David Sirota | Back In the USSR.
Friday 26 September, 26, 2008

by: David Sirota, Creators Syndicate

 http://www.truthout.org/092708F

When I worked for then-Rep. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) in the late 1990s, Washington was in the panting throes of a deregulatory orgy. Many lampooned my boss’s opposition to the grotesquerie, and his notoriety as the only self-described socialist in Congress. Nobody guessed that a few years later, our country would become the globe’s newest U.S.S.R.: The United States’ Socialist Republic.

Yes, a red flag is rising over the Capitol, only the laborer’s hammer and sickle has been replaced by a baron’s top hat and monocle. America is Amerika, and throughout Washington a socialist rallying cry echoes: Politicians and lobbyists of the world unite! — unite to rescue Wall Street capitalists with a $700 billion taxpayer bailout.

***

Though socialism seems new in the U.S., it isn’t. Using public resources and government power to control the economy is as Amerikan as the Pentagon and the Patent Office. And the problem is not socialism itself, but our uniquely destructive version of it.

Amerika’s is not the democratic socialism of many countries.

Ours is kleptocratic socialism — the objective is theft.

Unlike European comrades, our socialists rarely mandate returns on taxpayer investments. The same 19th century socialism that gave the Mountain West to railroad companies became a 20th century socialism subsidizing oil and drug industry profits. Now, our 21st century socialists propose giving financial industry con men the national credit card, confirming Marx’s theory that history repeats itself first as tragedy, then as farce.

Bolivian socialists nationalize to combat wealth stratification, remove greed from human necessities like energy, and allow the public to own the means of producing valuable commodities. Amerika’s socialists nationalize to preserve inequality and force the public to own the means of worthless production. Most recently, taxpayers’ $85 billion will purchase bankrupt AIG and its means of producing paper, all to let speculators continue profiteering off the human need for housing.

Shutter one in Ohio, and workers get nothing, except politicians saying their jobs are never returning and national health care is “unaffordable.” But if investment banks teeter, those same politicians quickly find billions for bailouts.

***

Of course, socialist revolutions can share key traits.

John “I am fundamentally a deregulator” McCain has suddenly gone French, embracing regulation with the zeal of a beret-wearing Parisian reciting “Das Kapital” in a left bank coffeehouse (call him Monsieur Jean McCain, s’il vous plait). CNBC’s Larry Kudlow justifies kleptocratic socialism by absolving the financial elite and blaming the meltdown on that all-powerful Poor People Lobby, which he claims is “forcing banks to make low-income loans.” And New York Times’ columnist David Brooks, long the ruling class’s Minister of Propaganda, applauds the “public spiritedness” of Paulson’s “Progressive Corporatism.”

As this socialist uprising intensifies, the most prominent counterrevolutionary is none other than Sanders. Now a senator, he is calling for both re-regulation and a millionaire surtax to pay for the bailout and avoid adding its full cost to the national debt.

“The people who can best afford to pay and the people who have benefited most from Bush’s economic policies are the people who should provide the funds for the bailout,” he said.

Once the federal government’s only (admitted) socialist, Sanders is evidently its only fiscal conservative, too. It’s time Amerika listened to this original visionary.

-——–

David Sirota is a bestselling author whose newest book, “The Uprising,” was just released in June of 2008. He is a fellow at the Campaign for America’s Future and a board member of the Progressive States Network — both nonpartisan organizations. His blog is at www.credoaction.com

From:    sophie.stn at googlemail.com
Subject: Press Invitation to Meet Civil Society at UN Poverty Summit
Date: September 24, 2008 2:15:46 PM EDT
To:    louis.belanger at oxfaminternational.org

TODAY - INTERVIEW OPPORTUNITY.

