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    For there is another kind of violence, slower but just as deadly destructive as the shot or the bomb in the night. This is the violence of institutions; indifference and inaction and slow decay. This is the violence that afflicts the poor, that poisons relations between men because their skin has different colors. This is the slow destruction of a child by hunger, and schools without books and homes without heat in the winter.

    This is the breaking of a man's spirit by denying him the chance to stand as a father and as a man among other men. And this too afflicts us all.

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    Let’s Bailout Paris Hilton Too

    Given the state of the Federal budget deficit, this just makes me sick (from Think Progress):

    Sen. Jon Kyl (R-AZ) and Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D-AR) have a $250 billion proposal to cut estate taxes for the children of multi-millionaires even more than George W. Bush already did, and it’s attracting a disturbing amount of support.

    Their $250 billion proposal would raise the estate tax exemption [...]



    New Nationalism Speech – Teddy Roosevelt History Lesson

    Mt. Rushmore, Theodore Roosevelt closeup. Image via Wikipedia

    Since the 1980s (when I worked for Eastern Airlines, which no longer exists due to deregulation fever) we as a people have amnesia when it comes to the lessons that history teaches us.  Regulations did not just magically appear one day.  They were derived from the wisdom that came about from the mistakes of the past.  Reagan [...]



    time to name names and put the blame where it belongs

    On Hank Paulson’s bald head.

    When AIG started to become unwound last fall, who better to know just how much Goldman Sach’s own rape & pillage squad was going to depend on its AIG bad bet insurance than the former CEO, Paulson himself – and who else but the Treasury Secretary would be better positioned to make sure that at least his alma mater – if [...]



    whatever happened to a.i.g. freezing executive bonuses

    and clawing back those they’d already paid out? From October 22, 2008:

    NY AG says targeting exec pay at AIG, elsewhere

    NEW YORK (Reuters) – Troubled insurer American International Group Inc will freeze payments to a former CEO and officers of the unit that was the main source of its financial problems, New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo said on Wednesday.

    “This is to confirm that AIG has [...]



    Why Isn’t Simon Johnson the Treasury Secretary?

    This is the most succinct explanation I have come across of where we are at and of what to do with regard to the financial crisis affecting our country.  I hope Obama and Congress are listening.  From Bill Moyers Journal (you can watch the video here):

    February 13, 2009

    BILL MOYERS: Welcome to the Journal.

    The battle is joined as they say — and here’s the [...]



    ratcheting up the pressure

    I assume these recent speeches by Obama are intended to publicly call out Blue Dogs and Senate Republicans to get along and go along once the Economic Plan is presented. From today’s speech at George Mason University:

    This crisis did not happen solely by some accident of history or normal turn of the business cycle, and we won’t get out of it by simply waiting [...]



    have democrats never played poker?

    You don’t show your hand before everyone antes up:

    President-elect Barack Obama will meet with congressional leaders in Washington on Monday to discuss his economic stimulus package, a plan that reports say will include $300 billion in tax cuts.

    The tax cuts for individuals and businesses would account for about 40 per cent of the stimulus package, which is expected to be between $675 billion and $775 [...]



    Howard Dean on Young Turks

    Howard here is wrong on the bailout.  Why is it that Howard Dean and others, among them our Representative Baird, are certain, so so certain, that failure to bailout the bank monopolies guarantees a depression?  Do they have a crystal ball?  Sometimes doing nothing is a solution and the right solution.

    Bank failures do not guarantee a depression, Howard.  But [...]

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