“… TILL A LADY, PASSING BY, DID CHANCE TO SAY:
‘YOU CAN TELL A MAN WHO BOOZES BYTHE COMPANY HE CHOOSES,’ THEN THE PIG GOT UP AND SLOWLY WALKED AWAY …’
The apparent campaign implosion of the Republican Party nominee hasn’t escaped the rest of the world. The above graphic is from the British, while this article, which asks if Republicans are committing ’suicide,’ is from Colombia.
Hernán González Rodríguez of Colombia’s El Espectador - a self-professed fan of U.S. Republicans, not only berates the party for voting against its own President and McCain on the matter of the $700 billion emergency package, but he bemoans the selection of Sarah Palin as the Vice Presidential nominee.
“As a Colombian, the author of this article hopes for the triumph of Republican John McCain. But his party isn’t so sure. … in weighing the urgent needs of the nation, a lawmaker of the Republican Party cannot claim to have voted against the plan simply out of resentment over the words of an insolent woman speaking on behalf of Democrats. A Republican should have enough common sense to disregard a few letters from uninformed, likely ignorant constituents about the uncertainties of the nation and the party. The nomination of Mrs. Sara Palin as a candidate for vice presidency by an aging McCain isn’t encouraging, either.” Read the rest of this entry »
An interesting narrative surrounding the financial crisis that hasn’t gotten much attention is this: Is the near fiscal collapse of the United States the fulfillment of Osama bin Laden’s original plans for the downfall of the United States, laid out in his 1996 Fatwa?
“Since the United States is experiencing a crisis of monumental proportions, Osama must genuinely feel that his prophecy has become a reality. More than a decade ago, he set out to vanquish America and its villainous puppets in the Arabian Gulf - nothing more, nothing less. Back then this must have appeared like folly, because the U.S. was at the zenith of its power and Osama and his people were considered nothing more than a fanatical gang of murderers.
“Today we are witnessing the rapid decline of the United States, a trend which some consider to be irreversible. Osama has victory in his sights. Whether that’s true or not shouldn’t be debated here. This is about recognizing that this is the view of Osama bin Laden. This is about catching a glimpse of the world of ideas espoused by these fanatics.”
Contrary to the now-popular wisdom about the end of American financial dominance, Jorge Castro of Argentina’s Clarin newspaper argues that the crisis merely demonstrates the inherent strength of the United States and its primacy within the global economy.
After agreeing with those that believe John McCain is running out of options this election cycle, Castro writes in part:
“The U.S. economy is, like its currency, the reserve and the most technologically advanced platform in the world. More than in normal times, this crises is revealing of the essential nature of this phenomenon. U.S. productivity is as important to the structure of global power as the law of gravity is to physics.”
‘THE RETURN OF FAITH’
[Het Parool, The Netherlands]
With finger-pointing over the global financial crisis rapidly spreading, William Waack of Brazil’s O Globo warns that developing countries are in no way shielded from the effects - and that blaming others won’t do a thing to help Brazil or the world emerge from the hole they are in.
“‘Contagion’ suggests that it might be possible to prevent the “disease,” as long as the potential victim remains isolated from the source of infection (in this case, the American economy). That’s pure nonsense, and it’s dangerous, because it overshadows what must be done and delays the adoption of protective measures. … We can dispense with the notion of ‘decoupling.’”
“The more advanced and competitive a national economic system is, the more it will be affected by the crisis. Therefore, it’s Brazil the exporter and innovator which is connected with the global economy that will face the worst consequences. And it is that modern country - industry, agro-business, services and competitive exporters of mineral commodities - that have ensured our prosperity so far. … Schadenfreude, a German word that has been adopted by the Anglo-Saxon press, means to take pleasure in the misfortune of others. The New York Times this Thursday pointed out the fact that many Latin American leaders, among them Chávez [Venezuela], Morales[Bolivia], Correa [Ecuador], Kirchner [Argentina] and Lula [Brazil], allowed themselves be get carried away with schadenfreude in regard to the crisis in the United States. And now, they’re getting carried away with fear. ”
In the porkathon to pass the bailout bill, Congress balked at two measures–to extend jobless benefits for the unemployed and allow bankruptcy judges to reduce penniless homeowners’ mortgages.
So much for Main Street, where signs of a 1930s Depression are cropping up everywhere:
*New figures show 760,000 lost jobs this year. Of the 9.5 million Americans out of work, two million have been for more than six months. Nearly 6.1 million people are working part-time because worsening business conditions have led to fewer hours and less pay.
