Dear Uncle Sam...

At Capitol, slavery's story turns full circle

Historians hope significance comes to light as Obama takes office

By Michael Kranish

 

WASHINGTON - When Barack Obama takes the oath of office at the US Capitol, the first African-American to become president will be standing amid stonework laid by slaves more than two centuries ago. He will appear before a crowd massed on the Mall, where slaves were once held in pens, ready for auction. He will end his inauguration route at the White House, where the foundations were laid by slaves, and where eight presidents held blacks as their human property.

 

At nearly every turn of Obama's march to history, the thread that deeply intertwines the founding of the nation with its great stain, slavery, will be evident. Yet for all the attention on Obama's racial breakthrough, the full story of slavery in the nation's capital remains beneath the surface.

While the Lincoln Memorial on the far end of the Mall draws attention to the fight to end slavery, there is no memorial at the spot near the Capitol where slaves were once kept and sold in a three-story building called the Yellow House.

"Many people come down to the National Mall and never realize that they are walking on the site of the slave markets," said Jesse J. Holland, author of the recent book, "Black Men Built the Capitol." Now, with Obama's inauguration, historians are hoping that the role of slaves in the history of building Washington will become more widely recognized.

http://www.boston.com/news/politics/2008/articles/2008/12/28/at_capitol_slaverys_story_turns_full_circle/

Watergate and the Future: News for 2009

by Russ Baker

In this guest column, award-winning investigative reporter Russ Baker gives some background on his new book which, in part, explores former President George H.W. Bush's CIA ties and his little known connections to the Watergate scandal.

One of the fastest ways to raise eyebrows in politically savvy company is to suggest that Richard Nixon was not the villain of Watergate. Everyone knows that Nixon himself set loose the Watergate burglars and then oversaw the attempted cover-up that followed. We know this because the most famous journalists of the last fifty years – Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein – made their careers on that story. I thought I knew it too.

Then I began the research that led to my new book, Family of Secrets: The Bush Dynasty, The Powerful Forces That Put it in the White House, and What Their Influence Means for America. I had no intention, when I started, of re-opening the Watergate inquiries. But the trail led there, as I sought to answer a question that somehow has escaped careful attention. Why did Richard Nixon repeatedly promote George H.W. Bush (Bush Sr., or Poppy, as he is known) for important political posts despite both his apparent lack of qualifications and Nixon's own privately-expressed doubts about Bush's mettle? Why, even when Nixon became so wary of so many of his appointees that he fired cabinet members en masse, did he continue to be solicitous of Bush Sr.?

Nixon named the obscure Poppy to be UN ambassador in 1970 and then chairman of the national Republican Party in 1972. Even earlier, in 1968, Nixon actually put Bush Sr. on his list of vice presidential running mate prospects – this not long after Poppy was first elected to the House of Representatives. Similarly, Nixon's replacement, Gerald Ford, sent Poppy off as envoy to China and later made him CIA director, though by most accounts he was an odd choice for both of these sensitive jobs.

In short, in the Nixon era, Poppy Bush was the man who always seemed to be around, yet also managed to stay out of the main story. Digging way back, I came upon evidence that Nixon felt beholden to the Bush family and to the interests it represented. The reason: Bush Sr.'s father, Senator Prescott Bush, grandfather of George W. Bush, apparently helped launch Nixon's political career in 1946 as a way of destroying his first opponent, liberal congressman Jerry Voorhis, an outspoken critic of the excesses of bankers and financiers. Given the current Wall Street disasters, and the role of Prescott's grandson in enabling them, this revelation has obvious contemporary relevance.

Once I understood this special Nixon-Bush relationship, which is basically missing from all major Nixon biographies, I began to ask what exactly Poppy had been doing during the Watergate years. This led to the discovery that the Watergate break-in was almost certainly just one of a series of illegal acts that were engineered by people around Nixon, but not by Nixon himself.

http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Watergate_and_Future_News_for_2009_1222.html

He kept us safe

Bailouts by the numbers

Why We Keep Falling for Financial Scams

Intelligent people have long been ruined by frauds. Psychologist Stephen Greenspan, who specializes in gullibility, explores why investors continue to be swindled -- and how he came to lose part of his savings to Bernard Madoff.

By STEPHEN GREENSPAN

Illustration by Mick Coulas

There are few areas where skepticism is more important than how one invests one's life savings. Yet intelligent and educated people, some of them naïve about finance and others quite knowledgeable, have been ruined by schemes that turned out to be highly dubious and quite often fraudulent. The most dramatic example of this in American history is the recent announcement that Bernard Madoff, a highly regarded money manager and a former chairman of Nasdaq, has for years been running a very sophisticated Ponzi scheme, which by his own admission has defrauded wealthy investors, charities and other funds of at least $50 billion.

Financial scams are just one of the many forms of human gullibility -- along with war (the Trojan Horse), politics (WMDs in Iraq), relationships (sexual seduction), pathological science (cold fusion) and medical fads. Although gullibility has long been of interest in works of fiction (Othello, Pinocchio), religious documents (Adam and Eve, Samson) and folk tales ("The Emperor's New Clothes," "Little Red Riding Hood"), it has been almost completely ignored by social scientists. A few books have focused on narrow aspects of gullibility, including Charles Mackey's classic 19th-century book, "Extraordinary Popular Delusion and the Madness of Crowds" -- most notably on investment follies such as Tulipmania, in which rich Dutch people traded their houses for one or two tulip bulbs. In my new book "Annals of Gullibility," based on my academic work in psychology, I propose a multidimensional theory that would explain why so many people behave in a manner that exposes them to severe and predictable risks. This includes myself: After I wrote my book, I lost a good chunk of my retirement savings to Mr. Madoff, so I know of what I write on the most personal level.