MEET THE ONLY 6 CIVIL SOCEITY REPRESENTATIVES TO BE GRANTED ACCESS TO
THE MDG ROUNDTABLE MEETINGS ON SEPTEMBER 25TH
WHERE - Radisson Hotel, Lex and 48th , Florentine Room.
WHEN - Wednesday, 24th @ 3-4.30pm

WHO?
(1) Mr. Ndiogou Fall
President of ROPPA, the Network of Peasant and Agricultural Producer
Organizations of West Africa
ROPPA gathers organizations from 10 different countries in the region
representing more than 40 millions peasants. The organization focuses
on capacity building and advocacy work at the local, regional and
international levels.

(2) Mr. Ashok Bharti
Wada Na Todo Abhiyan (GCAP India)
Born in Basti Rajaram, a slum for untouchables near Jama Masjid in
old Delhi, Ashok was one among seven children. Growing up as a poor
Dalit, Ashok has a clear understanding of the vulnerabilities of
underprivileged communities. Ashok studied at Hindu College and then
the Delhi College of Engineering. He later studied manufacturing
management for his post-graduate degree in Australia, where he served
as president of the international students’ body and, later, as the
central representative of the entire students’ body.

(3) Dorothy Ngoma
Executive Director of the National Organization of Nurses and
Midwives of Malawi
Acknowledged as an extraordinary leader in nursing, gender issues,
education and social development, Dorothy Ngoma has played a
significant role in shaping the stature and organisation of nursing
in Malawi. A vigorous campaigner on behalf of the citizens of Malawi,
she has persistently lobbied officials about conditions in the
country’s hospitals, clinics and schools.

(4) Mr. Charles F. MacCormack,
President and CEO, Save the Children US, and Chairman of the Board,
InterAction
InterAction is the largest coalition of U.S.-based international
nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) focused on the world’s poor and
most vulnerable people.  InterAction leverages the impact of this
private support by advocating for the expansion of U.S. government
investments and by insisting that policies and programs are
responsive to the realities of the world’s poorest and most
vulnerable populations.

(5) Ms. Barbara Stocking,
CEO, Oxfam GB
During the last 4 years, Barbara has led Oxfam’s response to
humanitarian crises in Afghanistan, Iraq, Sudan, for the Tsunami and
the Pakistan Earthquake. Previously a member of the top management
team of the United Kingdom’s National Health Service, in her eight
years with the NHS, Barbara worked as regional director, and her last
appointment was as Director of the Modernisation Agency, charged with
modernising the NHS.

(6) Cardinal Oscar Rodriguez
Archbishop of Tegucigalpa, Honduras / President of Caritas
Internationalis
In addition to his Episcopal responsibilities, he is currently the
President of the Episcopal Conference of Honduras. Rodríguez was one
of the cardinal electors who participated in the 2005 papal conclave
that selected Pope Benedict XVI.

———————

Ciara O’Sullivan
Media Coordinator
Global Call to Action Against Poverty - GCAP
  Permalink | Printer Friendly |  Email This Article
Posted in Reporting From the UN Headquarters in New York, UN Commission on Sustainable Development, Cartoons / Photos, Archives, Africa, Latin America, Islands & SIDS

del.icio.us Digg Reddit Google Technorati Windows Live Yahoo! | what's this?

Discuss this article

In The Light Of The Bush / Paulsen Demand For Full Reins To The Secretary of the Treasury In The Matter of Over 1.5 Trillion Dollars - What will be the role of Next US President? If Obama and McCain Accept the Proposed Set Of Rules They Might Just As Well Go Hunting Moose In Alaska Instead of Fighting for the Right To Become The White House Christmas Tree.  We hope That Sarah Palin Was Able To Negotiate With Mr. Karzai to Get Some Afghan Hounds To Accompany Them.

We got the following e-mail from the Obama people:

Pincas –

The era of greed and irresponsibility on Wall Street and in Washington has created a financial crisis as profound as any we have faced since the Great Depression.

Congress and the President are debating a bailout of our financial institutions with a price tag of $700 billion or more in taxpayer dollars. We cannot underestimate our responsibility in taking such an enormous step.

