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Source: The Nation Author: William Greider Posted on 11.21.08 by Steve Trinward “Henry Paulson’s $700 billion plan to save the world is dead or dying, but the bailout was not killed by his arrogance or his grossly misleading claims about what the public’s money would buy. The plan collapsed because it didn’t work. The Treasury secretary has launched a PR offensive to revive his falling influence. Too late. The Democrats should be equally embarrassed. In September their leaders in Congress rushed to embrace the Paulson solution, no hard questions asked. They now claim they were duped.” [editor’s noteL There are times when (unlike many “progressive” pundits) Mr. Greider points his finger at ALL of the culprits in this chaos, instead of just targeting “those damned GOP neocons” … this is one of them! (We look forward to his first critical Obama column) - SAT] (11/19/08) Link: http://www.thenation.com/doc/20081208/greider Filed under: PND Commentary and RRND Commentary | |
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Source: Boston Globe Author: staff Posted on 11.21.08 by Steve Trinward “Speculation that President-elect Barack Obama may appoint Senator Hillary Clinton as secretary of state has induced reams of commentary on their personal compatibility, Bill Clinton’s income sources, and historical precedents for a Cabinet of rivals. … This ought to be a moment for a serious public conversation about the qualities needed at this precarious juncture. The nation’s top diplomat must be someone who has — and is known to have — the complete confidence of the president. Whatever mistakes she may have made, when Condoleezza Rice spoke to a foreign head of state her interlocutors understood that she spoke for the president. The same was true of James Baker when he served as secretary of state for the first President Bush.” (11/20/08) Link: http://tinyurl.com/6otfp8 Filed under: CANDi Commentary and PND Commentary and RRND Commentary | |
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Source: Tennessean Author: Joe Scarlett Posted on 11.21.08 by Steve Trinward “In the old days bank robbers went to jail. Today, the bankers and the robbers are one and the same, and they are being rewarded for incompetence with huge bags of extra money, courtesy of us taxpayers. We have centuries of history that prove that markets don’t go up forever. Bankers, more than almost any other group, should know this and if they do not, they should not be bankers. When bankers give mortgages to those who obviously can’t repay, there is a serious shortage of basic common sense (or maybe just plain stupidity) as well as a lack of financial responsibility to stockholders and customers. When you look at today’s banking and real estate crisis, it is clear to even the least sophisticated among us that common sense has been lacking and basic ethics are out the window.” (11/20/08) Link: http://tennessean.com/article/20081120/BUSINESS01/81120031 Filed under: CANDi Commentary and PND Commentary and RRND Commentary | |
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Source: The American Prospect Author: Tim Fernholz Posted on 11.21.08 by Steve Trinward “When it comes to the transition, the most important cliche is this: If you know, you don’t say, and if you say, you don’t know. The work going on among the Agency Review teams and the personnel office remains hidden, leaving reporters to fixate on high-level appointments. And there haven’t been many. Sure, Rahm Emanuel publicly agonized over his appointment for a few days, and there have been constant (and conflicting) reports about Hillary Clinton’s potential role as secretary of state. But standards have dropped: In the past, good insider information told who was stabbing whom in the back to become Treasury secretary. Now the press just wants to know who got the job.” [editor’s note: “Drama-free Obama?” Hardly, with the prospect of the likes of Clinton, Napolitano, Emanuel, et alia in the wings - SAT] (11/20/08) Link: http://www.prospect.org/cs/articles?article=a_drama_free_transition Filed under: PND Commentary and RRND Commentary | |
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Source: Christian Science Monitor Author: David D. Sussman Posted on 11.21.08 by Steve Trinward “As the dust settles after the US presidential vote, there is another important election that the world should watch. Venezuelan citizens head to the polls Nov. 23. At stake is the selection of governors for each of the country’s 22 states, as well as mayors for 338 of the largest cities. President Hugo Chavez already controls the legislature, has stacked the Supreme Court in his favor, and now hopes to consolidate his power at the regional and local levels.” (11/21/08) Link: http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/1121/p09s01-coop.html Filed under: CANDi Commentary and PND Commentary and RRND Commentary | |
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Source: In These Times Author: Joel Bleifuss Posted on 11.21.08 by Steve Trinward “Next year, President Barack Obama and the solidly Democratic Congress can pass legislation that provides universal healthcare, establishes a sustainable energy program, reforms labor laws and restores environmental safeguards. In addition, the current economic crisis gives progressives an opportunity to pursue institutional reforms that have previously been off the table. We have nationalized elements of our financial system, but its institutions remain unresponsive to the needs of the American people. How can we hold the banks that we now own accountable? What adjustments can we make in our economic model so that the tremendous productivity of American workers will translate into higher wages and better lives? We can also put on the agenda issues that were ignored during the presidential campaign.” [editor’s note: One has to wonder how much Mr. Bleifuss expects to accomplish, with a “progressive” administration already having Rahm Emanuel installed as “power behind the throne” and now seriously considering putting imperialist-authoritarian Hillary Clinton (instead of a bring-the-troops-home Richardson?) in as Sec. of State … and “higher fence” Napolitano over Homeland Security! - SAT] (11/20/08) Link: http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/4038/we_have_much_to_celebrate/ Filed under: CANDi Commentary and PND Commentary and RRND Commentary | |
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Source: Information Clearinghouse Author: Ray McGovern Posted on 11.20.08 by Mary Lou Seymour “What can Barack Obama be thinking? I suspect that those in Obama’s circle who are promoting Gates may be the same advisers responsible for Obama’s most naïve comment of the recent presidential campaign: that the ’surge’ of U.S. troops into Iraq in 2007-08 ’succeeded beyond our wildest dreams.’ Succeeded? You betcha — the surge was a great success in terms of the administration’s overriding objective. The aim was to stave off definitive defeat in Iraq until President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney could swagger from the West Wing into the western sunset on Jan. 20, 2009.” (11/20/08) Link: http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article21275.htm Filed under: PND Commentary | |
