October 22, 2008 at 7:44 am (Uncategorized)
Tags: america, bankruptcy, capital, capitalsim, congress, democrat, economy, federal government, politics, republican, united states
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It has been long understood that our federal government is going deeper into debt, consistently raising the debt ceiling and demonstrating no fiscal restraint. In recent years, debt ceiling increases have been placed in “must pass” legislation as a means to guarantee that Republicans as well as Democrats would vote for them when Congress was under Republican control.
We also know our nation’s “negative savings rate” reflects the habits of private citizens, showing those habits to be not tremendously different than the habits of the public sector. Yet, the signs of decline are becoming ever more apparent. So apparent, in fact, that it seems unlikely that bailouts or other gimmicks will have even short-term success. More inflation, and creating moral hazard by bailing out egregious offenders, is a recipe for disaster. These activities can seem to provide some short-term relief, but it seems we are now at a significant crisis point, where monetary policy gimmicks don’t provide the band-aids they did in the past.
Not only is our nation on the verge of bankruptcy, but so are its people and private institutions. We are now repeatedly hearing about businesses “needing to access the credit market to make payroll.” This is an unmistakable sign of more dire consequences ahead for the economy. If businesses must borrow just to make payroll, this is evidence of a severe undercapitalization that cannot be sustained, even for the short run.
full article: www.insight-info.com
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June 30, 2008 at 4:43 am (Uncategorized)
Tags: attorney general, bill of rights, bush, bush regime, cheney, congress, constitution, denis kucinich, england, gonzales, habeas corpus, law, magna carta, michael mukasey, politics, presstv, republic, senate, superpower, us, white house
Press TV:We hear that Michael Mukasey is going to become the latest of the President’s Attorney-Generals to be subpoenaed, this time over his conversations with Bush and Cheney – does this show that Congress is serious about calling the executive to account?
Gore Vidal: No, Congress has never been more cowardly, nor more corrupt. All Bush has do is to make sure certain amounts of money go in the direction of certain important congressmen and that’s end of any serious investigation. After all, one of the bravest members of Congress is Denis Kucinich who brought the article of impeachment in to the well of the House of Representatives. The House of Representatives must then try the president, and then after that it goes to the Senate for judgment. However, none of these things will happen because there’s nobody there except for Mr. Kucinich who has the courage to take on a sitting president who is kind of a Mafioso.
Press TV: How can it just be one person among so many hundreds of Congressmen who wants the impeachment of George W. Bush in these circumstances?
Gore Vidal: Well it’s because we no longer have a country. We don’t have a republic any more. During the last 7 or 8 years of the Bush regime, they’ve got rid of the Bill of Rights, they’ve got rid of habeas corpus. They have got rid of one of the nicest gifts that England ever left us when they went away and we ceased to be colonies – the Magna Carta – from the 12th century. All of our law and due process of law is based on that. And the Bush people got rid of it. The president and little Mr. Gonzales who for a few minutes was his Attorney General. They managed to get rid of all of the constitutional links that made us literally a republic.
Press TV: You have often written about the US’s superpower status in terms of the history of previous superpowers. Do you think we’re witnessing the end of US power as some suggest. Will the White House be seen like Persepolis?