Whatever shape our recovery plan takes, it must be guided by core principles of fairness, balance, and responsibility to one another.

They Suggest - Please show your support for an economic recovery plan based on the following:

• No Golden Parachutes — Taxpayer dollars should not be used to reward the irresponsible Wall Street executives who helmed this disaster.
• Main Street, Not Just Wall Street – Any bailout plan must include a payback strategy for taxpayers who are footing the bill and aid to innocent homeowners who are facing foreclosure.
• Bipartisan Oversight — The staggering amount of taxpayer money involved demands a bipartisan board to ensure accountability and oversight.

Show your support and encourage your friends and family to join you.

The failed economic policies and the same corrupt culture that led us into this mess will not help get us out of it. We need to get to work immediately on reforming the broken government — and the broken politics — that allowed this crisis to happen in the first place.

And we have to understand that a recovery package is just the beginning. We have a plan that will guarantee our long-term prosperity — including tax cuts for 95 percent of families, an economic stimulus package that creates millions of new jobs and leads us towards energy independence, and health care that is affordable to every American.

It won’t be easy. The kind of change we’re looking for never is.

But if we work together and stand by these principles, we can get through this crisis and emerge a stronger nation.

Thank you,

Barack

—————

Our difficulty with the above is that the moment Obama accepts the proposed recovery plan - he loses the Presidency even if he wins the election. This because of the simple fact that it takes all the air out of his lungs - that is all the money that he could have used to change the system.

What the Bushites do now is to perpetuate the present situation and make sure that nothing will change for many years to come - or ever. Ah! and you must buy this in a rush, right this week - because Congress must go home to campaign for their reelection - so they will buckle first.

Will the Senate buckle also? Will they just be pushed around further by tales that the FBI will study next 15 years the wrong-doers and their institutions, and take this for their fig-leave and jump to the commands they were just given? Blah!

Mc Cain / Palin can do what they want - but from Obama we expect now real show of backbone. He must stand up like Samson and say - with me the Philistines. He must dare Washington by saying that US Democracy requires that taxation of $1,5 Billion is a matter for Congress. The Giants  in Cartoon #136 must be asked to raise from their graves - “Capitalism” and “Private Enterprise.” If things get worse and other companies fold - he will be accused of not playing the game set for him by the establishment in Washington - and it will be clear and evident for all to see who is the reformer and who is the dog musher.
We expect that Right and Left will back him against the timid crooked Center. He will win and his win will finally  have a meaning. He will get the reins not of oppression - but of reform.

WE HOPE THAT THE OBAMA STAFF WILL STUDY THIS POSTING OF OURS, WITH ITS BORROWED CARTOON - AND OBAMA WILL CONSIDER IT WHEN HAVING THE UNENVIABLE TASK TO DECIDE HOW TO RUN HIS CAMPAIGN IN THE LIGHT OF THE BLOW THAT WAS Already PREDICTED SEVERAL MONTHS AGO BY FINANCIAL MAGICIAN GEORGE SOROS, BUT WAS LOWERED ON THE CAMPAIGNS ONLY NOW.  OBAMA MUST ALSO DECIDE IN TWO DAYS  HOW TO BUILD HIS POSITION AHEAD OF THE FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 2008, FIRST DEBATE WITH MCCAIN IN MISSISSIPPI. THAT DEBATE COULD NOW GIVE THE REAL START OF THE ELECTION FINALS A COMPLETE NEW TURN. DO THE US CITIZENS WANT TO ALLOW THEMSELVES FLEECED FOR EVER, OR THEY ARE READY TO BE COUNTED SAYING: “DON’T TREAD ON ME.”

———————

Please Obama People - read also our other posting on this subject and see what a bright Journalist thinks of this. The bottom line is that whatever Obama decides to do - he will be blamed by the American people anyway - that is what the world thinks of the American electorate, so why not going out all the way and do the right thing? The hope here is that the better part of solid Republicans will vote Obama.

