Wednesday, September 29, 2010
Incorporate To Avoid Responsibility:
Corporations have the rights of people, but little of the responsibility...
Democracy Now! - Headlines for September 29, 2010
"Court Exempts Corporations From Alien Tort Law
A federal appeals court has ruled U.S. corporations can no longer be sued for human rights violations abroad under the longstanding Alien Tort Statute. Earlier this month, the Second U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that Alien tort claims can only be brought against individuals, not corporations. The ruling dismissed a lawsuit accusing the oil giant Royal Dutch Shell of complicity in the murder and torture of Nigerian activists including Ken Saro-Wiwa. In a separate opinion, Second Circuit Judge Pierre Leval criticized the ruling, writing: 'The majority opinion deals a substantial blow to international law and its undertaking to protect fundamental human rights… So long as they incorporate, businesses will now be free to trade in or exploit slaves, employ mercenary armies to do dirty work for despots, perform genocides or operate torture prisons for a despot’s political opponents, or engage in piracy—all without civil liability to victims,'..."
Against War, Against Violence, Yet Labeled As 'Terrorists'?
Democracy Now! - FBI Raids Homes of Antiwar and Pro-Palestinian Activists in Chicago and Minneapolis
"AMY GOODMAN: Antiwar activists are gearing up for protests outside FBI offices in cities across the country today and tomorrow after the FBI raided eight homes and offices of antiwar activists in Chicago and Minneapolis Friday.
The FBI’s search warrants indicate agents were looking for connections between local antiwar activists and groups in Colombia and the Middle East. Eight people were issued subpoenas to appear before a federal grand jury in Chicago. Most of the people whose homes were searched or who were issued subpoenas had helped organize or attended protests at the Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minnesota, two years ago.
The federal law cited in the search warrants prohibits, quote, 'providing material support or resources to designated foreign terrorist organizations.' In June, the Supreme Court rejected a free speech challenge to the material support law from humanitarian aid groups that said some of its provisions put them at risk of being prosecuted for talking to terrorist organizations about nonviolent activities. Some of groups listed by name in the warrants are Hezbollah, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC. The warrants also authorized agents to to seize items such as electronics, photographs, videos, address books and letters.
Friday’s raids come on the heels of a Justice Department probe that found the FBI improperly monitored activist groups and individuals from 2001 to 2006..."
Corporations have the rights of people, but little of the responsibility...
Democracy Now! - Headlines for September 29, 2010
"Court Exempts Corporations From Alien Tort Law
A federal appeals court has ruled U.S. corporations can no longer be sued for human rights violations abroad under the longstanding Alien Tort Statute. Earlier this month, the Second U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that Alien tort claims can only be brought against individuals, not corporations. The ruling dismissed a lawsuit accusing the oil giant Royal Dutch Shell of complicity in the murder and torture of Nigerian activists including Ken Saro-Wiwa. In a separate opinion, Second Circuit Judge Pierre Leval criticized the ruling, writing: 'The majority opinion deals a substantial blow to international law and its undertaking to protect fundamental human rights… So long as they incorporate, businesses will now be free to trade in or exploit slaves, employ mercenary armies to do dirty work for despots, perform genocides or operate torture prisons for a despot’s political opponents, or engage in piracy—all without civil liability to victims,'..."
Against War, Against Violence, Yet Labeled As 'Terrorists'?
Democracy Now! - FBI Raids Homes of Antiwar and Pro-Palestinian Activists in Chicago and Minneapolis
"AMY GOODMAN: Antiwar activists are gearing up for protests outside FBI offices in cities across the country today and tomorrow after the FBI raided eight homes and offices of antiwar activists in Chicago and Minneapolis Friday.
The FBI’s search warrants indicate agents were looking for connections between local antiwar activists and groups in Colombia and the Middle East. Eight people were issued subpoenas to appear before a federal grand jury in Chicago. Most of the people whose homes were searched or who were issued subpoenas had helped organize or attended protests at the Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minnesota, two years ago.
The federal law cited in the search warrants prohibits, quote, 'providing material support or resources to designated foreign terrorist organizations.' In June, the Supreme Court rejected a free speech challenge to the material support law from humanitarian aid groups that said some of its provisions put them at risk of being prosecuted for talking to terrorist organizations about nonviolent activities. Some of groups listed by name in the warrants are Hezbollah, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC. The warrants also authorized agents to to seize items such as electronics, photographs, videos, address books and letters.
Friday’s raids come on the heels of a Justice Department probe that found the FBI improperly monitored activist groups and individuals from 2001 to 2006..."
Monday, September 27, 2010
The Executive's Right To Remain Above The Law?
This is how 'W' would behave, I thought when seeing this.
Glenn Greenwald: Obama argues his assassination program is a 'state secret'
"At this point, I didn't believe it was possible, but the Obama administration has just reached an all-new low in its abysmal civil liberties record. In response to the lawsuit filed by Anwar Awlaki's father asking a court to enjoin the President from assassinating his son, a U.S. citizen, without any due process, the administration late last night, according to The Washington Post, filed a brief asking the court to dismiss the lawsuit without hearing the merits of the claims. That's not surprising: both the Bush and Obama administrations have repeatedly insisted that their secret conduct is legal but nonetheless urge courts not to even rule on its legality. But what's most notable here is that one of the arguments the Obama DOJ raises to demand dismissal of this lawsuit is 'state secrets': in other words, not only does the President have the right to sentence Americans to death with no due process or charges of any kind, but his decisions as to who will be killed and why he wants them dead are 'state secrets,' and thus no court may adjudicate their legality..."
Economics:
How we've, unfortunately, been there before...
David Michael Green: The Dismantling of Civilized Society
"...You might think that, because Reagan and Bush actually managed to quadruple the national debt with their little exercise in national folly. Or you might especially think that because Lil' Bush came along with the exact same snake oil a decade later. You had to be stupid to buy it the first time, but you had to have been really stupid to buy it the second time. We, of course, were.
