Month: September 2010

Vatican’s Banking Problem

It seems that the Vatican just cannot keep its nose clean from one year to the next…..it was part of the Nazi conspiracy in the 40’s and then came the sexual abuses of the last several decades and then there was the gay porn thing from last year….where several of the Pope’s personal choir was engaging in a gay escort business…..and just when you thought you had heard it all about the Vatican…there comes a story like this….

Italian authorities seized euro23 million ($30.18 million) from a Vatican bank account Tuesday and said they have begun investigating top officials of the Vatican bank in connection with a money laundering probe.

In Tuesday’s case, police seized the money from a Vatican bank account at the Rome branch of Credito Artigiano Spa, according to news agencies ANSA and Apcom. The bulk of the money, euro20 million ($26.2 million), was destined for JP Morgan in Frankfurt, with the remainder going to Banca del Fucino.

According to the reports, the Vatican bank had neglected to communicate to financial authorities where the money had come from. The reports stressed that Gotti Tedeschi wasn’t being investigated for laundering money himself but for a series of alleged omissions in financial transactions.

The Vatican bank, located in a tower just inside the gates of Vatican City, isn’t a typical bank. Its stated mission is to manage assets placed in its care that are destined for religious works or works of charity. But it also manages ATMs inside Vatican City and the pension system for the Vatican’s thousands of employees.

The bank is not open to the public. Depositors are usually limited to Vatican employees, religious orders and people who transfer money for the pope’s charities.

The Pope wears Prada and blesses new Ferraris….seems it is just an extension of the greed and avarice that is consuming the rest of the financial world….go figure…

“One man’s theology is another man’s belly laugh.”
Robert A. Heinlein

Going Once….Going Twice….Sold!

College of Political Knowledge

Subject:  American Government/Politics/

Lecture #3

This is a continuation of my corporatism post of yesterday……….

For many many years I have been bitching about the possibility that the government is up for sale to the corporate interests….something I like to call “auction politics”….that is that the government is up to the highest bidder in the form of donations….which in turn gives them special access to the wheels of government and with that access comes unimaginable influence on the direction of the country.

SCOTUS recently filed a decision that has made this situation even more likely””

landmark decision, approved by a 5-4 margin, could unleash a torrent of corporate and union cash into the political realm and transform how campaigns for president and Congress are fought in the coming years.

The new ruling blurs the lines between corporate and individual contributions in political campaigns. It also strikes down part of the 2002 McCain-Feingold campaign finance law that banned unions and corporations from paying for political ads in the waning days of campaigns.

“The Supreme Court has given a green light to a new stampede of special interest money in our politics,” Obama said in a statement. “It is a major victory for big oil, Wall Street banks, health insurance companies and the other powerful interests that marshal their power every day in Washington to drown out the voices of everyday Americans.”

All this is just reinforcing the belief that the government is up for sale to the highest bidder…..the recent “successes” of the Obama admin shows how the influence of cash has turned out……the FinReg was so watered down that it is impotent….health reform is so watered down that it is a joke, at best…….two major issues that have been influenced by money from corporations…..

Americans!  You government and your country are being sold to the highest bidder….your vote means nothing after the election…no matter which party you think is the best…neither are on your side!  Rethink your vote, please, for the sake of your family and the country….RETHINK your vote!

OMG! It’s Corporatism!

College of Political Knowledge

Professor’s Classroom

Subject:  Government/Political Philosophy

Paper  #32

For this lecture I could start where corporatism was most pronounced…that would be with the “illiterate Italian and the Krazy Kraut”….but that would start a whole new conversation into the merits of such regimes and I will not have that conversation at this time….

But I would bet that you have no idea what “corporatism” is and how it works…let me help….

I will use a more modern definition of the term….we have talked about the whereto fores of the Kraut in the past….Corporatism is a means of incorporating organized interests into the process of government….it refers to a tendency in mature liberal small L not the large L) democracies for organized interests to be granted special privilege and institutional access for these interests to policy formulation…..

