February 16, 2010 archive

Greece: Pull it.

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pic Via Jesse.

Will we have to blow up a continent again before we stop Wall Street?

Surprise, surprise: Wall Street tactics akin to the ones that fostered subprime mortgages in America have worsened the financial crisis shaking Greece, Spain, Portugal, and undermined the euro by enabling European governments to hide their mounting debts.

What can government do?  Bankers own the place.

“The crash has laid bare many unpleasant truths about the United States. One of the most alarming, says a chief economist of the International Monetary Fund, is that the finance industry has effectively captured our government – a state of affairs that more typically describes emerging markets, and is at the center of many emerging-market crises. If the IMF’s staff could speak freely about the U.S., it would tell us what it tells all countries in this situation; recovery will fail unless we break the financial oligarchy that is blocking essential reform.” ~ The Atlantic Monthly, May 2009, by Simon Johnson

Big to Fail, Too Big to Jail?

People Are Hurting, People Are Angry………How do we “whip up the level of outrage” to get action? It Is Time to get Congress to fall in line.

Someday people are not going to take it anymore, but when? How to deal with the robber barons, the horse thieves, those who caused the melt down, or those who enabled it, whether on Wall St or in Congress?

How to restore trust in our system, to institute reform, to pass new regulations, institute new laws?

Since September 2008, trillions out to save Wall St. in addition to the Bail-out, and what new laws have been passed?

We are all on to the Wall Streeters, but it seems Congress is missing in action.

People protesting as they are losing jobs, health care, farms, losing homes, savings, businesses, more homeless on our streets, and yet Wall St. floods Congress with money, fighting bank reform.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/…

Numbers to Think About

Number of Americans killed on 9/11:

2,819

Number of Iraqis Killed by us since:

1,366,350

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Number of Afghanistanis (that they admit to, anyway) killed by us since:

17,806

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So, we have killed One Million, three hundred eighty four thousand, one hundred fifty six people, give or take in two countries because nineteen men from countries OTHER than these two committed a crime:

Fifteen Saudi Arabians, two from The United Arab Emirates, one from Egypt and one from Lebanon hijacked planes.

1,384,156 – divided by – 2819 – equals – 491ish people killed for every American killed.

Kill an American? We take out 500 people from random unrelated countries until Al Qaida becomes a franchise wherever our terror is sold.

Here’s an easier way to think about it:

1000 for every 2 of us.



And all our drones and smart bombs target “terrorists” like those above. The civilian price is CHILDREN, god damn it.

Can you imagine if someone killed a million and a half of us?

Why should the Middle East NOT hate us?

NO MORE WAR!!!!

Afternoon Edition

Afternoon Edition is an Open Thread

From Yahoo News Top Stories

1 Haiti quake far more destructive than 2004 tsunami: study

by M.J. Smith, AFP

1 hr 9 mins ago

PORT-AU-PRINCE (AFP) – The scale of devastation in Haiti is far worse than in Asia after the 2004 tsunami, a study said Tuesday, predicting last month’s quake could be the most destructive disaster in modern history.

The stark assessment from the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) comes with Port-au-Prince still lying in ruins more than one month on, while the bodies of more than 200,000 dead pile up in mass graves outside the capital.

The study’s release coincided with what would normally be Haiti’s annual carnival, an explosion of pulsing music and colorful parades. But this year, the events have been cancelled as no one is in the mood to party.

278 years later . . . and still indispensable

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Open Question

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Training Tuesday: Part 2 of Organizational Change and the Adoption of Online Tools

originally posted by Will Urquhart at Sum of Change

Last week, we introduced Kenyon Farrow of Queers for Economic Justice, Calvin Williams of the Generational Alliance, and Althea Erickson of the Freelancers Union. They shared with us a brief summary of how their organizations had adopted some online tools.

This week, they delve into some of the challenges they faced along the way, and some insight into how they overcame them:

Corpo-Nazifying the Internet

You may think this is over the top but it has been the recent focus a la Cass Sunstein as to a shut down of the internet.  Well get ready right now to reorient your entire family on internet protocol and procedure.  Comcast is “proud” to announce their brand new usage meter.

How many times have I pondered this.  Allow me to peruse the propaganda and illustrate how these things come straight out of the think tanks of Satan’s highest minions.

The “Death” of the Parties

It seems nearly inconceivable that this time last year many were pondering, with all seriousness, as to whether or not the Republican Party was dead.  What a difference a year makes.  Still, the almost certain GOP gains at the end of this coming election cycle are not a result of the rebirth of a party, any party, though this will certainly be the narrative the media spins out this November.  Democratic incompetence has created this unfortunate situation, just as Republican incompetence led directly to the last substantial power shift in 2006.  And, in all fairness, this is usually how it happens.  The party in power proves to be all talk and no action, and the opposition party runs against it and capitalizes on voter ire.  This should, of course, never be confused as a mandate.  The GOP has no more new ideas then it ever did.  

JOBS bill held hostage for PATRIOT ACT

Last fall, with the House unwilling to agree to make permanent the most controversial of the expiring provisions of the PATRIOT ACT, a deal was struck to put a 2 month extension  into the Pentagon Budget. With this extension about to expire, and still no agreement from the House to extend the Bush era spying powers, another extension, for a year, has been quietly slipped into the Senate version of the popular Jobs bill unveiled last Thursday.

While the bundling was technically done by Senate Leadership, the Administration’s fingerprints are all over it. In debates last fall, the Justice Dept.and other Administration officials were insistent on getting the Bush powers held over intact.

Testimony before the Senate  Judiciary Committee revealed that the Secret Search power had, in the overwhelming number of cases, been used in drug, and not terrorism, investigations, with gambling coming in 2nd.

If the Senate passes this draft with the Patriot provisions left in, the House will be faced with either approving the Civil Liberties grab, or being blamed for blocking the needed jobs programs.

Fix the PATRIOT ACT and FISA Facebook Group

also available at kos’ place.  

Docudharma Times Tuesday February 16




Tuesday’s Headlines:

Taliban military commander arrested, say reports

Praise, propaganda at Kim Jong Il’s birthday party

Spain to accept five Guantanamo detainees

In Texas, ‘tea party’ candidate may shake up governor’s race

French ‘sexism’ blamed for attacks on Baroness Ashton

Paedophile priests must own up to their sins, says Vatican

‘European hit squad killed Hamas leader’

Saudi FM al-Faisal doubts Iran sanctions plans

Aquino’s son heads home to drum up support for presidential bid

2 detained, police say RDX, ammonium nitrate used in Pune blast

Tullow Oil given licence to flare Ugandan gas

Kenya faces political ‘meltdown’

Haiti quake fear: What if recovery looks like Managua’s?

Muse in the Morning

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Muse in the Morning


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