Tuesday, August 30, 2011
Economics:
William Mitchell: Beyond Austerity
"...Austerity will worsen the crisis, because it is built on a lie. Public deficits do not cause inflation, nor do they impose crippling debt burdens on our children and grandchildren. Deficits do not cause interest rates to rise, choking private spending. Governments cannot run out of money. The greatest lie—endlessly repeated by neoliberal economists and uncritically echoed by the mainstream media—is the claim that if governments cut their spending, the private sector will 'crowd in' to fill the gap. British Prime Minister David Cameron’s austerity campaign and President Obama’s foreshadowed budget cuts are built around these lies.
The neoliberal narrative has run into some inconvenient facts. Interest rates remain low, and governments—even those of deeply troubled Greece and Ireland—have not defaulted on their debts. In most of the developed world inflation is falling, and where it is rising, it is due to rising energy and food costs rather than excessivehttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif deficits. Further, despite what they might say in public and what they demand of governments, bankers’ private actions show they know better—why else would long-term bond yields remain at historic lows? Yet the public conversation is mired in misinformation, paralyzing policy-makers, while the public interest is being sacrificed and a lost generation of unemployed is emerging..."
War Spending:
Sharon Weinberger: Windfalls of War: Pentagon's No-Bid Contracts Triple In 10 Years of War
"...As U.S. military deaths and injuries from roadside bombs escalated after the invasion of Iraq, the Pentagon rushed to find solutions.
Competition is normally the cornerstone of better prices and better products, but the urgency of dealing with improvised explosive devices, or IEDs, has been cited to justify a number of sole-source contracts to companies promising quick solutions over a decade of war.
One such company was Tucson-based Applied Energetics , which markets a futuristic weapon that shoots beams of lightning to detonate roadside bombs. The company won over $50 million in military contracts for their lightning weapon, all without full and open competition, even though there was another company marketing similar technology. Despite test failures, the company, in part thanks to congressional support, continued to get funding..."
Social Security:
Dave Johnson: Sen. Sanders’ Plan To Actually Fix Social Security
"You hear over and over that Social Security is 'in trouble' or that we 'can't afford it.' This is as far from true as can be, and the idea behind this is to convince people to just give up on defending the program and let the haters have their way. The people who hate Social Security the most are the ones who say they want to make these changes to 'save' it. Well Bernie Sanders loves the program and has introduced a bill that actually will save it.
Conservatives have hated Social Security from the start, because it is a program that demonstrates once and for all the value of progressive governance. Social Security is as clear an example of We, the People watching out for and taking care of each other as there ever was. It has made a huge difference n the lives of older people, and their/our families. It works, is cost-effective and requires minimal overhead to keep it going. So they hate it..."
Disaster Preparedness:
Greg Palast: Hamptons Hurricane: A Bankers’ Katrina
"A couple of decades ago, I worked on an emergency evacuation plan for the county of Suffolk, New York, home of the Hamptons. It's the wealthiest county in the United States.
The Hamptons' hurricane plan is six volumes thick. The police and the politicians, the fire department and the first responders have their copies, their orders, their equipment and they are ready to roll before a single fake-blonde curl is ruffled by untoward weather.
The last hurricane to hit Long Island, far fiercer than Katrina, took two lives, not 2,000.
But then, the Hamptons isn't New Orleans, is it?
In 1992, a big storm washed into 190 houses on West Hampton Dunes, getting many grade-B film scripts very wet. The federal government, with your tax dollars, rebuilt every single home on the beach (average value then, $2 million each)—and even rebuilt the beach with an endless samba line of trucks filled with sand, care of the Army Corps of Engineers...
...Last year, a judge ruled that the Army Corps of Engineers and the federal government were completely responsible for the flooding of Lafitte and half the city.
Under the Constitution, the President and Congress must authorize payment to flood victims, as they did for the Westhampton luvvies. But for the Thomas family, Obama requested, and Congress, appropriated ... absolutely nothing.
What about the New Orleans evacuation plan? Where were their six volumes? When I watched the chaos in August 2005, I immediately called FEMA to ask for a copy of the plan. Why were there no busses to take out those without cars? The number of deaths should have been ZERO.
