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Wednesday, October 7, 2009
Why is Betsy McCaughey on MSNBC?
by Jamison Foser
Yesterday, I noted that the problem with Betsy McCaughey isn't that she's a liar -- it's that the media gives her a platform to lie.
Let's be clear about this: it isn't just FOX News and the New York Post that are guilty of promoting someone whose claim to fame for 15 years has been spreading falsehoods about health care reform.
As I write this, McCaughey is on MSNBC, talking about health care. Why? What has she ever done to deserve such a platform?
(And remember MSNBC's promotion of McCaughey next time someone tells you it is a "liberal" cable channel.)
UPDATE: McCaughey and MSNBC host Dylan Ratigan just had this exchange:
McCAUGHEY: You're not a very fair moderator.
RATIGAN: Well, you're not a very fair answerer, so there you go.
Right. McCaughey isn't a very fair answerer. in fact, she's a liar. We've known she's a liar for 15 years. She's famously a liar about the very topic MSNBC is hosting her to discuss. So why is she on television? Why is Ratigan interviewing her?
From One House To Another: Dems Warn Honduran Lawmakers Not To Heed GOP
by Scott Nance
A group of six senior House Democrats have penned an open letter to members of the Congress in Honduras, urging President Manuel Zelaya be restored to office and rebutting apparent Republican statements to the contrary.
The letter signed by Reps. James McGovern and Bill Delahunt of Massachusetts, Sam Farr and Xavier Becerra of California, Gregory Meeks of Florida, and Janice Schakowsky of Illinois, was sent to Honduras as four Republican members of Congress visited interim Honduran President Roberto Micheletti and communicated their support for the coup, according to an organization that released the letter.
The elected leader of Honduras, Zelaya was deposed in a June 28 coup. Zelaya has since returned to Honduras but is isolated in Brazil's embassy there.
"We believe that the coup against President Zelaya was unconstitutional; the absence of a legitimate president, the violations of human rights and the curtailment of civil liberties are unacceptable; and these conditions make the holding of free and fair elections next November in Honduras impossible," the Democrats write in their letter, addressed to the president of the Honduran legislature.
The Center for Democracy in the Americas (CDA), an organization that supports the reinstatement of Zelaya, praises the Democrats' letter.
The letter signed by Reps. James McGovern and Bill Delahunt of Massachusetts, Sam Farr and Xavier Becerra of California, Gregory Meeks of Florida, and Janice Schakowsky of Illinois, was sent to Honduras as four Republican members of Congress visited interim Honduran President Roberto Micheletti and communicated their support for the coup, according to an organization that released the letter.
The elected leader of Honduras, Zelaya was deposed in a June 28 coup. Zelaya has since returned to Honduras but is isolated in Brazil's embassy there.
"We believe that the coup against President Zelaya was unconstitutional; the absence of a legitimate president, the violations of human rights and the curtailment of civil liberties are unacceptable; and these conditions make the holding of free and fair elections next November in Honduras impossible," the Democrats write in their letter, addressed to the president of the Honduran legislature.
The Center for Democracy in the Americas (CDA), an organization that supports the reinstatement of Zelaya, praises the Democrats' letter.
Tim Meadows & Craig Ferguson Skewer Kanye, Bush, Oprah In Olympics Sketch
Craig Ferguson talked to "Late Late Show" correspondent Tim Meadows last night about Chicago's failed bid for the Olympics. After taking shots at Chicagoan Kanye West, and former President George W. Bush, the pair decided that Oprah has lost some cache: "Ten years ago she could have forced the world to host the Olympics between her butt cheeks." Meadows then told Ferguson to embrace Rio's win by getting a Brazilian bikini wax--it just got weirder from there.
WATCH:
WATCH:
Congressional GOP Fundraising Committee On Pelosi: It’s Time To ‘Put Her In Her Place’
The National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) has a press release today, hitting House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) for having the temerity to express doubts that Democratic members of Congress will support with the troop increase that Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal has recommended for the war in Afghanistan. The release claims that in the past, Pelosi has made "pleas for action in Afghanistan" and is now "backpedaling on Afghanistan amidst increasing criticism from the radical left." It cites her saying this:
"I've also made it clear it's a very difficult vote to get from the members," she added. "Their constituents don't like an escalated war in Afghanistan. They'd like to see a different approach. But let's see what the president has to say." (Glenn Thrush, "Pelosi skeptical about Afghan surge, McChrystal," Politico, 10/05/2009)
Pelosi, of course, is not "backpedaling" in any way. In the first paragraph of the Politico article cited by the NRCC, the reporter notes that Pelosi said she is still "agnostic" on a troop surge; she was simply stating the realities in her party.
So what is the NRCC's solution to dealing with Pelosi? It wants McChrystal to "put her in her place":
What place does the NRCC think that this accomplished woman — the first female Speaker of the House in U.S. history — deserves to be in?