Full article: www.insight-info.com
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June 9, 2008 at 7:43 am (Uncategorized)
Tags: bush, cheney, children's defense fund, china, christianity, congress, gandi, gay rights, hurricane katrina, iraq, islam, john hagee, john maccain, martin luther king jr, pat buchanan, politics, republican, rod parsley, roe versus wade, russia, senate, torrture, waterboarding, women's rights
- John McCain voted against establishing a national holiday in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Now he says his position has “evolved,” yet he’s continued to oppose key civil rights laws.1
- According to Bloomberg News, McCain is more hawkish than Bush on Iraq, Russia and China. Conservative columnist Pat Buchanan says McCain “will make Cheney look like Gandhi.”2
- His reputation is built on his opposition to torture, but McCain voted against a bill to ban waterboarding, and then applauded President Bush for vetoing that ban.3
- McCain opposes a woman’s right to choose. He said, “I do not support Roe versus Wade. It should be overturned.”4
- The Children’s Defense Fund rated McCain as the worst senator in Congress for children. He voted against the children’s health care bill last year, then defended Bush’s veto of the bill.5
- He’s one of the richest people in a Senate filled with millionaires. The Associated Press reports he and his wife own at least eight homes! Yet McCain says the solution to the housing crisis is for people facing foreclosure to get a “second job” and skip their vacations.6
- Many of McCain’s fellow Republican senators say he’s too reckless to be commander in chief. One Republican senator said: “The thought of his being president sends a cold chill down my spine. He’s erratic. He’s hotheaded. He loses his temper and he worries me.”7
- McCain talks a lot about taking on special interests, but his campaign manager and top advisers are actually lobbyists. The government watchdog group Public Citizen says McCain has 59 lobbyists raising money for his campaign, more than any of the other presidential candidates.8
- McCain has sought closer ties to the extreme religious right in recent years. The pastor McCain calls his “spiritual guide,” Rod Parsley, believes America’s founding mission is to destroy Islam, which he calls a “false religion.” McCain sought the political support of right-wing preacher John Hagee, who believes Hurricane Katrina was God’s punishment for gay rights and called the Catholic Church “the Antichrist” and a “false cult.”9
- He positions himself as pro-environment, but he scored a 0—yes, zero—from the League of Conservation Voters last year.10
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May 24, 2008 at 3:09 am (Uncategorized)
Tags: afghanistan, albert einstien, america, american, ann coulter, arab, asian, asian studies, attorney general, bigortry, billy graham evangelistic association, cal thomas radio, christ, christianity, congress, convert, dearborn, ethnic, evangelical, evil, faith, franklin graham, george bush, georgia, god, homeland security, influence, ingnorance, invasion, iranian, islam, israel, john ashcroft, king, law officer, malice, mark twain, michigan, military, murder, muslim, national review online, nobel peace prize, pakistanian, power, prejudice, religion, saxby chambliss, senate, state line, terrorism, us, violent, wicked
I have faith in the American people – I know they can come out of this ignorance and know Islam for what it really is.
* “We should invade [Muslim] countries, kill their leaders and convert them to Christianity.”
Columnist Ann Coulter,
National Review Online, Sept. 13, 2001
* “Just turn [the sheriff] loose and have him arrest every Muslim that crosses the state line.”
Rep. C. Saxby Chambliss (R-GA),
chairman of the House Subcommittee on Terrorism and Homeland security and Senate candidate, to Georgia law officers, November 2001
* “Islam is a religion in which God requires you to send your son to die for him. Christianity is a faith where God sent his Son to die for you.”
Attorney General John Ashcroft,
interview on Cal Thomas radio, November 2001
* “(Islam) is a very evil and wicked religion wicked, violent and not of the same god (as Christianity).”
Rev. Franklin Graham, head of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, November 2001.
* “Islam is Evil,Christ is King.”
Allegedly written in marker by law enforcement agents on a Muslim prayer calendar in the home of a Muslim being investigated by police in Dearborn, Michigan, July 2002.
___________________
People with power and influence in the U.S. have been saying some very stupid things about Islam and about Muslims since September 11.
Some of it is rooted in conscious malice, and ethnic prejudice that spills over into religious bigotry. But some is rooted in sheer historical and geographical ignorance. This is a country, after all, in which only a small minority of high school students can readily locate Afghanistan on the map, or are aware that Iranians and Pakistanis are not Arabs. As an educator, in Asian Studies, at a fairly elite university, I am painfully aware of this ignorance. But I realize it serves a purpose. It is highly useful to a power
structure that banks on knee-jerk popular support whenever it embarks on a new military venture, at some far-off venue, on false pretexts immediately discernable to the better educated, but lost on the
general public.
The generally malleable mainstream press takes care of the rest.
