Little Country Lost

A Rant: The Bank Bailout/AIG/Economy

2009-03-22T14:00:00.000-07:00

At this point, I'm just waiting for hyper-inflation.

The way I understand this, it seems like the Masters of the Universe took over our government and tore the laws to pieces. President Obama went on Leno and told us the "dirty little secret" that "most of the stuff that got us into trouble was perfectly legal". How is that possible? Because the uber-rich paid to put their guys in office, their moles changed all the rules for their friends, the enriched made huge fortunes but eventually took so much that the rest of us noticed, and since they paid themselves with our government, we now have have to pay back their debts. They keep their huge houses and salaries, of course. It's the rest of us who will suffer.

We seem to be in a civil war in this country that most of us can't yet put our finger on, but the headline Firms Giving out Bailout Money to Politicians as Campaign Donations seems to explain it all.

We know we're pissed that our 401K's are disappearing. We know it sucks that our tips don't go as far. We know it sucks that we can't afford vacations. We know it sucks that everything is getting more expensive.

But are we mad at Bernie Madoff? Are we mad at AIG? Are we mad at Tim Geithner? Are we mad at Hank Paulson? Are we mad at Goldman Sachs?

What about Citibank? What about Bank of America? What about Wells Fargo?

What about George W. Bush? Or Ronald Reagan? Or Bill Clinton? or Alan Greenspan?

Are we mad at those people? A little, but each individual person or company is just part of a bigger problem. It's the thing that connects these people and companies that we really need to focus on. In my mind, they are connected by being super-rich, upper-level management, and committed to the redistribution of wealth towards themselves. The rest of us are not in their circle of friends.

George W. Bush warned us that he was going to run the country like a business. It was the truth. That's exactly what he did. Our government is now a big company that works for other companies. Profit, not people, is its purpose. Now the people who own the banks, who own the Wall Street firms, who own the oil industry, who own the military-industrial corporations... those guys effectively control our Congress and Executive. Now they own us. That's why all we can do is watch while our bank accounts are getting raped. They've got us tied to a chair.

We need to take our government back.

It's not going to happen though. Not fast enough to prevent whatever kind of economic collapse is on its way. We don't get new people in Congress for almost 2 years and only Jon Stewart has come close to articulating the existance of the new Civil War on the almighty television. It's really tough to fight a war if most of your side doesn't understand that they're in it. After all, it's American Idol season! And Twilight is out on dvd! Life's still good.

The rich bastards in charge are using their power to print up money at a crazy fast rate and using it to refill their own accounts. I'm no economist but I do understand basic supply and demand. If you create a lot of pieces of paper, each of those papers becomes worth a little less. Those papers, unfortuantely, are dollars. Eventually, we're going to need more of them to buy us our bread.

My next step is to invest in euros, Aussie dollars, and yuan. The dollar is going down. That's as far into the future as I can see.

Infrastructure Bill

2009-02-07T01:18:00.000-08:00

Well, Bush's reign is over, but precedent is set. Congress is out of control.

I can't get behind the "Stimulus Bill". It's just not good enough and its so full of bribes.

But I want the infrastructure money it promises. I want it bad.

I live in Honolulu. We need levees, and storm walls, and roads without sinkholes. We need bike paths that don't compete with TheBus. We need buses that aren't always full. We need cars that don't choke walkers with exhaust.

We want better health care access but having jobs would at least put us back in the crappy employer paid system. Planning, supplying, constructing, designing, operating, managing, cleaning, feeding, housing, transporting... jobs and health... the Infrastructure Bill is two birds with one stone. From there we can improve.

I want the bill that's 100% infrastructure. Give money to everybody for physical, buildable things that they need. President Obama needs to give up on "The Stimulus". That lemon has failed. The squabbling will never stop. But if Obama gives us the infrastructure, he could actually win this politcal war.

Logisitically, he could use that $350 billion leftover from the "Bailout" to fund the Infrastructure Bill. The current plan seems to be to give that money to the gamblers and the banks. Wall Street and the Big Bankers are crazy. For once... screw them.

Although, if more of of us had money, we might pay more of our mortages, loans, credit cards, and bills. Infrastructure could actually be a win-win.

Those bastards always win.

Infrastructure. Non-gas/dirty/coal/oil based energy. Jobs. Paychecks. Congressmen and Senators would have a hard time being against those things.

And at least we'd get half of our stolen "Bailout" money back.

Infrastructure. Show us Yes We Can.

Impeachment On the Table... or Under the Tree

2008-12-11T13:57:00.000-08:00

Did you guys see the "give us the bike!" clip from the Daily Show this week? If not, here's the clip titled, "Clusterf#@ the Poor House: President Goofus and President Gallant"

The Daily Show With Jon StewartM - Th 11p / 10c

http://www.thedailyshow.com/video/index.jhtml?videoId=212889&title=clusterf#@k-to-the-poor-house

Barack Obama Interview
John McCain Interview

Sarah Palin Video
Funny Election Video

Crazy part is how easily we could have our bike/new president. President-elect Barack Obama could start working right now if it weren't for the blindness of Congress.

For me, the story of the Bush administration will not have a happy ending unless George W. Bush and Dick Cheney are removed from office early. In the end, do they really get to finish their term? Do they really get away with it? If that happens, doesn’t the Constitution lose? Don’t we lose?

Is that the ending we want? We elect the good guy in the election and that’s it? Really?

Barack Obama has done his part. He won the election. It took two full years. He beat the Clintons. He beat the Republicans. Come on. He has done his fair share.

This last step is on Congress. There is no other way. But they don’t seem to get it.

Frank, who has been dealing with both the bailout of the financial industry
and a proposed rescue of Detroit automakers, said Obama needs to play a more
significant role on economic issues.

“At a time of great crisis with mortgage foreclosures and autos, he
says we only have one president at a time,” Frank said. “I’m afraid that
overstates the number of presidents we have. He’s got to remedy that
situation.”

Oh, and how should he do that? Military coup? Ignore the Constitution? How should the President-elect best overthrow the sitting president? Do tell.

Reality is that no one can blame Barack Obama for what is happening now because he is not the President. But he could be in practice if Congress would remove Bush and Cheney from office. Only the House of Representatives can file articles of impeachment (or use the ones that Dennis Kucinich already filed). Only the United States Senate can remove the president and vice-president from office.

Good news. They could do it in just a few hours if the votes were there. The hard work (the presenting of evidence and proof) is already done. Lets pick an easy one.

Torture = Proven and well known = war crime = impeachment.

In reality, it's not hard anymore. It's a matter of changing Congressional minds.

If Congress were to do the happy ending thing, Nancy Pelosi - the Speaker of the House -would become President, and she could work with President-elect Barack Obama to get started on fixing this mess now. Before we lose everything.

George W. Bush and Dick Cheney? Well, at least they wouldn't be in power any more. Although it lost a lot of battles, at least the Constitution would win the war.

I like that ending. And I love the added bonus that the race for the first woman president and the first African-American president would end up a beautiful tie in 2009. A happy ending for the primary race story too.

To get this happy ending though, we need the people in the media, the people with the biggest microphones, to step up and remind the country that impeachment is an option. They need to help the word "impeachment" get into the heads of our Congress. They must do it quickly.

Rachel Maddow. You're the best we've got. I’m calling on you.

Meteor Crash Caught on Tape

2008-11-25T18:07:00.000-08:00

This video was taken from a police car camera in Edmonton, Canada.

Pretty sweet.

An Example of "Sunshine and Rainbows"

2008-11-21T14:31:00.000-08:00

gloriousnoise,com

Derek Shearer, our former ambassador to Finland and overall Clinton guy, wrote a blog post today at HuffintonPost. I didn't read it. I only needed to see these two lines:

"Obama was not elected by the world's citizens. He is the American President after all"

"George Bush was worse."

These statements are fundamentally wrong. Barack Obama is not the American President. This is something that might happen in the future (I say "might" because it's in the future). George W. Bush is the present-tense President. George W. Bush was nothing. He is the President with nothing to lose who is rapidly speeding up his process of destruction.

This guy, Derek Shearer, and many people like him who are high rankers in the Democratic Party, are thinking and writing in a reality that exists only in their heads. The problem is that while they are waxing poetic, George W. Bush is planting moles in our government, raping our land, and hording our Treasury.

If we allow this to continue for 60 more days, Barack Obama might end up President of a hollow shell.

Nothing Has Changed

2008-11-18T00:52:00.000-08:00

November 4th has come and gone but the Bush administration and the Republicans are still in power. It's cool that Barack Obama won the election. I'm happy about it too. But we need to stop pretending that everything is fixed and it's all sunshine and rainbows. The truth is that on November 4th, we received a better chance of future change. Nothing has changed yet.