Bernard Madoff walks back to his New York apartment on Dec. 17.

A Ponzi scheme is a fraud in which invested money is pocketed by the schemer and investors who wish to redeem their money are actually paid out of proceeds from new investors. As long as new investments are expanding at a healthy rate, the schemer is able to keep the fraud going. Once investments begin to contract, as through a run on the company, the house of cards quickly collapses. That is what apparently happened with the Madoff scam, when too many investors -- needing cash because of the general U.S. financial meltdown in late 2008 -- tried to redeem their funds. It seems Mr. Madoff could not meet these demands and the scam was exposed.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123093987596650197.html

The Timothy Leary Archive

The Timothy Leary Archive covers forty years of lectures, TV guest appearances, performance art, talk shows, and experimental films from Timothy's personal archives.

 

 

 

In this footage from a lecture in San Francisco in 1987, Leary discusses the 1960's, the Summer of Love, Abbie Hoffman, Eldridge Cleaver, DEA, Dennis Hopper, Apple Computers, Cyber Punk, and the Cybernetic 21st Century.

 

http://www.archive.org/details/Tim_Leary_Archive

2008: Bush’s Last Year By The Numbers

By Ryan Powers

President Bush issued a statement yesterday in which he heralded New Year's day as "an opportunity to remember the events of the past and look forward with hope to the year ahead." But as Bush looks forward to leaving office, the nation is stuck with the results of many of the Bush administration's failed policies.

To mark the passing of Bush's last full year in office, ThinkProgress rounded up statistics on some of the most significant effects of Bush rule in 2008:

– Number Of U.S. Troops Killed in Iraq: 322.
– Number Of U.S. Troops Killed in Afghanistan: 151.
– Number Of Jobs Lost: 1.9 million.
– Number Of Banks Federal Government Now Owns Stock In: 206.
– Number Of Uninsured Americans: 47.5 million.

– Change In Housing Prices: declined 18 percent.
– Change In Health Insurance Premiums: increased 5 percent.
– Change In Number Of Delinquent Mortgages: increased 75 percent.
– Change In Use Of Food Stamps: increased 17 percent.
– Change In Dow Jones Industrial Average: declined 35 percent.
– Change In Bush Approval Rating: declined 9 percent to 29 percent.

Paul Krugman noted recently that the Bush administration's failings have often been obscured in the short-run because the White House was particularly effective at inventing an alternate reality that it then "impressed on the public." In 2008, however, despite its repeated attempts to wish it away, the reality of its domestic policy failures caught up with Bush administration and the nation.

http://thinkprogress.org/2009/01/01/year-end-stats/

Public Domain Day 2009

It is January 1st, which means that this morning at midnight a batch more "life-plus" copyrights expired in those countries — most of them — where copyright expires at the end of the Nth year following the death of the author.

Yes, folks, it's Public Domain Day! And it's international! There are little Public Domain Day virtual commemorations going on in places like Poland and Switzerland. Spread the word!

In the life+50 universe, which constitute the largest cohort of countries, including Canada, which collectively have the majority of the world's population, life-plus copyrights expired at midnight for those authors, or last-surviving of multiple authors, who died in 1958. Some notable life+50 entries into the public domain include life+50 copyrights for authors such as:

Australian politician (and sheep breeder) James Guthrie ("A world history of sheep and wool")
American film composer Edward H. Plumb ("Bambi" and many other Disney films)
American hymnist George Bennard ("The Old Rugged Cross")
British painter and illustrator Lucy Kemp-Welch (the original edition of "Black Beauty")
American screenwriter Jack Henley ("Bonzo Goes to College")
American writer J. P. McEvoy ("Dixie Dugan")
American author Betty MacDonald ("Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle")
British poet Robert Service ("The Cremation of Sam McGee", etc.)
English poet Alfred Noyes ("The Highwayman")
English music scholar Percy Scholes ("The Oxford Companion to Music")
American artist and author Marjorie Flack ("The Story About Ping")
American writer Johnston McCulley (creator of "Zorro")
British aircraft manufacturer Alliott Verdon Roe (as in Avro, as in the Arrow)
Serbian geophysicist Milutin Milanković (early proponent of ice ages)
British author and translator Lionel Giles (translator of the most widely-published English edition of Sun-Tzu's "Art of War")
Romanian-British rabbi and scholar Shulem Moshkovitz (the Shotzer Rebbe)
American financial analyst John Moody (of Wall Street fame)

A more extensive, but nowhere near complete list is reproduced below. See also Wikipedia's list of deaths in 1958 and the New General Catalog of Old Books and Authors 1958 deaths page.

Across the pond in the European Union, some other non-EU countries, and certain other countries around the world, being the second-largest copyright universe where the general term is "life plus seventy", copyrights by sole authors, or the last-surviving of multiple authors, who died in 1938, expired today. 1938 was an especially bad year in Europe, where many literary, scientific, political, and religious creators fell victim to Nazi persecution and Stalinist purges.

Some of the more interesting members of the 1938 class of deceased authors include:

Danish bacteriologist Hans Christian Gram (of Gram staining fame)
British-Canadian author, conservationist, and literary fraud Archie Belaney (Grey Owl)
Latvian-born ethnologist and musicologist Abraham Zevi Idelsohn (to whom the lyrics to "Hava Nagila" are attributed)
American cartoonist E. C. Segar (creator of "Popeye")
American illustrator Johnny Gruelle (creator of "Raggedy Ann")
American lawyer Clarence Darrow (of "Scopes Monkey Trial" fame)
American songwriter James Thornton ("When You Were Sweet Sixteen", written in 1898)
Japanese martial artist Kano Jigoro (founder of judo)
American industrialist Harvey Samuel Firestone (of tire fame)

A more extensive, but again far from complete list is reproduced below. See also Wikipedia's list of deaths in 1938 and the New General Catalog of Old Books and Authors 1938 deaths page.

