Month: June 2010

Health Reform–Revisited

After a year of health reform back and forth….after a year of lies and misinformation…after a year of name calling and insults……after a year of political jockeying…….after a year of total Hell in Washington…..we have a health reform law…..that is NOT good enough states are trying to sue the government to stop the law….but all the while are preparing to implement the law….

The Dems have gone on the air and taunted the benefits of the law…..have talked about the victory for the people….but is it everything good that the Dems have echoed?  Is it all that and a bag of chips?

According to the Politico’s Jennifer Haberkorn:

Part of the health care overhaul due to kick in this September could strip more than 1 million people of their insurance coverage, violating a key goal of President Barack Obama’s reforms.

Under the provision, insurance companies will no longer be able to apply broad annual caps on the amount of money they pay out on health policies. Employer groups say the ban could essentially wipe out a niche insurance market that many part-time workers and retail and restaurant employees have come to rely on.

This market’s limited-benefit plans, also called mini-med plans, are priced low because they can, among other things, restrict the number of covered doctor visits or impose a maximum on insurance payouts in a year. The plans are commonly offered by retail or restaurant companies to low-wage workers who cannot afford more expensive, comprehensive coverage.

Obama and his cronies have told us all about the millions that will now have health care…..they left out the part where some people could lose their plan altogether..

From Rep. Ryan: GOP Spending Reduction Proposal

From the Scriptorium

Federal Budget Deficit Reduction:

Paper #1

There are not many in the Congress that I think should be there because most or inept at governing past their own interests….however….I appreciate Wisconsin’s Rep. Paul Ryan, a Repub…he is young and sharp on financial and budgetary issues…..he has authored a couple of proposals for cutting the budget deficit, while some are good and others I differ with what he see…..I will analyze these proposals…there are 8, I believe….I will give my take on each of his proposals…..(I know you did not ask, but you will get it anyway)

First up is his Cancel Unused TARP Funds and it reads like this:

The proposal would prohibit the Treasury Dept. from exercising authority under the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act to disburse funds for new commitments.  Only those funds pursuant to legally binding contracts entered into on or before enactment the enactment of this legislation will be disbursed.

All TARP Funds returned to the Treasury–including dividends, interests or other payments–will go tp deficit reduction and will not create headroom for the Treasury to exercise additional authority.

All this sounds all to simple, huh?  While I may agree with Ryan somewhat, I cannot jump on this bandwagon…..this part is just a political game being played now that auto makers are fairly stable, I will agree that the fund was basically a blackmail payment to AIG, Goldman and the other Banksters….but there are still banks that are in real trouble, banks that have people’s lives deposited in them and they may need some help secure the people’s savings and other personal things.

I will agree that using the TARP fund for other spending is not doing us any good and that part of it can be shut down……but to totally shut it down while the banks are in trouble, about 700 so far, is just irresponsible and NOT in the best interests of the country.  But all this seems suspect to me….why?  Now that the gamblers on Wall Street have gotten there money from the taxpayers it is some how good policy to start trying to cutting spending.

Deficit spending was originally used to generate demand, not liquidity…..this plan did the opposite….since it is NOT being used for what it was designed to do…then I will agree with Rep. Ryan….reluctantly……

GOP Has Yet Another Plan

From the VOMITORIUM

For the past year and half the GOP has been pissing and moaning about the destruction of our country at the hands of Obama and the Dems……first it was health reform and then it was the FinReg and now it is the oil spill and the steps taken or not taken by the White House…….Repub after Repub has gotten up in front of anyone with a mic or a webcam to bitch about the lack of measures taken by the president…..

All in all it is for political gain…they seem to care nothing for the people that are being totally screwed by the spill…oh, they mention the American people but fail to come up with an idea….even a bad idea…..but all that is about to change…they now have a plan to stick it to BP….(Yeah and I am a Mexican gardener)…….

