Gays will be allowed to serve openly in the military — in Uruguay — and the President says that the Uruguayan government won't discriminate against any of its citizens on the basis of political, ethnic or sexual identity.
[ Associated Press ]
The Fifth US Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled, in a welcome display of common sense, that cops can't get around the requirement for a search warrant by sending SWAT officers to accompany ordinary regulatory inspections.
[ The Agitator ]
"Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired, signifies in the final sense a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and not clothed. this world in arms is not spending money alone. it is spending the sweat of its labourers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children. this is not a way of life at all in any true sense. under the clouds of war, it is humanity hanging on a cross of iron."
Dwight D. Eisenhower
Don Siegelman, the former Alabama Governor railroaded into prison by the Bush-Cheney administration's corrupt Justice Department, has had his appeal denied by the 11th US Circuit Court of Appeals. And federal prosecutors — in other words, the Obama administration — has recommended that Siegelman's sentence be nearly tripled, to twenty years. I guess there's no need to insert any sarcastic comments; the facts are far more sarcastic than anything I could come up with.
[ Associated Press ]
While he was Secretary of Defense under Bush-Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld routinely added inspirational Bible verses to the cover sheets of daily war briefings delivered to the White House. How frickin' creepy is that? This is why religion in government is dangerous, especially with a frantic "born again" like Bush. —Wig You've no doubt heard about the Bible quotes by now, but there's more, much more in this belated but invaluable coverage of Rumsfeld's tenure that paints the fellow as an extraordinary jackass. What stands out the most to me, is that one of Rumsfeld's key accomplishments was actively working to block rescue efforts in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina.
[ Gentlemen's Quarterly ]
Counterinsurgency whiz boy David Kilcullen tallies the dead from American drone attacks in Pakistan, and the numbers are deadly indeed. "Since the drone strikes began in earnest in 2006, the US has killed 14 mid-level Al Qaeda and Taliban leaders. In the same time frame, the strikes have killed 700 Pakistani civilians." Since having one's loved ones smote dead tends to infuriate people, it is fair to assume that Kilcullen is correct when he surmises that the Americans' strategy of death from above in Pakistan is creating terrorists far quicker than it's killing them.
[ military.com ]
Politicians & pundits
America's mainstream political discourse is dominated by lies, insults, general nuttiness, just plain stupidity from right-wing commentators and politicians. And there's really no left-tilted equivalent, since anyone who offers blunt criticism of the right (even when such criticism is warranted and true) is "outside the mainstream", by definition.
Fearmongers and well-funded seditionists at Fox News and elsewhere are hyping hysterical lies about the Obama administration, raising a crescendo of right-wing hyper-panic, and knowing full well that with every lie they tell in mass media, it becomes a little more likely that some nut with a gun will take a shot at the President.
For all our adult lives we've been advocates for free speech. Without free speech there's no freedom, without censorship there's no tyranny, and we've always hated people who said "I'm for free speech, but ..." but now we're two of them. We're for free speech, but: When mass media "news" outlets spread blatant lies and fan the flames of misinformed fury to an audience of millions, that's a direct danger to democracy and it should be illegal.
And again, sure, there are left-wing commentators just as delusional as the right-wing's numerous nutballs. The difference is, left-wing nuts publish amateur blogs and zines, host cable-access shows, and can be heard muttering to themselves on buses ... while right-wing freaks and fibbers make a handsome living lying at professionally-published websites, writing factually-wrong but nationally syndicated newspaper columns, and airing their hokum and hysteria on big-budget radio and television shows. It's all brought to you by the same corporations and curiously well-funded foundations that control American industry, media, medicine, and politics.
—H&HH
Iran has released imprisoned Iranian-American journalist and accused spy Roxana Saberi. She was portrayed in the American media as the victim of despicable Iranian courts that used trumped-up charges to imprison her ... but at the time of her arrest she possessed a classified Iranian government report about the US war in Iraq. Her release came thanks largely to intervention by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad ... who, according to unanimous western media reports, is supposed to be a madman. The moral of the story is, sometimes the facts of the matter are not quite as they're portrayed in the media. Imagine that.
[ Los Angeles Times ]
It's official, as we mentioned last week and as Obama promised that he wouldn't, that the Obama administration will resume the military trials of Guantanamo prisoners. If you can spare a few minutes and you give a damn, call the President and remind him that he's supposed to be one of the good guys, not one of the monsters. (202) 456-1111.
[ The Guardian ]
Two 15-year-olds now have police records because they sent nekkid pictures of each other to each other. Oh, the shocking humanity. Why a prosecutor with this little common sense gets to keep his job is beyond me. For utterly understandable sexual curiosity these kids will have to do 100 hours of community service, and the girl has been ordered to write an essay on the dangers of texting. Wouldn't it be delightful if she had the common sense and courage to explain the actual danger in such antics — that your local prosecutor might be a pervert and try to ruin your life?
[ WCPO-TV ]
A Wisconsin judge has ruled that police needn't bother with any kind of warrant, and can simply attach a GPS device to your car to track you, everywhere you go. It's absurdly unconstitutional, and there are very worrisome implications.
[ Chicago Tribune ]
Some prosecutors are using legal maneuvers to block access to DNA testing that could exonerate convicted criminals. A prosecutor who literally (if not legally) obstructs justice in this manner is as much a monster as any crooked cop or corrupt judge. In a sane society, what these prosecutors are doing would be illegal, and they'd be charged with a crime themselves, disbarred and imprisoned.
[ New York Times ]
That guy who wanted to see the source code on the breath alcohol detector finally got to see it, and the results aren't pretty. Draeger, the manufacturer maintained that the system was perfect, and that revealing the source code would be damaging to its business. They were right about the second part, of course, because it turned out that the code was terrible.
[ Schneier on Security ]
Lt. Daniel Cho has written an open letter to President Obama, asking the President not to fire him. For being gay. The President, of course, could put an end to the ordinary, ongoing injustice of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" with a quick executive order — all he'd have to do is type a few sentences, print it out, and sign his name. And he probably won't.
[ Cable News Network ]
The Wisconsin Supreme Court will weigh the state's ban on gay marriage and civil unions, under what sounds like a perfectly plausible complaint — the state allows referendums like the one that asked these questions two years ago, but referendums are limited by law to just one question. This one had two. Still, the Wisconsin Supreme Court is dominated by Scalia clones, so it's probably futile to hope that the matter will be considered fairly.
[ Associated Press ]
"Regardless of how you try to explain to people it's a 'war on drugs' or a 'war on a product,' people see a war as a war on them," he said. "We're not at war with people in this country." Startlingly sane words, from America's new Drug Czar.
[ The Liberty Papers ]
President Obama has changed his mind, and now doesn't want the next round of torture photos released. The rationale? Top military commanders in Iraq and Afghanistan
expressed fears that publicizing the pictures could put their troops in danger. When the Abu Ghraib photos emerged in 2004 of grinning US soldiers posing with detainees, some naked, some being held on leashes, they caused a huge anti-American backlash around the globe, particularly in the Muslim world. Translation: These torture pictures are so ghastly and horrendous, that people all over the world will immediately be enraged to the point that they'll want to start killing Americans everywhere. Well, duh, torture leads to blowback. Torture puts American soldiers (and Americans in general) in danger. Is that a rational rationale for suppressing the evidence? Really, no. We're supposed to believe that photos will infuriate terrorists and make them strike back at Americans, but having a former Vice President on world-wide TV every day of the week bragging about torture doesn't piss off the terrorists? We're supposed to wonder what might make terrorists mad before deciding what evidence can be revealed, who can be prosecuted, for crimes that nobody can sanely pretend didn't happen? No. Photos don't endanger anyone, but torture does. If the US releases the photos, investigate the torture, and prosecutes the torturers and those who ordered the torture, there might be some short-term blowback, but long-term big-picture it would help calm the furies of the Middle East. If the people who hate America saw American leaders and American soldiers prosecuted for their crimes, that wouldn't increase their hatred, it would decrease it. So let's cut the crap. The longer Obama stonewalls, the more clear it becomes that there's a cover-up, and he's the one doing the covering up. The photos must be released, the investigations must begin, and the prosecutions must proceed where the evidence is clear, because it's the right thing to do.
