Spring… 20 April 2009
Posted by marisacat in Cuba, DC Politics, Divertissements, Germany, Inconvenient Voice of the Voter, la vie en rose.trackback
A flamingo chick in Hanover, Germany, seeks its mother’s protection at the zoo. The first chick to hatch at the zoo in six years [2006] it is now a week old [Jochen Luebke/EPA]
We are in one of our heat waves. They used to last a few days at most, in spring and fall… in recent years they last for weeks. And show up thru the summer as well. Weather reports seem to say this one will break soon.
Putting up a photo of a flamingo chick.. sure beats a photo of Summers. Shaking his big fat finger. And an ugly finger it is too.
MR. GREGORY: Cuba and a potential thaw between U.S. and Cuba relations has really dominated the summit business there, even though it hasn’t officially been on the agenda. This week the administration eased up some of the restrictions on travel between Cuban-Americans going back to see relatives and also the flow of money, sending money back to relatives back in Cuba. Cuba has also signaled that it’s willing to have a more open dialogue with the Obama administration, and increased calls for the U.S. to lift the embargo against Cuba. This is where the politics meets the economic. Under what circumstances would President Obama lift the 47-year-old embargo?
DR. SUMMERS: That’s way down the road, and it’s going to depend on what Cuba did–Cuba does going forward. You know, what the president announced this week is what he’s been talking about for two years. It’s a set of measures that are grounded in American interests, that are grounded in morality, letting families get back together, together again. Cuba’s known what it needs to do for a very long time and it’s up to them in terms of their policies, their democratization, all of the steps that they can take. And we’ll have to see what happens down the road.
MR. GREGORY: What is the economic case for lifting the embargo?
DR. SUMMERS: Obviously it’s, it’s desirable to be able to trade in as many directions as possible. But fundamentally, David, this is an issue that’s going to get decided on the basis of Cuba’s behavior, on the basis of the steps that they, that they choose to take or that they choose not to take in terms of their policies in this hemisphere. And it’s about really whether they want to rejoin the community of nations in Latin America or not. And we’ll have to see, we’ll have to see what they’re prepared to do. The president’s decisions are really going to be grounded in what’s best for the United States.
The president’s decisions are really going to be grounded in what’s best for the United States.
hmm.. I had not figured that last line out. How did I miss that?
We are in such a FUCKING MESS from pursuing our own interests – or what they relentlessly sold to us as our “best interests”.
Clue: It did not work. Did. not. work.
ObRama loved to invoke Lugar and Coburn on the election trail. So sweet. An Indiana Republican (fine, they have to come from somewhere, LOL) and a really nasty piece of R merchandise from OK. But you’ll never hear ObRama mention that Lugar sent him a letter some weeks ago, advocating lifting the embargo.
No siree.
WASHINGTON (CNN) — Sen. Richard Lugar, the ranking Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, released a draft report Monday saying it is time to reconsider longtime U.S. economic sanctions on Cuba.
“After 47 years … the unilateral embargo on Cuba has failed to achieve its stated purpose of ‘bringing democracy to the Cuban people,’ ” Lugar, R-Indiana, wrote in a letter that accompanied the report.
“The current U.S. policy has many passionate defenders, and their criticism of the Castro regime is justified. Nevertheless, we must recognize the ineffectiveness of our current policy and deal with the Cuban regime in a way that enhances U.S. interests.”
Lugar’s letter preceded a 21-page draft report by the Republican members of the committee titled “Changing Cuba Policy — In the United States National Interest.” …snip…
***
I heard another interesting tidbit over the weekend.. accidentally catching the Matthews half hour Sunday show… with Katty Kay, Ignatius of the Wapo… Helene Cooper of the NYT and ….. Sully. Frankly they were congealing in front of me.. so I don’t know which one said it, but one said the WH is mounting a hard push back on Krugman. Driving home, apparently, that if we were to follow his idea of “nationalising” the banks, it would mean a “Dow at 3000”.
IMO this baby WH, barely a 100 days in to the game, is digging in.
