"It's Humanity, Stupid!"

Oct 5th, 2011

William Greider fires back at glib and dismissive coverage of the Occupation Movement:

"The reporters and pundits have been surprisingly respectful, withholding the usual cynicism. They did not jeer and make weak jokes. Still, they couldn’t resist pointing out the incoherence of this motley crew “occupying” Wall Street. What is the agenda? They asked around and duly reported that no one seemed to know. Yes, this is a charming scene, the artists and hippie types gathered in the public square, but still it must be said: they have no agenda!

Let me help the brothers and sisters of the fourth estate. It’s humanity, stupid! That is agenda enough and it is expressed clearly (even existentially) by the gaudy, loving presence of these noble citizens who have seized Liberty Park as their own free space, just up the street from the New York Stock Exchange.

Totally Random Let's All Stay Sane Moment - NSFW Edition

Oct 5th, 2011

Durbin Takes On Bank Of America

Oct 5th, 2011

He's absolutely right.

Stiglitz In The Park With Occupy

Oct 5th, 2011

Via Raw Story:

"Nobel Prize winning economist Joseph Stiglitz showed up at “Occupy Wall Street” this week to show his support for the protest and clearly outline what he sees as the worst crimes of the American financial sector."

The Economist Chimes In

Oct 5th, 2011

Image via ABC

Having expressed my own reservations about the anti-hierarchical, intentionally leaderless nature of the Occupy Movement from the outset, I have, nevertheless, heartily endorsed it.

W.W. over at The Economist makes a fine argument for jumping off the fence and getting behind the protests, warts and all:

"I am not by disposition a joiner, but I'm nevertheless inclined to smile upon attempts to stick it to the man, even if the attempt is quixotic or confused and the man in the end remains unstuck. The Burkean horror of social upheaval is fine in its place, but there is no apparent danger of upheaval. And who among us doubts that the man deserves a good sticking to? So why not try?"

Read more

Worth 1,000 Words - Proud Elitists Edition

Oct 5th, 2011

A picture taken outside the Chicago Board of Trade offers a rebuttal of sorts to the Occupy Chicago movement. They know. They don't care.

Photo courtesy of Jagoff Publishing

Quote Of The Day

Oct 5th, 2011

Image via CSM

"If our republican form of government is perishing because communications, 
the infrastructure of that republic, is under the yoke of international business how, 
at last, do we save it? 


We must build a confrontational movement to reclaim our democracy, a movement committed to active and sustained protest against the present order." 

-- Mark Lloyd

Worth 1,000 Words

Oct 4th, 2011

It's what the market demands...

via

Fox News "Covers" Occupy Wall Street

Oct 4th, 2011

It's about what you'd expect...

via Media Matters. You should read their round up of other right wing coverage HERE.

What If Greece Goes It Alone?

Oct 4th, 2011

Nouriel Roubini says they should do just that:

"Greece is stuck in a vicious cycle of insolvency, low competitiveness and ever-deepening depression. Exacerbated by a draconian fiscal austerity, its public debt is heading towards 200 per cent of gross domestic product.

To escape, Greece must now begin an orderly default, voluntarily exit the eurozone and return to the drachma."

I couldn't agree more.

Roubini lays out the pros and the cons of walking away and notes that recent examples, such as Iceland's transformation, could provide a model. However, what Roubini prescribes is going to be regarded as radical and even dangerous... to everyone but Greece.

A vast majority of Greece's current woes are due to externalized pressures. Most of the debt crisis which erupted in 2010 resulted from their heavy investment internationally in mortgage backed securities. What's more, even some Eurozone leaders, like Germany's Merkel, have stated outright that predatory hedging and credit default swap speculation elsewhere in the world dramatically expanded and has prolonged their agony.

Exit from the Eurozone is in Greece's sovereign best interests. Yet the global economy has coalesced around the demand that they not act in those interests. They are faced with choosing whether to do what is right for their people or doing what is demanded by the foreign financial institutions which hold their debt.

