Friday…

Friday… 12 December 2008

Posted by marisacat in 2008 Election, 2010 Mid Terms, AFRICOM, Culture of Death, Greece, Inconvenient Voice of the Voter, Iraq War, WAR!.
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Athens – silent protest at Parliament – Reuters

Perusing Lenin’s Tomb yesterday I landed on this link to an October, 2006 opinion piece in the Wapo, by Susan Rice and Anthony Lake – and a NJ elected… so much goodness to come. All that matters is the map for wars.

Hurry! Hurry! Every minute not in war is a missed opportunity! Hurry!

[A]fter swift diplomatic consultations, the United States should press for a U.N. resolution that issues Sudan an ultimatum: accept unconditional deployment of the U.N. force within one week or face military consequences. The resolution would authorize enforcement by U.N. member states, collectively or individually. International military pressure would continue until Sudan relented.

The United States, preferably with NATO involvement and African political support, would strike Sudanese airfields, aircraft and other military assets. It could blockade Port Sudan, through which Sudan’s oil exports flow. Then U.N. troops would deploy — by force, if necessary, with U.S. and NATO backing.

If the United States fails to gain U.N. support, we should act without it. Impossible? No, the United States acted without U.N. blessing in 1999 in Kosovo to confront a lesser humanitarian crisis (perhaps 10,000 killed) and a more formidable adversary. Under NATO auspices, it bombed Serbian targets until Slobodan Milosevic acquiesced. Not a single American died in combat. Many nations protested that the United States violated international law, but the United Nations subsequently deployed a mission to administer Kosovo and effectively blessed NATO military action retroactively.

Unthinkable in the current context? True, the international climate is less forgiving than in 1999. Iraq and torture scandals have left many abroad doubting our motives and legitimacy. Some will reject any future U.S. military action, especially against an Islamic regime, even if it is purely to halt genocide against Muslim civilians. Sudan has also threatened that al-Qaeda will attack non-African forces in Darfur — a real possibility since Sudan long hosted Osama bin Laden and his businesses. Yet, to allow another nation to deter the United States by threatening terrorism would set a terrible precedent. It would also be cowardly and, in the face of genocide, immoral. … snip whippy…

You have to love the title for the piece…

We Saved the Europeans. Why not Africans?

Near the top of their cute little love note for war, is this:

Some 450,000 innocent human beings are already dead, and more than 2.5 million have fled their homes.

That reminds of what other country? 10 points for “Iraq”.

America and her pure white avenging bombs. Carry on.

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1. marisacat - 12 December 2008: Moving mattes’ comment from the end of the last thread, forward:

MCat, Mr. Madoff is an interesting person. I wikied him.

Bedfellows:

The firm is one of the top market maker firms on Wall Street.

Madoff served as the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Sy Syms School of Business at Yeshiva University.

Madoff who is Jewish, and has actively supported American Zionism, served as the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Sy Syms School of Business at Yeshiva University.

Madoff started his firm in 1960 with an initial investment of $5,000,[right…] after attending Hofstra University Law School.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernard_L._Madoff

So it was becoming interesting and I followed, looked up Hofstra:

Home of the last debate hosted by Bob Schieffer :

Presidential debate

Hofstra was one of 19 facilities vying for the opportunity to host one of the three presidential debates, or the vice presidential debate.

Stuart Rabinowitz said of Hofstra’s application. “And we had tremendous support from our public officials.”

The final cost to the university came out to $3.2 million, as was announced by President Stewart Rabinowitz in his speech prior to the beginning of the debate. He also stated that the cost was covered by three of the university’s trustees, one of which was David Mack who the Mack Sports Complex, where the debate was held, is named after.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hofstra_University

So I looked up Mack, bet he had input into questions:

Public Service

Mack serves on the boards of Boys Town of Jerusalem, Hofstra University, Israel Bonds, Joseph L. Morse Geriatric Center, New York Holocaust Memorial Committee, North Shore Long Island Jewish Health System Foundation, Palm Beach Community Chest and United Way, Pratt Institute, and UJA of Greater New York and Long Island

Which of course lead me to Israeli Bonds:

—
State of Israel Bonds are debt securities issued by the Government of Israel.
—-
State of Israel Bonds is also the more familiar name of the underwriter of the bonds in the United States. The company is officially known as the Development Corporation for Israel (DCI). DCI is headquartered in New York City, and is a FINRA-registered broker-dealer.
—
On April 17, 2008 Moody’s Investors Service raised Israel’s government foreign and local currency bond ratings from A2 to A1 . In a report issued a few weeks earlier citing the possibility of an upgrade, Moody’s referred to State of Israel Bonds as a mitigating factor. The report praised Israel Bonds as a source of funding ‘at favorable costs.’
—-
Initial investors in Israel bonds were largely members of the Jewish community who wanted to help Israel strengthen its economic foundations. However, as securities became more diverse and market-responsive, the investor base became increasingly widespread. Israel bonds were seen as a two-fold investment that not only helped Israel, but were a useful means of portfolio diversification.

Purchasers now include more than 1,700 labor unions, over 1,800 foundations, and numerous states, municipalities, corporations, insurance companies, associations, union pension funds, banks, financial institutions, universities, synagogues, and private investors. Over 70 state and municipal public employee pension and treasury funds have invested more than $1 billion in the bonds.
—-
Half of the states in the US have invested in State of Israel bonds. In 2003, the State of New Jersey pension system purchased $20 million in bonds. In 2005, the Texas Treasury purchased $2 million in the bonds, bringing its total investments to $20 million,[5] and Louisiana purchased $5 million.[6]

In 2007 Florida adopted a bill authorizing county and local governments throughout the State to invest surplus funds in State of Israel bonds. More than $100 million in the bonds are purchased every year within Florida by various individuals, corporations, pension plans, universities, hospitals, foundations, unions, banks and insurance companies. The same year, New Mexico announced the purchase of $5 million in State of Israel Bonds, adding to the $10 million that the State had purchased in 2003.

