EXCELLENT APPRAISAL of BANKERS by Paul Krugman

BANKERS WITHOUT A CLUE
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/15/opinion/15krugman.html?src=tp

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Move Your Money to Community Banks

An excellent suggestion for those who still have money. My friendly bank has been swallowed twice--once by Wachovia. which in turn has been swallowed by Wells Fargo. a behemoth that doesn't pay interest on savings (.025 or some such ridiculous amount) and doesn't give a damn about the customers.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/arianna-huffington/move-your-money-a-new-yea_b_406022.html

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Anniversary of TVA Coal Ash Spill as Forgotten as the Disaster Itself

http://www.truthout.org/122509Wilson

OMG! WHAT A DISASTER!!! CAUSED BY GREED, SELFISHNESS, and "BECAUSE WE CAN" attitude on the part of the "ELITE," who think they are beyond regulation or punishment. In this world, they seem to be right, especially since Republicans and DINOs are in favor of lifting all regulations in order to benefit their wealthy corporations/buddies. Who's minding the store for the poor who suffer as a result? NOBODY, as far as I can see. By buying off our Congressional representatives, the corporate lobbyists own us, and the "people" (as in "government of, for, and by") will continue to be railroaded in the cause of creating more wealth for the "elite." To the neglect of the people and the environment. In the interest of corporate greed, we are destroying everything around us.

This is the world we have created. And it doesn't seem to matter which party we vote for -- the deadly beat goes on. The dastardly bastards getting rich off of the suffering of others WILL end up paying for their greed and selfishness, but, unless a REAL leader of the people rises up (don't count on it! and it sure as hell isn't Obama), their retribution will not be handed out in this world.

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Droopy Dog Lieberman: Eternal Hypocrite

Joe Lieberman and the Health Care Train Wreck
By William Rivers Pitt

When last we heard from Sen. Joe Lieberman of Connecticut, he was throwing sand into the gears of the Democratic push for health care reform by declaring he would filibuster any legislation containing the so-called public option. "I feel so strongly about the creation of another government health insurance entitlement," said the senator back in November. "The government going into the health insurance business - I think it's such a mistake that I would use the power I have as a single senator to stop a final vote."

This pronouncement came at the same time as word got out that Lieberman was also planning to actively campaign for GOP candidates during the 2010 midterms, further undercutting his erstwhile party's hold on the majority in Congress."There's a hard core of partisan, passionate, hardcore Republicans," he said at the time. "There's a hard core of partisan Democrats on the other side. And in between is the larger group, which is people who really want to see the right thing done, or want something good done for this country and them - and that means, sometimes, the better choice is somebody who's not a Democrat."

For some reason, these twin insults did not motivate the Democratic Congressional leadership to expunge this hypocritical cretin from their ranks. Lieberman kept his committee chairmanship and was not even mildly censured by his colleagues. One month later, the decision to ignore his brazen disregard for his colleagues has come back to bite us all, for Mr. Lieberman has once again elbowed his way into the center of the health reform debate, and with a vengeance. "Mr. Lieberman threatened on national television to join the Republicans in blocking the health care bill, President Obama's chief domestic initiative," reported The New York Times on Tuesday. "Within hours, he was in a meeting at the Capitol with top White House officials. And on Monday night, Democratic senators emerged from a tense 90-minute closed-door session and suggested that they were on the verge of bowing to Mr. Lieberman's main demands: that they scrap a plan to let people buy into Medicare beginning at age 55, and scotch even a fallback version of a new government-run health insurance plan, or public option."

This turn of events is sickening and appalling on a couple of different levels.

First, of course, is the shameless reality that is Mr. Lieberman himself. During his 2004 presidential run, and again during his 2006 Senate campaign, Lieberman actively supported the public option's inclusion in any health care reform, and specifically supported the expansion of Medicare. As late as this past September, Lieberman continued to support such an expansion, as reported by The Connecticut Post. "As to how 47 million uninsured will afford coverage," said The Post, "Lieberman said only 12 million don't have insurance because they cannot afford it. By allowing citizens who are not eligible for Medicare or Medicaid to buy in for a rate below the private market, the government can extend coverage to more of those who are currently uninsured, he said."

That was then, and this is now. In one of the most astounding examples of political flip-floppery, Lieberman opened this week by declaring himself dead-set against the very health care reform policies he once championed, and once again announced his intention to don a Republican cloak and tear up the Democrats' legislative efforts. Again.