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Source: Strike the Root Author: Jim Davies Posted on 11.20.08 by Mary Lou Seymour “The biggest [Ponzi scheme] of them all by far, however, was launched just 15 years after Charles Ponzi’s was closed, is still running after 73 years, and is called ‘Social Security Insurance.’ In truth, there are no such funds, and benefits are paid from new, incoming funds exactly as happens in any other Ponzi scheme; the differences are that (a) the point of maximum net inflow has long since passed, but instead of going out of business, SS has prolonged the fraud by reducing benefits and increasing premiums, (b) those premiums are not volunteered but are payments compelled at gunpoint, (c) the whole scheme is perfumed by backing it with the full faith and credit of the US Government, and (d) the fuzz descends not on the operators of the scheme but upon any who refuse to support it. To call that a Ponzi scheme is to dishonor the memory of a businessman who was certainly creative and quite possibly honest.” (11/19/08) Link: http://www.strike-the-root.com/82/davies/davies11.html Filed under: PND Commentary and RRND Commentary | |
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Source: KN@PPSTER Author: Thomas L. Knapp Posted on 11.20.08 by Thomas L. Knapp “Obama’s foreign policy approach will likely come to nothing more or less than a matter of sticking blue helmets and the word ‘humanitarian’ on his immediate predecessor’s way of doing things. Or, to put it a different way, his foreign policy will likely feature the Clinton administration’s trappings and the Bush administration’s … vigor. This was fairly predictable from the start.” (11/20/08) Link: http://tinyurl.com/5562n2 Filed under: PND Commentary and RRND Commentary | |
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Source: The New Republic Author: Marin Cogan Posted on 11.20.08 by Thomas L. Knapp “Rush Limbaugh, Fox News, and other friends have spent the past year screaming about the horrors of Barack Obama. And, while it’s true that they talked ad nauseam about socialism and the Weathermen and Jeremiah Wright, careful listeners would have noticed a recurring theme of anxiety: that Obama was going to use the newly acquired levers of government to destroy them. Specifically, conservative paranoia over the possible reinstatement of the ‘fairness doctrine,’ a defunct policy requiring that broadcasters allow opposing points of view to be heard over the airwaves, has reached a fevered pitch.” (for publication 12/03/08) Link: http://tinyurl.com/5dabw4 Filed under: PND Commentary and RRND Commentary | |
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Source: Boston Globe Author: Cathy Young Posted on 11.19.08 by Steve Trinward “Svetlana Bakhmina, a Russian lawyer and mother, has never been involved in politics or public affairs. Yet this ordinary 39-year-old woman has become the famous yet invisible heroine of a drama that is both intensely personal and highly political … A former legal counsel for the Yukos oil company, Bakhmina has spent four years in a penal colony after being convicted of embezzling funds from the Yukos subsidiary Tomskneft (which disputed the charges and denied incurring any losses). The case against her is widely believed to have been trumped up as part of the politically motivated persecution of her former boss, jailed tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky, who angered then-President Vladimir Putin with his political activism and funding of opposition groups.” (11/19/08) Link: http://tinyurl.com/5qr638 Filed under: CANDi Commentary and PND Commentary and RRND Commentary | |
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Source: The American Prospect Author: Ezra Klein Posted on 11.19.08 by Steve Trinward “The clear theme of Obama’s transition team, White House staff decisions, and leaked cabinet appointments has been experience. Rahm Emanuel. Tom Daschle. Eric Holder. John Podesta. Hillary Clinton. Jim Messina. Pete Rouse. Phil Chiliro. And on, and on, and on. There’s not much ‘change’ here. Rather, the emphasis is on folks who know how Washington works, with the clear operating theory being that they’ll know how to get things done. That’s a different conception of ‘change’ than presidents who come in and bring a lot of new people, which is what Clinton did (though, to be sure, Clinton didn’t have a successful recent administration he could draw on for talent). But it’s very similar to what Obama did in the primary.” [editor’s note: The more I see of “Obama’s concept of change,” the less I see of the real kind - SAT] (11/19/08) Link: http://tinyurl.com/57n6r7 Filed under: PND Commentary and RRND Commentary | |
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Source: In These Times Author: David Sirota Posted on 11.19.08 by Steve Trinward “‘What do we do now?’ That’s the question Bill McKay (Robert Redford), ponders in The Candidate (1972). He won the presidency, promising ‘a better way.’ After Nov. 4, America is asking Democrats the same haunting question. These are heady times for the party of Thomas Jefferson, Franklin D. Roosevelt and, now, President-elect Barack Obama. Only a few years ago, Democrats were almost relegated to permanent minority status by a ‘Mission Accomplished’ sign and an ass in a flight suit. … Republicans used the threat of ’socialism’ to turn the 2008 campaign into a referendum on conservatism. The result? Democrats notched their highest percentage of the popular vote since 1964 — when Lyndon B. Johnson won in one of the most lopsided elections in U.S. history.” (11/19/08) Link: http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/4041/mandate_for_change Filed under: PND Commentary and RRND Commentary | |
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Source: The Nation Author: Robert Scheer Posted on 11.19.08 by Steve Trinward “This is not change we can believe in. Not if Robert Rubin or his protege, Lawrence Summers, get to call the shots on the economy in President-elect Barack Obama’s incoming administration. Both Clinton-era treasury secretaries deserve a great deal of the blame for the radical deregulation of the financial industry that has derailed the world economy. They both should, along with former Federal Reserve chief Alan Greenspan, perform rites of contrition and be kept at a safe distance from the leadership of our nation.” [editor’s note: The continued definition of what Clinton and Bush admin Treasury wonks did to the economy as “deregulation” aside … this is a fairly good piece - SAT] (11/19/08) Link: http://www.thenation.com/doc/20081201/scheer Filed under: CANDi Commentary and PND Commentary and RRND Commentary | |
