The bailout and what we can do about it...

So, here's my favorite article on the approval of this raping of the American poor our government is calling the "bailout".



I believe we are heading very quickly toward a facist country. I truly believe they, read: gov't/big business, want total control of us. The best way to fight is to take the control out of their hands and put it back in the hands of the people.



Build our own homes



Grow our own food whether we live in an urban area or in the country



School our own children



We don't need to fight - fighting makes them stronger - we need to withdrawl from their system to limit an/or completely take away their control.



Peace

Scamming the Poor

A lot has been happening to the poor and the middle class. Hidden fees, interest a loan shark wouldn't charge and companies just plain taking advatage of us. Our family got hosed this week by our interenet provider, Com Cast. Com Cast recently bought out Adelphia as the local cable/internet company in this area. They did a bad (to put it mildly) job of transfering all their newly aquried accounts (ours included). Everytime we would call they would spend a half hour just trying to find us in the system *sigh*

The last time we called they said we had never been offically switched over and once they did so our bill increased $20. We paid the bill and then the next week we received a shut off notice. They had created another account, not replaced the old one, and so even though we had paid our bill they still thought we owed them money. Hence we were shut off.

The best part is when you call you can't talk to a person. It's all automated, so to get our internet turned back on we had to pay the bill we didn't owe and now, after the fact, we have to try and get ahold of a person and sort it out to get our money back (I'm not holding my breath).

*double sigh*

It's not a mistake, it's a scam. I heard last week on Fresh Air with Terri Gross that businesses do this sort of thing on purpose all the time and it's only getting worse as corporations run amuck, completely unchecked in our society, raping and pillaging the working poor.

So I'm back online, although I don't know for how long. We can barely afford one bill, we certainly can't afford two.

Wal-Mart's Crimes Against Forests

Wal-Mart's Crimes Against Forests

* By Al Norman
Huffington Post, December 19, 2007
Straight to the Source

from Alternet.org



If a tree falls in the forest, will Wal-Mart hear the sound?

Apparently not, according to an environmental investigative report released this week on Wal-Mart's unsustainable timber procurement practices. The new study says Wal-Mart's "good wood" procurement policy only looks good on paper.

Last month, Wal-Mart released a 59-page "Sustainability" progress report, in which the company said "we want to provide our customers with the assurance that not only are they getting value and quality, but they are getting a product that was produced in a socially responsible manner." But the retailer's wood procurement policies are basically all bark, and no bite.

Wal-Mart sells wood products ranging from furniture, to picture frames, candle holders, tooth picks and popsicle sticks. The typical Wal-Mart supercenter can carry more than 900 different wood products. Wal-Mart tells the public that "an area of forest the size of a football field is cleared every second. That's 86,400 football fields a day. In tropical forests, it's estimated that 50,000 species become extinct each year because of deforestation." The retailer has a "Forest and Paper Network" that seeks to get its suppliers to convert to certified wood, and to give preference to suppliers who can verify the use of sustainably harvested wood fiber. "When we discover sustainable factory issues, we are committed to seeking alternatives," the company says, "or even removing products from shelves."

Based on this pledge, the Simplicity corporation should expect a call any day now from Wal-Mart, pulling Simplicity's wooden cribs from its shelves. An undercover study released this week by the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA), a non-profit research agency based in Washington, D.C., says that despite the company's rhetoric about sustainable wood products, "Wal-Mart is turning a blind eye to illegal timber sources in its supply chain which threaten some of the world's last great natural forests."

According to EIA, Wal-Mart does not ask its suppliers where their wood comes from, and the retailer's 'don't ask' policy "is having particularly dangerous consequences for the high conservation value forest of the Russian Far East and the endangered species dependent on them, including the world's largest cat, the Siberian tiger.

Roughly 84 percent of Wal-Mart's wood products, like cribs and toilet seats, are sourced from China, and much of China's lumber is imported from Russia, where as much as 50 percent of the logging is illegal. EIA undercover investigators met with 8 Chinese manufacturers that supply Wal-Mart with wood. EIA asserts that Wal-Mart is focused only on price, and "has not concerned itself with the origin of the timber used for its products." Wal-Mart's supply chain "will contribute to the depletion of Russia's 'protected' forests unless concerted changes are made," the EIA warns.

One supplier EIA examined makes over 200,000 baby cribs for Wal-Mart every year from Russian poplar and birch. EIA employees, posing as wood buyers, learned that Wal-Mart suppliers admitted to paying protection money to the Russian mafia, and to illegal logging. Almost comical is the fact that logs coming into China from Russia have to be offloaded from the railcars, and reloaded onto Chinese railcars, because the Russian train tracks are a different size than the Chinese. When Wal-Mart customers buy these wood products, they are supporting "criminal timber syndicates," the environmental group says.

