October 2008 archive

Docudharma Times Thrusday October 2



More tax Breaks And Less Regulation

How Wonderful For The Republicans And

Wall Street




Thursday’s Headlines:

As balloting nears, officials confused about who can vote

EU monitors begin patrols of Russian-held zone in Georgia

The Big Question: What’s behind the latest crackdown on the Mafia, and can it achieve anything?

How I became a target for terrorists’

Baghdad shaken by suicide attacks

Asia acts to contain China’s tainted milk

Flirting with Palin earns Pakistani president a fatwa

Life in Zimbabwe: Wait for useless money

First human case of HIV ‘100 years ago’

Senate Passes Bailout Plan; House May Vote by Friday  

 

  By CARL HULSE

Published: October 1, 2008  


WASHINGTON – The Senate strongly endorsed the $700 billion economic bailout plan on Wednesday, leaving backers optimistic that the easy approval, coupled with an array of popular additions, would lead to House acceptance by Friday and end the legislative uncertainty that has rocked the markets.

In stark contrast to the House rejection of the plan on Monday, a bipartisan coalition of senators – including both presidential candidates – showed no hesitation in backing a proposal that had drawn public scorn, though the outpouring eased somewhat after a market plunge followed the House defeat. The Senate margin was 74 to 25 in favor of the White House initiative to buy troubled securities in an effort to avoid an economic catastrophe.

Credit freeze puts businesses on thin ice

Firms small and large face drastic cutbacks as banks decline to lend the money that keeps the wheels of commerce turning.  

By Marla Dickerson, Tiffany Hsu and Jerry Hirsch, Los Angeles Times Staff Writers

October 2, 2008  


anet Hildreth is gearing up for Black Friday at her San Francisco flooring company.

Orders have plunged so precipitously that she is laying off half of her 40-person staff at the end of this week — the first such cuts in the 36-year history of Tree Lovers Floors Inc.

Hildreth had intended to get through the rough patch by using her $250,000 home equity line of credit to help meet payroll. But her bank, Pasadena-based IndyMac, was seized in July by federal regulators. The institution recently froze her credit line, Hildreth says, even though she has excellent credit and more than $400,000 in equity in her home.

Plan B was to tap a $30,000 American Express credit line. But AmEx slashed the maximum she could borrow on the line to $1,000 because she hadn’t used it.

 

USA

Anxious party tells McCain to fight harder

Republicans say presidential candidate needs to be more aggressive in attacking rival as polls show gap widening  

Ewen MacAskill in Washington

The Guardian,

Thursday October 2 2008


Republicans are urging John McCain to adopt more aggressive tactics against Barack Obama amid fears that the White House is slipping away from them.

With ballots already being cast in battlefield states from Virignia to Ohio, Republicans are panicking that voting is taking place against the backdrop of the catastrophic events on Wall Street and that McCain could be a casualty.

Although McCain has been pumping out negative ads throughout August and September, Republican state leaders and officials want to see him becoming even more personal, exploiting Obama’s links with figures he knew in Chicago.

Muse in the Morning

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Muse in the Morning

A Transition through Poetry XXI

Art Link

Hearts

My Love

As I walk in the brisk autumn air

And the sun warms me but a bit

You are walking with me.

As I stop amongst the trees

And listen to the wind in the branches

I hear your voice.

As I bundle myself in my coat

And rearrange my hat and scarf

I feel your arms surround me.

As I walk through the garden

And see the last flowers of the year

I see your face.

You are forever with me

My Love

Eternally by my side

In my dreams

In my life.

To feel your touch,

To see your smile,

To hear you laugh,

I long for these.

One day, My Love,

We will be together

And the word Love

Will gain new meaning.

Soon, My Darling,

We will be together

As our spirits

Have always been.

We will meet

And the world

Will be our garden

Forever, My Love.

–Robyn Elaine Serven

–November, 1993

The Stars Hollow Gazette

Bart: [speaking in a low voice] Hold it! Next man makes a move, the n_____ gets it!

Olson Johnson: Hold it, men. He’s not bluffing.

Dr. Sam Johnson: Listen to him, men, he’s just crazy enough to do it!

Bart: [low voice] Drop it! Or I swear I’ll blow this n_____ head all over this town!

Bart: [now speaking in a higher voice] Oh, lo’dy, lo’d, he’s desp’it! Do what he sayyyy, do what he sayyyy…

Harriett Van Johnson: Isn’t anybody going to help that poor man?

Dr. Sam Johnson: Hush, Harriet, that’s a sure way to get him killed!

Bart: [higher voice] Oooh! He’p me, he’p me! Somebody he’p me! He’p me! He’p me! He’p me!

Bart: [lower voice] Shut up!

