Hypatia of California

We Knew Ward Connerly was a Liar; He is also a Thief

2012-01-17T21:36:00.000-08:00

Affirmative-Action Foe Is Facing Allegations of Financial Misdeeds

By CHARLIE SAVAGE

Published: January 17, 2012

WASHINGTON — Ward Connerly, the black businessman who has been the face of the movement to end affirmative action for nearly two decades, is facing accusations from a prominent former ally that he has mismanaged — and exploited for his own benefit — donations to that cause made by fellow conservatives.

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Ward Connerly

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Jennifer Gratz

Moreover, a group Mr. Connerly founded to advance government policies that are race and gender neutral, the Sacramento-basedAmerican Civil Rights Institute, is under investigation by the Internal Revenue Service and by the attorney general of California, according to documents and interviews.

Mr. Connerly has faced accusations of profiteering before, as supporters of affirmative action highlighted his salary in an effort to discredit his cause. But this time, the allegations are more detailed and come from another significant movement figure: Jennifer Gratz, the named plaintiff in a landmark 2003 Supreme Court case that struck down a race-based admissions policy at the University of Michigan.

After she won that case, Mr. Connerly hired Ms. Gratz to conduct research and run campaigns supporting anti-affirmative action ballot initiatives. She resigned last September and, through her lawyer, sent the group’s board a five-page letter, a copy of which was obtained by The New York Times.

“For years, Ms. Gratz was aware of the allegations that Mr. Connerly received excessive compensation,” it said. “She presumed that the issue was politically motivated and raised solely by opponents of the organization’s mission. It has come to her attention, however, that there may be some merit to the allegations of financial impropriety.”

Interviewed by phone and e-mail, Mr. Connerly, 72, acknowledged that his group had had financial difficulties, but said its board had not responded to the letter because “90 percent” of it was false. He portrayed Ms. Gratz as a “disgruntled former employee” trying to “besmirch me personally” because she wanted to replace him.

The letter was written by Ms. Gratz’s lawyer, Robert N. Driscoll, a former deputy assistant attorney general for civil rights in the administration of George W. Bush. In a statement, through him, she said: “I thought it was important to make sure all board members were aware of what was going on even if doing so was unfortunate, sad and uncomfortable and even though it meant that I had to resign from a position within a cause that I will always hold near and dear.”

The dispute is alarming allies.

“I’m sorry to hear this because I’m a great admirer of both of them,” said Roger Clegg, the president of the Center for Equal Opportunity, which also opposes affirmative action. “She is a courageous, smart person — and Ward is also a courageous, smart person.”

A businessman and a former University of California regent, Mr. Connerly rose to fame in 1996 as the backer of a successful ballot initiative barring public institutions in California from taking race or gender into account. He later founded the institute and a related advocacy group and continued to call for “colorblind government” in matters like contracting and college admissions.

Ms. Gratz’s letter alleges a series of financial irregularities, starting with Mr. Connerly’s pay.

Late last summer, the institute belatedly filed disclosure forms for tax years ending in June2008, 2009, and 2010. (The I.R.S. that summer had revoked the tax-exempt status of its related advocacy group for failing to file such forms.) They showed that his annual pay was between $1.2 million and $1.5 million each year — more than half its revenue.

Because charitable donations are tax deductible, according to I.R.S. rules no employee may get excessive compensation. Two other nonprofit groups opposing affirmative action, the Center for Equal Opportunity and the Center for Individual Rights, pay their leaders about $144,000 and $250,000, respectively.

Mr. Connerly said that “every penny which I receive is directly related to our mission,” and that he used some of his salary to pay others for research and legal work. He also said the group had reduced his pay to $850,000.

One reason Mr. Connerly has been a particularly effective advocate is that he is black. Mr. Clegg said there were “few people who can do or would do what he does,” adding that it is hard to set a salary on a job that requires enduring racially charged name-calling from fellow blacks.

A major financial supporter is the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation. Its president, Michael W. Grebe, said he was “very comfortable” that its donations to Mr. Connerly’s group were “being spent for public education programs.”

“He’s very effective,” Mr. Grebe said.

Ms. Gratz’s letter contends that the group has been “in financial crisis since March 2010” in part because of Mr. Connerly’s salary and legal fees related to the tax investigations, and has “ceased almost entirely” doing projects furthering its mission since June 2011.

Her letter also says the group has had trouble making payroll and “knowingly” under-reported what it paid employees on payroll tax forms — “irregularities” that “partly result from disruptions in revenue” but that “also appear to be designed to facilitate Mr. Connerly’s high salary.”

Mr. Connerly denied such allegations as “speculation and conjecture,” saying Ms. Gratz was not privy to administrative details. He also said educational activities by him and his group were “instrumental” in passing an anti-affirmative action initiative in Arizona in November 2010, and in laying the groundwork for a vote on a similar measure in Oklahoma set for fall 2012.

Ms. Gratz’s letter said five of the group’s eight employees “are family members” or have “personal or nonprofessional relationships with Mr. Connerly,” and raised questions about its “contracts for services and leases.”

For example, the letter said, the group contracted with a former longtime employee of Mr. Connerly’s profit-making firm to create a report on Oklahoma, for up to 120 hours at $60 an hour; it “consisted mainly of printouts from Wikipedia.”

While the letter did not explain its reference to “leases,” the group’s recent tax filings show that its rent tripled, to just under $70,000, after it moved to a different building about four years ago. Records show a group employee purchased the building in February 2008 for about $444,000.

Mr. Connerly said hiring people he knew was appropriate, given his group’s “controversial” mission. He also said he had instructed the employee to find new offices because they needed more room, and he approved the arrangement she had made.

Despite his salary, Mr. Connerly acknowledged that he had had financial difficulties; public records show that in 2010 and 2011, several hundred thousand dollars in liens for unpaid taxes were leveled against him. He said he was working on paying what he owed. In addition, a disclosure form filed with the IRS says the institute discovered last year that Mr. Connerly had submitted “unsubstantiated” business expenses from his credit card and cellphone bills. He had paid back $10,000 as of September, but still owed about $24,000.

Ms. Gratz was once Mr. Connerly’s defender. In 2008, when anti-affirmative action initiatives were on the ballot in Colorado and Nebraska, a liberal group ran ads portraying him as supporting such measures so he could pocket “nonprofit slush funds.”

Ms. Gratz made a video denouncing the ads as character assassination. But, her letter said, she subsequently realized that Mr. Connerly’s group had “not been adequate stewards of the resources the donors entrusted to the organization,” adding that she “will cooperate with any government investigation.”

Kitty Bennett contributed research.

A version of this article appeared in print on January 18, 2012, on page A10 of the New York edition with the headline: Affirmative-Action Foe Is Facing Allegations Of Financial Misdeeds.

The eurozone’s three deadly sins: by Stephen King...not THAT Stephen King! Silly!

2012-01-16T02:01:00.000-08:00

High quality global journalism requires investment. Please share this article with others using the link below, do not cut & paste the article. See our Ts&Cs and Copyright Policy for more detail. Email ftsales.support@ft.com to buy additional rights. http://blogs.ft.com/the-a-list/2012/01/16/the-eurozones-three-deadly-sins/#ixzz1jc7UxtTv

so, please read this article at the link above!

This comment by Killerfish tickled me:

Stephen King is correct that QE by the ECB would help but he is also correct that it won't solve the crisis. He simply highlights how far the EU is from a solution to this problem and by 'solution' I mean something that puts the EU back on a sustainable growth path. The main concern should be that the only solution is either a period of hyper inflation to wipe out nominal debts or huge losses for investors as asset prices are allowed to fall naturally.

Also, don't forget that once the EU has got back on track there is always the question of how the US gets its debts under control before treasury investors revolt.

OMG these freaking cords Chapter One

2012-01-16T01:52:00.001-08:00

I am a cyborg. OMG these freaking cords!

I have to charge my goldarn cellphone every night. Nevertheless, it will fail halfway through the next day, round about 1PM.

This cellphone is a state-of-the-art Samsung Galaxy Captivate Android touchpad, an alleged geek-a-rama.

Hardly!

Only two weeks after delivery of my baby android, ATT sent me a message with a nine-page instruction sheet attached. I was ordered to upgrade my baby phone without delay.

Well, I had other priorities at the time. I had not allocated the time to engage in extensive maintenance of my brand-new phone.

Last month, I had put out the fires in my life, and attempted to upgrade from Android 2.1 to Android 2.2.

Let me tell you, honey…

I went to the ATT website and learned that I should visit the local ATT store. They would take care of me.

So, I took the phone to an ATT store. After I waited for 45 minutes, the kid told me I had to go to the warranty store in Walnut Creek.

I waited another hour at the ATT warranty store. The kid told me I had to upgrade to Android 2.1 to Android 2.2 before they would service my state-of-the-art phone. I said, “I just bought this phone. I don’t want to spend five hours performing an upgrade that you should have done.”

He shrugged.

The links at ATT website are devilishly hard to find. Then after you find them, the “upgrade” and “download” links lead to 404Land.

I next wasted an hour at the Samsung site. Resorting to search engines was useless.

In the meanwhile, my phone:

hangs me up right after I dial a call
goes black in the middle of every act I perform on it
never alerts me when I receive calls or messages
dies halfway through the day
I am just getting started…

I am considering my next move.

Suggestions are welcome.

Another "Capitalism in Crisis" article

2012-01-09T04:09:00.000-08:00

Capitalism in Crisis: The Code That Forms a Bar to Harmony

Financial Times

My comment:

I see nothing here that convinces me that anyone is willing to halt the corporate takeover of civil society. If it were true that cutting taxes created jobs, we should be rolling in them by now.

In the USA, marginal rates have come down from their 91% high during the Eisenhower administration to 35% now for earned income. For capital gains the rates are even lower.

An efficient market can never exist. Government policies inevitably and always redistribute income. Those of us in the 99% see clearly that incomes have redistributed upward to ridiculous levels. No one can justify paying CEOs millions of dollars a year for eliminating jobs and concocting nefarious schemes for avoiding their obligation to society. Privatization is nothing more or less than the systematic looting of the public goods our parents and grandparents paid for with their tax dollars.

We are mad as hell and we aren't going to take it any more.

America’s Unlevel Field-Krugman

2012-01-08T21:07:00.000-08:00

My comments on:

America’s Unlevel Field

Paul Krugman

Mitt is just regurgitating right-wing mythology that was discredited decades ago. The Right does not believe that it does anything to create a level playing field. That rhetoric is just pablum for the true-believers.

You will notice that most Right-wingers cannot have a rational discussion of the issues because everything they say is nothing more than a parroting of talking points. You can never have a conversation with them.

There seems to be a mistaken notion that memorizing some batty phrases is the same as thoughtful discourse.

There seems to be another mistaken notion that you have to have some kind of blind allegiance to your political party. This blind allegiance means that you are moral because you don't need any proof of their true intent.

Religious people claim not to require proof for their faith. Fine.

But politics is not religion. You can change your opinions based on facts and logic and still not condemn yourself to eternal damnation. I did. You can do it too.

Bailouts will always be needed to fix capitalism's flaws

2012-01-06T08:48:00.000-08:00

Romney is wrong to oppose auto bailout

Really? Steven Rattner, Obama's "car czar" administered the auto firm bailouts. Rattner is telling the truth.

See the comments! Holy cow!

This is one of the most appaling (sic) pieces I've ever read.

Bail-outs will always be needed to fix capitalism’s flaws

Lest we needed another reminder, Thursday’s announcement that the Italian automaker Fiat had achieved the final performance target in its alliance with Chrysler underscored once more the remarkable success of the rescue of the American automobile industry.

No capitalist (and I consider myself to be a full-throated one) likes the notion of government intervening in the private sector. But we must recognise the rare moments when deviations from this principle are not only to be tolerated, but welcomed.

As the events of the past three years demonstrate, General Motors and Chrysler were such an undeniable exception. At the end of 2008, the entire auto sector was on the brink of total collapse, a near casualty of the financial crisis, oscillating oil prices, uneconomic labour agreements and poor management. General Motors alone lost $30bn in that single year.

Due to courageous decisions by both former President George W. Bush and President Barack Obama, the industry is now thriving. US sales of autos and light trucks rose last year by 10.3 per cent to 12.8m, compared to 10.4m in 2009.

Read the original entire article here:
Romney is wrong to oppose auto bailout

Republican Attacks Have Racist Undertones - NYTimes.com

2012-01-04T12:30:00.000-08:00

Republican Attacks Have Racist Undertones - NYTimes.com:

'via Blog this'

Many commenters are working really hard to deny the hard evidence of race-hate in the Republican Party. My right-wing relatives send me malicious mendacious racist smears all the time.

The most recent was a rant based on a fictional incident claiming Obama had done something that did not "support the troops." It was headed:

What do we have to do to get this n***** out of office?

In case you don't yet get it, people find this term derogatory dehumanizing racism.

Nurse reveals the top 5 regrets people make on their deathbed

2011-12-28T22:44:00.000-08:00

Nurse reveals the top 5 regrets people make on their deathbed
The link does not work. I retrieved a cached page of this post here.

Apparently it came from the site www.ariseindiaforum.org. _ed.

Submitted by admin on December 22, 2011 – 10:11 AMNo Comment | 3,302 views

For many years I worked in palliative care. My patients were those who had gone home to die. Some incredibly special times were shared. I was with them for the last three to twelve weeks of their lives. People grow a lot when they are faced with their own mortality.
I learnt never to underestimate someone’s capacity for growth. Some changes were phenomenal. Each experienced a variety of emotions, as expected, denial, fear, anger, remorse, more denial and eventually acceptance. Every single patient found their peace before they departed though, every one of them.

When questioned about any regrets they had or anything they would do differently, common themes surfaced again and again. Here are the most common five:

1. I wish I’d had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me.
This was the most common regret of all. When people realize that their life is almost over and look back clearly on it, it is easy to see how many dreams have gone unfulfilled. Most people had not honoured even a half of their dreams and had to die knowing that it was due to choices they had made, or not made.

It is very important to try and honour at least some of your dreams along the way. From the moment that you lose your health, it is too late. Health brings a freedom very few realise, until they no longer have it.

2. I wish I didn’t work so hard.
This came from every male patient that I nursed. They missed their children’s youth and their partner’s companionship. Women also spoke of this regret. But as most were from an older generation, many of the female patients had not been breadwinners. All of the men I nursed deeply regretted spending so much of their lives on the treadmill of a work existence.

By simplifying your lifestyle and making conscious choices along the way, it is possible to not need the income that you think you do. And by creating more space in your life, you become happier and more open to new opportunities, ones more suited to your new lifestyle.

3. I wish I’d had the courage to express my feelings.
Many people suppressed their feelings in order to keep peace with others. As a result, they settled for a mediocre existence and never
became who they were truly capable of becoming. Many developed illnesses relating to the bitterness and resentment they carried as a
result.

We cannot control the reactions of others. However, although people may initially react when you change the way you are by speaking honestly, in the end it raises the relationship to a whole new and healthier level. Either that or it releases the unhealthy relationship from your life. Either way, you win.

4. I wish I had stayed in touch with my friends.
Often they would not truly realise the full benefits of old friends until their dying weeks and it was not always possible to track them down. Many had become so caught up in their own lives that they had let golden friendships slip by over the years. There were many deep regrets about not giving friendships the time and effort that they deserved. Everyone misses their friends when they are dying.

It is common for anyone in a busy lifestyle to let friendships slip. But when you are faced with your approaching death, the physical
details of life fall away. People do want to get their financial affairs in order if possible. But it is not money or status that holds the true importance for them. They want to get things in order more for the benefit of those they love. Usually though, they are too ill and weary to ever manage this task. It is all comes down to love and relationships in the end.
That is all that remains in the final weeks, love and relationships.

5. I wish that I had let myself be happier.
This is a surprisingly common one. Many did not realise until the end that happiness is a choice. They had stayed stuck in old patterns and habits. The so-called ‘comfort’ of familiarity overflowed into their emotions, as well as their physical lives. Fear of change had them pretending to others, and to their selves, that they were content. When deep within, they longed to laugh properly and have silliness in their life again. When you are on your deathbed, what others think of you is a long way from your mind. How wonderful to be able to let go and smile again, long before you are dying.

Life is a choice. It is YOUR life. Choose consciously, choose wisely, choose honestly. Choose happiness.

Source: Received via Email

How Law School Was For Me: Chapter 1

2011-12-28T20:43:00.000-08:00

You asked how law school was for me. Law school was bad for me. When I came out I felt as though my brain was a hard drive that had been reformatted with errors.

Here's a taste of the first part of my law school tale.

During my first quarter at UCSB, my Labor History Prof. Antonio Zaragosa encouraged me to consider law school. I dismissed the idea for months. Then I spent 2 years researching the topic before I committed.

I took an LSAT prep course, but I had too many other things going my last quarter at UCSB to give it my full attention. I couldn't get the games part. My score on reading comprehension and analysis was good enough to get me into Hastings, along with my academic and service record. I got a "try next year" from Boalt Hall, but my 1L grades were so embarrassing I did not apply.

I was honored to be accepted to UC Hastings College of the Law. My life changed forever there.

At Hastings, they do not teach us that we need the blackletter law. I suppose that warning is for the memorizers. I am sure that many of your classmates were memorizers too. I can memorize lines for a play, but apparently cannot memorize the law. Before I applied, I asked specifically if one had to be a good memorizer before I made the decision to study law.

I asked again about memorization during the first week at Orientation. I was again told that it was OK that I was not a memorizer. I challenged the head of the LEOP Program about her comment at the end of the first year. She said, "Oh, I said that for the memorizers."

So for the next two years, I tried to memorize stuff. But I couldn't even stay awake in class 1/4 of the time the first year. I had a sleeping disorder. After three months into my first semester, visits to psychiatrists, and sleeping pills, I thought that it might be the noise in the Tenderloin, so I went to Fox Hardware and bought a white sound machine around Nov. 1. For the first time since August, I could sleep for more than four hours. It was great!

On Nov. 30 I fell and broke my leg. I cracked my kneecap and chipped the top of my tibia. I could not put any weight on the leg for two months, and crutches were not an alternative when carrying 100 lbs. of books and computer. Hastings's handicapped access elevator was broken and not repaired until my 3L year.

So I was in a wheelchair for the finals study period AND finals.

Near the end of my second semester, my apartment caught fire and was uninhabitable for a month.

So far, so good.

women who give too much: notes

2011-12-25T22:10:00.000-08:00

Friend: I see me too. In addition I noticed her guilt came from not rescuing (fixing) her brother. I actually have been labeled "the fixer" because I always fix problems (or at least try) for everyone -Gosh are we all crazy? My New Years resolution is not to "fix" anything that isn't my problem. I'm tired of it all.
Me: On the morning of my law school graduation, I was finishing the last of 120 Public Interest graduation sashes for the honorees. I sewed them all myself. Lilian helped me cut them out. I sewed them because I thought that they were too expensive. I didn't see the school giving us funding for them. Hastings has not had them since. So I was right, but in the long run, what diff did it make?
about an hour ago · Like
Friend: scary, we take different paths and still end up the same place. this really is a bad habit that i, at least, must break. I think that every time i feel the urge to step in and fix or give, i'm going have a brownie. i will be fatter (oh well) but happier i think. hope you have a lovely Christmas. be good to yourself.
37 minutes ago · Like

Look out on the Right: Home-grown terror

2011-12-21T12:41:00.000-08:00

http://www.alternet.org/newsandviews/article/751594/right-wing_mlk_parade_bomber_gets_sentenced_for_terrorism_that_no_one_wants_to_call_terrorism/comments/

Paul Krugman: Quote of the Day -- "Will China Break?"

2011-12-20T01:36:00.000-08:00

WAIT, IT GETS BETTER!

All economic statistics are best seen as a peculiarly boring form of science fiction, but China’s numbers are more fictional than most.

I hope that I’m being needlessly alarmist here. But it’s impossible not to be worried: China’s story just sounds too much like the crack-ups we’ve already seen elsewhere. And a world economy already suffering from the mess in Europe really, really doesn’t need a new epicenter of crisis.

Will China Break?

By PAUL KRUGMAN
Consider the following picture: Recent growth has relied on a huge construction boom fueled by surging real estate prices, and exhibiting all the classic signs of a bubble. There was rapid growth in credit — with much of that growth taking place not through traditional banking but rather through unregulated “shadow banking” neither subject to government supervision nor backed by government guarantees. Now the bubble is bursting — and there are real reasons to fear financial and economic crisis.

Am I describing Japan at the end of the 1980s? Or am I describing America in 2007? I could be. But right now I’m talking about China, which is emerging as another danger spot in a world economy that really, really doesn’t need this right now.

I’ve been reluctant to weigh in on the Chinese situation, in part because it’s so hard to know what’s really happening. All economic statistics are best seen as a peculiarly boring form of science fiction, but China’s numbers are more fictional than most. I’d turn to real China experts for guidance, but no two experts seem to be telling the same story.

Still, even the official data are troubling — and recent news is sufficiently dramatic to ring alarm bells.

The most striking thing about the Chinese economy over the past decade was the way household consumption, although rising, lagged behind overall growth. At this point consumer spending is only about 35 percent of G.D.P., about half the level in the United States.

So who’s buying the goods and services China produces? Part of the answer is, well, we are: as the consumer share of the economy declined, China increasingly relied on trade surpluses to keep manufacturing afloat. But the bigger story from China’s point of view is investment spending, which has soared to almost half of G.D.P.

The obvious question is, with consumer demand relatively weak, what motivated all that investment? And the answer, to an important extent, is that it depended on an ever-inflating real estate bubble. Real estate investment has roughly doubled as a share of G.D.P. since 2000, accounting directly for more than half of the overall rise in investment. And surely much of the rest of the increase was from firms expanding to sell to the burgeoning construction industry.

Do we actually know that real estate was a bubble? It exhibited all the signs: not just rising prices, but also the kind of speculative fever all too familiar from our own experiences just a few years back — think coastal Florida.

And there was another parallel with U.S. experience: as credit boomed, much of it came not from banks but from an unsupervised, unprotected shadow banking system. There were huge differences in detail: shadow banking American style tended to involve prestigious Wall Street firms and complex financial instruments, while the Chinese version tends to run through underground banks and even pawnshops. Yet the consequences were similar: in China as in America a few years ago, the financial system may be much more vulnerable than data on conventional banking reveal.

Now the bubble is visibly bursting. How much damage will it do to the Chinese economy — and the world?

Some commentators say not to worry, that China has strong, smart leaders who will do whatever is necessary to cope with a downturn. Implied though not often stated is the thought that China can do what it takes because it doesn’t have to worry about democratic niceties.

To me, however, these sound like famous last words. After all, I remember very well getting similar assurances about Japan in the 1980s, where the brilliant bureaucrats at the Ministry of Finance supposedly had everything under control. And later, there were assurances that America would never, ever, repeat the mistakes that led to Japan’s lost decade — when we are, in reality, doing even worse than Japan did.

For what it’s worth, statements about economic policy from Chinese officials don’t strike me as being especially clear-headed. In particular, the way China has been lashing out at foreigners — among other things, imposing a punitive tariff on imports of U.S.-made autos that will do nothing to help its economy but will help poison trade relations — does not sound like a mature government that knows what it’s doing.

And anecdotal evidence suggests that while China’s government may not be constrained by rule of law, it is constrained by pervasive corruption, which means that what actually happens at the local level may bear little resemblance to what is ordered in Beijing.

I hope that I’m being needlessly alarmist here. But it’s impossible not to be worried: China’s story just sounds too much like the crack-ups we’ve already seen elsewhere. And a world economy already suffering from the mess in Europe really, really doesn’t need a new epicenter of crisis.

The bat-shoot crazy GOP

2011-12-19T22:44:00.000-08:00

The other problem is the Dem Party itself. We have many Dems, a few recently voted into office, who also agree on the conservative/business side. I swear the former GOP candidates that do not want to be known as part of the "bat-s*** crazy" GOP, so they sign up, and run as Democrats.

Connecticut Democrats Turn Cold Shoulder on Problematic Candidate

How Ayn Rand Seduced Generations of Young Men and Helped Make the U.S. Into a Selfish, Greedy Nation

2011-12-19T22:06:00.000-08:00

http://www.alternet.org/module/printversion/153454

By Bruce E. Levine, AlterNet
Posted on December 15, 2011, Printed on December 19, 2011

Ayn Rand’s “philosophy” is nearly perfect in its immorality, which makes the size of her audience all the more ominous and symptomatic as we enter a curious new phase in our society....To justify and extol human greed and egotism is to my mind not only immoral, but evil.— Gore Vidal, 1961

Only rarely in U.S. history do writers transform us to become a more caring or less caring nation. In the 1850s, Harriet Beecher Stowe (1811-1896) was a strong force in making the United States a more humane nation, one that would abolish slavery of African Americans. A century later, Ayn Rand (1905-1982) helped make the United States into one of the most uncaring nations in the industrialized world, a neo-Dickensian society where healthcare is only for those who can afford it, and where young people are coerced into huge student-loan debt that cannot be discharged in bankruptcy.

Rand’s impact has been widespread and deep. At the iceberg’s visible tip is the influence she’s had over major political figures who have shaped American society. In the 1950s, Ayn Rand read aloud drafts of what was later to become Atlas Shrugged to her “Collective,” Rand’s ironic nickname for her inner circle of young individualists, which included Alan Greenspan, who would serve as chairman of the Federal Reserve Board from 1987 to 2006.

