Barack Obama or John McCain will be the next U.S. president – a decision affecting not only Americans, but the whole world, not least U.S. – Russia relations. RT met up with a American radio-host Thom Hartmann who has some controversial views on what lies ahead.
Vodpod videos no longer available.
see
Greg Palast on Vote Rigging and Suppression + Is 2008 already fixed?
Warning
This video may contain images depicting the reality and horror of war/violence and should only be viewed by a mature audience.
Talk and slideshow by Thorne Anderson and Kael Alford, co-authors of “Unembedded: Four Independent Photojournalists on the War in Iraq” given October 12, 2008 in Seattle.
Democracy Now!
Oct 13, 2008
Max Blumenthal on Sarah Palin’s Radical Right-Wing Pals and Her Ties to the Pro-Secessionist Alaskan Independence Party
As the McCain campaign continues to focus on Senator Obama’s alleged ties to former Weather Underground member William Ayers, a new investigation in Salon.com sheds light on how Governor Palin’s ties to the radical right are far deeper than previously thought. Journalists Max Blumenthal and David Neiwert detail how Palin was elected Mayor of Wasilla over a decade ago with the help of activists from the Alaska Independence Party and the John Birch Society. They allege that she tried to return the favor later by attempting to appoint one of them to an empty city council seat. [includes rush transcript]
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Former McCain Supporter Accuses the Senator of “Deliberately Feeding the Most Unhinged Elements of Our Society the Red Meat of Hate”
Frank Schaeffer is the bestselling author of Crazy for God: How I Grew Up as One of the Elect, Helped Found the Religious Right, and Lived to Take All (or Almost All) of It Back. He is the son of the late evangelist Francis Schaeffer and considered himself a lifelong Republican. He voted for John McCain in 2000, and McCain even endorsed one of Schaeffer’s earlier books on military service. But on Friday, Schaeffer published an open letter to McCain excoriating the Arizona senator. [includes rush transcript]
[…]
FRANK SCHAEFFER: Right, right. And you know what? It’s an imperfect world, but I would rather have a president that I disagree with on the issue of choice who’s fit to be president than an old man who has just shown such a lack of judgment as to literally connect himself to the lunatic fringe of the lunatic fringe. It isn’t just someone you disagree with politically. That’s one point.
And I’d say something else about the choice issue. I am pro-life. I haven’t changed in that regard. If people read my book, Crazy for God, they’ll see that I’ve gone left, if you want to put it that way, in many, many areas, but not that one. But I actually believe that if your interest is not ideology and ideological purity, but rather abortion itself, i.e. you want more or less abortions, that the medical and social programs that Barack Obama is talking about for our country, in terms of care of women and children and families, improvement in education and possibilities for all Americans, actually will result in less abortions. So my interest in the abortion issue is that I think abortion is a tragedy. My interest is not the politics of it, as in always appearing to vote for the person who has the correct ideology.
And so, I think there’s a choice for Americans interested in this issue who are like me, pro-life, and that is, do you want to choose ideological purity attached to a party that will so destroy our economy and all the social programs that there will be more abortions, i.e. as there have been through the Republican-controlled years, when they’ve been talking about this issue for thirty years and done nothing about it for actually helping women and children, or would you rather have a president like Barack Obama, who you disagree with on this one ideological point, in terms of what you might call the theology of the issue, but whose program would practically result in a more conducive environment for families to prosper, for people to have children, for kids to go to school, for women to be taken care of? And I would rather vote for a person who’s going to do the job rather than just have the correct ideology.
[…]
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Robert Parry: Why Are McCain Backers So Angry?
“From Republicans at political rallies to GOP lawmakers on TV talk shows, McCain-Palin supporters are angry, very angry—and they seem to think their anger justifies whatever they do: from calling Barack Obama a ‘terrorist’ to shouting ‘kill him’ and ‘off with his head’—to getting huffy when their violent rhetoric is challenged,” writes investigative reporter Robert Parry, editor of ConsortiumNews.com. [includes rush transcript]
via Democracy Now! | Robert Parry: Why Are McCain Backers So Angry?
