upside down… or, looking down from up

upside down… or, looking down from up 22 November 2008

Posted by marisacat in Inconvenient Voice of the Voter, UK, WAR!.
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Someone sleeping in the sun at the foot of Nelson’s Column [Picture: BLOM AEROFILMS via UK Telegraph]

…from a series of overhead shots of London, at the Telegraph Picture Galleries – uncropped version.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Must be the Feast Day of the Holy Slow Moving Snail:

More than 40 years after Christians were infuriated by the Beatles’ claim that they were “more popular than Jesus”, the Roman Catholic Church has made peace with the Fab Four.

…

Saturday’s edition of the Vatican’s official newspaper absolves John Lennon of his notorious remark, saying that “after so many years it sounds merely like the boasting of an English working-class lad struggling to cope with unexpected success”.

Marvy.

^^^^

Bomb bomb bomb bomb… bomb… someone:

A key figure in the 2006 trans-Atlantic liquid bomb plot, Rashid Rauf, has been killed by a US missile in Pakistan, local officials say.

For more details: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news

And we all know the great carry-on-liquids-scare, that had ready to go coppers at the UK airports in a heart beat with rules and dogs and guns and more rules, even making nursing mothers toss expressed milk in the trash — was so real… We are drowning in fictions.

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Comments»

1. Intermittent Bystander - 22 November 2008: “I always remember to thank Jesus for the end of my touring days; if I hadn’t said that the Beatles were ‘bigger than Jesus’ and upset the very Christian Ku Klux Klan, well, Lord, I might still be up there with all the other performing fleas! God bless America. Thank you, Jesus.”

(1978)

Update from the wholesome heart-and-homeland,

Musical at Iowa college acts out scary Bible tales.

Cannibalism, rape, a bear that mauls children — this is the Bible?

They’re among six stories from the Old Testament acted out in “Terror Texts,” a musical at Northwestern College in Orange City.

Adding to the shocking nature of the stories are the theatrics, with actors decked out in Goth attire, a rock band and a mosh pit.

::slash, snip::

Barker views the Bible as a “repository of ancient plays,” and when performed they can be seen in a whole new light — even the dark stories.

“I was looking for terror text, stories I can say are thematically tied together because they are frightening and mysterious and terrifying,” Barker said. “That’s part of what we’re saying with this whole project that life and God himself are mysteries.”

::rip, snip::

“These mysterious, dark stories of the Old Testament, they bring us face-to-face with the suffering of the world,” Barker said. “It says we are capable of great evil and we must not forget these stories and we have some serious things to be accountable for in our own lives as a group and individually.”

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2. Madman in the Marketplace - 22 November 2008: RFLMAO: Pope Spoke About Imminent Market Collapse Back in 1985

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3. Madman in the Marketplace - 22 November 2008: Is she serious? Like THIS is gonna happen:

Time for Him to Go

By GAIL COLLINS

Thanksgiving is next week, and President Bush could make it a really special holiday by resigning.

Seriously. We have an economy that’s crashing and a vacuum at the top. Bush — who is currently on a trip to Peru to meet with Asian leaders who no longer care what he thinks — hasn’t got the clout, or possibly even the energy, to do anything useful. His most recent contribution to resolving the fiscal crisis was lecturing representatives of the world’s most important economies on the glories of free-market capitalism.

Putting Barack Obama in charge immediately isn’t impossible. Dick Cheney, obviously, would have to quit as well as Bush. In fact, just to be on the safe side, the vice president ought to turn in his resignation first. (We’re desperate, but not crazy.) Then House Speaker Nancy Pelosi would become president until Jan. 20. Obviously, she’d defer to her party’s incoming chief executive, and Barack Obama could begin governing.

As a bonus, the Pelosi presidency would put a woman in the White House this year after all. On the downside, a few right-wing talk-show hosts might succumb to apoplexy. That would, of course, be terrible, but I’m afraid we might have to take the risk in the name of a greater good.

Can I see a show of hands? How many people want George W. out and Barack in?

LMAO

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4. Madman in the Marketplace - 22 November 2008: Theater of War: Portrait of a Homeland Security State

“It seemed like a good idea. Who wouldn’t want training? If it’s going to resemble what they would encounter, that could be a good thing. But there are no boundaries. It’s an opportunity for fantasies to just rage. A public affairs officer said they thought it would be helpful to simulate the smell of Iraq. So they tried that in a small part of village. It didn’t really work. But it wasn’t a joke, it was a serious discussion.”

There’s nothing imaginary about the money that goes into these exercises. Berman’s photographs underscore the fact that counterterrorism is big business.

“[The staff of Fort Polk] are looking for more work; anything goes. The point I’m trying to make is that it has become a real business.”

Indeed, there’s a lot of money available for homeland security, so many people have a vested interest in dramatizing the threat — and many of the subjects in Homeland have a vested interest in maximizing their drama, whether it’s the officers at Fort Polk sniffing out funding opportunities, a local police department beefing up its SWAT teams, or a Neighborhood Watch captain writing grants to hire his friends to patrol his small town for terrorists.

