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Abandoning the Dollar 2007-11-09 12:43:00 The dollar has recently been in the news of late and the news is not good. While reading about the woes of the falling dollar, I came across this article which I thought that I would share with you. Seven Countries Considering Abandoning the US Dollar
by Jessica HuppIt’s no secret that the dollar is on a downward spiral. Its value is dropping, and the Fed isn’t doing a whole lot to change that. As a result, a number of countries are considering a shift away from the dollar to preserve their assets. These are seven of the countries currently considering a move from the dollar, and how they’ll have an effect on its value and the US economy.1. Saudi Arabia: The Telegraph reports that for the first time, Saudi Arabia has refused to cut interest rates along with the US Federal Reserve. This is seen as a signal that a break from the dollar currency peg is imminent. The kingdom is taking “appropriate measures” to protect itself from letting the dollar cause probl
Bhutto Released from House Arrest 2007-11-09 12:34:00 Reuters has just reported that Pakistan's Bhutto was released from house arrest.Pakistani opposition leader Benazir Bhutto was freed from house arrest late on Friday, hours after she was stopped from leaving her Islamabad home to lead a rally against the president's imposition of emergency rule."The detention order has been withdrawn," said Aamir Ali Ahmed, Acting Deputy Commissioner of Islamabad. Read more:House
, Arrest
John Edwards- Building in New Orleans 2007-11-09 09:15:00 As a former resident of New Orleans
, it has been sad to watch the Katrina saga go down the memory hole of most Americans. Some people are still living in deadly formaldehyde-laced FEMA trailers, others still displaced around the country while the government does nothing meaningful to help the situation. It has been astounding to see the silence that this issue has seen with the current Presidential hopefuls. That is, with the exception of John Edwards
. Here is a recent clip of him in the Big Easy... Read more:Building
, John Edwards
, New Orleans
Pat Robertson- Abortion..Gays..No Big Deal 2007-11-07 10:55:00 From the man who told you that September the 11th was the result of America's moral decline comes the news today that he has endorsed 'America's Mayor', Rudy Giuliani, for President.Let's remind ourselves what the word hypocrisy means, shall we?Hypocrisy- the act of condemning another person for an act of which the critic is guilty.Maybe this could be the next feature on the 700 Club: Read more:Robertson
, Pat Robertson
, Big Deal
Bhutto Supporters Take to the Streets 2007-11-07 10:27:00 The situation in Pakistan is ever evolving and becomes larger by the day. According to MSNBC, backers of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto and police clashed outside of Parliament. They report:Police swung batons and fired tear gas at supporters of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto near Pakistan's Parliament on Wednesday, deepening a political crisis triggered by the imposition of military rule.Earlier, Bhutto called on supporters to defy a ban on protesting the emergency declaration “at all costs,” even as the government threatened to crush her demonstrations.Outside the parliament building, Associated Press reporters saw hundreds of protesters pushing metal barricades into ranks of riot police blocking their path. Police beat several activists who broke through, and dragged at least three away from the scene.Just what the outcome of this will be remains a mystery. Will the U.S. and other Western powers continue to back dictator President Musharraf or will they embrace a ch Read more:Supporters
2007 Deadliest Year for Troops in Iraq 2007-11-06 17:14:00 We've really turned the corner....it's safer now....we won..... Oh, and CNN reports that 2007 was the deadliest year for troops in Iraq
.... Read more:Troops
Cheney Impeachment- On the Table? 2007-11-06 16:20:00 I spent my afternoon glued to C-SPAN watching the House debate the resolution brought by Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) that calls for the impeachment of Vice President Dick Cheney
. Needless to say, it was full of drama and theater and made for a good afternoon of watching politics in action. As The Nation reported,"The move by Ohio Congressman Dennis Kucinich to open a debate on the question of whether to impeach Vice President Cheney turned into a imbroglio for the Democratic leadership of the House Tuesday as mischievous Republicans joined dozens of Democrats in rejecting a move to table the resolution."Rep. Steny Hoyer, once the resolution was introduced, immediately called for a vote to table the resolution which failed. He then wanted to vote to send it to the Judiciary Committee where it will die be considered. That motion passed. Now we must wait and see if Rep. John Conyers will act or will Pelosi and her "impeachment is off the table" act prevail.Push Conyers to act. Contact her Read more:Impeachment
