Political Info - NYC and The USA

Presidential Election Politics 2012

2012-10-08T11:36:00.000-07:00

A Pictorial Review

With A Pro Obama Slant.

The Republicans -- Preview in Pictures

2012-08-21T19:45:00.000-07:00

Who are the Republicans?

What do they believe?
A Pro Obama digest.

The Romney Funnies

2012-07-25T20:56:00.000-07:00

Corporate Personhood Notes - 2012

2012-01-11T10:19:00.000-08:00

Some notes on the current corporate personhood issue.

If you want corporations to be seen as persons then you have to divest the corporation of its shareholders. It is illegal in the United States to own a person, that is slavery.

Corporations do not die they go bankrupt and at worst dissolve. Although Walt Disney may be frozen, awaiting an awakening, the corporation he founded is alive and thriving. The Walt Disney Company (NYSE: DIS) (commonly referred to as Disney) may last for 100s of years.

DuPont, Crane & Co, Colgate-Palmolive and The Hartford are examples of American corporations that are over 200 years old. They seem bathe in a fountain of personhood youth,

JPMorgan Chase is the result of the combination of several large U.S. banking companies. It has continued to grow and thrive to its current size since its establishment in 1799 when it was known as the Bank of the Manhattan Company. The acquisition and eating of other corporate persons is key to this company's longevity. Some may call this type of action by humans as a form of cannibalism.

A central point of debate in recent years is what role corporate money plays and should play in democratic politics. This is part of the larger debate on campaign finance reform and the role that money may play in politics.

Corporations can be seen as beings whose goals are not the same as general population, The company's primary goal is the well being of that company as measured by profits and only secondarily the well being of its workers. This is like a person saying as long as I can get up in the morning I don't care what happens to my red blood cells.

This may be a gross simplification of the corporate personhood issue, But the granting of full personhood status to a corporation, an entity that has only one goal, profit for itself, is not the same as the rights a living person with all that that implies. Perhaps in future this may change when some corporate entity announces the artificial creation of human baby.

For more on this issue look at: ReclaimDemocracy.org
http://reclaimdemocracy.org/personhood/

The Top One Percent of America - a video

2011-10-15T15:29:00.000-07:00

Arrest Bush and Cheney vote two Vermont towns.

2011-08-27T08:05:00.000-07:00

(Reuters) - Voters in two Vermont towns on Tuesday approved a measure that would instruct police to arrest President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney for "crimes against our Constitution," local media reported.

The nonbinding, symbolic measure, passed in Brattleboro and Marlboro in a state known for taking liberal positions on national issues, instructs town police to "extradite them to other authorities that may reasonably contend to prosecute them.

Full Story: http://www.reuters.com/article/2008/03/05/us-usa-politics-vermont-idUSN0454699420080305

Are Some Tea Party Congressmen Sleeper Agents?

2011-07-22T15:45:00.000-07:00

Last month Russia convicted an agent of betraying ‘sleeper’ spies.

A former top Russian spy was convicted of treason and desertion in absentia in Moscow over the exposure of 10 sleeper agents in the United States. The convicted spy is likely to be hiding in the US to avoid jail.

But we all have read enough spy novels and seen enough spy movies to know that this might have been a convenient way to keep safe other agents America.

Were all the Russian sleeper agents found?

First and foremost the mission of these agents would be the destruction of democracy in American as well as the subverting of United States economic system.

The prominent members of the congressional Tea Party Republicans fit the description of sleeper agents out to destroy America.

They have begun their mission by attacking the middle class.

Tea Party supporters oppose higher taxes on anybody, which has the support of most oligarchical billionaires. By focusing attention solely on whether government costs too much, the Tea Party underfunds the entitlement programs. These programs are the bulwark of the American middle class.

It suits these agents to widen the gap between the rich and everyone else.

In the 1950s half of the United States wealth was owned by the middle class. In 2011 top 1 percent of the nation controls 47 percent of the nation's wealth. The top 10 percent controls 80 percent of Americas wealth. The more there is this disparity, the more the United States looks like a poor nation dictatorship.

