Carry on carrying on…

Carry on carrying on… 28 March 2009

Posted by marisacat in 2010 Mid Terms, Inconvenient Voice of the Voter, San Francisco.
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… Lordy.

***

UPDATE: 6 PM Pacific Time…

I stumbled over this downer report in the NYT.

I don’t see why they are so very verklempt over his ability to win over those Nanny Country Europeans… can’t his handlers just put his DNA in a salt shaker? Spread it all over Europe – and Turkey – too? Shake it all over any bureaucrat he shakes hands with?

Then again, the gift that keeps giving says those pesky Europeans (and everyone else) will “have to follow the rules”.

Although we are “ready to cooperate with the rest of the world”.

O…kay…?

Message? Salt? More salt?

Comments»

1. marisacat - 28 March 2009: Clusterfuck:

Another AIG Exec Freaks Out, Starts A Blog

John Carney|Mar. 28, 2009, 9:03 AM|comment41

“They can’t tell us we didn’t earn the money for all the shit we’ve been through.” Read »

Whoever you are, honey, no one cares.

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Madman in the Marketplace - 28 March 2009: I hope they keep it up … only pisses people off more.

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liberalcatnip - 28 March 2009: It’s nice that they’ve decided to cavort with the little people.

*snort*

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2. marisacat - 28 March 2009: hey hey.. no si se puede! Not for Cuba. Trade embargo stays in place.

99 year old blind and toothless Miami Republican Cubans are happy. I guess.

I feel pretty sure some, at least some, of their children and most of their grand children know what a crock it is…

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3. NYCO - 29 March 2009: Encountered a cringeworthy line in a story in my local paper about popular Hawaiian restaurants. It was Michelle Obama proclaiming that “you can’t understand Barack without understanding Hawaii.”

Unfairly or not, most Americans understand Hawaii as a carefree place for people with money to spend on vacations, cut off from the outside world.

Oe.

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marisacat - 29 March 2009: “you can’t understand Barack without … “

gah

They so long ago (in modern terms) made him some foundling by the road that we were to embrace to our collective electoral bosooms. Embrace and care for and about..

uh no thanks. The whole thing is hilarious… she spent 2007 largely under the radar (and apparently not even Axelrod paid much attention) saying some inadvertently very entertaining things… depending on how one looked at it all… she did get inculcated in the Great Man Theory in time, however.

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4. marisacat - 29 March 2009: hmm Greider in The Nation…

[I]f Wall Street gets its way, the “reforms” may further consolidate power and ratify a corporate state–a grotesque hybrid that combines the worst aspects of socialism and capitalism. The reform ideas announced by Geithner would plant the seeds by creating a “systemic risk” regulator, presumably the Federal Reserve, to oversee the largest, most politically adept banks and financial firms that qualify as “too big to fail.” Capitalism, with its inherent tendency toward monopoly, would have the means to monopolize democracy ….

…Our first political challenge is to disturb business as usual in Washington and prevent Congress from taking hasty action to adopt Wall Street’s “reform” agenda. Congress is rattled by the exploding popular anger and listening nervously. The people need to speak louder–loud enough for the president to hear.

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5. marisacat - 29 March 2009: “I think sometimes he has to be a little aware he could literally educate the rest of us on an issue for a long time.”

Hillary on Biden. (from the NYT fluffer piece)

We are so blessed.

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6. liberalcatnip - 29 March 2009: G20 “Grand Bargain” looks distant prospect

LONDON (Reuters) – He promised a grand bargain but British Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s hopes of an overarching deal to pull the world out of recession look doomed even before the G20 crisis summit has started.

…

Deals are likely at the April 2 meeting on extra resources for the International Monetary Fund and for credit to get trade flowing more easily — both of which experts say could prove significant — as well as rhetorical commitments to free trade.

But preparatory meetings for the summit have revealed deep divisions over the essentials needed to stop the rot and fix a financial system that has been in disrepair since August 2007 because of the weight of banks’ toxic assets.

Gone now is the ambitious talk of the summit being a new Bretton Woods — the 1944 conference that shaped the modern financial world. Officials talk instead of making incremental progress on a new supervisory regime to prevent future crises.

Continental Europeans, meanwhile, have summarily rejected Brown’s and President Barack Obama’s call for governments to spend more. German finance minister Peer Steinbrueck said on Friday that fiscal irresponsibility could hurt the euro.

The Americans in turn have sounded less enthusiastic than Europe about aggressive new regulatory regimes.

Would you buy a used car from those guys?

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marisacat - 29 March 2009: 😆 would you buy gas for the car from these guys?

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liberalcatnip - 29 March 2009: G20 protests across the pond

In London, more than 150 groups threw their backing behind the “Put People First” march. Police said around 35,000 attended the demonstration,..
…

Not all demonstrators focused on the economic main message. Some chanted “Free, free, Palestine.” One man dressed in a banana suit waved a sign reading: “Bananas for Justice.”

Big protests were also held in Germany. Around 15,000 people gathered in Berlin, and a demonstration also was held in Frankfurt, Germany’s banking capital, under the slogan: “We won’t pay for your crisis.”