Berman recalls a conversation she had with a gun dealer in Orlando, Fla., who was trying to sell very long sniper rifles to a civilian police department in the name of counterterrorism. She asked why the police would need such a weapon. The gun dealer responded by presenting a highly complex scenario involving terrorists on a boat filled with explosives in the river preparing to ram into some seaside structure. In that case, he asked Berman, wouldn’t she want the police officers to have extra-long sniper rifles?

“How do you answer that question? You’ve got to answer, ‘I want one weapon; I want five weapons!’ If the answer no, you’re a traitor. The point is why ask that question? Is that a valid question?”

Of course, if you’re going to simulate terror, it’s important to document the artifice exhaustively, to convince everyone that more money is needed to simulate bigger threats.

“The military was photographing everything,” Berman says of another training exercise she photographed for the book. “They had crews with really good video cameras and really good still cameras photographing everything so they could show Congress — this is what they told me — to get more money for training.”

The book also shows how homeland security is blurring the lines between the military and the police. A number of photographs show police officers participating in exercises that seem more suited to the Special Forces than to civilian policing.

“The SWAT units look like, and are armed like and behave like, paramilitary forces,” Berman says. Even police dogs are getting makeovers. In the book, we see a Florida women’s group beaming at K-9 unit “Santo,” resplendent in his new Kevlar body armor emblazoned with the word “SHERIFF.”

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5. Madman in the Marketplace - 22 November 2008: oh, and this is spot on (from the link above):

“There’s some added value in seeing yourself as a target,” says Berman. “If you feel like a terrorist is trying to kill you all the time, you must be a very important person.”

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6. marisacat - 22 November 2008: Gail acts like this is some chldrens’ party..

How many people want little W to give Barack his presents, his extra presents? Show of hands?

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7. Madman in the Marketplace - 22 November 2008: I was just watching video of Bush lecturing in Peru about how terrible protectionism is, free market uber alles etc.

two more months, and then the “change” that isn’t. Woo hoo!

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8. Madman in the Marketplace - 22 November 2008: Global Warming Explained

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9. Madman in the Marketplace - 22 November 2008: Clare Boothe Luce Policy Institute’s hot conservative women calendar

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10. marisacat - 22 November 2008: I saw that the other night, the Touch of Mink or Pretty in Mink or whatever it was calendar.

Yesh.

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11. marisacat - 22 November 2008: This Week: Incoming Obama White House senior adviser Axelrod, Sens. Schumer and Shelby

Fox News Sunday: Axelrod, Reps. Hoyer and Boehner

Meet the Press: Sen. Lieberman, former Secretary of State Baker, former Commerce Secretary Daley

Face the Nation: Rep. Pelosi

Late Edition: Sen. Levin, Gov. Granholm, former Labor Secretary Reich

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12. Madman in the Marketplace - 22 November 2008: Dear “conservative” students

That said, we *do* hate you. But we do so because you are smug little twits and because you think that your 18-year old libertarian nonsense is (1) conservative: (2) coherent; (3) something we haven’t thought of; (4) self-evidently true and obvious.

Really. Wipe that smirk off your face and quit with the weird superiority/persecution complex, already. It’s irritating.

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13. marisacat - 22 November 2008: Greider in The Nation. I was there last night and did not see this. Glad I found it, he must be the last substantial, and thus valuable, writer left at that hack joint.

[H]ere is the ugly, unofficial truth that neither Wall Street nor the government will acknowledge: the pinnacle of the US financial system is broke–with perhaps $2 trillion in rotten financial assets on the books. Nobody knows, exactly. The bankers won’t say, and regulators won’t ask, or at least don’t dare tell the public. Official silence naturally feeds the conviction that banking’s problems are far worse than we’ve been told. The Levy Economics Institute of Bard College puts it plainly: “It is probable that many and perhaps most financial institutions are insolvent today–with a black hole of negative net worth that would swallow Paulson’s entire $700 billion in one gulp.”

…

President-elect Obama, of course, cannot act directly on any of these matters before January 20. But the Democratic Congress can, since the Treasury cannot spend any of the next $350 billion in the bailout fund without Congressional approval. Congress’s first task is to cut off Paulson’s water. Representative Dennis Kucinich, as usual, is out front demanding that Congress reject Paulson’s request in advance. You can see why Wall Street hates these propositions. No more free money from Washington. No more “masters of the universe.” You can also see why the people might be delighted.

I’m gonna keep breathing. It means I might outlive the Era Of Obamanomics. The Age of Ob too. I can’t outlive a corrupt congress, tho. Can’t outlive the wars…

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14. marisacat - 22 November 2008: From the Politico email:

GM BANKRUPTCY? – WSJ A1: ‘Members of General Motors Corp.’s board of directors are willing to consider ‘all options’ for the ailing auto maker, including an eventual filing for bankruptcy protection, a stance that puts them in rare disagreement with Chairman and Chief Executive Rick Wagoner, people familiar with the matter said.