AZ Sheriff Loses 287g ICE Immigration-Enforcement Authority: Critical Moment for Immigration Reform
by dawnt
I usually lurk and read (occasionally comment). But we are at a seminal moment in immigration reform, and I didn't see any diaries here about today's important development on 287g.
287g is the program that allows local law enforcement agencies to act as ICE agents -- investigating and detaining people suspected of living or working in the country without authorization. Maricopa County (Arizona) Sheriff Joe Arpaio is the "poster boy" for this program. He's the guy that you hear about who has "neighborhood sweeps" and has been accused of arresting people for cracked windshields and then hauled them in on immigration violations. More than 500 advocacy groups asked last month for the entire program to be terminated. Arpaio is always used as the example for why the program is no good.
Sheriff Joe Arpaio announced Monday evening that ICE stripped away his 287g authorization to investigate and detain people he suspects are living/working in the U.S. without authorization... But wait, there's more...
- dawnt's diary :: ::
Arpaio is currently under investigation by the Dept of Justice for civil rights violations, and by the Dept of Labor for labor violations. He is being sued by a number of individuals, organizations, and fellow local officials. The mayors of two cities in Maricopa County have called him out for what they allege is racial profiling.
NOTE: If Arpaio's name sounds familiar, it's because he's in the news constantly... The county even pays for his international PR firm. Still not sure who he is? Just think "tent city jails," pink underwear, striped uniforms, chain gains, pink flip-flops, and green bologna. Also, after you read what I posted here, if you want more info, you can read my Huffington Post article here.
Under what's left of Arpaio's 287g agreement with ICE, Arpaio will still be able to screen inmates already in his jails, but he will no longer be able to detain people for suspicion of being/working in the U.S. without authorization under the agreement.
I don't need the feds to do my crime suppression to opt to arrest illegals. I can do it without the federal authority, and I'm going to continue to do it. It makes no difference. It helps us. Because I don't have to do all the paperwork for the feds, number one. And number two, I won't be under their umbrella, their guidance. So I will operate the same way, nothing is going to change.
So, whether or not he has authority under 287g, Arpaio says he is still going to continue doing what he was doing. He also says:
Nothing changes because pursuant to our duties in these crime suppression [sweeps] we arrest anybody that violates the law. If we find during the arrests that that there are illegals, we arrest them. Now the only difference [is] we're going to take 'em down to ICE. I hope they accept them, if they don't, I'll bring 'em myself to the border. So nothing really has changed. This is all politics. They want to use me to get rid of this 287 agreement across the country.
He was on a local radio show last night (Sunday) saying not only will nothing change, but he intends to conduct immigration raids "very soon to show Washington and everybody else I'm not changing, I will not be intimidated by Congress, by alleged racial profiling investigations by the Justice Department, by all these demonstrators, these politicians, all trying to keep me from doing my job, so nothing will change. Stay tuned."
Tuesday, October 6, 2009
The vast right-wing conspiracy is back
Some of Bill Clinton's most unhinged foes are flinging wild charges at Obama. This time, they're better organized
By Joe Conason
Whether Clinton is correct about the current condition of his old adversaries can best be measured by the passage or wreckage of healthcare reform and the outcome of next year's congressional midterm elections -- the same early milestones that marked the beginning of Clinton's tumultuous White House tenure. Perhaps Barack Obama will be saved by political demography and decent intentions, as the former president tried to assure Gregory; perhaps he and his administration will prove less vulnerable to intrigue and propaganda and less flawed than their predecessors.
What Obama should anticipate -- indeed, what he is already encountering -- is a cascade of slurs, threats and rhetorical violence that reanimates all of the worst themes of the bad old days. That wave will inevitably damage the president and his hopes for change, even if the majority of Americans is less receptive to right-wing messages than they once were. The greasy machinery once used to grind Clinton down has grown larger and more sophisticated by orders of magnitude, from Fox News Channel (which did not exist during his first term) to all of the conservative digital outlets that enable echoing and organizing on a truly vast scale.
Back when videotapes still had to be circulated by mail order, the Clinton-hunters did a brisk business with "The Clinton Chronicles," a "documentary" alleging that as governor of Arkansas he oversaw an enormous, unchecked racketeering enterprise that encompassed international bank fraud, cocaine smuggling and multiple murders, facilitated by a kind of backwoods dictatorship. Nothing resembling that remarkable work of extremist art, once promoted by the late Rev. Jerry Falwell and the Wall Street Journal editorial page, has appeared so far in the crusade against Obama -- but that doesn't mean nothing is in the works. Many of the same organizations and operatives behind the original Clinton smears are still active and some have amassed considerable wealth and influence over the intervening decade.
http://www.salon.com/opinion/conason/2009/10/05/clinton_obama/
Latest sign of the apocalypse
McDonald's restaurants to open at the Louvre
It is a move which has managed to get both France's art lovers and gastronomes choking on their Gitanes.
