Month: June 2009

I Love This Dog!

There are times when surfing that we come across some story that makes you smile….this is just such a story.

A report filed by Reuters:

A dog in Germany shot by a drunken man with a gun took swift revenge by biting off the end of the man’s nose, authorities said on Monday.Police said the armed man was snooping at night in the yard of a house in Stadtlauringen in northern Bavaria when he shot the Bernese mountain dog from point-blank range.

Before collapsing, the dog leapt at the 39-year-old man and bit off the end of his nose, a local police spokesman said.

Bleeding profusely, the man called police and was taken for treatment in a nearby hospital. His motives for being in the yard were unclear, police said.

Doctors removed a bullet from the dog’s shoulder and discharged it from a clinic after an operation lasting several hours.

Do ya think the dog was pissed?

Iranians……Do It For Neda!

To My Iranian Friends:

The young woman who last weekend emerged as a powerful symbol of opposition to the Iranian government embraced life in many ways, but there was little about her that would have led her friends to predict she would become a martyr.

Neda Agha-Soltan, 26, rose to prominence within hours after a crudely shot video documenting her final moments was uploaded to the Web shortly after she died Saturday from a single gunshot wound to the chest.

Much about her remains unclear, but here is what CNN has learned from at least one source.

The second of three children, Neda lived with her parents in a middle-class neighborhood east of Tehran.

She was a happy, positive person. Though she studied philosophy and religion at the Azad Islamic University, she was more spiritual than religious. She also loved music. She once studied violin but had given it up and was planning to take up piano next. She had just bought a piano, but it had not yet been delivered.

Her demeanor was typically calm, even serene, but she had a quirky, playful sense of humor.

Neda, wearing a baseball cap over a black scarf, a black shirt, blue jeans and tennis shoes, does not appear to be chanting and seems to be observing the demonstration.

Suddenly, Neda is on the ground — felled by a single gunshot wound to the chest. Several men kneel at her side and place pressure on her chest in an attempt to stop the bleeding. “She has been shot! Someone, come and take her!” shouts one man.

By now, Neda’s eyes have rolled to her right; her body is limp.

Blood streams from her mouth, then from her nose. For a second, her face is hidden from view as the phone camera goes behind one of the men. When Neda’s face comes back into view, it is covered with blood.

Since her death, public displays of mourning for Neda have been prohibited, the friend said.

A gathering of about 60 people at a mosque was broken up by members of the Basij, the pro-government vigilantes blamed for much of the violence against demonstrators, according to New York Times columnist Roger Cohen, who observed the incident.

Neda’s family has not been allowed to post a black banner of mourning outside the family’s house, the friend said.

This young woman was an innocent by-stander and should no way be dead.  I say if a symbol is needed then Neda is the perfect symbol of the protests now taking place.  She did not deserve to die, but she deserves to be avenged.  Her family needs closure and Iran needs a change.  And the world needs to know of the brutality taking place that in some ways is reminiscent of the days of the Shah.

I say to Iranians…we are with you and do not give up….get it done for yourselves. your country and especially for Neda.

DO IT FOR NEDA!

Understanding Iran–Part 2

From Professor’s Classroom:

Th analysis of the recent Iranian elects bring home the fact that there are two Irans.  One is the old farts of the 1979 Revolution and the fundamentalists and two, the young…students, intelllectuals, middle class and the tech savvy.

Two Irans?  Yes….we have the old farts from the days of the 1979 Islamic Revolution and the young, the students, middle class, etc.  But what of the “middle age” Iranians?

Middle aged Iranians…..well there is a sticking point…why?….there are NOT many in Iran that are middle aged.  How can that be preofessor, you may ask?

