January 2008 archive

This is no jibe against folks who are passionately involved with the candidates of their choice in the Democratic primaries.  Frankly, I wish the present environment of our 2008 national elections were worthy of this amazing committed passion.

This isn’t even a jibe against the candidates themselves.

This is, however, a jibe at the 2008 elections.

There are folks who say it might just damned well be better if we stay home and let Republicans have their way with America.  I understand the reasoning behind it, I do .  And if our world were solely mechanical and mathematical and the heart had no place in it, I might even agree with this logic.

Trouble is, those folks calling for this strategy won’t be the ones suffering and most likely dying as a consequence.  And although it’s argued it is ultimately noble to be careless with folks’ lives that might just be blown away no matter what we do (both here and around the world), I’d just as soon avoid lending my hand to that endeavor.  If I were one of those vulnerable folks who reside at the bottom of the ladder to be considered for sacrifice, I’d be a little annoyed that my life was not even being considered in this equation.  I dunno, most folks, no matter how miserable, don’t want to die.  It seems to be something we all have in common.

So I’ll vote for the Democrat and I’ll vote in the primary.  I’m not a damned fool.  But no, for me, the heart of America is being broken by this reality, by there being virtually no opposition to these criminals who walk the halls of power in government and commerce, and it’s not even about political party at this point.  It’s just about regular Americans, not angels or devils, but flawed folks, as are we all, who are being shown nothing to aim at, feeling no genuine confidence.  Because no matter what our candidates say, our present national conversation is being held against a backdrop of criminal acts being committed the entire time, lawbreaking of such breathtaking arrogance and abuse of power that it renders all “national conversation” absurd.

Well I really tried to keep the start of Great Depression II out of Four at Four, but…

1. George Soros writing in the Financial Times states this is The worst market crisis in 60 years.

   Globalisation allowed the US to suck up the savings of the rest of the world and consume more than it produced. The US current account deficit reached 6.2 per cent of gross national product in 2006. The financial markets encouraged consumers to borrow by introducing ever more sophisticated instruments and more generous terms. The authorities aided and abetted the process by intervening whenever the global financial system was at risk. Since 1980, regulations have been progressively relaxed until they have practically disappeared.

   The super-boom got out of hand when the new products became so complicated that the authorities could no longer calculate the risks and started relying on the risk management methods of the banks themselves. Similarly, the rating agencies relied on the information provided by the originators of synthetic products. It was a shocking abdication of responsibility…

   Although a recession in the developed world is now more or less inevitable, China, India and some of the oil-producing countries are in a very strong countertrend. So, the current financial crisis is less likely to cause a global recession than a radical realignment of the global economy, with a relative decline of the US and the rise of China and other countries in the developing world.

   The danger is that the resulting political tensions, including US protectionism, may disrupt the global economy and plunge the world into recession or worse.

   Worse could be depression or war… nuclear war.

2. The New York Times – Worries That the Good Times Were Mostly a Mirage.

   The recent financial turmoil has many causes, but they are tied to a basic fear that some of the economic successes of the last generation may yet turn out to be a mirage. That helps explain why problems in the American subprime mortgage market could have spread so quickly through the world’s financial system. On Tuesday, Mr. Bernanke, who is now the Fed chairman, presided over the steepest one-day interest rate cut in the central bank’s history.

   The great moderation now seems to have depended – in part – on a huge speculative bubble, first in stocks and then real estate, that hid the economy’s rough edges. Everyone from first-time home buyers to Wall Street chief executives made bets they did not fully understand, and then spent money as if those bets couldn’t go bad. For the past 16 years, American consumers have increased their overall spending every single quarter, which is almost twice as long as any previous streak.

   So if the past 16 years were a mirage, then Clintonomics were a lie too… Right Hillary?

3. And what will our glorious, clueless leaders in Washington do? Well the Washington Post reports Bush and lawmakers are close to deal on stimulus package. “Officials said they were close to the framework of a roughly $145 billion plan. About two-thirds of the money would go for tax breaks for individuals, plus extended unemployment and food stamp benefits, while the other third would be for business tax breaks. Individuals would get rebates of as much as $800, and married couples as much as $1,600… After a year of antagonism over issues including the Iraq war and children’s health care, the collaboration between Bush and the two Democratic leaders was intended to signal to a nervous country that Washington can put aside partisan bickering to bolster the economy.”