[ Associated Press ]
There was, of course, no "ticking time bomb" that motivated the Bush-Cheney torture policies. The torture program, like the eavesdropping program, was for political purposes, to help build support for the illegal invasion of Iraq. Two US intelligence officers confirm that Vice President Cheney's office suggested waterboarding an Iraqi prisoner, a former intelligence official for Saddam Hussein, who was suspected to have knowledge of a Saddam-al Qaeda connection.
Outside of a courtroom, it's no longer necessary to use words like "alleged", because if you're paying attention it's been proven. The only unanswered question that remains is, will the American people demand that known criminals and killers face legal consequences for their crimes and murders?
[ anonymousliberal.com ]
But torture works, says Dick Cheney, and a small minority of Americans and the vast majority of American media takes him seriously. Meanwhile the FBI guy who interrogated Abu Zubaydah says torture not only didn't work but was counterproductive, a statement far more in keeping with everything that's known about the history of torture. But who ya' gonna believe, Dick Cheney, who's never told the truth about any matter of public policy, or an FBI guy who knows interrogation and who was there as torture happened?
[ Crooks & Liars ]
Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi says that when she was briefed by the CIA during the Bush-Cheney administration on interrogation practices, the only mention of waterboarding "was that it was not being employed." And later she says, "So on the subject of what's happening in Iraq, when it's talking about the techniques used by the intelligence community on those they're interrogating, at every step of the way, the administration was misleading the Congress. And that is the issue. And that is why we need a truth commission to look into the issue." Senator Bob Graham (D-Florida) basically backs up Pelosi, when he
The "march of freedom" is not, as our highly-paid professional liars
tell us, the imposition of "democracy" by force on unwilling people,
but rather the growing realization by the common person that they can
never place their trust in a government that they do not control.
says that the CIA is lying.
For the most part, this amounts to "What did one member of the minority party know about the majority party's illegal war crimes and when did she know it?" — a silly distraction from much more serious questions. But it's intriguing to wonder, did Pelosi only notice last week that the Bush-Cheney administration had misled Congress at every step of the way? Was she unaware that she was being misled before she announced that impeachment was off the table, which was in 2006? These are just more questions that can't be answered without an open, honest, impartial investigation, followed by prosecutions where warranted.
[ ThinkProgess ]
Presumably due to the above, Rep Pelosi's unfavorable rating now exceeds her favorables, 50-34. She represents a Congressional district made up of some of San Francisco's most liberal neighborhoods, where there are tens of thousands of people who'd be a better member of Congress than Nancy Pelosi — maybe one of them will run against her next time?
[ Daily Kos ]
Two-hundred organizations have signed on to a letter asking, pleading, demanding that Attorney General Eric Holder do his job, which means, begin an investigation of the obvious crimes of the Bush-Cheney administration.
[ Salon ]
Kids are being trained to defend America from terrorists, by the Boy Scouts of America, though their affiliated Explorers program. When I was a kid, Explorers were trained for search and rescue operations and they did good work, but this is a far cry from that.
[ New York Times ]
And we're troubled by "torture? What happened to America? I'm beginning to feel like Rip Van Winkle. Have I been asleep for the last half century? I guess the slippery slope began when kickboxing became acceptable. We use to think hitting below the belt was dirty fighting. —Wig
The program's success to date is noted: "There have been numerous cases over the last three decades in which police officers supervising Explorers have been charged, in civil and criminal cases, with sexually abusing them." Hey, at least they are catching somebody! —SirJ
Why are Nancy Pelosi's claims that she was misled by the CIA getting all the ink, while the CIA's claims about the briefings are accepted with minimal skepticism? Why are reporters everywhere acting as if the notion that the CIA might provide misleading information is too wild to be taken seriously?
[ The Plum Line ]
Maybe you thought it was newsworthy when two US intelligence officers confirmed that then-Vice President Dick Cheney had argued for using waterboarding (torture) to get an Iraqi prisoner to fabricate a connection between Saddam Hussein and al Qaeda. I thought it was newsworthy. NBC News producer Robert Windrem thought it was newsworthy. But that's pretty much where the news stopped. In the corporate-controlled media, this wasn't even mentioned on any of the major-networks' nightly newscasts, wasn't mentioned on CNN and Fox News evening shows, and wasn't mentioned on any of the daytime shows available on the Nexis database. It's like that old philosophical canard about the tree in the forest. If news happens but it doesn't make the news, did news really happen?
[ Media Matters ]
NPR's Planet Money ran a staggeringly awful interview with Elizabeth Warren last week. She's the head of the Congressional Oversight Panel that doesn't oversee but sort of Monday-morning quarterbacks the TARP program as it wastes trillions of dollars making sure that America's millionaires are fully insulated from any consequences of their criminal operations. The interview is confrontational from the start, operating on the premise that Warren is a nutbag because she believes that the economics of ordinary people should be considered alongside the interests of Big Banks and Big Finance, while the program's co-host takes the more mainstream view that ordinary people should take a number and wait in line until the economic crisis has been resolved, and then, perhaps, we can give ordinary people some consideration.
What mind-rot. A friend had been suggesting that I should start listening to Planet Money, but there's no chance of that now. If I need this kind of cheerleading for Big Business squashing the little guy, hell, I can find that pretty much anywhere on any "public affairs" program or newspaper's business section. Mostly, though, I just become more impressed by Elizabeth Warren every time I hear her interviewed, and I've heard her perhaps half a dozen times by now. If she had Tim Geithner's job, America would have a much rosier future than the economic hellhole we're rapidly sinking into. Here, let's run a bit of this interview, as it reveals the mindset of mainstream economics "experts" like the people at Planet Money, as opposed to Warren and as very much opposed to giving a damn about ordinary people: Planet Money: The view that the American family, that you hold very powerfully, is fully under assault and that there is — and we can get into that — that is not accepted broad wisdom. I talk to a lot a lot a lot of left, right, center, neutral economists [and] you are the only person I've talked to in a year of covering this crisis who has a view that we have two equally acute crises: a financial crisis and a household debt crisis that is equally acute in the same kind of way. I literally don't know who else I can talk to support that view. I literally don't know anyone other than you who has that view, and you are the person [snicker] who went to Congress to oversee it and you are presenting a very, very narrow view to the American people. Elizabeth Warren: I'm sorry. That is not a narrow view. What you are saying is that it is the broad view to think only about trying to save the banks [Davidson sputters] and say "Hey! the American economy will recover at some point and we'll worry about the families [Davidson talking over]." I think that is the narrow view and I think I have the broad view. The broad view is that these two things are connected to each other. And the notion that you can save the banking system while the American economy goes down the tubes is just
foolish.
[ Columbia Journalism Review ]
As American soldiers in Iraq make do with less water than the recommended minimum and steal water to survive, CBS News presents the information as if it's a natural phenomenon, but in the fifteenth paragraph we find this clue: "The water was supposed to be processed by Houston-based company KBR."
[ CBS News ]
Cable News Network, CNN's Headline News channel, and CNN.com are joining forces with the publisher of Essense, a magazine for black women, to develop weekly news features "of importance to the African-American community", sponsored by McDonald's. Translation: CNN will briefly pretend to give a damn about a black audience, so long as there's a little money to be made selling Big Macs and magazines.
[ eurweb.com ]
Knowing full well that John Yoo was the architect of the Bush-Cheney administration's policies of torture that left at least ninety-some people dead, still, the Philadelphia Inquirer hired him as a columnist. It turns the stomach. If I lived in Philadelphia, I'd cancel my subscription and picket the place. With all the talk of newspapers facing financial failures and going out of business, it sure seems to me that a newspaper without a conscience is a paper nobody should mourn when it's gone.
[ Philadelphia Daily News ]
It made me stop and think
"Our American way of life includes concepts of freedom from tyranny and a certain American personal independence that has been passed down through the many generations of this nation. If we are to believe that torturing human beings made us safe, that denying habeas corpus has made us more secure, that warrantless wiretapping impeded the evildoers, then what did I and we volunteer to lay our lives down for? In short, if we violate the very ideals that hold together our American way of life in the pursuit of security, what exactly are we secure from? What does that tell us about the success of the "evildoers" in attempting to "destroy our American way of life"?"