Demonstrators in Berlin sported headbands reading “pay for it yourselves” and some carried a black coffin topped with red roses symbolizing what they said was the death of capitalism.

Some protesters in Berlin skirmished with police toward the end of the demonstration, and the windows of some police cars were broken.

In Vienna, around 6,500 people gathered in the city center, with paper piggy banks, balloons or signs that read “We won’t pay for your crisis” and “Capitalism can’t be reformed.”

CNN reported only one arrest in London of a protester who was drunk.

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7. liberalcatnip - 29 March 2009: lol…oh Reuters…how biased of you:

The circus starts in earnest on Tuesday when Obama arrives in London, his first trip out of the Americas as president.

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8. liberalcatnip - 29 March 2009: In an effort to continue the Fuck you, American people Bush-style of governing: AIG director named to Obama tax task force.

WASHINGTON (CNN) — One of the people named this week to President Obama’s new Task Force on Tax Reform is a member of the AIG board of directors.

Martin Feldstein, a professor of economics at Harvard University, has been on the board of American International Group since 1988. He also was a prominent economic adviser to Presidents Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush.

Asked about the AIG connection, a senior administration official said Friday that the White House declined to comment on the story.

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Madman in the Marketplace - 29 March 2009: they are determined to protect the big financial institutions, and the rest of us can just suck it.

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9. Madman in the Marketplace - 29 March 2009: Bush Torture Lawyers Targeted in Criminal Probe

One of America’s NATO allies—which supported the Bush Administration’s war on terror by committing its troops to the struggle–has now opened formal criminal inquiries looking into the Bush team’s legacy of torture. The action parallels a criminal probe into allegations of torture involving the American CIA that was opened this week in the United Kingdom.

Spain’s national newspapers, El País and Público reported that the Spanish national security court has opened a criminal probe focusing on Bush Administration lawyers who pioneered the descent into torture at the prison in Guantánamo. The criminal complaint can be examined here. Público identifies the targets as University of California law professor John Yoo, former Department of Defense general counsel William J. Haynes II (now a lawyer working for Chevron), former vice presidential chief-of-staff David Addington, former attorney general and White House counsel Alberto Gonzales, former Assistant Attorney General Jay Bybee, now a judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, and former Undersecretary of Defense Doug Feith.

The case was opened in the Spanish national security court, the Audencia Nacional. In July 2006, the Spanish Supreme Court overturned the conviction of a former Spanish citizen who had been held in Guantánamo, labeling the regime established in Guantánamo a “legal black hole.” The court forbade Spanish cooperation with U.S. authorities in connection with the Guantánamo facility. The current criminal case evolved out of an investigation into allegations, sustained by Spain’s Supreme Court, that the Spanish citizen had been tortured in Guantánamo.

The Spanish criminal court now may seek the arrest of any of the targets if they travel to Spain or any of the 24 nations that participate in the European extraditions convention (it would have to follow a more formal extradition process in other countries beyond the 24). The Bush lawyers will therefore run a serious risk of being apprehended if they travel outside of the United States.

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10. marisacat - 29 March 2009: I especially loved this exchange between Steph and Geith… tells me we will have inflation, even hyperinflation (and why not, printing Monopoly money):

STEPHANOPOULOS: Let’s talk about government debt. A lot of Americans more and more are concerned about that. According to the Congressional Budget Office, in 10 years, the government debt will be 82 percent of GDP. And I’m going to read a question that came in from one of our viewers, Bruce Gower of Rock Hill, South Carolina. He asks, “how do you justify printing money out of thin air and the amount of debt you are subjecting future generations to with this budget?

Who cares if roads are smoother if I or my children can’t afford a car to drive because of the hyperinflation that had taken away all their spending power?”

Are you worried about hyperinflation down the road?

GEITHNER: That’s not going to happen in this country, will never happen.

STEPHANOPOULOS: Why?

GEITHNER: Will never happen. Because we have a strong, independent Fed, with a clear authority from the Congress to keep inflation low at — stable at low levels going forward.

STEPHANOPOULOS: The Fed has been putting so much money into the system.

GEITHNER: But that’s not going to create the risk of hyperinflation in the future.

We have a strong independent Federal Reserve with a very strong mandate from the Congress, and they will do what’s necessary to keep inflation low and stable over time.

But George, just step back for one second. You know, when I left the Treasury in 2001, we had large surpluses — large surpluses projected. We started this administration with a $1.3 trillion deficit and a deepening recession, enormously challenging global financial crisis. The cost of fixing that crisis is going to require larger deficits in the short term, but the best way to make sure we get those deficits down in the future is to get recovery established, get — make the economy stronger going forward. That’s the best way to get us back on a path to fiscal responsibility. …

Blessed are the money printers for they lie like hell.

It’d be hilarious… except….

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Madman in the Marketplace - 29 March 2009: wow … just … wow

we are SO skrewed.

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marisacat - 29 March 2009: yeah it stuck out like a bright red thumb as I listened.

Will see if I can find Obster transcript wtih Schieffer… (CBS sometimes just issues a pdf, ugh) what worried me:

both Geithner and Obster were so nervous. (imo)

Schieffer cut O off a couple of times.. and really had to, he was devolving to a scrabble babble downhill ramble.. jsut to fill the air space. Not good.