, Table
Cancer in Iraq Vets 2007-11-06 14:09:00 We've been down this road before. Veterans falling ill to exposure to a host of chemicals and toxic substances during wartime. During Vietnam it was 'Agent Orange', back in the early 90's it was 'Gulf War Syndrome', and today it now appears that IraqVets
are suffering from symptoms of exposure due to depleted uranium. Although this is a very serious issue, little mention is made by our traditional media. I came across this article which sheds light on this topic:Cancer
in Iraq vets raises possibility of toxic exposure by Carla McClainAfter serving in Vietnam nearly 40 years ago — and receiving the Bronze Star for it — the Tucson soldier was called back to active duty in Iraq. While there, he awoke one morning with a sore throat. Eighteen months later, Army Sgt. James Lauderdale was dead, of a bizarrely aggressive cancer rarely seen by the doctors who tried to treat it. As a result, his stunned and heartbroken family has joined growing ranks of sickened and dying Iraq war
Kucinich Campaign Update 2007-11-05 14:55:00 A great update on where the KucinichCampaign
is today and what is going on. For more information, visit the campaign site here. Read more:Update
Rubin in at Citigroup 2007-11-05 12:05:00 Citigroup names former Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin as chairman... Read more:Citigroup
The Crisis in Pakistan 2007-11-05 09:46:00 The first large scale demonstrations since the declaration of emergency rule in Pakistan
by Musharraf broke out on Monday when thousands of lawyers took to the streets across Pakistan. Police used both tear gas and batons to break up the demonstrations.The Washington Post reports:The largest rally took place in the eastern city of Lahore, where lawyers and police battled each other at the city's High Court complex. Several lawyers were injured, and hundreds were arrested before the protesters were dispersed.Lawyers vowed to continue their protests in the coming days."We are determined that until there is freedom for the judges and the overturn of emergency rule, this will war will continue," said Anwar Shaheen, a lawyer in Lahore. "They can't quiet us." Skirmishes also took place in the western city of Peshawar and the southern city of Karachi. In Islamabad, hundreds of lawyers shouting "Go Musharraf, go!" and "Musharraf is a dog!" protested at the districts courts, but were blocked Read more:Crisis
Bush Vetoes Health and Education Bill 2007-11-13 12:57:00 Once again, Bush shows his true compassion:President Bush, escalating his budget battle with Congress, on Tuesday vetoed a spending measure for health and education programs prized by congressional Democrats.He also signed a big increase in the Pentagon's non-war budget although the White House complained it contained "some unnecessary spending."The president's action was announced on Air Force One as Bush flew to New Albany, Ind., on the Ohio River across from Louisville, Ky., for a speech criticizing the Democratic-led Congress on its budget priorities.Bush hammered Democrats for what he called a tax-and-spend philosophy:"The Congress now sitting in Washington holds this philosophy," Bush told an audience of business and community leaders. "The majority was elected on a pledge of fiscal responsibility, but so far it's acting like a teenager with a new credit card."This year alone, the leadership in Congress has proposed to spend $22 billion more than my budget provides," the presi Read more:Health
, Education
Paris Hilton- Stop the Drunk Elephants 2007-11-13 10:35:00 Sometimes you run across the craziest things. I had to read the following twice to be sure that there was no gotcha line...Conservationists today hailed the socialite ParisHilton
, who was convicted of drink driving earlier this year, for apparently trying to highlight the problem of binge-drinking elephants in north-eastern India.Activists said the celebrity endorsement would raise awareness of the plight of pachyderms that got drunk on farmers' homemade rice beer and went on the rampage.Last month, six wild elephants that broke into a farm in the state of Meghalaya were electrocuted after discovering and drinking the potent brew before uprooting an electricity pylon."There would have been more casualties if the villagers hadn't chased them away," Hilton was quoted as saying in Tokyo last week according to a report posted on the World Entertainment News Network website. "And four elephants died in a similar way three years ago. It is just so sad."The elephants get drunk all the time Read more:Paris Hilton