The answer: the New Orleans plan couldn't be found. The company paid to draft it, Innovative Emergency Management, couldn't find a copy either. Long after 2,000 drowned, I found the 'plan': no provision at all for the 27,000 residents without cars. That's not surprising: the hurricane evacuation contractor had zero experience in hurricane evacuation. Rather, IEM's chief did have lots of experience in donating to the Republican Party..."
William Mitchell: Beyond Austerity
"...Austerity will worsen the crisis, because it is built on a lie. Public deficits do not cause inflation, nor do they impose crippling debt burdens on our children and grandchildren. Deficits do not cause interest rates to rise, choking private spending. Governments cannot run out of money. The greatest lie—endlessly repeated by neoliberal economists and uncritically echoed by the mainstream media—is the claim that if governments cut their spending, the private sector will 'crowd in' to fill the gap. British Prime Minister David Cameron’s austerity campaign and President Obama’s foreshadowed budget cuts are built around these lies.
The neoliberal narrative has run into some inconvenient facts. Interest rates remain low, and governments—even those of deeply troubled Greece and Ireland—have not defaulted on their debts. In most of the developed world inflation is falling, and where it is rising, it is due to rising energy and food costs rather than excessivehttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif deficits. Further, despite what they might say in public and what they demand of governments, bankers’ private actions show they know better—why else would long-term bond yields remain at historic lows? Yet the public conversation is mired in misinformation, paralyzing policy-makers, while the public interest is being sacrificed and a lost generation of unemployed is emerging..."
War Spending:
Sharon Weinberger: Windfalls of War: Pentagon's No-Bid Contracts Triple In 10 Years of War
"...As U.S. military deaths and injuries from roadside bombs escalated after the invasion of Iraq, the Pentagon rushed to find solutions.
Competition is normally the cornerstone of better prices and better products, but the urgency of dealing with improvised explosive devices, or IEDs, has been cited to justify a number of sole-source contracts to companies promising quick solutions over a decade of war.
One such company was Tucson-based Applied Energetics , which markets a futuristic weapon that shoots beams of lightning to detonate roadside bombs. The company won over $50 million in military contracts for their lightning weapon, all without full and open competition, even though there was another company marketing similar technology. Despite test failures, the company, in part thanks to congressional support, continued to get funding..."
Social Security:
Dave Johnson: Sen. Sanders’ Plan To Actually Fix Social Security
"You hear over and over that Social Security is 'in trouble' or that we 'can't afford it.' This is as far from true as can be, and the idea behind this is to convince people to just give up on defending the program and let the haters have their way. The people who hate Social Security the most are the ones who say they want to make these changes to 'save' it. Well Bernie Sanders loves the program and has introduced a bill that actually will save it.
Conservatives have hated Social Security from the start, because it is a program that demonstrates once and for all the value of progressive governance. Social Security is as clear an example of We, the People watching out for and taking care of each other as there ever was. It has made a huge difference n the lives of older people, and their/our families. It works, is cost-effective and requires minimal overhead to keep it going. So they hate it..."
Disaster Preparedness:
Greg Palast: Hamptons Hurricane: A Bankers’ Katrina
"A couple of decades ago, I worked on an emergency evacuation plan for the county of Suffolk, New York, home of the Hamptons. It's the wealthiest county in the United States.
The Hamptons' hurricane plan is six volumes thick. The police and the politicians, the fire department and the first responders have their copies, their orders, their equipment and they are ready to roll before a single fake-blonde curl is ruffled by untoward weather.
The last hurricane to hit Long Island, far fiercer than Katrina, took two lives, not 2,000.
But then, the Hamptons isn't New Orleans, is it?
In 1992, a big storm washed into 190 houses on West Hampton Dunes, getting many grade-B film scripts very wet. The federal government, with your tax dollars, rebuilt every single home on the beach (average value then, $2 million each)—and even rebuilt the beach with an endless samba line of trucks filled with sand, care of the Army Corps of Engineers...
...Last year, a judge ruled that the Army Corps of Engineers and the federal government were completely responsible for the flooding of Lafitte and half the city.
Under the Constitution, the President and Congress must authorize payment to flood victims, as they did for the Westhampton luvvies. But for the Thomas family, Obama requested, and Congress, appropriated ... absolutely nothing.