Why? One would have to be deep into a severe state of personal denial to believe Lieberman has legitimate concerns about the impending health care legislation, given the fact that he very recently supported the exact provisions he now wants removed or destroyed. The only sensible explanation would seem to be that Lieberman is actively needling the Democratic leadership, and has become such an obnoxious obstructionist only to keep his name in the news. Josh Marshall of Talking Points Memo explains the situation, and what it means going forward:

The key issue senate Democrats now have in dealing with Joe Lieberman isn't his position on the Medicare Buy-In. They need to confront the problem that Lieberman isn't negotiating in good faith. No surprise that Republicans are giddy with what a problem he's creating for Harry Reid & Co. But in my conversations with them, it's as clear to them as it is to anyone else that he's now basically mocking his Democratic colleagues by moving the goal posts every time a new agreement is struck.

This puts the Democrats in an extremely difficult, politically untenable position. Yes, they need 60 votes. But they're not going to be able to hang on to Lieberman's vote long enough to get the bill passed. That now seems unquestionably clear. People who say that the Dems should just move to reconciliation don't necessarily realize the difficulties involved - either procedurally or politically, in terms of losing even more Democratic votes. Personally, I'd like to see them try it. But I don't know if it's possible.

Until a couple days ago I was close to certain a health care bill would pass. I still feel relatively confident one will simply because the Dems just don't have any choice but to pass one. Once it is passed, if it is, it's definitely time for the Democratic caucus to strip Lieberman of all the benefits he receives as a member of the Democratic caucus. But that doesn't accomplish anything at the moment. The only path I can see for the Dems is that they need to try to put 60 votes together with Sen. Snowe. Yes, that sounds crazy to me too. But I think she actually has a set of policy priorities that could be met. I don't think that's true with Lieberman. So further negotiating just means more game-playing.

The solution to all this, one would think, would be for the Democratic leadership in Congress to wrap Lieberman in bright red wrapping paper, slap on a bow, and ship him across the aisle to his ideological compatriots in the GOP as an early Christmas present. Strip him of his leadership position, show him the door, and publicly denounce him as nothing more than a stinking chunk of cholesterol clogging up the arteries of progress.

But no. Of course that isn't going to happen. Instead, Democrats appear poised to once again knuckle under to this fraud and further denude what has already become a half-a-loaf bill. According to several sources, Rahm Emmanuel and the White House are actively pressuring the Democratic leadership in Congress to give Lieberman whatever he wants in order to pass some form of health reform legislation, no matter how ragged, damaging and useless the final product may turn out to be.

The Senate won't vote on health care reform until next week, and the process has changed course two dozen times already, so the outcome of this latest idiot eruption is far from certain, but the writing does appear to be on the wall this time around. Joe Lieberman doesn't give a tinker's damn about the people he represents, the party that coddles him, his own positions on key issues or anything else beyond getting his mug in front of television cameras in the guise of someone who actually matters. The Obama administration is once again moonwalking away from doing the right thing on this issue, and the jellyfish pond that is Congress appears poised to do what jellyfish do: float, flop, flounder and drift with the scum in this rising tide.

In short, this whole thing is about to become a train wreck of galactic proportions. Stay tuned.

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Will We Learn from the Past? No, I didn't think so...

By Susie Madrak

Paul Krugman today gives an impassioned refresher on how deregulation of the banking industry led to the Great Depression and notes the Republicans' complete denial of the need for present-day regulation.

From Krugman's column:
Given this history, you might have expected the emergence of a national consensus in favor of restoring more-effective financial regulation, so as to avoid a repeat performance. But you would have been wrong.

Talk to conservatives about the financial crisis and you enter an alternative, bizarro universe in which government bureaucrats, not greedy bankers, caused the meltdown. It’s a universe in which government-sponsored lending agencies triggered the crisis, even though private lenders actually made the vast majority of subprime loans. It’s a universe in which regulators coerced bankers into making loans to unqualified borrowers, even though only one of the top 25 subprime lenders was subject to the regulations in question.

Oh, and conservatives simply ignore the catastrophe in commercial real estate: in their universe the only bad loans were those made to poor people and members of minority groups, because bad loans to developers of shopping malls and office towers don’t fit the narrative.