That is a story unto itself……about the time that the ayatollah was coming to power in Iran in 1979…there was another despot coming to power…..one Saddam in Iraq.  In the year 1980 there were intrigues on both sides of the border between Iran and Iraq….Iraq fired one of the first shots of a coming war.  Saddam was afraid that the Shia in Iraq would rise up with Iran’s help and Saddam was after the oil fields in western Iran.  And thus began a bloody and costly war that lasted from 1980 to 1988.  The war could have been named “the battle of the despots”.

Now back to the middle aged Iranians.  The lack of a substantial group of Iranians know as “middle aged” is a direct result of a tactic employed during the war with Iraq, it was know as the Basji or the “human wave”.

The “human wave” was children in white burial garments that were tied together and sent into battle, unarmed, they would lead the Revolutionary Guard…they were used to clear mine fields and act as canon fodder against the Iraqis.  Thousands upon thousands of Iranian children died.

So yes, there are two Irans…the old and the young…….the old revolutionaries from the 1979 gig and the young who are the students, intellectuals, the middle class….the young, who want a more modern western existence.  These the ones that are fighting in the streets now…just as their old fart predecessors did some 30 years ago.  A full circle.

It Is All About The Health Care Debate

And the debate rages on….the Right offers a plan (?),  the Pres offers a plan, thjje Congress dances around all issues and tries to find common ground…..a near impossible feat at best.

The AP is reporting:

Democrats got a sobering glimpse of what it would look like if their ambitious health care overhaul ran into a wall — and they quickly pulled back to regroup and get moving again.

Trying to regain the initiative, House Democrats on Friday unveiled draft legislation they said would cover virtually all of the nation’s nearly 50 million uninsured as President Barack Obama has promised. However, they offered few details on how to pay for it.

Sounds alot like the Republican plan that was offered last week.

Then there was a break through…sort of…..

The pharmaceutical industry agreed Saturday to spend $80 billion over the next decade improving drug benefits for seniors on Medicare and defraying the cost of President Barack Obama‘s health care legislation, capping secretive negotiations involving key lawmakers and the White House.”This new coverage means affordable prices on prescription drugs when Medicare benefits don’t cover the cost of prescriptions,” Sen. Max Baucus, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, said in a statement announcing the accord.

“The agreement by pharmaceutical companies to contribute to the health reform effort comes on the heels of the landmark pledge many health industry leaders made to me last month, when they offered to do their part to reduce health spending $2 trillion over the next decade,” Obama said. “We are at a turning point in America’s journey toward health care reform.”

Baucus’ announcement said drug companies would pay half of the cost of brand-name drugs for seniors in the so-called doughnut hole — a gap in coverage that is a feature of many of the plans providing prescription coverage under Medicare. Other officials said wealthier Medicare beneficiaries would not receive the same break, but there was no mention of that in the statement.

All this sounds good but if it sounds too good to be true…it usually is.

Understanding Iran–Part 1

From Professor’s Classroom:

Most Americans think that the history of Iran and the US began in 1979….a popular misconception.

To help educate my reader on the country of Iran we need to step into the “way back” machine and travel to the year of 1951.

In that year,  one Mohammad Mossadeq was elected prime minister of Iran…the key word in that sentence is “elected”.  This year is at the height of the Cold War where commies were everywhere.  Mossadeq was elected by the Iranian people to lead the country…he was a moderate and was to lead a popular form of Iranian nationalism.  This form of nationalism was festering a hatred for the US  Soon after his election Mossadeq lead the vote in the Iranian parliament to nationalize the oil industry.  And then the Anglo-Iranian Oil Comapny was shut down.  Not a good move and prompted the CIA to come up with a plan to replace Mossadeq.

In 1953, the Shah, who at this time was nothing more than a simple figure head removed Mossadeq from power with the help of his American “friends”.  Thus the Shah came to power simply because he was pro-western and an anti-nationalist and was the choice of the CIA as their man in Tehran.

Once the Shah became the favorite son he began to consolidate his power and influence until he became the despot that was overthrown in 1979.  The Shah retained power because of his willingness to take orders from the CIA and oil interests and his willingness to shed Iranian blood to keep opposition down.  The US reaped a bunch of a willing ally in the region to help fight the advance of communism.