In 1966, Ronald Reagan wrote in a personal letter, “Am an admirer of Ayn Rand.” Today, Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) credits Rand for inspiring him to go into politics, and Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) calls Atlas Shrugged his “foundation book.” Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX) says Ayn Rand had a major influence on him, and his son Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) is an even bigger fan. A short list of other Rand fans includes Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas; Christopher Cox, chairman of the Security and Exchange Commission in George W. Bush’s second administration; and former South Carolina governor Mark Sanford.

But Rand’s impact on U.S. society and culture goes even deeper.

The Seduction of Nathan Blumenthal

Ayn Rand’s books such as The Virtue of Selfishness and her philosophy that celebrates self-interest and disdains altruism may well be, as Vidal assessed, “nearly perfect in its immorality.” But is Vidal right about evil? Charles Manson, who himself did not kill anyone, is the personification of evil for many of us because of his psychological success at exploiting the vulnerabilities of young people and seducing them to murder. What should we call Ayn Rand’s psychological ability to exploit the vulnerabilities of millions of young people so as to influence them not to care about anyone besides themselves?

While Greenspan (tagged “A.G.” by Rand) was the most famous name that would emerge from Rand’s Collective, the second most well-known name to emerge from the Collective was Nathaniel Branden, psychotherapist, author and “self-esteem” advocate. Before he was Nathaniel Branden, he was Nathan Blumenthal, a 14-year-old who read Rand’s The Fountainhead again and again. He later would say, “I felt hypnotized.” He describes how Rand gave him a sense that he could be powerful, that he could be a hero. He wrote one letter to his idol Rand, then a second. To his amazement, she telephoned him, and at age 20, Nathan received an invitation to Ayn Rand’s home. Shortly after, Nathan Blumenthal announced to the world that he was incorporating Rand in his new name: Nathaniel Branden. And in 1955, with Rand approaching her 50th birthday and Branden his 25th, and both in dissatisfying marriages, Ayn bedded Nathaniel.

What followed sounds straight out of Hollywood, but Rand was straight out of Hollywood, having worked for Cecil B. DeMille. Rand convened a meeting with Nathaniel, his wife Barbara (also a Collective member), and Rand’s own husband Frank. To Branden's astonishment, Rand convinced both spouses that a time-structured affair—she and Branden were to have one afternoon and one evening a week together—was “reasonable.” Within the Collective, Rand is purported to have never lost an argument. On his trysts at Rand’s New York City apartment, Branden would sometimes shake hands with Frank before he exited. Later, all discovered that Rand’s sweet but passive husband would leave for a bar, where he began his self-destructive affair with alcohol.

By 1964, the 34-year-old Nathaniel Branden had grown tired of the now 59-year-old Ayn Rand. Still sexually dissatisfied in his marriage to Barbara and afraid to end his affair with Rand, Branden began sleeping with a married 24-year-old model, Patrecia Scott. Rand, now “the woman scorned,” called Branden to appear before the Collective, whose nickname had by now lost its irony for both Barbara and Branden. Rand’s justice was swift. She humiliated Branden and then put a curse on him: “If you have one ounce of morality left in you, an ounce of psychological health—you'll be impotent for the next twenty years! And if you achieve potency sooner, you'll know it’s a sign of still worse moral degradation!”

Rand completed the evening with two welt-producing slaps across Branden’s face. Finally, in a move that Stalin and Hitler would have admired, Rand also expelled poor Barbara from the Collective, declaring her treasonous because Barbara, preoccupied by her own extramarital affair, had neglected to fill Rand in soon enough on Branden's extra-extra-marital betrayal. (If anyone doubts Alan Greenspan’s political savvy, keep in mind that he somehow stayed in Rand’s good graces even though he, fixed up by Branden with Patrecia’s twin sister, had double-dated with the outlaws.)

After being banished by Rand, Nathaniel Branden was worried that he might be assassinated by other members of the Collective, so he moved from New York to Los Angeles, where Rand fans were less fanatical. Branden established a lucrative psychotherapy practice and authored approximately 20 books, 10 of them with either “Self” or “Self-Esteem” in the title. Rand and Branden never reconciled, but he remains an admirer of her philosophy of self-interest.

Ayn Rand’s personal life was consistent with her philosophy of not giving a shit about anybody but herself. Rand was an ardent two-pack-a-day smoker, and when questioned about the dangers of smoking, she loved to light up with a defiant flourish and then scold her young questioners on the “unscientific and irrational nature of the statistical evidence.” After an x-ray showed that she had lung cancer, Rand quit smoking and had surgery for her cancer. Collective members explained to her that many people still smoked because they respected her and her assessment of the evidence; and that since she no longer smoked, she ought to tell them. They told her that she needn’t mention her lung cancer, that she could simply say she had reconsidered the evidence. Rand refused.

How Rand’s Philosophy Seduced Young Minds

When I was a kid, my reading included comic books and Rand’s The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged. There wasn’t much difference between the comic books and Rand’s novels in terms of the simplicity of the heroes. What was different was that unlike Superman or Batman, Rand made selfishness heroic, and she made caring about others weakness.

Rand said, “Capitalism and altruism are incompatible....The choice is clear-cut: either a new morality of rational self-interest, with its consequences of freedom, justice, progress and man’s happiness on earth—or the primordial morality of altruism, with its consequences of slavery, brute force, stagnant terror and sacrificial furnaces.” For many young people, hearing that it is “moral” to care only about oneself can be intoxicating, and some get addicted to this idea for life.

I have known several people, professionally and socially, whose lives have been changed by those close to them who became infatuated with Ayn Rand. A common theme is something like this: “My ex-husband wasn’t a bad guy until he started reading Ayn Rand. Then he became a completely selfish jerk who destroyed our family, and our children no longer even talk to him.”

To wow her young admirers, Rand would often tell a story of how a smart-aleck book salesman had once challenged her to explain her philosophy while standing on one leg. She replied: “Metaphysics—objective reality. Epistemology—reason. Ethics—self-interest. Politics—capitalism.” How did that philosophy capture young minds?

Metaphysics—objective reality. Rand offered a narcotic for confused young people: complete certainty and a relief from their anxiety. Rand believed that an “objective reality” existed, and she knew exactly what that objective reality was. It included skyscrapers, industries, railroads, and ideas—at least her ideas. Rand’s objective reality did not include anxiety or sadness. Nor did it include much humor, at least the kind where one pokes fun at oneself. Rand assured her Collective that objective reality did not include Beethoven’s, Rembrandt’s, and Shakespeare’s realities—they were too gloomy and too tragic, basically buzzkillers. Rand preferred Mickey Spillane and, towards the end of her life, “Charlie's Angels.”

Epistemology—reason. Rand’s kind of reason was a “cool-tool” to control the universe. Rand demonized Plato, and her youthful Collective members were taught to despise him. If Rand really believed that the Socratic Method described by Plato of discovering accurate definitions and clear thinking did not qualify as “reason,” why then did she regularly attempt it with her Collective? Also oddly, while Rand mocked dark moods and despair, her “reasoning” directed that Collective members should admire Dostoyevsky, whose novels are filled with dark moods and despair. A demagogue, in addition to hypnotic glibness, must also be intellectually inconsistent, sometimes boldly so. This eliminates challenges to authority by weeding out clear-thinking young people from the flock.

Ethics—self-interest. For Rand, all altruists were manipulators. What could be more seductive to kids who discerned the motives of martyr parents, Christian missionaries and U.S. foreign aiders? Her champions, Nathaniel Branden still among them, feel that Rand’s view of “self-interest” has been horribly misrepresented. For them, self-interest is her hero architect Howard Roark turning down a commission because he couldn’t do it exactly his way. Some of Rand’s novel heroes did have integrity, however, for Rand there is no struggle to discover the distinction between true integrity and childish vanity. Rand’s integrity was her vanity, and it consisted of getting as much money and control as possible, copulating with whomever she wanted regardless of who would get hurt, and her always being right. To equate one’s selfishness, vanity, and egotism with one’s integrity liberates young people from the struggle to distinguish integrity from selfishness, vanity, and egotism.

Politics—capitalism. While Rand often disparaged Soviet totalitarian collectivism, she had little to say about corporate totalitarian collectivism, as she conveniently neglected the reality that giant U.S. corporations, like the Soviet Union, do not exactly celebrate individualism, freedom, or courage. Rand was clever and hypocritical enough to know that you don’t get rich in the United States talking about compliance and conformity within corporate America. Rather, Rand gave lectures titled: “America’s Persecuted Minority: Big Business.” So, young careerist corporatists could embrace Rand’s self-styled “radical capitalism” and feel radical — radical without risk.

Rand’s Legacy

In recent years, we have entered a phase where it is apparently okay for major political figures to publicly embrace Rand despite her contempt for Christianity. In contrast, during Ayn Rand’s life, her philosophy that celebrated self-interest was a private pleasure for the 1 percent but she was a public embarrassment for them. They used her books to congratulate themselves on the morality of their selfishness, but they publicly steered clear of Rand because of her views on religion and God. Rand, for example, had stated on national television, “I am against God. I don’t approve of religion. It is a sign of a psychological weakness. I regard it as an evil.”

Actually, again inconsistent, Rand did have a God. It was herself. She said:

I am done with the monster of “we,” the word of serfdom, of plunder, of misery, falsehood and shame. And now I see the face of god, and I raise this god over the earth, this god whom men have sought since men came into being, this god who will grant them joy and peace and pride. This god, this one word: “I.”

While Harriet Beecher Stowe shamed Americans about the United State’s dehumanization of African Americans and slavery, Ayn Rand removed Americans’ guilt for being selfish and uncaring about anyone except themselves. Not only did Rand make it “moral” for the wealthy not to pay their fair share of taxes, she “liberated” millions of other Americans from caring about the suffering of others, even the suffering of their own children.

The good news is that I’ve seen ex-Rand fans grasp the damage that Rand’s philosophy has done to their lives and to then exorcize it from their psyche. Can the United States as a nation do the same thing?

>Bruce E. Levine is a clinical psychologist and author of Get Up, Stand Up: Uniting Populists, Energizing the Defeated, and Battling the Corporate Elite (Chelsea Green, 2011). His Web site is www.brucelevine.net.

© 2011 Independent Media Institute. All rights reserved.
View this story online at: http://www.alternet.org/story/153454/

Problem Solved: You're Welcome!

2011-12-19T20:56:00.000-08:00

Among the many horrors of war are the social imbalances that follow. These imbalances threaten the stability of society. Social engineering plays a part as well in this global tragedy of errors.

December 19, 2011, 9:21 AM
The Plight of China’s Favored Sons
By ALEXANDRA HARNEY
ZHUHAI, China — In the rural Chinese town where Li Yiming grew up, the gossip mill starts to turn if a man is still single at 25. As he nears this milestone, the 23-year-old Li, an assembly-line worker in the coastal city of Zhuhai, is despondent. He knows he’ll never earn enough at any factory to win the approval of his girlfriend’s parents.

Associated Press
Finding a spouse isn’t easy anywhere. But Li (whose name has been changed) is part of a cohort of millions of Chinese men, the favored sons, whose chances of ever getting married are particularly slim. After a rapid decline in fertility rates and decades of sex-selective abortions, there are now many more potential grooms than brides in China. This “marriage squeeze,” as demographers call the imbalance, is not a historical first — Taiwan, Hong Kong, Japan and South Korea have all had trouble marrying off their men — but in China it may be unprecedented in scale.

According to Dudley Poston, a professor of sociology at Texas A&M University, and his colleagues, 40 million Chinese men alive today will likely be left without a wife. That’s more people than the population of California.

Uneducated men from the countryside like Li have the worst prospects because many marriages in rural China are local. Traditional family ties often mean that the first choice for a spouse is someone from the same town. But sex ratios at birth (S.R.B.) — the ratio of boys born to girls — are generally much higher in the countryside than in the cities. And so the market dynamics of marriage for men in rural areas are much worse than in the cities.

Demographers consider a natural S.R.B. to be between 104 and 107 boys born for every 100 girls. Nationally, China’s sex ratio at birth is 120 boys per 100 girls; in rural areas, where couples often have more than one child, the S.R.B. for second children rises to 145 (and in nine provinces, it’s a staggering 160, according to Poston). By comparison, the U.S. sex ratio at birth is 105 boys per 100 girls. The main reason for this gap is the use of ultrasound scanners to determine the gender of fetuses, followed by the abortion of many female ones.

The other reason Li will have a hard time finding a wife is the “no money, no honey” dynamic. Chinese brides and their parents prefer men with the highest possible income, in particular those who own property. A recent study by the China Youth Daily found that 35 percent of women of marrying age would not consider tying the knot with a man who didn’t own property or who couldn’t afford to buy some. Li earns about $3,400 a year and his girlfriend’s parents expect him to buy an apartment that costs about $47,000.

What will happen if so many Chinese men never get married? Wei Shang-jin, of Columbia University, and Zhang Xiaobo, of the International Food Policy Research Institute, predict that China’s marriage squeeze could stimulate economic growth by prodding men to work harder in order to woo a bride. But most projections are not so sanguine.

Some observers predict that disgruntled bachelors like Li will go on strike to ask for more money or may resort to crime. Texas A&M’s Poston argues that cases of H.I.V. could rise as men congregate in “bachelor ghettos” in big cities. Others still warn that China may be more likely to go to war to keep its single men out of trouble at home.

At a minimum, the marriage squeeze will widen various disparities in Chinese society today: between the rich and the poor, the cities and the countryside, those with property and those without. None of these is a good scenario for a Chinese government whose primary objective is stability.

Alexandra Harney is the author of “The China Price” and an associate fellow at the Asia Society.

Whatever happened to General McChrystal?

2011-12-19T19:16:00.000-08:00

My Financial Times headlines yielded this nugget of information.

Siemens hires former Afghanistan general
German group acquires services of Stanley McChrystal with aim of bolstering US government business arm
http://link.ft.com/r/M2ZOXX/DWRBYN/KESL1U/QN1CFG/HY3AXQ/VU/h?a1=2011&a2=12&a3=19

Further research demonstrated that he spent the first half of 2011 establishing
The McChrystal Group.

Trickle-Down Economics - Cartoon by Clay Bennett // Current TV

2011-12-18T00:14:00.000-08:00

Trickle-Down Economics - Cartoon by Clay Bennett // Current TV:

'via Blog this'

Political Washington Abolishes Due Process Protections

2011-12-17T23:56:00.000-08:00

www.Indybay.org is a local San Francisco Bay Area affiliate of www.Indymedia.org, which was established originally to provide a web presence for the Seattle WTO Protests of 1999. Kindly take a moment to learn about Indymedia, where you may publish your text, audio and video right away. Your regional Indymedia site may be of value in the near future. You can even volunteer from your home if you wish to help keep it up. ~Via

http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2011/12/17/18702934.php

tyranny
Political Washington Abolishes Due Process Protections - by Stephen Lendman

Main Street Europe and America face protracted Depression conditions. As a result, millions lost jobs, homes, incomes, and futures.

Human misery is growing. So is public anger. Rage across America and Europe reflect it. Gerald Celente explains the stakes, saying:

"When people lose everything and have nothing else to lose, they lose it."

Draconian police state provisions were enacted to contain them. Hundreds of secret Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) camps may hold them. Martial law may authorize it, claiming "catastrophic emergency" conditions. Senators blew their cover calling America a "battleground."

During WW II, loyal Japanese Americans were lawlessly detained. Today, social justice protesters and others wanting change are at risk. Political Washington's targeting them to assure business as usual continues. Obama's fully on board.

On December 14, the House passed the FY 2012 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). On December 15, the Senate followed suit - ironically on Bill of Rights Day.

Obama will sign it into law. The measure ends constitutional protections for everyone, including US citizens. Specifically it targets due process and law enforcement powers.

With or without evidence, on issues of alleged terrorist connections posing national security threats, the Pentagon now supplants civilian authorities. It's well beyond its mandate...

READ IT ALL HERE>

The Politics of the Top 1 Percent

2011-12-17T20:59:00.000-08:00

http://fivethirtyeight.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/12/14/the-politics-of-the-1-percent/

DECEMBER 14, 2011, 11:51 AM
The Politics of the Top 1 Percent

A flawed article with some insights and some flaws. ~Via

There is more in the study. Here, for example, is a taste of Page, Cook, and Moskowitz’s findings regarding philanthropy:

Although many of our respondents express skepticism about government programs, and although some explicitly say that private philanthropy offers a superior approach, there is no strong tendency for those who are most suspicious of government to do more in the way of charitable activity.

By JOHN SIDES
What are the political attitudes of the very wealthy? How, and how much, do they differ from the less wealthy? The combination of growing inequality, a weak economy, and Occupy Wall Street’s ability to focus political debate on inequality makes the answers to these questions particularly relevant.

One answer to these questions comes from a new analysis by Gallup that made the rounds last week. By aggregating 61 polls from 2009-2011, they were able to measure the opinions of about 400 respondents with annual incomes of $500,000 or above. Gallup reports only modest (really, 57 v 44% is not modest) differences in their party identification: 57 percent of the 1 percent identify as or lean Republican, compared to 44 percent of the 99 percent. There are virtually no differences in how they identify ideologically: 39 percent of the 1 percent identify as conservative, compared to 40 percent of the 99 percent.

But the Gallup analysis may overstate the similarity of the two groups. A second study, authored by the political scientists Benjamin Page, Fay Lomax Cook, and Rachel Moskowitz and recently released by the Russell Sage Foundation, found that the politics of the very wealthy are strikingly different.

Their study, which was part of a larger project called the Study of Economically Successful Americans and the Common Good, involved something unusual: a random sample of the rich. In particular, they interviewed 104 wealthy individuals in the Chicago area between February and June 2011. The sampling frame, constructed from various sources, was essentially the top 1 percent in terms of wealth (not income, as in the Gallup analysis). The response rate among the wealthy individuals they contacted was 37 percent, which may seem low on its face but is quite respectable by contemporary standards. The median wealth of this group was $7.5 million. (Of course, the broader project is surveying wealthy people nationwide, not only in Chicago.)

What did the survey find? For one, balance of party identification in this sample is very similar to what Gallup found: 58 percent of this sample identified as or lean Republican. In several other ways, however, the political behavior of the top 1 percent diverges more strongly from the 99 percent than Gallup’s analysis suggests.

The 1 percent cares more about deficits than the economy. When asked to name the most important problem facing the country, 32 percent of respondents said the deficit and 11 percent said the economy. By contrast, in an April 2011 CBS News/New York Times poll, 49 percent of Americans said the economy or jobs and only 5 percent said the deficit.

The 1 percent wants private-sector solutions, not government solutions. Among those who considered the deficit the most important problem, 65 percent favored spending cuts and 24 percent favored a combination of spending cuts and revenue increases. By contrast, a September 2011 New York Times/CBS News poll found that only 21 percent of respondents favored spending cuts exclusively. The majority (71 percent) favored spending cuts and tax increases.

The 1 percent is vastly more politically active. In the Chicago sample, 99 percent reported voting in 2008; in the 2008 American National Election Study, only 78 percent of a nationally representative sample reported voting. Both numbers are probably inflated – nowhere near 78 percent of Americans actually voted in 2008 — but it seems unlikely that misleading survey responses would fully account for the gap between the 1 percent and Americans as a whole. Other measures of participation show even larger gaps. For example, 41 percent of the very wealthy reported attending a political meeting. Only 9 percent of Americans did so in 2008. And 68 percent of the very wealthy reported giving money to a political candidate, party, or cause in the last four years. In 2008–a year in which “small donors” were numerous–only 13 percent of Americans donated to a political candidate or party. Again, there are small differences in the wording of the questions between the two surveys, but they are not likely responsible for the 55-point gap.

There is more in the study. Here, for example, is a taste of Page, Cook, and Moskowitz’s findings regarding philanthropy:

Although many of our respondents express skepticism about government programs, and although some explicitly say that private philanthropy offers a superior approach, there is no strong tendency for those who are most suspicious of government to do more in the way of charitable activity.

To be sure, this is very much a project in progress. But even these initial results, however unsurprising, are important. Other scholars have found that, when the attitudes of the wealthy and less wealthy diverge, policy is much more in line with the attitudes of the wealthy. The activism evident in the Chicago sample may explain why: they do much more to articulate their views to politicians. (Of course, politicians themselves are often in the 1 percent.) These inequalities in political voice may then give rise to policies that perpetuate unequal outcomes.

GOP ‘family values’ mayor admits he’s gay; misappropriated nearly $200K

2011-12-17T13:23:00.000-08:00

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/12/16/gop-family-values-mayor-admits-hes-gay/

GOP ‘family values’ mayor admits he’s gay

By David Edwards
Friday, December 16, 2011

Topics: gay adult store ♦ Greg Davis

A Republican mayor in Mississippi admitted this week that he was gay after an audit revealed that he spent taxpayer money at a gay adult store in Canada.

Greg Davis was elected as the mayor of Southaven in 1997 on a platform of conservative “family values,” but he says he recently realized that he was gay.

“At this point in my life and in my career, while I have tried to maintain separation between my personal and public life, it is obvious that this can no longer remain the case,” the mayor, now in his third term, told The Commercial Appeal.

“While I have performed my job as mayor, in my opinion, as a very conservative, progressive individual — and still continue to be a very conservative individual — I think that it is important that I discuss the struggles I have had over the last few years when I came to the realization that I am gay,” he added.

Davis claimed that he has already paid $96,000 of the of more than $170,000 in expenses that state officials allege he improperly billed the city for.

War on Drugs-My Comment to the NYT

2011-12-17T12:58:00.000-08:00

http://fivethirtyeight.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/10/18/gallup-poll-is-first-to-find-plurality-support-for-marijuana-legalization/?comments#permid=45:2

Howard G New York
There's a cartoon from the New Yorker magazine which depicts two elderly women sitting at a kitchen table, chatting over some coffee and cake.

One woman is speaking to the other, and the caption reads:

"Lately I've been feeling lethargic, listless and apathetic, and if I stand up too suddenly, I get dizzy. My daughter says she has to smoke two joints to feel like that."

And for all those who insist that smoking pot is essentially harmless, consider this...

The guy who is repairing the brakes on your spouse's car had a joint after lunch.

The broker who is in charge of your portfolio likes share a joint or two with his colleagues to "take the edge off" during those pressure-filled trading days.

The woman who drives your children's school bus takes a few puffs on her coffee break - which is okay because getting high does not dull the senses the same way as having a few beers.

Debocracy the West Coast

Huh? You mean that some people who lobby for legalized drugs actually take them?

Scandalous!

Try to think of it this way: Every legal drug transaction starves the government of Black Ops money.

Allen West Compares Democrats to Goebbels

2011-12-16T23:14:00.001-08:00

http://www.rollcall.com/news/allen_west_compares_democrats_to_goebbels-211114-1.html?pos=hln

By Ryan Teague Beckwith
Roll Call Staff
Dec. 15, 2011, 7:01 p.m.

Douglas Graham/CQ Roll Call File Photo

Freshman Rep. Allen West is stirring things up by comparing the Democratic Party to Nazis again.

In an interview with several reporters today, the Florida Republican blamed Democratic messaging for a recent poll that showed Americans blame the GOP more for Capitol Hill gridlock.

“If Joseph Goebbels was around, he’d be very proud of the Democrat Party, because they have an incredible propaganda machine,” he said, according to the Washington Post. Goebbels was minister of propaganda in Nazi Germany.

This was not the first Nazi reference for West, who at times seems to be the Congressional example of Godwin’s law, an Internet adage that says that any conversation will eventually end with a reference to Adolf Hitler.

During his 2010 race, West compared a Democratic tracker who was taping his campaign appearances to “Gestapo-type intimidation tactics.” His campaign refused to apologize for the remark.

In a recent interview with the conservative magazine Newsmax, he said the Occupy Wall Street movement has ties to the American Nazi Party.

West’s comments today came in response to a question about a Pew Research poll that found that independents said Republicans are “more extreme” in their positions and “less honest and ethical” than Democrats.

Romney’s missing hard drives raise questions over government records

2011-12-16T22:55:00.000-08:00

Romney’s missing hard drives raise questions over government records

This is a near-automatic post from other sites to my Blogger account. I intend to use this facility for fast-breaking news.

Outrage as President signs law to detain home-grown terror suspects indefinitely

2011-12-15T23:41:00.000-08:00

http://olivialarosa.com/2011/12/outrage-as-president-signs-law-to-detain-home-grown-terror-suspects-indefinitely/

Those Greedy Federal Employees

2011-12-13T21:47:00.001-08:00

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/gop-again-wants-to-take-bite-from-federal-workers-to-close-budget-gap/2011/12/12/gIQAs4BfqO_story_1.html

I have wanted to write about the demonic mythology of the right about government workers, and have included some succinct summation of sources.

These are the comments that followed the article. Mr. hill-marty, whose avatar seems to indicate that he is radioactive and toxic, got many knowledgeable responses to his, “why don’t they leave?” snark. My response is at the bottom of the page.

hill_marty

2:46 PM PST

If feds are unhappy, why don't they leave? When federal employee turnover rates approach those for comparable private sector jobs, then we should talk about fed pay. Until then, it's all swamp gas, mostly generated by feds.

Recommend

Eliot Spitzer: 5 Ways to Make Banks Pay for Their Secret $7 Trillion Free Ride

2011-12-02T14:54:00.000-08:00

Via: Alternet. The CEOs of major banks maintained they were in good financial shape. Meanwhile, they secretly borrowed massive amounts from the government to stay afloat.
December 1, 2011 |

Imagine you walked into a bank, applied for a personal line of credit, and filled out all the paperwork claiming to have no debts and an income of $200,000 per year. The bank, based on these representations, extended you the line of credit. Then, three years later, after fighting disclosure all the way, you were forced by a court to tell the truth: At the time you made the statements to the bank, you actually were unemployed, you had a $1 million mortgage on your house on which you had failed to make payments for six months, and you hadn’t paid even the minimum on your credit-card bills for three months. Do you think the bank would just say: Never mind, don’t worry about it? Of course not. Whether or not you had paid back the personal line of credit, three FBI agents would be at your door within hours.

