There is a law on the books called the Davis-Bacon Act that requires federal contractors to give workers what is called "prevailing wages", a wage that is way above the $5.15/hr. that exists for"non-prevailing wage' jobs. Essentially it's a law that lets unions get in on the action of the recovery of the City of New Orleans and lets the workers make some decent livable wages, even live at middle to upper middle income levels. Bunnypants used some "extra special double secret" suspension power(few knew about this power, especially the unions) to suspend the Davis-Bacon Act. This means the unions got fucked and recovery contracts will be given to rich guys whose employees will be making minimum wage.
Proponents of the suspension are saying, yay!, it's good for small businesses, it's good for the speed of recovery through the non-use of red tape! It cuts through the bureaucracy! That's a load of horseshit. What Bunnypants did was stick it to union workers, so the contracts given are usually to low-bid contractors. Hence, poverty can return to New Orleans and, mark my words, his cronies will get those contracts and pay their workers minimum wage. Ahh, back to blessed poverty for those underpriveleged. That's the way they should be according to Bunnypants.
Nothing new here. The rich getting richer as the poor get poorer. I'd like to see how many minority owned firms win federal contracts that will be coming down the pike as soon as the hurricane season is over. Remember, folks, the fat lady hasn't even sang on hurricanes quite yet. Rita seemed like a bonafide LSD flashback of Katrina. Pray there aren't more (hurricanes that is , not acid flashbacks).
I wonder if the whole recovery employment scheme will be structured as it is in Iraq. Literally BILLIONS have been spent over there, or I should say charged by Halliburton et.al. (Carlyle Group?, I mean, c'mon, blatant embezzlement of the taxpayers) , and for what? Is Iraq's infrastrucure really back on track? There's a Muslim saying that essentially says don't let a blind man walk without a staff, it might hurt the blind man as well as other people who might get in his way. That's what our current administration has been doing for six years, blind men walking without a staff of political ideas, hurting the whole country as they plow through their fucked up inertia while borrowing more and more money from China, Russia and Japan to pay for everything.
And think of the train wreck that would occur if those loans from our currently friendly allies were called in. Could we pay back the loans? No. Would we pay back the loans? No. What would ensue? Chaos on the order of magnitude this country hasn't seen economically speaking, and possibly much worse. Notice I used the words currently friendly allies. Is it so hard to imagine a day if Russia and China warmed up to each other? Could they benefit from each other eventually enough to become superpowers, as the Soviet Union was mere decades ago?
They could demand to be paid back were they to resume superpower status. I'm not paranoid, but I've delved far enough into the internet to know the Pentagon has documents regarding Sino-Russian counter-offensive attack plans that would blow your mind. I've read them. You can Google for them if you want to read some scary shit. They're some pretty sick motherfuckers who dream up and plan for these types of events.
So Bunnypants, I guess you prayed all your life for the position your in. How does it feel now? Maybe a little lonely at the top? More like the bottom. Even the fools are beginning to catch on with the likes of the Carlyle Group, Halliburton, the Downing Street Memo, the bogus intel that forced us into an unneeded war, the ripping off of U.S. funds, the incompetency of all the current administration, the threat of terrorism that has increased rather than diminish, idiotic Israeli peace plans, global religious wars, viruses yet to be named, this president has proven to be a curse.
Think of what the religious right would be saying about all the destruction that has accompanied George II if Bill Clinton were in office. They would be saying all this was the work of Satan blaming those filthy blow jobs and lewd activities with cigars. But with Bunnypants, it's the work of God and a way for people to come together to help each other out. Mr. President, if you would let the Davis-Bacon Act be, and let some real money go to the recovery projects and the hard working people doing the real work, that might be a beginning for atonement, or maybe at the very least get God off our ass for a couple of years.
Andrew Tobias: THE WORK PENALTY (Sept. 27)
What the Republican leadership has managed so effectively to do is shift the tax burden from wealth to work. It used to be that an heiress who inherited $600 million would pay the same effective 39.6% top rate on her $20 million a year in dividends that a surgeon would pay on his $300,000 in "earned income." But in recent years the Republican leadership has cut her top tax rate from 39.6% to 15%, while cutting the surgeon's top bracket from 39.6% to 35%.
