Wiki-leaks

had to post this in its entirety, great writing

"I am Julian Assange.

I want information so that I can hold my government accountable. If my country acts improperly and in my name, I want the proof. I want to know if there actually is no evidence proving weapons of mass destruction. I want to know if America is working with Israel to overthrow Iran's leadership. I want data that has not been spun by reporters that work for publishers and broadcasters with political and business goals that conflict with the facts. I want to know.

I am Julian Assange because I know unfettered information is valuable to democracy and a peaceful world. I can make the best decisions with the most knowledge. I can vote for the best candidates. I can support the smartest policies to help my country and the world. I am not naïve; I know that not every operation can be transparent but I have a right to know its outcome and how it has affected my country and me.

I do not believe Julian Assange has done anything wrong. The cables that have been published have all been printed in newspapers and redacted to protect individuals at risk. I do not want my country to prosecute a man whose actions are changing the way we get information and how we make critical decisions. I now know that my president and my country's military have not been honest about the war in Afghanistan. I know that my country has killed civilians and that we have refused to acknowledge our mistakes. I have learned that our allies are secretly consorting with our enemies.

I am also Pfc. Bradley Manning. I know that if I saw the disturbing information come across my desk that I would have confronted the conflict between my oath of service to my country and the immorality of its behavior. I do not believe I would have been able to ignore American helicopters gunning down journalists carrying cameras. I believe I would have acted on my conscience and found a way to reveal the facts. There was a reporter at the My Lai massacre in Vietnam but there was only a gun camera on the US helicopter in Iraq. And the Internet. And Bradley Manning.

I believe that governments are out of control and citizens have a decreasing belief that they can influence decisions. WikiLeaks and the Internet are empowering individuals and groups with information. Julian Assange and Bradley Manning are the first two faces and voices in a crowd that will soon be too big to control. Their arrests and charges and even prosecution will only spawn a broader resistance against war and deception and corruption. The Internet is now the reporter. This is the way the world is. I do not want to hear that there will always be wars and spying and death. I want information to prevent them and to build peace.

I am saddened that Australia's government is once more acting as a lapdog for American interests and is not demanding sovereign rights for one of its citizens. I am also distressed that the president of my country who ran for office promising a transparent government is trying to find a way to prosecute a foreign national, and is preventing Pfc Manning from speaking with his family. WikiLeaks has shown there is an America in civics textbooks and an America that functions differently in the real world. Adequate information might move us closer to the ideal. I no longer trust my president. I do not trust my congress. I place my trust in facts and I do not get them from most of the media. But I still want to know.

I am Julian Assange. And if you care about the truth, you are, too."

James Moore

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jim-moore/i-am-julian-assange_b_793583.html

Wiki-leaks

So this guy who founded wikileaks,a place to dump classified information to blow the whistle on corruption, and abuse has just been placed on interpol's most wanted list in connection to a rape. The US government has been pressing hard, on Sweden, the nation where he lives, to send this guy to the US for prosecution. And now finally, the US military juggernot will get its way.

I thought interpol only deals with international criminals, some of the worst of the worst, since when do they deal with rape cases?

American Power

"The United States simply hasn't figured out how to handle the enormous power it has. With each succeeding president, it seems to get more confused... The Strength of the United States limits its options, just as weakness limits other nations options."

George Friedman
www.stratfor.com

Wiki-leaks

a great post about the leaks, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jim-moore/wikileaks-and-the-myth-of_b_791740.html

some ideas to think about
-if journalism in american had been doing its job instead of focusing on the kardashians we would probably have know about all this information already,
-leaks have the opportunity to save lives, like the millions of iraqi's killed during our unwarrented, invasion.  Leaks and good journalism could have exposed the bullshit story bush/cheney sold us.

Mid terms

The conservative's are laying it on heavy, "this election is a repudiation of liberal values". But it seems its just another case of the country being fed up with the leadership. If you look at the Democratic losses in the House, most are blue dogs, conservative, corporate cheerleader types. The progressive wing of the party lost few seats.

Lesson-dont listen to anything Sean Hannity says.

Banks complain about Regs

After tanking the world economy and ruining the lives of many average joe's, and recieving trillions from the US government with barely any string attached, the Bankers of the US are complaining about the one regulation that will force them to make the tiniest change to the way they do business. Have more cash on hand.

