Happy Celtic New Year

This holiday was the Celtic New Year and Gaelic harvest celebration before Popes Gregory III and Gregory IV moved the old Christian feast of All Saints' Day from May 13 (which had itself been the date of a pagan holiday, the Feast of the Lemures) to November 1 in an attempt to ride the world of non-Christian religions. Some things never change.

What is More Despicable Than The GOP?

I'm serious! Day after day I hear about nasty, nasty, un-American activities condoned by the Republican Party and it really makes me sick that Americans find this acceptable (well, maybe not. This seems to be why life long Republicans who have never voted Democrat are voting for Obama).

I'll start with the nut job from the RNC who carved a letter "B" in her face saying that a large black man did this to her because she had a McCain sticker on her car's bumper. A communications director in Pennsylvania from the McCain Campaign then called media outlets to tell them how to report on this horrendous fabrication. Is that American values?

I'm listening to a Allen Raymond interview on Bill Maher. From Wikipedia:

Raymond told investigators that his former Republican National Committee colleague James Tobin approached him with a plan to tie up the phones of NH Democrats on Election Day 2002, during a close Senate race between Republican John E. Sununu and Democrat Jeanne Shaheen. Raymond collected $15,600 from the NH Republican State Committee and paid a small Idaho telemarketing company $2,300 to make non-stop hangup phone calls to six NH phone lines. Five of these were being used by Democrats to get out the vote; the sixth belonged to the Manchester (NH) Firefighters' Union, which offers non-partisan rides to the polls.

Raymond spent three months in federal prison.

Why can't they just run a clean campaign on the issues? What is wrong with that.

This from Democracy Now!:

GOP Ads Darken Skin of Indian American Dem. Candidate

Republicans in Minnesota are being accused of racism after running attack ads that apparently darken the skin of an Indian American Democrat running for Congress. The Democrat, Ashwin Madia, is a former Marine and Iraq war veteran. Attack ads funded by the National Republican Congressional Committee appear to show him with a darkened complexion. Madia is challenging Republican Erik Paulsen in Minnesota’s third congressional district.

Colorado to Reinstate Thousands of Purged Voters

In voting news, voter rights activists have won another major victory, this time in Colorado. State officials have agreed to reinstate tens of thousands of people whose names had been removed from the rolls. Colorado Secretary of State [Repulican] Mike Coffman said he had removed up to 30,000 voters because they appeared twice on the rolls or had moved out of state. But in a lawsuit against Coffman, the civil rights group the Advancement Project accused of him of an illegal purge. Under a settlement, the removed voters will be able to cast provisional ballots that will be counted unless officials can prove their ineligibility.

I'm not criticising the pre-Reagan fiscal conservatives of my father's Republican party (mostly because I don't know much about them).

Greed is Good!

Oliver stone gave us a bit of foreshadow in 1987 with these Gordon Gekko speeches from the film Wall Street:

I am not a destroyer of companies. I am a liberator of them! The point is, ladies and gentleman, that greed, for lack of a better word, is good. Greed is right, greed works. Greed clarifies, cuts through, and captures the essence of the evolutionary spirit. Greed, in all of its forms; greed for life, for money, for love, knowledge has marked the upward surge of mankind. And greed, you mark my words, will not only save Teldar Paper, but that other malfunctioning corporation called the USA. Thank you very much.

From another scene:

The richest one percent of this country owns half our country's wealth, five trillion dollars. One third of that comes from hard work, two thirds comes from inheritance, interest on interest accumulating to widows and idiot sons and what I do, stock and real estate speculation. It's bullshit. You got ninety percent of the American public out there with little or no net worth. I create nothing. I own. We make the rules, pal. The news, war, peace, famine, upheaval, the price per paper clip. We pick that rabbit out of the hat while everybody sits out there wondering how the hell we did it. Now you're not naive enough to think we're living in a democracy, are you buddy? It's the free market. And you're a part of it. You've got that killer instinct. Stick around pal, I've still got a lot to teach you.

A Return to Our Constitution?