The 1938 death class of authors are also now entering the public domain in the United States in respect of their unpublished works, which means that hundreds of thousands of archival documents are now out of copyright. In Canada, unfortunately, it is only published works and other works to which the general term of copyright applies, which came into the public domain today. Unpublished written works by authors who died in 1958 are still copyrighted in Canada, even though their published works now are not. Thanks to the ludicrously long Canadian "transitional period" for such copyrights, which started counting down ten years ago, not a single additional unpublished archival document will enter the public domain in Canada for another forty years, meaning that some documents from the mid-19^th century will remain copyrighted in Canada for nearly two centuries after their creation.

But in any event, the public domain advanced a little last night — even if it was delayed by a leap second. The collective culture of the world has been enriched. And not just in the traditional fields that are associated with copyright, such as music, literature, and art, but all areas of human endeavour: sciences and humanities, religion, mathematics, law, politics, journalism, medicine, translation, linguistics, drama, history, and scholarship in every field.

It's your public domain, your common cultural heritage, and your right to use. Happy Public Domain Day 2009!

http://www.xanga.com/publicdomain/687985634/public-domain-day-2009.html

The first ripped president

Did you hear FDR prolonged the Great Depression?

Conservatives' newest talking point -- designed to stop Congress from passing an economic stimulus package -- is breathtaking.

By David Sirota

If you're like me, you sometimes find yourself speechless when confronted with abject insanity.

If you're like me, for instance, you were dumbfounded when "Forrest Gump" beat out "Pulp Fiction" for best picture; when HBO's "Sopranos" received more accolades than "The Wire"; and when George W. Bush insisted Iraqi airplanes were about to drop WMD on American cities.

So if you're like me, you probably understand why I was momentarily tongue-tied last week after running face-first into conservatives' newest (and most ridiculous) talking point: the one designed to stop Congress from passing an economic stimulus package.

Eve appearance on Fox News, I pointed out that most mainstream economists believe the government must boost the economy with deficit spending. That's when conservative pundit Monica Crowley said we should instead limit such spending because President Franklin Roosevelt's "massive government intervention actually prolonged the Great Depression." Fox News anchor Gregg Jarrett eagerly concurred, saying "historians pretty much agree on that."

Of course, I had recently heard snippets of this silly argument; right-wing pundits are repeating it everywhere these days. But I had never heard it articulated in such preposterous terms, so my initial reaction was paralysis, the mouth-agape, deer-in-the-headlights kind. Only after collecting myself did I say that such assertions about the New Deal were absurd. But then I was laughed at, as if it was hilarious to say that the New Deal did anything but exacerbate the Depression.

Afterward, suffering pangs of self-doubt, I wondered whether I and most of the country were the crazy ones. Sure, the vast majority of Americans think the New Deal worked well. But are conservatives right? Did the New Deal's "massive government intervention prolong the Great Depression?"

Ummm ... no.

http://www.salon.com/opinion/feature/2009/01/02/sirota_fdr_depression/

PNAC: Palin’s Pentagon In Waiting?

It looks like Bill Kristol may be making good on his threat to revive the Project for the New American Century. Since May, visitors to PNAC's website were informed that "this account has been suspended," but now the website is back up, though it does not seem to have been updated with any new material.

PNAC's militaristic ultra-nationalism is implicated in some of the worst mischief of the Bush years, from the "global war on terror" to the invasion of Iraq to President Bush's support for Israel's refusal to negotiate with the Palestinians. Many of its members served as advisers to John McCain's presidential campaign. Bill Kristol is still listed as PNAC's chairman, and is known to be "exceptionally close" to the senator. McCain's top foreign policy aide, Randy Scheunemann, serves as PNAC's project director. McCain spokesperson Michael Goldfarb is also listed as a PNAC research associate.

We should consider what PNAC's possible revival means for the future of Sarah Palin. Palin was first "identified as a potential future leader of the neoconservative cause" in June 2007 when the Weekly Standard's annual summer cruise docked in Juneau. Several editors — including Bill Kristol — had dinner with Palin. Scott Horton reported that in the following months, the Standard published a number of laudatory items about Palin — "starting with a paean entitled 'The Most Popular Governor' that ran right after" the dinner.

http://wonkroom.thinkprogress.org/2008/11/10/pnac-palins-pentagon-in-waiting/

Global Voices' coverage of Gaza Strip Bombings

 

http://globalvoicesonline.org/

NASA scientists: over 2 trillion tons of ice has melted since 2003

New satellite data presented by NASA scientists shows the loss of an estimated 2 trillion tons of ice from Greenland, the Antarctic and the North Poll: proof positive of global warming's dramatic effects, they claimed.

"'More than half of the loss of landlocked ice in the past five years has occurred in Greenland, based on measurements of ice weight by NASA's GRACE satellite,' said NASA geophysicist Scott Luthcke, in a report by the Environmental News Network.

The Greenland melting, added Luthcke, appears to be accelerating.

One immediate effect of this progressive melting is a spike in the intensity and frequency of massive wildfires in the American West, according to one expert who says more than half of the region could be claimed by fire in the next century.

Tom Swetnam, a leading fire ecologist at the University of Arizona, told CBS's 60 Minutes that a temperature increase in the West of just one degree had contributed to a four-fold increase in fires in the area.