Gwynne Dyer, A London Based Journalist, Writes About Comrade Bush And The Banks. She Reaches The Conclusion About A Convergence Of The US And Chinese States - And Explains That In The End The Americans Will Blame The Democrats if Obama Wins.

Posted on Sustainabilitank.info on September 24th, 2008
by Pincas Jawetz ( PJ at SustainabiliTank.com)

Capitalism must be more regulated, says Sarkozy.
ELITSA VUCHEVA, The Euobserver, September 24, 2008

French president Nicolas Sarkozy, whose country currently holds the rotating EU presidency, on Tuesday (23 September) {in his speech before the UN General Assembly in New York City} called for an international summit to tackle the global finance crisis and its consequences, saying that capitalism should be more “regulated.”

“Let us build a capitalism where ratings agencies will be subject to controls and punished when necessary, where transparency of transactions will replace opaqueness. The opaqueness is such today that we have difficulty understanding even what is happening,” Mr Sarkozy said in a speech to the UN General Assembly, Reuters reports.

Mr Sarkozy denounced “a crazy system which has been our system for years.” (Photo: United Nations)

“I am told ‘We don’t know who is responsible.’ Oh yeah? Well let me tell you that when things were going well, we knew who got bonuses. What a strange system,” he also told journalists, denouncing “a crazy system which has been our system for years.”

Mr Sarkozy hopes to see an international meeting to discuss the crisis, the worst the world has seen, he said, since the Great Depression.


***

“I’m convinced that it’s the duty of heads of state and government of the countries most directly concerned to meet before the end of the year to examine together the lessons of the most serious financial crisis the world has experienced since that of the 1930s,” Mr Sarkozy said before the UN General Assembly, in his first public statements on the financial crisis.

At a press conference later in the day, he said he was thinking of a G8-format summit in November, gathering the world’s eight leading economic powers – namely the United States, France, Britain, Germany, Italy, Japan, Canada and Russia, but also open to “emerging countries,” such as China, India, and Brazil.

Mr Sarkozy did not specify where the summit should take place, saying that it could be anywhere from Washington or New York, to London, Brussels and Paris.

***

More regulation:

Additionally, the French president suggested a general overhaul of the financial system should be considered, where capitalism would be more “regulated.”

“Let us rebuild together a regulated capitalism in which whole swathes of financial activity are not left to the sole judgment of market operators, in which banks do their job, which is to finance economic development rather than engage in speculation,” he was reported as saying by Deutsche Welle.

His comments come just a day after MEPs also called on the European Commission to come up with legislation plans to regulate the activities of hedge funds and private equity funds.

***

However, EU internal market commissioner Charlie McCreevy told MEPs he did not believe it was “necessary at this stage to tar hedge funds and private equity with the same brush as we use for the regulated sector. The issues relating to the current turmoil are different.”

One should “analyse the impact of the existing EU provisions and of additional member states’ rules in this field before one embarks on introducing any new legislation,” said the commissioner.

***

EU-Russia economic space:

Separately, the EU president-in-office also suggested establishing “a common economic space that would unite Russia and Europe.”

However, the French president also referred to Russia’s war with Georgia this summer and underlined that the EU “cannot compromise on the principal of sovereignty and independence of states.”

PARTY GUY

Sarah Palin May Be a Pit Bull in Lipstick, but She’s No Populist.
Posted by Jim Hightower, JimHightower.com at 6:06 PM on September 4, 2008.

Mary Ellen Lease would be ashamed.

“Perfect populist pitch.” That’s how CBS political pundit Jeff Greenfield described Sarah Palin’s VP acceptance speech.

Excuse me, but real populists don’t support profiteering schemes of Big Oil or embrace the extension and expansion of tax giveaways to Wall Street speculators and corporate chieftans.