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Source: Christian Science Monitor Author: Katie Stuhldreher Posted on 11.19.08 by Steve Trinward “While Somalia’s weak transitional government fails to assert control on land, a band of highly organized pirates have taken firm control of the country’s sea lanes. The pirates’ recent seizure of a Ukrainian ship transporting military hardware and a Saudi oil supertanker has prompted the world to take action, with many countries sending warships to patrol the area around the Somali coast and Gulf of Aden. A longer-term solution may prove simpler and less costly: Forget about freight and focus on fishing. … a coalition force tasked with fishery protection should be deployed.” (11/20/08) Link: http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/1120/p09s01-coop.html Filed under: CANDi Commentary and PND Commentary and RRND Commentary | |
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Source: Salon Author: Andrew Burmon Posted on 11.19.08 by Thomas L. Knapp “With Mark Begich winning in Alaska, Gordon Merkley victorious in Oregon and Al Franken hot on Norm Coleman’s heels, it looks like the Democrats’ quest for 60 Senate seats is headin’ on down to Georgia, where early voting has begun in a run-off between Republican Sen. Saxby Chambliss and Democratic challenger Jim Martin. Democrats are fighting an uphill battle in the red state: A Rasmussen poll shows Martin 4 points back and Georgia’s secretary of state reports a decrease in African-American turnout. But the party is doing its best to take the seat, and hoping that some of the residual enthusiasm from Barack Obama’s win will help Martin. Meanwhile, Republicans are doing their best to make sure this ends up as more than a war of Democratic aggression.” (11/19/08) Link: http://www.salon.com/politics/war_room/2008/11/19/georgia_runoff/ Filed under: PND Commentary and RRND Commentary | |
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Source: Slate Author: Jacob Leibenluft Posted on 11.19.08 by Thomas L. Knapp “Is it better for the environment to eat takeout or cook at home? The downsides of takeout containers are obvious, but I live alone — and it seems pretty inefficient to cook for just one person. Can I justify ordering to-go on environmental grounds?” (11/18/08) Link: http://www.slate.com/id/2204833/ Filed under: PND Commentary and RRND Commentary | |
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Source: Mother Jones Author: Fara Warner Posted on 11.19.08 by Thomas L. Knapp “A gallon of regular, in fact, was retailing for less than a buck when Bill Ford began his term as chairman in January 1999. Ford trucks were selling like mad, and the company was on an acquisition binge. During the chairman’s first year, Ford hauled in more money than any car company ever had: a $7.2 billion profit on sales of $163 billion. Its 25 percent US market share put Ford within reach of General Motors, the world’s top vehicle manufacturer. (Earlier this year, Ford’s market share fell to around 15 percent, putting it well behind Toyota.) In theory, the gangbuster sales should have given executives leeway to experiment. Bill Ford also had Nasser, a president and CEO 10 years his senior with the clout to implement his vision. Former company executives say there’s a reason Nasser, not Ford, announced the fuel-economy initiative: ‘Nobody dared defy him,’ one of them recalls. ‘Nobody was afraid of Bill Ford.’ Indeed, nearly everyone I spoke with — from auto executives and industry analysts to environmentalists and activist shareholders — agreed that no matter his personal convictions, Bill Ford had neither the operational skills nor the management talent to make his green aspirations a reality. Instead, the chairman tried to tack environmental changes onto a business model focused obsessively on bigger, badder trucks — Built Ford Tough.” (11/08) Link: http://www.motherjones.com/news/feature/2008/11/losing-focus.html Filed under: PND Commentary and RRND Commentary | |
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Source: AlterNet Author: Margaret Williams Posted on 11.19.08 by Thomas L. Knapp “Now that the presidential campaign is over and gasoline has — for the time being — fallen well below $3 a gallon, the chants of ‘Drill, Baby, Drill!’ have died down. That is a welcome development, for during the campaign voters were lured by the siren’s song of offshore drilling and its supposed benefits, while hearing virtually nothing about its costs. But the truth is that the environmental price of offshore drilling could be very high, and in no place more so than the state where I live: Alaska.” (11/19/08) Link: http://tinyurl.com/5hmkjo Filed under: PND Commentary and RRND Commentary | |
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Source: The Nation Author: Christopher Hayes Posted on 11.18.08 by Steve Trinward “With all the talk of a new ‘Great Depression,’ Herbert Hoover has enjoyed an ignominious revival. On the day when Lehman Brothers winked out of existence and the simmering financial crisis boiled over, John McCain infamously pronounced that the ‘fundamentals of the economy are strong,’ a phrase that uncomfortably echoed Hoover’s 1929 pronouncement that ‘the fundamental business of the country … is on a sound and prosperous basis.’ Hoover’s inaction in the face of the mounting crisis has made him an enduring symbol of economic mismanagement, but as bad he was, his neglect was nowhere near that of his secretary of the treasury, Andrew Mellon.” [editor’s note: Mr, Hayes’ recommendation, that “nobody from Wall Street, and nobody involved in creating the current crisis,” might be tough to pull off, however correct it would be - SAT] (11/17/08) Link: http://www.thenation.com/doc/20081201/hayes Filed under: PND Commentary and RRND Commentary | |
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Source: The American Prospect Author: Paul Waldman Posted on 11.18.08 by Steve Trinward “A lot will change on Jan. 20, when George W. Bush takes one last wistful glance around the Oval Office before heading back to Texas, and a few thousand Republicans begin finding out whether having ‘former Bush administration official’ on their resume is a help or a hindrance in getting that next job. It’s more than just a new set of policy goals and a round of executive orders undoing some of Bush’s worst offenses. For the first time in eight long years, the federal government will be managed by people who have a clue about what they’re doing.” (11/18/08) Link: http://tinyurl.com/5uw69p Filed under: PND Commentary and RRND Commentary | |
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Source: Christian Science Monitor Author: Mark Lange Posted on 11.18.08 by Steve Trinward “When your car is burning oil, you have a few choices. Buy quart after quart and watch your money go up in smoke. Scrap it and try to manage without. Or overhaul the engine and keep it for the long run. As it stands, the $25 billion US auto industry bailout championed by congressional leaders amounts to another quart of oil. The only jobs it may save — temporarily — are those of executives, without forcing real accountability for management and unions. Hope, maybe. Change? Not a chance. … Consider a third way: Provide $25 billion in federally guaranteed loans only after company management seeks Chapter 11 protection, to finally and fundamentally restructure their operations, and prepare to compete. In other words, offer the carrot only after the stick.” (11/19/08) Link: http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/1119/p09s01-coop.html Filed under: CANDi Commentary and PND Commentary and RRND Commentary | |
