Month: November 2008

Obama And Latin America

U.S. hegemony in Latin America has been maintained historically through military and paramilitary force, economic coercion, and since the mid-1980s through the additional strategy of manipulating civil society through a complex of programs implemented under the banner of “democracy promotion.” Democracy promotion is the topic of William Robinson’s 1996 book, Promoting Polyarchy: Globalization, US Intervention, and Hegemony (Cambridge University Press).

Although the motor behind imperialism is first and foremost capitalist accumulation, public opinion requires that the government justify such violent and undemocratic actions as overthrowing and assassinating presidents and propping up dictatorships with liberal rationales; since WWII this cover has always been the defense of “freedom” from communism. However, since the USSR disappeared as an ideological enemy, the Clinton administration justified its considerable military support to Colombia as fighting the war on drugs; Clinton also escalated corporate globalization under the guise of democracy promotion. When the Bush administration decided to carry out military coups against Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and Haitian President Jean Bertrand Aristide, it needed a more convincing justification, so it presented the narrative that both presidents had been overthrown by popular uprisings—a story that was planted in the media by the same “democracy promotion” networks that were orchestrating the coups on the ground.


Barack Obama seems to be oblivious to the sea change in Latin America, portraying the advance of the left as a threat which came about through the incompetence of the Bush administration, who allowed a “dangerous demagogue” like Hugo Chavez to rise to power.


If Venezuela, Bolivia and Nicaragua are the bad guys, the good guys are represented by the Uribe government in Colombia, easily the biggest human rights violator in the hemisphere and the most corrupt (and for some reason embraced by the Clinton administration). Obama defended Colombia’s illegal March 1 attack on a guerrilla camp in neighboring Ecuador, where 25 people (including four Mexican students) were pulverized by aircraft artillery as they slept. His official statement: “The Colombian people have suffered for more than four decades at the hands of a brutal terrorist insurgency, and the Colombian government has every right to defend itself.” This is almost exactly what he said about Israel during its last invasion and bombing of Lebanon.

President Obama has a decision to make: either he will be on the side of the people and ecological sustainability, or on the side of transnational capital. He cannot steer a neutral course because he will be in charge of two enormous bureaucracies–the State Department and the National Security Agency–which have as their mission the removal of all obstacles to the accumulation of corporate profits. If he decides to switch sides, it will be in defiance not only of powerful economic and military interests, but of the team of advisors he has so far relied on. He will have to let them all go and bring in an entirely new group of people. The chance of that happening is next-to-none.

The New “New Deal”.

At least that is what they are trying to call the Obama plan for the economy.  Back on 9 Sept 08 I wrote when everyone was talking about the prospect of change coming to Washington,

“Sadly, history will repeat itself and change will not be coming to the political system. To answer the original question –NO CHANGE IS COMING!”  BTW, this is my way of saying, “I told you so”!

So when I hear that Obama’s plan is the New New Deal I shudder.

The present crisis is the outcome of the protracted decline of American capitalism, which is massively indebted, has seen a decades-long decimation of its manufacturing base and whose financial system has become the destructive engine of a deepening worldwide slump. There is no modern New Deal forthcoming from an Obama administration.

Moreover, the one implemented by Roosevelt more than 70 years ago failed to overcome the Depression. That was achieved only through a second world war that annihilated millions of people.

But astonishment at this turn of events, far less satisfaction at the belated acknowledgment of the state’s proper role in the market, should not lead critics of financial capitalism astray. Rather, they should argue firmly that this plan must not be a golden parachute for a small elite of people and firms paid for by the country’s already hard-pressed citizens: rather, it must become a golden opportunity to create a new model of and a new phase in the US economy itself.

The taxpayers’ money should not go to bail out a financial sector that has brought the country to the most severe crisis since 1929 – and which will have (like the great-depression era) economic and political reverberations across the world. The US has a strong banking sector, whose regulation and capital requirements have allowed it to survive the crisis of the financial sector. The fact that the two titans of Wall Street, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, have voted with their feet by joining the banking sector is another indication of a possibility of returning to a financial model centred more on banking – with more regulation, stiffer capital-reserves requirements, and fewer leveraging options.

As written in the magazine, The Nation:

What we really need is a new New Deal: a systematic approach to the financial and economic problems of the United States.