According to my conservative email group, a new one dollar coin is being distributed in the USA without the phrase "In God We Trust." If true, and I seriously have my doubts, then I am ecstatic. It's hard for me to believe that under a Bush government, the people in charge would finally follow the law of this land and separate church and state on our currency.

I'm not sure why these conservatives hate our Constitution, our Supreme Court and Thomas Jefferson so much. George Bush seems to have done his best to ignore or destroy this foundation of our great nation but George Walker and his cronies are on their way out, finally.

The conservative email asks its followers to reject these coins. If you support our Constitution and the foundation the United States was built on, embrace the new one dollar coin. Show these splinter religious fanatics that have taken over the GOP that Americans love the country our forefathers built for us.

A Sad Moment in History?

One of America's greatest filmmakers ten years ago made a beautiful, shocking, happy and sad film about one of the greatest humans breathing Earth's air today. Everyone should run out and rent Martian Scorsese's 1997 Kundun. This spiritual leader asked the help of the dominating power of the Free World at the time (that was us in case you have for some reason forgotten) against a Communist invader in the 1950's and the USA ignored him (except for a possible CIA intervention that may have left 1.2 million Tibetans dead). Now, this Noble Peace Prize winner is giving up his struggle against the seeming next leader of the world, China. What if we went to his people's aid in the 50's just as we went to "bring freedom and democracy to Iraq" under George W?

Excerpts from a BBC.com article:

Dalai Lama 'loses hope' for Tibet

This weekend the Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, told his followers he had lost hope of reaching agreement with China about the future of his homeland.

For decades, the Dalai Lama's approach to China has been cheerfully patient and optimistic.

So the announcement he is giving up attempts to persuade China to grant greater autonomy to Tibet will come as a shock to many.

He has expressed frustration before - and threatened to go into political retirement. But the key question now is what implications this announcement will have.

The full answers may not emerge until after a special meeting of Tibetan exiles, now scheduled for November.

It is clear that frustration in the Tibet camp has rarely been greater.

In the aftermath of the riots in Tibet and surrounding areas earlier in 2008, China promised fresh talks.

Some Tibetans said at the time that they feared this was an empty gesture, merely designed to ease international pressure on Beijing in the run up to the Olympics.

The apparent deadlock in the talks seems to have confirmed those fears.

Despite China's allegations, the Dalai Lama has always stopped short of a demand for full independence.

But pressure for independence has grown amongst a feistier young generation which feels years of attempts at compromise have achieved nothing.

That would have striking implications. His international profile is one of Tibet's strongest cards and the government-in-exile would surely be weakened without his advocacy.

But his absence would also raise the stakes for China. Many see the Dalai Lama as Beijing's best hope - and urge the Chinese to do business with him while they can.

Read more about one of my great heroes here.

Wass Up

This from 60 Frames
(Thanks Grasshopper)

Free Wilco Song

WILCO w/Fleet Foxes

"I shall be Released"

Written by Bob Dylan
Recorded Live in Bend, Oregon
08.23.08

Such tumultuous times. And in the spirit of giveaways that seem to be sweeping the nation, we've got something free for you. No it's not a pile of cash (sorry) but rather an audio postcard of sorts from a summer's night in Oregon with our friends the Fleet Foxes & a lovely Bob Dylan tune. All we ask is you check the "I pledge to vote in the 2008 Election" button below. If you can spare it, we also encourage you to consider a donation to Feeding America. (and please feel free to pass this link along to friends, family members, etc.).

Follow this link: www.wilcoworld.net/vote/

Wow!? part 2

One can't create this kind of stuff. When will Palin just go away? Just when I think I can't be surprised any more, Palin pulls another from her bag of tricks. I'm starting to believe she is a plant from the Democratic party to sink the Republicans. Forget about how absurd she is and think about McCains choice to have her as VP.

MSNBC political analyst Richard Wolfe said Palin's statement about fruit flies "is the most mindless, ignorant, uninformed, comment that we have seen from Governor Palin so far and there's been a lot of competition for that prize."

