The turmoil over the Wall Street bailout goes on with some surprising lines drawn in the sand, but I’m going to let that one lie next to a few other sleeping dogs this morning. Instead, I’d like to call your attention to an interesting observation gleaned from a sort of sidebar article in this morning’s paper.
Reading the article on the civil war, WAR DIVIDED STATE, Springfield News-Leader, Tuesday, September 30, 2008, I remarked to my wife that the more things changed the more they remained the same.
Asked what prompted that remark, I told her that this article pointed out that during the Civil War Missouri was so divided that it sent representatives to both the Union and the Confederate legislatures and that the division was rural/urban with the country folk – including Springfield – in favor of secession and the city folk – Kansas City and St. Louis supporting abolition and the Union.
If you drew a map of Missouri in 1864 and colored the Secessionist sections red and the Union sections blue, how different would a map of Missouri in 2008 look if you colored the Republican sections red and the Democrat sections blue? The answer, of course, is that you couldn’t tell the difference.
So the question arises. Is politics genetic? Is voting behavior inherited or learned? It’s the basic question the study of psychology has long sought to answer, of course, the great question of nature versus nurture.
With regard to politics, it was answered long ago by our two political parties. They have long campaigned on the principle that it is not their party loyalists who decide the contest. It is the INDEPENDENTS.
It is those few folks who actually weigh the issues; who are capable of listening to more than sound bites; who ask themselves questions as the campaigns grind on and answer them before they enter the voting booth who ultimately decide the election. (Provided, of course, that the election isn’t rigged!)
The others, largely because of the family into which they were born, will always vote with the party of that family’s tradition. Those who switch do so because at some point they encountered someone or the writings of someone whose train of thought more closely matched theirs even though their political instincts did not -- a point that slants me toward nurture as the determinant of political leanings and apathy as the crucial issue in whether or not one’s initial leanings are ever questioned.
So, friends, the moral of the story is that if you want to influence someone’s vote, first determine whether they are asking questions or they are influenced by the sound bites. If the latter, save yourself some time, effort, and frustration by walking away and find someone who is honestly seeking information. And as to ourselves – if we can’t imagine that the other side has anything of value to contribute – maybe we just aren’t listening.
“Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!” – Patrick Henry
Be the change you wish to see in the world. -- M. K. Gandhi
The reason for going was to keep the crude flowing and raise a false flag abroad. – from a poem by Jack Evans titled 3500 Souls - http://www.myspace.com/paralegal_eagle
Individually we have little voice. Collectively we cannot be ignored.
But in silence we surrender our power. Yours in Peace -- BR
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
Monday, September 29, 2008
OUT OF THE FRYING PAN
The big news today is that our great leaders have at last created the final Wall Street bailout plan. Lo and behold, it is very nearly the same plan BushCo proposed in the first place.
“Oh no,” the administration says. “This plan includes Congressional oversight.”
“Oh, yes, it does.” I say, “But did you think we wouldn’t notice that it takes a veto-proof Congressional approval level of any oversight changes our representatives want to make in the executive branch approach? Or that Shrub routinely over-rides even veto proof legislation with signing statements he says give him the right to ignore any law Congress passes?”
Or maybe they think we won’t notice that the negotiations that produced this plan excluded any consideration of renegotiating mortgages to assure that homeowners can keep their homes? Or maybe they think that their ban on CEO bonuses until things settle down will mollify us.
Maybe they think that being told that we will regain at least some of our money when the assets are resold will calm us down, but why should it? When you buy something worthless, your hope of getting much back from future sales isn’t what I’d call a great prospect.
Basically, what this deal would do is throw Wall Street out of the frying pan into the lifeboat and the middle class out of the frying pan into the fire. Are we’re supposed to bend over and kiss the corporate bums on the way down?
If this deal goes through and no one follows it up with some hard slamming regulation of the loan and brokerage industry, it won’t be long before we’re faced with another big “crisis”. If the system doesn’t adjust to give Main Street a lift, we won’t even be able to see Wall Street from here, let alone participate in it.
I recently received an email titled “The Birk Solution”. Maybe you did, too. If not, you should know that it was written by a fellow named T. J. Birkenmeier. It was written to address the AIG bailout -- you remember that long ago time – about three weeks ago when we were told that the $85,000,000,000 bailout for them would solve our problems.