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Source: In These Times Author: Terry J. Allen Posted on 11.18.08 by Steve Trinward “Find the common thread and win a free Prozac prescription: Treating cattle for lameness and fever drives vultures to the brink of extinction; planting biofuel crops fuels forced labor and sickness; drilling wells for the poor poisons a country. Not so long ago, millions of vultures swirled in dark, majestic clouds above the Asian subcontinent and performed a vital role: By eating carrion and waste — everything from ritually laid out human corpses to dead livestock — the scavengers cleansed the environment and checked infectious disease. Then, in the ’90s, the birds began mysteriously disappearing, until today, when 99.9 percent of them are dead.” (11/18/08) Link: http://tinyurl.com/6ykz5p Filed under: PND Commentary and RRND Commentary | |
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Source: Boston Globe Author: Madeline Drexler Posted on 11.18.08 by Steve Trinward “Since this is, by all accounts, a ‘defining moment’ in American history, let’s redefine the way we think about health. Over the past decade, a rich vein of research has detailed the links between large social forces — from income and discrimination to education and neighborhood safety — and a community’s physical and mental well-being. Last summer, a pair of fascinating reports — overlooked in the US press — drew on this perspective to suggest a blueprint for the next administration’s health agenda. Both reports stepped back from our conventional explanations of health — ‘individual lifestyle’ and ‘biomedical miracle’ — to analyze the structural factors behind disease and suffering in our society.” (11/18/08) Link: http://tinyurl.com/674nob Filed under: PND Commentary and RRND Commentary | |
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Source: Mother Jones Author: James Ridgeway Posted on 11.18.08 by Thomas L. Knapp “A ruling by a Louisiana court could shed further light on the shadowy work of Beckett Brown International (BBI), the now defunct private security and investigations firm that spied on Greenpeace and other targets on behalf of corporate clients. On Monday, state appeals court judge Kent Savoie ordered two of the firm’s former officials, Tim Ward and Jay Bly, to testify or face potential contempt charges in a case related to a massive spill of ethylene dichloride in Lake Charles, Louisiana by chemical manufacturer Condea Vista. Working for Condea in the late 1990s, BBI mounted a wide-ranging operation to gather intelligence on the company’s opponents, including local activists and lawyers suing the chemical maker on behalf of clients harmed during the cleanup of the 1994 spill. In addition to tailing activists and obtaining the phone records of Condea opponents, BBI installed a mole inside a Lake Charles environmental group to report inside information about the organization’s strategy and campaigns.” (11/18/08) Link: http://tinyurl.com/6ma6fg Filed under: PND Commentary and RRND Commentary | |
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Source: Slate Author: Christopher Beam Posted on 11.18.08 by Thomas L. Knapp “If the Republican Party wants to recover from the Great Drubbing of 2008, it shouldn’t waste too much time worrying about how to turn blue states red. It should be thinking about how to turn itself green. There are signs the party knows this. Reports of actual substance from the Obama/McCain meeting on Monday were scarce, but aides speculated that they discussed climate change. … Still, the Democrats get all the publicity on the climate-change issue — the Dalai Lama of green, Al Gore, is one of them. What must be doubly frustrating to Republicans is that their policies can be pretty green, too. There’s actually plenty of overlap between the interests of conservatives and environmentally conscious Americans.” (11/17/08) Link: http://www.slate.com/id/2204859/ Filed under: PND Commentary and RRND Commentary | |
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Source: Salon Author: Vincent Rossmeier Posted on 11.18.08 by Thomas L. Knapp “It’s no secret that most of the liberal blogosphere loves Howard Dean and loathes Joe Lieberman. So it’s interesting to see how progressive bloggers have responded to the news that Dean supports Senate Democrats’ decision to give Lieberman a slap on the wrist for his efforts on behalf of John McCain and other Republicans over the past year. Responding to the news that Senate Democrats voted 42-13 to allow Lieberman to keep his position as Homeland Security chairman, Dean told Greg Sargent of TPMElection Central that he’s ‘fine’ with the outcome, saying that the senators only did what President-elect Barack Obama wanted them to.” (11/18/08) Link: http://www.salon.com/politics/war_room/2008/11/18/dean_lieberman/ Filed under: PND Commentary and RRND Commentary | |
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Source: Slate Author: Christopher Hitchens Posted on 11.18.08 by Thomas L. Knapp “In January of 2009 — on New Year’s Day, to be precise — it will have been half a century since the brave and bearded ones entered Havana and chased Fulgencio Batista and his cronies (carrying much of the Cuban treasury with them) off the island. Now the chief of the bearded ones is a doddering and trembling figure, who one assumes can only be hanging on in order to be physically present for the 50th birthday of his ‘revolution.’ It’s of some interest to notice that one of the ways in which he whiles away the time is the self-indulgence of religion, most especially the improbable religion of Russian Orthodoxy.” (11/17/08) Link: http://www.slate.com/id/2204820/ Filed under: PND Commentary and RRND Commentary | |
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Source: Mother Jones Author: Joseph E. Stiglitz Posted on 11.18.08 by Thomas L. Knapp “When president George W. Bush assumed office, most of those disgruntled about the stolen election contented themselves with this thought: Given our system of checks and balances, given the gridlock in Washington, how much damage could be done? Now we know: far more than the worst pessimists could have imagined. From the war in Iraq to the collapse of the credit markets, the financial losses are difficult to fathom. And behind those losses lie even greater missed opportunities. Put it all together — the money squandered on the war, the money wasted on a housing pyramid scheme that impoverished the nation and enriched a few, and the money lost because of the recession — and the gap between what we could have produced and what we did produce will easily exceed $1.5 trillion.” (11/08) Link: http://tinyurl.com/5vg23z Filed under: PND Commentary and RRND Commentary | |
