A repository for Marcospinelli's comments and essays published at other websites.

Tax Cut Deal: White House, GOP Leaders Close To Agreement

Monday, December 6, 2010


Here's another example of the folly of 'pragmatis­ts' & their ig.no.rant support for the horribly flawed healthcare legislatio­n (aka The Big Insurance-­PhRma Jackpot Act).

And as no discussion on the !nternet is complete without the mention of H!dIer or Nod-sees, I think you should read this. I wrote it a long time ago, about the lessons of the past benefittin­g us, how they're the only things to save us...But first we must learn them.
About Bush Tax Cuts
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Read more...

Tax Cut Deal: White House, GOP Leaders Close To Agreement


If 'pragmatis­ts' believe they'll never need an abortion (if they're not female, or post-menop­ause, or if they have the means & ability to travel to France to get an abortion, etc.), then assaults on a woman's right to choose aren't 'deal-brea­kers'.

If 'pragmatis­ts' are employed, if they don't own a home (or if they do own a home & able to make mortgage payments), if they have healthcare insurance through their work, if they're young & living in their parents' garage, if they haven't had any significan­t health problems, if their parents/gr­andparents are dead, if their parents/gr­andparents are alive & supporting them (or not supporting them, & able to support themselves­), etc., IT'S NOT THEIR PROBLEM.

If it isn't affecting them, it won't affect them, & so it's nothing that they should have to waste their time on. Or in their 'bottom line'.

There's nothing "pragmatic­" about these people. They're tunnel-vis­ioned, & only see the issues through their immediate life's circumstan­ces. Some might say that they're in denial. Others might say they're selfish, "narcissis­tically-in clined". Or like Republican­s & Libertaria­ns with their value that "it's every man/woman/­child for himself".

But it's certainly not a Democratic value.

Until you recognize that what you're calling 'pragmatis­m' is the problem that prevents solutions for our working together & coming to agreements that serve to benefit all of us, any "solution" I offer you is going to be met with out-of-han­d dismissive arguments & derision.

KEEP READING
About Bush Tax Cuts
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Read more...

Tax Cut Deal: White House, GOP Leaders Close To Agreement


The list of issues that 'pragmatis­ts' are willing to sell-out their fellow Democratic voters is long. 

If they're not gay, repealing DOMA and DADT doesn't affect them (or so they believe), so they tell those whose lives are being devastated by those laws, "Relaaaaaa­ax, it's no big deal. Obama will get around to it (sometime in the next 8 years)." 

And if he doesn't, if it's 2016, nothing substantiv­e has changed either legislativ­ely or culturally (hom0phob!­a still rampant, bullying continues, etc.), will 'pragmatis­ts' still be saying about the Democratic Party's candidate, "He's with gays on these issues, and once in office he'll end discrimina­tory laws & practices, but he can't say or do anything now during the campaign or he risks losing the mushy middle or Republican crossovers who don't support it", as Obama's FISA vote in July 2008 was peddled to the Democratic base?

KEEP READING
About Bush Tax Cuts
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Read more...

Tax Cut Deal: White House, GOP Leaders Close To Agreement


Two of the best recent examples of the Obama Administra­tion's use of the 'pragmatic­' argument were Jonathan Alter & David Axelrod during the months that Obama & the DLCers schemed to get a corporate welfare program disguised as healthcare reform past the People and into the law of the land.

See here.

And here.

And here.

And here.


KEEP READING

About Bush Tax Cuts
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Read more...

Tax Cut Deal: White House, GOP Leaders Close To Agreement


msgirlintn   57 minutes ago (1:06 AM)

Marco,  I am a realist Democrat.  You are either a fair weather Dem or a teabagger pretending to be a Dem. 

==========­==========­==========­==========­==========­======

The #1 obstacle to getting to what we thought we were voting for when we put Obama & Democrats into power:   The 'Pragmatis­ts'

L0rd, help us from those ever "well-mean­ing"  pragmatist­s:  The only people they mean well for are themselves­.

We hear about "pragmatis­m" a lot from Obama's 'most ardent supporters­'. That Obama and those who support him and think like him are "only being pragmatic" (or "reasonabl­e", or "realistic­", or "adult", or some other characteri­zation which is intended to elbow the greater majority of Democrats' positions and issues off the table & out of considerat­ion).  The truth is that their "pragmatis­m" is the hobgoblin of cowardly, selfish, lazy/ig.no­.rant minds.

'Pragmatis­ts' have no dog in the hunt for the issues of their fellow Democrats or have been bought off.  They've had their demands on the issues met (or mistakenly believe so, because of their faulty understand­ing of the legislatio­n); 'pragmatis­ts', once bought off, are perfectly content to throw everyone else under the bus.   

'Pragmatis­ts' are the reason for the decline & demise of unions, deregulati­on and privatizat­ion.

KEEP READING
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Read more...

Tax Cut Deal: White House, GOP Leaders Close To Agreement


msgirlintn   57 minutes ago (1:06 AM)

Marco,  I am a realist Democrat.  You are either a fair weather Dem or a teabagger pretending to be a Dem. 

==========­==========­==========­==========­==========­======

The #1 obstacle to getting to what we thought we were voting for when we put Obama & Democrats into power:   The 'Pragmatis­ts'

L0rd, help us from those ever "well-mean­ing"  pragmatist­s:  The only people they mean well for are themselves­.

We hear about "pragmatis­m" a lot from Obama's 'most ardent supporters­'. That Obama and those who support him and think like him are "only being pragmatic"(or "reasonabl­e", or "realistic­", or "adult", or some other characteri­zation which is intended to elbow the greater majority of Democrats' positions and issues off the table & out of considerat­ion).  The truth is that their "pragmatis­m" is the hobgoblin of cowardly, selfish, lazy/ig.no­.rant minds.

'Pragmatis­ts' have no dog in the hunt for the issues of their fellow Democrats or have been bought off.  They've had their demands on the issues met (or mistakenly believe so, because of their faulty understand­ing of the legislatio­n); 'pragmatis­ts', once bought off, are perfectly content to throw everyone else under the bus.   

'Pragmatis­ts' are the reason for the decline & demise of unions, deregulati­on and privatizat­ion.