And not just in terms of federal debt, either. A generation of Reaganomics has now succeeded in suspending ninety-eight percent of the country in standard-of-living formaldehyde, so that they felt zero effect whatsoever from the substantial growth in GDP over the last thirty years, and now those policies are cutting off their legs from underneath them altogether. All while the people of Reagan's class, of course, just piled on the riches. How stupid do you have to be to not notice who's diddling you?
Very, of course, but not necessarily as stupid as is maximally possible. ‘Cause, guess what? Here they come again. This week Republicans once again have issued a manifesto calling for slashing taxes on billionaires and cutting deficits, all at the same time. And once again they will win big electoral landslide victories in November despite that patent idiocy. Or perhaps because of it..."
This is how 'W' would behave, I thought when seeing this.
Glenn Greenwald: Obama argues his assassination program is a 'state secret'
"At this point, I didn't believe it was possible, but the Obama administration has just reached an all-new low in its abysmal civil liberties record. In response to the lawsuit filed by Anwar Awlaki's father asking a court to enjoin the President from assassinating his son, a U.S. citizen, without any due process, the administration late last night, according to The Washington Post, filed a brief asking the court to dismiss the lawsuit without hearing the merits of the claims. That's not surprising: both the Bush and Obama administrations have repeatedly insisted that their secret conduct is legal but nonetheless urge courts not to even rule on its legality. But what's most notable here is that one of the arguments the Obama DOJ raises to demand dismissal of this lawsuit is 'state secrets': in other words, not only does the President have the right to sentence Americans to death with no due process or charges of any kind, but his decisions as to who will be killed and why he wants them dead are 'state secrets,' and thus no court may adjudicate their legality..."
Economics:
How we've, unfortunately, been there before...
David Michael Green: The Dismantling of Civilized Society
"...You might think that, because Reagan and Bush actually managed to quadruple the national debt with their little exercise in national folly. Or you might especially think that because Lil' Bush came along with the exact same snake oil a decade later. You had to be stupid to buy it the first time, but you had to have been really stupid to buy it the second time. We, of course, were.
And not just in terms of federal debt, either. A generation of Reaganomics has now succeeded in suspending ninety-eight percent of the country in standard-of-living formaldehyde, so that they felt zero effect whatsoever from the substantial growth in GDP over the last thirty years, and now those policies are cutting off their legs from underneath them altogether. All while the people of Reagan's class, of course, just piled on the riches. How stupid do you have to be to not notice who's diddling you?
Very, of course, but not necessarily as stupid as is maximally possible. ‘Cause, guess what? Here they come again. This week Republicans once again have issued a manifesto calling for slashing taxes on billionaires and cutting deficits, all at the same time. And once again they will win big electoral landslide victories in November despite that patent idiocy. Or perhaps because of it..."
Sunday, September 26, 2010
Economics:
Robert Reich: Republican Economics as Social Darwinism
"...Boehner and other Republicans would even like to roll back the New Deal and get rid of Barack Obama's smaller deal health-care law.
The issue isn't just economic. We're back to tough love. The basic idea is to force people to live with the consequences of whatever happens to them.
In the late 19th century it was called Social Darwinism. Only the fittest should survive, and any effort to save the less fit will undermine the moral fiber of society..."
Robert Reich: Republican Economics as Social Darwinism
"...Boehner and other Republicans would even like to roll back the New Deal and get rid of Barack Obama's smaller deal health-care law.
The issue isn't just economic. We're back to tough love. The basic idea is to force people to live with the consequences of whatever happens to them.
In the late 19th century it was called Social Darwinism. Only the fittest should survive, and any effort to save the less fit will undermine the moral fiber of society..."
Saturday, September 25, 2010
The Bankster Heist:
Shahien Nasiripour: New Proof Wall Street Knew Its Mortgage Securities Were Subpar: Clayton Execs Testify
"During a little-noticed hearing this week in Sacramento, Calif., a firm hired by Wall Street to analyze mortgages given to borrowers with poor credit, which were then packaged and sold to investors during the boom years, revealed that as much as 28 percent of those loans failed to meet basic underwriting standards -- and Wall Street knew all along.
Worse, when the firm flagged those loans for potential issues, Wall Street banks ignored its recommendation nearly half the time and likely purchased those loans anyway -- selling them to unwitting investors who were never told that the biggest home loan due diligence firm in the country had found potential defects in these mortgages..."
Shahien Nasiripour: New Proof Wall Street Knew Its Mortgage Securities Were Subpar: Clayton Execs Testify
"During a little-noticed hearing this week in Sacramento, Calif., a firm hired by Wall Street to analyze mortgages given to borrowers with poor credit, which were then packaged and sold to investors during the boom years, revealed that as much as 28 percent of those loans failed to meet basic underwriting standards -- and Wall Street knew all along.
Worse, when the firm flagged those loans for potential issues, Wall Street banks ignored its recommendation nearly half the time and likely purchased those loans anyway -- selling them to unwitting investors who were never told that the biggest home loan due diligence firm in the country had found potential defects in these mortgages..."
Friday, September 24, 2010
Economics & Taxes:
This is, by far, the most outrageous distortion the GOP has come up with in a long time...
Keith Olbermann: GOP Uses 'Small Business' Tag To Help Save Huge Companies Billions (VIDEO)
"The 'small' businesses that Republican lawmakers say will suffer if the Bush-era tax cuts for the wealthy expire are not so small after all, MSNBC's 'Countdown' reported Tuesday.
Some of these businesses, which include big names in engineering and finance, are 'large' in terms of revenue, payroll and distribution, but 'small' in terms of ownership, the report, by David Cay Johnston and Chris Hayes, has found.
According to the Republican tax logic, a small number of owners is the sole criterion for a 'small business.' Such businesses, which according to the Joint Committee on Taxation accounted for 94 percent of all U.S. businesses in 2007, include partnerships, sole proprietorships and S corporations, a designation that allows owners to report profits and losses on their personal tax return, rather than on the company's.