Good Luck!
I didn’t know there were flamingos in Germany.
I’ll miss Braulio though. 😦
From the last thread: the meta the meta. Someone should sell programs because I’m completely lost.
Damn Obama – cutting into my soap opera* time to provide aid and comfort to the CIA.
* (I only watch one 1/2 hr soap opera a day. Really.)
I thought Braulio was pretty amazing… who knows what he was thinking but it was graphic. Great little owls…
This is higher order meta.
The Wail of the 1%
Who ARE these people?
Well I read that congress, almost the first thing, whipped out that tax affect on charitable giving. Think it stays as it was. Hardly matters. Foundations and other charities ahve cut back anyway. Loss of capital, or so I read. What of their 50 year plans. 😆
There is some idea, with some, that as times worsen they should up giving, but ti is just a faction. it’s all about the TAX DODGES, which are intact. Gates and Buffett will be happy to tell you.
I spoke with my brother and his wife a week back – both have higher up positions at major US NGO’s. And while they thought they would be OK about 4 months ago, it now looks like both will be asked to do unpaid furloughs – the extent is unknown at this point. But both organizations have had to scale back budgets in the hundreds of millions.
Well, I’m just waiting to see what happens to the higher ed world after May 1. Zero hour, when all the class sizes start to get finalized.
They see themselves as the fighter pilots of capitalism.
As true as that is, it’s also screamingly funny!
the self-serving descriptions of what they do are often very funny.
Red Baron crashed! Last seen screaming for his secretary!
Blamed the crash on the mechanic of the OTHER guy’s plane!
Divas…
What a fucking hypocrite. Patting torturers on the head and telling them not to be “discouraged” while insisting that it’s all about “values” and the “rule of law”.
Gibbs. Tapper v Gibbs and more. May Gibbs never leave his job and go in search of a family.
May Gibbs never leave his job and go in search of a family.
lol 😀
Up? Up? Up? Up? What? No up no more? Oh it will go up… not to worry!
It’ll go up tomorrow! Tomorrow, tomorrow, is only a day away!
Or, someone let the air out.
and the dead cat bounces back down …
Stiglitz Slams Goldman Sachs, Geithner, Bair and Obama
I think it’s a little old, but this is a really well-done video: Gay Marriage, Religious Freedom and Hypocrisy
Speaking of… IOZ has three in a row… one of which is on marriage. What a hoot!
The other two are, one on the strip search case before the SC… and one on torture.
***
Other than that, we might or might not have a loose gunman on a Napa Co campus. We await updates… newsbreaks to follow!
Catching clips of Ob at Langley.
Wonder who they found to go to this finger shake.
All so meaningless.
hmm I am surprised they feel they have to:
Seems to me we have assisted Israel to destroy Gaza.. and prevent its rebuilding. I doubt we give a flying hoo hoo about “two state” lies. One way or the other.
wow, do they not realize how much that plays into anti-semitic beliefs here?
Cheney: Torture memos miss ‘success’
The man is a psychopath.
Obama to CIA: I feel your pain
Surely it will make the Dow go up.
A dose of Dowagra.
oh very funny… 😈
I’m reading Dmitry Orlov’s Rethinking Collapse right now. Excellent book, practical and insightful about human relationships (the real nature of human relationships, once you scrape off the consumerist grime).
Health gaps narrow with Medicare coverage
Bid to Organize Nurses Faces Setback in Congress
labor leaders voice confidence that Congress would still enact some far-reaching legislation this year to make it easier to unionize — and they are discussing making some modest changes in the bill to help firm up support.
maybe time nurses and others face that congress, “hope and change” and union leaders are complicit against voters and union membership.
hmm Mike Whitney at Cpunch… http://counterpunch.org/ (the URL assigned t the article does not work)
What is being talked about out here, aside from the lifting of the moratorium is a cascade of “unemployment foreclosures”. (Whitney quotes at length from a SFGATE article on CA forelosures.)
Whitney goes on:
With his pecs we are blessed and not much else.