Wal-Mart has pledged to "develop transparency to the wood fiber source," but EIA replies that the retailer has shown a "lack of concern" about the sustainability of its wood sourcing. Illegally harvested wood is cheaper because it bypasses environmental regulations, permits, labor laws, taxes and tariffs. Illegal lumber also has a negative impact on the American economy. In 2004, illegal timber cost American suppliers $460 million in lost exports to foreign markets, and as much as $700 million in depressed U.S. prices.

The EIA claims that Wal-Mart's drive to squeeze the lowest price from its suppliers encourages illegal logging. "While the company has laid out strong talking points," EIA notes, "it has thus far avoided taking any firm action to eliminate even illegally logged timber from its supply chain, much less to source from sustainably harvested forests." The group says that without concrete goals and more transparency, all Wal-Mart's rhetoric about 'good wood' "cannot yet be taken seriously." EIA documents several case studies of Wal-Mart's "total inattention to the legality of their raw materials."

The EIA report calls on Wal-Mart "to commit to eliminating illegally sourced wood from its supply chain, and to implement a rigorous purchasing policy for wood products that includes auditing and tracking mechanisms." EIA concludes that "the drive for 'everyday low prices' to the exclusion of other questions has a serious cost..The type of logging pervasive in the Russian Far East damages the environment, robs the government of revenue, and promotes corruption. There is nothing sustainable about this model."

Wal-Mart admits "it's difficult to know if the products we source are coming from certified suppliers and are being made using legally sustainable practices." But the EIA says it's not enough for Wal-Mart simply to acknowledge the problem. "It is now time for Wal-Mart to commit to eliminating illegal wood from its shelves, and communicate this policy to its suppliers of furniture, frames, toys, paper and packaging and other wood products," the EIA insists. "Wal-Mart shoppers do not want to be an inadvertent party to forest crimes."

Alexander von Bismarck, the Executive Director of EIA, says, "To have Wal-Mart ignore measures that to the rest of the world seem common sense -- such as asking where your suppliers' wood is from -- has an enormous impact. It undermines the current global efforts to clean up the timber industry. When Wal-Mart fails to implement an entire category of environmental responsibility, it creates demand designed to take advantage of that. This is currently feeding the illegal logging problem." The EIA believes that Wal-Mart has within its power the ability to "limit the destruction of some of our planet's final frontier forests and the wildlife and people who depend upon them."

Today, there are more than 6,800 Wal-Mart stores around the globe (the company recently opened its 3,000th international store), but only 400 remaining Siberian tigers. That's not very sustainable odds.

Al Norman is the author of The Case Against Wal-Mart. Forbes magazine has called him "Wal-Mart's number one enemy."

(C) 2007 Independent Media Institute. All rights reserved.
View this story online at: http://www.alternet.org/story/71103/

Beyond a Depression

I've been thinking about economics and talking it over with Seth. When one thinks of the great depression of the 1920's and 30's one usually thinks of high unemployment, people selling apples on the streets and car loads of farmers moving to California. Those were hard times but I think we're in even harder ones and this is why.







During the depression you had high unemployment however I think the rate of people under-employed in this country is much higher now than the unemployment rate during the depression. This is more dangerous because we are tricked into believing there is little or nothing wrong because we are all "getting by" better than the unemployed during the depression.

But how are people getting by these days - on credit cards.

I know a man who works as a manager at a major grocery store chain. He's a hard worker who's held this position for many years. He makes around 30,000 a year - which use to be a nice income. Now, that ENTIRE income would barely pay the mortage on a simple two bedroom home (and not just here in Northern Cali but in places like Utah too).

We are importing mass amounts of cheap goods from overseas, namely China, so we have "stuff." Our "stuff" keeps us in an illusion of getting by that those during the depression didn't have. If we suddenly had to give up all our cheap made goods it would turn into an employed depression here in the US. Think about it. All the clothes, dishes, toys, food, furniture, and nick nacks - all of it would be too expensive to afford much, if any, on the salaries that US workers make. If we suddenly had to buy all US crafted goods as they did during the depression it would be another depression.







My partner makes a decent enough income that, in times gone by, would have afforded us a decent, moderate lifestyle. Now we can barely pay our rent, we're on food stamps, and we have to stretch every penny. We could probably be getting by a little "better" if we shopped at Walmart and used credit cards but we refuse to do that for obvious reasons.