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11. marisacat - 29 March 2009: Another mass shooting.. a senior / nursing / rehabilitation center in NC… 6 dead and some wounded…

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12. marisacat - 29 March 2009: Interesting, the shooter did not kill himself… FOX News… other reports say the six dead were patients…

DEVELOPING: Six people were shot and killed at a North Carolina nursing home, WRAL.com reports.

Three others, including a police officer and the suspect, were also injured, according to WBT News Talk Radio. The suspect is reportedly in police custody.

Emergency management officials told the station there were “multiple shootings” at the Pinelake Health and Rehab Center, but could not provide further details.

The shooting happened around 10 a.m. at the 90-bed facility.

Pinelake opened in 1993 and serves as a rehabilitation, nursing and Alzheimer’s care unit, according

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13. Madman in the Marketplace - 29 March 2009: The California Coast Through Edward Weston’s Lens

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marisacat - 29 March 2009: oh thanks for posting that..!

I saw it at the site then drifted on and closed the page and forgot.. 🙄

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Madman in the Marketplace - 29 March 2009: I wish I could see the real prints … something is always lost when they’re posted.

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marisacat - 29 March 2009: About 25 years ago or so I saw an exhibition of Weston prints, original gelatin prints, at the Whitney. It was spectacular.

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Madman in the Marketplace - 29 March 2009: I love the way a well-done gelatin print almost seems to glow.

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14. liberalcatnip - 29 March 2009: Feeling Too Down to Rise Up

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15. Madman in the Marketplace - 29 March 2009: One interesting thing about Zakaria’s show on CNN, you occasionally see/hear a debate not available elsewhere:

ZAKARIA: So, Bret, Syria is pressured. This might well be the time to explore some possible play where we could wean the Syrians off, away from Iran, except that I read Commentary Magazine and see the cover story by Bret Stephens telling us that this would be a disastrous move.

BRET STEPHENS, FOREIGN AFFAIRS COLUMNIST, “WALL STREET JOURNAL”: Well, look. There’s the difference between theory and practice. In theory it’s a wonderful idea that Syria ought to behave like an Arab country, but typically — that is to say that its alliances should be with…

ZAKARIA: Anti-Iranian, because it is — because the Iranians are Persian and not Arab. STEPHENS: But we have a 30-year history now of growing, stronger ties between the Assad clan — Hafez the father, Bashar the son — and the Iranian regime. And we also have an 18-year history going back to the first Madrid peace conference in late 1991, of efforts between Israel and Syria to have some kind of rapprochement.

You saw it again just last year with Ehud Olmert talking about opening negotiations with Syria. They did so under Turkish auspices.

But the history is not particularly encouraging, because it has never seemed that the Syrians are seriously willing — as, say, Anwar Sadat was — to reciprocate territorial concessions or the return of the Golan Heights for a real peace. And it doesn’t seem to me they’re really willing to truly disentangle themselves from their position in Lebanon. And that’s the other piece of this.

ZAKARIA: Rashid, what do you think?

KHALIDI: I think everything that Bret said is completely wrong, of course.

Firstly, the Syrians and Israelis were close at least twice. And I would blame both the Israeli, the Syrian and the American participants in those efforts for not pushing the thing through.

Secondly, Syria’s connection with Iran, you’re right — here you were right — is a longstanding one. And I don’t think they’re going to give it up easily. And I think that those in Washington who dream this will be a cheap and easy separation of Syria from Iran are wrong.

I think, if you want to get the Syrians, you have to at least begin both a package deal with the Iranians, and you have to deal with the Palestinians. Bashar Assad said it very bluntly. You want a cold peace? You can have a cold peace — easy. They were a few acres of stinking mud away from a deal twice. Assad the father, Prime Minister Rabin, Netanyahu and…

STEPHENS: So, why do you think it failed? It was just bad luck?

KHALIDI: Well, I don’t think it was pushed as hard as it should have been by the, for one thing, by either the Clinton administration or by President Bush the first.

STEPHENS: That view, I just think that’s mistaken. You have this 900-page monument called “The Missing Peace,” by Dennis Ross, testifying to incredible efforts by the Clinton administration to bridge the differences. You had two long sets of negotiations in Maryland and West Virginia that came a cropper.

And that wasn’t simply because the candlelight wasn’t — the mood wasn’t right there.

NICHOLAS KRISTOF, “NEW YORK TIMES”: Isn’t that precisely a reason, then, to push the Syria buttons? I mean, I take your point about there are plenty of signs that there are discouraging reasons for hoping that it’ll work. But I don’t see any reason not to try. I think the administration is right to at least attempt to see if something’s (ph) there (ph) — to test Bashar. And, you know, maybe it won’t work. But…

KHALIDI: Well, one thing to do is to go back and look at the reasons that it didn’t work under President Clinton and under President Bush, the senior. And one of them is, frankly, Dennis Ross, who, unfortunately, is back in this administration.

But I think there have been a whole series of mistakes in the way the United States has approached this issue in the times when there were American presidents who actually tried, unlike the last president.