On September 18, 2008, the city and state of New York each announced their intention to purchase $15 million in Israel bonds.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israel_Bonds

So now half the states are invested in Israel. Great. Gives new meaning to “connected at the roots”.

Sometimes I think the best thing would be for it all to crash and burn.—Wall Street that it.

Sorry for such a long post.

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2. marisacat - 12 December 2008: Sovereign wealth funds face hard time. [sob] 👿

This made me laugh. Re-fi!

Using leverage, Dubai went on an acquisition spree of financial institutions at what turns out to have been the top of the market. For instance, at the same time Dubai acquired its LSE stake last fall it also bought just under 20 percent of NASDAQ OMX Group. Dubai now faces the need to refinance about $4 billion in acquisition finance in a much tougher market.

Dubai is hunkering down and trying to figure out how to manage its hefty debt obligations over the next couple of years. With the once red-hot real estate market having turned stone-cold, the United Arab Emirates federal government already has stepped in to rescue Tamweel and Amlak Financial, two Dubai mortgage companies that one banker said were the UAE’s equivalent to Washington Mutual and failed British mortgage lender Northern Rock.

May be they can claim to have been snookered into a sub prime!

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3. marisacat - 12 December 2008: Oh FFS

Granholm is calling the vote in congress last night UN-AMERICAN. That it will pitch us from recession to depression.

The future looks so bright. So bi partisan. So post racial. So divine.

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4. ms_xeno - 12 December 2008: I was listening to some NPR call-in drivel yesterday where schmucks and schmuckettes are whining because they own publicly registered firearms but don’t want the (I presume, unarmed) hoi polloi to be able to go down to the Sheriff’s office to see who is registered.

You know something ? Fuck them. Do these jaggoffs have any fucking clue how much personal information is already a matter of public record;how much they don’t even KNOW is readily accessible by total strangers ? Screw them. Screw their firearms. One of them is whining that oh, people act so awkward when they know I’m carrying… Yeah, fuckhead. It’s funny how I don’t want you in my house if I know you have a firearm. Keep it in the woods, on the shooting range, under your pillow, NOT in my goddamn house.

Some dipshit teacher in Medford who packs heat in a public school got all in a tizzy because NOTA forbid the kids or the parents should know that Teacher is packing heat. Ho hum. Let the lawsuits fly.

Guns and fetuses. The last frontiers of confidentiality. Nobody gives a shit about the rest. Imagine if people were as vehement about the right to an affordable doctor’s visit as they are about their right to have a filled shoulder holster in the waiting room.

God bless America.

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5. mattes - 12 December 2008: # 4,
Sometimes I think there is some big game being played.

From your link:

“You don’t lose 25 percent of your assets without consequences,” he says.

Invest at Home, Not Overseas

The reverberations will undoubtedly include closer scrutiny by the funds’ boards over how they have been managing their assets. Coupled with other financial problems such as steep drops in local stock markets and the possible need for bailouts of local companies and banks, at least some of the funds have come under pressure to use their assets more for domestic purposes than for foreign investment. “The average Kuwaiti or Abu Dhabian can’t get a mortgage or a car loan (because of the credit squeeze). They wonder why (the funds) are bailing out the Citigroups of this world,” says one banker in the Persian Gulf region.

———

Analysts think that paper losses may have been particularly large at the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA), which is considered the world’s largest sovereign wealth fund.

————–

. Brad Setser, a geoeconomics fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York who pegs ADIA’s total holdings at the low end, figures the fund has notched around $150 billion in losses.

Opaque and Hard to Assess

If ADIA’s portfolio is in the trillion-dollar range, as some knowledgeable people estimate, the losses would have been even larger.

Will anyone come out on top.

Even Russia is back to nationializing.

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6. marisacat - 12 December 2008: Stiglitz in the FT:

The debate about whether or not to bail out the Big Three carmakers has been mischaracterised. It has been described as a package to help the undeserving dinosaurs of Detroit. In fact, a plan to bail out the carmakers would benefit shareholders and bondholders as much as anybody else. These are not the people that need help right now. In fact they contributed to the problem.

… The US car industry will not be shut down, but it does need to be restructured. That is what Chapter 11 of America’s bankruptcy code is supposed to do. A variant of pre-packaged bankruptcy – where all the terms are set before going before the bankruptcy court – can allow them to produce better and more environmentally sound cars. It can also address legacy retiree obligations. The companies may need additional finance. Given the state of financial markets, the US government may have to provide that at terms that give the taxpayers a full return to compensate them for the risk. Government guarantees can provide assurances, as they did two decades ago when Chrysler faced its crisis.

LOL listening to Barney Frank working to save JJjr’s ass. Same problem. Can’t save everyone. Esp when the deal on the table was a massive fuck up.

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7. marisacat - 12 December 2008: 5

Sometimes I think there is some big game being played.

I thought the same thing mattes.

Global string pulling.

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8. marisacat - 12 December 2008: mattes, thanks for the Madoff … I sent it around to a few people.

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9. mattes - 12 December 2008: The war is between the Jews [England, USA, Australia] and Arabs [OPEC, Venezuela and ?] with China and Russia waiting to pick up the pieces? Just a guess.

Russia is still fighting it’s internal wars; Berezovsky, Friedman, etc.

Poor India trying to stay in the game. Russia is courting again.

Iran will go with OPEC.

One thing is for SURE. Wars can’t be fought without oil. The war machine would come to a quick death. And they all know it.

…mumble, mumble….