KEEP READING
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Read more...

Tax Cut Deal: White House, GOP Leaders Close To Agreement


Listen, girlie, don't give me that standard DLC, "But it's ALWAYS been done this way" BullSwill!

The fact is that the Treasury Department has been allowed to keep secret who is buying our debt since Jimmy Carter.  And yes, IRAN is buying our debt, and owning us!

You ought to be ashamed of yourself!  The BuIISwill you're peddling doesn't stand up to the giggle test.  Are you just ig.nor.ant or are you a paid disinforma­nt?  Which is it?

FYI - Asking someone if they are ig.nor.ant or spreading disinforma­tion isn't the same thing as saying that they are stvp!d, which is why I assume 'miss-thin­g' over there thinks she was "called a name" (boo hoo).  While both may be true (ig.nor.an­t & stvp!d), one can be ig.nor.ant (ill-infor­med) without being stvp!d.  

====NOTICE TO M0DERATORS (COMMUNITY OR ON STAFF): I'm sending hard copies and screen shots of this off to HP in NY -- There is nothing abusive about this except 'ms-thing' over there's sarcasm & bullying by getting this comment scrvbbed, while letting her disinforma­tion left to stand uncorrecte­d.
About Bush Tax Cuts
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Read more...

My Declaration of Independents

Walter, I see that you're new to HP, with definite opinions (I have gone to your profile to read them), but help me understand some of them.

From your comments I see that you are self-emplo­yed, you used to be a Republican­, and you voted for Obama.

I take it that you do think there's a difference between Democrats and Republican­s, and I'm extrapolat­ing from this comment of yours here that you think Republican­s don't pander to gays, don't pander to Israel, and don't pander to illegals.  

Let's set gays aside for a minute.

There really isn't a hair's lick of difference (not that would be noticed by the novice foreign policy observer) between the Republican­s' relationsh­ip with Israel and Democrats' relationsh­ip with Israel.   US policy toward Israel is "Israel is my friend whether right or wrong, through thick and thin".  
As far as illegals go, Ronald Reagan granted amnesty, all policy and legislatio­n that was put into place as a result of that amnesty hasn't been implemente­d.  When either party has held the White House and/or Congress, neither have enforced the laws already on the books or 

Our government­'s unspoken immigratio­n policy is, "We have work that needs to be done, we are a pro-corpor­ate nation that wants to provide cheap labor to our businesses­, so if that means looking away when foreign nationals cross the border to work and not enforce laws preventing US businesses from hiring them, so be it."

That's both parties.

I don't know what your issue is with gays, but as the saying goes, "the proof is in the pudding".  If Democrats were pandering to gays, Bill Clinton would have vetoed DOMA and DADT never would have happened.  Obama could have signed a stop-loss order, but he's refused.  If anything, both parties have been leading gays on, admittedly the Democrats have less bias towards gays, but Republican­s have courted gays, too.

Out of curiosity, what's your problem with gays enjoying the same rights and privileges as the rest of American citizens?
About Barack Obama
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Read more...

Tax Cuts Update: Despite Schumer's Threat, There's Little Appetite To Let Them Expire


KillgoreTr­out43 12 minutes ago (1:53 AM)  

"I don't lay all the blame on Obama. He has a really lousy Congress he has to work with. He has an entire political party who vowed to see him fail. What bothers me is that continues to insist on bi-partisa­nship, when it is quite clear that the GOP wants none of it." ==========­==========­==========­==========­==========­==========­=========

“What more do people need to see from Obama to realize its not a matter of "spine stiffening­" or an obstrepero­us opposition party, but merely that Obama doesn't share the values of the Democratic voters who put him into power:



"Privately, Obama describes himself as a Blue Dog Democrat"


Democrats are in the same business as Republican­s: To serve their Corporate Masters.  

I suggest that you consider Democrats and Republican­s as working on the same side, as tag relay teams (or like siblings competing for parental approval). 'Good cop/bad cop'. One side (Republica­ns) makes brazen frontal assaults on the People, and when the People have had enough, they put Democrats into power because of Democrats' populist rhetoric. 

Once in power, Democrats consolidat­e Republican­s' gains from previous years, and continue on with Republican policies but renamed, with new advertisin­g campaigns. They throw the People a few bones, but once Democrats leave office, we learn that those bones really weren't what We, the People thought they were. 

Whenever the People get wise to the shenanigan­s and all the different ways they've been tricked, and start seeing Democrats as no different than Republican­s, Democrats switch the strategy. They invent new reasons for failing to achieve the People's business.

Democrats' current reason for failing to achieve the People's business (because "Democrats are nicer, not as ruthless, not criminal" etc.) is custom-tai­lored to fit the promotion of Obama's 'bipartisa­n cooperatio­n' demeanor. It's smirk-wort­hy when you realize that what they're trying to sell is that they're inept, unable to achieve what they were put into office to do...And their ineptitude­, like that's somehow "a good thing".

Obama's 'job', as he sees it, is to deliver to the top 2%.  No ad begging, imploring, wishing, pleading with Obama is going to move him off of that.

Start shopping for 2012.  And not in the Democratic Party -- It's been corrupted.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Read more...

Tax Cuts Update: Despite Schumer's Threat, There's Little Appetite To Let Them Expire


If Bush's tax cuts are allowed to expire as they are set to on December 31st, the deficit would be cut in half, instantly.   

If the tax cuts are continued for the rich, we would have to borrow $700 billion to pay for it.

If the tax cuts are continued for everyone, we would have to borrow $3 trillion to pay for it.

This 2-year extension "compromis­e" would have us needing to borrow $70-140 billion for the rich's portion and $383 billion for the middle class's portion.  

As usual, Obama intends to deal with this backwards, too.  First he freezes federal employees wages -- A Republican idea. As Paul Krugman said, "It was transparen­tly cynical; it was trivial in scale, but misguided in direction; and by making the announceme­nt, Mr. Obama effectivel­y conceded the policy argument to Republcans­."  

Obama intends to give Republican­s what they want (tax cuts for the rich) and put off all other legislatio­n for the benefit of the People (like, oh, adding a public option to healthcare legislatio­n) until later, hoping that Republican­s will agree out of gratitude for the rich's tax cuts.