Lovers of France's two great symbols of cultural exception – its haute cuisine and fine art – are aghast at plans to open a McDonald's restaurant and McCafé in the Louvre museum next month.America's fast food temple is celebrating its 30th anniversary in France with a coup -the opening of its 1,142nd Gallic outlet a few yards from the entrance to the country's Mecca of high art and the world's most visited museum.
The chain faces a groundswell of discontent among museum staff, many already unhappy about the Louvre lending its name and works to a multi-million pound museum project in Abu Dhabi.
"This is the last straw," said one art historian working at the Louvre, who declined to be named. "This is the pinnacle of exhausting consumerism, deficient gastronomy and very unpleasant odours in the context of a museum," he told the Daily Telegraph.
Didier Rykner, head of The Art Tribune website found the idea "shocking".
"I'm not against eating in a museum but McDonald's is hardly the height of gastronomy," he said, adding that it was a worrying mixture of art and consumerism. "Today McDonald's, tomorrow low-cost clothes shops," he said.
McDonald's confirmed that a restaurant will open next month. The Louvre confirmed it will be positioned in the underground approach to the Louvre, known as the Carrousel du Louvre.
The stonewalled gallery was opened in 1993, five years after the famous Louvre pyramid. The Carrousel's initial remit stipulated that its "commercial activities will be regulated and restricted to cultural or tourist activities".
The Louvre has the right to protest against boutiques it considers fail to meet such criteria. However, the museum told the Daily Telegraph it had agreed to a "quality" McCafé and a McDonald's in place by the end of the year, which it said was "is in line with the museum's image".
"The Louvre welcomes the fact that the entirety of visitors and customers, French or foreign, can enjoy such a rich and varied restaurant offer, whether in the museum area or gallery," the museum said in a statement.
The McDonald's would represent the "American" segment " of a new "food court", and would be situated "among (other) world cuisines and coffee shops," it wrote.
It added that the franchise owner "has taken the utmost care in ensuring the quality of the project, both in culinary and aesthetic terms".
ElBaradei says nuclear Israel number one threat to Mideast
| TEHRAN, Oct. 4 (Xinhua) -- Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Mohamed ElBaradei said Sunday that "Israel is number one threat to Middle East" with its nuclear arms, the official IRNA news agency reported. At a joint press conference with Iran's Atomic Energy Organization chief Ali Akbar Salehi in Tehran, ElBaradei brought Israel under spotlight and said that the Tel Aviv regime has refused to allow inspections into its nuclear installations for 30years, the report said. "Israel is the number one threat to the Middle East given the nuclear arms it possesses," ElBaradei was quoted as saying. Israel is widely assumed to have nuclear capabilities, although it refuses to confirm or deny the allegation. "This (possession of nuclear arms) was the cause for some proper measures to gain access to its (Israel's) power plants ... and the U.S. president has done some positive measures for the inspections to happen," said ElBaradei. ElBaradei arrived in Iran Saturday for talks with Iranian officials over Tehran's nuclear program. |
Great time for US consumers: America is on sale
By RACHEL BECK
NEW YORK (AP) - There has never been a better time to be a consumer. America is on sale.
The Great Recession has caused massive job losses and hardship for millions, but it has also fostered a shoppers' paradise. Anyone who still has the means to spend can find unheard of deals.
Prices on everything from clothes to coffee to cat food are dropping, some faster than they have in half a century. Items rarely discounted - like Tiffany engagements rings - are now. The two biggest purchases most people make - homes and new cars - are selling at steep price reductions.
"This is the new normal," says Donald Keprta, president of Dominick's, a supermarket chain in the Midwest, which just cut prices by as much as 30 percent on thousands of items. "We aren't going back."
Consumers like Karen Wilmes, a mother of two in Hopkinton, R.I., relish the steals. During a recent trip to Shaw's Supermarkets, she bought a basketful of goods, including Eggo waffles, Kleenex tissues and Betty Crocker cake mix. The retail price: $63.89. Wilmes paid $7.31 by buying items on sale and using coupons.
"The deals out there are unbelievable," says Wilmes, 36, who writes the Frugal Rhode Island Mama blog, which tracks local and national bargains. "We can put the money I save toward something else."
And she's doing just that, but only when she can find another deal. Wilmes and her husband recently bought a Samsung television from Best Buy's Web site for $1,299, about $300 less than she found at other stores. She also got free delivery and another $13 back from ebates.com, which receives commissions from online retailers for directing customers their way.
What's happening now has been building for years. Wal-Mart Stores Inc. introduced "every-day low prices" many years ago. Amazon.com redefined the idea of bargain prices during the late 1990s when it helped introduce online shopping. After the 2001 recession, automakers introduced zero-percent financing to boost sales. McDonald's "Dollar Meals" made fast food even cheaper.
But until the Great Recession came along, consumers hadn't seen anything yet.