Do Repulicans Have Souls?

Ok... I'm am trying my hardest to find something honorable with the Republican party. I am serious, I pride myself in my objectivity (I mostly spotlight left views on this blog, a blog of opinion, but I am also a journalist and that training has made me constantly check my objectivity). But, after all the negative ads by McRage, after all the stupidity that has come out of the moose killer, now we have a Republican operative who is attacking Obama for flying as quickly as he can to visit his ill grandmother, the very person who has spent much of her life to raise Barack. The "family values party." This is purely despicable. Please Republicans, find your souls. Please. And if you are on the right and outraged by these imbeciles, denounce these sickos who speak on your behalf.

Wow!?

I am beside myself. Not even sure how to respond. My faith is humanity has taken a hit. Conservative race to the bottom.

This is a McCain campaign worker who has claimed a black man attacked her and carved a letter "B" into her face because she had a McCain bumper sticker on her car. She was not at the ATM where she claimed it happened. The "B" is backwards, the speculation being that she carved it into her own face while looking in the mirror. Sick. America is too weird to comprehend.

When is Terrorism not Terrorism?

The Return of the Taleban?

Why didn't we take care of these guys in 2001? Oh yeah, we decided to invade the sovereign country of Iraq because... um, oh yeah, weapons of mass destruction. Turned out Iraq didn't have WMDs but guess who did: The United States. Many estimate we have killed over one million civilians in Iraq over the last seven years. And the Taleban are gaining strength while Bush still can't find their leader.

From the BBC.com

Taleban insurgents have killed at least 27 people travelling on buses in the southern Afghan province of Kandahar.

A Taleban spokesman said that all those killed in the attacks on three buses were Afghan government soldiers, but officials said they were civilians.

The attacks happened on Thursday but the bodies have only just been found, dumped over a wide area.

A number of the men were beheaded after the attack in the Maiwand district, local and military sources say.

A Taleban spokesman said its fighters had boarded the buses travelling on the province's main highway, removed men identified as soldiers and shot them.

Afghan officials said all the victims were civilians as soldiers travel in military convoys or by plane.

Kandahar province has seen fierce fighting in recent months.

Here is an interesting fact: While the Taleban were in power, only three countries gave them diplomatic recognition: the United Arab Emirates, Pakistan, and Saudi Arabia, all of whom also provided aid to the Taleban. Guess who are allies with all these countries? You got it, the USA!

I'm Truly Scared

I'm not sure what scares me more, that these are my fellow country folk or that this video is playing on Middle Eastern TV.

Why does a Smart President Scare Conservatives?

I'm on a conservative email list and I received this image this morning with the text:

Are You Packed Yet?
Canada's readiness preparedness plan...November 2008

This cracked me up for so many reasons. First, I guess Republicans are accepting that Mc$ame/Palin are done.

Second, I was laughing out loud because Canada is so much more liberal than the USA (don't tell the conservatives, let them find out after they move).

Third, I imagined our country minus the people who are responsible for the nightmare of the last eight years:

Iraq
Abu Graib/torture
WMD
Katrina mess
warrentless wire tapping
Stock Market crash
Alberto Gonzolas
Florida elections
Dick Cheney
Karl Rove
Donald Rumsfeld
surplus to gigantic debt
4185 of our soldiers dead in Iraq
signing statements
our plummeting reputation around the world
health care crisis
end of the American dream (remember the American Dream? Summer home, boat, two cars, a JOB...)

But then I realized that some of my favorite cities such as Montreal and Vancouver would be full of Bush supporters and I stopped laughing.

The Fall of Capitalism

I remember when the Ronald Reagan myth was being created, the one where the fearless cowboy flew like Superman across the Atlantic in his red, white and blue spandex to single handedly punch the lights out of Communism/Socialism. I remember thinking, "this is a survival-of-the-fittest war between Socialism and Capitalism and Socialism died a minute before Capitalism fell to its knees and perished." Well, it seems that minute has passed.

