Imperium 19 June 2011
Posted by marisacat in 2012 Re Election, Afghanistan War, Culture of Death, Inconvenient Voice of the Voter, Total fucking lunatics, UK, WAR!.trackback
On 24 May 2011 President Obama made a State visit to the UK. These behind-the-scenes pictures capture him and the First Lady during the three-day visit [PETE SOUZA/THE WHITE HOUSE]
The pic of Obby being presented to the Head House Cat / Mouser-in-Chief at 10 Downing is pretty funny. Larry is not happy to be there…
****
Liberal use of the name “Obama” in this piece from Tom Dispatch, so many white liberals seem unable to say the name in conjunction with crimes and misdemeanors…
From the Tom Engelhardt preamble to a piece by Karen Greenberg:
Every time we get a peek inside Washington’s war on terror, it just couldn’t be uglier. Last week, three little home-grown nightmares from that “war” caught my attention. One you could hardly miss. On the front page of the New York Times, Glenn Carle, a former CIA official, claimed that the Bush administration had wanted “to get” Juan Cole, whose Informed Comment blog devastatingly critiqued the invasion and occupation of Iraq (and who writes regularly for TomDispatch). Not only that, administration officials called on the CIA to dig up the dirt on him.
. . . .
In case you think taking down Cole was just a matter of the bad old days of the Bush administration, note that the journalist who revealed this little shocker, James Risen, is being hounded by the Obama administration. He’s been subpoenaed by federal authorities to testify against a CIA agent accused of leaking information to him (on a bungled CIA plan to sabotage Iran’s nuclear program) for his book State of War. It’s worth remembering that no administration, not even Bush’s, has been fiercer than Obama’s in going after government whistle blowers.
In the meantime, in case you didn’t think American law enforcement could sink much lower while investigating “terrorist activity” and generally keeping an eye on Americans, think again. According to Charlie Savage of the Times, a revised FBI operational manual offers its 14,000 agents new leeway in “searching databases,” using “surveillance teams to scrutinize the lives of people who have attracted their attention,” and “going through household trash.” Yes, that’s right, if you see somebody at the dumpster out back, it may not be a homeless person but an FBI agent.
And then there was Peter Wallsten’s account in the Washington Post of a nationwide FBI investigation of “prominent peace activists and politically active labor organizers.” According to Wallsten, news leaking out about it hasn’t sat so well with union supporters of President Obama (or, for all we know, with the president himself), since “targets” include “Chicagoans who crossed paths with Obama when he was a young state senator and some who have been active in labor unions that supported his political rise.” All are (shades of Cole in the Bush years) “vocal and visible critics of U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East and South America.” . . . .
That last might be dicey - if US labor had any balls.
All the years the party regulars have spent, arguing in a blizzard of verbiage and TV banter, that the Democrats are the 2% fat milk, or something. ”Better for you”…
A waste of breath.
Trouble trouble boil and bubble. I guess Obby blew off a big annual Latino function. NALEO: National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials
Gutierrez has long, even during the 08 GE, made sure to take issue with Ob, publicly…
Right now I am wondering what group, if any, he wins in 2012. Urban white fake lib Dems? Urban blacks?
Who else?
Gay marriage is up for the vote in the NY state leg today…. and the Catholics, some of them anyway, are a prayin’.
in other words “vote ‘no’ or another young boy pays the price!”
I think all they do is bugger children and order extravagant lace drapery…
threaten women
oh Right! Hwo could I forget!
Standing… ah, um… firm!!
More on the Athens protests
…
For their part, protesters with salaries and wrinkles are fuming at the spending cuts already inflicted on them. Chryssa Michalopolou is a teacher who calculates that her annual pay has already gone down by the equivalent of one and a half months, while her living costs have shot up, thanks to rising taxes and inflation. Does she buy the government’s line that it needs to trim the public sector? “After 15 years’ service, I’m only on €1,200 (£1,056) a month,” she says. “I didn’t see any boom; I simply paid my taxes and now I am being punished.”