These agents proposed "Cut, Cap and Balance" legislation that passed the House on July 19 that would be the most devastating to middle-class households.

This legislation set up cuts of as much as 67 percent in government domestic programs that affect the lives of middle-class people.

Fortunately, the Senate blocked this legislation three days later.

There is much more that these agents, pretending to Americans, have done and are doing. If you want to know who they are look at the congressmen who say it will be okay to default on our debt. Only a sleeper agent would say that.

We should call for each one of these congressional Tea Party sleeper agents to produce a real birth certificate for themselves and their parents. We want complete college records of their contacts. The Burgess spy ring in England was recruited when the members were in college.

The attack on Obama's birth certificate was a clever misdirecting ruse.

Tea Party congressmen show us your real birth certificates!!!

Media Daze -- Beck Again

2011-07-05T12:58:00.000-07:00

Glenn Beck media manipulator of great skill has pushed himself to the fore of trivial discussion again.

Recently Beck and his wife went to a free movie night at Bryant Park in midtown Manhattan. This is an open air event with a movie, in this case 39 Steps, projected on a big screen.

There was a wine spilling incident which became according to Glenn Beck grew into a "hate Beck" incident because of his controversial celebrity status.

No matter what really happened at Bryant Park, this recently fired by Fox News, media personality is keeping his image in front of his audience so they will remember to follow his internet show at $4.95 month in September.

A sample of Pro & Con Beck takes of this incident:

http://gothamist.com/2011/06/28/glenn_beck_family_receive_chilly_we.php

http://www.usmessageboard.com/media/173472-glen-beck-has-goods-on-ny-park-movie-liar.html

If he was just entertainer without a political following it would be trivial news. But Glenn Beck choses to make this a political issue -- liberal vs conservative -- because it promotes his image. And that is really the point of fractious politics - - self promotion.

Such fractious politics is big business. It is estimated Beck earns $40 million a year. Sara Palin gave up being governor of Alaska at salary of $125,000 per year to earn at least $12 million dollars in the year following her abrupt resignation. Rush Limbaugh leads the political money maker group with a solid $60 million per year earnings.

At least when Donald Trump made political noise it was suspected that it was a ploy to increase the audience of his non-political reality show. And he succeeded. Donald Trump received a raise and managed to become the highest paid reality show star in network television. Its not that he really needed the money.

But that is the wonder of today's media that a television personalty can gain the attention of millions talking about his having a bad day and enlarge that incident to the level of national political importance.

The United States will continue whether or not we pay attention to Glenn Beck. After all he is not going hire 100,000 workers, he is not going to help rebuild our infrastructure and he is not going bring peace to the middle east. He is going to continue to be in front of the media.

Ex-Mortgage CEO, Paul Allen, Sentenced To Prison For Fraud

2011-06-22T11:16:00.000-07:00

Defend the CEO title and dump the man.

Paul R. Allen sentenced to prison in mortgage fraud case and his lawyer attributes the crime to the "man" and not the fact that he was CEO of the collapsed firm of Taylor Bean & Whitaker.

"Mr. Allen was not treated as a CEO. He did not function as a CEO," said defense lawyer Stephen Graeff. "Sentence Mr. Allen the man, not Mr. Allen the title."

For the full story go to: http://huff.to/iWqWF1

Some people say they are thinking that it wasn't a three letter acronym that defrauded the people and stole their money - They would bet it was the man

Yet it was because he was the CEO and he felt it part of his job to commit the fraud that the crime occurred. If he was in any other position he would not have had the wherewithal.

I'm willing to bet at the time he thought his CEOness put him above the law.

North American Members of Al Qaeda as of 6/9/11

2011-06-09T09:50:00.000-07:00

American

Anwar al-Awlaki

Jaber A. Elbaneh

Adam Yahiye Gadahn

Wadih el-Hage

Ziyad Khaleel

Sharif Mobley

Ali Mohamed

Bryant Neal Vinas

Canadian

Faker Boussora

Mohammed Jabarah

Ahmed Khadr

Amer el-Maati

Ahmed Ressam

Mexican

As of June 9 2011 there are no known prominent Al Qaeda members from Mexico

All links are to the Wikipedia article

China Is Drastically Reducing Its Holdings of US Debt

2011-06-03T21:08:00.000-07:00

Is there anyone else who has the money or desire to buy our notes. The Gulf Arab central banks said they still regard US Treasuries as a safe but how long will that last?