House Minority Leader John Boehner went on the record this weekend in support of lifting the $75 million cap on BP’s liability for damages caused by the catastrophe, he and his party for weeks had opposed Democratic efforts to retroactively and permanently lift that cap so that BP ponies up for this spill and so that damages from future spills are the full responsibility of the oil companies that cause them.Last week, as controversy over the GOP’s position on BP raged, Boehner’s office suggested that a better way to hold the oil giant accountable for the current spill would be to pass legislation sponsored by Sen. David Vitter (R-LA) who proposes lifting the cap on BP, but leaving the $75 million cap in place — punting for now on the question of what to do about future spills.

Vitter’s bill, they say, doesn’t require BP to do anything, doesn’t address the systemic problem of the liability cap, and may not even be constitutional — all things the Democratic alternative, pushed by Rep. Rush Holt (D-NJ) and Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ), would address.

“This bill has massive loopholes that BP could walk right through, and it leaves in place the liability limit for every future oil spill,” Menendez spokesman Afshin Mohamadi tells me. “Protecting oil companies is a political albatross around the necks of Republicans, so they are using this bill as a talking point. But it’s nothing more that — it has no teeth.”

This is just pure bunk…..BP, if this bill is adopted, could just walk away from their responsibility with little or NO penalty……I would like to see a list of Vitter’s campaign donors…bet we would find a oil company or two in there….

There is already a precedent set by the Supreme Court on the Valdez thing and I would bet that the lawyers for BP are already looking at it for future reference….

Banksters Find New Life

Daily Agitator

The collapse of the American economy in 2008 , all eyes were focused on the derivative trading markets, where these banksters gamble and if they lose they stick the taxpayer with the bill and if they win they keep all the profit…..good gig if you can get it…..

But now with everyone watching the Banksters a new trick is being employed……(from moneymorning.com)

Well, here’s the secret: They’ve found a new way to skim more of the cream off the top of U.S. economic activity. It’s called “High-Frequency Trading” (HFT).

High-frequency trading uses the speed of supercomputers to trade faster than a human trader ever could. Human owners of the supercomputers program them to take advantage of information milliseconds faster than other computers, and whole seconds faster than ordinary human traders.  This is not a minor development; HFTs now represent about 70% of the trading volume in the U.S. equity market.

HFT computer servers are able to beat other computers because they are located at the exchanges. They take crucial advantage of the finite speed of light and switching systems to front-run the market. They also gain information on orders and market movements more quickly than the market as a whole. They operate not only on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), but also on the electronic trading exchanges such as the NYSE hybrid market.

Predatory algorithmic traders take advantage of the institutional computers that chop up large orders into many small ones. They make the institutional trader that wants to buy bid up the price of shares by fooling its computer, placing small buy orders that they withdraw. Eventually the “predatory algo” shorts the stock at the higher price it has reached, making the institution pay up for its shares.

The bottom line for us ordinary market participants is that insiders are using computers to game the system, extracting billions of dollars from the rest of the market. While it is illegal to trade on insider knowledge about company financials, these people are trading on insider knowledge about market order flow. That’s how Goldman Sachs and the other biggest houses make so much from trading. By doing so they are rent-seeking, not providing value to the market.

See….did not take these thieves long to find a way to replace all the profits they would losing with government money intervention…these a/holes learned nothing from their past practices or the anger of the American people…the taxpayer is NOT ever protected from these predators and the fragile economy is being gamed….AGAIN!

As long as the system is based on GREED…we will always be at the mercy of these criminals….when will we ever learn?  ( a rhetorical question)

Good News For Afghanistan?

Inkwell Institute

International Studies Group

Central Asia Desk

It seems that the country of Afghanistan and its bloody little armed conflict is making its way into the news more and more…..recently we  in the US have passed a milestone, that is 1000 troops have been killed in this war.

Further back there has been a back and forth between Washington and Kabul on who is in charge and there was the humor that was the latest Afghan elections….corruption is rampant and that is just the most obvious of conditions in the war torn country.

Now the US has planned the all important push around Kandahar….looking for the hearts and minds of the locals in their attempt to isolate the Taliban….but this operation is NOT looking as good as it once did…..

The offensive had been slated to begin this month, but, as McChrystal admitted, the US has been unable to win the support either of tribal leaders and power brokers or of the populace in and around Afghanistan’s second largest city. The town of 450,000 in the heart of the Pashtun-dominated south is the birthplace of the Taliban and remains a key stronghold of the anti-occupation insurgency.