In part, the prevalence of this narrative reflects the principle enunciated by Upton Sinclair: “It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends on his not understanding it.” As Democrats have pointed out, three days before the House vote on banking reform, Republican leaders met with more than 100 financial-industry lobbyists to coordinate strategies. But it also reflects the extent to which the modern Republican Party is committed to a bankrupt ideology, one that won’t let it face up to the reality of what happened to the U.S. economy.

So it’s up to the Democrats — and more specifically, since the House has passed its bill, it’s up to “centrist” Democrats in the Senate. Are they willing to learn something from the disaster that has overtaken the U.S. economy, and get behind financial reform?

Let’s hope so. For one thing is clear: if politicians refuse to learn from the history of the recent financial crisis, they will condemn all of us to repeat it.

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Pfizer/big Pharma lawbreakers with impunity

It is frightening to see where we have come in a world ruled by corporations who operate with impunity, and without regard for who they harm or kill. Just as long as they keep the gigantic profits rolling in, the people affected by their often harmful and deadly drugs are of no account to them. They spend billions trying to increase the number of people on their drugs. Please read the following story to see how drug companies are lying through their teeth even while paying huge fines for breaking laws and making promises to change. This is the result of deregulation of private corporations, allowing them to make all the rules. 'They have gotten away with it now for so long, there is no reining them in. Thanks to Ronald Reagan and Cheney and Bush, the main deregulators, and to all the politicians who accept the bribes ("donations") of these corporations and their lobbyists, this is the world we now have to live in. Hard to believe, but most Republicans would like to have more of the same.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601109&sid=a4yV1nYxCGoA&pos=10

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This is what happens when corporations are deregulated

...they end up ruling the country. Thanks, Cheney and Bush (the biggest betrayers of the American people ever!) and all other dirty politicians who accept big money from the corporations and sell the American people down the river.

Look at what kinds of vaccines are in the making now -- Big Pharma wants to give you a vaccine to stop you from smoking! They are now making Gardasil for teen-age boys (now that they've talked teen girls into getting vaccinated for "protection" from genital warts, etc., even though the vaccination has proved deadly for some and dangerous for many see: www.webmd.com/sexual.../fda-panel-oks-gardasil-for-boys) and they're also working on a vaccine to keep you from becoming obese. (Think of the $$$ that will bring in!!! Get vaccinated and eat all the fast food you want!)

Read all about this madness here: (and while you're at it, you might want to order the book When Corporations Rule the World by David C. Korten and see how we got to this point....

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2009/11/07/Beware-of-the-New-Useless-and-Dangerous-Vaccines-in-the-Works.aspx

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Ever heard of Stan Ovshinsky? If not, you're not alone...

Ignored and laughed at when he tried to bring hybrid/electric cars to American automakers years ago, Ovshinsky is as unsung and unhonored in our time as Nikola Tesla was in his day. What a different world it would be today had Tesla been funded and listened to when he wanted to bring free energy to the people. Instead, he was denied all funding by J.P.Morgan and lived the rest of his life hidden from the public in a small hotel room, feeding the pigeons on the ledge outside his room. Today we have a repeat with Stan Ovshinsky, who has been ridiculed by the powers that be for wanting to help change our world for the better. Greed and power, power and greed -- we are still being held captive by those vices and the men who worship and live by them--and control our world. With the worldwide economic crisis brought about by unregulated power and greed, the first signs of their power cracking are beginning to unfold. Unfortunately, we are all having to pay the price for allowing them to be our unquestioned masters for so many years. Thankfully, Ovshinsky, at age 87, is still inventing without funding from the "big guys."

A Prophet to Honor
by Jack Lessenberry

Last week I was lucky enough to moderate a discussion with Stan Ovshinsky, who has probably done more to point us toward the future than anyone else now living in this state.

The event was Harry Cook's typically brilliant Thursday night lecture series, which he holds monthly at the Birmingham Unitarian Church on Woodward. To my dismay, the hall was less than filled.

They should have been lining up to get in. Incredibly, I run into people all the time who have never heard of Ovshinsky, a scientist without peer who has personally been granted 400 patents. I am sure of very little these days, but I'd bet my fillings that a century from now, when history has forgotten Jennifer Granholm and Rick Wagoner, people will remember and honor Stanford R. Ovshinsky.