Here are two new examples of how painfully true this is.

Utah Land Grab

The Bush administration used the fact that we were distracted on Election Day to hide their plans to hurt our country for their own gain...again. On the afternoon of November 4th, while we silly citizens were all voting and waiting for the results of the election, the Bush administration's Bureau of Land Management announced a December 19 land auction that will put oil drilling platforms around a National Park so beloved that it is pictured on Utah's license plates.

Here's how AP described it:

SALT LAKE CITY – The view of Delicate Arch natural bridge — an unspoiled landmark so iconic it's on Utah's license plates — could one day include a drilling platform under a proposal that environmentalists call a Bush administration "fire sale" for the oil and gas industry.
Late on Election Day, the U.S. Bureau of Land Management announced a Dec. 19 auction of more than 50,000 acres of oil and gas parcels alongside or within view of Arches National Park and two other redrock national parks in Utah: Dinosaur and Canyonlands...
In all, the BLM is moving to open 359,000 more acres in Utah to drilling.

They’ve been using the Department of Defense to steal oil profits from the Middle East. They’ve been using the Environmental Protection Agency to stall any progress towards alternative methods of energy. They’ve been using the Justice Department to cover up their crimes. They’ve been using Congress to allow the purchase of legislation by companies. Now they are using the Bureau of Land Management to steal land.

Missing: 2 Trillion Dollars

They are also using the Treasury Department and Federal Reserve to steal every last dollar that they can from our government. We thought the “bailout” was the first time that they had handed out massive amounts of cash. That was a $700 billion shock (to compare, those “stimulus checks” we little people were bribed with back in May only cost $150 billion). Now we find out that an additional $2 trillion has been handed out without our knowledge or permission.

To whom? Who the hell knows? The Federal Reserve’s Ben Bernanke and the Treasury Department’s Henry Paulson refuse to tell us what they did with the money. We only know that it's gone.

This was never approved by Congress. It also appears to have started well before “the bailout” was passed on October 3rd.

These people got balls.

From Bloomberg (who filed a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit for this information):

Nov. 10 (Bloomberg) -- The Federal Reserve is refusing to identify the recipients of almost $2 trillion of emergency loans from American taxpayers or the troubled assets the central bank is accepting as collateral.
Fed Chairman Ben S. Bernanke and Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said in September they would comply with congressional demands for transparency in a $700 billion bailout of the banking system. Two months later, as the Fed lends far more than that in separate rescue programs that didn't require approval by Congress, Americans have no idea where their money is going or what securities the banks are pledging in return...
Total Fed lending topped $2 trillion for the first time last week and has risen by 140 percent, or $1.172 trillion, in the seven weeks since Fed governors relaxed the collateral standards on Sept. 14. The difference includes a $788 billion increase in loans to banks through the Fed and $474 billion in other lending, mostly through the central bank's purchase of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac bonds.

How much more damage has to be done before we stop these guys?

It’s like our house is on fire, but we tell the firemen, “Hey, just wait it out. It'll rain in January.”

The lame duck Congress needs to come back and impeach these guys now. Unfortunately, especially with the money grab, a scary number of Democrats might be in on it too.

(Photo taken by AFP/Getty Images on October 3rd, 2008 - the day the "bailout" passed)

Stay awake, my friends. We're still in big trouble.

President Obama Homework Assignment: #1

2008-11-10T03:00:00.000-08:00

Share your stories about the work that you're doing:

Here's my first story.

I worked the at the Kaimuki High School polling place on Election Day, November 4th.

I woke up at 4:15am. I sometimes don't get out of work until 4am so it was not my normal schedule. I was originally supposed to work at the Ala Wai Community Center but I got switched at the last minute to Kaimuki High School because they were understaffed. Kaimuki is closer to me distance wise, but the Ala Wai Canal, a dirty river with a billion toxic fish, is between me and the school, so even though I can see the high school from my window, it was a 2 mile route. I don't have a car but I just got a bike.

The bike paths here are horrible. They are in spotty places and never seem to connect. They are not lit at night, or when it's still dark in the ridiculously early morning. There are tree stumps popping out of the ground. There are tree branches that hit you in the head. The paths (and sidewalks) themselves literally disappear underneath your tires.

Perfect Hawaiian weather and riding a bike sucks. That's gotta change.

But they are constantly fixing the 6 lane roads.

What's cheaper to fix? A six lane road or a bike path?

Just saying.

Anyway, I got to the high school at 5:30 am and met my new co-workers. I took a quick tally: 2 people under 18, 2 20-somethings, 5 boomers, 2 "experienced" workers.

For most part, I'd say that everything went smoothly. We had 10 paper ballot booths and one voting machine. Over the course of the day, people overwhelmingly wanted the paper ballots and I didn't see anyone use the evil machine. The paper ballots were put in a scanner and collected. Everything seemed legit and nothing was sketchy (unlike in my last hometown of Los Angeles County, where the entire system is a mess).

The most common problem was registration, but they had a great communication system between the Chairmen and the Office of Elections (Chairmen were all issued pre-paid cell phones). People were being added to the ballot all day, instead of being turned away.

As it should be.

My favorite part of the day was handing a ballot to the couple who were voting for the first time. They wanted to be sure that they were filling the ballot out correctly. The man beamed when he told us they were just approved for citizenship. They were so excited. It was the first of a lot of unforgettable moments from Election Day.

I didn't know that Barack Obama won until after I got home at 7pm, but I had heard enough to be really hopeful. In Hawaii, we are 2 hours behind the West Coast and 5 hours behind the East Coast. The sun was still up when I heard Obama took Ohio. By the time we got our next update, the polls were closed and I no longer wanted to know. I wanted to find out at home.

I raced back and got a call from my boyfriend. He couldn't hide the excitement in his voice. But I still told him, "Don't tell me!" because I was just locking up the bike downstairs. I walked in and the guys had paused the tv on the beginning of John McCain's concession speech and tried pull the "It went badly. Oh, just kidding!" gag, but it was too obvious. Obama had won. In a landslide. Took Colorado, 37,000 registrations purged and all. We overwhelmed the fraud and took our elections back. I didn't realize it until now, but I really wasn't expecting logic to win. I was expecting another 2004.

All I felt in that moment was relief. I didn't jump or cheer or celebrate. I grabbed some food and collapsed, exhausted from a long day and a long two years. A long eight years.

I no sooner hit the couch than Barack Obama began his acceptance speech. The first time I cried was when Barack said, "I will always be honest with you about the challenges we face. I will listen to you, especially when we disagree". I'm so glad he said that.

What a difference 2 terms makes.

Since the election, it's been hitting me in waves. Little waves of happiness come over me when I think of the now possible opportunities. My boyfriend is a mechanical engineer with a passion for energy efficiency. This meant pushing paper during the Bush years, but his opportunities will grow exponentially in a time when the government isn't holding us back. Waiting tables might not be our best option for long.

Maybe I can work somehow towards getting a bike path system in Honolulu. Oahu voted "Yes" to installing a rail transit line from Pearl Harbor to Waikiki. They advertise an integrated system of rail, buses, boats, biking and walking paths on the buses. It's definitely possible in my community.

It's been a few days since the election and I'm still feeling my happy waves, yet still the anxiousness I felt before the election has not completely gone away. There will be a President Obama and the list of opportunities is growing by the minute but the start line is not until January 20, 2009. The Dark Side still has the ring of power. I won't be comfortable until they are completely sidelined.

I want this new Congress, with the support we've given them despite their failures, to use the momentum they now have to get Bush out of office. Don't let him finish his term. For the wars, and the economy, and the bad reputation, and the Constitution destruction laws, and the overall Dickishness. Let's fire these guys once and for all, and turn the historical page a little early.

As a bonus, the removal of Bush and Cheney would give us our first woman President in 2008. The primary battle of "First Woman" vs. "First African-American" would end up in a tie. How beautiful would that be?

Gold is to Ari as Lyman is to Rahm

2008-11-06T17:59:00.000-08:00

Interesting fact from the 2005 Rolling Stone article about Rahm Emanual, the person Barack Obama has picked to be his Chief of Staff.

Many of us already know that Ari Emanuel, Rahm's brother, is the inspiration for Ari Gold, my favorite character on Entourage.

Apparently, soon to be Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel has a Hollywood connection of his own. He was the inspiration for Josh Lyman on The West Wing.

Interesting.

We Won

2008-11-04T21:22:00.001-08:00

I just got home from working the polls in Hawaii. I walked in 5 minutes before Barack Obama's acceptance speech. I didn't know he won before that moment.

First thought: Thank God.

And thank you. Thank you for thinking. Thank you for reading. Thank you for questioning. Thank you, thank you, thank you for voting.

