Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy
Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy
Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy
Showing posts with label news / politics. Show all posts
Showing posts with label news / politics. Show all posts
Earlier this week, A.C. Thompson of The Nation revealed that after Hurricane Katrina, white vigilante groups patrolled New Orleans, blockaded streets, and shot at least eleven black men. It “was like pheasant season in South Dakota. If it moved, you shot it,” said one vigilante. Color of Change is organizing a campaign to tell Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal (R) and state officials to investigate the shootings, as “Louisiana’s broken law enforcement agencies have refused to investigate these crimes.” Watch Thompson’s video on his report:
By Shamus Cooke, Information Clearing House
Unless things change fast, human history will show that the phenomenon of "retirement" was limited to one generation. After World War II, when European and Japanese economies stood in tatters, American capitalism could fulfill "the American dream," since there was little foreign competition to speak of. For the first time ever, workers were promised that -- after working thirty or so years -- they would be able to securely retire. That was largely the case ... for one generation.
The second generation is having a devastating reality check. 2008 was supposed to be a watershed year for retirement: it was the first year that the baby-boomers turned 62, and the retirement frenzy was to begin (since people could begin to draw on their social security benefits). Early in the year, however, a study was conducted that found one-fourth of these boomers were delaying retirement (only the baby-boomers who were actually able to plan for retirement were studied). The economy has since nosedived, and many more retirements are being delayed. The unfortunate reality is that many who planned on retiring will work until the grave, joining the millions of other baby-boomers who never had such dreams.
The experts are calling this the "perfect storm" for retirement. Everything that could go wrong is in fact going wrong. This storm, however, was not created by supernatural forces, but the coordinated effort of big-business and their puppet politicians.
The deliberate destruction of the pension and its replacement by the 401(k) was, of course, a giant step towards attacking retirement; but now that the economic crisis has emerged, we're beginning to see just how ruinous the effects are.
At the end of September, just as the crisis was beginning to gain steam, it was discovered that in the previous year the value of stocks in 401(k) accounts had fallen by nearly $2 trillion! Much more has been lost since then. This is especially devastating since almost one-third of 401(k) participants in their 60s had 80 percent of their money in stocks (pension funds have been similarly destroyed).CLICK TO CONTINUE
Al Jazeera reports:
Evo Morales, the Bolivian president, has said that all
Latin American nations should expel US ambassadors in their country's until the American economic embargo against Cuba is ended.
Speaking on Wednesday at the end of a two-day summit of Latin American leaders in Brazil, Morales said it would be a "radical move" to express "solidarity" with the Caribbean nation."If the United States does not raise the blockade, we will remove our ambassadors until the United States government lifts its economic blockade on the Cuban people," he said.
Morales expelled the US ambassador to Bolivia in September, accusing him of siding with violent opposition protests. Both Morales and Hugo Chavez, the Venezuelan leader, have expressed hope that Barack Obama, the US president-elect, will remove the embargo on Cuba.
On Tuesday, leaders attending the Mercosur summit in the resort town of Costa Do Sauipe also issued a special statement demanding an end to the US sanctions which have been imposed on Cuba since 1962. The regional meeting, aimed at solidifying South American unity, includes senior officials from 33 countries including Raul Castro, the Cuban president, on his first foreign tour abroad.
'Political violation'
Raul Castro said he was in 'no hurry' to mend US diplomatic relations. Speaking on Tuesday, Raul Castro, the Cuban president, said that leaders at the Mercosur summit had supported a request to demand the US "cease this illegal and unjust political violation of the human rights of our people". Castro said in his speech to the other leaders that regional integration was needed in Latin America to help it advance against what he said was the failure of US-backed policies. Castro, 77, took over as Cuban leader from his brother, Fidel, in February.
The summit is the largest in the Western hemisphere to exclude US representation and has been hailed as a sign that Latin America is demanding a new independence from Washington.
"The presence of Cuba is a very strong signal that America is no longer the boss in Latin America," Hugo Chavez, the Venezuelan president, said as he arrived.
'Concessions' demanded
On Monday, Castro told Al Jazeera that the US must make concessions first if the two countries are ever to restore diplomatic ties severed for more than 40 years.
Reports say Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, the Brazilian president, could mediate between Washington and Havana.
Castro, said the "era of unilateral concessions was over", and insisted that Cuba had only ever defended itself against the US. "We have never hurt the United States, we have only defended ourselves. We are the ones who have been hurt so we are not the ones who have to make a gesture. Let them do it," he said on Monday.
The Cuban leader said he was in "no hurry" to mend diplomatic relations with the US, which were severed in 1961, following the overthrow of the US-backed government by Fidel's revolutionary movement. "More than 70 per cent of Cubans were born under the blockade which has been in place for almost 50 years," Castro said. "I'm 77-years old but I feel good and young. In other words, if this doesn't get resolved now, we'll wait another 50 years."
By Matthew Yglesias, The American Prospect.
