April 4, 2009 archive

Sidestepping? Sidestepping Is Cool!

Sidestepping kind of reminds me of, of, of, ummmmm, lemme think here, uhhhhh…

Signing statements!

In eleven fuckin’ dimensions, no less!

ek reports today in his Weekend News Digest that the:

Administration Seeks an Out On Bailout Rules for Firms

Officials Worry Constraints Set by Congress Deter Participation

By Amit R. Paley and David Cho

Washington Post Staff Writers

Saturday, April 4, 2009; Page A01

The Obama administration is engineering its new bailout initiatives in a way that it believes will allow firms benefiting from the programs to avoid restrictions imposed by Congress, including limits on lavish executive pay, according to government officials.

Administration officials have concluded that this approach is vital for persuading firms to participate in programs funded by the $700 billion financial rescue package.

The administration believes it can sidestep the rules because, in many cases, it has decided not to provide federal aid directly to financial companies, the sources said. Instead, the government has set up special entities that act as middlemen, channeling the bailout funds to the firms and, via this two-step process, stripping away the requirement that the restrictions be imposed, according to officials.

I take it that:

The Obama administration is engineering its new bailout initiatives in a way that it believes will allow [enormous multmillion dollar payouts to their criminal friends on Wall Street to] avoid restrictions imposed by Congress, including limits on lavish executive pay, according to government officials.

Administration officials have concluded that [enormous multmillion dollar payouts to their criminal friends on Wall Street are] vital for persuading firms to participate in programs funded by the $700 billion financial rescue package.

Tom Ferguson: Obama’s Economy Plan “Recipe For Disaster”

Crossposted from Antemedius

Thomas Ferguson is a political scientist and author who studies and writes on politics and economics, often within an historical perspective. He is a Political Science professor at the University of Massachusetts Boston, a contributing editor of The Nation, and is also the author of several books, the most recent of which is Golden Rule: The Investment Theory of Party Competition and the Logic of Money-Driven Political System.

Today, in the fourth of a series of interviews with Real News CEO Paul Jay, Ferguson calls the Obama/Geithner/Summers plan a “recipe for disaster”.

Real News – April 4, 2009

Obama should save the banks, not the bankers Pt.4

Tom Ferguson: Obama’s plan is a “recipe for disaster, if the US reflates, the rest of the world doesn’t”

Note: I believe this interview was done before the G20.

Weekend News Digest

Final.

1 Administration Seeks an Out On Bailout Rules for Firms

Officials Worry Constraints Set by Congress Deter Participation

By Amit R. Paley and David Cho

Washington Post Staff Writers

Saturday, April 4, 2009; Page A01

The Obama administration is engineering its new bailout initiatives in a way that it believes will allow firms benefiting from the programs to avoid restrictions imposed by Congress, including limits on lavish executive pay, according to government officials.

Administration officials have concluded that this approach is vital for persuading firms to participate in programs funded by the $700 billion financial rescue package.

The administration believes it can sidestep the rules because, in many cases, it has decided not to provide federal aid directly to financial companies, the sources said. Instead, the government has set up special entities that act as middlemen, channeling the bailout funds to the firms and, via this two-step process, stripping away the requirement that the restrictions be imposed, according to officials.

Utopia 6: Night Out

“TV is sometimes accused of encouraging fantasies. Its real problem, though, is that it encourages-enforces, almost-a brute realism. It is anti-Utopian in the extreme. We’re discouraged from thinking that, except for a few new products, there might be a better way of doing things.”

Bill McKibben

What Does One Say to the President?

We are talking about a new petition For a Special Prosecutor on Torture, directly to President Obama. As well as an e-mail campaign urging the Press to start pressing the Pres on the question of investigating torture. Today, let’s deal with the President part.

There are many approaches and tones possible.

From Yo, Barry!

To…

You Imperialist Running Capitalist Dog, we are petitioning you to…

We need to set the right tone, include the right facts, but not too many of them. We need to make People eager to sign the petition, the easiest way to do that is to use impressive rhetoric. But we also need the petition to have the desired effect on those in power. On the off chance that they might actually READ it, lol.