By the looks on everyone's faces during that speech, I don't think I'm the only one feeling a huge sense of relief.

I'm so excited for the future, but I'm not really feeling it. I'm still in shock.

For the rest of the night, I will be partying. I'll be starting at home and then going out to a bar where there are a bunch televisions because I will be watching Al Franken's race in Minnesota all night long.

I read a few of Al Franken's books and one chapter has stuck with me. The book was written years ago, not long after Barack Obama's keynote speech at the 2004 Democratic National Convention. The book was one of those that served to open eyes. It was chapter after chapter of outrages. However, the last chapter was different. It was a vision of the future that included Barack Obama winning the presidency and then the country impeaching the Bush administration between the election and January 20, 2009.

Al Franken, the author, has the chance to become one of our Senators. This guy will cut through the bullshit better than anyone I could possibly think of. He will also make C-SPAN watching much more entertaining.

He will go after the Bush administration. I want him to win so badly.

With that, thank you again, my friends. Have fun tonight. We made history... and for the first time in a long time, we made history in a good way.

The American way.

Booyah.

Evidence of Voter Suppression

2008-11-03T15:38:00.000-08:00

I have worked on this week's Monday morning post for approximately 15 hours now and I am on information overload. I have been reading through the articles I have saved about the Republican effort to stop lots of us from voting and sorting the articles' contents by state. Unfortunately, as Election Day draws nearer and early voting has already taken place, 27 states are already on my list. I'm finding article after article, video after video, and blog post after blog post, creating a mountain of evidence of our votes being eliminated in one way or another. I have too much information to comprehend, let alone categorize.

And then I found this.

The Election Protection Coalition (1-866-OUR-VOTE) in a non-partisan organization that is documenting problems people are having with voting and helping voters with their questions. They have taken over 40,000 calls so far from people having problems voting. They are posting the contents of those calls online for all of us to read.

I'm going to keep working on the original post because if McCain wins tomorrow, state by state voter turnout suppression will be the reason why. If Obama wins tomorrow, voter turnout suppression needs to be one of the first problems we solve in 2009. Identifying the problems will be key. For now, I'm posting some of the call entries that caught my attention from a few key states.

In order to keep busy and not go crazy, I will be working at the polls tomorrow so I will be not be able to obsessively read these while waiting for the election results. While watching television tomorrow, I would love it if some of you could highlight some of the most interesting calls you've found on the Our Vote Live website for me. With over 40,000 calls registered before Election Day even begins, I know I'm going to miss some fascinating reports between 5:30am and 7:00pm in Hawaii.

Tomorrow night, by the time I'm released from the polls, the election will be over. Two years of societal obsession with a small group of candidates have been leading up to that moment. No matter which way tomorrow goes, whether the news is good or bad, we will finally know the outcome. I'll be drinking either in celebration or in fury, but by God, there will be drinking.

On Wednesday, I'll get back to work. Good luck voting tomorrow. Many of us are going to need it.

Colorado (702 reports)

Nov 3, 3:54pm: Voter intimidation problem

"Caller received a call at aboaut 3:20 PM on 11/2/08 urging him to vote for Obama and saying that the election will be held on Nov. 11. The call came from a Los Angeles number, 213-251-7800."

Nov 1, 9:19pm:

"Concerned because recieved something in the mail indicating that she was not registered and may not be able to vote"

Oct 31, 3:19pm: Registration problem

"Had checkbox issue - mailed in solution last week still not listed."

Oct 31, 2:41pm: Registration problem

"Tried to reg (via ACORN) 2 months ago - but does not show up on rolls - has stub"

Florida (3,569 reports)

Nov 3, 12:29pm: Registration problem

"Caller's niece was sent a notice that she failed to selct a political party and was notified that she could not vote in the 2008 election."

Nov 3, 12:08pm: Polling place inquiry

"Caller received flyer indicating there was a new polling location, which differed from the the address on her voter registration card."

Nov 3, 11:53am: Voting equipment problem

"Elderly voter filed initial ballot having made X marks in circles instead of filling in, and machine rejected ballot. Poll worker gave him a second ballot, which he filled in correctly, but the machine rejected again with an "over voted" error message. Voter did not approach poll worker again."

Nov 3, 11:38am: ID problem

"Voter stated that she has gone to DMV twice in St. Petersburg to get a photo id (on Friday and today) to have an id that matches her present address and that she was told that she cannot get a drivers license because the system is down state wide."

Nov 3, 9:57am: Registration problem

Letter from the state that registration not valid because of issue with SSN.

Nov 2, 11:56pm: Polling place problem

"long lines - people are leaving. Caller went at 3pm today to early vote and caller just came home - at midnight."

Nov 2, 4:41pm: Polling place problem

"The precinct used manual ballots that required the use of either a No. 2 pencil or a blue/black ink pen. However, the precinct ONLY provided felt tip markers for the voters. When the voters asked where they could obtain either a No. 2 pencil or a blue or black ink pen, the workers informed the voters that the markers were all that were available."

Georgia (1,644 reports)

Nov 3, 4:15pm: ID problem, Registration problem

"Received letter from Secy of State stating that the records don't match. Need to prove citizenship; has voted has passport feels this is voter suppression"

Nov 3, 3:46pm: Poll worker problem, Registration inquiry, Registration problem

"Voter was told that she had been deleted from the lists because she hadn't voted in the last 2 elections. Voter claims that she has voted. The poll worker refused to give her a provisional ballot during early voting."

Nov 2, 4:27pm: Polling place problem

"Caller's parents went to the polling place twice. Each time were told that they couldn't vote because their names were purged from the list b/c they didn't vote in the past two years. Refused to give them provisional ballots."

Nov 2, 1:18pm: Polling place problem

"The caller reported ballot problem in Henry County, GA, polling location #30228. The presidential candidates' names were on the ballot, but at the local level, lots of democratic candidates' names are NOT on the ballot and that she had to TYPE them in."

Nov 1, 11:18pm: Registration inquiry

"Registered to vote. Voted on 10/27. Received letter from GA Secretary of State dated 10/28, saying she is not a US citizen. Voter was born in the US and has always lived in the US. No questions she is a US citizen (with all necessary ID, and has been voting since she was 18). Voter VERY concerned her vote will not be counted."

Oct 31, 2:18pm: Voter intimidation problem

"Caller's home was contacted by a McCain campaign worker, who asked for her (but spoke to her mother). The campaign worker asked her to confirm that she had voted in 3 primaries recently. The mother, answering for herself, rather than the daughter, replied that the information was incorrect. The McCain rep then informed the mother that she was going to take her "off the list" and "report her for voter fraud." The caller used *69 to obtain the campaign rep's contact information. It is not clear whether "remove from the list" referred to the call list, or to the voter registration list. Caller was under the impression that it was a reference to the voter registration list."

Oct 31, 1:39pm: Polling place problem

"Lee Headquarters Library on Bellcreek, in Jonesborugh in Clayton County, GA - there is a 6 hour wait for voting - they said that machines are down, and that they are short on machines. They are sending voters to different locations to vote. The line and wait keeps getting longer and longger."

Oct 31, 12:45pm: Polling place problem, Voter intimidation problem

"Lack of availability of parking (cones blocked off parking) and cars are being towed (lack of information telling people where overflow parking is) at advance polling station (4700 Austell Road, Austell, GA). Officers were blocking off parking lots and directing people to places without parking. Officers were also waiving people past the precinct. It took close to 5 hours to vote."

Nevada (212 reports)

Sep 12, 5:23pm:

"Caller is member of Washoe Tribe which he says is 100% democratic. Everyone around the Reservation is Republican. The Douglas County Clerk has removed the polling place from the Reservation making it a mail in only district. Before removal of pollilng place, 100% of elilgible voters (160) voted. In May, only 12 voted."

Ohio (2,234 reports)

Nov 3, 4:04pm

"There's a radio station in Cincinati 700WLW - Bill Cunningham is the host - who is telling people on his program that Democrats are voting on Wednesday November 5th instead of tomorrow."

Nov 3, 3:58pm: Polling place inquiry

"Got phone call telling her polling place was different than what was listed on voter registration notification."

Oct 31, 12:24pm: Other Inquiry
"Deceased husband. Wants to ensure he is not registered due to fear of voter fraud."
Oct 30, 7:58pm: Voter intimidation problem

"is nurse, patient sais patient's brother was arrested wwhen tried to vote today for unpaid traffic tickets. she called her pastor who went down to voting place. people being arrested."

Oct 30, 3:10pm: Registration problem, Voter intimidation problem
"republican prosecutor in columbus ohio telling obama campaign workers they must decline their registration"
Oct 29, 6:52pm: Other Inquiry, Registration problem

"Mother called because she received confirmation saying 2 year old daughter is registered to vote. She had received several forms asking daughter to vote and finally received confirmation saying daughter is registered to vote."

