A very important tip for you all STAY AWAY FROM STATIN DRUGS
The Silver Birch tree (Betula pendula) has been used medicinally for thousands of years. Now new research has shown that a component of the bark of the Birch has the capacity to treat many of the ailments that face 21st century society.
Centuries ago, in the highlands of Scotland, kilted men with blood curdling hairstyles, uncompromising nobbly knees, and a wanton disregard for grammar would tap the Silver Birch for its sap and drink it as a treatment for bladder and kidney complaints. The leaves have also been used as medicine and so has the bark. It is this papery bark which contains an essential oil that in turn contains a substance known as betulin: it is this betulin that has caught the attention of researchers recently.
The researchers found that mice who were given betulin had lowered cholesterol, reduced incidence of diet-induced obesity, improved insulin sensitivity, and were less likely to develop plaques in their arteries.
In the research mice who were on a Western style diet that was high in fat were given either betulin, the cholesterol lowering statin drug “lovastatin”, or a placebo. Both the statin and the betulin led to less weight gain. Betulin also lowered fat levels in the liver, blood and fat tissue. The mice on betulin also became more sensitive to insulin and it is of course, lack of sensitivity to insulin that is a feature of type 2 diabetes.
In summary, betulin seems to be counteracting some of the key metabolic problems of our time.
The way that betulin works is by targeting some proteins known as sterol regulatory element-binding proteins (SREBPs). These SREBPs are involved in activating genes that encourage the manufacture of cholesterol, fatty acids, and triglycerides.
Betulin is already used in the manufacture of other drugs and it has low toxicity levels so you can bet that you will see drugs available soon.
*****Or you could try the balanced, buffered and synergistic form of betulin close to as it exists in nature in herbal medicines made from Silver Birch bark. It’s revolutionary thinking, but nature’s innate wisdom might just work.*******
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
Strange Uses for Aspirin
Aspirin is an excellent painkiller and anti-inflammatory, but it also has many other household uses.
1. To remove perspiration stains from white T-shirts, dissolve two aspirins in half a cup of warm water and apply to the area of the fabric where the stain is. This should be left for a couple of hours before washing.
2. Has your hair ever gone yellow or green from chlorine in a swimming pool? This can be remedied very quickly by dissolving 8 aspirin tablets in a glass of water and rubbing the resulting liquid into your hair. Leave for about ten minutes and then rinse it out. Shampoo in the usual way.
3. First aid for pimples: Crush an aspirin tablet and add a little water to make a paste. Cover the pimple with this paste and after a few minutes rinse it off. The pimple will be less red and reduced in size. Aspirin is an astringent.
4. Drop a soluble aspirin tablet into the water before arranging cut flowers in a vase. It helps to keep them fresh for longer.
5. To treat dandruff, crush two aspirin tablets and add them to your usual shampoo. Leave on the hair for a couple of minutes and rinse as normal.
6. Bee stings can be treated in the same way but any adverse reaction to the sting should be reported to a doctor.
7. Gardeners can treat fungal soil infections by dissolving an aspirin tablet in a liter of water and using the mixture to treat the soil. Don't make this mixture too strong if using around plants as it may burn the leaves.
8. Aspirin can also be mixed with potting compost in the greenhouse, or garden, to prevent fungus forming around the roots of new plants.
9. Take some fresh lemon juice and mix it with a soluble aspirin to make a mixture that will remove grass stains, nicotine stains, etc from hands.
10. Mosquito bites can be eased by wetting the skin and rubbing an aspirin over the spot.
1. To remove perspiration stains from white T-shirts, dissolve two aspirins in half a cup of warm water and apply to the area of the fabric where the stain is. This should be left for a couple of hours before washing.
2. Has your hair ever gone yellow or green from chlorine in a swimming pool? This can be remedied very quickly by dissolving 8 aspirin tablets in a glass of water and rubbing the resulting liquid into your hair. Leave for about ten minutes and then rinse it out. Shampoo in the usual way.
3. First aid for pimples: Crush an aspirin tablet and add a little water to make a paste. Cover the pimple with this paste and after a few minutes rinse it off. The pimple will be less red and reduced in size. Aspirin is an astringent.
4. Drop a soluble aspirin tablet into the water before arranging cut flowers in a vase. It helps to keep them fresh for longer.
5. To treat dandruff, crush two aspirin tablets and add them to your usual shampoo. Leave on the hair for a couple of minutes and rinse as normal.
6. Bee stings can be treated in the same way but any adverse reaction to the sting should be reported to a doctor.
7. Gardeners can treat fungal soil infections by dissolving an aspirin tablet in a liter of water and using the mixture to treat the soil. Don't make this mixture too strong if using around plants as it may burn the leaves.
8. Aspirin can also be mixed with potting compost in the greenhouse, or garden, to prevent fungus forming around the roots of new plants.
9. Take some fresh lemon juice and mix it with a soluble aspirin to make a mixture that will remove grass stains, nicotine stains, etc from hands.
10. Mosquito bites can be eased by wetting the skin and rubbing an aspirin over the spot.
Monday, February 14, 2011
Goldman Sachs Again? Still!
‘Government Sachs’ Is Back
Who's designing Geithner's rescue plan? Goldman guys, of course.
(Page 1 of 2)
As it was in the beginning, so shall it be in the end: Goldman Sachs will be there.
Back in the '90s and through the mid-'00s, major figures from Goldman Sachs such as Robert Rubin, Gary Gensler and Hank Paulson stood fast against derivatives regulation (Rubin and Gensler) and lobbied successfully for higher leverage ratios so they could bet more of their capital on the market boom (Paulson). When those policies came to grief and Wall Street imploded, and the Feds scrambled to rescue stricken insurance giant AIG, Goldman CEO Lloyd Blankfein was reportedly the only bank executive invited to an emergency meeting at the New York Federal Reserve (convened by then-Fed president Tim Geithner).
Now Treasury Secretary Geithner—a Rubin protégé, of course—has assigned two more ex-Goldman men to fix the vast mess their colleagues helped to create.
They are Steve Shafran, a former favorite of Paulson's, and Bill Dudley, Goldman's former chief economist and now the successor to Geithner as head of the New York Fed. Shafran and Dudley have been given the mind-bending task of resurrecting the market for securitized assets, a policy that is linked to an effort to lure the private market back in to bid on the toxic securitized assets that sit like dead weight on major banks' balance sheets. This vast project is being designed in two parts. First, revive the asset securitization market, frozen since last year's crash, through the TALF, the Term Asset-Backed Securities Loan Facility (don't try to say this at home!), started up on Tuesday. This program will bundle triple-A-rated loans into new securities and market them. Second, begin to sell off the toxic assets to private funds, in hopes that some day the TALF-revived securitization market will create demand for the lower-rated assets as well. According to a Treasury spokesman, the TALF plan and the troubled-asset buy-up program are "operating on parallel tracks."
The key now is to bring in hedge funds and other hoards of private capital by giving them government guarantees limiting their potential losses. The pitfall is that if the American public, already riled to populist fury over Wall Street's postcrash perks, finds out what a sweet deal these new investors are getting—without any limitations on executive compensation like those imposed on banks—people might get more upset.
This is not to speak ill of Shafran and Dudley or, for that matter, Geithner. The plan his Treasury team is working on is intricate, and it may well be the only way to bring the private sector back in—and get the rest of us, the taxpayers, out. A Treasury spokesman says that Shafran and Dudley are not the only ones working on the plan, which Geithner is personally overseeing. "It's been a group effort," he says, adding that there are no price guarantees. The private funds and the government will "share" first losses and profits, though details haven't been fleshed out. Nor should we ignore the fact that Goldman's "best and brightest" have sometimes dug us out of holes in the past. Former Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin, for example, is often criticized these days (by me, among others) for quashing then-Commodity Futures Trading Commission Chairwoman Brooksley Born's 1998 proposal to discuss derivatives regulation. What is rarely noted is that Rubin, at the time, was in the middle of resolving the Asian financial contagion, and he was justly concerned with sending a chilling message to Wall Street.
Still, the omnipresence of Goldman Sachs does make one wonder about the insularity of this world—what economist Jagdish Bhagwati once called the "Wall Street–Treasury complex." Or as another joke has it, Goldman is so politically savvy in Washington, it should be called "Government Sachs." Is there no one else to fix the crisis but specialists from the company that helped create it? According to a new report out by the public advocacy group the Consumer Education Foundation, over the past decade Wall Street investment firms, commercial banks, hedge funds, real-estate companies and insurance conglomerates forked over $1.725 billion in political contributions. They spent another $3.4 billion on lobbyists.
"Our government has been misappropriated by Goldman Sachs," says Christopher Whalen of Institutional Risk Analytics, a long-time critic of Geithner, whom Whalen likens to Chauncey Gardiner, the clueless hero of "Being There," who is manipulated by everyone around him. And if Wall Street elites continue to make government policy, will the new regulatory controls we hear so much about—the ones that are supposed to prevent this from happening again—ever really be adopted?