Lawyer’s motion admits Birthers seen as ‘batsh*t crazy’
And in one passage from her filing, Lawyer Orly Taitz says the term "birther" is a "pejorative appellation ... often coupled with more colorful epithets such as 'batshit crazy,'" and denies that her client in the lawsuit is part of any political movement.
Taitz had filed a lawsuit last month with the US District Court in Columbus, Georgia, on behalf of a US Army captain who challenged her deployment orders to Iraq on the grounds that she can't be sent there on President Obama's orders because he was not born in the United States and is therefore not entitled to be president.
Last month, Judge Clay Land tossed out Taitz's lawsuit, filed on behalf of Army Capt. Connie Rhodes, dismissing it and its claim that President Obama wasn't born in the United States as "frivolous." The judge also gave Taitz several weeks to explain why he shouldn't fine her $10,000 for contempt of court.
Shortly after the courtroom defeat, Capt. Rhodes sent a letter to Judge Land saying she no longer wanted to be represented by Taitz in the matter.
In a motion filed with the court on Friday, Taitz asked Judge Land to recuse himself from the case because of "personal contacts and financial stakes he may have with President Barack Obama's administration," reports the Columbus Ledger-Enquirer.
And in what is yet another bizarre twist to the case, Taitz filed an affidavit from a witness who claimed to have seen US Attorney General Eric Holder enter a coffee shop in Columbus on a day when the Birther case was to be heard in court.
"I looked up and immediately recognized an individual entering and approaching the serving counter, due to his well know[n] TV displayed distinguishing features: his trim upper lip mustache, not large of stature and general olive complexion," one Robert D. Douglas stated in the affidavit.
Tellingly, the affidavit does not definitively state the person Douglas saw was Holder.
But that was enough for Taitz to conclude, in her court filing, that this amounted to "circumstantial evidence suggesting that, in fact Judge Land was influenced by prior association or direct ex-parte communications with Attorney General Eric Holder, acting as agent on behalf of de facto President Obama."
As the Ledger-Enquirer pointed out, Judge Land is an appointee of former President George W. Bush.
Norway 'the best place to live'
 Children in Norway can look forward to a high quality of life |
Norway is the best place in the world to live while Niger is the least desirable, according to an annual report by the United Nations.
The 182 countries were ranked according to the quality of life their citizens experienced.
Criteria examined included life expectancy, literacy rates, school enrolment and country economies.
However the UN human development index used data collected in 2007 - before the global economic crisis.
Opposites
The UN Development Programme said the index highlighted the grave disparities between rich and poor countries.
Norway's consistently high rating for desirable living standards, is, in large part, the result of the discovery of offshore oil and gas deposits in the late 1960s.
Niger, however, is a drought-prone country which has sometimes struggled to feed its people.
Other countries to reach the top spots were Australia and Iceland.
However, living standards in Iceland have changed since the data was collected, as it was one of the countries worst hit by the credit crunch.
The 2008 crisis exposed the Icelandic economy's dependence on the banking sector, leaving it particularly vulnerable to collapse. The country's three major banks were nationalised and Iceland had to seek international support in order to stay afloat.
Human Development Report Office deputy director Eva Jespersen told the BBC News website that although the country's now-reduced gross domestic product figure would "pull Iceland down" next year, its high life expectancy rates and commitment to education would "cushion the decline to some degree".
Afghanistan was regarded the second least desirable place to live, just below Sierra Leone in third from bottom place.
The index shows that life expectancy in Niger was 50 years - approximately 30 years shorter than for those living in Norway.
For every dollar earned per person in Niger, $85 was earned in Norway.
What's for tea? Amazing pictures of the polar bear who took an interest in the menu on Arctic ship
A group of wildlife enthusiasts were looking forward to their lunch during an expedition to the Arctic island of Svalbard.
But they soon discovered a hungry polar bear was also rather keen to try their cauliflower soup.
The giant predator poked his head through the open porthole into the kitchen of the ship, which had weighed anchor so the passengers could enjoy the fabulous icy landscape.
Anybody home? A polar bear pokes his head through the ship's kitchen window during a lunch stop by Svalbard
Polar bears are the largest land based carnivores and treat all animals as potential prey
Enlarge
Defeated: The polar bear wanders away after failing to secure a quick and easy lunch
Peckish: The bear gets a whiff of the cauliflower soup cooking in the galley
He stayed by the boat for another couple of hours and even stood on his hind legs to better investigate any scavenging potential.
The incredible shots were taken by wildlife photographer Andy Rouse, who led an expedition on the M/S Stockholm.
Will California become America's first failed state?
Los Angeles, 2009: California may be the eighth largest economy in the world, but its state staff are being paid in IOUs, unemployment is at its highest in 70 years, and teachers are on hunger strike. So what has gone so catastrophically wrong?
by Paul Harris
Patients without medical insurance wait for treatment in the Forum, a music arena in Inglewood, Los Angeles. The 1,500 free places were filled by 4am. Photograph: John Moore/Getty Images
California has a special place in the American psyche. It is the Golden State: a playground of the rich and famous with perfect weather. It symbolises a lifestyle of sunshine, swimming pools and the Hollywood dream factory.