If no one else steps up to buy our debt this may signal the "unraveling" of the US economy, the beginning of titanic economic tsunami.

Guest report-Steven Mantz

China is reducing its holdings of US debt. uh-oh.

China has dropped 97 percent of its holdings in U.S. Treasury bills, decreasing its ownership of the short-term U.S. government securities from a peak of $210.4 billion in May 2009 to $5.69 billion in March 2011, the most recent month reported by the U.S. Treasury.

Treasury bills are securities that mature in one year or less that are sold by the U.S. Treasury Department to fund the nation’s debt.

Mainland Chinese holdings of U.S. Treasury bills are reported in column 9 of the Treasury report linked here.

Until October, the Chinese were generally making up for their decreasing holdings in Treasury bills by increasing their holdings of longer-term U.S. Treasury securities. At that point China’s overall holdings of U.S. debt continued to increase.

Since October, however, China has also started to divest from longer-term U.S. Treasury securities. As reported by the Treasury Department, China’s ownership of the U.S. national debt has decreased in each of the last five months on record, including November, December, January, February and March.

Full Story:

China Has Divested 97 Percent of Its Holdings in U.S. Treasury Bills | CNSnews.com

Decline In Stock Market Investing - An Economic Troubling Sign

2011-06-02T08:56:00.000-07:00

Want to know what the hot new trend in investing apparently is? Not investing. Even though the S&P 500 (SPX) has more than doubled from its March 2009 bear market lows, many investors still don't trust the rally according to a survey from Prudential Financial.

Prudential (PRU, Fortune 500), which polled more than 1,000 investors between the ages of 35 and 70 online earlier this year, found that 58% of those surveyed have lost faith in the stock market.

Even more alarming, 44% said they plan to never invest in stocks. Ever.

From Steve Mantz- Taxpayers Take Action 2011

Never buy stocks again? Seriously

money.cnn.com

These are signs of a two tiered economic system. Those who with large amounts of money have "Wealth Management Advisors" who shepherd their clients money around the rocky shoals.

Since these advisors are really plugged into the stock markets they can avoid many, but not all, bad turns in these markets.

The reason for this may be that they also help to create much of the dangers in the market.

The old fashioned idea of the stock market is to supply capital for companies to expand.

In today's market, few major companies have significant plans to invest in their businesses, but instead are using their sizable cash reserves to buy back stock and pay their executives high salaries and bonuses.

We also see the continued expansion of the financial derivative and hedge fund markets which are more of betting proposition than investing in the future of the American economic system.

If you are not the wealthy investor then you exist to supply the market grease. And as we all know the function of market grease is facilitate movement, lubricate and be crushed by gigantic segments of the market system.

Of course the real fun will begin when the market tanks and the wealthy investors will only have each other to steal from.

997C5Q8MDDYU 997C5Q8MDDYU

What is a Republican?

2011-05-25T17:51:00.000-07:00

The Republicans are like an extraterrestrial species whose dark spaceship secretly landed in America sometime long in distant memory.

They seem to walk the walk and talk the talk but deep down in their interior selves they are against everything decent in America. Their goal, as told in so many science fiction stories, is to proporgate their alien kind the same way a plant propagates from stem cuttings.

The Republicans look upon the rest of us as food, deserving of minimal sustenance as long as we fulfill their needs.

And in their minds we are not deserving of Medicare, Social Security, aid during time of disasters, minimum wages, public education, clean air & water and the list is endless.

The Democrats may not have all the answers but at least the Democrats act like they were born on planet Earth and care about the world and people around them.

