are BUYING BANKS, then asking for a bailout:

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=a7eDol9whmKc&refer=us

And, of course now EVERYONE wants their piece of MY pie:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122688332554232113.html

Even this shameless mayor from San Jose:
http://www.mercurynews.com/breakingnews/ci_10989042?nclick_check=1

“Reed created a minor furor Friday when he told an Associated Press reporter he would seek 2 percent of the bailout, or $14 billion, for San Jose — an eye-popping figure, given that the city’s entire annual budget is $3.3 billion. “

And right behind them are states, led by, who else? California. Because, in the end, “government is really at fault”:
http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/2008/11/14/20081114economy-states1114-ON.html

Speaking Wednesday before a Chamber of Commerce group in Fresno, Calif., Schwarzenegger said that “government is really at fault” and that Washington was obligated to “get us out of this mess.”

At the Apple Trailers website, this little gem could be found:

In case you missed it, here’s a closeup of the movie description:

The numbers are striking: While immigrants (legal and illegal) account for 35 percent of California adults, they represent just 17 percent of the state’s prisoners. Men born in the United States are incarcerated in California prisons at more than two times the rate of foreign-born men. Within the age group most often involved in crime (ages 18 to 40), US natives - astonishingly - are 10 times more likely to be in prison or jail than immigrants (4.2 percent of the former are in correctional institutions, and just 0.42 percent of the latter). Even when the focus is narrowed to inmates who were born in Mexico and are not citizens - the demographic group most likely to include illegal immigrants - the rate of incarceration is only one-eighth that of men born in the United States.

–Immigration and Crime 

“As sheriff, I believe that the border should be enforced,” Bowles says. “I believe that the illegal aliens should be rounded up as efficiently as possible, screened lawfully, confirmed as illegal immigrants and deported. I know we can’t get ‘em all, but that doesn’t mean we should surrender. We should do the best we can. I can’t kill all the mosquitoes, flies and cockroaches, but that doesn’t mean I don’t try.”

–Dallas County Sheriff candidate Jim Bowles 

Read a quick review about it at ZDNet. Note that this is still a Beta version, so download and install at your own risk.

There was an old joke back during the Cold War days, that in a Communist system, everybody was equal. If that was so, then why did the high-ranking officials of the Communist Party always get the best of everything, people would ask? Well, the answer was simple: some people were just more equal than others. Turns out, Communism had nothing on UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas.

UT Southwestern records information about wealthy or well-known people to ensure they receive select treatment during medical visits. This list, dated July 2003, was compiled by UT Southwestern staff and reflects that staff’s judgment on which prospective patients might deserve special treatment.

Want to know who is in it? Well, a select few are listed below. You can get the full list from the Dallas Morning News.

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We got hosed. A whole @#%^$% 53% of Dallassites forgot their brains yesterday, and voted to believe that building a &$%^#$ TOLLROAD THROUGH A PARK was a good idea.

God bless Angela Hunt, erstwhile 35 yr old attorney who went toe-to-toe with the Dallas Billionaire Elites and pushed them to the brink… but dangit, this sucks. And I know I’m ranting, but this PISSES ME OFF! This was the ONE chance, ONE CHANCE that Dallas had to revitalize its downtown. We had a gift of having a river crossing through downtown, and this was our chance to build our own River/Trail like Town Lake in Austin, and add a Central-Park-like area to attract young, vibrant people to the city.  Now everyone is going to flee downtown Dallas. I hope I’m wrong, but I fear we’ll become Detroit.

We voted to build a freaking tollway. INSIDE A PARK.

Read that again.

Flocking morons. This pisses me off.

We Lost.

by Will Lutz 

Texas high school students won’t know much about economics, the Founding Fathers, the constitution, the development of common law, John Locke, Adam Smith, or the achievements of Ronald Reagan, if new social studies standards proposed for public comment are enacted. But they will be able to summarize Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I have a Dream” speech and they will learn to “provide a historical perspective of xenophobia and its impact on immigration policies in the United States.”

In House Bill 1 (2006), the legislature created vertical teams of college and K-12 teachers to look at the state’s curriculum and develop college preparatory standards. These vertical teams are to propose standards for approval by the Commissioner of Education and the Higher Education Coordinating Board. These standards will then go to the State Board of Education. The elected State Board is directed to incorporate college readiness standards into the curriculum, but statements of legislative intent during the process as well as a notwithstanding clause in the bill itself clarifies that the board has the authority to approve or reject the new standards. The public can comment on the standards until Dec. 1, after which time the Higher Education Coordinating Board will consider the public comments. The vertical teams produced draft standards for social studies, science, English, and mathematics. Of the four, the social studies are the ones most likely to prove controversial, as the bulk of them relate to diversity and multiculturalism. The current state Republican platform calls for repeal of the vertical teams and return of all curriculum authority to the elected State Board of Education.

http://www.dallasblog.com/200710301000882/dallas-blog/political-correctness-at-forefront-of-new-draft-high-school-standards.html 

Wikipedia: the concept that persistent opinions are accurate opinions

California State Senator Tom McClintock gave this speech at the Western Conservative Political Action Conference. Published On 10-18-2007 , 3:35 PM
Speech was given on October 12, 2007 in Newport Beach.

You have extended me a very dangerous invitation tonight – to speak to a gathering of political conservatives on the day that Al Gore has received the Nobel Peace Prize for discovering that the earth’s climate is changing.

I’ve heard that he’s going to contribute half of his prize money to environmental causes and use the other half to pay his electricity bill. And anything left over will come in handy to help pay for the fleet of private jets that allow him to travel around the world to tell us that you and I need to ride our bikes to work.

You have to admit, there is a certain Helmslyesque quality to it all – “We don’t conserve – only the little people conserve.”

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