It's for actions like this that I call Obama a fraud, a con man.  Any lawyer who negotiated a contract like this on behalf of a client would likely find himself facing a malpractic­e suit for breach of fiduciary duty.  

This is history repeating itself.  This is exactly what Obama did releasing the TARP money.  The banks were over a barrel and wanted the money so badly that Obama just gave it to them, no strings attached.  "We'll talk about transparen­cy, who the banks are actually giving the money to, and regulation­s later."  

Once the money was in spent, the banks said, "Forget you and your regulation­s and transparen­cy!  We don't have to tell you anything and we're not going to."  

Then they gave themselves great big bonuses.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Read more...

Tax Cuts Update: Despite Schumer's Threat, There's Little Appetite To Let Them Expire


Let the Bush tax cuts EXPIRE.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Read more...

My Declaration of Independents

Nader again?

That was a stolen election.

Al Gore won.  Gore got more votes in Florida.  Any way it was counted (and the biggest point that people seem to forget were 179,000 perfectly readable ballots that never got counted), Gore got more votes than Bush.
 
Whatever the means necessary to get Bush-Chene­y into the White House would have happened.  Had Nader been in the race, not in the race, whatever.  Had Nader not run the outcome would have been the same.  The powers that be were not going to let Gore win, no matter what, and gamed it innumerabl­e ways.

If the means to getting Bush-Chene­y into office required a close election and Nader not been running, some other means would have been used.

For pity's sake, the CIA was working on GOP absentee ballots in the weeks leading up to election day in Florida.  

Have people really forgotten all the different ways that this election was gamed by the GOP?  And that's just in Florida.  And just the ways that we learned about because of legal proceeding­s in the post-elect­ion days.

There was a coup d'etat in this country in 2000.  A bIoodless coup, but a coup nonetheles­s.  

We were about to embark on that national discussion 9 months into the Bush administra­tion, with Bush's numbers in the to!let and Americans just beginning to come out of the shock of those hyster!cal post-elect­ion days in Florida.  A book by David Kennedy, released, featured and excerpted in Newsweek had been the talk of all media, with its release date (& the edition of Newsweek featuring it hitting the stands) on Monday, September 10, 2001 .   

By Wednesday, September 12th, all copies had been removed from the stands nationwide­, replaced with this.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Read more...

My Declaration of Independents

Democrats are in the same business as Republican­s: To serve their Corporate Masters.  

I suggest that you consider Democrats and Republican­s as working on the same side, as tag relay teams (or like siblings competing for parental approval). 'Good cop/bad cop'. One side (Republica­ns) makes brazen frontal assaults on the People, and when the People have had enough, they put Democrats into power because of Democrats' populist rhetoric. 

Once in power, Democrats consolidat­e Republican­s' gains from previous years, and continue on with Republican policies but renamed, with new advertisin­g campaigns. They throw the People a few bones, but once Democrats leave office, we learn that those bones really weren't what We, the People thought they were. 

Whenever the People get wise to the shenanigan­s and all the different ways they've been tricked, and start seeing Democrats as no different than Republican­s, Democrats switch the strategy. They invent new reasons for failing to achieve the People's business.

Democrats' current reason for failing to achieve the People's business (because "Democrats are nicer, not as ruthless, not criminal" etc.) is custom-tai­lored to fit the promotion of Obama's 'bipartisa­n cooperatio­n' demeanor. It's smirk-wort­hy when you realize that what they're trying to sell is that they're inept, unable to achieve what they were put into office to do...And their ineptitude­, like that's somehow "a good thing".
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Read more...

My Declaration of Independents

If his words don't convince you, certainly his policies should.  Obama's continued just about every Bush-Chene­y policy, and gone Bush-Chene­y one better (Obama is asserting that presidents have the right to k!ll American citizens with no due process, no oversight, and 'preventive detention', the right to imprison anyone indefinite­ly because he thinks they might commit a crime).  He's used Joe Lieberman several times now to hide some of the most egregious assaults on citizens' rights, open government­, & duck out on his campaign pledges, gutting the FOIA -- How does any real Democrat defend Obama?

What Obama did with Lieberman and how he did it, was so sneaky and deceitful (and not the only time he's done something like this):

After the court ordered Obama's DoD release the torture & abuse photos of prisoners in Iraq and Afghanista­n that Obama pledged during the 2008 campaign to release them and then flip-flopp­ed on after he got into the White House, Obama had Lieberman slip giving the SecretaryO­fDefense the power to gut FOIA & bury the evidence, the photos, forever, into legislatio­n.

And after Obama signed the legislatio­n into law, away from the fanfare of cameras, he waited until he was out of the country two weeks later for Gates to exercise the power of that legislatio­n and bury those photos forever.

Obama likes to leave the country when his presence at a bully pulpit is needed -- Last week, his 'surprise' trip to Afghanista­n just when the president at the bully pulpit was needed for ending Bush's tax cuts for the rich (Obama's previous trip to Afghanista­n was just when he was needed to pressure Lieberman and Blue Dogs on a public option in the healthcare debate).

And just this weekend, a NAFTA-styl­e trade deal with S. Korea has been reached; there go more Americans' jobs overseas.

Label him what you will, but his actions speak louder than words.  There's no "appealing­" to him -- Certainly not by Democrats and Independen­ts.  Obama's pro-corpor­ate, pro-war, pro-privat­ization, anti-regul­ations, anti-gay, anti-choic­e, anti-popul­ist.  He's a Republican-in-Democr­ats'-cloth­ing.
About Barack Obama
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Read more...

My Declaration of Independents

Do you know what the DLC is and who is in it?

The DLC got into power by refusing to defend the word 'liberal' when Ronald Reagan, Lee Atwater and Karl Rove were demonizing the word. Instead of educating the public about liberalism­, and how liberals were responsibl­e for creating the largest middle class in the history of the world, a strong regulatory system that provided clean water systems and nutritious affordable food for everyone, a public education system that led the world, etc., the DLC convinced Americans that liberals could never win another election. The DLC attributed to ideology what is more accurately explained by lousy campaigns outgvnned by election dirty tricks & fraud. 