But the state that was once held up as the epitome of the boundless opportunities of America has collapsed. From its politics to its economy to its environment and way of life, California is like a patient on life support. At the start of summer the state government was so deeply in debt that it began to issue IOUs instead of wages. Its unemployment rate has soared to more than 12%, the highest figure in 70 years. Desperate to pay off a crippling budget deficit, California is slashing spending in education and healthcare, laying off vast numbers of workers and forcing others to take unpaid leave. In a state made up of sprawling suburbs the collapse of the housing bubble has impoverished millions and kicked tens of thousands of families out of their homes. Its political system is locked in paralysis and the two-term rule of former movie star Arnold Schwarzenegger is seen as a disaster – his approval ratings having sunk to levels that would make George W Bush blush. The crisis is so deep that Professor Kevin Starr, who has written an acclaimed history of the state, recently declared: "California is on the verge of becoming the first failed state in America."
Outside the Forum in Inglewood, near downtown Los Angeles, California has already failed. The scene is reminiscent of the fallout from Hurricane Katrina, as crowds of impoverished citizens stand or lie aimlessly on the hot tarmac of the centre's car park. It is 10am, and most have already been here for hours. They have come for free healthcare: a travelling medical and dental clinic has set up shop in the Forum (which usually hosts rock concerts) and thousands of the poor, the uninsured and the down-on-their-luck have driven for miles to be here.
The queue began forming at 1am. By 4am, the 1,500 spaces were already full and people were being turned away. On the floor of the Forum, root-canal surgeries are taking place. People are ferried in on cushions, hauled out of decrepit cars. Sitting propped up against a lamp post, waiting for her number to be called, is Debbie Tuua, 33. It is her birthday, but she has taken a day off work to bring her elderly parents to the Forum, and they have driven through the night to get here. They wait in a car as the heat of the day begins to rise. "It is awful for them, but what choice do we have?" Tuua says. "I have no other way to get care to them."
Yet California is currently cutting healthcare, slashing the "Healthy Families" programme that helped an estimated one million of its poorest children. Los Angeles now has a poverty rate of 20%. Other cities across the state, such as Fresno and Modesto, have jobless rates that rival Detroit's. In order to pass its state budget, California's government has had to agree to a deal that cuts billions of dollars from education and sacks 60,000 state employees. Some teachers have launched a hunger strike in protest. California's education system has become so poor so quickly that it is now effectively failing its future workforce. The percentage of 19-year-olds at college in the state dropped from 43% to 30% between 1996 and 2004, one of the highest falls ever recorded for any developed world economy. California's schools are ranked 47th out of 50 in the nation. Its governm
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/oct/04/california-failing-state-debt
Quelle Surprise! New York Times Fails to Call Private Equity Looting by Its Proper Name
The New York Times tonight features a generally very good piece, "Buyout Firms Profited as a Company's Debt Soared," by Julie Creswell that falls short in one important respect: it fails to call a prevalent and destructive practice of private equity firms by its proper name.
PE firms in the risk-blind environment preceding the credit crunch got into the habit of producing good to stellar returns by modifying their usual formula. The traditional model was to buy companies with a ton of debt, then improving their bottom line by a combination of partial asset stripping (selling off ancillary operations), cost cutting, and once a blue moon, actually doing something to improve operational performance. Then the company would be sold, either privately, usually to a corporation, or taken public.
But the PE firms found a much easier approach: just pile on more and more debt, and pay themselves a special dividend. No need to do any work, just keep borrowing until you had recouped your investment and then some. And that way you did not need to care how the company fared. If you destroyed the business, it was of no mind to you and your investors. Other saps were left holding the carcass.
George Akerlof and Paul Romer called that activity looting in a famous 1993 paper and depicted it as criminal:
Our theoretical analysis shows that an economic underground can come to life if firms have an incentive to go broke for profit at society's expense (to loot) instead of to go for broke (to gamble on success). Bankruptcy for profit will occur if poor accounting, lax regulation, or low penalties for abuse give owners an incentive to pay themselves more than their firms are worth and then default on their debt obligations….
Our description of a looting strategy amounts to a sophisticated version of having a limited liability corporation borrow money, pay it into the private account of the owner, and then default on its debt…
First, limited liability gives the owners of a corporation the potential to exploit lenders. Second, if debt contracts let this happen, owners will intentionally drive a solvent firm bankrupt. Third, when the owners of a firm drive it bankrupt, they can cause great social harm, just as looters in a riot cause total losses that are far greater than the private gains they capture.
This version wasn't sophisticated. It was done in broad daylight. The Akerlof/Romer article describes how looting occurred (among other places) in Chile and in the US during the savings and loan crisis. But the New York Times article is robbed of its punch by its inability (due to Grey Lady conventions) or reluctance to call this form of chicanery what it is, a fraud perpetrated on society as a whole.