His suggestion was that instead of bailing out AIG, the government should send each of the country’s 200,000,000 adults $425,000. Sounds great, doesn’t it? I was certainly ready to jump on his bandwagon and demand that the government just send us each our share of the $700,000,000,000 bailout of Wall Street, but guess what? I did the math, and the bailout for AIG really amounted to $425 per each of 200,000,000 adults, and the Wall Street bailout would amount to $3,500 each. Not exactly a solution to the problem!!
The real bottom line for me, and the language that will go into today’s message for our friends in Congress, is that unless this bailout, rescue, loan or whatever they want to call it generates some real potential for return, reigns in the banking industry so it can’t continue to base its values on poor paper, and does something to keep the littlest guys from having to suffer the most, it isn’t worth any more than any of the rest of the paper that’s been created throughout this process.
Congress has to have some real power in the future, Wall Street has to have some real constraints in the future, and the country needs to base its value on real assets again instead of believing that piles of paper represent true wealth.
“Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!” – Patrick Henry
Be the change you wish to see in the world. -- M. K. Gandhi
The reason for going was to keep the crude flowing and raise a false flag abroad. – from a poem by Jack Evans titled 3500 Souls - http://www.myspace.com/paralegal_eagle
Individually we have little voice. Collectively we cannot be ignored.
But in silence we surrender our power. Yours in Peace -- BR
“Oh no,” the administration says. “This plan includes Congressional oversight.”
“Oh, yes, it does.” I say, “But did you think we wouldn’t notice that it takes a veto-proof Congressional approval level of any oversight changes our representatives want to make in the executive branch approach? Or that Shrub routinely over-rides even veto proof legislation with signing statements he says give him the right to ignore any law Congress passes?”
Or maybe they think we won’t notice that the negotiations that produced this plan excluded any consideration of renegotiating mortgages to assure that homeowners can keep their homes? Or maybe they think that their ban on CEO bonuses until things settle down will mollify us.
Maybe they think that being told that we will regain at least some of our money when the assets are resold will calm us down, but why should it? When you buy something worthless, your hope of getting much back from future sales isn’t what I’d call a great prospect.
Basically, what this deal would do is throw Wall Street out of the frying pan into the lifeboat and the middle class out of the frying pan into the fire. Are we’re supposed to bend over and kiss the corporate bums on the way down?
If this deal goes through and no one follows it up with some hard slamming regulation of the loan and brokerage industry, it won’t be long before we’re faced with another big “crisis”. If the system doesn’t adjust to give Main Street a lift, we won’t even be able to see Wall Street from here, let alone participate in it.
I recently received an email titled “The Birk Solution”. Maybe you did, too. If not, you should know that it was written by a fellow named T. J. Birkenmeier. It was written to address the AIG bailout -- you remember that long ago time – about three weeks ago when we were told that the $85,000,000,000 bailout for them would solve our problems.
His suggestion was that instead of bailing out AIG, the government should send each of the country’s 200,000,000 adults $425,000. Sounds great, doesn’t it? I was certainly ready to jump on his bandwagon and demand that the government just send us each our share of the $700,000,000,000 bailout of Wall Street, but guess what? I did the math, and the bailout for AIG really amounted to $425 per each of 200,000,000 adults, and the Wall Street bailout would amount to $3,500 each. Not exactly a solution to the problem!!
The real bottom line for me, and the language that will go into today’s message for our friends in Congress, is that unless this bailout, rescue, loan or whatever they want to call it generates some real potential for return, reigns in the banking industry so it can’t continue to base its values on poor paper, and does something to keep the littlest guys from having to suffer the most, it isn’t worth any more than any of the rest of the paper that’s been created throughout this process.
Congress has to have some real power in the future, Wall Street has to have some real constraints in the future, and the country needs to base its value on real assets again instead of believing that piles of paper represent true wealth.
“Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!” – Patrick Henry
Be the change you wish to see in the world. -- M. K. Gandhi
The reason for going was to keep the crude flowing and raise a false flag abroad. – from a poem by Jack Evans titled 3500 Souls - http://www.myspace.com/paralegal_eagle
Individually we have little voice. Collectively we cannot be ignored.
But in silence we surrender our power. Yours in Peace -- BR
Friday, September 26, 2008
IT’S THE BAILOUT, STUPID
So yesterday the Repulsicans stomped out of a meeting called by their own president because they were angry at being asked to reinstall the banking regulatory process and ensure that homeowners caught in the housing mortgage crunch don’t get burned. They were mad because the Democrats were getting their way and Bush was going along with it. What a bunch of Holy High Rollers. Clinton/Bush deregulation is the seat of the problem, and they either don’t see it, don’t care or don’t get it – pick one. Doesn’t matter which one you pick, of course, the result is the same – blockheaded politics as usual.