The banks are still living in the pre crash mindset (see what I did their) that they can do whatever they want, like continue the policy where they can lend out so many times the amount of cash  (or assets) they have on hand. So now when the government tells them they have to keep more cash on hand they start crying about how bad its going to get, for the small business man.

But the logic is off. A goldman Sachs op ed states, if banks are forced to hold more capitol, the result will be larger rates on loans, resulting harder times for the small business. If they talk about the hardship on the average joe than everyone will support their perspective.

But come on. Its bullshit. No one is forcing banks to raise rates. Banks are punishing small businesses on their own. Its like a 12 year old saying to their parents, if you don't raise my allowance i will beat up my younger sister. Who's fault would it be when the younger sister gets beat up?

These banks deserve a lot more oversight, regulation, rules and supervision, for without us, the great American taxpayer they would have died in bankruptcy.

The government should hit back and say for every rate increase you place on small business, we the government will place that tax on you, than a tax deferment would be given to the small business, to the right the wrong,

Deficit Commission

I am fuming right now. The President created a deficit commission to address the deficit, they are stacked with congressman, and wall street insiders. Their preliminary recommendations, surprise surprise, is to attack the middle and low class. Increase the age you can get Social Security, decrease the benefits, decrease the benefits of medicare, and end middle class tax deductions. Awesome buddy. way to attack those who are hurting the most. The only people they left out are the soldiers. The fact that their is even talk of cutting the deficit at the same time we are hearing Obama has caved in and will support the bush tax cuts!! Are you joking? Almost a trillion dollars in new spending? Mostly for the Rich? If they pass that bush tax cut extension than there is no factual way they care at all about the deficit and so scrap the commission. And if they care about the deficit, than the first thing that should happen is to not spend a trillion dollars on tax cuts. This is one of the craziest things I have ever heard. Its like saying I am going to start saving for a house, but after I open and max out ten credit cards, and damn, why cant i ever save enough to buy the house.

Economy Stupid

Economist talking about the economy, busting some myths.
-most of the deficit is not from government spending or the bailouts, James says those account for 10% of the deficit, the rest is from a the huge decrease in tax revenue, this coming from an IMF report.
-The way you fix a deficit is by spending to spur business. Either, like WWII, with government spending, or like the 90' internet boom, with private bank spending. Both time periods saw credit driven economic growth, and there was no public sector cuts.
-"Entitlement cuts, no matter how sever can never result in deficit reduction"

http://www.newdeal20.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/deficitcommissionrv.pdf

Obama blew the Election

The commentators are saying the 2010 election was all about the economy and Obama blew it. Just create jobs is all he had to do. Stimulate the economy. And he had a great Democratic model to follow, FDR. Our infrastructure need renovations, and one idea Obama even ran on, we need a green revolution in this country. Wind power, solar power, wave power. We could create a whole new industry in this country which would bring a ridiculous number of jobs. We could be world leaders in something besides war again. We could rebuild the manufacturing base that once made this nation great, thus rebuilding the power of unions.Maybe we should get the unions to push for this, they have the power, and they need more power as theirs has been dwindling since the 80's.

Why we wow the world anymore. Why can't we build a train that goes from New York to California in one hour damnit.

Pension investments

The original purpose of the stock market, so i have read, was for companies to go public to raise money for  the future. Say i own a car company and i want to build a second manufacturing plant. I know the plant will mean more money but i can't afford to build it. So i sell stock, raise money, build the new plant, make more money, stock prices go up, investors make money. So the original intent was to fincance industry. Today its not the case, most money in the stock market goes into speculating, like gambling, investors care little about aiding industry. They just want that quick buck.

After that set up, my thought is about pension funds. When i think of a pension, i think of industry, electrical unions, autoworkers union, teachers unions. And i am sure these pensions are invested in wall street, not in the old way, to fund industry, but in the new way, to speculate and make a quick buck. I even read a story about the mortgage crisis of a school who used its pension funds to by mortgage securities, that  turned out to be worthless.

So I'm thinking, why not use pension funds to buy local stocks. Say I am in the NYC teachers union, I would want my money invested in NY companies, companies that will invest and build in NYC, to create a future crop of new yorkers that will join my union. But i bet this is not happening.