Virginia (1,837 reports)

Nov 3, 5:04pm: Polling place inquiry

"Received flier with a different polling location than her registration card. Hasn't moved since she registered."

Nov 3, 3:45pm: Registration problem
Voted in 2004 and 2008; not on rolls.
Nov 3, 2:13pm: Absentee voting problem, Student voting problem

"Only allowed to vote for Pres and vice pres because was student. She tried to vote in annandale. lives in falls church. Both in Fairfax co. Submitted provis. ballot. Would still like to vote for senator and other positions"

Nov 3, 2:01pm: Voter intimidation problem

"Virginia Commonwealth University -- certain professors are telling students that they will drop their grade a full grade if the student misses class to vote."

Nov 1, 4:34pm: Polling place problem

Richmond City Hall - experiencing significant delays for early voting. Caller was in line at 8:45 and didn't vote until 3 pm. Elderly and handicapped voters not given any priority in voting. Many voters left polls without voting. Only 4 machines.

Oct 30, 6:34pm: Absentee voting problem, Polling place problem

Doesn't think she got the right ballot form b/c there were only options to vote for president and senate.

Oct 30, 5:13pm: Registration problem

Although she is registered, when she called the local board of elections at 703-792-6470, they told her that voter registration was cancelled, and that she could not vote.

How I'm Voting in Honolulu, HI

2008-10-27T00:52:00.000-07:00

Since the election is only 8 days away, this week I'm going to tell you how I'm voting and why I'm voting that way. Feel free to disagree with me, but please tell me why. If I'm wrong, I want to figure it out before I vote.

I voted for George W. Bush in 2000. What has happened is partially my fault. I don't want to screw up like that again.

So here goes.

I live in Honolulu, Hawaii. I am a first time registrant in this state. I do not have a Hawaii driver's license yet, but I have received my "You are registered and you vote here" card in the mail (after spending 30 minutes on the phone with the City & County of Honolulu Elections Office). When I go to vote early on Thursday, I plan to bring every form of identification that has both my name and my Hawaii address on it along with my CA drivers' license and my passport. I will not accept a provisional ballot.

So far, I have good reason to believe my vote will be counted.

Since I think I'm covered as far as registration is concerned, I have turned my attention to how I'm going to vote. Let's start with The Big Show.

President of the United States: Barack Obama (D) or John McCain (R)

Barack Obama.

Duh. This choice is obvious in every way I can think of.

Con Con (Constitutional Convention)

The Bush administration changed the rules. That is the biggest crime they have committed against the United States. They got to start their wars by changing the rules with the Patriot Act. They got the Justice Department to ignore their crimes by making sure all the protectors of the rules were their guys. They made sure no one could ruin the war-profiteering bonanza in Iraq by granting blanket immunity and investigating themselves. They stole elections with an army of lawyers and a pocketed Supreme Court. They jacked even more of our money by legislating The Bailout (what they are planning to do with the money, we don’t yet know).

Con Con is the ballot measure that will let us decide whether or not to allow a constitutional convention to take place in the state of Hawaii. They want us to open the door for the state rules to be changed.

The supporters are the key to this one for me. Willie Lees, the chair of the Hawaii Republican Party, has written in favor of Con Con. Our Republican Governor Linda Lingle, who jumped at the chance to welcome George W. Bush and Dick Cheney into our state in 2004, is hopeful to have her "desires to be heard and lead to their possible incorporation into our constitution." James Aiona is the Lieutenant Governor and is in charge of our elections under Bush's new laws (we have no Secretary of State position which is the new election boss in most of the other states). He was appointed by George W. Bush in 2002 and he is excited about Con Con.

Giving any Bush partners the power to change the rules is a stupid thing to do.

I'm voting no.

Age Qualification for Governor
The proposal is to change the age requirement for who want to run for Governor of Hawaii. You currently have to be 30 years old. If we vote 'yes', we can change that to 25.

I'm all for it. I am 26. I'm educated with a bachelor's degree. My boyfriend has his masters. My classmates now have kids. Some of those kids are in school now. I pay more attention to the news than most older people I know.

I'm not qualified to run for Governor because I have very little understanding of what the position entails. But if that were my goal and had I been working towards it for the last 26 years, I think I'm old enough to have the knowledge to do the job well.

Plus, it's our futures that are withering away right now. We younger people need to grow up and start getting our country back on track. For every 25-29 year old voted in, that is one more baby boomer/serious geezer that steps aside. It's about time to tell the old folks who have been driving under the influence of Milton Friedman that their vision and reflexes are fading and they need to get used to the passenger seat. It's for everyone's safety.

The Rail

I don't have a car and I live in the middle of Waikiki. I really don't need a car because everything I need is within walking distance and there is a decent bus system. But the buses are often full, especially in the rush hours. They are also rarely on time because they get stuck in traffic just like the rest of the cars.

The proposal being frantically squawked about is an elevated light rail system that will run from basically the far side of Pearl Harbor to Diamondhead (when all phases are complete) if it is approved. It will reduce the number of cars on the road, create 11,000 construction jobs, reduce greenhouse gases, reduce our need for oil, and make getting around the biggest city in Hawaii a whole hell of a lot easier.

Of course I'm voting yes.

Honolulu Mayor: Ann Kobayashi or Mayor Mufi Hannemann

This one is still up in the air, but I'm leaning toward incumbent Mayor Mufi Hannemann. The candidates will debate tomorrow night and that is when I will make up my mind.

Mufi Hannemann has served in the Bush administration. That is always a bad thing to have on a resume when you are applying for a job with me. However, the rail is his pet project. He wants to make this city bike friendly. He has already gotten TheBus to start using hybrid buses. These moves are deal makers.

Ann Kobayashi, on the other hand, is against the rail, and I do not believe that she will move forward with it even if we voters overwhelming vote in favor.

Investing in green lifestyles and technology is our clearest path back towards greatness. It's important enough that I might be able to forgive Mufi Hannemann's Bush administration connection. I'll decide tomorrow, but unless Ann Kobayashi blows me a way, I think the current Mayor will have my vote.

House of Representatives: Neil Abercrombie (D) or Steven Tataii (R)

Neil Abercrombie is not a person I'm proud to call my Congressman. He voted for giving the Bush administration a stay out of jail free card with the FISA bill earlier this year. He voted recently for "the bailout". He refused to answer simple questions for Project Vote Smart. I'd like to have a better Congressman.

But Steven Tataii is a Republican. He wants to keep us in Iraq. He's into nuclear. He supports intervening in other countries' affairs all over the world. He supports the Bush doctrine of preemptive strikes. He wants more domestic spying. He wants to allow workplace discrimination of gays.

I got all of that from the survey he filled out for Project Vote Smart. Thank you, Steven Tataii for your candor and honesty, but I just can't vote for you.

Neil Abercrombie. You suck. But you are the least horrible option.

Congratulations.

And The Rest...

If there are any more items that will appear on the ballot here in Honolulu, I don't know about them. This is because we are not provided with sample ballots and I couldn't find one on the internet. That is stupid.

If, when I am in the polling booth, there are items on the ballot that I didn't research, I will be leaving those sections blank. I just won't know enough to be able to make a decision.

So that's how I'm voting.

8 more days.

Voter Registrations: Confirm Yours Now

2008-10-21T23:23:00.000-07:00

This is a must watch clip from today's Rachel Maddow Show. This is the most important story of the year... and quite possibly the decade.

I just checked on my registration status. I mailed the registration forms to the Honolulu Office of Elections for myself and for my boyfriend three days before the deadline. I am not listed as registered. Neither is he.

Coffee Shortage

2008-10-20T19:28:00.000-07:00

Sorry. No Monday Morning Coffee this week.

One of my dad's sayings was "if you have nothing to say, say nothing." That's kind of what went on this week.

This week I'm researching how I'm going to vote. I'll let you know next Monday.

Taxes: Obama's Plan vs. McCain's Plan

2008-10-15T19:46:00.001-07:00

Here are the numbers. For the record, the election of Barack Obama would allow me to keep $774 in my pocket. What's your number?

	Obama	McCain
If you make...	you'd save...	you'd save...
less than $19,000	$567	$21
$19,000-$37,600	$892	$118
$37,600-$66,400	$1118	$325
$66,400-$111,600	$1264	$994
$111,600-$161,000	$2135	$2584
$161,000-$227,000	$2796	$4437
If you're in the top 5% of earners...	you'd pay an extra...	you'd save...
$227,000-$603,400	$121	$8159
$603,400-$2.87 million	$93,709	$48,862
more than $2.87 million	$542,882	$290,708

*These numbers were found on Parade's website and were put together by the Tax Policy Center, which is run by the non-partisan Urban Institute.