This is the critical question. Despite continued public support for President Obama and early signs that Geithner's various rescue plans—including the $75 billion mortgage bailout scheme announced this week—may be starting to reassure the markets, there is little sign as yet that the administration is engaged in the kind of fundamental rethinking of financial safety and soundness that we need. The problem is not just that Wall Street giants like Goldman, Citigroup and AIG ran wild over the past 20 years, it is that they exist in their current form at all. These institutions are too big and too systemic to be allowed to fail according to normal free-market rules, and if they remain that way we will inevitably find ourselves in a situation where taxpayers must rescue them once again.
We have been through this nightmare before, almost step by disastrous step. From 1932 to 1934 the Senate banking and currency committee held hearings on the 1929 crash and found that commercial banks had misrepresented to their depositors the quality of securities that their investment-banking sides were underwriting and promoting. According to a history posted by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. on its Web site, among the culprits was First National City Bank (now Citigroup), which was found to have repackaged the bank's Latin American loans and securitized them without disclosing its own confidential findings that the loans posed adverse risks. Sound familiar? The response of the government in that era was decisive: the Glass-Steagall Act, which separated commercial banking from investment banking. It is a supreme historical irony that 65 years later it was Citigroup, grown monstrous again, that pushed hardest for the destruction of the Glass-Steagall reforms. And it had a big assist from Goldman grads such as Bob Rubin, who was soon afterward hired as chairman of Citi's executive committee.
As the new Consumer Education Foundation report concludes: "Glass-Steagall was a key element of the Roosevelt administration's response to the Depression and considered essential both to restoring public confidence in a financial system that had failed and to protecting the nation against another profound economic collapse." Even if we believe that the economic and financial system may be stabilizing five weeks into Obama's presidency, it's hard to conclude that fundamental confidence has been restored.
Perhaps the Obama administration will see the light and at some point forthrightly address the "too big to fail" problem that even Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke said again this week was "enormous." But it is hard to imagine that a team composed largely of Wall Street's former finest will, all by themselves, push for the breakup of the firms that nurtured and enriched them. And there is scant evidence that Geithner is now soliciting advice from others on the outside, including the new panel led by Paul Volcker—a diehard skeptic of Wall Street's agenda—that Obama set up precisely for this purpose. Who is the Treasury secretary relying on? We don't really know, but certainly one close adviser must be Mark Patterson, Geithner's new chief of staff. Patterson is the former Washington lobbyist for Goldman Sachs.
More
A good blog story at next link
History
Who's designing Geithner's rescue plan? Goldman guys, of course.
(Page 1 of 2)
As it was in the beginning, so shall it be in the end: Goldman Sachs will be there.
Back in the '90s and through the mid-'00s, major figures from Goldman Sachs such as Robert Rubin, Gary Gensler and Hank Paulson stood fast against derivatives regulation (Rubin and Gensler) and lobbied successfully for higher leverage ratios so they could bet more of their capital on the market boom (Paulson). When those policies came to grief and Wall Street imploded, and the Feds scrambled to rescue stricken insurance giant AIG, Goldman CEO Lloyd Blankfein was reportedly the only bank executive invited to an emergency meeting at the New York Federal Reserve (convened by then-Fed president Tim Geithner).
Now Treasury Secretary Geithner—a Rubin protégé, of course—has assigned two more ex-Goldman men to fix the vast mess their colleagues helped to create.
They are Steve Shafran, a former favorite of Paulson's, and Bill Dudley, Goldman's former chief economist and now the successor to Geithner as head of the New York Fed. Shafran and Dudley have been given the mind-bending task of resurrecting the market for securitized assets, a policy that is linked to an effort to lure the private market back in to bid on the toxic securitized assets that sit like dead weight on major banks' balance sheets. This vast project is being designed in two parts. First, revive the asset securitization market, frozen since last year's crash, through the TALF, the Term Asset-Backed Securities Loan Facility (don't try to say this at home!), started up on Tuesday. This program will bundle triple-A-rated loans into new securities and market them. Second, begin to sell off the toxic assets to private funds, in hopes that some day the TALF-revived securitization market will create demand for the lower-rated assets as well. According to a Treasury spokesman, the TALF plan and the troubled-asset buy-up program are "operating on parallel tracks."
The key now is to bring in hedge funds and other hoards of private capital by giving them government guarantees limiting their potential losses. The pitfall is that if the American public, already riled to populist fury over Wall Street's postcrash perks, finds out what a sweet deal these new investors are getting—without any limitations on executive compensation like those imposed on banks—people might get more upset.
This is not to speak ill of Shafran and Dudley or, for that matter, Geithner. The plan his Treasury team is working on is intricate, and it may well be the only way to bring the private sector back in—and get the rest of us, the taxpayers, out. A Treasury spokesman says that Shafran and Dudley are not the only ones working on the plan, which Geithner is personally overseeing. "It's been a group effort," he says, adding that there are no price guarantees. The private funds and the government will "share" first losses and profits, though details haven't been fleshed out. Nor should we ignore the fact that Goldman's "best and brightest" have sometimes dug us out of holes in the past. Former Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin, for example, is often criticized these days (by me, among others) for quashing then-Commodity Futures Trading Commission Chairwoman Brooksley Born's 1998 proposal to discuss derivatives regulation. What is rarely noted is that Rubin, at the time, was in the middle of resolving the Asian financial contagion, and he was justly concerned with sending a chilling message to Wall Street.
Still, the omnipresence of Goldman Sachs does make one wonder about the insularity of this world—what economist Jagdish Bhagwati once called the "Wall Street–Treasury complex." Or as another joke has it, Goldman is so politically savvy in Washington, it should be called "Government Sachs." Is there no one else to fix the crisis but specialists from the company that helped create it? According to a new report out by the public advocacy group the Consumer Education Foundation, over the past decade Wall Street investment firms, commercial banks, hedge funds, real-estate companies and insurance conglomerates forked over $1.725 billion in political contributions. They spent another $3.4 billion on lobbyists.
"Our government has been misappropriated by Goldman Sachs," says Christopher Whalen of Institutional Risk Analytics, a long-time critic of Geithner, whom Whalen likens to Chauncey Gardiner, the clueless hero of "Being There," who is manipulated by everyone around him. And if Wall Street elites continue to make government policy, will the new regulatory controls we hear so much about—the ones that are supposed to prevent this from happening again—ever really be adopted?
This is the critical question. Despite continued public support for President Obama and early signs that Geithner's various rescue plans—including the $75 billion mortgage bailout scheme announced this week—may be starting to reassure the markets, there is little sign as yet that the administration is engaged in the kind of fundamental rethinking of financial safety and soundness that we need. The problem is not just that Wall Street giants like Goldman, Citigroup and AIG ran wild over the past 20 years, it is that they exist in their current form at all. These institutions are too big and too systemic to be allowed to fail according to normal free-market rules, and if they remain that way we will inevitably find ourselves in a situation where taxpayers must rescue them once again.
We have been through this nightmare before, almost step by disastrous step. From 1932 to 1934 the Senate banking and currency committee held hearings on the 1929 crash and found that commercial banks had misrepresented to their depositors the quality of securities that their investment-banking sides were underwriting and promoting. According to a history posted by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. on its Web site, among the culprits was First National City Bank (now Citigroup), which was found to have repackaged the bank's Latin American loans and securitized them without disclosing its own confidential findings that the loans posed adverse risks. Sound familiar? The response of the government in that era was decisive: the Glass-Steagall Act, which separated commercial banking from investment banking. It is a supreme historical irony that 65 years later it was Citigroup, grown monstrous again, that pushed hardest for the destruction of the Glass-Steagall reforms. And it had a big assist from Goldman grads such as Bob Rubin, who was soon afterward hired as chairman of Citi's executive committee.
As the new Consumer Education Foundation report concludes: "Glass-Steagall was a key element of the Roosevelt administration's response to the Depression and considered essential both to restoring public confidence in a financial system that had failed and to protecting the nation against another profound economic collapse." Even if we believe that the economic and financial system may be stabilizing five weeks into Obama's presidency, it's hard to conclude that fundamental confidence has been restored.
Perhaps the Obama administration will see the light and at some point forthrightly address the "too big to fail" problem that even Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke said again this week was "enormous." But it is hard to imagine that a team composed largely of Wall Street's former finest will, all by themselves, push for the breakup of the firms that nurtured and enriched them. And there is scant evidence that Geithner is now soliciting advice from others on the outside, including the new panel led by Paul Volcker—a diehard skeptic of Wall Street's agenda—that Obama set up precisely for this purpose. Who is the Treasury secretary relying on? We don't really know, but certainly one close adviser must be Mark Patterson, Geithner's new chief of staff. Patterson is the former Washington lobbyist for Goldman Sachs.