''Small business' is a brand name,' MSNBC's Keith Olbermann said.
The report found that businesses with billions of dollars in annual revenue fall under the small business category. Bechtel, a global engineering and construction company that is considered a 'small business' under this logic, took in $31 billion last year. Ferrellgas, a propane company, earned $2 billion in revenue last year. McIlhenny, another 'small business,' which makes Tabasco sauce, made $250 million in revenue in 2007..."
What are the chances that our economy could shift away from Finance, Insurance, Real Estate toward Transportation, Energy independence, Communication, and Infrastructure?
Will the forces who benefit massively from the status quo even allow it?
CSMonitor.com - The Postcatastrophe Economy
"...'For most Americans, the uneducated are doomed to a life of poverty, the educated to a mountain of debt. The FIRE economy does not give most Americans attractive options outside of debt serfdom.' This, of course, was not unforeseeable. Janszen clearly recognizes the central role that government played in aiding the rise of the FIRE economy, and thus its duty now to restore balance between actual producers and speculators. To salvage US global competitiveness, he calls for public policies that encourage private sector entrepreneurial innovation in transportation, energy independence, communication, and infrastructure (TECI). Given that all levels of the American infrastructure – from bridges to roads to water and energy delivery – have experienced severe antiquation in recent decades, this seems a prudent course...."
The Bankster Heist:
Dean Baker: Wall Street's greatest heist: the Tarp
"...Let's step back to where we were two years ago. The huge investment bank Bear Stearns had collapsed. So had Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the mortgage giants. Lehman Brothers, the fourth largest investment bank had also gone down. AIG, the country's largest insurer, had been put on life support by the government.
At this point, Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs, the three remaining independent investment banks, all faced runs that would quickly sink them without government intervention. Citigroup and Bank of America, two of the three largest commercial banks, were also almost certainly insolvent. Many other banks also faced insolvency, especially if they took big losses on their loans to other institutions that were about to go bankrupt.
This was when the Wall Street boys made their mad rush for the public trough. They enlisted everyone that mattered in the effort, including Treasury secretary Henry Paulson, Federal Reserve Board chairman Ben Bernanke, and Timothy Geithner, then the head of the New York Federal Reserve Bank.
The line was that the economy would collapse if congress did not immediately rescue the banks. They were prepared to make up anything to save the banks in their hour of need. Bernanke was probably caught in the biggest fabrication when he told congress that the commercial paper market was shutting down.
If true, this would have been disastrous, since most major companies rely on selling commercial paper to meet their payroll and other routine expenses. If this market shut down, it would mean that even healthy businesses could not pay their workers and suppliers, which would quickly cause the whole economy to grind to a halt.
Bernanke did not bother to inform congress and the public that he had the ability to single-handedly support the commercial paper market. He waited until the weekend after congress approved the Tarp to announce that he would establish a special Fed lending facility to buy commercial paper.
In reality, the Fed almost certainly had the ability to keep the economy going by sustaining the system of payments, even if the chain of bank collapses was allowed to run its course. In the 1980s Latin American debt crisis, the Fed had an emergency plan to seize the money centre banks, and keep them operating, if a default by a major Latin American country pushed them into insolvency..."
The War Crime of Invading Iraq:
As Tony Blair travels the world promoting his book, it is instructive to recall an essay John le Carré wrote in 2003...
Democracy Now! - John le Carré: 'The United States of America Has Gone Mad'
"AMY GOODMAN: British novelist John le Carré. I spoke to him in London on Sunday. While he’s famous for his spy novels, he wrote a widely read antiwar essay in 2003 just before the US invasion of Iraq. It’s called 'The United States of America Has Gone Mad.' This is an excerpt.
JOHN LE CARRÉ: America has entered one of its periods of historical madness, but this is the worst I can remember: worse than McCarthyism, worse than the Bay of Pigs and in the long term potentially more disastrous than the Vietnam War.
The reaction to 9/11 is beyond anything Osama bin Laden could have hoped for in his nastiest dreams. As in McCarthy times, the freedoms that have made America the envy of the world are being systematically eroded. The combination of compliant US media and vested corporate interests is once more ensuring that a debate that should be ringing out in every town square is confined to the loftier columns of the East Coast press.
The imminent war was planned years before bin Laden struck, but it was he who made it possible. Without bin Laden, the Bush junta would still be trying to explain such tricky matters as how it came to be elected in the first place; Enron; its shameless favouring of the already-too-rich; its reckless disregard for the world’s poor, the ecology and a raft of unilaterally abrogated international treaties. They might also have to be telling us why they support Israel in its continuing disregard for UN resolutions.
But bin Laden conveniently swept all that under the carpet. The Bushies are riding high. Now 88 per cent of Americans want the war, we are told. The US defence budget has been raised by another $60 billion to around $360 billion. A splendid new generation of nuclear weapons is in the pipeline, so we can all breathe easy. Quite what war 88 per cent of Americans think they are supporting is a lot less clear. A war for how long, please? At what cost in American lives? At what cost to the American taxpayer’s pocket? At what cost—because most of those 88 per cent are thoroughly decent and humane people—in Iraqi lives?
How Bush and his junta succeeded in deflecting America’s anger from bin Laden to Saddam Hussein is one of the great public relations conjuring tricks of history. But they swung it. A recent poll tells us that one in two Americans now believe Saddam was responsible for the attack on the World Trade Centre. But the American public is not merely being misled. It is being browbeaten and kept in a state of ignorance and fear. The carefully orchestrated neurosis should carry Bush and his fellow conspirators nicely into the next election.
Those who are not with Mr Bush are against him. Worse, they are with the enemy. Which is odd, because I’m dead against Bush, but I would love to see Saddam’s downfall—just not on Bush’s terms and not by his methods. And not under the banner of such outrageous hypocrisy.