It's tiresome to need to point this out at this late date but, yes, George W. Bush and his administration misled the country while making the case for war with Iraq and, remarkably, are still trying to mislead people about it. In a Dec. 1 interview with ABC News' Charlie Gibson, Bush said that "the biggest regret" of his presidency was "the intelligence failure in Iraq."
In other words, his biggest regret wasn't regret over anything he did but rather regret over something that was done to him, a vague "intelligence failure" rather than a misguided decision to invade another country. Bush explained that "a lot of people put their reputations on the line and said the weapons of mass destruction is a reason to remove Saddam Hussein. It wasn't just people in my administration; a lot of members in Congress, prior to my arrival in Washington, D.C., during the debate on Iraq, a lot of leaders of nations around the world were all looking at the same intelligence."
This is, even by Bush standards, a pretty breathtaking revision of history. In fact, very few members of Congress looked at the intelligence -- Thomas Ricks reports in his book Fiasco that just five read the classified version of the National Intelligence Estimate on Iraqi weapons of mass destruction capabilities. But had more members taken the time, they would have found what Spencer Ackerman and John Judis reported back in June of 2003 -- that the Bush administration removed a number of caveats and contrary pieces of evidence from the classified version of the estimate when producing a shorter, unclassified version for public consumption. More curious investigators might have been further interested in the fact, reported in the same piece, that even the more accurate classified version represented a dramatic change in the intelligence community's assessment of the Iraq situation. As Judis and Ackerman observe, when George Tenet offered his January 2002 review of nuclear proliferation issues "he did not even mention a nuclear threat from Iraq." CLICK TO CONTINUE
By Jeremy Brecher, Tim Costello and Brendan Smith, truthout.org
As Americans respond to President-elect Obama's call for town hall meetings on reform of the American health care system, an understanding of how that system came to be the way it is can be crucial for figuring out how to fix it. The American health care system is unique because, for most of us, it is tied to our jobs rather than to our government. For many Americans, the system seems natural, but few know that it originated not as a well-thought-out plan to provide for Americans' health, but as a way to circumvent a quirk in wartime wage regulations that had nothing to do with health.
As far back as the 1920's, a few big employers had offered health insurance plans to some of their workers. But only a few: By 1935, only about two million people were covered by private health insurance, and on the eve of World War II, there were only 48 job-based health plans in the entire country.
The rise of unions in the 1930's and 1940's led to the first great expansion of health care for Americans. But ironically, it did not produce a national plan providing health care to all, like those in virtually all other developed countries. Instead, the special conditions of World War II produced the system of job-based health benefits we know today.
In 1942, the US set up a National War Labor Board. It had the power to set a cap on all wage increases. But it let employers circumvent the cap by offering "fringe benefits" - notably, health insurance. The fringe benefits created a huge tax subsidy; they were treated as tax-deductible expenses for corporations, but not as taxable income for workers.
Friends,
They could have given the loan on the condition that the automakers start building only cars and mass transit that reduce our dependency on oil.
They could have given the loan on the condition that the automakers build cars that reduce global warming.
They could have given the loan on the condition that the automakers withdraw their many lawsuits against state governments in their attempts to not comply with our environmental laws.
They could have given the loan on the condition that the management team which drove these once-great manufacturers into the ground resign and be replaced with a team who understands the transportation needs of the 21st century.
Yes, they could have given the loan for any of these reasons because, in the end, to lose our manufacturing infrastructure and throw 3 million people out of work would be a catastrophe.
But instead, the Senate said, we'll give you the loan only if the factory workers take a $20 an hour cut in wages, pension and health care. That's right. After giving billions to Wall Street hucksters and criminal investment bankers -- billions with no strings attached and, as we have since learned, no oversight whatsoever -- the Senate decided it is more important to break a union, more important to throw middle class wage earners into the ranks of the working poor than to prevent the total collapse of industrial America.
We have a little more than a month to go of this madness. As I sit here in Michigan today, tens of thousands of hard working, honest, decent Americans do not believe they can make it to January 20th. The malaise here is astounding. Why must they suffer because of the mistakes of every CEO from Roger Smith to Rick Wagoner? Make management and the boards of directors and the shareholders pay for this.
Of course that is heresy to the 31 Republicans who decided to blame the poor, miserable autoworkers for this mess. And our wonderful media complied with their spin on the morning news shows: "UAW Refuses to Give Concessions Killing Auto Bailout Bill." In fact the UAW has given concession after concession, reduced their benefits, agreed to get rid of the Jobs Bank and agreed to make it harder for their retirees to live from week to week. Yes! That's what we need to do! It's the Jobs Bank and the old people who have led the nation to economic ruin!
But even doing all that wasn't enough to satisfy the bastard Republicans. These Senate vampires wanted blood. Blue collar blood. You see, they weren't opposed to the bailout because they believed in the free market or capitalism. No, they were opposed to the bailout because they're opposed to workers making a decent wage. In their rage, they were driven to destroy the backbone of this country, not because the UAW hadn't given back enough, but because the UAW hadn't given up.