The Weapon of Young Gods #36: Leave the Rest in Ruins

People never pay attention to how their body works, until suddenly it doesn’t. Then they really feel conscious of how bizarre and miraculous and utterly strange that thing is. That thing that imprisons their soul, that throbs and pulses and sweats, that breathes and itches and gurgles and snots and shits. Then they know-when something’s wrong. Then maybe they pay attention and, if they’re not too consumed with fear, they try to do something about it. Of course, sick people are in touch with this reality every minute of every day. Illness connects them to their malfunctioning bodies’ skewed rhythms in ways that health nuts and appearance fetishists will never ever know. The reality of fragile impermanence. The irrefutable truth that this blip of existence is absolutely transient.

Previous Episode and Previous Pertinent Episode

Eco Rights Trump Corporations

This past week, the people of Ecuador voted to vest new constitutional “Rights of Nature, or ecosystem rights” in their natural resources to elevate their legal status from property to “right-bearing entities.”  Now, natural resources have legal rights, just like other nonhumans, such as corporations and ships. Citizens are now authorized to file lawsuits against corporations to prevent the destruction of natural resources and to recover damages.

Ecuador’s new constitution is part of a larger movement in the US.  The Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (CELDF) has been assisting local communities with drafting laws to provide legal rights to natural resources, stop corporations from raiding and destroying natural resources and protect the health and well-being of the community.  

All Hail The Glorious Bailout Success Evening!

It is with great pride and feelings of intense sentimentally robust patriotic fervor that I call for all loyal citizens to acclaim the achievements of our U.S. Senate.  Without their stout defense of the banking and credit service industries our unprecedented economic recovery cycle about to begin would be in danger of faltering under the attacks of the recidivist lackeys that cling to outmoded theories.

The far-seeing cadres acclaiming the U.S. Senate are not fooled by the blathering traitors who claim to represent “The People”. It is of course expected and no doubt necessary that the Senators require no less than full reward for their labors, suitable to their vast personal wealth and complementary to their immunity from prosecution. How excellent in foresight were the Framers of our U.S. Constitution, and how flexible and creative our U.S. Senate in interpreting this historical legacy so that their wisdom shone in passing a bill before the U.S. House of Representatives had done so! Not limited by law or custom our intrepid Senators blazed a fiery path across the financial firmament, guaranteeing their lobbyist contributions for ages to come while securing the hard-earned billions of our bold Business Leadership in Wall Street. Truly we can marvel at the sagacity and sheer endurance of their quest for riches and luxuries under such strains as have been precipitated by the crafty and vile homeowners who have forsaken their mortgage obligations.

And so we must all hail the glorious bailout success evening and register our dismay at the critics of this noble Senatorial undertaking to rescue all that they hold dear: their flatulent and corpulent asses that crush the backs of the working poor.

Pirate Jenny and the Single Malt Revolution

A ditty has occupied my head incessantly, continuously, importantly, for 2 days now, ever since Valtin mentioned something about watching it all come down from the vantage point aboard a boat, with single malt, in his essay, about how we are being force-fed shit, which also mentioned Berthold Brecht.  I’ve not been able to think of hardly anything else, except for Edger and Magic.  Pirate Jenny stomps out of Dreigrossenoper and into my head with the certainty of the stileto-staccato stride of Ahab.  I think it is my salvation.

And for that reason, I must say…follow me below the fold…

 

Roadrunner Pony Party

_The Pony Party is an Open Thread.  Please do not REC_

My analysis of the Senate Bill

I just finished watching the Senate pass their version of the bailout bill.  I just finished listening to Sen. Reid give his “explanation”.  I just heard 2 economists give their own “analysis” of this bill.  Now, I’m going to give mine.

Let me say, right up front, that the best analogy that applies here is; I am a shadetree mechanic.  The economist is the factory trained and certified mechanic.  Both of us are placed in front of a car and asked, “how do you start this car?”

So, with that said, onward… through the fog…

Collaborators.

Via Merriam-Webster Online:

2 : to cooperate with or willingly assist an enemy of one’s country and especially an occupying force.

Overnight Caption Contest

Living In The Past

Growing up during the Cold War I actually thought about the fact that one day all of the jingoistic Cold Warriors (on both sides) that were preventing peace, while ratcheting up hate and fear and spending trillions on ‘defense’ over all those decades….would some day be dead.

That until the folks with that mindset were well and truly gone the black and white reactionary views they represented would rule the world.

Now, with Cheney and Rumsfeld soon heading for whatever imaginative and exquisite hell they have fully earned and wholly deserve, there is only one left with any real power, any shot of continuing to enforce that mindset….John McCain.

Yesterday dharmasyd asked our Congress: “Why do you have such an aversion to the word socialism?” The answer is the Cold War.  

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