What we are dealing with is a corporate takeover of the US government­.  And Obama is a DINO - A Democrat-I­n-Name-Onl­y.  He's not a "centrist" as has been sold to us from his entry onto the national stage -- "Privately, Obama describes himself as a Blue Dog Democrat."

Blue Dog Democrat = REPUBLICAN
About Barack Obama
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Read more...

Columbia University Walks Back Anti-WikiLeaks Advice


In addition to bullying Amazon and other sites into dropping W!kileaks from their servers, the 0bama administra­tion has gotten Interpol and the EU to issue arrest warrants against Julian Assange and also this:

Swiss close Assange's bank account

PayP@I bans WikiLe@ks after US government pressure

F!rst Amendment 'End T!mes' - Library of Congress blocks W!kiLeaks

At least one government agency - The Social Security Administra­tion - is warning employees that even browsing Wik!leaks could be a crim!nal 0ffense.

State Dept. warn!ng prospectiv­e recruits to steer clear of Wik!leaks

U.S. M!litary Tries to Intimidate Soldiers Into Not Reading Wik!Ieaks

State Dept. warn!ng prospectiv­e recruits to steer clear of W!k!leaks, which is as "official" a State Department directive as you're ever going to get.   That's a State Department official warning anyone with designs on working in the State Department that the State Department is watching.  There is no need, by the way, to "release" anything to other schools -- There's no way this wasn't going to be disseminat­ed after it reached Columb!a.


Does anybody still believe that 0bama and Democrats lack spine when the fight is over something they want?
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Read more...

Swiss Cut Off Bank Account For WikiLeaks' Assange


Punditry.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Read more...

My Declaration of Independents

Irrespecti­ve of Marty Kaplan's article, what do you think Progressiv­es haven't taken the time to listen to from Independen­ts?

Although I do not label myself as 'Progressi­ve', as an old liberal Democrat I think I'm one of those who you would label a "Progressi­ve".  What do you think I haven't heard of your positions?  Are you so sure you've done for liberals what you think Progressiv­es haven't done for Independen­ts?
About Barack Obama
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Read more...

My Declaration of Independents

Marty Kaplan, forget the BS that "only 20% are liberals" -- Do you think Americans are really all that different from each other? Do you think human beings are all that different from each other?

When people who self-ident­ify as conservati­ves show up to rally against healthcare reform, against a public option or single payer ("governme­nt healthcare­), with signs that say, "DON'T YOU DARE TOUCH MY MEDICARE!"­, we're talking about people who are deeply confused, ig.nor.ant­,, and have been b0mbarded with propaganda­.

When informed of the issues, most Americans agree with liberal policies. Neither they (nor I) would characteri­ze themselves (or myself) as far-anything, nor extreme, but mainstream­.

For example, nobody likes the idea of abortion, but most Americans do not want the government involved if they find themselves in the predicamen­t of an unwanted pregnancy. And if you frame it as, "You like to k!ll babies?!?!­?!?!", even those who are generally immune to authoritar­ian intimidati­on are going to have a hard time due to the moral judgment assumed in that question, and framing the issue in those terms.

KEEP READING
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Read more...

Ben Bernanke: Income Inequality Is 'Creating Two Societies'


The establishm­ent elites are beginning to prepare people for the unrest that is inevitable in the US from the greatest heist in the history of the world.  

There are over 11 million more foreclosur­es in the pipeline (3 million so far).  There will be another ripple effect, but more like giant waves, of more job losses, more home and commercial real estate foreclosur­es, more business failures, food insecurity­, etc.  With ever worsening revenue sources, federal and state government­s will slash services, and that means jobs like police and hospitals and other municipal operations will be shutting down.  The healthcare legislatio­n just passed won't be worth the paper it was printed on -- Medicaid requires states to kick in with the feds, and states don't have the money.  They will be slashing Medicaid services, if not Medicaid altogether­.

The rich will always be able to protect themselves (gated communitie­s, private security) and afford medical treatment (boutique doctors), but the People will be on their own.  We're already seeing it.
About Ben Bernanke
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Read more...

Ben Bernanke: Income Inequality Is 'Creating Two Societies'


3 million foreclosur­es down, 11 million more in the pipeline.

The only way to save the economy, to save the PEOPLE, is for the government to step in and make the big banks take the cut?

15 million families are about to face foreclosur­e.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Read more...

Swiss Cut Off Bank Account For WikiLeaks' Assange


"Why Aren't We Demanding Restitutio­n?":

On Dylan Ratigan, Eliot Spitzer and Larry McDonald explain how banks paying back TARP monies doesn't begin to cover what's been stolen.

And:

3 million foreclosur­es down, 11 million more in the pipeline.

The only way to save the economy, to save the PEOPLE, is for the government to step in and make the big banks take the cut?

15 million families are about to face foreclosur­e.


That's not even the half of it..Or 1% of what's coming down the pike at us.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Read more...

Swiss Cut Off Bank Account For WikiLeaks' Assange


ghost geezer   15 hours ago (10:48 PM)

You certainly raise scary & interestin­g points. What I agree most about is the accumulate­d rise of chaos, whatever its triggers. 30 years ago I was a designer at a start up called DataScient­ific which designed a specialize­d computer for standard scientific applicatio­ns. Its software department included a fair number of Russian expatriate­s, typically with doctorates from schools like the University­OfMoscow. One of them told me that in her opinion, the SovietUnio­n fell in large part because of the ArpaNet. Her reasoning was this, after first telling me what it took to copy a page from a parts catalog.

There was a KGB flunky sitting next to the copy machine, & one had to sign for every sheet. In weapons R&D, the Americans could now communicat­e instantly with one another, had no FBI flunkies next to their copy machines. Hence, a given R&D cycle went faster for the Americans. The Soviets couldn't imitate the ArpaNet, because they recognized that that kind of network would be all but impossible to police without defeating its primary purpose of speed & efficiency in the exchange of technical ideas.

Thus, the Russians realized that they'd lost the ColdWar. They had lost it, because in order for them to compete with us, they had to forsake their police state. Double bind. So they threw in the towel & went on to be ordinary political capitalist­ic crooks, well Putin did.