Hudson on the Economy

" The xenophobic idea is that China is taking away American jobs, not that America’s pro-financial policies are responsible for de-industrializing the economy and shrinking domestic markets and employment here.'

"So what will emerge is a new multi-lateral financial system after all. But there will be two financial systems: one centered on the BRIC countries with strong trade balances and currency values, another system centered on the U.S. dollar. Europe is likely to be left out, and may become an economic backwater, because so much of its politics are run by U.S. aficionados. So I see a dual world monetary system and a dual world trade system operating under a different set of trade and financial rules.

U.S. diplomats no doubt will call this socialism. Other countries can reply, “What we’re doing is just what the French Physiocrats, Adam Smith, John Stuart Mill and the other major classical free-marketers wanted: no free lunch. If we’re socialists, what are you guys? We’re too polite to use the word, but it was used in World War II

Russian Politics

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/03/opinion/03iht-edkhodorkovsky.html

A speech by a Russian Oligarch who was arrested on trumped up charges because he dared to speak out againt the Putin regime.

On the Hudson (professor) in Fall

Professor Michael Hudson is saying things no one in the Economic realm is saying, here in American, The Federal Reserve Bank is doing whatever it can to save the big banks in America, the big banks that tanked the economy by first tanking the real estate industry.

He says Bernanke is buying US bonds, which is like flooding the country with US money, making our money cheaper, forcing our banks to go abroad to buy foreign money and foreign assets. At the same time our politicians are calling for China to raise its money value, which would make our bankers rich overnight, (because our bankers own foreign currency, if the value on foriegn currency is raised billions are made), some are calling this a currency war by devaluing the dollar. The president of Brazil said, " the last time there was a series of competitive devaluations, it ended in world war two"

Hudson says because of this currency war other nations like brazil china and russia are forming economic blocks where US currency is not being used. Some might say so what. But this is causing a further weakening of the dollar. Instead of putting the criminals in jail, America is battling the world to save its banking class.

Joseph Stiglitz " the money that was meant to be used to rescue America from its banking class is instead being used by its banking class to attack the World economy. To grow stronger we are trying to make everyone else weaker"




http://www.democracynow.org/2010/11/5/new_600b_fed_stimulus_fuels_fears

Midterms - 2010

The stories to watch
-The Republicans won back the house
-But, as pointed out by David Sirota, conservative ballot measures were denied nationally,
-Thanks to the supreme court ruling on corporate donations toward campaigns, secret money is now allowed, the republicans are now following money through two large slush funds, the Chamber of Commerce, and Karl Roves PAC
-This is the first time corporate donations went largely to the non-incumbents. Meaning, while the Democrats dominated the House, Senate, and Presidency, corporate donors supported the minority party.

Economic conquest

Some great lines from prof hudson on what is really going on with our fed and the world economy.

-"Financial conquest is seeking today what military conquest did in times past: control of land and basic infrastructure, industry and mining, banking systems and even government finances."

-"the US wants to inflate the rest of the world, while the latter is trying to deflate the US. The US must win, since it has infinite ammunition: there is no limit to the dollars the Federal Reserve can create. What needs to be discussed is the terms of the world’s surrender: the needed changes in nominal exchange rates and domestic policies around the world"

-"The major international economic question today is how such national economies can achieve greater stability by insulating themselves from these predatory financial movements."

http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=21716

The rich get richer

The number of Americans making $50 million or more, the top income category in the data, fell from 131 in 2008 to 74 last year. But that’s only part of the story.


The average wage in this top category increased from $91.2 million in 2008 to an astonishing $518.8 million in 2009. That’s nearly $10 million in weekly pay!

The total income brought home by the over-$50 million club more than tripled from 2008 despite having fewer members. Those seventy-four people brought home more money than the bottom 19 million American workers combined

http://www.cjr.org/economic_crisis/the_50_million-a-year_club_boo.php

Foreclosure

Banks are in a pickle at the moment over foreclosures. They were cheating the system, those banks were. They were not even taking the time to read the paperwork, just signing foreclose after foreclosure. One bloak is said to have paid for his house in cash, and never had a morgtage, yet the banks would not be stopped and foreclose on his home they did.

