Tuesday, August 31, 2010
Convincing People To Defeat Their Own Best Interest:
As Frank Rich correctly points out in The Billionaires Bankrolling the Tea Party, the populist movement has the financial backing of people whose economic interests are seemingly nothing like the movement membership's.
As Frank Rich correctly points out in The Billionaires Bankrolling the Tea Party, the populist movement has the financial backing of people whose economic interests are seemingly nothing like the movement membership's.
Sunday, August 29, 2010
WikiLeaks & War:
John Pilger: Why WikiLeaks Must Be Protected
"...The WikiLeaks revelations shame the dominant section of journalism, devoted merely to taking down what cynical and malign power tells it. This is state stenography, not journalism. Look on the WikiLeaks site and read a Ministry of Defense document that describes the "threat" of real journalism. And so it should be a threat. Having skilfully published the WikiLeaks exposé of a fraudulent war, the Guardian should now give its most powerful and unreserved editorial support to the protection of Assange and his colleagues, whose truth-telling is as important as any in my lifetime.
I like Julian Assange's dust-dry wit. When I asked him if it was more difficult to publish information in Britain, with its draconian secrecy laws, he replied: 'We haven't found a problem. When we look at Official Secrets Act labeled documents, we see that they state it is an offense to retain the information and an offense to destroy the information. So the only possible outcome is to publish the information,'."
Iraq:
Robert Fisk: Iraq: Torture. Corruption. Civil war. America has Certainly Left Its Mark
"...we should not be taken in by the tomfoolery on the Kuwaiti border in the last few hours, the departure of the last "combat" troops from Iraq two weeks ahead of schedule. Nor by the infantile cries of "We won" from teenage soldiers, some of whom must have been 12-years-old when George W Bush sent his army off on this catastrophic Iraqi adventure. They are leaving behind 50,000 men and women - a third of the entire US occupation force - who will be attacked and who will still have to fight against the insurgency.
Yes, officially they are there to train the gunmen and militiamen and the poorest of the poor who have joined the new Iraqi army, whose own commander does not believe they will be ready to defend their country until 2020. But they will still be in occupation - for surely one of the the "American interests" they must defend is their own presence - along with the thousands of armed and indisciplined mercenaries, western and eastern, who are shooting their way around Iraq to safeguard our precious western diplomats and businessmen. So say it out loud: we are not leaving..."
Economics:
Paul B Farrell: “Wall Street Psycho:” 15 Signs of Moral & Ethical Pathology, Soul-Sickness
"These are the 15 signs of a moral pathology undermining not just banking, but American democracy and capitalism..."
Paul Krugman: Now That’s Rich
"...According to the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center, making all of the Bush tax cuts permanent, as opposed to following the Obama proposal, would cost the federal government $680 billion in revenue over the next 10 years. For the sake of comparison, it took months of hard negotiations to get Congressional approval for a mere $26 billion in desperately needed aid to state and local governments.
And where would this $680 billion go? Nearly all of it would go to the richest 1 percent of Americans, people with incomes of more than $500,000 a year. But that’s the least of it: the policy center’s estimates say that the majority of the tax cuts would go to the richest one-tenth of 1 percent. Take a group of 1,000 randomly selected Americans, and pick the one with the highest income; he’s going to get the majority of that group’s tax break. And the average tax break for those lucky few — the poorest members of the group have annual incomes of more than $2 million, and the average member makes more than $7 million a year — would be $3 million over the course of the next decade.
How can this kind of giveaway be justified at a time when politicians claim to care about budget deficits? Well, history is repeating itself. The original campaign for the Bush tax cuts relied on deception and dishonesty. In fact, my first suspicions that we were being misled into invading Iraq were based on the resemblance between the campaign for war and the campaign for tax cuts the previous year..."