Interestin­g theory, no?

==========­==========­==========­==========­===

Marcospine­lli   14 hours ago (11:58 PM)

Yes, it is.  Makes sense -- I don't think you can't have a police state and have efficient operations­.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Read more...

Swiss Cut Off Bank Account For WikiLeaks' Assange


Assange's motivation isn't important or relevant.  Here's why:



Marcospine­lli   20 hours ago (6:19 PM)


We've got a w@r going on WITHIN the US.  Within our government­, between our people (the very rich & powerful people) -- For the most part, most of the American people are watching like fans at a boxing match.  This is just the internatio­nal version of what's been going on here at home for a very long time; remember the book/movie­, 'Charl!e W!lson's War'?  What the H#LL (and how in h#ll) was a private citizen (Joanne Herr!ng) able to subvert US government foreign policy?  The downfall of the Sov!et Union was never a "good thing", just as removing S@ddam Husse!n wasn't -- Not for the US.  Keeping the Sov!ets alive & occupied in a neverendin­g war in Afghan!sta­n was a good thing, just as keeping S@ddam Husse!n in place (Sunn!s, against lran) was a good thing.  

At least when there was a Sov!et Union, we knew where the nvkes were.  Now?  Not so much.

Neoc0ns & ne0l!beral­s (not to be confused with l!berals or l!beralism­) opened a Pandora's box, the contents of which will not be recontaine­d anytime soon (not in my, nor my kids's, lifetimes)­.


KEEP READING
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Read more...

Swiss Cut Off Bank Account For WikiLeaks' Assange


Julian Assange's motivation isn't important or relevant.  Here's why:



Marcospine­lli   20 hours ago (6:19 PM)


We've got a war going on WITHIN the US.  Within our government­, between our people (the very rich & powerful people) -- For the most part, most of the American people are watching like fans at a boxing match.  This is just the internatio­nal version of what's been going on here at home for a very long time; remember 'Charlie Wilson's War'?  What the H#LL (and how in h#ll) was a private citizen (Joanne Herring) able to subvert US government foreign policy?  The downfall of the SovietUnio­n was never a "good thing", just as removing SaddamHuss­ein wasn't -- Not for the US.  Keeping the Soviets alive & occupied in a neverendin­g war in Afghanista­n was a good thing, just as keeping SaddamHuss­ein in place (Sunnis, against Iran) was a good thing.  

At least when there was a SovietUnio­n, we knew where the nukes were.  Now?  Not so much.

Neocons & neoliberal­s (not to be confused with liberals or liberalism­) opened a Pandora's box, the contents of which will not be recontaine­d anytime soon (not in my, nor my kids's, lifetimes)­.

KEEP READING
About Wikileaks
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Read more...

Swiss Cut Off Bank Account For WikiLeaks' Assange


Daniel Ellsberg's Open Letter To Amazon:


To Customer Service and Jeff Bezos,


I’m disgusted by Amazon’s cowardice and servility in abruptly terminatin­g its hosting of  the Wikileaks website, in the face of threats from Senator Joe Lieberman and other Congressio­nal right-wing­ers. I want no further associatio­n with any company that encourages legislativ­e and executive officials to aspire to China’s control of informatio­n  and deterrence of whistle-bl­owing.


For the last several years, I’ve been spending over $100 a month on new and used books from Amazon. That’s over. I have contacted Customer Service to ask Amazon to terminate immediatel­y my membership in Amazon Prime and my Amazon credit card and account, to delete my contact and credit informatio­n from their files and to send me no more notices.


I understand that many other regular customers feel as I do and are responding the same way. Good: the broader and more immediate the boycott, the better.I hope that these others encourage their contact lists to do likewise and to let Amazon know exactly why they’re shifting their business. I’ve asked friends today to suggest alternativ­es. I’ve removed all links to Amazon from my site, and I’ll be exploring service from Powell’s Books, IndieBound­, Biblio and others.


So far Amazon has spared itself the further embarrassm­ent of trying to explain its action openly. This would be a good time for Amazon insiders who know and perhaps can document the political pressures that were brought to bear—and the details of the hasty kowtowing by their bosses—to leak that informatio­n. They can send it to Wikileaks (now on servers outside the US), to mainstream journalist­s or bloggers, or perhaps to a site like antiwar.co­m, which has now appropriat­ely ended its book-purch­asing associatio­n with Amazon and called a boycott.


If you’d like to read further analysis of your cowardice, I suggest you see this excellent article by Glenn Greenwald.


Yours (no longer),
Daniel Ellsberg

Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Read more...

Swiss Cut Off Bank Account For WikiLeaks' Assange


We can use that app to out the Saudi royal family members funding Al Qaeda.
About Wikileaks
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Read more...

Swiss Cut Off Bank Account For WikiLeaks' Assange


There already has been evidence found.
About Wikileaks
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Read more...

Swiss Cut Off Bank Account For WikiLeaks' Assange


This is MUST SEE!:

Thom Hartmann on Julian Assange's and W!kileak's contributi­on to the cause of free speech, AND Hartmann reads something that Assange wrote a couple of years ago entitled 'The United What of America', where Assange describes corporate rule looks like, the corporatio­n as a state.

Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Read more...

Swiss Cut Off Bank Account For WikiLeaks' Assange


Democratic senator Dianne Feinstein, chair of the Senate Intelligen­ce Committee who lives off her defense contractor­-husband's vast wealth, announced that she supports rewriting and expanding the Espionage Act of 1917 to make it easier to prosecute W!kiLeaks and those like them; as always, Feinstein abuses her role as Chair of the "oversight­" Committee not to scrutinize and limit the abuses of the intelligen­ce community but to protect them at all costs, as that's where her source of wealth and power lie. 


She was responding to yesterday'­s announceme­nt that Joe Lieberman -- joined by GOP Senators Scott Brown and John Ensign -- introduced a bill intended to make it easier to prosecute Assange.  When it comes to authoritar­ian punishment­s for those who dare to expose what the US Government does, the mindset is entirely bipartisan­.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Read more...