Firstly, we need relief for ordinary Americans. At the moment, four million households are behind on their mortgage payments and facing foreclosure. Some estimates suggest that an additional two million may face eviction next year.

Second, we need reform. In recent years, one federal regulatory agency after another has been handed over to the industries they were created to regulate. It should come as no surprise that during the Bush administration the US has witnessed the largest recall of contaminated beef in its history, thousands of deaths from unsafe prescription drugs, and one of our worst financial meltdowns.

Advocates of the free market must confront the fact that both the Great Depression and the current financial chaos were preceded by years of laissez-faire economic policies. Strictly enforced regulations not only protect consumers, they protect companies that behave ethically from those that don’t. The sale of tainted baby food in China demonstrates, once again, that when industries are allowed to police themselves, there’s absolutely no limit on what they’ll do for money.

Third, we need reconstruction, not only of America’s physical infrastructure, but also of its society. Today close to 50 million Americans lack health insurance. About 40 percent of the nation’s adult population is facing medical debts, or having difficulty paying medical bills. A universal health-care system would help American families, while cutting the nation’s long-term health-care costs. And a large-scale federal investment in renewable energy and public-works projects would build the foundation for a strong 21st century economy.

Contrary to the myth of the free market, direct government intervention has played a central role throughout American economic history, subsidizing the growth of the railroad, automobile, aerospace and computer industries, among others. It will take well-planned government investment to break our dependence on foreign oil and create millions of new Green jobs.

I would agree that a new New Deal is needed but I do not see anything changing as it stands today.  Obama’s choices for his economic team have proven to be acceptable to Wall Street and that means that they will pursue the continuation of Wall Street first, Main Street….maybe.

Is There No End To This Parade?

The U.S. government is prepared to provide more than $7.76 trillion on behalf of American taxpayers after guaranteeing $306 billion of Citigroup Inc. debt yesterday. The pledges, amounting to half the value of everything produced in the nation last year, are intended to rescue the financial system after the credit markets seized up 15 months ago.

The unprecedented pledge of funds includes $3.18 trillion already tapped by financial institutions in the biggest response to an economic emergency since the New Deal of the 1930s, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The commitment dwarfs the plan approved by lawmakers, the Treasury Department’s $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program. Federal Reserve lending last week was 1,900 times the weekly average for the three years before the crisis.

When Congress approved the TARP on Oct. 3, Fed Chairman Ben S. Bernanke and Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson acknowledged the need for transparency and oversight. Now, as regulators commit far more money while refusing to disclose loan recipients or reveal the collateral they are taking in return, some Congress members are calling for the Fed to be reined in.

Most of the federal guarantees reduce interest rates on loans to banks and securities firms, which would create a subsidy of at least $6.6 billion annually for the financial industry, according to data compiled by Bloomberg comparing rates charged by the Fed against market interest currently paid by banks.

Not included in the calculation of pledged funds is an FDIC proposal to prevent foreclosures by guaranteeing modifications on $444 billion in mortgages at an expected cost of $24.4 billion to be paid from the TARP, according to FDIC spokesman David Barr. The Treasury Department hasn’t approved the program.

A Thanksgiving Thought

I really hate it when people use history to make a point andf then make up the facts to suit their presentation.  I was reading a transcript of a Rush Limbaugh show where he said:

“On August 1, 1620, the Mayflower set sail. It carried a total of 102 passengers, including forty Pilgrims led by William Bradford.”

Actually, I believe the first governor was name Carver, Bradford became the leader after his death.

There is more:

Now, you know the usual story of Thanksgiving: They landed. They had no clue where they were, no idea how to feed themselves. The Indians came out, showed ’em how to pop popcorn, fed ’em turkey, saved ’em basically — and then white European settlers after that basically wiped out the Indian population.”

He was right, this is not true either.  The Natives showed up at a harvest festival but brought NO food.  It was there custom that the guess was fed and entertained.  The Pilgrims had guns and hopefully knew how to hunt.  The Pilgrims were taught to plant by one Indian, Squanto.  The Indians needed the whites as allies against their neighboring tribes.  So it was a mutal pact.

But what Rush was basically doing was saying that the original “socialistic” community doid not work…but it did…it was the only thing that kept the Pilgrims alive….since out of the original 100 or so..less than 40 survived the first winter.  If they had not pulled together then they could have made all Indians happy by perishing.