Annalee Newitz: The Glamorous Disease (AlterNet.org)
(Annalee Newitz is a surly media nerd who refuses to eat chocolate-covered garlic.)
If you like Christmas, have a job or family, or laugh at people who are 'weird,' then you just might be neurotypical.
September 28 - After spending the 27th with Tom Bombadil, the hobbits continue their journey. On the Barrow Downs they are captured by a wight (sort of like a vampire, only less socially-inclined), and to all appearances it seems the book will come to an early and disappointing end. Gandalf reaches Sarn Ford, having crossed the Greyflood on the 27th.
Yes, boys and girls, it is time again to 'air our dirty linen' and BrUSH up on our memories of the Ten Commandments. Please note that you will not see this on CBN - but you SHOULD!
I have always believed that Bob Dylan died way back in 1966 !!!!!! This is after he had successfully blown a hole through the music business, pop culture and the whole world! The guy I saw at the Greek Theater in Berkeley in 2002 singing a cover of the rolling Stones hit "Brown Sugar" was merely a caricature of the Bob Dylan I saw at the Berkeley Community Theater back in 1966 singing the second half of the show "Electrically" with the Hawks (later to be the "Band) a newly penned song called "Visions of Johanna"…..Nothing could ever surpass this incredible pinnacle of evolving talent ( well …maybe Mohammed Ali defeating Sonny Liston or Bob Marley singing "One Love") but still…….when Bob had his motorcycle accident and disappeared, I knew he would never, ever be the same!!!!!!!
I was absolutely convinced of the death of Dylan when he came out with "Nashville Skyline" in 1969….."Lay Lady Lay….lay across my big brass bed" Bob and banjos and peddle steal guitars???? Oh the ignobility! Then the face make-up and the "Rolling Thunder Review" !!!!! and finally "Dylan and the Dead"!!!!
Now, for the last two nights on PBS Martin Scorsese's ("Taxi Driver" - "The Last Waltz" - "Michael Jackson's video "BAD" - "The Blues") almost 4 hour docu-drama "Bob Dylan: No Direction Home" 1956 - 1966 !!!! That's right….it ends at 1966! Well Bob Dylan is not really dead but he really looks that way! Somehow they got 10 hours of "willing" interviews with him and some incredible footage of Bob at "Gertie's" and "The Royal Albert Hall" and "Newport" and stuck in the back of a station wagon with oglers and wanna-be's trying to "Crawl in his window"!
Many people thought his name was "god" Dylan back then….and he looked like a prophet, wrote like a prince and sang like a crow! He had no equal and as Allen Ginsberg said "He was breathing fire". This wonderful film goes all the way back to Bob Zimmerman in his Minnesota High School talent show…..pissing everybody off with Rock and Roll. He comes down to New York and steals old records and guitar riffs from people, serenades Woody Guthrie, writes "Blowin' in the Wind" and "The Times They Are a Changin' " and BOOM…. Bob was on a ROLL (acoustic) . Then, after completely crucifying the Folk Music scene with his genius, he decides to ROCK!!! Pissing everbody off! When I saw Bob in 1966, he started the show with his acoustic set and then blew the lid off the place with his cacaphonic and loud clashing band….I mean people were dismayed…what the fuck was he doing???? I just loved the whole scene and to this day I remember :
"Ain't it just like the night to play tricks when you're tryin' to be so quiet?
We sit here stranded though we're all doin our best to deny it.
And Louise holds a handful of rain tempting you to defy it!
Lights flicker from the opposite loft
In this room the heat pipes just cough
The country music station plays soft, but there's nothing, really nothing to turn off!
Just Louise and her lover so entwined
And these visions of Johanna that conquer my mind"!!!!!
Knowing now that they are selling perfume and coffee to Bob Dylan's lyrics, I prefer to maintain the premature proclamation of his death…..but ….bottom line "Thanks BOB for the WORDS" !!!
The lovely cooler-than-seasonal weather disappeared overnight.
Easily 20°s warmer than yesterday.
Talked to dear old Dad - was so cold there last night his furnace kicked on.