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15. marisacat - 22 November 2008: This looks to be a bit more complete list than in # 11 (does it matter, LOL):

ABC’s ‘This Week’ – David Axelrod, senior adviser to President-elect Barack Obama; Sens. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Richard Shelby, R-Ala.

CBS’ ‘Face the Nation’ – House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.; Austan Goolsbee, economic adviser to Obama.

NBC’s ‘Meet the Press’ – Former Secretary of State James Baker; former Commerce Secretary William Daley; Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn.

CNN’s ‘Late Edition’ – Sens. Carl Levin, D-Mich., and Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas; Gov. Jennifer Granholm, D-Mich.; former Gov. Mitt Romney, R-Mass.; Forbes Inc. CEO Steve Forbes; former Labor Secretary Robert Reich.

‘Fox News Sunday’ – Reps. Steny Hoyer, D-Md., and John Boehner, R-Ohio; Axelrod

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16. marisacat - 22 November 2008: Eric Holder, CNN interview in May of 2002:

One of the things we clearly want to do with these prisoners is to have an ability to interrogate them and find out what their future plans might be, where other cells are located; under the Geneva Convention that you are really limited in the amount of information that you can elicit from people.

It seems to me that given the way in which they have conducted themselves, however, that they are not, in fact, people entitled to the protection of the Geneva Convention. They are not prisoners of war. If, for instance, Mohamed Atta had survived the attack on the World Trade Center, would we now be calling him a prisoner of war? I think not. Should Zacarias Moussaoui be called a prisoner of war? Again, I think not.

Cliff May at The Corner is quite happy. Hopes Holder still feels the same way.

We are surrounded by shits.

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17. Intermittent Bystander - 22 November 2008: Starting now, BBC Radio 2:
40th Anniversary Of The White Album.

To mark the 40th anniversary of the release of The Beatles’ White album, the producers, engineers and technicians who worked on the LP recall their contributions.

Presented by Elbow’s Guy Garvey, and featuring classic tracks from the album, the show includes contributions from George Martin, Noel Gallagher and Bryan Adams.

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18. Madman in the Marketplace - 22 November 2008: Latest Possible Hillary Successor is Leecia Eve

It seems like sources close to Governor Paterson are playing a game of “America’s Next Top (Junior) Senator” the way they leak a new candidate to the media every couple of days. Today’s contestant is the Charlie Rangel-supported Leecia Eve, an attorney who served as a policy adviser and worked on the presidential campaign for Senator Clinton. She also fits two of the demographics Paterson is said to be courting with the pick–an upstater (she’s from Buffalo) and a woman (see photo). Now if only Eve found a long-lost Latino ancestor, she’d surely be a shoe-in.

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19. Madman in the Marketplace - 22 November 2008: Maryland State Legislator and Sponsor of Anti-Child Predator Act Sentenced to Three Years for Child Pornography

Former Republican legislator Robert A. McKee, 59, has been sentencing to more than three years in prison for possession of child pornography. McKee was not just a First Christian Church trustee and executive director of the Hagerstown Big Brothers Big Sisters — he was a key sponsor of the Child Protection from Predators Act this year.

He was facing a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. He expressed regret and contrition at the hearing: “In the eyes of the law, I committed a crime. In the eyes of God, I committed a sin.” McKee is unmarried but the legal guardian of a 16-year-old girl in 2006, who he met and adopted the girl through his work with Big Brothers and Big Sisters.

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20. marisacat - 22 November 2008: Asia Times on the Somali piracy.

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21. Madman in the Marketplace - 22 November 2008: Somali Piracy for Newbies

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22. Madman in the Marketplace - 22 November 2008: Teen Kills Self on Justin.tv

About 185 people were viewing the feed on the San Francisco-based live-streaming service. The teen had announced his pending suicide on a bodybuilding.com chat forum, which linked to the broadcast. He left an online suicide note. Viewers were seen egging him on.

The chat’s moderator called the authorities, Baker said, and police broke into the residence.

Justin.tv CEO Michael Seibel said in an e-mail: “We regret that this has occurred and respect the privacy of the broadcaster and his family during this time. We have policies in place to discourage the distribution of distressing content, and our community monitors the site accordingly. This content was flagged by our community, reviewed, and removed according to our terms of service.”

Public suicides are common; people jump from bridges and buildings. But the phenomenon is now encroaching on to the global arena offered by the internet. A British man suffered the same fate two years ago after being goaded to hang himself while in a webcam chatroom. And the net is also a known medium for organizing suicide pacts.

While online viewers watched a police officer prodding the Florida teen to see if he was alive, their chat comments ranged from OMG to LOL.

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23. NYCO - 22 November 2008: Oh man oh man…

Fixing NYC’s water supply.

The most immediate tasks are to fix a valve at the bottom of a 700-foot shaft in Dutchess County so pumps will eventually be able to drain the tunnel, and to ensure that the tunnel does not crack or collapse while it is empty.