(Not) Learning From History:
David Sirota: Insanity Is Deja Vu All Over Again
"...Vietnam showed us the perils of occupation, then the war in Iraq showed us the same thing - and yet now, we are somehow doing it all over again in Afghanistan. The Great Depression underscored the downsides of laissez-faire economics, the Great Recession highlighted the same danger - and yet the new financial 'reform' bill leaves that laissez-faire attitude largely intact. Ronald Reagan proved the failure of trickle-down tax cuts to spread prosperity before George W. Bush proved the same thing - and yet now, in a recession, Congress is considering more tax cuts all over again.
These are but a few examples of mistakes being repeated ad infinitum. Why have we become so dismissive of history's lessons and therefore so willing to repeat history's mistakes?"
John Pilger: Why WikiLeaks Must Be Protected
"...The WikiLeaks revelations shame the dominant section of journalism, devoted merely to taking down what cynical and malign power tells it. This is state stenography, not journalism. Look on the WikiLeaks site and read a Ministry of Defense document that describes the "threat" of real journalism. And so it should be a threat. Having skilfully published the WikiLeaks exposé of a fraudulent war, the Guardian should now give its most powerful and unreserved editorial support to the protection of Assange and his colleagues, whose truth-telling is as important as any in my lifetime.
I like Julian Assange's dust-dry wit. When I asked him if it was more difficult to publish information in Britain, with its draconian secrecy laws, he replied: 'We haven't found a problem. When we look at Official Secrets Act labeled documents, we see that they state it is an offense to retain the information and an offense to destroy the information. So the only possible outcome is to publish the information,'."
Iraq:
Robert Fisk: Iraq: Torture. Corruption. Civil war. America has Certainly Left Its Mark
"...we should not be taken in by the tomfoolery on the Kuwaiti border in the last few hours, the departure of the last "combat" troops from Iraq two weeks ahead of schedule. Nor by the infantile cries of "We won" from teenage soldiers, some of whom must have been 12-years-old when George W Bush sent his army off on this catastrophic Iraqi adventure. They are leaving behind 50,000 men and women - a third of the entire US occupation force - who will be attacked and who will still have to fight against the insurgency.
Yes, officially they are there to train the gunmen and militiamen and the poorest of the poor who have joined the new Iraqi army, whose own commander does not believe they will be ready to defend their country until 2020. But they will still be in occupation - for surely one of the the "American interests" they must defend is their own presence - along with the thousands of armed and indisciplined mercenaries, western and eastern, who are shooting their way around Iraq to safeguard our precious western diplomats and businessmen. So say it out loud: we are not leaving..."
Economics:
Paul B Farrell: “Wall Street Psycho:” 15 Signs of Moral & Ethical Pathology, Soul-Sickness
"These are the 15 signs of a moral pathology undermining not just banking, but American democracy and capitalism..."
Paul Krugman: Now That’s Rich
"...According to the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center, making all of the Bush tax cuts permanent, as opposed to following the Obama proposal, would cost the federal government $680 billion in revenue over the next 10 years. For the sake of comparison, it took months of hard negotiations to get Congressional approval for a mere $26 billion in desperately needed aid to state and local governments.
And where would this $680 billion go? Nearly all of it would go to the richest 1 percent of Americans, people with incomes of more than $500,000 a year. But that’s the least of it: the policy center’s estimates say that the majority of the tax cuts would go to the richest one-tenth of 1 percent. Take a group of 1,000 randomly selected Americans, and pick the one with the highest income; he’s going to get the majority of that group’s tax break. And the average tax break for those lucky few — the poorest members of the group have annual incomes of more than $2 million, and the average member makes more than $7 million a year — would be $3 million over the course of the next decade.
How can this kind of giveaway be justified at a time when politicians claim to care about budget deficits? Well, history is repeating itself. The original campaign for the Bush tax cuts relied on deception and dishonesty. In fact, my first suspicions that we were being misled into invading Iraq were based on the resemblance between the campaign for war and the campaign for tax cuts the previous year..."