The other side of the aisle isn’t much better of course. The Democrats did get stand up for the regulatory process, protections for the mortgage holder, and some handslapping for the CEOs, but also completely overlooked the fact that this whole deal has been engineered by the administration as a means of sheltering private profits while making the public eat the losses.
Anyone treating this situation as anything other than a power play designed to keep power and riches in the hands of those who took us down the garden path in the first place is missing the point and setting the citizens of the country up for another, bigger fall down the road.
When I heard that the meeting had blown up my first thought was that the Democrats must have denounced the whole proposal for the sham it is. When I heard that it was the Republicans and what their reasons were and that the Democrats were ready to accept Bush’s capitulations to their demands and vote the thing in, it was all I could do to just slump in my chair and sigh. If any of our politicians are puzzled about why the people think they are a bunch of worthless louts, they should be able to look at what’s going on with this mess and figure it out in a New York minute.
Bill Clinton said it long ago – It’s the economy, stupid. He didn’t say enough though. It’s the way the economic system shafts the middle class, stupid. It the way Washington high rollers forget who they represent, stupid. It’s that CEOs earn 300 to 400 times as much as the average worker, stupid. It’s that short term gains have taken precedence over long term thinking since 1980, stupid. It’s that Congressfolk and Senators don’t believe that the man on the street can think, stupid.
But then again, whose the more stupid – the “leaders” who keep garnering more money and power to themselves or the people who keep voting for those “leaders” while they keep losing money and power? It’s all just stupid, stupid.
“Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!” – Patrick Henry
Be the change you wish to see in the world. -- M. K. Gandhi
The reason for going was to keep the crude flowing and raise a false flag abroad. – from a poem by Jack Evans titled 3500 Souls - http://www.myspace.com/paralegal_eagle
Individually we have little voice. Collectively we cannot be ignored.
But in silence we surrender our power. Yours in Peace -- BR
The other side of the aisle isn’t much better of course. The Democrats did get stand up for the regulatory process, protections for the mortgage holder, and some handslapping for the CEOs, but also completely overlooked the fact that this whole deal has been engineered by the administration as a means of sheltering private profits while making the public eat the losses.
Anyone treating this situation as anything other than a power play designed to keep power and riches in the hands of those who took us down the garden path in the first place is missing the point and setting the citizens of the country up for another, bigger fall down the road.
When I heard that the meeting had blown up my first thought was that the Democrats must have denounced the whole proposal for the sham it is. When I heard that it was the Republicans and what their reasons were and that the Democrats were ready to accept Bush’s capitulations to their demands and vote the thing in, it was all I could do to just slump in my chair and sigh. If any of our politicians are puzzled about why the people think they are a bunch of worthless louts, they should be able to look at what’s going on with this mess and figure it out in a New York minute.
Bill Clinton said it long ago – It’s the economy, stupid. He didn’t say enough though. It’s the way the economic system shafts the middle class, stupid. It the way Washington high rollers forget who they represent, stupid. It’s that CEOs earn 300 to 400 times as much as the average worker, stupid. It’s that short term gains have taken precedence over long term thinking since 1980, stupid. It’s that Congressfolk and Senators don’t believe that the man on the street can think, stupid.
But then again, whose the more stupid – the “leaders” who keep garnering more money and power to themselves or the people who keep voting for those “leaders” while they keep losing money and power? It’s all just stupid, stupid.
“Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!” – Patrick Henry
Be the change you wish to see in the world. -- M. K. Gandhi
The reason for going was to keep the crude flowing and raise a false flag abroad. – from a poem by Jack Evans titled 3500 Souls - http://www.myspace.com/paralegal_eagle
Individually we have little voice. Collectively we cannot be ignored.
But in silence we surrender our power. Yours in Peace -- BR
Thursday, September 25, 2008
WHAT CAN YOU BUY FOR $700 BILLION?
Last night our fearless (sic should be feckless) leader talked to the nation for 12 minutes without answering the question I have had foremost in my mind since the bailout was proposed which is: exactly what is it that the bailout is buying?
Is it stock in the companies that are holding the debt? Is it the base mortgages that unqualified homeowners around the country are unable to pay? Is it the mortgage based securities that the banks created in the slack created by deregulation so they could hide the true value of their loans? Is it the credit default swaps that the insurance industry covered and that caused their demise?