A good blog story at next link
Sunday, February 13, 2011
Currency Change?
Amid all the mid-east protests the world economy still struggles along. Read between the lines folks?
IMF calls for dollar alternative
By Ben Rooney, staff reporter February 10, 2011
NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- The International Monetary Fund issued a report Thursday on a possible replacement for the dollar as the world's reserve currency.
The IMF said Special Drawing Rights, or SDRs, could help stabilize the global financial system.
SDRs represent potential claims on the currencies of IMF members. They were created by the IMF in 1969 and can be converted into whatever currency a borrower requires at exchange rates based on a weighted basket of international currencies. The IMF typically lends countries funds denominated in SDRs
While they are not a tangible currency, some economists argue that SDRs could be used as a less volatile alternative to the U.S. dollar.
Dominique Strauss-Kahn, managing director of the IMF, acknowledged there are some "technical hurdles" involved with SDRs, but he believes they could help correct global imbalances and shore up the global financial system.
"Over time, there may also be a role for the SDR to contribute to a more stable international monetary system," he said.
The goal is to have a reserve asset for central banks that better reflects the global economy since the dollar is vulnerable to swings in the domestic economy and changes in U.S. policy.
In addition to serving as a reserve currency, the IMF also proposed creating SDR-denominated bonds, which could reduce central banks' dependence on U.S. Treasuries. The Fund also suggested that certain assets, such as oil and gold, which are traded in U.S. dollars, could be priced using SDRs.
Oil prices usually go up when the dollar depreciates. Supporters say using SDRs to price oil on the global market could help prevent spikes in energy prices that often occur when the dollar weakens significantly.
The dollar alternatives
Fred Bergsten, director of the Peterson Institute for International Economics, said at a conference in Washington that IMF member nations should agree to create $2 trillion worth of SDRs over the next few years.
SDRs, he said, "will further diversify the system."
Dollar firms after starting 2011 weak
The dollar has been drifting lower so far this year as the global economy improves and investors regain their appetite for more risky assets such as stocks and commodities.
After rising above 81 in early January, the dollar index, which measures the U.S. currency against a basket of other international currencies, eased below 77 earlier this week.
However, the dollar was higher Thursday against the euro, pound and yen as disappointing corporate results weighed on stock prices following several days of gains on Wall Street. The rally in the commodities market also cooled, with the price of oil and metals backing off recent highs.
0:00 /4:40Bernanke vs. Ryan: Inflation wars
In addition, renewed concerns about the debt problems facing troubled European economies put pressure on the euro and supported the dollar. The yield on Portugal's benchmark bond rose to a record high Wednesday, and borrowing costs for Ireland, Spain and Greece remain elevated.
"The market is shedding risk, with equities and commodities weakening and the U.S. dollar broadly stronger" said Camilla Sutton, currency strategist at Scotia Capital.
Traders were also digesting comments from Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke, who told Congress Wednesday that despite a strengthening economic recovery, the unemployment rate remains high while inflation is "still quite low."
Those remarks reaffirmed the view that "the Fed would be very slow to tighten policy given its dual mandate of price stability and employment," analysts at Sucden Financial wrote in a research report.
Bernanke also urged lawmakers to come up with a "credible plan" to bring down "unsustainable" federal budget deficits.
"We expect that the outlook for the U.S. fiscal position will weigh heavily on the U.S. dollar in the quarters ahead," said Sutton. In the near-term, however, she said "a strengthening growth profile" could help provide "a temporary period of dollar strength."
http://money.cnn.com/2011/02/10/markets/dollar/index.htm
IMF calls for dollar alternative
By Ben Rooney, staff reporter February 10, 2011
NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- The International Monetary Fund issued a report Thursday on a possible replacement for the dollar as the world's reserve currency.
The IMF said Special Drawing Rights, or SDRs, could help stabilize the global financial system.
SDRs represent potential claims on the currencies of IMF members. They were created by the IMF in 1969 and can be converted into whatever currency a borrower requires at exchange rates based on a weighted basket of international currencies. The IMF typically lends countries funds denominated in SDRs
While they are not a tangible currency, some economists argue that SDRs could be used as a less volatile alternative to the U.S. dollar.
Dominique Strauss-Kahn, managing director of the IMF, acknowledged there are some "technical hurdles" involved with SDRs, but he believes they could help correct global imbalances and shore up the global financial system.
"Over time, there may also be a role for the SDR to contribute to a more stable international monetary system," he said.
The goal is to have a reserve asset for central banks that better reflects the global economy since the dollar is vulnerable to swings in the domestic economy and changes in U.S. policy.
In addition to serving as a reserve currency, the IMF also proposed creating SDR-denominated bonds, which could reduce central banks' dependence on U.S. Treasuries. The Fund also suggested that certain assets, such as oil and gold, which are traded in U.S. dollars, could be priced using SDRs.
Oil prices usually go up when the dollar depreciates. Supporters say using SDRs to price oil on the global market could help prevent spikes in energy prices that often occur when the dollar weakens significantly.
The dollar alternatives
Fred Bergsten, director of the Peterson Institute for International Economics, said at a conference in Washington that IMF member nations should agree to create $2 trillion worth of SDRs over the next few years.
SDRs, he said, "will further diversify the system."
Dollar firms after starting 2011 weak
The dollar has been drifting lower so far this year as the global economy improves and investors regain their appetite for more risky assets such as stocks and commodities.
After rising above 81 in early January, the dollar index, which measures the U.S. currency against a basket of other international currencies, eased below 77 earlier this week.
However, the dollar was higher Thursday against the euro, pound and yen as disappointing corporate results weighed on stock prices following several days of gains on Wall Street. The rally in the commodities market also cooled, with the price of oil and metals backing off recent highs.
0:00 /4:40Bernanke vs. Ryan: Inflation wars
In addition, renewed concerns about the debt problems facing troubled European economies put pressure on the euro and supported the dollar. The yield on Portugal's benchmark bond rose to a record high Wednesday, and borrowing costs for Ireland, Spain and Greece remain elevated.
"The market is shedding risk, with equities and commodities weakening and the U.S. dollar broadly stronger" said Camilla Sutton, currency strategist at Scotia Capital.
Traders were also digesting comments from Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke, who told Congress Wednesday that despite a strengthening economic recovery, the unemployment rate remains high while inflation is "still quite low."
Those remarks reaffirmed the view that "the Fed would be very slow to tighten policy given its dual mandate of price stability and employment," analysts at Sucden Financial wrote in a research report.
Bernanke also urged lawmakers to come up with a "credible plan" to bring down "unsustainable" federal budget deficits.
"We expect that the outlook for the U.S. fiscal position will weigh heavily on the U.S. dollar in the quarters ahead," said Sutton. In the near-term, however, she said "a strengthening growth profile" could help provide "a temporary period of dollar strength."
http://money.cnn.com/2011/02/10/markets/dollar/index.htm
Saturday, February 12, 2011
People Power
I have contemplated this event and the outcome all this week. People Power!
People Power has shown to be a very strong force in this matter, so why can we not keep this momentum rolling, worldwide?
Lets look at the words individually, in simple terms for this exercise:
People: Human Beings; the mass of ordinary persons; the populace.
People are family, relatives, ancestors, fellow citizens of the World.
People come in all shapes, sizes, and colors.
Power: The capacity to perform or act effectively is a choice we make personally.
The might of a nation, political organization, or similar group.
The power of a government to exercise REASONABLE control over persons and property within its jurisdiction in the interest of the general security, health, safety, morals, and welfare except where legally prohibited (as by constitutional provision)
People are Humans, the Ordinary People are the majority of the populace, not the Elite or the ELECTED Government.
There is a message here:
ELECTION: is a decision making process whereby people vote for a preferred political candidate or party to act as representatives in government.
So we the People have given our Power to the Governments and with this trust they have and continue to let us down.
People are currently dis-empowered or invisible in our political system, we must regain our power.
People must regain Power to find Peace.
"power to the people"
Peace is commonly understood to mean the absence of hostilities.
Peace is not a symbol, peace is a mindset.
John Lennon wrote:
You say you want a revolution
Well, you know
We all want to change the world
You tell me that it's evolution
Well, you know
We all want to change the world
You say you'll change the constitution
Well, you know
We all want to change your head
You tell me it's the institution
Well, you know
You'd better free your mind instead
AND
Imagine
No need for greed or hunger
A brotherhood of man
Imagine all the people
Sharing all the world
You may say that I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will live as one
Thank you Mr Lennon.
"Imagine" a "revolution" by the People, for the People full of the Power of Peace.
All we are saying is give Peace a Chance.
Come on People, lets start NOW.
Find an activist group, one that suits you in your country and become active to take back our Planet for ourselves, our children and future generations.
