July 23, 2008 archive

Special guest host?  Nah, It’s just me.

Welcome to the Four at Four, at Five (Four Central).

• Even though he faces arrest after being accused of genocide, Sudanese president Omar Hassan al-Bashir held a rally for himself in Darfur, in which he danced on top of his desk.
  

  With an international indictment looming over him on charges of genocide, Mr. Bashir returned to the scene of his alleged misdeeds in Darfur – on an uncharacteristic charm offensive.

  It was here in El Fasher, on the same airport tarmac where Mr. Bashir was blessed by a hundred elders leaning on canes Wednesday morning, that rebels blew up government planes in 2003, kicking off a conflict that would claim 300,000 lives and perpetually threaten to destabilize an entire region in the heart of Africa.
  
  …
  
  But on Wednesday, Mr. Bashir didn’t seem to be feeling too guilty. He was all about peace, development and pleasing the crowds. The minute he stepped off the plane in El Fasher, a white dove was thrust into his hands.
  
  Mr. Bashir threw the bird toward the sky. It flapped a few times, but didn’t really fly.

• A major collision between a barge and a tanker has closed the Mississippi River in New Orleans, as roughly 400,000 gallons of fuel spilled into the water.
  

  The river, a major shipping route between the Midwest and Gulf of Mexico, could be closed for days during the cleanup, the Coast Guard said Wednesday.
  
  More than 30 ships already are queued up along the river, waiting to pass through the closed zone, Coast Guard Petty Officer Jaclyn Young said.

• President Bush is set to sign the housing bill after all, backing off his promise to veto the bill over portions of the bill that he decided he didn’t like.  He heeded advice from Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, who warned him that saving Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac was too urgent a need to veto and make Congress go back to work.

• Hurricane Dolly hit Texas as a category 2 hurricane, before being quickly downgraded to a category one storm.  The storm missed most oil rigs, but has still left about 61,000 people in southern Texas without power and will likely cause wind and water damage.

Archangel M is right, we, the Left, have been in a fevered dream for years now.

It is time for the Left to wake up.

Despite all the laughable post-partisan talk right now, this IS our opportunity to crush the Right. Their brand of politics, their hateful and divisive vision for America…but especially their bankrupt and broken ideology.

In the 1960’s, a wave of creative energy intersected with a booming population to create a massive amount of chaotic change. Conservatives don’t like change. So they crafted a decades long backlash against the newly reborn ideas of peace, justice, equality and respect for all and that was so successful we have wound up at its culmination…and demise we fervently hope…with the Worst. President. Ever.

And, not that you need reminding, years of unfettered complete control of Congress. I will say it again, since this needs to be hammered home again and again….The Right had FULL CONTROL to do whatever they want, the Republicans were totally dominant politically for year after year, the Conservatives had the entire government under their sole control, to create whatever reality they wanted to, enact the policies they longed deep in their hearts for….and the America we see today is what they created. This IS the America the Right wants. And when it comes right down to it, all they really care about.

The rich (them) getting richer………and making sure that the lower and middle classes are too powerless, and too cowed, to do anything about it.

Richest Americans See Their Income Share Grow

By JESSE DRUCKER

In a new sign of increasing inequality in the U.S., the richest 1% of Americans in 2006 garnered the highest share of the nation’s adjusted gross income for two decades, and possibly the highest since 1929, according to Internal Revenue Service data.

Meanwhile, the average tax rate of the wealthiest 1% fell to its lowest level in at least 18 years.

Good for them! Bad for everyone else.

Record home losses in California

As foreclosures in the state soar, federal lawmakers may vote Wednesday on a bill seeking to address the mortgage crisis.

The price tag for the nation’s housing crisis escalated again with reports Tuesday that a record number of Californians lost their homes to foreclosure in the last three months and that a potential bailout of mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac could reach $25 billion.

This is not about revenge, this is about ending…crushing….a destructive political and societal force in America and the world. The Conservative movement, give everything it could possibly ask for to show its worth…. has failed, catastrophically. It is time to end its influence.

And despite what the shameful enablers may say, the first step to doing that is accountability.