*With bank-account insurance increased from $100,000 to $250,000, the potential liability of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation for failing banks is now estimated to be $1.1 trillion. The FDIC’s fund currently has about $45 billion, a five-year low.
Over at my own blog this morning, I griped about what I saw as some off-topic distractions in the Senate’s version of the bail-out bill. At the time, the full breadth of the Senate’s madness hadn’t been revealed.
New Tax earmarks in Bailout bill - Film and Television Productions (Sec. 502)
- Wooden Arrows designed for use by children (Sec. 503)
- 6 page package of earmarks for litigants in the 1989 Exxon Valdez incident, Alaska (Sec. 504)
Tax earmark “extenders” in the bailout bill. - Virgin Island and Puerto Rican Rum (Section 308)
- American Samoa (Sec. 309)
- Mine Rescue Teams (Sec. 310)
- Mine Safety Equipment (Sec. 311)
- Domestic Production Activities in Puerto Rico (Sec. 312)
- Indian Tribes (Sec. 314, 315)
- Railroads (Sec. 316)
- Auto Racing Tracks (317)
- District of Columbia (Sec. 322)
- Wool Research (Sec. 325)
How small the federal government seems when its business includes trivia like wooden arrows… but even more to the point, this stuff has no place in an emergency bailout bill. If this was the only vehicle the Senate could find to enable them to vote, they should have waited.
And it isn’t just conservatives who are going to find some issues. Here’s Big Tent Democrat, at Talk Left:
And the idea of giving more corporate tax breaks and suspending the Alternative Minimum Tax in the face of record deficits is absolutely outrageous. Harry Reid has produced a travesty.
This bill has something to tick everybody off. You can read it, in all its 451 pages of embarrassing glory, here. Buried somewhere in there is a bailout bill.
As bad as the financial crisis is, Congress’ full exposure as incompetent and malfunctioning is worse. They couldn’t blow out a match, much less react to a fire, and I were a foreign government or bank watching the much-vaunted US system at work, I’d be sucking my money home as fast as possible.
It couldn’t be more obvious that we are ungoverned.
Philippe Gelie of France’s Le Figaro ponders the unfortunate record of George W. Bush, and the way that today, at the end of his second term, he has been singularly abandoned by his own supporters, most of whom are up for election in November:
“A kind of curse must be following George W. Bush. The president, who began his first term under the shock of the September 11, 2001 attacks and inaugurated his second term with debacle of Hurricane Katrina, is now completing his time in the White House under the threat of a ‘Financial 9/11.’
“His reaction to the first crisis resulted in a ’sacred unity’ around him, which lasted until the first reversal of fortune in Iraq. The second [Hurricane Katrina] exposed the incompetence of an administration silenced by loyalty. The third should have corrected those bad memories: with the appointment in 2006 of Henry Paulson, former chief of Goldman Sachs, Bush put at the head of the American Treasury an expert on financial markets, who quickly assessed the situation and proposed a drastic remedy.”
Abandoned by the Republican minority in the House of Representatives, Bush has found himself in the unusual role of having to depend on the Democratic majority in Congress. ‘Don’t let this fail,’ he said to his conservative friends. In the hallway, Paulson even put his knee to the floor in front of Nancy Pelosi, the Democratic Speaker of the House: ‘Please don’t blow up this deal,’ he asked. ‘It’s not me blowing this up. It’s the Republicans,’ she said. ‘I know, I know,’ Paulson sighed. This unusual image symbolizes the little strength that remains for a president who has fallen to 26 percent in the opinion polls, confronting a Congress which faces election: the entire House of Representatives and a third of the Senate will be replaced on November 4.”
September 29th, 2008 By MICHAEL STICKINGS, Assistant Editor
The House of Representatives a short while ago voted 228 to 205 against the bailout compromise worked out over the weekend. (It needed 218 votes to pass.). As CNN is reporting, “[a]bout 60% of Democrats voted for the measure, but less than a third of Republicans backed it.”
– Bush is apparently “very disappointed” with the result. Presumably much of his disappointment is directed at the renegades in his own party.
– Boehner: “If I didn’t think we were on the brink of an economic disaster it would be the easiest thing to say no to this.”
– Frank: “If we defeat this bill today, it will be a very bad day for the financial sector of the American economy and the people who will feel the pain are not the top bankers and top corporate executives but average Americans.”
– It’s certainly a bad day for the markets. As of 2:55 pm, the Dow was down 552.68 (or 4.95%) and the Nasdaq was down 144.08 (or 6.70%).