Much love to you all WE ARE ONE!!!!
People Power has shown to be a very strong force in this matter, so why can we not keep this momentum rolling, worldwide?
Lets look at the words individually, in simple terms for this exercise:
People: Human Beings; the mass of ordinary persons; the populace.
People are family, relatives, ancestors, fellow citizens of the World.
People come in all shapes, sizes, and colors.
Power: The capacity to perform or act effectively is a choice we make personally.
The might of a nation, political organization, or similar group.
The power of a government to exercise REASONABLE control over persons and property within its jurisdiction in the interest of the general security, health, safety, morals, and welfare except where legally prohibited (as by constitutional provision)
People are Humans, the Ordinary People are the majority of the populace, not the Elite or the ELECTED Government.
There is a message here:
ELECTION: is a decision making process whereby people vote for a preferred political candidate or party to act as representatives in government.
So we the People have given our Power to the Governments and with this trust they have and continue to let us down.
People are currently dis-empowered or invisible in our political system, we must regain our power.
People must regain Power to find Peace.
"power to the people"
Peace is commonly understood to mean the absence of hostilities.
Peace is not a symbol, peace is a mindset.
John Lennon wrote:
You say you want a revolution
Well, you know
We all want to change the world
You tell me that it's evolution
Well, you know
We all want to change the world
You say you'll change the constitution
Well, you know
We all want to change your head
You tell me it's the institution
Well, you know
You'd better free your mind instead
AND
Imagine
No need for greed or hunger
A brotherhood of man
Imagine all the people
Sharing all the world
You may say that I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will live as one
Thank you Mr Lennon.
"Imagine" a "revolution" by the People, for the People full of the Power of Peace.
All we are saying is give Peace a Chance.
Come on People, lets start NOW.
Find an activist group, one that suits you in your country and become active to take back our Planet for ourselves, our children and future generations.
Much love to you all WE ARE ONE!!!!
Gaza celebrates Mubarak resignation
Thousands of Palestinians in the besieged Gaza Strip have taken to the streets, celebrating Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak's resignation.
Gazans congratulated the Egyptian people on achieving this goal, describing it as the victory of the will of the Egyptian people and their sacrifices.
"We consider the resignation of President Mubarak to be the start of the victory of the Egyptian revolution which we support with all its demands," Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri told AFP shortly after the Egyptian leader stepped down and handed control to the army.
On Friday, after 18 days of massive anti-Mubarak protests across Egypt, the Egyptian leader finally stepped down and handed power to the military after 30 years in power.
Hamas, the democratically-elected government of Gaza, has called on the new Egyptian leadership to "immediately" open the Rafah crossing between Gaza and Egypt and end the coastal sliver's three-and-a-half-year blockade.
Rafah is the only access point connecting the besieged Gaza Strip to the outside world.
For nearly four years, Egypt helped Israel to impose a deadly siege on the Palestinian territory, keeping Gaza's 1.5 million population trapped in the tiny strip.
Egypt was the first Arab country to sign a peace treaty with Israel in 1979 following days of secret negotiations at Camp David, in the United States. Many Egyptians, however, believe that the treaty did not end Israeli occupation and opposed it.
HM/HGH/MMN
Gazans congratulated the Egyptian people on achieving this goal, describing it as the victory of the will of the Egyptian people and their sacrifices.
"We consider the resignation of President Mubarak to be the start of the victory of the Egyptian revolution which we support with all its demands," Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri told AFP shortly after the Egyptian leader stepped down and handed control to the army.
On Friday, after 18 days of massive anti-Mubarak protests across Egypt, the Egyptian leader finally stepped down and handed power to the military after 30 years in power.
Hamas, the democratically-elected government of Gaza, has called on the new Egyptian leadership to "immediately" open the Rafah crossing between Gaza and Egypt and end the coastal sliver's three-and-a-half-year blockade.
Rafah is the only access point connecting the besieged Gaza Strip to the outside world.
For nearly four years, Egypt helped Israel to impose a deadly siege on the Palestinian territory, keeping Gaza's 1.5 million population trapped in the tiny strip.
Egypt was the first Arab country to sign a peace treaty with Israel in 1979 following days of secret negotiations at Camp David, in the United States. Many Egyptians, however, believe that the treaty did not end Israeli occupation and opposed it.
HM/HGH/MMN
Thursday, February 10, 2011
Anonymous Operation: Bottoms Up
When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. — Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government.
- The Declaration of Independence -
Take back what is ours. These long term politicians have been in office for way to long its time that we push them out and bring in a fresh set of humans to continue with the ways of justice, freedom and transparency. The plan is simple, start from the bottom and work our way up to the top... start with city councils, police officers, fire fighters, paramedics, teachers, lawyers, judges, paralegals, county clerks and so on. Infiltrate these positions and ride the wave to the top! Don't let anyone stand in your way but only let those to help you. While in these positions only be honest, only do whats right, listen to those who speak to you, act accordingly to the positive influence and expel positive back into your communities you serve. Be who you are, we will know its you who is on our side for the movement.
In accepting this mission you are expected to be a PERFECT example of what this country should be. This mission has a level setting of 10 and is not for the weak. Don't be afraid to ask for help from your fellow anons, friends, family and community.
After all, we are you, we are no one, we are everyone.
We are anonymous
we do not forgive
we do not forget
we will take back what is ours
we will fight you if we can not do this in a peaceful manner
we will win!
Expect us.
If the first amendment doesn’t work, the second one will
Creative Commons Attribution
All content on this website is automatically licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license. You are free to redistribute and/or remix it, but you have to credit the author, or, if the author is unknown ("Anonymous"), place a backlink to the corresponding page on AnonNews and attribute it to "Anonymous".
Source
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. — Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government.
- The Declaration of Independence -
Take back what is ours. These long term politicians have been in office for way to long its time that we push them out and bring in a fresh set of humans to continue with the ways of justice, freedom and transparency. The plan is simple, start from the bottom and work our way up to the top... start with city councils, police officers, fire fighters, paramedics, teachers, lawyers, judges, paralegals, county clerks and so on. Infiltrate these positions and ride the wave to the top! Don't let anyone stand in your way but only let those to help you. While in these positions only be honest, only do whats right, listen to those who speak to you, act accordingly to the positive influence and expel positive back into your communities you serve. Be who you are, we will know its you who is on our side for the movement.
In accepting this mission you are expected to be a PERFECT example of what this country should be. This mission has a level setting of 10 and is not for the weak. Don't be afraid to ask for help from your fellow anons, friends, family and community.
After all, we are you, we are no one, we are everyone.
We are anonymous
we do not forgive
we do not forget
we will take back what is ours
we will fight you if we can not do this in a peaceful manner
we will win!
Expect us.
If the first amendment doesn’t work, the second one will
Creative Commons Attribution
All content on this website is automatically licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license. You are free to redistribute and/or remix it, but you have to credit the author, or, if the author is unknown ("Anonymous"), place a backlink to the corresponding page on AnonNews and attribute it to "Anonymous".
The "internet kill switch"
Well folks if you want to keep our freedom of speech and our ability to use the internet I suggest we all sign this petition and pass the link on to everyone we know
Stop the Switch!
Inspired by Egypt’s ability to cut off internet access to almost all of its people, governments around the world are racing to develop the same kind of “internet kill switch.” As we saw in Egypt, information blackouts created by shutting off the internet, fundamentally deny people their freedom of speech, prevent them from doing business online, and stop them from communicating with their friends and family. The spectre of an internet kill switch is now facing people living in democracies and dictatorships alike -- there is even an "internet kill switch" bill before the U.S. Congress!
The "internet kill switch" can work in one of two ways: either by giving the government the legal authority to demand that all internet service providers (ISPs) shut down, or by configuring a “switch” that controls their country’s entire internet infrastructure. We need a massive movement of internet users committed to protecting an open internet for all. Please sign the urgent petition below, which we'll deliver to those countries cosnsidering the switch, and globally to the United Nations which is meeting soon to discuss freedom of speech online.
Dear World Leaders,
"We believe that no country should have an 'internet kill switch,' that is, the ability to cut off access to the internet to an overwhelming majority of a nation's population through technical or legal means. The internet belongs to all of us and we call upon you to resist all efforts to develop such a capacity at home or abroad."
Sign Here
Access's live web symposium will examine the impact of new (social) media and the internet on political freedom. On the one hand, we can expect grassroots activists to make use of technology to facilitate their activities. On the other hand, the new era provides opportunities for dictators and regimes to survey and monitor like never before. With voices from academia to the front line, Access will explore how activists use the net, the challenges for state actors, and the likely winners and losers in the digital cat and mouse game.
Watch the symposim..........
Stop the Switch!