One result of the US offensive in Helmand province has been increased Taliban activity in Nimroz, the province to the west of Helmand that borders on Iran and Pakistan. The Army Times reported June 11 that Taliban fighters forced out of Helmand have shifted operations to Nimroz, previously considered the most stable part of southern Afghanistan.

There is the real story……the NATO troops move in…Taliban moves out and starts up again…this game of cat and mouse is NOT going to win any long term success for the occupation.

And now the worse news that can be had….

The previously unknown deposits of iron, copper, cobalt and gold are so huge that it could transform the impoverished nation into one of the world’s important mining centers, the report on the newspaper’s website said. (here)

The mineral wealth, discovered by a team of Pentagon officials and U.S. geologists, is scattered throughout the country including in the south and east along the border with Pakistan, where the Taliban-led insurgency is the most intense.

It is said to be worth about a trillion dollars……yes I said the WORSE news!

Why?

What chance does a country that is still living in the 2nd century have at controlling their new found assets?  What are their chances of avoiding the exploitation that is coming?  What are the chances that the US will stay to help protect US business interests?  What are the chances that any cash will be used to further the fundamentalism?

If you listen closely you can hear the Afghan politicians jerking off in the corner…they are drooling and smiling uncontrollably……if you want proof of my thoughts look at other resource rich countries like Nigeria and Bolivia…the corruption will only get larger and the people well get hungrier…….

My question is why now?

The Russians knew about the mineral deposits in 1985 and the US Pentagon has a report about them from 2003…so why is it reported now?  Personal opinion….it will give the US an excuse for NOT pulling out of Afghanistan totally……we cannot let China or Russia get their hands on all that copper or iron or whatever….and if an American company gets the mining nod then someone has got to protect their interests….Right?

Nothing about this announcement smells kosher!

Is Obama Protecting BP?

Daily Agitator

Last night the President made his first speech from the Oval office…this was his opportunity to take the lead on the Gulf oil spill….to show the American people that he is in charge and BP will be made to pay……..(pause for reflection)……..he failed!  I heard NOTHING that had not been said before…..mostly it was his optimism that all will be made right……he told me all about the Noble Prize winners in his cabinet and the commission he has appointed to deal with the spill…..commission?……we do NOT need a commission…we need a CORK!

There has been so much back and forth on how Obama has handled the Gulf oil spill…Repubs are making it a politically weapon for their elections…the Dems are defending the actions of Obama and his response to the spill….and the media is just doing nothing more than fanning the flames of discontent……everyone on the air whether politician or journalist seem to be having an agenda to pursue…and while they are doing this the people effected by the spill keep getting further and further screwed by the very people that are there to “help”…..

in an article written by Hiram Lee…….

Last week the Interior Department released a statement to the press with a new estimate placing the amount of oil leaking into the Gulf at 12,000 to 19,000 barrels per day. The numbers came from a survey conducted by the National Incident Command’s Flow Rate Technical Group, a team consisting of government scientists and representatives from universities across the US. The White House stood by the new estimates and BP executive Robert Dudley appeared on national television to promote them.

In reality, the scientists conducting the survey reported this estimate only reflected the “lower bounds” of their findings, meaning that the numbers represented the very least possible amount of oil flowing into the Gulf.

The escrow account that the Dems are proposing…..is it a way to protect BP from the massive lawsuits heading their way?

“The BP chiefs will suggest to Mr. Obama that the rhetoric from the White House and other parts of the administration is destabilising markets and damaging US investors, who hold 40 percent of its shares,” the Times writes. “The BP executives will tell the administration that the company can afford to pay an already announced first quarter dividend as well as meet its bill for coping with the Gulf of Mexico spill.”

Any “truce” will be on the backs of the those devastated by the crisis. This is because all sides in the discussion—the Obama adminstiration as much as BP—start from the premise that the BP and the oil industry as a whole must remain under the control of private investors, whose money-mad drive for profit created the disaster and has dictated every step of the response.