O’Connor takes ’subtle shot’ at Roberts-led Supreme Court
Former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor says her rulings on the nation's highest court are being "dismantled" by a more right-leaning court.
Speaking at the College of William and Mary's annual Supreme Court Preview, the former justice told her audience that she's "disappointed" with the direction the court has taken.
O'Connor was considered to be a centrist on the court. She was appointed by President Ronald Reagan in 1981 as the first woman to sit on the Supreme Court bench. O'Connor retired in 2006, and President George W. Bush replaced her with Justice Samuel Alito, who is considered to be more conservative in his rulings.
Asked how she felt about the court overturning some of her decisions, O'Connor said: "What would you feel? I'd be a little bit disappointed. If you think you've been helpful, and then it's dismantled, you think, 'Oh, dear.' But life goes on. It's not always positive."
It was a rare moment of candor for a Supreme Court alum. Justices, current or former, rarely comment publicly on the court's political leanings.
The demise of the dollar
In a graphic illustration of the new world order, Arab states have launched secret moves with China, Russia and France to stop using the US currency for oil trading
Secret meetings have already been held by finance ministers and central bank governors in Russia, China, Japan and Brazil to work on the scheme, which will mean that oil will no longer be priced in dollars.
The plans, confirmed to The Independent by both Gulf Arab and Chinese banking sources in Hong Kong, may help to explain the sudden rise in gold prices, but it also augurs an extraordinary transition from dollar markets within nine years.
The Americans, who are aware the meetings have taken place – although they have not discovered the details – are sure to fight this international cabal which will include hitherto loyal allies Japan and the Gulf Arabs. Against the background to these currency meetings, Sun Bigan, China's former special envoy to the Middle East, has warned there is a risk of deepening divisions between China and the US over influence and oil in the Middle East. "Bilateral quarrels and clashes are unavoidable," he told the Asia and Africa Review. "We cannot lower vigilance against hostility in the Middle East over energy interests and security."
This sounds like a dangerous prediction of a future economic war between the US and China over Middle East oil – yet again turning the region's conflicts into a battle for great power supremacy.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/the-demise-of-the-dollar-1798175.html
Monday, October 5, 2009
If the Russians Did This to Us, We’d Kill ‘Em
What if the Russians invaded?
It's not so far-fetched an idea, you know. We spent half a century and trillions of dollars to make sure that it would never happen, so it's really not such a strange notion.
So what if the Russians invaded?
What if they came and stole all of our money?
What if the Russians invaded and enslaved our children as cheap worker bee drones locked in dismal dead-end jobs?
What if the Russians invaded and excavated all of our natural resources, leaving only mountains of toxic debris in their wake?
What if the Russians invaded and they ruined our infrastructure, thrashed our educational institutions, and stuck us with a grossly inadequate healthcare system?
What if the Russians invaded and incarcerated a huge percentage of our people in for-profit jails? What if they ruined our military by sending it off on big-money colonial expeditions? What if they cut the legs out from under the middle class?
What if the Russians invaded and turned us against each other, tricking this tribe of Americans into hating that tribe, in order to keep any of us from realizing that they were looting our country?
If the Russians did any of these things, we'd kill 'em. Dead.
If the Russians invaded, we'd send our army to crush them in defense of our country (or, at least, we hire somebody to do it).
If the Russians invaded, we'd be furious and raging and hateful and destructive -- for good reason, too -- and we would bring to them the full measure of American organized violence in order to take back our country from their plundering rampages.
Of course, the Russians haven't invaded. But what's astonishing about the moment we live in is that America has in fact been subjected to all these travails.
For Those of You on Your Way to Church This Morning ...a note from Michael Moore
Friends,
I'd like to have a word with those of you who call yourselves Christians (Muslims, Jews, Buddhists, Bill Maherists, etc. can read along, too, as much of what I have to say, I'm sure, can be applied to your own spiritual/ethical values).
In my new film I speak for the first time in one of my movies about my own spiritual beliefs. I have always believed that one's religious leanings are deeply personal and should be kept private. After all, we've heard enough yammerin' in the past three decades about how one should "behave," and I have to say I'm pretty burned out on pieties and platitudes considering we are a violent nation who invades other countries and punishes our own for having the audacity to fall on hard times.
I'm also against any proselytizing; I certainly don't want you to join anything I belong to. Also, as a Catholic, I have much to say about the Church as an institution, but I'll leave that for another day (or movie).
Amidst all the Wall Street bad guys and corrupt members of Congress exposed in "Capitalism: A Love Story," I pose a simple question in the movie: "Is capitalism a sin?" I go on to ask, "Would Jesus be a capitalist?" Would he belong to a hedge fund? Would he sell short? Would he approve of a system that has allowed the richest 1% to have more financial wealth than the 95% under them combined?