Inspired by Egypt’s ability to cut off internet access to almost all of its people, governments around the world are racing to develop the same kind of “internet kill switch.” As we saw in Egypt, information blackouts created by shutting off the internet, fundamentally deny people their freedom of speech, prevent them from doing business online, and stop them from communicating with their friends and family. The spectre of an internet kill switch is now facing people living in democracies and dictatorships alike -- there is even an "internet kill switch" bill before the U.S. Congress!
The "internet kill switch" can work in one of two ways: either by giving the government the legal authority to demand that all internet service providers (ISPs) shut down, or by configuring a “switch” that controls their country’s entire internet infrastructure. We need a massive movement of internet users committed to protecting an open internet for all. Please sign the urgent petition below, which we'll deliver to those countries cosnsidering the switch, and globally to the United Nations which is meeting soon to discuss freedom of speech online.
Dear World Leaders,
"We believe that no country should have an 'internet kill switch,' that is, the ability to cut off access to the internet to an overwhelming majority of a nation's population through technical or legal means. The internet belongs to all of us and we call upon you to resist all efforts to develop such a capacity at home or abroad."
Access's live web symposium will examine the impact of new (social) media and the internet on political freedom. On the one hand, we can expect grassroots activists to make use of technology to facilitate their activities. On the other hand, the new era provides opportunities for dictators and regimes to survey and monitor like never before. With voices from academia to the front line, Access will explore how activists use the net, the challenges for state actors, and the likely winners and losers in the digital cat and mouse game.
Watch the symposim..........
Alfalfa Contamination
Yep you guessed it Monsanto again........this company is a monster
The Seedier Side of Alfalfa Contamination
by Cassandra Anderson
Phil Geertson is a conventional alfalfa seed grower who has been involved in efforts to stop GE (genetically engineered) alfalfa since 2003 resulting in a Supreme Court decision in 2010 on Forage Genetics/Monsanto's GE alfalfa. Mr. Geertson began his career as a Registered Civil Engineer but later changed his life's work to farming and plant breeding in order to enjoy the outdoors. He has spent the last 30 years farming and raising many diversified crops and has been a partner in alfalfa breeding programs for 25 years. When RR (Roundup Ready) alfalfa was first proposed, Geertson realized that all alfalfa could quickly be contaminated by the Roundup Ready RR gene and that is the reason that he was the lead plaintiff against the USDA for deregulating GE alfalfa in 2005. Deregulation of GE crops means that seeds and plants may be planted without any restrictions. Geertson said that GE alfalfa will contaminate all alfalfa plants!
Read More at Source
The Seedier Side of Alfalfa Contamination
by Cassandra Anderson
Phil Geertson is a conventional alfalfa seed grower who has been involved in efforts to stop GE (genetically engineered) alfalfa since 2003 resulting in a Supreme Court decision in 2010 on Forage Genetics/Monsanto's GE alfalfa. Mr. Geertson began his career as a Registered Civil Engineer but later changed his life's work to farming and plant breeding in order to enjoy the outdoors. He has spent the last 30 years farming and raising many diversified crops and has been a partner in alfalfa breeding programs for 25 years. When RR (Roundup Ready) alfalfa was first proposed, Geertson realized that all alfalfa could quickly be contaminated by the Roundup Ready RR gene and that is the reason that he was the lead plaintiff against the USDA for deregulating GE alfalfa in 2005. Deregulation of GE crops means that seeds and plants may be planted without any restrictions. Geertson said that GE alfalfa will contaminate all alfalfa plants!
Wednesday, February 09, 2011
US Ambassadors Called Back to Washington!
Keep an eye on this my meter is tilting....... follow the link to the source and read the comments.............very interesting
In an unprecedented move, apparently one that has never happened before, nearly all U.S. Ambassadors to all nations have been called back to Washington for a summit conference. This event, mostly unreported, concluded on 4-Feb-2011.
politico.com reports, “Ambassadors from almost all 260 U.S. embassies, consulates and other posts in more than 180 countries are expected to convene at the State Department for what’s being billed as the first meeting of its kind.”
huffingtonpost.com, “Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton is convening an unprecedented mass meeting of U.S. ambassadors.”
The first logical thought that comes to mind…
Looking back at all previous world crisis, what might now be so important, evidently more-so than anything ever in the past, to call all Ambassadors back to Washington? And why has the press not reported on such an unusual event involving every U.S. diplomatic ambassador in the world?
The sky’s the limit with ideas and conspiracy…
To get all their stories ‘straight’ ahead of time – for something
To prearrange settling the debt score between nations prior to a new world currency roll-out
A dollar currency devaluation
China is calling in our debt
New severely damaging Wikileaks about to release
Afraid of electronic communication leaks of something very important to discuss
???
While most Americans were involved with the SuperBowl, and the main stream media with the situation in Egypt, hardly any reporting on the event can be found… fine time to do something ‘under the radar’.
Could this actually be simply a ‘first time’ of such a gathering to discuss ‘normal’ business? At first instinct, suspicion is aroused.
stay tuned…
Update, found this link from the U.S. Department of State website ‘Notice to the Press’ on February 1. This meeting was ‘officially’ about something named QDDR.
http://www.state.gov/s/dmr/qddr/
http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2011/02/155834.htm
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton convened the first ever Global Chiefs of Mission Conference. This will be the first time U.S. Ambassadors will gather from around the world simultaneously. A principal aim of the conference will be to prepare for the implementation of the recommendations in the Quadrennial Diplomacy and Development Review (QDDR)
“The QDDR provides a blueprint for elevating American “civilian power” to better advance our national interests and to be a better partner to the U.S. military.”
Some of the objectives of the QDDR
* Creating an Under Secretary for Economic Growth, Energy and the Environment
* Establishing a new Bureau for Energy Resources
* Creating an Under Secretary for Civilian Security
* Under Secretary for Arms Control and International Security Affairs
* Establish a Bureau for Counterterrorism
* Establishing a Coordinator for Cyber Issues
In summary, it appears that the U.S. State Department is trying to establish more effective control over their foreign ambassador offices and programs. The QDDR is the only official explanation offered by the State Dept. as to the reason for calling in all foreign ambassadors. Who knows what else goes on behind closed door meetings…
Source
In an unprecedented move, apparently one that has never happened before, nearly all U.S. Ambassadors to all nations have been called back to Washington for a summit conference. This event, mostly unreported, concluded on 4-Feb-2011.
politico.com reports, “Ambassadors from almost all 260 U.S. embassies, consulates and other posts in more than 180 countries are expected to convene at the State Department for what’s being billed as the first meeting of its kind.”
huffingtonpost.com, “Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton is convening an unprecedented mass meeting of U.S. ambassadors.”
The first logical thought that comes to mind…
Looking back at all previous world crisis, what might now be so important, evidently more-so than anything ever in the past, to call all Ambassadors back to Washington? And why has the press not reported on such an unusual event involving every U.S. diplomatic ambassador in the world?
The sky’s the limit with ideas and conspiracy…
To get all their stories ‘straight’ ahead of time – for something
To prearrange settling the debt score between nations prior to a new world currency roll-out
A dollar currency devaluation
China is calling in our debt
New severely damaging Wikileaks about to release
Afraid of electronic communication leaks of something very important to discuss
???
While most Americans were involved with the SuperBowl, and the main stream media with the situation in Egypt, hardly any reporting on the event can be found… fine time to do something ‘under the radar’.
Could this actually be simply a ‘first time’ of such a gathering to discuss ‘normal’ business? At first instinct, suspicion is aroused.
stay tuned…
Update, found this link from the U.S. Department of State website ‘Notice to the Press’ on February 1. This meeting was ‘officially’ about something named QDDR.
http://www.state.gov/s/dmr/qddr/
http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2011/02/155834.htm
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton convened the first ever Global Chiefs of Mission Conference. This will be the first time U.S. Ambassadors will gather from around the world simultaneously. A principal aim of the conference will be to prepare for the implementation of the recommendations in the Quadrennial Diplomacy and Development Review (QDDR)
“The QDDR provides a blueprint for elevating American “civilian power” to better advance our national interests and to be a better partner to the U.S. military.”
Some of the objectives of the QDDR
* Creating an Under Secretary for Economic Growth, Energy and the Environment
* Establishing a new Bureau for Energy Resources
* Creating an Under Secretary for Civilian Security
* Under Secretary for Arms Control and International Security Affairs
* Establish a Bureau for Counterterrorism
* Establishing a Coordinator for Cyber Issues
In summary, it appears that the U.S. State Department is trying to establish more effective control over their foreign ambassador offices and programs. The QDDR is the only official explanation offered by the State Dept. as to the reason for calling in all foreign ambassadors. Who knows what else goes on behind closed door meetings…
Tuesday, February 08, 2011
Julian Assange extradition hearing
Updates from the Guardian
5.30pm:CloseLink to this update: http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/blog/2011/feb/07/assange-extradition-hearing/print#block-36 Speaking outside court after the hearing, Assange said:
For the past five-and-a-half months we have been in a condition where a black box has been applied to my life. On the outside of that black box has been written the word 'rape'. That box is now, thanks to an open court process, been opened.
