"I Refused to Allow a Massacre..."

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Now if he were just talking about the GOP war on America's middle class and workers and the jobless and the seniors and the children's education here in America, too.
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Prairie Recommends: Dylan Ratigan on Vampire Economics

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Dylan Ratigan cuts through the b.s. and speaks truth on the state of the American economy. For those who wail that the prez takes on too much we can't do one more, I say pay attention to what Ratigan is saying.

Shake the mutton outa your head and open your eyes. The status quo's gotta go.
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Prairie's Recommended Read: Stiglitz on Wall Street

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Writing in the July issue of Vanity Fair, Joseph Stiglitz gives a sobering analysis of just how much damage Wall Street has done to the economic stability of the globe.

When those who call themselves free marketers are in reality freebooters, little better than pillagers and pirates [sidebar: who can't appreciate the juxtaposition with Cap'n Jack Sparrow's alter ego Johnny Depp judiciously sprinkled all over the webpage furthering the message], long past time they be clapped in irons. And I know just the little Caribbean prison to put 'em in.

After all, it's just like Club Fed, isn't it?
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crossposted at firedoglake's Oxdown Gazette

Roxana Saberi Trial Today

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When a trial is conducted behind closed doors, then we must rely on context from past history...and hope.

Context for Roxana Saberi's current situation—on trial today on espionage charges in Iran—seems so bizarre to those of us who know her or her work from her growing up years here in Fargo.

It's hard to process, this imprisonment. For a young woman whose high school team played soccer against Saberi's team from Fargo's North High. For a community absorbed with the floodwatch which goes on hereabouts, threatening smaller neighboring communities now, yet still Roxana's plight tugs at our heartstrings.

We empathize with the anguish her parents have gone through—so strong that they have travelled from Fargo to Iran to give their daughter what moral support they can with limited family visits allowed.

As Omid Memarian, Rotary World Peace Fellow at UC Berkeley, writes, this trial, this framing as spy is business as usual in Iran. And he has strong expectations that within weeks she will be released.

We have strong expectations around here, too. That we can stay one sandbag, one dike ahead of the flooding which licks at our towns and roads and farmsteads.

Hard lessons, this patience business, this getting up and straining muscles to fill sandbags or toss 'em into place, or feeding volunteers. Fargo, expected now to have a manageable second crest, is today in the business of trucking sandbags to help Valley City keep the Sheyenne out of its backyards and basements...and attics.

Today, President Barack Obama is expected to tell the American people that our expectations for economic recovery, too, must be grounded in patience and dogged persistence, until we are once again safe from the deluge. But that will come at a price, a "new normal" that accepting will not come easy.

Accepting that your home is lost to you forever doesn't come easy to flood victims.

Accepting that the country you loved from your heritage can imprison you on whim doubtless doesn't come easy either.

We'd do well to remember that doesn't just happen "there"...it happens here, too.

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crossposted at firedoglake's Oxdown Gazette

Solidarity with Suze

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In the just-because-you-have-the-patina-of-respectability dept:

Doesn't mean yer not a bunch o'bums and grifters.

Suze Orman bluntly tells George W. Bushie it's his fault, give the money back...all of his fortune, all of his family's fortune.

Given Grandpappy Prescott, Pappy Bush and Neil's little S&L debacle, and the last 8 years of Bushie, what's not to agree with.

You go, Suze.

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Financial Crimes Task Force Demand Letter

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While the House committee grills Liddy about the AIG bonuses, while Bushie flies to Canada to crack jokes about his 8500 square-foot, $3 million house, while Obama says the buck stops with me and lashes out against the greed culture, two Senators have today launched an effort to have an Enron-style task force get to the bottom of the whole financial fiasco that has crippled the American economy. Maybe it's a nicely worded letter, but still the two Senators are cutting through the sturm und drang with a pointed request. From a press release just issued by the Senators:

DORGAN, CANTWELL PUSH FOR FINANCIAL CRIMES TASK FORCE

(WASHINGTON, D.C.) – U.S. Senators Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.) and Maria Cantwell (D-WA) are urging the nation’s Attorney General to establish an Economic Crisis Financial Crimes Task Force dedicated to investigating and prosecuting any criminal behavior that was involved in the events that caused our financial crisis.

The Senators pointed out that a similar task force was created in connection with the Enron scandal, and it was instrumental in bringing criminals to justice. Given the magnitude of the current economic crisis, Dorgan and Cantwell believe the creation of a Financial Crimes Task Force is necessary to shore up confidence in the economic system.