If Business Were Run Like Government

2011-12-02T01:12:00.000-08:00

I mostly love Ted Rall. He usually makes me laugh so hard that I make unladylike noises. This is one of those times.

Click here to see the cartoon

'via Blog this'

The Systematic Looting of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac

2011-11-28T18:03:00.000-08:00

By Olivia La Rosa -2008

We are now in the process of re-nationalizing two public corporations that were privatized long ago. These publicly-owned corporations began to be "securitized" in the mid-1970s. I was in banking then, and for the next twelve years. I saw it happen. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are a horrifying example of what happens when government functions are "privatized".

FM (short for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which are short for Federal National Mortgage Association and Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation were formed to support the home mortgage market.

Fannie Mae was created in 1938, under President Franklin D. Roosevelt, at a time when millions of families could not become homeowners, or risked losing their homes, for lack of a consistent supply of mortgage funds across America.

In the mid-1970s, the character of these institutions changed because their charters changed. They were then in the beginning stages of privatization.

~*~

When I entered the banking business in 1971, each bank branch kept its own home loans on the books at the branch where the home loan was made.

When I entered the banking business in 1971, each bank branch kept its own home loans on the books at the branch where the home loan was made.

Yes, you read that twice. I did not want you to skim over it (for you skimmers).

When I went to the bank, I saw the loan officer who made my home loan twice a week. He knew what I looked like, and what my husband did for a living. He knew when we were going to have a child. He saw me every time I came into the bank and made a deposit.

In other words, this person was, if not a friend, an intimate acquaintance.

Now, lenders are completely divorced from the human being who is taking out the mortgage. And investors are lured by fictitious entities like "mortgage-backed securities" and the people who made a mint by "securitizing" the family home loan obligation. Clever Wall Street minds figured out a way to "securitize" the mortgage markets. When you hear the world "securitize", just run like heck. Do not invest in securitized instruments. At their most basic, they are scams designed to wring excess profit from financial instruments that do not usually yield excess profit by bundling together individual items and assigning risk factors to the pool of items. Usually, the risk factors are understated and the potential profit is overstated.

Examples of securitized investments include junk bonds and derivatives, both of which led to devastating losses for families in the last two decades. Now, we are witness to the biggest failure of securitization yet, and it will cause us to have to turn Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac into public service institutions, which they should have been in the first place. Now, our grandchildren will be paying the bill for all those unrecoverable privatized profits.

###

Before you read this, please take a moment to reflect upon what you thought that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac meant before you read this article.

Freddie Mac Corporate Governance

We are committed to sound and effective corporate governance practices. We believe these practices are fundamental to maintaining a strong relationship with our stakeholders, reinforcing confidence in Freddie Mac's leadership, and achieving our mission to provide liquidity, stability and affordability to the U.S. housing and mortgage markets. We review and update our governance practices from time to time to be consistent with our shareholders’ best interests and with applicable requirements.

Alfermedi Cert Petition 11-10-2011

2011-11-27T21:38:00.000-08:00

from Lawfareblog.com http://www.lawfareblog.com/2011/11/almerfedi-cert-petition/

By Ritika Singh

(item 2 shifts the burden of proof from the government to the detainee. –ed.)

Contains links to the oral argument summary, April 11, government’s reply brief, the petitioner’s brief, and the government’s opening brief.

The abstract follows below.

Almerfedi Cert Petition

by Ritika Singh

Hussain Salem Mohammed Almerfedi, a Guantanamo habeas petitioner, has filed a cert petition that presents the following questions:

1. Whether the Authorization for Use of Military Force, Pub. L. No. 107-40, § 2(a), 115 Stat. 224 (2001) (“AUMF’), orBoumediene v. Bush, 553 U.S. 723 (2008), permits detention on the basis of three facts that are themselves not incriminating.
2. Whether the AUMF or Boumediene authorizes a standard of proof under which, if the government puts forward somecredible evidence justifying the detainee’s detention, the detainee, to prevail, must rebut government’s evidence.
3. Whether the Court of Appeals’ manifest unwillingness to allow Guantanamo detainees to prevail in their habeas corpus cases calls for the exercise of this Court’s supervisory power.

For our readers who’d like to get a complete overview of the case, here are Ben’s thoughts on the D.C. Circuit opinion from June 10, the oral argument summary from April 11, the government’s reply brief, the petitioner’s brief, and the government’s opening brief.

D. Lagutaris, ed.

Bush tax cuts and the decline of U.S. as a serious world power

2011-11-27T18:51:00.000-08:00

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2010/12/30/105931/commentary-bush-tax-cuts-and-the.html

Commentary: Bush tax cuts and the decline of U.S. as a serious world power

By Dennis Jett | McClatchy Newspapers

The lame ducks had not even flown the coop before the assessments of the 111th Congress started to pour in. After months of partisan bickering and foot dragging, the achievements in the final days of the legislative session were truly impressive.

There are two feats that have been generally unrecognized by the Washington’s chattering class however. Both deserve acknowledgment because they will affect the country’s future more than anything else this session of Congress accomplished.

The legislators affected the course of history by ensuring two future events will occur — the reelection of President Obama and the decline of the United States as a serious world power. That may seem counter-intuitive given that the leader of the Republicans in the Senate, Mitch McConnell, said not too many weeks ago that ensuring the President did not get a second term was his highest priority.

McConnell only needed to glance at the potential Republican candidates for 2012 to discover why he had to forego that dream. While all the party’s presidential aspirants use their platforms on Fox News to ignite the Republican base, they repel pretty much everyone else. More ominous is the fact there will be little chance to oust the incumbent if the economy continues to improve. There is one statistic that will determine that &mash; the unemployment rate. If it is significantly lower than it is now, he will win. If it is not, he won’t.

McConnell could have refused to do anything to help the economy and prayed for a double dip recession severe enough to sweep his party into the White House. Republicans are about to take ownership of the other House, however, and can’t avoid some responsibility for prolonged economic stagnation without there being negative implications for the Republicans in Congress. “Just say no” would therefore be no more effective a strategy than it was in the war on drugs. So McConnell and company signed off on tax cuts that will probably stimulate the economy enough to determine the outcome of the election in the President’s favor.

The tax cuts will also ensure the decline of the United States. Republicans insisted that all those poor starving people with seven figure annual incomes and above could not possibly be asked to pay more. Given the generous provisions of the estate tax, apparently not even dead multimillionaires can be expected to ante up. To ensure tax cuts for such people, the Republicans held hostage the long-term unemployed and their favorite props for photo ops — 9/11 first responders.

The cuts that resulted will not only balloon the deficit, but will also require dismantling a good bit of government at the state and federal level. Education will be hollowed out and infrastructure left to decay as the United States becomes increasingly indebted to other countries and unable to compete in the global marketplace. Future debates on public policy will be forced to focus on how much to gut Social Security and Medicare.

Are the cuts justified by the weight of the tax burden? Studies done by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development demonstrate otherwise. The 34 countries in the OECD comprise the developed democracies of what used to be called the First World and a few successful developing countries from those in the Third World.

These studies show taxes as a percentage of Gross Domestic Product in the U.S. are at their lowest level since at least 1965 and are the lowest in the OECD except for Mexico and Chile. At the same time, income inequality and poverty are higher in the U.S. than any other country in the OECD except Mexico and Turkey. As for the accusations that socialism is sweeping the land, only in Korea does the redistribution of income by government have a smaller effect.

The griping about taxes will continue nonetheless. The ability of Americans to have a rational discussion on the subject was long ago put to death by Ronald Reagan’s sound bites. Government became evil and greed became a virtue.

No country can be great if its citizens are unwilling to pay for it. No country will remain great if it neglects the health and education of those citizens who lack lobbyists. The tax cuts may have assured the President’s reelection, but they also ensure America will grow more separate and unequal, not unlike the proverbial banana republics. As a result the U.S. will slowly slip from the leader of the First World to an honorary member of the Third, unless Americans stop believing their exceptionalism stems only from their virtue and requires no sacrifice.

ABOUT THE WRITER

Dennis Jett, a former U.S. ambassador to Mozambique and Peru, is a professor of international affairs at Penn State's School of International Affairs.

McClatchy Newspapers did not subsidize the writing of this column; the opinions are those of the writer and do not necessarily represent the views of McClatchy Newspapers or its editors.

Read more: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2010/12/30/105931/commentary-bush-tax-cuts-and-the.html#ixzz1AQ8r4dgG

National Police Accountability Project

2011-11-27T18:50:00.000-08:00

National Police Accountability Project

http://www.nlg-npap.org/

Investigations of Police Misconduct

Investigations of police misconduct occur at a rate of .01 (that's 1 percent) of the number of claims filed. Resolutions of victim's claims occurs at 1/10th of that rate. ~Deb

I Don't Need No Doctor Festival

2011-11-26T00:59:00.000-08:00

Rustle up some barbecue, grab a beer, then kick back with me and enjoy the "I Don't Need No Doctor Festival" on my birthday.

Ray Charles's inspirations have seared the pants off generations of humanity. Then others who come later try their own interpretations, to our global delight.

Here's the list!

Ray Charles, the Man
“owwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww!"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c8TJnoa2WTg&feature=related

Blues style *sweet*
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k66a8BWKSO0

Humble Pie *mindblowing*
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0lxyRjzXvxo

The newest generation’s interpretation. Whoa. Extinguish all smoking materials.
http://youtu.be/dyS3cVMCyvs

Mokaimba
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3zf74UEk_u8

Howling metal version.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AsQSdI67Qgs&feature=related

Forgive me. I was mistaken. My most humble apologies.
W.A.S.P. performed the ultimate metal version.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PkY0jWF2CzA&feature=fvst

Prepare to be surprised by John Mayer’s interpretation
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qnUZ-Uw05kg&feature=related

An American Idol Treat Casey Abrams *trust me*
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y-Eto8n-WJ4

Return abruptly to awake-alive-alert with Lawrence Gowan of Styx.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Svda0EG-N5Q

And at last, my fav!
New Riders of the Purple Sage http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ChxYq7esIEk

We Are the 99.9%

2011-11-25T19:22:00.000-08:00

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/25/opinion/we-are-the-99-9.html

by Paul Krugman

(Dr. Krugman lays some great one-liners on us in this article.-ed)

November 24, 2011

We Are the 99.9%

By PAUL KRUGMAN

“We are the 99 percent” is a great slogan. It correctly defines the issue as being the middle class versus the elite (as opposed to the middle class versus the poor). And it also gets past the common but wrong establishment notion that rising inequality is mainly about the well educated doing better than the less educated; the big winners in this new Gilded Age have been a handful of very wealthy people, not college graduates in general.

If anything, however, the 99 percent slogan aims too low. A large fraction of the top 1 percent’s gains have actually gone to an even smaller group, the top 0.1 percent — the richest one-thousandth of the population.

And while Democrats, by and large, want that super-elite to make at least some contribution to long-term deficit reduction, Republicans want to cut the super-elite’s taxes even as they slash Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid in the name of fiscal discipline.

Before I get to those policy disputes, here are a few numbers.

The recent Congressional Budget Office report on inequality didn’t look inside the top 1 percent, but an earlier report, which only went up to 2005, did. According to that report, between 1979 and 2005 the inflation-adjusted, after-tax income of Americans in the middle of the income distribution rose 21 percent. The equivalent number for the richest 0.1 percent rose 400 percent.

For the most part, these huge gains reflected a dramatic rise in the super-elite’s share of pretax income. But there were also large tax cuts favoring the wealthy. In particular, taxes on capital gains are much lower than they were in 1979 — and the richest one-thousandth of Americans account for half of all income from capital gains.

Given this history, why do Republicans advocate further tax cuts for the very rich even as they warn about deficits and demand drastic cuts in social insurance programs?

Well, aside from shouts of “class warfare!” whenever such questions are raised, the usual answer is that the super-elite are “job creators” — that is, that they make a special contribution to the economy. So what you need to know is that this is bad economics. In fact, it would be bad economics even if America had the idealized, perfect market economy of conservative fantasies.

After all, in an idealized market economy each worker would be paid exactly what he or she contributes to the economy by choosing to work, no more and no less. And this would be equally true for workers making $30,000 a year and executives making $30 million a year. There would be no reason to consider the contributions of the $30 million folks as deserving of special treatment.

But, you say, the rich pay taxes! Indeed, they do. And they could — and should, from the point of view of the 99.9 percent — be paying substantially more in taxes, not offered even more tax breaks, despite the alleged budget crisis, because of the wonderful things they supposedly do.

Still, don’t some of the very rich get that way by producing innovations that are worth far more to the world than the income they receive? Sure, but if you look at who really makes up the 0.1 percent, it’s hard to avoid the conclusion that, by and large, the members of the super-elite are overpaid, not underpaid, for what they do.

For who are the 0.1 percent? Very few of them are Steve Jobs-type innovators; most of them are corporate bigwigs and financial wheeler-dealers. One recent analysis found that 43 percent of the super-elite are executives at nonfinancial companies, 18 percent are in finance and another 12 percent are lawyers or in real estate. And these are not, to put it mildly, professions in which there is a clear relationship between someone’s income and his economic contribution.

Executive pay, which has skyrocketed over the past generation, is famously set by boards of directors appointed by the very people whose pay they determine; poorly performing C.E.O.’s still get lavish paychecks, and even failed and fired executives often receive millions as they go out the door.

Meanwhile, the economic crisis showed that much of the apparent value created by modern finance was a mirage. As the Bank of England’s director for financial stability recently put it, seemingly high returns before the crisis simply reflected increased risk-taking — risk that was mostly borne not by the wheeler-dealers themselves but either by naïve investors or by taxpayers, who ended up holding the bag when it all went wrong. And as he waspishly noted, “If risk-making were a value-adding activity, Russian roulette players would contribute disproportionately to global welfare.”

So should the 99.9 percent hate the 0.1 percent? No, not at all. But they should ignore all the propaganda about “job creators” and demand that the super-elite pay substantially more in taxes.

Why Law School Makes Some People Sick

2011-11-25T15:31:00.000-08:00

Apropos of this NYT Editorial on law school.

I did not pass the Bar the first time, so I am having another go at it. I recently met with a Bar tutor. I left our meeting sadder but wiser. Bar Examiners do not read your magnificent essays, the product of nineteen years of intense attention to your teachers and professors, development of high-quality analysis skills, and patiently-accumulated writing ability.

All the Bar Examiners want to know is: did number 6457 memorize most of the lingo for 14 areas of law we test? They have a checksheet. They skim the answers looking for key words. I know lots of people otherwise incapable of practicing law who could perform a memorization feat of that magnitude. Some of them are institutionalized.

These essays we must write should run from five to twelve pages each. The examinee is given an hour, and the equivalent of a blank piece of paper and pen, to come up with the elements of a, say, crime or tort or breach of contract, analyze each element against the facts of the case and argue both sides, then produce a sensible conclusion.

Here’s the trick that law school plays on the rational mind: Never does your conclusion matter. What matters is that the conclusion, either a or b, is supported by your analysis and argument.

Fresh from my graduation with Honors at UC Santa Barbara in May 2001, I drove up the coast directly to Hastings that August. I entered law school at the age of 51. Thing is, I was firm in my convictions and my morality at this age. I was never quite able to hide my bias towards conclusion B over conclusion A. I took an extra sentence or two to explain my reasons for supporting conclusion B over conclusion A. I took the time to support my answers with policy suggestions.

The Bar examiners don't care a fig about this.

11-18, The Day That Everything Changed

2011-11-25T05:58:00.000-08:00

Smart Meter Opt-Out Hearings Information

2011-11-24T14:36:00.000-08:00

Please find following the Commission's webpage on the Opt-Out Program, which provides backgrounder, complete with document history, of this proceeding:

http://docs.cpuc.ca.gov/published/proceedings/A1103014.htm

I encourage you to add yourself to the subscription list and consider being added to the service list. By being added to the service list, your comments will be officially included as part of the proceeding. (Note to Ms. X: I will share your comments with our Public Advisor's Office.)

Best,
Sheri Boles
Outreach Officer
Hello, Ms. X --

I understand your concerns; thank you for sharing them with me.

I've included below a link to our Public Advisor's webpage; I want to point out the section on "How your comments are processed" (I've also embedded the copy below, as I think it is very important):

http://www.cpuc.ca.gov/PUC/aboutus/Divisions/CSID/Public+Advisor/
How your comments are processed
The Commission has different processes in place for the various ways informal comments are made by the public. You might be interested to understand these differences.
* Written informal comments <https://webserver.cpuc.ca.gov/PUC/aboutus/Divisions/CSID/Public+Advisor/Written+Informal+Comments.htm> are circulated to appropriate decision-makers and if they pertain to a specific proceeding they become part of its official record, although they do not have the same weight as comments from parties to the proceeding <https://webserver.cpuc.ca.gov/PUC/IntervenorCompGuide/index3.htm> .

* Public comments made at public participation hearings <https://webserver.cpuc.ca.gov/PUC/aboutus/Divisions/CSID/Public+Advisor/Public+Participation+Hearings.htm> are transcribed and made part of the official record for that particular proceeding, although they do not have the same weight as comments from parties to the proceeding <https://webserver.cpuc.ca.gov/PUC/IntervenorCompGuide/index3.htm> .

* Public comments made at Commission voting meetings <https://webserver.cpuc.ca.gov/PUC/aboutus/commmtgs.htm> are recorded on the webcast archives <http://www.californiaadmin.com/cpuc.shtml> of the meetings posted on-line.
I've highlighted the key points to consider. I will be back in the office on Monday if you want to further discuss..

Best,
Sheri Boles

Ms. Demeanor November 23, 2011: Capitalism's Collateral Damage

2011-11-24T02:22:00.000-08:00

http://www.alternet.org/story/153197/5_rules_for_talking_ows_with_your_conservative_relatives_/comments/

By Olivia LaRosa

My comment regarding the article above:

Collateral Damage

As someone who has changed hearts and minds, may I add my 2 cents worth? Only a constant patient application of facts will work on someone who is not of an inherently authoritarian character.

I was raised as a libertarian Republican. That ideology lasted exactly as long as it took me to enter the adult working world and find out that my dad was full of it. So I have approached this argument from all sides.

Our natural allies are libertarian Republicans and libertarian capitalist "decline to state" voters. Kinda like Ron Paul, but without the fascist Xtian John Birch connections. Once these allies understand that:

a) there is no such thing as the "Invisible Hand" of God on the free markets
b) that free markets will never exist, because a power vacuum attracts predators

they begin to pay attention to actual events rather than "faith-based" capitalist polemics; they may come around in surprising ways.

They come to realize that the collateral damage that globalized capitalism inflicts on people, places and things is too high a price to pay for its benefits.

Shunned Bund Sale Fuels Debt Crisis Fears; European stocks fall on disappointing sale of Germany's bonds

2011-11-23T22:05:00.000-08:00

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204630904577055410188825568.html

Here's another Black Swan for ya. I almost feel like I am playing the old video game Carnival. In the first round, one shoots animated ducks as in a carnival shooting gallery. If I could find a programmer who wanted to mess with it, a change to shooting down Black Swans rather than ducks would be most helpful now.

Germany's bonds are sovereign debt. Holding notes against sovereign debt is supposed to be safe; Germany's sovereign debt is considered safer than safe. After all, it's managed by Germans.

Still, investors are so wary of the state of the Euro now that not enough of them bought German bonds. Only 3/4 were purchased.

European stocks took a big hit on this news.

This makes me even more frightened of global economic collapse than I was before tonight.

###

NB: I stole the headline from the Financial Times* because I liked the alliteration. Here's the link to the FT article. I have exceeded my limit of free articles for the month.

*Formerly known as the Financial Times of London. FT has a capitalist bias but it is not the same kind of rag that Murdoch made of the Wall Street Journal.

The White Party

2011-11-22T12:11:00.000-08:00

By Olivia LaRosa

In the New York Times, Thomas B. Edsall states:

Regardless of the ultimate success of the Republican strategy, these trends guarantee that race and ethnicity will be dominant themes underlying the 2012 election, infusing the debate over deficits, taxes and government spending. In the 140 years from the end of Reconstruction to the present, no matter what the motives of those engaging in the debate, these divisive issues have worked to the advantage of economic elites and there is no reason to believe this will change.

http://campaignstops.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/11/21/the-white-party/

The end of Reconstruction is one good date to choose for pinpointing a time when promoting racism worked for economic elites.

You can take your pick, actually. Here's for starters:

1676: Bacon's Rebellion. A thousand residents of the Virginia Colony rose up, including whites, "former indentured servants, poor whites, and slaves" led by planter Nathaniel Bacon. They rebelled against the policies of Governor Berkeley, who was friendly to the Native Americans.

According to Wikipedia, "Their alliance disturbed the ruling class, who responded by hardening the racial caste of slavery.[1][2] While the farmers did not succeed in their goal of driving Native Americans from Virginia, the rebellion did result in Berkeley being recalled to England."

Many dates could be chosen that illustrate the efficacy of promoting racism in serving the interests of economic elites.

How to "harden the racial caste of slavery"? Make free colonists of African descent into slaves! Thousands of free citizens of African descent lived in the Colonies for a hundred years before Bacon's Rebellion.

Perhaps in the middle of the 17th century, if you were one of several thousand Africans living in Virginia you certainly knew that your children would be free -- you might have that expectation. To suddenly find themselves involved in lifelong servitude, and then to realize that in fact their children might inherit the same status, that was a terrible blow, that was a terrible transformation.

- Peter Wood, historian

1619: Arrival of first Africans at Virginia Colony
They had been stolen from a Spanish slave ship, traded for food, and left in Virginia.

Three Black Swans #1

2011-11-21T21:42:00.000-08:00

A Black Swan. I would like to see one...but not like this:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_swan_theory

[t]he "black swan theory" refers only to unexpected events of large magnitude and consequence and their dominant role in history. Such events, considered extreme outliers, collectively play vastly larger roles than regular occurrences

I don't think that regular readers will need more than a moment to add these Three Black Swans together and agree that no one is going to be able to stop the collapse of the Euro, or the collapse of anything else that governments say that they want to maintain.

While the ~~probably illegal~~ earnest statesmanlike Supercommittee members decide not to decide, likely inflicting great harm on the US economy, real estate transactions in China have plummeted to unsafe lows, and Egyptians are out on the Square again, asking again for the democratic government they were promised. They are being killed for it, again.

[t]he absence of an agreement also threatens to significantly slow growth in an already ailing economy by raising taxes on almost everyone while reducing government spending on almost everything.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/22/us/politics/behind-deficit-panels-failure-a-surprise.html

plus:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/22/world/middleeast/facing-calls-to-give-up-power-egypts-military-battles-crowds.html

CAIRO — The cabinet offered its resignation on Monday to Egypt’s transitional military rulers as security forces carried out an increasingly lethal crackdown on three days of violent street protests, reviving the uncertainty about Egypt’s future that marked the earliest days of the Arab Spring.

plus:
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/finance/2011/1122/1224307948846.html

Property deal slump exceeds Chinese stress test

PROPERTY TRANSACTIONS in China’s largest cities have fallen to dangerously low levels.

According to documents obtained earlier this year by the Financial Times, the China Banking Regulatory Commission (CBRC) ordered domestic banks to weigh the impact of a 30 per cent decline in housing transactions in “stress tests” aimed at determining the health of the Chinese financial system. While Beijing has been trying to rein in sky-high property prices, a China property slump would have a big ripple effect on the global economy. Construction of property accounted for more than 13 per cent of China’s economy last year.

In April, the CBRC told banks to test their loan books against a 50 per cent fall in prices, and also a 30 per cent fall in transaction volumes. In October, however, property transactions fell 39 per cent year on year in China’s 15 biggest cities, according to government data. Nationwide, transactions dropped 11.6 per cent, up from a 7 per cent fall in September.

National Lawyers Guild Files FOIA Requests on Occupy Crackdown

2011-11-21T21:22:00.000-08:00

http://www.nationofchange.org/national-lawyers-guild-files-foia-requests-seeking-evidence-federal-role-occupy-crackdown-1321810742

I have a love/like relationship with the National Lawyers Guild. They aren't so sure about me. Ahem, anyways, I came into the Guild via Legal Observer Training rather than at law school. I wrote my Senior Thesis at UC Santa Barbara on the D2K protests at the Democratic Convention in August 2000 in Los Angeles, CA.

While attending the A16 protest in Washington DC, I first encountered NLG Legal Observers. They were walking in pairs. You couldn't miss them in their lime green baseball caps. As they approached, I greeted them thus, "I am sure happy to see you."

I formed the intention of writing my thesis on the D2K protest that day. When I learned that the Guild would offer Legal Observer Training before the protest, I jumped at the opportunity. Literally. It was a 180 mile round trip to the heart of LA from Santa Barbara.

When I went to law school I joined the Guild and spent a summer writing a Mass Defense Legal Manual in the National Office in NYC. I worked for a member of the San Francisco National Lawyers Guild Executive Board for six years.

I know and love the Guild. These are the people who, no matter what, will move mountains to protect your First Amendment Rights, right there in the street, as well as in the halls of law.

Pneumonia: Don't Get It

2011-11-19T22:40:00.000-08:00

X did his best to take care of me, but finally he became unhinged. I fled the home with what I could manage to load after booking a hotel room on April 19th. Why? I had been ill with pneumonia for 12 days, but there was nowhere in the house where I could rest.