"Day after day, week after week, Barack Obama's "Overseas Contingency Operations" keep churning through the bodies of children: sometimes with chemical weapons that sear their flesh and leave them maimed and disfigured for life; sometimes with carefully aimed bullets ripping through their organs and leaving them dead right on the spot. "And in every such case, our brave and noble Terror Warriors -- who, lest we forget, are upholding the highest values of world civilization, bringing hope and change to benighted lands and defending our sacred way of life -- run screaming like spinsters in a hissy fit from the slightest hint of responsibility for their actions. Their first response, always, is to blame someone else: either the designated enemy of the day -- or else the burned and shredded children themselves."
"Barack Obama unquestionably inherited an unholy mess from the Bush administration. And it's unfair to expect it to be solved in four months. But the crimes in the Bush Justice Department simply must not be papered over. I can understand if Holder needs time to figure out how to tell the American people that their justice system is corrupt from top to bottom. But he needs to get on the stick. A former governor in Alabama, who committed no crime, is looking at going to prison for the rest of his life."
"How can we investigate if we don’t know all the facts? How dare we enforce laws against things which might possibly be permissible in some highly artificial thought experiment? What if ‘24′ is FOR REALS?!? These are the sorts of questions which need to be shrugged at for 50 billion news cycles before we can even think about OH MY GOD A SHARK ATE A WHITE LADY AT HER WEDDING!!!!! We’ve got what amounts to a reverse Nuremberg defense, where Bush administration officials are let off the hook because they were only giving orders. I’m not sure that’s such a great idea."
"One of our country's oldest car companies moves into bankruptcy court — threatening tens of thousands of jobs and potentially disrupting the entire auto industry through the ripple effect of collapsing suppliers — and doesn't even make the lead story on the nightly news. Instead the top-breaking story was the possibility that we are all going to die from Swine Flu."
New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman violated his newspaper's ethics rules when he delivered a $75,000 speech in California. But he gave the money back (after the Los Angeles Times started asking questions about it).
[ Columbia Journalism Review ]
CBS sportscaster David Feherty has apologized, and said it was a "metaphor" when he wrote that "if you gave any US soldier a gun with two bullets in it, and he found himself in an elevator with Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid and Osama bin Laden, there's a good chance that Nancy Pelosi would get shot twice, and Harry Reid and bin Laden would be strangled to death." "This passage was a metaphor meant to describe how American troops felt about our 43rd president," Feherty said in a statement.
[ Associated Press ]
The arch-right, Moonie-controlled Washington Times has given a quiet half-apology for illustrating an article about murdered schoolchildren in Chicago with a picture of President Obama's daughters. Uh, thanks for the apology, but I couldn't quite hear it over the roar of your full-on flabbergasting douchehood.
[ The Plum Line ]
The New York Times's Maureen Dowd has come down with an unfortunate bout of plagiarism.
[ Washington Monthly ]
Carrie Prejean, the beauty pageant contestant who bumbled through some innocuous but ill-informed comments about "opposite marriage" and won Joe the Plumber's crown as the new darling of the right-wing, is now working at Fox News, 'cuz that's what they're looking for in a journalist. She remains employed as Donald Trump's Miss California USA, despite numerous violations of her pageant contract, because, as Trump explained, she's beautiful.
[ Comedy Central ]
Ambushed by a Fox News-affiliated jackass with a camera and a few rude questions, Janeane Garofalo did a pretty good job ad libbing a quick, coherent response.
[ foxnewsboycott.com ]
The New York Times is getting ready to charge for on-line access, and so will the Denver Post and 52 other daily newspapers owned by MediaNews Group. This trend will be good for newspapers, I think, and that's important, but if this becomes the new business model for a large number of American newspapers, it's going to change or kill little weblogs like ours. For the professional bloggers at DailyKos or The Huffington Post, it'll be no problem to pay for on-line access to dozens of newspapers, but there's just no way we'd be able to pay for more than one or two, maximum.
[ New York Magazine ]
Here's a great feel-good story — a US Air Force airman spotted a fuel leak on a passenger flight, and alerted the plane's captain with time enough to heroically save the plane. Great story, and I'd love it to be true, but I sure have my doubts. I don't know whether Air Force News Service is generally just puffery or if it aspires to be journalism, but if it's the latter then this coverage needs a few more proper nouns. What airline was this? We're not told. Who was the captain, or the stewardess, and why aren't they quoted? Why is there no comment from the FAA? When did this happen? We're not told — was it years ago? As I said I'd love the story to be true, but we have only the say-so of the hero, which makes it seem like a story told between beers, and it's generally not wise to give a lot of credence to stories told between beers.
[ Air Force News Service ]
Gary Bauer of the Family Research Council has pondered that eternal question, Would Jesus Christ use torture? Bauer has decided that while Christ himself wouldn't waterboard you, the more appropriate question is, Can a follower of Christ torture someone?" And he's decided that the appropriate answer is, "It depends."
[ Right Wing Watch ] It is just as George Orwell described in Animal Farm — The Democratic Pigs are now pursuing the same brutal, military policies of their predecessors, the Republican Porkers, only now it is in the name of the people and peace. Orwell might paraphrase the policy of President Barack Obama, as 'Bigger and bloodier wars equal peace and justice'. Obama's inexperience has led him to be subservient to the
military establishment. His campaign rhetoric of asserting reigning in the Bush military gung-ho policy vanished on January 20th. —Wig
[ AlterNet ]
Lt. Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the new guy in charge of America's occupation of Afghanistan, was a key player in the cover-up of the accidental fragging of Army Ranger and NFL star Pat Tillman. Small world, ain't it?
[ Associated Press ] US air strikes earlier this month killed 140 villagers, an Afghan government investigation concluded on Saturday, putting Kabul starkly at odds with the US military's account. Sadly, based on the track record for truth in recent years, there's no reason to give much credence to the US military's account of just about anything that's disputed.
[ Reuters News Agency ]
If you're seeing a movie in California's Bay Area, see it at a theater owned by genuine progressives — The Grand Lake in Oakland.
A 60-year-old reservist from Arizona has become the oldest Army soldier killed in combat in Iraq. An Army spokesman confirmed Thursday that Maj. Steven Hutchison is the oldest member of that branch to be killed in combat.
[ Associated Press ]
Here's Iran, trying to raise a ruckus about Israel's nuclear arsenal. But nobody cares, of course. The phony furor and hyperventilating hubbub over Iran's alleged program to develop nuclear power (they say) or weapons (Israel says) is always playing in the background, but there's never any furor, hubbub, or even the slightest concern over another Middle East nation that actually has nuclear weapons, plenty of them, all wired and ready to go any time Benjamin Netanyahu gets an itchy trigger finger.
[ al Jazeera ]
Like the Bush administration, Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir has denied crimes against humanity. Unlike the war criminals of the Bush administration, al-Bashir is going to stand trial.
[ BBC News ]
The long-running civil war in Sri Lanka is apparently coming to an end, a rather bloody and deadly end, as the government's troops slaughter the Tamil Tiger rebels, and the fate of up to 50,000 civilians trapped in the area remains unknown.
[ Washington Monthly ]
The so-called bank stress tests weren't designed to let the banks or the government know which banks are in trouble, they were designed to reassure the public and prevent bank runs. That much has been obvious since the first time the term "bank stress test" was spoken aloud by a reporter. The banks structured the test themselves, making sure they were graded on the curve so a "D" looks like a "B", and (here's the part I hadn't already known, though I would have guessed) bank executives have been told that they won't actually have to raise the capital that was mandated by the tests' results, if they can manipulate their books to show more profitability than expected. So the stress tests just provide another incentive for the banks to cook the books.
[ ThinkProgess ]
Bailing out the banks and finance giants wasn't enough, so now the Treasury Department is bailing out insurance giants like the Hartford, Prudential, Allstate, Ameriprise, Lincoln National, and Principal Financial Group. It's the damnedest and dumbest thing I've ever seen and it never ends — all these outfits have truly earned and deserve bankruptcy, and instead they're getting blank checks from tax funds, while taxpayers are basically told to go to hell.