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10. marisacat - 12 December 2008: … and China looking better and better to Pakistanis. No wonder. China in much of coastal west Africa… while we hug the Horn – to death…

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11. mattes - 12 December 2008: Officially screwed by real inflation
By The Mogambo Guru

Pittsburghlive.com posted the headline “Queen Elizabeth’s Question Answered” atop an article by John Browne, which delighted me, as I naively assumed that her question was along the lines of, “Who in the hell suggested that we make a knight out of the odious Alan Greenspan, the biggest piece of central banking
crap that the world has ever known and who had the Federal Reserve
create all the stinking money and credit to create the bubbles that are now financially killing all of us as they collapse in what The Mogambo calls a Big Stinking Heap (BSH)?”

Well, I should have known that this was not her real question, and it wasn’t, but “Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II this month asked a simple but fundamental question posed by many millions of Americans and people around the world. Visiting the London

School of Economics, the queen asked why it was, if the looming economic crisis was so large, that no one saw it coming.”

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Global_Economy/JL12Dj01.html

People are really beginning to question all the clever Wall Street/Fed players.

Clever by half.

Yet, so many are walking away clean because they got out early.

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12. mattes - 12 December 2008: Games:

In early November, for example, Iran conducted its first launch of a new long-range, solid-fuel missile known as the Sejil or Sajeel or Sejil/Ashura.

Defense analysts in the West are watching Sejil closely, and have commented about it at length on various blog sites in particular – “My opinion is, this new Iranian two-stage solid propellant missile ‘Sejil’ probably is based on Chinese two-stage DF-11A missile variant M-9,” said one German commentator. Dr Jeffrey Lewis, along with his team of contributors at http://www.armscontrolwonk.com, have done a better job than most over the past month, offering readers a comprehensive, in-depth discussion of this new Iranian missile.

Uzi Rubin, an Israeli defense consultant and founder of the Israel Missile Defense Organization, has been quick to emphasize that besides being based on a brand new two-stage missile design incorporating advanced solid-propellant technology, the Sejil’s use of large-diameter, solid propulsion technology requires sophisticated component fabrication and inspection processes.

In other words, a dedicated infrastructure must have been recently sold or transferred to Iran for this project. It was not developed in-house.

“China definitely has the capability to be such a supplier, but so [does] Russia, Ukraine, France, Germany, Italy, the US, Brazil, Pakistan, India and Israel, but apparently not North Korea,” said Rubin, listing all the countries with advanced solid propellant missile production capabilities. “You can make your own choice who is the likeliest supplier.”

He said he would not like to point a specific finger at China or Chinese entities as the source of Iran’s solid-propellant technology. “There are other candidates around, but it is not inconceivable that China did indeed [supply] Iran like they supplied the full range of solid propellant technologies to Pakistan within the Shaheen 1/ M11 deal,” adds Rubin.

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/China/JL13Ad01.html

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13. mattes - 12 December 2008: 10

Turning point for India’s foreign policy

India is in need of a foreign policy overhaul now that the United States has its eye on a broader Afghanistan strategy that will have direct implications on the power play New Delhi had envisioned. Given that the central part of Washington’s revised plans will involve a long-term US investment in Pakistani power structures, India needs to realize that its super-power ambitions cannot be underpinned by a single partnership.

– Zorawar Daulet Singh

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/JL12Df01.html

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14. marisacat - 12 December 2008: Doyle McManus, LAT, on Ob/Blago/Rahm-o-Rama.

In short, when Obama’s team talked with the governor, were they operating under Obama’s rules — or Chicago rules? More important: How will Obama react if someone on his team made a misstep?

Eugene Robinson on the same.

Obama has denied speaking to Blagojevich about the Senate seat. But Obama’s initial statement seemed crafted to avoid the question of whether his aides had been in touch with the governor’s office. He said at a news conference yesterday that he was certain his people “had no involvement with any dealmaking,” and he added that his staff was still “gathering facts” about possible contacts.

But all this seems awfully coy. It’s obvious that the president-elect would have an interest in who was appointed to the Senate from his home state — for good reason. For that matter, it would be unusual if the president-elect didn’t have a preferred candidate.

Chicago Tribune on Abner Mikva and Obama-Rama.

What a puff piece. Puff puff puffery. But useful in stating again how long Mikva and his daugher Minow fostered Ob.

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15. marisacat - 12 December 2008: LOL I stole this from The Corner… the schnauzer pound…

Blago Affair, Blagopalooza, Blago-Rahma, Blago-Bama-Rahma, Bling4Blago, Seatwater, Grand Theft Blago, Blago-Grab (like Abu-Ghraib), Blagola (like payola), an attempt at a Blagopoly, Blag-mire, Blag-pro-quo, Blago-ditch, Blag-out, Blagobamanation, Blagobamamania, Blagobama, Grab-Blag, Dem-Blago, BlagoMart, Blagorama, Blagodrama, Blaygo (or Blago-paygo), P2PGate (Pay to Play Gate), Blagojevich 5, Senat-Ebay, E-Blago-bay gate, Blago-auction, ChiBlagoScam, Chicago’s ethical Blag Hole, Just-a-governor-from-the-neighborhood-gate, the Crackpot Dome-hair Scandal.

Or, of course, just “Chicago politics.”

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16. mattes - 12 December 2008: Fallouts, there’s going to be some pissed people.

Madoff fraud forces foundation to close

The securities fraud of Bernard Madoff forced a Jewish foundation in Massachusetts to close its doors Friday.

—

The Robert I. Lappin Foundation in Salem laid off all of its employees and locked its doors on Friday after its benefactor’s assets were frozen because they were invested with Madoff.

“Mr. Lappin investments were frozen,” the foundation’s executive director Deborah Coltin told JTA. “The assets are frozen. We have no money. The foundation cannot access its money.”