Palin might claim to be a pit bull in lipstick, but she’s damn sure no populist. As Greenfield must surely know in his less infatuated moments, she is to populism what near beer is to beer — only not as close. Indeed, she’s the candidate of the plutocrats. Mary Ellen Lease — a real hell-raising populist from the 1880s and 90s — would be appalled at the media’s perversion of this historic and proud term.

Jim Hightower is a national radio commentator, writer, public speaker, and author of “Thieves In High Places: They’ve Stolen Our Country And It’s Time to Take It Back.” He publishes the monthly “Hightower Lowdown,” co-edited by Phillip Frazer.

———–

Mary Elizabeth Lease
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Mary Elizabeth Lease (1850-1933) was an American lecturer, writer, and political activist. Most of her political work was done toward the cause of temperance. She was born to Irish immigrants Joseph P. and Mary Elizabeth (Murray) Clyens, in Ridgway, Pennsylvania. In 1895, she wrote The Problem of Civilization Solved, and in 1896, she moved to New York City where she edited the democratic newspaper, World. In addition, she worked as an editor for the National Encyclopedia of American Biography. Mary Elizabeth Lease was also known as Mary Ellen Lease. She was called “Queen Mary” (after the Queen Mary) by her supporters and “Mary Yellin” by her enemies. Lease died in Callicoon, New York.

At the age of twenty she moved to Kansas to teach school in Osage Mission (St. Paul, Kansas), and three years later she married Charles L. Lease, a local pharmacist. After unsuccessful farming ventures in Kingman County and in Texas, the Leases and their four children moved to Wichita, where she took a leading role in civic and social activities.

Lease was also involved in the Populist Party, gathering support for their cause. Though Lease is widely believed to have advised Kansas farmers to “raise less corn and more hell,” she later said that the admonition had been invented by reporters. Lease decided to let the quote stand because she thought “it was a right good bit of advice.” She believed that large business would make the people of America slaves, saying, “Wall street owns the country. It is no longer a government of the people, by the people, and for the people, but a government of Wall Street, by Wall Street, and for Wall Street. The great common people of this country are slaves, and monopoly is the master.”

By 1890, her involvement in the growing revolt of Kansas farmers against high mortgage interest and railroad rates had placed her in the forefront of the People’s (Populist) Party, and she stomped all over Kansas as well as the Far West and the South for the cause. She was a powerful and emotional speaker; Emporia editor William G. Allen White, who did not share her political views, wrote on one occasion that “she could recite the multiplication table and set a crowd hooting and harrahing at her will.” She made more than 160 speeches.
More an agitator than a practical politician, by 1896 Lease had become alienated from the Populist Party, and thereafter she turned to personal interests. She divorced her husband in 1902 and spent the rest of her life with one or another of her children in the East until her death in 1933.

Some claim Mary Elizabeth Lease to have been the model for Dorothy in L. Frank Baum’s The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.

——————————–

The “P” in “POW” Does Not Stand for “President.”
Posted by ZP Heller, The Real News Network at 11:12 AM on September 5, 2008.

McCain is hellbent on playing the POW card to the bitter end.

If the Republican National Convention revealed anything it’s that John McCain is hellbent on overplaying his POW card to the bitter end.  In the last few months alone we’ve seen the McCain campaign overuse McCain’s POW story to justify everything from his healthcare policy to forgetting how many houses he owns, from cheating at the Saddleback forum to his love of ABBA.  Each time McCain and the GOP invoke his past in vain they diminish the story’s potency and cheapen its respectability.  Such a political ploy compelled fellow former POWs like Dr. Phillip Butler to come forward and declare that this experience does not qualify McCain to lead, which Brave New PAC featured in its recent video that received over 190,000 views in the last few days.

Even the corporate media have grown weary of McCain trotting out his POW story. Andrew Sullivan channeled Joe Biden to dub McCain, “A noun, a verb, and POW.”  And Newsweek’s Howard Fineman said, “I think they are going to it way too many times.”  These pronouncements ought to have served as a cautionary sign for the McCain campaign, considering how deeply enamored the media has been with McCain throughout this election.  But judging from the RNC this week, McCain and the GOP just can’t help themselves.