We pretend an event horizon between youth and old age, but in our oldest fictions – the ones where the division is most clear, it also becomes the most problematic. The prototype feminist, defies her asshole father to bury her brother in accordance with cthtonic laws for the dead. She honors the law of the dead, and in doing so, honors the laws of her fathers, despite negating the law of her father.
Because both laws compete, because we have never even pretended coherence.
The event horizon is our failure to acknowledge the fact of our death. And both laws
are the fallow gravitational fissures ushering us toward it.
Perhaps entropy
is just living by laws,
and our true destiny
scales the meningeal sheath
to something outside our head.
big html cleanup…
Clinton Dealings,
Khazakstan Uranium Intervention Radioactive STILL,
Giffen/ CIA Case Still Pending, Awaiting Glowing BURIAL
Let’s walk and talk…let me begin here:
Anybody know where ya can offload 450,000 lbs of Uranium?
Yeh, it sure makes me feel safe knowing guys who would sell their mother have a uranium liquidation problem. Whaddya know tho?
At least SOME Yellowcake has turned up SOMEWHERE afterall.
Who’da thought it would be in the middle of a Bankruptcy Liquidation?
Funny , wasn’t Bill Clinton reported in the New York Times as the square dealing ex-Pol in the Uranium Market with a Canadian Biz Bud a few short years ago?
– Right before the Market COLLAPSED.
Shame there aren’t more Unaffiliated-with-Speculators / Independent Leaders like Clinton around now. LOL. A Shame THAT Era has passed.
Or hasn’t. Or Has. Or – Obama!
You know, the above-board types.
Well. At least Buttwipe Robert Lenzer waxed it that way in Forbes last year:
So, about that 450,00O lbs of Lehman on-the-losing-end Uranium?
What the hell – leave some of it up in storage in Canada…
Maybe catnip will deal with it.
Crochet up a Lead Filament Sweater or something. And Catnip –
We’re awfully sorry we let the Big Dawg off the Porch a few years back.
But what of Clinton and his Market Shorting Uranium Bud now?
Of course, Numero Uno – before we see how this all played –
FELL Out, really – if it wasn’t such collusion…
::
1. Clinton got a LOT of money for that Foundation Scam of his..And Hillary, well,
Remember the fru-fru deal on conflict-of-interest disclosures for Madame Secretary and her gigolo husband negotiated with Congress when Hillary
took over the reigns of Government from Obama like stealing candy from an ObamallamaLoveBabywas confirmed as Secretary of State?Not a bad deal as we shall see. Short of a criminal investigation,
—-> No further required reporting of past deeds, all swept under the rug now, and not covered by Madame Secretary’s annual disclosure agreement moving forward.
The Clinton take on the Uranium Scam? 30 Million from Giustra alone .
But from the speculators?
What a rogues gallery. Of course THAT reporting relied on all the Truth, Whole Truth, and NBTT we’ve come to expect from Teh Clinton. But seriously – hmmm-
How much you think that motherfucker has $pread Off$hore?
And why do you think – among so many other scams™ – that Pushover Obama’s Criminal Division AAG at DOJ is Clinton Lawyer Lenny Breuer? Anybody want to gander why – among so many other scams™ – that the DOJ is slow walking the Deutsche and Swiss Bank disclosures?
::
Of ANY speculative Market, tho, – moreso even than BioTech – again, another Clinton Darling he’s hustling with that money laundering political shelter of his—-Uranium supply and demand is most closely linked to, and thus manipulated by Political / Governmental actors: the pretext, the premise, THE POSE, of legitimate Global rules and regs:: who gets licensed, who doesn’t. Who is awarded trade and contracts in the radioactive ore, who doesn’t.
Or for that matter, Who Bombs Iranian Nuclear Facilities,
who talks about it one day, and who does – or doesn’t another…..
Seems to me, Madame Clinton was quite the “Obliterate Iran” candidate back in the day…
Any idea of how that kind of talk- whether from Cheney or then Presidential Contender Clinton- Any idea of how that kind of talk can move speculative markets in a day? Or cover friendly high flyers in said markets before they tanked?