Now we have an airport named after this bad man, but that is besides the point. The point is this: where does capitalism go from here, if it can go anywhere? The banks failed us due to deregulation. This is a fact that most sane people understand. These people who failed us, bankers and politicians on both sides of the isle (if you really still believe there are two sides) are not clipping coupons this morning. They are not wondering how they are going to pay for their x-rays like I was two days ago. They are not wondering how they will support their soon to be retired mother. I promise you, they are not. But, we the tax payers are going to give them over $800 billion for their crimes. Americans are not viewed as the sharpest knives in the cutlery draw.

So our banking system is nationalized (that's a soft word for socialism). We are borrowing money for a socialist country to bail out our failed capitalist system. Let me repeat that with a bolded font isolated on the white 'page' of this blog with the Block Quote button:

We are borrowing money for a Socialist country
to bail out our broken Capitalist Economy!

I have listened to some of the smartest economists in the world and they are all saying the same thing. I don't think this can be debated, at least amongst truthful, non-partisan, half intelligent, sane people.

I bring this up not only for the irony, but also for this question: where do we go from here? Even if this country pulls its head out of its behind and actually elects Obama, how can he turn this country around like Clinton did in the early 80s? That is my question. How?

“Joe the Plumber” Not a Licensed Plumber

Several revelations have come out about “Joe the Plumber” since McCain invoked his name. The Toledo Blade has revealed Wurzelbacher isn’t actually a registered plumber. Wurzelbacher’s company doesn’t have a state plumbing license, and he does not a own license himself. That means he would be unable to operate as a plumber in Ohio. Questions have also been raised if Wurzelbacher is even a registered voter.

Democracy Now!

Who thrust poor Plumber Joe into the spotlight? It wasn't Obama

John McCain today kept on Joe the Plumber, showing he still hopes to gain some traction from the man a day after the world's news media exposed him as an unlicensed labourer who doesn't pay his taxes and would in fact likely benefit under Obama's tax plan.

In Arlington, Virginia today, McCain said Obama had "attacked" Joe Wurzelbacher, and implied Wurzelbacher was suffering media and political scrutiny merely because he asked Obama a tough question. But it's McCain who transformed Wurzelbacher from an anonymous Toledo worker into a campaign gimmick.

McCain said:

We had a good debate this week. You may have noticed -- there was a lot of talk about Senator Obama's tax increases and Joe the Plumber. Last weekend, Senator Obama showed up in Joe's driveway to ask for his vote, and Joe asked Senator Obama a tough question. I'm glad he did; I think Senator Obama could use a few more tough questions.

The response from Senator Obama and his campaign yesterday was to attack Joe. People are digging through his personal life and he has TV crews camped out in front of his house. He didn't ask for Senator Obama to come to his house. He wasn't recruited or prompted by our campaign. He just asked a question. And Americans ought to be able to ask Senator Obama tough questions without being smeared and targeted with political attacks.

McCain's complaint stretches the truth to the point of factual inaccuracy. After all, it was the McCain campaign who turned Wurzelbacher into campaign mascot in Wednesday's debate, though they did not "recruit or prompt" his question for Obama. Had McCain not used Wurzelbacher to criticise Obama's tax plan, the news media would never have taken the first interest in him. Obama meets hundreds of Americans every day.

Does McCain think Americans cannot remember a debate two nights ago?

Meanwhile, initial polling from Gallup shows Joe the Plumber hasn't helped McCain turn the election around. The latest tracking poll has Obama ahead 50% to 43% percent, and "shows little significant change as a result of the debate at this point."

The Guardian

If the World Could Vote

If the world could vote for the president of the USA, Obama would get nearly 100% of the vote according to this Economist Magazine web poll. And why shouldn't they be allowed to vote? When our polititians deregulate the financial markets, the world suffers. When we illegally invade other countries, the world balance is thrown off.

Georgia, Moldova, Macedonia and the Communist island of Cuba are the only four countries that would vote McCain and those are by narrow margins. Interesting website (thanks Thea for sending it).