I don't even know if it's possible, but if we could buy up the mortgages themselves and get people out from under the ballooning ARM rates that the slime-ball lenders stuck them with the deal might be worth doing. If we are being bum’s rushed into buying any of the other stuff, we ought to run like hell in the other direction so we can be as far from the dirt of Wall Street’s implosion as possible.
This morning, thanks to OMB Watch, I finally found an article that explains in spades what it is that BushCo is telling us we have to buy and buy RIGHT NOW. BushCo wants us to buy Mortgage Based Securities.
I say let Wall Street keep their securities. We ought to offer to buy up all the mortgages represented by the MBSs, but not the MBSs themselves. The upshot would be that the government – through FannieMae and FreddieMac, in both of which we now own significant stock – could refinance the mortgages at current market prices and reasonable rates while Congress works on legislation to restore regulatory control over the lending industry.
So what would happen to Wall Street? Those who engineered and made the disastrous deals could look for work. Maybe if they are lucky some of those homeowners would hire them to cut the grass.
Would the country take an economic hit? Yes, indeed. We would lose all the false value the Wall Street paper represents, but then it was all BS in the first place wasn’t it?! There was no real value there. It was all based on the deceptions of a deregulated industry whose only concern was inflating the value of underlying stock so its CEOs could take home hundreds of millions of dollars of easily earned cash. Of course, stock in those companies would go to zilch and we would all feel that.
Would it impact the Main Street, too? Yes it would. It would hit us all pretty darn hard, but I believe that the recovery would put us all in a better place. No lesson is well learned that doesn’t come through pain and sacrifice. This nation has a soft underbelly gained from years of unearned benefits. We need a complete shake-up that results in a re-evaluation of the short-term thinking that got us where we are today. We are a resilient nation that knows how to cope. Wall Street losses wouldn’t destroy us; they would ultimately strengthen us.
The bottom line here is that this bailout, as the OMB Watch article's title tells us, is the end of the free market. How can BushCo claim to preside over the America we had when they took office? Their deregulation has created a capitalism that they are proposing to underwrite with federal funds. No economist has ever defined capitalism in terms of government ownership, so this is another milestone for Shrub. He can now lay claim not only to being the "war president", but he also holds the title of "destroyer of the capitalistic system". Karl Marx would be so proud.
“Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!” – Patrick Henry
Be the change you wish to see in the world. -- M. K. Gandhi
The reason for going was to keep the crude flowing and raise a false flag abroad. – from a poem by Jack Evans titled 3500 Souls - http://www.myspace.com/paralegal_eagle
Individually we have little voice. Collectively we cannot be ignored.
But in silence we surrender our power. Yours in Peace -- BR
Is it stock in the companies that are holding the debt? Is it the base mortgages that unqualified homeowners around the country are unable to pay? Is it the mortgage based securities that the banks created in the slack created by deregulation so they could hide the true value of their loans? Is it the credit default swaps that the insurance industry covered and that caused their demise?
I don't even know if it's possible, but if we could buy up the mortgages themselves and get people out from under the ballooning ARM rates that the slime-ball lenders stuck them with the deal might be worth doing. If we are being bum’s rushed into buying any of the other stuff, we ought to run like hell in the other direction so we can be as far from the dirt of Wall Street’s implosion as possible.
This morning, thanks to OMB Watch, I finally found an article that explains in spades what it is that BushCo is telling us we have to buy and buy RIGHT NOW. BushCo wants us to buy Mortgage Based Securities.
I say let Wall Street keep their securities. We ought to offer to buy up all the mortgages represented by the MBSs, but not the MBSs themselves. The upshot would be that the government – through FannieMae and FreddieMac, in both of which we now own significant stock – could refinance the mortgages at current market prices and reasonable rates while Congress works on legislation to restore regulatory control over the lending industry.
So what would happen to Wall Street? Those who engineered and made the disastrous deals could look for work. Maybe if they are lucky some of those homeowners would hire them to cut the grass.
Would the country take an economic hit? Yes, indeed. We would lose all the false value the Wall Street paper represents, but then it was all BS in the first place wasn’t it?! There was no real value there. It was all based on the deceptions of a deregulated industry whose only concern was inflating the value of underlying stock so its CEOs could take home hundreds of millions of dollars of easily earned cash. Of course, stock in those companies would go to zilch and we would all feel that.
Would it impact the Main Street, too? Yes it would. It would hit us all pretty darn hard, but I believe that the recovery would put us all in a better place. No lesson is well learned that doesn’t come through pain and sacrifice. This nation has a soft underbelly gained from years of unearned benefits. We need a complete shake-up that results in a re-evaluation of the short-term thinking that got us where we are today. We are a resilient nation that knows how to cope. Wall Street losses wouldn’t destroy us; they would ultimately strengthen us.