…
When Greece was all but locked out of the financial markets last May, Papandreou accepted a €110bn loan from Europe and the IMF. The idea was that the money would tide the country over for a year, in which time his government would at least start sorting out its public finances. For Angela Merkel, Nicolas Sarkozy and the rest of Europe, the loan came with some pretty tight strings attached: they charged the Greeks interest well above the official eurozone rate, and set demanding budget targets for the Pasok socialist government.
A year in, and the deal is not working. Greece has been in recession for two years and on official forecasts this will be its third. When I ask Athens University economist Yanis Varoufakis to describe the economy, he shoots back one sentence: “It’s in freefall.”
Sitting on the balcony of his flat behind the Acropolis, he throws out some statistics: 50,000 businesses went bankrupt last year, industrial production fell 20% and will drop another 12% this year. Unemployment has surged, so that one in six of the workforce doesn’t have a job. These are the sort of figures associated with a depression, and the predictable result is that the public finances are getting worse. Greece’s debt has ballooned to 153% of GDP; on Varoufakis’s projections, even if ministers manage to make all their promised cuts, the government will owe three times the entire national income.
Behind these numbers lie the stories of a society in distress. One man talks about his daughter who works in the in-store restaurant of a large supermarket outside Athens; at closing time, she and her workmates have started giving out the unsold meals to the newly unemployed – the 21st-century equivalent of a soup kitchen. An employee of a local council notes that they pick up 17% less rubbish than a year ago, simply because people have cut back on food. The owner of an art gallery tells me her son has just started his first job; holding a master’s in accountancy, he works six hours a day in a mobile-phone shop
…
Wealthy Greeks have always treated the country’s tax system like a church collection plate: what they give is strictly optional. This gap was covered up for as long as the Greek state could get cheap credit; then in 2008 it became glaringly obvious. The other problem covered up during the boom years was the rotting away of the industrial base. That too is now the subject of angry public discussion.
I take a tour of the shipbuilding yard in Perama, just outside Athens. Greece has the largest commercial fleet in the world, and yet Perama is utterly silent. There is a rusting hulk, abandoned a few years ago, when those who commissioned it could no longer afford to pay for it. A decade ago, this yard employed 7,000 workers – now it has around 500. There was a time when assembling small cargo vessels was seen as pedestrian work; last year, the yard was contracted to build two boats, and the jobs were fought over. A few minutes away lives Tassos Alexandris, who was laid off from Perama in 2008. The hall of his flat is decorated with needlepoint; inside are pictures of the Virgin Mary put up by his wife, Nikki. She is ill, and his 26-year-old daughter has worked for six months in her entire career. How do they make ends meet? Nikki snorts with laughter.
“The electricity connection is inside the flat; otherwise the board would have cut us off,” begins Tassos. His mother-in-law lives upstairs and, while he is too ashamed to ask her for food, she allows him to raid her fridge at night. They had a small green Citroen, but couldn’t afford to keep it. Now he runs a motorbike, although with no plates and no taxes. “I can’t sleep at night for worry,” he says. “It has affected every part of our lives: personal, sexual, the lot.” How many families in this block do they think are in a similar situation? Nikki tots them up: “80%.”
Tassos doesn’t just support the protesters of Syntagma; he thinks they will go further. “Don’t be surprised if Athens goes up in flames,” the 50-year old says. “And don’t be sad, either.” His words initially sound melodramatic, but the anger keeps coming up. “Politicians now walk around with bodyguards,” says Aris Chatzistefanou, the co-director of Debtocracy, a film about the Greek crisis that has become a sensation. He quotes a newspaper report of how restaurateurs are taking down those cheesy framed photos of dining politicians, of how one government spokesman went to dinner a few weeks ago only for the rest of the restaurant to start shouting “You are eating the blood of the people”.
One reason the protests will not stop, aside frmo the fact they have been going on for years…
oh wow! How great is this:
what else could be said, … it’s true.
Thanks so much ts! ;0)
There’s a lot of parallels to Argentina circa 2001-2.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argentine_economic_crisis_(1999%E2%80%932002)
Um, I’m sorry, but what part of this doesn’t apply nearly 100% to our little country here in USAisStan?
displeased,…is our emperor? ………pointer finger hooked, …. in a don’t you realize who I am …moment?