A 2007 study by the National Center for Atmospheric Research and Georgia Institute of Technology determined that global warming's effect on wind patterns and sea temperatures nearly doubled the number of hurricanes a year in the Atlantic Ocean over the past century.

"Anticipated direct health consequences of climate change include injury and death from extreme weather events and natural disasters, increases in climate-sensitive infectious diseases, increases in air pollution-related illness, and more heat-related, potentially fatal, illness," claims a report presented at the 2007 congress of the American Academy of Pediatrics.

"Within all of these categories, children have increased vulnerability compared with other groups," it said.

President-elect Obama has said the application of science in the fight against global warming "is key to our survival," and appointed John Holdren, an award-winning environmental policy professor at Harvard University, to head the Office of Science and Technology Policy and co-chair the president's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology.

Obama called Holdren "one of the most passionate and persistent voices of our time about the growing threat of climate change".

http://rawstory.com/news/2008/NASA_scientists_over_2_trillion_tons_0102.html

Making "Duck Soup" Out of 2009

by Bill Moyers and Michael Winship

The famous Marx Brothers movie "Duck Soup" offered comic relief in the darkest of times. (Photo: Dr. Marco's movie scans)

    As 2008 ends and this New Year begins, with all its fledgling promise despite turmoil and crisis, it's also that time when the media offers its lists of ten best or worst this and that of the previous year, an exercise that simultaneously entertains and infuriates.

    Forced at knifepoint to make such lists, at least ours would be a little different. One would be favorite headlines of the year from The Onion, the hilarious weekly that doesn't bill itself as "America's finest news source" for nothing. If you can read it without laughing, you probably have been paying too much attention to your 401(k).

    Some of the ones we liked best:

    $700 billion bailout celebrated with lavish $800 billion executive party.

    GM covered with giant tarp until it has money to work on cars again.

    American Airlines now charging fees to non-passengers.

    China recalls everything.

    Housing crisis vindicates guy who still lives with parents.

    Factual error found on internet.

    Of course, the problem The Onion's editors have is that reality too often resembles parody. Take the story of Chip Saltsman, the guy campaigning to be chairman of the Republican National Committee by promoting himself with a CD featuring a song called, "Barack, the Magic Negro." That ditty, you'll recall, was made famous on Rush Limbaugh's minstrel show, as sung by an Al Sharpton impersonator. Even The Onion couldn't come up with that one.

http://www.truthout.org/010309J

An eye for an eye

Kenneth Turan Picks His Favorite Films Of 2008

by Kenneth Turan

I enjoy doing a Top 10 films list, but ranking the films is something I try to avoid. This year, however, is different. While slots 2 to 10 will be listed alphabetically, I'm going to name a clear No. 1 film: Danny Boyle's exhilarating Slumdog Millionaire.

I'm departing from tradition and naming it No. 1 because watching this film was like seeing an old friend long presumed dead. Slumdog is an updated version of an old-fashioned Hollywood-style romantic melodrama. If you think this kind of thing is easy to do, you haven't been going to the movies lately.

As to the other nine slots, I have taken the liberty of doubling up films on occasion to make it easier to acknowledge deserving work. Here goes:

Dev Patel and Freida Pinto are at the center of an old-fashioned Hollywood-style romantic melodrama in Slumdog Millionaire. Celador Films/Fox Searchlight Pictures

Mathieu Amalric and Catherine Deneuve star in one of the best of a great crop of French films, A Christmas Tale. Why Not Productions

Michael Sheen is David Frost and Frank Langella is a convincing Richard M. Nixon in Frost/Nixon. Universal Pictures

Director Mike Leigh's Happy- Go-Lucky, starring Sally Hawkins (left) and Alexis Zegerman, is a ray of sunshine. Miramax

Anne Hathaway gives director Jonathan Demme a powerful performance in Rachel Getting Married. Sony Pictures Classics

Israeli writer/director Ari Folman was the talent behind the animated film Waltz With Bashir. Sony Pictures Classics

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=98841453

Harry's Picks For The Top Ten Films of 2008!!!

Hey folks, Harry here... Last year, I didn't do a top ten - that wasn't because there weren't any good movies, but because frankly - everyone beat me to it and honestly I didn't feel I had anything really to add. This year, I'm determined to beat the rest of the staff to the punch. I will have 10 top narrative features from 10 to 1, but first I'll chat about my pick for the best Documentary of the year. BEST DOCUMENTARY OF THE YEAR:   MAN ON WIRE – Easily the best documentary of the year. The story of an artist that will pursue his art to the edge of death, past the realm of legality and into the land of legend. The story is poetic, breathtaking and chilling. I absolutely loved it.   10. BURN AFTER READING – Too often, the Coen Brother's comedic endeavors go unheralded by the critical community, who would seemingly prefer it if the Coens stuck to more somber affairs. Don't get me wrong, I love NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN, but it is the Coen's comedies that make me love them as much as I do. I have watched my BURN AFTER READING Blu-Ray 3 times since receiving it – and I've laughed every single time. Frances McDormand has also turned in my favorite actress role of the year – in the English language. Clooney, Malkovich and Pitt rule this film – and again the brothers never cease to make me laugh.   9. SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE – I've only seen this once and I have the feeling that the more I watch it, the higher it will rise on my list. Danny Boyle is quickly becoming the most esoteric and consistent auteur of our day. He is hitting in different genres nearly every time at bat and making wonderful films. SLUMDOG feels like a post WWII Hollywood movie set in another land in another time period, but it's a story that makes you hope, makes you cry and makes you cheer. It's a film that makes your heart soar. A really fantastic film.   8. PINEAPPLE EXPRESS – I have the distinct feeling that I'm the only critic that will put this film in their top ten movies of the year, but frankly – that's a badge of honor. David Gordon Green has made films before that have appeared on critic's top spots on their various lists, but here… with PINEAPPLE EXPRESS he dared to make a film wildly out of whack with his directorial oeuvre. His reward is to wallow in critical obscurity for nailing a stoner action comedy that made me laugh so hard my snot turned bloody, that made me smile as tears rolled down my face and that has me looking at its DVD release this first Tuesday of 2009 with furious anticipation. In a just world – James Franco would garner a nomination for Best Supporting Actor, not the win, mind you – that belongs to Heath. This is the very best film to have Seth Rogen in it to date – and I can not wait to own it and watch it repeatedly. This was a superior work!   7. MILK – My second favorite Sean Penn performance behind Spicoli in FAST TIMES AT RIDGEMONT HIGH. Harvey Milk is a complete and totally realized character and possibly the single best film by Gus Van Sant. I have to admit, I knew who Harvey Milk was, but knew next to no details about his death – so much of this story was brand new to me and in the wake of a certain proposition failing in California, I feel this movie is the exact right film to heal and unite the factions that will overturn a truly despicable piece of legislation. Every performance in the film is rock solid and Gus nailed it all.