Tonight, Thursday:
CBS opens the night with a FRESH'Survivor: Guatemala', followed by a FRESH'CSI: The Original One', then the SEASON PREMIERE'Without A Trace'.
On a RERUNDave (from 9/12/05) are Dr. Phil McGraw and Roger Federer.
Scheduled on a FRESHCraig are Fran Drescher, Robert David Hall, and Jo Dee Messina.
NBC begins the night with a FRESH'Joey', followed by the SEASON PREMIERE'Will & Grace' (LIVE in some time zones), then a FRESH'Apprentice', followed by a FRESH'ER' (starts 1 minute before the top of the hour).
Scheduled on a FRESHLeno are Matthew McConaughey, Angie Harmon, and Supergrass.
Scheduled on a FRESHConan are Jessica Alba, Jeff Garlin, and Sheryl Crow.
Scheduled on a FRESHCarson Daly are Molly Sims, Los Angeles King Jeremy Roenick, and Jasper Redd.
ABC starts the night with the SEASON PREMIERE'Alias', followed by the SERIES PREMIERE'Nightstalker', then 'Primetime'.
On a RERUNJimmy Kimmel (from 9/20/05) are Matthew Fox, Peter Falk, and Blood Brothers.
The WB offers the SEASON PREMIERE'Smallville', followed by the SEASON PREMIERE'Everwood'.
Faux has a FRESH'The O.C.', followed by a FRESH'Reunion'.
UPN has a FRESH'Everybody Hates Chris', followed by a FRESH'Love, Inc', then a FRESH'Eve', followed by a FRESH'Cuts'.
A&E has 'American Justice', followed by a FRESH 2-hour 'Cold Case Files', and 'The First 48'.
AMC offers the movie 'Strange Days', followed by the movie 'Above The Law', then the movie 'The Octagon'.
BBC -
[2pm] 'Monty Python's Flying Circus' - Owl-Stretching Time;
[2:40pm 'Fawlty Towers' - Communication Problems;
[3:20pm 'Fawlty Towers' - Waldorf Salad;
[4pm 'Jonathan Creek' - The Three Gamblers;
[5pm 'Monarch of the Glen' - Episode 1;
[6pm] 'BBC World News';
[6:30pm] 'House Invaders' - Episode 4;
[7pm] 'The Benny Hill Show' - Episode 24;
[8pm] 'Cash in the Attic' - Episode 4;
[9pm] 'Bodies' - Episode 1;
[10:15pm] 'Monty Python's Flying Circus' - Ep. 11 Dennis Moore;
[11pm] 'Monty Python's Flying Circus' - Owl-Stretching Time;
[11:40pm] 'Little Britain' - Episode 1;
[12:20am] 'Little Britain' - Episode 2;
[1am] 'Bodies' - Episode 1;
[2:15am] 'Monty Python's Flying Circus' - Ep. 11 Dennis Moore;
[3am] 'The Saint' - The Russian Prisoner;
[4am] 'The Saint' - The House on Dragon's Rock;
[5am] 'The Saint' - The Convenient Monster;
[6am] 'BBC World News'. (ALL TIMES EDT)
Bravo has 'West Wing', followed by the movie 'Waterworld'.
Comedy Central has 'Comedy Central Presents' (Mario Cantone), 'Reno 911!', last night's 'Jon Stewart', 'Laffapalooza', 'South Park', another 'South Park', followed by a FRESH'Showbiz Show With David Spade'.
Scheduled on a FRESHJon Stewart is Sen. Chuck Schumer.
IFC -
[6AM] 'Bodies, Rest and Motion' (1993);
[7:45AM] Short: 'Upheaval' (2001);
[8AM] 'Zelig' (1983);
[9:30AM] 'Stardust Memories' (1980);
[11AM] 'At the IFC Center' (2005);
[11:30AM] 'Short: 'Shame No More' (1999);
[11:45AM] 'IFC in Theaters' (2005);
[12PM] 'Our Song' (2000);
[1:45PM] 'Waking Life' (2000);
[3:30PM] 'You See Me Laughin'' (2002);
[5PM] 'Our Song' (2000);
[6:45PM] 'Waking Life' (2000);
[8:30PM] 'Bamboozled' (2000);
[11PM] 'She's Gotta Have It' (1986);
[12:45AM] 'American History X' (1998);
[3AM] 'She's Gotta Have It' (1986);
[4:35AM] 'Let's Talk About Sex' (1998). (ALL TIMES EDT)
SciFi has the movie 'Epicenter', followed by the movie 'Path Of Destruction'.