Lappin, who was reached by JTA Friday afternoon, said that he lost $8 million…which gave away about $1.5 million per year to Jewish causes…

http://jta.org/news/article/2008/12/12/1001512/lappin-foundation-loses-all-of-its-money-in-madoff-fruad-and-closes-its-doors#When:20:08:00Z

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17. catnip - 12 December 2008: I have returned! It’s already getting nasty out there. At least I had the wind at my back on the way home. I see a long, hot bath in my near future.

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18. catnip - 12 December 2008: So, after Harry Reid’s doomsday prognostication last nite about Wall St, why is the Dow up 64 points?

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19. catnip - 12 December 2008: Emanuel: I’m Getting Death Threats Over Blagojevich Scandal;
Obama’s Chief of Staff Refuses to Go to Work Because of Media Stakeout

Emanuel appeared “beet-red,” according to an ABC News cameraman who was invited inside by Emanuel to use his bathroom this morning.

“I’m getting regular death threats. You’ve put my home address on national television. I’m pissed at the networks. You’ve intruded too much, ” Emanuel said, according to the cameraman.

A spokesman for Emanuel said he later showed up at the office, apparently able to sneak out of the house without being seen by reporters waiting to ask him questions.

Emanuel has refused to comment as to whether he is the un-named presidential adviser cited in the FBI affidavit filed in the Blagojevich case. “You’re wasting your time,” Emanuel told a Chicago Sun Times reporter yesterday. “I’m not going to say a word to you. I’m going to do this with my children. Don’t do that. I’m a father. I have two kids. I’m not going to do it.”

Looks like he’s losing it.

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20. marisacat - 12 December 2008: maybe Rahm needs to find that IDF outfit he wore when he maintained brakes and gears (I so buy that one!) in Israel. Take off the pink tutu.

What fucking wuss. Yesterday he hid behind his CHILDREN. JJjr hid behind his sister. (She loves me!)

Just hearing JJjr claim great spirituality for his father and brother (Jonathan). WHO FUCKING CARES! What a lousy liar. (get better liars)

Everybody give up the fucking minsiters. Stop hiding behind THEM.

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21. marisacat - 12 December 2008: 18

the Democrats are fear mongerers (and they are not alone). They sold the damned Paulson Nancy WH whatever TARP thru fear. At it again.

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22. catnip - 12 December 2008: Incoming! Courtesy of the circular firing squad:

Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell today criticized Barack Obama for not being more upfront about the Illinois corruption scandal.

Now, he said, the story will continue to dominate the media’s attention.

“They have never been in an executive position before,” Rendell said on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.” “The rule of thumb is whatever you did, say it and get it over with and make it a one-day story as opposed to a three-day story. Politicians are always misjudging the intelligence of the American people.”

Shorter Rendell: Hillary would have cut this off at the pass. Amateurs.

Known for his blunt critiques of fellow Democrats, Rendell did not hold back during the interview.

The public, said Rendell, understands Obama and his aides would have an interest in who fills the Senate seat and some contact with the governor’s office — and that Obama should have said as much at the outset.

“Did Rahm Emanuel, who took Rod Blagojevich’s seat in Congress, have contact with Rod Blagojevich? Of course he did,” Rendell said. “They may have thought he was the craziest S.O.B. in the world. But you still have to have contact with him.”

Popcorn!

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23. catnip - 12 December 2008: Oops. html clean up on aisle 4!

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24. catnip - 12 December 2008: 20. The more Jesse Jackson Jr comes out and cries (or has someone cry for him), the guiltier he looks. It’s all quite muddy: Blagojevich fundraiser held by Jackson allies Saturday.

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25. marisacat - 12 December 2008: Yeah, it’s a 4 day story by now, will dominate Sunday Soap Operettas…

Ob needs to get the story changed. If he can. Because it is a juicy one, that Rahm and JJjr seem to know only how to FEED.

Maybe the market finally hears that wuss Reid and drops 800 pts Monday. That would do it. More roll out of unknowns (about where we are now) … may not do it. Not sure some early summit of the Great Known Rivals, other wise known as Clintonistas… in CHICAGO does it either. It jsut helps concentrate media in Chicago.

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26. marisacat - 12 December 2008: Speaking of JJjr (who appears quite unstable and abysmally immature) one of the Kass links above [oops no previous thread, I will find it] has an hysterically funny story of JJjr in full baby display mode at a Democratic Ice Capades dinner in the recent past. Full on weep and hug and being handed tissues.

FIRE THEM ALL.

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27. marisacat - 12 December 2008: Here it is (tho I have read the fundraising offer was as much as 1.5 million):

[O]ne guy who yapped a lot the other day—but didn’t say much—is U.S. Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. (D-Budweiser).

Jackson was identified as Senate Candidate 5. According to the federal complaint, Blagojevich said that an emissary of Candidate 5 offered him $1 million in donations in exchange for an appointment to fill Obama’s Senate seat.

In a careful denial on TV, after which he declined to take any questions on the advice of his attorney, Jackson said he wasn’t a pay-to-play kind of guy.

“I never sent a message or an emissary to the governor to make an offer, plead my case or propose a deal about a U.S. Senate seat, period,” Jackson said.

The last time I saw him so emotional, it was at the Democratic National Convention in Denver. Jackson got weepy at a party breakfast and started to hug every machine politician he could grab. First, he grabbed Daley, and cried, and hugged him and hugged him.

“I’ve been trying to get to know Mayor Daley for 14 years,” Jackson sobbed as somebody handed him a tissue.

Then he demanded that rivals Blagojevich and Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan hug each other, which they did. But no reporter thought Jackson was cuckoo. We all knew he was perfectly sane. He wanted to become a U.S. senator, and he wasn’t afraid to act crazy to get the job.

So listen up, you amateur psychiatrists from national cable TV land. Don’t be alarmed when Chicago machine politicians act like raving lunatics.