 

http://www.aintitcool.com/node/39592

So long mom

United Corporations of America

Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold

By Roger Ebert

It's all coming to pieces, isn't it -- the world we live in, the continuity we thought we could count on, the climate, the economy, the fragile peace. The 20th century was called "the American Century," with some reason. I do not believe the 21st century will belong to anybody, and it may not last for 100 years of human witness. There are nuclear weapons in the Middle East and on the Indian subcontinent, and if one is used, more will follow and who can say when the devastation will end?

The weather is unhinged. It is no longer a question of global warming. It is a question of what in the hell is happening? I do not have to rehearse for you the details of this horrible American autumn, and a winter not yet half over. The tornadoes, the hurricanes, the floods, the blizzards, the wild fires, the heat waves, the water shortages, the power blackouts. The White House declares "a state of emergency" and the federal government sends money. How many states of emergency are we still in? How much more money is there?

The economy is going to get worse. We may have no idea how much worse. The greed and corruption at the economy's core reached a scale unimaginable at the time of the Great Depression. Even responsible banks are threatened, because they cannot borrow and are fearful of lending. The world seeks safe havens for wealth, but the dollar is weaker, the yen is also surrounded by Recession, and if we park our money in China, a risky notion, what will happen with their money, parked here?

Earlier this year, reviewing a bad movie named "Sex Drive," I wrote:

As they motor South, they pass through Amish country. Luckily it's the day of the annual Amish sex orgy, and Ian meets sexy Mary, who falls in love with him, flashes her boobs, etc. The director, Sean Anders, should be ashamed of himself. Lucky the Amish don't go to movies, or he'd be facing a big lawsuit. Better be nice to the Amish. In a year we'll be trading gold bars for their food, haha.

Haha, indeed. The Amish can grow their own food and heat their own homes and feed their own horses, and where does that leave us? Many of my readers right now are living in the middle of vast urban areas, 50 miles from farmland One partner has been laid off, the other fears the same. There are children and mortgage payments. What will they do on the level of survival? I've been reading a memoir by Larry Woiwode, who farms his own land in North Dakota and may not have foreseen disaster but seems prepared to deal with it.

How will my family fare? Yes, we've earned some nice money in our careers. But I have found that nothing cures wealth like illness. Few people in this country can afford to get seriously ill, and many cannot afford to take a single day off from their job--or jobs. Under Bush we doubled our national debt in only eight years. Now the experts say Obama will have no choice but to increase it even further, with "bailouts" of an increasingly leaky ship. That means spending money we do not have--printing it, in the final analysis. That leads to inflation. Inflation leads to legends of fortunes in pre-war Germany reduced to worthless paper, of people trading shopping bags full of banknotes for a loaf of bread. What does money mean when it is backed only by debt?

What if war in the Middle East cuts off oil, even if OPEC wants to sell it? What if the shipping lanes are blocked? What will happen then? Less developed countries may paradoxically be better off. The closer to the land and to subsistence a family lives, the better-equipped it is to survive. The unemployed family in the middle of a city will have savings, unemployment insurance, maybe government and private assistance of various kinds, and may be able to just get by, but how long will that last? Everybody can't move in with the relatives. Some people have to be the relatives.

http://blogs.suntimes.com/ebert/2008/12/things_fall_apart_the_centre_c.html

The Top 8 LGBT Political Videos of 2008

by Jennifer Vanasco

This year, gay videos were viral.

From Keith Olbermann's speech on gay marriage, to the Prop. 8 musical, to Wanda Sykes's take on "That's so gay," 2008 was the year that gay news made good video.

Here are our picks for the American political LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender) videos that made the most impact this year.

Note to our international readers: much of this video may not be viewable to those outside the U.S. Our apologies! We try to limit our use of U.S.-only video, but sometimes we have to make exceptions. For more on this topic, read Sarah's explanation of why and when we use geo-blocked content.

1. Prop 8: The Musical!

This sly, star-studded response to the passage of California's Proposition 8 — starring Jack Black as Jesus — made the economic case for gay marriage in such a funny, subversive way, you can't help but sing along.

2. Keith Olbermann: Gay marriage is a question of love

Keith Olbermann stunned viewers with his six-minute rant on why the Prop 8 vote was wrong, saying, "Why does this matter to you? What is it to you? In a time of impermanence and fly-by-night relationships these people over here want the same chance at permanence and happiness that is your option."