In the 1960’s, the Shah was depending exclusively on the US to keep him in power.

In 1979, after 26 years of oppression from the Shah, the Iranian people had had enough.  They started having those darn pesky nationalistic thoughts once again and the US was the best  known enemy of the people.  Why?  The US was allowing their man in Tehran to rule with an iron hand and every time there was bloodshed it was the fault of the US, at least that is rhetoric of the time.

Enter a little known mullah exiled in France.  And the rest is history, as they say….whoever “they” are.

It Is All About Unemployment

The recent “optimistic” report on the employment scene was good news and then it was bad news…I know…I know…what the hell does that mean?

The number of Americans receiving claims for unemployment benefits dropped for the first time since January, adding to evidence the job market is starting to thaw.

And in the same report this was given:

Initial claims rose by 3,000 to 608,000 in the week ended June 13, in line with forecasts.

The average number of claims over the last four weeks fell to the lowest level in four months, an indication that the U.S. economy is stabilizing after the worst recession in half a century. Even so, companies are likely to be slow to hire new employees, sending unemployment rates higher, analysts said.

Okay…make up my mind for me….is it good or bad?

As usual no one wants to mention the poor bastards who have NO claims left…that have come off the rolls or just stopped looking.  This is the same type of reporting that goes on weekly……any good news is in the big type and the not so good is later in the report in small type.

Here is a truer judgement of the employment picture:

Forty-eight states and the District of Columbia recorded unemployment rate increases in May, the government reported Friday. One state registered a rate decrease, and one state had no rate change.Several states and regions posted their highest unemployment rate since the report debuted in 1976.

Over the year, jobless rates were higher in all 50 states and the District of Columbia.

Please stop believing all the crap they throw……things are NOT getting that much better….only for the guys and gals on Wall Street…they got their bailout while the rest of us can starve….makes NO difference to Washington….they have jobs.

As Always, It Is Money Well Spent

And that is sarcasm, Irene!

Remember the days of yore?  The days of the Bush admin’s massive fear tactic?  Remember the tactic of a “dirty” bomb entering our ports?

The WaPo has an excellent report on just how badly money is spent….thgis is not the only place but it will do for now.

The Department of Homeland Security spent three years pushing for a costly nuclear detection system that does not work as billed, while neglecting to upgrade existing equipment that could have helped improve security, according to a new U.S. Government Accountability Office review and an interview with one of the authors.

The report is the sharpest critique to date of one of the Bush administration’s marquee national security programs, and it marks the culmination of several years of struggle by the GAO to determine whether the detectors worked as well as government officials claimed when first promoting the $1.2 billion project in 2006.

Contracts to spend up to $1.2 billion on 1,400 devices were first announced in July 2006. Then-Secretary Michael Chertoff said that they were a “vital priority” of the administration and that they were ready to be deployed.

The next month, GAO auditors alleged that the machines could not perform as well as the department claimed and questioned the department’s cost estimates of $377,000 per machine.

As always it costs too much and works not well enough….remember the Osprey?…how about the Bradley?  When will we ever learn?

Understanding Iran–Intro

This is from Professor’s classroom.

Iran has election….present pres. wins…protests follow….crack down follows that……bloodshed and accusations fly…..

The AP is reporting that after the mullahs warning…the protests continued.

Iran braced for the possibility of more bloody confrontations between protesters and security forces on the streets of Tehran as fresh images of brutality emerged Sunday despite the regime’s attempts to impose a news blackout.Witnesses claimed that numerous demonstrators were injured — and several allegedly killed — in clashes with black-clad police wielding guns, truncheons, tear gas and water cannons on Saturday as protests over disputed elections escalated into Iran’s most serious internal unrest since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

Authorities did not confirm any deaths, and the reports from bloggers and Twitter users inside Iran could not immediately be verified.