It’s when they’re quiet and reasonable that you’ve got to worry.

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28. catnip - 12 December 2008: Holy wascally wabbit!

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29. catnip - 12 December 2008: 27. He may be in need of medication.

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30. marisacat - 12 December 2008: Maybe Ob needs a new CoS.

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31. Hair Club for Men - 12 December 2008: Holy wascally wabbit!

Maybe the zionists are breeding it to take out Jimmy Carter.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jimmy_Carter_rabbit_incident

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32. marisacat - 12 December 2008: hmm sounds like a lot of wealthy individuals and [as yet unanamed] institutions have lost ALL THEIR MONEY with Madoff. (TNH)

And some smaller life savings who thought they were getting in on a big secret goose egg.

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33. Hair Club for Men - 12 December 2008: So, after Harry Reid’s doomsday prognostication last nite about Wall St, why is the Dow up 64 points?

Wall Street loves union busting.

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34. marisacat - 12 December 2008: Except the WH came to the rescue to day… and there is some supposition floating around that the union knew this yesterday. So they held out giving up to the Corker plan.

Tho who knows what the actual WH offering will be……….

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35. mattes - 12 December 2008: #32 Hofstra alumni I assume. There’s going to be hell to pay.

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36. marisacat - 12 December 2008: Not surprisingly he had a base in Palm Beach. Flor-i-da.

Off to check Clusterfuckstock.

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37. Hair Club for Men - 12 December 2008: “mplo” seems well intentioned, if a bit brainwashed.

http://freespeechzoneblog.com/showDiary.do;jsessionid=797EE7AF3254659887E52CD804802A15?diaryId=1768

Gideon Levy wrote a column a few years ago about Rachel Corrie, Tom Hurndall and James Miller. I can’t find it but it was published in Haaretz.

His overall argument was that the IDF changed the rules of engagement abruptly in February of 2003. If you (white English or American citizen) got into Gaza in January of 2003, you had a reasonable expectation that the IDF wouldn’t kill you. In February, that was changed and they decided to “take the gloves off.” So in March, your chances of being killed were exponentially higher.

I don’t think Levy was saying the bulldozer driver went out of his way to run her down, just that by the time it happened, his “orders” were that he should just go about the house demolition and not worry too much if he killed someone.

But I can’t believe people are still calling the ISM “naive.” They were so clearly right about what the Israelis were planning to do to Gaza.

I guess it was also “naive” for SNCC to send northern college kids down to the south where you knew someone was going to be killed by the Klan.

But maybe some people are willing to take that risk. It’s certainly a lot braver tha putting a bomb in a capitol bathroom and growing up to be an education professor.

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38. marisacat - 12 December 2008: Holy God. The whole page is Madoff. Every angle imaginable. And probably more in different sections.

http://clusterstock.alleyinsider.com/

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39. ms_xeno - 12 December 2008: #21: Their ground-level counterparts would be the anti-racist True Believers who wander into my LJ on occasion to complain that I’m mimicking the Right Wing because of my steadfast opinion that Golden Man will do exactly no good, but rather a great deal of harm to those who believe in his Golden Goodness the most strongly.

When I ask them exactly what I’ve said has fuck-all to do with the Right wing, in detail, they’re somehow never around to clarify.

Tag. I’m it.

Fuck ’em.

Really, there’s no legitimate cause or belief system out there that will not ultimately be chopped, channeled and ultimately incinerated so some arrogant gasbag can play king-of-the-mountain with the lives of all the little people while he stuffs his pockets with yet more loot.

Time to embrace Nihilism, perhaps. :p

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40. marisacat - 12 December 2008: I guess it was also “naive” for SNCC to send northern college kids down to the south where you knew someone was going to be killed by the Klan.

But maybe some people are willing to take that risk. It’s certainly a lot braver tha putting a bomb in a capitol bathroom and growing up to be an education professor.

Well people know going to Mississippi to organise blacks for the vote was dangerous. More than jsut Northern college kids….

Ayers needs to get off the stage. Apparently desperate for a third act. he and Bernadine are coming out there for a symposium on the death penalty. WIth Elaine Brown. I wish the Ayers couple would jsut stay away.

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41. Hair Club for Men - 12 December 2008: Their ground-level counterparts would be the anti-racist True Believers who wander into my LJ on occasion to complain that I’m mimicking the Right Wing because of my steadfast opinion that Golden Man will do exactly no good, but rather a great deal of harm to those who believe in his Golden Goodness the most strongly.

I’ve never commented on your Live Journal but I’ll plead guilty to making those arguments.

I’ll stand by the idea that it was a good thing Obama won in November.

McCain would be pushing the same kind of giveaways through Congress. And then the Democrats would still be able to disavow responsibility. Had Obama lost the Obama (or Hillary) 2012 campaign would have started on November 5th.

Now the Democrats are clearly in charge of the government. They have to take responsibility for what goes wrong. And they can’t run as outsiders.

Organizing on the left hasn’t gotten harder. It’s gotten a lot easier.

There WAS a lot of friendly fire back in the Fall. Keith Olbermann owes Hillary Clinton an apology for basically accusing her of calling for Obama’s assassination. I guess I do too but, unlike Olbermann, nobody listens to me.

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42. marisacat - 12 December 2008: Some of Bernie Madoff’s “victims”. I am so out of sympathy.

LINK

Just a snip:

Unnamed European Funds of Funds: WSJ: Christopher Miller, chief executive of London hedge fund ratings agency Allenbridge Hedgeinfo, said: “Some very big investor names are involved in this. The scheme could only work if enough investors were subscribing for him to pay money out. Some of the world’s biggest hedge funds have been hit by this. There will be a monumental impact for the hedge fund industry, it could be larger then Enron. “Some investors in Madoff’s funds face 100% write-downs on the money they invested, they will suddenly be nursing full write-downs in December. When people realize the magnitude of this it will be fizzing around the stratosphere.” One asset manager based in Switzerland, home to many high-net-worth individuals who invest in funds of hedge funds, said: “Everyone’s talking about this in Geneva. Several wealthy investors could be facing big losses.”