The religious cant that will send American troops into battle is perhaps the most sickening aspect of this surreal war-to-be. Bush has an arm-lock on God. And God has very particular political opinions. God appointed America to save the world in any way that suits America. God appointed Israel to be the nexus of America’s Middle Eastern policy, and anyone who wants to mess with that idea is a) anti-Semitic, b) anti-American, c) with the enemy, and d) a terrorist. [...]
What is at stake is not an imminent military or terrorist threat, but the economic imperative of US growth. What is at stake is America’s need to demonstrate its military power to all of us—to Europe and Russia and China, and poor mad little North Korea, as well as the Middle East; to show who rules America at home, and who is to be ruled by America abroad.
The most charitable interpretation of Tony Blair’s part in all of this is that he believed that, by riding the tiger, he could steer it. He can’t. Instead, he gave it a phoney legitimacy, and a smooth voice. Now I fear, the same tiger has him penned into a corner, and he can’t get out.
It is utterly laughable that, at a time when Blair has talked himself against the ropes, neither of Britain’s opposition leaders can lay a glove on him. But that’s Britain’s tragedy, as it is America’s: as our Governments spin, lie and lose their credibility, the electorate simply shrugs and looks the other way. [...]
I cringe when I hear my Prime Minister lend his head prefect’s sophistries to this colonialist adventure. His very real anxieties about terror are shared by all sane men. What he can’t explain is how he reconciles a global assault on al-Qaeda with a territorial assault on Iraq. We are in this war, if it takes place, to secure the fig leaf of our special relationship, to grab our share of the oil pot, and because, after all the public hand-holding in Washington and Camp David, Blair has to show up at the altar.
'But will we win, Daddy?'
'Of course, child. It will all be over while you’re still in bed.'
'Why?'
'Because otherwise Mr Bush’s voters will get terribly impatient and may decide not to vote for him.'
'But will people be killed, Daddy?'
'Nobody you know, darling. Just foreign people.'
'Can I watch it on television?'
'Only if Mr Bush says you can.'
'And afterwards, will everything be normal again? Nobody will do anything horrid any more?'
'Hush child, and go to sleep.'
Last Friday a friend of mine in California drove to his local supermarket with a sticker on his car saying: 'Peace is also Patriotic'. It was gone by the time he’d finished shopping..."
This is, by far, the most outrageous distortion the GOP has come up with in a long time...
Keith Olbermann: GOP Uses 'Small Business' Tag To Help Save Huge Companies Billions (VIDEO)
"The 'small' businesses that Republican lawmakers say will suffer if the Bush-era tax cuts for the wealthy expire are not so small after all, MSNBC's 'Countdown' reported Tuesday.
Some of these businesses, which include big names in engineering and finance, are 'large' in terms of revenue, payroll and distribution, but 'small' in terms of ownership, the report, by David Cay Johnston and Chris Hayes, has found.
According to the Republican tax logic, a small number of owners is the sole criterion for a 'small business.' Such businesses, which according to the Joint Committee on Taxation accounted for 94 percent of all U.S. businesses in 2007, include partnerships, sole proprietorships and S corporations, a designation that allows owners to report profits and losses on their personal tax return, rather than on the company's.
''Small business' is a brand name,' MSNBC's Keith Olbermann said.
The report found that businesses with billions of dollars in annual revenue fall under the small business category. Bechtel, a global engineering and construction company that is considered a 'small business' under this logic, took in $31 billion last year. Ferrellgas, a propane company, earned $2 billion in revenue last year. McIlhenny, another 'small business,' which makes Tabasco sauce, made $250 million in revenue in 2007..."
What are the chances that our economy could shift away from Finance, Insurance, Real Estate toward Transportation, Energy independence, Communication, and Infrastructure?
Will the forces who benefit massively from the status quo even allow it?
CSMonitor.com - The Postcatastrophe Economy
"...'For most Americans, the uneducated are doomed to a life of poverty, the educated to a mountain of debt. The FIRE economy does not give most Americans attractive options outside of debt serfdom.' This, of course, was not unforeseeable. Janszen clearly recognizes the central role that government played in aiding the rise of the FIRE economy, and thus its duty now to restore balance between actual producers and speculators. To salvage US global competitiveness, he calls for public policies that encourage private sector entrepreneurial innovation in transportation, energy independence, communication, and infrastructure (TECI). Given that all levels of the American infrastructure – from bridges to roads to water and energy delivery – have experienced severe antiquation in recent decades, this seems a prudent course...."
The Bankster Heist:
Dean Baker: Wall Street's greatest heist: the Tarp
"...Let's step back to where we were two years ago. The huge investment bank Bear Stearns had collapsed. So had Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the mortgage giants. Lehman Brothers, the fourth largest investment bank had also gone down. AIG, the country's largest insurer, had been put on life support by the government.
At this point, Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs, the three remaining independent investment banks, all faced runs that would quickly sink them without government intervention. Citigroup and Bank of America, two of the three largest commercial banks, were also almost certainly insolvent. Many other banks also faced insolvency, especially if they took big losses on their loans to other institutions that were about to go bankrupt.
This was when the Wall Street boys made their mad rush for the public trough. They enlisted everyone that mattered in the effort, including Treasury secretary Henry Paulson, Federal Reserve Board chairman Ben Bernanke, and Timothy Geithner, then the head of the New York Federal Reserve Bank.
The line was that the economy would collapse if congress did not immediately rescue the banks. They were prepared to make up anything to save the banks in their hour of need. Bernanke was probably caught in the biggest fabrication when he told congress that the commercial paper market was shutting down.
If true, this would have been disastrous, since most major companies rely on selling commercial paper to meet their payroll and other routine expenses. If this market shut down, it would mean that even healthy businesses could not pay their workers and suppliers, which would quickly cause the whole economy to grind to a halt.
Bernanke did not bother to inform congress and the public that he had the ability to single-handedly support the commercial paper market. He waited until the weekend after congress approved the Tarp to announce that he would establish a special Fed lending facility to buy commercial paper.