I have NO doubt that BP will NOT be held totally accountable for the is spill….just as Exxon was NOT held accountable for the Valdez incident……,IMO, BP will be protected from the entirety of the spill….and in doing so…this whole scenario will be re-visited again in the future….just like the financial crisis….in 10 years we will be deal with it again…..Why?    because NONE of the SLUGS in Washington have the guts to really repair a broken system….they just throw minor diatribes at it and hope that it will go away….

Will History Repeat?

Inkwell Institute

2010/2012 Election Series

I am sure that everyone has heard the old saying that history repeats itself….do you believe it?  Or do you think it is crap?

This time I am talking about the Tea Party movement…..that movement built on the insecurity of the American people, especially the conservatives…this spontaneous movement, as it has been billed, is nothing new.  I know, “what the Hell do you mean, Professor”?

I mean that this “spontaneous” movement of the people is NOTHING new.  Look at the death of Kennedy and his replacement Johnson…..his programs scared the living Hell out of conservatives and they set about change the climate in the South….then came the landslide of Nixon and Dems started wringing their hands and had to redefine themselves because McGovern was too far left and that sent shutters through the party.  And what took his place, Jimmy Carter and that adjustment gave us a one term president.  And now with the election of Obama the conservatives are struggling to find their next handhold on the people.

With a promise of change, Obama swept through the states on his way to the White House….his only draw back was the strangle hold that the Conservs have on the South.  But the people’s movement had to try and capitalize on the wish for change and the use of the South and their unnatural fears was the perfect place to start.

The biggest problem today is that the opposition to Obama is that it is being fueled by lies and misinformation….at least in the past, most of the political changes were from a legit oint of opposition…this time around it is just pure HATRED that is driving the movement, at least from those with the biggest mouths.

The only thing left to say is a warning to the American voter…..be careful what you wish for it may come true….

The Longer They Go, The Whackier They Get

From the VOMITORIUM

The Teabaggers are getting more and more air time during the present cycle of elections and primaries……and all their lunacy keeps coming out and out and the Low info voter keeps licking it up by the jug full…….

Take Nevada when the darling of the Tea Party won her nomination as the Repub candidate…..she wants to abolish Social Security, bow out of the UN, just to mention a few of her quirky little stands….but does it stop there?

Hell NO!

Since she won the nomination more and more of her extreme right and extreme crazy ideas keep coming forth…..

The peculiar ideology of Sharron Angle, the Republican nominee challenging Sen. Harry Reid in Nevada, is perhaps no better illustrated than by her embrace of the patriot group Oath Keepers, whose membership of uniformed soldiers and police take an oath to refuse orders they see as unconstitutional — including enforcement of gun laws, violations of states’ sovereignty, and “any order to blockade American cities, thus turning them into giant concentration camps.

According to the SPLC, Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes, a former staffer for Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX) warns his followers against “a coming dictatorship” that will happen if “our brothers in arms go along and comply with unconstitutional, unlawful orders.” An extensive report on the group by Mother Jones in March suggests supporters of the movement believe they’re living through the first steps of the shift away from constitutional freedom. Members of the group — many of them in the armed forces — share the “belief that the government is already turning on its citizens, they are recruiting military buddies, stashing weapons, running drills, and outlining a plan of action [to stop it],” the magazine reported.

Early in her career, if we can call it that she had the John Birch ideas about Communist plots……

Nevada GOP Senate candidate Sharron Angle earlier in her career spoke out strongly against fluoride, the substance known alternately for improving dental health and as a Communist plot to undermine Western democracy.

Poor thing, she just cannot catch a break….the mainstream media is after her butt or she could be just plain….CRAZY!

This next part has little or maybe nothing to do with  Angle….but is just as crazy and just as much the Tea Party as the woman above…..

From Newser’s website:

Think the Tea Party rhetoric is getting a little overwrought? Then get a load of this video from Alabama House candidate Rick Barber, in which he has a kind of war council with various founding fathers. Barber calls for President Obama’s impeachment, then launches a mostly nonsensical rant about the IRS, which is making us “spy on ourselves” by asking us to report our income. “I can’t stand by while these evils are perpetrated!” Barber cries. “You gentlemen revolted over a tea tax. A tea tax! Are you with me?” To which fantasy Washington replies gravely, “Gather your armies.” Which is kind of funny because, as David Weigel of the Washington Post points out, Washington instituted the nation’s first federal tax in 1791—on whiskey—and organized a militia to forcibly collect it from anyone who resisted.