– I still think a bailout bill in some form — if not this one, after some arm-twisting, then this one with some alterations to appease both sides and to make Congress appear to be more united than it really is — will be passed sooner rather than later. The leadership of both parties is behind it — the Democratic leaders more than their Republican counterparts — and there will be increasing pressure on Congress to do something. (And, right now, this bill is all they’ve got.) Not least because the markets are tumbling.
– And tumbling… As of 3:25 pm, the Dow is down 672.15 and the Nasdaq is down 168.08.
– Up here in Toronto, at 3:25 pm, our leading index, the TSX Composite, is down 941.24 (or 7.76%).
The two most recent occupants of the Oval Office were in prime time last night, while aspirants to succeed them prepared to go to the White House today in a bizarre interactive TV reality show that will affect the financial survival of millions of Americans.
George W. Bush, who was voted off the island two years ago but refused to leave, looked voters in the eye and talked about panic and recession with a straight face as if he had just arrived and would fix it if only they cheered for his Hail Mary pass without delay and without asking too many questions.
His predecessor, Bill Clinton, with his usual maddening mix of half-faux sincerity and guile, was telling Larry King that Hillary had campaigned for the Democratic nominee more than any runner-up in the last 40 years, that he would join her in Florida after the Jewish holidays, that although he admired McCain and Palin was backing Obama and Biden but devoting most of his energies to making Americans good global citizens for the future. All in all, it came across as the pitch for a new Hillary survival show in 2012 or 2016.
With the past presidents on their way out, the two wannabes were trying to please the electoral audience. Chris Dodd, who is quarterbacking the Senate effort to make sense of the Bush $700 billion dollar plan, welcomed John McCain’s interest but dryly noted that his campaign suspension sounded more like a rescue plan for his own candidacy than the national economy.
This series will run for the next 40 days until viewers get a chance to vote for the ultimate survivor, but meanwhile the show keeps getting more tacky and there is no way to use a remote control to tune in on something better.
Is the current financial crisis the latest bit of evidence that the final collapse of American power is at hand? If these weren’t the fears of Joschka Fischer, a former German foreign minister that knows the debt that Europeans owe the United States, one could perhaps more easily dismiss these sentiments as ‘schadenfreude‘ [taking pleasure in the pain of others].
“In a few weeks, it’ll be the 19th anniversary of the night that the Wall came down and the Cold War came to an end. In the following years, the United States stood alone at the summit of global power. Today, just 19 years later, we are witnessing the decline of American power. This decline can be traced essentially to a mixture of arrogance and blindness. … The grave crisis in the American financial system is a provisional climax in this decline in power, which can be compared in its magnitude only to the global crisis of 1929.”
“Certainly, this process didn’t begin with the election of George W. Bush as 43rd President of the United States. But since he took over in 2000 - and with him the neoconservatives of the Republican Party - the U.S. government has been headed rapidly into decline. … Under the banner of a “New American Century,” Bush and the neoconservatives chose a policy based on sole American predominance. The results are now clear to be seen:
Due to Guantanamo and torture, America has lost her moral credibility; Thanks to the Iraq War, Iran has achieved regional supremacy in the Middle East; American military power has become overstretched due to a wrong and unnecessary war; Bush inherited a balanced budget from Clinton and has since acquired a huge mountain of debt; China is now America’s largest creditor; the dollar’s role as the dominant global reserve currency is seriously endangered; the American financial system is threatened with collapse; and the only answer to this crisis, an existential threat to the entire global economy, is nationalization by Washington’s Republican government!”
“Considering the negative consequences of declining American power, one must hope that it’s only a temporary phase of weakness and not the beginning of America’s final downfall. However, we Europeans must finally wake up and unite politically and responsibly to prepare for tougher times and greater responsibility.”
The financial crisis and the huge bailout being pursued by the federal government beg the question: When the deal is done, will it tie the hands of the next president so much that he won’t be able to fulfill his campaign promises, ie.: cut taxes, revamp health care, rebuild the American military, etc.?
Continuing with our Brazilian escapade of recent days, O Globo’s chief international columnist William Waack ponders the apparent impotence of the two contenders for the White House in the face of the most dire financial crisis in decades.
“Even if the details of this government salvation end up being approved by consensus (and the markets, at this moment [Monday], showed that they didn’t believe it would be), it is impossible to run away from the essential point: the next American president will have to save a lot and spend little (forget the promise of tax cuts that were even made - even by Obama himself).