(Not) Learning From History:
David Sirota: Insanity Is Deja Vu All Over Again
"...Vietnam showed us the perils of occupation, then the war in Iraq showed us the same thing - and yet now, we are somehow doing it all over again in Afghanistan. The Great Depression underscored the downsides of laissez-faire economics, the Great Recession highlighted the same danger - and yet the new financial 'reform' bill leaves that laissez-faire attitude largely intact. Ronald Reagan proved the failure of trickle-down tax cuts to spread prosperity before George W. Bush proved the same thing - and yet now, in a recession, Congress is considering more tax cuts all over again.
These are but a few examples of mistakes being repeated ad infinitum. Why have we become so dismissive of history's lessons and therefore so willing to repeat history's mistakes?"
Tuesday, August 17, 2010
The Gulf Oil Disaster:
This does not bode well for fisheries. BP's strategy, of course, was to use as much (highly-toxic) dispersant as possible, so that the Administration's reported conclusion would appear plausible.
Bloomberg: Scientists Say as Much as 79% of Oil Remains in Gulf of Mexico
"A group of scientists says as much as 79 percent of BP Plc’s leaked oil remains in the Gulf of Mexico, challenging an Obama administration assessment that the crude is largely gone or rapidly disappearing.
Most of the oil that leaked from BP’s Macondo well from April 20 to July 15 is still beneath the water’s surface, scientists including Samantha Joye, a professor of marine sciences at the University of Georgia in Athens, concluded in a memo made public yesterday. The researchers say they drew upon the U.S. government’s study while reaching different conclusions.
The Obama administration’s Aug. 4 report indicated that almost three-fourths of the crude that leaked has disappeared or soon will be eaten by bacteria. Jane Lubchenco, administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, has said at least half of the oil released is now 'completely gone.'
Chemist Dana Wetzel said that conclusion felt like the 'closing credits of a movie.'
'It’s like they were saying ‘the end,’' Wetzel, program manager at Mote Marine Laboratory in Sarasota, Florida, said in an interview last week. 'I’d say we have just gotten through setting up the plot,'..."
Energy:
Inhabitat: Affordable, Efficient Honeywell Turbine Hits Shelves Next Month!
Inhabitat: Sonnenschiff: Solar City Produces 4X the Energy it Consumes
"Although net-zero projects have been creating a lot of buzz lately in the field of green building, the Sonnenschiff solar city in Freiburg, Germany is very much net positive. The self-sustaining city accomplishes this feat through smart solar design and lots and lots of photovoltaic panels pointed in the right direction. It seems like a simple strategy -- but designers often incorporate solar installations as an afterthought, or worse, as a label. Designed by Rolf Disc, the Sonnenschiff (Solar Ship) and Solarsiedlung (Solar Village) emphasize power production from the start by smartly incorporating a series of large rooftop solar arrays that double as sun shades. The buildings are also built to Passivhaus standards, which allows the project to produce four times the amount of energy it consumes!..."
This does not bode well for fisheries. BP's strategy, of course, was to use as much (highly-toxic) dispersant as possible, so that the Administration's reported conclusion would appear plausible.
Bloomberg: Scientists Say as Much as 79% of Oil Remains in Gulf of Mexico
"A group of scientists says as much as 79 percent of BP Plc’s leaked oil remains in the Gulf of Mexico, challenging an Obama administration assessment that the crude is largely gone or rapidly disappearing.
Most of the oil that leaked from BP’s Macondo well from April 20 to July 15 is still beneath the water’s surface, scientists including Samantha Joye, a professor of marine sciences at the University of Georgia in Athens, concluded in a memo made public yesterday. The researchers say they drew upon the U.S. government’s study while reaching different conclusions.
The Obama administration’s Aug. 4 report indicated that almost three-fourths of the crude that leaked has disappeared or soon will be eaten by bacteria. Jane Lubchenco, administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, has said at least half of the oil released is now 'completely gone.'