What about the New Orleans evacuation plan? Where were their six volumes? When I watched the chaos in August 2005, I immediately called FEMA to ask for a copy of the plan. Why were there no busses to take out those without cars? The number of deaths should have been ZERO.
The answer: the New Orleans plan couldn't be found. The company paid to draft it, Innovative Emergency Management, couldn't find a copy either. Long after 2,000 drowned, I found the 'plan': no provision at all for the 27,000 residents without cars. That's not surprising: the hurricane evacuation contractor had zero experience in hurricane evacuation. Rather, IEM's chief did have lots of experience in donating to the Republican Party..."
Monday, August 22, 2011
The Ultra-Rich & Taxes:
Koch likes to 'contribute' to society, but only on his terms...
Lee Fang:
Koch Responds To Buffet
"America’s current tax system forces people making $50,000 a year to pay a higher rate than hedge fund managers making $2.4 million an hour. Warren Buffett penned an op-ed last week declaring that America’s super-rich have been 'coddled long enough by a billionaire-friendly Congress.' Lamenting the numerous tax loopholes and special breaks afforded to billionaire investors, Buffett noted that in his entire career, even when capital gains rates were as high as 39.9 percent, he never saw anyone 'shy away from a sensible investment because of the tax rate on the potential gain.'
Charles Koch, head of the massive petrochemical, manufacturing, and commodity speculating Koch Industries corporation, has responded to Warren’s call for shared sacrifice: 'No Thanks.' In a statement to right-wing media, Koch states:
'Much of what the government spends money on does more harm than good; this is particularly true over the past several years with the massive uncontrolled increase in government spending. I believe my business and non-profit investments are much more beneficial to societal well-being than sending more money to Washington,'..."
The Military & The Acceptance of Force In Culture:
Conn Hallinan: Shadow Warriors: Movin' On Up
"For decades the U.S. military has waged clandestine war on virtually every continent on the globe, but for the first time, high-ranking Special Operations Forces (SOF) officers are moving out of the shadows and into the command mainstream. Their emergence suggests the U.S. is embarking on a military sea change that will replace massive deployments, like Iraq and Afghanistan, with stealthy night raids, secret assassinations, and death-dealing drones. Its implications for civilian control of foreign policy promises to be profound..."
The 2012 Campaign: AstroTurf, Is Not Grass Roots
The American Petroleum Institute is busing oil company employees to 'grass roots' rallies against climate change legislation...
And how the 'Lewin Group' is really part of an interested party in the health care reform effort..
Rachel Maddow & Bernie Sanders: Stealth Campaigning (video)
Koch likes to 'contribute' to society, but only on his terms...
Lee Fang:
Koch Responds To Buffet
"America’s current tax system forces people making $50,000 a year to pay a higher rate than hedge fund managers making $2.4 million an hour. Warren Buffett penned an op-ed last week declaring that America’s super-rich have been 'coddled long enough by a billionaire-friendly Congress.' Lamenting the numerous tax loopholes and special breaks afforded to billionaire investors, Buffett noted that in his entire career, even when capital gains rates were as high as 39.9 percent, he never saw anyone 'shy away from a sensible investment because of the tax rate on the potential gain.'
Charles Koch, head of the massive petrochemical, manufacturing, and commodity speculating Koch Industries corporation, has responded to Warren’s call for shared sacrifice: 'No Thanks.' In a statement to right-wing media, Koch states:
'Much of what the government spends money on does more harm than good; this is particularly true over the past several years with the massive uncontrolled increase in government spending. I believe my business and non-profit investments are much more beneficial to societal well-being than sending more money to Washington,'..."
The Military & The Acceptance of Force In Culture:
Conn Hallinan: Shadow Warriors: Movin' On Up
"For decades the U.S. military has waged clandestine war on virtually every continent on the globe, but for the first time, high-ranking Special Operations Forces (SOF) officers are moving out of the shadows and into the command mainstream. Their emergence suggests the U.S. is embarking on a military sea change that will replace massive deployments, like Iraq and Afghanistan, with stealthy night raids, secret assassinations, and death-dealing drones. Its implications for civilian control of foreign policy promises to be profound..."
The 2012 Campaign: AstroTurf, Is Not Grass Roots
The American Petroleum Institute is busing oil company employees to 'grass roots' rallies against climate change legislation...