Four-Letter Words Downsized

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Well, you knew it had to happen. The GOP has finally downsized the four-letter word.

I started thinking about this today, driving around in the pre-blizzard on black ice, tuning in local [Fargo] talk radio for the latest road reports. A caller diverted from the topic of the local Blues giving their execs beaucoup big salary increases to repeat a FOX LIE that Veep Biden and the AFL-CIO kept the press out of a speech he gave them.

Never mind that FOX itself already debunked its own LIE. But then you can't really call it debunking if they keep on repeating it, now can you?

FOX has taken on a new meta-strategy. RAP. Oh, not the Michael Steele kinda rap. Well not exactly.

The FOX RAP is Roger's Anti-American Propaganda. 'cause make no mistake, Roger and Rush and the rest of the rogues have all decided to declare a war of words on President Obama and his policy changes and initiatives to restore some semblance of democracy and balance to the United States of America.

So the predicate for every sentence uttered from the GOP and the wired-in lapdog media who recite their spin

McCain's Golden Fleece

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John McCain is channeling his inner William Proxmire these days as he rails--rightly--against the over-9000 earmarks in the budget.

I'm okay with that.

With this caveat. McCain owes us the due diligence of not just shooting off his mouth but engaging his brain trust aka staff to scratch the surface of what each earmark he specifically attacks does.

I take his basic point that there should be no earmarks, that if something truly merits funding it should stand the test of scrutiny for inclusion in the budget. Ho-kay.

But then what about these stats from his own...I was going to say "party" but we can fine tune this to his fellow Republican Arizona Senator. Courtesy ThinkProgress, Senator John Kyl, is one of the top earmarkers in the Senate, to the tune of $118 million in fiscal 2008.

Guess it's easy to be against earmarks when the other guy in the state is pushing through gazillions of 'em....

Hell, McCain could take his own colleague to the men's room stall, er, woodshed, and drum home his earmark philosophy and earn some street cred that legitimizes him. Or not.

But let's just say that ol' Kyl and the Republicans and Democrats who are all

Lost faith

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Asked this morning on the Imus Show...have the American people lost faith in the government?

And answered...by Mr Sunshine: No, they've lost faith in the institutions of the private sector...

Adds Mrs. Sunshine [that would be moi]: We need to channel FDR's New Deal and Teddy Roosevelt's trust-busting.

Both.

Now, please.
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Recovery dot Gov

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Watching President Obama discuss the economy, his morning conversation with business leaders, and the recovery plan for the economy. He was introduced by two business leaders, including the head of Honeywell.

They stressed the urgency of bold action, investment in math and sciences...and their strong support for President Obama and his plan.

Ya know what I didn't hear? "Tax cuts."

Republican scolds better take note. Their constituency is shrinking so fast they can soon hold meetings for their base in the men's room at the Minneapolis airport.

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Tell your Republican Congresspeople to stop the stalling, stop the obstructing...America wants action now.

Surprise, Surprise....

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GOP leaders = party [building]
before country rebuilding.

They made this mess,
now they want to obstruct cleaning it up.

At least the Republican leadership is consistent...it's all about the top one percent.

In Ordinary Times...

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Anybody else spew their coffee this morning listening to The Worst President In American History lecture and scold that "in ordinary times..." corporations should have to pay a price for their failures?

Well, at least Dumbya finally recognizes these are not ordinary times...tho' he still has to be dragged kicking and screaming into a bailout for the auto industry and American workers' jobs.

The irony of having to pay a price for failure seems to've escaped the Crown Prince of the Bush family political dynasty. But I digress....

There is a possible silver lining in what Boy George announced this morning, for all the angst of the chess match that's recently played out as politicians pontificated and postured of matters such as "organized" bankruptcies [huh?] vs. fears that this was all a strategerie to kill the unions, once and for all.

Big 3 Auto companies have until March to get their schiess together and come up with a viable business plan that matches the foreign car companies, scolds Bush. Oh, and don't blame me while I'm in legacy mode and kicking the can down the road to Obama's team.

Starting with the outsize and outrageous executive compensation plans and other financial gizmos of Wall Street that suck the lifeblood from corporations to feed the financial vampires and restoring responsible productivity and profit models would be a good idea.