[ Washington Post ]
In this rather impressive clip, we see Fox's Glenn Beck repeatedly badger GM CEO Fritz Henderson, trying to get Henderson to tell him how awful it is that GM has to take orders from the Obama administration, and how the unions have shackled and doomed GM ... and Henderson keeps shooting Beck down, explaining that GM wouldn't be in business without the Obama administration's support, and that the unions have been far more a help than a hindrance. The bailout of the auto industry is really the only part of the Bush-Cheney and now Obama administration's program of trillions for millionaires that makes any sense al all to me. Banks schmanks, if BofA goes under we'll get new banks, and if Goldman Sachs disappears then someone else will provide investment capital for worthwhile ventures. These entities are big and important but not irreplaceable. But the auto industry is a completely different matter — it's literally the motor that drives the American economy, and if America doesn't make its own cars then the American economy will never, ever get out of second gear.
[ Huffington Post ]
A Chicago couple is committed to spending money only at black-owned businesses, for a year. It ain't easy.
[ Associated Press ] The only troubling thing about the President's statements today concerning health care reform was what he did not say: that he wanted a any health plan that emerges from Congress to include a public insurance option for Americans who do not want to buy private insurance. But without this option, there will be no pressure on private insurers to adopt all the other reforms to control costs or give all Americans access to affordable care. So far Obama's back room deals are making me sick... (no pun intended) —JR Mooneyham
[ Talking Points Memo ]
As Senate hearings on health care reform continue, the protests continue too, over the utter exclusion of single-payer universal health coverage. Five brave souls were arrested on Tuesday.
[ MSNBC News ]
Here's your American health care system in action, earning its reputation: The accident had left a bone sticking out of one of her son's legs, and the collarbone and shoulder blade of the other son cracked into pieces like a jigsaw puzzle. Federal law required the emergency room to treat the young men, even though they had no insurance. No law guaranteed care after that. Her youngest son, 23, was discharged in a few days. "I had to clean his open wounds," Hovland-Moffitt recalls. "For 26 days he sat in my recliner, screaming with pain. I begged the emergency room to take him back." Finally in September, he had surgery to piece together his shoulder with a metal plate. By then, he had lost much of the use of his arm, she says. The family is trying to get the state to cover therapy for his arm. But his mom worries that he is now caught in one of the health care system's most vicious cycles. She fears that the health problems he has now could bar him from ever again qualifying for private health insurance. ...
[ The Capital Times (Madison, WI) ]
Rick Scott, the money man for the opposition to health care reform, says he's pressured Comcast into removing ads that told the truth about what a slimeball he is. It's not true — Comcast hasn't pulled the ads, and Scott is a slimeball — but it's a little surprising that he's lying to his supporters and donors, and lying about things that can be very easily checked and shown to be lies.
[ ThinkProgess ]
Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) is skeptical that the health care industry will really be able to cut $2-trillion in costs over the next decade, as promised in negotiations over health care reform. His press release is summarized by USA Today as "suggesting, in short, that he'll believe it when he sees it." I don't really understand Grassley's doubt. "Cut $2-trillion in costs" is business-speak for making $2-trillion in layoffs, and does anyone think the health care industry can't accomplish that? Sure, it'll mean longer waits to see health care providers, but there's lots more profit in denying health care than providing it.
[ USA Today ]
As President Obama ponders his choice to fill the vacancy on the US Supreme Court, he wants to make a low-profile, pragmatic choice, someone who won't cause the right-wing mouth-breathers to hyperventilate and shriek of a coming apocalypse. This is, of course, a futile hope and an impossible dream, since the right-wing mouth-breathers will raise holy hell about anyone Obama nominates, unless he chooses Robert Bork.
[ Washington Monthly ]
The Obama administration actually knows the meaning of the word "anti-trust", and will reverse the Bush-Cheney policy of ignoring anti-trust legislation. Or so says Christine A. Varney, head of the antitrust division at the Department of Justice. If it's true, it's an important change that will have only positive results.
[ Los Angeles Times ]
Another week, another staggeringly awful nomination from the Obama administration. Ignacia Moreno has been named Assistant Attorney General for the Environment. Moreno's key qualification seems to be that he's presently the corporate environmental lawyer for General Electric, America's largest Superfund polluter. I try so hard to avoid the lame plays on "yes we can" but sweet jeebers, what the hell is going on in Barack Obama's head?
[ ThinkProgess ]
I've read several pundits I respect telling me why Obama's nomination of Utah's Republican Governor Jon Huntsman as Ambassador to China is a brilliant stroke, politically, on Obama's part. It takes a leading Republican Presidential contender, and one of the few Republicans who aren't stark raving bonkers, and puts him thousands of miles outside the swirl of American politics. But as often happens, Washington Monthly's Steve Benen says it best, by exploring Huntsman's reasoning. Seeing Huntsman alongside President Obama this morning at the White House, I kept thinking about an incident from a couple of weeks ago. Huntsman had scheduled several campaign-style stops in Michigan, apparently to help lay the groundwork for future support. Republican leaders in one key Michigan county abruptly withdrew Huntsman's invitation, however, when local officials learned that the Utah governor had the nerve to support civil unions for gay couples. ... It was a ridiculous move, of course, but it also sent a signal to Huntsman about the level of maturity in his party — or in this case, the lack thereof. It's certainly possible the response from this county and other GOP activists made clear to Huntsman that it's not worth even trying to take the lead in the party, at least not in the near future.
[ Washington Monthly ]
The Obama administration's budget ends a program that's been building allegedly "better" nuclear weapons. "My colleagues just stared at that line," says Joe Cirincione, a longtime nonproliferation expert and president of the Ploughshares Fund. "They had never seen anything like that." Killing the program, he said, was "the first programmatic impact of the new [zero nukes] policy. People have said they want to see more than words, this is the very first action.
[ Washington Monthly ]
The Food & Drug Administration has told General Mills to stop marketing Cheerios as a drug. And I have to say, having watched their commercials for several years, it's about time.
[ Agence France-Presse ]
The US government is negotiating a secret treaty on intellectual property, refusing to let anyone outside the power elite know the details of the discussions, and all aspects of the treaty are secret. The negotiation of it leaked out about a year ago. Here's a good background on it. The treaty will enable monitoring of all inter-country communications, more so than the Bush wiretapping as I understand it. Privacy will go out the window. It really needs to be debated in public, with congressional oversight, and the hypocrisy part is that Obama is continuing the Bush policies — no "change". And it's not really being reported in mainstream media, because the corporate fourth estate will benefit greatly from the treaty. The Justice Department is being stacked with industry insiders (and this was the beginning; not outrageous, just annoying). —Kenneth L.
[ Electronic Frontier Foundation ]
Former Congressman Harold Ford (ret'd 'D'-Tennessee) says he's OK with torture. "And if you were to say to me, as an American, put aside my partisanship, that we have an opportunity to gain information that would prevent the destruction of an American city, to prevent killings in American cities, and we have to use certain techniques, I'm one of those Americans that would have voted a certain way, Chris." At this point we really don't need torture apologists among Democrats, so if Harold Ford runs for public office again, I do hope we can afford to give a sizable donation to whomever runs against him.
[ ThinkProgess ]
After weeks of criticism from right-wing nutbags, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano says that the DHS report on the dangers of right-wing nutbags has been withdrawn and will be rewritten. This is the traditional show of spinelessness that one expects from Democratic Party politicians, and I really don't think spinelessness is what we need in someone running a major DC bureaucracy, so we'll now join with right-wing nutbags in calling for Napolitano's prompt resignation.
[ Washington Times ]
If you're tired of Democrats and Republicans — I sure am — you might want to get to know your new, improved Whigs.
[ Times-Standard ]
The scandals swirling around former Senator Norm Coleman (R-Minnesota) are circling the drain. He could potentially end up not just out of the Senate, but behind bars... if there's a God in Heaven, please.
[ Washington Monthly ]
Arkansas state Sen. Kim Hendren, who is running against US Senator Blanche Lincoln (D-Arkansas), says he's just awfully darn sorry that he referred to Senator Arlen Specter ('D'-Pennsylvania) as "that Jew". Southerners can be so very entertaining, and Republican Southerners even more so...