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Palin tied to radical right-wing groups that HATE AMERICA
see
TrooperGate Official Report Finds Gov Palin Broke Alaska Law
Rachel Maddow: Palin’s Secessionist Connection + Palin’s radical right-wing mentors
Sarah Palin on SNL? Just say NO!
McCain Campaign Masters the Art of Dog Whistling Their Fear Mongering to the Religious Right
Bill Moyers Journal: George Soros + Going Negative + Iraq War Vote
Press TV
Thu, 09 Oct 2008 01:55:20 GMT
Iraqi MPs say the US is using the country’s debts as leverage to force Baghdad into signing the Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA).
“Baghdad is under pressure by Washington to accept the security deal in exchange for clearing all of Iraq’s debts,” Iraqi lawmaker Mohammed Kamid al-Humedawi told Press TV on Wednesday.
The US will be allowed to set up permanent military bases, if Iraq signs the agreement. Under the deal the US forces will also be granted immunity from legal prosecution inside their bases in Iraq.
[…]
h/t: CLG
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Bolivia Matters
Oct 11, 2008
As a photo and investigative journalist for more than two decades, I often come across revealing government documents and information through Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) and Mandatory Declassification Review (MDR) requests. These requests declassify and allow me access to documents from various entities of the US government.
I made my first request of US government documents about Bolivia in 1997 and since then have made subsequent requests for information, ranging from American embassy communiques in La Paz to USAID grant requests. The information below reveals a clear policy of US intervention and meddling in Bolivia´s internal affairs. Almost all the time, this has been done without the knowledge and at the expense of the American taxpayer.
1. The first document, from 2001 is written before a visit by then President Quiroga, to the US, in which the US Embassy states that they didn’t believe he had acted strongly enough against the MAS party, led by Evo Morales. In talking points prepared by the US embassy in La Paz to be used by US Secretary Beers during his meeting with the President, the US government suggests he say, “We were quite concerned by the agreement in November to halt eradication…. We believe that a continued strong response could have weakened the political base of Evo Morales even further.” View the full document here.
[…]
via New Discoveries Reveal US Intervention in Bolivia « Bolivia Matters
h/t: Foreign Policy News
FAIR USE NOTICE: This blog may contain copyrighted material. Such material is made available for educational purposes, to advance understanding of human rights, democracy, scientific, moral, ethical, and social justice issues, etc. This constitutes a ‘fair use’ of any such copyrighted material as provided for in Title 17 U.S.C. section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond ‘fair use’, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.
Pepe Escobar: World markets – and top economists – dismiss the Wall Street bailout
by Michael Hudson
Global Research, October 13, 2008
And what about the Fed’s Even Larger Giveaway?
We are now entering the financial End Time.
Bailout “Plan A” (buy the junk mortgages) has failed, “Plan B” (buy ersatz stocks in the banks to recapitalize them without wiping out current mismanagers) is fizzling, and the debts still can’t be paid.
That is the reality Wall Street avoids confronting.
“First they ignore you, then they denounce you, and then they say that they knew what you were saying all the time,” said Gandhi.
The same might be said of today’s overhang of debts in excess of the economy’s ability to pay. First the policy makers pretend that they can be paid, then they denounce the pessimists as spreading panic, and then they say that of course students have been taught for four thousand years now how the “magic of compound interest” keeps on doubling and redoubling debts faster than the economy can squeeze out an economic surplus to pay.
What has ended is the idea that “the magic of compound interest” can make economies rich without having to work and without industry. I hope we have seen the end of derivatives formulae seeking to make money by playing in a zero-sum game. A debt overhang always ends either in foreclosure of the debtor’s property, or in a debt annulment to preserve the economy’s overall freedom and equity.