And how the 'Lewin Group' is really part of an interested party in the health care reform effort..
Rachel Maddow & Bernie Sanders: Stealth Campaigning (video)
Friday, August 19, 2011
The Bankster Heist of 2008:
Raw Story:
Sen. Grassley: SEC may have covered up bank wrongdoings
"A US senator said Wednesday that the Securities and Exchange Commission may have destroyed thousands of documents related to probes into possible violations by major banks and hedge funds.
Senior Republican Senator Chuck Grassley said that 'an agency whistle-blower' sent him a letter that described the SEC's allegedly unlawful destruction of records related to more than 9,000 informal investigations.
The documents included cases arising from the 2008-2009 financial crisis, including Goldman Sachs, AIG, and the Bernard Madoff pyramid fund, according to the whistle-blower, Grassley said.
The whistle-blower, 13-year SEC lawyer Darcy Flynn, said the destroyed records related to 'matters under inquiry' or MUIs -- probes that precede the launch of formal investigations.
'From what I've seen, it looks as if the SEC might have sanctioned some level of case-related document destruction,' Grassley said in a statement.
'It doesn't make sense that an agency responsible for investigations would want to get rid of potential evidence.'
According to a letter from Grassley to SEC chairwoman Mary Schapiro, Flynn said some of the destroyed documents related to Goldman Sachs, Wells Fargo, Bank of America, Deutsche Bank, Lehman Brothers, and SAC Capital -- many of which played a major role in the 2008 crisis -- as well as Madoff, jailed for the biggest financial scam in US history.
The destruction of such documents 'would appear to greatly handicap the SEC's ability to create patterns in complex cases and calls into question the SEC's ability to properly retain and catalog documents,' Grassley said..."
Raw Story:
Sen. Grassley: SEC may have covered up bank wrongdoings
"A US senator said Wednesday that the Securities and Exchange Commission may have destroyed thousands of documents related to probes into possible violations by major banks and hedge funds.
Senior Republican Senator Chuck Grassley said that 'an agency whistle-blower' sent him a letter that described the SEC's allegedly unlawful destruction of records related to more than 9,000 informal investigations.
The documents included cases arising from the 2008-2009 financial crisis, including Goldman Sachs, AIG, and the Bernard Madoff pyramid fund, according to the whistle-blower, Grassley said.
The whistle-blower, 13-year SEC lawyer Darcy Flynn, said the destroyed records related to 'matters under inquiry' or MUIs -- probes that precede the launch of formal investigations.
'From what I've seen, it looks as if the SEC might have sanctioned some level of case-related document destruction,' Grassley said in a statement.
'It doesn't make sense that an agency responsible for investigations would want to get rid of potential evidence.'
According to a letter from Grassley to SEC chairwoman Mary Schapiro, Flynn said some of the destroyed documents related to Goldman Sachs, Wells Fargo, Bank of America, Deutsche Bank, Lehman Brothers, and SAC Capital -- many of which played a major role in the 2008 crisis -- as well as Madoff, jailed for the biggest financial scam in US history.
The destruction of such documents 'would appear to greatly handicap the SEC's ability to create patterns in complex cases and calls into question the SEC's ability to properly retain and catalog documents,' Grassley said..."
Wednesday, August 17, 2011
2012 Election:
I expect TX Gov. Perry to pontificate a good deal about how many jobs were created in TX during his tenure as Governor. The relevant question is, naturally, what sort of jobs are these? Well-paying ones with a future? Jobs dependent on State or Federal government funding, which a small-government Conservative wouldn't have the stones to brag about, would he?
Krugman dismantles the myth of the TX strategy as as useful model for other states (cheap labor & weak regulation ), since it sounds
like a race to the bottom...
Blogger Geoff Berg at the Huston Chronicle does a good job deconstructing Perry's formula for jobs:
"...Rick Perry’s secret to job creation is no secret at all: It’s the same recipe used in places like Mexico and Malaysia. Here, companies save millions they would otherwise have had to spend on responsibility. It’s a tradeoff: Give up on public schools, healthy air, and your Constitutional rights and you can have a job."