The United States Dictator

2008-10-14T20:22:00.000-07:00

I think often about the societal signs that point towards fascism, but there is something about the comparison doesn't make sense. When looking at historical instances of democracies melting into fascism, some examples are Italy and Germany's fall leading up to WWII, Russia's post-war decline, and recently the destruction of democracy in Pakistan. In each of those examples, I can easily name the dictator - Mussolini, Hitler, Stalin, and Musharraf.

So if we are currently being hurled towards a US style fascist police state, who is our dictator?

Is it George W. Bush?

Yes, the administration of George W. Bush devastated the Constitution, started an illegal imperialist war, and transferred our economy's wealth to the private hands of the super rich. But do any of us think that he was the architect of the overall plan?

Do we think George W. Bush personally crafted the Patriot Act? Do we think that he personally picked out the US Attorney's to fire? Do we think he personally worked out the details of the "bailout" heist?

I don't think so. George W. Bush brilliantly sold the bad products, but I don't think he's the store's owner.

I personally think Dick Cheney is the person in charge at the Bush administration. I don't think I'm alone.

So, is Dick Cheney the dictator?

I don't know. Is he planning on sticking around?

Let's assume the election is going to go forward and on January 20th a new President will be sworn in (because if this doesn't happen, we know the answer). After January 20th, Dick Cheney will no longer have influence in the White House if Barack Obama wins. But what about if John McCain wins? Will Dick Cheney be the head of the McCain administration?

John McCain and Dick Cheney have not consistently seen eye to eye. However, John McCain doesn't look healthy and he's already had cancer 4 times. There is a good chance that he will get sick and not finish his term. Sarah Palin is a likely President.

Sarah Palin and George W. Bush have a lot in common. They are both dead certain. They are both incredible liars. They both fit the casting call for "Most Popular" in high school. They both believe they are being guided by Jesus towards the rapture. They both have limited understanding of the world outside their states. Both don't care.

Seems to me that she fits the mold for the new front guy to take Georgie's place.

But front guy for who? Dick Cheney? Dick Cheney and John McCain have not exactly been partners (although McCain's recent Rove style behavior makes you raise an eyebrow). Would he really go through with a plan designed to keep Dick Cheney in power?

I don't know. John McCain seems pretty hungry to get the power of the President for himself.

So who is the dictator? John McCain? How do you explain the 2000 Republican primaries? Did he allow himself to be smeared by the Bush administration to get George W. Bush the presidency? Do we think his anger towards the Bush administration's lie that John McCain fathered an illegitimate black baby was all fake and he was actually guiding the Bush administration the whole time?

Highly unlikely.

So, who is it? Who is the person calling the shots?

We just don't know. The real leader is hiding behind the scenes.

It's a big piece of the fascism puzzle. Right now, it is still missing.

Monday Morning Coffee: Extreme Earth Makeover

2008-10-13T04:31:00.000-07:00

I'm sick of the economy, and Sarah Palin, and the election, and the Bush administration, and the wars.

This week, I gave some thought to Earth.

Australian Solar Tower

That is a picture of the Solar Tower, a 200 MW power station, developed by EnviroMission for $35 million, which will provide power to approximately 200,000 Australian families and prevent over 900,000 tons of pollution from entering the air every year.

The Solar Tower was tested in a smaller scale project in Spain during the 1980's and was proved reliable and effective. The smaller model consistently provided 50kW of emission free power for seven years.

The Australian project is still in development, but they want to build the first one in Victoria, Australia.

Developing the technology for the Solar Tower, I want to repeat, cost $35 million. The construction and maintenance of the Solar Tower will create jobs for residents of Victoria, provide them cheap power, provide them cleaner air and less medical expenses, and will increase tourism to the area (because I, for one, want to see this thing).

Imagine what we could have done with $700 billion.

The Black Ocean of Indonesia

Negligence while drill, baby, drilling caused this:

Regulations at Work

The European Union has fined 10 oil corporations for screwing over the public, labeling the corporations a 'cartel'. They were fined a total of 676 millions Euros, which equals 946 million dollars.

The companies involved in the cartel, dubbed the 'paraffin mafia', exchanged sensitive commercial information and essentially manipulated European markets for paraffin wax between 1992 and 2005, according to the Commission. Meetings were regularly held in top hotels across Europe.

There is probably not a household or company in Europe that has not bought products affected by this 'paraffin mafia' cartel," said EU Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes, referring to a market valued at nearly €500 million per year...

The companies involved and their respective fines are as follows (in millions of euros):

Sasol (Germany) - €318
Total (France) - €128
Shell – fine set at €96 but reduced to €0 for cooperation
ExxonMobil - €83
RWE (Germany) - €37
ENI (Italy) - €29
Hansen & Rosenthal (Germany) - €24
MOL (Hungary) - €23
Repsol (Spain) - €19
Tudapetrol (Germany) - €12

Check out the Wikipedia for 'paraffin' and look at the list of items paraffin is used for. I can think of at least a dozen things in my apartment that likely contain that product.

If European citizens have been swindled by these companies on such a scale, is it possible we have too?

On second thought, is it possible we haven't?

Ocean Oil Rigs ("Offshore Drilling")

A report by the US Energy Information Administration concluded that drilling for oil in the ocean off our shores, if allowed, wouldn't begin until 2017 and wouldn't impact the amount of oil available until 2030. Even then, this is a graphic illustration of that impact:

Nevada/California Water Supply

In May 2007, I went on a camping trip with four friends to Lake Mead, a popular vacationing spot about 45 minutes from Las Vegas, NV. We went to a campground that we read was located on the edge of the lake. In May, even though it is not the peak of summer, we knew the temperature at Lake Mead would be over 100 degrees every day. We weren't concerned though because we were looking forward to drinking beers all day while hanging out in the water. We even found some awesome inner tubes that had a cup holder on one side and a cooler for a six-pack on the other. A very exciting find at Longs.

But we never got to use those floaties. It turned out that the campground was no longer on the lake shore, but the the campground had not moved. The shore had. The lake's edge was now a brisk 15 minute walk away from the campsite because the lake was evaporating.

I assumed this was something that was happening over the course of decades. Turns out the lake was almost full while we were partying because it was 1999.

Now, finally, this has gotten the attention of someone with a video camera and an expense account.

The following is from one of my favorite channels/websites, Current TV:

Thank God we picked out a campsite with shade.

Rooftop Icebergs

If I understand this correctly, and I think I do, one of the big reasons climatologists are so afraid of the polar icecaps melting is because the polar icecaps reflect a lot of sunlight back into space. Without the icecaps, the theory is that more of the sun's heat would stay on Earth because it would be absorbed into the open oceans and it would make the planet heat up much faster than it already is.

That is why I think this bit of information is so fantastic.

Apparently, Spain has so many greenhouses with reflexive roofs that reflexive materials cover over 100 square miles of Spanish land. The area around these shiny greenhouses has seen the average local temperature decrease by 0.54 degrees Fahrenheit per decade since 1983, even though the rest of the country has seen its' temperatures rise.

And that makes sense, right?

If the rooftops are reflecting some of the heat back into the heavens (like the polar icecaps do), less heat is being absorbed into the land around the greenhouses. Less heat = less temperature.

I don't know, but that seems to make sense to me.

If you're with me on this, here's the great news:

According to the LA Times, roofs account for 25 percent of total surface area in most cities, and pavement accounts for around 35 percent. If 100 major cities covered that space with reflective materials, such as those used on the Spanish greenhouses, it could offset as much as 44 metric gigatons of heat-trapping gases. As Joe Biden would say, let me repeat that: 44 metric gigatons. "That is more than all the countries on Earth emit in a single year," the Times explained in a report on new climate change research last month. "And, with global climate negotiators focused on limiting a rapid increase in emissions, installing cool roofs and pavements would offset more than 10 years of emissions growth, even without slashing industrial pollution.

We don't even need to involve the federal government. We can do this ourselves.

Check out CoolRoofs.org. This could actually work.

The Bailout, Martial Law, & the End of Democracy

2008-10-06T03:00:00.000-07:00

I'm going to confess. This week I feel like Chicken Little. This stuff is awkward to write about and even more awkward to talk about. But it happened and continuing to ignore/not know about this is a bad idea.

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but lately that is just my role. Unfortunately, a lot of the things I tried to chalk up to my tin-foil hat are happening just as scripted by history. I wish it weren't true.