So what happens? We can't continue a civilization propted up on an inflated, valueless dollar and mass credit debt. It's troubling but, again, it seems that localization is key. I can't think of any other solution.

Celebrate Buy Nothing Day on Friday; No Purchase Necessary

Celebrate Buy Nothing Day on Friday; No Purchase Necessary

* Something Comes From Nothing
Celebrate Buy Nothing Day on Friday; no purchase necessary
Grist Magazine, Nov 20, 2007
Straight to the Source

Thousands of people the world over plan to celebrate what's usually the biggest shopping day of the year by ... not buying anything. That's right, it's almost time for Buy Nothing Day, celebrated Nov. 23 in the U.S. and Canada and Nov. 24 in the rest of the world, drawing attention to how easy it is to stop, drop, and not shop. The poor, the hungover, and the lazy aren't the only ones getting in on the no-buying action. Activists across the globe will be staging events at malls and sprawling superstores near you, encouraging people to take a day of rest from rampant consumerism. And the best part: you don't have to worry about what to get for your friends -- to celebrate, simply buy nothing! If only the other holidays could be so simple.

source: Adbusters

Pennsylvania Bars Hormone-Free Milk Labels

Pennsylvania Bars Hormone-Free Milk Labels

* By Mark Scolforo
Associated Press, November 14, 2007
Straight to the Source

from STLtoday.com

HARRISBURG, Pa. - Pennsylvania is stopping dairies from stamping milk containers with hormone-free labels in a precedent-setting decision being closely watched by the industry.

Synthetic hormones have been used to improve milk production in cows for more than a decade. The chemical has not been detected in milk, so there is no way to test for its use, but a growing number of retailers have been selling and promoting hormone-free products in response to consumer demand.

State Agriculture Secretary Dennis C. Wolff said advertising one brand of milk as free from artificial hormones implies that competitors' milk is not safe, and it often comes with what he said is an unjustified higher price.

"It's kind of like a nuclear arms race," Wolff said. "One dairy does it and the next tries to outdo them. It's absolutely crazy."

Agricultural regulators in New Jersey and Ohio are considering following suit, the latest battle in a long dispute over whether injecting cows with bovine growth hormone affects milk.

Effective Jan. 1, dairies selling milk in Pennsylvania, the nation's fifth-largest dairy state, will be banned from advertising on milk containers that their product comes from cows that have never been treated with rBST, or recombinant bovine somatotropin.

Full Story: http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/business/stories.nsf/sto...
86257393000E2AD0?OpenDocument

Need or Greed? (Thanks to Enrique!)

This article below got me thinking. We go to the movies about 4 times
per year for special shows, *if* I buy a card instead of making it I
buy one from the co-op or health food store, I hate jeans, I don't
drink, I use cloth diapers, I don't go toStarfucks, I don't eat Oreo's, I don't smoke, I've had two Krispy Kremes in my whole life and someone else bought those, and I don't have an iPod.

What does my family spend our money on? Other than rent, basic bills (power, phone, internet), and reinvesting in our home businesses, here's are top expenses....

1.
Food, we spend about 50-100 per week on food. $27 for our local farm
share and then another 50 or so on organic grain, raw milk, rice milk,
butter, cheese, beans, etc.

2. Gas, at 3.33 per gallon it costs me $8 for a round trip to the biggest city near us, Ukiah, which is only 14 miles away.

3. Homeschool supplies, from our local craft shop.

4 and 5 Would be Netflix and our sponsor child, Anjali, in Nepal

7. Laundry

8. Toilet paper, shampoo etc.

9. Going out to eat. Seth get's
Taco Bell regularly (BLAH!). When I'm too busy to cook I might swing by
the organic fast food place here for a Burrito about once or twice a
month.

10. Clothes and stuff at the thrift shop




NEED OR GREED ??


Daily U.S. Consumption for 12 Items
by the editors of Publications International, Ltd.

Living
in the United States has its perks. If you want to brush your teeth,
you can buy a toothbrush. If you outgrow your pants, you can shop for a
new pair. If you need a soy latte and aTwinkie, you can get those pretty easily, too.

America
is definitely "the land of plenty," and the statistics that follow
offer a glimpse of how many goods U.S. consumers use every day and how
much they spend on them. The numbers may surprise you.


Americans spend $14
billion annually on
denim pants.
1. Movie Tickets -- 3.8 million

If
the average cost of a movie is $7, Americans spend about $26.6 million
a day at movie theaters. Take that number times 365, and the industry
rakes in $9.7 billion annually, which doesn't include profits from
popcorn, soda sales, or DVDs.