For this, the city has enlisted six deep-sea divers who are living for more than a month in a sealed 24-foot tubular pressurized tank complete with showers, a television and a Nerf basketball hoop, breathing air that is 97.5 percent helium and 2.5 percent oxygen, so their high-pitched squeals are all but unintelligible to visitors. They leave the tank only to transfer to a diving bell that is lowered 70 stories into the earth, where they work 12-hour shifts, with each man taking a four-hour turn hacking away at concrete to expose the valve.

Wondering if people really think about this sort of thing when they talk about how “sustainable” big cities are. These repair explorations are taking place because the ancient NYC water system is leaking 20 to 36 million gallons a day.

Hats off to NYC’s sand hogs and divers…

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24. Intermittent Bystander - 22 November 2008: Some rather fun kids’ music by three Seattle teachers called Recess Monkey.

Most recent album is called Tabby Road. Tracks include “Kitty Sister,” “My Yeti’s So Cool,” and “Boogie Monster.”

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25. mattes - 22 November 2008: #13:

The black hole in financial markets
By David P Goldman

Subprime mortgages were the beginning, not the end, of a global financial crisis, and in recognition of this fact equity markets have crashed. The proximate cause of this week’s retreat in equity markets to the lowest levels since the 1990s was the collapse of loans to American commercial real estate, which in turn implies the collapse of insurance companies and pension funds. Americans who relied on private pension funds, whether through their employer or insurance companies
, will lose part or all of their pensions.

More coming:

http://www.atimes.com/atimes
/Global_Economy%5CJK22Dj01.html

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26. bayprairie - 22 November 2008: oh goodie. the merry season must have officially begun!

Mad Max and the Meltdown
How we went from Christmas to crisis.
By DANIEL HENNINGER

Notwithstanding the cardboard Santas who seem to have arrived in stores this year near Halloween, the holiday season starts in seven days with Thanksgiving. And so it will come to pass once again that many people will spend four weeks biting on tongues lest they say “Merry Christmas” and perchance, give offense. Christmas, the holiday that dare not speak its name.
[Wonder Land] Warner Bros./Kobal Collection

This year we celebrate the desacralized “holidays” amid what is for many unprecedented economic ruin — fortunes halved, jobs lost, homes foreclosed. People wonder, What happened? One man’s theory: A nation whose people can’t say “Merry Christmas” is a nation capable of ruining its own economy.

happy holidays you heathens!

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27. Intermittent Bystander - 22 November 2008: Jack Frost has certainly reported for New York-nipping duty . . . 22 degrees hereabouts, currently. Must nudge landlord re promised replacement of gapingly drafty front door.

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28. Madman in the Marketplace - 22 November 2008: so the facts that we hate and fear each other and as a society we think greed and violence solves problems haven’t gotten us into this mess … it was clerks supposedly not say Merry Xmas?!?!

Who the frak are these people?

Responsibility and restraint are moral sentiments. Remorse is a product of conscience. None of these grow on trees. Each must be learned, taught, passed down. And so we come back to the disappearance of “Merry Christmas.”

RFLMAO!

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29. Intermittent Bystander - 22 November 2008: Who the frak are these people?

I believe they’re the chestnut-roasting faction of Winger World.

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30. Intermittent Bystander - 22 November 2008: Future White House spokesteam: Director of Communications Ellen Moran (currently executive director of EMILY’s list), Deputy Director Dan Pfeiffer, Press Secretary Robert Gibbs.

June 08 (post-primary) interview with Moran: EMILY’s List in the Aftermath.

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31. Intermittent Bystander - 22 November 2008: I think Jack Frost and future WH spokespeople are tangled up in WordPress blue.

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32. Madman in the Marketplace - 22 November 2008: 30 – the steaming piles of change just keep growing, don’t they?

population of the US: over 305 Million

“talent” pool for gov’t service: apparently only around a few hundred.

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33. marisacat - 22 November 2008: sorry ib… putting chick breasts in the oven, got it out now…

All I can say is play the record. And REALLY done to tamp the wimmens down. Emily’s List is such OLD NEWS.

My standing joke about them is, their cause is to support women, who support abortion, for congress… but if you (the prospective woman) have trouble spelling abortion they will help you thru. All yo have to do is say ”I support choice” and vote for every damned prohibition or snafu fubar laden bill that comes down.

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34. marisacat - 22 November 2008: that christmas stuff is so old, comes down every year from the right, from OReilly.

avoiding “Merry Christmas”, here, was done, as of decades ago, to placate Jews. To be blunt. They now as of the early 80s have a full size menorah in Union Sq at Chtistmas, to stand beside the usually quite beautiful tree that is put up…

And at least at my law firm, in a big range of 4 buildings, The Embarcadero Center, that rose above underground garages and then two open air mezzanines of shops with walkways between all 4 buildings… the full stop that was put to Christmas music, and I don’t mind it, if there is some effort to pick well and the center had tried (I give them that)… was done by an atty at my firm, one I liked a lot, an observant Jew from Passaic. And I do mean full stop. It was turned off. Now what the ultimate implied threat was I don’t know. He had friends and contacts in the JDL.