In reality, the Fed almost certainly had the ability to keep the economy going by sustaining the system of payments, even if the chain of bank collapses was allowed to run its course. In the 1980s Latin American debt crisis, the Fed had an emergency plan to seize the money centre banks, and keep them operating, if a default by a major Latin American country pushed them into insolvency..."
The War Crime of Invading Iraq:
As Tony Blair travels the world promoting his book, it is instructive to recall an essay John le Carré wrote in 2003...
Democracy Now! - John le Carré: 'The United States of America Has Gone Mad'
"AMY GOODMAN: British novelist John le Carré. I spoke to him in London on Sunday. While he’s famous for his spy novels, he wrote a widely read antiwar essay in 2003 just before the US invasion of Iraq. It’s called 'The United States of America Has Gone Mad.' This is an excerpt.
JOHN LE CARRÉ: America has entered one of its periods of historical madness, but this is the worst I can remember: worse than McCarthyism, worse than the Bay of Pigs and in the long term potentially more disastrous than the Vietnam War.
The reaction to 9/11 is beyond anything Osama bin Laden could have hoped for in his nastiest dreams. As in McCarthy times, the freedoms that have made America the envy of the world are being systematically eroded. The combination of compliant US media and vested corporate interests is once more ensuring that a debate that should be ringing out in every town square is confined to the loftier columns of the East Coast press.
The imminent war was planned years before bin Laden struck, but it was he who made it possible. Without bin Laden, the Bush junta would still be trying to explain such tricky matters as how it came to be elected in the first place; Enron; its shameless favouring of the already-too-rich; its reckless disregard for the world’s poor, the ecology and a raft of unilaterally abrogated international treaties. They might also have to be telling us why they support Israel in its continuing disregard for UN resolutions.
But bin Laden conveniently swept all that under the carpet. The Bushies are riding high. Now 88 per cent of Americans want the war, we are told. The US defence budget has been raised by another $60 billion to around $360 billion. A splendid new generation of nuclear weapons is in the pipeline, so we can all breathe easy. Quite what war 88 per cent of Americans think they are supporting is a lot less clear. A war for how long, please? At what cost in American lives? At what cost to the American taxpayer’s pocket? At what cost—because most of those 88 per cent are thoroughly decent and humane people—in Iraqi lives?
How Bush and his junta succeeded in deflecting America’s anger from bin Laden to Saddam Hussein is one of the great public relations conjuring tricks of history. But they swung it. A recent poll tells us that one in two Americans now believe Saddam was responsible for the attack on the World Trade Centre. But the American public is not merely being misled. It is being browbeaten and kept in a state of ignorance and fear. The carefully orchestrated neurosis should carry Bush and his fellow conspirators nicely into the next election.
Those who are not with Mr Bush are against him. Worse, they are with the enemy. Which is odd, because I’m dead against Bush, but I would love to see Saddam’s downfall—just not on Bush’s terms and not by his methods. And not under the banner of such outrageous hypocrisy.
The religious cant that will send American troops into battle is perhaps the most sickening aspect of this surreal war-to-be. Bush has an arm-lock on God. And God has very particular political opinions. God appointed America to save the world in any way that suits America. God appointed Israel to be the nexus of America’s Middle Eastern policy, and anyone who wants to mess with that idea is a) anti-Semitic, b) anti-American, c) with the enemy, and d) a terrorist. [...]
What is at stake is not an imminent military or terrorist threat, but the economic imperative of US growth. What is at stake is America’s need to demonstrate its military power to all of us—to Europe and Russia and China, and poor mad little North Korea, as well as the Middle East; to show who rules America at home, and who is to be ruled by America abroad.
The most charitable interpretation of Tony Blair’s part in all of this is that he believed that, by riding the tiger, he could steer it. He can’t. Instead, he gave it a phoney legitimacy, and a smooth voice. Now I fear, the same tiger has him penned into a corner, and he can’t get out.
It is utterly laughable that, at a time when Blair has talked himself against the ropes, neither of Britain’s opposition leaders can lay a glove on him. But that’s Britain’s tragedy, as it is America’s: as our Governments spin, lie and lose their credibility, the electorate simply shrugs and looks the other way. [...]
I cringe when I hear my Prime Minister lend his head prefect’s sophistries to this colonialist adventure. His very real anxieties about terror are shared by all sane men. What he can’t explain is how he reconciles a global assault on al-Qaeda with a territorial assault on Iraq. We are in this war, if it takes place, to secure the fig leaf of our special relationship, to grab our share of the oil pot, and because, after all the public hand-holding in Washington and Camp David, Blair has to show up at the altar.
'But will we win, Daddy?'
'Of course, child. It will all be over while you’re still in bed.'
'Why?'
'Because otherwise Mr Bush’s voters will get terribly impatient and may decide not to vote for him.'
'But will people be killed, Daddy?'
'Nobody you know, darling. Just foreign people.'
'Can I watch it on television?'
'Only if Mr Bush says you can.'
'And afterwards, will everything be normal again? Nobody will do anything horrid any more?'
'Hush child, and go to sleep.'
Last Friday a friend of mine in California drove to his local supermarket with a sticker on his car saying: 'Peace is also Patriotic'. It was gone by the time he’d finished shopping..."
Tuesday, September 21, 2010
Criminal Justice:
California has a larger economy than many nations, yet it is practically broke and needs revenue, desperately. So desperately, that voters are seemingly split on a measure that would legalize cannabis for adults.
The opinion of former judicial and law enforcement officials is relevant, as they know first hand what a waste, in terms of money and social cost, the current policy is. Pity the sitting ones haven't the courage to publicly agree.
change.org - Cops to California Voters: Legalize It!
"...'As criminal justice professionals, we have seen with our own eyes that keeping cannabis illegal damages public safety -- for cannabis consumers and non-consumers alike,' the letter says. 'If California's voters make the sensible decision to effectively control and tax cannabis this November, it will eliminate illegal marijuana distribution networks, just as ending alcohol prohibition put a stop to violent and corrupting gangsters' control of beer, wine and liquor sales,'..."