Rush needs more fact and less fiction…he would look more informede…but then his listeners have NEVER allowed facts to cloud their judgement.

Is It Jail For Korean Adulterer?

This one is for a very good friend at Culturepress.

South Korean prosecutors have demanded an 18-month jail term for a popular actress who admitted breaking the country’s strict laws on adultery.

Ok So-ri had sought to overturn the 50-year old legislation, which carries a maximum jail sentence of two years.

She said it was an infringement of human rights and amounted to revenge.

Ms Ok has admitted having an affair with a well-known pop singer and her husband, Park Chul, is said to be seeking “a severe sentence”.

She blamed her infidelity on a loveless marriage to Mr Park, also an actor, and launched a legal challenge against the adultery law itself.

But the court ruled that the adultery law did not violate the right to “sexual self-determination and privacy” and that the available punishment was appropriate.

Ms Ok’s lawyers have said the legislation “has degenerated into a means of revenge by the spouse, rather than a means of saving a marriage”.

The Korean Times says that in the past three years about 1,200 people have been indicted annually for adultery, but very few have been jailed.

courtesy of BBC News

Americans are damn lucky that the Puritans did have the foresight of including this in the Constitution.  This is a damn silly law in the 21st century and is aimed at keeping women as second class citizens.

Enuff said?

Random Thoughts

This is a regular feature on Info Ink, it is notes that I have made but that did not necessarily make it into a post.

To begin with, it is Thanksgiving and I would like to take this opportunity to wish all my readers a joyous day; enjoy the fun, food and family and I will see you the day after.  Thanx for the visits and the comments they are much appreciated.

And now for something completely different (to quote Monty Python)

1–Do you realiuze that $33 trillion worth of wealth has been lost since the first of the year?

2–Could Bowflex have found a more pretentious bunch to hawk their product?

3–Just what the hell does “Economic Patriotism” mean?

4–Tiger Woods gets dumped from Buick–about a $7 million cut in pay

5–Without China and the Saudis the US economy would not exist.

6–How many times can the politicos in the media say the word “transparency”?  22 times in a 5 minute interview.

7–Anne Coulter has had to have her mouth wired shut–see!  there is a GOD!

8–Question?  If gas is falling like a lead balloon, how much has an airline ticket dropped?

9–On T/giving day a group will be running “Thank you, Sarah Palin” ad.  Is that a good idea?  I mean she was interviewed in front of a turkey killing machine in action.  Would that not remind people just how callous this woman is?

That is all for now…Peace….Out

Who Are The New Economic Wizards?

Here is a look at the Obama economic team–they are not, IMO, the saviors of the middle class, but a continuation of the Wall Street favoritism.

Geithner has been intimately involved in the federal bailout of the financial industry, working closely with Federal Reserve chief Ben Bernanke and current Treasury secretary Henry Paulson. It has been reported that Geithner was the principal architect behind the government-backed bailout of Bear Stearns, among other deals.

Before being appointed as president of the New York Fed, Geithner worked as a policy director for the International Monetary Fund and was a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, a leading diplomatic think tank.  (read my post on the IMF and how it screws the people of a country in the name of capitalism)

The financial elite delivered its verdict on Geithner’s selection on Friday. When the Obama transition team leaked word of his selection, the markets rallied. The Dow Jones industrial average climbed 494.13 points, or 6.5 percent. Geithner will be considered “Wall Street’s man” in the Obama administration.

Lawrence Summers, Obama’s selection to head the National Economic Council, was a leading economic official in the Clinton administration. As Treasury secretary, Summers became famous for using federal budget surpluses to pare down the national debt, even as Clinton slashed social spending.

Obama appears set to name Peter Orszag as director of the Office of Management and Budget. An economist with a PhD from the elite London School of Economics, Orszag has served as the director of the US Congressional Budget Office since January 2007. Previously he was a Senior Fellow at the liberal think tank the Brookings Institutution, and served in the Clinton administration as Senior Adviser on the Council of Economic Advisers.

Orszag is an advocate of revamping Social Security. He co-authored a book in 2004 called Saving Social Security: A Balanced Approach. In it, Orszag argues that a fundamental reason for the predicted insolvency of Social Security is that life expectancy “has risen by four years for men and five years for women since 1940,” “making benefits more valuable to recipients,” but more costly. To address this dilemma, Orszag advocated a combination of payroll and “benefits adjustments”—i.e., cuts in social security payments to retirees.

