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February 2009 archive
Feb 11 2009
Muse in the Morning
Feb 11 2009
Wednesday Morning Science Supplement
Wednesday Science Supplement is an Open Thread
| From Yahoo News Science |
1 On Darwin’s 200th, a theory still in controversy
By GREGORY KATZ, Associated Press Writer
Sun Feb 8, 7:58 am ET
| LONDON – It’s well known that Charles Darwin’s groundbreaking theory of evolution made many people furious because it contradicted the Biblical view of creation. But few know that it also created problems for Darwin at home with his deeply religious wife, Emma.
Darwin held back the book to avoid offending his wife, said Ruth Padel, the naturalist’s great-great-granddaughter. “She said he seemed to be putting God further and further off,” Padel said in her north London home. “But they talked it through, and she said, “Don’t change any of your ideas for fear of hurting me.'” The 1859 publication of “On the Origin of Species” changed scientific thought forever – and generated opposition that continues to this day. It is this elegant explanation of how species evolve through natural selection that makes Darwin’s 200th birthday on Feb. 12 such a major event. |
Feb 11 2009
A Clear and Present Danger
The CEO’s who control the top institutions in our banking and finance system are a clear and present danger to the survival of the United States. The sooner President Obama figures that out and acts accordingly, the sooner we’ll be able to start formulating rational solutions to the banking crisis and start digging ourselves out of this hellhole they’ve put us all in.
Unfortunately, Obama’s Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner is not part of the solution, he’s part of the problem.
Robert L. Borosage, Co-Director of the Campaign for America’s Future:
Faced with the failure of the Paulson-Bernanke banking bailout, the Obama administration has decided to double down. The new plan, described in broad outline by Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner on Tuesday, antes up another $1.5 trillion or more to keep the banks afloat. But it won’t convince many that they are seaworthy.
The plan isn’t likely to get the administration where it needs to go for two simple reasons. It is wrong about where we are starting from. And it is wrong about where we’re going to. If you don’t know where you are and don’t know where you are going, it is very hard to get there.
The plan won’t admit where we are: the major banks in the US are insolvent.
The plan won’t get us where we need to go: we need to restructure – and downsize – our financial sector.
Feb 11 2009
Pony Party – Hyde!
Yep, it’s open thread time. Since it is an open thread, please do not rec.
Feb 11 2009
The Face of the Republican Depression?
Just another victim of Republican policies? I am sure we will find out over the next few days. We don’t know her full story yet, but she is just one of the millions of homeless or at risk citizens of our country.
Feb 11 2009
How to change the bailout meme.
Let’s face it, we’re facing giving the bankster frauds and bosses another trillion (or two or, who knows where it will end). We all know that the Republicans will be happy to give that money to their natural allies, so we have to find a way to stiffen up what spine remains in the Democratic side of the duoparty (those who aren’t members already have shown spine). The question is, how to do this?
Feb 10 2009
Four at Four
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McClatchy reports the ‘shocking’ news that Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said: Financial system working against recovery. “Geithner said that federal bank regulators would be empowered to conduct “stress tests” on banks to determine their financial health. These tests could lead to moves to close banks before their problems worsen and compound the economic slowdown.”
“Instead of catalyzing recovery, the financial system is working against recovery,” he said. “And at the same time, the recession is putting greater pressure on banks. This is a dangerous dynamic, and we need to arrest it. It is essential for every American to understand that the battle for economic recovery must be fought on two fronts. We have to both jump-start job creation and private investment, and we must get credit flowing again to businesses and families.”
According to the Financial Times, Geithner’s “‘financial stability plan’ will create a new ‘bad bank’– style public-private partnership, which will bring in private money with the initial aim of buying $500bn-worth of distressed assets from banks.” If necessary, the bad bank would buy up to $1 trillion ‘worth’ of the black hole.
Meanwhile, the NY Times reports Geithner said to have prevailed on the bailout.
In the end, Mr. Geithner largely prevailed in opposing tougher conditions on financial institutions that were sought by presidential aides, including David Axelrod, a senior adviser to the president, according to administration and Congressional officials…
He resisted those who wanted to dictate how banks would spend their rescue money. And he prevailed over top administration aides who wanted to replace bank executives and wipe out shareholders at institutions receiving aid.
While last night, President Obama gave his first press conference. According to the LA Times, Obama paints picture of Republican adversaries.
Again and again in his prime-time news conference Monday, Obama painted his GOP adversaries as well beyond the mainstream. Some, he said, do not see any role at all for government in helping avoid an economic meltdown.