And if this president decides he wants to try, I really think he should look seriously at the mistakes that were made in the past.

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16. marisacat - 29 March 2009: Breaking News from ABCNEWS.com:

GM Chief Rick Wagoner to Resign, Source Tells ABC News

***

Clusterstock says Obama told him to go…. Oooh!

So… Vikram Pandit will be resigning soon… too???????

😆

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Madman in the Marketplace - 29 March 2009: like they’d ask a BANKER to go …

They just reported on CNN that Obama pushed him, too.

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17. marisacat - 29 March 2009: I guess Politico reported it first…

The Obama administration asked Rick Wagoner, the chairman and CEO of General Motors, to step down and he agreed, a White House official said.

The White House confirmed Wagoner was leaving at the government’s behest after The Associated Press reported his immediate departure, without giving a reason.

On Monday, President Obama is to unveil his plans for the auto industry, including a response to a request for additional funds by GM and Chrysler.

Industry sources had said the White House planned very tough medicine, which turned out to be an understatement. And it went to the very top. The measures to be imposed by the government will have a dramatic effect on workers, unions, suppliers, retirees and the communities where plants are located, the sources said. …

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18. marisacat - 29 March 2009: CNN has an updated report on Cathage NC… 8 dead now…

and they helpfully did a little recap at the end….

Sunday’s killings were the latest in a series of high-profile but apparently unrelated rampages in March, including the killings of 10 people by an Alabama man who was then killed by police. At a southern Illinois church, a man shot and killed the pastor and stabbed two parishioners, and a 17-year-old in Germany killed 15 people in two small towns before dying in a shootout with police.

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Madman in the Marketplace - 29 March 2009: 10th anniversary of Columbine coming next month. I fear there will be more.

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19. marisacat - 29 March 2009: Dicey little tale, if true… (and why would it not be true?)

Bank stocks have rallied hard off their lows on claims that they’ve been largely “profitable” in Q1, after quarters of losses.

January and February were apparently quite good for the likes of Citi (C) and JPMorgan (JPM), but as Jamie Dimon said Friday, March hasn’t been quite as hot.

But a trader who works for one of the major banks has made a shocking claim — that this profitability was solely due to exceptionally favorable trading with AIG (AIG).

The claim, which was made in an email Zero Hedge, is essentially that AIG has become a pure money laundering operation, and rather than unwind its trades at favorable terms for itself, it’s offering banks excellent trades on the taxpayer dime. …

And who benefits? ….

[C]ould this be the subject of Andrew Cuomo’s latest subpoenas? We were a bit confused last week about a report which said he was looking into the unwinding of the CDS, and the extent to which the company was making its counterparties “whole”.

If AIG is purposely trading “badly” to pump up its counterparties, it’s certainly a scandal — not just of the company but of all the regulators and politicians that have designed this process. Stay tuned on this.

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20. marisacat - 29 March 2009: The comments, only a few so far, are a hoot:

Ron said:
Mar. 29, 11:40 PM

I sure am glad that the taxpayers funded the $460 million in retention bonuses so the talent could stay and stick a cactus up our collective asses. Who knows what disasters would have happened if they had fired all that talent. don’t forget to send them a portion of your next paycheck to make sure they continue to stick it to us

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21. marisacat - 29 March 2009: another mass killing in Santa Clara.. at a home. 5 dead. Just tonight, so nothing on the news or at Google News yet.

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22. liberalcatnip - 29 March 2009: POLITICO Breaking News:
—————————————————–

The White House will announce Monday that neither GM nor Chrysler is “viable.” The president will give GM 60 days to restructure and Chrysler 30 days to find a partner, or deny further bailouts.

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marisacat - 29 March 2009: Well… anyone who bought a GM or Chrysler car or truck recently must be worried… dealers. and so on.

I don’t know why they weren’t sent to “structured bankruptcy” months ago.

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liberalcatnip - 29 March 2009: My spidey sense tells me that this could be a huge political mistake. If they were smart about it, they would have forced the GM guy out behind closed doors and not brought down the hammer so hard on the companies. Although that’s what America might think it wants, who knows how many people are going to lose their jobs with the blame being squarely placed on O’s administration? If they were crafty, they would have made it look like the companies failed without involving DC politics so directly.

A very risky move, imho. And, of course, the free market capitalists (who made this mess) will be screaming long and hard about this kind of gov’t intervention. Queue the cries of “socialism” louder and longer.

And what’s with forcing Chrysler to merge with Fiat? Is that the only option?

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BooHooHooMan - 30 March 2009: A precursor to an outright War Industrialization Board if you ask me.
We’re a suicidal dying Empire who refuse to deal with our our energy crisis and the power of oligarchs . We coddled our MIC and now we’re going towards a World War for the resources to continue doing so…

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23. liberalcatnip - 29 March 2009: And this is incredible:

The only Midwestern city seeing an annual increase in sales was Detroit, where deeply depressed home prices have brought in a truckload of investors and other bargain hunters. Overall sales increased 5 percent in February while the median sale price fell 50 percent — the biggest drop in the country — to $41,000.