In late January of this year, I wrote a series of posts about the 10 Steps to Fascism as defined by an article and a book written by Naomi Wolf, a brilliant journalist who has studied the consistent patterns that emerged when democratic societies have been transformed into a police state. Think Italy and Germany in the 1920's and 1930's or Pakistan in the last 10 years. As a quick refresher, the steps she listed are:

1) Invoke a terrifying internal and external threat

2) Create a prison system outside the rule of law

3) Develop a group of thugs to terrorize citizens

4) An internal surveillance system is established.

5) Infiltrate and harass citizens groups

6) Create a list that subjects those listed to arbitrary detention and release

7) Threaten key individuals with their jobs, or worse, if they don't toe the line

8) Control the press

9) Cast dissent as "treason" and criticism as "espionage"

10) Suspend the rule of law

In the last few days, I have been looking into an interview Naomi Wolf gave on Saturday (October 4th). While I'm not surprised, the news she provided appears to be true.

The news is not good. Her timeline (which has been dead-on balls accurate as far as I can tell up until this point) indicates that our time to act ran out on October 1st. If we don't use this overtime period to arrest Dick Cheney, George W. Bush, and other co-conspirators in the next few weeks, in order to get them to squeal on each other and restore the rule of law, we are going to lose our democracy.

The "bailout" has a lot to do with this.

At the end of this post is the interview with Naomi Wolf, but first I'm going to provide you some background on some key recent events that she mentions, because the interview is far more interesting if you know what she is talking about.

Plus, the pieces of evidence she gives are fascinating (and terrifying) all by themselves.

At the end of the interview, Naomi Wolf provides us with a road map to stop this, which is to get a District Attorney to arrest the President and Vice-President, but with the short amount of time we have left (apparently) I don't think there is a snowball's chance in hell this will happen. My goal is just to get some more people to know this is happening.

We can't overcome what we don't understand.

If you are concerned, spread the word.

'Terrorists' Updated

Here is a picture of 23 year old Monica Bicking and her boyfriend Eryn Trimmer. They live in Minnesota and opened up their home to travelers who wanted to go to St. Paul to protest at the Republican National Convention. On August 30, two days before any protests would take place, Monica's home and two others were raided by police and the FBI. After taking a bunch of her stuff, they arrested both Monica and Eryn for "conspiracy to riot in furtherance of terrorism".

Monica is now dealing with a quarter million dollars in legal fees as a result of her preemptive arrest.

Mass Arrests Have Started

200 people were arrested on a river bank while listening to a concert on Labor Day near the RNC convention. There does not seem to be any legal reason for the arrests. We know this because we have video.

Videos like this one were widely destroyed by police during the creepy four days that was the Republican National Convention, but the guy who took this particular video buried it in the ground before being arrested. Once he was released, he dug it up, cleaned it up, and released it to the internet media, which is how we have it now.

While watching this, keep an eye out for the National Guard. You'll figure out why in a minute.

"Immigration" Mass Arrests Were Bigger

From The New York Times on Tuesday, August 26;

LAUREL, Miss. - In another large-scale workplace immigration crackdown, federal officials raided a factory here on Monday, detaining at least 350 workers they said were in the country illegally...

As of late Monday afternoon, no criminal charges had been filed, said Barbara Gonzalez, an agency spokeswoman, but she said that dozens of workers had been "identified, fingerprinted, interviewed, photographed and processed for removal from the U.S."
The raid follows a similar large-scale immigration operation at a meatpacking plant in Postville, Iowa, in May when nearly 400 workers were detained. That raid was a significant escalation of the Bush administration's enforcement practices because those detained were not simply deported, as in previous raids, but were imprisoned for months on criminal charges of using false documents...
She said no lawyers were present while the workers were being interrogated.

The President Gets $100 Billion from "The Bailout"

After months and years of constantly claiming that our economy was strong, The Club hyped up an economic crisis and rammed through a bill that would give them over $700 billion to spend at will. While we still don't have the text of the economic equivalent of the Patriot Act, known as "The Bailout", we do know that $100 billion of that money has been set aside to be used at the President's discretion, with no oversight at all.

$100 billion dollars.

The Club

Notice that I say "the President"and not "President Bush". It is not necessarily George W. Bush who is looking to permanently rule the United States, although his reign has been devastating in terms of speeding up the fascism process. Despite the extremely effective Bush administration, the momentum towards fascism has been building for a very long time. We honestly have no way to know exactly who is in on it. That's why I (and George Carlin) identify the perpetrators as The Club. It's the best we can do for now.

However, while we obviously can't pin-point everyone who is in The Club, we know that John McCain and George W. Bush are on the same team. If we get to have a real election on November 4th, there is no choice. John McCain must not win or our Constitution and freedoms are toast.

Congress Blackmailed With Threats of Martial Law

One of the ways the Bush administration was able to get cowardly Congressmen to vote for the "Bailout" bill was blackmail. They told our representatives that if they do not vote to give them over $700 billion right this second, then there will be martial law in the United States.

Don't take it from me. Here is Congressman Brad Sherman on the floor of the House of Representatives (it's only 48 seconds of C-SPAN):

October 1st - Army Deployed to the United States

Army Times reported this week that the first brigade of the 3rd Infantry division has been deployed onto the streets of the United States as of October 1st. I don't know if this means anything, but they will be operating out of their home post in Fort Stewart in Georgia (I just wanted to make sure they weren't coming too close to me). They report that while the brigades will rotate, they anticipate that this type of mission will become a permanent type of Army operation.

If you haven't done it yet, look up the Posse Comitatus Act. Be sure to scroll down and check out George W. Bush's signing statement on the related Defense Authorization Act.

If this goes down like I'm afraid it is going to, October 1, 2008 will eventually be considered an important date in United States history. It will be considered the date martial law began.

Americans Are Now Legally Enemy Combatants

A ruling by the fourth circuit appellate court in July has opened the legal door for The President to arrest and indefinitely detain any Americans simply by labeling them an "enemy combatant". Since the beginning of the "war on terror", this has happened only a few times and was illegal. Now, aided by another extreme right-wing court, this affront to the Constitution is law.

Glenn Greenwald, one of the best journalists I know of, explains the details better than I could.

Read his article.

The Warrior's Creed

United States soldiers used to carry a copy of the "Soldier's Creed" with them in their pockets. Donald Rumsfeld, the former head of George W. Bush's Department of Defense and Iraq War starter, changed the oath of office for the Army to the "Warrior Creed".

Robert Fisk, a British journalist, explains one of the ways we went from Glory to Full Metal Jacket:

Naomi Wolf's Warning

Here is the interview that pieces all this information together. If you see cause for concern, pass it on.

George W. Bush Wants Bailout To Pass

2008-10-02T17:39:00.000-07:00

Associated Press headline from today:

Bush lobbies Congress to pass $700B bailout bill

What else do we need to know?

Shut it down.

Congress Still Working to Screw Us

2008-10-02T13:02:00.000-07:00

This is an example of articles I've been running into all week (this one courtesy of Yahoo's front page)

12 members who might switch their vote
Daniel W. Reilly

The $700 billion rescue plan the House defeated Monday would have passed if just 12 more members of the House had voted the other way. Here’s a list of a dozen members who voted against the bill — and what it might take to turn their nays into yeas.

Excuse me, but we don't want the bailout. Remember the public outcry that everyone was talking about just a few days ago? Well, that still happened. The public, us non-insiders, don't want to give Wall Street's rich any more money.

Congress can stick their "oversight" promises up their asses.

Keep up the outcry. They are re-packaging this stinky fish.

I Can't Believe Nancy Pelosi Voted Yes!

2008-09-29T17:35:00.001-07:00

Watch Nancy Pelosi's floor speech.

She gave a speech I thought was going down as one of those awesome historical speeches that shows that our representatives have woken up. As cheesy as this sounds (ok, as cheesy as this is), I was close to tears because I was finally seeing someone in a position of power acknowledging that the $700 billion cash grab is the final blow of the ultimate scam that the Bush administration/The Club is trying to pull off. She even gave a solution to the financial disaster that would only cost $35 billion and seemed like a great idea. I was thinking, "Thank God! They are finally catching on! The Speaker of the House isn't one of them after all! "

And then she said it was a good enough bill.

And then she voted for it.

Seriously? Seriously?

Monday Morning Coffee

2008-09-29T00:05:00.000-07:00

For this week's Monday Morning Coffee, instead of a mix of reading and short videos, I'm posting a movie.

Congress is going to come back to work today and announce their brilliant plan to save our financial system. I think it is important for us to realize that the system itself might be the problem.

This movie is approximately one hour.

Highlights from Senate "Bailout" Hearing

2008-09-23T20:15:00.000-07:00

The Senate today had a hearing during which the Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee politely questioned Ben Bernanke and Henry Paulson.

Ben Bernanke is the Chairman of the Federal Reserve. The Federal Reserve is a banking cartel that controls the printing and distribution of our currency. The creation of the Federal Reserve in 1913 was unconstitutional.