The bottom line here is that this bailout, as the OMB Watch article's title tells us, is the end of the free market. How can BushCo claim to preside over the America we had when they took office? Their deregulation has created a capitalism that they are proposing to underwrite with federal funds. No economist has ever defined capitalism in terms of government ownership, so this is another milestone for Shrub. He can now lay claim not only to being the "war president", but he also holds the title of "destroyer of the capitalistic system". Karl Marx would be so proud.
“Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!” – Patrick Henry
Be the change you wish to see in the world. -- M. K. Gandhi
The reason for going was to keep the crude flowing and raise a false flag abroad. – from a poem by Jack Evans titled 3500 Souls - http://www.myspace.com/paralegal_eagle
Individually we have little voice. Collectively we cannot be ignored.
But in silence we surrender our power. Yours in Peace -- BR
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
BAIL WHO OUT?
For several days now the proposed bailout of Wall Street has been rolling around in my head like a pea in a bottle. Admittedly it is a huge problem that needs to be dealt with by groups of people with a whole hell of a lot more education in economics than I have, but a few thoughts keep popping up in my mind like corks caught in an eddy.
The first is that, while I don’t consider myself a great thinker, I do believe that George W. Bush is even less of one, and he’s the guy who is proclaiming an immediate bailout to be essential. When George W. Bush says acting in a certain way to handle a situation he says is critical, my instinct is to holler “Stop!! I’m not following you over any more cliffs.”
The second is that we are being given no distinctions about whom we are bailing out and what their situation is. All we hear is it’s going to take $700 billion dollars to bail out Wall Street. What? Every investment broker on the street is broke? Is no firm on Wall Street in a good position? Or is it just that if the public tap is going to opened everybody on the street wants to be a recipient of the largesse?
The third is that what we are being asked to do is to throw more weak money after bad. The looming crash is looming because BushCo insisted on killing all the regulations and disarming the regulators. Now they want to inject the biggest sum of money ever promised (to be raised by selling weak securities backed by our tax pledges) into that same bloated, under-regulated mess. To top it off, Bush even refuses to take away the perks of the CEOs he himself defined as his base!!!
The fourth is that the bailout only serves to buoy up the jerks that set everybody up with mortgages they couldn’t possibly pay off in the first place. What about the poor saps like you and me who bought into the American dream and believed those great minds that kept acting as if housing markets always raise their values 10 to 20% a year? What happens to them? Why doesn’t the government want to refinance their mortgages at lower values, but reasonable rates that would allow current owners to keep their rental units or remain in their homes and, if they do so long enough, to regain the position they were in the day they got the original loan? To hell with promises that some day we might get our money back from our investment in Wall Street. We ought to know by now that a snowball in hell would have a better chance.
My ultimate conclusion is that W’s deal stinks. It does nothing for the little guy, but seeks to bail the high rollers out at the little guy’s expense. What should be done is to engineer a government bailout for the citizens who have already suffered from Wall Street’s greed. Devalue the assets and offer discounted mortgages to the homeowners and see how many take the deal. If it lets the Wall Street CEOs go under like the lead hearted sinkers they are, so much the better. Their successors might then understand why they will not be allowed to operate without regulatory oversight.
Maybe then American citizens could feel safe in their homes.
This blog is going to my representatives as a letter this morning. Please consider sending something similar to yours. Here's an easy way to do it: http://congressorg.capwiz.com/congressorg/mailapp/
“Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!” – Patrick Henry
Be the change you wish to see in the world. -- M. K. Gandhi
The reason for going was to keep the crude flowing and raise a false flag abroad. – from a poem by Jack Evans titled 3500 Souls - http://www.myspace.com/paralegal_eagle
Individually we have little voice. Collectively we cannot be ignored.
But in silence we surrender our power. Yours in Peace -- BR
The first is that, while I don’t consider myself a great thinker, I do believe that George W. Bush is even less of one, and he’s the guy who is proclaiming an immediate bailout to be essential. When George W. Bush says acting in a certain way to handle a situation he says is critical, my instinct is to holler “Stop!! I’m not following you over any more cliffs.”
The second is that we are being given no distinctions about whom we are bailing out and what their situation is. All we hear is it’s going to take $700 billion dollars to bail out Wall Street. What? Every investment broker on the street is broke? Is no firm on Wall Street in a good position? Or is it just that if the public tap is going to opened everybody on the street wants to be a recipient of the largesse?
