What seemed at first as a military coup in Honduras on June 28 has now turned out to be something quite different. The expatriated former president, Zelaya, had violated the constitution and accepted help from a foreign nation to work against his own country. That makes him a traitor in my book, and according to article 239 second paragraph in the Honduran constitution, his advocacy for creating a totally new constitution automatically made him loose the presidency. When the U.S. refused to participate in pressuring him to resign voluntarily only legal action remained. However, the military pre-empted the process by putting him on a plane to Costa Rica. The rest is history.
The correct action for the U.S. to take now is NOT to call for his return, but to call for peace, for the legal processes to work, for the planned elections to continue, and for foreign powers (read: Chavez' Venezuela) to stay the hell away from Honduras.
Anti-Semitic crimes are being committed as we speak, in the US, without mainstream media reporting on it.
Here is an example from Ohio: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/9/28/203016/697/536/613742
Tell every politician to raise their voice in DISGUST!
The neo-Cons (con-men in the finances and enablers in Congress) have finished their game. The looting was successful. When their game now finally gets exposed all we can do is to put out the fire they created.
For almost 30 years this scheme was allowed to continue, the American people blind-sided by demagoguery, voting for the neo-Con-men. Amazing. But what a relief that it is finally over now.
Because it IS over. Game, set and match. Neo-Conservatism is dead.
Some want Congress not to invest the $700B. They are fools. Not doing so would likely create a worse depression than the Great Depression. But who's to blame?
In the Great Depression a giant bubble of borrowing and lending was created by Ivar Kreuger. In fact his empire's net worth was exaggerated. When he understood it, he shot himself. As that mess was cleaned out the depression bottomed out. Afterwards, regulations on banking was put in place to prevent a repetition.
The neo-Cons from Reagan and on removed those regulations. This opened the door for a new Kreuger bubble, which is what we now see bursting. However, this time the actors are in all likelihood deceiving deliberately, not in good faith as Ivar Kreuger. They lend money one way, borrow money the other, but unlike Kreuger they sold the bad papers before the collapse. The loans with no payment during 5 years, except for a symbolic interest, were, IMHO, created solely for the purpose of this scam. It is beyond belief for me that the regulators didd not understand the nature of this fraud 5 years ago, when I, a home owner who was offered such a loan and turned it down, could understand that it was not based on a sound financial strategy on the part of the lender.
There are only two explanations:
Either the neo-Cons are con-men who have been part of this fraud, or
The neo-Cons are extremely naive to think that there are no white-collar criminals who will try to commit crime in an un-regulated market.
In either case this is the death of neo-Conservatism, and on the grave stone it will say R.I.P, dead September 19, 2008.
Perhaps the most important issue for winning independents and republicans is to revitalize democracy, in my experience. That's where everyone can agree, even if we differ on health care, gun control, abortion, etc. But on preserving the Constitution from a domestic takeover of power, there is no disagreement.
So perhaps we should re-focus on the issue of saving Democracy.
As an immigrant from a peaceful country perhaps my view of what constitutes a hero is not mainstream, but here goes:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=71970749544916490&hl=en
Sarah Palin did not know the Bush doctrine. Well here it is: It says that the US does not have to obey International Law (the laws of war, Geneva conventions, the UN Charter etc) but can strike first in a war of aggression to pre-empt their anticipated strike. To do so is a Crime Against Peace, the supreme crime known to mankind. The Bush doctrine, and the fact that he used it to attack Iraq, makes Bush a criminal of the same kind as the Nazi leaders who were prosecuted and executed after WWII. They were not executed for the Holocaust, they were executed for following the Bush doctrine (although at that time I suppose it would rather have been called the Hitler doctrine, or the Stalin doctrine, since both of them attacked other countries who were no threat to them at the time).
It is self-evident that for the US to restore its honor, Bush & Co must be prosecuted in a fair trial. The method by which to do so while they are still in office is Impeachment. 2 million Americans have already signed the petition for the House to adopt articles of impeachment for this crime. Also the Bush doctrine must be resoundedly rejected, and whoever becomes president must commit to following International Law. A country that does not follow International Law is, by definition, a rogue nation. That makes the US of 2008 the supreme Rouge Nation in the world.
Enough is enough. Get a spine and stand up for honor and justice, Congress!
Free trade is excellent, but it must be fair. The problem is that many so-called free trade agreements entered into by the US recently are joined with countries having completely different socio-economic conditions. Take Honduras as an example. According to the Swedish foreign ministry the other year, it was the country with the second largest difference between rich and poor in the world (Guatemala was number one). Taxes are low, the government is so under-funded that it cannot live up to its mandate, crime is rampant with kidnappings being a daily feature and drug smuggling increasingly being the easiest way to get ahead, public utilities don't have the cars they need to carry out their work, but the rich live in such luxury that all of this is of no concern to them. In other words, Honduras is the Republican paradise - that's how the US will be too if we have a few more years of neo-Cons.
Honduras did not end up like that by its own accord. Rather, it was there that the neo-Cons developed their strategy and methods. Hundreds of labor leaders were murdered. The funding for the government was removed (by Ronald Reagan and his ilk). The country has been subjected to strong US pressure to become what it is today, a banana republic that can produce dirt cheap goods for Wal-Mart like operations. That manufacturing has little impact on the Honduras economy since it is done in free trade zones.
If free trade shall really be free, then the trading partners must operate under similar economic conditions. As long as the Honduran government does not have reasonable access to credit, and is not free to improve conditions for its workers, all the benefits will go to the capitalists, and the workers in all countries will only suffer negative consequences.
Neo-conservatism is a root cause of this problem, and before that it was neo-colonialism, and before that traditional colonialism, and slavery. It just goes on and on and on. The fight for freedom and democracy is never won, it has to be re-joined every day.