T put it another way…it is an way of state which develops along with republican style democracy….corporatism has become entrenched in the economic and social levels of a democracy….corporatism is quickly becoming an end point of democratic rule where special interests and state have become the one and the same….

There you are…a description of what is happening in the US with the oil, health, drug and financial interests…they all have unlimited influence over the formation of policies that effect us all.

You think not?  The Supreme Court recently made it legal for corporations to use their unlimited funds to influence the direction of the country…not that that is unusal….it has been happening for decades if not longer…..

These corporations are now in the drivers seat of government….before they were a passenger with a good amount of influence but thanks to SCOTUS…they are now driving the country….

Is the trip into corporatism good for the country and the people that live here?  Is this inevitable or is it just a phase of our government?  Once the corporations have the power, how do the people take it back from the special interests?

Thought Of The Week #1

I thought I would try something a bit different…..I am spending way too much time in front of the tube or reading or writing and I am getting static from all sides….so over the weekend I will be posting a thought of the week……since the elections are in full swing, it seems a lot of people want to be a congressperson, but why?

It is not to make a difference for the good of the country….these days the country is at a stand still…..and the media will be all over the next session of Congress looking for something to report….and that makes me think of a thought that Lyndon Johnson had on government….

“Being president is like being a jackass in a hailstorm. There’s nothing to do but to stand there and take it.”

Life Imitates Art

You remember the open sequence of Jaws?  That music was chilling and the naked swimmer was….well….memorable….and then there have been sequel after sequel after….but NONE was as electrifying as the original….anyway…I digress….

Newser has an interested report a couple of days ago….

Bahamas sailor Judson Newton ended up in a tiger shark’s belly after a boating trip to Jaws Beach, authorities say. Newton and a friend vanished late last month after trying to swim to shore when their boat had engine trouble off the beach where Jaws: The Revenge was filmed, the Telegraph reports.
Newton’s body was identified by fingerprints after a torso, two severed legs, and two arms were found inside a 12-foot tiger shark caught on a deep-sea fishing trip last week. Friends say Newton, who worked as a sailor on cargo boats, was a strong swimmer. Authorities aren’t sure whether he was alive or dead when he was eaten.

And some say that art imitates life….well the opposite is always possible….

It’s The Constitution Again…And Again

Daily Agitator

Since today is Constitution Day……Sept. 17, 1787 the Constitution became the preeminent  law of the land…….

I know I bitch a lot about the Constitution and what politicians do and say in the name of the document…..at times I must claim intellectual bankruptcy because I do NOT understand the thinking nor the logical of those that stand on the Constitution as a political platform.

Have you noticed that Repubs tote the Constitution around like it was the Holy Bible and at other times they act like it is a ticket for the Tonite show?……the time has come for someone to step up and say just what part does this Constitution play in American political society……either it is the word and rule and laws of the land or it is a piece of paper that is worthless as the used toilet paper in your commode….what is it going to be?

I have already posted on the attempts by conservs to repeal parts of the Constitution…the 14th and 17th amendment to be accurate…..apparently these sections do not fit into their political plan or it is just a political tap dance to attract voters….either way it is repulsive on many many levels.  Recently when confronted by a disgruntled Alaskan Palin starting try to tell the person of what she was doing, at least in the political field….when asked what she, Palin, was fighting for she answered….

To elect candidates who understand the Constitution, to protect our military interests so that we can keep on fightin’ for our constitution that will protect some of the freedoms that evidently are important to you too.

Fighting for the Constitution?  In what way is she doing so?  A typical political answer…no specifics…lots of generalizations and slogans….sad that these dipsticks use such a tactic….it explains NOTHING to the voter……

I apologize to my conservative friends…but I must say this……John Stuart Mills once observed, “Not all conservatives are stupid but most stupid people are conservative”.