Business:
With practically free money from the taxpayers, the Banksters can't seem to extract 'enough'?
NY Times: Wall Street’s Engines of Profit Are Slowing Down
"Even after taxpayer bailouts restored bankers’ profits and pay, the great Wall Street money machine is decelerating. Big financial institutions, including commercial banks, are still making a lot of money. But given unease in the financial markets and the economy, brokerages and investment banks are not making nearly as much as their executives, employees and investors had hoped.
After an unusually sharp slowdown in trading this summer, analysts are rethinking their profit forecasts for 2010.
The activities at the heart of what Wall Street does — selling and trading stocks and bonds, and advising on mergers — are running at levels well below where they were at this point last year, said Meredith Whitney, a bank analyst who was among the first to warn of the subprime mortgage disaster and its impact on big banks.
Worldwide, the number of stock offerings is down 15 percent from this time last year, while bond issuance is off 25 percent, according to Capital IQ, a research firm. Based on these trends, Ms. Whitney predicts that annual revenue from Wall Street’s main businesses will drop 25 percent, to around $42 billion in 2010, from $56 billion last year.
While the numbers will not be known until after the third quarter ends and financial companies begin reporting earnings in October, the pace of trading this summer was slow even by normal summer standards. Trading in shares listed on the New York Stock Exchange was down by 11 percent in July from 2009 levels, and August volume was off nearly 30 percent.
'What’s happened in the third quarter is that after a very slow summer, people expected things to come back,' said Ms. Whitney. 'But they haven’t, and the inactivity is really squeezing everyone,'..."
California has a larger economy than many nations, yet it is practically broke and needs revenue, desperately. So desperately, that voters are seemingly split on a measure that would legalize cannabis for adults.
The opinion of former judicial and law enforcement officials is relevant, as they know first hand what a waste, in terms of money and social cost, the current policy is. Pity the sitting ones haven't the courage to publicly agree.
change.org - Cops to California Voters: Legalize It!
"...'As criminal justice professionals, we have seen with our own eyes that keeping cannabis illegal damages public safety -- for cannabis consumers and non-consumers alike,' the letter says. 'If California's voters make the sensible decision to effectively control and tax cannabis this November, it will eliminate illegal marijuana distribution networks, just as ending alcohol prohibition put a stop to violent and corrupting gangsters' control of beer, wine and liquor sales,'..."
Business:
With practically free money from the taxpayers, the Banksters can't seem to extract 'enough'?
NY Times: Wall Street’s Engines of Profit Are Slowing Down
"Even after taxpayer bailouts restored bankers’ profits and pay, the great Wall Street money machine is decelerating. Big financial institutions, including commercial banks, are still making a lot of money. But given unease in the financial markets and the economy, brokerages and investment banks are not making nearly as much as their executives, employees and investors had hoped.
After an unusually sharp slowdown in trading this summer, analysts are rethinking their profit forecasts for 2010.
The activities at the heart of what Wall Street does — selling and trading stocks and bonds, and advising on mergers — are running at levels well below where they were at this point last year, said Meredith Whitney, a bank analyst who was among the first to warn of the subprime mortgage disaster and its impact on big banks.
Worldwide, the number of stock offerings is down 15 percent from this time last year, while bond issuance is off 25 percent, according to Capital IQ, a research firm. Based on these trends, Ms. Whitney predicts that annual revenue from Wall Street’s main businesses will drop 25 percent, to around $42 billion in 2010, from $56 billion last year.
While the numbers will not be known until after the third quarter ends and financial companies begin reporting earnings in October, the pace of trading this summer was slow even by normal summer standards. Trading in shares listed on the New York Stock Exchange was down by 11 percent in July from 2009 levels, and August volume was off nearly 30 percent.
'What’s happened in the third quarter is that after a very slow summer, people expected things to come back,' said Ms. Whitney. 'But they haven’t, and the inactivity is really squeezing everyone,'..."
Friday, September 17, 2010
Corporate 'Protection':
Clearly, there is much more money in a corporation continuing the behavior that drives activists (read: citizens paying attention) nuts, than in it admitting that it is probably screwing somebody or something (usually the environment), and then changing its ways...
Raw Story: Walt Disney, Monsanto discovered among Blackwater’s hidden clients
"Almost three years ago exactly - Sept. 17, 2007 - a cadre of guards from the security firm then known as Blackwater shot and killed 17 Iraqis at a public plaza in Baghdad.
The company, long in the public eye, has been known for brutal tactics and as a mercenary for the US State Department in countries where the US has boots on the ground. What hasn't been known, however, is that the same company was handling intelligence ops for publicly-traded US companies.
Atop the list is Monsanto, the biotech giant, who The Nation's Jeremy Scahill revealed Wednesday accepted a proposal through a Blackwater subsidiary which 'offer[ed] to provide operatives to infiltrate activist groups organizing against the multinational biotech firm.'
Monsanto doesn't stand alone. Through a network of 30 subsidiaries and shell corporations, Blackwater-linked entities provided 'intelligence, training and security services' to a cache of major multinational firms, including: Monsanto, Chevron, the Walt Disney Company, Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines, Deutsche Bank and Barclays, according to documents Scahill obtained..."
Clearly, there is much more money in a corporation continuing the behavior that drives activists (read: citizens paying attention) nuts, than in it admitting that it is probably screwing somebody or something (usually the environment), and then changing its ways...
Raw Story: Walt Disney, Monsanto discovered among Blackwater’s hidden clients
"Almost three years ago exactly - Sept. 17, 2007 - a cadre of guards from the security firm then known as Blackwater shot and killed 17 Iraqis at a public plaza in Baghdad.
The company, long in the public eye, has been known for brutal tactics and as a mercenary for the US State Department in countries where the US has boots on the ground. What hasn't been known, however, is that the same company was handling intelligence ops for publicly-traded US companies.
Atop the list is Monsanto, the biotech giant, who The Nation's Jeremy Scahill revealed Wednesday accepted a proposal through a Blackwater subsidiary which 'offer[ed] to provide operatives to infiltrate activist groups organizing against the multinational biotech firm.'