I expect TX Gov. Perry to pontificate a good deal about how many jobs were created in TX during his tenure as Governor. The relevant question is, naturally, what sort of jobs are these? Well-paying ones with a future? Jobs dependent on State or Federal government funding, which a small-government Conservative wouldn't have the stones to brag about, would he?
Krugman dismantles the myth of the TX strategy as as useful model for other states (cheap labor & weak regulation ), since it sounds
like a race to the bottom...
Blogger Geoff Berg at the Huston Chronicle does a good job deconstructing Perry's formula for jobs:
"...Rick Perry’s secret to job creation is no secret at all: It’s the same recipe used in places like Mexico and Malaysia. Here, companies save millions they would otherwise have had to spend on responsibility. It’s a tradeoff: Give up on public schools, healthy air, and your Constitutional rights and you can have a job."
Wednesday, August 10, 2011
Murdoch Phone Hacking:
Greg Palast: Hacked and Attacked: How Piers Morgan's Fabricated Story Almost Ruined This Reporter
"I am not surprised that Piers Morgan has been outed for allegedly hacking phones (listening, in one case, to personal messages between Heather Mills and Paul McCartney.) I learned about the creepy antics of this one-man TV-host crime spree the hard way: as a victim of his crime-and-slime form of 'journalism.'
On September 29, 1998, Piers Morgan's Mirror ran a screaming full-page headline: SEX SCANDAL ROCKS LABOUR CONFERENCE. His paper had caught a rival paper's reporter who'd broken into the hotel room of a comely, young, rising star of the Labour Party. The reporter was caught there half undressed.
I was that reporter.
And the story was a complete load of crap. But Morgan, 'editor' of the Mirror, ran the report on Page One, and pages 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 - even though he knew it was fabricated. He knew because he had fabricated it.
Prime Minister Tony Blair's press chief personally thanked Morgan for running the bogus story..."
Politics:
Noam Chomsky: America In Decline
"...The comic opera in Washington this summer, which disgusts the country and bewilders the world, may have no analogue in the annals of parliamentary democracy.
The spectacle is even coming to frighten the sponsors of the charade. Corporate power is now concerned that the extremists they helped put in office may in fact bring down the edifice on which their own wealth and privilege relies, the powerful nanny state that caters to their interests...
...For financial institutions the primary concern is the deficit. Therefore, only the deficit is under discussion. A large majority of the population favor addressing the deficit by taxing the very rich (72 percent, 27 percent opposed), reports a Washington Post-ABC News poll. Cutting health programs is opposed by overwhelming majorities (69 percent Medicaid, 78 percent Medicare). The likely outcome is therefore the opposite...
...Not even discussed is that the deficit would be eliminated if, as economist Dean Baker has shown, the dysfunctional privatized health care system in the U.S. were replaced by one similar to other industrial societies’, which have half the per capita costs and health outcomes that are comparable or better.
The financial institutions and Big Pharma are far too powerful for such options even to be considered, though the thought seems hardly Utopian. Off the agenda for similar reasons are other economically sensible options, such as a small financial transactions tax.
Meanwhile new gifts are regularly lavished on Wall Street. The House Appropriations Committee cut the budget request for the Securities and Exchange Commission, the prime barrier against financial fraud. The Consumer Protection Agency is unlikely to survive intact..."
Greg Palast: Hacked and Attacked: How Piers Morgan's Fabricated Story Almost Ruined This Reporter
"I am not surprised that Piers Morgan has been outed for allegedly hacking phones (listening, in one case, to personal messages between Heather Mills and Paul McCartney.) I learned about the creepy antics of this one-man TV-host crime spree the hard way: as a victim of his crime-and-slime form of 'journalism.'
On September 29, 1998, Piers Morgan's Mirror ran a screaming full-page headline: SEX SCANDAL ROCKS LABOUR CONFERENCE. His paper had caught a rival paper's reporter who'd broken into the hotel room of a comely, young, rising star of the Labour Party. The reporter was caught there half undressed.
I was that reporter.
And the story was a complete load of crap. But Morgan, 'editor' of the Mirror, ran the report on Page One, and pages 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 - even though he knew it was fabricated. He knew because he had fabricated it.
Prime Minister Tony Blair's press chief personally thanked Morgan for running the bogus story..."