IThis path from the Bankrupt Lehman Brothers uranium receivership, who might as well try selling their stockpile now on Ebay now… It’s quite the sheen off the Silk Road that leads back to Clinton’s Own operative agreement with Energy Task Forcers during his Administration. In fairness, it’s been there all along, but there is no mistaking Clinton complicity then, – or Obama and Democratic complicity now , in what has brought the world to ruin: the American Global Plunder, what is best described by Naomi Klein as Disaster Capitalism.
Last year, we discovered the pump and dump arc the NYT reported on the Clinton Giustra Khazakstan Uranium Deal. The price curve resembling one of SNL’s Coneheads if, caring little for alien brain splatter, you brutally plane down the right side of the skull to make a pointy headed cranial cliff of the half-noggin as it were…(left side for all the Anatomical Position sticklers..)
Not a pretty sight any way you slice it, neither are the chaotic repercussions for the otherworldly, the Fallout having EVERYTHING to do with Marisacat’s commentary atop her post today, regarding the same Clintonesque M.O. (and Pose) adopted by Obama..
So true with Lehman, The Clintons, ALL radioactive “Markets” now, and the Entrepreneurial Use for Abuse of the the Intelligence and Defense community, which will be noted with specific regard to Clinton in this story before the winding road’s end.. It is something I believe is quite relevant to why Clinton’s White House Chief of Staff Panetta – a weak hack really – was named Director of the CIA, and why Obama is groveling before the CIA bureaucracy today.
Clinton and Giustra’s Uranium Deal, like Clinton’s Wall Street deregulation in 1999, sold as “best interests”, the Uranium under the cover of “noble” AIDS work- {what a shit! }– Banking Dereg and Globalization as “pro-consumer” and “jobs” and “competitiveness” -ALL Shit – —-Well, like the Lady says:
Clue: It did not work. Did. not. work.
::
2. – The Uranium Market Collapsed
3. – Lehman Collapsed – Not a word yet on the involvement and extent of their “commodities contracts” in uranium that left them, now their creditors, in such a glowing position in BANKRUPTCY.
4. – The House of Cards,–
the result of CLINTONIAN BANKING DEREG-
the Global Economy has COLLAPSED.
Many perps and peeps of course, same M.O. though, Lehman Bros being just the beefy, pre-heart-surgery Clinton-sized Canary in the Uranium mine who overdosed.
5. —- > Obama, Clinton and the Democrats < —-
Are Protecting the Shyster Class: THEIR OWN, truly..
Not a whit of difference, Top to Bottom-feeder…
6. And Khazakstan?
Khazakstan went Broke after Lehman Collapsed: Fucking KILLED, quite specifically in September ’08 on Lehman’s Failing:
7. Societal Implications:
The analyst proceeds with familiar “opportunity in crisis” dumbass conclusions for Kazakhstan. Saying the crisis will allow them to “get rid” of the speculators. LOL. Maybe they could get rid of Clinton and his money grubbing pals for us too. Opportunity in Crisis my ass. The only Opportunity being generated in Crisis for most human beings is the “Opportunity” of trying to live though it.
Again, referencing Mcat’s piece today,
WRT to the constant sales- job of “Our Best Interests”….
The slop so easy thrown by the Big Pigs for the little pigs to play with..
Again, Clue: It did not work. Did. not. work
Even if – *Especially* if 😉 –
you take it from an Imperialists view:
Brilliant Bill!
And so much for that imaginary line between Democrats and Republicans, and the simpleton memes: the Enlightened Altruists vs. the Imbecilic Self Serving Crooks and War Whores.
With regard to Khazakstan, Chevron Texaco Godfathers with Energy Pillaging White House Presidential Pals, and the radioactive debris left in their wake, there is this: The case of James Giffen and Clinton Admin Use for Abuse of the CIA, their dealings in Khazakstan.
And now the CIA has them all by the balls.