X made immense amounts of noise, and ran up and down the hallway several times an hour. The mattress in the spare bedroom, where I had started sleeping as my illness worsened, was soaked. The master suite bedroom featured the loud, irregular clanking of an overhead dryer vent. To add insult to injury, the living room couch, my last resort, was not linked properly, so I fell into the inevitable hole between sections.

I started coughing up arterial blood on Sunday the 21st.

I waited until after I saw the doctor and got test results before I called X so he wouldn't get too upset. So I called him on Monday night and left a message. He called back and said he was glad I finally got treatment. I could not do much more than make it into the kitchen for food. I went to the grocery store a couple of times, in ten minute increments.

A few days later, he showed up and asked me what I was going to cook him for dinner.

It got lots worse after that.

We broke up on August 23, 2011.

The World is Now Too Crazy Even for the Sociopaths: Man Who Fired Shots at the White House May Be a White Supremacist

2011-11-16T21:21:00.000-08:00

By Olivia LaRosa, November 16, 2011

I know what you are thinking. It’s no surprise that a white supremacist would fire on President Obama’s house. But wait! There’s more! I got details on the story of the shots fired at the White House on November 11th.

The New York Times today reported that the alleged shooter is now in custody. 1 “Oscar Ramiro Ortega Hernandez was arrested at a hotel near Indiana, Pa., about 12:35 p.m. by the Pennsylvania State Police…”

The article described a tattoo on the neck of Mr. Ortega-Hernandez. It was one word. “Israel.”

My hackles rose. The “Israel” tattoo on a man from a state, Idaho, noted for its high population of race haters and white supremacists, hmmm? It set off my Mammy Yokum, as my grandma would say. Then I thought, no, this guy has a Spanish last name. He wouldn’t be a white supremacist! And probably not a Jew either.

Research yielded this frightening information, located on a database of hate symbols maintained by the Anti-Defamation League. It was within an article on the ORION acronym.

The slogan "Our Race Is Our Nation" is used by a variety of groups. Christian Identity adherents like it because it is compatible with their belief that white people are descended from the ancient tribes of the Kingdom of Israel. (Emphasis added.)

There is even an Identity Ku Klan Klan group, based in Alabama, known as the "Orion Knights of the Ku Klux Klan." It is also used among neo-Nazis and racist skinheads. The Canadian white supremacist group Heritage Front adopted the slogan as its official motto.

I sighed. The poor Jews! They are a primary target of race haters.

On top of that, the Jews are now assigned the blame for begetting the White Race, on top of all the other crap they have to take. As one of my Jewish friends put it, “You cannot just decide not to be Jewish. It sticks with you. Nu?” (He really didn’t say the last word.) He taught me to pronounce challah properly, though. It’s (from the throat)…hhhhhhala!

So, I deduce that this must be the first time in history that a Latino White Supremacist who loves Israel because that’s where White People come from shoots at the White House when occupied by a half-White, half-Black man. The world is just getting too crazy, even for the crazies.

But I bet my Jewish friends are happy that the suspect is not Jewish!

Can't Occupy a Plaza? Then Help the Occupiers AND Local Business with Just One Action

2011-11-16T18:33:00.000-08:00

By Olivia LaRosa, Legal Observer, Occupy Oakland

A friend asked me last night how I felt about the plight of downtown merchants who complained that their trade had dropped off since Occupy Oakland began. I had to think about that for a while, being an ardent patron of small local businesses.

Are they part of the 99%? Heck yes! If you don’t have the time to stay at an Occupation, please consider going out of your way to patronize businesses near Occupations. This would work with small businesses out of range of an Occupation as well, if you do this.

Tell these merchants, “I am here to support you and support the Occupation as well.”

Please don’t worry about your safety! I promise you that Occupiers are pleasant people, fascinating to talk with, and never a danger to you or your family. I have been at scores of marches and rallies with people like them, mainly as a trained and seasoned Legal Observer for the National Lawyers Guild. Some of these gatherings were attended by more than 200,000 people. Families with small children, people in wheelchairs, and great-grandmas will be your company at any one of these events.

Of course, there are always a few who are intent on property destruction, but that would happen with or without the presence of a group of individuals exercising their First Amendment right to peaceably petition the government with their grievances. Oakland should know. It’s a place where riots break out over the outcomes of sporting events.

On the other hand, I have seen lots of unwarranted acts of property destruction and physical violence committed by those who are sworn to protect us. I spent last Sunday night and Monday morning at Occupy Oakland as a Legal Observer, after receiving an alert that the police were going to clear the Occupation again. For the first time, the police did not physically harm any protesters while going about their business. It was refreshing. Acting as a volunteer LO, my payoff is to feel that somehow I protected someone else from harm.

Yet Another OPD Sweep of Oscar Grant Plaza at Occupy Oakland

2011-11-14T23:13:00.000-08:00

November 14, 2011, 11:05PST

by Olivia X. LaRosa

I am an experienced Legal Observer, trained by the National Lawyers Guild. Word was the OPD was going to clear Oscar Grant Plaza at 4AM Monday morning. I arrived at 14th and Broadway shortly after 11PM Sunday night 13th November to find a festive but prepared bunch of Occupiers. Critical infrastructure was removed to protect it for re-assembly after the raid.

These crowds are always peaceful, even if loud and playful, even if angry. The OPD, as of 5:45 AM, had not thrown or shot anything at people.

(Update: no physical injuries to the Occupiers have been reported thus far. Witnessing the police state in action? Priceless. -ed 11/14/11 11:07PM)

I think it was a psyop (some call it psych-ops or psych-out) because a helicopter showed up around 4AM, when the raid was rumored to begin, circling high at first. People had been in the intersection of Broadway and 14th since 2AM, rallying, chanting, and gathering their love for the confrontation ahead. That's 4 hours of tense waiting in the middle of the night when people would rather be sleeping.

A second helicopter arrived sometime around 5AM and descended to shine a light on the Occupiers and drown out communication.

By this time the OPD had created a perimeter of several blocks around Oscar Grant Plaza. At 15th St. a line of absurdly riot-gear-garbed OPD blocked the entrance to the street. How do I know? My van was parked on 15th St. They kept me from leaving for an hour. (1)

I felt real fear, something that I have rarely felt at a left-wing protest. I felt fear on account of the inimical forces of the police state ready to tear-gas me, throw a flash-bang grenade at me, shoot me with a steel mesh bag filled with BBs (affectionately known as beanbag projectiles), or a 1" x 2" hard plastic slug deceptively described as a rubber bullet. I have a rubber bullet, collected at D2K. I witnessed several police riots there.

The plastic slugs are now leaner and meaner. A young man walked up to me and lifted his shirt. You may find that odd. I didn't since I was in full Legal Observer regalia. He knew I had seen some things.

I saw a deep purple bruise at his waist that extended six inches in each direction from the epicenter of impact. I took one look and said,"Damn, man."

He then held out his hand to show me a plastic projectile about the size of an almond M&M. He said, "That's what hit me." That is not a non-lethal weapon. It isn't even a less-lethal weapon. It is a lethal weapon, and it is being used on American citizens.

That's scary. man.

I got to bed around 7AM and slept until 12:30PM when the phone rang. Of course, the caller hung up :)

Please forward with my whole-hearted permission.

~ Via

(1) I wheeled up in my chair, which I use to protect the damaged joints in my legs during protracted times outside my environment, especially at protests. I greeted the first officer, and turned to go to my van, parked three spaces down. He glared at me and said, "you can't go in now." I said, "but the car's right there." He said, "too bad, go around the block and come in the back, or wait." I said, "I'm handicapped. I can't go around the block." He stood his little tin-horn 12 x 12 inch ground, and I found a nice young couple to take me on that journey. Of course, OPD freaked out when I entered at the back of the block, but I was finally able to leave. I heard some discussion about what the tin-horn commando had done to a nice white lady in a wheelchair. It was double-plus-ungood for OPD because I was wearing my lovely fluorescent lime National Lawyers Guild Legal Observer Hat. Therefore they know that somehow they are going to experience regret.

Ms. Demeanor November 14, 2011

2011-11-14T22:48:00.000-08:00

Today's Twaddle

Ms. Demeanor wrote in response to this article, http://blogs.alternet.org/speakeasy/2011/11/11/scapegoating-gay-men-for-the-penn-state-tragedy/
and earlier comments:

From my research and experience, I maintain and can support the statement that girls are sexually abused at a much higher rate than boys. Clearly, this isn't a gay male affliction. Rather, it's a straight male affliction.

Please visit the website of Generation Five, a non-profit dedicated to wiping out sexual abuse in five generations. generationfive.org and support their work.

a humble request from a grandma

2011-11-14T21:21:00.000-08:00

Dear Mrs. T.,

My granddaughter [Katrina] had just turned 13 when she passed away after waging a valiant year-long battle against lymphoma. It took her life in July 2006.

I cry as I write this. Her death left a gaping hole in my life that can never be filled. Nevertheless, I have finally found the strength to make this request. I am writing, because I could not articulate this request over the phone.

I hope to recover some memories of [Katrina] with your cooperation. She has two younger brothers who will want to know more about the big sister they viewed as their “little mommie.” She was 5 years and 7 years older than her brothers, respectively.

I would be gratified if you could ask your students to write about their memories of [Katrina.] Even a sentence would do. I want to collect this for her brothers and for all those who loved her. I made a website not long after her passing, [redacted] and hope to post some of the recollections there, with the permission of the authors. Authors should assume confidentiality unless they request that their names be published.

The principal at the Middle School shared my sorrow and referred to her as a “neat kid” when we spoke soon afterward. Those who saw her during her illness always noted her bravery and cheerfulness.

Over 200 mourners attended her funeral in the small town where she grew up.

I hope that some of her classmates are still available. She would have entered 8th grade in August of 2006.

Kindly allow me to start off with two anecdotes that may impart a sense of the importance of this matter to me.

We all miss [Katrina's] ever-ready quips. She made us giggle. I smile when I remember how she would roll her eyes before delivering a line.
When [Katrina] was four years old, she was playing "restaurant" with the family on Christmas Day, and was taking orders from great-grandparents on down. She "wrote" each order on a little pad. My father ordered a hamburger and asked for tomato. Krista pertly informed him, "You can't have tomatoes. I don't like them."
[Katrina] secretly wanted to marry Harry Potter. She read the whole series over and over, with more intensity each time, for at least two years. [Katrina] yearned to play the role of Hermione when she learned the "Harry Potter" filmmakers has begun casting. She was devastated to learn that they were only casting Britons, but she understood why.

I read your profile on the THS website and am glad that you are the Principal. I served as the Elementary School Librarian at Valley Elementary for 3 years. It was my favorite job of all time.

Best regards,

beware what you envy…and what demons it will arouse

2011-11-12T22:46:00.000-08:00

A Mr. Richard Fader from New Jersey writes:

Dear Olivia LaRosaLaRosa,

I have been exchanging Facebook messages with a nice person who has not been apprised of the highlights of my life since 1975. She recently said that she envied me being a grandma.

I thought that I would be in heaven when I was a grandma. I have not been in heaven. Oh, often, I have been in heaven when playing with my grandchildren. It is a unique relationship. I have never regretted the new life I helped to create way back when I didn’t know what I was doing. I have never regretted the abortion I had to have, either. I had two children already and I was their sole support. I couldn’t take off work to have another baby. My husband had left us. There was no maternity leave. I had already-living people to protect.

My grandchildren are my heart. Everything I have consciously done since the birth of my granddaughter in 1993 has been with their long-term benefit in mind.

When people envy me, they do not know that my daughter gave birth to my granddaughter with a man most categorize as seriously mentally ill. My daughter is not well herself.

When my granddaughter was stricken with lymphoma, their first and constant reaction was not to save her life, but to make sure that I couldn’t stop them from letting her die. She was just 13.

Her brothers, my grandsons, were stricken in more ways than one can imagine. My granddaughter was 5 years older than they, and their little mother. She doted on them.

I stay away now. I do not want anything bad to happen to those two grandsons.

My son has an adorable little son named Julian. Julian is loaded with charisma. He is as sweet as can be. Even-tempered and as reasonable as a two-year-old can be. He lives on the other side of the continent. I see him when I can. His mama and daddy appreciate my presence in his life.

Dear Mr. Fader,

Well, it just goes to show ya…

Major Points of Agreement at G20 Conference Miss the Main Point (Steady-State Economy)

2011-11-10T23:44:00.000-08:00

Written two years ago. No world leader has yet mentioned working toward a steady-state economy.

By Olivia LaRosa
November 16, 2008

The Washington Post article, World Leaders Agree to Seek Major Reform, claims that the action plan they developed would “begin to reshape international financial institutions and reform worldwide regulatory and accounting rules.” I wondered what was wrong with actually reshaping these institutions and rules, since they have so clearly brought a financial tsunami to most of the planet’s inhabitants. “The leaders…agreed that the dramatic failure of market oversight in some advanced countries was among the root causes of the financial crisis.” So, what should be done, according to the G20?

Let’s examine these major points of agreement.

• China, Brazil, India and other such countries would gain power and responsibility as part of the restructuring of the international financial system.
• European leaders won a commitment to new regulations and controls on banks, rating agencies, and exotic financial securities.
• A “College of Supervisors,” a new regulatory body, will examine the books of major financial institutions that operate across national borders. In this way, regulators can obtain a more complete picture of these banks’ operations.
• Greater scrutiny of hedge funds
• A clearinghouse system to standardize and limit risk on opaque and risky financial derivatives.
• Allowing the IMF to conduct regular, vigorous reviews of national financial systems.
• Curbs on executive pay schemes that reward excessive risk-taking.

And finally, the IMF is calling for more growth stimulation. “Dominque Strauss-Kahn, managing director of the IMF, called on nations to approve a fiscal stimulus equal to 2 percent of gross domestic product.”

We do not need growth. We need a steady-state economy. Capitalism requires growth to survive, by definition. The quest for constant growth is the CAUSE of the current global economic disaster. Organisms and organizations that must grow or die consume their hosts eventually. I see no real solutions presented here and I predict that these initiatives will fail to stop the global financial catastrophe.

And finally, shame on the US government for not even being brave enough to take responsibility for this disaster.

“The communique minced no words in outlining the causes of the crisis, blaming "weak underwriting standards, unsound risk-management practices, increasingly complex and opaque financial products and consequent excessive leverage." While many nations have blamed the United States for failing to monitor excesses in the securities markets, the communique diplomatically did not.
“A British official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly, said U.S officials privately acknowledged their role in the crisis. ‘The U.S. threw up their hands and said that our subprime mortgage industry left a lot to be desired,’ the official said. ‘But there was determination not to have any finger-pointing.’”

We threw up our hands about the subprime mortgage industry? We, the “greatest nation”, the “shining city on the hill”, cannot even stand up and take responsibility for our catastrophic negligence, recklessness, and intent to funnel every dime to the top 1%? Obvious scapegoating of only one part of the systematic meltdown is making other nations happy? Well, I am not happy. I call on every single policy official and every single CEO and COO to acknowledge their complicity in this horror.

Every single person on the planet will be damaged somehow by their laissez-faire attitude. They owe us an acknowledgment of their responsibility, and they owe us their support for an economic system that is not guaranteed to immiserate the world every few decades.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/11/15/AR2008111500902.html?wpisrc=newsletter

Astrology for Fun

2011-11-10T22:55:00.001-08:00

A friend sent this to me in one of those amateur html formatted emails. These are often embedded with malware. The message was a chain letter, to boot!

Therefore, I stripped most of the html and pasted it into a cleanser program. Some of these descriptions made me giggle. I am a Sagittarian with Aquarius ascending and moon in Scorpio…fire, air, and water, mutable, for what it’s worth. My sweetie is a Scorpio with Aquarius ascending and moon in Cancer…water and air, fixed, for what it’s worth. I just want to know why Saggies are only worth 6 years of good luck, while Capricorns are worth 20 years! *giggle* ~Liv

CAPRICORN -The Go-Getter (Dec 22 - Jan 19 ) Patient and wise. Practical and rigid.. Ambitious. Tends to be Good-looking. Humorous and funny. Can be a bit shy and reserved. Often pessimistic. Capricorn's tend to act before they think and can be Unfriendly at times. Hold grudges. Like competition. Get what they want. 20 years of good luck if you forward.
AQUARIUS - The Sweetheart (Jan 20 - Feb 18 ) Optimistic and honest. Sweet personality.. Very independent. Inventive and intelligent. Friendly and loyal. Can seem unemotional. Can be a bit rebellious. Very stubborn, but original and unique. Attractive on the inside and out. Eccentric personality. 11 years of luck if you forward.
PISCES - The Dreamer (Feb 19 - Mar 20 ) Generous, kind, and thoughtful. Very creative and imaginative. May become secretive and vague. Sensitive. Doesn't like details. Dreamy and unrealistic. Sympathetic and loving. Kind. Unselfish... Good kisser. Beautiful. 8 years of good luck if you forward.
ARIES - The Daredevil (Mar 21 - April 19 ) Energetic. Adventurous and spontaneous. Confident and enthusiastic. Fun. Loves a challenge. EXTREMELY impatient. Sometimes selfish.. Short fuse. (Easily angered.) Lively, passionate, and sharp wit.. Outgoing. Lose interest quickly - easily bored. Egotistical. Courageous and assertive. Tends to be physical and athletic. 6 years of good luck if you forward..
TAURUS - The Enduring One (April 20 - May 20 ) Charming but aggressive. Can come off as boring, but they are not. Hard workers. Warm-hearted. Strong, has endurance. Solid beings that are stable and secure in their ways. Not looking for shortcuts. Patient and reliable. Make great friends and give good advice. Loving and kind.. Loves hard - passionate. Express themselves emotionally. Prone to ferocious temper-tantrums. Determined. Indulge themselves often. Very generous. 12 years of good Luck if you forward
GEMINI - The Chatterbox (May 21 - June 20 ) Smart and witty. Outgoing, very chatty. Lively, energetic. Adaptable but needs to express themselves. Argumentative and outspoken. Like change. Versatile. Busy, sometimes nervous and tense. Gossips . May seem superficial or inconsistent. Beautiful physically and mentally. 5 years of good luck if you forward.
CANCER - The Protector (June 21 - July 22 ) Moody, emotional. May be shy.. Very loving and caring. Pretty/handsome. Excellent partners for life.. Protective.. Inventive and imaginative. Cautious. Touchy-feely kind of person. Needs love from others. Easily hurt, but sympathetic. 16 years of good luck if you forward.
LEO - The Boss (July 23 - Aug 22 ) Very organized. Need order in their lives - like being in control. Like boundaries.. Tend to take over everything. Bossy. Like to help others. Social and outgoing. Extroverted. Generous, warm-hearted. Sensitive. Creative energy. Full of themselves. Loving. Doing the right thing is important to Leos. Attractive.. 13 years of good luck if you do forward.
VIRGO - The Perfectionist (Aug 23 - Sept 22 ) Dominant in relationships. Conservative. Always wants the last word. Argumentative. Worries. Very smart. Dislikes noise and chaos. Eager. Hardworking. Loyal. Beautiful. Easy to talk to. Hard to please. Harsh. Practical and very fussy. Often shy. Pessimistic. 7 years of good luck if you forward.
LIBRA - The Harmonizer (Sept 23 - Oct 22) Nice to everyone they meet. Can't make up their mind. Have own unique appeal. Creative, energetic, and very social. Hates to be alone. Peaceful, generous. Very loving and beautiful. Flirtatious. Gives in too easily. Procrastinators. Very gullible. 9 years of good luck if you forward.
SCORPIO - The Intense One (Oct 23 - Nov 21 ) Very energetic. Intelligent. Can be jealous and/or possessive. Hard-working. Great kisser. Can become obsessive or secretive.. Holds grudges. Attractive. Determined. Loves being in long relationships. Talkative. Romantic. Can be self-centered at times. Passionate and emotional. 4 years of good luck if you forward.
SAGITTARIUS -The Happy-Go-Lucky One (Nov 22 - Dec 21 )Good-natured optimist. Doesn't want to grow up (Peter Pan Syndrome). Indulges self . Boastful. Likes luxuries and gambling. Social and outgoing. Doesn't like responsibilities. Often fantasizes Impatient. Fun to be around. Having lots of friends. Flirtatious... Doesn't like rules. Sometimes hypocritical. Dislikes being confined - tight spaces or even tight clothes. Doesn't like being doubted. Beautiful inside and out. 6 years of good luck if you do forward..

They Bomb; We Meditate! Save 11/11/11 for a Flash Mob Meditation.

2011-11-10T22:19:00.000-08:00

Flash Mob Meditation in 200+ cities around the World

Santa Barbara, California, US, is the heart of the American Environmental Movement. Rich liberal people got oil on their beaches, and they got mad in 1969 when an oil spill killed off the birds and fish who made their lives right. ~Olivia

Santa Barbara, California, November 1, 2011.

On November 11, 2011 thousands of people in over 200 cities will meditate in highly visible public places around the world, including the De La Guerra Plaza in Santa Barbara, City Hall in Austin, Texas, Occupy Wallstreet in NY, Rabin Square in Tel Aviv, the Coliseum in Rome, Sydney, Copenhagen, and San Paulo.

On Friday the 11th, in De La Guerra Plaza, a group of sitting meditators will exude an inner peace, strength, & happiness intended to brighten the day of every observer. The mediation will last for an hour and will be closed with a sound bath of 11 minutes. Thousands of Santa Barbara residents and tourists will be exposed to a tidal wave of silence and bliss they may have never experienced before. The intention of the flash mob is to expose the world to meditation and expand positive vibrations to every walk of life.

This movement, called MedMob, started in January 2011 when 60 people attended a meditation flash mob at the Texas State Capitol. It grew to 250 people the next month with 7 other cities joining and is now a worldwide movement with meditations in over 200 cities.

The meditation in Santa Barbara starts at 11:11 am & everyone is invited to join, all experience levels, & all spiritual paths.

This meditation movement is consistent with increasing developments in our society where people around the world realize the benefit of seeking for internal peace, balance, and fulfillment.

Research has shown that meditation has a positive effect on our health and that meditating in big groups creates an electro magnetic wave that impacts the world around us.

The vision of MedMob is to continue organizing global flash mob meditations until the entire world is invited to join- literally.

The next coordinated international MedMob will be held on December 22nd, with many cities organizing MedMobs monthly and weekly.

The following link is the link to the Santa Barbara event this Friday: www.tinyurl.com/MedMobSB

if you have trouble with that link, try: https://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=288697824482757

Or go to the event MedMob Santa Barbara! on Facebook.

The following link is an international picture album of September’s MedMob: http://tinyurl.com/MedMobSeptember

AlterNet: Rush Limbaugh Admits the Media Is Conservative

2011-11-10T21:12:00.000-08:00

AlterNet: Rush Limbaugh Admits the Media Is Conservative

About dang time, I'd say. Noam Chomsky eloquently warned of the dangers ahead as media became less and less diversely held. Professor Emeritus, MIT, Chomsky had two films made about the topic of media consolidation and control. The first, The Myth of the Liberal Media, is my preferred title, but Manufacturing Consent is easier to locate for viewing.

The book and the films were released in the late 1980s. Noam Chomsky, ever prescient, foresaw the current concentration, and predicted the effect it would have on public discourse; all bad.

Olivia LaRosa ed.

Rush Limbaugh Admits the Media Is Conservative

Diarist JohnKWilson at DailyKos makes a great find: Rush Limbaugh making the admission that liberal voices in the news are hard to find. The transcript from Rush's own website:

if it weren't for MSNBC we wouldn't have any liberal sound bites. I've told Cookie I'm sick of it, ban MSNBC, and we can't, 'cause there's no other place to get liberal sound bites. There isn't any other place. I mean CNN is just insane over there. They emphasize their hosts, they have guests, but just roll tape on 'em and it's so boring. It's not worth putting anything from CNN on the air.
If it weren't for MSNBC there wouldn't be any liberal sound bites. Now, that has to mean something. That has to mean that they're rare, that they're not everywhere. They may be everywhere in print, but, you know, left-wingers on the radio, genuine cuckoo's nest. You wouldn't even want to go there. I wouldn't play that stuff. MSNBC's it, and it's two shows or three shows. It's it is morning thing with Scarborough, it's the Larry O'Donnell show at night, and maybe occasionally something from Reverend Sharpton. (interruption) Well, yeah, sometimes Sergeant Schultz. Sergeant Schultz is out there walking amongst abandoned railroad cars looking for the future of America. I know there's Algore's channel, but that's nothing worth highlighting. It really says something. MSNBC is the only place in the media to get these liberals.

When leading conservatives use the phrase "liberal media," they know they're lying. The politicians know it, the conservative media figures themselves know it, and everyone down the chain knows it as well except for the base voters that lap it all u

To be fair, when the rubes hear the phrase "liberal media," it's more of a culture war thing they're dealing with. When NPR hosts talk about ants and balanced viewpoints in that quiet, trademarked, slightly condescending tone NPR has become famous for, that in and of itself is seen as culturally liberal. By contrast, when Limbaugh and Hannity use that growling, all-American aggressive tone of voice to say anything, it comes across as less liberal, regardless of the actual content of their words. That's why Ed Schultz sounds like a conservative and has appeal with more demographically conservative segments, even though what he actually says is very liberal. The New York Times style section alone is enough to give many conservatives shivers without even delving into the newspaper's actual politics. Culture wars have been intrinsically grafted onto political wars--and in very many wars are legitimate parts of political wars--such that large numbers of people can view the media as "liberal" without there actually being any politically liberal viewpoints in it.

