GDAEman

May 31, 2010

GDAE Podcast - Episode 31

Second in a series.... (See link to abridged Part I below)

Common Interests on the Left & Right - Part II

Left & Right Populists Working Together: to fix our flawed democracy

What is a "principled" conservative: Matt Taibbi of Rolling Stone magazine has some thoughts

Audit the Fed: Bernie Sanders leads the Left & Right to push for Senate Unanimous vote on Amendment to "audit the Fed."

Bush war-crimes-Prosecution: Law Professor Francis Boyle describes the complaint he filed in January 2010 with the International Criminal Court

MUSIC: Yankee Network, out of Baltimore, "6 at 65".

Play Episode 31 from this page:

Click to Download Episode 31.

Listen to Part I in the series, Episode 30, (20-minute abridged version):

May 24, 2010

Wikipedia and the Unprincipled Rigth

We all know some people on the "right" who we might call "principled." They hold to a value and apply it consistently, regardless of party politics pressure. Maybe it's you, or a relative, a friend, co-workers or even someone in the corporate media. Ron Paul, a US Congressman is a classic, if not extreme, example... and there are other less notable examples.

There is Walter B. Jones, a US congress member made famous for coining the phrase "freedom fries" as an insult to the French for not getting on board quickly with the Iraq war. He now regrets saying that. Jones represents an area of North Carolina that has a sizable military population. His about-face reflects an undercurrent of honest feelings in the military communities. Walter Jones admits he was previously uninformed. But when he became informed, he stuck to his conservative principles and is now a vocal critic of the Iraq war.

The other conservative faction is the "unprincipled" right wingers... they represent a different color in the "conservative" spectrum. We know them too: The Republican water-carriers and self-promoters like Glenn Beck, Sarah Palin, Bill Kristol, Anne Coulter and Rush Limbaugh, who admits he carries water for the Republicans:

On the November 8 broadcast of his nationally syndicated radio show, Rush Limbaugh claimed to "feel liberated" by Democratic victories in the House and Senate on November 7 because he is "no longer going to have to carry the water for people who I don't think deserve having their water carried."

But this is all a long-winded way of being able to say that the vocal unprincipled right is misdirecting the conservative base when they tell the base not to use Wikipedia. We all know it can have significant flaws on a particular subject, but the majority of the time, it answers your question or directs you to the answer. Adding "wiki" to your search can be a powerful information tool that gives you an information-access advantage. Conservatives who dismiss Wikipedia might just be giving themselves a handicap.

Oxford Dictionary editors

May 23, 2010

Finacial Reform Goes to Conference

It's a bit wonkish to talk about Washington legislative procedure, as in the House/Senate conference committee coming up to reconcile the differences in their separate bills pass on financial reform. But, a lot can happen behind the closed doors in conference committees, bad or good, so we need to keep the pressure on. Let them know we common people are paying attention.

The details of last week's Senate process found the newly elected Massachusetts Senator Scott Brown feeling the pressure. Some of that pressure is said to have come from Obama's grassroots arm, Organizing for America... and both sides are counting on grassroots pressure to play a role in House/Senate conference committee to craft the final bill.

Some Republicans are calling for the conference committee to be televised. House Financial Services Committee Chair Barney Frank has picked up on this desire for transparency saying

"We will have a conference, I think, that will work well. It will be conducted, the formal parts, in public" ... "That means that no agreements reached, no compromises, which obviously are being discussed, will be made part of anything without being publicly presented and voted on and discussed."

Regardless of whether the conference committee on financial reform is televised, our voices need to be heard.

For Your Convenience:

Contact the Broadcast Media
Contact the Newspapers
Contact the US Senate
Contact the House of Representatives

Sources:

Chris Good, The Atlantic Magazine blog, Financial Reform Gets Closer ... Much Closer, Thanks to Scott Brown, May 20, 2010.

May 22, 2010

Compounding Unfair Advantages for Bad Banks

Today we read...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Treasury Department indicated Friday it expects taxpayers will lose billions less from the financial bailouts than earlier estimated. The problem is, its revised forecast assumes Treasury's shares of bailed-out companies are gaining value despite this week's plunge in stock prices.