Politics:
Noam Chomsky: America In Decline
"...The comic opera in Washington this summer, which disgusts the country and bewilders the world, may have no analogue in the annals of parliamentary democracy.
The spectacle is even coming to frighten the sponsors of the charade. Corporate power is now concerned that the extremists they helped put in office may in fact bring down the edifice on which their own wealth and privilege relies, the powerful nanny state that caters to their interests...
...For financial institutions the primary concern is the deficit. Therefore, only the deficit is under discussion. A large majority of the population favor addressing the deficit by taxing the very rich (72 percent, 27 percent opposed), reports a Washington Post-ABC News poll. Cutting health programs is opposed by overwhelming majorities (69 percent Medicaid, 78 percent Medicare). The likely outcome is therefore the opposite...
...Not even discussed is that the deficit would be eliminated if, as economist Dean Baker has shown, the dysfunctional privatized health care system in the U.S. were replaced by one similar to other industrial societies’, which have half the per capita costs and health outcomes that are comparable or better.
The financial institutions and Big Pharma are far too powerful for such options even to be considered, though the thought seems hardly Utopian. Off the agenda for similar reasons are other economically sensible options, such as a small financial transactions tax.
Meanwhile new gifts are regularly lavished on Wall Street. The House Appropriations Committee cut the budget request for the Securities and Exchange Commission, the prime barrier against financial fraud. The Consumer Protection Agency is unlikely to survive intact..."
Tuesday, August 09, 2011
Phone Hacking Investigation:
As a friend of mine said, the foxes put in charge of the investigation say "Everything is fine, but send more chickens!"
Bloomberg: News Corp. Director Leading Phone-Hack Probe Has Personal Ties to Murdoch
"News Corp. (NWSA)’s independent directors, obligated to assess Rupert Murdoch and other top executives’ handling of the company’s phone-hacking scandal, are relying for guidance on Viet Dinh, a board member with personal ties to the Murdoch family.
Dinh, 43, is point man between the independent board members and a panel that New York-based News Corp. (NWS) created to cooperate with authorities probing phone hacking by the defunct News of the World tabloid and to evaluate company standards...
...Bradford Berenson, who worked with Dinh on the Patriot Act, recalls a 'vivid' memory of being huddled with him and other administration officials in the DaimlerChrysler offices in Washington hours after the September 2001 terrorist attacks..."
...and a twist I did not see coming:
DailyKos: Murdoch Using Drone Aircraft to Spy on U.S.
"...The FAA is investigating Murdoch for flying a drone with a camera on it in the United States.
Forbes magazine reporting it. Using it to look at natural disasters among other things. They fly too low and are illegal.
Forbes also reporting that an ex-airforce official worked with Murdoch to make a drone that could capture cell phone signals, unlocked wi-fi signals, etc..."
Proposed Boulder City Elec. Utility:
Daily Camera: Boulder energy debate: Xcel responds to Councilman Macon Cowles' accusations
"...Officials with Xcel Energy are refuting charges made late Tuesday night by a Boulder city councilman that an independent citizens' coalition is actually a shill for the utility giant.
Twice during the council's meeting Tuesday night -- in which the leaders unanimously approved ballot language that would allow the city to pursue forming its own electric utility -- Councilman Macon Cowles questioned the motives of the Boulder Smart Energy Coalition and its chairman, David Miller.
The coalition, which was formed in July, is made up of more than 60 community and business leaders...
...Cowles suggested that Xcel might be taking a page from a document created by the Edison Electric Institute, called 'New Public Power Takeovers: Strategic Resources for Defeating Municipalization.' The manual was first published in 2002 after Pacific Gas & Electric Co. successfully campaigned against a 2001 ballot measure in San Francisco that would have created a municipal utility.
One section titled 'Blocking a Municipalization Takeover Attempt at the Local Legislative Level,' suggests forming a 'broad-based citizens' coalition.'
'Most local elected officials are very sensitive to and responsive to constituent opinions," the manual reads. 'Look at your list of allies and identify influential community leaders ... who might be interested in heading up a citizens' coalition in support of your company's position.'
'That is what the Boulder Smart Energy Coalition, I maintain, is about,' Cowles said.
Xcel has already taken some of the steps outlined in the anti-municipalization booklet, including hiring an experienced campaign consultant, conducting public opinion research and working to develop a campaign theme that resonates with the utility's most likely allies..."