Not A Spoof - GOP Wants Disaster Aid Covered By Budget Cuts

2011-05-24T12:02:00.000-07:00

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor said that if Congress appropriates funds to help disaster stricken areas like La Crosse and Joplin, Missouri, rebuild the spending must be offset by cuts elsewhere in the federal budget. He said “if there is support for a supplemental, it would be accompanied by support for having pay-fors to that supplemental."

The financial toll is estimated at around $3 billion. Without significant aid from somewhere Joplin will simply not be able to recover from a tornado that literally ripped the town in half and is now rated as the single deadliest tornado since modern record-keeping began 60 years ago.

The GOP is also on record recommending satellite funding cuts could halve the accuracy of tornado forecasts and in the process save lives.

We could repeal the tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans to cover the costs of helping those who have found themselves affected by natural disasters. We could even end the Big Oil subsidies. But that will not happen with current mood of the GOP.

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0511/55513.html#ixzz1NIPn1C85

http://www.examiner.com/political-buzz-in-national/house-majority-leader-eric-cantor-r-va-says-no-aid-for-joplin-without-cuts

http://climateprogress.org/2011/05/01/tornado-forecasting-saved-countless-lives-this-week-too-bad-congress-including-alabamas-entire-delegation-voted-against-maintaining-forecast-quality/

Will Missouri Republicans Back Funding For Federal Aid For Joplin?

2011-05-23T13:43:00.000-07:00

Our hearts and prayers go out to the residents of Joplin in the wake of the second worst storm to strike America.

In the wake of the horrible tornado devastation in Joplin Missouri, will Joplin Congressman Billy Long and Senator Roy Blunt reverse their stands on funding the U. S. Federal Government.

Congressman Billy Long tried to defund and attempted to weaken the tornado warning systems that were in place set up to protect people from just this kind of event.

http://bungalowbillscw.blogspot.com/2011/05/joplin-aftermath-congressman-billy-long.html

Senator Roy Blunt said last week he did not support increasing the money the government is allowed to borrow without first making major reductions in federal spending.

http://missouri-news.org/news/blunt-against-raising-debt-ceiling/

Does he now back using federal money to help with clean up in Joplin? To do this the Federal Government will have to raise the debt limit.

President Barack Obama issued a disaster declaration to include Jasper and Newton Counties.Residents may now be eligible for federal assistance.

President Obama also granted a public assistance declaration for Jasper and Newton counties for costs associated with debris removal and emergency protective measures.

Senator Blunt has put FEMA's telephone number on his web page.

To Help Go To The Red Cross:

http://www.redcross.org/

or mail a check to:

"Joplin Missouri Disaster Relief Fund"

Greater Kansas City Community Foundation

1055 Broadway, Suite 130

Kansas City, MO 64105

Donald is Out of the Race

2011-05-16T11:01:00.000-07:00

Trump Withdraws From Presidential Race CNN

Donald Trump has announced he is calling off his run for president, CNN.com reports. The real estate titan and host of NBC reality show “Celebrity Apprentice” released a statement today saying that even though he remains confident that he could win the election, he will not pursue the office.

As I posted in this blog the Donald's candidacy was a matter of television show promotion.
If he wasn't not promoting a new reality series then he was promoting the ones he already helms.

http://infopolitical.blogspot.com/2011/04/donald-candidate.html

Economic Survey Snapshots of Americans April 14‐17, 2011

2011-04-27T14:17:00.000-07:00

It’s fair that wealthier Americans pay more taxes than the middle class or those less well off

37--- Completely agree

29 --- Mostly agree

16 --- Mostly disagree

15 --- Completely disagree

2 --- Don’t know

Most businesses would act ethically on their own, without regulation from government.

10--- Completely agree

27--- Mostly agree

32--- Mostly disagree

29--- Completely disagree

2 --- Don’t know

100 Total

For the complete survey go to:

Public Religion Research Institute http://www.publicreligion.org/research/?id=554

The Donald --- THE CANDIDATE

2011-04-26T11:02:00.000-07:00

Everyone thinks The Donald is really going to run for president.

But no, he is really doing the advance public relations for his latest reality show ---

THE CANDIDATE

The Candidate is a reality show where the contestants promote their stands on various political, economic, and social issues to the television viewers.