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Source: AlterNet Author: Jeffrey Feldman Posted on 11.18.08 by Thomas L. Knapp “With half the state yet again in flames, I find myself of two minds with respect to the residents of California. On the one hand, my heart aches or this latest crop of Californians to lose their homes in this month’s out-of-control brush fires. On the other hand, it amazes me that, despite seeing these same fires every few months, so many Americans continue to cling to the fantasy that California is a ‘green’ state. That California routinely burns to the ground from groundwater abuse, and yet so many residents of that state imagine themselves on the cutting edge of the sustainability revolution, is one of the greatest feats of collective self-delusion in the history of the United States — as if dropping a brick in your toilet tank, driving a Prius, and wearing organic t-shirts constituted a sustainable economy.” (11/17/08) Link: http://tinyurl.com/5qmh6v Filed under: PND Commentary and RRND Commentary | |
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Source: Fox News Author: Radley Balko Posted on 11.17.08 by Steve Trinward “Since the election, the newspapers and Internet have been flooded with unsolicited advice for President-elect Barack Obama. I’ll go ahead and add mine. I don’t agree with Obama on much (I don’t agree with the current administration on much, either), so I won’t make an appeal with him to compromise with the Republicans on the issues where I agree with them. Instead, here are a few recommendations — some substantive, some symbolic — of moves Obama could make that are consistent with the principles he articulated during the campaign: Increase government transparency. The Bush administration has been the most secretive in history. … Open up the White House. This would largely be a symbolic move, but I think it’s an important one.” (11/17/08) Link: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,453093,00.html Filed under: PND Commentary and RRND Commentary | |
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Source: The Nation Author: John Nichols Posted on 11.17.08 by Steve Trinward “Democrat-turned-independent-turned-John-McCain-backer Joe Lieberman faces an election of sorts on Tuesday. … Arguments have been made that, because of his support for McCain and his neo-conservative stances on foreign-policy issues, Lieberman should be stripped of all his committee assignments. And some pound-of-flesh critics propose expelling him from the caucus.” (11/17/08) Link: http://www.thenation.com/blogs/state_of_change/383982 Filed under: PND Commentary and RRND Commentary | |
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Source: In These Times Author: Adrián Bleifuss Prados Posted on 11.17.08 by Steve Trinward “In the wake of the massive Wall Street meltdown, laissez-faire economic theories seem increasingly quaint. But the University of Chicago wants to keep the flame of neoliberalism alive. In May, the university announced plans to honor the late economist Milton Friedman by establishing the Milton Friedman Institute (MFI). Friedman … taught at the University of Chicago from 1946 to 1976, and was one of the leading lights of the right-leaning ‘Chicago School’ of economics. However, more than 100 faculty members have signed a petition objecting to the MFI. The group of dissenting professors calls itself the Committee for Open Research on Economy and Society (CORES).” (11/17/08) Link: http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/3968/chicago_boys_home Filed under: CANDi Commentary and PND Commentary and RRND Commentary | |
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Source: The American Prospect Author: Mark Schmitt Posted on 11.17.08 by Steve Trinward “A single tactical choice early in Barack Obama’s quest for the presidency set the course for all the events that followed — Obama’s securing of the Democratic nomination and surprisingly smooth path to resounding victory in the general election. After Sen. Hillary Clinton defeated him in the New Hampshire primary, rather than pouring resources into the very next primary states, Obama campaign manager David Plouffe looked weeks into the future. He deployed staff to states that wouldn’t vote for another month and implemented a long, patient strategy of assembling a majority of delegates, one at a time, in friendly and unfriendly states alike.” (11/17/08) Link: http://tinyurl.com/5wjzdk Filed under: PND Commentary and RRND Commentary | |
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Source: Christian Science Monitor Author: Ralph Nader Posted on 11.17.08 by Steve Trinward “We are at a moment in our nation’s history when great decisions can be made. The country is energized by the historic election of the first African-American president. But it is also a beleaguered nation whose people need help. President-elect Barack Obama … and the next Congress should focus on initiating long overdue reforms. After the Depression and during the period of prosperity following World War II, the federal government established a social contract with the American people. In exchange for hard work, productivity and taxes, Americans were promised their just social and economic deserts, with a safety net for hard times, and a guarantee of safe retirement without fear of spending their last days free-falling into Dickensian misery.” [editor’s note: A challenge to libertarians — sift through Nader’s list of ideas, endorsing the (several) good ones and debunking the (mostly) bad … offering concrete alternatives where possible - SAT] (11/18/08) Link: http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/1118/p09s02-comv.html Filed under: PND Commentary and RRND Commentary | |
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Source: Boston Globe Author: James Carroll Posted on 11.17.08 by Steve Trinward “One definition of the word economy is ‘an orderly, functional arrangement of parts; an organized system.’ But neither orderly, nor functional, nor organized were terms that came to mind watching Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson in his press conference last week. Insisting that ‘the facts changed,’ he tried to explain the government’s shift from an asset-purchase plan to the recapitalization of troubled banks. As he tried to explain, the public tried to understand — and neither succeeded. … That the housing crisis is at the heart of the economic collapse is fitting since the Greek word oikos, which gives us ‘economy,’ means house. Managing household affairs seems to have been the originating meaning.” (11/17/08) Link: http://tinyurl.com/5e83lo Filed under: CANDi Commentary and PND Commentary and RRND Commentary | |