Frankly I would nto have done that to the merchants.

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35. Intermittent Bystander - 22 November 2008: Thanks!

putting chick breasts in the oven

What, NO CHESTNUTS?!!!

::picks up Hollyberry communications device, dials Dept of Yuletide Security::

Steaming piles of change . . . yepperoo . . . Viva Insularność!

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36. marisacat - 22 November 2008: oh I so wish I could go downtown some chilly day and smell roasting chestnuts… It never caught on here. Sad to say… I would guess it might make an appearance at a farmer’s market, probably inland where they grow, as an incentive to buy.. but nto street corner sellers in the city, in fall.

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37. Madman in the Marketplace - 22 November 2008: I only was told to say “Happy Holidays” in one store I worked in, and it was near the diamond district in NYC. Even THAT would set off the hardcore hasidim. Those guys were fucking nuts.

I despise religious nuts.

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38. Madman in the Marketplace - 22 November 2008: I eventually settled on happy solstice, myself.

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39. Intermittent Bystander - 22 November 2008: I think I like the look and smell of roasting chestnuts better than I like the actual taste. A bit bland, if I remember right, despite the rich impression.

BTW – Betcha the Emily’s List pick will still manage to set some Palin Pals fuming.

Speaking of religious nuts and rich impressions . . . a single check-up by a Saudi royal at the Mayo clinic nets Rochester, MN 1.5 million, locals estimated.

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40. marisacat - 22 November 2008: Also if Ellen Moran is the longstanding head of Emily’s List and not some newer board member or officer, she is (pardon the expression) OLD.

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41. Intermittent Bystander - 22 November 2008: The French health care story you posted the other day was great, Marisacat. Interesting to see the only restrictions imposed – gotta be close enough for a house call, if needed!

As it happens, I read that link the same day that a psychotherapist family member described to me the current crisis of one of her clients – a crushingly, biologically depressed and suicidal new mother, under constant extended family surveillance at home, because her first post-partum hospital stay had already used up her “insurance” plan’s 30 days of in-patient mental health benefits. Family can’t afford to take her back, so they’re monitoring her (and the new baby) 24/7, in shifts.

Different sort of in-house, on-call altogether.

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42. Intermittent Bystander - 22 November 2008: 40 – Forty-two, according to the Truthdig link above. From Wiki (locked down tight, for now, I’m sure):

This was Moran’s second tenure at EMILY’s List, rejoining the organization from the AFL-CIO where she coordinated Wal-Mart corporate accountability activities and served in the Political Department. In 2004, she took a leave of absence from the AFL-CIO to direct independent expenditures for the Democratic National Committee, managing placement of presidential advertising and directed television, radio, mail, and phoning efforts in 20 states.

In 2000, Moran directed the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee’s $50 million issue advocacy campaign. Moran’s political experience includes managing campaigns for governor, U.S. Senate, and U.S. House; working on the national campaign staff of Tom Harkin’s 1992 presidential campaign; helping plan both Clinton inaugurals; and conducting international democracy work in Indonesia for the U.S. Agency for International Development. In 1993, Moran designed EMILY’s List’s campaign staff training program and served as its first director.

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43. Madman in the Marketplace - 22 November 2008: Bolivian President Evo Morales, on his first visit to Washington, addressed the Organization of American States (OAS)

EVO MORALES, BOLIVIAN PRESIDENT (SUBTITLED TRANSLATION): We got where we are first of all because of mistakes by the right, and also because of the mistakes of the US Embassy, but also because of the conscience of the Bolivian people. Until recently, the Armed Forces have been paying the invoice of the military dictatorships. In the new constitution—forgive me if you North Americans do not agree with this—we decided that it’s unacceptable to have any foreign military bases in Bolivia. I praise the fact that our Armed Forces respect the Constitution and democracy. This is changing Latin America. I think there won’t be any more military coups after Venezuela. We have to fight against narco-trafficking, but not by sending the CIA or the national police or the army, or suppress demonstrations by the cocalero peasant movement. Cocaine, the drug, is not part of the indigenous culture. If we’re talking about a drug, it’s alcoholism, not cocaine. This constitution recognizes the coca leaf as a natural product.

ESCOBAR: Evo was very forceful on the partial nationalization of the oil and gas industry in Bolivia.

MORALES: Some technicians told me, “You need to nationalize, but you cannot interfere with companies’ profits.” Others told me 60 percent for the state and 40 percent for the companies. At the most they said 70 percent for the state and 30 percent for the companies. So I said, “Why not change it all? Eighty-two percent for the state and 18 percent for the companies.” This change, post-nationalization, improved the national economy. In 2005, the last year of the neoliberal governments, we got only 300 million dollars from oil and gas revenues. Last year we got 2 billion dollars. For a country of 10 million people, this money allows us to increasingly solve our problems, distributed in local governments, municipalities, public universities. Nationalization allowed us not to have a fiscal deficit. In the first year of my government, 2006, we had a surplus. Same for the second year and for this year. This year we are eradicating illiteracy. Before December 2005 we will declare Bolivia an illiteracy-free territory. We keep making progress.