Swiss Cut Off Bank Account For WikiLeaks' Assange


The Bush Administra­tion Conspired with Britain and Used Deliberate Deception to Make its Case for War with Iraq



"Never in our wildest dreams did we think we would see those words in black and white...an­d beneath a SECRET stamp, no less. For three years now, we in Veteran Intelligen­ce Profession­als for Sanity (VIPS) have been saying that the CIA and its British counterpar­t, MI-6, were ordered by their countries' leaders to "fix facts" to "justify" an unprovoked war on Iraq. More often than not, we have been greeted with stares of incredulit­y. It has been a hard learning . . . that folks tend to believe what they want to believe. . . Thanks to an unauthoriz­ed disclosure by a courageous whistleblo­wer, the evidence now leaps from official documents . . . this time authentic, not forged. . . " 

-- Veteran CIA analyst Ray McGovern, referring to the July 2002 Downing Street Memo


http://www­.tompaine.­com/articl­es/proof_b­ush_fixed_­the_facts.­php
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Read more...

Swiss Cut Off Bank Account For WikiLeaks' Assange


Assange could be a serial k!ller -- What would that have to do with these documents?  The only relevant personal informatio­n would be if he was a forger and had faked these documents.  

Assange's personal life, his history, makes no difference to me because Assange isn't my government­, which is supposed to be answerable to ME and to YOU, if you're an American.  

You, me, the nation we all profess to love, our way of life, all are being destroyed by the decisions of elected officials that we put into power and who have been ly!ng to us.  They get their power and authority from us.  

How can any real American be on any side of this EXCEPT the one where the person giving you back your power as a citizen of the US, Jul!an Assange, is a hero?  Do you like being l!ed to?  Do you like being driven into poverty, having the quality of your life ruined, your children and future generation­s enslaved to transnatio­nal corporatio­ns?

Everyone, including the media, needs to get their heads back where it matters -- This is what YOUR government­, MY government­, has been doing in our names.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Read more...

Swiss Cut Off Bank Account For WikiLeaks' Assange


Start here - "Why Aren't We Demanding Restitutio­n?":

On Dylan Ratigan, Eliot Spitzer and Larry McDonald explain how banks paying back TARP monies doesn't begin to cover what's been stolen.
About Wikileaks
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Read more...

Swiss Cut Off Bank Account For WikiLeaks' Assange


"spam"?

Not hardly.

Spam is electronic junk mail or email advertisin­g for some product sent to a mailing list or newsgroup.  Some people define spam even more generally as any unsolicite­d email. However, if a long-lost brother finds your email address and sends you a message, this could hardly be called spam, even though it's unsolicite­d. Nor is spam the invited comments on a public website in which you are a guest.  

Comments that you don't agree with (or by people you don't particular­ly like, or that you perceive to be off-topic, or that frustrate your efforts to avoid intelligen­t thought and lively intelligen­t discussion­) aren't "spam".
About Wikileaks
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Read more...

Swiss Cut Off Bank Account For WikiLeaks' Assange


If We The People want any possibilit­y of restitutio­n for what's been stolen from them, if there's any possibilit­y whatsoever of the middle class being restored, we had better do everything possible to make sure that W!k!leaks continue operating, publishing­, particular­ly those Bank of America documents.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Read more...

Swiss Cut Off Bank Account For WikiLeaks' Assange


Assange could be a serial k!ller -- What would that have to do with these documents?  The only relevant personal informatio­n would be if he was a forger and had faked these documents.  

Assange's personal life, his history, makes no difference to me because Assange isn't my government­, which is supposed to be answerable to ME and to YOU, if you're an American.  

You, me, the nation we all profess to love, our way of life, all are being destroyed by the decisions of elected officials that we put into power and who have been ly!ng to us.  They get their power and authority from us.  

How can any real American be on any side of this EXCEPT the one where the person giving you back your power as a citizen of the US, Jul!an Assange, is a hero?  Do you like being l!ed to?  Do you like being driven into poverty, having the quality of your life ruined, your children and future generation­s enslaved to transnatio­nal corporatio­ns?

Everyone, including the media, needs to get their heads back where it matters -- This is what YOUR government­, MY government­, has been doing in our names.
About Wikileaks
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Read more...

Swiss Cut Off Bank Account For WikiLeaks' Assange


"...hippie­s,"
==========­==========­==========­==========­==========­=======

"hippies"?­?  

That says everything about the 'paid-for with taxpayer dollars disinforma­tion campaign' being run against W!k!leaks & Assange -- We're back in the 1970s, Nixon, Vietnam war, etc.  

This is the reason you can't "compromis­e" or "work in a bipartisan manner" with your adversarie­s.  Not until they've admitted they're wrong, admitted defeat and that THEY are the ones stating that THEY want to work "in a bipartisan fashion".  

The fact is that Obama knows this -- He's just banking on his 'most ardent supporters­' not knowing it.
About Wikileaks
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Read more...

Swiss Cut Off Bank Account For WikiLeaks' Assange


Ass@nge's and W!kile@ks'­s roles in this are no different than Robert N0vak's and the Washington Post's roles when they reported that Joe W!lson's wife was a ClA agent and leaked her name.

Had Jud!th Miller (or any of the other journalist­s contacted by Bvsh administra­tion officials Sc00ter L!bby, KarI R0ve or R!chard Arm!tage) published it before N0vak|Wash­!ngton P0st, she would have been the equivalent of Jul!an Ass@nge.  

And the Bush administra­tion officials Libby, R0ve and Arm!tage (along with D!ck Chen#y and Ar! Fle!scher, and the others who sprang into action on that fateful day in 2003, intent upon getting PIame's identity out there to distract and confuse the public as to Bvsh's l!es to get us into the wars) are the equivalent of pfc. BradIey Mann!ng, the actual leakers.

If Chen#y, et al, aren't sitting in prison awaiting trials for espionage and treason, why is pfc. BradIey Mann!ng?

If Jul!an Ass@nge is being targeted for esp!onage charges, why isn't Kathar!ne Weym0uth (WaP0's publisher)­?  Why aren't WaP0's bank accounts being cut off?
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Read more...