Reminds me of that pic of little billy gates, ….hooking his finger towards his engraved nameplate, …at one of countless get togethers to figure out how to keep the multitude of worker bees: in worship, and in line.
(To qualify, Not at all to say…that the UK, has anyone’s best interests in mind…either)
…talk about a witch, …. or hag, …..
From an article on Fukushima of all things… The Luddite in me is most pleased.
thank you for that, it’s almost as if people are embarrassed to express those types of thoughts anymore. I’m tatting myself a Luddite Badge, if that’s what a Luddite is.
My goodness, even Justin Raimondo is thinking happy thoughts today!
I think I left a tag dangling there, Marisa. Doesn’t look like its blown up yet.
whatever it was, maybe WP closed it for you… I looked at the HTML and it looked fine…
the Republican party – incredibly enough – is becoming the main political vessel of anti-interventionism in the US only a few years after leading this country into two of the most unsuccessful wars we’ve ever fought
it certainly has McCain irritable… and I expect that Lieberman will chime in any day. As soon as prayers are over… [snicker]
Really liked that, until he got to Ron Paul and the USS “Tea Partier”
Saw Justin in a 20-30K person march against the War in Iraq in San Francisco, it struck that he looked like he ‘sounds,’ to me. At least he’s honest about it, but I’m pretty sure, I wouldn’t want to inhabit his, Cap’n Ron Paul, …world either, despite how much I agree with certain arguments Ron Paul has made. The whole Libertarian thang is what fueled the megalomaniacs running the Male Techie world.
via the boys over at SMBIVA… this whole Protect the Foundling and the Consort has gone seriously nuts…
SF Gate :
That SMBVA commentary was hilarious (on a side note, so’s the goldfish ban as Rome burns. …I bleakly laughed at that earlier today, the San Francisco “Public Servants” are busy representing all the citizens as they lose their shirts.)
Well Justin is an inconvertible Paulite. I don’t think the SS Ron Paul will ever get out of the dock, but more “mainstream” GOP candidates are also starting to pick up a whole different kind of populist rhetoric.
For example, Michael Hudson was going on the other day about Michele Bachman of all people.
yeah, I saw some conservadems blathering about how wonderful the Huntsman ‘populist’ is, ya might think they’d have bothered to mention that he’s on record as supporting AUSTERITY.
And the beat goes on!!
Lo-o-o-nger weekends now in the Hamptons, I bet!!
He should repair to the coast. Get in touch with the simple life, uh, in the Hamptons, relax, maybe touch base with the neighbors back home via postcards.
You know, what kid back in the city doesn’t look forward to the ole,
Long beach walks with his beloved. Who ever that may be.
Kids need that stuff.
You know, Ever since Teddy died™… LOL
Of course a shower might be dicey if they go all POMO and invite the guys.
…Rahm runnin around all naked poking people,
a confused Weiner thinking it a cue to start urinating on attendees,
Ah, those golden days of summer. .etc.
Maybe they should all go to Fire Island.
Get it out of their systems… communally.
They could invite Bill and Chuck.
The black guy won’t be able to make it, tho.
He’s busy “evolving” on gay marriage.
Hey, it’s a job in a tough economy!!
I laughed my ass off at that quote you put up yesterday from WH Spokesfool Carney.
It being “CLEAR that his position is evolving”.
So yeh, poor All Hunt andhis like among the retainers in the press corps lamenting a shopworn Obby and the whole in in-over-their-heads operation. something along the lines of,
Can’t the poop out some HIGHER QUALITY horseshit?
oh and he claimed not to know Ob’s position on somthing major (I forget what!) said to ask him next tim there is a presser.
But all we get is speeches.
I read the review of the most recent (yesterday?) speech by Bashar al Assad. Just substitute the name L’Obster for Bashar. Same review. Empty phrases, old offers, non statements.
It all fit.
hmm Al Hunt is pretty much a dumb cluck (imo) but it sounds like even he is departing from Obby. (Or it is too embarrassing to defend him.)