And putting the product back in the hands of the designers and the engineers instead of bean counters who've lost their beans so they actually develop a product people will want to buy without a bazillion dollars of glitzy media advertising to brainwash 'em, that would be a good start, too. I mean, who needs DVD players on every seat rest? Or those idiot shiny object tires? I want safety, fuel efficiency, universal design....

For starters....

Update: speaking of Wall Street gizmos, Josh at Talking Points Memo points the way to this Krugman column opining that all of Wall Street and the financial industry are Madoff now.... Nobel prize-winning economist Paul Krugman is must reading...and the comments he generates are must reading as well.
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crossposted at firedoglake's Oxdown Gazette

The Car Deal

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There will doubtless be much muttering about Nancy Pelosi "caving" to George W. Bush on the bailout for the big 3. Caving's supposed to be George's speciality. But I guess that only applies to his idiotlogical neocon diehard lobbyists determined to rip the gold teeth outa the cadaver on its way to the grave....

(Anybody else think that if the car guys, the politicians, the media and all the rest of the great chatterati had called this a loan package instead of a bailout, the sell would have been easier?)

Anyway, back to Nancy. Did she "cave"? I guess if you call recognizing that you're dealing with an arrogant, stubborn, stupid, willfully ignorant idiotlogical zealot for the have-more's, so you bow to reality thinking we'll do the best we can till this bozo goes back to Texas and then we can try putting the economy and the rest of the country back together again....then yeah, I guess she "caved."

I choose to think of it as recognizing reality and thanking God he's going to be Laura's mess-only soon, not the rest of us. And good riddance.
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"Share the Wealth"

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McCain and Palin havin' their say this morning, mocking Barack Obama's comment to "Joe the Faux" that it's about time we share the wealth of this nation.

Now, not being of the sheep persuasion, I don't buy the argument that we should keep following the "piss on us" concept of economics that is Republican trickle-down dogma.

And I've read the stats that show America currently has the greatest disparity of wealth between John McCain's bazillionaire base and the rest of America. And we're falling behind the rest of the world...in education, in healthcare, in too many ways.

And I've read the headline about the bonuses being handed out right now for the beneficiaries of the $700 billion bailout that both candidates voted for.

We've had too much wealth redistribution upwards under Republican orthodoxy. Long past time for some Reformation... and you can call it "socialism" if you've a mind to. I call it fairness... and common sense... oh, and while you're at it, real Jesus.
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UPDATE: Nobel winner Paul Krugman cuts through the McCain malarkey on the economy like a plumber cuts through, well, Republican sludge...

Buy American...from Wall Street to Wal-Mart

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This morning in the New York Times, Warren Buffett makes the case for investing now in American stocks.

A simple rule dictates my buying: Be fearful when others are greedy, and be greedy when others are fearful.
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To be sure, investors are right to be wary of highly leveraged entities or businesses in weak competitive positions. But fears regarding the long-term prosperity of the nation’s many sound companies make no sense. These businesses will indeed suffer earnings hiccups, as they always have. But most major companies will be setting new profit records 5, 10 and 20 years from now.

Buying American takes some doing these days. Just last weekend, I wove through the road construction and asphalt trucks of l'il ol' Park Rapids, Minnesota for a rare visit to the local Wal-Mart in search of something I knew I couldn't find in the other smaller stores of the community.

While there, I decided to look for a new juice container.

I'm pragmatic about my fears. I don't worry about boogey-men popping out from behind the tall timbers. The only orange alert is the color of the tamaracks.

I don't shy away from paying my taxes....just how do folks think that road construction and those asphalt trucks get paid for, anyway? I just want to be sure that when I do pay those taxes, the money's spent responsibly, wisely and prudently. So reading that one of John McCain's chief fundraisers is under investigation for war profiteering...now that's something I fear. And that's something I expect the government I'm paying for to do something about...to protect this country and to protect my family.

And when I see economist Joseph Stiglitz telling Colbert about how global corporations have figured out how to bill bilk the American taxpayer out of gazillions of dollars doing things like truckin' sand from Kuwait to Iraq. What, said Colbert, they don't have enough sand in Iraq?

Yeah, sometimes I wonder if we should be learning from history not just by reading Orwell's 1984, but we should also be reconnecting with Milo Minderbender in Catch-22.

But back to storing stuff in plastic made in China. You see, I worry about that. Plastic, any plastic, gives me pause. And, yes, I did see The Graduate in original release. But sorry, plastic don't float my boat. So there I was in Wal-Mart. Looking for a glass juice container. Not made in China.