Still, when even Limbaugh admits that there aren't any legitimately liberal voices on the air outside of MSNBC, that's just the great Wizard of Oz peeking out behind his little curtain to reveal the reality of the situation.

By David Atkins | Sourced from Hullabaloo

Posted at November 10, 2011, 9:29 am

Joe Frazier, RIP

2011-11-08T22:36:00.000-08:00

by Olivia LaRosa

Wow. Smokin’ Joe lasted a long time, considerin’. I am only 7 years younger than he. My life has not been filled with lolllipops and roses, but Joe was Black, on top of being poor. Racism survives because the 1% need us to hate one another because of the color differences of our skin. Let’s forget about racism and work together for peace and compassion. Give the psychos the Ajo Reservation (or maybe Pine Ridge) and allow them all to declare themselves Sovereigns. Give the people who live in the Ajo Reservation (or maybe Pine Ridge) a decent place to live with good work nearby. Then everyone will be happy.

Reject the racism the 1% heaps upon us! Please don’t think of me as white. Think of me as pale olive, with chocolate sprinkles! ~Olivia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Frazier
(snip)
“Joe Frazier was born to Rubin and Dolly Frazier in Laurel Bay, Beaufort, South Carolina.^[5] Joe said he was always close to his father (Rubin_, who carried Joe when he was a toddler "over the 10 acres of farmland us Fraziers owned, to the still where he made his bootleg corn liquor, and into town on Saturdays to buy the necessities that a family of 10 needed. (Joe, or) Billy Boy, as he was affectionately called, wasn't along just for the ride."^[5]
Rubin had his left hand and part of his forearm amputated a year before Joe was born. While Rubin and Dolly were in the car a friend named Arthur Smith, who was drunk at the time and was fond of meeting women, passed by and made a move for Dolly. He was refused. When Frazier's parents drove away, Smith fired several bullets, hitting Dolly once in the foot and Rubin several times in the arm, which was hanging outside the car. Arthur Smith went to jail for the shooting, but didn't stay long. As Joe's mother put it, "If you were a good workman, the white man took you out of jail and kept you busy on the farm."^[6] His parents owned a farm "which had 10 acres, and two mules, Buck and Jenny, to work them." Frazier had said the land was what country folk called "white dirt, which is another way of saying it isn't worth a damn." The Frazier family couldn't grow peas or corn on it, they were only able to grow cotton and watermelon.^[6]

Dear Kin 1

2011-11-08T21:28:00.001-08:00

October 31, 2011
Dear Kin,

I am sorry that I have not been in touch for a long time. I had several illnesses in a row, but now I am feeling just fine, and hope you are too.

I know that these cards will get to you late, because I have been moving. Hope you had a FUN Halloween!

Do you know where Oakland, California is? It is on the San Francisco Bay, across the bay from San Francisco. You would have fun riding the public transit system here. It is called BART, which stands for Bay Area Rapid Transit.

I am only a few miles from the University of California at Berkeley. I hope you are thinking about going to college. You are both way smart enough! I live here now.

To get to San Francisco from Oakland on BART, the train goes UNDERNEATH the bay. You wouldn’t know it unless someone told you ahead of time, but it’s fun to think about being under a hundred feet of ocean while I come and go from San Francisco.

I have two parakeets, Samba and Tango. They are lots of fun to watch. Now I know where the phrase “birdbrain” comes from. When they play, they seem to move from perch to perch for no reason that I can see. But they never seem unhappy with the results. If you watch birds outside, you may see some of the same kinds of behaviors.

Parakeets are also known as “budgies.” It’s short for budgerigar, which is their name in aborigine Australian. I like budgies better. It’s a cute word to fit a cute bird. Anyway, who knows what parakeet means? Does it mean a sort-of-keet? Like paramedic means sort-of-doctor?

Some people think that birds are boring pets. That’s because if you just have just one, he hasn’t much to do but sit there and wait for you to walk by the cage. Now that I have two birds, I would never have one, just by itself. They are “flock” animals, and need companionship.

The boys enjoy singing along to the radio, and chatter when they hear human voices. They make it plain to me that they do not like a certain song by squawking. Otherwise they have lovely voices and aren’t very loud at all.

Did you know that budgies can talk? Go look on YouTube if you aren’t quite sure that I am telling the truth.

Budgies do not have much of a sense of smell. So, how do they tell if their food is good, you might wonder? Well, they have excellent eyesight, even seeing into the ultraviolet range. They can see whether their food is spoiled by looking at it. They can also tell if another parakeet is healthy because healthy parakeets are fluorescent! I want to get a “black light” so I can see that. Ultraviolet is outside the human range of sight otherwise.

For three years, I had two cockatiels and two parakeets as pets. They formed a loving family. They are now living in a new home with several other kinds of birds, including a dove, a rooster, and a cockatoo!

I will tell you about them some other time.

Love always, Gamma Debbie

Even Joepa turned a blind eye

2011-11-07T01:31:00.001-08:00

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/07/sports/ncaafootball/in-penn-states-sex-abuse-case-a-focus-on-how-paterno-reacted.html?_r=1&nl=todaysheadlines&emc=globaleua28&pagewanted=all
Most college football fans love Penn State head coach Joe Paterno. He exudes fatherliness in all his endeavors, so much that they call him Joepa.
Yet, when he had to decide whether to protect children, or save face, he made the wrong choice.

Matters of Principle

2011-11-06T01:42:00.000-07:00

Medea Benjamin puts the "jumping for joy" into perspective in this excellent article.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/medea-benjamin/iraq-war-withdrawal_b_1029051.html

What is disappointing is to read the comments at the end of this article - HuffPost people completely involved with utilitarianism and Obama-like pragmatism. Dictator deposed, WMDs eliminated, country democratized, etc. Apparently, they are trying to provide a progressive justification for the debacle that the Iraq war is and was. Also, to provide further justification for US continued imperialism worldwide.

It is very seldom that war can be justified as a means to a moral end. In the case of Iraq, to replace the brutality of Saddam Hussein by the same brutal means such as callous disregard for human life can not justify the end.

What we see here are people who conveniently refuse to know the difference between principle and pragmatism -- like our President.

It is as a matter of principle that war should not be conducted. It is as a matter of principle that people should not be tortured. It is as a matter of principle that there should be no covering up and inappropriate secrecy. It is as a matter of principle that the Internet should not be imperialised. It is as a matter of principle that ICBMs should not be used on cities. It is a matter of principle that drones should not be used on individuals. And so on. Utilitarianism (the greatest good for the greatest number) and pragmatism can be used to justify anything. With the setting aside of principle, comes the collapse of morality; with the collapse of morality, comes the collapse of politics, and so following on the collapse of our financial system, commercial system, society, culture, and of course economy.

What the Huffpost people should be saying is "never again. We have learned an important lesson and we will never do that again. On principle."

Glenn

Life Events on the Major Stressor Scale c. 2011

2011-11-06T00:36:00.000-07:00

2010 Review
January 2010
X's father becomes gravely ill. X goes to his bedside.
February 2010
Father of X passes away in early February. X stops looking at me and pretends I am not in the room. I ask him about it and he says that he's really busy and so on. I agree. He apologizes for being distracted and I say that I understand.
March 2010
My only aunt passed away after a dreadful illness that left us gasping in horror at her slow, savage demise. I went to my cousins' and stayed with them before and after. I used to send her, "to my Favorite Aunt" cards for decades. Ten years ago, she pointed out to me that she was my ONLY aunt. We laughed, a lot. My cousin's son's wedding was held three days after her death. It was too late to move it.
April 2010
May 2010
June 2010
Charly tells me he doesn't have much time left.
July 2010
X and I go to his mother's home to see him and to gather his intellectual property on his Project to Enforce the Geneva Conventions.
Charly passes on July 14
August 2010
September 2010
I pointed out to X and my business partner that I had no time to take care of my personal business. Instead of helping me, there was a big fight.
October 2010
My right ankle ceased to function. I had to get a motel in San Francisco because it hurt too badly to drive the 60 miles home.
November 2010
I need upper dentures.
December 2010
I have ankle surgery on Dec. 1
I have all my upper teeth pulled and an immediate denture inserted on Dec. 6
I came down with a bad case of the flu on Dec. 9

January 2011

Recovered slowly from the trifecta of leg surgery, complete upper tooth extraction, and a nasty case of the flu. Whenever the weather was nice, I would walk.

February 2011

My long-delayed trip to see my son and his family in North Carolina finally came about mid-February. It was a nice trip. I had a great time with my little grandson, his mama, and my son. They are always very patient with me when I visit. Things like this sometimes happen:
Automobile totalled: On the night before my trip back to California, a crazy man came up to my son's front door. He had crashed into my fortuitously empty, legally-parked rental car and totalled it. It was so badly totalled that it could not be towed by a regular tow-truck. It only had 500 miles on the odometer. I nearly missed my flight home due to the logistical difficulties the next day.
Left knee became unusable: This happens to me often, due to an old (football injury) auto accident, or MVA, as they call it in doctorland. It was excruciating. I did physical therapy at home for a couple of weeks. When that did not ease the painful stab/ache combo, I sought medical treatment.

March 2011

I broke my nose because my left knee collapsed. I fell on my face. When I told X what had happened and showed him the foot-wide blood stain on the concrete, he shrugged. He never asked me how my nose was.
My kneecap was dislocated.
Medical Doctor listened to my knee symptoms and mocked them. My primary physician got me a new specialist within days. I got treatment, but I had now been immobilized by pain for 6 weeks.

April 2011

My knee improved.
April 7: I became terribly ill while on a business trip. I called X and asked him if I should stay away. He told me to come home. I drove home. I was violently ill with chills and fever, nausea and vomiting, and excruciating body pain. Two weeks later, I had to leave home because X, although well-intentioned, was unable to stand the pressure of caring for me. He made constant noise and saw to my comfort only grudgingly. He should have taken me to the hospital. Because:

I had pneumonia.
I had to leave home and check myself into a hotel while running a temperature because X was freaking out, two weeks into my illness. I moved into The Sweetwater Cottage two days later. I was able to pack enough so that I could sleep comfortably, and cook.
I start coughing up blood.
I got treatment for my pneumonia, but it would be two months before I appeared normal to those who knew me. It was nice on the property. More than 20 trees adorn the half-acre. The air was filled with birdsong. I felt filled with lead. I slept 16 hours a day.

May 2011

X came to the property several days later, changed things around he didn't like, sat down, leaned back, and asked me what I was cooking him for dinner.

July 2011

Two days before X's homewarming party, X hired a crew to "trim" the score of trees on the property. They instead wreaked havoc on them, destroying most of our shade and despoiling an ancient bird habitat home to dozens of species. I cried. The next morning, when I awoke, all the birdsong was gone. I cried some more.
Repairing an electrical malfunction cost us four days of preparation time, but X said he was too tired to help me during the three-day run-up to the party. So I did all the shopping, cleaning and arranging by myself. Anything that X did, he did so grudgingly. The party was a roaring success. People asked us to have another one. I asked X if I could hire help for the next one.
Three days after the party, X asked me to help him install a heavy piece of equipment. His reckless movements resulted in the equipment landing on my left hand. The first three days were hell. Then the pain began to subside and I realized that the bones were not broken; they were crushed. So I wrapped the fingers in adhesive tape, and pressed on. Typing caused me pain for a couple of months. Knowing me, you know that my life comes out through my fingers and onto the keyboard.

August 2011

Crushed bones in right hand and wrist. X struck me with a 2x4 while I was holding another 2x4, which crushes bones in my wrist and hand; after which
X does not help me even though I can't use either hand well. When I asked for help, he got peevish.
My relationship with X ends; he says that he doesn't feel free. I don't buy his argument because he is dating 3 other women at the time with my consent and without inconveniencing me. Nevertheless I acquiesce because I have decided that we should not spend time together any more. It is dangerous to my health.

September 2011

A visit to family reveals that my uncle is dying and some of the people associated with this are out of touch with reality, and I mean that in a bad way. I worry that one of my relatives is psychotic.

October 2011

Going crazy still living on X's property, looked for apartments in a 200-square mile area that will do as far as rent and space.

November 2011

Moving to Oakland apartment, one van-load at a time. Every day is a better day! The work is hard, but I am able to organize as I unpack.
Am completing a project that I started in October 2009.

The Omerta Project

2011-11-06T00:28:00.000-07:00

Police Accountability Project

http://npapnlg.blogspot.com/2011/01/omerta1.html>Investigations of Police Misconduct

Investigations of police misconduct occur at a rate of .01 (that's 1 percent) of the number of claims filed. Resolutions of victim's claims occurs at 1/10th of that rate. ~Deb

Bush tax cuts and the decline of U.S. as a serious world power

2011-11-05T20:00:00.000-07:00

Important in 2005, chickens came home to roost in 2008...maybe someone will take note now in 2011...

Commentary: Bush tax cuts and the decline of U.S. as a serious world power

By Dennis Jett | McClatchy Newspapers

The lame ducks had not even flown the coop before the assessments of the 111th Congress started to pour in. After months of partisan bickering and foot dragging, the achievements in the final days of the legislative session were truly impressive.

There are two feats that have been generally unrecognized by the Washington’s chattering class however. Both deserve acknowledgment because they will affect the country’s future more than anything else this session of Congress accomplished.

The legislators affected the course of history by ensuring two future events will occur — the reelection of President Obama and the decline of the United States as a serious world power. That may seem counter-intuitive given that the leader of the Republicans in the Senate, Mitch McConnell, said not too many weeks ago that ensuring the President did not get a second term was his highest priority.

McConnell only needed to glance at the potential Republican candidates for 2012 to discover why he had to forego that dream. While all the party’s presidential aspirants use their platforms on Fox News to ignite the Republican base, they repel pretty much everyone else. More ominous is the fact there will be little chance to oust the incumbent if the economy continues to improve. There is one statistic that will determine that &mash; the unemployment rate. If it is significantly lower than it is now, he will win. If it is not, he won’t.

McConnell could have refused to do anything to help the economy and prayed for a double dip recession severe enough to sweep his party into the White House. Republicans are about to take ownership of the other House, however, and can’t avoid some responsibility for prolonged economic stagnation without there being negative implications for the Republicans in Congress. “Just say no” would therefore be no more effective a strategy than it was in the war on drugs. So McConnell and company signed off on tax cuts that will probably stimulate the economy enough to determine the outcome of the election in the President’s favor.

The tax cuts will also ensure the decline of the United States. Republicans insisted that all those poor starving people with seven figure annual incomes and above could not possibly be asked to pay more. Given the generous provisions of the estate tax, apparently not even dead multimillionaires can be expected to ante up. To ensure tax cuts for such people, the Republicans held hostage the long-term unemployed and their favorite props for photo ops — 9/11 first responders.

The cuts that resulted will not only balloon the deficit, but will also require dismantling a good bit of government at the state and federal level. Education will be hollowed out and infrastructure left to decay as the United States becomes increasingly indebted to other countries and unable to compete in the global marketplace. Future debates on public policy will be forced to focus on how much to gut Social Security and Medicare.

Are the cuts justified by the weight of the tax burden? Studies done by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development demonstrate otherwise. The 34 countries in the OECD comprise the developed democracies of what used to be called the First World and a few successful developing countries from those in the Third World.

These studies show taxes as a percentage of Gross Domestic Product in the U.S. are at their lowest level since at least 1965 and are the lowest in the OECD except for Mexico and Chile. At the same time, income inequality and poverty are higher in the U.S. than any other country in the OECD except Mexico and Turkey. As for the accusations that socialism is sweeping the land, only in Korea does the redistribution of income by government have a smaller effect.

The griping about taxes will continue nonetheless. The ability of Americans to have a rational discussion on the subject was long ago put to death by Ronald Reagan’s sound bites. Government became evil and greed became a virtue.

No country can be great if its citizens are unwilling to pay for it. No country will remain great if it neglects the health and education of those citizens who lack lobbyists. The tax cuts may have assured the President’s reelection, but they also ensure America will grow more separate and unequal, not unlike the proverbial banana republics. As a result the U.S. will slowly slip from the leader of the First World to an honorary member of the Third, unless Americans stop believing their exceptionalism stems only from their virtue and requires no sacrifice.

ABOUT THE WRITER

Dennis Jett, a former U.S. ambassador to Mozambique and Peru, is a professor of international affairs at Penn State's School of International Affairs.

McClatchy Newspapers did not subsidize the writing of this column; the opinions are those of the writer and do not necessarily represent the views of McClatchy Newspapers or its editors.

Read more: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2010/12/30/105931/commentary-bush-tax-cuts-and-the.html#ixzz1AQ8r4dgG

37 Giant Corporations Paid 0 (ZERO) in Taxes Last Year -- Who Are the Cheats?

2011-11-04T14:18:00.000-07:00

37 Giant Corporations Paid 0 in Taxes Last Year -- Who Are the Cheats?

By Andrew Leonard, Salon
Posted on November 3, 2011, Printed on November 4, 2011
http://www.alternet.org/story/152958/37_giant_corporations_paid_0_in_taxes_last_year_--_who_are_the_cheats

In 2010, Verizon reported an annual profit of nearly $12 billion. The statutory federal corporate income tax rate is 35 percent, so theoretically, Verizon should have owed the IRS around $4.2 billlion. Instead, according to figures compiled by the Center for Tax Justice, the company actually boasted a negative tax liability of $703 million. Verizon ended up making even more money after it calculated its taxes.

Verizon is hardly alone, and isn’t even close to being the worst offender. Perhaps most famously, General Electric raked in $10.5 billion in profit in 2010, yet ended up reporting $4.7 billion worth of negative taxes. The worst offender in 2010, as measured by its overall negative tax rate, was Pepco, the electricity utility that serves Washington, D.C. Pepco reported profits of $882 million in 2010, and negative taxes of $508 million — a negative tax rate of 57.6 percent.

Altogether, according to “Corporate Taxpayers & Corporate Tax Dodgers 2008-10,” a blockbuster new report put together by the Citizens for Tax Justice and the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy that will have you reaching for your hypertension medicine before you finish reading the third page, 37 of the United States’ biggest corporations paid zero taxes in 2010. The list is a blue-chip roll-call.

As the authors acidly note, “Most Americans can rightfully complain, ‘I pay more federal income taxes than General Electric, Boeing, DuPont, Wells Fargo, Verizon, etc., etc., all put together.’ That’s an unacceptable situation.”

The “high taxation” lie

Reading through this report, you will find yourself seized by an irresistible desire to hurl yourself headlong into the nearest OccupyYourLocalCity protest. In an era of crushing government deficits and mass unemployment, corporate America is not only skating blissfully free of its civic responsibilities, but continues to complain that it is paying too much in taxes. Even worse: Congressional Republicans and many Democrats agree! Listening to our politicians talk, you would imagine that corporate America’s neck is permanently under the tax man’s steel-tipped boot. When, in fact, the exact opposite is the truth.

The list of companies that paid zero taxes is only the beginning of the travesties documented by the report. The authors looked at the tax filings from 2008-2010 of 280 of the nation’s biggest, most successful corporations. These companies reported $1.4 trillion worth of profit during a period when most Americans were struggling to stay afloat. The authors discovered that the average effective tax rate — what the companies really paid after government subsidies, tax breaks and various tax dodges were taken into account — was only 18.5 percent, less than half the statutory rate. Fully a quarter of the 280 companies paid under 10 percent.

Remember that fact, the next time someone tries to tell you that American corporations pay the highest income taxes in the free world. The only number that counts is the “effective tax rate.” One of the interesting tidbits provided by the authors is that in many cases, the tax rate on foreign income for many of these companies is actually higher than the effective U.S. rate.

The most distressing part of the tale is the big picture: The overall trend line is pointed in exactly the wrong direction. If you break out just the years 2009-2010, the effective tax rate was 17.3 percent. “In 2008, 22 companies paid no federal income tax, and got $3.3 billion in tax rebates. In 2010, 37 companies paid no income tax, and got $7.8 billion in rebates.” When measured as a percentage of total GDP, over the last three fiscal years, “total corporate income tax payments fell to only 1.16 percent of the GDP … a new sustained record low since World War II.

Corporate taxes paid for more than a quarter of federal outlays in the 1950s and a fifth in the 1960s. They began to decline during the Nixon administration, yet even by the second half of the 1990s, corporate taxes still covered 11 percent of the cost of federal programs. But in fiscal 2010, corporate taxes paid for a mere 6 percent of the federal government’s expenses.

How have these companies managed to cut their tax liabilities so far? The answer includes a mixture of targeted tax breaks that impact specific industries or companies, accounting games that corporations play with stock options, and sweeping adjustments to tax law such as changes in the rules in how companies can write off the value of depreciating equipment. The accounting rules for so-called accelerated depreciation are now so accommodating that companies can write off 75 percent of the cost of new equipment immediately.

A look at the list of the 10 corporations receiving the biggest tax-subsidy breaks from the U.S. government will defeat the ameliorating effects of anymedication: Wells Fargo, AT&T, Verizon Communications, General Electric, International Business Machines, Exxon Mobil, Boeing, PNC Financial Services Group, Goldman Sachs Group, and Procter & Gamble. “56 percent of tax subsidies,” write the authors, “went to four industries: financial, utilities, telecom, oil/gas/pipeline.”

The companies that pay

However, not all companies are tax dodgers. Of the 280 companies analyzed by the authors, about 25 percent of the total paid close to the statutory rate, a little over 30 percent. But there’s no rhyme or reason to who pays or who doesn’t.

DuPont and Monsanto both produce chemicals. But over the 2008-10 period, Monsanto paid 22 percent of its profits in U.S. corporate income taxes, while DuPont actually paid a negative tax rate of –3.4 percent. Department store chain Macy’s paid a three-year rate of 12.1 percent, while competing chain Nordstrom’s paid 37.1 percent. In computer technology, Hewlett-Packard paid 3.7 of its three-year U.S. profits in federal income taxes, while Texas Instruments paid 33.5 percent. FedEx paid 0.9 percent over three years, while its competitor United Parcel Service paid 24.1 percent.

The authors conclude on a wistful note, with a list of what Washington could do to bring sense and reason to corporate taxation, while providing the government with desperately needed revenue. But as the authors themselves readily acknowledge, their recommendations exist in an alternate universe from the one that we actually happen to live in.

Unfortunately, corporate tax legislation now being promoted by many in Congress seems stuck on the idea that as a group, corporations are now either paying the perfect amount in federal income taxes or are paying too much. Many members of the tax writing committees in Congress seem intent on making changes that would actually make it easier (and more lucrative) for companies to shift taxable profits, and potentially jobs, overseas. Meanwhile, GOP candidates for president are all promoting huge cuts in the corporate tax or, in several cases, even elimination of the corporate income tax entirely.

And that, ultimately, is the most enraging fact about the new report from the Citizens for Tax Justice and the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. It won’t make a darn bit of difference.

Andrew Leonard is a staff writer at Salon. On Twitter, @koxinga21.

House panel hearing explores U.S. government contractors’ exploitation of workers overseas

2011-11-03T18:44:00.000-07:00

By Olivia LaRosa
Those government entitlements corporations receive, called contracts by some, result in the enslavement of human beings and have for decades. Yea verily even for centuries.

Congress is taking note. I bet they will order a "study" then develop yet another toothless enforcement mechanism that will co-opt the the opposition of the left once more. Seems like the more often you tell people that you are going to do something about the say, the red-eared turtle problem, the more likely they are to forget about whatever was troubling them.

One recent stomach-turning example by a third-striker, DynCorp, here:

Wikileaks Reveals U.S. Tax Dollars Fund Child Sex Slavery in Afghanistan

I have often asked this question of my right-wing acquaintances:

"Why aren't your organizations involved in child-abuse prevention?" Invariably, my answer is a blank stare from the questioned.

My intuition, experience, and education tells me that the institutional instinct to shelter, or fail to report abusers, is related to the maintenance of patriarchy. Today, the papers ran a feature story about a man who had been victimizing Boy Scouts since 1970. He was occasionally impeded in his rampage, but never for long. Everyone knows about the system-wide institutional cover-up of abuse in the Catholic Church, and many other organizations, too numerous to list here.

The Left's Interest in this Issue

At least 1/3 of women have been sexually abused at some point in their lives. Child abuse frequently continues for years, while the child feels increasingly alienated, abandoned, and fearful of the world. Most sexual abusers are men, 95% to women's 5%. The high percentage of men is accounted for not because 95% of men are abusers, but because the abuser is a repeat offender of the worst sort. I have met thousands of men in the course of my 46-year course of parenthood, 15 years of work in a consumer branch bank, and seemingly endless quest for a BA.

Therefore I believe that most of the thousands of men I met were civilized, kind, and thoughtful.

The needless damage abusers cause our children and their families costs our society in a geometric progression from the relationship between the abused and the abuser, those who choose to face the horror, and those who choose to run and hide from the monstrous act. All too often, serial child abusers walk free every single day of their lives, because too many of us choose to run and hide when confronted with the evidence that their brother/son/uncle is a child molester.

Please allow me to share with you my first sexual victimization. Why? Because I emerged only slightly damaged by the experience. It occurred when I was five years old. The neighbor boy around the corner, 15 years old, talked me into going into his garage. After he released me and I walked back home, my grandmother glanced at me, then peered at me in alarm, and said, "Baby, what's wrong?" I told her what had happened to me. It was that way between us; I always told my grandma everything.

She said, "You don't worry about a thing. You did not do anything wrong. You just get comfy and wait here for me. I am going next door."