Henry Paulson is Secretary of the Treasury. The Bush administration wants him to have absolute control over the $700 billion bailout with no oversight or input from anybody.

I do not trust either of these men. Neither should you.

Some highlights from today.

-

Watch how both Ben Bernanke and Henry Paulson have minor panic attacks in response to the idea of asking the "institutions" that take our money being asked to give something back if they end up successful:

-

Senator Schumer: If you don't plan to spend all the money in the next three months anyway, why can't you take some of the money now, like $150 billion, and if your idea is working, Congress can give you more in a few months?

Henry Paulson: "I think that would be a grave mistake. I think what this is about is market confidence."

So, in other words, give me all the money right now because this is about making people believe that everything is okey dokey with the financial markets.

-

Senator Sherrod Brown of Ohio is the first to speak for me. It was 3 hours and 29 minutes into the hearing.

And notice how quick Ben Bernanke is to assume we're a bunch of idiots.

Also, I'd like to point out that deliberate greedy actions taken to make someone's friends and families filthy rich are not "mistakes". And Ben Bernanke of the Fedreal Reserve does not think those people owe us an apology in exchange for $700 billion dollars.

-

The first time I said, "Exactly!" out loud today.

-

What?! Did you guys know that Henry Paulson was the CEO of Goldman Sachs until mid-2006? I didn't. Just when I thought I couldn't possibly trust him any less...

In the first video clip posted, Judge Doom Paulson said that he is very frustrated with the issue of executive compensation.

Oh really?

In the May 30, 2006 CNN Money article that announced President Bush's decision to appoint Henry Paulson as Treasury Secretary, the following was revealed:

Paulson made more $38 million in 2005, according to Goldman's proxy statement, with most of that, $30.1 million, coming from restricted stock awards, and stock options valued at $7.3 million. He got $29.2 million in stock grants in 2004 and $20.8 million in 2003, on top of his base pay of $600,000 each of the last three years.

His Goldman stock holdings at the end of 2005 were worth just under $700 million at current prices, not including the value of his stock options.

Looks like he personally had a lot to lose when Goldman Sachs got into the failure game.

-

This is a Republican talking.

-

Even the Republicans are with Senator Schumer on the "What's the rush?" argument against $700 billion at once.

-

Senator Dodd addresses Section 8 of Paulson's proposal which doesn't allow anyone to know what he's doing with the $700 billion.

-

Am I the only one that feels like Roger Rabbit?

Monday Morning Coffee

2008-09-22T00:16:00.000-07:00

Start by watching this video

History Repeats

From Wikipedia:

The savings and loan crisis of the 1980s and 1990s (commonly referred to as the S&L crisis) was the failure of 747 savings and loan associations (S&Ls) in the United States. The ultimate cost of the crisis is estimated to have totaled around USD$160.1 billion, about $124.6 billion of which was directly paid for by the U.S. government—that is, the U.S. taxpayer, either directly or through charges on their savings and loan accounts^[1]—which contributed to the large budget deficits of the early 1990s.

The concomitant slowdown in the finance industry and the real estate market may have been a contributing cause of the 1990-1991 economic recession.

Might we see this wiki in the future?

The sub-prime mortgage crisis of the late 2000's was the beginning of the failure of the United States financial system. By September 22, 2008, estimated losses from failing financial giants such as Bear Stearns, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and AIG had totaled 1 trillion, about 700 billion of which was directly paid for by the U.S. government—that is, the U.S. taxpayer, either directly or through charges on their bank accounts - which contributed to the debilitating debt of the late 2000's.

The concomitant slowdown in the finance industry and the real estate market may have been a contributing cause of the 2009 economic depression.

Dear Rachel Maddow,

I wrote to you after the first television broadcast of your new show because I was very disappointed in the content. Since then, I think you have done a much better job.

One thing I would appreciate to see more of is information on the background of nicknamed stories. My generation hasn't been given much real news in our young adult years (I was born in 1982). We need to be let into the loop.

One example I have of what I'm talking about is the "Keating Five" scandal. I watch your television program, listen to your radio show, and listen to Thom Hartmann's radio show regularly, and yet I still have very little understanding of what happened related to the nickname 'Keating Five'. I know John McCain did some bidding for the banking industry related to the savings and loan crisis of the 1980's/1990's and that he got scolded by Congress for it. I know that you and your guests would like for Barack Obama to bring it up more in his campaign. What I don't know is the Keating Five story itself.

Barack Obama can mention 'Keating Five' if his campaign decides to do so, but it won't mean anything to us "young voters" if we have no idea what he's talking about. I can promise you that with all the scandals which have occurred in our lifetimes, very few of us care enough to find out for ourselves.

This is where you guys at MSNBC have the resources to explain it to us well. One thing that needs to be kept in mind about us people in our twenties and younger is that we have always grown up with televisions and computers and have done a lot of our learning through videos. This is why we like to learn from The Daily Show. It more natural for us to learn and remember when we get a lot of digital visuals with stories.

We have also lived our entire lives in the era of Reagonology, and actually educating us (as opposed to privatizing our school system) wasn't exactly a priority. Reaganites educating us on their own illegal behavior is, again, not something they have done well.

As much as I tend to agree with you on your political opinions, I really value your programs when you focus on teaching. That's something I would love to see more of and would help me to explain to people why they should care.

Thanks again for your all your great work. It's about time MSNBC finally added another person to represent the 70%ers in the television media.

They Want to Control Our Money

"The administration is asking Congress for far-reaching new powers to take over troubled mortgages from banks and other companies, including purchasing sour mortgage-backed securities. Administration officials and congressional leaders are to work out details over the weekend."
Associated Press - September 19, 2008

"Senator Schumer... announced, mid afternoon, that the Federal Reserve and Treasury were going to create a new government institution which would purchase all of the toxic debt instruments being held by Wall Street."
Chris Gaffney, Vice President of Everbank - September 19, 2008

The Club (my name for the group of people working together to transform this country into something other than what the founders intended) wants unprecedented power over our bank accounts in the wake of a financial crisis.

Read The Shock Doctrine by Naomi Klein. It's happening again right now.

The Fed

The Federal Reserve prints and controls our money but is not a part of our government. It is also not a private corporation. It's the middle man between the two. It's a banking cartel set up under the most secretive of means by the bankers themselves in 1913.

The Constitution says the United States Congress (the branch belonging to us) should be in charge of controlling our money.

A decade later, a follow up scam was pulled so that the banking moguls could seize our treasure and seize societal control. The result of that scam is better known as "The Great Depression".

The Federal Reserve has more power than ever. We are still being scammed.

Down with Depressants

To learn from history is also to look back towards what was done right.

The depression caused major political changes, the most notable among them being the New Deal, which instituted large-scale federal relief programs aimed to aid the agricultural industry and support labor unions. The formation of the New Deal coalition by Franklin Delano Roosevelt was another notable accomplishment. This disaster had a profound effect on the psychology of an entire generation and strongly influenced the development of post-war monetary institutions.
"Great Depression in the United States" Wikipedia

But this time, we are currently in the hands of people who believe in this:

Monetarists, including Milton Friedman and current Federal Reserve System chairman Ben Bernanke, argue that the Great Depression was caused by monetary contraction... He claimed that, if the Fed had provided emergency lending to key banks, or simply bought government bonds on the open market to provide liquidity and increase the quantity of money after the key banks fell, all the rest of the banks would not have fallen after the large ones did, and the money supply would not have fallen as far and as fast as it did.
"Great Depression" Wikipedia

The money supply might not have fallen, but the value of the money itself would.

The Possibilities

The recent paralyzing rise in money supply has been a major contributory factor to rising inflation. The central bank has never denied that it has been printing money to fund some of the country’s critical supplies.
Lance Mambondiani, The Zimbabwe Times - June 12, 2008

This Man Must Not Win

Monday Morning Coffee

2008-09-15T02:00:00.000-07:00

Alberto Gonzales Brought the Papers

In March 2004, Attorney General John Ashcroft was hospitalized for a few weeks when a gallstone blocked his pancreas and he had to have his gallbladder removed. While he was recovering, the acting Attorney General was his deputy, James Comey. On March 10, 2004, the night that the Presidential order the Bush administration was trying to use to justify illegally spying on all Americans was set to expire, then Bush's work lawyer Alberto Gonzales and chief lap dog Andy Card tried to go behind acting Attorney General James Comey's back to get a signature by visiting Comey's ill boss John Ashcroft after business hours at the hospital. The signature they were looking for is one that would say 'Yes, this Presidential order authorizing the Bush administration spying program is legal'. They had to go behind James Comey's back because he refused to sign it. John Ashcroft, in quite dramatic fashion, refused to sign it too.