This means that the postmodern economy as we know it must end – either in financial polarization and debt peonage to a new oligarchic elite, or in a debt cancellation, a Jubilee Year to rescue society.
But when the government says that it is reviewing “all” the options, this reality is not one of them. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson’s first option was to buy packages of junk mortgages (collateralized debt obligations, CDOs) to save the wealthiest institutional investors from having to take a loss on their bad bets. When this was not enough, he came up with “Plan B,” to give money to banks.
But whereas Britain and European countries talked of nationalizing banks or at least taking a controlling interest, Mr. Paulson gave in to his Wall Street cronies and promised that the government’s stock purchases would not be real. There would be no dilution of existing shareholders, and the government’s investment would be non-voting. To cap the giveaway to his cronies, Mr. Paulson even agreed not to ask executives to give up their golden parachutes, exorbitant annual bonuses or salaries.
Sent to me by the author, Kellie Hahn.
by Kellie Hahn
I read an article today about how the McCain campaign teaches their,
“volunteers to see Barack Obama as similar to Osama Bin Laden–and by training his volunteers to convince voters of the same–McCain is using his presidential campaign to tie Sen. Obama to the mass murders of September 11, 2001. When supporters of a Presidential candidate view the opposing candidate as merely an election threat, they call for his defeat. But when they view the opposing candidate as a national security threat–as they are being taught by the McCain campaign–they call for that threat to be eradicated.”
By Barry Grey
http://www.wsws.org
13 October 2008
WSWS National Editor Barry Grey delivered the following report to the Founding Congress of the Socialist Equality Party on August 9, 2008. (See “Socialist Equality Party holds founding Congress”) We are posting the first part of the report today and the second part will be posted on October 14.
The WSWS had published two documents adopted by the Congress: “The Socialist Equality Party Statement of Principles” and the “Historical and International Foundations of the Socialist Equality Party.”
To find out more about how to join the SEP, contact us here.
This congress represents an historic advance for the world Trotskyist movement. It expresses at the most fundamental level the development of the political consciousness of the working class itself. The Socialist Equality Party is being founded on the firmest and most principled theoretical and political foundations. The documents adopted by the congress—“The Historical and International Foundations of the Socialist Equality Party” and the SEP “Statement of Principles,” establish the continuity of the SEP and the International Committee of the Fourth International with the entire historical struggle for Marxism. These statements sum up all of the basic political and theoretical lessons extracted from the strategic experiences of the international working class and the socialist movement over more than a century.
Such a milestone in the development of the revolutionary socialist movement must have deep objective roots in the crisis of American and world capitalism.
[…]
via The revolutionary implications of the decline of American capitalism–Part 1
FAIR USE NOTICE: This blog may contain copyrighted material. Such material is made available for educational purposes, to advance understanding of human rights, democracy, scientific, moral, ethical, and social justice issues, etc. This constitutes a ‘fair use’ of any such copyrighted material as provided for in Title 17 U.S.C. section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond ‘fair use’, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.
see
Anatomy of the American Financial Crisis: How It is Turning into a Worldwide Crisis
The Birth of the Global Dictatorship
The Capitalist Shakedown By William Bowles
by Prof. Rodrigue Tremblay
Global Research, October 12, 2008
“The basis for optimism is sheer terror.” — Oscar Wilde [After the March 2008 Bear Stears bailout]
“As more firms lost access to funding, the vicious circle of forced selling, increased volatility, and higher haircuts and margin calls that was already well advanced at the time would likely have intensified. The broader economy could hardly have remained immune from such severe financial disruptions.” — Ben Bernanke, Fed Chairman (March 2008)
“In accounting 101 we learn that high yields equal high risk. We know the CEOs had an incentive to disregard this because they were getting huge bonuses.” — David Hartzell, dean of the University of Delaware’s business college and a former vice-president of Salomon Brothers
“Intensifying solvency concerns about a number of the largest U.S.-based and European financial institutions have pushed the global financial system to the brink of systemic meltdown.” — Dominique Strauss-Kahn, Head of the IMF (October 11, 2008)
The Bush administration’s way of dealing with the ongoing financial crisis has been frantic, but probably less than adequate. In fact, tragic errors may have been made that must be remedied as quickly as possible.