I hope over the next day we will see that that box is in fact empty and has nothing to do with the words that are on the outside of it. We have seen that today and I would like to thank my supporters and my lawyers for continuing to help me. A process like this surely lets you understand who your friends are.
More TBC
5.30pm:CloseLink to this update: http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/blog/2011/feb/07/assange-extradition-hearing/print#block-36 Speaking outside court after the hearing, Assange said:
For the past five-and-a-half months we have been in a condition where a black box has been applied to my life. On the outside of that black box has been written the word 'rape'. That box is now, thanks to an open court process, been opened.
I hope over the next day we will see that that box is in fact empty and has nothing to do with the words that are on the outside of it. We have seen that today and I would like to thank my supporters and my lawyers for continuing to help me. A process like this surely lets you understand who your friends are.
Obama Was Used, And Is Now Used Up
by Robert Freeman
Barack Obama was used. Of course, he knew he was being used when he made the deal. But what he didn't know was how quickly he would be used up. Now he has to face two years of humiliation knowing that he betrayed the people and the country he claimed to champion - and knowing that everyone else knows it as well - but also knowing that he's gotten what's coming to him.
Obama made a deal to get the job in the first place. The deal was that he would carry on with Bush's bailout of the banks, with Bush's two wars, with Bush's suppression of civil liberties, that he wouldn't prosecute or even investigate any of the enormous fraud that had brought down the country, or the lies that had railroaded it into war.
Even before he took office, he began fulfilling his end of the bargain. He appointed Larry Summers head of the National Economic Council. It was Summers, more than any other person, who was responsible for dismantling the Glass-Steagall regulations that had acted as a firebreak against banks looting the country since the Great Depression. Summers had made millions consulting for hedge funds before taking the office.
Obama appointed Timothy Geithner Secretary of the Treasury. Geithner had been head of the New York Federal Reserve Bank, another central actor in the hear-no-evil-see-no-evil-speak-no-evil dereliction that passed for financial oversight in the Bush administration. He had been a major architect under Bush of the financial bailout that passed trillions of dollars to his former banking cohorts on the pretext of saving the system.
Obama re-appointed Ben Bernanke chairman of the Federal Reserve Board. Before becoming Fed Chair, Bernanke had been Bush's Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers. Together with Geithner, Bernanke is the person most responsible for the collapse, the one person who could have slowed the asset bubble while it was still possible. He had been at the helm of the Fed since February 2006 and a member of its board for years before that.
Obama re-appointed Robert Gates, Bush's Secretary of Defense, signaling that there would be profitable continuity with Bush's wars, gulags, and other military expressions of empire. And then, of course, he quickly tripled the number of U.S. forces in Afghanistan even without a coherent strategy or even statement of goals.
He put together a "stimulus package" of $787 billion when reputable economists were screaming that the collapse in demand from the Great Recession was at least four times that amount. Then, in an attempt to appease the Republicans, he made one third of it business tax cuts, despite the notorious ineffectiveness of such policies in generating jobs. When states cut back their payrolls and spending in the slump, it effectively neutralized the impact of Obama's program. Yet he never seriously attempted to get more.
He proposed no jobs program to employ the seven million people who had lost their jobs. No infrastructure program to repair the failing roads, bridges, tunnels, water and sewerage systems of the country. His anti-foreclosure program was a joke. Some three million homes will go into foreclosure this year alone while one in four mortgages are under water. The share of equity that middle class Americans own in their homes is now lower than it was before World War II.
And now the conspicuous, embarrassing truth is that he's not needed any more except as a tilt-up dummy sustaining the illusion of democracy. And you can see why. The rich owners of the country who put him into office in the certainty that he would be a smooth liar, able to sell the masses on the empty opiates of "hope" and "change" - they certainly don't need him any more. Do the rundown.
The owners of the banks don't need him. They got their buddies, Obama's appointees Geithner and Bernanke, to buy their trillions of dollars of toxic sludge with taxpayer money, saving them from imminent bankruptcy. They've got the Fed loaning them money at zero percent interest so they can loan it back to the government at three percent and to payday borrowers at hundreds of percent. It is literally a free, no-risk license to print money.
The same bankers, the ones who caused the Great Collapse, got Obama to create the fiction of financial reform that left them bigger than they were before the collapse and with their exotic derivatives - Warren Buffet's "financial weapons of mass destruction" - untouched. They are making the largest profits in their history and paying themselves the biggest bonuses on record. What do they need Obama for any more?
The insurance companies don't need him. They got him to create the fiction of health care reform by requiring 32 million Americans to buy their intentionally defective products and getting middle class chumps to pay for it. Their stock prices doubled as soon as the reform bill was enacted, a pretty clear sign of what the smart money boys knew about the deal.
They got Obama to abandon his campaign promise of enacting a public option that would have actually brought down the cost of health care. So we still have a system that costs twice what any other industrial nation's system costs and which delivers inferior results. It is still on track to bankrupt the country by consuming one out of every six (soon to be one out of five) dollars spent in the economy. What do they need Obama for any more?
The weapons makers don't need him. Since Eisenhower, they've been the king makers in American politics. They've gotten a continuation of the never-ending wars they have always been able to engineer. In fact Bush's Secretary of Defense Gates, now Obama's, commented recently that the U.S. was never going to leave Afghanistan. It's clear who's running that show. What do they need Obama for any more?
The oil and gas companies don't need him. They got the collapse of climate change legislation that they wanted at Copenhagen. Even as their products hurtle the earth toward inescapable calamity, they are left with effectively no restrictions on their poisonous products. What do they need Obama for any more?
Not having the guts to raise taxes on the rich who now corner a larger share of the nation's income than at any time since 1929, Obama has appointed a commission to recommend changes to Social Security. He loaded it with people who, even before it started, made it clear they would recommend gutting the most successful public program of the past 80 years. If past is prelude, they will likely try to turn it over to the renowned stewardship of the finance industry and the stock market, just as Bush had tried to do. It's like when only Nixon could go to China, or when only Clinton could end welfare as we know it.
From the minute he took office, he has carried out his designated role of pacifying a rightly restive populace about their economic security while shifting ever more of the nation's wealth to those who are already the most wealthy; of continuing the country's program to impose its empire on other nations by force; of dismantling historic constitutional protections of the people against intrusive and abusive government; of subordinating the people to their new corporate masters.
For a guy who's billed as a "Great Communicator" he has utterly failed to articulate any narrative whatsoever of national transformation or renewal, of rescuing the nation from the precipitous downward spiral begun under Bush, his predecessor. He couldn't even manage to pin ownership of the failed economy on Bush, even though the Great Recession started in December 2007, more than a year before Obama took office.
And finally, with legislative gridlock the only certainty for the next two years, the Federal Reserve has taken control of the nation's economic policy. Its new policy of "quantitative easing" (printing money) is not only despicable in its own right, the recourse of scoundrels and national failures (think Weimar Germany in the 1920s), it is completely undemocratic, carried out in secret by the most notoriously elitist, private institution in America. It is a capitulation to a self-anointed feudal-like autocracy without modern equal, an undisguised admission that it is the banks and their owners that run the country. And it is the inescapable result of Obama's policies.
It's hard to feel sorry for Barack Obama. When all the politics, posturing, posing and pontification are over, his party lost because he betrayed his base and they could not stomach voting for his people or his party again. He's proven himself a duplicitous executive and a feckless "leader" who has "led" the Republicans to their biggest pick-up in the House in decades. Now he has to live with it. But the damage is incalculable. It will last for generations. It will be an embarrassment to watch him try to pretend to be effective the next two years, with everyone - himself included - knowing that he is used up. But he is. Good riddance.
Robert Freeman writes on economics, history and education. His earlier pieces, "The Five Circles of Economic Hell," and “The U.S. is Facing a Weimar Moment,” were also published on CommonDreams. He can reached at robertfreeman10@yahoo.com
Source
Barack Obama was used. Of course, he knew he was being used when he made the deal. But what he didn't know was how quickly he would be used up. Now he has to face two years of humiliation knowing that he betrayed the people and the country he claimed to champion - and knowing that everyone else knows it as well - but also knowing that he's gotten what's coming to him.
Obama made a deal to get the job in the first place. The deal was that he would carry on with Bush's bailout of the banks, with Bush's two wars, with Bush's suppression of civil liberties, that he wouldn't prosecute or even investigate any of the enormous fraud that had brought down the country, or the lies that had railroaded it into war.