One of the many problems with Alberto Gonzales's and Andy Card's actions on the night of March 10, 2004 was that hauling around classified documents and speaking about them in a hospital room is an inappropriate way to handle classified information. The Justice Department's inspector general was assigned to look into whether or not Alberto Gonzales illegally mishandled classified information, including whether or not he took Top Secret papers with him when he left his office. After all, if he never took the eavesdropping papers or any related notes outside the White House, how could he bring them to the hospital to get them signed?

The inspector general's office has just released their report. It concluded that Alberto Gonzales did bring home Top Secret documents related to the 'spying on Americans' scheme.

"Comey Don't Play That"- May 15, 2007

He Put Us All in Danger - Literally

During the work day on March 10, 2004, before Alberto Gonzales and Andy Card's prime-time hospital journey, these three guys:

Alberto Gonzales - then the head lawyer for the White House

Dick Cheney - Darth Vader

Micheal Hayden - NSA director (aka - the guy in charge of the spying)

put together an "emergency meeting" in the White House Situation Room to see if Congress could find a way around James Comey's refusal to certify that the spying program was legal. The people invited were some of the most powerful members of Congress known by their media code-name "The Gang of Eight".

During that meeting, Alberto Gonzales took notes. While the notes were meant to record the "Gang of Eight's" responses to the briefing, Alberto also wrote down,

"Specific operational terms associated with the program, as well as the codeword used to identify the program...One of these operational terms was “zealously protected” by the NSA and that designating the references to the term in the notes as TS/SCI was “not a close call.”

(TS/SCI = Top Secret/Sensitive Compartmented Information)

After he wrote the notes containing that super secret information, Alberto Gonzales said he stored them in a safe in the West Wing of the White House. Then, the report concludes that

"On February 3, 2005, when he was sworn in as Attorney General, Gonzales took classified notes about the NSA surveillance program from the White House to the Department of Justice and then to his residence, where he kept them for an indeterminate period of time and stored them there in his briefcase. We further concluded that although Gonzales had a safe in his residence, he did not store the notes in it, and that in any event a SCIF, the only proper storage facility for such TS/SCI materials, was never installed there."

And that, my friends, is a crime.

According to the Justice Department inspector general, anyone who improperly handles classified material in this manner "shall be fined under this title or imprisoned for not more than one year, or both."

Despite this, the Justice Department has declined to prosecute.

A Tale of Two Safes

In the Justice Department inspector general's report, we also learned something strange about Alberto Gonzales's home decor.

When George W. Bush brought Alberto Gonzales into the White House as his lawyer, the White House provided Alberto Gonzales with some materials he would need for a home office, including a phone, a fax, a shredder, and a safe. When Alberto Gonzales was made Attorney General (the head of the Justice Department), all equipment provided by the White House was supposed to be switched out for Justice Department equipment. On February 26, 2005, everything was switched out - except for the White House safe. That stayed in Alberto's home.

Sometime within the next few weeks, a member of Alberto's security detail called the Executive Office of the President (EOP) to get the combination to the White House safe at Alberto's crib "because Gonzales could not open it" (this is how they know that Alberto didn't store those classified notes in his home safe). The staff at the White House tried to help, but there were no records matching the bar code and serial number for Gonzales's safe. In August, Alberto Gonzales moved into a new home and the White House safe was returned -still unopened- to the mother ship.

Anyone else curious about what was in that safe?

Should Have Claimed Executive Privilege

Monica Goodling was an employee of Alberto Gonzales's at the Justice Department. After graduating from Pat Robertson's "law" university (Regent's University), she went to work for the Republican party as an "opposition researcher", which is a person who digs up dirt on people all day. When the Republicans won (?) the election in 2000, she was given a job at the press office in the White House. She was later moved to the executive office, where she was in charge of "personnel management and evaluation". She was later made "White House liaison to the Justice Department", which means she was the person who coordinated business between the Bushies and Alberto Gonzales.

The President has the authority to hire and fire federal prosecutors. A group of Republicans used this authority to fire prosecutors who were either not willing to play by their rules or had positions those Republicans wanted filled by their own people.

In May 2006, Monica Goodling was granted immunity by the House Judiciary Committee for the crimes related to the firing of those attorneys that she committed in the White House/Justice Department and she testified to Congress. During her testimony, Monica didn't realize what the term 'caging' meant when she said that fellow "opposition researcher" Tim Griffin was in charge of the 'caging lists' for the Republicans in 2004.

Tim Griffin was a right hand man of Karl Rove and US Attorney Bud Cummins was fired so that Tim Griffin could be appointed US Attorney of Arkansas.

The Patriot Act was used to make that possible.

After her testimony, the Bush administration stopped allowing anyone to testify in front of Congress.

"They Got Served" - July 30, 2007

Check for Junk Mail Dated September 5th

A good way to steal a contest is to get the other side to not score points. Even if your team doesn't get a lot of points itself, if you can get enough from the other side to not count, your score can end up higher than theirs and you win.

Imagine if the Giants had paid the referees to reverse a touchdown score in the Super Bowl.

Imagine if Kelly Clarkson found a way to get American Idol vote phone operators not to count calls from guys.

Imagine if the Republicans had found a way to get a bunch of Democratic voters disqualified.

While the first two scenarios are highly unlikely, the third one happened and we know one way they did it. It's called 'voter caging'.

The idea is to get people's votes not to be counted by challenging their eligibility to vote. The party doing the caging (Republicans 1980's, 2000, 2002, 2004, 2006) basically says 'This person does not really live at this address, so don't count their vote." The votes get "challenged" and the caged are not allowed to vote.

Caging is done by creating a list of people who would likely vote for the other side and then sending them something in the mail to addresses they may not be living at. In 2004, some reasons the targeted people weren't living at their listed addresses was because they were students or off at war in Iraq and Afghanistan. The caging flyer itself is marked "do not forward" so that when it sits in the mailbox for a while, it gets returned to the sender. The cagers are then able to challenge the votes of the people whose names appear on the stack of mail that they get back.

It's like fishing with a net. You won't get them all, but you can still get a lot.

Information about Republican caging efforts, while ignored on television everywhere except BBC, went viral on some American talk radio shows and on the internet and therefore enough people knew this happened in 2004 to know to keep an eye out for it in 2008.

This year's caging letters may have gone out back in March and again on September 5th in Ohio. We also need to keep an eye out in Nevada, Florida, Pennsylvania, and New Mexico. To find out if you have received a caging letter, look specifically for the words 'Do Not Forward' or 'Return to Sender'. The return address and/or sender will be an office associated with the Republican party. They may look like junk mail.

If you think you have received one, you should make sure your local county clerks office, your Congressman, your two Senators, and your local media outlets all receive a copy. Posting it on the internet to get the word out wouldn't be a bad idea either.

PBS Still Has Real News

This is part of a great investigative report on Republican caging in 2004. The two videos are 17 minutes total.

Thanks for reading. Now get to work.

MSNBC Set to Ruin Rachel Maddow

2008-09-08T00:01:00.001-07:00

One of my favorite places to get my news from is Air America. The biggest reason is that I don't enjoy reading on computer screens and much prefer to get my information via radio programs that can be loaded onto my Ipod, then researching for accuracy and details later. As opposed to the majority of radio programs that I have sampled on Air America, which largely confuse politics with news, the Rachel Maddow show is contextually one of the best because she starts every day with news from Iraq, covers governmental crimes, interviews constitutional lawyers, Congressmen and Senators, economists, and is ex-military and does a great job of explaining what to make of events in foreign lands. To give you an idea of her character, she definitely has an intellectual crush on Jon Stewart.

However, since she has begun doing pundit interviews consistently for MSNBC, there has been a election-centric shift in her radio programs and I suspect it is because she is asked to talk about political gossip so often on television that she is starting to get sucked in.

Beginning tonight, Rachel will have her own television show to be aired after Keith Olberman at 9pm EST. When I heard that Rachel Maddow got a show, I told a friend that she will either be a force that will elevate television news or television news will ruin Rachel. This response she gave to a question posed by Think Progress doesn't offer much comfort:

What’s the mission of the show going to be?
The mission of the show is…it seems kinda obvious, which is that, in the eastern time zone, Keith Olbermann is on at 8 and then Keith Olbermann is on at 10. It’s repeated. And there’s an hour in between. And Keith has very high ratings. … The idea is, in between two hours of Keith, what can we do to hold on to as many of those viewers as possible and even to attract new ones. And they think I’m the person to do that. So that’s the mission — keep Keith’s numbers.

With the rest of the corporate news stations focused so heavily on election he-said, s/he said, making the entire election into a highly rated Jerry Springer Show with a governmental twist, will Rachel Maddow be able - or willing - to resist?