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Source: Independent [UK] Author: Johann Hari Posted on 11.17.08 by Mary Lou Seymour “After condemning Obama for vaguely knowing Ayers, John McCain boasted about his ‘close friendship’ with Henry Kissinger — and nobody noticed the dissonance. While Ayers didn’t kill anybody, Kissinger played a key role in killing three million people, overwhelmingly civilians, in a bogus cause. Can it be right to damn one as a terrorist and laud the other as a great statesman?” [editor’s note: This has long been my contention — that Kissinger should have been tried for war crimes instead of given the Peace Prize! (As for nobody “noticing the dissonance” … judging from the outcome, it would seem that voters were already way beyond being affected by that issue) - SAT] (11/17/08) Link: http://tinyurl.com/5lmfcw Filed under: LAND Commentary and PND Commentary and RRND Commentary | |
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Source: LewRockwell.Com Author: Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr. Posted on 11.17.08 by Thomas L. Knapp “One of the great and most persistent errors of classical liberals is to believe in ‘good government,’ a government that does ‘what it is supposed to do.’ There is nothing the state can do, which society needs done, that cannot be done far better by the market. Another point that is just as telling: no state empowered to do what is supposedly necessary will restrain itself to those things. It will expand as much as public opinion will tolerate.”: (11/15/08) Link: http://www.lewrockwell.com/rockwell/myth-of-good-govt.html Filed under: PND Commentary and RRND Commentary | |
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Source: Cato Unbound Author: Steven Horwitz Posted on 11.17.08 by Thomas L. Knapp “Long raises one of my own favorite examples of the conflation problem: ‘privatization.’ I would like to see us ditch the term ‘privatization’ for two reasons. First, many of the things government does and then ‘contracts out’ are things that no one should be doing in the first place, either publicly or privately. The use of private contractors in Iraq is the most obvious example here. … Second, in the cases where state-provided goods and services could be better supplied in the market, the real goal is not ‘privatization’ but ‘de-monopolization.’ What advocates of free markets should be arguing is that the monopoly privilege bestowed by government is the source of trouble, regardless of whether the organization receiving that privilege is public or private.” [editor’s note: This is very closes to a point I made about 30 years ago; some of the current Catoites called me a socialist for making it (though not as eloquently, perhaps) back then - SAT] (11/14/08) Link: http://tinyurl.com/6358hc Filed under: PND Commentary and RRND Commentary | |
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Source: Christian Science Monitor Author: Walker Todd Posted on 11.17.08 by Steve Trinward “Too much credit and easy money. Those were the biggest culprits behind this financial crisis. Yet, apallingly, the government’s rescue attempt is built on more credit and even easier money. That’s like giving a procrastinator a deadline extension. By choosing this course, Washington has steered us on to the ‘road to Weimar’ — the road to runaway inflation. It didn’t have to come to this. And it still doesn’t. But the proper remedy will take tremendous political courage: Bring back the gold standard.” (11/15/08) Link: http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/1115/p09s01-coop.html Filed under: CANDi Commentary and PND Commentary and RRND Commentary | |
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Source: Raleigh News & Observer Author: J. Peder Zane Posted on 11.17.08 by Steve Trinward “Barack Obama was surrounded by ghosts election night. To his right were presidents who had defined their times: Andrew Jackson and Theodore Roosevelt, FDR, JFK and Ronald Reagan. To his left were some all but forgotten leaders, including — I think — Zachary Taylor, William Henry Harrison and Gerald Ford. I rubbed my eyes, and mercifully, they all vanished. But as a child of these quick, fast, in-a-hurry times, I began to wonder which group the president-elect might join when he leaves office four or eight years hence? … Even as his campaign sought to make history, it vowed to obliterate it. … History, however, is more powerful than any individual, no matter how gifted and persuasive. It can’t be voted or wished away.” (11/13/08) Link: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/homepage/story/55815.html Filed under: PND Commentary and RRND Commentary | |
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Source: In These Times Author: David Sirota Posted on 11.17.08 by Steve Trinward “It wouldn’t be the George W. Bush we all know if our shamed president didn’t spend his remaining White House days in a final fit of polarization. That’s what Bush’s moves this week are clearly about: dividing — not uniting. The New York Times reported that during his first meeting with Barack Obama, the outgoing president suggested he might support Democrats’ economic stimulus package and aid to struggling automakers if party leaders ‘drop their opposition to a free-trade agreement with Colombia.’ While Bush later denied an overt quid pro quo, one was obviously implied. Strange behavior? Yes and no.” (11/14/08) Link: http://tinyurl.com/5o4tqj Filed under: PND Commentary and RRND Commentary | |
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Source: Boston Globe Author: Matthew F. Pawa Posted on 11.17.08 by Steve Trinward “Congress is poised to enact a massive taxpayer bailout of GM, Chrysler, and Ford. Congressman Barney Frank is charged with crafting the emergency legislation. Our leaders apparently believe they have only two bad choices: do nothing and let the domestic automobile industry die, or postpone the inevitable by throwing good money after bad. There is a third option: a government takeover of these companies with a mandate to make the green cars of the future. Only the creation of a government corporation with the power to take these companies over, shake up their management, unshackle them from their pension and healthcare liabilities, renegotiate union contracts, and give them a clear mission to produce the ultra-efficient, green cars of the future will save the American automobile industry.” [editor’s note: Posted mostly to show the level of pessimism, from BOTH sides of this battle! Pawa cites the likes of the TVA to bolster his contentions about the efectiveness of government-run businesses (aka fascism) - SAT] (11/16/08) Link: http://tinyurl.com/68nrya Filed under: CANDi Commentary and PND Commentary and RRND Commentary | |
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Source: The Nation Author: Jeremy Scahill Posted on 11.17.08 by Steve Trinward “After more than five years of rampant violence and misconduct carried out by the massive army of private corporate contractors in Iraq — actions that have gone totally unpunished under any system of law — the US Justice Department appears to be on the verge of handing down the first indictments against armed private forces for crimes committed in Iraq. The reported targets of the ‘draft’ indictments: six Blackwater operatives involved in the September 16, 2007, killing of seventeen Iraqi civilians in Baghdad’s Nisour Square.” (11/14/08) Link: http://www.thenation.com/doc/20081201/scahill Filed under: PND Commentary and RRND Commentary | |