All eyes are on Iran and how the election protesters are handled.

Iran is one of those countries that is mystery to most people…the only info they have is what they read or hear in the media.

Iran?  Yep….the country seems to always be in the news and on the lips of American politicians….some analysts say we need to inject the US into the protests and others say we need to stay out of it…..do not give the Supreme Council any more reason to hate the US.  What should we do?

Iran has made it in the news again…this time it is not about whether the holocaust happened or what to do about nukes…..it is all about the recent election and the protests that followed.

Analysts are jumping for joy over the protests they say it is a show of weakness for the mullahs and a strength of the people.  Many are encouraged by the protests and say that it shows the strength of the moderates.  Personally, I think that it is a bit too optimistic.  Some see the popularity of Mousavi as a turning point in Iranian politics.

Unfortunately, not many people understand Iran and what is happening.  For this reason too much misinformation is out there and people are playing to that erroneous information.

In the next parts of this post I will explain, as best I can, why I feel that this is not as good of news as most seem to think it is.

More Health Care Debate

It seems that there is a lot of bitching and moaning about health care…most of which is being generated by those with excellent health care….but the numbers support Obama….at least in the beginning and for a governmental solution.

In a report by Reuters:

Americans strongly support fundamental changes to the healthcare system and a move to create a government-run insurance plan to compete with private insurers, according to a New York Times/CBS News poll published on Saturday.

But the Times/CBS poll found 85 percent of respondents wanted major healthcare reforms and most would be willing to pay higher taxes to ensure everyone had health insurance. An estimated 46 million Americans currently have no coverage.

Seventy-two percent of those questioned said they backed a government-administered insurance plan similar to Medicare for those under 65 that would compete for customers with the private sector. Twenty percent said they were opposed.

The debate on health care is getting out of hand…..misinformation is thrown around like beads at Mardi Gras.

From a report published on the wsws.org website:

Obama focused entirely on the rising cost of healthcare, which he presented as a major problem both for the federal government, the largest single payer of healthcare bills, and for corporate America. He declared, “The soaring costs of health care make our current course unsustainable” and pledged to heed concerns “that the ballooning costs of Medicare and Medicaid could lead to fiscal catastrophe down the road.” In other words, the administration is concerned, not about improving healthcare services for the American people, but about cutting costs in order to improve the financial health of American capitalism.The Obama administration has already ruled out the only rational response to the crisis of healthcare availability: the establishment of a single-payer system in which the federal government would guarantee universal access to healthcare as a matter of right. Every other advanced industrialized country has some form of universal coverage. But such a system would eliminate the tens of billions raked in by insurance companies whose “business model” requires that they limit coverage, deny treatment or reject bills—in other words, it would infringe on the “right” of MetLife, Aetna, CIGNA and other giant corporations to make a profit from illness and disease.

There is no difficulty, intellectually or technically, in devising a rational healthcare system. Advances in science and technology make it possible to deliver adequate healthcare services to the entire population at a fraction of the current cost. Every person should have access to healthcare as a basic right and be able to choose their own doctor and receive treatment at a modern, clean, well-run facility, run as a public utility either at no cost to patients at all, or with a modest fee.

Socialized medicine would be nothing but beneficial for small businessmen as well, since it would relieve them of an employee benefit cost that puts them at the mercy of rate hikes demanded by insurance companies. Small proprietors and self-employed professionals would have the same access to the healthcare system as all other working people, unlike the present system where they frequently go without coverage or pay prohibitive individual rates.

Despite the fevered rhetoric of the ultra-right, the Obama administration’s plans have nothing in common with such a restructuring of the healthcare system along socialist lines. On the contrary, Obama has repeatedly sought to reassure the profiteers that their interests will be looked after and that they are better off at the table, working with him, than outside. The for-profit healthcare and insurance firms have taken up this offer with enthusiasm.