When offered the honor of becoming President of Israel, Albert Einstien replied, “No thanks, I’d rather win the Nobel Peace prize, I have no interest in Israel.”
“Suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of Congress. But I repeat myself.”
— Mark Twain
“Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we. They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we.”
–George W. Bush
source
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May 20, 2008 at 6:20 am (Uncategorized)
Tags: apartheid, assassinations, black, bomb, bush, congress, constitution, cynthia mckinney, democrat, economy, ethnic cleansing, human rights, humanity, hurricane katrina, hurricane rita, independence, judicial killings, katrina, latino, mckinney, medicare, middle east, military commissions act, native american, palestine, palestinian, patriot act, peace, pentagon, politics, republican, rita, secret evidence act, tax cuts, torture, veteran, war crimes, zionism
On my birthday last year, I declared my independence from a national leadership that, through its votes in support of the war machine, is now complicit in war crimes, torture, crimes against humanity, and crimes against the peace.
I declared my independence from every bomb dropped, every veteran maimed, and every child killed.
I noted that the Democratic leadership in Congress had failed to restore this country to Constitutional rule by repealing the Patriot Acts, the Secret Evidence Act, and the Military Commissions Act.
That it had aided and abetted illegal spying against the American people. And that it took impeachment off the table.
In addition, the Democratic Congressional leadership failed to promote the economic integrity of this country by not repealing the Bush tax cuts. They failed to institute a livable wage, Medicare-for-
all health care, and gave even more money to the Pentagon as it misuses our hard-earned dollars.
We can add to that list, too, an abject failure to stand up for human rights and dignity.
If the Democratic and Republican leadership won’t respect the right of return for Hurricanes Katrina and Rita survivors, how can we expect them to champion the right of return for Palestinians?
If this country’s leadership tolerates the wanton murder of unarmed black and Latino men by law enforcement officials—extra-judicial killings—how can we expect them to stop or even speak out against targeted assassinations in the Middle East?
If the Democratic and Republican leadership accept ethnic cleansing in this country by way of gentrification and predatory lending, why should we expect them to put an end to it in Palestine?
If the leadership of this country impedes self-determination for native peoples in this country, why should we expect them to support indigenous rights for anyone abroad?
And sadly, the sensationalist corporate media would rather trick us into thinking that reporting on a pastor, a former Vice Presidential nominee, and a former cable TV magnate constitutes this country’s
much-needed discussion of its own apartheid past and present, so why should we expect an honest discussion of apartheid and Zionism?
By: Cynthia McKinney
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May 19, 2008 at 5:09 am (Uncategorized)
Tags: afghanistan, army, army jounalist, back-door draft, bush administration, congress, crime, europe, george bush, house of representatives, iraq, iraq invasion, japan, matthis chiroux, military, pilippines, politics, rotunda, soldier, stop-loss, united states, us soldier
I hope other soldiers can take him as an example.
A U.S. Army soldier who served as a military journalist in Afghanistan, Japan, Europe and the Philippines announced Thursday his intent to refuse orders to deploy to Iraq.
“As an Army journalist whose job it was to collect and filter service members’ stories, I heard many stomach-churning testimonies of the horrors of the crimes taking place in Iraq,” said Sergeant Matthis Chiroux, 24, in an announcement under the rotunda of the House of Representative’s Cannon Office Building.
“For fear of retaliation from the military, I failed to report these crimes, but never again will I allow fear to silence me. Never again will I fail to stand,” he said.
Chirioux said he’s aware he will likely face prosecution for refusing the deployment, but said, “I choose to remain in the United States to defend myself from charges brought by the Army if they are willing to pursue them. I refuse to participate in the occupation of Iraq.”
Chirioux is a victim of stop-loss, a controversial wartime power that the George W. Bush administration has used to keep soldiers from leaving the military when their term of service expires. Critics call the policy a “back-door draft”. More than 50,000 troops have been stop-lossed since the invasion of Iraq in 2003.
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abunakhli
zaynabnour
Huqul al-Nakhl 