It seems Obby is past shelf life date. Or something.
Just talked to a long time Dem friend of mine who mentioned she was registered independent now, which in DC is like being “stranded on a desert island”. But she said she just couldn’t deal with it anymore. She said the words “terminally clueless” a number of times.
it really is bad out there…
BUT!
Obama is Calling For a Reduction in the Troop Surge!
In Afghanistan!
WHICH!! – is like practically like ending it – back to Bush Levels -
WHICH!! –come to think of it – is ALMOST like not having a War at ALL!
::
So. Gotta ask –
Just What IS going on inside the skull of the average Obama groupie?
Something like:
My master owns me. And he relies on me for my vote. I will comply. He needs 4 more years to TRY!!!!!!
Snicker.
Or like Ismael Reed: As long as the racists oppose Obama, I will support him. No, that is not blood coming from my head. No that is not a wall I keep banging my head against.. No that is not my skull cracking…
Of the groupies, weinies all really…And then there is the sort like Matt Stoller.
Hanging his hat now at Politico with a piece saying Weiner was a distraction that served D’s from their bum record for a few cycles.
Now before I was ready to give him a break on that minor point, hey nothing like finding relief where you can et it, eh, Matt? I actually read his piece looking for the inevitable white liberalish crack-pipe to be broken out. LOL.
Didn’t take long.
Translation. Hand MORE money to the banksters and brokers to put in their pockets…
And Um, Obama could use his power.
Cuz we’re still a great nation and all.
AND We Can Win the shit out of China – AnyDay, ANYDAY he tells ya!
Good Lord, what a lost and dumb…fuck
Dying Empire, Budt. LOL. Get a clue.
EVERYBODY is a wannabe Staffer now, MAtt. Including Herr Pretzeldent.
I just heard this morning about the idea being floated… [snicker, til sinks!] about a 50K quasi (as in may be forgiven down the line!) loan to people in trouble on their mortgages. For various reasons…
Wow… how to sugar coat a total non solution. A convoluted way of handing 50K per bad loan, per pre foreclosure, etc., straight to the banksters.
SOmething that needs a real solution, something along the lines of permanent loan modification available widely and enforced thru tight regs on the bankstersfraudsters. Sheila Bair had a plan more than a couple years ago, ”cramdown” thru the bankruptcy judges was another soslution, years ago. Both ignored.
Of course that would mean we still had the shreds of a sane and rersponsible fiduciary class.
Whoops.
L’Obster is drowning. All this scheisse is window dressing in tragic times to float his broken boat.
SO Spot On.
It’s one billion dollars. JAck-Shit that might , Might help 200,000.
Out of – OH! – foreclosures that are only averaging about 300,000 – A MONTH.
Which will be used to hand out as political chits hell maybe they’ll throw in a chcken or two.
As – Gasp- the NYT reported today
Politically connected lawyers reap foreclosure benefits pillaging the public till as court appointed receivers.
Which – it being what it is – political plunder – is kicked back in cash along with what is graciously funneled to campaign coffers as well.
But that street hustler Obama and the con artist Dems get this cheap lying headline, a cruel hoax on the millions who have already (Thanks Bill!, Thanks Chucky! Thanx, Harry Thanks Nancy!) – and those who WILL lose their homes. But!™….. Cheap lying Obama gets a cheap lying headlline, a cruel hoax on the millions left out in the cold, WHO WILL eventually, lose their homes.
None of this shit would have happened if the Dems didn’t pass Grham Leech Bliley FOR the Republicans, Rubin, Larry, and the New York Jews. To be…concilliatory.
The girls the [cough] First Daughters wore flags of SAfrica, totally wrapped neck to foot (and not looking happy) on the tarmack in Pretoria. Family conflab, Big Mama, daughters, other Robinson relatives, MIL, doing a week in SA and … hmm Botswana.
I am guessing she and L’Obster become part time residents of SA after the WH sojourn.
Good riddance.