Below the surface of this story is another. It's a story of conflicts of interest that could lead to further unfair preferential treatment of bad-actor banks at the cost of banks that played by the rules.

The US Treasury Department has a clear interest in promoting the stock price of the banks it bailed out. This creates pressures for Treasury to set policies and make decisions for the benefit of these bad-actor banks, improving their balance sheets, regardless of merit. A bank could be a crappy business, and Treasury would still want it's stock price to increase.

Given that these bad-actor banks compete in some ways with other banks that didn't have to be bailed out, being propped up in this way by Treasury has the effect of creating an unfair advantage. This unfair advantage merely adds to the more blatant unfair advantage of the original bailout; huge banks that could have been allowed to fail and naturally break up were, instead, propped up or forced into being bought by other banks resulting in fewer, larger banks.

This situation cries out for anti-trust action by the Government; these huge banks need to be broken up. This is justified for technical reasons of avoiding avoiding too-big-to-fail crises in the future and creating a more fair competitive market for good banks. It's also justified on basic principles of fairness.

Sources:

Associated Press, Lower bailout estimate assumes higher stock prices, May 22, 2010.

May 17, 2010

The Accused

It is old news, but law professor Francis A. Boyle's complaint against Bush administration officials "the Accused*" for crimes associated with “extraordinary rendition” is noteworthy. That's because Boyle's complaint is being brought under the International Criminal Court (ICC), of which the U.S.A. is not a signatory. The ICC is sometimes referred to as the Rome Statue after the treaty signed in Rome in 1998.

* Accused: U.S. citizens George W. Bush, Richard Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, George Tenet, Condoleezza Rice , and Alberto Gonzales.

One might think, if the U.S.A is not a signatory to the Rome Statue, there is no case. However, Boyle has pierced the shield of impunity on the following legal grounds, as conveyed in the transmittal letter of his complaint:

The United States is not a contracting party to the Rome Statute. Nevertheless, the Accused ordered and were responsible for the commission of these I.C.C. statutory crimes on, in, and over the respective territories of several I.C.C. member states, including many located in Europe. Therefore, the I.C.C. has jurisdiction over the Accused for their I.C.C. statutory crimes in accordance with Rome Statute article 12(2)(a)

We need to hold Bush administration officials accountable for their crimes, otherwise we risk setting precedent of allowing impunity.

May 14, 2010

Showdown in America

Pushing for action, "Showdown in America" says it succinctly:

The big banks destroyed our economy and have hijacked our democracy. Corporate lobbyists representing the big banks paved the way to deregulate Wall Street and are now standing in the way of reforms that would protect people and strengthen our economy.

Their next Action targets the lobbyist version of marketing's Madison Avenue: K Street in Washington, DC.

On May 17, everyday people from across the country will descend on K Street in Washington, DC. K Street is ground-zero for the corporate lobbyists that are driving gridlock in Washington. Our plan is to draw a direct line between Wall Street CEOS, their hired guns on K Street, and the elected officials who have become addicted to Big Bank campaign contributions.

Sources:

Showdown in America

May 13, 2010

Americans for Finacial Reform

Rolling Stones writer, turned financial system truth-sayer, Matt Taibbi put it this way [1]:

There are about 1800 financial lobbyists wandering DC these days — I was physically bumping into these guys in DC this week in the halls of Hart and Dirksen — while the leading reform groups (like Americans for Financial Reform) have few if any. (AFR, as far as I understand, has no paid lobbyists and just a few dozen volunteers).

With the "Audit the Fed" legislation going to conference committee, where a one-time audit could be converted into a more routine process, now is a good time to support Americans for Financial Reform.

Sources:

1. Matt Taibbi blog post, "Balance in the Washington Post," May 8, 2010.

May 10, 2010

Greece Spending Beyond it's Means

Lots of people on this side of the Atlantic are pointing at Greece and making statements about it spending beyond it's means. They are referring to government spending. Of course, the US has spent beyond it's means too, most seriously by Reagan and the Bushs.