Now it is our time. Stand up and fight for Freedom and Democracy for America!
Many years ago the EU made a deliberate choice to invest heavily in science and technology R&D (research and development) in order to acquire a leadership position in the world. We all know that simple tasks and jobs migrate away from the core of the economic geography (with New York, London, and Tokyo as the centers) to the periphery, ultimately leaving the first world and ending up being produced in low-cost third world "maquilas". The place leading in R&D will have the highest paying jobs + the service that goes with it.
However, while the EU took up the race with the US, the US under the Republicans is essentially leaving walk-over. Remarkably, in an attitude of "sour grapes" the religious extremists who have come to dominate the other party, the one that is not the Democratic one, increasingly are at war with science itself.
Enough with this BS, if they want to live in the dark ages plowing the soil with oxen, let them, but don't let them destroy the country for the rest of us.
There is a reason why the Democrats are called progressives, and it is that we are for progress - while they are not. Enough of the dark ages, bring on the future, let's invest again in R&D and let's re-join the race for leading in science and technology! That's how we can get more good paying jobs to this country.
"Enough!" is enough as a bumper sticker. That's better than Change, and a change for the better, because while Change captures the solution, Enough addresses the reason why change is needed, the problem.
Just now I heard an Obama basher and McCain advocate on CNN, Glen Beck, say straight out in the interview of Chuck Norris that only half of Americans are paying taxes, and that the tax code ought to be changed so that these people who don't pay taxes also have to pay taxes. In other words, he wants to raise taxes for the poor! He even brought up the worker in a fast food drive through as an example of whom he was talking about.
Remarkable.
I think Barack Obama has just the right attitude to this "Oh my God" attitude from the McCain campaign: To laugh at his own statement, the statement that McCain raises the fuzz about. We all say things that can be deliberately misinterpreted, and Barack knows that John will do that if he can, so what else can he do than laugh at himself for giving John the opening he so desperately wants - because that kind of politics is hte only way John and Sarah and Karl can win and they know it.
So go ahead and laugh at yourself, that's the best way of disarming Rove and Co.
Why? Their best argument is this: Because THIS time it will be different. Why should you trust them? Because you have their word for it.
What was that definition of idiot again? Something with voting for the same party over and over again thinking that each time they will change? Maybe I'm mistaken...
The Nordic religion tells the tale of how the gods saved the world by using a lie. However, it continues, nothing that is built on a lie can persist, and therefore this world must go under - it is inevitable. The moral lesson is clear: Not even the gods can rise above the inevitable moral consequences of their actions, so man shouldn't even contemplate trying.
George W. Bush took the US to war against Iraq based on a lie. Therefore it was a Crime Against Peace, which of course is the supreme crime, the worst crime known to man. We can pretend all is well, but it doesn't change the fact that we are just trying to escape the moral consequences of our actions. The Republicans are in fact trying to do something that not even the gods can: Ignore morality.
The implication of the Nordic religion is that the US must go under (unless, see below). A Christian point of view could instead be that God will punish the US. A non-religious analysis will likely come to a similar conclusion: By loosing the moral high ground, the US image and brand is so badly damaged that this country will suffer diplomatically, economically, militarily, you name it, until it repents either voluntarily or by desperate necessity - or goes under. The religious ways of expressing this is nothing but a shorthand version to express this age-old wisdom. In the Nordic religion there is some inevitability at play, in Christianity (and related religions) this inevitability has been personalized as God.
So how can the US avoid this inevitable disaster, or punishment by God? Again religion offers an age-old shorthand version: By repenting. By recognizing the sin, assuming responsibility for it, prosecuting and punishing those who committed the crime, and ask forgiveness from those who became the victims of it.
Impeachment is the only way available while they are still in office, but after they have left office prosecution for war crimes can be used, and must be used if this country shall be saved.
It has been predicted by a student of empires that the US will collapse by 2015 (he was correct about the Soviet Union so there is reason to take him seriously). I predict, though, that if the US rights this wrong, and changes its course on the domestic agenda back to the one it steered before the assassinations of the Kennedys in the 60's, then this disaster can be avoided. We must return to the union of nations in the United Nations, because nobody can stand alone against both the world and God.
If you haven't tried it, you have no idea. But once you have tried it (if you don't know immediately what I mean, TRY IT!) you will NEVER want to repeat that mistake.
And McCain is just another silver spoon in the omelet.
Rich is the one who has all that he needs.
Poor is the one who does not.
It's very simple.
At least 47 million Americans are poor because they don't have access to health care when they fall seriously ill.
Also John McCain is poor because he obviously is lacking empathy.
I just read that gas station TV refused an Obama ad that blamed the high gas prices on the oil companies.
Say again?
I mean, get real. This is not kindergarten. Let's have a look around to see where the real culprits are.
Consider supply and demand. Capitalism is based on the notion that supply and demand will balance through the price if the price is set by the market. Is the price set by the market? No, not in India, Indonesia, Venezuela and other countries that subsidize petroleum products heavily. That leads to consumption above the normal market demand in those countries, which leads to supply problems, which leads to higher prices in the entire world.
In other countries, such as Europe, the governments instead tax gasoline heavily, by about 100%. That presses the demand and thus prices down. (The tax on the gas is then used to pay for government spending that otherwise would be paid for by taxes on income or property.) But India and Indonesia and China between them have the majority of the world's population, so what they do has a bigger impact.
Barack Obama should encourage all nations to stop subsidizing the exploitation of limited, non-renewable resources. As a first step, to become credible, he should start by removing such subsidies here, and follow the example of Europe to raise the fuel tax, and to compensate so nobody gets hurt financially, lower or remove other taxes and fees. This is known as TAX SHIFT.