Hatred and Ignorance in America

Could this be McCain's final Hail Mary? Or, could McCain/Palin stoop any lower? Pure skulduggery. Pure Karl Rove politics. I wonder how many of my Republican friends and family are proud of this?

From the BBC.com (top story from the America's section)

McCain in 'hatred' war of Words

Republican presidential candidate John McCain has become embroiled in a war of words with racial undertones after clashing with a civil rights icon.

John Lewis accused Mr McCain's campaign of "sowing hatred" against opponent Barack Obama and said he was reminded of 1960s segregationist George Wallace.

Mr McCain, who recently said Mr Lewis was one of his most admired Americans, called the reference "beyond the pale".

from Democracy Now!

Study: Nearly All of McCain’s Ads Now Negative

In campaign developments, a new study has found that nearly 100 percent of John McCain’s recent campaign advertisements have been negative. The study by the Wisconsin Advertising Project at the University of Wisconsin examined campaign ads during the week of September 28 through October 4. During the same period, 34 percent of Barack Obama’s ads were negative. On Thursday morning, the McCain campaign issued its first ad tying Obama to the 1960s militant Bill Ayers. During a campaign stop later in the day, McCain accused Obama of having a “clear radical, far-left, pro-abortion record." Senator Barack Obama criticized McCain’s approach during a campaign stop in Dayton, Ohio.

Sen. Obama: “I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but they’re not—they don’t seem to want to talk about the economy. They want to talk about me. And his campaign actually said this. I quote them: they said, ‘If we keep talking about the economy, we’re going to lose.’ Well, I’ve got news for John McCain. This isn’t about losing a campaign; this is about Americans here in Dayton who are losing their jobs and losing their homes and losing their life savings. It’s about young people losing hope and losing direction.”

What is the Point of Having a Constitution?

Military Eavesdropped on Journalists & NGOs in Iraq

And finally, much of the news media is catching up on a story Democracy Now! covered five months ago. On May 13, former Military Intelligence Sergeant Adrienne Kinne appeared on the program and talked about how she was personally ordered to eavesdrop on Americans working for news organizations and NGOs in Iraq.

Adrienne Kinne: “Over the course of my time, as we slowly began to identify phone numbers and who belonged to what, one thing that gave me grave concern was that, as we identified phone numbers, we started to find more and more and more numbers that belonged not to any organizations affiliated with terrorism or with military—with militaries of Iraq or Afghanistan or elsewhere, but with humanitarian aid organizations, non-governmental organizations, who include the International Red Cross, Red Crescent, Doctors Without Borders, a whole host of humanitarian aid organizations. And it also included journalists.”

Last night, Adrienne Kinne and another military linguist appeared on this ABC News report.

Brian Ross, ABC News: “This is the first time any of the actual intercept operators, the people who listen in and record phone calls on behalf of US intelligence agencies, the first time any of them has come forward. President Bush says they only listen to Americans if it involves al-Qaeda. These two say, ‘Not true.’”

During her interview in May on Democracy Now!, Adrienne Kinne also revealed that she saw secret US military documents that listed the Palestine Hotel in Baghdad as a possible target, even though it was filled with journalists. In 2003, the US military shelled the hotel, killing two journalists: Reuters cameraman Taras Protsyuk and Jose Couso, a cameraman for the Spanish television network Telecinco. The military has maintained the shelling was accidental.

Adrienne Kinne: “One of the instances was the fact that we were listening to journalists who were staying in the Palestine Hotel. And I remember that, specifically because during the buildup to Shock and Awe, which people in my unit were really disturbingly excited about, we were given a list of potential targets in Baghdad, and the Palestine Hotel was listed as a potential target. And I remember this specifically, because, putting one and one together, that there were journalists staying at the Palestine Hotel and this hotel was listed as a potential target, I went to my officer in charge, and I told him that there are journalists staying at this hotel who think they’re safe, and yet we have this hotel listed as a potential target, and somehow the dots are not being connected here, and shouldn’t we make an effort to make sure that the right people know the situation? And unfortunately, my officer in charge, similarly to any time I raised concerns about things that we were collecting or intelligence that we were reporting, basically told me that it was not my job to analyze, it was my job to collect and pass on information, and that someone, somewhere higher up the chain, knew what they were doing.”