Then, there are insightful people who see get to the kernel of the issue, like the following commenters on a post by Paul Krugman:

Ben W
Boston, MA

Paul said: "And it’s true, we did something like that too. [deficit spending] But guess who was in power then? Funny about that."

It's called "Starve The Beast."

Khal Spencer
Los Alamos, NM

I thought that running deficits even in good times was part of the "starve the beast" policy under Reagan and Bush I and II. Of course, it wasn't supposed to be a "kill the beast" policy, was it?

May 6, 2010

Challenge Corporate Charters

The BP Oil spill and Massey Energy mine explosion have a number of things in common, whic lead to the same conclusion; it's time to challenge their corporate charters.

Aside from the obvious, that both are fossil fuel extraction corporations, they both have bad records for worker safety and environmental protection. They also demonstrate a patter of flaunting laws by paying fines as a cost of doing business.

These two corporations exist as a privilege not a right. Their corporate charters, bestowed by "the people" through their governments, bestows many benefits, such as limited liability for the humans that act within the corporate construct.

It is nigh time that we challenge the privilege of corporate charters held by corporations that are persistent bad actors.

For Your Convenience:

Contact the Broadcast Media
Contact the Newspapers
Contact the US Senate
Contact the House of Representatives

Sources:

April 29, 2010

GDAE Podcast - Episode 30

Left Right Populist Unity II

Bill Clinton mea culpa: On corporate globalization & Haiti

Humor: Pope's visit to Britain from "Falling on a Bruise" blog

Bush war-crimes-Prosecution Theater: A Play called "In the Loop", by Armando Iannucci

MUSIC: "Meet me in the Hills" by Baltimore's Dirty Mothers

Right & Left: "Power in numbers" through coordination on advocacy for common goals

Taxes: The Pros and Cons

Book review: Shari S. Tepper's "The Gate to Women's Country"

The Mail Bag: Comments on Episode 28

MUSIC: Jeb Loy Nichols: "Dark Hollow."

Play Episode 30 from this page:

Click to Download Episode 30

Previous Episodes & 60-Sec Promo:

GDAE Podcast 60-Second Promo

GDAE Podcast Episode 29

GDAE Podcast Episode 28

GDAE Podcast Episode 27

GDAE Podcast Episode 26

GDAE Podcast Episode 25

GDAE Podcast Episode 24

GDAE Podcast Episode 23

GDAE Podcast Episode 22

GDAE Podcast Episode 21

GDAE Podcast Episode 20

GDAE Podcast Episode 19

GDAE Podcast Episode 18

GDAE Podcast Episode 17

GDAE Podcast Episode 16

GDAE Podcast Episode 15

GDAE Podcast Episode 14

GDAE Podcast Episode 13

GDAE Podcast Episode 12

GDAE Podcast Episode 11

GDAE Podcast Episode 10

GDAE Podcast Episode 9

GDAE Podcast Episode 8

GDAE Podcast Episode 7

GDAE Podcast Episode 6

GDAE Podcast Episode 5

GDAE Podcast Episode 4

April 28, 2010

May 8 - Washington Protest for Jobs

The 75th Anniversary of FDR's Works Progress Administration (WPA) is approaching and what better way to honor it than going to the streets?

On May 6, 1935, Pres. Roosevelt signed executive order 7034 creating the largest public works program in history. The Works Progress Administration created 8.5 million jobs during the Depression of the 1930s.

Bail Out The People is organizing around a principle for which Martin Luther King, Jr. organized in the last years of his life; the notion that a job is a fundamental right.

One can argue with that principle, but it's hard to argue that the recent bailout of Wall Street wasn't a corporate welfare give-away at the expense of better uses of tax-payer money. We hear about the Treasury Department TARP money, about $700 billion, but that was the tip of the iceberg; trillions were given directly and as tax-payer-backed guarantees by the Federal Reserve without any public oversight.[1]

You can ENDORSE the May 8 Rally to Bail out the People not the Banks. You can also Check Out More Information and consider donating to the cause if you can't make it to the rally in Washington, DC.