All this would be all the more humorous, if it was not so damn scary…….scary in the sense that there those out there that believe all this equine fecal matter…..and anyone with half a brain would be scared at the popularity that all these NUTS are receiving……

Who’s The Authority Here?

Inkwell Institute

Professor’s Classroom

Subject:  Political Theory

Paper #18

Here is one of my least favorite subjects when discussing political theory…it is viewed many ways and for many reasons….but for this paper I will try to define authority in simple terms as it is practiced by the different major political ideologies…..Whether we speak of the ‘leader’ or the state or whatever….there will always be someone or thing in charge or the authority, if you will………

Authority is ever given or taken….and the different political ideologies view the institution of authority in different ways…..

Basically authority can be categorized two ways….1–is the broad definition where it means any system of power or social control of those involved in the system….2–the entity behind the running of the state…..Hannah Arendt says…”If authority is to be defined at all…..coercion by force and at the same time it is permission by argument”

Liberals see authority rising from below with the consent of those to be governed.  In order to have a orderly existence, authority is rational, purposeful and limited in its scope.  And should be held to public accountability.

Conservatives sees authority as arising from natural necessity being exercised from above by virtue of  the unequal distribution of experience, social position and wisdom.  Authority is beneficial as well as necessary for respect, loyalty and social cohesion.

Socialists, those damn socialists, are suspicious of authority because of its links the to interests of the powerful and privileged.    But, there is always a but, they have embraced the collective body as the authority as a means to check individualism and greed.

Anarchists see ALL forms of authority as oppressive and in as such find it  unnecessary and exploitative.  There is NO distinction between authority and naked power.  There are MANY forms of anarchist…….Syndicalists, Councilists, even an anarcho-cpaitalist…IMO it is chaos and not even organized chaos….

Fascists see it as a manifestation of a personal leadership of charisma, if you will…..This form of authority is absolute and unquestionable….simply put it is authoritarian in its very nature.  (Thanx to Andrew Heywood’s book “Political Ideologies)

Yes, I know that is down to its basic points….I could expand it but you guys would suffer from the same ‘brain worms’ as me…it is for your own protection….

My Connectile Dysfunction

Daily Agitator

I have joked about the connectivity of my electronic stuff for sometime now…it seems that I have a major problem with connection…..I have made many jokes….but that was a coping mechanism…..there is NOTHING funny about the problem….at least not to me….

It all began with me wanting to move into the 21st century and get a Blackberry….that way I could stay connected even when out and about….yes, it is important to me….I am a news and political junkie, so knowing who was doing who is preferable…..

I got my phone in the mail and set about activating it….that was 3 weeks ago and ….you guess it!….I am still NOT activated….I call the techno geeks for some assistance and they go about issuing ticket numbers and having me wait for 24 hours before activation…..3 weeks later I am still waiting for the goddamn activation.  I am over the 24 hour phone tag!

I have given them a choice…..new phone or money returned and I am waiting for that to materialize…(update to follow)…..

My next trip along the connectile dysfunction was my wireless router crap out and had to get a new one……NOTHING is ever simple!  My defunct router was a simple box that connected to the cable modem and away we went….lots of connectivity……

I spent most of a day trying to find a simple router that would just get me connected wirelessly….HA HA HA HA HA!……in the 21st century NOTHING is that easy!  After scouring the area I was left with about 10 different routers, none were a simple fix, that I had to program my PC to do everything but give me a blowjob….but if you just want to be connected you are shit out of luck!  Now they are for the gamers, and the photo freaks and the youtubers, etc…..NOTHING IS SIMPLE!

Btw READ the instruction first….believe me it makes all the difference in the world……

The good news is I am connected wirelessly and can feed on the political stuff until I am full….but I cannot leave the house……I still DO NOT have a goddamn phone…..!!!!!!!!!

Have a nice day, my ass!