Even before he took office, he began fulfilling his end of the bargain. He appointed Larry Summers head of the National Economic Council. It was Summers, more than any other person, who was responsible for dismantling the Glass-Steagall regulations that had acted as a firebreak against banks looting the country since the Great Depression. Summers had made millions consulting for hedge funds before taking the office.
Obama appointed Timothy Geithner Secretary of the Treasury. Geithner had been head of the New York Federal Reserve Bank, another central actor in the hear-no-evil-see-no-evil-speak-no-evil dereliction that passed for financial oversight in the Bush administration. He had been a major architect under Bush of the financial bailout that passed trillions of dollars to his former banking cohorts on the pretext of saving the system.
Obama re-appointed Ben Bernanke chairman of the Federal Reserve Board. Before becoming Fed Chair, Bernanke had been Bush's Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers. Together with Geithner, Bernanke is the person most responsible for the collapse, the one person who could have slowed the asset bubble while it was still possible. He had been at the helm of the Fed since February 2006 and a member of its board for years before that.
Obama re-appointed Robert Gates, Bush's Secretary of Defense, signaling that there would be profitable continuity with Bush's wars, gulags, and other military expressions of empire. And then, of course, he quickly tripled the number of U.S. forces in Afghanistan even without a coherent strategy or even statement of goals.
He put together a "stimulus package" of $787 billion when reputable economists were screaming that the collapse in demand from the Great Recession was at least four times that amount. Then, in an attempt to appease the Republicans, he made one third of it business tax cuts, despite the notorious ineffectiveness of such policies in generating jobs. When states cut back their payrolls and spending in the slump, it effectively neutralized the impact of Obama's program. Yet he never seriously attempted to get more.
He proposed no jobs program to employ the seven million people who had lost their jobs. No infrastructure program to repair the failing roads, bridges, tunnels, water and sewerage systems of the country. His anti-foreclosure program was a joke. Some three million homes will go into foreclosure this year alone while one in four mortgages are under water. The share of equity that middle class Americans own in their homes is now lower than it was before World War II.
And now the conspicuous, embarrassing truth is that he's not needed any more except as a tilt-up dummy sustaining the illusion of democracy. And you can see why. The rich owners of the country who put him into office in the certainty that he would be a smooth liar, able to sell the masses on the empty opiates of "hope" and "change" - they certainly don't need him any more. Do the rundown.
The owners of the banks don't need him. They got their buddies, Obama's appointees Geithner and Bernanke, to buy their trillions of dollars of toxic sludge with taxpayer money, saving them from imminent bankruptcy. They've got the Fed loaning them money at zero percent interest so they can loan it back to the government at three percent and to payday borrowers at hundreds of percent. It is literally a free, no-risk license to print money.
The same bankers, the ones who caused the Great Collapse, got Obama to create the fiction of financial reform that left them bigger than they were before the collapse and with their exotic derivatives - Warren Buffet's "financial weapons of mass destruction" - untouched. They are making the largest profits in their history and paying themselves the biggest bonuses on record. What do they need Obama for any more?
The insurance companies don't need him. They got him to create the fiction of health care reform by requiring 32 million Americans to buy their intentionally defective products and getting middle class chumps to pay for it. Their stock prices doubled as soon as the reform bill was enacted, a pretty clear sign of what the smart money boys knew about the deal.
They got Obama to abandon his campaign promise of enacting a public option that would have actually brought down the cost of health care. So we still have a system that costs twice what any other industrial nation's system costs and which delivers inferior results. It is still on track to bankrupt the country by consuming one out of every six (soon to be one out of five) dollars spent in the economy. What do they need Obama for any more?
The weapons makers don't need him. Since Eisenhower, they've been the king makers in American politics. They've gotten a continuation of the never-ending wars they have always been able to engineer. In fact Bush's Secretary of Defense Gates, now Obama's, commented recently that the U.S. was never going to leave Afghanistan. It's clear who's running that show. What do they need Obama for any more?
The oil and gas companies don't need him. They got the collapse of climate change legislation that they wanted at Copenhagen. Even as their products hurtle the earth toward inescapable calamity, they are left with effectively no restrictions on their poisonous products. What do they need Obama for any more?
Not having the guts to raise taxes on the rich who now corner a larger share of the nation's income than at any time since 1929, Obama has appointed a commission to recommend changes to Social Security. He loaded it with people who, even before it started, made it clear they would recommend gutting the most successful public program of the past 80 years. If past is prelude, they will likely try to turn it over to the renowned stewardship of the finance industry and the stock market, just as Bush had tried to do. It's like when only Nixon could go to China, or when only Clinton could end welfare as we know it.
From the minute he took office, he has carried out his designated role of pacifying a rightly restive populace about their economic security while shifting ever more of the nation's wealth to those who are already the most wealthy; of continuing the country's program to impose its empire on other nations by force; of dismantling historic constitutional protections of the people against intrusive and abusive government; of subordinating the people to their new corporate masters.
For a guy who's billed as a "Great Communicator" he has utterly failed to articulate any narrative whatsoever of national transformation or renewal, of rescuing the nation from the precipitous downward spiral begun under Bush, his predecessor. He couldn't even manage to pin ownership of the failed economy on Bush, even though the Great Recession started in December 2007, more than a year before Obama took office.
And finally, with legislative gridlock the only certainty for the next two years, the Federal Reserve has taken control of the nation's economic policy. Its new policy of "quantitative easing" (printing money) is not only despicable in its own right, the recourse of scoundrels and national failures (think Weimar Germany in the 1920s), it is completely undemocratic, carried out in secret by the most notoriously elitist, private institution in America. It is a capitulation to a self-anointed feudal-like autocracy without modern equal, an undisguised admission that it is the banks and their owners that run the country. And it is the inescapable result of Obama's policies.
It's hard to feel sorry for Barack Obama. When all the politics, posturing, posing and pontification are over, his party lost because he betrayed his base and they could not stomach voting for his people or his party again. He's proven himself a duplicitous executive and a feckless "leader" who has "led" the Republicans to their biggest pick-up in the House in decades. Now he has to live with it. But the damage is incalculable. It will last for generations. It will be an embarrassment to watch him try to pretend to be effective the next two years, with everyone - himself included - knowing that he is used up. But he is. Good riddance.
Robert Freeman writes on economics, history and education. His earlier pieces, "The Five Circles of Economic Hell," and “The U.S. is Facing a Weimar Moment,” were also published on CommonDreams. He can reached at robertfreeman10@yahoo.com
Sunday, February 06, 2011
Saturday, February 05, 2011
Gillard says she won't help Assange
Same as Howard would not help David Hicks. Uncle Sam says NO, yes sir no sir how many bags full!!!!
Prime Minister Julia Gillard says she cannot - and will not - make Julian Assange's legal problems go away.
But she says the WikiLeaks founder, like any Australian citizen, is welcome to return home once they do.
Mr Assange, in London fighting an extradition order to Sweden where he awaits sexual assault charges, has appealed to Ms Gillard to help him return to Australia.
"There's not anything we can, or indeed, should do about that," Ms Gillard told Austereo today.
"They are charges and they've got to be worked through proper process."
Mr Assange would like to return to Australia immediately, but Ms Gillard said it was not the fault of the Australian government that he couldn't.
"I don't go around issuing invitations to come to Australia, you are entitled to be here unless there is some legal obligations keeping him overseas."
Mr Assange's mother has lashed out at the Prime Minister, labelling her a sycophant of the United States which is trying to pursue legal action over the WikiLeaks revelations.
Ms Gillard, who has echoed the view that Mr Assange should be charged, denied she was under the thumb of the US.
"I haven't got any heat in that sense," she said.
Ms Gillard sought to distinguish between the "moral force" of a whistleblower and the action of WikiLeaks in making public hundreds of thousands of classified US documents.
Whistleblowing put Watergate into the public eye, she said.
"That is conduct I can understand. WikiLeaks is something else.
"It's not about making a moral case, it's really about all of this information and just putting it up there and whatever happens happens.
"It's an irresponsible thing to do."
Source
AAP
"There's not anything we can, or indeed, should do about that,"Um hello you are the PM there is plenty you can do, but too spineless. What a disgrace you are.
Prime Minister Julia Gillard says she cannot - and will not - make Julian Assange's legal problems go away.
But she says the WikiLeaks founder, like any Australian citizen, is welcome to return home once they do.
Mr Assange, in London fighting an extradition order to Sweden where he awaits sexual assault charges, has appealed to Ms Gillard to help him return to Australia.
"There's not anything we can, or indeed, should do about that," Ms Gillard told Austereo today.
"They are charges and they've got to be worked through proper process."
Mr Assange would like to return to Australia immediately, but Ms Gillard said it was not the fault of the Australian government that he couldn't.
"I don't go around issuing invitations to come to Australia, you are entitled to be here unless there is some legal obligations keeping him overseas."