“Neither of the two seem willing to admit that he’ll be obliged to demand sacrifices from the people - and after a very hard period - will have to ask for even more sacrifices. … it will be up to them to display the kind of political leadership that has been so rare historically. The classic example of this comes from their own country. After the Great Depression, Franklin Roosevelt went down in history as the president who managed to combine long-term vision with short-term political expediency. Obama and McCain are confronting exactly the same challenge. ”
So what is that very special something that makes Republicans near Sarah Palin behave as though they’ve eaten catnip? Patrik Etschmayer of Switzerland’s Nachrichten newspaper thinks he has the answer - an answer that will no doubt create some controversy.
“A man who criticizes a female politician quickly draws accusations of sexism and chauvinism. … But - as painful as this may be for feminists - incompetence and unethical behavior are by no means limited to the male gender. And the generally better social skills of women also results in a superior ability - if they see fit - to lie better than most men. In politics, this is a core-competence. … Therefore when a female politician is attacked, one should look very carefully at what the criticism is and who is screaming, ‘Sexism!’”
“If one removes the two X-chromosomes and regards Palin as a non-gendered entity, only one thing is left: a power-hungry politician, inhabiting a universe of yes-men [and women], unable or unwilling to see any wrongdoing in herself and regarding all people who hold dissenting opinions as political enemies, not least because she sees herself on a mission from God on her way to changing the world. … And here’s the solution to the puzzle - of why Palin was chosen, the source of her popularity among conservatives and what makes her so dangerous: She is the female version of George W. Bush, a W with two X chromosomes.”
So what is one to make of what is being described as a ‘global financial meltdown?’
The sense one gets from Europe - particularly the Germans - is that while things are grim, and while this may mark the end of an ‘entire phase of capitalist development,’ - this isn’t the end of the world. In fact - it’s all for the best.
“The world doesn’t need as many large investment banks like Merrill Lynch and Lehman. … Here’s one way to look at the financial crises: out of the five major U.S. investment banks, only two remain. That’s capitalism. A major crash follows the biggest financial boom. The institutions that drove the boom - a good deal of the time - go over the Wupper - or over the Hudson. [In German, an expression for “going bankrupt” is to “go over the Wupper,” which is a river in Germany]. So is the adjustment over? It’s probably just the beginning.”
The bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers; the acquisition of what was the largest American broker, Merrill Lynch, by the Bank of America; and the way the once greatest insurer on earth - AIG - has had to beg the U.S. Federal Reserve for help; and the nationalization of mortgage financiers Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac - all of these dramatic events within the shortest possible time, herald the second phase of this great financial crisis. It is now clear that this crisis, which began with problems in the subprime mortgage sector, will probably bring to a close an entire phase of capitalist development.”
For the 9/11-like Commission he wants to study the Wall Street collapse, John McCain could well be the star witness about failure of government regulation to prevent chaos in the financial industry.
His actions as a member of the Keating Five in the 1980s, which the Senate Ethics Committee later labeled “poor judgment,” were the start of two decades of McCain opposition to controlling the excesses he is now denouncing on the campaign trail.
Like the Washington insiders he is now promising to rein in, McCain took heavy campaign contributions from Savings and Loan operator Charles H. Keating, accepted free trips to Keating’s Bahamas vacation retreat and saw his family turn a profit from an investment his wife and father-in-law made with Keating.
In return, McCain worked hard to delay and divert government action against Keating, who later went to jail for fraud and whose S&L bailout cost taxpayers more than $124 billion.
Lilly Ledbetter is the latest addition to the list of speakers at the Democratic convention next week, and her appearance may possibly do Barack Obama as much good as Hillary Clinton’s.
In today’s Washington Post, Ruth Marcus explains: “Ledbetter was on the losing end of a Supreme Court case last year on equal pay. A manager at a Goodyear tire plant in Alabama, she consistently received smaller raises than her male counterparts. The Supreme Court threw out her suit because, the five-justice majority said, she waited too long to complain, even though she didn’t know about the pay difference earlier.
“Now, a bill to fix this equal pay Catch-22 is pending in Congress–and the Ledbetter case has emerged as a key piece of Obama’s effort to woo women. In particular, working women, less-educated women, older women. Women who voted for a certain woman and haven’t come around to the guy who defeated her.”
Obama is co-sponsoring legislation to reverse the result in the case. McCain opposes it. When Lilly Ledbetter takes the stage in Denver next week, her presence may make a stronger argument for the Democratic nominee than anything Hillary Clinton could possibly say.