Palm Beach Country Club. Source: CNBC’s David Faber

Lawrence Velvel, “69, dean of the Massachusetts School of Law, said he and a friend may have lost millions of dollars between them (AP). “This is a major disaster for a lot of people,” Velvel said in a telephone interview from his Andover, Mass., office. “You work all your life, you finally manage to save up something, and somebody who’s entrusted with it, it turns out suddenly he’s a crook. Lots of people are getting fully or partially wiped out.” Velvel said he wants to know where government regulators, as well as accountants and others at Madoff’s company, were when the money was being lost.” (AP)

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43. Madman in the Marketplace - 12 December 2008: Pass the collection plate, the ministers will show up.

Or get the young divorcee to sashay by …

😉

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44. marisacat - 12 December 2008: Or get the young divorcee to sashay by …

Or not yet divorced. That is how Wright acquired his current wife. She and her husband came in for couples counseling. He decided to counsel them separately (apparently this is not advised as the regular weekly set up, according to other similar ministers). Whoops.

You have to laugh.

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45. marisacat - 12 December 2008: War war war…

CIA Helped Shoot Down 15 Civilian Planes

via Truth Out

CBS News and The Associated Press:

“With the help of CIA spotters, the Peruvian air force shot down 15 small civilian aircraft suspected of carrying drugs, in many cases without warning and within two to three minutes of being sighted, a US lawmaker said Thursday. It was the first public disclosure of the number of planes shot down between 1995 and 2001 as part of the Airbridge Denial Program, a CIA counternarcotics effort that killed an innocent American missionary, Veronica Bowers, and her infant daughter in 2001.”

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46. mattes - 12 December 2008: OH god MCat.

Meet Bernie Madoff’s Accountant: David Friehling, CPA
Henry Blodget

Meet the man who (knowingly or unknowingly) made the biggest Ponzi in history possible Read >

The name Friehing rang a bell. Is this the same family that wants to take over Likud?

Feiglin’s missing manifesto: Israel should quit UN, cut off water to Palestinians

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1045106.html

Yossi Sarid / Feiglin, his cronies are fascists by any definition

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1045101.html

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47. Hair Club for Men - 12 December 2008: Really, there’s no legitimate cause or belief system out there that will not ultimately be chopped, channeled and ultimately incinerated so some arrogant gasbag can play king-of-the-mountain with the lives of all the little people while he stuffs his pockets with yet more loot.

But there are also people like the 17th Century Quakers. I keep thinking of someone like Mary Dyer.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Dyer

If I do have religious freedom, it has a lot more to do with people like that than with some cynical intellectual (eg HL Mencken) taking potshots. What would motivate someone to go back to Massachussetts time after time to defy the death penalty until she was finally hanged on Boston Common.

I don’t think I’d ever be able to say something like this on the gallows.

Nay, I came to keep bloodguiltiness from you, desireing you to repeal the unrighteous and unjust law made against the innocent servants of the Lord. Nay, man, I am not now to repent.

I’d probably die pissing my pants and begging for my life.

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48. marisacat - 12 December 2008: Here is a comment at Clusterstock:

Gordon said:
Dec. 12, 3:11 PM
looks like the owners of the Mets get nailed as much as $300M+ – Saul Katz and Fred Wilpon. You’ve heard of Black on Black violence? Well this was some Jew on Jew violence.

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49. Madman in the Marketplace - 12 December 2008: Keep it in the woods, on the shooting range, under your pillow, NOT in my goddamn house.

better yet, they can shove it up their tight, white, irrationally fearful asses.

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50. marisacat - 12 December 2008: It sounds like the Palm Beach CLub is waaaay past the barf bag reaction. Full on swoon.

Big Chicago said:
Dec. 12, 4:23 PM

I think his point is that for a crusader, she [Sandra Manzke] does a shockingly little amount of due dilligence. Either that or a shockingly little amount of interest in how money is made so long as it is made.

Made-Off smelled if you took more than a cursory look or could do basic math. Everyone knew that something was weird and that he was probably doing something illegal.

But hey, it paid off

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51. Madman in the Marketplace - 12 December 2008: China plays such a long game compared to so many other countries …

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52. Madman in the Marketplace - 12 December 2008: 12 – Oh, fuck Israel and their scaremongering. It’s not that exotic a technology.

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53. Madman in the Marketplace - 12 December 2008: 19 & 20 – Jeebus, what the fuck is he going to do if there is a real crisis when they’re in the big plantation mansion?

Wuss.

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54. Madman in the Marketplace - 12 December 2008: 44 – oh, I had missed that little tidbit!

My dad used to say that he hated church b/c people only go to gossip about their neighbor’s daughter being pregnant.

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55. Madman in the Marketplace - 12 December 2008: Tonight: Biggest, brightest full moon of the year

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56. mattes - 12 December 2008: You’ve heard of Black on Black violence? Well this was some Jew on Jew violence.

Good to hear they still have a sense of humor.

Not a word not TV. Billions in monopoly money.

And it was a family affair.

———

Another subject, just hear baby Caylee had her mouth taped shut. UGH.

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57. mattes - 12 December 2008: Saw the moon last night Madman. Beautiful.

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58. Madman in the Marketplace - 12 December 2008: Fed Refuses to Disclose Recipients of $2 Trillion

Dec. 12 (Bloomberg) — The Federal Reserve refused a request by Bloomberg News to disclose the recipients of more than $2 trillion of emergency loans from U.S. taxpayers and the assets the central bank is accepting as collateral.