ESCOBAR: He explained what indigenous democracy and the new Bolivian constitution are all about.

MORALES: In indigenous democracy there are no majorities and minorities. This is a concept imported from the West. Indigenous democracy is all about consensus: if there is a problem, there is a proposal; and if that satisfies everybody, it’s approved by consensus. I’m here in the United States to thank the international community for recognizing we were right in Bolivia. The national government will guarantee a united Bolivia with autonomies departmental, regional, and indigenous. We have to reconcile the autonomous statutes with the new constitution—a pluri-national state, home for mestizos, Criollos, Aymaras, Quechuas, blacks, all. And we are also betting on a plural economy with respect for private property, state property, and communal property, the collective property of cooperative associations. We decided that basic services—water, electricity, telephones—are a human right and as such cannot be private enterprises. How is it possible for water to become a private business? In this new Bolivian constitution we state that basic services are a human right, thus have to be a public service. I think this makes the Bolivian Constitution very progressive.

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44. Intermittent Bystander - 22 November 2008: Bio at EMILY’s List is mostly identical to Wiki, but adds this:

Ellen also oversaw EMILY’s List’s first foray into voter mobilization, a joint effort with the California Democratic Party called the California Women’s Vote project, in 1994.

A native of Amherst, Mass., Ellen holds degrees in political science and English literature from Wheaton College in Norton, Mass.

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45. marisacat - 22 November 2008: The French are more attuned to various affective disorder as well… seasonal mental depression for instance. The state covers illumination therapy in winter… a simple machine that is prescribed, for use at home, you sit in front of it… we have ti here too, but i bet it is pulling teeth to get it covered.

LOL Everybody knows why LRs in Paris have wonderful shocks of pink rose yellow pumpkin etc in them, it is for the grey grey grey grey grey of winter…

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46. Madman in the Marketplace - 22 November 2008: Paulson takes time out from saving the world to bow down to the Reagan myth

In a way, Reagan was the grandfather of the financial bailout in America. Because it was Reagan who pushed to deregulate the savings-and-loan industry, back when credit default swaps were still a gleam in the eye of the Lehman Brothers.

”All in all, I think we hit the jackpot,” Reagan said on Oct. 15, 1982, when he signed into law a bill that lifted many restrictions on the savings-and-loan industry, giving thrifts the power to make larger real-estate loans and compete with money market funds. Some jackpot. It turned out that the deregulation of the S&L’s unleashed a corrupt rush into risky and often corrupt real-estate dealings, often involving insiders, and the nation’s thrift industry teetered on the edge of collapse just months after the Gipper left the Oval Office in January 1989. Within months, Reagan’s hand-picked GOP successor, George H.W. Bush, was forced to push through a bailout package with a value of $160 billion – which would be a lot of money now but was a huge amount of money 19 years ago. This is what Craig Shirley calls “Reagan’s legacy of small government and deregulation.”

The reality is that Reagan’s “legacy of small government” took America from a creditor nation to the world’s biggest debtor nation during his eight red-ink-ridden years in the White House. You can very easy straight line from the era of Reagan in the 1980s, from “greed is good” insider trading on Wall Street and his steep tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires — to our 2008 of sub-prime mortgages, credit default swaps and CEOs with their runaway pay and their golden parachutes and their bailout-seeking jaunts on corporate jets.

And so what is the lesson that our chief fiscal steward, Henry Paulson, has gleamed from that?

In his speech, Paulson struck a Reagan-esque theme, warning of the risks of imposing too-strict regulations as a knee-jerk response to the near-term financial crisis.

Proceeds from the annual Reagan Lecture, which about 900 people paid $75 to attend, will be plowed back into the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation & Library’s programs, which promote education about Reagan’s history and ideas, Giller said.

If backwards history like Paulson’s speech is the “education about Reagan’s history and ideas” that Americans are getting — and it is — then we’re all in big trouble. It was willy-nilly deregulation that spurred on the global fiscal crisis, and even now, more than a trillion dollars in the hole, our Treasury Secretary and bailout czar is still clutching his Reagan rosary.

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47. Intermittent Bystander - 22 November 2008: Youtube of Moran with Tweety back in June (“Can Ob win wimmen,” etc., and Tweety extra-stupidly calls Ellen “Emily,” slobber slobber.)

Moran on Larry King, a couple of weeks later, as an Ob supporter.

Moran snippet on WUSA, as the Palin honeymoon began to turn.

Wonder if Tina Fey will have to cover Moran, down the road.