Monsanto doesn't stand alone. Through a network of 30 subsidiaries and shell corporations, Blackwater-linked entities provided 'intelligence, training and security services' to a cache of major multinational firms, including: Monsanto, Chevron, the Walt Disney Company, Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines, Deutsche Bank and Barclays, according to documents Scahill obtained..."
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
Gulf Oil Disaster:
It seems the statements of BP and the government that the oil is 'gone' was clearly premature.
BP's aggressive use of (highly toxic) dispersants was only a ploy to keep it 'out of sight.'
ABC News: Oil From the BP Spill Found at Bottom of Gulf
"...Professor Samantha Joye of the Department of Marine Sciences at the University of Georgia, who is conducting a study on a research vessel just two miles from the spill zone, said the oil has not disappeared, but is on the sea floor in a layer of scum.
'We're finding it everywhere that we've looked. The oil is not gone,' Joye said. 'It's in places where nobody has looked for it.'
All 13 of the core samples Joye and her UGA team have collected from the bottom of the gulf are showing oil from the spill, she said.
In an interview with ABC News from her vessel, Joye said the oil cannot be natural seepage into the gulf, because the cores they've tested are showing oil only at the top. With natural seepage, the oil would spread from the top to the bottom of the core, she said...
...This oil remaining underwater has large implications for the state of sea life at the bottom of the gulf.
Joye said she spent hours studying the core samples and was unable to find anything other than bacteria and microorganisms living within.
'There is nothing living in these cores other than bacteria,' she said. 'I've yet to see a living shrimp, a living worm, nothing,'..."
It seems the statements of BP and the government that the oil is 'gone' was clearly premature.
BP's aggressive use of (highly toxic) dispersants was only a ploy to keep it 'out of sight.'
ABC News: Oil From the BP Spill Found at Bottom of Gulf
"...Professor Samantha Joye of the Department of Marine Sciences at the University of Georgia, who is conducting a study on a research vessel just two miles from the spill zone, said the oil has not disappeared, but is on the sea floor in a layer of scum.
'We're finding it everywhere that we've looked. The oil is not gone,' Joye said. 'It's in places where nobody has looked for it.'
All 13 of the core samples Joye and her UGA team have collected from the bottom of the gulf are showing oil from the spill, she said.
In an interview with ABC News from her vessel, Joye said the oil cannot be natural seepage into the gulf, because the cores they've tested are showing oil only at the top. With natural seepage, the oil would spread from the top to the bottom of the core, she said...
...This oil remaining underwater has large implications for the state of sea life at the bottom of the gulf.
Joye said she spent hours studying the core samples and was unable to find anything other than bacteria and microorganisms living within.
'There is nothing living in these cores other than bacteria,' she said. 'I've yet to see a living shrimp, a living worm, nothing,'..."
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
Energy vs. The Environment:
Abrahm Lustgarten: Do ‘Environmental Extremists’ Pose Criminal Threat to Gas Drilling?
"As debate over natural gas drilling in the Marcellus shale reaches a fever pitch, state and federal authorities are warning Pennsylvania law enforcement that 'environmental extremists' pose an increasing threat to security and to the energy sector.
A confidential intelligence bulletin sent from the Pennsylvania Department of Homeland Security to law enforcement professionals in late August says drilling opponents have been targeting the energy industry with increasing frequency and that the severity of crimes has increased...
...Anti-drilling activists in the state say that public hearings and other events have been peaceful and that they see no evidence of violent opposition. Given the lack of evidence about 'extremist' crimes, they say, the bulletin casts drilling opponents as criminals and threatens to stifle open debate.
'It may very well be designed to chill peoples' very legitimate participation in public decision making,' said Deborah Goldberg, an attorney with Earthjustice, a national group pressing for stronger environmental protections. 'If people who have concerns fear that they are going to be treated as a security threat they may very well be afraid to go and express their views,'..."
Afghanistan:
Pratap Chatterjee: Who made Kabul corrupt?
"Pious bromides about tackling corruption in Afghanistan cannot hide the fact that the buck stops in Washington..."
...and because two wars are not enough:
Iran:
Robert Parry: NYT Pushes Confrontation with Iran
"Apparently having learned no lessons from the Iraq WMD debacle, the New York Times is pushing for a heightened confrontation with Iran, slipping into the same kind of hysteria that it and other major U.S. news organizations displayed in 2002 and 2003..."
Abrahm Lustgarten: Do ‘Environmental Extremists’ Pose Criminal Threat to Gas Drilling?
"As debate over natural gas drilling in the Marcellus shale reaches a fever pitch, state and federal authorities are warning Pennsylvania law enforcement that 'environmental extremists' pose an increasing threat to security and to the energy sector.
A confidential intelligence bulletin sent from the Pennsylvania Department of Homeland Security to law enforcement professionals in late August says drilling opponents have been targeting the energy industry with increasing frequency and that the severity of crimes has increased...
...Anti-drilling activists in the state say that public hearings and other events have been peaceful and that they see no evidence of violent opposition. Given the lack of evidence about 'extremist' crimes, they say, the bulletin casts drilling opponents as criminals and threatens to stifle open debate.
'It may very well be designed to chill peoples' very legitimate participation in public decision making,' said Deborah Goldberg, an attorney with Earthjustice, a national group pressing for stronger environmental protections. 'If people who have concerns fear that they are going to be treated as a security threat they may very well be afraid to go and express their views,'..."
Afghanistan:
Pratap Chatterjee: Who made Kabul corrupt?
"Pious bromides about tackling corruption in Afghanistan cannot hide the fact that the buck stops in Washington..."
...and because two wars are not enough:
Iran:
Robert Parry: NYT Pushes Confrontation with Iran
"Apparently having learned no lessons from the Iraq WMD debacle, the New York Times is pushing for a heightened confrontation with Iran, slipping into the same kind of hysteria that it and other major U.S. news organizations displayed in 2002 and 2003..."