[Caption: Uncle Sam’s Sign Says: ‘Sentences of paramilitaries’
Murdered Victim says: ‘I would also like a shorter sentence’]
Indignant Colombians are asking themselves why they bother extraditing narco-trafficking members of right-wing paramilitary groups, when they receive lighter prison sentences in the United States than they do in Colombia.
“It’s obviously a bit late for the Government to worry about what has become a monstrous mockery of thousands of Colombian victims. They should have thought about that before abruptly agreeing to the extradition of criminals with such terrifying histories.”
I have posted a couple of columns on the subject of gays serving in the military and, in particular, about the “Don’t ask, don’t tell” policy that has been in effect for 15 years and is now being reviewed by Congress–a policy that is also being vigorously discussed in the media and in the blogs.
I have made my personal views on this issue quite clear. In one of my posts, I wrote:
But even President Truman’s 1948 Executive order, commendable and progressive as it was, left “without regard to sexual orientation,” out of his promise that ”there shall be equality of treatment and opportunity for all persons in the armed services.”
It is this omission that our legislators are now addressing in the hearings on “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.” And, predictably, the same tired and repudiated issues and arguments that were used 60 years ago are now being raised again to prevent gays and lesbians from enjoying “equality of treatment and opportunity …in the armed services.”
The future of the “Don’t ask, don’t tell” policy will not be decided based on my personal views. Rather, it may be decided on what a majority of the American people feel is the right thing to do. I say, “may” because even though several reputable recent polls have found that a vast majority of Americans feel that homosexuals should be allowed to serve in the military, there will be other powerful factors and factions at play.
One of these will be the judgment and recommendations of present and recent military leadership in our country. While many high ranking and prestigious military officers, both active duty and retired, have expressed their views on this issue, it is not clear yet which way the pendulum will eventually swing.
Another factor may, or should, be the judgment and thoughts of the men and women who will have to literally live with the outcome of this debate: The men and women presently serving in our military. A Zogby poll conducted in 2006 surveyed 545 military personnel who have served in Iraq or Afghanistan and found that only 37% of the respondents opposed openly gay military service. The views of those who have served in the past will also be, albeit to a lesser extent, a factor in the debate.
In fact, the Military Officers Association of America, MOAA, the nation’s largest and most influential association of military officers with about 370,000 members–active duty and retired–is planning to survey its members on this issue shortly. MOAA is a powerful lobbying organization on matters and legislation affecting the career force and veterans. The opinions of MOAA and its membership will undoubtedly be influential on the “Don’t ask, don’t tell” policy discussions and decisions. We will keep you posted.
Since the initial Congressional hearings were held a couple of weeks ago, those who are or have been “on the ground” are already expressing their opinion. And what better place to get a sense of those sentiments than in the Letters to the Editor section of the for-the-military newspaper the Stars and Stripes.
The following are excerpts from the letters on this issue that appeared in the Stars and Stripes chronologically during the period July 30 through August 8. The names have been deleted (with one exception), and, for brevity’s sake, only the sections that best summarize the writers’ opinions and intent have been quoted:
July 30— ‘Don’t ask’ a slap to patriots
I praise Stars and Stripes for its article on the “don’t ask don’t tell” policy hearings…In my view, this policy has hurt our military readiness, hurt the morale of the estimated 65,000 lesbian/gay/bisexual/transgender troops serving around the world, including in the Iraq and Afghanistan theaters of war. It does a disservice to them, as it says to them you can join, you can risk your lives, and you can die, and many have…
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I feel in long-overdue time these people will have their justice. The military will have a black mark the likes of which it may take 60 years to recover from, as the recent anniversary of desegregation in the ranks shows. These gay and lesbian heroes serve a nation that gives them neither the comfort of freedom, nor the time of day, and I, for one, thank them for their service in defense of the freedom of others that they cannot enjoy themselves. And they do so in total silence.
Spc….Camp Adder, Iraq
August 1— Gays deserve military equality
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In revisiting “don’t ask, don’t tell,” our country is addressing “equality of treatment and opportunity” for gays in the military. Many of today’s arguments to keep gays and lesbians from openly serving in our armed forces are the same or similar to those advanced more than 60 years ago to keep our military segregated.
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Thousands of homosexuals are serving honorably in all our military branches, being injured and most probably dying for us in battle.
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Let us hope U.S. leaders will remember [Secretary of Defense Gates’ words, “We must