Imo, the main thrust has to be The Rule of Law. Should we also appeal to morality?

Beyond that, should we be accusatory and include polite language about cover-ups and collusion and accessory after the fact?

Do we act as supplicants to Power? Pleading for Justice?

Do we act as citizens seeking justice? Demanding Justice?

Do we threaten, or implore, or a little of both?

Above all, what would be the most effective? For both audiences?

Share your thoughts!

In Memoriam: Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Photobucket

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (January 15, 1929 – April 4, 1968)



“Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.”

May he rest in peace.

G-20 Faith in Free Trade Remains Unbroken

 

The absolutism of the key tenets of neo-liberalism: privatisation, deregulation, balanced budgets have all been rejected by all but the most dogmatic. Apart from one that is: the primacy of free trade.

So writes Noreena Hertz, economist and author, in her op-ed at Spiegel Online: “Is Protectionism Really All that Bad?

Despite the nationalization of banks, calls for increased regulation, and massive trillion dollar deficits amassed, the status of free trade remains “basically sacrosanct”, she writes. “‘Free trade is good’ continues to be presented as a totemic truth, ring-fenced from debate or interrogation.”

An examination of the G-20 communiqué (pdf) from this week’s meeting seems to confirm Hertz’s assertion.

The G-20 leaders stated: “We believe that the only sure foundation for sustainable globalisation and rising prosperity for all is an open world economy based on market principles, effective regulation, and strong global institutions.”

Docudharma Times Saturday April 4

Don’t Know Much About

History  Don’t Know Much About Biology

Don’t Know Much About Anything

At All

Bill O’Reilly’s Mantra  

   




Saturday’s Headlines:

Rejecting Aid, One Governor Irks His Own

Spring election fever hits Olympic city as democracy stirs in Russia

Storm over plan to provide separate buses for immigrants

Public rage over perks for new Zimbabwe ministers

Is Syria getting ready to come in from the cold?

A mutiny among militia threatens peace in Iraq after US airstrike

Nervous Japan takes up arms against rocket launch

US-Iran thaw could bolster Afghanistan rebuilding efforts

Peru’s Alberto Fujimori assails prosecution’s case as his trial closes

Administration Seeks an Out On Bailout Rules for Firms

Officials Worry Constraints Set by Congress Deter Participation

By Amit R. Paley and David Cho

Washington Post Staff Writers

Saturday, April 4, 2009; Page A01


The Obama administration is engineering its new bailout initiatives in a way that it believes will allow firms benefiting from the programs to avoid restrictions imposed by Congress, including limits on lavish executive pay, according to government officials.

Administration officials have concluded that this approach is vital for persuading firms to participate in programs funded by the $700 billion financial rescue package.

The administration believes it can sidestep the rules because, in many cases, it has decided not to provide federal aid directly to financial companies, the sources said. Instead, the government has set up special entities that act as middlemen, channeling the bailout funds to the firms and, via this two-step process, stripping away the requirement that the restrictions be imposed, according to officials.

Porsche Finds Fortune From Unlikely Outsourcing



By CARTER DOUGHERTY

Published: April 3, 2009


UUSIKAUPUNKI, FINLAND – Outsourcing to less-expensive places like India, China, Taiwan and Eastern Europe became routine for many American and Western European companies over the past decade. But what’s Porsche doing in Finland?

Since 1997, Porsche, the German sports car manufacturer, has headed north to this tongue-twister of a Finnish town instead of east, a move that helps explain why it is still making money even as so many automakers are tapping government aid to weather the worst industry downturn in a generation.

During the fat years, Valmet Automotive cranked out thousands of cars in Uusikaupunki to supplement Porsche’s production in Germany. Now, the assembly lines here are slowing, which means that Valmet, rather than Porsche, is bearing much of the burden of the global auto industry’s distress.