Each week the contestants must either give a speech, star in a political commercial, answer hand picked reporter's questions or defend themselves against fabricated scandals. The competitors are given a budget, media resources and a choice of writers and coaches.

The viewers watch them craft their message and watch the results in 1 - 3 minutes segments. Throughout the show The Donald himself gives each of the contestants sage advice. At the end of that week's show The Donald comments on that week's contest and asks the viewers to vote.

In the week before the next show the television audience cast their votes on the contestant's efforts by phone, by the internet or mobile text.

The following week, at the beginning of the show The Donald announces the winner and what advantage that means for the coming contest. He then grills the two lowest vote getters Apprentice style and the kicks one of them off the show by saying "You lose and should be fired!"

The CEO in America

2011-04-24T09:01:00.000-07:00

Here is a series of factoids and tables about the American CEO's financial compensation and how it compares to the average American worker.

Overall Average CEO Compensation: $ 4,219,331
Median income of all occupations in 2009 was: $ 33,190

According to the AFL-CIO’s analysis of 299 companies, a CEO of a Standard & Poor's (S&P) 500 Index company received, on average, $11.4 million in total compensation in 2010.

That would be enough money to support 8 Nobel Prize winners. or 28 United States presidents, or 178 nurses, 213 police officers, or 225 teachers, or 252 firefighters.

In other words, the combined pay of 299 CEOs could support 102,325 workers earning the median wage. But we don't have the jobs to hire these workers because those who could share some of wealth are eating the whole pie.

"Despite the collapse of the financial market at the hands of executives less than 3 years ago, the disparity between CEO and workers' pay has continued to grow to levels that are simply stunning," said Richard Trumka, AFL-CIO president.

In 2010 American CEOs made 263 times the average compensation for American workers. That is an enormous increase from the 30 to 1 ratio in the 1970s

Average CEO compensation - Forbes

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Category Stats

Age       57
Years as CEO         8
Years with Company         19
Salary       $1.1 million
Annual Bonus       $2.1 million
Value Realized on Exercised Options      $2.7 million
Value Realized on Vest Stock Awards        $2.5 million
1-Year Total Compensation     $9.0 million
Median Value of Stock Owned     $14 million

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Top Five Industries

Industry Average Pay

Telecom Services                    $17.2 million
Pharma- Biotechnology $17.0 million
Conglomerate $14.1 million
Household/ Personal Products $13.5 million
Hotels/ Restaurants/ Leisure $13.4 million

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Bottom Five Industries

Industry Average Pay

Construction $6.3 million

Insurance $6.3 million

Business Services/ Supplies $5.4 million

Banking $4.4 million

Food Markets $2.5 million

The Importance of Activism

2011-04-15T10:56:00.000-07:00

Andrea Egizi

The Importance of Activism

A few months ago, my daily household routine was disrupted by an unexpected knock at the door. My oversized Siberian Husky Boris went ballistic and I held tightly on to his collar, ready to reveal who was behind the disturbance. When the commotion started to settle, I asked the plain clothed man standing on my porch who he was and why he was here.

As it turned out, his name was Dave and he was working for a third party hired by a contracting company who worked for Bank Of America to take photographs of the candidates awaiting conformation into the Making Homes Affordable Program.

I asked him why he was taking pictures of my house and what that would prove, and he let me know it was so that the bank could keep tabs on who was living here and what I was doing to the house.

"Are you kidding me?" I remember asking rather rudely. I then began to inform the unsuspecting man of my rights as a citizen, homeowner and of my private property; he had no idea what he just got himself into.

I can't remember exactly how the conversation went, but when I was done ranting, he let me know he had been doing this for a month now and had photographed many houses in the area and that NO ONE QUESTIONED WHAT HE WAS DOING.

I was appauled. How could no one care about this violation of privacy? Dave told me there were a few people who asked him who he was, and when he told them they just let him do his thing and left him alone. I asked him if what he was doing was legal, and his response was to the tune of, "as long as I'm on the street, I can't get in trouble for photographing your home."