Quote Of The Day

Oct 4th, 2011

"Listen, the next revolution is gonna be a revolution of ideas." 
-- Bill Hicks

Great Songs No One Knows

Oct 3rd, 2011

Amazing. The brain-trust of the seminal outsider band Wire, Colin Newman and Graham Lewis, released this very inventive, and very strange anti-pop album in early 1986. That millions don't own it, well, this is why I post this thread from time to time

Don't Feed The Trolls - Occupy Movement Edition

Oct 3rd, 2011

Some observations. For a large portion of this afternoon, comments under the #OccupyWallStreet thread on twitter were mostly coming from naysayers, challengers and some very rude trolls. The thing is, they all kept harping on how the Occupy movement needed to "go get a job." So... why were they the ones tweeting?

Hmm. Anyhoo, I kept seeing this charming fellow. He harped. He bitched. He moaned. And then? He tweeted this.

I couldn't resist. I had to ask.

Cue the internet's version knuckle-scraping spittle-dribble

Gosh. I had so many problems with that on grounds of reason and basic interpersonal skills that I couldn't stop laughing. I mean laughing. Like when you are a stoned teenager type-laughing. Before I could respond, he brought a "friend." Aww. Dig the avatar.

Again. Some questions cannot remain unasked.

Cue crickets... Alas, they have given me no more to work with.

In any event, don't try this at home.

Don't feed the trolls.

Worth 1,000 Words

Oct 3rd, 2011

Regular Guy Demolishes Fox Reporter

Oct 3rd, 2011

Gee. I can't imagine why this never aired?

Graft, Potential Catastrophe and The XL Extension

Oct 3rd, 2011
by F. Grey Parker

Throughout this past Summer, environmentalists protested the construction of an oil pipeline. 

So what? Right?

Most major media outlets portrayed the TransCanada Keystone XL pipeline extension and the controversy surrounding it in just such an innocuous manner.

The failure to communicate with our citizens the scope of the project, the lack of transparency among the decision makers involved and the actual dangers posed by this industrial scheme run amok is staggering.

Worth 1,000 Words

Oct 3rd, 2011

Obama's "Nemesis"

Oct 3rd, 2011

Jason Zengerle profiles House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) for New York Magazine. It's an ugly portrait of a very unprincipled man.

"Cantor’s role as Obama’s nemesis, as the National Review recently dubbed him, is remarkable for several reasons—none more so than the fact that, although he’s now the darling of the tea party, he initially rose to power in Washington by standing for almost everything the tea party is against..."

"Cantor’s primary job as a member of the whip operation was to cajole his fellow Republican congressmen into voting for many of the bills the tea-partiers now decry as the height of fiscal irresponsibility —including, most infamously, the 2003 Medicare prescription-drug legislation, for which he worked hand in hand with pharmaceutical-industry lobbyists and Karl Rove."

The article traces Cantor's self-transformation from establishment stooge to, well, stealth establishment stooge. It is amazing that someone so committed to preserving corporatist exploitation and defending outright waste in non-social spending has managed to dupe the GOP rank and file into believing that he is fighting for fiscal sensibility.

An interesting aside in the article actually shines a very bright light on just how Cantor has accomplished this. What's more, it also illustrates how he has marginalized Speaker Boehner while, at the same time, securing his general control over the radical, Tea Party driven newcomers who stormed into Congress last year.

"I can text Cantor and get a response back in minutes," says one freshman, explaining his allegiance. "I don’t know if Speaker Boehner even has a cell phone."

These freshman are his to control. They go home and tell their constituents his version of events. Their own narratives have been subsumed.

This is Eric Cantor's grand strategy... for Eric Cantor.

He has created and now wields a barely visible intra-party political machine. His continuing consolidation of power is impressive. His ability to call upon it to obstruct and sabotage both sides of the aisle raises the very real possibility that, as the title of Zengerle's implies, we are actually living in "Cantor's America."

Reagan & Obama... Vs Today's GOP

Oct 3rd, 2011

My, how things change. A little over a quarter century ago, President Reagan sounded an awful lot like the "anti-business," "Marxist" "usurper" in the White House today on the topic of closing tax loopholes for the very rich.

Hat tip to ThinkProgress' Pat Garofalo for posting the video below. Read her piece HERE.

Rank Hubris

Oct 3rd, 2011

Dick Cheney wants Obama to apologize for speaking plain truths a few years ago regarding 9/11 and the corruption of our values.

You read that right.

It's just the latest act in an ongoing campaign to outlast the march of justice.

One former aide to Secretary of State Colin Powell and fierce Cheney critic, Lawrence Wilkerson, summed it up not long ago:

"He’s developed an angst and almost a protective cover, and now he fears being tried as a war criminal."