Sundance -
[7AM] 'The Al Franken Show': (09/28/05);
[8AM] 'John Henrik Clarke: A Great and Mighty Walk';
[9:35AM] 'Riot On Sunset Strip';
[11AM] 'The Al Franken Show': (09/28/05);
[12PM] 'Seventeen';
[1:35PM] 'Rick';
[3:10{M] 'Derrida';
[4:40PM] 'Basquiat';
[6:30PM] 'Hermitage-niks': A Passion for the Hermitage: Episode 5 - The Remains of an Era;
[7PM] 'Keeping Time: New Music from America's Roots Episode 4';
[7:25PM] 'I Am Trying to Break Your Heart';
[9PM] 'Fuse';
[11PM] 'TransGeneration': Episode 2;
[11:30PM] 'The Al Franken Show': (09/29/05);
[12:30AM] 'Basquiat';
[2:20AM] 'Press Any Button';
[2:30AM] 'The Al Franken Show': (09/29/05);
[3:30AM] 'City of Hope';
[5:40AM] 'Westray'. (ALL TIMES EDT)
Actress Angelina Jolie, left, Ambassador Richard Holbrooke, now chief executive oficer of the Global Business Coalition, center, and Sen. Joe Bidet, D-Del., right, attend a roundtable discussion on improving the way the public and private sectors can work together to promote global AIDS relief on Capitol Hill Wednesday, Sept. 28, 2005 in Washington. Leading business executives and lawmakers gathered to discuss business and government collaboration on AIDS relief.
Photo by Charles Dharapak
The US military's conduct towards journalists in Iraq, including their increasing detention and accidental shootings, is hampering the media's ability to cover the war, Reuters international news agency complained in a letter to a US senator.
The news agency complained of "a long parade of disturbing incidents whereby professional journalists have been killed, wrongfully detained and or illegally abused by US forces in Iraq", in the letter to Virginia Republican Senator, John Warner, head of the US Senate Armed Services Committee.
Reuters also accused US forces of "unduly preventing US citizens from receiving information... and undermining the very freedoms the US says it is seeking to foster every day that it commits US lives and US dollars".
According to Reporters Without Borders, 68 journalists and media workers have been killed in the Iraq conflict since March 2003.
Another musician has tested the tolerance level for bad language on prime-time television, but she's no raucous rock star. Would you believe it's Joan Baez?
The 64-year-old folkie was interviewed as part of "Bob Dylan: No Direction Home," the two-part "American Masters" series directed by Martin Scorsese that aired this week on PBS. She talked about how frustrating Dylan could often be for fellow musicians, using the f-word.
PBS said both "clean" and unedited versions of the film were sent out to its 349 stations, leaving it up to the local station managers to decide their community's tolerance for language.
To the best of her knowledge, only New York's WNET-TV - the nation's largest TV market and Scorsese's hometown - aired the unedited version, PBS spokeswoman Lee Sloan said Wednesday.
Caroline Kennedy signs copies of her book 'A Family of Poems,' Wednesday, Sept. 28, 2005, at a Barnes & Noble bookstore in New York.
Photo by Diane Bondareff
Viacom Inc.'s Infinity Broadcasting radio unit will put five or six personalities on the air to replace departing shock jock Howard Stern.
Infinity Radio CEO Joel Hollander spoke about life without Stern -- who is set to move in January to Sirius Satellite Radio Inc. -- at an advertising conference in New York earlier this week.
Hollander declined to disclose who the Stern replacements were, but said they will be named "very shortly."
Are Ben and Jen expecting a girl? Jennifer Garner appeared on NBC's "Tonight Show" on Tuesday night, and seemed to refer to her baby as a "she."
"You can just start to feel really pregnant. Like you are the hugest person on the face of the planet. ... And then I felt just bigger and bigger like she ..." Oops. Garner put both hands over her mouth.