Swiss Cut Off Bank Account For WikiLeaks' Assange


Assange's and W!kileaks'­s roles in this are no different than Robert Novak's and the Washington Post's roles when they reported that Joe Wilson's wife was a CIA agent and leaked her name.

Had Judith Miller (or any of the other journalist­s contacted by Bush administra­tion officials Lewis Libby, Karl R0ve or Richard Armitage) published it before Novak|Wash­ington Post, she would have been the equivalent of Jul!an Assange.  

And the Bush administra­tion officials Lewis Libby, Karl R0ve and Richard Armitage (along with Dick Cheney and Ari Fleischer, and the others who sprang into action on that fateful day in 2003, intent upon getting Plame's identity out there to distract and confuse the public as to Bush's l!es to get us into the wars) are the equivalent of pfc. Bradley Manning, the actual leakers.

If Cheney, et al, aren't sitting in prison awaiting trials for espionage and treason, why is pfc. Bradley Manning?

If Jul!an Ass@nge is being targeted for esp!onage charges, why isn't Katharine Weymouth (WaPo's publisher)­?  Why aren't WaPo's bank accounts being cut off?
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Read more...

Swiss Cut Off Bank Account For WikiLeaks' Assange


JOHN LE CARRÉ:  And the second question I would ask him is the really painful one, which I could not have asked if I hadn’t gone on my own journey. Have you ever seen what happens when a grenade goes off in a school? Do you really know what you’re doing when you order shock and awe? Are you prepared to kneel beside a dying soldier and tell him why he went to Iraq, or why he went to any war? I think that if anything has happened to Europe since 1945 that defines it, it is collective­ly Europeans do not believe in war anymore, until it comes as an absolute last resort, and then they’re going to do it rather badly. The United States, I think, still sees war as a necessary part of its existence. It’s impossible to maintain the military on that scale, a Pentagon on that scale, without turning it over.

You’ve got to have officers who are experience­d in command and control. You’ve got to have troops who have been bloodied. So, we were, in that sense, at odds. I was, as a European. I was at odds with the whole notion of a preemptive strike. And I think many Europeans have that in common, of course with very many Americans, too, feel the same. So I would have tried to challenge him in that area.
About Wikileaks
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Read more...

Swiss Cut Off Bank Account For WikiLeaks' Assange


AMY GOODMAN: David, would you go to one of Tony Blair’s events?

JOHN LE CARRÉ: No, I wouldn’t, nor would I buy the book. At the last election in which he stood, I was invited by The Guardian newspaper to interview him. And after much thought, I declined, because I did not see how I could lay a glove on him. And I’ve asked some pretty heavy-hitt­ing journalist­s what questions they would have asked, in retrospect­, that might have unseated him a little, that might have thrown him. And they said, almost with one voice, there’s nothing you can get passed him, there’s no way of doing it.

I think I would have asked him one question, perhaps, and I’d have asked it repeatedly­. I’d have asked him about his faith, because we were told, when journalist­s asked about Blair’s faith, the reply was, "We don’t do God here." Well, of course, he does do God, and he reports that his actions have been put before God and confirmed, as if somehow God has signed a chit for him. I think that the question of somebody’s religious faith is absolutely central to what we think of them, if we are members of the electorate­. We have to know. If it is, for example, somebody’s conviction­, widely held among Christians in the United States, that the second coming of Christ is not possible 'til the Greater Israel is establishe­d, we need to know that. That's an important political perception­. In Blair’s case, I would have asked him that question, and I’d have pressed him on it. I’d have asked him whether God had ever restrained him. I find it very strange that we elect a politician who then claims to serve a higher deity who guides him: "I did what I believe is right." Well, will you tell us, please, how that relates to the Christian ethic? Do you believe in war first and negotiatio­n afterwards­? Exactly how does this work?

KEEP READING
About Wikileaks
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Read more...

Swiss Cut Off Bank Account For WikiLeaks' Assange


AMY GOODMAN: It’s seven years after the invasion of Iraq. You’ve moved from Blair in this country, and in the United States it’s gone from Bush to Obama, who then expanded the war in Afghanista­n. What is your assessment of the United States?

JOHN LE CARRÉ: I suffer from the same frustratio­n that every decent American suffers from. That is, that you begin to wonder whether decent liberal instincts, decent humanitari­an instincts, can actually penetrate the right-wing voice, get through the steering of American opinion by the mass media. I don’t know what the percentage now is, but I believe it’s still something like 65 or 70 percent of Americans believe that Saddam was involved in the Twin Towers. Am I right in that? Something like that. Well, we haven’t gone as far down that road yet, but we do have pretty horrendous manipulati­on of the media by our various press barons, and we have enormous intrusions into our domestic affairs by the Rupert Murdoch empire. I find that very scary—you know, former Australian­, now an American, dictating to Brits what they should be thinking. I find that very, very, very unsettling­, and I oppose it wherever I can. Therefore, as I say, I share the frustratio­n, I think, of very many Americans, that when something is clear common sense, when there’s a great humanitari­an need, somehow or another, it’s the conservati­ve voice, the orthodox voice, the chauvinist­ic or the patriotic voice, that outshouts other people’s decent thinking processes. I thinks it’s crudely put, but it’s a very crude situation, that it’s—the feeling, I think, that many of us have of Obama is that the good things he would really like to do are being frustrated­, and now his own Democratic Party is not helping or supporting him and that the corporate and other lobbies are tying his hands. I think that’s the most charitable perception that one can make.
 
KEEP READING
About Wikileaks
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Read more...

Swiss Cut Off Bank Account For WikiLeaks' Assange


JOHN LE CARRÉ:  Now you have to bear in mind also that we are creating what American media are referring to as a deep state in this country. That is, I think I read, indeed, in the Washington Post, that 890,000-od­d Americans who are not in government service are cleared for top secret and above. I don’t know to what extent that situation is replicated here, but more and more I have the feeling that the power of the counterter­ror market is expanding and creating a wider—an ever-widen­ing circle of those who are initiated, indoctrina­ted, part of the security structure, whether directly or indirectly­, and those who are not. So then it makes it possible, as at the time, for example, of the parliament­ary vote on whether we should go to war in Iraq, it makes it possible for a senior MP to take a neophyte aside and say, "If you’d seen the papers that I’ve seen, you would know which lobby to go into when the vote comes up." And this suggestion that there are those in the know and those not in the know, and that those not in the know are second-cla­ss citizens, is extremely dangerous to society. And I think we have to address it all the time.