USA

Shootings in Binghamton, N.Y., ‘truly an American tragedy’

13 are slain at a crowded immigration services center. The gunman also killed himself, authorities believe. Evidence may point to Jiverly Wong or Jiverly Voong, formerly of Southern California.

By Geraldine Baum and Anna Gorman

10:55 PM PDT, April 3, 2009


Reporting from Los Angeles and Binghamton, N.Y. — For immigrants in chilly Binghamton, the doorway to America opens through the friendly building on Front Street. But Friday, the American Civic Assn. — a place crowded with recent arrivals taking English classes and citizenship exams — became a killing zone.

A gunman barricaded the back door of the immigration services center with a car, thwarting escape, then entered through the front door. Opening fire, he killed 13 people and seriously wounded four others before apparently committing suicide.

Binghamton Police Chief Joseph Zikuski said the gunman gave no warning. “I don’t think there was any conversation,” he said.

As the gunman entered the building, he killed one receptionist and shot another in the stomach. She pretended to be dead, hiding under a table and waiting for a chance to call 911, while he moved down the hall. In a nearby room he opened fire on a group taking a citizenship class.

Police arrived less than two minutes after receiving the receptionist’s call at 10:31 a.m., Zikuski said. Amid the carnage, they found a body believed to be the shooter’s, along with two handguns, body armor, ammunition and a magazine. He apparently shot himself.

“You Picked the Wrong Fight Burr, The Wrong Fight Indeed!!”

Rachel Maddow ‘SLAMS’ Republican North Carolina Senator Richard Burr because of his obstruction of confirming Tammy Duckworth to the Veterans Administrations

Late Night Karaoke

This Way Please

Random Japan

This just in

It was announced that a 2-meter bronze statue of Mahatma Gandhi will be erected at a park in Ogikubo.

A thief in Setagaya-ku stole a beehive that was nearly ready for harvest and contained 30,000-50,000 bees. Sounds like a classic sting operation to us.

Most amazing part of the whole story: a stolen beehive actually makes the national news here.

A 35-year-old Nagasaki man was arrested for kidnapping a 12-year-old girl after a taxi company told police that one of its drivers “picked up a male customer… who was holding a girl to his chest and carrying an object that looked like a stun gun.”

The Asahi Shimbun reported that Tennoji Zoo in Osaka spends more than ¥92 million to feed its six koalas per year. That’s more than it costs to feed all the other animals in the zoo combined.

A robot that looks like a young Japanese gal made its debut as a model at Japan Fashion Week. HPR-4C may walk the walk like a real model, but this one actually has some intelligence, too.

The US Embassy issued an alert warning Americans about a rise in drugging incidents at Roppongi bars and clubs. So, you can probably expect longer lineups to get into bars and clubs in Roppongi this weekend.

Aki Hoshino, a 32-year-old big-boob model, threw her ample support behind Ichiro Suzuki and Japan’s boys of summer as they defended their World Baseball Classic title in the US. “I love Ichiro!” Hoshino squealed at a press event in Omotesando.

Speaking of baseball, home run king Sadaharu Oh received letters of congratulation from such luminaries as former US President George W. Bush and former Secretary of State Colin Powell on his appointment as Japan’s “Baseball Ambassador.”

Rachel Maddow: Truthspeaker! VIDEO Update

USA Journalists, Ling & Lee, held in N. Korea

Rachel Maddow just covered this in the last five minutes or so of her show tonight. I’ll look for the msnbc link to show up, and add it.

UPDATE with the video link up now

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26…

Meanwhile, McClatchy has a story up about it.

Seized U.S. journalists become ‘hostages’ in N. Korea maneuvering

BEIJING — When American journalists Laura Ling and Euna Lee fell into the hands of North Korean border guards two weeks ago, vanishing into the maw of the most isolated nation on Earth, their fate drew concern.

Now the complications are growing.

I believe the date they were arrested (?) was March 17.

I know this is terrible and scary and I feel for their families, but that’s not what made me sick. It was this…

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