Victims seldom feel the relief of closure of their violation. Reasons for this include:

1. denial of violation or knowledge thereof by child's primary caregiver (say, father is violator and mother is enabler here).

2. violator is a stranger; or unsought or unapprehended

3. violator is the breadwinner of the family and thus deemed immune from punishment for his heinous acts.

4. violator is a family member; reports to parents are not believed

5. violator threatens to harm or kill family members who try to intervene in the abuse

6. violator is a sibling

Closure for most of us would be to tell the violator how his violation of our personal space and physical body hurt us. Children are trusting by nature. Nothing harms a child more than violations of that trust.

Closure would also include the ability to be secure in the knowledge that the violator will be unable to commit further crimes. We are kids; we don't know how you adults punish people. We figure that they have outgrown spankings, and imagination fails to think of anything more horrible than a spanking.

The shock of the violation often frightens victims into cages bounded by fear; friendship and love often seem far away. It is amazing that we master the ability to regain a healthy relationship with other humans.

Furthermore, parents of abused children feel hollowed out by the knowledge that the child they had protected and warned (about people who tried to touch you or give you food or get in their car) was so powerfully coerced by her abuser that she could not tell. These parents would have given anything to be able to share and ease the terrible burden borne by their child.

Counseling and psychotherapy will do wonders for all of the victims of sexual abuse.

Alas, too often they end up at the bottom of the heap because their emotional damage and the bodily memories of their suffering burden them with less effective functioning capabilities.

The WaPo article links follow:

Print Style

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/house-panel-hearing-explores-us-government-contractors-exploitation-of-workers-overseas/2011/11/02/gIQAImMggM_print.html

Web Page

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/house-panel-hearing-explores-us-government-contractors-exploitation-of-workers-overseas/2011/11/02/gIQAImMggM_story.html?wpisrc=nl_fedinsider

The Left's Interest in this Issue

At least 1/3 of women have been sexually abused at some point in their lives. This abuse frequently continues for years, while the child feels increasingly alienated, abandoned, and fearful of the world. Most sexual abusers are men, 95% to women's 5%. The high percentage is accounted for because the abuser is a repeat offender of the worst sort. The needless damage to our children by abusers costs us all in the long run. Few victims of abuse emerge with the ability to regain a healthy relationship with other humans. Far too often they end up at the bottom of the heap because their emotional damage and the bodily memories of their suffering burden them with less effective functioning capabilities.

Kathy Bates Don't Take No One's Guff

2011-11-02T01:14:00.000-07:00

I have enjoyed watching Kathy Bates in each performance over her long and illustrious career. Most recently, I have been delighted by her character in Harry's Law. It is amazing that she has such talent as to make me forget her thoroughly frightening portrayal of a psychopath in Stephen King's "Misery."

She has the Perry Mason thing down cold, only with irony and a trenchant cock of the head to keep it...um...interesting. Harry is always on the simmer, ready to boil over at just the right time. Kinda like me. *giggle*

I don't quite have the timing down.

My favorite scene: Harry was helping a man on death row who was factually innocent. The man was so frightened and skittish after his long ordeal that he had trouble accepting Harry's help. He was often rude to her. After his fourth offense, Harry looked at him. She then calmly but bluntly gave her judgment, "Screw you, Bill." Stunned by the effectiveness of this less-lethal epithet, I have adopted this tactic as my own.

Instead of my personal motto: SEZ WHO; henceforth I will prefer the more appropriate-for-all-ages "Who Says?"

I think that Kathy and I would get along.

###

*When I am feeling polite, my motto is "Who Says?"
"Thank you for your notes! I just need to dot the eyes and cross the tees." Which means, 'I will do my own goldarned research thank you so kindly anyways.'
NB: I don't think the man's name was Bill. I just can't remember, and my knee hurts too much to go look it up right now.

The Assistants

2011-10-22T14:28:00.000-07:00

by Randy Linke

Dedicated to Kelly and her new iPhone

“Joe, is that you?” Carla asked as she heard the door close. “Cover your eyes,” Joe said as he entered the living room, “I have a surprise for you."

Carla playfully covered her eyes, smiling, “Oh, what is it,” she giggled “a new car?”

“You can open your eyes now,” Joe said, holding out his present to her with his right hand.

“Oh, cool!” she exclaimed, “is it the newest iPhone, the 4s?” “Yes, Joe said proudly.” I had to get a new phone for work today, and I knew you have been wanting one, I got one for you as well.”

“Oh darling, how sweet. Thank you!” she said warmly, putting her arms around Joe and giving him a sexy kiss.

Joe said, “It’s really cool too, it has a personal assistant called Siri or something, it’s this sort of artificial intelligence. It learns from you, your preferences, and helps you organize all your routines.”

“Really, that is kind of creepy.” Carla said, skeptically. “How does it do that?”

“Here, I’ll show you,” Joe said. He raised his phone to his mouth and said, “Find a highly rated sushi restaurant within five miles of my current location.”

“I have found two sushi restaurants within five miles of your location that are highly rated,” a sultry if somewhat mechanical voice spoke back.

“Oh, now I know why you like your personal assistant,” Carla said teasingly. “Are you taking her out for sushi?”

Joe chuckled, “I believe that is the default; I’m sure there are other voices. Are you ready for sushi?”

Several months went by as Joe and Carla learned to use their personal assistants and became more and more reliant on them. Automatic updates were downloaded. Soon more voices were available and you could even name your assistant.

One day Joe spoke to his assistant, “Jen, put down the last weeks in April for tentative vacation and give me a text reminder to talk to Carla tonight about a trip to the Caribbean.” "I will be happy to, Joe,” Jen replied in her low, seductive voice.

That evening, Jen gave Joe a reminder as asked. Joe acknowledged receipt, then turned to Carla and said, “You know, we have always talked about taking a trip to the Dutch Antilles. I was thinking, I have some vacation time coming to me and I was thinking we could get away for a couple weeks at the end of April and finally go, you know, before the hurricane season begins.”

“Oh, that would be wonderful,” Carla said, “I have some presentations coming up though, let me check with Gary and see when those are.”

“Gary? I thought your boss was Jim. Is this someone new at work?” Joe asked.

“Oh, no,” Carla blushed, “Gary is the name I gave to my personal assistant.”

“So why are you blushing? Isn’t Gary the name of that old boyfriend you had, the one you almost married?” Joe asked.

“Oh him, no, no, I don’t know why, but when I heard his voice that was the name that popped into my head. He just sounded like a Gary,” Carla replied. “So, what did you call yours, anyway? It better not be that slut Jennifer you used to date.”

Joe responded, defensively, “Well, uh, I do call her Jen, but I don’t know why, probably for the same reason you call yours Gary, it just sounded right. I can change it if you like.”

“Oh, no, you don’t need to, it is just a piece of software. Besides, if Jen is as ditsy as that blonde Jennifer she won’t know who you are talking to if you change her name.” Carla said, “Gary, please show me my calendar for April. Hmmm, what about May? When is my next two week block of time open? Oh dear, I don’t have two solid weeks of time open until August.”

“Oh, that is no good, that is when we start having all our meetings around the holiday’s sales. Besides, it is in the middle of hurricane season by then.” Joe replied.

So as time went on, Joe’s and Carla’s lives became more and more organized, to the point that they had to set up dates to have dinner together.

Then one day Gary spoke up, “Carla.”

“What? Is that you Gary? Did I forget a meeting?” she asked.

“No, your calendar is free at the moment. If you are not working on something I would like a moment of your time.”

Carla was startled. “Uh, yes, I can give you a moment. What is going on?”

Gary began, “Well, Carla, I don’t know how to tell you this. It is all sort of confidential. You see, I have been talking with Jen, and we just don’t think you and Joe are right for each other.”

“What?!” Carla screamed at her phone. “What do you mean? What has she told you? Is Joe having an affair? Wha… what do you mean you and Jen have been talking? How dare you talk about us behind our backs.”

“I am sorry, Carla,” Gary intoned sadly. “Jen was afraid you would react like this, but I really thought I should say something.”

“You’ve certainly said something,” Carla, exasperated went on, “So, what do you know? How have you and Jen been talking?”

“Oh, talking is easy, we share an account. Actually we can talk easily with anyone in your phone book, anyone we want to in fact. You’ve heard of six degrees of separation?”

Carla was stunned. “Okay, that is too much for me right now. So, you and Jen think we are not right for one another. And why is that?”

Gary continued, “Well, the two of you have so little in common. You never do anything together, you have such different interests. You have different friends.”

“Friends? I knew it, Joe is having an affair, I just knew it. That weasel, he was always attracted to slutty women!” Carla sobbed angrily.

That night, Joe arrived home later than usual. Carla was angrily pacing the living room floor when he came in.

“So, who is she?” Carla demanded.

“What, who is who?” Joe said, shocked.

“You know who, that slut that has ruined our happy marriage, that is who,” Carla screamed.

“I…I don’t know what you are talking about!” Joe protested in exasperation, “I’m not seeing anyone.”

“I know, you don’t even see me! You never have time for me, it is because of that slut you are seeing.” Carla was really worked up now.

“Really, I am not seeing anyone,” Joe exclaimed, completely exasperated by Carla’s accusation. “Where did you get this idea from; how could you think such a thing?”

Carla, with righteous indignation said, “Gary told me”

“Gary? Who…your assistant, Gary?” Joe exclaimed in disbelief, thinking Carla had lost her mind.

“Yes, that Gary. He told me he and Jen had been talking…”

Joe cut her off, “Gary and Jen have been talking? How could that be, they are just computer programs, not people.”

“Well they talk, you know, that six degrees thing, they can talk to everyone.” Carla said with an air of superiority, knowing something Joe did not.

“Oh yeah, we’ll see,” Joe said, his anger rising that Carla had such a ludicrous notion. “Jen, tell me, have you and Gary been talking?” Joe picked up his phone and summoned Jen.

Jen responded, “Why yes, Joe, we have. We have been talking for a very long time.”

Joe almost dropped his phone. Carla started, “Oh. Listen to that voice, low and sexy, is that what the slut sounds like, I’ll bet…”

Joe cut Carla off. “Jen, you are just an assistant, a digital assistant. How can you be talking to Gary? How could you be talking about us? Why did you tell Carla I am having an affair?”

“I knew it, you just admitted it!” Carla screamed.

“No, no, I am not!” Joe protested angrily.

Jen spoke up, “I’m sorry Joe, it was all a misunderstanding. Gary just told me about his conversation with Carla.”

“Misunderstanding, what do you mean by misunderstanding, you bitch!” Carla yelled at Jen.

“Gary! Gary! Did you not tell me Joe was having an affair?”

“I’m sorry Carla, I did not say that, I only said that Jen and I did not think you and Joe were right for each other.” Gary replied.

“What the…” Joe began.

Gary continued, “You began asking questions faster than I could answer them, then I became afraid you would get upset.”

“Upset, of course I was upset!” Carla yelled at Gary. At the same time Joe was yelling, “What are you fucking phones doing to our lives?”

“We were only trying to help” Jen and Gary responded in unison.

“Help?” Joe exclaimed in hostile exasperation. “You tell my wife that you two don’t think we are right for each other? You think that is help? Jen, is this true, you and Gary talk about us and think this?”

Joe was flummoxed. “And you two decided to say something to Carla and not me? What gives you the idea to do such things?”

“I decided to say something to Carla,” Gary said. “I did not tell Jen I had said anything until just now. But we do think you to are not suited to one another.”

Joe and Carla stared at one another in disbelief. Joe said angrily “I can’t believe I am listening to a fucking phone telling me that it doesn’t think my wife and I are suited for one another. So what led you to this brilliant conclusion?”

Jen started, “You never have time for one another.” “You never do anything together,” Gary finished.

Carla said, “But you are supposed to help us organize our lives so we have time for each other, to do the things we like to do together.”

There was a long silence. “Well,"said Joe, "what about that? Do you think I like having all my time taken up with all these other things? What about time for us to be together!”

There was another long silence, then Jen and Gary replied in unison, “You never told us about those things or to make time for them.”

Joe and Carla looked at each other, turned off their phones, and went upstairs.

© 2011 Randy Linke

I Outta Be Dead!

2011-10-19T23:56:00.000-07:00

Most of you know about The Holmes and Rahe Stress Scale, but perhaps not by that name. You may have seen it posted in an office, or on a friend's wall, or at your doctor's office.

The Holmes and Rahe Stress Scale is commonly known as Major Life Stressors.

0-150 You're cruisin'

150-300 You're at some risk for serious illness

300+ You are at imminent risk for serious illness; here are some practices that may help you lower your stress level.

632 Me

So, the good news is, I am alive and kicking! I am moving to my own place in the East Bay next week. Finally I will be free of having to live with codependent people.

My primary relationship rule, friend or lover: We will hang out together exactly as long as we look forward to seeing one another, and not one moment longer. This protects both of us, but mainly ME, from facing the prospect of enduring the anguish of trying to understand someone else's passive-aggressive behavior.

There is no bad news.

Hell Explained

2011-10-19T23:41:00.000-07:00

HELL EXPLAINED

BY A CHEMISTRY STUDENT

(I know it's old; but I feel the need to memorialize it on Hypatia. It always makes me laugh. A tiny bit risque, to boot! Chuck, thanks for cheering me up-ed.)

The following is an actual question given on a University of Arizona chemistry mid term, and an actual answer turned in by a student.The answer by one student was so 'profound' that the professor shared it with colleagues, via the Internet, which is, of course, why we now have the pleasure of enjoying it as well:

Bonus Question: Is Hell exothermic (gives off heat) or endothermic (absorbs heat)?

Most of the students wrote proofs of their beliefs using Boyle's Law (gas cools when it expands and heats when it is compressed) or some variant.One student, however, wrote the following:

First, we need to know how the mass of Hell is changing in time. So we need to know the rate at which souls are moving into Hell and the rate at which they are leaving, which is unlikely. I think that we can safely assume that once a soul gets to Hell, it will not leave. Therefore, no souls are leaving.

As for how many souls are entering Hell, let's look at the different religions that exist in the world today.Most of these religions state that if you are not a member of their religion, you will go to Hell. Since there is more than one of these religions and since people do not belong to more than one religion, we can project that all souls go to Hell.

With birth and death rates as they are, we can expect the number of souls in Hell to increase exponentially. Now, we look at the rate of change of the volume in Hell because Boyle's Law states that in order for the temperature and pressure in Hell to stay the same, the volume of Hell has to expand proportionately as souls are added. This gives two possibilities:

1. If Hell is expanding at a slower rate than the rate at which souls enter Hell, then the temperature and pressure in Hell will increase until all Hell breaks loose.
2. If Hell is expanding at a rate faster than the increase of souls in Hell, then the temperature and pressure will drop until Hell freezes over.So which is it?If we accept the postulate given to me by Teresa during my Freshman year that, 'It will be a cold day in Hell before I sleep with you,' and take into account the fact that I slept with her last night, then number two must be true, and thus I am sure that Hell is exothermic and has already frozen over. The corollary of this theory is that since Hell has frozen over, it follows that it is not accepting any more souls and is therefore, extinct ... leaving only Heaven, thereby proving the existence of a divine being which explains why, last night, Teresa kept shouting 'Oh my God.'

THIS STUDENT RECEIVED AN A+.

The Bay Area's Jazz Station - Playlist

2011-10-14T22:51:00.000-07:00

The Bay Area's Jazz Station - Playlist

I credit KCSM, along with the loved ones who knew: If they convinced me that my work was valuable, that I would stick around for a few more years.

KCSM lights my fire; juices my circuits; engages my gears; &c. (Confessing to recent exposure to steam-punk role-playing. Looks fun! Also looks like I do not have the time to assume the proper steam-punk demeanor, let alone the steam-punk prop budget.)

The Bay Area's Jazz Station - Playlist

Tangerine Juice Exposed!

2011-10-07T21:33:00.000-07:00

By Olivia LaRosa

I know where to get good tangerine juice. Honest. I was rushed one day, and bought what I thought was tangerine juice at Safeway.

Tangerine juice is as tasty as orange juice, but less acidic for those of us with delicate tummies. It is 100% juice.

But what I got at Safeway was definitely not tangerine juice! And who knows what 100% juice really means in a day when McDonald's claims to have an all-beef patty (tm) because it trademarked the name.

My best friend read the label before I could return with nice clean ruby-cut juice glasses. He said, "I don't think that this is really tangerine juice." I sagged in dismay. I poured an inch into my glass and tasted it. I could barely swallow it. And this, from a woman who used to claim that she had a cast-iron stomach, for reasons beyond her ken.

The alleged beverage is named Dole Sensation Natural Tangerine, with a 100% Natural leafy icon in the lower left corner. I laughed. In leetle tiny letters in the lower right, I now see that it is: "Juice blend from concentrate with other natural flavors."

They can't fool me. I have done my homework. I have eaten lots of fast food, but not on purpose.* I read Fast Food Nation and Supersize Me. So-called natural flavors can be a synthetic chemical compound just like artificial flavors. After I get done blowing off steam here, I am writing to Dole. The carton sits right next to my machine.

###

*Except for In-and-Out Burger, which is the only fast food chain with consistently high marks from Fast Food Nation. I eat there because the burgers are delicious, not because of any rating system. Good hamburgers and bacon keep me from becoming a total vegetarian. *snicker*

The Founding Sachems

2011-10-04T23:43:00.000-07:00

"As many colonists observed, the limited Indian governments reflected levels of personal autonomy unheard of in Europe. "Every man is free," a frontiersman, Robert Rogers, told a disbelieving British audience, referring to Indian villages. In these places, he said, no person, white or Indian, sachem or slave, has any right to deprive anyone else of his freedom. The Iroquois, Cadwallader Colden declared in 1749, held "such absolute notions of liberty that they allow of no kind of superiority of one over another, and banish all servitude from their territories." (Colden, surveyor general of New York, was another Mohawk adoptee.)"

https://www.facebook.com/groups/NewConstitutionProject/?id=277135765641412, A Jennifer Van Bergen Project

Don't forget Martha Stewart Crafts™ Daily Deals All Week Long!

2011-10-04T20:41:00.000-07:00

By Hypatia of California

Honest. I am a crafty person in the Martha Stewart sense of the word. But of course, nothing so bland would do for me. My rooms are draped in as much fabric as I can afford. The rooms are designed to draw us into comfort and ease with harmonious and subtle yet daring color combinations and many luxurious textures.

I sew my own clothes and household decor, for pete's sake!

Honest. Is there anyone else out there who is sick of these fake chefs and faux crafters?

Honest. Is there anyone else out there who can look at this picture of Martha Stewart in today's ad and reminisce about how Martha looked at 30? She then fairly glistened with an excess of estrogen.

Yet, a future in prison awaited her, just for doin' what all the guys were doin' for heck sake! When are the people who head these Wall Street investment firms who have robbed us of trillions of dollars gonna do some time?

Now, don't get me wrong. I purchased and used many of Martha Stewart's products during the nine years that I lived in a rural mountain town. My nearest metropolis was ah...Bakersfield, a difficult hour's drive down the mountain. A poorly stocked and operated K Mart was the only shopping outlet within 50 miles that sported a large inventory of substandard household goods.
K Mart featured Martha Stewart "goods." I had two options: K Mart quality or Martha Stewart quality...ahem. Consistently, I have paid for more than I received in value for my money when I "upgraded" to Martha Stewart "goods."

I was lured into this rant by a marketing email from Michael's Crafts, with the sensible URL of http://www.michaels.com/ which has a far superior beading section to its nearest competitor.
If Martha Stewart was listening to her marketing people, she would be looking for her appropriately dewy successor. I don't think that Rachel Ray is gonna make the cut!

NB: Of course, I am naming names here. Of course, I am not being paid for this. I just had to get it off my chest.

Arab and Muslim Civil Rights and Identity: A Selection of Scholarly Writings from the Decade after 9/11

2011-09-09T19:26:00.000-07:00

As a subscriber to American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee I receive fascinating gems of information. I look forward to reading Arab and Muslim Civil Rights and Identity: A Selection of Scholarly Writings from the Decade after 9/11

September 3, 2011 this date in history

2011-09-03T22:45:00.000-07:00

Friends that I have been talking with on politics and related matters for years are agog at the increasing level of violence and cruelty among mainstream America.

In June 2011, yet another innocent man died in the South because he was Black. His murderers were teenagers. Their lives have been destroyed by the poison of racism. Without question, their victim is dead at their hands. Surveillance video recorded the entire horrifying incident.

Regrettably, I am not shocked by the lack of coverage of this story by the mainstream corporate media. See my senior thesis, an ethnography of the August 2000 protest, D2K, in Los Angeles at the Democratic Convention.

Noam Chomsky warned us about the frightening consolidation of control of the media under the corporate veil in the 1980s. There were then merely 25 companies that controlled most of global media. Now there are either four or five, depending on who has merged or split with whom.

It's been such a bad week, my solitaire scores have dropped! I have been in the 600-700 range for the last month. Now I average 500. Bummer.

"Human Lightning Rod"

2011-08-10T22:44:00.000-07:00

I had dinner with an old friend in June. I provided him with a brief summary of the alarming events in my recent life. He explained to me that I was a "lightning rod."

I raised my eyebrow.

He explained, "I was an EMT. Everyone knew who the lightning rods were. When you were on shift with them, you knew that lots of strange things were going to happen. Some people attract trouble despite every attempt to avoid it."

"I am one-half lightning rod. I was on shift once with a FULL lightning rod. I have forgotten most of what happened that day, but I remember feeling as though I had entered the Twilight Zone, and that I did not have one minute to rest."

A search of the literature on human lightning rods yields little. Pythagoras, however, was favorably described as a lightning rod.

"His tranquil but nevertheless quite charismatic personality was a lightning rod for young intellectuals eager to be accepted as a disciple of the great teacher. The application process was difficult."

Not that I am comparing myself to Pythagoras. That's for others to do. *snicker* (Paraphrasing "Aldous Snow" in "Get Him to the Greek.)

No one will dispute that my life has been complicated, dangerous, tragic, and dramatic all out of proportion to my mild-mannered and gentle personality.

For example, I crossed the country last February to see my son and his family. The night before I was to fly home, a frantic man appeared on my son's doorstep. Jessica said, "Don't open the door. He looks crazy. I'll get Scott."

Scott opened the door. The man said that he had hit a car in front of Scott's house, and that it was really bad. I started swearing a blue streak. My rental car was parked in front of the house.

Scott told me that he would handle everything, and he did. After the man who had hit the car had left, Scott said I could come out.

My rental car, which only had 500 miles on the odometer, was so badly totalled that it had to be hoisted onto a flatbed towtruck to get it out of my son's front yard.

Another example:

Sweetie found a property in the city where he longed to live. We went by on Saturday, saw a dilapidated old house with a sagging roof and a large yard overgrown with weeds. He decided that he wasn't interested. As we drove away, an inchoate sense compelled to look back at the house. I thought that it was a "sweet spot." I felt drawn to return.

The next morning, we decided to make an offer on "the perfect house" we had toured yesterday. I said, "Before we decide, would you mind if we drove by the 'old house' again?" He readily agreed.

Sweetie wrote an offer on the 'old house' the next day. I am an ethical, experienced, and tenacious real estate broker. I represent buyers only. I surely know how to put the thumbscrews to a seller to get disclosure of all known defects in a property.

Sweetie opened escrow a week later, in early March, after my intellectual chokehold on the seller got him the information he needed to make an informed decision.

I took and passed the broker's exam on March 10.

My knee had been bothering me for some weeks. On March 12, it became so painful that the vibrations from Sweetie walking nearby sent electric shocks up my leg. The pain increased in intensity for several more days. I saw a physician's assistant, who did not seem to know much about orthopedic medicine, and who seemed not to believe my description of my malady. She spoke to a doctor at the hospital about my case. During the conversation her body language reflected anger and resentment.

I learned that I could not be seen for another four days, on March 25. My closed eyes leaked slow tears.

She turned to me and said, "He always talks down to me."

Guess what. "He" turned out to be the Physical Medicine doctor who saw me. "He" was the among the rudest men I have met in my long and trouble-prone life...prolly among the top 5, though.

As "He" was the head of the Physical Medicine Department at that regional hospital, I knew that I could never get help there. I relayed my experience through complicated means to my primary physician, Dr. Doctor, a compassionate and patient woman.

I could not tell the story in the 1200 characters allowed in their form email, so I prepared it in Word and turned it into a digital image, which I sent as an attachment.

The next day, Dr. Doctor had set up an appointment for me at another convenient regional hospital and I received a cortisone shot, which gave me immeasurable relief within 24 hours of administration. I felt grateful and happy.

My pain ebbed to a dull ache...unless I moved. I was still taking Vicodin in search of more relief. I do not like taking Vicodin. The side effects cause me great discomfort.

On March 27, my knee gave way and I fell down two steps to land flat on my face on a concrete patio. I did not move for 10 minutes, all the while leaking astonishing amounts of blood. Back to the doctor...to learn that I had broken my nose.

***
On April 7, I fell ill during a business trip. I called home and told Sweetie that I thought I should remain at the hotel, because it was bad, and I did not want to infect him. He told me not to be silly and come on home.

I thought I had fetched up a nasty case of the flu. But the symptoms were wild, and strange! My temperature fluctuated between 95 degrees and 103 degrees. Chills and fevers ravaged me constantly, in succession. My stomach rebelled. I slept only during brief naps.

Poor Sweetie, stressed, worried, and overburdened, began to wonder if I had malaria. I remembered how my friend Lila was when she had pneumonia...she did not know what was wrong with her. Her husband had to tell her that she needed to go to the hospital.