Detroit’s going to be a ghost town soon if GM and Chrysler fail.

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marisacat - 29 March 2009: median sale price fell 50 percent — the biggest drop in the country — to $41,000.

and that is the MEDIAN… I read a couple of weeks ago that houses (probably in wretched shape) can be had in Detroit for a few thousand.

I also saw a segment on coastal, inland waterway and then inland inland FL… some older inland ranch types are 80% off.

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liberalcatnip - 30 March 2009: I know. I’d heard last week that houses were going for $7,500 in Detroit. Unbelievable.

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ms_xeno - 30 March 2009: Call in the forces of Eminent Domain !

Coming soon: Son of Mall of America !!

(Sorry. Long day. 😮 )

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24. BooHooHooMan, - 30 March 2009: { Re: Catnip no likey “the circus” ,
Reuters take on the G-20…}

Well , yes, catnip . Don’t you remember ?
The high wire. The clowns.
All the animals, The incredible smell of everything from elephant to donkey shit alike..
And the pièce de résistance:
the exotic Chinese, Russian, and German Finance Minister’s Act where they mercilessly cudgel the hapless Promoter and Master of Ceremonies over their money in the main ring?

You know perfect for Grandma, Grandpap, and the kids…
Ah but that’s me , getting exceptionally nostalgic again.
Of course, that harkens back to a time before Americans saw fit to own their own exotic animals who quite naturally proceeded towards eating the face off of guests before being gunned down by the police…

We’ll make New! “Kodak moments” now.

Then again That harkens back to a time before Kodak formed a “global partnership” with Motorola, inked deals with Martha Stewart , and redeemed Sun Chemical’s 50% equity stake.

You know , back when any teenager with a little Kodak could pursue photography , dig the Beatles, and take pictures of far out friends in far-away places

Of course, THAT was before McCartney and his power lawyer brother-in-law John Eastman un-wound Apple and McCartney eventually sold his copyright stake to Michael Jackson , then Michael….
.
.

[ n.b. -I’m playing on references here. Linda Eastman was not of the Eastman Kodak fortune but a Lindner department store heiress . Other than than Nick Ut, and his
horrific pic of a Vietnames girl , Kim Phuc, naked, fleeing her village napalmed by the U.S. , or Haeberle’s graphs of My Lai,

Eddie Adams on the other hand – was a habitually re-upping jarhead war photographer who took perhaps the seminal picture encapsulating the brutality of the U.S War on Viet Nam:. General Nguyen Loan’s summarial head shot execution of a hands bound “Viet Cong” prisoner on the street in Saigon.

It was lost on him:

“:”””””Adams felt that many misinterpreted the scene, and when told in 1998 that the immigrant Loan had died of cancer at his home in Burke, Va., he said, “The guy was a hero. America should be crying. I just hate to see him go this way, without people knowing anything about him.”

Adams came from a classic “Deer Hunter” mill town north of Pittsburgh,. New Kensington, Pa. A huge ALCOA plant, perhaps its first, all that money and millworker soppings derived from aircraft skins and weapon systems, and put into the household gadgetry Nixon crowed about to Krushchev.

Adams hit the Marines for Korea and didn’t leave till after Vietnam, stuck it out for the pension, IIRC. Adams praised Viet Nam as “a just cause”, and later apologized to Loan’s family for “killing the General” with his photograph.

About the best the less than introspective Adams could come up with in later years from a PBS series, ironically, on Speaking Truth to Power:

You see, I don’t take life too seriously— it’s a big game. I’ve seen too many people die not to take it that way. How can I take things seriously I kept putting myself in these situations

::
Each time I went to a war I said, ” Never again.”And meant it. I didn’t want to die. A couple of lifetimes ago, in the Iran-Iraq war, we were pulling out when the guy before me was killed; the guy behind me was killed and the guy near me had his heart ripped out. Only the cameraman and me weren’t scratched. How do you explain these things?

::
Words and pictures have a continuing struggle for primacy. In my mind, a person can write the best story in the world; but a photograph is absolute.

“”In my mind, a person can write the best story in the world; but a photograph is absolute. – Eddie Adams, Pentagon payrollee, Pulitzer Prize Winner “””

…That coming from a man devoid of thought, the Will to think, the integrity to acknowledge..coming from a guy who thought the absolute power of a photogragh of explicit human brutality was somehow “misunderstood”…. Coming from a guy who milked the angst of the photographers dilemma for years , and, also noted how anything is open to manipulation: Adams the Absolutist.

I have no ill will towards Linda Eastman McCartney, anyone who pursues a life of art, and frankly, in the end, mostly pity the very rich. Nonetheless, I have little pity for the mindless and mind-blowing combatants such as Adams or Loan. Loan died of cancer. Adams went on to his Heroic Warrior’s end , suffering a horrible death with ALS, Lou Gehrig’s. …

– BHHM ]

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liberalcatnip - 30 March 2009: { Re: Catnip no likey “the circus” ,
Reuters take on the G-20…}

It’s not that I didn’t like that they showed their bias (ie. the truth) with the circus reference. I thought it was hilarious!