Sources:

1. Bloomberg News, U.S. Pledges Top $7.7 Trillion to Ease Frozen Credit, Mark Pittman and Bob Ivry, November 29, 2008.

April 27, 2010

Pressure Pentagon for Investigation

Time to quickly raise our voices...

AFP reports,

"The Committee to Protect Journalists has urged the Pentagon to investigate the death of journalists in Iraq at the hands of US forces in that country."

The straw that broke the camel's back was the Wikileaks release of US helicopter gun ship videos showing the calculated unleashing of massive fire power on a group of Iraqis, killing around 12 people including Reuters photographer and his driver, and wounding two children in a van that came to the aid of those who were shot.

Help call for an independent investigation of the long series of journalists killed in Iraq.

For Your Convenience:

Sources:

AFP, Pentagon pressured to probe journalists' deaths, April 27, 2010.

April 20, 2010

Global Warming and Snow in April

A more descriptive term than "global warming" is global climate change. It just so happens that, on average spatially, the "change" is toward warming.

Global climate change... Starts with climate turbulence as masses of warmer air around the world rises. It causes the waves in the jet streams to gyrate more northerly & southerly and along with it more extremes in warm and cold climate both up in Canada and down here in the lower 48.

In addition to understanding that warming causes turbulence in the global atmospheric system, the "on average" thing is critical to understanding why we can have cold weather, particularly snow, at a time of year when it's typically warm.

The best mental picture I have about the concept of "averages" is a joke:

A man is standing with one foot in a bucket of boiling water and the other foot a in bucket of ice water.

The man is asked, "How's the water?" To which he replies,

"On average it's comfortable."

You know the one about statisticians out deer hunting; one shoots and misses to the left. The other shoots and misses to the right, at which point the third guy says, "On Average you Got 'em!"

So now, back to the man with his feet in the buckets. Lets say the boiling water stays boiling, and the ice water melts and warms very slightly... still really cold. On average, the water has warmed, right? If the two buckets represented the Earth, one area hot and one cold, you could still say the "Earth" was, on average, warming, regardless of the extremes.

Now, with the jet stream fluctuating, those "extremes" move around, making it a little more complicated than a couple of buckets. It's just a little more complicated than the small minds on Fox News Corporation seem to be able to comprehend... either that, or they have ulterior motives for misleading the public.

April 18, 2010

This Date in 2004 - Iraq War Plan

On April 18, 2004, Bob Woodward wrote that on November 21, 2001 Bush collared Rumsfeld physically and asked him:

What have you got in terms of plans for Iraq? What is the status of the war plan? I want you to get on it. I want you to keep it secret.

Source:

Mother Jones, Sept/Oct 2006, "Chronicle of a War Foretold," Tim Dickinson & Jonathan Stein.

April 14, 2010

The Tea Party, the tea party and the "tea party"

Happy Tea Party Day!

OK, I'll admit a more succinct title would have been "The Many Faces of the Tea Party."

In response to the monopolistic power of the East India Company, incorporated by Britain, Bostonians took matters into their own hands... a foreshadowing of the American Revolution. As Thom Hartmann likes to say, the 1773 Boston Tea Party was a strike against the Wal-Mart of the colonial era.

Today, the "tea party" term has been adopted by anti-tax proponents. But the title of this post uses the term "tea party" three times. That's because the modern day "tea party" movement is of two faces. One face is of sincere, frustrated ordinary people who are looking for answers to explain why hard working people who play by the rules are suffering economic woes.

The other face of the "movemment", call it Tea Party 2, is summed up by "Americans for Prosperity (AFP)," the corporate-funded group that has been leading the cross-country tea party bus tour. Historically, AFP's "grass roots" organizing has been are paid for by cigarette corporations, climate change denying corporations and most recently by health industry corporations.

The relationship between Tea Party 1, the sincere Americans concerned with a corrupted government, and Tea Party 2, the corporate-sponsored part, is simple on one level, complex on another. It's simple in as much as I've just laid it out; corporations pay organizations like AFP to generate "grass roots" pressure on the Washington bureaucracy to maintain their interests.