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48. marisacat - 22 November 2008: think I am thinking of Eleanor Malcolm at Emily’s List, she must be senior emeritus exalted or something.. I really did wonder as Comm Dir at the WH is constant 24/7, I could not see Malcolm being able to swing that…

Ellen Moran must be the next wave, rising to the top..

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49. Intermittent Bystander - 22 November 2008: Ha ha ha. Ellen R. Malcolm is President and Founder. So yeah, different Ellen.

Ellen [Malcolm] has been active in public service in Washington, D.C., for over 30 years. She was an organizer at Common Cause in the early 1970s and later served as press secretary for the National Women’s Political Caucus. Ellen joined the White House staff in 1980 as press secretary for Esther Peterson, President Carter’s special assistant for consumer affairs. After completing her master’s in business administration at George Washington University, Ellen founded EMILY’s List in 1985.

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50. marisacat - 22 November 2008: ellen not eleanor… well at least at this point i am clear it is two people.

whew, one simple appointment.

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51. Intermittent Bystander - 22 November 2008: Just to clarify, I was laughing at the Eleanor/Ellen R. homophonics.

(As we all know, I’m easily amused. Thank yew Jesus! Gawd bless America!)

Of the three above, the Larry King link may be particularly instructive, since Moran is on, split-screen, with a hearbroken, anti-sexism former Clintonite for McCain. It’s left to old Larry-boy to raise the question of abortion rights, and the PUMA refers viewers to some position statement at a website, while Moran mostly sticks to the economy and health care script and only discreetly tacks on reproductive freedoms at the end.

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52. marisacat - 22 November 2008: oh i knew that, no worry!

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53. marisacat - 22 November 2008: while Moran mostly sticks to the economy and health care script and only discreetly tacks on reproductive freedoms at the end.

sounds like Emily’s List….

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54. Intermittent Bystander - 22 November 2008: I eventually settled on happy solstice, myself.

Planet-worshipper!

::Reaches for hotline to Vatican::

Apparently DHinMI is joining in a clockwork Orange beat-down of Sirota over Rangel-fueled rumors intimating Ob support for passage of the Colombia and Panama free trade.

Subthreads reveal Elise herself has applied for a job. But uh oh.

Where have I been dishonest? (4+ / 2-)

Recommended by:
raboof, fcvaguy, lams712, Lauren S
Hidden by:
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OK – so you think Charlie Rangel is lying. That’s been clear from the beginning. It’s also clear – as I said explicitly in the diary – that I believe there’s a possibility Rangel may not be delivering the truth.

But where am I – as opposed to Rangel – being “dishonest?” What have I written that is not factually true?

Please be explicit, you fucking McCarthyist.

by davidsirota on Sat Nov 22, 2008 at 12:40:42 PM PST

[ Parent ]

*
McCarthyism, David? (3+ / 2-)

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Seriously, go fuck yourself.

You want to know why you fail to help the causes you care about? This diary is why. Your attempt to gin up outrage over a comment that is totally irrelevant in the scope of any legislation is dishonest. You know it’s dishonest. You provide no link. You quote someone as an “Obama confidant” just because they are a Democrat – and then you whine when people call you on your dishonesty.

Your title is dishonest – and your response to being told that is to whine about how mean everyone is to you for calling you on your bullshit – and now anyone who disagrees with you is a McCarthyite. It must be SO hard to be so persecuted.

Yes we did!

by Elise on Sat Nov 22, 2008 at 12:58:51 PM PST

[ Parent ]

That’ll help!

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55. Madman in the Marketplace - 22 November 2008: 54 – the rebirth of the Sun after a long night that might never end, sealing us in eternal darkness … how can you NOT burn a yule log and dance around an evergreen in celebration?

OK – so you think Charlie Rangel is lying.

Who, Charlie?!?!?!

LIE?!?!

Oh, say it ain’t so!

Davis said Rangel said asked for the independent investigation because “he never meant to conceal” his finances.

“He wanted to show in as many ways he has possibly could, that he did not do anything intentionally wrong,” Davis said.

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56. Madman in the Marketplace - 22 November 2008: GOP Obama Supporter Proposes Prop 8 Compromise: Civil Unions for All, Leave ‘Marriage’ to Churches

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57. marisacat - 22 November 2008: Elise as Heil Leader?

Not sure I can take that. Too damned odd.

It is really a waste of time and breath to defend Rangel. Really. Send him home ot his 4 flats in harlem at rent controlled prices. call it done.

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58. marisacat - 22 November 2008: 56

all for it.

BTW None other than Mickey Kaus has a good entry on SSM Prop 8 CA and some issues. Indications that some in leadership are too wary of taking it to the SCOTUS, fear of losing. And being set way way way back. I don’t see any other way to strike down the 30, THIRTY state laws banning SSM. hmm hard to say.

LINL it starts at “Crocodiles”….

However, the slick Mickey is son of former CA SC Justice Kaus. So… I am paying attention.

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59. Intermittent Bystander - 22 November 2008: 55 – Good point.