Saturday, September 04, 2010
Tea Party Hero Glenn Beck:
Democracy Now! - Alexander Zaitchik on 'Common Nonsense: Glenn Beck and the Triumph of Ignorance'
"...[Alexander Zaitchik]: As for the comments about Barack Obama’s liberation theology, you know, it’s hard to know where to begin. This is just kind of classic Beck, and it’s part of his larger campaign against social justice, which is, you know, a combination of the sort of classic Beck trifecta of ignorance, provocation and pretty sly racial innuendo, which comes pretty effortlessly to him.
As for Martin Luther King appropriation, he clearly would have put King on is chalkboard, had they been contemporaries. Beck not only would have honed in on King’s connections to real radicals, but he also would have, you know, called him a cockroach for spreading the virus of social justice. This is the kind of language that he engages in on a regular basis, which is what makes him so dangerous. He’s injected this language that is pretty foreign to American political discourse, this sort of pre-Hitlerian, almost, talk about cockroaches, rats, viruses, cancers, dehumanizing your political opponents..."
Democracy Now! - Alexander Zaitchik on 'Common Nonsense: Glenn Beck and the Triumph of Ignorance'
"...[Alexander Zaitchik]: As for the comments about Barack Obama’s liberation theology, you know, it’s hard to know where to begin. This is just kind of classic Beck, and it’s part of his larger campaign against social justice, which is, you know, a combination of the sort of classic Beck trifecta of ignorance, provocation and pretty sly racial innuendo, which comes pretty effortlessly to him.
As for Martin Luther King appropriation, he clearly would have put King on is chalkboard, had they been contemporaries. Beck not only would have honed in on King’s connections to real radicals, but he also would have, you know, called him a cockroach for spreading the virus of social justice. This is the kind of language that he engages in on a regular basis, which is what makes him so dangerous. He’s injected this language that is pretty foreign to American political discourse, this sort of pre-Hitlerian, almost, talk about cockroaches, rats, viruses, cancers, dehumanizing your political opponents..."
The Military Industrial Complex:
Nick Schwellenbach & Lagan Sebert: U.S. Military Loses Control Of Subcontractor Spending, Warlords Benefit
"When federal investigators discovered that the manager of a Saudi Arabian company paid bribes to win two lucrative subcontracts supplying food to American troops in Iraq, they naturally wanted to know more. Did he act on his own? Had U.S. taxpayers been cheated?
Five years later, investigators are still largely in the dark. They suspect similar activities by other subcontractors may have tainted contracts worth up to $300 million. But the investigators are unable to uncover even basic information, such as how the manager of the Saudi company had come up with $133,000 in bribe money.
The investigators likely could have compelled a U.S.-based contractor to turn over financial records. But the Saudi firm still hasn't shared its books with Pentagon auditors or KBR, the big U.S. company through which it operated as a subcontractor.Nor does it have to. The long arm of the U.S. law doesn't extend to foreign businesses on which the military increasingly depends -- and spends huge sums..."
James Risen & Mark Mazzetti: Blackwater Won Contracts via Web of Companies
"Blackwater Worldwide created a web of more than 30 shell companies or subsidiaries in part to obtain millions of dollars in American government contracts after the security company came under intense criticism for reckless conduct in Iraq, according to Congressional investigators and former Blackwater officials..."
Economics:
NY Times Editorial: The Real Say on Executive Pay
"The Financial Times reported this week that lawyers for corporate America are warning of a 'logistical nightmare' from a provision in the new financial reform law that requires companies to disclose the ratio between a chief executive’s pay package and that of a typical employee.
The lawyers say that the ratio would be unfairly complex to calculate and could encourage false comparisons. But the real problem is that C.E.O.’s and corporate boards would have to justify — to shareholders, employees and the public — what are sure to be some very large gaps between pay at the top and pay for everyone else..."
Institute for Policy Studies: CEO Pay and the Great Recession
"The 17th annual executive compensation survey looks at how CEOs laid off thousands while raking in millions..."
Nick Schwellenbach & Lagan Sebert: U.S. Military Loses Control Of Subcontractor Spending, Warlords Benefit
"When federal investigators discovered that the manager of a Saudi Arabian company paid bribes to win two lucrative subcontracts supplying food to American troops in Iraq, they naturally wanted to know more. Did he act on his own? Had U.S. taxpayers been cheated?
Five years later, investigators are still largely in the dark. They suspect similar activities by other subcontractors may have tainted contracts worth up to $300 million. But the investigators are unable to uncover even basic information, such as how the manager of the Saudi company had come up with $133,000 in bribe money.
The investigators likely could have compelled a U.S.-based contractor to turn over financial records. But the Saudi firm still hasn't shared its books with Pentagon auditors or KBR, the big U.S. company through which it operated as a subcontractor.Nor does it have to. The long arm of the U.S. law doesn't extend to foreign businesses on which the military increasingly depends -- and spends huge sums..."
James Risen & Mark Mazzetti: Blackwater Won Contracts via Web of Companies
"Blackwater Worldwide created a web of more than 30 shell companies or subsidiaries in part to obtain millions of dollars in American government contracts after the security company came under intense criticism for reckless conduct in Iraq, according to Congressional investigators and former Blackwater officials..."
Economics:
NY Times Editorial: The Real Say on Executive Pay
"The Financial Times reported this week that lawyers for corporate America are warning of a 'logistical nightmare' from a provision in the new financial reform law that requires companies to disclose the ratio between a chief executive’s pay package and that of a typical employee.
The lawyers say that the ratio would be unfairly complex to calculate and could encourage false comparisons. But the real problem is that C.E.O.’s and corporate boards would have to justify — to shareholders, employees and the public — what are sure to be some very large gaps between pay at the top and pay for everyone else..."
Institute for Policy Studies: CEO Pay and the Great Recession
"The 17th annual executive compensation survey looks at how CEOs laid off thousands while raking in millions..."