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BooHooHooMan - 30 March 2009: Oh I know…
Some of the shit that comes out of corporate media….. 🙄
They might as well go with “Dirty Fuckin Hippies” for “protesters” too..

It’s like how the US media in particular not-so-subtly presents Canadians: that odd lot of Northern humanity who never quite “got with the program” and officially became one of our States. LOL.

Of course we know it’s true , here.
They say so on Television. 😉

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marisacat - 30 March 2009: that odd lot of Northern humanity who never quite “got with the program” and officially became one of our States. LOL.

wasn’t it jefferson who wanted to invade canada…. o canada!

not like our territorial ideas are, like, you know …new.

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BooHooHooMan - 30 March 2009: Noh!
Say it ain’t so!

Talk about being screwed as a war resister
for that brilliant idea back in the day..

We’ll pack up and Go to Canada!

Uhm, dude…

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25. marisacat - 30 March 2009: Telegraph…

60 feared dead as gunmen storm Pakistan police academy

Gunmen have stormed a Pakistan police academy, triggering an intense battle with security forces in which 60 people are feared dead and hundreds have been taken hostage, local news has reported.

Television footage showed bodies of policemen lying face down on the parade ground as heavy gunfire continued to rattle round the camp at Manawan outside Pakistan’s cultural capital Lahore.

Local news reported up to 60 people are feared dead and 800 are being held hostage. …

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BooHooHooMan - 30 March 2009: 60 dead in attack on “security”
800 hostages.
}Enter Obama and US military on Pakistan stage right….}

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26. BooHooHooMan - 30 March 2009: Reading this thread, what a fucked a country. People are more likely to keep an arsenal, a snake or goriilla at home than care for the elderly or infirmed.

Speaking of firing the Chief Executive , there’s always that pearl
“What’s good for GM is good for America”

Everybody stocked up on popcorn?

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27. marisacat - 30 March 2009: the fellow in NC at the nursing home had at least 4 weapons… a rifle a shotgun plus whatever else… and they are not saying much yet about the killings in Santa Clara.

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BooHooHooMan - 30 March 2009: I wonder what set the guy off.
How does he play to type? The psychotic bereft of treatment?
Lost his job goin all “Postal”? Or perhaps the typical American aggressor whose precious, privileged sensibilities were offended?

I wanna know when Medicare cover Kevlar vests for the old and infirmmed.
If not for the bust-in shooters, then to level the field with the Health Care Complex brandishing gun, no mask even necessary…

Nasty business. And that’s what it is – a business.
I take my bread from the table as infrequently as possible.

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28. marisacat - 30 March 2009: fwiw… with nice little charts of the FTSE, the DAX, the CAC, Nikkei, Hang Seng… and so on.

PARIS — Stocks fell sharply in Europe and Asia on Monday, amid fears that the Group of 20 meeting this week will fail to come up with a plan to restart global growth and signs of chaos in the auto industry.

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BooHooHooMan - 30 March 2009: LOL. Let them live on sentiment!

Within that Times piece:

“Market psychology is fragile at the moment,” Ms. Cazaban said, “but sentiment has improved. If the G20 is able to work out a common purpose, then a more sustainable market rally is possible.”

The lede was pointed enough, though.

PARIS — Stocks fell sharply in Europe and Asia on Monday, amid signs of chaos in the auto industry and fears that the Group of 20 meeting this week will fail to come up with a plan to revive global growth.

I could give a shit. I don’t have a nickle in the markets, saw it coming, preferring instead to invest in small ways with people. Hippy People. People who were always able to rustle up a sandwich over the years through thick and thin. That’s my sensibility not sentiment. I am so fucking glad I liquidated my retirement and paid down the mortgage. People I worked with got CREAMED in their 401K’s and by the blow wave motherfuckers who used to do luncheons.

I don’t have a lotmuch, but still have work available on decent terms as such things go… A sensible sedan “to pass” (LOL) and an old Ford truck that runs on diesel and connections to score the bio as we go down. And some dibs on produce , to boot..
so seriously-
Could. giva. shit. —-> for the bourgeoisie at least.<–
Besides- And for the meat eaters like me among us?
We can always cannibalize the politicians and bankers.
Tastes just like chicken I bet.

How many people you think saw the
“Think Globally, Act Locally” Bumper stickers while roading raging by? Of course they probably won’t be on the road for long, so there goes an idea I had for pissing them off:
“Find Your Nearest Hippie.”

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marisacat - 30 March 2009: i’d be frantic if I had lost 30 – 50% of 401K or investments. A long long time ago I was very impressed by an interview in Barron’s with a 97 y/o trader still going in every day to his own investment firm on Wall St… and had moved his clients entirely to mutual funds. AND advised moving out immediately at the point of 5% loss. It made great sense to me.

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BooHooHooMan - 30 March 2009: The problem I see is that all human relations have been monetized. The sheep are getting absolutely slaughtered and left to fall where they will …the obstinate blockheads and jackasses getting theirs at the rendering plant.

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NYCO - 30 March 2009: Yes, unfortunately knowing that the edifice is falling doesn’t necessarily mean you’re not going to get crushed.