[ Talking Points Memo ]
The Senate has quashed the notion of a 15% ceiling on credit card rates. Remember, that's the Senate that's allegedly controlled by Democrats, 59-40, but is actually, of course, controlled by giant corporations and finance institutions for whom a mere 15% annual gouging would be outrageously small.
[ New York Times ]
As the National Rifle Association holds its annual convention in Phoenix, the air in Arizona is rife with lies about how the Obama administration is going to confiscate everyone's guns. Such claims are 100% bull, of course, but it's bull that's selling a lot of guns and ammo, and no doubt selling a lot of NRA memberships.
[ ThinkProgess ]
In its famous, official, big-budget investigation of 9/11, the 9/11 Commission accepted evidence gained through torture — which means, of course, evidence that's utterly unreliable and almost certainly false.
[ Raw Story ]
How stupid is the Democratic Party leadership? Stupid enough to rally 'round corrupt Congressman Jack Murtha (D-Pennsylvania).
[ Salon ]
The Bush-Cheney administration lied about everything and failed in virtually every way beyond getting away with their crimes, but they did have one big success that's been unfairly ignored — their secret plan to block illegal immigration from Mexico seems to have worked spectacularly.
[ Bad Attitudes ]
The FBI is investigating possible insider trading by some allegedly very stupid Securities and Exchange Commission lawyers.
[ TPM Muckraker ]
Congressman Paul Broun (R-Georgia) has introduced a resolution urging President Obama to declare 2010 "The Year of The Bible". You don't need me to point out how absurd and unconstitutional this is, do you?
[ Daily Kos ]
MoveOn is running ads in Pennsylvania that go after Senator Arlen Specter ('D'-Pennsylvania). Yee-haw and hooray. I'd be delighted to see Specter lose his seat to a real Democrat in 2010.
[ The Hill ] The Republican National Committee will vote on, and probably pass, "a resolution rebranding Democrats as the 'Democrat Socialist
Party. Yes, of course they will. Of course. And to think that during the Bush-Cheney years, I didn't think the Republicans could sink any lower, get any slimier, act even stupider. Oh me of little faith, I should've known better.
[ Washington Independent ]
The New York Federal Reserve, then headed by now Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner, knew of AIG's mega-bonuses long before you did, but they kept quiet.
[ Washington Post ]
Craigslist has backed down, sort of, and will end its "erotic services" classification for ads. Instead it'll start a new "adult services" classification, where ads will be screened to make sure they're not for illegal services.
[ Electronic Frontier Foundation ]
The price of General Motors stock collapsed further last week, after several GM executives disclosed that they had sold their own shares. The stupidity here is palpable. Also, GM might move out of Detroit, basically stabbing the Motor City in whatever's left of its heart.
[ Reuters News Agency ]
A few weeks ago, the Obama administration said it would crack down on corporations' ability to use off-shore tax havens to escape paying taxes in America. It's a small step in the right direction, and of course, an exec for Business Roundtable, which represents CEOs of the nation's largest companies, says her group will "spend whatever it takes" to make sure the idea never becomes reality.
[ ThinkProgess ]
The ACLU is suing Myriad Genetics over its patenting of human genes related to breast cancer. In a sane society, you can't patent human genes.
[ Cable News Network ]
I haven't seen an IMAX movie in years. The visuals are great, but the price is prohibitive. Still, my memories of IMAX were warm and fuzzy until this — IMAX is now offering first-run movies like Star Trek in new mini-IMAX theaters where the screen is a fraction the size of an ordinary IMAX screen, yet they're advertising these mini-IMAX screening rooms with their ordinary IMAX moniker. It's scummy, really scummy. A ticket to an IMAX movie costs more than a ticket to an ordinary movie, and the bigger screen isn't just part of the package, it is the package. The headline for this should be, "IMAX scams its customers".
[ Deadline Hollywood Daily ]
McDonald's wants be begin offering PhDs. I'd add 'insert your own punchline' but really, no punchline could make this concept funny.
[ Australian Associated Press ]
Alleged Nazi John Demjanjuk has been deported to face trial in Germany.
[ Cable News Network ]
Perennial candidate Alan Keyes (R) got himself arrested at Notre Dame again on Saturday. You may think that sounds so tedious that you don't want to click, but trust me, you want to click.
[ Right Wing Watch ]
Is anyone out there still listening to Air America Radio? I used to give that network a lot of my ear-hours, but their Monday-Friday schedule has dwindled in quality to the point that the only show I make any effort to listen to is Ron Kuby. Anyway, if you care, their latest line-up changes have the bland but full of himself late-night host Jon Elliott gone, the genuine liberal Kuby moves from 3PM Eastern to noon, and the grating but occasionally amusing Lionel moves to the morning shift. Off the ever-sputtering Air America, Randi Rhodes is back on the air, and podcasts are available here.
[ Liberal Talk Radio ]
As a science fiction fan from way back and living within driving distance of Sheboygen, I was a bit surprised but intrigued to see that "Wisconsin Aerospace Authority is working to bring a spaceport to the eastern Wisconsin city". A spaceport in Sheboygen? And what the hell is the Wisconsin Aerospace Authority? Googling around I discovered that it's part of the Wisconsin state government, "authorized to develop spaceports, spacecraft and other aerospace facilities in this state, to provide spaceport and aerospace services and allow use of spaceport and aerospace facilities by others, to promote the aerospace industry in this state and to provide public-private coordination for the aerospace industry in this state". Why knew? I'm mildly surprised that my state's Elmer Fudd-esque Governor is this forward-thinking, and more surprised that Republicans aren't needling him mercilessly over it, but I like the idea. If we Earthers don't blow up the planet or scorch ourselves into extinction, I like to imagine that there might be spaceports in twenty or thirty years, and if that happens, those spaceports will be in the places that are planning for them now.
[ Associated Press ]
Did anyone see Ron Paul's son Rand on The Rachel Maddow Show Wednesday? He's formed an exploratory committee, eyeing the US Senate seat in Kentucky presently occupied by the rear of Jim Bunning (R-Kentucky). Young Dr Paul (a physician, like his father) seems like a sincere young man and shares a lot of his father's political perspective, and it's good for America, I think, to see libertarianism's next generation. I'll take a libertarian Republican over your average Republican in a pinch, but mostly my response to hearing Rand Paul was — wow, Ron Paul is so hard-core that he named his son after Ayn Rand.
[ Press release ]
#Downsizing, job offshoring, bubbles — WHY?
I used to think these "trends" had to do with e.g. anti-unionism and increasing corporate profits, but immersing myself in earlier Michael Hudson articles and interviews has taught me otherwise. Using two interview transcripts (see below) from his website I have come to understand things VERY differently. I hope that I've correctly pieced together the info. he provided.
DOWNSIZING & JOB OFFSHORING
First, he explains that our economy has become a bubble economy which means more than bubbles occurring. He says that it is an economy based on providing loans "to almost anybody for any purpose" even "borrowers with no visible means of repaying the loan" [I assume also with little put down]. Some of the people getting loans became the ones buying and reselling real estate in order to bid up prices. They did a lot more, in fact, that is noted below. Others receiving the bubble loans were/are the corporate raiders. It seems that it was the Federal Reserve under Allan Greenspan from 1986 to 2006 that masterminded the bubble economy by creating huge amounts of dollars/credit.
As for the corporate raiders, they'd firstly buy up stockholders/stocks to gain control and to end the pay out of dividends. Then, they'd sell bonds, needed to pay off their own loans, actually junk bonds because their takeovers based on debt raised the level of risk. To attract buyers for their bonds, they'd pay out higher levels of interest. Of course, this interest was sucked out of the companies they'd taken over.
The raided companies also provided the monies that the new owners needed to pay the loan principal of the bonds and the interest on their own loans — billions. However, due to the lobbying efforts of the banks, interest was made "a tax deductible expense, so essentially the taxpayers were subsidizing the takeover of industry ..." Despite this taxpayer "aid," the raided companies "were in such financial stress, having to pay the bondholders so much money, that they were facing bankruptcy." Thus, these companies "had to cut back their employment, cut back their investment and downsize in order to pay the people who had taken over. There were a lot of lawsuits about this, but the courts declared that all of this was basically legal."