Bloomberg filed suit Nov. 7 under the U.S. Freedom of Information Act requesting details about the terms of 11 Fed lending programs, most created during the deepest financial crisis since the Great Depression.

The Fed responded Dec. 8, saying it’s allowed to withhold internal memos as well as information about trade secrets and commercial information. The institution confirmed that a records search found 231 pages of documents pertaining to some of the requests.

Don’t worry, though … Teh One will take over in a month and everything will be shiny and bright.

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59. Heather-Rose Ryan - 12 December 2008: 46 – Freihling and Feiglin are the same name?

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60. Madman in the Marketplace - 12 December 2008: CNN’s Prisoner of War

“I am not the same fucking person,” he tells me. “I am not the same person. I don’t know how to come home.”

It’s October, six months after our first meeting, and Michael Ware, 39, is at his girlfriend’s apartment in New York, trying to tell me why after six years he absolutely must start spending less time in Iraq. He’s crying on the other end of the telephone.

“Will I get any better?” he continues. “I honestly don’t know. I can’t see the — right now, I know no other way to live.”

To begin to understand where he’s coming from, Ware wants you to see a movie. He filmed it. It’s just after midnight during the second battle of Fallujah, November 2004. The marine unit he’s hooked up with has cornered six insurgents inside a house, and with no air support available, the only way to take them out is person-to-person. Staff Sergeant David Bellavia doesn’t like the sound of that — odds are one of his men, or he, will die in the pitch-black of an unfamiliar house — but he knows he can’t just let these guys go. So he asks for volunteers to go with him: Three men raise their hands, followed by Ware, who as a reporter (then for Time, now for CNN) is the only one without a gun or night goggles, and still can’t explain why he went along. He just couldn’t not.

Ware flips on his video camera and creeps into the house six feet behind Bellavia. His device is picking up nothing but darkness and the slow, creaking sound of footsteps. Then, light, blinding light. Bullets ping around the living room, and before he knows what’s going on, two bodies drop. Bellavia has knocked off the first of them. For the next hour — until all six insurgents are carried out dead from the house — Ware captures that same pattern of blackness and near silence (in the background you can hear the insurgents chanting, “Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar”) pierced by gunfire and screaming.

Ware believes he recorded the perfect war experience that night, a snapshot you can get only from terrifying proximity. He dreams of renting out a theater and subjecting an audience to it in full surround sound; that way people would know what it’s really like over there. “It’s my firm belief that we need to constantly jar the sensitivities of the people back home,” he says. “War is a jarring experience. Your kids are living it out, and you’ve inflicted it upon 20-odd million Iraqis. And when your brothers and sons and mates from the football team come home, and they ain’t quite the same, you have an obligation to sit for three and a half minutes and share something of what it’s like to be there.”

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61. Heather-Rose Ryan - 12 December 2008: 56 mattes
Another subject, just hear baby Caylee had her mouth taped shut. UGH.

Oh mattes please, who cares. This is typical sensationalist “news”. Give it a rest.

Child murder is not entertainment.

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62. mattes - 12 December 2008: 59. Close enough for me to wonder. People often change spellings. That’s why I asked…could it be the same family.

Now this:

Netanyahu wants to postpone core issues in Mideast talks

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20081211/wl_mideast_afp/mideastconflictisraelpoliticsnetanyahu

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63. mattes - 12 December 2008: 61. I have CNN on, sorry to bother you.

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64. lucid - 12 December 2008: OT – interesting news on the Gallo front in direct relation to the Mongtagnier Nobel address. This letter has been submitted to the journal Science to retract the 4 original Gallo papers based on a review of the documents from the 1993 Congresssional hearings on Gallo’s theft of Montagnier’s putative virus. The papers, published for the first time by Janine Roberts this fall reveal hand written notes from Gallo to his lead author Popovic directly falsifying the claims of the lead paper. In addition there is correspondence from Matthew Gonda, then head of the Electron Microscopy Lab at NCI complaining to Gallo that there was nothing remotely retroviral in the samples he sent to be photographed [which were later published in Science. To which Gallo responded ‘cell culture seems to be necessary to induce virus’… fancy that – it only appears when you take cell tissue and expose it to extremely oxidizing conditions…

‘Twill be interesting to see what Science does with this given that since the publication of Duesberg’s 1987 paper shredding the HIV hypothesis, all ‘respected’ medical journals have carried on an overt policy of censoring any discussion of Gallo’s original ‘work’ [if you can call it that].

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65. marisacat - 12 December 2008: lucid!

I had meant to mention to you a site I thought you would enjoy…

The Hoover Hog

He has an interesting right side bar too… of dox he links to. I landed on it from a link in comments at IOZ…

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66. NYCO - 12 December 2008: Madoff apparently screwed over every super-rich Jewish investor or foundation in Palm Beach. Wow.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/laurence-leamer/bernard-madoff-and-the-sh_b_150624.html

But it’s also a story to hear that apparently the SEC had been approached 3 years ago by people suspicious of Madoff… and they chose not to act.

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67. lucid - 12 December 2008: Thanks mcat… I had noticed that link in an earlier thread, but hadn’t managed to follow it. Interesting statement by Cole [and to be honest, true, no one should be thrown in jail for writing a book]. Will take a look at the Donohue clips when I get the chance.

Sorry I haven’t been around much of late. I always popo in and read, but I’ve been sort of taking a break in general – though I did follow the big orange/fsz affair and found it mildly entertaining.

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68. catnip - 12 December 2008: Hi lucid!

61. Oh mattes please, who cares

Who died and made you Goddess of what people care about? Mon dieu. The air must be thin up there.

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69. catnip - 12 December 2008: 67. the big orange/fsz affair

What was that about?

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70. marisacat - 12 December 2008: There is stuff at Clusterstock indicating issues as afar back as 1999 with Madoff. Again in 2001. And then again afterwards.