The third is that what we are being asked to do is to throw more weak money after bad. The looming crash is looming because BushCo insisted on killing all the regulations and disarming the regulators. Now they want to inject the biggest sum of money ever promised (to be raised by selling weak securities backed by our tax pledges) into that same bloated, under-regulated mess. To top it off, Bush even refuses to take away the perks of the CEOs he himself defined as his base!!!
The fourth is that the bailout only serves to buoy up the jerks that set everybody up with mortgages they couldn’t possibly pay off in the first place. What about the poor saps like you and me who bought into the American dream and believed those great minds that kept acting as if housing markets always raise their values 10 to 20% a year? What happens to them? Why doesn’t the government want to refinance their mortgages at lower values, but reasonable rates that would allow current owners to keep their rental units or remain in their homes and, if they do so long enough, to regain the position they were in the day they got the original loan? To hell with promises that some day we might get our money back from our investment in Wall Street. We ought to know by now that a snowball in hell would have a better chance.
My ultimate conclusion is that W’s deal stinks. It does nothing for the little guy, but seeks to bail the high rollers out at the little guy’s expense. What should be done is to engineer a government bailout for the citizens who have already suffered from Wall Street’s greed. Devalue the assets and offer discounted mortgages to the homeowners and see how many take the deal. If it lets the Wall Street CEOs go under like the lead hearted sinkers they are, so much the better. Their successors might then understand why they will not be allowed to operate without regulatory oversight.
Maybe then American citizens could feel safe in their homes.
This blog is going to my representatives as a letter this morning. Please consider sending something similar to yours. Here's an easy way to do it: http://congressorg.capwiz.com/congressorg/mailapp/
“Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!” – Patrick Henry
Be the change you wish to see in the world. -- M. K. Gandhi
The reason for going was to keep the crude flowing and raise a false flag abroad. – from a poem by Jack Evans titled 3500 Souls - http://www.myspace.com/paralegal_eagle
Individually we have little voice. Collectively we cannot be ignored.
But in silence we surrender our power. Yours in Peace -- BR
Monday, September 22, 2008
Amy Goodman Charges Dropped
I recently blogged about the arrest of Amy Goodman and her staff in St. Paul at the Republican National Convention. At that time, I signed on to a petition to the City of St. Paul asking that the charges be dropped.
Now they have been, and this morning I received a message from FreePress asking that signers make others aware of their efforts in an attempt to swell their ranks. As this is a group that is effectively fighting against the monopolization of news reporting, I am a supporter and decided to incluse the message below - which FreePress included in their mailing and asked signers to distribut - in the hope that you might consider joining them, too. At the very least, I hope you will take the time to follow the links below and read about the group.
Thanks, dear reader, for all you do to help maintain our freedom and our access to uncensored, undiluted, and unabridged information.
BR
Dear Friend,
Earlier this month, I -- along with 60,000 other members of Free Press
-- signed a letter calling on St. Paul City Hall to drop the charges
against Amy Goodman of Democracy Now! and the other journalists who
were arrested during the Republican National Convention.
Today, we found out that in response to public pressure, all of the
charges were dropped!
I'm writing in hopes that you will join me and the growing media
reform movement by becoming a Free Press "e-activist". It is free,
and takes about 10 seconds:
http://free.convio.net/site/R?i=3xPb6rPvOXax-GBy_ZISxQ..
Free Press is a national, nonpartisan network of people like you and
me who care about the future of our media. It is crucial that we
increase our numbers in the fight for more hard hitting journalism,
and independent media.
Please go to http://free.convio.net/site/R?i=AqAuKBstaA7kN7gRTouy-g..
Note: Free Press is a national nonpartisan organization working to
reform the media. Free Press does not endorse or oppose any candidate
for public office.
Now they have been, and this morning I received a message from FreePress asking that signers make others aware of their efforts in an attempt to swell their ranks. As this is a group that is effectively fighting against the monopolization of news reporting, I am a supporter and decided to incluse the message below - which FreePress included in their mailing and asked signers to distribut - in the hope that you might consider joining them, too. At the very least, I hope you will take the time to follow the links below and read about the group.
Thanks, dear reader, for all you do to help maintain our freedom and our access to uncensored, undiluted, and unabridged information.
BR
Dear Friend,
Earlier this month, I -- along with 60,000 other members of Free Press
-- signed a letter calling on St. Paul City Hall to drop the charges
against Amy Goodman of Democracy Now! and the other journalists who
were arrested during the Republican National Convention.