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Source: The American Prospect Author: Michael Lind Posted on 11.17.08 by Steve Trinward “Ours is an age of liberal nationalism, the political doctrine that holds that the state should be democratic in form and national in content. The Cold War coincided with the emergence of new nations out of the European empires, and it was followed by the breakup along national lines of the Soviet Union, Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia. Not all countries are democratic, but authoritarian states like China and Egypt do not promote a rival, universal model the way that militant communists and fascists did. Not all states are nation-states, but most violent conflict in the world today, from Iraq to Palestine to Tibet and Chechnya, involves stateless nations seeking nation-states of their own. Except in the special case of Europe, no significant movements in the world seek to replace the nation-state with some other form of political organization. And even in Europe, the transcendence of the nation-state is a project favored chiefly by elites but regarded suspiciously by voters, like those in France, the Netherlands, and most recently Ireland who have rejected greater European integration. Belgium may yet break up, and Scotland may achieve independence.” (11/16/08) Link: http://tinyurl.com/6mhoy5 Filed under: PND Commentary and RRND Commentary | |
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Source: Washington Post Author: George F. Will Posted on 11.16.08 by Mary Lou Seymour “Conservatism’s current intellectual chaos reverberated in the Republican ticket’s end-of-campaign crescendo of surreal warnings that big government — verily, ’socialism’ — would impend were Democrats elected. John McCain and Sarah Palin experienced this epiphany when Barack Obama told a Toledo plumber that he would ’spread the wealth around.’ America can’t have that, exclaimed the Republican ticket while Republicans — whose prescription drug entitlement is the largest expansion of the welfare state since President Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society gave birth to Medicare in 1965; and a majority of whom in Congress supported a lavish farm bill at a time of record profits for the less than 2 percent of the American people-cum-corporations who farm — and their administration were partially nationalizing the banking system, putting Detroit on the dole and looking around to see if some bit of what is smilingly called ‘the private sector’ has been inadvertently left off the ever-expanding list of entities eligible for a bailout from the $1 trillion or so that is to be ’spread around.’” (11/16/08) Link: http://tinyurl.com/5kavnq Filed under: CANDi Commentary and PND Commentary and RRND Commentary | |
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Source: Slate Author: Jacob Weisberg Posted on 11.16.08 by Thomas L. Knapp “Here’s a radical suggestion: Barack Obama should pick the smartest people he can find for his Cabinet. Brilliance has sometimes been a criterion in presidential appointments, of course, but seldom the major one. It usually takes a back seat to rewarding friends and backers, playing congressional politics, seeking diversity, and appeasing industry and interest groups. Presidents also feel obliged to avoid too many retreads and place a high premium on personal loyalty.” (11/15/08) Link: http://www.slate.com/id/2204597/ Filed under: PND Commentary and RRND Commentary | |
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Source: Mother Jones Author: Nick Baumann Posted on 11.16.08 by Thomas L. Knapp “It looks like the Bush administration can create its own reality after all. Just this week Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson turned the $700 billion bailout from a program to purchase toxic assets from troubled financial institutions to one that will invest in banks. Understandably, this abrupt change of course angered members of Congress, who were now left to wonder if they’d been led astray in supporting the stimulus package. At a hearing on Friday, convened to examine the Treasury Department’s use of the bailout funds, lawmakers on both sides of the aisle vented their outrage. The question if whether their displeasure will make a dime’s worth of difference. Displaying the range of congressional discontent, both Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio), the chair of domestic policy oversight subcommittee, and Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), its ranking member, accused the Treasury of a ‘bait-and-switch’ and questioned Neel Kashkari, the 35-year-old former Goldman Sachs banker selected by Paulson to supervise the bailout, about the sudden reversal.” (11/14/08) Link: http://tinyurl.com/69thew Filed under: PND Commentary and RRND Commentary | |
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Source: AlterNet Author: Joseph Romm Posted on 11.16.08 by Thomas L. Knapp “Greenhouse gases cause climate change that increases drought and water shortages, which in turn drives countries to desalination, which in turn generates more greenhouse gases — a classic amplifying feedback. A classic amplifying feedback unless, of course, you do the desalination with renewable power …” (11/13/08) Link: http://tinyurl.com/6dkzxz Filed under: PND Commentary and RRND Commentary | |
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Source: Christian Science Monitor Author: Kermit Roosevelt Posted on 11.14.08 by Steve Trinward “What now for California? In May, its Supreme Court announced a right to same-sex marriage. Gays and lesbians rushed to take advantage of the opportunity; by early November, 18,000 such marriages had been performed. But on Nov. 5, they stopped. By a 52-47 percent margin, California voters approved Proposition 8, an amendment to the state constitution prohibiting same-sex marriage. … When should a majority have the power to take away a constitutional right granted by a court? It’s a question that forces us to think about why we have constitutional rights in the first place, and why they are enforced by judges. But it is not simply a theoretical puzzle. All of us enjoy constitutional rights, and most of us are at some point in a minority. All of us could be affected.” [editor’s note: And this is the overriding issue here — the interface between “pure democracy” … and individual sovereignty; if only this lesson is learned this time … by the “democracy-worshipers!” - SAT] (11/14/08) Link: http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/1114/p09s01-coop.html Filed under: CANDi Commentary and PND Commentary and RRND Commentary | |