It appears that the sitting President has been looking for a way to end his reign by one magnanimous act, just like a warlord on his feast day. He will put his finger in the dyke, and the fragile mess of an auto industry will eke through the next few months.
That will give the Senate enough time to demand that the bankers and investment sharks who've already swiped nearly half of the $700 billion gift a chance to make the offer of cutting their pay.
Fat chance.
Yours,
Michael Moore
MMFlint@aol.com
http://www.michaelmoore.com/
by RANDI RHODES .therandirhodesshow.com
Ahead of the beginning of a new Presidency which seemed imminent way back in 2007, Republicans began preparations for the ultimate destruction of America. “If we can’t have it then the Democrats can’t either”. A scorched Earth policy was put into play.
Treating America as if it were about to be conquered by enemy invaders, Republicans destroyed the factories, plundered the Treasury and broke the backs of the people. It’s what conquered Armies do to prevent their enemies from having any resources once the invaders are at the gates ready to breach the checkpoints and occupy the city. Our new President will take over in a time of war. Economic WAR.
Southern Senators would rather let Foreigners take over our country rather than turn over anything useful to a Democratic President. The South is at War with the rest of the US. The South is the only region of the US where Republicans still retain power and they fully intend to wage their war from there with the aid of their Foreign Allies.
Ladies and Gentlemen, prepare to fight them HERE after all. Foreign companies and Southern Republican Senators are at war with the United States from within the United States. The South is Central Command for their side. Everywhere else is a battleground to be scorched and pillaged.
A slavish, unhinged contempt for organized labor, perhaps a mindset dating back to days when 'labor' was called 'slavery', and thus meant by Providence to be owned by Property Owners or CREAL” Americans, is worth fighting for. The bad old days of Southern Plantation Politics is back.
Southern Senators declared their loyalty to their foreign Armies last night. Pledged their Allegiance to their Axis and formed The Coalition of Willing foreign Bankers, Property Owners, and Manufacturing giants to attack the United States. Now comes recruitment. Disgruntled workers who are too hungry and broken to “work for America” will march in their Army against the American people.
It's ironic. Exactly 63 years after we beat back Fascism the Appeasers who have toiled on the “dark side” conspiring almost everyday to destroy the very means by which America won the greatest victory against the Axis, have begun the battle anew. This time we will have to fight it HERE.
Last night the South rose again with their Allied Foreign Forces and destroyed the last great thing of value we had: American Manufacturing! In one fell swoop, Richard Shelby, Bob Corker and a host of Southern Republican Senators have won World War II for Germany & Japan. And they are refighting the Civil War, too.
Obama had better be one part FDR, one part Lincoln.
by G.R. Burke
YouPorn, the pornographic equivalent of YouTube, is making it possible for virtually anyone to expose their ugly rippley stankin' fat asses to the whole of humanity. Not only is it filling our screens with the deviant sexual acts of you and your neighbor it is also bringing the rest of the adult entertainment industry too it's knees. What’s happening to the adult-entertainment industry is exactly what’s happening to its Hollywood counterpart—only worse.
Let's face it no matter how bad the economy gets we will still need to get jerky. YouPorn offers a plathura of free porn videos without the threat of viruses(or STD's). No longer do you have to shuffle through those pesky FTP sites that are one click away from fucking your computer up like a double penetrated, anal creampie.(You know what I'm talkin about spanky.)
Portfolio.com reports
Just nine months after going live, in September 2006, YouPorn was on pace to log about 15 million unique visitors in May and its audience was growing at a rate of 37.5 percent a month. Today, YouPorn is the No. 1 adult site in the world. According to Alexa, a website-ranking company, YouPorn’s overall rank is higher than CNN.com (84), About.com (114), and Weather.com (195). (Those numbers are averages for the three-month period from mid-June to mid-September.)
Way too go smut peddlers.
THE STATE OF ILLINOIS SUSPENDS ALL BUSINESS WITH THE BANK OF AMERICA IN PROTEST FOR REFUSING TO EXTEND CREDIT TO STRUGGLING BUSINESSES
Gov. Rod Blagojevich ordered all state agencies Monday to stop doing business with Bank of America to try to pressure the bank into helping laid-off workers staging a sit-in at their shuttered factory.
The move is leverage to try to convince the North Carolina-based bank to use some of its federal bailout money to resolve the protest by about 200 workers at Republic Windows and Doors.
The company closed last week with just a few days' notice and the workers have promised to remain inside the factory in shifts until they get assurances they will receive their severance and vacation pay. The workers have received support from President-elect Barack Obama and come to symbolize the plight of thousands of people laid off as the economy sours. READ MORE
I paraphrase loosely:
- "Why should we give GM $17 billion when the whole company is worth 3 billion"
- "We should just buy the big three and nationalize them."
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
