Archive for August, 2009
GRITtv: Right-Wing Mad Scientist & his Murderous Drones
Posted by smeddum on August 27, 2009
Posted in Afghanistan | Tagged: Obama deception | Leave a Comment »
The $US – Some musings….
Posted by smeddum on August 27, 2009
The $US – Some Musings…
TUESDAY, AUGUST 25, 2009
Posted in Financial crisis | Tagged: dollar collapse, US dollar | Leave a Comment »
The Next Credit Bubble Is Now Are you ready for a replay?
Posted by smeddum on August 26, 2009
The Next Credit Bubble Is Now
Are you ready for a replay?
By Heidi N. Moore
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
Mortgage-backed securities—and the bankers who loved them—wreaked havoc last year, helping to pitch us into the deepest downturn since the Great Depression. Are you ready for a replay?
Gird your loins. The signs are growing that there’s a new Wall Street gold rush under way—for those complex bundles of mortgage loans that fueled banks’ profits between 2005 and 2007. This year, prices for mortgage-backed securities are rocketing as federal stimulus dollars flood the market. But the difference with this “boom” is the center of gravity has shifted: from giddy, cowboy bankers to the Federal Reserve. The Fed is so eager to save banks, create a demand for these securities, and stabilize the housing market that it’s taking troubled loans and mortgages onto its own books. The problem is the Fed may be in well over its head. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Financial crisis | Leave a Comment »
Guo Ji (郭纪): Freedom of Speech and the Media’s Responsibility
Posted by smeddum on August 26, 2009
Tues 25 August 2009
From the Beijing-based Party magazine Qiushi, translated by David Bandurski of the China Media Project, Hong Kong University:
To keep to the road of peace and development, this is the grand promise China has made to the world. To this end, China has raised high the flags of peace, development and cooperation. It has pursued an independent foreign policy of peace and an open strategy of mutual benefit. It has earnestly practiced what it advocates, with the goal of building a harmonious world of lasting peace and common prosperity. In recent years, China’s path of opening and reform, its unity and initiative, its fairness and friendliness, its honesty and sense of responsibility, have won greater and greater respect in the international community, and led to a more objective, rational and friendly disposition [toward China]. However, China’s efforts and earnestness have met with an international public opinion environment (国际舆论环境) stacked unfairly against it. A small number of Western media have managed to dominate the international news and information order (国际新闻传播秩序), masking the truth, disseminating prejudices, creating through human effort one after another “iron curtain” and “vast divide,” seriously impeding interaction, conversation and mutual understanding between peoples. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Multipolar world | Tagged: China, Freedom of Speech, western media | Leave a Comment »
Obama’s media honeymoon over?
Posted by smeddum on August 26, 2009
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: Obama deception | Leave a Comment »
Lawsuit required to force “transparency” and “change” Obama promised as Bernanke is re-appointed as Fed chief
Posted by smeddum on August 26, 2009
Paul Joseph Watson
Prison Planet.com
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
A New York District Judge has ordered the Federal Reserve to disclose the destination of around $2 trillion dollars in bailout funds after the Fed failed to convince the Judge that the records should be exempt from the Freedom of Information Act. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Financial crisis | Tagged: undemocratic bailout | Leave a Comment »
Afghanistan-a 21st century Cuba
Posted by smeddum on August 26, 2009
Afghanistan, a 21st-Century Cuba
25.08.2009
By Hans Vogel
Last week’s elections in Afghanistan were, of course, a travesty of democracy. A farce, a joke, a charade. Still, we haven’t been hearing lots of laughter, though loud laughter, no matter whether cynical or not, would have been the only proper reaction to what was ubiquitously presented as a serious event in a democratic country. Anyone observing the “elections” should have been roaring with laughter, with tears in his eyes and cramps in the stomach, that kind of laughter. Yet most “Western” media reported on them with the utmost seriousness. It is just another proof of how utterly insignificant these media have become, manned as they are by traitors, weaklings, half-wits and other losers whom no one with a modicum of self-esteem would want to associate with. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Afghanistan | Leave a Comment »
The Coming Media Bailout
Posted by smeddum on August 26, 2009
The Federal Trade Commission is threatening to use antitrust and copyright laws to shut down the New Media – and save “mainstream” journalism
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: Justin Raimondo, media bailout | 1 Comment »
Neoliberalism, Charter Schools and the Chicago Model Obama and Duncan’s Education Policy: Like Bush’s, Only Worse
Posted by smeddum on August 25, 2009
August 24, 2009
By DANNY WEIL
In his first major speech on education since his election and swearing in as President, a speech made to an unscheduled meeting of the Council of Chief State School officers, held on March 10, 2009 in Washington D.C., Barrack Obama repeated the claims heard from many quarters that the United States must drastically improve student achievement to regain lost international standing in the world. He called for tying teachers’ pay to student performance (merit pay) and for expanding charter schools throughout the nation. In calling for merit pay for teachers, Obama argued:
“Too many supporters of my party have resisted the idea of rewarding excellence in teaching with extra pay, even though we know it can make a difference in the classroom.”
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: Arne Duncan, charter schools, National education association, No child left behind, Obama | Leave a Comment »
Icelandic lessons for indebted countries
Posted by smeddum on August 25, 2009
Icelandic lessons for indebted countries
Jubilee Debt Campaign
By Nick Dearden, Director of the Jubilee Debt Campaign
Recent events in Iceland may have completed that countries transformation from free market, credit-fuelled billionaire playground to champion underdog. The Icelandic Parliament’s offer to the UK and Dutch governments earlier this week that it will pay back its debts but only at a level it can afford, could provide an invaluable model for how indebted nations can start putting the needs of their people ahead of the desires of the global financial markets. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Revolution in Iceland | Tagged: Revolution in Iceland | Leave a Comment »
Crisis hits restaurants as diners decide to stay home
Posted by smeddum on August 25, 2009
Crisis hits restaurants as diners decide to stay home
Celebrity chefs suffer as recession forces closures and reduced trading hours
By Martin Hickman, Consumer Affairs Correspondent
Monday, 24 August 2009
Restaurants are closing at the fastest rate in decades as people economise on eating out during the recession, industry figures reveal.
Data given to The Independent shows the recession has badly bruised food outlets, with diners spending £330m less on sit-down meals and takeaways in the first half of this year. In the £19bn-a-year sector – whose margins average 5 per cent – independent restaurants have been worst affected, while branded groups have lured customers with half-price offers that have hit profits. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Financial crisis | Tagged: UK economy | Leave a Comment »
In These New Times 