I have come to believe that there is no getting around the fact that capitalism is opposite everything that Jesus (and Moses and Mohammed and Buddha) taught. All the great religions are clear about one thing: It is evil to take the majority of the pie and leave what's left for everyone to fight over. Jesus said that the rich man would have a very hard time getting into heaven. He told us that we had to be our brother's and sister's keepers and that the riches that did exist were to be divided fairly. He said that if you failed to house the homeless and feed the hungry, you'd have a hard time finding the pin code to the pearly gates.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/mikes-letter/those-you-your-way-church-morning-note-michael-moore
ACORN videographer has been pimping race issues for years
Major news outlets have retracted parts of stories suggesting that ACORN 'pimp' film-maker James O'Keefe was racially motivated in his pursuit of the nonprofit group that focuses on helping minorities, but a Raw Story review of O'Keefe's earlier efforts shows the conservative operative has never been afraid to provoke racial discussions.
The ACORN films created by O'Keefe and his partner Hannah Giles, who played the role of a prostitute, appeared to show ACORN employees in five cities providing guidance on how to avoid detection from tax authorities and law enforcement on income from prostitution. After the release of the videos last month, the U.S. Census cut all ties to ACORN, the House of Representatives voted 345-75 to deny all federal funds to the group and the Senate voted to eliminate ACORN's access to housing and community grant funding.
Since then, O'Keefe has conducted few interviews, leaving many curious about what led him to target ACORN for investigation. While some of those who know O'Keefe say he enjoys exposing illegal activity in leftist organizations, ACORN officials and others have wondered if race was a motivating factor since the group largely serves minority communities.
O'Keefe himself told The Washington Post the day he agreed to work with Giles on the undercover project he was "upset" after watching online videos of ACORN employees busting through locks on foreclosed homes.
Morton Blackwell, the president of the conservative Leadership Institute in Northern Virginia that once employed O'Keefe, told The Star-Ledger that the Rutgers grad "wanted to go out and catch leftists breaking the law."
"His opinion was -- and it's certainly been borne out -- that there is an enormous amount of scandalous and illegal things going on that they were getting away with," Blackwell told the paper.
But ACORN CEO Bertha Lewis, who authorized the firings of several employees implicated in O'Keefe's videos, brought race into the debate over the videos during an interview with C-SPAN.
"I do think it is disturbing, however, that if you want to go undercover, to come into an organization that 99 percent is black and brown people that you would think to dress up as a pimp and a prostitute and sort of bully your way into these offices," Lewis said. "I think that says a little bit about what Mr. O'Keefe thinks that a black and brown organization would go for."
A Raw Story review of O'Keefe's earlier work suggests he certainly doesn't shy away from race issues: A younger O'Keefe once held an "affirmative action bake sale" where he and other organizers sold baked goods for different prices based on the purchaser's race. In other satirical stunts, he held meetings with Rutgers University officials asking them to ban Lucky Charms because he felt their symbols discriminated against Irish-Americans and made phone calls to Planned Parenthood asking them if he could donate money as long as it only went to abort black babies. After the conservative newspaper he founded at Rutgers University fired its faculty adviser, O'Keefe wrote in The Centurion that the former adviser had accused the publication of promoting "white hysteria."
http://rawstory.com/2009/10/acorn-videographer-has-been-pimping-race-issues-for-years/
CBO Estimates for the Gazillionth Time that Public Option Saves Money
by Tim Foley
OK, this is just getting plum silly.
You don't hear as much these days about how giving people the choice of enrolling in a government-administered insurance plan based on Medicare as one of many options in the Exchange marketplace will cause the end of private insurance as we know it (the Congressional Budget Office score predicting only 10-15 million people would enroll in a public option certainly put the damper on that myth). But you do hear all the time from Republicans and so-called moderate Democrats that "we can't afford a public option." They're playing on the confusion that "the public option" is the entirety of health reform, which it certainly is not. In fact, the public option is a net cost-saver. The Congressional Budget Office confirmed for the umpteenth time today that having it as part of health reform saves money for all of us.
To review, the CBO scored the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pension Committee bill twice -- once with an employer mandate and public option and once without. They found that a health care package with employers sharing responsibility and including a public option cost $400 billion less one that didn't have those items. Then they scored just the public option in the initial draft of the House bill and found that having it saved money -- $150 billion less -- vs. not having it.
The Unearthly Beauty of Antelope Canyon
by R J Evans
The Navajo call it 'the place where water runs through rocks' and that is literally true. One of the most unearthly places on the planet, take a look at the astounding Antelope Canyon.
The peculiar formation of a slot canyon can make for an eerie experience and certainly the Antelope Canyon, on the lands of the LeChee people of the Navajo Nation is one of the stranger places you might choose to visit if your budget doesn't quite run to a space shuttle. The shuttle, though, never lands on alien planets – you can get the experience for very little here on the third rock from the sun. And it is the sun that makes this canyon extra special.