More of Our Tax Dollars to Iraq

Sen. Webb Calls on Pentagon to Cancel $300M Iraq Propaganda Program

The Army Times is reporting Democratic Senator Jim Webb of Virginia is asking the Pentagon to halt a $300 million program to produce pro-American news and public service messages in Iraq. Webb said, “At a time when this country is facing such a grave economic crisis…it makes little sense for the Department of Defense to be spending hundreds of millions of dollars to propagandize the Iraqi people.” The Pentagon recently awarded a total of $300 million in new contracts to four contractors to produce pro-US propaganda for Iraqi audiences. The contractors are the Washington-based Lincoln Group, the LA-based Leonie Industries, as well as MPRI and SOSI, both based in Virginia.

From Democracy Now!

US Debt Clock Runs Out of Digits

The US government's debts have ballooned so badly the National Debt Clock in New York has run out of digits to record the spiralling figure.

The digital counter marks the national debt level, but when that passed the $10 trillion point last month, the sign could not display the full amount.

The board was erected to highlight the $2.7 trillion level of debt in 1989.

The clock's owners say two more zeros will be added, allowing the clock to record a quadrillion dollars of debt.

Douglas Durst, son of the late Seymour Durst - the clock's inventor - hopes to replace the Manhattan clock with its lengthier replacement early next year.

For the time being, the Times Square counter's electronic dollar sign has been replaced with the extra digit required.

For its part, the digital dollar symbol has been supplanted by a cheaper version - perhaps a sign of the times for the American economy.

Some economists believe the $700bn bail-out plan for ailing US financial institutions could send the national debt level to $11 trillion.

from the BBC.com

To Lie is Patriotic

I asked and someone built it. A websites collecting the many lies from McSame & the Hockey Mom. It is truly amazing. Staggering. How can these two get away with this?

I guess when we live in a country where your leaders blatently lie to the citizens about WMD and then engage the people in a war that took the lives of over 4,000 of our soldiers (4,180 to date actually), hundreds of thousands of Iraq civilian lives (maybe over a million) and billions of our tax dollars (not to mention torture, ignoring the constitution, etc.), politicians realize they can do anything.

Here are a few from Pinocchio Polititics (all of these statements have links to back them at the website):

McCain tried to reform Fannie Mae

ACTUALLY: McCain only supported *a report* on Fannie/Freddie corruption. Meanwhile, his staff lobbied for deregulation of both.

Obama will raise your taxes.

ACTUALLY: Obama's tax plan lowers taxes for 95% of middle class families.

McCain “never asked for a single earmark.”

ACTUALLY: McCain hauled in pork for Arizona -- most recently a $10 million academic center to honor the Justice Rehnquist.

Obama voted against funding the troops.

ACTUALLY: Obama voted to fund the troops 10 times. Both McCain & Obama have voted against funding when attached to larger bills they opposed.

Palin “vetoed millions of earmarks.”

ACTUALLY: Governors can’t veto earmarks; this year alone, Palin pushed for $197 million in earmarks.

Alaska Produces 20% of US Energy

ACTUALLY : Alaska produces just 3.5%. Neither fact means Palin is qualified.

McCain's Economic History is Shocking!

"Keating Economics: the Making of a Financial Crisis" is a documentary that shows why John McCain's failed philosophy and poor judgment are a recipe for deepening the economic crisis.

Don't Vote

Some funny and not very work friendly stuff in here. Wear headphones if the boss is around.

"Capitalism is Devouring Humanity"

A close friend of mine who wishes to remain anonymous wrote to me today:

I would like to know exactly how this $700 billion dollars will help our citizen (meaning people living below the middle income bracket). A source has argued that this $700 billion bailout is nothing but to protect big business that got caught in this financial mess. He also made a great point that, all these International Banks that have branches here in US will be able to funnel their toxic assets (such as mortgage securities that are wrecking havoc in the US financial system) here in to the US and that they can wipe out these toxic asset by doing so. Any comments on this?