A Political Fairy Tale

College of Political Knowledge

Once upon a time…not so long ago….and in a land not so far a way…there lived two feuding families….let us call them thew Federalists and the Anti-Federalists…..they inherited a new land and they fought over how that land would be governed….they debated….they argued….they wrote published essays defending their points of view….and after much debate and exchanges a compromise was settled upon and that settlement was the Constitution of the United States……

It seems that the Federalists thought that a strong central government was needed to protect the newly found country and the Anti-Federalists wanted a weak central government with a strong local one….but finally by 1787 they had compromised on what and how the nation would be governed…they set up the terms for the Pres and VP, the set up the freedoms…..they set up the conditions of government…..(I realize that this is a simplified and generalized history lesson, but that is NOT the meat of the post)

And once it was signed into law….they all lived happily ever after…..

Well not for long…..

The two sides were screaming along using the strengths of their new system of government….those being…the separation of powers to discourage the concentration of power and the checks and balances that kept each branch of government from over stepping its bounds and without a party domination the reps could be more centered on what the people wanted…..but the years dragged by….the country twisted and turned in the wind….but it made it on its own and became a shining light for the world to see……

But all was not good on the horizon….after 200 years of solid and good government cracks began to form in the foundation of the system…..these weaknesses were the very strengths it had in the past…the separation of power started fragmenting the system and began rendering the system immobile (nothing was being accomplished)…without a party dominated system the voters could not pin responsibility to anyone in particular and that lead to the break down of the system even further…the voter was used to set the political agenda that did not really apply to them in the least and finally the voter has to wait for anb election to rid itself of worthless adventurism of the politicians that are in it for their own glory and benefit not the interests of the country…….

The kingdom adjusts to fit the situation…..but the adjustments were beginning to fail to bring the success to the marriage of the two families….slowly but slowly the nation was dying and the leaders, all the leaders were standing on the oxygen tube while debating the need to stand aside and let the patient heal……this system is slowly becoming obsolute because of the partisan crap of its leaders……if it is to survive then the people will have to do it themselves and ignore the rumblings of the leaders that care not what happens….their only concern is that they retain the power and the purse strings…..DOOM is eminent!

Help For Small Businesses

Recently, our president has issued a massive challenge to the GOP in an effort to help small business and as we know….they are the engines of our economy (or at least that is the slogan these days)…it is election time and all the silliness has come to a head….small business is getting more attention that some idiot in Florida…..

Massaging the egos of the small business owners….both parties are not being forthcoming with the truth…..

But will these benefits create the demand that is needed to bring this economy back?

The problem with the small business tax breaks is two-fold: small businesses are incredibly diverse in their craft, and consequently, no single break works for every small businesses. The second issue with the proposed tax breaks is that many in the business see them as too producer driven, as the Small Business Job Act fails to address (and encourage) some much-needed consumer spending. Simply put, businesses do not need more equipment to produce items that are not selling, or selling at lower levels than in the past.

As Billy Rys explains, “Even if they’ll be able to write off their investments in just a few months, they don’t have the customers coming through the doors. They don’t have contracts to fill.” In the end, the usefulness of the proposed tax breaks will depend on the size and type of businesses, in addition to the financial state of the business.

I have been bitching since this whole debacle started with the economy….the Bush bailout only accomplished bank liquidity and the Obama stim plan was to help create demand……neither one of these plans have created the demand needed to jump start the economy….if tax cuts do not make inventories go up then No one will be hired…..if NO one goes shopping then NO amount of tax cuts will jump start the economy…..without DEMAND there will be NO easy recovery…..it is not rocket science!

Take Our Country Back!

College of Political Knowledge

2010/2012 Election Series

Lecture #2

Speech after speech…speaker after speaker…..for many years now…have used the term “take our country back” as some sort of rallying cry….usually around election time…there is this urgency to lather the populace up to force them into action…..particularly in voting for one party or the other….

But a few questions come to mind….like…..take the country back from whom?  Or just who is it that stole the country?  Just who the Hell stole the country?

Are these politicos suggesting that the American people have stolen the country?  If they are, I am sure that the American people would be interested in hearing how they did that……would it be by voting?  Or maybe they are referencing the politicians, our voices in Washington….sad to say they stole the whole pie years ago….but all that aside who are “they” saying stole the country?