And I found it. Anchor-Hocking, said the label. Made in America. By a good ol' American company that's been around since long before I was writing ad copy for the housewares sales at the regional hardware and sports chain where I started biz writing.

Nice to see an old friend.

So there's a couple of new glass carafe-shaped pitchers ready for juice and iced tea in the tall timber now.

And if you are willing to do a little extra work, make a little extra effort, you, too, can "buy American" and invest in putting this country back on its feet.
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Follow the Money

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A short history of Keating Five...and John McCain's career-long drive to deregulate everything in sight.

Too complicated you say? Who can follow it?

Well, consider this...deregulation and total nonregulation of the swaps market [a phony dodge that offered insurance on risky investments that wasn't called insurance, therefore wasn't regulated] is how the whole frackin' planet got into this financial mess.

So take a little trip down memory lane with the re-doubtable Senator John McCain.

And ask yourself, hasn't he done enough damage already to the economy of America...and the planet?

Prairie Listening Post

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There's a lot of high-steria flying through the airwaves right now about the state of our economy.

Thought you might be able to use a bit of calm reasoning and forward thinking instead:



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Hey, kids...convinced you'll nevah-evah use some dopey subject like high school algebra so why study? Just so you know, this embed was bleedin' off the page before I put the ol' high school sophomore math equationing to work and made it smaller. Perfect-O.
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h/t to Josh's place for the signpost

We've Heard this Song Before...

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And it's a siren song.

The times are desperate. We must act immediately. Dire consequences will befall the universe if you don't do what we want right now.

There have been too many examples of the Congress being steamrolled by the Rethugs and their White House these past nearly eight years that my first reaction is an immediate Whoa!

Whether it's the pre-election rush Congress into war powers for Bush that put us into Iraq. Or the scramble to be Patriots. Or the vote on Schiavo....

At long last, will this Congress stop running around like chickens with their heads cut off, trippin' and bumpin' over each other in their mad scramble to get into the Rush-and-Rove approved henhouse?

We have a sobering financial crisis in this country.

Will the Congress recognize and act as grownups to safeguard against perpetuating the same ol' same ol'? Of will they let the Foxes ratchet up the hysteria and send the good seeds of common sense and reason and, yes, regulation, be scattered like chaff in the wind?

What Congress does these next few days will have repercussions extending far into the future. All of us, citizens, taxpayers--VOTERS--must keep in mind is that the NEXT administration will have the tools, or absence of them, to set policy.

Who will we trust? The party that gave us deregulation upon deregulation and "shop, shop, shop" and "ownership society"? Or the party of change we need?
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UPDATE: Michael Bloomberg talking common sense on Meet the Press this morning.

UPDATE: Senator Chris Dodd talking accountability on This Week with George Snuffy this morning. There's an expectation we'll act quickly, but also intelligently.
You're singin' my song, Senator....

UPDATE: A Democratic Congressperson expresses the outrage we're feeling at the abuses that happened and wants credit counseling for the arrogant fools.
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Sleeping Sickness

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Did you sleep at home in your own bed last night?

Too many of your neighbors don't have a home to bed down in any more.

We've seen this story before.

In the stark black and white of the '30s. It doesn't look any better in the colorized edition.

And the GOP wants to challenge voting rights for those who are already living on the edge of despair in homes that have been foreclosed on--even if they're still living in their homes.

As Joe Biden said, we've seen this movie before--the sequel is worse.

Sleeping Beauty's wakin' up to a nightmare.
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More Babble

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With feathers on his lips, the same ol' same ol says today the foundations of our economy are strong. And a McCain-Palin administration would bring accountability and transparency to Washington.

Then why are McCain's team advising and helping Palin obstruct and obfuscate the investigation of her alleged abuse of power as Governor of Alaska. Accountability? Transparency? I don't think so.

Why are the McCain team repeating the lies that have already been debunked, dishonored, and deplored across the political spectrum, by Republicans and Democrats alike?

Folks, you can't trust the fox to guard the henhouse...or fix it either. The Republicans controlled Congress for twelve years. They've controlled the White House the last seven-plus years.

Now they want another four years.

While Galveston lies in ruins, hidden away from public view. While New Orleans still languishes. While Americans from coast to coast, small towns to big city neighborhoods are being driven out of their homes by bankruptcy.

And the Republicans have mocked us from the moment they named their own network.

We've been out-Foxed long enough.
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Vote Democratic in November.
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