April 15, 2010 archive

Apr 15 2010

Thoughts on a vanished essay

I was reading an essay by TocqueDeville , “Yes, Enough With the Daily Kos Nonsense,” declaring that Docudharma should replace DailyKos as the hub of blogosphere progressivism.  (Sorry if I have to over-rely on memory here, but gee, it’s gone.)  I thought it the usual bold proclamation, so reining in my naturally surly and cantankerous nature, I started constructively commenting to nail down what TocqueDeville’s point in the dispute actually was.  What did Docudharma stand for that Kos didn’t?

MomCat, in the meantime, was stating that the essay was highly inappropriate.  It was fanning a flame war, and making it harder on the folks from Docudharma who were still posting at Daily Kos.

Apr 15 2010

US Foreign Policy: Sixty Years of Disaster

(published at Truthout.org)

On August 19, 1953, pro-Shah supporters in Iran staged a coup on the Iranian government that was planned, organized and supported by the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and British Intelligence. Iranians lived under the brutal rule of Mohammad-Reza Shah Pahlavi for the next 25 years until the Iranian Revolution in 1979. Though the CIA-led coup in Iran was the first time the agency overthrew a democratically elected government, it wasn’t to be the last. In 1954, the CIA orchestrated a coup against the democratically elected president of Guatemala. In 1963, the CIA orchestrated the coup in Iraq that eventually brought Saddam Hussein and the Ba’athist Party to power. In 1973, the CIA orchestrated a coup against the democratically elected leader of Chile. In every case, those who were helped into power instituted regimes of terror and violence. These regimes prompted bloody revolutions, or worse, US-led invasions. Either way, hundreds of thousands of people have been killed due to US foreign policy.

Apr 15 2010

Afternoon Edition

Afternoon Edition is an Open Thread

From Yahoo News Top Stories

1 Pope urges Catholic penance over priest scandal

AFP

2 hrs 12 mins ago

VATICAN CITY (AFP) – Pope Benedict XVI on Thursday urged Catholics to “do penance” and a top cardinal called for a mass rally by clergy to support the pontiff under fire over widespread paedophile priest scandals.

“Now under the attacks of the world which talk to us about our sins, let us see that we can do penance,” the pope said at a mass at the Vatican.

“I have to say that we Christians, even lately, have often avoided the word ‘penance’ that seemed to us too hard,” the pope said, speaking for the first time since he was directly named in allegations of helping to protect priests who have abused children.

Because, of course, it is the average Catholic who is guilty of systematically covering up raping children for decades, and NOT Joseph Ratzinger former Nazi and God’s annointed messenger on Earth.

Apr 15 2010

Foreclosure tsunami is beginning to strike

   It’s sometimes amusing to see how hard the media tries to spin bad news into good news. For instance, this article from ABC today.

 (Reuters) – U.S. mortgage foreclosure filings dropped for a second straight month in February, and notched the smallest annual increase in four years as housing-rescue efforts contained activity, a report released on Thursday showed.

 It sounds like good news, huh? There’s just one problem: the foreclosures report that was released today concerned the whole first quarter, including March numbers.

  Since when did the news media start preferring outdated data over recent data?

I guess when the recent data said things like this.

 RealtyTrac® … today released its U.S. Foreclosure Market Report™ for Q1 2010, which shows that foreclosure filings – default notices, scheduled auctions and bank repossessions – were reported on 932,234 properties in the first quarter, a 7 percent increase from the previous quarter and a 16 percent increase from the first quarter of 2009. One in every 138 U.S. housing units received a foreclosure filing during the quarter.

 

Apr 15 2010

War Profiteering, or How You Too Can Get Rich Quick

Robert McKeon, the head of Veritas Capital, is about to profit in “the most lucrative deal of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan” notes the Street Talk blog at Forbes. How did McKeon do it? By investing in private military contracting mercenaries, of course! Now the DynCorp owner is set to cash out his wartime investment.