One of the problems is that when the mortgages went to wall street they were chopped up to distribute risk. So 1000 individuals owned part of the mortgage. An article came out some time ago argueing that the banks would have a hard time foreclosing, because by law banks need the deed on the house to foreclose. Because of the complexity of the securitization process of these mortgages they were lost in the wind. Good for the screwed masses, bad for the banks. Great news right?

But this puzzle can reverse the winners and losers, as i was just reminded by a commenter on a post i read. What happens when a homeowner doing the right thing, finally pays off his mortgage, does he get the dead of the house? How can he if it is lost in the wind?

Sometimes the comments from an article have more information than the original article.

War

"Indeed, Robert Baer – a former senior figure in the CIA – says the agency now prefers to kill a suspect than capture them and assess their guilt or find out what they know. "Targeted killings are easier for the CIA or for the military to deal with than taking someone prisoner," he explains. "No one really ever questions a killing, but when you take someone prisoner, then you are responsible for the person and then the headaches come. We have a logic which leads to more and more targeted killings."


Another shame of humanity.




http://www.johannhari.com/2010/10/15/obamas-escalating-robot-war-in-pakistan-endangers-us-all

New drilling rules in effect

Thats just wonderful, new rules for offshore drilling rigs to ignore. If they ignored the last batch of rules and no one was held accountable what the bleep are new rules going to do?

Welfare State

If you cry about the welfare state here in the USA you better check yourself. Many people i meet love to cry about the welfare state, but they only cry about half of the welfare, the part that goes to low income families for say rent control or food stamps or Medicaid, or to illegals, who people say "are draining our system.

If you listen to these people you are hearing only half or a third of the story. The other two thirds is the welfare that rich people get. Rich people get by far more welfare than the poor. While the rich pay more in taxes they also get a ridiculous amount of write offs. I was just reading yesterday about one government program that gives back 400 billion a year to encourage home buying and business spending, and 40% of this money is given to the richest 1%, clearly uneven distribution toward the top.

But its really no surprise that the story is the told the way it is. That the rich worked hard for theirs, while the poor or sucking the system dry. The story is always told by the winner. Think about it. All the owners and lead anchors for every major news outfit in America is rich. Every Senator and President is rich, and so is most of Congress. So why wouldn't they govern from what they know, the rich. The rich fund their compaigns, and the rich get more beneficial laws passed.

So next time someone tries to feed you garbage about the welfare in this country being out of control yet they only mention the story of those damn poor people on welfare you will know they only have part of the story.

Home burns down, Fireman watch

Have not written in awhile, because its the same old news, the 50 Rich guys that run American and own congress pass laws to funnel more money and power to themselves thus taking it away from all of us, and somehow the public fights of the scraps and yells at the other political party with name calling like your a socialist or your a fascist.

So socialist, everyone calls President Obama a socialist. His damn socialist healthcare. Our damn socialist fire department. Well a town in Tennessee did something about their damn socialist fire department and now the everyone home in town pays a fee to get fire service, no fee no service. Well this played out beautifully this week. Better than any poet could have spoke about, when a home burned down as the fire department stood by and watched. You see the home did not pay their 75$ fire fee, and were thus added to a list of homes the fire department was to not service. So they showed up of course, to protect the homes of the neighbors who paid their fire tax. This is pretty crazy. What if someone died? What if a baby died in that home? Thats OK with everyone? Everyone is cool with this? This is what this town in Tennessee had in mind when they made this law? This sounds like perfect community to raise a warm loving family. Where everyone is on their own. Kids have to learn sooner or later right? We might not be able to provide you with a job, we might not be able to lend you money to go to college, we might not be able to fix your roads or bridges, we might not be able to heal you if you get sick, we might not be able to ensure the safety of your water or food, or anything that you buy, your on your own good luck,

Sincerely
The United States of America
http://www.aolnews.com/nation/article/firefighters-let-home-burn-after-finding-owner-didnt-pay-annual-fee/19662595?icid=main|main|dl1|sec1_lnk3|175641

Greg Palast on Ground Zero Mosque

My own view? I don't want a mosque near Ground Zero; I want it right on top of Ground Zero, in the new tower, so when we go down again, we all go together.

Burning the Koran

In honor of the terrorist attack on America on September 11, 2001, by a bunch of terrorists, who falsley claimed to be Muslims, an American preacher would like to burn a Koran, in a ceremony at his Church.I just will never get the logic. They hate us so we are going to hate em back? But terrorists hate us, not Muslims, no matter what fox news entertainment says. All one billion Muslims around the world do not hate us. It's hard for some of you to believe, but its true.