Bhutto- Musharraf Must Go! 2007-11-13 09:43:00 In the latest news from Pakistan, it appears that opposition leader Benazir Bhutto has called for Gen. Musharraf to step down. She also ruled out a power sharing agreement with him in the future. The AP reportsOpposition leader Benazir Bhutto on Tuesday called on President Gen. Pervez Musharraf to resign and ruled out serving under him in a future government after she was placed under house arrest for the second time in five days.With the political turmoil deepening, Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte was headed to Pakistan and expected to reiterate Washington's calls for Musharraf to lift the state of emergency.Musharraf's critics and chief international backers, including the United States, have said the restrictions imposed by the military leader — such as on independent media and rallies — would make it hard to hold a fair vote in upcoming parliamentary elections.Bhutto was trapped in a padlocked house surrounded by thousands of riot police, trucks, tractors loaded wit
Campaign Soft Money- It's Back! 2007-11-12 09:53:00 The New York Times reports today on the re-emergence of the 'soft money' campaign funds issue.The so-called Wounded Warriors Act, legislation intended to improve health care for veterans, has attracted nearly unanimous, bipartisan support in Congress. So why would the newly formed Foundation for a Secure and Prosperous America begin running a television commercial urging the citizens of South Carolina to tell Congress to pass it?The answer lies in the commercial’s glowing images of Senator John McCain, the Arizona Republican banking on a South Carolina victory to jump-start his cash-poor Republican primary campaign. The group that paid for the advertisement operates independently of Mr. McCain’s campaign, but was set up and financed by his supporters seeking to help him as much as possible up to the limits of the law.The initial spending on the commercial, according to the group, is modest — commercials on the Fox News Channel in South Carolina only — but it represents the fi Read more:Campaign
, Money
Republic of Georgia- Just Another Emergency 2007-11-11 16:52:00 Much has been reported on the crisis and subsequent martial law emergency rule imposed in Pakistan, but not much has been reported on the latest imposition of martial law emergency rule in the Republic
of Georgia
. Troops on the streets, media shutdowns, ban on protests. Sadly, the common link in both of these cases is the fact the the United States has publicly backed both of these repressive measures. As Reuters reports,The top U.S. official for the Caucasus praised Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili on Sunday for his leadership over the last 4 years, but suggested he lift a state of emergency and restore an independent media.In contrast some Western countries have criticised Saakashvili for a violent crackdown on opposition protests and the muzzling critical media last week."The president of Georgia has shown remarkable leadership," said Matt Bryza, assistant secretary of state for European affairs."For democracy to move forward and for the people of Georgia to restore their fait Read more:Emergency
The Corporation- Saturday Matinee 2007-11-10 13:31:00 Got some time this Saturday
afternoon? Take a look at The Corporation
, a film based on the book The Corporation: The Pathological Pursuit of Profit and Power by Joel Baken. The film gives a great overview of the beginnings of the corporation and chronicles the almost unfettered growth of these giants. The film is truly an eye-opening look at corporations and the effects that they have on our daily lives. Read more:Matinee
Big Food Companies Accused of Risking Climate Catastrophe 2007-11-10 12:37:00 A great article about big food companies and their effects on the environment.Big Food Companies
Accused of Risking ClimateCatastrophe
by John VidalThe rush to palm oil and biofuels threatens to release 14 billion tonnes of carbon from Indonesia’s peatlands Many of the largest food and fuel companies risk climate change disaster by driving the demand for palm oil and biofuels grown on the world’s greatest peat deposits, a report will say today. Unilever, Cargill, Nestlé, Kraft, Procter & Gamble, as well as all leading UK supermarkets, are large users of Indonesian palm oil, much of which comes from the province of Riau in Sumatra, where an estimated 14.6bn tonnes of carbon - equivalent to nearly one year’s entire global carbon emissions - is locked up in the world’s deepest peat beds. More than 1.4m hectares of virgin forest in Riau has already been converted to plantations to provide cooking oil, but a further 3m hectares is planned to be turned to biofuels, says the G
The Shock Doctrine- Naomi Klein 2007-11-10 11:57:00 The latest offering from NaomiKlein
, The Shock
Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism, promises to be a good read. From Publishers Weekly:The neo-liberal economic policies—privatization, free trade, slashed social spending—that the Chicago School and the economist Milton Friedman have foisted on the world are catastrophic in two senses, argues this vigorous polemic. Because their results are disastrous—depressions, mass poverty, private corporations looting public wealth, by the author's accounting—their means must be cataclysmic, dependent on political upheavals and natural disasters as coercive pretexts for free-market reforms the public would normally reject. Journalist Klein (No Logo) chronicles decades of such disasters, including the Chicago School makeovers launched by South American coups; the corrupt sale of Russia's state economy to oligarchs following the collapse of the Soviet Union; the privatization of New Orleans's public schools after Katrina; and the se
The War Profiteers- Enough is Enough 2007-11-18 15:27:00 There is a must read article in this months Vanity Fair entitled The People vs. the Profiteers. The story told is an amazing look inside the world of the for-profit war machine and the often horrific actions taken by some of the largest defense contractors in Iraq. Here is but one example that the article makes note of:Consider the case of Grayson's client Bud Conyers, a big, bearded 43-year-old who lives with his ex-wife and her nine children, four of them his, in Enid, Oklahoma. Conyers worked in Iraq as a driver for Kellogg, Brown & Root. Spun off by Halliburton as an independent concern in April, KBR is the world's fifth-largest construction company. Before the war started, the Pentagon awarded it two huge contracts: one, now terminated, to restore the Iraqi oil industry, and another, still in effect, to provide a wide array of logistical-support services to the U.S. military.In the midday heat of June 16, 2003, Conyers was summoned to fix a broken refrigerated truck—a "re Read more:Enough
Glenn Beck- Use Military to Stop Domestic Opposition 2007-11-18 10:14:00 Glenn Beck in action.Complaints and demands for a retraction and an apology are flooding CNN today after Neo-Con host Glenn Beck and ex-Marxist David Horowitz smeared Ron Paul supporters, libertarians and the anti-war left as terrorist sympathizers and inferred that the U.S. military should be used to silence them, parroting a talking point that traces back to a September 2006 White House directive.This is part of an ongoing propaganda assault which has also been mimicked by other anti-American Neo-Con talking heads like Bill O'Reilly and Rush Limbaugh.Beck opened up his show segment by inferring that the U.S. military should be used to silence domestic dissent against the war, claiming that those he would later identify as Ron Paul supporters, libertarians and the anti-war left and link with terrorists, were a "physical threat.""When you enlist in the U.S. military, you have take an oath that says you're gonna support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enem Read more:Glenn
, Military
, Domestic
, Opposition
OPEC and the Dollar- What's Next? 2007-11-18 10:00:00 I have read many stories of late about the declining dollar but this one really stuck out.OPEC blunder reveals debate on weak dollarBy SEBASTIAN ABBOTThe Associated PressThe accidental airing of a closed OPEC session Friday provided a surprise glimpse into a sensitive debate over the weakening U.S. dollar, with Saudi Arabia's foreign minister warning that even talking publicly about the currency's decline could further hurt its value.The high-profile blunder ahead of a rare OPEC summit revealed the debate as Iran attempted to convince other member countries to express concern over dollar depreciation in the meeting's final declaration.Oil is priced in dollars on the world market, and its depreciation has concerned oil producers because it has contributed to rising crude prices and has eroded the value of their dollar reserves. Cartel officials have resisted pressure to increase oil production to ease prices."The reality is that we have this problem. I think we should draft the decla Read more:Dollar
The Poor in Mississippi Lag Behind in Hurricane Aid 2007-11-16 08:37:00 This story is a national disgrace. How can it be that after two years, citizens affected by the ravages of Katrina are still suffering and not receiving the help that they so desperately need?Like the other Gulf Coast states battered by Hurricane Katrina, Mississippi
was required by Congress to spend half of its billions in federal grant money to help low-income citizens trying to recover from the storm.But so far, the state has spent $1.7 billion in federal money on programs that have mostly benefited relatively affluent residents and big businesses. The money has gone to compensate many middle- and upper-income homeowners, to aid utility companies whose equipment was damaged and to prop up the state’s insurance system.Just $167 million, or about 10 percent of the federal money, has been spent on programs dedicated to helping the poor, mostly through a smaller grant program for lower-income homeowners.And while that total will certainly increase, Mississippi has set aside just 23 pe
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