Jason Furman will likely serve as a senior economic adviser. Furman has expressed support for setting up private social security accounts and cutting benefits. Furman has headed the Brooking Institution’s Hamilton Project, an economic think tank founded by Robert Rubin.

A New York Times article on Monday, noted that Geithner, Summers, Orszag, and Furman are all protégés of Robert Rubin, whose advocacy of deregulation of financial institutions and markets has contributed to the current economic crisis. Rubin also played a leading role, as a senior adviser, in the policies adopted by Citigroup that have led it to the brink of ruin—and a second government bailout in two months

Appears that change is not coming to the economic team for Obama…these people are more of business as usual.  Sorry….if change was expected…then you will be sadly disappointed.  You think I am mistaken?  Then look at the markets when these appointments were laeked then announced….they shot up about 800 points…confidence on Wall Street that nothing will change…sorry to be the bearer of bad news.

Why Don’t We Carpool?

After being skewered by Congress and lampooned on NBC’s “Saturday Night Live,” the CEOs of Detroit’s three automakers may end up making their return trip to Washington by car as they seek a federal bailout.

It is a little late to try and impress the Senators, theyt already have the idea that these guys are arrogant pricks.

The Detroit area’s auto industry, whose livelihood depends on the health of Chrysler LLC, Ford Motor Co. and General Motors Corp. spent the weekend e-mailing and discussing how to set up a giant car caravan to seek help from Congress.

What’s for certain is GM CEO Rick Wagoner won’t be going to Washington by corporate jet, although the company’s policy is not to comment on executive travel plans for security reasons, said spokesman Tony Cervone. A Chrysler spokeswoman wouldn’t comment on executive travel plans, and a message was left for a Ford spokesman.

The carpool idea came out of meetings on Friday at Dura Automotive Systems Inc., an auto parts maker in suburban Rochester Hills. President and CEO Tim Leuliette said that during the weekend they contacted the automakers, suppliers, dealership groups and the United Auto Workers and the movement began building.

The movement comes after last week’s disastrous hearings in front of two Congressional committees. Ford CEO Alan Mulally, Chrysler LLC CEO Robert Nardelli and GM’s Wagoner traveled to Washington on separate corporate jets to seek $25 billion in government loans to help them make it through the worst U.S. auto sales downturn in 25 years.

Many of the CEOs’ answers were vague, and it appeared as though they had no specific plan to change the way they do business in order to justify the bailout. Lawmakers have demanded restructuring plans by Dec. 2, with hearings to follow.

Maybe they should drive a Ford Festiva…..that would be a better way than to show up in a limo.

Name Your Baby After A Fascist

A far-right Italian party is offering 1,500 euros ($1,900) to parents who name their children after the fascist dictator Mussolini or his wife.

The small Movimento Sociale-Fiamma Tricolore (MS-FT) party denies its gesture is racist and says the names Benito and Rachele are merely “nice”.

The party also wants parents to buy cribs, clothes and food with the money.

The cash incentive is available in five areas of southern Italy and is designed to help the region’s low birth rate.

Together the names Benito and Rachele mean only one thing to Italians – they signify their former dictator and his wife.

But the party says the choice of names is what it called “purely casual”.

It says the move has no fascist or racist undertones, although it insists at least one parent is Italian.

Was It Worth It?

Back in September I posted about a British couple that got caught having sex on a beach in the UAE.  And now a follow up.

A British couple convicted of having sex on a beach in Dubai have been freed and ordered deported to the UK after their three-month prison sentence was suspended.

The ruling, issued by Dubai’s court of appeal, marks a hard-fought victory for Michelle Palmer, 36, of Rutland, and Vince Acors, 34, of southeast London, who have been on bail since their July 5 arrest on Jumeirah Beach.

“This decision shows the law in the United Arab Emirates is just. Judges are not swayed by the media, they are swayed by the evidence,” he said.

Sources told The Times that the court’s climbdown from its original conviction stemmed from inconsistencies from the prosecution’s key witness, Ali Mohamed Yacoub – the police officer who arrested the couple after they’d spent the day drinking at a champagne brunch.

The court’s decision today marks a departure from the six years behind bars that the couple could have potentially faced for having sex outside marriage, public indecency and drunkenness.

Would not the price of a hooker been a lot cheaper and much safer?