Whoops. Forgot the Link to the Stoller
Anyways ..heading out for now… in New Jersey, a place apparently designed so other Americans can Thank Fuckin God. LOL
The second solution would be to use government power to create jobs. For one example, the administration could dub the Chinese government a currency manipulator and spark domestic manufacturing by shifting our terms of trade.
Um…what was that middle part again? Dear god. Everyone that made a lick of sense has left the building, and what’s left is just herp derp derp.
Hey, that could be Obama’s next campaign slogan!
Obama 2012: Derp.
meanwhile… I’d like a COLA raise…. this decade … mebbe.
commie
I decided I am going t call the Pelosi office and ask WHEN will there be a COLA raise. And mention the 50K.
[snigger]
The absolute definition of W A S T E
via Ben Smith.
I assume the Dems will do the same to…………is it Charlotte? Raleigh Durham? NC I know, but …
Good luck to them all. snicker.
what’s a Circus Maximus, ….without a Clown Show…
Occasionally there is some quality stuff on dkos. I find this prospect fascinating. I really hope the NY Supremes uphold the decision of the appeals court.
Great explanation nuts and bolts of the ongoing state AG investigations as well.
I hate auto-complete things…
I think there’s a comment in mod… because of the new auto-complete feature in wordpress…
got it out… think ”lucid72lucid” is a new wcreen name. Not that WP does not fcuk up hiccup all the time…
Took a while as I was havign a last minute decision to roast some chicken…
Poor DIFI, her massive Republican support is dwindling. That isn’t vewy fwendly after she’s been such a fwend to them and all.
Don’t let that wolf knock DIFI: as has been proclaimed by the Cali Media, unemployed women past their forties are too old, and may never work again (way past your prime there); certainly wimmins can’t rely on any, near non-existent, stimulus; … (Federal Numbers Show 88 Percent Of Recovery Jobs Go To Men); and plenty of Cali unemployed, with the 2nd highest unemployment rate in the country (the armpit, Nevada, wins that prize!), you’d have to play Musical Chairs with.
Well, …you’re right, …. mebbe you could opt for possible tardive dyskinesia and being treated with psychotropic meds, (if you can find yourself an affordable lawyer). Why not! … You trust big Pharma, don’t you? ….Get on SSI to pay for the food and rent, as some clever, aspiring Cali Dem Rep Interns may apparently be suggesting (I know of one instance where it was suggested to a friend by a young, up and coming State, Dem Rep Intern), since it pushes the costs to the Feds:
(bolding mine, and yeah, this has been going on since at least George’s Reign, as growing millions became permanently unemployed.)
Of course I’m probably just being pessimistic about your particular case, DIFI. I mean, …. after all, our “Honourable,” Public Servant Legislators, such as yourself, DIFI, never have to inhabit the reality they strive to create;… that’s for their chump, citizen “employers,” isn’t it.
Oh, and how could I forget yet another possibility for the, for 99.999999% of their lives, law abiding, citizen ‘lepers’:
N.C. Man Allegedly Robs Bank of $1 to Get Health Care in Jail
(hat tip to Susie Madrak, but really Susie, did the netroots ™ bit fry your sanity, or ….has AUSTERITY … always, … been your take? …..anyhow, thank you for the links, you put out some very good ones.)
we have to help moderate Republicans reclaim their party.
oh they all NEED to shit can this reclaim business.
What a fucking joke.
(I mean …seriously, …is that you, philly gal/Dailykos …..™ …the same who chided about how adults in New Orleans, could be getting jobs at Micky Dees ..or some such …after Hurricane Katrina…. …if not, …..ya sure sound like it.)
(and…if that is, by chance, correct, ….how fucking dare you put out your virtual TIN CUP (and sooooooo fucking FREQUENTLY), in the hideous, FAKE HOPEY CHANGEY, … VIRTUAL WORLD ™ …you so fervently promote.)
If he can just believe! and hang on til obamacare in 2014, he’ll be fine.
I half expect a mob to run L’Obster and Congressshitnits out of DC. ”Nobody” would be preferable.
A POX, …on all of the slimy mother fuckers …
(gotta run honey….)
New
LINK
…….