Education:
Matt Damon Defends Teachers at Save Our Schools March
"Lawrence O'Donnell had nothing but praise for actor Matt Damon who came out over the weekend to support teachers during the Save Our Schools March & National Call to Action in Washington D.C. Apparently Damon's mother is a school teacher and when confronted by some wingnut libertarian reporter from Reason.tv, Damon hit back at her pretty hard with her assumptions that teachers only care about tenure and job security, rather than being the underpaid civil servants that the majority of them are that put up with what they do because they really do love their jobs and care about educating kids..."
One Way TO Deal With Anti-Social Behavior:
Mayor attacks bike-lane blocker with armored personnel carrier
"A word of advice: The next time you're cruising the streets of Vilnius, Lithuania in your luxury ride and are suddenly beset by the urge for a cup of kvass and/or a slice of honey cake, don't just pull over and leave your vehicle illegally parked in a bike lane. Seriously. Mayor Arturas Zuokas and, we imagine, Lithuanian cyclists, aren't amused by such antics.
While some municipalities might be content to leave tickets on the windshields of bike-lane blocking scofflaws, the good mayor recently realized owners with Mercedes-Benz, Ferrari, and Rolls-Royce keys in their pocket not be dissuaded by such minor punitive action, so he decided a better parking enforcement tool might just be an armored personnel carrier..."
As a friend of mine said, the foxes put in charge of the investigation say "Everything is fine, but send more chickens!"
Bloomberg: News Corp. Director Leading Phone-Hack Probe Has Personal Ties to Murdoch
"News Corp. (NWSA)’s independent directors, obligated to assess Rupert Murdoch and other top executives’ handling of the company’s phone-hacking scandal, are relying for guidance on Viet Dinh, a board member with personal ties to the Murdoch family.
Dinh, 43, is point man between the independent board members and a panel that New York-based News Corp. (NWS) created to cooperate with authorities probing phone hacking by the defunct News of the World tabloid and to evaluate company standards...
...Bradford Berenson, who worked with Dinh on the Patriot Act, recalls a 'vivid' memory of being huddled with him and other administration officials in the DaimlerChrysler offices in Washington hours after the September 2001 terrorist attacks..."
...and a twist I did not see coming:
DailyKos: Murdoch Using Drone Aircraft to Spy on U.S.
"...The FAA is investigating Murdoch for flying a drone with a camera on it in the United States.
Forbes magazine reporting it. Using it to look at natural disasters among other things. They fly too low and are illegal.
Forbes also reporting that an ex-airforce official worked with Murdoch to make a drone that could capture cell phone signals, unlocked wi-fi signals, etc..."
Proposed Boulder City Elec. Utility:
Daily Camera: Boulder energy debate: Xcel responds to Councilman Macon Cowles' accusations
"...Officials with Xcel Energy are refuting charges made late Tuesday night by a Boulder city councilman that an independent citizens' coalition is actually a shill for the utility giant.
Twice during the council's meeting Tuesday night -- in which the leaders unanimously approved ballot language that would allow the city to pursue forming its own electric utility -- Councilman Macon Cowles questioned the motives of the Boulder Smart Energy Coalition and its chairman, David Miller.
The coalition, which was formed in July, is made up of more than 60 community and business leaders...
...Cowles suggested that Xcel might be taking a page from a document created by the Edison Electric Institute, called 'New Public Power Takeovers: Strategic Resources for Defeating Municipalization.' The manual was first published in 2002 after Pacific Gas & Electric Co. successfully campaigned against a 2001 ballot measure in San Francisco that would have created a municipal utility.
One section titled 'Blocking a Municipalization Takeover Attempt at the Local Legislative Level,' suggests forming a 'broad-based citizens' coalition.'
'Most local elected officials are very sensitive to and responsive to constituent opinions," the manual reads. 'Look at your list of allies and identify influential community leaders ... who might be interested in heading up a citizens' coalition in support of your company's position.'
'That is what the Boulder Smart Energy Coalition, I maintain, is about,' Cowles said.
Xcel has already taken some of the steps outlined in the anti-municipalization booklet, including hiring an experienced campaign consultant, conducting public opinion research and working to develop a campaign theme that resonates with the utility's most likely allies..."
