American Sign Language (ASL)

ASL Browser
http://aslbrowser.commtechlab.msu.edu/browser.htm

Zappa Lyrics and Shows Complete Lists

Zappa Lyrics Complete List and Chronology
http://www.sing365.com/music/lyric.nsf/Frank-Zappa-lyrics/CB25FA6EAF81D97E4825699D00299D89 (click)

Zappa Songs Complete List and Chronology
http://globalia.net/donlope/fz/songs/index.html (click)

Zappa Gigs Complete List and Chronology
http://www.zappateers.com/fzshows/ (click)

Michael Moore and Occupy Wall Street

Reputable Source
When sighting an Internet article it helps to use a reputable source.  One that is known for printing facts.  Major News Papers (even though they are usually owned by large corporations) are good sources because they fact check what they print.  I think perhaps many people have been tricked into believing what the big money guys (Corporations, Wall Street) want you to believe.  After all, TV at one time used to be known as "The Great Educator".  Now they should call it "The Great Brain Washer".  (A Drug Free America - Brought to you by Pfizer).  You get the idea.

Michael Moore donates some of his money (I don't know how much) to charities for Adoption, Fostering Orphans, AIDS, Education, Health, and Weapons Reduction. He donates to charities that help prevent Poverty.  That doesn't sound hypocritical to me.  I think most people would agree these are good things.  Plus his documentaries kick ass.  Here is an example of a reputable source (click).

A Little Great Depression History
Take a look at this "Great Depression" Timeline starting in 1925 (click).  The top tax rate is lowered to 25 percent - the lowest top rate in the eight decades since World War I.  See any similarities with our current financial crisis?

Take a look at 1933 (click).  Alarmed by Roosevelt's plan to redistribute wealth from the rich to the poor, a group of millionaire businessmen, led by the Du Pont and J.P. Morgan empires, plans to overthrow Roosevelt with a military coup and install a fascist government modeled after Mussolini's regime in Italy. The businessmen try to recruit General Smedley Butler, promising him an army of 500,000, unlimited financial backing and generous media spin control. The plot is foiled when Butler reports it to Congress.

Go to June 16, 1933 and the Glass-Steagall Act (click).  This law introduced banking reforms, some of which were designed to control speculation.  This was a good law.  It helped to protect average investors like you and me.

Go to 1945 in the TimeLine (click)
The top tax rate is 91 percent. It will stay at least 88 percent until 1963, when it is lowered to 70 percent. During this time, America will experience the greatest economic boom it had ever known until that time.


A Little Recent History
In 1980 the Depository Institutions Deregulation and Monetary Control Act became law (click).  It Allowed financial institutions to charge any interest rate they wanted.

Then on November 12, 1999 the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (click) repealed part of the Glass-Steagall Act of 1933, removed barriers in the market among banking companies, securities companies and insurance companies and enabled one institution to act as any combination of an investment bank, a commercial bank and an insurance company.  So in effect the Gramm-Leach-Bliley act (also known as the Financial Services Modernization Act of 1999) allowed financial institutions to become very large, and very rich with no controls on wild speculation.  During this time and ever since, Washington changed.  Instead of people who had grown up managing large commercial banks or traditional investment banking firms, now people from the newer, riskier, more profitable business were entering into public service.  The President signed the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act into law on the advice of his Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin.  (Goldman Sachs).

This enabled financial institutions to bundle (repackage) bad mortgages and sell them to individual investors. Banks and mortgage companies can now sell mortgages as securities (mortgage backed securities), and take them off their balance sheets. This removes one constraint on banks to make sure the loans are to qualified borrowers.

In other words, the mortgage lenders could and did make mortgage loans to people who were not financially able to pay back the loan.  Then the financial institutions bundled those loans and re-sold them very quickly for large profits. The Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act enabled the rich (1%) to get even richer and the not so rich (99% you and me) to fall on hard times.

See this recent Financial Crisis Timeline (click).


Back to Michael Moore
I like Michael Moore.  I know he believes in what he is doing.   I believe in what he is doing too.  It's funny because when one Googles him the results are a lot of links and content created by people that simply don't know the facts, have been brain washed, or worse yet, know the facts and continue to spew the big lie.



Hard Copy Reference:
13 Bankers by Simon Johnson and James Kwak - pages 87-93
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=13+Bankers+by+Simon+Johnson+and+James+Kwak&x=0&y=0

It Takes A Pillage by Naomi Prins
http://www.amazon.com/Takes-Pillage-Deceit-Untold-Trillions/dp/0470928557/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1327886542&sr=8-1


Web References:
http://blog.aflcio.org/2011/03/07/america-is-not-broke-michael-moore-tells-cheering-thousands/
http://www.hyperhistory.com/online_n2/connections_n2/great_depression.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glass%E2%80%93Steagall_Act
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Depository_Institutions_Deregulation_and_Monetary_Control_Act
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gramm%E2%80%93Leach%E2%80%93Bliley_Act
http://timeline.stlouisfed.org/index.cfm?p=timeline

Interesting Michael Moore YouTube Videos
@crazynsober2day - Believe me pal, I've done my research on Michael Moore. After watching his movies and then discovering accusations of lies from ignorant people like you, I had to see who was telling the truth, and it wasn't that hard. I don't know if YOU'VE done enough research, but Moore clears up any suspicion of lies or falsehoods with a fact-check on his website. On his blog, he provides the legitimate sources of all the facts he presents in his movies. You should check it out some time.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MB2_0G8CKDY

judyleasugar97 - Why do the Republicans repress education? Because uneducated people are easier to manipulate and control. Uneducated people by and large can't think for themselves and look for some authority figure to tell them what to think.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h5LE0pAjH4U