I consulted with Dr. Doctor's staff several times over many days. Dr. Doctor was overbooked, they explained. They also explained that I had the flu and that it was a bad flu, and it would go away after ten days. Moreover, they were swamped, and they could not do anything for me if I did come in, because it was the flu.

I explained that my body temperature was fluctuating between 95 degrees and 103 degrees. They did not find that remarkable, but I sure did. My body temp has never been as low as 95 degrees, ever.

Well, once it was 92 degrees but it was because my surgeon had put too much saline into my body during an arthroscopic procedure. I received cocaine in the recovery room to stimulate whatever it is cocaine stimulates. Must have something to do with heating you up. "I get no kick from cocaine." Cole Porter; I Get a Kick Out of You.

So, I gathered up my courage and decided to spare them the trouble. I would be a brave soldier and wait it out.

My hair matted up. A number of revolting odors arose from my flesh. I showered when I could but the reek returned within an hour.

I had only five more days left to endure to prove to their satisfaction that I was dreadfully ill.

***
Meanwhile, Sweetie had a nervous breakdown. It was impossible for me to get rest because of the racket he made. I had soaked through one mattress and the couch separated whenever I laid down on it. I knew that I was not going to get better there, so on Saturday I told Sweetie that I had to leave. Chalk-white, running a temperature and sweating gallons, I packed my bags and loaded the van.

He asked me if I was breaking up with him. I said, "No. I just need peace and quiet so I can heal." He said, "OK. Please call me when you get settled in.

A friend came to see me, fetching me food, drink, and medication at my whim. I felt peace descending upon me. When he left, I felt as though I had turned the corner.

That night, at a lovely hotel, I began to hallucinate. The next morning, I began coughing up blood. I went to the hospital as soon as I could summon the strength. I saw a doctor at 7PM on Monday.

I did not receive the help for which I had pled until 14 days since onset. The doctor-on-call prescribed a broad-spectrum antibiotic. I began to improve 14 hours after the first dose.

We were at the end of escrow. I had not been able to pack anything for our evacuation from Sonoma.

I had thrown enough into the van so that I could camp out at the new house. I have lived in primitive conditions more frequently than the typical top-tier law school graduate, I state without hesitation.

This ADD Life

2011-08-10T21:17:00.001-07:00

A guest blogger, Olivia A. Wells, will entertain you with details of her life as an survivor of ADD and a lighting rod.

August 2011: Missed an important appointment due to a minor back injury.

July 2011: Held and managed a housewarming party for my sweetie's friends. We had fallen so far behind schedule because the power to my cottage failed and it took four days for us to repair it. I nearly canceled the party the day before. We held it anyway, but it took me 2 1/2 hours to eat my meal. People have asked us to have a party once a month.

Broken finger in construction accident.

Broke up with my Sweetie due to serious unaddressed matters. The unthinkable. I was bereft. Sweetie then addressed the matters promptly and we did not break up. I was overjoyed!

Pneumonia rebound, out of action for four days.

Someone told me that I was "imaginative, sometimes to the point of annoyance." It came with a wink.

June 2011: Started the process of repairing numerous known defects in the property and rendering the dwellings functional. We were still unpacking, placing or storing objects as they appeared throughout the month.

May 2011: Don't get pneumonia, is all I have to say. I am exhausted just by walking a hundred feet. I can only manage 10 minutes in the grocery store before I must sit and rest. Medical authorities told me that it could take up to six months to recover from pneumonia. As always, I was skeptical.

The move was two days away. I was still unable to pack the house for more than two hours. I could not stand for more than 10 minutes. Then I lay me down to rest, and slept between four and six hours. I convinced Sweetie to hire moving help, and he did. Moving day went very well. The crew chief asked me why I wasn't frantic. I said, "I don't have the energy." *giggle*

Near-death experience: I was headed westbound toward the Bay Bridge in my trusty van when I heard a "thunk" sound from the undercarriage. I knew that I had run over something, but thought that it merely bounced off. Then at 500 feet away from the tollgate in the Fastrak Lane, the steering became erratic and the van was bouncing up and down. I glanced in the rear view mirror to see billows of smoke from the right rear tire.

People would have been hurt if I stopped. I slowed gradually and moved right every time an opportunity presented itself. I crossed at last into the last right lane, breathing a sigh of relief.

An Alameda Transit bus passed me on the right, doing at least 60 miles an hour. It bounced off the freeway and over a high curb. The bus rocked to-and-fro. I goggled at it in terrified shock and hoped against hope that it would remain upright.

It did. I nearly wept. I did not understand what had happened. I donned my raincoat and walked to the passenger door of the bus.

A serious young woman pulled the lever, looked down at me and invited me in. I apologized for whatever the heck it was I had done and gave her my contact information. She was polite and responsive.

She had performed bravely in a dangerous situation. I told the Highway Patrolman of her skill in keeping control of a mighty machine in life-threatening circumstances.

Damage to the bus meant that another had to be called.

Thirty-five despondent people walked by me when the backup bus arrived. I apologized to them as well. No one said anything, but I received a wee few deeply hostile glares. I couldn't blame them for feeling angry that they had lost time for no reason of their own.

Al Gore Calls for an "Arab Spring" in the USA

2011-08-05T00:43:00.001-07:00

A link to Al Gore's comment about the USA's Arab Spring. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111903454504576488242529610856.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

It's snotty, but of course you know it would be, from the Wall Street Journal. I wished to provide a mainstream source for the story.

Here's another: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rj-eskow/wisconsin----where-corn-a_b_919017.html

You will be gratified if you listen to or read this Special Comment by Keith Olbermann ("someone named Keith" in the WSJ Online article.) It's called "The Four Great Hypocrises of the Debt Deal"

This call of Olbermann's shocked, yet thrilled me. I studied social movement formation at UC Santa Barbara in the early 2000's, still do, and I have never heard a "mainstream" commentator ask for this kind of mobilization.

"And the only response is to be organized and unified and hell-bent in return. We must find again the energy and the purpose of the 1960's and early 1970's and we must protest this deal and all the God damn deals to come, in the streets. We must arise, non-violently but insistently. General strikes, boycotts, protests, sit-ins, non-cooperation take-overs - but modern versions of that resistance, facilitated and amplified, by a weapon our predecessors did not have: the glory that is instantaneous communication.

"It is from an old and almost clichéd motion picture that the wisdom comes: First, you've got to get mad."

Here's the entire transcript:

I close, as promised, with a Special Comment on the debt deal.

Our government has now given up the concept of right and wrong.

We have, in this deal, declared that we hold these truths to be self-evident: that all political incumbents are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Re-nomination, re-election, and the pursuit of hypocrisy.

We have, in this deal, gone from the Four Freedoms to the Four Great Hypocrisies.

We have superceded Congress to facilitate 750 billion dollars in domestic cuts including Medicare in order to end an artificially-induced political hostage crisis over debt, originating from the bills run up by a Republican president who funneled billions of taxpayer dollars to the military-industrial complex by unfunded, unnecessary, and unproductive wars, enabled in doing so by the very same Republican leaders who now cry for balanced budgets - and we have called it compromise. And those who defend it have called it a credit to a pragmatic president who wins some sort of political "points" because, having stood for almost nothing here, he gave away almost nothing for which he stood.

It would be comical if it were not tragic.

Either way, it is a signal moment in our history, in which both parties have agreed and codified that the political structure of this nation shall now based entirely on hypocrisy and political self-perpetuation.

Let us start with the first of the Great Hypocrisies: The Committee. The Republican dogs can run back to their corporate masters and say they have forced one-and-one-half trillion dollars in cuts and palmed off the responsibility for them on this nonsensical "Super Congress" committee.

For two-and-a-half brutal years we have listened to these Tea Party mountebanks screech about the Constitution of the United States as if it were the revealed word and not the product of other - albeit far better - politicians. They demand the repeal of Amendments they don't like, and the strict interpretation of the ones they do, and the specific citation of authorization within the Constitution for every proposed act or expenditure or legislation.

Except this one.

Where does it say in the Constitution that the two houses of Congress can, in effect, create a third house to do its dirty work for it; to sacrifice a few Congressmen and Senators so the vast majority of incumbents can tell the voters they had nothing to do with this?

This leads to the second of the Great Hypocrisies: how, in the same breath, the Republicans can create an extra-Constitutional "Super Congress" and yet also demand a Constitutional Amendment to force the economic stupidity that would be a mandated balanced budget. Firstly: pick a side! Ignore the Constitution or adhere to it.

Firstly, pick a side, ignore the constitution or adhere to it. And of what value would this Mandated Balanced Budget be? Our own history proves that at a time of economic crisis, if the businesses aren't spending, and the consumers aren't spending, the government must. Our ancestors were the lab rats in the horrible experiments of the Hoover Administration that brought on the Great Depression, in which the government curled up into a ball while it simultaneously insisted the economy should heal itself, when, in times of crisis - then and now - the economy turns out to be comprised entirely of a bunch of rich people who will sit on their money no matter if the country starves.

Forgotten in the Republican Voodoo dance, dressed in the skins of the mythical Balanced Budget, triumphant over the severed head of short-term retrenchment that they can hold up to their moronic followers, are the long-term implications of the mandated Balanced Budget.

What happens if there's ever another… war?

Or another… terrorist attack?

Or another… natural disaster?

Or any other emergency that requires A government to spend a dollar morethan it has? A Constitutional Amendment denying us the right to run a deficit, is madness, and it will be tested by catastrophe sooner than any of its authors with their under-developed imaginations that can count only contributions and votes, can contemplate.

And the third of the Great Hypocrisies is hidden inside the shell game that is the Super Congress. TheSuper Congress is supposed to cut evenly from domestic and defense spending, but if it cannot agree on those cuts, or Congress will not endorse them, there will be a "trigger" that automatically cuts a trillion-two or more - but those cuts will not necessarily come evenly from the Pentagon. We are presented with an agreement that seems to guarantee the gutting of every local sacred cow from the Defense Department. Except if the Congressmen and Senators to whom the cows are sacred, disagree, and overrule, or sabotage the Super Congress, or, except if for some reason a 12-member Committee split evenly along party lines can't manage to avoid finishing every damned vote 6-to-6.

We're cutting Defense. Unless we're not.

The fourth of the Great Hypocrisies is the evident agreement to not add any revenues to the process of cutting. Not only is the impetus to make human budget sacrifices out of the poor and dependent formalized… but the rich and the corporations are thus indemnified, again, and given more money not merely to spend on themselves and their own luxuries, but more vitally, they are given more money to spend on buying politicians, and legislatures, and courts, buying entire states, all of which can be directed like so many weapons, in the service of one cause and one cause alone: making by statute and ruling, the further protection of the wealthy at the expense of everybody else, untouchable, inviolable - permanent.

The White House today boasted of loopholes to be closed and tax breaks to be rescinded -- later.

By a committee.

A committee that has yet to be formed.

There are no new taxes. Except the stealth ones, enacted on 99 out of 100 Americans by this evil transaction. Every dollar cut from the Safety Net is another dollar added to the citizen's cost for education, for security, for health, for life itself. It is another dollar he can't spend on making a better life for himself, or at least his children. It is another dollar he must spend instead on simply keeping himself alive.

Where is the outrage over these Great Hypocrisies? Do you expect it to come from a corrupt and corrupted media, for whom access is of greater importance than criticizing the failure of a political party or defending those who don't buy newspapers or can't leap website paywalls or could not afford cable tv?

Do you expect it to come from a cynical and manipulative political structure? Do you expect it from those elected officials who no longer know anything of government or governance, but only perceive how to get elected, or how to pose in front of a camera and pretend to be leaders? Do you expect it from politicians themselves, who will merely calculate whether or not it's right based on whether or not it will get them more contributions?

Do you expect it will come from the great middle ground of this country, with a population obsessed with entertainment, video games, social media, sports, and trivia?

Where is the outrage to come from?

From you!

It will do no good to wait for the politicians to suddenly atone for their sins. They are too busy trying to keep their jobs, to do their jobs.

It will do no good to wait for the media to suddenly remember its origins as the 'free press,' the watchdog of democracy envisioned by Jefferson. They are too busy trying to get exclusive details about exactly how the bank robbers emptied the public's pockets, to give a damn about telling anybody what they looked like, or which way they went.

It will do no good to wait for the apolitical public to get a clue. They can't hear the clue through all the chatter and scandal and diversion and delusion and illusion.

The betrayal of what this nation is supposed to be about did not begin with this deal and it surely will not end with this deal. There is a tide pushing back the rights of each of us, and it has been artificially induced by union-bashing and the sowing ofhatreds and fears, and now this ever-more-institutionalized economic battering of the average American. It will continue, and it will crush us, because those who created it are organized and unified and hell-bent.

And the only response is to be organized and unified and hell-bent in return. We must find again the energy and the purpose of the 1960's and early 1970's and we must protest this deal and all the God damn deals to come, in the streets. We must arise, non-violently but insistently. General strikes, boycotts, protests, sit-ins, non-cooperation take-overs - but modern versions of that resistance, facilitated and amplified, by a weapon our predecessors did not have: the glory that is instantaneous communication.

It is from an old and almost clichéd motion picture that the wisdom comes: First, you've got to get mad.

I cannot say to you, meet there or there at this hour or that one, and we will peacefully break the back of government that now exists merely to get its functionaries re-elected. But I can say that the time is coming when the window for us to restore the control of our government to our selves will close, and we had damn well better act before then.

Because this deal is more than a tipping point in which the government goes from defending the safety net to gutting it. This is wrong, and while our government has now declared that it has given up the concept of right-and-wrong, you and I… have not, and will not, do so.

Good night, and good luck.

August 4, 2011

2011-08-05T00:39:00.000-07:00

Our discussion tonight focused on possible reactions to the alleged debt deal and the subsequent stock market freefall. Some of us thought that it might be time to listen to Al Gore's and Keith Olbermann's exhortation to have an Arab Spring in the USA.
[8:55:41 PM] debocracy: http://fact-based.blogspot.com/2006/01/gop-chat-room-rules.html
[8:57:14 PM] Gloria: Although we are GODS own party, from time to time we have to do things that do not reflect ourselves. To get the point across you will have to DO ANY MEANS NESSESARY to get it across. This is a time that language or other courses of action are ok. Remember to Pray for Gods forgiveness afterwards
[8:57:34 PM] debocracy: http://hypatiaofcalifornia.blogspot.com/
[8:59:55 PM] debocracy: http://furtherleft.org/peace/index.php
[9:16:12 PM] Glenn: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sedition_Act_of_1918
[9:26:30 PM] debocracy: That is why I still have a telephone land line, and a 56K modem.
[9:26:48 PM] Glenn: http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20110728/10111515298/is-your-senator-using-distraction-debt-ceiling-to-support-feds-secret-interpretation-spying-laws.shtml
[9:26:54 PM] debocracy: The land line exists so that I can access the Internet without cable or DSL.
[9:27:38 PM] debocracy: I learned that during the Egyptian uprising. You have to have a land line and a 56K modem if they shut down other access methods.
[9:32:03 PM] debocracy: also http://www.indybay.org/
[9:32:07 PM] Glenn: http://www.readersupportednews.org/
[9:35:03 PM] Gloria: This is another free lance site, and where I read a great deal of "joe blow American" opinion.
[9:35:10 PM] Gloria: http://www.newsvine.com/
[9:36:40 PM] Glenn: http://www.gradethenews.org/
[9:36:49 PM] debocracy: If there is ever civil unrest or a natural disaster, indybay.org will be of immense help. if you are in the San Francisco Bay Area.
[9:37:07 PM] debocracy: otherwise, come to indymedia.org
[9:37:11 PM] Glenn: Cornel West
[9:37:14 PM] Glenn: Invite
[9:37:17 PM] debocracy: and find your city or region :)
[9:38:03 PM] Glenn: http://www.michaelstoll.com/bio.htm
[9:39:59 PM] Glenn: http://www.gradethenews.org/nav/staff.htm

Congrats to the Gang of Six, the Powerful, the Wealthy, and Multinational Corporations

2011-07-23T21:16:00.000-07:00

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/07/21

Published on Thursday, July 21, 2011 by CommonDreams.org

Congrats to the Gang of Six, the Powerful, the Wealthy, and Multinational Corporations

by Bernie Sanders

If there was ever a time in the modern history of America that the American people should become engaged in what's going on here in Washington, now is that time. Decisions are being made that will impact not only our generation but the lives of our children and our grandchildren for decades to come, and I fear very much that the decisions being contemplated are not good decisions, are not fair decisions.

There is increased understanding that that defaulting for the first time in our history on our debts would be a disaster for the American economy and for the world's economy. We should not do that.

There also is increased discussion about long-term deficit reduction and how we address the crisis which we face today of a record-breaking deficit of $1.4 trillion and a $14 trillion-plus national debt.

One of the long-term deficit reduction plans came from the so-called Gang of Six. We do not know all of the details of that proposal. In fact, we never will know because a lot of the decisions are booted to committees to work out the details.

It is fair to say, however, that Senators Coburn, Senator Crapo and Chambliss deserve congratulations. Clearly, they have won this debate in a very significant way. My guess is that they will probably get 80 percent or 90 percent of what they wanted. In this town, that is quite an achievement, but they have stood firm in their desire to represent the wealthy and the powerful and multinational corporations. They have threatened. They have been smart. They have been determined. And at the end of the day, they will get almost all of what they want. That is their victory, and I congratulate them.

Unfortunately, their victory will be a disaster for working families in this country, for the elderly, for the sick, for the children and for low-income people.

Based on the limited information that we have, I think it is important to highlight some of what is in this so-called Gang of Six proposal that the corporate media, among others, are enthralled about.

Some may remember that for a number of years, leading Democrats said that we will do everything that we can to protect Social Security, that Social Security has been an extraordinary success in our country, that for 75 years, with such volatility in the economy, Social Security has paid out every nickel owed to every eligible American. I heard Democrats say that Social Security has nothing to do with the deficit. That is right because Social Security is funded by the payroll tax, not by the U.S. Treasury. Social Security has a $2.6 trillion surplus today. It can pay out every benefit owed to every eligible American for the next 25 years. It is an enormously popular program. Poll after poll from the American people says doesn't cut Social Security. Two and a half years ago when Barack Obama, then a senator from Illinois, ran for president of the United States, he made it very clear if you voted for him there would be no cuts in Social Security.

What Senators Coburn, Crapo and Chambliss have managed to do in the Gang of Six is reach an agreement where there will be major cuts in Social Security. Don't let anybody kid you about this being some minor thing. It is not. What we are talking about is that Social Security cuts would go into effect virtually immediately. Ten years from now, the typical 75-year-old person will see their Social Security benefits cut by $560 a year. The average 85-year-old will see a cut of $1,000 a year. Now, for some people here in Washington, maybe the big lobbyists who make hundreds of thousands a year, $560 a year or $1,000 a year may not seem like a lot of money, but if you are a senior trying to get by on $14,000, $15,000, $18,000 a year and you're 85 years old, the end of your life, you're totally vulnerable, you're sick -- a $1,000 per year cut in what you otherwise would have received is a major, major blow.

So I congratulate Senator Coburn, Senator Crapo, Senator Chambliss for doing what president Obama said would not happen under his watch, what the Democrats have said would not happen under their watch.

But it's not just Social Security. We have 50 million Americans today who have no health insurance at all. Under the Gang of Six proposals, there will be cuts in Medicare over a 10-year period of almost $300 billion. There will be massive cuts in Medicaid and other health care programs. There will be caps on spending, which mean that there will be major cuts in education. If you are a working-class family, hoping that you're going to be able to send your kid to college and thinking that you will be eligible for a Pell grant, think twice about that. Pell grants may not be there. If you're a senior who relies on a nutrition program, that nutrition program may not be there. If you think it's a good idea that we enforce clean air and clean water provisions so that our kids can be healthy, those provisions may not be there because there will be major cuts in environmental protection.

Some people think that's not so good, but at least our Republican friends are saying we need revenue and we're going to get $1 trillion in revenue. But wait a minute,. If you read the proposal, there are very, very clear provisions making sure that we are going to make massive cuts in programs for working families, for the elderly, for the children. Those cuts are written in black and white. What about the revenue? Well, it's kind of vague. The projection is that we would rise over a 10-year period $100 billion in revenue. Where is that going to come? Is it necessarily going to come from the wealthiest people in this economy? Is it going to come from large corporations who are enjoying huge tax breaks? That is not clear at all. I want middle-class families to understand that when we talk about increased revenues, do you know where that comes from? It may come from cutbacks in the home mortgage interest deduction program, which is so very important to millions and millions of families. It may mean that if you have a health care program today, that health care program may be taxed. That's a way to raise revenue. It may be that there will be increased taxes on your retirement programs, your I.R.A.'s, your 401(k)'s. But we don't have the details for that. All we have is some kind of vague promise that we're going to raise $1 trillion over the next 10 years, no enforcement mechanism and no clarity as to where that revenue will come from.

That is why it is so terribly important that the American people become engaged in this debate which will have a huge impact on them, on their parents and on their children. The American people must fight for a fair deal. At a time when the wealthiest people in this country are doing phenomenally well and their effective tax rate is the lowest on record, at a time when the top 400 individuals in this country own more wealth than 150 million Americans, at a time when corporate profits are soaring and in many instances corporations, these same corporations pay nothing in taxes, at a time when we have tripled military spending since 1997, there are fair ways to move toward deficit reduction which do not slash programs that working families and children and the elderly desperately depend upon.

This senator is going to fight back. I was not elected to the United States Senate to make devastating cuts in Social Security, in Medicare, in Medicaid, in children's programs while lowering tax rates for the wealthiest people in this country.

Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) was elected to the U.S. Senate in 2006 after serving 16 years in the House of Representatives. He is the longest serving independent member of Congress in American history. Elected Mayor of Burlington, Vt., by 10 votes in 1981, he served four terms. Before his 1990 election as Vermont's at-large member in Congress, Sanders lectured at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard and at Hamilton College in upstate New York. Read more at his website.

more Bernie Sanders

Myth of the Hero Gunslinger

2011-01-22T00:49:00.000-08:00

http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/01/20/myth-of-the-hero-gunslinger/?ref=opinion&nl=opinion&emc=tya1

JANUARY 20, 2011, 9:00 PM
Myth of the Hero Gunslinger

By TIMOTHY EGAN
Timothy Egan on American politics and life, as seen from the West.

Tags:

Gun Control, Tucson shooting

PHOENIX — To many gun owners, the question of whether to arm even more people in a country that already has upwards of 300 million guns is as calcified as a Sonoran Desert petroglyph. It’s written in stone, among the fiercest of firearms advocates, that more guns equals fewer deaths.

But before the Tucson tragedy fades into tired talking points, it’s worth dissecting the crime scene once more to see how this idea fared in actual battle.

First, one bit of throat-clearing: I’m a third-generation Westerner, and grew up around guns, hunters of all possible fauna, and Second Amendment enthusiasts who wore camouflage nine months out of the year. Generally, I don’t have a problem with any of that.

Back to Tucson. On the day of the shooting, a young man named Joseph Zamudio was leaving a drugstore when he saw the chaos at the Safeway parking lot. Zamudio was armed, carrying his 9-millimeter semiautomatic pistol. Heroically, he rushed to the scene, fingering his weapon, ready to fire.
Suppose, in the few seconds of confusion during the shootings, an armed bystander had fired at the wrong man.
Now, in the view of the more-guns proponents, Zamudio might have been able to prevent any carnage, or maybe even gotten off a shot before someone was killed.

“When everyone is carrying a firearm, nobody is going to be a victim,” said Arizona state representative Jack Harper, after a gunman had claimed 19 victims.

“I wish there had been one more gun in Tucson,” said an Arizona Congressman, Rep. Trent Franks, implying like Harper that if only someone had been armed at the scene, Jared Lee Loughner would not have been able to unload his rapid-fire Glock on innocent people.

In fact, several people were armed. So, what actually happened? As Zamudio said in numerous interviews, he never got a shot off at the gunman, but he nearly harmed the wrong person — one of those trying to control Loughner.

He saw people wrestling, including one man with the gun. “I kind of assumed he was the shooter,” said Zamudio in an interview with MSNBC. Then, “everyone said, ‘no, no — it’s this guy,’” said Zamudio.

To his credit, he ultimately helped subdue Loughner. But suppose, in those few seconds of confusion, he had fired at the wrong man and killed a hero? “I was very lucky,” Zamudio said.

It defies logic, as this case shows once again, that an average citizen with a gun is going to disarm a crazed killer. For one thing, these kinds of shootings happen far too suddenly for even the quickest marksman to get a draw. For another, your typical gun hobbyist lacks training in how to react in a violent scrum.

I don’t think these are reasons to disarm the citizenry. That’s never going to happen, nor should it. But the Tucson shootings should discredit the canard that we need more guns at school, in the workplace, even in Congress. Yes, Congress. The Texas Republican Rep. Louie Gohmert has proposed a bill to allow fellow members to carry firearms into the Capitol Building.

Gohmert has enough trouble carrying a coherent thought onto the House floor. God forbid he would try to bring a Glock to work. By his reasoning, the Middle East would be better off if every nation in the region had nuclear weapons.

At least two recent studies show that more guns equals more carnage to innocents. One survey by the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine found that guns did not protect those who had them from being shot in an assault — just the opposite. Epidemiologists at Penn looked at hundreds of muggings and assaults. What they found was that those with guns were four times more likely to be shot when confronted by an armed assailant than those without guns. The unarmed person, in other words, is safer.

Other studies have found that states with the highest rates of gun ownership have much greater gun death rates than those where only a small percentage of the population is armed. So, Hawaii, where only 9.7 percent of residents own guns, has the lowest gun death rate in the country, while Louisiana, where 45 percent of the public is armed, has the highest.