Education:
Matt Damon Defends Teachers at Save Our Schools March
"Lawrence O'Donnell had nothing but praise for actor Matt Damon who came out over the weekend to support teachers during the Save Our Schools March & National Call to Action in Washington D.C. Apparently Damon's mother is a school teacher and when confronted by some wingnut libertarian reporter from Reason.tv, Damon hit back at her pretty hard with her assumptions that teachers only care about tenure and job security, rather than being the underpaid civil servants that the majority of them are that put up with what they do because they really do love their jobs and care about educating kids..."
One Way TO Deal With Anti-Social Behavior:
Mayor attacks bike-lane blocker with armored personnel carrier
"A word of advice: The next time you're cruising the streets of Vilnius, Lithuania in your luxury ride and are suddenly beset by the urge for a cup of kvass and/or a slice of honey cake, don't just pull over and leave your vehicle illegally parked in a bike lane. Seriously. Mayor Arturas Zuokas and, we imagine, Lithuanian cyclists, aren't amused by such antics.
While some municipalities might be content to leave tickets on the windshields of bike-lane blocking scofflaws, the good mayor recently realized owners with Mercedes-Benz, Ferrari, and Rolls-Royce keys in their pocket not be dissuaded by such minor punitive action, so he decided a better parking enforcement tool might just be an armored personnel carrier..."
Monday, August 08, 2011
The Debt 'Crisis'
In 2001, when I observed Bush '43 pushing for (and getting) unnecessary tax cuts for the rich, then spiking DoD spending like a drunken sailor on shore-leave after 9/11, I thought that the GOP's plan is to create a revenue crisis.
The debt-reduction road-map left by 8 years of Clinton would not be allowed to stand. The only way for the GOP to prove that Big Government (the kind that spends money on people's social welfare) is bad, is to make it cost too much. So, deprive the Treasury of revenue, while spending off-budget trillions to fight two wars of choice with the professional military. Did the so-called Conservatives who bellyache over the debt today make as much as a peep when hundreds of billions upon hundreds of billions were spent on wars in off-budget emergency spending bills time after time? And the pro-war Democrats are of no help either, in fact they seem to want to help the GOP along, by failing to have a spine on tax cuts for the super-rich, the un-touchability of Wall St. and tax-loopholes for corporate friends of the Congress.
Ten years later, we're finally at the logical outcome of this reckless policy...
Matt Taibbi: Debt Ceiling Deal: The Democrats Take a Dive
"...The Democrats aren't failing to stand up to Republicans and failing to enact sensible reforms that benefit the middle class because they genuinely believe there's political hay to be made moving to the right. They're doing it because they do not represent any actual voters. I know I've said this before, but they are not a progressive political party, not even secretly, deep inside. They just play one on television.
For evidence, all you have to do is look at this latest fiasco..."
In 2001, when I observed Bush '43 pushing for (and getting) unnecessary tax cuts for the rich, then spiking DoD spending like a drunken sailor on shore-leave after 9/11, I thought that the GOP's plan is to create a revenue crisis.
The debt-reduction road-map left by 8 years of Clinton would not be allowed to stand. The only way for the GOP to prove that Big Government (the kind that spends money on people's social welfare) is bad, is to make it cost too much. So, deprive the Treasury of revenue, while spending off-budget trillions to fight two wars of choice with the professional military. Did the so-called Conservatives who bellyache over the debt today make as much as a peep when hundreds of billions upon hundreds of billions were spent on wars in off-budget emergency spending bills time after time? And the pro-war Democrats are of no help either, in fact they seem to want to help the GOP along, by failing to have a spine on tax cuts for the super-rich, the un-touchability of Wall St. and tax-loopholes for corporate friends of the Congress.
Ten years later, we're finally at the logical outcome of this reckless policy...
Matt Taibbi: Debt Ceiling Deal: The Democrats Take a Dive
"...The Democrats aren't failing to stand up to Republicans and failing to enact sensible reforms that benefit the middle class because they genuinely believe there's political hay to be made moving to the right. They're doing it because they do not represent any actual voters. I know I've said this before, but they are not a progressive political party, not even secretly, deep inside. They just play one on television.
For evidence, all you have to do is look at this latest fiasco..."