But it's also complex. Tea Party 1 (the people), for the most part, is not aware of the role of Tea Party 2 (AFP). Many, I'd guess most, of the people of the movement don't realize that AFP, a Washington-based lobbying firm, is cut from the cloth of the Washington corruption they despise (click on the link to AFP above). Further, the people in Tea Party 1 don't realize that it was corporate abuse of power in 1773, as it is today, that is the root of the problem today; the movement's goal should not be so much about "less government," but more about "less corporate power." True, we want to maintain our privacy from prying government eyes, and other abuses of power, but if we could elect a government that represents we the people, rather than the corporate interests, we could make a more perfect union.

Of course, that goal is at odds with the interests of Tea Party 2 which operates on behalf of the corporations. So, part of the solution is for the "Tea Party" movement to evolve and attain its freedom from the corporate masters; the movement needs to secure it's independence as a movement of, by and for the people.

April 11, 2010

April 10, 2001 - Iraq Aluminum Tubes

April 10, 2001 - Lone CIA analyst known only as "Joe" tells top Bush brass that aluminum tubes bought by Iraq can only be used for nuclear centrifuges. The public became aware of this in August 2003.

What Wiki has to say about Iraq Aluminum Tubes.

Source:

Mother Jones, Sept/Oct 2006, "Chronicle of a War Foretold" Tim Dickinson & Jonathan Stein.

April 10, 2010

We All Knew that Kissinger is a Murderer

We all knew that Kissinger is a Murderer. Now we have another piece of evidence.

According to AP:

"On Sept. 21, 1976, agents of Chilean Gen. Augusto Pinochet planted a car bomb and exploded it on a Washington, D.C., street, killing both former Ambassador Orlando Letelier, and an American colleague, Ronni Karpen Moffitt. Letelier was one of the most outspoken critics of the Pinochet government."

Before this event the CIA and State Department officials were aware of the assassination aims of Chile against enemies of General Augusto Pinochet. Concerned, State Department staff sought to send a clear warning against conducting assassinations. They presented the proposal to Secretary of State Henry Kissinger for his decision.

Newly released State Department documents include a cable dated September 16, 1976. Under the SUBJECT: ACTIONS TAKEN, Subheading of "Operation Condor," AP reports:

The cable states that "secretary declined to approve message to Montevideo" Uruguay "and has instructed that no further action be taken on this matter."

The American silence, made official by Kissinger, was a green light.

April 8, 2010

Are we Stuck in Status Quo Due to Insanity?

We all gripe about the two-party system that caters to the establishment, thereby entrenching the status quo. That is, we gripe about our pathetic system that we're told is a "democracy," or a "republic" by purists, yet the "viable" candidates are shills for the corporate establishment, regardless of Party.

I'm reminded of a quote attributed to Albert Einstein, a definition of insanity:

Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. -- Albert Einstein, (attributed)

It's with these thoughts that, back in 2009, I started another blog entitled, "Challenge the Establishment".

More recently, on GDAE Podcast Episode 29, and in a blog post entitled, "A New Politics", I've begun exploring the question, stated in several ways,

Can principled people on the left and right unite to recapture our democratic institutions from the minority establishment?

Many people react to this with a rolling of the eyes, and thoughts of Sarah Palin in mind... but she's not "principled."

I'm not talking about "uniting" in terms electoral party politics, e.g., a third party. Rather, uniting on issue advocacy, with the result that law makers, and administrations, that don't heed the unified voice of the people will pay a steep price.

Surely I'm not alone in this thinking. There is evidence of the left & right uniting, to greater or lesser success:

Challenging Clinton's 1995 Anti-terrorism legislation on civil liberties grounds.
Turning back 2003 media regulations of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) that would have allowed more consolidation of ownership (and power).
Challenging the recent Supreme Court decision in Citizens United? Surveys show vast majorities of the general public, left and right, oppose the decision*.

So, in an effort to break from the path of insanity, I'm engaging in this exploration. I invite others to join me, and point me to people who might be further along this path.