"We have one or the other for sure," replied Garner, who is married to her "Daredevil" co-star Ben Affleck.
Vivienne Westwood has launched a line of T-shirts to take a stand against proposed anti-terror legislation.
"I am not a terrorist. Please don't arrest me," says one T-shirt, which Westwood designed to raise funds for Liberty, one of Britain's largest civil rights organizations.
Another design says: "Liberty throw away the key."
A set of Beatles lyrics handwritten by John Lennon on the back of a phone bill failed to sell at auction Wednesday.
The 17-line draft of "I'm Only Sleeping" had been expected to sell for at least $350,000, but failed to reach its reserve price at Christie's auction house. The song was featured on the band's 1966 album, "Revolver."
David Stang, brother of American nun Dorothy Stang, speaks during a news conference, in Brasilia, Brazil, on Wednesday, Sept. 28, 2005. Stang arrived Thursday in Brazil to meet with government officials, his second visit since 73-year-old Dorothy Stang was shot to death Feb. 12 in the eastern Amazon state of Para.
Photo by Eraldo Peres
Erotic drawings by Italian film director Federico Fellini showing his unusual taste in women are proving popular with art lovers in Austria, where an exhibition opened this month.
A gallery in Krems, north Austria, has seen great interest in its "Erotomachia" exhibition, which assembles 29 erotic drawings sketched by Fellini in his twilight years 1991-1992, a spokeswoman for the Karikaturmuseam, Katrin Draxl, told AFP.
The drawings feature his last mistress -- Gianna -- with whom Fellini spent several years before his death in 1993 at the age of 73.
"Live 2 Tell," a script written by late rapper Tupac "2Pac" Shakur, is being developed as a feature film, with shooting set to begin in March, the project's producer said Tuesday.
Insomnia Media Group acquired the property from Shakur's mother, Afeni Shakur, who will produce the project with Preston Holmes, associate producer of "Hustle & Flow."
The script, which actor-rapper Shakur wrote in 1995 as a starring vehicle for himself, centers on a black teen from the projects who becomes a drug kingpin and then turns his life around.
French mime artist Marcel Marceau performs during a show in Vina del Mar, about 85 miles (137 km) northwest of Chile's capital Santiago, September 27, 2005.
Photo by Eliseo Fernandez
He topped Nashville charts, conquered New York publishing and is the subject of a new movie. Now the late Johnny Cash will reach Broadway in February with the opening of "Ring of Fire," a musical featuring the classic songs of the legend known as "The Man in Black."
The producers said on Wednesday the musical featuring 38 of Cash's songs would begin performances in New York in February, directed by Richard Maltby, who won a Tony Award for conceiving and directing the Fats Waller musical "Ain't Misbehavin'."
The musical, which is playing a pre-Broadway engagement in Buffalo, New York, this month, features all the hits from "I Walk the Line" to "The Man in Black" and "Country Boy."
A new exhibit celebrating the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts' 200th birthday is providing a first-ever peek at privately held paintings by American icons from Winslow Homer to Andy Warhol.
"In Private Hands" features 100 paintings by American artists, donated by 54 collectors nationwide, that span the two centuries of the academy's existence. It opens Saturday and runs through Jan. 8.
A blind giraffe called 'Hope' (top) licks another giraffe at Sydney's Taronga Zoo September 28, 2005 while awaiting her feeding time. The 22-year-old giraffe was not born blind, but in recent years has lost her sight, said zoo officials.
Photo by Andrew Caballero-Reynolds
George Washington's Mount Vernon estate laid the cornerstone Wednesday for a monument to alcohol history: a reconstruction of the distillery where the nation's first president produced a great quantity, if not a great quality, of whiskey.
In 1799 - just his third year of production - Washington produced nearly 11,000 gallons of rye whiskey and turned a profit of $7,500, more than $100,000 in today's dollars. But because he didn't age his whiskey, his liquor never had the rich color and mellow taste modern whiskeys acquire by sitting for years in oak barrels.
"This would have been white lightning," said James Rees, executive director of the Mount Vernon estate.