Of course, the employees that remained faced worsening conditions even when they were unionized since the raiders forced the unions to make all sorts of concessions. Not only were there pay cuts but the pension funds got worked over. "Defined" amounts went in, but no guarantees were made about what would come out. Also, employees were pushed into stock ownership plans or their pension funds were put into their company's stock. This allowed their "company to lend the money to itself" and pay "the executives exorbitant salaries and bonuses."
What has resulted is that companies have come to be run based on the interests of the raiders — "... instead of doing business, they're carving them (companies) up, closing them down, stopping their long term research and other projects, and doing just the opposite of what's needed for an industrial economy." Not mentioned by Hudson but also occurring was the offshoring of funds (to evade paying taxes) and jobs (to pay even lower wages). Thus, as is now pretty clear, it has actually been the FINANCIAL SECTOR and it's interests that ruined America's industrial economy.
THE REAL ESTATE SCAMS & BUBBLE
So what did the real estate "raiders" do? Firstly, they kept pushing through changes to the tax system that "made the real estate sector exempt from having to pay an income tax from about 1945 through 2000." Not only did they help get the interest they paid on their loans made tax-deductible, but they got tax code changes that allow tax write-offs based on the idea that buildings depreciate — "as if the property is losing market price, despite the long-term rise in real estate prices" and as if there are no laws requiring that buildings be maintained. Thus, "buildings can be depreciated again and again, at a higher price each time they change hands." "The result has been to divert investment away from industry into real estate — largely to get a tax break" given taxes based on capital gains now [but not earlier on] "taxed at a much lower rate than 'earned' income (wages and profits) ..."
Also pushed through were great reductions in property taxes that provided the real estate sector with still higher earnings although they didn't keep it all since they got more and larger loans that provided the banks with more and more interest. Of course, home prices rose, too. Unfortunately, state and local revenues from property taxes went from "about 75%" in 1930 "down to 16%" last year. So, "cities have shifted the property tax onto wages and salaries — income and sales taxes that increase the price of business." Of course these taxes have hurt homeowners as have the bid up home prices. So, now we have the real estate sector backed by the financial sector hurting industry and all of us. Not mentioned is the insurance sector, but it seems they are preventing the universal single-payer health care system 84% of Americans, even Republicans [see WRH, May 12, 2009], now want.
HUDSON'S RECOMMENDATIONS
Since Hudson is both an economist and a historian, he knows the economic history that has been distorted or kept hidden from us by the Chicago School, i.e. the Wall Street/Washington Consensus neo-liberals. It turns out that it is the ideas of the classical economists like Adam Smith and John Stuart Mill that have been badly tampered with and that Hudson sees as useful for us today. They emphasized and disliked what they called "unearned income." Yet, using this sort of income what Hudson calls the FIRE sector — Finance, Insurance, and Real Estate — "is siphoning income away from workers and industrial capital and loading them down with ever-increasing debt" — surely, they are shortening our lives, too.
To the classical economists "rent [income gained from owning or controlling land or pre-existing natural resources or today money made by manipulating the economic and/or legal environment rather than by making a profit through trade and production of wealth] is not earned ... Interest is not earned, it's a monopoly price [given the monopolistic nature of the banking system]. Monopoly profits [say from utilities or where a few huge companies can collude or prevent competition] aren't earned, they're extortionate. All this was viewed ... as something that government regulators should get rid of, either by not permitting it in price, or by holding the monopolies in the public domain, or by the land itself being either nationalized or taxed" [you can see the source of the various economic-isms here]. For them, the market needed to be free of unnecessary or indirect costs, unrelated to the actual costs of producing specific goods or providing specific services, and free of assets whose value had been artificially inflated. That was their idea of a "free market" — at cost prices. Pretty different from today's neo-liberal usage. Definitely, those classical ideas need revisiting.
Finally, Hudson has some ideas that are more real estate and tax system specific, again based on the classical economists. He says that they plus "most economists" today insist that "the more efficient tax burden is one that collects economic rent — "what nature or public infrastructure spending have provided freely — site value, the broadcasting spectrum, the rights to access the internet or other technology in cases where prices exceed the reasonable cost of production." Along these lines as I saw related to Alaska, we do have some fees charged for the leasing of public lands for their deposits of coal, petroleum, natural gas, phosphates, sodium, etc. administered by the Bureau of Land management when they do their job properly.
Hudson concludes that "land and natural resources should be the basis of taxation [rather than income and sales taxes] because a real estate tax keeps down house prices and makes them more affordable." To back this up he says, "the lower the taxes on property the more money is free to pay the bankers," [i.e. the more the bubble creators get loans and pay interest to bid up prices and the more homeowners pay in interest on their larger loans while also paying those income/sales taxes].
SO, what Hudson wants to see IS a finance sector, actually the entire FIRE sector, returned to supporting rather than parasitically shrinking the productive economy and THE WORLD — since these parasite "raiders" have carried out the same "schemes" and others using the IMF, the World Bank, etc. overseas.
NOTE: Using the link above the 2 interview transcripts were, (1) A Tax Program for US Economic Recovery (Eric Janszen interviews Dr. Michael Hudson before his lecture at Harvard University, December 2008) and (2) The Fictitious Economy, Part 1, July 15, 2008 (a Guns And Butter Radio Interview by Bonnie Faulkner).
Marie K.
P.S. (1) Interestingly, Hudson notes that "banks lend 70% of their money for mortgage credit" and that unlike what we're told — "no bank lends money to finance industry." Of course, they DO loan to corporate raiders (collateral is already in place), brokerage houses (for stocks already issued), governments, and speculators.
P.S. (2) TO END THE CURRENT CRISIS Hudson insists that the financial sector MUST be forced to take the losses of their bad loans. As for today's mortgage holders, their mortgages need to be written down to current prices. These measures would clean up the system so that it can start recovering. Instead the financial sector refuses to give up on their loans (for derivatives, too) as they cause hardship EVERYWHERE. Such greed is mind-boggling.
P.S. (3) This Wikipedia explanation of "rent seeking" offers some modern-day thinking on "unearned income" based on Adam Smith's term "rent." A MUST READ.
The above article doesn't even mention Obama's rapid escalation of the Wall Street and Banker bailout, which now exceeds $12 trillion. Or his massive and escalating budget deficits. Both of these issues are at the heart of the "teabaggers revolution", which "liberals" disparage due to cooption of teabaggery by the closeted GOP :-) And the "left" is aghast at the escalation of the Afghanistan-Pakistan war which has now resulted in civil war in Pakistan. But that isn't discussed in the article either. (I remember when Politico.com first started and their reporter was happily called upon by GWB at a press conference. It was obvious that he was doing Politico a big favor to put their name on the map, and that they would be working for the Establishment going forward...)
The problem of Obama is his modus operandi, which is to seek compromise in every matter. Compromise between the Democratic Party leadership, which is overtly centrist, and the policies of the George W. Bush presidency is like splitting the difference between Lenin and Pinochet. There is no possible compromise between Mother Theresa and Ghengis Khan. Moving to the right of the Democratic Party means moving in the authoritarian direction from a party that had already become closet Republicans.
Today's Democrats are like the Republicans of the past, except that they lie to a different slice of the electorate when campaigning. And now Obama is busily cementing GWB's presidency in every area, from foreign policy to financial; the theft of trillions of dollars by GWB cronies is now a done deal, beyond prosecution thanks to Obama's pathetic and self-serving policy of compromise at all costs.
What the US needs now from lefty/progressives is twofold:
1) Massive politicized demonstrations of non-cooperation with the government and Military-Industrial-Entertainment complex. Withdraw all support from the Establishment and have a massive sit-down in all ways. 110% Quit spending. Quit voting for Democratic politicians. Quit generating taxable income. If you can't beat them, make them feed you! Quit your Wal-Mart job and move to a welfare friendly state! Leave the regressive South and move to Oregon or Northern California! Vote "not guilty!" at every jury trial! Invest your savings overseas, not in America, which has betrayed you in every way. Exchange your Ameribucks for gold coins and then secretly bury them for a decade or two :-) Think it, name it, then do it!