Mr Assange's mother has lashed out at the Prime Minister, labelling her a sycophant of the United States which is trying to pursue legal action over the WikiLeaks revelations.
Ms Gillard, who has echoed the view that Mr Assange should be charged, denied she was under the thumb of the US.
"I haven't got any heat in that sense," she said.
Ms Gillard sought to distinguish between the "moral force" of a whistleblower and the action of WikiLeaks in making public hundreds of thousands of classified US documents.
Whistleblowing put Watergate into the public eye, she said.
"That is conduct I can understand. WikiLeaks is something else.
"It's not about making a moral case, it's really about all of this information and just putting it up there and whatever happens happens.
"It's an irresponsible thing to do."
AAP
Mubarak decides to resign: Rumors Only
Only hearsay at this time but keep up the vibes for a resignation. Go my Egyptian brothers and sisters I am with you in prayers and spirit
Rumors suggest that President Hosni Mubarak has decided to announce his resignation as millions of Egyptians take to the streets demanding an immediate end to his decades-long rule.
Millions of protesters have started celebrating after hearing the rumor near Liberation Square in Cairo on Friday, Reuters reported.
However, independent sources have not been able confirm the rumor, which has spread across Egypt like wildfire.
In Cairo, protesters are still at the Liberation Square, the focal point of the recent anti-Mubarak protests.
They say they will not leave the square until Mubarak’s regime is ousted. They have dubbed Friday the Day of Departure, saying the massive rallies aim to force Mubarak out.
Similar demonstrations are being held in Alexandria, Suez, Aswan and Mansoura. Opposition leaders have called for ‘the Week of Resolution’ — a week of protests against Mubarak.
Arab League Chief Amr Mousa and Egypt’s Defense Minister Hussein Tantawi visited anti-government demonstrators in Liberation Square.
Friday’s demonstration was largely peaceful compared to the demonstrations during the last two days.
Meanwhile, hundreds of thousands of people around the world have held rallies to support the revolutionary drive of Egyptians.
In the Tunisian capital Tunis, protesters rallied near the Egyptian Embassy. They told President Mubarak to leave just like ousted Tunisian president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali.
In the Turkish city of Istanbul, protesters called for an immediate regime change in Egypt.
In Lebanese capital, Beirut, people gathered outside the Egyptian Embassy, calling for political reform in Egypt.
Thousands of Malaysian protesters, who took to the streets to show support for the Egyptian revolution, clashed with police while staging a march to the US Embassy in Kuala Lumpur, a Press TV correspondent reported.
They demanded that US President Barack Obama force his Egyptian counterpart to step down.
In the Iranian capital, Tehran, demonstrators took to the streets following the Friday Prayers, chanting slogans against Israel, the US, and Mubarak.
They torched pictures of Mubarak and Obama, setting fire to the American and Israeli flags.
Similar rallies have been staged in other countries such as the Czech Republic, Belgium, Jordan, and Thailand in a show of solidarity with protesters in Egypt.
Source
Rumors suggest that President Hosni Mubarak has decided to announce his resignation as millions of Egyptians take to the streets demanding an immediate end to his decades-long rule.
Millions of protesters have started celebrating after hearing the rumor near Liberation Square in Cairo on Friday, Reuters reported.
However, independent sources have not been able confirm the rumor, which has spread across Egypt like wildfire.
In Cairo, protesters are still at the Liberation Square, the focal point of the recent anti-Mubarak protests.
They say they will not leave the square until Mubarak’s regime is ousted. They have dubbed Friday the Day of Departure, saying the massive rallies aim to force Mubarak out.
Similar demonstrations are being held in Alexandria, Suez, Aswan and Mansoura. Opposition leaders have called for ‘the Week of Resolution’ — a week of protests against Mubarak.
Arab League Chief Amr Mousa and Egypt’s Defense Minister Hussein Tantawi visited anti-government demonstrators in Liberation Square.
Friday’s demonstration was largely peaceful compared to the demonstrations during the last two days.
Meanwhile, hundreds of thousands of people around the world have held rallies to support the revolutionary drive of Egyptians.
In the Tunisian capital Tunis, protesters rallied near the Egyptian Embassy. They told President Mubarak to leave just like ousted Tunisian president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali.
In the Turkish city of Istanbul, protesters called for an immediate regime change in Egypt.
In Lebanese capital, Beirut, people gathered outside the Egyptian Embassy, calling for political reform in Egypt.
Thousands of Malaysian protesters, who took to the streets to show support for the Egyptian revolution, clashed with police while staging a march to the US Embassy in Kuala Lumpur, a Press TV correspondent reported.
They demanded that US President Barack Obama force his Egyptian counterpart to step down.
In the Iranian capital, Tehran, demonstrators took to the streets following the Friday Prayers, chanting slogans against Israel, the US, and Mubarak.
They torched pictures of Mubarak and Obama, setting fire to the American and Israeli flags.
Similar rallies have been staged in other countries such as the Czech Republic, Belgium, Jordan, and Thailand in a show of solidarity with protesters in Egypt.
Julian Assange Speaks via Internet
Fed Square talk by Julina Assange Feb 2011 Melbourne Vic Australia
Friday, February 04, 2011
Message from Anonymous - We Are One
Message from Anonymous to Egyptians in Tahrir Square
Sisters and Brothers in Tahrir Square,
Sisters and Brothers of Egypt...
(CAIRO) - We wish we could be there with you and everywhere else where human beings are faced with repression, fear, violence and suffering at the hands of their governments. Our thoughts, prayers, and minds are with you. The courage you demonstrate in your struggle is a lesson to us all. The world is behind you. Whilst we cannot be with you in the flesh and blood to suffer as you do, we want to make sure you know that you are not alone.
Rest assured your fight is not in vain. Your President has shown the world his true face today. President Mubarak might have his law behind him, but there is something above all laws: Truth. Your truth has been suppressed for far too long, beaten into the ground through the use of secret police, torture, and many similarly deplorable tactics that we are witnessing today at the Tahrir Square and all over Egypt. But nothing can quell your voice, not any more, and certainly not Mubarak and his gang for hire.
You demonstrated your power today standing your ground against the thugs of Mubarak. Of course, you don't know what the future will be, but you know what it should be. You demonstrated your resolve in Tahrir square and in all the streets of Egypt, and if you were able to stand your ground today you will be able to stand your ground tomorrow, and the day after that. On Friday you will march, and there will be no one able to stop you. As you stand united, you are sending a message to all who would seek to rob your country through corruption.
The rest of the world follows the events in Egypt with great hope. The Arab world is showing all citizens the strength and the value of what Mankind really is about. While our governments hesitate to show solid support for your actions, know that your sisters and brothers in the digital world stand beside you in that square. We will never leave you behind, we are here for you.
Your voice is being heard. Today you are not only fighting for Egypt. You are fighting for all of Mankind. And Mankind sides with you. We are you, you are us. Together we are Anonymous.
Yours faithfully,
Anonymous
We are Anonymous.
We are Legion.
We do not forgive.
We do not forget.
We love you.
Expect us.
Sisters and Brothers in Tahrir Square,
Sisters and Brothers of Egypt...
(CAIRO) - We wish we could be there with you and everywhere else where human beings are faced with repression, fear, violence and suffering at the hands of their governments. Our thoughts, prayers, and minds are with you. The courage you demonstrate in your struggle is a lesson to us all. The world is behind you. Whilst we cannot be with you in the flesh and blood to suffer as you do, we want to make sure you know that you are not alone.
Rest assured your fight is not in vain. Your President has shown the world his true face today. President Mubarak might have his law behind him, but there is something above all laws: Truth. Your truth has been suppressed for far too long, beaten into the ground through the use of secret police, torture, and many similarly deplorable tactics that we are witnessing today at the Tahrir Square and all over Egypt. But nothing can quell your voice, not any more, and certainly not Mubarak and his gang for hire.
You demonstrated your power today standing your ground against the thugs of Mubarak. Of course, you don't know what the future will be, but you know what it should be. You demonstrated your resolve in Tahrir square and in all the streets of Egypt, and if you were able to stand your ground today you will be able to stand your ground tomorrow, and the day after that. On Friday you will march, and there will be no one able to stop you. As you stand united, you are sending a message to all who would seek to rob your country through corruption.
The rest of the world follows the events in Egypt with great hope. The Arab world is showing all citizens the strength and the value of what Mankind really is about. While our governments hesitate to show solid support for your actions, know that your sisters and brothers in the digital world stand beside you in that square. We will never leave you behind, we are here for you.
Your voice is being heard. Today you are not only fighting for Egypt. You are fighting for all of Mankind. And Mankind sides with you. We are you, you are us. Together we are Anonymous.
Yours faithfully,
Anonymous
We are Anonymous.
We are Legion.
We do not forgive.
We do not forget.
We love you.
Expect us.
Thursday, February 03, 2011
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