The most damaging error may have been to let the global investment bank Lehman Brothers fail ($691 billion of assets at the end of 2007), on Monday September 15. This fateful date may have to be remembered in the future. This was the largest failure of an investment bank since the collapse of Drexel Burnham Lambert in 1990. In contrast, the Fed and the U.S. Treasury moved quickly in mid-March (2008) to save a similar global investment bank in distress (but half the size of Lehman), Bear Stearns, by quickly lending and guaranteeing $29 billion to the large universal J. P. Morgan Chase bank in order to absorb it. —(N.B.: Let us keep in mind that it was the collapse in June 2007 of two internal Bear Stearns hedge funds that had been heavily invested in mortgage securities that kicked off the full-fledged market panic that unfolded in August 2007, and which today has turned into a full-fledged international financial crisis).
Why was the same treatment not offered to Lehman? Possibly because of a personal lack of empathy between Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr. (a former chief executive of rival investment bank Goldman Sacks) and Lehman’s CEO Mr. Richard S. Fuld Jr., or possibly because the Bush administration wanted to make an example that all investment banks, no matter how large, could not count on being rescued by the government. The Bush administration did not even bother to appoint a trustee to supervise Lehman’s liquidation in order to make it orderly.
Such a liquidation of a large international bank, known for its worldwide interconnections and unsound banking practices, was nearly a repeat of the mistake made in letting the large Vienna-based Creditanstalt bank fail, on May 13, 1931. This was a bank that had borrowed large amount of money in London and in New York to finance its activities. Its failure created a domino effect among other international banks that had lent to each other in the international credit chain. So much so that the failure of the Creditanstalt forced them to severely tighten their lending to absorb their sudden losses.
Haiti is one of the poorest countries in the western hemisphere and the poverty has fuelled restavek, a system of domestic servitude of hundreds of thousands of children that is tantamount to modern-day slavery.
The country’s government acknowledges that child slaves exist but says it is part of the culture.
Al Jazeera’s Teresa Bo reports.
by James Corbett
The Corbett Report
12 October, 2008
Media propaganda at fever pitch as banker takeover proceeds
An emergency meeting taking place in Washington this weekend is bringing together finance ministers and central bankers from the Group of Seven nations as well as their G20 counterparts. According to U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, the meeting is intended to discuss “ways to further enhance our collective efforts” to confront the crisis that has frozen credit markets around the globe.
Now the World Bank President is musing about a new global economic authority, the IMF chief is cheerleading “the first co-ordination between advanced countries and the rest of the world” (something the WTO hasn’t been able to accomplish), and the CFR is relishing the chance to implement a global monetary authority just like they’ve been writing about for years.
[…]
via The Birth of the Global Dictatorship | The Corbett Report
FAIR USE NOTICE: This blog may contain copyrighted material. Such material is made available for educational purposes, to advance understanding of human rights, democracy, scientific, moral, ethical, and social justice issues, etc. This constitutes a ‘fair use’ of any such copyrighted material as provided for in Title 17 U.S.C. section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond ‘fair use’, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.
see
The Capitalist Shakedown By William Bowles
The panic of 2008 by Lee Sustar
Berlusconi Says Leaders May Close World’s Markets
Anti-democratic nature of US capitalism is being exposed by Noam Chomsky
Money As Debt (video) + “In Debt We Have Trusted,” For over 300 years By Jim Kirwan
The Money Masters – How International Bankers Gained Control of America (video)
By William Bowles
featured writer
Dandelion Salad
williambowles.info
13 October, 2008
“It is only in these dire circumstances that the United States, where private property is more sacrosanct probably than anywhere else in the world, is talking about some kind of nationalization of banks, if only limited. In financial circles they are now calling this ‘regime change,’ borrowing the term of course from a different context. But it is clear what it means: the end of neoliberalism, and the rise of aggressive government interventions into the economy. It represents a clear recognition that this is not a liquidity crisis that can be solved by pouring more money into financial markets or by lowering interest rates.” — Interview with John Bellamy Foster, “Can the Financial Crisis Be Reversed?”