Today, we found out that in response to public pressure, all of the
charges were dropped!
I'm writing in hopes that you will join me and the growing media
reform movement by becoming a Free Press "e-activist". It is free,
and takes about 10 seconds:
http://free.convio.net/site/R?i=3xPb6rPvOXax-GBy_ZISxQ..
Free Press is a national, nonpartisan network of people like you and
me who care about the future of our media. It is crucial that we
increase our numbers in the fight for more hard hitting journalism,
and independent media.
Please go to http://free.convio.net/site/R?i=AqAuKBstaA7kN7gRTouy-g..
Note: Free Press is a national nonpartisan organization working to
reform the media. Free Press does not endorse or oppose any candidate
for public office.
Friday, September 19, 2008
RETURNING TO MILDER INSANITY?
Sufficient time has passed since the conventions for the “bubble” of emotional support to have passed with it. Polls yesterday showed the Obama has regained the lead in the presidential race, so Palin has paled and McLame is appropriately suffering from his own earlier statements about his incompetence in economic matters. So maybe the country is beginning to turn away from the radically rabid right approach to politics and getting back to asking what the country really needs. America has been a neurotic place for a long time, but for the last forty years it has been sliding into psychosis. Maybe the latest polls indicate a return to less dangerous frames of mind.
We all tire of the political mud slinging in today’s long campaigns, but one good aspect of that length is that there is time in a campaign to see and hear the candidates’ responses to tough situations that arise during the time span. Thanks to the incompetence of the current administration there have been plenty of issues for the candidates to address and plenty of opportunities for us to assess the quality of those responses.
McLame’s response to the tumbling walls of Wall Street was particularly revealing. He wants to fire the head of the Security Exchange Commission and create a new government agency for oversight. The party that always runs on “small government” and accuses the Democrats of favoring big government always grows government instead, and that is McLame’s first reaction.
Obama, on the other hand, advocates firing the whole bunch in charge through the upcoming election – that’s a good idea if I ever heard one – and instead of adding another layer of government, he wants to reinstate the regulations that used to prevent Wall Street’s free wheeling ways before BushCo (thanks to Phil Gramm) removed them immediately after taking office. When Republicans call for smaller government they always only mean less regulation, but regulation is definitely needed, and Obama has put his finger on the pulse of the problem.
You may have already seen the widely distributed email message titled “I’m a Little Confused”, but in case you haven’t I’m copying it here. I think it says about everything anybody needs to know to decide how to vote in November.
Subject: Fwd: I'm a little confused. Let me see if I have this straight.....
If you grow up in Hawaii, raised by your grandparents, you're 'exotic, different.'
Grow up in Alaska eating mooseburgers, a quintessential American story.
If your name is Barack you're a radical, unpatriotic Muslim.
If you name your kids Willow, Trig and Track, you're a maverick. (Palin)
Graduate from Harvard law School and you are unstable.
Attend 5 different small colleges (Palin) before graduating, you're well grounded.
If you (Obama) spend 3 years as a brilliant community organizer, become the first black President of the Harvard Law Review, create a voter registration drive that registers 150,000 new voters, spend 12 years as a Constitutional Law professor, spend 8 years as a State Senator representing a district with over 750,000 people, become chairman of the state Senate's Health and Human Services committee, spend 4 years in the United States Senate representing a state of 13 million people wh ile sponsoring 131 bills and serving on the Foreign Affairs, Environment and Public Works and Veteran's Affairs committees, you don't have any real leadership experience.
If your total resume is: local weather girl, 4 years on the city council and 6 years as the mayor of a town with less than 7,000 people, 20 months as the governor of a state with only 650,000 people, then you're qualified to become the country's second highest ranking executive.
If you (Obama) have been married to the same woman for 19 years while raising 2 beautiful daughters, all within Protestant churches, you're not a real Christian.
If you cheated on your first wife (McCain) with a rich heiress (Cindy), and left your disfigured wife and married the heiress the next month, you're a Christian.
If you teach responsible, age appropriate sex education, including the proper use of birth control, you are eroding the fiber of society.
If, while governor (Palin), you staunchly advocate abstinence only, with no other option in sex education in your state's school system while your unwed teen daughter ends up pregnant, you're very responsible.
If your wife (Michelle) is a Harvard graduate lawyer who gave up a position in a prestigious law firm to work for the betterment of her inner city community, then gave that up to raise a family, your family's values don't represent America 's.