Chris Floyd also makes a great point, that General Petraus has spoke out against the burning of the Koran for fear it will make our troops more vulnerable to attack in foreign lands. Yet the General and his friends never thought about that when they invaded a few countries and laid waste to it, never thought that might incite violence and revenge did ya General? Burning one Koran, no good, killing millions, hey gotta do it.

Bp Oil Spill

From Iraq to Wall Street, to the Tennessee sludge spill, we now have the BP mess in the Gulf. The Pattern is the same. Corporate American attempts to make as much money as possible with little thought or concern for everyone else, Governemt regulators and officials have been sponsored (bought) by Corporate America, so they choose not to regulate or keep CA to any kind of standards, until CA becomes so lax that we have a disaster effecting untold amounts of people with no end in sight.
This time we have gasoline pooring into the Gulf of Mexico, ruining the lives of the fisherman, and heading for a current that could take the oil up the east coast to towards Europe.

Rob Kall makes some great points over at, http://www.opednews.com/articles/Coverup-Govt-Denies-Any-O-by-Rob-Kall-100518-4.html

If this was done by an Arab or Persian this would be an act of terrorism. So why do we treat terrorist acts differently when done by different people.

Wall Street committed a terrorist act in 2008 when the ecomony crashed, the TVA in Tennesse committed a terrorist act when there shotty damn broke and flooded a town with poison.

Just like Howard Stern said in his movie, "a kill is a kill is a kill", a terrorist act is a terrorist act is a terrorist act!"

Also check out Greg Palast, one of the greatest reporters of our time, tells us how the Exxon Valdez spill 20 years ago in Alaska was BP's doing.

Corporate (fill in the blank)

Once again we have a national disaster thanks to the single minded greed of corporations like BP oil to cut corners and not spend extra money on extra layers of safety protocals. And once Again we have a corporate sponsered US Government that does not create reality based safety laws or enforce existing safety laws for fear they will lose their corporate sponser. Just picture Tiger Woods or Kobe Bryant, getting busted for cheating and going on tv to apologize to the fans (corporate sponsers). Tiger and Kobe in this scenario represent 99% of the officials in the US Government, true leadership.
The list continues; Katrina, Housing Market, Wall Street, Gulf Coast,
Lets play the game what cant they f--k up.

C. Floyd

"the false narrative that is drummed into every American from birth until it becomes an integral part of their own self-image and their understanding of the outside world: the false narrative of righteous exceptionalism that underpins and "justifies" the monstrous violence of empire. This myth performs a kind of psychic and moral alchemy in the minds of Americans, transmutating the reality of bloodsoaked murder, repression and suffering into benign acts of "liberation" and "humanitarianism."

Tim Geitner

So Tim Geitner, the man running the treasury department, the watchdog over the economy of the United States of America, during the worst time for our economy in 80 years. Must be a fun job.

And what was his last job that enabled Tim to be promoted to the top economic job in the land, Chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, the supervisory body that watches of Wall Street investment houses and banks.

But wait, wall street crashes and the guy who was supposed to be making sure it didn't crash was not fired, or publicly tarred and feathered but was promoted? Sweet.

But was it really a promotion?

So far he has handed out tax payer money hand over fist to the corrupt banks that broke the law and tanked the economy, in a terrorist fashion. Than he has advised those same terrorist banks that should have been closed and who owe their life to the taxpayer not to share information with the public about what they are doing with the taxpayer money they obtained.

Wonderful. Isn't that like catching Osama Bin Laden and having the CIA advise Osama not to talk to the FBI about what he knows? I am sure that would go over real well.

This new story adds to the fire of last years story where Geitner actively worked to remove sections of a new banking bill that would have placed more restrictions on the terrorist banks to stop participating in economic terrorism and to stop rewarding the leaders of these terrorist banks with hug bonuses.

And with all this gross misconduct Tim Geitner still holds a job. So my thoughts are this, was he given this job because of all the power and prestige? On the outside it looks like a promotion and a reward kind of a job.

Or is this a punishment job. You will not pass go you will not collect 200 dollars, you will not be fired, but you will continue to screw the American public and be the public face of government corruption?