3. The Victory Fund response to Sally Kern

When Oklahoma Rep. Sally Kern compared us to terrorists, the Victory Fund responded by playing her own words over the faces of gays and lesbians.

This is the face of terrorism, Sally Kern? Really?

4. Gay marriage: Ellen vs. McCain; Jon Stewart vs. Huckabee

The talk show hosts were on our side. Here's Ellen taking on McCain — and winning.

And here's Jon Stewart taking on Mike Huckabee.

The Daily Show With Jon StewartM - Th 11p / 10c

Mike Huckabee Pt. 2

Barack Obama Interview
John McCain Interview

Sarah Palin Video
Funny Election Video

Note Jon's brilliant argument that religion is definitely a choice — and yet we still give rights to religious people.

Bonus: Ellen's strong, moving statement on what gay marriage means to her.

http://www.afterellen.com/TV/2008/12/top-8-gay-videos-of-2008

Escalation goes on, more Israeli air raids kill more civilians

Escalation goes on, more Israeli air raids kill more civilians

Gaza Strip, 30 Dec, 2008-MMN Israeli air force still launching the heaviest bombardments in Gaza ever. The fourth day of Israeli military operation started with heavy bombings took place west of Gaza City in addition to killing 2 children and around 10 in various places in Gaza to raise death toll to 390 while wounded people up to 1 thousand and 700 most of them civilians.

The Israeli announced decapitation strategy of targeting Hamas movement and avoiding civilians clearly unveiled. The F16s targeted a group of governmental building using tons of explosion resulting in killing at least 4 Palestinians. The bombings lasted for 30 minutes echoed across Gaza City causing great trauma and panic for civilians. Total damage stormed the buildings while partially destroyed some neighboring populated buildings.

Israeli warplanes, drones, artillery machines, and apache helicopters broadly took part in the nightly raids. Israeli air raids destroyed a sport club and a building inside the Islamic University of Gaza IUG. IUG was hit Monday night and 2 building were destroyed. One of the destroyed building was the laboratory funded by Islamic Development Bank estimated of millions of dollars.

The bombings continued for the whole night in separated areas in Gaza Strip. Many civic targets were bombs including mosques in Khanyonis City. Old man was killed in south of Gaza in Rafah City.

A run-Hamas police station was hit in El Burej refugee camp mid of Gaza and another one in Bait lahia. The naval forces participated in bombing Gaza destroying many buildings and premises on the coastal areas. Information office I linked to Popular Resistance Committees based in a residential building was hit and medical sources reported some that some people wounded in the raid.

Tuesday morning two female children aged 4 and 11 years killed in North of Gaza while they were on a donkey-driven carriage. The bombing of these children debunks the Israeli allegation of only targeting Hamas militants. They were bombed by High-tech F16 in daylight.

 

http://www.gazatoday.blogspot.com/

Sign the Appeal to Stop the Attack on Gaza!

Urgent Appeal for Israel to Immediately Cease Its Murderous Bombing, Siege and Threatened Invasion of Palestinian Gaza
Initiated by 2008 U.N. Human Rights Award winner Ramsey Clark

Urgent Appeal for Israel to Immediately Cease Its Murderous Bombing, Siege and Threatened Invasion of Palestinian Gaza!

To: President George W. Bush, President-Elect Barack Obama, Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice, Secretary of State Designate Hillary Clinton, Vice President Richard Cheney, Vice President-elect Joe Biden, Congressional leaders, U.N. Secretary General Ban, U.N. General Assembly President d'Escoto-Brockmann, members of the U.N. Security Council, U.N. member states, the President, Prime Minister, Cabinet and Opposition leader of Israel, and Major media representatives:

For 60 years, Israel has persecuted the Palestinian people with impunity in defiance of United Nations General Assembly and United Nations Security Council Resolutions, orders of the International Court of Justice, International Law and fundamental human rights.

Throughout the years, Israel has proclaimed itself the victim as it grew richer, more powerful and more violent, while Palestinians were abused, impoverished, divided and demeaned.

A consistent tactic of Israel through all the years has been to divide Palestinians against their most effective organizations. Through most of the recent years Israel has attacked Fatah. Now it is Hamas that Israel attacks. But there is only one Palestinian people and there can be only one Palestinian State. This has been the guiding principle of the PLO. Israel's policy has always been to destroy the possibility of a Palestinian State. Its criminal assault on Hamas is in truth Israel's continuing assault on the possibility of a Palestinian State: divide and conquer.

Now in the waning days of the disastrous Bush Administration, the government of Israel with its Prime Minister under criminal indictment, is testing whether world opinion will permit it to escalate its isolation and impoverishment of Palestine and selective and systematic assassination of Palestinian leadership in Gaza to a genocidal, indiscriminate assault and invasion of Palestinian Gaza, knowing full well its acts will inflame passions throughout the Middle East and Arab and Muslim worlds risking conflict of disastrous magnitude in Lebanon, Syria, Iran, Afghanistan, and elsewhere, even between India and Pakistan.

Beyond crushing Gaza's capacity to resist and imposing its final solution on Palestinians, Israel is seeking confrontation that will lead to war with the U.S., the European Union, and NATO fighting for Israel against Iran, Syria, Lebanon, Pakistan and Afghanistan to impair their ability to prevent expansion of Israel's domination of the region while the "only one President at a time" the U.S. has, George W. Bush, will support Israel, finding all fault with Gaza.