Truth is I don't know a lot about these toxic assets

I also don't really know what $700,000,000,000 is. The Honduran President José Manuel Zelaya Rosales has some idea in this comment he made to the United Nations:

Today when they rush in to save the big banks from failure in a crisis created by speculative and fraudulent capital, to the value of some $700 billion, we must remind them that with just a third of that amount poverty could be eliminated in Africa, America and Asia.

Zelaya Rosales went on to say:

Capitalism is devouring humanity, especially the poor and the very capital that created it.

I did find this by the Roubini Global Economics Monitor:

A recent IMF study of 42 systemic banking crises across the world provides evidence on how different crises were resolved. First of all only in 32 of the 42 cases there was government financial intervention of any sort; in 10 cases systemic banking crises were resolved without any government financial intervention. Of the 32 cases where the government recapitalized the banking system only seven included a program of purchase of bad assets/loans (like the one proposed by the US Treasury). In 25 other cases there was no government purchase of such toxic assets. In 6 cases the government purchased preferred shares; in 4 cases the government purchased common shares; in 11 cases the government purchased subordinated debt; in 12 cases the government injected cash in the banks; in 2 cases credit was extended to the banks; and in 3 cases the government assumed bank liabilities. Even in cases where bad assets were purchased – as in Chile – dividends were suspended and all profits and recoveries had to be used to repurchase the bad assets. Of course in most cases multiple forms of government recapitalization of banks were used.

But government purchase of bad assets was the exception rather than the rule. It was used only in Mexico, Japan, Bolivia, Czech Republic, Jamaica, Malaysia, and Paraguay. Even in six of these seven cases where the recapitalization of banks occurred via the government purchase of bad assets such recapitalization was a combination of purchase of bad assets together with other forms of recapitalization (such as government purchase of preferred shares or subordinated debt).

In the Scandinavian banking crises (Sweden, Norway, Finland) that are a model of how a banking crisis should be resolved there was not government purchase of bad assets; most of the recapitalization occurred through various injections of public capital in the banking system. Purchase of toxic assets instead – in most cases in which it was used – made the fiscal cost of the crisis much higher and expensive (as in Japan and Mexico).

Thus the claim by the Fed and Treasury that spending $700 billion of public money is the best way to recapitalize banks has absolutely no factual basis or justification. This way of recapitalizing financial institutions is a total rip-off that will mostly benefit – at a huge expense for the US taxpayer - the common and preferred shareholders and even unsecured creditors of the banks. Even the late addition of some warrants that the government will get in exchange of this massive injection of public money is only a cosmetic fig leaf of dubious value as the form and size of such warrants is totally vague and fuzzy.

Really? Palin... Really?

from Boing Boing

Blame the Jews (says Sarah)

I'm joking here of course, and so is Sarah, but this is a must-see, humorous video. Some adult language and topics in this one so don't watch this you under-18s, as I know you've never heard these words before ;-)


The Great Schlep from The Great Schlep on Vimeo.

Paid for by the Jewish Council for Education and Research, www.jcer.info,
not authorized by any candidate or candidates committee.

note Oct. 7, 2008: New York Times says The Great Schlep has had over 7 million views in two weeks!

End of an Empire?

While our politicians and government downplay or even deny our financial problems, foreign media states it plain and simple.

Check out this great Howard Zinn video on America the Empire:

Voting Has Started in Ohio

Please, please make sure you are registered to vote. In California, you can find out if you are registered in about 3 minutes at this site: Vote For Change.

Voting as already begun in Ohio and this NPR radio story gave me some hope: Quirk in Ohio Law Permits Same-Day Voting. You can stream this story for free at that site.

Here is a good streaming NPR story about ex-pats voting in Isreal: Obama, McCain Court Voters in Isreal.

Please checked that you are registered TODAY! Our country could depend on it.