2. Greeting Cards -- 19.2 million

There's
a card for every occasion -- heck, there's a card for occasions you
didn't even know existed! Between birthday, holiday, and "just because"
cards, Americans show loved ones they care by spending $7.5 billion a
year on greeting cards.

3. Denim Jeans -- 641,000 pairs

Since
Levi Strauss invented blue jeans in 1873, Americans have loved the
fashionable pants. Whether you're buying a pair of generic jeans at a
discount store or plunking down $300 for designer denim, the blue-jeans
industry is big business in the United States. Today, the average price
of a pair of jeans comes to about $60, which means Americans spend
about $38.5 million on denim pants every day, or $14 billion annually.

4. Domestic Beer Kegs -- 975,000

Where
there's a big celebration, or a bar, there are kegs of beer. Kegs of
premium beer can get into the $200 range, but we're talking about goodol
' American macro-brews. These average $60 per keg, so Americans spend
about $58.5 million on them. Consumers down around 356 million kegs per
year, which works out to more than $21 billion per year.




5. Pampers -- 300,000 packs

Pampers
has the market cornered on the needs of new parents and sells its Jumbo
pack (56 diapers) for around $13. Americans spend $3.9 million a
day -- $1.4 billion a year -- keeping baby bottoms dry.

6. Cosmetic Procedures -- 20,000

Liposuction alone boasts about 1,000 procedures a day, and Botox
injections have hit the 5,000-a-day mark. Whether you're going in for a
tummy tuck or an eye lift, you can expect to pay an average of $1,700
for an appointment with a plastic surgeon. This means that the American
cosmetic surgery industry makes about $34 million a day or $12.4
billion every year.

7. Axe Body Spray -- 28,876 cans

Priced
around $5 per can, this deodorizer for frat boys and jocks pulls in
approximately $145,000 every day. Guys are spending about $53 million a
year to smell nice -- and the ladies thank them for it.

8. Starbucks Coffee -- 153,424 pounds

The little Seattle coffee shop that could is now an internationally
recognized
trademark that rivals McDonald's when it comes to brand identification
and customer loyalty. Americans like their Starbucks so much that the
company orders around 56 million pounds of coffee beans every year.

WHAT
IF THEY ONLY ORDERED FAIR TRADE ORGANIC COFFEE ?? IMAGINE THAT '? COULD
THEY JUST STOP PUTTING THESE LIL FUCKERS ON EVERY CORNER & JUST
SETTLE ON EVERY OTHER CORNER ??

9. Oreo Cookies -- 205,000 bags

An
18-ounce package of the iconic chocolate cookie filled with vanilla
frosting is going to set a person back about $3.99. That means
Americans spend nearly $818,000 every day, or about $300 million each
year, on their belovedOreos.

10. Cigarettes -- 1.1 billion

With huge campaigns by antitobacco
activists and health organizations across the country, Americans smoke
a lot less than they did in the past. Still, the tobacco industry is a
juggernaut, selling more than 400 billion smokes a year. With the
average cost of a pack at $3.50, the U.S. spends $70 billion a year on
cigarettes.

11. Krispy Kreme Doughnuts -- 1.9 million

This statistic refers to the Original Glazed variety of Krispy Kremes, served piping hot at various spots along the daily commute. If each doughnut costs 79 cents, Krispy Kreme
businesses pull in more than $1.5 million a day on Original Glazed
doughnuts alone. That's not including crullers, jelly-filled doughnuts,
or coffee.

12. iPods -- 88,163

The iPod is essentially a
portable hard drive with headphones. Apple CEO Steve Jobs and his team
of savvy engineers revolutionized the entire music industry with theiPod. A 30-gigabyte iPod
that holds 7,500 songs and 40 hours of video costs $249. The price goes
up from there, depending on added features, or skip the video and the
price goes down. Still, on average, that's about $18 million a day and
more than $6.4 billion a year -- music to Apple's ears.

Bank Accounts

OK, So I'm intrigued with being able to live without a bank account.
I've tried it so many times in the past but always had to go back to
using it for one reason or another. Seth and I have tried prepaid card
to use like credit cards for online things but it hasn't worked because
they require that three digit number from the back of your card these
days for security which nopre pays I've seen have.

Also, we want to buy land in a few years, how do we build credit without a bank account?

I've heard of the glory of credit unions but we don't qualify for any of the ones I've ever checked out.

If anyone knows the answers please comment! I'd love to get a conversation about this started! :)

Peace and Love