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BooHooHooMan - 30 March 2009: The market collapse itself is survivable. The market structured by elites, rigged by elites, serving elites. All of the fraud ….Survivable. Anyone cast aside will verify: dehumanizing but survivable.

Except for one thing. Where they’ve forged our names to War Powers. It’s the War. The desperate acts of the Security State in collapse. The Great Leveler.

In the end , No one escapes Techno Murder and Martial Law set in motion by Latter Day Reichbilders.

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29. marisacat - 30 March 2009: moving right along…………………………

Pakistani security forces say they have recaptured the police academy near Lahore which was seized by militants amid heavy loss of life.

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

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BooHooHooMan - 30 March 2009: Well now!
We needn’t run over Pakistan afterall. 😉

I’m out.

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30. liberalcatnip - 30 March 2009: Here’s the motive: U.S. gunman’s estranged wife worked at nursing home where 8 were killed: police

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BooHooHooMan - 30 March 2009: Ah- the Maniacal Birthright of the American Male:
“Honor” Killing.

The spawn of The Typical American Aggressor Whose Precious, Privileged Sensibilities Were Offended category, but truly in a league of its own…

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BooHooHooMan - 30 March 2009: All of it messed up with some serious sexual identity
problems. You can see it everywhere with guys.
The brittle little fucks. I hesitate to think what some of the Kosolytes like DH would do if not for their outlet in the rubber room that is dailykos….Perhaps a stretch but it comes from the same teenie-peenie anxiety place…Politics and the professions are littered with them..

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31. liberalcatnip - 30 March 2009: Apparently, “American” is a language.

Where would conservatives go?
by kos

Mon Mar 30, 2009 at 01:50:04 PM MDT

So you know how dejected liberals threatened after 2000 and 2004 to “move to Canada” to be in more ideologically friendly territory? I wasn’t with that crowd, of course. I wasn’t about to give up on this great nation of ours.

But that has long had me thinking: where would conservatives go if they wanted to escape this horrible SOCIALIST America, what with the 39 percent top rate and HEALTH CARE for all (assuming we ever get it)?

Iran? They’d love the theocracy, with a bona fide morality police to beat the crap out of non-believers! But the country worships the wrong god. So close…

Russia? It’s got the oligarchy thing that conservatives love, plus a war-mongering leadership that dreams of empire. Too bad they don’t speak American, or even use American letters in their alphabet!

(No oligarchy or war-mongering in America, I guess.)

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marisacat - 30 March 2009: well some will do what the Firestones, as a family, did. they decamped en masse to Turkey a few years ago. Large and stratetic investment, [I would guess] and live like lords. Roaring 20s all over again.

Or Bush buying land in Paraquay. Etc.

Kos is an idiot.

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Madman in the Marketplace - 30 March 2009: nice to know he’s still a fucking idiot.

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32. marisacat - 30 March 2009: You have to love it.. it is so American. And thus so patriotic. what was that that shit Biden said about paying higher taxes? A pox on all their houses.

Dean Baker in TO

The new consensus among the experts who missed the housing bubble (EMHB) is that Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner’s plan to subsidize the purchase of junk mortgages and their derivatives will help alleviate the stress on the banking system. That’s good news.

These geniuses have devised a plan that for $1 trillion (approximately equal to 300 million kid-years of SCHIP, the State Child Health Insurance Program) can alleviate the stress on the banking system. Note that no one claims that $1 trillion spent on the Geithner plan will actually clean up the banking system – that would be asking too much. The EMHB only assure us that this $1 trillion (more than enough to have energy conserving retrofits for every building in the country) will make things better. Isn’t that enough?

Oh, by the way, some people will get very rich off the Geithner plan. Some hedge and equity fund managers could make hundreds of millions or even billions off the Geithner plan. And, under current law, they will pay a lower tax rate on this money than a schoolteacher or firefighter. Are you sold yet? ….

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33. marisacat - 30 March 2009: hmmm God’s in his heaven, all’s right with the world.

moiv just sent me this…

Kaine Signs Bill Creating ‘Choose Life’ License Plates

Associated Press
Monday, March 30, 2009; 2:00 PM

Gov. Tim Kaine has signed legislation that would create a “Choose Life” license plate in Virginia.

With Kaine’s signature Monday, Virginia joins 23 other states that offer the plate — some after lengthy court battles.

Republican Sen. Kenneth Cuccinelli attached the proposal onto a bill that also adds plates honoring the Washington Capitals, the Blue Ridge Parkway and others to the 200 specialty plates the Department of Motor Vehicles already offers.

Under law, more than 350 people must sign up for a plate before DMV can produce it. Cuccinelli said 450 people have prepaid for the plate.

After the first 1,000 plates are sold, $15 of the $25 fee would go to crisis pregnancy centers.

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ms_xeno - 30 March 2009: Not on the plated horizon:

“Tie Your Tubes For Jeebus !”

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marisacat - 30 March 2009: that made me laugh…

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ms_xeno - 30 March 2009: Well, I gotta’ pay it forward somehow. I papered the garage with my stocks ages ago, so that’s out. 😉

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34. marisacat - 30 March 2009: hmm listening to Sy Hersh shill for ObRama on Fresh Air. Ob’s great knowledge of the muslim world.