The “debate” between the Republicans and Democrats in Congress involves little more than the terms on which hundreds of billions in treasury dollars will be turned over to the healthcare profiteers. The Obama administration wants to offer a public option as an alternative or supplement to private insurance, in the name of promoting competition and “keeping the insurance companies honest.”

The Republicans, and a sizeable number of right-wing Democrats, oppose any public option—largely for ideological reasons, since they fear the establishment of any form of public health insurance, no matter how inadequate, will lead to demands for a fully public healthcare system. One consulting firm recently estimated that 119 million of the 172 million now privately insured would switch to a public health plan that paid Medicare rates and charged premiums accordingly.

If a governmental solution is preferred by the people….why is there so much opposition?

The debate goes on and on…..and still nothing is for certain…will Obama cave to the profiteers and settle for a pale reflection of an honest health care bill that will benefit ALL Americans?  As the debate is now…there is a good possibility that concessions will be made so they can say they past a Health reform bill by the end of the year.  And all this debate will come again and again until the politicians decide that the American people deserve adequate health care.

Obama’s New Bank Regulations

As I have said in the past…millionaires policing millionaires……

The plan outlined by Obama calls for enhanced powers for the Federal Reserve to oversee big financial firms, both bank and non-bank companies; higher capital reserve and liquidity requirements; minimal government oversight of some hedge funds; a privately-run clearinghouse for some forms of derivative trading; and a requirement that lenders retain a small stake in loans they sell to the banks to be turned into securities.

All of these requirements can be easily circumvented by the banks. Moreover, the political forces responsible for enforcing them are bound hand and foot to Wall Street.

The panoply of existing federal regulatory agencies is for the most part to remain in place. Obama made much of the creation of a new body, the Consumer Financial Protection Agency, which he said would protect consumers against predatory practices by mortgage lenders and credit card companies. However, this agency will have no new powers beyond those previously spread out among other agencies.

The centerpiece of the plan is a proposal to allow the Fed and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation to seize and wind down big banks and non-bank financial firms whose failure would pose a “systemic threat.” This is considered necessary precisely because none of the other proposals challenge the ability of banks, hedge funds, insurance companies and other financial firms to engage in speculative practices that are certain, at some future point, to threaten another financial collapse. It amounts to the institutionalization of taxpayer bailouts of the financial system, in place of the ad hoc methods employed in the present crisis.

The comparison of Obama’s plan to the regulatory reforms of the 1930s is specious. In the depths of the Depression, Roosevelt imposed significant structural reforms to rein in the banks and save American capitalism from the threat of social revolution. A cornerstone of these reforms was the Glass-Steagall Act of 1933, which erected a barrier between commercial banks and investment banks.

Glass-Steagall was repealed in 1999, during the Clinton administration. That was a milestone in the deregulation of the banks. It was part of a process, stretching back to the early 1980s, in which the US ruling elite has turned increasingly to financial manipulation to generate profit and personal wealth, while dismantling huge sections of industry and waging relentless war against the jobs and wages of the working class.

The result has been a colossal growth of social inequality and the emergence of a financial oligarchy that dominates the political life of the country. Both parties are at the beck and call of Wall Street, and are incapable of enacting any measures to rein in its plundering of the social wealth.

Obama and the Democratic-controlled Congress have ruled out a return to Glass-Steagall. They have rejected capping executive pay. Nor is there any suggestion of closing down the casino for credit default swaps, collateralized debt obligations, structured investment vehicles and other exotic forms of speculation that played a major role in the financial crash.

I have been saying the same thing for months and it is good to see that I am not a lone voice out there calling a turd a turd.

Also, let me see if I have this right……a former head of the NY fed has given more and sweeping power to the Federal Reserve?  Is that about right?  The Fed is far from a rational organization and to give them more power than they have now may be a disasterous move.  Everyone in the media is so concerned with the raising deficits, but few are focusing on what is being done behind the scene and that a repeat of the crap we are now in is not that far fetched.