One almost expects to turn a corner and run in to a group of Vulcans performing one of their weirder ceremonies. Pointed ears aside, however, this place is very much down to earth and is one of the most visited slot canyons in the world. It is easy to see why. Its out of this world beauty is capable of transforming the visitor, as it were, to another planet. Split in two parts, the Upper and Lower canyons have their origins in pre-history. It is little wonder that the Navajo revere them so greatly.
Light somehow manages to find a way through the walls of the canyon, despite its narrowness. The color of the rock is a giveaway to those in the know – the walls of the canyon is made of sandstone. One thing that sandstone is susceptible to is water. The medieval cathedrals of Europe will slowly weather away under the aqueous precipitation of the millennia. So it is with the Antelope Canyon – in fact it owes its existence, in one of the driest places on earth, to the erosive qualities of life sustaining H20.
With a leap of the imagination, this gorgeous view upwards of twin light tubes allows us to believe we are privy to the blueprints that Mother Nature surreptitiously provides for the continuous evolution of the canyons. The spirals show us where the water has slowly but persistently eroded the sandstone through the ages. Can any man-made structure match the sheer grace of this canyon below the ground?
http://trifter.com/usa-canada/arizona/the-unearthly-beauty-of-antelope-canyon/
China weather "magic" conjures blue sky for parade
BEIJING (Reuters) - China's air force deployed a "magic-like" range of chemicals and technology to clear Beijing's smoggy air for a grand parade marking the 60th anniversary of Communist China, state media said on Thursday.
Chemists and officials worked for weeks on the country's most ambitious ever attempt at weather modification, with air force technicians fanning out across the region to help teams operate complex equipment, the official Xinhua agency said.
The evening before the parade chemicals were fired into the hazy skies, and a light rain washed the city clean.
Surrounding provinces had already been loading clouds with silver iodide and dry ice, to try and force rain to fall before it reached Beijing, the report added.
"Only a handful of countries in the world could organise such large-scale, magic-like weather modification," said Cui Lianqing, a senior air force meteorologist who said the parade operation was the largest in China's history.
Contingency plans allowed for the teams to use one kind of chemicals to bring down rain in the parade area, and another to hold it off, he told Xinhua.
http://in.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idINIndia-42835120091001
The lying game: how we are prepared for another war of aggression
In 2001, the Observer in London published a series of reports that claimed an Iraqi connection to al-Qaeda, even describing the base in Iraq where the training of terrorists took place and a facility where anthrax was being manufactured as a weapon of mass destruction. It was all false. Supplied by US intelligence and Iraqi exiles, planted stories in the British and US media helped George Bush and Tony Blair to launch an illegal invasion which caused, according to the most recent study, 1.3 million deaths.
Something similar is happening over Iran: the same syncopation of government and media revelations, the same manufacture of a sense of crisis. Showdown looms with Iran over secret nuclear plant, declared the Guardian on 26 September. Showdown is the theme. High noon. The clock ticking. Good versus evil. Add a smooth new US president who has put paid to the Bush years. An immediate echo is the notorious Guardian front page of 22 May 2007: Irans secret plan for summer offensive to force US out of Iraq. Based on unsubstantiated claims by the Pentagon, the writer Simon Tisdall presented as fact an Iranian plan to wage war on, and defeat, US forces in Iraq by September of that year a demonstrable falsehood for which there has been no retraction.
The official jargon for this kind of propaganda is psy-ops, the military term for psychological operations. In the Pentagon and Whitehall, it has become a critical component of a diplomatic and military campaign to blockade, isolate and weaken Iran by hyping its nuclear threat: a phrase now used incessantly by Barack Obama and Gordon Brown, and parroted by the BBC and other broadcasters as objective news. And it is fake.
On 16 September, Newsweek disclosed that the major US intelligence agencies had reported to the White House that Irans nuclear status had not changed since the National Intelligence Estimate of November 2007, which stated with high confidence that Iran had halted in 2003 the programme it was alleged to have developed. The International Atomic Energy Agency has backed this, time and again.
The current propaganda-as-news derives from Obamas announcement that the US is scrapping missiles stationed on Russias border. This serves to cover the fact that the number of US missile sites is actually expanding in Europe and the redundant missiles are being redeployed on ships. The game is to mollify Russia into joining, or not obstructing, the US campaign against Iran. President Bush was right, said Obama, that Irans ballistic missile programme poses a significant threat [to Europe and the US]. That Iran would contemplate a suicidal attack on the US is preposterous. The threat, as ever, is one-way, with the worlds superpower virtually ensconced on Irans borders.
Irans crime is its independence. Having thrown out Americas favourite tyrant, Shah Reza Pahlavi, Iran remains the only resource-rich Muslim state beyond US control. As only Israel has a right to existin the Middle East, the US goal is to cripple the Islamic Republic. This will allow Israel to divide and dominate the region on Washingtons behalf, undeterred by a confident neighbour. If any country in the world has been handed urgent cause to develop a nuclear deterrence, it is Iran.
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