   We need investment in America, not more damned tax cuts. In my opinion, this is close to the worst possible thing they could do.

Finally for a change of pace, an interesting story about an ancient skull is below the fold…

“Whither I fly is Hell…”

Candace Gorman is reporting that her client, Guantanamo prisoner Abdul Hamid al-Ghizzawi, contracted AIDS at Guantanamo’s Camp Delta. He believes he was infected during a “routine blood test.”

Last October I wrote about Mr. al-Ghizzawi’s dire medical state, and the Amnesty International campaign to save him. At that time, all we knew is that he was seriously ill with hepatitis B and tuberculosis. While Guantanamo authorities deny it, he claims he is not receiving adequate medical care. Eyewitness accounts from the U.S. prison confirm his charges.

His attorney wrote the following at The Guantanamo Blog last Sunday:

The neo-Bushit continues.

As Recruiting Number Dwindle, Podhoretz Bangs His Drum

And even the Pentagon has been saying that the Surge failed, and the relative “quiet” right now had nothing to do with it:

From the Pentagon: The Surge didn’t work.

That’s one reason you keep hearing them talk about their legacy, while others try desperately to spin it — they are attempting to pre-fabricate a success out of the worst Presidency in history, and to ideally obscure the complicit role played by the Congressional Republicans and their associated pundits.

The Democrats aren’t playing smart, either, and by pushing their luck that the public will hate the Republicans more as election time approaches, they endanger themselves and the nation further by failing to act ~now~, before the summer campaign season and before BushCo can initiate (directly or indirectly) a nuclear conflict in Iran.

And things need not be this way.

Cross-posted from DailyKos

Dear Speaker Pelosi,

We have asked, implored, pleaded, written, called and protested for the Impeachment of Vice President Richard Cheney and President George W. Bush for more than four years.  When you took office as the first woman Speaker of the House, you gave us women, and many men as well, hope that finally justice would be served to those whom have lied to us, taken our country to war under false pretenses, stolen our credibility and destroyed our national security.  Oh, that’s not to mention the trillions upon trillions of dollars of tax payers money to pay for a war based and CONTINUED on lies.  LIES.

It only seems fair that if Hillary wants to dig through Obama’s trash that her early years should come under scrutiny as well.

It’s well know that she was involved with WalMart.  How many people know about the Clinton connections to another Arkansas corporatist that is far dirtier than WalMart?

Let’s take a look at Waste Technologies Incorporated (WTI), Jackson Stephens and Hillary/Bill Clinton.

Top 10 Buzzwords according to TIME

a la Letterman, starting with #10

10. Freegan

A combination of the words “free” and “vegan,” the term describes an anti-consumer who shuns mainstream materialism and only makes purchases as a last resort. The most sensational and often discussed practice of freeganism involves Dumpster-diving for food, clothing or other essentials, which freegans refer to as “waste reclamation.”

9. Vajayjay

Slang for “vagina.”  The term, popularized in 2006 by Grey’s Anatomy and more recently by Oprah Winfrey, is fairly indicative of where we are linguistically as a nation.

8. Bacn

Similar to Internet spam, this term covers news alerts and other email that individuals signed up to receive but may never get around to actually reading. Much like the pork product it is named after, bacn is something we desire even though it clogs our (electronic) arteries. And like many techy terms, it is willfully misspelled.

7. Locavore

The New Oxford American Dictionary’s Word of the Year, this term refers to the trend of eating fresh, locally grown ingredients.

6. Grass Station

As Webster New World Dictionary’s Word of the Year, the term does not describe an outpost for smoking marijuana, but rather a theoretical alternative to today’s fossil fuel-based gas station.

5. Colbert Bump

Similar to the Oprah effect on book sales, the boost in popularity ratings a political candidate gets after appearing on The Colbert Report.

4. Popcorn Lung

A rare, life-threatening lung disease that can be caused by inhaling diacetyl, a chemical used in butter flavoring. It’s normally not a problem if a) you don’t work in a microwave-popcorn factory or b)you’re not Colorado resident Wayne Watson, who ate approximately two bags of microwave popcorn a day for 10 years and became the first-known consumer to develop the disease.

3. Previvor

A person who does not have cancer, but has precancerous cells or a genetic mutation known to increase the risk of developing it: a pre-survivor.

2. Surge

President Bush’s call for additional troops, which was announced in January, incited more heated discourse this year than almost any other issue save immigration.

and the #1 Buzzword of 2007…