In these dangerous and difficult days and hours the undersigned call upon the United Nations, the United States, the European Union, NATO members, and European countries independently, the governments of Asia, foremost China, India, Indonesia and Pakistan, the nations of Africa, and the Americas to demand an immediate ceasefire throughout Israel and Palestine and the assurance of peace. All borders to Gaza, Israel, Egypt and the Mediterranean Sea, must be opened for humanitarian relief and a complete arms and trade embargo on Israel until it fully complies with all the requirements of permanent peace.

We call upon all the people, the ultimate power in every nation when organized and energized, to take to the streets where they live and demand that their governments do all in their power to cause Israel to stop its war of aggression against Palestine and for all parties to pursue peace and for Israel, the U.S. and other nations who have provided material support for Israel's aggression to be held accountable for the deaths, injuries and damage Israel has inflicted.

We call upon governments and humanitarian agencies to provide all needed emergency relief to Palestine - medical care, food, humanitarian supplies, shelter; and on all the media that truly seeks peace, justice and respect for the equal dignity of every child, woman and man on earth to headline the demand that Israel stop its aggression immediately. All parties must engage in continuous negotiation with all Palestinians until a one state solution is agreed or the state of Palestine as mandated not later than October 1948 in UN General Assembly Resolution 181 (1947) is created, fully implemented, and Palestine thrives.

Sincerely,
(Your signature will be appended here based on the contact information you enter in the form above)

Initiated and signed by
Ramsey Clark, winner, 2008 U.N.Human Rights Award

http://www.iacenter.org/gazapetition/

 

Uncle Jay Explains the News

For Some Culprits In Financial Meltdown, Life Is Still Pretty Good

By Zachary Roth

This probably won't come as a surprise. But some of the major culprits in the financial crash -- former CEOs or top execs at banks whose billion-dollar losses helped precipitate the turmoil -- don't seem to be paying much of a price for their catastrophic mismanagement.

Dick Fuld, the former CEO of Lehman -- whose collapse in September directly ushered in the broader panic -- is already plotting a comeback. According to the Financial Times, he's thinking about starting a "small advisory boutique to help companies with strategic and financial issues." The venture would "harness [Fuld's] contacts in US companies," says the paper.

Meanwhile, two former Wall Street honchos appear to be living the high-life after seeing taxpayers step in to rescue their troubled firms.

The New York Post reports today that Peter Kraus, a former top executive with Merrill Lynch, just bought a $37 million Park Avenue apartment -- "featuring 11-foot-high ceilings, three fireplaces, three maid's rooms, a library, a gallery and a family room/gym." In September, Kraus got a $25 million golden parachute from Merrill when it was sold to Bank of America, even though he had only started work there that month. B of A received $25 billion in taxpayer money as part of the bailout.

http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/12/for_some_culprits_in_financial.php

The Scam That Outscams "The Scam"

 by Dan Solin

The Bernie Madoff Ponzi scheme is generally regarded as the biggest financial scam of all time. I don't agree.

Hedge funds, and particularly "fund of funds," make Bernie's despicable conduct look like small potatoes.

The underlying premise of hedge funds -- outsized returns with no increase in risk--is fatally flawed. Numerous studies have demonstrated the vast majority of these funds do not beat the returns investors could obtain for themselves, by investing in a simple S&P 500 index fund.

It was only a matter of time before these funds started to implode. According to a web site that tracks hedge fund failures, 108 funds at 66 firms have gone of business since 2006. Many more are sure to follow.

While the pitch of hedge funds is a scam standing alone, the "fund of funds" embellished the con. These funds charged 1% or more for selecting and monitoring the performance of "the best" managers.

This scam relied on the gullibility of investors who believe "best managers" is not an oxymoron. The data clearly indicates that it is. If you own an actively managed fund, the odds of it beating its benchmark over 1 year is 1 in 3, over 5 years it's 1 in 5, over ten years it's 3 in 100 and over 25 years it's essentially zero!

How anyone can claim to be able to beat these odds and convince so many sophisticated investors they should pay them to do so, is the poster child for a combination of greed and cognitive dissonance.

Enter the track record of Bernie Madoff. Fifteen years with steady returns of 11%. This was something fund of funds could really sell -- and they did. Some funds reaped hundreds of millions of dollars of fees for simply forwarding billions of dollars of assets to Madoff. These investors felt privileged to gain access to him and were happy to pay the fund fee, secure in the knowledge that Madoff was being closely monitored.

You know what happened next.

Here's the real scam: How motivated were these "fund of funds" to carefully monitor Madoff's performance? Did they really want to kill the golden goose? Or is it likely they either knew his returns were too good to be true or engaged in "willful blindness" to his fraud?

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dan-solin/the-scam-that-outscams-th_b_153544.html

Herbert Hoover resents the implication

The Top 'Non-Troversies' Of 2008

by John Ridley

Morning Edition, December 31, 2008 · They seemed so important at the time, didn't they? The issues over which much ink was spilled, many talking heads blathered, and, in some cases, congressional committees were convened. But as we prepare to turn the calendar page, what seemed monumental then has all the significance of a Dennis Kucinich stump speech in retrospect.

So before they completely fade from memory, let's take a look back at some of the top "non-troversies" of 2008:

• Was that Chinese Olympic gymnast 14, or was she 16? And did anybody really think the same country that puts lead paint on our children's toys was going to come clean about this? America needed to let this gold medal loss go and just relive the Olympic magic with another Michael Phelps commercial.

• In chattering-class politics, The New Yorker ran a cover caricature of Barack and Michelle Obama as dangerous radicals — an attempt at satire that displayed the wit and charm of an Ivy League sorority pledge at an all-you-can-drink cosmopolitan bar. Some readers said the drawing was offensive; some said it was too clever for its own good. And 99 percent of America said: "What's The New Yorker?"