Panetta probably is parking cars at Langley most of the time.
Before anyone concludes this Giffin case is a Bush v Clinton Admin cockfight, or simply collateral damage from oil fielder litigants squabbling over their turf, Bush’s DOJ was forced into it By a Judge in Switzerland over – Hello – Fraud and Banking secrecy violations in Swiss Action against Kazakstan President Nursultan Nazarbayev.
The NYT when the case broke:
It is a case, again™- that goes back to the Clinton Admin, involving a NY Hedge Fund Operator who is mounting his defense involving his CIA handling during the Clinton Admin and who, the trial court has concluded in pre-trial motions, is entitled to discovery and declassification of CIA Documents in order to present his defense.
The CIA handled the guy for thirty years, that much has been determined, but The CIA has yet to produce the documentation in this purposely congealed fuckball of a case. :
The U.S. Government yet™. again™. is purposely Botching a Prosecution to protect corruption at its Highest Level.
Business Week shortly before the 2008 U.S. Election- –
Not THAT much attention . Not enough for the Feds to, you know,
GET OFF THEIR ASS AND PROSECUTE EFFECTIVELY.
Well. The Russians have said Giffen was indeed CIA, that they attempted to steer Nazarbajayev away from the Clinton Era op. Against the backdrop of the global scramble for money among thieves, I have written and cited at length the Russians and now Germany are interested in cracking the Swiss and Lichtensteinian banking secrecy that our Western Oligarchs, The American Political Class are so dependent on….
Thus, the case is Lost in the shuffle between Panetta at CIA and Breuer running the DOJ with Holder as figurehead- hardly a word on it now –
still ah “pending”- BURIAL, that is –
The case of James Giffen.
Last year’s mid-primary Times piece on Clinton in Khazakstan, for all their dish, had no bead on PRIOR Clinton Admin dealings with Nazarbajaeyev, much less any of the crucial money laundering angles revealed more clearly by the Economic Meltdown now confronting an alarmed public. The money laundering aspect of this is crucial – it is central to the original Swiss Referral to the DOJ on Giffen and the Clinton Cadres Khasakstan deals past and present. The money laundering aspect is crucial in its ability to conceal far more than the few tens of millions channeled into the private, (however publicly known) Clinton Presidential Foundation. Especially since Clinton’s posture towards Khazakstan and Energy Task Forcers during his Administration is hardly common knowledge.
Frankly, it’s a shame the Times didn’t mention the Giffen case in their article on Clinton’s mining deal in Khazakstan during the Primary.
Last Summer’s financial press reports on the Giffen case, while more forthcoming about Kazakhstan, Giffin , the CIA, and the 1990’s, they avoided anything on the Clinton Doorstep that might have disrupted their political fortunes. They breathed nothing of the political implications for Democrats, let alone the New Administration choices either McCain or Obama would be confronting with regard to prosecution of the malingering case:
See any coverage yet on the trial?
The one that was supposed to start in January?
The one that has been termed the “largest case of it’s kind” since the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act was established in 1977?
Everybody okay with Lehman Brother’s lawyers accounting for their Uranium? Obama’s Admin getting to the bottom of it?
What the hell – leave some of it up in storage in Canada…
Maybe catnip will deal with it.
Crochet up a Lead Filament Sweater or something.
My crocheting with uranium days are over. Sorry!
But we do have a “Uranium City” in northern Saskatchewan where storage just might be possible. The mine’s closed. Might as well make sure it lives up to its name.
I have a long post in honor of
Grovel Before the CIA Day.
Rendered to Mod or Spam.
Sorry! Got it out… 😈
Believe it or not the length was edited!
I missed a close blockquote after #6 Kazakh equities, collapsed in September 2008 after Lehman Brothers’ announced its bankruptcy. it should shorten the scroll length at least …
I have a fun , BRIEF comment coming up here in a sec…
hmm I am trying to find it… WSJ is supposed to have an article up tonight, that Oakland is hiring private cops, rather than city service cops, to patrol.. for one, the area where the 4 cops died. they are hiring International Services Inc. Which has quite a history as I recall.