If you're (Palin) husband is nicknamed 'First Dude', with at least one DUI conviction and no college education, who didn't register to vote until age 25 and once was a member of a group that advocated the secession of Alaska from the USA , your family is extremely admirable.
OK, much clearer now. Share the clarity...pass it on!
“Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!” – Patrick Henry
Be the change you wish to see in the world. -- M. K. Gandhi
The reason for going was to keep the crude flowing and raise a false flag abroad. – from a poem by Jack Evans titled 3500 Souls - http://www.myspace.com/paralegal_eagle
Individually we have little voice. Collectively we cannot be ignored.
But in silence we surrender our power. Yours in Peace -- BR
We all tire of the political mud slinging in today’s long campaigns, but one good aspect of that length is that there is time in a campaign to see and hear the candidates’ responses to tough situations that arise during the time span. Thanks to the incompetence of the current administration there have been plenty of issues for the candidates to address and plenty of opportunities for us to assess the quality of those responses.
McLame’s response to the tumbling walls of Wall Street was particularly revealing. He wants to fire the head of the Security Exchange Commission and create a new government agency for oversight. The party that always runs on “small government” and accuses the Democrats of favoring big government always grows government instead, and that is McLame’s first reaction.
Obama, on the other hand, advocates firing the whole bunch in charge through the upcoming election – that’s a good idea if I ever heard one – and instead of adding another layer of government, he wants to reinstate the regulations that used to prevent Wall Street’s free wheeling ways before BushCo (thanks to Phil Gramm) removed them immediately after taking office. When Republicans call for smaller government they always only mean less regulation, but regulation is definitely needed, and Obama has put his finger on the pulse of the problem.
You may have already seen the widely distributed email message titled “I’m a Little Confused”, but in case you haven’t I’m copying it here. I think it says about everything anybody needs to know to decide how to vote in November.
Subject: Fwd: I'm a little confused. Let me see if I have this straight.....
If you grow up in Hawaii, raised by your grandparents, you're 'exotic, different.'
Grow up in Alaska eating mooseburgers, a quintessential American story.
If your name is Barack you're a radical, unpatriotic Muslim.
If you name your kids Willow, Trig and Track, you're a maverick. (Palin)
Graduate from Harvard law School and you are unstable.
Attend 5 different small colleges (Palin) before graduating, you're well grounded.
If you (Obama) spend 3 years as a brilliant community organizer, become the first black President of the Harvard Law Review, create a voter registration drive that registers 150,000 new voters, spend 12 years as a Constitutional Law professor, spend 8 years as a State Senator representing a district with over 750,000 people, become chairman of the state Senate's Health and Human Services committee, spend 4 years in the United States Senate representing a state of 13 million people wh ile sponsoring 131 bills and serving on the Foreign Affairs, Environment and Public Works and Veteran's Affairs committees, you don't have any real leadership experience.
If your total resume is: local weather girl, 4 years on the city council and 6 years as the mayor of a town with less than 7,000 people, 20 months as the governor of a state with only 650,000 people, then you're qualified to become the country's second highest ranking executive.
If you (Obama) have been married to the same woman for 19 years while raising 2 beautiful daughters, all within Protestant churches, you're not a real Christian.
If you cheated on your first wife (McCain) with a rich heiress (Cindy), and left your disfigured wife and married the heiress the next month, you're a Christian.
If you teach responsible, age appropriate sex education, including the proper use of birth control, you are eroding the fiber of society.
If, while governor (Palin), you staunchly advocate abstinence only, with no other option in sex education in your state's school system while your unwed teen daughter ends up pregnant, you're very responsible.
If your wife (Michelle) is a Harvard graduate lawyer who gave up a position in a prestigious law firm to work for the betterment of her inner city community, then gave that up to raise a family, your family's values don't represent America 's.
If you're (Palin) husband is nicknamed 'First Dude', with at least one DUI conviction and no college education, who didn't register to vote until age 25 and once was a member of a group that advocated the secession of Alaska from the USA , your family is extremely admirable.
OK, much clearer now. Share the clarity...pass it on!
“Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!” – Patrick Henry
Be the change you wish to see in the world. -- M. K. Gandhi
The reason for going was to keep the crude flowing and raise a false flag abroad. – from a poem by Jack Evans titled 3500 Souls - http://www.myspace.com/paralegal_eagle
Individually we have little voice. Collectively we cannot be ignored.
But in silence we surrender our power. Yours in Peace -- BR
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