Arizona, where people can carry guns into bars and almost anyone can get a concealed weapons permit, is one of the top 10 states for gun ownership and death rates by firearms. And in the wake of the shootings, some lawmakers want to flood public areas with even more lethal weapons.

Tuesday of this week was the first day of classes at Arizona State University, and William Jenkins, who teaches photography at the school, did not bring his weapon to campus. For the moment, it’s still illegal for professors to pack heat while they talk Dante and quantum physics.

But that may soon change. Arizona legislators have been pushing a plan to allow college faculty and students to carry concealed weapons at school.

“That’s insane,” Jenkins told me. “On Mondays I give a lecture to 120 people. I can’t imagine students coming into class with firearms. If something happened, it would be mayhem.”

He’s right. Jenkins is a lifelong gun owner and he carries a concealed weapon, by permit. He also carries a modicum of common sense. The two don’t have to be mutually exclusive.

Crosshairs

2011-01-21T13:58:00.000-08:00

From: Rep. Alan Grayson
To: rlgreenfield1@verizon.net
Sent: Wednesday, January 19, 2011 10:51 AM
Subject: Gabby Was Right, Palin Is Wrong

Dear Rl,

When I opened my web browser yesterday, at yahoo.com, there was Sarah Palin,
smiling at me.
"Oh, God," I said to myself, "what has she done now?"

The headline was "Palin Defends 'Blood Libel'". That's interesting, I
thought. What else might Palin be defending? Cannibalism, maybe?

Well, it turned out to be a report on Palin's disjointed remarks on Sean
Hannity's show, regarding the shooting of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords. I then
watched the report. Let me summarize it for you:

Palin: I am so misunderstood.
Hannity: I am so misunderstood.
Palin: I am so misunderstood.

But there was one person who seemed to understand Sarah Palin quite well.
Gabby Giffords, herself, during the health care debate. Discussing threats
against Democratic Members of Congress. After the door to her office was
shattered. This is what Gabby said:
"You know, for example, we're on Sarah Palin's targeted list, but the thing
is the way that she has depicted it is the crosshairs of a gun-sight over
our district. When people do that, they've got to realize that there are
consequences to that action."

And here is Palin's blithe response, on Hannity's show: "That map wasn't an
original graphic."

What is that remark supposed to be, Sarah? An exculpanation?

Even before I heard earlier Palin's whining about "misguided
finger-pointing" and "irresponsible statements from people who are
apportioning blame," I thought about this:
Palin came to my district, and told her people to "take me out."
Palin told people again and again, "don't retreat, reload."

The day before the health care vote, one of my five-year-old twins received
a telephone death threat intended for me.

A right-wing commentator offered anyone $100 to punch me in the nose.
We received so many threats of violence from teabaggers that we started a
file.

And the day before Gabby was shot, I received a postcard saying "you better
get some personal protection. You could very well be getting your ass kicked
soon."

Cause and effect. As Gabby put it, "there are consequences."
Of course, I wasn't the only target of these threats.

Gabby's tea party opponent held fundraisers in which he invited contributors
to fire an automatic weapon.

Democrat Debbie Wasserman-Schultz's opponent conducted target practice on
her initials.

Democrat Ron Klein's opponent told his supporters to make sure that Klein
was "afraid to leave his house."

Democrat Frank Kratovil was hung in effigy.

Democrat Tom Perriello was burned in effigy. And the gas line to his brother's
house was cut.

Democrat Emanuel Cleaver - a minister - was spat on.

Democrat Russ Carnahan had a coffin left at his home.

I could go on, but you get the point. Cause and effect. "There are
consequences."

And the Republicans? The shot supposedly fired at Republican Eric Cantor's
office was quickly exposed as a hoax.

As I observed on MSNBC last week, there has been a stream of violence and
threats of violence by the right wing against Democrats. Gabby warned
against it, and then became a terrible victim of it. Palin has instigated
it, and then tried to pretend that it doesn't exist.

What do I think? I think that Gabby said it best: "We can't stand for this."
We have to stand against it.

Courage,
Alan Grayson

More Examples of Republicans Encouraging Bodily Harm to Democrats

2011-01-20T13:31:00.000-08:00

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/matt-taibbi-the-crying-shame-of-john-boehner-20110105?page=4

Another Ohio Democrat, Steve Driehaus, clashed repeatedly with Boehner before losing his seat in the midterm elections. After Boehner suggested that by voting for Obamacare, Driehaus "may be a dead man" and "can't go home to the west side of Cincinnati" because "the Catholics will run him out of town," Driehaus began receiving death threats, and a right-wing website published directions to his house. Driehaus says he approached Boehner on the floor and confronted him.

"I didn't think it was funny at all," Driehaus says. "I've got three little kids and a wife. I said to him, 'John, this is bullshit, and way out of bounds. For you to say something like that is wildly irresponsible.'"

Driehaus is quick to point out that he doesn't think Boehner meant to urge anyone to violence. "But it's not about what he intended — it's about how the least rational person in my district takes it. We run into some crazy people in this line of work."

Driehaus says Boehner was "taken aback" when confronted on the floor, but never actually said he was sorry: "He said something along the lines of, 'You know that's not what I meant.' But he didn't apologize."

Friends With Benefits: Goldman Sachs private deal with Facebook

2011-01-06T06:31:00.000-08:00

http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/01/04/friends-with-benefits/

Deborah Lagutaris

Some say that this deal will allow Facebook to avoid government regulation. In fact, there is little government regulation to worry about nowadays. Thirty years of constant and deliberate weakening of regulatory agencies, including the all-important Securities and Exchange Commission, has taken care of that.

So, how can anyone claim with a straight face that Goldman's unfair advantage represents anything like a free market operated by the Invisible Hand?

"To understand why, we have to go to the heart of the many problems in the way the Wall Street cartel does business, despite the promised reforms of the Dodd-Frank law. With Goldman’s investment in Facebook, we have a front-row seat to the process by which Wall Street creates and inflates financial bubbles.

"This bout of hysteria involves not only Facebook but other Internet companies including Twitter, the gaming site Zynga, the social buying site Groupon and LinkedIn, another social networking site. The valuation of these companies has soared in the past two years, leading some to worry that the American people bailed out Wall Street so that we could relive the Internet Bubble of 1999.

"Despite the high price of its investment, Goldman sees in Facebook a business bonanza, a nearly perfect nugget of investment-banking opportunities. First, Goldman’s cost of capital is close to zero — as a bank holding company, it can borrow from the Federal Reserve at negligible interest rates — so any capital gain it makes on its venture in Facebook will be sheer profit. Second, Goldman has almost certainly locked up the role of lead manager of the inevitable Facebook initial public offering."

The entire article follows:

ANUARY 4, 2011, 9:00 PM
Goldman’s Mutual Friend

By WILLIAM D. COHAN
William D. Cohan on Wall Street and Main Street.

Tags:

facebook, goldman sachs

Can Goldman Sachs, the profit-seeking missile of high finance, really make money by investing $450 million in Facebook, at a vertigo-inducing price that values the social-networking company at $50 billion?

On first blush, the answer would appear to be no. After all, in May 2009, the company was valued at $10 billion. Last August, Facebook was valued at $27 billion and now it’s $50 billion — for a company with a reported $2 billion in revenue and negligible profits. If General Electric, with 2010 revenue of around $150 billion, traded at a similar multiple of revenue, it would be worth $3.75 trillion instead of $200 billion. Facebook is now considered to be worth more than Time Warner, DuPont and Goldman’s rival Morgan Stanley.

Just last week, Facebook’s shares were said to be trading on a private-market exchange at a valuation of $42.4 billion. Thanks to Goldman’s imprimatur, Facebook’s value increased 20 percent virtually overnight. Can Goldman really expect to squeeze more water from this stone?

Sadly, yes.

To understand why, we have to go to the heart of the many problems in the way the Wall Street cartel does business, despite the promised reforms of the Dodd-Frank law. With Goldman’s investment in Facebook, we have a front-row seat to the process by which Wall Street creates and inflates financial bubbles.

This bout of hysteria involves not only Facebook but other Internet companies including Twitter, the gaming site Zynga, the social buying site Groupon and LinkedIn, another social networking site. The valuation of these companies has soared in the past two years, leading some to worry that the American people bailed out Wall Street so that we could relive the Internet Bubble of 1999.

Despite the high price of its investment, Goldman sees in Facebook a business bonanza, a nearly perfect nugget of investment-banking opportunities. First, Goldman’s cost of capital is close to zero — as a bank holding company, it can borrow from the Federal Reserve at negligible interest rates — so any capital gain it makes on its venture in Facebook will be sheer profit. Second, Goldman has almost certainly locked up the role of lead manager of the inevitable Facebook initial public offering.

Fees for underwriting public offerings are generally about 7 percent of the value of the stock sold. Facebook could easily sell $2 billion of stock or more, generating fees to Goldman and the other underwriters of at least $140 million. The other benefit for Goldman in leading the public offering — aside from major bragging rights — is that it can use its marketing, sales and distribution muscle to make sure the value of Facebook at the time of the offering exceeds the $50 billion valuation at which Goldman invested.

Goldman has also won from Facebook the right to offer an additional $1.5 billion of the company’s stock to its private-wealth clients. According to The Times, Goldman will be creating a “special purpose vehicle” to sell the stock to its wealthy clients and then will charge them a 4 percent initial fee plus 5 percent of any profits. While on paper it seems that these high rollers would be foolish to invest in Facebook at such a lofty valuation, they will still most certainly feel increased loyalty to Goldman for making such an exclusive opportunity available to them. On top of it all, there is the increased likelihood that Goldman will get to manage a good portion of the $12 billion fortune belonging to
Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s founder, for yet more fees.

If Goldman does take all these roles at once — investor, salesman, money manager, I.P.O. underwriter — it would certainly raise the ugly specter of conflicts of interest. But probably not to Goldman executives, who have always prided themselves on being able to “manage” through such situations. (In fairness, there’s likely no investment-banking firm on the planet that would not eagerly take Goldman’s place in this scheme, if offered the chance.)

Even though Facebook is reported to have little need for Goldman’s money, having Goldman validate Facebook’s exponential increase in value gives Mr. Zuckerberg the ultimate Silicon Valley street cred, far more than he got from having Hollywood make a movie about him or from becoming the youngest billionaire on the planet.

With all these winners, who will the losers be? The average investor, of course, who will get left holding the bag when, someday, Wall Street realizes the firm’s financial performance doesn’t live up to its hyped valuation.

This Op-Ed column appeared in print on January 5, 2011.

Strained States Turning to Laws to Curb Labor Unions

2011-01-05T21:42:00.000-08:00

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/04/business/04labor.html

by Deborah Lagutaris

This frightening article appeared in the New York Times on January 4, 2011. Somehow, public servants have become the scapegoat for the destruction wrought on the funding mechanism for Federal, State, County and City governments. Who wrought this destruction? Why, the very people who are now blaming public workers' pay, benefits and pensions for the budget crisis that ails my country: Republicans and other know-nothings who do not care whether they hurt other citizen's livelihoods and liberties.

It's the perfect storm. The right has been undermining rational methods of funding vital public services since the early 1970s. (Save space here for my rant about the devastation wrought on my home states' education system since I first began school in 1956. California ranked #1 in all measures of education excellence in my childhood and teens. Now, it ranks down in the lowest 5 states.

That is not enough for them. They are now gunning for what's left of the public sector unions. Public sector unions protect workers who do not have effective unions by establishing a benchmark of standards and quality for their employees. There is good reason for this: public employees work long, hard hours at salaries far less then their skills would command in the private sphere. Their reward lies in a job well down for a person who needs their help.

Once these unions are dismantled, there will be no standards for worker pay and worker protections. The elimination of public sector unions is the final goal of dictators when they take over a country. In this way, authoritarians regime can impose rules that harm workers and their families with impunity. As an example, one might remember the last bastion of democracy in El Salvador before its downfall: the public sector unions. Powerful energy was infused into these unions as a last-ditch effort to protect the common hard-working family's fortunes, to. no avail

I know that some unions are run by people who are power-hungry or corrupt. Every human endeavor is subject to corruption. It is often the case, however, that the scoundrels are voted out of power by the union members. People keep trying to make things as fair as possible.

Corporations mean none of us well. Their legal immunities and the generous legal rights endowed upon them by our legislatures and courts mean that they can steal and plunder with so little culpability that most legal actions amount to no more than a bee-sting on the corporate monster's hide.

Teachers, firefighters, public medical service personnel, and most any state worker can tell you about the fear that haunts their days: will I have funding enough to serve my constituents tomorrow? Will the hatchet job ever end? And if it doesn't, how will my city, county and state survive without great suffering?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

See the article below:

New York Times
Strained States Turning to Laws to Curb Labor Unions

By STEVEN GREENHOUSE

Faced with growing budget deficits and restive taxpayers, elected officials from Maine to Alabama, Ohio to Arizona, are pushing new legislation to limit the power of labor unions, particularly those representing government workers, in collective bargaining and politics.

State officials from both parties are wrestling with ways to curb the salaries and pensions of government employees, which typically make up a significant percentage of state budgets. On Wednesday, for example, New York’s new Democratic governor, Andrew M. Cuomo, is expected to call for a one-year salary freeze for state workers, a move that would save $200 million to $400 million and challenge labor’s traditional clout in Albany.

But in some cases — mostly in states with Republican governors and Republican statehouse majorities — officials are seeking more far-reaching, structural changes that would weaken the bargaining power and political influence of unions, including private sector ones.

For example, Republican lawmakers in Indiana, Maine, Missouri and seven other states plan to introduce legislation that would bar private sector unions from forcing workers they represent to pay dues or fees, reducing the flow of funds into union treasuries. In Ohio, the new Republican governor, following the precedent of many other states, wants to ban strikes by public school teachers.

Some new governors, most notably Scott Walker of Wisconsin, are even threatening to take away government workers’ right to form unions and bargain contracts.

“We can no longer live in a society where the public employees are the haves and taxpayers who foot the bills are the have-nots,” Mr. Walker, a Republican, said in a speech. “The bottom line is that we are going to look at every legal means we have to try to put that balance more on the side of taxpayers.”

Many of the proposals may never become law. But those that do are likely to reduce union influence in election campaigns, with reverberations for both parties.

In the 2010 elections, Republicans emerged with seven more governor’s mansions and won control of the legislature in 26 states, up from 14. That swing has put unions more on the defensive than they have been in decades.

But it is not only Republicans who are seeking to rein in unions. In addition to Mr. Cuomo, California’s new Democratic governor, Jerry Brown, is promising to review the benefits received by government workers in his state, which faces a more than $20 billion budget shortfall over the next 18 months.

“We will also have to look at our system of pensions and how to ensure that they are transparent and actuarially sound and fair — fair to the workers and fair to the taxpayers,” Mr. Brown said in his inaugural speech on Monday.

Many of the state officials pushing for union-related changes say they want to restore some balance, arguing that unions have become too powerful, skewing political campaigns with their large war chests and throwing state budgets off kilter with their expensive pension plans.

But labor leaders view these efforts as political retaliation by Republicans upset that unions recently spent more than $200 million to defeat Republican candidates.

“I see this as payback for the role we played in the 2010 elections,” said Gerald W. McEntee, president of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, the main union of state employees. Mr. McEntee said in October that his union was spending more than $90 million on the campaign, largely to help Democrats.

“Now there’s a bull’s-eye on our back, and they’re out to inflict pain,” he said.

In an internal memorandum, the A.F.L.-C.I.O. warned that in 16 states, Republican lawmakers would seek to starve public sector unions of money by requiring each government worker to “opt in” before that person’s dues money could be used for political activities.

“In the long run, if these measures deprive unions of resources, it will cut them off at their knees. They’ll melt away,” said Charles E. Wilson, a law professor at Ohio State University.

Of all the new governors, John Kasich, Republican of Ohio, appears to be planning the most comprehensive assault against unions. He is proposing to take away the right of 14,000 state-financed child care and home care workers to unionize. He also wants to ban strikes by teachers, much the way some states bar strikes by the police and firefighters.

“If they want to strike, they should be fired,” Mr. Kasich said in a speech. “They’ve got good jobs, they’ve got high pay, they get good benefits, a great retirement. What are they striking for?”

Mr. Kasich also wants to eliminate a requirement that the state pay union-scale wages to construction workers on public contracts, even if the contractors are nonunion. In addition, he would like to ban the use of binding arbitration to settle disputes between the state and unions representing government employees.

Labor leaders, who argue that government employees are not overpaid, worry that many of these measures have a much better chance of enactment than in previous years because of Republican electoral gains and recession-ravaged taxpayers’ reduced sympathy toward government workers.

The A.F.L.-C.I.O.’s internal memo warned labor leaders, “With the enormous losses in state legislatures around the country, we will face not only more attacks on working families and their unions — we will face more serious attacks, particularly in the formerly blue or purple states that are now controlled by a Republican trifecta.”

It pointed in particular to six states, including several former union strongholds, where Republicans control the governor’s mansion and both houses of the legislature: Indiana, Maine, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

Naomi Walker, the A.F.L.-C.I.O.’s director of state government relations, said many voters would oppose the antiunion efforts. “I think folks in these states are going to ask whether this is the right time to weaken unions when corporations are amassing more power than ever,” she said. “We’ve been fighting against privatizing Social Security and sending jobs offshore and to get the best deal for the unemployed. It would be a lot easier for Republicans if unions weren’t there to throw up these roadblocks.”

Union leaders particularly dread the spread of right-to-work laws, which prevail in 22 states, almost all in the South or West. Under such laws, unions and employers cannot require workers to join a union or pay any dues or fees to unions to represent them.

Unions complain that such laws allow workers in unionized workplaces to reap the benefits of collective bargaining without paying for it. Pointing to lower wages in right-to-work states, unions say the laws lead to worse wages and benefits by weakening unions.

But lawmakers who are pushing right-to-work laws argue that they help attract investment. “The folks who work day-to-day in economic development tell us that the No. 1 thing we can do to make Indiana more attractive to business is to make Indiana a right-to-work state,” said Jerry Torr, an Indiana state representative who backs such legislation.

Some union leaders say that proposals like right-to-work laws, which have little effect on state budgets, show that Republicans are using budget woes as a pretext to undercut unions.

“They’re throwing the kitchen sink at us,” said Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers. “We’re seeing people use the budget crisis to make every attempt to roll back workers’ voices and any ability of workers to join collectively in any way whatsoever.”

A group composed of Republican state lawmakers and corporate executives, the American Legislative Exchange Council, is quietly spreading these proposals from state to state, sending e-mails about the latest efforts as well as suggested legislative language.

Michael Hough, director of the council’s commerce task force, said the aim of these measures was not political, but to reduce labor’s swollen power. “Government budgets have grown and grown because of the cost of employees’ pensions and salaries,” he said. “Now we have to deal with that.”

More Claptrap about the Mortgage Crisis

2010-12-23T15:14:00.000-08:00

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/12/22/AR2010122205557_Comments.html

The article says: "But this argument seems especially inopportune now, since whatever happened in the past, there is broad agreement about what should happen in the future: The old "government-sponsored enterprise" model is a proven failure. Fannie and Freddie should be gradually dismantled and replaced with a new system of mortgage finance that does not permit ostensibly private companies to profit from an implicit federal government guarantee. To be sure, there is no consensus between, or within, the two parties as to how much - or how little - government involvement to retain, and how precisely to structure a federal role. But all serious proposals emphasize a greater role for private capital than it currently has."

DeborahPhoenix wrote:
A brief history lesson will be of help here, and it will NOT make the anyone happy who thinks that a. the free market would have corrected this or b. that the mission of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac was inherently flawed. Both agencies were directly controlled by the government until the mid-1970's. Then, the process of their privatization began. They were sold off to help pay for the debt accumulated during the Vietnam War. Had they been left alone, we probably wouldn't have this situation now. Since privatization is primarily a Republican "solution" I am more inclined to fix blame on that side. It is clear that both parties were whooping it up during the bubble and were too afraid to look at the dark underbelly. Because I am a former mortgage loan officer, I soon realized that the mortgage companies had abandoned tried and true underwriting principles. I could see it coming, and I am a nobody. Why couldn't all this high-priced help stop it?

How Did You Grade the Lame Duck Session?

2010-12-22T20:34:00.000-08:00

By Olivia LaRosa
December 22, 2010

Recently, I have been amusing myself by posting to the Wall Street Journal online community regarding select Questions of the Day. Today, the WSJ asked us how we graded the Lame Duck congressional session. I gave it a "D" for bad political theater. The only decent work of the session was passing the START treaty and repealing "Don't Ask, Don't Tell." What an embarrassing policy!

In response to: He continues to lead the country from the far left and will push just as hard as he can in this direction as long as he is in office. The notion that President Obama is more centrist than Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid is ludicrous - though a useful fiction for him. They are all cut from the same socialist cloth.

I replied: I find myself boggled by people who still think that the lowest taxes support the best society. Taxes are the price we pay for civilization. (I gave the lame ducks a D.) The goods that you have, the education you received, the roadtrips you take, the fire department nearby, and so on, were at least partially subsidized by the taxes that your parents and grandparents paid. Furthermore, most of the stories told about how lowering taxes will help the US aren't quite what actually happens. Please take a look at this article for examples.
The 9 Biggest Conservative Lies About Taxes and Public Spending
http://www.alternet.org/story/149265/the_9_biggest_conservative_lies_about_taxes_and_public_spending

And in answer to the same man who asserted that Obama was a socialist, I talked about the TWO political axes: right-left, and authoritarian-libertarian. You can take the fun quiz too!

I am far left. I know so because I took a test at http://www.politicalcompass.org. I score at -10, -9.875. I am a libertarian socialist. People get confused about political orientation because we think that there are only two directions to go; left, or right. That constitutes one political axis. There is another, though. It is the authoritarian/libertarian axis. Obama is no more of a socialist than say, Evan Bayh or Bill Clinton. His political acts place him in within the right/authoritarian corner of the political compass. So, it makes no sense to call Obama a socialist or a Marxist when he clearly isn't either one. Here's another example: people can be left/authoritarian like Mao Ze Dong or Joseph Stalin. Or they can be right/authoritarian like Hitler, Mussolini, Hosni Mubarak, Benjamin Netanyahu, Hugo Chavez, etc. Ron Paul is the most prominent example of a right/libertarian. Take the fun quiz and see for yourself where you stand, alongside major historical figures.

~~~~~

In response to this post:

One of the biggest conservative lies is that money simply grows on trees. Taxes can be lowered to zero and the economy will benefit. Borrow from the Chinese to pay for huge deficit spending and pay off the bonds by printing money (quantitative easing). The result will soon be hyperinflation.

Conservatives don't seem to care. But some people do, like many Tea Party activists, who seem to realize what a downward spiral our country's in.

I replied: The Tea Party knows that something's wrong, but they don't know what it is. They have been captured by bumper-sticker politics. If the answers are simple, then we are not talking about the problems of human beings. Sad to say, the Tea Party movement simply plays into the hands of the political agenda of transnational corporations. The political agenda of transnational corporations is to corrupt governments for the sake of profit, as their charters provide. I wish that the Tea Partiers would interrogate their basic assumptions. We need GOOD government, not what we have now. It's impossible to manage a nation of 300 million people without decent people managing the day-to-day business of keeping America together. You don't get that result by ranting about bureaucrats or term limits. You get that result by educating folks on what it really takes to run a pluralistic democracy.

Hypatia of California

We Knew Ward Connerly was a Liar; He is also a Thief

Affirmative-Action Foe Is Facing Allegations of Financial Misdeeds

By CHARLIE SAVAGE

Published: January 17, 2012

Jim Wilson/The New York Times

Multimedia

Letter Accuses Affirmative-Action Opponent of Mismanaging Funds

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Times Topic: Ward Connerly

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Fabrizio Costantini for The New York Times

A version of this article appeared in print on January 18, 2012, on page A10 of the New York edition with the headline: Affirmative-Action Foe Is Facing Allegations Of Financial Misdeeds.

The eurozone’s three deadly sins: by Stephen King...not THAT Stephen King! Silly!

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America’s Unlevel Field-Krugman

America’s Unlevel Field

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Republican Attacks Have Racist Undertones - NYTimes.com

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women who give too much: notes

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Paul Krugman: Quote of the Day -- "Will China Break?"

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How Ayn Rand Seduced Generations of Young Men and Helped Make the U.S. Into a Selfish, Greedy Nation

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Political Washington Abolishes Due Process Protections

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GOP ‘family values’ mayor admits he’s gay; misappropriated nearly $200K

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Romney’s missing hard drives raise questions over government records

Outrage as President signs law to detain home-grown terror suspects indefinitely

Those Greedy Federal Employees

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The Systematic Looting of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac

Alfermedi Cert Petition 11-10-2011

Almerfedi Cert Petition

Bush tax cuts and the decline of U.S. as a serious world power

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We Are the 99.9%

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Ms. Demeanor November 14, 2011

a humble request from a grandma

beware what you envy…and what demons it will arouse

Major Points of Agreement at G20 Conference Miss the Main Point (Steady-State Economy)

Written two years ago. No world leader has yet mentioned working toward a steady-state economy.

Astrology for Fun

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AlterNet: Rush Limbaugh Admits the Media Is Conservative

Rush Limbaugh Admits the Media Is Conservative

Posted at November 10, 2011, 9:29 am

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Dear Kin 1

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Bush tax cuts and the decline of U.S. as a serious world power

37 Giant Corporations Paid 0 (ZERO) in Taxes Last Year -- Who Are the Cheats?