BINGO MCAT!!!! On two cards, even –
Well. Al Rogers is having a double orgasm on Markos Rec List now.
I’m in Love with My Country
by Al Rodgers
And, a patent hit piece on Krugman.
(2X) Dear Antonio Salieri — Drop Dead (Now w/ Drop Dead Eye Candy)
by Al Rodgers
They Promoted his shit-on-Krugman with 20 comments. Unbelieveable. LOL. Also that there ever was a time mcat “back when Al Rodgers was sane…” Really? Holy Hell. 😀 LOL.
But seriously, right you are- The guy is fuckin 😯
I’ve seen a lot of political gush on the web, but Al Rogers
peeing himself on a daily basis over Obama is right up there…
He’s fuckin whacked.
,
And the Obama propaganda is so over the top it seems desperate.
As is Markos Admins promoting it.
I forget what role Rodgers plays, he is somehow in the distribution chain for Obama PR but clearly nutball with his distribution. Wading into his diaries are like a one-way ticket to Weirdoville. ~ Jeezis.
LOL.
well it was an awfully long time ago that Al Rodgers was sane. Or appeared sane. Don’t recall that he ever detailed it but it seemd he had a background, somehow or other, in NY media. TV maybe. he seems attuned to how news cycles run… nuances of how they drive stories that are manufactured.
But it was a long time ago.. and most people over there proved no match for the orchestrated hate on, love ins of being accepted/rejected to where you fell in the Dkos earth bound stratosphere.
He has clearly lost it. All of his happy happy joy joy stuff is a cover for one very angry person.
That diary was, um, a little “distracting”.
Krugman is TEH EVIL and soft porn. Just another day at dkos.
Newsom running for CA Governor: discuss.
😀
Another family murder-suicide in Maryland.
I wish these suicidal stuffed suits would stop flattering themselves that their families just wouldn’t be able to survive without them.
Here’s a comment I posted at Big OrangeLand today after Obamalama backtracked on torture prosecutions (and threw Rahm under the bus):
Meanwhile, Gibbs was dancing the cha cha around questions during the briefing.
“Toma chocolate, paga lo que debes…”
Breaking News: Boober is still a maroon.
FSZ: Israel to build Museum of Tolerance on the bones of Muslims, SERIOUSLY
From the quoted Guardian article:
Just how completely fucked up do you have to be to think this is okay?
Iran To Waterboard Journalist Per New American Standards by: Pinche Tejano
I wish to publicly apologize for my role in the FSZ bitchfest metastasizing across the universe.
hey hey artemis!
Do you have a Cliff Notes version because I have NFI what’s going on.
Hey, if I could understand that ginormous crapfest I would hopefully be in Stockholm for focussing on something else.
When I try to read a thread or two over there, after a bit I’m not even sure who I am.
That blog is the definition of a fustercluck. If you will notice, the only one there with any brains, Miss Devore, has evacced long ago and was kind enough to give me shelter.
Thousands of Tamil protesters pack Parliament Hill
All to the good, but the Tamil diaspora has much to answer for as well. There are no good guys here.
The fault lies with the original ceasefire which recognized two parties only, the hypernationalist Sinhala govt anf the LTTE. That created all this.
Where was any recognition for all the other parties? Where was any consideration for the Muslim minority, or anyone else not affiliated with the LTTE or the govt?
There are no good guys here.
It’s clearly a mess and the word here from the gov’t is basically ‘well, it’s all going to be over soon anyway’ – as if everything will automagically be okay.
Tapper v Gibbs.. full text:
cha cha cha…
Shorter IMF: yes, you really are completely fucked.
Life is so hard when you are Pretzelina. Considering how much they all have caved, already… 😈
FWIW (not all that much… but…)
He we go! Same as it ever was- Rendell at work in PA-
They’ll continue to do it until Specter is in good shape next year:
nu post…
LINK
…………….. 🙄 ………….