On 4 October, I wrote:
So where’s it all headed? The most likely outcome at least in the short term, would seem to be some kind of state capitalism given that the capitalists have proved themselves even more incompetent than was thought possible.
And this scenario is already being played out across the EU and of course in the US to a lesser extent. And in fact, it can be argued that everything that led up to the current situation makes the situation ideal for the creation of a Mussolini-style corporate, security state, a direct partnership between capital and the state. Fascism doesn’t have to wear jackboots, Armani suits will do just as well (especially as we’re paying for them).
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve started this essay on the Capitalist Shakedown that’s going on around us, totally disconnected from us even, due to some pretty nifty media work and, I might add, thirty years of revanchism on the part of our political masters to disconnect us all from the political process.
But millions of us are affected by this crisis but without any kind of input into how it should be solved, and most especially from our trade unions, what’s left of them anyway, who have failed to voice any kind of alternative to this insanity. We have no voice with which to speak, so we are once more being dragged into a crisis not of our making. But a crisis that is endemic to the system and one the rest of us will pay for, unless that is, we take steps to halt it.
replaced video May 21, 2013 with a similar lecture
buddhagem Apr 26, 2009 Continue reading
by Lee Sustar
SocialistWorker.org
October 11, 2008
Lee Sustar explains that the mayhem in the markets this week is symptomatic of a deeper crisis–and the leaders of the most powerful governments aren’t sure what to do.
IT WAS the worst week ever for Wall Street and the world financial system–a global stock market meltdown that wiped out more than $6 trillion of wealth and had even cautious media commentators musing about the failure of capitalism and the possibility of another Great Depression.
Even Congress’ passage of the $700 billion bailout to the banks, sold as a surefire solution to the crisis, was spectacularly unsuccessful in restoring market confidence. Nor could the coordinated efforts by central banks in the industrialized nations to lower interest rates and make hundreds of billions of dollars available in new loans budge the frozen credit markets–lending between banks and to businesses remained at a standstill.
For working people, the threat lies not only in the wipeout of retirement funds, now that traditional pensions have been replaced by 401(k) plans and other programs tied to the stock market.
The worse nightmare is what happens if the banks continue to clamp down on lending, even to other banks, because of the entirely justified fear that the next borrower could go bankrupt. If loans to businesses remain on ice, then there may not be money to pay suppliers, or meet next week’s payroll–and the crisis will take a further lurch downward with mass layoffs and closures.
– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
BY THE week’s end, the assumptions of free-market, neoliberal ideology–the foundation of U.S. politics for last three decades–had been totally discredited.
Gone were the clichés about how “the free market knows best,” and that “government regulation stifles capitalist dynamism and growth.” Instead, the same people who whined a month ago about the nationalization of mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and insurance company AIG as creeping “socialism” now advocate the most sweeping government intervention in the economy since the Great Depression–and fast.
“The government needs to inject capital directly into banks,” wrote Wall Street Journal columnist David Reilly. “The government also needs to force banks to recognize losses they have so far ignored, require banks to provide fuller disclosure of holdings, push banks to lend to one another again, euthanize weaker banks while helping strong banks get stronger, guarantee deposits and backstop a portion of bank credit.
“Above all, the government needs to tell banks that they have to take part in a systemic solution. The time for negotiation by banks is over.”
Dandelion Salad 