Chemist Dana Wetzel said that conclusion felt like the 'closing credits of a movie.'
'It’s like they were saying ‘the end,’' Wetzel, program manager at Mote Marine Laboratory in Sarasota, Florida, said in an interview last week. 'I’d say we have just gotten through setting up the plot,'..."
Energy:
Inhabitat: Affordable, Efficient Honeywell Turbine Hits Shelves Next Month!
Inhabitat: Sonnenschiff: Solar City Produces 4X the Energy it Consumes
"Although net-zero projects have been creating a lot of buzz lately in the field of green building, the Sonnenschiff solar city in Freiburg, Germany is very much net positive. The self-sustaining city accomplishes this feat through smart solar design and lots and lots of photovoltaic panels pointed in the right direction. It seems like a simple strategy -- but designers often incorporate solar installations as an afterthought, or worse, as a label. Designed by Rolf Disc, the Sonnenschiff (Solar Ship) and Solarsiedlung (Solar Village) emphasize power production from the start by smartly incorporating a series of large rooftop solar arrays that double as sun shades. The buildings are also built to Passivhaus standards, which allows the project to produce four times the amount of energy it consumes!..."
Monday, August 16, 2010
The Environment vs Big Oil:
Chevron being devoid of ethics is no surprise, but this story shows us how other firms, Kroll being a 'risk management firm,' are contracted to do Chevron's dirty business...
Democracy Now! - Journalist Exposes How Private Investigation Firm Hired by Chevron Tried to Recruit Her As a Spy to Undermine $27B Suit in Ecuadorian Amazon
"An expose in the Atlantic magazine reveals how one of the world’s largest private investigation firms, Kroll, hired by oil giant Chevron tried to recruit an American journalist to undermine a massive $27 billion dollar lawsuit against Chevron brought by the residents of the Ecuadorian Amazon. We speak with the journalist, Mary Cuddehe and with Han Shan, the coordinator for Amazon Watch’s Clean Up Ecuador campaign..."
Chevron being devoid of ethics is no surprise, but this story shows us how other firms, Kroll being a 'risk management firm,' are contracted to do Chevron's dirty business...
Democracy Now! - Journalist Exposes How Private Investigation Firm Hired by Chevron Tried to Recruit Her As a Spy to Undermine $27B Suit in Ecuadorian Amazon
"An expose in the Atlantic magazine reveals how one of the world’s largest private investigation firms, Kroll, hired by oil giant Chevron tried to recruit an American journalist to undermine a massive $27 billion dollar lawsuit against Chevron brought by the residents of the Ecuadorian Amazon. We speak with the journalist, Mary Cuddehe and with Han Shan, the coordinator for Amazon Watch’s Clean Up Ecuador campaign..."
Thursday, August 12, 2010
Economics:
Market Watch: Reagan Insider: GOP Destroyed The U.S. Economy
Lawrence Kotilkoff: The U.S. Is Bankrupt And We Don't Even Know
Jon Stewart: The Logic of Extending The Bush Tax Cuts & Child-Eating Deficits (video)
Gulf Oil Disaster:
Leaving the fox in charge of the hen-house is not a good plan...
Raw Story: BP Collecting Oil Spill 'Evidence'
CON-ned Thinking:
David Corn: Feeding The Right
Ali Gharib: 'Liberal Hawks' Now Support Attacking Iran
Market Watch: Reagan Insider: GOP Destroyed The U.S. Economy
Lawrence Kotilkoff: The U.S. Is Bankrupt And We Don't Even Know
Jon Stewart: The Logic of Extending The Bush Tax Cuts & Child-Eating Deficits (video)
Gulf Oil Disaster:
Leaving the fox in charge of the hen-house is not a good plan...
Raw Story: BP Collecting Oil Spill 'Evidence'
CON-ned Thinking:
David Corn: Feeding The Right
Ali Gharib: 'Liberal Hawks' Now Support Attacking Iran