While the Democrats made economic populism the central theme of their convention, the Republicans used their convention primarily to pay tribute to McCain’s military record.  On Tuesday night, the single charged moment in President Bush’s otherwise uninspired, unconvincing televised speech came when he referred to McCain’s POW past.  “Fellow citizens,” Bush said. “If the Hanoi Hilton could not break John McCain’s resolve to do what is best for his country, you can be sure the angry left never will.”

When the crowd applauded, two things became clear: 1) Republicans are willing to stoop so low as to depict the left as merciless Vietcong captors (ironic, considering it was Republicans like Bush and McCain who approved of torturing suspected terrorists); and 2) The Republicans can’t make this race about issues because they would lose.

A raging class war?  Rising unemployment?  Soaring gas prices?  Unaffordable healthcare?  A recession brought on by an unpopular war?  These are all crises courtesy of Bush and backed by McCain, who has virtually voted lockstep with the president.  Why bring up these subjects when you could be playing on your audience’s sympathies by touting your nominee’s time in a Vietnamese prison over thirty years ago?

For all the talk of candidates needing “experience” in this election, the only real experience the GOP is concerned with is McCain’s POW past.   That’s why Sarah Palin made the ludicrous claim that “there’s only one man who’s ever really fought for you,” and that it’s a long way from “a six-by-four cell in Hanoi to the Oval Office.”  That’s why John McCain devoted most of his speech last night to recounting his tale of woe, which we already heard during the video tribute that played only ten minutes earlier.  And that’s why McCain drew the rather obvious comparison that Obama doesn’t have “the scars” that he has.

The reality is that as terrible as McCain’s experience may have been, that alone does not qualify him to be president.  As Dr. Butler says, “The prisoner of war experience is not a good prerequisite for a president of the United States.”  And by telling and retelling his POW story, by exploiting it for political gain, McCain dishonors those who have served our country and renders his own experience meaningless.

Tagged as: george bush, john mccain, gop, economy, vietnam, minnesota, republicans, sarah palin, pow, st. paul, hanoi hilton
ZP Heller is the editorial director of Brave New Films. He has written for The American Prospect, AlterNet, The Philadelphia Inquirer, and The Huffington Post, covering everything from politics to pop culture.

The McCain Campaign’s Big McMansion Mystery Mistake
Posted by dday, Hullabaloo at 9:51 AM on September 5, 2008.

What exactly was that giant building on the screen behind John McCain last night?

To a man, everyone on the liberal blogger side of the aisle was stunned that the McCain campaign would allow the TV shot to go out to the world on his big night to be him in front of a lime green background. Cottage cheese and lime Jello, in the vernacular of the blogosphere. Surely they WATCHED the shot through a monitor and knew that it would make him look sickly. {Actually he looked older then he really is and did not give him an aura of environmentalism green - this is something he totally lost in the last half year of his campaign,}

But that’s not the only head-scratcher with the RNC staging, which the set designers had months to organize. The giant screen was useless outside of the room, always putting the speaker at the podium behind monochrome, or worse, in the East River (in Rudy Giuliani’s speech).

Putting the seats for dignitaries along the side of the stage was OK, but the white line across the boxes designating them looked to the TV angle like the seats were empty, in a wide shot. And then there’s this, which is absolutely amazing:

{ But The Real goof-off Seems to be More Serious: }

A lot of people were asking tonight: what the hell was that mansion up behind John McCain tonight during the first part of the speech? As I noted below, the TV close-ups only showed McCain’s head against the grass in the picture, which made it look like he was reprising his famed green screen performance. And when they panned out, it looked like McCain was showing off one of his mansions.

Well, several readers have written in to tell me that the building is actually the main building on the campus of the Walter Reed Middle School in North Hollywood, California. And sure enough, this page on the school’s website makes it pretty clear that they’re correct.