Danish archeologists said Wednesday they found the well-preserved skeletal remains of an Iron Age woman while excavating an ancient grave site in a suburb of Copenhagen.
The woman, who was between 20 and 40 when she died, probably lived around the year A.D. 400, said Tom Giersing of the Kroppedal Museum in Taastrup.
"What we find interesting is her bones are well-preserved and she had jewelry - glass pearls and a metal chain - which could indicate that she was wealthy," said Giersing, who headed the excavation.
These images provided by the U.S. Postal Service show new 37-cent postage stamps featuring Jim Henson's Muppet characters. Henson and his beloved Muppets were unveiled on U.S. postage stamps in Los Angeles, Wednesday, Sept. 28, 2005 at the National Academy of the Television Arts & Sciences. The first-day-of-issue dedication ceremony for the Jim Henson: The Man Behind the Muppets commemorative stamp sheet coincides with the 50th anniversary of Henson's most famous Muppet, Kermit the Frog. The 11 stamp pane of 37-cent First-Class stamps is available in North Hollywood, Calif. Wednesday and nationwide Thursday.
Rankings for the top 15 programs on basic cable networks as compiled by Nielsen Media Research for the week of Sept. 19-25. Each ratings point represents 1,102,000 households. Day and start time (EDT) are in parentheses.
1. NFL Football: N.Y. Giants vs. San Diego (Sunday, 8:28 p.m.), ESPN, 6.5, 7.19 million homes.
2. "Special Report: Emergency Plane Landing" (Wednesday, 8:38 p.m.), Fox News Channel, 3.5, 3.82 million homes.
3. "Nip/Tuck" (Tuesday, 10 p.m.), FX, 3.4, 3.78 million homes.
4. "Hannity & Colmes" (Wednesday, 9 p.m.), Fox News Channel, 3.4, 3.78 million homes.
5. "Larry King Live" (Wednesday, 9 p.m.), CNN, 3.4, 3.72 million homes.
6. "Fox News Live" (Saturday, 9 a.m.), Fox News Channel, 3.3, 3.6 million homes.
7. Auto Racing: Nextel Cup (Sunday, 1:04 p.m.), TNT, 3.1, 3.41 million homes.
8. "Nextel Post Race Show" (Sunday, 4:58 p.m.), TNT, 3.1, 3.38 million homes.
9. "Fox & Friends Saturday" (Saturday, 8:36 a.m.), Fox News Channel, 3.0, 3.3 million homes.
10. "WWE Raw Zone" (Monday, 10 p.m.), Spike, 3.0, 3.25 million homes.
11. "WWE Raw" (Monday, 9 p.m.), Spike, 2.9, 3.22 million homes.
12. "The Cost of Freedom" (Saturday, 10 a.m.), Fox News Channel, 2.9, 3.21 million homes.
13. "Fox & Friends Saturday" (Saturday, 8 a.m.), Fox News Channel, 2.9, 3.14 million homes.
14. "Special Report: New Orleans News Conference" (Saturday, 8:24 a.m.), Fox News Channel, 2.8, 3.08 million homes.
15. "The O'Reilly Factor" (Friday, 8 p.m.), Fox News Channel, 2.8, 3.07 million homes.
In this photo provided by the Zoological Society of San Diego, veterinarians give the San Diego Zoo's 8-week-old female giant panda cub her first vaccination Wednesday, Sept. 28, 2005, in San Diego. The cub barely noticed the shot, turning only slightly towards the veterinarian and then lowering her head returning to her slumber. The female cub weighed 6.4 pounds, a gain of one pound since last week's exam, and measured 1.5 feet from the tip of her nose to the end of her tail.
Photo by Ken Bohn
You have reached the Home page of BartCop Entertainment.
Make yourself home, take your shoes off...
Go ahead, scratch it if it itches.
The idea is to have fun.
Do you have something to say?
Anything that increased your blood pressure, or, even better,
amused or entertained?
Do you have a great album no one's heard?
How about a favorite TV show, movie, book, play, cartoon, or legal amusement?
A popular artist that just plain pisses you off?
A box set the whole world should own?
Vile, filthy rumors about Republican musicians?
Just plain vile, filthy rumors?
This is your place.