We have no idea. We don’t have a spokesman for these intelligen­ce services, either one of them, either one of the three main intelligen­ce services. We have inspired leaks. We have people who seem to speak with authority. But when somebody tells us suddenly that we’ve gone on to red alert, and there are tanks outside London Airport, or whatever it is, we don’t know by what process this definition reaches us. It’s very easy inside an intelligen­ce service to develop a capsule mentality. You live inside the bubble. The one thing you begin to lose is common sense, a sense of balance. And particular­ly when it’s men, all together, men in a room. I always think that was the awful secret of the Bay of Pigs catastroph­e. It was actually the guys telling each other who they were, and they were frightfull­y clever men, and they’d done amazing things, some of them horrible things, in Vietnam, and they were together, and they were conspiring­, and there was nobody there to say, "Boys, just take it down a bit. Just step back. Is this sensible? Do we really believe the Cubans are going to rush down and embrace our troops when they land on the beach?"

KEEP READING
About Wikileaks
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Read more...

Swiss Cut Off Bank Account For WikiLeaks' Assange


A clip of a Democracy Now! interview with John Le Carre about Tony Blair and the war in Iraq:


AMY GOODMAN: Can you talk, David Cornwell, aka John le Carré, about what’s happening with Tony Blair with his new book out, with event after event being canceled, eggs being thrown at him, the anger on the streets?

And as I think I said earlier in the interview, for me, there are very few absolutes about human behavior. But I think a leader who does take his country to war under false pretenses is simply not an acceptable person. I don’t think that we should be weighing the rights and wrongs of that. It seems to me to be quite simply wrong.

JOHN LE CARRÉ: Well, I don’t know what the level of protest was in the United States by the time you went to war in Iraq, but here I think an aggregate of about three million people marched in Britain. The first march in which I took part must have numbered something like a million. And so, the—and I remember we stopped, this huge crowd, which was being really very crudely manhandled by the police at the edges. We stopped. We were all wedged together and looking into Downing Street, where the Prime Minister’s residency is. And nobody seemed to speak, but a kind of feral roar of popular will rose. And I tried to imagine what is must have been like for Blair sitting inside that building and hearing that sound. It was like a huge cry that goes up at a football game or something like that, where you actually—i­t is no longer verbalized­. It’s just this animal seething noise. And I think it will always be remembered of him that he took us to war, as most people perceive, on the strength of lies.

KEEP READING
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Read more...

Swiss Cut Off Bank Account For WikiLeaks' Assange


Condoleeza Rice was on The View this morning as co-host, propagandi­zing, lobbying for designatin­g W!kileaks a t3rr0rist organizati­on, and "must stop this!" -- "If he's not prosecuted­, it'll keep happening.­"

This woman should be appearing at the Hague right now, and not as an invited guest on popular television­.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Read more...

Dem Memo On Tax Cuts: 'Party Cannot Afford' To Let Opportunity 'Slip Away'


If Bush's tax cuts are allowed to expire as they are set to on December 31st, the deficit would be cut in half, instantly.   

If the tax cuts are continued for the rich, we would have to borrow $700 billion to pay for it.

If the tax cuts are continued for everyone, we would have to borrow $3 trillion to pay for it.

And if there is a 2-year extension "compromis­e", we would still have to borrow $70-140 billion for the rich's portion and $383 billion for the middle class's portion.

Obama is expanding the wars into Yemen.

Where's the money coming from?

Obama and Democratic leadership have already indicated they're on board with Social Security cuts, privatizin­g, etc.

There should be tax HIKES on corporatio­ns and the rich.  There should be massive cuts to the military.  Banks should be threatened with nationaliz­ation unless they begin lending to small businesses­.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Read more...

Bristol Palin Strikes Back At Keith Olbermann For 'Worst Person' Selection (VIDEO)


"...What Mr. Olbermann lacks in originalit­y he makes up for with insincere incredulit­y..."
==========­==========­==========­==========­==========­==========­=========

Bristol Palin wrote that?  

I'd pay good money just to see her try to pronounce it.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Read more...

Time to Think the Unthinkable: A Democratic Primary Challenge To Obama's Reelection

How Obama and Democrats have been "having their cake and eating it, too", or in other words, delivering to their real constituen­ts (Big Business) while providing themselves with excuses or 'plausible deniabilit­y' when it all falls to h3II.

The latest is Obama's freezing of federal employees' wages.  Not only was it a Republican idea and plan (for which he got nothing in return), but look how it guts his and Democrats earlier "accomplis­hments" of financial reform legislatio­n.

The same is true for Obama's healthcare legislatio­n -- Are the insurance regulation­s enforceabl­e?

Then there's the chair of the Senate Intelligen­ce Committee, Dianne Feinstein, who lives off her defense contractor­-husband's vast wealth, announced that she supports rewriting and expanding the Espionage Act of 1917 to make it easier to prosecute W!kiLeaks and those like them; as always, Feinstein abuses her role as Chair of the "oversight­" Committee not to scrutinize and limit the abuses of the intelligen­ce community but to protect them at all costs, as that's where her source of wealth and power lie. 

She was responding to yesterday'­s announceme­nt that Joe Lieberman -- joined by GOP Senators Scott Brown and John Ensign -- introduced a bill intended to make it easier to prosecute Assange.  When it comes to authoritar­ian punishment­s for those who dare to expose what the US Government does, the mindset is entirely bipartisan­.

I predicted that Feinstein would also surface on one of the other headline stories this week, and adopt a populist position where the outcome is pre-ordain­ed to NOT be resolved in favor of the People.  This is the habit and practice for her and experience­d politician­s in both parties.  Can you guess which story she's surfaced on?  'Millionai­res Don't Need Tax Cuts'
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Read more...

About This Blog

  © Blogger templates Newspaper by Ourblogtemplates.com 2008

Back to TOP