“In fact, there are several who have suggested that FDR was wrong to intervene back in the New Deal,” he said, referring to President Franklin Roosevelt, the hero of the Great Depression. “They’re fighting battles that I thought were resolved a pretty long time ago.”
At another point, he implied that his opponents wanted to stand by idly and watch the nation decline: “Do you just want government to do nothing, or do you want it to do something?”
Me? I want the government to do something smart and different. Ya know. Change? Geithner’s plan seems like warmed-over Bush.
Four at Four continues with Bush cronism outlast Obama’s 1st term, Iran seeks improving U.S. relations, and plenty of jobs with wind power.
Feb 10 2009
The Revolt Begins?
Go Peasants, GO!
Monday, a group of 350 to 400 at-risk homeowners, organized by the Neighborhood Assistance Corporation of America, staged a series of protests outside the mansions of wealthy bankers in a moneyed Connecticut neighborhood.
“Called the ‘Predators Tour’ these actions were the start of NACA’s ‘accountability campaign,’ an aggressive, confrontational protest aimed at several top executives of companies that refuse to allow NACA to renegotiate the terms of loans on behalf of members, according to NACA CEO Bruce Marks,” reported the Stamford Times.
“Sporting bright yellow shirts that read, ‘Stop Loan Sharks,’ protesters demanded more accountability from the CEOs of the financial institutions responsible for the millions of unaffordable mortgages in the state and across America,” reported NBC New York in an article titled, “Grab Your Torch and Pitchfork.”
Feb 10 2009
Info War: Obama Terrorized by CIA?
Here is where it starts to get scary. Or tinfoilly. Or just totally depressing.
Everyone here has some idea of just how bad the CIA has been over the decades since WW2. And none of us has any idea of how bad the CIA has been over the decades since WW2.
That is because everything the CIA does is secret, of course, but even more so because the CIA’s main mission is not covert ops or spying or information collecting. It is information distribution. Or more accurately disinformation distribution. Over 60 years a culture of secrecy, and layers and more layers of secrecy, a culture based on the control and analysis and marketing of information and disinformation has been established. Nominally this culture is about protecting the USA. But as anyone who has ever encountered a bureaucracy knows, a bureaucracies first job ALWAYS becomes preserving itself.
Besides their recent expedition into the land of state sponsored torture, the CIA has much to hide. (See below the fold) And…they get to hide it. From everyone. Including new presidents.
The CIA, an agency that controls a small army and nearly every shred of info on nearly everyone, that has overthrown governments, engaged in assassination and drug dealing, and blackmail, spied on Americans, and exceeded it’s charter in nearly every way possible, this same agency whose job it is to lie, disinform and coverup…has it’s ass on the line.
And this very same CIA…that in this case is in essence a defendant that might be tried and held accountable for it’s crimes during the past eight years where they were literally let off the leash by Bushco….
…..is the same agency that is giving the president briefings on what the CIA has done. This agency that literally has used massive government funding to seriously, with life and death urgency and ‘democracy preserving’ intensity, research, study and perfect lying and disinformation and make it into an art form….is the same agency whose is giving (dis)information on itself, torture, the state of the GWOT, and things like what should and should not be a state secret to Obama.
With it’s own ass on the line.
Who has oversight on the CIA? The Intelligence Committees that have proven themselves SO untrustworthy and weak over the last eight years. And that’s about it…other than the other alphabet soup of Intelligence agencies, all driving their own bureaucratic agendas. Would the CIA…gasp…use the techniques it has learned over the last 60 years of covert culture to influence and color the information that the president and Intel Committees receive on it? While it’s ass is on the line?
Which all begs the question….is the CIA, an agency dedicated to lying and disinformation, telling the president the truth? If they are not….how would he know?
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Yes, I am grasping at straws to find someway to explain Obama/Holder’s indefensible betrayal on the state secret case. And no, I don’t really believe it myself. But perhaps….just perhaps…he is facing the same learning curve on the perfidy of the “Intellgence” Community as he is on dealing with Congressional Republicans. Maybe he can overcome the VERY powerful and underestimated influence of people whose job it is to spread disinformation….especially when it comes to itself.
Feb 10 2009
Manufacturing Tuesday for the week of 02.09.09
Welcome everyone to the latest edition in the Manufacturing series. I do hope everyone is doing better than our economy. The President was on television talking about jobs. He had visited a town in Indiana where the unemployment rate had reached 18%. The stimulus plan being laid before us, President Obama hopes, will eventually lead to several million jobs. But before we get to the latest on jobs and manufacturing, let’s look at this week’s Numbers.
Feb 10 2009