When Bush II was the president, I heard some of these rumblings from the Left and now it seems to be those on the Right rumbling about those darn pesky progressives or liberals, depending on which adjective one would prefer to describe those on the so-called Left.

So right now, it is still up in the air just who are the dastardly people that have stolen our country….and the song goes on….speech after speech….speaker after speaker….all bitching about the theft of the country…..

Please, if you have some inside information on the theft of our country…share it with the rest of us…..most thinking people are at a loss for words on this theft and like me, they would like to know who the culprit/s are……..

Yet another campaign slogan that has no foot in reality…only in the minds of those that have no idea what they want from the government…..they may be against big government, but what does that mean?  They may be against wasteful government programs, but which ones are those?  Where does this type of yellow political games stop?

Apparently the American voter wants slogans with NO substance over solutions to real problems……

Argumentum ad populum–Revisited

College of Political Knowledge

Professor’s Classroom

Subject: Political Theory/Elections/Campaigns

Paper #31

Do you watch the news? You know all those Medicare recipients that are bitching about a government take over of Health care….or all those macho little pricks with their guns worn in public…or maybe elected officials that are spouting fears of socialism or out right lying to stir up the people in opposition to any Dem health care agenda coming out of Washington.

I know….I know all that is old hat….so what is new?

Since most schools have eliminated the teaching of Latin and I do not want my reader to have a brain aneurysm trying to decipher the title of this post….let me help out….”argumentum ad populum”…..In Logic, a proposition to be true because many or all people believe it; it alleges, “If many believe so, it is so.”

Just where am I going with this? Right? Good question and hopefully you will get your answer.

The idea has many names: appeal to the masses, strong appeal to belief, strong appeal to the majority, strong appeal to the people, strong argument by consensus, strong authority of the many, and strong bandwagon fallacy.

See what I am saying? The GOP is plying this tactic in the health care debate. That is to use every tactic available to sway a mass amount of people that will make the case for them. It is a fallacious argument at best…but it is effective if one figures in the rational ignorance effect. (for definition, go to my page with the same name).

How about a little clarification?

The argumentum ad populum is a “Red herring (fallacy)”. It appeals on probabilistic terms; given that 75% of a population answer A to a question where the answer is unknown, the argument states that it is reasonable to assume that the answer is indeed A. In cases where the answer can be known but is not known by a questioned entity, the appeal to majority provides a possible answer with a relatively high probability of correctness.

It is logically fallacious because the mere fact that a belief is widely held is not necessarily a guarantee that the belief is correct; if the belief of any individual can be wrong, then the belief held by multiple persons can also be wrong. The argument that because 75% of people polled think the answer is A implies that the answer is A fails, for if opinion did determine truth, there be no way to deal with the discrepancy between the 75% of the sample population that believe the answer is A and 25% who are of the opinion that the answer is not A. However small the percentage of those polled is distributed among any remaining answers, this discrepancy by definition disproves any guarantee of the correctness of the majority. In addition, this would be true even if the answer given by those polled were unanimous, as the sample size may be insufficient, or some fact may be unknown to those polled that, if known, would result in a different distribution of answers.

Thanx to wiki for the above definition.

Polls are used in this way….i.e. if the prez has 51% approval down from 56% then the people are losing confidence…..,good work, but that is not necessarily the case. The idea is to make it look as if more people believe in a thing and in doing so, that it is correct and true. Once again , not necessarily so.

People need to check everything they are told…most times it is either misinformation, taken out of context or an outright LIE!  Just look at the polls that are out now….31% on the responders think Pres. Obama is a Muslim…..so what was all the finger pointing about back during the election when HIS pastor made some inappropriate statements….all the crap about how could he attend a church where thew pastor was so radical…a Muslim would NOT attend a Christian church…so what is this whole Muslim thing all about?

The only thing that it shows me is that Americans are gullible and have NO memory at all when it comes to politics……they are subject to the “argumentum ad populum” ….saying so makes it so!  A STUPID way to approach the important issues in our society.