This is the genius who is the principal inventor of the nickel-metal-hydride battery once widely used in cell phones. He also was a pioneer in developing CDs and DVDs, solar panels, electric power steering, hydrogen fuel cells ... the list goes on and on. He has done more than anyone to make the electric car a reality.

Time magazine called him "A Hero for the Planet." Nova did a documentary on him, called "Japan's American Genius." If you didn't know all that, well, it may have something to do with the old story about prophets never being honored on their home turf, and also be a reflection of the media culture in this town. Compare how much attention Ovshinsky gets to that paid to the brawling clowns of Detroit City Council, or any possible local contestant on any national "reality show."

Of course, he mostly doesn't want publicity — he is too busy inventing the future — but that he and his work aren't better known is both silly and a disgrace. The reality is that we are running out of fuel, and time, and SRO is trying to help us save ourselves. He is still going strong, churning out ideas and refining inventions — and why not? He won't be 87 until November.

He has a new company, Ovshinsky Innovation; married colleague and physicist Rosa Young after his wife Iris' untimely death three years ago, and is still fighting, as he has been since 1960, to drag us into the alternative energy future before the oil gives out.

What I most wanted to ask him is whether he thought there was any hope for the domestic auto industry. Ovshinsky knows and loves cars; he first came to Detroit as head of research for the now-defunct Hupp Motorcar Co. more than a half-century ago. His eyes twinkled sadly. Ah, Detroit. "They are 14 years behind Japan," he said, shaking his head. He tried to tell the Big Three. They didn't want to hear.

Back in the 1990s, he was running Energy Conversion Devices with Robert Stempel, the former head of GM. The pair went to Japan, checking out reports that hybrid cars were practical and on their way. They saw that they were.

"We went to see General Motors, and they laughed at us. A big finance guy who is still there laughed. They said they weren't practical, wouldn't work, and nobody will buy them."

General Motors has set the standard for arrogant idiocy for decades, of course. Right after that, they proceeded to destroy the electric car they had hired him to help make, the EV-1. (If you aren't familiar with this story, go rent the movie Who Killed the Electric Car? in which Stan and Iris Ovshinsky figure prominently.)

Now, belatedly, GM is struggling to produce an all-electric car, the Chevy Volt, due out next year. Some press accounts have acted as if it will be the savior of the company. What did Stan Ovshinsky think of the Volt? He struggled, trying, it seemed, to be diplomatic and charitable. "It's a start. It's not a bad thing. Not a bad car. They will sell a few thousand," he said.

Trouble is, he explained, the engineers still haven't decided for sure on what type of battery they'll put in it. Most people think a lithium ion battery is most likely ... but every so often those batteries tend to spontaneously explode or catch on fire. All sorts of engineers are working feverishly on this problem, but it hasn't been completely solved yet. Lithium batteries don't explode very often, maybe a few times per million.

But even one exploding battery might be enough to doom the Chevy Volt with the public. Then there is the price tag. Most expect the Volt to retail starting at more than $40,000, which would put it out of reach of most people. Will the Chevy Volt save GM, a corporation currently losing something like $5 million an hour? It is hard to imagine how.

Four years ago, Stan and Iris drove me around town in a hybrid car that had been converted to run on a hydrogen fuel cell, the inexhaustible fuel that powers the sun. He thought that was the best intermediate step to the renewable energy future. But he lacked investors. What is baffling is why somebody long ago didn't just establish an energy "think-and-do tank" and given Ovshinsky a few million dollars a year to tinker and experiment, so that he didn't have to waste much of his time chasing money.

Big oil wouldn't have liked that, I know. But imagine how much better off we might all be today.

By the way, is Stan Ovshinsky in favor of the government continuing to bail out the Big Three? His answer surprised me at first. "You have to do it. It may be futile, but it has to be done."

He paused, and explained. He didn't care about the management, which has run the company into the ground. "But I care about the workers, who have given their lives to these companies. It isn't their fault. They deserve to be taken care of."

I remembered that he always has been fiercely committed to social values, including civil liberties and labor unions. How rare is that — a man who cares about our present and past and who is inventing our future? We owe it to ourselves to do more to recognize and pay attention to him before he is gone.

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Hillary's connection to Monsanto's Aspartame

An interesting trail to follow of Hillary and Monsanto's aspartame. For
those who know how toxic aspartame can be, this should be enlightening
news to help you decide whether to be in Hillary's camp or in Obama's:

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/2/21/164330/061/295/461425

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