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Source: Our Future Author: James Clarke Posted on 11.14.08 by Steve Trinward “John McCain lost the election due to mistakes that are the hallmarks of failed High School Student Council Elections. These are four of the lessons that John McCain should have remembered from High School: 1) The Homecoming Queen is rarely a good candidate: high school kids are smart enough to realize that candidates whose main appeal is their image usually have neither the ability nor the desire to serve their community. In choosing Sarah Palin as his running mate, John McCain assumed that her image would outweigh her lack of substance. It didn’t. 2) Avoid brown-nosing the Administration: in high school, the candidate who publicly tows the Principal’s line at the students’ expense is destined to fail. By voting with President Bush against the interests of the American people 95% of the time, John McCain made just such an alignment. …” (11/05/08) Link: http://tinyurl.com/63wlfm Filed under: CANDi Commentary and PND Commentary and RRND Commentary | |
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Source: The Nation Author: Bob Moser Posted on 11.14.08 by Steve Trinward “It was hot as Hades on June 5 in the little mountain town of Bristol, Virginia. But that didn’t stop hundreds of southwest Virginians — in the most staunchly Republican part of a state that hadn’t voted Democratic for president since 1964 — from streaming into the local high school gym to whoop it up for a liberal, mixed-race fellow from Chicago with a mighty suspicious moniker. Fresh off his lopsided, nomination-clinching primary victory in North Carolina, Barack Obama had chosen–to the mystification of political experts — to launch his general election campaign, not in the ‘battlegrounds’ of Pennsylvania or Ohio, but in a remote Southern backwater containing 17,000 souls who’d given George W. Bush 64 percent of their vote in 2004.” [editro’s note: Yet another complete misreading of the election results, (more to do with the lameass nature of the opposition-candidate than with some spurious “mandate” — just as it had been in the previous two (five? ten? …) elections) - SAT] (11/13/08) Link: http://www.thenation.com/doc/20081201/moser Filed under: PND Commentary and RRND Commentary | |
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Source: Boston Globe Author: Steve Crosby & Robert L. Turner Posted on 11.14.08 by Steve Trinward “In America, presidential elections are the ultimate act of community. Millions vote, and, though the contest is usually close, the winner is embraced as everyone’s president. Barack Obama’s victory says a great deal that is good about the nation, about its optimism and its readiness to grow. Not least, it says something positive about race relations in America. … But as we have found in Massachusetts, the elevation of an African-American to the highest political office provides an opportunity for progress — a culture and a tone — but solves little by itself.” (11/13/08) Link: http://tinyurl.com/6okf99 Filed under: CANDi Commentary and PND Commentary and RRND Commentary | |
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Source: The American Prospect Author: Robert Borosage & Stanley B. Greenberg Posted on 11.14.08 by Steve Trinward “The scope of Barack Obama’s sweeping victory hasn’t yet registered in much of the media. … [E]lection 2008 was not simply a testament to the remarkable candidacy of Barack Obama, nor a product of Bush’s catastrophic presidency. Rather, the results suggest that this may not simply be a change election but a sea-change election. An extended election-night survey undertaken by Democracy Corps and the Campaign for America’s Future suggests that we may be witness to the emergence of a new progressive majority, that contrary to conservatives’ claims, America is now a center-left nation.” [editor’s note: The delusion of the writers of this piece is remarkable; - SAT] (11/13/08) Link: http://tinyurl.com/647vgj Filed under: PND Commentary and RRND Commentary | |
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Source: Truthout Author: J. Sri Raman Posted on 11.14.08 by Steve Trinward “A minor controversy among India’s mandarins and in its media has ended, with US President-elect Barack Obama making a telephone call to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Wednesday morning. What deserved far greater notice than the details of the four-day-long controversy was its relation to one of the major world issues of our times - the menace of nuclear weapons. The controversy raged on in newspaper columns and television studios about Obama calling up several heads of governments across continents, while he seemed to have pointedly ignored Singh. The omission rankled, particularly after the much-publicized, 20-minute call on November 8 to Pakistan’s President Asif Ali Zardari. Independent and informed reports related this to a possibly new US stand under Obama on the nuclear issue. Immediately after Obama’s conversation with Zardari, red-faced officials of India’s external affairs ministry claimed that the president-elect had called up only “the military allies” of the US — with one of them even adding that ‘we are happy not to figure in the league.’” (11/13/08) Link: http://www.truthout.org/111308C Filed under: PND Commentary and RRND Commentary | |
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Source: CounterPunch Author: Pam Martens Posted on 11.14.08 by Steve Trinward “Purge your mind for a moment about everything you’ve heard and read in the last decade about investing on Wall Street and think about the following business model: You take your hard earned retirement savings to a Wall Street firm and they tell you that as long as you ’stay invested for the long haul’ you can expect double-digit annual returns. You never really know what your money is invested in because it’s pooled with other investors and comes with incomprehensible but legal looking prospectuses. The heads of these Wall Street firms have been taking massive payouts for themselves, ranging from $160 million to $1 billion per CEO over a number of years. … And then, suddenly, you learn that many of these Wall Street firms don’t have any assets that anybody wants to buy. Because these firms are both managing your money as well as having their own shares constitute a large percentage of your pooled investments, your funds begin to plummet as confidence drains from the scheme.” (11/13/08) Link: http://www.counterpunch.org/martens11132008.html Filed under: PND Commentary and RRND Commentary | |
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Source: Salon Author: Thomas Schaller Posted on 11.14.08 by Thomas L. Knapp “The Republican Party is now licking the wounds from its second consecutive electoral ‘thumpin’,’ to use the outgoing president’s memorable morning-after phrase from November 2006. Just three years ago, the GOP controlled the presidency, the House and the Senate; come January Democrats will control the White House and both chambers of Congress for the first time since 1993. The Republican brand is in tatters. Can it be saved? Salon asked three experts with a vested interest in the future of the party, two Republican strategists and one conservative intellectual, for their take on where the GOP goes from here.” (11/14/08) Link: http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2008/11/14/future_of_the_gop/ Filed under: PND Commentary and RRND Commentary |