Further, seems likely that the sons “turning” him in may have been a scheme to save the next generation. The family was in every section of the biz. Including LOL COMPLIANCE.

So screwed.

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71. lucid - 12 December 2008: hi Catnip.

oh some former banned Dkos poster stumbled across a public blog in which various kostopo chiefs were discussing the methods by which to get certain posters banned… quite tame, but the blogdhraaammmaa that ensued was mildly entertaining.

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72. catnip - 12 December 2008: 71. Oh, I checked out that blog after seeing something about it but didn’t follow the fallout. I didn’t know that had anything to do with FSZ.

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73. mattes - 12 December 2008: …following Huffington link I came across the biggest losers list:

http://businesssheet.alleyinsider.com/loser-20-jerry-yang

Might these guys have to sell a house or two? Somehow I doubt it.

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74. catnip - 12 December 2008: 66.

Joy is driving out of your 35,000-square-foot mansion in your Bentley and tooling up to the entrance of Mar-a-Lago for your fifteenth ball of the season, the valet parkers salivating at the chance to take your car and the prospect of a twenty-dollar tip. Joy is having a wife younger and thinner than any of the other wives at your table. Joy is subtly announced during dinner that your hedge fund scored 33 percent last year, while that of the arrogant son of a bitch across the table with the fat wife scored only 17 percent.

Karma’s a bitch.

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75. catnip - 12 December 2008: Okay. This is bizarre. The “71. Oh…” comment that I made keeps moving down the page with other comments superseding it.

Must be a full moon. 😉

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76. catnip - 12 December 2008: Aha! It’s dated 13 December for some strange reason.

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77. BooHooHooMan - 12 December 2008: 23. catnip – 12 December 2008

Oops. html clean up on aisle 4!

Oh I can get it, honey.

{ ..hopefuly betrothed,
cluelessly confident of abilities, man moves full steam ahead
thru B0tCH jÖb}

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78. catnip - 12 December 2008: 76. hopefuly betrothed

One little pesky detail about that: does this mean I have to become a (gasp!) yankee?

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79. marisacat - 12 December 2008: catnip

for some reason that comment recorded itself as being placed at 2 am Saturday am. So it kept moving along as other correctly timed comments arrrived. Think I got it to calm down. Then again I have no idea what I am doing.

… LOL

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80. catnip - 12 December 2008: I crossed the space/time continuum. What a rush!

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81. Heather-Rose Ryan - 12 December 2008: 68 – Play along with the media hype of sensationalist stories if you must. Far be it from me to stop you 🙂

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82. Madman in the Marketplace - 12 December 2008: Rahmbo Round-Up: Pageants, Death Threats, and Howard Dean

Did Emanuel provide Blagojevich with a list of “acceptable Senate candidates? According to Fox News Chicago, he did. A “reliable source familiar with the investigation” has said that Emanuel and Blagojevich had conversations about possible Senate-seat fillers, and those conversations may have been taped. Also, Blagojevich spoke about the “fifth CD thing” while talking about the Obama advisor in question – and Emanuel represents the Fifth Congressional District. However, no one is saying that any of those conversations had anything to do with pay-to-play or quid pro quo. (Which probably prompted the whole “motherfucker” thing.)

Is Howard Dean cheesed off about not getting the Chief Of Staff position over Emanuel? If things go bad for Rahm in the near future, he still might have a chance at it – but for now, he’s sounding off on D.L. Hughely’s “Breaking the News” on CNN.

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83. Heather-Rose Ryan - 12 December 2008: 71 Hi lucid! I missed all the recent fracas but it’s nice to know that people are seeing that there is indeed an ongoing conspiracy. I remember how strenuously the KosKops denied that there was any kind of collusion between them at all.

Whatever happened to Armandorama, by the way? His fall from grace was the most remarkable – once the best buddy of Markos and the enabler of troll-police everywhere, but in the end, exiled and completely shunned by his compadres. So sad.

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84. BooHooHooMan - 12 December 2008: mcat, mattes, NYCO wow. just. wow.

and one more thing

{….snorkling up soda…}

PFwaaHAHaHaHaHa!

From theHuffPo/Larry Leamer piece

“Jerry built” Irony lost on anyone?

Yesterday Madoff was arrested and accused of running what probably will prove the greatest Ponzi scheme in the history of the world. He may have dissipated as much as fifty billion dollars into nothing.

There was one largely Jewish charity event last evening. “It was like the Titanic,” one attendee said. “The ship was sinking, and people were crying, ‘I lost this and that.’ And everybody was drunk. The Titanic was going down and we might as well carry on.”

There is a feeling of incredible shame, embarrassment, of exposure, as if their whole world has been exposed as jerry built. This evening the synagogues in Palm Beach will be full. And there will be men and women listening to the truths of a great and ancient faith as they have never listened before.

Gag. …” great and ancient faith®”… Always got a tuck that in there at the end no matter how much cabalesque behaviour is shown.

Rich. …..{Or Not…LOL}

Aside from the standard PC use of “Jerry-built” as shoddy,…
the irony is that “Jerry”
is Allied-centric World War-ese for
…German / Kraut / Jackboot / Klepto / Fascist

GENOCIDAL NAZI THUGS.

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85. marisacat - 12 December 2008: New thread (Madman I moved your comment forward)

LINK

…………… 😈 ………………….

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86. marisacat - 12 December 2008: BHHM

moving yours forward too…

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87. lucid - 12 December 2008: Hi Heather… I’ve tended to avoid the blogowars of late, but I did find it hilarious that a public blog was discovered where kostopo were blathering away about how to game the ratings system and who to ban [of course in violation of the precious FAQ] and then rather than the offenders being banned, it was those who brought the blog to public attention… par for the course.

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