2) Demand a global peace negotiation between the United States and all countries where the US is at war or has bases, as well as all perceived enemies which the US is either attacking or ostensibly defending against. It is time for Global Peace Now.
Mahdi Abdul Finkelstein
I abhor Politico, and consider them an unreliable source for anything. They strike me as similar to a press release publishing service, except they're willing to do the write-up and put their bylines on it. Nothing but gossip and whisper and lobbyists' perspectives, and when they're right it's mere coincidence.
Nothing to disagree with in your perspective of where Obama fits in with the ruling elite, and nothing really to disagree with in your prescription for good lefties' response, but I don't think there are more than a few thousand lefties left in America. There rest are just Democrats, and they're good at taking orders and don't seem to be picky about who they'll follow. I have the impression they'll follow Barack Obama no matter what cliff he leads them off.
Helen & Harry Highwater
#
Re sweatshops, now I wonder how long it will take for someone to blame immigration policy for sweatshop labor on American soil?
I.E. "If we stop letting them in the country, they'll stop making these shops and taking profits away from honest workers." -Some idiot on the bus. (Ethnic slurs removed)
The North American perception of how Capitalism works is a major barrier to the security of worker's rights. There is the firm belief that earnings and effort are directly linked but the reality is that paying proper wages cuts into the profit margin and it's easier to threaten to cut wages if people don't work harder than it is to raise them when they go the extra mile. Attempting to ensure a certain level of pay for labor supposedly breeds only complacency while grossly overpaying executive positions supposedly breeds excellence. Attempting to even this crap out is seen as taking money from the people who 'earned' it such as the owners of the delightful sweatshops we read so much about.
Also of note is the 'not my problem' attitude when most people find out they're dealing with someone that practices less than legal business, preferring to absolve themselves of any guilt or complicity simply because they're not the ones in the room holding the cat o' nine tails. To a disturbing number of people, such events are cut off from the chain of industry and considered isolated from everything it touches.
Of course, pointing any of this out makes you some kind of filthy godless communist or a welfare vampire or some other equally loathsome and ridiculous thing.
I notice this particular article decries the existence of sweatshops as exploitation of women specifically but I think the gender equality argument is a near-coincidental factor to this issue. Women from Hispanic and Asian countries are easier for such places to take advantage of because: A) Most of those countries still promote or even enforce a woman's role as a homemaker, which means it is far more likely they will possess the skills necessary to make clothes whereas most men don't know how to sew. And B) Places like that govern through fear.
The workers are ignorant of their rights and responsive to physical threats in case they muster the nerve to look into said rights. It's always easier to bully someone that isn't likely to punch you in the face and flush your head down the toilet. Their tendency for recruitment doesn't stem from gender so much as the fact most women are likely smaller and weaker than the shop's overseers and tend to have non-threatening demeanors. I doubt you'll find a tougher-than-leather brass-knuckle bearing biker chick that doesn't take crap from anyone in a sweatshop.
Furthermore I imagine the 10% male employee ratio fares no better in the 'getting treated like a prison b*tch' department.
Then Rachel Maddow's show came on and she described how the US tortured a captured Iraqi — in Iraq — after the invasion. So it struck me like a lightning bolt the true magnitude of the horror and evil our country has done.
It is impossible to visit de Lint's clean and pure spirit world and then crash back to Earth hearing about US torturers doing these heinous things to human beings.
Objectively speaking, the story Rachel told is quite different than other stories of torture because the Iraqi was not Al Qaeda. He was not part of the resistance either. There is no way that torturing him was not a war crime. Plus, he was talking before the waterboarding, quite freely. Then the instructions from Cheney arrived ...
I hope I never forget the feeling of this day. And I hope that all of the torture photographs are released to the public so that even the Born Again White As Snow Christians can finally comprehend the absolute Evil of the men they elected as "Christian" politicians. And I hope that everyone else recognizes the ongoing Evil of the American war machine because it must stop. It must be stopped. I cannot be allowed to continue perpetrating these horrors and murders all over the planet.
Nancy Pelosi says she's shocked, shocked, that the Bush-Cheney administration lied to her. So is she lying, or is she just mentally retarded? To me it was clear that the Bush-Cheney administration was lying Congress, lying to America, lying about everything, by late 2001 or early 2002. Pelosi is an insider, so she would presumably be able to recognize the lies much quicker than I could. But she seems to just be figuring out now, that Bush and Cheney were lying.
Michael Bonghuffer
#
I know, I know. It probably won't do any good as global citizens are at the mercy of thugs and can't see their way out. But as to the release of the photos I just HAVE to try. So here you are — act out and pass along as you see fit ...
... or if people don't want to read the whole thing, communications intended for handling under the Council Complaint Procedure may be addressed to:
Human Rights Council and Treaties Division Complaint Procedure OHCHR-UNOG 1211 Geneva 10, Switzerland
Fax: (41 22) 917 90 11 E-mail: CP@ohchr.org
== == ==
This is the first response I have gotten:
Greetings from the Public Inquiries
Team.
In response to your query, please note that the matter you raise does not fall within the competence of the United Nations. We would encourage you to redirect your query to the appropriate office for consideration.
Thank you for your interest in the United Nations.
Believe you me I asked what office the "appropriate office" is.
In your comment to this, you assumed [that listing internet access a human right] was a legal first, but not so; Estonia was first several years ago. Then again, as the EU is turning into a United States of Europe, legislation in individual countries matters less and less, so this is even good for Estonia. However, I have no love for the EU. It's a corrupt organization like all others. However, every so often, something good comes out of everything. Doesn't mean the EU isn't useless crap, anyway.
Anonymous
I always appreciate having the record set straight, thanks.
We're far enough from Europe that we have little opinion about whether the European Union is a good or bad thing. As with any governmental entity, I can see some advantages, but there are always dangers as well. It is too often forgotten that exponentially more people have been killed by government than by any other human invention.
While I do understand that releasing the photos will increase likely attacks on USA troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, and further erode what little credibility we have in the region, I find the decision lame.
One must bite the bullet at some point. Despite military commanders concerns:
Excerpt: Military commanders' concerns are most intense with respect to Afghanistan. The release would coincide with the spring thaw that usually heralds the year's toughest fighting there — and as thousands of new US troops head into Afghanistan's volatile south.
This is a very touchy maneuver on Obama's part. IF his plan is to release the photos in, say, late fall/early winter, when their immediately sensational impact on USA troops can be most mitigated, I will then suspend my criticism and even offer praise if the result at that time is to push aggressively to fully contain the problems those images symbolize, including prosecuting those who lied to us about torture's role in the so-called War on Terror.
IF the plan is to sweep these political entrails under the rug and pretend something doesn't stink awful, then will the honeymoon be over.
For now, I ain't taking the gun out of the drawer much less loading it, but I am unlocking the gun cabinet long enough to remind myself and the likes of Obama that there is indeed a gun (a metaphor for political opposition, not for notions of assassination, dear Echelon) and it isn't just for show.
I wait w/ bated breath.
Just so's ye have an idea where I begin painting a scarlet letter on my heroes.
== == ==
Some poster at The Daily Beast did a nice job of reviewing that insane thing called 9/11:
Excerpt: We can start by looking at the "nineteen hijackers". First of all, something that the official 9/11 myth can't explain is how guys that have been well-documented as being heavy drinkers, pork eaters, coke users who frequented strip clubs, visited prostitutes and in general lived a hedonistic lifestyle incompatible with being even practicing Muslims let alone Muslims so devout as to be willing to give their own lives to inflict punishment on America, could possibly be reconciled with what they are accused of being willing to do. Nineteen guys who spent their days in pious abstinence and devotion to Islam perhaps could be seen as people willing to die for what they feel is an Islamic cause but not nineteen westernized partiers who seemed to care nothing for their supposed religion. It makes no sense.
The Blue Rajah
#
Re: A H1N1 "swine flu" — I thought you might appreciate this info based on what I wrote to you a few weeks ago when I stated, "....it would not surprise me that this virus is synthetic".
Gak, she exclaimed with concern. Perhaps that's why it hasn't yet reached the epidemic levels we're accustomed to from science fiction movies. Give 'em a few years to get better at it, and we'll all be killed to make way for the conquest of the cockroaches.