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=98697202

 

 

Why Israel Won't Allow Journalists into Gaza

by Siun , Firedoglake

"The boat while still in international waters has been rammed by Israeli patrol boats, our vessel has been damaged ..."

Overnight, the Jerusalem Post carried a story, "Navy Sends Activist Boat Back to Cyprus," which said:

The navy has turned back a boat trying to carry pro-Palestinian protesters to the Gaza Strip, officials said Tuesday

Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor said the boat ignored an Israeli radio order to turn back early Tuesday. He said the boat tried to outmaneuver the navy ship and crashed into it, lightly damaging both vessels. The navy then escorted the boat to the territorial waters of Cyprus.

In a report from  AFP, Israeli authorities said is was all just a mistake:

Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor told AFP that the naval vessel tried to contact the aid boat by radio for identification and to inform it that it could not enter Gaza.

"After the boat did not answer the radio, it sharply veered, and the two vessels collided, causing only light damage," Palmor said.

The Israeli spokesman accused the pro-Palestinian activists of "seeking provocation more than ever."

But this time, a reporter, Karl Penhaul from CNN, was actually on the boat -- and gave the report you see above as the events were happening:

... the boat, while still in international waters has been rammed by Israeli patrol boats, our vessel has been damaged ... there's been some damage to a roof section and to glass windows around the steering area and the captain says that the vessel is taking on a small amount of water, that at this stage is not life-threatening, but the ship was very severely rammed by one of those Israeli patrol boats, those patrol boats have been following the vessel for the half-hour prior to the ramming incident ... they rammed the vessel without warning but after the ramming there was a radio message saying the Israeli patrol boat was accusing the Dignity of being involved in terrorist activities.

No wonder Israel is continuing its refusal to allow foreign journalists into Gaza.

http://www.alternet.org/blogs/video/116263/why_israel_won't_allow_journalists_into_gaza/

Please go now!

Bush Avoids the Spotlight on Vacation, Despite International Conflict

by Kirit Radia from Crawford, Texas:

Even an emerging crisis in the Middle East, one he pledged to resolve just 13 months ago, has not drawn President George W. Bush from his final vacation before leaving office. Despite his personal pledge at Annapolis last year to broker a deal between Israel and the Palestinians before 2009, this weekend Bush sent his spokesmen to comment in his stead.

The spokesman's statement, while blaming Hamas for the outbreak of violence, did not signal that the United States is prepared to step in to resolve the conflict, suggesting that this president is content to leave the matter for his successor.

Since departing Washington for Crawford on Friday, President Bush has made no attempt to be seen in public. In fact, he has yet to leave his ranch.

http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalradar/2008/12/bush-avoids-the.html

California Sues U.S. Over Environmental Rule Changes

By Joel Rosenblatt

Dec. 30 (Bloomberg) -- California Attorney General Jerry Brown sued the Bush administration over claims it implemented new regulations dropping required scientific reviews of federal agency policies that may hurt endangered and threatened species.

Brown sued yesterday in federal court in San Francisco claiming the new regulations, proposed by the U.S. Department of the Interior and U.S. Department of Commerce and approved Dec. 16, conflict with provisions of the Endangered Species Act, according to an e-mailed statement Brown sent today.

The rules allow federal agencies to pursue or permit mining and logging on federal land without review or comment of scientists on what effects the activities may have on endangered or threatened species and their habitats, Brown said in the statement. The regulations also drop a requirement that proposed federal projects measure greenhouse gas emissions, Brown said.

"The Bush administration is seeking to gut the Endangered Species Act on its way out the door," Brown said. The regulations "circumvent a time-tested statute that for 35 years has required scientific review of proposed federal agency decisions that affect wildlife."

Tina Kreisher, a spokeswoman for the Interior Department, said the agency doesn't comment on pending lawsuits.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=aSBSSQXtCXUI&refer=us

Fighting the terrorists

Iraq War Ends

Saturday, July 4th, 2009

 

Troops to Return Immediately

U.S. Army helicopters begin moving troops and equipment from Saddam Hussein's former Baghdad palace.

 

By Jude Shinbin 

WASHINGTON — Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom were brought to an unceremonious close today with a quiet announcement by the Department of Defense that troops would be home within weeks.

"This is the best face we can put on the most unfortunate adventure in modern American history," Defense spokesman Kevin Sites said at a special joint session of Congress. "Today, we can finally enjoy peace — not the peace of the brave, perhaps, but at least peace."

As U.S. and coalition troops withdraw from Iraq and Afghanistan, the United Nations will move in to perform peacekeeping duties and aid in rebuilding. The U.N. will be responsible for keeping the two countries stable; coordinating the rebuilding of hospitals, schools, highways, and other infrastructure; and overseeing upcoming elections.

The Department of the Treasury confirmed that all U.N. dues owed by the U.S. were paid as of this morning, and that moneys previously earmarked for the war would be sent directly to the U.N.'s Iraq Oversight Body.

Streets Come Alive as Relief and Exuberance Greet End of Conflicts

By Schuyler Frank 

Thousands take to the streets to celebrate the announced end to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Ex-Secretary Apologizes for W.M.D. Scare

300,000 Troops Never Faced Risk of Instant Obliteration

By Frank Larimore 

Ex-Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice reassured soldiers that the Bush Administration had known well before the invasion that Saddam Hussein lacked weapons of mass destruction.

Court Indicts Bush on High Treason Charge

By Bart Garzon 

George W. Bush, the 43rd President of the United States, was indicted Monday on charges of high treason.

http://www.nytms-se.com