Regulate the Rich. Make them play nice.

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  • Exxon Mobil makes $76,000 per minute.
  • Exxon Mobil paid on $5 bililion dollars in income taxes last year to the US government.
  • Exxon Mobil paid $25 billion dollars to foreign governments.
  • Exxon Mobil made $400 billion dollars last year.

Also take a look at this yesterdays FT(7/29) article pg 18 “Shells sets pace as big oil lifts R&D spend” in the Financial Times by Ed Crooks to see how they are apparently price fixing, which I deduced sense the oil companies are spending far less than they should on R&D. And the article pg 2 “US Treasury blames supply and demand for oil prices” by James Politi that shows how they even have the US Treasury Department in on this deadly game.

Facts from Conde Nast Portfolio, Crude Reporting by Howell Raines 08/08

Hey they pay less of a percentage of their income on taxes than I do? I’m a human being that works.

Exxon Mobile Oil formerly Standard Oil was started by the John Rockefeller and his descendants still sit on the board (puts it all in an interesting historical perspective).

Now Rockefellers is synonymous with arts and NY and some odd looking guy running for various offices and another one who was VP, but that was just a great PR campaign. Pretty easy for them, since they own pretty much own either indirectly or directly everything we read.

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The origins of “El Verde”

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Just who is “El Verde” ? How did he come to be ? What’s his favorite kind of tamal ? Those are all questions that will be answered when “El Verde” returns to Casa 0101 this weekend. I had the opportunity to interview Anthony Aguilar, who is the writer and actor behind “El Verde,” to explain some of the shows conceptual origins. For those of you who aren’t familiar with “El Verde,” the show follows the heroic/comedic escapades of Arturo Sanchez, who immigrated from Mexico to live a normal life, but had his world forever changed when he was involved in a freak elote accident, turning him into “El Verde.” Continue reading →

The baby sparrow I found

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 Say hello to my little friend, Passer Domesticus AKA chirpy-boy or as the Los Angeles Department of Animal Services knows him, A0968416  N  . I found chirpy-boy Friday night while walking back home when I saw him/her in the corner of my eye. Chirpy-boy was on the floor next to a wall. I walked up to him/her and instead of flying away, he/she bounced away and that’s when I knew something was wrong with him/her. I chased him/her a little bit more to make sure and he/she could fly away and he/she didn’t. I also noticed how small chirpy-boy is, so I knew he/she was still a baby. I managed to corner chirpy-boy and grab him/her with my hand. In my hand I could feel all of chirpy-boys body trembling and his heart pounding. It felt as if my whole hand was throbbing at a high rate. At the same time when I picked up chirpy-boy he/she screamed and bit my palm as hard as he/she could, it didn’t hurt. One thing you have to understand about me is that I’m an animal advocate,lover and owner of a black lab (Harley Quinn) that saved my life and helped me lose 20 lbs. Animals and advocating for their welfare is something close to my heart. I have written about the horrors of puppy mills/pet stores, at my schools news paper and have helped other’s realize/understand that if they decided to take in an animal, adopting is always the best bet. (This could go on for days so yeah, I’ll stop now). With chirpy-boy in one hand and my birthday cake on the other, I headed home and made arrangements for chirpy-boy spending the night until the morning, when I would take him to the North Central Animal Shelter. 

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REPORT FROM SAN DIEGO COMIC CON- The Final Days Cometh

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REPORT FROM SAN DIEGO COMIC CON
Days Three, Four, Five, Six, – Quien Chingáos Sabe?……
By Al Desmadre
San Diego, CA, Sunday July 27, 2008

Ahh, another year, another Comic Con come and gone. Only sweet memories remain, lingering like the pungent aromas of the Nerd Herds even now fading from these Cheesy Nacho littered halls of the great San Diego Convention Center…. Continue reading →

Westside or Eastside?

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(This post was submitted by a reader of the site, some text dealing with the whole Eastside/Westside “debate”. It might have already been said, but it’s good to remember this info.)

Recently, I received an email posting about a new magazine set to launch soon. What’s wrong with that you ask? The magazine is going to cover the new “eastside”…..say what?!

Traditionally, Angelenos have referred to Los Angeles by two major halves: Westside and Eastside. In recent years during the process of gentrification, demographic shifts, and social trends, there have been some efforts in renaming geographic areas from its traditional identifiers.

As the areas of Echo Park and Silverlake began to emerge in the 90’s as hip and trendy neighborhoods, some people have been on a quest to rename these locations and its surrounding areas as the new “eastside.”

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Eastside 101: Elotes

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Okay kids, lets lower those voices, class is about to begin. Ahem. Thank you all for showing up to yet another lesson in the Eastside 101 lecture series, an online extension program of the UGTWHTUPAY4 university. For those of you that have been taking notes, this series was started some time ago over at blogging.la as a way to shine some light on the life of those on the Eastside, that seemingly invisible place just on the other side of the river. Though the original mission of this series seems to have served its purpose (namely, defending the definition of the term Eastside) I still have a few insights and tips to share with all of you that might be interested. I’m crossing my fingers that I don’t unintentionally give away some secrets!

Oh yeah, the subject this time is Elotes!

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REPORT FROM SAN DIEGO COMIC CON- Day 2

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San Diego Comic-Con 2008, Day Two,

Thursday July 24, 2008

By Al Desmadre

San Diego, CA.

Complete sensory overload compounded by unyielding waves of costumed humanity funneling themselves through row after row of vendors, mobbing displays containing everything imaginable from the worlds of Fantasy, Science-Fiction, Games, Toys, Posters, Books, Clothing, Jewelry, Art, Television, Movies and Comic Books. Presentations for every upcoming multimedia release and more promotional swag than you’ll ever know what to do with. And if you try to see it all in one day, you’ll go Mad. Continue reading →

The dancing bicycle rider of Boyle Heights

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I need some help. The man in the picture below is a complete mystery to me. He may look like an ordinary man riding his bicycle, but he’s not. I have come across this man before and I haven’t been able to get a clear picture of him, till now. Even though he’s missing half his arm and leg, you can get a good view of the man who rides around yelling and performing acrobatics/dancing on his bicycle.

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REPORT FROM SAN DIEGO COMIC CON

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San Diego Comic-Con 2008, Day One,
Wednesday July 23, 2008
By Al Desmadre
San Diego, CA.

The first thing that strikes me about coming to Comic-Con in San Diego, is the stark human contrasts one sees in everyday settings during this week. Generally speaking, San Diego is a conservative, laid back, kind of military oriented type of town. At my hotel, mainly you see a lot of old white guys smoking cigars and talking about golf and boats. Continue reading →

Attack on Salsas!

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First they came for our raw tomatoes. Then they came for our chiles, lumping jalapenos in with serranos, just cuz some fools can’t tell the difference. And now, in a total assault against Mexicans and their salsas, they’re setting their targets on molcajetes, that ancient and simple kitchen tool used to grind down ingredients by hand.

When will the insanity end? At what point do we take up arms to defend our simple condiments? I wonder if right after they ordered the planes into the towers, the Ketchup Lobby planned this war against salsas? I better tune into KPFK to find out.

(Thanks to Burro Hall for that hilarious link to the terrorist lava rock bowls!)