::Succumbs to hedonistic pagan suggestions::

Oh wait, I must triangulate!

Green Grow’th The Holly

(Attributed to King Henry VIII)

Green grow’th the holly
So doth the ivy
Though winter blasts blow na’er so high
Green grow’th the holly

Gay are the flowers
Hedgerows and ploughlands
The days grow longer in the sun
Soft fall the showers

Full gold the harvest
Grain for thy labor
With God must work for daily bread
Else, man, thou starvest

Fast fall the shed leaves
Russet and yellow
But resting buds are smug and safe
Where swung the dead leaves

Green grow’th the holly
So doth the ivy
The God of life can never die
Hope! Saith the holly

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60. Intermittent Bystander - 22 November 2008: 57 – Elise as DC-Wannabe . . . surprises me not a whit!

slick Mickey is son of former CA SC Justice Kaus.

Didn’t know that.

Susan McKeown does a nice a capella version of Green Grow’th on the CD with Lindsey Horner, Through the Bitter Frost and Snow – wee snippet here.

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61. marisacat - 22 November 2008: ugh I don’t usually engage in commenting on womens’ looks but poor elise is a certified frump. Quasi operative or some form o f wretched political work in the trenches is one outlet.

To be cruel.

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62. Intermittent Bystander - 22 November 2008: Not to pile on, but I thought of her as a symbolic sister of the face-carving College Republican.

(Sorry, delusional grrrrrls.)

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63. marisacat - 22 November 2008: well anyone who volunteers for the D party dog pack is a thwarted YOung Republican anyway.

It’s the same thing…

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64. Intermittent Bystander - 22 November 2008: It’s the same thing…

Sadly, yes.

And we’re back to discussion of team sports. Oh well.

Night of a Thousand Sitars.

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65. marisacat - 22 November 2008: whoops…

Is Britain simply a bigger version of Iceland? Certainly the City of London is starting to look a bit too much like Reykjavik, but with taller buildings and fewer cod. It is an exaggeration, but not that much of an exaggeration, to liken the UK to the broken, bankrupt North Atlantic island.

Like Iceland, we boast a huge banking industry out of all proportion to the overall economy. Like Iceland, we have an unfunded depositor lifeboat scheme totally unequipped to grapple with failing banks. Like Iceland, our national output is dwarfed by the vast liabilities of our banks. Like Iceland, our banks for years scoffed at relying on domestic depositors to fund their activities and developed a dangerous addiction to wholesale money. Like Iceland, our Government is poised to go on a borrowing spree to try to soften the pain. Like Iceland, our currency is on the skids as foreign investors pull out.

Our problems are not nearly so extreme, of course, but we’d be foolish to feel terribly smug as the International Monetary Fund and Scandinavian neighbours go in to bathe Iceland’s wounds.

The scale of our problems has still not been understood. In essence the domestic banks are largely bust. The Government’s £500 billion bailout plan is primarily designed not to keep banks lending to small firms and to homebuyers but to prevent an unimaginable financial calamity. ::snip::

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66. bayprairie - 23 November 2008: i saw bb king tonight, i had tickets to the house of blues. his show was amazing.

the venue SUCKED. i even got wanded.

can you say renee osama bin laden?

i will never do that again voluntarily. fuck those corporate assholes.

what was kewl was his band. most of them are from houston. his old band leader, calvin owens, who hailed from houston just died this past february. i wasn’t forunate to see them with calvin. but tonight mr king had his family offstage, as did his band. the show, two hour set, not bad for an old man, was to DIE FOR.

i have never seen such a good band. his drummer, the bass player the pianist. what an amazing beat.

before i went tonight i kept wondering, why would an 83 year old man continue to tour?

well i know why now. if one had that power and was physically able, how could one not do it?

it would be a sin not too.

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67. bayprairie - 23 November 2008: i saw bb king tonight, i had tickets to the house of blues. his show was amazing.

the venue SUCKED. i even got wanded.

can you say renee osama bin laden?

i will never do that again voluntarily. fuck those corporate assholes.

what was kewl was his band. most of them are from houston. his old band leader, calvin owens, who hailed from houston just died this past february. i wasn’t forunate to see them with calvin. but tonight mr king had his family offstage, as did his band. the show, two hour set, not bad for an old man, was to DIE FOR.

i have never seen such a good band. his drummer, the bass player the pianist. what an amazing beat.

before i went tonight i kept wondering, why would an 83 year old man continue to tour?

well i know why now. if one had that power and was physically able, how could one not do it?

it would be a sin not to.

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68. bayprairie - 23 November 2008: heehee.. i even confound wordpress! amazing!

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69. marisacat - 23 November 2008: I should leave them both up… maybe poor old WP is a fan of bb king…

8)

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70. bayprairie - 23 November 2008: the eeriest thing he sang was this old dallas blues, the blind lemon jefferson song.

Mavis Staples – See that my grave is kept clean

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71. marisacat - 23 November 2008: nuuu thred…

LINK

…………….. …………….

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