DynCorp International, the… provider of services to the U.S. military, announced Monday that it has reached a $1.5 billion deal to be acquired by funds managed by Cerberus Capital Management. If the deal goes through, McKeon will have turned a $48 million personal investment in DynCorp into some $320 million for himself.

Ka-ching!

Street Talk describes the DynCorp deal as a “defining transaction for McKeon”. So, is McKeon the definition of a Wall Street war profiteer?

Apr 15 2010

Open Question

Photobucket

Apr 15 2010

Can The US Dollar Collapse? Part 2

Yesterday in the first segment of this interview we heard Jane D’Arista, author of The Evolution of U.S. Finance: Federal Reserve Monetary Policy: 1915-1935 and research associate with the Political Economy Research Institute (PERI), University of Massachusetts at Amherst, talking with Paul Jay of The Real News Network about the fact that the global economy has lost the American consumer as the engine for the whole system.

Here in segment 2 D’Arista continues her conversation with Jay, talking about private capital looking for investment safety by abandoning the US Dollar to other things they think will better hold real value such as precious metals, oil, etc. and more about the history of how we got into the economic situation we are in today.

And about who benefits…



Real News Network – April 15, 2010

Can US dollar remain world’s currency? Pt.2

Jane D’Arista: Big states will defend dollar, but private capital may move to precious metals and oil

Transcript here

Part 1 of this interview is here.

Apr 15 2010

Blast Injury Treatment Centers?

Why is it in all these speeches the press seems to think are so important, like those of the shrill voiced hockey puck mom, who’s son served or is still serving, and anyone attached to this so called ‘tea party’, as they rail against taxes and more, do we not hear mention of the funding nor sacrifice as to those serving or have served!

Seems the only time the military soldier and veterans of, are mentioned is when a meme needs to be added as flag is wrapped around their ‘patriotism?’!

Many are the same that never mention defense budgets, except wanting them to grow even more, nor gave any mention to military and veterans care as they beat the drums of war louder and louder, and still do!

Apr 15 2010

Docudharma Times Thursday April 15




Thursday’s Headlines:

U.S. doubles anti-Taliban special forces

City in Oregon Considers Beacon for ‘the Big One’

USA

Attorney General Eric Holder stands his ground at Senate hearing

For many, being jobless can seem never-ending

Europe

Volcanic ash clouds from Iceland ground UK flights

Widower forced to relive pain of Sarajevo

Middle East

Iran sanctions talks ‘constructive’

Asia

Report into Benazir Bhutto death published today

Chinese rescuers impeded by earthquake damage

Africa

Lagos: Inside the ultimate mega-city

DR Congo gang rape crisis ‘spreading’, new study says

Latin America

Leaked police film shows Mexico drug war

Apr 15 2010

Mortgage Fraud — just another Scheme of the Shadow Bankers

Bill Gross, head of PIMCO, is credited with coining the term “Shadow Banking System”. A few years ago he warned about its reckless behavior and how they could wreck the Economy.

Bill Gross Calls it “Shadow Banking System”

Bill Bonner, The Daily Reckoning Australia — Jan 22, 2008

Banks recognize that not all their loans will be repaid. They operate on margins of safety, with reserves set aside for when things go wrong. But in the worlds of swaps, hedge funds and derivatives…slick operators can invest billions with no margins of safety…and no reserves. The result, Gross says, could be catastrophic.

Turns out this blunt-speaking Mutual Fund Manager — WAS Right!

Apr 15 2010

Muse in the Morning

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Muse in the Morning


Turbulence

(Click on image for larger view)

Continue…

Apr 15 2010

Absolutely FASCINATING – Anti-Corporate, true history of the ORIGINAL Tea Party

Do yourself a favor and watch this. Thom Hartmann got a copy of the only first hand account of the Tea Party, written by a participant. My whole life, I’ve always wondered what the big deal was about paying a tax for some stupid tea. Now, I know!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v…

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