Helen & Harry Highwater
Strange days, indeed. And, it is still conjecture. Adrian Gibbs, however, is no hack. I wonder if we'll actually hear more about this?
Unfortunately I don't have this gene. Because when I drink, I get too dizzy and fuzzy-headed to think well — and my vision gets blurry. And all that was true maybe decades ago before I began having age-related vision problems atop all that! Darn!
It's weird of me, I know, but I've never much liked drinking alcoholic beverages. I like to be in charge of my body, I guess. I've had a buzz a few times, and that's pleasant, but I've never been drunk.
H&HH
People are edging ever closer in concept to the ultimate terrorist
threat, which occurred to me some years ago, but I dared not divulge. I hinted
at it in The growing retribution challenge to the use of overt or covert
operations or financial or political manipulations by governments or
corporate
entities,
but felt it too dangerous to be
explicit.
#If or when Karl Rove finally answers questions before Congress regarding the politicization of the Justice Department during the Bush-Cheney administration, rest assured that everything about the hearings will be a sham. Rove won't be under oath. The hearings will be "private". The investigation will be over. And the truth will never be publicly told.
LOL !!! But "national security" will remain secured.
== == ==
Republicans are now running ads trying to scare people into thinking President Obama is going to take the prisoners from Guantanamo and put them up in an apartment building two blocks from your house. As if America doesn't know how to incarcerate people?
What's wrong with incarcerating the Guantanamo prisoners out in Joe Arpaio's Arizona lock-up. He's a gung-ho sheriff right out of the old west tradition. His fondness for pink prison garb ought to be right up the CIA's torture agenda.
Joe Arpaio is one of America's leading douchebags. It says a lot about Phoenix and Arizona that he's been the sheriff there for almost twenty years, and they put up with him. I'm pleased to remember that years ago, I was offered a job in Phoenix. Arpaio's badge was the reason I didn't seriously consider the offer.
H&HH
Excerpt: Meanwhile, the FDA warned in its letter that if General Mills fails to
"correct the violations" on its labels, boxes of Cheerios could disappear from
supermarket and wholesaler shelves around the United States and the
company could face legal action.
Does eating Cheerios with that spoon constitute complicity and "aiding and abetting" a criminal act? I hope I can go on eating my Rice Crispies without being charged with terrorism for harboring "snap, crackle, and pop"
The left side of the graph is phony because all of the Bush War expenditures were "off budget", and most of Obama's will — supposedly — be "on budget". Both are phony also because a) they do not include accruals (incurred obligations and promises); and b) this sh*t will not FLY ... long before we get to the right side of the graph bad stuff like rising interest rates, falling dollar, and foreign bond purchaser strikes will occur.
In other words, you can't get there from here. Dramatic changes in the US modus operandi are required and Obama is, at best, an incrementalist who responds after the disaster strikes in cautious baby steps which don't antagonize rich white people.
Hazel Burke
Incrementalist. Yeah. Baby steps. I'm tired of the baby steps but Obama is who he is, and for whatever reasons (some understandable, some not) he seems to be incapable of taking man steps.
In other words, you can't get there from here. Dramatic changes in the US modus operandi are required and Obama is, at best, an incrementalist who responds after the disaster strikes in cautious baby steps which don't antagonize rich white people.
The simple fact is that it is VERY easy to say how you'll do something if you were in charge — when you do not have to deal with the actual realities of the situation. I do believe that Obama has learned now how very accessible he is to assassination. Yes, everyone is going to scream coward because he should give his life in the handling of his duties. But the question is: Is he willing to give his daughters' lives? or Michelle's?
He knew there were those he couldn't trust but now I'm sure he knows the full magnitude of just how quickly people can turn on him — either for a dollar or a sentiment. People made excuses for eight years for Bush all the while doing nothing. This man is in office for five months and suddenly he's spineless.
I wonder how truly bold most Americans would be if their actions cost them not only their own lives but the lives of everyone they love, because at the end of the day — that is going to be the issue. People will not even take off work to protest — would you really give up your child, spouse, or grandchild, as well as your own life, attempting to walk the tightrope of ever-changing sentiment? Clinton and Bush failed on America's watch and now we plan to eviscerate Obama to show our rage at his slowness to not immediately fix all of the problems created by his predecessors. Oh yes, Americans are a loyal lot.
Perhaps it should have been someone older? Because they have less to lose?
Be wary America of what you wish for — I do believe you just may get it.
Sherri B.
That's what I was trying to say a few weeks ago, but damn if you didn't say it a lot better.
Helen & Harry Highwater
#
Comrade Drudge is giving top billing recently to budget deficit hog-wallowing by the Democrats. Thanks, Matt! Est. budget deficit for 2009 = $1.8 trillion. However, this does not include the off budget shenanigans. For example, the US took over Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and now is totally responsible for all of their past, present and future debts. From the Credit Bubble Bulletin:
Excerpt: Exemplifying the scope of the unfolding Government Finance Bubble, Treasury and Agency debt issuance combined for an incredible $740.5bn during the first quarter, up 59% y-o-y to a record annual pace of $2.962 TN.
Note: the agency borrowing does not include the massive amounts of loans which they guarantee. As the federal government continues to nationalize the housing market in the US, future risks due to increased interest rates resulting in lower bond values push the potential for real losses at Fannie and Freddie to spectacular level... nothing has changed at those places, they remain political toys for Congress to buy votes.
The deficit also does not include the ongoing looting of social security "lock box" money, wherein money withheld from workers is spent but credits to phony, non-marketable "treasury" debt AND NOT COUNTED IN THE BUDGET DEFICIT.
What blows my mind is that the US government can spend more than $11,000 for every American, young and old, both taxpayers and the unemployed. That cannot continue and yet, amazingly, the plan is to continue spending even more than that, year after year after year!
Since there are no real reforms happening and an escalation of Bush II's warmongering foreign policies, I am convinced that the US is heading for a bleak future with lower living standards and much richer rich people. I also see the Democrats becoming increasingly corrupt as they consolidate their majorities — things will start getting really ugly after the 2010 elections. Think of how Venezuela is going down the tubes now under Hugo Chavez and apply something similar but slower to America.
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"A mind-blowing mix of fact and fantasy, hard science and well-grounded speculation, with
concrete how-to info to top it all off -- resulting in some of the best and strangest stuff
on Earth..."
Of course not. Nobody will know the answers until there's an open and honest investigation.
But anyone courageous enough to think can see that the pertinent questions for any serious "investigation" were never asked, let alone answered, by the official investigators.
Congress of the United States begun and held at the City of New York, on Wednesday the fourth of March, one thousand seven hundred and eighty-nine. The Conventions of a number of the States, having at the time of their adopting the Constitution expressed a desire in order to prevent misconstruction or abuse of its powers, that further declaratory and restrictive clauses should be added: And as extending the ground of public confidence in the Government will best ensure the beneficent ends of its institution.
Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, two thirds of both Houses concurring that the following Articles be proposed to the Legislatures of the several states as Amendments to the Constitution of the United States, all or any of which articles, when ratified by three fourths of the said Legislatures to be valid to all intents and purposes as part of the said Constitution. viz: Articles in addition to, and Amendment of the Constitution of the United States of America, proposed by Congress and Ratified by the Legislatures of the several States, pursuant to the fifth Article of the original Constitution. The First Amendment
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.
The Second Amendment
A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.
The Third Amendment
No soldier shall, in time of peace be quartered in any house, without the consent of the owner, nor in time of war, but in a manner to be prescribed by law.
The Fourth Amendment
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.
The Fifth Amendment
No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a grand jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the militia, when in actual service in time of war or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offense to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.
The Sixth Amendment
In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the state and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the assistance of counsel for his defense.
The Seventh Amendment
In suits at common law, where the value in controversy shall exceed twenty dollars, the right of trial by jury shall be preserved, and no fact tried by a jury, shall be otherwise reexamined in any court of the United States, than according to the rules of the common law.
The Eighth Amendment
Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.
The Ninth Amendment
The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.
The Tenth Amendment
The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people.
Draeger, the manufacturer maintained that the system was perfect, and that revealing the source code would be damaging to its business. They were right about the second part, of course, because it turned out that the code was 