* A February poll by ABC News/Washington Post found that 80 percent of Americans oppose the Supreme Court ruling on Citizens United, including 73 percent of self-described conservatives. Former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, at 80-years of age, hit the speaking circuit to denounce the decision due in great part to concern about it's effect on State judicial elections.

Sources:

ABC News poll on Citizens United, Summary & Link to Poll Questions & Results.

Art: Break the Mould by lex-strat

April 7, 2010

Riots in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan

Thanks to Shockfront Blog...

While CNN frets over Tiger Woods, a major political upheaval is well underway in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan... Note the footage showing the riot police running away from the onslaught of pissed off Kyrgyzs

According to Shockfront Blog:

one of the issues involved is the US military air base in Manas (sorry, the "Transit Center at Manas," as the US Air Force likes to call it now), newly regained by Obama, and apparently at the behest of Afghan president Hamid Karzai, after the Bush administration had lost the base under likely pressure from Moscow.

... and the Empire crumbles.

April 6, 2010

Tea Party and AFP

OK. I'm trying to find common ground with the right wing... civil liberties are good issues.

But, then there is this healthcare thing.

Granted, being forced to buy private health care, and enrich the insurance corporations rubs me the wrong way... there's some common ground. (Forget insurance pool size issues... like it doesn't work if the pool is too small).... Should probably have a single-payer system (cut out the corporate middleman... keep the money among we the people)... or turn people away from hospitals if they don't have insurance (they have the "individual right" not to be insured and not get treated... never mind the hippocratic oath... of course, sick people can spread their illness... ah, never mind... making it too complicated!!).

None of what follows deters from my original thesis about the great potential of principled people on the right and left working together on important issues.

The Tea Parties, in many cases, take their lead on healthcare from Americans for Prosperity (AFP) and it's president Tim Phillips? Not sure he fits the term "principled" when it comes to conservatives. He's more of a hired gun for corporations.

AFP got its start working for the cigarette corporations ... one can argue that cigarette smoking indoors is an "individual right," and maybe the rules shouldn't be set by government. But, one can also argue that breathing fresh air without someone's smoke in it is also an individual right... Fortunately, we have a representative democracy... we can vote to determine the outcome of such differences. It could be done in the work place if we don't want government involved, but it IS a government of, for and by the people... except when the corporate-sponsored AFP comes along it becomes of, for and by the corporations too; the smoker's "rights" become corporate sponsored "rights". Surely, AFP's involvement had nothing to do with corporate profits... right? It's all about "individual liberties"... or so the AFP pitch goes... personally, I don't believe AFP's pitch is sincere.. they're hired guns.

Aside: State governments realized they were paying health care for uninsured smokers' health problems, which justified the states getting involved in the smoking ban movement. Maybe states had an image problem with turning people away from hospitals. *shrug*

Before joining AFP, Phillips worked for Century Strategies. According to Phillips' Century Strategies biography, "Tim joined Ralph Reed in founding Century Strategies, parent company of Millennium Marketing, in 1997."

I presume you know Ralph Reed was Executive Director of the Christian Coalition 1989-1997 and is seriously tainted by the Jack Abramoff lobbying affair (not exactly principled IMNSHO). Phillip's relationship with Reed wasn't casual. They worked together for ten years before Phillips went to AFP; Reed is still at Century Strategies.

This isn't mere "guilt by association." These people operate at a sophisticated level in Washington and can't claim ignorance about what they and their associates are doing. Although AFP doesn't disclose its funding sources, it's pretty clear they are working for the health industry. I feel that this type of Washington operation is part of the problem. Principled people on the right should know in whose name they are speaking when asked to call their representatives and say they are members of AFP.

What you see is a modest salary (kinda looks "grass roots"):
Tim Phillips, AFP President - paid $60,646 in 2007

What you might not see:
Tim Phillips - AFP Foundation paid $185,843 in salary and $17,236 in benefits in 2007

Grand Total: $263,700 (who knows what he makes in speaking fees, etc.)

No law against making money. I just wonder how many people at the ground level realize exactly who and what is behind AFP?

May 31, 2010

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May 17, 2010

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April 29, 2010

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April 6, 2010

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