By this time my jaw was on the floor. I asked him what information he had on me and he kindly opened his briefcase to uncover all the dirt about my underwater loan. He had my loan number, my loan balance and who was registered as living in my home.

This man is a third party... HOW and more important WHY did he have my personal information?

He could not answer that question.

So I started doing some research.

I started making phone calls to Bank Of America and no one I spoke to seemed to know why my personal loan information was in the hands of someone other than Bank Of America.

I decided to dig more into the Making Homes Affordable Program. I then began to realize it was a complete joke that was set up to qualify only a very small group of applicants. I also realized that under T.A.R.P., the big mortgage lending banks have incentive to forclose; the federal government would just pay them the difference to cover their losses with taxpayer's money. But that's not all folks, here's the kicker... Bank of America paid no federal taxes last year.

Are you mad yet?

It's corrupt policies like these that make me want to take to the streets and call out, "I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take it anymore!", and that's why groups like UNCUT are so important to join and get active with. And when I say active, I don't just mean clicking "like" on Facebook, I mean REALLY getting active - like joining in on a rally to protest corporate greed in your town or nearest city. They happen now more often than you might think.

I have come to find out that apathy is a huge problem in any social movement. Most Americans are comfortable with their lives or have too much human drama to take notice of the world collapsing around them. These people need to wake up and fight back or else the tax-dodging corporations will own our Constitution.

As you are reading this, you might be thinking to yourself, "Well, I'm just one person, what can I possibly do?" Fortunately, I have an answer:

Go to a rally. Experience the energy. Tell a friend about it.

They will most likely tell someone else about it who will then tell someone else.

Maybe for the next rally you could bring that freind, and a whole new revolution could follow. Peace.

Social Security & The US Government Budget.

2011-04-13T15:49:00.000-07:00

US Government - Surplus and Deficit

With or Without Social Security Surplus

Social Security payroll taxes and benefit payments, along with the net balance of the U.S. Postal Service are considered "off-budget."

Administrative costs of the Social Security Administration (SSA), however, are classified as "on-budget." In large part because of Social Security surpluses, the total federal budget deficit is smaller than the on-budget deficit.

The surplus of Social Security payroll taxes over benefit payments is invested in special Treasury securities held by the Social Security Trust Fund.

The United States Budget with and without Social Security Security Surplus.

Without Social Security Security Surplus.

With Social Security Security Surplus.

Many conservatives believe that the surplus should not be considered as budget element even though previous administrations have borrowed or as some people redefine "stolen: much of that surplus.

Notice how well we were doing during the Clinton years.

COMCAST MAKEOVER

2011-01-22T11:26:00.000-08:00

COMCAST MAKEOVER: "MSNBC And Keith Olberman Have Ended Their Contract". Will MSNBC Make A Right Turn?

The Comcast take over of NBC Universal means many people have been made to leave the company. Keith Olbermann is just the most visible to the television viewing population.

Others include NBC Universal chief Jeff Zucker, NBC Universal TV entertainment chairman Jeff Gaspin and NBC prime-time entertainment president Angela Bromstad.

Although the political affiliations of out going executives are not as apparent as Olbernann's, Steve Burke, incoming NBC Universal CEO and former Comcast chief operating officer is a heavy contributor to the republican party,

In the near future NBC and MSNBC will probably shift a few steps to the right. Comcast already leans in that direction.

Comcast chief, Brian Roberts, is a strong supporter of the Republican party and generously contributes to that party.

He can afford to be politically free with his money; in 2009 he headed CNNMoney.com's list of the 5 Most Overpaid CEO's in America with over 40 million in yearly compensation.

The New York Post may give some indication of what may happen with NBC-U and MSNBC.

From 1939 to 1976 the Post was devoted to liberalism, supporting trade unions and social welfare. After Rupert Murdoch bought the paper it underwent a severe conservative make over.

The change was so dramatic that in 1980, the Columbia Journalism Review stated that "the New York Post is no longer merely a journalistic problem. It is a social problem – a force for evil."