Well no other promises about him have worked out… can always try try try again.

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Madman in the Marketplace - 30 March 2009: that was pretty funny/interesting. Hersh works a line for some faction or another.

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35. marisacat - 30 March 2009: La Kerry is hot for the Amero-Mex Border Drug Weapons War.

For every weenie, a war.

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36. BooHooHooMan - 30 March 2009: Big Surprise,

Israel Ends Inquiry Into Abuse in Gaza

JERUSALEM — The Israeli military said Monday that its advocate general had decided to close an investigation into allegations of abuses by soldiers during the recent campaign in Gaza.

Typical Israeli bullshit follows in the blah blah blah.

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37. BooHooHooMan - 30 March 2009: U.S. Soldier Guilty in Killing of 4 Iraqis in 2007

US soldier gets 35 years in deaths of 4 Iraqis

VILSECK, Germany — A U.S. soldier convicted of murder in the execution-style slayings of four blindfolded Iraqis apologized for shooting one of them in the back of the head, but said he acted out of concern for his fellow troops.

“Nothing is harder than losing a soldier,” Sgt. 1st Class Joseph Mayo said in closing arguments after he was found guilty of murder. “Or calling a mother or a wife and telling them that you tried, but wondering if you did enough. I apologize to the military for what I’ve done. I apologize to the soldiers; I never wanted them to have to go through this.”

Mayo told the court _ just lawyers and a judge, with no jury _ that he shot one of the Iraqis with a 9mm pistol. A judge-only decision is possible in military courts.

Another medalist in the International Pariah Olympics.
What about the Iraqi’s, Sergeant?

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38. BooHooHooMan - 30 March 2009: This is why I loved to smoke a doob before math.

Good stuff.

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39. Madman in the Marketplace - 30 March 2009: Owning It

The reason for this is simple: the Afghan war is going badly and getting worse, as Obama is about to add another 21,000 warm bodies to the killing fields. How this doesn’t make Afghanistan Obama’s war I’ve no fucking clue, but liberals, being smarter than those crazy conservatives, usually find ways to avoid speaking plainly about what stares everyone right in the face. Besides, Obama’s already killed civilians in Afghanistan and Pakistan, so he now runs the slaughterhouse, the cries from which cannot be denied, only ignored, explained away, or laid at the feet of George W. Bush, who like Bill Clinton before him, will serve as a diversion to those devoted to his successor.

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marisacat - 30 March 2009: How this doesn’t make Afghanistan Obama’s war I’ve no fucking clue,

hmmm Ob, who loves to use I, me, mine, and my… declared it “America’s war” when Schieffer told him it was his war.

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40. Madman in the Marketplace - 30 March 2009: Celebrated Street Photographer Helen Levitt Dies

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41. Madman in the Marketplace - 30 March 2009: Parking

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42. Madman in the Marketplace - 30 March 2009: 283 Bases, 170,000 Pieces of Equipment, 140,000 Troops, and an Army of Mercenaries: The Logistical Nightmare in Iraq By Jeremy Scahill

With last week’s announced escalation of the war in Afghanistan, including an Iraq-like “surge” replete with 4,000 more U.S. troops and a sizable increase in private contractors, President Barack Obama blew the lid off of any lingering perceptions that he somehow represents a significant change in how the U.S. conducts its foreign policy.

In the meantime, more reports have emerged that bolster suspicions that Obama’s Iraq policy is but a downsized version of Bush’s and that a total withdrawal of U.S. forces is not on the horizon.

In the latest episode of Occupation Rebranded, it was revealed that the administration intends to reclassify some combat forces as “advisory and assistance brigades.” While Obama’s administration is officially shunning the use of the term “global war on terror,” the labels du jour, unfortunately, seem to be the biggest changes we will see for some time.

Underscoring this point is a report just released by the War Resisters League, which for decades has closely monitored the military budget, revealing how many tax dollars are actually going to the war machine. The WRL puts out its famous pie chart annually just before tax time as a reminder of what we are doing exactly when we file our returns. Noting that 51 percent of the federal budget goes to military spending, the WRL said it does “not expect the military percentage to change much” under Obama.

While Obama — and public attention — shifted foreign policy focus last week to Afghanistan, lost in the media blitz was another important report that examines how taxpayers will continue to pay for the Iraq occupation for years to come, withdrawal or not. This report, released in March by the U.S. Government Accountability Office, provides a sobering look at Obama’s “massive and expensive” Iraq plan, identifying several crucial questions that have yet to be addressed.

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liberalcatnip - 31 March 2009: Noting that 51 percent of the federal budget goes to military spending

That’s obscene.

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43. Arcturus - 30 March 2009: if you haven’t yet seen it, Play It Again, Barry:

I thought it might be interesting to look at two speeches, comparing President Obama’s speech on Afghanistan Friday to President Nixon’s Vietnamization speech on November 3, 1969. Comparative excerpts follow.

First, announce the New Strategy–

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44. marisacat - 30 March 2009: nu thread…

LINK

…………. 🙄 …………….

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